February 13, 2009

TO THIS END WE LABOR

Selected Scriptures

There is a story of a man who was bragging about his skill with a bow and arrow. “I can hit the bull’s eye every time,” he said. When he was asked to prove his boast, he led the way out to his barn. There on the side of the barn, sure enough, there were dozens of targets and in each target there was an arrow in the middle of the bull’s eye. His friends were duly impressed. Then they asked him to demonstrate his skill, the man stepped back about 30 yards. He drew back the bow and let the arrow fly. It smacked into the side of the barn. The arrow was nowhere near any of the targets on the wall. But this did not deter him. He then took a can of paint and a paintbrush and began to carefully paint another target around the new arrow, once again leaving the latest arrow in the very center of the bull’s eye.

Unfortunately many of us live our lives that way, firing at random and then persuading ourselves that we have accomplished what we set out to accomplish. Sadly, too many churches approach ministry in the same way. But we don’t want to be one of those churches.

This message is the final one in a series of three messages on our church mission statement. Why are we here? What are trying to accomplish? Let’s put the statement up on the screens again. I would like us to read it together:

The mission of the Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi is to glorify God in word and deed and to serve him in the power of the Holy Spirit with the goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ and bringing believers to maturity in Christ.

In the first message two weeks ago, we looked at the big picture and the ultimate purpose to glorify God. We also looked at the two fold goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ and bringing believers to maturity in Christ. As I explained in that message, both aspects of this goal can be represented on this chart. (Show the Great Commission Chart).

+ 5       Spiritual leader, trainer of others

            + 4       Spiritually strong, serving in church, witnessing

            + 3       Studying the Bible, active in church, growing

            + 2       Assimilated into church, basic knowledge of Christian life

            + 1       New Christian, “babe” in Christ

Conversion/Salvation/New Birth

- 1        Understands Gospel and its implications and is positively considering following Christ.

- 2        Has a factual knowledge of the Gospel; curious, undecided

- 3        Some knowledge of the Gospel, mixed with some misunderstandings

- 4        Believes in a Supreme Being, but has no knowledge of the Gospel. He may be committed to another belief system.

- 5        Has no knowledge, no belief or no interest in spiritual matters.

As I explained in that message, this chart represents different levels of spiritual development relative to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone we contact, everyone who walks through the doors of this building, in fact, everyone in the room today falls somewhere on this chart. Our goal as a church, to put it as simply as possible, is to meet people where they are and seek to influence them to move up the scale.

In the rest of that message, we focused on the first part of the goal; bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ. Pastor Joe expanded on the different ways we as a church are involved in ministering to people in the bottom half of the chart, people who do not yet know Christ as Savior.

Then in last week’s message, Pastor Joe gave a strong call to action, to all of us as believers to give ourselves whole-heartedly to the task before us. This mission statement is not just for the church staff or the church board. It is for every member. As believers, we are not called to be spectators or consumers. We are called to get into the game, to become participants in the action.

In today’s message, I want to focus on the second half of our goal: bringing believers to maturity in Christ. This is our mission as it is pictured in the top half of the chart. Is our work as a church complete when someone “crosses the line” and puts their faith in Jesus Christ? No! Now we have the responsibility that Jesus spelled out in the second half of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20: We are to baptize them and teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded us. In other words, we are to initiate and identify the new believer as a follower of Christ through baptism. We will be doing a baptism next Friday at the end of the first service. But then we are to go on to teach the new believer to follow Jesus’ commands.

Let us look at how Paul described this second part of our mission in Colossians 1:28-29:

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me.

That is a great summary of the second part of our mission. To present everyone perfect in Christ. The word “perfect” does not describe someone who is without fault or sin. The word in this context means “mature”. It comes from a root word meaning “the end” or “finished” or “complete.” In I Corinthians 14:20, Paul addressed the Christians in Corinth and says to them: Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. The word translated “adults” there is the same word which is translated “perfect” in Colossians 1:28. The issue is maturity or spiritual “adulthood.”

I am challenged by how passionate Paul is about this part of the mission. We tend to think of Paul as a passionate evangelist. We think of his statements where he described his life ambition as taking the Gospel to people who have never heard. He was a pioneer evangelist in every sense of the word. But what amazes me is how passionate he is about this second part of the church’s mission.

First of all he sees the mission as inclusive: to present everyone perfect (mature) in Christ. He’s not satisfied with having a few elite workers or professionals who meet this standard. He wants every believer to move on to maturity. And he is prepared to expend great effort and energy in the pursuit of this goal. Look at verse 29: To this end I labor, struggling…Those are high energy words; Labor and struggle. He says it again in 2:1: I want you to know how much I am struggling for you… The word “struggle” in both of these verses comes from the Greek word from which we get the English word “agonize”. It comes from the world of sports. The “agona” was the arena in which the wrestling matches of the Greek and Roman world took place. It is a word that captures the sweat and dust and strain, muscle and sinew engaged in mighty endeavor. This was not something that Paul took lightly. It was a task to which he gave his all.

I also love the balance of this verse if we read it carefully: To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me. What a wonderful blend of the human and the divine is included in that verse. In this verse we see that Paul labors and Paul struggles, but he does it with God’s energy and power. As believers, we are not passive. We are called to be active, to labor and to struggle, but with the awareness that it is only the power and energy of God flowing through us that can produce any lasting fruit for our labor. We must abide in Christ. “Without (him) we can do nothing.” But as we abide in him, we shall bear much fruit. But abiding does not mean sitting passively. It means getting down into the arena, getting into the game, working, sweating and struggling – yet with God’s strength and energy. It is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life. How do we work and strive and struggle and yet abide and rest in God’s power at the same time? Welcome to the exciting adventure that is Christian living!

So that is our mission as a church: To bring unbelievers to faith in Christ, and then to strive and struggle to bring them on to maturity, to help them grow in Christ, to become “spiritual adults”, to move up the scale.

As we consider the process of spiritual growth and the journey to spiritual maturity, we find in the Bible that there are two vital ingredients that are essential in this process. If we are to grow spiritually we must have truth and we must have love.

To see how these two ingredients are blended together in the journey to spiritual maturity, let’s look at Ephesians 4:14-15: 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 craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ.

Did you see that phrase: speaking the truth in love? This verse is often used to emphasize that Christians are not to lie, but to tell each other the truth and do it in a loving way. I certainly believe that is true. But this particular verse is saying something different. The truth that Paul has in view is spiritual truth, Biblical truth that we all need to “grow up”. We cannot grow without truth. That is why the second half of the Great Commission is “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded”, teaching believers the truth which Christ gave to his followers. That is why, if we go back briefly to the passage in Colossians 1:28, as Paul describes his specific activities he lists them as: We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom... There is no growth without truth, Biblical truth, clearly and faithfully taught.

I believe this with every fiber of my being. That is why I spend hours every week in my study. I pour my heart and soul into the study of a passage of Scripture, God’s truth. And then I do my very best to pass that truth on to you on Friday. Because I need God’s truth and you need God’s truth if we are to grow up and become spiritual adults. That is why we have Explorer classes and AWANA for our children, and adult Bible studies. That is why we encourage all of you to have regular Bible reading and Bible study in private and in your homes. We need the truth, God’s truth, in our minds and hearts and lives.

But there is another essential ingredient if we are to grow spiritually. We need love. That is why Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:18 that we are to speak the truth in love. In verse 19 he speaks of the body of Christ and the way that it grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. This same dual emphasis is found in Colossians 2:2: My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they have the full riches of complete understanding… Love and truth are the sun and the soil of spiritual growth. We must have both. We need truth in the context of loving relationships. That is why we take the time to introduce the visitors at the conclusion of a service. That is why the fellowship after church is vital to who we are as a church. That is why we are having a church picnic next Friday and we have “church out to lunch” every month and we encourage you to join a home fellowship. We need truth and love to grow.

Too often, churches will swing like a pendulum and emphasize one to the exclusion of the other. But the effects are always devastating. A church which emphasizes doctrine and truth without love is like a human body with bones but no flesh; only a skeleton. It is all hard edges; elbows, knees and shoulders in proper location but devoid of life and beauty. To come near is to risk getting bruised and dented.

But equally devastating is the church that emphasizes love and acceptance at the expense of truth. Such churches are like a human body which has flesh, but someone has removed the skeleton. It is more like a Raggedy Ann doll. It may be soft and even cuddly, but it can’t stand, it can’t move by itself. It serves no real function but to flop around according to the latest fads.

Here at ECC, we don’t want to swing to the extremes. We want to blend truth and love to produce spiritual growth. How does this happen? I have been mentioning different ways we try to make that happen for all the different segments of our congregation. Let us help you visualize this blended ministry as it is focused particularly for children.

Show video/slide show of children’s ministry.

That is just a sample of what we are doing in one ministry area of our church to fulfill our mission. I trust you could see the themes of truth and love being expressed and experienced in the different facets of children’s ministry as we seek to promote spiritual growth among the children of ECC. This is just a sample of our ministries. We are pursuing the same goals and God is blessing is happening among our teen-agers. It happens at Cross-roads on Saturday nights, and in the women’s ministry, and among the early married couples group that just started, and in our different Home Fellowships. I could go on and on.

Well, I hope this series of messages has helped you understand the big picture of who we are as a church and why we do the things we do. We glorify God by doing the work that he has given us to do, and we believe this is the mission he has entrusted to us.

In closing, I would direct our thoughts back to Ephesians 4:16. Let me read it. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

This kind of ministry requires every member to get involved and do his/her part. In other Scriptures, Paul expands on the body metaphor to show that each member has a different function and we have all been given different gifts and abilities to help us function in our unique roles. But we all need to get involved. Some may be more gifted at the imparting of truth and teaching. Others may be better at showing love and hospitality and making people feel welcome and included. Some may be particularly gifted at working and ministering with people below the line, helping them come to faith in Christ. There is a wide diversity of roles to play. But we all have to do our part. We extend to you this open invitation. Find your role and join us in our mission.

I want to close by once again reading together our church mission statement (put on screens again).

(Our mission) is to glorify God in word and deed and to serve him in the power of the Holy Spirit with the goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ and bringing believers to maturity in Christ.

Close in Prayer