Sermon Transcript:

Since as far back as we have records, human beings have sought answers to the meaning of life. When we look at the vastness of the world and universe around us, we realize that whatever humanity is, it is something small in the grand scheme of things. Yet, we also see that human beings are uniquely created with minds that surpass any other creature in their ability to reason, create, and reflect. This drives our search for meaning and raises deep questions about who we are and why we exist.

Naturalistic explanations fail to provide adequate answers to those questions, but the Bible does. The Bible tells us we were created by God, in His image, to reflect His glory. But this reflection was marred by sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they distorted the image-bearing capacity given to them, plunging the world into darkness and separation from God. The world as we experience it is not how it began and is not how it will always be.

The Bible gives a clear answer to the question, “what is the meaning of life?” The Westminster Catechism summarizes the Bible’s answer this way. It says,

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

That is a good summary. The Bible says we were designed to find our greatest joy in exalting God. We are not like the other animals; we have a mind created in the image of God. This is why we are drawn to beauty and recognize that something is wrong in the world. This is why we are concerned about more than simply eating and survival. We were made to reflect the glory of God and are designed for a relationship with him.

But now, because of sin, we are born into a world where he is hidden apart from faith. We cannot see him, and he seems just out of reach. We recognize there is good and beauty, but it is never quite perfect. Every blessing also comes with suffering and an inability to truly rest in goodness because the darkness is always close. The Bible explains that although we were created for fellowship with God, all of us have rejected God and tried to become our own god, seeking truth and joy in ourselves and in the world rather than in him.

We think of ourselves as good because we compare ourselves to other sinners, but God’s standard is perfection and when we compare ourselves to his holy perfection, we find we are not good at all. The standard of goodness is the moral law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments. What do we find when we compare ourselves to that? Let’s be honest. Have you ever stolen anything, even something small? Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever looked at another person with impure thoughts? Have you ever been jealous of something someone else has and believed that you should be the one to have it?

This is just a few examples, and already we see that far from being good, before the law we are lying, thieving, adulterous, and covetous people. We are all guilty when judged by this law. We have all rejected God and have done evil things. The Bible calls this rejection of God and pursuit of self, sin. Sin separates us from God, and it brings judgment instead of blessing.

If we were to get what we deserve, we would be separated from God’s blessings forever. The Bible calls this hell, a place where we only experience judgment because we have refused God’s mercy. Thankfully, however, we need not get what we deserve. God promised that instead of condemning the entire world, he would redeem it from within. God promised to send a savior who would defeat the powers of evil rescue his people from sin and restore them to reflecting his glory throughout creation.

In the Old Testament God shows us that no mere man could accomplish this. No warrior, no prophet, no priest, and no king, nobody was able to do this thing God promised. But when the time was right, God himself came to earth as a human being. Fully divine, the son of God, fully human, the son of Mary. Jesus is truly God and truly man and he alone was able to do what it is impossible for anyone else to do.

He lived a perfect life as a human that revealed and reflected the glory of God. Colossians 1:15 says of Jesus,

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Hebrews 1:3 says,

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…

Jesus fulfills the purpose for which human beings were created. He is the second Adam who succeeds where the first Adam failed. He is the perfect image-bearer, the perfect reflection of God. But Jesus doesn’t just come to obtain righteousness for himself, he obtains righteousness for anyone who will give up trying to earn it for themselves and offers it freely all who will repent and believe.

In his life, he kept the law perfectly and, in his death, he paid the price for the sins that separate us from God and bring condemnation. A criminal cannot avoid punishment simply by agreeing to follow the law from now on. There must be restitution for the crimes committed in the past and that is what Jesus did on the cross. That is why Jesus cries out “it is finished” as he is dying, because by dying in the place of those who would believe, he is paying the price in full. That is why God can forgive us, because the penalty of the sin has been paid.

As Ray Comfort likes to say, it is like if we racked up a bunch of parking tickets and didn’t have the money to pay the fine. If someone else pays it for us, legally the judge can set us free because justice has been satisfied. That is what happened on the cross. We broke God’s law and there was no way we could ever pay the price, but Jesus paid our fine. If we trust him to do that, just like we trust a parachute, we are forgiven and free from judgment. Colossians 2:13–14 puts it this way,

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

We deserved punishment, but being united with Jesus by faith changes everything. First, his death canceled our record of guilt; when the prosecutor calls for our case, no file will be found because Jesus nailed it to the cross. The record of our crimes is blotted out by the blood he shed. Second, though we were spiritually dead, God has made us alive with Jesus. We who believe get to experience in this dying world, the life of the world to come. We have been born again to eternal life in Christ.

We are therefore being restored to the purpose for which we were created, to be image-bearers to the glory of God. In a sinful world, we are witnesses to his power to defeat sin and death and create new life by the power of his word.

That brings us to our gathering this morning. We have the awesome privilege today to celebrate baptisms and the receiving of new members into the fellowship of our church. I want us to understand what it is we are getting to experience this morning. What we are witnessing today is God’s grace and power conquering sin and the devil. We are seeing Satan’s kingdom diminished and God’s kingdom expanded. We are witnessing several people, in whom God is working, take the next steps in their journey to follow God and testify to his greatness and glory as they were created to do.

In Matthew 28:19–20 Jesus gives his people a mission. He says,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is God keeping his promise to create a people who will worship him in spirit and in truth and amazingly, his plan is to use redeemed people to do it. Once we are saved, we are to go out and proclaim the good news of salvation to the whole world. God will use our witness to gather his people from every tribe and nation. Then he will work through the ministry of those redeemed sinners, made saints by his grace, to prepare them for the age to come.

God’s plan until Jesus returns is to glorify Himself through communities of believers living out our faith together and building each other up in love with the truth. That brings us to the main point of the message today.

Fellowship and discipleship result in our spiritual growth and God’s glory.       

The first step in this is baptism. Baptism is both a grave and a cradle. To be baptized is to declare that our old self, with all its sin and shame, has been crucified with Christ. Descending into the water signifies burial with Jesus, while rising from it proclaims resurrection to new life. Once marred by rebellion, we are now reborn in Christ, our sins washed away, and we emerge as His disciples, walking in newfound freedom and life. Although we are not yet made perfect, the stain and penalty of sin have been washed away and we are now followers of Jesus.

Our identity as sinners has been crucified, and by God’s mighty power, we’ve been granted a new identity as holy ones because the perfect righteousness of Jesus has become ours. Baptism vividly displays our union with Jesus, using water to symbolize the profound transformation God has done within us, by uniting us with Jesus and giving us a new heart.

There is no power or magic in the water or the words we say today. This is a testimony about what God has done. It is a picture of the gospel applied to an individual. It is God’s grace granting faith in Jesus that makes someone a Christian, not baptism. But it is in baptism that we are visibly joined to the fellowship of the church.

When we baptize someone, it means we affirm the credibility of their testimony that God has caused them to be born again. Through baptism, we extend our recognition that this individual is to be embraced as a brother or sister in Christ, welcome to our fellowship and our communion table.

I have preached on the meaning and significance of baptism several times and if you would like to know more about it, you can find those messages on the church website, redeeminggracesouthgate.org.

I have perhaps not as frequently addressed the meaning and significance of receiving of members into the fellowship of a local church. We hope to receive new members today, so what is the purpose and significance of this?

To answer that question, I would like to direct your attention to our main passage. In the first part of Ephesians chapter 4, the apostle Paul is encouraging believers to walk in holiness and in unity, then in verse 11 Paul, speaking about God, says,

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

God gives certain gifts, to ensure certain work is done, so that a certain goal is achieved. In this case, the gifts God gives are people who have particular spiritual gifts. God first gave apostles and prophets. The teaching we have in the Bible is the revelation God shared through them. The Bible says they are the foundation. Today, these offices are fulfilled and completed. We should avoid anyone giving themselves these titles today.

God also gives evangelists who are people who go into the world to bring the gospel to those who do not yet believe, and God also gave shepherds and teachers, which are pastors and preachers. It is the way of the world often to elevate those who have certain gifts, but notice in God’s design these gifts are gifts of service.

These people are given to equip the saints for the work of ministry. They exist to prepare others to be effective in what they are called to do. The word saints doesn’t refer to super Christians or a special class of people. The word means holy ones and as we have said, in the Bible every believer is called a saint because they have been cleansed of their sin by the death of Jesus and they have been born again to new life by the resurrection of Jesus.

The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers were given by God to equip believers to do ministry. The devil tries to convince Christians it is the job of the preacher or pastor to “do” ministry because it keeps most people unfruitful and burns out the pastors. Of course, pastors and preachers do have a ministry because all believers have a ministry.

Every believer is given certain gifts that are to be used in the service of God in a specific way. The shepherds and teachers are sent to help you fulfill what God has called you to do. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are a minister. God has a job for you to do and the pastor’s job is to equip you to do it well.

When you come Sunday morning to hear the preaching, it is not like watching a sporting event. It is more like being in the locker room. My job is to encourage you and remind you about what you need to do when you take the field. You are not a spectator; you are in the game. So, if all you are doing is sitting on the bench, then there is a hole out there on the field somewhere where you are supposed to be.

They way we equip you is to help you understand and apply the word of God as you serve Christ. Ultimately you are responsible for the ministry to which God has called you. The teachers and pastors are like hiking guides. We are all on the same trail, but they have spent a lot of time studying the map and the trail and they keep an eye on us, so we stay safe and don’t get lost. We are all ministers who have been given different roles and different gifts that enable us to do them.

Our passage shows us though that whatever role God has given to us, they are all designed to help others grow to be more like Jesus. Whatever our unique gifts are, they are for building up the body of Christ.

God revealed his word through apostles and prophets and sends evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to build on that foundation so that all believers can fulfill the mission God has given them to go into the world, share the gospel, and help each other grow.

To build up the body of Christ doesn’t refer to the physical body of Jesus, but to the church. Together believers are the body of Christ. After his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven with his body, but he sent his spirit to live within those who had been born again. That is the spirit that is at work in us when we are obedient and faithful. We are the hands and feet and mouth of Christ to the watching world. We are the ones who are now to bear the image of God to the world. If they will see and hear Jesus, it will be through his church.

Jesus is the perfect image of God and we who believe are being transformed into the image of Christ. This is the good work God is doing in us, and the ministry of each believer contributes to the building up of the body,

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

To be built up is to achieve unity in the knowledge of the Son of God. The challenge in fellowship, even within the church, lies in our differences. People often see things from various perspectives, they do things that irritate us, or they hold beliefs we think are mistaken. These differences can wear us out, make us anxious, and even provoke anger. It is hard to offer correction and harder to receive it. It’s difficult to love and serve as we ought, because our flesh is weak. Yet, it is through this suffering, in loving others, that we are conformed to the image of Jesus. This is how love is transformed from a concept to a way of living. Our minds are renewed by a knowledge of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

As we grow to understand who Jesus is and what he has done for us, we begin to see our own weaknesses and God’s love for us. We begin to understand how much Christ loves other annoying sinful people and how we are no different from them. Things that would have created division no longer will because love covers a multitude of sins. We who have been forgiven much grow increasingly ready to forgive others, especially when we know the same Jesus that bled for us, bled for them.

This is a unity and a love unlike anything else in the world. Preacher A.W. Tozer explains this beautifully when he says,

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

The greatest blessing in the universe is to be like Jesus. This is the promise that God has given to those who repent and believe. We will see him and be like him. All the gifts are aligned to that end. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer, to accomplish this one thing. That we would be made like Christ to the glory of the grace of God. That is what Paul means when he says the goal is “that we may to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

This doesn’t happen instantly. We don’t like depending on others for our growth because our pride is stubborn, but if we want to be like Jesus, we must be humble and patient. We must recognize that every one of our brothers and sisters has something we need and something we can give.

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

The enemy is constantly trying to discourage us and confuse us. The Bible says we need to keep building each other up in the truth so we are not bounced around like small boat in a storm, being carried off in one direction and then another. We must be anchored in the word of God and in the knowledge of the truth of the Son of God.

To try and navigate this world alone, without the fellowship of God’s people, is like trying to cross the ocean in a hurricane alone in a sailboat. I am not saying it has never been done, I am saying it is foolish and dangerous, and it is not the way God designed it to be. God’s plan is for the community of the faithful to protect and build each other up.

A wonderful image of this is the worship team. Each of them has a unique contribution to make. They can’t all sing or play drums or keyboard, but all those individual parts come together as a whole to help us all worship. That is the way the whole church is designed to work.

Take a Bible study or community group for example. Those who are more knowledgeable in the word and take time to help newer believers understand are helping them to grow more like Jesus. But do you realize that those newer brothers and sisters, who are slowing down those groups, are also helping them to grow more like Jesus? To be like Jesus is to grow in truth, love, patience, and to rejoice in the glory of God. A supposed knowledge of facts that doesn’t lead to love is not a knowledge of the truth and so both the teacher and the new convert are ministers.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Every part of the body is important to the whole. I hope you can see now why membership is important. Jesus has a body of flesh and bone. As believers, we are the body of Christ and must be present in the world not only in spirit, but in flesh and bone. We cannot live obediently cut off from committed fellowship to a group of believers any more than a soldier can serve in the army without being assigned to a unit.

Imagine enlisting in the service and expecting they are going to give you a rifle and let you just pop into any unit you want when it is convenient for you? It just doesn’t work like that, and it doesn’t work like that in God’s kingdom either. We have each been given specific gifts and a specific mission all designed to work together to help others grow to be more like Jesus.

If we are not part of the flock, how will the shepherds feed us, care for us, and protect us as we are being equipped for our ministry? If we are not committed in fellowship, how will we use our gifts to build up other? How will others be blessed by us if we are unknown to them? We cannot serve and be accountable for every person who claims to be a believer. Joining and receiving into membership is simply providing clarity about which people we intend to disciple and be discipled by.

God may move us from place to place at different times, but he never leaves us as orphans. If we are a follower of Jesus, we are called to serve and be served for our good and God’s glory.

As we prepare to baptize and receive new members, I would like to conclude with God’s word to us in Hebrews 10:22–25,

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 Amen.