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We're going to just take some time and look at the mission of Jesus Christ, the mission of the church, and how we accomplish that mission. Last week, well, actually, let's just, let's stand for the reading of God's word. Matthew chapter five, it's on page 962, if you're using the black Bibles that are provided for you. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The grass withers, the flowers fade, and yet the word of the Lord remains forever. You may be seated. So as I started to say, we're looking at what it means to be on mission for Jesus or be involved in the mission of Jesus Christ. Last week, we looked at the question of what is the mission? Today, we're looking at the question of how do we accomplish this mission or what are the tools that God gives us? And then next week, we're going to look at who exactly is on this mission. Last week we saw sort of the breakdown from the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and from Jesus' last words before He ascended into heaven in Acts 1, and then even from this passage, three aspects of what the mission is. So first of all, based on Matthew 28, the mission is simple, make disciples. Everywhere you're going, while you're going, what you're doing is making disciples. You are making disciples by baptizing and teaching, by instructing them to observe everything that Christ has commanded. It's a commission that sounds like it's brand new and yet the reality is that this has been the mission of God since creation. Since creation, the mission of God has been make disciples. In Genesis 1, God says to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This isn't just a call to recreate human beings. but to recreate image bearers of God who would give glory to God. The call was to make disciples. In Genesis 12, God says to Abraham, in you all the families of earth will be blessed. And the blessing isn't just some monetary blessing. It is a blessing of belonging to God, being made disciples of God. Somehow Abraham is called on and promised that he himself will be a blessing to the nations. And so making disciples is not a new thing. It's been the call all along. Second, we saw in Acts 1 that Jesus tells his disciples that you are to be my witnesses. You will bear witness to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And again, is this a new thing? Certainly it's new in that we now After Christ's death and resurrection and ascension, we know who the Messiah is and we know who the promised one is. But is this a new thing that we are to be witnesses of the glory of God? And I'd say it's not Psalm 96. Says, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Verse three says, declare his glory among the nations, bear witness to the glory of God among the nations. Ascribe to the Lord families of peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. And again, verse 10, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. And so even in the Psalms, there's this call to bear witness to the glory of God. And now we see the glory of God in His plan and action of saving sinners. But it's not a new call to bear witness to God's glory. It's just a better understanding of how God is glorified. And so we proclaim the glory of God. And then last week we saw that the mission that sort of segues into this week of the how or the tools of the mission was from the very passage we read this morning. That part of the mission is that you and I, in making disciples and bearing witness, we are called to be the salt and light of the world. You and I are called on to be light to each other and to others. exposing sin, but also shining the light of truth, opening blind eyes of hearts in order to see the beauty and glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that repentance and forgiveness of sins can be proclaimed in Jesus's name to all the nations. And as salt, we preserve, we slow down the decaying process, we add flavor to the world, a good flavor. And so this is a convenient way for us to categorize the tools that God gives us for accomplishing His mission. How do we make disciples? How do we bear witness to Jesus Christ? It is by being salt and light. Or in modern language, we would say it is through word and deed ministry. Word being more of like the light of the world, showing and shining the truth of God to the world. Deeds being the salt of our ministry, adding flavor, slowing down the decaying process. The proclamation or evangelism or teaching, as Jesus says, these are works, these are words that we speak. Then mercy, compassion, loving our neighbors, caring for our brothers and sisters, caring for our community. These are the deeds that we are called to. If you look back in your bulletin at our call to worship in Isaiah 61, again, this isn't a new idea. This isn't a New Testament idea that we are to perform word and deed ministry. Look at the call to worship. The Spirit of God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to what? To bring good news. Word. To the poor. Deed. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Word. and open prison doors to those who are bound. Deed. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Word. And the day of vengeance of our God. Word. And to comfort all who mourn. Deed. So when we consider word ministry, what does that mean? What is the word ministry of the church? And the easiest way to see it is to look at several passages of Scripture in the New Testament that really lay out the word ministry. Our first passage is in Romans 10, beginning in verse 9. And this is a simple explanation, maybe one of the simplest explanations of what it means to be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So here is the ministry. This is the beginning steps of making disciples. that those who would confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, that He is the Son of God and Savior of sinners, that you would believe in your heart, understand, trust that God raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved. Because everyone who believes in his heart is justified and everyone who confesses with his mouth is saved. And he even goes back to the Old Testament and quotes two Old Testament passages for the reality of this. But the question that he asks then are these hypotheticals, but he starts to wonder. He's like, now, in verse 14 he says, now, how will they call on Him if they don't believe in Him? Like, how will they actually call on Jesus for salvation if they don't actually believe in Him? I was trying to think of examples of this, and so I'll be as vague as I can for those of you who have different convictions about this, but in December, you only write letters to someone you believe in. You don't write a letter to someone you don't believe in in December. That's as far as I'm gonna go. You can't call on Jesus if you don't believe in him. Which, by the way, according to Paul then, that means that your calling on him isn't like the faith. Something happened first, but that's not what this passage is about. We'd have to back up a little bit into 8 and 9, but here we are in 10. But all right, so how will they call on him if they don't believe? Which leads Paul to a logical second question. Well, how are they going to believe if they haven't even heard of him? Like, how can you believe in someone or something that you've never even heard of? And he says, well, how are they going to hear if someone doesn't preach, if someone isn't proclaiming to them? And he says, well, then how is someone going to preach unless he's sent? You know, even as Scripture, as Isaiah says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news or who preach the gospel. If there was ever a passage in Scripture, by the way, this is a tangent, that tells you some scripture is figurative. This is that passage. And if you have any doubt, you can ask my children how beautiful are my feet. Not, not in any level. But here is Paul saying, What good is a church that isn't preaching the gospel? Because that's the only way for sinners to be saved. that someone would tell them the truth of Jesus, they would hear that truth of Jesus, they would believe that truth about Jesus and call out to the one who saves. This is the word ministry. Or if we look at 2 Timothy 4, so 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are three letters that Paul wrote that are specifically written to pastors. And so here's this, in 2 Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy and he says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and dead by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. For a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So word ministry, it includes preaching the word, but it also includes reproof and rebuke, but also exhortation. To fulfill word ministry isn't just saying all the nice things and the happy things and the pretty things that the Bible teaches, but it also includes exhorting and rebuking and pointing out when we are not living according to Scripture. And then in 1 Peter 3.15, Peter says, In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. In this sense, the word that actually gets translated as be prepared to make a defense is actually the word we use for apologetics. Be prepared to make an apologetic, to give a defense of why you believe what you believe. So part of word ministry is also explaining and expounding and explaining why we believe. You know, one thing that always strikes me here is be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you. The implication here is that you are living in such a way that people see hope in you. And so that's probably the more convicting portion of this for me, as one who loves to find the apologetics and the defenses and know the arguments of Christianity and the arguments of the reality and reliability of Scripture. What is harder for me as a cynic and pessimist is that nobody ever asks me for the hope they see in me because they just don't see it. They see cynicism, they see sarcasm, they see too often a man who will weigh the value of laughter and the value of a relationship, and too many times, the laugh wins. This is convicting that people ought to be coming to us and saying, I don't understand. You shouldn't have hope. I see your life. I see the things you're going through. Why? How are you being sustained through this? And then with gentleness and with respect, we're able to defend the faith. It's not because of me, it's because of what Christ has done in me. In one sense, I don't know if any of us would disagree that Word ministry is essential for being on Christ's mission. You can't call yourself a church and not be about teaching the Word of God, preaching the Word of God, being instructed in, exhorted by, rebuked by, encouraged by the Word of God. I don't think anyone in this room necessarily would say, would disagree with that statement. The question we might have to ask ourselves is, would we agree with the statement that Without deed ministry, you cannot call yourself a church. Without acts of love and mercy, you cannot call yourself a Christian. And are we turning now salvation into works salvation if we say that the way we act will be a proof to the world of whether or not we actually belong to Jesus Christ? Jesus was comfortable saying that. In Matthew 25. Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. He says, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne before Him. He will gather all the nations and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. And the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And the righteous will answer him and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me. You cursed. to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. They also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? And he will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." There is a need. for the church and for the people of the church to live their lives in such a way that they are caring for, seeing and caring for, and meeting the needs of those in their community and in their lives. And to turn our eyes from them is to, in Jesus's words, turn our eyes from Christ himself. James, in James chapter 1, he says, be doers of the word, not just hearers, deceiving yourselves. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his face in a mirror. He looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unstained from the world. There's a real sense in which we can hear God's Word, but it has no penetrating power. It doesn't move us to any kind of action. It doesn't cause us to despise the things of the world or the lies of the world. It doesn't cause us to have compassion for those in need that God brings before us. This idea of word and deed ministry, they go hand in hand. It's not that word ministry or deed ministry is the focus of the church. And while certainly there is a priority, and I will admit that there is a priority or an importance of the word ministry, like deed ministry opens doors for word ministry. But word ministry done well opens hearts to doing deed ministry. When you look at the first several chapters of Acts, you cannot miss the back and forth of word and deed ministry. Speaking and preaching and Well, speaking and preaching the word of God. And then that word changes hearts and they live differently. So, for example, in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out. And the first result of that pouring out of the Holy Spirit is the preaching of the good news and thousands are saved and when they are saved, they come together and they're devoted to the teaching of the apostles and serving each other. Not a single one of them had a need that went unmet. Word and deed. In Acts 3, Peter and John heal a lame man. They do a deed and it leads to preaching the gospel, the Word. In Acts 4, they preach. The word with boldness which results in the church giving generously, selling their property and giving so that no one had any needs. In Acts 6, the word ministry of the apostles is threatened by the needs of the widows. And so the deed ministry comes to allow the word ministry to flourish. And at the end of it, we're told that many priests even came to follow Jesus after that, as the priests observed the church caring for the widows, a task, by the way, that was assigned to the priests. They saw the deeds and it moved them to hear the word. Even in Acts 7, as the gospel expands into Samaria, Christ is proclaimed in Samaria in word ministry and many were healed in deed ministry. There are spiritual needs both inside the church and in our community and we would be hard-hearted to ignore those spiritual needs and not speak words of encouragement. or words of exhortation, or words of rebuke, or words of admonishment. But there are also felt needs. There are physical needs in our congregation and in our community, and the church would be just as hard-hearted to ignore that, to say, that's not our responsibility, or that's just not my calling. I just didn't feel led. One writer talks about, he breaks down like non-Christians into four categories to help us understand how we might reach them. So there are non-Christians who are churchy non-Christians. So they're kind of religious. They kind of see the value of being religious. And those churchy non-Christians are very easily and appropriately reached with the word because they're receptive to it, they have an understanding of it. This is back in the, you know, when evangelism explosion first took form, it was the United States had more churchy non-Christians than non-churchy non-Christians. And so you could just go and say, if you were to die tonight and stand before a holy maker, what reason would you give for him to allow you into heaven? And people were asked that question, they had categories for every part of that question. They understood a holy maker. If I stood before him, all right, so there's judgment, there's justice, there's things that you do that are good and things you do that are bad. How do I justify getting into heaven? If you ask that question today, the number of people who even understand all of those categories is dwindling. A holy maker, why should I? All right, if there's a holy maker, because I'm dead. Many of the world thinks of salvation by death. I die, I go to heaven, if there is a heaven. Churchy unbelievers understand the categories and you can go straight to the word ministry. But there's also unchurchy unbelievers. There's people who have connections with you in your community or in your circles, but then there's also people that are completely disconnected from our circles. And in both of those categories, often the path to preaching the word is living the word. For the unchurchy, they need to see the love of Christ in you before they're willing to hear about the love of Christ for you. I heard a song, this is back when Christian songs were weird. Well, okay, they're still pretty weird. But there was a song I heard, it had this line in it that said, don't tell me that I've got a friend in Jesus. It's a reference to a really old hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. So this line in this song said, don't tell me I've got a friend in Jesus without showing me first that I've got a friend in you. You know, James goes on and he speaks about this. He says, you know, what good does it do if a brother's in need and you simply say to him, go, go with God, be warm and well-fed, and you don't lift a finger to care for him? What testimony are you bearing through your life to this person? You know, I probably don't have to go through many of these, but just some practicals of like, what is word ministry? And many of these, we'd probably say, hey, we do all right here at Hope of Christ with some of these word ministries. Probably the first obvious is preaching and teaching. I guess that's the first and second. But an intentional preaching ministry that doesn't shy away from hard parts of Scripture but also points people to both their need for forgiveness and the offer of forgiveness, their need, they actually stand condemned, not by God, but by their own sin, and that in Christ, their condemnation can be taken by Christ and His righteous acceptance by the Father can be given to them And it is simply a matter of believing and trusting. Our preaching ministry has to be intentionally grounded in the word of God and in the truths of the gospel. And our teaching ministry, we want to teach and instruct. After all, as we said last week, making a disciple isn't a once and done thing, it's a lifetime endeavor. And so part of our ministry, part of the word ministry is still, it's not just evangelism, but it's also instruction and discipleship of one another. Sunday school and Bible studies. Even our care groups at a certain level. Counseling, just one-on-one care for one another. I'm struggling. I need help. I need advice. I need direction. Encouraging each other. The Ministry of Encouragement is a word ministry in many ways. Knowing who is rejoicing that needs to be rejoiced with and who is mourning that needs to be mourned with. The words that we speak to each other, knowing who needs what, who needs an admonishing word right now, who needs an encouraging word right now. I'm hoping this is not a spoiler alert for any of you, but today is Mother's Day. And hopefully nobody's heart is palpitating right now. I don't know how to acknowledge Mother's Day anymore. And I wish it didn't wait till I experienced the death of my daughter. I wish I had been this compassionate about what this day means to very many of you before it happened to me. And the struggle is to rejoice with you who are rejoicing. I want you to be celebrated moms. I want you to love it. And I want you to call your mothers today and just love on them. And at the same time, I want to weep with you who can't have children or who have lost children or who are just even waiting to get married and wondering when are you going to take care of the first step, God? or don't have mothers either anymore or are worth calling. The word ministry of the church is to see who needs rejoicing with and open your mouth and rejoice with them and see who needs mourning with Maybe close your mouth and mourn with them. That is part of the word ministry of the church. And correction is part of the word ministry of the church. A church that is not correcting one another in sin, not calling each other, challenging each other, calling one another to repentance is not truly a church. If we're not teaching all of Scripture that teaches, where am I straying? Where do I need to be called back? I wrote about this in our newsletter, our weekly newsletter, about Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And that stir up is irritate. It's spur, spur one another on to love and good deeds. And a spur is not a happy thing to a horse. A spur is awful, it's these jagged things on the heels of your boot or else a pointed stick. We have to goad each other on to good work sometimes. And that's not always comfortable. But it's part of the word ministry. And then just very briefly, because I took too long with that, but deed ministry as tools of the church. Again, in your times of encouraging one another, whether you're rejoicing or weeping, just presence. Physical presence is a deed ministry, being with each other. That's why I said care groups is sort of part of our teaching ministry. But care groups is supposed to be also this place of intimacy, this place of welcome and gathering. There should be this sense of like, you're safe here, you belong here, you can share here. also helps just using whatever gifts and abilities God has given me to help others. Do you know how to change a flange on a toilet? Do it somewhere other than your own house. Now deed ministry inside the church is hard because it requires humility. Like no one ever points out that in Acts 2 and 4 when it says nobody had any need but every need that was made known they were able to meet. Well that assumes that they're letting each other know their needs. And we live in a world, at least in our world, where we have all been infected by affluenza. We're so able to take care of it ourselves. And even if I'm not, I've got a little card that says I still can. I can take care of this myself. I don't need anyone and it would be embarrassing to ask someone to help me. Just helping one another, serving cups of cold water, a meal. If you have a neighbor who is notoriously coming home at 2 in the morning drunk the night before trash day, take out his trash. Walk his trash to the curb the next day. Just simple deeds of caring for each other that will open a door to say, why do you do that? And then be ready to give up the actual reason. Don't say, oh, well, that's how my daddy raised me. I'm just a good person. No. Man, because Jesus does so much for me that I don't deserve. He's been so kind to me. I just, you looked like you needed some help. And so I thought I would do this. You know, works of assistance, giving counsel or instruction or training. Someone's come to the elders recently just with a heart for offering a financial training to the community at the church. Just help people with like, this is what a budget is. This is a way to get out of debt faster, just some tools that would help. You know, deed ministry is giving, it's living generously. So giving whether it's to the church so that the church as a body can do these works or giving to your neighbors or giving to others in need. I love the story and I'm just going to brag on since it's Bob, I don't owe him a dollar because he's not my kid. I am a grandpa by the way though. But when Bob used to work in D.C., he felt convicted when he would get off the metro, he felt convicted about the folks who would sit and ask for money. And he didn't think, he didn't decide, you know what, I know why they're asking for money, and I am not going to be a part of that. What he decided was, I'm never getting off the metro train without cash in my pocket. And whatever cash I have in my pocket, I'm gonna give it. And if he had $3 in his pocket, he gave $3. If he had $32 in his pocket, he gave $32. But he determined, he's like, I don't need to know why you're struggling to know that you're struggling. That's a simple act of deed ministry. We as the church together do these works. We speak the truths of Word ministry into each other's lives and into our neighbor's lives, and we do the works of deed ministry for each other, for our neighbors, and for the glory of God. Let's pray.
Tools for the Mission
Série The Mission of the Church
The Words of the Gospel and the Deeds it produces.
Identifiant du sermon | 512241845497762 |
Durée | 42:21 |
Date | |
Catégorie | Service du dimanche |
Texte biblique | Matthieu 5:13-16 |
Langue | anglais |
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