The Church Envisioned - 4/19/2009
Sermon Series: The Church: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Title: The Church Envisioned
Text: Genesis 17:1-14 (The Covenant of circumcision)
Theme: This message will highlight God’s purpose in the call of Abraham and will examine the idea of covenant as the centerpiece of a community of people who are under God’s direction and ownership.
Introduction: (This needs to be an introduction of the entire series). Start with a slide which is a cover of the Newsweek magazine. – If I were to ask you what the Church is to you, what would you say? You might say that it is the building in which we are sitting this morning. You might say it is the collection of people who meet here every Sunday and spend time in worship. You might be really high minded and say that it is the visible and invisible representation of God’s rule.
Whatever you think of when you hear the word Church, for most of us the concept is an incredibly central part of our lives. We schedule a portion of our week around the celebration of God in our lives by going to Church.
IN the world that we now live in there are all kinds of attitudes toward Church. Some think that it is an important part of society and performs an important function. Others think it is a somewhat innocuous and archaic institution that has no real relevance in these modern times and others see the church as a bunch of dangerous fundamentalists whose faith to God is cause for concern.
The most recent edition of Newsweek magazine features this cover. The article goes on to talk about the fact that for the first time in the history of this country we are seeing a much larger portion of population who no longer themselves as Christian people.
The article goes on to make several implications about this decline in the number of confessing Christians. As I read this article I was drawn to a couple of my own conclusions concerning the statistics which formed the core of this essay. 1) There is a difference between people who claim that they are Christians and those who actually live a life that reflects a committed relationship with the Risen Lord. It just might be that the number of committed believers has not significantly dropped, if Church attendance numbers nationwide are any indication then that is true, and what we are seeing is not as much an indication of an abandoning of faith by the population at large as it is an indication that those who were not practicing Christians feel more freedom in admitting that fact. 2) If we are living in a country which is more open about that fact that belief in God is not a significant factor in their lives then it simply reinforces my basic belief that our culture is becoming increasingly a darker place. As a Christian this does not really scare me. I believe that as we live in a dark culture we get the opportunity to shine more brightly.
Transition: This article did convince me that as God’s church we need to be really clear on our identity. We need to be certain of who we are and what our purpose is and that led me to put together this sermon series called The Church: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Over the next 8 or nine weeks you and I will take a journey through God’s word and examine God’s intention and purpose in the faith community. My prayer is that as we see what God intended for His faith community we will understand more clearly our role in our own culture. We are going to begin in what you might think is an odd place, Genesis 17. But I believe that as we examine the covenant God made with Abraham we will see the beginning of God’s idea about a people set apart for His purpose.
1) A Vision of Community
a) The background of this conversation with El Shaddai
i) Abram has now been following the Yahweh for about 25 years.
ii) He has left his extended family in Haran and traveled on in to the Canaan are at God’s instruction.
iii) God now appears to him as El Shaddai – the God Almighty.
iv) This is the second covenant ceremony that He has asked Abram to participate in. And here He makes some specific promises to Abraham, among which include the fact that God has plans for more than just Abraham’s immediate family, God is looking at making a specific people group as His own possession. This is the first time that God has announced His intention of a work through a nation of people as His representatives, His Holy possession among the peoples of the Earth. It is an historic occasion.
b) Romans and the further view
i) We do find out in the New Testament that while this event in the OT is an important step in the development of God’s plan for Church, for community, it is not the last step. Throughout this series we will develop the idea that God has been moving in a teleological manner to bring His plan to fruition in His people.
(1) While the people who come out of Abraham can rightly be considered as a Church of people, a congregation set up for God’s own purpose He moves the idea along until we find out in Romans that the Church which is represented in the current age is not one that is limited to a specific ethnic portion of the population but instead we are a part of the Church begun in Abraham that day by spiritual adoption.
ii) The adoption of all of us into God’s family rather than being simply God’s property. Romans 8
2) A Vision of Purpose
a) For the first time here Abraham finds out that this plan of God by which He called him out of the land of Haran and into a foreign country had a further purpose. It means more than just what will happen to Abraham.
i) Abraham will eventually take the remaining 72 people that are a part of His family and they will be planted in Egypt where God will grow them into a nation 2 million strong. God has a purpose for Abraham’s family which far out shines the significance of the moment which Abraham is participating in here.
b) God has a divine purpose for the Church. As Christians we need to be really clear on God’s purpose for the Church. Christ is the head of our organization and we are God’s family being directed by God. Our entire self understanding has to wrapped up in who we are in Christ as individuals and what God’s purpose for us is as an organization. So let’s spend a few minutes redefining our purpose as a people.
i) Evangelism
(1) The Great commission
ii) Equipping
(1) Ephesians 4
(a) Which leads to unity of faith and knowledge
iii) Community/Accountability
(1) Colossians 3:12-17 – A picture of what we look like as a community of believers.
3) A Vision of Integrity
a) A person set apart – Abram
i) Set apart from the rest of his family and his place of origin.
b) A family set apart
i) Abrams family became the inheritance of God’s grace on earth
c) A people set apart
i) IN the opening words of this confrontation with Abraham God tells him to be blameless. In the language of this covenant God is setting apart a entire race of people to be His own. He even lets us know that there will be more than one nation formed out of this covenant, it is only later in the narrative that we find out that one particular people from Abraham are going to be God’s special community. It will be evident to all of the people that they come into contact with that they are a people who behave differently because they are God’s. Their behavior is controlled by who they are in God.
d) A Church is a set apart people.
i) As God’s set apart people we are a representation of His work on the Earth and to its people.
ii) There is not enough time today to talk about all of the places in scripture where we are told to make our behavior match up to our identity in Christ.
iii) A few of the important reminders are:
(1) Keep ourselves from sexual immorality.
(2) Watch what we say – don’t gossip, don’t lash out.
(3) Be a people of prayer
(4) Be honest.
iv) In short we are to live lives of integrity. Colossians 4: 5 reminds us to “Conduct ourselves wisely toward outsiders making the best use of our time.”
e) Conclusion: A Story of Influence.
