Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. If you want Christ to work in your life, you got to be a part of the church. In fact, this might sound offensive. You got no right asking for the power of God to work in your life.
No right to ask for the power of God if you have separated yourself from the means of that power. It's not uncommon to meet people who consider themselves Christians but aren't really involved in a church. Maybe they were hurt by a congregation in the past or maybe Sunday mornings are busy and it's just hard to make it out the door.
Or maybe they tried it and it just didn't do anything for them and they gave up. Does this describe you? Is it okay to just listen to a sermon online and go about your day? Is it really any different than actually going to church? Pastor J.D. Greer answers that question today on Summit Life as he continues our study in Ephesians chapters two and three. He titled this message, The Mystery and Mission of the Church. So what we're going to do is we're going to read this passage where Paul talks about the nature and the purpose of the church. And then we're going to try to answer four questions.
Here they are. First question is why we should be involved in the church. The second question is how involved we should be in the church. Then the third question is what the mission of the church is.
And then number four, what the implications of that are for you. Ephesians 2 verse 11. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles and the flesh you were separated from Christ and you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. You're like, commonwealth? What's Virginia got to do with this? And what's a commonwealth anyway? But don't get caught up on that word.
The important thing is not the word commonwealth. The important thing is what it says in verse 12, that to be separated from Israel was to be separated from Christ. You Ephesians, Paul says, and you Americans for that matter, you were part of the separated alien nations. You were, verse 12, strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. Now this is crucial to everything Paul is about to tell them.
Paul is reminding them that they were people who were outsiders with no hope and this perspective was to form how they think about all of their relationships. Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in the flesh, in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility.
How? By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. The walls of hostility got torn down between Christians because the work of Jesus shows us that humanity has a common problem, sin.
There's one problem there's one problem of man and it supersedes race, religion, gender, education, and even political persuasion. And that problem is sin and the solution to that problem is the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ who did for all of us what none of us could do for ourselves. And Jesus' blood cleanses us all alike. And furthermore, when Jesus rose from the dead, see this verse 15, he created in his resurrection, get this, a whole new race of humanity. See how it says verse 15?
He created in himself one new man out of the two. In other words, if you are in Christ, your identity is not primarily as a white man or a black man or a Hispanic, you are a new race of man in Christ. Verse 18, you see that through him we got access with one Spirit to the Father. We got one Spirit that runs through all of us and it's like a common blood that runs through the veins of our body. Verse 19, so that then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints.
Paul, watch what he does here, he uses three analogies for the church and each one gets more intimate than the last. He says first of all you're citizens of one kingdom, then he says you're members of the household of God. See that next phrase? He says you're like family, you're like brothers and sisters with one daddy. Verse 20, and then you're built on, here's your third analogy, it's you're like a building.
You see how everything's getting more connected? You're citizens of one kingdom, actually you're brothers and sisters, actually you're like bricks that are cemented together. Keep going because Paul develops this last analogy. He says we are bricks in a building built on the foundation of the apostles and the 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 are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirits. All Christians have three things in common, he just said. Number one, they have a common source of righteousness. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of their acceptance before God. Secondly, they have a common foundation of truth. See that phrase, the apostles and the prophets?
That's a reference to the Bible. Here's the last thing they have in common is they've got a common purpose. Paul says all Christians everywhere are built together as a dwelling place by God for the spirits. Why must we be a part of the church? Remember your analogy, church members are like a pile of bricks that when put together are a temple where God's spirit dwells. Now watch this, in the same way, get this, none of us are complete in Christ without one another. Thus it is only by being a part of the body of Christ that I will experience the fullness of Christ.
See that means two things. That means A, if you want to know Christ, you must be intimately connected to his body. The spirit dwells in the whole body, not in any one part. Paul says this in the next chapter, chapter 3 verse 10. So that through the church, Paul says, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known like manifold.
Manifold just means multi-folds or multi-faceted. I've experienced some things by Christ in my life that you have not experienced and there are some things that you have experienced about Christ that I have not experienced because it is only you've been some of you have been through some things I've never been through and you can give me a picture of Christ that I cannot understand on my own and it's only by knowing you that I know Jesus. See the fact that God's spirit inhabits his church also means that if you want God to work in your life you got to be a part of the church. A lot of people try to pray to God to help them with something in their life and it's like they expect God to zap them from heaven. Now that's what God does.
You pray, he fixes you, zap, that's plan A. And if he doesn't do that, well I guess you go get some help from the church. For example, you got a couple that's struggling in their marriage and they need God's help. So they pray and they ask God to help them in their marriage. Now God could just zap them from heaven and all of a sudden they come home one day and they're all cheery and selfless and loving and if God doesn't do that well then I guess they could be in a small group where they learn godly relationship patterns, where others are able to speak into their lives and support them, but that's plan B. That's not nearly as good as God zapping them. Or you got a guy struggling with alcoholism or a lust addiction so he prays to God for help, God help me, and he wants God to zap him from heaven with the Holy Ghost taser gun, where suddenly he just loses all those desires. And if not, if God doesn't do that, well then maybe he'll go get involved in some Christ-centered ministry at the church where guys can support him and speak into his life.
Do you get it? Plan A is God zaps you, that's like the exciting stuff. Plan B is that you use the church.
Here's the revolutionary truth. The church is plan A. The church is the means by which God's Spirit does his work.
It's where he dwells. Remember Ephesians 2 10 said that for each of us God had predestined good works for us to do. Some of the good works that God has predestined for me to do are in your life. And if you are not here then you cannot participate in the good works that God has predestined for me to do in you. And you've got good works that God has predestined for you to do in me and in others. And if you are not here, other people will not benefit of the good works that God has predestined for you to do.
You get what I'm saying? If you want Christ to work in your life, you've got to be a part of the church. In fact, this might sound offensive. I went back through this message and tried to rephrase everything so it was maximally offensive.
You ready? Listen, you've got no right asking for the power of God to work in your life. No right to ask for the power of God if you have separated yourself from the means of that power. If you've been at this church for a while and you just refuse to get involved, quit asking God for help in your life. Because you're like, well how would I give you my power if you separated yourself from the means of that power?
It's like saying to your spouse, I want sex but I don't want any of that relationship stuff. See, the church is plan A. This is where my power goes through. I've predestined different people to be the conduits of my power. You see, that leads me to the second question and that is, how involved should we be in the church? Well, based on what I've said to you, a better way to phrase that question is this, how involved do you want Christ to be in your life? That's the better question. How involved should you be in the church?
Well, let's rephrase that. How involved do you want Christ to be in your life or how well do you want to know Christ? Those of you that are on the sidelines, you are only experiencing a fraction of what God wants you to know. Here's the third one, what the mission of the church is. What is the mission of the church? You see, in light of all that we've said of how God is glorified by the salvation of a wide diversity of peoples, listen, our mission has to be to bring into one body people of vastly different backgrounds to worship Jesus. And that means that our church has to reflect a widely diverse group of people. God is not glorified by a big audience of white people watching an entertaining show together, no matter how big it is.
We're all black people, we're all Hispanic people. You know, we think God and everybody's all impressed because we've got 4,000 people that come to our church. It's not glorifying to God or that impressive.
What glorifies God is when people who otherwise have little in common come together as brothers and sisters in one body. And that means we're going to do some things at this church, listen to me, that some of you are not necessarily comfortable with and some things that I'm not comfortable with either. People at this church a lot of times, I've noticed this, they think that because I'm the pastor that the way we do church is exactly according to my preferences. Like, hey, I'm at the top of the food chain so I get to do church the way I want to.
If you were top of the food chain, you could wield that kind of thing. There's a lot of things that we do here that I actually, there's some other styles that I prefer that we don't always necessarily do here because the point is not my preferences or your preferences. The point is what does it take to bring people who are not connected to God into this church? I've told our worship teams this, only half joking, but probably not really joking at all.
I was like, listen, you just need to know that if mass hysteria sweeps Riley Durham and on Tuesday everybody wakes up with a craving and a mad desire for bluegrass music, that you guys got three weeks to pull together a bluegrass worship set and not start doing that on Sundays. Why? Because it has nothing to do with what I want.
That's the filter. It's not what I like or what you like, but what brings in the lost. And so there's a lot of things that I might prefer to do differently. So don't come to me, listen, I'm just gonna go and tell you. I don't mean this to be ugly, but I'm just gonna say it straight. Do not come to me and tell me what you like or do not like. I do not care. I am not going to listen.
I'm going to nod my head and be thinking about something else. Unless you're an unbeliever and you come and you're like, well, this causes me and keeps me from coming to Jesus. Then I might listen. But if you're a believer and just got preferences, I don't care.
I'm not even going to listen to it or read it. Somebody complained to me once. I'm sorry, I'm just joking.
I'm just throwing all this out. Somebody complained to me one time. This is like group counseling.
I'm the, you're counseling me. Somebody complained to me one time that there weren't enough black people in our church. I totally agreed with them. That same person said to me a few weeks later that they didn't like it when we do all the songs where people put their hands in the air and stand up and clap. I was like, have you ever been to a black church? So, in other words, you want black people to come in here and act like they're you. It means that if we're going to be the kind of church that we're going to need to be, it means you're going to have to lay your preferences on the grounds. And I don't even want to talk about them because I don't care.
Because it's not my preferences versus yours. It's what's it take to engage the lost community of Raleigh-Durham. It also means that many of us need to make as our personal mission in life, bringing in through the church those people that are most far from God. Let me real quick, let me real quick lead to you a little bit from the next chapter where Paul puts this into practice.
Watch this. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, of this gospel, I was made a minister for you. I was made a minister for you. I was made a minister for you. I was made a minister of this gospel. I was made a minister to bring the light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages and God who created all things? This was according, verse 11, to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we now have boldness.
So I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you. Here's what I wanted you to notice from that in case you didn't catch anything. Paul arranged his life's mission according to God's eternal mission.
That's what you should notice. Paul arranged his life's mission according to God's eternal mission. And so even when things look rough, like when Paul is writing this, he's in prison. He says, I've got boldness because I know the mission of God. I know how committed God is to bringing it about. And then Paul arranged his life's mission, his life's mission, according to God's eternal mission. And we, like Paul, have to understand, get this, the eternal mission of God and how committed God is to bringing that mission about. And then we, watch this, like Paul, have to arrange our lives around that mission. For example, I've told you before I've got a special place in my heart right now for those areas of our community that seem to me the most far from God.
Homeless orphans, prisoners, unwed mothers, and high school dropouts. I've been practicing, okay. I've got a place in my heart for those because I know that they're far from God. And I know that God wants us, our people, to be involved significantly in their lives. And it seems impossible.
I don't even know how to go about doing some of this stuff. But I know how committed God is. I have boldness because Paul had boldness. And we both got boldness, me and Paul, and you got boldness because we know what God's eternal mission is. It's like Hudson Taylor said, the missionary, he said there are three stages to anything God wants to do.
Impossible, difficult, done. I know it seems impossible, but it's like this is what God wants to do. And I'm going to arrange our mission around God's mission. I want some of you to step out in boldness and share Christ with somebody who is very far from God and who is extremely close to Christianity because you know that that's just the kind of things that God does is he takes people far from him and brings them into the church as a display of his grace and his power.
Here's the other thing. I know there are still many people in other nations and other cultures that are very far from God. And I know that God's purpose is to bring them to know and to worship him. There are 16,349 people groups in the world. A people group is a group that speaks a common language of the common culture that's at least 10,000 people big. Of those 16,349 different people groups, 6,647 of them qualify as unreached. Unreach means that they're less than two percent Christian and there's no Christian movement in the country. Of those, watch this, 6,647 unreached people groups, 1,662 of them are unengaged which means that not even one Christian is working in them to see the gospel take root and no Christian has ever worked in them. And I know it is God's purpose to bring these people into the church and I want many of you especially you college students to arrange your life's mission around that mission. You see they make up about 1.8 billion people in the world.
They say if you put those people in a line with an arms-length distance between them it would wrap around the equator 25 times. Can you imagine seeing a line of people 25 thick as far as the eye could see that are marching steadfastly straight into hell? I want that vision to burn in you.
I want it to move you day and night. Today, today, this Sunday over 12,000 kids in Africa and India will die of malnutrition or a hunger-related disease and I want you to burn to see God's love brought to them and go forward with confidence because you know that's what God wants and what his mission is. I want some of you girls to say maybe I should go to one of these places and start an orphanage that helps these kids get adopted by Christian parents. I want some of you to say yeah I'm an engineer but instead of graduating from college and using my engineering to make a ton of money I want to use it to serve the kingdom of God and go into one of these countries and help see the gospel go forward. I'm a medical student. I'm not going to use my medicine to make a ton of money. I'm going to use it to serve the purposes of the gospel. I'm a teacher. I'm going to plant myself in a place where there are not believers.
I want to get letters for the next 35 years. This is one thing I look forward to most as a pastor. The next 35 years get letters from different ones of you who are like in your church I learned to burn for what God was doing in those places around the world where people were farthest from him and now I'm here and I've seen people come to know Christ. You see how Paul used the word stewardship? Stewardship means a particular task given to him. Paul said in light of the eternal purposes of God I've got a special assignment.
I want you to figure out what your stewardship is. In light of the eternal purposes of God all of you have been given a job and one day all of you are going to have to stand before God and answer how you personally furthered the mission of God. Guys we know this is God's will. We talk about finding God's will. It's like I've told you, it's not lost.
You don't need to find it. This is what God is doing. What are you going to have to offer to God in the final day of how you further that mission? You're like well but I've never heard a voice telling me to go.
It's like Jim Elliot says you don't need a voice you got a verse and verses are better than voices. See our challenge to students is we tell them give the two years after you graduate those first two years. Here's what we say sort of tongue in cheek but not really. Unless you've heard from God otherwise you ought to plan on spending two years after you graduate somewhere overseas. Two years. Now a lot of you I know it's not for everybody because God has given you something or told you something but if God hasn't told you clearly you ought to plan on spending two years seeing what God is doing in those places around the world that are farthest from him. I know God's not going to call you all but in light of what God's eternal purposes are.
Don't he call a number of you? Here's your last thing. These are all just basically summarizing what we just said. What I want you to take away for today.
What I'm asking from you the implications. Number one be very active in the church. Some of you need to get in a small group you need to get in a ministry team you need to get off the sidelines and get in the game.
It's time. Number two you need to be open to other styles that are not like you. Number three you need to connect with others here who are not like you. We used to have a youth pastor who said that we never get out of high school. In high school you go in the lunchroom you sit with people that are like you.
That's the way small groups are now. My challenge is for some of you to say I'm going to be a part of a group of people who are not just like me. People of different ages, people of different cultures and let the body of Christ minister to you. Number four reach out to others far from God. I want to challenge you again to pray about those five areas that I've put in front of you and reach out to people that are far from God.
Number five consider going to the unreached people groups or start saving up your money or giving your money so that others can go. Listen for those of you guys that are not Christians here I know we are such a bad representation sometimes but here's what I want you to hear. We're a group of people who have experienced God. God has loved us even when we've blown it. God has forgiven us and he's saved us from all kinds of different backgrounds. He can save you. Stop wasting your life. Jesus's call was radical.
Give yourself away to the greatest cause of all and view your life from the perspective of eternity. That's a mission we should all jump on board for. You're listening to pastor J.D. Greer on Summit Life. To hear today's program again or to download the free message transcript visit us online at jdgreer.com. To help you gain greater clarity into the mystery of God's love we've created an exclusive new resource based on our current study here on the program. It's a personal Bible study called Mystery and Clarity the book of Ephesians. The interactive questions and insightful commentaries will help you walk verse by verse through the book of Ephesians plus we've included scripture memory this time to help solidify those truths in your heart. You're welcome to request a copy of the Bible study today when you donate to support this ministry at the suggested level of $25 or more. Or even better when you become a monthly supporter we call a gospel partner.
Give today and be sure to ask for your copy titled Mystery and Clarity the book of Ephesians. Call 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or go online to jdgreer.com. While you're on the website you can also sign up for our email list to get ministry updates information about new resources and pastor J.D. 's latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox. This is a great way to stay connected with Summit Life and it's completely free to subscribe.
Sign up when you go to jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Join us next week for a special story about a life changed by the truth of the gospel. That's Monday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
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