Being a People of Hope

Sermon Series: Biblical Ways of Being
Acts 2 and selected texts

February 17, 2008

Manuscript

Big Idea: Jesus has given us a message that matters and he has called us to share it.

Today we take our final step in our series Biblical Ways of Being. In this series we are taking advantage of these early days of the New Year to give careful thought to our ways as individuals and as a church. We are reflecting back about last year and looking ahead to this next year in an effort to identify things we want to adjust about the kind of people we are as individuals and the kind of church we are as a people together.

This week’s Biblical Way of Being: Being a people of hope.

Last year we studied through the history of the book of Acts which records first 30 years or so of the church. In the early chapters of that record, we have the foundational purpose and call on the church laid out for us. What you find when review that history is a group of Christ followers who have been captured by the miracle of the resurrection. They are consumed by the Holy Spirit. And they were determined and eager to spread the sin-forgiving, life-transforming...hope-generating truth of Jesus to everyone God put in their path. As we studied that early history through, it was very apparent that the Church was an unstoppable force.

Now, Let me ask you: What do the following all have in common?

The Vietnam War, Nixon presidency, Roman Empire, Asbestos Insulation, Mike Tyson’s boxing career, Brittany Spears career, Marion Jones’ Olympic career, The Edsel, New England Patriots 07-08 football season, Space Shuttle Columbia, Titanic, Rudy Giuliani’s run for the White House and Martha Stewarts investment strategy.

What do all these have in common? They were efforts that started well...but, ended poorly?

Acts tells us the local church started great...but, how is the local church doing today? We know it started well...but, how is it going now?

Stats on state of the church:

Overall, the Barna Research Group found that the typical Protestant church has 89 adults in attendance during an average weekend.
Most of the mainline denominations all report a net loss over the past 30 years while the population has grown and average of 18.1%.
Approximately 2700 churches close their doors each year (8/day), while about 1100 (3/day) are started.
Half of all churches in 2000 did not add even one new member through conversion.
The average person in one major denomination invites one person to church every 28 years. (Notes from talk by Ray Johnston, Bayside Church).

At the beginning, in Acts 1 when the first believers gathered together after the resurrection they asked Jesus about what he was going to do next and if he was finally going to set up his earthly kingdom. And Jesus basically tells them that the timing on that is not for them to know. What he does want them to know is recorded in verse 8, “...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Then, the Holy Spirit comes and fills them and empowers them like never before to fulfill this call to be witnesses in Chapter 2. That call and empowerment is still our call and empowerment today. We are called to be a people of vision and hope. We are called to be committed to God’s assignment for us, valuing what God values and trusting him for what he calls us to. We are to be a people captured by the miracle of the resurrection, consumed by the filling of the Holy Spirit and passionate about spreading and declaring the sin-forgiving, life-transforming and hope-generating truth of Jesus to everyone God puts in our path.

[Transition] – As we move along together as a church in the years ahead of us, we must never lose sight of our call...our mission and our hope. One of the tragic realities that we must be on guard against is the reality that the older a church gets, the greater the risk that they lose sight of their call...get distracted from their mission and experienced a diminished sense of optimism and hope for their message.

An article in Outreach magazine reports the results of the research: “Established churches—40 to 190 years old—are, on average, declining. All churches started between 1810 and 1960 (excluding the 1920s) declined in attendance from 2003 to 2004.” And the most common explanation for this is the leakage of call, vision and hope.

Folks, bottomline...we must never forget that we have a message that matters!!! Look with me at Acts 2:22-39

DON’T FORGET, WE HAVE A MESSAGE THAT MATTERS (Acts 2:22-39).

When I think about our church I believe God is calling us to be a church full of people who are captured by the truth that Jesus is their only hope for life and eternity. The believers in the early chapters of the church in Acts were captured by the truth that Jesus was their only hope for life and eternity.

[Illustration] – People are spiritually hungry. People need what Jesus provides. Blaise Pascal wrote, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator” (DeMoss, The Little Red Book of Wisdom, p. 164). As humans, have an obsession to fill the vacuum inside us. And we seem to be drawn like an insect to fire, to anything and everything other than God. I mean, you have the obvious things like substance use and abuse....sexual compulsions of all sorts...and the paranormal fascination...but, then you have things like obsessive care for the environment or a focus on some other sort of humanitarian need or service; good things...but, only a shadow of the truth but not the core truth of Jesus. Make no mistake, people are spiritually hungry...and deep inside them is a gnawing hankering for fulfillment, for meaning, for purpose and to make sense of life and their place in it.

And, here’s the thing we must never lose sight of....we have a message that matters for them. We are called to point them to the truth that can fill their void. It is so tempting to think, “Well, I’ve found the truth...I’ve found Jesus...but, the folks in my world don’t really care about that. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be interested...Jesus probably isn’t all that relevant to them.” He isn’t? Folks, it’s so easy to forget that we have a message that matters!

Think about your own life...take a fresh inventory on the impact Jesus has had in your life and what he as done for you. Jesus is your only hope for forgiveness and salvation from your sin right? Other viable alternatives? Jesus is your only hope for peace with God, right? Other viable alternatives? The power of Jesus activated in your life through the Holy Spirit is your only hope for life transformation and freedom from all manner of life destroying and freedom arresting behaviors and habits, right? Jesus is your only hope for meaning and purpose in your life right?

I want you to see a Biblical recap of why our message matters. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 1:3-14. Have people stand to read the text.

This message about the huge impact of Jesus in our lives...matters to every person you lock eyes with in the circulation of your life. Jesus is their only real hope for life and eternity. Jesus changed your life...do you believe he can change the life of your co-worker, your spouse, your child, your neighbor, the kid on your team or the kid in class?

[Transition] – We must never let ourselves forget that we have a message that matters! And we must never let ourselves forget that we are called to share it! Remember Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses....” {locally} in the city Jerusalem...in the region, Judea...is Samaria, or to those different than you and {globally} to the ends of the earth”

DON’T FORGET, WE ARE CALLED TO SHARE IT!

God is calling us to be contagiously eager to live, model it and share our amazing message that matters with others in our lives. The New Testament repeatedly teaches that we are called to be a people who take every opportunity to:

Win people over to the hope that’s found in Christ
Give of ourselves in some way to grow them in Christ
And to be intentional about equipping them to serve him so that they are contagious people of vision and hope.

One way to think about it is this: We are to be a great commission...great commandment people. Matthew 28:18-19 has come to be known as the Great Commission...it was some of Jesus’ parting words before he ascended into Heaven. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

We are to be a great commission people...and we are to be a great commandment people. The great commandment is found in Matthew 22:37-38 where Jesus summed up all the law and the teachings of the prophets when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.” We have a message that matters and we are called to live it...model it...share it...and promote it however we can. Jesus was passionate about this...and he has called us to be his witnesses...his ambassadors...his representatives...to take the message of his love that is so rich and matters so much to those God brings into our path.

[Transition] – The New Testament pulsates with God’s love for people and his deep desire for them to be close to him. I want you to see a couple of classic examples... Turn to Luke 15.

The three parables Jesus tells here back to back have some common elements. In each parable someone loses something that is very valuable to them. In two of the three there is an all out search for the lost item. And in all three when the lost item is found, there is a huge celebration. And in each story Jesus makes it clear that the celebration is nothing compared to the celebration that occurs in heaven when one person who is disconnected from God returns to him. These three stories give us some insight into deep, deep love of God for people. People matter to God and he has given us a message that matters to them...a message that offers hope for life and hope for eternity. And we are to live it and model it and share it at every opportunity God places in our path.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering his seed some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it immediately. Some fell among the rocks where it sprang up quickly but died out quickly too. Some fell among the thorns and the thorns choked out the plants and still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop...a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Now, there are a ton of lessons in this parable, but here’s the one I want to highlight for today: The farmer in this parable is called to do one thing...which is, what? Sow seed. He’s responsible for broadcasting seed...that’s it. Regardless of the receptivity of the soil, he is called to spread seed.

[Illustration] – Abe Sandler was with us this past week. He’s a converted Jew and an Alliance evangelist to the Jewish people in New York. He kept saying all week, “My people are not unreachable, they’re just un-reached! And I’ve found that the more I sow, the more God brings a harvest. So, I keep sowing and sowing and sowing. Despite the slow and arduous task of working to open the eyes of Jewish people to the truth that Jesus is the messiah, Abe was not discouraged in the least. Even at age 65, he is filled with vision and hope for his people because he’s convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has a message that matters and he’s eager to share it.

Folks, we serve a God who loves people...and he’s given us a message that matters...its good seed...and our call is to sow it...to share it...and God takes care of the rest. God does his part...drawing, working on hearts, opening doors, creating opportunities, breaking through spiritual blindness and hard hearts...and we are to do our part...share the message that matters every time we have an opportunity.

Conclusion

Bottom line...we’ve got the spiritual goods...we’ve got the life-transforming and eternal life transforming news that people in our world need desperately. Please realize, not sharing it is like solving the mysteries of cancer and telling no one.

When you discover a great thing, you tell others about it...you tell about your experience at a great restaurant or you invite them to come along with you because it was so good and you want them to experience it. You tell people about a great sale that’s going on at your favorite store or how much fun some experience was etc. Allow yourself to tell about the wonders of God in your life just as naturally.

[Illustration] - Recently there as an extensive study done about effectiveness of churches in winning, growing and equipping people to love and serve Jesus. And part of the research tried to get at the reasons someone comes to church in the first place. The research found that the top three reasons people come to church are 1) I was invited by a friend or relative. 2) Someone recommended it to me. 3) I know someone who attended (Reveal, page, 96). Do you hear the common denominator in those top reasons? There was a person who had a message that mattered and a passion to live it out in front of their friends and family and make it known.

Nearly 18 years ago now, God established us as a church in this community, strategically placed in one of the key hubs of community activity and right on the freeway...God clearly placed us here...with a message that matters and a call to live it and share it. And many of you are fully engaged in the effort in one way or another. Some of you are engaged behind the scenes, some of you are engaged in the trenches, some of you are engaged in support type ministries and others of you are engaged in leadership oversight. Some of you are engaged in ministry here around the church. Others of you are engaged in strategic ways out in the community. In one way or another many of you are engaged in the effort and you are extending your Jesus transformed heart to those around you. And FOLKS...it’s making a difference:

Last year, to the best of our knowledge 42 kids, 79 students, and 20 adults placed their trust in Jesus to be their savior.
There are growing numbers of adults and students in small groups
There were more ministry and leadership training and equipping opportunities last year than ever before in our Children, Students and adult areas.
Recently, I received a notice from the National Office of the Christian and Missionary Alliance recognizing that our Missions support dollars had grown significantly over the previous year.
Last October several of you joined me and my family in the El Dorado Food Bank Walk for Hunger.
Last December, our Dorcus Quilters ministry made and donated ______ quilts to the Court Appointed Special Advocates program in El Dorado County.
Also last December, we held a benefit Christmas Choral Concert and raised about 2200 dollars which were dispersed among, our church benevolent account, the Hope House transitional housing ministry.
Last week I received two letters of thanks: One from Prison Entrepreneur Program thanking us for an overwhelming response to sponsoring inmates in the PEP program. The letter said they received sponsorships of about 10k dollars of pledges of another 10k. One of these was a group of High School students who got together to sponsor a guy. The other letter was from The Community for violence-free relationships, formerly the El Dorado Women’s Center. They were thanking our MOPS program for giving a gift of 1000 dollars.

All these types of efforts tell me something: Many of you understand --we have a message that matters and a call to live it, model it and share it. It tells me that you are full of vision and full of optimism because Jesus is the absolute hope of the world and you want to demonstrate that any way you can.

This is a great start...a great trend...but, let’s not drift off course and head towards a poor ending like some of the things we mentioned at the beginning of our time.

Let’s keep that spirit and that conviction alive and let’s keep declaring the message of Jesus that matters to a world that needs him so desperately.