New People, New Purpose

The Biggest Problem in the World Today

What is the biggest problem in the world today?

Many would say it is social injustice.

Others political over-reach

Others drugs and crime related to drugs

Some would say sex, gender, and family issues.

There are all kinds of responses, to that question and most of them are legitimate in some sort of way.

But the core, or root, of all the problems we would deem the “biggest” is selfishness.

Selfishness is the attitude that the most important thing is me: my happiness; my fulfilment; my dreams! I am the centre of my world; this is my world and I am God!

It is the reason for massive wealthy disparity in the world

It is the fuel behind growth of the sex industry.

It is the motive behind the cultural confusion and perversion over gender identity and sexual preference.

It is why friendships, families, churches, and many other relationships have been hurt or even broken over whether of not someone should wear a mask or not.

It is the true reason why there are nearly 900,000 abortions in the US every year.

It is the most common reason for divorce, abuse, addiction, and crimes.

Gossip, slander, bitterness, adultery, greed, and so every others sin has selfishness at its roots.

How appropriate, then, that God’s call for those who want to enter His Kingdom (His promised perfect world) would be for them to die to themselves, to take up their cross along with Jesus, and lose their life to gain it.

Luke 14:26–27 ESV

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 10:39 ESV

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

And how appropriate that God’s desire was not to save us as individuals, but to save us as a community for the purpose of community.

He did not die just to rescue “me”—he died to create a new nation.

It is a very different nation from any other nation we have ever known. It is a nation made up of people from all other nations, all rescued by Jesus and serving him as their King.

God’s new nation is not defined by geography, politics, ethnic identity or history. It is defined by God’s rescue through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is created by the Holy Spirit as he powerfully and wonderfully takes all that Jesus has done and applies it to our minds and hearts.

We are going to conclude our series by looking at what it means to be part of this new community—this new nation.

In the good news of Jesus, God is not inviting you to have an exclusive one-to-one with him. He is inviting you to become part of his family.

God’s New Community

1) We are a PROCLAIMING community.

We are a part of a story that has been unfolding for thousands and thousands of years.

You might not have even known that you were a part of it, and many still do not, or just refuse to believe they are.

It is the story we have been looking at over the past several weeks.

God created the heavens and the earth, a perfect world, and places man in a beautiful and abundant garden.

But man turned against God, rebelled against Him, spoiled God good creation, and severed our relationship with Him.

But God didn’t turn His back on mankind, but instead made promises to restore and redeem what was broken.

All of mans efforts to fix it have failed, so God became a man.

In Jesus, God did what we as humans could never do.

He lived a perfectly sinless life.

He gave us glimpses of a restored creation, a perfect world, TWWAW.

And He died and rose again to make it possible for us to experience that perfect world.

So anyone who trust in Jesus, who receives Him as Lord and Savior, will one day be in God’s perfect world.

This is the story we are in, the story all of our life is defined by, and the story we tell, with our words, with our deeds, and with our lives.

We proclaim the story of Jesus in our work places, our families, in how we serve others, use our resources, and spend our time.

We proclaim Jesus as a community of people who have been saved and sent.

Acts 1:8 ESV

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.”

This is who we are, a proclaiming people.

2) We are a LOVING community.

Jesus says they will know we are His by how we love one another.

Love is a defining characteristic of God’s people.

John says “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

In Acts 2:42-47 we are given that beautiful snapshot of the early Christian community.

Caring for one another needs

Meeting and eating together daily

Sharing with one another as they had needs

It is a description of a community of people who were living as if they were in God’s promised, perfect world.

We know it doesn’t last as in just a couple chapters a couple of leaders are arrested and a married couple lies and dies as a punishment.

But this passage is always the passage we go back to when we are seeking to understand the ideal nature of the Church community.

As we as Christians submit to the rule of Jesus, we catch a tantalizing glimpse of the world we all want.

The church can and ought to be a place of provision, security, love, abundance, joy, peace and rest.

An outpost of the world we all want right here in the middle of the world we all know!

3) We are a WAITING community.

But we will be the first to admit that we aren’t that.

Some moments, some seasons, are better than others, but...

We don’t love each other as we should.

We don’t forgive each other as we should.

We don’t share with each other as we should.

And we live in a world that is increasingly opposed to who we are, what we believe, and how we seek to live.

But our inconsistencies and failures as believers, coupled with the struggles we face in the world make us long even more for TWWAW.

In Christ our sins have been forgiven, but we still battle the desires of our flesh and sin that is still deeply embedded in our hearts.

Waiting is hard, but it is hopeful.

Waiting means there is something coming that we can look to with hope and longing.

For those who have not trusted in Christ, the wait is not a hopeful one.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Each and every person will stand before God to give an account for their life.

The idea of a God who judges and punishes is offensive to many.

But the Bible story shows him to be a God to judges justly.

We all want justice when we think we are victims.

We all want justice when we see people committing serious sins like murder or abuse.

So the problem is not with judgment per se but how we see our rejection of God and our offences against him.

In short, we see those things as insignificant: but God sees them as monumental.

Murder or gossiping are both offensive to him because they both express a heart that is full of self and deficient in love towards God and others.

So for that reason, those who reject God’s invitation to salvation in Jesus are eternally punished for their sin.

This is also an idea many people struggle with. God eternally punishing people for their rejection of Him.

But hell is a choice.

Hell is God giving people what they want.

Those in hell are those who have rejected God and told him they want nothing to do with him.

Hell is nothing more than God granting them their most basic desire.

So for those in Christ, we are a waiting people. Waiting for a promise of a better world.

All the while loving and proclaiming that good news to any and all who would hear it.

4) We join God’s community through REPENTANCE and BAPTISM.

And when they do hear it, and they are ready to receive it, what are they to do?

Acts 2:37–38 ESV

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter preached the first Christian church sermon to a large group of Jewish people in Jerusalem.

It was bold, powerful, and clear.

And their response was also powerful

They were “cut to the heart”, meaning they knew what He said about Jesus and them was true.

“What shall we do?”

Peter answers with 2 commands

Repent and be baptized.

Repentance simply means “to turn away from” or “to change your mind.”

It means to turn away, both with your mind and your body, from one thing to another thing.

Peter was saying “you must turn away from your selfishness, your rebellion against God, and your unbelief.

And you must turn to Christ in faith.”

Repentance is a change of life that happens when we understand our brokenness and our need for a savior.

And we turn to Jesus in faith.

Secondly Peter says they must get baptized.

Peter’s words here can often be misunderstood and misapplied.

He is not saying that baptism saves us, that would not flow with the rest of the Bible’s teaching on how someone is saved.

But he is appropriately calling all of those who have trusted in Jesus, repented of their sin, and want to follow Him to take the first, and very important step of being baptized.

Baptism is the way we express our trust in God and our membership of his people.

It is a picture of being washed clean and a picture of being born again.

The symbolic “washing” of baptism is also a picture of dying to our old way of life.

And it is a public announcement that we are giving up our Old lives and becoming members God family, a part of His new creation.

Response

In your seat you will find a card.

There are more than just those 3 ways to respond to the Lord from what we have been talking about over the last several weeks.

But these 3 are ways I want to call some of you to respond today.

Checking that first box is simply saying “If this Jesus thing is real I need to at least talk to someone about it.” You cannot remain apathetic if there is a chance it is real.

Checking the second box is saying “I believe it is real and I want to know what is next.” or “I believe it is real, but have never made it public through baptism.”

The third box is for those who have been baptized, but feel the Lord is leading them to become a part of this particular expression of God’s family in Ohio County.

This isn’t a high-pressure sales pitch, but an opportunity.

What is your decision.

For those online click the “connect with us” link for the digital form.