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Acts 1:1–11 ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

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Grab your bibles and turn to

PRAYER

I think it’s fitting on the last Sunday in our Larger Than Life series to walk through Jesus vision of the church. and how the early church saw themselves.

Now if you have been here awhile, you will have heard this—but as we all know vision leaks.

We just naturally get into patterns and side missions, and continually need to re-orient ourselves to the words and mission of Jesus.

And of course it is not my vision in reality it is the church as Christ proclaimed it to be that I would like relate to you this morning,

And if you are just checking out the church, than this will be good for you to listen in.

If you are a Christ-follower and have possibly been a church-goer for a long time, perhaps I can take this opportunity to widen your perspective of what church is.

What we have been driving home is that the church is not a building .

I’m not sure what you think of when you hear the word church.

Jesus never once thought of His church as a building of people meeting together.

It always dangerous when we us words without knowing their meaning.

My wife is very good at challenging me on the kinds of language I use from the pulpit. - saying” What do you mean when you use that?’

See I grew up in church singing a Mighty Fortress is Our God a bulwark never failing”

You know a bulwark?

What is a mighty a mighty throng anyway?

Words are important, and if we don’t know the meaning of the words we use we can fail to grasp meaning.

(MAD GAB)

Earlier this week the leaders of the Port were playing Mad Gab.

If you’ve never played mad gab here is how it works-

One team looks at cards that look like this and try to guess what the card is trying to say.

(MAD GAB#2)

These words put together and make no sense.

But the game works best when we all speak with confidence what we see before us, until it starts to make sense.

And it is at that point you start to get the most enjoyment out of the game.

At times, what happens in the game is that someone will say so clearly what the answer is, but have not idea that they’ve done it, and continue to look with a blank face.

A few points during our game, we flipped cards for the other team because they said the words so clearly they must know what it is says; only to find out that Jon was actually saying the

The Towel-less Cowboys

Sometimes they will say it with such conviction that

The Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys

He said it with what appeared to be conviction, I assumed that we were all on the same page and tried to move on.

So here is the danger in church.

Often we can use the same words when we say church- sounds right, almost always seems to work contextually in conversation.

But if we press pause, we begin to see that we use the word church in a way that would have made absolutely no sense to first century believers.

And can cause frustration in the church if we are thinking 32 or 3 different things when we say church.

We go to church on Sunday’s

At the church

At my church

The word that we use for church does not come the New Testament. In fact it comes from the German “kirche” which actually means the “Lord's house”.

And it is not even need to be the Lord that we worship. It can simply mean Lord lower-case L.

It means the place a geographical location where worship takes place and finds its roots more in the old testament idea of Temple worship than it does with what Jesus established among his followers.

So ultimately our idea of church often revolves around the idea of a building or a time. but whenever you read the word church in the New Testament you never see a word that refers to a building. A piece of real estate. A geographical location.

What you will see in the Greek is the word ecclesia which means a gathering, a group, a community with common purpose

And I don't think that that is just worthy of a footnote. I think that is an important thing to keep in mind. Because I think we can get very attached to a building. We can set aside a building in our mind that we come to once a week or possibly 2 or 3 times a week and consider it the church.

But First century believers would not have a concept anywhere close to that. And I think our theology can get pretty confused when we see the church as a building.

We can be confined in our thinking, and definitely in our ministries, our worship, our evangelism.

And I think we can glean some important characteristics of what ecclesia, of what our church ought to look like and what my vision is for The Port.

In order to do that...

We need understand that the 1st century church understood itself as a movement.

And as a wise man once said movements moves.

No one pays to see a huddle.

There was no concept of taking your faith and huddling together quietly.

Move!

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Please stand out of respect for God’s word.

18And 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.”

First of all, no one has more right to have authority over your life than Jesus does.

There is no argument that anyone can come up with to commission and frame your behavior that is not trumped by Jesus--who died and rose again and has all authority on earth and heaven.

And in his authority, in his power what has he asked the disciples and you and I to do?

Go into the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have taught you.

Movements move---->go into all the world

Luke restates this in Acts Chapter 1 verse 8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” V. 8

Loosely translated, Jesus is saying--Reach your community--reach the surrounding community, reach those you can't stand, and keep going.

Now, what’s interesting is that we can get in the mindset of thinking that we need to send missionaries out and we’ve done our part!!

As if your neighbour doesn’t need Jesus!

And Jon walked us through some stuff last week to challenge us in that area

Movements move!

So let’s take a look at what this kind of church, this kind of moving, ecclesia, carrying out the great commision looks like, and hone in on a few characteristics.

The church is the ........

We are going to look at the birth of a church.

And then I would like to pull 3 characteristics of the early church which I think are more than simply describing a story, but are actually meant to inform us of how church ought to look.

It’s about 50AD and Paul is on what scholars call his second missionary journey. He is going back to visit churches that he has already planted with a guy named Barnabas, and he is going back to visit them as well as to plant some new ones (because movements move!!)

And so He sets out with a guy named Silas, and they hook up with Timothy to the north and they are on their way. About half way through their trip, that probably took them about 2.5 years of “planes, trains, and automobiles” and some shady Super 8 motels, they come to a town called Troas.

While they are in Troas Paul has a vision.

A vision of a man in Macedonia, (a few days boat ride away from where Paul was) to come to Macedonia and help them (v.9)

Immediately, it says!! V10

At once!!

There is an urgency here that I don’t think we are overly familiar with.

“concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them!” (v10)

Notice that Paul’s conclusion is not that Macedonia needs programs, positive influence, needs a helping hand. They don’t need a building built so that people will come to them. That might come someday, but right now immediately...

They need the gospel.

Does society need all those other things? Yes, of course. But they are the outflow of the gospel.

Ultimately, as Paul would say over and over, the Gospel is of first importance, because the news of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection changes everything.

So Paul immediately makes his way to Macedonia and to the most influential city of Macedonia; Philippi.

v 12 tells us that it was the leading city. The city of influence and a Roman colony. That meant it was the disperser of Roman culture, thought, and religion. They were not thought of as small outposts on the frontier where the hicks lived, who were ignorant and less than the civilized cities of Rome and Athens and Corinth. If a town was given the title of “Roman Colony”, it mean that citizens in that city were as Roman as those who lived in Rome itself.

Togas and all!!

They were given the same rights and were meant to live, dress, eat, follow the same customs, speak the same language and worship like those who lived in the centre of the Empire.

It is to this city that Paul goes to immediately!

And what we witness in Philippi is the birth of a church.

3 separate episodes of people of drastically different backgrounds coming to Jesus for salvation.

First, we have Lydia V 13-15

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

(she wouldn’t take no for an answer)

OK so hold that in your mid. Just press pause on Lydia for a second. File that.

Now we look at a girl from the other side of the tracks.

A slave girl.

vv 16-24

OK so we have Lydia a wealthy trader of purple cloth.

We have a poor orphaned slave girl who had been paraded around like a circus freak because of her demon possession. By some evil men.

Two drastically different women, brought together through the gospel.

So, hold onto those 2 images, those 2 conversion stories and lets move onto the last one.

vv. 25-34 The Roman Jailer

skip to v 40

3 drastically different episodes, about 3 different people, who gather together to make up the church in Philippi.

So I want us to notice a few characteristics here. And I believe that each one cascades into the next. Each characteristic brings about the next.

And the first thing I want us to notice today is that the early church was fueled by the great commission. To go into all the world and make disciples, everything else was second.

I. Continuation of Jesus Work

One of the reasons the Christian life is so boring is because we have carved out an extremely boring idea of Christianity and limited our faith to religious practise and following rules.

That is not what Jesus was inviting us into.

Notice what Luke writes in verse 1.

Acts 1:1 ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,

BEGAN to DO

What does that mean?

It means he was not done!!

That all we read in the Gospel of Luke was just the beginning!

And that all of the book of Acts was what he continued to do....through the church!

And what is fantastic is that the end of this book of Acts where Luke writes what Jesus continued to do through his church; his ecclesia, it doesn’t really end.

It just says a few words about Paul’s living conditions; but it is an open ending, because it simply talks about the beginning of the movement of the church which is still being written!

And you are staring in it.

So what is this mission; what is it that we have been invited into as the church.

Bumper stickers? Christian education? hunkering down and holding on until Jesus comes?

No!

What was Jesus mission?

Luke knows, he recorded it in

Luke 4:16–21 ESV

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

I’ll take that over what any settle for when they think of Christianity.

That is transformative.

That is a mission!!

You say…yeah, but he has the Spirit of God!!!

What does Luke record Jesus saying in our text today....

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:

power for what?

witnesses to what?

being able to restrain from alcohol? Being able to stand up for a Christian worldview when the world pursues darkness!!

Absolutely!!!!! But more!!

Witnesses to what?

the fact that sin is destructive but following God brings blessing. sure!

But more than anything that because of the cross, and

to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

that those living in darkness have seen a great light

So with Jesus invitation to continue what he established and began we cannot look at church with a Kevin Costner method of church growth!!

When we are striving here to see people come to Jesus and then follow Him into the waters of baptism it is not a CAC thing. It is not a religion thing, it is not a bullet on the Church’s list of do’s. But is also not something for your bucket list; something you should get done before you die (although many leave it long enough for that).

Belief and baptism were the 2Bs before we had the 3B: Bibles, Buildings, and bands

There was a sense of immediacy to getting the Gospel out and to see people follow Jesus.

And if anyone had excuses, if there were people who could put off baptism it was the early church—their excuse would be I don’t want to lose my job, I don’t want to lose my family, I don’t want to lose my head.

There was an urgency that we see throughout Acts that the Gospel needs to get out to the world! And if we are in we are all in!!

Many churches and church attenders are happy to live under the delusion of the Kevin Costner method of church growth!!

If you build it they will come!

That is not biblical and historically it has never been effective!

We are called and invited to go out like those in the parable of the wedding feast inviting everyone in.

To go out and work in the vineyard.

It is all out focused, as Jon was saying to us last week.

We are invited into the continuation of Jesus work.

Man, when we get that church takes on a whole new meaning, gathering together is not about what Brad gets out of it. It is about the ecclesia meeting encouraging, worshipping the God and saviour for whom they live every day of the the week.

The Church is...

II. Powered by the Spirit

The church historically has not been built on the model of setting up church and waiting.

Of training ourselves just enough to be able to invite people to a church building so that the professionals can reach them for Jesus.

The gospel takes that hierarchy away.

In -- Jesus tells His disciples “you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you--and that is what will give you the ability and the strength to be witnesses for the sake of the gospel.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

That means you!!

Jesus said “go”

it is an aggressive call to take the message out, not simply convince the outside to come in!

PAUSE

Now should Sunday morning at The Port be a place where non- Christians can hear the gospel, pray and make life altering decisions to meet Jesus? It BETTER BE!!

But we are all equipped, and called to minister wherever we are.

The harvest is plenty and the workers are few, Jesus says in

And thats no surprise if the eclessia forgets it is alive and thinks of itself as church waiting to trap people inside so that they can meet Jesus.

PAUSE

And I don’t think churches should be all about numbers

but I think you would be hard pressed to find a healthy living thing that doesn’t grow!!

I think a vibrant church full of people who understand themselves to be the Holy Spirit indwelt empowered ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, calling out to the world “Be reconciled to God” children of the most high God who have bought into the life altering, game changing, gospel of Jesus Christ, will see growth!!

PAUSE

And when we have that mindset, fueled by the Great Commission, we will see roses up here that are not here only because of kidz church, Ethos, Catalyst, ALL AWESOME!!! And we want that to continue. But that is limited.

because we also want to see them from staff rooms, and high school cafeterias, Chapters and SuperStores, over backyard fences.

We will see sellers of purple cloth and slaves and jailers come into the kingdom.

SO, The community of Jesus needs to be fueled by the great commission.

And when it is, I believe it will be a community with unity of purpose.

The church in Philippi was diverse, but they were one body.

II.The Church ought to display unity of purpose

ethnically, our interests, the things that tempt us,

but when our focus is on Christ and on being the community He has called to, we realise all that we have in common;

Look around..there are people in this room that outside of Jesus you probably would never talk to.

And definitely one you probably wouldn’t listen to.

The reason that we can all hang out together even though we are different, even though we are economically different, even though we may be politically different, even though we are even possibly theologically different, is that we are not simply looking at each other we are looking into each other as those who have been made in God's image. We are seeing who we are in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The eclessia unified in purpose to go into all the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

PAUSE

37 years ago this The Mariner Campus was started because of vision-- formed by the Great Commission of Jesus in ---that Coquitlam needed Jesus.

The Port was set up as another CAC campus 3 years ago, because we believe the the Tri-Cities like the Macedonian vision is in need of Jesus.

The driving force behind Paul’s work in every church He planted; His aim in every town was to push forward the Gospel..

His goal was to make disciples who make disciples, etc, etc.

And when we lose that vision, we become what one writer calls a cul-de sac on the road to the great commission.!!

We get caught up in music style.

churches get caught up in paint colours

We critique programs, we talk about how much needs changing, we talk about all sorts of things that have nothing to do with getting the gospel to our neighborhood.

And often it is those who are all caught up in how things ought to change

that don't even know the name of their neighbor.

We need to stop getting caught up in the cul de sac and get on the road to the great commission God is making his his message known and is speaking through His eclessia.

And the way we produce unity is by being fueled by the Great Commission. When our focus is on drawing people to Jesus. When our focus is on getting the gospel out to those who need Jesus to those who are aliens to the gospel, it's hard to get caught up with paint colors, music styles, and gossip. With silly side projects.

Our mission is too important to get side-tracked; Souls are at stake!!

Jesus gives us a description of the character of the church in 16:13-20

Matthew 16:13–19 ESV

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus give the disciples the image of a “Spirit empowered” force to be reckoned with. Not because of our power, but because of his. And it is a gospel of grace and forgiveness, but it is a force to be reckoned with.

Now often this is interpreted to mean that when Hell, when evil attacks, the church the ecclesia will be able to get by. When the ecclesia is being ambushed by evil, we will be able to withstand it. So hold on tight because as the evil forces come upon you wave after wave ultimately the Church will be ok!!

Again I think that comes from the idea that we hunker down at a location and hold on!!

I think that is reading this text backward.

I’ve never seen an army attacked armed with gates!! That seems like the least scary weapon ever!!

Where do you find gates in the ancient world?

at the entrance to a city!

In ancient times Hades, the kingdom of death was seen as a gated fortress where evil resided.

Who is being attacked here!!!???

Hades, death!!

We need to stop seeing the church as those who need to retreat!!

That’s why Paul can sing in the midst of prison. It is all just a set back!

Laughing at Rome’s attempts to squelch the Gospel.

Paul knows that if its not him, its gonna be someone else.

Death has lost its sting and has no ultimate victory!!

Because the gates of hell will not prevail!

We need to begin to see the ecclesia as the force of the Kingdom of God bringing redemption to our schools, society, work-places, homes.

Because not only will the church not be defeated it will take ground because ultimately we are armed with the gospel which has removed the power of death.

To the glory of God!!

Not in our power. THANKS GOODNESS!!

You and I cannot be the source of power for the Great Commission, for the eclessia.

When we look at Jesus description of the church it corrects many of our common misconceptions of church and our mission.

Years ago, when I was doing music, we were invited into a massive youth event in Portland. a couple thousand kids.

And one of the event was this massive water fight on a football field.

(GIANT WATER FIGHT)

And it was like nothing i had ever seen before or since.

There were chariots- pushed by one person with a water cannon

Giant 3 person sling shots that could fire water balloons the length of the field.

There were huge hoses set up from water tanks firing huge amounts of water.

They had water grenades that when you tossed them they hit the ground and spun around getting the people around them wet.

they had huge blockades to hide behind

I received a hand held pistol.

(SMALL GUN)

you know with the little cheap piece of plastic on the back that you would hold open and fill it up under the tap.

I was completely out gunned and scared as hundred of water balloons reined down on my team, being propelled by these massive throwers.

PAUSE

I think many Christians look at the church that way- completely outgunned, virtually unarmed as the world hurls it worldview and assumptions; and in some cases very real persecution.

If we could just find somewhere to hide. Some sort of barricade ourselves and wait it out.

Literlly

That is not how Jesus describes it, but that is also what we often settle for.

Even those who encountered the church n the move in Acts called Christ followers”Those who turned the world upside down.

If you or I were asked what took place on the cross most of us would rightly say that our sins were paid for. Our relationship with a holy God made possible because Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, gave his life freely in our place. Completely orthodox. Correct!!

But there is so much more!!

The cross began a revolution against evil in the world and you and I, the church gets to continue the revolution. The greatest cou of all time!

Most Western Christians have been taught that Jesus died so that they could escape the results of sin and go to heaven after they die. The New Testament, however, regularly speaks of Jesus’ death as the defeat of the powers of evil that have kept the world in captivity, with the implication that the world is actually going to change as a result—through the life and work and witness of those who believe this good news....... [it] began at Easter and, in the power of the Spirit, has continued ever since.

And the gates of hell shall not prevail.

When we forget that, we get derailed. And faith is a moral program not a life giving movement;

PAUSE

We are too concerned with bigger and better things than to get caught up and distracted from being the church!

There is nothing more detrimental to the impact of the church on the world, than side missions. Causing divisions. Based on our pride rather than a love for Christ and His Church, and for the lost.

Well, we all know what Tuesday is....Right?

the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation. Which is misleading as the reformation was in the works before and had alot of work to do afterward, and we are still working on it.

And Jesus said that the world would know who we are because of our love for one another.

But it was October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the Wittenberg Wall

(Martin Luther)

Martin Luther an outspoken lecturer and Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted a list of objections to the dominant Roman Catholic beliefs and practices of his time. Chief among his grievances was the church's claim that Christians could buy their way out of punishment for sin — and thus shorten their time in purgatory — by purchasing a letter of "indulgence" from their local parish. In practice, much of the money went into the pockets of corrupt local princes.

And I have sat in homes and listened to people talk about people in their church with such distaste!!

He took issue with the fact that is was Christ who had the power to forgive.

Now how does the church become everything that Martin Luther was aiming to battle with.

selling salvation/ setting aside the power of the cross

How are we supposed to love the world when we can’t show love to our brothers and sisters!

By limiting what the church forgetting that in the church we have a revolutionary movement, empowered by the Holy spirit to proclaim peace and acceptance

CONCLUSION:

PAUSE

So dream with me....

The church ought to display unity in purpose.. for the sake of the Gospel.

Now what does it look like when the church sees itself as a revolutionary movement, continuing the work of Jesus in creation; the work of redemption, empowered by God to do it,

compared to the church that sees itself as a community of likeminded people- living in a land that disagrees with their worldview holding on until he comes.

compared to the church that sees itself as a community of likeminded people- living in a land that disagrees with their worldview holding on until he comes.

And we see from the church in Philippi that the church (as a result of the Gospel) ought to be generous.

Doesn’t the first bring purpose while the second becomes a chore? stagnant? Tiring?

Doesn’t the first give us a purpose and framework for life in a way that the second couldn’t.

The first bring value and reason and hope and joy in a way the second never could.

And what of the Christian- the Christ-follower, who is striving to read her Bible because that is what Jesus would want; and trying to make good moral decisions because that is what a Christian does

Compared to the Christian who sees themselves as having been welcomed into the family of God, and in relationship with their creator, seeking to redeem creation, make wrong right, bringing sight to the blind, proclaiming the Lord’s favour!!

A few months back there were two episodes that just broke me.

because generosity was shown to me and my family --when we were really wondering, how are we going to get through this next month.

I won’t mention names, because of that whole humility thing. And when you give don’t let the right hand know what the other hand is doing stuff.

But when I had my knee operated on about 3 months ago-the surgeon basically said this was worse than I anticipated and its gonna take longer than we thought.

More physio, more time to recover etc.

Well it took very little time before meals started showing up at the front door.

and not like kraft dinner-- like 3 course meals with dessert.

Chow mein, fried rice, Shepherds Pie, pasta, it was like we opened a restaurant for international cuisine!

And to be honest it was such a shower of grace, that we couldn’t even keep up.

We kept saying no more!! and apparently they only heard the word more!

Eventually we had to invite our extended family over to help us eat it all.

We were blown away by the generosity of our church.

One of the other things that happened was that after I had reached my limit of what we could afford to pay for physio, I was approached by a young couple in the church who said they wanted to cover the cost.

Again I was blown away by the grace shown to me.

And many of you have experienced similar things.

Generosity.

PAUSE

Notice Lydias response to Paul and Silas was to offer hospitality! (v.15) and she was forceful about it!

The jailers response was to move from a torturer healer. vv34-35

he tended to their wounds and fed them.

By the time Paul and Silas leave Philippi

Lydia has set up church at her house.

So they were generous with their time, their space, and we learn later that they were generous with their finances.

Now when your convictions affect your wallet, you know that you’ve bought in.

Take my time, take my space, take my wife and kids but don’t touch my wallet.

The church in Philippi was financially generous

In --

Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.

They continued to give, because they had bought into the mission of the church. Not simply to see themselves thrive with the Gospel that Paul had entrusted to them, but they wanted to see the eclessia spread!!! They wanted the community to grow in their town and the next.

Thessalonica was just a few cities over and by the time Paul and Silas visited there the people of Philippi were already funding them.

As far as we know Paul didn’t even ask. He didn’t need to campaign. or preach a sermon on it or hint at it in letters.

The gospel fuels generosity. We need to be generous. It is an outflow of the Great Commission. In fact scripture would say that it is fruit that grows out of the gospel that has been implanted in us. No fruit no faith. James says.

Jesus who had all authority in heaven and on earth, himself kneeled down and washed the feet of his followers.

In a world that says, give me what I want now, how I want it and keep it coming until I say stop,

service turns things upside down and transforms cultures

it should be the default of the church.

Paul reminds the Philippians in his letter to them in

Philippians 2:1–4 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. (DONT MAKE CHURCH ABOUT YOU!!) Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. (DONT MAKE CHURCH ABOUT YOU!!) Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Looking not at your own interests, but to the interest and the needs of others.

It might mean serving

-in kids church, so that a mother or father don't have to leave with the fidgeting child everything couple of minutes and actually have an opportunity to worship and listen to a message.

maybe you need to approach Maria and offer your services.

-maybe it means coming to ALPHA so that next time we run it here you can lead it.

- it might mean approaching Amanda Ballard, or Claudio after the service and telling them that you are available to serve in this church. so that the same people are not setting up AND tearing down after the service. So that those who have poured their blood sweat and tears for 3 years can take a week off!!

There is no shortage of opportunity for you to follow Jesus example service.

In fact today I am calling on all those who can help to take 10 minutes after the service to help hand out fliers in the neighbourhood so that this community even knows we are doing ALPHA. All you need to do is go to 8 houses and drop fliers at their door. You don’t have to knock.

all you need to serve is Jesus and feet!!!

So check in with…….after the service.

PAUSE

It is the natural outcropping of people who have bought into the Gospel and want to follow as disciples of Jesus.

Conclusion

500 years tomorrow

the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation. Which is misleading as the reformation was in the works before and had alot of work to do afterward, and we are still working on it.

But it was October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the Wittenberg Wall

Martin Luther an outspoken lecturer and Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted a list of objections to the dominant Roman Catholic beliefs and practices of his time. Chief among his grievances was the church's claim that Christians could buy their way out of punishment for sin — and thus shorten their time in purgatory — by purchasing a letter of "indulgence" from their local parish. In practice, much of the money went into the pockets of corrupt local princes.

At issue to were a handful of practises of the established church that drifted from the church continuing

He took issue with the fact that is was Christ who had the power to forgive.

Now how does the church become everything that Martin Luther was aiming to battle with.

selling salvation/ setting aside the power of the cross

By limiting what the church forgetting that in the church we have a revolutionary movement, empowered by the Holy spirit to proclaim peace and acceptance

PAUSE

The community needs the church, if its that church and not just a symbol taking up space on a map.

If it is a church full of people willing to go to places like Cambodia, or buy into the vision of the church and say like Brad and Jess WE ARE IN!!; we are more than fans we are players in this revolution.

The world needs the gospel. As long as it is more than just an attempt at living better than others. man that will suck the life out of our faith.

There are those are married to their jobs. Seeing life as a simple repetition of days without any real purpose. Their only identity is in their job, and if their job disappears they got nothing left, and life is not worth living. They need Jesus.

People moving from relationship to relationship feeling let down.

There are some coming week after week to church and saying is this all there is?

Because a Christianity that is limited to four walls and good devotional habits will do that!

My invitation for all of us this week is to do some serious searching.

NOT to improve ourselves; but to open up more to how God wants to be at work in us and through us; but that only comes, only becomes interesting; only becomes desirable when we see the beauty of the story we are in; the revolution we are invited to be a player in. You may be the only Jesus in your workplace.

You may be the only Jesus ion you class, your team.

Let the revolution continue; let the proclamation continue!!

proclaiming good news to the poor. liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, liberty to those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

it would have been easy for them to offer their lives over to the cause of the Kingdom.

The cross of Christ was the day it began, you and I continue to life out the defeat that took place that day.

the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation. Which is misleading as the reformation was in the works before and had alot of work to do afterward, and we are still working on it.

Matthew chapter 28 tells us that there were still people doubting!!

Let’s Pray

But it was October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the Wittenberg Wall

Jesus didn’t say to his disciples “The fact that you have seen me resurrected in the flesh will fuel you to take my kingdom to the far reaches of the earth.

Martin Luther an outspoken lecturer and Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted a list of objections to the dominant Roman Catholic beliefs and practices of his time. Chief among his grievances was the church's claim that Christians could buy their way out of punishment for sin — and thus shorten their time in purgatory — by purchasing a letter of "indulgence" from their local parish. In practice, much of the money went into the pockets of corrupt local princes.

Jesus said that he will be with us even to the end of the age. The power of the Spirit evident in the witness of the disciples is still alive and well. And at work in you and hopefully through you,

He took issue with the fact that is was Christ who had the power to forgive.

In . When the Holy Spirit arrives it is not just for comfort, not just for council, but ultimately to empower us as the community of Christ, to reach the world with his gospel, unified in purpose as we focus on Jesus the perfector of our faith, giving our whole selves, sanctifying and setting apart our comfort for his purpose, for His kingdom, and for his glory,

Now how does the church become everything that Martin Luther was aiming to battle with.

with hearts that take the great commission seriously,

selling salvation/ setting aside the power of the cross

with brothers and sister who are too busy pursuing Jesus to get caught up in side issues,

By limiting what the church forgetting that in the church we have a revolutionary movement, empowered by the Holy spirit to proclaim peace and acceptance

who are so overtaken by the Gospel that they are generous with all that God has entrusted to them.

So let us proclaim that the gospel together, in our immediate realm of influence, in our workplaces, when we are hanging out. And here now as His Church, His eclessia, His living breathing moving church in Port Coquitlam as we take communion together.

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What does God want me to think/Understand?

What does God want me to believe?

What does God want me to desire?

What does God want me to do?