Canaan Fellowship

The Mission of the Church at the Close of the Age

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Canaan Fellowship
Canaan Fellowship
The Mission of the Church at the Close of the Age
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Bill Teubl shares a sermon focusing on Ephesians 4, examining the mission and life of the church as it anticipates the return of Christ. He emphasizes that a living hope in Christ’s return fuels our zeal for holiness and that God is actively at work to mature both individual believers and the corporate body of Christ. The central goal is for the church to be built up in love through proper functioning, speaking truth in love, and utilizing the gifts Christ has given.

  • [00:00:00] Bill introduces his focus on Ephesians 4, reading from verses 4-16 to discuss the mission of the church, especially as it relates to living with hope for Christ’s return.
  • [00:02:28] He states that our expectation of Christ’s return is directly tied to our zeal for holiness, setting this as the background for understanding the church’s life.
  • [00:04:12] Bill defines biblical hope as a confident expectation based on God’s promises, upheld by faith, and encourages believers to examine their hopes.
  • [00:07:44] He suggests a method for understanding complex passages: start with the concluding thought (Ephesians 4:16) and work backward.
  • [00:08:51] The final goal is for the body of Christ to grow and build itself up in love, indicating the church is a dynamic, living organism designed to mature.
  • [00:09:21] God is actively at work in each believer’s sanctification daily, and we should live in the hope that He is more committed to our growth than we are.
  • [00:12:22] Likewise, God is at work in the corporate life of the church, which is just as important as individual growth, as we collectively form the bride and temple of Christ.
  • [00:14:08] The primary goal of God’s work in the church is that we learn to love one another as Christ loved us, which is a higher standard than the old commandment.
  • [00:15:56] The “joints” that hold the body together are our relationships with one another; when these connections work properly, the body grows in love.
  • [00:16:12] He uses Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones as an analogy for the church needing to be properly connected (joints) and filled with the Spirit’s life.
  • [00:18:58] Christ gives gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers) to equip the saints for ministry and for building up the body.
  • [00:20:24] The purpose of these ministries is to bring the church to unity, knowledge of Christ, and mature manhood—to become like Jesus in His fullness.
  • [00:22:00] A mature church, built up by these gifts, is characterized by stability and discernment, no longer being spiritual children tossed by false doctrines.
  • [00:24:01] In a mature body, believers speak the truth in love to one another, which is essential for the joints to function and the body to be built up.
  • [00:26:12] The closing encouragement is to hold fast to the hope that God is faithfully at work to sanctify us and build His church in love until Christ returns.

Scripture References

  • Ephesians 4
  • 1 Corinthians 13
  • Hebrews 11:1
  • Ezekiel 37

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