CCA’s Vision: Life Together — Sermon by the Very Rev. Dr. Craig Stephans

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have

called us friends. As your friends and

as your sons and daughters, we ask you

to come and make yourself known to us

and manifest yourself among us even now,

granting to us your Holy Spirit of

wisdom and revelation to know you

better. And God, I pray that you do such

a work among us that we would be greater

friends to you and greater friends to

one another. It's through your name that

we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

So, this is the concluding sermon of our

four-part sermon series on our four

pillars of our vision. And you can see

those on page 23 of your order of

worship. And you can see our vision the

second paragraph down. Christ Church

Anglican seeks to be a gospel- centered

congregation in the Anglican tradition

where worship is central, catechizus is

pervasive, life together is nurtured and

mission extended from Thomas Square to

the city of Savannah, the dasis and the

world wherever God may call us.

As a congregation, we are committed to

life together. And life together for the

body of Christ is more than mere

association. Our social acquaintances,

our social ties, like just hanging out

with one another. In the biblical

theology and in the kingdom of God,

life together is communion in Christ and

communion with each other in and through

Christ. Life together entails strong

partnerships and fellowship as brothers

and sisters in Christ. Our bonds in

Christ are the basis and strength of our

relationships.

As we are each born into God's family,

adopted through Christ, receiving the

spirit of adoption, the Holy Spirit, we

are adopted not only as his sons and

daughters, but we are adopted as

brothers and sisters with each other.

We belong to Christ and to each other

starting with our spouses and our

nuclear family, working outwards. God

has brought us together as brothers and

sisters in Christ. And he has called us

to this body of Christ to serve one

another. And we can see from the

readings today just those that life

together in the body of Christ includes

all the other elements of our vision.

worship, mission, catechesus, all of

these we do together and we develop our

relationships and friendships with one

another. Our vision of life together in

Christ and pursuing his kingdom is part

of his work among us. The work of the

father, the son, and the holy spirit and

requires our faithful obedience and our

surrender to him. These mark our

Christian life together centered on God

above all and the priority of the

Christian life.

This is what God is bringing about. It's

the fulfillment of Jesus's promise when

he said in John 12:32,

John 12:32

"When I am lifted up from the earth, I

will draw all people to myself."

And I always pray for spouses and those

engaged, those entering into marriage,

that Christ would draw them each closer

to himself. And in doing so, he draws

them closer to each other as well. And

that applies to our life together as a

as a church, as a congregation, that we

all want to be drawn closer to Christ.

And as we engage in that and surrender

to him, we will draw closer to each

other, too. We can't have one without

the other.

Life together includes two seemingly

contradicting contradictory movements

that are in Christ and only in Christ

are they compatible. This is the

movement of Christ drawing us all to

himself, drawing us together as a body

of Christ, a body of believers where we

grow closer to each other.

And at the same time, Christ is sending

us out into the world to make disciples

of all nations, of all peoples. Like he

says at the end of Matthew's gospel,

go into all the world. And at the same

time, he's drawing us together as one in

him. These two movements are constantly

occurring among Christians, among

believers. And sometimes in the church

life, they can seem to be in tension in

tension with each other because we get

to know each other so well and our

relationships can develop and grow

strong and it seems like we're just

right where God wants us and then oh

man, someone else comes into the doors.

We may not even know them. They might be

very different from us.

They may not know how to act in church.

But that is exactly what God is doing.

That's exactly what life together in the

body of Christ is. It's drawing closer

to each other and at the same time

constantly being sent out to reach those

who do not yet know him and are

strangers to Christ and strangers to us.

This is a vision I think of that Jesus

summarizes very succinctly when he says

in Matthew 8:11. This vision that many

Matthew 8:11

will come from the east and west and

recline at table with Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. This

is God's vision of life together. It's

not exclusive.

He's drawing everyone into it. All those

who will believe, all those who will

receive the gospel are born again into

God's family. And to each church, he

calls people to be rooted and planted so

they can grow in their faith among other

Christians who are drawing closer to

Christ themselves.

I think this is a vision that Isaiah has

in Isaiah 25:6-9

Isaiah 25:6–9

that was read. It's one of these visions

that the prophet has that is already

happening yet is not yet fully

fulfilled. It won't be fully fulfilled

until Jesus returns and his kingdom is

fulfilled completely. But this is what

is happening among his people. Uh this

is what Isaiah writes in his vision on

the mountain of the Lord of hosts. On

this mountain, the Lord of Hosts will

make for all peoples a feast of rich

food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich

food full of marorrow, of aged wine

well-refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all

peoples, the veil that is spread over

all nations. He will swallow up death

forever. And the Lord God will wipe away

tears from all faces, and the reproach

of his people he will take away from all

the earth. For the Lord has spoken. It

will be said on that day, "Behold, this

is our God. We have waited for him that

he might save us. This is the Lord. We

have waited for him. Let us be glad and

rejoice in his salvation."

The Lord is making a feast for all

peoples. Even though Isaiah is

prophesying to the people of Israel,

this vision, this promise of God is for

all peoples. He doesn't exclude any type

of people from his body. He died for all

the sins of the world. But in this

vision, there's this promise that the

Lord God will wipe away tears from all

faces.

And there are tears. There's mourning

and lament. There's grief. There's

trials and tribulations in our life

together.

And God calls us to one another and to

love one another to help comfort and

figuratively to wipe away those tears

sometimes literally to wipe away the

tears from one another.

He also says that he will take away the

reproach from his people.

And one of the beautiful works of God

within the body of Christ is he takes

away reproach that people carry that we

carry. You could call it shame, guilt,

the burdens, the self-consciousness that

can drive us to stay away from people,

to not be vulnerable and genuine and

transparent with people. These are the

things that the devil also uses to try

to isolate us and ostracize us and tells

us you don't belong among those people

because you're not like them. Because if

they knew the truth about you, they

wouldn't want you around.

The truth is is that God among his

people removes that shame. He removes

the reproach that separates us from one

another through the blood of Jesus,

through the forgiveness of sins, and

through the body of Christ's constant

confirmation of forgiveness and renewal.

He binds us together to encourage one

another. This is part of each of us

becoming a new creation and all of us

together becoming a new creation in this

world.

And likewise, we together

rejoice just like God promises that all

of those who are gathered at his table

at this feast will say together,

"Behold, this is our God. We've waited

for him that he might save us. This is

the Lord. We've waited for him." Let us

be glad and rejoice in his salvation. We

need each other to remind us to say this

together that we are saved. We are a

saved people. We can be glad and rejoice

in God's salvation because we have it

now. It's not fully developed yet. It's

not fully lived out, but we are saved

people.

And in the rest of the world, those

outside the body of Christ, that's not

true. So when we come together and live

life together, we need to hear the

gospel from one another. when we are

feeling down, when we've made mistakes,

when we don't when we don't feel saved,

we need life together with others who

will say, "You are saved. You have

eternal life." That that fear of death,

it's been swallowed up. It hasn't been

destroyed completely yet, but you don't

have to fear.

We can rejoice now and be glad in his

salvation.

I think this is part of what Paul writes

in his letter to the Romans in chapter

12 verse1 15 when he's writing to an

audience that has great differences.

They have conflicts. They have

divisions. And to all of them he is

writing that they are one in the body of

Christ. And he says to the Jews and the

Gentiles together in that church in

Rome, rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep. Live in

harmony with one another.

And that's life together in the body of

Christ. It's not all sunshine and

lollipops, although it is sometimes,

but it is also weeping with those who

weep and mourning with those who mourn

and being a presence of comfort and

encouragement and a reminder of the

eternal life that we have when the

weight and trials of this world weigh us

down.

And we know that we all have reasons for

weeping at times. We all have we reasons

for rejoicing at times and they're

happening concurrently every day.

I love uh the psalm Psalm 34 1-9 and

particularly verses 3 through5.

It reminds me that the Christian life is

not an individual life. It's not and

cannot be a life lived in isolation. And

sometimes I think we can get that in

mind because our life in this this time

and this context can be so

individualistic.

And I definitely made this mistake

after college when I was still growing

up in the faith thinking that this is

about me. The promises of God, what the

scripture says, it's about me and me

getting this for myself. But that's very

contrary to the actual message of

scripture, which is that it is about God

bringing together a people and

empowering and equipping those people

with blessings to bless one another. And

the psalmist reminds us of that when in

verse three he says, "Oh, praise the

Lord with me. Let us magnify his name

together." A and if there could be any

one sum of how we live life together,

this may be it. Oh, praise the Lord with

me. Let us magnify his name together.

It's to him that we point

it. It's to him that we encourage and

move one another. He goes on to say, "I

sought the Lord and he heard me. He

delivered me out of all my fears.

They looked unto him and were made glad,

and their faces were not ashamed." As we

live life together, we are encouraging

and hopefully pointing one another to

look unto him

and to become glad in his presence. The

the the way the ESV, the English

Standard Version translates verse 5, it

says, "Those who look to him are

radiant."

Those who look to him are radiant. And

we as we live together and to encourage

one another to look to him. It's through

him and it's through him who is the

light of life that we become full of

light that we become radiant. That we

are made glad and that our faces are not

ashamed.

Through our life together we remind one

another and by accepting one another by

loving one another. Though none of us

are perfect,

we assure one another that we don't have

to be ashamed. We don't have to be

afraid that you might find out who I

really am and I might find out who you

really are and reject you. God calls us

together and as we look to him, we

receive forgiveness. We receive

acceptance, not only from him, but from

one another.

One of the devil's main tools against

people in the body of Christ is this

drive toward ostracism.

When we look to him together, it

overcomes that. And this is exactly one

of the ways how we serve one another is

by pointing each other toward Jesus,

toward eternal life, toward his

acceptance of us, and assuring

that is true through our own deeds of

accepting one another.

the

chapter in Paul's first letter to the

Corinthians chapter 12 where he talks

about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He's

describing life together and he's

describing the gifts and empowerment of

the Holy Spirit that are given to each

believer as not just being for that

person but for the body of Christ. And

Paul goes to great lengths to talk about

how we are a body and we are each

members of that body. And here in verse

4 of 1 Corinthians 12, he said, "There's

a variety of gifts, but it's the same

spirit, and there are varieties of

service, but the same Lord, and there

are varieties of activities, but it is

the same God who empowers them all in

everyone. To each is given the

manifestation of the spirit for the

common good." All empowered by the

spirit for the common good of building

up the body of Christ. And each of you

has the Holy Spirit. If you are a

believer and you've invited Jesus to

save you and received his spirit and you

have spiritual gifts, not only for your

sake, but also for the sake of the

people to the left and right and front

and behind you to build them up that may

be hard for us to believe sometimes that

wait, I have some of these spiritual

gifts. I may have the gift of healing. I

may have the gift of knowledge or

wisdom. I may have a gift of to serve or

to have mercy. Yes, each of you does.

And the only way we can learn to use

those and allow those to be expressed

through us if we are living life

together with one another and being

transparent and sometimes being

assertive and practicing those gifts.

After chapter 12, of course, as you

know, chapter 13 is the emphasis on

love. It was uh read at the wedding of

Jim Kingston and Meredith. Now Meredith

Kingston yesterday they read the chapter

13 on love and then f Paul follows that

up in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians by

immediately saying pursue love and

earnestly desire the spiritual gifts and

those spiritual gifts there in chapter

12 are not exhaustive but in pursuing

love and loving one another we also

pursue the gifts from the Holy Spirit to

bless and to serve one another. And

that's why Paul puts love and spiritual

gifts together

in that um wedding that I was a part of

yesterday. It was at Isa Hope Methodist

Church and it it was um the associate

pastor Meg there and I co-officiating.

So it was a mix Anglican and Methodist

wedding liturgy. And one of the things

that

was in the Methodist part of that

liturgy for the declaration really

caught me because it it said and she

said to the couple, "I charge you both

as you stand in the presence of God to

remember that love and loyalty alone

will create the foundation of a happy

home." And I thought about love and

loyalty. I hadn't heard that before in a

wedding service. And I thought about

love and loyalty as the qualities that

create a foundation for a happy family

or happy relationships and how valuable

loyalty is to the body of Christ and to

our life together. Not being loyal in

any abusive way or manipulative way, but

being loyal to one another to stand with

each other and to stand firm in the

to stand firm in Christ and in the

gospel of Christ with one another. To

continually share it with one another,

and to stand firm and loyal in love and

loyalty with each other, to be there for

one another, not only in good times, but

in bad times, to show up. And I

appreciated that in the liturgy. And I

think it's it goes very much in accord

with what John writes in the 15th

chapter of John that was read earlier

where he says, "As the father has loved

me, so have I loved you. Abide in my

love. If you keep my commandments, you

will abide in my love. Just as I've kept

my father's commandments and abide in

his love."

He has certainly called us to love one

another, but first he calls us to abide

in his love. A and it is no ordinary or

boring activity to abide in the perfect

and unconditional love of Jesus Christ.

And we need that to love one another. We

have to know that we are loved beyond a

doubt. That Jesus has shown his love and

his loyalty to us. that today you can't

go from here and make a mistake that is

going to cause Jesus to stop loving you.

He will not turn from you. He will love

you with an unconditional unfailing

love.

And then in verse 11, he says, "These

things I've spoken to you that my joy

may be in you and that your joy may be

full." When when I was learning

scripture and I would read something

like that, I would think about my joy.

Jesus is speaking to me. I've spoken to

you that my joy may be in you and that

your joy may be full. And I would pray,

"Yes, make my joy full." But then you

start reading the Greek and you realize

all of those in that sentence are

plural. And I can't have that joy

full on my own. It requires the body of

Christ. and for all the body of Christ

to be full of joy and for me to be a

part of it to experience that fullness

of what Jesus refers to as full joy. And

so immediately he says in verse 12, this

is my commandment that you love one

another as I as I have loved you.

And that's that's the key. Receiving his

love, being in the midst of others and

loving them as well.

And he goes on, greater love is known

than this, that someone laid down his

life for his friends. You are my friends

if you do what I command you.

Today we have the challenges in living

life together of busyness. We're all so

busy, not even in bad things. It's just

a very busy lifestyle that we tend to

lead. and also the geography. We've

become more distant from one another

unlike uh you know perhaps the historic

communities that were centered around a

church and we would walk to church and

end up walking with everyone to church.

Now we are spread out. This really um

hit me just in the last couple days as

trying to navigate whether to have

church today and whether it was safe and

thinking about people living all over

this area. probably 45 minutes in any

direction there are people in this

church who are active who live and had

to think about well what are the roads

like in Statesboro or Brian County or

Per or Tybee Wilmington Island Skidaway

all these places that and our busyiness

makes life together as described and

displayed in the New Testament difficult

and challenging

and that's just what we have to deal

with. Not to mention the spiritual

forces of evil that are always trying to

come between us. And you know, you've

heard the criticisms in your in your

mind, the accusations against others.

Well, that person this and this person

that and I don't want to go to that.

It's going to be a bunch of those people

all the time. The devil's trying to work

that out and dealing with that and our

busyiness and our tiredness. I mean,

that's a reality as well. So, we really

need intentionality

and a constant abundant dose of God's

grace to live this out. And I think

that's what God calls us to. And that's

what we have to keep in mind and

thinking about our vision, not only for

ourselves, but for those whom God is

calling into the midst of us. And a

verse that came to mind is from John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And it was when John in that

opening chapter of his his gospel is

talking about Jesus as the light of

life. And then in verse 9 it says the

true light which gives light to everyone

was coming into the world. And that's

the light of life that enables us to

live this life that Jesus has described

for us of receiving the love of God of

loving one another and having our joy be

full. It's the light of life that

enables us to weep with one another and

to rejoice with one another. It's the

light of life that enables us to serve

and minister to one another with the

lifechanging power of the Holy Spirit.

It is also the light of life that

enables us to bear witness to that very

light with those outside the church that

we can draw them in to our life

together. And as much as we want to grow

in our relationshipships within one

another, we must grow with in our

relationships with the strangers with

the unbelievers outside of this

wonderful love and salvation of Jesus.

And I'll close with reminding you that

next Sunday we have a wonderful

opportunity of life together with our

oyster roast following the 10:30 service

celebrating Founders Day, the founding

of this church, the founding of Georgia.

It's an opportunity to have a day full

of worship, full of catechesus,

full of mission by inviting others to

that oyster roast and full of life

together. And it goes on from there with

our annual meeting the following Sunday,

the Rehydrate Conference the following

week, and even looking ahead to March

21st with the second annual Irish

Shindig, a wonderful time of fellowship

to raise money for mission.

So, at the church, you will see many of

these offerings to try to facilitate

life together. And I know you cannot and

should not do all of them, but be

intentional about what God is calling

you into to develop the relationships

with one another and also to be

strengthened and equipped to invite

others into that very life together. So

let us pray.

Father, I pray your blessing upon this

congregation, those here, those watching

and live streaming. Father, I pray that

your Holy Spirit would come and fill us

with your love. Fill us with your love

unconditionally and unfailingly that we

might in the same way love others. And

God, I pray that as we draw closer and

closer with one another, people of all

ages in the congregation, that we would

experience that fullness of joy that

Christ promised. That we would encourage

one another, comfort one another, build

one another up, bless each other as you

desire and envision. Come, Holy Spirit,

build your body, your home right here at

Christ Church Anglican. Amen.