WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:08.400 Well, I invite you to take your copy of God's Word and open it up to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:14.400 If you're using the Pew Bible in front of you, you'll find it on page 952. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:20.239 I know some of you are excited as you look at the slide and notice I've only got one verse. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:24.879 I don't want to burst your bubble, but I have six points. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:28.160 So take that for what it is. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:38.880 As I stand here, I am reminded of the fact that most of the sermons that I preach in this worship center are wedding sermons. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:43.759 That is one of the perks of being the singles pastor at a church like an Emmanuel. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:45.600 I took a tally last night. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:49.200 I've done uh 14, 15 different weddings. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:51.280 I love them, actually. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:56.560 It's one of my favorite duties as a pastor is getting to preach at weddings. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.679 Because I have the best seat in the room. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:03.600 At least metaphorically speaking, they've never let me sit while I was preaching yet. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:06.400 But someday Jesus sat on the Sermon on the Mount. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:11.760 I don't see why it's that big a deal, but I love preaching at weddings. 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:16.560 And I have the best seat, not because I get to see me, obviously, because I don't. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:18.799 It's because I get to see the groom. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:24.079 That is maybe the coolest part of preaching at a wedding. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:29.760 Because I get to watch the groom as he looks at his bride. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:31.519 And it's pretty incredible. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:47.200 And they're kind of standing there with that nervous perma smile breaking through the flop sweat, and their eyes are just large and usually misty as they're just staring at this woman that they love. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.719 He can't take his eyes off of her. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:02:03.519 From the moment the doors open in the back of the aisle, and she is there in all of her glory in her wedding dress, walking down the aisle, that guy is enamored. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:06.079 And it's a great thing to watch. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:12.319 You know, generally speaking, I'm usually the last guy he gets to talk to as a bachelor. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:18.639 We're stuck over here in the corner, uh tucked around, and we're trying to make small talk. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:20.000 I want to make him feel comfortable. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.719 I usually tell a joke, I pray with him. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:29.360 But if you've ever been in that corner with the groom, minutes before he walks out, there's only one thing he wants to talk about. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:30.479 His bride. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:33.360 That's the only thing he cares about in that moment. 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:35.280 He wants to describe her. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:40.479 He wants to talk about her smile, he wants to talk about how they met, he wants to talk about whether they're gonna go on their honeymoon. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:42.000 He is enamored with her. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:49.840 And I'm reminded in those moments, those quiet little moments, tucked in the corner with me and the groom, of the purpose of marriage. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:58.319 That it is designed by God to be a beautiful picture of the way that Christ loves his bride, the church. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:07.039 It's a little dim reflection as I get to watch this guy with his heart all aflutter, his corsage thumping with the beat of his heart. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:11.439 And I'm reminded that Christ loves his church even more than that. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:27.759 And so in verse 2 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, just the opening address of the letter, before we even get to the body of the text of it, you get to hear how Jesus loves his bride. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.199 Let's read together. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:31.680 I'm gonna read verses 1 through 3. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:41.599 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:43.840 Here's his description. 00:03:44.479 --> 00:04:02.960 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:04.800 Grace to you. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:09.599 And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:20.959 This is the closest thing we get in the New Testament to a kind of systematic theology description of what the church looks like. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:26.560 But it's not written in the kind of cold, sometimes dispassionate pen of a textbook. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:33.040 Rather, this is the warm, affectionate overflow of the groom for his bride. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:40.319 What you're reading in that verse through the apostle Paul is actually Jesus' description of his church. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.920 That's what it means to say that Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus. 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:51.120 An apostle is the sent designated messenger, the one who carries Christ's words into the world. 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:56.240 And so Paul is speaking here authoritatively about what the church looks like. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:58.000 Definitively. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:15.199 You know, if you were to walk into any Christian bookstore, if such a thing still even exists outside of the bounds of a church building, you would find just rows and rows and walls all over there, filled with countless titles about the church and what the church is and what it looks like. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:23.199 In fact, I've got two shelves in my office as the membership pastor here at Emanuel Bible Church filled with different books that try to describe what the church is. 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:34.959 And over the centuries, men have tried to define and redefine the church, what it is and what it's supposed to look like, and what it's supposed to do, what its mission is. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:54.879 And it feels like every decade or so, some new fad of Christian church growth, or some sort of new Christian movement and mission comes along, and it tries in vain to reshape the church in its own cultural mold. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:11.519 Most of you have seen these things come and go, ecumenical crusades and Jesus movements and moral majorities and emergent churches and woke churches and anti-woke churches, just a never-ending cycle of these new, this is what the church has to be. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:25.600 And you look at all these titles and you see snake oil salesmen and charlatans and well-intentioned crusaders all alike, constantly tilting at the temporary windmills of a so-called cultural relevancy. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:43.759 I'm only 39 years old, but I've already lost count of the number of times an article has told me that the church will fade into irrelevancy and disappear if we don't change X or Y or Z. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:49.759 The church is in no danger of disappearing. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:07:00.800 Two thousand years ago, Jesus already told us what the church is and what the church looks like and what the church is supposed to do. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:20.560 And in verse 2, just this opening address, as Paul is writing this letter to a church in Corinth, we get six descriptions, six defining features of what the church is supposed to look like that should make us love the church of Jesus Christ. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:29.199 The first of those defining characteristics, those defining features is that the church is distinct. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:30.800 It's right there. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:37.199 In the name of the church, to the church of God. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:46.560 Now, generally speaking, I don't think it's that important that you need to know a whole bunch of Greek words to be a successful Christian living the successful Christian life. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:47.839 I don't think that's important. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:51.600 I don't want to burden you with a bunch of them, but some words are just really pretty and you need to know them. 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.120 This is one of those words. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.879 The word for church in Greek is ekklesia. 00:07:57.439 --> 00:07:59.040 It's a compound word. 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.720 That's the prefix. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:04.160 It means out from. 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:08.319 And clesia comes from kaleo. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:10.000 It's a verb that means to call out. 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:10.879 You put it together. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:19.600 This word eklesia means the called out from people, the ones who've been called out from something. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.079 It's a word that shows up a bunch in the New Testament. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:22.959 You should get comfortable with it. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:23.680 Ecclesia. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:26.959 It's where we got our word ecclesiology for the study of the church. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:29.439 Shows up 111 times in the New Testament. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:32.320 And usually, overwhelmingly, it's gonna show up as the word church. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:37.840 Almost every time you see the word church in the New Testament, in fact, every time you see the word church in the New Testament, it's this word ecclesia. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.240 But it sometimes gets translated a little bit differently. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:46.080 Sometimes you'll see it translated as the assembly of people or the congregation of people. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:54.399 What it means is it's a group of people who've been called together for a purpose, for an intention. 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:57.679 There's some reason that they are where they are. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:01.039 It's very different from a mob, though Greek has a different word for a mob. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.159 This is a group that's put together on purpose. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:09.120 Captain America, Avengers Assemble style, they're there for reason. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:17.120 And if I were to give you kind of this irreducible point of denotation, the church is a community of people that are called together, that are assembled. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:22.159 But just inherent in that idea is togetherness. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:27.200 Togetherness is the default setting for the Christian life. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:37.279 The New Testament has absolutely no concept of a lone ranger style Christianity where it's just you and Jesus out there making it work, doing it our way. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.879 Like that just is not anywhere in your New Testament. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:46.559 There are no stories in your Bible of a Christian who's seeking to live his life in isolation from other Christians. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:48.000 It just doesn't happen. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:52.799 And the reason is because we've been called together. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.000 Or Peter talks about this in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 10. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:25.840 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:34.960 We read about it in this same letter, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, or in Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul picks up on this metaphor of a body. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:53.039 And we learn that the church is this intricately interwoven, interconnected body of Christ with hundreds and even thousands of unique persons who are coming together using their unique gifts that God has given them to work together as one, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:58.240 So the church is, just in its definition, it's a community. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:00.799 But it's a distinct community. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:06.799 That word ecclesia shows up outside of the Bible, and there's all different kinds of assemblies that would be called. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:09.919 They had them all over the place in Greek culture and Roman culture. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:20.639 There were political assemblies and there were economic assemblies like trade guilds and there were social assemblies and fraternal assemblies, and we're familiar with that because we have those ourselves. 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.440 We have political assemblies that get called together. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.240 We have CPAC, and I guess there's a D Pac. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.720 I don't know how it all works, but we have those things. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:31.440 We have trade unions, we know what that's about. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.759 We have fraternal organizations. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:42.320 I remember when I joined the Marine Corps, my dad was so excited because I could finally become a member of the American Legion. 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:44.559 That was a big deal for my dad. 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:51.840 So when I graduated boot camp, my dad, unbeknownst to me, filled out my registration form, mailed in my$16 worth of dues. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:57.759 And when I came back from boot camp, he gave me my American Legion membership card. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:00.000 Son, now you can go on post. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:01.360 Cool. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.039 Not that I did, but cool. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:04.320 I'm grateful for that, Dad. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:06.399 And when I came back from Iraq, he did the same thing. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:07.519 Now you can be in the VFW. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.039 And I was like, oh, cool. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:09.679 Right? 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:10.720 There was a big deal. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:18.240 We understand these different kinds of assemblies, but the church, the church is a very different kind of assembly. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:21.200 Because it's God's assembly. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.039 See how he describes it? 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:25.360 The church of God. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.840 Those two words of God denote ownership. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:37.440 This assembly that's called together is not like any of the other assemblies because we belong to God. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:39.840 We bear his mark. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:41.120 This is his church. 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:46.559 And so what unites us together as the church, it's not some sort of shared common political ideology that we have. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.000 It's not some sort of shared mutual interest. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:54.639 It's not some sort of common background that we all come out of that kind of brings us together. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:56.240 That's not what unites us. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.480 It's not what defines us as an assembly. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.200 What defines us is that we belong to God. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:05.600 God Himself is the one who unites us. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:09.120 Jesus does it on the cross through his blood. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:16.320 The Holy Spirit does it as he comes to indwell believers and unites them together as a new temple, a new building of worship to God. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:23.440 And so when you read this description, just these first few words, the church of God. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:31.679 Jesus is simply saying, through the Apostle Paul, you are my people. 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:38.000 I brought you together. 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:39.360 I knit you together. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:40.799 I fit you together. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:42.720 You are mine. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:56.960 It's the same kind of joy that fills the heart of the bride of the groom as he sees his bride walking in the aisle and he says, Of all the people in the world, she's with me. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.919 And that simple truth. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:20.720 We're supposed to look different when we gather and sound different and sing differently and think differently and act differently. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:23.840 We're supposed to look different because we belong to God. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.039 We represent God. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:27.440 We're where God has manifested Himself. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:32.559 So we do things like love our enemies because we belong to God. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:38.240 We do things like be anxious for nothing because we belong to God. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:42.639 We pursue holiness as He is holy because we belong to God. 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:46.799 We can speak the truth and love to each other because we belong to God. 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:50.559 We can be angry with each other without sinning because we belong to God. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:59.679 We can put away bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander along with all malice because we belong to God. 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:02.960 And we're going to look like he looks. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:08.879 So the church is, first of all, a distinct community. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:12.879 Secondly, though, the church is definite. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:16.720 There's a boundary here that's being written in this letter. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:17.840 Look at the second description. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:22.879 He says, the church of God that is in Corinth. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.960 There's a really delightful paradox when we talk about the church. 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:32.960 Because there's one sense in which it's true that there's only one church, one universal church. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:46.480 Jesus has one bride, he's not a polygamist, he has one bride, and it's made up of every believer in him, from Abel all the way to Zachariah, from John the Baptist to Jesse Johnson, every Christian put together one bride. 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:47.279 Well, amen. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:48.399 There's one church. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:56.159 But it's also true, it's simultaneously true that there are lots and lots of individual local churches. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:01.759 That's how Paul can write a letter that he addresses to the Church of God in Corinth. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:13.120 And he can write that letter in a way that's different from writing a letter to the Church of God in Galatia, or the Church of God in Ephesus, or the Church of God in Thessalonica, or the Church of God in Springfield. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:24.879 God's church, his one universal church, is manifested, is brought into physicality through lots of local assemblies. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:39.600 Because wherever Christians find themselves on the planet, they gather together to worship and to serve and to pray and to fellowship and to study the Bible together and to hear God's word preached together, to love each other. 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:52.639 And so local churches, a church like Emmanuel Bible Church, is actually a very purposeful and powerful gift that God gives to his bride. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:57.200 It's his way of manifesting his love for us. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:13.839 He does these individual salvific works in the lives of individual people where one by one he calls us out of darkness and calls us into light and gives us new hearts and makes us believers and makes us a part of his church. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:24.240 But then he takes those individual Christians, the thousand of us who are members here at Emmanuel Bible Church, and knits us together into a community of people. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.200 A community of faith. 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:30.000 And then he blesses those local churches. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:39.759 He gives them shepherds and elders to look over them and watch over them, to care for their souls and to encourage them and exhort them and rebuke them and reprove them when they need it. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.640 That's a gift that God gives us in the local church. 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:44.400 That's where we get that. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:18:01.119 He gives us spiritual gifts individually, you and me, and in different ways, and then he sprinkles them all over his church in a very meticulous way that God does, knowing exactly what he knows, so that he can bring exactly these group of people together to accomplish his purpose. 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:04.000 It's an incredible gift he gives us. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:10.480 Local churches are an immeasurable gift of God's compassionate grace. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:21.039 It's the place where God is pouring out his love into the hearts of individual Christians in such a way that it washes over the banks and spills onto other Christians around them. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:28.960 There are 60 somewhat one-anotom commands in the New Testament. 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:32.240 It's a lot of them. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.559 And it's inside the local church that they find their expression. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:40.640 We could think about some of these commands in kind of just a general amorphous way. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:49.519 Yeah, I can love every Christian, I can pray for every Christian, but it's inside the local church where those things actually take root and take hold, and the rubber kind of meets the road. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:56.000 So when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, hey, care for one another, that happens inside the church. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:03.599 Or when he says in 2 Corinthians that we comfort one another with the comfort with which we've been comforted, that happens inside the church. 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:07.200 Or in Colossians 3, where we read, we're supposed to teach one another. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:08.720 That happens in the church. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:11.200 Or Hebrews 3, we exhort one another. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:15.440 Romans 12, he says we're supposed to be devoted to one another. 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:19.200 That happens in the church. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:21.680 We forgive one another. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:23.440 We show hospitality to one another. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.720 We pray for one another, James says. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:33.200 In 11 different times, the Bible tells us to love one another. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.160 That happens inside the church. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:41.599 Not just amorphously in our hearts, but practically, tangibly. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:48.799 As we meet one another's needs and encourage one another and weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, we do that inside the church. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:50.960 It's where those commands are played out. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:58.400 And so the local church is a good and a necessary part of God's design for every Christian's life. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:01.359 He's designed you to live here. 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:08.480 He designed the local church as one of the primary ways that he makes his love for you known in a real way. 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:17.279 And that's part of why he knits us together into these communities with cords of love that are not easily broken or taken lightly. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.319 It's hard to leave a church. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:37.680 When you've prayed earnestly for someone and wept with someone, shared your home with someone, God uses those experiences to forge a bond inside of his family of God, his body of Christ, inside of his bride that glorifies him. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:42.640 Just this week, I was sitting in my office and my phone rang and I picked it up. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:48.559 And it was one of my dear brothers in Christ who's been at Emmanuel for a long time and moved out of the area. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:51.359 He just wanted to call and share with me some good news that he had. 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:54.640 What a wonderful experience that is. 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:43.680 As we submit to elders who want to care for us and watch over our souls as those who will give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ, as we serve one another with the gifts that he gave us individually, as we surround ourselves with fellow Christians who know us and love us and pray for us every week, as we gather together in corporate worship and discipleship groups. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.359 It is the gift from God to enjoy as the local church. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.759 And so there's a sense in which the church is definite. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.160 We know who we are. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.759 We can tell that we're distinct in the same way that. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:05.279 With my little American Legion card, and I could walk into any American Legion post, and there was like a kindredness that we immediately knew. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.359 Hey, we share something. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:09.519 That's true inside the church as well. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:13.519 So the church is definite in that way. 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:16.160 But thirdly, the church is delivered. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:19.519 Look at the third description he gives us in this address. 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:29.119 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.880 This word sanctified there, it means to be made holy. 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:34.880 That's what the word sanctified means. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:36.240 To be made holy. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.519 And there's two senses in which that word gets used in the New Testament. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:41.440 The first is kind of a positional sense. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:44.799 That's what we mean when we say the word justification, right? 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:50.799 That we're declared holy, that we are pronounced holy by the judge, God Himself. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:55.359 That's the way the word gets used in a place like 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 11. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:11.759 Paul has been talking about the sins that marked our former lives, and he says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:14.160 There's this positional sanctification. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:18.079 God has declared you are holy. 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:21.279 There's another sense, which this word gets used in the New Testament. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:23.119 It's kind of a progressive sense. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:29.680 This ongoing work of purification that happens in a believer's life through the work of the Holy Spirit in them. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.799 And that's what we see in places like 2 Timothy 2. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:43.119 If anyone cleanses himself from these things, talking about sinful behaviors, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.000 Now, both of those senses are true of the church. 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:48.000 We're sanctified in both of those ways. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:53.839 We're declared to be holy, and every day we're being made more holy as we're being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:58.880 But I think it's this first sense that's what Paul is talking about here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:02.160 Because he uses a perfect passive firm of this. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:06.480 I'm from Texas, you'll have to embrace it. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.400 In fact, I think the Nazbi does an excellent job of translating this word. 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:13.039 Those who have been sanctified. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:14.720 Something happened to you. 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:17.200 It's already complete, it's already done. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:20.480 You have been made holy as God declared you that way. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:24.319 And secondly, he says, you've been sanctified in Christ Jesus. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:26.559 Jesus is the agent of sanctification here. 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:37.039 Not talking necessarily about the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we read our Bibles and study and come together and enjoy the means of grace, but something that's happened to us by Jesus Christ. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:49.519 So what Paul is talking about here, what he's saying here, is that when Jesus looks at his bride, the church, he sees people that he made holy. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:52.640 And it was a costly holiness. 00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:55.119 It wasn't cheaply bought. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:25:00.960 In Acts chapter 20, verse 28, Paul is exhorting the elders of the church in Ephesus. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:07.039 And he says to them, Shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:30.319 So what makes this community, the church, different from every other community and fraternity and social club and country club and political organization that's ever existed in the history of the world, is that God himself took on human flesh and shed his blood to purchase this church out of its sin. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:34.799 One redeemed life at a time. 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:46.799 If you're reading your Bible from start to finish, and I hope that you are, you're reading in Genesis and you're working your way to Revelation, about the time you get to the Psalms, you realize you've got a problem. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:26:03.519 Because the psalmists and the prophets are continuously pointing out that in order to stand in the congregation of the holy, in order to ascend God's holy hill, in order to dwell in God's temple, you must be holy. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:07.599 That's the necessary requirement for being there. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:11.359 And there is no one who is holy, not one. 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:15.039 There's no one who's righteous, not one. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:23.680 All of us, everyone in this room, like the prophet Isaiah, has to declare, I'm a man of unclean lips. 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:26.640 And I live among a people of unclean lips. 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:34.319 There's no one, not a single Christian, who is in the church on account of his own merits, myself certainly included. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:38.640 All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:53.519 Every pastor, every elder, every deacon, every worship leader, and Sunday school teacher and nursery worker and parking lot attendant and pew inhabitant, every one of us here today are condemned by our sin before God. 00:26:54.319 --> 00:27:04.000 There's no amount of effort, no amount of good works or good deeds, no penance, no performance, no sacrifice that you could ever engage in that could absolve you of that sin. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:08.880 That's what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, whose name may have rhymed with Paul, says. 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:16.000 It's impossible, impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:20.960 I can't step into the assembly of the righteous. 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:23.200 I can't ascend God's holy hill. 00:27:23.359 --> 00:27:25.359 I can't dwell in his tents. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:38.160 And my only hope for reconciliation as a sinner before the thrice holy God is that God Himself would come and make that reconciliation. 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:46.079 And because God is merciful, he comes and saves us. 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:54.559 Jesus loved his bride so much that he gave himself up for her. 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:07.839 He went sinlessly to the cross, whereupon God the Father laid upon God the Son the weight of every sin of his bride, the church. 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:19.039 And so the author of Hebrews in chapter 10 would say, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:28.400 And so by his death on the cross, he pays finally, perfectly, completely for every sin. 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:39.359 And through faith in him, he unites us to himself in such a way that his atoning work perfectly covers our sin. 00:28:41.440 --> 00:29:04.880 And so when Jesus declares on the cross it is finished, and he gave up his spirit on Calvary, he ensured that for all of eternity, when he looked at his bride, he would see her not in her sinfulness, but in the manifest glory of his salvation. 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:13.680 So there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:15.599 That's what Paul said, right? 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:18.000 Such were some of you. 00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:21.680 But you were washed. 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:24.559 You were sanctified. 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:32.400 You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit of our God. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:37.440 So there's no cause for boasting in the church. 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:42.960 Everyone here is here by grace and mercy. 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:50.880 There's no room for judging in the church because we belong to someone else. 00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:55.680 The church is the place where forgiveness must reign. 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.000 Because the church is delivered. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:04.160 Fourthly, the church is drawn. 00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:06.079 That's his fourth description. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:17.920 To the church of God, that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:20.240 He says they're called to be saints. 00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:21.039 There's that word again. 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:21.680 Called. 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:23.920 It shows up again over and over. 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:29.279 Three times in this chapter, not even counting the word ecclesia, three times in this chapter you see the word called. 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:33.200 Verse 1, Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. 00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:35.920 Verse 2, those who are called to be saints. 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:37.920 And all the way down to verse 24. 00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:42.559 Christians who are called to accept the gospel. 00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:48.480 So what's the significance of this word called? 00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:54.480 Well, it reminds us, the readers, that it was God who took the initiative in our salvation. 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:59.279 Just think about how Paul was called to be an apostle. 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:00.799 Was he looking for it? 00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:02.799 Was he diligently striving to get it? 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:09.599 Did he go to the right seminary to make sure he could get the right qualifications to hang the right diploma on his wall so that he could be an apostle? 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:10.559 No. 00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:22.079 He was riding a donkey to Damascus so that he could find more Christians to persecute and imprison and execute. 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:27.119 And that's when Jesus called out his name. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:29.920 Saul, Saul. 00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:32.960 Why are you persecuting me? 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:40.319 In fact, Paul describes his qualifications to be an apostle in the 15th chapter of this very letter. 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:59.839 Paul says, I delivered to you as of first importance, but I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, it's Peter, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are alive, some have fallen asleep. 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:09.039 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:17.119 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:20.799 But by the grace of God I am what I am. 00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:24.000 And his grace toward me was not in vain. 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.559 He's the least of the apostles, he says. 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:35.119 Perhaps the greatest miracle in the church today is that I get to be a part of it. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:37.920 And I'm not just saying that as some sort of false humility. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.440 I mean it. 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:46.319 It's literally a miracle of God that I get to be a part of his church because I'm a sinner. 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:53.279 The first 23 years of my life, I lived in rank rebellion against the God of the universe. 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:56.079 And I was content in my rebellion. 00:32:56.319 --> 00:32:58.079 Because it let me be in charge of my life. 00:32:58.160 --> 00:32:59.200 I got to call the shots. 00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:00.960 I got to do whatever I wanted to do. 00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.440 For the record, most of what I did was not great. 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:06.480 So I was content in my rebellion. 00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:14.160 I was complacent also in my rebellion because when I was a kid, I said a prayer and I got dunked, and so I was covered, and I didn't, all my bases were handled. 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:20.799 And I was continuing in my rebellion because I couldn't do anything else. 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:22.960 I had no other option. 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:27.599 But God showed mercy to me and called me out of death into life. 00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:36.640 Like Lazarus, I was there rotting in the tomb of my own spiritual death until the God of mercy said, Alex, come forth. 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:44.480 And so there isn't a single person in the church who climbed their way in on their own initiative. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:50.079 It is God who plucks sinners out of darkness and says, You are mine. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:01.039 The church of God is distinct, it's definite, it's delivered, it's drawn, and it's diverse. 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:02.880 Look what he says here. 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:18.480 To the church of God that's in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:29.119 And so the fifth description he gives us highlights the diversity, the idea that this church that Jesus is building transcends our boundaries. 00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:33.679 I mean, just look at his words, together with all the saints in every place. 00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:43.280 And it takes this, the Corinthians, this local congregation that exists in one city in Asia Minor, and he expands their connection back into the church universal. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:47.119 And they needed this reminder right here at the start of this letter. 00:34:47.360 --> 00:34:55.599 As you read the letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians, you start to notice how easily this local church has been derailed with internal squabbling and factionalism. 00:34:55.840 --> 00:35:06.719 Chloe's told me that there's all these cliques that are showing up, and people are suing each other, and there's favoritism when you come into the corporate worship setting, and there's people jockeying for prominence inside the church assembly. 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:18.880 And Paul preempts all of that line of thinking right here in verse two of the first chapter, right at the start, by reminding them: hey, you are a part of something bigger than just the things that are happening in Corinth. 00:35:19.119 --> 00:35:23.280 You are united together with all the saints in all the places. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:41.280 In Jerusalem and in Antioch and in Ephesus and in Rome, Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, just like we sang a few minutes ago in our worship service, elect from every nation, yet one or all the earth. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:47.519 Paul is saying, hey, God has called all y'all together as one church. 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:52.320 And I don't think that this description, by the way, is merely incidental to the purpose of the letter he's writing. 00:35:52.480 --> 00:36:03.679 What better antidote is there to the divisive and destructive disagreements that so easily entangle local churches than to be reminded of God's greater redemptive purposes going on in the world? 00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:13.679 To look up from our judgmental scowls and to see men and women from every tribe and every tongue and every nation and every people together glorifying God. 00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:16.480 God is doing something incredible through his gospel. 00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:20.800 He's magnifying the manifold glory of his grace through neighborhoods and nations. 00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:26.159 And sometimes we need to get a little bit better perspective of our place in the kingdom. 00:36:27.519 --> 00:36:34.559 But the church is a beautiful, multicultural, multi-ethnic, diverse body. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:38.480 In a way that no other organization is. 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:50.320 What is it that unites this diverse church together? 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:53.679 It's our shared devotion to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:54.800 This is how he says it. 00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:05.360 Called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. 00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:10.320 I had the privilege of traveling on many mission trips. 00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:17.039 I had the privilege of going down to Cuba twice, where I got to share a room with the indomitable Dan Crabtree. 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:18.639 There's pros and cons. 00:37:18.719 --> 00:37:20.480 There's crosses that we bear. 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:27.840 And I got to enjoy the fellowship of these brothers and sisters down in Cuba. 00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:30.800 But what is it that united us together? 00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:33.920 It wasn't some, I mean, shared language. 00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:40.079 There was a pretty significant language barrier that all of my years of excellent Texas public education could not surmount. 00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:43.119 I mean, no Play-Doh, a blar. 00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:48.480 That's not what united us, it's not what made us connected to each other. 00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:50.719 It wasn't some our shared culture. 00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:55.119 My life is very different from their life in lots and lots of ways. 00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:58.400 It wasn't some shared background, it wasn't our shared skin color. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.199 That's not what knit us together. 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:03.119 So what was it? 00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:10.719 It was that both they and I called Jesus Lord. 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:13.840 That we belonged to him. 00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:18.480 It's the same thing that's united every Christian from every church for 2,000 years. 00:38:18.639 --> 00:38:20.239 We call Jesus our Lord. 00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:22.880 The church is born out of a common confession. 00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:26.400 It was first voiced by the Apostle Paul in Matthew chapter 16. 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:30.159