The Church Being Built Together (Ephesians 2:19...
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The Church Building Together (Ephesians 2:19-22) 2002.01.27.
We give glory and thanks to God for protecting and growing our Yeongam Church. Because the church is a living being like a human, there are times when we are born, there are times when we are like children, there are times when we grow up and become active, and there are times when we are not able to do so and become weak. However, the fact is that the church's strength is determined by its spiritual situation, regardless of age. I hope that our Youngam Church will become a vessel for God's Word and grace, a channel of blessing, and an ark of salvation. We continue to preach ecclesiology every week. What is a church? You must fully understand what you are doing in order to fully confess your faith and lead a righteous life of faith.
The text of the text shows the most basic things about what the church is.
First, the church is a community of faith made up of God's called household (people, children) (19). In New Testament jargon, the church is called ekklesia, which means Christians are new creatures called out of the world by God.
Second, the church is that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the foundation of faith and the rock of life (20). The church is like an invisible spiritual building. Just as the foundation of any building is important, the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, the church is that all the saints are connected to each other like an organism to form a great temple (21). The position and role of each saint is important. Since each position and duty is God's decision, our church overflows with God's vitality when we fulfill our respective roles as all the saints do to the Lord.
Fourth, the church is the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit (22).
In the Old Testament times, a place to worship God was called a sanctuary. The New Testament era is said to be “the temple of the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells.” The Holy Spirit delights to dwell in the church and to work through it. Therefore, he dwells in the temple of the believer's heart and leads them into the truth. Therefore, we must not quench the work of the Holy Spirit, which works from the heart and through our conscience. We must not grieve the Holy Spirit. We must sharpen our faith and conscience, obey the Holy Spirit working through our conscience, and live according to the Holy Spirit.
Kiehl Kegol once said that. "Jesus Christ turned water into wine. But the church did a greater job, turning wine into water." He rebuked the church for losing the essence of the gospel.
For 100 years since the gospel was preached in Korea, the Korean church has walked a blessed path. However, over the past decade or so, church growth has stopped. The church became sick in the swamp of stagnation, the church life became no fun, the joy of faith was lost, and the church failed to become the light and salt of the world and lost its taste. Didn't God move the candlestick? Is the Korean church honeymoon really over? We are raising our voices of concern.
Today's children are taller and have a lot more weight than the children of the past. But when I do the physical exam, I lack strength and persistence. It is said that the number of children suffering from various diseases such as obesity and allergies has increased because of their weak constitution, not just their physical strength. Furthermore, my mind and body became weak. Even if you run into a small problem, you will quickly become discouraged and discouraged.
Although the Korean church has grown, it has fallen into a weak constitution that has lost the power to lead history. So, it is not important for the church to grow, it is for the church to grow healthy. In modern churches, church health is becoming their vision rather than church growth.
Our Youngam Church has a clear vision. “The wandering of life ends when we meet God.” Our vision is to become a church that saves people and nurtures people. This is coming.” Our vision is to create a healthy church and a happy church. The world today doesn't necessarily have to be big. Neither large corporations nor dinosaur companies can survive. Only healthy businesses survive. It is a time when 100,000 bones are not important in the valley of Ezekiel, and we miss one prophet Ezekiel. Although the number of saints has increased, we are living in a time when ten righteous people are missing. The Korean church, the church that has stopped growing, must grow and get out of the swamp of stagnation. Now you have to get out of the blind cave. We must find a way out.
The Church as a Community of Salvation
It must be remembered clearly that in spite of the weakness of the church and the church's flaws, God has led this church community to the salvation community over the past two thousand years. It is a fact that God wants more people to be saved through this church. Does anyone cut their throats for headaches? No one throws the water away with the child because the child's washing water is dirty. The child will be pulled out and only the dirty water is thrown away. Just because the church is wrong, we cannot abandon the gospel and Jesus together. Niagara Falls is not dry just because there are people who died of thirst because there was no water to drink near Niagara Falls.
Despite the church's weakness and many flaws, this church has abundant blessings and the gospel. There is the saving power of Jesus Christ. There is still love in this church that has the strength to lead this history and warmly welcomes us. The church that God keeps and the community God created is the church, so why does the church still have problems? Because it is a place where people with a lot of problems gather. The reason that the church is weak is not because of its weakness, but because the weak people gather there. The reason the church has many flaws and lacks is because you and I are all still lacking and have many faults. Despite this weakness of the Church, the Church is a holy community. Not because we who are gathered here are holy, but because the Holy Spirit who makes us holy is here. This is because the power of the blood of Jesus' blood, which makes us holy, pure, and pure, is at work here.
Healthy and Happy Church Model
There are people who ask, "How can I share a happy life of faith with the members?" The correct answer to that question is, "The church needs to become a church." You can say When the church becomes like the church, the saints become like the saints, and worship is supposed to become like worship. We must return to the essence of the church. Where can we find healthy and happy church models? We need to go back to the Bible. The most complete church in the Old and New Testaments is found in Ephesians. That is why theologians call Ephesians the queen of the epistles. Among them, there is an important declaration speaking to us at this time through today's text 2:19 and below. They say, "You have a responsibility to build a happy church. You have a responsibility to build a healthy church."
Today's text is saying that building the kingdom of God is the reason we should live on this earth. No matter what anyone says, the church is the body of Jesus Christ. "How did we serve the church, which is the body of the Lord? How healthy have we made this church? How happy have we lived through this church?" When we stood in heaven, the metaphor of judgment was is to say it will. It is truly a blessing to say that we can meet a healthy church and a happy church while we are living our religious life on this earth.
It is said in Ephesians 2:12. “At that time you were outside Christ, and outside the kingdom of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Today’s text continues that way. “Therefore, from now on you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”
“Neither an alien nor a hand,” he said. It means that you are not a foreigner in heaven and you are not a guest of the church. You are the hero of heaven. Each and every one of you has become the protagonist of this church. Guests have no rights and no responsibilities. We are not heavenly tourists or heavenly spectators. This is the story of not being a bystander watching how this church becomes a healthy church and a happy church.
The next word is "I am a citizen with the saints", and it means that I have become a citizen of heaven. We owned heaven. It's about becoming people who have the right to enjoy the good things of heaven to their heart's content. I don't know how many people struggle to get permanent residency in the United States. You don't know how hard it is to get our citizenship among our compatriots in China. When the New Testament was written, having Roman citizenship was a great power.
What is the church made of?
In a book by John Ruskey, there are seven elements of church architecture. It is not rebar, cement, wood, soil, tile, or brick, but the truth must be present in building the church. There must be beauty. There must be love There must be sacrifice. There must be obedience there must be sweat They say you have to have a dream. Just as the personalities of a designer and an architect combine to create a building, a church is created by mixing the obedience, sweat, and sacrifice of countless people. We will build this church with the love, faith, and dreams of those who build it. Architecture always tells the history of that era.