I wonder if you're comfortable with the way those words run together - only church. Is meeting as a church only an afterthought? Does it fits in around everything else that's on. If you're comfortable with the words "it's only church," (or even if you’re not), I want to invite you to take a look at what God thinks of Church from Ephesians 3:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. (3:10).
Manifold literally means many coloured. The church is God's brightly coloured neon sign to the universe. The church is the universal advertisement of the wisdom of God. Imagine that! Can you imagine that even the angels look down upon St Paul’s and marvel at God’s eternal purposes as they see it being worked out in us! Do you have that kind of purpose as you gather on Sundays? To think that you're here to demonstrate to this world - and the angels in the heavenly realms - the wonders of God’s eternal plan being worked out in Christ. Mmm, only church doesn’t seem to grasp it.
We've been called the STABO generation. It stands for Subject To A Better Offer. Once upon a time invitations to an event were sent and you'd ask people to RSVP (which was French for let us know if you're coming). Apparently hardly anyone ever does this nowadays. We're STABO people!
Often we take a STABO approach to the gathering of God's people, and we miss the point that gathering together his church is God's beacon of his glory in the universe. This is still the case even if your experience of church might be disappointment, something slightly boring, of relationships that have been less than what they could be. Gathering for church is more important than the weekend get away, going out for brunch, sleeping in, watching TV, Sunday sport, retail therapy, visiting family, or work. May God bless us with an enlarged vision of his glory through the Church!
Why are you here this morning? You're here to be part of God's church. You're here to actively love one another. There's always work to do to make the reality measure up to that but it will never measure up by not turning up! So he is the challenge: be here week by week and be part of it. Be part of it because church on a Sunday is just scratching the surface of what church is about. Get here on time and actively look for ways to love people. Keep looking at the love of Jesus as you see it at the cross, and look for ways to imitate it by taking initiative in loving others. Instead of looking for things to complain about, look for ways to love.
We are here today to catch a glimpse of God's intentions and recommit ourselves to it. Will you join me in making Paul’s prayer at the end of Ephesians 3 our prayer? That God's reputation in the world will be increased by us. That the way we love, that the way we care for one another, that the way we're united will bear the sort of fruit we can't even start to imagine. Pray that we would be a church that displays God’s eternal purposes to the universe with crystal clear clarity.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:16-21)
Steve Jeffrey, Senior Minister
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