Sermon February 14 "Making Christ Known through Our Words"

Two Lucan New Testament passages were the focus of this sermon on making Christ known through our words. Luke 8:1-9 is where we read the parable of the sower. And in Acts 17:16-34 we find the story of the Apostle Paul in Athens as he waits for Timothy and Silas.

Last week we looked at “letting our light shine” as a means of making Christ known. But To let our light shine without telling people why it shines is like being in a boat and throwing a life preserver to a person drowning in the ocean- and then driving off in the boat leaving them there. They may no longer be drowning. But they’re not saved.

Paul tells the church in Rome, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?”

That is why Jesus told the parable of the sower. We’re the farmer. The seed is the gospel. Every person you see is the soil. And eternity hangs in the balance; salvation on the one side and damnation on the other.

Our culture tells us that religions are simple different paths up the same mountain. But Peter in Acts 4 says this of Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." We are not responsible for the soil of the human heart. We are simple responsible to sow the seed of the gospel wherever we find ourselves.

That’s what Paul did when he found himself in Athens. He shared Jesus with those people. They called him a “babbler” as he spoke of the resurrection. That word “babbler” in Greek is the word “spermalogos”. Sperma- seed. Logos- word. They were accusing Paul of spreading seeds with his words! That is what we are called to do.

Paul spoke into the reality of the agnostic pluralism of the Greek culture there in Athens using their own idols and poets as the spring board for his proclamation. The result? Some scoffed and rejected him. Some said they would be interested in hearing more. And some believed the gospel and were saved. The path, the rocky ground, and the fertile soil.

At the end of this sermon there was an invitation to place your faith and trust in the only name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved as we prayed this prayer together:
“Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you died my death for me on Calvary. I believe you rose again to give me eternal life. I give my life to you. Give your life to me. Amen.”

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Pastor Scott

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Sunday, February 7 “Making Christ Known through Our Actions”

Our focus passage this Sunday came from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13-16. This is where Jesus calls his followers both salt and light. We also looked at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they resisted bowing down to the idol created by the king of Babylon.

There was a shift on this particular communion Sunday. Whereas our mission to Know Christ” has to do with the internal strength of discipleship, “Making Christ Known” has to do with the external focus of mission. The first dynamic we discussed in making Christ known was action- how we live.

Jesus called his followers salt and light. Both salt and light impact their environments. Jesus calls his followers salt and light- environment impactors- because he was salt and light. The most basic and fundamental way we make Christ known is by being salt and light in a bland a dark world through our actions- the way we live our lives bears witness to the one who has impacted us.

We discussed two primary ways that we can be environment impactors- salt and light- for Christ.

1. Resisting the ways of this world.
Our three friends from Daniel resisted what the culture was doing. The result was not only encountering God in a unique way but allowing King Nebuchadnezzar to see God’s glory as well.

The Greek word “ecclesia” translated “church” literally means “called-out-ones.” Being called out from our culture means to resist the patterns of this world for the sake of God’s glory.

2. Pursuing excellence in all we do.
Whatever we do, we are to do with our whole hearts as unto the Lord, not for men (Colossians 3:23). To illustrate this we looked at some edited clips from the movie Chariots of Fire. Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell understood this concept of pursuing excellence for God’s glory.

In one scene he tells his sister that he knows God has called him to ministry in China, but that God also made him fast. “When I run, I feel his pleasure… and to win, to win is to honor him.” A life lived for excellence unto God is a life lived as salt and light and bears witness to Christ’s redemptive work in those who believe.

-Pastor Scott

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Sunday January 31 "Knowing Christ Through Prayer"

Psalm 77... a memory of a time of deep prayer. Matthew 11:25-30... Jesus prays spontaneously, teaches earnestly, and invites genuinely.

These two texts were the focus of this week's theme of knowing Christ through prayer.

We had the Ocean Springs Mardi Gras parade last Saturday. Thousands of people yelling to folks they don't really know, "Throw me something mister!"

That's the way we often treat prayer. Sometimes those prayers are answered. We catch the beads. We are grateful. We get ready for the next float to come by. Sometimes our prayers are not answered. No beads are thrown to us. We may get frustrated. We get ready for the next float to come by.

And so it goes. Prayer remains a mystery. Sometimes God answers it. Sometimes he doesn’t.

But we must understand a basic and fundamental truth. The purpose of prayer is not found in the results that gets but rather in the process of the prayer itself.

If we focus on prayer as the means to a result we are hoping for then we have missed the point of prayer all together. And such prayer can actually hinder our faith in God rather than deepen it. True prayer is the difference between yelling “throw me something mister” at a Mardi Gras parade and sharing what’s on your heart with a dear friend. The first may involve being heard, but the second involves being known. Prayer is the place where we come to know Christ more fully than anywhere else.

Jesus desire was to be known. And that is why he said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light.”

We come to Christ in our prayers. In our prayers we bring our hardships and burdens, our failures and shortcomings, our hope and our despair and we say “take this.” But our rest from these things comes not from leaving them there and waiting for a result, but rather hearing Christ say to us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Christ’s desire is not simply to answer our prayers but to be yoked with us step for step while he carries our burden. That’s what prayer is: the process of walking with Christ as he carries the weight of our lives.

We discussed 2 keys to resisting "Throw me something mister!" prayers:

1. Honesty

C. S. Lewis wrote, "In prayer we must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

2. Listening

What distracts us from prayer? Perhaps the things that come flooding into our minds when we try to pray are not distractions to our prayer but the burdens we actually need to allow Jesus to carry with us.

Christ came that we might know him. Prayer is that place where he makes himself known.
And there in is the power of prayer. Not in its being answered but in its being heard.
Prayer is the place God meets his people.
Prayer is the place where Jesus takes our burdens and invites us to walk with him.
Prayer is the means of knowing Christ for who he is.
Prayer is where he leads us to knowing him more fully.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 24 "Knowing Christ Through Scripture"

Knowing Christ through scripture was our theme this past Sunday. We looked at two passages: Luke 24:36-48 and Acts 8:26-35.

Both of these passages introduce us to ways in which the scriptures give us access to knowing Christ more fully. Without the scriptures we are destined to an incomplete and embarrassingly small picture of who Jesus actually is. We have a default Jesus, if you will.

The disciple turned apostle Phillip had a default Jesus too. We looked at his story briefly in John’s gospel.

John 1:45…
“Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”

Phillip thought he knew who Jesus was and why he had come. He based this on his reading of the Law of Moses and the prophets.

John 6:5-7…
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

Jesus tested Phillip. Phillip thought he knew Jesus. But his knowledge of Jesus didn’t include Christ as creator of all things.

John 14:7-9…
“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”

Phillip’s understanding of Jesus didn’t include him as Emmanuel. In John 1 Phillip knew just who Jesus was. By John 14 Jesus is asking “Don’t you know me, Phillip?”

In Luke 24 after Jesus’ resurrection we see Jesus “opening up the minds” of the disciples to understands the scriptures- the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus shows them that it is all about him.

Christ would have us know him for who he is and not who we make him out to be. We will come to know Christ more fully only through the scriptures that he himself, through the Spirit, will open our minds to understand.

In Acts 8 the Spirit tells Phillip to go over to the chariot in which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading a passage from Isaiah 53. “Of whom is the prophet speaking?” the eunuch asks.

Up until Christ opened his mind to understand the scriptures, Phillip would have never seen that passage of the suffering servant in Isaiah as one about the messiah, his Lord, Jesus Christ. But on that day Phillip could tell the eunuch about Jesus.

Only through a life spent in the scriptures will the small Jesus we carry around in our minds give way to who Christ really is in all of his fullness.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 17 "Knowing Christ Through Fellowship"

The first church was devoted to fellowship- koinonia. Acts 2:44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common [koinos].”

One image that the Apostle Paul uses for the church is that of “the body of Christ.” We looked at I Corinthians 12:21-27 where Paul says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

As the church we represent how Christ is revealing himself to the world. To a person we represent the care and character of Christ. When we suffer along side of someone who is hurting we are Jesus’ compassion to them. When we rejoice with someone who celebrates we are the delight of Christ to them.

As the church, we are not only capable of revealing Christ to each other we are called to do just that. When we see ourselves as the body of Christ and live in connection to one another as a result, it is through that kind of fellowship that we come to know Christ more fully.

We looked at 3 ways in which this first body in Jerusalem came to know Christ through fellowship.

1
Acts 2:45, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
Part of fellowship means a willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the needs of others- to give of ones self.

In allowing ourselves to admit our needs, and being willing to do with less to meet the needs of others we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

2
Acts 2:46a, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”
We must remember, there were no church buildings. There was no place that was the church. The temple courts were simply the public. The temple courts were busy with hundreds of not thousands of people. They were the church not defined by a gathering place. They were the church not defined by a gathering time.

In seeing the whole of our lives as the living out of who we are as the church we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

3
Acts 2:46b, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
Part of fellowship means having lives that are open to each other. These people ate together. They sat around dinner tables around Jerusalem and laughed and cried and prayed and shared the stuff of life with one another. We ought not diminish or downplay the place of sharing a meal with our church family.

A commitment to the table with one another is a commitment to knowing Christ more fully through fellowship.

Pastor Scott
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Sermon January 10 "Knowing Christ Through Worship"

In Acts 2 we discover that the first church devoted themselves to 4 things. They committed to worship, fellowship, the scriptures, and prayer. These four things are what we will study in this first section of this sermon series focused on how we know Christ.

The passage we looked at in our discussion of knowing Christ through worship was Colossians 1:15-20. This passage addresses why we worship in the first place. I made this point, “So often we miss the point of worship when show up on Sunday morning hoping to get something out of it. As though the point of worship is what we glean from it. Worship is not about us or what we get from it. The most basic and fundamental concept that we must understand is that we do all of these things because they glorify and honor God. Our operative thought concerning worship ought not to be the hope that we can get something out of it, but rather that we can bring something of worth to it.”

It is to this end that our passage speaks. Christ is why we worship.

This Colossians passage says four things about Christ that are the foundation of why we gather to worship.

1. All things were created by him.
We come to know Christ in our worship because as we celebrate the handiwork of God’s creation we are celebrating the work of Christ. He may have been born on Christmas, but he was born into a world that he created.

2. All things were created for him.
Not only is Christ worthy of our worship because he created all things. But he created all things, especially us, so that we might give him worship. We are not the focal point of creation- Christ is. As his creation we have been infused with the purpose of glorifying him. In our worship we fulfill our reason for being and in so doing come to know Christ more fully.

3. All things are held together in him.
He is worthy of our worship because he still holds the stars in their place. By his word the planets stay in their motion. By his will summer gives way to fall, and fall to winter, and he brings the planet back to life with spring. The very seasons exhibit the redemptive fingerprint of Christ. We come to know Christ in our worship as we celebrate the fact that he’s got the whole world in is hands- and they are loving hands.

4. We are reconciled to God through him.
We come to know Christ more fully in our worship because our worship is a celebration of the good news of the gospel- namely, that the Word that created all things and sustains them for his glory left that glory, abandoned the heavenly place, in order to be born as a peasant and die as a criminal. And why? Because we sinned.

By him. For him. In him. Through him.
When Christ is in the center of our worship then in our worship we will come to know him.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 3 “To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known”

On this communion Sunday we began a sermon series on our church mission statement: “To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known.” This will be a 9 week series. This week I reintroduced the mission statement (which is on the front of our bulletins each week) to the church. Over the next 8 weeks we will spend the first four discovering how it is that we come to know Christ more fully and we will spend the next four discovering what it means for us to make him known. Oh, how the kingdom would grow if particular churches were internally strong and externally focused!

The focus passage this week was John 6:25-40. In this passage we find a hungry crowd seeking Jesus for the wrong reasons. They want to “see” who he is. They want to have their bellies filled with more of the loaves and fish he miraculously distributed the day before.

Jesus’ frustration with this crowd is born in the fact that this multitude is interested in the product of his power but not so much in what his power says about who he is. Jesus says that God has but one thing that will please him: Believe in the one whom he has sent. The crowd begs for more proof that he is worthy of such belief appealing to the manna in the wilderness.

Jesus proclaims that he is the true bread that has come from heaven.

Two things hang in the balance of knowing Christ as the true bread.
1. Satisfaction in this life. “Whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

2. Salvation in the next life. “And this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”

The whole of this life and the next hang in the balance of knowing Christ- through faith believing that he is who the scriptures testify him to be.

After coming to the table to celebrate the sacrament- Christ the bread broken for us- we closed our worship together by joining in a statement of purpose:

Leader: Church, what is our mission?

Congregation: Our mission is to know Christ and to make Christ known.

Leader: How is it that we come to know Christ more fully?

Congregation: We come to know him through worship, fellowship, in the Scriptures, and in prayer.

Leader: How is it that we make Christ known?

Congregation: We make him known through our actions, our words, our testimony, and our life together.

Each component of the congregational response will be the focus of our next 8 weeks together.

-Pastor Scott

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