Communauté et discipulat

The Church Empowered (Mat. 16:13~18)

2019.04.28P. McClure

The church is empowered because its head, Jesus Christ, has already defeated the enemy. We fight from victory, so let us worship God, build up his people, and go out to be the church.

The church is the called-out body of Christ

The church is not a building or an organization but a living organism of God. It is the ecclesia, the called-out ones, and the body of Christ, with Christ as its head. In light of the events in Sri Lanka, we must recognize the spiritual warfare that rages daily. Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil. The devil prowls like a roaring lion, and Open Doors statistics from 50 countries show 345 Christians killed, 105 churches attacked, and 219 Christians detained each month. Yet we fight from victory, not for victory.

The gates of hell will not prevail (13-18절)

Jesus stopped at Caesarea Philippi, a place of pagan worship and sacrifices to the false god Pan. A cave there was believed to be the entrance to Hades. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified, and his stop there was like a declaration of war on hell. Some debate whether the rock is Peter or his confession, and some commentators compare Petros and Petra. I take the rock to mean that no power of hell can overcome the church as long as Jesus is its head. Jesus stopped the gates of hell from taking us, and he snatched us from where we were heading. I would not be here if God had not entered my life.

A powerful head gives the church power

We are not a weak or anemic church, because our head is powerful. He is the second person of the Trinity and the creator God. John 1 says the Word was God, and in John 17:5 he speaks of the glory he shared with the Father before the world began. In Acts 1:8 he promised that when the Holy Spirit comes we will receive power and be his witnesses, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. That starts in our own backyard. God's purpose for the church is not a nice house, money and a poodle behind a picket fence, which is the life the enemy offers. It is to glorify him.

Worship is the essence of glorifying God

The Westminster Confession says man's chief aims are to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God told Moses to let his people go so that they could worship him, and Romans 12:1 calls our bodies living sacrifices, our spiritual act of worship. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the Lord on the throne while the seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy." He cries, "Woe is me," because he sees his own sin. A seraph touches his lips with a coal, and his sin is atoned for and his guilt removed, as Romans 8:1 says. He answers, "Here am I, send me," humbly and not proudly. That is the beginning of worship, and our whole life becomes worship when we reach out to others at work or pray for them.

Building up God's people

After worship, the pattern turns inward to edify God's people. Last Sunday the church gave generously for a missionary and his family caught in the uncertainty in Sri Lanka. At the ABF community, people sharing food table to table was a small picture of Acts 2:42-47. When God's people see a need, they respond, because the Spirit living in them wants to love and serve, even when every bone in the body says no. God has given each of us talents, skills, treasures and time. According to Ephesians 2:10, we are his masterpieces, with work prepared in advance. Deuteronomy 8:17 says he gives us the power to produce wealth, so we submit everything to him and he uses it to bless his church.

Go out and be the church: one person can make a difference

Once we are built up, we go out, because we are the church in the store and at work. We must stop doing church and start being the church. A church in Nazi Germany heard screams from the passing trains. It could do nothing, so it had its choir sing loudly to drown them out. The enemy likewise tells us that we are only one person, so we live as if no one is in pain. Yet Romans 1:16 calls the gospel the power of God, dunamis, from which we get dynamite. Paul was one person and wrote a third of the New Testament. Jesus left the 99 to go after one. Each of us has a circle of influence, and God can use us even for one person.

Apply to Life

  • Let us remember that the church is the called-out body of Christ and stay connected to Jesus, our head.
  • Let us fight the spiritual battle knowing we fight from victory, and not turn against one another.
  • Let us live our whole lives as worship, answering God's mercy with "Here am I, send me."
  • Let us submit our talents, skills, treasures and time to God to build up his people.
  • Let us stop just doing church and be the church, obeying the Holy Spirit to witness to at least one person in our circle of influence.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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