Jesus' invitation to us is to believe. "Believe that I am who I say I am. Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Believe in my works. Believe in the evidence of the miracles themselves. Believe that I have authority to forgive sin, grant mercy, and spare you from God's wrath. Believe that I am the Great Physician, and that by my wounds you can be made whole. Believe that I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Believe that I am the resurrection and the life."
Wow! We can absolutely believe in Jesus. Not 5%, not 10%, not 50%, but 100%. This week a friend sent me a Tony Evans quote. "Faith is acting like God is telling the truth. It is measured by action and not by what you feel." I love that! Belief is confidently and competently acting like Jesus is telling the truth about your life, about good and evil, about sin and death, and about the coming judgment.
If Jesus' invitation is to believe, then the Holy Spirit's invitation is to become. At first the Holy Spirit convicts us in regard to our sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment. But as we respond, the Holy Spirit mentors and guides us. He sanctifies our lives, transforming us from the inside-out. The Spirit of God enables a life that would otherwise be impossible were we to attempt it in the flesh, or on our own power.
In Zechariah 4:6 (ESV) the Lord God says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit..." In Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV) we're told that, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." Galatians 5:23 (ESV) continues, "...against such things there is no law." This means that character qualities cannot be legislated by laws. It's only by the power of the Spirit that we can cast the desires of the flesh aside. Galatians 6:8 says that if we keep sowing according to the flesh we're going to reap more corruption. But if we sow according to the Spirit we'll reap eternal life! In Galatians 3:3 (ESV) Paul chastises the Galatians by saying, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"
We're talking about the two most foundational relationships in the Christian's life. The two relationships are with the Son of God and with God's Holy Spirit. You should desire to put absolute faith and belief in Jesus for eternal life. You should want to cooperate with the Spirit of the living God so that you become fully like Jesus.
Today I want to talk about a third invitation. It's God's invitation to build. In Matthew 16:18 (ESV) Jesus promises Simon Peter, "...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But listen to the second part. Jesus says in Matthew 16:19 (ESV), "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
In 1 Corinthians 3:9-11 (ESV) while speaking to the Church Paul says, "For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
In Ephesians 4:12-16 (ESV) Paul describes how God made some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers in order to, "...equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Christ is indeed building his Church. But he is building his kingdom through you and me. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (ESV) says, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." Ephesians 2:22 (ESV) says, "...in him (Christ) you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
There is absolutely nothing casual about the kind of relationships we're to be forming in the Church. Every relationship in the Church-- every conversation we have with one another-- whether in worship, in small groups, in the lobby, in the parking lot, or in another's home, is to support all that God is doing in us in Christ, and all that God is doing through his Holy Spirit. God has knit us together in community to encourage one another's faith in Jesus, and to support one another's formation into Christ's likeness by the power of his Spirit.
For the remainder of our time, consider the octane of your relationship with the Church.
Unconnected to Connected
Have you ever heard the expression, "An apple doesn't fall far from the tree?" My neighbor has an apple tree, and this is generally true, with one exception. Sometimes squirrels take these apples and drop them on my patio. But the point is that sons and daughters are a lot like their fathers and mothers. In large part, over time, you become your parents.
But there is an exception to this rule. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus he can be born again of water and the Spirit in baptism! Jesus told Nicodemus that even in old age, he can be born into a new family, with new brothers and sisters and a new Father, and so become not like his earthly father, but like his heavenly Father. In John 15 the same basic idea is found. Jesus describes how a branch can be taken from one vine and grafted into an entirely different vine, so that it can bear fruit. In Ephesians 1:5 Paul describes how Christians become adopted into a whole new family, the Church. Colossians 1:13 describes how our belief in Jesus Christ has, "...transferred us to the kingdom of his (God's) beloved Son."
Here's my point. God changes us not just by giving us his Son and his Spirit. He also changes us by giving us a whole new family-- the Church. He changes us by becoming our Father. You were naturally born one way, but God supernaturally birthed you, grafted you, adopted you, and transferred you into a whole new family!
The fundamental dynamic of this new family is pleasing the Father. In Mark 3 Jesus' mother and brothers came to seize him because they were embarrassed by him. When Jesus is told that his family has arrived to take him into their custody, Jesus says in Mark 3:33-35 (ESV), "Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "For Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."
For you to change your life and change your relationships, get connected into the Church. Be born again, be grafted, be adopted, be transferred, and embrace your heavenly Father. Get connected so that your apple falls from a different tree.
Connected to One-Anothering
For some, church is a noun. It's a person, place, or thing. But God wants church to be a verb. Church isn't somewhere you go. It's who we are and it's what we do. And what God calls us to do is to build up one another in love until we all reach maturity in Christ. In the New Testament there are dozens of these one another passages that prescribe how our relationships are to function.
The Bible says, "Park next to one another. Hand a bulletin to one another. Sit next to one another. Pass communion and offering trays to one another." No! No! No! The Bible actually says, "Love one another. Serve one another. Bear one another's burdens. Pray for one another. Confess your sins to one another. Teach, admonish, rebuke, encourage, and build up one another. Spur one another on to good works."
Our relationships are supposed to be all about iron sharpening iron, not just sitting next to one another. Let's raise the octane of our relationships in this church! Let's make church a verb! We believe the Church is at its best when we get into groups. So in the next few weeks we are kicking off dozens of new classes and small groups. One of our pastors will explain further at end of this service.
One-Anothering to Tending
Let me end with this point. I want to issue a challenge to you that as a Christian, don't just excel in love. Reproduce yourself! When I first began ministry I thought it was my call to always be on call 24/7 and personally love every single lamb. Now I realize that God calls upon leaders to equip the body to build itself up in love. This is where group leaders play a critical role. The job of every leader at Lakeside is to equip lambs to love lambs. We are to equip lambs to one-another other lambs. And we are to equip lambs to church lambs.