LGC - Rooted & Fruitful Part 3

Rooted & Fruitful (Part 3)

Speaker: Henson Lim

INTRODUCTION

Looking around in our world today, we see brokenness. We are living in a divided world. We are out of step with nature, natural calamities are happening more frequently. We are at war among ourselves, nation against nation, class against class. Struggle, strife and division are taking place on every side. Our newspapers are full of it. Failed marriages, wounded relationships and dysfunctional families are constantly on the rise. We know that the problem is sin and God has a solution for this.

Last week, we learned that we have a new identity in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-6): we are chosen, blessed, adopted, favoured, accepted and beloved sons and daughters of God. This week, Paul reminded us that in Christ, we have been redeemed and forgiven by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7-10). God made a costly sacrifice to give us our new identity, and it was for a purpose. Our new identity in Christ should spur us to pursue God’s righteousness and become ambassadors of His Kingdom, living in unity as the Church. Jesus’ prayer for His Church in John 17:22, “that they may be one as we are one”, will be fulfilled.

DISCUSSION

Brokenness is all around us, but we have the power to impact the world. Armed with the good news of Jesus, we can speak life into those who are hurting. Can you share some practical ways we can do this?
Read Ephesians 1:7-10.

a. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (verses 7-8)

(i) A ransom was paid for deliverance from slavery and oppression (freeing a slave by paying the price for him). God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus is the true Passover Lamb: He delivers us from sins by His blood. See Colossians 2:13 and Hebrews 9:14. Why was a sacrifice necessary for our reconciliation? How does that make you feel? How should we respond?

(ii) The word ‘lavished’ means to heap up one (blessing in this case) upon another and may be illustrated by ocean waves. They just keep coming and coming and never stop. The lavish undeserved grace of God forgives all of our sins.

• Read Romans 6:1-2. Why does the true grace of God lead to holiness rather than to lawlessness? What happens when we take God’s grace for granted?

• Now we know what God has lavished upon us, what do we do as a church to model that to those around us, individually or collectively?

b. “Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (verses 9-10)

God’s great plan and purpose were once hidden but are now revealed to us in Jesus, to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. Through Paul, God called us to consider our place in His plan. As His people, being ONE (in unity) is important because Christ died to secure it and it is a major factor in our witness to the world. (read John 17:20-21, 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Galatians 3:26-28).

(i) As we direct our efforts into our churchwide objective, ‘Each One Reach One’, the preacher challenges that our goal is not just to reach one, but to be ONE. How does our unity as a church bear witness to the world?

(ii) What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about your role to preserve unity in the church and to bring restoration to people’s lives?

WHAT WILL YOU DO

“The God who is fully unified with himself has a glorious plan for the future: to imprint his unity on the rest of the universe by graciously uniting all of heaven and earth under one head, Jesus Christ. To get there, he first unites a new humanity with himself through faith in Christ. And that new humanity is now called to live in unity with itself in Christ. In other words, the church’s calling is to walk in true unity. The power for that unity originates from the unity the church already has with the fully unified Trinity. And that present unity anticipates the coming unity of all heaven and earth in Christ.” – Peter Krol, Ephesians: Uniting all things in Christ

As God’s redeemed people, we are God’s instrument of choice to reveal the hope and promise of restoration in Christ. We have been redeemed to restore. This includes walking in Christian unity as a witness to the world. So let’s examine ourselves:

How are we faring in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Do we knowingly or unknowingly draw lines of divide?
How are we doing in bringing healing or restoring brokenness to people around us?

MEMORY VERSE

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” – Ephesians 1:7-10 (ESV)