Hope Church LV Sermons
The Gospel | The Mystery & The Mission - wk2
My first trip to the continent of Africa was in 2008 and on that specific trip we traveled to several different countries to host some pastor's training conferences, but the last place that we stopped was a specific city in northern Africa. And looking back on it, God used that last stop into northern Africa in 2008 to really reshape my perspective of the world. I can remember landing in the airport there in this prominent city in North Africa and walking through the airport and just looking in the eyes of people who didn't speak the language that I spoke, they didn't look like me, they didn't believe what I believed, and as far as I could tell, I got the feeling they really didn't even want me, honestly in their country. We began to drive through the streets of the city and I just remember this spiritual darkness, this feeling that I'd really never sensed before. We had to drive about two hours outside of the city to get to the place where we were going to be doing this pastor's conference. And we pull up to what was basically a compound. And there were these two large metal doors and one of our guys got out and banged on the door and they opened and we came in to this compound there in the middle of nowhere. It was late late at night, probably about 1 or 2 a.m. and I finally got to my room and I got to lay down and I was exhausted. And it seemed like to me that no sooner did I lay down and fall asleep than I was woken up by the sound of a mosque, a call to pray for all Muslims. It was a dark sound that I'd never heard before and honestly, when I first heard it, it kind of scared me, I'd never been exposed to that before. And I remember laying in my bed that night there in North Africa and thinking two things. First of all, I remember thinking how sheltered and naive I had been as it relates to the lostness of the world. My second thought was this. I thought it is overwhelming to really think about what it could look like to reach this part of the world with the gospel. When I ask you a question, have you ever been? Overwhelmed by the mission. Has it ever overwhelmed you to think about reaching the entire planet with the gospel? I want us to slow down long enough tonight to really consider the magnitude of the mission. I want us to really take to heart what hangs in the balance for those people in the world right now, who have no relationship with Jesus. It's overwhelming. John Piper wrote this in one of his books. He said the gospel is about the kingdom of God. It's about the reign of God. It is about the triumph of King Jesus over sin and death and judgment and Satan and guilt and fear. He says the aim of preaching this gospel of the kingdom is that nations might come to know King Jesus and admire him and honor him and love him and trust him and follow him and make him shine in their affections. The central command of missions is Isaiah 12, 4. Make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. As I said earlier, the mission is overwhelming but what is even more overwhelming than the mission is the reality of the gospel. It's overwhelming when I really take to heart the position I was in and who I was before grace and then to think about the position I'm now in and who I am after I have experienced grace and honestly when you take this glorious gospel to heart, it compels you from the inside out to engage in the mission of Jesus. I believe a true understanding of the gospel produces a passion for the mission. You see the closer that you and I get to Jesus, the more we are drawn and compelled to give our lives for the mission that he's called us to. As a church's family, we are studying verse by verse through the New Testament book of Colossians and last weekend we kicked off a four part series within that study called the gospel, the mystery and the mission and our big question last weekend was this, what is the mystery of the gospel? That's not a question that we ask a whole lot. That's not a phrase that we use but in our text in the book of Colossians chapter 1, Paul really clarifies what the mystery of the gospel is but it's very important to understand that when our culture speaks of mystery and when Paul uses the word mystery here in Colossians 1, they're not talking about the same thing. When you and I think about mystery, we think about something that is hidden. We think about something that is secret that only a few people know but when Paul references the mystery here in Colossians chapter 1, he's speaking of something that has been revealed, something that has been made known. You could also translate it with the word revelation, something that is revealed or the word publication, something that has been made public. So what was this grand mystery that Paul wanted to communicate with these believers here at Colossae? Well last weekend we looked at a statement that I think really clarifies what this mystery really is. Here's the statement, God desires for all nations to be redeemed through a love relationship with Jesus. That was the mystery. Now you may look at that and think that's not really a secret. I hear that taught at hope every weekend. I can read that in the New Testament and that's true. But for the audience, Paul was writing to. There were numerous obstacles, some racial, some social, some cultural, some spiritual that were hindering them from really embracing and understanding that reality. You see there was teaching in that day that the love of God was only for a select few and only a certain group of people were going to be able to experience salvation from God. So Paul speaks right to the heart of that culture and says that is incorrect. He says here's the truth. God desires all nations, all peoples, all places to be redeemed through a love relationship with the Messiah, with Jesus Christ. So that's what we unpacked last weekend. So if you have a Bible tonight, turn to Colossians chapter one, if you don't have a Bible, we're going to put these verses on the screen for you or you can follow us on the You version app on your smartphone. I want to read for us Colossians 1, verses 24 to 27, last weekend we unpacked several of these verses. And so today I want to pull everything together so that we understand the heart of this passage. Verse 24 says this. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church. In filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. That is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's a powerful passage of Scripture. Here's the big question I want us to wrestle with. I want us to think about tonight as we seek to understand this passage. What is God's plan to make the mystery known to the peoples of the earth? It's great that we can talk about the gospel and that we can be transformed by the gospel. But what's the plan to take the gospel to the people who don't currently understand it and who have not embraced it? What's the plan so that our city is not always 95% lost? What's the plan to move the number from over 6,000 unreached people groups? What is the plan? Well Paul begins this passage with six words that honestly really don't make sense. Here's what he says, he says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings." You see Paul's writing this letter from prison. So when he talks about suffering, he means that literally he had been put in prison because of his passion to spread the gospel. But even in the midst of that he says I rejoice showing us his great zeal and passion to see this mystery spread to the peoples of the earth. And then Paul goes on to share with us God's two fold message method for making the mystery known. So to unpack this text, I want to share with you God's two fold method for making the mystery known to the peoples of the earth. Here's the first way. Here's the first method, the believer. The first way that God desires to make the gospel known to the world is through the believer. And here's a statement to unpack that. As a Jesus follower, I have a role to play in the mission. That's all of us. Every believer has a role that we are to play in the mission of God. Paul goes on to say in verse 24, he says, "In my flesh I do my share." Paul clearly says that for every believer there is a personal role that we are to play as it relates to God's global mission and making the gospel known. The great commission was given to believers, identifying that all of us have a part to play. He says, "I do my share." I want to hang some meat on that phrase this evening. So I want to give you three aspects of what it looks like for you and I to do our share, to do our part. Here's the first one, "I am to pursue intimacy with God." One aspect of our part is that we are to pursue intimacy with God. You see, the perspective that believers have as to why and how God chooses to use us is very, very important. God is not looking throughout the earth for the smartest people or the most talented people or the wealthiest people or the most popular people that he's going to use. He is looking for believers who have surrendered their whole lives to his lordship and who are available to join him in his activity. One aspect of your part and my part in this grand scheme of the mission is to walk in an intimate love relationship with Jesus. We've shared this with you before, but I want to say it again because it's extremely important and at least for me, it's very convicting. The greatest thing that we bring into our family, the greatest thing we bring into our small group, into this church and into the mission in general is our love relationship with God. That's the most important thing that you and I bring into any of those arenas. Your love relationship with God, look at this reality on the screen, everything that God desires to do through my life, he will accomplish out of the overflow of what he is doing in my life. Here's what that means, that means that intimacy with God is more important than activity for God. I don't know how you're wired, but I'm wired as a results oriented A to B fixer. When there's a problem, I get excited about trying to figure out the solution. So because of that, I have a tendency to naturally put activity for God over intimacy with God. Listen, that is out of balance and very, very dangerous. God says the thing I want you to pursue more than anything else is an intimate love relationship with me. And here's why that's important, because all of our passion, all of our energy, all of our enthusiasm, the best we can offer, does not move the needle one inch in the context of God's kingdom if it is not his life being pressed out through us. You see, God's invited us to know him and he has chosen to accomplish his work through the relationship. Everything Paul wrote in this passage, he wrote because of his closeness with Jesus. And it was the determining factor as to why God chose to use him the way that he did. The first aspect of our part is to pursue intimacy with God. Here's the second. The second aspect is that I am to graciously share the gospel. We are to with grace communicate the message of life. Paul says in verse 25, "I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word." Paul uses a very powerful word here, he uses the word stewardship. Paul identifies himself as a steward. Now we all know what a steward is. A steward is someone who has been entrusted with something that belongs to somebody else. Paul says, "God has given me a ministry and the reason I am to steward this ministry well is so that the Word of God might be proclaimed to the whole earth." In essence, what Paul is teaching us here is that believers are stewards of the gospel. Doesn't belong to us, it's a message that has been entrusted to us and we are to utilize it in a way that is honoring to Jesus. You see, we are not only to share the message, we are to share it in a way that honors our heavenly Father. Let me give you an application statement. We are to always look for ways to lovingly share Jesus with others. What we share is important and we are to proclaim the truth unapologetically. But how we share the truth is also very, very important. In John chapter 1, they talked about Jesus. They said he was a man full of truth and a man full of grace. Listen to this statement by Robert Lewis. He says, "For half of my ministry, I believed my mission was to help the world understand its error. I fought by hurling verbal hand grenades concerning sin and wrongdoings in the world, the shrapnel would somehow rattle sinners back to their senses, to me jabbing and stabbing the world with the sword of God's word and a dash of holy anger was the way to turn the world around." Look what he says next. But after years of doing so, it began to dawn on me that my actions, no matter how sincere, were not merely ineffective, but they were in fact fueling an even greater hostility and alienation between our church and the community. I was burning bridges, not building them. As we communicate this message of life, we are not to do so with a spirit of condemnation as if we are better than anyone else. We are to communicate this message as if we are beggars who have found bread and are coming to share it with other people who are hungry. I believe as we walk in tune with God, He will show us how to share the right thing at the right time in the right way. That's our part. That's what it looks like for us to do our share. Here's a third aspect of what it means for you and I to do our share. I am to embrace that my suffering has a purpose. We are to embrace that suffering for Christ's sake has a purpose. Paul says in verse 24, he says, "In filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." This is a single line of scripture that has been debated and discussed for centuries. Numerous theologians have opinions as to why Paul is suffering. I believe to understand this section of the scripture, we must distinguish between salvific suffering and scent suffering. When we talk about salvific suffering, we are talking about suffering that had to take place so that you and I could enjoy salvation. It's the suffering that had to take place to pay the penalty for sin. God could not just sweep sin under the rug. It had to be paid for. And all of the punishment and suffering for sin was poured out on Jesus on the cross. He paid for sin once and for all, so no one else throughout history who comes to him would have to suffer for sin. That's salvific suffering, but there's another type of suffering, scent suffering, and it is the suffering that is experienced by those people who are sent out into the world for the sake of the gospel. The type of suffering that Paul is referring to here is scent suffering. Because he was a preacher and proclaimer of the gospel, he experienced persecution. He's saying here, "I am doing my part in the mission of God." One theologian said it this way, "Those who are sent out as missionaries face the hatred and persecution that enemies of the gospel want to inflict on Jesus. They cannot hurt Christ, so they attempt to inflict pain on those who bear his name." You see, Paul experienced suffering really from two groups. Those who he was trying to reach with the gospel who just didn't want to hear it. And he also experienced suffering and persecution from the religious leaders who did not want him proclaiming a gospel of grace for all nations. Paul was a man who knew what it was to suffer for Christ's sake, yet in Romans 8 he writes this powerful verse, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." You see, Paul understood that I can separate my circumstances from my relationship with God. And my circumstances in no way determine God's love for me, and my circumstances should not determine my love for him. As a believer, there's no such thing as suffering for suffering's sake. Any suffering for the sake of Christ has a greater purpose. That's our part, pursuing intimacy with God, graciously sharing the gospel and embracing that our suffering has a greater purpose. The first method that God uses to take his gospel throughout the world is the believer. And we all have an individual, personal role to play. It applies to all of us. But here's the second method that God has chosen to use to make his gospel known to the peoples of the earth. Number two is the church. That's us. Here's a statement to unpack that. As a community of Jesus followers, we have a role to play in the mission. Collectively as the body, we have a part to play together in the grand mission of God. Both in verse 24 and in verse 25, Paul references the church. He references his individual role, but he also references the role that he has with the church. He says in verse 24, I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church. He acknowledges he's a part of something bigger than just him. Then in verse 25, he says, of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit. When scripture refers to the church, the Bible calls it the people of God. The body of Christ, a fellowship of believers, the family of God. We all make the mistake sometimes, mostly we don't mean to, but we'll say, hey, I'm going to church, or I need to stop by the church, or did you go to church? But as we talk about the church for just a few moments, I want you to know, the church is not a location. The church is a people, and we have a responsibility in the mission. Another phrase that is used to describe the church in the scriptures is the bride of Christ. What it teaches us is that as the church, we are the bride, and Jesus Christ is the bridegroom. There's a verse in Revelation 19, and it's talking about the future. It's painting the picture of the day that the church will be reunited with the bridegroom, and it's very important as we think about the church and Jesus that we have a right perspective. Look at this verse on the screen in Revelation 19. It says, "Let us rejoice, let us be glad with all our hearts. Let us give Him the glory, for the wedding day of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready." Leave that verse on the screen. I want you to look at it. I want you to notice what it says. It says, "For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, not the wedding day of the bride has come." You see, the focus of this passage, the central figure in this passage, is the groom, not the bride. John went on to write in John chapter 3, he said this, "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice." It says, "The bride belongs to the bridegroom." The groom is the focus of the ceremony. You could say it like this, "The bride exists for the groom." But what has happened in a lot of places in America is the church, the bride, has developed a wrong perspective about who is superior, the bride or the groom. And there is even some cases where the church has turned so inward that the bride has totally forgotten about the grand scheme that the groom has established to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. There's a wrong perspective. There's a phrase that's been coined in our culture. It's the phrase, "bridezilla." It's a combination of two words, the word "bride" and the word "godzilla," a Japanese monster. And I was looking this week and I found a great definition of "bridezilla." Here's what it is. A bride who abuses the idea that weddings are their day, they terrorize their bridal party and family members, make greedy demands and break all rules of etiquette to ensure that they are the single most important person on the planet from the time that they are engaged to the time that they are married. All churches battle the tension of beginning to focus inward and beginning to think that it's all about us. It's all about our services and how comfortable we can be and what we can get when we go to church every day and for all intents and purposes, those churches all over America are bridalas. They think it's all about them. They think the church is the finish line. And once we build a nice campus that we have arrived, but what we need to understand is that in the context of the Kingdom of God, the church is not the finish line. The church is the starting line. The finish line is God's gospel being proclaimed among the peoples of the earth. And when a church has a right perspective on that, when a church understands that the bride exists for the groom, we are able to function the way God designed us to function and we are able to make much of Jesus in our city, in our country and around the world. Lance Witt said this, "In a healthy church, Jesus is the most famous person. He gets the most airtime. He is the most talked about. He is clearly center stage. He is seen as the head of the church and the leadership does their best to spread His fame." In hope, we want to have great children's ministries and great music and great preaching and great ministries, but we do not believe that those things are an end in and of themselves. They are simply a means that the gospel of Jesus can be demonstrated in us and through us as a church to the very ends of the earth. That's the way that God designed it because it is through the body of Christ that God has chosen to reveal His mystery to the world. Mark Deaver said this, "The church is the gospel made visible." So as we land the plane here on this passage, I want to give you two statements that really clarify the church's role in God's plan. Here's the first one. The gospel is most visible when the body of Christ loves and serves one another. Before a church is anything else, the church is a family. There is so much more to being a successful church than simply weekend attendance. And when the church is functioning as the church, the world cannot explain it and there's nothing on planet earth that can rival it. For some people, when you think about the church, you think about the weekend experience. Listen, there is so much more to being the church than attending the weekend event. And there's something powerful when the church of the Lord Jesus decides we're going to take serious the opportunity we have to love and to serve one another. Let me share with you an example. On August 22nd of this year, there were some major reigns here in Las Vegas to the point that right out here on Cactus Avenue, the water began to build up and basically flood. And I can remember that day I was here on campus, we drove out just to the side and we're looking at the street and there were cars that were underwater. There were people that were swimming just to try to get to dry ground. And after the pressure had just built up so high, right back here underneath our retaining wall, some of the dirt was moved. The earth was pushed and the water broke through and began to spill right down the middle of our campus. It came into our back doors, it flooded this whole room, mud was covering the middle of our campus, the other building was underwater. And I can remember standing right back there with our pastoral team and we're looking down and literally there's eight inches of water in this room. We had ran over here and tried to get stuff as high as we could before the fire department evacuated us. But it was unbelievable in Vegas and we're sitting there and we're saying what do we do? I mean where do you even start? And one of them, one of the guys on our team said well, I'm going to go to Home Depot. I'm going to get some brooms, some squeegees and some whatever they have to try to get this taken care of. Somebody else said well hey I'm going to put it on Twitter that we need some help. Somebody else said I'm going to put it on Facebook that we need some help. Somebody else said I'm going to shoot out an email to our church and say we need your help right now. And before we knew it, 10 people became 300 people. And people just began to flood on this campus and get down in the mud and start sweeping water and cleaning mud off the center of our campus. It was unbelievable to watch and what could have taken us weeks and months literally was knocked out in an afternoon. It would have cost us thousands of dollars to pay someone to clean up. The church did for free and the news media showed up and began to ask the question. They could not understand why a group of people would be so passionate about cleaning up this campus so that we could come together to worship Jesus on Sunday. It was a demonstration of the church being the church in regardless of the sacrifice, regardless of what it cost us, we were going to serve and to love one another. It's a beautiful picture of the gospel and it's powerful. Another statement that really clarifies the church's role is this. The gospel is most visible when the body of Christ loves and serves the world. You see, it's not only powerful when we love and serve one another and we say, look, we've been changed and so our priorities are different. We'll serve each other as the body of Christ. It's also powerful when we love and serve the world. One of my favorite verses in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says this, "We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Also saw this principle fleshed out right here in our church about a month ago. We got a phone call from the Clark County Fire Department. One of their captains had passed away and they were looking for a venue to hold his memorial service. So I got the text message and really didn't think a whole lot about it. We do a lot of funerals here, but I got a follow up phone call from a member of the Fire Department who said, "No, this is going to be a pretty big deal. We're expecting between 1,000 to 1,200 people. The majority of the Fire Department in Las Vegas is going to be a part of this service." So we began to work through details over the weekend and on Wednesday, I was in a meeting. It was kind of our final detail meeting and all the people who were going to be involved in the funeral were there. Now for a typical funeral, that's about three people. In this case, it was about 15 people and we're talking through the procession from Maryland and the fire trucks and the bagpipes and all the stuff that's going into this thing. And I said, "Guys, I want you to know something." On the day of this service, when you walk on our campus, Hope Church is going to be the greatest host that you've ever seen. Our people are going to serve and love the Clark County Fire Department and their families like no one ever has before. And they said, "Well, we appreciate that." So the day of the funeral came and we went through everything and it was smooth and we transitioned from here to the graveside service. And after that was over, one of the members of the Fire Department walked up to me and said, "Travis, I know you. Read that statement the other day about you guys loving us and serving us like no one ever had before." He said, "When you said it, I didn't believe you." He goes, "But I want you to know I've never seen people in such a humble way seek to love and serve this Fire Department." And I had another member of the Fire Department who actually goes to our church and he works there. He said, "Travis, you have no idea the credibility I now have at my job when I bring up my church." He says, "Because when they think about Hope, they think about people who are willing to love and serve them regardless of what it takes." Listen, that's the church being the church and it is a demonstration of the life-changing gospel of Jesus. Those stories are great and I'm so proud to be a part of a church that lives that out but I want to challenge you and then we're going to have a few moments to respond. The flood was a tragedy. The funeral was a tragedy and tragedies come and go but we are called to be a church that doesn't just respond to tragedy. We're called to be a church that responds to opportunity and in a city like Las Vegas, there is opportunity all around us for us to demonstrate the gospel by the way that we love and serve one another and to make the gospel visible by the way we love and serve the world. May we be a church that takes that serious and may God use hope, this body of believers and us as individuals to make the gospel known among the peoples of the earth. I started by asking you the question, have you ever been overwhelmed by the mission? I believe the gospel is even more overwhelming than the mission and Paul closes this passage with a powerful phrase that reiterates that. He says the mystery is this, Christ in you, the hope of glory. If the nations are going to come to know Christ, if our country is going to be brought to a relationship with God, if our city is going to be changed by the gospel, it will be a result of Jesus Christ working through us to accomplish His purposes. God desires for all nations to be redeemed through a love relationship with Jesus and He's inviting us to play a role in that. [BLANK_AUDIO]