Job One
For the church
Ephesians 3:8-11
If the Church of Jesus Christ, the universal Christian Church, not just this church but all churches that are Christian…were to disappear today… would anyone miss it tomorrow?
Is there anything about the Christian Church that makes it unique… that makes it “indispensable”… or that gives us our “reason du etre” or reason for being?
Every organization needs a cause, a special purpose that gives it a reason to exist.
Even the Church faces the possibility of merely duplicating the work of other organizations.
If we are not making a unique contribution to the world, we might as well disband our churches and cut down on the clutter of benevolent groups that solicit our time and money.
Or do we have a vital purpose, a unique ministry that cannot be carried out by any other group?
From the very beginning, the Church has championed moral education and reform. The gospel contains a power that can turn the most decadent people around, people like those from Corinth, a city that had the moral reputation of the seamy side of San Francisco. They were known as immoral, adulterers, homosexual perverts, thieves, greedy, drunkards, and slanderers. But when Paul wrote to them he said, “. . .that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified . . . in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9–11). The Church gave these people a new power and code of ethics to live by.
But if we look at moral education as our unique mission we’re looking in the wrong place.
Christians are not the only people interested in promoting ethical behavior. There are various scouting organizations and community organizations such as Rotary and Kiwanis. In fact, the Superintendent of Schools in California wants to see ethics included as part of classroom curriculum. So ethics may be an important element in the Christian’s life and work, but moral reform is hardly unique to Christians.
Another long-standing work of the Church has been the ministry of social compassion. The early Christians ministered to hurting people, such as widows (Acts 6:1–3); and that concern for the poor and suffering has continued through the ages. Christians have founded hospitals to help heal the sick. We have established schools to educate the ignorant. Today, the Church reaches out to all sorts of hurting people: the divorced, drug and alcohol addicts, teenaged mothers, the physically abused, the malnourished and hungry.
But again, hospitals are erected and schools built without the input of the Church. The chemically dependent and the physically abused, among others, have all sorts of groups to whom they can turn, groups that have no church affiliation. Christians are not the only people who send food to famished Africa. The ministry of social compassion, although integral to the mission of the Church, does not constitute its unique mission.
Well then… if moral education is not our purpose, if social compassion is not our unique calling, if none of these other important ministries are what God established and commissioned church to do and be, then what is?
Let’s make a list of all of the things in which the Church is involved.
feed the hungry evangelism
clothe the naked discipleship
visit the prisoners missions
champion the “little people.” fellowship
education worship
counseling
family building
sanctity of human life
moral education
But if you took away the Christian church… which ones would go undone?
(((Wipe them off board as you show how each one would be met)))
Now some are specifically carried out by the Christian church... worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship and missions.
But which one is JOB ONE?
As my model shows… there are some strictly Christian activities in which the church engages.
What happens if we don’t worship? The other activities would go on… though for sure they would be affected.
Same for fellowship… without it, the church is reduced in affect…. But it can still carry on.
Is there one which… if you took it out, would cause the others to come tumbling down?
I believe there is... EVANGELISM
What is mission… evangelizing the lost in other places.
What is worship… praising God… for the truth of the gospel
What is fellowship… gathering of those saved by the gospel
Take away the gospel, proclaiming the gospel, making the gospel known and what happens to all that the church does?
CRUMBLE !!!!!!
(((I use children’s blocks or shoe boxes to show that you can pull out any one and the rest stand. When I pull out the bottom one, evangelism, the stack falls)))
So… I say that JOB ONE for the Christian Church… what makes us unique and is our calling is… EVANGELISM.
But don’t take my word for it. Let’s see what God says.
Where would we look for His answer? I believe the answer is found in the Word of God… His answer book for Christians. (((Understand it is the answer book for everyone, the only reliable answer book, but only Christians seem to accept it)))
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians, that “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known . . .” (3:10).
What is the manifold wisdom of God? That’s another one of Paul’s many ways of talking about the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ, the very revelation of God, came and lived among us, died, and rose for us. Now we can know God and His purpose for the world. Now we can live abundantly, and love truly, and have hope in this life and for the next. That is the wisdom revealed in Christ.
Paul says that through the Church this wisdom is made known to the world… that it is the UNIQUE MISSION AND CALLING OF THE CHURCH to make the gospel known.
How? Through the example of the Church? Through its moral education and social compassion? To some degree. These are, after all, manifestations of the good news. But, as we have noted, works such as these are carried on by those outside the Church as well.
So these types of activities won’t necessarily make known the good news with any clarity—unless, of course, someone bothers to explain why the Church does what it does; unless someone verbally shares our motive for mission and our hope in the world.
And that is precisely what Paul was trying to do: “. . . this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ . . .” (Eph. 3:8).
That is what constitutes the unique ministry of all Christians.
The New Testament uses a variety of words to describe this unique ministry: “telling [others] the way to be saved” (Acts 16:17), “to preach good news” (Lk. 4:18), “to give the reason for the hope [we] have” (1 Pet. 3:15), to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5).
But they all boil down to the same thing: the unique ministry of Christians is to tell in words (not just deeds) the glorious good news of Jesus Christ.
OUR UNIQUE CALLING
It’s really very simple. If Christians don’t try to provide moral education, others will. And if Christians don’t show social compassion, others will. God forbid that Christians should ever relinquish their moral and social ministries! But if they ever did, there would be other people who would continue to provide such services.
But if Christians fail to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ, no one else will.
The Rotary won’t do it, the local board of education won’t do it, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers won’t do it, the local “Right to Life” Committee won’t do it, the Republican or Democratic parties won’t do it.
We are the ONLY people entrusted with this message, the ONLY group set apart by God to tell the good news.
As Paul said, “through the church, AND ONLY THROUGH THE CHURCH…the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. . . .”
There is no doubt what God has called North Dunedin to do and be.
According to the Great Commission, we are called to…
GO… every day as we go about our daily activities
GO… make special efforts to seek out the lost and go to them
GO… make it possible for others to go (missions)
Wednesday four young ladies came to my office to talk to me about being saved.
I shared the gospel with them
1. We were all created pure and sinless… no knowledge of good and evil
((used Jacob Cornett as example))
But we sinned and messed it up
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
2. That there is an effect of their sin.
For the wages of sin is death…
That sin (book) came between them (one hand) and God (other hand)
3. That there is nothing we can do to get rid of the sin.
Call on helper to take your sin away, but he has his own sin.
4. That God made a way for the sin to be taken away.
But God commendeth (proved) His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christi died for us.
5. All we have to do is believe and ask and He will take away the sin.
(call someone to take away the bible)
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
6. and then we are intimate with God again and he can give us the desires of our heart.
((pass object from one hand to another))
THAT IS THE GOSPEL
MAKING THAT GOSPEL KNOWN TO THE WORLD IS THE UNIQUE MISSION, PURPOSE AND CALLING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
IT IS THE UNIQUE CALLING , PURPOSE AND TASK OF EVERY ONE OF US… CHRISTIANS.
INVITATION
Today the INVITATION goes to those who have never accepted the Gospel truth
Never confessed their sin and ask God to forgive
Today is the day for you to do that
The call also goes to EVERY CHRISTIAN
Are we willing to make the gospel known?
Are we obedient to the call to go and tell the lost and dying world?
Are we going to be a reaching/winning church?
Hymn of Invitation
We’ve a Story To Tell pg. 586
My major source was: Wilson, Kent R., Discipleship Journal, Issue 34, (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress) c1999 If you like it... it probably came from that article. Feel free to use any or all of this sermon. Give credit to Kent Wilson, don’t bother to reference me.
