Jesus is Building His Church — Sermon by the Very Rev. Dr. Craig Stephans

Let us pray. And this is a prayer from

Paul's letter to the church in Colossae

beginning in verse 9, chapter 1.

We pray that we may be filled with the

knowledge of your will and all spiritual

wisdom and understanding so as to walk

in a manner worthy of you, Lord, fully

pleasing to you, bearing fruit in every

good work, and increasing in the

knowledge of you, being strengthened

with all power according to your

glorious might,

for all endurance and patience with joy,

giving thanks to you, Father, who has

qualified us to share in the inheritance

of the saints in light. Deliver us from

the domain of darkness and transfer us

to the kingdom of your beloved son, in

whom there

in whom we have redemption, the

forgiveness of sins. Amen.

Please be seated.

We're really blessed to have in

September the Sharing Jesus conference

coming up on the 18th and 19th, a

Friday evening and Saturday here, to

help us to share Jesus, to share the

gospel with other people, friends,

family, strangers.

I was reminded that when I

was in my early 20s and had really just

begun to evangelize and

>> [clears throat]

>> to go through Charleston, sometimes to

hospitals, through neighborhoods, and

try to share Jesus with people, one of

the questions that I had asked initially

is if you were to die today,

what do you think would happen to you?

And that was going well for a while, but

then I started to get some really

outlandish answers.

You know, people really went into depth

talking about how when they died, they

would dissolve into a mist and become

one with the universe and maybe even

float out over the sea and just continue

in existence in the cosmos, etc.

I started to hear a couple of those that

left me speechless. How do you respond

to that? How do you come back?

And so I stopped. I stopped asking that

question because people can't will come

up with anything that they think might

sound good or that gives them some

sentimental comfort, but answers like

that are not based on any reality.

They're based on flesh and blood and our

imaginations. And this is very similar

to how many were answering the question

of who Jesus is as it's conveyed in the

gospel today which was from Matthew 16

beginning in verse 13. If you want to

follow along there. Jesus asked his

disciples, "Who do people say that I am?

So who are other people saying that I am

to you?" And as they respond to him,

some say John the Baptist, some say

Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of

the prophets.

They're just

ridiculous responses to the presence

and revelation of Jesus based on as

Jesus says flesh and blood, human

intelligence and knowledge and

imagination.

I mean,

Jesus is Jeremiah the prophet? Like how

could that even be?

I just read Jeremiah. It It doesn't make

any sense. He's Elijah? He's John the

Baptist?

People trying to determine the truth

about God from their own imagination,

experience, self-justification,

self-preservation,

and they come up with foolish and

ridiculous questions or answers.

That also confronted me with the

possibility that if I were to ask or if

I were asked to explain about God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

relationship to him, his rule and reign

over creation, eternity, and the kingdom

of heaven. I wonder if I were really to

go into depth, how many of my answers

and my explanations would likewise be

based on some human foolishness and

self-justification

and preservation of my own.

What Peter then says is, "You are the

Christ, the Son of the living God."

And it's important that he said both of

those. You are the Christ, the Messiah,

the expected one

of Israel's prophecies and the promises

of God, but many

might have thought Jesus was the Christ.

We even hear some of those conversations

later in Jesus' ministry when he's in

the temple and he's teaching and doing

miracles, and I think it's John who

tells us that many were saying, "Could

this be the Christ?

Could the Christ do more than this when

he comes?" But they anticipated the

Christ being an heir of David, someone

from David's lineage, a man who was

anointed by God to sit on the throne

and to rule as David had ruled,

restoring Israel.

But what Peter says also is, "You are

the Son of the living God."

He is the Son of the God of heaven, the

God who is the creator, the God who is

Yahweh, Israel's God, meaning he came

from heaven. He came from God, and he is

the Son of the living God, meaning and I

don't know if Peter would have been able

to explain this, but he's fully human as

the heir of David, he's fully God as the

Son of God.

And Jesus

responds to Peter and says, "Blessed are

you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood

has not revealed this to you, but my

Father who is in heaven."

This came, this revelation, this

knowledge of who Jesus is didn't come

from the surroundings or the

conversations

down at the fishing hole or at the cafe.

It came from God, from the spirit of

God, from the revelation of God that

also came through Jesus' teaching,

through the the knowledge of the

scriptures and how to interpret them

rightly. But overall, Jesus is saying

this awareness, this knowledge of who I

am came to you from God, from the

kingdom of heaven and not from earth.

And that's what Jesus is saying that you

are blessed

because this awareness came from God.

When

Jesus was interacting with Nicodemus in

John chapter 3, Jesus is teaching him or

John 3 · chapter mention

trying to about the kingdom of God and

Nicodemus doesn't understand. And he

says, "If you don't understand even

earthly things, how can you understand

heavenly things?" Meaning, Jesus was

trying to give him revelation, but he

couldn't even understand the earthly

truth about Jesus.

But later in that same chapter, John the

Baptist

says this truth, "A person cannot

receive even one thing unless it is

given to him from heaven."

This is consistent with what James

writes in his letter that every good and

perfect gift comes

from above, from our heavenly Father,

the Father of lights.

The good news is that the kingdom of

heaven has come into the world. That

through Jesus, the revelation of God has

come among us, and it is God's desire

that we know him. So, he doesn't

withhold

the knowledge and the revelation of

himself.

He wants us to know him. So, like Peter

demonstrates, God wants us all to come

to this awareness of who Jesus is and to

give our lives to him.

This is

indicated in Jesus' own conversations

later with his disciples when they're in

the upper room for the Passover, the

Last Supper, and Jesus is teaching them

and if we pick it up in John 14:6

John 14:6

with the familiar verse where Jesus

says, "I am the way, the truth, and the

life. No one comes to the Father except

through me." He goes on to say, "If you

had known me, you would have known my

Father also. From now on you do know him

and have seen him." And Philip responds

to him and says, "Lord, show us the

Father and it is enough for us."

>> [snorts]

>> And Jesus said to him,

"Have I been with you so long

and you still do not know me, Philip?"

And it expressed in that is both the

desire to be known by his disciples and

a grief

that they don't know him

as he is yet.

"Have I been with you so long and still

you do not know me?"

This is God's desire is that we would

know him. He comes and he abides with us

and among us that we would reach out to

him.

That we would seek him, that we would

spend time with him, that we would study

the scriptures, that we would listen to

one another, that we would let him speak

to us that we might know him, that we

might know his heart, that we might know

the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit, their love for us, and their

desire for us, and their working among

us.

And this is consistent with the prophets

and later in the New Testament. Jeremiah

has this wonderful

passage where he speaks God's word in

the midst of a people that are going

after every false god. They're relying

on their own imaginations about worship,

about religion. They're self-indulging

themselves and boasting about them being

Israel and having the temple of God. But

God confronts them through Jeremiah in

in Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 24. He says

Jeremiah 9:24

this, which is really profound

statement.

Because he's encouraging someone to

boast.

And as we know from scripture, God is

always encouraging people to be humble.

But here he says,

let a person boast. And he says, let him

boast about this. If they're going to

boast about anything, let it be this.

That he understands and knows me.

This is God's desire. This is what God

wants us to promote, to esteem, to

encourage among one another. That we

know him. That we understand him.

Because this is who he is. He goes on in

Jeremiah and he says, that I am the Lord

who practices steadfast love, justice,

and righteousness in the earth.

This is why it's such good news that God

wants us to know him. Because he is the

God of steadfast love.

He practices steadfast love.

He expresses steadfast love to us.

If you notice the last verse in the

Psalm today, Psalm 138:8 is a wonderful

Psalms 138:8

confirmation of this. Where God says, or

the psalmist prays this. The Lord will

fulfill his purpose for me.

Your steadfast love, oh Lord, endures

forever.

God endures forever. And his

characteristic is steadfast love.

And in that steadfast love, he will work

to

to bring about and fulfill his purpose

for our lives. Which more than anything

is to know and to live in that steadfast

love. And to be filled with his love and

that we become vessels of the love.

That's his purpose for us. He's all the

time working to fulfill in us.

This is also confirmed in the Apostle

Paul's life. When you think about the

Apostle Paul's life, he lived in the

religion of the Jewish people,

and after Christ had died and was

resurrected, and the Holy Spirit's

poured out, and the church is growing,

Paul's response is to try to destroy it.

He dragged people into prison.

He was there when they murdered Stephen.

He tried to squash

the kingdom of heaven's work in the

world.

Being wise to the ways of the world, but

ignorant to the revelation of heaven

until

that revelation of heaven comes to him.

And is revealed to him by Jesus coming

and giving him a vision and speaking to

him. And Jesus, in fact, introducing

himself to Paul, that Paul may know him.

And having been introduced to Jesus and

knowing him, he makes it his goal and

his earnest striving in life to know him

more. And this is revealed in

Philippians, his letter there, beginning

in verse 7, he says, "Whatever gain I

had, I counted as loss for the sake of

Christ. Indeed, I count everything as

loss compared to the surpassing worth of

knowing Christ my Lord.

For his sake, I've suffered the loss of

all things and count them as rubbish in

order that I may gain Christ and be

found in him not having a righteousness

of my own that comes from the law, but

that which comes through faith in

Christ, the righteousness from God that

depends on faith, that I may know him

and the power of his resurrection, and

may share in his sufferings becoming

like him in his death, that by any means

possible I may attain the resurrection

from the dead.

By any means, letting go of what is past

and all other things that he may know

Christ.

Even becoming like him in his suffering

and death. To walk in his footsteps, to

know what it's like to suffer

for Christ, for righteousness.

That he may attain to the resurrection

of the dead, to continue knowing Christ

and being with him.

And this is the emphasis on what Jesus

means when he says a part your he says

to Peter, your name is Peter, and upon

this rock, Peter means rock, upon this

rock I will build my church and the

gates of hell will not prevail against

it.

Often the translation is the gates of

Hades

will not prevail against it. Hades is

the place of death. We could say the

gates of Hades, death, evil, sin will

not prevail against my church.

Through our knowledge of Christ, we pass

from death to life. And as we sang in

that last song, not sin, not evil, not

the devil will prevail or will triumph,

triumph will triumph over the church.

The gates of Hades, death, evil won't

triumph over the church because the

church in Christ has passed from death

to life and has eternal life in God's

kingdom.

Jesus says this in John chapter 5 verse

John 5:24

24, "Truly, I say to you, whoever hears

my word and believes him who who sent me

has eternal life. He does not come into

judgment, but is passed from death to

life.

Truly, I say to you, an hour is coming

and is now here when the dead will hear

the voice of the Son of God and those

who hear will live."

The voice of the Son of God is that

revelation from heaven.

It is the message of the kingdom of

heaven

that has come into the world and those

who hear and those who confess Jesus as

Lord and Christ and savior and give

themselves to him

have passed from death to life and the

gates of death, the powers of death and

hell will not prevail against that

person.

This is what the Apostle Peter preaches

on the day of Pentecost when the Holy

Spirit is poured down and they're

speaking in tongues and there's fire and

noise and people gather and ask, "What

is going on?" Again, thinking with flesh

and blood, they think, "Oh, they're all

drunk."

But it it wasn't that and Peter speaking

the words of the kingdom of heaven tells

them that this Christ whom you crucified

and buried has been raised from the tomb

has been exalted into heaven and is Lord

and king of kings.

He has overcome death as David

prophesied in Psalm 16.

And Peter quotes this.

He says,

"I saw the Lord always before me, for he

is at my right hand that I may not be

shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and

my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will

dwell in hope, for you will not abandon

my soul to Hades or let your holy one

see corruption. You have made known to

me the path of life and you will make me

full of gladness with your presence."

The gates of Hades and death could not

prevail against Jesus as he rose from

the dead and ascended into heaven where

he will reign forever.

And Peter says that same reality can be

your reality

if you put your faith in him. You too

will have eternal life and the gates of

Hades and death will not prevail against

you.

Jesus will build his church upon the

promise of eternal life through himself

and through his own presence of giving

that life to his people.

And as Peter, he calls the rock upon

whom he will build this church along

with the other apostles and prophets and

then every single person that comes to

faith in Jesus becomes a living stone in

that house, that living body of Christ

being built up

through faith

and by grace in Jesus. This is what

Peter writes in his first letter when he

says as you come to him, to Jesus, a

living stone rejected by men but in the

sight of God chosen and precious, you

yourselves like living stones are being

built up as a spiritual house to be a

holy priesthood to offer spiritual

sacrifices acceptable to God through

Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a

people for his own possession that you

may proclaim the excellencies of him who

called you out of darkness into his

marvelous light. You have come out of

that darkness, out of that death, out of

the gates of Hades

into his marvelous light, into eternal

life becoming a living stone in the

household of God.

Paul says in Ephesians 2:19, you are

Ephesians 2:19

fellow citizens with the saints and

members of the household of God built on

the foundation of the apostles like

Peter and the prophets who came before.

Christ Jesus himself being the

cornerstone in whom the whole structure

being joined together grows into a holy

temple in the Lord. In him you also are

being built together into a dwelling

place for God by his spirit. He is

building his church that is the dwelling

place of his spirit, the spirit of

eternal life. And as we become those

living stones in Christ, there is

nothing that can prevail against us.

As he builds us up, as he continues to

reveal himself to us and gives us his

spirit

and brings us to himself forever.

When Jesus says

to Peter,

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom

of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth

shall be bound in or whatever you

Yeah, whatever you bind on earth shall

be bound in heaven and whatever you

loose on earth shall be loosed in

heaven."

He is revealing to him that the kingdom

of heaven has come and it is remaining.

And it is going to advance and increase.

Most of our translations

in some form or another have a note, a

footnote, that says where

it's in our scriptures, whatever you

bind on earth or whatever you loose on

earth, they will say or whatever you

bind on earth will have been bound in

heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will

have been loosed in heaven. And it seems

like most of the commentators agree that

it's the latter that is more accurate.

Whatever we bind on earth will have been

bound in heaven. Whatever we loose on

earth will have been loosed in heaven.

And I think this is indicative of the

kingdom of God coming.

And the kingdom of God is coming through

his people

empowered and filled with the Holy

Spirit.

And Jesus is encouraging us

that whatever is in heaven,

whatever is active in the kingdom of

heaven,

love, joy, peace, goodness,

forgiveness of sin,

light,

loose these things in the world. Loose

these things in the earth.

And whatever is not in heaven,

those things of evil,

fear, anxiety,

accusation of one another,

whatever is not in heaven, whatever has

been bound from being in the kingdom of

heaven, bind it from your life.

Bind it from your influence in this

earth, in this world.

And as you do that, the kingdom of

heaven comes, the kingdom of heaven

grows through our loosing of it, through

our binding of what is not of it,

through our prayers, through the sharing

of the gospel. As we do all of that, the

Holy Spirit is present to give people

revelation and knowledge of Jesus.

And that's how the church continues to

grow, continues to be built up into this

household of faith.

And it doesn't mean it's only through

religious things. Jesus has said that we

are salt and light in this earth.

And all the things that we do.

This is about knowing him, walking with

him in our daily lives while we live

life together.

And shining that light

that it might open people's eyes to who

Jesus really is, savior and lord,

who practices steadfast love, justice,

and righteousness.

And as an example of that, I want to

invite Meg to come up and to close out

this time with her story of living this

out on our mission trip to Honduras in

July. And

certainly, I think everyone who has been

there would recognize that

Lamb Institute, our interactions with

it, is

a loosing of the kingdom of heaven and a

binding of so much darkness that has

been experienced in the world and so

much by these children. So, thanks, Meg.

Come on up and share.

>> Good morning.

Um my son Titus and I had the privilege

of joining the 11-member team that went

to Honduras over the summer

in July and

I'd love to share a little bit of my

time, but first I have to start with a

confession.

A couple weeks before our trip, I was

really starting to feel overwhelmed at

the idea of leaving.

Things in our life here were getting

kind of uh

kind of wild. 2 days after we got back

from our trip, we were going to be

closing on a new home.

Our business was expanding. There was

going to be a closing of that while I

was gone.

Um

all the logistical things in my life

kind of told me that this was not a

great time to go to leave the country

and go somewhere else to serve.

But I knew the Lord had made a way and

was calling us to go and so we went.

And um immediately I was overwhelmed

by the breadth of the work that the Lord

has been doing in Honduras through the

Lamb Institute.

This ministry's been around and thriving

for over 20 years through Susie McCall

and her family and the other um

people who are partnering with her, the

leadership of these different

ministries. So we got to uh step into

just some incredible work working with

the little ones at a daycare, at a

children's home,

multiple schools that we got to visit,

to play with the children and see how

the Lord is moving and working in their

lives, pulling them out of really

situations and providing them um with a

love and care that they need.

One of the things I wasn't expecting was

uh the blessing of our time as a team.

Every morning we uh did morning prayer

and every evening we went through uh the

book of Ephesians together.

And in Ephesians 5, Paul is encouraging

his believers um to walk as children of

light.

"Once you were in darkness, he says, but

now you are

the light of the Lord. Therefore, walk

in light. Do not be overcome by the

unfruitful works of darkness, but

instead expose them.

And it was really beautiful to see as we

were ministering in Honduras in

Tegucigalpa and Florida Campo,

um just this dynamic of dark and light.

Um Cara shared a couple weeks ago

about the dynamic of political

corruption there,

gang violence that really kind of runs

the neighborhoods. And while we were

very safe, we were in a home in a gated

community,

um at Casa Lamb,

and felt very safe. But when you started

to realize the dynamic of the community

that you were

uh coming into,

you also began to experience just the

covering and protection of the Lord as

you went out to minister.

We went to and fro all over the city,

sometimes driving 40 to 45 minutes in

this big charter bus by our driver

Jorge.

And the gang members,

powers that be at these neighborhoods,

they know Lamb.

They watch them go to and fro, but they

don't touch them because they also

recognize

that there's a positive impact that they

have on the community. Of course, we

would see that as the light of the Lord

being loosened in Tegucigalpa and

Florida Campo,

um scattering and exposing these

darkness, um

these dark aspects of their community.

Um and so when you began to see it like

that, when we were able to see it that

way,

you just felt the favor of the Lord. You

felt the covering of the Lord, a

protection of the Lord, a girding

um of him as you we were called to

minister.

And so for me, it was really important

to be plucked out of my normal every

day. Um I'm a stay-at-home mom. I

homeschool three of our children. A lot

of my work is hidden and obscure.

Um, but being plucked out of that and

going to a different country

and just seeing the power of the Holy

Spirit working in the lives of these

people in this community through this

uh, ministry that didn't happen

overnight. It's years and years of

walking in obedience, being the light

and scattering the darkness in Honduras

has kind of given me just a a fresh, uh,

um,

a refreshing in my own ministry and a

renewing in my own sense of being the

light, exposing the darkness in the

areas that I can in my own little

sphere.

Um, it's easy to think that what we're

doing doesn't mean much, that it doesn't

have that much of an impact.

The reality is is that it's really about

our obedience over our impact because

the Lord is going to plant the seeds.

He's going to grow

the fruit, um,

and so I just want to encourage us, um,

as we hear these uh,

these truths in scripture,

um,

the same God that is working in

Honduras, working through these

ministries, that's

calling children out of darkness into

his marvelous light is the same God

who's working in the city of Savannah.

It's the same God who's working in the

basement Sunday school classes of our

children. It's the same God who's

working in our

uh, our music ministry and our seniors

ministry and our our Thomas Square, um,

our businesses.

And so, um, I would just was so

encouraged with that as I came back to

the states, um, hoping to kind of be

able to see that dichotomy of darkness

and light because the reality is is that

he has given us the kingdom the keys of

the kingdom of heaven through the power

of the spirit. And when we have his

favor and calling over our lives to do

the simplest things in obedience,

the gates of hell cannot prevail against

it. So, thanks for letting me share.

>> Do you want to close us in prayer?

>> I'd love to.

>> Yeah.

Yeah, good job. [applause]

That was great.

So, Meg's going to close us in prayer.

Thank you, Meg.

>> Yeah.

Lord Jesus, we just want to give you all

the glory and praise and honor and laud

[clears throat]

and majesty for who you are and what

you've done through

your church and your people.

God, I want to praise you for the work

that you are doing in Honduras through

the Lamb Institute in Tegucigalpa and

Florida Compo.

Lord, let their flourishing

and the power that we see of you working

in that remind us that we too have a job

to do. We too are called to share the

love of Jesus, to evangelize in our own

little crevices of this world.

So, I just pray right now in the name of

Jesus that you would give us

every good gift and

skill and to be equipped to be able to

do just that, Lord, every day. Help us

to see your light illuminating around

our city that we might

that we might be part of that, that we

might scatter the darkness through your

power and through the work of the Holy

Spirit in us.

And we thank you for your word and the

way that you encourage us and bolster

our faith through the saints that have

gone before us

and as we step into their legacy day by

day through your grace. We pray all this

in your name. Amen.

>> Amen. Thanks.