About a year ago, I was introduced via the internet to Chuck Warnock. Chuck is a blogger and pastor, so I can identify with him. Not only that, but Chuck is a pastor here on the Southside. He pastors a small church in Chatham and writes a blog called, Confessions of a Small Church Pastor. It is one of the blogs that I check with on a regular basis, because we minister in the same area and minister in similar sized churches, although I believe they are somewhere around the 80 or 90 mark in attendance. Why do I bring him up? About a week ago he posted Three Things the Church Must Do in 2008. What are those three things?
1. Tell the story.
2. Invite others.
3. Bless the world.
Chuck is right and these really aren’t any different from what Jesus did during his ministry time here on earth. Over the next few weeks, we plan to take a look at Jesus’ ministry on earth and discover what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. While Jesus was here, he talked a lot about the Kingdom of heaven. You’ve heard me use the term Kingdom building. This is the task of the church, nothing more, nothing less. Building the Kingdom involves, telling the story of God, inviting others and blessing the world. Jesus was the master storyteller. There are many accounts of the parables that he taught. They were simple, organic stories, but they held great truths. Jesus was a masterful storyteller and people were attracted to him. Just look at the crowds that gathered around Jesus while he taught. But something would be missing if Jesus only told great stories.
Jesus also invited others to join His journey. We only have to look at the hand-picked disciples. Yet, he also invited others to be part of building the Kingdom. We know that Jesus appeared, after his resurrection, to five hundred believers at one time. People received the invitation to come and join God’s kingdom and build it.
Jesus also blessed others in his ministry. Sometimes the people blessed by his ministry were the very ones the establishment reviled. Think about the woman caught in adultery, or the woman at the well, the Good Samaritan, the woman who anointed his feet, even the disciples. It is those who are rejected by the establishment that need our blessing. (as a sidenote, thank you for those who have already contributed to our jello collection in the foyer. Our goal for the next three months is to collect 50 6 oz. boxes to deliver to Grace Network.) This is just a small part of building God’s kingdom in Martinsville and Henry County. There are probably even churches in our county that would reject those whom we minister to on Wednesday nights in Mosaic. It would mess up their beautiful church.
So, let me as you a question and put it in today’s terms. Was Jesus missional or attractional? What do you mean preacher? To make it very simple – missional means going out to the highways and byways and meet people’s needs where they are. On the other hand attractional means that Jesus was attractive to people and therefore they came to him. If I were to take my gut feeling, I would say that Jesus was both. Jesus went out to the least of these and Jesus’ ministry attracted people to him.
With all of that in mind, we want to take a look at God’s Word, We have already heard from the gospel of Matthew. What was the significance of Jesus’ baptism? If we look at the gospel of John we find that Jesus is the spotless lamb that takes away the sins of the world. A spotless lamb is already perfect. John the Baptist had been preaching the repentance of sin and baptism. If Jesus was the spotless, perfect lamb of God, why did he need to be baptized? That is a great question. Jesus was baptized to show his complete identification with his humanness. Yes, Jesus was 100% God and 100% human. Jesus was baptized not because he had sinned for he had not – not because he had to repent and turn from his sins – Jesus was baptized to show us the way – to show us His way. He asked us to follow Him. Jesus came to bring us union with God. I loved this quote that I found this week:
Christ came to save us from sin to participate in the life of God. In other words, we are saved from sin for theosis (unity with God) which is our great potential. Jesus came to earth to tell us:
· You give me your time, and I will give you eternity.
· You give me your weary body, and I will give you rest.
· You give me your sins, and I will give you forgiveness.
· You give me your broken heart, and I will give you healing.
· You give me your emptiness, and I will give you My fullness.
· You give me your humanity, and I will give you my divinity.
If you think, preacher, you’re just making this up, let’s go to the scriptures – Acts 10:34-43:
34 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. 35 In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. 36 This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. 38 And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, 41 not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”
Jesus was baptized to identify himself with us. This is where Jesus was anointed by Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. His baptism was the beginning of his ministry on earth. Peter tells us that after Jesus was baptized, Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Peter goes to preach the gospel message that Jesus came to earth, that he was put to death on the cross and he rose on the third day and appeared to the witnesses (the disciples), Christ then ordered the disciples to go out a preach and teach that this Jesus is the one the prophets wrote about – they were also to tell the people that everyone who believes on Jesus will have their sins forgiven in his name.
So we have come full circle. What was Jesus’ command to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel?
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus was reminding his disciples and us what our job is as believers. We are to take his light and spread it around to others. Will others reject us because they don’t believe our story? Maybe, but that’s not our problem. We are commanded to tell the story. Christ was commanding his disciples to share the light that he gave to them. Let’s take a look at how Isaiah describes Jesus:
5 God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is he who says, 6 “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. 7 You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.
8 “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. 9 Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”
Look what God calls us to do: “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. 7 You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.
So our opening statement isn’t very far from this: What are we to do as a church?
· Tell the story
· Invite others
· Bless the world
This is our job as the church – not just Preston Wesleyan – not just The Wesleyan Church – but the Church of Jesus Christ – the Holy, Universal, Apostolic Church. This is part of letting our light shine through Jesus. So my question becomes, how will you let your light shine this week as you touch those who are outside these walls? How can we, as a church, let our light shine to the community around us?
