Live Out: The Mission of God (Part 3)
Gary Brandenburg, Senior Pastor
June 29th, 2008
We have been considering how we as a church can make a difference in a world like ours. We have discovered that “the mission of God is to mobilize the people of God created in the image of God to spread the knowledge of the glory of God.” Our goal is to make God famous. We are God’s P.R. agents but there seem to be fewer and fewer people buying what we’re selling. The church is shrinking. London Times and Dallas Morning News articles…
What is going on here? Is the world getting more evil? Are people becoming harder and harder to reach? Do people have their lives so together that they don’t need the Good News about Jesus Christ? Or is it us? Have we relied too much on our own human ingenuity and not nearly enough on God’s divine initiative? Maybe we just keep singin’ that same old song and they’re finally saying, “We’ve already heard that song.” Give us something real.…Walk the Line clip…
Too often our approach to sharing the Gospel feels like that song. It’s predictable, it’s pedantic, it’s boring, and worst of all, it’s just not real. Those outside the church look at those inside the church and say, “I don’t believe you.”
I want to look at a chapter in the New Testament that serves as a reminder of the heart of God with respect to people who have not personally experienced His love.
Luke 15 contains three stories about finding what is lost. The context of this chapter is given to us in vv. 1-2. The religious leaders cannot understand why Jesus would be hanging around irreligious people. Jesus tells them a three-part parable about lost things; a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. The response is the same each time something is found. The man finds his lost sheep and says, “Rejoice with me for my sheep was lost but has been found.”The woman who found her lost coin says, “Rejoice with me for I found the lost coin.” The ecstatic Father welcomes his prodigal son and says, “Get him a new suit, buy him a gold ring, throw some steaks on the BBQ and let’s have a party.”
The older brother, who represents the Pharisees, gets invited to the party he signs his R.S.V.P., “Nuts to you.” Rather than rejoice with the Father he complains, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” The father’s response?
“My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Jesus came seeking the lost. From His perspective, it is not their job to be found, it is our job to find them. If you’re lost and know how to get found then you’re not really lost are you? We have the privilege of participating in a search and rescue operation and rejoicing with Him in its success.
People matter to God. God cares about people - one person at a time. In the history of religion, you won’t find many gods like this God. Ours is a God who seeks the sinner, who initiates reconciliation. He finds the lost person before the lost person can ever find Him. Think of it; God has a universe to run, humans to create, governments to raise up and tear down, atomic particles to hold together but the angels in heaven don’t rejoice over any of those things. They rejoice when one person who was lost gets found. Luke 15:7, "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” The picture Jesus paints is of a God who finds His highest joy in the recovery of the lost. So the Pharisees are confronted with a simple question: “Who would be so superficial as to rejoice in finding a sheep/coin but not in the salvation of one of these lost men and women? Who would be that clueless? Who would be that selfish?”
We are called to be like God. Ephesians 5:1 says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” As men and women created in the image of God, we never look more like our Father than when we are seeking the lost.
How DO we respond to those who are lost? We often ignore their condition. The reality of pluralism where you can believe anything you want to believe and be just as right as the next person has pulled us away from the urgency of our mission. In a culture where “tolerance” is one of our highest values, it is considered intolerant to suggest one truth claim as superior to another. We may find ourselves wondering, “Is there really a hell?” “Are people really lost?” “Maybe there IS some other way?” In the Pew Survey when people were asked to respond to the statement, “Many religions can lead to eternal life,” 70% agreed. Of those who consider themselves “evangelical,” 57% agreed. Maybe any road will get you to heaven. Of course the consequences of being wrong about that are pretty severe.
On the other extreme, most of us have seen the damage done by those who force their particular version of Christianity on others. Fueled by evangelistic fervor some feel that if they don’t speak up for God in every situation they are being disloyal and failing in their mission. They feel they could possibly be the last link in the chain between the unbeliever and their eternal damnation. So they share Christ more out of guilt and shame than out of grace and compassion.
How SHOULD we respond to the message of Luke 15? God’s word to us is “Go, seek, walk across the room and engage because I am never happier than when someone who is lost gets found.” Unless you believe in a God like that, a God worth knowing, you will never leave your circle of conversational comfort and enter into the “zone of the unknown” by initiating a conversation with someone about eternal matters.
What if we didn’t ignore the claims of Christ or force the claims of Christ on others? What if we LIVED OUT the claims of Christ? For that matter, what if we lived like Christ? Jesus lived out the truth about God. He showed us that the mission of God is to spread the glory of God through those who bear the image of God. Here are some suggestions for living out the mission of God.
Make God’s mission your own. Paul’s personal mission was, “to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” Paul said it this way, “For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory. So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. I work very hard at this, as I depend on Christ's mighty power that works within me. Colossians 1:27 - 29 (NLT)
Make God’s mission a priority. Do you ever wake up and think, “God has something for me to do today?” Or do you say, “There are some things I have to do today.” What you are supposed to do? “Well, I gotta do my laundry this afternoon, because I gotta go to work tomorrow, because I gotta feed my family, and I gotta keep putting money in my 401K so that some day I can do whatever I want to do.” And what would that be? “I wanna do nothing.” Nothing is not an option. Think of it…the God of the universe actually has something for you to do on His behalf.
View every person with the eyes of Christ.Matthew 9:35-36, “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus “somehow saw the godly worshiper clothed as a worn, wearied prostitute. The faithful disciple hiding inside a fisherman named Simon. The hidden philanthropist in the life of a crooked tax collector named Zacchaeus. The risk –taker in a cowardly Jewish ruler named Nicodemus. What a fantastic gift he had for seeing what nobody else could see! ‘All things are possible’ was Jesus’ mantra. All things. And countless lives were transformed because he chose to look past surface stuff to see what was ultimately possible.” Hybels, WATR, p. 67. The love of Christ transforms paupers into princes and princesses.
Be prepared to explain the hope that is in you. The Gospel should be “sneezable.” Are you prepared to share the Good News with someone? My friend’s daughter was a special ed teacher in California. After finishing a particularly difficult year with her students she went on a vacation. She sat down on the plane in the aisle seat and was relieved to have a seat between her and the man by the window. She needed some space. Then, as the doors were about to close the flight attendant escorted a young girl down the aisle. It was obvious that this was a special needs child. Angela honestly admits that she hoped this girl was not going to be seated next to her. She had spent the whole year with special needs kids and she wanted space. Of course the girl was seated right next to her. As expected the girl began to ask simple questions…”Do you smoke?” No, Angela said, “That’s good b/c people who smoke get cancer.” “Do you brush your teeth?” Yes. “That’s good b/c people who don’t brush their teeth get cavities.” Silence. “Do you believe in Jesus?” Yes. “That’s good b/c people who believe in Jesus go to heaven.” And in the silence Angela confessed her selfishness to God. The lesson wasn’t over though. The girl turned to the man beside her and said, “Do you smoke?” Angela realized that this precious girl was one of God’s choice ambassadors on that plane. May God give us the grace to be like that precious girl.