Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] I want to start with a quote.
[00:00:13] So this is from Elizabeth Elliot, who is one of my personal heroes of the faith, wife of former wife, is going to be the Lord. But Jim Elliott, missionary who died at the hands of the Aca tribe in Ecuador, a totally unreached tribe. With the gospel, Jim Elliot and three friends fly in, are speared to death on the island, and after hearing the news, his wife Elizabeth and one other wife of one of the men who was killed on the island and two others actually go back to the particular tribe in order to bring the gospel there. So amazing woman, by the grace of God, amazing story, amazing testimony and example of what a life devoted to the person of Jesus looks like.
[00:01:00] And she says this in regards to the death of her husband Jim.
[00:01:06] Well, let me quote this.
[00:01:09] The author says this about her and then, and then I'll read her quote. I wondered how Betty, that's Elizabeth, could reconcile Jim's death at the hands of the Akas and the Lord's apparent failure to protect him from them.
[00:01:23] Her answer came back without hesitation. And this is quote from Elizabeth Elliot. She said, I prayed for the protection of Jim, that is physical protection.
[00:01:32] The answer the Lord gave transcended what I had in mind.
[00:01:36] He gave protection from disobedience and that through Jim's death accomplished results the magnitude of which only eternity can show.
[00:01:50] I left Shandia a bit and shaken, the author says, and kept on hearing Betty's parting words. And this is again a quote from Elizabeth Elliot. She says it gives me a much more personal desire to reach them.
[00:02:03] The fact that Jesus Christ died for all makes me interested in the salvation of all.
[00:02:09] But the fact that Jim loved and died for the Akkas intensifies my love for them.
[00:02:15] I really want to lock in on one phrase in her response, and this was. And that phrase is, I prayed for his physical protection. But what he gave me instead, or what he gave Jim instead was protection from disobedience.
[00:02:29] I mean, that is a, that's quite the perspective, isn't it?
[00:02:33] Like, lord, would you protect me from disobedience? So the question I have that I want us to think about this morning as we look at Acts chapter five. Acts chapter eight, verses five through eight.
[00:02:44] We're really going to study the first missionary in the Christian church. So the first of Jesus disciples in the first century in the early church to by the grace of God and by the providence of God. As we see Jesus plan being fulfilled in the book of Acts, we see this man Philip, who we really know very little about, be the first to take the good news of the resurrection of Jesus and the offer of forgiveness through faith in him, to take that good news from Jerusalem into Samaria.
[00:03:16] And as I studied this week, I thought, man, what a great opportunity to talk to our church, to talk to us about missions.
[00:03:24] And when we think about missions, I think we typically categorize missions in a global format. We're like, take the gospel to the nations, and that's absolutely what it's about. But I also think there's a lot of misconceptions with that because we live in the west, and for a really long time within the church, we've kind of developed this perspective that ministry and missions are relegated to paid church staff.
[00:03:48] So you hire a pastor, you hire some staff, and it's their responsibility to take this message of the resurrection of Jesus out into the world. But that's not at all what's true. Matter of fact, Charles Spurgeon actually said there are few things that have been more detrimental to the health and life and vibrancy of the church I of Jesus Christ, than that dichotomy.
[00:04:06] Paid staff.
[00:04:08] Everybody else, just come and watch, come in and listen, learn, do your Bible study, do your thing, sit in here for an hour and a half on a Sunday, and then go out and live your life completely disconnected from discipleship to Jesus.
[00:04:25] That is not what Christianity is.
[00:04:28] That's not who you are in Christ. And by the grace of God, you're so much more than that.
[00:04:36] And we see this personified in the person of Philip again, we know very little about who Philip is. He gets one chapter of the Bible he's introduced in Acts 6. He gets Acts chapter 8 today, and then we'll come back and talk about him again over the next couple of weeks.
[00:04:52] But we really don't know much about this man. He's a very ordinary man, as we'll talk about in just a moment. But I want to talk to you about missions and really what motivates missions. And I'm talking about everyday missions. I'm talking about you and I, by the grace of God.
[00:05:07] Considering what it might look like to leverage the entirety of your life, your home, your work, your neighborhood, your finances, your time, what would it look like for you to leverage the entirety of your life for the sake of Christ and his purposes, his kingdom?
[00:05:27] And it's a really necessary question for all of us in the room, and we'll talk more about this next week to ask this question.
[00:05:35] Whose kingdom animates your life?
[00:05:41] Right. Whose kingdom animates your Life? Whose kingdom drives your life?
[00:05:48] I am convinced of this. I think this is true, that most of the what if questions that we ask in our minds that cause so much worry in our everyday life derive from the reality that you and I are fixated on the claustrophobic kingdom of self.
[00:06:10] We're so fixated on our life, our circumstances, our family, our finances, our health, our time, our that it's no wonder we're struggling with crippling anxiety.
[00:06:27] It's no wonder we're so sad all the time and melancholy and apathetic and hopeless because our minds are set on our kingdom and our little kingdoms will die with us.
[00:06:44] They will come to an end one day.
[00:06:47] And I don't say this to shame us, because we're all guilty of this, but hopefully by the grace of God by the end of today to remind us that through the finished work of Jesus Christ, you and I have been delivered into an eternal kingdom that is ruled by the King of kings, filled with righteousness, peace and joy.
[00:07:16] So, like Lewis would say, we're like little kids playing with mud pies in the slums while a vacation at the sea is offered to us.
[00:07:27] We have the vacation at the sea. It's already been purchased in full for us by Jesus.
[00:07:34] So let' swhat might it look like to recognize, like, how are we playing with mud pies in the slums when this vacation of the sea ahead of us has already been purchased on our behalf? And to see this idea of leveraging all of our lives for the sake of Christ and His glory and his kingdom flow from that place, does all this make sense? And we're going to see this in the life of Philip. So look with me at Acts chapter eight, starting in verse five.
[00:08:00] And I want to start by just defining what a missionary is.
[00:08:08] Defining what a missionary is. So Acts chapter eight, starting in verse five, this is what it says.
[00:08:13] Philip went down to the city of Samaria.
[00:08:19] Who is Philip? Well, again In Acts chapter 6, verse 5, we read that Philip is one of the seven men chosen by the Hellenistic Jewish Christians to serve as one of the first deacons of the church.
[00:08:33] The apostles needed to devote their time to the preaching of the word and prayer.
[00:08:39] And so they needed, as the church was growing, as Jesus was building his church as he promised he would do in the first century, the church needed men qualified, called Spirit empowered Jesus, like men to help serve in these practical ways. And so Philip was one of these men chosen. Stephen was killed. When we talked about Stephen, Stephen was killed for proclaiming Jesus. He's stoned to death. He sees Jesus standing in heaven at the right hand of God, which is just. We can't imagine what that might have been like. And reflects Jesus in his death. And as a result of Stephen's death, the gospel, the good news of Jesus just accelerates in throughout, throughout these regions of Jerusalem and eventually into Judea and into Samaria. In order to get to Samaria, by the way, the city of Jerusalem sits roughly 2,500ft above sea level. And so to get to the valleys below it, Judea and Samaria, you had to descend, you had to go down. So you'd go down to Judea and then you'd actually go up to Samaria. Samaria was not a desirable place for a Jew to be.
[00:09:46] Okay, a Jew from Jerusalem. The Samaritans were filled with previous former Jews that had been dispersed from Jerusalem and had intermarried with Gentiles.
[00:09:58] And so they were seen by Jews from Jerusalem and not just as less than, but as dogs, as half breeds.
[00:10:07] This is how the Jews in Jerusalem saw the people of Samaria.
[00:10:11] Not a desirable place to go. And nonetheless, in the providence of God, once again, God is showing his people he's not confined geographically. He's not going to be confined to Jerusalem. He's not going to be confined to a physical temple. Jesus Christ is the temple of God. Jesus came, died on the cross, was risen from the grave. And now the good news of his resurrection and forgiveness in his name is going out into all peoples of all places. Because God is not a God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also.
[00:10:46] God is a cosmic God who sends Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world, but in order that all peoples of the world, regardless of who you are and where you're from, might be saved from through him.
[00:10:59] And so the Gospel goes into Jerusalem and it goes by the hand of Philip. So this is who Philip is. But what does it mean to be a missionary? Well, here's something really interesting. Like the New Testament never uses the word missionary.
[00:11:13] You don't see that word in the New Testament. But what does. What word does it use? It uses the word witness.
[00:11:20] That really what it means to be a missionary, whether you're a global missionary, you're a local missionary, you're a missionary in your bank or in your classroom or in your home or overseas, is to be a witness. It's to be a witness to the resurrected Christ. And we've talked about this from the first week in the Book of Acts, Jesus says you to his disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They saw the risen Jesus. You and I have not seen the risen Jesus, but we know who who Jesus is and what he's done and what he will do. Because the Spirit of God has opened the eyes of our heart through his Word. So we too are witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. What is a witness? And we have a slide. Isaiah, chapter 43. This is a really wonderful description of what the Bible means when it talks about this idea of what it means to be a witness.
[00:12:19] Isaiah 43 says this.
[00:12:21] You are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen. That you may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. To know, to believe and to understand who God is in Jesus Christ is to be a witness.
[00:12:52] This is what it means to know and believe and understand who God is through Jesus Christ is to be a witness. Spurgeon says this. He says, never you say again, dear friend, he's talking to Christians.
[00:13:09] I must not go there.
[00:13:11] I am not a proper person for that place.
[00:13:15] How do you know?
[00:13:17] The most unlikely person in the esteem of men may be the very person who is the special choice of God.
[00:13:26] So I just want you to be reminded and encouraged that every single person you interact with today, when you leave this place, when you go back home, when you go into your neighborhood, wherever you go following this place, every single individual person you interact with is made in the image of God.
[00:13:43] It doesn't matter how much money they have or how much money they don't have, doesn't matter where they live or what they look like. Every single person that you interact with is made in the image of God in every single conversation you have, every single one is providentially and sovereignly ordained by Jesus.
[00:14:03] Every single conversation you have.
[00:14:06] I think when we think about what this. We think about this idea of being a witness, some of us can feel burdened by it. Like man, this is just another thing that you're telling me to do.
[00:14:17] I do so many things.
[00:14:19] I have so many responsibilities.
[00:14:22] And I want us to reframe the way that we think about this. Not as witnessing to the resurrected Jesus that is sharing Jesus with people with non Christians who don't know Jesus is yet another thing to do. This is a part of who you and I are.
[00:14:37] And rather than thinking I need to add something to my schedule, maybe we ought to pray. Holy Spirit, just open my eyes so reality is Already in front of me.
[00:14:45] You and I rub shoulders with non Christians all the time.
[00:14:50] Every time you go into the grocery store, you rub shoulders with a non Christian. Every time you check out at the checkout line, you have an opportunity to see the person across from you as a person made in the image of God.
[00:15:01] Every time somebody knocks on your door to solicit, something happens all the time.
[00:15:05] And I'm like, the chief among sinners when it comes to being the grumpiest person in the world when that happens.
[00:15:11] But I've started to try, by the grace of God, to see that as an opportunity to share the gospel with people. I'm like, hey, you give me your pitch about why I should put this thing on my roof, and I'm going to invite you to church.
[00:15:23] So all of these things are.
[00:15:26] Every single moment of. There's no accidental moment in your life.
[00:15:32] Not a single millisecond of your life is accidental or random.
[00:15:38] If you believe in a sovereign God, as I hope you do, because the Bible emphatically teaches that, that God governs everything, that he's moving everything. There's not a single, as they say, maverick molecule in the universe.
[00:15:55] If everything is governed by God and he's moving everything along according to the counsel of his will for his purpose, that is the glory and renown of his name and the joy of his people, then every single interaction you have is an opportunity for you to be a witness.
[00:16:18] So Stephen is killed. Horrible tragedy.
[00:16:22] And the people of God, the followers of Jesus, are dispersed from Jerusalem into Judea and into the dreaded Samaria.
[00:16:32] And Philip goes in as a witness. What does he say?
[00:16:38] So as Philip goes in, if he's a witness to the resurrected Jesus, what does he say? Well, this leads to the second question. If the first is, what is a missionary? A missionary is a witness to the resurrected Jesus.
[00:16:49] What is the missionary's message?
[00:16:52] Look at the second part of verse five. Philip went down to Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
[00:17:01] He proclaimed to them. The Christ doesn't say that Philip went down to Samaria and proclaimed to them the law doesn't say that he went down to Samaria and proclaimed to them some form of social justice.
[00:17:16] Doesn't say that he went down to Samaria and proclaimed to them that there are many ways to God and many ways to heaven.
[00:17:22] He doesn't go down and proclaim to them some sort of Jewish superiority or nationalism.
[00:17:28] He goes down to Samaria and he proclaims the Christ.
[00:17:34] This is his message. Paul goes as far as to Say, Paul knew a lot of stuff, man. Like, he knew a lot of theology, a lot about the Bible. He was a trained Pharisee of Pharisees. And he says, I chose to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. It doesn't mean we don't talk about other things. It doesn't mean we don't know about other things. Of course, you should know about all sorts of things in order to engage people properly. But don't miss the message. The message is not a system of religious belief. It's a person.
[00:18:06] He went down to Samaria and he proclaimed to them the Christ.
[00:18:11] My family and I went on a.
[00:18:14] A grocery store extravaganza this last week. So we had nothing else to do. We're like, we're going to the grocery store, and we're just going to have fun. So we walk around the grocery store, we get a couple of things, and on our way out, as we're getting ready to check out, my boys and I look down and we see a Life magazine, which I hadn't seen a Life magazine in a long time, but on the COVID of Life magazine, guess who was there? Jesus.
[00:18:37] And it had this big title that said, who is Jesus? And both of my boys were like, oh, that's interesting. And so they pick it up, and Haddon starts reading, and he's like, dad, this isn't true, like, what they're saying about Jesus. And I was like, yeah, probably not, I'm sure. It's just. It's a lot of.
[00:18:51] But it really kind of sparked this idea in my mind of everybody today has an opinion about Jesus, don't they?
[00:19:00] It's fascinating times that you and I live in.
[00:19:05] I told the elders this. I typically don't call people out by name. I'm going to today because I think it's really important for you to hear names and faces, for us as Christians to be able to think critically and biblically about what are we hearing? Like, what's going on? What are people saying? What are they doing? And my aim is to offend everybody in the room.
[00:19:25] So regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, somebody told me one time, if you want to please everybody, sell ice cream. So.
[00:19:33] All right.
[00:19:35] Paula White, the spiritual advisor to the President of the United States, says this in her comparison of Donald Trump to Jesus.
[00:19:47] No one has paid the price like you have paid the price because of his victory. That's Christ's victory. You will be victorious in all you put your hand to.
[00:19:58] And that's not even the worst thing she said prior to that, she's comparing Donald Trump's sufferings and things that he's experienced to the persecution and suffering and death of Jesus.
[00:20:09] Wild, wild thing to listen to.
[00:20:13] And then not long after that, some people are smiling, some are nervous. Not long after that, the President of the United States posts an AI generated photo with his face on the body of Jesus. And he's like, hey, I just thought I was a doctor.
[00:20:26] Like, dude, if I ever see a doctor come into the office looking like that.
[00:20:30] Red sash, white robe, angels descending from heaven, I don't know. I don't know what will happen if I ever see that. So wild.
[00:20:41] Tucker Carlson, conservative commentator, says, people in charge don't want you to believe this, but Muslims love Jesus.
[00:20:53] Friends, Muslims don't love Jesus.
[00:20:57] They love a version of Jesus, but they don't love the real one.
[00:21:03] Isa is the name of Jesus in the Quran.
[00:21:08] He is not God.
[00:21:09] He was not crucified on a cross. He was not resurrected from the grave. He worships Allah, and one day he'll return in order to violently oppose those who do not worship Allah as the one true God in the end times. Allah is a demon God.
[00:21:29] This is not the true Jesus.
[00:21:32] This is not the living, breathing King of Kings Jesus. This is a false Jesus. No, we love Muslims. We want to see Muslims converted to Jesus, put their faith in the true Jesus, not in a false Jesus.
[00:21:46] And we can't participate in God doing that if we believe that they love the real Jesus.
[00:21:53] I've spent time in Muslim countries.
[00:21:55] I love those people.
[00:21:58] And it's heartbreaking when the call to prayer goes off and you know that millions of people below you in the city are worshiping a false Jesus.
[00:22:06] No, they do not love Jesus.
[00:22:10] James Talarico, popular Democrat rising up on the left, says to Colbert, jesus doesn't speak on abortion or gay marriage.
[00:22:22] The message of Jesus is that we treat people kindly. No, James Talarico, that is not what Jesus says.
[00:22:29] Of course he says that in various ways. He has a lot to say about the heart of abortion.
[00:22:36] He has a lot to say about marriage and what marriage is and why God designed marriage and what a real marriage is. He, Jesus has a lot to say about those things. This is not the real Jesus. Don't be deceived because somebody has charisma.
[00:22:54] As followers of Jesus, we have to think critically when we hear these things, because everybody has an opinion.
[00:23:05] We have to think critically and most importantly, we have to think biblically. Who is Jesus?
[00:23:12] Who is the real Jesus?
[00:23:15] Well, if you want to know who the real Jesus is, don't listen to whatever particular pundit you listen to.
[00:23:22] Listen to Jesus.
[00:23:24] Let Jesus define who he is by his own words.
[00:23:30] So who is who is Jesus? Well, Paul says in Colossians 1, 1523 that the real Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
[00:23:43] It says in Colossians 2, verse 9, that all of the fullness of God dwells bodily in him.
[00:23:52] So if you want to know what the Father is like, look no further than the person of Jesus.
[00:24:01] All of the fullness of God dwells bodily in Jesus Christ. In John, chapter one, verses one through five, Jesus is said to be the Word who was with God and the Word who is God.
[00:24:15] He is God.
[00:24:18] John, chapter 6. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. 7 I am statements in the Book of John, all of which communicate the reality that the God in Exodus chapter three that appears to Moses in the burning bush and reveals himself to Moses as the I am the great. I am no beginning, no end, the one who is in all and through all, and creator of all that God. Jesus is saying, I'm that God.
[00:24:44] I am the bread of life. John chapter 8, verse 12. I am the light of the world. John chapter 10, verse 7. I am the door to life abundant. John 10:11. I am the good shepherd of Psalm 23, John 11:25. I am the resurrection and the life. John 14:6. I am the way to God, the truth of God and the life.
[00:25:12] John chapter 15, verse 1. Jesus says, I am the true vine, and anyone connected to me by faith in me will bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing because he is the vine. He is the Life.
[00:25:26] John chapter 8. Again, Jesus is the great I am. So the first point to be made of who is the real Jesus. The real Jesus is God.
[00:25:38] He's not a subset of God.
[00:25:41] He is the eternal Son of God who descended from heaven, sent by the Father and became a man.
[00:25:53] God the Son is eternal. Jesus Christ is God, but Jesus Christ is also man, fully God and fully man.
[00:26:06] Philippians chapter two. Paul says, have this mind among yourself which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.
[00:26:26] Then it says that he lowered himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So as Pastor Sean would say, and I think I'm going to get this quote right, Sean, you can correct me from the back if I'm wrong.
[00:26:37] But to think about the eternal Son of God, to think about God the Son taking on human flesh and becoming man, it was subtraction by addition.
[00:26:47] In other words, Jesus did not become less than God when he took on human flesh. Subtraction by addition means when he took on human flesh, he became totally man.
[00:27:00] He is fully God and he is fully man. And so because he is fully God and because he is fully man, he alone can reconcile men to God.
[00:27:10] He's the one mediator between God and man.
[00:27:15] And it says in Acts chapter four that there is salvation in no one else.
[00:27:21] There is no other way, There is no other means but through Jesus Christ to God. This is who Jesus is. Jesus is fully God and he is fully man. And this is the message that Philip proclaims to the Samaritans. He proclaims the message of the Christ, his perfect life, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, his ascension to heaven and a call to respond for them to turn from sin and to believe upon him as Lord Philip's message. The message of the missionary is Christ, the true Christian.
[00:28:07] So if a missionary is a witness to the resurrected Christ and the message of the missionary or the witness is Christ as Lord, the risen Christ as Lord, what is it that motivates mission? So what ought to.
[00:28:23] As we're thinking about preparing to end our time together this morning, like, what, man? I don't know how I'm going to do with this. Like, what is going to happen?
[00:28:35] Resurrect our apathy to leave this place and not just exist until you come in again next Sunday?
[00:28:47] I don't want that for you. I don't want it for me.
[00:28:50] I mean, I found myself this morning, even praying just before I got up to preach. I was like, man, I don't want all of my excitement for the person of Jesus to fade away when I walk off the stage.
[00:29:03] And my heart is prone toward that.
[00:29:07] So what is it that motivates the kind of perspective that we read about at the beginning of our time?
[00:29:13] Like God, if.
[00:29:16] If not telling people, if not witnessing to the resurrected Christ is disobedience and it is right? Like the call to make disciples is not a recommendation for you.
[00:29:32] It's not a suggestion.
[00:29:34] Jesus didn't say, some will do this and some will not go and make disciples.
[00:29:44] Your the purpose of our existence according to the Westminster Catechism. And this is validated throughout all of Scripture to know God and enjoy him forever.
[00:29:56] That's why you and I exist.
[00:29:59] That we would love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.
[00:30:03] That we would love our neighbor as ourself, and that we would make disciples.
[00:30:08] And the making disciples doesn't come through a redoubled effort to think about going out and making disciples.
[00:30:14] The making of disciples flows from love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love neighbor as yourself. So what is it that by the grace of God might resurrect you and I to leave this place different than when we came?
[00:30:34] Well, look at the remainder of the verse.
[00:30:38] It says he went down proclaiming to them the Christ. And the crowds, with one accord, paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
[00:30:59] So there was much joy in that city.
[00:31:02] Samaria was a dark place. And we'll talk about it more next week when we talk about Simon, who's the antagonist of the story.
[00:31:10] Samaria was riddled with synergistic worship, pagan worship, the occult, dark magic, satanic influence. Like Ephesians 2 says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So when you look at all of what's going on in our country, in our world today, and you're like, this is insane. It is insane.
[00:31:36] And man, it's absolutely spiritual.
[00:31:40] Like, it's all spiritual.
[00:31:43] There's way more going on behind the scenes than you and I can see.
[00:31:47] Our enemy, our primary enemy, is not other people who differ from you politically.
[00:31:56] Paul says in Ephesians 6, we don't wage war against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the principalities of this present age, we have an enemy.
[00:32:08] And Samaria was riddled with this. And God, in his grace, scatters his people.
[00:32:16] And he sends one of his people, Philip, this ordinary guy like you and I, filled with the spirit into this dark place. And as Philip goes into this dark place, he preaches Christ, who is life, who is light. And as the gospel is proclaimed, God accompanies that message with signs and miracles, like demons fleeing from people screaming as they go, people with sickness being healed, the dead being raised, all of these miraculous things, not so that the miracles, so the signs and wonders would be an end in and of themselves, but so that the signs and wonders would validate the message which is Christ. That's the Purpose that the signs and wonders are like a finger pointing. It's like if I'm driving down the road and I say like to my daughter, hey babe, look at that rainbow over there, right? And she's fixated on my finger.
[00:33:07] It's like, what are you talking about? And she's just. I'm like, no, don't look at me. Like, look at the thing.
[00:33:12] That's what the signs and wonders are meant to do.
[00:33:15] To point to the true substance which is Christ. And as all of this happens, here's the result and here's where I think it fits with our motivation for missions that there was great joy in the city.
[00:33:29] This is what ought to motivate you and I to take the good news of Jesus to the joy.
[00:33:37] Like, when you think about the lostness of the world, do you want their joy?
[00:33:45] Especially people that you feel like you hate on the inside, do you want their joy?
[00:33:54] Three things, three quick things that hopefully will reorient us to desire the joy of the world.
[00:34:02] Because I think that when the joy of the world becomes our focus, we're like, I want to see people who are drowning in sin and suffering and the darkness of the world know life abundant through Christ.
[00:34:20] I want it. I like God. I want it so bad.
[00:34:26] One thing that we can do, I think that the spirit of God I pray might use in us this morning to reorient perspective. Number one is to remember Christ.
[00:34:38] Don't leave this place thinking about missions, leave this place thinking about Jesus.
[00:34:50] 2 Corinthians 5 says, the love of Christ compels us more of a mindfulness toward the person of Jesus. I was sitting in a chick fil a last weekend again with my family.
[00:35:05] Fun filled weekend, sitting in a chick fil a and a family walks in, ragged, stressed, just looked like they were just really having a hard time. And they sit across from us and I'm sitting there eating. And there was something about this family that just reminded me of my childhood.
[00:35:28] I'm not going to go into all of my childhood, but we were on welfare when I was a kid. I grew up in a trailer house. We experienced a lot of abuse, a lot of darkness, like dabbling in the occult, I mean, all sorts of crazy stuff as a kid. And I see this family and it just like, man, it just reminded me of my childhood in a variety of ways. And so I kind of left and I felt really heavy about it. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, I can't believe Jesus saved me.
[00:35:58] You know, like, do you ever think about that?
[00:36:02] You ever think about you're here today?
[00:36:04] You know, you could be so many places.
[00:36:07] You're sitting in a church on a Sunday, wanting to study the Bible, wanting to lift your hands and sing.
[00:36:15] And even in the midst of your struggle with sin and the various forms of suffering that you feel that maybe is making you feel distant from God, there's a part of you, if you're a Christian, there's at least a small part of you that, like, really wants to love Jesus more than you do.
[00:36:28] That's a miracle.
[00:36:30] That's not natural.
[00:36:33] What's natural is for you to be an enemy of God.
[00:36:38] But that thing that's drawing you to want to know and love Jesus and trust Jesus and treasure him, and all of those things, as small as it is, is an absolute miracle of God's grace toward you.
[00:36:54] He saved you. If you're a Christian, that means, as one author says, I love this, that the only hell you will ever experience as a Christian is right now.
[00:37:10] So remember Jesus. Remember the grace of Jesus and the love of Jesus and the loveliness of Jesus and the power of Jesus and the strength of Jesus, the truth that is Jesus. Remember Jesus is the first means by which, by the grace of God, he might cultivate joy in us that leads us toward non Christians with the Gospel. The second thing is remember who you are.
[00:37:37] Remember who you are. So this goes back to one of my first points about this dichotomy we have about ministers of the Gospel and parishioners in the pew as being this, like, different category of Christians.
[00:37:50] 2 Corinthians 5, 17, 21 says, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation.
[00:37:57] And Paul goes on to say that if you're in Christ, not only are you a son and daughter of God, not only are you forgiven and righteous in the sight of God and blameless and holy and heaven is your home and all of these kinds of things, but you're an ambassador for Christ.
[00:38:13] That is who you are.
[00:38:15] And so part of growing in this desire to go out and tell other people to witness to the resurrected Jesus is remembering that this is built into your DNA.
[00:38:25] This is not just something you do. This is who you are.
[00:38:29] And you and I talk about stuff we love all the time with people, don't we? Doesn't feel awkward because you love it.
[00:38:37] Whatever. The thing is.
[00:38:40] And so we remember Jesus and we remember who we are in Jesus by his grace. And then the third and final thing is man, we have to pray for it, right? So said this in pre service prayer. Prayer changes nothing.
[00:38:57] The God to whom we pray to changes everything.
[00:39:01] This is why he invites us to pray.
[00:39:04] If you're apathetic and you just find yourself not really caring whether or not the non Christian in your life knows or doesn't know Jesus and will spend an eternity in hell apart from Jesus, if you find yourself not really caring a whole lot, a lot about that, you ought to pray for it.
[00:39:19] Pray that God would give you a desire for that person.
[00:39:22] You can't save them. Salvation's not on your shoulders, so don't feel an unbiblical weight that doesn't belong to you. Salvation belongs to Jesus alone. But if you don't care, pray for it like spirit of God, would you change me?
[00:39:40] Would you give me a heart that reflects yours who came to seek and save that which is lost?
[00:39:45] That's why he came.
[00:39:47] Would you give me a love for this person? I know we disagree politically, I know we disagree.
[00:39:53] They hate Christians, they hate Jesus. They hate going like, would you give me love? Just a supernatural, otherworldly Jesus, like love for that person doesn't mean you don't get angry over their sin.
[00:40:05] But we ought to pray and trust that God really can change our affections for other people.
[00:40:14] The Bible ends in Revelation 5 with this amazing picture of the global church of Jesus Christ gathered around the throne singing worthy is the lamb who was slain.
[00:40:26] This is how all things are going to come to an end.
[00:40:31] And in light of that reality, Jonathan Edwards would say, and this is going to be our closing prayer.
[00:40:37] Edwards would say.
[00:40:40] He would say, lord, paint eternity on my eyeballs.
[00:40:45] This is what we're talking about when we're talking about praying for changed affections is, Lord, I want you to paint eternity, the reality of heaven and hell.
[00:40:55] I want you to paint that on my eyeballs so that everything I see and every person I see and every interaction I have, I would come at it from an eternal perspective. This is an eternal soul. Eternity is real. Heaven and hell is coming. Jesus is coming again to make all things new. Would you paint eternity on my eyeballs? So to that end, pray, Father, we love you and God, we do. Thank you for the opportunity to gather in your name and to sing.
[00:41:31] God, we thank you for.
[00:41:34] We thank you for your word. We thank you that in love and in kindness you sought us, though we weren't seeking you, God, that you being rich in mercy because of the great love with which you loved us, you made us alive together in Christ. And it's by grace that we've been saved through faith not of our own doing, so that no one may boast, but the gift of God. And so, God, I pray that as we. As we sing, as we consider these things, would you bring to mind the reality of who you are, what you've done on our behalf, what you will do, which you paint eternity on our eyeballs.
[00:42:13] We love you, Jesus, and we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.
