Good morning, church family. We're going to now read God's Word together.
There's two passages we're reading from today.
So first of all, we're reading 2 Corinthians chapter 3, the first six verses.
And then after that, we're turning to Ephesians chapter 4 and reading the first 16 verses.
So let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 first.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?
Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts to be known and read by all.
And you show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God.
Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us,
but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant,
not of the letter, but of the spirit.
For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 4 now.
So chapter 4, starting at verse 1.
I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore, it says,
When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
This is the word of the Lord.
Well, good morning, everyone, and good morning to those on Zoom with us this morning.
I'm one of the pastors here.
My name's David.
We're four weeks into exploring God's vision for his church in our teaching series called Church,
A Foretaste of Heaven.
A pretty ambitious title, is it not?
Church, A Foretaste of Heaven.
And in four weeks, we've explored how God's church is so precious to him.
It's the focus of his work in the world.
It's the community in which saved individuals come to spiritual maturity.
So the question then that's coming along with us each week is,
does your vision of the value and purpose of our local church family,
this part that you're here of this morning,
does your vision of us align with God's vision?
It's quite a challenge for us, really, to think about that.
Last week, we started to explore God's agenda for local churches.
And we said that to be relevant and contemporary,
and that's what we hear all the time these days,
people want to be relevant and contemporary.
Well, to be relevant and contemporary,
we need to follow God's agenda for the church,
rather than what society says we should be doing as a church,
or perhaps even what our own personal preferences for doing,
for what we should be doing as a church might be.
Or, in the case of some churches,
it would seem like their agenda is just entirely pragmatic.
That is, their goal is to get the crowds in,
and so they do whatever works.
Last week, I suggest there were two big-picture principles
that governs the agenda, God's agenda for the church.
The first one, be who you are,
and we looked at that last week.
Our primary agenda is to be who we are.
That is, to be the living temple,
living stones in the living temple of the living Lord.
And the other picture we looked at last week
was to be the pillar and foundation of the truth of God's word.
This morning, we consider the second principle,
which I'm just calling this morning,
do what our specialist tools equip us to do.
Now, if you enter the workspace of a carpenter,
or a plumber, or an engineer,
or a medical researcher,
or an author, or whatever else,
enter their workspace,
and you will observe the tools of trade.
And the tools of trade make their agenda obvious.
Specialist workers need specialist tools,
which in turn reflect the specialist nature of their work.
And on top of that, then,
a good boss will always ensure that his workers
have the best tools for the job.
The best, we hear today talk about workplaces
that are fit for purpose.
So that, with the tools provided,
and the workplace environment,
then the boss can be sure that his business is going to thrive,
be successful,
and achieve that which he wants his business to achieve.
Well, I'm going to say to you this morning
that Christ provides us with the very specialist tools
we need for our very specialist task,
and a workplace fit for purpose.
So our agenda, in a sense,
one sense is really quite simple,
that is, to be skilled
in using our specialist spiritual tools
for our specialist spiritual task.
I won't say that again,
because I wasn't even sure we'd get it out once,
let alone saying it multiple times,
so you'll have to remember it from now on.
We start in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-5.
If you've got time,
if you quickly look it up, it'll be good,
otherwise just listen up,
I'm going to read it to you.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3,
For though we walk in the flesh,
we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but have divine power to demolish and destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments,
and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
The background story to these verses in the church at Corinth
was that there were powerful individuals
determined to exert their influence on the church
and take the church down a pathway of their choosing.
And it was quite a divergent pathway
to what Paul had urged on them
when he came to them speaking nothing
but the gospel of Jesus crucified.
And so their strategy was to ridicule
Paul's Christ-centered teaching
and to mock Paul's character,
Christ-centered character,
while promoting an alternative gospel
and an alternative set of leadership characteristics
within the church.
And Paul accuses them,
it's a pretty harsh accusation,
Paul accuses them of being peddlers of God's word,
using the tools of the world.
Those tools, if you read through the letter of Corinthians,
especially to Corinthians,
those tools were the tools of self-promotion,
the tools of manipulation,
pressure,
designed to control people
and to get the people in the church
to do what these leaders wanted them to do,
these powerful individuals wanted them to do.
They were running their own agenda.
In sharp contrast, then,
Paul speaks of the specialist spiritual weapons
or spiritual tools provided by the Lord
and interestingly,
these tools are not designed to control
or manipulate,
but they're designed to get inside and change.
Demolishing hardened unbelief
and bringing people to God
in new attitudes and obedience.
What are these tools or weapons?
Well, you only need to read through
1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians
and you'll see Paul over and over and over again
going back to his primary weapon
as the weapon of the gospel,
the weapon of God's word.
The tool of God's word
supernaturally applied by God's Holy Spirit.
Now, if you look at 2 Corinthians 3 with me,
if you've got your finger in there,
2 Corinthians 3 is just one example
throughout Paul's ministry
of Paul's repeated emphasis
on God's word
and being applied by God's spirit
and the outcome of it.
So, in these verses,
Paul's really saying,
look, at the end of the day,
God's word applied by God's Holy Spirit
is the only tool
capable of producing real change,
internal change,
a change that brings
and is sourced in life,
new life, new obedience,
new orientation.
How does that work?
Well, again, the background context,
I don't have time to get into it,
but it's primarily by regeneration.
That is,
the word brings people alive
to start with.
And then,
God's spirit applies that word
in a process of total renovation
from the inside out.
At the same point,
it's made in the letter to Hebrews,
Hebrews 4,
verse 12.
Let me read that to you as well
when I find it.
Hebrews 4, verse 12.
For the word of God
is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division
of soul and of spirit,
of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.
What a weapon Jesus has provided
for our specialist task,
a task that pushes us
not to control people
from the outside,
but to see them changed
from the inside.
And God's word
is that weapon
able to slice,
and that's the picture.
It's a very gruesome picture,
but it's able to slice
through the hardest
of rebellion,
getting into our
innermost being,
and it opens us up
in our innermost being
to the light of the gospel.
And then totally
reformats us
from our innermost being
out
to a new love
for the Lord.
So what does all that mean
for Paul?
What does that look like
on the ground for Paul?
Well, very simple, really.
Paul was busy doing
what he was equipped
to do
with the tools
he was equipped with.
That is,
he was busy
speaking the gospel.
He was busy doing
what the Lord
had equipped him to do,
knowing also
that the Spirit
of the living Lord
will do what only
he can do,
and that is,
take that spoken word
and make it real,
make it new
in the lives
of those to whom
it was spoken.
Paul does
what he's equipped
to do,
and is comfortable
leaving the Holy Spirit
to do what only
the Holy Spirit
can do,
give new life
and relationship
with God.
Then there's
the tool of prayer,
which Paul
repeatedly
urges
believers
to take up
and utilize,
to be urgent in.
Why?
Because Paul
believed
and knew
it to be
a very powerful,
effective tool
provided by the Lord
Jesus,
provided by the Lord,
for our use
in this spiritual warfare.
2 Corinthians
chapter 1
verse 11.
The context
of 2 Corinthians
chapter 1
is Paul
just rehearsing
some of the struggles
and the suffering
and the terrible
situations he's been
through
as an ambassador
for Jesus.
And it's interesting,
and you can go
and read for yourself
again,
I don't have time
to take it all apart,
but Paul's really
saying this,
he said,
look,
it's prayer
that's got me
through this.
Your prayer,
he says to those
he's writing,
the Corinthians,
and the prayer
of many other believers,
and my prayer.
His prayer
that was instrumental
in enabling Paul
to not only survive
the daily struggles,
but to thrive
and keep going
in his proclamation
of the gospel
through daily struggles.
Now friends,
across the breadth
of scripture,
we just get this
common refrain,
the Lord loves
to hear
his people pray.
The Lord loves
to hear
his people pray
because prayer
is simply
the expression
of our helplessness,
the pouring out
of our helplessness
before the Lord,
the pouring out
of our sense
of total dependence
upon him.
and in prayer,
we're asking
the Lord
to give us
those things
which he has
already determined
to give us,
but as a father,
delights to hear
his children
ask for them anyway.
Prayer works.
The Lord
builds his kingdom
through the prayers
of his people.
We're told that
repeatedly
in the pages
of the Bible.
And in 2 Corinthians 3,
the passage
we're just looking
at there,
prayer results
in far more
than that.
It actually results
in more glory
and praise
for the Lord.
Paul says that.
Verse 6 there.
So,
you also
must help us
by prayer
so that many
will give thanks
on our behalf
for the blessing
granted us
through the prayers
of many.
it starts
a cycle.
The more people
pray,
the more they see
their prayers
answered
and the gospel
advanced,
Christ honored.
The more they pray
in thankfulness
and so on
and so forth.
Friends,
our God-given
task
reflected
in our God-given
tools
are designed
to affect
change
from the
inside out.
Radically
changing
attitudes,
desires,
understanding,
radically moving
people from
rebellion
against God
from a
stronghold
of autonomy
to faithful
living
under his
rule.
Now,
who's up
for that
task?
Well,
the answer
is every
believer
providing
we're skilled
and equipped
with the
tools
that the
Lord has
provided
because the
tools are
fit for
purpose.
We do
what the
Lord asks
us to do,
speak the
gospel
and pray
and trust
that the
Lord will
do what
only he
can do,
is make
that word
alive in
the depths
of a
person's
heart and
mind.
Now,
that's a
fairly simple
agenda in
lots of
ways,
isn't it?
Now,
there's lots
of other
complications
as you go
along the
road,
but that's
not too
hard to
understand.
And yet,
the church
seems to have
found it
really,
really hard
to hang
on to
and be
committed
to.
See,
we look
around our
world and
there are
many,
many
organisations
who are
doing great
things,
but a
majority of
them have
to be by
virtue doing
limited
things,
because the
things they
do,
while great,
are from
the outside
in.
So,
there are
organisations
who can
draft new
laws to
correct injustices,
they can
bring in
new schedules
to address
corruption,
they can
educate people
in farming
techniques,
they can
come up
with new
processes
to tackle
hunger and
poverty,
and so on
and so
forth.
But that
will only
ever be
limited in
its effect.
By
contrast,
God's
church
is to
pursue
real
change,
lasting
change,
deep
change from
the inside
out.
A change
that will
actually,
as Jesus
said,
dismantle
the kingdom
of evil,
dismantle
the self-interested
attitudes and
thinking of
individuals and
governments.
And that
will only be
dismantled with
the word of
God,
prayerfully
spoken into
our world.
Now,
hear me very
carefully at
this point,
and this
sweeps over
the last
three or
four weeks.
Individual
Christians may
well choose
to be involved
directly in
social action
or in any
number of
organizations that
are doing good
things to
change the
structure in
society and
stuff like that.
That's perfectly
legitimate for
any believer to
be in.
But I'm saying
this morning,
it's not primarily
the role of the
church.
The role of the
church is to
have a clear
contemporary
expression of
God's living
word, calling
people back to
God, praying
for inside-out
change, and
modeling the
reality of that
gospel to change
people powerfully
in the way we
live and treat
each other.
God's agenda
is that when
we see God's
agenda like
that, it
doesn't seem as
exciting as
political activism.
Indeed, it may
not even seem to
achieve as much as
political activism.
Involvement in a
foreign aid program
can take you to
exotic places and
introduce you to a
range of wonderful
people.
But if you look
through history and
look through history
fairly, then you'll
see that it's
actually been when
the word of God
has been taken to
people, that
lasting and
substantial change
has been brought
into God's world.
world.
All right, second
point I want to
make this morning
then is that the
church family is
God's fit-for-purpose
base for his work in
the world.
I've already hinted
at it, but business
operators commonly
speak of the
importance of having
a workspace that is
fit-for-purpose,
meaning it's designed
to maximize the
success of a
particular business
venture.
Well, I want you
to hear this
morning that I'm
saying this local
church family is
God's fit-for-purpose
workspace for
building his kingdom
and his glory.
Yep, with all our
flaws, with all our
failings, with all our
insufficiencies, God
intends us and has
designed us to be a
fit-for-purpose
workspace.
It's quite
incredible, really,
just to say it like
that and think about
it for a moment.
And it's the base
for nurturing the
family in the home.
Ephesians 4 is where
we go to next.
We've dipped into
that a couple of
times over the last
few weeks.
Ephesians 4, 1-16.
It picks up there the
whole idea of us being
the body, identity, we
looked at two weeks
ago.
Our identity, our
calling, chapter 4,
verse 1, is to
demonstrate the wisdom
of God's salvation
purpose worked out in
and through local church
families like ours here
this morning.
Ephesians 4 gives the
detail of that
calling.
And essentially,
the detail is that we
are to be a gospel
revealing community.
A gospel revealing
community.
gospel is God's good
news, as Martin had
it up on the screen
for us this morning.
It's God's word.
It's God's good news
word of forgiveness
and new relationship
with God in and
through Christ.
Ongoing renewal from
the inside out by the
power of the Holy
Spirit living within
us.
So therefore, we ought
to be, as I said
last week, word,
focused.
Gospel focused.
Since every part of
God's written word,
every part of the
Bible is either
speaking about Jesus
in the future or
reflecting on Jesus
now that he's come.
We need to be word
focused.
And we are a gospel
revealing community
in that you can't
really see the gospel
except in the people
that it's taken hold
of and changed.
So we're a gospel
revealing community
in that we make the
reality of the
changing power of the
gospel visible in our
world, visible in this
community, in our local
church family here.
community.
And that community has a
particular shape in its
visibility.
It's to be marked by
holiness.
We've seen that in past
weeks.
Striving to be like our
Lord and Savior because he
is holy.
It's to be marked by
unity.
Reflecting, again,
Ephesians, reflecting the
fact that Jesus died to
remove old sin-driven
walls of hostility,
divisions, and create one
new humanity that would
live gladly and
consistently under the
Lord's rule.
A community that would be
marked by love, reflecting
the generous, committed,
self-sacrificing love we
received from God in
Jesus.
It's there in Ephesians
4.
We are to be a gospel
revealing community.
My friends, since the
local church is the body
of Christ, brought together
in such diversity, Ephesians
4, and at such great
cost, Ephesians 1, then
how can we possibly live as
disembodied Christians,
sitting loose to his died
for community?
Spiritual health ought to be
our primary desire.
And this is the compelling,
consistent display of being a
gospel revealing community.
That is our agenda.
Mark Davie, in one of his
books, says that it's very
easy to build community
without the gospel.
If we build community
without the gospel, or build
community shaped by things
other than the gospel, and
you can go and see churches
where those communities are
built by a sense of shared
need, a sense of common
cause as we look at the
world, a sense of common
desire of what we want the
world to look like.
If we have a community built
on things other than the
gospel, then we're actually in
serious spiritual ill health
and in great danger.
We need to make sure that our
community here is built on the
gospel, shaped by the gospel,
exists by the gospel and for the
gospel.
And likewise, if we claim to
believe the gospel
gospel without overflowing into a
gospel revealing community, then
we're also very unwell
spiritually and in great danger.
So it's the base for nurturing the
family in the home, but it's also
the base for equipping family
members to work from home.
We're to be a gospel revealing
community, but then at the same
time we're to be a gospel
gossiping community.
We've got a sort of double identity.
The Lord calls us out of the world.
This is John Stott's line.
The Lord calls us out of the world,
renews us, and then sends us back
into the world to be gospel
gossipers.
Again, if you look at Ephesians 4,
9 and 10, a couple of very
difficult verses in there, but I
think I just want to lift out one
thing because it's something similar
to the thoughts in Ephesians 1.
That is that he might fill all
things.
In other words, however you think of
our world or God's action within the
world, everything according to God's
purpose is to be filled by Christ.
To be filled with the Lordship of
Christ.
This local church here, 50 years now,
exists by the gospel and it exists
for the gospel because God's word is a
missionary word.
A missionary word is the way by which
God confronts people in his world and
continues to grow his kingdom, continues
to bring people into his died-for
community, his body, the church.
And so again, a proper understanding
and experience of the gospel of
salvation will overflow naturally into
proclaiming the good news of Jesus to
others.
In other words, if we understand the
gospel properly, then naturally we will
be a missional community.
We will have a missional outlook.
And through that, we'll have an incredible
impact on the world at large.
Paul's own ministry and teaching bears
this out in full.
Recently, I've been reading, rereading
actually, Paul's first letter to the
Thessalonians.
It's a wonderful letter.
I'm seeing stuff in it I've never seen
before.
I'm not sure how I read it before, but
maybe that's the nature of God's spirit
working.
But it's so chock-a-block full of gospel
community, gospel-revealing community,
gospel-gossiping community.
Because in there we see Paul's missional
heart and we see its impact on a wide
range of people.
And he says in 1 Corinthians 2 that he
didn't just share the bare words of the
gospel.
He did that.
But his missional heart overflowed that he
shared his life to go alongside those
words.
And that had a tremendous impact on those
people in Thessalonica.
Because when they became Christians, they
then started to model what Paul had modeled
to them as they understood the gospel.
And they also then became missional to a
wide range of communities beyond their
reaches.
friends, our local church here is the basis to
work from home.
That is, we ought to be naturally, not by
dint of being flogged out of guilt, but we
ought to be naturally a missional community.
We ought to be overflowing as we gossip the
gospel wherever we find ourselves.
Now, that brings us into the fraught issue of
evangelism.
And I think I'm using the word missional
instead of the word evangelism.
Because I think sometimes we use the word
evangelism these days too narrowly.
So we think of evangelism as an event where we
proclaim the message of Jesus to workmates or
through some other thing that we've
organized.
And there's real benefit in that.
Don't get me wrong.
But of itself, that would be quite limited.
Sometimes I think we opt for those
evangelistic events because they're either
a little bit easy.
That is, okay, we gear ourselves up for X
number of weeks and we run the event and
it's all over.
Sit down, down and dusted, and then we can
go back to sleep again.
Sometimes we get involved in evangelism out of
a sense of guilt.
We sense that Christians should be speaking
the gospel and, well, yeah, let's organize it
and get on with it.
We go for a bare minimum in some ways to
solve our conscience.
But those things will not exhaust what we're
called to here for our agenda is to be
missional in outlook, missional in heart.
As Christ died for our community.
We ought to be overflowing with delight in the
gospel, in the Lord Jesus.
We ought to be overflowing with desire to
gossip that gospel wherever we find ourselves,
whether at work or at sports or wherever,
buying our groceries or wherever.
I was even told this week that when I go to
Weewa, I have to go to the barbers.
I've never been to the barbers in 40 years.
Alison cuts my hair.
But I have to go to the barbers,
according to Chez, and pay 50 bucks for a haircut
because it's a gospel missional environment.
I'm still pondering that.
Chez might go halves in the cost of that.
Or when you see me at Christmas, I might have long hair.
I'm not sure.
I'll say.
I might have dreadlocks or something.
We'll say.
But we need to be missional wherever we find
ourselves, whether it's at the hairdresser or the
barber or buying or grocers or wherever.
And then we bring those two things together.
Gospel gossiping and gospel revealing.
We bring those we speak to back into our local community here
as a reinforcement of the words we're saying to them.
And I'll tell you, that is where the local church is at its best
when these two things dovetail.
In practice, you see, unbelievers are often attracted
to the attractiveness of a community.
Before they're attracted to our theology of Jesus.
They come into a place like this and they know they're desperate
for community.
They're desperate for connection.
They're desperate for hope in a hopeless world.
They're desperate for something different, something substantial.
And they may well interact with that as a community first
before they then understand the details of the source of that in Christ.
And the opposite is also true.
In my ministry experience, so many unbelievers I've come across,
their first point of rejection has not been the words of Jesus per se,
but the lack of consistency in the way they see Christians live.
So they reject that before they even start to think about the words of Jesus.
So my friends, we need to be bringing these two things together.
We need to welcome friends and family and invite them to join our community here.
And we need to do that full of confidence that our community as a unit is authentic and compelling and winsome.
And we'll actually embellish or endorse what we've been saying to our friends and workmates privately and individually.
Nothing will make our impact on society greater when those two things come together really well and really practically.
And I can say before you this morning, and I've got to finish on this then,
that it's a terrific delight to me, having been here for 23 years,
to be able to say with no hesitation at all to anybody I meet wherever,
whether it's through email or down the street,
I say, just come along.
Come and have a look.
Have a listen.
No questions asked.
Just sit, suck it in, look around,
and you'll quickly learn what we're all about.
I do that into a community that I know is well and truly sinful, like myself.
There'll be lots of failings.
But I believe this to be a gospel-revealing, gospel-gossiping community.
And for that, I'm deeply, deeply thankful.
And ultimately, my friends, I think this is a real test of how closely aligned we are to God's agenda.
Because the question then to you is,
are you happy, keen, willing, confident to invite your friends and family
and workmates and sportsmates and whoever else's mates to come along and visit?
Are you keen, to go back to the series title,
are you keen and confident and saying to your friends,
look, come along, come along to our local church for a foretaste of heaven?
What a privilege the Lord has put before us.
Let's rise to it.
Let's struggle all the more to bring these two things together,
to be a gospel-revealing community
and a gospel-gossiping, missional community.
This is God's agenda for us.
And ultimately, nothing will secure glory and honor for the Lord more.
Let me pray.
Lord, we thank you that your commissioning of us is rather simple
in terms of your agenda being very clear and precise.
that forgive us, Lord, when we've turned away from that agenda,
seeking something else of our own preference
or being squeezed by our culture.
help us, Lord, to be delighted with that notion of our impact as a church here in this community
and across the world,
being greatest through our being a gospel-revealing community,
a community of holiness, unity, and love,
word-based, gospel-focused,
Holy Spirit-dependent.
And help us, Lord, just to overflow with that
so that those who come in contact with us might be drawn in
and genuinely, through our witness,
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ
and get a foretaste of heaven.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen.