Saving Mission of Jesus Christ

(SLIDE) We are so blessed here in Burlington by the Lord our God through Jesus Christ our Savior and the moving of the Holy Spirit within us and among us. The Christmas program with the Pritchard children, Serina and Jack Steele joining us from Union City with the mixture of songs was a collaboration of Julie, Bob, Nancy, Tom, Jess, Joe. The decorating of the sanctuary and the church involved others. Last Sunday was not something that one person, unless we want to say that one person was the Holy Spirit, created.

It was this church family, working together, to lift up the Lord and recognize the beginning of God choosing to lower Himself to our level. That the relationship between God the creator, and we, His creation, that had been lost in the Garden of Eden when the tempter first deceived Adam and Eve. When pain, suffering, hardship, and evil were introduced to the world. (SLIDE) As we wrap up the year 2023 let’s briefly review this journey, we started together a few months ago.

We first began to learn about each other back in September, when a necessary but unexpected change began as the Lord desired. Javon Lue and Chance Adams who are on staff at First Church of God in St. Joe and I shared messages of hope which comes from faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe that God exists. A good starting point that even science supports. At meal and a message Wednesday night we were blessed to have John Parks share from Revelation and how the science of astronomy, the study of the planets and stars actually aligns with the word of God, who created them in the first place. (SLIDE) Dr. Frank Turek, creator of crossexamined.org and Christian theologian and philosopher Norman Geisler wrote the book I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist, with this quote “Either someone created something out of nothing (The Christian View), or no one created something out of nothing (The Atheistic View). As I’ve sung before, “nothing from nothing leaves nothing, you gotta have a creator, if you want a human being.

(SLIDE) We’ve talked about how we can believe in the Bible. That as far as historical documents go, there is nothing that archeology or any other science has found that contradicts the bible. We have, today, copies of some Hebrew scriptures going back 3,000 years ago. (SLIDE) The entire book of Isaiah, which in part predicts the birth of Christ, the Messiah, copied by scribes 2700 years ago. Not different from what we can read today. (SLIDE) When it comes to the New Testament, we have over 66,000 copies of the letters that were written not by John, Paul, Ringo and George, the Beatles didn’t right any hymns that I’m aware of either. Written by John, Paul, Matthew Mark, Luke. James and Jude, brothers of Jesus of Nazareth.

They weren’t writing the bible when sharing their testimony with small communities and families, Jewish and Gentile alike. The bible didn’t exist for another 300 years. They were testifying to what they had seen, what Jesus said, and did. As Paul writes to Timothy. (SLIDE) 2 Timothy 3:16–17 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

(SLIDE) We discussed how the entire bible, beginning with Genesis all the through Revelation is about the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that has existed since He created the Universe and everything in it. Since He created the earth and gave dominion over everything on the earth to Adam and Eve, unfortunately like many children who get new toys over Christmas, they broke it before too long because they didn’t listen to their father.

(SLIDE) Now of course I know all of us were perfectly obedient children growing up and always did what our parents told us, right? Yea, not likely. It’s like when you meet someone show says to you, oh I only tell the truth, I never lie. You just did. That seed of rebellion has existed in humanity ever since the fall from grace. But that doesn’t change the fact the Kingdom of God is not some far off distant thing that happens when Christ returns. The Kingdom of God is here and now. All around us.

Here, whether in the church or watching online, we are all believers in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. If that’s not true, or you have any uncertainty about that, let’s talk. We are servants to the King. Too often we have misconceptions about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That can be because of the conditions we see around us, in our families, our community, our country and the world. There are some who have a hard time believing in a loving God because of all the bloodshed and violence in the Hebrew bible. But remember who, temporarily has control of the world once Adam and Eve handed the keys to this earth over to the enemy of God?

(SLIDE) God’s nature is the exact opposite of what too many in this world believe because they haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, allowing the Holy Spirit to work within them to know Him intimately. Remember our conversation about God’s nature? God’s nature isn’t something using large theological terms. He’s personal. He’s intimate. And He loves you. He loves all of us more than we can every fully comprehend. But the testimony of Moses in Exodus 34:6-7.

(SLIDE) 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

(SLIDE) The Hebrew word often translated “love”, Hesed, is “wrapping up in itself all the positive attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty–in short, acts of devotion and loving-kindness that go beyond the requirements of duty,” the love in action that surrounds us when we receive love we don’t deserve. The Hebrew word for mercy (רחם, racham, רחום, rachum) shares the same three-letter root for “womb” (רחם; rechem) meaning that God’s divine protection of us is as a baby in the mother’s womb.

(SLIDE) God’s Nature is: Merciful, Gracious, Slow to Anger, Abounding in Steadfast Love and Faithfulness, Keeping Steadfast Love, and Forgiving Transgression & Sin. Of course, God’s ways are higher than our ways. Amen? Even Paul confesses in Romans that he is not always able to walk as Christ calls us to. (SLIDE) Romans 7:15-24 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Now that doesn’t mean that once we have been saved by God’s Grace and Mercy through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can go on pursuing sin. Freedom in Christ is not an excuse for continuing to live as we did prior to welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives and becoming children of the Most-High God. (SLIDE) Rather, Romans 7:25-8:4 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

(SLIDE) We spent two Sundays talking specifically about Salvation. You remember the rich young ruler, a young man, religious leader asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life? I’m going to paraphrase Jesus here, whose response in the broader sense was, give up, get rid of, sell, anything, anything that you value more than you love the Lord God, and follow me.

(SLIDE) We also talked about Paul’s journeys, and while in prison with Silas as they were singing songs of praise and worship to the Lord the walls came down, and the prison guard and his entire family became followers of “the way, the truth, and the life,” that very night. What must I do to be saved? Are we, here in Burlington, prepared to answer that question if someone asks us? Do we know how to share the gospel. Not just the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the eyewitness testimony of Jesus birth, life, teaching, healing, death, and resurrection, but the gospel of how God moved to bring salvation in our lives, in your life, through Christ the risen savior, the living God?

Paul, in trying to help his fellow Jews understand that salvation doesn’t come from our sacrifices on an altar, or by good works alone. He gives us a clear description in Romans 10. (SLIDE) Romans 10:8-13

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (SLIDE) 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Of course, here Paul is saying there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, but as we are all God’s children, created in the image of God, we could easily say (SLIDE) there is no distinction between black and white, brown, or yellow. Between woman and man. Between rich and poor, for the same Lord is Lord of all. James the brother of Jesus tells gives this command. (SLIDE) James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (SLIDE) Or from the book of Isaiah 1:16-18 16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. 18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

(SLIDE) In the few short months, we’ve been together I believe we’ve started a new tradition when we take communion on the 1st Sunday of every month and special gatherings. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus” Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world said John the Baptist. We’ll take communion next Sunday. 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”

The disciple whom Jesus loved. John, begins his testimony about Jesus of Nazareth like this. (SLIDE) John 1:1-5 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

It is not difficult to understand how God, the creator of the heavens and the universe, having mercy upon His creation would send Christ Jesus to teach us and to then become the sacrifice of atonement for our sins. 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”

(SLIDE) If we church, are serious about doing the will of God. In our lives, in our community, our region, in this building. Then all of us, not just me as your pastor, but all of us need to be keeping God’s word, God’s son, the Holy Spirit in our hearts, our minds, and in how we speak and treat others. In our sermon series about what we believe as the Church of God, the movement currently based out of Anderson, Indiana. What we believe as individuals, and as a congregation in Burlington the subject today was the saving mission of Jesus. But every sermon you ever hear from me, or better said as the word of the Lord being shared and taught through me, is about the mission of Jesus of Nazareth.

The parable Jesus tells of the Good Sheperd as testified to by Matthew 18, Luke 15, and John 10 is this. (SLIDE) John 10:9-11 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

I didn’t pull up a lot of Hebrew or Greek words today for this conversation. On purpose. But let’s be clear about this passage together, in agreement? The thief represents not only the enemy, but like the rich young ruler, anything in our lives that robs us of our rightful place in relationship with the God who created us in the first place. The Greek word kleptes (klep'-tace) is only translated as theif but it means steeling in secret, not by violence. The tempter will put any manner of distractions in our way to keep us from spending time with the Lord, worshiping the Lord, listening to the Lord, serving God’s children as He’s called us to, and having the capacity to love others, instead of despising or hating those who are different from us.

There are certainly false prophets and teachers, who would use this verse of Jesus Christ giving life abundantly in some twisted theology. The prosperity gospel, and that’s gospel with a small g because while every good gift comes from above, from the Lord God, there is nowhere in the bible that God promises us a mansion on earth, or financial prosperity.

Jesus said just the opposite. In this world you will have trouble. But Christ did promise that he has prepared a room for us in His heavenly mansion. If it were not so I would have told you. The word for prosper or prosperity in Greek is completely different than what we read in John. It’s euporeo (yoo-por-eh'-o). The Greek word in this testimony of Jesus translated as abundance in John 10 is is perissos (per-is-sos') which can be translated as excessive, exceedingly, and greater than.

It's really very simple to understand, that the abundant life which comes from knowing Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior comes like a flood at times, and like a still running beautiful quiet stream at other times. What must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to be saved? Our lives become abundant the moment we accept Jesus Christ, confessing Him as Lord with our mouths and believe God raised Him from the dead and we receive the gift of eternal life. Not because of our own works, but because of the Son of God chose to become the Son of Man and gave His life as an atonement for the sins of all mankind.

Then abundance comes in how, as the Holy Spirit moves we are able to seek His face, to hear His voice, to walk in peace and joy no matter what the earthly circumstances are around us. God’s abundance comes when He moves through us to meet the needs of those around us, as He has prepared in advance for us to do.

(SLIDE) The mission of Jesus Christ was so that He being fully God, and fully man, could restore humanity to the relationship our creator had intended from the beginning of creation. And He finished that mission when by the Power of the Holy Spirit He rose from the grave. The enemy may have power over this earth until Christ’s return, but the enemy of our God should no longer have control over us. Amen?

(SLIDE) Then Jesus extended the mission that God had given Him to us. To all of us Matthew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

(SLIDE) That is the mission He has given us. The question as we begin a new year, is what are we prepared to do to fulfill the mission God has given to Burlington. Each of us has part to play, in fulfilling God’s mission for Burlington Church of God. In restoring others, family members, neighbors, our greater community to a relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Related Media

Related Sermons