Sermon Tone Analysis

Missional Church

Last week we heard a great presentation and testimony of the need to reach the unreached people for Christ.

Pastor Tejano gave a presentation about the region of the world that has not been reached by the gospel.

Matthew 24:

Pastor Ramon, do you mean that we all have to pack our bags and go to Turkey, or Egypt?

That not what we are encouraging everyone to do.

During World War 2.. America joined late in the war, although millions joined the war against Nazi Germany, almost 90% of Americans stayed home,, didn’t live lives detached from what was happening in Europe.

It wasn’t life or business as usual, those who stayed here, mostly the women left their normal lives and worked in factories building weapons, tanks and airplanes to be deployed in the war..

Image of planes being built here

Image of tanks

Image of weapons

There was unity of purpose for a common mission.

That’s what the church should look like, we have to be joined in one heart towards missions..

Vision School starts on March 23.

Vision School starts on March 23 - who has so far signed up?

I encourage those who

Vision School is a program where you will be awakened to the reality of God’s purpose and heart for His people and all nations.

The weekly lectures will impart the Father’s heart for the unreached people group and open students’ eyes to what God is and has been doing all over the world to advance His Kingdom

“Missional”

The word Missional has become a buzz word.

We talk of becoming a missional church.

We want to be a church that sends out people to other parts of the world, we are a church that supports missionaries and church plants financially.

We call our church a missional church by what we do in countries like the Philippines and Mexico.

There is a problem though, calling ourselves a Missional church connotes that..

Problem with the phrase being a “missional” church:

Being missional is only a characteristic of the church.

Being missional is only an option of the church.

Missions are but a program of the church

Let me submit to you this morning that being missional is not a characteristic, nor is it an option, nor is it tied to a program given to the church of Jesus Christ..

Being Missional is God’s Vision for the Church.

Which means that if a church is not or ceases to be missional it stops living the vision of God, that it may remain to be gathering of people, it can still be an organization but if the church is not missional it actually is no longer a church.

Here is the right definition of the church.

Church is the gathering of the people of God living the Vision of God.

The original church of Jesus Christ during the apostolic age was missional, they had a strong love for the lost, and they had a strong witness for Jesus.

The church was marching on, they were excited about not only reaching the world for Jesus but they thought Jesus was coming very soon as they continue to proclaim the gospel because after all,Jesus said, that the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.. which means Jesus is gonna come.

What happened to the church?

What happened to its testimony?

Just two verses before these words of Jesus from , we read:

Matthew

There were already signs in the Bible of the church losing its first love..

If Jesus was going to write us a love letter today, giving us a review of how Crosswind is doing, what will we read in that letter?

Actually Jesus sent a letter out to the seven churches...

This was Jesus, He told John to write a love letter to the church at Ephesus.

Do you notice something different with how He started the letter?

Who did He address?

The angel of the church...

Some say the angel of the church is the pastor of the church..

What is an angel?

common ideas..

But an angel is a messenger..

The angel is the personification of the message of the church.

;

We have to go back to chapter 1 of Revelation:

The church exists to hold the light of the Gospel up high for all the world to see.

John had a vision...

Pictur

Revelation 1:20

The angels are the personification of the message or the witness of the church.

Picture of the seven golden lampstands here.

The church exists to hold the light of the Gospel up high for all the world to see.

Jesus had praises for the church..

What it means.. (what people think and why it’s not that)..

It’s not that you have less love for Jesus - it says you have totally lost..

On the other hand, it does not say you have lost your love for ME.. - they still did all these works..

Jesus isn’t saying “you’ve stopped loving me.”

He’s saying “you’ve stopped loving the lost.”

You are no longer holding the light of the message of Jesus for the world to see

Your witness has lowered, the mission of the church has become a mere program and then in the end the church had totally fallen..

Jesus said repent, and do the works you did at first, if not I will come to remove your lampstand from its place..

Jesus said repent, and do the works you did at first, if not I will come to remove your lampstand from its place..

What does it mean?

Remember what the lampstand symbolizes?

The lampstand is the church.. you have ceased being the church..

Does it mean that if the church lost its witness then the church spirals and starts dying?

That is not what I am saying.

What I get from this is that if the church totally lost its witness it is already dead.

Jesus isn’t saying “you’ve stopped loving me.”

He’s saying “you’ve stopped loving the lost.”

May this never be an indictment to our church.

Works of the Nicolaitans - some say they taught the church to commit immoral acts,, some say they believed they were about having a select group of people dominating the church - it is the precursor to the rise of the clergy..

Church that had kept or regained its doctrinal purity, teaching about grace..but had lost its purpose.

What about our discipleship program?

We need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, we have to be equipped, to what end?

We need to be equipped for the work of ministry, we need to have a strong witness

What happened?

//Maybe they had become more afraid of losing their purity than their purpose.//

Maybe they had just forgotten why Jesus had left them in the world.

The message of the gospel..

We have been given a mandate to reach the unreached, it could be in your place of work,,

Being missional is not what we do.

It is who we are.