Theme: Commitment to the Church Pt.2
Text: Ephesians 2: 13-22
Introduction
A. Last Sunday I talked to you about commitment to the church. In that message, I have encouraged you to commit yourselves to our church family here and be part of what God is going to do with His family here. Again, I’d like to encourage you to be part of the sacrifices and services to build up the church body of the Lord here.
This morning, I will preach on the same subject, but this time it’s on the reasons why we should be active in our involvement and participation in the building up of the body of the Lord, the church.
Well, there are certainly different reasons why people chose to commit and involve themselves to a particular church. You might have one as well, I believe. Maybe it’s the church where the whole family goes for worship, or maybe the people of that church are friendly, or the church activities are exciting, or the praise and worship and the music ministry is lively and you like it, or the church provides quality and inspiring spiritual ministries or services to the people, or maybe because you simply feel “you are in.” I don’t know.
One Sunday morning a woman kept calling her husband to get up and prepare for church. The man said that he would not go to the church. The wife insisted that he should go to the church for three reasons, she said: “first, because the church is friendly, second, because our family will go to the church every Sunday, and third,” now the woman said in a stern voice, “because you are the Pastor of the church.”
Now, why do we need to commit ourselves to the body of Christ? Let’s open our Bible in Ephesians 2: 13-22. In this passage, Paul stipulated the grounds and the reasons why we should be active in our participation and involvement for the building of the body of Christ.
I. OUR BELONGINGNESS TO THE CHURCH
We belong to the body of Jesus. All believers of the Lord Jesus Christ are citizens of God’s kingdom, members of His household, and individual stones built and joined together in Jesus who is the chief cornerstone. We ought to be actively participating in the building up the body of Christ because we belong to it. Paul must have written this admonition in bold letters.
Now look at the passage closely, we will notice that the apostle Paul gives importance on explaining how this belongingness to the body of the Lord was made possible both with the Gentile and Jewish believers. Paul would like us to clearly understand of the means through which we are made part of the family of God. The means that made our belongingness to the body of the Lord possible is not cheap. It cost the life of the Son of God.
By the way, the apostle made mentioned of the Gentiles and Jews to tell us that race is not significant when it comes to becoming part of God’s household. The Gentiles are said here to be those who are far away from God, while the Jews are said to be “near” because they have the covenants of God. Yet both groups were reconciled to God and brought into one body –the body of Christ –through the blood of Jesus.
Here Paul strongly declared that the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross is the only way so that a person, Jew or Gentile, is reconciled to God and is brought into the body of Christ. It’s not the church membership form that a person would sign up that brings him into the Lord’s body. It’s not the water of baptism that cleanses away the sin of a person. It’s not the elements of communion that one partakes every first Sunday of the month that brings forgiveness and reconciliation to God. Paul says that the blood of Jesus brought us near to God. The Son of God gave His own life, suffered shame, and died a torturous death to bring each one who believed on Him into His body. As the song says, “Not because of who I am, but because of what you’ve done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who you are.”
Now what does that mean to us? It means that our being part of the church of the Lord is so precious and priceless. Paul says, we are “bought with a price,” a great price, the precious blood of the Lamb of God. It means that we have the divine basis to involve in the affairs of the body of Jesus. It means that we must participate, we must involve, and with all our heart, we must actively uphold, support, be instrumental to the building up Christ’s body, and be a blessing to our church family because we belong to the Lord and to each other, not by other human means, but through the death of our loving Savior.
II. OUR PRIVILEGES IN THE BODY OF JESUS
Being part of the body of Jesus, we have great and wonderful privileges to enjoy. This is the implication Paul would like us to understand when he said that we are citizens of God’s kingdom and members of God’s family. I know you are happy to know that.
Being citizens of God’s kingdom, we have the benefits of God’s protection and provision. He promised to protect the life that He has given us. In God’s kingdom we have the benefit to be in the service of the Lord and to His people that bring inner fulfillment and joy. The church is the place where, with our fellow citizens, we can lift our hearts in worship to the One who had done so much for us and we can serve each other with love.
On the other hand, being members of God’s family, we have the benefit to have direct access to our Heavenly Father. We can talk to Him any time we need to. He is always available to pay attention to our prayers. In God’s family, we have the benefits of experiencing deepest intimacy here on earth. Yes, because the church or the family of God, is a place where we can develop deep, intimate relationships that far surpass any that we could have outside the church family. And only in the family of God we can experience true fellowship, true love and respect, forgiveness, and even willingness to sacrifice one’s own needs for others in the family. Our common bond in Jesus Christ is a far stronger force than anything else that might connect us with others.
But what all these privileges meant for? To let us know that we are not meant to be alone. God never created Christians to be foreigners and aliens to His heavenly kingdom and to the manifestation of that kingdom here on earth –the church. God does not create spiritual orphans. And it is never His intent that His children would be estranged from His family. Notice that we need the people of God to enjoy those privileges. The involvement of God’s family is a must to experience and enjoy the privileges we’ve just mentioned.
That’s why the saying is true that “you need the church of God, and the church needs you.” We need each other in the body of Jesus to fully experience all the privileges that God provides for us. Realizing this truth, I can’t understand why any believer would want to estrange himself from the family of God. As we put it in our invitation: “Come to the Father and experience the power of His love through His Son. Come to Gethsemane House of Prayer.” I know that the church is indispensable to experience the privileges that God provides to His people.
III. OUR RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE CHURCH
Not only do we have privileges as members of the family of God, we also have responsibilities. When Paul talked of our citizenship in God’s kingdom and membership in God’s household, he meant our responsibilities to the body of the Lord.
One Sunday morning, a preacher stood at the door of his church to greet every one who would come for worship. A man came and the pastor was quick to hold the hand of the man and said: “Joe, you need to join the Army of the Lord!” The man replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.” The Pastor questioned, “Then how come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?” He smiled and whispered back, “You know Pastor, uhmm…I’m in the secret service.”
Secret service? A paraphrased bible puts our passage this way, “you were unconverted sinners, removed themselves at a distance from God, but now you are brought home to God and received into the church. You have been taken into the covenant and possess all the privileges and responsibilities of belonging to the household of God.” Then Paul likened the church to a building where every believer is a stone joined together to build a spiritual temple. It means that each of us have a part to do in the body of Christ. We have individual roles to fulfill in the church of God. So Paul is saying here that we should not only be “VISIBLE CHRISTIANS,” we must be in active service as well.
If you study the accounts in the book of Acts about the early church, you will realize that it has increased by leaps. Why, because everyone was glad to accept the responsibilities of their commitment to the body and tried to work in harmony. No one stood back on the fringe and waited someone to do the work. They strived to be a blessing to everyone. If they saw someone in need, they generously gave. They shared with one another in great acts of social concern. No wonder that God’s blessings rested on them. They were generous with their time as well as their possessions.
Someone told a story relating the account of God providing a suitable partner for Adam. In the story God looks down and notices that Adam is all alone while all the animals have companions so he decides to create a companion for man as well. He comes to see Adam and says to him, “Adam, you are my greatest creation and therefore, I am going to create for you your ultimate companion. She will worship the very ground you walk on, she will long for you and no other, she will be highly intelligent and she will wait on your hand and foot and obey your every command. She will be beautiful. All it will cost you is an arm and a leg.” Thinking it over for a few seconds, Adam replies, “What could I get for a rib?” So, what did he get for a rib?
When it comes to church are we saying, “God, what is the minimum I can offer you and still get by?” Friends, the Church will not be meaningful to us when we are on the fringe. We must be involved in order to feel we truly “BELONG.”
B. CONCLUSION
In conclusion of our message this morning, let me ask you these questions:
Do you have the life of Christ in your life today?
Is He real to you?
Do you feel you belong to God’s family? If not, why? Why not?
Is Jesus in your heart?
If the Lord has talked to you this morning that you should come to Him for salvation, or because you have something to commit to Him or something you want to ask from God, I encourage you to come for God’s blessing and anointing. Display your commitment by coming forward here. God’s altar of consecration is waiting.
