“MISSION: THIS IS FOR EVERYBODY”
I Timothy 2:3-6
S: Four Marks of Church: Mission
Th: A Place for Grace
Pr: We have a message of grace.
?: What?
KW: Qualities of God
TS: We will find in our study of I Timothy 2:3-6, three qualities of God that point us to this message of grace.
The _____ quality of God that point us to this message of grace is He is a…
I. PERSUADER
II. PEACEMAKER
III. PAYER
RMBC 4/9/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. Do you ever wonder about your life’s purpose?
ILL Notebook: Purpose (gas in desert)
On a road trip through a desolate region of New Mexico, Robin Wheeler and her cousin found themselves 60 miles from town with a nearly empty gas tank. Praying and hoping, they drove on until they reached a small farmhouse standing alone in a vast field. The farmer filled their tank and reluctantly accepted the twenty dollars they offered. Grateful, Robin said, "Without your help, two young women might have been stranded tonight. God put you in this spot for a reason." "Well," replied the farmer, shaking his head and rubbing his neck, "it mighta been a-purpose, but he was mad at me when He done it."
Well, perhaps if we were this old man, we might have felt the same way.
And we need to admit this…
2. Sometimes, it is hard to see how we fit into the larger picture.
Do we really have a purpose?
Is our life really going a direction?
The context of this question in our discussion today is set around the church.
Do we, as a church, have a purpose?
Do we, as individuals, have a direction that we are going?
TRANSITION:
This is the last study in a four-part series on the four marks of the church.
The four marks are what we call the essentials of the church.
When a church is accomplishing these essentials, it is very much accomplishing its purpose.
So…
1. If we are to be a place of grace, we need to fulfill the four marks of the church.
By definition, the church is to be one, holy, apostolic and catholic church.
So let me review what we have already studied.
1.1 One: Love one another
The church is to display unity.
And the best way we establish this unity is when we love one another.
If we are truly caring for one another, we are achieving the oneness to which we are called.
1.2 Holy: Worship God
The church is to worship God.
We are to understand that we are creature and that He is Creator, and that as Creator, He is totally set apart from us.
With this perspective in mind, we get a realistic view of ourselves and how we fit into this world.
1.3 Apostolic: Grow in grace
The church is to reflect and repeat the teachings of the apostles.
This makes us apostolic.
And they teach us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
We are not to remain babies in the faith.
We are to mature.
1.4 Catholic: Go to all nations
Finally, we are to be catholic, that is, we are to be universal.
We are to go to all nations.
This is the emphasis of our study today.
For the church has a mission.
Our mission is to reach all peoples, all over the world.
The gospel is inclusive, not exclusive.
All nations are to have the opportunity to hear and respond to the message of grace.
2. We have a responsibility to communicate the gospel to all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
This is the meaning of the verses known as the Great Commission:
(19) 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, (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."
The command of this verse is to make disciples.
We are given the instruction to do what we can to make committed followers of Jesus.
And we are told where we are to do it.
We are to make disciples of all nations.
Now the question is…are we taking these verses as seriously as they merit?
Or are we smiling and saying, “that’s nice”?
My goal for you this morning, is to take this so seriously that you will do something with it.
We have a great message.
3. WE HAVE A MESSAGE OF GRACE.
We have a message of generosity and love.
But the truth is, we don’t always communicate it gracefully:
Take for instance…
ILL (ten) eight ways
The Top Eight Ways Not To Share Jesus With Others
8. Leave a Four Spiritual Laws booklet in lieu of a $4 tip.
7. Do a door-to-door survey asking sinners if they’re washed in the blood.
6. If asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event, sing "How Great Thou Art" instead.
5. Give a 5-gallon jug of water and a WWJD gift tag as a wedding present (you know, Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana...).
4. Boycott Disney movies if your next door neighbor is Michael Eisner.
3. Open your windows at dawn each Sunday and play praise songs on your stereo at full volume.
2. Draw an ichthus (fish) symbol using weed killer on your neighbor’s front lawn.
1. Spray paint John 3:16 on a port-a-potty in your local park.
Well, now that we have a clue on how not to do it, let’s build a foundation on how it is to be done.
There is help for us, for you see…
5. The message of grace is wrapped up in the character of God.
If we are to reflect the Lord’s character, as we have noted many times in our studies this year, we will do well to understand how He feels about humanity and how He has acted.
So…
6. We will find in our study of I Timothy 2:3-6, three qualities of God that give us this message of grace.
(3) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, (4) who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (5) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first quality of God that points us to this message of grace is He is a PERSUADER.
1. We do not have a desire for God.
This is something we need to recognize today.
And it is the testimony of Scripture over and over again.
When we are given the choice between God’s way and our way, we choose our way almost exclusively.
Simply, we do not desire God.
We have a distorted view of what He is about and about how He views us.
But what is great about this, is though we do not desire Him, He does desire us.
And He works to persuade us, for He knows, that for us, it is a matter of life and death.
ILL Notebook: Persuasion (life insurance)
Despite his best sales pitch, a life -insurance salesman was unable to get a couple to sign up for a policy. “I cer-tainly don’t want to frighten you into a decision,” he announced, standing up to leave. “Please sleep on it tonight, and if you wake up in the morning, let me know what you think.”
2. God has a passion for mankind and invites us to come to Him (Revelation 3:20).
Jesus extends us the invitation…
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
That invitation is a repeated theme…
In the Old Testament, God says through the prophet Isaiah, “Turn to me and be saved.”
Jesus will later say, “Come to me and I will give you rest.”
Paul will also write, “Be reconciled to God.”
The truth of the matter is simply this: God loves people.
He loves people and He seeks them out.
And it does matter who they are or where they are.
If they are in my family, God wants them to be saved.
If they are people I work or study with, God wants them to be saved.
If they are a picture in the paper or a figure on the television news, God wants them to be saved.
If they are individuals who hurry past me in crowded city streets, of whom I have the slightest momentary impression, I know this about them, that God wants them to be saved.
You see…
3. God’s desire is for all of humanity (Ezekiel 18:23).
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God communicates:
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
God is not interested or rooting for people to go against Him.
Such a description totally misses His heart.
His desire is for all people, regardless of who they are or what kind of mess they have gotten themselves into.
Class and condition are meaningless.
Whether a person is a drug abuser or a prisoner;
whether a person is wealthy or poor;
whether a person is intelligent or simple;
whether a person is healthy or disadvantaged, it does not matter.
With God, there are no distinctions or exceptions.
There are no special privileges.
God loves and seeks all people.
And this includes “all nations.”
For…
4. God’s desire is for every kind of humanity.
And the Scriptural meaning of nations, is not by definition, governments.
No, instead, it calls to mind cultural divisions, such as language, religion and customs.
It is not about geography.
For instance, in the African nation of Kenya, there are sixty-five cultural divisions among the population, most which have their own unique language and customs.
The responsibility given to us by Jesus is to make disciples of all nations, which includes each of those sixty-five divisions.
During our time of mission emphasis, we often speak of the “10/40 window.”
Ninety-five percent of the unevangelized people alive today live in what is described as the “10/40 window.”
It is the area between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude, stretching from the west coast of Africa to the Sea of Japan.
All or part of sixty-two countries lie in this region, of which fifty-seven are considered the least evangelized in the world.
Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in this area, but it receives less than twenty percent of our mission effort and ten percent of our mission dollars.
These people are trapped behind political, religious, and cultural barriers that keep them isolated from the Gospel.
What will it take to penetrate those barriers and deliver the message with which we have been entrusted?
And I know what it is!
It is God’s passion!
5. Do we share in God’s passion?
Simply, do we have on our hearts those whom God has on His?
II. The second quality of God that points us to this message of grace is He is a PEACEMAKER.
1. We are at war with God.
You see, we not only do not desire God, we are alienated, so much so, we are His enemies.
We are opposed to Him.
And we blame Him for all the problems of the world.
Yet, if we are willing to look harder, we may see that our solutions are even more to blame.
For we are hypnotized by the achievements of scientific materialism and the rhetoric of progressive politics.
Man has come to believe that sooner or later he will come up with the adequate solution and become the absolute master of his own destiny.
We are at war with God.
We choose our way over His.
And it is very disconcerting.
For consider what it is like for an ice cube to be placed in a consuming furnace, or a living organism set down at the core of a nuclear reaction.
The result is disturbing and we need to ask the question…
How can we be at ease when confronted with the wrath of a sin-hating God?
For the time being, there is good news…
2. God is generous with His enemies.
God provides for all of us.
He offers protection for all of us.
And He continues to invite us back to Him.
He can do so, because He has offered a Mediator.
He has offered Someone that can make peace for us.
John Stott says:
"A mediator is an intermediary, the person in the middle, who effects a reconciliation between two rival parties."
There is only one Mediator: the Man, Christ Jesus.
The reason for that, of course, is His unique nature: Jesus is both Man and God.
When you come to and follow that magnificent Man who obviously has solved the basic problems of life, you soon discover that you have also come to God.
By coming to Christ, you meet God and you find peace.
Those who were once enemies are now friends.
The question for us today is…
3. Do we perform the ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18-19)?
(18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We have been given the ministry of reconciliation.
We are to be peacemakers.
We are to point to the way of peace.
We are to direct people to the Mediator who can make things right with God.
III. The third quality of God that points us to this message of grace is He is a PAYER.
1. We are lost without God.
We not only do not desire God, we not only are at war with God, we are also lost.
We are without hope.
Our heart is filled with hopelessness.
For sin reigns there, and we allow it to be our master.
But the good news is that…
2. God purchases liberty for those dominated by sin.
The Man-Ransom-Mediator, He and no other one pays every penny of our ransom price.
He purchases liberty for those dominated by sin.
The superabundance of His obedience observed in His life and death buys our freedom.
And note this…note who pays!
God did not send a committee.
God did not send a group of angels.
God sent His Son.
He gave Himself.
3. Do we give as Jesus has given?
We have a message of grace.
Do we give as Jesus has?
APPLICATION:
ILL Notebook: Salvation (Barney)
A nurse, working in an emergency room met up with a precocious 4-year-old who was brought in with a severe cough. The girl kept up a non-stop conversation while the nurse was trying to assess her lung sounds. Finally, the nurse said, “Shhh, I have to see if Barney is in there.” The girl looked at her and calmly stated, “I have Jesus in my heart. Barney is on my underwear.”
You know, sometimes the kids get it right!
The good news, this message of grace, is about having Jesus in our life.
And…
1. It is time to tell the truth.
Did you notice how Paul defines salvation in I Timothy?
It is to come to a knowledge of the truth.
It is time to tell the truth!
And the truth is is that…
1.1 It is a distinct message (John 14:6).
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
There are many that complain that Christianity is too exclusive, that it is too narrow-minded.
And while that is a whole other study which we are not doing here today, we must come to grips with the absolute claim of Christ.
He does not allow for other ways.
He says, “I am the way,” and you can belong.
The choice is rather simple, you either accept His claims or reject Him.
The truth is also that…
1.2 It is a dynamic message (Romans 1:16).
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
When the apostle Paul wrote this, he had on his heart the awareness of the need to take the truth of the gospel to others.
He knew that this message of grace had the power to change lives as it had changed his.
But Paul also realized that for the message to be heard, it has to be said.
And if it is to be said, it needs someone saying it.
This is why Paul, in a different letter, would speak of being an ambassador.
We are God’s representatives with a dynamic and powerful message.
You know…
2. It is time to recognize that lesser products have better exposure.
All over the world, people are persuaded everyday.
On billboards, advertisements on the radio and television, by high-pressure salesman, and even cult members.
Other groups and corporations are willing to invest more for marketing their product than Christians are for communicating the gospel.
Consider this…
In 1986, Coca-Cola claimed that 97% of the world had heard of their product, 72% had seen it, and 51% had tasted it.
Why is their motivation better?
We are to be persuaders.
It is time to tell the truth.
And…
3. It is time to find our part in the larger picture.
We have a message of grace.
So…
What are you doing to make sure that it is communicated?
In the church, we are so often looking for better methods.
But God’s method is not a what.
It is a who.
It is you and me.
We are God’s methods.
God is looking for better men and women.
Are your interests God’s interests?
This is why we have been challenged this year by these simple three words: prayer, care, and share.
The mission starts at home as you pray for those around you, and care for them, and share the message of grace.
It starts at home and reaches around the world!
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Love one another…because when you do, people will see the message of grace;
Worship God…because it is in worship that you experience the message of grace;
Grow in grace…because as you mature in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, the more the message of grace makes sense to you; and,
Make disciples of all nations…communicate the message of grace so that others may know the joy that you now know.
Now to him who is able to establish you by the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
