Recapturing Wonder: The Ekklesia and Our Mission

Who who are you? I'm not I'm not persecuting a person. I'm I'm persecuting a sect, a sect that is spun off from the Jewish religion, a sect that has violated the most basic tenets of the Jewish faith that there was one God and only one God. And now they're talking as if this Jesus is God, and it can't be stood for. That's who I'm persecuting. I'm going after a cult. Who are you? And the voice responds, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. This is how personally your savior identifies with you. That when you are under persecution your savior sees that as you being persecuted because you are part of the body, the movement, the church of which he is the head. He says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. [00:46:54] (65 seconds)  #JesusWithThePersecuted

I wonder what would happen if we did. Imagine how our communities could change. Imagine how our families could be different. Imagine how our workplaces could be different. If we had a fresh realization every single day of the wonder, of the miracle that God came toward us, that God was willing while we were yet sinners, while we had our backs turned to him while we were walking the other way, while we thought we knew better, while we thought we should tell God what God should be like, while we were caught up in our arrogance and our idea, God moved toward us. God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If we can recapture that wonder, I believe in the same way that the church transformed the Roman Empire, the church today can change your workplace and your neighborhood and our community. We can remember the wonder. Let's pray. [01:03:00] (85 seconds)  #RememberTheWonder

We read that now two thousand years later and we think, Paul, what do you mean while we were still sinners? Paul was writing this looking back on his life as a contemporary of Jesus. Paul was probably in Jerusalem when Jesus was arrested and tried. Paul likely was in the crowd that shouted that day, Crucify him! Crucify him! Paul likely was a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ who would later become his Lord. And so he writes this with conviction. While I was still sitting, present tense, while I was cheering on his death, God demonstrated his own love for me in this, Christ died for us. And then he goes on to say, Therefore, because he died for us, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who've put their hope, their faith, their trust in Christ Jesus. Your life can be changed as simply as putting your hope in him and not in you. And then no condemnation. [01:00:27] (74 seconds)  #SavedWhileSinners

Paul, when he was Saul as a pharisee, had spent his entire life becoming one of the nation's leading experts on the law, on all of the rules, and he realized that the only thing that the law was good for was showing me that I am a sinner and that I need God's grace. That's the only thing that the law is good for. For what the law was powerless to do, it couldn't save me, it could only point out my sinfulness. God did by sending his own son. Paul never lost his wonder. And I wonder if we've lost our wonder. I fear that we have lost our wonder, That we've begun to take for granted the church, our bibles, the freedom to share with people who desperately need to know the good news of Jesus. But I wonder if we could get it back. [01:01:46] (74 seconds)  #LawPointsToGrace

Paul in his writings he fleshes out not just what we believe but what it means to live out being a follower of Jesus. Paul described what Christ like sounds like, acts like, and reacts like. Paul wrote half of what we call the New Testament today. They're just letters to people he's invested in, people that he loves. And he reminds them not of the golden rule but what we call the platinum rule. Like it's above even the golden rule. The golden rule is treat others the way that you would wanna be treated. But Paul says, no. No. No. Remember Jesus' challenge to us that we should love one another even as Christ has loved us, and he gave up everything for us? This is what Paul called the law of Christ. [00:56:46] (52 seconds)  #LawOfChristLove

He shared with us the one anothers of what it means in the ecclesia, what it means in the gathering, in the church to actually take care of one another's. These are the one anothers. This Greek word here, you'll learn two Greek words today. Alelon. Everywhere it's used it's something that requires multiple persons to make it happen. That we should love one another, that we should restore one another, that we should carry one another's burdens, that we should bear with one another. Some of you are gonna gather with family today and celebrate mom and you will have to bear with some of your siblings or you'll have to bear with someone in your family. But this is what this means to be kind to one another, to accept one another, to encourage one another and to submit to one another that our life as believers is to be a submission competition, that we should be trying to out serve and out sacrifice and out love one another. This is what it means. [00:57:44] (64 seconds)  #OneAnothersInAction

And he says, for I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time for my departure is near. It could be any day. But I fought the good fight. I kept my life focused on what matters. I didn't lose sight, I didn't take for granted the good news of the gospel of Jesus and I made it my whole life. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith. And it's because of Paul, because of his changed life and because of what he taught and what he wrote that you and I understand today what it means to be a follower of Jesus. [00:55:55] (51 seconds)  #FinishedTheRace

And I thought, have we taken it for granted? Not only that we can gather together as believers whenever and wherever we want, but that we can read the bible, that we can go onto Amazon and order a bible whenever we want, and that we can tell anyone the good news of Jesus. Have we forgotten? Have we lost our wonder at this miracle that is the good news? This miracle that is that God has come to rescue me. That God has come to rescue you. And so today I want to challenge us a little bit to think beyond what maybe we are so used to and we are so comfortable with and to ask ourselves the question, have we lost our wonder? [00:30:02] (45 seconds)  #NeverTakeGraceForGranted