back to indexWed Bible Study (BCC 2) - 11-09-16
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You didn't bring like a phone with you or have a peripheral. 00:00:09.440 |
We sent the handout via electronic copy on the email. 00:00:14.320 |
But if you want to write on something, I placed some blank pieces of paper on the back table 00:00:22.480 |
Or if you're near the front on this table in the front, I have some blank pieces of 00:00:27.580 |
And while you guys get a little bit situated, it's a good opportunity to kind of highlight 00:00:31.000 |
some of our announcements that we have for this week. 00:00:36.280 |
For those of you who are new to the church or you have friends who are, our membership 00:00:40.800 |
class, the basis of Christianity is starting this Sunday. 00:00:44.640 |
All they have to do is bring their Bible and pen and meet in the back room of the office. 00:00:50.480 |
Also for the new visitors, we have a welcome lunch this Sunday after church at one. 00:00:56.280 |
So again, if you have friends who are new to the church, encourage them to come. 00:00:59.800 |
I just want to also highlight that two things, the Thanksgiving potluck is taking place on 00:01:06.880 |
the 20th, so please make sure you mark your calendars and that you sign up to bring something. 00:01:12.560 |
The signup is going to go out on email, but it's also on our Facebook site as well. 00:01:17.580 |
And lastly, as you know, the holiday outreach ministries are happening. 00:01:21.500 |
If you have any questions about those things, please contact Grace Kim. 00:01:25.840 |
And there's like a list of those things also on the Facebook as well. 00:01:30.680 |
So again, apologies for not having the handout. 00:01:33.840 |
We had some technical issues with the printer. 00:01:38.280 |
So, so far, um, the, this, the series of classes that we've been taking, we've been talking 00:01:50.760 |
Remember and recall that we talked about the greatness of his power, the greatness of his 00:01:55.640 |
majesty, the greatness of his glory to the degree that in so many occasions through the, 00:02:02.920 |
throughout history, mankind would be in fear of him. 00:02:06.280 |
They'd have experiences where if people approached him, however they wanted, there would be consequences 00:02:16.240 |
And then underneath that, it was the idea then if God is so holy, then his word that 00:02:25.200 |
That the word of God then is deserving of the kind of attention, right? 00:02:29.280 |
The kind of clarity, the desire to obey just as God himself is deserving because of his 00:02:36.920 |
Well, today as we kind of follow along with that, we're going to jump now into a new topic 00:02:44.280 |
That namely, if God being so holy and for lack of better words, like God being so great, 00:02:51.880 |
if he is so great, then so is the place where he desires to be present, namely the church. 00:03:01.520 |
If God is so great, then anything that is his is great as his word is and so is his 00:03:11.340 |
And so as we talk about transitioning into the next couple of series, I wanted to make 00:03:16.240 |
that connection that appropriately when we think about the church, we have to think about 00:03:21.800 |
it appropriately in light of God because this is his church. 00:03:27.960 |
Now in thinking about the church, we want to title today's lesson, the right view of 00:03:37.840 |
And the reason why I thought of it like that, because I could have just said a high view 00:03:40.840 |
is I didn't want to, I wanted to make the case in point that we're not just trying to 00:03:47.160 |
elevate and push this as like, hey, this is something that our church has as one theological 00:03:56.160 |
My point with that and entitling this the right view, the high view is to say that what 00:04:01.960 |
is appropriate, clear, and correct is to have a high view of God's church, right? 00:04:08.960 |
That what is appropriate, clear, and correct is to have a high view of the church. 00:04:13.720 |
Now I want to begin with a little bit of a participation with us. 00:04:18.260 |
There are many metaphors in the Bible for the church, right? 00:04:24.740 |
Metaphors meaning naming out one, a family, okay? 00:04:28.980 |
That the collective believers that are assembled together, that they're called various things 00:04:37.480 |
If you guys can just throw out whatever comes to mind right now, okay? 00:04:42.240 |
Let's just throw them out and list the various metaphors that the Bible uses to describe 00:05:04.720 |
Connected to the Old Testament, God calls the church the temple. 00:05:09.200 |
In fact, he makes it a point to say you are the temple, right? 00:05:24.280 |
In the book of Ephesians, it talks about this building that's being pieced together, okay? 00:05:35.680 |
There's other illustrations between our relationship and Christ and how it describes the New Testament 00:05:43.840 |
Excellent, Jesus is the good and great shepherd and we are his sheep. 00:05:51.560 |
Connected to the temple, those who are serving are the priests, right? 00:05:58.800 |
Think about this, we're even called like a nation, so to speak. 00:06:03.800 |
We're even called in a sense a kingdom, where Christ is the king and we are his kingdom. 00:06:09.920 |
And the list could actually go on in the way that the scriptures describes the church, 00:06:17.560 |
Now some of these metaphors can be applied to, again, the collective body of believers 00:06:25.080 |
in the New Testament as a whole, but then other of these metaphors really speak highly 00:06:33.920 |
Now all of this coming together gives us a very vibrant and dynamic picture of the church. 00:06:41.880 |
So by way of application, when you see something described, not in just one way, but not in 00:06:48.560 |
just two, three ways, but you see something described in so many illustrative terms, you 00:06:54.440 |
realize that this is incredibly important, right? 00:06:58.540 |
So I want to make an application to you that there are things in the Bible to which God 00:07:02.460 |
wanted to make so clear, so emphatic, that he doesn't just repeat it in redundancy, he 00:07:11.860 |
And so what we're supposed to do by application is we're supposed to appreciate the beauty, 00:07:21.460 |
You're supposed to look into the depths of the church. 00:07:24.520 |
You're supposed to be engaged and involved in the life of the church. 00:07:28.860 |
So what I'm saying is, think about this for a moment. 00:07:32.100 |
What else in our modern day do we give lots of different terms and illustrations and maybe 00:07:43.360 |
In my mind, when I was asking myself that question, there's only two things that come 00:07:51.360 |
Where money can be talking like cheddar, you know, the dough, whatever it may be. 00:07:56.320 |
You have all these like different terms for money. 00:08:00.260 |
And then with love, there's all these different terms, right? 00:08:10.220 |
And then we have terms for the one that we love, you know? 00:08:13.860 |
Shall I compare thee to a midsummer day or whatever it may be, right? 00:08:22.020 |
All I'm saying is, when there's something that is very important, especially important 00:08:28.140 |
to us, we tend to illustrate and use so many terminologies. 00:08:34.340 |
My point is to God, the church is so important. 00:08:43.020 |
And so therefore, I want to reiterate that point, is do you have an appreciation for 00:08:49.620 |
the New Testament church as God would, right? 00:08:55.940 |
And so I want to start off there and say this. 00:09:00.020 |
So when something is precious, when something is valuable, what ends up happening is there's 00:09:10.300 |
So on the outline, the first point should have been the metaphors of the church, application 00:09:17.920 |
is we appreciate the richness, and now we're coming to this idea that when it's rich like 00:09:22.620 |
that, when it's precious like that, there is a weightiness. 00:09:27.580 |
Do you guys remember that when we were studying the doctrines of God, we said that God was 00:09:36.080 |
And some of these terms are really big and lofty, and sometimes it's hard for us to grasp. 00:09:45.780 |
And the thing about it is, in the Hebrew term, it meant weighty, weighty, right? 00:09:52.380 |
And so I want us to think about that, that there is a sense to which the New Testament 00:09:56.020 |
church, the local church, has a weightiness about it because of its preciousness. 00:10:06.900 |
Weightiness referring to its kind of, you know, the way that we should approach it, 00:10:14.700 |
Common things like, for example, the pens that you have. 00:10:18.260 |
Seriously, people, like, they buy boxes of pens and they go through it like nothing. 00:10:24.840 |
But then there are things where we don't treat it as common. 00:10:34.180 |
So, one of the passages that I would like us to turn to, we're going to flip to a lot 00:10:37.980 |
of passages as we're doing kind of a topical study here. 00:10:41.460 |
Please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16 through 17. 00:10:47.340 |
1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16 through 17. 00:10:54.340 |
This passage to us teaches us that there is this weightiness about the church. 00:11:01.100 |
Now, as you guys turn there, you guys know that there has, the church in Corinth, although 00:11:06.780 |
it was a rapidly growing church in a really, like, a pivotal location, it had lots of problems. 00:11:13.380 |
And a lot of the problems began with, there were divisions and there were, you know, fractions 00:11:19.920 |
And then this is what Apostle Paul says, verse 16 through 17. 00:11:23.260 |
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? 00:11:28.860 |
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you 00:11:39.060 |
So when you look at that passage, do you feel a sense of weightiness even in the tone? 00:11:45.580 |
In that passage, it gives a definition, almost a definition describing the essence of the 00:11:54.340 |
And the essence of it is that you are a temple having the spirit, the presence of the spirit 00:12:04.100 |
But what's contained in it also in that little phrase or in that little verse is also a warning, 00:12:11.180 |
There's a warning of, and you better not seek to diminish or destroy this temple. 00:12:21.900 |
And so within that, there's almost a heavy weightiness. 00:12:25.860 |
Now in order for us just to kind of get the sense of it for the sense of effect, I want 00:12:31.380 |
to share with you that sometimes I have fantasies and I think a lot of the guys might relate 00:12:38.720 |
I don't know if the sisters might, but I have what's called a hero fantasy. 00:12:43.500 |
The hero fantasy where essentially like as I'm driving or something and I kind of get 00:12:48.180 |
lost in daydreaming, I started imagining that there's this goon, you know, it's like, I 00:12:52.700 |
don't know, like an eye patch or something coming after my family. 00:12:55.100 |
And he's like, I'm going to come get you, you know, or it's just some guy who's happened 00:13:02.780 |
Maybe he's hitting on her or maybe he's, you know, acting all, acting up in front of her 00:13:11.160 |
Where it's just like, he didn't see me coming, but all of a sudden I come in like, that's 00:13:16.860 |
And then, and then like in my fantasy, like the brothers all of a sudden jump in and they're 00:13:23.460 |
It's like, you better not let me see you here, man. 00:13:26.940 |
And then like in my fantasy, I'm the, I'm the hero. 00:13:32.580 |
I have those hero fantasies a lot when I'm saving my kids or I'm saving my wife, that 00:13:37.460 |
You know, I don't know, you know, if that, that verse should be taken in that way, but 00:13:45.260 |
there's definitely a sense of all the metaphors that we're talking about. 00:13:50.700 |
He talks about the church as his precious children. 00:13:59.500 |
And then he talks about the church as his bride and apostle Paul says this bride should 00:14:08.540 |
Then do we dare test whether God's threat, you know what I mean? 00:14:15.500 |
Do we dare test whether that's actually a serious thing or not? 00:14:20.100 |
And that's what I'm talking about here is the church is precious in God's eyes and we 00:14:24.540 |
should have a high view then of what is God's, right? 00:14:31.820 |
So therefore when you, when you think about it that way, that this is, this is God's thing 00:14:37.780 |
described in so many different metaphors, household, children, flock, all that kind 00:14:42.580 |
And then you realize that all of this is a love service terms. 00:14:44.740 |
It is incredibly precious to the eyes of God. 00:14:47.460 |
And then we're supposed to have likewise that weightiness when you approach it. 00:14:52.480 |
Like somebody who passes you, recently there's been so many newborn babies and they pass 00:15:02.580 |
Because obviously in the immediate context, it's a precious baby. 00:15:11.820 |
So that's the kind of thing that we want to talk about here in application. 00:15:14.980 |
Then when you realize that the church is God's designed, you know, God ordained precious 00:15:22.340 |
entity, then how should we approach it in application? 00:15:26.580 |
Well, there's tons, there's tons of application, right? 00:15:33.300 |
If we're supposed to have a high view of the local church, what are some applications that 00:15:38.660 |
just automatically come from that automatically flow from a high view of the church? 00:15:58.820 |
Even dress, how you approach it externally, expression wise. 00:16:17.460 |
Obviously there again, there's tons of applications, but let me highlight a couple. 00:16:20.940 |
I share this sometimes in BCC class and you guys might have heard me say it, but we should 00:16:26.180 |
be careful about just criticizing the church brazenly. 00:16:31.620 |
And I highlight that a little bit because there was a time when I was learning like, 00:16:37.300 |
And then all of a sudden I found myself like, and that church and that church and that church 00:16:40.460 |
like, you know, and then you realize, imagine this, there are a lot of new parents, you 00:16:49.740 |
And then you look over, it's like, why are they crying, spoiled brat? 00:16:52.740 |
And you just like say stuff like that without thinking about what the parents are thinking. 00:17:01.460 |
And you might have this attitude of like, well, what? 00:17:10.180 |
It's not a right understanding of who the parent is, who the baby is to that parent. 00:17:14.260 |
Likewise, we shouldn't be just outlandishly criticizing the church, this and that and 00:17:18.740 |
this and that, because every church has problems and we are a work in progress that God is 00:17:27.140 |
God is building the church and he's given it time to develop and mature with all of 00:17:34.660 |
Another one, there's a passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10 to 13. 00:17:40.100 |
You guys should be already kind of close to there, right? 00:17:43.500 |
1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10 to 13 says this, "According to the grace of God given 00:17:48.180 |
to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building 00:17:54.500 |
Let's each one take care how he builds upon it. 00:17:58.400 |
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 00:18:04.340 |
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, 00:18:08.740 |
straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it because it will 00:18:13.420 |
be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." 00:18:21.440 |
So here, the admonition is really clear, right? 00:18:25.220 |
Let's be very careful how we build this church. 00:18:30.460 |
Now in more modern days, in recent times, there have been so many conferences and so 00:18:38.060 |
"Hey everybody, every pastor, let's get together and let's talk about how to make this thing 00:18:45.020 |
Let's talk about what are some innovative ways that we can do X, Y, and Z. 00:18:54.380 |
Shouldn't the first thought be, "How does God want this thing to function? 00:19:07.540 |
Why is the first question like, "Hey, let's make this thing work somehow." 00:19:10.540 |
And in all my honest opinion, I mean, I think people should just stop kind of thinking that 00:19:17.020 |
they want to do grand, innovative stuff like, "Hey, we just need to move this into another 00:19:23.100 |
Because essentially, the church has been trying to do the same thing for hundreds and hundreds 00:19:32.860 |
Now again, are some of those questions wrong or wicked or something? 00:19:38.980 |
But upon the wrong priority and wrong sequence, it can lead you astray. 00:19:46.320 |
We definitely have to desire to keep the church pure. 00:19:54.060 |
If you flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15 through 16. 00:19:58.980 |
Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15 through 16. 00:20:04.180 |
Apostle Paul is addressing the issue of sexual immorality. 00:20:08.660 |
And then he says this, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? 00:20:13.860 |
Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? 00:20:18.500 |
Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her?" 00:20:26.300 |
Now he is talking about the individual sin of eliciting prostitution. 00:20:33.100 |
But then the metaphor that he's using is, "Do you not realize that you are one member 00:20:40.020 |
That the individual sin of sexual immorality is what is causing the church as a collective 00:20:48.820 |
And he's saying, "How can this be in the body of Christ?" 00:20:53.420 |
And so I want us to realize that our individual sin is contributing to the purity of the whole, 00:21:01.300 |
And so we have to make sure that we keep those things in mind. 00:21:04.100 |
Now again, those are just some of the things that I'm highlighting. 00:21:09.140 |
If we view the church in a high light, you know, in the kind of appropriate way, there 00:21:16.100 |
are tons of applications that we can think of. 00:21:19.180 |
Now I want to switch gears here and say this. 00:21:22.540 |
We're talking a little bit about how God has designed things to be. 00:21:29.580 |
Well I want to say this statement, I'm going to repeat it twice. 00:21:33.660 |
God's design is that through the church, the fullness of Christ would be proclaimed. 00:21:41.380 |
God's design is that through the church, the fullness of Christ would be proclaimed. 00:21:49.260 |
This is summarized in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 7 through 13. 00:22:01.300 |
I'm going to read this for us here, Ephesians 3, verses 7 through 13, and it says this. 00:22:05.780 |
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given 00:22:12.660 |
To me though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to 00:22:17.020 |
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to life for everyone what is 00:22:21.940 |
the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that, look at 00:22:28.100 |
this, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers, 00:22:37.660 |
This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 00:22:42.900 |
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 00:22:47.500 |
So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 00:22:53.900 |
So when I said that there's a purpose in the church to proclaim, this passage summarized 00:23:01.300 |
That through the church God is making known the mysteries and the wisdom of God, not just 00:23:07.140 |
to the four nations, but to the whole universe. 00:23:10.740 |
And this was the plan of God from the beginning, he says. 00:23:18.300 |
Does that not up the kind of value and weightiness of the church? 00:23:23.420 |
That God has this intricate, long, and vast plan to use the church to proclaim his glory, 00:23:33.380 |
Here's another verse that you guys should turn to. 00:23:35.420 |
It comes from Ephesians chapter one, verses 15 through 23. 00:23:42.340 |
It's a little bit longer paragraph, but let's read that. 00:23:46.580 |
Ephesians chapter one, verses 15 through 23, and it says this, "For this reason, because 00:23:53.340 |
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do 00:23:56.580 |
not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord, 00:24:01.340 |
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom, of revelation, and 00:24:06.660 |
the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what 00:24:13.460 |
What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable 00:24:18.100 |
greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might, 00:24:23.340 |
that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right 00:24:26.940 |
hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, 00:24:32.220 |
and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 00:24:37.140 |
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 00:24:43.340 |
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 00:24:50.380 |
And the reason why I pulled together that entire paragraph is because he's praying that 00:24:55.320 |
we understand the depth of God's redemptive plan. 00:24:59.940 |
He wants to understand the depth of the blessing that is in Christ. 00:25:03.700 |
And then he says this church is the fullness of Christ. 00:25:08.340 |
He says essentially here that all things have been given over to him, and then he says all 00:25:12.420 |
things, he is head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of 00:25:19.900 |
So earlier when I say that God's meticulous plan is to proclaim the fullness of Christ, 00:25:29.180 |
You see that he almost identifies one and one that the church is the fullness. 00:25:34.700 |
It's expression, but because we are fully under his reign, because we're fully under 00:25:39.460 |
his grace, because everything we are is saturated with who he is and our entire identity is 00:25:44.820 |
wrapped up in him, the church collectively is proclaiming Christ's work, Christ being, 00:25:51.020 |
his nature, his hope, everything found in Christ. 00:26:01.820 |
So therefore you do realize that what we are participating in has an incredible high calling. 00:26:11.580 |
I want to remind us about Moses, who we recalled before. 00:26:17.620 |
Moses was a spokesperson for God, and as he was delivering the nation of Israel out of 00:26:26.900 |
So God told Moses, "You will be like God to them." 00:26:30.300 |
Meaning, you're going to carry God's word to these people and lead them. 00:26:36.500 |
Now remember, when they were whining and griping, Moses would pray, then Moses would deliver 00:26:44.080 |
But that one time when Moses was supposed to talk to the rock so that people would have 00:26:49.180 |
refreshing water, she got angry and he took the stick and he slapped the stick. 00:26:54.560 |
And then remember those words when God says, "You did not regard me as holy." 00:27:00.820 |
That whole drama of water pouring out from the rock, God could have made water gush out 00:27:07.260 |
God could have just filled everybody's mouth with water like this, and be like, "Oop." 00:27:10.900 |
Or God could have just hydrated their bodies. 00:27:16.340 |
But God made a representation of how he was going to provide living water for them. 00:27:21.320 |
In messing up the glorious representation, Moses was judged. 00:27:29.300 |
The church has a huge calling to proclaim the fullness of Christ. 00:27:40.140 |
Everybody in the church is doing this, but I don't care. 00:27:43.460 |
Whatever this is my sin, you shouldn't care this is me." 00:27:46.780 |
None of those attitudes call into recollection what God is doing through his church. 00:27:54.120 |
And so we have to remember that God, because of the proclaiming and what work he is doing 00:27:59.720 |
through the church, that there is something vital going on. 00:28:02.920 |
We have to have a high view of the calling we have when we are a church. 00:28:14.380 |
So when we have worship services, when we have baptism services, when we have communion 00:28:20.400 |
services, you do realize that these things that we do together, these are corporate times 00:28:28.800 |
And as we do that, we're both giving God an offering corporately together. 00:28:33.080 |
But we're also expressing the spiritual truth. 00:28:40.220 |
And so when it comes down to worship services, yeah, we're going to try to be as intentional 00:28:45.740 |
as possible that the message that is given to you is very clearly from God. 00:28:51.100 |
And what we're doing as a church expresses this is what we believe about God. 00:28:56.700 |
And now sometimes, let's think about this for a moment. 00:28:59.980 |
You guys have probably heard some people say like, "Hey, you know, we're a no-frills church." 00:29:06.780 |
No-frills meaning we don't have like crazy ornaments and we don't have like crazy like 00:29:11.540 |
color mood changing backdrops and all that kind of stuff. 00:29:17.460 |
The thing about it is, are we dedicated to no-frills? 00:29:21.100 |
Like, is that what, you know, the elders and the leadership at this church like, "Hey, 00:29:28.140 |
our ambition was to be plain because we just like vanilla." 00:29:33.380 |
We don't want like strawberry shortcake and stuff. 00:29:35.380 |
We just want vanilla because, you know, I don't know. 00:29:40.180 |
Is that what you or anybody think of why we are the way we are? 00:29:48.660 |
Because primarily speaking, it's not about the flavor of anybody, right? 00:29:54.540 |
That worship, part of the reason why sometimes we don't do other stuff is because if we believe 00:30:00.020 |
that it's going to take away or detract from the attention of stuff, if it's going to take 00:30:04.460 |
away from the core, what's central, meeting with God, praising, listening to His Word 00:30:15.180 |
And so I'm going to tell you honestly, sometimes what's really annoying is people always wanting 00:30:26.820 |
It's like, okay, I mean, if that's promoting what we believe to be biblically sound for 00:30:30.780 |
the church, what's promoting faith, love and affection for Christ, then amen. 00:30:36.500 |
But if we're just doing that because we want to be like another church, we're just doing 00:30:39.860 |
that because it's not palatable to the flavor desire of our generation and the millennials 00:30:45.460 |
or whatever it may be, it just doesn't matter. 00:30:52.260 |
And I know right now maybe I'm sounding a little bit like I'm frustrated by that, but 00:30:56.900 |
I'm going to be honest, when I try these days to read up on articles where like, and I try 00:31:02.060 |
to read up on, let's say, blogs by guys who are young and like guys who are like in growing 00:31:06.740 |
churches and stuff, just so I know what's going on. 00:31:11.980 |
I find myself frustrated because as I see their mentality, I almost wonder like, do 00:31:20.140 |
Whoever walks into somebody else's company and says, "Let's do this, this, and this." 00:31:24.180 |
Or walks into somebody's house and says, "Let's paint that wall purple because I love purple." 00:31:32.820 |
And so you can expect, you can expect that for the church in terms of its services, what's 00:31:40.020 |
happening in the church is not going to be simply, as Apostle Paul put it, the foundations 00:31:51.220 |
And likewise with baptisms and communions, the baptisms have to represent this focus 00:31:57.140 |
on the unity with Christ, being buried with him and resurrected. 00:32:03.140 |
The communion should celebrate, or like remember the work of Christ and celebrate his coming. 00:32:10.260 |
And all these things should be done intentionally, not haphazardly, not just because like, "Mm, 00:32:16.980 |
you're turning about 16, let's get you dunked." 00:32:18.900 |
I mean, that's, I feel like, I feel kind of sad. 00:32:21.820 |
I kind of like grieve over the fact that some people have those experiences. 00:32:26.220 |
It shouldn't be practiced that way, but rather intentionally expressing the truth behind 00:32:33.740 |
Those practices should be done with a reverence for God, for the church, and the message that 00:32:45.900 |
Okay, in the next 10 minutes, we're going to hit a last point. 00:32:50.500 |
So, as you see that, there's a passage that I want to share with you that's given me a 00:32:57.300 |
lot of conviction and sobriety that as the church is so important, right? 00:33:06.060 |
And that we should have this appropriate view of the church. 00:33:09.340 |
Apostle Paul then calls upon leaders to take care of the flock. 00:33:15.460 |
For the sake of time, I'm just going to read it for us here. 00:33:17.140 |
It says in Acts chapter 20, verse 26 through 28. 00:33:22.820 |
"Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did 00:33:28.220 |
not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 00:33:33.140 |
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has 00:33:38.020 |
made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." 00:33:53.740 |
They're like broken over it and they're like, you know, crying over each other. 00:33:57.780 |
And Apostle Paul gives an exhortation to the leaders of that church as he departs. 00:34:06.100 |
In it, Apostle Paul says, "I literally gave everything. 00:34:11.220 |
When he says, "I am clean of everyone's blood," that's what he's saying. 00:34:17.860 |
What's more, he says, "I made sure I gave everything God desired." 00:34:25.460 |
I didn't just pick and choose what I wanted to say. 00:34:30.060 |
And within that, he says this, "But make sure you pay careful attention." 00:34:36.540 |
And then he ups the ante, so to speak, and makes it even more serious by saying, "This 00:34:41.940 |
is the church that Christ shed his blood for." 00:34:46.940 |
If earlier we were talking about how precious, right, how precious is the church, the body, 00:34:55.100 |
This is the flock for which Christ shed his blood and sacrificed, right? 00:35:01.820 |
And it shouldn't be handled haphazardly, but rather with care and concern. 00:35:06.220 |
And he admonishes the elders, "You bear that responsibility." 00:35:14.900 |
At Berean, and I believe at every church, that because you have a high view of God, 00:35:20.740 |
you have a high view of His Word, and you have a high view of the church, the flock 00:35:24.540 |
of God, and therefore you have to have a high view of leadership. 00:35:29.220 |
Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of shepherding and oversight over the church, 00:35:38.100 |
And the way I would like to define it is that biblical and good leadership has a high view 00:35:51.020 |
Now that's not necessarily like a profound thing that I'm saying, but I mean in contrast 00:35:59.580 |
Many people think of leadership as something just simply to aspire to because that's on 00:36:06.380 |
Like I'm not mature yet because I'm not leading anybody, or something like that. 00:36:10.140 |
Or young men who really feel like, "I do want to exercise my strengths." 00:36:17.940 |
And there is another frustration all the times when I do see that some of my friends read 00:36:21.220 |
articles and these articles say something to the extent of like, "You gotta raise up 00:36:26.260 |
these young guys and girls and you gotta equip them and then give them opportunity and release 00:36:35.140 |
Now, again, I'm going to say again and caveat that by saying, "Is giving people opportunities 00:36:46.340 |
But is that the way the scripture described leadership and church? 00:36:52.580 |
Is that the way scripture described a few of those who have responsibility over the 00:36:57.860 |
well-being of God's precious flock, the church? 00:37:15.140 |
There's a passage I want to turn, for all of us to turn to. 00:37:18.180 |
It comes from 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 1 through 4. 00:37:38.100 |
So here in this passage is talking, again, giving another exhortation to the leadership 00:37:44.980 |
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, 00:37:50.900 |
as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of 00:37:55.780 |
God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God 00:38:02.020 |
would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your 00:38:10.900 |
And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 00:38:22.360 |
We can talk about how leadership, again, is it the kind of leadership the world practices? 00:38:30.700 |
You know, the people who are authoritative over you, they lord it over you. 00:38:39.780 |
And he says, the people over in this generation, you know, they exercise their authority over 00:38:45.180 |
you and that position, position of leadership is more of simply just power. 00:38:53.140 |
And so people want leadership sometimes because they want power and influence. 00:38:57.500 |
But then Jesus teaches, this is not how the body of Christ practices leadership. 00:39:03.220 |
So we can talk about responsibility, and again, I'm not going into super depth about it, but 00:39:07.980 |
the responsibilities for the leadership of the church, it's not simply about tasks. 00:39:15.060 |
It's not simply about, hey, we have an agenda, we have a goal, let's get to it. 00:39:22.980 |
The leadership that Apostle Peter says in this passage, he talks about motive. 00:39:32.540 |
If you guys ever had those people, I'm going to be honest, even, you know, over at my seminary 00:39:36.660 |
at Masters, I remember this one guy, he came over and he was like kind of sharing, because 00:39:40.460 |
we all did this thing like, oh, how did you get to seminary? 00:39:42.460 |
He was like, I've got the Jonah complex where I really was running, running, running, and 00:39:46.540 |
then God slapped me and I really felt like I just needed to be here. 00:39:49.860 |
So I'm here, you know, and everyone's kind of like, maybe we shouldn't be here. 00:39:56.540 |
Because this passage is like, you should not be under like forced compulsion, but you should 00:40:07.900 |
And I'm going to give a free tip to all you single ladies. 00:40:10.780 |
To me, what defines a man is a man who wants responsibility. 00:40:16.340 |
It's not a guy who's just like burly, like hairy and muscular or something like that. 00:40:21.660 |
A man desires responsibility and he will bear the burden on his back of your well-being, 00:40:30.540 |
So if you see brothers who are able to carry the burden and responsibility of others versus 00:40:37.160 |
You know the difference between child and adult, boy and man. 00:40:43.540 |
So here it says, when an individual has this desire, not for power, influence, and opportunities 00:40:49.020 |
to go, you know, spread my wings or something like that, but rather I see the needs of the 00:40:53.580 |
people and I desire to take care of the people. 00:40:55.900 |
I have Christ-like love for them and I'm willing to sacrifice for them. 00:41:01.340 |
That's the kind of responsibility this passage says. 00:41:04.360 |
So what's that all pointing to when we're talking about motive, their character? 00:41:09.740 |
Realize that leadership is not so much about, man, that guy is proficient, man, that guy 00:41:13.500 |
has all his capacities, but rather it's about character. 00:41:22.940 |
Why would leadership be about character more so than just ability, proficiency, eloquence 00:41:31.340 |
Because it comes back to this idea, the church is weighty. 00:41:42.660 |
The people he's going to give leadership to is the people he will trust. 00:41:49.220 |
Did you know that there is this element of trust, both on a humanistic level and on a 00:41:58.660 |
If you'll read through the book of Acts, you'll see that term used very, multiple times. 00:42:05.340 |
Apostle Paul says it, "Blessed be God, what a grace that God would consider me trustworthy, 00:42:11.980 |
entrusted with this, entrusted with that, entrusted with this, entrusted with that." 00:42:16.180 |
Do you realize that Christ even gave this principle? 00:42:19.380 |
Christ said this, "The good servant, even if he has a little, he will be faithful with 00:42:24.820 |
And when he is faithful with little, what will happen? 00:42:29.460 |
But if you're not faithful even with a little, what will happen? 00:42:32.220 |
Even the little that you have will be taken away. 00:42:41.620 |
Because what I'm about to trust you with is an incredible responsibility. 00:42:50.000 |
Remember that in the book of James chapter three, verse one, this is what the apostle 00:42:54.740 |
said, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach 00:43:10.580 |
So the attitude, again, when I read in the articles, like, "Give those guys some opportunities 00:43:16.260 |
It's like, man, what about the well-being of the flock? 00:43:25.660 |
Are you guys like, you know, the guppies you play with or whatever it may be? 00:43:35.580 |
And so those who would be leaders must be entrusted. 00:43:38.960 |
To the degree that if you actually look, number one, the scriptures is chock full of qualifications. 00:43:48.740 |
Not only in the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. 00:43:56.020 |
The apostle said to the church, "Select those individuals who are clearly, like evidently 00:44:02.620 |
filled with the Spirit, that it's recognizable by the congregation." 00:44:08.860 |
Remember in the Timothys, how it says, "The elder must be like this, and he must be trustworthy, 00:44:13.960 |
he must be able to do this, he's self-controlled, respectable, hospitable," and the list goes 00:44:21.860 |
But here's an interesting passage I want to read to you. 00:44:24.780 |
In 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10, it says this, "And let them also be tested first. 00:44:33.700 |
Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless." 00:44:42.740 |
And I find that verse to be very contrary to modern practice. 00:44:53.500 |
I go visit, and just even this past Sunday I went to visit another church at night, and 00:44:57.100 |
then I sometimes go visit, and they don't even know me, but they're like, "Hey, you 00:45:03.700 |
Modern practice has with it kind of a backwards way. 00:45:11.420 |
But I'm going to say this, that the scripture calls for a high view of leadership, where 00:45:19.900 |
And there has to be a proving of that individual's character. 00:45:23.220 |
There has to be an observation of the fruitfulness in that person's life, and the fact that there 00:45:27.420 |
is actually the working of the Spirit and the Word of God in that individual. 00:45:35.740 |
To me, I think it's a very interesting thing that we see. 00:45:40.580 |
That this church that we have, to a lot of people, to a lot of people, this is an incredibly 00:45:54.900 |
But then on another sense, I want you to just take a moment to think about how meticulously, 00:46:01.580 |
how intricately, how much in detail, how much in broad overview has God designed and given 00:46:11.220 |
I pray that every single one of us aligns our thinking and our vision for the church 00:46:18.060 |
Not our ambitions, not our visions, not our projected objectives, but God's visions. 00:46:23.020 |
If you do not have God's vision for this church and the churches around, you will forever 00:46:32.500 |
And every time maybe you suggest something or you expect something from the church, you're 00:46:35.820 |
just going to be frustrated because you are not aligned with the trajectory of where God 00:46:43.180 |
So I want to conclude by giving this general call. 00:46:46.640 |
Do you personally feel like you have a grasp of God's overarching vision for the church? 00:46:55.020 |
Do you also have a feel for a grasp of the details of that architectural plan? 00:47:01.660 |
Because scripture would have it and say in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that God has orchestrated 00:47:06.920 |
this church and God has so designed that even the smallest pieces of the church we join 00:47:11.780 |
together that we would truly be the body of Christ. 00:47:16.060 |
It's on us to study the scriptures and to realize, wow, this is a beautiful design. 00:47:34.180 |
Heavenly Father, Lord God, we want to thank you so much. 00:47:38.660 |
We want to thank you that God, you are revealing to us the greatness of your wisdom, the greatness 00:47:46.020 |
greatness of your plans. God there's a sense in which