Here is the final sermon in this 6-week series, A Vision for a Healthy Church, which I've been preaching at Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA the last couple of months. ~Sally
New Testament: Acts 1:1-9
1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
11-13-11
Today is the last Sunday with our series on A Vision for a Healthy Church. It’s my prayer that you have been able to grasp the larger picture of how God calls the church to live and be as we’ve talked about worship, fellowship, disciple, ministry, and now outreach.
They are all a part of the message that Jesus gives us throughout the Gospel.
He tells us to love God with all that we are, so we worship both in church and in how we live our lives.
He tells us to bear with one another, and so many other “one anothers,” and so we live in fellowship, caring for each other and sharing our lives with each other.
He tells us to make disciples and teach them to obey everything he has commanded, and so we learn and grow through discipleship. We continue to be sanctified.
He calls us to not just think about our faith, but to live it out, and so we minister to others by His power.
In today’s scripture the disciples are following Jesus’ instructions. He has already told them what we know as the Great Commission, to “go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
As Luke writes in this first chapter of Acts then, the disciples are in Jerusalem and Jesus tells them to stay there until “the gift,” which is the Holy Spirit comes.
He then goes on to tell them that when the Holy Spirit does come that they will be filled with power and they are to be His witnesses - not only in Jerusalem, but also in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
These instructions, given to Jesus’ disciples, are instructions for us as well.
When we become believers in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit comes upon us as well and we are given the power of God through him. We, also, are called to be His witnesses to the world. So what does it mean to be a witness?
Well, when we’re in a courtroom a witness is someone who, “can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced. One who furnishes evidence.” So we’re to tell people about what we’ve seen, heard, or experienced about Jesus. We are to present the evidence of God in our lives.
Basically, tell others your story!
What mischief is God up to in your life?
How have you seen God work in your life?
What has He done? What made you decide to follow Him?
Everyone has a story to tell. Think about what yours is - and share it with the people around you!
We don’t always stop and think or even take notice about what God is doing in our lives, let alone in the world. It’s always a good thing to stop and take note of where God is and what He’s doing.
What are your “God sightings?” What evidence have you seen today that God is active in your life?
If you’re not seeing Him, ask Him to open your eyes to His work and presence around you.
How has He provided for you?
How has He blessed you?
How has He directed your path?
Part of outreach or mission, is to share Jesus with others - and in order to do that we need to be able to see Him in our own lives. We need to know our own story as well as His story, and putting our focus on Jesus will always bring Him into view.
Focusing on Jesus also opens our eyes to what He is doing in the world as well.
When we really start looking we see all sorts of good going on - and wherever there is good, you can bet that God is present!
Instead of going out and starting new outreaches, we can look and see where God is already at work and join Him. We are called to participate in the work that God is already doing in the world.
The Missio Dei, the Mission of God, began when He sent Jesus into the world. The Missio Dei is the redemptive mission of God to the whole world through the work of His Son Jesus.
Our God is a sending God. He has a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed.
So a sending church, is a missional church. A missional church, is a sent church. It is a going church, a movement of God through His people, sent to bring healing to a broken world.
It’s seeing the need in the world, and seeing how the gifts you bring can help. It’s reaching over the fence to your neighbor and finding out how life is for them. Are they doing ok? Are they struggling? Maybe the you or the church can help.
It’s having open eyes to see that the local food pantry is having a hard time keeping the shelves stocked or staffing the pantry when people come to pick up food. Maybe the church can help.
It’s being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world...
Being missional can mean sending a small group to help with rebuilding in tornado-damaged Joplin, MO. Or maybe it’s having a bake sale and sending money to help with the rebuilding!
Sometimes it does mean starting something new because there is a need in the community that still isn’t being met. It could be a monthly or bi-weekly Kid’s Club that invites local kids to come and play games, sing songs, have fun, and learn about Jesus. Or a youth group that gathers and gets to know one another, serves others, and learns about God’s love for them...
There are plenty of needs in the world, and the church is called to partner with God, pointing out His presence to others.
The wonderful thing is that we - each one of us, as well as all of us together as the church, are given power by the Holy Spirit to do all that God calls us to do. And it’s that same power that rose Jesus from the dead!
We have the power of God behind us, underneath us, and within us to go into the world and make disciples!
We have the power of God behind us, underneath us, and within us to teach them to obey all that He has commanded!
We have the power of God behind us, underneath us, and within us to be witnesses not only in Greenfield but across Pennsylvania, throughout the United States, and to the ends of the earth!
We have the power of God behind us, underneath us, and within us to to give a cup of cold water to a child of God in need...
God wants us to be risk-takers for Him. He calls us to step out of what is comfortable and safe and do for Him what might make us a little uncomfortable. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe that we are saved, believe that we are redeemed, believe that He loves us deeply and only wants the best for us and for this, His church! ...and He wants us to share that with others.
I want to tell you, I think God is doing something here at Greenfield Presbyterian. I have never been to a church where such a large majority of those who attend are actively involved in the church’s ministry!
You have had all sorts of people come into this church because of all the fundraisers and events, and now we need to go outside of the church.
We have a couple of events coming up in December. On the 2nd is the Greenfield Christmas Parade and we’re having an “after party” at the church. Maybe we need to hand out invitations to people, or maybe we can give out candy canes....just because.
The other event is a chili cook-off and caroling with the Upper Room on Dec. 11th. We’re going to have a chili cook-off dinner in the basement and then go out caroling in the neighborhood. It will be a great opportunity to have dinner together, have some fun together, and bless our community with carols and Christmas cheer.
The more we can keep our eyes on Jesus and what He calls us to, the more we will be focusing beyond ourselves to others - both inside and beyond the church walls.
At my church in Colorado I was hired as the Director of Christian Education and Outreach. Our church had gone through a big process of looking at what they wanted to be about, and what their calendar and budget showed what they were really about, and one of the things they found was that they said mission and outreach was important, but all they were doing was writing checks to organizations and missionaries. So my job was to get more hands-on outreach going.
As we looked at different possibilities we looked at what the church was already good at, and they were really good at children’s ministry. They had a strong children’s Sunday School and VBS, everything was just very inwardly focused.
I started attending monthly children’s ministry meetings with other church leaders in the community and at one of those meetings we learned about a sports camp that was both an evangelical outreach for kids as well as sports instruction in soccer, basketball and cheerleading.
Many of us were excited about it, but really scared about taking it on by ourselves, so instead four churches came together and we decided to host a camp together.
We were excited because we lived in Colorado where everyone is very sports-minded and outdoorsy, and a sports camp would be the perfect outreach for our area!
We were also excited to be doing it together and so no one church was overwhelmed with responsibility!
We planned for months and advertised all over the place - even getting our fliers distributed on four or five of the local area elementary schools as well as throughout our churches. We needed a minimum of forty kids to make it worth the time for the organization that was helping us, and so we were kind of worried about that.
Well camp week came and we had over eighty kids come, with more showing up each day of camp that week. On Thursday when the Gospel message is presented to the children, we had 25 kids who wanted to follow Jesus! It was a really exciting week!
This event led to other ministries that our churches did together, which included an after school Good News Club at one of the local elementary schools, and a Sharefest weekend which ended up bringing together over 100 churches in our area to serve the community in a variety of ways on one designated weekend in the spring.
God did BIG things! He honored our risk-taking and trust in Him, and blessed our efforts to obey His commands.
What’s almost even more exciting than what all these different outreaches did, was the transformation of the lives of all the people who did the reaching out!
You know it’s funny because we think that when we step out and serve others that that’s what it’s all about - serving the other person. The big surprise always comes, though, when we find out that God worked in us in the process, and grew our faith and transformed our hearts probably even more than we ever helped the others we set out to serve!
Jesus knew what he was doing when he told us to love God with all we’ve got, and to love others as ourselves.
He knew that when we did that, we’d be transformed - over and over again.
His love transforms us. And sharing His love transforms us even more.
Loving God and loving others is the Vision for a Healthy Church. It’s not about us. It’s about Jesus....always was...always will be. Amen.
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