Friday, March 21, 2014

There Is No Hope Without Jesus, So Get The Gospel Out There

There is absolutely no hope for any of us without Jesus. The gospel tells us that there is one true, holy, righteous, perfect, just God of the universe, who has eternally existed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He created the world and everything in it, and out of all His creation He created man to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But man rebelled against his created design. Man believed the lie of God’s enemy, Satan, and chose to glorify himself and seek to enjoy himself forever. Ever since that first act of disobedience sin, disease, disaster, hate, death, and so much more evil has entered into the world; and now all of us naturally rebel against God and seek to be our own gods instead of living in glad submission to the one true God.

But God! Because of the great love in which He loved us, even when we were at our worst, complete and total sinners to our core, sent His only Son Jesus to make things right. Because we have offended an infinitely holy God with our sin, our sin is an infinite offense, and thereby deserving of an infinite punishment. And that is exactly what God has told us is in store for every sinner. Every sinner who has not been covered in His grace will spend an eternity having the just wrath (God’s righteous anger) of God poured on them in a place called hell. But this is why Jesus came.

Jesus came to earth as a man, born of a virgin, and lived a completely sinless life. Jesus did everything to the glory of God. He fulfilled our created purpose by glorifying God and enjoying Him in everything He thought, said, and did. He truly lived the perfect life. And because He did this as a man it made Him the perfect sacrifice for sin. You see God told us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And because this is true every sinner, all of us, are naturally dead to God spiritually, will die physically, and outside of God’s grace will die for eternity in hell. But because Jesus was sinless He was now qualified to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

Since sin started in the world through one man (Adam), it could be ended through one man (Jesus), provided that man was sinless. But there is a catch; no mere man can satisfy the infinite righteous wrath of a holy God unless they are infinite themselves. This is why Jesus is the absolute only way to get to God. Jesus is the only person who has ever lived or will ever live who is 100% God and 100% man. By coming to earth as a man Jesus did not cease to be God. So when Jesus offers Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world He is the perfect candidate because He is the perfect sinless man (100% man) and He is God in the flesh (100% God). And only an infinite God can satisfy the infinite righteous wrath of God in three hours on the cross.

And that is exactly what Jesus did. What would take every sinner who has ever lived or will ever live an eternity in hell to pay for, Christ paid for in three hours on the cross. Jesus was beaten, mocked, spit upon, and crucified; and as bad as all that is, the truly horrific thing He experienced was the wrath of God that was poured out upon Him in our place for our sins, while He was on that cross. And praise God He did it! He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. He died on that cross and was put in a grave, but He did not stay dead. No! The grave could not hold Him. On the third day Jesus rose from the dead and prove Himself to be God in the flesh and in doing so He conquered sin, Satan, death, and satisfied the just wrath of God for all who would repent (turn) from their sins and believe in this good news.

But He didn’t stop there. After walking the earth for forty days, teaching His disciples about this good news, He ascended into heaven so that He could send His people the Holy Spirit to live within them, to guide them, to comfort them, and to empower them to live the Christian life; and now He is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His people as the author and perfecter of their faith.

We are all sinful and deserving of the just wrath of God, but God is loving and merciful and sent His Son Jesus so that we could be made right with Him and reconciled to Him. The only way to get to God is by repenting and believing in the gospel, the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ, this good news that I’ve just unpacked. Our sinful minds think it sounds arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way to get to God, but after all that Jesus went through for us isn’t it more arrogant to say that there has to be another way, or that we can make our own way? Jesus literally went through hell so that we could be saved from the wrath that is to come. If there was another way Jesus would have done it, but there was no other way for lost sinners to be reconciled with an infinitely holy God. If Jesus isn’t the only way to God, God isn’t truly holy, because God would be sacrificing His holiness by overlooking sin. True holiness, true perfection, true righteousness, true justice cannot simply overlook sin and pretend it never happened; justice must be served. And praise God it has for all those who will repent and believe in the gospel; and for those who won’t, it will be in hell.     

Now, after seeing that Jesus is the only way to get to God, I ask you, what about those who have never heard this good news? What about those who know nothing of this Jesus? How can they repent and believe in something and Someone they know nothing about? The answer: they can’t. This doesn’t change the fact that they are guilty and deserving of the just wrath of God. It just points us to the hopelessness there is without Christ. For most of us this makes our hearts cry, “this isn’t right!” But technically, the right thing would be to simply send everyone to hell, but God in His loving kindness, mercy, and grace has chosen to save some, and the way in which He has chosen to save is by His people sharing the gospel with lost sinners so that they by the power of His Spirit can respond to the gospel in repentance and faith.

God’s Word says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:13-14). So there’s your answer. If we don’t think it is right for people to go to hell who have never heard the gospel, our response should be to take this gospel to the ends of the earth in hopes that no one would leave this life without first hearing the wonderful news of Jesus Christ. We must go to all nations with the gospel in hopes of making disciples. This is the calling that Jesus has put on His church (Matthew 28:18-20). This is what we should all give our lives to no matter what we have been called to do vocationally. We must get the gospel out!

In closing I ask that you take a few minutes to watch this video and join me in prayer. Pray for workers, for Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” And pray and ask God what He would have you do, where He would have you go, and who He would have you take the gospel to. 


http://youtu.be/OE2OvcnsdrU

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Don't Hinder the Journey

The Infinite Journey
In his new book, An Infinite Journey Dr. Andy Davis, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina describes the Christian life as an infinite journey. In his book he elaborates and says that this one journey is broken down into two infinite journeys. The first journey that every Christian is on is the internal journey of salvation. Salvation is made up of three parts: justification (being reconciled to or made right with God), sanctification (becoming holy or Christlike), and glorification (perfected in glory with Christ), which are all a work that God does in us through the gospel. Hearing of God’s work for us in the gospel is what gives us faith to repent and believe causing us to be justified (Romans 10:17), and beholding the glory of the Lord in the gospel is what causes us to grow in sanctification (2 Cor. 3:18), and one day when we behold the glory of Christ in person (seeing who the gospel is all about face to face) we will be glorified (1 John 3:2). All this stems from the work God does in us through the gospel.  So the journey doesn’t end once we are reconciled with God but continues on into eternity.

The second journey is the external journey of gospel advance. This is the journey of seeing the gospel advance throughout the world in order to make disciples of all nations. Discipleship starts with evangelism and continues on through the journey of salvation as we seek to kill sin and pursue holiness. We disciple others as we help them along this journey. We invite others into the journey of salvation through the journey of gospel advance. And we disciple others as we help them participate in these journeys.

Last night I taught on discipleship and I spent a good deal of time talking about this concept of the Christian life being a journey. Unfortunately, in Southern Baptist life (and really the majority of “western Christianity”) there is little to no attention given to the journey of the Christian life. We tend to worry more about making converts than making disciples. While we should certainly want to see souls saved, we should never neglect our commission to make disciples. Jesus commissioned His bride to make disciples of all nations, not converts.

Last night I used John Bunyan’s bookPilgrim’s Progress to help unpack this idea of the Christian life being a journey. Conversion is very much a part of that journey but it is in no way the end. As the main character in Bunyan’s book Christian goes through many trials and struggles, so we too as Christians must battle through the ups and downs of life, the good times and the bad times, and seek to kill sin and pursue holiness. We must set our face like flint on Christ and pursue Him with all we have. But we must also participate in the journey of gospel advance, which is the journey of making disciples and pouring our lives out for the fame of Jesus among all peoples.   

The Local Church Is Essential For The Journey
We make disciples in our everyday life by sharing the gospel with people and intentionally doing them spiritual good to help them become more Christlike. This happens in every aspect of our everyday lives but another way of helping others grow is by meeting with them to discuss the Bible, Christian books, and the gospel. With that said however, the number one place discipleship takes place is in the context of the church gathered. Through hearing the Word sung, preached, prayed, taught, and seeing it lived out in community the Christian will behold the glory of Christ and grow in discipleship. The local church is essential to discipleship.  

Ephesians 4:11-13
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

In Ephesians 4 Paul shows us that one of the major purposes of God in gifting the church with leaders is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Every Christian is commissioned by Christ to make disciples and discipleship is helping people on their infinite journey. This journey has two parts: the internal journey of sanctification and the external journey of the gospel advance. Through the journey of gospel advance we invite people in to the journey of sanctification. And from there the pattern continues as we seek to do others spiritual good building them up towards Christlikeness. This is the work of ministry that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4.

Too often today we equate ministry with pastors and the like. Certainly this is ministry, but every Christian is called to be a minister, as we are all called to be disciple making ministers of reconciliation (Matt. 28:16-20; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). So what I am concluding from all this is that for some of us our view of the church, especially the church gathering is off a bit. Certainly there are many who do not understand themselves to be ministers and because of that wrongfully attend church services merely to be entertained. But, I fear we who are leaders in the church wrongfully present the church as merely a place to serve and not a place to be fed.

Again, I know there are two sides to this coin, and that the church certainly is a place to serve; however, everyone is not called to serve within the context of the church gathered. I once sat in on a mini church-planting seminar at a conference; at which J. D. Greear made the comment, “We’ve all heard the old saying, ’20 percent of the church do 80 percent of the work.’” He then added, “What if 20 percent of the church is supposed to do the work so that the other 80 percent can be freed up to live on mission?” That was an eye opening moment for me; and I think that is very similar to what Paul is laying out here in Ephesians 4.

God gifts the church with leaders to equip the saints for the work of ministry. That implies that the saints are hard at the work of ministry in their everyday life: leading and discipling their families, being evangelistic and discipling out in the world, and discipling one another. This is the infinite journey that we all are on, and we as leaders are called to help equip the saints for this journey. With that in mind then, there is a huge aspect of the church gathered that should be a place of rest and rejuvenation for the saints as they prepare to go back out into the heat of the battle pressing onward on the infinite journey.

I once heard John Piper say, “We should want out people to come to worship hungry for God. And we had better spread a banquet for them to feast…” If 80 percent of the church is hard at the work of ministry, then the other 20 percent should be ready and willing to pour into them when it comes time to gather. I’ve heard people say things like, “I like that church because when you get there they put you to work.” But, what if that’s not what the person is called to do? What if they are meant to be making disciples in their neighborhood, but now they don’t have time because their always at the church building participating in whatever “ministry” we volunteered them for?

Are We Helping Or Hindering The Journey?
The current mindset of church leaders, and the current philosophy of ministry in many churches is exhausting and burdensome. The church, to quote Spurgeon, is to be “the dearest place on earth.” How many ministry opportunities are we missing because we have our people busy elsewhere? How many people are not hearing the gospel and being discipled because of the new shiny program we just started (not that all programs are bad, I’m just trying to get us to ask ourselves if they are necessary)? How many people in our churches are wrongfully burdened with the “Law of church work” instead of being set free to be all that God would have them be by the glorious Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The church gathered is to be a place of rest, rejuvenation, and feasting, so that the church might regain her strength and get back on the path of the infinite journey (this is a key part to discipleship and why I stress that the church gathered is the number one place for discipleship, because it feeds into every other area of discipleship). In Isaiah 35:8 we read, “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.” This is a beautiful picture of the Christian life. Jesus is the Way, the truth, and the life, and He is the only way to the Father. He is the way to holiness. He is our only hope. Our infinite journey is a journey towards and with Christ and it is a journey that we are to invite others on and help them along. May the Lord change our hearts, change our churches, and change our lives so that we will rightfully be all that Christ has saved us to be.