Title: “What is the Role of Man in God’s Mission?” Script: various
Type: Thematic/Topical Where: GNBC 4-21-02/5-18-14/5-5-19
Intro: James Alexander Thom, on the fear of responsibility: “Have you ever had to paint some roof trim, high up? You get halfway up that 36-foot extension ladder and you start wondering about the ladder, its footing and your body weight. You stop and hug the ladder, looking neither up nor down. Your left leg begins a ridiculous but uncontrollable shuddering. At length you conquer that particular rung and inch your way to the next, then the next. Finally you're at the top, clinging for your life. How can you take one hand off the ladder to use the paintbrush? But you do. Tight as a fiddle you begin. The sky is clear. The sun is nice. The thirsty wood soaks up the paint. You whistle and think positive thoughts and do a good job and forget about the height. *You've learned an important lesson of life from this. No matter what higher responsibility you take on, it’s scary, very scary, until you start working. For many Christians, whole idea of missions can be very scary until begin! Yet is a responsibility.
Prop: The Christian man or woman has responsibilities to fulfill in relation to missions.
BG: 1. Church hasn’t always fulfilled – Acts 1:8 – yet did not leave until Acts 8:1
2. Did not fulfill during Reformation. Glorious period of Church, most Reformers thought not Church’s present duty. Missions was rare in 16th and 17th centuries, Protestant missions began to gain momentum in the 18th century.
3. Avg. Am. Evangel. Parent, kid can do anything, yet not missions….
Prop: Exam. various Script. we’ll see 3responsibilities the Xstian has in relation to missions.
I. The Christian is to be the Extension of God’s Presence
A. Created in His Image we are to Represent Him with our Lives. – Gen. 1:26
1. Wherever we are, we are to be a demonstration of God’s presence.
a. Man was created distinct and different from all the rest of the animal kingdom. Yes, in the animal kingdom one may see the beauty of God’s design, but only in man do we see His image! And as the highest order of creation, man. Man was created male and female. God created them. Man was given authority and dominion over the earth Christ created. “Truth is the bedrock of the Church’s Mission, and not just any truth, but the certainty of Jesus’s all-encompassing authority. Missions fundamentally begins and ends with a clear vision of Jesus as Lord and not necessarily with personal calling or passion for the lost. What we know and believe about Jesus shapes what we do for Jesus.
b. Do you know why man was made in God’s image? God made man in His own image so that He could have an object worthy of His everlasting love. God created man, twice emphasizing “in His image.” There is no room for harmonizing the Genesis account with an evolutionary origin of man. God created man distinct from animals. Only man is made in God’s image. What does it mean that man is made in God’s image and likeness? I take the two words as synonymous, used in combined form to add either intensity or clarification. While theologians debate the precise meaning of the image of God in man, I think the essential feature is that man (as male and female) is able to reflect “God-likeness.” Obviously, finite human beings, even before the fall, cannot reflect completely or accurately the eternal, infinite nature of God. But with his personality, intelligence, and ability to know and relate to God, man is able to reflect God-likeness in a limited way.
2. God Uses His People to Expose the Weaknesses of Pagan gods.
a. Illust- Moses – Ex. 7-11 – miracles of Aaron’s rod swallowing snakes of Egypt, the turning of Nile to blood so nothing could live in it, the plague of frogs, gnats (Egyptians could not copy – magicians warned Pharoah – “This is the hand of God”, plagues of flies, cattle – held cattle as sacred, boils – had a god for diseases, hail- god of the sky, locust – god of the field, darkness – attack “Ra” the sun god, and ultimately death of first-born were direct assaults on the various pagan gods of the Egyptians. Demonstrated Jehovah’s superiority.
b. Illust – Apostle Paul – Acts 17 – Mars Hill in Athens. Stoics and Epicureans debating views and philosophies, and Paul states: “The God Who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made of human hands…” (Acts 17:24) (What was he doing? Exposing their’ gods’ weaknesses. Illust- Pastor Thony Paul – “We digging a big hole to bury the voodoo!” Power encounters.
B. Missions is Taking the Person and Presence of God to the Nations.
1. IN Missions the Church actively demonstrates the presence of God to the unreached.
a. Illust- Ravi Zacharias - Bertrand Russell – p. 47, JAOG, - Once was asked: “If you meet God after you die, what will you say to Him to justify your unbelief?” “I will tell Him that He did not give me enough evidence!” You see, neither Russell nor you nor I can hide behind such a statement. God has in fact given us evidence in Creation and in His Word.
b. Illust: While ago I saw a cousin of mine had posted on FB a quote by the pagan Carl Sagan: “Better the hard truth than the comforting fantasy.” With a postscript: “This was a man who spent his life in search of the truth.” NOT REALLY. Carl Sagan and Jesus Christ cannot both be correct. The “Cosmos” is either all there is, or if Jesus is correct, there is much more we cannot see, that is equally real. There are two factors that seem to give the credibility edge to Jesus. The first is that Carl Sagan was trapped on this earth and restricted to seeing things through a telescope. I am certain the “Cosmos” is all Carl was able to see. Actually, I think that is all Carl wanted to see. Jesus had a broader perspective and claimed some personal experience. Jesus flatly stated he had lived in and personally experienced eternity before he was born into this world. The Bible teaches that Jesus, as God, pre-existed what we call time. Jesus said he was with God the Father before time began and he was returning to the Father after his resurrection. His literal, historical resurrection from the dead gives credibility to the truth of what he claimed. ( See more at: http://www.thegodwall.com/jesus-and-carl-sagan/#sthash.4IZaABFp.dpuf)
c. Yet Apostle Paul silences such silliness- Rom. 1:20 – “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood that through what was made, so that they are w/o excuse.” Christian, do soothe your conscience thinking that those who have never heard are safe and well off. No!
2. Yet, it can become very easy for us to lose focus in fulfilling our responsibility.
a. Illust- I will not name the church, but one in town sent out 1000’s of slick direct mailings for Easter. Front picture had kid screaming being dragged to church. Other side had following statements: Join us for Easter Worship = 1. All songs will be written in this century (don’t think was case!) 2. You can dress casual. 3. We will entertain you. 4. We will give you gourmet coffee. (No mention of Christ, no mention of Resurrection, Hope, of Salvation, etc. ) Have we so watered down what we are about that best we can do to encourage people to come to our congregation is say: “drag your brats, dress like a slob” and here is Starbucks!? (Book of Acts – 1000’s coming into the church? Lives were attracting. Holiness and purity, Message of Messiah!)
b. We need to make sure we don’t ever lose focus of what is the main “thing” for us as a church…seeing people born again and enjoying a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
C. Applic: Oxford Math Professor John Lennox has said: “Either human intelligence ultimately owes its existence to mindless matter or there is a Personal Creator. It is strange that there are some people who claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second.” Our culture and society is screaming out for the presence of God! Christians, don’t get so busy caught up in our internal affairs that lose sight of their need.
II. The Christian is to Demonstrate and Express God’s Character in Missions
A. The Christian is to Act Like Christ in His Character.
1. What does this practically mean? We are to be godly.
a. Illust- Being godly doesn’t mean that we have to be strange. Yes, we are to be different from society, but we don’t have to attempt to make ourselves look weird to society. Our lives should be winsome. May I just say this in our era of social media warriors, watch your mouths! Quit swearing. Quit posting memes with swearing…for the Christian it is not COOL, it is not being RELEVANT, it is sinful. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Eph. 4:29)
b. Christians are to live w/o a hint of immorality. Illust: Wow, we have seen another series of Christian leaders who have recently fallen very hard.
2. Missions becomes Natural when We Realize and Utilize the Indwelling Holy Spirit’s power to change our character.
a. John Stott once wrote: “The Christian is to be a spiritual dipsomaniac, always thirsty, always drinking.” This drinking in is not of water, but of the Holy Spirit. No one can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, He flows forth, if He is not flowing forth, He is not there. Thus, we must beware of any claim to the fullness of the Spirit which does not lead to an evangelistic concern and weakness. Not only will He give you a desire to see others won to Christ, but to love others with the love of Christ.
b. Illust- These statistics are old, from when I was in seminary. Yet I doubt much has changed in 25-30 yrs. Number one reason given why missionaries returned home: Lack of money? Resistance among natives? Theological discrepancy? NO! Couldn’t get along with other missionaries! Don’t need to see bickering. Need to see “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” – Heb. 12:11. (Pray this for Trey and Stefanie this week!)
B. Expressing God’s Character in our Lives Demonstrates the Different Purpose we have.
1. Expressing God’s Character Gives you and me confidence to Live as He wants us to.
a. The sold-out Christian, living according to the power of the HS, allowing the character of Christ to be developed w/in does not have to “Crave Acceptance”. We always need to remember that our lives are ultimately not about us. You have a higher priority to point people to Christ, than worry about personal popularity. I know far too many Christian kids who hide their Christianity while in high school or college because want to be “popular” and afraid won’t be accepted if take too many stands for Jesus. Little does that misled Christian know that has missed out on some of the greatest opportunities God may give us in our lifetimes. Ilust: Last night honored to watch Robert Wright receive Goodwill Industries’ Employee of the Year award: “I want to thank God…” First words out of his mouth. Praise the Lord! Point people to Christ!
b. Illust- I once read a story that sort of illust. this point. Dr. H. Ironsides told story of man visiting on business in London in the 19th cent. Wrote letter home to wife stating that over the Sunday he had opportunity to enjoy the preaching ministry of two of the most prominent pastors in London. Gone to a certain Dr. Carmichael’s church in the am. Then, had gone to Metropolitan Tabernacle in the pm (Spurgeon’s congregation.) The man’s impression of the two giants was telling: “Dr. Carmichael is a great preacher. Charles Spurgeon has a great Savior!" Quit getting hung-up on your hang-ups and point people to Christ!
2. Missions requires that: I Do Have to Reflect God’s character.
a. Illust- II Cor. 3:18 – “But we all, w/unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” Do you realize that as a Christian we are to be a mirror? Missions prospers and becomes more effective as we realize this principle. A mirror never loses any sleep over acceptance! Put it on the wall and it does it’s job. See, we will reflect something or someone. Either reflect sinfulness and values of our society or reflect the character of God.
b. Yet when we get a mere glimpse and even the most initial image and understanding of the holiness of God it should cause us to cry out, like the lepers of old: “Unclean!”, and yet earnestly desire to live every moment as a reflection of His grace.
C. Applic: Missions requires that your whole person: body, soul, and spirit, point people to Xst.
III. The Christian is to Exhibit God’s Power in Missions. (Ps. 24:1-6)
A. We are Put on this Earth to show what it means to maintain this world for God’s glory.
1. As a Christian you are to be concerned for the honor of God’s glory in this world.
a. Illust- What do we know about world as stated in the Bible? We know: Ps. 24:1 – the world belongs to God, Jn. 3:16 – He loves the world, II Pet. 3:9 – He is not willing that any should perish, I Tim. 2:4 – God desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. How do we accomplish such a great task? In our strength? No! Rather, in Christ’s Power! The reason I say power is essential for witness is because in both Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 Jesus says that power must come first—"You shall receive power ... and you shall be my witnesses." "You are my witnesses ... stay in the city, until you are clothed with power."
b. Illust: According to John R. Mott, Arthur T. Pierson, a Presbyterian minister, was responsible for sounding the trumpet that started the Student Volunteer Movement in missions a hundred+ years ago. In 1882 Pierson wrote in the Missionary Review that three things were needed to finish the Great Commission and evangelize the world: 1) the whole church needed to be involved; 2) evangelistic zeal was needed in the lives of believers; and 3) a baptism of the power of the Holy Spirit was needed.
On this last point he wrote, "To do this work in twenty years, we must get more Gospel, more vitality ... The church has money, brains, organizations, rivers of prayer and oceans of sermons, but she lacks in POWER." (Mission Frontiers, 10/8, August, 1988, Supplement, "The Crisis of Missions" Todd M. Johnson, p.6.)
c. You see, man was made in the beginning, by God, for God, and it was God’s intention that man should find his highest happiness in Him. The most frustrated individual on earth is the born-again Christian who attempts to find his or her happiness in anything or anyone other than the Savior. – career, children, spouse, hobbies, fortune. Why? Because attempting to put square peg in round hole. God put man here to have dominion in place of Satan. The earth is the theater for God’s ultimate victory over Satan and the fallen angels. Satan wants to defy God by ruling the earth. God’s purpose is to have man on earth reflecting His image and having dominion over the earth under His sovereignty.
2. We are to work in conjunction with God’s power in extending God’s dominion.
a. We exercise our God-given abilities to show the world that Jesus is Lord of all. But how does Christ exercise His dominion? One day He will return and rule the earth, but for now He is not physically present on the earth. In Ephesians Paul reveals that Christ’s dominion is to be exercised and God’s image is to be reflected through the church and through the unit of the church, the home. Col. 1:16 – “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, - all things have been created by Him and for Him.”
b. Illust: This week, I want to challenge you, ask God to use you to exhibit his power to someone who needs to see it. Ask Him to lead you, support you, strengthen you, and give you wisdom. It is amazing sometimes when ask the Lord to use us and see what he does. Illust: Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) the great Italian violinist, willed his fine instrument to his home city of Genoa. His bequest carried one condition. The violin was never to be played; it would simply be placed on display. But that’s not good for a finely crafted stringed instrument. It needs to be used and handled regularly if its beauty and value are to be retained. As a result of Paganini’s request, his marvelous violin has become nothing more than a decaying form. It has wasted away as a museum piece. (Church in much of Europe and other places the same today.)
B. God’s Power is for a Purpose – To see men saved.
1. The Missionary is concerned Man Realizes He can Have Fellowship/God – To Know Him.
a. Yet, man does not naturally have fellowship w/ God. Man is alienated due to sin and trespasses. Yes, no one ever spoke more clearly of the Love of God than Jesus Christ, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, yet, no One also spoke as clearly about the reality of sin, wrath, death, and judgment. Almighty God, Ruler of heaven and earth does not and will not tolerate rebellion in His universe forever.
b. I don’t preach the wrath of God because I like it, but because our Savior taught it. C.S. Lewis once wrote: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this hell, if it lay in my power…I would pay any price to be able to truthfully say: “All will be saved.” But I can’t!
2. Man Accepts Stewardship: Man is to rule over the works of God’s hand: Make Him Know!
a. Regardless of your position in society, you are to make Christ known. The great thing is that no matter who you are and what your calling in life is…you can make Him known!
b. Illust- Dr. John R. Mott – son of the Postville, IA, lumber mill operator went to UNI and then to Cornell. On Jan. 14, 1886, listened to JK Studd (one of famous Cambridge 7). Three sentence from Studd’s speech stuck in mind rest of life: “Seekest thou great things for thy life? Seek them not! Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” When Mott heard those words, his life was never the same again. He knew his calling. Over fifty years Mott became the leader of the Student Volunteer Movement- which had one goal: “Win the world in this generation.” IN leading that charge Mott would cross the Atlantic some 100x and Pacific 14 x in the capacity of being the spokesman for world missions. The New-York-born-and-Iowa-raised Mott was nurtured in a devout Methodist home. He was led into "a reasonable and vital faith" at Cornell University after hearing and speaking personally Studd, the renowned cricket-player-turned-evangelist (and one of the "Cambridge Seven" who later worked with Hudson Taylor in China). Mott stepped up and became one of the 100 men who volunteered for foreign missions.Mott's destiny, however, lay not in foreign missions but in evangelizing college students and inspiring others to foreign mission work. He became college secretary of the YMCA in 1888, when the organization was consciously evangelical and aggressively evangelistic. That same year, he helped organize the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM), a branch of the YMCA and YWCA. By the time he spoke at SVM's 1951 convention, over 20,000 volunteers had gone to mission fields ...
C. Applic: What is your life goal or passion? Is it worthy of the life God has given you? Is it worthy of the salvation Christ has purchased for you? God can’t use some of the most talented people in the world today because they will not in humility allow Him rule and reign over their lives. Yet, he can take the son of a Podunk, IA lumber yard owner, who was available to be used, and inspire nearly three generations and one of the greatest movements in missions history.
*PRESENCE, CHARACTER, POWER!
