OPEN: In the 1970’s Andrew Richardson, a Liverpool postal worker, declared his semi-detached flat to be the independent nation of Granbia. After a while, however, Richardson lost interest, and the apartment reverted to England by default.
In 1964, Leicester Hemingway, the little brother of author Ernest Hemingway built an 8 by 30 foot floating bamboo platform 7 miles off the coast of Jamaica, anchoring it to the ocean floor with a Ford engine block. "I can stand on the platform, walk around on it, and salute the flag, all of which I do periodically," Hemingway bragged to reporters. "There are no taxes here, because taxes are for people not smart enough to start their own countries." In time, part of his country was destroyed by fishermen in search of scrap wood; the rest sank in a storm.
In 1969, when the Western Australia Wheat Quota board limited the amount of wheat he could grow Leonard George Casely took his 18,500 acre farm and seceded from Australia to form his own country. He designed his own national flag and motto, printed his own money, and set up his own parliament.
Australia refused to recognize his sovereignty, so in 1977 he declared war. Nothing came of it - he backed down two days later and re-established diplomatic relations. Casely claims he pays no Australian taxes, but he admits he makes payments to the Australian government as an "international courtesy."
APPLY: Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Even the most mighty of nations don’t last forever. As powerful as the United States of America is, one day, it too will pass away.
But (pause) when the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary he said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." (Luke 1:30-33)
Approximately 600 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Daniel interpreted a vision that troubled King Nebuchadnezzar. The vision was of a great statue, which (represented the nations of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and finally Rome). And then he said: "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” Daniel 2:44
Colossians tells us that when we became Christians, God “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…” Colossians 1:13
I. What kind of Kingdom is this? What kingdom would last forever…?
That Kingdom is the church. That’s what Jesus came to die for, and what He rose from the dead to create. A Kingdom unlike anything that the world had ever seen before or since. And that’s not the only thing that’s different about this Kingdom we belong to… it’s run different
ILLUS: My dad used to say the most efficient form of government was a benevolent dictatorship… and Dad said he was willing to volunteer for the job!
Consider: How much more efficient could it be, than for Jesus run everything in the Church from "up there." Really. If there was a decision to be made in church, you wouldn’t have to bother to ask, you wouldn’t have to bother to pray… you don’t have to bother period. He’d take care of it.
Every decision that would be made, every sermon that would be preached. Every class that would be taught - He’d take care of it. He could do that you know – He’s God after all!
It would be a truly “benevolent dictatorship”
1. Totally efficient
2. Totally logical
3. Totally without any room for mistakes or human error
AND… almost totally the opposite of what Jesus actually did.
II. I think that’s part of the reason Ephesians tells us Jesus gave “gifts” to the church: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastors & Teachers
We’re not sure, but we think Paul was writing about what we call:
* Missionaries (Apostles means: “those who are sent” and occasionally, church sent missionaries were called "Apostles")
* Preachers (Prophets & Evangelists are used in other parts of Scripture to describe what we might call Ministers or preachers)
* Elders (I Peter 5, Pastors was used to describe Elders, note preachers)
* And, of course, Teachers - which is more less self explanatory.
But, who those terms referred to is not as important as the fact that Jesus turned responsibility for the church over to… mortals. Human beings. Individuals in whose hands ALMOST NOTHING ends up being totally efficient, logical or without error. Why would He do that?
Because He gave that privilege to us as a “GIFT” (Ephesians 4:8). That’s a great tribute to God’s love and trust of us. He’s trusted us enough to place in our hands the day to day running of His ETERNAL KINGDOM. And, given that He’s put that kind of hope and faith in our faithfulness, wouldn’t it be proper to make sure that we did everything in our power to make sure we did it God’s way???
But, how would we know when we had done that? How would we know when had handled that responsibility in the way He would want it done? The answer is in Ephesians 4.
III. Ephesians tells us that when the leaders in a church do their job well, they aim to do it:
“ to prepare God’s people for works of service…” (vs. 12). In other words, when the Elders, Brad, I and others, do what we should in this congregation – people will be climbing all over each other to do things in the church to
¨ teach Sunday School
¨ lead in-home Bible studies
¨ volunteer for Nursery duty
¨ teach Jr. Church
¨ invite their friends to church
¨ give to the poor
¨ etc. etc. etc.
Now how are the leaders of this church to do that? There are many good answers, but one of the most obvious is - through what is done in Sunday School, Worship Hour, Evening Worship, Mid-week Bible Studies, and Senior Youth meetings. Here is where your leaders expose you to the Word of God.
Sunday School, for example, is an excellent place for you to allow your hearts to be fashioned by God’s Word. To allow it to reach into the very essence of your being and challenge to do even more to do "works of Service." If you’re not involved in Sunday School, or mid-week Bible studies, or some other form of involvement outside of Sunday Morning Worship, you’re robbing your leaders of their opportunity to challenge you in the way they are supposed to.
Not only that, but your leaders goal in this church should be to help us all “…reach unity in the faith” (vs. 13). In other words, when your Elders and Brad & I do our jobs right, our goal should be to create a congregation that loves one another. A church where complaining, and grumbling are rare…or non-existent.
When I first got here I asked you to make me a pledge. I asked you, before God, to promise that if you ever had a complaint against me, you were supposed to do something. What was that? (Come to me and tell me face to face). This morning, I’m going to ask you to expand on that.
I want you promise that if you ever have a complaint against the Elders, or Brad, or any of your leaders… you’ll come and tell them that face to face. All of you who are willing to make that kind of pledge - raise your hands.
Why did I do that? Because this church should always be a church that is "upfront" with each other. A church that’s known for it’s faithfulness to God and its Christian love toward each other. When your leaders do their job properly - that should the end result. And really, your leaders had been faithful to that goal, long before I ever became a preacher here. When my wife and I first stepped through the door we realized this was a loving church, from the moment we walked in the door and were greeted by people in the foyer, to the moment we stepped out the door to drive home after services. And, that is what others have told me as well. Almost invariably, everyone who has become Christians here, or placed their membership here, has told me the same thing. This was a church where they felt safe and loved.
Now, granted, even when leaders do their jobs right, that isn’t always possible. Moses – one of the most righteous shepherds of God who ever lived – had a congregation that seemed to do nothing but grumble and complain. EVEN when God met their needs in miraculous ways at every turn they argued continuously with Moses. And it wasn’t Moses’ fault – the Israelites were just complainers. But it is worth noting… those complainers all died in the wilderness. God’s not big on complainers.
IV. What else happens when your Elders and Brad & I do our jobs right?
“(Christians here won’t) be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14
In other words, you won’t be reading horoscopes, because you’ll know they displease God
or calling the psychic network, because you’ll know God hates that idea.
or getting your advice down at the local bar, because you’ll suspect a Christian shouldn’t be there.
or having Bible studies with Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons, because you’ll know they are cults.
You’ll know the truth isn’t found in those places, so you won’t go there.
INSTEAD…You’ll know what the Bible says about faith, repentance, confession & baptism. You’ll understand Jesus is the Son of God, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in your life as a life giving force. You’ll know the truth, because your leaders have done everything in their power to put forth God’s Word without apology or excuse.
But there is a problem. Even in churches that unapologetically committed to preaching God’s truth in season and out of season… if they miss this next objective - they will fail…
Our church should always be “speaking the truth in love…” Ephesians 4:15
Churches that fail to speak God’s truth in a Spirit of love become Pharisees. In reality, truth without love fails to being faithful to the Gospel truth anyway. John 3:16 tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Jesus came to give us truth - but He did it because He loved us. Faithfulness to truth, without faithfulness to that original Love - is heresy. In a church where the leaders do their job, the goal is not only to have you know what the Bible says about Jesus & salvation & other good doctrines, but to make sure you won’t get into arguments about it. You’ll be trained to SPEAK THE TRUTH – IN LOVE.
Paul wrote Timothy: Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (II Timothy 2:23-26)
IV. One last thing. I want to share with you something I learned in Sunday School this morning.
Turn with me to Judges 2:7-12
"The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger."
What that tells us is, as long as Joshua and the Elders of Israel remained faithful to God - the people were faithful to God. BUT, once those men passed on, no one rose up to replace them. Without faithful men rising to faithful leadership, the congregation of Israel faltered and sinned.
There is a common ailment within almost every church, that there are those who say "let THEM do it (who ever "them" are). I’ll just sit back and be entertained. When enough of a congregation does that, eventually very few do much of what is accomplished in that church. But Ephesians 4 tells us that the church we’ve been entrusted with - this Eternal Kingdom that Jesus died to establish - works best when we all end up working together. Notice what Ephesians 4:16 says "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as EACH PART DOES ITS WORK."
Did you catch that? When we grow and are built up in love, our ultimate objective is for every part… every one of us… to do our part. That is our goal, our objective, our Holy Grail. And when we come close to attaining that - then we have honored the trust that Jesus placed in us when He set His church in our hands.
CLOSE ILLUS: The story is told of a mighty city state in ancient Greece known as Sparta
A important visitor to the city was being shown around by Sparta’s king - who boasted about the mighty walls of Sparta.
The guest looked about – but he didn’t see any walls, and finally he said to his host,
"Where are these walls you keep talking about!"
The Spartan ruler pointed over to an adjoining field to a group of soldiers who were training on the hillside, and exclaimed, "There they are! Those are the walls of Sparta!"
You and I are a part of THE mightiest nation on earth.
You and I have been given the privilege of helping Jesus build His kingdom
You and I are - the walls of the Kingdom.
Or as Peter wrote: “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
One of the greatest honors we can do our savior is to do everything in our power to make this church the type of congregation Jesus would want…
