LN 5: Kingdom of Light (10.28.07)

[To listen to the message, click here]

SUMMARY
The mission of the Church is rooted and inspired by God’s redemptive rule over His people. That is the substance of our message and the motivation of our mission.

We often misunderstand the phrase “the Kingdom of God”. We think of the UK or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or we have Medieval pictures in our heads of castles and knights and pageantry. However, the phrase in the Greek actually refers to the kingship, reign or rule of God. As R.T. France states, “the kingdom of God is not making a statement about a thing called ‘the kingdom,’ but about God, that he is the king. Thus, ‘the kingdom of God has come near’ means ‘God is taking over as king,’ and to ‘enter the kingdom of God’ is to come under his rule, to accept him as king.”

The Kingdom of God is then the redemptive rule of God over His people, made possible through the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Life under the reign of God constitutes a new world-order, a new value system, a new allegiance, a new hope, a new future. It is a radical in-breaking of God into history and human lives.

We read Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God in the Gospel of Mark 1.14-15: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus’ public ministry began with those words – a proclamation of the Good News. All the centuries of Israel’s history, the promises to the Patriarchs, the words of the prophets now were being fulfilled in Christ. His coming signaled the beginning of the end. The waiting period for God to intervene was over. Now, in Jesus, God was invading time and space to accomplish the redemption of His people. In His life, death, resurrection, ascension and promise to return, Jesus made it clear that the kingdom is here. It is both a present reality and a future hope. In Christ, we experience the rule of God now and will experience it fully when Christ returns.

This message calls for a definitive, two-fold response: repentance and belief.

Repentance means to turn around – to change ones heart and ways, or better yet, to switch allegiances. Repentance is an action rather than a feeling. Biblical repentance is:
- Radical. It involves a complete turn around – a resetting of ones direction and purpose in life.
- Unconditional. Repentance is not offered with conditions and excuses. We don’t say, “Lord, I’ll repent if you get me out of this situation,” or “I repent, but it really wasn’t my fault.” True repentance is unconditional. We fall down before God and confess only our guilt and need and ask only for His forgiveness and mercy.
- Comprehensive. It involves every area of our lives – outside and inside, behaviors and motives, our actions and our hearts. We can’t repent a little. It’s all or nothing.
- Costly. It involves sacrifice. It involves giving things up. Stopping behaviors, battling thoughts, starving sinful lusts, throwing off our old nature. There is a death in repentance – death to the old way of things – death to our corrupt, sinful nature.

Belief involves faith, faithfulness and trust. James Dunn defines faith as, “a reliance on God that becomes the basis and motivating center for all conduct and relationships” (Jesus’ Call to Discipleship, 27). The call to believe is a call to be defined by faith. And this faith has content. Jesus said, “believe the good news.” The Gospel message then – the good news that God has invaded the human condition bringing salvation and life through Jesus Christ – this message is to be the core of our lives. It is to define who we are. We are called to cling to God’s sovereign and redemptive rule.


POINTS TO REMEMBER
What is to be our response to the reality of the Kingdom of God?

Recognize God’s rule. We must recognize that God is King and we are not. We didn’t make ourselves. We can’t sustain ourselves. We are fragile and powerless. No matter how strong or smart we think we are, we are dependent upon God’s upholding hand.

Relish God’s rule. Our response is not to be just a sterile, stoic recognition of fact, rather we are to enjoy and take pleasure in God’s rule. We like to think that we are in control and can make it on our own. We think happiness and fulfillment comes from being the masters of our own fate. But in reality, that only leads to emptiness and despair. The fact that God is in control, that we are not left to ourselves, that His purposes for our salvation have been and will be fulfilled – that is stuff for celebration. God’s sovereignty brings joy! So delight in God’s redemptive rule!

Reconcile others to God’s rule. Because we recognize and relish God’s kingship, we are then called to plead with others to be reconciled to God. We want others to experience the freedom, relief, love, acceptance, life, joy, peace and hope we have. We want to help others delight in God’s redemptive rule!

Relinquish our rule. This is another way of saying repentance. We must relinquish our stubborn and false belief that we can rule ourselves; that we can do it on our own. Difficult though it is, in order to follow Christ, we must relinquish our rule and submit to God’s control.

Rely on God. This is another way of saying belief. We relinquish trust in ourselves so that we can trust in God. Like Peter, we cry out as we find ourselves sinking, “Lord save me!” And we grab hold of Jesus’ outstretched hand.

*******

The Church, during some of its history, has misunderstood the concept of the Kingdom. I think of Charlemagne “evangelism” tactic of forcing conversion on conquered peoples. Or the Crusades which tried to defend and expand “Christendom” through warfare. But the Kingdom of God is not a human domain. It is not a political or geographical entity. It is the rule of God. The Kingdom then is not something we build, but something God builds. We don’t bring about God’s reign, He does. As we read in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.”


SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
The Kingdom foretold - Daniel 2; Daniel 17.13-14
The beginning of Jesus' ministry - Mark 1.1-20
Jesus sends out disciples with His message - Luke 10.1-12
Relishing God's Rule - Psalm 95; Psalm 47
Ministry of Reconciliation - 2 Corinthians 5.11-21
Kingdom of Light - Colossians 1.3-14

LN 4: "Light-Resistant" (10.14.07)

[To listen to the message, click here.]

To follow God in mission, we must have a heart like His – one that is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and forgiveness.

Only when we have a heart like His can we truly be light for the nations.

SUMMARY

God calls His people to be light for the nations, but in the story of Jonah, we see someone who was light-resistant. We are familiar with the story of Jonah, at least the first half of the story. It is one of the few OT stories that make into children’s Bible story books. It’s a favorite for Sunday School because it inspires such neat crafts. However, what we tend to focus on is not really the focus of the story.

I believe the primary focus of the story is God’s compassion for the nations and Jonah’s resentment of it. We see the compassion as the story ends with the LORD asking Jonah, “should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left?” And we see the resentment when Jonah, in anger, confessed that he fled for Tarshish because he knew God was merciful and did not want Him to be.

Along with that, we find a secondary focus on repentance. The Ninevites - the brutal, pagan enemy of God’s people, whose wickedness apparently ‘stunk to high heaven’ (in that it came up before the Lord) – repented as soon as they heard the word of the LORD. And yet, how many prophets had spoken to the people of Israel to no avail? Repentance is therefore called for from Jonah, from Israel and from all who read this story. (to read the story, click the picture)

Jonah is a portrait of how not to be a missionary. Jonah was light-resistant. As we read his story, we see his negative attributes.

*We see Rebellion. God clearly gave him a calling and he willfully rejected that calling and ran away from God.
*We see Fear and Hatred. Not only was Jonah afraid to go to Nineveh, he hated the people of Nineveh. To him, they were not broken human beings in need of God’s compassion, they were the enemy, outside of his concern and God’s compassion.

*We see Resentment. Jonah resented the LORD for being who He was. He resented the LORD showing compassion and pity to those who Jonah thought should have been shown the edge of a sword or a ball of fire from heaven.
*We see Hard-Heartedness. Jonah, in this instance, was not acting like a man after God’s own heart. His heart was hardened to the objects of God’s mercy and to God’s mercy itself. He would have rather died than to see God bless his enemy.
*We see Provincialism. Jonah wanted God’s mercy to be confined to the borders of Israel.
*And we see Selfishness. Jonah was more concerned with his own comfort that with the 120,000 lives in the city.

At the end of Jonah’s story, we are left wondering if and hoping that Jonah repented. But a bigger question is: are we willing to repent? Can we see, in Jonah’s failures, some of our own? Are we willing to turn away from them?

Do you have a heart for the lost – a heart like God’s? If the answer is “no”, then you need to ask God to change your heart. To follow God in mission, we must have a heart like His – one that is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and forgiveness.


POINTS TO REMEMBER
We see the negative attributes in Jonah, but the real question is can we recognize them in ourselves? Aren’t we often like Jonah?

*We drag our feet at God’s calling or even try to run away. We ignore the calling of God upon our lives. We try to dismiss or explain away God’s voice.
*We are afraid. We fear interacting with people who might reject us or hurt us.
*We struggle with hatred. It’s ok when God calls us to work with impoverished people or orphans or people who show up at our doorstep, but not so ok when called to minister to people who are hostile to us (who vote differently that we do or who practice lifestyles we don’t approve of).
*We sometimes resent God’s mercy. Like the older brother in the Prodigal Son or the Pharisees, we wonder: “How can God love those kind of people?”
*We can be hard-hearted. Do we have a heart for the lost like God does? Does Christ’s love truly compel us to be the light of the world?
*We can be provincial. We want to restrict God’s activity and His mercy to the walls of our church.
*And we can be selfish. We like things our way. We like to be comfortable. Too often, we in the Church are more concerned with the songs we sing (or don’t sing) or with our buildings or our appearance than we are with those who are lost and dying.

Far too often the Church, called to be the light of the world, is light-resistant.

We, who know we are loved by God – who are called His Bride, His Friends, the Redeemed, must also realize that He also loves the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It is precisely because God loves the world, because He has compassion on the lost and pities the broken; it is precisely because He is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” that we ourselves are saved. Why do we horde the Good News of that grace?

We are blessed with mercy so that we will be a blessing – not just to people who are like us – but to the hostile, messed-up, wicked culture that surrounds us.

*Honestly ask yourself if you have a heart for the lost – a heart like God’s.

And if the answer is “no”, I challenge you to ask God to change your heart.*

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER

[linked to biblegateway.com (click on text)]

Jonah mentioned elsewhere - 2 Kings 14.23-25

Character and glory of God revealed to Moses - Exodus 34.1-8

The LORD's compassion - Psalm 103.13; Psalm 145:9; Ezekiel 33.11

We were lost at one time (and are saved by grace) - Ephesians 2.1-10

We are ministers of reconciliation - 2 Corinthians 5.17-21

Future for the nations - Isaiah 2.2-5; Psalm 22-27-31

LN 3: "Bound For Blessing" (10.07.07)

[To listen to the message, click here.]

SUMMARY
The LORD sent Moses and the Israelites on a mission to enter the Promised Land, to be His people and to be a light for the nations. Moses knew that this mission would be impossible if the LORD was not with them. And so, he prayed to the LORD, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

As the Church of Jesus Christ. We have a mission to bring glory to God by reflecting His character. Our mission is to love God and each other and to show that love to the world so as to be light for the nations that God’s salvation may reach the ends of the earth. Without God’s presence, that is an impossible mission. Our mission can be overwhelming, but being a covenant community helps us.

In its simplest form, a covenant is a mutually binding relationship. Covenant is how God has chosen to relate to His people. God relates personally and faithfully in the binding relationship of a covenant.

Three of the most important covenants are the those with Abraham, with Israel and the New Covenant Jeremiah (31:31-34) spoke of. In all three of these, the original promise given to Abraham (of land, descendants and being a blessing to the nations) unfolds. However, it is only in the New Covenant that the promise is fully realized. And that is because the New Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. At the Last Supper Jesus declared, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

And so, as we are in Christ, we find ourselves in covenant with God just as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all Israel were. We are a part of the new covenant. We are in a binding relationship with God, with one another and with a responsibility to the world. As a covenant community, we are bound for blessing – bound to God, bound to each other and bound to be the light of the world. We are bound for blessing – to receive God’s blessing and to be God’s blessing to others.



POINTS TO REMEMBER
Our mission can be overwhelming, but being a covenant community helps us. It means that as we fulfill this mission from God in the world, we have five things to support us.

* We have the Promise. The promise to Abraham is still good. As His covenant people, God promises to bless us and to make us a blessing to the nations. He has chosen us and called us to receive His blessing of grace and to then be a blessing to others.

* We have the Precedent. The Church has roots. It is not some new-fangled idea or movement. The Church was founded by God from the very beginning. We are part of God’s plan and purpose for creation and salvation. We are part of God’s faithful covenant people throughout history.

* We have other People. We are not only connected to the saints of the past, but also to the saints of the present. In salvation, God has made a people for Himself. We are called out to be gathered in so that together we can be sent forth. God has given us companions for the journey of following Christ – He has given us the gift of each other. Though Jean-Paul Sartre (in his play “No Exit”) says that, “Hell is other people,” and though sometimes we may feel he is right, our brothers and sisters in Christ are blessing we need to appreciate.

* We have the Power. Scripture explains that God’s writing His law on our minds and hearts is actually the work of the Holy Spirit in us. As people of the New Covenant, we have been given the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit gives us power to be missionaries of God.

* We have God’s Presence. Through the covenant, God has always guaranteed His presence. God is with us. And that is good news, for without God’s presence, we can do nothing; we can accomplish nothing. God’s presence is the greatest promise. Jesus comforts us with this promise in the Great Commission: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, 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 are bound for blessing – to receive God’s blessing and to be God’s blessing to others.
We have been given the promise, the precedent, the people, the power and the presence for mission. So let’s go.

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
(linked to biblegateway)

Moses' prayer for God's Presence - Exodus 33:1-17

Covenant with Abraham focusing on the land - Genesis 15
Covenant with Abraham focusing on descendants - Genesis 17:1-14

Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai - Exodus 19-20:21

The New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Compare Luke 22:20 with Exodus 24:7-8

Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenent - Hebrews 8-10

The Great Commission - Matthew 28:16-20

Light For the Nations 2: "The Conduit of Blessing" (09.30.07)

[To listen to the message, click here.]

SUMMARY

The Church was founded by God from the very beginning. The roots of the Church and her mission are found in OT soil. Walter Kaiser points out that, in the early chapters of Genesis, we find three crises that fell on humanity as a result of their sin: 1) the Fall, 2) the Flood, and 3) the Failure of the Tower of Babel. However, with each crisis came God’s promise – His blessing. And with each blessing, the foundation of the Church was being laid.

One of the foundational blessings of the Church was the blessing given to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3. “The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, from your people and from your father's household to the land I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abram went, as the LORD had told him …”

Abram, and through him Israel, was to be the conduit through which the world would be blessed. Christ is the blessing. And therefore the Church of Jesus Christ, the new Israel, must likewise be the conduit of blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

* We are looking at what the Church is. And when we look at the big picture, we see that the Church is 1) FOUNDED BY GOD, 2) FULFILLED IN CHRIST, and 3) FORMED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

* "The nature of the blessing on the nations is that God has revealed himself through Abram’s family. The law was given through them; the prophets were from among their number; Scripture was written by them; and their history became a public record of God’s attributes in action. Then to climax it all, his own Son came through them and revealed the Father and the kingdom through his life and a plan of salvation for the world through his death. In Abram all the nations of the earth were blessed as they were shown what God was like and as the means were provided for them to become justified, reconciled to God, and forgiven of their sins” (John Walton, NIVApplication Commentary, Zondervan, 2001, p. 402).

* Genesis 12, is preceded by genealogies – lists of fathers and sons and who begat who. The genealogy ends however in barrenness. Genesis 11.30 states, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.” The line of promise had literally come to the end of the line. The future looked barren; the situation looked hopeless. But in his commentary on Genesis, Walter Brueggemann comments, “The marvel of biblical faith is that barrenness is the arena of God’s life-giving action.” God spoke His Word into void and the universe came into existence. Likewise God speaks His Word into the barrenness of the human condition and brings about new life. God took an old, barren couple, spoke His promise to them and through them poured out the blessing of His knowledge and salvation to all the earth. God spoke into our barrenness and now He calls us to speak His Word into the barrenness of others.

* God gave Abram a command and a promise. Which one was harder for him to accept? I think it might have been the promise. For the promise called for a clear decision and radical faith. The command called Abraham to leave behind people, a place and things. But the promise called Abraham to leave behind fear and doubt and to see things, not as they were, but as they would be. God’s calling to Abraham required him not simply to give up things, but to give up himself.

* The mission of the Church is dependent upon faith. Without faith, there is no mission. Without faith there are no missionaries. Before we can commit to be a part of the mission of the Church, we have to believe the promise. Do you believe it?

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER

Crises and Blessings - Genesis 3 // Genesis 6-9 // Genesis 11-12:3

Gospel in advance - Galatians 3:8-9

Ambassadors - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Real life - Luke 9:23-26

Light For the Nations 1: "The Church Lights the Way" (09.23.07)

[To listen to the message, click here.]

SUMMARY
“I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” - Isaiah 49.6

This passage expresses the mission of the Church. It does so, because it was the mission of Jesus Christ, the Servant of the Lord. So, what does all this mean for the mission of the Church? It means that our mission is grounded, rooted and inspired by Jesus Christ. He is the salvation of the world. As we are in Christ, God says to us, “I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

The Church lights the way. We are witnesses and ambassadors, conformed to the likeness of Christ. We are to live out and speak the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere, all the time. We are to reflect the light of Christ. We are to mirror the love of God. God uses us to bring His salvation – the message of His salvation and the embodiment of His salvation – to all the earth. We carry on the ministry of Jesus. He works through us (His Church) to bring salvation to all people.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

• “The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.” - Emil Brunner

Fire must burn in order to exist. Likewise the Church only exists by mission. A church that is not glorifying God, in that it is not loving, not worshipping, not sharing the Good News, not building one another up cannot be considered a church. It may look like a church and talk like a church, but it is not.

• “God’s intention in history is an outworking of his own eternal nature. His goal for humankind is that we be the image of God, that is, the reflection of the very nature of the Creator.” - Stanley Grenz

God created us in His image. Sin marred that image. But now, in Christ, God is restoring us to His image. Therefore, as we are being renewed by God, we are to be a reflection – a reconciled community who reflects the reality of God who is love. As we exist in love – loving God, loving each other and showing that love to the world, we glorify God – for we are then the outworking of His very nature.

• Lighthouses are built on dangerous coasts and their purpose is to signal danger and provide aid to seafarers. Christians are called to be like lighthouses. We are beacons in the darkness and storminess of the world. We are to shine the light of Christ so as to expose the dangers that the darkness conceals and to guide people to the safe haven of Jesus Christ.
  
  That’s a great image. However, there is one problem with that image and that is that lighthouses are stationary. They remain only in one place and guide seafarers from a distance. Now many Christians and many churches are happy to simply be lighthouses – stationary structures that on a regular and consistent basis turn on their light and shine it around just in case someone is looking. They’re willing to shine their light, but they don’t want to get too close. They welcome people to come, but don’t want to go out. A lighthouse is good at marking boundaries and giving directions. It’s good at sending flyers and announcements and holding up signs, but not so good at coming alongside another person. A lighthouse has no feet or hands.
  
  And so, another image is needed and that is the light of a flashlight. The image is of a willingness to go and help someone who is trapped and in danger. The image is of risk-taking, selflessness, compassion, getting dirty, giving of yourself. It is being a light the seeks out the person in trouble – that goes to them – that shines for them – that shows them the way to safety and deliverance.

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER

Jesus as Servant of the Lord - Isaiah 49:1-6 // Isaiah 53

Jesus as Light - Isaiah 9 // 42:6-7 // John 8:12 // John 1:1-14

We are Light - Acts 13:44-49 // Matthew 5:14-16 // Ephesians 5:8-16 // Philippians 2:12-16