Church planting exists because a Corporate Gospel witness does not.
Notes
Transcript
John Piper once quoted, “Missions exist because worship does not”. I’d like to modify that a bit and say.
“Church planting exists because a Corporate Gospel witness does not.”
In other words outreach, missions & evangelism are all facets that an existing church is supposed to be doing to the unreached or unchurched areas that God may be worshipped among all people but it takes a whole new church plant, a whole new body to establish a Corporate Gospel witness in that new community .
We as Christians should have a deep passion to see God’s people stepping out of their comfort zones , that the Gospel may be witnessed corporately through His people, through church plants. I have a yearning for that, a deep passion to see men and their families equipped ,ready to do battle. We all need to be burdened for this.
Jesus said to his disciples,
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.”
Making disciples is the prerogative of the church. It simply isn’t enough telling others about your testimony.Many already know Jesus as the God of the Christians but they have no idea about his divinity, why he came as a man , what he has done and is continually doing in our lives without a faithful Corporate Gospel witness of it.
On a recent family trip, I was able to briefly share the Gospel to a receptionist at a hotel, he then exclaimed to me , that all our rooms have Bibles but now I know this message. I wanted to give him a Bible in his language but he expressed that he didn’t have an interest in reading in general. Which is when I thought to myself, if only there was a church in the area, a Corporate Church body that is a witness in the area.
The apostles set us an example by sacrificing so much for the establishment of God’s church within indigenous communities where the Gospel had not gone before and we must do likewise. And so this afternoon I want to challenge us with 3 points on why Discipleship, and specifically on why a Corporate Gospel witness is necessary?
1 .Corporate Gospel Witness is necessary to show our deep concern.
Before the Great commission, Jesus had taught about the depravity of man(Mark 7:20-23; John 8:34),of how short we have fallen from God’s standards, he showed them why repentance is needed, and He also demonstrated to His disciples who he is by his many miracles, and by the authority with which He taught.
Only later did Jesus send them out, to those who were in need after they have been cared for , and after they have observed and learnt from Him. None of this happened overnight, it took time for his disciples to be equipped, for them to gain the knowledge they needed to receive before they could be sent out for the ministry.
Jesus clearly demonstrated to us that Discipleship is intentional, he had a deep concern for his disciples , one in which there was closely knit group that had accountability, who were opened to rebuke & correction and a sense of belonging to one another. Jesus did life with his disciples, they broke bread together, they went through life’s trying circumstances, opposition , and even differences among each other.
And so we need to do likewise, to cultivate a culture of Discipleship & Fellowship. One in which there is a deep rooted commitment to one another, where there is a deep rooted concern , especially for the lost. There needs to be a great sense of heaviness and continual sorrow in our hearts for the lost.
We see this in the life of Paul as well who writes to the people in Rome...
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Paul had the same spirit that Queen Esther had, when she said, “How can I endure to see the destruction of my people?” (Esther 8:6). Paul like Jesus had a deep anguish in his heart for his people in Rome, so much so that he wished he were accursed if his kinsmen could be saved instead. Paul in other words is saying, “I’d be willing to go to hell if it would mean that the Jews could be saved.” He had a desire, a burning, yearning, passionate, pleading desire to see his people come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The question is, do we have that same concern? If so , don’t you need other Christians? Don’t you need a body of Christians to establish a Corporate Gospel witness among people? Don't you need that same passion that was there in the early church to see people of other communities come to God?
How little heaviness of heart there is in our churches today! The thing that breaks my heart is that our people are not broken enough for the lost, to take risks for the development of the Church. Ask yourself ,do you have that deep rooted concern to make much of Jesus and to make disciples? Is it something that’s on your mind constantly to make Jesus known or is it an after thought?
2. A Corporate Gospel Witness is necessary to demonstrate to our “Oneness”, that we are “One body” !
If you are a Christian, the Gospel will transform you from the inside out to produce a tangible Gospel witness around you. The culture then in our church should be such, that it embraces the beauty of belonging to one another.
You know, whether it is the armed forces or a prestigious university, a Sports team or any organization , there is this strong connection to a storied heritage that is essential in building leaders for the future, a sense of belonging.
The believer in Christ is adopted into the family of God as a son, as a daughter. This is no illustration, but is reality: “All those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:14–15) . This not only reveals the intimacy of belonging to God’s household, but also reminds us that God’s people are legal members in the family of God and, therefore, coheirs with Christ. This truth should never cease to amaze us. The local church that develops leaders does so as a father or mother would invest in a child. We are not producing minions, or even legions of soldiers for the Kingdom of God. Rather, we as local churches are training the family.
2 Cor 5:17-20, Paul writes to the Corinthians that we are a new creation through the reconciliation that comes from Christ and he has entrusted us with this message of reconciliation as we are now “ambassadors for Christ”. And so the local church is to make leaders, this is our family business.
This family business can be built up or destroyed by our understanding and the language we use to define biblical terms such as “Gospel”, “Salvation”, “Scripture”, “Discipleship”, “Missions”, “Church”, etc. These terms can mean a variety of things to different people. And so for us to have any success in producing a healthy Gospel witness, it is all the more important that we are speaking one same language with the same definitions based on the context of Scripture as it is layed out for us.
The main problem in our churches today is that most do not have a clear , wholistic understanding of the Gospel itself, most define it to what fits their agenda. The Gospel is not a message that “you can have your best life now”; that “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”; or that you must “ask Jesus into your heart.” Some of these statements may be true if qualified properly, but none of them is the gospel. The Gospel is Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done and accomplished on the cross. If we are not preaching that, we are not preaching the gospel at all.
Society attempts to highlight the best in mankind by making much of human capacity. From Nike (“Just do it”) to The Home Depot (“you can do it, we can help”), society’s message is that mankind can find greatness by looking inside themselves. This kind of thinking has invaded the Church. Leaders within Christian circles can be found encouraging people to believe in themselves and to hone their willpower to claim what they desire out of life (with God’s blessing of course). No doubt humanity is capable of being used for miraculous things, but the way to access this power is actually a mysterious paradox.
The irony to the Gospel , is that the Gospel message is as much a message of us ‘dying to ourselves’ as it is to life that is in Jesus Christ. William Temple aptly put, “The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary,” but the vast majority of people actually believe there is something they can do to save themselves.
It may seem counterintuitive, but a basic understanding of the desperate state of our fallen humanity is essential for creating a culture of leadership development. The reason we need each other , the reason we need God is because we are a broken people, and so part of being one , together is that we are able to be vulnerable and open about our hardships, our weaknesses , for it is in the midst of weakness that God’s power is made perfect.
And so as a church we need to raise up leaders , Elders , men who are qualified as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, those who are “ambassadors for Christ”
People must be able to tell the stark contrast from the leaders of the world from the ones we raise in the Church by their love & their sacrifice because of His Word that has transformed us. Which brings me to...
3. A Corporate Gospel witness is necessary to show that our passion is for God’s Word.
A church that is a faithful Gospel witness is one that teaches all of Scripture both from the OT and the NT. The God of the OT is not different from the NT, he is unchanging. The Bible is one whole message about God, that shows how Holy, Just & loving our God is, that displays the depravity of man, of how fallen we are and the hope and the amazing Grace that is there for those who believe & place their trust in God because of his everlasting Covenant to us in Christ. We see this in all the stories of the Bible.
Luke 24:13-35, tells us the story of the road to Emmaus where Jesus appeared as a stranger to two men, they did not recognize him, even as the news of Jesus’s Resurrection bursts on the scene of that day. The two men proceeded to tell the stranger of Jesus’ crucifixion and the report of His empty tomb but that does nothing the ease their sadness or their dashed hoped, to this Jesus responded, Luke 24:25–27 (ESV) 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
The gospel is demonstrated in all of Scripture, and as local Church body we hence must faithfully teach through all of it displaying the Glory of God in all of it and how short we fall of God’s standards, and how desperately we need God
There is too much of Eisegesis, injecting of ones ideas into a text today than Exegesis which is drawing out the meaning by following the text. People need to be passionate for the Word like we read about the Bereans, examining the Scriptures daily. We need a Corporate Gospel witness that is passionate about the Word of God. Our churches need to be soaked in the Word of God and we need to raise up Elders, men who are sound in their life, in their doctrine to lead us, who are willing to make sacrifices for the establishment of His kingdom.
Church-planting exists because a Corporate Gospel witness does not. And so church may we be faithful to GO and establish a Corporate Gospel witness among all people that displays our deep concern for the lost, that demonstrates our oneness and has a passion for His Word to make Him known. May we be a church that does these things and take assurance in Christ’s promise to us when he said, “I will build my church”.