Sermon: Witnessing through the Church

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to first Peter chapter one. We will read verses 23 through 25 and then we'll read chapter two verse nine.

Before we read the text, will you please pray with me, father of the word, giver of the word before us we pray that you would quicken this word, the imperishable seed to bring lasting fruit in our hearts and our lives today. May we read, mark, learn and inwardly digest your word. Use it for the glory of your son and for the good of your church today. In your name we pray, amen. One Peter chapter one, verse 23.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you in chapter two verse nine. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession

that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. This ends the reading of God's word. I have been reliably informed that university reformed church once had a pastor who wrote a book called What is the Mission of the Church? And I want us to just spend a few moments thinking about that question and what our text today has to say as we answer it. If someone were to ask you,

what is the mission of the church? What would you say or in the context of this weekend, what is the purpose of missions?

Maybe you can think of of it like this, when you turn on the news and you see horrible things happening on the other side of the world, What pops into your mind that you think that is what these people need? Most of all, what is it that people all over the world, rich and poor, young and old need most of all, Whether in Honduras with violence and corruption in the government or in Eastern Europe fleeing from war? What is it that people need the most?

Our text gives us the answer, doesn't it? Look with me at verse 23 it says, you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. So this is the first thing I want us to see in this text. The word proclaimed the word proclaimed, that's what people need the most. You see this idea in verse 25, he says, this word is the good news that was preached to you. And again in verse nine of chapter two,

that you may proclaim the excellencies of God.

Now, I was raised in a rural area in Northern Moldova, but I am not a farmer. My training before ministry was in engineering, but I know this much, you cannot grow oak trees from tomato seeds. The type of seed you sow determines the kind of result you'll get, doesn't it? So if you think about the mission of the church, what kind of project, what purpose is the church pursuing? We are dealing with human souls that will live forever.

And Peter is telling us here that if we want to see abiding imperishable fruit, lasting change in the human heart, there is only one thing that can produce that. What we need is a church that sows the imperishable seed. The word of God is the only thing that can produce the kind of lasting change, lasting transformation of lives that we want to see through our missions efforts. Whether here in East Lansing or halfway around the world, what can change

a spiritually cold atheist into a passionate follower of Jesus Christ?

What can convict an angry man or a proud woman to confess their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation? Is it how good the coffee is at church? Is it the fact that we have nice buildings? Is it how persuasive our pastors are? I promise you, it doesn't matter what seminary you go to, you are not that persuasive. You cannot change the human heart the way the world of God can. You cannot raise the spiritually dead to bring them to life.

We do not have that power in ourselves. All we have is the word that does the work. Don't you love it how Luther says, he says, I went to sleep and the word did all the work, and this is what missionaries around the world are doing. This is what you guys are doing here for lasting change. We need the abiding and imperishable seed of the word of God. I wonder if that's how you think about your involvement here at URC, whether by being part

of the outreach at MSU, by inviting a neighbor to church by attending your church's Sunday school classes, by being a faithful church member, by coming to church on a snowy day, you are helping contribute to a church that loves the imperishable seed and sows the imperishable seed. You're part of something greater of carrying and stewarding the abiding seed of the word of God. One of the great things about partnering with a healthy church like yours is

that I can pick up the bulletin and without knowing what all the activities in the schedule are, I can tell you what what happens in those meetings and know what those meetings are about the Sunday school classes and the outreach and everything else you have going on. I know that in all those meetings, what the church is trying to do is sow the seed and pray for God to give fruit sowing the imperishable seed of the word in people's lives.

It's maybe useful to think about your involvement in the life of a local church, a little like the builders of the European cathedrals that took centuries to build. Imagine getting to work on a project that started before you were born and that will not be finished when you're dead. That's what we're doing in a local church. Were being part of something that God is building across centuries. The spiritual church, not the buildings, but the people

and the legacies that the word builds. I wanna encourage you today, this is exactly what saints around the world, this is what they're doing. This is what you are doing here by faithfully sowing and cultivating the seeds of the word. Here in East Lansing, one of my friends serves in a difficult place in a neighboring country and I get to visit him about once a year and he's doing the same thing. Aaron is doing the same thing.

I'm doing the same thing many of your missionaries are doing, planting the first Presbyterian church in his nation. And he once told me, you know, Paul, everything we're doing is just manure for our grandchildren to work with everything we're doing. We're just preparing the ground. We have no idea what God is going to do. And you know, as a song says, should all our efforts go to vain, we know that God is going to use this.

God is, God is the builder of what we're doing around the world. And just like we don't, we have no idea in Eastern Europe, more, more uncertain now than ever in my lifetime. We have no idea what awaits our children and grandchildren. If you would've told me what Eastern Europe would look like 10 years ago, if you would've told me the events that happened eight hours away from where I live, I would've not believed you.

But neither do you. You don't know what your grandchildren are gonna be dealing with here in Lansing. We have no idea what culture, what challenges, what persecution awaits our kids and grandchildren. But we can't do one thing. We can give them what they will need. We know what they will need. The imperishable seed of the word all fleshes like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass, all the achievements of human civilization are that except

what the word builds. The word of the Lord remains forever. And so we, we invest in those future generations by planting this seed and building up faithful churches that we pray will outlast us.

The seed has been entrusted to the church. There are a lot of needs in the world, medical needs, financial needs, housing needs, education needs. Ask Aaron, ask any of your missionaries and they'll tell you there's more needs around us that we could possibly fulfill. But what is the Christian Church uniquely called to do? We cannot fix all the world's problems, but what we can do is steward the seed of the word, which is the answer to mankind's biggest problem,

the need to be reconciled to God, to be born again. Like this text says, the church is called to be a witness and that is the unique function and calling of the church, the unique mission of the church in the world. It is a witness to the work of Christ. Therefore, what should we pursue? If this seed was entrusted not just to individual Christians, but to the church, what should we we pursue in the work of missions we should pursue more churches of,

of course we want more Christians around the world, but we want those Christians to be part of faithful, healthy, local churches. And I want to commend you in what you're doing here and encourage you in doing that. It is so encouraging to be here and meet your interns, fellows, residents. Did I get it right? All the people that you're preparing to send somewhere to, so they do the work of planting faithful churches, investing in the growing

that witness here and then around the world. And I say this a lot, the church around the world needs more workers to build churches. Um, in, in a country like mine, I'm on the receiving end of a lot of missions. Very few of those missionaries come to plant churches. It is a lot easier to fundraise for many other needs

here in at URC figuring this out, how to do this faithfully. That's the job of your missions committee, isn't it? Ensuring that the men, you support their qualified workers that pursue that.

I was born and raised in a part of the world that receives missionaries and it, it's always sad when I see otherwise healthy American churches funding missions overseas that have nothing to do with planting churches. There's a lot of needs that are worthy causes for your giving. It's great to fund teachers, great to fund mercy ministry and adoptions and orphans campus ministry. But where are all those people going to go to church on Sunday?

Where will they join a local church that will disciple them where they'll be accountable for the walk with Christ? You see, the church is not peripheral in this work of proclaiming the word. It is central in the work of sowing this imperishable seed and the church corporately. We have this responsibility and wherever we are in the world by being a faithful member of the church, you're part of that bigger mission. I tell people in the PCA wherever I go, that we cannot be

faithful missionary, sent by the PCA. If there are no faithful churches in the PCA to send us

read any book on military strategy, they will tell you your army is only as strong as your supply lines. And so look at your prayer guide for missionaries. Your church here in East Lansing is part of the supply chain for them to be able to do what they do. The more faithful you are here, the more they can do the work that they do. And it's not just financially, it is a significant part, but it's not the only part in being faithful to the word.

When your pastors here are doing the work of the church in PCA Presbyteries contending for the purity and the faithfulness of their denomination, they are ensuring that we can do our work somewhere around the world.

Moms and dads here at URC, by talking about the gospel with your kids. By being faithful in family worship, you are sowing this seed, the imperishable seed that will raise up Christians who will Lord willing be part of faithful churches. And perhaps some of them will go to the bishop field, but even if they don't, if they're faithful church members here, they're part of that supply line to sow the seed of the word. Now I want you to look at verse 25

and Peter tells us that this, it's not just generally preaching something from the Bible, that is the seed, right? He says this word is the good news, the gospel that was preached to you, Aaron already mentioned this morning in our countries, just like here in the States, there are lots of people waving bibles saying all sorts of things. And I, I know it's happening here, it's happening all over the world. It's, it's one of the clear evidence, ev evidences

for total depriving in mankind that we can use the Bible to justify whatever we want.

And people often, you know, they'll open the Bible and bring out management principles, financial advice, dating advice, but so often that's all they have. It's just good advice, instruction for how to live your life in general. One verse here, one verse there, and unfortunately oftentimes a very poor handle on what the whole Bible is about. But Peter tells us here that to preach this word faithfully means to preach the gospel

to talk about Jesus Christ.

One of the things that I run into Lizzie and I, we run into people who look up to us because they want to have a marriage like ours. They wanna have what you have happens here as well. They like conservative Christian values generally, but they do not want to bow the need to king Jesus. And the temptation is great to treat the Bible as a self-help book like a YouTube guru that tells you how to fix your life. You have this problem, here's how to fix your life.

But that's not what the Bible is really about, is it? To get that change that Peter talks about being born again in verse 23, you have to preach the gospel in verse 25 to say something about the holiness and justice of God, the gravity of sin, the substitutionary death on the cross of Jesus Christ for sinners. If, if we're opening the Bible and what we're doing is not connected to that, we're not preaching the Bible faithfully.

If we don't call people to repentance and faith, to obedience to Jesus Christ and not just generally good things from the Bible,

tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love isn't that faithful preaching of the scriptures? And if that part is missing, it's very obvious the church cannot be a faithful witness. If you're here tonight and maybe you haven't received this gospel by faith, maybe you have not been reconciled to the Savior who died on the cross for sinners, come to him today. Let us ask you, please come to him today. Put your faith in him. We believe this whole book is really

about one person and about one thing, salvation from sin, death, and the devil by faith in Jesus Christ. Come to him today and we treasure the clarity of the gospel as reformed Christians with treasure, having ministers who understand the gospel clearly and preach it clearly because it's essential for the witness of the church. I love your liturgy here at URC and this morning we have, we had, even in our liturgy, we have the gospel.

We have a confession of sin and an assurance of pardon for those who believe by faith come to Christ. By faith, we value the clarity of the gospel. And so we want every Christian to be able to understand the scriptures in light of the cross. That's why we send our men to seminary so they can rightly handle the word of God and preach the whole council of God in light of Jesus Christ.

That's the word proclaimed. It's what God has entrusted to the church. It's what churches exist for. To proclaim the word faithfully, to sow the seed faithfully. The seed is the only thing that transcends all cultures and languages, all barriers that other human inventions cannot go across the word proclaimed. But then secondly, I want us to briefly see that this word is not just proclaimed, but it is also lived the word proclaimed,

but also the word lived. Look at verse nine. All these descriptions of who Christians are in Jesus Christ, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. This list, it's about who we are in Jesus Christ, but immediately tells us something about how we should live, doesn't it? And all around this text, if you look at the beginning of chapter two and the the rest of the book, Peter gives them imperatives grounded in these indicatives

here, being a holy nation has something to say about how you live your life. Peter tells them that by their love for one another inside the church, they are a witness for Christ by their good works that the world will see. They are a witness for Christ by their submission to Godly authority. They're a witness for Christ by husbands and wives fulfilling their God assigned roles in the home. They're a witness for Christ.

One of the beautiful testimonies of the church in Moldova in east recent years was in the early weeks of the war when hundreds of thousands of refugees flood our borders and before any international agency was there in a country where evangelicals are 2% of the population. Do you know who was the first group in our society who were there to meet those foreigners, those those Christians, evangelicals? It was a testimony to the fact that they,

they don't just talk about Christ, they live it out.

They don't just say God is their highest good and everything exists for him, but they live like it. And this is what we're called to do, to live the word out in our lives.

We're Presbyterians. We believe in the sovereignty of God and that involves the particular time and place where God has placed you. You are here in 20 24, 25, sorry, in East Lansing, near MSU, near your unbelieving neighbor, near your lukewarm family member to be a witness to them. They see you, they see how you decide to live your life. They see over time, they see what really matters.

All those little decisions, they add up into a picture that your neighbors, your friends, your kids, your parents, they see what really matters in your life. And you are by your life either strengthening the witness of the gospel or watering it down.

If you look, look on the map, Moldova is right next door to Ukraine. And I wish I had the time to tell you how well the PCA's work in Ukraine has PO positioned the Ukrainian reformed churches to be a witness for the gospel in the face of terrible destruction.

People will remember that. They will remember that when things got tough, they stayed.

Not all of us are called to the mission field, although Aaron and I will happily encourage more of you to consider doing that. But all of us are called to be witnesses for Christ where God has called us. There's nobody in this room without a calling from God to be a witness for Christ.

And it's remarkable how if you travel all over the world, you will see actually Christians fighting the same battles. To be a faithful witness. If you're a college student wondering how to be a Christian in a hostile environment, you're going through very similar challenges through which college students in Honduras and in Moldova and anywhere in Europe and anywhere in the world are going through whatever stage of life you're in.

Young adult or parent or retired Christian faithfulness, living out with a calling to be a holy nation. People who belong to God to live like it. That calling actually looks boringly similar. And the challenges are the same because sin is the same and the answer is the same.

Christians around the world, or sometimes you read biographies of Christians from the past and you're surprised they're dealing with very similar challenges to what we're dealing with.

Fighting sin and discouragement, going through loss, doubt, suffering, pain, dealing with sickness, death, betrayal, and helping others go through those things. That's the Christian life and it's fundamentals and it's the same. One of the things I love about being Presbyterian is that you can have an ordinary means of grace. Church here and then fly for 13 hours. And it's an ordinary means of grace. Church there doing the exact same things

because faithfulness in its fundamentals looks the same, even if culture and language and many other things on the outside are different. So how does the church bear witness to Christ through the word proclaimed and the word lived out? Will you pray with me?

Heaven. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for faithful witnesses who have stewarded your word so that it would reach us and in your mercy and grace that you would save us by your word. Lord, we pray that you would make us faithful witnesses and stewards of your word in our generation wherever you have placed us, and we ask Lord that you would strengthen the witness of your church here in East Lansing and around the world.

We pray that for the glory of Christ. Amen.