We Believe: A New Community

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to a new life in Christ.

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To find out more, go to awakeningchurch.com.

Well, as we head into the election this week, it just feels like uh as a community, we're uh holding our collective breath, wondering what does 2020 hold in store for us next.

And it's so easy to see around that our nation is absolutely divided.

And it just feels like everybody's shouting at one another and nobody's listening.

And sadly, sadly, the church doesn't look any different.

You know, the church that was intended to bring about the renewal of cultures, the renewal of cities and systems has simply became or become a reflection of our culture and around us.

And we've been wrestling with this question over the last few weeks in our We Believe series is what does it look like for the church to once more return to being that renewing agent in our culture rather than just a reflection of it?

And we talked about and began with Jesus' command.

It was the command that he said, this is the way all believers will be known by.

This is the the this is exactly, you know, what is to describe a follower of Jesus.

And he said it this way: a new command I give you.

Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

And then by this, the entire world will know you're my disciples if you love one another.

Like the distinguishing mark for us as believers is how we love and that we love the way Jesus loves sacrificially.

Love in a way that lays down our life even for those we disagree with and dislike, or maybe even think of as enemies.

And so you're confronted, and I'm confronted with the same problem, I think, that the first followers were confronted with.

How in the world do we love somebody who thinks and sees life very differently than we do?

How do we love somebody, right, who who is voting differently than you, or posting differently than you, or quarantine differently than you?

How do you love someone in a world that where it's just so divisive and divided?

How do we then respond and be that renewing agent in our culture?

Well, the early church was an incredibly diverse group of people.

In fact, uh, they were diverse socioeconomically, they were diverse politically, they were diverse ethnically, and even Scott McKnight, theologian, describes them as a fellowship of difference and unlikes.

I mean, you just imagine the first gatherings of the church, and there was the Jewish and the Greek believers, there were the slaves and masters worshiping together, there were men and women.

This was unheard of in the ancient day.

And uh even the first followers of Jesus, the 12 disciples, they were incredibly diverse.

Yes, they were all Jewish believers, but if we just kind of think about, you know, let's just take um, like we did in our first week, um, Simon the zealot, uh, before following Jesus, he was a participant in the revolutionary group against the Roman Empire.

And then in the same group was Matthew the tax collector, who had, you know, unfortunately disowned his Jewish people by being a participant with the Roman Empire.

And here these two are sitting side by side in the presence of Jesus, and he's saying, love one another.

And the question the question is, how did this deeply divided, diverse group transform into a unified, uh, irresistible, unstoppable movement of God that changed the world as we know it?

What changed?

And as we've said over the weeks, the thing that changed, what changed was the resurrection of Jesus changed everything.

At that moment, the resurrection made all the difference in the world.

It just seemed like all their differences and their disagreements were so petty and small compared to the reality that God visited the planet, that he was on this rescue mission in the person of Jesus and took on death itself and defeated the grave.

It was that event that changed the world, that changed their world.

And it was changing people's worlds ever since.

And no longer was it my way, their way.

It was Jesus, have your way in me.

It was the resurrection that compelled this self-centered bunch of misfits.

Listen to this, to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus.

No.

The command of Jesus, think about this, to love each other as he has loved you is not just a hard command.

It's impossible.

It's an impossible command.

How in the world do we sacrificially lay down our lives for our enemies?

How do we pray for those who vote differently or in leadership in our government that we disagree with?

How do we, you know, bless those who quarantine differently than us?

It's not just hard.

It's impossible to love the way Jesus loved unless.

Unless the resurrection wasn't just the end of the story.

The resurrection actually was the beginning of God initiating a new way to be human.

You know, in Jesus' day, there was this longing for God to initiate a new way to be human.

There was this recognition that the brokenness in our world couldn't be fixed by more rules.

It couldn't be fixed by better education.

It couldn't be fixed by advancing technology or anything else.

The brokenness in our world was a human heart issue.

And so what they needed is what we need.

We needed not just a better version of the old.

The world can't understand it because it neither seen him or knows him.

Now listen to this, but you know him for he lives with you and in you, and he will be in you.

Something new is about to happen.

This is what Jesus is saying.

Something new is about to happen, and it hasn't happened before in human history.

God is up to something completely new, and it's no longer God with you, but it is God in you, an awakening to new life in you.

In your power, you cannot love the way Jesus has loved us.

But with the spirit of God in you, working in you, you can love the way Jesus loves.

That's why the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, 11 would say it this way.

He said, And if the spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead is living in you, think about that.

If the spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because the life of the spirit who lives in you, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is now actively at working, bringing about new life, new heart, new responses.

The long-awaited hope for God to initiate just this new way to be human, new responses.

Now able to love instead of retaliate and hate, now able to be kind instead of responding in cruelty, now able to extend reconciliation instead of retribution.

And the result of this new humanity formed the supernaturally empowered by the Spirit of God community that loved the way Jesus loved, and it turned the world up aside, but down.

This is why the creed then concludes this way.

I believe, I believe in the Holy Spirit of God.

This is the spirit Ezekiel was talking about.

This is the spirit that Jesus had promised his followers that would come.

This is the spirit that Paul said raise Christ from the dead and lives in you.

So the question then is who is the Spirit of God?

Who is this spirit?

Well, the Spirit, like we talked about last week, is the third person of the Trinity, God and very God, who is alone gives life to the believer.

It's this idea of regeneration that is to be spiritually made alive and empowers the believer to live out this new life.

That's the idea of sanctification, that we're gradually becoming more and more like Jesus.

The Spirit is at work doing that.

The Holy Spirit indwells every single follower of Jesus and it testifies to our spirit that we are indeed children of God.

And the picture Paul uses is the picture of that your body is the temple of God.

Over and over, your body is the temple of God.

In the ancient day, if you wanted to worship, you had to go to a temple to worship.

And you know, if you're part uh of you know a polytheistic view, you had all these different temples and all these different gods, and and and the Jewish people would go to Jerusalem to the temple to worship God and be there.

And Paul says this that your body, your physical body, now is the temple of God.

In 1 Corinthians 6, he says it this way in the context, it's it's very interesting.

He says, flee from sexual immorality.

Don't do stuff with your body that that would that that would harm it sexually, that is not in alignment with God's will.

Why?

Uh he says, flee sexual immorality.

All other sins a person commits are outside their body, but the one who sins sexually sins against his own body.

And you're like, okay, Ryan, why are you going down this road?

Well, listen to this.

He says, Do you not know your bodies are temples of the Spirit of God who is in you, whom you receive from God.

Therefore, honor God with your body that you would begin to understand and recognize the minute you said yes to Jesus, the Spirit of God came and dwelled inside of you.

And now you don't have to go anywhere to worship.

And we're in this wonderful church at Saratoga Federated worshiping, and they let us be here.

We're so grateful for that.

But the Spirit of God lives in you.

And so, what is the activity of the Spirit of God in you?

Well, like I said, the moment you believe in Jesus, you receive the Spirit of God.

And what takes place, the scripture tells us, is the baptism of the Spirit of God, where you become spiritually made alive in Christ, where your dead spiritual self is raised to life.

The picture of baptism are water baptism is, you know, the physical picture of an inward spiritual reality.

It's the picture of someone standing into the waters of baptism and they're going down, having been crucified with Christ.

And the waters is always a symbol of purity, that you're being washed clean and made new, and then being raised to new life, just as the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the grave, spiritually, you're being awakened and raised to new life.

That is the baptism of the Spirit of God.

It happens the moment you say yes to Jesus.

And it only happens once.

And here's the reason why is the minute you say yes and the Spirit of God indwells you, he not only baptizes you, he then seals you by the Spirit of God.

In fact, Ephesians 1, 13 through 14 says, and you also were included, speaking to Gentiles in Christ, when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal.

Now, a seal in the ancient day had a few different things connected to it.

One, it was the seal of authority, it was the seal of security, that it was the seal of ownership, that this is mine.

It designated, set aside, and had this protection, like this is mine, and God's saying, you are mine forevermore.

Over and over, the scriptures talk about the seal of the Spirit of God.

When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is now listen to this: a deposit.

So not only this seal that is security, like God, you can't undo what God has done in your life.

Like, like his love is greater than anything, his faithfulness is greater than any of your unfaithfulness, his forgiveness is greater than any of your wandering.

You're sealed by the Spirit of God.

And then says it's a deposit.

It's supposed to remind us when you recognize that the Spirit of God is active, living inside of you, working.

A deposit is I put something down to let you know that I'm coming back for that.

And God said, I've placed my spirit inside of you.

Think about this, how good.

Because I'm coming back for you.

It's a seal, it's a deposit.

And then not only that, is then the Spirit of God empowers us to live out this life.

Acts 1.8, Jesus said, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you to be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and all the ends of the earth.

And then in 2 Peter, Peter, who sat there and heard Jesus say these words, he then is writing a letter to those that are undergoing suffering and hardship and pain.

And he says this, this has been such a powerful verse in my life.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a life and godliness through our knowledge of him who's called us by his own glory and goodness.

His divine power, think about this, has given you everything you need.

You presently have all that you need in Christ right now.

And COVID can't take it away, and election can't take it away, and the struggles in your marriage can't take that away.

And even the addiction and the wrestling and the coping and all the us, he says, you have, if you're a follower of Christ, you have everything you need.

You're not lacking anything right now in Christ.

The empowering work of the Spirit of God.

There's a few ways it's expressed.

One, he deposited a spiritual gift inside you.

Think about this.

Like, this is not just natural talent.

He's deposited a spiritual gift when you operate out of it, whether it's encouragement, maybe it's a word of knowledge, prophecy, leadership, um, uh, hospitality.

It brings about supernatural good around you.

It builds up the body of Christ and it gives you supernatural joy.

He's empowered you.

Jesus called the Spirit of God the Paraclete, the comforter, the counselor.

He said, the spirit will illuminate the truth.

Like the Spirit of God will then take God's word and make it alive that you can understand and guide and give you wisdom and counsel.

Don't you need wisdom and counsel right now?

Don't you need direction?

He says, you have the spirit of God empowering you in this.

And it says the spirit of God brings peace and hope and life.

You know, Jesus said, uh, my peace I give to you, I leave with you.

And in Romans chapter 15, verse 13, this has been just an anchor verse during this season for me.

Romans 15:13

It says, May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Friends, I just got to tell you, if you're not attentive to the Spirit of God, you're missing out on the power of God in your life.

And finally, Spirit of God to strengthen and sanctify that perseverance, that ability to endure and under the ability to withhold a tongue and to sanctify and to make us more and more like Christ.

The Spirit of God is the baptizing, the sealing work, the empowering work.

And then for some, you're like, Ryan, I've never experienced that before, okay?

I've never had this.

Um I I trusted Jesus, and chances are you've not um allowed the Holy Spirit to fill you.

You've not just allowed yourself to be filled by the Holy Spirit of God.

Ephesians, um, what is it?

Oh my goodness.

Ephesians 4.18, there it is.

It says this, and do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, uh, which, you know, is just this whole drunkenness.

Instead, be filled with the spirit.

It's this command to be filled.

In Galatians, the apostle Paul would say it this way, and walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

And so do not get drunk with wine.

Don't allow yourself to be under the influence of an outside substance, is what it's saying.

And that's a command, too.

But the point of it is allow yourself to be under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Or you'd say, you wake up in the morning, Holy Spirit, I need you today.

Is there anything in me that that is just not of you?

I want to confess that.

I want to be attentive to your voice and where you check in throughout your day.

You know, you can quench the spirit of God in your life.

First Thessalonians talks about that.

You can grieve the Spirit of God as the temple of God.

And as you do things that are unholy, you are grieving the Spirit of God.

Would you choose and say, no, no, I'm gonna choose to be filled with the Spirit of God, to walk and step.

And here's what happens as you do that, you experience the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 22 says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness.

Goodness, gentleness.

Oh, I always forget one.

Self-control.

Um I probably missed one.

Um, but the fruit of the spirit.

Now, here's how we miss it in the Christian life, friends.

We often are trying to be more loving.

We're trying to get more joy.

In COVID, you're trying to get peace, right?

Or self-control.

Jesus flips the paradigm.

The Christian life isn't how do I become more loving, joyful all the time.

It says that's the overflow of your deep connection and relationship with the Spirit of God, with Jesus in your life.

It says, when you are filled, when you're walking in step with the Spirit, when your life is saying, Go, okay, God, I want to get into your word.

I want your word to get into me.

And I'm going to be attentive to your voice and leading.

And when you prompt, I'm going to take a step.

And that's when you hear the voice more clearly of God, then the fruit just plays itself out.

You become more loving.

You become more gentle.

You be you become more joy-filled and peaceful and patient and faithful and self-control.

See, the picture is your body.

It is the temple of God.

Wherever you're going, the Spirit of God lives and dwells in you.

But it's even better than that.

The other picture is now that you are a member of the body of Christ.

You are a member of Christ's body.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 talks about it this way: that, you know, even though, you know, like a body has different members, you got hands and feet and toes and eyes and all this, we make up one body.

See, we're not supposed to be this uniform, you know, sameness.

We we are this incredibly unique, but we're all part of one whole body of Christ.

You're now a member.

And so we're all part of each other together.

That's important.

Because in our individualistic society, you're kind of going like, I'm doing my thing and I have my own spirituality.

And it's like, no, we're all one body together, and Jesus is the head of that body.

It's a new community.

It's what's called the church or the ekklesia, the called out ones.

And the creed continues on.

I believe in the Holy Spirit of God.

And then the Holy Catholic Church.

It's the word Catholic there isn't actually connected to the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic just means universal.

I believe in the universal church of Christ.

That there aren't like multiple, like this church and that church.

And it's actually in the kingdom of God, there's the church, big C church.

And yes, we have different expressions of that.

But in heaven, I just got to tell you, there's not going to be like the Methodist, the Pentecostal, the Baptist, or whatever.

Your brand of churches, there's going to be the church, one tribe, one tongue, one language, celebrating and worshiping God.

And I said that a little different.

Every tribe, every tongue, every language worshiping God.

And so what is the church?

Well, the church then is the supernaturally empowered community of God that has experienced the radical grace of God in their lives, and then they are, and we are, expressing his love to a hurting and broken world.

Jesus is the head of the church.

Ryan's not the head of the church.

Your favorite online pastor is not the head of the church.

Jesus is the head of the church, and he calls the shots.

And he has given every single believer spiritual gifts, like we talk about, to belong.

Isn't that amazing?

Don't you, isn't it incredible that you belong to a new community, a new family, and you have a purpose to build up that community?

And the creed goes on and gives us three just distinguishing marks of the church.

It's actually the overflow of what Jesus' command would be.

You know, if we really love each other the way Jesus loved us, well, first we'd have unity.

We'd have unity.

Again, not uniformity, unity.

The creed goes on and says the communion of the saints.

One way to think about this is uh together oneness.

We're all together one.

Uh, you know, in Ephesians chapter four, and I'm just gonna go ahead and turn there.

The apostle Paul unpacks this.

He says, as prisoners for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Be completely humble and gentle.

How do we live worthy?

Be completely humble, gentle.

Wouldn't that be amazing if that's how every follower of Christ responded online right now?

Be completely humble and gentle.

Be patient.

Now notice this: bearing with one another in love.

The only reason you have to bear with one another is because the other person is a bear.

I don't like them.

They're annoying.

Just they, Ryan, you don't get it.

And he says, bear with one another in love.

Make every effort, how much?

Every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.

There's one body and one spirit, just as you're called to one hope when you're called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all and through all and in all.

The first thing he says, this distinguishing mark of the church is unity, the communion of the saints.

The second is forgiveness.

This is getting lost today in our culture.

And the next line in the creed says the forgiveness of sin.

Colossians 1 13 says, For he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loved, uh, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Like you are fully forgiven by God forever.

The psalmist says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he taken your sin from us.

And then chapter three of Colossians says this therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself.

Like put this on.

This is to be the attire of followers of Jesus with compassion and kindness and gentleness and patience.

And then it says this again.

Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you have any grievances, any grievances against someone, forgive how?

As the Lord has forgiven you.

And then he says this, going back to Jesus' command, and over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together.

And again, this is impossible without the indwelling, empowering Spirit of God inside of you.

The first mark of unity, the second mark of forgiveness.

May we be a community that forgives the way Jesus has forgiven us.

And third, eternity, the resurrection of the body and a life everlasting.

Guess what?

Life is short, eternity is long.

So let's start living like it.

This life right now is just but a blank.

But eternity's long.

And what we do in this life affects all of eternity and someone else's eternity.

And we will be bodily raised one day with all other believers, whether you like them or not.

If they're a true follower of Jesus, we're going to be in heaven together.

So you might as well learn to like them right now.

In fact, in Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul unpacks this idea of a resurrection, chapter 4, verse 13.

He says, Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death.

In fact, the early church, because Jesus had defeated death in the grave, they talked about death as sleep, because you would be awakened to life in Christ.

You would be raised again, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who do who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who've fallen asleep in him.

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, and with a loud command, and the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

Unity, forgiveness, eternity.

I mean, is this really a big deal in the scope of eternity?

How did this deeply divided diverse group turn into this unified, irresistible, unstoppable movement of God?

Well, is the resurrection that initiated a new kind of humanity where now your body is the temple of God and you are now a member of the body of Christ.

And when we lean in and live this out and we allow the Spirit of God to work in us, then we're the church.

We're the church that brings renewal to a fragmented and hurting city and world that brings hope and life and peace.

You know, as we close this series, I actually just want to leave you with a benediction.

It's the Apostle Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus.

And it's my prayer for you as we move into election week, and I don't know what it's going to look like, and I don't know if we'll even know really who's president by the end of the week.

And I don't know a lot of things, you know, whether there will be a peaceful transfer of power, whether we'll have, you know, rioting, if our country will be torn apart.

I don't know any of those things.

But here's what I do know.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

And this is my prayer for you, that Paul prayed for them and for us.

I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through the spirit in your inner being.

God, I just so pray for an awakening church that you would strengthen us, strengthen each person in power in their inner being by your spirit, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know the love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

And then he closes with this benediction.

Now to him who's able.

Now to him who's able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that's at work within us.

That's the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you and me.

To him be glory in the church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, in this generation, and the generation to come, and the generation after that, forever and ever.

Amen.