| Missional Message |
| Being a Missional Incarnatinal Christian by CCFLAG (revised 3/08/08) |
A little less than 2000 years ago Jesus directed his followers to "Go into all the world and preach the good news to
all creation. … 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, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. …”
In another place he said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Shortly thereafter
during Peter’s first message at Pentecost about 3000 people came to faith in Christ. The church has grown down
through the years and expanded into many nations.
.
But how are we doing here and now? How are we doing in our country? Is the growth that the first century
church saw, and the growth we are seeing in other countries happening here?
I am sorry to tell you that our churches in this country are not doing well … Lets look at some statistics for the
church as a whole… In terms of churches…75% of the churches in the United States are not growing. This
means that 25% are growing but don’t celebrate just yet.. 24 of that 25% are growing because Christians are
simply changing churches They’re not growing because of new believers…. one church’s attendance is up
because another church’s attendance is down. That means that … in truth … only 1 % of the churches in the US
are growing by adding new believers
In terms of our people, only 21% of active church members will invite anyone to church in a given year. Only
2% of active church members will invite an unchurched person to church. And 90% of active church members
will never share their faith in their lifetimes.
Now I don’t really like statistics all the time but there is other evidence that the church is declining in the United
States. The truth is that people are now coming to the United States to do mission work in our country!!
Why??
Because we are now the third largest un-churched nation in the world. This is truly incredible. Some of you may
remember a time when the church was the center of everything in community life.
But that is not the case anymore. Well I am not going to sigh over what is gone. There has been far too much of
that. Nor am I going to try to get back to what once was. I have heard many seeking to do that. But on the
other hand I don’t believe that we should just fatalistically accept this and hide out and wait for Jesus to return.
Other countries are seeing tremendous growth in their churches. We should be able to do this as well. What
can we do about this situation? How can we reach our world? I think we need to look to Christ’s example.
Lets look at Phillipians 2:4-11 This passage is from Paul’s letter to the Phillipians. It is a letter which does not
address any particular problems but instead calls them on to maturity in Christ)
(4) Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. {5} Your attitude
should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, {7} but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death-- even death on a cross! {9} Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name, {10} that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, {11} and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
What was it like for Jesus in heaven??????
Well I can imagine good music, nice surroundings, being worshipped, with angels and cherubim and seraphim
constantly praising Him. Beyond all this there are streets of gold, unimaginable beauty, and it is very
comfortable. Not only that but the prayers of the saints are rising up before Jesus like incense. Jesus is
honored. Jesus is adored. This is most definitely ‘out of this world’ stuff. But we see in verses 6 and 7 that he
decides to leave all this:
(6) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but made
himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Additionally, Jesus tells us in the gospel of John (John 17:5) that he even left His glory behind. Isaiah tells us
that Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
(Isaiah 53:2 ) I know that we Christians have all these nice neat images of Jesus where he looks all handsome
and proper; his beard is perfectly trimmed, he has the perfect hair cut, no glasses (maybe he wears contacts), and
he wears a perfectly clean robe, but, according to the scriptures, he is just an ordinary looking guy with no special
appearance to attract us to him
.
To put it another way, Jesus left the Hotel Hilton where all is wonderful and fine and came here. To top it all off
he left his American express card, passport and other papers behind. He willingly leaves all the beauty and
majesty of heaven and comes to earth (in all appearances) as an ordinary guy. You see, He did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped. Something he had to hang on to…. (verse 6) He came willingly .. he
let go of all this and came willingly to earth.
We have a fancy word for this. It is the word ‘incarnation’. Incarnate means to embody in human form, or the
embodiment of an idea, or to personify. Jesus is the embodiment of God in human form. Or as we Christians
say: “Jesus is God’s son incarnate”.
To put this another way, the letter to the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:15-16 :
(15) For we do not have a high priest (JESUS) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. {16} Let us then approach the throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
As human, Jesus can fully relate to us as human beings. He knows and understands us. We can have confidence
in that. And as representative of all humanity he provides us with the way back to God. Jesus, God’s son, came
as a human, suffered as a human, died as a human and rose from the dead. Because of this, we can have a
relationship with God. We can be part of God’s family if we believe in Jesus and what he has done for us. This is
the good news… that we can be part of God’s family and that God has a plan and purpose for our lives. As
Christians we know this, but now take a look back at verse 5 :
{5} “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” Other versions say 'to have this mind in YOU that
was in Christ Jesus'.
This attitude / mind was not just an internalized thing. It does not mean for us that we just need to adjust our
thinking or our attitude and try to have the same internal attitude / mind as Jesus. No, this attitude evidences
itself by outward action -- incarnational action.
{5} Your (our) attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness.
What Paul is saying to us is that we should have this same attitude, this same mindset which shows itself by
action.
Now we are also human (we got that much right). But what does it mean for us to be incarnational? I believe
this requires some questions:
This is what Jesus is asking us to do. But how can we accomplish this? I want to give you some guidelines, some
lessons from Jesus on being incarnational.
cliquishness if it exists and spend time in our culture
on the truths of the bible. But we need to put the words of truth in a language that people can
understand. Jesus is called the Living Word - the Word incarnate. He expressed the truths of scripture in
understandable ways. Ways that the people of his day could relate to. Many of the people we encounter
today don’t know our story. They don’t know about the bible. They have no frame of reference for what we
know. So we need to express the truth in a way it can be understood. Let me give you an example of this
where it didn't work out:
Some time ago missionaries went to Zimbabwe. They went with a key missional verse. They used the
verse from Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. What does this scripture
mean? We who are Christian know what it means - that Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts asking
permission to come in so that we might have a life with him. But there is a bit of a problem with using this
verse in Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe at that time didn’t have any doors. …. NO DOORS!!! They
had doorways, but no doors. Knocking at the door doesn’t make sense does it? …. If you wanted to go into
someone’s home there in Zimbabwe you would go to the doorway and call out to the persons in the house.
They would hear you, recognize your voice, and say: “Come in”. What about knocking on the door? Well,
although there was no door in Zimbabwe at the time there was a doorway. And people could knock on the
doorway. But the only people who did that were thieves - they wanted to see if anyone was home or if
anyone stirred – if no one stirred they knew they could go in and steal.. This very beautiful verse
unfortunately makes Jesus look like a thief who is coming to steal from them. Bottom line: Are you
speaking to the people that don’t know Jesus in a way they can understand?
job is not to sell .. it is to tell. Jesus said you will be my witnesses. He did not say you will be my salesperson.
To do this we will need to get to know them. This will takes weeks, months, or years. We will need to invest
ourselves in their lives (to be incarnate, to identify with them, their pain, their beliefs, their struggles, their
joys). It is our experiences and our living witness that is needed. People today don’t want “evidence that
demands a verdict". They are looking for the genuine love and care that Jesus wants to give through us.
kingdom of God. The only people he spoke condemning words to were the religious leaders of the day. Lets
look at some things Jesus said to the religious leaders:
-“You belong to your father the devil”… Jesus said this to the religious leaders in John 8:44
-“When you win a convert .. you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” Jesus said this to the
religious leaders in Matthew 23:15
-“You will receive the greater condemnation." was also to the religious leaders in Mark 12:40.
-"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? That was spoken to the
Pharisees in Matthew 23:33 .
But when Jesus talks to non-believers it is different….
-When Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman he did not chastise her on how many husbands she had or who
she was living with. He talked to her about the kingdom and what true worship is. (John 4:5-42)
-When a Roman Centurion came to him to have his servant healed Jesus did not question why the man was
part of the military of Rome which was occupying Israel, nor did he talk about issues of slavery. He healed
the man’s servant.. (Matthew 8:5-13)
-Jesus healed ten lepers but only one returned. Why do we get upset when we don’t see instance success?
People today rarely make instant changes. If they are going to change their beliefs at all it will take time.
(Luke 17:12-19)
Lets review these guidelines again:
Jesus said: “..you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(Acts 1:8.) Judea and Samaria were geographical locations at that time. What about today? Where is your
Judea? Where is your Samaria? Where is your ends of the earth. Is it your work place? Is it your bowling
league? Is it son or daughter's sports team? Is it your involvement in social justice organizations? Or is it
somewhere else?
Wherever it is, or wherever God is calling you to be, I pray that you will be missional and incarnational – sharing
the love and good news of Jesus Christ.
Church Stuff Home
all creation. … 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, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. …”
In another place he said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Shortly thereafter
during Peter’s first message at Pentecost about 3000 people came to faith in Christ. The church has grown down
through the years and expanded into many nations.
.
But how are we doing here and now? How are we doing in our country? Is the growth that the first century
church saw, and the growth we are seeing in other countries happening here?
I am sorry to tell you that our churches in this country are not doing well … Lets look at some statistics for the
church as a whole… In terms of churches…75% of the churches in the United States are not growing. This
means that 25% are growing but don’t celebrate just yet.. 24 of that 25% are growing because Christians are
simply changing churches They’re not growing because of new believers…. one church’s attendance is up
because another church’s attendance is down. That means that … in truth … only 1 % of the churches in the US
are growing by adding new believers
In terms of our people, only 21% of active church members will invite anyone to church in a given year. Only
2% of active church members will invite an unchurched person to church. And 90% of active church members
will never share their faith in their lifetimes.
Now I don’t really like statistics all the time but there is other evidence that the church is declining in the United
States. The truth is that people are now coming to the United States to do mission work in our country!!
Why??
Because we are now the third largest un-churched nation in the world. This is truly incredible. Some of you may
remember a time when the church was the center of everything in community life.
- We were looked at favorably in the media.
- Society formed their events around church life (no sports on Sunday or Wednesday night for church etc.)
- We could feel pretty assured that most people in our community shared our views and values. ..
But that is not the case anymore. Well I am not going to sigh over what is gone. There has been far too much of
that. Nor am I going to try to get back to what once was. I have heard many seeking to do that. But on the
other hand I don’t believe that we should just fatalistically accept this and hide out and wait for Jesus to return.
Other countries are seeing tremendous growth in their churches. We should be able to do this as well. What
can we do about this situation? How can we reach our world? I think we need to look to Christ’s example.
Lets look at Phillipians 2:4-11 This passage is from Paul’s letter to the Phillipians. It is a letter which does not
address any particular problems but instead calls them on to maturity in Christ)
(4) Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. {5} Your attitude
should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, {7} but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death-- even death on a cross! {9} Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name, {10} that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, {11} and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
What was it like for Jesus in heaven??????
Well I can imagine good music, nice surroundings, being worshipped, with angels and cherubim and seraphim
constantly praising Him. Beyond all this there are streets of gold, unimaginable beauty, and it is very
comfortable. Not only that but the prayers of the saints are rising up before Jesus like incense. Jesus is
honored. Jesus is adored. This is most definitely ‘out of this world’ stuff. But we see in verses 6 and 7 that he
decides to leave all this:
(6) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but made
himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Additionally, Jesus tells us in the gospel of John (John 17:5) that he even left His glory behind. Isaiah tells us
that Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
(Isaiah 53:2 ) I know that we Christians have all these nice neat images of Jesus where he looks all handsome
and proper; his beard is perfectly trimmed, he has the perfect hair cut, no glasses (maybe he wears contacts), and
he wears a perfectly clean robe, but, according to the scriptures, he is just an ordinary looking guy with no special
appearance to attract us to him
.
To put it another way, Jesus left the Hotel Hilton where all is wonderful and fine and came here. To top it all off
he left his American express card, passport and other papers behind. He willingly leaves all the beauty and
majesty of heaven and comes to earth (in all appearances) as an ordinary guy. You see, He did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped. Something he had to hang on to…. (verse 6) He came willingly .. he
let go of all this and came willingly to earth.
We have a fancy word for this. It is the word ‘incarnation’. Incarnate means to embody in human form, or the
embodiment of an idea, or to personify. Jesus is the embodiment of God in human form. Or as we Christians
say: “Jesus is God’s son incarnate”.
To put this another way, the letter to the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:15-16 :
(15) For we do not have a high priest (JESUS) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. {16} Let us then approach the throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
As human, Jesus can fully relate to us as human beings. He knows and understands us. We can have confidence
in that. And as representative of all humanity he provides us with the way back to God. Jesus, God’s son, came
as a human, suffered as a human, died as a human and rose from the dead. Because of this, we can have a
relationship with God. We can be part of God’s family if we believe in Jesus and what he has done for us. This is
the good news… that we can be part of God’s family and that God has a plan and purpose for our lives. As
Christians we know this, but now take a look back at verse 5 :
{5} “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” Other versions say 'to have this mind in YOU that
was in Christ Jesus'.
This attitude / mind was not just an internalized thing. It does not mean for us that we just need to adjust our
thinking or our attitude and try to have the same internal attitude / mind as Jesus. No, this attitude evidences
itself by outward action -- incarnational action.
{5} Your (our) attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness.
What Paul is saying to us is that we should have this same attitude, this same mindset which shows itself by
action.
- Jesus gave up his comfort, he gave up his status to reach out to the human race with the good news of
God. We are called to do the same, to have the same mind, the same attitude. What do you and I need to
give up to reach people for Christ? Have we given it up? Jesus gave it up willingly as a servant. Are we
willing??
- Jesus is God incarnate. Jesus is fully God and also fully human. He could intimately relate to people
because he also is human. He was made like his brothers .. he is not ashamed to call them brothers and
sisters.. And He was intimately involved with the culture of his day.
Now we are also human (we got that much right). But what does it mean for us to be incarnational? I believe
this requires some questions:
- Are we connecting with other people (non believers) or are we a clique? Too much of what I see is that we
tend to only have Christian friends and we spending most or all of our time at church. Are you and I
intimately involved with our culture or are we isolated, longing for the day when Jesus will take us home.
Each one of you has a unique group of people you are in contact with.
- Are we relating to, and spending sufficient time with, our non-christian co-worker .. our non-christian
neighbor .. our non-christian bridge partner, our non-christian bowling league, non-christian sports team
parents / youth etc.
This is what Jesus is asking us to do. But how can we accomplish this? I want to give you some guidelines, some
lessons from Jesus on being incarnational.
- We need to be willing to let go of things, comfort, status, busyness etc. that hinder us from reaching
others.
- We need to be more connected with people that don’t know Jesus.
cliquishness if it exists and spend time in our culture
- We need to break out of our church speak / bible quote mindset.
on the truths of the bible. But we need to put the words of truth in a language that people can
understand. Jesus is called the Living Word - the Word incarnate. He expressed the truths of scripture in
understandable ways. Ways that the people of his day could relate to. Many of the people we encounter
today don’t know our story. They don’t know about the bible. They have no frame of reference for what we
know. So we need to express the truth in a way it can be understood. Let me give you an example of this
where it didn't work out:
Some time ago missionaries went to Zimbabwe. They went with a key missional verse. They used the
verse from Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. What does this scripture
mean? We who are Christian know what it means - that Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts asking
permission to come in so that we might have a life with him. But there is a bit of a problem with using this
verse in Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe at that time didn’t have any doors. …. NO DOORS!!! They
had doorways, but no doors. Knocking at the door doesn’t make sense does it? …. If you wanted to go into
someone’s home there in Zimbabwe you would go to the doorway and call out to the persons in the house.
They would hear you, recognize your voice, and say: “Come in”. What about knocking on the door? Well,
although there was no door in Zimbabwe at the time there was a doorway. And people could knock on the
doorway. But the only people who did that were thieves - they wanted to see if anyone was home or if
anyone stirred – if no one stirred they knew they could go in and steal.. This very beautiful verse
unfortunately makes Jesus look like a thief who is coming to steal from them. Bottom line: Are you
speaking to the people that don’t know Jesus in a way they can understand?
- We need to realize that our job is to tell not to sell.
job is not to sell .. it is to tell. Jesus said you will be my witnesses. He did not say you will be my salesperson.
To do this we will need to get to know them. This will takes weeks, months, or years. We will need to invest
ourselves in their lives (to be incarnate, to identify with them, their pain, their beliefs, their struggles, their
joys). It is our experiences and our living witness that is needed. People today don’t want “evidence that
demands a verdict". They are looking for the genuine love and care that Jesus wants to give through us.
- We need to avoid judging others.
kingdom of God. The only people he spoke condemning words to were the religious leaders of the day. Lets
look at some things Jesus said to the religious leaders:
-“You belong to your father the devil”… Jesus said this to the religious leaders in John 8:44
-“When you win a convert .. you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” Jesus said this to the
religious leaders in Matthew 23:15
-“You will receive the greater condemnation." was also to the religious leaders in Mark 12:40.
-"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? That was spoken to the
Pharisees in Matthew 23:33 .
But when Jesus talks to non-believers it is different….
-When Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman he did not chastise her on how many husbands she had or who
she was living with. He talked to her about the kingdom and what true worship is. (John 4:5-42)
-When a Roman Centurion came to him to have his servant healed Jesus did not question why the man was
part of the military of Rome which was occupying Israel, nor did he talk about issues of slavery. He healed
the man’s servant.. (Matthew 8:5-13)
- We need to be more concerned with whether we are doing the Fathers will then with whether we are seeing
multiple people saved in our work.
-Jesus healed ten lepers but only one returned. Why do we get upset when we don’t see instance success?
People today rarely make instant changes. If they are going to change their beliefs at all it will take time.
(Luke 17:12-19)
Lets review these guidelines again:
- We need to be willing to let go of things, comfort, status, busyness etc. that hinder us from reaching
others.
- We need to be more connected with people that don’t know Jesus.
- We need to break out of our church speak / bible quote mindset.
- We need to realize that our job is to tell not to sell.
- We need to avoid judging others.
- We need to be more concerned with whether we are doing the Fathers will then with whether we are seeing
multiple people saved in our work.
Jesus said: “..you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(Acts 1:8.) Judea and Samaria were geographical locations at that time. What about today? Where is your
Judea? Where is your Samaria? Where is your ends of the earth. Is it your work place? Is it your bowling
league? Is it son or daughter's sports team? Is it your involvement in social justice organizations? Or is it
somewhere else?
Wherever it is, or wherever God is calling you to be, I pray that you will be missional and incarnational – sharing
the love and good news of Jesus Christ.
Church Stuff Home
Missional Church