Ekklesia

1:14It's about kind of the theological issue of has the church replaced Israel? Is there still a future for Israel? It's called Forsaking Israel, and it's got some church history in there. It's got some systematic theology in there. So maybe a little bit hard to read, but worth it if you. You can spend the time. And then the last one, we've got like 12 of these, and we'll give one away today. This is called 12 Challenges Churches Face. And it's just things to watch out for in your church. And as a member of the church, things to watch out for in your own heart. I'll list a few of them: forgetfulness, imposters, legalism, thoughtlessness, selfishness. There's 12 in all. So that was just a few of them, but I recommend this one. If anybody will promise to read this this summer, you can have this copy. Does anybody want to do that? You can have it right now. If you promise to read it, right? Yeah? All right.

2:17Yeah. All right. So we're going to spend some time this summer talking about the church. We really already have. We talked about the leadership of the church. And so we're going to spend a few more weeks talking about what is the church. I think if I asked you to define the church, it might be a little bit hard, at least hard to cover everything. Maybe you've heard terms before like the visible church and the invisible church. Have you heard that kind of term before? You know, what does that mean? And how, when we use the word church, what do we mean? Do we mean the visible church? Or the invisible church. Those are kind of some historical terms. It talks about how the church, when we gather, that's the visible church. That's the church we can see, the church members that gather. But really, if we're assuming that there's some tares among the wheat and wheat among the tares, well, then there is a real reality that only some members here, hopefully most members here, are real Christians, and some maybe aren't. And so there's this aspect of the visible and the invisible church, the true church versus the people that you see gathering. You also have a distinction between the universal church and the local church. Have you guys heard that terminology before?

3:50The universal church and the local church. Usually, when you find the word in the New Testament, I'd encourage you to just kind of knee-jerk reaction when you see the word church to assume it means a local church, to assume it means a local body. But there are occasions where it does seem to be used kind of globally of the church everywhere. You know, you've got a verse, this is Acts 8:3, Saul was ravaging the church. That seems to be just kind of broad, not only the church in Jerusalem, but just kind of the church everywhere. Saul is seeking out members of the church.

4:23How else? What else would you define? What would make it into your definition of a church? Flock, yeah. The flock of God, God's sheep. We've talked about that a little bit already this summer because we've talked about the sheep's shepherds, that the flock has one shepherd, the good shepherd, but also that he's put shepherds, pastors, in charge of the church to keep watch over the flock. What else would make it into your definition of what is the church?

5:01Foundational. Great. Yeah, a common foundational theology. And it's fun to hear the words even that you're using, like foundation, you know, that's a biblical word that talks about the church, that we are built on one foundation. We'll study a text that says that, hopefully, tonight. That we're a building, and we're built on one foundation. What else? The bride of Christ, right? I think you'd see if we kept doing this, what you notice over and over is that most of what we can come up with as we're trying to define the church are just the word pictures that the New Testament uses about the church. We've already said a few of them. A building, the New Testament authors call it a building that's being built up, built on the same foundation.

5:56The New Testament calls the church the bride of Christ. Other pictures. This will be a little bit of a review for the young adults. We talked about this this semester. The body of Christ, right? Another picture. We're all different body parts of the same body. What else? Any other pictures you can think of? The field, right? There's a passage that says, You are God's field. And of course, there's parables about or stories about how there's a wheat and the tares and things like that in the field. We already said the flock. We've got a building, a body, a bride, a field, a flock. What else? There's more.

6:41True, yeah. Light of the world, speaking as disciples. Hmm? Stars. Oh, yeah. If, yeah, if he's, yeah, if we're looking at that Revelation passage, Tom's going to preach to that before too long and help us sort that out. You also have a passage that talks about how the church is the pillar in the ground of truth, you know, holding up, supporting the truth, standing for the truth. The church is a household. The church is a family. The church is a priesthood. The church is a nation.

7:26All kinds, right? The church is a fellowship. And tonight, our main one for tonight, the church is a gathering. The church is an assembly. I think if we were to pick one word that was the most foundational in the New Testament to the understanding of what a church is, it's that one, that we're an assembly, that we assemble together, that we're a gathering. So that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. Let's pray, and then we'll jump in and look at some passages. Father, we pray that you would bless our time tonight. We pray that as we look at your word and explore some different passages, we pray that you'd be with us, that you'd help us, that you'd help us understand, that you'd help us stay alert, that you'd protect us from error, and that you'd make us long to be a healthy, functioning, thriving church, more and more and more, always striving for more, always striving toward the goal of being more Christ-like and pleasing you more.

8:36Help us be a church that loves each other, loves to be together, loves to encourage one another, loves to challenge one another. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. So, we're going to spend a lot of our time today talking about that main word for church. Assembly, ecclesia. That's what's in your bulletin as a title for tonight. And that's really what it means. It's just a gathering. And usually, when the New Testament in English has the word church, the word that it's translating is that word ecclesia, gathering, the assembly.

9:18And that makes sense, right? If you're talking about your local church, then it makes sense that he's saying these are the ones that you gather with. These are the ones that you get together with. The ones that you're working hard to stir each other up to love and good deeds, that you're coming. It's not a function to come to, in the sense of to just come and listen and then leave and not talk to anybody. If you've been doing that, we're glad you're coming. We're glad you're hearing the preaching. We're glad you're here for the songs, but you should be doing more. You should stick around. You should be focused not just on attending, but on gathering with the saints. And if you're a saint, then you're going to, if you're a Christian, you're going to love to gather with believers and encourage them. That word ecclesia, the first time we have it written, talking about the church is by Jesus himself. It says in Matthew 18, if he refuses to listen to them, you remember this? It's talking about church discipline. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And that's really before we know all about what the church is. Jesus. Just kind of says that. You know, if he refuses to listen, tell it to the church, tell it to the ecclesia. That word ecclesia, maybe you've heard this preached before. I've heard this preached a lot of times before because it's a compound word and it makes a good preaching point. We've got to be careful with compound words, though. But, you know, it sounds like, so the word for assembly, and again, this makes sense, right? Is made up of two words, out and called, called out. And that makes sense. If you're saying the group of people that are gathering, well, those are the ones you called out and said, you know, hey, come over here and gather. And I don't know if you've heard this preached, but I've heard it preached very passionately that the church are the called out ones. You know, we're called out for the world. And that's certainly true, but I don't think we'd get that necessarily from the word. Remember, we want to be careful with compound words. That's one of the reasons why Haley and Cooper are only going to be gone for a week. That didn't make sense to you, right?

11:32It's because honeymoon, moon, refers to like a lunar, like a month. And you didn't know that. That was part of a compound word. And so I just say that to say, you know, we use compound words all the time that we're not actually thinking of the real history of the compound word. It could be a, you know, two words shoved together. That one was made in the 1500s, and it was meant as a warning that for. The first month of marriage, you're really going to like each other, but that's going to go away. So you need to have real abiding, you know, it's telling you to chase after the things that last longer than a month.

12:14And so, anyways, that was way too long to talk about that. But Acclesia, so I think they would have just thought of: this is my gathering, this is my group, this is my assembly, this is who I get together with. So, the first place I want you to turn is to Acts chapter 2. One of the things that struck me this morning in the sermon was that Thomas was pointing out that the church is a people who are characterized by what we love, not by what we fear. We're known by who we love, not by what we fear. And I think that from the very beginning of the church, that is completely true. And you see it in Acts: Man, they love each other, they love to be together, and we're going to see that today.

13:21This assembly, this gathering, this community of love that is full of forgiveness for each other, that's eager to gather together. A couple years ago, Ago, I read a book by Republican Senator Ben Sass, and I don't remember what the book was, and I don't remember what the book is about, but we had just had children, so I remember this one part that he talked about when he was raising his children. He used to, his goal as a father was to give his children a wide margin or a wide shoulder. Just like if he's teaching his children how to drive, he wants to teach them on a road that's nice and broad, that's got a big, fat shoulder, because they are going to make mistakes. And so, as a parent, he wanted to give them the room and the freedom to, within certain bounds, make some mistakes so they can grow and learn and be forgiven. And I've always thought that that was such a good point. And I think that that's a picture that kind of captures the heart of some of the things we've been studying in 1 John. That with each other, we're not so narrow that, ooh, if that person crosses me again next Sunday, I'm not going to forget it, you know, or I'm going to tell somebody in this church. No, we have a wide margin with each other in this church. We have a wide shoulder where we can have the freedom to love and forgive each other. We put up with each other. We bear one another's burdens, as it says in Galatians. I think that's something that should define the church. We're not, as again from the sermon this morning, we're not people that are easily offended. We're not people. That demand that people stay in these bounds that we give them or we're not going to forgive them. No, we have a wide margin. We have a wide shoulder. We're loving. We're kind. 70 times 70. 70 times 7 times, we forgive, right? Okay, but let's look at Acts chapter 2.

15:21We'll start in verse 37, just to give a little background. Peter's been preaching. He just said, this Jesus, he's talking to the nation of Israel, and he's saying, this Jesus whom you crucified, he's the Lord and the Christ. In verse 37, he says, Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord and our God, whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there are added that day about 3,000 souls. So Peter has just preached. They are convicted. They want to know, what do we do? He tells them about repentance and baptism.

16:30They were added that day, 3,000 souls. They're added to what? I think we would say the church, the church in Jerusalem. They were added. They were numbered somehow. They were baptized at the beginning of this church. Verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. You know, if you've read the book of Acts, this is just one of the passages that's so easy to cherish to see this early church just thriving, you know, right away, thriving before you get to Ananias and Sapphira, before you get to anything else bad. You know, this is just a wonderful passage that is so exciting. What are some of the things you notice in this passage? If you're just making observations, truths about the church.

18:04Devoted to teaching, right? In the fellowship and breaking bread, right? Right? They spend a lot of time together, right? They're acting like a family in very practical ways, taking care of each other. What else? They eat a lot. Yeah. That's maybe an understatement. It seems like they're, you know, they're eating together every day almost, you know, is the picture you get with glad and generous hearts. What else? What else do you notice in that passage? Yeah, figuratively, right? That's what you mean. Oh, there you are. Sacrifice. I knew it was J-Lo. I couldn't find you. Sacrificing for each other. Yeah, what else?

19:09They're all baptized, right? That's right. They were glad. They're joyful. Right. Right. Right. They were the people that were cut to the heart, that repented, were baptized, have this. Common faith in Christ. What else? I think so. You know, I think that we don't want to read too much into it, but I think that his point is: okay, if they knew there were 3,000, well, how do you know? You got to count. And how do you know you're not double counting?

20:04And just counting the same group of people 10 times. You got to kind of keep track somehow. So 3,000 separate souls, adding to their number day by day, those who are being saved. What else? Yeah. Yeah, they're selling some of their belongings. They're, again, meeting practical needs, taking care of each other. This will be a characteristic of the Jerusalem church always, is that there's a lot of people there with need, right? We read about the whole rest of the book of Acts, how these other Gentile churches are going to help take care of the church in Jerusalem, and they start doing that from the very beginning. They're taking care of each other.

21:00Anything else? Right? They have favor with all the people. Awe came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs are being done through the apostles. The apostles were there back to being devoted to instruction and teaching. It's the apostles who are there themselves, right? So they're devoted to their teaching. And I think if we're carrying that principle into our own day, well, we can be devoted to the same people's teaching. We have that teaching in the scriptures. That's something as we gather, we're devoting ourselves to the teaching.

21:49Is that me? My fault? Okay. I thought it was over there. I thought it was y'all making that sound. So I didn't know what was happening. So, you know, as we come to a passage like this, we always remember, and maybe you've heard this a thousand times, but we always remember the difference between prescriptive passages and descriptive. Passages. If it's a description, it's just telling us what happened. If it's a prescriptive passage, you know, that's saying this is what you should do. Instruction for us, saying, church, do this. This isn't one of those chapters. This is a chapter telling us what happened. But I think that all of this, you can tell, is painted in such a good light. They love each other.

22:57They love each other. They're together every day. They can't get enough of each other, is what it feels like. They're willing to sacrifice for one another, give up their own belongings, taking care of each other. This is a family. They eat together. Breaking bread, it seems to be hard, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, it's hard sometimes to distinguish when that's talking about the Lord's Supper or fellowship meals. And it seems to be both. And so that's, you know, I think that's why we try and take a good principle out of that: we like to try and combine our Lord's Supper nights with nights that we do some kind of fellowships, like the Cookie Fellowship coming up. But just eating together, sharing a feast together, celebrating the Lord's Supper together, a lot of people being baptized, you know, that would take a lot of time. 3,000.

23:52That takes a lot of, you know, how fast can you baptize somebody? A minute. So if you could do 60 people. An hour. Somebody helped me with math. That's at least 50 hours straight, right? Something like that. So, you know, a lot of people being baptized together all the time. I think that that paints a little bit different picture than sometimes what we have in our minds about the church. I'm not speaking for everybody in the room, but I know that some of us in the room kind of think of church again as something to go to, or kids, teenagers, something you have to go to because your parents go to it, that it's an event. And I think we just need to get that out of our mind. Yes, it is something to go to, but that's just because we've appointed a time and a place to meet and to gather because we love each other. We want to encourage each other. We want to teach each other. We want to challenge each other.

24:57We're receiving the word, devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship. We're devoting ourselves to fellowship. It's carrying over that same verb: devoting yourselves to the fellowship, the friendship, the partnership that we have in Christ. Devoting yourself to the breaking of bread, making a commitment, devoting yourselves to eating together, spending time with one another, sharing the Lord's Supper together, devoting yourselves to praying together as a body. Maybe that's the pastor's leading in corporate prayer. Maybe that's you praying in your hearts as a gathering. Maybe that's us praying before each meal or at different celebrations.

25:44I think that there does need to be this idea that we take care of each other, that we are a family. Now, that's, of course, balanced with the rest of the instruction that we have in the New Testament. That it seems like in Thessalonica, there were some that took advantage of that. People were so generous in the church that some of the men stopped working and, you know, just kind of relied on the provision of the church. And he tells them in both letters to Thessalonians, he says something to the effect that those men need to get back to work. You know, don't just rely on the kindness of the church. So that is balanced. But I think that as a church, we're supposed to take care of each other's needs. We're supposed to look out for each other.

26:29You know, make sure there's not a member among us that's destitute, in need of help, and without help. Day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. So I think this is something contagious. I think we've seen this at Emmanuel that. The more joy we have together, you know, when we come on a Sunday night and we are just loving each other and we, you know, it's hard to get everybody to leave. Not that we want anybody to leave, but, you know, after a Sunday night service, all of a sudden you look down and it's 10 o'clock and you've been standing over by the playground forever, just talking and talking and talking. And, you know, I think that love that we have for each other, it is contagious. It does make people say, you know, wow, there's something special about that church. There's something special about the way they stick around. There's something special about the way they talk to each other and love each other and help each other, bear each other's burdens, put up with each other. Anything else in this passage that you observe or any other thoughts?

27:53Well, I have some other questions for you. If that's the case, if we're assuming that love that we have for each other, if we're assuming this frequent gathering, joyful gathering with gladness, what do we do when we're together? What are we supposed to do? This can be from any passage, not just this passage. What are things that you remember the New Testament saying that we should do together? Build one another up, right? Edify one another. I think the picture there, you know. Sometimes we lose the picture. It's a real word picture. Build one, like, you know, like a building. Edify means build, you know, like an edifice, a wall. Build one another up.

28:44What else are we supposed to do when we come together? Right. Sing songs. Right? Teaching, being devoted to the teaching. We get together for the public reading of scripture, teaching of scripture. What else? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. I agree. You know, sometimes when we use the word building up or edifying one another or something, it can make us think of just flattering one another all the time. Of, oh, your hair looks so great. You know, I love your dress. You know, it just, it sounds like, you know, I'm really building up everybody around me. And those are kind, wonderful things to say. But that's a good question. How do we practically, in the way that the scriptures mean, how do we build each other up? How do we edify one another? Do you guys have any answers to that?

29:59Yeah. I think discipleship is a huge part of that. That we are, if people are supposed to grow in their knowledge and grow in their faith, I think that the way that we disciple one another is part of that building up. What else? We're going to turn to a passage in a minute that talks more about building up, but what else comes to mind, yeah, Russell? Great. Right. If you've never heard of Partners One-on-one, that's a ministry that we have at this church where you team up with somebody one-on-one, and it's a 10-lesson workbook that you go through, and it covers all the fundamentals of the faith. It covers the gospel, it covers a lot of really important truths, but not just on a surface level, it goes pretty deep. So there's a chapter on the Holy Spirit, and maybe you know some about the Holy Spirit, but this goes pretty deep. It talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It talks about who the Holy Spirit is. And so we really encourage that ministry. If you have never heard of that and you want to be involved in that, let me know.

31:15It has three different chapters on the church, right? You know, kind of what is the church, if I remember right, what is the church and how to get involved in the church, serving a new church? So much in there. And you team up with somebody one-on-one. And somebody who's gone through it already can take somebody who hasn't gone through it through the whole thing. In fact, we're in need of some teachers. So if you've done it maybe a long time ago and you've got some free time this summer, then you especially let me know. Because we need some more partners who have gone through it before.

31:50We've got some people waiting to go through it. But it's just that kind of thing, building up discipleship, building each other up in love. There's more to add to that, and we'll get to another passage that talks about that. So we're supposed to sing together. We're supposed to build each other up. We're supposed to read the scriptures together. We're supposed to sit under instruction together. Anything else we're supposed to do together? Break bread, right? And I would think that just like the New Testament, that should cover the Lord's Supper together, but also eating meals together. You know, I think that's part of what makes us close.

32:35Maybe that sounds silly to you, but it's something I've seen over and over and over, that when we eat meals together, that's something that really makes us feel like a family when we eat and have fellowship with one another. Well, I want you to turn to another passage, 1 Timothy 2. Mentioned a couple. things we're supposed to do and work together while you turn there that's first timothy 2 while you turn there um one term you hear thrown out a lot are ordinances we'll talk about these later in the summer that but in our church we believe there's two ordinances given by Christ to the church and that ordinance is a practice that he told us to participate in something something actual physical to do and one of those we've mentioned several times is the Lord's Supper that he said as often as you do this so he didn't say do this every week he didn't tell us how often to do this but he said as often as you do it so I think he's assuming we do it fairly regularly as often as you do this do this in remembrance of me and so we break the bread and drink the cup and share in that Lord's supper together the other one is is what we've mentioned it several times baptism right another outward sign of of what's happened in our lives baptism and the Lord's Supper we'll talk a little bit later in the summer how we use the word ordinance on purpose we don't use the word sacrament or other terms that that some other denominations use and you have to come back later in the summer to learn why You'll also have to come back later to learn why we only have two and why some other denominations have seven. It's a bunch, right? But I'm not going to tell you what they are. You have to keep coming back in the summer. Okay, so we're in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1.

34:50You know, I don't want to give you a hard time, but I just asked you what we're supposed to do when we come together as a church. And you didn't mention this one. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. Maybe somebody said that. I'm just giving you a hard time. But when Paul is giving his instruction to Timothy, remember the context of this passage. Timothy is his right-hand man, a disciple that's staying behind in Ephesus, I believe, and has been commissioned by Paul to lead the church there as a young man who is matured well, and he's giving instructions for the church. And his first instruction, even though it's coming in chapter 2, he says, first of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. So he says, when you get together, you need to pray together. That's why we pray together on Sunday morning. You know, at the very least, every single Sunday morning, we're going to have some kind of pastoral prayer or something that follows the scripture reading. But usually our Sunday morning services and Sunday evening services are full of prayers.

36:00After a song, the songs themselves can be prayers. We'll close the service in prayer. We'll close the sermon in prayer. We'll end the scripture reading in prayer. This is something, first of all, something important that we're supposed to do. Verse 2:4 for all people, and then verse 2: for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. So that's the first thing he says to pray for: pray for the authorities over you.

36:30Again, something similar to what Pastor Tom said this morning: that we're not defined by what we fear. We don't need to constantly fear the world or fear the government. Instead, we love each other, but also we can be praying for our leaders rather than succumbing to fear, trusting, leaving it in God's hands, casting our cares upon him who cares for us. So we come together, we pray together. Verse 3: This is good. He's talking about that when he says that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there's one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is a testimony given at the proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, and telling the truth, I am not lying. A teacher of Gentiles and faith and truth. Let's pause there. He's going to repeat the instruction in just a second, but I just want to say what he's saying. He's saying, we should pray, and we should pray for our authorities, pray for governments, and we should do that so that we can live a peaceful and quiet, godly life. This is pleasing to the Lord. And so that's a good corrective a little bit to where we can take Acts chapter 2 if we're not careful.

37:58Sounds like in Acts chapter 2, as a church, we could take Acts chapter 2 and say, you see, he said, we're selling all our possessions. And you can get this picture of the church that they are to be penniless. They're to be monks and nuns and walk around penniless. That once you become a Christian, you need to sell all that you have. And your church, no way can it have a building. You know, why would you spend money on a building? Instead, sell all of that. Get all your cash. Give it away.

38:33You see where I'm going with that? I think that that's balanced a little bit by what we see here. That the church, yes, is called to take care of each other. Yes, is called to sacrifice for one another, but also is called to live this peaceful and quiet, godly life, to be mature and godly in the word. To make a living, to not be constantly causing a ruckus. Sometimes, again, when we read through the book of Acts and we see how much trouble follows Paul, it can make us wonder, you know, how come nobody's trying to kill me? You know, that's happening in every town. And I think that Christ is very clear that persecution is going to happen to believers. And so I'm just saying that. When we add all that up, it sounds like something like, how can we have a new building, basically? Or how can I have an income? How can I have a home to provide for my own family? And I think that that's, again, balanced by here.

39:38He talks about that in one of the books that I recommended for summer reading, Worldly Saints. You should read it. It's in the Resource Center. But back to the point of what we were saying, that the church is supposed to pray when we get together. Look at verse 8. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. So there he seems to specify men. And it seems to be especially men, not just saying men as general for people like the scriptures do sometimes, but in contrast to women, because he says in verse 9, likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with goodness. Works. If you heard the, if you were at the wedding on Friday, we quoted a really similar passage from 1 Peter giving a similar charge to women, but that when we gather, one of the purposes of gathering together is praying together.

40:48But what else do you notice about when we gather in this passage? He addresses women here in this passage, and I think that it's very clear in this principle that this is continuing on that idea of selflessness when we gather. This is the point of coming together. And I don't know about you, but I've been at churches like this, where it feels like the point to come and gather is to show off your most recent dress. Or to, I grew up in a church as a teenager where one of the ladies, one of the ladies always wore a big hat. I've told the young adults this story before. Every Sunday it was a different hat. And when I say big hat, I mean like Kentucky Derby, like, you know, with feathers and stuff like that. And every Sunday it was a different hat. And I just remember, I remember this woman so vividly because it was also, it was a.

42:00I grew up in the Episcopalian, and so also we had the Lord's Supper felt more like a Catholic Mass. And I just remember she was always first to go up to the Mass, and you'd go up and you'd kneel down, and most people did this and would take the bread. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I just remember her that she wouldn't do that. She'd stick out her tongue like this and have the, it was with devotion. I'm not trying to make fun, but it was, it was, I just remember how showy it was. That's the point I'm trying to make. That every single Sunday, she'd, you know, march down, she'd be the first to march down, she'd have this big hat, and in front of everybody, she'd make this show of her devotion. And I think he's saying the exact opposite in this passage, and the same in the 1 Peter passage, that when we get together, and this is specifically targeted towards women, but I think it applies to all of us that we're to dress with modesty, modesty, and self-control for women, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. What you're dressing yourself with, what you're conscious of, is not wearing these exquisite garments that make people say, oh, wow, look how wealthy that person is. It's not dressing in a way that makes people look at you.

43:31That draws attention constantly to what you're wearing, you know, adding all these knickknacks so that the point of coming to church for you is to get people to notice you. He's saying instead, dress yourself with good works. Verse 11: Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in the faith and love and holiness with self-control. We'll save the end of that passage for another time when we have more time to deal with it. I know that's a tricky passage, but I think you can tell the main point of the passage, right, is that when they're gathering, it's not about drawing attention to yourself, it's about the body, it's about praying together, worshiping the Lord together. And so, I just encourage you: what a practical thing, and seemingly what a small thing, but be conscious of that kind of stuff whenever you're gathering for church. If we're talking so much about what the church is, what we're supposed to do together, how we act when we come together, well, this is going to mean something for Saturday night. And we've talked about this before at this church. It's going to mean something for Saturday night. It's going to mean something for Sunday morning. It's going to mean that your mental attitude as you're getting ready for church is not, how do I draw attention to myself? How do I draw the attention of that cute boy at church?

45:00Or the cute girl at church? How do I draw the attention of that wealthy family at church? How do I draw the attention of those that I want to look at me? Instead, we prepare our hearts. We come together to gather and worship and love and serve and sacrifice and enjoy one another, bless one another. Any other thoughts on that? Right. I agree. It's a good point. That's a point I meant to make. I skipped over the end of that verse. Part of our prayer, part of the characterization of us coming together in prayer is that we shouldn't be people that are quarreling, bickering, pointing out each other's flaws. That's not the attitude that we come together with as we pray. So he says, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. And so your church body is a body that you're supposed to, if there is anger in your heart towards somebody, if there is quarreling, You sacrifice to get that out of the way so that you can pray with a clear conscience to the Lord.

46:39I say in premarital counseling all the time, one of the most important things for Christians in marriage and in the church, I think, is self-centered conflict resolution. I tell the young people all the time, this is the only time you can be self-centered. Because when you have a conflict, one of the best, the best thing to do is focus on what you did wrong in the conflict. Our flesh is always other-centered when it comes to conflict. It's always self-centered when we're thinking about what we want. But whenever it comes time to solve a conflict, it's always, what did that person do to me? And this happens daily in marriage. I don't know about your marriages, but our flesh can trick us into, why did she leave that dish there? You know, was she expecting me to wash that dish? And, you know, just this ridiculous stuff of assuming motives and things like that of self-centered conflict resolution. So I just encourage you to turn in on yourself. If you've got a beef with somebody in the church, before you come together on Sunday morning, you say, okay, what did I do wrong? And then you go to that person. And you say, sorry, I've been so uptight about this, or sorry, I've been holding this against you. And usually, in my experience, that 99 times out of 100 results in something like, you know, oh, I'm so sorry, too. And you hug and you make up and you apologize and you forgive one another. Usually, when a conflict is long-lasting, it's because nobody wants to take the first step. Everyone wants to say, you did this, you did this, you did this.

48:32So I just encourage you, you know, take the hit yourself so that when you come together, it can be without anger or quarreling. What else from this passage? Did you have something, Obed? Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah. Right. And I think that's a principle we could apply to all of these things, okay? If we're supposed to get together, if we're trying to live like that Acts 2 church that loved each other so much, that knew each other, that, number one, knew each other's needs, so that they could, number two, meet each other's needs, then we have to come prepared. We can't be distracted.

49:27We can be distracted with good things. I was distracted. With good things this morning in the resource center, putting some new books out, that I missed out on some fellowship. You know, we can be distracted with good things so that we don't cherish coming together, fellowshipping with one another. We can be distracted by what we just talked about, conflicts that we have with people in the church. We can be distracted by dressing in a way that is so that we can get other people's attention.

49:56All of these things. Anything else in this passage? We still have a few minutes left, so I'd like to turn to one more passage: Ephesians chapter 2. While you turn there, I have another question for you. What's the purpose of our Sunday morning gatherings? Have you ever heard this debated? Have you ever gotten into purpose-driven stuff or pragmatics? What is the purpose of when we meet together on Sunday mornings, of kind of our main assembly? I think you could get into some wars and debates that say, well, it's.

51:00It's all about reaching unbelievers. Have you heard that before? That we target our Sunday morning service so that it can reach unbelievers, so that all of you can invite your friends to Sunday morning church and invite them again, invite them again. And then as they keep coming and coming, we target it towards unbelievers so that more and more unbelievers can come to Christ. There's a lot of churches that teach that, but that's the main function of a Sunday morning service. Others would say, no, it's about us being together, encouraging one another, edifying one another, teaching, singing together, meeting together. Others would say, no, none of that. It's about worshiping God. We come to church on Sunday morning because we want to worship God. That's what the songs are for. We're singing to God. That's why we listen to His Word so we can worship Him.

51:49I think you'd have to say the purpose of gathering together is all three of those things, at least to some extent, some more important than others. But I think that you'd say we do gather to worship God together. We do gather to edify one another. The sermons in this church and the songs in this church are targeted more towards the church, to build up the church and edify the church than they are to the unbelievers. And maybe you've been to a church before that's almost entirely targeted towards unbelievers. I think it's a good motivation there. But we would say maybe that. Main purpose of us gathering together is to be a church together, to build one another up, and through that to worship our Lord. But I think that the scriptures are also clear that we can't neglect the fact that there will be visitors among us, right? You remember when he's talking about the spiritual gifts, and part of the reasoning is he's saying, look, when it's chaotic in your church services and somebody comes and visits, they're going to think you're crazy. If your church services are just crazy and everybody's talking all at once, so he's saying you pause and you slow down and you do things in order. That's why we have kind of an order to our morning services is to make sure things are orderly and calm and done in order. So we have a mind to worship God. We have a mind to encourage one another. We have a mind even towards the outsider, an evangelistic purpose.

53:22Okay, Ephesians chapter 2. Start in verse 11. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made by flesh, made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So he's saying, and this applies to most of us, right? That as Gentiles, we would have had no hope if the answer for us to know God was be circumcised, come and start following the law, come and say, Sacrifice and get to know the God of Israel and become part of that nation. That's not something any of us have done. And through the blood of Christ, he's brought us close. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. And so he's talking about how in the church you have Jew and Gentile, and this was especially apparent in their day, as you'd maybe have half and half in a church of people that normally wouldn't have been able to eat together, right? The Jews didn't eat with the Gentiles because they could be defiled. They couldn't practically do things together because the Gentiles were unclean. And he's saying, in the church, all that changed because Christ paid for all of you. And so you have Jew and Gentile coming together and joining that sweet fellowship together in a way that they never were able to, breaking down that wall of hostility that divided them and bringing them together, making peace. Verse 15, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who are near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

55:30Guys, still with me? Did you zone out? Look at verse 19. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. He'll continue that phrase in the future. We'll look at some other parts of Ephesians, but you see so many of those pictures we mentioned earlier, starting in verse 19 again. You're no longer strangers and aliens. You're fellow citizens, Jew and Gentile, fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, members of a household, a family, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. You know, one of the things we always like to say is the church is not a building, the church is the people. And I agree with that, but the church is also a building, at least in word picture. Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit. So back to Obed's question earlier when he talked about how are we built together. Continue that next time, but here, what we see in this passage is that that's God doing that work just when we meet together as members of the same household, members of the same family. We are being built together into a holy temple. We're built on a foundation. What's the foundation?

57:23Christ says the cornerstone, right? The most important part of the foundation. Yeah, he says, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. What is that communicating? The foundation of the apostles and prophets. Yeah, I think that we'd say that practically what that means for us is as a church, we need to be built on the scriptures. We need to understand what God says about himself through the prophets and through the apostles, you know, built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. And so we come together in truth. The cornerstone, do you guys remember what a cornerstone is? Some of the architects can correct me, but I think the cornerstone is the big, most important one that you set first, the one that you make sure is straight, because after you set that corner, you're going to start straightening out this line, this wall based off of that corner, and then you start doing this wall off of that corner. Does that sound right to the architects? Yeah, so it's the most important, that first biggest foundation stone that sets up the rest of the building. So as we. Come together, being built on the foundation of the scriptures, the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone. Part of what's going to happen to us as the church, as the ecclesia, as the assembly gathered together, is that he is going to build us together. And so we're almost out of time, and I just want to give you a couple applications just on all the stuff we've kind of zoomed through tonight so far.

58:57As you think about how to apply these things, maybe you knew everything we talked about tonight. You already knew all that, but I think that even if we know it, we can forget to apply it. And I think that the first application is to cherish our gatherings. Cherish our gatherings. Let them mean more to you than just an event to attend. For some of you, that sounds crazy that I would even need to say that because you're already thinking about who you're going to fellowship with outside. You know, you already cherish. You can't help it. But for some of us who are more introverted or something like that, it can feel like a chore to gather together. And it can be a chore sometimes. It can be bearing one another's burdens. But still, I think we need to cherish our gatherings. And what that means is that it's going to inform your Saturday night, how late you stay up, even if it's the NBA finals.

59:56You know, it means you're going to. Pay attention to how your Sunday morning is spent, to the time you set your alarm, so that you're not scrambling around like a madman trying to get everybody dressed and fed. You try and cherish those gatherings and you let that bleed into the rest of your life. You teach your children about the importance of the first day of the week. You set it aside. When you come, you try and prepare your heart by forgiving those you have a conflict with, solving quarrels so that you're ready to pray together.

1:00:40You set aside enough time. You eat a big enough breakfast before you come so you don't have to speed off right away to go eat lunch. You bring some goldfish in your purse or something. You know, he likes goldfish. But you bring, you bring, you bring, you know what I'm saying? I know this is all silly, and this is this seems so elementary and practical, but you see what I'm getting at. We can come up with a million different excuses for why we wouldn't cherish our gatherings together. And I just encourage you to put a little margin in your time around Sunday morning services and Sunday evening services. Loosen up a little bit of your time. Loosen up a little bit of your time during the week. Have each other over for dinner.

1:01:26Share a meal together. It doesn't have to be fancy. It could be ramen noodles or. Cereal, you know, just spend time together. Leave that margin in your life for your church and leave the margin in your life for each other in the sense of be quick to forgive, let the church body make mistakes, let people hurt your feelings. That's part of us bearing with each other's burdens. Anything else? Any other big application points or thoughts from tonight?

1:02:01All right. I need to make a couple announcements and then I'll close in prayer. Okay, first announcement is for VBS. After the service tonight, we need to move about the first six rows of chairs out of here. Is that correct? You're going to stack them in the back. So if you're hanging around, we might put you to work. Or you could just volunteer. But we need to stack about the first six rows of chairs in the back to make room for VBS. The other announcement is a seminary announcement. You've seen the slides that we're recruiting for a new one-year program. And I want to just dispel the notion that that's only for young people. You know, the two guys that are going through that one-year program are young, and we appreciate them, and they're working their tails off. And they're almost done. We've got two classes left, and one of them is Thomas's, so he's going to grade super easy. Just kidding.

1:03:02He won't. But, you know, at a lot of the other campuses, they have people that are maybe retired that are looking to serve the Lord more and be in the church. So if that's you, we encourage you to come and learn more in the seminary. I meant to make that announcement at the beginning, but forgot. But as you leave, think in your hearts, how are you going to cherish the assembly, the gathering, the ecclesia? How are you going to cherish getting together, enjoying one another? working hard to practically make that possible. Let's pray together. Father, we do cherish our church. We love our church. We're so grateful that you've given us brothers and sisters in Christ to be deeper relationships than any other relationships in this world. And I pray that you would help us long for that. Help us long to be closer. Help us long to take care of each other's needs. Help us long to work hard so that we can have something to share and be generous. Help us long to eat together and spend time together, forgive one another.

1:04:03We're so grateful for our church. Thank you for our common salvation. We're thankful for our common faith. In Jesus' name, amen.