The Church: The Chosen People

Life isn’t fair. Even God plays favorites. God treated Abraham as a favorite son,choosing him to be the father of many nations. Out of all Abraham’s children, he chose a favorite, too—Isaac. Isaac did nothing to deserve this peculiar protection. God just picked him as favorite.

Abraham was not better than others. He was righteous some of the time. But he did believe. Through his faith, God’s blessing flowed through his family for generation after generation.

But being a chosen nation carries a price. Other nations tried to wipe them out. Some

came very near succeeding. Sometimes they wanted to cry like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof “God, I know we are the chosen people, but why don’t you choose someone else for a change?”

Being a chosen nation also brings responsibility. They had to be a blessing to the whole earth. Israel was rarely that. Most of the time they did not think of the other nations any more than any other ethnic group that was fighting for survival.

By God’s favoritism, they survived, nevertheless. In the fullness of time, God sent the Messiah, Jesus, to earth. He was a blessing to all nations. It was a great surprise to his fellow Jews to learn he didn’t come just for them.

When God wanted to bless the world, He usually did it in spite of His chosen people, not because of them. Each time they were scattered--by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, and Nazis, they were salt and light, influencing the world around them. They did not plan to be, but they were.

When the Israelites were in Egypt, they weren’t thinking of changing the Egyptians, or helping other hapless slaves. Bur when Moses went to Pharaoh and told him to let his people go, it wasn’t just the sons of Abraham that was freed. A “mixed multitude” of other slaves went with them. Moses didn’t tell him to let all the slaves go. But when the other slaves said, “Take me too!” the Israelites took them into their nation. Anyone who called upon Israel’s God, become one with them.

When Israelites were scattered among the Assyrians, the Jews were unhappy. They resented what the Assyrians had done to them. One of them, Jonah, wanted to see every Ninevite dead and in hell, Even so, in spite of himself, he introduced them to the living God, and God blessed the Ninevites. Because of Jonah, the whole country was saved.

When they Jews were scattered among the Babylonians, the conquerors were curious about them. They did not try to convert their oppressors to their God. Most of them did not want the Babylonians in heaven with them. But the Babylonians got the Jewish Bible anyway, and read for themselves about Israel’s God. The Babylonians observed prominent Godly Jews, men like Ezekiel, Esther, and Nehemiah, and many others. From them they learned about Israel’s God, and many worshipped Him. Even among those who didn’t believe, God blessed them. Many of the grea philosophies of ancient times, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and others, can be traced to their hearing about the one God of th world from the Jews.

But when they were scattered among the Romans, God had a better plan. He sent Jesus to them, to open the door of the Kingdom of God to any who would enter by faith. This word spread among the scattered Jews, and through them to the cities of the Roman Empire, even Rome itself. In a few hundred years, Christianity took over the Empire.

Now, we have become the new chosen people, grafted onto the tree of Israel by Jesus. He did not remove the Jews, he just added us on. Now we are salt and light. God still plays favorites, and that we are his favorites. God blesses those who bless the church. God curses those who curse the church, and through us the entire world has been and will be blessed. We need to recognize our vital importance to the world. This special relationship affects the way we are seen:

By God, because He has chosen us to be His instruments in this world. The church has been called the Body of Christ, which means that just as Jesus is the Word of God, our church is the Word of Jesus. We are Jesus’ expression on earth.

We have special responsibilities. That responsibility is to act like Jesus. We are to represent Him in our words and actions.

We also have special privileges. God hears us when we pray. He responds when we pray in Jesus’ name. We have no idea what we are capable of achieving with Jesus at our side. We should be storming the gates of heaven when we pray.

God also gives us special protection. God loves the whole world, but He has a special love for His people. He does not allow us to perish without good reason.

However, just because we are God’s special people does not mean our lives will be earlier or less difficult than others. We have no right to expect this. Jesus did not lead an easy life. This was on purpose. God wanted Him to experience what others experience, even the cruelty of others. If God did this to His own son, why would he have a different purpose for us?

By the rest of the world. A Christian does not have to be persecuted by the rest of the world. All we have to do is to keep our mouths shut and our heads low. In other words, if we do not care to be salt and light, we can lay down and be dirt.

But if a Christian stands up for Jesus, he must stand against the world. The moment we become successful in getting out God’s message, we become the objects of persecution and ridicule. Jesus said in John 15:18-25

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'

They will hate us without reason, too. People call us joyless, judgmental, intolerant, prudish—none of this is true. People accuse us of pushing religion down people’s throats. Again, this is not through. I do not know another place in the world where you will find more love, more tolerance, more compassion, and more joy than we find in the church. The church may not approve of homosexuality, but nowhere do homosexuals find more compassion than in the church. We may not approve of drug addicts or alcoholics, either, but I know by personal experience that they have found tolerance and redemption in the church. the church is the arms of Jesus, wrapped around those who are lost and hurting.

When the church functions in the name of God, people see God through us. As a minister, I realize that I represent God in many people’s minds. The attitudes and hopes they have about God fall upon us. For that reason, I have seen people have an immediate positive or negative reaction just by revealing my calling. But this is also true of you. As a church, people look to us to represent God to them. That is why it is so important that we respond to human needs, because we are revealing what God thinks.

By each other. If the world hates us, then who will love us? We must love each other. That is why Jesus makes such a huge point of us loving each other, even calling it the mark of discipleship. There are abundant references to this in the New Testament. Here are a few.

John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Rom 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love .

Eph 4:2-3 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love

Thess 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:22-23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

2 John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

In spite of this abundant evidence of what God wants us to do, we don’t do it. One of he most telling statements we hear is “I love the church, but can’t stand the Christians in it.” People say this because we forget to include others in our love of God.

The church is a network of people loving God and loving each other. If it is really that, then half of our time should be spent loving God, and the other half loving each other.

Have you prayed for the Christians of Haiti? Have you looked for ways to help? Do you hurt for those believers who are caught up in the sins of the world? Do you make an effort to support other Christians in times of grief and sorrow? Do you even know when other Christians are in times of grief.

We did not choose our family. God chose it. We do not choose our church family, either. We are called to support it, and the people in it, foolish or hurtful though they may be.

Each one of us is a part of the Body of Christ, showing a different aspect of His divine nature. God chose us for this role, we did not choose it. May God give us the grace to be worthy of His choosing.