Lighthouse Church Durban

The Goal and the Journey

The end goal of the Kingdom of God is a wedding in heaven! It is to see the church, the Bride of Christ, a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language, ready for this wedding.

So we need to get ourselves ready - and to help others to get ready. Getting ready is a journey of transformation, becoming more and more like Jesus. Jesus called this journey being his disciple - and called helping others on their journey disciple-making.

If we can gain a clear, Biblical understanding of this goal and journey, we will live with greater purpose, direction and effectiveness.

Philippians 3:12-14, Revelation 7:9-10 & 19:6-9, 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Matthew 28:18-20

Broadcast on:: 05 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hello everyone, welcome to the Lighthouse Church sermon broadcast. The title of today's message is "The Goal and the Journey". The Apostle Paul had a truly amazing ministry. He impacted many lives, many places, many churches. In a letter to one of those churches, he shared something of his thinking about life, purpose and ministry. I believe that this perspective can really help us, both in our thinking and our living. So let's read Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 to 14. I'll read all texts from the new international version. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me Heavenwood in Christ Jesus. Paul had a clear vision for his life, a clear sense of purpose, a clear goal. Because of this, he had a powerful motivation to arrive at his goal. He was straining toward what is ahead. To borrow from Rick Warren, he had a purpose-driven life. In contrast to Paul, many of us don't have that same clarity of vision. We only have a vague idea of our purpose. So we only have a vague sense of direction. And we're not that powerfully motivated. In the story, Alison Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, the main character Alice finds herself in a very different world. And in this world, she seeks direction from a talking cat that she meets. And that conversation carries a very powerful message. Listen as I read some of it. Alice, would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to go. I don't care much where, then it doesn't matter which way you go. So long as I get somewhere, oh you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough. When we have a clear goal, we know where we want to get to. This gives us a sense of direction, a sense of purpose. Paul knew where he wanted to get to. And this helped him to stay focused in his ministry. This motivated him to keep going towards the goal. I think many of us as Christians have a sincere desire to move forward. We really do want to please Jesus. But we may not always have a clear idea of exactly where we want to get to. So today, we will look to the Bible to find a clearer answer to that question. Where do we want to get to? What is the goal? The Book of Revelation gives us a wonderful vision of the goal. Revelation chapter 7 from verse 9. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." And then Revelation chapter 19 from verse 6. "Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peels of thunder shouting, 'Hallelujah, for the Lord God Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, for the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Find linen bright and clean was given her to wear. Bracket, find linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people." Here we see the goal, the glorious end of the age. There will be a great wedding between Jesus, the Lamb of God, and his bride, the church, God's holy people. Here we see that the bride has made herself ready. She is wearing fine linen bright and clean, which stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people. And we see that the bride is made up of a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language. Friends, this is where we want to get to, to the wedding supper of the Lamb. This is the goal. That means that we want to get ourselves ready for that wedding. We want to be wearing that fine linen bright and clean that we read about. We want to be part of God's holy people, that great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language. This was Paul's vision, and it wasn't just for himself, it was for the whole church, the bride of Christ. Listen to him writing to the church and Corinth, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 from verse 2. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Friends, the goal is greater than just you and I. It is for the whole church, it is for all whom the Lord will call from every tongue, tribe, and nation. The goal is for that whole church to be ready for the wedding, pure and devoted to Jesus. Okay, so that's the goal. But how do we know if we are moving towards it? We won't really know unless we know what a person who is ready looks like. And Paul gives us a picture of such a person, Romans chapter 8 and verse 29. For those God for knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. The person who is ready resembles Jesus. We are no longer that broken, sudden slave person that we used to be. We elect Jesus, this is the goal. Now, I really wish that we were completely transformed. In an instant, that moment we put our faith in Jesus. But our transformation into his image is a process. It's a journey. As we follow Jesus, we grow in our devotion to him. We grow in our righteousness. We become more and more like him. Well, describe this journey of ongoing transformation as a journey of ever-increasing glory. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. So the goal is for all of us to get to the wedding feast ready for the bridegroom. That journey towards the goal is a journey of transformation. As we follow Jesus and grow in our relationship with him. It's a journey of seeing more and more of his glory, of getting to know him better and better. It's a journey of being transformed by the Holy Spirit, becoming more and more like Jesus. I love it that Paul likened this journey to running a marathon. I think that's such a helpful picture. The starting line is salvation and the finish line is the wedding. I say all of this to help us to develop a clearer vision of what matters most. There are so many good things that we can do. There are so many things that we should do. But the most important thing is getting everyone to the wedding ready for Jesus. A clear vision of this end goal gives us a clearer sense of our purpose or mission. For ourselves we want to grow more devoted, more righteous, more like Jesus. For others we want to help them to go on the same journey that we are on. The biblical word for this is discipleship. The biblical word for helping others on this journey is disciple making. And these texts that we have read help us to get a clearer view of what that really looks like. What does a disciple look like who is getting ready? Well a disciple is someone who is in a growing relationship with Jesus, who is seeing more and more of his glory, who is growing and loving devotion to him. And becoming more and more like him. It's important that we remember Jesus' commission to every disciple, Matthew 28 from verse 18. Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." So if you are a disciple of Jesus then you are commissioned to go and make disciples, to help others to begin their journey and to keep going on their journey to get to the goal. And friends, the second part is so important. The moment that we put our faith in Jesus is probably the most defining moment in our lives. But that moment is just the beginning. Conversion, initially putting our faith in Jesus, that's not the end goal. It's the beginning of the journey towards it. Conversion is like that moment when the starting gun fires and the marathon begins. We really do need to see and to celebrate those profound moments of conversion. But we can't stop there. This is the beginning of the race, not the end. If we stop, if we settle for merely making converts, forgive me if this sounds a bit crude, but it's a little bit like having a baby, rejoicing in the child's birth and then walking away, abandoning the baby and leaving them to work out life on their own. We know that there's much more to parenting than just making babies. We have to raise them into adulthood and it's the same with making disciples. Let me try to draw a little word picture of this journey to the goal, to a kind of a map. The start line is salvation. That moment when we believe in Jesus and decide to follow him, the finish line is glory, the wedding feast, where we have made ourselves ready for eternity with Jesus. And then between those two points is the track or the journey. The journey between the start and finish lines. And that brings us discipleship. It's the journey of maturing into spiritual adulthood, becoming more and more like Jesus. Disciple making is where we help others to start and to keep going on that same journey. Let's let this map give us a clear sense of purpose, direction and progress. Our first goal is to personally get ourselves to that finish line, to the wedding feast. So we can look at our lives and say, am I heading in the right direction towards the goal? Or am I getting sidetracked? We can also measure our progress. Am I closer to the goal? Am I knowing Jesus better? Am I more devoted to him? Am I becoming more like Jesus? Then our second goal is to help others to get to the finish line. We can look at people who we spend time with and ask, am I helping them to know Jesus better? Am I helping them to become more like Jesus? Can I see changes in their lives? I truly trust that this will help all of us to have a clear sense of our goal and to walk our journey with the greatest sense of purpose. May we all develop a clear sense of that goal and that journey so that we live with a greater sense of purpose, a clearer sense of direction and press on towards the finish line. Amen.