Remembering Our Purpose
John 3:16-18
January 4, 2015
As we mentioned earlier, we are now beginning
Our annual missions month here at the church.
And before we get into our text this morning
I really just want to sort of remind you why we have missions month.
I want to bring back the basics of missions to your mind.
We typically set aside the month of January
As a time to focus on the last command of Jesus.
Acts 1:8-9 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
Certainly it is of no small significance that
This is the very final command of Jesus.
We are called to be His witnesses.
In short – THE CHURCH HAS A PURPOSE
We set aside the month of January
To REMEMBER and FOCUS and get RECOMMITTED to that purpose.
Hopefully you will remember our study from this past September,
When we talked about the purpose of why we gather as a church.
We narrowed it down to three.
1) EXALTATION – we meet to praise God
2) EXHORTATION – we meet to encourage one another
3) EXPOSITION – we meet to hear God’s word proclaimed
Those are the reasons we gather
That is our purpose for gathering.
But our purpose for being left in the world is greater still than that.
What you find is that our purpose for gathering
Is in part to prepare us for our purpose in the world.
Let me explain.
We meet together for EXALTATION
But our purpose as a church body is not just to praise Christ in private assembly, but to proclaim His greatness to the world.
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”
Certainly when we come it is for the purpose of praising God,
But God deserves to be praised by more than just us.
God deserves to be praised by all of His creation.
Psalms 67 “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us — Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
We meet to praise, but our purpose is not limited to personal worship.
God left us here that we might lead the world to worship Him.
As the Psalmist said, “God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
There is a missionary purpose implied here.
As John Piper said, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t”
So we gather for exaltation,
But it also carries with it a larger purpose and expectation.
Our praise is meant to spread beyond these doors into a lost world.
(That’s why it is important that you learn to praise here.
If you won’t do it here, then you wont’ do it out there.)
We also said we gather for EXHORTATION
Hebrews 10:24-25 “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
We understand the importance of encouraging one another
To live the way Christ expects us to live.
But again that encouragement is only part of our total purpose.
Our encouragement (like our praise)
Is meant to extend beyond the walls of this building.
We are called to encourage sinners to repent and trust Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
You can see that our purpose for gathering
Is meant to strengthen our purpose in general.
We also said that we meet for EXPOSITION
We meet to have the word of God explained.
But let me remind you why:
Ephesians 4:11-12 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;”
We talked about how God gave spiritual gifts to uniquely equip some
To be able to proclaim, explain, and apply His word.
Why?
“for the equipping of the saints for the work of service”
Well guess who you are? – “the saints”
Guess what your job is? – “the work of service”
I know we live in a day when people try to shift all ministry type work
Off on the pastor or the staff, but that just simply isn’t Biblical.
If you want to get down to the brass tacks of the situation:
• MISSIONS IS YOUR JOB
• EVANGELISM IS YOUR JOB
• REACHING THIS COMMUNITY AND BEYOND IS YOUR JOB
MY JOB IS TO EQUIP YOU TO DO IT.
But missions is your job.
And so again, you see how our purpose for gathering
Is meant to directly affect our purpose in general.
We are left here in this world to do more than just gather together.
We are here to proclaim the excellencies of God to a lost world,
And to encourage them to respond to God’s truth.
WE ARE HERE FOR MISSIONS.
It is just as Paul said:
“we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us”
This morning I want to go back to the basics
And remind you of what God’s mission is.
The appeal God wishes to make through you
Is the same appeal He has always made.
I want to show you God’s mission
To remind you of what yours is supposed to look like.
We are going to look at John 3:16-18
Because in it you easily see the mission and heart of God.
And I want you to see that the mission God has for you
Is no different than the mission He had for Christ.
In fact Jesus said:
John 20:21 “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
The mission is one and the same.
So this morning let me briefly hit this passage again
To remind you of the basics of your mission.
Three things
#1 THE MISSION
John 3:16
Obviously we must start with the heart of God here.
“For God so loved the world”
Don’t let anyone fool you.
There has only ever been one true motive behind missions,
And it is LOVE
• Missions is not about thrill seeking
• Missions is not about gaining experiences
• Missions is not about personal glory
• Missions is not about earning favor
Missions must be done for the same reason that God did missions
And that is love.
“God so loved the world”
• It was the world He created
• It was the world that disobeyed Him and fell into sin
• It was the world which so grieved Him that He once flooded it
• It was the world that He gave a second chance to after the flood
• It is the world that He sustains and nourishes and directs
And more than just this ball of dirt and rock, it is a mass of humanity.
It is people
Husbands, Fathers, Sons
Wives, Mothers, Daughters
And God loves them
And our motive for missions must be love as well.
Not only love for them, but also love for the God who loves them.
We are called to love God more than anything.
We are called to love our neighbor as our self.
BUT THE MISSION MUST BE GROUNDED IN LOVE
(Lack of missions reveals a lack of love)
And that love must be measurable.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”
• God gave Him to the world at Bethlehem
• God gave Him to the cross at Golgotha
It was a sacrifice
All true love is measured by sacrifice
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Amy Carmichael
“You can give without loving, you cannot love without giving.”
And there is the very heart of missions.
• You give your time
• You give your money
• You give your service
• You give your life
• To share the truth with a lost and dying world.
BECAUSE YOU LOVE GOD AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
You love so they have a chance to be saved.
“that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
That is the mission.
It hasn’t changed in 2000 years.
It was the mission of Christ, and it is your mission.
#2 THE MOTIVE
John 3:17
What was the motive?
That the world might be saved.
And oh how we need this reminder.
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
We now live in a world where churches actually picket with their signs that read, “God hates fags”
We even have Christian organizations whose only goal in life seems to be to rid the world of homosexuality and any other “anti-Christian” behavior.
And certainly I am not saying that God is pleased with homosexuality
Or any other form of immorality,
But are we really assuming that
The purpose of the church is to condemn sinners?
I love the band Casting Crowns.
They wrote a song called “Jesus, Friend of Sinners”
“Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away. We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing. Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth’s become so hard to see, the world is on their way to You but they’re tripping over me. Always looking around but never looking up I’m so double minded; a plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided.
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy. Help us reach with open hearts and open doors. Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours
Jesus, friend of sinners, the one who’s writing in the sand; made the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands. Help us to remember we are all the least of these. Let the memory of Your mercy bring Your people to their knees. Nobody knows what we’re for, only what we’re against, when we judge the wounded. What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines, and loved like You did.
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy. Help us reach with open hearts and open doors. Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast; for the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that You came. Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast, but you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet.
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy. Help us reach with open hearts and open doors. Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours
And the point of that song is well noted.
Now, we aren’t saying that as Christians we don’t confront sin
WE MOST CERTAINLY DO.
• The first words of the gospel message are “Repent”
• People have to realize they are lost before they will ever be saved.
• Furthermore they must turn from their sin and trust in Christ.
But it becomes concerning to me that the goal today seems to be only condemnation, and I’ll tell you how I know that.
If all we ever do is blast sinners from public platforms
To condemn them for their sin,
But never approach sinners to offer them forgiveness
Then we are not following the footsteps of Jesus.
Jesus exposed adultery as sin,
And yet there He was conversing with that woman at the well.
Jesus exposed greed as sin,
And yet He was found eating with tax collectors.
NOW HERE IS THE KICKER.
If all Jesus had wanted to do was condemn them,
Then all He had to do was stay right where He was.
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
And that sheds quite a bit of light on our mission participation doesn’t it?
It is hard to say you love the lost and want to see them saved
When you never go to them and offer them Jesus.
In fact by not going and not sharing
You are preaching a much louder message.
If you want the world to be judged then just do nothing
that is where they are headed.
But if you want the world to be saved,
Then you have to do as Jesus did and go to them.
The motive of our mission must be the salvation of the lost.
• We don’t go to make our lives better
• We don’t go to maintain a culture that we want to raise our kids in
• We go because sinners are dying in their sin and they must be given the chance to be saved.
That is the Mission and that is the Motive
And for the final basic
#3 THE MESSAGE
John 3:18
The message is and has always been extremely simple.
“JESUS SAVES”
“He who believes in Him is not judged”
Failure to believe in Him results in condemnation.
“he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Is there anyone in here who doesn’t know that?
If you believe in Jesus you will be saved.
If you refuse to believe in Jesus you are condemned.
Anyone in here not know that?
I remind you of that because too many fail to share with their neighbors or co-workers because they “don’t know what to say”
Yes you do!
• You tell them that Jesus can save them.
• You tell them that Jesus can forgive them.
You tell them the first verse you ever learned:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
That is it.
That is the message.
What most people who say “they don’t know what to say” really mean is:
THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY
TO GET PEOPLE TO RESPOND THE RIGHT WAY
Well friend no one knows what to say to get that.
I sure don’t.
Even Jesus didn’t get a response from everyone He ever witnessed to, nor did Paul, or Peter, or Billy Graham.
But that isn’t part of the mission.
The mission is where you love the world enough
That you give of yourself to go to them
And tell them how they can be saved.
You simply shine the light of Jesus into their dark and hopeless world.
When John wrote his gospel,
He focused in on a delightful truth about Christ.
John 1:4-9 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
John 9:5 “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”
And so we are pretty clear on that.
Jesus came as a light in the midst of darkness.
When Matthew saw Him, he said:
Matthew 4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
Jesus came to bring light to a dark world.
He brought insight into how to be reconciled to God,
And He brought hope that such a reconciliation was possible.
Jesus is the light.
Of course Jesus is no longer in the world,
And we are often referred to as the light.
Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,”
Now of course that light does not originate from ourselves.
We are like lamps filled with the light of Christ.
He is in us and we let Him shine His light through us.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6 “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
That passage sums up our purpose now on earth.
Christ now shines in our hearts
To give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God
To the rest of the world.
It is our purpose
It is the reason we are here
Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
So one would do good to ask the question:
• Can a church that does not participate in missions be said to be faithful to fulfill her purpose on earth?
• Can a Christian that does not participate in missions be said to be faithful to fulfill his or her purpose on earth?
And just to sort of complete our introduction to this missions month, let me remind you of the ways you fulfill that purpose.
PRAYER
Matthew 9:36-38 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
That passage highlights two extremely tragic realities.
One is the pitiful condition of the sheep.
They are distressed, they are dispirited, they have no guidance and no hope.
They are the lost sheep still out in the world.
The other tragic reality is the pitiful complacency of the workers.
Instead of being motivated to run out and gather the sheep,
Or gather the harvest,
It appears the workers are content instead to just do nothing.
And apparently the situation is so drastic
That Jesus doesn’t even request for workers
To get off their tale and go to work.
He instead requests prayer
That God would shake the workers out of their apathy.
And sadly it is a reality still today.
Recent statistics say that only 39% of Christians today
Actually share their faith.
That means that 6 out of every 10 “professing Christians”
Are living in flat out disobedience and are disregarding their purpose
For being here at all.
If that is true then prayer to the Father
To shake up a complacent Christian community is most certainly in order.
It is time to appeal to the Father
That Christians would rise from their comfort, overcome their fears,
And would enter the field to bring in the harvest.
Another way is GIVING
Certainly not all missions involve overseas trips, but some do.
And those that do come with a hefty price tag.
Giving financially is a way to be involved in that mission.
Romans 15:20-25 “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND.” For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you whenever I go to Spain — for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while — but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints.”
No one can question Paul’s missionary zeal.
He was devoted to taking the gospel to those who had not heard.
But certainly funding that mission was a difficulty.
For that Paul leaned upon the church.
Not everyone could go, but everyone could give.
And finally by GOING
Matthew 10:7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
You may not be called to cross an ocean
You may not be called to cross the country
But every day you do cross the street and you must be faithful there.
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine at your work place.
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine at the Senior Citizens.
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine in Little League
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine in your coffee circle
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine at your school
• You are the lamp through which Christ desires to shine in your family
And of course some of you may be called
To go and share in a far off distant place.
Some may be even called to go and shine in the darkest corners of the globe.
But if you are a Christian you are called to shine.
And if you are one of those 6 out of 10 who is not,
Then you are being disobedient and are not fulfilling your purpose.
AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE MISSIONS MONTH.
• We focus on praying for missions
• We take up an offering for missions
• We ask God where He would send us on mission
It is a month to help us get reconnected to the purpose God has for us.
So
• Pray that God will shake us out of our complacency
• Give so that those who would, can go
• And go not only around the world, but also across the street
Acts 1:8-9 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
