United to Christ Together

Good morning. It is genuinely good to be with you all today.

It is difficult being here as an extrovert, because I want to meet everybody. I want to go around the room and have everyone say their name and their favorite cereal. I am told I cannot do that.

I got into town on Friday and visited my brother, who lives here, so we turned this into a bit of a family trip.

What Friday Looked Like Back Home

On Friday my neighbor texted me, and then another neighbor texted my wife: are you guys all right?

What are you talking about?

There had been a shooting. Later that evening I looked for details and learned it involved pre-teens or young teenagers who had put a switch on a gun. I do not know much about guns — so I did not fit in during my visit to Iowa — but evidently that turns it into an automatic weapon. There was about a minute of continuous gunfire at the intersection at the north end of our block.

Then, on the same local crime page, I saw a woman on a friend’s old block robbed at gunpoint. And someone shot in the leg in a grocery store parking lot. So I thought, all right, let me get off this page — and refreshed to the home feed and saw that a young man had been shot in the same place. A little girl was shot and killed on that same block last summer.

All of that happened in roughly a four-hour window.

But there is good news too. We are having our first church birthday next week.

And it is remarkable that you all have been supporting us far longer than that — back when it was just me talking to random people in north Minneapolis, your pastor and your elders believed in what we were doing and saw that it was something worth backing. I am deeply thankful for you.

One of the men I met three years ago has been down here with me once, so some of you may know him. I told him that at our first birthday party I am going to ask everyone how our church has been used by God to change their life this past year, and I asked how he would answer.

He thought for a minute and said: It has given me good people. The right people to be around.

There is a proverb about not going around those who do violence. And we are able to give kids in our neighborhood an alternative to the groups that use violence and terrorize where we live. We get to tell these young men that God can use them — that masculinity is not about putting people down but about building people up.

And here is what we are getting to see: our two churches have very different problems, and we have the same hope.

You Still Have Work to Do Here

I was around all weekend and played basketball at the rec center twice. I also ran into an old classmate from elementary, middle, and high school.

I asked three or four people this weekend — including that classmate and a couple of kids at the gym — whether they had heard of this church.

None of them said yes.

I do not say that to discourage you. I say it to tell you that this church is needed in this place now more than ever.

When I was praying for a church to be started in my neighborhood, and then later met your pastor, I thought: yes, thank you God, you have answered a prayer — there can be a church in that town reaching those men, women, children, and college students. And after spending more time here this weekend with people outside of church, I am thinking the same thing. This church is still needed.

Both of us have work to do in our neighborhoods. And as we work, I want to warn us of something:

Disunity brings distraction to our work. Unity shows off the gospel’s power.

We display the hope of the gospel when we are unified in Jesus Christ — when we say not merely I am a child of grace but we are kids of grace. Not merely I am an individual with a personal relationship with Jesus but I am part of God’s family, and that family is expressed through my local church.

When my neighbors see me worshiping alongside people who vote differently than I do and look different from me, they wonder why we are together. And you get to say: it is because of Jesus.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, use your Bible powerfully this morning, that the message of Jesus would be heard and believed. I pray for the unity of this church. I pray for the people in this town and the surrounding towns who do not yet know you. Lord, please bring people into your kingdom, and use this church to do it. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we pray, amen.

A Church That Knows Something About Unity

The dream was always to plant a church in my own neighborhood. We moved there in May of 2015. The fall before, someone invited me to be a guest preacher at a Russian-speaking church’s monthly English-language service — an English-speaking service within a Russian-speaking church.

So I started preaching there monthly, and eventually they asked if I would help them start an English-speaking group out of that congregation.

Now, back in 2014 Russia invaded Ukraine — not on the scale of today, but it happened. And this congregation is not all Russian. It is a Slavic church. There are Russians. There are Ukrainians. There are people from Moldova and Latvia. And they are all worshiping together.

The first Sunday of the month they take communion, and they pass around a single silver cup. The first time I was there that was a culture shock. Is that not going to spread germs? And they said: listen, it is silver, it is wine, and we have prayed about it. There is no way we get sick from this. Checks and balances, I suppose.

This morning, a Ukrainian friend of mine can worship alongside Russians.

How do they stay unified and at peace with one another?

People say to me, wow, you have white people and Black people in your church — how do you do that? And I think: this is nothing compared to what Slavic churches are overcoming.

We live in a divided moment in the United States. I believe we should be taking notes from our Slavic brothers and sisters.

The Text: Galatians 3:26–29

I have been told I have ADHD, so I do not care much about order. Let us start with verse 27 and come back to verse 26 later — I think that will give us a clearer picture of what verse 26 is describing.

Verse 27: Clothed with Christ

“For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.”

A couple of summers ago I was working on my front porch — our church does not have an office, and I would not stay in one anyway because I like people too much — and a teenage girl walked up and asked, are you a pastor?

Yes.

I would like to get baptized.

I had never met this girl. So I wiped the leaves off the porch furniture and said, come sit down, let us have a conversation.

And as we talked, she told me she had already been baptized several times. She was in need of a spiritual cleansing — almost like a spiritual shower.

She had a confused understanding of baptism.

Baptism is not something you do over and over to make you a better you. Baptism is a representation of an event that never needs to be repeated.

So at your baptism — whether you have already been baptized or have not yet — what are you saying? And more importantly, what is the Lord saying?

At your baptism you are declaring that when Jesus died, he died for your sins. And God is declaring that you are holy, that you completely, from head to toe, belong to him. You have been clothed with Christ. You have put on Christ.

This is radically different from what we are usually told Christianity is about.

So often we hear that Christianity is essentially a self-improvement program. I am glad church works for you — but do not come to church merely to become a better you.

The message of the gospel is that all who trust in Christ have been covered with Jesus’ righteousness. Though we have all sinned, we are kids of grace. We stand righteous as dearly loved children of God.

The great exchange

Those who trust in Christ have experienced what we might call the great exchange. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made the one who did not know sin — that is Jesus — to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here is an illustration I am stealing from a former pastor of mine.

Imagine you made zero dollars last year. Some of you do not have to imagine. And imagine your spouse made a million dollars. At tax time you file jointly. So in the eyes of the tax authorities, how much did you make last year?

A million dollars. Why? Because you are united to your spouse.

Now, I see kids here, and taxes are boring. Anyone who does not think taxes are boring is themselves boring. So let me try again.

A while back, a certain NBA team won the championship. Say a couple of weeks before the end of that season, they come to you and say, we want you on our team.

And if you are like me, you say, no, I cannot add anything to your team. I am not good. I just went to the rec center and played eighth graders yesterday — which, admittedly, was great for my self-esteem.

And they say: we want you anyway.

So you sit at the end of the bench while they win the finals. What are you? You are a champion. A few months later you receive a ring.

Why? Because you are on the team. You are united to those players.

Those of us who have trusted in Jesus are united to him. The punishment for our sins was left at the cross, and now we get to glory in our right standing before God.

It is not about what we brought to the team. It is about what Christ brought to us.

Verse 28: No second-class Christians

“There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In this church there are differences. Probably more ethnic differences than you realize, since a few generations ago most of our grandparents stopped caring where they came from — which, incidentally, makes St. Patrick’s Day less fun. And certainly there are differences of opinion, though it is not an election year, so we are all being nicer to each other.

So here is a question. Did Jesus die on the cross twice?

Did he die for the Irish people, and then again for the Korean people, and then again for people whose ancestors are from Africa, and then again for my Scandinavian wife?

No. Jesus died once for the sins of all who trust in him — whether Jewish or Gentile. (Gentile simply means everyone not born in the Jewish line tracing back to Abraham.)

There are no second-class Christians.

God does not take ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or sex into account when he considers who is in his family. Neither your ethnicity, nor your sex, nor your bank account can keep you from God’s love.

The question is not where are you from, or what do you look like, or how much did you make last year. The question is: do you believe that I died for you and that I love you?

This verse means we can be family. It means our differences do not have to divide us — because at the cross, Jesus has done everything necessary to reconcile us to the Father and to one another.

But differences are not erased

This is where we sometimes get into trouble. This does not mean our differences should be disregarded. We do not need to pretend we are all the same. That would be extraordinarily boring.

Do you want proof that God loves diversity? He created marriage — man and woman. Not opposites, but genuinely different, and yet unified. That was among his very first acts of creation. When we celebrate marriage, we are celebrating diversity, and that is one of the most beautiful things about it.

God created some of us with dark skin and some with light skin and some of us extremely pale, because our differences are beautiful.

As a church, you get to enjoy one another’s differences — because your differences no longer threaten you. I do not need the people in my church to be Irish guys from Iowa. We get to enjoy our backgrounds and our uniqueness while also enjoying the uniqueness of our brothers and sisters.

In February we preached a series recognizing Black History Month at our church. And then I thought, I am going to take one for Ireland — so last week we did one on St. Patrick. We get to learn about one another’s backgrounds. We get to enjoy our differences, because they are no longer a threat.

The wisdom of God is so sweet. He made us family when the world says we have no business being family.

So brothers and sisters — what would it look like for this church to hold tightly to your unity in Christ?

There is enormous temptation to divide. Say no to it. Say no to the temptation to divide over anything but Christ, and live in unity.

When this church lives like a unified family — which you are already doing, and can do more of — I believe many in this town will see you and turn and glorify our heavenly Father.

Verses 26 and 29: Sons and Heirs

“For through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus… And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

We were saved at one cross, and are therefore now one church. Verse 26 says we are all sons of God, and verse 29 says we are therefore inheritors of God’s promise.

So what is an inheritance? Kids — anyone know? Right: it is when your parents give you money, or something valuable, or both. (Try not to smile quite so much when you say that next to your mother.)

God promises his children an inheritance.

But before we get to that — why does it say we are all sons? Why not sons and daughters?

Because in the culture Paul was writing to, daughters were not the recipients of an inheritance. Sons were the inheritors. And it was certainly unlikely that enslaved people would inherit anything of value from their masters.

So as this letter was being read aloud in the church at Galatia, the women and those in slavery may well have been wondering: am I eligible to inherit anything from God my Father?

And Paul makes it unmistakable. All who trust in Jesus are inheritors. We are all sons — meaning we are all heirs of a Father who lacks nothing.

What are we inheriting?

The whole earth. And life with our wonderful God, and with all our brothers and sisters from every era of history and every nation.

There will be no sin. No evil. No suffering anymore.

A Word About the Kids in This Room

Do you know that when children cry in church, it is one of the best sounds in the world? Because it means the gospel is going to the next generation.

Kids are never, ever a distraction in church. (Occasionally a little bit.)

So many of my friends have walked away from Jesus. There is a widely cited statistic about how many kids who grow up in church end up leaving it.

My own earliest memories of church are people smiling at me, and old men giving me mints, and falling asleep next to my grandmother. I love church — and I think a major reason is that the people in the church have loved me for as long as I can remember.

Would it not be wonderful if the kids from this church could stand up somewhere at twenty-nine years old and tell another church the same thing?

Revelation 21: Look Ahead

One of the most important things we can do is look ahead to our inheritance.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth… I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

Then the one seated on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new.’ … ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.’”

Notice: the one who conquers. The one who believes in Jesus to the end. The one who stands firmly in the gospel to the end. The one who is on the team when they win the championship. That one will inherit these things.

Three Takeaways

1. Trust completely in Jesus’ work on the cross

Do not seek your identity anywhere else — at least not your primary identity.

This is an enormous temptation for young people today: to locate their identity mainly in the color of their skin, or in who they are attracted to, or in something else entirely.

Go all in on following the one who died for you.

I am a Christian. Jesus died for my sins and he rose, and I expect to live with him forever. I am a child of the Most High God. That is my identity. Make it yours.

2. Recognize that Jesus died and rose for others in the church, including those unlike you

Jesus died for those who make less money than you and more money than you. Growing up, we did not look down much on people who had less — but we did look down on people who had more. Jesus died for both.

He died for members of the opposite sex. Do not be a man-hater or a misogynist. There is real temptation here. My wife and I had a conversation a few years ago and realized how much pressure there is to divide male and female, competing over who has it worse. Do not fall for it.

We talk a great deal about unity across ethnicities in the church, and not nearly enough about unity between men and women. We get to be brothers and sisters. I have sisters in the church. I think that is one reason Jesus warned against lust — because when we lust, it becomes far more difficult to work alongside our sisters in the work of the kingdom.

What would it look like for this church — men and women, working class and middle class and upper class — to genuinely live as brothers and sisters in this new family?

And Jesus died for those who look different from you. We must love one another.

Do you know how rare it is in my neighborhood to see someone walk into the home of a person from a different ethnic background? Everyone tends to visit their own. And we white people, for some reason, usually do not have visitors at all. We just watch a lot of television.

Here is a question worth writing down if you take notes: what divides do you notice in your town? That would be a good follow-up conversation to have together as a church.

When you live as a unified church family, I believe many will see you and turn and glorify our Father.

3. Look forward to your coming inheritance

Eternal life is real. Live like it. Three ways:

Be courageous — because even if you die, you have been promised a life that lasts forever. We talk a great deal about being safe and staying safe. We do not talk nearly enough about being courageous.

Be generous — because you have wealth in heaven. You do not need to hoard your money. Be wise with it, and part of being wise is recognizing that eternal life is real and there is great wealth ahead, so you can share with those in need now. Your coming inheritance is far greater than all the cash in the world.

Say no to temptation — because the pleasures of heaven are greater.

C.S. Lewis made this point memorably: our problem is not that our desires are too strong, but that they are far too weak. We settle for small, cheap pleasures because we cannot imagine what is actually being offered us — like a child content to make mud pies in a slum because he has no concept of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Ask the Lord to open the eyes of your heart, so you can see his glory — so you can see that he is better than wealth, better than sin, that he is life itself, and that in him we find our purpose for existing.

Let Us Pray

Heavenly Father, you are so good that you would choose sinners and make them sons. You are so good that you provide forgiveness for all who trust in you.

I pray for the person who does not know you yet this morning — who may believe there is a God but has never actually put their trust in you. Work in their heart today.

I pray for the children here, that they would grow up loving your church and believing that you are good, because they have seen so much goodness in your church.

I pray for the person here doubting that you love them — would you fill them with an awareness of your love.

I pray against divisions in this church. Keep this church unified.

And I pray for everyone in this city who does not know you. Bring people into your family and use this church to do it. By your Spirit and through our words, make the good news of Jesus clear — that he died on the cross and rose from the grave — so that more people might know your love. Amen.