A VISION OF THE POSSIBLE
Matt 4: 19 (p677), 28: 18-20 (p698) June 2, 2013
“Come follow me Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people”
INTRODUCTION:
I want you to close your eyes for just a moment and imagine the church….Please don’t picture buildings or the inside of the sanctuary….don’t envision programs or activities just the people. People who live in a world of sin and darkness, suffering and pain. A world where over 3 billion people survive on less than 2 dollars a day and billions of these people live in absolute poverty. A world where billions are entangled in false religions and around 2 billion of them have never even heard the gospel…they are all (literally billions of people) on a road that leads to an eternal Hell---suffering that will never, ever, ever end.
But you and the people who have really made a decision to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, you’ve accepted His sacrifice…He is your Savior…In your mind and heart you know Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to save people from their sins, all people! In your heart of hearts, the depth of your souls you’ve tasted and seen that only He can satisfy your deepest desires…everyone’s deepest desires…your will has been surrender to His purpose and you want to witness for Him and you’ll do that where every He leads you in this world….the people you envision are brothers and sisters in a local church with a global commission: MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. God has filled every single one of you with the power of His own spirit to enable each of you individually and all of you collectively to reach the world with His message…the gospel. He has made your feet “Beautiful shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace”. So open your eyes…
If you only had people…no building, no programs, no ministry staff----and you were charged with spreading the gospel to the entire world, where would you start...Would you pool your money…spend millions on a big building to meet together in? Would you get an exciting speaker the best musicians and the most talented staff in order to organize presentations and programs that appeal to families and children? Would you devote your resources to what is most comfortable, most entertaining, and most pleasing to you?
I don’t think your church would do that---and neither would mine. Not if we really believed God’s word and were honestly looking at God’s word. If we recognized that there are billions of people without the gospel, many who have never even heard it…and there are hundreds of millions of people starving without food or water…we probably wouldn’t say….”Let’s spend millions and millions of dollars building places where we can worship together…The Bible never commands us to build a house for worship…instead God’s word says His people “are the house of worship”.
“Yes we are told “Not to give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – more and more as we see the day of Christ’s return approaching.” (Heb 10:25)
Let me ask you…what do you think we would, or should encourage one another to be doing, all the more as the day of Christ’s returns draws near????!!!
The New Testament never tells us to build a place for people to come to us…instead the New Testament commands us to give our lives going to people.
If we really believe the Bible, our job is to equip ever single person in the church to release the Holy Spirit equipped gift in them for ministry. Our emphasis should be that we are a “going” people…instead we’ve become “attending people.
You see, the purpose of our gathering together would not be to soak in a show or set in a class. The purpose of our gathering is to share our lives…to share the hurts, the joys, the struggles and the victories we are experiencing as we spend our lives going out into the world.
We should encourage one another, teach one another, worship with one another, give to one another, and sacrifice for one another…and then we scatter again to make the gospel of Jesus known to the world…the church isn’t about inviting a bunch of people to hear a great messenger...the church is about many ministers slash servants infiltrating the world with the good news. It’s what we should do week after week, month after month, year after year and we shouldn’t stop until the gospel impacts every community in the world. I give you….
I A PORTRAIT OF THE CHURCH IN ITS EARLY STAGES
A band of 12 men responded to Jesus life---changing invitation: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. (Matt 4:14)
In the days to come they watched Him, listened to Him teach, learned from Him how to love, teach and serve others the same way He did. There came a time when they watched Him die on a cross for their sins, only to rise from the dead 3 days later….40 days later he gathered them on a mountainside and said to them:
Matt. 28: 18-20 (p698)
Fishers of Men His authoritative commission would become their consuming ambition.
Not long after this a group of 120 waited, and prayed…and Jesus, true to His promise sent His Holy Spirit to everyone of them and immediately they began proclaiming the gospel…soon a persecution would break out scattering them from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth and in 1 generation they grew to over 400 times the size they were when they started. How did that happen?
Was it because they had extravagant buildings and entertaining programs? There were none of these, was it because of gifted leaders? Yes God appointed particular people to certain positions in the church…but the spread of the gospel in the early church took place because ordinary people, empowered by an extraordinary presence were proclaiming the good news of Jesus everywhere they went…listen to what David Platt writes in the book “Follow Me”.
This is how the gospel penetrated the world during the first century: through self-denying, spirit-empowered disciples of Jesus who were making disciples of Jesus. Followers of Jesus were fishing for men. Disciples were making disciples. Christians were not known for association with Christ and his church: instead, they were known for complete abandonment to Christ and his cause. The great commission was not a choice for them to consider, but a command for them to obey. And though they faced untold trials and unthinkable persecution, they experienced unimaginable joy as they joined with Jesus in the advancement of His Kingdom proclaiming the gospel everywhere they went. It was anonymous Christians (i.e., not the apostles) who first took the gospel to Judea and Samaria, and it was unnamed believers who founded the church at Antioch, which became a base for mission to the Gentile world. It was unidentified followers of Jesus who spread the gospel throughout all of Asia. Disciples were made and churches were multiplied in places the apostles never went. The Good News of Jesus spread not through extravagant preachers, but through everyday people whose lives had been transformed by the power of Christ. They were going from house to house and in marketplaces and shops along streets and travel routes, leading people to faith in Jesus on a daily basis.
I want to be part of a movement like that…I want Fern Creek to be changing people’s lives not figuring out how many cars can we park in our lot. I want to be part of a movement that joyfully sacrifices the temporary for the eternal….disciples who make disciples from house to house to our communities…to our cities and to the whole world….An expectation that everyone participates…there are no spectators in the Kingdom of God…Every single follower of Christ fishing for people…This is God’s design for His church, and true followers of Christ must not settle for anything less…even if it’s uncomfortable and requires change.
Here’s
II A SIMPLE STRATEGY
Matthew 28 is a simple strategy, if you think about it…Jesus begins with authority…resurrection authority…Phil 2:9-11 says “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the father.”
So when Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me THEREFORE, it’s a commission and a commandant that does not find, it’s power in the ones who are sent…but the power and authority is in the One who send us…the one who said “I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS”
It’s the one who would send the Holy Spirit upon those few who met and prayed in an upper room…and then, that power would explode in conversions and transformations through the gospel…remember 400 times their number in 1 generation….
My question…”Do you think this simple strategy…this simple and powerful command is still what most churches try to follow?
Are most Christians programmed to think “I’ll make disciples of Jesus as I go” or “I’ll come to church, I’ll build a program and help there so people will come and accept Christ”. Which do you think happens most in American? Which do you think is closer to Jesus command?
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations….Literally (porevthentes…oun…matheteusate…panta…ta…ethna) having gone, therefore make learners of all the nations.
I think we lose a little of what this verse assumes and what it commands…we’ve heard it so many times, but the assumption is “Disciple’s are going Having gone (impoett teree) As you are going make disciples all over the world. Jesus promises His authority and presence…knowing we will leave the mountain and head into life…but His command is “Be intentional about making disciples…making learners…”as you go!
Christianity for Jesus and His disciples isn’t about 1 day where you meet together…it’s about intentionally taking Him to all nations…as you and I go.
Acts chapter 5 is early in the life of the church, but certainly after Jesus ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost…listen…”All the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s colonnade. No one else dared join them even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless more and more men and woman believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” (Acts 5:13)
The outside world wasn’t won by coming inside…the outside world was won through men and women who as they were going became highly regarded by their communities…they came to believe in the Lord through disciples who made disciples, because they loved they served, they sacrificed, they were honest…they’d been with Jesus! In the outside Solomon’s colonnade Lives!
They “baptizontes” immersed them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…and they taught those who surrendered those who were immersed to obey the commands of Jesus.
We’ve got to get away from an ungodly plan that thinks the outside world will forget their fears and come be saved in Solomon’s Porch…We, those of us who are truly followers of Jesus, empowered by His spirit and assured of His presence need to become highly regarded in our communities for being Jesus people. Then the doors open for disciples to be made…then we reach the world for Christ…saving 400 times our number in 1 generation.
[Church isn’t a place you go…it is a people you are…For those who shop around…look for things they don’t like…use American Consumerism as their litmus test for whether they way to attend a church or not…for those who say that they love Christ but hate the church…let me ask you…”If you went up to husband or wife and said, “I love you…but hate your body…I don’t want anything to do with your body! Would you take that as a compliment? No you wouldn’t.
David Platt has a great definition for the church…Here it is: “The Local church is a local body of Baptized believers formed together under biblical leadership to grow in the likeness of Christ and express the love of Christ to each other and to the world around them.”
The church is Jesus primary method for impacting the world…Isn’t it time we become intentional about making disciples as we go? Isn’t it time we view our job as biblical leaders to equip others to do just that by teaching and example? And when we live Jesus lives in and among those outside these walls maybe we’ll become highly regarded by our community also.
