May 15, 2016 Sermon Titled: God is a Missionary God

 

First Mennonite Church
May 15, 2016
God is a Missionary God
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything
old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and
has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
[d] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of
reconciliation to us.
20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since
God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.
Today I want to start a new short series on doing missions, outreach if you
wish, and church revitalization. Sharing our faith in today’s pluralistic
world is the biggest challenge the church has. There are competing voices
on what truth is. Relativism is the companion of pluralism. Relativism is
the idea that any idea can be truth in its proper context and therefore any
claim of ultimate truth becomes impossible to defend. This forces the
church to re-think its proclamation and its method of communicating Jesus
as the only Truth. Let’s not go further into the current philosophies of our
world; let us focus on what we want to look at in this series. I want to
explore with you four general issues on the topic of outreach and
revitalization:
Why do we need to share the gospel? Why should we get involved in
mission work?
How should we engage mission work? How do we share the gospel?
Does our theology, doctrines, and biblical interpretation affect the
way we share the gospel and also define the result of our outreach?
What should be central when we do outreach?
What is needed, in terms of personal empowerment and
congregational culture and environment to be effective in outreach?
So, we begin with the first issue: Why do we need to share the gospel? Why
should we get involved in mission work?
  • First let me ask, is the desire for our church to grow born out of love and
    concern for others to experience the blessedness of fellowship with God
    through Christ? Or, can there be ulterior/hidden motives of why we would
    like to see more people sitting in our pews? There are various reasons why a
    church might want to grow. Some churches equate numbers, as in church
    membership size, with success. For some if the church has a small
    membership it is a sign of defeat while if a church has a large membership,
    to them that is a sign of spiritual success. Here, I have noticed that every
    time we are preparing the budget the issue of church growth comes into
    view. Few church members mean less money to use for maintenance, salary
    increase, and to cover increasing recurring expenses. Few membership
    means less to invest in any type of community outreach. In such instances,
    it seems as if the reason we would like to have more people is not primarily
    because we desire for them to experience fellowship with God, but a way to
    increase our financial pool. Therefore, the question: Why do we need to
    share the gospel? Why should we get involved in doing mission work?
    The most frequent response to this question is that in Matthew 28, verses
    19 and 20, Jesus gives the command:
    Go therefore and make disciples
    of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
    the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
    and teaching them to obey
    everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am
    with you always, to the end of the age.”
    Yes. Jesus gave the command to his disciples to go and make disciples of all
    nations. Jesus gave the command to spread the gospel. Why did he give this
    command?
    The answer to the question as to why the church should announce the good
    news of Jesus is because the God who sent Jesus is a missionary God from
    the very beginning. The great Puritan theologian and preacher Jonathan
    Edwards painted a portrait of the Trinity in which the love and joy among
    the three divine persons overflowed and could not be contained. And God
    yearned to express and replicate this love, joy and beauty. God, therefore,
    created the world and the pinnacle of his creation was mankind. In
    mankind he inscribed the triune beauty, even if to a smaller degree. The
    beauty of Eden and the intimate relationship between Creator and creature
    was broken when disobedience happened. God not only continued to yearn
    for that relationship but he was actively engaged in seeing that the
    relationship be restored. In the pages of the Old Testament God is
  • portrayed as constantly wooing and pleading, calling and seeking his people
    to come to him. The coming of Jesus, his ministry, and work on the cross is
    part of that ongoing project of restoration God embarked upon since the
    fall. God created humankind with the intention of sharing God’s
    overflowing love and intimate fellowship. But sin created an ongoing
    emptiness in the human heart. Sin brought upon humans an incurable
    longing which only God’s fullness can fill. This brokenness is not only
    descriptive of Adam and Eve or of ancient Israel, but that of every human
    being who has lived and is living today.
    A survey was done among high school seniors who were already looking
    past their graduation day. They were asked what they believed is the
    greatest challenge their graduating class would face in their lifetimes. The
    range of their answers was wide. They listed world poverty, decaying social
    trends, divorce, suicide, materialism, climate change, terrorism, family
    crisis and the quest for personal happiness and fulfillment. In short, their
    answer was having to confront the challenges of human brokenness.
    The truth is that no part of the human condition remains untouched by the
    effects of sin. Human brokenness is a universal problem. No culture, no
    race, no geographical location is exempt from the effects of sin. Sin has
    caused humans to live in alienation. In every setting there are those who lie
    and those who live in deceit. There are those who wrongfully take what is
    not theirs, and there are those who do not want to share. There are those
    who cheat and act violently against their spouse or children. In every
    setting there are those who treat both friend and enemy in ways that defy
    all sense of human dignity. In one phrase, our world is broken and we
    desperately need God’s shalom. We need God’s peace.
    When the apostle Paul was making his case on the difference Christ makes
    in those who choose to respond to the message of the cross and who yield
    their lives to the lordship of Christ, Paul writes:
    17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything
    old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
    18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and
    has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
    19 that is, in Christ
    God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
    trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of
    reconciliation to us.
    20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since
    • God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf
      of Christ, be reconciled to God.
      21 For our sake he made him to be
      sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
      righteousness of God.
      In God’s long-range project of restoration, God sent Christ Jesus as his
      personal agent of reconciliation. In the person of his very son, God pleaded
      with us to come. Through his only begotten Son God revealed the extent of
      his love of even allowing him to die on the cross of Calvary. God did this
      with the sole purpose of making himself approachable and within the scope
      of our comprehension. God went overboard in his desire to connect and to
      reach out to us humans.
      In this case, mission is not a human invention. Mission and outreach were
      the creation and work of God from the beginning. God embark on this long-
      range project of redemption, not because we deserved it or because we were
      calling for it. God began his project of restoring us to himself because
      communion and fellowship are the nature of our Creator God. God
      constantly called his people through his prophets. God rejoiced when his
      people responded and turned back to him. But God also lamented when he
      inquired, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says
      the Lord GOD, and not rather that they should turn from their
      ways and live”? (Ezekiel 18:23)
      Can you imagine what you’d be today if God has not been part of your life?
      Do you think you’d be the same person if God had not taken you by the
      hand? As for me I can tell you that my life could have been miserable. I
      grew up in one of the poorest families in my village. Although my dad was
      not an alcoholic, the way he lived his life would have been enough to cause
      my life to be possibly worse than his. When I realize how some of my
      friends live or how some have died, those whose parents rejected the life
      God offers, I shudder at the thought that I could have been one of them if it
      were not for God’s intervention.
      My dear friends, everything you see as sad in the lives of those who do not
      know God or would not allow God into their lives, could have been the
      reality of your very lives. Your life is what it is today because God came to
      you. Yes, our lives are what they are today only because of God’s
      intervening grace. Are we perfect or completely whole? Absolutely not. Yet,
      despite our shortcoming, if it were not for God’s marvelous love through his
    • Son Jesus Christ, our lives could be in shatters and in misery. But God
      reconciled us to himself in Jesus Christ. We were made a new creation, but
      not only that. In Christ God began to re-establish the relationship between
      us and himself. Although today we can only see the beauty of this
      communion between God and us like in a foggy mirror, as Paul would say,
      yet one day we will see the Lord and be like him. Although there is much for
      God to transform in us, yet we anticipate the day when we will be clothed
      with his glory. Although we are still anticipating the kingdom of God, he is
      graceful to commission us as ambassadors of his message of reconciliation.
      This is the reason why we should share the gospel message with others.
      Because we have been reconciled with God through Christ we are being sent
      with the ministry of reconciliation. God . . . has given us the ministry
      of reconciliation. . . .
      So we are ambassadors for Christ, since
      God is making his appeal through us, writes Paul. Just as Christ was
      God’s agent of reconciliation, we are now being sent as God’s agents making
      an appeal on his behalf so others might be reconciled with God as well.
      Because we have experienced the joy of being reconciled with God we
      should be able to convey the message to others. Because we know what our
      lives would have looked like if God had not come into our lives, we should
      be concerned and grieved for those who have not been reconciled with God.
      Love for others should compel us to share the good news of the gospel.
      Concern for the lost and suffering should be the motive we should tell other
      of God’s reconciling work in Christ.
      Let me close with the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: For God so loved
      the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
      believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
      For God so loved our relatives, neighbors, and friends, that he sends us to
      tell them about the abundant life Jesus offers everyone who believes in him.
      So let us go as ambassadors of the reconciling message of Jesus Christ. Let
      us go and share the good news of God’s love. Amen!
      PASTOR ROMERO