East Cobb Presbyterian exists to glorify God by creating, maintaining, and extending gospel community so that together we can experience and express the reconciling love and renewing grace of the gospel. As a leadership team, we are organizing to accomplish this vision and we’d like to share with you how we’re doing that. To center us biblically, we’ll spend the next two weeks in Ephesians 4:1-16. Here the Apostle Paul speaks to the nature and function of the church.

This week we’ll consider the nature of the church as the body of Christ, united by grace through faith. While ethnically and generationally diverse, the body is united under our Lord Jesus, pictured as the head of the church. The unity that we have in Christ is something we are instructed to “maintain.” This tells us that our unity in Christ isn’t the issue, but the maintenance of it often requires more effort than we give it.

Our goal is to exist as the body of Christ, united by grace, maintaining that unity, so that we can function together in the graces that we’ve received. This week we’ll consider what’s required to maintain that unity, and next week, what that function looks like. Pastorally, we’re asking God to make a community where it’s “safe to speak.”

Join us Sunday as we worship the Lord and unite ourselves together as the body.

Sunday, we considered the reasons why the world seeks to overcome the church. It is the nature of the world to reject the message of sin and the ministry of grace. It reacts to the fruit we bear as the Vine’s work. The Spirit of God in us changes the conversation to sin, righteousness, and judgment. The very love we extend to the world, removes the pretenses of righteousness the world would erect. All of this is an act of mercy that calls the world to repentance and faith.

As we move through the text, like the disciples we might experience fear and sorrow, as Jesus says, “sorrow has filled your heart,” (16:6). Our unrest is relieved when we hear Jesus remind us that we are not alone. Our sorrow will break forth into joy at the ministry of Christ on our behalf. His resurrection and ascension results in his faithful ministry for us before the Father. We have none other than the risen Christ ministering his redemption to us and supplying all that we need for life and godliness in the world today.

Not only does Jesus ascend to minister for us, providing all we need, but he sends the Spirit to minister to us, teaching us, leading us, supplying all the graces of the Vine to bring a life of fruitfulness to the branches that abide in him. Jesus says the Spirit will take what he receives from Christ and minister it to us as a direct line of grace from the Vine.

With Christ and the Spirit, we have everything we need for life in the world. Join us Sunday to consider Jesus’ teaching.

Sunday we considered Jesus’ calibration of the disciples’ expectations. Those who follow Christ will bear fruit and will experience tribulation. The world will push back on the church, casting them out of the synagogues and even taking their lives. But why? If the followers of Christ are bearing fruit, like love for God and others, why is the world so offended and antagonistic?

Jesus tells us why when he says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin,” 15:22. He continues, teaching about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, saying, “when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged,” 16:8-11.

Under the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s disciples will “bear witness” of Christ to the world. That witness, as loving as it might be, will confront the world with their need for salvation. Our love will call the world to repent and believe. This might explain why the church is more and more irrelevant in the world; maybe we’ve lost our purpose. Join us Sunday as we consider this text and teaching from Jesus

Sunday we enter the last discourse of Jesus before his betrayal and crucifixion. It is a warning to the disciples that the world will not receive them. Their ministry for Christ will not be welcomed because those who do not believe will not merely reject their message and work, but it will oppose it. In fact, the world will believe they are serving God by opposing them. This religious zealotry will cost the disciples, some will lose their lives.

This warning is given so that the disciples can calibrate their expectations for the work they will engage in. Those who serve Jesus faithfully will not be the celebrated heroes of the culture. Rather, they will be the celebrated martyrs for Christ. Jesus accompanies this calibration with hope in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will not only equip them for the work, but he will engage the world with truth in such a way as to bring conviction.

In all the trouble that the disciples, and by extension the church, will face, Jesus ends with powerful words, “I have said these to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world,” (John 16:33). We don’t go looking for trouble, but as the Spirit brings conviction to the world, we anticipate being despised. But Christ has overcome and the day will come, when every knee will bow. So as you come to worship, join together in praise the One who has overcome for us.

Sunday, we considered the metaphor Jesus employs of the “vine and branches.” While our Lord is returning to his Father, his ministry continues within us through the presence of his Spirit. Jesus calls us to abide in him and remain in his love, but how do we abide? Jesus draws a direct connection between “keeping his commandments” and “abiding in his love.” That pattern is modeled for us by Jesus himself, saying, “Just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” But what is Jesus telling us? Is he saying that obedience is how we prove our love for God? Is God looking for us to prove our love? Is he telling us that love is the fundamental driver for obedience? If we disobey, do we lose or leave the love of God?

As a reader and follower, “commandments” frame our relationship with Jesus as our Lord and master. Is that how we abide in Jesus? Do we relate to him as our “master”? Jesus challenges that assumption and re-frames our relationship with the idea of “friends.” He says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants (slaves).” So how do we relate to Jesus? He is our Lord and we his servants, but how does this new dimension of friendship change the relationship? Remember, Jesus wants us to abide so that we can experience the joyful and fruitful life of obedience, service, and love.

Join us Sunday as this humble Lord draws us to himself in grace. Let’s consider this relationship and its implications.

Sunday we’re going to move back into the flow of John’s gospel. Remember, Jesus has been explaining his departure as he returns to his Father. His departure will mean the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church. The Passover meal having ended, Jesus leads his disciples to a new location.  As he walks the path to the garden of Gethsemane along the Kidron Valley, he draws a connection between the grape vines that lined the countryside and his relationship to the disciples.

This metaphor is certainly a beautiful illustration of Jesus’ continuing ministry, through his indwelling Spirit, but we need to be careful how we interpret it. It’s not a one for one illustration. There are points of comparison in the metaphor and there are elements that don’t connect. Jesus communicates the main point when he says, “without me, you can do nothing.” The converse is also true, with me you can have a joyful, fruitful life that glorifies the Father because Jesus will remain with and continue to develop us as we abide in him.

Join us Sunday and let’s consider this continuing relationship and how it produces joyful, fruitful lives of obedience, service, and love.

As we consider the nature of the Triune God, we’ve focused on the importance of the one shared essence of Father, Son, and Spirit. That shared essence means that they are co-substantial and not divided in any way. They don’t have three separate wills or act independently. It’s important to maintain Scripture’s teaching and not read how God functions in creation back into who God is in being. So when Jesus says, “The Father is greater than I,” he cannot refer to his status as “begotten” from the Father because he shares the divine essence and the Father is not “greater” than he. In the same way since the Spirit shares the divine essence, “preceding” from the Father and the Son, he is not lesser than either. They are one!

Another explanation remains and proves the simplest meaning of Jesus’ statement: the Incarnation. The incarnation is referred to as the “hypostatic union” or the “subsistence” of both the divine and human natures in one person. Jesus is “one” person with two natures. He is not two people, but one person with two natures (human and divine). This teaching was a point of contention in church history as scholars sought to define the person of Christ without violating scripture’s teaching. The teaching presents the great humility and love of God who gives himself for us in such a personal way.

It also helps us put Jesus’ statement in context, after all, it is the incarnate (in-flesh) Son of God who is speaking. In the context, he’s telling his disciples that they should rejoice that he is ascending back to the Father, for as a man, the Father is greater. Jesus is returning to the Father and the glory that he shrouded when he became man. But what’s amazing is that he will forever remain man, even in his ascended ministry. Join us as we consider this doctrine and its implications for our worship of Christ.

Sunday we continue our focus on the Trinity from the gospel of John. Jesus is formally introducing us to the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The designation as “Holy” means the Spirit shares the divine essence and is fully God though distinct from the Father and the Son. In addition, Jesus says he’s returning to the Father, “who is greater than I.” This could be interpreted to mean the Jesus is a lesser God or in some way subordinate to the Father. That interpretation is problematic since as the Son of God, he shares the essence of the Father and all the attributes of deity. So that interpretation is perilous.

This week we’ll look at John’s statement in 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Notice that the ESV changes the language of the older versions of the King James and the New American Standard. It says, “only Son” instead of “only begotten Son.” While the intent is the same, it takes away an important word, “begotten.” In Trinitarian theology this word communicates the eternal relationship of origin between the Father and the Son. Jesus is begotten, not made, from the Father’s essence. While distinct from the Father, he is one with the Father because he shares his essence. This means he is fully God, and as we discussed last week, does not have separate “personhood” from the Father.

When Jesus says, “the Father is greater than I,” he could be referring to his origin in the Father. Join us Sunday as we consider this eternal relationship of origin.

Sunday we’re going to take a step back from the flow of the text of John to consider the broader teaching concerning the Trinity. So far, we’ve been introduced to the Son of God, “the only Son from the Father,” the Father, and now the Spirit who is sent by Father and Son. Each are attributed with full deity and yet presented as distinct from each other. A Jewish reader would question the teaching of Jesus because they’ve been taught and even memorized Deuteronomy 6:4, which says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” This text screams monotheism (one God) in a land of polytheism (multiple gods). A Gentile audience, living in a polytheistic culture, might conclude that these three are separate deities (tritheism).

What adds to our questions of the Trinity is Jesus’ statement in John 14:28, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” How is Jesus equal with the Father in deity but says that the Father is “greater” than him?

Yet, John writes, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). The teaching of Jesus’ deity is critical to our faith, as is our understanding that he is united with the Father yet distinct from the Father. So join us for worship as we consider this important teaching of the Trinity.

In our text, Jesus assures his disciples who are concerned about his departure. They wonder how they will function without Jesus present in their lives. After all, they have built their lives around his ministry for the past three years. They have all kinds of questions: Where is he going? How will they find him if they don’t know the way? When can they see the Father? Jesus answers their questions by assuring them of his commitment to provide for them in his Father’s house. He can do this because he is one with the Father. The life of the disciples will be fruitful as they continue to serve him by his gracious power.

This is where Jesus leads us in the rest of the chapter: serving him. As he loves and serves the Father, so those who love him will obey him. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” But to keep us from thinking he is asking for cold, independent obedience, he promises another person who will come alongside us, to direct and empower us as we follow Christ. That person is sent by the Father and the Son to minister to us so that we have what we need to serve Christ. That person is the Holy Spirit.

Why does Jesus tell us about the Spirit? So that we don’t act like orphans but like sons and daughters. Join us Sunday as we learn about this generous provision of the Spirit of God.