To God Be Glory in the Church

Be Part of Something Bigger: To God Be Glory in the Church

John 12:12-19; Ephesians 3:10,21; Psalm 96:1-3

     It’s Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Palm Sunday is the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem just as the prophets had said the Messiah would do. After having done amazing miracles for about three years, many people apparently had begun to think that Jesus might actually be the long awaited Messiah. But, the way they saw Jesus was wrong. What they thought Jesus would do was wrong. They had envisioned him as a powerful military leader like Moses or David, a man who would save them from all their problems. So, they cried out, “Hosanna!” – meaning, “Save us now!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the king of Israel!” (Jn 12:13)

     But, their vision of Jesus was too small. They saw him only for what he would do for one group of people. Let’s not criticize them too much. We are much like them. We still have people each election year who cry out, “We want someone different, someone who will make things better for our group. We don’t like things the way they are. Let’s have a leader who can make us (meaning, our own group) great again!”

     As you know, Jesus had come to change more than just the situation of one nation. He had come to offer salvation for all who would believe in him. He came not just to deal with the political oppression of one people but with the oppression of sin that had the entire world in its grip. He came not as the king over one nation but as the King over all kings. He came to make all things new.

     How do you see Jesus? I grew up with the usual Sunday school flannel graph pictures portraying Jesus as someone with light colored hair and blue eyes. We’ve all seen those. But, just before Christmas last year, a report came out about some work done by British scientist Richard Neave. He used forensic facial reconstruction to reveal what he believes to be a true depiction of the face of Jesus Christ. While the image should not be taken as a definitive model of Jesus, Neave says it is a historically accurate representation of how a man born in Jesus's time and place would have looked: https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/jesus.jpg

     Many churchgoers were offended by the way the artist made Jesus look – so rugged and Middle Eastern. They are more used to a picture done by German artist Albrecht Duerer done in 1500. It’s a picture I have seen countless times: http://everypainterpaintshimself.com/article_images_new/S-P_at_28_1500_4.jpg

     Few people in the American church would be offended by Duerer’s oft-seen portrait. But we should be! Why? Because Duerer’s painting of Jesus was a self-portrait! He painted himself as Jesus. Many art historians say Duerer’s painting is a proclamation of his supreme role as creator, which is supported by the painting's Latin inscription: "I, Albrecht Dürer of Nuremberg portrayed myself in everlasting colors aged twenty-eight years". I think one of the clearest messages of Palm Sunday is that we dare not see God as we want him to be but as he reveals himself to be.

How Do You See Jesus?

     Again, I ask you: How do you see Jesus? If the people on the first Palm Sunday could be so misguided about Jesus’ mission and people for centuries can be so mistaken about Jesus’ physical appearance, how can we accurately know Jesus? And this brings us to our final message in our series on the Guiding Statement of Lake Avenue Church, a series I’ve called Be Part of Something Bigger.

     I will simply tell you today that you can know Jesus through the witness of God’s Word and through the witness of God’s people all around the world who have genuinely met Jesus by faith. And, when you have come to meet Jesus by placing your faith in him, you come to know God. Faith in Jesus makes you alive to God. When Jesus came to earth, he was “Immanuel”, God with us. As John said, “When we saw Jesus, we beheld glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14).” “We saw him!” John marveled. “He lived among us!”

     And Jesus affirmed John’s words. Jesus said, “No one has ever seen God except God the one and only Son, the one closest to the Father, has made him known (Jn 1:18).” So, if you long to know God, you first have to meet Jesus through faith. Jesus said, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father.” To continue to see God’s glory in Jesus, you must read the inspired accounts of his life found in the first four books of the New Testament. Read what he taught. See how he dealt with people. Observe how he lived out his priorities. What you will see is the glory of God revealed in Jesus.

     The Apostle Paul confirmed this in his letter to the Ephesians. In a verse I show you quite often, this is what Paul wrote: To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever (Eph 3:21)!

     The “glory” of God is a word that refers all God’s attributes and qualities. So the glory of God refers to all that God is – and “all that God is” is so majestic and so beautiful that it goes beyond human knowing. If that is true, then how will people ever know what God is like? Where is God’s glory to be seen? The Bible confirms in this verse that it’s seen in Jesus. Paul wrote, “To God be glory in Christ Jesus.”

     But, do you see that there is another place where people in our world should accurately see what God is like? Where else should the world see the glory of God? I’ve spoken to us at LAC often about this but today I want you to see it in the context of our church’s Guiding Statement: The Bible says the world should be able to see the glory of God is, almost shockingly, in the church. “To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” One main theme of the New Testament is that God’s plan to complete his work in the world and make all things new is to place local families of his people linked by faith in Jesus in communities all over the world to visibly represent God’s glory where he has established us. This is why we declare at the conclusion of our Guiding Statement that we long to be a “God-glorying community.” When we say that we pray people will see much of what God is like by what God is doing in and among us here at the Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. We seek to glorify God at LAC. So, in this last part of our Guiding Statement, we have put together all that is found in the rest of the statement. We long to have God transform each of us and all of us so that we will declare God’s glory to the world through out lives and words.

     We humbly confess that we are still in a process of becoming all that God would have us be. We surely do not yet fully reflect the glory of God in our church. As Pastor Denny Bellessi used to say often, “We are a piece of work!” We truly are! But, we’re God’s work – and when he works in us, he will make us into people who declare what he is like to a world that needs to know him and to experience his salvation.

     Through these months of 2016, we have taken week after week to think about becoming a community that declares the glory of God to the world. Let me walk you through it now. To declare God’s glory, we must:

1. Grow in Our Walk with Christ – Our vision statement says that that we seek to have each one in our church family grow to become “complete in Christ” (Col 1:28) and thereby reflect God’s glory. This is the goal of all discipleship, i.e., that our lives will increasingly reflect the ways of the Jesus we follow. The main problem for us, as we all know, is our sin. But, Paul addressed this in Rom 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” But then Paul goes on: Through faith, “we are justified as a gift by God’s grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” So God washes our past clean when we confess our sins and believe in Jesus – and he gives us his Spirit and His church for our remaking. Here at LAC, for that remaking to happen, we urge each of us to be involved in three essential connections: 1) worship in unity with your church family, 2) grow in your walk with God in one of the grace-filled communities our church offers, and 3) serve in God’s mission as a part of your church. We are to declare God’s glory though our growth in holiness.

1. Be One Though We Are Many – We are called to embody both the breadth and the loving unity of God’s global family right here in the San Gabriel Valley. We call this value “kingdom community”. Listen to how Jesus put this when, just before he went to the cross, he prayed for all those who would believe in him, including people from every people group, language and nation: John 17:22-23a: Father, give them the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me… One of the most beautiful and, at the same time, mind-boggling truths that God reveals to us in his Word is that he is one God eternally existing in three persons. But, let me say this now: One of the most beautiful and, at the same time mind-boggling, truths about a church -- that becomes what God would have us become -- is that it is to be one unified “household of faith” even while it is as different as people around the world are different. We become one family in Christ. That kind of unity glorifies God.
2. Love the World as God Loves the World – We have two values that call us to love people made in God’s image both through our words and deeds. We care about the eternal souls of people for whom Jesus died so we value being an “Evangelistic Community”: We respond to Jesus’ call to be a community that individually and corporately calls people to follow him as Savior and Lord. And we care about the pain and distress that sin has brought into people’s lives so we value being a “Reconciling Community”: We seek to pursue God’s justice, mercy and compassion by being involved in his ministries of reconciliation.

     So, today, we conclude by saying that we long to have our individual lives and the life of our church family bring glory to our Heavenly Father. We long to be – pray to become – a God-glorifying Community. Look at how we put it: “Guided by God’s Word and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to be a prayerful community that makes the glory of God known through our words and lives.”

We pray that people will see what God is like by watching what he is doing in and through us. By doing so, we pray that we people in our neighborhood and in our world might experience the saving, healing, life-transforming reality of God made available in Jesus until God’s work is complete, until all things in this world are made right, and until God kingdom of peace and justice reigns.

     When we follow Jesus, we truly become a part of something bigger. Indeed, the scope of this is made known in Psalm 96:3 -- Declare his glory among the nations; make known his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Do you see what God calls us to do? We are to declare the glory of God not only in our neighborhood. We have the privilege of making him known among all peoples. This was what Jesus called us to do in Acts 1:8, i.e., to give witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth. Because of that, I’ve asked Pastor Scott White, LAC Pastor of Global Outreach, to come and bring our entire series to its proper conclusion. He will point us to the role we sense God is calling us to play in glorying his name among the nations.

大使命的一部分：在教會中榮耀神

約12：12-19；弗3:10,21；詩96:1-3

這個周日是棕樹節主日，是聖周的開始。棕樹節主日是耶穌進入耶路撒冷的日子，正如先知預言彌賽亞所做的那樣。在祂行了三年奇妙的神跡之後，許多人都認定，祂就是那位人們等待已久的彌賽亞。然而，他們看耶穌的方式錯了。他們所認為的耶穌將要行的事也錯了。他們頭腦中的耶穌，是一個像摩西或大衛一樣的大有能力的軍事領袖，一個能將他們從一切問題中拯救出來的人。因此，他們歡呼說：“和散那！”，意思就是，“現在就來拯救我們吧！”“那奉主名來的以色列王，是應當稱頌的！”（約12：13）

            然而，他們對於耶穌的看法太過狹隘了。在他們眼中，耶穌僅僅能夠為他們一族的人民有所作為。我們不要太多批評他們。我們和他們不相上下。每次選舉的時候，都有人呼喊說：“我們要選不同的人，他要為我們的族群帶來益處。我們不喜歡現在的狀況。我們要選出一個領袖，能使我們（也就是我們的族群）再次強大起來！”

            眾所周知，耶穌來到世上，不僅僅是改變一個國家的狀況。祂來到世上，為所有相信祂的人提供救恩。祂來到世上不是為了處理一個種族所受到的政治壓迫，而是為要拯救世上所有受罪的壓迫的人們。祂來到世上，不是為要做一國之君，而是要做萬王之王。祂來是為要使一切都更新。

            你認為耶穌是什麽樣子？我在主日學之中長大，常常看到圖片中畫著淺色頭發和藍眼睛的耶穌。可能大家都看過。然而，就在去年聖誕節前夕，有一個關於英國科學家理查·涅夫的研究報道說，他使用了一種面部重建技術來顯現他所認為的耶穌基督的面孔。那個形象不應當絕對作為耶穌的形象，涅夫說，然而它相對準確地展現了歷史上在耶穌那個時代和地區的具有代表性的男人的形象：http://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/jesus.jpg.

            這個藝術家筆下的耶穌畫像冒犯了許多信徒，他們認為其中的耶穌太粗獷和中東化。他們更習慣於德國藝術家阿爾布雷特·杜勒在1500年畫的一幅畫。我曾無數次見過這幅畫：http://everypainterpaintshimself.com/article_images_new/S-P_at_28_1500_4.jpg

            美國教會很少人會覺得杜勒的畫像冒犯他們。但是我們應該覺得如此！為什麽？因為杜勒的耶穌畫像實際上是他的自畫像！祂將自己畫成了耶穌。許多藝術史學家說，杜勒的畫在宣告他自己創造者的超越角色，這可以從作品的拉丁文題詞看出：“我，紐倫堡的阿爾布雷特·杜勒，以永恒的色彩自畫肖像，年28歲。”我想，棕樹節主日最清楚的信息就是，我們不敢以自己所想來限制神的樣子，而是要根據神的啟示。

你認為耶穌是什麽樣子？

            我想再問問大家：你認為耶穌是什麽樣子？如果第一個棕樹節主日的人們都如此誤解耶穌的使命，多少世紀以來的人們都如此誤看耶穌的樣貌，我們如何才能準確地認識耶穌呢？這就使我們回到湖邊大道教會綱領的關於大使命系列講道的自後一篇信息。

            今天，我只想告訴大家，你可以藉著神話語的見證、通過那些靠著信心真正遇見耶穌的神的子民在世界各地的見證來認識耶穌。當你藉著信靠耶穌而遇見祂的時候，你就認識了神。在耶穌裏的信心，使你活在神的面前。當耶穌來到世上的時候，祂是就“以馬內利”，神與我們同在。正如約翰所說：我們見過祂的榮光，正是父獨生子的榮光。（約1:14）。”“我們看見了祂！”約翰驚嘆道：“祂住在我們中間！”

            耶穌證實了約翰的話。耶穌說：“從來沒有人看見神，只有在父懷裏的獨生子，將祂表明出來（約1:18）。所以，如果你渴望認識神，你首先要藉著信心遇見耶穌。耶穌說：“人若看見了我，就是看見了父。”若要在耶穌裏繼續看到神的榮耀，你就要讀在新約前四部書裏記載的祂的生命故事。讀祂的教導。看祂如何與人相處。觀察祂如何安放優先次序。你會看到，神的榮耀藉著耶穌彰顯出來。

            使徒保羅在以弗所書中確認了這一點。我常和大家分享保羅所寫的這節經文：但願祂在教會中，並在基督耶穌裏，得著榮耀，直到世世代代，永永遠遠（弗3:21）。

            神的“榮耀”這個詞包含了所有神的屬性和特質。因此，神的榮耀指的是神所有的方面，而“神所有的方面”是如此的輝煌美麗，超越人類所能理解。如果這是真的，那麽人如何能知道神是什麽樣子呢？在哪裏能看到神的榮耀呢？這一節聖經告訴我們，神的榮耀通過耶穌彰顯出來。保羅說：“神在耶穌基督裏得著榮耀。”

            然而你知道嗎？還有另外一個地方，可以使世人準確地看到神的樣子。世上還有什麽地方能讓人看到神的榮耀？我常在教會談到這個地方，但是今天，我想讓你在我們教會的綱領之中看到：聖經說，世人可以看到神榮耀的地方，就是教會。“願神在教會中、在耶穌基督裏得著榮耀。”新約聖經中的一個主題是，神計劃要在世上完成祂的工作，使一切都變成新的，那就是要使祂在世上的子民的家庭藉著在耶穌裏的信心聯合成為團體，在祂所建立我們之處讓世人看到神的榮耀。正因如此，我們在教會綱領的結論中宣告說，我們渴望成為一個“榮耀神的團體。”當我們這樣說的時候，我們盼望人們能夠藉著神在我們中間、在帕薩迪那湖邊大道教會中看到神的樣子。我們在教會中渴慕尋求榮耀神。因此，在我們教會綱領的最後一部分，我們對整個綱領做了一個總結。我們渴望神更新每個人，使我們能藉著生活和言語，向世人宣告神的榮耀。

            我們謙卑地承認，我們仍然在向著神所希望我們成為的樣式努力。當然，我們在教會中還沒有完全彰顯神的榮耀。正如丹尼·畢萊斯牧師常說的，“我們是神手中的一個工作！”的確如此！我們是神的工作，當祂在我們裏面作工的時候，祂會使我們向那些需要認識神和經歷祂救恩的人宣告神的樣式。

            2016年的幾個月中，我們連續幾周都在思考，如何成為一個向世人宣告神榮耀的團體。讓我們一起再總結一下。為要宣告神的榮耀，我們必須要做到如下幾點：

第一，我們在與基督同行的道路中不斷成長–教會的異象聲明曾說到，我們渴望讓教會家庭中的每一個人都得以成長，“在基督裏成為完全”（西1:28），從而彰顯出神的榮耀。這是所有門徒的目標，即我們的生命將越來越多地體現出那位我們所跟隨的耶穌的道路。眾所周知，我們的主要問題是罪的問題，然而保羅在羅馬書3:23說道：“因為世人都犯了罪，虧缺了神的榮耀......”但隨後保羅接著說：藉著信心，“在基督耶穌裏，靠著耶穌基督的救恩，因著神恩典的禮物，我們被稱為義人”。因此當我們承認自己的罪，並信靠耶穌時，神就會潔凈我們過去的罪，並且為了繼續塑造我們，祂將祂的聖靈和教會賜給了我們。在湖邊大道教會，我們敦促每個人參與到以下三個重要的連接中：1）與你的教會一同敬拜；2）在你與神的同行中、在教會---這個充滿神恩典的團體裏成長；3）作為教會的一員，在神的使命中事奉。我們要藉著自己在成聖道路上的成長，宣告神的榮耀。

第二，眾人合而為一 ----- 在聖蓋博這個地區，我們蒙召見證世界各地教會的愛的合一性以及廣闊性兩個方面，我們把教會稱為“神國度的群體”。耶穌在祂上十字架之前，為那些將要相信祂的人禱告，包括來自每個民族、語言和國家的人：約翰福音17：22-23a：父神，你所賜給我的榮耀，我已賜給他們，使他們合而為一，像我們合而為一。我在他們裏面，你在我裏面……神用祂的話語，向我們揭示了一個最美麗、同時也是最令人難以置信的事實：祂是一位永遠以三個位格而存在的神。但是現在，請允許我這樣說：一個最美麗的，同時令人難以置信的、關於教會的事實就是，即使世界各地的人們都各不相同，教會卻仍要成為一個合一的“信心的家庭”。我們在基督裏成為一家人。這種合一將會榮耀神的名。

第三、像神一樣愛世人 ---- 我們有兩種價值觀，都呼召我們用言語和行為去愛那些按神的形象所造的人。我們關心耶穌為之受死的人們的靈魂得救，所以我們希望能夠成為一個“傳福音的團體”：我們回應耶穌的呼召，成為這樣的一個團體：無論是個人、還是共同合作，我們都立誌呼召人們跟隨祂，尊祂為救主。我們也關心罪帶給人們的痛苦和困擾，因此我們立誌成為一個“使人與神和解的團體”，我們通過參與神與人和解的事工，來尋求實行神的公義、憐憫和同情。

因此今天，我們得出的結論就是，我們渴望使自己的個人生活和教會家庭的生活能夠榮耀我們的天父。我們渴望藉著禱告成為一個榮耀神的群體。請看我們在教會綱領中所寫的：“以神的話語為引導，依靠聖靈的力量，我們力求成為一個禱告的群體，通過我們的言語和生活來彰顯神的榮耀”。我們祈求神，讓人們因著看到我們的言語和行為，而認識神。我們繼續求告神，讓我們的鄰舍、乃至世人都能夠經歷到神藉著耶穌所施行的拯救、醫治、改變生命的大能，直到神救恩工作的完成，直到這世上的一切都成為完全，直到神的和平和公義執掌王權。

當我們跟隨耶穌，我們就真正成為了大使命的一部分。事實上，詩篇96：3闡述了這個觀點：在列邦中述說他的榮耀，在萬民中述說他的奇事。你明白神呼召我們去做什麽了嗎？我們不僅要在我們的鄰舍中宣揚神的榮耀，我們更有著在萬國中宣揚祂名的權柄。這正是耶穌在使徒行傳1：8中呼召我們去做的，就是要為耶穌做見證，直到地極。正因為如此，我邀請了斯科特·懷特牧師，就是湖邊大道教會的全球拓展部牧師來到我們中間，帶領我們總結一下整個的講道系列。他要為我們指出，神呼召我們在萬國榮耀祂名的使命中的角色。

榮耀歸給神，

Greg Waybright 博士

主任牧師

 

祂的荣耀，

格雷格Waybright博士
主任牧師

Greg Waybright • Copyright 2015, Lake Avenue Church