2 Corinthians 2:14-17

April 5, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 16:35 in the audio file.

Or, Magnifying Our Ministry (Not Our Misery)

The L2L leaders met via screen yesterday and I asked for any feedback related to sermon topics, as in, has there been too much focus on the current COVID events? Have the messages so far been helpful? Is it time to move on? One of the men pointed out that there is an elephant in the room, or rather, the elephant is in quarantine, so we might as well talk about it. Another said that we are all still waking up every day in the middle of uncharted waters, so some additional effort to figure out where we are is not yet wind lost to the sails.

I’ve been reading more and thinking about the “emergency powers” that a government claims for itself in a crisis, and leaving aside whether that is a good idea, it has caused me to consider these Lord’s Days as a kind of “emergency preaching.” We are not out of the woods yet. The guide said we only had a little more to go before we’d be out into the open field, and then he said, “Sorry, I meant another month.” And, okay, what do we do?

This is the fourth crisis measures message. So far I’ve reminded us that these light and momentary (by comparison) afflictions are increasing our capacity for eternal glory; we don’t lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). I reminded us that trials are testing and refining our faith; we rejoice even in heaviness (1 Peter 1:6-7). Last Lord’s Day I collected some of of Solomon’s wisdom for waiting out whirlwinds, and reminded us that God establishes our households through tempests when we fear Him.

Today I want to talk about the household of God, and encourage us as a church to remember our place in culture and our purpose(s) in the world. Paul wrote to Timothy about how to behave “in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

Just as there are household economics and family responsibilities for sake of productive property, so there are principles of productive property for the church. But our business is not to make money, our business is one of buttressing the truth. The truth most central to us is the truth about Jesus: God made manifest in the flesh, vindicated as God by the Spirit in His resurrection from the dead, proclaimed as Lord among all peoples, ascended in glory and preparing to return (1 Timothy 3:16). God is building His household, in numbers and in strength and in unity, and He calls every member of His household to godliness.

The truth is something we proclaim, yes, and it is something we embody. This is godliness. He has not made us a library, but a living household. We are not merely containers of data or conduits of information, though truth is obviously something that can be organized with syntax and transferred by sentences. We are learning what to believe and how to behave. We are to live in the world with three-dimensional godliness.

The men who’ve read C.R. Wiley’s books are familiar with the word piety, a Godward “mode of life.” Those who are reading Calvin’s Institutes may have read the introduction about Calvin’s own piety and his understanding that the study of theology is driven by a desire to know God not mainly to satisfy intellectual curiosity. Truth feeds piety, and piety hungers for truth.

Paul began his first letter to Timothy: “the aim of our charge is love the issues from a pure heart and good conscience and a sincere faith” (1:5). As I said back in January, as a minister I desire the assembly to be more like Jesus, more joyful, and more jealous-able. I want us all, as the household of God, to have provocative piety.

The dictionary definition of provocative slants toward something annoying or irritating. I’m not calling us to be the church bus of the sisterhood of[...]