The Church Growing Through the Word
Contents
Subject: A Church Growing Through the Word
Text: Ephesians 4:11-16
Dear saints, I pray in the name of the Holy Trinity that God's great blessings abound on you and your families who worship God before the Lord on the second Sunday of the new year. Ephesians 4:1-16 can be said to be Paul's ecclesiology, which dealt with the issue of the unity of the church or the unity of the church. Through this text, we can know what the essence of the church is, and therefore what the mission of the church is. , and also a desirable church, a perfect church, and a truly ideal church. What is a church?
(1) The church is called "a gathering of saints." The "holy crowd", a gathering of those specially called by God, is called the church.
(2) And the church is called the body of the Lord. That's why the church is called 'the church that is the body of the Lord'. We who have been called by God
are all members connected to the body of the Lord. Therefore, the church cannot be formed without the saints. So, the church is the body of the Lord, and at the same time we are all together, and all of us gathered here are the church. Therefore, the church is not a building or any institution or organization in the true sense of the church. In general, we talk about what the church is and the mission of the church.
① The church does the work of proclaiming (the Word). - The missionary mission of the church.
② The church does service work. - The service mission of the church.
③ The church is a place of fellowship and fellowship among the saints. communal mission.
④ The church is teaching. - The educational mission of the Church.
God has called us to fully establish the body of the Lord, the church. He has given you different gifts. God is self
He did not establish the church completely by exercising his power alone, but by calling us and giving us the power of different offices (the gift of the Holy Spirit) to work through us and with us. It contains verses 11 and 12.
So what is the perfect church? First of all, the word 'perfect' refers to "a state of being fully prepared, complete, and fully grown to maturity." The word wholeness also has the meaning of "harmony and balance." It can also mean "the state of being in good health." It is about making ourselves whole. In order for the church to become a new and perfect church,
(1) First, the saints must be completely renewed through the Word.
① Reading the Bible every day and meditating on the Word day and night
② Through Bible study, through family worship, through district worship,
Without being nourished by the Word, our faith can never mature. Our faith cannot be healthy.
(2) We must be nurtured by the Word and grow up perfectly, so that we do not fall and be shaken by the terrible temptations of this world. Verse 14 says that we will no longer be children and that we will be armed with prayer and the Word. When you are able to overcome all temptation.
(3) In order for our church to be fully established, each of us must speak the word first.
We must be fully armed and fully built up, and at the same time serve each other with the word of God (verse 16). There is. Amen