Ah yes! Highway to the Danger Zone! How many of you wanted to become fighter pilots because of Tom Cruise and Top Gun? How many of you wanted to dance around your house in your tidy whiteys because of Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise normalized plain white Hanes underwear for every teenager. Thank you Tom.
Different movie! But back to Top Gun. Being a fighter pilot was like all I thought about as a kid. I built model jets. I drew jets all over my trapper keeper. I contacted the Air Force recruiter but was too young but got tons of cool posters. We role-played massive air war campaigns with friends. I spent hours doing Microsoft flight simulator, and flying combat missions. I pestered my dad to take us to any and every air show. I was so ready to fly into the danger zone!
It was all a distant blur, until I saw that trailer for the Top Gun sequel a few weeks ago. It was supposed to come out Fall 2021 but now its May 2022. I’ve totally outgrown Top Gun, I’m a pastor now. [readers: Jon puts on Top Gun glasses here. Joke.]
This weekend we’re wrapping up our series on the Purposes of the Church. Just for review. Jesus told us the greatest commandment, and our highest aspiration, is to LOVE GOD with all our heart, mind, body, and soul. But we wouldn’t even know God as Father if the Father hadn’t testified to Jesus, in writing, in Scripture, spanning thousands of years. We wouldn’t know the Father if he hadn’t sent his One And Only Son, Jesus, into the world. To LOVE GOD is to BELIEVE IN JESUS for forgiveness of sin, for everlasting life. John 3:16, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
LOVING GOD doesn’t stop with BELIEVING in Jesus. Just as the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world, that we might walk in the power of the Spirit, and be transformed, and BECOME like Jesus! 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
And then last week we flipped the coin. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to LOVE PEOPLE. We talked last week about God is building his Church, his spiritual family and Kingdom on earth. God is the architect. Jesus is the foundation, the cornerstone, the capstone. We are the living stones, of which God’s church is built. Not bricks and mortar, but flesh and blood. We are Christ's body. And What God builds he breathes life into by his Holy Spirit. Here is the summary.
WE BELIEVE IN JESUS. WE BECOME LIKE JESUS. WE BUILD JESUS’ FAMILY.
This brings us to our final purpose. We BRAVE JESUS MISSION in the World. And by world, we don’t mean geography. We mean the seas and oceans of people scattered everywhere from our homes and neighborhoods to the vast people groups of the world. In the name of Jesus, we’ve been commanded by Jesus to take the highway into the danger zone! We do this fully clothed in the full armor of God.
We’re not struggling against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of darkness. We battle against evil, spiritual forces in heaven, the schemes of the Devil himself. And we never back down. We take our belt of truth and fasten it around our waste. We put on the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness. We fit our feet with the gospel of peace. We carry our shield of faith. We put on our helmet of salvation. We weld our swords—the powerful Word of God—powerful to divide bone from marrow, soul from spirit. We stay alert in prayer. And we announce with boldness the mystery of Christ (See Ephesians 6:10-20).
There is an amazing, and little known passage in John 17, where we find Jesus praying. Jesus is praying about himself in the third person. John 17:1-5, he prays, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3 This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent —Jesus Christ. 4 I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.” This is what it means to BELIEVE!
But then Jesus begins praying for the Twelve Apostles. A few excerpts. John 17:6, “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” This is what it means to BECOME! We walk according to the Word, according to the Spirit.
But then there is this. John 17:11, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.” John 17:14-19, “I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Notice a progression. Father sends Son into the Danger Zone. The Son sends the Spirit into the Danger Zone. The Spirit sends the Church into the Danger Zone.
Thirdly Jesus begins pray for All Who Will Believe. You and Me. The Lakesides! John 17:20-23, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”
How many times did Jesus pray that we would be completely ONE? John 17:24-26, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”
If Jesus’ chief prayer and design for His Church is complete unity, what do you suppose is the Devil scheme and design for Christ’s Church? Is the Devil’s goal not total disunity, division, and chaos? Mask or no mask. Vaccine or no vaccine. Democrat or Republican. Left or right? Racist or anti-racist? Black lives matters or All lives matters or Blue lives matters? When the church is ONE in JESUS, and ONE in the SPIRIT, and operating as ONE BODY under Christ the HEAD… the Devil can’t win so much as a street fight. But if he can get us using our swords against one another he’s well on his way to winning the war.
Mission Imperative #1: ONE with JESUS. Believe! Mission Imperative #2: One In SPIRIT. BECOME! Mission Imperative #3: Let’s Build Up Jesus Body and Be BUILT as living stones into a spiritual fortress and let's stop biting and devouring one another playing the devils games of division. Mission Imperative #4: Brave Jesus Mission. Let us consider what it means to be “IN” the world but not “OF” the world. Let us consider what it means to seek God’s protection, as we put on the full armor of God and wield our swords.
Do you realize that if the devil can’t divide us, his very next priority is to disarm us? But how? Simple. The devil wants us to think we’ll be outgunned bringing an archaic sword, the very Word of God, to do battle. Next Sunday we are launching our Genesis series. Why? Because Satan’s first line of attack was to turn Adam and Eve against each other and against God. “Did God really say…” If he could rattle their confidence in God’s Word he could render God’s children powerless. The world scoffs at God’s Word. They hope to suppress it, to silence it.
Consider Philippians 2:14-16a, “Do everything without grumbling and arguing” This is Unity! Why does it matter? “15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation,” Oh wow that sounds so nice… but there is more… “among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life.” Let’s not let the Devil divide us. Let’s not let the Devil disarm us either. Let’s shine like stars, holding out the word of God.
I want to wrap this series up with a simple challenge. Be Brave. I was thinking about 1 Timothy 2:1-8, “First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.”
You know I have people that want me to raise HOLY HELL over masks, vaccines, mitigations, political matters. God says raise HOLY HANDS without anger or argument. Our way is to wage a flesh and blood campaign. God’s way is to bring people to a knowledge of the truth. God’s way is that we engage the enemy through a ministry of the Word and Prayer and Gospel Proclamation.
BRAVE: Unity. Word. Prayer. Preaching.