CLF United

What have we been called to? Is the church of our Lord Jesus Christ a beneficial, but unnecessary part of the Christian life? Can we live a biblically faithful and fruitful Christian life without being a vital part of a local church?

CLF is beginning the New Year with a short term sermon series on our calling as a church from Ephesians 4. Lord willing we’ll examine our several aspects of our calling from this passage.
This morning’s message will focus on our calling to be God’s church, what that means and how we can begin and continue to align our lives with that calling.
The book of Ephesians was a circular (written to a number of churches) letter written by the apostle Paul to give the church a biblical perspective on God’s ultimate purpose as worked out in Jesus Christ and through His church. Thus our first message will be on how Paul describes the church in the book of Ephesians and what it means to be called to the church.
This message will help answer the question ‘to what have we been called’?

We’ve been called into the Church which is the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Eph. 1:22-23.
The Scriptures use the metaphor of a physical body to describe the relationship God’s people have to each other and to Jesus Christ.

We are all vitally connected. Just as our physical body parts are connected so we have been vitally connected to each other through the Spirit. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 1Cor. 12:12-13.

Note this passage says that all believers have been placed into the body of Christ not just some. This highlights the truth that your salvation wasn’t just a single individual act concerning your own personal, private soul. In the very act of salvation the Spirit placed you as a vital, connected part of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as a finger, hand or ear will not be able to function completely if separated from the body, so you as an individual believer will not be able to function if separated from the body of Christ.

We are interdependent on each other. Just as the natural body cannot function separately so we cannot fully achieve our mission without working together. No one part of the body is more important than the others. Christ is the Head of His body which is the church. We take our direction, guidance, example and mission from our Lord Jesus Christ.

For us to walk worthy of our calling is to realize that the importance of being vitally connected with a local expression of Christ’s body. It is to work, pray with and for, strive, serve, grow, rejoice and grieve with a particular group of God’s people who like you have been called into the body of Christ.

We’ve been called into the church which is the temple of the living God. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Eph. 2:19-22.

In Eph. Chap. 2 Paul shifts the metaphor from body to building.

Once more you get the clear sense that the individual members of the building are vitally connected, interdependent, equally important and subject to and held together by Jesus Christ. The church however is not only the body of Christ, but the building where He is worshiped and where He lives. The temple was the place where people were instructed regarding the word, ways, character, nature, actions and salvation of the living God. It was the place where God was worshiped by His people. The temple was the place where sacrifice was made thus visibly demonstrating how God dealt with the sin of His people and the place where prayers were offered to God for His people and the salvation of the lost. Finally, the temple was the place where God lived in that an aspect of His presence was specifically located at this place.

We walk worthy of the calling to be the temple of God as we prioritize regularly gathering to worship the living God. When we come together to hear the word of God, pray for the kingdom of God, proclaim the salvation of God and worship the living God in and through Jesus Christ we walk in the will of God for our lives regarding our salvation and His church.

We’ve been called into the church which is the manifestation of God’s wisdom and the vehicle through which He gets glory in Jesus Christ. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Eph. 3:8-10, 20-21.

The manifold or multi-faceted wisdom of God concerns His eternal plan to save His people from sin, uphold His holiness, punish rebellion and wickedness, restore His creation and deliver the eternal kingdom of worship, righteousness, peace, justice and prosperity to His Son Jesus Christ.

God is using you as a vital part of His church to demonstrate the rightness of His rule, the wonder of His salvation and the supremacy of His Son to the entire host of heaven.

Moreover, the church is the vehicle through which God gets glory in Jesus Christ. That is the church as she works, ministers, worships, and grows together serves to highlight, demonstrate, display and broadcast His nature, character, ways, actions, holiness, justice, righteousness, beauty, knowledge, wisdom, love, grace, compassion, sovereignty, power, mercy and salvation. Consequently, you’ve been called to join with a local expression of God’s church so that you can participate in showing His multi-faceted wisdom and be the vehicle through whom He gets glory in Jesus Christ. Notice Paul wrote that it’s the church, not just you as an individual that God has chosen to get glory from.

We’ve been called into the church which is the spotless bride of Christ. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Eph. 5:28-30.

Paul has two main reasons for comparing the church to a bride.
It stresses the close, intimate, affectionate and loving care Christ has for His people. Jesus Christ left His heavenly Father to obtain His bride so that He could rescue us from our sins and forever show His infinite, intimate love to us. Do you see yourself as an object of Christ’s eternal, unlimited, affectionate approving love?
As the church is the constant recipient of Christ’s love so we’re constantly looking for ways to show love toward each other. The church should be the place where you can be genuinely and faithfully loved. A place where others care for your interest, issues and needs. My prayer is that CLF becomes a place where all of us can truly say that we’re loved, we’re accepted and we belong. Is that the kind of church you wish to be apart of? If so, we need you to be on the giving as well as the receiving end of this precious Christ-like love.

The second aspect of this metaphor concerns the church’s ongoing, progressive holiness. Paul says that our Lord gave Himself for us so that we might be set apart for His exclusive use and begin the process of growing in Christ-like character.
One of the main reasons God has called you to be a vital part of a local church is that the church is one of the prime instruments in your personal growth in Christ-like character. We walk worthy of our calling as we join with a local church so that the Lord can use our brothers and sisters in our sanctification and can use us in theirs.

We’ve been called into the church which is the army of God, commissioned to engage in spiritual warfare for the expansion of His eternal kingdom. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Eph. 6:10-12.

Paul ends this great letter to the Ephesians by explaining the church’s warfare. Though Paul does not refer to the church as an army it’s clear that he’s comparing the ongoing ministry and mission of the church to a battle in which we are opposed by the forces of Satan.

What does Satan want to do in this war? He wants to ruin God’s glory through stopping the advance of Christ’s kingdom, by silencing the proclamation of the gospel through the worship, walk and witness of the church. Satan wants to wreak havoc with the church so that we don’t function as the body of Christ, don’t worship as the temple of the living God, fail to realize that we are the vehicle for the glory of God, move us to seek love, identity and satisfaction apart from the Son of God and fight among and against ourselves instead of for the cause and kingdom of God.

Don’t let Satan deceive you. Don’t allow him to only let you see and dwell on the faults, shortcomings and failures of the church so that you’ll delude yourself into thinking, believing and acting as though God cannot be at work in the church and therefore you must attempt to live this Christian life on your own.

You begin to walk worthy of your calling by joining with a local church and engaging in the spiritual battles that promote that church’s worship, walk before the Lord and witness of the gospel.

This is our calling and by God’s grace we will seek to live a lifestyle worthy of this calling.

To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance