Defined by the God We See: Mission

[Audio available here.]

This morning we conclude the series, “Defined by the God We See” by talking about the mission of the church. One way to approach this would to be look at our mission statement on the back of the bulletin, where it says “We exist to glorify God by…” and third on the list of how we do that is, “reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” This morning is about reaching out beyond our church community in a desire to bring other into our community.

But I want to take a slightly different approach; I want to talk about this phrase, “Defined by the God We See.” What does it mean to be defined by something that we see?

Many of you were present at the cookout in May when Rachael and I were visiting and praying about this opportunity at Whitton, so you got to hear the story of how we met and fell in love. One of my favorite parts of the story comes after our first date, when my dear nocturnal mother, up reading the paper at midnight when I came home, looked up at her love-smitten son and asked, “What happened to you?!?” My response was a good Southern, “I think I’m in love, Momma.”

But I wasn’t in the frame of mind to realize that I didn’t actually answer her question. If my head would have been back in earth’s atmosphere I could have answered her, “I saw Rachael Nobles, Momma. I saw her for the first time. I had seen her a hundred times before as the girl who plays the harp or the quiet sophomore or the alto in choir or the girl from Virginia, but tonight I really saw her for the beautiful, sweet, virtuous, woman of God that she is. And I think I want to spend the rest of my life with her.” It was when I saw Rachael for who she was that my life was changed by her.

When we talk about being defined by the God we see, we mean that our vision of God will determine everything about us. If we think about God as boring and distant, then our worship and preaching and prayers will be boring and distant. If we never think about God’s power, we will never trust him to meet our needs. If we never think about God’s wisdom, we will never seek him for guidance. If we never think about God’s love, we will never be a truly loving community. We are defined by the God we see, and that is why we must remain in awe and adoration of the all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems. We may have seen him a hundred times in songs and Bible stories, but until we encounter the living God in all his glory we will never be shaped into the people he wants us to be.
The church’s mission is no exception. We take all of our cues from God when it comes to the work the church is to be doing in the world. So what I want to do for the remainder of the sermon is to look at God’s Word to get a big picture of the mission God has been on in history and see how he calls us to be part of that mission. We’re going to be flying the plane at 35,000 feet, so we won’t look at every last text that talks about God activity, but I want us to see three connected points in Biblical history that make God’s mission and the church’s mission clear.

The first major point is in Genesis 12, so please open your Bibles with me to Genesis 12. In Genesis 10 and 11 we get the story of how the earth was filled with all different nations following the great flood, and specifically how God scattered these nations by giving them different languages. And as boring as all the “begats” in the Bible may seem, the genealogies of Genesis 10 and 11 serve as a crucial backdrop for understanding Genesis 12, which we must understand when we talk about God’s mission and ours.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

God tells Abram, “I will make of you a great nation.” What nation was that? Israel. And why did God choose to create this nation called Israel? The rest of verse 2 tells us—“I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” A blessing to whom? Verse 3 makes that plain: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

In other words, God looked at all these groupings of people who were multiplying in the earth, scattering to Asia and Africa and Europe and the Americas, and decided to create a nation out of some old wanderer in Ur and use that nation as his means to bless all the other nations. Israel would be holy like God is holy, and he would use them to show the whole world who he is. And thus Israel was born. She was God’s special people for the sake of all the peoples being blessed.

There is so much more to talk about here, but as we fly over 2,000 years of history from Abraham to Jesus, the first major point I want us to notice is that God’s activity with Israel in the Old Testament is built on this purpose: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

We see the second major point as we look out the airplane window at Jesus of Nazareth. And as we come to the life of Jesus, we ask the question, how did his ministry relate to Israel’s purpose to bless the nations? The reason I ask this is because I think we read Jesus’ biting criticism of the Pharisees and Sadducees and think that he was distancing himself from Israel.

Jesus lived in a day when Israel was struggling to maintain her identity while under Roman rule. And the Pharisees were going around, saying, “This is how to be a good Israelite—live this way.” And the Sadducees were going around saying, “No, this is how to be a good Israelite—live this way.” And into that context Jesus came to the lost sheep of Israel, gathered—not 8, not 15, not 29—but 12 men around him, and proclaimed, “I am the way.” He was the bronze serpent that the sick could look to and be healed. He was the Passover Lamb whose blood covered the sins of God’s people. He was the one who did not give into temptation in the wilderness but perfectly trusted God. He was the presence of God in the midst of Israel that no temple could rival. Jesus embodied everything that Israel was supposed to be and was the fulfillment of all God’s promises to her.

So what did Jesus do after dying for the sins of his people and rising from the dead? He called his disciples around him and told them how they as Israelites were going to fulfill Israel’s calling to be a blessing to all the families of the people. Turn with me to Matthew 28 as we read Jesus’ Great Commission in verses 18-20.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Do you see how this is a continuation of God’s words to Abraham? God said, “I am going to bless you so that you will be a blessing to all the families of the peoples.” And while this was fulfilled in various ways throughout the Old Testament, it reached its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, who offers, by his death and resurrection, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who would believe. And he continues the focus on blessing the nations with his command, “make disciples of all nations.” Paul makes this connection in Galatians 3:13-14 when he says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

So what do we see about God in all of this? We see that God is a missionary; that he is on a mission to redeem for himself a people from every nation. And we are defined by the God we see. When we see God as a missionary God who is working in the world to draw worshippers to himself from every people group, we join him by obeying Jesus’ command to “make disciples of all nations.” Paul expressed this in Romans 15, where he said that he made it his ambition to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named.

We still have one more piece of biblical history to see, but before we get there I think we need to land the plane and look closely at the phrase, “make disciples of all nations.” Specifically, I want to look at the word “nations.” When we hear the word “nation,” we typically think about countries like Mexico, Scotland, Croatia, or Germany. But that is not the case here. Whether it is the promise to Abraham that “in you all the families of the peoples will be blessed” or Jesus’ command to “make disciples of all nations,” our missionary God is not only concerned with political entities but with ethnic groupings or what missionaries call people groups. Take for example the country of Cameroon, which is in West Africa. There is only one country there with one government, one currency, etc. But within Cameroon exist 295 people groups that each have their distinct dialect, dances, foods, stories, and leadership structures.

This shapes the way we think about God’s mission in a few ways. First, the mere talk of God’s mission to bless every ethnicity with the gospel allows zero room in our lives for ethnic prejudice. God calls us to bless other ethnicities, not to belittle them because they are different. Let it never be said that Whitton Avenue Bible Church is a place where people who don’t look or talk like us are not welcome. My prayer is that each one of us would not only be open to other ethnicities but pursue relationships with people from other ethnicities. How can we make disciples of people we don’t know?

Another reason it is important to see that “nations” refers to “ethnicities” or “people groups” is because it helps us define the remaining work of God’s mission. For instance, it is one thing to say that Afghanistan is in desperate need of missionaries right now. So we’ll send a team over there, and the problem is solved, right? Wrong. There are over 70 people groups in Afghanistan, and among those there are 47 different languages. So it’s not like coming to America where you could preach the gospel from New York to LA and use the same language. The task is quite daunting just for that one country.

So how much work remains? How many “families of the peoples” have no disciples of Jesus Christ? Often the remaining task is defined by how many people groups have little or no access to the gospel. According to the International Mission Board, there are about 5,000 people groups that are considered unreached. Those 5,000 people groups represent about 1/4 of the world’s population. That is over a billion and a half people who have never been told that Jesus Christ died and rose again to offer them forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Sometimes these numbers don’t faze us any more than hearing that our national debt is over $8 trillion. But Rachael and I got a taste of the remaining work when we spent a few weeks in Indonesia amongst an unreached people group. These people adhered to folk Islam, which is like having both a witch doctor and a mosque, so we expected them to at least know about Jesus, since he is mentioned often in the Qu’ran. But imagine our amazement when we learned that the family we were staying with had never even heard the name Isa or Jesus. And this was indicative of most of the 2.2 million people in this people group. And these people, who we got to know during our travel, are just one in 5,000 people groups who have never heard the good news that Jesus is Lord.

Numbers like these can be quite intimidating. Part of the reason I want to consistently set such realities before us is so we don’t sit down and kick back as though there is little Kingdom work left to be done. There is no time to mess around with 5,000 people groups still needing to hear the gospel in their language. At the same time, we should not despair that the remaining work is impossible. So to encourage us, I want us to get back into the plane and fly up to 35,000 feet again to see the third point in Biblical history that deals with God’s mission.

We have already seen God’s heart for all people groups in Genesis with the call of Abram, in Matthew with the Great Commission, and now we go to the end of the story—Revelation. Turn with me to Revelation 5:9-10, where we read the words to one of the songs that will be sung to Jesus Christ for eternity: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then turn a few pages over to Revelation 7, where we read a similar account in verses 9-10: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!””

Simply put, God assures us in these texts that the task will be completed; that there will be worshippers from every people group around God’s throne for eternity. This gives us incredible hope as we pour resources and time and prayers toward reaching those unreached people groups. It gives us confidence that our labor will not be in vain.

I want to close with 3 application points to us as a church.

(1) Jesus’ command to “make disciples of all nations” is not only to missionaries. It is directed to all his disciples. “All nations” includes red-blooded Americans. So to each believer in this room I ask, who are you discipling? That is, who are you intentionally spending time with to teach them what it means to follow Jesus? For newlyweds it may be your spouse; for young parents it may be your child; for some in the workforce it may be a co-worker. I don’t want to treat discipleship as if it can only happen in a classroom or over coffee. But the fact remains that Jesus commands us all to “make disciples.”

Who are you talking to about the gospel? Who are you challenging in their faith? Whose eternal destiny are you investing in today?

(2) Have you considered that God might call you to make disciples outside America? Is your life completely surrendered to God, so that if he pricked your heart for Afghanistan or Croatia or Indonesia or China that you would be willing to start making plans this afternoon? Are you willing to lay down American comforts for an overseas ministry that might reduce the number of unreached people groups to 4,999? Or, if you have surrendered your life to go wherever God wants you and he hasn’t called you to go overseas, are you investing your prayers, your time, your money, and your advocacy for the cause of the gospel amongst 1.6 billion people who have never heard the good news?

(3) Finally, remember that we are defined by the God we see. We have a mission because God has a mission and has been gracious to include us in his work. But the mission of making disciples of all nations is not only defined by God, it is fueled by God. That is, our vision of God not only tells us of his concern for the nations—our vision of God will sustain us as we go to the nations.

I believe Jesus had this in mind when he issued the Great Commission. The phrase we have been focusing on—make disciples of all nations—is in the middle of the text. But on the outer ends lie the fuel for completing the task. Remember how the commission begins? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And it ends, “and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” What is it that will sustain Stevo and Sarah in Croatia? What is it that will sustain our missionaries in Japan, Brazil, and Taiwan? What is it that will sustain you when God calls you to give your life for an unreached people group? What will sustain us who remain here to do discipleship and church planting in this valley?

A vision of the risen, reigning, authoritative Christ will sustain us. The presence of Christ in our midst through the Holy Spirit will sustain us. We must keep our focus on him.

Defined by the God We See: Community

[Audio available here.]

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” [1 John 2:15-17]

As you can see on the bulletin, this morning’s sermon is on community, and it might not be immediately obvious why we are going to spend time in 1 John 2 to talk about community. But if you hang with me, there are some crucial things I think we need to know and believe about God’s community called the church, but we need to see the realities in this text before we understand them.

John’s command in this text is very simple. Verse 15—“Do not love the world or the things in the world.” It is simple in the sense that there are realities called “the world” and “the things in the world,” and there is a reaction that the Church is supposed to have—do not love them. So what is that we are not supposed to love? Well, in the next verse he clarifies what he means by “the things in the world”—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions…” We talked about these kinds of things last week in the sermon on purity; this is pretty basic stuff—most Christians know that they are not supposed to lust and be prideful.

But John also tells us not to love “the world.” What is “the world”? This is not quite as straightforward as lust and pride. Thankfully John uses the word “world” often in his letter. One helpful clue to what he means by “world” comes at the end of the book, where he says, “we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (5:19). So one way to describe “the world” is the realm where Satan rules—the place where Satan’s ways are followed instead of God’s ways. Where women go to Oprah or Dr. Phil for guidance instead of God’s word. Where men spend their time at bars instead of fulfilling their God-given roles to nurture their families. Satan uses whatever he can to keep people under his sway and outside of the Kingdom of God. It is the same as how we would describe a part of town a gang controls; billboards are marked with the gang’s symbols and corners are controlled by their dealers and pimps. It is their realm of influence. And so when John talks about “the world,” he doesn’t mean planet Earth as much as the realm of Satan’s rule.

As we think about community this morning, I want us to focus on the reason why God commands us through John not to love the world. In verse 16 he says that the things in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions—did not originate with our heavenly Father. He did not create them, and certainly does not endorse him.

Now, hopefully your instinct is to say, “I thought the Bible says that God made everything; how can there be anything God didn’t make?” I believe the answer comes when we see the connection between the world and the things in the world. We saw that John talks about the ‘world’ as the realm where Satan rules. According to verse 16, this ‘world’ is where the ‘things of the world’—lust and pride—come from. The world produces lust; it gives birth to pride.

Think back with me to Genesis, where we read of the way Satan interacted with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Notice that Satan did not create a different garden for Adam and Eve to live in. He didn’t offer them a new commandment; he simply distorted God’s word. That is Satan’s only power—deception. He takes the truth God has spoken and the things God has created, and he perverts them.

It’s like when you go to the carnival or state fair and enter into the house of mirrors. Have you ever been in one of those? It is a building you walk through where there are mirrors all over the place, and few of them are normal mirrors. Some make you look very short, while others make you look very tall. Some make you look very fat, while others make you look very skinny. The mirrors are shaped so that they distort reality. They take small features and make them look big, and take big features and make them look small.

This is what Satan does with God’s truth and God’s creation. He takes the most glorious, worthy, valuable being in the universe—God—and makes him look very small. He takes things that, compared to God, are very small—like making more money, looking more beautiful, having more clothes, driving a nice car—and makes them look big. He does not create anything new; he merely distorts the way we perceive what God already created, so that we get things backwards. We worship the creation rather than the creator.

Can you see how this results in lust and pride? Lust is craving after something that is not good for us to have. Fredrick Buechner calls lust “the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.” We think “I have to have that!” about the very thing that will hurt us. Pride is misplaced confidence. It is putting trust in my abilities instead of God’s abilities. It is boasting in my possessions rather than God’s possessions. Lust and pride get everything upside down; they flow from a distorted view of reality. This is why John says that they come from the world—from the realm of Satan’s distorting rule.

Understanding lust and pride as the result of Satan’s perversion of creation helps us to understand why John tells us in verse 17 that “the world is passing away along with its desires.” John’s Revelation tells us that Satan will one day be thrown into the lake of fire and will no longer deceive anyone. That is, God will walk into the house of mirrors with a sledgehammer and shatter all the mirrors Satan has set up to distort God’s truth and creation.

But that day has not yet come. In fact, we live in a time where many people think that the distorting mirrors are telling the true story. They make money, power, comfort, security, success in business, and entertainment the really big things in life, and keep God a really small thing in their life. They think we make too much of God by submitting every part of our lives to him.

Now, here is the part where we get to the church. John has something different to say about the church—that is, the community of those God has redeemed from the world. Listen to what he says in verse 17—“the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” We who refuse to look at the mirror but look at the thing itself—we who live our lives in light of how great God is and how small this world’s pleasures are—we will abide forever! That is, we will continue living in fellowship with God, doing his will, long after he has shattered the mirrors.

In light of this, one way to describe the church is God’s eternal community. The church is the only grouping of people on the planet that will exist after the return of Christ. Countries that have been around for thousands of years will be no more. Universities that have been educating for hundreds of years will be no more. Hollywood, which has been making movies for decades will be no more. The church community will still be thriving long after these institutions are forgotten.

Another way to talk about this is that God’s community lives the lifestyle of the future. Those who live in lust and pride are leading a lifestyle that will soon fade away. We live a lifestyle that will last forever. The world is built on lies and deception, and only yields sorrow, futility, and despair. The life of following Jesus is built on God’s eternal truth, and will continue in the New Heavens and the New Earth. The so-called pleasures of Satan’s realm will be over at death—60, 80, 100 years from now. The true pleasures of God will be even sweeter in 60 thousand, 80 million, and 100 trillion years from now.

You want to freak out you coworker tomorrow morning? Ask him or her casually as you refill your coffee, “Ever thought about what you’ll be doing in 100 trillion years?” It’s a legitimate question; in fact it’s what we are asking when we share the gospel. And one way to maintain our fervency in evangelism is to remember that current allegiance to or rebellion against King Jesus will determine where your coworker will be in 100 trillion years.

I think the most crucial application question we can ask ourselves is this: how does the church think about herself and the world around her, when that world is under the influence of Satan and passing away? Or I could rephrase the question using the carnival illustration: how does the church thrive in the hall of mirrors?

Let me explain my concerns behind this question. I see the pendulum swinging to two possible extremes regarding how the church relates to the world. One is that we might see the distorted images in the mirrors Satan has set up and actually believe them, even though we know better. That is, we might hear the Supreme Court ruling against God or listen to a brilliant professor bash Christianity or see a preview for a movie that exalts sensuality and violence—and believe that they are in the majority and we are in the minority. We might believe that our lifestyle that pursues purity and submits to God is abnormal, since the world thinks that it is normal to sleep around and take God out of parenting and treat all human beings as if they are basically good, when the reality is that these ways of thinking and living are on a collision course with the wrath of God.

The upshot of this is that we might become ashamed of the church; that we might hear the world marginalize us and believe that we really are in the margins; that we might forget that we are God’s eternal community living God’s eternal lifestyle, and forget that the ferocious lion we see in the mirror is really only a helpless kitten.

On the other hand, my concern in the opposite direction is that when we realize that the ferocious lion is just a little kitten, we might become arrogant to those outside the church and laugh at them for being afraid when they saw it. The goal of the Church is not to prove that we are right and the world is wrong. Do you remember why the church exists? It is on the back of your bulletin: we exist to glorify God. We exist to walk through the hall of mirrors with eyes fixed on our great God, undaunted by the out-of-proportion images around us. And as we pursue our God, we plead with tears to others, “Don’t be fooled by those images: they are only lies! That’s not a lion; it’s just a kitten! Those mirrors will soon be smashed; there is nothing there of any eternal significance. Turn your eyes to God—you can do that forever!”

This is not only what we say to the world; it is what we say to each other. When God saves us, he places us in community. He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which we are connected to Christ for salvation and connected to one another in the pursuit of sanctification. And the Spirit works in our midst to make us more and more like the perfect, eternal community that we will be in the New Heavens and New Earth.

He works in our midst now as we walk through this hall of mirrors. And when a sister is shrieking at the distorted mirror of loneliness, the Spirit uses the community to turn her eyes back to God and remind her that it was a distortion. And when a brother stumbles curiously toward the mirror of lust, the Spirit uses the community to remind him of the beauty of Christ and the smallness of sexual sin. And when one of us finds a mirror that makes us impressed with ourselves the Spirit uses the community to remind us that God is the only one who is eternally impressive—who will still be impressive after the mirrors are smashed.

Defined by the God We See: Purity

[Audio available here.]

Last week I began a series of four vision sermons called “Defined by the God We See: Vision, Purity, Community, Mission.” When we use the phrase, “defined by the God we see,” we mean that our church will be sustained and shaped by our vision of God. No matter how big our attendance becomes or how diverse our programs are, we will never be a church that makes an impact for the Kingdom of God if we have a shriveled view of our King.

Please take out your bulletins and look with me at the back where we find our church’s mission statement. Read along as I read this, “We exist to glorify God by reaching up in worship, reaching in to equip the saints, reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Our mission as a church is simple: we exist to glorify God. That is God’s heartbeat—to glorify himself—and therefore it is our heartbeat. And we believe that there are three primary ways that happens in our church: reaching up, in, and out. Worship, building up the body in love, and preaching the gospel to all nations, including our own. So I want to use this week and the next two weeks to explore some foundational issues beneath reaching up, in, and out.

As I said last week, these sermons are unspeakably important to me. And as I approach this week’s subject of worship, or reaching up to God, and how it relates to glorifying God, I have one central concern: purity.

Let me ask a question to clarify where I’m heading with this. When you are out in public—say, at the Biltmore—and you see a couple out on a date, what is it that convinces you that the wife loves her husband, and the husband his wife? Do you look at how big of a rock she has on her finger, or how pricy the restaurant is where they just ate, or perhaps what kind of car they drive? No, the most convincing clue that a wife is in love with her husband is the grin on her face and the sparkle in her eye when she looks at him. The most convincing clue that a husband is in love with his wife is when they walk past a scantily clad lady or Victoria’s Secret and his eyes remain fixed on his wife, deeply satisfied and captivated by her beauty.

When we talk about worship, and how our reaching up to God glorifies God, the most crucial issue is not whether or not we use drums. It is not whether we sing old hymns or new songs. It is not whether we sit, stand, dance, or kneel. The most crucial issue for how we will glorify God through worship is purity; it is an issue of our heart.

Now, purity may be one of those words that we use around church and have no clue what it really means. But when you think about the way we use the word, the meaning is clear. When we say that jewelry is pure gold, we mean it is only gold. It is not gold plus pewter or 99% gold and 1% copper. It is unmixed. Only gold. The same thing goes with a pure silk shirt or a bottle of pure water (at least we trust the bottling company). They are comprised of only one thing. They are unmixed.

So when I refer to purity as the central issue in our worship glorifying God, I mean that our hearts must have only one object of desire: God. Not God plus a nicer car; not God plus more respect at work; not God plus well behaved children; not God plus anything else. Only he can be the object of our worship. Let me clarify that when I talk about worship, I am talking about much more than Sunday morning. I am talking about Monday afternoon, Thursday evening, and Saturday brunch. Worship is not something that happens when you sing words from a hymnal. It is what happens when your heart values God above all else; when you realize and love his worth; when you remain continually in awe and adoration of the all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems. That happens or doesn’t happen on the sports field, in the corporate board room, while you browse the internet, and when your dog marks your sofa as his territory. Those are the moments in which we discover whether or not God is our sole object of worship. That is when the purity of our heart is tested.

Most of us know that purity of heart is an issue that we need to deal with. Whether it is anger or lust or despair or greed or anxiety, we all have issues that taint our purity of heart. And this is not a small thing. It’s not simply “my little struggle” that doesn’t matter in the long run. Do you remember last week’s sermon? The strength and future of our church hinges upon our vision of God. And if we are impure so that our vision of God is clouded or distorted, we should have little optimism about the future of our church. We will never rise above our view of God. This makes purity a top priority for us individually and as a church body.

So how do we fight for purity in our lives? What does the Bible say to the dad who lashes out at his wife and kids instead of gently and lovingly leading and disciplining them? What does the Bible say to the wife who disrespects her husband by the way she talks about him to friends and parents? What does the Bible say about the man who is entrenched in sexual fantasy, whether through Internet pornography or over the lady walking down the street?

Obviously these are huge issues that cannot be completely addressed in 10 minutes. But there is a crucial truth that we need to know if we are to fight well for purity. Turn with me to 2 Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

That last phrase captures the opposite of purity—“the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” Corruption comes naturally to us, and we know its effects. We talked about it in Ephesians 5, where Paul commands us, “do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” Getting drunk with wine is bad because it gets you nowhere. That is the essence of corruption. It is deterioration, like the breakdown in communication that makes a marriage fall to pieces. It is corrosion, like when your pipes rust so that your sink won’t drain. Corrupt things don’t work like they’re supposed to.

But where does this corruption come from? From sinful desires. Something in us tells us, “maybe the next drink will satisfy you.” Or, “I know it didn’t help to shut down emotionally with your wife last time, but you’re not going to let her win, are you?” Or, “maybe if you buy one more outfit it will make you happy.” It is the Garden of Eden all over again, with the serpent holding out whatever kind of fruit will entice us to cut ourselves off from God.

These are promises that Satan holds out, and our natural inclination is to bite. Like the billboard that was on Thomas a few months ago, featuring four Hooters girls and accompanied with the words, “Hooters makes you happy.” That’s a promise given to you. “Come to our restaurant and you will find satisfaction.” Or the little messages written on the wrappers of chocolates Rachael and I were eating a while back. Each one has “Promises message” written on the bottom and they say things like “Be mischievous. It feels good.” “Flirting is mandatory.” “Do what feels right.” And the kicker, “Temptation is fun…giving in is even better.”

Let me take a quick timeout to remind us why we’re talking about Satan’s promises. Our well-being and future as a church is directly tied to our vision of God, which is tainted and diminished when we believe Satan’s promises. So how do we fight for purity—that is, fight to have a heart that values God alone? Peter would ask the question this way—“how do we escape the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires?” Look with me at the answer in verse 4. It is through God’s “precious and very great promises.”

Think back to the love birds we saw at the Biltmore. What if you walked up to the husband after noticing that he wasn’t fazed by the Victoria’s Secret display, and said, “How do you practice such self-control in the face of such seductive pictures?” Do you think he would say, “well, I have trained my mind over the years to empty itself of all base and unworthy thoughts and to remain clear and clean”? No way! He would simply say, “I’m sorry; I was enjoying my wife so much I didn’t notice those pictures.” That is, he is escaping the alluring promise of that image that says, “look at me and be happy” by finding his satisfaction in his wife.

This is how Peter says we escape the corruption that is in the world. This is how we fight for purity. This is how we glorify God as we reach up in worship. We believe the promises of God over the promises of Satan. I encourage you to get a pen or pencil out, because I’m going to mention a few specific Bible promises that address specific struggles in our lives.

These are your weapons for fighting for purity, Whitton Avenue—promises from God’s word. When you are tempted to despair because you don’t know what to do after high school or college or who to marry or how to educate your children or how to handle your employee, pull out the sword of Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Trust God’s promise to guide you.

Or when you are tempted to despair because of tight finances, pull out the sword of Matthew 6:31, which says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Trust God’s promise to provide for you.

Or when you are tempted to buy one more of something you don’t need, pull out the sword of Hebrews 13:5-6, which says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” Trust God’s promise to satisfy your longings.

Or when you are tempted to lust, whether after a physical body or a romantic scenario, pull out the sword of Psalm 16:11 which says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Trust God’s promise to be your source of true pleasure.

My prayer for Whitton Avenue Bible Church is that we will be so vigilant in trusting God over Satan and the world that an atmosphere of purity is created in our church; that people coming to us for the first time would sense something in the air; that they would be surprised that our interactions with one another are not characterized by rivalry or one-upmanship or lust or grudges or greed, but rather the brokenness and mercy that comes from knowing that while we were still sinners Christ died for our sins, so that we might enjoy God forever. And I pray that as we fight for this purity by claiming the promises of God that he would be our one object of worship and desire, and in that be glorified at WABC.

[Pray and step down to communion table.]

As we approach the communion table, I want to share a story of how these elements that represent Christ’s body and blood have helped me in the fight for purity. Each church celebrates the Lord’s Supper in a different way, and at one church as we passed the elements we would say, “The body of Christ for you” as we passed the bread and “The blood of Christ for you” as we passed the cup. I think it is a powerful way to connect with the fact that Jesus died for me. His body was bruised and his blood spilt for me.

At our church in Minneapolis, I had the privilege of being a communion server, and I had the habit of, in my mind, saying to the person I handed the tray of bread, “The body of Christ for you,” and likewise with the cup, “The blood of Christ for you.”

Well, it was all fine until I went to pass the tray to a guy whose personality rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t even know the guy, but for some reason I didn’t like him. I’m sure none of you have had that experience. Nevertheless, as I handed him the tray of bread, in my mind I said, “The body of Christ for you.” And it was amazing. All those feelings of dislike and condescension were leveled by the simple realization: Jesus died for this man! Regardless of personality clash, he and I were brothers united with the blood of Christ. We have the deepest bond possible: we were both helpless and dead in our sins, and Jesus Christ ransomed us from our futile ways and gave us an eternal inheritance with him.

A few months later as I was serving communion again, I saw a new couple sitting at the end of one of the pews I was serving. The wife was unusually attractive, and I thought, “Great, here I am trying to experience communion and now I’m distracted by this supermodel.” But as I came to their pew and handed them the tray, in my mind I said, “The body of Christ for you.” And later, “the blood of Christ for you.” And all of the sudden, the most important thing about this person was not physical appearance but the fact that Jesus Christ died for her sins and rose again to give her life.

This is what the promises do as well: they turn our attention from the external to the internal; from the physical to the spiritual; from the temporal to the eternal; from the glitz of the world to the glory of God. And that is what I pray happens this morning as we take the bread and the cup: that our focus would turn to the crucified and risen Christ to soberly meditate on his death for us and joyfully anticipate his return and eternal rule in the New Heavens and New Earth.

As we pass the trays I encourage you to do more than hand it to the next person. Remind them of what this is all about. Pass the bread to them with the words, “The body of Christ for you.” Pass the cup to them with the words, “The blood of Christ for you.” Now, if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian—that is, you have not confessed to God that you are a sinner and believed that Jesus died for your sins and rose again to give you life—please pass the tray along and do not take the bread or the cup. But as you hear the words, “the body of Christ for you, the blood of Christ for you,” hear them as a sweet offer of forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and everlasting community with your Creator and his redeemed. And if your heart wants those things, and if you will come to Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Treasure, then take the elements with the confession, Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God, that you died for my sins, and that you rose from the dead. I want you to be the master of my life. Please take me and change me into the person you want me to be.”

For those who already trust Christ as your Savior, hear the words, “The body of Christ for you, the blood of Christ for you,” as the deep affirmation of God’s covenant love for you. He poured out his wrath on Jesus so that you can enjoy him forever. Be sober and rejoice at these deep truths.

Defined by the God We See: Vision

[Audio available here.]

The Elders have been gracious in allowing me four weeks between Ephesians and Advent to preach on issues that I see as being crucial to the well-being and future of our church. In other words, if I found out that I had some fatal disease, and the doctors gave me four and a half weeks to live, these are the four sermons I would preach.

I have meditated on these sermons for many months now, and it struck me a few weeks ago that they are nothing new to Whitton Avenue Bible Church. In fact, they are simply restatements of our mission statement. Look with me at the back of your bulletin as I read our church’s mission statement: “We exist to glorify God through reaching up in worship of God, reaching in to equip the saints, reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” I love that statement, and have loved it ever since Rachael and I read it in our family room in Minneapolis. We had just started conversation with Stevo about this pastoral opportunity, and when we read this mission statement, we thought, “That’s a church we could be a part of.”

The mission statement is really only five words: “We exist to glorify God.” Everything else is explanation. Reaching up, in, and out address the question of how we accomplish our mission, but the core of our mission is this: we exist to glorify God. This morning I simply want to preach a sermon about God. I want to talk about his glory.

As I think about Whitton Avenue Bible Church, as I think about serving in this pulpit, as I think about the days when Liam and Clayton and Lukas will be the elders and most of us will be out of the picture, and as I think about what will ensure that WABC will be a solid, vibrant church, there seems to be only one thing that will sustain us as a congregation until Jesus returns. It is not the right programs, business savvy, streamlined by-laws, strong finances, powerful preaching, active members, or even Biblical knowledge. All of these are necessary for us to be a healthy church. But they will not, in and of themselves, sustain us.

So what will sustain us? I have a nagging feeling that when I tell you, there will be an “oh, that” in the room. Like when you hear a knock on the front door and race downstairs thinking it is your fiancé, and it’s just the UPS guy. But this was not an “oh, that” for Moses—it is what sustained him while he lead the grumbling Israelites through the wilderness. It was not an “oh, that” for Isaiah—it is what sustained him as he proclaimed message after message of judgment and destruction to rebellious Judah. It was not an “oh, that” for Paul—it is what sustained him through five back lashings, a stoning, stubborn churches, imprisonments, and persecution from Jews and Greeks alike.

What was it that sustained Moses, Isaiah, Paul, and will sustain us until Jesus returns? They remained in awe and adoration of the all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems. Moses was granted his request to see God’s glory on Mt. Sinai. Isaiah had a vision of God in his glory that caused him to say both, “I am undone” and “Here am I, send me.” Paul encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus in a way that shaped his entire ministry. But this is not like getting your tetanus shot or receiving a smallpox vaccination. These men were sustained by a continual vision of God. It was in the prison cell that Paul’s high view of Christ allowed him to say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Whitton Avenue Bible Church, if we want to be a church that sends missionaries to unreached people groups, cares for the poor in our neighborhood, shares the gospel with the lost, plants churches across this valley, and worships in spirit and truth, we must have a high view of God. We must continually be in awe and adoration of the all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems.

There are two clarifications that need to be made about this pursuit. First, our vision of God must be empowered by the Spirit. That is, we cannot understand, know, or worship God apart from his Spirit’s work in us. It is the Spirit who gives us eyes to see ourselves as sinners and Christ as Savior in the first place. If you’re here this morning and you have never found God to be the most exciting being to study, pray to, sing to, and tell others about, pray that the Spirit would give you eyes to see him. If you have never repented of your sins and come to Jesus to save you, come to him today, and experience the freedom of forgiveness and the joy of being in relationship with the Creator. It is the Spirit who does the work of bringing us to Christ for salvation and will sustain our vision of God throughout eternity.

The second clarification is that the place where we go to see God is the Bible. The day is coming when we will see God face to face for eternity. But for now, we see him with the eyes of faith as we read about him in the pages of scripture. So if we are to be sustained by our vision of God, we must be saturated in the Bible, because that is where he reveals himself to us.

So that is what I want to do now. I want us to take the remaining time to behold in the Word of God the all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems. And before you doze off, consider that we are wired to admire exceptional individuals. Why else do men sit around a sports bar and talk during the baseball game about the speed of the baserunner who just stole home or the accuracy of the pitcher who just got his 15th strikeout or the power of the batter who just knocked a grand slam out of the park. Why else do ladies sit around cups of coffee and talk about, well, whatever it is that you might admire in Mr. Darcy or Carey Grant or Kevin Costner (I have to admit that I’m at a bit of a disadvantage on this one). We are made to admire exceptional power, wisdom, and love in others, and I want us to turn our focus now to our exceptional God.

While we could go all over the place to see this God, I want to go God’s two greatest works in the Bible—creation and redemption.

Creation

God shows himself to be all-powerful by the way he created the world. Turn with me to Genesis 1. There is a phrase that indicates matter-of-factly how infinitely powerful God is. Look at verse 3 of Genesis 1: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Look at verse 9: “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.” Look at verse 11: “And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so.” Seven times in Genesis 1 the phrase “and it was so” is used to describe God’s creative work.

Perhaps you are like me and have read this many times without realizing that this is describing the greatest power imaginable—the power to speak something into existence. God says, “Let there be light,” and out of nothingness, with no raw materials, with no blueprints, with no prototype, light happens. Psalm 33 draws out the implications for such power: “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

How does this shape us as a church? To answer that question I will remind us all what day tomorrow is. October 31st is not just the day that keeps dentists in business; it’s the day when, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. So as we think about Reformation Day tomorrow and all the courage it took Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other reformers to stand up to the heresies of the church, we ask ourselves, what will give us the courage to stand tall for truth in our day? What will give us the strength to say with Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me, Amen.” We must keep our all-powerful God at the forefront of our vision, and trust in his power to sustain us for the tasks to which we are called.

The creation event also reveals God to be all-wise. This is highlighted poignantly in the book of Job when God responds to Job’s questions. Listen as I read the Lord’s opening words.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?”

God’s wisdom in creation is beyond our comprehension. And the point here is not merely to say that God is really good at building stuff. He is asking Job whether or not he is more qualified than Almighty God to oversee the course of history, including the events of our daily lives.

If we want to be wise in how we run programs, make budget decisions, choose new leaders, and approach church planting, we must keep our all-wise God at the forefront of our vision.

Yet the creation was not a mere display of raw power and wisdom. It was also God’s arrangement of an environment where he could commune with our ancestors, Adam and Eve. It was the place where walked with them in the cool of the day and enjoyed fellowship with those whom he created in his own image.

And when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, even in the midst of his judgment he lovingly promised that a descendent from Eve would crush Satan’s head. He lovingly killed animals to clothe Adam and Eve’s shame. And he lovingly banished them from the Tree of Life so they would not be eternally stuck in a sinful state.

If we want to love to those in crisis situations—whether emotional, financial, or physical—when we are tempted to show contempt because of the mess they have gotten themselves into, we must keep our all-loving God at the forefront of our vision.

We see God’s glory all over his creation of the world. We see his power, his wisdom, and his love in the way he spoke the universe into existence.

Redemption

God’s power is revealed not only in his work of creation, but also in his work of new creation, or redemption, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul told the Corinthians that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” How is the cross powerful? For one, it is the place where God defeated Satan. Listen to these verses: through death Christ destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). In Colossians 2:15 Paul says that at the cross, God “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him [=Christ].” It was at the cross that the seed of the woman crushed the head of the serpent, and began his eternal downfall.

There is also great power in the blood that Christ shed on the cross. This is a sermon series in itself, but let me hit some high points of what God accomplished through the blood of his Son. It is through the blood that God obtained a people for himself, the church (Acts 20:28). It is through the blood that God’s wrath has been satisfied for all those who believe (Romans 3:25). It is through the blood that God’s people are justified, or declared righteous before him (Romans 5:9). It is through the blood that we have redemption and forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7). It is through the blood that we Gentiles have been brought near to God (Ephesians 2:13). It is through the blood that we are sanctified (Hebrews 13:12). And it is through the blood that we have been ransomed from our futile lifestyle and freed from our sins (1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 1:5). The hymn writer was not exaggerating when he wrote, “there is power in the blood.”

This is not even to mention the power of the resurrection. In creation we saw God’s power to create light from darkness, and in the resurrection we see God’s power to create life from death. The power of the resurrection is mentioned in many New Testament passages, but let me read from our beloved Ephesians, in chapter 1 where Paul prays that we would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”

If we want to endure in our evangelism when our daughter or coworker or neighbor or friend seems to have such a hard heart toward the gospel, we must keep the all-powerful God who can speak life into dead hearts at the forefront of our vision.

The cross and resurrection also unveil God’s unsearchable wisdom. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians. As we read this, remember that the cross was an execution device, like our electric chair or lethal injection, and therefore a symbol of shame and defeat. Follow along as I start in verse 18.

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

If we want to make any sense out of painful circumstances that God allows in our lives, we must keep focused on our all-wise God who ordained that the eternal redemption of his people be accomplished through a shameful execution device.

For all of God’s power and wisdom that was shown through the cross and resurrection, the most prominent attribute we see there is love. Many of you know Romans 5:8, and if you don’t, this is well worth memorizing—“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Let the weight of this land on you. Almighty God exercised his infinite power and infinite wisdom to redeem you and me from our futile, harmful, wrath-incurring, sinful ways. Why? Because for reasons known only to God, he decided to set his love upon us. He decided to make us his people. He decided to make us his trophies of grace through which he will display his mercy and kindness for coming ages.

This is your God, Whitton Avenue. The all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving Creator who is faithful to the people he redeems. There is no higher or sweeter or more satisfying experience than knowing this God, worshipping this God, fearing this God, obeying this God, studying about this God, and proclaiming the greatness of this God. This is what will sustain us as a church until Jesus returns. We must have a fresh vision of God. We must continually be in awe and adoration of him.

So let us be a people that is much in the Word, where God reveals himself. Let us be much in prayer that God will make himself known to us and to those who do not know him. Let us fellowship with those who have a high view of God, whether over coffee with those living or in books for those who are dead. Let us love this God so much that we eliminate everything in our lives that draws our hearts away from him. And let us submit to him in every area of our lives—financial, sexual, intellectual; at work, at home, at school; in politics, in leisure time, in the arts. May God be our vision and our all.