In church on Sunday mornings I’m preaching through the book of Ephesians, and so far I’ve found it absolutely fantastic. Not my sermons necessarily, but the things I’ve discovered about the glorious plan of God in this universe.
My original plan when I took up the pastorate in Ingleton was to preach through the Gospel of Luke. However, just a couple of weeks before starting I changed my mind. I decided I’d hold off on starting on Luke until Christmas and find another book to preach through in the meantime. I had no idea which book to go for, but plumped for Ephesians. My only reason for doing this was that I already had a sermon that I knew I could use on the first Sunday (Ephesians 1:1-14), and that I should be able to get through the rest of the book by mid December. What I hadn’t realised was just how incredibly appropriate Ephesians would be for a new chapter in the life of the church here.
From the middle of Ephesians 2 to the middle of Ephesians 4 the church, the bringing into existence of the church, the nature of the church, the definition of the church, the role of the church, the importance of the church, the centrality of the church in God’s plans and purposes, the body of Christ, shines out in Paul’s letter. I confess that I had never understood just how much the church matters until God began speaking to me through these chapters.
Think about this statement:
The church, God’s people made one in Christ, is the place in which God primarily chooses to display his wisdom and glory (Ephesians 3:10, 21).
I’m inclined to look at the stars, or the mountains and lakes and use that as a springboard for meditating on God’s glory displayed. I’m convinced that there’s nothing wrong with doing that, Psalm 8 springs to mind. But the fact is that if we really want to enlarge our vision of the glory of God through considering his works that he has done, then we need to think more deeply on what he has done in redeeming and uniting a people of all temperaments, abilities, and nationalities in Jesus Christ his son.
The church is God’s primary means of displaying his glory. Think carefully about that, because it means that the church really matters.
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3 comments:
Welcome back, Jim.
Then God said "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them.
I like the links that could be made here Toby. God's people in the garden were the greatest display (refelection) of his glory, and that is then repeated in his NT people the church - is that where your thinking was going?
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