His Church on the hill

1. His Church on the hill

2. “Where there is no prophetic vision, the people are discouraged”. (Proverbs 29:18)

3. Is Church Important? • We now live in a world where the church constantly questions its place within it. We no longer live in a world where the church is central within the community; many suggest that we are struggling to hold on. • Hebrews 10:25 encourages us to “not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”. • Something vitally important does happen when we gather together.

4. Ephesians 4:4-16 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people … So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

5. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

6. The Body of Christ • The church is a vital living extension of Jesus Christ himself. • The church is not a building; it never was. The simple truth is that we, the followers of Jesus Christ, are the church. • The church is an interconnected, unified, relational body, where each individual part is needed, valued and necessary • The body of Christ is more than a sum of its parts; we are more than a collection of individuals.

7. Why does Paul so emphasize the one-ness of the church? • Unity is central to the nature of the church. • How can we expect unity when we are all so different? • It is His Holy Spirit that unifies us; our unity is a God-thing. Unity comes when we recognize that we are “His” body.

8. The Body of Christ in Mount Albert is not limited only to those who attend Hillside, but includes many others who identify with other local churches. • In some dynamic way, all those who profess faith in Jesus are a part of the church, each one a vital and necessary part. • The church is not ours; it is not our possession, rather, we, the church, are Christ’s special possession. • “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price”. • Again, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, it is somehow that our physical bodies, not a building, become the dwelling place of God.

9. Our Purpose • Our overarching purpose as a Church is to reflect, or mirror, the glory of God to the cultures of the earth. • So, let me ask you: why are you here this morning? Have you come to declare the greatness of God, to experience His presence? Or have you come for some other reason?

10. The “ekklesia” • It is Greek word that means a “called-out assembly and referred specifically to a political assembly . Early Christians broke from the conventional Greek usage of the word, giving it a distinctive Christian meaning. • Early Christians viewed themselves as lost people called out of the world, into a unique fellowship, and given a specific mandate in the world. • The word ekklesia refers to a whole community, a corporate identity and not a building. The point is that out of the fractured experience of life, God calls together people to form something entirely new, something entirely different; a new structure with a unique identity and a specific purpose.

11. When we gather, we first come to glorify God, to mirror who he is to the world around us, but we also come to be formed more fully into His church through the work of the Holy Spirit. • “… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) • Christ ultimately accomplished this for us through his death on the cross, yet there is an ongoing sense to our development in holiness, also. • As we gather, it is as if the Holy Spirit brushes some of the dust of sin off of us, allowing us to reflect Jesus more clearly to the world around us.

12. As we gather together and are exposed to His word, we also find ourselves built up in maturity. • The more we gather, the clearer our call becomes, the more easily we can reject false teaching and the more Christlike we become as a whole. • This leaves us with the last phrase in our first part of the vision statement – “on the hill”. From this highly visible place, we gather to praise God and be built up in Him, in full view of our community. Our placement is strategic.

13. A Recap • We are His church placed in a specific location at a specific time for a specific purpose. We gather as a vital living extension of Jesus Christ. We gather not as an assortment of individuals, but as an interconnected, relational network. We gather not for our own pleasure, but for Christ’s. We gather to praise Him and encounter Him in new and meaningful ways, and to be shaped by His word. We gather to understand how we can better serve our community in the name of Jesus. May we truly become His Church on the hill.