Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 28 – July 1998
Employed By Jesus!
Sermon by Rev. J. Ter Horst on Matthew 16:18 and Acts 1:8
Scripture Readings: Psalm 27; Ephesians 4:1-16
Suggested Hymns: Bow 63; 191; 385; 489; 241; 533
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction – About Expectations!
It would be a profitable exercise – conduct a survey amongst the members of this congregation – a survey about expectations. Encourage people to verbalise their expectations. All too often our expectations are not verbalised. When people marry they expect their spouse will behave in a particular way. Parents assume their children will gladly follow many of their living patterns. Children soon develop expectations about their parents. The same is true for our life together as a congregation. Ministers have expectations from their congregations, and vice versa. Elders assume the minister will undertake certain tasks. The question is, do we ever verbalise those expectations? Sadly, our expectations of others are not normally discussed. That is, unless those expectations are not being met!
What are your expectations from the church? What do you assume the church ought to be doing? How should it spend its funds, and use its talents? These are interesting questions, well worth discussing. However, when it’s all said and done it is not ultimately important what you expect from the church. The only and ultimate important expectation is that which God has of us. That expectation is: “and you will be my witnesses”. Let me repeat it, “and you will be my witnesses”. It is an expectation accompanied by a promise, “…I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prove stronger than it.”
Today, let us devote our attention to what God expects from us, and, what we may expect from Him. Let us look first at what we can expect, or what we call, the promise, “I will build my Church”. Then we will focus briefly on the expectation, the imperative: “You will be my witnesses.”
Point 1 – The Promise: Matthew 16:18
Do you have any special verses in the Bible that you cherish more than others? Verses that for one reason or another have that unique meaning and value? For many people, Matthew 16:18 is one of those verses. “…I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prove stronger than my Church!”
One of the things people love about this verse is that Jesus refers to it as “His Church”. The Church does not belong to you, or to me. It is not the exclusive property of any one group of people. The Church is not the sole property of the Session. No single denomination has a monopoly on the Church. The Church belongs to Jesus! Jesus calls it “His church”. The apostle Paul, addressing some of the members of this Church, wrote, “you were bought at a price”. In other words, Jesus paid to make the Church His own. And the Church was no bargain, red light special that came at a rock-bottom price. It cost the Lord Jesus His life. It cost Him total, though temporary, separation from His Father. But Jesus paid the price. Paid it in obedience to the Father, and out of His infinite love for us. Peter says, as a result of that, Christians are, “…a people belonging to God,” or, as we sometimes sing, “With His own blood He bought Her and for Her life He died.”
The Church belongs to Jesus. The question is, “Do you belong, to this Church of Jesus?” I do! I am sure many of you do. Perhaps most of you do! However, in all likelihood there are people here today who are not yet members of Jesus’ Church. Those people may be wondering about how to join this Church. Well, we do not join this church simply by a transfer of membership. We cannot join this church because we enjoy its activities. There are no membership cards in the pew for you to sign. Membership comes by confessing your sin to Jesus in repentance. Membership comes by asking Him to save you. To set you free from your slavery to Satan. To remove from your life both the penalty and power of your disobedience. When a person repents of their sin and disobedience, and trusts Jesus to save them, that person joins the Church. And they remain a member for life.
The Church for which Jesus died, is the Church for which He will also provide. “I will build…” said Jesus! Peter, writing to Christians, says, “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” Don’t you find that extremely encouraging?
In spite of all our shortcomings, Jesus will go right on building. At times the preaching of God’s Word may not be particularly inspiring. Worship services may not always leave us filled with joy and assurance. There will be times when the local church fails miserably in seeking to establish a Christian witness. Congregations undergo periods of mistrust, and find forgiving love absent. At times your devotion to Jesus and His Church may be far from what He has every right to expect. Our selfish attitudes even proving a hindrance to Jesus. But He will keep on building. The Church belongs to Him. Jesus will remain faithful to His promise.
Congregation, please note that it is a promise! But it is also a warning! A warning to those who attempt to undermine the Church. Jude describes people like that as “…men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” [vs.19]. It is a warning to those who insist on continually attacking the leadership of the Church, as Paul writes to Timothy, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” [2Tim.4:3]. It is a warning to those who want to highjack the Church, so they may do with it what they think is right and proper.
My brother and sister in Christ, let us all treat the Church of Jesus Christ with respect. Let us treat one another with respect. All of us as Christians belong to the Church of Jesus. Jesus died for your sins, as surely as He did for the believer sitting next to you in the pew. The text from Matthew 16 is a wonderful promise to claim. Let us take hold of it with the hands of faith. May we accept both His promise, and His warning.
This Church, which is the Church belonging to Jesus, the Church Jesus provides for, is a strong church. At times that may not be particularly evident. For example, in some congregations the numbers are small. In some congregations the effectiveness of its witness minimal. Some congregations will need to meet in secret for fear of persecution. Yet Jesus promised His disciples that not even Hell itself, would ever overpower His Church.
Down through the history of time, Satan has attempted this. Satan had been busy in many and varied ways to destroy the Church. And He is still busy at it today. He works constantly in his efforts to destroy the Church of Jesus. When persecution from without is not effective, he sows seeds of discord within the Church. At times he will be responsible for brutally murdering the members of God’s Church. That still happens in more countries than we care to count. At other times he will just cause division and set the Church against itself. Even a cursory glance at our world will show the effectiveness of this ploy. He knows, just as Jesus does, that a house divided against itself cannot stand. In some places he will inflict the Church with horrific poverty, challenging the very faith of God’s people. In other places he will use prosperity in the Church in tempting people to self-sufficiency. Satan suffers no shortage of ideas to undermine the faith of God’s people, God’s Church. His strength and cunning ought never to be underestimated.
But the Church stands strong, even against its arch-enemy, Hell itself: “I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” What a wonderful God we have, congregation. The well-being of the Church is not our ultimate responsibility. Jesus, at His Ascension did not yell from the cloud to the disciples, “See you later, do the best you can!” What He said was, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… and surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age [Matthew 28:19-20]. The inspired Apostle adds, “And God placed a things under His feet (the feet of Jesus that is), and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His Body, the fullness Him who fills everything in every way” [Eph.1:22]. All things have been given in submission to Jesus, for the Church. That is, for your benefit and mine. What a beautiful promise!
Point 2 – The Command of Jesus: Acts: 1:8
Congregation, try and imagine having a job at which you were not required to work, but still received an income. All you were required to do was show up occasionally. Nothing more; just be there! Then at the end of the week your boss would give you a pay cheque. With work like that available, I’m sure there would not be any voluntary unemployment. Some people may be tempted to think that way about church membership. After all, if Jesus promises to build His Church, what need is there for us to do anything? Let’s just show up, and leave the rest to Jesus.
But you know, and I know that that is not the way it works. After telling the disciples, “I will build my Church”, Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Immediately after saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…” Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Just prior to the Ascension, Jesus told the disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…“
Congregation, be encouraged as you see again that the grace of God precedes the command of God. This is God’s way of dealing with us. God always equips before He commissions. God always prepares, before He sends. Before He asks, He provides. “Receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” God gives power, then He sends us to work. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter who had previously denied knowing Jesus, now preaches Him boldly. It is this power that transforms Saul into Paul. So what is this ‘power’ the Holy Spirit provides?
It is the power to replace selfishness with selflessness. It is the power that enables us to do God’s will, and give up our own. God’s people are empowered to obey His commandments. It is the power that allows us to become humble, as Jesus was. It gives us the courage and boldness to wash one another’s feet. It is the power that makes self-sacrifice possible. The power of the Spirit of God is that which equips us to bear the fruit of the Spirit of God. That power came to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. That power is realised in us at our conversion, though it was already present. It is the power that provides us with what is necessary to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. It is a power all believers have access to. We should not confuse this power with a particular gift. Gifts are given selectively by divine wisdom. All God’s people are equipped to bear witness.
What Jesus commands His Church to do in Acts 1:8, is lived out in the remainder of the book. One theologian states it this way: “The Christian Church, according to the book of Acts, is a missionary Church that responds obediently to Jesus’ commission”. My brother and sister in Jesus Christ, part of the strategy which Jesus employs for building His Church, is to use His people, as His witnesses.
A witness is never an end in himself. For example, a witness is extremely important in a court of law. However, the witness is not the reason the court is in session. The witness, important as he or she is to the court, is not the purpose for which the court is in action. The witness simply plays a role.
You and I, as living witnesses, are never an end in ourselves. Our purpose, our task, our function, is to point to Jesus Christ. When you and I bear proper testimony, people should marvel at the grace of God. People ought to be left with an unmistakable imprint of the greatness of our God.
That pointing to Jesus Christ is at times accompanied by the miraculous. However, it is not always accompanied by the spectacular. It does not always bear abundant amounts of fruit. But neither is that the purpose or concern of the witness. The witness is to bear a faithful testimony to what God has done in His life. What Jesus decides to do with that, or how He deems to use that testimony, is up to Him. Remember, He is the builder of His Church.
Conclusion – Accept His Promise, and Be Faithful!
Congregation, what does this all mean for us? It means at least two things:
First, we are called upon to be faithful in our witness. Faithful to our God and His Gospel! God desires to use both us, and our testimony.
Second, God uses us as He sees fit to accomplish His great and wonderful purposes. We are mere instruments in the hand of the Master Craftsman, the Master Builder.
My brother and sister in Christ, remember it is God’s Church. He will build it strong. Let us simply be honest and loving in recounting His- grace to us.
Amen.