Practical Ecclesiology Series | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets

This week is an systematic theology sermon on the topic of ministry. Exodus 19:4-6 and Mark 10:45 are looked at for the exegetical insight on the reason and source for ministry. Special attention is given to the Old Testament’s focus on serving God, how Jesus has served us, and what the church being a priesthood of believers looks like in practice. This sermon was originally preached on January 23rd, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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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
Pastor Duane Smets
January 23rd, 2011

Practical Ecclesiology: “Ministry & The Gospel” | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets | 01/23/11

Ministry & The Gospel
I. The Ground of Ministry
II. The Jesus of Ministry
III. The Practice of Ministry

Introduction

Well welcome to the third week of our new mini-series “Practical Ecclesiology.” Today’s our halfway point in it as we are looking at six different ways in what it means and looks like to be the church.

Ecclesiology is the study of the church, thus so far we’ve looked at community…that God doesn’t mean for church just to be a thing you attend on Sunday morning but means for you to actually be relationally connected on a regular basis sharing life with one another, which is why we have mid-week community groups.

Then last week we looked worship and that worship is not meant to be something that starts and stops when we have music and singing on Sundays…that God means for all of our lives to be worship and that everything we do, including Sundays are all unique expressions and aspects of worshipping him.

This week we’re looking at ministry. Ministry and the Gospel. What do you think of when you hear the word “ministry”? Here’s a few things that may come to mind…

You might think of “Ministry”, the heavy metal rock and roll band who sings in gutterals. You might think of Harry Potter and the government of magicians known as the “Ministry of Magic.” Or maybe you think of the “Prime Minister” of England. But most likely, when you hear the word “ministry”, especially in church, like us today, you probably think of a priest or a pastor who is up front on a Sunday either preaching or leading music…am I right?

Today, I’ll straight with you and tell you my goal is to try and expand understanding of what ministry is and who it is that does ministry. So what we’re talking about today for you theology nerds is the doctrine known as “The Priesthood of All Believers.”

What is ministry? What does it mean to be a minister? Let’s start with the word itself. In the New Testament the Greek Word is “diakonia” where we get the word deacon from. So sometimes we have passages where there is an official leadership role in the church of a deacon…but what’s that mean? Well, in several other passages it’s translated in a few different ways…and generally for everyone. Sometimes it’s translated as “servant” or “helper” and sometimes “minister.” So really without going into a whole bunch of other stuff, a church deacon is basically a person who excels and is recognized as excelling in serving and leading other in serving.

I. The Ground of Ministry

Now in the last two sermons I used the same basic outline, The Ground Of _________________, The Jesus of _________________, and then the Practice of _________________. So I thought I’d use the same outline today and for the whole series it was working so well.

But I ran into a problem. In the last two weeks as we started off it worked out really cool because the ground of community was God himself, that he is in community with himself as the Trinity God. Then with worship, the ground of worship was God himself because God only worships himself as most supremely valuable and worthy thing in all of existence.

So I started out my study this week thinking great…the ground of ministry is going to be God himself. I start doing my homework and working backward from the New Testament to the Old Testament and expecting to find some great passage there that would talk about God serving or ministering to us and because he does is why we should to…or something like that. But I couldn’t find it…not at all.

I mean I dug real deep even studying the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible…heavy lifting. But ”deaconia” doesn’t even occur there.

Instead this is what I found… All this stuff about serving God! Here’s a smattering…

Exodus 3:12 “Serve God on this mountain.”

Exodus 9:13 “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”

Deuteronomy 5:9 “You shall not bow down to (other gods) or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

Joshua 24:15 “Choose this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Psalm 2:11 “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”

Over and over and over again it’s serve God, serve him only, serve him here, serve him there…absolutely nothing about God serving us, only us serving him. It’s all to God.

So I I tried looking up “ministry” and what do you get…all this stuff about the priests ministering before God and to him. I mean even there’s hardly even a scrap of anything about us serving one another or ministering to each other!

I started thinking…what is going on here? What is the ground of ministry? It’s a totally different story in the New Testament but why is there this gaping hole in the first half of the Bible about this? What is up?

Then I began to spend some time with this key passage. We’re going to look at it for a bit together, Exodus 19:4-6. Now to give you a little context of what is going on here…it’s right before God gives the famous ten commandments, that happens in the very next chapter. God’s people are camped out at the base of the mountain and it’s been three months since the great escape out of Egypt where they were slaves…a bad kind of serving.

Then here is what Exodus 19:4-6 says, let’s read it together. “4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Okay, let’s just take this in for a minute word by word and verse by verse. “You yourselves.” Who’s that? God’s people. Where did they come from, how did they become God’s people. Well, first he made man. Then man decided to serve himself instead of serve God. So a bunch of years go by and God comes along to this wicked pagan dude named Abraham and God says he’s going to make a nation of people from his family line who will serve him. Abraham’s great, great, great grandson Joseph ends up a powerful ruler in Egypt, so the whole family moves there and has a bunch of babies for like 400 years. But by that time they’ve become slaves to the Egyptians there so they cry out to God to deliver them.

Now the next part of verse 4, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians.” What did God do? He did all these miracles with blood, frogs, flies, hail, darkness and a bunch of other stuff which he caps off by splitting a sea in half, luring the Egyptians in and then drowning them all to let his people get away.

Then what happens? They’re in this desert. And what’s God been doing for them in the desert…making food rain down from the sky and making water flow out of rocks to drink. How does God describe his actions? Look at the end of verse 4, “I bore you on eagles’ wings.”

So God’s picture of what he has been doing for people is like he is this huge massive eagle who swoops down and has around two million people climb on his wings and let’s them ride with ease. He carries them.

Now check out verse 5. “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine.” Okay, what’s that mean, “all the earth is mine”? Well, God made it, so it’s his in that sense…he never sold it or gave it away. God owns the earth and everything in it.

But even more than that…Listen to Job 12:10 “In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.” Psalms 104 is even more explicit, “You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills…From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth (Psalm 104:10,13-14).

So when God says all the earth is mine, we’re talking not only about his creation and ownership of it but his constant sustaining of it. Have you ever thought about that? What makes gravity keep working? What keep hydrology functioning? Scientists don’t know, so they simply call them “laws”, “laws of nature.” The Bible says it is God who is constantly working to sustain us and the earth.

Alright. Here’s what I’m after. Sometimes word studies don’t help you. But as we’re thinking through the story and taking in who God is, what he has done and is constantly doing…it sure sounds like God does a lot for us, dare we say, “serves us.” I mean God is constantly working.

Why did we not freeze to death today in -500 degrees whether? Because God has kept the earth in the perfect gravitational pull with the sun to keep us warm. God made the sun come up today. Why does my heart keep beating and all my organs continue to work together? Whey don’t they just stop? Because God is at work sustaining my life and breath. God is constantly serving.

Now let’s go back and pick up the very last part of the passage in Exodus 19, verse 6. Look at it. Verse 5 begins with “therefore”, basically because God is the ultimate servant…verse 6 “you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

This is big. This passage is recognized by most Bible scholars as being one of the most important passages in all of the Old Testament that describes the mission and vision of God for his people. His people are to be a kingdom (where God rules and reigns as king), a kingdom of priests…as a nation.

What’s a priest? A minister. A servant. And who’s supposed to be the priests here? The whole nation…all the people. They’ll be specific priests who have special jobs in the temple…but God’s vision and plan here is for all the people to be priests…To, like God, be serving. And where’s the serving going? Back to God, amongst one another, and out to the nations. Because God bears us on eagles wings…we ought to be a kingdom of priests.

Okay, let me try and pull it together a little tighter. What was the point of wrestling in this way with these Old Testament passages? Real simple. To see that the serving God makes a serving people. God’s people are designed and intended to serve him and that all service to others is meant to flow out of our serving him.

Now let’s pause for a second. Let me ask you a question. Is that the motivation for your serving? Do you serve because you recognize God has served you? Do you serve others because you see it as a way of ultimately serving God?

Or are there other things at work? Like serving because you are supposed to…or you’re trying to make someone else happy or pleased with you…or you feel bad or guilty about something so you’re trying to make up for it. What really motivates your heart of service? Or maybe you’re not serving anyone else right now but yourself…and everything in your life right now is ultimately really all about you?

Really at the ground of our lives, in all we are and all we do is meant to be God. God is the ground of ministry. The great minister of all.

II. The Jesus of Ministry

Well let’s move on and talk about Jesus, “The Jesus of Ministry.” We’re going to look at four different passages here. Today’s a Bible heavy day. So your pages are going get a work out or at least your thumbs if you’re doing Bible on your iPhone. That’s what you get when you ask me to do systematic theology sermons…a lot of Scripture.

First one, Mark 10:45. What’s going on is that two of the disciples who are brothers, James and John have asked Jesus is they can be his right hand men when Jesus becomes king…they’re vying for position and power. Jesus talks it through with them and addresses their heart and then here in this verse, in Mark 10:45 Jesus gives them the gospel.

So hear the gospel from Mark 10:45, this is Jesus speaking… “The Son of Man (one of Jesus favorite titles for himself) came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Crazy. We’ve got all this stuff about serving God. I looked ‘em all up. 89 references…serve me, serve God, serve the LORD, serve him. Then Jesus comes on the scene. Says he’s God. But instead of saying serve me he says…I came not to be served but to serve…and I’m going to serve by giving you my whole life, all the way to death in order to pay a ransom for you.

Why do we need a ransom? Keep that question in mind. Let’s read another passage which says almost the exact same thing but in a different way. Turn to or navigate to Philippians 2:5-8 “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

So Jesus is God, who is to be served. But what’s Jesus God do? He takes the form of a servant. From the time he is born, all through his three year ministry with the disciples…we see him giving his life away serving. Then he does the ultimate act of service. He gives his very life…his body and his blood on a cross in order to help some people out. Servant.

Why? A second ago I asked why do we need a ransom? A ransom is a price that’s paid. Jesus pays a price with his life. Why?

This is why…a few minutes ago I suggested that maybe for some of you, in your life you’re not really serving anyone but yourself. Here’s the honest truth. If everyone of us were really honest with ourselves just for a second, we’d find that’s each and every one of us in this room.

Deep down we know it’s wrong. We know we’re made and meant to serve God, his people and others. But we cannot getting away from really only caring about ourselves. I mean let’s just be honest. The decisions you make, the things you care about, what you want or don’t want…so often is just about you. Some of you are so wrapped up into yourselves and your own lives, you’re just sick! Because everything is about YOU! The Bible calls this addiction to self “slavery”, a slavery to sin.

But here’s the thing. That’s me too. I have to constantly fight my sick, self-serving, lazy, inconsiderate and unloving bent to not want to play with my daughter…do nice things for my wife…hang out with friends…invest in God’s people…and on and on. I’m sick.

You see deep down we know it’s wrong and you can try. You can try to serve God and serve others but it only lasts so long and we fail. Even when we do things for others so often the real reason we’re doing it is so that we can feel like we did something good or to impress someone. There’s something wrong with us.

Which is why Jesus came. Where we have failed Jesus has succeeded for us. He lived the ultimate life of service. We serve ourselves. So Jesus comes and serves us. And then he pays the ransom because sick people like you and I don’t deserve to live…we deserve to die. We don’t serve God. We don’t serve others. We serve ourselves and we deserve God’s wrath and hell for it.

But Jesus comes and takes care of that for us too. He pays the price…the penalty we deserve and serves us completely on the cross. This is the gospel…the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done. Jesus serves us because we don’t have the ability to serve him. The result is we get freed from the burden of trying to serve enough because Jesus’ service is more than enough.

And when that gets ahold of you…it frees you and it changes you. Here’s what happens. Two final verses and then we’ll talk some practical stuff.

1 Peter 2:9-10 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Sound familiar? Sound like Exodus? You see the way the story goes is in Exodus God’s people are called to be a kingdom of priests. But does it happen? No. They like all of us become self-serving…serving other gods and serving foreign desires and wants. So what’s God do? He grants mercy by sending his son to serve and the result is we get called out of the darkness of sin in only caring about ourselves and we are brought into the light. We see Jesus and he the chief servant shines! And it changes us and enables us to actually become the ministers God designed us to be.

One more passage. 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 “4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Do you get it? Do you hear it? We don’t have what it takes. No sufficiency or competency. But God gives us his sufficiency. Through Jesus God makes us competent. He enables us to become ministers of new life wrought by his Spirit.

Here’s what I want you to get. One, I want you to get the gospel…that Jesus died for you because you’re a self-serving sinner. Two, the result is of that is new life in Jesus which turns you into a servant or a minister. Both the Peter passage and this Corinthian passage are united on that. If you believe in Jesus and embrace the gospel you are a minister.

You see too often in too many churches only the paid staff or the pastors are seen as the ministers. It’s call clericalism or what Ed Stetzer recently called clergification. It’s where a few, usually underpaid dudes, are hired by a church to do the work of the ministry.

But that’s not the view of the Bible. Who’s the ministers? You and you and you and you and you. Every believer in Jesus is called into the ministry and becomes a minister or a priest. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says he has given all of us the “ministry of reconciliation.”

Now that doesn’t mean that some of the ministers among us shouldn’t have more responsibility than others and that they shouldn’t be paid…but it does mean that if we’re going to be the church we have to begin looking at one another as ministers and you’ve got to begin to see yourself that way.

Around ten years ago now when I was a college pastor…one my pastors was preaching on this very topic and he did something I’ll never forget. First, he wore a robe that day…one of the black ministerial robes like the Catholic priests or Lutheran or Episcopal pastors wear. I thought of wearing one today but I just couldn’t handle you all freaking out and asking me why I was wearing a dress.

Anyway, he was wearing an official ministerial robe and he was preaching from 1 Peter 2:9 on how we are to be a kingdom of priests and how each member of the church is meant to be a minister. At one point in his sermon he stopped and he had one of the church members come up on stage and he took his robe off and he put it on this other man and called him “minister so and so.” It was a striking moment. Every believer in Jesus is a minister.

Do you see yourself like that? What would it take for you to come to a place where you were ready to put on that robe and acknowledge the role God has called you to? It brings a weight doesn’t it? May God help us and work out the gospel in us so that we might be a church full of ministers…giving their lives away in service to God and his people.

III. The Practice of Ministry

Well, let’s shift gears and talk some practicals. We’ve hit the theology hard…that ministry is grounded in God, who is a servant and displayed it chiefly in Jesus who has served us by living the life we’ve failed at and dying the death we deserve in our place. That in turn is meant to change us and make us like him…so that we to might give our lives away in service through his Spirit which is at work in us.

So what’s that look like? How do we practically be ministers, God’s agents of service?

First, I’d say it begins with our hearts. If God is at work and changing our hearts and you are serving God because you are genuinely be moved by His Spirit and doing it out of and for the gospel…then it doesn’t really matter what you do. You can’t really go wrong. You can just do it Tom Petty style…into the great wide open with the sky as the limit.

The second thing I’d say is that there are probably three main spheres where we see this principle working itself out. And there’s probably an order to it.

One sphere is family. Husbands and wives and parents. God calls you to serve your spouses and serve your children. And this applies to everything from changing diapers to dishes to dates and discussing God’s Word with each other. In order to have a good and healthy marriage and in order to have a loving family you have to learn to sacrificially serve one another. Family is meant to be training ground for service.

The next sphere is church. If you’re loving Jesus and taking on his nature then you’ll love and serve his family, his bride, the church. And there are tons of ways and opportunities to serve Jesus’ church. In our church there is a bunch of exciting stuff happening.

Our family ministry is busting out. You can get involved in caring for the toddlers and now we have a class for the 3-8 year olds and you get in there and teach them the Bible and do crafts and have fun. And we’re starting to have some older kids and we’d like to open up another class…if we have enough of you volunteer there’s a whole other room we can rent out down the hall to have another older class in. Talk to James.

There’s music worship team ministry with Sean. If you play an instrument or sing or want to learn how you can join one of the teams and get involved in playing some Sundays. We’re starting to get to the point where there’s multiple bands forming and it’s super exciting. There’s the sound and media team. If you’re a techie and like to work with knobs and computers that’s a big aspect of what we do on Sundays and you can serve there.

Building transformation is another. This one is my favorite. If I wasn’t preaching each week, I’d show up every week for this one because I don’t know if there’s a better joy than preparing this place and turning it into a space for worship. When I’ve done it before…you get to pray over each chair, over the coffee that’s made, the art that is set up….God uses all of it to make people feel welcome and comfortable and loved and that’s a ministry of the gospel.

Community groups are another place where a lot of ministry happens as you share life together and encourage one another and cry with one another and talk about the Bible with one another and pray for one another. Community groups are a huge place of service.

The third sphere is the world. When you’re loving Jesus and loving his church it also has the effect of turning your heart to the outsiders, to the nations. Just like God’s vision for the people in Exodus. So God often puts things on our hearts that we can do for our city to love and serve the people here with the gospel.

There things we’re doing that you can get involved in like feeding the homeless on Monday nights. Or LampPost Cafe our once a month music and coffee venue where we bring in bands on a Saturday night and create a cultural bridge between the city and the church.

Then there’s the x factor ministry. That’s either a ministry we’re not doing either in the church or the world that God has given you a vision and passion for. If there’s something like that we want to help you fulfill that vision and do what God is calling you to do. Or maybe it’s not even an official “ministry” with a title but is just loving and serving your neighbors or the people where you work. You see your minister hat never comes off. You’re always a minister wherever you live and wherever you work.

We made plans to go to the park with our neighbor and her kids the other day. That’s ministry. Then I got the chance to minister to my mailman yesterday by talking to him about his day and his job and he in turn asked about mine and Jesus just started coming out. It’s about living life as a ministry as a servant…pouring yourself out because God is at work enabling you to see and experience that living a life for him, through the grace of Jesus is far better than living life for yourself.

When you begin to see yourself as a minister and see life as ministry then ministry is everywhere. There are all kinds of places and ways to serve.

To help us think through this a little more and for you to hear from someone else beside me I want to invite Dan Calvert up and interview him. So Dan why don’t you come on up. Dan is one of our Deacons here. Deacons are basically ministers or servants who take responsibility in leading others in the care of Jesus’ church.

Ministry & The Gospel Interview Questions with Dan Calvert
1. When did you become a Christian & how long have you been a member of The Resolved (including becoming a deacon)?
2. In your own words how do you define ministry?
3. What do you think the heart of being a minister is?
4. What do you find are the common challenges or hesitations of serving?
5. Is there a specific experience you’ve had which really drew out the joys of ministry for you?
6. How do you keep the gospel central in ministry?
7. If there are people wanting to get more involved what are the needs and how should they go about that?

There’s some good things ahead for us as a church this year. I really see us as a factory of service…a training ground of servants to make an impact in the city in a big way.

Alright, let’s prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper. Here’s how I think we can do that today. Remember the ground of ministry is God and how he has ministered to us. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The bread of Jesus’ body and the wine of Jesus’ blood to pay the price to save us and change us into those who love and serve God and one another.

Today if you’re in a place where you realize…man, my heart is just cold and I don’t really have the desire or energy to serve…then the only way for that to change is for take in all that Jesus has done to serve you, so eat and drink deeply and allow Jesus to work in your heart.

Today if God has been exciting you to service then come to the table this way. If you know what it is he wants you to do or to continue to keep doing then make a commitment or renew your commitment today. Come and say, “I will serve you and your people, I will do what you’ve ask me to do.”

Today, if you don’t know exactly what God has for you then come this way and say, “God show me what it is you’d like me to do for you…use me God, I want to serve.”

Most of all for all of us, let’s thank Jesus the Servant for all he has done for us…our great God and savior who is worthy of all our praise and adoration. Let’s worship and pray.

   Audio & Manuscripts

  Listen         Read        A Man, A Mission and a Calling – selected texts
  Listen         Read        The Resolved Church Must Die – Mark 8:34-38
  Listen         Read        The Resolved Church Must Live – Mark 8:35

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.

Listen 
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:: The Resolved Church :: July 15th, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets

“The Resolved Church Must Die”
A Theology of our Hearts
Mark 8:34-38

Mark 8:34-38
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 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. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Introduction

Read text and pray. Father God this is your book, Jesus this are your words, we are here today as your people and have come to worship you and ask that by your Spirit you might learn from this passage of Scripture, be affected deep in our hearts by it, and be caught up into action for the sake of Jesus and his gospel as we await his coming. Amen.

Here’s what going on to try and catch all of you up. It’s summer so that means vacations, and travel, and school is out, and that often means missing Sundays. And that is okay, I’m not complaining (too much). God rested on the seventh day to teach us about rest, Jesus modeled that principle as well by frequently going away into the mountains to get away, and so I believe God likes and loves vacations. It is just hard if you are a new church plant because you start to feel like some kind of freakish cult when there’s like 15 people here. So I promise you we are not, I’m not going to start drinking blood and playing with snakes or anything. J

So, here is the deal. Three weeks ago I finished our fifth and final sermon of the “No Condemnation in Christ” series looking at Romans 8:1-4. Then the next week, I did something I really don’t like doing anymore but I shared my personal life story and some of the experieniential aspects of why I believe God has called us to start The Resolved Church here in San Diego. Then last week my good friend Bobby Key, came and preached for me because I was out of town doing a wedding. I listened to his sermon online on Monday and was pleased to hear that God used him to minister to many of you in a deep way. That brings us to today and here is what is up with the next few weeks.

I’m going to take two more weeks off of Romans before we return and start the next series called “Walking According to The Spirit.” Today, I want to preach a sermon about death and us dying and Jesus from the gospel of Mark. So it should be a really exciting and happy day today. J Then next week we might do something really crazy and preach from a passage in the Old Testament, maybe. There are a few reasons I want to take two more weeks before we go back to Romans. One is, God has been doing some deep work in my heart that I just cannot ignore because it not only has to do with me but all of us and who we are as a church. The other reason is because we are approaching a critical stage in the life of our church.

Two weeks ago I wrote this for our weekly church email (we sent it out again this week just because I wanted to make sure all of you got a chance to read it). Here is part of what I said,

“The Resolved Church is really in a do or die spot. We must grow or we will perish and I don’t mean that lightly. The reality is at this point in time The Resolved Church will not continue if I am not its pastor and for me to continue being our pastor we must grow numerically for a few reasons. One, I will die inside if souls are not saved. My heart is to see souls be saved and God has not called me to just start a cool church, he has called me to create a strong refuge in the city of San Diego where sinners may run into its safety and be saved by Jesus our Lord. Two, I believe we are in danger of becoming like those people in Isaiah 6:9-11 who God said would get fat hearts by hearing and knowing the word of God but never putting it into practice to the point where God destroys the city. The city that has begun in The Resolved Church and the city I dream will become a strong city within the city of San Diego, will be removed by God if we are not living lives that are pleasing to God and lives that are winning souls into God’s kingdom. The simple truth is you get good teaching at The Resolved Church, I make sure of that. But we are in danger of getting fat on it. Three, our money will run out. Gary Warkentin, my father in law, who is The Resolved Church’s financial administrator, told me that for the past few months we have been between $400 and $500 dollars below budget. At the end of June, our church bank account had about $13,000 dollars left in it but if we consistently have to dip into those funds then money will eventually run out and we will have to close our doors. I say that not to scare you but to hopefully spark the fire that is in me in you. It is a fire that will do anything short of selling out on the gospel to make this church plant happen.”

So today I decided to title my sermon “The Resolved Church Must Die.” What do I mean? Here is how I want to answer that. First, we need to do some work with this text in Mark so that we make sure that it is God and his Word and Jesus teaching that is driving us and not our own clever ideas. Second, there is a connection with what Jesus says here and an overall theme in the Bible concerning our hearts even though Jesus doesn’t use the word “heart” here. And then third, I want to talk openly and honestly and practically about what that means for each of individually and together for this church.

Exegeting Mark 8:24-38

Okay, so let’s look at some stuff in Mark 8. Here is what is going on in the book of Mark. Mark was the first gospel, the first compilement of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is also the shortest and is action packed. Mark’s favorite word other than Jesus is “immediately.” First this happens then that, then Jesus says this and then he does that. It is one of those page turning books if you sit down and read it from start to finish.

Here’s where we’re at in the book in Mark 8. It’s a little more than half-way through the book chapter wise but it is toward the end of Jesus life story wise. Jesus has just performed this crazy miracle where there are like 4,000 men plus their women and children, so probably easily over 10,000 people, that’s almost the size of the Sports Arena. And Jesus takes seven loaves of bread and three fish and somehow gets all these people to bring these empty baskets to him and he prays a prayer and when he is done praying all the baskets are full of bread and fish. And so everybody eats and when he is done there are 7 baskets full still filled with food.

After that, the crowd is pretty hyped up about Jesus and are following him around. Jesus performs another miracle healing this blind dude and then I suppose Jesus figures he needs to thin the crowd out or something because he calls them together and he gets real serious and begins to tell everyone that he is going to suffer and die and then three days later rise again and he tells them what that means for people if they want to follow him. And that is where we pick up the story.

Read verse 34. Let’s look at that phrase “deny himself.” It doesn’t mean only men here. The possessive “self” here is not meant to be gender specific but to probe at one’s individual identity. So the question is what is Jesus getting at?

Back then they did not have this highly developed and generally accepted psychological system like we do today of “self” like we do today. Today we have: self-actualization, self-awareness, self-concept, self-disclosure, self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-harm, self-help, self-image, self-monitoring, self-realization, self-talk and a whole host of other jargon constructed to aid our humanist attempts to try and understand the human person apart from God.

For the first century person, the “self” was highly connected to who one’s family is. What their heritage was, who their parents parents, what country they were from, what their family’s religious background was. So Jesus was doing something quite radical in challenging the individual person.

This word “deny” is an interesting word translated from haparneiomai in Greek. It means reject or disown. After Jesus died and rose again and the church got started many people started becoming Christians and that was such a radical deparature from their family’s beliefs and heritages that many Jewish families would try and manipulate and control their children and they would hold funerals for their family members if they became Christian as if to say, if you follow Jesus then you are dead to me.

Speaking to such situations Jesus says, in a passage in the gospel of Luke that if anyone wants to follow him they must be willing to leave their father and mother and brothers and sisters behind. If anyone wants to follow him, wants to be a Christian, they must “deny themselves.” Would you be willing to leave your family for Jesus?

And we are a whole step removed from that because most of us don’t even value our families too much in our culture. Rebellion against your family’s wishes and values is almost cherished as virtue. Romeo and Juliet are our heroes and parents are just seen as old and ignorant. When we think of who we are and our identity we most often do not think of our families do we? We think about our jobs or our musical tastes or our clothing style or our bank accounts.

Jesus knew that. Jesus knows and understands our rebellious hearts and so he takes it a step further and clarifies what he means by “deny.” “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Take up his cross. There is a picture for you. A cross. Death. We don’t have a universal picture for death like they did in the first century with a cross. Maybe an electric chair or a gun but that just doesn’t quite cut it. A cross is such a vivid illustration of suffering and death. Essentially Jesus is saying here if you want to follow me you are going to have to die.

Did he just mean physical death, like how a lot of the early Christians were tortured and killed for being Christians? Well, maybe, I think that is certainly included and we’re going to talk a ton about suffering when we get into the latter half of Romans 8. But I think Jesus means more than just physical suffering here. I think he means the heart behind it. Let’s read verse 35-37, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?”

You see, Jesus is talking about life and one’s view of it and what one pursues in it. What is your life about? What do you pursue? We could spend a whole ton of time here. What it means to try and save your life but lose it…what it means to lose your life but save it. We’ll come back to that because I want to talk about the “soul” for a minute.

A Theology of our Hearts

“Soul” in Greek is Psyuche. It is where we get the word psychology from. Modern psychology only showed up about 60 years ago after Freud and Carl Rogers began to captilize on this word which now dominates the scene. Before that it was pastors who people went to for the care of their soul. Today everyone goes to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Jesus, here is the chief psychologist, the chief counselor. Isaiah 9:6 calls him the “wonderful counselor.” And here we see him at his best. Jesus asks us, “What can one give in exchange for his soul?”

My second point and subtitle for my sermon is “A Theology of our Hearts.” There’s a few reasons for that. One, I already said is that I think Jesus is trying to get at the issue of our hearts here. Two, is the word itself. Often times the Hebrew word for heart, Leb (Leh-v), gets translated as soul, because the soul has to do with one’s very being, the inner drive and identity of a man from which the whole of his moral life springs from. That’s why Jesus said the greatest commandment, the commandment behind all the commandments, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk 12:30).

The third reason, I want talk about a theology of the heart is because Bobby hit on it last week, and there is a connection between what he said and what I am saying today. Listen to Ephesians 4:17-18, the text he preached on, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” I think here in Ephesians, Paul is saying the exact same thing as Jesus, that trying to save your own life, is living life apart from God, in which you forfeit your soul because it is hard.” That is the danger.

Here is the deal, all through the Bible there is a theme that everything is about our hearts not loving God before and above everything else. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is decietful and wicked above all things.” Think about it with me. We lie because our hearts thinks that if we do so we will get ahead somehow or to cover something up. We get anxious or angry because our hearts want to be in control and want things to go a certain way because we know what is best. This is a deceptive one. We may be harsh and rude and it is because we are resentful and not loving because our heart things have not gone right and we have somehow been wronged.

Or it can be much sneakier. I might be able to use some big words and be very passionate in moments but then secretly get in my car and in my head be muttering and gritting my teeth and cussing up a storm. Did I win by not saying anything. No. I’ve got a jacked heart.

Or how about the opposite. Some people are just tempermentally sweathearts and seem very non-judgmental, very tolerant and accepting, but that has nothing to do with loving God, it is because they have no self-control in their own life, are always breaking promises, and have not real peace or joy that does not sprong from their own misgivings. Worry is a big one. Why do we worry? It is because we don’t love God. Humility, a heart that loves God really believes He knows what we nedd. Anxiety and worry is arrogance because we think we are sure of what must happen for our joy.

I’ve been listening to a preacher lately named Tim Keller, he is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian church in New York City and some of these things I’ve been saying are things I’ve just stolen from him because I can’t say it much better. He said something in one of his sermons that hit me hard and I can’t stop thinking about it. So let me quote him directly, he said, “The main problems in our lives are the things we want too much, that we want more than Jesus (repeat).” Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart for out of it flow the issues of life.” Let me just stop and ask you, how is your heart?

Dying to Live

This is the deal. Let’s talk about “Dying to Live.” It sounds like an old Aerosmith or Bon Jovi song. J Dying to live, the Bible’s perspective is that the only hope for our hearts is Jesus, for him to save us, everthing else is us just trying to save ourselves by letting our wicked hearts lead us all over the place. The Bible’s perspective is that our old, bad, hard, heart has to die and Jesus has to take it out and change it and transform it by killing it and giving us his heart.

Listen to Ezekiel chapter 36. In it God prophesies about how he will act in the future and show himself as God and save the people, he referring to Jesus, and he says, ” I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes…and I will be your God (Ez 36:26-28).” This is the key issue. Whether we are going to let Jesus be Lord of lives, be our God or not. Martin Luther said as we have before that all sins are a breaking of the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shall have no other gods before me” because every sin is a sin of our hearts valuing something or someone else as god in our lives, it is all connected.

Paul, in Romans said the same thing, he said our hearts have to be circumcised, cut open, and that one can truly know God is inwardly by the heart that embraces Jesus (Rom 2:28-29). Let me explain this to you. The default mode of the human heart, is religion, self-salvation. Religion, self-salvation, says I obey therefore I am accepted, so you and your wicked heart keeps control. No one can ask you to do anything. You do what you want when you want to. And if it doesn’t work you have the right to feel hurt and mad. The gospel of Jesus says you are accepted and therefore you obey and your heart belongs to God and you do anything he asks because it is the only for for true hope and joy. Your life become his and his to direct and you get the joy of having him work in you and you trust him for everything.

Let’s go back to Jesus and our text in Mark 8. I said we come back to it. So let’s listen to Jesus again. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” We have got to die. We have got to give away our life. We have to lay down and surrender and give everything to Jesus for his and his gospel’s sake.

The gospel of Jesus Christ says he died for us so that we might truly die to self and receive new and perfect life from him. The gospel says the punishment for our wicked hearts was dealt with by Jesus on the cross and because he did it now there is hope for us. We do not have to suffer the eternal consequences of hell nor the present experiences of failure. The gospel freely admits that I can’t do it. But Jesus can and did and because of him there is hope because he promises to impart that to us if we turn to him.

Dying to live. I’ve been asking myself this question. How do I die to self so that I might live. I’ve really been taking this to heart. I began to ask myself, if it is true that “the main problems in our lives are the things we want too much, that we want more than Jesus” and if it is true that’s a heart issue, then what is are the things that bother me most and why. And here is what I came up with. See how deceptively and wickedly the heart works…

You know the think that frustrates me most, the thing that gets me more worried, more angry when it does go right, more sad when when it fails? This church. The Resolved Church. Here is the thing, this church is my life, my identity is so caught up with it. I have put my heart and soul into this thing. I wrote the doctrinal statement, I designed the look and the feel of this place, those who are here and who are with us are those I have reached out to and discipled and preached to. I, I, I. My problem isn’t that I don’t like church, it that I love it. I love it too much. The Resolved Church in many ways has become my God.

When I realized that I was horrified. What do I do? Does that mean we quit? I think it means this, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 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 think it means The Resolved Church has to die in my heart, where it’s success is the basis of my love and approval with God. It means I have to die to anything that I want more than I want Jesus himself.

What do you need to die to in your personal life? How about in regards to this church? I think what God has been teaching me means something for all of you as well. Church is people. That’s you. The Resolved Church, every one of us must die to this thing. We have to let this church go as our home, our solution, or our preference. The only hope for our lives and for this city is the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the perfect church. I think that means that each of us have to die everything this church is to us that is not a love for Jesus. He must be front and center. And Jesus asks for everything. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Here is the picture. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Eternity is at stake. And Jesus is coming back. He is all about his gospel and it is our only hope for soon one day he will return, not dressed in peasants clothes but in the full array of his divine kingship. The book of Revelation says that when Jesus comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels he will be dressed in a bright shining white robe with edges dipped in blood. He will come on the clouds riding a white horse and there will be peals of thunder and he will have a shining sword and he will call for his church and all those who have truly loved him will be caught up with him, and we will watch him as he creates a whole new heavens and earth.

That is what is coming. And it may not be far off. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When you’re God two-thousand years must not seem like a long time. The time is drawing near and Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever…he is still all about the sake of the gospel and how we treasure it and spread it through his church. Jesus is all about his church and he is all about this one if we will have him as first in our lives, otherwise he will kill it with the quickness of his hand.

Application

I began this sermon reading you part of my letter to us as a church and telling you about what kind of season I believe we are in. I believe Jesus wants The Resolved Church, what I see happening is what has needed to happen, him come and take his rightful place in the throne of our hearts. He is doing that in my heart and I have heard some great stories lately of what he has been doing in yours.

For The Resolved Church to continue and to grow healthy and strong we will have to die to self. The Resolved Church must die. Whether that means dying to your job, your kids, your husband or your wife, your boyfriend or girlfriend or your desire for one, or all your plans or your future…it means everything. We are going to have to sacrifice everything for Jesus and the sake of his gospel.

Here is what I am calling for. I concluded my journal entry by saying this, “Here is what I am calling us to do. One, each person of The Resolved Church needs to take it a little more seriously. I need for each of you to pray and to try and think of one thing, that you personally can do, to improve the strength and stability of our church. Two, I want each person to try and think of one person or one family you would call or meet with and tell them about our church and ask them to come over and try and help us build this thing and get it off the ground. If they are already involved in another church or are kind of sketched, ask them to commit until December and if after then they are not into it then cool, no worries and they will have hopefully got some good experience in being a part of a church plant and maybe even helped it to really reach a point of stability. Three, I want you to really pray. Pray for souls and partners and money. Be telling people about Jesus and inviting them over to dinner to do so. Please call each person you know who is a Christian, whether it is a family member or a friend and share with them about our church and ask them to regularly pray for us and maybe even partner with us financially. And if you are not giving yourself, start. Four, follow me. I say that with all the true humility that I can muster. I am attempting to lead an example of gospel heart repentance. I am calling you to follow me in that. My heart is more consumed with love and passion for Christ than it ever has been before and I do not hesitate to say as Paul, follow me as I follow Christ.

I love you all and believe if we as a group truly lay down ourselves before the foot of Jesus’ cross and desire him and his church more than anything else then we will see him work in a way we never truly dreamed possible.

For the sake of the gospel,
- Pastor Duane

Let’s pray.