God’s New Community #1: A Breed Apart & We are Family

Date: 5 January 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Luwin Wong Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10; Ephesians 2:11-22

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TRANSCRIPT

When we settled into Henderson in 2022, we preached through the Gospel of Luke, whose focus in on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which built up our doctrine of Christ, our Christology.

The following year in 2023, we preached through the companion book to the gospel of Luke, the book of Acts – the acts of the Apostles – who were instructed by Jesus to not act, until the Holy Spirit came upon them. And throughout the book, we saw time and time again the centrality of the Holy Spirit in the spread of the word and the growth of the church, and that strengthened our understanding of the Holy Spirit – our pneumatology.

Last year, we preached through the foundational book of Genesis, where we saw God creating and relating to his covenant people. No many explicit references to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, the main character we learnt about was Yahweh – The Lord God. Which has to do with Paterology – the doctrine of God the Father.

In 2025, we will preach through 4 New Testament books or Epistles. 1,2,3 John, as well as 1 Corinthians. These letters are written to Christians, to the church, to inform and instruct them on how to live as a church, which by God’s grace, will enrich our ecclesiology, our understanding of the church.

To kick us off in the right direction, in the month of January, we will be preaching through a series of sermons entitled: “God’s New Community – New Testament Patterns for Today’s Church”.

The content is derived from a book of the same title, written by Graham Beynon. Each week, our sermons will be based on 2 chapters of the book. And although it is topical, it is also expositional, and the mains idea we preach on will be drawn from a scriptural text. The book is not written in sermon form, so it will be up to Ps Daniel and myself to preach them accordingly.

It is my prayer that God will use this sermon series to remind us of our identity as a church, to renew our conviction about the mission of the church, and to guide us to live biblically as God’s New Community.

Why don’t we pray, before we begin.

Heavenly Father, through your Holy Spirit, illuminate our hearts and minds to behold the splendor of our Lord’s Jesus’ dearly beloved Bride, the church, which you have called us to be, for the blessing of the world and the glory of your name.

In Jesus name, we pray,

Amen.

GNC 1

Let’s begin with an activity. A word association activity. What springs to mind when you think of the word “church”.

Some of you are freshly back from your family holidays. And if you’ve been to Europe I’m certain, something like this would come to mind when you think of the word “church”.

Your friends ask, “what did you do in Europe”, you say, “I visited some really beautiful churches”. What you mean is that you visited a structure, a cathedral, church building.

And Mt Hermon is part of the BPCIS. That is, the Bible-Presbyterian Church in Singapore. We also refer to the “Methodist Church”, or the “Anglican Church”, and what we mean by that is a reference to a particular Christian denomination.

We also say, ‘Eh, next Sunday you coming to church”, “You want to invite your friend to church next week?’ and what we mean by “church” is the Sunday worship service.

Or, we broadly speak of the church to denote the Christian religion. When we conduct a HIM seminar on “Church history”, it’s taken to mean the history of Christianity as a whole.

Interestingly, whenever the bible mentions the word “church”, it is always a reference ti “people” – a “gathered people”, and “assembly of people”. That is what church always means when the Bible uses the word.

And this is the first thing the books wants us to get clear about our ecclesiology. When we say “church”, we think “people”, a gathered people, and assembly of people. When we think “church”, we see “faces”, not “places”.

So, Henderson is not the church. Hermonites/Horebians are the church. We Hermonites, do not enter the church when we step into Henderson, no, the church steps into Henderson when Hermonites enter.

We are the people, are the church. The church worships at Henderson.

Now, what kind of people do we refer to, when we say the church? We refer to a people who a breed apart.

Let us look at our text in 1 Peter 2:4-10 to find out more.

A Breed Apart

Two things I want us to see from the text, about the church:

1. The church are a people who believe in Jesus

2. The church are a people who belong to God.

How do come to this chosen and precious living stone? The following verses makes it clear.

There are two kinds of people in the biblical worldview: people who believe in Christ and people who do not believe.

The church are a people who set apart from the rest of humanity because they have come to Christ; they have believed in him.

PEOPLE

Believers are separated from non-believers in Christ.

And something happens to people who come to Jesus…

As you come to him, the living stone, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.

I have been a church where they have Habakkuk 2:20 emblazoned across the back wall of the sanctuary. It reads,

The intention of course, is to prepare the hearts of the congregation as they enter into the sanctuary for worship. When you step into the sanctuary, recognise that this is sacred space, this is a holy place, God is present here, so be reverent, be silent.

But this betrays an Old Testament understanding of worship, where the Lord is present in a particular place. The Lord is resident in the Temple, or in the Holy of Holies, or in the Sanctuary.

In the New Testament, God is present wherever the church is gathered, whether in the Sanctuary, or in the fellowship hall, or in the function room of a hotel where church camp is held.

Wherever the church is gathered, there God is present, there is sacred space, that is the holy place. For the church is the spiritual house of God.

Which means what? Have you ever seen a solitary brick on the side of the road, and go, “nice house”. Or bricks scattered across a field, and you go, “that’s an impressive building”. You don’t.

The essence of a building, of a house, is in its construction, it’s put together-ness. The same goes for the church. A singular living stone is not the church. As you come to Christ, you like living stones (plural), are being built up as a spiritual house.

The essence of a church lies in its togetherness, in its gatheredness, in its assembly.

Which is why during COVID-19, the elders made a decision to not administer the Holy Communion for as long as the church cannot gather. For there can no true Holy Communion, without the basic element of communion, the coming together as a community.

Which is also to say, “worshipping online, at home, privately”, is not the biblical pattern of worship. The church is a gathered people.

PLACE

Believers are built into a Spiritual House of God.

And believers aren’t just the temple, they are also the priesthood.

Verses 9-10 reiterates this:

This is a reference to God’s words to Israel at the Exodus.

God’s people are to be a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood.

PRIESTS

Believers are a Holy Priesthood who offer sacrifices to God through Christ.

Now, what is the function of a priesthood? It is to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. The priesthood, are people who set-apart from others, set-apart for God and and their job is to mediate God’s reality, God’s presence to the people, to the world.

And how is that done? Peter makes it explicit.

So here’s the first application for the church, mediate God’s reality and God’s presence to the world by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Proclaim the Gospel.

Our second application comes from the following verses of 1 Peter 2.

Because believers are priesthood, a people set-apart for God, we do not belong, strictly speaking to the world. We are sojourners and exiles here on earth.

When we believe in Jesus and belong to God, we no longer belong here in this world.

Every area of life will be a battlefield. We will feel the battle. We will feel the temptation to lie, lust, envy, boast and all the rest. But we are soldiers, we are victors, we must fight We must resist and retaliate, we must abstain and abolish, we must fight back.

We must show, through our love, our unity and our purity that God is real and so the world may glorify God when he comes.

Being the church is a lifestyle. Not a 2 hour a week commitment, but a 24/7 way of life. A lifestyle of proclaiming the gospel and living out the gospel for the glory of God.

In other words, we the church exist to “Glorify God by [Hermonites, finish this for me] being and making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ”.

That’s the first chapter of God’s New Community.

We have one more to go, it’s titled “We are Family”.

I’m aware it’s a quite a bit to take in, so this second part will be shorter.

Let’s dive into the text:

Just two points to note:

1. WE ARE UNITED IN CHRIST

2. WE ARE THE NEW FAMILY OF GOD

I mentioned at the start that in the biblical worldview there two groups of people: believers and non-believers.

In the Jewish worldview, there two groups of people Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles were unclean, they were pagan, and they were seen not just as outsiders, but as enemies, they were pariah to the Jews.

A Jewish Rabbi would pray each day, “Blessed are you, O God, for not making me a Gentile, or slave, or woman.”

When a Jewish man marries a Gentile woman, the family of the man observes a funeral for him. He is as good as dead to them.

The point is, it is not good to be a Gentile.

So to be clear, as gentiles, this is what we once were. This is the description of our spiritual state.

Then the Christ came, the atonement was accomplished, the Gospel was revealed. And in Christ, we are:

The cross of Christ transformed both our horizontal relationship and our vertical relationships:

The cross made one new person out of two hostile peoples. Thus restoring our horizontal – person-to-person relationships.

And together this new humanity, the church, are reconciled both to God, both have access in one Spirit to the Father, thereby restoring our vertical – human-to-God relationship.

That is where we get the word “atonement”. It is at-one-ment. The cross work of Jesus, the atonement, makes us one. With each other, and with God together.

You can say that a summary of the Gospel is Man United with God, or that In Christ, you will never walk alone.

Manchester United is playing Liverpool tonight. As English clubs, they have English players in their teams, and when these English players play for Man U and Liverpool respectively, they are opponents on the pitch, they are on different sides, they are competitive and hostile, they are not friendly, they work against one another.

But when these same English players are called up to play for the national team, they are united one banner. They wear the same jerseys, they have the same mission, they fight for, not against, each other on the pitch, they work together as one.

That is what happens for all who been called to Christ.

At-one-ment, reconciliation, unity, is not periphery to Christianity. It is at the very heart of the Gospel.

Before he went to the cross, Jesus prayed what we have come to know as “the high priestly prayer”, and in it, he prays for us, believers. And he prays this:

Of all the things our Lord Jesus could have prayed for, our health, our wealth, our courage, our generosity, our numerical growth, he prays this: that we may be one. That we may be one. That we may be one.

Why? For the sake of the Gospel.

So that the world may believe, so that the world may know.

Family of God, our unity is our Gospel testimony, it is our gospel credibility.

Put another way, our refusal to be reconciled to one another proclaims to the world that the work of the Jesus on the Cross was insufficient to make peace between us.

The Cross lacks power for reconciliation. Whereas our unity testifies to the gospel (John 17:20- 23)

When a group of people who ordinarily would have no interest in each other or might even be hostile to each other, are united together, Jesus says that helps the world see who he is and what he has done. Our unity has gospel efficacy.

Here then are two implications:

INTERGENERATIONAL WORSHIP, DESPITE DIFFERENCES.

As the family of God, let us take family worship seriously. This means intergenerational worship. We do divide the church cleanly according to age, we want to maintain a family nature to our worship services, where the young and old worship side by side, together as one, to the glory of our God who has made us one family.

We have endeavoured to do this at our last church camp, and we shall we seek to incorporate intergenerational worship in our spiritual family more and more.

It is not being being oblivious to the differences between the generations, it is about be cognizant that the Cross that unites us is far greater than the generational differences that divide us.

The second implication comes from chapter 4 of Ephesians.

Why does Paul highlight attitude attributes of humility and gentleness and patience? Why does he exhort us to bear with one another in love? Why does he urge us to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?

Because the apostle Paul is not naïve to church life. He is well aware that when sinners gather together, there will be tension, there will be friction, people will cause offense, people will take offense. And so what is to be done?

We leave the church. When we are offended by the church, when we are hurt by the church, we leave the church. Simple, straightforward. Case closed. Move on.

Paul says wrong. Someone hurt your pride? practice humility. Someone tested your patience? Develop more patience. Someone was harsh towards you? Respond with gentleness. Someone stepped on your toes? Practice forbearance. Be eager, be enthusiastic, be excited about maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This isn’t some post-graduate Christianity for the select few. This is Christianity 101. This basic Christianity. This is simply walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. This is simply walking as Jesus walked.

Why? Why is this so important for the church?

We take our marriage vows seriously because God said, now the two has become one. Family in Christ, does he not say the same for the church? Does he not emphasis the unity of the church just as emphatically?

Granted, your commitment to the church isn’t quite as stringent as “till death do us part”, but it is not nearly as loose as “for better, but not for worse” either.

Do not allow the consumeristic factors of comfort, convenience and utility determine your commitment to the family of Christ to which God has called you, into which God has placed you. The unity of the Spirit must be honoured, it must be maintained too. Be eager to do so.

Why? Because the house of God must have structural integrity. Its bricks must be able to withstand the wind and rains of stormy relationships. It does not fall apart at the slightest crack. Jesus Christ himself, the cornerstone, has prayed for the unity of us, the living stones, and the builder of the house is no less than the Holy Spirit of God.

We must practice membership commitment, despite differences, despit difficulties, despite offenses.

And this rounds up our two first chapters on what it means to live as God’s New Community.

We live as a set apart people who believe in Jesus, and as the united family of God.