Sermon: Stewarding the Gifts of Christ’s Church

As we come now to God's word, would you join me as we pray?

Father, as we just sang, we, we do long to see your churches full. We long to see the great crowd, uh, from every tongue and tribe and nation singing your redeeming grace, full throated delighting in you. We ask Lord, that you would show pity to the lost, that you would call them to yourself, that you would send forth your word and give it success and that you would call your children, our brothers and sisters home to yourself.

And I ask, Lord, that in the few minutes that we have tonight, would you use us in some manner, uh, to play a small role in that work? We ask these things in the name of your son Christ. Amen.

If you have a bulletin, you um, will see that our text for tonight is listed as from Second Corinthians. We will look at that passage. However, as the week went along, uh, I thought it would be good for us to consider a number of passages tonight. Uh, one would've been fine. They all say the same thing, I think, but I think it'll be helpful to see our subject from a number of different angles and to see different things highlighted in various ways.

So you are welcome and encouraged to follow along in your Bible, but I also printed, uh, the three passages that we'll look at on the back of your song sheet so that you can hopefully see them all in one place without flipping back and forth too much. Let us now hear from God's word starting in Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age From Acts one, six through eight.

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 Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth. And then in two Corinthians five, starting in verse 17

and going through chapter six verse one, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,

God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God working together with him. Then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

There is a lot in these passages we could talk about. Certainly we don't have time to to do everything that could be said. So what I want to do tonight is I want to focus on these verses through a particular lens. As many of you are aware, we are in the midst of our annual January faith focus. We're spending this month exploring the topic of stewardship. How can we be faithful with those things which God has entrusted to us

in the evening services, we have considered what it means to be faithful stewards of our personal faith. As we foster growth through the ordinary means of grace, we've considered what it means to be faithful As we seek to raise the kids that God has given to this church and our families. Tonight, we are going to step outside of ourselves and our families and our community and consider the opportunity and the responsibility as a church to be a light for Christ

to those beyond our doors as we consider the topic tonight's stewarding the gift of church, in church planting and in missions. And to do that, we are going to consider three things from these passages that God does for his church. First, we are going to consider God reconciles the church to himself. Then God entrusts the church with his message. And third, God empowers the church by his spirit. God reconciles the church to himself.

God entrusts the church with his message and God empowers the church by his spirit. First, God reconciles the church to him himself. You can see this clearly in two Corinthians. God, through Christ has reconciled us to himself since Genesis three, when Adam and Eve fell and sinned, there has been a fracture in the relationship between sinful humanity and our holy creator. Mankind has been in rebellion against our God and maker

and has thus been as Paul describes in the book of Ephesians, objects of wrath. The relationship between God and man has been defined by hostility from the Garden of Eden onward until God intervened and while we were still his enemies, God reconciled us to himself. By the death of his son, God sent his son to earth. Jesus became man, lived the perfect life, died a sinner's death in the place of sinful man. So that in him we might be as second Corinthians says,

the righteousness of God.

It's remarkable that he would do that.

And as remarkable as it is, what is even more amazing is that God did not just do this for one person. He reconciled many to himself and in doing so, he reconciled them to one another. Our topic for tonight is stewarding Christ's church. And so I wanna make sure that we take a minute, a few times and notice the corporate nature of the passages that we are looking at in both acts. And Matthew, Jesus is not speaking to individuals

but to his collective gathered followers which granted at the time were not a large group had not yet formed a church. But by the time you get to Paul writing to the Corinthians, thousands and thousands have been added to their number and churches have been planted, including in Corinth as we see in the way that Paul addresses his letter to the church of God that is in Corinth. He wants to notice God does not simply reconcile an

individual to himself, not a single sheep for whom he will be their shepherd, but an entire flock. His church, all who come to God through Christ will be reconciled to God as they are transformed from enemy of God to friend of God, from being enslaved to sin, to being free to serve righteousness from being objects of wrath to recipients of God's love and delight from being under condemnation, to receiving favor, from being subject to death,

to becoming heirs of eternal life. The old has passed away and they a you if you are in Christ are a new creation and you have received promises of even more. A few verses later in Acts, his disciples are told that he will return. We later learn in the scriptures that when he does, he will make all things new, that he is preparing a place for his people where there is no more sin, no more suffering, no more tears and no more death.

This is wonderful truths. So glorious, so incredibly unbelievable.

And yet as wonderful as all of this is it, it does raise a few questions that can be a challenge for the Christian. Why is Jesus taking so long to return? And perhaps a related question, what am I supposed to do in the meantime? This morning I had a whole section in my notes set aside for this, and then Jason addressed it more thoroughly than I would have. So what I'm gonna try to do is I am going to try to quickly address it for those who weren't here.

Uh, maybe a little repetitive for those of you who were, but it's good to be reminded lest you're hopeful that that means a shorter sermon. I got to add some things back in that I had to cut earlier this week, so can look forward to that. The reality is, as amazing as the nature of God's reconciling work for his church can be, it can cause a struggle when it is placed against the backdrop of day-to-day life in this world,

all those glorious realities of God's saving grace through Christ are true. And yet you know all too well that you continue to experience the miseries of this world, the pain, the sadness, broken relationships even within the church, tears, disease loss and death. And worst of all, sin still clings so closely. It remains seemingly ever present in your thoughts, affections, desires and actions. It can be easy to wonder what is God doing perhaps to wish

that Jesus would simply take Christians out of this world to be with him as soon as they profess faith.

These sentiments are simply another way of asking the question of the psalmist in Psalm 13 or the martyrs in the book of Revelation, how long, oh Lord God, when will you finish what you started? Why are you waiting to return and to bring us to be with you in glory? For you can see a variation of this question in our passage from Acts. The apostles come to Jesus and essentially are asking him, when are you gonna finish the job or,

or are you gonna finish the job? Right now you have come to earth, you've lived a sinless life. You've died the the substitutionary death, you came to die, you've risen victorious, what else is left? But to conquer the Romans, to bring your people into your kingdom is now the time. Now are you going to do what we've been waiting for you to do?

When is God going to bring to full completion that which he has begun? Perhaps as the years have gone on, the question has shifted from when are you to or from, from, are you going to do it right now? To why, why, why are you taking so long this morning? Jason answered this question from second Peter. I'll use Romans chapter two, verse four which says the same thing. Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance

and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Why is God waiting? Why is he patient so that more people may have time to repent and be reconciled to God through Jesus? There are some for whom Jesus died who have not yet been saved. Perhaps some who have not yet even been born. And so Jesus continues to wait. He is being patient so that all of his children who are far off can be brought near and call upon him.

So this answers the question of why God is waiting, but what about the question of what you are to do in the meantime? Couldn't he just wait for his people to be saved, uh, with, with already having taken you to be with him, with with already just removing Christians from the world and allowing them to live in the fullness of his glory? What is the purpose of leaving us here in this fallen world? And this brings us back to our consideration of stewardship

because the answer given in Romans 10 is this, how will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching? And how will they preach unless they are sent? God has reconciled the church to himself, but that is not the end of the story. Leads to our second consideration tonight. God has entrusted the church with his message.

Look back at Acts one again after his followers ask what is going to happen? Now Jesus tells them they don't get to or need to know everything that is for God, but he does tell them what they do need to know and what the next part of his plan is. You will be my witnesses. Luke begins the book of Acts by summarizing uh, his gospel account in the book of Luke as what Jesus began to do and teach implying that this book of Acts will be about what God Jesus is continuing

to do and teach. And here Jesus tells his followers that that task is going to fall to them. You are going to testify to what you have seen and heard. You are going to be my witnesses. This is reinforced over and over again in our other passages in two Corinthians. We see that God is entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. And Matthew Jesus sends out his followers, go

and make disciples.

In one Corinthians 15, Paul writes that he has delivered to the Corinthians as a first importance what he himself has received. This is what all three of our passages tonight are saying. What you have received has been entrusted to you so that you can go and share it with others. You have been reconciled. You get to go out with the message of reconciliation. You are my disciples. I have taught you how to follow me and how to obey me.

Go and make disciples and teach them what I have taught you. You have seen and heard and experienced God's saving work through Jesus. Go witness to these realities.

This is why you are not taken out of the world the minute that you believe in Jesus. God has chosen in his providence to make you whom he has reconciled to himself the very instruments of taking that message of reconciliation to others.

Again, I wanna pause here for a second and make sure to notice the corporate nature of this task that he has given. Listen to the way he talks about it, reconciled us, gave us the ministry of reconciliation, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, God making his appeal through us, we implore, we appeal. You can see it here in Second Corinthians. And it's clear throughout the rest of the scriptures,

when you are reconciled to God through Jesus, you are united to him and you are united to his body. And it is that body that together is sent out to the world with this message and ministry of reconciliation. It is the church collectively that has been entrusted with the good news and it is also the church that is the aim of such a ministry of reconciliation. Being entrusted with the message does not simply mean telling someone about

Jesus and moving on. When Jesus tells his disciples to teach obedience to all that God has commanded, that necessarily includes instruction on how to come together and worship, how to appoint elders and what those elders should be like, how to participate in the sacraments, how to exercise discipline. In short, how to operate as Christ's church. When he calls them to baptize people, they have to baptize them into something, into the visible body

of Christ, into the church community. So as we think today about going out with this message and with this ministry to others, I want us to recognize there are a lot of good things that we can do to help people. And there may be ways that people or groups of people can come alongside the church in this work. But when it comes to these commands that God has given and this ministry which he has entrusted to us, it necessarily starts with his church

and it is aimed at establishing churches. This is the story of the book of Acts. In Acts 13, the church in Antioch is gathered together. They're instructed by the spirit to send out Paul and Barnabas. The church sent out these two men who went from place to place, proclaiming the message of Jesus. And unless otherwise prevented usually by people who would drive them out of the city or unless there was someone else that could do the task,

they would stay in a place until it had been built up enough to have a church. Paul would leave someone there or he would send someone back to do that task. The message of Jesus has been entrusted to the church and the goal of the message is to see other churches planted and entrusted with the message who then can go out and do the same.

Earlier we asked, what, what are you supposed to be doing while you wait for Jesus? Return this. This is what you are supposed to be doing. As you wait for Jesus to come back, go out, proclaim the gospel to those who do not believe. Instruct people on how to follow him. Be a witness to Jesus. Bring the message and the ministry of reconciliation to those who do not know. This is a glorious thing to be entrusted with in our home.

When there is good news to be shared, uh, everyone clamors to be the one that gets to bring it to someone. Not so much the case. When it is bad news, you have received the best gift and the best news that exists in all the world. You have been reconciled to God and you have been made new. And in Matthew and Acts and second Corinthians and all throughout the scriptures, God tells you, I'm gonna let you be the one to go

and tell others what you have seen and heard and known. It is a wonderful task. It is also an overwhelming task because I can tell people about this message of reconciliation, but I cannot reconcile men to God. Only God can do that. Which is why it is such an encouragement as we read in our passages that God has not only reconciled the church to himself, he has not only entrusted the church with his message, but he has also empowered the church by his spirit.

In Matthew, Jesus states, behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age. You see this in acts, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. In the second Corinthians passage, passage, it shows up there in the last verse, working together with him, we appeal to you,

the one who has all authority on heaven, in heaven and on earth will be with you. He sends his spirit to give you power to be his witness. We get to work together with him. You get to partner with the living and true triune God the Father sent the Son and has reconciled the church to himself through Christ Jesus has sent the church just as the Father sent him. The Spirit empowers the church to be ambassadors for God.

No matter how capable you believe you yourself to be, the the task is is too big for you. And no matter how weak and frail you feel, you are up for the task.

'cause it's, it's not about you, it's about the one who calls you and who empowers you and who promises to be with you.

Just want you to take a second to consider what a privilege this is to get to be a part of what God is doing in the world.

It it may mean an extra 50 years, 70 years of sorrow and pain and tears and living in the fallenness of this broken world and fighting against your own sin.

That is a small price to pay in light of eternity, to be an ambassador for the king of kings.

I also want you to consider what a comfort and confidence this is to be given a task that he is behind, to be part of a work that cannot fail. Because nothing and no one can stand in his way and he will be with you even to the end of the age.

When you think about your life, do you think I am here? We are here. The church of Christ exists on earth. The church of Christ is left in this world so that we can witness to the truth of Jesus.

Do you think God has reconciled his church to himself, entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation and empowered us by his spirit to take the message of Jesus to those for whom he is waiting patiently for them to hear and believe and and call upon him in faith

is how the scriptures would have you think you were not saved by God simply for yourself to escape condemnation you were not saved so that you could enjoy some sort of Christianized version of the American dream. You are not saved just to try and survive each day and get by until Christ returns. You have been reconciled and entrusted with the message of reconciliation in order to work together with him to take what you have received.

To those who do not know O,

there's lots of general ways that we could apply these ideas in our families and neighborhoods and workplaces. We should seek to be witnesses to Jesus in those areas. But as we come to the end of our time, I wanna spend a few minutes thinking specifically about church planting and missions. We only have a few minutes. This will not be comprehensive. If you want to think more about it, I would encourage you to talk to Nick Edington or Ben Prizer.

They both have thought about these things more than I have. Church planning and missions have some overlap and they reinforce each other in many ways, but they are not the same thing. And I, I want us to just think about that for a minute so we understand what we're talking about. As we talked about earlier, missions flows out of the church is aimed at planting churches. So in that sense, planting churches is part of missions.

However, not all church planting is missions. In acts, we see that the disciples are to be his witnesses in a series of locations, Jerusalem and then Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In the book of Acts, this happens. The gospel went from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So in some sense that was accomplished. And yet the promise in Matthew is that Jesus will be with his church to the end of the age

and that we are to go to all nations. The age has not ended and it will not end until Jesus returns. And so the church today continues to go and make disciples, continues to be his ambassador. There are still people and places that need to hear this message of rec reconciliation. Some are within our own context. That is what we would call church planting efforts. What we did in Kalamazoo, what we are doing in Mount Pleasant, what we aim to do in Petoskey,

some require crossing geographical, cultural, linguistic barriers. And that is what we would call missions. Both are important, both are part of the work of the church. Both need help from God and both need people who will go and a lot of people who will support by staying and sending. We should engage with both to be faithful stewards of what of that which has been entrusted to us. But I want us to just recognize the reality is there are

some places in the world where there is significantly less gospel witness in some places almost no witness to Jesus. And in many places people have no opportunity to hear God's word in their own language. And these places will require more effort, more time, more resources, more support, more creativity, more skill to get to than the places nearby. We need to be ready and willing to pay those costs. Whether it is as a goer

or whether it is as a sender, as a church, we need to be ready and willing to pay those costs. So what might this look like or mean for us as a church? I want to just finish by considering some ways that we can be faithful stewards of the message that has been entrusted to us as a local congregation as it relates to planting churches and to missions. First, we can be faithful stewards by raising up the next generation.

URC does this in a number of ways.

One of the primary ways we do this is through students. For 60 years, we have been bringing students in. We have been building them up and sending them back out. Some of those who were the next generation are now passing it on to the next and the next generation. Some were sent out into this church and and have served here faithfully, but many populate churches all around Michigan, the United States and the world. So I'd encourage us to continue to invest in students.

We also raise up the next generation through the ministry training program. Paul writes to Timothy and second Timothy says what you have heard and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also, as we bring in people and seek to train them and instruct them and raise them up, we hope that we are raising up missionaries and senders and pastors and church planners and elders and deacons and faithful congregants, uh, for the next generation.

We also raise up the next generation with our children. A few weeks ago Nick preached, uh, an entire evening service on stewarding our children. And he looked at Psalm 1 27 comparing children to arrows in a quiver. Jason prayed about this earlier in our service. Are you willing to see your children shot out of an of a bow? For the sake of this gospel message, are we willing to send out our covenant children, perhaps even encourage them to leave us to go to Petoskey

or South America or the Middle East or Southeast Asia for the privilege of getting to share the message of Christ that they have been entrusted with? We can be faithful stewards by use of our resources in the mornings. Jason has preached about time, treasure, talents. Are you willing to give your time to church planning and missions, your treasure and your talents? I wanna speak for a minute to this corner of the room,

the students, we want to invest in you, but I also want to challenge you to think, when you think about your talents during this season in life, do you think about how you can use them to get ahead in your career? How to earn a comfortable or maybe even generous living for yourself? Or do you think, how can I use my talents for Christ and his church?

We can be faithful stewards by pursuing personal godliness and holiness, which adorns the gospel message and brings disrepute. If it is absent, we can be faithful stewards by caring well for the health of our own community. Little shameless plug, come back next week as Dave Hinkley will talk about this, but Jesus prays in John 17 that his people will be unified so that the world may see something of the message of Jesus.

An unhealthy church will struggle to plant churches and do missions, and if they do participate, they run the risk of expo exporting unhealth. Finally, we can be good stewards by praying regularly and fervently. This work cannot be done without his help and it cannot be stopped with it. Church, you have been reconciled by God. You have been entrusted with the message and ministry of reconciliation. You have been equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Let's work together with God to plant churches and do missions to bring a faithful witness of Jesus to places that need it, to the glory and praise of our great God. Do you please pray with me.

Father, we thank you and praise you that you have been merciful to reconcile us to yourself.

And we thank you for the privilege of getting to participate in the work that you are doing to continue to spread the good news of new life in Christ.

Lord, you told your followers in the gospels that the, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Would you be pleased to allow us to be part of the work that you're doing in Michigan across this nation to the ends of the earth? Would you send laborers? Would you help us to be, uh, a part of raising up those laborers? And would you help us to be a part of faithfully sending people out to proclaim your word to a lost people?

And we ask, Lord, that some who your son came and died for would hear your word, would receive it and would be transformed, would be new creations. We eagerly await singing with those in glory who shared this message with us and those whom we have the privilege of sharing it with as we sing your praises forever and ever. In the name of your son Christ we pray. Amen.