Tuesday, June 16, 2009

On Purpose, Pt. 1

June 7, 2009
Ben Jolliffe

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake was died and raised.

From now on, we regard no one from according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him as thus no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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What a great piece of Scripture.
Good morning Connections. What a thrill to be back up here. George couldn’t preach this week, so I will take a swing here.

We are on one of my favourite topics this morning and actually we are just doing part 1 of 2. Next week I will be coming back to finish this topic off.
PAUSE
From 2 Cor 5, we see a description of the mission God has for us as Christians. Paul is breaking down what a Christian life, fully realized looks like. But even before we talk about the implications for our lives, we have to take a step back.

Because any right understanding of the mission God has called us to, as individuals and as a church rightly begins with God and not with us. To start with us is a huge mistake. Because none of us has a clue what is going on. But God, our God, the author, creator, sustainer of our universe has all knowledge grounded in him and in his character.

And when we start with God, we realize this, that we are caught up in a cosmic story stretching back into eternity past, and we are just a little piece. We realize that God has been at work in creation and in history. It shatters a small view of God and His mission. Let me unpack that by briefly summarizing all of history in next few minutes. This is going to be quick.

In eternity past, God purposed in his heart to create the world, to create human beings in his own image, and he did. He created Adam and Eve, our first father and mother, and placed them in paradise. Tragically, they sinned against God, as we all do and because of their sin, death entered the world and men and women and the snake were cursed by God.

But in Gen. 3, we see that buried in the curse was a promise, that some day down the road, though the snake would seek to strike at us and destroy us, a Saviour would come to break the curse, and save humans from their sin.

In the meantime, humanity spiraled downward. People continually invented new ways to do evil, godly people were persecuted, stuff got messed up, it was a bad scene. And eventually God chose one man, Abram, and made a promise, a covenant with him, to make a great nation out of his descendants, and to bless all the peoples of the earth through his family.
God held true to his promise, even as Abram’s descendants grew into a nation in Egypt where they were enslaved and finally freed by God working through Moses.

They came to the promised land of Israel and established a country there, survived through a succession of judges/military leaders, then kings, most of whom were terrible, with a few bright spots. One of the bright spots, was King David, who you may know from such films as Veggie Tales, but was perhaps lesser known as a liar, adulterer, murderer and a man after God’s own heart.

And God loved David, loved him, and promised him that from his line would come the Saviour.

The nation continued to struggle and during this time came prophets, not financial ones, but ones with a ph. Inspired by God and speaking his words, they foretold of a Saviour, where and how he would be born, how he would live, how he would die, loads of distinct specific prophecies that made the doorway so small that it would be impossible for anyone to impersonate the Saviour.

And then all of a sudden, the prophecies stopped, for 400 years, nothing. No word from God, no new prophecies. World powers like Greece, Persia and Rome rise and fall. And then a young teenage girl named Mary is visited by an angel, she is impregnated by the Holy Spirit (which is a great mystery) and gives birth to Jesus, the promised Saviour.

Jesus lives a perfect life, fulfilling all the prophecies, and is eventually tortured, mocked and killed, making atonement, paying for all sin of all time for all people. He rises from the dead, appears to more than 500 people, then ascends to heaven.

And the story really takes off.

The 100 or so people who followed him, all of sudden, at the day of Pentecost are filled by God’s Spirit, they start preaching and proclaiming a risen Saviour. Bam, the first day 3000 new Christians. A little bit later, Rome and the Jewish authorities get nervous, start cracking down, force the Christians from Jerusalem.

The Gospel spreads all over Asia minor, a man named Saul, a famous Jew, is saved by Jesus in a roadside throwdown, he changes his name to Paul and starts preaching the gospel all around the Mediterranean.

By 300 A.D. Despite persecution Christianity is still growing, all of the cities in the Roman Empire are more than 50% Christian.

In the 5th century, St. Patrick goes to Ireland and sees many turn to Christ. As a society, we celebrate his devotion to God and zeal for missions by wearing kiss me I’m Irish t-shirts and drinking green beer until we can no longer stand.

I’m skipping a millenium here for the sake of time, but in the 1500’s, a man named Martin Luther and many of his compatriots like Calvin, Zwingli start the Reformation, returning Christianity to its biblical roots.

In the 1600’s and 1700’s Catholics, Puritans and others begin to establish missions in the New World.

In 1732, the first great Awakening spread across North America, bringing many to Christ.
In 1785, the first church was built in Ontario, in Brantford as an outreach to the Mohawk nation.

In 1844, St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in London Ontario, its first church.
In the 2000’s a group of people began dreaming what a church would like in North London.

And in 2007 George Saylor moved here from the USA and gave leadership to what eventually became Connections Community Church, meeting in the Masonville Movie Theatre.

This is where we find ourselves, 2009, in the scope of History. This is what God has been doing since the beginning. He has been on mission, bringing many to the knowledge of Christ. Out of his love he has been saving many.

And the last book of the Bible, Revelation promises that before the end, every nation and people group on earth will have heard the gospel and that in heaven, it is going to be a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic party with people from all over.

The point of that is that God is in the business of saving people. We have a God who sent himself into history to live and die so that we might be saved. God loved us. He just loved us.

And when we sit back for a second, and think on that it blows your mind. The love of God - 2 Cor 5 says that it controls or compels us. The love that spans millennia, that purposed in eternity past to save you, the love with which Jesus came from heaven, knowing he would suffer and die for the junk in your life. That is the love that controls us.
Not easy-in-easy-out love, not wimpy love, but unconditional, sacrificial, unbelievable, undeniable love. This is the love of God.
And it controls us such that when we look at people, we no longer see them as everyone else sees them.

I recently moved to a street that has quite a diverse population. There are houses of all sizes and the street is ethnically and financially diverse. And the thing that drives me crazy, is that I find myself labeling people without even trying or wanting to. I resist it, but it is there all the same. The guy who doesn’t mow his lawn is lazy, the kid who bikes by screaming at his friend is poorly parented.

The old guy who walks his dog while holding a little baggie of droppings is well...

And this happens everywhere with all of us. We all do it. We all label people.

But we ought to view people differently. The Bible says that when we look at the grand narrative of history, when we look at all God has done, how he arranged things and changed hearts so that the gospel would go from Jerusalem to Asia Minor to Europe to North America to London, and that he arranged it so that I would move onto that street, someone who knows and loves Christ. And when God has done all that so that one person might know him, it takes on a whole new meaning.

That person, that kid, the dog-walker is immensely valuable. Not to mention that they are created in God’s image, they bear his mark. And as my wife reminds me, there is a story behind each person. We cannot know what is going on with them.

And if that is still not enough motivation, check out verse 18.
It says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That means that once God saved you, he saved you not just from sin, Satan and death but he saved you to something.

Are you tracking with me?
Most Christians believe we are saved only from bad stuff. We say a prayer, we believe in Jesus so that we get to go to heaven one day. And in the meantime we try to avoid killing anyone or saying swear words. Right? Wrong.

This passage confirms that we are saved from our sins, but we are saved to a life of mission. You are automatically a missionary. It is not an optional part of the Christian life, it is essential. Because this passage confirms that God has chosen this method, alone. This is how it is going to spread.

Vs. 19 - says that he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.
Vs. 20 - that God is making his appeal through us.
Vs. 20 - we are ambassadors

Spurgeon, a famous English preacher once said, “A Christian is either a missionary or an impostor.”

That means that when that Jesus fish car cuts me off, God is being represented there. Unfortunately I keep trying to convince my wife Jen to take ours off the back of our car…
That means if you neighbour knows you are a Christian, and you treat them like dirt, you are reflecting God.

I was reminded of this when we moved into our new house. There were two signs on the door. One said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The other said, “no peddlers or solicitors allowed.” I laughed to myself, it just seemed contradictory. We serve and love God, but if you are trying to do your job, I don’t want to talk to you, and get off my lawn too.

All of us are missionaries. All of life is mission. And at the risk of being too blunt, if you call yourself a Christian, the only question is: Are you a good missionary or a bad one?

Does your life reflect the character and love of God? Does the way you spend your money (we just spend lots of time on that)? Does your house? Does the way you treat the cashier or the mailman? Does the way you parent your kids?

Because if you a Christian, if you follow Christ, you are automatically inducted into the ranks. Yes, you are saved from sin, but you are also saved to a life on mission with God.

And I know some of you get this, some of you are on track, you are living this out, but I know many of us struggle with this. To live it out for real.
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And as far as I can tell, there are two great enemies of evangelism and mission: Pride, Selfishness.

And both are misunderstandings of the gospel. See, the gospel says is that you are more sinful than you ever thought, but you are more loved and forgiven than you ever dared hope because of Christ.

But pride or self-righteousness has the attitude that there are two kinds of people in the world, good people and bad people. We need to be a good person and avoid and look down upon bad people. But the gospel says there is only one kind of person, sinful people. Romans 3 confirms that all are sinful, all of us have fallen short.

There are not two kinds of people, them and us. There is only us. We are shipwrecked, we are all busted up.

1 Cor 4:11 says this, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast about it as if you did not receive it”

The only reason any of us can grow and develop and become more loving is because of Jesus and what he did.

He is the only perfect one. If life were a Western movie, he would be wearing the white hat and the rest of us would all have black hats. We are outlaws by nature and choice.

And for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the new transformers film this June, think of it this way. You are all decepticons. You are all on the bad team, you are a rebel. Only Jesus is perfect

And if you look down at other people because of their lifestyle or sin, or if you refuse to associate with them then you are acting and living in self-righteousness. You have little or no understanding of God’s love and mercy towards you. You think you have pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and now you have the ability to look down at others from your elevated position.

Remember the words of 2 Cor 5, that once we are Christians, we regard no one according to our old nature. The world may say that they are dirty, or annoying or hard to get along with, but you need to say, so once was I.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are there certain kinds of people I look down upon or judge?
2. Do I refuse to engage with non-Christian people in my life?
3. How do my neighbours think of me?

The other sin we often commit is selfishness. this is where I think many of us including me, are. I tend to be selfish with my time, my energy, my money. It is not that I do not have the desire to love and serve and share Christ with people, it is just that I never get around to it.

It is hard, awkward, time-consuming. It is hard to know where to start.

And if I were to bet, I think this is where most of you are mired. You can’t get past yourself. Your desires are good, your intentions too, but you never get into action.

You can call it apathy, or fear or discomfort, but at the heart is that you will not go outside your comfort zone to engage with people who don’t know God. You tell yourself that at work, you should be about work and never engage with people on a spiritual level. You tell yourself that at home, you want to give people privacy, not bother them.

You don’t want to be the weird Christian guy. Can I just say that out loud? That many of us are held back because we don’t want to be that guy… with the t-shirts and pithy quotes and a lawn mowed in the shape of a fish. You are scared of being that guy. No one wants to become Ned Flanders, I think… No one aspires to be annoying.



But no matter what it is that holds you back, apathy, fear, whatever, it is selfish.

This sort of lifestyle is in contradiction to the gospel. God came to earth, lived and died a painful, horrific death so that you might live, and you take that to yourself and ignore God’s words about living your life as a sacrifice. Your life is focused around your own comfort not about God and his glory.

And if no one has ever challenged you on this, let me. You need to grow up in your faith, quit living for yourself and start living for God. You need to start doing hard things, things that hurt, that cost you.

Listen to me - There is no glory, no courage, no legacy, in wimping out your whole life. Is that the sort of legacy you want to leave your kids and grandkids, that you got by and were pretty comfortable? That on your tombstone they write, “she never bothered anyone.” That is a tragedy.

If you have a view that you can be a missionary and not suffer pain, you are sadly mistaken. Jesus promised us that following him would involve a cross, for you. It will always involve dying to yourself.

I used to think that I could find a way to engage with people on a real level and be cool at the same time. That theory is now shot. Because ‘cool’ people in our society are laid back, stand-offish, unengaged. To be cool is to not care. And if you want to ask people about where they are at in their view of God, or if you want to know what is really going on, then you have to put yourself out there and possibly get rejected. And that can look not cool.

The truth is that you will never act until you care about someone or something more than you care about yourself.

And my prayer for myself, and for you, if you are tracking with me on this issue, that one day by the grace and mercy of God, you will care about other people more than you care about yourself.

In summary, Christ has called us to a life of mission. He himself set the example as the first, and perfect missionary. Coming to us to save us. And we follow in his example in going out to our workplaces and our neighbourhoods, and our families, as missionaries. Spreading the gospel of Christ.

Maybe today, you are not even a Christian, you are simply checking things out. Thank you for coming. I am really glad you are here. Please know that Jesus loves you and that he gave himself for you.

For those of you who are wrestling with this issue, we are going to go deeper next week. We are going to discuss what it might look like for us to engage as a church and as individuals with this issue.

And we all need to engage, because George cannot carry the load. George cannot go to work with you, he cannot talk to your friends. You go to your work, you talk to your friends, that is the way it has to be.

But I want to be super practical and give you something to chew on before next week.

For those of you who desire to be missionaries, here are some starter questions to think through. And the easiest way to do this is to imagine yourself moving across the globe to a new country, a new city, a new neighbourhood and imagining how you would be a missionary there, then applying the same principles to your life here.

What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
How would you approach employment?
What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
What would you spend your time doing?
What would your prayers be like?
What would you try to do with your new friends?

I cannot give you the answers and the truth is that I don’t have them. I can’t lay out for you what it is going to look like in your life, because it will look different from mine.

One thing you can do immediately, is start praying. Pray for anyone you know who does not know Christ. Start small.

And pray for us too, if you remember. We are trying to teach Christian university students how to be missionaries and it is a tough environment. They get beat up on a lot by the culture. Pray for them that they would love God and stick it out. The university is the best place and one of the hardest places to be a missionary.

Thank you for having me, I would like to pray for you.

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