Garden City Church – Our Name

In 2025, Sermons by harvest.admin

Resource by Pastor Peter Park

Good morning. Welcome. Peter, one of the pastors. Today’s a big day in the life of our church as we’re replanting to Garden City. And before we get into the sermon, we want to show you a video we shared last fall at the church retreat that tells the history of the church. And then I’ll come back up for the message.

Amen. God has been incredibly faithful. The church’s story is a story of God’s faithfulness. We wouldn’t be here without God’s faithful commitment to this church. There are also many people who are still here at this church who have labored faithfully and whom God has used to move the church forward. (Not exhaustive) If you were here at this church since before covid, would you stand up for a moment so we can recognize and thank God for you?

Over the next four weeks, we’re going to talk about who we are as a church, as Garden City, and what we believe God has called us to – mission, values, vision. So if this is your first time here or you’re fairly new to our church or 39, these next weeks will give you a good idea about what we’re all about. 

Week 1: Garden City Church – Our Name.

Why the name change and why Garden City? These are questions the leadership asked ourselves. In some ways, the name of our church is not that important because we aren’t primarily concerned about making our church’s name great. No one is going to care about our church’s name in heaven, I don’t think. And no one gets saved or baptized in the name of our church, but in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we’re about God, we’re about the name and fame of Jesus, here.

But in other ways, names are extremely important. We see that in the Bible as God is given names that reveal who he is:

-Jehovah Jireh – The Lord is Provider

-Jehovah Rapha – The Lord is Healer

-Jehovah Raah – The Lord is Shepherd

-Jesus – God is salvation

Different people in the bible are given names that tell truths about God or themselves:

-Elijah – The Lord is My God

-Daniel – God is My Judge

-Esau – Hairy or Rough

When my wife and I were naming our kids, we didn’t just pick random names. We had a list of names we liked because of their meaning and what we wanted to pray over them. We also had a list of names that we definitely were not going to name our kids from previous people we knew and didn’t like, but I won’t share those. My oldest son said I loved the girls (beautiful) more than the boys in our family last weekend, which may or may not be true, so I’ll use the boys this weekend. Timothy (honor God) Peter (Rock) and Micah (Who is like God?) Anthony (Gift/Priceless One). 

Names are important to an extent. So when we were praying about the name for our church, we first wanted it to be…

Biblical: “In the grand story of God, we begin with a Garden and end with a City.” – Tim Keller

The story of all the bible can be told by Five Gardens…

Garden 1 – The Garden of Eden (Ge. 1-3) – Creation and Fall

Gen. 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

2:7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now let me ask you – How many of you would feel comfortable walking about the city of KL naked? No one in their right mind. And it’s not about positive body image. The reason there was no shame was because there was no sin in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. There was nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. 

Sadly, our unfaithfulness to God got us kicked out of the Garden and away from his presence. God’s presence was dependent on our faithfulness. The ground was cursed. And we became dead to sin just as God said.

But there was still hope because God promised that someone from the line of Adam and Eve would one day crush the head of the enemy. (Ge. 3:15)

Some have said, “It’s not fair. We all suffer because of one bad decision.” Truth – God has given us all so many opportunities.

Garden 2 – The Promised Land – Our Continued Unfaithfulness. Ok, maybe not quite a garden but it has a lot of similarities. Dt. 8:7-9 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And Num. 13 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

God was faithful to his promise to Abraham that he would make a great nation and establish them in a new land of rest. (Heb. 4) And God gave his people laws through Moses that reflect his heart to follow. Covenant Renewal (Dt. 30) – Obey – blessing and life. Disobey – curses and death. But staying in the good Promised Land was conditional upon the people’s faithfulness to God just as in the Garden. 

(Lesson: We don’t get to have our way and the blessings of God. It’s all or nothing with God. Anything short of complete and immediate and joyful obedience to God is disobedience that leads to destruction and death in our hearts.)

In this Promised Land, they even had the Temple – God’s presence dwelled, where they could go and meet with God. It’s what distinguished God’s people apart from everyone else and what was supposed to draw all the nations to God.

But of course, God’s people failed to keep the covenant and were unfaithful to God again and again. And God’s presence left the Temple and God’s people were carried off out of the Promised Land, returning only because of God’s commitment to his promises…

Even in the midst of unfaithfulness, God’s promise remained…

Isa. 58:11 And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 

Jer. 31:12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the her; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.

How would God keep his promise? As long as sin had dominion over us, nothing would change. For us to be faithful to God, we needed new hearts. So he would send his son, Jesus, to become one of us and live the perfect life and suffer for us…

Garden 3 – The Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-39) – Suffering and Betrayal

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Jesus would be betrayed by man, again, just as God was betrayed starting in Genesis 3. But this time, he would pay the penalty for our rebellion and sin against him. Note: It’s not just that Jesus was afraid of dying or pain. It’s that for the first time in eternity, Jesus, God the Son, knew he would be separated from God the Father and from God the Spirit – One God in three persons who has always been in perfect, loving relationship.

Garden 4 – The Garden of Golgotha (John 19:41-42) – Crucifixion/Burial/Resurrection 

Jn. 19 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Amamaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him.

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

It looked as if the curse of sin and death had won. But on the third day, the stone was rolled away and gave way to the resurrected Jesus. 

20 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus rose from the dead giving us victory over sin and all its effects. God’s promise – Ge. 3:15 – fulfilled in Jesus. And one day, God will bring to full completion all his promises. As we wait until Jesus comes again, we are given and sealed with his presence, the Holy Spirit. (Already. Not Yet)

Garden 5 – The Heavenly Garden City (Rev. 22) 

I know we were just in these chapters last weekend but let me read some of the verses again…

Rev. 21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

Rev. 22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

This is the ultimate victory. Final restoration. God’s presence fully restored based not on our faithfulness, but on Jesus’ faithfulness for us. But this time, it’s in a garden city. 

“​​God’s future redeemed world and universe is depicted as a ‘city’. Abraham sought the city ‘whose builder and maker is God’ (Hebrews 11.10). Revelation 21 describes and depicts the apex of God’s redemption, as a city! His redemption is building us a city – the new Jerusalem. In fact, when we look at the New Jerusalem, we discover something strange. In the midst of the city is a crystal river, and on each side of the river is the Tree of Life, bearing fruit and leaves which heal the nations of all their wounds and the effects of the divine covenant curse. This city is the Garden of Eden, remade. The City is the fulfillment of the purposes of the Eden of God. We began in a garden but will end in a city.” – Tim Keller

All that to say, there is so much biblical richness in our name. Secondly, we wanted a name that was…

KL is sometimes called “The Garden City of Lights”. (Wikipedia – 2nd most authoritative source. So much so that anyone can go and make whatever edits they want – Because “Garden City of Lights” is no longer on the page for KL. But if you google it, KL comes up. So we’re good.) Visually, KL is a city of lights in the midst of a garden (jungle). And just as with the heavenly garden city, KL is a city, it seems, with people from all nations.

To be completely honest, I didn’t really like the name at first. It was one of the first options we thought of, but I at least quickly dismissed it cause it sounded too girly. But over the months as we prayed and considered names, nothing felt right. And as we dug more into the Word it came back up, and it seemed too fitting. 

The church’s history and future mirrors our history and future as believers. Our name is not hope in ourselves, but in God, in his faithfulness. But now you know why our church has the name it does and you can explain to others if they ask.

Commit. Be all in and willing to do whatever it takes to be faithful in following God and engaging in his mission with us.

Invite you back. Join in this wonderful story of God’s faithfulness and redemption. The gospel – good news – is for everyone.

Other videos in this series: