Wait you guys have never been in here before dick and barb enough time here father grandest your spirit as we As we are together this morning we're grateful for your word which is a Lamp for our feet a light for our paths grateful for your word which Transforms are thinking changes our minds so that we Buy your spirit see the world more and more the way you see the world as We continue to talk about the church today. I pray that you'd That you'd be with us and that we would We would see ourselves as the church and understand What a high thing it is to be the body of Christ
But may we see as well How different we are from everything around us and I pray so much that that differentness would grow in our lives that we might be Recognized as different from the world And I pray that that difference would cause people To praise you to acknowledge that you are there and to pray to praise you and May the love the community which people see in our midst to cause them to acknowledge that we are your followers Disciples of the Lord Jesus Lord be with us to those ends and be with us specifically as we look at your word today May it instruct us and help us in Jesus name. Amen Okay, we are continuing to talk about the church the church is a new community. That's that's What we've been talking about The church is a holy community We we got into a bit last week
Let me take just a minute for the sort of for the benefit of all of us, but maybe particularly for folks Who haven't been with us through the first six or seven weeks to to sort of get you up to speed? And I'll do that I've done this yet, and it's just an oversight on my my part, but I'll do that by just defining the New Testament term for church The word that is used of the people of God is frequently as any term in the New Testament, and that is the term Ecclesia Or Ecclesia, who's a seminary student here? Are there two S's? No, just one, right Just checking Ecclesia is a is a Is a word that comes from two words. Ecc means out of or From out from and the second part of it is from the Greek Greek verb, which means to call Okay, pretty significant word That that is the New Testament word from for the church It's the word that that gives us our words Ecclesiastical Ecclesiological that sort of thing But boy if there's a picture if if there's a word picture that you want to kind of have emblazoned upon the frontal lobes of your brain as you think about what it means to be the church It is this that the church is those who are called out They're called out what are they called out of? You can help me with this they're called out of darkness
Into God's marvelous light first Peter 2.9 What else are we called out of? Quickly, we got to do that. We'll call out a death We're called out of the world Okay, now this is an important term the term world. We are not literally called out of the world in some Material or physical sense. We're called in fact to live in the world We talked about Jeremiah 29 that God placed Israel in Babylon And Israel was an was an alien nation in the midst of the nations We're not called to ghettoize ourselves. We're not called to withdraw into monasteries We are called to live in the world But but when when the Bible uses the term world it uses it in a variety of ways But when we're using it in this particular context We're talking about the world in the sense that it is a whole world in life view It's a whole way of thinking and a whole way of living a whole way of behaving. It has all kinds of Affections and desires and longings associated with it and We're called out of that We're called out of the world's way of looking at things and thinking about things We're called into a different universe into a different way of thinking about life thinking about God thinking about ourselves Okay, and and truly as we grow individual and as we grow together as a body of believers that Differentness is is really to be seen But this is not just a you know, this is not an abstraction This is something that is to be fleshed out in the living of life So we are those who are called out from the world separated by God We're called to be a new community. We're called to be a holy community and we talked last week some about the church as a holy community That that truth the idea that the church is a holy community Is underscored in lots of different ways one of the ways in which in which it's underscored is Is by the manner in which Christians are addressed Okay, we're moving from review now to point two in case you wondered
We are we are addressed Christians are addressed repeatedly in the New Testament as saints and That sort of literally translated means holy ones Okay, it comes from a word which gives us all of our words that the Latin Translations or derivations that have to do with being sanctified Okay sanctified is is really Understood in three different ways in the New Testament You could even put the salvation over here, but I don't want to Confuse you about this, but there is if you read Paul's letters he addresses the Christians all the time as saints, right? He dresses them as holy ones. He addresses them as those who are set apart by God Okay Set apart by God that's the basic Meaning of the word to sanctify or to make holy or or to be sanctified is to is to set apart. That's what God does He sets something apart. He sets it apart and he sets it apart for himself and that's what the church is the church is saints People who are set apart and the other two ways in which this word is understood is in a progressive sense We are being sanctified that is we are being made holy by the aren't going work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as he Transforms us and brings us Every more into conformity with the image of Christ and then there is this final or or consummate Sense in which we are holy and that is when we're glorified when the battle is done and Sin and all of them you know all that garbage that you carry around with you in your heart and all your mixed motives all your Confusions all the chaos all the foolishness all that stuff is finally done and you are fully and completely sanctified But the idea is that the church is these ones who are set apart who are holy ones Definitively holy because God has acted to set them apart. God has said his affections upon the church the members of the church the people of the church and They are saints not these you know not the bronze under glass kind of stuff But people who because of the act of God and setting them apart Calls them holy ones. That's what you are. He sets you apart. He calls you out. That's who we are. We're saints But now holiness is not just to be something that's a definitive thing It is something that is to it's something that's to be seen. Okay, and we talked about this a little bit last week That God does call his people to holiness Holiness and how we think holiness and how we live and there is to be this difference between us and the world around us And and one of the ways in which that difference is manifest and I don't think we got too far into this last week One of the ways in which that difference is manifest among us one of the ways in which holiness is evident Is in the love that we have for one another Okay, now, you know you typically think of holiness I mean, it's fun to do word association games with people when you talk about holiness right I ask you to close your eyes. I mentioned the word holy and you may think of a monastery or you may think of Somebody who's an ascetic, you know somebody who fasts somebody who denies himself some you know goes through the rigors of The monastic lifestyle you may think of me, you know, probably not Probably not, but I was talking to one of our members this last week who said who was mentioning someone who had met me And I couldn't remember this person's name and he said well she recalls you as being a very godly man And we both laughed, you know, because we both sort of know better. I mean who knows what comes to mind? When when you know when you think about holiness But holiness is a corporate thing and probably as much as anything it manifests itself In the way that we relate to one another in our conduct with one another Look at John chapter 13 I want to read this real familiar passage to you
verses 31 to 35
This is right after Judas has betrayed Jesus So when he had gone out Jesus said now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him If God is glorified in him God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer You will seek me and as I said to the Jews where I am going you cannot come. So now I say to you a New commandment I give to you that you love one another As I have loved you that you also love one another By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love One for another now typically when you think about the church or when people talk about the things which identify the church as the church There are three things that are mentioned and these can can form I suppose The components of corporate Holiness, okay? The three things that are typically mentioned are the proper Preaching of the word What does proper mean here? Well to just to give you a sort of an operating definition of proper it means it means the faithful preaching of the whole council of God The whole can everything from Genesis to maps You know beginning to end the whole thing it means preaching human sin and corruption it means preaching the judgment of God It means God's wonderful acts of mercy in the redemption of the world in the person in work of Jesus Christ Okay, it means preaching about the nature of discipleship that discipleship means death to self and when Jesus calls his people to follow him Through the cross to glory that means that he is calling them into death that they might know life I may have mentioned this I think I did recently either in this class or in a sermon that I talked with a friend of mine who had been through hell my old high school sweetheart And she talked about discipleship in those terms The discipleship is death and the funny thing is that that death to self feels like dying It feels like dying Okay, it's horrible to fail to preach The reality of discipleship what discipleship is is to fail to to preach the whole council of God It's a failure to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us God I mean, there are all kinds of examples of things that I mean I believe me I Wouldn't want anybody to point a finger at me, but because I'm sure there are gaps in my preaching But there are all kinds of things all kinds of illustrations from the scriptures that you can think of when you talk about the proper preaching of the word of God And you wonder whether or not it's really being preached Like the statement in the Hebrews the letter of the Hebrews that we have no abiding city here that we're so Journalers were pilgrims were travelers. This isn't home. Don't get attached to the things of this world. They'll only break your hearts Even the good things marriage family children don't allow your hearts to be tied to those things because if they are If if your hearts are tied to those things your hearts will be broken You have no permanent dwelling it. That's what it you know, it's preaching the whole council of God faithfully Okay, there's another mark of the church That is the right administration of the sacraments
What we talk about there is that the sacraments must always be connected to the word of God there must never be a Separation of the sacraments from the word it is the word of God which defines all of life It is the word of God which gives meaning and significance to the sacraments Okay, they must never be separated from the word and the other thing is they must be appropriated in faith however poor and Paltry that faith is however imperfect and weak that faith is There must always be a proper reception of the sacraments So there's the right administration of the sacraments and then finally there is the faithful
administration of Discipline within the church discipline of two kinds the regular discipline which comes from a person Employing the means of grace the regular use of the means of grace Okay What word is discipline related to disciple Disciple, okay disciples or people who need to be disciplined? I Hate that I'm the most slavently undisciplined person on the face of the earth Okay, but I know that the use of these things the use of these means which God is appointed Is for my good, okay? So there is this positive sort of discipline where the preaching of the word of God Attendance at worship the fellowship of the saints the prayers of God's people all of those things are things which God has given to us and Which result in our growing into conformity with the image of Christ and to grow into conformity with the image of Christ to be more like Christ Is to know life, okay? Again, it is not burdensome to be yoked to Jesus Tired But it's not burdensome, you know, it's not oppressive. It's not crushing and to be yoked to Jesus means the regular use of the means of grace Has to characterize my life, okay? But there is the corrective discipline which occurs as well and that's when someone urs and strays and the leadership of the church Confronts to seek to correct so that this one is not lost right is not lost and So there is an unpleasant side to this and we've tasted some of that unpleasantness in this church There have been situations which we've had to address Have we done them because we're cruel or mean-spirited people? We want to beat up on folks because we want to rule with an iron fist Hopefully not The reason you do corrective discipline is because you want people to be restored You go after the wandering sheep The shepherd has a staff with which he shepherds the flock and you know what the crook in the staff is for Do you know what the crook in the staff is for it's to you know, it's to grab the sheep around the neck and you ain't come back into the fold The staff is to swat them on the hindquarters to keep them in line, okay? It's not always pleasant But both forms of discipline Both forms of discipline are there because God loves his people, okay? These three things are typically talked about when the church talks about its corporate holiness But there's a fourth I think it's interesting somebody was asked on the floor of Presbyteria a couple of weeks ago this this question What would you say this is a candidate for ordination? What would you say if I were to suggest to you that the church needs to speak more about a fourth mark of the true church? That fourth mark being love love Now I don't want to press this too far But Jesus doesn't say by this will all men know that you're my disciples Jesus doesn't say by this will all men know that you're my disciples Jesus doesn't say by this will all men know that you're my disciples Jesus says by this will all men know that you're my disciples And if we could create a rubric for holiness under which all of the rest of the marks might be gathered it would be this. Because to do this is to be loving. To do this is to be loving. To do this is to be loving. To do these things is to be loving. And there is a very real sense in which the highest mark of the church is love. In all of its multifaceted character and in all of its dimensions, Jesus says, by this will all men know that you are my disciples. If you have loved one for another. If we have this and we have this and we have this and we don't have this, folks, what does Paul say we are in 1 Corinthians 13? Right, pennies against a brass pot. Pebbles are noisy, noisy. That's it. The Church of Christ is to be characterized by a holy love. A love which is holy and a holiness which is loving.
And really, loving means preaching the whole Council of God. If you negotiate any of the truth of God, if you marginalize it, if you minimize it, if you reduce it, if you take it away because somebody doesn't like it or because it goes down hard or something like that, you're not you're not being loving. Right? Listen, this is axiomatic for me and for us at St. Paul's. This is axiomatic. It is by the preaching and teaching of the whole Council of God that the people of God are gathered, preserved, and perfected. It is by the preaching and teaching of the whole Council of God that the people of God are gathered, preserved, and perfected. And if you negotiate any of this stuff, if you marginalize any of it, if you minimize any of it, if you eliminate any of it because it goes down hard, what have you done? He's taken a good gift of God away from people who should receive it. I remember hearing John Gersner, you know, I like John Gersner, okay? I have to turn this thing off as I say this. You're chicken, right? Well, let me just put it this way. He's changed his mind about a lot of things since he died and went to be with Jesus. But just like all of us will, absolutely. You're absolutely right. But I remember listening to a tape which he did, a two segment tape in which he talked about Paul, and he used Paul's name as an acrostic to describe the character of the ministry of the Apostle. And the last two letters are the letters, I don't remember what the P and the A were, but I remember the U and the L. The U stands for this aspect of Paul's character and of his ministry in which he was uncompromising, uncompromising. And the last stands for this aspect of his character in ministry in which he was loving. And Gersner talks about whether or not there's a conflict between these two things. And says no, he demonstrates the fact that he is loving by the fact that he is uncompromising. To be loving means to speak the truth. It means to speak the whole truth. It means to speak nothing but the truth, believing that it is by the truth, that the people of God are gathered, preserved, and perfected. You know that, don't you? Don't you know that there have been portions of the truth which have gone down hard. They have been bitter sweet. They have been painful to receive, but you have then eventually seen the benefits of that. So all of this, and because the sacraments are tied to the word not separated from them, because the discipline of the church is tied to the word and not separated from it, all of this is loving. And this mark that Jesus is talking about here is not this gutless, spineless kind of sentimentalism that characterizes everything in our culture. You know, I mean a guy sees a girl walking down the street and he's in love with her. You know, I mean he's clueless. He's clueless. That isn't love, it's infatuation or it's the pizza he had for dinner last night or it's hormones. Who knows what it is, but it isn't love. Love is something that does have guts. It has integrity. It is committed to the truth. It is committed to the communication of the truth, and it is committed to doing it in a compassionate, caring, consistent way. Love is also not just communicating the truth, but it's living the truth. I mean the communication of the truth is a kind of living the truth. You know, we're to do what Moses instructed Israel to do with the truth. When Moses told the fathers in Israel to talk with their kids about these things as they sat down as they walked along the way wherever they were in all the circumstances of life, they were to talk about the truth. That's how we're to do this. We're to talk about this stuff wherever we find ourselves in whatever circumstances, but we're to live this stuff as well. We're to live it. You just think about the early church. When Jesus speaks to these disciples and talks about this aspect of the church, this characteristic of the church, just think for a minute about those two whom he is speaking. He's telling them that love is going to be the mark. Love is going to be what Francis Schaefer called the final apologetic. You can have all the arguments. You can marshal all of the truths. But if there is no love, the world has the freedom because of what Jesus has said, the world has the freedom to dismiss the church. Now think about who Jesus is talking to when he makes this statement. By this will all men know that you're my disciples. James and John, the sons of thunder. Do you remember the debate that was going on among the disciples as they were headed for Jerusalem? Who gets to sit in? You remember that James and John wrote their mom into this thing and cowards that they are hiding behind their mother's skirts again. They sent their mother to implore Jesus that one might sit on the right and one might sit on the left. Power hungry, you know, influence, grabbing. Now how do you think the other ten fell about it? You know? I've mentioned this before. By this will all men know that you're my disciples. Think about this group of 120 people who were gathered in the upper room after the resurrection of Jesus. Who is there? Those of you who were in the in the new members class a couple of weeks ago, we talked about this. Who was there in that upper room before the spirit fell? Just Peter was there and Mary was there. What do you suppose the dynamics were like in their relationship? Right? Now here's what goes on typically in churches. Mary walks up to Peter and says, you abandoned my son in his hour of greatest need. You have offended me. I'm going to find another church. That's what happens. Happens over and over and over again. And it is a denial of this. It is a denial of this. Paul says to the Ephesian Christians, Ephesians 432, forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Don't you sort of wish that the period had been after one another and that there had been a little asterisk in the text, a little footnote and a whole bunch of exceptions listed down at the bottom. Forgive one another period, footnote, look at the bottom for all the exceptions. Not only is there no footnote, the period is after you as God in Christ has forgiven you. So what length has God gone in forgiving you? To what length has God gone in forgiving you? That's one question to ask. The other question to ask is, is your offense against me? Is the offense that I take because of something you've done to me greater than the offense which God has a right to take because of what you've done? Is your offense against me greater than your offense against God? Is my offense against you greater than my offense against God? Is there any ground at all, at all, for my doing my level best, my hardest laboring with as much grace as God would give me to forgive you and you to forgive me. That's love. That's the mark of the church.
When people look at the church and they see Christians screwing up all over the place, that's not the issue. That's not the issue. They're going to look at the church. They're going to see us messing up. The question is, as I said last week about our individual lives, do we deny the truth about us and pretend that we're something other than what we are? Or do we say guilty is charged and then go on to do something about it? It's the doing something about it that differentiates us from the world. It's not the fact that we're sinners, somehow less so than the world around us.
It's how we deal with it. It's how we respond to it. That's what differentiates the church. And that's an expression of love, forgiving one another as God and Christ has forgiven you. You know, there are so many things not in the Bible that I wish were there. So many things in the book of Acts that I wish were there. I would love and I hope someday we'll get to talk about this. I would love to know what Mary and Peter talked about after the death of Jesus. I'd love to know what it was like for Mary Magdalene, a prostitute, to be received into the fellowship of that church. I'd love to know what it was like for the sons of thunder, these power-hungry influence-pedaling twists. I'd love to know what it was like for them, finally, finally, to give up those self-delusions and be humbled under God's mighty hand and live as servants of Christ, loving one another. You know, John in his later life used, and there's some of it here, but he uses this language of affection in his letters, my little children, he says, my little children, little children, little children, tender ones. Something happened to that guy. I saw a couple of hands. Larry, you were going to say something about it. Of what love is. That's the process that God wants us to go through if we do that, we're doing loving God's eyes and the world is a difference in whatever is called. Here's what you got to remember, and this is a fine line to walk. You're absolutely right. We can really get tripped up if we try to do this for some sort of audience.
I think that's the first step towards some kind of false righteousness and a self-righteousness, some sort of legalism. I think we have to deal with integrity with one another, deal honestly with one another. And what anybody sees in us really is God's business. What anybody sees in us is God's business. Jesus tells us disciples that they're to love one another, and he says, by this will all men know that you're my disciples. There is to be something so markedly different about the manner in which we conduct ourselves, that people on the outside look at us, and I think you're right. I think the judgment will become kind of a split verdict. Some people will think we're nuts, and some people will say, that's exactly what I need. That's exactly what I've been looking for, because there's a difference. Yeah. It's like God in the sermon last week and this week. God appoints times and seasons. That's his business. He's sovereign, he takes care of time. We've got to be about our business. And our business is imploring the risen Lord Jesus Christ so to live in our midst that we love one another in such a remarkable way that people do acknowledge some kind of difference among us. Okay. Otherwise, we're just making noise, Matt. How do you remind you of these three historic marks of the church related to the four after views that we confess in the 193 that the church had won Holy Catholic and Apostolic are these three? The description of that holy nature, the church, I've always been confused as to how those relate once or another. I've never thought about that before. I never have. I mean, I guess I've always thought about the marks of the church as being those things which, in some sense, describe or define her as holy. Okay. And that's one. No, I don't know. You talked about the mark. Yeah. I haven't gotten that far. But that's why I think this is so important. And that's why I think it's a legitimate thing for, and people have raised this periodically, whether or not love is the fourth mark of the church. And I would say that it is. In fact, I would say there is a sense in which it's a rubric under which the rest are gathered. Okay. If you don't have what? If you don't have these. Well, yeah. Who knows what you've got? Yeah, you could be anybody. Yes, sir.
I think that may be the first time you've agreed with me in public. No. Okay. Except when we were talking about this friend of yours who thought I was a holy man, right? We agreed about that, too. You have right now. Yeah. Go ahead. You're right. Right.
Mm-hmm. Right.
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think maybe the last thing to say about love as a mark of the church is that we as the church really are seeking to emulate the king and head of the church who is Jesus. And whether we think about ourselves as a society of people together, or as a society of people with a commission from Christ to communicate the gospel of Christ whether we're living together or working together, communicating the gospel, we're emulating Jesus who came and lived in a particular way in the midst of all kinds of craziness and chaos and who's very preaching and teaching, suffering and death are an expression of holy love. I mean, both of those things are there in his life and ministry. Why does he come and live a life of perfect obedience? Because we didn't. That speaks volumes about holiness. Why does Christ come and live a life of perfect obedience and suffer death upon the cross for sinners, for those who don't deserve this? All of it is an expression of a holy love and the church is seeking to emulate the one who has saved her in the manner in which it conducts itself as we live together as a community of people and as we do our work. There are all kinds of passages that we could look at. Ephesians 432 is one, but you know the one and other passages that we're to we're to encourage one another. We're to be tenderhearted and forgive tenderhearted with one another. I think that's the corollary in Colossians. Tenderhearted in our dealings with one another. Emulating Jesus in in his manner with us. So it sort of seems to me that you know there's a sense in which this this holiness which gets expressed is is a holy love and a loving holiness. It is those two things together. Okay, any other other thoughts about that? Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. I just just I want to I want to insert this little thought right here because it's the 11 that has to permeate everything. We're not going to do this perfectly. And that itself gives us the opportunity to live out the gospel. We are going to fail. We're going to fail one another and we're going to fail the world and that takes us back to what we said last week. You know how do we live? Do we do we live pretending we're something other than what we are? No. We get up every morning acknowledging that we're sinners, acknowledging that we live every moment of the Christian life the way we began the Christian life looking to Jesus to do something for us that were powerless to do for ourselves. And when we fail we go back to the cross. And anybody who watched us fail we take back to the cross with us. This is how this works. Okay. I'm a sinner. I've failed you. But sinners can be forgiven and they're forgiven at the foot of the cross. You know that that's I mean that's the grace of God has always got to be very very present in all of this. Because the world is going to be right when it looks at the church and says you failed me. You know what what is our response is our response again to be rationalizing or justifying or pretending to be something other than what we are. No we face the truth and go right to the cross with the whole thing. The cross doesn't become an excuse for foolishness. Never never never never. God will shake you out of that habit in a hurry.
Okay. The cross never becomes an excuse for foolishness. God loves you too much to let that happen. But the cross is the place the good but the cross is the place for fools. I like that. Write that down. The cross never becomes an excuse for foolishness but the cross is the place for fools. Okay. All right. Bumper sticker. Bumper sticker.
I hate bumper sticker theology. Okay. Let's take just a minute and kind of get started on the idea that the church is a heavenly community in the midst of the earth. We've alluded to some of these things in past weeks. The church is a new community. The church is a holy community characterized by these things. The church is a heavenly community in the midst of the earth. The church is a heavenly community in the midst of the earth. There is a different between the church church and the nations of the earth. There is a difference between the church and the nations of the earth. Now, the implications of that are pretty far-reaching. At some point, I want to come to the implications next week, we'll do it probably. But here's a general sort of an implication of all of this. Because the church is distinct from the world. Because the church is a nation in the midst of the nations. We have to avoid two different things. Because the church is a heavenly body, which we're going to say, whose possession is the spirit. It is a mistake to impose the order of the church, the life of the church, upon the nations. That is to sacralize the nations. Conversely, it is a mistake to look to the world order and conform the church to the order of the nations. That is to secularize the church. The church is a nation, a heavenly community in the midst of the nations, and her order is different from the nations of the earth. Her order is different from the nations of the earth. One of the implications of that, which we'll elaborate more, is that she has a different kind of discipline. The state, the nations, bear the sword. Her discipline is a physical discipline, a material discipline. The church has discipline as well. The church has been entrusted with keys. And her discipline is a spiritual discipline. Her order is a spiritual order. Her authority is a spiritual authority. And there can't be the confusion of those two things. The church never bears the sword and the state never bears the keys which Christ has entrusted to his church. That's an important thing, I think, and I hope by this time next week we'll see more of the significance of that, the implications of that. Let's back up and just pursue this idea that the church is a heavenly community in the midst of the earth. If you look at Philippians, there's a wonderful passage, just a brief little thing. Chapter 3 verse 17. Reading through the end of the chapter, brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern, for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, whose set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Your citizenship as a Christian is not first and foremost the United States of America. Your citizenship is a heavenly citizenship. Your homeland is a heavenly homeland. Now that's one element of this thing, and that's a thing that it seems to me we do need to be reminded of over and over and over again. I referred earlier to the idea that appears in Hebrews, Abram as a model, as an example of faith. For all generations he is the paradigm. He is the model in every respect, every respect of the faithful man. Abram looked to a city whose builder and maker is God. Right? He looked to a city that wasn't an earthly city. A little bit later the writer of the letter, the letter of the Hebrews says we have no abiding place here. We have no earthly dwelling. Our citizenship is a citizenship in heaven. We are all pilgrim. I hope you've been coming on Sunday nights to pilgrim's progress. I mean pilgrim is making his way from bondage in the city of destruction through all of those difficulties and all of those trials and all of those pains and all of that anguish until he gets to the river of death. And as he begins to pass through the river of death he fears that the river is going to swallow him up. But even the river of death does not swallow him up. He passes through the river, comes out on the other side and enters through the gates into the celestial city where the streets are paved with gold and where walk those saints who have been justified and made perfect. That's his home and that is your home. You know, the old writers used to talk about this life as a veil of tears. This place is a veil of tears and that is your home. That is where your citizenship is. And if you think about the imagery of citizenship there are all kinds of things that spill out of that. Second Corinthians 5 Paul says that he is an ambassador for Christ. What does an ambassador do? He represents the claims of the foreign king in a foreign land. The ambassador represents the claims of King Jesus. The ambassador prosecutes the cause of King Jesus and the interests of his kingdom in the midst of the nations. So the people of God have a heavenly citizenship and are a heavenly community in the midst of the nations. And it's interesting that Paul would use this particular word. It's the only place in the New Testament it appears. But he uses it in speaking to the Philippians. Philippi was a Roman city built by Rome in the midst of a Greek culture. And so these Philippian Christians have this life-size illustration around them of what it means for them to be living as a kind of an outpost of heaven. That's what Philippi was. It was an outpost of Rome. This whole city represented Roman presence, Roman influence, Roman customs, Roman hopes, Roman dreams and all that. And the Apostle uses this word citizenship to describe who these Christians are. And they've got this life-size illustration of what they are all around them. That they are an outpost of heaven. Their capital city is the New Jerusalem. And they live here as aliens, strangers in the midst of this. But there's a second thing which we'll come to next week in fuller detail. They are not only an outpost of heaven but they possess heaven. They possess heaven, right? There is an intrusion of that future heavenly glory into the presence, into the present. And they possess heaven by possessing the spirit. So the new age has dawned upon the people of God. And let me give you just one little passage to think about. I'd like you to think about this throughout the course of the next week. This is a first Corinthians 10. Let's start at verse 6. Paul is admonishing these Corinthian believers in the way that I've been encouraging us, just trying to do what Paul says, and that is emulate him, follow what he does, do what he does. He's been encouraging these Corinthian believers to look back at Israel and to be instructed by Israel's life, to be shaped by Israel's life. They are an example to us, Israel is, of how we're to live in the midst of the world. And Paul says, these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complained as some of them also complained. I was doing just fine until he got to complaining. Nor complained as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition. And then look at this phrase, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. What happened to them was written as an example to us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. What we're going to see is that there really is a qualitative difference between the church and Israel. Israel is there as an example to us to warn us, but because the ends of the ages have come upon us, because the messianic reign is here and now and present in the midst of the church, and because that reign is accomplished through the pouring out of the Spirit upon the church, we can be something they were not. We can be something they were not.
The kingdom is present in the midst of the church. The ends of the ages have come upon the people of God, and the reign of Christ is real, and it is here, and it is a reign accomplished through His Spirit. That's what we're going to look at next week. Greater detail. Let's pray.
Father, you have a lot to overcome in the minds and the hearts and the wills of this collection, this gathering of sinners. There is a lot to slay, a lot to destroy, a lot to uproot, a lot to tear down. Be patient with us as you buy your Spirit, do that, and establish the reign of Christ in our lives. Lord Jesus, be patient with us, but be relentless with us, for as you accomplish your purpose in our lives, as you exert yourself in our lives, as you make real your rule and reign through your Spirit, only good can come for us. Lord help us to be patient in that and submissive to it, and be with us now as we come to worship for those who have already been together for worship, would you keep them safe as they go, and would you cause them to reflect upon the tastes of your glory, which we do trust that they have known. For those of us who now come to worship, would you give us those tastes? Would you encourage our hearts? Would they be a sweetness to our souls? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.