Grace’s Latest Messages
The Gospel Sends Us Out (Acts 1, 2, 9, and 29)
This Sunday will be our final week in our current series, “What the Gospel Does.” So far, we’ve heard:
The Gospel Comes to Us
The Gospel Changes Us
The Gospel Brings Us In
And this week, we’ll hear:
The Gospel Sends Us Out
Evangelism (a.k.a. sharing our faith, witnessing, being on mission, living as ‘sent ones’) is often an intimidating thing for many of God’s people. There are, no doubt, many reasons for this. If you find yourself wishing you were better equipped to engage others or bolder in testifying to Jesus’ work in your life, you’re not alone.
In fact, if you’ll recall, you are part of a family. You have many brothers and sisters. You don’t live your Jesus-following life alone. It’s not just you and me who are sent out by God, but us.
Remember that when you have the opportunity to speak of God’s grace.
Remember how the Gospel came to you.
Remember how the Gospel changed you.
Remember how the Gospel has brought you into the church – gave you a family.
Remember all of that as you carry the gospel with you in your normal, rarely-flashy, everyday life. God is with you and He wants to be with others through you.
Believe that as the Gospel sends us out!
Grateful for my sent-out siblings,
Pastor Tim
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
- Acts 1:6-8
The Gospel Brings Us In (Mark 3:31-35 & Mark 10:28-30)
There’s a letter that has been preserved from an early Christian leader named Cyprian who was the bishop of Carthage, Tunisia. He was writing to a fellow-Christian named Euchratius in about A.D. 250. The letter had to do with a theater actor who had been converted to Christ and was asking Euchratius whether it was alright to stop acting but still teach at the theater school because it was his only means of earning a living.
Because of the immoral nature of the theater and the challenge this would pose to this man’s new life in Christ, Cyprian advises that the man should also stop teaching theatre, but that the church there should supply his needs until he can find another job, or if this is not possible because of lack of funds, then the man will be financially helped by the church at Carthage, which is where Cyprian is at.
This is an amazing story when you think about it.
The church, echoing Jesus, said to this man, “Leave all to follow him!” And if he gave up his job, they wouldn’t just say to him, “good for you, brother, now you have Treasure in heaven…good luck and god speed!” No, were going to make up what was lacking. They called him to join a new family and then treated him as family. They were willing – like a healthy family – to sacrifice for one another. They put their money where they’re evangelistic mouths were. Amazing!
On Sunday, we’ll be considering how the gospel which comes to us (week 1) and changes us (week 2) also brings us in (week 3). It brings us into community. It incorporates us into the family of God. God’s work which is done in us individually is never meant to be lived out alone.
As Sister Sledge sang in the late 70s: “We are Family!”
That song might get you on the dance floor but what Jesus says about family will provide far more. Don’t miss it.
Many blessings to my many siblings,
Pastor Tim
31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
- Mark 3:31-35, Mark 10:28-30
The Gospel Come to Us (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
"What is the gospel?"
Has anyone ever asked you that question?
If you've been through our membership class here at the church - Grace 101 - you might remember being asked that question near the beginning of the first class.
Some common responses are:
"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" (those are the gospels and contain the message of the gospel, so in the ballpark)
"Good News" (yes that's what the word, "gospel," means)
"The redemption of mankind" (also a good response)
"A new mercedes, no sickness, and a bigger house" (nope - that's a different gospel)
"The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus" (very good)
Whatever the response, we typically think of the gospel in terms of what it "is" or what it "did" in our lives. Fine, but how about what it does…what it continues to do? The gospel's work is ongoing and present. The gospel has movement, intention, goals, an agenda.
What the gospel does is profound and to experience more of its profundity - with others - join us on Sunday!
Many blessings,
Pastor Tim
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-5