Our Charge
We’re moving from a focus on community to our charge as a people to impact culture.
Focus: Our charge from Jesus is to take this good news of the Kingdom to every nation under Heaven.
Forgiveness of Sins
For Every Nation
To the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb
Forgiveness of Sins
Jesus died on the cross so that all people, everywhere, might have the opportunity to repent and receive the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 24:44-49 ESV
“Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."”
This is what God has said.
What has made you believe something different?
There was a problem in all of our lives and Jesus came to solve it.
Sin separated all of humanity from God and made us by nature, objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Sin such as hatred, discord, factions, greed, rape, murder, lust, sexual immortality, adultery, lying, stealing, trafficking, enslavement, drunkenness, selfish ambition and the like have brought destruction to families, communities, cultures, cities and nations.
These are issues the world round, to different degrees, because sin is not just in cultures, it is in people's hearts.
We preach the gospel because God has said:
Proverbs 14:34 ESV
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
True righteousness can only be found in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
The wages of sin is death because we are separated from the author of life and call on ourselves a just judgment for our wrongdoing (Romans 6:23).
Because sin causes a relational fracture with us and God, there is no reconciliation with God without the forgiveness of sins.
There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22).
Christ shed his blood for us at the cross to give his life in our place (Leviticus 17:11).
Repentance and faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death, burial and resurrection make reconciliation with God available to the whole world.
Culture is made up of people and the perpetual decisions that they make to honor or defy God.
The culture changes as lives are changed by the cross and gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a community we preach, intentionally sharing the gospel with others because everyone can repent.
“Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision . . . Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.”
-Eugene Peterson
Have you believed a lie that certain people can not come to repentance?
For Every Nation
This gospel of the Kingdom is for every nation.
Just as our primary call is to worship God and enjoy him forever and our primary posture is to grow in this within a devoted Christian community, our primary mission is to together make Christ known that all the nations might be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 ESV
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is what God has said.
What has made you believe something different?
What this Scripture means is that the whole world is under the same type of sin, deserving of death and hell, lest they have a savior who went to the cross to pay the price for them.
So the love of Christ compels us.
If you don’t feel like you yet have the love of God for others, pray for it - God will break your heart for the nations.
Because of the mercy that God has shown us, we look at no one from a worldly point of view.
We must look at everyone through the lens of Christ which makes both grace and forgiveness available to them through repentance and faith in Jesus.
We must not be lulled to sleep by our culture believing that God no longer cares about this as his primary purpose (Luke 15).
There are sins in every culture that attempt to dull our fervor for God.
What is it in your culture?
“When an ancient temptation or trial becomes a feature in the culture, a way of life that is expected and encouraged, Christians have a stumbling block put before them that is hard to recognize for what it is, for it has been made into a monument, gilded with bronze and bathed in decorative lights.”
-Eugene Peterson
We are God’s ambassadors as if God were making his appeal through us.
The goal is for your family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends to be reconciled with God.
Jesus is not just for your nation - he is for every nation under Heaven - for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
This is why we have our Acts 1:8 mandate and together reach out to Chicago, Madison, Charleston, Turkey (this summer) and Luxembourg.
Romans 10:8-15 ESV
“But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"”
The beauty is that we not only have the nations in our city, but an international community that might not otherwise be exposed to the gospel right in our back yard.
And in this light, we are called to serve and invite everyone to the wedding banquet of the Lamb of God.
The Wedding Banquet of the Lamb
We are called to belong to Jesus and therefore are called to invite people from every nation to the wedding banquet of the Lamb of God.
Matthew 22:1-14 ESV
“And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast."' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
This is what God has said.
What has made you believe something different?
It is not our job to force people to come to Jesus, but as the body of Christ, it is our responsibility to make the invitation to every person under heaven.
We do not get to choose who we think is or is not a good candidate - we invite as many as we find.
Again, we look at no one from a worldly point of view, but remember that Christ died for all, therefore all died.
It is important to note three things here:
People missed the grace of God because of both animosity and because they were too busy with other things to make reconciliation with God a priority. Do not be one of them.
Those who were invited to the banquet were both bad and good - do not disqualify anyone from an invitation.
*It is not enough to just be spiritual - without the right clothes, the wedding garments (being clothed in Christ’s righteousness alone, by faith) the attendee was thrown out.
We need to not only know what to do, but to persevere in doing it until we see Jesus face to face.
“For it is apathetic, sluggish neutrality that is death to perseverance, acts like a virus in the bloodstream and enervates the muscles of discipleship. The person who makes excuses for hypocrites and rationalizes the excesses of the wicked, who loses a sense of opposition to sin, who obscures the difference between faith and denial, grace and selfishness—that is the person to be wary of. For if there is not all that much difference between the way of faith and the ways of the world, there is not much use in making any effort to stick to it.”
-Eugene Peterson
I believe it is a gift from God that we were given our church building in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the nation.
May we make the most of loving people and serving them with the good news of Jesus.
What has kept you from answering God’s invitation to the wedding banquet of Christ?
What has kept you from making the invitation to others?
What will you do now?
