Christ Church

Missions and Media

Ben Zornes on

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Introduction:
Every year our congregation sponsors a missions conference, the one we just finished yesterday. It is also our custom to have the sermon following the missions conference be related to the subject of missions in some way. This message is no exception, but it is important for us not to misunderstand. The fact that we mark Good Friday and Easter on an annual basis does not mean that the crucifixion and resurrection are somehow dispensable in other times of the year. The fact that we are done with the missions conference does not mean we are done with mission.

The Text:
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Summary of the Text:
At the end of the gospel of Mark, Jesus gives His disciples their marching orders. This is not the Great Commission, but it is on the same theme as that commission. Go into all the world. When you go into all the world, you will find creatures there. When you find creatures there, you are to proclaim the gospel to every creature.

My focus here this morning is to address what is meant by “world.” How do we “go into” all the world?

When These Words Were Spoken:
When Jesus spoke these words, going into the world meant what we would call travel (going from one place to another yourself), and it meant communication across distance (going from one place to another by means of media). Media at the time largely meant letters, epistles. We have the same basic options—travel and media. The passage of time has not changed the options, but has rather simply changed the ease and speed of those options. We travel with much greater ease, and we communicate with people on the other side of the world with much greater ease.
What should we bring with us when we travel? What should we send with our messages when we write? The answer is Jesus, but this must be understood rightly. This does not mean that all your Facebook posts should be pictures of saints with three haloes.
The fact is that mankind is created as a tool-making creature. Adam was created naked, but given the magnitude of the task he was given—which included digging mines, sailing oceans, and climbing mountains—the creation of tools was a necessity. This means that when we make tools, whether plows and shovels, smoke signals or iPhones, we are not violating our essential humanity. Rather we are expressing it. Contrary to the theory of evolution, we are not over-developed animals who moved away from the “natural” and into the “artificial.” For man, the artificial is natural. We want nothing to do with Rousseau’s “noble savage.” Ten minutes after Adam figured out what that honeycomb was, he started looking around for a stick.
Scattering What You Have:
Now wherever Christians go, they go as themselves. “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only” (Acts 11:19).

Wherever hypocrites go, they also go as themselves. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matt. 23:15).

Your country can only export whatever it is your farmers are growing. When you go somewhere, or when you send a message somewhere, you are simply projecting what you already are. If you are a bore and a bellygod, then social media will simply enable you to engage in some digital scribbling so that people in New Zealand can, if they wish, read about your grumbles over lunch.

But if you are alive, vibrant, and forgiven, we now live in a world where you can project that.

Times of Refreshing:
The gospel is not some tiresome thing that door-to-door salesmen try to talk you into. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). We are actually talking about a cool breeze that blows off the ocean of God’s infinite pleasure and delight. We are talking about times of refreshing, and if we are not talking about times of refreshing then we are not talking about the gospel as presented in Scripture.

Piety is delighted, and delightful. Godliness is free in its enjoyment of the pleasures of God. Obedience is liberty. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). This is quite true—whatever you eat or drink, on whatever day, for whatever meal. This includes, of course, the French fries, but that does not mean that you are to stand on the restaurant chair in order to thank God that you are not like other men, the ones who do not glorify God for the French fries.

The grace of God is good. Do not be like that nun that Brother Lawrence referred to, the one who wanted to be “faster than grace.” This is how we run headlong into scruples and fussing and wowserism. Enjoy your life, the one Christ has given you. And it is not possible to do this without enjoying Christ Himself.

Two Meanings for “Share”:
The charge against the early disciples was that they had “filled Jerusalem” with their teaching. “Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28).

We do not have pastors and evangelists as hired guns to do all the evangelism for us. They are trained and equipped so that they can prepare God’s people for works of service (Eph. 4:12). The saints are to do the work of ministry, not at the same level as someone gifted or trained. But all of us are involved. And to be honest, how much training does it take to share or retweet something?

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Working on a Building #1

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

As you know, our desire is to build a sanctuary that is more conducive to worship than the temporary quarters that God has graciously given us up to this point. Because we want every aspect of our lives to be governed by Scripture, this means that we must turn to Scripture for guidance and protection as we are preparing to undertake this significant project. When we look at the map that Scripture provides, there are zoom out and zoom in features. This message, and the next two, are at the zoom out level.

The Text

“Now, my son, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee. Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed. Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee” (1 Chron. 22:11-16).

Summary of the Text

At the end of his life, King David is entrusting the next big task to his son Solomon. That task was the building of a Temple, and in this passage we see some of the essentials. The first thing is the charge to build the Temple (v. 11). This is the mission. David’s desire is that God give Solomon wisdom and understanding so that he will keep the law of God (v. 12). The result of keeping this law in wisdom will be prosperity (v. 13), not truncated legalism. Wisdom and prosperity are given through adherence to the words of God. How could they not be? David then says that in the time of his “trouble,” he had nevertheless made a number of preparations for the building of the Temple (v. 14). Not only that, he had assembled the workmen (v. 15). The gold, silver, brass and iron were gathered “without number” (v. 16). Therefore, David said, be “up and doing.”

Resources Assembled

The principle is that you should take up the hard task of counting your shekels before undertaking the relatively easy task of spending them. Jesus teaches us this bluntly. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28). Now if your response to this is that Jesus was making something called a “spiritual point” about the cost of discipleship, I grant it. But the spiritual point is not one you can grasp is you don’t understand the thing Jesus compares it to. You can’t afford what you can’t afford, and this is something that needs to be determined first.

The Authority of Imitation

David was a king, which meant that he could assemble these riches, and dispose of them the way he does here. He gives these resources to Solomon, and says that this is for that. He didn’t have to route any of this through committees. Our position is different. We are in a much more democratic setting—which has strong and weak points. There are virtues connected to this position of affairs, and there are vices. This means that our financial preparation has to include things like cost estimates, budgets, fund-raising, etc. So much is obvious. But another thing we must do—and which I am doing here—is to prepare our hearts to understand money.

Some Examples

We need a big church, and you can’t have a big church without big money. But you can’t have big money without a big problem, and what is that? Whenever you have big money show up, more than a few people will start acting funny. This funniness runs in two directions—and we need to learn how to mortify both these tendencies. They are temptations. Treat them in just the same way you would treat a temptation to perjure yourself, or commit adultery, or rob banks.

I am not addressing the temptations that people with money face. The warnings of Scripture are well-known, and are pretty clear. We do not need to rehearse them here. What we do need to do is go over the temptations faced by people in the proximity of money. Teaching on this is also found in Scripture, but we are not nearly enough on our guard about it. If someone in our congregation received a windfall inheritance of 100 million dollars, the chances are good that this person will receive scores of warnings not to let it go to his head. All the people around that guy will not receive any warnings, and they are the ones who really need it.

The first warning they need is to guard against unctuous flattery. “For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness” (1 Thess. 2:5).

The second warning is against envious carping. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Ex. 20:17). “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones” (Prov. 14:30).

A Non-Monetary Illustration

Suppose someone in our congregation, out of the blue, won the Nobel Prize for carving a cure for cancer out of bar of soap. Next Sunday someone walks up and says, “Congratulations . . . don’t let it go to your head.” He should reply, “Thanks . . . and don’t you get envious.” Or someone else walks up, “Congratulations! I always thought you were wonderful! And it turns out you are really wonderful! Cousin!” The reply here needs to be more creative.

Assembling Heart Resources

So in order for us to handle this great task properly as a congregation, we must learn how to take financial information in stride. In order to do this right, we have to practice, practice, and practice. And, of course, this has everything to do with Jesus.

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The Covenant Home 3: Sketch of a Godly Husband

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

Our sketch of a godly husband is not to be based upon a particular set of cultural assumptions, or on certain notions created by the false elevation of certain personality types. As with everything, we must turn to the Word of God for guidance.

The Text

“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones” (Prov. 12:4).

A Man’s Caliber

We should begin by noting that a husband should love Jesus Christ above all—“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In the parallel passage in Matthew 10, Jesus uses the expression “loves more than me.” But here in Luke, He includes wives in the list. A man who loves his wife more than Jesus Christ cannot be Christ’s disciple. And if he is not Christ’s disciple, he will not be the kind of husband he ought to be. In other words, a wife with good sense will deeply desire to be second on the list of her husband’s priorities. In this sense, a wife who is loved as “number two” will receive a lot more sacrificial love than if she were number one.

Second, a husband must be a man, not a boy—“And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses’” (Neh. 4:14). But in order to qualify for the fight, God required maturity of males. “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above—all who are able to go to war in Israel” (Num. 1:2-3). In a church where marriage is valued highly, boys should want to be married before they sire ready to be married.

In order for this to happen, a husband needs to have been prepared —marriage is a help to vocation (1 Cor. 11:8-9). A man not prepared for vocation is not prepared for marriage.

The Way a Man Stands

A godly husband assumes masculine responsibility —a man must come into marriage understanding what it is, and where he stands in the relation he is establishing. In short, the vows should be in line with the teaching of federal husbandry, and he should understand the nature of the vows he makes. He enters into marriage fully expecting to exercise leadership. He knows how to make a decision.

A godly husband is monogamous to the bone—it is not good that man be alone, and God created one woman to fix the problem (Gen. 2:18). The creation order shows God’s design for marriage. The relation of Christ and the church shows God’s design for marriage (Eph. 5:21-33). The Bible requires Christian leaders to be monogamous (1 Tim. 3:2), and they are set before the church as examples (Heb. 13:7, 17). This obviously excludes adultery and lust, but it also excludes snide comparative comments.

A godly husband is tribal—this means that he thinks in terms of his ancestors and descendants. The Ten Commandments promise blessings to a thousand generations (Ex. 20:5). Godly men pursue God’s blessings. “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested” (1 Chron. 4:9- 10). He does not think in terms of raw accumulation, of collecting trophies. And he does not boast in putting on his armor as though he is taking it off.

A godly husband is industrious—this standard of industry is not determined by the union. It affects more than whether he does an adequate job “at work.” He does not sit for endless hours, staring slack-jawed at the tube. He is not a slug at home.

A godly husband provides food and clothing—in the Old Testament law, God placed a certain restriction on polygamy. A man could not steal certain things from his first wife by taking a second. We see the essential things God requires a man to provide for his wife. “If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights” (Ex. 21:10).

A godly husband is sexually attentive—this is not the same as being sexually selfish. “Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2). He understands his wife and what she desires. He listens, and is thoughtful.

A godly husband is courageous—in Neh. 4:14, we saw the duty which men who are husbands and fathers have to fight to protect their homes. We have drifted into a mentality which seeks to find defense in unattached boys. We use eighteen-year-old boys as cannon fodder. But in the biblical mentality, a society goes to war, represented in it.

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