Built on the Rock: The Church's Global Mission

Now if you want to start a legend about a man who rose from the dead you don't do that in the very town in which it happened. You go a 100 miles away or 200 miles away if you want to start a legend because no one can fact check you and you can make up a story about something that happened in a time far far away, long long ago. That is not what the disciples did. Write down the street from where Jesus was crucified. Seven weeks later they are declaring, you can go now. You can look in the tomb. There's no body. He has risen. It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him, the one that you put to death. God has raised Jesus to life and we, we are all witnesses of that fact. [01:01:36] (58 seconds)  #ResurrectionWitnesses

And when I draw the scale like that, my friend who made his confession to me and I are a millimeter apart on a scale that is the breadth of the solar system. I know it's hard to think of ourselves as sinners, but it's because we look at other people as our metric. And you know, most of you all are doing really good. But when we look at a holy God, when we recognize that the significance of our infraction is not what we've done, it's against whom we've done it, I promise you, if you let that in, it will wreck you. It will cut you to the heart and you will realize I need to repent. [01:10:08] (58 seconds)  #RepentantHumility

And I know that it is difficult for us to believe that we are sinners in need of a savior. I wrestle sometimes with how this message is presented in the church because I feel like some of my friends, really, honestly, a lot of my friends who are pastors work really hard to convince their audience that they are sinners. And I guess one thing that makes our church a little different is I just have never believed that I can successfully do that. If you're here today and you're convinced you're a sinner I believe it's because the Holy Spirit has revealed that to you. And if you don't see that, I'm probably not going to make any headway by trying to convince you of your sinfulness. But I can convince you of mine. [01:07:15] (76 seconds)  #SpiritRevealsSin

you've heard us say many many times there were no Christians on Easter morning. There was no one expectantly waiting outside the tomb on Easter morning or as we say every Easter nobody expected nobody. Right? Nobody expected that. Not even Jesus' mother. When all of the early followers of Jesus when they looked into that empty tomb they didn't say he's risen. They looked into the empty tomb and they said someone has stolen the body. They were just like you and me. They followed the most rational course of thought which was someone has taken the body, someone's done something with Jesus even though Jesus had made a prediction that he would be crucified and buried and that he would rise again. And so then Jesus reappears to his disciples. [00:41:05] (47 seconds)  #UnexpectedResurrection

Or maybe later when Matthew was writing this down, Matthew decided as he's using the Greek to write down what Jesus said to make this important play on words where he says, You are Petros which is Greek for Peter but also it means stone or small rock. He says, And I tell you that you are Petros and on this Petra which is the bedrock, which is the boulder, which is the foundation. On this foundation that you have just declared that I am the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. On this foundation, on this rock I will build my church. Except as we talked about last week he didn't use the word church. That came about later. You can watch last week's sermon for that. But he used this important word ekklesia. [00:37:07] (52 seconds)  #RockOfConfession

is alive and well all around the world and the reality is that Jesus predicted this. Jesus actually talked about several things that would happen, some of which were during his lifetime. For example Jesus predicted his own death, his own crucifixion, that he would be buried and that three days later he would rise from the dead. Jesus predicted things that would happen after his resurrection and after he left. And many of those things have come to pass and some have not yet. But one of my favorite predictions that Jesus made is that Jesus predicted you. Jesus predicted us gathering here today. Jesus knew that there would be a church and that the church would represent him and the church would carry on his work. [00:31:55] (48 seconds)  #JesusPredictedUs

The church is not just something that happens here in our little time zone or our town. The church is something that is happening all around the world. It is something that is big. It's happening in different languages, people groups, different tribes, different tongues. People are singing different songs. People are doing this in different styles. You know, some churches you might have grown up with what I call smells and bells. Right? You know, people have different ways of doing it. Sometimes it's a lot of reciting creeds and saying things back. Sometimes it's a lot of kneeling and standing. Sometimes it involves traditions that have been around for a long long time and sometimes it's something that is brand new in a community. [00:31:11] (43 seconds)  #ChurchInEveryCulture

that he was the son of God as far as we can tell while Jesus was alive, they pretty much tried to baker act him. Maybe you're here today and you're like, oh wow Jesus and I, we've more in common than I thought. But Jesus you know the times when Jesus' brothers show up, they're concerned about Jesus' mental health because he's declaring himself to be the Messiah, the son of the living God. But then after the resurrection we see that Jesus' brothers believe. We see that Jesus' mother believes. Why? Because when you've stood next to your grieving mother while she watches her son die on a cross and you see friends of yours carry Jesus' broken body and put him in a tomb and then a few days later your brother appears to you? Can you imagine? Your mind is forever changed. [00:42:15] (57 seconds)  #FamilyTurnedBelievers