[Matt's Messages] "Open Doors at PSU"

“Open Doors at PSU”
May 19, 2019
Colossians 4:2-6

Today, we are going to commission Abraham and Jordyn Skacel for their ministry to the campus of Penn State University with the international mission Cru.

Some of you may not be familiar with the ministry of Cru. Though you might know it by its original named Campus Crusade for Christ founded by Bill Bright.

Our church has supported Cru missionaries for several decades.

I’m not going to recount for you the history of Cru, but it’s worth learning about. Cru is a great ministry that has reached out to millions with the gospel of Jesus Christ since the 1960's. And it has spawned lots of great ministries like Family Life Today and Josh McDowell and Athletes in Action.

But the bread and butter of this ministry has always been reaching out to students on college campuses. "Campus Crusade for Christ."

And that’s what Abe and Jordyn have been called to do. They met each other at Cru at Penn State (so it’s obviously a great matchmaking service as well!), and they were discipled by Cru at Penn State, and trained as leaders at Cru at Penn State, and now they are called to go back to that campus as missionaries to Penn State.

And here’s what I want us to today this morning.

We’re going to elongate our break from the Gospel of Matthew one more week. This time not going to the Psalms but to the end of one of Paul’s letters to the church at Colosse.

This is in “so what” section that normally comes at the end of Paul’s letter where he gets really practical. If the first half of this letter is true, then “so what?” How should we live because we have learned the truth of the gospel?

This part comes right after the section that we love to quote about how we should do our work “as working for the Lord, not for men.” And that’s true for all of us whether or not we are campus missionaries or pastors or anything else, right? We are all supposed to do our work as working for the Lord.

Well, this next part is also for ALL of us. Not just for those who are campus missionaries or pastors or evangelists.

Paul is talking to the whole church when he writes chapter 4, verses 2-6.

I’ve got two points of application for us today from this commissioning message.

And they are for all of us, not just for Abe & Jordyn.

Application point number one:

#1. PRAY FOR OPEN DOORS.

V.2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer...”

Devote yourselves to prayer.

I think there are at least 4 ways that we are to pray here in these 3 verses.

#1 is to PRAY SPECIFICALLY.

Paul asks that they pray for 2 SPECIFIC THINGS:

The first is in v.3: Pray, specifically, for open doors for the gospel.

And the second is in v.4, pray, specifically, for clear proclamation of the gospel.

Let’s think about those 2 specific prayer requests.  Pray specifically for open doors for the gospel. Look at v.3.

“And pray for us, too, that God may OPEN A DOOR FOR OUR MESSAGE.”

Pray specifically for Open Doors.

This means to focus in our prayer times on asking God to create opportunities for the Gospel to go out. Literally, v.3 could be translated, “pray for us that God may open a door FOR THE WORD.” That’s the gospel.

You and I are to specifically ask God to open up doors for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do we do that?

What percentage of our prayer-life is given over to praying for OPEN DOORS?  Either for ourselves for others?

What percentage of our prayer-life is given over to praying for OPEN DOORS? God-ordained opportunities for the Gospel to be shared with unbelievers.

5%?  10% ?  75%?

God wants you and I to pray specifically for Open Doors for the Gospel.

So, Abe and Jordyn, you need to do that. You need to be praying that doors will open at PSU for the good news of Jesus Christ.

And, church, we need to be praying that for Abe and Jordyn. “Lord, please open a door this week for Abe as he meets with students on campus.” We need to pray that. “Lord, please open doors for Jordyn as she meets with young ladies on campus.”

But we don’t need to just pray that for PSU, right?

We need to pray it for ourselves.

Pray for your family members as they go off to school or work in the morning.

“Lord, I pray for my daughter as she gets on the school bus this morning. I pray that you would OPEN A DOOR that she can share Jesus with someone in the hallway, or in the cafeteria, or during a break.”

“Lord, I pray for my husband as he heads over the mountain to work. I pray that you would OPEN A  DOOR for your Gospel so that he can boldly share the life-giving message of Jesus Christ with a co-worker, or a client, or a customer, or a supervisor, or a lunch-mate.”

You and I need to pray specifically for open doors. God says to do it, right here.

That’s one of the reasons why we have the Harvest Prayer Time once a month. We pray for those who need Jesus by name and we pray for open doors that the gospel would reach them.

Do you do this for yourself? “ Lord, I’m heading to Wal-Mart this afternoon. Would you OPEN A DOOR for your message while I’m at the store?  I’m willing to be used if you’ll open the door.”

So often, we neglect this simple kind of prayer that asks God to create opportunities for the gospel to be proclaimed. Little prayer bursts like that would make a big difference in our power in evangelism.

Do you ever wish that you had more guts when it comes to sharing your faith?

I’ve often wished that people would ask ME about the gospel, instead of me having to bring it up. But do I pray for that? That’s where the power comes from!

You and I need to pray specifically for open doors for the gospel at PSU and wherever we are.

The second SPECIFIC prayer request here is to pray for CLEAR proclamation of the gospel. Look at v.4

“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”

Pray, specifically, for a clear presentation of the gospel.

One that is not hindered by a lot of excess stuff.  One that is hear-able.  One that is focused, plain, un-ambiguous, crystal-clear.

Pray that gospel goes out clearly.

This is really important as we pray for people that are sharing the good news like Abe and Jordyn and the Cru folks they work with.

There is so much that could be taken wrongly when we share the gospel.  And this is a prayer request that the gospel come out plain and unmistakable in its truth and glory.

Cru is world famous for these little booklets. “Have you heard of the four spiritual laws? #1.“God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. #2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life. #3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life. #4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.”

That’s one great way of making the gospel clear.

And that’s what we need to pray SPECIFICALLY for.

Have you prayed this way recently? “Lord, I know that I am being called to share something about Christ with my neighbor. Help me to know exactly what to say so that they can understand.”

Do you ever wish that you had better answers to people’s questions? V.4 calls us to not just wish for, but to PRAY FOR IT. 

You and I are called to specifically pray for a clear presentation of the gospel.

Let’s pray this way, “Lord, I pray for Abe as he speaks to students this coming Thursday night. I pray that he would have clear thoughts and clearly express them.  Lord, I pray for my wife as she meets with her friend for coffee; that not only would you open a door for the gospel in that meeting, but that she would share the gospel clearly–and it would be right there plain as day for her friend to consider.”

Because no one gets saved without the gospel. So our gospel needs to be as clear as we can get it.

#2.  PRAY DEVOTEDLY.  Pray specifically and pray devotedly.

V.2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer.”

Devote yourselves to prayer.

Don’t just pray occasionally for open doors.
Don’t just pray randomly for clear presentations of the gospel.
Don’t just pray haphazardly.

Pray DEVOTEDLY.

The Greek word rendered here “Devote yourselves” is a very strong one It’s a word that was used for people who joined the military and DEVOTED themselves to the service. (And the military is not something you are casual about, is it?!) It was a word that was used of a boat that was ALWAYS at the ready for someone to use.

Constantly, Steadfastly, Faithfully, Staunchly, Devotedly...Pray.

In v.2 he has in mind prayer for all kinds of things. Prayer for our spiritual lives, prayer for our finances, prayer for our relationships, prayer for our families, prayer for our church, prayer for our businesses, prayer for our government.

You and I are to get devoted to prayer.

And in this case, it also means to pray regularly, consistently, disciplinedly, and devotedly for open doors for the gospel. Praying without ceasing for the good news.  Praying systematically, faithfully, habitually, orderly...devotedly for the gospel.

Here’s the question.

Do you have a time set aside daily to pray? It isn’t just a good idea. It’s vital for our lives. And it’s crucial for our witness. That’s where the power is! If you don’t have one, come up with a plan right now to get devoted.

Abe and Jordyn need us to be devoted to praying for them.

And we need to be devoted to praying for ourselves.

Specifically, devotedly, and number three...

#3.  We need to pray WATCHFULLY.

This means vigilantly, alert, observant, carefully, attentively, watchfully.  V.2

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful...”

Being watchful.

Being aware of what God is doing...and what God might be doing. Looking forward to Christ’s return. Remember that “watchful” is almost a buzz-word for being ready for the return of Christ.

We need to pray in a watchful way.

Alert to God’s agenda.

Do you pray that God would keep your eyes open to what He is about to do?

We don’t know how much time we have until Christ returns. And so we need to be alert. We need to have our “heads-up,” so to speak. We need to be watchful.

And #4.  We need to pray THANKFULLY.

V.2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Thanksgiving is to be a constant attitude in our constant prayers.

We need to see how little we deserve and how much we have and let our gratitude spill over into thankfulness in our prayers.

And we need to thank God in advance for how He is going to answer our prayers.

Especially for OPEN DOORS!

“I pray today, Lord, that you would OPEN A DOOR for me at work to share Christ with my co-workers. Help me to make a part of your gospel clear to them today. And Lord, however you answer this prayer, thank you in advance for what you are going to do.”

I’m not saying that we should thank Him in advance for doing exactly as we have asked, because He refuses to be boxed-in by our prayers. But we know that He loves to answer our prayers and always does what is best with them. So, we can thank Him in advance.We can overflow with thanksgiving as we devote ourselves to prayer.

Application Point #1.  Pray for Open Doors.

Pray Specifically.
Pray Devotedly.
Pray Watchfully.
And Pray Thankfully.

Application Point Number Two for both the Skacels and for all of us.

#2. WALK THROUGH OPEN DOORS.

It’s not enough to just pray.

We must pray! But we can’t stop there.

We must walk through the doors that God opens for us. Look at verse 5.

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Abe & Jordyn, “Walk Through Open Doors at PSU.”

Church Family, “Walk Through Open Doors wherever the Lord opens them before you.”

I see three ways we’re supposed to do that here in Colossians 4.

First, we need to:

- WALK THE WALK.

V.5 again, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.”

The key word there is ACT.  Behavior.  What your life says about Christ is almost as important as what your mouth says about Christ.

Be wise in the way you act toward people outside of Jesus Christ. 

Walk the Walk.

Be a consistent Christian.

Remember what we prayed for Simon last week from Colossians 3:12, “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” That’s right here in the context.

That’s walking the walk. That’s living like a Christ-follower!

When a non-Christian sees someone living like that...watch out...OPEN DOORS are right ahead!

One of the greatest joys you can ever have is when someone takes you aside and says, “There’s something different about you. You aren’t like the rest of us. What is it?  I want what you have. Would you share it with me?”

That comes from living the life 24/7.  Not just on Sundays at 10:30am.  But Mondays at 2:30pm.  On Fridays at 10:45pm.  24/7.

The door is always open for Walking the Walk before unbelievers.

And then, secondly:

-  SNAP-UP EACH OPPORTUNITY AS IT COMES.

V.5 again.

“Make the most of every opportunity.”

The word here for “make the most” is a word that shoppers would like.

It’s the word for grabbing a bargain.

Like on Black Friday shopping! People standing in line in the cold for hours and hours to get a fantastic deal. And when time is right, they SNAP-IT-UP!  No waiting.  No hesitation. They know a good deal when they see it, and [WHOOOMMF!] that dress is hers. That smartphone is his.

They make the most of each opportunity.

That’s what this word here means.  Snap it up.  Grab it before someone else takes it off the shelf.  Now’s the time.

WALK THROUGH THE DOOR.

God loves to open doors. And we must walk through them.

It would probably be better to say, “Leap through open doors!”

When you see an opening for the gospel, jump in there.  Don’t hesitate!  Grab it while you can.

Abe & Jordyn, Lanse Free Church, if you want to be used by the Lord to see people come to faith in Christ, then walk the walk before them and then snap-up each opportunity that comes your way.

And you do that by saying words.

No one gets saved without words. 

Your walk is vital, but your words are essential.

And last but not least:

-  SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH WORDS OF GRACE AND SALT.  V.6

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Grace, here, probably refers to the gentleness and winsomeness with which you share the gospel. But it also probably refers to the content of your speech. That you would talk about the GRACE of God in Jesus Christ.  That you can’t get to heaven by your works.  You can’t win your way there.  You must trust in the grace of God.  You must receive what Christ did for you on the Cross to be saved.  It’s a gift, it’s grace. You don’t deserve it.  You deserve Hell, but God offers grace.

That’s what our words should be full of. Full of grace.

And full of salt.  Salt could mean two different things.  Salt was a preservative for life.  So it would be life-full words.  Words that communicate the abundant life Christ offers.  Or salt was also (as it is today) something that adds flavor.  So, it would mean zesty-words.  Words full of wit and life and tact and winsomeness.

“Not boring” would be another way of putting it.  Don’t sound like a broken record or a life-less machine when you are talking about the GREAT NEWS in the world!

Your words about the gospel should contain some passion, some spark, some twinkle of zesty-ness to enliven the conversation.

Jesus Christ is the most amazing person that ever will live, there should be some razmataz when we take up his name in our conversations.

You and I must walk through the open doors that God provides.

Walking the walk, snapping-up the opportunities, and talking the talk, sharing the Gospel with words seasoned with grace and salt.

Abe & Jordyn, I believe that the Lord will be opening many many doors for you at PSU. This is YOUR TIME to reach students for Jesus Christ.

We’re all going to pray for that. We’re going to pray specifically, devotedly, watchfully, and thankfully.

And not just for you but for us, too.

And we’re going commission you today to walk through those open doors as the Lord opens them.

Walking the walking–snapping-up each opportunity as they come, and sharing the gospel with words full of grace and salt with the students at Penn State University and beyond.

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[Matt's Messages] “What To Expect On Your Mission”

“What To Expect On Your Mission”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
October 21, 2018 :: Matthew 10:32-42 

This is our third message from Matthew chapter 10. This chapter is often called the “Mission Discourse” or “Jesus’ Major Teaching on Missions.”

And that’s because it’s a major teaching from Jesus on missions!

At the end of chapter 9, Jesus saw the crowds harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and he had compassion on them. And in Matthew chapter 9, verse 38 (which is the reason why many of us are praying every day at 9:38am) Jesus told His disciples to ask the Lord of harvest to send out workers into His harvest field.

And then in chapter 10, He sends out some workers into the harvest field!

He calls 12 men to Himself and then sends out them as apostles, authorized representatives, emissaries, ambassadors, special agents on a special mission for Jesus.

He sends out the Twelve to go on a short term missions trip throughout Israel healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, driving out demons, living on the hospitality of others, and preaching the gospel message, “The kingdom of heaven is near.”

And we noticed the last two times that Jesus seems to be teaching about more than just that first short term missions trip. He seems to also be preparing them for the mission that He’s going to give them at the end of the Gospel of Matthew (which we often call “The Great Commission”) and He seems to be preparing them for what it’s going to be like in the Book of Acts and what it still is like for those of us who are on mission for Jesus today.

He summarized the whole thing in verse 16. Which should be familiar by now.

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

Remember the four animals? Sheep, wolves, snakes, doves.

That’s us. Well, aside from wolves. We’re supposed to watch out for them.

But we’re supposed to be trusting and vulnerable like sheep.
Shrewd and wise and strategic like snakes.
And innocent and pure and loving like doves.

As we go out on this mission.

And as we go out on this mission, we are supposed to shout the gospel message from (v.27) the rooftops.

I wouldn’t get on this new roof up here, you might slide off.

But we are supposed to be bold and share the good news about the coming kingdom and the coming King!

It’s a dangerous mission.

We are sent as sheep among wolves.

That’s a dangerous way to go. Sheep among wolves.

But we summarized verses 17 through 31 as saying basically, “Beware, but Don’t be Scared.”

Remember that? Beware, but don’t be scared.

Because we are not sheep our own. We have a good Shepherd.

And He knows us. Even the very hairs of our heads are numbered.

And we are worth more than many sparrows. And He has His eye on every one of them.

I think these last eleven verses are basically a summary of what Jesus wants His disciples to anticipate this mission being like.

What they should expect to happen as they go out on mission for Jesus.

I’m going to title today’s message, “What To Expect On Your Mission.”

Because I think that’s how Jesus is landing this plane. That’s how Jesus is ending the mission discourse–He’s laying out for the disciples what they can expect to happen to them as they go out on His mission both then and, for us, now.

I see three main things, and I’ll tell you right up front, that they aren’t all happy ones.

They are not all positive. In fact, all three of them have difficult parts to them, and one of them is really really hard.

This is fair warning for disciples.

Do you think you want to be a disciple of Jesus?

Do you think you want to follow Jesus and be on mission for Jesus?

I hope so.

But you need to know that it’s not always easy. It’s not just a walk in the park.

And Jesus tells us that. He doesn’t hide the fine print.

He tells it like it is.

Here’s what to expect on your mission.

#1. EXPECT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS JESUS’ OWN.

And this is, I think, the most amazing one of the three.

Expect to be recognized as Jesus’ own.

And that’s by God Himself. Look Matthew chapter 10, verse 32.

“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

That word “acknowledge” could be confusing to some of you.

Because we often use it for a nod of the head.

Yup. I see you. I acknowledge you. You’re over there. Uh huh.

The Old King James uses the word “confess.”

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.”

And that might work for some of you, but some of you use the word “confess” mainly to admit to wrongdoing. And that’s not what He’s getting at here either.

I think the flipside in verse 33 makes it clear what He’s talking about in verse 32.

“But whoever DISOWNS me before men” or King James “denies me before men, I will disown him before the my Father in heaven.”

So the opposite of “disown” is “own.”

That’s what Jesus means by acknowledge.

It means to claim Jesus as your own.

To claim to belong to Jesus.

To own Jesus as your Savior and your Lord.

To say to the world, “Jesus is mine. I belong to Jesus.”

Do you get it?

That’s our mission, right?

To tell people about Jesus’ saving work and coming kingdom.

So here’s what’s amazing.

When we tell people that we own up to Jesus–we are with Him.

Jesus tells HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN that He owns us–that He is with us!

That’s amazing!!!

I don’t think we can wrap our minds around how astonishing that is.

First off, notice Who Jesus thinks He is! Jesus believes He has a special filial relationship with God. He is God’s own Son.

That’s crazy...unless it’s true.

And because He is God’s Son, whomever He brings to the Father and claims as His own, the Father will also recognize as His own!

You follow that?

Because Jesus is God’s Son, whomever Jesus brings to the Father and claims as His own, the Father will also recognize as His own!

Of course the flipside is also true. Whomever Jesus does not recognize as His own, the Father will also not recognize as His own.

And that’s true of those who disown and deny any connection with Jesus.

Why would you do that?

In a word? Persecution.

Jesus has just told them how hard it’s going to be. They will be dragged before the authorities. They will be flogged. They will be chased from city to city.

They have the authority to preach the gospel and do miracles of the kingdom.

But they don’t have the authority to fight back for that kingdom.

They are sheep among wolves, not wolves among wolves.

And they are going to be tempted to disown and deny any connection with Jesus.

Because if they don’t, it will hurt.

Do you feel that?

We don’t feel it as much in our day in this country. Right now, Christianity still enjoys a good deal of public approval, even a privileged status.

But in many places in the world, if you belong to Jesus and you own it in public, you will pay for it.

And it’s increasingly the case here. And it will probably get worse.

Regardless, we are all tempted to be quiet about Jesus from time to time, and we aren’t even afraid that others are going to hurt us.

We’re just afraid they’re going to laugh at us or make fun of us or think less of us.

So we’re tempted to stay quiet.

But we have a mission. We have a job to do.

It’s our job to tell people about Jesus. We need to own Him. To recognize Him publicly as our Lord and Savior.

Giving testimony.
Getting baptized.
Doing evangelism.
Talking to people about OUR OWN Savior and Lord.

And get this, when we own Jesus before men, Jesus owns us before His Father in heaven.

“Yes, Father, this is one for whom I died. This one is mine. I bought them by my blood. They have trusted in my sacrificial death. They are a sinner. But I have washed them with my blood. You see; they have faith! They are telling people about me. Let me tell You about them.”

It’s wonderful thing to expect as you live your life on mission for Jesus that Jesus is holding up your name to His Father.

We can’t begin to understand how great that is.

Now, some, when they read verse 33 think about the Apostle Peter and what He did.

He disowned Jesus, didn’t he? Three times he denied Him.

And that’s true, He did.

But he didn’t stay there.

He didn’t stay a disowner. He repented and returned to Jesus and asked for His forgiveness, and then he acknowledged Jesus everywhere he went.

So, if you have disowned and denied, don’t stay there.

If you stay there, the other side of verse 33 may become a reality for you forever. “I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” I would hate for that to be said about anybody here.

So don’t stay there. It isn’t safe.

Trust in Jesus.  Take Jesus as your own Savior and Lord.

And tell other people about Him.

Here’s the application of this one.

- Own Jesus As Your Lord.

Run up the flag. Run the flag up the flagpole. “I belong to Jesus.”

Don’t be ashamed of Him. Don’t be afraid to talk about Him.

Don’t be scared to claim Him as your own.

Because as you do, He’s claiming you as His.

Number Two.  What to expect on your mission:

#2. EXPECT TO BE REJECTED BY THE WORLD.

I’d rather by rejected by the world than by the Lord, wouldn’t you?

But it’s still not easy to be rejected by anybody.

That’s why Jesus warns us in advance what it’s going to be like. Verse 34.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'”

That’s a quote from Micah 7:6. Jesus loves the Old Testament and Matthew loves to show it.

But it’s hard.

Jesus hasn’t come to bring peace, He says, but a sword.

Now, I know that He’s not calling them to pick up swords. They are sheep among wolves. They are not to go on attack.

But because of Jesus, they will be attacked.

I know, I know. This is hard one to swallow.

Especially because we know that Jesus DID come to bring peace on earth.

The angels said that at His birth!

He’s the prince of peace.

He just taught us to be peacemakers in the Sermon on the Mount.

And on the night He’s betrayed, He says that He gives His disciples peace.

But that’s not all He brings.

He also brings division.

Because the world (not everyone but so so many, the world) will reject Him.

And if they reject Him, they reject us.

The world gets hostile about Jesus.

The true Jesus.

Sometimes the world gets all excited about a fake version of Jesus that they can use to their own ends.

But when the true Jesus shows up the world starts to squirm.

And give them enough time, and they will get downright hostile.

The peace on earth will come, but it’s not automatic. And it’s...later.

In the short run, Jesus divides families.

“For I have come to turn ‘'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'”

I’ve seen it right here in Clearfield County.

Sometimes, our Kids for Christ are handing out water bottles and invitations to Family Bible Night and I’ve seen a dad make his kids return the water bottle, the pencil, and the invitation because he doesn’t want any of that Christian proselytizing.

Imagine if that kid comes to Christ, what it might be like in that home?

This is the worst kind of rejection–at the family level.

But you can see it elsewhere.

At work?
In your neighborhood?
At school?

It is not always popular to be a Christian, to own up to being a follower of Jesus.

Jesus divides people. He just does.

And most of us don’t like to be rejected. We like to be liked.

I mean Facebook and Twitter and Instagram feed off our love of being liked, right?  Look how popular they are.

But Jesus says, if you are on mission for Me, expect a lot of rejection from the world.

So here’s the application.

- Love Jesus More Than Anything.

More than being liked.
More than being comfortable.
More than your own family. Verse 37.

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me...”

That’s a way of saying, “Isn’t living in line with Me. Isn’t honoring Me. Isn’t living congruently with Me”

It doesn’t mean that we can somehow live in a way that we deserve Jesus.

We can’t. Salvation is all of grace.

But if we have been graced by Jesus, then we will put Him absolutely first.

Let me ask you a trick question about verse 37. Ready?

Can you love both Jesus and your family?

Yes.

I guess it wasn’t a trick question.

Let me ask this one.

Can you love both Jesus and your family equally?

No. Jesus calls us to love Him MORE.

In the Gospel of Luke, He says that the difference should be so great that you could basically say that we hate our families.

Not because we hate our families, but because of how much more we are to love Jesus.

Do you love Jesus that way?

Do you love Jesus MORE than anything?

More than being liked?
More than being comfortable?
More than our families?

More than our very lives? V.38

“...and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

What an astonishing metaphor–to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

This is long before Jesus takes up His own cross, though we can read it in light of that now.

But Jesus said it before He even took up His cross.

Jesus says that we must die to ourselves.
We must go on death march and count ourselves as dead.
To say with our lives that following Jesus is the most important thing.
That we love Jesus more than we love our lives.

Because, paradoxically, ironically, mysteriously...

“Whoever finds his [physical] life [as the most important thing] will lose it, and whoever loses his life [physical life] for [Jesus’] sake will find [eternal life].”

This is just another way of talking about repentance and faith.

Turning away from sin, and self and Satan and turning to Jesus for true and lasting life.

Jesus is calling us to love Him more than anything including our very lives.

Because you know what?

Jesus loved us more than keeping His own life.

What are you tempted to love more than Jesus?

In your heart right now, hold it to Jesus and give it to Him.

Repent and turn. And give it up to Him.

You’ll have to do it again.

But do it.

Tell Jesus that you want to love Him more than anything.

More than your very life.

Because that how He loved you.

One last one and then we’re done.

What to expect on your mission.

#3. TO BE RECEIVED AND BE REWARDED.

It would be enough to just be recognized by Jesus, wouldn’t it?

But it goes deeper and more wonderful. Verse 40.

“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.”

That is AMAZING!

Not everyone is going to reject us when we live out this mission.

Some people are going to receive us and receive our gospel message.

And Jesus says that when they receive US, they receive Him.

You get that?

When you share the gospel with somebody, and they say, “I believe it. I am so glad you told me that. I receive you...” they are really saying, “I receive Jesus!”

Because we are intimately connected!

We’re are just that close!

You and Jesus are One!

And get this. Look at verse 40 again. “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.”

You aren’t just recognized by the Father. You are vitally connected to Him.

So that if someone receives you, they are receiving HIM!

What a privilege that is!

We are emissaries of the King.
We are ambassadors of King Jesus.

And we are the ambassadors of His Father.

If they receive us, they are receiving HIM.

Jesus elaborates in verse 41.

“Anyone who receives a prophet [one who speaks for God] because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones [the least of the disciples] because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

You see how liberal Jesus is with the rewards?

He’s handing them out left and right.

If you should get a reward for living righteously or speaking God’s words or just for following Jesus, you’ll get it.

And you’ll get it just for receiving someone who should get it.

And supporting someone who should get it.

This is a great reason to support missions and missionaries.

When someone on that back wall gives out the gospel to someone who receives it in faith, they get rewarded and they get rewarded, and WE get rewarded for supporting them.

Little old us!

This is a great reason to support missions and missionaries and to live on mission ourselves.

And to help each other to live on mission together.

Application?

- Live for Jesus’ Reward.

He obviously wants us to, or He wouldn’t talk about it so much.

This could take so many forms.

Preaching the gospel from the rooftops.
Owning up to belonging to Jesus in our spheres of influence.
Giving money to overseas missions.
Filling a little shoebox with gifts for the needy around the world.

Every one of those shoeboxes gets a gospel message embedded in it and given to children who need the hope of the gospel.

“...if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

I don’t know about you, but I want all of the rewards that Jesus wants to give me.

I don’t want to miss any of them.

It would be enough to just be recognized as belonging to Jesus in the eyes of His father.

But He has more for us.

If we will trust Jesus and love Jesus more than anything and serve Jesus and receive and support those others who belong to Jesus and are on mission for Jesus, then we will be rewarded beyond what we can understand and imagine.

That’s what we can expect on this mission that Jesus has for us today.

***

Previous Messages in This Series:01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible
12. But I Tell You
13. But I Tell You (2)
14. But I Tell You (3)
15. In Secret
16. Choose Wisely
17. Seek First His Kingdom
18. Generous
19. These Words of Mine
20. When He Saw the Crowds
21. When He Came Down from the Mountainside
22. Follow Me
23. Our Greatest Problem
24. Who Does He Think He Is?
25. Special Agents
26. Sheep Among Wolves

Read More

[Matt's Messages] "Special Agents"

“Special Agents”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
September 16, 2018 :: Matthew 10:1-16 

We’ve reached a new section in this book.

Matthew chapter 10 is what is often called the “Mission Discourse” or “Jesus’ Major Teaching on the Mission.” And we will quickly see why it’s often called that.

Jesus is going to send out His disciples on the first ever Christian short term missions trip. And He’s going to give them a bunch of instructions.

And many of the instructions were specific to just that trip. We’ll see that in a second. But a bunch of the instructions have an ongoing long-term application to us today.

This is the second major block of teaching in the Gospel of Matthew.

What was the first major block? The Sermon on the Mount, right?

I promise you we won’t take 5 months to get through this one!

We won’t do it all today. We’ll just make it to verse 16. But I don’t see us taking more than 3 weeks to get through all of the Mission Discourse in Matthew chapter 10.

I could be wrong, of course. There’s a lot of good stuff here to digest.

“[Jesus] called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

Up until now, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus disciples don’t do much of anything except listen.

They are called by Him. They sign up to be fishers of men. They drop what they are doing. They leave their jobs. They begin to follow Him.

But now, Jesus is going to hand pick 12 of them and bestow special authority upon them and send them out.

This is a commissioning passage.

Now, how much authority does Jesus have?

Authority has been the key word ever since the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

“The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had...authority!” Chapter 7, verses 28-29.

The centurion was a man under...authority with soldiers under his authority, and he recognized Jesus’ authority over sickness. “Just say the word.”

But not just sickness.

The storm, right? “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Chapter 8, verse 27.

Or the demons? One word, “Go!” and they had to go.

What else?

Jesus has authority over death.

Jesus has authority, chapter 9, verse 6 “to forgive sins.”

How much authority does Jesus have?

All authority, it appears.

And now Jesus is delegating some of that authority.

To these twelve special agents.

That’s what I’m going to call this message today, “Special Agents.”

Because that’s something we know about these days, unlike “Apostles.”

What are apostles?

Apostles are authorized representatives.

They are people sent on behalf of someone else with some of that person’s authority delegated to them to represent that person to others.

Kind of like an ambassador?

Of course, we don’t know that much about what it’s like to be an ambassador, either.

But a lot of our favorite TV shows have special agents in them!

So, let’s run with that.

Jesus is commissioning twelve special agents to go on a mission for His kingdom.

At the end of chapter 9, Jesus pointed out the harassed and helpless crowds. He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And He told His disciples to pray. He told them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field.

And guess what?

Chapter 10 shows the Lord of the harvest answering those prayers!

“He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

We don’t know exactly what that looked like, but it sure sounds exciting!

Jesus has been doing this sort of thing. Now these 12 special agents will be doing it, too.

I’ve got two headings for today’s message. Here’s number one. These special agents were:

#1. CALLED TO JESUS.

Did you see that in verse 1? “He called his twelve disciples to him.”

Now, I don’t want to make too much of that. As if Matthew was making a big point about it, but I do think it’s helpful to point out that before Jesus sends anybody out for Himself, He first calls them to Himself.

Remember, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

First, we come to Him. Then we are sent by Him.

Here, of course, they are just being gathered around. Twelve special agents given special authority. V.2

“These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

There’s a lot there in those 3 verses! I thought about preaching a whole message just on that list.

How many apostles were there? Twelve.

How come?

We don’t know. Many Bible scholars suspect that there is a connection here with the twelve (what?) tribes of Israel, right?

Twelve sons of Jacob, therefore twelve tribes of Israel. Now a new community is being birthed and there are twelve leaders of that.

I think there is something to that. I don’t want to take it too far, but there’s obviously something about the number twelve.

Notice that they are bunched into groups. What kind groups? Well, there are clearly pairs. Two by two. Simon and Andrew. James and John. Philip and Bart, etc.

There are also 3 groups of four. And every time these guys are listed (which is 4 times in the New Testament) even though the order is different each time, Peter is always first and Judas is always last and there are 3 groups of four. Probably teams within teams.

Now, what else do you notice about these special agents who were called to Jesus?

One of the things I notice is how different they are from one another.

Jesus calls different people to Himself. Jesus loves diversity.

I mean some of these guys have nothing in common with each other.

Some do. Some are brothers. There’s at least two sets of brothers. How fun is that?

And some of them did the same job. There are at least 4 former fishermen.

But then you’ve got this tax collector in there. Or at least a former tax collector.

We saw that the last two weeks.

What kind of men were they?

Traitors, right? Sell-outs. Extortionists. In bed with the oppressors.

They were in league with the Romans!

Is there anybody on the other side of the political spectrum in this bunch?

Simon the what? The Zealot.

What does that mean?

That means he hated the Romans. And was, at least before he came to Jesus, a nationalist who probably supported insurrection.

He was anti-Romans. He wanted to overthrow the Romans.

How do you think those two got along?

My guess is that they got along just fine. Because they were both called to Jesus.

They probably had some interesting discussions. Maybe some heated conversations.

But the important point in both of their lives was that they had been called to Jesus.

Let me ask you. Is that the most important thing in your life? That you have been called to Jesus?

And can you love and work together on the mission that Jesus is sending us on even with people who are very different from you in significant ways?

The people in this room are not all the same. In fact, there are a lot of differences in this room. Politically. Economically. Racially. Vocationally. Educationally. Physically. And the rest of Jesus’ church in America and worldwide is even more diverse!

Can we work together? On mission?

Some of you here are “Make America Great Again” red cap Trump supporters. Some of you here are “I sure miss President Obama” folks. And there are lots of people here somewhere in between.

Can we love each other?

Can we fulfill the Great Commission together?

We can, if we think of ourselves as first and foremost called to Jesus.

One of these men betrayed that calling.

He saw himself as primarily called to serve himself.

And his name has now forever been linked to treachery. V.4

“Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

You know it’s interesting. Something else I noticed is that none of these guys were rabbis before. None of them had been to seminary.

Nobody had previously trained for the ministry.

There were no “Pastor Matts” in there.

Jesus called men from the workplace, from the marketplace, from everyday walks of life.

Jesus loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

He trains them as they need it.

He loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things because He loves to get the credit.

Because it’s His authority. Because we are called to Him.

By the way, most of these guys, we don’t really know what happened to them after the book of Acts.

I mean Peter and John, sure, but how about Thaddaeus?

I’ve got a really good book called After Acts by Bryan Litfin that explores the lives and legends of these apostles. You’d be welcome to borrow it if you’d like to know what we know and how much we know about them after the Bible was completed.

We could note more in verses 2-4, but let’s move on.

These twelve special agents were called to Jesus and then they were:

#2. SENT FOR JESUS.

I was going to say “sent FROM Jesus” because that’s true, too. But I didn’t mean that he was sending them away from Him like in a punishment. And there’s something here about being sent FOR Jesus, as if they were sent in His place.

They are representing Him.

Let’s look at it. V.5

“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Let’s stop there for a second.

Those are some pretty special agents, aren’t they?

I mean look at what they get to do in verse 8!

I don’t think those are instructions for us today. I don’t think the church today has been given that delegated authority like the apostles had at that time.

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.”

Who does that sound like?

That sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that sound like chapters 8 and 9 that we just got done with?

Jesus is telling His special agent to replicate His ministry.

And it’s the same message, too. Isn’t it?

“As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'”

John the Baptist said it. Chapter 3, verse 2.

The Lord Jesus said it. Chapter 4, verse 17.

Now the apostles are to say it. “The kingdom of heaven is near!”

Why?

Because the King has come.

That’s good news, isn’t it?

The promised kingdom has drawn close.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Of course that means repentance is called for.

Jesus doesn’t say it in verse 7, but that was the upshot of it before, and I’m sure it still is here.

The King has come, turn away from any other kingdom!

You see how these special agents were supposed to represent the King?

To whom were they to go?

At this point, just to the Jews. To the Jew first. V.5 again.

“Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Does that mean that Jesus doesn’t love the Gentiles? Or that He didn’t love the Samaritans?

Of course not. He’s already reaching Gentiles and Samaritans by this point in His ministry.

But see that word “sheep” in verse 6? I think that ties into the “sheep without a shepherd” in verse 36 of the previous chapter.

Jesus has a heart for those crowds of Jewish men and women harassed and helpless.

He is their Messiah, and for THIS TRIP, He is sending His special agents to tell them about the kingdom and to prove that it has come through miracles.

Later, the instructions will change. By the end of this book the mission will be to go to the whole world and make disciples of every nation. Even people in Central Pennsylvania!

But for now, they are to go specifically to Israel, and announce the kingdom.

And they are not to charge anything for it. “Freely you have received, freely give.”

These special agents didn’t pay any fees to receive this kingdom, they don’t charge any fees to give it away to others.

In fact, they are called to travel very light. V.9

“Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.”

Again, I think these instructions are just for this particular missions trip. I don’t think that missionaries today are not supposed to take money or bags or a change of clothes or anything like that.

Jesus envisions a short trip that won’t require a lot of long-term resources.

And He expects the people they will talk to will provide hospitality. Not a fee. Not a salary. Just these people who get to hear about the kingdom will want to provide food and room and board for the special agents of the King. V.11

“‘Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. [A worthy person is someone who receives the message of the kingdom.] As you enter the home, give it your greeting. [Shalom!] If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Now, again, I don’t think that this gives us timeless instructions for how to do missions or how to do ministry today.

Though maybe we ought to think our way through it.

There may be principles here about frugality and generosity and supporting those who do missions work. And principles here about total dependence on God and about looking for those who are receptive to the message of the gospel.

But what I notice most of all is that these special agents are sent FOR JESUS. They represent Him.

They take His message about His kingdom to people.

And if they are received, then He is received.

But if they are rejected, then He is the One who is really rejected. Look at verse 14 again.

“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words [where did they get those words? Those are Jesus’ words! That’s the gospel of the kingdom! If they will not listen to your words...], shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Who brought judgment to Sodom and Gomorrah?

God did.

Jesus is saying that if these special agents are rejected, it will be as if they rejected God Himself. Because they are.

That’s really helpful to me.

I mean when I think about being rejected when sharing the gospel. I tend to think about myself.

But if someone hates me for following Jesus, it’s really Jesus they hate.

Because it’s all about Him, right?

So that should make us bold, shouldn’t it?

I mean, here we are tasked with being His own representatives!

Special agents for the King.

We may not have the authority that the apostles did.

But we are called to share the gospel with the last, the least, and the lost.

And if we are received, then so is Jesus!

And if we are rejected, so what? They are really rejecting Him.

Do you need to hear that today?

Do you need to see yourself as a special agent of King Jesus?

Not a secret agent!

We should be known for following Him.

But we should be representing Him to the rest of the world.

Does that make you bold?

Notice again just who does He think He is?!

If the special agents of Jesus are rejected, what does He expect will happen to those who reject them?

It will be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah for those who reject Jesus.

That means that Jesus sees Himself as equal with Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And now, He’s sending out His apostles. Look at how they are supposed to see themselves. V.16

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

We’re going to start there next time.

The next section talks about how dangerous it’s going to be for these apostles and for many other agents of Jesus throughout history.

Sheep among wolves.

So therefore, they (and we) need to be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.

Wise and strategic and shrewd like a snake.

And at the same time, loving and holy and pure like a dove.

Chew on that for the next couple of weeks.

And commit to being like yourself.

As you represent Jesus to the world.

Called to Jesus by faith to be saved and to be His disciple.

And sent for Jesus to represent Him to the rest of the world.


***

Previous Messages in This Series:01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible
12. But I Tell You
13. But I Tell You (2)
14. But I Tell You (3)
15. In Secret
16. Choose Wisely
17. Seek First His Kingdom
18. Generous
19. These Words of Mine
20. When He Saw the Crowds
21. When He Came Down from the Mountainside
22. Follow Me
23. Our Greatest Problem

24. Who Does He Think He Is?

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[Matt's Messages] "The People On Your Fridge"

“The People On Your Fridge”
Gospel Roots (1892-2017)
June 25, 2017 :: Acts 1:8

This is our 6th monthly message in our ongoing Gospel Roots sermon series.

We are looking back over the foundational values and practices and principles that undergird and nourish who we are today.

What is the root system that our church has grown up out of?

The first and most foundational gospel root was the gospel itself: Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

The second was about singing the gospel together. Worship.

The third was about sharing the gospel with lost people. Evangelism.

The fourth was about being a praying church. Devoting ourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

And the fifth message was about building our church on the word of God. Remember the Swedish phrase, “Var står det skrivet?” “Where stands it written?”

Well, today, I want to talk about the people on your fridge.

Now, if your family is anything like our family, you have pictures of your family on your refrigerator.

Maybe a sports picture (or 20!) of kids with a baseball bat on their shoulder or in a football or wrestling uniform.

And maybe a picture of everybody in your family at the beach. The cousins.

But you also probably have pictures on your fridge of people who aren’t in your biological family. It’s their family all standing or sitting together and smiling for the camera, and there are words on the picture. They say, “ReachGlobal” or “Miracle Mountain Ranch” or “Word of Life” or “TEAM.”

They are missionaries.

For every one of these Gospel Roots messages, I’ve had some historical artifact in this box. Today it’s the prayer cards that often go up on our fridges.

These are too small for you to see, but there’s a whole bunch of them.

You know why?

Because this church has been incredibly dedicated to world missions for a very very long time.

If they had had fridges back then, this fellow would have been on the fridge of the church family back in 1897.

I took this picture at EFCA One. They had a great big board of historical photos. And I took a picture of his picture. He wasn’t actually there!

Does anybody know who this debonair dude is? He’s got an epic beard that would go great in today’s beard culture.

And it’s not Buffalo Bill Cody.

Anybody know who it is?

This is Frederick Franson.

Born June 1852 and died in August 1908, Frederick Franson was an associate of D.L. Moody and an early leader among the Free Churches and other ethnically Scandinavian denominations.

He founded six missionary agencies including the Scandinavian Alliance Mission.

And in 1897, Frederick Franson visited a little church in Lanse, Pennyslvania.

That was 120 years ago. Our church was only 5 years old.

This is what Bea Johnson wrote in our history book, “In the winter of 1897, there was a spirit of revival in the church, and as a result, many people came to know the Lord as their personal Savior. During that time of revival, a young man by the name of Frederick Franson came to visit the fellowship. Rev. Franson was the founder of TEAM, then known as the Scandinavian Alliance Mission. He was a firm believer that time was short and that the Lord’s return was very near–this conviction spurred him to go to Scandinavian churches to try to recruit men and women for missionary service. No one in this newly organized congregation volunteered for full time missionary work, but the leaders of the church promised Rev. Franson that they would support the Scandinavian Alliance Mission financially until the Lord would return” (“Lanse Evangelical Free Church 1892-1992: A Centennial Celebration).

And we are keeping that promise still today.

Down through the years, we have supported many missionaries with two missions that could claim some descendancy from Franson, TEAM and ReachGlobal.

Bea writes that in three years later in 1900, “contributions to missions totaled $494.29. This was considerable more than the cost of the new church building that had been erected during that year” (Ibid)! I love that!

In 1905, “the church had the privilege of seeing one of its members, Carl Nelson, answer the ‘call’ to become a missionary in China.”

That’s decades before anybody in this building was even born.

If you read the history, missions appears again and again all throughout the decades.

For example, in 1949, the pastor of Lanse Free was a man named Harold Swanson. And Pastor Swanson challenged the church family give at least ten percent of the church budget to missions.

Right now, amazingly, the percentage has grown closer to 25%! Every time you give a dollar, a quarter of that goes out from here to somewhere else to mission support.

And when you throw in things like special offerings to missions projects like Family Bible Week missions project? The percentage is probably more like 30%!

And there have been so many individual missionaries that we have supported.

Some of you are old enough to remember names like David and Gwen Greene and Earl and Angie Miller and David Tader.

I didn’t know them, but I did know these people:

Bob and Joyce Dignan.

The Dignans were with TEAM in Korea. We partnered with them for over 40 years!

Or this sweet lady. Elizabeth Anderson.

Or does anybody know these people?

Tim and Debbie. We began supporting them in 1981 at $100 a month. That’s 36 years! If we had never increased our giving to them, that’s $43,200.

Kim and Jan. Through the years.

They are the same people, but they change, don’t they?!

Here’s some from 1988. Our own home grown missionaries.

John and Becky.

Years later, we would send out some more from our church.

Bruce and Donna.

Here’s some more from the 80's era:

Jim and Kay. They are still ours.

Henoc and his family. They are still ours.

Sent out in the 80's, still serving today.

There are many more than I can list.

And more than I have fridge cards for!

All because this church has been dedicated to world missions for a very very long time.

There have been a LOT of people on our fridges!

Why is that?

It’s because of Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Isn’t it?

Our Lord Jesus was eating with his disciples, after His resurrection[!], and they asked him when He was going to return and set up His kingdom.

And Jesus told them that wasn’t something for them to know.

We don’t know when Jesus will return. We know that He will return! But we aren’t told the times or dates.

And while we wait expectantly, just like Frederick Franson, we are supposed to be busy reaching our world for Jesus Christ.

Jesus calls it “being his witnesses.” Look at verse 8.

“But 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.”

Now, there is a lot of things we could say about that verse.

Some people have made it into a strategy for local church outreach. First, you reach your Jerusalem (Lanse), then you reach your Judea (Central Pennsylvania), then you reach your Samaria, the people who are not like you but are right here next to you, and then you reach out to the ends of the earth.

That’s not a bad idea, to think about who is in those categories for us.

But that’s not why Jesus said what’s in Acts 1:8.

He said it because that’s what they were going to do.

This is a promise and a prophecy.

Acts 1:8 is the table of contents for the book of Acts.

Acts 1:8 is exactly what happened!

Chapters 1-7 of Acts are about the gospel in Jerusalem.

In chapter 8, the gospel makes it to Judea and Samaria.

And by chapter 13, there are missionaries named Paul and Barnabas who start taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Paul and Barnabas were the guys on the fridge cards of the church at Antioch and the churches in Galatia.

And now the gospel has reached all the way to Central Pennsylvania!

And it’s still going out to the “ends of the earth.”

That’s why we do missions.

Because Jesus told us to!

He said this would happen, and He wants us to be involved.

Because it’s not just a promise, it’s a command.

When he says, “You will be my witnesses...” that means He wants us to do it.

Like when Mom says to clean your room, “You will clean your room.” That’s a prophecy, and it’s also a command.

“You WILL BE my witnesses.”

Being witnesses is not an option for the followers of Jesus Christ.

A witness is someone who gives testimony. A witness is someone who has seen something or experienced something and can tell others about it.

These men in Acts chapter 1 were eye-witnesses of the resurrected Christ!

And you and I are ear-witnesses. We have heard the good news that Jesus is alive, and we need to tell others.

And we’ve all experienced Him at work in our lives.

And we need to tell others.

“You WILL BE my witnesses.”

Jesus also said, “go and make disciples of all nations...” (Matthew 28:19).

He gave the church a Great Commission, marching orders.

And they can’t be fulfilled by our just sitting around.

“You will be my witnesses.”

How are you doing at that?

How are we doing as a church on the whole of sharing the gospel with others?

How are we doing as a church of taking the gospel to those who don’t have it yet?

I don’t know about you, but I need constant encouragement to keep doing it.

I see three big motivators in this passage.

First off, Jesus is alive.

That will make you want to be a witness!

Verse 3 says that “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.”

This isn’t a fairy tale. This is history.

A man died and three days later came back from the dead!

That should motivate us to be a witness.

The second motivation is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised this gift in verse 4 and told them not to try witnessing until the gift had arrived in Jerusalem.

And then in verse 8, Jesus said the gift of Holy Spirit would empower them.

“[Y]ou will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you...” And that’s exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost.

And that’s how they had the power to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.

We don’t do this witness thing on our own. We do it in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

And the third motivator is the return of Christ.

In verse 9, Jesus ascends into heaven. He gives the marching orders and then returns to the Father.

But that’s not the end of the story. Two angels appear and say, “Don’t just stand there. Get busy. Because (v.11) “[t]his same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'

And you don’t want to be wasting your time while you wait for Him!

The EFCA has always emphasized the return of Christ and how that should motivate us to be busy evangelizing the world.

The resurrection, the Spirit, and the return of Christ empower and motivate us to be Jesus’ witnesses in all the earth.

“You will be my witnesses.”

Three simple points of application today.

#1. GO.

“You will be my witnesses,” and He is Lord, so we better do it.

Now, we already had a message about local evangelism in our community.

Bus ministry, Wild West Day, Wild Game Dinner and all that.

But it’s important to think about how we are doing it today. Who are you inviting to Family Bible Week, for example?

Who are you inviting to the Good News Cruise?

And more importantly, who are you sharing your testimony with these days?

Go to them with the gospel.

But somebody’s got to take that gospel to the ends of the earth!

Not just around here but around the globe.

Go!

I love it that this church has seen its members go off into world missions, the Carl Nelsons, the John & Beckys, the Bruce & Donna’s, the Steve & Tirzah’s.

They weren’t with us back then but the Judy Carlsons and the Nancy Wertz’s.

And now Abraham and Jordyn!

I love that. Do you guys have a fridge card yet?

Who else wants to go?

It might be just a short-term trip.

Nesta Kephart went to Haiti back in the day. So did Tom Fisch. Schenley’s been in short term trips.

Our youth group went into the inner city of Brooklyn in 2000 for a week.

We sent Tom to Thailand for 9 months and Katie to China short term.

And in very recent years, we sent whole teams on short term trips:

Serbia in 2012

Mexico in 2014

Pittsburgh in 2015

And Denham Springs in 2017! [They didn’t get their picture taken together!]

I wonder what’s next?!

I also wonder who is the next career missionary we have among us?

Are you called to go?

It could be a young person. It could be an older person.

God calls all kinds of people into missionary service.

Single people. Like Tobi.

Married people. Like Phil and Ruthann.

Families.

Is the Lord calling you to serve Him in missions?

I’ve been praying for 19 years that the Lord would regularly raise up people from within our own church family and launch them into intercultural, international ministry.

Of course, not everybody can go far away. But everybody can....

#2. SEND.

I remember what a missionary speaker once said that made a great impression on me. He said that you only have 3 choice when it came to missions, “Go, Send, or Disobey.”

Because Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And it takes a TEAM to get them there.

We all work together to make it happen.

Our most recent new missionaries are:

Zeke & Meagan
Darko & Elizabeth
Donnie & Tonya

And Rich and Anne.

You know, we haven’t even met them in person yet.

John and Becky knew them and we skyped with them to interview them.

But you know why we began to be a part of their sending team?

Because of the promise our forefathers made to Frederick Franson!

These folks are members of TEAM.

And we hope to meet them for the first time this Fall.

Thank you for sending them.

When you give your regular gift in the offering, you are automatically involved in sending and supporting these servants of God.

And together, we are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Of course, you don’t have to just send our LEFC missionaries! We’ve got missionaries on our fridge that aren’t a part of the missions ministry here at Lanse Free Church. You’ve met some of them over the years.

You’ve probably got missionaries on your fridge that we don’t have on ours.

That’s how this task gets accomplished!

By everybody not only going to the extent they are called but everybody helping to send missionaries where God is calling them.

What are you doing to be involved in sending?

Maybe you need to talk with Abe and Jordyn about joining their support team?

Last one. I changed it from disobey. Go, Send, and...

#3. PRAY.

Why are these folks on our fridges?

Why are they hung on the wall in the back of the auditorium?

Why are they on the map out in the foyer?

To remind us to pray for them!

This week at EFCA One, I ran into a missionary couple who had been here on our campus for the district conference in 2013.

They are now missionaries in Panama.  John and Bianca.

They had another couple with them that I met this as well, Frank and Silvia.

Wonderful servants of the Lord with ReachGlobal.

You know what they did? They invited me to come to Panama and bring a group if we felt so called.

But they also reached out and handed me these cards to put on my fridge or my filing cabinet and said, “Please pray for us.”

They are on the front lines of missions ministry.

They are being Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth.

And what do they want most from us?  Prayer.

It’s the least we can do. What is your commitment to praying for missionaries?

How do you do it?

What do you need to do more of?

Jesus said, “[Y]ou will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So we better go, send, and pray.

Let’s do it right now!


***

Previous Messages in This Series:

01. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified
02. Sing!
03. Lost and Found
04. The Church That Prays Together

05. Where Stands It Written?

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My 2017 Annual Report for Lanse Free Church

Lanse Evangelical Free Church exists to glorify God

by bringing people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ

through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service.

The Annual Pastoral Report
Pastor Matt Mitchell
Year in Review: 2016

Dear Church Family,

It is a joy to be your pastor. Thank you for giving me the privilege to serve as a shepherd among and alongside you these many years. I am grateful to be able to give an overview of the highlights of the last year from a pastor’s perspective.

If I had to sum up 2016 in a word, it would be “missional.” The overarching theme for 2016 was that we, as a church, are “Sent on a Mission.” In our first Sunday message of the year, we went back to the Great Commission to remind ourselves what we are all about as a church. Our message is the gospel, and our mission is to make disciples–people who have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. We are sent to be disciples and to make disciples both here and around the world.

This theme of being sent pervaded our ministry this year. Our new Sunday School curriculum, “The Gospel Project,” calls us each week to make missional applications to our daily life. On Mother’s Day, my sermon was about “mission-minded moms” who mother disciples of all nations. We tried to envision how all of our callings in life feed into this mission. Our youth got a triple-dose of “missionalness” at the 2016 Challenge Conference where the theme was “Live Sent” and the mission was tied to our relationship with the Triune God. Because God is Father, Son, and Spirit, we are a family of servant missionaries. And on Christmas, the last Sunday of the year, we were reminded that our mission comes from Jesus’ mission. Jesus was sent to us so that we might live in Him and love like Him.

And we didn’t just talk about it in 2016, we lived it out. We sent John Forcey and Roper Houston back to Oaxaca to minister to the people there. We reached out to our community with a (rebooted) Wild Game Dinner, Family Bible Week, and Good News Cruise. We sent people each week back into their workplaces, families, schools, and neighborhoods to be salt and light and snap up opportunities to make disciples of the people around them. We continued to offer week-to-week discipleship programs aimed at growing children, youth, and adults in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. We had a dedicated group of prayer warriors that prayed each Wednesday and also at monthly Harvest Prayer Times, especially for lost people. And we sent thousands of dollars out to mobilize missions near and far–including two new missionary families, whom our church adopted this year. Read the stories from our various ministries in the rest of this annual report to get a taste of all the ways in which God has been using us in His grand plan. We are learning together to live sent and stay on mission for Him.

As your pastor, I am grateful for each and every one of you, especially those folks who give of their time, treasure, and talents to serve the church in leadership roles. I’m thankful for every elected officer, appointed leader, staff person, and ministry volunteer who sacrifice a lot to see our church family succeed in our shared mission (their names are sprinkled throughout this report but some still succeed in hiding anonymously behind the curtain–you know who you are!). In particular, I’m thankful for our 2016 Elder Team for their investment of heart and soul in leadership, for Marilynn Kristofits with her tireless devotion to “administry,” and to our second year intern, Hunter Galley, who learned a lot of new things about leadership and service last Summer.

It was a joy to have Hunter back for a second year as an intern, especially as it culminated in Hunter preaching his first public sermon. Hunter also led the youth to the Challenge Conference and facilitated a great deal of the work for Family Bible Week. I’m excited to see how the Lord will use Hunter in the years to come.

Our church took on seven new members this year. I’m sure the Lord will use them in special ways in the coming days. In spite of our membership growth, our average attendance at worship on Sundays dropped to 139 people (down from 143 the previous year). The highest attended gathering was Resurrection Sunday with 253 people worshiping our Risen Lord.

Pastoral Ministry

Here are some of the highlights from the three main areas of my pastoral ministry in 2016:

Preach the Word

We finished Romans! After my surgery, it seemed like it might never happen, but we completed our 37 message series on the letter to the Romans in February. In March, we focused on the Cross of Christ with a short series called “Jesus Paid It All.” For the remainder of the year, we returned to our long term trek through the Big Story of the Bible finding the Lord Jesus Christ in “The King of Kings in the Books of Kings” which I expect we’ll complete sometime early this year. During Advent, we meditated on the prediction of the Messiah in Isaiah 11 and got to contemplate Jesus as “The Root and Shoot of Jesse.” It’s a great privilege to teach and preach the Word of God to you.

In the course of the year, I also got to share God’s Word with the West Branch Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Time-Out Student Ministry at UP-Johnstown, Hope Church in Spencer Iowa, the West Branch Lenten Luncheon group, the 75th annual conference of CLC USA, the Father & Son Retreat at Miracle Mountain Ranch, and the Deep & Wide Conference at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Deep Creek, Maryland.

I’m thankful that whenever I was out of the pulpit, we had good men it. Keith Maurer, Dave Learish, Henoc Lucien, Chris Grella, Tim McGill, Hunter Galley, Tim McIntosh, Mark Brenner, Donnie Rosie, and Jeff Powell faithfully shared God’s message with us on Sundays in 2016.

Equip the Saints

A big part of my job is meeting with church leaders to help them do their ministry. It’s not very glamorous activity–attending meetings, listening to concerns, coordinating communications–but the church is people, so it’s incredibly important.  I’m thankful that I don’t do all of the ministry; I help the church family do the ministry.

In 2016, I started meeting with a new cohort of church leaders (1 elder, 2 facilities team members) for spiritual leadership training. We are learning together about sound doctrine and biblical counseling principles. I’m excited about the closer working relationship that is developing between the Elders and the Facilities Team and enjoyed attending a good number of the Facilities Team meetings in 2016. And I taught my first preaching class with three eager students.

I also got to equip folks beyond our local church, especially through EFCA-related district and national ministries. In 2016, I continued to chair the Allegheny District Constitutions and Credentials Board, coordinate the Stay Sharp theology conference, and attend a regional pastors’ group. I continued to serve as the book review coordinator for EFCA Now for whom I also wrote a book review article on preaching (which referenced Hunter’s sermon). Our own Schenley Pilgram also wrote a book review for EFCA Now that I got to coordinate and promote. I continued to serve as a member of the EFCA Spiritual Heritage Committee and attend the EFCA Theology Conference last January in Iowa. Thank you for encouraging me to have a broader ministry on both regional and national levels.

I’m also encouraged that my book, Resisting Gossip, continues to be used in ministry internationally, as well. It was already out in English, Spanish, and French, and in 2016, it was translated into Russian and Korean to be made available very soon to readers in Belarus and Korea.

Shepherd the Flock

My favorite part of pastoral ministry is walking side by side with people in personal relationships. It’s a great privilege to come alongside you in the good times and in the bad.

In 2016, I had the opportunity to spend personal time with just about every family in the church–whether it be counseling, discipleship, or visitation. My favorite kind of pastoral visit is getting to meet a newborn in the hospital, and we had a big bunch this year (7!). It’s not as fun, but it’s just as significant to walk alongside grieving families. In 2016, I also got to officiate at the wedding of Lucas &Ashley Kristofits and baptize both Hunter Galley and Aspen Galley on Resurrection Sunday. What a privilege it is to be a people-shepherd!

Thank You for Your Prayers

Thank you for praying for me and for my family and walking alongside us. This year, Heather was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and we appreciate all of your support and prayers for us as we adjust to these new realities. We’re thankful, especially, for the Pastoral Prayer Team who receive regular email updates and intercede for us at the throne of grace. It’s a joy to be your pastor!

Vision for 2017

This year, we are celebrating 125 years of God’s faithfulness to us as a church. Our congregation was founded on February 13, 1892, and we are going to mark this milestone throughout the year.

In February, we’ll eat cake to celebrate our 125th birthday, and then in October we’ll have a special weekend to observe the special anniversary more extensively. President Kevin Kompelien and his wife Becky are going to visit us and bring a special message from the EFCA national office. We will have an open house and some special meetings planned by our church historian and her team. I look forward to a time of remembrance with some of the people who have made us who we are today.

The best way to honor those on whose shoulders we stand is to recommit to the fundamental values that have formed and shaped us as a church for a century and a quarter. I call those values our “Gospel Roots” and plan to preach an episodic sermon series that revisits our spiritual DNA throughout 2017. My hope is that we not only look backward in gratitude but also understand better who we are today and look forward to a gospel-centered missional future.

The first and most central of our Gospel Roots is the person and work of Jesus Christ.  In 2017, we are making the same commitment as did the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2–“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  Whether in upcoming big events such as the Louisiana Missions Trip (March 12-18), Wild Game Dinner with Zeke Pipher (March 18-19), Family Bible Week (July 10-13, 16), and Good News Cruise (August 20) or in the ongoing weekly ministries, in all that we do, we want Jesus Christ to be known and get the glory He deserves.

In His Grip,
Pastor Matt

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