The Resolved Church Must Live

This is the third of a three part sermon series addressing the story of The Resolved Church, what it means to be a church plant, how a church plant happens and what the vision and goal of The Resolved Church is. This sermon was originally preached on July 21st, 2007 at The Resolved Church.

Listen 
.

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

:: The Resolved Church :: July 21st, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets

“The Resolved Church Must Live”
A Theology of Mission
Mark 8:35

Mark 8:35
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

I. The Missio Dei – Glory Driven
II. Jesus Centric – Gospel Centered
III. Cultural Incarnation & Transformation – City withn the City

Introduction

Read text and pray. God your Word is a precious gift. As you have breathed air into this world so that we might have oxygen and live, so you have breathed life into these words that by them we might truly live. Descend today in these moments in a way that we as a group and as individuals might grasp who you are what you are about. Amen.

Good morning. Last week, I preached an important sermon for us as a church called “The Resovled Church Must Die: A Theology of our Hearts.” Today the title of my sermon is “The Resolved Church Must Live: A Theology of Mission.” We are in a critical stage of this church plant where we will either become a true and lasting expression of Jesus’ church or whether we will become a failed attempt at that.

I do not believe God intends for us to fail, but that is dependent upon each of us dying to self and having Jesus as our all. If that happens then we will as the Psalmist says, “Not die but live and proclaim what the Lord has done (Ps. 118:17).” That is what today’s sermon is about, how we will live.

There is a life Jesus intends. He says here that whoever loses his life will save it. If you lose your life you will live. How? Jesus says here it is by losing it to him and his mission, the gospel. “Whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel’s will save it.” This is a big claim. Jesus says everything is about him and the gospel. In the very beginning of this book, The Gospel of Mark, Jesus shows up on the scene in the first chapter and the very first thing Jesus says is, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.” Huge, huge claim. The time is fulfilled, all of history is about the time of Jesus, he comes, announces himself and says everything, all of life is about him. Losing life for Jesus and the sake of the gospel.

What I want to do today is look at how this purpose of Jesus begins with God himself, how it spans all of Scripture, and then works itself out in cultures and cities.

The Missio Dei – Glory Driven

The Missio Dei. Missio Dei is Latin for Mission of God. If there is a God then what is he about, what is his mission. Here is the answer, himself. God is all about himself. He is the most self-centered, self-focused, self-enthralled, being in all of existence and that is a wonderful truth to us. This is wonderful for two reasons.

One, if any of this stuff ever came from somewhere, and I think it did, whether it came about in an instant in a big bang or over billions of years, it had to come from somewhere, it had to be started by something, God. And to make such an elegant, beautiful, complex, design-saturated, colorful, organic, living and breathing world exist you really are quite an incredible being and it is the most right thing of all for you to be all about yourself. You see we know it is wrong to be self-centered and self-enthralled for us, because we suck. I’m not that cool. I cannot make color. I cannot create math. And on top of it I am a moral failure. It is the most right thing for God to be all about himself. One who is perfect and exceeding in every regard.

The second reason this is a wonderful truth to us is because it tells us that life is not about us. That is good for us to know. Your life is not about you. Your life is worthless and meaningless and bankrupt and sad and angry and a wreck when you make it about you. We were not made for ourselves, we were made for something greater. You were not made for you. You were made for God. And if you can get ahold of that and lay down your life and lose it. Then your life will begin to be about something great, something greater than you ever dreamed imaginable.

So the Mission of God. Let me give you a Scripture. We have Jesus here in Mark saying everything was about him and Jesus was pretty clear about him being God, but we’ll get to that later. Right now let’s back up a little bit and hit up the Old Testament. That’s those Dead Sea Scrolls that are on display at the Museum here in San Diego. This is Isaiah 43:6-7, “I will bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Hear those words, sons and daughters, people from everywhere among the earth, were created for God’s glory. God is a God about mission. He is on a mission of calling and drawing people to himself. He began this in the garden of Eden, with the first man and woman, when he called them, “where are you.” Then he called, Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Samuel and Esther, and Ruth and David and the prophets and a whole host of people. And he is still doing that today. He is calling each one of us unto himself. He is calling you and I. A people whom he formed and made for himself.

You see, the human heart is made for one great and grand object, God himself. And anything less than that is idolatry. Our problems are not just bad habits or flaws or us being the victims but they are always because we have something on the throne of our heart other than God. And we continually fall into this idolatry. This is what I said last week, that anything where you are not finding joy, where you are unhappy about something, you will find idolatry in your heart. Wherever or whatever the thing is you want or think you need that you are not getting…that thing is your god. The problem of our heart is that we want to be God ourselves, but we are not. There is only one.

The book of Isaiah continues a few verses later, “…may you know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior (Is 43:10-11).” God is about himself and he calls us to himself and designs us to call others to himself. For him humanity was made.

That is where we begin. We began this church a little over two years ago with the first and foremost concern of ours being that this would be a church about God and his glory. Those two words up there on that banner, “glory driven” mean a lot, they carry a lot of weight behind them. They characterize our motivation in our ministry, not to act out of guilt or to abuse grace but cherish God’s glory first (some of you haven’t gotten that yet).

This church is about God and he is our motivation for everything. It is our desire and drive and chief endeavor to be encapsulated with him. So the first answer, to how we will live, how we lose our life to save it, is by realizing that our life is about God and his mission to glorify himself. So our life will only have any meaning, any hope, any answers and any true joy if we are caught up with him and his mission. God calls us to his mission.

Jesus Centric – Gospel Centered

My second point for this morning is “Jesus Centric – Gospel Centered.” By “centric” I just mean center. We get that very clearly in Jesus words here from Mark. “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Let’s talk about the centrality of Jesus and then we’ll talk about his centrality in our mission, the gospel’s sake.

All of this book is about Jesus. From beginning to end. Jesus. At the end of the Gospel of Luke. there are two guys who are taking a trip to a place called Emmaus from Jerusalem. About seven miles, so probably like half a day’s journey or something. They are walking and talking as the cruise down the road and they hook up with this guy who starts walking with them and he asks them what they’re talking about. And so they start telling the guy about Jesus and how he died on the cross in Jerusalem and how he was buried in a tomb but now the tomb is empty and it is this crazy mess and now no one knows what to think.

Then the guy starts talking to them and he says, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Lk 24:25-27).” This dude turns out to be Jesus, he must have had a hood on or something for them not to realize it. When they do realize it, they start freaking out and so Jesus takes off and then they say, “Did not our hearts burn within while he talked to us on the road, while he opened the Scriptures (Lk 24:32)?”

Think of that. Jesus claims that everything in here is about him. How is that? It is the story of the gospel. God created a people for himself, people fell and have ever since, so Jesus comes to redeem people and restore all things through himself, the perfect man and perfect God who dies for our sins and rises again securing glory for those who turn to him. That is the gospel, the dying and rising of Jesus and how that applies to everything in this world and our lives.

The gospel says, there is something you should do, there is a right way to live and do things. But you can’t do it, you are a failure, I’m a failure. But there is one who did not fail, Jesus, one who did it all and did it on our behalf. And if we believe in him we will begin to be able to do it to. That is the gospel.

So think of the Old Testament. Think through this thing with me. Jesus means something specific, when he points out himself. I think what Jesus showed them is not all these secret hidden codes that no one had ever seen. He wasn’t like, oh look here where it talks about the tower of Babel, I am a tower. No. I think Jesus point was the Bible is not about us but about him.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was telling me how he never hears anybody preach from the Old Testament these days and he was suggesting that only kids get to hear those stories in Sunday School. It made me want to start preaching from the Old Testament. When he said that, the first story I thought of was the story of David and Goliath. Now is the story of David and Goliath about us and how we face giant problem in life and we can overcome them. I don’t think so. I think it about how Jesus took on the only Giant who can really kill us, sin and death and he was victorious and his victory is given to us.

Jesus is the true and better Adam. Adam disobeys in a garden. Jesus obeys in a garden. Jesus is the true and better Noah. Noah saved a people from destruction by the wood of a boat. Jesus saves people across all time from eternal destruction by the wood of his cross. Jesus is the true and better Abraham. Abraham left his home and went to the land God called him. Jesus left his glory in heaven and came to us. Jesus is the true and better Joseph. Joseph sat at the right hand of the king and used his power to save his people. Jesus sits at the right hand of God the father and uses his power to interecede for us. Jesus is the true and better Moses. Moses spoke on God’s behalf and talked to God for the people. Jesus is the Word of God and speaks directly to us. Jesus is the true and better David. David won many victories and became the people’s king. Jesus won all our battles and becomes our king. Jesus the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true bride, he is the temple, the glory over the cleft of the rock, the snake lifted up in the desert, the rock that water springs from…Jesus is everything. The Bible is not about us, it is about Jesus who is for us. Do you get it?

Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. This is how The Resolved Church will live, by seeing Jesus in everything. That is what that second phrase on that banner is about, gospel-centered. That the gospel is at the center of everything we are, say and do. The gospel has to become the lens through which we see life and if you can’t see how the gopsel applies in your life and your situation then your not understanding the gospel. Dying and rising. Our death, Jesus life. Hope and joy for pain and failure. Jesus.

The reason why we work. The way we work. The reason why we make friends. The reason we spend time with friends. The reason we play. The reason we fight. Everything is about the gospel. The sake of the gospel is everything. I’m afraid sometimes that you might begin to think that Duane is just all into the church because that is his job. No, I am all into the church and the gospel because Jesus is everything. And I am saying that is what your life is about to. To be all into the gospel in everything. Your chief worry and care and concern in your life ought to be the gospel.

Cultural Incarnation & Transformation – A City within the City

How does that work? How does that play itself out? What the heck are you talking about? Let’s talk about culture, “Cultural Incarnation & Transformation – A City within the City.” This is how God’s mission, of bringing glory to himself by drawing everyone to him through Jesus all the time, this is how that happens.

It has to do with culture. What is culture? Culture is this stuff…clothes, hairstyles, music, entertainment, general ways of thinking and living and talking. For the kids at my work, it’s blue bandanas hanging out of blue dickies. For the girls in La Jolla it’s Luis Voiton bags and World Religion Jeans. For the indie rockers, it’s Converse all-stars and skinny pants. For the IT guys it’s nice cars and a nice watch. For our parents and grandparents, its investment funds and retirement clauses. For San Diego, it’s being late to everything and always being tan. For the whole west coast it’s believing whatever you want and making up your own religion because whatever you want to choose is right for you. Culture is the way one acts and dresses and talks.

Culture. There is good stuff and bad stuff in it. How does the mission of God, the sake of the gospel work. It works with culture. Look at Jesus. He is the eternal son of God and he enters into the world in a particular place and time and he lives and works. Jesus used a hammer. Jesus wore a robe. He went for walks, went fishing, and went to parties. Jesus knew and understood that culture was important. That not all things in culture are bad and that by entering into it and embracing it is the only way the bad parts of it can be transformed.

Two verses, there are two verses I want us to look at. One is Jeremiah 29:4-11. Let me set this up for you first. Israel, the people of God have been taken away from their homeland by the Babylonians. They come to Babylon and when the get there they set-up camp outside the city and don’t go into it. Some false prophets rise up and start saying things like, the Babylonians are wicked, don’t have anything to do with them, keep yourself separate. But then the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and he says this,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord…For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Here is what I want you to get from that, go into the city and build a life and partner with the people. Did you hear that? Go in. Plant gardens, have kids, seek the welfare of the people as you live among them. Here was the debate. What if we lose our identity? The answer was don’t lose your identity, stay strong but go into the city. People in the city need to hear Christians and see them live.

This is the mission of God, the sake of the gospel, how he does things. The other verse I wanted to read is Isaiah 49:6 where God explains his purpose, “I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach the end of the earth.” God’s design, is that we would go into the nations, the cultures and be lights, sharing his salvation, the message of the gospel. It’s called contextualization. Example of shooting range today.

So there are two prongs: keeping one’s identity with the mission and the message of the gospel and then entering and partnering with the city and it’s culture. And there are dangers on both sides. I’ve seen it. You can try so hard to make friends and be accepted by the culture that he message of the gospel gets lost and nobody can even tell that you’re a Christian because you never talk about it and there is nothing in your life that looks any different. The other side, is that one goes into the city, but they don’t have anything to do with the city and just hang out with their Christian friends from their Christian church because they don’t want to get contaminated by all the bad that is out there. Too much cultural accomadation or too much cultural withdrawal. Both those ways are wrong and are not the gospel.

The gospel is incarnational and trasnformation. The gospel holds the message dear. The gospel means “good news.” It is news. News is always shared. You must tell people about Jesus. There is a famous saying by Saint Francis of Asissi who said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” He was wrong. He did not understand that if you do not use words you cannot preach the gospel. It is words about who Jesus is and what he has done. It is news that you respond to. It is not advice. Advice is just counsel or a good idea. News is what comes by announcment about what has already happened.

So we hold the message dear. But we partner with the city and live lives within it. Non-christians need to see you dying and living for the gospel. The best way that you can show we don’t believe in a religion but in Jesus is to repent. Tell of your faults and failures and how Christ has not failed but succeeded and on your behalf. And the show how it is changing you. If all people hear from you is that you think you are better than them because you have Jesus you are not preaching the gospel but the law. And the law kills. The gospel is that I am more wicked and more loved at the same time. You got to invite people into your lives and let them get to know you so that they can get to know the gospel that is at work in you.

Non-Christians need to see Christians who inhabit their city but they are different. They need to see people who are radically like them but also radically different. They need to see people who are racially diverse but get along. People who create art and music but create with a grasp of truth and meaning. They need to see people who love to play but don’t overplay but getting drunk and wasted all the time. They need to see people who are comitted to Jesus church every week instead of just going whenever you feel like it. Non-Christians need to be able to see what it would be like if they were a Christian and that comes from you. Spouting off verses from the Bible isn’t going to do that for them.

We need to work and play together. Think about three big things: sex, money, and power. Non-Christians will not believe our love unless they can see a people who really love eachother non-sexually. Non-Christians need to see us work hard but not just so we can get rich but use our money for God’s kingdom, we need to be giving people. Non-Christians need to see you not always fighting for higher and higher positions of power and when you get that position abusing it. They need to see humility and someone who lead like Jesus as a servant.

Our goal is a city within the city. In the book of Acts, the apostles always went into the cities because they understood that culture comes from the city and that is the place where the gospel could be unleashed. In the first century the gospel spread from Jerusalem throughout all Israel and then throughout all of Europe and then beyond. In Acts 17:6 it was said that they were “turning the world upside-down.” That is my heart and my vision to see the world turned upside-down once again. It has happened in a few stages in history. There was a great gospel revival with the reformation era. Then there was another one with the great awakening of Jonathan Edwards.

We are living in a time like the first-century more than every before. Pluralism runs rampad, travel is easy, technology is increasing, and people are becoming dissillusionned with the world and all the information and how big and confusing it all is. And a grassroots gospel movement can do amazing things in a world like that. Cities are strategic. It begins with cities. San Diego is a strategic city, if I could just get some of you to stay here long enough.

Here is my challenge, let’s follow Jeremiah’s advice and Jesus and the Apostle’s example and go into the city and build houses, build lives here and seek to really make an impact with the gospel. It means this for you. If you were planning to be here one year, double it, stay two. If you were planning on two, stay four. If you were going to plan on being here for five years, make it ten. If feel you have to leave then fine, we love you and may God bless you. But I urge you stay, see the opportunity.

My long-term vision and goal for The Resolved Church is that it would become a powerful force in this city and then become a platform for ministry across the rest of the nation and then out unto the world. I want build a big strong church together with you. (explain picture of a werehouse for our church building). Solid people. Church is people, that is what it means. Giving their time and money…their very lives for the mission of the gospel. I want us to be a church that is glory driven, gospel centered, and is a city within this city. As we grow it is my prayer that we would begin to as a church, operate businesess in this city that embody our same glory driven, gospel-centered values.

We could have all kinds of businesses from bike shops to banks, from construction companies to hair salons, where the way we work and run things is different. Where we truly become a city inside this city but we have bridges, our lives, where people can crossover and see how different and how better life with Jesus as king is.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude this sermon. Jesus said, ” For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” The sake of the gospel is at stake. What are you going to do about it?

The call this morning, is to make God first in your life. To make his mission your mission, to give him all the glory and live for him. If you don’t really know God, you know you are the god of your heart and have never given your life to Christ, know you can do that today. Jesus stands before you and offers himself. All of your faults and failure and deep rooted wickedness and maybe even bitterness against God were taken care of by Jesus on the cross. He died to punish all those things in himself and offers you free forgiveness and friendship and hope of deep heart change. Embrace him today. If you feel that desire in you now, that is God giving you faith, so use it and turn to Jesus this morning. You can express that by taking communion with us and I am always available for prayer at the back.

For those who claim to know Jesus, let me ask you if you are living your life for him or for yourself. If you know you are living your life for yourself, give up and give it away. Lose your life for Jesus and the sake of the gospel. Make intentional friendships with people with the goal in mind being the gospel. It isn’t about church or religion it is about Jesus. You got to invite people into your lives and begin to work on long-term gospel development in sharing with them every opportunity you can.

People are hurting and they need Jesus. If you’re hurting today and you need that healing tender touch of the master’s hand. Know that he loves you and stands before you today offering his unconditional love. We are about to take communion. Think of Jesus perfect life, lived for you, that you might have hope and peace and joy in your life. Think of Jesus death, died for you, that the penalty of sin might not fall on you but instead give you everlasting life in heaven. Jesus love and grace is infinite. There is no sin too great no problem to big that Jesus does not care about and cannot deal with this morning.

Turn to him and and receive his love and build your life on the gospel.

Kids, today’s sermon has been about how all of your life, your whole life long, is always to be about God. God made you to live life with him. And the way you do that is by loving Jesus. And your friends need God in their lives to. So you need be nice to your friends and play with them so they see that you love Jesus and then they will want him in their lives too. That is the gospel, that Jesus died for you and rose again and is alive today so that when you mess up, you can know that Jesus loves you and can forgive you, so you can start all over again. And that is something that everybody needs.

Let’s pray.