Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): If the church isn' somewhere we go, but something we are, it's critical that we understand what that's supposed to look like. Today, Stewart Briscoe explores what Christ calls the church to be, and what part you have to play in making that vision a reality. But before we hear from Stewart, right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth, because we're approaching our financial year end, June 30th. So, to help close the books on the strongest possible footing, some generous friends of the ministry have stepped forward with a $91,000 matching grant, which will double any gift you give today.

That means your support right now is worth twice as much. Your gift doubled by this matching grant will help take Stewart and Jill's teaching and resources even further, reaching more people with the life-changing truth of God's word through radio, digital platforms, global partnerships, and even social media. And to say thanks for your gift today, we'd love to send you Stewart's two message series, Let Your Light Shine. So, request your copy when you give today, and thank you for helping shine God's light into the hearts of people everywhere. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, or give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Now, let's hear Stewart's message being part of something grand.

Stuart Briscoe: We're going to continue thinking on our theme, church is not somewhere we go, church is something we are. If it is true that we are called to be something as well as to do certain things in the church, then it would seem to me we need to be clear in our understanding of what it is the church is called to be, and then we express what we are in the things that we do. The biblical model, and I believe the long traditional and historical model of the church is that the church is a called-out community.

They are the called-out community that is gathered for discipleship, for worship, and for fellowship, and then they are the church scattered. And they are scattered in mission. And that's what I want to focus on with you today. I I want to talk to you about the church's mission. Now, the the word mission comes from a Latin word, mito, and it means literally to send. And the idea of mission at root is a sending out, a scattering abroad. There are many evidences of this being the fundamental to the understanding of the church in scripture. For instance, Jesus said to his disciples who became the foundations of the church shortly before he left them, this is what he said, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.

Now, they fully understood that Jesus was God incarnate, that he had left heaven's glory, and he had come down to earth. He'd laid aside the trappings of deity and had assumed our humanity in order to a accomplish a specific task. In other words, he was on a mission. God the Father had sent him. Jesus said, all right, in exactly the same way the Father sent me on a mission, I am sending you. And so these people who became the foundation of the church right from the very beginning understood that a fundamental aspect of being the church was that they were on a mission.

Now, unfortunately, some people have got the idea they're a rather limited idea of mission, and it is this, that mission is accomplished by missionary. Now, the net result is that some churches would say, well, we do missions. And other churches would say, well, we're not into that. We feel we've got enough problems at home to be worried about that. Some churches would say, well, our interest is worship, or our interest is Bible study, or our interest is social concerns. And your interest, well, you're into missions. Now, this is a very very unsatisfactory understanding of mission.

The very existence of the church is is demonstrated to us by the sense that the church understands that they're a called-out community of God, called by God into this world to accomplish something that God has in mind. And it is therefore not something for those who interested in missions. It is emphatically not limited to those who are missionaries or even to those who will support missionaries by prayer and by financial help. It is something that is integral to the very life of the church. In other words, we should look at the gathered-out community on a Sunday morning or whenever we gather, and we should say to ourselves, this is a body of individuals knit together with a sense of mission.

This is what it means to be the church. Well, where do we go from there? Well, let's see if I can give you a definition of mission that would be more embracing of what I understand scripture to be saying. Christopher Wright in his voluminous book, it's about this thick. So, if you want some nice summer reading sometime, get a copy of that and it will keep you going for three or four summers and winters in between. It's called the mission of God. And it is a very very powerful piece of work indeed. And here is his definition of mission.

Fundamentally, he says, our mission means our committed participation as God's people at God's invitation and command in God's own mission within the history of God's world for the redemption of God's creation. Now, notice those keywords at the end. What is at root in this mission of God that God invites and commands his church to be an integral part of? And the answer is, it is the redemption of God's creation. That's who we are. That's what we do. That is an integral part of our existence. For the church exists by mission in the same way that fire exists by burning.

Now, what what are we talking about when we talk about this grandiose idea of the redemption of God's creation? Well, you're familiar with the four keywords of Christian theology, aren't you? Creation, fall, redemption, glory. It's this is not the time or the place to go into details on these four themes, but they're fundamental to Christian theology. We believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That is a fundamental statement of scripture. Without introduction, without preamble, certainly without apology, that's how scripture starts. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. You either take it or you leave it.

You either believe it or you disbelieve it. You either build your life on it or you build your life on something else. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Goes on to explain and all that is in then, including me. Now, I've got a fundamental understanding of who I am as a person. I am intentionally created by God as an integral part of this whole created order. Now, I'm I think I'm getting to know what it means to be a human being. But one thing that everybody that I've met will agree on is as far as this created order is concerned, and as far as individual people are concerned, things are not the way they ought to be.

Universal agreement on this. Well, the the biblical word or the theological word to that is the fall. In other words, God created everything the way it ought to be, but things are not the way they ought to be. And the reason for that scripture explains is that human beings decided they didn't want to be subject to God's rule, and they didn't want to be dependent upon God, and they didn't want to operate on the principles that God had ordained, that they were to live in loving, trusting obedience to him and would be blessed. They didn't want to do it.

They wanted to paddle their own canoe. They wanted to run their own ship. They wanted to be master of their own destiny. God says, go for it. Go for it. And the whole created order had an alien principle introduced to it. And as a result of that, nothing in the created order is the way it ought to be. Nothing. Including me. Including no dimension of me is the way it ought to be. My mind is not as clear as it should be. My emotions are not as pure as they should be. My will is not as reliable as it ought to be.

My body My body has problem with its hearing. It has problem with cataracts, and it certainly can't do what it used to do. I'm fallen.

Guest (Male): Don't go anywhere. There's more light giving truth from the Briscoes headed your way. Tellingthetruth.org and the Telling the Truth app are great resources to help you grow in your spiritual life. Packed with videos like Ask the Briscoes, articles from Stewart and Jill, and encouraging audio teaching content, you'll find a treasure trove of resources to encourage you and others in your faith. And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource when you give a gift to help more people around the world experience life in Christ. So, visit us online or download the app today.

We look forward to connecting with you. Now, here's Stewart with more about the grand mission of the church.

Stuart Briscoe: Now, God says, creation, that's where the way I intended things to be. Fall, that's the way things are. Redemption, I am going to come and I'm going to get my world back. And Revelation chapter 21 tells us this. God says, I am making all things new. I am making all things new. And then he goes into more detail. He said, I am making new heavens and new earth. And then he goes on to explain that these new heavens and these new earth will be populated by redeemed people who have come into an experience of the efficacy and the wonder and the richness of what Christ accomplished through his death and resurrection.

And this community is called the church. The community of people called out into a relationship of loving, trusting obedience to the crucified and risen Christ. And guess what? They have been commanded and invited into God's purpose in God's world to redeem God's fallen creation. That's who we are. That's who we are. Now, when we begin to think in those terms, we begin to get some idea of what it means to be the church. We look at creation. We look at fallenness. And it's very very easy to recognize it wherever you look. Nothing is the way it ought to be.

Then you look at it and you say, is God interested in that fallenness? It is God repelled by that fallenness? Is God brokenhearted by that fallenness? The answer is yes. Well, then we ask ourselves another question, is God planning to do anything about it? The answer is emphatically yes. In fact, the plan has already been in place right from the beginning. God ordained that he would operate in his fallen creation and bring about redemption that would finalize in the coming eternity in what we call glory when things would be the way they ought to be.

And the church The church is called out to be the agent of this activity that God is involved in in every dimension of fallenness today. Now, if you turn to Matthew chapter four sometime, I I don't have time to do it right now. There's an interesting statement there. It says that Jesus after John the Baptist had been killed moved from where he was living to another place. And then strangely it says, this was because he was fulfilling what was spoken by the prophet. Now, notice that word fulfillment. It's a word that keeps popping up all the way through Matthew's gospel.

It's intentional. And the reason that Matthew keeps popping up the word fulfillment is this, he's trying to explain to these new believers. Remember Matthew was written about 30 years after Christ rose from the dead and ascended into the heavens. 30 years after that you've got a new group of believers. They're running into persecution. Maybe they're wondering, wow, did we back the wrong horse? Did Did we join the wrong outfit here? Did we make a fundamental error here? And Matthew is writing saying, no, you didn't. In actual fact, you are part of something that is the fulfillment of all that God has intentionally been telling you he was going to do.

In other words, this idea of fulfillment in Matthew's gospel is to tell believers, you are part of something grand. You're part of something intentional. You're part of a plan that God originated before the creation of the world that will be consummated in the coming age. Now, if you begin to think of yourself as a little Christian and a little church having a rough time, you might be tempted to say, did I get involved in the wrong outfit here? But if you read your Bible, you'll discover, I sure didn't get involved in the wrong outfit here.

I was brought into a grand, cosmic, eternal plan. And that grand cosmic eternal plan is what? That God is in the business of creating new heavens and new earth characterized by countless millions of people redeemed by the blood of Christ. Now then, if you read on in Matthew chapter four, not only does it say that Jesus moved into Galilee to to fulfill what the prophet says, it goes on to explain, as soon as he arrived in Galilee, he made an announcement, the kingdom is at hand. The kingdom is at hand. And there's the second keyword of Matthew's gospel, fulfillment, kingdom.

Over and over and over and over again through Matthew's gospel, Matthew talks about the kingdom. And the kingdom is that which God is creating out of fallenness. It is that new thing that God is doing. And you remember that Jesus said the kingdom is at hand. He showed how when in the power of the Spirit he overcame the forces of evil, that was evidence that the kingdom had arrived. In other words, it was God creating things new. It was God restoring things, redeeming things. But he then said to his disciples, now this is how you pray.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. You said it's come. Now you We've got to pray it will come. Has it come or will it come? And the answer of course was yes. The The kingdom of God is already here. There are evidences of God redeeming people and redeeming institutions and redeeming minds and redeeming structures slowly but surely. But we are far far far away from the kingdom coming in all its fullness and all its richness. So, what are we learning? We're learning that Matthew is saying to the early believers, you are part of something grand.

This thing that is grand is the coming kingdom of God. You're invited in it. You're commanded to be part of it. And this is how you're going to do it. And immediately in Matthew chapter four, Jesus sets about his task. And where does he start? He calls a handful of disciples. And he calls a little community and he starts to work in this little community. And this little group of 12 Galileans. Let me remind you, they turned the world upside down. The church was born. The church was enacted, the called-out community, invited and commanded by God to be part of what God was doing in God's fallen world, which is bringing in the kingdom.

So, we put all this together and we begin to recognize something of the enormity of what it means to be part of the body of Christ. What it means to be invited and commanded to be caught up in what God is doing. Mission is not reserved for some people who have interests in foreign countries. It is not just for intrepid people who don't mind bugs and will eat funny food. It is that which is integral to the whole understanding of the church. One of the things I love to tell people is this, that a friend of my once said to me as he saw the crowds coming into the church where I was preaching, isn't it wonderful to see all these people coming in?

And I said, yes, it is. But there's something far more wonderful in my mind. And he said, what's that? I said, it's more wonderful to me to see them going out. Just imagine if every one of those had had a worship experience that set their hearts aflame, if they'd had a discipleship experience that deepened their relationship to Christ, and if they strengthened it and encouraged by the fellowship they enjoy with the people of God, if in the blessing of the discipleship and the worship and the fellowship they went out into a needy world and they were intent on being agents of God's redemptive work.

Just imagine what would happen. Now, we're not talking about people coming to listen to one preacher. We're talking about hundreds and thousands of people infiltrating every echelon of the culture and society around them with what intent? To bring in the kingdom. To bring about the purposes of God. For God says, I am making all things new. This is what we mean by mission.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today. We're so glad you're with us. And we pray today's message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus offers. Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth, because we're approaching our financial year end, June 30th. So, to help close the books on the strongest possible footing, some generous friends of the ministry have stepped forward with a $91,000 matching grant, which will double any gift you give today. That means your support right now is worth twice as much. Your gift doubled by this matching grant will help take Stewart and Jill's teaching and resources even further, reaching more people with the life-changing truth of God's word through radio, digital platforms, global partnerships, and even social media.

And to say thanks for your gift today, we'd love to send you Stewart's two message series, Let Your Light Shine. In this encouraging teaching, Stewart unpacks how your everyday life, no matter how ordinary, can reflect the light of Christ to the people around you. So, request your copy when you give today, and thank you for helping shine God light into the hearts of people everywhere. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. We're so glad you listened today. Be sure to come back next time for more encouraging biblical truth with the Briscoes. Experience life right here on Telling the Truth.