A Church for the New Millennium
Ephesians 1:3-14
Tonight I want to address some thoughts to the theme of a church for the new millennium. Some of these things of course will be familiar to us but I just want to kind of pull them together in the context that faces us as we enter into this that many are calling the new millennium. There is so much discussion and I am engaged in it regularly by reading articles, reading books, discussing things with pastors, church leaders, theologians. Tremendous amount of discussion on what it's going to take for the church to reach this generation. The generation itself is incessantly being defined and redefined. Familiar terms - yuppie generation, the generation X and all of those kinds of terms are used to describe something of the cultural attitudes and morays of our society which are moving so very rapidly and churches are scrambling to try to react and find a place of relevancy in the culture under the feat that if they don't, they will not be able to reach that culture.
It was some months ago now, quite a few months ago, that I told you about a book which I read, which has become very popular among church leaders that essentially says the church is going to be out of existence in the next 50 years if it doesn't re-invent itself. By the mid-21st century, the church could literally be out of existence unless it redefines itself in terms of cultural expectations.
And so there seems to be almost a sense of panic among people in the church to scramble around and find a point of contact with the culture or sort of fade away into obsolescence. The church continually trying to redefine itself under the terms that are defined by culture, puts itself in a very difficult position since culture is going in the wrong direction to start with and it's going there very, very rapidly. We have always believed at Grace Community Church that the church is defined not by the culture but by the scripture. That it is God who defines the church not the society around us. And certainly not the prince of the power of the air, who is the source of the culture, morays attitudes and philosophies so even religious. So we are different than other churches.
In fact, I received a great compliment recently from some body who said you know the thing that's remarkable about Grace Community Church is that while everything in our society seems to be changing rapidly over the years, you haven't changed at all. In fact, he said to me you are doing the same things you used to be doing in about the same way you used to be doing them. And I said this is true. And of course, the question comes up aren't you concerned about being relevant? Well I'm only concerned really about being obedient to scripture and leaving the consequences to the Lord. So you know we've never been caught up in this scramble to try to adjust to the culture. And our church has grown and that's kind of turned us into something of a curiosity.
Because we don't grow in the normal way that churches say you should grow. We used to have the people from Fuller Seminary come here with the Church Growth classes and because our church was the fastest growing church and the largest church in Los Angeles, they of necessity would bring students here to show them a rapidly growing church and then they stopped doing that because they said we confused the students because we had no regard. We don't have any information about how churches grow and we grew anyway. And that was confusing so they felt that selective research that reinforced their point was more useful for them and so they stopped coming here.
But we have grown and we have drawn no small amount of attention. This church has been the subject of magazine articles and thesis. Doctoral dissertations have been written on our church and on my preaching. There have been all kinds of reports about our church seminars, newspaper articles, journals, tapes, books, all undertaken to analyze our church. And our ministry have been examined and analyzed every way possible. Studied, labeled, categorized, copied. We have been blessed. We have been cursed. We have been defended. We have been ignored. We have been endowed. We have been publicized and we've even been sued. So just about a little of everything has come against us and the church itself can be rather simply defined in a lot of ways.
Grace Community Church is a haven, a home, a harbor for those in need. It is a family for the lonely. It is a school for the untaught. It is a fortress of protection for the fearful. It is an open door for those who are shut out. It is a place of love for the unloved. It is a place of peace for those in chaos. It is a place of acceptance for those who are rejected. It is a place of forgiveness for the guilty. Hope for the hopeless. It's a place of a light for those in darkness. It's a place of life for those in death. And when we said all of that we have said something about how we are viewed by people but we really haven't gotten down to the core of what we are.
I think the key to understanding the amazing history of this church is not to analyze it, not to analyze its pastors or analyze its numerical growth in size, analyzing its staff or analyzing its sort of demographics, its location, its programs, etc, etc. The real key to the story of Grace Community Church, I think, is its name. Not Grace, as good a name as that is, that is really not distinctive. There are some ladies named Grace. There is a petroleum company called Grace Petroleum. There's Grace Shipping Company. There is Grace Trucking Company. There is Grace Fertilizer Company. There is Grace Investment Company and there's even some place called Grace that makes lemon cakes. So Grace is a good word but it really is not definitive enough and the word is not community. There are so many community organizations that it's just endless. Community is really sort of a generic term that refers to any coming together of people for absolutely any reason.
So our distinction does not lie in the word grace, although we believe that theologically it is a marvelously distinct word. Our distinction does not lie in the word community although we believe Christian community defines a theological and spiritual reality. The key to understanding our church is to understand the word church. That's what sets us apart. That is the key to our identity. We are not Grace Community Club. We are not Grace Community Recreation Center. We are not Grace Community Self-Help Association. We are not Grace Community Divinity School. We are not Grace Community Convention Center. We are not Grace Community Theater. We are not Grace Community Philosophical and Religious Advancement Society or any of those or any other of those things.
We are Grace Community Church and the very name church immediately defines us. And we are compelled by that name because it is not a human name. We have had the privilege of choosing our name and the people who basically founded Grace Community Church chose well. They chose the word grace and that's a wonderful word but they weren't mandated to choose that word. That was an optional word. There are other places called First Baptist and First Presbyterian and Second Baptist and Last Presbyterian and this and that and our Redeemer Church and Savior Church and Faith Church and Bible Church. You got a lot of options there. And community is not really mandated. It's certainly not a divine mandate. It's a good idea to call us that because it gives us some sense of breadth and identity in our local area.
But what is mandated for us is the word church. That's what we are. We aren't anything else but a church. That is what we are. By definition we are a church. And if you understand that word means then you understand what this church is. That is the key to understanding Grace Community Church. It is the key to our identity. We are not like any other institution in the world. We are absolutely and utterly unique. And when you understand church, then you have a definition of what we are and what are to be in the world.
And it is really an unchanging definition. It is no different for us in the 20th century than it was in the 2nd century AD. It is not different for us than it was in the 10th century. It is no different for us than it was in the 15th century or any other century. We are defined by a divine designation church, not by anything cultural, not by anything contemporary, not by anything that society developed but rather by the word church, which is biblical. Now when you say church to most people, they think of a place. They think of a building. So you need to define it a little more than that. But everything we are committed to, everything we do is basically because we are church and that is distinct.
In English, the word is usually used to refer to a building. In fact in most people's mind, an old building that maintains a sort of outdated kind of institutional Christianity or some other religion. When people today think of church, they think of some building, some old building with old people and out of date antiquated approach to religion. They think perhaps at best some pleasant architecture and some well-intentioned people. They may think of hierarchy. They may think of the Catholic Church or some other church they may have experienced as a child that is hierarchical and they think of some sacramental or sacerdotal functions.
In Korean, in Japanese and in Chinese, the words for church all have the same root. And in those cultures, the word for church speaks of a teaching society. It's suggests the idea of an educational group being lectured in a classroom by a professional religious teacher. And some years ago there was a book written, one chapter was devoted to our church and we were identified as a classroom church by someone who was unfamiliar with our church but nonetheless took the liberty to define us in that way.
And that is consistent with some linguistic words that refer to the church that's something like an education society where people are lectured in a classroom by a professional religious teacher. But that doesn't really get to the issue of what a church really is. It doesn't truly encompass the fullness of our identity. As we march into a new year, a new decade, a new century, a new millennium I want to go back and just kind of re-grip what we are as a church and I want you to understand that we will continue to be this because it is defined for us by the word of God.
The word church in the New Testament is from a Greek word ekklesia that is a noun that comes out of a group verb kaleo, which means to call. So ekklesia is simply the called, the called ones, those called together, those according to Romans 8:28 called according to God's purpose. We are called together. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul says I therefore the prison of the lord and treat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. You are the called because you've had a calling. And the church is simply the called ones. We are the assembly of the called. This was a very ordinary Greek word by the way. Very ordinary Greek word so it can be any assembly of any people called together for anything.
Christians gave it its rich meaning. We're a group specially summoned together by God for his purposes. When you said that you really defined the church. We're a group of people especially summoned together by God for his purposes. We are not a human organization built by good people. We are not a human organization designed by well-intentioned people. We are not a human organization basically constructed around some tradition. We are a group of people summoned together by God himself for his purposes. So we can say this the church is an assembly of people called by God. We are an assembly of people called by God.
The real identity of the church then is determined by divine purpose. God is calling us. God has called us into being. Now the church then is the assembly of the called. Our course has been charted by God. Our destiny has been planned by God. Our members have been chosen by God. Our purposes have been defined by God. Our ministries have been revealed by God. We are an organization of people, an organism of people assembled by God for divine purposes. That's why repeatedly the church is identified as the church and you need to understand the word church as the called ones, the assembly of the called ones. And as I noted for you in Ephesians 4:1, we are the called because we have received a calling. Down in verse 4 he talks about our calling again and had we time, we could go through a number of New Testament passages that refer again to the fact that we have been summoned by God together.
We have been called by God together. Romans 1:6 you also are the called of Jesus Christ to all who are beloved of God in Rome called together as saints. And you find this in 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John and other places. Even Hebrews 3:1 talks about our heavenly calling and heaven is really a synonym for God. We've been called by God.
So if there is anything we need to understand at the outset about the church, it is that God has called us into being. We are a group of people who have been brought together by a divine summons. We are the handy work of God for his purposes. It is not, the church is not an expression of religious genius on the part of man. It is not the result. Our church is not the result of the power of persuasive speech. It is not the result of effective and dynamic leadership. It is not the result of countless programs. It is not the result of some kind of diligence and brilliance combined. The church is the work of God. This church has never been led by men though it has been served by men. It has never been led by pastors. It has been served by pastors. It has always been led by God through the lordship of Jesus Christ, mediated by the agency of the Holy Spirit through those who serve both men and women.
It is not our church. It is not my church. It is not the pastor's church. It is not the elder's church. I have to tell you, it's not even your church. It's Christ's church. He ordained it. He builds it. He leads it. We are simply called into it and he is the caller.
And this explains really all the goodness, all the blessing, all the success, all the power, all the things that we have seen by way of spiritual richness. It has all come from God. The weaknesses of our fellowship, the failures of our fellowship on the other hand are the marks of humanness. Where you see us weak and failing is where you see the hand of men and women. The weak human vessels God has chosen do show up in the weak elements of life in the church. We fail because of us, not him. We succeed because of him, not us. So when you come to Grace Church and you want to analyze why it is what it is and when you want to find some pathway to success that might be repeatable somewhere else, you are going to find it very difficult. Because wherever we have succeeded it is because God has done a mighty work and wherever we have failed it is because the imprint of human hands is on this place.
The successes then cannot be easily defined. They cannot be easily analyzed. They cannot be easily canned and they cannot be easily reproduced and repeated because they are the work of God who is the caller of the called. The failures, yes, you can find those and you can certainly can repeat those. People can come to Grace Church and analyze our failures and go back and repeat them. But when they come and try to analyze our success and go back and repeat that, it's really impossible because the Lord is the one who has caused the blessing and the success. The Lord is behind the power and the impact of the church. And he is not easily defined, analyzed, canned and repeated.
So what I'm saying is that Grace Community Church has been blessed only as we have functioned as God's called people, not some human organization, not with some unusual level of human leadership or some unusual level of the power of persuasive speech. That is not what has caused this church to become what it is. That is not how we define ourselves and that is no reasonable explanation of the blessing of God. Wherever God moves, the flowers have always bloomed. Wherever we walk, they always die.
The single great goal, I should say of the church through all its life and this is true in the very beginning, the single great goal of this church through all its life has been to be the church. And what I'm concerned about today is so many people in the ministry who under this pressure to somehow let the culture define them are ceasing to be the church. You can look at some of those places and they may call themselves the church and there is a church in there somewhere. There's a community of the called in there somewhere not to be confused with what is visible. We never wanted to have somewhere hidden the midst of a visible human organization a real church. We wanted the real church to be visible. The single great goal then for the church through all its life has been to let God be at work and to allow the church to be the church. We don't want the culture to define what we are. We don't want the society around us to define what we are. We want to be whatever it is that God wants us to be. That's what we want to be. Nothing less and nothing more. We are the church. That's what we are.
And I find it hard to call certain institutions the church when there is no commitment on their part to let God build the church according to his purpose. Now in understanding the church by definition, I want to take you back to Ephesians 1. Last Sunday night, I did it purposely at our Communion Service; I referred to Ephesians 1 in a very brief meditation before we took the Lord's table. I knew I was going to come back to this chapter tonight and I am.
This appears in the original Greek Ephesians 1:3-14 to be one long sentence, though in the English translations the translators have stuck periods at certain points. Actually in the Greek, this could flow as one long sentence starting in verse 3 and not ending until the end of verse 14 just a linking together of phrases really defining the church. And I chose this particular passage because through the years, Ephesians has been so definitive for us. And I want you to look at verses 3-14 and understand here the idea of the church and what it says about us as the church. Now, remember the word church needs to be replaced in your mind by the word called. We are the called ones. And there are a series of propositions from verse 3 to 14 that define this calling. And as I was working through this and trying to figure out a way to sort of open up to you about eight different elements of our calling, I'm always looking for some kind of hook. I found the best hook to hang these elements on is a series of prepositions. Starting in verse 3 we're going to understand our calling and that is synonymous with being a church. We have been called by God. We've been summoned by God. We are a gathering of people that have been brought together by divine supernatural power through the work of God in salvation.
And as we look at our selves, we can see the various features of that calling in a series of prepositions that unfold the propositions that are here in this passage. Let me just kind of suggest them to you and then we'll look at them. The Apostle Paul here says we are called before, called out, called from, called to, called under, called with, called unto and called for.
Each of those is essential to understanding what the church is to be. This can't change. I don't know what's going to happen. I told you a few weeks ago I didn't know what's going to happen on Y2K. I don't have any particular insights into the future. I don't have any prophecies to give you. I can't be like those people on TBN who get up there every night and say God told them this and God told them that and have a prophesy about this and a prophesy about that. And they have no such word from God and as we all know they are very wrong about many things. They can be glad they are living this side of the cross. Had they been living in Old Testament times they would all be dead because they would have been stoned for misrepresenting themselves as prophets of God.
I don't have any predictions for the future but you want to know something. I don't want you to misunderstand this. I really don't care what happens in the culture in the future. That has nothing to do with my understanding of the church. Doesn't really matter to me what the hot buttons are in the society. It doesn't matter to me what appears or doesn't appear to be relevant to people. The only thing that matters to me is that I function within a framework of understanding the church in the way that God has defined it and the timelessness of scripture. And I see that unfolding here in this marvelous, marvelous chapter. This is not arm's length for you. This is really our identification and your involved so this is really you.
Let's start by saying first of all; when we talk about the called, which remember now is a synonym for the church. We are the called, called by God. The first thing I want you to know is we have been called before. We are called before. In verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. We were called before. This association of believing people was called by God initially chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Obviously the actual calling came in time but the plan for that calling was established in eternity passed.
In verse 5, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention or good pleasure of his will. He proorizod us in the Greek. He predetermined. He predestined us. This obviously speaks of the great doctrine of election. The doctrine of predestination. We were called before the foundation of the world in the purposes of God. That calling didn't actually come until time when we were born and we grew up and we heard the gospel and the spirit prompted us and we believed and we were added to the church. But in the plan of God, that calling was established in eternity passed.
The passage literally tells us, verse 4, he chose us. He picked us out for himself. In eternity passed, God chose his church. Here is the first cause of our existence. Why is this church what it is? Because God before time began determined it would be this. Determined that there would be people coming here and hearing the gospel, people meeting you and having them watch your life and being drawn to Christ and you leading them to Christ, people hearing the ministry of the word of God on Grace To You or whatever means and coming to be a part of our church because they came to Christ. The first cause of the existence of this church, the first cause of the blessing of this church, the first cause of everything that's happened in this church is God's sovereign, independent, unaffected choice.
It was God who chose and then it was, according to John 6:4, the father who drew us. No man comes except the father draws him. Whom he chooses he draws. We know that great doctrine. By the way, draw was used in ancient pagan writings to speak of divine powers, which drew and also of great human power, which could draw someone in an irresistible force. Sometimes they would use that word draw to refer to a hungry person. For example, who was drawn to food like a magnet or they would use it to refer to that irresistible draw when two people "fall in love". We have been drawn irresistibly to God. God as it were has turned on the magnetism and in an irresistible fashion because of his choosing us has drawn us to himself. As George Chadwick once wrote, "I sought the Lord and afterwards I knew he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me. It was not I that found oh savior true, no it was I found by you." That's true.
Unleashing God's Truth One Verse at a Time