The Church
A universal longing for transcendence One provision - His glory
Psalms 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
God s glory is the purpose of the universe
God s glory is revealed in Jesus Christ
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 1:1-3 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Everything God wants you to know about himself is found in Jesus Christ
Colossians 1:19-20 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself
A common access: the church
Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
Ephesians 3:14-21 that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
1. The church is the place of God s glory
We should do ministry in such a way that it shows off how awesome God is!
When churches get a hold of the reality that we are providers of nothing but facilitators of glory that we are just channels through which Christ can reveal Himself churches will have returned to their created purpose and God will begin to move in power to display that glory James MacDonald
2. The church is the passion of Christ s heart
Ephesians 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
John 17:21-23 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
3. The church is the plan of Christ s mission
Matthew 16:17-18 Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
4. The church is the perfecting of Christ s people people
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.