Be The Church: Jesus is All About Us
November 6, 2019
Do you love your church? If not, you should. Do you want to know why? It’s because Jesus loves your church. Jesus loves it so much that He literally gave His life to bring the Church into existence. And now the Church is His most treasured possession. It is His creation, His dwelling place, and the means by which He has chosen to change the world. And above all else, the Church is His Body of which He is the head. He leads it. He empowers it. And He delights in it. For the Church is the very manifestation of His presence in the world. And for that reason, the Church is the hope of the world!
So the question “Do you love your church?” may not be the right question. Maybe the better question is this: “Do you love His Church?”
And if you can say, “Yes,” then what we are going to look at over the next few weeks will not only encourage and inspire you, but will help you Be The Church! But if you’re not sure if you can say, “Yes,” then my hope is that what we unpack about the Church over the next few weeks will not only help you fall in love with the Church, but will help you find your place in His Church.
Because His Church is NOT a service you go to, His Church is NOT an institution to maintain, and His Church is NOT a club where you’re a member. No, His Church is PEOPLE. People who have been loved by Jesus, made alive with Jesus, changed by Jesus, so we can help one another become more like Jesus and unleash the hope of Jesus to a lost and broken world.
That’s pretty much what our Rock Springs vision statement says about us as a Church. It describes who we are and what we are to be about. Rock Springs Church is: People helping people become friends, family and followers of Jesus. In other words, we are a church who are all about Jesus. And the reason we are all about Jesus, is Jesus is all about us. Sin fact as we come to God’s Word I want to show you just how much Jesus is all about us. In fact, I want to show you five things Jesus has done and is still doing that proves His is all about us. And they are all found in the letter to the Ephesians. Now, these five things are not exhaustive. But each one shows how we are made for each other. How we were made to be the church – His Church.
And the first way Jesus proves He is all about us is this: We Were Adopted By Jesus And that makes us family: We are family with Jesus In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will. Ephesians 1:5
God has always wanted you to be with Him. God didn’t want you to just be an acquaintance. He didn’t even want you to be familiar with Him. He wanted you to be family with Him. This has always been His idea. And His plan was to give you Jesus to make you His own. So, if you have put your trust in Jesus, you’ve been adopted into God’s family through Jesus. You’ve been given a place at the table with Jesus. Jesus has made you a Son of God. And that changes everything. You have a new identity. You are no longer alone in this world. You are now and will always be God’s beloved child, with all the rights and privileges of a Son. But what makes this even better, is that it gave God great pleasure to make you His own. He wanted to include you in His family.
Let that sink in. It makes sense then, when we look at how Jesus lived. Jesus was an includer. He was always going out of his way to help people feel at home with him. He went to Zacchaeus and broke religious barriers to be with him. He spoke to the woman at the well and shattered racial barriers to befriend her. He welcomed an unnamed woman to wash his feet with perfume so to destroy the social barriers of the day. He touched lepers. He INCLUDED outcasts. He WELCOMED sinners and ate with them. And Jesus is still including sinners in His family today.
You who deserved nothing were given everything. By adopting you Jesus made it possible for you to know God as your Father, just like him. That’s not just love. That’s a miracle of grace. When Jesus adopted you, He made you family. That’s the first way Jesus is all about us. Now the second,
We Were Saved By Jesus – And the benefit of this is mind-blowing. For now We are alive with Jesus! But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
How much does God love you? God loved you so much that He found a way to transform you from a spiritually DEAD PERSON who had no ability to know Him, to a spiritual ALIVE PERSON who can know Him intimately. Think about what we were: we were spiritually dead in our transgressions. That means we were separated from life with God. We couldn’t know God, trust God or be with God.
But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, sent Jesus to save us. But to grasp the depth of God’s mercy for us, we need to understand the depth of our sin. The Bible says we were dead in our transgressions. What’s a transgression? To transgress is to take a false step over a boundary. It is to knowingly or unknowingly cross a boundary set by God. In most cases it is a willful breaking of God’s law. It’s crossing the line. In other cases, it’s simply wandering away from God’s law. And according to God, once you cross that line, you’ve left the realm of life and crossed into the realm of death. And nothing you can do can help you cross back. Dead people can’t make themselves alive again. Dead people need someone to save them.
This is where God’s mercy comes to play. At the heart of God’s mercy is His compassion. God saw the trouble you were in, so He was moved to send Jesus to save you, when you couldn’t save yourself. He made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for you, to rescue you from eternal death. That’s how much God loves you. And the moment you put your trust in Jesus, you crossed over from death to life, and God gave you LIFE WITH JESUS!
That’s the miracle of grace. The moment you trusted in Jesus God gave you Life! His life. The resurrection life of Jesus, the eternal life of Jesus now resides in you. What a gift! And since Jesus defeated sin and death when He rose from the grave, you no longer have to fear the grave. And because He lives, you live. You have a new life – a new kind of life: a life full of peace, satisfaction and joy; a life full of meaning, purpose and hope; a life with potential to be like Jesus. That’s why Jesus saved you. And that’s why Jesus loves His Church: so that through YOU the world might see a new kind of life: the life that’s found in Jesus. Are you starting to see how Jesus is all about us?
But there’s more. We weren’t just saved by Jesus, We Were Created By Jesus – We’re new creations in Christ. We are the hands and feet of Jesus For we are God’s handi-work, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 Have you ever wondered why Jesus doesn’t just come back to right the wrongs, relieve human suffering and deliver us from all the hatred and evil in the world? Do you want to know why God hasn’t done this? Because He has us! We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus; we are to be the Church. This is why we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We, each and everyone of us who make up the church are God’s handiwork. When God gave you new life in Christ, He put Christ’s life in you, so Christ could work through you. That makes you a masterpiece; a work of art. This is why Jesus loves the Church so much. That’s a miracle. We are the new creation in Christ. We are not a program. God created us to be poetry in motion. We are a people endowed with the compassion of Christ and the power of our resurrected Lord. And what makes us God’s spectacular handiwork, is the potential He put in us to be conduits of grace in graceless world.
It wasn’t too long ago that I told someone that the Church has the potential to put every government program out of business. All we have to do is believe who God made us to be, and then do what God has prepared for us to do. That’s why Jesus is all about us. Imagine, what we could do together if we would just BE THE CHURCH? To be who God created us to be in Christ: We would come alongside the hurting and give comfort. We’d come alongside the helpless and give a hand up. We’d come alongside the hungry and give satisfaction. We’d come alongside the discouraged and give hope. And we’d come alongside the broken and give healing. This is why we were Created in Christ: So we would be the hands and feet of Jesus to bring the grace of Jesus to a world that needs Jesus. That’s why Jesus loves the Church. Are you starting to see why we were made for each other? Jesus loves the Church because it’s through the Church He can love the world. But before we can BE THE CHURCH to a dying world we need to come together as His Church. You see, we weren’t just adopted by Jesus, saved by Jesus, and created by Jesus… but we were also
Connected By Jesus – In other words, there’s something supernatural about us when we come together as His people: We are home for Jesus In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:22-23 Did you see that? We are being fitted together to become a dwelling place for God. And Jesus is the one who is fitting us together. Jesus is the divine craftsman who is strategically connecting us together into what He is building. And He is a master at what He does: Every part is precisely cut to fit snugly, strongly and beautifully with every other part. Nothing is out of place, defective, misshapen or inappropriate. And His fitting us together should say something about who we are as His Church.
I know what it says to me. It tells me that every single person who calls on the name of Jesus is essential to the strength and beauty of His Church. And it tells me Jesus has a purpose for each one of us. There are no misfits in His family. Every misfit actually does fit in with Jesus! That’s His Church. Jesus is taking flawed and broken people and fitting us together to be His personal dwelling place. So, whenever we gather to worship, to study, to pray or to serve together, Jesus is with us. But it’s more than that. Because the word for dwelling used in this verse speaks of a permanent residence.
This is how much Jesus loves the Church: He adopts us, saves us, creates new life in us, so He can be with us and live among us. We are not just His family, we are His home! Let this truth sink in: The Church was created by Jesus for Jesus. That’s why Jesus loves His Church. That’s why He’s all about us. We are His dwelling place.
But don’t forget this: Jesus is still building His dwelling place. So what does that tell us? It tells us that if Jesus is still connecting people to be part of His home, then our role is to help new people fit into relationships with us. And that means connecting people in ministry, in Journey Groups and eventually in neighborhood groups. Think about this: If Jesus is so keen about helping people fit into His Church, then if Jesus lives in you, you have the same DNA. He wants to use you to help others find a place in His family. Jesus wants to grow His family, but He needs those with His connecting Spirit to work. So let me ask you, are you a connector? Do you want to help new people fit in, find a place to belong, become family with Jesus? If so, Jesus needs you to step up and get to work with Him. This is one thing I’m praying for right now, because we need to be the kind of Church Jesus wants us to be: a place where anyone can find a home with Jesus – a place to belong.
So today, we’ve looked at four things Jesus has done and is still doing that proves His love for the Church. Jesus loves His Church. He’s included us in His family. We are brothers and sisters with Him. He’s rescued us and given us new life with Him. He’s put His compassion and power in us so we might bring a blessing of grace to our world. And He’s fit us together to be His home. These are all amazing acts of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus. But I’ve saved one of the best things Jesus does for us to last. What is that? Its this: We are Cherished By Jesus – Why? Because of the miracle of His grace, We are part of Jesus In writing to husbands on how they are to love their wives, Paul uses Jesus as the example, and gives us a picture of the tender affectionate love Jesus has for the Church as part of His own body. He writes: For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Ephesians 5:29-30
You see, Jesus doesn’t just adopt you into God’s family, He doesn’t just fit you in as His dwelling place, you are now united with His body. Stop and think about that one for a moment. You, a finite and flawed human being are united with the glorious and most High God. You, who are wrinkled and weary, diminished in strength are now joined to God “who dwells in unapproachable light.” That’s a miracle that should stir awe in you. This is a profound mystery. You and I are joined with the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of the World, the Alpha and Omega, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, the soon and coming King!…
And so when Jesus looks at you He cherishes you. His heart skips a beat, His joy increases, and His love for you just grows. And He is overwhelmed by a tender affection for you, for us. That’s what it means to cherish someone. You are, we are – so uniquely special to Jesus. You are the apple of His eye.
It’s kind of like the day Becky said, “I do” to me. I couldn’t believe she was mine. It’s like the day Courtney was born and I said, “I don’t know if I can love her as much as I love Kayla.” Now, multiply that by ten thousand times ten thousand and you might get a little glimpse of just how much Jesus cherishes you. You want to know how fond He is of you. He don’t just love you, He likes you.
Jesus cherishes you. He has a tender love for you. And His tender love for you exists to give you affection, warmth, comfort, protection and security. Too often we look elsewhere for those things. But this is the love Jesus reserves for His Church. Which leads me to ask: Does Jesus love His Church? More than we know!
We’re not just family with Jesus… as amazing as that is
We’re not just alive with Jesus… as mind-blowing as that is
We’re not just the hands and feet of Jesus… as life-changing as that is
And we’re not just the home of Jesus… as wonderful as that is
We are the object of Jesus’ undivided affection and love.
And all this together… makes us, His Church, the hope of the world.
And the more we live in the light of what Jesus has done for us, what Jesus is doing in us and wants to do through us, and the more we live as the apple of His eye, the more we will BE THE CHURCH our world needs.
So, do you love your church? JESUS DOES, and He will never stop loving us.
Leave a Reply