This past Sunday, we began a sermon series on church membership. 5 weeks of asking and answering the questions: “What makes us who we are?” and “What’s it like to be us?” The most important thing that shapes who we are is what we believe. The heart of what we believe is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of our life together in the household of God that is Cross of Grace Church.
Pursuing the gifts of the Spirit is not optional to us. We need them to become all that Christ wants us to be. But far too often, our desires for them are not too strong but too weak. This is why God gives us 1 Cor 12:1-11. A passage meant to move us, change us, and stir our hearts to earnestly desire all the grace he has to give. Listen to Sunday’s sermon to be energized in your pursuit of the spiritual gifts.
In Communion, past, present, and future collide. It’s true, Communion is our present sharing in the peace created through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peace with God. Peace with each other. Peace in an embattled world. Freshly experienced as the Spirit works through the Supper to bring us into the presence of Christ. But, as we enjoy this moment, we’re meant to look backward to that moment when peace was established, and forward to that moment when peace will be perfected. As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, the Lord of the Table anchors our hearts in the reality of what he accomplished all those years ago, and increases our anticipation of the joys that await us for days without end.
In his classic work, Chinese General, Sun Tzu famously wrote, "If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." As we learned back in Ephesians 6:10-20, there is a real spiritual battle being raged all around us. A real enemy of our souls and a whole host of dark forces that are opposed to the progress of our mission and our pursuit of maturity, unity, and joy in Christ together. But taking a page out of Sun Tzu's book, if we know the enemy of our souls and are wise to his schemes, and we know ourselves - that we are safe and secure with the victorious Christ, we need not fear the result of a lifelong - history spanning, bigger than us, war of the seen and unseen worlds - battle of spiritual war. Revelation 12:1-17 is given to us so that we would more clearly understand the story of spiritual war - who our enemy is - and the strategies of spiritual war - what he does to oppose us - so that we'd more urgently, intentionally, and expectantly respond by taking refuge in Christ, placing his armor over the weak spots where we're most vulnerable, and marching on in the confidence of his victory.
The Bible teaches that marriage is a good gift of God. But if we’re honest, marriage can often seem like an obstacle to our joy instead of an opportunity for our joy. We’re prone to settle for less than God has for us and believe the lie that the best we can do is “Make it work,” and just try to “get by.” Revelation 19:1-10 is given to us to raise our low expectations and convince us that the joy ceiling for our marriages should be set according to the heights of joy we're headed toward. The perfect union between Christ and his bride to which our marriages point. Our spouses are our closest traveling companions as we move toward that Great Day. It’s God’s desire we’d enjoy life with them all along the way. Listen to the sermon to learn more about how we can do this.
After 5 months, we came to the close of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. How did he finish off what is arguably the most complete outline of the Christian life in all the Bible? Did he say, “Now go out there and do it! You got this! Go be the church through whom God is working in the world!” No. Far from concluding with a call to get out there and do our part to make all the blessings of Ephesians a reality, the Apostle concludes with a call to prayer. He does so because we need God to make any of Ephesians work. We can’t put on God’s armor, have healthy marriages, enjoy peace with one another, or be God’s church without God’s help. Prayer is how we connect ourselves to God and all that he’s doing. So it’s to prayer we must turn if we want to be the church God is using to do his work in the world.
In Ephesians 6:10-20, the new set of clothes we put on in Christ includes armor for battle. Satan and the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12) are real and really intend to oppose the progress of the gospel, the progress of our growth in Christ, and the pursuit of peace within the Church. But, even as the struggle is real, we “take up the whole armor of God” (6:13) and fight with confidence that we will win because Christ has already won. We look to him and are strengthened to stand firm in these evil days because he’s already stood underneath the wrath of God, the curse of death, and all the hatred of the devil and emerged victorious on the other side.
At this juncture of the household code, the ancient and contemporary household composition contrasts sharply. The immediate context of Paul’s words here and the gospel-shaped principles for exercising and experiencing authority, are set in the relationship between slaves and their masters. Before we make the jump to apply them to our modern workplace, we need to grasp the situation into which these words were initially spoken. But far beyond a history lesson, or even an intellectual wrestling with what the Bible has to say about the institution of slavery, the reality that Paul is aiming at in this passage is simultaneously timeless as well as the very thing that has spurred on the abolition of slavery in time. This is the reality of the gospel which teaches us that every Christian is a slave to Christ. Being reconciled to him, we experience a reconciliation to one another which eroded the system of slavery from the bottom up. Being reconciled to him, we’re freed from our slavery to sin and self and get to serve a Master who is committed to the good of those who are his. There’s no one like Jesus and there’s no better life than one lived for him.
We continue on in our journey through the "household code" in Ephesians. After describing how the realities of the gospel both shape and are reflected in marriage, Paul turns our attention to the fruit of marriage: children. The second pillar of the household code concerns how the gospel shapes our exercise of authority in parenting the children the Lord has given to us. With this, God's word gives us the timely reminder in our world today that children are not a burden to be avoided but a blessing to be received as a good gift of God to the glory of God. Would the Lord work through each of us - those yet to be parents, those in the thick of the parenting task, empty-nesters, and each and every member at Cross of Grace - to commend his mighty works to the next generation (Ps 145:4) and invest in the future members and leaders of Cross of Grace.
This past Sunday, was a sweet celebration in which we received the gift of another pastor at Cross of Grace Santa Ana! But how should we consider him? What is the biblical valuation of what a pastor means to his people? 1 Corinthians 4:1 tells us that he is, above all else, “a servant of Christ,” and a steward of the very "mysteries of God,” given to us to lead us in enjoying, applying, and extending the gospel of Jesus Christ to one another and our neighbors.