↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording)
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Let me begin by asking a question. When did the church come into being? When was the church born? The church began at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. What happened is that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ disciples who were praying in Mark’s upper room. We call it “the early church.”
When we look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, we can see that Jesus created all things in heaven and on earth. In that sense, Jesus is not only the Savior, but also the Creator. Amen! Jesus is the Head over all things. In particular, Jesus is the Head of the church. Jesus died for all mankind, all humanity. And yet, Jesus particularly died for the church and bought the church with a price, His precious blood. Jesus loves all his creation. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for the church.” We can see that Jesus loves the church more than anything. Brothers and sisters, do you love the church? Do you love IBF?
When we look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22, we can see that everything seems to exist for the church. It says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,” Yes! It is so true that everything exists for the good of the church. Everything exists for the benefit of the church. Speaking of movies, Jesus is the director. The church is the leading actor(or actress) and the rest are all supporting actors and extras. So, the sky, the land, the sea, and everything in them support the church. Can you believe that? It’s awesome. The church is at the center of the universe. Amen!
In fact, the church plays one of the most important roles in God’s work of salvation. I believe that the church is in the highest position in expanding God’s kingdom. The church matters. IBF matters.
The One who fills all things is Jesus Christ. The One who breathes life into everything is Jesus Christ. And the church is the fullness of Jesus Christ.(Ephesians 1:22-23) The church filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus is the church full of life. People gather in the Spirit-filled church. Their spirits can be refreshed, renewed, and revived in the Spirit-filled church. The Spirit-filled church also can refresh, renew, and revive our families, our local areas, our cities, and our nations. I pray that IBF would always be a Spirit-filled church. I pray that IBF would always be a church full of life.
I am not sure how long you have been attending church. But I guess that some of you have been attending church for more than 50 years. Or for more than 30 years, 10 years, and 5 years. Or some of you have just started attending church. Some are at the beginner’s level in relation to faith in God. Some are at the intermediate level. Some are at the advanced level. What I am saying is that we have various kinds of people in IBF. As a result, some of you have a deep knowledge of the church and a deep understanding of the church. But some of you have no idea or even wrong ideas about what it means to be the church.
For those of you who don’t know much about the church, if I simply try to define the church as… The church is a group of people who accept Jesus as their Savior. The church is a group of people who follow Jesus as the author and the perfecter of our faith. The church is a group of people who live by faith, by grace, by the Word of God, by prayer, and by the Holy Spirit.
For those of you who know much about the church, I pray that today’s sermon would make you reaffirm your identity, your calling, and your commitment. For those of you who don’t know much about the church, I pray that today’s sermon would make you understand your identity and your calling. I pray that you would make commitments to God.
Now, let us take a look at today’s passage verse-by-verse. When we look at verse 1, we find a simple, but profound expression. That is “the will of God.” Hey you folks, what is the will of God? What does it mean? Simply put, the will of God is what God commands us to do. The will of God is what God wants us to do. In particular, we can find many God’s wills in the New Testament. One of them is written in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. It says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
God wants to save every person. And he wants them all to know the truth. So, we might be able to say that the church is a group of people who were saved and came to know the truth according to God’s will. The church is a group of people who were called to be the children of God. We are all God’s family. We are all God’s spiritual family. God is our father. We are God’s sons and daughters.
God calls you like this. “My darling daughter, ( ). My dear son, ( ).” The church is a spiritual family in the blood of Jesus. As we all know, blood is thicker than water. And the thickest blood is Jesus’ blood. Amen! That’s why we call each other “brothers and sisters.” Shall we call the people around us “brothers and sisters” right now? Shall we?
When we look at verse 1, we can notice that Apostle Paul calls Sosthenes as the head of a Corinthian synagogue. At first, Sosthenes didn’t believe in Jesus whom Paul preached. Later Sosthenes believed in Jesus and became a member of God’s family with Paul.
And when we look at verse 2, there is an expression like “the church of God.” It means that the church doesn’t belong to the church planting team members or the church members. The church belongs to God. The church is God’s.
It doesn’t matter how long or how short you have been attending IBF. The truth is that you belong to God. So IBF belongs to God. Furthermore, the reason why IBF is God’s is that He is the One who built IBF. If God hadn’t built IBF, it would have been closed down. It would have been shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, IBF survived under the protection of God during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is still alive and will be thriving. Amen! Psalms chapter 127 verse 1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” Because God built IBF and continues to build IBF, we didn’t labor in vain and won”t labor in vain. Because God watched over IBF and continues to watch over IBF, we didn’t stay spiritually awake in vain and won’t stay spiritually awake in vain.
The church can be described as the house of God. Let us imagine ourselves building a house. What is the first thing that we should do? The first thing that we should do is… To lay the foundation. What is the foundation of the house of God? Jesus! And Jesus is the Truth. So, the Truth is the solid foundation of the house of God. So, we should preach the Truth.. We should teach the Truth.
After laying the solid foundation, we should set up the pillars of the house of God. The pillars may be various kinds of ministries. When it comes to IBF, what are the pillars? They are Sunday worship service, Sunday school, Journey, Friday worship service, mini church, and so forth. So we would say we have five pillars in IBF.
I believe that Sunday worship service is the most important pillar. So, it should be set up at the center of the house of God. Every Sunday, we should gather together and worship the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And then we should put up walls between the pillars and plaster them. I believe that prayer meetings can play a role in protecting various kinds of ministries and connecting them to each other. The prayer meetings in IBF are like the walls of the house of God.
Finally, we should cover the roof of the house of God. I believe that the roof of the house of God is LOVE. Suppose there is a house without a roof. It is completely exposed to the sun, the rain, the wind, the dust, and garbage. Things in a roofless house are blown away, damaged, and even destroyed. Same thing. The house of God without love is like a house without a roof. Do you know why? Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endure all things.(1 Corinthians 13:7) So the church without love can’t bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.
When the house of God is built completely, God’s servants will come in and begin to work for His Kingdom. And the church as the house of God will grow day by day. Anyhow, let God build the church. Let God build the church according to His will and by His power. Let God build the church in His time and His way. In doing so, we won’t labor in vain. In doing so, God’s house will be built firmly.
Let us go back to today’s passage. When we look at verse 2, there is kind of an interesting expression like “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people.” So the church is a gathering of people who are sanctified. The church is a gathering of people who are called to be saints. In other words, the church is a group of people who are holy by the blood of Jesus. The church is a group of people who are set apart from the world for a special purpose.
In addition, the church is a group of people who call on the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ according to verse 2. Simply put, the church is a worshiping community. Whenever people ask me, “Why do you go to church? What do you do at church?” I say, “I worship Jesus.” What are we supposed to do at church? We worship God at church. We call on the name of the Lord. We lift up the name of Jesus on high at church. We proclaim the name of Jesus.
When we look at verse 3, we see that God and our Lord Jesus Christ give grace and peace to the church. As we gather, the Spirit of God comes upon us. As we gather, the Spirit of Jesus works within us. We as the church receive grace and peace. Grace is God’s love that we do not deserve. And peace comes as people know and experience the grace of God.
So we can say that the church is a gathering of people who know and experience the grace of God. We can also say that the church is a group of people who experience and have the peace of God.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus loves the church. Jesus loves the church more than anything. Do you love the church? Do you love IBF? Let us all pray.
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