Wake Up and Share the Gospel

Colossians 1:3-6

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing-as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth...

The gospel is the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ. I LOVEthe gospel! I truly believe with all my heart that the gospel is the power of God to make disciples (conversion), and the power of God to mature disciples (sanctification). This message is truly one of the biggest passions of my heart.

I really love this passage in Colossians, for many reasons, but perhaps the greatest is because it so communicates my heart. First off Paul says that he thanks God for the faith and love of the Colossians; and he says the reason they have this faith and love is because of the hope they have laid up in heaven, the hope of Christ, the hope of the gospel. Then after he says that he explains why that is the case.

When the gospel comes in it bears fruit and increases. Paul says, “the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing-as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth...” So, someone becomes a Christian when they hear the gospel and understand it (truly understand it which leads to repentance and faith). And from that day on it bears fruit not only in them but also through them and increases out into the world. In other words, when the gospel does a work in somebody, it also does a work out of somebody. This is what is called Gospel In ~ Gospel Out.

Most new Christians are always excited and eager to talk about Jesus. Why is that? Because they recognize the profound work that God is doing in them through the gospel. They want to talk about what excites them. They want to talk about what they care about. But, with that in mind, many of us think of this as merely a passing phase. “Sure that guy is on fire for Jesus now, but he’ll cool off after a while.” And if we’re honest that usually happens. But why?! I think it is because we stop being amazed by grace. We stop marveling at the gospel and then we become cold, sleepy Christians who keep the amazing news about the person and work of Jesus Christ to ourselves.

So, what are you? Are you a cold, sleepy Christian? Or are you an excited Christian who burns with a white hot passion for the gospel? So many churches are full of nominal and sleepy Christians; so much so that the Christians who are on fire for the Lord feel out of place. I pray that God would revive our churches and give us new passion for the gospel. Tim Keller says, “In a revival, sleepy Christians wake up, nominal Christians get converted, and non-Christians get reached… When sleepy and nominal Christians get revived, attractive and bold in their witness, people who would never have believed before begin to get converted.” The gospel goes in and the gospel goes out; it truly bears fruit and increases.

So what are some things we can do to pull us out of our slumber?

1.      Pray

2.      Read, meditate on, and memorize Scripture

3.      Sit under the preached Word

4.      Gather with God’s people and celebrate the gospel

5.      Preach the gospel to yourself over and over again

6.      Always keep an ongoing cycle of confession and repentance going. This requires you to be in community with some people. These should be close gospel-centered friendships, and of course your spouse.

7.      Share the gospel with and love and serve the people around you.

8.      Seek to meet new people who you can build relationships with, share the gospel with, invite to church, etc…

Number eight is by far the hardest one for me. I get so caught up in my day to day routine that I forget to slow down long enough to engage the people around me when I’m out and about. I heard a new church planter say the other day that he and his core group committed themselves to meeting 7-14 new people a week (each) and sharing the gospel with them and inviting them to church. If everybody in the church committed themselves to doing this I believe we would really start to see the kind of thing that Tim Keller was talking about (Lord willing).

I don’t know about you, but I’m not content with being a cold, sleepy Christian. I want to fight for gospel amazement. I want to be a part of a church that has the kind of faith and love that Paul talks about in Colossians. I want the gospel to work in and out of me. I want to pour out my life for the fame of Jesus among all peoples. What about you?   

I SO LONG TO BE A PART OF A GOSPEL-CENTERED CHURCH

Success is not always immediate results…

Think with me if you will about what the modern day church in America looks like in contrast to the way Jesus did ministry. Most churches in the western world define themselves by what programs they offer, what events they host, what type of music they have, and the personality of the pastor. Jesus’ ministry however, was very basic; He simply focused on preaching, teaching, and discipleship. Often the main concern in the western church is to draw a crowd, whereas Jesus often retreated from crowds in order to disciple His apostles. Why did Jesus do this? In Robert Coleman’s book The Master Plan of Evangelism he writes:

“Why did Jesus deliberately concentrate his life on comparatively so few people? Had he not come to save the world? ... Surely the Son of God could have adopted a more enticing program of mass recruitment. Is it not rather disappointing that one with all the powers of the universe at his command would live and die to save the world, yet in the end only have a few ragged disciples to show for his labors? The answer to this question focuses at once on the real purpose of his plan for evangelism. Jesus was not trying to impress the crowd, but to usher in a Kingdom.”

Jesus’ view of ministry was not one of quantity but of quality. Yes, Jesus cared/cares deeply about the world, and we know that He is saving people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But what we see in His ministry is not a neglect of the world but a ministry that takes the long view in order to have a larger impact. Jesus’ example makes us ask ourselves the question, “What if instead of trying to casually impact everyone, we focused our efforts to radically impact a few?”

Robert Coleman continues:

"Here is where we must begin just like Jesus. It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it. We must decide where we want our lives and ministry to count - in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on our work after we have gone. Really it is a question of which generation we are living for."

The way in which many churches do ministry often seems to be having much immediate success; but how many are actually agents of true lasting change in their people, their community, and out into the world? How many are really seeing lives transformed? I heard David Platt say in his sermon at Together for the Gospel this year, “If we’re not careful we will deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a building for the existence of spiritual life in a church.” So, in other words, numbers do not equal success. We can’t measure success by immediate results. Ultimately what equals success is faithfulness to the gospel; and God’s Word teaches us that faithfulness to the gospel will lead to true lasting impact and change.

A vision for something closer to Jesus’ ministry philosophy…

If we don’t need a whole bunch of programs to do ministry, what do we need to reach people and transform lives? I propose three things: gospel-centered discipleship, community, and worship. These three not only transform the lives of the individuals who make up a local church, but they also transform the church as a whole, the community the church is in, and on out into the world; and this all works together to glorify God.

The gospel is the glorious message that tells us that God has made a way for lost wicked sinners to be reconciled to Him and live forever with Him in a world free of sin and its effects through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is at the center of the Christian life because it is what creates and empowers the Christian life in every stage; therefore every aspect of the Christian must be tethered to the gospel. A person hears the gospel and gets knowledge of this glorious message. Faith comes upon hearing this message and as that faith grows the character of this person will begin to grow in Christlikeness. As the person becomes more and more like Christ the person’s faith and character will lead to action; the action of being a doer of the word. And then the cycle continues because the riches of God’s grace in the gospel are unsearchable; we’ll never reach the bottom of this glorious well (Romans 11:33). So, for the individual, discipleship—the Christian life really, would flow something like this.

Now for the church as a whole there is a similar pattern of life. Like the individual, the church as a whole is created and empowered by the gospel; therefore every aspect of the church must be tethered to the gospel. God accomplishes His purposes for His people through His Word (Gen. 1:3; Isa. 55:10-11; Acts 12:24), so the doctrine of a church is crucial. As gospel doctrine is laid out week in and week out through discipleship and preaching the lives of the members begin to be transformed by the power of the gospel leading to a gospel lifestyle. As the lifestyle of the members of a church become more and more in step with the gospel (Gal. 2:14) the overall culture of the church begins to become gospel-centered.

To be gospel-centered means that the gospel and Jesus himself is our greatest hope and boast, our deepest longing and joy, and our most passionate song and message. It means that the gospel is what defines us as Christians, unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ, changes us from sinners to saints, and sends us out to live our lives with intentionality to edify the saints, evangelize the lost, and worship God. A gospel-centered church is about Jesus above everything else. The sermons we preach, the lessons we teach, the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the way we do life with one another, and the way we live our lives when we are scattered into the world will be focused on and saturated with the gospel and its implications.

As this culture becomes established in a church it will begin to shine out the nature and character of God to the watching world, leading to true gospel witness. As the witness of a church grows in gospel clarity it will have more of an impact on the surrounding community because as Christ says, it will shine out like a city on a hill. So, the greater the gospel transformation in the church the greater the gospel witness. The greater the gospel witness the greater the influence, impact, and evangelistic witness on the world. And this too is an ongoing cycle. So, for the local church, life would flow something like this.

The gospel creates something beautiful and powerful…

In his new book The Gospel, Ray Ortlund says, “Gospel-centered churches are living proof that the good news is true, that Jesus is not a theory but real. . . . When the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful, that church will be powerful.” So simply through gospel-centered discipleship (evangelism and helping others pursue Christlikeness), community (living life together and fulfilling the “one anothers” of the New Testament), and worship (both corporate worship through the preaching of the Word, prayer, and singing, as well as living a lifestyle of worship), we can become true agents of change for the mission of the gospel in our city and to the nations.

This may sound great but in real life this is slow moving, hard work. Along with the church being made up of a bunch of repentant sinners, the world is made up of a bunch of unrepentant sinners; add that combination to an already fallen world and a real enemy who hates the gospel and gospel-centered churches and you have a recipe for grueling hard work. But, by God’s grace this vision for the church can be accomplished. As Robert Coleman said, “It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it.” So, the question is, are we willing to put in the time and effort to see gospel transformation in ourselves, our churches, our communities, and the world? Are we willing to pour our lives into a few as Jesus did in hopes of having a more meaningful impact? When each member of a church focuses on discipling a few and living lives that are in step with the gospel I truly believe we will have a much bigger impact than we ever could through an event or a program. Oh, how I so long to be a part of something like this...

The Gospel is the Answer

Gospel Centrality is Biblical

Ephesians 3:10

[S]o that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

In the circles and camps that I run with, gospel centrality is becoming something we hear a lot and see in a lot of book titles. A lot of people treat the idea of being gospel-centered as a passing fad. While the term gospel-centered may be fairly new the concept is completely biblical. Ephesians 3:10 is one of my favorite verses when it comes to gospel-centrality. I don’t have the time to unpack all of Ephesians to show you exactly why I think 3:10 is crucial to the concept of being gospel-centered, but this quote from Mark Dever gets at the heart of it. “Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34-35). The church is the gospel made visible.”[1] So what I am saying is that Ephesians 3:10 teaches that God makes the gospel visible to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places and also to the world through His church.

Don Carson says, “The gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform (see 1 Cor 2; 1 Thess 2:4; [Rom 1:16-17])...
One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all of our ethics, all of our priorities."[2] The gospel must be the focal point of everything we do as a church and it must drive everything we do as Christians. It is the power to make and mature disciples, so this is what should define us as Christians and local churches. So we must preach and teach the gospel and then live out the implications of the gospel. As Paul puts it in Galatians 2:14, we must live lives that are in step with the gospel.

The idea behind this is that in the church you have gospel doctrine through the preaching and teaching of the Word and gospel culture through the lives and relationships of the people that make up the church. Only when the doctrine and the culture of a church are in step with the gospel is a church living out Ephesians 3:10 and proving to be truly gospel-centered. A church can’t be truly gospel-centered if it is lacking in either of these areas.  

Gospel Centrality is the Answer

In my church I hear people talk often of reaching younger people. By younger people they mean my aged people (20s-30s) and below. They ask questions like, “Why don’t they care about the church? Why don’t they have a desire to grow?” These are fine questions to ask, but how we respond to these questions are what’s really important. The typical response is to come up with bigger and better programs, events, and productions in hopes that it will attract these disinterested folks and change their current disengaged status. While the motives behind these efforts are well and good, the efforts themselves are misguided. As long as we measure success by numbers and not faithfulness to the gospel we will never be a true gospel-centered church. 

If programs, events, and productions aren’t the answer, what is? Put simply, gospel centrality is the answer. Francis Schaeffer put it like this, “If the church is what it should be, young people will be there. But they will not just ‘be there’—they will be there with the blowing of horns and the clashing of high-sounding cymbals, and they will come dancing with flowers in their hair.”[3] So, when the church lives out the mission of Ephesians 3:10, paying attention to both gospel doctrine and gospel culture, the watching world, including young people will see and will be attracted to it, eagerly attracted to it. Ray Ortlund puts it like this, “We accept that the truth of biblical doctrine is essential to authentic Christianity, but do we accept that the beauty of human relationships is equally essential? If by God’s grace we hold the two together—gospel doctrine and gospel culture—people of all ages will more likely come to our churches with great joy.”[4]

Francis Schaeffer shows this to be true in the early church. “One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.”[5]

So we can’t neglect doctrine or culture, they are both import. Ray Ortlund says it like this:

“Gospel doctrine - gospel culture = hypocrisy

Gospel culture - gospel doctrine = fragility

Gospel doctrine + gospel culture = power

Only the powerful presence of the risen Lord can make a church this gospel-centered. . . . People will see him in us as we build our churches into gospel cultures with the resources of gospel doctrine, taking no shortcuts.”[6]

So there you have it; as people hear and see the gospel in the church people will become interested and engaged. The gospel is the answer. We over complicate things by trying to come up with the next best thing to reach the world, but Scripture is clear, the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). We must focus on what is truly important. We must stay centered and saturated with the gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of our doctrine and our culture. Anything less loses the power to transform lives and falls short of the beauty of Ephesians 3:10.

The Gospel Attracts the Elect

When my eyes were opened to the beautiful riches of mercy and grace that are in the gospel I not only fell in love with Christ, but I fell in love with His bride the church. When I learned that I was created for more than just trying to enjoy myself and avoid pain and discomfort, I became recklessly abandoned for the mission of the gospel. The idea of pouring out my life for the fame of Jesus among all nations was and is incredibly attractive to me versus the American Dream. When I learned that through the gospel I had been brought into a war against sin and Satan and by pursing holiness and making disciples I could push back the darkness and my life could have an eternal impact on this world for Christ, I felt truly alive for the first time.

Jesus promised that the elect will be attracted by the gospel (John 10:16). When the elect hear the gospel and respond in repentance and faith they are made alive to the true purposes they were created for. Evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and the like, are all tied to the gospel and these are things the elect live for. Church and the Christian life was never meant to be a safe, moralistic, country club where we sing songs and put on shows (though I certainly believe we must sing out in corporate worship). The church is a gospel-centered people who make the gospel visible to the world and make war on sin and Satan. When we stop worrying about the next best thing and numbers and start worrying about the gospel and the mission of the gospel, then we will become the gospel-centered church Ephesians 3:10 speaks of, and then we will begin to reach this world for Christ.

Let’s Pray for Gospel Centrality in Hopes of Gospel Transformation

The gospel is good news, not good advice. The gospel is not something we do but a message about something that has been done for us. The gospel is the glorious message that tells us that God has made a way for lost wicked sinners to be reconciled to Him and live forever with Him in a world free of sin and its effects through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is glorious news that should be shared. The Bible is clear, the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who will believe; so we must preach this gospel to unbelievers in hopes of their justification and we must preach this gospel to ourselves and other believers in hopes of sanctification.

As men and women of God the gospel should shape and mold every aspect of our lives, everything we do, and everything we are. The gospel is what we need. The gospel is what this world needs. We have been saved so that we would live in this world as gospel-centered, gospel-saturated ambassadors for Christ, pleading with this world to be reconciled to God. As we allow the gospel to center and saturate us the grace of God will transform the doctrine and culture of our churches… As pastor Ray Ortlund has said, “How does change happen? Not by our brilliance or will power. Not even by our agreement with the gospel. We change as we press the gospel into our hearts deeper than ever before.”[7] So, join me in going deeper into the gospel and praying that Christ transforms us into the gospel-centered church He saved us to be, for the evangelization of the world, the edification of the saints, and the glory of God.  

---

[1] Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible (Nashville: B&H, 2012), xi.

[2] D. A. Carson, “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited,” in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper, ed. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 165.

[3] Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove, 1970), 107.

[4] Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 22.

[5] Francis Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, 62.

[6] Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 23.

[7] Ray Ortlund in Jared Wilson’s book, Gospel Wakefulness (Wheaton, Crossway 2011), 9.

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

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.

             

A Theology of the Heart

The Word of God is truly amazing! To think that God used sinful men to write His completely inerrant and infallible Word is remarkable. God breathed out His Word through a few people so that all of His people would be blessed with the beautiful, heart transforming, true story of redemption that is the Bible. As Paul says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

            We desperately need the Word of God for every situation and every second of our lives. We are creatures of instinct and habit. This wouldn't be a problem if our instincts and habits were always right and God glorifying; however, if we're honest typically our instincts and habits are prideful, idolatrous, and all out sinful. Ever since the fall of man (Genesis 3) this has been the case. All of mankind are now sinners by nature; meaning that we are sinners at the very core of our being.

            Author Jerry Bridges says, “what the Bible calls the heart...[is] the very core of our being...the center of our intellect, affections, and will.”¹ If the core of our being is the heart, ever since the fall, the hearts of mankind have been truly sinful. Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander" (Matthew 15:19).

            The Bible tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it" (Jeremiah 17:9)? Naturally the hearts of man are in a state of rebellion against the God and King of the universe, but in His great mercy, through the gospel, by the power of the Spirit He redeems and restores His people.

            God says in Ezekiel 11:19-20, "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

            When we heard the gospel and repented and believed we were saved and God transformed our heart. By God's grace we are no longer enslaved to our sin, now by the power of the Holy Spirit we can live to the glory of God.... If you're like me at this point you're probably saying to yourself, "I'm a Christian, and yet my heart is still wicked. More often than not my heart leads me astray." This is because of the already-not yet factor of the Kingdom of God and the Christian life. For example, Jesus is already King of kings and Lord of lords but the world does not yet realize this; but there is coming a day when, "at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). 

            For us in our walk this has massive implications, but perhaps the one that we have to deal with most is what Paul calls the old man or old self. On one hand Paul says, "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin" (Romans 6:6-7). And on the other he says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death" (Romans 7:24)? So in one sense Paul has already been delivered from his sins, but in another sense not yet. This is where we as Christians find ourselves. We are already righteous in the eyes of God but not yet righteous here and now. We are already free from sin but that freedom has not yet fully been realized. 

            Because this is our current condition our hearts still cannot be trusted. Even as Christians our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. So if we can't trust or understand our heart as the Bible says, what do we do? God says, "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds" (Jeremiah 17:10). In every situation we need to allow God to search our hearts and make sure our motives are pure and not sinful. This begs the question then, how do we allow God to search our hearts? The answer: the Bible... "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

            We must allow God's word to discern our hearts and then transform, lead, guide, and direct our hearts. When we do this, this gives us a gospel-centered approach to life. Along with this we need other Christians around us to evaluate our hearts and to help us understand and apply Scripture properly. I praise God that I have a wife and some godly best friends who are ready and willing to speak truth into my life and go after my heart with the gospel as often as I need it (which is constantly).

            It is our sinful instinct to allow pride to take over and get defensive when our motives are questioned, but we must battle this if we are going to fight the good fight and become more like Jesus. Our pride tells us we are the king and no one has any right to question us. But the gospel tells us that Jesus is King and we are wicked and sinful and desperately need our motives questioned and godly council. 

1. Jerry Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Inside Cover.

Without Jesus You Can Do Nothing!

Today I taught a class on the gospel, the implications of the gospel, and how to share the gospel with others. In my talk on the implications of the gospel I talked about our work in sanctification. I explained that no one becomes Christ-like by accident; it takes effort and intentionality. But, in no way did I mean that sanctification (becoming Christ-like—holy) is something we do in our own strength. With that in mind I felt like I should point out a few passages that lay this out.

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:8-11
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Philippians 2:12b-13
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 


Christian: without Jesus you can do nothing. Sanctification, like justification is by grace alone. But, God's grace provides us with the will, strength, and ability to kill sin and pursue holiness. And God in His infinite goodness has set all this up in such a way that when we do this we will have true joy. The more we walk in glad submission to the Lord the more joyful we will be.