February | 2012 | Millennial Christianity

February 27, 2012

Why church matters: Answers

In 2009 the movie Sherlock Holmes came out. It received mixed reviews, but I loved it (don’t judge me). The reason why I loved the movie so much was because of the mystery Holmes and Watson were solving. And throughout the movie, the director would give small hints to the audience so they could also try to solve the mystery too. It was great, but the best part of the movie was the ending, when all the clues came together and the mystery was finally solved. People love a good mystery, but what they love most is being the one who solves it, and saves the day! I don’t believe I’m too far off by saying life can be one big mystery. We never know what’s going to happen to us one hour from now. Sure we can make speculations on what could happen, but in the end, we won’t know until the hour arrives and a new mystery begins. I’ll be honest and admit, there are some mysteries that will never be solved, and sadly, those are the mysteries we seem to painstakingly live our lives by. However, there are many of life’s mysteries that do have answers, if we’re willing to accept them, and in Ephesians 3:1-13, Paul gives an answer to one of life’s greatest mysteries: God’s purpose for the Gentiles.

For the last two chapters in Ephesians, Paul has been writing to the believers in Ephesus explaining to them their new found access to Christ. Now he has come to a point in his letter to comfort them because he is under house arrest. Paul had a special relationship with the believers at Ephesus, and evidently, the believers were feeling incredibly discouraged because Paul is suffering for sharing the Gospel all around the world, which they were a part of. So in order to comfort the believers, Paul shares the work Christ called him to do: sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the the Gentiles. Yet, Paul doesn’t stop there, and he continues to explain is work is so significant because it gives an answer for God’s mysterious plan for the Gentiles: to incorporate them as fellow heirs of the promise given to Israel (v.1-6). Now this isn’t anything new because Israel was already supposed to be bringing the Gentiles to God; however, if you read my last post, you would understand the Gentiles were never fully integrated into the Nation of Israel because of the many barriers that were put into place. Now the Gentiles are fully made one with the Jews because Christ has made all, who believe in him, citizens of the Nation of Heaven (2:18-19). I find it incredibly awesome that the way Paul comforts his brothers and sisters is by reinforcing their stance in Christ, and not by saying, “I’m doing ok.”

In verses 7-13, Paul continues to write about his calling, and how humble he is to be used by God to “bring to light” the answer to this amazing mystery. He further continues by writing the calling God placed on his life is not for him alone, but is actually the calling of the Church to continue revealing this answer to this great mystery to everyone (v.9-10)! The calling of the Church has been fulfilled through Christ, and because of the fulfillment, we can boldly proclaim God’s purpose for everyone, since we are confident of our faith in him (v.11-12). So Paul ends verse 13 by telling the church at Ephesus not to “lose heart” over his suffering for them, because he is suffering for a cause that is changing the course of mankind for the better. I think its safe to say, Paul would rather spend a lifetime being bound in chains, than being a free man, who never received the calling to share God’s love to all the nations.

When I think about answers to mysteries, and God’s eternal purpose for the Church, I know why church matters, because it provides the answer to one of life’s greatest mystery: “why was I created?” I believe the reason why we are all created is to be fellow heirs in Christ, and partakers of the promise of eternal life (3:6). God has created all of us to know his great love, to share it with others, and to experience true life during our time on earth and when we go to Heaven. This purpose is what we are all called to do, and I believe when we’re willing to let this be our life purpose, everything else will fall into place. In my opinion, this is what Christ is talking about when says “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33). Furthermore, I believe our churches should be doing everything they can do to provide more answers than questions. I understand there are some things we will never know, but I also believe God has provided us with the answers to our basic human necessities that go deep down into the core of who we are, and our purpose as a church is to provide God’s answers. It is theses answers to those mysteries that should drive us, not the ones we will never know. So if you’re searching for your life purpose, all I can ask you to do is try Jesus, you maybe surprised to what you will find.

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February 13, 2012

Why church matters: Home

A year ago, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Mexico City with the seminary I attend for a mission trip. This was my first time going on missions outside of America, so I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Our guides for the trip where the missionaries (no names will be given for obvious reasons), who we would be partnering with sharing the love of God with the people of Mexico City. Anytime you spend ten straight days with someone, you’re going to get to know them, and I had the privileged of getting to know these special missionaries and their children, a college student who was attending school in America (I didn’t get to meet him), their high school daughter, and their middle school son. As a student minister, meeting their teenagers was a special blessing, and God allowed me the privileged to lead a devotional for their school that catered to all missionary kids.

On Sunday morning, my group worshiped with the believers in Mexico City. After we were done worshiping, we had to go pick up the missionary kids from the church they attended. When I arrived at their church, I was curious to find out what their church looked like. To my surprise, the church the missionaries attend, when they weren’t helping other believers, was a typical American church. The church service was in English, they sang contemporary songs, and they even had a youth pastor. I found out the reason why this church existed was because it was surrounded by a school for American students, who’s parents worked in Mexico City, and a government office for American delegates. So I guess after building a workplace and school, the next logical step for these Americans living in Mexico City was to build a church. This got me thinking about my wife and daughter I hadn’t seen in a week, and how I would of loved to have something from them just to make me feel close to them. After leaving the American church, I started to realize how much we will go out of our way to make anyplace feel just like home. And I believe “where our home is” is the message Paul is writing about to the believers in Ephesians 2:11-22.

Paul begins verse 11-12 reminding the Gentile believers their predicament before they knew Christ as their savior. The Gentiles were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and were not allowed to partake in the covenant promise God made with his people (v.12). And to avoid any confusion, God always wanted Israel to share his love with the other nations and incorporate them as his children, but Israel never made that a priority. Sadly, because of Israel’s disobedience this made the Gentiles have no hope and were without God in this world (v.12).

However, in verses 13-18, this is no longer the Gentile believers predicament. The blood of Christ has given them the ability to have true peace. Furthermore, now the barriers that were separating the Gentiles from the Jews, and the barrier separating both the Jews and Gentiles from having full access to God, are gone; allowing them both to be one in Christ (v.14). This may sound a little confusing to us, but the people during Paul’s time completely understood what he was saying, because they both had “dividing walls of hostility” they could literally see. In my opinion, Paul is making a reference to the Temple, and in the middle of the Temple was the most holy place of it because that was the dwelling place of God. So if you were a Gentile, who decided to follow God, when you came to worship, you were only allowed to get so close to the dwelling place of God to offer sacrifices. They called this part of the temple the “Court of the Gentiles.” However, even if you were a Jew, depending on your gender and age, you were allowed to go to the next court to get a little bit closer to God. If you were a Jewish male, you could go beyond where the women and children had to stop and get a little bit closer, but only the High Priest was allowed to go into the most holy place, and that was once a year! So can you imagine, only once a year only one person was allowed to get close to the presence of God, and during that one time, the High Priest was scared to even enter. And in verse 15-18, Paul says through Christ’s perfect sacrifice all the dividing walls that kept everyone separated are now gone, and everyone, who is far off (Gentile) and near (Jew), can have true access in one spirit to the presence of God.

Finally, in verses 19-22 Paul says this new access allows us to no longer be strangers to God, allowing us to all be a part of the nation of Heaven, which we claim as our citizenship because it is our true home. And because Christ destroyed the barriers, he is now the cornerstone of the Church that keeps the entire structure held together. Furthermore, without physical, emotional, or spiritual barriers, we can grow together as one, which makes us become a holy temple. No longer does God dwell in a physical structures, but within anyone who chooses to believe in Him!

When I think about when I visited the American church in Mexico City, and Paul writing about our citizenship being in Heaven, I know why church matters, because it is our home away from our home in Heaven. Everything Paul wrote about barriers being broken for all people to be one in Christ, and having full access to God, is a reflection of Heaven. When we are in Heaven, we will finally be able to stand in the fullness of God’s presence, and be completely united as one people under him. Church is, to steal a lyric from David Crowder’s Song “How he loves us,” the place where heaven and earth meet like an unforeseen kiss. Two worlds are colliding when church is happening, and because of this collision, we are able to stay connected to the saints who have gone before us. When the saints on earth are worshiping Christ, the saints in heaven our too, and that is how we all stay connected to our loved ones who have fallen asleep in Him. Every time I see a church, I see a small glimpse of Heaven, and it gives me a place where I can always stay connected to my true home. When the Church is doing what its supposed to be doing, the world can see our home away from home, and In my opinion, that’s all people need to see to want to know Christ as their Savior.

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February 3, 2012

Why church matters: Purpose

As a student minister, who works with both youth and college students, many students will come to me and ask: what’s God’s purpose for my life? I usually find students asking me this question when they’re about to make a critical decision in their lives. This decision usually pertains to: where they will go to college, what degree plan they should pursue, or what they should do after they graduate. I’ve also noticed this is a common question many adult believers ask themselves, and most of the time, it usually has to do when a new opportunity presents itself, which will cause a dramatic life change. There’s nothing wrong with asking “what’s God’s purpose for my life;” however, when we ask this question we are already setting ourselves up for failure, because (1) the bible never addresses specific issues like what schools we should attend or what jobs we should take, and (2) God wants us to follow his general purpose (what I call it), because following the general purpose will take care of the specifics, we always pray about. Yet, to get to the general purpose, we have to understand how salvation pertains to our past, present, and future, which Paul writes about to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 2:1-10.

Salvation past for all believers is we chose not to follow God. When we were not following God we followed the “passions of our flesh,” which made us give ourselves over to sin. And since sin causes us to be at odds with God, we were destined to experience his wrath (v.1-3). Salvation past is incredibly bleak because it reminds us of who we were before we knew Christ as our Savior, but let’s be honest, sometimes we complain more about life with God than we really should, and we act like we were far better off before we knew him. This is why I believe Paul never seems to have a problem reminding any believer what their past was like, because life without God makes us carry a cross that kills us, but life with God makes us carry cross that brings life.

Yet, even when we would rather choose sin over God, he found this to be completely unacceptable for his creation, and he did something about it. This brings us to salvation present, which is God showing his great love for us by giving us Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice for our sins (v. 4-9). I call this salvation present because Christ always provides us with life giving, sufficient grace, which moves us towards him on a daily basis. A daily life that is filled with grace, is God’s free gift to us we can never earn. God’s grace in our lives is always a constant, if we’re willing to accept it. One of the saddest things we have done as believers, is we have reduced grace to only being good for covering sins, when it is so much more. Grace provides us with the capacity to choose life over death, and compels us to walk by faith and not by sight. Grace gives us the ability to live a life worthy of the calling Christ has given all of us! This is why God’s grace is truly sufficient for our lives!

Salvation past is who were before we knew Christ as our Savior; salvation present is God’s sufficient grace he gives us on a daily basis; and salvation future is God’s general purpose for all of us: the good works he prepared in advance for us in Jesus Christ (v.10). What’s a good work? In my opinion, a good work can be summed up in the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission. So when we are praying about a specific request, and whether or not it pertains to God’s will, all we have to do is ask ourselves, “Does it provide me with the opportunity to do the good work God prepared for me to do?” If your request doesn’t allow you to do the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission, than the answer is no; however, if it does, than do it because it is in God’s will.

At the same time, salvation future is the reason why church matters, because it prepares and provides us for good works. How so? Every time we come to church and use our gifts to build up the body of believers, and learn about the word of God, we have done and prepared for a good work. I don’t know why this is, but I get the feeling many believers think what they’re doing in church doesn’t help them outside of church. And if you believe this to be true, you really need to re-evaluate why you’re using your gifts in the first place. We have to come to the conclusion what we learn and do as a church is completely applicable to the way we live our lives when we’re not with the community of believers. So take heart my brothers and sisters, because you are more prepared to do God’s work than you truly realize!

Millennial Christianity

Month: February, 2012