INTRO
Let me take you back to when George Bush, Sr, was president. When he and his military advisors decided to engage Saddam Hussein and his military forces, what was the first thing they did? They poured all the military strength of the United States onto the Saudi Arabian peninsula. The coalition forces numbered 500,000 men and women. They used the most technologically advanced equipment available. They had the best missiles, the best planes, the best tanks, and the best weapons. They held back nothing because they understood their purpose; to win a war.
Viet Nam was a different story. I went last week to see the movie, “We Were Soldiers.” It tells of the very first contact of US forces with Viet Cong gooks. It was very realistic and jerked some of my personal memories of gorilla warfare when I was 18 years old. The US strategy in Viet Nam was “limited warfare.” The problem with limited warfare is that your enemy is always engaged in all out war. So you start off at a disadvantage. The movie made that crystal clear. The US lost sight of the purpose of the military, to fight and win wars. We suffered an embarrasing defeated in Viet Nam.
Not so in Desert Storm. With a clear purpose to win, the coalition forces devastated Iraq.
It is critical to always keep purpose in mind. When purpose is lost, everything is lost. “Limited warfare” can never be the purpose of the military. The sole purpose of the military is to fight and win wars, nothing less.
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This brings me to a question we must answer today. What is the purpose of the church? Why was it established? What is the purpose against which we should measure everything we do? It is the same purpose the Jesus came for! It is the same purpose why He died and why we live. John puts it this way in 1 John 3:8b:
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the works of the devil.”
The word “destroy” literally means “to unloose, to untie a knot.” The devil’s work or business it to tie us up, to bind up, to literally place chains around us. He wants to hold you captive and in prison.
Physically, the devil binds up and imprisons through disease and death. The existence of bacteria and the reality of germs are ultimately the activities of the devil attacking the human body. He also uses natural disasters, war and crime to destroy human society. He delights to ravage, to twist and hate and break and smash and mangle.
Intellectually, the devil binds people up by lying. He deceives and tells lies. He teaches us to believe certain widespread proverbs that everybody accepts as true. "Watch out for yourself." "You’ll never get ahead unless you think of yourself.”
Jesus came to loose you and I from the devils works, to set us free. And we want you to experience that freedom today. This freedom takes a hold of your problems and makes them literally dissolve into thin air. Jesus can make your situation simply disappear, like chains falling off of a prisoner. That is now God set us free.
Do want to see the devils works destroyed? Do you wish to see people set free? Freedom comes when three things happen. Each is based on faith and trust in God Himself. I see each of these three as miracles.
Miracle 1: The Spirit of God Pours Out
Our God is love. And love gives and gives and gives. We serve a giving and gracious Father in heaven. That is His heart. This week the Lord inspired me to see His three givings or “sendings.” He pointed the first two “sendings” out in Galatians 4:4,
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under law, (5) to
redeem those under law, that we might receive the
full rights of sons."
First, He “sent” His Son to live in the world. Most know the Scripture in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave (His love in action) His only Son.” That is a completed fact,a historical fact. Jesus was born of a virgin Mary over 2000 years ago. He was brought up into a Jewish faith in ancient Israel and was crucified outside Jerusalem at age 33.
That was the price of redemption. A broken body and spilled blood was the price for our sins. Through His life and death and resurrection we were brought back into right relationship with God. Through Him, we become sons and daughters, children of God through the new birth experience. As confessed Him with our mouth and believed in our hearts we were saved.
As His children, we now have the right to confess our sins and experience total forgiveness. We have the right to claim ourselves to be God’s own children. We have the right to celebrate heaven as our eternal home.
If there is anyone in the house today who is not born-again, we invite you to enter in. God will give you heavenly right that are far superior to any human rights. There is no comparison between the two rights. Heavenly rights promise you eternal riches; earthly rights give you temporary rags. Heavenly rights include a city whose street is made of pure gold. Earthly right include 16% interest credit cards of many colors. Heavenly rights promise you 24 hour supernatural joy. Earthly rights promise you regular monthly bills. As 1 John 2:16 reads,
“For everything in the world—the cravings of
sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting
of what he has and does—comes not from the Father
but from the world.
Verse 6 tells us the second sending of God.
"Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his
Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls
out, "Abba, {6 Aramaic for Father} Father."
He “sent” His Spirit to live in our hearts. As God’s sons, we have the right to receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Paul says that receiving the Holy Spirit is a heart thing. Romans 5:5 says that,
“the love of God has been poured out into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
It bypasses the head because Spirit-filling in not received by human logic or technical analysis. It is received by faith and faith alone.
It was a faith experience that began on the day called Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4:
"1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all
together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the
blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and
filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that
separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other tongues {Or languages} as the
Spirit enabled them.
Peter explained to them what this event was. He said in verse 32-33,
32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are
all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right
hand of God, he has received from the Father the
promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you
now see and hear.
Paul asked believers who had not experienced the Spirit a question in Acts 19:2,
"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when {2 Or after}
you believed?"
I ask you that question. Those believers responded, “What you talking about? Holy who?” Paul explained to them that the Holy Spirit was a living person, the third person of the trinity, whom God poured out among His people. Verse 6 tells us the faith experience next,
“When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy
Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues {Or
other languages} and prophesied.”
The filling of the Holy Spirit flows out of your mouth. That is because what is in your heart is spoken through the mouth. We overflow with supernatural language called tongues. That is one of the many gifts of the Spirit for each of us.
And as a Spirit-led, Spirit-inspired, Spirit-filled church, we spontaneously “call” out, “Abba, father.” At Grace Fellowship we want to experience a Spirit-enhanced noise of praise and prayer. So don’t be surprised when the person next to you calls out to God in prayer or with shouts of praise. Join in with them. It’s ok, it’s really ok. Sound among the gathered believers is healthy. Do not be afraid. It is a healthy sign of the Holy Spirit celebrating our sonship and daughtership in and through our hearts and lives. If you understand what God is saying to us this morning, shout “Amen”…just do something!
He send His Son and he sent the Holy Spirit. Then he sends His saints. God then sends these born-again Spirit-filled people into the world. He “sends” us to witness in this world. This is also an act of faith and faith alone. This is why Jesus called and taught us to pray for His witnesses to go out. Jesus taught us to pray like this in Luke 10:1-3,
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two {1
Some manuscripts seventy; also in verse 17} others
and sent them two by two ahead of him to every
town and place where he was about to go. 2 (Then
he analyzed the problem) He told them, "The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
(Then he provided the solution) Ask the Lord of
the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into
his harvest field. 3 (Then he commissioned the
workers) Go! I am sending you out like lambs among
wolves.
The word “send” is a strong word. It means, “to thrust out with force, to throw violently, to hurl hard and fast.” We not talking softball here with its underhand slow pitch. We talking fastball. We talking baseball (or hardball) with its 90 mile per hour overhand Tom Glavin fast pitch. There is no turning back or looking back, “Lord, send us into this world to witness.”
Paul experienced these 3 “sendings” in his life. In Acts 9 he experienced Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was struck blind by the light of Jesus Christ. The experienced sapped him of all his physical strength. So for three days, Paul stayed in a house, fasting and praying.
Then God sent a man named Ananias to help Him receive the second gift, the Spirit in Acts 9:17,
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.
Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul,
the Lord-- Jesus, who appeared to you on the road
as you were coming here-- has sent me so that you
may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Then he experienced the mission, the sending, the marching orders. Ananias prophesied to Paul (Acts 9:15),
“Paul, God told me that you are His chosen
instrument to carry the name of Jesus to the
Gentiles, to the political powers that be, and to
the Jews. Be prepared Paul, because you will
experience much suffering, with physical torture
and social mockery.”
From that moment on, Paul was sold on the gospel. It was what he lived for, his purpose. He introduced himself in Romans 1:1:
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an
apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.”
You cannot mention the gospel of Jesus Christ without mentioning Paul. They go together.
Let me read to you words of two men who speak of our mission to witness to the world. The first is Paul from the first century in 2nd Timothy 4:2-5,
"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-
suffering and doctrine. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all
things, endure afflictions, do the work of an
evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
The second is a Christian named Tertullian in the second century who wrote these between 164-200AD:
“Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. The more you mow us down, the more we grow, for the seed of the church is the blood of the Christians. Every single drop of our blood springs up, in some thirty, in some sixty and in some a hundred-fold.”
A Spirit-filled man has no fear. The Spirit is poured out for you to witness to FRAN, yes to F-R-A-N. That stands for Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors. This pouring out of the Spirit enables the second miracle to take place.
Miracle 2: The Ambassadors of God Step Out
Yes, God is the only one who can save person from eternal destruction. But He has chosen us to carry the message of that salvation. It takes the cooperation of believers to share the message with others.
Look with me in Romans 10:13 that,
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved." {13 Joel 2:32}
But is goes on to say in the nest 3 verses,
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have
not believed in? And how can they believe in the
one of whom they have not heard? And how can they
hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how
can they preach unless they are sent? As it is
written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news!" {15 Isaiah 52:7}
Witnessing transforms a part of yor bdy, your feet. It makes beautiful feet. Most feet I know are no very beautiful; they are ugly and stink! Witnessing makes them beautiful. The idea of “beautiful feet” comes from the ancient world where they no email or fax machines or phones for people to communicate with each other. So when a king wanted to send word to his subjects, he sent messengers to all the towns. They traveled many miles by foot.
The message the messenger was bringing could be either good or bad. When the news was good, the messenger was the most popular person around. People would say the messenger’s feet were beautiful. Now the word beautiful does not mean in appearance—thank goodness. It means “in time” or “timely”. It was as if the people were saying, “He cane just when I needed to hear something good.”
There are people all around us in desperate need of some good news. They are going through a trying time. They don’t need to hear “suck it up” or “hang in there” or “our church has great music.” They need to hear Jesus loves and cares for you. Did you know that most people come to Christ during turning points or transitions in their lives? There is often pressure, like a move, a death in the family, a divorce, or birth of a child that creates a yearning for something more.
Can see Paul’s imagery of “beautiful feet? When you speak to someone going through a tough time in need of some good news ad they say, “How timely was this in getting to me!” you can llok down at your old feet and say, “They are now beautiful.”
God has given us “goodnews.” Listen to the goodnews in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ.
Then God turned around, says Paul,
“and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
This is now our privilege.
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself
in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. How do we do this? The key is…)
And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation.
We have been given two things: a ministry and a message. The word for “gave” is the same word as “commit.” It means to place in deposit at the bank. Jesus “committed” His spirit to Father (Lk 23:46). We have “entrusted” or “committed” ourselves to Him for safekeeping (2 Tim 1:12). Now God has committed or given Himself to us in two ways.
1. He has given us a “ministry of reconciliation.” That is your primary ministry. “Well, Pastor, I don’t know what my ministry is!” Well, listen up. Here is your ministry: a ministry of reconciliation.
2. He backs that ministry up by giving us a “message of reconciliation.” We have been given a message to share, a living message. It is living because we have experienced its power. It is living because we have been set free by believing it.
Our message is that there is no sin too bad that Jesus cannot forgive it. The message is that there is no problem too complex that Jesus cannot solve it. The message is that our neighbors can be saved.
For the message to take effect it must be spoken. Someone once observed that many Christians are like the Arctic River, frozen over at the mouth. Jesus prophesied in Luke 24:36-49 that the gospel would be a spoken message. He said,
46 He told them, "This is what is written: The
Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the
third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of
sins will be preached in his name to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of
these things. 49 I am going to send you what my
Father has promised; but stay in the city until
you have been clothed with power from on high."
The Greek. word translated, “preached” is a word which would refer to a spokesperson or a town crier, someone who announced the news, the beautiful feet man. The word means literally, "to proclaim, to speak out loud.” We not talking volume here; we talking living. Unless we speak this message of reconciliation, others will never hear it. The greatest tragedy of all would be to have the truth that sets men free, and never to share that truth.
We have a ministry and a message. So what is hindering us from telling the world? It is how we see ourselves. God has a powerful picture for you and I to learn. We are to see ourselves as God’s ambassadors, His spokemen and spokewomen.
Paul put it this way in verse 20.
20 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.
We are the official ambassadors for Christ. That is our official position.
We have a platform from which to speak. We have a divine appointment, and we must begin to see ourselves this way. This consumes and transforms my life.
1. It means, first of all, that we live in a foreign country.
This is enemy teroority. Heaven is our real home. We have out citizenship in heaven. We are just strangers passing through, pilgrims, aliens. But we are importantat people.
2. We now represent the King.
An ambassador represents his government. The word of our President would be passed on to a foreign government through an ambassador.
3. We are entrusted with the word of the King
So, to be an ambassador also means that we are entrusted to handle the word of the King. We are entrusted to be faithful to share what the King desires us to share. We must be accurate with His words. We must be faithful to share them and to make sure they are understood.
4. We speak with the authority of the King
When our ambassador speaks for our President, that speech carries the authority of our President. When we speak for our God and King, our speech carries the authority of the King. When we offer salvation on the terms revealed in God’s Holy Word, we can be sure that when people respond to our word on behalf of our King, our King will back up His word.
What we read in our text is a radically new way of thinking about ourselves. We need to ask God to create in us this mentality of being an ambassador. As agents of the Kingdom we are to infiltrate every walk of life. As ambassadors for Christ we are to represent the King and faithfully share His word to all people. We have been reconciled so we can participate in seeing others reconciled.
When we speak as Spirit-filled witness, we see a third miracle. We see…
Miracle 3: The Sovereignty of God Break Out
Listen to the witness of the early church in Acts 2:47b as they witnessed to FRAN:
And the Lord added to their number daily those who
were being saved.
The early church had focus. It had experienced the life changing power of Jesus and the Spirit. And it had caught a vision of how that same power could change the live of people they knew. They were doing something about it. It has been said that there are three kinds of people: those who watch what happens; those who make it happen; and those who wonder what happened. These Christians were those who made it happen.
Who added to “their number” daily? “The Lord,” the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord. God was at work. This is why people were being added to the church. This is the only reason why people are saved. Nobody is saved unless God is at work because only God can save someone. Neither I nor Grace Fellowship COG can save anyone. It is the sovereignty of God breaking into a broken heart, your heart and mine.
When you witness, you must trust that God is working through you. Most Christians think that it is the job of the “pastors and staff” to witness. Is that why statistics say that 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ?
Jesus called Peter to become something in Luke 5:4-11. Notice the movement from shallow water into deeper water. [Read it and comment.]
God took fishermen and made them into fishers of men. But are we content to be “keepers of the aquarium”? .
I am not saying that we all give up our secular jobs and became full-time paid Christian workers. Nope. God uses you where you are today. But there must a transformation from mending nets to mending hearts.
Think of it like this.
God will take medical doctors and also them healers of souls, like he did with Luke.
He will take lawyers and make them judges of truth, like he did with the Apostle Paul.
He will take shepherds and make them kings over God’s people, like he did with David.
He will take builders and make them builders of nations, like he did with Solomon.
He will take artists and make them communicators of beauty, like he did with Bezalel.
He will take students and make them students of His word, like he did with Daniel.
He will take administrators and make them administrators of his grace, like Moses or Joseph.
He will take farmers and make them sowers of truth, like he did with Amos.
And God will take you and use you to touch antoehr life and build His church. That is the sovereignty of God overflowing in and through your life. And we know for absolute certain that “the gates of Hades will never (ever—not a billion-trillion years) overpower, (that means to overcome, to overstep or to overtake) His church.”
CONC:
The Spirit is being poured out into our hearts. The saints of God step out as ambassadors. The sovereignty of God break out around us. Only people experiencing these miracles can clearly hear the words of Jesus to His people spelled out in Matthew 28:19-20,
19 Therefore go (we can all understand and respond
to that two letter word: go) and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20
and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to
the very end of the age."
We have taken the past 4 Wednesday’s and circled around this the Great Commission. We do not want to be the great Ommission. The word “Go” means “as you go or travel about n your daily life.” Our focus is “all nations” or ethnic groups, people that are unlike us and may make us feel uncomfortable. A good church has a strong focus on witness, on reaching beyond itself, on the born again experience. It is what we live for. We capture that in our summary statement, “Sharing the compassion of Christ.”
Grace Fellowship is passionate about Jesus Christ. Let’s be a church without walls. That means we come together for worship on Sundays; then we go out for witness on Mondays. Witnessing is what happens outside the walls of this building. Our Sunday morning service is only a tool to help you reach lost people in your life.
Have you ever noticed where Jesus met people? It was mostly outside the walls of religious institutions. The gospels record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six of these were in the Temple, four in the synagogues and 122 were with people in the mainstream of life. No wonder the pious snobby-nosed religious elite labeled Jesus with mocking these words in Matthew 11:19, “Here is a gluttonous, and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any silver there. They reported back, “Sir, the only silver we could find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners.” The radical soldier replied, "Good! We’ll melt down the saints and put them into circulation!”
Has your heart been melted down by the love of Jesus Christ? Is God using you in circulation? Or are you just a statue in the kingdom of God?
