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Building a Resilient Church Culture: Part 2 - Clear Mission · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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While I get settled here, let me invite you to join me in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28.
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Last week I began preaching a series of sermons expressing our need to build a resilient church culture.
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Last week was the overview, the summary, at which time I made the case that we live in days of growing soft totalitarianism.
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This is largely a problem concerning the very definition of mankind and as making inroads into our culture at a sweeping pace.
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For the sake of time, I'm not going to remake that case to you, but I would encourage you to go back and listen to that recording or request my notes.
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I'll be happy to send them to you.
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I began last week with three prerequisite statements that I would like to repeat in brief this morning before we proceed any further.
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Number one, as a general practice, we preach expositional sermons at Christ Family Church.
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Most simply put, this means that we take for the sermons point or points, the main point or points of that week's text.
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And most regularly we walk through a book of the Bible together.
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We want to be especially careful not to read into a text what we want that text to say.
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And many errors have arisen through such a practice.
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So as we approach a text topically, I want each of you to be especially discerning.
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Secondly, I am not trying to be an alarmist.
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That said, your elders feel a burden to prepare you for challenges that we believe are here and are coming.
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We love you very much.
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And we want good for you and we want great glory for our God.
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And third, the six total weeks we will spend thinking about building a resilient church culture will not be nearly enough to exhaust the topic.
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Nor will each week's consideration of steps that need to be taken do that either.
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So we will need to talk more about it, both formally and informally.
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We need to ask questions, push at one another's thinking, and most importantly, spend time with the Lord in His Word as we consider the days in which we live.
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So, how do we build a resilient church culture?
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A church that will stand against the rising tide of soft totalitarianism.
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We will have to build it.
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It won't just happen.
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We will have to be strong because the tide will be destructive.
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And it will have to be cultural, ingrained into who we are as a church.
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Well, this morning we will consider the first of five things your elders believe we need to be working on.
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I gave these to you in summary last week.
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Quite by accident, they spell the anacronym CRASH.
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So we're on clear mission this morning.
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The first of those.
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See, and really I didn't do it on purpose.
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So see, clear mission.
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What is the mission of the church?
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If we are not crystal clear on why we exist, then we will always be distracted by some lesser purpose.
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Not necessarily bad things, but lesser things.
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Not the purpose of the church.
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And we will need to readily identify what battles we ought to engage in.
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And what the war is that we cannot avoid.
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So we're going to look together today at Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20.
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The closing of the gospel of Matthew.
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Before I read it, beloved, let me remind you that this is God's word to us.
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And it was written for his glory and our good.
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And so we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands.
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Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18.
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Jesus came and said to them,
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
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baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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Now in considering this text and asking the question,
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What is the mission of the church?
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We must first consider the amazing Christological statement that Jesus makes concerning himself in verse 18.
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We can't ignore, we can't rush past this to the application.
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Because he says,
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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We have to stop for a moment to steep in this reality.
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Jesus is totally in charge.
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There's not a single thing in this world that escapes his power.
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Our Lord reigns.
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ.
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This episode, as Matthew records it for us,
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takes place just after Jesus' resurrection.
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He has lived the perfectly righteous life that we cannot live,
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but that is required of us.
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He has died a most gruesome death on the cross.
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And above that, he has paid the penalty for our sin.
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He received the wrath of God in himself that was due us.
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This was a debt that with all of our penitents could not have been repaid.
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And Matthew 28 tells us,
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He has risen from the grave.
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He has defeated death.
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He has guaranteed that for those who place saving faith in his person and his work,
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we will one day ourselves be resurrected.
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It is this Jesus, right, that is speaking to these 11 disciples that he's gathered on a mountain top,
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Matthew tells us, and says,
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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What must his disciples have thought?
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What an astounding thing for him to say.
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Perhaps our minds were drawn to a text like Daniel chapter 7,
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where we see this title given of who we now realize is the Christ, the Son of Man.
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And Jesus calls himself this again and again.
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And Matthew is careful to record that for us.
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And Daniel records a vision in chapter 7 and verse 13,
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where he says,
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Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.
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And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.
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Now listen, verse 14.
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And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom
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that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away,
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and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
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This would have been a good text for the disciples' minds to go through,
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and we can't be sure that it's where it went.
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But Jesus is certainly riffing off this.
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He's saying,
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This is me.
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I am the Son of Man.
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I am the Christ.
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And I have been given all the power.
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And if their minds just happen to go to a text like this,
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then Jesus' following command would not have been a surprise to them.
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Because Daniel 7, 14 says he's been given dominion and glory and a kingdom.
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Why?
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That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
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And so just after Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him,
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he says,
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
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Because I have all authority in response to what I have just told you of my authority.
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Go.
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Now, this Greek word that we find in our English as a two-letter word, go,
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is much more complicated in the Greek.
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Surprise, as the Greek often is.
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I'm going to try to pronounce it for you.
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I don't know if I'll pronounce it correctly, but I believe it's poru fentes.
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Which means to go or to travel, right?
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So that's why we get the English go.
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That's why this text is most classically used as a missionary text.
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And it is that, right?
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It means go to the ends of the earth.
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The text itself says that we're to make disciples of all nations.
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But it is not only that.
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It is that.
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But it is not only that.
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And we can know this as we look into the Greek a little bit more.
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First, this Greek word is in the aorist verb tense.
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In this case, not indicating a particular moment of going.
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This is not a singular getting on a plane and going.
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But it is a constant activity of going.
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It's also in the passive grammatical voice, which means the subject applied in this case as you, you go, is being acted upon.
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So a fair translation of go.
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And hear me, I'm grateful that it's translated this way.
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But we could expand it by saying, in your God-ordained going, make disciples.
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Wherever the Lord sends you, be about this work of making disciples.
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Jesus gives us a command.
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It's not just for these 11.
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We now have this text and it speaks to us as well.
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He gives us this command to make disciples in our God-ordained going about.
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Which I want to be clear may include packing up and spending your life in a remote place.
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Or it may include commuting to a thankless job.
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But wherever you are sent, you ought to be part of this disciple-making endeavor.
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You see, even as Jesus has all authority, he is pleased to use secondary means to bring about his purposes.
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And praise be to God for this.
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We get the opportunity to join our Lord in his mission in this world.
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We get the joy of being involved in what it is that he is accomplishing.
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But because Jesus has the authority, it is an empowered command.
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And he does not want us to miss this.
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It's not, I have all the authority, and so I'm just going to command you to go and good luck in the going.
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He doesn't want us to miss that he intends to empower it, which is why he says in the last half of verse 20,
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And behold, which means pay attention.
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He's grabbing their attention.
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Hear this thing I'm about to say to you.
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I am with you always to the end of the age.
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Jesus possesses all the authority, commands us to make disciples, and promises to accompany us with his authority.
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And beloved, this ought to embolden the listener to Jesus' words.
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We have nothing to fear for if God is for us.
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Who can be against us?
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Regardless of where we are sent divinely by our Lord.
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Charles Spurgeon once said, half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.
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We need to rightly understand text like this.
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All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
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Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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And there exists in between these two things, bookended by the power of Christ,
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a command to go and make disciples of all nations.
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A promise to empower the work with his authority.
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But what are the means for this disciple making?
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He's told us to go and make disciples.
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Are we to go about willy-nilly?
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What are we meant to be doing as we go and make disciples?
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And if you are an astute listener, you may have gathered where I am going with this.
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As I have posed the question to us this morning, what is the mission of the church?
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The means for the command to make disciples of all nations is the church.
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This is the mission of the church, to make disciples.
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Now, how do I arrive at that from this text?
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Because I see two activities here expressed in our disciple making.
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Number one, we see the activity of baptism.
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We're to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
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and of the Holy Spirit.
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Bobby Jameson in his book, Understanding Baptism, defined baptism in this way.
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Quote,
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Baptism is a church's act of affirming and portraying a believer's union with Christ
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by immersing him or her in water.
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And a believer's act of publicly committing him or herself to Christ and his people,
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thereby uniting a believer to the church and marking off him or her from the world.
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Baptism is an ordinance of the church.
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The word ordinance from the Latin ordinate, which means to put in order.
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Baptism is the membership ordinance.
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It's how we mark off who is part of the church and who is not part of the church.
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We don't have time to prove this definition out from the word this morning.
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I'd love to spend some time with you thinking about this together.
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But we believe that baptizing individuals in the name of our triune God is this welcoming ordinance
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of the church.
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Normatively, churches baptize.
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We can find an exception.
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The case of the Ethiopian eunuch being sent home as the only Christian to a people who had yet to hear the gospel.
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But this is not normative in the Bible.
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It's normative that churches are baptizing.
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Second, we see in the text teaching, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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The church is given the ongoing work of teaching the ways of Jesus.
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And this happens both in the formal gathering of the church and in the informal relationships with the church.
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Let me show you that from Ephesians chapter 4.
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You could turn there if you'd like.
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If not, I'll try to read it carefully for you.
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Beginning in verse 11 and following.
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And Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, which I would argue is the word.
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We now have the apostles and the prophets in the word.
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The evangelists, the shepherd teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
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For building up the body of Christ.
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You see both a formal thing happening and the equipping of saints for work of ministry.
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Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
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To mature manhood.
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To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
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So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.
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By human cunning.
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By craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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Rather, speaking the truth in love.
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Which is what?
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It's this work of us teaching one another.
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We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.
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Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together.
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Every joint with which it is equipped.
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When each part is working properly.
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Makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
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The church, both formally and informally.
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Gathered and sent is meant to be about this work of teaching disciples to observe all that Jesus commanded.
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And this work will not be over until Christ returns.
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We need to be taught and taught and taught.
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Because we're not just learning information.
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We're learning to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.
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We're learning to be obedient.
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This is not a work that will be finished until Christ returns.
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I am building a house right now.
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This task will not be completed until the house is completed.
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I cannot say that I have made a house yet.
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I'm in the process of making a house.
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I cannot merely break ground on the job site and say that I have built a house.
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I'm in the process.
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It is being built.
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This text is a command to make disciples.
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People who follow Jesus.
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Not merely converts, but disciples.
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Teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.
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This task will not be done.
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Ephesians 4.13
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Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
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To mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
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What a work ahead of us while the Lord tarries.
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While we await Him making disciples.
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Seeing people come into the faith and seeing them toward maturity in Christ.
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Now, I want to take a step away from our text, Matthew 28, for a bit to consider this further.
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Jonathan Lehman, the editorial director for Nine Marks, is characterized in numerous publications,
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but most recently in a new little book entitled, What is the Church's Mission?
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How timely and fitting.
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He's characterized five different types of churches.
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Each with a different mission.
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And I want to read you a brief excerpt from this little book to kind of help us wrap our minds around
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the potential dangers of not having a clear view of what the mission of the church is.
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So only one of these five is commendable, to be clear.
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Quote, church number one emphasizes the great commission and Jesus' command to make disciples.
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Yet when they say make disciples, they mean make converts.
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So church number one gears everything in the church toward non-Christians.
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As if local churches basically exist for the sake of evangelism.
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They talk about Christian growth some, but their programs focus on individuals, not the corporate body or family.
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They don't see the connection between their evangelism and being a vibrant, united, otherworldly family.
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Based on church number one's mission playbook, let's call it Seekers Church.
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Church number two is similar to church number one,
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but it appeals less to middle class longings for things like purpose
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and more to basic human desires for health and wealth.
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Join their service on Sunday and you'll hear about God's desire to bless us.
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If only we would have enough faith.
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Based on its playbook, let's call church number two, Prosperity Church.
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While churches number one and number two emphasize how Jesus is here for us,
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church number three and number four emphasize how we are here for Jesus.
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Church number three, we can call Justice Church.
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Join them on Sunday and you'll hear the preacher say,
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we should care for the downtrodden, wake up to the nation's structural injustices,
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attend to the environment, and generally do good in the world.
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Church number four is another version of church number three,
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but it focuses on the structural injustices that concern political conservatives,
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like abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious freedom.
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Call it Righteous Nation Church.
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It wants to save the nation from moral decay and make it safe for Christianity.
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At best, both Justice Church and Righteous Nation Church focus on discipleship,
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the moral shape of Christians, and the command to love our neighbors.
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At worst, they risk sliding a foot or at least a toe into Phariseeism,
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meaning they would lay down laws and political certainties where Scripture doesn't.
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Members leave church on Sundays not so much thanking God for His grace in their lives,
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but feeling superior to other people because of their moral and political convictions.
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To be sure, many churches occupy a couple of these examples.
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I'm simply outlining stock types, not trying to caricature your church so that we can all be more careful.
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Furthermore, I trust that some variety between churches is God-given,
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just like an individual Christian working on Wall Street and one teaching in a run-down school
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will have different daily ministries.
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So a church in the suburbs might have a strong counseling ministry,
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while a church next door to a refugee camp might excel in serving the poor.
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Praise God.
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Still, there's a difference between being sensitive to the economic waves and political winds surrounding us
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and being driven by those waves and winds.
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When churches are driven, their playbooks, their sense of their mission
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easily succumb to biblical imbalances and worldly agendas.
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Seekers' church show signs of having succumbed to consumerism,
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prosperity church to materialism,
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justice church to political progressivism,
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and righteous nation church to nationalism,
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even if all four have orthodox statements of faith.
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And you can see with all of these caricatures,
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seekers, prosperity, justice, righteous nation,
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that there's some good and some truth at the base of it all.
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But when it becomes the point, when it becomes the mission of the church,
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it can go horribly awry.
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This is why I'm trying to make this case, right?
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We need to have a very clear view.
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What is the mission of the church?
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Otherwise, we will be distracted.
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Lehman goes on to speak of the church he believes is most biblical.
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That is the church I am making a case for today.
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By asking two important questions.
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Number one, what is the mission of the church acting all together?
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What do we do as Christ family church?
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And secondly, what is the mission of the church members sent from that church throughout the week?
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Or what is our mission and what is your mission?
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And I think this distinction is helpful.
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And I think this is something that we need to be chewing on and thinking about together.
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He answers these two questions simply.
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And I think this is right on.
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Number one, what is the mission of the church acting all together?
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Acting together as a church, our mission is to make disciples.
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That's what we do as a church.
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Number two, what is the mission of church members throughout the week?
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Living as individuals, church members throughout the week are to be disciples.
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Be followers of Jesus Christ.
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So the church acting together reads the Bible, preaches the Bible, prays the Bible, sings the Bible,
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and sees the Bible in the ordinances of baptism and communion.
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We do so by the prescription of the Bible.
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We do what the scripture tells us to do when we gather as a church.
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This disciple making together will include things like sending you to your respective spheres to share the good news of Jesus,
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teaching you to be faithful husbands and wives, parents and children,
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equipping you to work as unto the Lord and not for men.
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It may also include things like starting a biblical counseling center or a pastoral residency,
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planting new churches or starting a school.
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But the efforts of the church acting together must always be aimed at making disciples of all nations,
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baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
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teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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There's so much in this world that wants to drag our attention away from this primary, singular purpose of the church together.
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And if we do this well, church members then will be equipped to be salt and light in their respective spheres,
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always with a mind to the collective work of the church's mission to make disciples.
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This means that you may be led into other types of ministry work.
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But what is the mission of the church?
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Now, we have decided as a church to be about the work of church planting because we know at some level,
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we've known this, this is not new information for most of you,
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that the mission of the church is to make disciples.
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After all, the church is not merely an evangelistic outreach
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or a place for therapeutic lessons
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or a lecture or concert series.
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The church is not only meant to be your social network,
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although it's good that you know people here and you're networking together,
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but it's not just that.
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The church is not a theological club
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where it affirms your reading of the Bible
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and you feel better about yourself
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because we're all on the same page theologically,
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which is a good thing to be on the same page theologically,
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but that's not why it exists primarily.
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The church has a mission
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and the mission of the church
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has a guaranteed outcome
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because it's empowered by Christ
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who has all authority
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and will be with us always.
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Turn back a couple of pages
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in the Gospel of Matthew to Matthew chapter 16.
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I'll begin reading in verse 13.
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Jesus came along with his disciples
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into the district of Caesarea Philippi.
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He asked those disciples,
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who do people say that the Son of Man is?
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The reason I went to Daniel chapter 7
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was because I think that the backdrop of Matthew 28
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has Matthew 16 in mind
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where Jesus asked this question,
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who do people say that the Son of Man is?
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And they said,
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some say John the Baptist,
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others say Elijah,
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and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
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They've misunderstood that old text.
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Jesus says to them,
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but who do you say that I am?
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And one of the rare instances that Peter speaks up,
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he gets it right.
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Verse 16,
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Simon Peter replied,
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you are the Christ,
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the Son of the living God.
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What a revelatory moment.
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You are the Christ.
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You're the promised one,
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the deliverer,
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the Son of the living God.
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And Jesus answered him,
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blessed are you,
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Simon Barjona,
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for flesh and blood
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has not revealed this to you,
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but my Father who is in heaven.
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This is grace that you would understand
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and recognize this.
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And I tell you,
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you are Peter and on this rock,
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not Peter,
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but on the truth that he's just proclaimed,
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on that rock,
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I will build my church.
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That phrase is significant.
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Jesus will build his church.
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We are secondary means
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as we go through the effort
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of making disciples.
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Secondary.
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He is primary.
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We are secondary.
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I will build my church
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and the gates of hell
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shall not prevail against it.
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I don't know how I missed
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in my Christian living
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the significance
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of the last part of verse 18.
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I don't know how in my thinking
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I've constantly thought of the church
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as on the defense
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in a hostile culture.
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In this culture,
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this tide of soft totalitarianism,
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I don't know how
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because it's so very clear
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right here in the text.
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And praise God for the day
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that I went,
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wait,
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hell is in the defensive position
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and the church is on the advance.
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Praise God.
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And we don't do it on our own.
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It's because Jesus goes with us
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and he has all authority.
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It is guaranteed.
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He's going to build the church
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and the church is going to
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knock down the gates of hell.
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And look how,
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look how the church does it.
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Verse 19.
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Don't miss this.
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Verse 19.
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I will give you the keys
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of the kingdom of heaven.
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And whatever you bind on earth
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shall be bound in heaven
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and whatever you loose on earth
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shall be loosed in heaven.
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There's an extended authority
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given to the church
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to make disciples.
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If you jump a couple of chapters later
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to Matthew chapter 18,
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we see the process
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for church discipline.
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Right?
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Carefully correcting those
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who claim to be in Christ.
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Helping them to repent and believe.
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And if they're unwilling
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to repent and believe,
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to see them out of the church.
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And it's right after that text
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that again this phrase is repeated.
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To you has been given
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the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
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Right?
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We have a mission
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and it's guaranteed
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and Christ accompanies us in it
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and he's given us
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an authority to make disciples
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that he has promised
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to empower.
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If we are not
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crystal clear on why we exist,
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then we will always be distracted
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by some lesser purpose.
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Something maybe you need
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to be involved with,
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but perhaps the church doesn't.
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We will need,
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as a church,
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to stay the course
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against the tide
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of soft totalitarianism
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by recognizing
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and reminding one another
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that the church
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has a mission
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to make disciples
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of the Lord Jesus Christ
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by the power that belongs
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to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Christ.
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And beloved,
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this will take sacrifice
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on our behalf.
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It won't be easy.
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We are not called
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to a peacetime mentality,
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but to a wartime mentality.
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Right?
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Our weapons are love
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and hospitality
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and the word boldly spoken.
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It's going to take sacrifice,
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but the reward
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will be great.
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It's worth it.
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It's worth every ounce
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of sacrifice.
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Anything that we could give
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in this life
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is going to be worth
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the Christ we will gain
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for eternity.
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Thomas Brooks wants to,
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this is on your bulletin,
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Christ dwells in that heart
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most imminently
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that hath emptied itself
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of itself.
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Let's pray together.