December 4, 2022 2nd Advent Sunday Worship Service

Call to Worship Zechariah 14:9
Lighting of the Advent Candle~Prayer
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 148 Come, Thou long-expected Jesus
Special Piano Playing
Scripture Ephesians 4:1-6
Prayer
Sermon “Through the Bond of Peace”
https://youtu.be/tBDn1Ief350
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 437 The trusting heart to Jesus clings
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction

Today we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. It is a joyous thing that we can worship together during the Advent season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
　The candle for the Second Sunday of Advent was lit at the beginning of the service. The second candle light represents "peace.”
The lighting of this candle reminds us once again that Christ came to our world as Prince of Peace.
　The light of Christ shines in our hearts as a lamp of peace, and we are also reminded that each Christian who is illuminated by the light of Christ has been given a role as a lamp to light up this world in which we live.

Christ came to our world as a king who will bring us peace and as peace itself, and lived as a man (while remaining as God) with the Jewish people (as well as with people of other nations) some 2,000 years ago.
　The record of Jesus' life as a human being is clearly recorded in the Gospels of the Bible and passed down to us today. When we see the life of Jesus through the Gospels, we can come to know and believe that the peace of God has indeed come to the world.
Where Christ goes, peace goes hand in hand. When we truly live in faithfulness to Christ, His peace is made tangible there.
However, there are many situations in the world today where peace is not present. Christ, who is peace itself, has already come to the world, but if there are places where there is no peace, then humans are the only ones responsible for this.

We hope that Christ-believing Christians and the Church, the assembly of Christians, will be the first to realize the peace of Christ among us by living faithfully to Jesus Christ, the Lord of Peace (and his teachings).
Today, let’s hear God's message together about the grace of Christ, our "peace," in Ephesians 4:1-6.
In the beginning of chapter 4 verse 1, it says “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you.”
"As a prisoner" indicates that Paul, the author, is writing this letter from prison. The letter to the Ephesians is said to have been written while Paul was in a Roman prison.
However, Paul wrote of his situation in prison for his faith in Jesus Christ, "I am a prisoner united with the Lord" (New Interconfessional Translation).

The English Bible (New International Version) translates this as "a prisoner for the Lord”. The literal translation of the Greek text is "a prisoner in the Lord.”
　　I believe that Paul used the words "a prisoner united with the Lord," "a prisoner for the Lord," or "a prisoner in the Lord" with a variety of meanings and intentions.
First, Paul is facing the painful reality that he is in prison for his faith. The reality is harsh and not one he is in willingly. But still Paul was confident that "we are united with the Lord.”
No matter what our circumstances are, the Lord is with us and we are united with Him. With this confidence, one can live with hope amid difficulties.
　Even in a situation where our freedom is greatly restricted, we are united to the Lord and He is with us. The same faith as was given to Paul is also given to us through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we need not lose hope.
We need not be discouraged if we believe that the Lord God has placed us where we are in accordance with His great plan, even if our current situation is difficult and not going according to our own plans.

God will give us the strength, hope, and wisdom we need to live as believers, even during such difficulties.
Paul was the given a new medium of letters to write God's message and faith advice to his brothers and sisters in the church, even though he was in prison.
It was truly the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a gift of God that Paul was given the means to send the message of faith to his brothers and sisters in the faith outside of prison through letters.
I believe that by giving him the medium of letters, a way to convey his message, God gave the believer Paul the confidence that "no difficulty can completely hinder his work as an apostle of Christ.”

The letters written by Paul's hand remain with us as the Bible and the Word of God through the ages, conveying God's unchanging message to us.
Probably Paul himself could not have imagined that the letters he wrote under extraneous circumstances would be passed down as the Bible, the message of God, to future generations.
As such, we do not know how the works of believers will be used.
We can trust that whatever little we do for the Lord (however small it may seem to us), if it is in God's will, then it will be used greatly by God.
I remember an elderly woman in our church who once said, "I am too old to do much service in the church, but I can still write and send postcards to the church members from time to time.” And actually she was doing those things.
This is a wonderful and precious act of evangelism in God’s eyes.
No difficulty can separate us from the love of Christ and our service to Him. I thank God for such divine protection.

Today, on this second Sunday of Advent, let’s specially reflect on the words of verse 3, which is also the title of today's message.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The Epistle to the Ephesians particularly speaks of "the bond of Christians" and ultimately "the uniting of all things in heavenly places under Christ.”
　This is the purpose for which Christ came to the world as the Prince of Peace: for us to maintain unity "in the Spirit," that is, through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
Not one of us is the same. However, the Bible encourages us to be united in the peace of Christ and to make every effort to maintain that unity.
What we need to maintain unity, Christ’s peace and His grace, has already been given to us.
So, all that remains is for us to recognize the peace and grace of Christ, receive them with gratitude, and accept others through His peace, and the peace of Christ will be realized.

But this has not yet been realized in our world. In our world, all things are not as one, and even we in the same church cannot say that we are "as one.”
　But that does not mean we need to be disappointed or give up. If we look only at ourselves, we will only be disappointed in our own state and in the state of others. (No one is perfect, of course.)
But the Bible promises to us that if we follow Christ, if we believe in and follow Him as the one true Lord, through the bond of His peace you can be united, and His peace will be realized in this world.
So let us trust in the words of the Bible and strive to maintain our unity in Christ by facing and embracing others through the peace and grace given to us by Christ.
　The Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, has come into the world to unite us and to live with us as a human.
Looking up only to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of Peace, let us live out our faith as we seek fellowship and unity in our faith.