Ephesians chapter 4. We're in the middle of a series on the presence of God, the manifest presence of God, and I thought maybe this morning we'd do a little bit of a review just because I know some of you haven't been here for every single week. So let me just tell you kind of what's been up. Over the last 4 weeks or so, we've discussed what it means to experience the presence of God and how that's different than what we think of God's presence being everywhere at all times. The way we talked about this when we introduced the idea is that it's one thing to say that God is everywhere, which is true, and it's another thing to say God is here. That's His felt manifest presence, and we are seeking God's presence in this time. That's what we're here to do, that's what we've been doing.
So a few weeks ago we opened up our Bibles to Psalm 13, and it helped us to develop a sense of urgency. We saw that it's a dangerous thing to go too long without experiencing the presence of God. The next week, which also happened to be Father's Day, we returned back to Psalm 13 and saw David say in that same prayer in which he asked God, 'How long, how long will you hide your face from me?' We see David saying, 'But I have trusted in your steadfast love.' And we realized as we studied that phrase that that's referring to the Fatherhood of God. We made this conclusion on that second week, that because God is the perfect Father, we don't have to question whether He wants to draw near to us or not. We know that because God is a perfect Father, we can trust in His steadfast love. It is His will to draw near to us. Then we saw Revelation 21 and 22, the sort of unfolding, the consummation of God's plan for everything, and that is that He would dwell amongst His people forever, that they would experience His presence forever. That's where we're headed. And we made this statement, we said that the revelation we see there is the responsibility in this life. We want to turn the awe of the future into the agenda for today. And then last week we saw the central role of humility, the central role humility plays in our pursuit of the presence of God.
And I want to show you that again today by looking at Ephesians 4, chapter 4, verse 1. And I want to talk a little bit about humility today, a little bit about unity, and a little bit about ministry. Next week we'll talk more about ministry. This sermon is in some respects kind of a bridge sermon between last week's and this week's. We're starting to get practical. We're starting to ask, practically speaking, how do we pursue the presence of God?
And Ephesians is so helpful for that because the first 3 chapters, that's what's talking about. The first 3 chapters are talking about the church being built up together to become a dwelling place for God. And then in chapter 4, Paul pivots and says, now let me tell you how we do this. He says in verse 1, if you've got your Bibles open, 'I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.' Paul is saying, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. And if we look back and study carefully and see the last several chapters, his conversation with the Ephesian church, We know what that calling is. That calling is to be built up together into the dwelling place of God. That's the calling he's speaking of. And he's saying that there's a way to walk that is worthy of that calling.
So what's the very first practical thing he tells us to do? The very first practical thing he gives us to walk worthy of this calling? Well, the very first practical thing is in verse 2. And it says, 'With all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love.' The plan is simple. We as a church, I'm speaking about this particular church, want to pursue the presence of the Lord together. We want to pursue God together. And we're asking, well, practically, what must we do to pursue Him? And the first thing Scripture gives us out of the book of Ephesians practically to do is to pursue humility.
Now let's think about all the reasons why pursuing humility would help us pursue God. There's some really obvious vertical reasons, like for instance, you're not going to pursue God if you don't think you need Him. So humility tells you, I need God. I'm a creature. I'm not called to live this life independently. I need Him, and so I will seek Him. So there's one obvious reason there. But Paul is actually speaking here about the horizontal plane, about our relationship with one another. He's not talking only about our humility toward God, but actually our humility toward one another.
6 · Makes the sermon's controlling theological claim: the corporate nature of pursuing God's presence is non-negotiable, humility is essential for that corporate pursuit, and pride is fundamentally incompatible with experiencing God's presence
Here's the important thing to take away from this section of the message: we're called to walk together into God's presence. We're called to experience God together. That togetherness is a non-negotiable. That togetherness is God's will. Well, how does humility help us to do that together? Well, honestly, friends, we couldn't do it together without humility. Here's the basic idea: pride and the presence of God are incompatible. It's as simple as that. In our desire and our pursuit of the presence of God, the one thing that I can assure you will be a problem will be pride. It'll be a problem because it'll affect our relationship directly with God and how we see our need for God, but it'll also be a problem with how we relate to one another as we link arms and walk together to pursue Him. Honestly, if we're prideful, we won't link arms, we won't walk together, we won't walk in unity one with another into the presence of God. And that's what God wants us to do. That's the purpose to which we've been called. So in order to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we've received, what's the calling? To live and walk in the presence of God. How do we do that? We put on humility.
7 · Continues exposition of Ephesians 4:2, applying it to the human tendency to co-opt God's agenda with pride
And then it says, continuing in verse 2, 'With gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love.' Friends, it's so important that we understand that we have a tendency, well, we have a tendency, but let me just make this personal, I have a tendency to say to God, God, what are you doing? Let me know what you're doing. Let me know what you want to do so I can take over and do it my way. Give me your plan so that I can take it over and do it my way. And what we need to understand in pursuing this high calling, pursuing the presence of the Lord, is that we will screw this up if we try to do it on our own.
8 · Identifies the counterintuitive danger: a high calling paradoxically amplifies pride
You know, when Paul says with all humility and all gentleness, I think that's so important When we get to these very big, pressing, eternal matters, it is easy to become impatient with one another. It is easy to become ungentle with one another. It's easy to look at the other person and say, 'That person's holding me back.' Friends, there's this tendency we have. Anytime God gives us a leg up, we use that leg up to step on someone else. So God's revealed His will to us in the Scriptures that we're supposed to pursue this presence of God, we're supposed to seek after God. Friends, that's a high calling. And one of the things your flesh will do with a high calling is use it to get leverage on everybody else. That's just a fact. When God gives you a deep, high calling, pride is knocking at the door.
9 · Synthesizes the argument: pursuing God's presence is a corporate calling, which makes unity necessary, which in turn makes humility non-negotiable
And so Paul is saying that you can't pursue the presence of God without true humility because you're called to do that together, and you won't be able to do that together if one of you thinks you're better than the other one. If one of you is looking down on the other one. So what he's really saying here is that because you're called to pursue the presence of God together, unity is key, and you can't have unity without humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.
10 · Begins exposition of Ephesians 4:3, acknowledging the phrase's difficulty while proposing an initial interpretive insight: the connection between the Spirit's fruit (gentleness, patience from v
Look at verse 3, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You know, it's easy to read some things in Scripture and just sort of check out mentally and think, well, I don't know what that means, but it sounds pretty simple, the unity of the Spirit. Boy, I'll tell you, that's a loaded phrase there that you wouldn't want to just pass on. What does Paul mean when he says, verse 3, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not sure I know what the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is. I'll tell you this, here's some things I've picked up on. Number 1, I know where gentleness and patience come from because Galatians 6 tells me they are fruits of the Spirit. I know that there's some connection to what he's saying at the beginning to have gentleness and patience and also unity of the Spirit.
11 · Identifies the key exegetical insight from Ephesians 4:3: the command to 'maintain' unity with 'eagerness' reveals that Spirit-produced unity is fragile and must be actively guarded—it can be present or absent
I also know this, and I think this is probably the most important thing that I figured out. It's easy to lose this. Look again at verse 3. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Eager to maintain. What does maintain mean here? It means keep, guard. It means to be careful with. It means to hold. What does eager mean? It just means zeal, attentiveness, care, focus. Here's the thing I think I'm seeing in this phrase. The unity of the Spirit that exists in a local church is fragile. It's something that can come or go.
12 · Uses marriage as an analogy to illustrate the fragility of spiritual unity
I look at my marriage and say, like, my marriage has never changed legal status, thank God, right? We've been married for 22 years. That has never changed. But if we're not careful, honestly, it's always been this way for 22 years. If we're not careful in guarding and maintaining this unity of spirit, we won't have it. It'll go away. Now the legal status stays the same, but the quality of the relationship has changed. And here's what I want to posit to you. I think that we need to be careful to remember that this unity of the spirit, this thing that we have where we all walk in the same direction together, linked arms, is something that will go away if we don't guard it. In fact, we might not even have right now and need to seek together to have. When he says eager to maintain, that sounds to me a lot more like carrying an egg than a pillow. Like something fragile, something breakable, something that you have to guard, something that you have to care for. And I don't know whether we have that or not. All I'm saying is that that's going to be essential as we pursue the presence of God together.
13 · Introduces and expounds the theological principle that horizontal relationships directly affect vertical experience
Here's one thing I think we often forget about: the way we treat other people directly affects our experience of God. I know that sounds so simple that you think, well, heaven forbid we would ever forget that, but I'm telling you what, we forget that. We don't realize the extent to which our experience of God, our enjoyment of God, is connected to the way we view and treat other people. You know, there's a passage in 1 Peter that's always keyed me into this idea, and it's actually about husbands and wives. Let me read this verse to you, 1 Peter 3:7, 'You husbands likewise live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman, and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.' Did you hear that last phrase? So that your prayers may not be hindered. So the beginning of the passage says, you husbands likewise live with your wives in an understanding way, etc., etc., etc., so that your prayers may not be hindered. The implication is that men, we treat our wives poorly, our prayers, the quality of our experience with God, our prayers will actually be affected negatively. Now, you might think if you've just read this the first couple of times, well, that's kind of weird, but okay, God really loves ladies and He wants them to be treated well and men are jerks and okay, there's a connection, I see it. You might think, well, that's a special deal. That what Peter is hinting at here is that this is a special relationship and if you don't treat it well, it, will affect your prayers. That's not what he's saying. He's actually saying that that's just one way that the way we treat others affects our experience with God. The very next section of the text, he says this, starting in verse 8, 'Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.' And he goes on and lists all these very specifics, and then it says at the very end, 'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.' What's the implication? The implication is it's not just husbands and wives that have this weird thing where if they don't treat each other well, their prayers are affected. It's actually true throughout our relationship with God that the way we treat other people signals, affects our experience with God, our experience of the presence of God.
14 · Demonstrates the principle from the Old Testament using the two great commandments and Isaiah 58
Friends, really, it's not that complicated. Jesus says that the whole prophets and the law hang on two commandments. What are the two great commandments? To love God with your whole being, and what? To love your neighbor as yourself. Time and time again in the Old Testament, God says clearly, listen, you're seeking me, but you're treating people like garbage. And as long as those two things are happening, you'll not find me. I will not be where you want me to be. You will not experience me the way you want to experience me because of this. Let me read Isaiah 58:6-10 to you. God is confronting the nation of Israel, they are seeking Him earnestly, quote-unquote earnestly, through fasting, and He says this to them, 'Is this not the fast I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?' 'Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, "Here I am." If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking of wickedness; if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desires of the afflicted; Then shall your light rise in the darkness, and your gloom be as the noonday. God's making a very clear connection. The way we relate to other people is going to experience the reality of our experience with God. It's going to affect the reality of our experience with God. It's just thoroughly biblical.
15 · Applies the exposition directly: if you long to experience God's presence more fully, examine your relationships
And so what Paul's saying in Ephesians 4 is you need to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace because That's the vehicle, that's the avenue, the conduit by which God will deliver the presence that you're seeking, the experience with God that you're seeking. God is not changed in his commitment to us. In the gospel, we stand in covenantal assurance that we are his. If we have put our faith in Christ, we are his, period. But the quality of that relationship is affected by the way we treat other people. So I feel like I've received so much positive feedback about this series and so many people saying, I just yearn to experience God more fully. I don't want to become captive to my emotions. I don't want to become captive to my experience, but I also don't want to estrange emotion experience from my relationship with God. I'm called to love God with my whole being. It's been a long time since I've really felt The presence of God. Not that that's the chief designation or the chief diagnostic, but it matters. I've gotten so much positive feedback saying, 'This is what I long for.' And I feel like it's my job to tell you, 'Well then, this is something you should look at.' What's the status of your relationship with those around you? What's the status of your relationship with those that live in the neighborhood around this church, that live in the greater county area, that live in the greater city area. How are you treating your neighbor? Are you loving your neighbor as you love yourself? Because Jesus connects that command to the command to love Him. And we see throughout Scripture that those two things are inseparable.
16 · Returns to the controlling thesis, synthesizing the argument: mistreating others is rooted in pride, pride destroys unity, and without unity we cannot experience God's presence
And if you really think about it, all I'm saying is what I said earlier, that pride and the presence of God are incompatible. Because why would you not treat someone as well as you treat yourself? Because you think you're a bigger deal than them, of course. Why would you withhold forgiveness, cling on to bitterness, hold people to a standard that you don't hold yourself to? Point out wrongs and shortcomings, keep grudges. It's all pride, right? Pride is the enemy of unity, and we need unity to experience the presence of God.
17 · Signals the pivot from the first main point (humility for unity) to the second main point (humility for ministry)
So that's one way that humility affects our pursuit of the presence of God. It affects our ability to love other people well, and if we can't love other people well, we will actually have trouble experiencing the presence of God. But there's another piece to this, and it has to do with unity. Remember in the introduction I said there are really kind of two parts to this message? This is sort of a bridge between two different messages. The other piece has to do with ministry. So unity is important, and we need humility for unity, right? But ministry is also important, as I'm going to show you here in a minute. And you could probably kind of hear that language creeping through as I was talking about loving your neighbor, right? Ministry is also important, and you need humility for ministry too. And Paul makes that connection as he transitions through the text.
18 · Expounds Ephesians 4:4-6 as Paul's theological summary: the unity of the faith (one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one baptism) makes relational division incompatible with the essence of Christianity itself
So Paul says in verse 3, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, the bond of peace, and he makes this basic syllogism, or this basic kind of argument. He's like, you've got to walk together to experience God, and you can't walk together unless you're unified. And then he kind of makes this summary statement in verse 4. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So Paul is saying this separation, this relational estrangement, this sort of cliques, this refusal to love each other well, That is incompatible with, with the essence of our faith. One Spirit, one Lord, one baptism.
19 · Explicitly names the transition to the second main movement: from humility for unity to humility for ministry
And then he transitions into the second area where humility is absolutely necessary, and that is ministry. Remember, we're asking, what do we do? We know what we want. What's God calling us to do? Pursue humility so that we can be unified, but also pursue humility in ministry. You'll see that in the next several verses.
20 · Reads Ephesians 4:7-16 in full, laying the textual foundation for the discussion of ministry
Verse 7, 'But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men."' In saying, 'He ascended,' what does it mean but that He had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the One who also ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 'So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
21 · Identifies the unifying thread between Paul's two primary ecclesiological metaphors (building and body): both depict many small parts growing together into a finished state—the dwelling place of God
Paul transitions from using a building metaphor in the first section of Ephesians where he talks about the church as a building to talking about the church as a body in this section. What do those things have in common? These are two metaphors used for the church all over Scripture. What do those two things have in common? Well, it's a bunch of little things connected to make a big thing, right? And what you'll see throughout the teaching on the Church in Scripture is that we should all view ourselves as small and as important. Small and important, and only because of Christ are we important. But we see ourselves as part of something bigger. When Paul's referring to the Church as a body or as a building, he's also saying not only that it's a group of small things made into a big thing, but it's a thing that's progressing to a finished state. So when he's using these metaphors, he's always talking about something reaching its maturity. In chapter 2, when he's referring to the church as a building, he says, 'Built up together to be the dwelling place of God.' Here he's talking about the body and he's saying we're growing into maturity. These metaphors have that in common as well, that it's something that's growing up into something and it will reach this point where it's like It's done. Like it's arrived. And unlike the body, it'll just stay there. I wish we had just stayed at that point. Not started to degenerate again. So Paul is saying that the church has this purpose of growing together. And what is it growing together into? The dwelling place of God.
22 · Traces the logic of Ephesians 4:10-12: Christ ascended to fill all things, He gave gifted leaders to equip the saints, the saints do ministry, the body is built up, and the result is the dwelling place of God
That's the key piece to remember through all this. We're being built up into all these little pieces, where all these little pieces are being built up into this finished thing. And what is the finished thing? It's the dwelling place of God. How does that happen? Look at verse 10. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Filling all things, that's the plan here. He's going to build the church up to be the instrument that fills all things. That's also a theme in Ephesians. But look at verse 11. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, and the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, Verse 12, 'To equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.' What is the body of Christ being built up into? Chapter 2, the dwelling place of God. How does that happen? The saints do ministry.
23 · Corrects a common misreading of Ephesians 4:11-12: it is often taught as equipping individuals for dispersed, independent ministries, but the text is about corporate ministry—the saints ministering together as a gathered body
Now, if you've heard this preached before, there's a decent chance that I would not be pleased with the way it was preached. I think I've heard so many instances where this is not taught the way that I think the scripture would have you have us see it. Let me explain. We've just been reading all these chapters about how we pursue God together, right? How we're being built up together. The metaphor is right there in this particular chapter. We're being built up together, we pursue God together. But so often I hear this verse taught as 'Now you go out there and get them.' Meaning almost a sense of, 'It's my job to equip you to go out into the world and do your individual ministry on your own.' There's an individualism that's often brought into this text that comes out of nowhere. It doesn't belong in this text. By the way, I do believe it's my job to equip you, and I want to equip you to live your life and to do your job well, and I realize we're not always going to be together for all things. I just don't think this text is talking about this idea that one of you goes out and starts this thing, and one of you goes out and does this thing, and one of you goes out and does this thing. I think this reference to ministry is different. And let me explain why.
24 · Introduces the Old Testament background for 'ministry,' showing it consistently refers to corporate worship—assembling together to seek the Lord
Throughout the Old Testament, ministry is used in a different way. It's used consistently. I can give you a whole list of proof texts. 'Ministered unto the Lord,' it means a completely different thing. In the Old Testament, minister unto the Lord means what? It means assembling together to worship God together. It means seeking the Lord together. It means pursuing Him together. Ministering unto the Lord was a thing we did in worship. And I think what this text is actually teaching isn't that that we should equip you so that you can all go out as lone agents into the world and do individual ministries. Although God may call you to do that, and if He does, I want to help you. But this text, I think, is talking about a group of people assembled and equipped to minister unto the Lord in worship. I think that's what this is talking about. And let me explain why.
25 · Introduces the list of prescribed corporate worship practices: gathering, welcoming, praying, singing, giving, reading Scripture, preaching, and communion
Throughout Scripture, we see that God has given a handful, more than a handful, of consistent practices that the church is supposed to undertake every time it gathers. So for thousands of years and in places all over the world, you'll see Christians gather and they'll do basically the same stuff. Why is that? Well, because those practices are prescribed. They're prescribed by the Scriptures. And next week we're going to get into all of these prescriptions and see That indeed, God has commanded us to do at least the following together when we gather. We're supposed to gather together, right? We're supposed to welcome the outsider. We're supposed to pray together. We're supposed to sing together. We're supposed to make offerings. We're supposed to read God's Word together. We're supposed to listen to the preaching of God's Word. And we're supposed to participate in the Lord's Table. These are activities that God has given us as an agenda, as a prescription, for us to do every time we gather.
26 · Establishes the central theological claim of the sermon's second half: every prescribed corporate worship practice comes with a promise of God's presence
And have you ever wondered why those? What God is doing when He is prescribing these particular practices? Well, friends, if you'll note, if you'll pay attention to those ideas throughout Scripture, you'll see that every one of those practices that are prescribed have an accompanying promise. Every one of those practices that are prescribed have an accompanying promise, and that is that God will be present in that activity. So you guys probably know a lot of the scriptures that go along with this. Let's talk about the prescription of gathering. God calls us to gather. And then in Matthew 18, He gives us a promise. What does He say? Wherever two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst. What does He say about prayer? He says that when we lift our hands in holy prayer, He is present to hear those prayers. What does he say about the preaching of his word? He says that he's present in the preaching of his word. There's a great text in 1 Corinthians 14 we'll look at in a few weeks. What does he say about singing? He says that God inhabits the praises of his people. What about communion? Communion is a declaration not of his physical presence but of his spiritual presence amongst us. What about the care for the least of these? What about something as simple as welcoming the stranger? Jesus says when you offer a stranger, when you offer someone that's an outcast care, love, hospitality, you've done it unto me. What about the act of sharing the gospel? Jesus says that he is with us always as we seek and save the lost.
27 · Drives home the implication: corporate worship is the unique moment when all the conditions for encountering God's manifest presence converge
So what you're going to see as you look at all of these things that God has told the church to do together is that he's promised his presence in all of those things. So let me ask you a simple question. What other moment in your week is this perfect storm created for God's manifest presence? There isn't another moment in your week. This assembly is a special time for the saints of God to gather, having been instructed by the leadership appointed to gather together to minister to the Lord, to seek His presence together through the practices He has prescribed and have been done consistently for 2,000 years across the world. That's what this is about. We are here to minister to the Lord, to seek His presence. And He's even told us what to do. That's what this time is about.
28 · Introduces the pattern that will govern the coming sermon series: prescription, promise, pride
And here's the problem. The only thing that can consistently sabotage This sacred activity is pride. And we're going to talk about this for several weeks as we break down each one of these practices and see how we're supposed to pursue God in that practice. We're going to have a sermon on how to pursue God during the practice of welcoming others, how to pursue God during the practice of singing, how to pursue God during the practice of prayer. We're just going to break this down and talk about each one of these, why God prescribes it, What the promise of His presence is. How pride can sabotage it. That's going to be the outline every week. Prescribe, promise, pride. Unfortunately, these— well, fortunately, these practices are like conductors. God has created these practices to conduct His care for us, His love for us. He's created these to be conductors. Pride is the gunk that screws up the transmission. Pride is the sabotaging work that screws up the transmission. And what I'm going to do today is I'm going to just show you a couple of these practices as an example. We'll talk more explicitly about them later. But I'm going to give you a couple of these practices and help you to see this whole pattern I'm talking about. So the basic argument is this: we must walk with God together, we must walk with God together in humility, not only because it keeps unity intact, but also because if we don't exercise this ministry that God's given us, these practices with humility, they don't work. They don't help. We mess up the conductors. The basic idea is this: God calls us to something as simple as, say, welcoming the outsider. He says, welcome the outsider. Consistently throughout Scripture. And if we do that, we have this sense, we're supposed to believe that God is present in that activity and blesses that activity. But let's talk about how pride gets in the way of that. Just as an example, how does pride get in the way of welcoming an outsider? Well, look at James 2:1-4. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, 'You sit here in a good place,' while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or, 'Sit down at my feet,' have you not made distinctions amongst yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? So here's a practice that God's given the church. God's going to send outsiders to our church, and we're called to welcome them and to expect to experience the presence of God in that practice. Pride gets in the way and we begin to be bad at welcoming the outsider. We begin to give preferential treatment to certain groups of people and not to others. And honestly, we're not going to talk about class right now, we're just going to talk about inside and outside. Friends, you know where the bathrooms are. Does the visitor know where the bathrooms are? If not, then that's preferential treatment for you. You understand what I'm getting at? Welcoming the outsider in a hospitable, kind way, expecting Christ's presence to be in that practice means getting over ourselves and putting others above ourselves. Not seeing through the lens of our experience, but seeing through the lens of their experience. See, pride could sabotage even something as simple as welcoming a family who's are actually interested in attending our church. It's hard work to welcome outsiders. What keeps us from doing all the hard work? What keeps us from doing all the extras? Pride. We think our time is more valuable than it is. We think we have better things to do than welcome other people who need to be welcomed and cared for. We don't think that we should feel so roughed up by all the hard work, and so we just say, 'Well, they're not as important as my feelings, as my time, as my energy, as my interests.' So here's a practice God has given us, and here's the way pride sabotages the darn thing.
29 · Applies the principle concretely: if visitors don't know where the bathrooms are, we have failed to welcome them
Friends, you know where the bathrooms are. Does the visitor know where the bathrooms are? If not, then that's preferential treatment for you. You understand what I'm getting at? Welcoming the outsider in a hospitable, kind way, expecting Christ's presence to be in that practice means getting over ourselves and putting others above ourselves. Not seeing through the lens of our experience, but seeing through the lens of their experience. See, pride could sabotage even something as simple as welcoming a family who's are actually interested in attending our church. It's hard work to welcome outsiders. What keeps us from doing all the hard work? What keeps us from doing all the extras? Pride. We think our time is more valuable than it is. We think we have better things to do than welcome other people who need to be welcomed and cared for. We don't think that we should feel so roughed up by all the hard work, and so we just say, 'Well, they're not as important as my feelings, as my time, as my energy, as my interests.'
30 · Introduces 1 Corinthians 11-14 as a second example of pride sabotaging corporate worship
Here's another example. This is, I think, one of the best. Prophecy in tongues is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11-14. Passage shows that this church was massively disordered. And that disorder was breaking up something that God had given the church as a declaration of His presence. Well, when you look deeper into why is the Corinthian church so disordered? Well, Paul says it's because each of you comes with your own thing, and you all want to do your own thing. So that the worship service is this carnival Well, like less organized than a carnival, like an anarchist carnival. Where everybody's just doing their own thing.
31 · Shows the outcome of the two paths: prideful disorder leaves outsiders confused and unserved, but humble order produces the declaration, 'God is among you
And Paul makes the explicit point, which we'll talk about in a few weeks, when that happens, the outsider comes in and is just confused. They're not served at all. But if you work together in order, the outsider comes in and what do they say? This is such a beautiful passage, 1 Corinthians 14. They will hear the secrets of their hearts disclosed and say, God is amongst you. The presence-declaring power of that practice when pride gets out of the way is clear.
32 · Signals the third example: the Lord's Table in 1 Corinthians 11, another instance of pride sabotaging a presence-declaring practice
Think about the Lord's Table. Again in 1 Corinthians, they had a problem with pride. Again in 1 Corinthians, this time in chapter 11.
33 · Expounds 1 Corinthians 11: the Corinthians' pride so corrupted the Lord's Supper that Paul says it was no longer the Lord's Supper
We know that the Lord's Table is meant to remind us of Christ's presence and remind us of Christ's care for us. But they had become so into themselves that the thing they were doing wasn't even considered the Lord's table anymore. Paul says this, 'But in following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. There must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.' Listen to this, 'When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry and another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.' So God had given them a practice, that His presence was supposed to be declared through, but because of their own pride and self-centeredness, that practice was not even recognizable any longer, and it bore none of the power it was intended to bear.
34 · Generalizes the pattern across all the worship practices: God prescribes, promises His presence, sin (pride) creeps in, and the presence-declaring power is sabotaged
Now we could go on and on and on through the whole list and see how consistently God tells us to do something as a group, to minister to Him in a particular way— singing, preaching, prayer— and how every one of those times He promises that as we do those things together, We'll experience God together. And then you will see in one way or another sin creep in. In preaching, in prayer, in singing, in welcoming, in giving, whatever. You'll see sin creep in. People elevate themselves above other people. People become disunified. And the presence declaring power of that practice is sabotaged.
35 · Elevates the stakes: corporate worship is not incidental but the fulcrum by which God changes the world and blesses His people with His presence
I know we have a million things we could talk about. And I'm choosing to break through the series of Luke, break from the series of Luke to talk explicitly about this because this is the heartbeat of the church. The ministry of the saints together before the Lord has always been the fulcrum that God used to change the world. Missionaries get called out of this time. Marriages are saved out of this time. People are converted out of this time. Believers are strengthened out of this time. This sacred assembly of the saints where we come together to minister before the Lord is the fulcrum God will use to change the world and also to bless us with His presence. Those two things are actually the same thing, by the way.
36 · Closing prayer asking God to grant unity and humility—the gut-level lowness necessary to link arms and minister together
Let's pray. Lord, as we launch into this second half of this series and begin to talk about these practical ministries you've called us to together, I pray that You would give us a sense of unity. I pray, Lord, that without me even having to teach anything about it, we would come even next week just with a spirit of let's link arms together and minister to the Lord together through these things that You've given us to do. You've given us an agenda, and every time You give us an agenda, it's always for our good, far above what we could ever ask or imagine, and it's always for your glory. And so we have excitement, Lord, over looking through your Bible and seeing how you've been pretty clear. This is what you want the church to do. This is what you want the church to do together. And these are the promises that you've brought accompanying these activities. Now, Lord, if you would give us the grace, the grace we have to have to get out of your way, to, to feel what we described last week as what what the word pride in the New Testament means, which is this gut-level lowness. To feel that, to know that, to know that we are not sufficient in and of ourselves, and that we must link arms together. We can't experience what we want to experience from you alone. We can't accomplish your kingdom vision alone. And you've said point blank that this is a together thing. That you're building us, a bunch of small things, into a big thing. To be the dwelling place of God. One degree of that glory in this world, fully realized in the next. Give us faith, Lord, to respond to your vision for the church. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Let's sing a song together and then I'll come back up and introduce communion.