The Church - Practicing what we believe Part 1

Over these last weeks we have been busy with a series on the church that we have subtitled, “Designed for impact.” The interesting thing about the church is that we are community of the gathered and sent and we need to embrace both.

So, in order for that to be true, we are being called to practice what we believe. We believe God sent His Son into the world and He lived a perfect life, went to the cross and died a death that paid the penalty for our sin, He was buried and on the third day He rose again and then ascened into heaven and He will return and take those who have believed in Him home to be with Him for eternity.

A question we need to constantly ask is, “Is that reality being practised by us?”

As a church we want to know what we believe, but also articulate how what we believe is practiced. We have referred to this as our values - an expression of what we believe. Things that we want to hold on to. Things that make us distinct.

The first thing I wants to highlight is that we are to keep the Gospel central in all we do. To help us in this, I want to take you to John 4 where we read of Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well.

John 4:1-26

Jesus is tired, and it’s hot because he has walked far - about 70km’s. And here He meets this lady, and His rest is disrtupted.

The truth is, most of us hate disruption.

When you plan to be at church on time and you want to worship God but you have a fight with your spouse or kids.

When we are on our way to church and we get to our car and see a flat tyre - that’s a disruption.

When, on the way to church we encounter a police roadblock and we have left our driving licence at home - that’s a disruption.

You have planned your week when the boss calls us in for an unexpected meeting and give you more work - that’s a disruption.

We hve planned a holiday and a loved one dies - that’s a disruption.

When you plan a rest but someone in need shows up

Disruptions shake our plans and expectations and cause unexpected and sometimes radical change that remind us that we are not really in control.

But The Gospel disrupts - that’s a Gospel reality. The Gospel is the good news that God saves! The Gospel disrupts positively and that’s why we want to keep it central as a church.

A Gospel disruption is both a reminder and an invitation.

It reminds us of how we can’t tame God but He is working!

It’s an invitation to work with God where He is working!

We expect the Gospel/Christian life to be tame, but that’s because we have tried to tame it. In reality the Christian life is wild. Maybe this chaos and tension we are feeling in adjusting here in this new space is for us to be freshly reminded of the need to create a space for the mission of God to be alive in us.

Sometimes our problem is that we have been Christian’s for so long that we have created the space of comfort and we need the Gospel to freshly disrupt our lives.

Here’s what we discover about the Gospel.

1. It is the Gospel of inclusive grace

It’s noon and this woman is coming to collect water and she was not prepared for this disruptive encounter. Most people, when they meet the real Jesus, are not.

i. She is a SAMARITAN - the Samaritans and Jews were known to be in constant conflict. Strict Jews would not have even started a conversation like Jesus did. Essentially they were viewed to have compromised through religious and ethnic compromise .

ii. She’s a Samitan WOMAN. Probably already a second class citizen.

iii. She’s a Samaritan woman who is an OUTCAST. It’s noon - She wanted to avoid others as we was probably an outcast in her own community. She was probably a bit of a suspect background

But here at this well, she meets Jesus.

Jesus sees her as a broken image bearer in need of grace and mercy. Jesus would drink from her cup to help her see that He redeems and restores, He satisfies.

It’s disruptive because it breaks into areas where we, because of our sophistication, don’t want to meet God. The people we pass, Jesus stops for, He touches and He loves. We need to be more like Jesus.

2. It is the Gospel of disruptive grace

“If you just new the gift being offered and who you are speaking to, you would have asked and he would have given you living water.”

Jesus Is in the business of transforming people. Offers healing from brokeness and radically altering the course of their lives.

But so many people can’t believe that God will love them and He will save them. They live with shame, they live believing God must hate them.

This isn’t a temporary offer but one that is lasting.

3. It is the Gospel of illuminating grace

3.1. She can’t see her need

She is like so many of us. There is a deep thirst that we are trying to quench, but everything she has looked to to satisfy her spiritual thirst has ended without being satisfied.

The nature of sin. It blinds us to our own lostness.

The challenge of saving ourselves - we all look for ways that this thirst can we quenched.

Our longing for belonging

Our wrestling with matters of our identity - where do I find worth.

Our struggle with shame - what can I do to hide

Our struggle for happiness and where we go to find joy

The wrestling of the cravings of the flesh is a small picture of the larger wrestling of the human heart.

She loves the idea of not being thirsty now, but Jesus has something better for us. But first, she must see her real need.

3.2. Jesus helps her see her real need

He tells her to go get her husband. She says she doesn’t have one and he says that she’s right because she’s had 5 and the one she is with now is not her husband.

That kind of revelation is enough to freak us all out but Jesus, in this moment, is revealing that He is the One who is able to bring about everything that He has promised.

God uses radical revelations to show us our need for Him.

Crisis - our worlds are shattered and fear drives us because we discover that what we have trusted in for so long is lost so quickly.

Difficulty -

Failure -

Shame - it cripples us.

All this is helping us see our own hearts. Our weakness. All these attempts just reveal her real need is not for a relationship, or acceptance, it’s to know Him and God has made that possible.

Doesn’t that sound like King Solomon’s journey in Ecclesiastes?

4. The Gospel of satisfying grace

John 4:14 CSB

14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

Jesus says that if you drink the water He gives you will never thirst again.

Do you believe this?

Jesus isn’t speaking about actual water, but His life that He lays down. In John 3 we are shown that those who put their hope and trust in Jesus HAVE eternal life.

John 3:36 CSB

36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

That thirst for things of this world to satisfy are erdicated and we find life in Him.

4.1. Maybe you have forgotten this and need to remind yourself of God’s disruptive grace

4.2. Maybe you haven’t embarce this because the peace you have sought through your efforts have left you feeling hopeless.

4.3. Church, this need to remain central. God’s will is that His wanter will spring up in us and will be the source of eternal life for us and tose we encounter in the world around us.

The Bible speak of a peace that defies understanding. It speak of joy that is known in all the chaos of life. He alone satisfies!

Psalm 103:1–5 CSB

1 My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. 3 He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. 4 He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. 5 He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle.