Mission 94 - Equipping
If you were to go to the city of Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, you would find an interesting scene being played out on the streets around Red Square. There, at little tables set up on the sidewalk, you can get a good buy on Soviet memorabilia.
Black market street vendors are selling all sorts of stuff - pins, medals, army uniforms, badges, and hats. They are the leftovers of the old Soviet Empire. A tourist can get a terrific deal on a medal once worn on the chest of a Hero of Soviet Labor.
There’s something sad about it all. Those little pins and medallions that are being hawked in the streets for Western currency were once highly coveted by the citizens who are now trying to get rid of them. They were awarded with patriotic fervor at special ceremonies. They conferred special status and prestige on the recipient.
But now they are nothing more than the pitiful trinkets of a by-gone age, sold to curious tourists for the price of a loaf of bread. The death of Communism left only worthless junk to the Russian people who had struggled so hard, and sacrificed so much, to bring it to life. They invested themselves in a bold but misguided system. Their investment went bust and now all they have left are shabby mementos.
But let’s not regard ourselves as better than they. The truth is that most Americans are doing the same thing. The material things that we strive so hard for: the cars, the electronic gadgets, the designer clothes, are really not much different from those little pins and medals being sold on the streets of Moscow. They are not going to bring us any more satisfaction, or dignity, or meaning. All this stuff that we live for will turn out to be nothing more than worthless junk when weighed on the scales of eternity.
Our mission as a church is to give people something more substantial to hold onto, something more meaningful in which to invest their lives. The purpose God has placed us here is to bring people into proper relationship with Jesus Christ; to help them to see who he really is, and to learn to exalt Him.
As we move into 1994, we’ve been looking at our mission as a church. Let me remind you of it again. The mission of First Baptist Church is to exalt Jesus Christ and to equip believers to express their faith so that His Kingdom extends throughout the Lehigh Valley and around the world.
As you know, there are four elements to that mission:
1. Exalting - focusing on Jesus Christ; putting the spotlight on Him.
2. Equipping - helping people to come to grips with the Bible. Giving them a solid foundation on which to build their lives.
3. Expressing - helping people to apply the Word in their daily life and relationships
4. Extending - pushing the boundaries of Christ’s Kingdom outward, sharing the love of Jesus Christ in our own culture here in the Lehigh Valley, and around the world in other cultures.
Q. - Why is it our responsibility to equip people with the Word of God?
A. - Because of what 2 Timothy 3:15-17 tells us about the Bible… (read)
1. The Bible is an authoritative book.
- it is authoritative because God wrote it
- it is “God-breathed” - the meaning of the word “inspired”.
- the Bible is our source for spiritual truth.
- according to the surveys, we are living in an age when people are more interested in spirituality than ever before. But they are looking for spiritual answers in all the wrong places.
- the Bible is the authoritative source for spiritual truth.
Q. - How would you like to hear God speak to you in an audible voice? Some people claim to have had that experience. They claim to have had visions in which God has spoken to them.
But the Bible claims to be more authoritative than that.
- Matthew 17:1-9 - the Transfiguration - Peter, James, John heard the audible voice of God from heaven.
- 2PE 1:18 = We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain…
Q. - How would you like to have Jesus, in the flesh, walk in here this morning and visit with us? Again, some people claim to have had that experience - the experience of the presence of Christ.
But the Bible claims to be more authoritative than that.
- Luke 24 - the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus; Jesus appeared to them.
- what did he do?
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
He showed them from the OT how the Resurrection had to be true.
Q. Suppose God were to perform an amazing miracle in our church this morning. Let’s suppose that God were to bring Pastor Kulp back from the dead this morning, to come and speak to us about what he has seen in heaven. Do you think that would have an impact on people’s lives in this church, and in this community?
Yet the Bible has even more authority than if a person were to come back from the dead and report his experiences.
- Luke 16 - the parable of the rich man and Lazarus
- a wicked rich man died and went to Hades - in torment
- a poor beggar named Lazarus died and went to be with Abraham and the other righteous OT saints
- rich man wanted Abraham to raise Lazarus from the dead to go and warn his 5 wicked brothers of their spiritual danger.
Abraham said…’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
”’ No, father Abraham,’ the rich man said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Abraham replied, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
- The Bible is more authoritative than any other source of spiritual information:
1. the audible voice of God
2. the physical presence of Christ
3. the witness of a person raised from the dead
The Bible is an authoritative book, but the Bible is also a very practical book.
2 Timothy 3:15 - the Scriptures make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ
- without the Bible’s witness to Jesus Christ, none of us would be saved; none of us would know who He is or what He did in dying on the cross for us.
v. 16 - useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness
- the Bible equips us for living by teaching us…
Q. - What is more important: what you believe or how you behave?
A. - What you believe is more important, because what you believe determines how you behave. e.g. - Abortion, Adultery, etc.
The Bible always links belief and behavior.
1 Timothy 1:9-11 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
What you believe will determine how you behave.
Many Christians today have little time for teaching - they want pragmatic solutions to their problems.
- How can I get my finances in order?
- How can I get communicate better with my spouse?
- trend towards preaching that solves problems, that gives answers.
- but there may be a trend away from proclaiming the whole counsel of God, for carefully building a foundation of sound doctrine.
- we may be building spiritual blind spots into people’s lives .
- Eph 4:12-14 - one of the goals of teaching in the church is that we may become mature in Christ.
Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
illustr. - Louie Lindo
People need doctrine, they need sound teaching, and we as a church have been entrusted with the Word of God to give it to them.
- the Bible equips us for living by rebuking us
- means convicting of wrong
- immediate context - Timothy needed to know how to use the Word of God to rebuke the false teachers who were plaguing the church at Ephesus.
- our standpoint - we ourselves are sometimes convicted of wrong when we come to the Word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
- Personal illustr. of receiving severe letter of rebuke
- no one likes to be rebuked - it can be very painful
- 3 reactions
- ignore a rebuke
- attack the rebuker
- accept whatever truth there is in that rebuke, learn from it, and move on.
- much of today’s preaching and teaching is soft-soap designed to make you feel good, affirm the audience, build up your self-esteem.
- Schuller - the Gospel of Self-Esteem
- yet the Bible is a book that sometimes rebukes us… what will our reaction be?
Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Proverbs 15:31 He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
- the Bible equips us for living by correcting us
- setting things right, putting things back into place, getting back on the path.
- illustr. - cousin’s car in the ditch
- spiritually speaking, we all from time to time go off the road and end up in the ditch.
- the Bible not only tells you that you are in the ditch, it gets you out of the ditch
- Many books have been written about how bad things are in America today,
- politically, socially, economically, spiritually and otherwise.
- most of the so-called experts are long on diagnosis but short on cure
- e.g. - how would you like to go to a doctor who would give you the best diagnosis in the world, but couldn’t give you a cure?
- the Bible has the answers for living, but you have to obey it in order for it to do you any good.
- many Christians study the Bible, know the Bible, but do not obey the Bible.
- then they wonder why they have problems; they wonder why they are in the ditch.
- rather than get busy and simply apply the Word of God and get out of the ditch, they run to counselors, seek highly complicated diagnoses, they form support groups for others having the same problems.
- Mark Twain illustr
- Crooked Christian businessman - “Before I die, I’m going to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, climb Mount Sinai, and recite the Ten Commandments from the top.”
- Twain - “Why don’t you just stay home in Boston and try keeping them?”
Proverbs 15:32 He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
- the Bible equips us for living by training us in righteousness
- son in cross-country - the key is training
- how do you get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice
- training demands time, and diligence, and patience, and self-discipline
- it calls for us to re-order our priorities, our time commitments, our schedule in order to reach our goal.
- Eugene Petersen: “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”
- if we are going to be trained in righteousness, we are going to have to commit ourselves to a long obedience in the same direction.
- there are two kinds of people in the world: those who do the right thing only when they feel like doing it, and those who do the right thing even when they don’t feel like doing it, knowing that the good feelings will come later
- the Bible is profitable because it trains us in righteousness.
Conclusion
There are two great dangers in our quest to know God.
1. To look for God outside of the Bible --- the cults
- Joseph Smith looked for God outside of the Bible, and he ended up writing a “Bible” of his own - the Book of Mormon.
2. To make the Bible itself our God --- dead orthodoxy
- The Bible is our pathway to God; it is not itself our God. We study the Bible to know God, not just to know the Bible.
- D.L. Moody - “The Bible was given to change your life, not to inform your mind.”
Well, what have we learned today?
1. That the Bible is an authoritative book. It’s more authoritative than any other possible source of spiritual knowledge because it is the Word of God, breathed by God Himself.
2. The Bible is a practical book. It equips us for living by teaching us the truth, by rebuking us when we go wrong, by correcting us and showing us the right way, and by training us in righteousness.
God has given us His Word to equip us for living, and that is why equipping is a vital part of our mission as a church.