The Church is | Cause: Soldiers On Mission.

Alright, Week number 2 in our new space. Thanks for all the feedback from last week. I thinks this goes without saying, but we are aware and I hope you are too that we’re still tweaking this space. The sound system still needs some tuning and adjustments. We plan to and are working on acoustic treatments to help with some of the echoing you’re hearing. A projector mount needs firmed up a bit more to lessen the wiggles.

We are aware of many tweaks that need to made and we’re working on it. Please continue to bare with us as we work to dial in our new space! And again, thank you for your generosity and grace throughout this whole process!

I do have one piece of disappointing news for you all this morning, I don’t have any dad jokes for you! You’re welcome!

If you’ll remember, we’re taking a bit of time here to step out of our study in the book of Romans to refocus and remember what it means to be the Church.

As we’ve been saying, seasons of change and major shifts in life, like renovating a Church building and moving to a new worship space, seasons of change and major shifts in life can tempt us to forget who we are and what we’re supposed to be and so we’ve taken the last 2 Sundays to remind ourselves what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ.

We’ve looked at the Church as a community, it’s a family that cares. We’ve looked at the Church as a corporation: it’s a body designed and organized by God to function well and this morning we’ll conclude our series by looking at the last metaphor together; the Church as a Cause: It’s a army with Soldiers On a Mission.

Now I’m not sure exactly what kind of imagery this last metaphor conjures up for you in your minds, but for me, this image of soldiers hosting a flag for their country kind bubbles to the top of my mind.

When I think of the cause and mission of the Church, I think of “taking the hill,” so to speak! And in that same vein, the Bible, in Matthew 5:14 it tells us that the Church is meant to be “the light of the world — a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden!”

The Church is meant to take the hill and then set up a lighthouse at the top of that hill giving off light for the rest of the world to see!

And in that same place in Matthew 5 just before Jesus explains the Church as being light for the world and a city on a hill, He also says that the Church is meant to be salt in this world! Much like salt enhances flavor, God’s Church is meant to make the good gifts in this world even more enjoyable. We are meant to show people that the only way to enjoy the good gifts of this life and not become enslaved to the pursuit of them, is to know the good Giver who stands behind them!

Along with that, just as salt is a preservative, God’s Church is meant to preserve the ways of God throughout His world so that His glory and goodness is more clearly seen in and through us. Our way of life in Jesus is meant to hold back the darkness and put forth a better way to human to our lost and hurting world! We are meant to be salty!

You see, this world has a lot of ideas about what’s wrong and how it should be fixed, but the Bible teaches us that God’s local Church is His answer to what ails our world!

The Church of Jesus Christ is God’s “plan A” to save the world. The hope of any and every community is the local Church within that community. There are lost people all around us and the Church exists to storm the gates of hell and take back what was lost! We must take the hill and reclaim what was taken! The Church exists to seek and save. It exists to be light in the darkness. It exists to be salt throughout the earth. It exists to help the lost get found and the found get free!

This is the Cause and the mission of Christ’s Church. There is a battle to be won, armor that needs to be worn, an enemy that needs to be fought and prisoners who need to be set free.

Now as I was searching for a text to look at that might help us highlight the Church as a Cause, soldiers with a mission, I thought about looking at Ephesians 6, where we are told of the Spiritual battle that we’ve been enlisted to fight. And we could learn some great things there. Ephesians 6 tells us who we’re meant to fight, and contrary to what we usually think, we aren’t called to fight each other. Our fight is not against democrats or republicans. It’s not against communists or capitalists. It’s not against our boss or our employees. It’s not against the law or our relatives! Our fight is not with our neighbor across the street! No, in Ephesians 6 Paul tells us that our fight within God’s Church and the world is not against flesh and blood!

And we would do well to remember this Church. When that neighbor or our mom or dad or our boss or that political part does or says something completely idiotic again and we want to take up arms against them, we would do well to remember who it is that God has called us to fight as soldiers in his army! It ain’t flesh and blood! No Church! Our fight is a spiritual one against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

When people can’t or won’t see the light of the gospel and you want to smack ‘em! Or you get the urge to duck tape a long stick on the end of your Bible so you can swing it harder and club people more effectively with it, we would all do well to remember that our fight is not against flesh and blood! It’s against the prince of this world. Our fight is against Satan.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (NLT)

3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Ephesians 6 tells us who we are really fighting and it’s not our fellow man! Ours is a spiritual battle and therefore we would do well to suit up! To put on armor of God! We put on the belt of truth and root ourselves to God’s Word. We strap on the kevlar vest of God’s righteousness which protects us against the accusations that come at us from the enemy. We tie around our feet the shoes of peace! Many Christians are alarmists. They look out at the world as if surprised to see a world controlled by Satan in chaos and crumbling. Rather than wearing the shoes of God’s peace, they wear the shoes of fear, anxiety and retreat! Ephesians tells us the shoes of God’s soldiers are ones of peace!

Ephesians also tells us to grab the shield of faith, that again we hold up to protect us from the fiery darts and accusations and condemnation that will fly our way sent by the enemy!

Along with that we put over our head, a helmet of salvation that protects and renews our minds and we take up our weapon, the sword of God’s truth by which we slay the spiritual giants of deception and sin in our world! And lastly we learn to pray, to pray like our lives and our mission in this world depends upon it, because, it does!

Now I could have taken you here to Ephesians 6 and we could spend the rest of our time talking more about who we are fighting and the armor we’re supposed to be wearing.

I could also take you to Christ’s commissioning of his army in Matthew 28 where we get our marching orders. There Jesus says, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

There’s a lot to be said about this section of scripture as well! Jesus gives us the mission and promises go with us out into the battle field! What a glorious truth!

I could talk at length from both of these passages, but as I read and studied and prayed this week, I felt that we needed to expand the scope of our cause a bit beyond just pure evangelism this morning!

It’s not wrong to say that the cause for the Church is to proclaim the gospel to the world!

Christ created this group, His Church, he enlisted soldiers into this army to take the hill and set up a lighthouse at the top of that hill to give light off to the world!

That’s true! We are absolutely meant to find the lost and tell them about Jesus, that He loves them and He died for them and He has made away for all of us sinful people to be reconciled to the God of Heaven in relationship! Yes and Amen!

Tell them about Jesus! Sing of His praises. Proclaim His name from the mountain tops! Speak Jesus over your family, over your co-workers, over your city! Yes and Amen! Jesus is the answer and we are called to proclaim Him and His good news to any and everyone who will listen, but Church, lets not forget that we are called to proclaim Him not just in word but also in our works!

It’s not just about what we learn to say. It matters how we live and what we display to our community and world!

You see, when we start talking in terms of battle and of war, if we’re not careful the cloud of war can take over and fear can creep in, and before we know it, we’ve stooped to the level of our enemy! Rather than looking like our father, who is good and kind and slow to anger and patient, we begin to look more like the prince of this world who is riddled with fear, angry, grumpy, deceptive and manipulative!

And so we needed to remember who we fight yes and we should study Ephesians 6. We also need to know the weapons we should use and armor we should wear.

But along with that we need to remember how God has called us to fight! We speak Jesus in word yes and Amen, but we also speak Jesus with how we live!

And along with that we must always remember that this ultimately is never completely up to our words or our works! But rather God is the one who opens blind eyes!

Which brings us to 1 Cor. 9:19-27

Here Paul tells us his strategy to win the war we’ve been enlisted into. Simply put, he seeks to blend into his culture in a winsome way, while still following and striving to look like Jesus, so that he may make great the name of Jesus and win as many people as possible to Jesus!

He says that he made it his life's sole purpose and focus to display the blessings of the Gospel!

And he says that he took great care to make sure his own life, looked like what he preached to others so that after preaching he didn’t discover that he himself was disqualified from the rewards promised to those who believe and promote the good news of Jesus!

Look at it with me:

1 Corinthians 9:19–27 (NLT)

19 Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. 20 When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. 22 When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. 23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. 24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

You’ll notice that soldier language is not used in this passage, but athlete language is, and if you ask me soldiers and athletes share very similar mindsets! Each are driven by a mission, to win, to achieve victory either in battle or competition and once won the rewards and spoils of war are dolled out. And just as soldiers, athletes live by a singular goal and driving passion and as with soldiers there are rules to how you can compete and fight!

You see, no on likes an athlete who is so full of themselves! The athletes we are drawn to are those who are humble and grateful. We’ve all heard the post game press conferences where athletes throw their teammates under the bus or they wine and complain about the refs or accuse the other team of cheating. We’ve heard the post-game press conferences where they boast and brag about carrying the team on their shoulders as if they themselves did it all by themselves. In pride and hubris they carry about how great they are and how they’re taking their talents to this or that team! And they actually may be great, but when we hear athletes boast and brag, whine and complain even if they don’t say anything untrue about their game, we all want to throw up a little bit in our mouths don’t we!

And here’s my point, many of us as Christians, as soldiers in God’s army or as athletes on his team sound like these people. Sure we may say the right words, but how we say them doesn’t win people to Jesus. Many times our works have the opposite effect! Rather than being humble and joy-filled we’re arrogant, fearful and grumpy!!

Folks, we are meant to be light. We are meant to be salt! And we’re meant to be and do those things in a winsome way… we’re meant to be light and be salty in a way that seeks to win — some, to win many to Christ! As Paul says, we are meant to do everything we can to display and share the blessings of the gospel!!

And folks here’s how we do this! We need to broaden our idea of what the mission of the Church of Christ is! It’s not just evangelism!

Evangelism is a fancy word that means proclaiming the gospel. Which is what Jesus told us to go and do. Make disciples! The problem is we’ve shrunk that down to mean that you give people some bible verses and lead them through a prayer to get them saved, or you give them a gospel tract explaining the Romans Road to salvation and that’s it, end of mission!

And while none of those things are wrong, they don’t go far enough!

You see the mission that Christ has given to His Church goes beyond just having gospel conversations! The broad mission of Christ’s Church is to give glory to God! We are called to make great the name of Jesus and there is a whole host of ways to do that, that go beyond just having gospel conversations.

Later in 1 Cor. Paul presses this idea further and commands Church people to do everything they do for the glory of God. He says in 1. cor. 10:31

New Living Translation (Chapter 10)

31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 33 I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. 11:1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

I’m aware that there are some in here who have the gift of evangelism and you thrive on having gospel conversations and seeking to persuade and proclaim the gospel in all kinds of settings! And I praise God for that! We need evangelists in our Church! God has gifted some with that gift and you should use it! But as we looked at last week, although we are all equal in value in God’s corporation, we all are gifted in different ways and function differently. Not everyone in here is gifted at having evangelistic conversation or doing evangelistic missions where you go and give out tracts or whatever! And you need not feel less than for that!

My sister-in-law shared with me some years ago, that she had lived most of her life feeling guilty at the end of the day if she didn’t tell anyone about Jesus, until she realized that she could glorify God by just doing a really great job at her work and being kind to people and trying to display the blessings of knowing Jesus in her interactions with others!

Church, God wants this for you! He doesn’t want you crushed by some idea that unless you specifically tell someone about Jesus during your day, He’s upset with you! He’s not! All He asks is that we keep a look out for opportunities to proclaim and display his goodness to our world!

Sometimes that will require you to speak up and proclaim Jesus. Eventually Jesus will need to be proclaimed because people won’t just magically connect the dots, but if we’re living with Jesus and sharing in the blessings of knowing Jesus, Peter tells us that eventually people will ask what the reason is for the hope that we have. And sometimes they might not ask, but God will open the door for us to proclaim it anyway!

The Church is a Cause, folks. We are soldiers in God’s army meant to storm the gates of hell and set up a lighthouse on a hill that displays the glory and light of Christ to our world! This should be the focus of our lives! But we must always remember that how we go about this mission matters and much as the mission itself! Jesus set the example and we would do well to follow in His footsteps.

Which brings me to my last point. We won’t get this right if we think that salvation, finding and freeing the lost, depends up us! God has a mission for us to do, but the real work of saving souls, that’s more His work than ours!

There is a verse in 2 Timothy that has sort of become my life verse over the years, It’s 2 Timothy 2:23-26 and there Paul tells us what we should look like as soldiers or servants in our King’s army:

2 Timothy 2:23–26

23 Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. 24 A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. 25 Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. 26 Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

There is a battle to be won folks, but you and I can’t win it by ourselves. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has and Jesus will! As we work to make that good news known, how we “fight” matters! We shouldn’t be alarmists or argumentative. Neither should we be impatient with difficult people. Gentleness should characterize our interactions and kindness as we instruct those who oppose the truth. And as we go about taking the hill for Jesus, carrying His light into our world, we would do well to remember, that God is the only one who can grant repentance. He is the one who finds people. He is the one who frees people. We simply need to be about the work of knowing Him personally so that his blessings freely flow through us. Our work then is simply to share what He gives and introduce others to Him!

The Church is a cause! You and I have a mission! Your life exists to make great the name of Jesus! And we have the privilege of sharing in His work, because of His grace, which he displayed for us upon the cross!

Which brings us to a time of communion.

Jesus left us a great reminder of who He is and who is really in charge of this army!

1 Cor. 11:23-26

“On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.”

As we partake of communion today, let us rejoice and celebrate the victory we already have because of Christ death and resurrection. Let us proclaim it to the spiritual realms, that they are defeated and nothing and no one will separate us from the love of God in Christ and nothing and no one, not even the very gates of hell will be able to stand against the glory of our good King or His return! As we wait for that glorious day, let us also celebrate the work that’s been giving to us and let us pray together that God would make us all things to all people so that we might win as many as possible to Jesus!

And in just a moment I’m going to pray and then the band is going to play and I’ll invite you to partake of the Lord’s table with me. As you can see we’ve placed several tables through our worship space this morning. When you ready to receive of the elements, if you have a personal relationship with Jesus, we’d invite you to head to one of those tables and take the elements with you back to your seat. Once there you can take as much time as you would like to pray and reflect and then take of the bread and the cup at your discretion.

Now let’s pray!