INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• We are winding down the Story, we are in chapter 29 of 31. I hope that as we have going on our journey through the Story that you are starting understand God’s upper story.
• I hope that you are seeing that God is not a God who is out to get you, but rather He is a God who has been pursuing you with His love!
• In the gospels we read of God sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we can be with Him for eternity.
• Our sin problem was taken care of on the cross by Jesus death, burial, and resurrection!
• During the ministry of Jesus He shared the Kingdom of God with people. But Jesus’ earthly ministry would end.
• After Jesus ascended into heaven there needed to be a way to tell people about the great things God has done for them.
• This was going to be a big job, it would take a lot of prayer, a lot of work, and a lot of people.
• In the book of Acts and the other letters of the New Testament we see that God planned on using the church to help save those who are lost. The church (which is US) is called to help lead people back home!
• A typical church can so easily get off mission because it is made up of people who sometimes are not always heading in the same direction. WE always need to remember why we are here. WE must never forget the calling the church has from Jesus!
• As the church was getting off the ground, God knew they were going to need some help. Today in chapter 29 of The Story we are going to look at the church and the interesting person God chose to help it.
• That same help is with us today!
• Let us start by reading 1 Corinthians 12:27-30
• SLIDE #2
• 1 Corinthians 12:27 (NIV) Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The church is the body of Christ- called to do His work.
• The early church had a lot of struggles, not too different than the church today.
• The church was struggling with spiritual gifts, immorality, who was greater than who, among other things.
• The church at Corinth (CORE WRITH) HAD A LOT OF ISSUES.
• Paul was trying to get them back on track so he wrote the first and second letter to the Corinthian church.
• When the church does not stay focused, eternities are at stake because Jesus choose the church as the mechanism for carrying out His work on earth!
• Assembled together the church is Jesus, and we are to think like Jesus, act like Jesus and love others like Jesus loves them.
• In the passage we read the church was fighting over spiritual gifts, some who had particular gifts thought they were more important than those who did not possess the same gifts.
• I am glad that scenario does not play out in the modern church!
• Verse 27 remind us that the church is the body of Christ and that each one of us are a part of it.
• And unlike a sports team, there is no BENCH in the church. You do not have to sit on a bench and wait your turn, you are in the GAME NOW!
• So if we are the body of Christ, we are to be like Jesus, in our thoughts, actions and love.
• That is no easy task!
• Since the church is the body of Christ, we are called to carry out the mission that JESUS calls us to carry out.
• The church is commissioned to go into all the world as witnesses to Jesus.
• SLIDE #4
• Acts 1:8 (NIV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• SO many people with inside and outside of the church have ideas as to what the church is called to do.
• I have had folks walk through the doors wanting money to refill their cell phone or call from a motel tell us that the church is supposed to help the poor.
• Is that PART of what we do, yes, BUT is that the prime mission from JESUS? NO!
• Some within the church think it is our job to visit the sick and take care of the members of the church. IS that PART of what we do, yes!
• Is that what Jesus said our main mission was? NO!
• Some say we are to fight the injustices of the world. That can be part of what we do, but is that what Jesus said our main mission was? NO!
• SLIDE #5
• Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
• Acts 1:8 was the last thing He shared with His disciples before He ascended. His mission must have been important!
• Our MAIN calling is to reach lost people and then teach them to be like Jesus!
• God wants all people in the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
• SLIDE #6
• 1 Timothy 2:3–4 (NIV) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
• Jesus said the poor would always be with us. Jesus did not take on the Roman government when HE was here, He did not even lead a crusade to stop the abhorrent practice of slavery. He did not heal EVERYONE who was in need.
• Jesus was on mission all the time!
• SLIDE #7
• Luke 19:10 (NIV) For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
• Doing the other things opened to door for Him to fulfill this mission! As a church we should ALWAYS make sure what we do enhances our opportunities to reach lost people and help them grow in Christ!
• SLIDE #8
• 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
• My question to all of us is this, how are we doing as ambassadors for Jesus! Our mission is to seek and save the lost!
• Now the church was fresh, new, she needed leaders and direction, it started with the original apostles plus a new one after Judas, then God did something interesting.
• SLIDE #9
II. God raised up a leader to help the church fulfill her calling.
• God has made some interesting choices when He taps people on the shoulder. Abraham and Sarah. Moses. Gideon, and the list goes on.
• I think the most intriguing pick was a man named Saul.
• Here is this man’s pedigree.
• SLIDE #10
• Philippians 3:5–6 (NIV) circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
• This guy is greatly qualified, but did you catch verse 6? as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
• Whoa! PERSECUTING THE CHURCH?
• Saul of Tarsus was an unlikely candidate to help the church grow, he was the Osama ben Laden of His day!
• He hated Jesus, he hated the church and he hunted down Christians and had them tossed into jail and he was holding the coats as he agreed with the stoning of Stephen!
• SLIDE #11
• Acts 8:1–3 (NIV) And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
• The road to Damascus in Acts 9 changed it all for Paul! He met Jesus!
• Jesus has a way of changing lives!
• Saul who later would be known as Paul was amazed that Jesus would use him as a missionary!
• SLIDE #12
• 1 Corinthians 15:9 (NIV) For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
• So how did this man help the church?
• This man who started out persecuting the church went on to plant 10 churches, and write 13 (maybe 14 if you count Hebrews) of the 27 books of the New Testament!
• It was not always easy for the man chosen by God to help build the body of Christ!
• SLIDE #13
III. Paul stayed focused in the face of difficulties.
• Paul faced a lot of obstacles, first once he became a Christian, the churches were not too eager to trust him. I wonder why?
• SLIDE #14
• Acts 9:26–27 (NIV) 26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
• It took Barnabas to come along side of Paul before folks would accept him.
• Later as Paul felt called to preach to the Gentiles, he was winning a lot of Gentiles to the Lord.
• Some Jewish leaders said Gentiles had to do two things to become true Christians: 1) believe in Jesus Christ, and 2) be circumcised (i.e., practice Jewish laws).
• So in Acts 15, we see the what people call the Jerusalem Council. It dealt with the question: Do Gentiles have to become Jews in practice to be true Christians.
• The Council led by James the brother of Jesus. When all the arguments were presented the Council reached the conclusion that the Gentiles did not have to submit to Jewish laws!
• So that was one obstacle down.
• Paul faced many other issues. About six years after the Council, Paul wrote the letter to the churches in the southern part of Galatia called Galatians to defend the decision of the council and to deal with the question of his own commission by Jesus.
• Some would try to say that Paul was a false apostle since he was not one of the 12!
• Paul suffering going hungry, being shipwrecked, beaten, stoned (with rocks), imprisoned, mocked, among other things, yet Paul always stayed focused on his call!
• He said his old life meant nothing compared to know Jesus as his Lord!
• SLIDE #15
• Philippians 3:8 (NIV) What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
• Paul had a one-track mind, Jesus!
• SLIDE #16
• Galatians 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Paul stayed focused until the very end!
• SLIDE #17
• 2 Timothy 4:7–8 (NIV) I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
• That is the way to end a life!
CONCLUSION
• Paul had an important mission from God! Why was that mission important to us today?
• Most of are Gentile and it is because of Paul’s mission that we are invited into salvation.
• The Book of Acts is our story. The acts of the apostles are to be the acts of our local church.
• The mission of the church is our mission: to be Jesus to our Jerusalem, to our Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
• I pray that when I go to be with my Lord I too can repeat the words of 2 Timothy 4:7-8!
