God's mission is our mission

 

Today’s sermon will be a little unusual: I have only two verses, and those from different places! Next week we’ll carry on with the life of Abraham and God's promise, but today I'm going to spend some time on who we are and why we are here. Why Rock International Church? Why bother to start a new evening service? I and many others already have enough to do, and this just adds to an already heavy load. Why are we doing this?

This is the reason: because we are not on our own mission - but on God’s. The word mission means "a task, a calling; your core driver". Our mission is set not by us but by God - we belong to him. God's calling is our calling. God 's mission is our mission.

And the mission is this:

Rom 1:16 (ESV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

2 Tim 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

God's mission is :

- To reach the lost

- To equip or train the saints

To put it in more plain language: God is on a rescue mission – and once you’ve been rescued, you become part of the rescue team. It’s like joining the fire brigade – you’ve got to be physically strong, mentally alert, keeping your mind and body fit so that you can follow Jesus as he goes into the fire to rescue people.

That’s kind of what it’s like.

Now I’ve taken only two verses today because I want us to feel the impact of the universal Biblical truth that these two verses hold. Because – we are always tempted away from these truths. Churches fail because they leave these truths behind. Christians become ineffective, scattered like sheep without a shepherd when they leave these truths behind.

So, let’s spend some time thinking about: how does God save people, and how are we made ready, equipped, to serve him.

1. How does God save people?

If I asked you that question, what would you say? How are people saved? What would you do to save people? In fact, let me ask you the question: How does God save people?

Now unless you’ve all been smarty pants and given the correct answer we probably have a number of different answers. And even if you have got it all correct I suspect that that’s not actually the way you think. Because I don’t think like this.

Because how does God save people? This is the way (singular)

Rom 1:16 (ESV) I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.

There is ONE way to be saved. To hear and believe the gospel. There is no other way to be saved.

No-one is saved by the church. No-one is saved by Christian music. No-one is saved by Christians being nice. No-one is saved by Bible knowledge. No-one is saved by food programs or orphanages in Columbia. No-one is saved through friendship. No-one is saved through beautiful church buildings. No-one is saved through religious activities. No-one is saved through baptism, or receiving communion, or growing up in a Christian family.

The only way to be saved is the gospel.

Do I really believe that?

The problem is that the gospel is offensive. I want there to be some other way to save people – an easier way. I’m looking for it.
The gospel says to people “You are wrong. God is right. Repent”. It says you cannot save yourself - you need a saviour.
And no-one like being told they’re wrong. No-one likes being exposed. Here we are, having a great time pretending that we are God in our lives, making decisions, declaring to ourselves what we think is right, and what we think is wrong. You know, like when I told that guy to beep beep beep! – well, he deserved it. And when I took that bit off my taxes – well the government just wastes the money. And when I manipulated by husband or boyfriend into doing what I wanted, or nagged him or made fun of him in front of my friends and his – well he deserved it because he’s such a lazy so-and-so. And so on and so on. Fill your own little self-justification in there!

We’re very good at deciding what we do is right, or at least not as wrong as what those other people are doing. Ooh, we love pointing fingers. But when Jesus comes along and exposes our hypocrisy (double standard), exposes our sin – ooh, we don’t like that.

Two verses later we see why we need the gospel, and why only the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Ro 1:18 (NLT) But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

We have suppressed (covered) the truth with our wickedness. We have rebelled against our Creator, God Most High. And he is angry. And rightly so.

And if you think he doesn’t have a right to be angry – look at the world. Look what a mess we’ve made. Wars, murders, rape, child abuse, environmental damage on a massive scale, we’ve wiped out whole species of animals and plants. We lie, we cheat, we abandon those we claim to love – God is right to be angry. It’s good that he’s angry – because these things matter. What we are doing to our world, what we are doing to each other – it matters. It matters to God.

How terrible it would be if God really *was* that stupid “God of love”: the Grandfather in the Sky who just accepts everyone and just sweeps everything under the carpet. It doesn’t matter – here, have a cookie. It mocks the victims, the suffering, the devastation caused by our sin. How you would feel if you came home to your wife having sex with the neighbour and when you poured out your anger and heartache to your friend he said “oh, that doesn’t matter”.

No, God is angry, and that is good. Sin matters. Sin must be dealt with. Evil must be dealt with. The evil that is done to us, the evil that we do to others. It matters. In Romans 3:10 it says “No one is righteous— not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.” We’re in serious trouble! And this is where Jesus comes in.
Rom 3:21 (ESV) But now the righteousness of God has been [revealed]… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

The gospel is the message of Jesus. If we’re not talking about Jesus, we’re not sharing the gospel. The gospel is about Jesus. He is the King of the God’s Kingdom. He is the Gospel, the Good News. Because he took our place, taking the punishment of death our sins deserved in order to set us free to be part of God’s team, God’s family.

You see, only Jesus is righteous (good) enough for God. God is perfect, holy. An all-consuming fire. And the only way to be with God, even be near God, is to be holy, perfect, righteous – a holy fire yourself.

That’s why in the Old Testament God always warned people to stay back. The Temple was layers and layers of barriers to God – because if you went into his presence – you would die. Unholy man – holy God. Dead. And all-consuming fire.

But when Jesus died on the Cross, he opened the way to God. His righteousness became ours. And our sinfulness was destroyed, dealt with, paid on the cross. All our evil deeds, all the things we’ve done wrong – and still will do wrong. Paid for. In full. That’s the gospel. Jesus, our righteousness.

It’s a swap: his life for ours. Our life for his.

And when we understand how HUGE the gospel is – all our little efforts to “save” people get put in their rightful place.

“Being nice” looks ridiculous compared to the Son of God on the Cross, bearing our sins. Having a nice church service is irrelevant compared to his righteousness. Lots of Bible knowledge is wasted if we haven’t grasped the central message of the Bible: Christ, and him crucified. Our religion is empty if we don’t know Jesus. To know him is to know the Father. There is no other way to know God except by knowing Jesus.
And if you don’t know him – repent and ask him to save you. Do it now. He hears your thoughts. Pray silently “Father God, forgive me. I have sinned against you. Save me. I want to follow you, belong to you. In Jesus name. Amen.”

We must, must, must get the gospel central in our thinking. Christ! Christ Alone! Then everything falls into place, and has its value. Because being nice is good. Music is good. A nice church is good. Food programs and orphanages are good. Friendship is good. But we must not let what is good be the enemy of the best.

Only the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

You want to see people transformed? Stop being just nice. Share the gospel. Repent and believe in Jesus.

Ok, great, but how? How do we do this? I don’t know what to do? Do I just start blurting out “repent and believe” to everyone who walks past? Or as I heard one pastor tell this story recently: a man in his church was at work, when someone came in and said “the tap in the men’s toilet isn’t working”. He’d been praying for an opportunity to witness and so he called out “I know a fountain of living water where sins are washed away, there’s wonder-working power at the blood of Calvary”. Apparently you could have heard a pin drop!

So what do we do? God’s genius is that sharing the gospel is not just something we do, but something we are. It is our very lives that are transformed by his Holy Spirit that bear witness to our hope and give our words context and truth.

2. How are we equipped to live the Christian life?

How do we live as a Christian? How do we “repent and believe” like Jesus says?

Well, God is a good Father – he does not leave us alone! Like any good parent, he feeds and clothes us – and this is done, again, in only one way: through hearing his Word. As we listen to Him, His Spirit takes His Word and makes it real, alive, transforming us.

2 Tim 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

How are we equipped to live the Christian life? Through ALL Scripture. There’s a reason in this church we’ve been through Mark, Amos, Epheisans, Philemon, and now Genesis. All over the Bible. Because we need to see the WHOLE story, the complete revelation of God.

It is through Scripture (the Bible) that we are equipped for every good work. The opposite is also true: the man who is not in the Scriptures is a man totally unequipped for every good work.

Why are Christians failing to make an impact here in Norway? Why are so few turning to Christ? Why is the church in rapid decline? Why are Christians “safe”? Why do the lives of Christians look exactly the same as everyone else’s – seeking comfort, wealth, safety?
2 Tim 3:17 says “because they are not equipped”. Too many sermons are “Generic Platitudes for today” (“Poor copies of overused sayings for today”).
God’s Word should shock us, challenge us, move us to wonder and praise – not leave us saying “meh”.

When we read the Bible – whether at church on a Sunday, or in the Bible group, or reading to our family, or reading on our own – we are coming before our Creator God, our Heavenly Father. These are his Words to us. It is mighty. It is deep. It is spiritual. It is transforming power.

Let me tell you a story about a man. Let's call him Ola. Ola is married, has two children, a job, and some hobbies. But there is one thing that is a little strange about dear old Ola. He almost never eats. He usually eats every Sunday - that is, if he's not out fishing or hunting - or Man Utd (the world's best soccer team) is playing.
But pretty much Sunday. Except in the summer of course. From time to time he’ll make a small sandwich in the evening when he feels a little guilty because hardly ever eats, or when he’s under pressure at work or at home. He promises himself that this will become a new habit, but all too quickly he falls back into old habits again of not eating.

That’s Ola. Mostly he is happy with his efforts - but sometimes he feels that he’s missed something. But that doesn’t last long - he easily finds something to distract him from such thoughts.

But the truth is that Ola is so thin and bony and has so little energy that his efforts at work are not good. Well, it's not so bad that he could be fired, but it’s so much less than what he could have done.

And his family is missing their servant leader. When Ola gets home he is so worn out he's not ready to meet his family's needs and just leaves it to the wife because she’s "good at such things."

And the church! Well, he does get there occasionally, but he’s so tired he can’t do more than just sit in the seat until it’s time to leave.

It is quite clear that Ola’s problems would be quickly solved if he just ate regularly. But, he says, he has no time. Next week, says Ola. Next week I'll eat. It will be fine.

Now, when it comes to food, it’s clear – it’s so natural, so obvious to set aside time to eat. Hello, we need it! We die otherwise! Or just become less and less effective if we starve.

But when it comes to God's Word, it seems we believe the opposite. Oh, I can get along with a little snack once a week!
Are we crazy or what?!
We are created dependant on God. Dependant upon His Word.
Jesus quoted from Deut 8:3 "man does not live by bread alone , but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. "

We depend on His Word to survive. Make time for Bible reading, Bible group, church twice now on a Sunday, family Bible time, one-to-one Bible reading and conversation – in just the same way as food. We shop, prepare, and eat our food, and use a large part of our time and money doing it. So should it be with our spiritual food: the Bible, God’s Living Word spoken by His Spirit into our lives.

What is the power of God for salvation ? The Gospel (good news) about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And how are we equipped to serve Him? Through the whole Bible, hearing it taught at church, at home, in private. Oh Lord, speak to us, change us we pray!

So let us make time to spend in the Word, let us encourage each other to keep telling others about Jesus, our glorious, wonderful Saviour and Lord. Amen!