Church and Spirit #5

Not only is a Spiritual church guided by the word of God and bound by the Spirit of peace, but a Spiritual church is also equipped by God with people who have various abilities; abilities which are empowered by the Spirit and used by Christ to care for and guide his Church.

Ephesians 4.11-13
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.


Often these abilities are referred to as the “gifts of the Spirit”, because as we learn in 1 Corinthians it’s through the Spirit that Jesus grants these abilities to people as gifts for the Church. Much could be said about these gifts, and in our remaining time we cannot do justice to all that the Bible has to say on the matter. So I just want to point out one thing from verse 11 about these gifts of the Spirit: different people have been given different abilities. Jesus has granted some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Earlier in Chapter Four, in verse 7, Paul writes that:

to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

Jesus grants each of us a certain role to play. We won’t have the capacity or ability to everything, but we will have the opportunity to do something. Jesus has given each of us a portion to play in his ministry through the church and because each of us has a portion, that means there are two mistakes we can make. Either we can think that it’s up to us to do everything, or we can think that it’s up to someone else to do everything. Some of us need to let go of holding all the responsibility within our congregation. The Holy Spirit doesn't work through just one person, he works through all of us. Alternatively some of us need to get on with the job of picking up various responsibilities. The minister can’t do everything, the church committee can’t do everything, but we all can do something. If you’re wondering what that thing is, then speak to John Hooton,* he will tell you! But this is the way the Church works: it’s through the Holy Spirit that Jesus guides us, unites us and also quips us to work effectively as his Church.

So what church should our new immigrant look for? A church where the members are each taking a part in the ministry of the church. A church where the twin evils of egotism and apathy are replaced by teamwork. What church should we be? A church where we each accept the portion of the Spirit’s work which we have been given. A church where we put that portion into action. A church not unlike the church that Richard Johnson started back in the first days of the colony.

We started by talking about what it would have been like going to church back in the days of early European settlement when Richard Johnson was the only chaplain. From what historical evidence we have it seems that Richard Johnston tried his best to build a church which was Spiritual in the way we have seen this morning. When he arrived he brought with him 500 bibles to give away; it seems as if he knew that the Spirit authored Scriptures were an essential part of doing church. And one of the convicts who experienced the ministry of Johnson wrote about the sickness endured by the convicts of the colony, reporting that:

few of the sick would not have recovered if it was not for the kindness of the Reverend Mr Johnson, whose assistance out of his own stores makes him the physician of both soul and body.

It seems as if Johnson knew that the church ought to live by putting others first. And Johnson himself wrote about his plans to raise other workers up to teach the children of the young colony; he knew that the church’s work was a team effort, with each member bringing something to the community. In short Richard Johnson knew what a Spiritual church looked like: It was a church guided by Scripture; it was a church focused on others; it was a church where each person receives and gives back their portion. May Christ mould us into a church like this through the power of his Holy Spirit. Amen.

* John Hooton is the minister with special responsibility for Emmanuel Church Glenhaven, a church within the Anglican Parish of Castle Hill where I work on Sundays.

Church and Spirit #4

Our newly arrived Australian should not only look for the central place of Jesus ruling through Scripture, she should also look for a church which is united by the Spirit.

Ephesians 4.2-3 
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Let’s think back to the body metaphor for a moment. The image of the church being a body teaches us that Jesus is our head, our leader. But it also teaches us that as a church we are all connected. We each have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us. To extend Paul’s image we could say that if Jesus is the head then the Spirit is like the central nervous system, coordinating all the parts of the body so that they work in unison. And one of the symptoms of a properly functioning church body is whether we are maintaining peace within our relationships:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

I remember hearing a story about a church undergoing a building project, and this church ended up divided over the issue of where to put the port-a-loos for the workmen. One party within the church thought that the port-a-loos should be out the front where the workmen could access them; the other group thought it was just too ugly to have the toilets out the front and they wanted them out the back. This dispute divided the parish council for up to six months. People left the church over that matter and it became really quite tragic in the end. In a spiritual church issues such as where to put the port-a-loos should never reach that stage – that’s the very opposite of living at peace – and if we recognize that the Holy Spirit is in each of us, then it should be a top priority to demonstrate that unity in our relationships with one another.

And Paul knows that this will take some work. Have a look at verse two:

completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Maintaining the bond of peace will mean being patient with each other, it will mean overlooking those things which irritate us, that’s what it means to bear with one another in love. Sometimes it’s so easy to become frustrated with people: “That person over there, she’s always voicing her opinion. That guy is so unreliable. This woman only ever thinks of herself, and he is just plain rude…” But a Spiritual church will always seek to maintain the bond of peace, recognizing the unity which have: a unity given by the Holy Spirit, a unity which sees us bearing with one another in love and patience.

There’s a story about General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. The story is set at the end of the General’s life when he was due to make one final public appearance at the North American Salvation Army Convention. But when the time came for the General to give his address, he’d become ill and so he couldn't deliver his speech, so he sent a telegram instead. And so word spread that the General was sick, but that he’d sent one last telegram to the convention; a final message containing his last words to the movement which he had founded. And so on the last day of the convention the chairman opened up the telegram and read out the General’s final charge. The telegram contained just one word: Others. General Booth knew what a Spiritual church looked like. A Spiritual church is a church with is other-person centered. A church which is humble and gentle. A church which is patient. A church which bears with one another in love.

What should our new immigrant look for in a church? A church where disputes don’t drag on, and where forgiveness and reconciliation flow freely. What kind of Church should we be? A church which strives to be patient. A church where we have each determined to overlook the irritating habits of others; where personality faults are no barrier to fellowship. A church demonstrating the unity which the Spirit brings.

So a Spiritual church is ruled by Christ through his Spirit-authored word and it’s seeking to live out the unity created by the Spirit. However there’s one other thing we’ll say characterises the Spiritual church…

Church and Spirit #3

This is where our main theme emerges. Remember when Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciples. “I will not leave you as orphans” he promised them (John 14.18). And so at Pentecost (Acts 2) the Holy Spirit came and the enabled the church to stay faithful and to proclaim Jesus’ name. Jesus stayed with the disciples through the Holy Spirit. And so the way Jesus rules and guides the church is through his Holy Spirit. In particular we can say that Jesus rules through the Bible which is a product of the Holy Spirit’s work; 2 Peter 1.20-21 describes the Bible's content as men speaking from God as they are carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So these leather bound words not just mere human words; they’re the words of Jesus as spoken by his Holy Spirit, they’re words of power, they're words which change lives. I’m not sure whether you still expect things to happen when you read the Bible: whether you expect to be comforted; whether you expect to be changed as people. I think we should! Scripture is a divine word which is transforming. Expect that you will be affected by it. Pray that you would be affected by it. It’s a powerful word and it’s an authoritative word. As the word spoken by the Holy Spirit it’s the word by which Jesus still rules his church today. Jesus is the head of the Church, and he exercises that headship through the Scriptures.

So what Church should our immigrant choose? A church which is ruled by the Christ through his Spirit-authored word. What church should we be? A church whose Bible studies remain just that: Bible studies. A church where we avoid the temptation to start considering other books in our small groups apart from this one. A church where the Bible is explained and applied in its sermons each week. A church where direction is taken from Jesus in his word. That’s the kind of Spiritual church we should be.

But of course, hunger for and submission to the Bible isn’t the only mark of a Spiritual church…

Church and Spirit #2

Now when I say Spiritual gathering, that doesn’t mean we dance around like a bunch of drugged up hippies, trying to connect with some kind of vague “meta-Spirit”. What I mean is that as a church we are ruled, guided, united and equipped by God’s Holy Spirit. It’s the presence of God’s Holy Spirit which sets us apart. So to answer the question about which church our newly arrived immigrant should attend, we can say that he or she should seek out a Spiritual church.

But that raises another important question: What does a Spiritual church look like? If I were to ask someone from Hillsong for an answer and then someone from St Andrew’s Cathedral in the city, followed then by someone here at Glenhaven I could get three very different answers, so our poor immigrant isn’t out of the woods yet. But this is where Ephesians 4 will help us. This is a great chapter for figuring out what church is and also for discerning the type of gathering we should seek out and in turn be a part of.

Starting in the middle of the chapter, we find two verses that anchor us with a simple definition of church:

Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From 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.

Perhaps the best definition of the church is simply this: the church is the human community which is connected to Christ. Paul uses a body metaphor here, just like he uses in 1 Corinthians. Christ is the head, and we are the various parts of the body, all of which are connected to and controlled by the head. So when we say that the church is the community which is connected to Jesus, we don’t just mean that Jesus is the focus of our attention, or that his teachings are the ones we choose to read. Those things are true – we do want to focus on him and we do want to study his teachings – but the connection is a little more real than that.

When Paul says that Jesus is our head, he’s saying that Jesus is actually our living ruler. Remember that Jesus has been raised from the dead. That means that he is alive and active. And one way that Jesus is alive and active is that he is actively ruling his Church, this church, even as we speak. Jesus is not just someone we admire, Jesus is someone who is present and ruling his Church. Now this has massive implications for the way we do church. Whenever we lead in church, whether it be on a committee or in a bible study or by organising a roster, then we only ever lead as deputies to the true leader, Jesus. He is the chief shepherd, we are only ever the assistant shepherds (1 Peter 5).

I remember hearing a story about a young couple who were leaving their church here in Sydney to go interstate, and before they left they said to their minister “What are we going to do? You won’t be there to tell us what to do anymore.” And the minister said “Well there’s always the telephone”! I think he failed to realise that he was only an assistant shepherd. Their true leader was, is and always will be Jesus. And I think the young couple failed to realise this too! They didn’t need to be constantly linked to the one church even after they’d moved interstate, because wherever they found themselves to be, Jesus would still be their true shepherd.

So back to our immigrant looking for a church…what should they look for? A church which is lead by Christ. What church should Emmanuel Church Glenhaven be? A church ruled by Christ. If you are a leader, are you constantly deferring your leadership to Jesus? Do you recognise him as the one truly running the ship? If you see yourself as a follower, are you looking to Christ for leadership? or have you replaced him with the leadership of others?

A true church is one led by Jesus.

Well that’s all well and good, but how does Christ rule his Church? How is he active in the Church today? How do we defer leadership to him? How do we seek his leadership?

Church and Spirit #1

A sermon preached at Emmanuel Church Glenhaven, 1st July 2007

Imagine for a moment that you’re a member of the first fleet, newly arrived on the shores of Sydney cove. You can pick whichever character you like for this exercise: maybe you’re Mary who was transported for seven years for stealing a handkerchief and a raisin bun; or perhaps you’re George, an officer in the royal army, hoping that your time in New South Wales might mean promotion to a more comfortable role back home. Imagine life in your new quarters. After many months on an uncomfortable ship, you move into your luxurious wooden hut, with dirt floor and holes in the walls which let the wind whistle in during the winter months. And then on Sundays you go to church. There is only one choice of church in the early colony; Richard Johnson is the chaplain, and he’s an Anglican. But he’s an Anglican without a building. Gov Phillip is a little slow in providing for the physical needs of a congregation so you meet under a tree until the first church building is built some months after landing.

Now jump forward 219 years to 2007. You’re a newly arrived immigrant to the city of Sydney, a bustling and growing metropolis of over 4 million people. You’re fortunate enough to find accommodation quickly, and then look to start the job of finding a new church. The choice is dazzling. Anglican, Catholic, Uniting Church, Baptist, Presbyterian, Free Presbyterian, Evangelical Free, Churches of Christ, Assemblies of God, Russian, Geek and Coptic orthodox, Hillsong, Gospel Halls, the Chinese Christian Churches, Potter’s House ministries, Grace community churches … and so the list goes on. I heard a statistic earlier this year which said that in the Blacktown City Council area there are well over 200 independent churches. This is not including churches aligned with the main denominations, so you could probably add another 30-50 to that number. That’s up to 250 individual churches to choose from in the one council area.

If you were a new immigrant living in Blacktown (or any other part of Sydney for that matter), how would you even begin to tell the difference? How would you go about choosing a church from all those different options? This is an important question to ask because there might come a point when its time to leave Emmanuel Church Glenhaven. What kind of church will you go to? Denominational loyalty is going the same way as brand loyalty - we’re becoming less inclined to stick with the same 'Anglican' badge - so what will go into your decision? Alternatively you might have friends who are looking to get involved with a church somewhere. What kind of advice would you give them? Or maybe you’re not about to go anywhere, maybe you’re not even thinking about what it means to find a church or to change churches. Even if this is the case then it's still an important question to ask because it’s really a question about the nature of church. What is it that makes this type of human gathering unique among all the others? How are we meant to be different to the Lions club which meets in the Community Hall, or the book club which meets in your best friend’s lounge room? What label should we aspire to?

The answer to this question is that we’re a Spiritual gathering…

1o points for the location of this convict-built building. Another 10 for the name of the umbrella carrying convict.