Grace Community Church

Today we will reach the end of our mission statement.  As we have already seen, our grand, ultimate goal is to glorify God by exalting Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.  On a very practical level, we are seeking to do this in three main ways: by holding fast to the truth, by building up the body of Christ, and – as we will see today – by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world.  This final part of the mission is an essential part of the task, and it is something that we must never neglect or ignore.

Just like the tasks of holding fast to the truth and building up the body, this reality that we should be proclaiming the gospel rests on a particular foundation of assumptions.  First of all, it rests on the reality that human beings are, by nature, sinful and under God’s wrath and in need of salvation (Rom. 3:9-20; Eph. 2:1-3).  Second, it rests on the reality that the only means of salvation is by repenting of sin and trusting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  The Bible is clear that no one is accepted by God unless they believe in, and follow, Jesus Christ (John 3:35-36; 14:6).  They must believe that He died on the cross and was raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-3).  They must confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9).  Third, it rests on the reality that the only way people will ever repent and believe as they should is by hearing the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection proclaimed.  As Paul declared, “…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  But how are they to 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?” (Rom. 10:13-14).  People, by nature, are dead in their sins.  They must repent and believe in order to be made alive and saved.  And they must hear the gospel in order to repent and believe.

Understanding those things, we recognize that it is our responsibility and mission to be the ones proclaiming the gospel.  As those who have already heard the good news and been made alive and repented and believed, we have now been sent into the world to tell others the same good news.  Jesus gave us a direct command to do this when he declared: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.  And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).  Moreover, Jesus made clear to His disciples that one of the effects of having the Holy Spirit inside them was that they would be His witnesses all the way to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:6-8).  As those who have been rescued, we have been sent into the world as a means of rescuing others.  As Paul told the Corinthians, we who have been reconciled have now been given “the ministry of reconciliation.”  We are “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).  We have been sent to tell those lost how they might be found.  We have been sent to tell the condemned how they might be saved.

Understanding this, then, our mission is to carry out this task in a variety of ways.  On a very personal level, we are laboring to speak the gospel to all those around us who do not follow Jesus Christ whether they are neighbors, friends or even family members.  We are also laboring to support those who are carrying this task all around the world.  We as a Church support missionaries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.  We are laboring to make sure that every person in the world hears the good news of Jesus Christ in hope that those who hear will repent and believe.

As we continue walking through our Church’s mission statement, we come to the second main task given to the people of God.  We saw last week that the first way we glorify God by exalting Christ through the power of the Spirit is by holding fast to the truth.  The second way we carry out this grand mission is by building up the body of Christ.  That is, those of us who have repented of our sins and trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior must recognize that we have a responsibility to seek the growth and maturity of others who share that repentance and that faith and that Lord.

Foundationally, this reality rests on the assumption that everyone who truly follows Christ is intimately joined together with everyone else who truly follows Christ.  As Paul made clear, “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5).  Moreover, one part of the body cannot say to another part that it is unnecessary because all parts of the body are necessary.  We are all intimately connected – so much so that “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:12-26).  All who follow Christ are intimately related to each other.

And the New Testament also makes clear that this unity has a purpose. Specifically, the body has been joined together with a variety of parts so that the whole body might be built up.  Paul told the Ephesians that “the work of ministry” is “the building up of the body of Christ.”  And this “work of ministry” is given to “the saints” – not just the pastors or leaders (Eph. 4:7-16).  Christians need each other – it is an inescapable fact.  And God has designed it this way because His ultimate goal is to bring glory to Himself and to magnify His name through the salvation and sanctification of the Church through the person and work of Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9-10,21).

So, if this is the goal, what does it mean for us on a practical level?  How do we ensure that we are glorifying God by building up the body of Christ?First of all, we must be earnestly seeking to grow in our own personal holiness and sanctification.  The Bible is clear that it is God’s will for us to be holy (Rom. 6:4,6; Eph. 2:10).  The Bile is also clear that God will, in time, make every one of us perfectly holy (Rom. 8:29-30; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:23-24).  That said, we are still commanded to pursue holiness diligently (Col. 3:5-17; 1 Pet. 1:14-16).  Those of us who have died to sin should not be living in it (Rom. 6:2).  We should be putting to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13).  Just as we should be growing in our knowledge of the truth, we should also be growing in our holiness and in our conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

But, even more, we should also be seeking the holiness of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Just as we pursue our own sanctification, we should be pursuing the sanctification of others in the body.  No doubt, we should be concerned with ourselves, but we should not be concerned with ourselves only.  The Bible is clear that such things as spiritual gifts are given not for ourselves but  for the good of others (1 Cor. 12:7,14-26; 14:12; Rom. 12:3-8).  As we have already seen, every Christian is a gift given by Christ to the Church for the purpose of building up the Church (Eph. 4:7-14).  The author of Hebrews also makes clear that we have an inescapable responsibility to help our brothers and sisters persevere to the end (Heb. 3:12-14; 12:12-16).  In short, the holiness and maturity of other Christians is not just their responsibility – it is mine.  Instead of making fun of or deriding weak and immature parts of the body of Christ, we should be mature enough to seek to help those parts grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And, even further, the Bible is also clear that we have a responsibility for the physical needs of the body of Christ as well.  Obviously, spiritual needs and realities are primary and take precedence.  Nevertheless, the physical needs of the Church are the responsibility of the Church (assuming the family will not meet those needs – 1 Tim. 5:8,16).  The clear example of the earliest Christians was that they made sure the needs of their brothers and sisters were met (Acts 4:32-35; 11:29).  We are explicitly commanded to contribute to the needs of the saints (Rom. 12:13) and to do good especially to the household of faith (Gal. 6:10).  Moreover, meeting physical needs is actually a demonstration that our faith is genuine (James 2:14-17; 1 John 3:17).  As we “build up the body of Christ”, we must keep in mind these physical needs as well as the spiritual needs.

So the second way in which we at Grace Community Church are seeking to glorify God by exalting Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is by building up the body of Christ.  We are laboring to grow in our own personal holiness, and we are laboring to help each other grow in holiness as well.  We recognize that we need each other in order to persevere to the end.  We recognize that God has put together the Church and not merely a loose group of individual Christians.  Just like Paul, we are laboring to “present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28) – not just ourselves.  This is our desire, our goal and our prayer as we walk together.

Today we come to the third part of our mission statement.  As a Church, we desire to glorify God.  Moreover, we desire to glorify God by exalting Jesus Christ.  But we also recognize that such a lofty task can never be accomplished simply by our own moral effort.  As a Church, we do not see ourselves merely as those who have jointly decided, in our own strength, to seek a common goal.  Rather, by faith in Christ, we have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ.  And as a result of that new birth, God’s love has been poured into our hearts in the form of the Holy Spirit.  It is no longer merely we who labor but the Spirit of God who indwells us moves us to labor.  This is a crucial aspect of our mission that is highlighted repeatedly in the Scriptures.

The only way we can ever do anything to glorify God and exalt Christ is by having the Holy Spirit working in us.  First of all, it is the Spirit of God who changes us by giving new, salvation life at conversion (John 3:5-8; 6:63; 7:37-39; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 4:13).  Without this Spirit living in us, it would be impossible for us to understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14) or ultimately please Him (Rom. 8:7-9).  The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is essential for the carrying out of this mission.

As we will see in the coming weeks, the specific aspects of our mission include sharing the gospel, building up the body of Christ and holding on to the truth God has given us.  The Bible is clear that the Spirit is essential for each of those tasks.  It was the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles to speak the Gospel (Acts 1:4-5,8), and the same Spirit empowers us to do the same.  It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us with spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the body (1 Cor. 12:4-11).  It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to grow in sanctification (Rom. 8:5-11; Gal. 5:22-33; 2 Thess. 2:13).  And it is the Holy Spirit who guides us into truth and reveals it to us – specifically by opening our minds to understand the Scriptures (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:6-16; 1 John 2:27).

In short, the Holy Spirit is essential.  We must have Him if we are going to carry out this mission.  We recognize this, and we pray that God would continue to strengthen us with power through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us (Eph. 3:14-19).

Last week, we looked at the particular responsibility and mission we have to glorify God.  Without a doubt, this is a statement that would register widespread agreement across the broad spectrum of Christianity – and possibly even outside the bounds of Christianity.  However, as we look deeper into the Scriptures, and the New Testament in particular, we see that God’s goal is not just to glorify Himself in all that He does but to do it primarily through the exaltation of His Son, Jesus Christ.  As our statement of faith makes clear, we believe Jesus is the divine Son of God – the second person of the Trinity.  We also believe that He descended to earth and took on flesh and lived as a man – culminating His earthly life by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead.  The Bible is clear that God desires to exalt Jesus Christ, and therefore, our mission highlights this priority as well.

The Scriptures as a whole make this point abundantly clear.  Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him [Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.”  Paul is clear that all things were not only created through Him but for Him.  The goal is to unite all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10).  Moreover, Jesus is clear that the whole Bible ultimately centers on Him (Luke 24:27, 44-45; John 5:39, 46).  It centers on Him because the goal is to exalt Him.   Jonathan Edwards himself declared, “…the sum and substance of both the Old and New is Christ and his redemption” (Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2003], 355).  We are also told that Jesus ultimately glorified the Father by being glorified Himself – supremely by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead.  (John 13:31-32; 17:1).  Truly, it glorifies God when Jesus is exalted (2 Cor. 4:4; Phil. 2:9-11).  Further, It was God’s will to exalt Christ as the glorified Lord (Acts 2:36; Rom. 14:9).  God wants everyone and everything to worship and praise and magnify Him, and He wants everyone and everything to do that by exalting Jesus as the risen Lord.  Jesus even declared that it was impossible to glorify God without following Him (John 5:22-23).  Jesus must, and will, be lifted high, and at the end, when everyone and everything has bowed to Him and submitted to Him, then he will turn the kingdom over to the Father so that God might be all in all (1 Cor. 15:22-28).

So, in short, our goal as a Church is not just to glorify God in some generic sense but to glorify Him by magnifying Jesus Christ.  We want to grow in our own love for, and allegiance to, Jesus Christ as Lord.  We want to make clear that He is our ultimate treasure – worthy of every ounce of our devotion.  Further, we want to take the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection on behalf of sinners to our neighbors and city and county and country and world, so that others will magnify Him as well.  Our desire is that Jesus be lifted high and worshiped - even as we know He will be one day.  May the Lord equip us for this task, and find us faithful in it.

Having given a brief introduction of our mission statement as a whole, we will begin today making our way through the statement piece by piece.  It begins by declaring, “We exist to glorify God….”  This comes first because, biblically, it is the goal of all things.

Because God is God, He will not (and, by definition and necessity, cannot) share His  glory with anyone (Isa. 42:8; 48:11).  The reason God created this world was so that he might be glorified, and the creation itself does glorify Him.  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork (see also Rom. 1:19-20).  We see this reality highlighted at numerous points throughout the Biblical narrative as well.  God told Pharaoh He raised him up for the purpose of glorifying Himself (Ex. 9:15-16; Rom. 9:17).  We also see that the reason God chose Israel as His people was “for His name’s sake” – so that they might glorify Him.  In 1 Sam. 12:22, Samuel says, “For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself” (see also Isa. 43:25; 44:23; Jer. 13:11 and Ezek. 20:9,14).  Likewise, David understood the work of God in his own life to be for the ultimate purpose of bringing God glory (Ps. 23:3; Ps. 31:3).  Even Jesus saw this as His purpose.  He declared, “Now is my soul troubled.  And what shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27-28a).  We also see that the redemption of the Church was ultimately for this same purpose.  Over and over again in Ephesians 1, Paul declares that God has acted in our lives so that we might be “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:3-14; see also Rom. 15:8-9 and 2 Thess. 1:10).  And the ultimate, end-time goal of all things is that God be glorified.  The prophet Habbakuk looked forward to a time when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14; see also Ps. 86:8-10; Isa. 11:9 and Rev. 15:3-4).

The ultimate point of all things is that God be glorified.  This goal should guide our entire lives and drive every decision we make.  Even in the “little things” of life, this should be our aim.  Paul declared, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).  This should be the aim of every Christian so it is, first and foremost, the aim of our Church.

As we mentioned, one of the things we hope to accomplish on this blog is to walk through some of our Church’s core documents.  In doing this, we hope to make  clear not only the content of what we believe but also the foundations from which it came.  Too often, we (I readily include myself) assent to certain things without ever thinking deeply about whether the Bible supports them or not.  Such an error is doubly troubling because not only are we unprepared to give account for what we believe but, even worse, we probably think we are prepared!

That said, we want to begin by working our way through the mission statement of Grace Community Church.  In its entirety, it states, “We exist to glorify God by exalting Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit as we hold fast to the truth, build up the body of Christ and proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

By way of introduction to this series, I simply want to make some introductory points about the statement as a whole before taking it apart piece by piece in the coming weeks.  First of all, this mission statement is, by design, general in nature.  It is intended to be a master grid through which everything we do as a Church can be filtered.  Ideally, every bit of our teaching and preaching and ministry as a Church will serve to advance this mission.

Second of all, it intentionally focuses our attention on the central ideas and tasks that, according to Scripture, should occupy the Church.  The Bible is a large book with a staggering amount of exhortations and instructions.  In this statement, we hope to pull together the major strands of Biblical emphasis so as not to get sidetracked by secondary emphases or matters of lesser importance.

Third, notice that the statement divides very neatly in half.  In the first part, there is a clear emphasis on the One who has brought us into existence – both in creation and in new creation.  Everything we are and everything we do centers on God – His identity and His mission.  In reality, our mission is clearly defined by His mission – because our mission was given by Him!  The second half of the statement takes on a more practical tone by laying out the central ways in which we will seek to carry out our mission.  These tasks – growing in the truth, building up the body and taking the gospel to the lost – were not simply drawn out of thin air but seem to be the primary tasks given to the Church throughout the New Testament.

In short, our goal with this blog is actually to advance the mission given in this very statement.  We desire to glorify God by exalting Christ through the power of the Spirit.  May God be glorified in this endeavor.