By Pastor Dan
Date: 5 May 2019
Sermon Title: Church: A City Within, But Not Without, the City
Text: Hebrews 11:16
Pastor Dan’s Thoughts:
This past Sunday we were blessed to open God’s Word together and think about who we are as the church – particularly focusing upon the metaphor presented in Scripture of the church as ‘city’. If you haven’t yet heard it or you want to listen again, then consider this your virtual doorway.
We began by briefly considering other metaphors used in Scripture to describe the church, for instance that we are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27), the Bride of Christ (2 Corinthians, Ephesians 5:31-33), and one family in Christ (Ephesians 4:18-19, 1 Timothy 3:14-15). It was both helpful and important to consider these metaphors given through God’s Spirit to describe who we are as His redeemed people in Christ and what this means in terms of grounding our understanding of our new corporate identity as believers and also in detailing how we’re to live out our lives in relation to one another.
We then turned to the focus at hand and considered the reality of the church as city (Matthew 5:13-16 [v14]). We discussed what this actually looks like lived into everyday life – highlighting that we’re not to be a walled off commune as it were, but rather that we’re to be out amongst the world living in such a way within ‘the city’ that creates an impression and serves as light in the darkness leading people to glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).
The city concept is a corporate context for being who we are in Jesus collectively. It’s undoubtedly essential that as individual believers we grasp our new identity in Christ – who we now are in Jesus – we must! However, the city metaphor helps us to more wholly grasp who we are as a ‘city within the city’. It helps us to grasp the both/and reality of our unique identity as God’s people – the city on a hill – and yet the simultaneous reality of what that means in terms of our daily lives interacting with ‘the city’ in our own time and space where God has placed us – at work, in study, completing daily errands, so on and so forth. We’re to function as a city within ‘the city’ unto the glory of God!
The city metaphor forces us to get out. It’s not insular. It rightly-informs us that we’re to be a part of humanity. We’re not meant to hide away from the outside world and seek to remain unstained by building walls around our sacred space. No! We’re to be out amongst those outside the church, living into their time and space the truth of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit! We’re to do so in such a way that they can only look on and say: ‘You know what? I don’t agree with everything they say, but they sure practice what they preach and I wouldn’t want to imagine what our city would be like without them.”
Ultimately this is because we’re to function as a tangible-though-daily-being-sanctified expression of the city to come (Hebrews 11:13-16; Revelation 21-22). We do well to remember that just because the full expression might not be in our midst right now – this city where Righteousness reigns – this doesn’t mean that this aspiration shouldn’t be before us. We’re still to stand out in a righteous way (Matthew 5:13-16)!
We, the church – the city on a hill, ought to have an impact upon our city. This can happen in many ways, shapes, and forms – this isn’t a one-size fits all. This is what makes it soo powerful, and also soo scary! Powerful because we’re let loose to live out the truth of the gospel in every nook-and-cranny of the earthly city we inhabit – the light is free to shine forth in every realm of this present darkness to the glory of God wherever He has placed us. And scary because we’re ones to want to over-simplify the living-out of the gospel to a list of dos and do-nots (and there are without question clear biblical teachings that we ought to live out), however, the dynamic organism that is life – with all of its twists and turns and ebbs and flows – is met by the life-giving and life-transforming power of the gospel through the Holy Spirit as we’re daily-more-empowered to live more like Jesus into our time and space. This is entrenched most of all in who we are, that is who we are becoming (Hebrews 10:14 – think both justification and sanctification) – in Christ through the Holy Spirit – and this is the foundation from which we live out our lives and interact with the world around us in a manner that is pleasing to God and glorifies Him – and leads those around us to want to do so themselves (Matthew 5:16).
If you need direction, or perhaps discussion, regarding how this translates into your life – how you’re to outwork your gifts and life for God’s glory, for the love of your fellow-believers, and for the love of all men and women – then feel free to get in touch with us – we’d love to chat with you about what it looks like for you to be more intentional about living out your faith in your own time and place for the glory of God.
Grace and peace!