Am I responsible for how I respond to the claims of Jesus and the message of Jesus?

At the church where I serve, we have been looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church. This week, I would like for us to look at the tenth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This tenth statement addresses what we believe as a church when it comes to how our response to Jesus determines our eternal destiny.

This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Am I responsible and accountable to God for how I live my life here on earth? And am I responsible for how I respond to the claims of Jesus and the message of Jesus? What happens after I die? And how does my response to Jesus determine what happens to me after I die?” So let’s look at this tenth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Now as we have talked about throughout this series, to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement, we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this statement mean. So, as we have done throughout this series, I would like for us to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here.

First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase “We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.” When we say that God commands everyone to believe the gospel, the gospel refers to God’s message of rescue that was proclaimed by Jesus to all humanity. Now repentance is a big fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word that 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 means to change the trajectory of one’s life that is moving away from God back toward God in a way that result is you living in the relationship with God that you were created for.

Now a natural question that could arise here involves the idea of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean how does one receive the Lord Jesus Christ? This is a church mumbo jumbo talk phrase that simply refers to how one can experience the forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for.

And in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John, Jesus makes a statement to a man named Nicodemus that is probably the most familiar verse in the entire Bible. And it is in this single verse that we see the core message of the good news of the message of the gospel and how one receives the Lord Jesus Christ. So let’s look at this verse together in John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

In this verse, we see Jesus reveal for us we need to know and what we need to do in order to enter into a relationship with God. First, Jesus says for God so loved the world. God sent His Son Jesus to earth not because He was mad at the world; God is in love with the world. Jesus then tells us that God did what people, who are in love, do. God gave. God sent His Son Jesus because He loved the world.

You see, while God created humanity to experience a relationship with Him and a relationship with one another, all of humanity selfishly rebelled and rejected that relationship, instead choosing to love ourselves and do things out of that selfish love that hurt God and others. That selfish love and rebellion is what the Bible calls sin.

God responded to that selfish love and rebellion by giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. God’s love and interest in us was made known and shown in the most powerful way when He sent His unique, one and only Son to earth, who allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

Jesus then explained that God loved and God gave so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Now this little phrase believes in, in the language that this letter is written in, literally means to entrust oneself entrust to someone with complete confidence. To trust is a lot sitting on a stool: while I could stand and say that I believe that a stool can hold my weight, it is only when I sit on the stool that I demonstrate that I trust the stool to hold my weight.

The person who trusts Jesus will respond to Jesus by placing Jesus Christ as large and in charge of their lives and will strive to follow His message and teachings. That is how you receive the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that you were created for. And for the person who believes, trusts, and follows Jesus, Jesus explains that they shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Now eternal life is not simply living forever. You see, everyone lives forever; we are created as eternal beings. The question is not whether or not you are going to live forever, the question is where are you going to live? When Jesus uses this phrase, He is revealing to Nicodemus that the person who places their confident trust in Jesus life, death, and resurrection will not be separated from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, but will experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for. And that is the good news of the gospel: God loved, God gave, so that those who believe and place their confident trust in Jesus would receive life in relationship with Him.

Now you might be thinking “I am still having a hard time buying that God is like this. I still see God as being like a cosmic cop around the corner waiting to bust me. The idea that God loves me and desires a relationship with me is hard to accept”. If that is where you are at this morning, just look at what Jesus says next in John 3:17:

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

If Jesus was communicating this in the language that we use in our culture today, these verses would sound like this: Nicodemus, God did not send Me as the Messiah to the earth in order to judge all of humanity, but that all of humanity would have the opportunity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion. The person who places their confident trust in Me is not condemned. However, the person who refuses to place their confident trust in Me is already condemned because of their selfishness and rebellion. Everyone is condemned and the reason that they are condemned is because I have revealed Myself throughout all of human history and all of humanity has responded by rejecting and rebelling against Me. They want nothing to do with Me because I expose the selfishness and rebellion that is in the center and core of their being. Everyone is already condemned because of their rebellion and I have come to rescue those who trust in Me from condemnation. And everyone who places their confident trust in Me and lives in relationship with Me reveal the reality of My transformational intervention and activity that has brought them into relationship with Me.” 

You see, Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that all of humanity stands condemned to an eternity apart from God as a result of our selfishness and rebellion. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that rescue from selfishness and rebellion was not based on what we did for God, but in trusting in what God was doing through Jesus, who entered into humanity as the culmination of God’s Divine plan to provide an opportunity for forgiveness and restoration.

And as a church, we believe that God commands humanity to respond to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their response to the question “Who is Jesus”. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their response to Jesus message and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our selfishness and rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God we were created for. We see this reality revealed for us in the next section of this statement, which says “We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world.”

Now a natural objection that I often hear at this point sounds something like this: “Well Dave, what about the people who never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus? What about the people around the world who never read the Bible? How can God hold the pygmy in Africa accountable for something that he has never been exposed to?

That is a great question. Tomorrow we will address those questions and objections…

Jesus return provides us hope for the future and the urgency to engage in the kingdom mission we have been given in the present...

This week, we have been looking at the ninth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This ninth statement addresses what we believe as a church about Jesus return. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is Jesus coming back to earth? And if Jesus is coming back to earth, how is He coming back? And why is He coming back? And when is He coming back?” So let’s look at this ninth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

So far, we have talked about the reality that Jesus will return visibly to earth, in person to set up His kingdom. In other words, Jesus will not return to earth as a spirit. Instead Jesus will personally and bodily return to earth. We saw the Apostle Paul comfort the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that just as Jesus died and rose again from death, followers of Jesus who died before Jesus returned to earth would be raised from the dead to be with Jesus.

Paul encouraged the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that Jesus Himself proclaimed that He would physically and bodily return to earth and that all who believed trusted, and followed Him, whether physically alive or dead at the time of His return, would be caught up alive to meet Him in the air as He returned to earth to establish the kingdom of God in its fullest sense.

We talked about the reality that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, When we say that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will visibly return and begin to establish the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense at the end of the Great Tribulation, at which time Jesus will rule and reign over the earth for a period of a thousand years. Now this time in which Jesus will rule and reign over the earth is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the millennial kingdom.

We also began to look at a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew, where Jesus began to answer the question as to when He would return with three warnings. In Matthew 24:3-28, Jesus, in His response to the disciples warned His followers throughout history to do not be deceived by the false signs of world events, to do not be deceived as a result of the events of the great tribulation, and to do not be deceived by the false signs of the Antichrist.

Then after giving His disciples, and followers of Jesus throughout history, these three timeless warnings, we see Jesus answer the disciples question in verses Matthew 24:29-31. Let’s look at Jesus’ answer together:

But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Jesus answers the disciples question by quoting from two sections of two letters that are recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Isaiah and the book of Daniel. Jesus quotes Isaiah 13:10 and Daniel 7:13, both of which refer to God’s promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah. Jesus quotes these Old Testament passages to reveal the reality that at the end of the Great Tribulation, a battle will occur, called the battle of Armageddon, where the forces of Satan and the antichrist are defeated at the Hands of Jesus as He returns to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven here on earth for a thousand years.

And in these verses we see that Jesus return will be unmistakable. In verses 30-31, we see that when Jesus comes again there will be unmistakable phenomenon that occur in the universe to mark His coming. Do you think you would miss the sun if it was no longer giving light? Would you miss it if the stars fell from the sky? No, we would not miss a sign of that nature.

The reality is that Jesus second coming will be of such a scale that it will be unmistakable. However, while Jesus return will be unmistakable, that does not necessarily mean that Jesus return is predictable, as we see just a few verses later in Matthew 24:36:

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.

Jesus responded to the disciples question about when He would be ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven by simply saying that He did not know; only the Father knew. Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave, I thought you said that Jesus was God and that God knew absolutely everything that there was to know. So if that is the case, then how could Jesus not know?”  That is a great question.

And my response to that question would be this. As we discovered when we looked at what we believe about Jesus, when Jesus entered into humanity, Jesus willingly laid aside some of His Divine attributes in order to engage and enter into this world. Jesus is fully aware of when He is returning to earth. And before entering into humanity, Jesus was fully aware of when He was returning to earth. However while on earth, Jesus willingly laid aside that knowledge of when He was going to return to earth. 

However, here we see Jesus reveal the reality that His return will be unexpected. And as a result, upon His arrival people will be living out their day to day lives as though He was not returning on the day He returns. Jesus reminds His followers throughout history that the events surrounding His return will be reminiscent of the days before the Lord flooded the earth in the days of Noah. Just as it was on the day that the Lord began to flood the earth, people will be engaged in their normal day to day lives, not expecting Jesus return and not prepared for Jesus return.

When Jesus states that there were two men in the field and two women grinding at the mill and that one was taken and one was left, He is revealing the reality that those who were taken were taken away to judgment as a result of their selfishness and rebellion against God. Just as those who were unprepared for the unexpected flood, those who are unprepared for the events surrounding Jesus return as a result of their selfishness and rebellion against God will be taken away to experience God’s right and just judgment for their rebellion.

This reality is addressed in the final section of this doctrinal statement which says “The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.” We see Jesus address this reality beginning in Matthew 24:42-44:

"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Jesus explained to His disciples that, because the events surrounding Jesus second coming could occur at any time, they were to be on the alert for His return. Jesus point to His disciples, and to His followers throughout history, is that we must be prepared and ready for Jesus 2^nd coming by being faithful for our responsibilities as His followers.

And, as followers of Jesus, being faithful involves perseverance and consistency, because we do not know how long it will be until Jesus comes again. However, those who postpone their responsibilities to be faithful in order to be selfish and rebellious against God to do evil reveal their lack of faithfulness to God.

You see, as followers of Jesus every day matters. Every day is one day closer to Jesus return. As we approach the blessed hope of living in the relationship with God and one another in eternity in Heaven, released from the pain and suffering that comes from sin and death, we are to leverage that hope into an urgency to live our lives in a way that reveals and reflects Christ as we love and serve others. And as followers of Jesus, we are to leverage that hope into an urgency to share the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel with an urgency that comes in light of the reality that every day matters.

Now, after unpacking all of that information that is contained within this statement of our doctrinal statement, we still have to answer the question: “Dave does what we believe about Jesus return really matter?” And the answer to that question leads us to a timeless truth about why it really matters.

And that timeless truth is this: What we believe about Jesus return really matters because Jesus return provides us hope for the future and the urgency to engage in the kingdom mission we have been given in the present. What we believe about Jesus return really matters because Jesus return provides us hope for the future. The hope for the future that Jesus will physically and bodily return to earth so that all who believed trusted, and followed Him, whether physically alive or dead at the time of His return, will be caught up alive to meet Him in the air as He returns to earth to begin to establish the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense. The hope for the future that Jesus will physically and bodily return to free us from the pain and suffering that comes from sin and death so that we can experience the relationship with God that we were created for through all eternity.

And what we believe about Jesus return really matters because Jesus return provides us the urgency the engage in the kingdom mission we have been given in the present. The urgency to live our day to day lives by loving and serving others in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to others who are far from Him. The urgency to share the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel with the urgency that comes in light of the reality that every day matters.

The urgency that every day matters because every day is another day closer to Jesus return, where all humanity will stand before Jesus to answer for how they lived their lives here on earth. The urgency that every day matters because every day is another day that people will die before Jesus returns, and will have to answer for how they lived their lives here on earth. The urgency that every day matters because every day is on opportunity to embrace and engage in the kingdom mission that we have been given as followers of Jesus by God the be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus and His message of rescue through the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to the world.

Because, as we have discovered, what we believe about Jesus return really matters because Jesus return provides us hope for the future and the urgency to engage in the kingdom mission we have been given in the present....

Three Timeless Warnings Regarding Jesus Return...

This week, we are looking at the ninth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This ninth statement addresses what we believe as a church about Jesus return. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is Jesus coming back to earth? And if Jesus is coming back to earth, how is He coming back? And why is He coming back? And when is He coming back?” So let’s look at this ninth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

Yesterday, we talked about the reality that when we say that we believe in the personal, bodily return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will return visibly to earth, in person to set up His kingdom. In other words, Jesus will not return to earth as a spirit. Instead Jesus will personally and bodily return to earth. Jesus Christ clearly claimed that He would personally and bodily return to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense in a section of a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 Thessalonians.

We looked on as Paul encouraged the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that Jesus Himself proclaimed that He would physically and bodily return to earth and that all who believed trusted, and followed Him, whether physically alive or dead at the time of His return, would be caught up alive to meet Him in the air as He returned to earth to establish the kingdom of God in its fullest sense.

We also discovered that Jesus will visibly return and begin to establish the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense at the end of the Great Tribulation, at which time Jesus will rule and reign over the earth for a period of a thousand years. Now a natural question that arises here, and that has been asked throughout history is “Well Dave that all sounds great, but if Jesus is returning to earth, then when is Jesus returning to earth?” That’s a great question, which we see asked and answered by Jesus in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew. So let’s look at this section together and discover the answer together, beginning in Matthew 24:3:

As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

To understand the question that the disciples asked Jesus, we must first understand the context in which the question was asked. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus has just pronounced judgment against the Jewish people and their leaders for their hypocrisy and their rejection of God’s messengers throughout history, including their rejection of Him as the Messiah. Jesus concluded His comments in Matthew Chapter 23 by quoting Zechariah 12:10, where the prophet Zechariah spoke of the future coming of the Messiah and the Jewish people’s recognition of Him. 

The disciples, having witnessed this interaction between Jesus and the religious leaders of the day, come to Jesus later and ask, “When are you coming again? What will be the signs?” Jesus responds to the disciples question with an answer that provides three warnings and a sign. First, let’s look at the three warnings. We see the first warning revealed for us in Matthew 24:4-8:

And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Jesus, in His response to the disciples, reveals for us a timeless warning that we would be wise to take head of. And that timeless warning is this: Do not be deceived by the false signs of world events. I saw this principle play out in my life as a non believer in the lead up to desert storm in the early 90’s. I remember seeing people that I worked with, whom I had no idea were Christians, bringing their Bibles with them to work and speaking about desert storm as the onset of Christ’s second coming. Obviously, it was not Christ’s second coming, as we are here today.

As a non-believer at the time, I found their reaction to be hypocritical, at best, and ridiculous and crazy, at worst. It seemed that these people who called themselves Christians were only getting into their Bibles and talking church stuff because of what was happening in the world. It seemed as though Christianity was a crutch to lean on when times got tough and nothing more.

As followers of Jesus, our motivation for following Jesus should come from a response of love to what Jesus has done for us, regardless of the events that are occurring around us. The reality is that throughout time there always has been and there always will be wars and conflicts among us.

As followers of Jesus, we are not to get so caught up in the changing tides of world events that we lose focus of the kingdom mission that God has given us of being the vehicle that He uses to reveal and reflect Jesus to a lost and hurting world around us. We see Jesus continue to respond to His disciples with a second warning, which we see in Matthew 24:9-14. Let’s look at it together:

"Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.  "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

In these verses, we see a second timeless warning that we should pay attention to. And that warning is this: Do not be deceived as a result of the events of the great tribulation. Jesus gives the disciples a glimpse into what will happen to His followers in the period immediately preceding His coming, known as the great tribulation.

As we just talked about, the “Great Tribulation” is the seven year period prior to Jesus return where the devil will use a charismatic world leader, known as the antichrist, and a major false religious leader to oppose God and attack His people. During this period, God will restore the Jewish people and will exercise His right and just response of judgment on rebellious humanity, who will still refuse to come to relationship with Him.

Now a question that many people have asked when looking at this passage is “how do we know that these verses are talking about the Great Tribulation specifically and not just tribulation that followers of Jesus will experience throughout history in general?” I have asked that question, and if you are asking that question, it is a great question to be asking. We believe that Jesus is referring to the Great Tribulation specifically because of what Jesus says next in Matthew 24:15-28. Let’s look at them together:

"Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. "Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. "Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! "But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. "Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. "Behold, I have told you in advance. "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them. "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Jesus begins verse 15 with the word therefore. The word therefore is significant because it links everything that Jesus was saying in verses 9-14 with what He is about to say in verses 15 through 28. And in verses 15 through 28 we see Jesus reveal a third timeless warning for us to pay attention to. And that timeless warning is this: Do not be deceived by the false signs of the Antichrist.

Jesus refers the disciples back to the words of the prophet Daniel that are recorded for us in Daniel 9:27, where the Antichrist will break his peace treaty that he had made with the Jewish people and will demand that the entire world worship him as god. Those who fail to worship the Antichrist as god will be persecuted and martyred. The Antichrist will attempt to show that he is god with miracles, signs and wonders so persuasive, that many will be deceived.

Jesus then explains in verse 24 that these miracles are so persuasive that if possible they would deceive the elect. This verse, however, also reinforces the reality that our rescue from rebellion that results in our salvation is secure and cannot be lost. 

Jesus here is warning His disciples and followers of Jesus throughout history, that these signs and statements proclaiming that He has returned are not to be believed because “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be”. In other words, Jesus 2^nd coming will be impossible to miss.

Jesus concluded His 3^rd warning to the disciples by stating that "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” But what does that mean? The point that Jesus is making here with this statement is that just as vultures are attracted to a rotting corpse, the spiritual corruption of the Antichrist and false teaching will attract many.

Then after giving His disciples, and followers of Jesus throughout history, these three timeless warnings, we see Jesus answer the disciples question in verses Matthew 24:29-31. We will look at these verses tomorrow...

Is Jesus coming back?

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church. And as we go through this statement, our hope and prayer is to accomplish four specific things. First, our hope and my prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a clear and straightforward manner. Second, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church by spending our time together focused on a few passages that best capture what we believe as a church. Third, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain why what we believe as a church matters. And fourth, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a way that reveals how relevant what we believe is to our day to day lives as followers of Jesus.

This week, I would like for us to look at the ninth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This ninth statement addresses what we believe as a church about Jesus return. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is Jesus coming back to earth? And if Jesus is coming back to earth, how is He coming back? And why is He coming back? And when is He coming back?” So let’s look at this ninth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

Now to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement, we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this statement mean. So, I would like for us to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here. First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase “We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we say that we believe in the personal, bodily return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will return visibly to earth, in person to set up His kingdom.

In other words, Jesus will not return to earth as a spirit. Instead Jesus will personally and bodily return to earth. Jesus Christ clearly claimed that He would personally and bodily return to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense in a section of a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 Thessalonians.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, we see the Apostle Paul addressing the concerns that the members of the church at Thessalonica had when it came to what would happen to those who died before Jesus returned to earth. You see, the members of the church at Thessalonica were concerned that those who died before Jesus returned to earth would not be with Jesus after He returned to earth. The members of the church at Thessalonica were concerned that they would never see those who died before Jesus returned to earth because they had died before Jesus returned to earth. We see Paul’s response to their concerns recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

Here we see the Apostle Paul comfort the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that just as Jesus died and rose again from death, followers of Jesus who died before Jesus returned to earth would be raised from the dead to be with Jesus. Paul encouraged the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that Jesus Himself proclaimed that He would physically and bodily return to earth and that all who believed trusted, and followed Him, whether physically alive or dead at the time of His return, would be caught up alive to meet Him in the air as He returned to earth to establish the kingdom of God in its fullest sense.

Now that leads us to next church mumbo jumbo talk word in this section of the doctrinal statement which, states that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, When we say that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will visibly return and begin to establish the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense at the end of the Great Tribulation, at which time Jesus will rule and reign over the earth for a period of a thousand years.

The “Great Tribulation” refers to the seven year period prior to Jesus return that was predicted and proclaimed by the prophet Daniel in a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament in the Bible called the book of Daniel. In Daniel 9:24-27, the prophet Daniel predicted and proclaimed a seven year period of great tribulation and trouble here on earth.

During this period of time, the Antichrist, who is a world leader that unites those in the world who are opposed to God and the kingdom of God to oppose God and persecute the people of God, will appear. During this period, God will exercise His wrath or right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity who oppose God, who will still yet refuse to come to relationship with Him. This period concludes at the battle of Armageddon where the forces of Satan and the Antichrist are defeated at the Hands of Jesus as He returns to earth.

After defeating the forces of Satan and the Antichrist, Jesus will rule and reign here on earth for a thousand years. Now this time in which Jesus will rule and reign over the earth is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the millennial kingdom. As a church, we do not believe that Jesus will return to earth after the church ushers in the kingdom of Heaven, which is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the postmillennialism. And we do not believe that there will be no millennial kingdom, which is referred to as amillennialism.

Instead, we believe that Jesus will return back to earth personally and physically to usher in the beginning to the kingdom of Heaven with a thousand year reign and rule here on earth. Now a natural question that arises here, and that has been asked throughout history is “Well Dave that all sounds great, but if Jesus is returning to earth, then when is Jesus returning to earth?” That’s a great question, which we see asked and answered by Jesus in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew. Tomorrow, we will see Jesus begin to answer those questions...

Our rescue by Jesus should result in a life that looks like Jesus and that leads others to Jesus...

This week we have been looking at the eighth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This eighth statement addresses what we believe as a church about what is referred to is church mumbo jumbo talk as “Christian living”. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “How are we supposed to live as followers of Jesus? What should drive how we live out our lives as followers of Jesus here on earth?" The eighth statement of our doctrinal statementstates:

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

So far, we have discovered that God’s transformational activity in our lives not only rescues us from our rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for. In addition, God’s transformational activity in our lives results in us living lives that increasingly reveal and reflect Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion not because we brought anything to the table. Instead, we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion because of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world through His Son Jesus. Also, while good works do not result in salvation, the good works that flow from God’s transformational activity in our lives provide the proof of salvation. We were rescued by God so that we would live our lives in a way that is engaging in God’s kingdom mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to others.

In addition, we discovered that, because we were created in God's relational image, we show our love for God by how we love others around us. That is why, for Jesus, what is most important when it comes to obeying God is not an either or proposition; it is a both/and proposition. We show our love for God when we love our neighbor. Conversely, we show a lack of intimacy with God when we are indifferent or hostile toward our neighbor.

You see, when we love God with our total being, In addition, we show and reveal our love for God by how we love and serve others. Our doctrine and theology should be evidenced in how we live our lives in relationship with fellow followers of Jesus and in relationship with those who are far from God. As followers of Jesus, we are called to care, love and serve the poor and marginalized that are in our midst. The church has a responsibility to reflect Christ’s heart for the poor and the marginalized by meeting their pressing needs as well as sharing with them their profound need for Christ.

We also discovered that the letters that make up the Bible reveal for us the reality that there are spiritual forces that are opposed to God, the Kingdom of God and followers of God. In church mumbo jumbo talk, this is often referred to as Spiritual Warfare. Simply put, spiritual warfare is a multidimensional war against selfishness, rebellion and sin that every follower of Jesus experiences. As followers of Jesus, we are constantly in a battle against the world, which are those things in the world around us that are at odds with God and place themselves in opposition to God. In addition, we are constantly in battle with our flesh, which is our old selfish and rebellious nature before we became followers of Jesus, and the devil and his forces.

We achieve victory over these forces that oppose us as followers of Jesus requires allowing the Holy Spirit, through prayer and reading and reflecting upon God’s Word, to expose areas of selfishness and rebellion and the areas of vulnerability to those areas of selfishness and rebellion around us. As God reveals areas of either selfishness or rebellion, or vulnerability to the world, the flesh or the devil, as followers of Jesus, we are to confess that selfishness and rebellion and reject the lies that the world, flesh or devil are trying to sell us.

Then, as followers of Jesus, we are to replace the lie that is being sold to us with the truth of the message and teaching of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we have been armed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the truth of the message and teachings of Jesus, and the power of prayer, to win the spiritual battle against the forces of evil that oppose Jesus and His followers.

But not only do we live our lives as followers of Jesus on the defensive against the spiritual forces of evil. In addition, we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus on the offensive in order to advance God’s kingdom mission in the world. This is what is stated in the final sentence of the doctrinal statement that we are looking at, which states “In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed”. We see Christ’s commission to His followers recorded for us just a few chapters later in the gospel of Matthew. Let’s look at that commission together, beginning in Matthew 28:18:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Now whether you regularly attend church or whether this is your first Sunday in church; whether or not you regularly read the Bible, you are probably at least somewhat familiar with what Jesus says here. You are probably familiar with Jesus words here because this is one of the two sayings of Jesus that are described with the adjective great. Jesus here is giving His followers a mission; and that mission is to make disciples of all nations.

The phrase “go and make disciples of all nations” in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally reads “as you are going, make disciples of all nations”. God is not commanding us to go. God is commanding us to make disciples as we go. In other words, as followers of Jesus, we are to strive to make disciples, or followers of Jesus, as we are living our day to day lives in the spheres of influence that we have been given.

Now a natural question that arises here is “well how are we supposed to make disciples? And how do we know that we are actually being successful in making disciples?” First, we are to make disciples by going to those who are far from God. Whether at home, at school, at work, or in our relationships; in whatever sphere of influence we have; we are commanded to live our lives as missionaries that are engaging, investing, and inviting those who are far from God to become followers of Jesus. We do not need to go to a foreign country to be a missionary. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be missionaries wherever we are. And in your day to day life, God has already positioned you in areas of influence where you can be a missionary to those who are far from God.

Second, we are to make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism, as we will discover later in this series, is an outward act that serves to publicly identify one as being a follower of Jesus.  So a major part of discipleship is to be used by God to bring those who are far from God to a place where they place their confident trust in God’s transformational activity and publicly identify themselves through baptism with Jesus as a follower of Jesus and with the kingdom mission that He has given us as His followers.

Third, Jesus explains that we are to make disciples by “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you”. Now the word observe, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to persist in obedience. In other words, a disciple of Jesus will naturally grow in their faithfulness and obedience to Jesus over time. While there may be occasions where a follower of Jesus commits sin, a follower of Jesus, over time, will live a life that is becoming more like Jesus in character and conduct.

And as followers of Jesus and as a church, we are called to create environments where people are able to understand and embrace the message and teachings of Jesus in a way that results in their spiritual growth and spiritual good. That is why we are such huge proponents of community groups here at City Bible Church. That is why we create environments such as the Adult Bible Fellowship and Kids Konnection on Sunday mornings. That is why we create environments such as AWANA and Fusion student ministries. We desire to create environments where followers of Jesus can explore faith, grow in their faith, and experience and become a part of a genuine and authentic community of followers of Jesus.

At the church where I serve, we summarize how we engage in God’s kingdom mission to make disciples this way: “City Bible Church is a city within a city that is striving to reveal and reflect Christ as we love and serve the city”.  We are a community of believers that desires to reveal and reflect Jesus in word and deed. We are a community of believers that has been strategically placed here by God to engage our community with the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel in a way that reflects Jesus. We are a community of believers that has been given a kingdom mission to love and serve our community in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus in real and practical ways to our community.

We desire to be a church that creates environments where we can love and serve our community in real and practical ways that provide an opportunity to share the love of Jesus and the message of the gospel. And we desire to be a church of missionaries that are genuinely and authentically following the message and teachings of Jesus in our spheres of influence in a way that is investing and inviting those who are far from God to come to experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

Now this leads us back to the question that will run throughout this series, which is “Dave does what we believe about the how we live our lives as followers of Jesus really matter?” And the answer to that question leads us to a timeless truth about why it really matters. And that timeless truth is this: What we believe about how we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus really matters because our rescue by Jesus should result in a life that looks like Jesus and that leads others to Jesus.

You see, what we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus really matters because we have been rescued by Jesus so that we can live in a relationship with Jesus that reveals and reflects Jesus in our character and conduct. What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way that loves God with our total being and that shows our love for God by how we love and serve those among us.

What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives as the hands and feet of Jesus that meets the pressing and practical needs of those around us so as to expose their profound need for Jesus as they see Jesus in us. What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way rejects the lies, temptations and desires of those things that oppose Jesus so that we can reveal Jesus by our response to those lies, temptations, and desires.

And what we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way that leads others to follow Jesus and experience a growing relationship with Jesus that comes as a result of experiencing forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that they were created for through Jesus.

So here is a question to consider: How are you living your life as a follower of Jesus? And do you think that how you are living your life as a follower of Jesus matters?  

How "Doing" flows from "Loving"...

This week we are looking at the eighth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church, which summarizes the answer to the question “How are we supposed to live as followers of Jesus? What should drive how we live out our lives as followers of Jesus here on earth?" So let’s look at this eighth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

Yesterday, we looked at that the phrase God’s justifying grace refers to God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world which results in a person being declared “not guilty” of having a problem with God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion. By contrast, the phrase sanctifying power refers to the process where a follower of Jesus is becoming more and more like Jesus in character and conduct.  

In addition, we saw that justification and sanctification are not separate in time, as God transformational activity in our lives that results in us being declared not guilty of having a problem with God also brings us into a relationship with Jesus that results in us becoming more like Jesus as we live a life that loves and serves Jesus and others.

God’s transformational activity in our lives not only rescues us from our rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for. In addition, God’s transformational activity in our lives results in us living lives that increasingly reveal and reflect Jesus.

We also saw that while good works do not result in salvation, the good works that flow from God’s transformational activity in our lives provide the proof of salvation. We were rescued by God so that we would live our lives in a way that is engaging in God’s kingdom mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to others. Now a natural question that arises here is “Well how exactly do we know what those good works are that God has prepared beforehand for us to be doing?”

That’s a great question, which leads us to the second sentence of the doctrinal statement that we are looking at this morning, which states “God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed.” We see Jesus Himself provide the answer to this question in Matthew 22:37-40:

And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'  "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Notice Jesus answer here. Notice Jesus does not say that the most important thing is to try harder and do better. Jesus does not say that the most important thin involves either knowing or doing. Instead, in verses 37 and 38, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, which was part of the Hebrew Schema. The Schema was the Jewish people’s confession of faith. The schema would be recited by all Jewish people as part of their daily prayers and was committed to memory.

This answer would not have surprised those listening and would have seemed like the right response. But Jesus did not stop there. Instead, Jesus continued His answer by departing from the Schema to quote a seemingly obscure verse of the Law found in Leviticus 19:18. Not only did Jesus seem to be changing the Schema by adding this verse, Jesus was stating that this verse held equal weight and significance as the Schema.

The problem for the Pharisee’s, and us today, is that Jesus did not say that these two commandments were an either or proposition. Jesus did not give us the option to be on the fence, uncommitted, apathetic, or an agnostic toward God as long as we loved our fellow man. The idea of loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind conveys a sense of total commitment. We would communicate this thought today by saying that we should love God with our total being. So, on one hand, what was most important when it came to following God was to love God with their total being.

On the other hand, however, Jesus did not say that we could love God with our total being and be indifferent or hostile to our fellow man. You see, even though we have not seen God, His relational image is imprinted on each one of us. We were created for relationships, both vertically with God and horizontally with others in authentic community. And because we were created in His image, we show our love for God by how we love others around us.

That is why, for Jesus, what is most important when it comes to obeying God is not an either or proposition; it is a both/and proposition. We show our love for God when we love our neighbor. Conversely, we show a lack of intimacy with God when we are indifferent or hostile toward our neighbor. Now, if that was not enough, Jesus hammered this point home by saying that "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." But what does that mean?

During Jesus day, the Hebrew Scriptures were classified into three main sections; the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets. In essence, what Jesus is saying is that all of the commandments of God can be summed up in these two interconnected commands. But how can that be? So, can we just ignore the rest of the commands in the Bible if we just love God and one another?

Think of it this way: If what is most important to God in terms of obedience is loving God with our total being and loving our neighbor as ourselves, then sin would be defined as love of self over God and over our neighbor who was created in His image.  So, if that is the case, then let me ask you a question. If we were to live our lives consistently loving God with our total being and by loving our neighbor as ourself, would we ever sin? If we always loved God and others, would we lie? Cheat? Steal? Murder? Gossip? Slander? Be divisive? Commit adultery? Be involved in pornography?

You see, when we love God with our total being, He receives glory. As the source of life and the Creator and sustainer of all things, God desires, deserves, and demands our devotion. In addition, we show and reveal our love for God by how we love and serve others. The letters that make up the Bible are not simply about doctrine and theology that is to be preserved and taught in its purity.

The letters that make up the Bible reveal for us a life to be lived and a message to be proclaimed that is able to impact the world and transform lives. Our doctrine and theology should be evidenced in how we live our lives in relationship with fellow followers of Jesus and in relationship with those who are far from God. As followers of Jesus, we are called to care, love and serve the poor and marginalized that are in our midst. The church has a responsibility to reflect Christ’s heart for the poor and the marginalized by meeting their pressing needs as well as sharing with them their profound need for Christ.

Now a natural question that arises at this point is “Well Dave that sounds great, but how exactly are we to do that, because I really struggle with living out a life that loves God and that loves and serves others, especially those who are nothing like me?” That’s a great question, which the next section of the doctrinal statement that we are looking at this morning addresses: “With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil.”

The letters that make up the Bible reveal for us the reality that there are spiritual forces that are opposed to God, the Kingdom of God and followers of God. In church mumbo jumbo talk, this is often referred to as Spiritual Warfare. Simply put, spiritual warfare is a multidimensional war against selfishness, rebellion and sin that every follower of Jesus experiences. As followers of Jesus, we are constantly in a battle against the world, which are those things in the world around us that are at odds with God and place themselves in opposition to God. In addition, we are constantly in battle with our flesh, which is our old selfish and rebellious nature before we became followers of Jesus, and the devil and his forces.

How we achieve victory over these forces that oppose us as followers of Jesus requires allowing the Holy Spirit, through prayer and reading and reflecting upon God’s Word, to expose areas of selfishness and rebellion and the areas of vulnerability to those areas of selfishness and rebellion around us. As God reveals areas of either selfishness or rebellion, or vulnerability to the world, the flesh or the devil, as followers of Jesus, we are to confess that selfishness and rebellion and reject the lies that the world, flesh or devil are trying to sell us.

Then, as followers of Jesus, we are to replace the lie that is being sold to us with the truth of the message and teaching of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we have been armed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the truth of the message and teachings of Jesus, and the power of prayer, to win the spiritual battle against the forces of evil that oppose Jesus and His followers.

But not only do we live our lives as followers of Jesus on the defensive against the spiritual forces of evil. In addition, we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus on the offensive in order to advance God’s kingdom mission in the world.

Friday, we will see Jesus explain how we are to be on the offensive...