2019 Church Retreat Message
By Pastor Brian
2019.07.07
Introduction
We are at the church retreat. Great to be together for 4 days of fellowship and worshiping as a church family. One Church One Mission.
Jesus Christ is our foundation and our mission is to make disciples. Who is this One Church? This One Church is the universal church, the invisible church, of all the Christians of all times everywhere. This One Church is also the local church, the visible church, the church you belong to, FBCC, the visible body of Christ. This church is you. This morning I want to talk to you about this one local church, FBCC, and you.
FBCC and you. There are three questions I would like to ask you.
Preview:
1. Do I really need FBCC?
2. How involved I have to be with FBCC? Or how close I have to be with FBCC?
3. How do I love FBCC?
The first question is to define the relationship. The second question is about depth and intimacy. The third question is a how-to question. Our text for today from Ephesians 2:11-22. It can be divided into three parts: 11-13 is about the unity of the church in Christ; 14-18 is how this unity is accomplished; 19-22 is the results of this church unity.
Let us read it together (in English on the screen).
1. Do I really need FBCC? --The DTR Question
2:11-22 does not stand alone. It is closely tied with the previous passage 2:1-10 by the first word in verse 11: “THEREFORE”.
And we need to go back to the end of chapter 1, Paul makes a tremendous prayer in 1:18-23. He prays that their eyes will be enlightened to see a number of things. But the main petition is to see the surpassing greatness of the power of God in us. He then goes right on in chapter 2 to show the way God’s power plays through in our lives.
2:1-10 we see how God’s power comes into us internally and individually. We were broken, dead in sins and God puts life, vitality and wholeness into us—making us into a new man individually. Now God in the Spirit lives in me.
2:11-22 we are going to see how God takes different people, diverse people and brings them together into one body, into one new group, into the church—a new man corporately that we are to relate to each other in very, very deep ways in the church.
These two things are tied together. One new man in Christ and one church in Christ. Both manifest the power of God for all to see. The two happen in the same time. We cannot do one without the other.
This is very confrontational. That is right in the face of today’s cultural landscape. There are two things going on today on spirituality.
1). There is an enormous spiritual hunger. There is more interest in faith, more interest in spirituality. There is a tremendous passion and a tremendous hunger for spirituality.
2). At the same time, there is a movement away from religion, especially institutional religion. There is a hunger for faith but not for religion. We want to do it on our own. God decentralized, individualized.
That means when you go through verses 1-10 and you see all this talk about how God’s power can come into your life and this power can put
life where there is deadness and
wholeness where there is brokenness and
vitality where there is emptiness,
everybody goes, “Yeah.” You are listening attentively. “Wow, this is what I am after.” Then verses 11-22 say, “And the power of God will bring you into the church,” and right away we say, “No, no, no.”
But Paul puts them together. You cannot have one without the other. It does not say that you can’t be saved without being a member of a church. But remember the context: The power of God. Paul says, “I want you to see the surpassing power of God…” and he begins to talk about the church. The Power of God—therefore, the church.
• Can the surpassing power of God come into your life and change you life only individually and not corporately?
• Can the surpassing power of God come into your life and flow through your life if you are not willing to become deeply grafted into a community of love, truth, and mission?
• Can the power of God work through your life only as an individual and not as part of a new group you get involved with?
The answer is, “Absolutely not.”
You may be thinking. My spiritual life is very private. ‘I would like God in my life individually, but I really don’t want to become involved in any one church. My relationship with God matters only to me.’
81% of all Americans say yes to “Do you believe you can be very good Christian without attending a church?” But the Bible says, “Absolutely not. No way. The Power of God—THEREFORE, the church.
If you say, “I want to meet a God who will help me individually but will not relate me corporately to other people or get me involved in a church,” then the God of the Bible says, “No way! You are knocking on the wrong door. There are spiritualities and other philosophies and other religions that are right in tune with your thinking. But I am not. If you want a god like that, you are going to have to make one up out of your won imagination because I’m the real God and I don’t work that way.”
“I am a child of God. Yes. I am.” And “we are the Church.”
“I am loved by God.” And “we are loved by God.”
Jesus be my center. And Jesus be the center of the church.
Individual spirituality cannot be without corporate spirituality.
FBCC needs you and you need FBCC. You cannot grow without FBCC. Through the church you come to love Jesus and through the church you know that He loves you.
Can we love Jesus and stay at home watching TV on Sunday without the church? Absolutely no. Do you need FBCC? Absolutely Yes. You need FBCC.
My story: In my life, I have lived in different places and attended in four churches.
1. When I grew up in Hong Kong, I grew up at one church in HK. I spent 19 years there. Deeply involved in the church and met some of my best friends and mentors.
2. Then I came to Houston for college. I got involved in Houston Chinese Church for 18 years. Deeply involved in the church and met some of my best friends and the church changed my life.
3. When I went to Dallas for my seminary training, I attend a local church for 4 years. We spent the first two years of our marriage with that church. We loved that church.
4. Then God sent us to start FBCC 22 years ago. Through FBCC I come to love Jesus and through FBCC I know that He loves me.
The first question is to see the necessity of the church. Okay. I know I need FBCC. But how much do I need to get involved? The depth and intimacy question
2. How involved do I have to be with FBCC?—the depth and intimacy question.
In verses 19-22, Paul uses three images for the church. Three metaphors, three illustrations to describe the church. Each one increases in intensity.
1) You are fellow citizens with God’s people
2) You are members of God’s household
3) You are building blocks in a temple in which God lives
1) You are fellow citizens with God’s people. The minute you become a Christian you are not primarily from China or from Hong Kong or from Houston anymore. You are not primarily US citizens. You are not primarily Asian, or you are not primarily Chinese, or you are not primarily white. You are not primarily anything. You have been translated out of all those other groups and now have membership in the kingdom of God. That is pretty intense. You become a citizen in a new nation, a new race, in a sense, a new ethnos. And the formative influence of this new race, new ethnos, this new nation, has far greater impact on you and who you are than your membership in your old groups.
2) You are member of God’s household. Household means a family. That is more intense. God is not just your king; he is your father, if you are a Christian. You are not just citizens; you are his children. You are his sons and daughters. And we are the brothers and sisters to each other.
3) You are building blocks in a temple in which God lives. It goes on to say, “… built on the foundation… with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” There is increasing intensity. First, it is increasing in intensity to show us how intensely we are connected to God. From King to Father to someone who dwells in us. God is not just near us, he is with us. And he is not just with us, he is in us. Second, it is also more intense in your connection with each other. The connection as fellow citizens is a very important one. It is a social contract. The connection between siblings is much more intimate one of genetic connection and common roots. In the last illustration, we are actually cemented together, packed together, to become one temple in which God lives.
So how involved are we with one another in the church? Look at these metaphors. You are being cemented, being siblings, being related by blood, being actually inhabited by God with one another.
If you come to church every week and give your money and you know a few people and even occasionally go to Sunday school class, does that square with this level of intensity? No.
So how involved? I like to mention two specifics arise out of the metaphors.
a. Your involvement certainly must go beyond attending and giving. Your involvement has to go to the point of first: personal accountability.
First, personal accountability. You are members of the household of God. You are part of a household. You are accountable. Also think of the stones in a wall. Stones in a wall are supported by blocks without which you are falling. Without you, the wall would be falling. You must be so deeply involved with a community of Christians who know you so well not just your big sins but your most hidden sins. Then they are able to talk to you about them. (Heb 3:13). This won’t happen unless you spend so much time with them and you are so intimate with them that you talk about these things and they see them. You give permission for them to do so.
Are there people in the Church who know your deeply and can exhort you daily. You are in a household. You are in a wall. Are there people depending on you, and are there people without whom you are going to fall?
b. Corporate spirituality.
Second Corporate spirituality. You say, “Religion is private. Very private.
I pray. But I don’t want to pray with other people.
I have a spiritual life. But I don’t want to talk to people about it.”
But look carefully. We are only inhabited with the presence of God as a holy temple TOGETHER. A single block cannot be a temple of God. God does not just live in a stone. God has to live in a building of stones. God’s presence only can habit in a group corporately. It is not to say you cannot know God individually. But the more Christians you know intimately, the more Christians you pray with, the more Christians you talk about, “What do you see in Jesus? What do you know about following Christ?” The more intimately you will know God, because God inhabits in a building. He can’t inhabit a stone in the same way he can inhabit a building. Through FBCC, I come to love Jesus and through FBCC I know that He loves me.
Example:
1. Collective worship. Worship together as a church is the primary function of the church. We are saved individually and corporately to worship God. Collective worship is what we are called to. I would come to worship every Sunday. I would come early to worship. I would devote myself wholeheartedly for worship. As I worship with other Christians, my worship knows God more and I love God more. Through the church I come to love Jesus and through the church I know that He loves me.
2. Collective ministry. Discipleship. Teaching of the Word. Sticky Faith. Involve you whole family. Bring your children to the church. Where are they now? Are they attending church? Do not let tennis, swimming. SAT classes, dance lessons to compete with the church. Get your family involved in the church wholly and totally. I love the worship team in which all generations are involved in worship ministry. Ministering to one another. Without one another, there is no ministry. Corporate spirituality.
3. Collective witness. We are Christ’s witness in this world. We are involved in the church to reach out community for Christ. Community witness. One of the major directions of FBCC in the next ten years is to involve ourselves in community development. Be a witness for Christ in cross-cultural mission.
You have to be involved to the level of personal accountability and corporate spirituality, or else… If you want to see the power of God in your life? No way.
The triune God is a community of love and unity. The church is a community. Unless I get myself actively involved in the church, I can’t fully know God and come to love God.
3. How do I love the church even when the church has problems?—the How-to question
Question #3
Okay I see the necessity of FBCC in my life. I also see the intensity of my involvement at FBCC. But I still don’t like the church in a lot of way.
1. The church is too big. 1,700 people. I feel like an outsider all the time. The pastors never come to visit me unless I have serious problems. I only know a few people in my small group.
2. FBCC has too many congregations—4. Mandarin speaking, Cantonese speaking, English speaking adult and the youth congregation. Who is going get what time slot and what resources? Why the sermon in the joint service is always preached in English and translated into Mandarin and ear-phones in Cantonese? Why? Why?
3. Like children at home, there is always the issue of fairness and conflicts. I don’t like that. FBCC is bad.
4. Or you feel that the church is not spiritual enough or mission enough or teaching enough… to your liking.
5. I don’t like the worship style. I don’t like the preaching. And I don’t even like some people in the church.
6. I don’t agree with the church on some positions on some controversial issues: like homosexuality and same-sex marriage, or the charismatic issue, or the woman’s role in the church. The church maybe too liberal or too conservative for me.
7. The church is not relevant to my everyday life. Nothing in the church excites me. Been there and done that. The Church is aging. Young people are flowing out of the church. How do I love the church with all these issues?
There are 10,000 reasons not to like FBCC. I know I need the church. I know I need to get involved in the church. But I just can’t. How do I get myself to actively participate in the church?
I am a spiritual consumer. I am part of consumer capitalism. That is me. If I like it, I stay. If I don’t like it, I walk. Just like if I don’t like this HEB, I won’t go back there again. And I will go the next store, Walmart.
Christ is our peace. (verse 14). He established peace (verse 15). And He preached peace (verse 17). Peace repeated 3 times. And twice Paul said that Jesus “destroyed the hostility between us” and he put to death the hostility between us through the cross. He made us one into one new man and then He reconciled us to God.
Notice the sequence: Christ destroyed the walls between us at the cross and made us into one new man, and THEN he reconciled us to God. Reconciled us first and then reconciled us to God. The divided church cannot be reconciled to God.
The word, Hostility, appears twice here. We are hostile. Some of us, because of our background, tend to be hostile to this kind of person, or hostile to that kind of person. It is a horrible word. It means enmity, hatred and hostility. The wall of hostility dividing us. How are we going to deal with that? The cross. The power of the cross has destroyed the hostility between us.
You look up at the cross and you say, “The only thing I see dying on the cross is Jesus.” How could God have killed the hostility on the cross? God made Jesus the hostility. 2 Cor 5:21: “God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
What God did was he treated Jesus Christ as if he’d done all of those things we have been doing to each other. God put our punishment on him. You see that justice demands punishment for hostility. And Jesus took it. The minute you embrace Jesus by faith, your record of hostility goes to him and his record of peace comes to us. He is not just the source of peace, he is our peace. We are perfect people legally in God’s sight the minute we become Christian.
Christ died for my hostility. Black and white, gay and straight, male and female, Chinese speaking and English speaking. If you are hostile to any group, if you are angry at any person today, if you look at him at the cross, it will slay the hostility.
Work toward the unity of the church—love one another, the theme of the epistle. The church needs to change and to continue to grow. But the reason for me to love the church is not because the church is good and beautiful. It is because I believe in the gospel and I believe that God wants me in the church to experience His power. The power of the church is the cross.
I am getting emotion when I think about this power of the church. The cross brings us together. We all come from different places. You from Mainland China, I am from HK. You were born in America and I was born oversee. We are so different people. But God has put you and I together. We serve together for 22 years. Through you I come to love Jesus and know His love. We were strangers to each other. Because of the cross, we are one.
My testimony: I love the church. I am the #1 fan of the church. Through the church I come to love Jesus and know that He loves me.
Conclusion
Three questions about FBCC and You answered from Ephesians:
Review:
1. Do I really need FBCC? Absolutely yes.
2. How involved I have to be with FBCC? Or how close I have to be with FBCC? Full participation and full commitment to get involved.
3. How do I love FBCC when FBCC is not perfect? By looking at the cross. The power of the church is the power of the cross. Jesus is our peace.
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