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Responsibilities of BPCWA, God’s church.

Dear BPCWAians, Thank God for seeing us through the book of Ephesians. I pray that BPCWA worshippers have truly come to a clear understanding of purpose of Epistle to the Ephesians – that we may know the great mystery revealed – Christ and His church (Eph 5:32)! Now that we know that the Church is an important and eternal purpose of God, what next?

If God ensured that we understand His purpose by revealing this mystery to us, then we should ensure that we fulfil our responsibilities as His church and as worshippers in His church. We cannot be apathetic about this. Having understood God’s great and eternal purpose, such topics must excite and stir us to want to know more so that we do not fail in our purpose on earth by the time we leave it, or before the Lord returns. Hence, I feel it is important that we do not leave this topic of His Church without considering what we must be mindful of regarding this eternal purpose of God in BPCWA. The purpose of learning is so that we know how to apply it in our lives and in our church, BPCWA. From Ephesians, we can see at least 3 key things that we must always keep in our minds of what God wants BPCWA to be.

(1) To be holy and God’s dwelling place. God elected and saved us individually so that He can use us to form the Body of Christ, the Church (Eph 1 and 2). He made us to be “fitly framed together” to be His holy temple (2:21) and to be “builded together for and inhabitation of God through the Spirit” (2:22). BPCWA is to be a holy, not worldly and carnal place. We do not set the standards, God does. Keeping the Lord’s day, obeying God’s family model, holiness in our personal and public life by taking on God’s full armour – these are all because God expects us who form His church to be so in order that BPCWA will be His holy temple. Do we want God to dwell with us? Or do we want BPCWA to preach men pleasing messages and not deal with personal sin so that more people will dwell among us? God holds us responsible to be holy. And Christ shed His Blood to bring about this body (2:11-20) and purchased the Church with His own Blood (5:25). Why?

(2) To be God’s instrument. Paul wants God to “give  unto you the spirit  of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (1:17-18). What does Paul want us to know in particular? That God raised Jesus up, not just because of our salvation, but to “set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (1:20), far above all things and persons (1:21), and “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (1:22-23). God brought in the mention of the church in His eternal plan for Christ’s glory. It means that the church is God’s intended instrument through which the dominion of Christ is fulfilled. We often think that the church is for us. This teaches us that the church is so that our Lord Jesus Christ can rule here on earth. That is why Christ is made the Head of this body (1:17-23). We are God’s instrument. We are not society’s instrument to promote social good, nor man’s instrument to meet the fleshly social needs of individuals. We are not even here only just so that we can have fellowship and a sense of community between kindred minds. We must realise the higher purpose to which even fellowship of believers is subservient – to be God’s instrument for Christ’s dominion. What are we to be instrument of?

(3)To declare God’s commands and Who He is. The eternal purpose of God is His intent to make known His Truth and Who He is through the Church, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (3:10). In other words, BPCWA is to be the repository and disseminator of God’s Truth. It means that BPCWA’s responsibility is to declare the principalities and powers in heavenly places and the manifold wisdom of God (3:10). “Principalities” are God’s principles for man’s life right from the beginning, not according to man’s ideas or society’s concepts. “Powers” refers to God’s ruling authority that men need to submit to. BPCWA is to declare what God expects in His Word, even if the world and society feels it is not up to date, old fashioned and not congruent with contemporary social norms and values. It means that we have a responsibility to defend and perpetuate God’s Truth, not compromise or change it. We are ambassadors like Paul (6:20). We may need to suffer for it, and Paul gladly did so (3:13). We  must not faint when we see difficulties or the consequences of standing for God’s Truth. We must contend earnestly for the faith and persevere even if other churches compromise. We must not flinch even if threatened when we defend God’s Word. Hence, Paul encouraged the Ephesus church, “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” (3:13). We may not be popular for exposing what is popular in Christendom today, but we must not fail our God given eternal purpose. Hence, all worshippers must be interested to study, in order fulfil our purpose. Pray that “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly” (6:19). Pray that BPCWA will fulfil our responsibility with courage. We will be assured then that we are indeed God’s holy temple and His presence will continue to abide with us because we wish to be His instrument on earth till He returns again to receive His Bride, the church.

Our election before the foundation of the world was to fulfil God’s purpose which He had before time began. There is an eternal purpose before creation that is greater than our election. We have some understanding about God’s intended responsibility of BPCWA as His instrument on earth. God willing, we shall see your responsibility as the building block of BPCWA, God’s church.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor