An Invitation that Results in Transformation...

This week, we are looking at an event from history where, as Jesus was passing through the city of Jericho, a man named Zaccheus, who was a Jewish tax collector, tried to get close to Jesus. However, because of the large crowds that had also come to meet and greet Jesus, Zaccheus was unable to get close enough to Jesus. We discovered that Zaccheus was hated and despised by the crowds that had come to meet and greet Jesus. Zaccheus was an outsider who had no status or stature in the eyes of the community. Zaccheus was small in stature in the eyes of the community who viewed him as a traitor who was far from God and was an outsider when it came to how God viewed him.

Luke then explains that Zaccheus responded to his small stature by running ahead of Jesus and the crowds so that he could climb a sycamore tree. You see, Zaccheus climbed the tree because Zaccheus had already been watching Jesus from a distance. Zaccheus was already familiar with who Jesus was. Zaccheus had heard the word on the street from his tax collector friends when it came to Jesus. And now Zaccheus wanted to be in a position where he could see Jesus more clearly. Zaccheus viewed the crowd as an obstacle to him getting to know Jesus at a deeper level. So Zaccheus was willing to do whatever it took to get a closer look at Jesus. Today, we will see Luke revel how Jesus responded to seeing a grown man in a tree in Luke 19:5:

  When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."

Now to fully understand the significance of Jesus response here, we first need to understand something about the culture of the first century. You see, in the culture of the day, staying at one’s house was more than simply getting a meal and a bed for the night. Instead, in the culture of the day, staying at one’s house was a sign of a desire to develop a deep and personal relationship with someone.

So by asking to stay at Zaccheus house, Jesus was communicating to Zaccheus that He desired to develop a relationship with him. Notice what Jesus says to Zaccheus here. If Jesus was talking to Zaccheus in the language we use in our culture today, the conversation would have sounded something like this: Zaccheus, hurry up and come down here. I need to you to get down from that tree and meet Me. I need you to hurry up because I must stay at your house. I must stay at your house because I want to get to know you and hang out with you so that we can develop a relationship between us. So get down here.”

Now I want us to take a minute to place ourselves in this story as Zaccheus. You’re Zaccheus. You are an outsider who is despised and hated. You have your own category. You are a tax collector and sinner. You have no standing or stature in the community. Nobody wants to hang out with you, never mind have a relationship with you. And now Jesus wants to hang out with you so that He can develop a relationship with you. What would you be thinking at this point? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see Zaccheus response in verse 6:

And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.

Luke tells us that Zaccheus responded to Jesus offer to hang out with Him by scurrying down the tree and warmly welcoming the opportunity to extend hospitality to Jesus. What is so interesting is that the word gladly here is the same word that is translated as joy in our English Bibles. This word refers to having an attitude of delight in life that is not based or tied to circumstances.

You see, in spite of the fact that he was viewed as an outsider and was hated and despised, Zaccheus was fully focused on the reality of Jesus desire to have relationship with him. Zaccheus experienced an attitude of delight in life that was based on how Jesus viewed him in spite of his circumstances or how others viewed him. Luke then gives us a glimpse of how the crowds responded to Jesus engaging Zaccheus in verse 7:

 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

The crowds, upon witnessing this encounter between Jesus and Zaccheus began to loudly and publicly express their disapproval. Their complaint, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “What is Jesus doing! Does Jesus not know who He wants to hang out with and develop a relationship with! I mean Zaccheus is a tax collector and sinner. Zaccheus does not measure up to our moral standards and expectations. Zaccheus is an outsider who is far from God. Jesus should not be hanging out or getting to know people like Zaccheus.”

Now here is a question to consider: If you were to place yourself in this story, who would you be? If you were to place yourself as a character in the story, would you be a part of the crowd? If you were to place yourself as a character in the story, would you be Zaccheus? Who would you be if you were to find yourself in this story?

What I find so fascinating about Jesus is that those who were outsiders who were far from God felt comfortable to hang out with the Son of God, while those who thought they were insiders who were close to God were very uncomfortable hanging out with the Son Of God. Luke then reveals for us how Zaccheus responded to Jesus and the crowds in verse 8:

 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."

Luke tells us that the crowd’s accusations against Jesus for wanting to hang out with such an outsider like him provoked Zaccheus to stop in his tracks as he walked with Jesus toward his home. Zaccheus then responded not to the crowds, but to Jesus with a powerful statement: "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."

You see, Jesus pursuit of Zaccheus; Jesus desire to hang out with and develop a relationship with Zaccheus had changed Zaccheus heart. Instead of being driven to be greedy, Zaccheus was now driven to be generous. Instead of being driven to extort money from others, Zaccheus was driven to restore what he had taken by extortion to others. And to demonstrate his sorrow for wronging others, Zaccheus was willing to pay restitution equal to four times what he had extorted from others.

Now the big fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word for what happened to Zaccheus here is the word repentance. The word repent literally means to feel remorse that results in a change of one’s mind and heart. To repent means more than simply feeling sorry for something you did; to repent means that you feel sorry for what you did and the sorrow that you feel drives you to change something in your life. To repent is to change the trajectory of your life that is moving away from God back to God.

 Zaccheus had been watching and hearing about Jesus. Zaccheus had heard about the message and teachings of Jesus, either first hand or through his tax collector friends. And what Zaccheus had seen and heard about Jesus as he watched Jesus led Zaccheus to want to get closer to Jesus. Zaccheus heart was changed as a result of Jesus offer to hang out and enter into relationship with him. And Zaccheus change of heart resulted in a change of the trajectory of his life that was moving away from God back to God. And that change of trajectory resulted in a change of behavior that lined up with the message and teachings of Jesus.

Friday, we will see Jesus response to Zaccheus...

A Wee Little Man and A Tree...

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled living on mission. During this series our hope and our prayer is that God would equip and empower us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus on mission as a missionary to those that God has already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.

And if you do not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him, here’s the thing. What you will discover during this series is that there is a way that those who are followers of Jesus are supposed to live. And there is a way that followers of Jesus are supposed to talk about the claims that Jesus made about who He was and what He came to earth to do.

And my hope for you is that you would see what Jesus calls His followers to so that you can see how He feels about you and what He calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you. That way, you can cut through the bad experiences that you have had with Jesus followers to see the truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to be truly about as they live around you.

This week, I would like for us to look at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke where we will see Jesus have another unlikely encounter. And it is in this unlikely encounter that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. So let’s look at this encounter together, beginning in Luke 19:1:

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.

Luke brings us into this most unlikely encounter by providing us the context by which this encounter would take place. At this point in Jesus life, Jesus was headed to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, which commemorated God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. Most scholars and historians believe that this event from history occurred within two weeks of Jesus arrest. Within two weeks of this event from history, Jesus would be arrested, tried, and put to death.

Luke tells us that on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through the city of Jericho. As word spread that Jesus was passing through Jericho, large crowds came to meet and greet Jesus. And one of the members of the crowd was a man named Zaccheus. Now if you grew up in church, you are probably familiar with Zaccheus because Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he, or at least that’s how I heard that the song goes. 

Zaccheus was a Jewish man who was a chief tax collector that worked for the Roman Government. In other words, Zaccheus was great at his job. Zaccheus was a great tax collector. Zaccheus was so good at his job that Luke tells us that he was a very wealthy man. And Zaccheus was so good at his job as a tax collector that he was promoted to the position of being the supervisor who was in charge of all of the tax collectors that worked for the Roman Government.

Now Jews who were tax collectors were hated by their fellow countrymen for two reasons. First, these tax collectors were hated because they would often charge higher taxes than necessary in order to make a profit. Since the Romans did not care what these tax collectors charged as long as they received what was due them, many tax collectors became wealthy by charging over and above what the Romans asked. So Zaccheus had become wealthy at the expense of his fellow Jewish countrymen.

Second, Jewish tax collectors were hated and were viewed as traitors because they were working for the enemy. Jewish people so despised tax collectors that they had a separate category for them. There were tax collectors and there were sinners. There were those who sinned and then there were tax collectors. After providing the context for the story, we see Luke bring us into this story in Luke 19:3:

Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.

Luke tells us that as Jesus was passing through the city of Jericho, Zaccheus tried to get close to Jesus. However, because of the large crowds that had also come to meet and greet Jesus, Zaccheus was unable to get close enough to Jesus, because Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

But it wasn’t simply that Zaccheus was small in physical stature that he was unable to get close to Jesus. Remember, Zaccheus is the chief tax collector. Zaccheus is hated and despised by the crowds that had come to meet and greet Jesus. Zaccheus was an outsider who had no status or stature in the eyes of the community. Zaccheus was small in stature in the eyes of the community who viewed him as a traitor who was far from God and was an outsider when it came to how God viewed him.

Luke then explains that Zaccheus responded to his small stature by running ahead of Jesus and the crowds so that he could climb a sycamore tree. Now Sycamore trees, which grow to a height of thirty to forty feet, are one of the few trees that grow to a large height in the desert. So Zaccheus, pulled up his robe, ran ahead of Jesus and the crowds, and climbed up this large tree.

Can you imagine what that must have looked like? Can you imagine what it would have looked like to see a grown man frantically running and climbing up a tree in order to get an opportunity to see Jesus before he passed by?

Now a natural question that arises here is “Why would Zaccheus expend that much energy and effort to see Jesus? I mean climbing a large tree is not something that a grown man usually does, so why did Zaccheus climb the tree?”

You see, Zaccheus climbed the tree because Zaccheus had already been watching Jesus from a distance. Zaccheus was already familiar with who Jesus was. Zaccheus had heard the word on the street from his tax collector friends when it came to Jesus. And now Zaccheus wanted to be in a position where he could see Jesus more clearly. Zaccheus viewed the crowd as an obstacle to him getting to know Jesus at a deeper level. So Zaccheus was willing to do whatever it took to get a closer look at Jesus.

 

Tomorrow, we will see how Jesus responded to a grown man climbing a tree…

Living on mission requires removing our excuses...

This week, we are looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament called the book of Exodus, where Moses had an encounter with God. Wednesday, we saw Jesus respond to Moses by promising His presence when we live on mission, because while we may think we are a nobody, Jesus, who is present in our lives, is somebody. And God want us to remember His name and His story, because while we may forget about God’s story, God has not forgotten about your story and how He wants to use you to impact others by living on mission. Today we will see Moses ask a third question to Jesus, which we see in Exodus 4:1. Let’s look at it together:

Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

Here we see Moses bring forth another excuse as to why he should not engage in the mission that he had been given by Jesus in the form of another question: What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?” By asking this question Moses is basically saying “don’t send me because they will not believe me.”

Now how often do we find ourselves using this excuse for why we are not living on mission? How often can we find ourselves saying or thinking “I can’t live on mission because nobody is going to believe me anyways? Nobody today buys the whole Jesus Bible church thing, so why would I want to live on mission by engaging those around me who aren’t going to buy it anyways.” How often can we be paralyzed by what we perceive as the unbelief of those around us? We see how Jesus responded to Moses excuse in verse 2:

 The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail "-- so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand-- "that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." The LORD furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom." So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then He said, "Put your hand into your bosom again." So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. "If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign. "But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

Jesus responded to Moses excuse by providing him with three separate signs that would serve to demonstrate God’s power. The first sign was to empower Moses staff to become a snake. In the Egyptian culture, snakes served as a sign of power and life. So this sign would serve to reveal that God was more powerful than the Egyptians.

The second sign was to empower Moses to have and heal leprosy. During this time in history, leprosy was a prevalent disease that was incurable. This sign would also serve to reveal the miraculous power of God over what was viewed as being incurable.

The third sign was to empower Moses to turn the mighty Nile River into blood. The Egyptians viewed the Nile as the source of life and blessings, so this sign would also serve to show that the Lord was more powerful than the gods of the Egyptians.

And it is here we see Jesus respond to Moses excuse by promising to empower him for the mission. You see, Jesus responded by promising to empower him for the mission because while Moses thought he was powerless, God was all powerful. And in the same way today, God promises to empower us to live on mission, because while we may think that we are powerless to accomplish the mission, Jesus, who gives us the mission, is all powerful.

Now, at this point, you would think that Moses is finished with all of his questions. And at this point, you would be right. However, Moses is not done making excuses, as we see in verse 10:

 Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

This time, Moses makes an excuse in the form of a statement: “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue”. In other words, Moses is basically saying to Jesus “Jesus, don’t send me because I am not gifted or talented enough”. Now how often can we find ourselves falling back on this excuse as to why we are not living on mission?

How often can we find ourselves using the excuse “Well Dave I can’t live on mission because I do not have the gift of evangelism. I can’t live on mission because I do not know my Bible well enough. I mean, what if they ask me a question that I do not know the answer to?” We see Jesus response to Moses excuse in verse 11:

  The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? "Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say."

Now can you imagine what Jesus response must have sounded like here? At this point, I do not think that Jesus used a mellow voice. Instead, Jesus basically said “Moses who made your mouth? Who enables people to see and hear? Moses, last time I checked, that was Me. Now I have already promised you my presence, my power, and my gifting, so get going”. 

You see, while Moses thought he was without gifts, God was the giver of gifts. While Moses had determined that he was unable to complete the mission, God had determined that he was able to complete the mission. Now, at this point, you would think that Moses would stop talking and get going. And at this point you would be wrong as we see in verse 13:

But he said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will."

Here we see Moses respond to Jesus responses by revealing the real reason behind his excuses that had been disguised in the form of questions. Moses tells Jesus “send the message by whomever You will”. In other words, Moses basically says “Jesus, don’t send me because I don’t want to go. Instead find somebody else”.

You see, the real reason behind all of Moses excuses and questions was that Moses did not want to obey the mission that He had been given by God. Moses wanted to live for his own mission instead of living for God’s mission. Moses simply wanted to live in disobedience to God’s mission and let Jesus know that, to His face.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “well Dave that is just crazy, I would never say something like that to Jesus face”. Now here is something to consider. Is overt disobedience any different than covert disobedience? I mean disobedience is disobedience, isn’t it?  

Now you might be thinking to yourself, well Dave, yeah it might be disobedient, but it’s not like I am robbing a bank or lying to someone. It is not like I am breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Is God really going to be mad if I just decide to live for my mission and not live for God’s mission? We find the answer to that question in Exodus 4:14:

 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said, "Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. "You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. "Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. "You shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs."

Now when it says the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means that the Lord was hot against Moses. Jesus was stoked in anger toward Moses for his rebellious and disobedient attitude toward the mission that He had given him.

And in His hot anger, Jesus responds in three specific ways. First, Jesus removes any excuses to engaging in the mission by providing Moses a partner in the form of his brother Aaron. Second, Jesus reminds Moses of the promise of His presence, power, gifting for the mission. And third, Jesus reinforces the reality that this mission was not optional. You see, while Moses thought the mission was optional, the reality was that the mission is an essential requirement of living in relationship with Jesus.

And it is here that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. And that timeless truth is this: Living on mission requires removing our excuses. Just as it was for Moses, just as it has been for humanity throughout history, living on mission requires removing our excuses.

Living on mission requires removing the excuse that we are nobodies, because Jesus, who is somebody, promises His presence as we live on mission. Living on mission requires that we remove the excuse of a lack of authority to be living on mission, because Jesus gives us the authority and remembers both His story and our story. Living on mission requires that we remove the excuse that no one will believe me, because Jesus, who gives us the mission, is powerful enough to bring belief.

Living on mission requires that we remove the excuse that that we are not gifted enough to complete the mission, because Jesus is determined to give us the gifts to complete the mission. And living on mission requires that we remove the excuses that reveal our disobedience belief that living on mission is optional, because Jesus has made it clear that living on mission is an essential requirement of living in relationship with Jesus.

So here is a question to consider: What excuses have you been using in order to avoid living on mission? And what do you need to do to replace those excuses with God’s promises so that you can live on mission?

A Promise of Presence and Authority...

This week we are looking at a section of letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Exodus, where, after forty years of living in utter obscurity in the desert, we see a man named Moses have an encounter with God that would change the trajectory of his life in a powerful way. Yesterday, we looked on as Moses found himself face to face with an Old Testament appearance of Jesus, who explained that He had heard the cries of suffering from the Jewish people and was going to respond to their suffering by rescuing and delivering them from the oppression of the Egyptians.

 Now today, I want us to imagine ourselves as Moses. You have spent the last forty years in utter obscurity in the desert after you attempted to deliver the Jewish people by killing an Egyptian only to fail and be rejected by the Jewish people. And now, Jesus appears to you and explains that He is now on a mission to rescue and deliver the Jewish people, just as He had promised Abraham hundreds of years earlier. You are Moses: what would you be thinking at this point? What would you be feeling? Jesus, however, was not finished talking, as we see in verse 10:

 "Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."

So you are Moses; now what thoughts are running through your mind? Now how are you feeling? You see, up to this point in the conversation, Jesus had been saying “I have seen the suffering; I have come down on a mission to rescue My people; I am going to complete the mission to bring them into the Promised Land.”

Now Jesus says “I am sending you to accomplish the mission. I am sending you to deliver them from slavery. I am sending you to bring them in to the Promised Land. You are going to be the vehicle that I use to accomplish my mission to bring My people into the Promised Land”.

And Jesus message today is the same to us: You are going to be the vehicle that I use to accomplish my mission to reveal and reflect Me so that I can bring My people into the forgiveness and relationship with God that they were created for”.

Just as it was for Moses, while God does not need us to do anything, God sends us to live on mission and to accomplish His mission in the world. We see how Moses responded to the mission he had been given by Jesus in verse 11:

  But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"

Moses responds to the mission that he had been given by Jesus to be the vehicle that He used to accomplish His mission with a question: Who am I? Actually, this is not a question. Instead this is an excuse as to why he should not engage in the mission. By asking “who am I?” Moses is basically saying “don’t send me because I am nobody.”

Now, here is a question for us to consider: How often do we find ourselves using this excuse for why we are not living on mission? How often can we find ourselves saying or thinking “I can’t live on mission because I am a nobody?” We see Jesus response to Moses excuse in verse 12:

 And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain."

Jesus responded to Moses excuse with a simple but powerful statement “certainly I will be with you”. Here we see Jesus respond to Moses excuse by promising His presence. And so that Moses would know that God was present, Jesus tells Moses "you worship Me at this very place in the future". You see, Jesus responded by promising His presence because while Moses thought he was nobody, God was somebody.

In the same way today, God promises His presence when we live on mission, because while we may think we are a nobody, Jesus, who is present in our lives, is somebody. Now you would think that Moses would be encouraged by the promise of the Lord's presence as he accomplished God’s mission. However, Moses had another question for Jesus, which we see in verse 13:

 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

Here we see Moses bring forth another excuse as to why he should not engage in the mission that he had been given by Jesus in the form of another question. This question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “What if the Jewish people say to me ‘well if God sent you to us, then tell us His name’?” Now, by asking this question, Moses is basically saying “don’t send me because they will question my authority and if you really sent me.”

Now how often do we find ourselves using this excuse for why we are not living on mission? How often can we find ourselves saying or thinking “I can’t live on mission because people are going to question why I am living on mission? I can’t live on mission because people will question or challenge whether or not Jesus would really want me to be sharing the gospel with them or living my life the way that I am when it comes to how I follow Him?” We see Jesus response to Moses excuse in verse 14:

 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"  God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. "Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. "So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey. "They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.' "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. "So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go. "I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. "But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians."

Jesus responds to Moses excuse by providing God’s name and God’s story of how He has always revealed Himself to others and accomplished His mission through others. Now when God calls Himself by the name “I Am”, this word, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means “I Be”.

In other words, God is saying “I have always existed and I have always worked the same way. I have always worked through the lives of others in order to accomplish My Kingdom mission here on earth”. And once again, God was going to accomplish His Kingdom mission to rescue the Jewish people from slavery through Moses.

You see, God provided Moses His name and reminded Moses of His story because while Moses had forgotten about God’s story, God had not forgotten about the Jewish people’s story. And in the same way today, God want us to remember His name and His story, because while we may forget about God’s story, God has not forgotten about your story and how He wants to use you to impact others by living on mission.

Friday, we will see Moses ask some more questions that will reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission...

Exposed...

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled living on mission. During this series our hope and our prayer is that we would enable, equip and empower us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus on mission as a missionary to those that God has already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.

And if you do not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him, here’s the thing. What you will discover during this series is that there is a way that those who are followers of Jesus are supposed to live. And there is a way that followers of Jesus are supposed to talk about the claims that Jesus made about who He was and what He came to earth to do. And my hope for you is that you would see what Jesus calls His followers to so that you can see how He feels about you and what He calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you. That way, you can cut through the bad experiences that you have had with Jesus followers to see the truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to be truly about as they live around you.

This week, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus records how God accomplished His mission to deliver the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt through a man named Moses. Now Moses was born while the Jewish people were enslaved by the nation of Egypt.

 And during the time of Moses birth, the king of Egypt, who was called Pharaoh, had given orders that every male Jewish child born was to be killed. Moses mother was able to hide her son for three months, only to have to place him in a wicker basket in the Nile River in hopes that he would be delivered from certain death. Moses was found in the Nile River by the daughter of Pharaoh, who took her into her home and adopted him as her son. Moses then grew up in the home of Pharaoh in a place of privilege as a part of the royal family.

However, at the age of forty, Moses was forced to flee from Egypt and Pharaoh after killing an Egyptian who was abusing a fellow Hebrew. And for forty years, Moses lived in utter obscurity as a shepherd who lived in a tent in the desert. Then after forty years of living in utter obscurity in the desert, we see Moses have an encounter with God that would change the trajectory of his life in a powerful way. And it is in this encounter that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. So let’s look at this encounter together, beginning in Exodus 3:1:

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Now I would like for us to place ourselves in this event from history as Moses. Place yourself in Moses shoes. You are at work one day taking care of your father in laws sheep, when out of the blue you see a large bush on fire. Yet while the bush is burning, it does not get burned up. Upon seeing this most unusual occurrence, you decide that you need to get a closer look. And as you get closer to get a closer look, out of the bush the Angel of the Lord appears and calls your name. Now the Angel of the Lord is not simply an angel from the Lord. Instead this is “the angel of the Lord”.

In other words, this is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. So you are now face to face with Jesus. And as you are face to face with Jesus, Jesus basically says to you “Hey make sure that you do not come any closer to Me. Instead, you need to take off your shoes as a sign of respect and worship of Me, because you are now in the presence of God. I am the God of your ancestors and I have come to earth to have a conversation with you”.

Now you are Moses. You are face to face with Jesus. What would you do? How would you respond? You would respond how Moses responded, which was to hide your face in fear. You would hide your face in fear because just like Moses, you would be face to face with perfectly pure and all powerful Creator of the universe, whose power and perfection would expose your every imperfection.

Just like Moses, you would recognize that you would be exposed for who you really are as you were exposed to who God really is. As Moses hides his face from Jesus, we see Jesus begin to have a conversation with Moses. So let’s look at that conversation together, beginning in verse 7:

 The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. "So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. "Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Jesus basically says to Moses, “I have seen the suffering and mistreatment that the people who I have chosen to enter into a special relationship with have received from the nation of Egypt. And now, I am going to fulfill the promise that I made to your ancestor Abraham some 500 years ago to bring them into the Land that I have promised them. I have heard the cries of suffering from the Jewish people and I am going to respond to their suffering by rescuing and delivering them from the oppression of the Egyptians”.

Now imagine yourself as Moses. You have spent the last forty years in utter obscurity in the desert after you attempted to deliver the Jewish people by killing an Egyptian only to fail and be rejected by the Jewish people. And now, Jesus appears to you and explains that He is now on a mission to rescue and deliver the Jewish people, just as He had promised Abraham hundreds of years earlier. You are Moses: what would you be thinking at this point? What would you be feeling?

Jesus, however, was not finished talking, as we will see tomorrow…

Living on mission requires that we invest in others as we live in community with one another...

This week, we have been looking at a section of letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Acts. The book of Acts records how early followers of Jesus engaged in the mission that they had been given by Jesus after He had been raised from the dead and returned to Heaven.

Wednesday, we discovered that as part of God’s community called the church, we are called to gather together corporately in community with one another to experience and encounter God through the preaching of His word, through the celebration of communion and through times of group and corporate prayer. God grows, equips, and empowers His followers to live on mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world through preaching, communion, and prayer as we gather together in community with one another as His followers. Today we see Luke reveal for us several additional practices that these early followers of Jesus embraced in community together as part of this new movement called the church in Acts 2:44-45:

And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Luke continues by revealing for us several timeless practices that these early followers of Jesus embraced as they lived out their lives in community with one another. Luke states that these followers of Jesus were gathered together in community and were selling their property and possession and were sharing with them all as they had a need.

Now many people have taken this passage and used it to promote communism or socialism. There is a significant problem with that view, however. The problem with that view is that no one was forcing people to redistribute their possessions and property.  This was a voluntary action by these early followers of Jesus that focused on meeting the pressing and practical needs of those who were in need.

What Luke is revealing for us here is that the church recognized the needs of the poor and marginalized in their midst and took the necessary steps to minister to those needs. The early church recognized that everything that they had was a gift from God and they chose to respond to that gift by investing their time, talents, and treasure towards meeting the needs of others and advancing God’s kingdom mission. These early followers of Jesus responded to God’s generosity by reflecting that generosity to others and became the vehicle that God used to reveal His generosity to the world.

And in the same way, as followers of Jesus living on mission requires investing our time, our talents, and our treasure that God has so generously given us into His kingdom mission by ministering to the needs of those around us. And this investment is not simply to be focused inward toward other followers of Jesus. We are to invest our time, talent, and treasure outward in a way that engages and invests in the lives of those who are in the community, but not a part of the community called the church.

That is why we invest in meeting practical needs of our community through the Emergency Assistance Window. That is why we are so passionate about our Saturday of service that we recently participated in as a church. We are to be a “city in a city” that is loves and serves our city in real and practical ways to meet pressing needs in a way that opens opportunities to reveal a profound need for Christ as we reveal and reflect Christ. Luke then gives us an additional glimpse into the life of this new community called the church in Acts 2:46:

  Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

Here we see Luke reveal for us the reality that these early followers of Jesus not only to gathered together corporately once a week in a community that was marked by genuine and authentic unity. These early followers of Jesus also scattered throughout their community to experience community with one another. Notice what Luke says in verse 46. The church was day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

 The church is to gather and scatter. The church is to gather for large corporate times and is also to scatter into smaller groups within the community. And as these early followers of Jesus scattered into their communities, they continued to connect with one another in the areas of influence that they had throughout the community. These early followers of Jesus were doing life together in community with one another.

In the culture of Jesus day, as it often is today, having people over for a meal was a sign of connection and community with one another. And as they scattered into smaller groups within the community of Jerusalem, these smaller groups were marked with gladness and sincerity of heart. The word gladness here refers to a sense of a fullness of joy. There was just an overflowing sense of happiness and peace that was unmistakable.

And these scattered groups of early followers of Jesus were also marked by a sincerity of heart. Now the word sincerity, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to have a sense of simplicity and generosity. These scattered groups of early followers of Jesus were characterized by transparency and generosity. There were no fronts; there was no need to put on airs or a false impression. These were groups of people who lived authentic and generous lives that invested in one another and those around them.

This is why we believe so strongly in community groups here at City Bible Church. Community groups afford the opportunity for us as followers of Jesus to scatter into the community and develop intentional environments where people can grow in their relationship with God while developing encouraging relationships that foster accountability and spiritual growth in the community. Community groups bring us into the areas of influence that God has placed us that are outside the four walls of the church. We are called by God to scatter into our communities so that we can be in a position to invest and invite people to be a part of what God is doing.

Luke then explains that these early followers of Jesus were praising God. These early followers of Jesus were responding to who God was, what He had done, and what He had promised to do by worshipping the Lord. And in the same way today, we are to respond to God’s transformational activity in our lives through Jesus Christ by living in a way that, whether we are gathered together corporately in community, or scattered into the community, is worthy of God as an act of worship to God that is pleasing to God.

You see, worship, simply put, is a response. Worship is a response that is focused on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do. Worship is not simply singing, reading your Bible and prayer, although it can involve singing, Bible reading, and prayer. Worship is a lifestyle; worship is a life that is lived in a way that is focused on and that responds to God’s character and activity in the world.

But not only were they praising God; Luke tells us that these early followers of Jesus were having favor with all the people. The word favor here conveys the sense of winning the respect of others. These early followers of Jesus were respected by all the people; by believers and nonbelievers; by religious and irreligious; by seekers and skeptics. Regardless of whether they bought into the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, this new movement called the church was respected by all the people.

And the respect that these early followers of Jesus had earned by being the good news in the lives of those who were far from God resulted in the opportunity for these early followers of Jesus to share the good news and be the vehicle that God uses to reveal His Son Jesus and His message of rescue through the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel so that they would have the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for. We see this reality revealed for us in verse 47:

  And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Luke records for us that the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.  As these early followers of Jesus gathered together in community to hear the word of God, to pray for one another and to proclaim the message of the gospel through the celebration of communion; as these early followers of Jesus invested their talents and treasure serving God by serving others in community with one another; as these early followers of Jesus scattered throughout the community into smaller groups that invested their time living life together in supportive and encouraging relationships that fostered spiritual growth and accountability, God’s transformational intervention and activity was impossible to ignore.

Hearts were captured, lives were changed and transformed, and the number of people who became followers of Jesus grew. And these early followers of Jesus that became a part of this new movement called the church lived on mission, they were being used by God to accomplish the mission that they had been given.

And it is here that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. And that timeless truth is this: Living on mission requires that we invest in others as we live in community with one another. In order to embrace and engage in the mission that we have been given by God to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal and reflect Christ to others, we must invest in community with one another. Just as the Lord used the healthy community that existed amongst the early church to reveal and reflect Jesus and advance His kingdom mission, the Lord uses healthy community that is marked by unity to reveal and reflect Jesus to others and advance His kingdom mission.

The early church experienced explosive growth as a result of early followers of Jesus investing their time, their talent, and their treasure in others in community with one another. Early followers of Jesus invested their time in a community that gathered and scattered in a way the revealed and reflected Christ. Early followers of Jesus invested their talents serving God by serving others in ministry to others in a way the revealed and reflected Christ. Early followers of Jesus invested their treasure generously to meet the needs of others in a way the revealed and reflected Christ.  

And in the same way today, living on mission requires our investment. When followers of Jesus are investing their time in a regular worship gathering and a community group that reveals and reflects genuine and authentic community; when followers of Jesus are investing their talents serving God by serving others by being a part of a ministry team in community with one another; and when followers of Jesus are investing their treasure in order to help create environments where people can explore and grow in their faith while experiencing community, we create a healthy community that reveals and reflects the community that the members of the Trinity have with one another as we live on mission.

So here is a question to consider: Are you living on mission by investing in community with one another? Are you investing in community by investing your time in a community group? Are you in community by investing your talents serving in a ministry? Are you investing in community by your treasure through regular and proportional giving?

A New Movement on a New Mission...

At the church where I serve, we have launched into a new year by spending our time together in a sermon series entitled living on mission. During this series our hope and our prayer is that we would enable, equip and empower us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus on mission as a missionary to those that God has already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.

And if you do not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him, here’s the thing. What you will discover during this series is that there is a way that those who are followers of Jesus are supposed to live. And there is a way that followers of Jesus are supposed to talk about the claims that Jesus made about who He was and what He came to earth to do. And my hope for you is that you would see what Jesus calls His followers to so that you can see how He feels about you and what He calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you. That way, you can cut through the bad experiences that you have had with Jesus followers to see the truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to be truly about as they live around you.

Now this week, I would like for us to look at a section of letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Acts. The book of Acts records how early followers of Jesus engaged in the mission that they had been given by Jesus after He had been raised from the dead and returned to Heaven. The book of Acts begins with Jesus giving His followers a kingdom mission in Acts 1:8. Let’s look at that mission together:

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

Then, ten days after Jesus had this conversation with His disciples and returned to Heaven, we see the disciples filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We see Peter, the one who denied Jesus during His crucifixion, preach a sermon that God used to bring 3,000 people into the relationship with God that they were created for.  For those of you that believe that a mega church is not Biblical, here is the thing. The church began as a mega church. The first church service had 3,000 people there.

And Luke, at the end of the second chapter of the Book of Acts, gives us a glimpse into the life of this new movement called the church. And in this glimpse inside this new movement called the church, we see God reveal to us another timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. So let’s discover this truth together, beginning in Acts 2:42:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

Luke brings us into this section of the book of Acts by revealing for us several timeless practices that these early followers of Jesus embraced as part of this new movement called the church. First, we see that these early followers of Jesus intentionally gathered together corporately. The early followers of Jesus began to gather together in the temple courts to meet together in community. That is one of the main reasons that the Jewish religious leaders of the day were so upset; can you imagine 3,000 or more people gathering and taking over your place of worship to talk about a man that you had just killed?

Luke tells us that these followers of Jesus gathered together in community to participate in three major activities. First, they gathered together devoting themselves to the apostles teaching. In other words, they gathered together to hear the Apostles share the message and teachings of Jesus. Remember, the gospels and the letters of the New Testament in our Bibles had not been written. So early followers of Jesus gathered together in community to hear Jesus closest followers explain how Jesus fulfilled the message and teaching of the Old Testament and how they were to apply the message and teachings of Jesus to their day to day lives. They gathered together in large groups in order to hear a preacher preach. Preaching has always been preeminent and prominent in the lives of followers of Jesus.

Second, these early followers of Jesus gathered together in community for the breaking of bread. The breaking of bread here refers to the Lord’s Supper, or communion. Third, Luke tells us that they gathered together for times of corporate prayer. Now, as we have previously discovered and discussed, in Jesus day, it was a common practice for people to pray out loud, in groups, in church. Jesus had taught His disciples the importance of prayer and these early leaders of this new movement called the church were passing this on to the early church.

And in the same way today, as part of God’s community called the church, we are called to gather together corporately in community with one another to experience and encounter God through the preaching of His word, through the celebration of communion and through times of group and corporate prayer. God grows, equips, and empowers His followers to live on mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world through preaching, communion, and prayer as we gather together in community with one another as His followers.

 

In verse 43, Luke explains that as these early followers of Jesus gathered together in community to hear the message and teachings of Jesus; as they celebrated communion; as they prayed together; everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. What is so interesting is that this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to feel a sense of fear, alarm, or fright. But why would there be a sense of fear or alarm in the church? 

To understand why this was happening, we first need to look back at what had previously happened. You see, when the crowds listening to Peter’s sermon heard God’s words through Peter and witnessed God’s activity through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence in the lives of these early followers of Jesus, their eyes were opened to the truth of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and their need for rescue from selfishness and rebellion.

And as these early followers of Jesus and as those who were in the temple continued to hear the message and teachings of Jesus, there was a response of conviction of selfishness and rebellion which resulted in a sense of fear, alarm, or fright. And this sense of fear and fright was intensified by the wonders and signs that were taking place through the Apostles.

As the Apostles exercised the sign spiritual gifts that God had given them to do the miraculous, these spiritual gifts served as a sign that authenticated their message and teachings as being brought from God and not simply made up by man. The crowds recognized that this was a message from God that could not be ignored or minimized. This was a message that required a response.

Friday, we will see Luke reveals for us several additional practices that these early followers of Jesus embraced in community together as part of this new movement called the church...