God Provides - But What Fills You?

[00:00:01] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our father, and from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. [00:00:08] Amen. [00:00:16] So there at the beginning of a sermon, I speak for God. [00:00:21] Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our father. I'm acting as spokesman of God for your sake. And this is the purpose Paul says, for God. Sending, giving, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. [00:00:44] We're kind of going to talk about that and other things related, but basically the idea that there would be. [00:00:52] I mean, so you've got God, right? God's the head. He's in charge. [00:00:58] We've all come to listen to him, but here I am. And am I just kind of standing in the way, setting myself up in competition? No. Right. [00:01:08] The idea is that God has given intermediate authorities, not because you need some intermediary between you and goddess, but simply because, well, you might say, because that's how reality is structured. All right, so let's go there. [00:01:29] All of reality is structured by, I'm gonna say heads and bodies. Okay? Got a bunch of bodies. Think of a body. There's you. You're a body composed of a bunch of parts, spiritual and physical. But you could name all kinds of things that are part of you that don't stand by themselves. They stand as a part of you, right? Like, your thumb isn't much apart from you, but you kind of are in your thumb. You could say, like, you. When I say you, it's like, well, what are we thinking of? I mean, you know, whatever holds this thing together, that's me. And then I am distributed kind of evenly through everything that I am. You could say, all right, that's Christ and his body. [00:02:16] Christ is the head. He's at the top. But we hear in a few different ways here that Christ is all in all, that he fills all things. [00:02:29] But it's said most fully in the epistle reading ephesians four, starting in verse nine. In saying he ascended, what does it mean to. But that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. [00:02:51] So it's not just talking about Jesus physical location. Like, he came down and then he went up, and he's everywhere because he's God. It's not like, don't think about it in such physical spatial terms. These are kind of hierarchical terms. Okay? That's what we're talking about when we talk about us. Like, what is me? You know, I fill my whole body. That kind of thing. That's what we mean that Jesus, right? Who is the head that he descended in order to, well, unite us all in himself, to draw us all to himself, to build us up as his body. And then he ascends and he's the head and he fills all things, okay, as we grow up into the head. [00:03:44] So he who descended ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. [00:04:14] So we all are growing up as Christ's body and that has stature. Like we're going for the whole thing, like for really being Christ's body fully, right? Not in like a childish way, right? But we're growing toward full maturity in Christ, all of us together as his body, growing up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. [00:04:44] And he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for this. But not just, see, that's not the only. Okay, so you could say then that we have Christ and his body and then in like a smaller way, we've got like a pastor and congregation all under Christ and his body. You see that? [00:05:04] So it's like at a smaller level, I am performing Christ's function for you right now by the stead and command of my Lord Jesus Christ. That's the old language, right? But as they called, an ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, like, I am a microcosm. I'm like a mini Christ. And that's what Christian means. Even you can take it down to that level. Christian means little Christ like you are a little Christ because you're growing up into Christ, okay? You're becoming, he's making you him, right? We all as Christ's body. So you can think about it that way. [00:05:42] A cool image for this is a tree. I've mentioned this before, but you take a tree, it's got a trunk and branches and leaves, right? And then you take a big branch off of that and you stand it up and it's the same thing, right? It's got a trunk and it's got branches and leaves. And then you take a big branch off of that and you can just keep going forever. Each one is a little image of the, of the, of the whole. [00:06:08] That's the way that reality is structured. So you can think of authorities like me, your pastor, as given to you by God, not standing up separately beside Christ, but as kind of contained in Christ. [00:06:27] But it's not just apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. They're given to equip the saints for the work of ministry. [00:06:40] And that's all of you, right? Because the fractal hierarchy, the repeating pattern where it just goes down and down and every level is the same thing as the top, as the big level, it continues down. So you all have, you all are parts of smaller, organized bodies. So maybe, I mean, let's just say the family. That's the main one, right? So for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, it happens at all levels. [00:07:16] And the goal at every level is that we would all grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ as Christ's body and then down to the individual level for you, too. You are the leader of yourself in a way. [00:07:34] You manage your thoughts and desires, the direction of your attention. What are you paying attention to all day? What are you growing up into? [00:07:47] So at all levels, the goal is that we would attain the unity of faith. [00:07:55] Let me actually find it here. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. [00:08:10] And this is why it's important, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. We talked about wind last week. I'll leave it there. [00:08:25] But, you know, there's nothing wrong with children. On the contrary, children are wonderful, but children aren't meant to stay children forever. I mean, the nature of a child is that the child is going to grow up. And so they're aiming towards something else. They're becoming something else. They're becoming something else as parents and teachers and others invest in them, other family members invest in them. Right? By that we mean like they're, we might sometimes say, pouring into the child. And the child then is. Is receiving. [00:09:01] And the way that they're receiving, where they're receiving from, is building them up toward maturity. [00:09:10] So all of us who are part of a structure like this, which we all are on lots of different levels, like we've been talking about, what's our purpose in those structures? It's the work of ministry. It's the work of building up the body of Christ. [00:09:27] It's the work of pouring into others in such a way that they grow up in Christ. [00:09:42] Another way to think of becoming Christ's body is to think, what's our diet? [00:09:48] What are we eating? [00:09:50] Because that's what determines what our bodies become, right? That's how you build your body. You eat. [00:09:58] That's why then in our gospel reading, we have Jesus saying, I am the bread of life, right? He's the bread of life. Come down from heaven for the life of the world. [00:10:07] We eat Christ and we become him because we are what we eat. [00:10:12] It's pretty simple. This is the way things work, right? So how do you feast on Christ and become him? [00:10:21] It's by paying attention. Paying attention to him, which is what we've come to do, right? This is why we're all paying attention to him and his word. It's so that we would grow up into Christ, so that we would eat him and become him, become his body. [00:10:37] So what is our diet? [00:10:41] We've come to pay attention to Christ, to feast on him and become his body. But we feast on other things too, right? Sometimes, right? [00:10:53] When we pay attention to our. [00:10:57] Well, if we pay attention to pride or greed and we give them room in our attention, let them grow, then we're growing into something else. [00:11:11] The father of pride, the father of lies, the father of greed, wanting more, wanting to supplant. What are we paying attention to? [00:11:24] The tv in the home. [00:11:27] It kind of looks like an altar. We all come here and we pay attention forward, all toward the same place. It's the same thing in your living room. [00:11:37] Everything's oriented toward the tv. [00:11:40] And I'm not saying tv is inherently bad, but just think about that. It's oriented like a home altar. [00:11:49] And I think that's fitting, because when we watch tv, we're looking, I mean, we're looking to and hearing. Receiving from voices, right? Voices of who? [00:12:03] Maybe you're watching the news. Maybe you're watching a movie. They all have messages and they're all feeding you. [00:12:14] We're receiving from it as we watch. [00:12:17] That's kind of the obvious kind of old example. Now, right now. Now it's like your phone. [00:12:26] We're all receiving from the phone and being built up by who? [00:12:33] Who is feeding us our view of the world, our understanding of ourselves or of reality? [00:12:43] And is it obvious whether it's true or not? To us? I mean, it's not always easy to pick out. Well, that's not a christian worldview or that's not right. [00:12:55] Now, if you've grown up in the church and have heard God's word all your life and have been growing, been being built up into Christ, into the fullness of the stature of Christ. As you go on that journey, you become more and more able to pick out, like, oh, that's right. Or that's not right. [00:13:18] This doesn't work with faith in Christ. [00:13:23] That's not reality in Christ. [00:13:27] But for a child, that growth and maturity hasn't come yet, haven't been built up in Christ, haven't received the mind of Christ as full away. Children by nature, are being shaped. And so to think of just handing a child a phone, the nature of a phone is like the phone. [00:13:53] It gives away the responsibility of the head. So let's say you're the head of a family. [00:14:04] So then in that pattern, in that repeating pattern, it just keeps getting smaller, but every little bit is the same as the head. [00:14:16] If you are, let's say, a father, then your role as father, part of your role, is to speak on behalf of Christ, is to train and equip your children on behalf of Christ so that they grow up into Christ. Not just fathers, but everyone in their role in that family, right? Or in relationships. [00:14:42] That's your role. [00:14:45] The phone, like, let's say TikTok. [00:14:48] TikTok, just. It's like video, video, video. You don't know where they're coming from. They're just coming up. And then as you watch, like, whatever you're watching longer, it'll give you more of that because it's giving you what you desire, because it wants to keep your attention. And that's a pretty good way of doing it, right? Give you what you're enjoying or what you're afraid of, right? What you can't stop paying attention to. And so it's just video, video, video. [00:15:15] And you're not controlling where it's coming from, but you're consuming, you're eating, and you're being built up, right? For a child, the phone, or let's just say something like TikTok. It's like giving away that responsibility of headship or of training or teaching or pouring into. [00:15:39] To something else. Something else now is pouring into you or your child or whatever the phone is. Like the dispersal of authority to whoever. [00:15:49] It's kind of like it bypasses all the heads and bodies, the lower heads and bodies, right? [00:15:57] It gets past that so that anybody can be the head and pouring into the body. Does that make sense? It's kind of a weird way of saying it, but it's important because we too easily let go of this structure. And it's partly because our culture is reacting against. [00:16:21] Well, against hierarchy, against authority, against anything that would constrain us or make us feel less than something else. The goal is to flatten all the hierarchies so that everybody's just equal. So that's why you get adults treating children like they have nowhere to grow, like, whatever, just leave them alone, right. And then they'll just grow into whatever they should be. Like, don't tell them that they're male or female. [00:16:53] Let whatever it is emerge. They're already there. Whatever they are, that's the seed. And it's going to grow to whatever. No discipline or don't hurt anybody's feelings. [00:17:08] Don't tell anybody they're wrong, which kind of feels nice, even as a Christian. It's like, yeah, be compassionate. Don't make anybody feel bad. Don't tell them they have a wrong view of themselves or reality or anything like that. [00:17:22] It's just like with a child. You're not just going to leave the child in confusion and. And to grow up to be a fool or to always be a child. They need discipline. They need to be told they're wrong. They need to be told what's right and filled, poured into with the right thing, right. All the way down from Christ, so that they grow up into the fullness of Christ because he descended, became a human being. And to grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ, that's to become truly a human being in all its fullness, to be built up into Christ. [00:18:02] Now, I just want to mention the opening ceremony of the Olympics, okay, because this is all that we've been talking about, kind of is illustrated by the opening ceremony. I didn't actually see it. [00:18:19] I've just seen videos about it, but I think I've seen enough to speak on it, you know, so it portrayed the Last Supper. And some people said, well, no, that's not the Last Supper. It's like a bacchanalian feast of Dionysus, you know? [00:18:38] Well, it's kind of both, but it's supplanting the last Supper with Dionysus. Okay, so Dionysus is the God of the greek God of wine and fertility and just kind of like wherever your passions take you. [00:18:56] And here at the opening ceremony, the last Supper was set up in a chaotic, a picture of the last Supper. Who is it? Da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci. Is that right? Yeah. [00:19:08] So that was portrayed in kind of a twisted way. And then the meal came out and it was Dionysus, the God of wine and fertility and doing whatever you want. But think about that. We've just been talking about consuming and eating and then being built up as body. A body of what? Right. Body of Christ for us. That's what the last Supper is all about. This is my body. This is my blood. Eat it and be built up together as my body, right? Grow into me. [00:19:40] And there in the opening ceremony, we have, well, what's the meal like? What is uniting us? What are we being built up together into? [00:19:49] Whatever you want. No rules, no constraint, no hierarchy. It was all about being equal in kind of a twisted way. You know what I mean? If you saw it, right? [00:20:02] That's what our culture is celebrating, the complete absence of constraint and rules. [00:20:08] All fun, no hierarchy, no discipline, nowhere to grow, just equality. [00:20:17] But to celebrate that is to not grow up into anything. It's actually. [00:20:21] I mean, to hold it up, right? To worship it, to look to it in faith, in a sense, and all be united in it, to consume it together and be united in that is to be united in disunity. Like, there's no structure to that. There's no growth to be had. [00:20:37] It just leads to the breakdown of things, and that's kind of the goal. And it's in France and french revolution and things like that. Anyway, we can talk about this more. Ask me about it in Bible study. Right. But it's just important to recognize that while sometimes it. It seems right to react against hierarchy, I mean, we are Americans. [00:21:01] We did get rid of the king, and so it's kind of ingrained in us. But then you've got all kinds of things in our culture where, I mean, we don't hold onto the family structure like we used to and such. And anyway, this giving up of hierarchies and such, the opening ceremony is where that leads to. Like, that's sort of the honest, outright expression of the movement of our culture against hierarchy. [00:21:33] That's not our christian worldview, right. [00:21:38] Christ descended, and then he ascended. He fills all things. [00:21:44] And that's wonderful because we need to grow up in Christ. We need to come to mature manhood in Christ, to be united in him and built up as his body. And he's ascended far above all the heavens. [00:22:03] Nothing's above him. Everything's under his feet. [00:22:06] And he is guiding his church through apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and those equipped by them for the work of ministry, for the building up of the saints. All of you, and we all together are one body, right? With one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. May he keep us in that faith, looking to him our head alone. In Jesus name, amen.