Sunday Morning Missionary Part 10

Where Do We Go From Here

Sermons can be powerful and emotional in the moment they are preached. But their effectiveness can really only be seen in the days and weeks that follow. Certainly, God will use words to bring about immediate heart change, but that can truly only be discerned in time. So for Sunday Morning Missionaries, the response to our time together is just as important as the time together.

One of the most compelling stories in the New Testament occurs in Acts Chapter 2. In response to having met and spent time with the risen Lord, Peter and Jesus' other followers (about 120 of them) are gathering regularly to pray. At one point when they were together, the Holy Spirit descended on them, indwelt them, and empowered them. The Spirit's arrival drew so much attention that people from across Jerusalem gathered around the place Jesus' followers were meeting. For many of them, this would be the first day of their new life. What they witnessed and what they heard would have such a profound effect on them that the course of their lives would forever be altered.

Jesus' followers were proclaiming God's powerful works, but what made it most astonishing was that as they spoke, everyone that gathered around heard it in their own native language. Not only were they hearing about God's powerful and majestic works, they were witnessing it firsthand. Some of the people in the crowd tried to deny what they were seeing. They tried to say Jesus' followers were drunk. But, who ever heard of wine giving you the ability to speak clearly or coherently in multiple languages at the exact same time? This was obviously God's work.

From among Jesus' followers, Peter steps forward and in spite of the accusations preaches the first Gospel message. Fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, Peter proclaimed Jesus' eternal identity, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection. His message is easily summarized by Acts 2:36, "Let all of the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

When Peter quit preaching, God didn't quit working. The Spirit used Peter's words to affect a deep response in those listening. The Scripture says, "When they heard Peter's words, they were cut to the heart, and asked, 'What shall we do.'" They wanted to know, how to respond to this truth that they had just come to understand. Peter's answer called them to a life marked by what they now believed about Jesus. We know their response was genuine, because as chapter 2 closes in verses 42-27, Luke writes of the devotion of these new believers.

As a preacher, I pray regularly for the Holy Spirit to anoint my words, and ask that they be inspired like Peter's words were inspired. I ask that He not quit working when I quit preaching. I pray that every person I preach to be cut to the heart and desperate to know how to respond.  I pray that those that attend our church picking and choosing what they want like they filtering through clothes on a department store rack are so radically affected by God’s truth and grace that they cannot be the same. I pray they are empowered to respond like those earliest believers in the Gospel message because they are so moved by God’s power and presence that they want to direct all of their life to bring glory and honor to the Creator who chose to be their Savior. I pray that even those who have grown and become Sunday Morning Missionaries are sent out as Everyday Missionaries.

The Sunday Morning Missionary came to church to worship by serving others and to model Gospel power so others might hear this great news. She comes to join with her family united in Christ and empowered by the Spirit to offer up authentic heartfelt worship to our awesome God while encouraging others to do the same. He came to sit under the teaching of God's authoritative and life changing Word, to hear from God, to be sanctified by God’s truth and exhorted by His grace. Together they now come to the moment that awaits us all when brought face to face with the great news of God’s work in Christ for us, "Where do I go from here? What do I do now?"

Like Peter and the entirety of the Scripture, my answer is to live in faith; trust Jesus and act accordingly.  Sunday Morning Missionaries long to know, what now, because they know they are about to be Sunday Afternoon Missionaries, Work Place Missionaries, and Neighborhood Missionaries. When Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you,” He was defining for us what the entirety of our lives is to look like, and how our worshipful response to His truth should look. Everywhere we go, everything we do, every circumstance living for opportunities to worship and glorify God by leading others to worship and glorify God.

Where do we go from here? We step into the next moments and circumstance of our life with this one singular motive, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31)” You see, Sunday morning isn’t the only time we are called to worship on mission. We worship by living out His mission in faithful, obedient, Gospel motivated response to His truth Sunday through Saturday, 24/7/365. 

Sunday Morning Missionary Part 9

Preach The Word

2 Timothy 4:1-3 (ESV)
¹ I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living
and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke,
and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Participation in the worship gathering doesn’t end with the music. Paul’s instruction doesn’t just have implications for the preacher, but also those who receive the preaching. Preaching sound doctrine must be heard to be effective. Without hearers of the word the preacher cannot truly preach. But together, we glorify God as preachers proclaim God’s word and hearers listen to be reproved, rebuked and exhorted by sound doctrine.

To reprove is to convict someone of what they have done wrong. When the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery before Jesus (John 8:1-11), His response reproved or convicted them of their own sin. “’He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest, even unto the last” (John 8:7-8a ESV). By the preaching of God’s word, the hearer should be able to identify their sin and therefore recognize their need of a Savior.

The word translated rebuke means to admonish strongly, with urgency, and authority. Jesus rebuked demons (Mark 1:25) when He cast them out of people, a storm when He commanded it to stop (Mar 4:39), and even a follower like Peter when necessary (Mar 8:33). The intent in Paul’s command to Timothy is to not only convince people of their sins, but to command them to stop their rebellion.

By themselves, these first two might come across as harsh and cruel, but preaching is not complete without exhortation. To exhort is to encourage or to spur on. Just as John the Baptist did when he preached the Gospel. While reproving and rebuking may highlight our failures, exhorting encourages us to recognize the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It reminds us that our righteousness, our holiness, our forgiveness, and salvation are secure in Him, and encourages us to pursue Him more fully.

When the word has been preached those that have heard should have a larger and higher view of God. They should have a fuller view of His majesty and holiness, and a greater respect for His grace and mercy; thereby being made ready to live all of life in response to His great work on their behalf.

There is no room for substitutes. What we don’t need is more self-help, motivational, find the power within yourself ear-ticklers. Jesus told His disciples, “The one who hears you hears me” (Luke 16:10). Martin Luther held that preachers were the “mouthpiece of God. He said, “The Creator of heaven and earth speaks with you through his preachers. John Calvin taught, “He (God) deigns to consecrate the mouths and tongues of men to His service, making His own voice to be heard in them. Henry Bullinger wrote in the Second Helvetic Confession, “Preaching the word of God is the Word of God.”

What responsibility this adds to the preacher and his own preparation. Not just in his study and understanding of the Scriptures, but also in his own life, that as he approaches the pulpit he is ready by God’s grace to proclaim God’s word that God’s people might hear God’s voice. But, make no mistake; the responsibility does not just fall to the preacher, but also to the hearer. For how can one preach to another who is so distracted by the worries of life that she can’t pay attention, or whose pursuit of happiness has left him so tired that he cannot stay awake, or who quenches the Spirit and denies the truth.

Sunday Morning Missionaries don’t quit worshipping because they quit singing. They continue worshipping as they meet Jesus in the Word. They bow their hearts in humble adoration as they are confronted with the truth and restored by His grace. Sunday Morning Missionaries worship as they confess their sin and rely on the forgiveness of their Savior. Sunday Morning Missionaries worship as they eagerly submit themselves to God’s word that they might be renewed and made ready to live in a manner worthy of their calling.