Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastors homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar
Anything
Today about sixty people become members
of our church Living Grace. They take the conscious step of committing
and belonging to a group of other Christians in a church. Why? If you are also
a church member here or somewhere else, why have you made this rather
old-fashioned decision of joining a church? The modern trend even among
Christians seems to be that Jesus is
welcome but not the church not worship attendance with strings attached
to the people around you and the leadership. We like to be free (independent God and me and no one else) and lets be honest a word like church membership does at first sound unattractive because it smacks of formality the church
being an institution which many a time
comes with all the trappings of institutional control and inflexibility.
Why would you join a church? Before we
think of answers to this question, let me say that at its deepest level this question does not make any sense. Its like asking my daughters:
Why would you join the Mayer family? (Why would you take this step and
have him as your dad?) They did not make that choice but were born into our family just as any Christian at the point of
becoming a Christian is born into the
church as the family of God. According to the Bible there is no Christian life
in isolation. A Christian is never found on his own
but by the design of God is
always living and operating in community.
The Bible uses strong images to make
this clear. Together we are said to be the
household of God (Ephesians
Therefore as a Christian you cannot join the church (you already belong) but in formalizing local church membership you affirm you recognize
where God has placed you in his
family. Today to our delight about
sixty people declare that God has placed and planted them in our midst
the Living Grace congregation.
And can I say to you there is
nothing better than belonging to a church. Yes there is bad press around (sinful
people will always be flawed) but
let God raise our vision the church also
holds untold treasures. Hear some incredible verses from the Bible
Ephesians 1:18-23: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the
riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great
power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty
strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and
authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in
the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under
his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is
his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Here at Living Grace we have been on a
journey of wrestling with these verses
not only to understand their surface meaning but grasp the deep reality of God in them. There is a reason why the
opening line reads: I pray . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
I
pray . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
The first Christians likewise
struggled with getting the truth about the church. They needed prayer. We need
prayer. Eyes need to be opened. The truth is simply too fantastic I repeat
from the reading:
the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
that
you may know
how great is the hope
the magnificence and splendour of the
inheritance promised to Christians
his incomprable great power for us who
believe . power . like the working of his mighty
strength [in raising Jesus from the dead]
far above all rule and authority,
power and dominion, and every title
God placed all things under the feet of
Jesus Christ and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Look at us. Surely we are not that
awesome:
incomparable great power for us who believe
Jesus Christ
the church
his
body, the fullness of him
Look
at us. We may hear the words but not at all comprehend their meaning. How can
this be the church that we seem to know? But the other Sunday we stepped out in
faith and used this power against the cancer of one of our members Greg
Storey. We are on this journey of having
the eyes of our heart opened.
Even last Sunday two more people came to
faith in the afternoon and they prayed from the heart giving their lives to God
trusting in Jesus Christ. On the same day another church member was
fully released in the gift of tongues. On Wednesday still another person came
to faith and then I happened to pray for a young woman. The Spirit of God was
strong on her and made her slump in the chair. When I ran out of English words,
I prayed in tongues. She asked: What are you doing? This has been
happening to me. I then explained
to her about the gift of speaking in tongues and that she didnt have to worry
about speaking the words. They were from God. I continued praying for her and
again prayed over her in tongues. After a while she said: I can
understand your gibberish. Wow.
This was only the second time a person made this claim. I asked: What
have I been saying? And she
proceeded to recount a most amazing sermon on God loving her. God assured her of how much he loved her
and placed her where she was and wanted to see her happy and have her trust in
him. The message was quite a few sentences long and I was amazed. Then, she
also said: The evil has left me. Part of the prayers were for deliverance and commanding any demonic
presences to leave (there was some evidence of demons) and she felt that they had left. There was freedom.
On the same night we also prayed for
another young man who had attempted suicide in the carpark behind the community
centre. We prayed for healing and other matters. Almost as an afterthought I
also commanded any demons to leave him in Jesus name. About a dozen of us
prayed like this in agreement and faith. After the prayer session another
Living Grace church member came up to me and said: When we were doing this, I suddenly felt every
hair on my body stand on end and the sensation of a vile presence being there.
It came up to me and I felt it saying: I know that you know that I am there.
And then whoosh it disappeared. What is going on with me? God gave her a prophetic gift of discerning
the presence of demons and knowing when they were expelled. Next time she is
going to share the knowledge right when we are praying for people for
encouragement and faith building.
We are on a journey an exciting journey. What we do as a church, we do with power (as the Bible reading said
I repeat the words:
incomparably great power for
us who believe
) if only the eyes
of our heart open. [Jesus said
Matthew 10:7-8:
preach
heal the sick, raise the
dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons
Jesus commissioned
us Matthew 28:18-20:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Therefore
make disciples of all nations
I am with you always
]
If only the eyes of our heart open. Are
they opening? Can you see? There is so much more yet to be seen. One healing
evangelist had been traveling in dozens of countries for ten years with the
result that about one million people came to faith and he burned out. From one
day to the next he unraveled and God processed him in public. He
would be behind the microphone and get ready to preach in front of thousands when
God dropped another painful but forgotten childhood memory into his mind for
healing but at the same time this made preaching impossible. For months he was out of the public eye
resting praying healing not helped
by the gossip of Christians who looked at the collapse of his multi-million
dollar ministry and surmised: He must have fallen into sin adultery
addiction. God is punishing him. No
God restored him and one day this healing evangelist saw another angel come
and minister to him. The vision of angels used to be a more regular experience
for him but now this was the
first vision of an angel in a long time. He tried to figure out the name of
this angel his role and assignment. He
scrutinized his garment and everything (whether he had anything in his
hands) until God revealed to him that
this was the strongest angel in heaven. His name was love.
With God incomparably great power and love go together. The strongest angel in heaven is love. Love
releases power in the church and
we the church are struggling
as before (when the talk was about incomparably great power) to take hold of the truth. It is too
wonderful for our minds. Therefore, in the same Bible book we find another
prayer which builds on the one which we have already heard. I read from
Ephesians
Here at Living Grace we are on a journey
of apprehending all of God his
incomparably great power including what
these verses say. We are hungry for this. Christians everywhere announce rather
quickly: Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible
tells me so. But many a time
we have no idea what the words mean.
His love for us goes so much deeper than any fast and easy statement about love
would suggest. In fact according to these Bible verses the love of Jesus is so wide and long and
high and deep that this love cannot be fully known with the mind. The reality
of this love surpasses knowledge which means that we can only pray for
revelation by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can only pray that the eyes of
the heart begin to see and grasp what the rational mind cannot.
A pastor shared an experience from his
prayer life. He reflected how in the days before Jesus the worship of Gods
people would be built around the ark of the covenant
which according to the Bible was fashioned after a pattern in heaven.
Without going into details there were three distinct parts which signified
three distinct levels of closeness to God. There was the
One day he was surprised when was in the
Holy of Holies for the first ime. In awe he quietly mouthed with his lips: Alleluiah. Immediately, the presence of God lifted off him. This frightened him
and he asked: Why? Dont you want me to praise you? The response from God was: Here
at this place of intimacy with me not even your words are allowed. The pastor writes in explanation: Gods
presence is experienced in the deep places of the heart. [The Bible says in
Psalm 47:7:] Deep calleth unto deep
Gods
presence produces silence
Psalm 46:10: Be still and know that I am God
I think that what this pastor is sharing
is what the prayer from before is about:
I pray that you
may have power
to grasp
the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
In the Holy of Holies deep calleth unto deep.
God by his Spirit imparts in us
a kind of knowing of him and his love and his power that surpasses the knowledge which can be
packaged into human words by the human mind. The Bible says in another verse
1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
[what] no mind has
conceived
God has revealed . to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. Therefore, in silence deep calleth unto
deep. Spirit communicates with spirit.
Are we getting excited about belonging
to the church? We may not yet able to understand everything but can we
appreciate the wonders of the church? There is this exciting journey of
penetrating the fullness of Christ
the incomparably great power for us who believe and the incomparably great love
for us who believe. And the two
power and love go together come
together work together. Jesus
demonstrated this on the cross when his body was broken for us in love
love which released enough power to
conquer sin, death and the devil. If you are in the church, you are on this
exciting journey of penetrating this mystery the love of Jesus the
power of Jesus the enormity of his sacrifice the power of his blood which
was spilled for love
There is no end
in what the cross reveals about God and has achieved for us.
Yet, I want to become more practical
now. God makes the church this amazing enterprise but what are some more
practical insights in the way we live together? One of our biggest needs and
therefore the most pressing reason to be together as a church is connected with
the two Bible prayers which we have read Ephesians 1:18-23: I pray . that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened
that you may know
incomparably great
power for us who believe
Ephesians 3:16-21:
I pray that you
may have power
to grasp
and to know
that you may be filled
Our biggest need is to preserve faith among
us. When my faith is weak, I need someone else around me that is going to be bold trusting the promises of God.
For instance, last Saturday we did
another Holy Spirit seminar at Ipswich and during the day before I went up for another talk I needed to go over to David (Challenor)
for prayer because I had a small crisis
of faith, thinking: What if God is not confirming his word? What if
nothing is going to happen for anyone? I dont feel anointed. What am I doing?
But David prayed for me and I was
leaning on his faith and his prayer renewed my faith and he loved me with the
love of God and the talk went well.
We need the church to guard our faith have the eyes of our heart enlightened and not
dimmed by the world. For this reason the
Bible declares Ephesians 4:11-13: It was [Jesus Christ] who gave some
to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be
pastors and teachers, to equip Gods people
so that the body of Christ may be
built up
in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God
attaining to
the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Jesus Christ gave leaders to the church (apostles, evangelists, pastors, grown-up Christians) to equip the church by imparting faith and
knowledge of the Son of God (and his promises) so that with growing maturity (enlightened hearts) the fullness of Christ would be attained.
We need each other for faith.
Then, these verses pick up again on the
same image of the church which appeared in a previous reading from the same
Bible book Ephesians 1:18-23 (the
earlier reading):
the church, . is his body, the fullness of him
Ephesians 4:11-13
(now):
Gods people
the body of Christ
attaining
the fullness of
Christ. The church is the body of
Christ. Again reminding ourselves of the previous Bible images for the
church: the household of God (Ephesians 2:19, 1 Timothy 3:15), citizens of
heaven (Philippians 3:20), living stones in one spiritual house (1 Peter
2:5), a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9), children of God (Galatians 3:26) this means that you do not join a church
but as soon as you become a Christian you belong to the church the people
of God who together are the body of
Christ the fullness of him.
Now how does the body function? How do
we function at Living Grace? The Bible says Romans 12:4-8: Just as each of us has one body with many members,
and these members do not have all the same function, so in Christ we who are
many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have
different gifts, according to the grace given us
prophesying
serving
teaching
encouraging
contributing to needs
leadership
showing mercy
1 Corinthians 12:27-31: Now you are the body of Christ
And in the
church God has appointed
prophets
teachers
workers of miracles
those
having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of
administration . those speaking with different kinds
of tongues
eagerly desire
gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11: Now to
each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one
there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message
of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit
This is how it works. We are the body of
Christ because Christ has poured out his Spirit upon us. We are his body
because he is present among us through his Spirit in as we have said before fullness, incomparably great power and love that surpasses knowledge.
The key is the Spirit who then manifests in each one of us and keeps
manifesting in each one of us with different
gifts and different gift combinations according to our position in the body
such as: inspired teaching, administration, showing mercy, encouraging,
serving, prophesying, and so on.
Thus, every one of us is needed. Every
single person is important and valued because the body cannot function without
certain body parts missing. You may sit in church today and feel that you are
still immature maybe a new
Christian and you may think that not
much good is going on in your life. You may sit in church today and have the
feeling that you are always taking from others but have nothing to give
yourselves. This is not true. If you are a Christian, you belong to the body
and if you belong to the body, this means that God has also given you the Holy
Spirit and makes you serve somewhere in his power.
Stolle is a new Christian (two weeks) but
on Wednesday he was already joining the others in laying hands on a desperate
young man and he was needed at that time because he is part of the body and can
step out in faith trusting that the Spirit also works through him. Find your
niche. We are not the same but the Bible says that you also are of vital
importance to this church. You matter. No one is dead weight or unimportant.
Another word
about leadership. The body is doing the work. We all work together
accomplishing what Jesus wants from his body. Everyone is active which means
that in the church the focus of leadership is not so much on taking over the
work but equipping and releasing others into their giftings. I read again what
we have heard before Ephesians 4:11-13: It was [Jesus Christ] who gave
some to be
evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip Gods people for
works of service
This means and this is getting very practical. Be realistic in what you expect from your
pastor or our evangelist or anyone else. The church always seems to be in
danger of becoming a club where a group of Christian friends become comfortable
with each other and then hire a pastor who is employed to look after them meeting their needs in personal visitation and counsel. In this church we must function differently.
I wont talk about myself but our
evangelist David Challenor. He is a man of God and (just imagine
that you hit a rough spot somewhere) when
God makes him drop into your life, he comes with the love of God hugs and
food and clothing and housing and the word of salvation. When he is on an assignment from God, he will be rather close to you
visiting you and phoning you and caring for you intensely (mowing the lawn,
fixing a bill) but it will only be for
a season. His job is to equip you not make you dependent on him. He is an evangelist and he needs to move on
bringing the next people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. You are
in the body now the church and
the body will take care of you and you will serve as a part of the body.
It would be nice to remain close to
every one in Living Grace but we are a church in mission and the sacrifice of
moving out of the comfort zone of friends and opening up to new people is one
that all of our leaders have to make. Even our small groups cannot become clubs
but are in mission. Yet, at the same time the love among us is real and the
bond of love which is forged in
seasons of closeness remains precious.
[Maybe it is a little like when you have relatives that are living in
another city. You remain close to them but not always in close contact.
However, what I as the pastor want to ensure is that I am always available for
prayer. Every Sunday at the end of the service and after the service anyone
can come to me and ask for prayer. I wont go home before everyone has received
prayer. The same goes for the Friday night prayer watch and the Wednesday
Jubilee outreach.]
Another point and this is another
practical point. The body grows. Any living organism is growing and changing
all of the time. If it no longer grows or if it no longer changes, its dead
which means that you need to remain connected so that you keep growing with the
body. Years ago I visited a man who told me that the church was like the TV
show Days of our Life. It didnt matter whether you failed to
watch the show for a few years, switch it on at any time and you know whats
going on. Nothing has changed. Living Grace is different. Be here every Sunday
for worship. Not only does God want to bless you but you need to share the
growing experiences of this congregation. Otherwise you are missing key-markers
of our development key Sundays. We
will keep growing and changing. (If you only come every three Sundays,
youll miss it.) The body is alive.
More could be said about the church as
the body of Christ (for instance, the
members of the body must remain in unity with each other for the body to
function and not die and the body is not served by different body parts
becoming jealous of each other) but I am
coming to a close. What can be better than belonging to the church? Ephesians
1:18-23 one last time: I pray . that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened
that you may know the hope
the
inheritance
incomparably great power for us who believe
the church,
[is the] body [of
Jesus Christ], the fullness of him
About sixty people become members of our
church Living Grace today and
the invitation goes out to everyone: Be
with us on this journey of having the eyes of our heart enlightened. Jesus is
here and his incomparably great power is here and his love that surpasses
knowledge is here. We are his body and he can do anything. Amen.