The Way pt. 4, The way of the church that reaches the lost

Section 1-

The church that follows the way of Jesus puts an equal amount of attention on the lost as it does the saved.

Today we are going to look at this in three parts:

1. A Biblical basis for the statement

2. Characteristics of churches that reach the lost

3. Steps of application for your life and our church

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost

Luke 19:10 (CSB)

“10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Context of this statement is the account of a man named Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10

Luke 19:1–10 (CSB)

He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.” 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus was a tax-collector, which meant he worked for the enemy and extorted Jews. The fact that Jesus stopped to talk to him was scandalous, but then Jesus decided to stay at this sinful man’s home.

Z called Jesus Lord, He repented, and his faith saved Him. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He came to seek and to save the lost.

But, what does it mean for someone to be lost?

The lost are those who are spiritually dead because of sin.

Lost does not equal misplaced, it means spiritually dead.

Ephesians 2:4–5 (CSB)

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

Jesus came to seek and to save those who are dead in sin…

And… Jesus made it clear that it is His desire to save and to shepherd those who are lost:

In Matthew 9, Jesus demonstrates His compassion and love for those who are without life and the provision only He can give.

Matthew 9:36 (CSB)

“36 When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus doesn’t stand with his finger pointed at those who are lost, He stands with His arms open wide to receive them as they come to Him, and He is the only way for everyone who comes.

Jesus came to lay down His life to save His sheep, and there are still more sheep to be saved.

John 10:1–18 (CSB)

“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 7 Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Jesus calls the church to seek out the lost, and holds those who don’t in contempt.

Jesus tells 3 parables in Luke 15 to illustrate this truth. He tells the parables to the Pharisees and the scribes because they were complaining that He was spending time with sinners and tax collectors.

In the first two parables Jesus connects with his audience as he demonstrates that it is normal to look for what you value when it has been lost.

Luke 15:4 (CSB)

4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?

Luke 15:8 (CSB)

8 “Or what woman who has ten silver coins,, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

Then, in the third parable Jesus reveals the contempt he holds toward the pharisees and the scribes because they have not valued what God values. They are not concerned with those who are lost, they are only concerned with themselves.

Summarize the Parable of the lost son…

And look at the way the order son responds to the grace and generosity that Jesus shows to the younger son. This is meant to pierce the heart of the Pharisees who were grumbling at who Jesus is spending His time with.

Luke 15:28–31 (CSB)

28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ 31 “ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

When the father goes out to the older son, we see the heart of Jesus for those who already belong to Him. He desires that we would join in Him in going to bring them home and rejoicing.

It impossible for someone to be saved from sin apart from the power of God.

Matthew 19:25–26 (CSB)

25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The gospel is the power of the God that results in born again followers of Jesus Christ

Romans 1:16 (CSB)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

Because the lost are spiritually dead, the only way they can be saved is by being born again.

1 Peter 1:22–25 (CSB)

22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever., And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

Verse 23 says that you have been born again from a imperishable seed… the perishable seed was the seed of Adam that when fully grown bears the fruit of death. However, through the proclamation of the gospel (vs 25) God saves and life springs forth that does not die- because, unlike the unrighteous seed of Adam, the seed of Christ is righteousness.

And the Gospel is the Word- the Bible, the OT and the NT. Verse 24 quotes Isaiah when it says that flesh is like grass, but the word of the endures forever.

You will not be saved through the words of those in the world, you will only be saved through the eternal and enduring Word of God. This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that God has promised. And, as Jesus said to one of the religious leaders of his day, Nicodemus, in John 3:16–18 (CSB), “16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

Salvation comes by faith, through the grace of God, as the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed to those who are spiritually dead.

Because of the teaching, ministry, and commands of Jesus… The church that follows the way of Jesus puts an equal amount of attention on the lost as it does the saved.

Section 2-

Characteristics of churches that reach the lost

Churches that struggle to reach the lost are far to common in our country and even our state. Here are 6 characteristics of churches that struggle to reach the lost These are common characteristics of congregations that don’t reach those who are spiritually dead with the gospel and see them saved into growing relationships with Christ.

1. Sunday morning becomes a production

Not a fellowship or gathering, Not an expression, but an event or experience that is to be judged, criticized, and evaluated by feelings and preferences.

In his book The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis addresses these issues. The book is fictional, and is made up of letters from a sr. demon to a jr. demon about the ways of distracting men from God and the gospel. In the book, the older demon “Wormwood” writes to the younger demon “Screwtape” and says,

“Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“The search for a "suitable" church makes the man a critic where God wants him to be a pupil. What he wants from the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise- does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

The Holy Spirit is not evidenced by goosebumps and good feelings. He is evidenced by a love for God, a love for one another, conviction of sin, and obedience to the Word. Churches that no longer reach lost people have substituted the true evidence of the Holy Spirit for the same feeling that you get a concert or political rally.

2. They speak a foreign language

This means the church talks about God in two ways that are both ineffective:

Like everyone already knows everything they need to knowIn words and phrases that don’t make sense to outsiders

3. The vision of the church members can’t see past the building and who they know

A church quits reaching the lost when it thinks that everything that matters in the church happens in the building. This also happens when a church thinks that the only people who matter are already here.

This kind of vision that can’t see past the building thinks that people will just come to us rather than us having to go to them. It often results in a “build it and they will come mentality in the church.” Simply, the building should exist to meet the needs and ministries of an ever expanding membership of the church.

When this happens the church no longer sees the lost 25 year old man as a future children’s Sunday school teacher, or the 35 year old single mom who doesn’t know Christ as a future member of the choir and the women’s ministry. Or the teenager who goes to school a few hundred yards away as a future leader or pastor after he is saved.

4. They choose lousy and wrong battles to fight inside and outside the church

Inside they argue more about how decisions are made or who gets to make decisions than the outcome of the decisions. (I’m not advocating for chaos, nor am I saying that process and order don’t matter… but I am saying that there are people in every church who wrongly elevate processes and procedures over following God and His Word.

There comes a time when a church has to simply ask “Does this follow the Bible?” “Is this what Jesus said to do?” “Does this help us continue to be faithful to Christ?” If the answers to these questions is yes, then who cares who made the decision or how many steps there are in the process. The devil has kept us in the details for so long that we have forgotten what we are supposed to be doing with all of our rules and procedures. I mean what good are church processes if they don’t accomplish the purposes of the church? I would say processes that don’t accomplish the purpose and ministry of the church need to be changed anyway.

Outside the church they fight all the wrong battles and ignore the issues that people are actually facing. And I mean sin and lostness. The church in America is known for what it is against, not what it is for. Jesus Himself said that condemnation for sinners has already been declared. Their only hope is to know the God and His gospel that saves. They need to know that we care about the violence, poverty, bigotry, and hunger that is happening all around us. I’m not talking about trying to make a difference on a national level… I am talking about right here in Tupelo. We had a week of freezing ice and snow and it took a toll on the homeless in our city. We have families experiencing the horrors of violence and poverty every day. We need to pick the battles that Jesus picked, and we need to care about the plight and condition of our city.

5. They develop a conditional love for others

This is when a church decides that it will love those who follow the rules, dress the part, and get everything right. It’s when a church decides who it will be. What I mean is love is conditional when you don’t think your church is for everyone. When you start thinking that there are churches for “other” people. God’s love is unconditional, but his relationship with us is covenantal. It is good and right for us to have expectations and standards for membership. And we do, we have a church membership covenant in our church constitution and by-laws. Membership can have some stipulations, but love cannot.

6. They depend on their reputation and talents rather than the Lord

What is a church like that is reaching those who are lost?

8 Characteristics of churches that reach the lost

1. Focused on the unchurched and the lost

Lose the Christian-ese and take time to explain and quit assuming everyone knows what you are talking about. Nurture a culture of “every one is learning and growing” vs feeling like “you have arrived”Intentionally praying for them, reaching out to them, and always working to have a pool of relationships with those who are spiritually dead.

2. A place of healing for the broken

3. Teach the hard stuff

People need and want to hear the whole thing. We cannot treat preaching and teaching like watching reruns of Andy Griffith. We need to hear and learn the whole thing, and we cannot avoid the hard and more difficult teachings. If God didn’t think we could handle it He wouldn’t have put it in there.

4. Help people get lost so they can get saved

One of the hardest issues in our region is the number of people who misunderstand what the Bible says it means to be saved. They claim to be saved, but when asked how they are saved they give answers that contradict the gospel message. For many they believe they are saved because of where they grew up. This is like those who grow up in Islam. When I was oversees after college I routinely had conversations with muslims who said they were muslim because of where they were born, and I was Christian because of where I was born. Well, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and the Middle East is a lot closer to where Christianity began than America… so the truth is you are saved because of the grace of God and your faith in Jesus Christ. It is not the result of your parents, your grandparents, or where you grew up.

5. Know and care for the people in the city and county

The church that reaches the lost, reaches the lost around them. I don’t believe God will use us across the world if we aren’t being used here in Tupelo and Lee county. Our mission efforts away from our city should be extensions of the work and ministry we are doing here.

6. Authentic

Jesus doesn’t want insincere followers, and the world isn’t interested in a message from people who don’t live it out.

7. Evangelism is integrated into the lives of the members and the ministries of the church, not a special program for a few

Programs can have a place… but we are not living and doing ministry in Jerusalem (Peter Acts 2) anymore, we are doing ministry in Athens (Paul, Acts 17).

People need our time, relationships, and the gospel. They don’t have a frame of reference for what we are talking about. They have questions, they want to see if God really has changed your life before they submit to Him in their own life.

To be a church that reaches the lost, we must be a church that builds relationships and shares the gospel with the lost.

8. Dependent on God through prayer

I think this is the key… Over the last few months as I have worked on these messages and spent time with the Lord about them, the truth about prayer in the life of a church that reaches the lost has begun to stand out to me.

Prayer is the most effective tool we have as a church

I was introduced to the preaching and ministry of Leonard Ravenhill by Lonnie Wascom. I was his youth ministry from 2002-2006 in Hammond, LA. Lonnie died this last year. He had a heart attack while he was driving. He was a godly man who lived and preached unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We took a trip to the LA Baptist Convention meeting in his Brown Chevy Astro Van. We listened to Ravenhill the whole way there and the whole way back. It seemed like that whole van was filled with Ravenhill tapes. But, I have been forever grateful to Lonnie for many things, and one of them was introducing me to this bold and humble man of God.

One thing that I have found to be true is that

To be used by God to reach the lost you must depend on Him in prayer and pursue holiness and humility with your life.

Prayer is essential to right living and revival.

“You can't live wrong and pray right.”

― Leonard Ravenhill

“Today God is bypassing men—not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient. Brethren, our abilities are our handicaps, and our talents our stumbling blocks!”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

God doesn’t use people who aren’t seeking to be used and who aren’t dependent on Him. (1 Corinthians 3:7, One plants, one waters, but God gives the growth)

"God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out. The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: 'Use me.'" - Rick Warren

The church that prays for revival experiences revival…

2 Chronicles 7:14 (CSB)

14 and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

“Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival – men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.” -C. H. Spurgeon

As we bring this home…

The church that follows the way of Jesus puts an equal amount of attention on the lost as it does the saved.

1. Jesus saves, and He is going to continue to save

2. We need to think more like Paul in Athens than Peter in Jerusalem

3. We need a vision for the future of our church that extends beyond the confines of our building.

4. We need to pray and proclaim the gospel

Reaching the lost is an intentional, prayerful, and Christ-centered effort

Beginning March 7, we will enter into a month of prayer, fasting, and sharing the gospel. Together we will seek God’s face for revival in our hearts and for the souls of our family, friends, neighbors, and city.

Quotes & Commentary

The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival that the world has ever known.”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

“Prayer does not condition God; prayer conditions us. Prayer does not win God to our view; it reveals God’s view to us.”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying: An Urgent and Powerful Message for the Family of Christ

Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent.”

― Leonard Ravenhill

“The secret of praying is praying in secret.”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

“Yet ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime a dozen, degrees or no degrees.”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

“The Cinderella of the church of today is the prayer meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not dripping with the pearls of intellectualism, nor glamorous with the silks of philosophy; neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology.”

― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

Jesus said to pray for laborers

Characteristics & Evaluation

Evaluate the ministries of the average church as they are related to this statement)

Evaluate the budget of the average church

Evaluate the expectations of the pastor and staff, if they have them (One of the qualifications that is different between pastors and deacons is teaching, and the other is hospitality- focused on helping the new people find their place) Evangelism isn’t a qualification- it’s an expectation