We’re in the series "Be Contagious!" We’re talking about how and why those of us who have experienced the amazing grace of God (and we know how fantastic it is to follow Christ) want to encourage others to accept God’s great love for them too! It’s only natural we would want others to share this wonderful experience.
In this series we’ve talked about the spiritual blessings we have “in Christ” that serve to inspire us to be contagious. We’ve considered how to create a “come as you are” culture in the church by establishing the biblical truth of “no perfect people allowed.”
Then last week we looked at how simple it is to receive God’s amazing grace.
All of those things are essential to being contagious – but there’s still one more essential to becoming contagious Christ followers and to becoming a contagious church.
The church must leave the building!
There are two main reasons the unchurched remain unchurched.
1) Either they consider church irrelevant, which is a shame because worshipping God and being a part of Christian community and getting all this great practical truth out of the Word of God together is so VERY RELEVANT!
Or,
2) They mistakenly think church is “ONLY (and this breaks my heart to even say this) FOR INSIDERS.”
Instead of being critical of our friends and family that don’t worship God, do we realize why the church isn’t very contagious sometimes? Sometimes we keep the Good News to ourselves. We may not realize we’re doing it and we certainly don’t want people to stay on the outside without finding a way in. But we haven’t done what the Bible tells us to do to "go."
That haunts me because I know that God wants everyone to experience and enjoy His love and His grace and His peace. WE DON’T WANT ANYONE TO THINK THE CHURCH IS JUST FOR INSIDERS!
So what can we do to erase these misconceptions? What can we do to dispel this haunting image? How do we effectively get the message across that the church is for everyone?
One thing we know for sure is that we need to be warm and welcoming to our guests.
Of course we need to balance our efforts and not try “too hard.”
Back when you were dating, did you ever go out on a date with someone that tried too hard? We’ve all probably made that mistake. We wanted to impress this girl or you wanted to impress this guy. Instead, you came across like a stalker. And so, when you tried to get them to go out with you again they said, “I’m sorry, I think I’m going to be busy for the next twenty years.”
We don’t want to scare people away from church but we do want them to know - AS FAR AS THE CHURCH THAT BELONGS TO JESUS – THERE ARE NO OUTSIDERS! So when they are our guests we give them a warm welcome.
Besides being warm and welcoming when guests arrive, there’s another often-overlooked plan to let people know they’re not outsiders. The church has to go OUT into the world because most of the unchurched are not going to come into the church.
THE CHURCH IS GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE THE BUILDING IN ORDER TO BE CONTAGIOUS!
That’s the reason for the title to today’s message: “THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!” If the unchurched are going to know that church is relevant, and that there are no outsiders, then the church must leave the building!
This principle is really rather ironic in the first place because the Bible never employs the word “church” to describe a building. Were you aware of that? Never!
The word “church” in the Bible never refers to bricks and mortar and wood and nails and lighting and decorations. In Scripture, “church” refers to the community of believers – it refers to the people, not the place. Do you know how we know this? The first church buildings weren’t even constructed until the church had been in existence for 3 to 4 hundred years! When the New Testament of the Bible was being written, there were no church buildings!
Even today, more Christians on the face of the earth gather together to worship God without the benefit of church buildings than those of us who do!
Pathway Church doesn’t actually have a “church” building – we’ve converted what was previously a dance studio into a meeting place and leased that until God moves us. And that’s cool! Before now we met at a community center and we met at the Radison. You don’t have to have a building to have a church. We’ve met down at the pavilions at Ditto Landing on the bank of the Tennessee River. And we were the church every bit as much there as we ever have been!
According to Barna Research, one in four Americans who “do” church attend a non-traditional church every week. House churches are on the increase in America. 1 in 4!
Does that mean that church buildings are wrong? Of course not. They’re very practical. It’s great to have a place to get together and worship God and fellowship and minister to others and grow to be more like Christ.
But, of the five purposes of the church (worship, fellowship, ministry, discipleship, and evangelism), we mainly carry out four purposes here in the “church” building – and even those four purposes are not restricted to this building.
But the one purpose of the church that is most effective outside the church building is evangelism.
Evangelism is sharing the Good News about Jesus. And we can evangelize inside the church building but in the New Testament of the Bible DO YOU REALIZE no one ever came to Christ inside a church building? No one was evangelized inside a church building! They didn’t have them!
People made faith commitments to Christ in jails, in their homes, out in the fields, on the road, etc. One man came to Christ sitting on his chariot, and one woman came to faith in Christ standing by a well. People decided to follow Christ at work, in their courtyards, on the mountainside - you name it.
All along God meant for the church to leave the building! The church has been sent by Jesus to “go” to the unchurched and tell them the Good News! The church has been directed by the Lord Jesus to leave the building! That’s a simple instruction given by Jesus over and over again in the New Testament. Let me give you one example.
Jesus said to his followers, "Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.” Mark 16:15 (NCV)
Circle that little two-letter word “go.” Those are the first two letters of the Good News. There’s no Good News without someone to “go” and tell it! Jesus said go everywhere “in the world”, not “to every church building you can find.”
Most churches and Christ followers basically do evangelism backwards. You say, “Pastor Brian, don’t you want folks to come to Pathway Church and hear the Good News about Jesus and decide to make a faith commitment to Him?” Sure I do! But how are they going to get here if someone doesn’t go to them with the Good News? Why will they come if someone doesn’t encourage them to do so?
It’s like a Billy Graham Crusade. We often think about how many people Billy has won to Christ. Billy hasn’t won tens of thousands of people to Christ on his own. Someone had to invite those folks to the crusades. Someone had to advertise. Someone had to provide transportation. Someone had to pray. Someone had to pay the bills. Someone had to direct traffic.
Sharing the Good News about Jesus starts outside the building. The church must leave the building!
Now where do we get this idea from the Bible? Lots of places. But since we’ve been in the church letter to the Ephesians for the first three installments of this series on being contagious we’re going to finish in Ephesians.
The Bible talks about God’s plan for the church to leave the building in Ephesians chapter 3.
Three steps to God’s plan for the church to leave the building. Three steps to God’s evangelism plan.
1. INCLUDE EVERYONE!
God’s plan is for Christ followers to leave the building and go to everyone. Leave no stone unturned in seeking people to tell the Good News about Jesus to. Go to everyone because we never know who might be interested in coming to God. We don’t know to whom God has been speaking.
Where do we get this in the Ephesian church letter?
"And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus." Ephesians 3:6 (NLT)
Paul explained this because it was widely believed in his day that Gentiles were “outsiders.” Even if they did come to God they had to become a Jew first. Christ changed that! There are no outsiders any more. Everyone who wants to can come directly to God through Jesus, God’s Son. God puts the “want to” in their hearts and its up to the church to go and share the Good News.
Apply this biblical principle to the unchurched today. Just because they’ve been on the outside of the church doesn’t mean that’s where God wants them to stay. God’s wants them to come to Him – He wants them to be a part of His church.
The church needs to see everyone as a potential Christ follower. Christ’s church is not exclusive – it’s inclusive! No one is an outsider! Everyone is welcome. All are encouraged to receive God’s grace, mercy and love. The Scriptures teach this all over the place but let me give you one quick example.
"The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost." Revelation 22:17 (Amp)
Circle those words, “let everyone come who is thirsty.” There are many thirsty people all around us. Don’t conclude that just because they haven’t come to God yet that they aren’t willing to.
God is making people thirsty all the time. He is dealing with their hearts and it’s up to the church, “the bride” to say, “Come!” So INCLUDE EVERYONE. Secondly…
2. HAVE CONFIDENCE!
Or you could say it this way, “Have confidence in yourself because God has confidence in you.”
Some Christ followers mistakenly believe they’re not good enough to share the Good News about Jesus, or they’re not knowledgeable enough of the Bible, or they’re not influential enough. Even the great Apostle Paul could have felt that way. He had a checkered past but look at what he said.
"I am less than the least of all God’s people; yet God gave me this privilege of taking to the Gentiles the Good News about the infinite riches of Christ." Ephesians 3:8 (GNT)
Paul didn’t have self-confidence as much as he had God-confidence. He didn’t commission himself. God commissioned him.
"With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine." Eph. 3:20 (NCV)
The power for sharing the Good News with others comes from God.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world." Jesus - Acts 1:8 (CEV)
Include everyone, have confidence – and the third step in God’s plan…
3. THINK BIG!
We’re going to look at a verse of Scripture here that is very interesting. Something that arrests your attention.
Paul is sharing this whole concept of sharing the Good News to the Gentiles (who were previously outsiders) and he makes this almost dreamlike, this surreal statement.
"[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere." Ephesians 3:10 (Amp)
Say what?
“What are you getting at here Paul? Are you saying that angels in the unseen spiritual world are learning something about the wisdom of God “through the church” and the church’s efforts to share the Good News with people on the outside that God wants on the inside? Are you telling us that the angels are interested in finding out something that the church knows?”
There’s something mystical about this. It kind of makes the hair stand up on the back of you neck when you talk about angels peeking over the shoulders of the church. Paul wasn’t loosing his marbles. He wasn’t alone in this revelation.
The Apostle Peter also shared this sentiment.
"Those who preached the Good News to you told you those things with the help of the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven -- things into which angels desire to look." 1 Peter 1:12b (NCV)
We can make several applications out of what the Bible is saying. But for the purpose of our present consideration let’s understand this. ANGELS WOULD NOT BE INTERESTED IN SOMETHING IF IT WEREN’T VITALLY IMPORTANT IN THE ETERNAL, UNSEEN SPIRITUAL REALM.
THIS THING CALLED THE “GOOD NEWS” THAT WE CHRIST FOLLOWERS SHARE – IS BIG! IT’S REALLY BIG! It’s meaningful, momentous, significant, relevant, and urgent. It’s fundamental, it’s essential, it’s primary, and it’s beyond words!
Louis Pasteur, the pioneer of immunology, lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies. Pasteur had worked for years on a vaccine. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a 9-year-old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy’s mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days--and the boy lived.
Decades later, of all the things Pasteur could have had etched on his headstone, he asked for three words: JOSEPH MEISTER LIVED.
Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally because of our efforts. (Source: Leadership Journal)
The biggest thing you will ever do with your life, next to deciding to make your own faith commitment to Jesus, is to leave this building, and go to the unchurched and tell them the Good News about Jesus!
