We began this current series looking at the churches mission or vision statement: 'We exist to equip God’s people to be grace in the community to the glory of God.' And as we look at the last five words of that statement this morning we come back to the question we asked at the beginning: ‘Why does the church exist?’ Not just the local church, but the church - why does it exist?

Why after 2000 years is the church still going? There have been attempts to wipe it out by various governments, empires and authorities but the church has remained. In fact in its early years under the Romans and more recently in places like China, Romania, and Cambodia the church has grown most vigorously when persecuted most ferociously. Why?

Because as Ephesians 3 shows us the church is God’s Church, it is not a social construct to ensure control, it is not just a means of controlling people; it is not just another organisation. It exists to make God known and to bring him glory. Just as we think about this today there are two things (10-11) tell us about why the church exists.

The church is part of: 1. God’s purpose
Can anyone tell me what this is? It’s a Buggatti Veyron - capable of 252 mph, and 1000bhp, it goes from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and can cover the length of a football pitch in a second. It costs £810,000 to buy yet each model cost £5 mill to produce.

How about this? Mona Lisa - the most famous painting in the history of art. Who painted it? It was one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s favourite paintings, it took him 4 years to paint it and he carried it with him until he died. Now it is utterly priceless, she has her own room in the Louvre and is the world’s best known painting.

When you look at them, the Buggatti and the Mona Lisa you can’t help but marvel at the ingenuity and the skill of their creators. They are both testaments to the creativity, genius and abilities of their makers. That is exactly what the church is, that is what Paul is telling his readers (10), "His [God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."

The church is not man made it is God’s means of putting on display his many splendoured wisdom which is seen in the gospel at work which you find in the church. Why does the church exists? It exists to bring God glory, or to make his presence, character and purpose known. But how?

Because it is the place where the impossible happens, where the irreconcilable are reconciled, to each other and to God. We looked at chapter 2v11-22 a couple of weeks ago but just look at it again. The church is where Jew and Gentile are made right with God and also with each other. Where once there was hatred, animosity and friction there is now "one new humanity", where there were barriers there is now the church "being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

The church is the only place where this happens, where enemies are reconciled to God and then as a result to each other. How does it happen? It happens as God’s grace is known (3:2-9), as the great news that in Jesus death for us God gives us the gift of grace - where we get what we don’t deserve - an end to hostility between us and God, a new remade relationship with him based not on our spotted and failed record but on Jesus perfect sonship. And that grace changes us, it makes us part of God’s new community of grace and that brings God glory.

I wonder if you have heard of Kim Phuc, she was the child on possibly the most famous war image ever. She was the 9 year old girl running from her village in Vietnam with burns on her body whilst her napalmed village burned in the background. But years later she found a Bible read it and found grace, put her trust in Jesus and that grace affected her life. In 1996 she spoke at a Veterans Day rally in America and expressed her forgiveness for the man who had left her so badly burned.

What enabled her to do that? Because she had experienced grace and the love of God in Jesus and it became the driving force in her life. It is the feature of God’s community, the church. As the church meets God’s wisdom is displayed to the world and beyond, as we meet together different but united in Jesus, living together by grace. As in Rwanda Hutu and Tutsi Christians worship God together, as in India untouchable worships with someone from the upper caste, as we meet together this morning it displays to the world and beyond that God’s grace works.

The church is God’s masterpiece declaring the wonder of his grace and his wisdom in Jesus death for us. A wisdom, a death that shows God is more holy than a moralistic God who is satisfied with us being or doing good because he demands total obedience, not just our best efforts. And God is more loving that the relativistic God who lets anyone into heaven - because his holiness and love meet at the cross where he in the person of his Son willingly pays for our failure and we are given holiness by faith. God’s holiness demands justice and that sin is punished, his love means he pays the price for us to satisfy that holiness and enable us to know him.

That is what the church displays - God’s holiness and love which meet at the cross and give birth to a new community transformed by his love and grace.

The church is a community gripped by grace, where prejudice is overcome and where forgiveness is lavished on others as it has been on us. It is a place where prejudice and grudges have no place, where forgiveness is not cheap but it is freely available.

2. God’s pilot
What would the world you want look like? Just think about it for a minute whilst we watch this short clip from Good Morning Vietnam

So what would the world you want look like? No hunger, or pain, peace! But we know it’s just a dream don’t we, it will never happen. We know that things aren’t getting better in fact the opposite seems to be true.

"according to his eternal purposes that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." (11) The Church is a part and gives us a glimpse of God’s eternal purposes.

TV producers make pilots to test the TV executives and audiences responses to a programme, if the pilot gets a favourable response then they make the whole series, they give a glimpse of what such a series will be like.

The church is not just God’s plan, his masterpiece for displaying his wisdom in saving us but it is also a pilot giving the world and those beyond a glimpse of God’s eternal purpose. In Genesis 1 the Bible starts by showing us the sort of world that we have just been dreaming about; no pain, no suffering, no war, no ageing, conflict, or mourning. But then it show us how we ended up leaving in the world we do now, rebellion against God destroys our relationship with him, each other and with our world.

But the Bible is the story of God’s plan, "his eternal purpose" as Paul calls it here that is "accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." And that is to restore the world and our relationships to him, each other and the world to what they should be. You see glimpses of it as you read the gospel as we’ll be doing as we start looking at Luke next week. There you see Jesus healing the sick, forgiving sin, calming storms, raising the dead. He gives us a glimpse of what the world we all want will be like.

The church is to do likewise. It stands and declares this is what the future holds; people from different backgrounds reconciled to each other, loving, caring for each other. Reconciliation between us and God, sin no longer the barrier it was, and a renewed relationship with the world around us.

The church is the pilot that gives a glimpse of the future, not the clouds, harps and wings cartoon version of heaven, but a new heaven and a new earth, real bodies in a real world without the blemishes and struggles of now and with a relationship with God. The church is a display of God’s wisdom and plan and enables us to glimpse God’s future for those who put their faith in Jesus and join this new community of grace.

The church is not perfect, we know that as we listen to the media around us. Paul knew that even back then he goes on to write in 4 about "bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit." Because the church is not perfect, it is made up of sinners saved by grace, and that means we make mistakes but it means those mistakes are forgiven.

Why does the church exist? It is God’s masterpiece displaying his wisdom in saving us and pointing forward to the world we all want that he will create when he returns.

(13) Does living as a Christian seem a struggle? Is standing out and standing up proving difficult as you face pressures and hostility? Ephesians is written as an encouragement in just such a situation, it call us to look at the salvation God provides and the new community he establishes and the purpose it has and the future before us.

It calls us to recognise what the church is, it is God’s masterpiece, displaying his wisdom to the world and beyond, showing that grace works, that we can be made right with God and that changes our relationships with each other. It calls us to live in a community of grace that gives the world, the community around us a glimpse of the future God has in store for his people, as they can come into the church and experience it in part now. It calls us to play our part in serving, loving, forgiving and living out grace.

Why does the church exist? 'We exist to equip God’s people to be grace in the community to the glory of God.'

1. What would the world we all want look like?
2. Have I understood grace? Does it affect the way I live? Has it changed the way I forgive?
3. Do I share God's view of the church and its purpose? If not, why not? How should it affect the way I live and do church?

Vision and Values