Sermon Cloud

Community of the Spirit. Ephesians 2:11-22. Christianity is not preparation for death, but impartation of new life. Very presence of God taking up residence in your life. Christianity is not simply a one time transaction; it is a life-long process of transformation (God’s empowering and transforming presence). ATM vs HGTV. Renovation. 2Tim 1:7 spirit of love, power, and self-control. Love: Spirit working love in us in extraordinary ways, overriding our selfishness and transforming the way we respond to people. Power: that breaks our bondage and addiction to things, power that frees us from fear and insecurity and enables us to accomplish courageous and significant things for God that have eternal value and enrich the lives of others. Illus: Self-control: the ability to master your impulses and make wise and prudent decisions that seriously impact the quality of your life and the lives of others. Rom 14:17, the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Not laws before us to keep us in line, but the Spirit in us to give us life – a life of righteousness (free of moral regret); peace (quiet confidence about your past, presence and future); joy (a profound and abiding happiness). This is what Christianity is. Christ has come to create a new humanity. He has paid for our sins so that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God the Father; and he has purchased the gift of the Holy Spirit for all who believe in him so that we might be freed from the very things from which we need to be forgiven. God gives us his Holy Spirit that we might daily experience his presence in our personal lives, and that we might be made the very people He designed us to be and envisions us to be and that deep down we want to be, but can’t be on our own.
Our text: This is a communal thing. God is present among a people and is at work transforming a people. That is the point of 2:22. God, by His Spirit, personally indwells all who belong to Jesus Christ – the personal presence of God (power, joy, love). But he also indwells us a people. The Church, the people of God, are his temple and when/wherever we gather, he is present among us -  and wants us as a people to experience his presence in very real ways. God does not simply relate to us as individuals but as a community.

The essence of Xn Spirituality is Communal. God is a community. Trinity. Created humanity in his image to share in the divine community of love and reflect the divine community love in our relationships. We were made for and long for community. Sin not only alienates us from God, it alienates us from one another. So, God comes to us in Jesus not only to restore us to God the Father, but to restore us to one another. From fallen, broken, rebellious, divided humanity, God is creating a new man, new humanity. Jew and Gentile created “one new man” in Christ (2:15). How does Jesus’ death on the cross cure our alienation from one another? Kills our hostility toward one another 2:16. Illus: At the Cross: wrongs we have done/wrongs done to us. our sins against one another have been punished and pardoned in Jesus so we are free to release and forgive one another.
 
Kills our sense of superiority and inferiority 2:17. Whether we were far off or near (religious or irreligious; moral or immoral; rule keepers or rule breakers) we were all at odds with God – we all fell short of his dreams for us and his requirements of us. We have failed to admire, esteem, adore, obey him as he deserves. We have attempted to turn him into our servant expecting him to yield to our desires instead of…We are all sinners; we have nothing to appeal to – not our record or race or resume. Our only appeal is Christ crucified. So, none can point to any moral, racial, economic status and claim superiority or fear inferiority, because all those things are useless where it matters most. Some are afraid to enter in to community with others because of their own past and present struggles. Some are prone to exclude. We are all in the same place before our Creator, and all share the same identity – all sinners in need of radical grace and salvation. A merit system always creates classes (the superior/inferior). Xnty is all grace with no classes. The cross is the greatest indictment against each of us and the greatest validation of each of us – we are so bad Christ had to die for us; we are so loved he was glad to die for us. The cross brings sinners to God and to one another into a new humanity, a new community. Illus: Star Trek. We gather around the cross; not preferences, not personalities, not styles, not economic and racial similarities, not fictional fascinations, but the Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The Practice of Xn Spirituality is Communal. You cannot live out the Christian faith apart from the faith community. “Faith is private. I don’t need the Church.” That is not the Christian faith. The Christian faith is personal, but it is not private. It is vertical and horizontal. You cannot practice Christianity in isolation. Xnty is not me and my God; it is us and our God. The Holy Spirit does not simply reside in individuals, he resides in a collection of individuals that he is building together to be a dwelling place for Him. So the very experience and practice of Xn spirituality is communal. This gets played out even more in 4:22-32 (not our works). Put on the new man. Living the Xn life is not just vertical, worshipping, praying, meditating – it is relational. If you are going to actually practice the Xn faith, it requires a people to practice the faith in relation to. There is no such thing as Christianity without the Church. This is what is missing for many of you. You think you are experiencing Christianity and are finding it lacking. But, you are not experiencing the depths and beauty and love and power of the Christian faith because you are attempting to live it either isolated from the church or merely dabbling in the Church. You are not experiencing the Spirit’s work in a community inspiring, enlightening, blessing, and strengthening you. You are not fully investing yourself in loving and being loved, giving and receiving, serving and being served, speaking truth and receiving truth. You are not experiencing the Spirit’s love, power, and wisdom together with others transforming you. If you are dabbling in the Church, then you are dabbling in Christianity and you will never know God’s transforming work increasingly making you new until you give yourself fully to Christ and his Church. Application: Look to Christ and become part of this new way to human. Make the move from occasionally going to church to actively being the Church (consumer/community).