Results 1987

Among the changes, many changes, which have been going on in this congregation during the past year, has been the sharpening of our vision as to what it really means for this church to be a corporate ministry. The sharpening of our understanding that we've been brought together here and made members of each other for a purpose that transcends our own private, personal, spiritual well-being, goes beyond that. That we have been called together and fit into each other in order to be a prophetic church, a church that makes an impact on the immediate world around it, for the Kingdom of God.

We're located right in the middle of a mission field which could be regarded certainly as as challenging as any on this earth. And the harvesting of this field is to be done not by a few lone ranger disciples, but by the body. The word of the Lord to us for a long time has been, go preach the gospel, go make disciples, bring them to the banquet table, and we say, amen, yes Lord, that's what we're here for.

But now let's suppose that an angel were to walk into our midst this morning and say to us, I have come to show you a way to get better results. Most of us would probably be offended and some of us would even get a little bit angry. Results? Pardon us, O Holy One, but we don't think in terms of results around here.

This isn't General Motors, this isn't Kmart, we're a church. All we have to do here is be faithful. Our job is to be faithful and God will bring the results.

Right, says the angel. Very good, you be faithful, God will bring the results. But what if the results are few and weak? Doesn't matter, doesn't matter, as long as we're faithful.

With this, the eyes of the angel begin to flame with fire and his face shines like the sun and he says to us, listen carefully, I have a word for you from the throne of God. Reading from Revelation chapter 3, verse 7 and 8. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, and who shuts and no one opens, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Here was a church that was located in a rough situation, had few resources, little money, limited talent, but because these people were faithful, God opens before them a door, puts before them an open door. See, but now it's up to that church to go through that door.

When they go through the door, they bear fruit, they get results, they bring people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, they set the captives free, they overcome evil. God set before Joshua and the Israelites an open door, who wouldn't take the land, He said. Now, if Joshua and the Israelites had remained camped in the plains of Jericho, in front of the open door, and made no move to take that land that was given to them, they would have perished in the plains of Jericho, they would have died in front of that open door, that would have been the end of it.

Reading from Acts chapter 1, verse 6. 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 and seasons which the father has fixed by his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. This was Jesus' final meeting with his disciples before returning to the father. In this meeting, he was setting before them an open door.

Here it is, I'm opening it to you, I want you to be my, you're going to be my witnesses when you receive power from on high, and you will. And these men and women spent the rest of their lives going through that door, and they became witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, the uttermost parts of the earth. And everywhere they went, they got results.

People came into the kingdom of God. Lives were changed. They became committed to the purposes of God.

They became a redemptive people, a prophetic people. Now the word of the Lord to us today is, don't be afraid to look for results. Don't be afraid to expect results.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you're going to bear fruit, and you're going to see it, and you're going to see lives change in front of your eyes. It's all very well to talk about Joshua, and the Israelites, and the early Christians, but the world in which they lived was different. The world in which we live is very different from that one.

I mean, we're living in a world that's hard and cynical. People in my neighborhood don't want to hear it. People where I work have hearts of stone.

The world has always been hard and cynical. And it's quite accurate to say that the world in which you and I live has many, many, many similarities to the world into which the Christian gospel first came. The Alpha and the Omega are similar.

Basically, in this world in which you and I are now living, there are two kinds of people. And it doesn't matter whether we're talking about southwest Detroit, or Bloomfield Hills, or Hong Kong, or Singapore. There are two kinds of people.

There are Jews and Greeks. The Jews are the people who want you to prove your message with some kind of power. You say Jesus heals the sick? Show me.

Don't be just talking about it. Heal somebody. Let's see what you can do.

The Greeks are the people who want you to back your message with an argument which satisfies the intellect. You say Jesus rose from the dead. How interesting.

Please explain to me how such a thing is possible. I'm reading from 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 20. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The Jews demand signs.

The Greeks seek wisdom. The Jews will listen if you show them a miracle. The Greeks will listen if you answer all their questions to their satisfaction.

So what does Paul do? Paul tells both Jews and Greeks about Jesus, who died for their sins and rose again, and lives among them as one who is absolutely the servant of the crucified lamb. And everywhere Paul goes, Jews and Greeks come crowding into the kingdom, because Paul understands and knows that Jesus Christ and him crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. But notice it's not just the words about Jesus and him crucified.

It's a life that Paul lives. Paul lives a life under the shadow of the cross. I am crucified with Christ, he said.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. It's not just doctrinal position or being doctrinally orthodox and sound and saying the right words and quoting the right scriptures.

It's a life that is lived. First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I made that choice that I'm going to know him myself that way.

I'm going to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. I'm going to know Jesus as the one who atones for my sins and who opens my eyes and who breaks my chains and washes away my guilt and is my Lord and brings me continuously into the presence of God. Living like that, Paul's testimony to Jesus releases power to the Jews.

He has eyes to see and releases wisdom to the Greeks who have ears to hear. We gathered here this morning to commune with Jesus, to break bread, to eat his body, drink his blood as a remembrance, as a reminder of what he did for us. And then we're going to come out from behind our masks.

We're trying to do it all the time. We need to do it afresh today. Pull off the masks and walk in the light with each other so that the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from all sin and we can have fellowship with each other.

Then we come before the mercy seat and we cry out to the Father to fill us afresh with his spirit. Knowing that he will do this, we can ask for this and expect it to happen because Jesus died and rose again. And the spirit will come.

And then, that's not the end of it. It's not church is over, we'll go back to our old routine. You know, what are we having for lunch? I mean, I'm interested in what we're having for lunch, but let's go beyond that.

But we go out into the world to those Jews and those Greeks and we now proclaim, we have a message, the same message on our lips and in our lives, a message that comes through the way we treat each other, the way we handle our money, the way we conduct ourselves on our jobs, the way we use our leisure time, Jesus Christ and him crucified, lived and spoken. And as we do, Jesus becomes, in fact, the sign that those Jews are looking for, those people who have to see a sign, those who are hungering and thirsting and looking, he becomes a sign in a mystery. He comes into their lives and indeed manifests himself to them in a clear way.

We don't have to engineer it. We can't engineer it. God does it.

And he becomes God's wisdom to the Greeks who are looking for wisdom. Jesus becomes that wisdom. And they find themselves bowing before and looking into the face of glory, wisdom that forces them to take off their shoes and fall down and worship him.

What does it mean to be a prophetic church? It means that we together proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified as the one who we know and serve and obey and follow and love. Jesus to the Jew, Jesus to the Greek, Jesus in the office, Jesus in the neighborhood, Jesus in the hospital, the shop, the factory, the university, the school, everywhere we go. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. In the background to this, we probably all are aware of, but as a reminder, Paul had just before he came to Corinth, Paul had been in Athens and he had been giving to the Greeks a little bit of wisdom on their own terms.

He'd been to a cross-cultural seminar and knew that he had to kind of tie into them where they were. And so he talks about the God in whom we live and who we have our being. And he quotes some of their poetry and it's marvelous.

The only problem is while he's eloquent, nothing much happens. He comes to Corinth, chastened, humbled, and clear about what he has to do. Comes there determined to concentrate on Jesus Christ and him crucified, no matter how foolish it may seem to the Greeks or how empty it may seem to the Jews.

And as he does, both Jews and Greeks come in. He gets results. And we will get results too.

We haven't even scratched the surface of what we're going to see. We've seen great and beautiful things in recent times here, wonderful things. Even today in this flock, there are miracles sitting here and there are many more on the way, but we haven't seen anything compared with what God has for us.

He has set before us an open door. He's brought us to the threshold of a vast harvest field, right out blocks around this building and miles around this building. And in the places where many of us may work and live and all over the place, a harvest field.

And we will see fruit. We will see results and we will rejoice as we see this as Jew and Greek come into the kingdom. And so today, let's be clear about what we're doing as we break bread together.

What we're doing is coming close to drawing near to the person of Jesus himself. Joining ourselves to him. And we are committing ourselves as we eat his body and drink his blood.

We are committing ourselves to him and to each other. For we eat of one loaf, which is Jesus, and we drink of one cup, which is Jesus. We are proclaiming his death until he comes again.

And we are remembering that we, like Paul, have been crucified with Christ. No longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life we now live in the flesh.

We live by faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. How are we going to get that across to anybody else unless that's clear to us? May God help us then. To go out there determined to know nothing except Jesus and him crucified so that his power may go forth to the Jews and his wisdom may go out to the Greeks, bringing in a harvest which has been waiting for our arrival for a long, long time.

Behold, I have set before you an open door to win and get out. Let's wait upon God in silence for just a few minutes here.