Church Mission - Part 2

Bryan Chapell: What God is doing is saying, "I'm building a church. It's widening, and it's welcoming, because I need people who are ready for the gospel's sake to face whatever comes." And as that message is going forward, it's changing the people then, and it's supposed to be changing us now.
Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's lesson, Pastor Bryan continues his message from Acts 1. In this passage, Jesus promises to the disciples the anointing power of the Holy Spirit as they go forth spreading the message of the gospel to the nations. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's book, Unlimited Grace. Dr. Chapell reminds us of the power and mercy of God's grace that motivates and inspires us to serve our Heavenly Father. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the second half of the lesson, Church Mission.
Bryan Chapell: I'll ask that you look in your Bibles at Acts Chapter 1, as we move to the next great movement of the gospel, as the risen Lord now having offered Himself, raises up a church to carry His ministry into the world. Let's stand as we honor God's word. I'll ask in Acts 1 that we look at verses 3 through 11. If you said He's now offered Himself up to satisfy divine justice, to reconcile us to God, what's next? Verse 3. "He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' 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.' And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'" Let's pray together. Heavenly Father of our ascended Lord, would you teach us this day of the power that He promised by the Holy Spirit as you call us into mission? So thankful for what you have given us of resources, but recognizing to whom much is given, much is required, that we who have experienced your blessing now experience again your calling and the need to bow ourselves to not only your purposes but to an appeal for your power. Teach us of its availability and teach us how we might serve you for Christ's sake, in whose name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. The very structure of the book of Acts for those of you who like studying is just being laid out in verse 8 of chapter 1. "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem." Now what's going to happen? The Holy Spirit's going to come upon you. You may remember that there was that time at Pentecost when there were the flames of fire and the sound of rushing wind, and the apostles began to preach in such a way that everyone is hearing in their own language. The thousands and thousands of people who have come to Jerusalem, Jews from the different nations of the world, begin to hear and be convinced and be converted, and thousands are joined to the church. There were added to the church daily such as those who were being saved. So that by the time you get to Chapter 6 of the book of Acts, even the priests of the Jews are being converted. Then the officials have enough of that. And so the highest officials begin to say, "We've got to stop this movement." So what do they do? They arrange for the martyrdom, for the slaughter of Stephen, who even as he is being stoned, his cloaks are held by a man named Saul, one day to be named Paul. But that same Saul begins to participate in such persecution that what happens next is the Christians move outside of Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. There is a man named Philip who in Acts Chapter 7 begins to speak to an Ethiopian eunuch, not a Jew, an African, and one who is a eunuch, who by the standards of the Jews would be perceived as unclean, not able to be in the temple of God. That same one having heard from Philip says, "What keeps me from being baptized in the name of this Jesus?" And Philip says, "Not a thing." The gospel expands, and as it expands further and further, we get to Acts 10 and that Peter whose confession Jesus said, "On this I will build my church, your confession of who I am," that same Peter is actually in the home of a Roman centurion. He has God declare from heaven, "What I've declared clean, don't you make unclean," and the gospel goes even to the Romans, even to the enemies of the people by the chief disciple among them. As the gospel keeps expanding, it goes to Antioch where you have in this little outpost of Asia a church where they were first called Christians, Acts 11. We get for the first time a roster of Christians in the church. They're Jews, and an African, and one from Asia Minor, and a Roman, and Paul, a monster, and a servant from the household of Herod who had decapitated John the Baptist. They're in the church. They're in the church. There is not just this widening witness, but you understand a welcoming witness. This is totally without precedent among religions, among peoples where ancient antipathies and wars and heritage would be against one another, never allowing people to come in. But the widening witness is creating a welcoming witness. When Paul says to the church at Colossae, "In Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, you're one in Christ," that's a really new thing. Because it's a new thing, it's a really hard thing. It's a hard thing we still recognize. If we say what we are to be is a widening church, it is a welcoming church, recognizing that there are differences and barriers and fences the world has put up, but we are going beyond them. We will not even recognize that they have any ability to stop the gospel either its widening or its welcoming. Why is that so hard? Because of how we are wired. If all we gather with is people like ourselves, same life experience, same economic bracket, same education, that's all we know, then if you will, it's kind of like having one species of bananas. What happens when the plague comes? What happens when the disease comes? You have no ability to factor that. What God is doing is saying, "I'm building a church. It's widening, and it's welcoming, because I need people who are ready for the gospel's sake to face whatever comes." And as that message is going forward, it's changing the people then, and it's supposed to be changing us now. You recognize when Paul spoke to the people at Corinth and he said, "Here, here is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian," those were the nomads of no country, "free, but Christ is all and in all here, here." There must have been people going, "No, no, not here. Don't want that. Man, this is going to be tough." It will. For that reason he says, "You are not on your own." Before he talked about the widening and the welcoming church, what did he say would happen? "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you." This is not natural. This is not instinctive. This is not Midwest nice. This is something different. This is a new thing that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.
Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. Would you say that you're burdened by some chains of addiction, some patterns of sin or habits of apathy? Would you like to be set free from that and enjoy joy, peace, true satisfaction? Well, the good news, it's possible. Pastor Bryan says so in his book, a powerful book titled Unlimited Grace. Based on Pastor Bryan's decades of teaching the good news of Christ and His amazing grace, this book Unlimited Grace will take you on a personal journey to discover how grace not only frees you from the guilt and shame of a sinful life, but also provides the daily fuel you need for joy, which is your strength as a Christian. Request your copy of Unlimited Grace when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com. The web address again, unlimitedgrace.com. And now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.
Bryan Chapell: Soren Kierkegaard, the Dutch philosopher, talked about a church of ducks. Yes, I did say ducks. And he said in this church of ducks, all the ducks waddle to church, and they listen to the preacher give a wonderful sermon. And the preacher says, "Ducks have a great gift of God. Ducks have wings. I mean, they're like other birds. They can fly. They have privileges like other animals don't have. We have been given the great gift of wings. Praise God." And all the ducks say, "Amen!" And then they waddle back home. That can happen in the church where we say, "Here's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit to enable us to be a new thing in the plan and purpose of God. Great. Amen." And then waddle home. What does it mean? Verse 8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." It's not just those apostles. No, it gets repeated over and over again. When the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus, he said, "You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having believed, you were marked in him with a seal." What's the seal? "The promised Holy Spirit." If you believed, you received. In fact, you could not have believed had you not received. The Holy Spirit is that blessing upon all who believe. Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia. He was chastising them. "I would like just to learn one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, by you just performing what you think you ought to perform in your strength and with your resources, or by believing what you heard?" How did you receive the Spirit? By what you do? No, by what you believed. If you believe, you receive. It's the same thing that Paul is going to say to the churches at Corinth. "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you received from God? Because you're not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." You're the temple of the Holy Spirit. If you believe, you have received. That means that same Spirit that is making these witnesses, who will just become God's purpose to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part, that same Spirit is indwelling and empowering you. Now I'm not saying by the Holy Spirit empowering you that there's no challenges out for you. If there were no challenges, you would not need power. The fact that we are being given supernatural power is saying there are challenges that will be so great, so difficult that apart from the Holy Spirit we could not endure. So I think of the 11 Ethiopian pastors murdered at Christmas time by ISIS, and a church that gathers right the next week to worship again. Wait, how does that happen? How do people face trial and danger and fear and terrorism and say, "And yet we're coming back to worship God. We know His plans are eternal. We know His working is beyond us"? Because of the Holy Spirit. I think of husbands and wives who are here, some of you for decades enduring a difficult marriage, witnessing for someone who is selfish or cruel or not hearing you at all. You say, "How do you do that?" And the reality is by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not just Midwest nice, not just personal resolve, something that's greater than you is at work giving you endurance and ability. Parents who continue compassionately with kids who are irresponsible or rebellious or embarrassing and say, "But I'm going to love you. Nothing you can do will make me turn my back on you. Nothing. Nothing." Where does that resolve come from? That is from the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit is our power to do what God calls us to do, simply because we are receiving and believing that we have the mission and that the power is His. I think of early years in ministry when we were in a very hard church situation. I knew I had to address it, and I can remember the sermon in which I preached and just feeling like it had gone miserably. But as I was preaching, my wife was remembering a sermon that had come years previous in which I had talked about the great orator preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon who suffered terribly with depression and self-doubt. So what he would do as this great preacher would approach the pulpit with self-doubt, in every step he said he would pray, "I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit." After that sermon when I said to Kathy, "I just think that went terribly," she said, "No, it couldn't." "What do you mean it couldn't?" She said, "Because in every step as you went, as you approached the pulpit, I prayed: I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit." Were my words great? I don't know. Were they eloquent? I doubt it. But who was at work beyond me? The Holy Spirit. And so when parents say, "I have failed," say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit." When we say, "I can't reach that neighbor," "I believe in the Holy Spirit." When I can't face that boss again, "I believe in the Holy Spirit." I'm not dependent upon my resources, my ability. It's not just pastors. I think of the account of Scott Sunquist, who just talks about a drama student in a local university who was encouraged by the professor to break all boundaries, to go to the extreme to learn to express yourself. And so she prepared, looking at scripture, wanting to express something about her Savior, wrote a song, came to class the next week. The person who went in front of her took out a Bible, asked the class outside, and then read an Old Testament passage about God commanding His people to go to war with those who were not believers. She tore it out and said, "Who would believe in a God like that?" She looked at a passage that said God would punish those who did not honor him, tore out the page, who would believe in a God like that? With the collected pages, just as we did this day, she burned them and threw them in the trash can. Now the class goes back inside. Mary's turn. "Behold what manner of love God has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God, and that is what you are." And then she sang of her Savior. At the end of the class, people left without comment, some snorting as they went, except for the young woman who had burned the pages of the Bible before her, who said, "Yours is the God I want to know. Can you help me to know that Jesus?" I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Not my ability, not my eloquence, not my planning. I believe in the Holy Spirit. The reason that I believe that Holy Spirit is my advocate, my power, because every word in this passage is carefully chosen. They said, "Lord, are you going to fix everything now?" They declare him Lord. And then what happens? He is caught up into the heavens in the cloud, and we recognize the one who is Lord is ascended, and he is at the right hand of God calling the shots upon the world for all eternity. So I believe in the Holy Spirit because my God reigns, and he rules from above, and he's accomplishing his purpose. I'm not helpless. And beyond that, I'm not forgotten, because in like manner as he ascended, what will happen? He shall also descend to claim his people. He has sent his Holy Spirit for our power in our calling, whatever may be our mission of challenge. Maybe you will be singing, and maybe you'll be suffering. But what God says is you have my Spirit to fulfill my mission. When we believe that, we are preparing every day by believing he is working through us but beyond us at exactly the same moment. I think of the amazing words that somebody captured from Kobe Bryant with his untimely death. Somebody went back in all the news files and found that after September 11, Kobe Bryant said this, "I've learned that you cannot take things for granted. You know how we always say see you later? One thing I've realized after September 11 is you can't ever say that for sure. Things change in the blink of an eye. People go to work and don't come back. One minute they're living and the next minute they're not. It doesn't matter who you are. There's nothing you can do about it. We never know when our time here will be over, so we all need to make the most of every minute." How do you do that? You say, "God, I'm your witness. And whether you call me to suffering or singing, I believe that I am part of a widening and welcoming church. And when my resources are inadequate, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Not me. God, use my words, use my commitment just to follow after Christ. When I cannot understand, when I cannot feel like I can keep going, when I do not have the means, let me believe not in me, but in you, the risen, ascended, and returning Lord who has sent his Spirit." God, whether I'm parent or spouse or missionary or pastor or youth worker, help me to say the prayer again. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. And you will be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts, because you believe in the Holy Spirit, and he is at work in you. Father, so grant us again the promises to be present in our minds. The world pushes away the reality we actually believe. Help us to affirm that our risen Lord is the ascended Lord, and the one who ascended will descend, but not until he has used us by his spirit to claim the world that he intends. Enable us we pray, whatever the challenge, whatever the difficulty to endure, not because we trust us, but because we believe in the Holy Spirit. May it be our prayer. From your lips we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've been blessed by this message and would like to hear more from Dr. Chapell, I would encourage you to visit unlimitedgrace.com. In addition to messages from Pastor Bryan, you can explore the many sermons, podcasts, seminars, and more available to you. Also, be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Bryan Chapell called Unlimited Grace. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thanks for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-414-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by His unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.