Text: Ephesians 5:21-33
Subject: Basics of Faith
Theme: 10) The Mystery of the Church of God
Title: “A Profound Mystery!”

 
Introduction

 
• In the last sermon on our series “Basics of Faith,” we looked at the theme of “The Believer’s Sanctification”. From Romans 12:1,2 and 1 Thessalonian 5:23 we saw that every believer needs to strive for his and her own sanctification. We saw that one needs to separate from all evil and come to Jesus to be sanctified through God. Through sanctification, we can live up to our new status as king’s son and daughter and be a testimony for the kingdom of God by our renewed life.
• The process of sanctification happens a lot in the church. The church has an essential part of the growth and maturity of the children of God. The church is basically the main organism and structure for the kingdom God among mankind.
• As we just read in our preaching text in Ephesians 5:21-33 the church is the body of Christ and like the bride of Christ. This passage speaks of the relationship of husband and wife compared to the relationship of Christ with the church. Many would see in this passage that Paul wants to make a point for a marriage of husband and wife. But others actually consider the main point in the relationship of Christ with the Church demonstrated at the example of a marriage.
• As we look into this text we do not want to see the issue of marriage, but the relationship of Christ with the church, which is today’s theme in our series of Basic of Faith. Moving from the individual believer we want to see the community life that the believer is in and God’s purpose in this. In fact…

 
Prop.: The Church of God is a profound mystery for the kingdom of God!

 
• We read that in verse 32: “This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.” The church is placed by God through the Holy Spirit and tidies linked to the Lord Jesus Christ. In our text, we see that actually the church is the body of Christ and in the same time His love that is intensively caring and nourishing. The Assembly of God states about the church “The Church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her Great Commission.”
• It is amazing and a true mystery how God could choose and make something like the church as his main organism in building His kingdom. Even though the church seems in the world insignificant and powerless, in the kingdom of God it has a central place and divine purpose. I want to show us 4 different purposes of the church.

 
I. The church is a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 14:12).

• God wants to build a body of saints. The church is for this a channel. He did not only give His son Jesus Christ to die for mankind, so that they would be saved, but that His heavenly kingdom would be built. Already now and on the earth, God is building his kingdom through the church. Jesus wants to save people to be added to the church and thus to the eternal kingdom of God.
• As we read in Ephesians 4:11-16, 1 Corinthians 12:28; 14:12 God has given various offices and gifts to the church through the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4:11-12 it says that God gave different offices like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in order to “…equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” This is the process of sanctification as we looked at it last time. When we meet as a church it is to build up the body of Christ. It is not primarily to build a church in Leuven but to build up the body of Christ. When we read further we see actually that the saints in the church should grow from infants to mature adults that are in the fullness of Christ.
• Paul tells in 1 Corinthians 14:12 what that means for us Christians: “So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.” As mature Christians, we are not primarily coming to church to receive but to build up the church with the gifts that the Spirit has given to us. We are encouraged to more gifts of the Spirit for that task.
• Back to our preaching text, we read in verse 25 – 27 that Christ gave himself up for the church in order to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her for Himself holy and blameless. Christ did not only die for us individuals but as we read here for the community, the church. Jesus wants to make his church holy and blameless.
• For that, we are Jesus’ Channel, but He is the initiator and perfecter of His church. Jesus wants to make His church perfect in His own, perfect image. Thus the church is not a place for perfect people, but for us who wants to be changed to become prefect in Jesus.
• Ill.: Jim Corley met his friend, Alex, at the dealership where Alex worked. “Jim, I feel like a hypocrite every time I go to church because I fail to live for Christ so often.” “Alex, what do you call this part of the dealership?” Jim asked, nodding to the area outside his cubicle. “You mean the showroom?” “Yes. And what’s behind the showroom, past the parts counter? “The service department,” Alex said confidently. “What if I told you I didn’t want to bring my car to the service department because it was running rough,” Jim asked. “That would be crazy! That’s the whole point of service departments—to fix cars that aren’t running right.” “You’re absolutely right,” Jim replied. “Now, let’s get back to our initial conversation. Instead of thinking of church as a showroom where image is everything, start thinking of it as God’s service department. Helping people get back in running order with God is what the church is all about.” Source: Choice Contemporary Stories and Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, Craig Brian Larson
• The church is God’s service department. As the church of Christ, we are God’s channel for the building up of the saints. We should be a part in order to be build up in his kingdom and to help to build up with the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit.

 
II. The Church is a corporate body in which man may worship God (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

• In 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 we read: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
◦ This is the illustration of a body that consists of different parts to make one. Even though we are different, we are placed through the baptism into the body of Christ to make one. Here we see actually also the importance of baptism. By baptism we are added to the church, as we had seen some time ago.
◦ By the Holy Spirit we are made a unity. As his body Jesus wants us to be a unity in all our diversities. We are different, but by Jesus Christ we are one church. Thus for us as a church it is important that we allow the Holy Spirit to make us a unity.
• But another part is that we worship God. In verse 24 of our preaching text we find in the fact that as his church we are the body of Christ implied, that we are also submitted to Christ as our head. As we submit to Christ and His authority, we are indeed worshiping God. It is not our music, our singing, our deeds, but our submission to God that expresses our true worship.
• The purpose for us as a church is to be unity in Christ and worship our God. Our worship should in all that we are and do be directed to God. By our worship we place Jesus in the center of our life and church. To worship God implies that we put and keep God in the center of our life and church.

 
III. The church are people who demonstrate God’s love and compassion for all the world (Psalms 112:9; Galatians 2:10; 6:10; James 1:27).

• In our preaching text in verse 25 we read how Jesus loved the church so that he gave himself up for her. Interesting here is that Paul tells us that Jesus gave himself up for the church. Normally we say that Jesus gave his life for the sinner and the world. That is also true. However, he even gave himself up for the church. The reason for that is to make the church holy and to cleanse her.
• In Jesus we receive God’s love and compassion as individual and church. Only when we are touched and experience God’s love and compassion, we are also able to demonstrate it to the world and love others. We can only pass it one when we experience it ourselves and are devoted to God. Fact is that God loves the world. As we see in John 3:16 the proof of God’s love for all the world is the fact that he gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ.
• We should have God’s love for the world. If we claim to be a child of God and follow Jesus we have the same love for the lost people and the world. And that includes every person, not just the ones that we feel well with and enjoy to be. Also the outsiders and the people that no one likes.
• How do we demonstrate God’s love and compassion for all the world as a church? Galatians 2:10: “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
• One task of the church is to take care of the poor and the needy people. It is to do good to our neighbor and fellow people and to each other. It is to look after the ones that are having disadvantage in life and are not doing fine. We should proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also do humanitarian work and good to all people. That should come from the love and compassion of God for the world.

 
IV. The church is an agency of God for evangelizing the world (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19,20; Mark 16:15,16)

• Finally one of the most important task of the church is to proclaim to Word of God. It is to evangelize the lost and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. But it is also to also have a focus on Worldmissions. A church experiences the blessings of God if it focus on Missions and supports Missions in various ways. We should even consider as a church to send individuals into the Missions field.
• The church is an agency of God for evangelizing the world. This means that the church has been chosen for this task and also been equipped with the power and authority to do so. This is best seen in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””
◦ We do not evangelize with our own strength and power but through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who is directing us in evangelism and helping us in all. We need to receive the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
◦ Next we become his witness. Evangelizing means to be a witness of that what God has done through Jesus and in your life. It is not to force people to become Christians or to manipulate in various ways, but to just tell about that what Jesus has done for you and the world.
◦ Finally also here we see the geographical aspect of evangelism and missions. It is at our immediate place, but going to the brought sense until the end of the world. The church should evangelize their neighbors and town, but also focus on missions in the whole world.
• The church got it’s mandate through Jesus as we see in the great commission in Matthew and Mark. We should take up that mandate and fulfill our task as a church. We should in various ways evangelize, but also be part of missions by prayer, be our finances and by even sending out potential missionaries or help them to prepare for it by sponsoring their Bible-school training.

 
Conclusion

• The church of God is a profound mystery for the kingdom of God! It is a wonderful establishment by God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The church is there to be a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son, to be a corporate body in which man may worship God, to be people who demonstrate God’s love and compassion for all the world and to be an agency of God for evangelizing the world.
• I think we should first of all be aware the privilege and value that we have to be a church of God. Jesus is taking care of us and we are for him as important as a wife for a good husband. We often consider church as that what we do and bring and center all around us. But church is first of all centering around God. We should be grateful to have a place and fellowship where we can worship God and experience the presents of God through His Word and the Holy Spirit.
• Finally we should always be aware and see what purpose God has with us as his church. We should seek to follow God’s purpose and fulfill it. We should be a good agency for our Lord as he wishes to build the kingdom of God. Amen