Category: Sermon

This Sunday we begin with a new series of studying through Acts of the Apostles. Today I will be kickstarting this series by exploring why it’s important to study this book and what should we expect.

Acts of the apostles were written by Luke. After writing the Gospel of Luke where he dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, in this book, he is writing about what the risen Christ is continuing to do amongst them.

After the resurrection of Jesus, there seems to be so much happening in this book that it can almost feel overwhelming to us.

From the outpouring of the Holyspirit on the 120 disciples gathered in the upper room – Peter boldly preaching the gospel to a multitude of people – People repenting of their sins and receiving Christ left right and center – People getting baptized and added to the church – Persecution of the Christian in that region by Saul and other leaders – The conversation of Saul to Paul – A spectacular church planting movement – Disciples scattering around the world to preach the Gospel, plant churches, raise and appoint new Elders – More persecution – More gospel proclamation etc.

There is so much happening, and it’s important to remind ourselves – The book of Acts is not the story about these extraordinary men and women who accomplished these great and significant things for God, but it is the story of God accomplishing great and significant things through these ordinary men and women. It is not men doing great things for God but what God is doing in the lives of these ordinary men.

And, just like the book of Joshua, the story was never about a man called Joshua or a nation called Israel, the story was and will always be about God who is and should always be at the center – on a mission to accomplish something great, something marvelous, something extraordinary – And we get to be the privileged ones to be chosen as part of that mission.

Therefore, just like any other book in the bible, when we read the Acts of the apostles, we are not merely reading the book to study some strategy or skills or methods that these men and women followed to spread the gospel all around the world.

But we are called to learn about God and what He is accomplishing through these men and women.

And the one thing that we learn about God in this book is that He is the **God of Power.**

And that is why we’ve named our series ‘God of Power’

The word ‘power’ means ‘the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way.’

This means everything we will see happening in the book of Acts is the manifestation of God’s power in the lives of ordinary people like us.

Before diving into the book of Acts, let’s look at the subject of God’s Power from an, even more, broader perspective and acknowledge His Power (his ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way) so that we have the right context to begin studying this book.

## It is the Power of God, the reason for our survival & sustenance

**1 Chronicles 29:11

> *Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O  Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.*

Before we begin to read the Acts of the apostles, let us acknowledge that It is the Power of God because of which these men are alive in the first place to experience such a thing. It is His power that sustained the lives of all those men and women up till that generation and even today.

The very breath we have is a gift from God.

It is utter foolishness to believe that the world exists because we are great and smart. No, my friends, the world exists because God chooses to act and show mercy toward us.

You see, we failed God in the garden of Eden when we chose to disobey and rebel against him. And the wages of that sin was death, God had all the rights to kill us and destroy this world. But He chooses to keep us alive and gather us back to him.

**Isaiah 54:7**

> *“For a brief moment, I forsook you,
But with great compassion, I will gather you.*
>

**Isaiah 54:8**

> *“In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness, I will have compassion on you,”
Says the Lord your Redeemer.*
>

**Romans 9:15-16**

> *For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.*
>

Brothers & sisters, there is nothing good in us that stands out to God because of which he chooses to keep us alive and sustain us, but, only because of his mercy we are alive and breathing today.

It is the Power of God, the reason for our survival & sustenance. And let’s acknowledge that.

## It is the Power of God, the reason for our justification & sanctification

**Matthew 19: 23-26**

> *And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”*
>

The story of these disciples we are going to read and study in the book of Acts is only possible because of the saving grace of God. When we sinned and rebelled against God, we became his enemies, and therefore became slaves to sin and satan. And none of our good works or extra efforts could have bridged the gap between God and us.

And therefore, God in his sovereign Power acted and sent his only begotten son Jesus Christ to this earth in human flesh, to live the righteous and obedience life we were supposed to live and took the penalty of our sins on Himself and died in our place on the cross of Calvery.

It is His act of grace shown towards us that convicts us of our sins, leads us into repentance, and enables us to trust in Jesus. And therefore, it is the power of God, the reason for our justification.

Paul in his prayer in **1 Thessalonians 5:23** writes … ****

> *May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.*
>

Here Paul is convinced that only God has the power to sanctify us through and through and present us blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers & sisters, in our efforts we are utterly incapable to keep ourselves blameless and holy at any given point in our lives. It is only the power of God that keeps us from stumbling and falling, the very reason for our sanctification.

The book of Acts happened because God chose to show up and not because of any human interventions, plans, or strategies.

## It is the Power of God, the reason for their effectiveness and growth

Acts 2:1-4

> *When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.*
>

I believe the outpouring of the Holyspirit upon these men for the first time in history was and will remain the most significant event and factor that gave birth to the church of Christ. Especially because when we look at the past lives of some of these men we remember the moments when they acted in fear and doubt.

How did they suddenly become so bold and fearless to stand in front of a multitude of people to proclaim the gospel with boldness and clarity? How did their faith rise up to the next level where miraculous things started happening around them? What made them go to the level of sacrificing everything for the sake of the gospel, even their lives?

It was only the work of the Holyspirt where God himself was acting through them to accomplish all these great things. Friends, all the effectiveness and success in ministry we see happening in the book of Acts is the result of God’s power working in and through them. Let’s call it Power enabled ministry.

Therefore, friends, as we study the book of Acts, the focus shouldn’t be on ourselves or on a particular man or woman, but our focus should be on Christ, the author, and finisher of Life. Our focus should be on God and on his Power that enables us to do great things for Him.

And what we see happening in the lives of these men and women can also happen to us, you know why? Because we serve the same God who is willing to act in and through us.

We often read a book like Acts of the Apostles and think we have to now get into an activity mode and start doing something, but let me suggest to you two application points that are not ‘activities to do’ but a state of heart we need to cultivate.

Therefore, If what we see in the Acts of the apostles is what you desire to see and happen in your life and in this city/region or nation – My first application point for you is …

## 1. Stop resisting God when he is moving you out of your comfort zone

**Matthew 4:19-20**

> *And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.*
>

When we start reading the book of Acts, the first thing you will notice about these men is that none of them are in their comfort zone.

They could have been in the field taking care of their crops, they could have been in the sea fishing, they could have been busy getting ready to make their next big presentation for a job interview, they could have been busy binge-watching on their couch, they could have been busy partying with their friends, etc

While none of these things are bad in themselves, but at the appointed time, when God called them out of their comfort zone they did not resist him because they found a greater purpose in life.

Some of them threw their nets and followed Jesus wherever He led them, some of them decided to leave their hometown and move to another city to start a tent-making business to spread the gospel, and some even sold all their properties and possessions and brought the money to the disciples for the extension of God’s kingdom.

As a first application, I want us to go back home and search our hearts and ask what is the comfort zone that we’ve built in our minds that we are not willing to give up for the sake of the gospel?

I’m not going to name them for you because it’s going to be unique for each individual. It’s between you and God. What’s important is to identify those barriers in our minds and be willing to give up, no matter what the cost.

The second application point I want to suggest is …

## 2. Eliminate busyness & distractions and find your Upper room

**Matthew 6:6**

> *But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.*
>

I recently read this amazing book called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” written by a pastor called John Mark and he argues that the number one weapon the enemy is using against us today from becoming what God wants us to become and doing what God wants us to do is busyness and distraction.

He says “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” And therefore, my friends, as an application to your life I want to urge you to start beginning to think of how to eliminate busyness and distractions and find your upper room where you can have a single-minded focus.

By upper room, I mean a place where you are alone with Jesus, pouring out your heart and talking to him daily.

Because it is in the upper room where God will meet with you, it is the upper room where God will speak to you, it is the upper room where the Holyspirit will empower you, it is the upper room where you will be enlightened with a sense of direction for your life and ministry, it is the upper room where you will know your calling and purpose in life. It is in the upper room from where you will be sent out. It is the upper room where you will experience and sense the peace of God affirming the decisions you and I need to take in life.

And like I said before, what we see happening in the book of Acts can happen to us because we serve the same powerful God who is able to do greater things through us if only we are willing to surrender to Him by walking in obedience to his calling and resting in Him at all times.

Good morning church! Wanted to welcome everyone who has joined us online and also in person. If you’ve been with us at Gathering, you would have noticed that one of the things we deeply value is the preaching of God’s Word because we believe that God does speak to us clearly and personally to our hearts even today. How does he do that? He does that through the written Word (Bible). So let’s prayerfully prepare our hearts to listen to what God has to tell us today. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been going through this series titled “Why Church?” where we are grappling with the question of why is the church so important in a believer’s life:

1. In the first week, we learnt that the church is not a building or a place but a people – the people who have been redeemed and joined together by the sacrifice of Jesus.
2. The week after that we tried to understand what are the health markers of a healthy church. And we looked at two aspects which are the Priority of Scripture and the Centrality of the Gospel.
3. Last week we saw what leadership in the church looks like. And we saw the importance of having God-qualified elders appointed in the church so that they can model godly character as they lead and serve the church.
4. And today we come to the last topic in our series which is “Church Membership”. Before we get started on this, I think it’ll be good for us to pray and ask God to open up our spiritual eyes and hearts to eagerly receive what He has to tell us.

(Pray)

If someone were to ask you what comes to your mind when you think about “church membership”, what would you say? We usually draw from our own church experiences or what we may have seen happen in other churches. I just thought it’ll be good to list down predominant models of church membership that are seen across churches today:

1. Attendance model: Like the name goes, regular church attendance is the main criteria in order to become a member of a local church. 
2. Subscription model: This is viewed more in traditional church settings where they have this concept of “annual subscription”, which is a basic amount that you need to pay to keep your membership in that local church. Even if you aren’t regularly attending the church, that’s okay as long as you are paying your annual subscription.
3. Membership class model: This is where churches organize a membership class periodically. As long as you’ve completed the membership class, that’s sufficient to become a member of that local church.

Before I move on, I just want to say that there are aspects of attendance, subscription or the membership class models that are not bad but these models by themselves do not picture a healthy, biblical model of membership. Which is why our duty is not to copy the existing models of membership that we’ve seen around us or create a new version of church membership, but rather to go back to the Word and see what does the bible say about “church membership”. And I hope you don’t see this as something that only elders and leaders need to be concerned about, if it’s biblical then it is something that concerns every single believer. “Why Church Membership” or “Why should we consider to be a member of a local church”?

• Because it helps us live out God’s design for us (1 Cor 12:12-27)

Now the word “church membership” is not mentioned found in Scripture, however, the principles of church membership is seen right throughout Scripture. One of the beautiful metaphors used in the Bible for God’s church is that it’s Jesus’ body (1 Cor 12:12-27). And Jesus’ body consists of various “members”. Now some may argue that this is merely referring to the universal body of Christ – which consists of all believers everywhere. How can you say that it’s talking about being a member in a local church? The main point of this passage is to tell us that a kind of mutual interdependence needs to exist between the members of the body. Each and every member of the body is critical to the functioning of the body. There is not a single member in the body who has any less significant in God’s plan (v18). In fact, it tells us that the members of the body that are less presentable and weaker, are treated with greater modesty, greater honour and greater care. And so this kind of mutual interdependence simply cannot exist if we say that we’re only part of the universal church. It demands that we find ourselves integrated into a local church where we see ourselves as an essential members of the body & at the same time intentionally appreciate and care for others while also inviting others to similarly care for us.

Now isn’t this radically different from our usual church expectations? Sometimes we say “I’m part of this church because the preacher preaches on topics which are relevant to what I’m going through. I’m part of this church because the worship music is closer to what I prefer listening to. I’m part of this church because the people who come here are of my same wavelength. I’m part of this church because I have a prominent role out here. I’m part of this church because they host events that I enjoy participating in”. In other words, we’ve reduced the local church to an amazon shopping cart where just like consumers we pick and choose what we like as long as it fulfils our needs. The moment the church stops meeting our felt needs, what happens? We’ll look out for another local church or worse we’ll stop going to any church. And that’s not what this passage tells us, right? In fact, it tells us that just like the eye cannot tell the hand “I don’t need you”, similarly we cannot tell any other member that we don’t need them. We don’t stop caring and serving the other members because our church preferences or felt needs are not met. We don’t leave the local church for any random reason. (There are exceptional cases where you may leave the local church if God’s calling you to plant a church elsewhere or if your local church stops preaching the true gospel). Because God has specifically “arranged the members of the body, as He chose” (v18). And in order to live out this purpose and design that God has given us, it requires us to be committed members of a local church! 

• Because it helps us validate our faith

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)

In this passage in 1 John 2, the context talks about false believers who were among them but have now left and abandoned the local church. These people being described here were not people who turned up once in a blue moon at their church gatherings (Easter / Good Friday / Christmas). These were people who were active in their local church. They probably spent time in each other’s homes. They probably laughed with, cried with and prayed with the other members of the local church. And after all that they decided to abandon and depart from the church. And this is how the apostle John puts it. He says that the fact that they didn’t continue with us, the fact that they left the local church showed that they were never really part of us –they were never believers in the first place.

I hope we are able to grasp the seriousness of this verse. Our perseverance and commitment to the local church proves that we are genuinely believers. And that’s why when a church declares or confirms a person to be a member, the church is also affirming that they have seen the fruit of the gospel in that person’s life!

That’s why there is an absolute co-relation between our relationship with Jesus Christ and our relationship with His church. When people say “I love Jesus but I can’t stand the local church”, it simply doesn’t make sense because how can we say that we love Jesus but hate His bride whom He bought with His own blood?

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20, 21)

So to be able to love our brothers and sisters, it would require a close, committed, steadfast relationship with the body which is why we need church membership.

• Because it helps us exercise church discipline

I know the word “discipline” is a pretty intense word & sometimes churches may choose to exclude these verses fearing that it might make people hesitant to join their church. But let’s try to understand it from Scripture:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matt 18:15-17)

When you look at these verses, we realize that church discipline although temporarily painful for the people involved, it’s aimed at restoring the person’s heart and relationship with God. So the first step is always to have a private conversation, but if the person continues in unrepentant sin, then ask two or three more people to speak to that person. If that person still refuses to listen, then this needs to be brought before the church, and if the person still continues in sin then the person is to be put out of the church (in the sense where the person won’t enjoy the safety and intimacy of community as he or she did earlier). Do note that it’s not the elders, it’s not an individual but the final authority is given to the church to keep the person outside the church if he/she continues in unrepentance. And I’m aware that some of this might seem too harsh or extreme for some of us, but let’s not lose sight of grace being shown to help the person repent and come back into a right relationship with God. Now does this mean that every single sin comes under the category of church discipline? No, I think it is in reference to public, unrepentant sin which can be a negative influence on others within the church.

And therefore church membership is important so that you know who are the members of the church and are able to also exercise gracious discipline.

• Because it helps us know who are our leaders

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb 13:17)

When we are committed to a local body of believers, then we also know that we’re called to submit to the elders of that local church. And this has become blurry, especially with this post-pandemic world where tuning into online churches across the globe has become so accessible and easy. Now there’s nothing wrong in tuning into another service, but let’s also be wary of the tendency to look at these wonderful pastors and preachers around the world and assume them to be our elders. John Piper is a wonderful preacher and pastor and I’ve been so encouraged by his sermons and writings, but the fact is that he’s not called to be my elder. I’m not called to submit to him in the way that I’m called to submit to Saju’s leadership. For every church, God has called, qualified and gifted certain people in their local context to lead and care for that church.

Similarly, as elders, we are called to keep a watch over the souls of this local church. Scripture says that we will need to give an account for these souls. But how will we know whom to give an account for if there’s no clear understanding of who are the members of this local church?

• Because it helps our witness to the outside world

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20-21)

When Jesus prayed the High Priestly prayer in John 17, think about all the different things He could have prayed for us. But out of all the things, don’t you find it interesting and surprising that He would pray for our unity as a church? And He prays that through our unity, it would serve as a powerful witness to the world around us! Think with me for a second why would He pray for our unity? Probably because in His church – the body – He would have members from very different upbringings, He would have members who would be culturally different from each other, He would have members who didn’t look like or talk like each other, He would have members who would want to use their giftings to serve themselves rather than serve the other, He would have members who had their own set of the baggage of sin, selfishness and unbelief and would drag it into every close relationship, He would have members who no matter what they convinced themselves were at the core very difficult to love and serve. These would be members whom you would never picture together in a single room but yet they would be united because of the same Jesus Christ who died for them all & rose again for them on the third Day & is continuing to shape and change them through this thing/organism known as “local church”. And in God’s mind – His purpose is to join together these pieces of broken glass / broken mirror (us) so that His power, mercy, and patience can be reflected world that is lost and dying and is in desperate need for God.

Church, I don’t know what’s going through your mind when you think about membership now? Maybe it’s apprehension because of some abuse in your previous church experience. Maybe it’s fear of being known – you’re afraid of people knowing who you are if you come into this kind of close commitment. Maybe it’s the hesitation of having to deal with conflict and difficulty that comes with close relationships. Maybe it’s the reluctance of keeping your life accountable to others. And I’m not downplaying any of these reasons but what if the very thing you’ve been running away from is the very thing that God is planning to use to change you? What if the local church is God’s way of shaping your heart, using your life and together with others powerfully witness to His glory to a lost and dying world? Wouldn’t you want that? The local church is God’s Plan A. We’ve been created and called to live out our purpose in the context of being committed members of a local church!

The objective of this series is to give you a better understanding of what the bible has to say about the Church? Why? Because there are different views of the church among people today, it’s our responsibility to constantly remind and point you to the scripture and allow you to frame your understanding of the church on the basis of the scripture and not from man-made ideas and notions.

In this series, so far, we’ve covered ….

What is Church?

• A church is not a building or a place but people
  • People who’ve come to realize the truth about life which is …
    • We were created by God in his image & likeness to worship, serve and glorify him.
    • But instead, we rebelled and sinned against him and became enemies of God.
    • But God, being a loving Father, to restore us back to himself sent his son Jesus to live the obedience life we were supposed to live and take the penalty of our sins upon himself and die on the cross in our place.
    • Now, by repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus we are reunited with our loving God and hence permitted to spend eternity in heaven with him.
    • We also believe that by trusting in Jesus and continually walking in repentance and faith our lives on earth are also radically changed and transformed by the grace of God.
    • A believer in Christ affirms his/her faith in Christ by participating in the Baptism of water and partaking in the Lord’s supper along with other believers of Christ.
• What is a healthy church?
  • A place where the whole counsel of the scripture is rightly preached
  • A place where all the elements of the church, the Sunday gathering, the house meets, bible study, and every other activity are centred around the Gospel. By the Gospel, I mean centred around the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

To summarize so far, I want to read out a quote by one of the early Church leader, John Calvin who said

“Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists”

Today, we will look deeper and learn what the bible has to say about leadership in Church.

Why is it important for you to know this?

It is important to know so that every believer in Christ becomes more discerning, vigilant, and wise in choosing to submit under the right Godly authority, the way God designed it for our spiritual maturity.

Our primary passage for today will be 1 Timothy 3:1-7 where we will look closely at the qualifications of an Elder as prescribed in the bible, but I will also touch on other aspects of church leadership that are important and in the end, will also make some bold statements regarding church leadership.

Therefore, I request you to pay close attention, make notes if necessary and think of questions you might want to ask us regarding this subject. We will be glad to answer them.

To ‘Become a Leader’ is a very common desire most people have, whether in business, politics or within a corporate setting. And we have lots and lots of materials and resources available to help you become a leader.

To some becoming a leader would mean having authority over others or the power to accomplish whatever goals they want and desire by using people or earning respect from others or wanting to be treated honourably in the society etc.

But is that what church leadership also means? the answer is ‘no’

The first thing we do learn is that the bible has exactly the opposite view of what a leader should be as compared to what the world prescribes. And our greatest example and inspiration is Jesus himself.

The term prescribed in the bible for true Christian leadership is “Servant Leadership”. Here’s what we learn from the teachings of Christ, which he lived out for us to set an example.

A leadership motivated by love

John 13:1 – “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

Jesus’ love was undeserved, unending, unconditional and unselfish. It was not the worthiness or the merits of the disciples that drove Jesus to serve them. He wasn’t expressing gratitude, but grace. Love made him serve his disciples. Think about it: Jesus even washed the feet of Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him and have him killed the next day.

Not an insecure position

John 13:3 – Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God;

Jesus knew who he was, and he was secure enough to get down on the floor and wash his disciples’ feet. He didn’t have to prove anything. In fact, he had nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide.

“The insecure are into titles. The secure are into towels.”

Jesus’ security enabled him to both stoop and stretch.

Not to be served by others but to serve others

John 13:4-5 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus didn’t wait for someone. He saw a need and met it. No one else had volunteered for the foot-washing job that night — so Jesus made use of that opportunity to show us what serving means. He started something that he hoped would be passed down from those twelve disciples to others (see John 13:12–15). It will be done by leaders who are willing to pioneer an act of humility and sacrifice.

Live a blessed life as we serve others

John 13:16-17 – 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus reminded them they were blessed if they obeyed him in this lifestyle. The greatest blessing follows those who step out by faith and do the opposite of what the world is doing. God blesses those who “go countercultural” and serve people with no thought of getting something in return from them. The return comes in the form of God’s blessing.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, Church leadership is position given by God to certain men to emulate Jesus and lead his people into spiritual maturity, ultimately pointing their hearts to Christ.

Church leadership is not a position to impose authority over others. Rather the authority of church leaders is only within the purview of the right teaching of the scripture that is displayed through right living in accordance with the scripture. This means any authority imposed on others outside the purview of the scripture which is based on worldly ideas and principles is an ungodly one.

It is exactly the opposite of what the world teaches us.

What we see in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 is the list of qualifications that an Elder needs to have that emulate the leadership of Christ.

1. Elders Must Desire and Pursue Service (v. 1) – As Christ willingly gave himself to save and redeem a sinful generation and restore them back to the Father, an Elder is expected to willingly desire and pursue service. Not out of compulsion on selfish gain but genuinely desiring to serve others.
2. Elders Must Be Above Reproach (v. 2) – ‘Above reproach’ means blameless – As Jesus lived a life of integrity and obedience to his Father in heaven, an Elder is expected to walk in integrity and truthfulness in the eyes of others watching them.
3. Elders Must Be Faithful to Their Wives (v. 2) – As Christ is faithful to his bride, the Church, an Elder is expected to be faithful to his earthly wife emulating Christ’s faithfulness to us.
4. Elders Must Be Temperate (v. 2) – As Christ maintained and continues to maintain his cool with us after all that we do against him, an Elder is also expected to maintain his cool as best he can in dealing with others. ********
5. Elders Must Be Self-controlled (v. 2) – As Christ maintained self-control while he was tempted by the devil in the desert, an Elder is expected to maintain his self-control in resisting the devil so that he can be effective in his service to God and people.
6. Elders Must Be Respectable (v. 2) – As Jesus was loved and respected by those who followed him, an Elder is expected to earn respect from others so that he is taken seriously.
7. Elders Must Be Hospitable (v. 2) – As Jesus showed hospitality to everyone who came to him, whether the thousands who came to him hungry or individuals who approached him for healing or support, an Elder is expected to emulate the same kind of hospitality with others.
8. Elders Must Be Able to Teach (v. 2) – As Jesus preached and communicated the message of the Kingdom to the dying world with clarity, an Elder is expected to have the skill to teach and train others in godliness.
9. Elders Must Not Be Drunkards (v. 3) – Even though Jesus hung out with sinners and was known to be a wine drinker, he never let any kind of intoxication shift his focus from pursuing his calling, an Elder is expected to not get drunk or intoxicated to the point where he has lost complete control over his mind and body.
10. Elders Must Not Be Violent (v. 3) – As Christ never pursued violence as his strategy to compact his enemies, and instead rebuked Peter for using his knife when the Roman soldiers came to capture him, an Elder is expected to be non-violent in his approach to anybody who opposes him.
11. Elders Must Not Be Quarrelsome (v. 3) – As Christ always valued relationships over winning arguments and never came across as quarrelsome, an Elder is expected to refrain from quarrelling and becoming argumentative, but rather value relationships.
12. Elders Must Not Be Lovers of Money (v. 3) – As Christ valued heavenly possessions over earthy possessions and even taught us to do so, an Elder is expected to desire for true possessions that make our soul richer in Christ.
13. Elders Must Manage Their Households Well (v. 4-5) – As Christ set an example by faithfully serving this earthly family as a carpenters son for 30 years and managed his affairs in a God-honoring manner, an Elder is expected to manage his household with sincerity, proving and taking take of his wife and children and leading their hearts to Christ.
14. Elders Must Be Mature (v. 6) – As Christ displayed maturity in handling the ups and downs of his life, the one that comes to my mind is the way he responded to his heavenly Father in the garden on Gethsemane, even when the experience of carrying the sin of the whole world upon himself became excruciatingly painful, he said to his Father “May your will be done”, an Elder is expected to emulate maturity in times of pain, suffering and turmoils. ********
15. Elders Must Have a Good Reputation among the Lost (v. 7) – As Christ won the hearts of many and continues to do so even today, whether Christians or non-Christians by maintaining a good reputation of his character, an Elder is expected to emulate Christ and have a good reputation among others.

Are women called to pursue Eldership positions?

No, because clearly, this is how God designed it to be, every quality mentioned here suggests that it’s men who are called for this role.

Does that mean Women have no role to play in the church?

No, apart from the role of an Elder, women can contribute in every other manner, whether it’s leading worship, or GC, or DNA, or speaking at an event or a seminar.

Keeping in mind that the primary authority and responsibility to teach from the Word of God is reserved for men.

1 Timothy 2

12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Does that mean women are less Godly?

No, absolutely not. It’s just the way God designed it to be for whatever reason. We just obey Him.

In fact, according to me, I think God has a special place for women in his heart.

I have no shame to say that according to me Jane is more godly than me. I tell Jane, she’s a special child of God, and the perks I enjoy in life is all because I take care of his special child.

Are these qualities only for an Elder?

No, they are qualities every follower of Christ needs to pursue.

Are these qualities easy to pursue?

No, just as it’s challenging for you to pursue it is challenging even for an Elder to pursue, but the expectation from an Elder is to excel in them and set an example for others to follow.

Therefore, God has given his means of grace to help us walk in obedience and godliness, even for an Elder. Primarily, his Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins, and help and guide us. but also the gift of fellowship.

We have to remember that an Elder is an under-shepherd to the main Shepherd, therefore he needs the same kind of care, encouragement, corrections, disciplinary actions, and guidance as every other believer.

Therefore, what we see in the scripture as a healthy structure for a church is not one man having all the authority and say, but ‘Plurality of Elders’.

“The Bible clearly models a plurality of elders in each local church. Though it never suggests a specific number of elders for a particular congregation, the New Testament refers to ‘elders’ in the plural in local churches (e.g., Acts 14:23; 16:4; 20:17; 21:18; Titus 1:5; James 5:14). When you read through Acts and the Epistles, there is always more than one elder being talked about.”

Acts 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 16:4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

Titus 1:5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—

9 marks –

1. Biblical accountability. Godly fellow elders are a great means for holding the pastor accountable to live, teach, and lead faithfully. In addition, sharing authority among a number of men can keep one man from wrongly lording it over the congregation
2. Wisdom. There is more wisdom to be found in a multitude of counsellors (Prov. 11:14; 24:6).
3. Balance. No one man has all the gifts that are necessary to build up the church. Having a plurality of elders serves the church by bringing men with different gifts into the church’s leadership who can complement the pastor’s strengths.
4. Burden sharing. Caring for the whole church is a burden God does not intend one man to bear alone. Even the most faithful, gifted pastor needs help from other godly men in order to pay careful attention to himself and to all the flock (Acts 20:28).
5. Sets an example for the church. Having a plurality of elders demonstrates that the work of ministry is not reserved for a select few. Rather, it provides an example of maturity for every man, particularly when some of the elders are men who work ordinary jobs and are not paid by the church.

Coming to the application.

Firstly, I want us to appreciate God’s gift of leaders to us. Recognize that their position is by the appointment of the Lord and is under His direction.

the goal of spiritual leadership is that people come to know God and to glorify him in all that they do. Spiritual leadership is aimed not so much at directing people as it is at changing people.

The spiritual gift of leadership is given by God to men and women to help the church to grow and thrive. God has given the gift of leadership not to exalt men but to glorify Himself when believers use His gifts to do His will.

Good morning church! Hope you had a good last week but even if you’re here thinking that the last week wasn’t great, I hope you see this as something that will bring rest and refreshment to your heart as you hear from God this morning.  If you’ve been tracking with us, you would be aware that we’ve started a new series titled “Why Church?”. And that’s an interesting & challenging question for all of us here. For many of us, we’ve heard the phrase “Go to Church” several times but rarely have we wondered “But why church?” Maybe it’s because that’s all that we’ve done since we were kids. Maybe it’s because that’s a good moral thing to do. And so last week we came down to a definition of “what is a church” and what we learned is that “the church is not a place but a people”. It’s a people who have been radically saved by Jesus Christ & joined to each other so that together they can display who He is to a lost and dying world around them. Today we arrive at the second topic of our series titled “What is a healthy church?” Would you join me as we pray and ask God to speak to us through the Word this morning?

(Pray)

If I were to ask this question – how do you assess if a person is physically healthy or not? Let’s say you didn’t have access to a diagnostic test. What are some health markers that you would look out for? You would probably say someone who eats a balanced diet, someone who exercises regularly, someone who ensures that he/she has proper sleep through the night etc. Similarly, what are some health markers for a church? How can we biblically assess whether a church is healthy or not? It’s a deep question, right? I’m thankful to brothers like Mark Dever who’ve spent a lot studying and writing on this topic of “Healthy Churches”. And so today I’ll be referring to his outline for our time today. There are at least 4 health markers for a church – 2 of which will be covered today and the other 2 will be covered over the next 2 Sundays:

• Priority of Scripture
• Reliability on the Gospel
• Capacity of Elders
• Authority of the Church

1. Priority of Scripture

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)

In these two verses, it’s so interesting that it tells us that every piece of Scripture – every verse, every chapter, every book, every testament is “God breathed” and “inspired by God”. And since every passage of Scripture is inspired by God, every passage can be used to “teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness” so that the man of God may be “complete” equipped for every good work. In other words, it tells us that apart from God’s Word (apart from Scripture), man is incomplete (immature) & ill-equipped to carry out what God has called him to do. You see here – there’s a priority that’s been given to Scripture, there’s a very high view of Scripture, and there’s a primacy to Scripture in the life of the believer and also the church.

And so whenever we gather together as a church on Sundays, the preacher is not called to share his opinions on a bible text, the preacher is not called to entertain the church with a bunch of cool stories, the preacher is not called to pump people up with a motivational talk, the preacher is called to preach the Bible faithfully so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And that’s why expository preaching is important. It is not just a stylistic preference but a necessity for every church that aspires to be healthy. Expository preaching basically means to expose the text / reveal the text / break down the text in accordance with its context and the author’s intent when he wrote that passage of Scripture. And think about this when we read any piece of literature, any normal book – don’t we attempt to read it from cover to cover to understand the main point of the story? We don’t randomly jump to the middle of the book and selectively pick out a quote and figure out our own interpretation through that random quote. That would be taking it out of context. So what we try to do is read the book from cover to cover, understand the author’s intent and through that make sense of the theme of the book. But isn’t it interesting that when it comes to the Bible, we have a tendency to treat it differently & set a different standard? If the Bible is God’s Word with every piece of Scripture that is God-inspired, shouldn’t we be all the more diligent in figuring out the context & author’s intent instead of inserting our own thoughts and opinions into the text?

But some may argue that “this is simply too technical, where is the dependence on the Spirit while preaching then?” Well let me tell you that because expository preaching makes us work through a book verse by verse; chapter by chapter, we are forced to deal with uncomfortable and unfamiliar passages. There’s a great deal of dependence on the Spirit to grapple and wrestle with these uncomfortable and unfamiliar passages before preaching it to people. If we only did topical sermons, we would more or less stick to topics and areas that we as preachers are comfortable with. But the goal is not to make people like us, the goal is to make people more and more like Jesus – which is what expository preaching allows us to do organically.

In the book of Acts, in Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, we get a wonderful insight into the content of his preaching ministry. This is what Paul tells them: 

27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)

What would it mean for us to be a church that “desires the whole counsel of God?” Firstly, I think to pray and ask God to build an appetite in our hearts to eagerly receive the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture. So that we may not approach God’s Word as merely something to address a felt need, but God’s Word to shape us into the likeness of Jesus which can come about through uncomfortable, unfamiliar and unsettling passages. (For eg: OT passages) Secondly, pray for us as elders that we seek to faithfully and prayerfully prepare sermons each week. Pray that we don’t grow weary and that we resist the temptation to preach messages that people want to hear and continue to preach the message that they need to hear.

But not only is there a Priority of Scripture, there is also a

2. Reliability on the Gospel

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16)

We show our reliability and dependence on the Gospel by correctly understanding it, living it out and by sharing it.

• Understand the Gospel

If you’ve been around a church or church people, my guess is that you would have definitely heard the word “Gospel” at some point during a church gathering. But if you were to ask people what it means, chances are that you would get a wide variety of answers. Some may say that the Gospel is the message that God is love, some may say that the Gospel is the message that God has a wonderful plan for your life, Some may say that the Gospel is the message to receive Jesus into your heart and pray a prayer, what if I told you that none of these is the true biblical Gospel?

Gospel basically means “good news” – and that should immediately make us think “but why is it good news?”

It’s helpful to understand the gospel through these 4 points

• God
• Sin
• Jesus
• Response

• God: We were all created by God in His image (like a mirror), to reflect His character and His rule to the created world. Like a father’s desire to see his child reflect His character and his work.
• Sin: But instead of reflecting God’s rule, the man wanted to represent His own independent image and independent rule. Man wanted to be his own boss. Man thought that by doing that his life would be more fulfilling, but instead it ended up being tragic and miserable. Why? Because now was going to be punished for His rebellion, he was now going to be separated from a relationship with God, and that image/mirror was terribly shattered and broken. Man thought “let me compensate for this by working harder, doing good things and trying to be better”. But all those efforts to be better were useless because none of that could remove the punishment, none of that could restore the broken relationship and none of it could fix the broken image. It was like humanity hit a dead end with no way out.
• Jesus: But God didn’t leave us there – To save us from our devastating predicament, God sent His own Son Jesus Christ into the world in the form of man. As God’s Son, He perfectly reflected God’s character and rule. He lived the life that we should have lived. And then when He was 33 years old, though innocent He took the punishment that we deserved upon Himself by dying on the cross for our sins. He paid the price for our guilt and rebellion. He was buried in a tomb but on the Third Day, He victoriously rose from the grave defeating sin, Satan and death.
• Response: No matter who you are, no matter what your background is, no matter what your past is, if you turn from your sins, your selfishness and your efforts to make yourself right before God and instead trust in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, then your punishment would be cancelled, your broken relationship with God would be reconciled and your broken image would be restored gradually & one day it will be fully completed when Jesus comes back again – on that day all those who’ve trusted in Him will perfectly reflect God’s character and rule as was God’s design in the first place. It’s the greatest role reversal in history – all because of what Jesus Christ did for us!
  That’s good news!

• Live out the Gospel

And this “good news” / “Gospel” now redefines the way we live our lives on this earth until Jesus returns.

14 For the love of Christ controls (compels) us because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor 5:14, 15)

Only a person who realizes that he has been rescued from a near-death accident will be grateful enough to owe his life to the one who rescued him. The Gospel compels us to live Holy lives (though not perfectly yet) but there is a pursuit of holiness for every true believer because he or she realizes what was put on the line, the sacrifice which was made to rescue us from sin, Satan and death. Even our DNA groups (GROW) – the end goal is not just to grow in friendship and intimacy with each other (although that is a by-product), the goal is that we may grow in holiness as we are weekly and daily being reminded of the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus is an enabler, a fuel to help us live Holy lives.

• Share the Gospel

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:18-20)

Firstly, it’s so amazing that God is preaching a message of reconciliation to a lost and dying world through people who have personally firsthand experienced the reconciling work of God through Jesus. The other thing we notice in this verse is that “Gospel sharing” is primarily “verbally declaring the Gospel” to someone else – there’s an appeal which is being made. Inviting someone home for dinner, social justice initiatives, and planning outreaches are all good means to adorn & accompany the Gospel, however, the Gospel needs to be verbally shared because it’s “good news”. Thirdly, we see words like “appeal”, and “implore” being mentioned here – which tells us that there is a passionate persuasion and persistence in Gospel sharing. And that only happens when we are personally convicted about the power of the Gospel and genuinely care for the people we are sharing with (and that I believe happens as we pray for them).   

What’s the application? If you’re here today discouraged as you assess your pursuit of holiness and obedience. If you’re here today perplexed and unsure why you’ve not been able to share the Gospel as often and with as many people as you’ve met – it’s probably not because you’ve not been challenged enough or because you’ve not mastered the right methods. It could be because you’ve forgotten how precious and beautiful the Gospel is as revealed in Scripture. Have you been listening to the Gospel enough? Have you been made aware of the bad news? Are you aware of the remarkable role reversal which has taken place in Jesus?

This Sunday, we are starting with a new series called “Why Church?”.

We have been meeting together for the last 7 years as a community. We started as a bible study group with just 6 to 8 people meeting at a home and then moved to a hall where we grew in numbers. For all these 7 years, it has been our joy to serve you.

In recent months, as Jane and I were travelling, meeting, and connecting with people from other countries, we had several occasions to talk about you all. And honestly, every time I think or talk about, you’ll it makes my heart glad.

I remember when my family joined the bible study group, I never thought of becoming or wanting to be a Pastor or an Elder, I simply wanted to serve. But there came to a point when the Lord was leading me to step into this new role, and so I obeyed His calling. Soon after, Jinson also stepped up and ever since God has been faithful in enabling us to lead and serve this community voluntarily while Jinson pursues his full-time job and I pursue my business.

Looking back, I can only see God’s faithfulness, in the way he has led us, protected us, increased us, and he continues to do so.

And right now, we are at a juncture where we need to bring some structure in the way we operate and continue to follow God’s calling in fulfilling his mission of “proclaiming His excellencies by making disciples”. Therefore, we are introducing the process of ‘Church Membership”.

But before we get into that, it’s important for us to have a healthy perspective on what the bible tells us about the church.

Why?

Because there is a varied understanding of the church and its functions among people today, which may or may not be rooted in scripture. And therefore, it is our responsibility to show you from the Word, the purpose of the church as intended and designed by God.

As far as possible, we want to get rid of all man-made ideas, assumptions & rules about the church and align ourselves to understand it from God’s perspective.

In the next couple of weeks, we will talk about

• What is the church & why does it exist according to the scripture?
• What does the scripture tell us about a healthy church?
• What does leadership look like in the church and how does it function?

And finally, on the basis of the above 3 topics, why is Church Membership important?

So, if you are genuinely interested and serious about your relationship with God and one another, I would request you not to miss any of these sermons, or else you will only end up with partial knowledge and incomplete understanding that won’t be helpful.

Today, my job is to show you from the scripture “What is the church and why does it exist?”

A church is not a building or a place, but it is people.

The bible was originally written in Greek, and the word ‘church’ used in the Greek language is the word ‘ekklesia’, and ‘ekklesia’ means ‘an assembly or ‘the called-out ones’.

And the meaning of ‘the called-out ones’ specifically refers to those who have heard, understood, and embraced the truth of the gospel.

What is the gospel truth that I am referring to?

The truth that answers the most important & vital questions about life and its purpose.

• Who am I?
• Why do I exist?
• What’s the purpose of life?
• Why is there sin & suffering in the world?
• How can we attain freedom from sin & suffering?
• How can we experience joy and peace in life?

Every human being on this earth seeks these answers, and we come up with our own philosophies and explanation. How do we know that our explanations and philosophies are true? We only know when it ultimately fulfils the deepest longings of our hearts and fills our life with joy, peace and contentment.

So, let me answer the above questions from the bible and see if it resonates with you?

Who am I? – We are God’s image-bearers

The bible tells us that it was God who made the universe, the stars, the galaxies, and the planets. And it is God who sustains them. So far, no man has an explanation for the existence of these massive objects that are floating around us.

But scientists can tell you this – that if a minutest disturbance or change occurs in the setting of these objects then the earth will be evaporated in a millisecond. Nobody on this earth can deny the existence of a super-power.

**Romans 1:20 – *“*For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

The bible then goes on to tell us that it was God who made the earth, the creatures, and everything in it. He then made man and woman in his image and likeness.

Genesis 1:27 – “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

So, to answer our question, who we are, unlike every other creature on earth, we have been uniquely designed because we are the image-bearers of God himself.

The reason we are creative is because God is a creative God. The reason we have emotions is because God has emotions. The reason we are wise and knowledgeable is because God is wise and all knowing. The reason we love and long for love is because our God is love.

Why do we exist? & what’s the purpose of life? – We exist to glorify the one who made us and by choice enjoy fellowship and friendship with him and to live in peace and harmony with him.

Colossians 1:16 – “All things were created by him and for him.”

He created us in his image so that we could share in his overflowing love, grace and goodness through our relationship with the Trinity – Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

God did not need the world or need people because God has no lack and no need. Instead, God is so full of all that is good, that it overflows and spills out of him. His very nature is to share his goodness, grace and love.

He created us out of love for the purpose of sharing love. We were created to love God and each other. Additionally, when God created us, he created us for good works so that we might experience His goodness and reflect his image in the way we care for the world and for each other. We were created without flaw or sin and God intended that we live this way eternally.

Then “Why are we suffering and not enjoying peace and harmony?” – Because we sinned against him.

The Bible tells us that the first man and women he created, instead of walking in obedience and harmony with God, misused their ‘will’ to choose sin and thereby, rebelled against him by disobeying his command. Therefore, they were cut off from their relationship with their creator God.

Romans 5:19 – ****Adam disobeyed God and caused many others to be sinners.

Because Adam disobeyed, we all became sinners in the eyes of God. And according to God’s law, the penalty for sin is death.

Therefore, it’s important to understand that our suffering, in general, is not a consequence of our present actions or circumstances but it is ultimately because of our broken relationship with God.

How can we then attain freedom and peace with God? & How can we attain freedom from sin and suffering? – – by repentance & faith in Jesus

The bible tells us that we can never attain freedom and peace with God with our efforts. None of our good works or our religious activities can bridge the broken relationship with God. Why? because his standard of holiness is far beyond our reach. And only He can draw us near to Him.

The bible tells us in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The bible tells us that when we broke our friendship with him, he persisted in love. Yes, he was angry with us, but his love for us was even greater. Therefore, to set us free from the punishment of sin, he sent his son Jesus, as a human, to live the obedient and God-honouring life we were supposed to live and take the punishment of our sin on himself and die the most horrible death on the cross.

By doing so, the bible says, Jesus fulfilled what the law required from us, death. And in return gave us the promise of a new life. A life free from the bondage of sin and eternal suffering.

Romans 5:19-21

“Adam disobeyed God and caused many others to be sinners. But Jesus obeyed him and will make many people acceptable to God.

The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God’s gift of undeserved grace was even more powerful. 21 Sin ruled by means of death. But God’s gift of grace now rules, and God has accepted us because of Jesus Christ our Lord. This means that we will have eternal life.”

The term used in the bible for this good news is ‘Gospel’

So, how can we attain freedom?

Acts 3:19 – “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

We turn to God by believing in Jesus and his finished work for us on the cross.

That’s it, nothing else is expected from you and me. It is purely because of his grace and our faith in Jesus that we are accepted into his kingdom.

Repent of our sins and believe in Jesus with all our heart mind and soul – And we will be saved. This is what the bible tells us.

The salvation we receive by doing so is called ‘Justification’. And this salvation is not just valid on this earth but in eternity with God in heaven. Once our sin was leading us towards hell but now, because of God’s gracious provision of his son, we will spend eternity in heaven is what the bible tells us.

Now coming to our final question

“How can I experience joy and peace in life?” – by loving Jesus with all our heart, mind and soul.

We experience joy and peace by loving Jesus more than anything or anyone in life. Consider him as the most precious gift we have ever received. When we do that, his love will then compel us to walk in obedience and pursue righteousness all the days of our lives. And that is how we will continually experience joy and peace in life.

Daily reminding ourselves of the Gospel that saved us and changed our status from orphans to the children of the most high God and included into his family.

Now, I know many of you sitting here have already repented and put your faith in Jesus and experience the loving-kindness of God in their lives. You have heard, understood, and embraced the truth of the Gospel, and therefore you are part of God’s church.

Since we are talking about church membership, the first eligibility is that you accept and consider yourself a sinner saved by grace through the finished work of Christ on the cross.

If you have truly done that in the presence of God then God knows your heart and he has already affirmed it, but to men, who cant read your mind or see your heart, we declare in various ways –

#1 – By water baptism – Proclaiming and declaring yourself as a Christian in the presence of God and many witnesses, baptism means to be fully immersed in the water signifying that our old self is buried with Christ and coming out of it as a new self.

#2 – In regularly participating in the Lord’s supper – Participating in the breaking of bread and drinking the vine, remembering Christ’s body that was broken for us and his blood spilled for us so that we can be set free from sin and condemnation.

Now, Church membership is also a manner in which we show our commitment to the local body of Christ, in giving ourselves to be held accountable, to be instructed and discipled in the Lord, to participate in the kingdom work, and to walk with one another as a family united in Christ. Even though the word ‘church membership’ may not be explicitly mentioned in the bible, it is biblical. We will cover that in the last topic of this series.

At the end of this series, we will be handing over a church membership form to you and ask a couple of questions like –

• GOD: WHO MADE US, AND TO WHOM ARE WE ACCOUNTABLE?
• MAN: WHAT IS OUR PROBLEM? ARE WE IN TROUBLE AND WHY?
• CHRIST: WHAT IS GOD’S SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEM? WHAT HAS HE DONE TO SAVE US FROM IT?
• RESPONSE: HOW DO I COME TO BE INCLUDED IN THE SALVATION OFFERED BY JESUS? WHAT MAKES THIS GOOD NEWS FOR ME?
• WHAT WAS YOUR LIFE LIKE BEFORE CHRIST?
• HOW DID YOU COME TO KNOW CHRIST?
• WHAT IS YOUR LIFE LIKE AFTER COMING TO KNOW CHRIST?

To those present here, if you have heard this gospel for the first time, and you’ve clearly understood it as it was explained today, then, all you have to do is repent before God and put your trust in Jesus.

You might want to do that in private or in the presence of another person, that’s your choice, but do come and meet us, if you have not clearly understood or have questions, we would love to help you, pray with you, encourage, and talk with you more about church membership.

Welcome

The passage I’m preaching from today is Romans 8:5-8. I’ve titled my sermon “To live by the Spirit”

Why Roman 8:5-8?

Acts 29

The Epistle of Romans has always been very helpful in helping me understand the basic gospel doctrines, that’s also because it was written by Paul to help the churches in Rome grasp the whole truth of the gospel and its practical outworking in the life of a believer.

In the first couple of chapters, he explains what the gospel is and how we are saved by grace through faith, saved from eternal death to eternal life.

And then, he goes on to remind us that the believer’s pursuit of God doesn’t stop with salvation; it continues as each of us is sanctified—made holy—as we persist in following Him.

Romans 6:17-18 – ”But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

In our passage from Romans 8:5-8, Paul is helping us understand the work of God by which he continues to sanctify us by explaining the life in the Spirit with life in the flesh.

What he is particularly implying in these verses is that every born-again believer ought to set their minds on the things of the spirit and that when we set our minds on the flesh we are not pleasing God resulting in not letting him do his satisfying work in our lives that will eventually bring life and peace in our lives.

In my sermon today, I want to share 3 reasons why I believe Paul is saying this –

Our walking in the Spirit is evidence that we have been justified.

Romans 8:5 states ***”*For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

In these verses, we see a clear distinction being made between those who are saved and yet to be saved.

When God made us he intended us to live a life of fellowship and friendship with him, to love him, worship him, honour him and fulfil his purpose on this earth. Instead of walking in humble obedience, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve sinned against God and the wrath of God came upon us.

Tun with me to

In Romans 5:12 Paul writes – Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

Today, what makes this life on earth so hard and full of pain and sorrow is not the mere consequences of our present actions and unpleasant circumstances in our lives, but it is the result of our broken relationship with God that took place in the garden of Eden.

But even though we sinned, rebelled, and broke our friendship with God, God remained faithful and continued to pursue us through generations making provisions for us to know him & have fellowship with him, and eventually, made a provision for us to mend our broken relationship with him by offering his only son Jesus to take our place on the cross paying the penalty of our sins.

Let’s read …

Romans 5:15-16 – For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

In response to God’s grace and mercy, when we confess & repent of our sins, and trust in Jesus and his finished work on the cross, we are fully accepted, loved, and welcomed into his family. And what a wonderful privilege it is.

Galatians 4:4-6 – *But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ****to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ***And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

In Romans 8, verse 5, a clear distinction is made between those who live according to the flesh and those who live according to the spirit. Those who live according to the spirit are clearly those who’ve confessed their sins and have put their trust in Jesus. Therefore, our walking in the spirit is evidence that we have been justified.

Brothers & sisters, this is a very serious question we need to ask ourselves. Just because we are born in a Christian family, or being brought up in a Christian surrounding, doesn’t affirm that we are a believer. Just because we’ve said a prayer of confession in the presence of a priest or pastor doesn’t affirm we are a believer. Just because we go to church, sing Christian songs and read a few verses in the bible daily doesn’t affirm that we are a believer.

The mark of a true believer, according to the scripture is a life where the spirit of God is alive and active. Actively revealing and increasing the awareness of our sinfulness, actively revealing and increasing our awareness of God’s Holiness – and eventually leading our hearts to look at the work of Christ on the cross that helps bridge the gap between both these realities in our life.

All other Christian activities we do are good and needed but at the core of our lives if we’re not been led by the spirit in the manner mentioned above that we have to ask a serious question to ourselves. Am I really saved?

If not, then I urge you, brothers and sisters, to think seriously about it and needed please come and talk to us. We would love to sit and talk with you.

The second reason Paul is implying that a believer should set their mind on the spirit is that…

A mindset on the flesh is hostile to God & leads to death.

Romans 8:6a, 7 – For to set the mind on the flesh is death. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Hostile to God means “In opposition to him, rejecting him & violating his commands”.

Here’s one way we can know the difference. If we are continually living a life that opposes God, rejects him and violates his commands then it is clearly an indication that the spirit of God is not alive and active.

But for believers, in whom the spirit is active.

The reality is that a lot of times our minds are so focused on the carnal things of the world. The mind is the battlefield where the flesh and the spirit are at war because it does not want to be crucified and surrendered to Christ, our King.

We see here though that when we set our minds on the things of the flesh, that is when we are carnally minded, gratifying the sinful desires of our flesh, whether physical or emotional and thereby, being in rebellion against God, only leads to death.

Consider what we value as important because if what we value is carnal things and we don’t concern ourselves with the eternal things that matter, it’s because we haven’t let Jesus take HIs rightful place in our hearts.

Paul tells us here to examine ourselves and be honest before God!

In Colossians 1:21 Paul says – We were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” – describing our past sinful lives.

But now that we are in faith, and in the process of sanctification, we still do have tendencies of opposing God, rejecting his instructions, and pursuing our own desires. In doing so we act and respond to life as though our minds are still set on the flesh forgetting these lifeless pursuits that only leads to emptiness, discontentment, and shallow Christian living.

Often times we see such patterns and habits in our lives that lead us to pursue the things of the flesh, whether it’s comfort and pleasure or love for money, or desire for power over others.

But after spending all our time and energy, when we reach dead ends, experiencing broken hearts, broken relationships, and failures in such pursuits – only to realize how meaningless they were, and failed to give the satisfaction and fulfilment they promised.

Think about the guilty feelings after watching porn, or after committing sexual sin.

The empty feeling after getting drunk with alcohol and after giving in to the world’s ways of pursuing the false pleasures.

Think about the loneliness of life that hits us when we only are only pursuing wealth and money instead of treasuring the people in our lives, loving them & nurturing them in the Lord.

Paul is implying that a believer should set their mind on the spirit because in doing so we are reminding ourselves that we are not hostile to God anymore but are in complete agreement with his holy presence and are open to obeying him and walking in his ways because we truly believe that only pursuing God and his kingdom will give us the ultimate joy and satisfaction in life.

The third reason why Paul implies that a believer should set their mind on the spirit is that…

A mindset on the spirit brings life and peace & is pleasing to God

**Romans 8:6b – *”*but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace”

As believers, we have not just changed our status from “death” to “life.” but we have changed roads from “the road to death” to “the path of life.”

As the Holy Spirit now indwells in us, The Spirit helps us pray and intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will. He also leads us into repentance and produces a fruit of righteousness as we yield ourselves to Him. Believers are to submit to the will of God and walk in the Spirit.

Romans 8:26-27 – In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Here Paul is saying that as now we have been given a new life in the Spirit (John 3:6), we must continue to walk every day in the Spirit by submitting to Him, being sensitive to His leading in our lives, and allowing Him to be the driving force in influencing us in all aspects.

Where the flesh leads to death, meaningless and joyless pursuits, the spirit leads us to enjoy and experience life in abundance How? Because when we walk each day in the Spirit, we become fruit bearers, walking in love, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, and peace that passeth all understanding.

In our renewed state when we set our minds on the spirit and focus on God, he enables us to walk in obedience and seek his will which eventually will glorify his name on this earth.

Therefore, in the light of the above three points, for an unbeliever in Christ – I urge that as you desire freedom from the oppression of sin and want to experience true joy and fulfilment from life, you repent of your sins and accept Christ as your personal Lord and saviour.

And for a believer, to daily remember the Gospel and point your hearts to Christ and his finished work on the cross & lean on to the spirit’s leading in your life at all times.

Conclusion

As I conclude, I hope and believe that you have fully understood the difference between living in the flesh and living in the spirit and that you will daily remind yourself of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that enables us to fight against the temptation and struggles of the flesh and live a victorious life in Christ.

Good morning church! Just wanted to welcome everyone who has joined us this morning both in person at the hall and also online. Our prayer is that all of us would meet Jesus in a very real and personal way this morning as He speaks to us through His Word. If you’ve been tracking with us at the Gathering, we’ve been going through this series from the book of Joshua titled “Our Promise Keeping God” over the last 5 months. Today we arrive at the final sermon from this series as we cover the last 2 chapters of Joshua.  As we’ve just read, these 2 chapters are the final recorded sermons that Joshua preaches to the people of Israel. I’ll read a small excerpt from Joshua 23:4-8:

4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you. 6 Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. (v4-8)

(Pray)

One of the things that’s common to most organizations is that they’ll regularly schedule policy training where they’ll give you an overview of the company, they’ll talk about the company culture and then they’ll also list down their expectations on how you are expected to conduct yourself during your tenure as an employee of the firm.  And alongside the expectations, they’ll probably also mention what would happen if there was a breach or violation of the company policy. And this is something that isn’t just done on the first day of joining the firm, but it is done frequently with employees. And it’s interesting how in similar ways the Israelites are being given a sort of regular policy training. The only big difference is that this is not merely talking about serving a human organization or a human master, this is much more serious because it’s talking about serving God! And even as we try to understand what that meant for the Israelites, let’s not forget that this is a totally relevant question for us today because it’s not just the pastors, evangelists or people in ministry who are called as servants of God, every person who calls himself a follower & believer in Jesus is called to be a servant of God. And if we are all servants of God, then we ought to know “what it means for us to serve God” “What is the policy document for serving God” “What are the expectations of being servants of God”? To help us answer this question, today’s passage gives us 3 points:  

1. The choice to serve God – we all have a choice to serve

14 “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh 24:14-15)

One of the most familiar Christian plaques or verses that’s put up in people’s homes is v15 which says
“as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Now that’s definitely a nice, encouraging verse to be put up in a home but it sometimes is easy to miss the context in which this verse was said. Towards the end of Joshua’s sermon, he confronts the people with a choice they have to make. He tells them that they need to either choose to wholeheartedly serve the God of Israel (Yahweh) or choose to serve the idols of the nations around them. It’s either this or that. There is no in between space.  But what’s so interesting is that before confronting them to make a choice, Joshua prefaces the conversation by reminding them about God’s faithfulness shown to them through the ages.

The journey is traced back right from Abraham (Israel’s forefather). God had taken Abraham out of a lifestyle of pagan worship and revealed Himself to him. And though Abraham was too old to be a dad – 100 years old, God blessed him to have Isaac and through him formed an entire nation. And later after 400 years when the Israelites were enslaved by Egyptians, God delivered them out of their hands. But it wasn’t just against the Egyptians, God fought for His people against all the other great nations – nations who were greater than them in might and in number. And here’s how it’s summed up in Josh 24:12,13:

12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13 I gave you a land on which you had not laboured and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’

God’s heart was that when the people remember God’s faithfulness, generosity and kindness lavished upon them, they would be moved to wholeheartedly obey and serve God. God’s faithfulness is the context in which the people are confronted to make a choice to serve God. If you’ve been coming to the Gathering over a period of time, you would have noticed that it’s pretty much the same message that we preach week in and week out. It’s the same simple gospel message that we try to preach through every passage of Scripture. And why do we do it? We definitely want to be faithful to Scripture but also because we realize that if people need to truly obey and serve God out of right motivations, they can only do so if they remember the faithfulness, generosity and kindness of God. And so every week as we hear the Gospel, all of us (including us preachers) are confronted with the question: choose this day whom you will serve? Will you serve the God of the Bible who is so faithful, generous and kind to you or will you serve the relationships, jobs, money, comfort, pleasure and the stuff in your life?

But not only is there a choice to serve but there’s also an

• The inability to serve God

19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” (Josh 24:19-20)

I wonder what the people thought when they heard Joshua respond like this. “Well, thank you Joshua for that piece of encouragement. We are trying to be committed, we have all the right intentions to be faithful, but somehow you don’t seem to be convinced”. But we need to understand why Joshua said what he did.

Firstly, it’s because he recognized that the God we serve is a holy God! “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at the wrong (Hab 1:13)” One commentator said it in this way “that God’s hatred of wrong is pictured by His not being able to look toward it. If He looked toward them, they must perish”. Also, it’s the fact that God is a jealous God. Now, this seems like a contradiction – how can God be holy and jealous at the same time? It’s not referring to envy in our hearts when we are envious of each other. It’s referring in terms of fidelity and loyalty in a close relationship. One of my friends once used this illustration which helped me understand this well. If my daughter goes up to anybody else and calls them “dad”, that would make me angry and displeased. Why? Because that relationship is unique and can’t be shared with another. The same goes in a marriage where it’s a unique covenant relationship between the husband and wife and that relationship cannot be shared with another.

And then it goes on to say that “God will not forgive your transgressions or sins”. Now that doesn’t mean that God is going to harbour unforgiveness against us.  But rather that God cannot leave our sins unpunished. God cannot overlook our sins. His Holy character will need to respond justly to our sins. He will pour out His anger against us for our sins. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sins is death – being eternally damned and separated from God forever”.

Secondly, it’s not just God’s character that Joshua is referring to but also our weakness and inability to be faithful to God with the consistency and perfection that He requires.

Some of us are perfectionists and go-getters, we are so disciplined and are able to achieve whatever we put our minds to. We think that if we discipline ourselves really well, we are able to serve God as He expects. And we need to be humbled to know that even the best of our efforts are filthy rags before a holy God. (Isa 64:6) our best efforts are simply not good enough for a holy God.

Some of us are people who probably think that we will do the bare minimum to go past the mark and God in His grace will understand. We think that our best intentions are enough for God. And we need to realize that even our best intentions are not good enough to serve God.

Why? The problem goes deeper than what we see on the surface – it’s with our sin infected hearts and that’s what renders us incapable to serve God as we should.

That’s why many times we fail to live up to the grand promises & commitments we make to serve God during our gatherings. It’s not because we’ve not tried hard enough or because we’ve not exercised self-discipline as we should have or because our intentions are not strong enough. If we were able to do it by ourselves, then we wouldn’t have required a Savior. And that’s why our inability to serve should point our attention to something outside of ourselves to come and help us. It should lead us to the 

• The gracious provision to serve God

“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good  land that he has given to you.” Josh 23:14-16

The OT covenant was a conditional one which provided blessings to God’s people based on their faithfulness and brought curses to them based on their unfaithfulness. Because we all have sinful hearts, it’s virtually impossible for us to secure blessings for ourselves based on faithfulness. So the OT covenant had limitations due to our sin infected hearts, and that’s why we needed a gracious provision from God to enter into a new covenant with God:

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord (spiritual adultery). 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts (heart change). And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord (close fellowship). For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (full pardon and cleansing)” (Jer 31:31-34)

This gracious provision didn’t come through a decree or words on a tablet. This gracious provision came through a Person – God’s own Son Jesus Christ. This gracious provision of the new covenant could be brought into effect only through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus – Jesus Christ lived the life we needed to live with the consistency and perfection as required by a holy God & then He died the death that we deserved as our substitute. He was buried and after 3 days He rose again defeating sin, Satan and death once and for all so that whoever may repent of their sins and fully trust in Jesus’ work would now no longer face God’s curse but enjoy eternal blessing forever.

Let’s take a minute to introspect on what this could mean for us. I think for some of us we’ve we have been carrying the burden of our relationship with God on the basis of how faithful, how sorted, and how committed we’ve been. So we are constantly oscillating between security and insecurity, trying so hard to achieve the blessing of God and constantly fearing the curse of God if we mess up. I think we need to realize that there is a better covenant already in place through the loving work of our Savior Jesus Christ. Through the cross of calvary, Jesus removes the curse from us by becoming the curse for us (Gal 3:13). And through faith in Jesus, He has granted us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). What would it mean for us today to embrace this gracious provision? 

Some of you might be aware of the name Derek Raymond. Even if you’re not too familiar with the name you would have definitely seen his video on social media. In the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Derek Redmond was in good form for the 400m sprint. He posted the fastest time in the first round and went on to win his quarter-final. In the semi-final, Redmond started well, but in the back straight about 250 metres from the finish, his hamstring tore. He hobbled to a halt and then fell to the ground in pain. Stretcher bearers made their way over to him, but Redmond decided he wanted to finish the race. He began to hobble along the track. He was soon joined on the track by his father, Jim Redmond, who barged past security and onto the track to get to his son. Jim and Derek completed the lap of the track together, with Derek leaning on his father’s shoulder for support. In so many ways this can capture visually what it looked like for us in our attempt to serve God. With all our best efforts and best intentions, we still can’t reach the finish line due to our debilitating sin infection. And yet there is this gracious provision where Jesus Christ God’s Son ran up to us when we couldn’t run anymore and then carried us to the finish line on our behalf so that we can serve God in the freedom, love and joy as we ought to. How amazing is our Lord? How amazing is our Savior who would do this for us?