I know I haven't posted in quite some time. My apologies to you. In order to catch up I'd like to offer an overview of where we have been so far in our messages on Sunday.
We began with Paul's big picture view of God's big plan for humanity and creation. In chapter one Paul points out God's decision prior to creating us and our world to chose us to be holy and blameless in Christ. The purpose of this is so that we can be adopted into his family. [a point that will be explained in detail when he will talk about community in chapters 4 and 5] Paul explains that God desires to bring all things under the authority of Christ - everything in heaven and on earth. This desire shows us a God who wants to be with us.
Then Paul explains the change that God has affected in our lives. God begins that change from the inside out. He opens the "eyes of our heart" so that we might understand what he is about and how he desires us to be in relationship with him. He takes us from being "walking dead people" and transforms us into the people he has always desired for us to be - his masterpieces created to do good in the creation. This is none other than us bearing his image in the world. Through Christ, he takes away the hostility that exists within humanity and creates "one new humanity." This humanity is characterized by living in peace both with their fellow man and with God. The wonderful expression is given by Paul that we can now boldy enter into God's presence and be assured of his glad welcome. We no longer need to be afraid of a God we don't understand but rather we now know that this loving God desires us to be close!
Paul marvels at this. He expresses his shear wonder at the love that God has for us and the creation. He prays that by God's Spirit, we will experience all the dimensions of God's love in our lives through Christ, even though we may not comprehend it all! In all of this he then encourages us to live [his word is 'walk'] in keeping with what God has called us to be. He also encourages us to live in keeping with how God wants us to live - not as the pagans do in the futility of their thinking and in their selfish and evil desires. We are called to be light. The light that we shine is our new humanity in relationship with God. This new humanity exposes the darkness that others live in and calls them to embrace the new humanity that God has offered through Christ.
Rather than be drunk with wine, says Paul, and so make merry and party and submit to one another in unhealthy and destructive ways, be filled with the Spirit. Being a community that is filled with the Spirit, our behaviour toward one another, especially in our big relationships such as marriage, parent-children and employer - employee, will take on the character of the relationship that Father has with Christ expressed to us by His Spirit that lives in us. Only when we become this community can we truly join God to battle evil.
In my message next week, I will end the series with concluding how God calls us to join him to battle evil in the world. God wants us to be consistent and persevere in becoming the community he has called us to be so that evil can be driven back and His Kingdom can advance in our world. I'm looking forward to our rejoicing over who we are as His church and taking up the challenge in being what He has called us to be!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
A Big Change Part II - Our True Identity
"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." [Ephesians 2:10]
Our true identity before God is summarized by Paul in this verse in chapter 2 of Ephesians. The underlying reality is that at the creation God created man and woman to care for the creation by living in harmony with it and prospering by multiplying. It is this "good" that God desired for humanity and it is this "good" that evil ultimately undermined in the lie of the serpent to the first man and woman.
We were created complete with a strong sense of good with God's desire that we walk in that goodness and so do good works that cultivate the beauty and grandeur of creation. It is for this reason that God, through Christ, has rescued us so that we might recover our true identities.
Evil tore away the true identity of humanity by veiling humanity's understanding of God and relationship to Him. By that veiling, a great distrust entered into the heart and mind of man and woman that caused them to doubt the goodness of God and the good that they were created to do and created for. This veiling plunged the human race into a darkness of spirit and heart that demanded God's intervention. As we saw in chapter one, God planned that evil would not undermine humanity by choosing to create humanity in Christ to be holy and blameless in full relationship with Him.
Regardless of how broken our lives have been, we can be assured that God has never stopped loving us nor stopped desiring that we live out our true identity. Paul makes it clear in the passage from Sunday's message [chapter 2:1-10] that God loved us in our brokenness and alienation. He took our broken humanity and raised it up in Christ [through Christ's death and resurrection] so that we now are transformed in Christ with His Spirit working our transformation in us now with the hope of full transformation and renewal in the end.
Think about how God has changed your life and changed us as His people and think about what good we are capable of with Christ and the Spirit to help us! We have the ability to live out of our true identities and so do good in our world. Paul affirms that God has intended for us to walk in the good works that drive back evil in our world and bring transformation through our being the body of Christ in our world. If we truly grabbed hold of this what could be the possibilities?
Imagine as God's people in North Oakville living as a community that does good works so that evil is driven back and transformation happens in the lives of others? What would North Oakville look like if as God's community we committed ourselves to living like this?
I dare you to dream the dream that God has put in our hearts by His Spirit so that we can live as God's people bringing life to those who are walking dead people!
Our true identity before God is summarized by Paul in this verse in chapter 2 of Ephesians. The underlying reality is that at the creation God created man and woman to care for the creation by living in harmony with it and prospering by multiplying. It is this "good" that God desired for humanity and it is this "good" that evil ultimately undermined in the lie of the serpent to the first man and woman.
We were created complete with a strong sense of good with God's desire that we walk in that goodness and so do good works that cultivate the beauty and grandeur of creation. It is for this reason that God, through Christ, has rescued us so that we might recover our true identities.
Evil tore away the true identity of humanity by veiling humanity's understanding of God and relationship to Him. By that veiling, a great distrust entered into the heart and mind of man and woman that caused them to doubt the goodness of God and the good that they were created to do and created for. This veiling plunged the human race into a darkness of spirit and heart that demanded God's intervention. As we saw in chapter one, God planned that evil would not undermine humanity by choosing to create humanity in Christ to be holy and blameless in full relationship with Him.
Regardless of how broken our lives have been, we can be assured that God has never stopped loving us nor stopped desiring that we live out our true identity. Paul makes it clear in the passage from Sunday's message [chapter 2:1-10] that God loved us in our brokenness and alienation. He took our broken humanity and raised it up in Christ [through Christ's death and resurrection] so that we now are transformed in Christ with His Spirit working our transformation in us now with the hope of full transformation and renewal in the end.
Think about how God has changed your life and changed us as His people and think about what good we are capable of with Christ and the Spirit to help us! We have the ability to live out of our true identities and so do good in our world. Paul affirms that God has intended for us to walk in the good works that drive back evil in our world and bring transformation through our being the body of Christ in our world. If we truly grabbed hold of this what could be the possibilities?
Imagine as God's people in North Oakville living as a community that does good works so that evil is driven back and transformation happens in the lives of others? What would North Oakville look like if as God's community we committed ourselves to living like this?
I dare you to dream the dream that God has put in our hearts by His Spirit so that we can live as God's people bringing life to those who are walking dead people!
Monday, June 14, 2010
A Big Change - Changing from the Inside Out
What is clear in chapter one of Ephesians is that Paul the Apostle speaks of a big God who has a big plan. In fact, this plan is none other than recovering all humanity and adopting them into God's family. Along with this adoption is a change that God affects in the heart of every human being. He does this through the change he initiated through Jesus' incarnation. By Jesus taking on human flesh, God is able to begin a change in the human race.
What is this change?
The change that God affects in the heart of every human being is one of perspective. God reveals to us his plan of recovering humanity and the world and ridding both of evil. He accomplished this already through the life of Jesus as He lived on this earth and with each step said no to sin and remained faithful to the Father and the Spirit. It is this relationship that Paul points out is now ours in Christ. As the Spirit lived in Jesus while on earth, now the Spirit has been given to us as a down payment ensuring that what is coming will be a place where heaven and earth will be under the authority of Christ.
Going Deep into Our Hearts
God changes us by going deep into our hearts; to the place where we comprehend ourselves and everything around us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to the hope that He has set before the world. That hope is an existence where we are free from evil and free to be what He created us to be. Can you imagine for one moment what a world it would be without evil? Imagine living your life, living our lives, without evil hindering us. This is what God calls us as the church to imagine as we live out the life of Christ in our world. Although evil is still present and still working in our world, its end is certain. It will one day be no more. And as people who God is orienting toward such a future, we can live that kind of life on earth right now. As His community, we can push evil back by living out of the good that God has placed in our hearts through Jesus and by the Spirit.
What would your world look like if you lived like this?
What would your neighbourhood, workplace, family look like if you lived with this perspective? How would the world change in light of the change that God affects inside you? Its our imagination in cooperation with the hope that God reveals that will achieve glimpses today that will speak of the Kingdom of God that is coming. I challenge you to start living like this now. If we are waiting for the fullness of God's Kingdom to come now, why wait living in it until it comes? Look at Jesus' life on earth. He lived like God's Kingdom had arrived. In fact, his presence revealed this very truth - that it had arrived.
God has begun a "good infection" [C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity] that is advancing his Kingdom in the hearts of men and women. By beginning this in their hearts, the goal is that it will change the world. We have the power, in Christ, to change the world. In fact, as Paul points out at the end of chapter one, we have the power, in Christ, to bring life to the places that are dead, and to raise to life what has had no life for a long time.
There is no stopping what can be with such a change occurring in us. As His church, we are his body and so extend to the world the perspective that God has revealed to us in our hearts. Through us God's desire is to open the eyes of others so that they might see the hope of what is coming and taste of the down payment of His presence in life right now.
What is this change?
The change that God affects in the heart of every human being is one of perspective. God reveals to us his plan of recovering humanity and the world and ridding both of evil. He accomplished this already through the life of Jesus as He lived on this earth and with each step said no to sin and remained faithful to the Father and the Spirit. It is this relationship that Paul points out is now ours in Christ. As the Spirit lived in Jesus while on earth, now the Spirit has been given to us as a down payment ensuring that what is coming will be a place where heaven and earth will be under the authority of Christ.
Going Deep into Our Hearts
God changes us by going deep into our hearts; to the place where we comprehend ourselves and everything around us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to the hope that He has set before the world. That hope is an existence where we are free from evil and free to be what He created us to be. Can you imagine for one moment what a world it would be without evil? Imagine living your life, living our lives, without evil hindering us. This is what God calls us as the church to imagine as we live out the life of Christ in our world. Although evil is still present and still working in our world, its end is certain. It will one day be no more. And as people who God is orienting toward such a future, we can live that kind of life on earth right now. As His community, we can push evil back by living out of the good that God has placed in our hearts through Jesus and by the Spirit.
What would your world look like if you lived like this?
What would your neighbourhood, workplace, family look like if you lived with this perspective? How would the world change in light of the change that God affects inside you? Its our imagination in cooperation with the hope that God reveals that will achieve glimpses today that will speak of the Kingdom of God that is coming. I challenge you to start living like this now. If we are waiting for the fullness of God's Kingdom to come now, why wait living in it until it comes? Look at Jesus' life on earth. He lived like God's Kingdom had arrived. In fact, his presence revealed this very truth - that it had arrived.
God has begun a "good infection" [C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity] that is advancing his Kingdom in the hearts of men and women. By beginning this in their hearts, the goal is that it will change the world. We have the power, in Christ, to change the world. In fact, as Paul points out at the end of chapter one, we have the power, in Christ, to bring life to the places that are dead, and to raise to life what has had no life for a long time.
There is no stopping what can be with such a change occurring in us. As His church, we are his body and so extend to the world the perspective that God has revealed to us in our hearts. Through us God's desire is to open the eyes of others so that they might see the hope of what is coming and taste of the down payment of His presence in life right now.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
If you only had one more letter to write ...
What would you do if you were told that you had only one letter to write to those that you love before your life came to an end?
Before attempting to read the letter to the Ephesians, written by Paul the Apostle, its important to know why he wrote it. Scholars tell us that Paul wrote the letter as a companion to two other letters written just prior: Colossians and Philemon. In fact, Ephesians shares some of the same content and structure of Colossians.
Paul is in prison either in Caesarea awaiting extradition to Rome or waiting for a trial before Caesar in Rome. While there it is believed that Paul wrote the Colossian letter addressed to a specific community in north Asia Minor concerning their views on the person of Jesus. Paul's concern was that they did not cloud the reality of the person of Jesus as the Son of God with other beliefs from other religions. He also wrote Philemon; a personal letter to a slave owner encouraging him to take back his wayward slave. While waiting for Tychicus to come and carry the two letters to their destination, Paul decides to write a third letter which was not addressed to any particular Christian community but rather was a general letter that gave Paul the freedom to share his large thoughts about God's cosmic plan for humanity and the world. This is the letter we call Ephesians.
With this background in mind, what we have in the Ephesian letter is Paul's most important thoughts on God's plan. Paying attention then to the first words Paul writes is hugely important. Like a father leaving his final parting thoughts to his loved ones, Paul pens large sweeping thoughts about God's character and his involvement in the life of humans and the world to rid the world of evil. Nothing short of the church as God's evidence of heaven and earth living under the authority of Christ is the secret message that will reveal the wonder of God's plan to the rulers and principalities on earth. It will not be Caesar who will bring peace to humanity and the world but human beings transformed into one new humanity in Christ living in harmony with each other. It is this community that will drive back evil and walk in the life that God has designed for them.
God has given the church the opportunity to join Him in the battle against evil. By living in redeeming relationships with each other and with others at large, the church reveals to the world what it means to live in God's kingdom and to have God as King! Paul's hope is that this letter circulate all over Asia Minor as an encouragement to carry on in faithfulness to what God has called the church to be so that God's plan will continue to be revealed to the world and others may "awaken" to the reality of life in its fullness as God intended it.
What we are embarking on in this series is nothing less then uncovering God's cosmic plan for the world. Reading through Ephesians with this in mind will open up the letter for you and give you a full picture of what God has in mind for us as His community. I pray that you will be encouraged and your faith in His Church will be renewed. Understanding our purpose and place in this plan will reinforce why we continue to meet on Sunday and celebrate our relationship with Christ, with each other and with our world.
I look forward to our journey together these next several weeks!
Before attempting to read the letter to the Ephesians, written by Paul the Apostle, its important to know why he wrote it. Scholars tell us that Paul wrote the letter as a companion to two other letters written just prior: Colossians and Philemon. In fact, Ephesians shares some of the same content and structure of Colossians.
Paul is in prison either in Caesarea awaiting extradition to Rome or waiting for a trial before Caesar in Rome. While there it is believed that Paul wrote the Colossian letter addressed to a specific community in north Asia Minor concerning their views on the person of Jesus. Paul's concern was that they did not cloud the reality of the person of Jesus as the Son of God with other beliefs from other religions. He also wrote Philemon; a personal letter to a slave owner encouraging him to take back his wayward slave. While waiting for Tychicus to come and carry the two letters to their destination, Paul decides to write a third letter which was not addressed to any particular Christian community but rather was a general letter that gave Paul the freedom to share his large thoughts about God's cosmic plan for humanity and the world. This is the letter we call Ephesians.
With this background in mind, what we have in the Ephesian letter is Paul's most important thoughts on God's plan. Paying attention then to the first words Paul writes is hugely important. Like a father leaving his final parting thoughts to his loved ones, Paul pens large sweeping thoughts about God's character and his involvement in the life of humans and the world to rid the world of evil. Nothing short of the church as God's evidence of heaven and earth living under the authority of Christ is the secret message that will reveal the wonder of God's plan to the rulers and principalities on earth. It will not be Caesar who will bring peace to humanity and the world but human beings transformed into one new humanity in Christ living in harmony with each other. It is this community that will drive back evil and walk in the life that God has designed for them.
God has given the church the opportunity to join Him in the battle against evil. By living in redeeming relationships with each other and with others at large, the church reveals to the world what it means to live in God's kingdom and to have God as King! Paul's hope is that this letter circulate all over Asia Minor as an encouragement to carry on in faithfulness to what God has called the church to be so that God's plan will continue to be revealed to the world and others may "awaken" to the reality of life in its fullness as God intended it.
What we are embarking on in this series is nothing less then uncovering God's cosmic plan for the world. Reading through Ephesians with this in mind will open up the letter for you and give you a full picture of what God has in mind for us as His community. I pray that you will be encouraged and your faith in His Church will be renewed. Understanding our purpose and place in this plan will reinforce why we continue to meet on Sunday and celebrate our relationship with Christ, with each other and with our world.
I look forward to our journey together these next several weeks!
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