Mission,

Begin this morning with question. Why does the church exist? Why does the church exist? Mark Twain, ever the cynic, said the church exists to make bad people good and good people miserable. If you were to do man on the street type interviews and I've seen this done before to ask people, why does the church exist? You will get all kinds of answers. The church exists to help people. The church exists to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to help the little ladies across the street. The church exists. I used to help the little ladies across the street. Now I raised them. The church exists to do all these things according to people on the street. Some people will tell you where they put in these words or not that the church is basically a spiritual holding facility for them until they die. Some people refer to that as the church being God's waiting room. The answer is quite simply to all the above. There is no. No. That is not why the church exists. The church exists for a specific reason, a specific purpose for a specific mission. Jesus says in John chapter 17, verses 18 and 19, you have the whole chapter there. We've been working in and out of John 17 for the last several weeks. Jesus says in John 17 and verse 18, praying to his Heavenly Father the night before his death, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself, but they too may be truly sanctified. Let's pray together. Father, I am so grateful again for your word. It's your word is truth and that you do sanctify us in the truth just as Jesus prayed. Father, this word of yours it is truth and it speaks to us truly about our condition. It's an unrelentingly accurate reflection of who we want we are for God. It's not a fun house mirror. It doesn't show us the way we wish we were. It doesn't show us what we never could be. It shows us who we are. We are lost. We are orphaned. We are without hope and without God in this world. But you have reached across those barriers and called us to be your own. And now Father, we who name Christ as Lord come to His beloved children, looking into your word. Your word is truth, sanctify us in the truth, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning I'm going to look at the last of six marks of the true church we've been talking about in John chapter 17. Again, I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to the late great Dr. James Montgomery voice is reading some of his works that first made me think of John 17. Jesus' final prayer, his high priestly prayer was some people call the real Lord's prayer. He's reading John 17 through something that Dr. Boyce said that made me think there's a profile here of what the true church ought to look like. Over the last few weeks we talked about the church should be characterized by joy and unity and holiness and truth and love. And then this morning one final characteristic is that church should be characterized by mission. Think about this, all those other characteristics that we mentioned. Okay, the unity and the holiness and the truth and the love. All those things are important. We should strive for all of them. But this Bible says that we get to heaven, those are going to be ours and perfectly. Now we know in part then we'll know full and perfectly. Now we see his inner mirror as inner mirror dimly then we'll see his face to face then we'll know what he is like because we'll be like him. So if this was the whole point, why didn't God just take us home? Well, we could be perfected in all these things. He's left us here brothers and sisters. He's left us here because he's got something for us to do. He has a mission for us to accomplish. Why does the church exist? Why does this church exist? As you sent me into the world, Jesus says, I have sent them into the world. Literally here he says, as you have a puzzle to me, that's the word. As you have a puzzle to me into the world, I am a puzzling them into the world. A puzzle is a sent one. Jesus says, as you have a puzzle to me, I have a puzzle to them. I make myself holy. That's what sanctify means. I make myself holy. So they may be made holy too. Notice here the parallel tracks of Jesus's life and his work and his ministry, his mission in hours. First it's, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. I want to stop for just a moment and focus on that phrase into the world. Into the world, Jesus will send into this fallen world. We are sent into this fallen world. Over the last 100 years or so, there was a great withdrawal of the Evangelical Church from society beginning back in the 1920s in particular. And with some fits and starts, some of the pendulum swinging back the other way, especially in the 80s and 90s, the Evangelical Church largely fled the public arena, fled the public square and left it to the forces of secularism. Jesus says, I am sending you into the world. There are a number of ways we can look at Jesus's relationship with our culture through the church. Richard Niebuhr pointed this out for us 60 years ago. Christ and culture, he said, you can see Christ against culture. You can see Christ of culture. You see Christ above culture. You can see Christ and culture in paradox. Or you can see Christ as transforming culture. And I'm here to tell you, that's my view is that through the church, Jesus is about the business of transforming culture. If it makes you feeling better about that, it also happened to be a couple of other lightweights for you, like Augustine, John Calvin, Francis Schaefer, Christ transforming culture through the church. Jesus works to lift society up educationally and morally and relationally, vocationally. He lifts culture through his church. Christians are called to be salt and light into a dark and decaying world, salt is a preservative light to light to light up the darkness. We're called to be that shining city on the hill. To move from the city of man to the city of God, we're called to go into the world. People who espouse that kind of thinking, don't just sit back safe and secure in our salvation and watch the world go to hell and say, oh, well, I'm okay. It says, my family, my tribe, my clan, we're okay. Let the rest of the world go to hell. No, if you see there are missions to be sent into the world, to be a puzzled into the world, the same way Jesus was sent into the world and puzzled into the world. You can't just sit back, pull your thumbs and say, oh, well, judgment's coming. I can hardly wait. What's going to happen? I can't do that if we think that way. That's why I continue to preach on to speak out on issues such as the sanctity of human life that life begins at conception. I talk about the Bible's prescription for a marriage in the family that God's plan for marriage in the family is one man, one woman for life. That's why I continue to talk about the biblical view of government. It's a very limited view. When I do these things, I make some people very uncomfortable, I make others downright angry. So, why do I do it? I just don't have enough conflict in my life. I have four kids. You're kidding me? Three cats need I say more. Why do I do this? Because my conscience is captive to the word of God to proclaim all the Bible teaches the whole council God, not just the parts that make us comfortable. The parts that don't cause controversy. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself that they may be truly sanctified. Jesus has sent them to the world. He's a possible in the world. We are sent in a possible in the world now. How was he sent? How are we sent into the world? There are a lot of adjectives or average we could apply here. He was sent boldly. He was sent lovingly. He was sent in a timely manner. All true. I want to suggest to you three other crucial ways we ought to see that Jesus was sent into the world. And so are we. First of all, he sent purposefully. He was sent purposefully. The father did not call a council of the Trinity back before time again and said, listen, things are not going too well. Son, I want you to go down there to the earth. I want you to do some good things. Teach some good moral principles. He'll some people help a little ladies across the street. He didn't say that. The father said to his son, our planet is dying. In fact, instead, our people are lost. Go and do what you have to do to save them. He told him very specifically what the mission was. The mission was accomplished just like I was telling our young people, if I just said, hey, me and around out there and find somebody to do something, poor little Mike Lieber looked at me as if I was speaking Klingon. Then we saw that card. He thought I was writing Klingon, but I had to tell him specifically, go here, do this. He could accomplish that mission. What was Jesus' mission, Luke, chapter 19, in verse 10, for the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost? That was his mission. To go and find the lost in the dying. Do we really believe this? Do we really believe that outside of Christ, we are lost and we are spiritually dead and that the only way we have to be made right with God the Father is the death of a very strange Jewish rabbi. 2,000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, who was turned over to the hands of the Romans, nailed to a Roman crossbeam, died and was raised again three days later. That is our only means of being justified in God's sight. Do we really believe this? If we do, if we do, and we realize he came for a very specific purpose. He didn't come to be a role model, although he was the best role model him I could ever have. He didn't come to be a great teacher, although he was by far the most dynamic teacher the world's ever seen. He came specifically to die on a cross as an intoning sacrifice for your sins and for mine. He died for you. He died for me if we'll come to the cross. Do we really believe this? If so, then our mission becomes clearer. The M. Sterns preaching latter half the 1800s and Philadelphia and after a sermon one time a man came up to Pastor Sterns and said, I don't like the way you spoke about the cross. I don't think we should focus on emphasize so much the death of Jesus as we should focus on his Jesus as a teacher as an example. Pastor Sterns said this, if I presented Christ in that way would you be willing to follow him? I most certainly would. The man said without hesitation, all right then to Pastor Sterns let's begin with this. He knew no sin. Can you say that? The man was surprised and he was troubled and he stopped to his credit he was honest he said no I can't say that because I do sin. Pastor Sterns said all right then your greatest need it's not for an example. You need a savior. The cross ladies and gentlemen is the end of if you let me say this way it's the death of the idea that Jesus came to be a great teacher and a great more example. No if that's all he could have come and taught some great lessons and lived a great life died at a ripe old age or been translated back to heaven no. Jesus came to be an atoning sacrifice we don't just need an example we don't just need a teacher we need a savior we need a savior snow illustration on a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occurred there was once a crude little life-saving station the building was just a hut there was only one boat but a few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves they went out day or night tirelessly searching for the lost many lives were saved by this wonderful little station so that it became famous some of those who were saved and various others in surrounding areas wanted to become associated with the station and wanted to give their time and money and effort for the support of this work new boats were bought new crews were trained the little life-saving station grew some of the new members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped they felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea so they replaced the emergency cons with beds and put better furniture in a large building now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members they redecorated it beautifully and furnished it as a sort of club less of the members were now interested in going out to sea on life-saving missions so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work the mission of the life-saving station was still given lip service the most were too busy or lack the necessary commitment to take part in the life-saving activities personally about this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold wet and half-drawn people they were dirty and sick some of them looked different some spoke a strange language and the beautiful new club was considerably messed up so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside at the next meeting there was a split in the club membership most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal life pattern of the club but some members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station but they were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the life of all the various kinds of people who are shipwrecked in those waters they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast and they did as the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old they evolved into a club and yet another life-saving station was founded if you visit that sea coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters only now an awful lot of people drown the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost father as you sent me into the world so I'm sending them into the world for them I sanctify myself if they too maybe truly sanctify the father sends his son to the world purposefully he sends him sacrificially he sends him sacrificially like Jesus we are often sent into hostile territory increasingly hostile for us our culture no longer just disagrees with us but now they resent us for believing what they believe they no longer they no longer just think we're wrong increasing they don't think we even have the right to believe what we believe and to talk about it did you take note this past week with a so-called hate crimes legislation a little rider that was stuck into the national defense authorization act that hate crimes legislation personally folks if you shoot me with the gun I don't really care what your motivation is I'm still just as dead you know but this hate crimes motivation goes to or hate crimes legislation goes to the alleged motive of the person doing the violence but what it does is it raises a very real possibility a very real possibility people like myself will be in danger will be in jeopardy if we continue to preach things in the Bible about homosexuality about the nature of marriage about marriage and the family and so forth it costs to be a Christian let's keep it in perspective it costs to be a Christian in this country we're talking about maybe ostracism maybe being laughed at so my mind get on my case at some point for preaching what the Bible says folks no one's put a gun to my head and told me to announce Christ I have friends to whom that has happened who were run out of their countries by hostile forces that's never happened to me so let's keep it in perspective but it does cost to be a Christian it costs us our time cost us our money cost us our comfort you didn't get to sleep in as long as you wanted to maybe this morning or be out on the golf course or staying home reading the paper or whatever else you read cost you your comfort it costs us our ability to always get to do whatever we want to do for the sake of the upward calling of Christ it costs us it costs us dying to ourselves Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 beginning verse 5 it's an ancient creed or a hymn have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself but becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flow mingle down did air such love and sorrow me or thorns compose so rich a crown we sing it we need to embrace it we need to grasp it we need to comprehend it the sacrificial nature of the mission of the Son of God verse 7 of that Philippians 2 passage says that he emptied himself other translations say he made himself nothing he emptied himself well what did Jesus empty himself when he came his divinity oh he was just as much God the empty himself of his righteousness no still perfectly righteous perfectly holy the empty himself of his power you know he still had the power to forgive sins to heal to do miracles to raise the dead of what then did Jesus empty himself he emptied himself of his privileges of his rights to be treated as God Almighty he emptied himself of his rights to stay and the heavenly throne at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and to be worshiped and adored in eternity he left the splendors of heaven to come to earth on a life-saving mission why would he do that why why do we make the sacrifice we what is a husband get up in the middle of the night drive to the drugstore for his pregnant wife why does a somebody says well he better why does a mom step all night take care of a sick child why does a soldier sacrifice his own comfort and safety and even his life for the love of his country they do it all of them do it because there's something they love more than they love themselves there's something they love more than they love their own comfort their own privileges their own rights in America the beautiful most of us know the first verse but the third verse to me is the most moving oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their countries loved and mercy more than life Jesus came to sacrifice himself for the world he calls us to lay down our lives for others as well it's not always comfortable it's sure not always convenient it doesn't always make me happy but it will make us faithful and it will bring glory to God picking back up from what Paul wrote in Philippians 2 for this reason also God highly exalted him bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven in honor of the under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father he was sent sacrificially to accomplish his mission James Calvert was the first English speaking missionary the first Christian missionary to go ashore on cannibal Fiji 1838 James Calvert and his wife and the crew went ashore of cannibal Fiji as they pulled up off the coast and the ship made anchor and the lifeboat that would take Calvert in his company the provision of ashore ships captain called Calvert over to himself and he said to him urban Calvert you're crazy you're going to lose your life and your whole party is going to lose their lives too James Calvert said that's all right we died before he came here we died before he came here the father sends his son to the world purposefully sends him sacrificially he sends him incarnationally incarnationally this is where it all comes together folks this is where everything that Jesus was and is everything he did and everything that he does it all comes together he is one of us this is the scandal of the gospel the God that will not mind his own business and leave us alone but he comes he doesn't just knock on the door and speak from outside or send this down a fax or a text message no he comes right into the camp right into our midst as one of us in Christ the word has become flesh and dwelt among us as a Jewish man a peasant born of common people two thousand years ago in a remote little corner what is now Palestine place called Bethlehem he came among us and he was made flesh not stained glass he's born in a stable not a sanctuary he came and he worked a real job with real hands when he overdid it he got calluses and blisters when he cut himself he bled and it was real blood he walked our streets and he breathed our air exposed himself to our germs and our illnesses he went to weddings and the funeral he had real friends he drank real wine he shed real tears and when it came time for him to die he died a real death with real nails the real hands and feet and real crown of thorns in his head real blood trickling down from his wounds he identifies with us incarnationally we don't have a high priest who can understand we got one who has been tempted in every way such as we are and yet was without sin in doing this Jesus his leg claimed all of life every aspect every arena he's laid claim to all of life as his rightful domain and in this prayer here in John 17 Jesus says it is his intention to send us into the world as he himself has been sent into the world to send us purposefully to send us sacrificially incarnation not just to talk about it but to go and to live it to live the life as I urge you every Sunday to live the life in the midst of a lost and a dying and decaying world our hands are his hands our feet are his feet our mouths are his mouths to speak and to move and to act in this world as his representatives so our missions individual Christians so our missions so our mission as a local church it's on the screen every week for those of you who are here early enough to see it both of you I say it to you all the time this church exists to glorify God to build up the body of Christ to advance his kingdom into the kingdoms of this world how do we glorify God well we do it corporately most focused Lee if you know most focused way here on Sunday mornings at 11 this is where we get together this is our most conspicuous outward expression our glorification of God Almighty we also do in our everyday lives don't we glorify God and enjoy him forever how do we build up the body of Christ well again Sunday morning is a focal point for that edification to take place where we teach and we disciple and we instruct and we set before you a rich and a deep sampling of what God has to tell us that's how we build one another up on Sunday mornings or maybe Wednesday nights but we're to do that every day as we interact with one another to encourage one another to love and good deeds we advance this kingdom into the kingdoms of this world how do we do that well we do it in one way when we come together on Sunday mornings just being here just being here is a planting of our flags it says this world's not all there is if it was why aren't we all home getting ready to go tailgate or something there's more to life than what you see every day that's why when your neighbors are all home asleep or hung over on Sunday morning you get in your car you're the only car moving on your street you're making a declaration this is part of the kingdom of God and I'm his man I'm his woman I'm his young person we advance this kingdom just by being here but we also advance it wherever we go we are representatives of Jesus Christ the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and what we do and what we say how we interact with those who do not know him as Lord many of whom we don't even care or frankly resent the fact altogether where we go we advance this kingdom we do it well we don't do it as well let me ask a question no guilt I put myself under the same authority as you was last time we had a chance to tell somebody how we came to know Christ was the last time you were able to tell somebody well here's what makes me different here's why I go get up on Sunday mornings get dressed and go that church here's why show up on Wednesday nights for Bible study here's why I go to that home group because at some point in time or an period of time my life was transformed by a living relationship with Jesus Christ most last time we invited somebody to come here on Sunday mornings have you invited anybody to come here to hear the gospel lately this week this month this year ever folks I love you and I know from your expressions you've learned to love me too and thank you for that you're kind to me a couple of weeks ago on pastoral appreciation Sunday can I tell you from my heart to yours these empty seats dishonor God they're a reproach to God when he looks down upon this gathering every place he does not see one of his image bearers in here saying thank you God for what you've done it dishonors him what we're gonna do about that what are we gonna do about that we move into a world that is lost in dying and say you know we know the cure for your disease come on and get it we're gonna sit back passively and say oh well somebody else will do it somebody else is not gonna do it for you and I can't do it for you we got to move into the world to advance his kingdom into the kingdom of those are how one heart at a time one mind at a time one life at a time this if you're here this morning and you've never heard this before you don't know the gospel it's very simple you created in God's image you're made to know him to be in right relationship with him your sins have separated you from God just as mine have separated me from God and we're without hope we have no cure for our own disease you can't jump high enough can't flap your arms hard enough you can't reach high enough to reach heaven every other religion on the planet says here's what you have to do to make yourself acceptable to God or the gods or whatever it is only in Christianity only in Christ in Christ alone God says you can't reach me I will reach down reach you and I've done it in the cross of my son if you know that to be true and you've received the payment Christ has made on the cross for you and for your sins you have been made right in God's eyes and you live a life with dignity and nobility and purpose whether you experience it or not every day when you die you've got to be a God forever in heaven if you don't know Christ's Lord you will not you will you will live forever we all will questions where if you don't know Christ's Lord you will live separated from him an eternity in a place called hell folks I've told you it's clearly I know how to tell you and I trusted that's your experience if you don't know him if you don't know him make it so today I'll sit and talk with you the elders will sit with you explaining how you can personally receive the atoning sacrifice Christ made for you if you do not do this when you die and you stand for God you will not be able to say nobody ever told me because I've told you it's clearly as I know how folks the marks of the true church joy and unity and holiness truth love mission what needs to be true of the church must be true of each one of us from an old old edition of the church union this is my church it is composed of people just like me it will be friendly if I am it will do a great work if I work it will make generous gifts to many causes if I am generous it will bring others into fellowship if I bring them it will be a church of loyalty loyalty and love of faith and service if I who make it what it is and fill with these therefore with God's help I dedicate myself to the task of being all these things I want my church to be