Welcome to Gratia Community Church
SF Gratia church had a outdoor fellowship with the members through walking outside in distance during this COV-19 Pandemic period. The social distance period has been last since March, members wished to meet together for more intimate fellowship. While meeting through online bible study, they met together outside and took a walk over the Lake Merced. It was a great time to see the face to face and to refresh their spirit.
The sermon encouraged church members to not live under the pride of our own perspectives, but live according to God’s bigger picture of the Vineyard.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is a very interesting parable, while at the same time, hard to understand. It’s one thing to look at the text of the parable, but we have to look deeper into the subtext of the message Jesus is giving us.
First, in Matthew 20:1-13, we want to see the context and clarify misunderstandings. A landowner calls workers throughout the day, all offering 1 denarius. Imagine waking up at 6 AM to work hard all day at a construction site, only to get the same amount as a person starting work at 5 PM. Now we understand the complaint. On one hand, the owner gives what is promised, but on the other hand working 12 hours vs. 1 hour is quite a big difference. Now you begin to see the difference, each side has their own perspective. Today, we must deeply realize the pride and arrogance we have living by my own standards of justice and fairness. In this world, we are too individualized with everyone having their own standard of how to live. Have you ever heard that we must find our own purpose and meaning in life? Of course there is something good about that, but the bad side is that the more we individualize, the more we rely on ourselves. We find ourselves weak, without structure – we need God in our life.
Next, in Matthew 20:14-15, let’s look at God’s bigger picture, where the owner identifies the envy of the early workers. In this way, Jesus challenges whether or not our standards of justice and fairness are really pure. If we were the 5 PM guy, we wouldn’t complain, but because we are the 6 AM guy, we complain. So my true issue isn’t the standard, but it is which position I am in. When grace is given to me, I’m happy, but given to someone else, then I’m envious. How hypocritical are we? The truth is, all of us living individually for ourselves are just concerned with how much denarius I’m receiving, while the owner is concerned with the overall vineyard. God’s standard is different. It is not based on wealth, social status, power – these are inconsequential. God cares about eternal things that will last, like the vineyard which bears abundant fruits. We too must stop living basing our lives on temporary things and live for eternal things that will bear fruit.
Finally, in Matthew 20:16, Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first. Here we realize the profound wisdom of the Lord, telling us that we are simultaneously in the position of the last and the first. We are the last ones because we are standing on the foundation of so many that suffered before me, most of all Jesus Christ who died on the cross. And we are the first ones because there are people who are coming later than us, since history and time always move forward. Science and technology are this way, always moving forward on the foundation of the past, on their denarius, we make a bigger vineyard. Despite that, we don’t forget the past, the 1st ones, though they received the same denarius, their work is qualitatively different. God knows our hearts and the meaning of suffering is deeply embedded in the vineyard. The Bible says that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. It means we are completely reliant on Jesus, his cross and resurrection, for the vitality of life to bear fruits. That love overflows to the ones coming after us.
This is how we can build a beautiful church, a beautiful Kingdom of God. It is not a place where we are self-serving and fighting on our own standards, but it is a place where the love of Jesus Christ overflows and the vineyard bears abundant fruits.
The sermon exhorted the freedom we have in Jesus Christ and living boldly in the Holy Spirit for God’s Kingdom.
Here is a summary of the sermon:
Since Pentecost, we’ve been looking at Acts and we now reach the end of this great adventure in the early church. Through trials and tribulations, we see God’s unceasing will to push forward and His people who live boldly and without hindrance preaching the Kingdom of God and Lord Jesus Christ.
First in Acts 28:11-16, Paul finally reaches Rome, a place he burned with passion to preach the Gospel. This former persecutor of Christians saw through Deacon Stephen, how stuck he was in Jewish temple. But in receiving Jesus, his perspective changed to the bigger world. We are stuck in our own temples of money, career, status – stuck like this in a cycle of sin and depression. But Jesus frees us from this confinement and allowed us a new tension in love for God. What more is that we realize that we are not alone, just as Paul had visitors welcoming him to Rome from afar, the new life I live is with others at church.
Next, in Acts 28:17-29, we see Paul preaching to the Jews, the prepared ones. Some opened their hearts, while others did not, with Paul saying the Word will unceasingly be preached even to Gentiles. At church, we see the same thing happen with capable, brilliant people – stuck in their own temple not receiving the Word. But God’s work does not stop, God’s blessing finds the ones with open hearts and that is who we are. The ones with open heart, do not think of ourselves highly as “good” people, but we confess our sins and rely only on our savior Jesus Christ. The only thing we had was an open heart, that is the definition of humble. That is the Gospel and walking the truth path. Walking in truth is not dominating with power and success like the world, but the true path of the Kingdom is self-emptying and serving.
Finally, in Acts 28:30-31, we see Paul who continues forth preaching boldly and without hindrance about the Kingdom of God and Lord Jesus Christ. For the disciples, the cross of Jesus was not a failure, for the resurrection was a fundamental change and victory for this world and all of us. The Holy Spirit’s power wasn’t a fading one, but it was overflowing love producing an eternal tension in us. The cross becomes the tension, the motivation in us to live beyond what we would normally expect of ourselves. Just as Dr. Ralph D. Winter said, “Do not pray for easy lives,” we should not live for stability in this world, but live for the dynamic tension of love of cross in our life.
Another great missionary William Carey told us to expect and attempt great things from God. We should set a big frame of our life, boldly and without hindrance for Him. God won’t just bless us on a 1 to 1 basis, but will pour down His love and grace overflowing – that is the qualitative difference in living for God living for God.
The sermon explicated the work of the Holy Spirit which does not discriminate, despite this fallen world.
Here is a summary of the sermon:
Due to recent racial tensions in the news, there is a need for us to look at the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s work in a similar situation. Today we’ll look at Peter’s encounter with Cornelius and how this event opened up a new history, bringing the Gospel to the world.
In Acts 11:1-10, we read see Peter describing his vision of unclean foods and God telling him not to call unclean what He has made clean. Why did Peter have a visceral reaction? He had been conditioned by generations of Jewish tradition which affected how his reacted on the inside. We too are conditioned externally through our intellect and senses which we put as primary in determining our reactions. This conditioning is prejudice, or pre-judging, causing us to discriminate. Indeed, the power of the mind is dividing and discriminating. However, is an individual simply the sum of their physical body and mind? We are not robots in Science Fiction where we can transfer our brain and body to a computer. We have an unseen, incalculable, yet still ontological spirit inside of us. Where can we find God? It is the spirit which we can find immediacy and union with God through love. The Spirit unites while the mind divides. We must not be people that live by intellect primarily, but instead by the spirit. We are all created in God’s image, given a spirit and the Holy Spirit is given to us all without discrimination and unites us. God has made our spirits clean by Jesus Christ, so we need to look to the spirit we all have and put that as primary, not our intellect.
In Acts 11:11-17, we see how Peter was able to live by the Holy Spirit, teaching us how to do the same. For Peter, a confluence of events happened both physically and spiritually that led him to baptizing the gentile Cornelius. Like Peter, our default stance should be open to the Holy Spirit’s work, not cutting it off by our intellect. In fact, the Holy Spirit works in many ways including our prayers, prophecy, Word of God, our intellect, peers, senior leaders, and family members. We tend to focus on one way and stop listening. But God works in many mysterious ways that we should not cut off, but listen and have an open heart to it all. Most importantly, we must understand that God has always been working in our lives, my past experiences, the joy and hurt, He is there and has brought us to the place I am now. We believe in the good God, so let’s entrust ourselves to Him and not the world.
In Acts 11:18 and in Peter sermon in Acts 10:34, we see that God does not show favoritism to all his children. Peter didn’t stand in the way and baptized Cornelius – we too, should not stand in the way of God’s work. The fact is God’s work is unique to everyone – He puts people in a unique starting point with a unique background, guiding us all uniquely for the purposes of His Kingdom. Who are we to pre-judge or judge what God is doing in someone else’s life, we cannot stand in the way. Some people misunderstand this, asking why does God allow some people born in a rich or poor family, good or bad environments? Honestly, the answer to this is endless trying to compare people’s circumstances, there is no solution to this type of equality. Karl Marx described man in a lowly way, ascribing man as a product of their economic and sociological conditions. Therefore, he tried to create a utopia based on an equality of economic and sociological conditions, which was an utter disaster. Money and social standing is a temporary thing, it can be a blessing if used correctly, but more often than not is a curse that brings us farther from God. Man is not his money and social standing, we have been given a beautiful image of God, our spirit. That is what we have been given equally and we have been given God’s unconditional love. Therefore, we may come from different backgrounds, skin color, ethnicities, and social status. But we don’t rely on the whims of man’s freewill, but on the Providence of God that He is good and He is guiding us all uniquely and individually. How can we build the Kingdom of God? It is not on the temporary things of the world, but on the absolutes of truth of God – Gospel, serving, self-sacrifice, humbles, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, the fruits of the spirit.
In fact, we all have an equal and open opportunity to work for God’s Kingdom and no matter who we are, we can serve God. We are all missionaries because we have been given the gift of Jesus Christ and that great gift must be given to all in the world.
SF Gratia is working hard to reach out to more people to spread the Word of God. Gratia church ministers have been making its contents to promote bible studies and family prayers through Youtube channel and Facebook and it receives good positive feedback.
Gratia church wants to make the Romans bible study series along with gospel books in a way for people to easy to understand and also receive grace. May the Holy Spirit guides all the works they are doing so that anyone listens to the bible study videos can know God more.
The sermon explicated the pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit and also its work in our lives and for the Kingdom.
Here is a summary of the sermon:
Today, we will look at Pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit, to understand it deeply through 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. We will look at what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in a larger Trinitarian context, and impact of Holy Spirit in each of our lives.
First, in 1 Corinthians 12:1, Paul says we should not be uninformed, we need to look at what the Bible says. John 14 tells us the Holy Spirit is the Advocate or Greek Paraclete, like a lawyer helping us against judgment. The Biblical story of redemption is God saving us from judgment. We fell and disobeyed and despite giving us the Law, we sinned more, and in our depravity, as Romans 1 says, we still did not retain God in our hearts. But the Almighty God didn’t come in power, but came in a manger and Jesus Christ carried our sin like a little lamb on the cross and saving us from judgment. We’ve been forgiven, but we still need to wash our sins. God won’t leave us as orphans but He will continually take care of us by the Holy Spirit – that is Pneumatology, God’s profound love by the Holy Spirit, continually taking care of us.
Next, in 1 Corinthians 12:2-3, Paul ridicules mute idols. We believe in God who is alive, He is the living God who speaks to us. How? The Word became flesh and walked among us in Jesus. Islam has a hard time with this, saying God is one, putting a strict line between heaven and earth. They wonder how Christians can believe in the divinity of Jesus? It’s that God is alive among us, He came down in his full divinity and truth. While Islam and other religions claim they teach the truth, Christianity claims truth in the person of Jesus, as the Church father Justin Martyr taught us. The Word became flesh and God is still One because of unity of love. That love was shown on the cross, Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. But will God leave us alone like orphans? No, God pours down His Holy Spirit as a gift to us, God is alive in our life. This is Trinity – God is not a dead mute idol, but this is Doctrine of the Living God among us.
Finally, in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, this is about the gifts of the Holy Spirit including tongues. As 1 Corinthians 14 says, tongues is for our edification and a sure sign of the Holy Spirit. We should pray to receive tongues, but if you don’t receive it, it doesn’t mean you aren’t saved like Pentecostals say. Still, tongues are important because we are foolish and don’t know how to communicate with God, man’s intellect is weak. So the Holy Spirit helps pray for us when we don’t know, speaking in tongues is the Holy Spirit praying through us. In this way, we can pray in tongues a long time and unite with God. Intellect is division, but faith unites us in love with God. In our walk of faith, there is both, the side of intellect studying the Word, but there is also the spiritual side of our mystical union with God. But the primary part of faith is receiving, so the Holy Spirit helps us in the weakness of our lives. This means it also guides our lives to do God’s eternal will of the Kingdom.
Let us pray for the Holy Spirit, that the passion and fire of the Holy Spirit can overflow in us. May God’s love which poured out in the world through Jesus Christ, be revealed in us for God’s glory and Kingdom.