Sermon - James Duff: Why Missional Communities? [9/6/24]

Sermon by James Duff, on 9th June 2024

Why Missional Communities?

Answer: Because God Loves us

Full Transcription:

Good afternoon. I am going to preach today, use the word loosely actually, it's going to be quite a lot of teaching as well, although you know preaching and teaching that's another sermon. But today we're going to look at why missional communities. Usually at the common we preach books by books today we're going to look at why missional communities, so it's a more thematic type of sermon. And so I'll just be touching on this Bible passage, doesn't tell us everything about missional communities but I think it's fundamental. So we're going to look at that, we're going to look at today we're going to look at why missional communities. Next week we're going to look at why, what do we do with community? What is the community part of missional communities? And then we're going to look the third week at mission. How do we do mission, evangelism, all those things, outreach, what does that look like as a missional community? Then we're going to have our fifth Sunday and we know that our fifth Sunday we don't meet here, we meet in the park whether it's raining or sun or whatever it may be, we'll be down there for bacon and egg rolls to invite a friend come along to that. And then the next Sunday will be when the summer people are here. So we just sort of, and that that'll be the finishing of that missional community series and then we're going to jump into one Peter. There we go. So today two very broad things I'm aiming for. Firstly is to look at the theological and biblical reasons for the church. That's a huge thing to try and do in one sermon so I'm just going to touch on it. Then we're going to look very practically at some pragmatic type of things of how missional communities fulfill some of what God has called the church to do and be. There we are. In Europe if you are studying law one of the core subjects that you must study is the subject, jurisprudence, which is the Latin word for philosophy of law. They figure you certainly need to know why you are practicing law before you know how to practice it. You need to know why you're practicing something to then know how to practice it. Seems pretty straightforward, yeah? Well in Australia we don't do that. We're a fairly pragmatic country. We'd sort of like to think of ourselves as just get on with it. In Australia if you're studying law the subject of jurisprudence is an elective. In other words you don't need to know why you are practicing law as long as you're just good at it. If you can do it just do it. I remember there's a famous football commentator who says I don't care about the philosophy of the game just do something. It's a little bit like Australia. Get on with the job. We're a highly pragmatic lot here in Australia. Many people in Australia but not just in Australia around the world define the church in a very pragmatic way. They define her by what she does not who she is. They define her about what she does not who she is. Warning that can be very very dangerous. Not all dangerous actually sometimes there's some goodness but it can be dangerous. I grew up in a culture of what I would call man-centered theology. I grew up in churches where I was reading books about the purpose driven church about the seven steps to success about church growth about how to listen to how to sermons. It was about how to do things. This can lead dangerously actually to what I would call a man-centered theology and we start to think we can start to think that it's what we do that grows the church where Jesus says that's my job I'll build the church. When that happens a whole range of things can go wrong when we think we're building it. If we do well well we think we're pretty good actually we'll put out a book on how to do it. You just be like us and here are the seven steps. Actually we'll even start taking titles that were never meant for us today like a apostle. If you ever hear someone calling themselves an apostle run. There were only 12, 13 including Paul. We start to do these types of things. We start to have celebrity pastors. We start to do things in our church to make it successful whether that can be a whole range of things. Blucking out the windows and getting a great band or maybe not blacking out the windows or not having a great band. High church, low church. It just makes us do a whole range of things as the primary reason we're doing them to attract people and to grow the church. That's not always all bad either. It does have a dark side but it's not always all bad. We need strategy. We need ways to build community. Help people in community. Some people if that's one end of it the other side the the other end is that people define the church by what God has done only. Laying little emphasis on who he has made the church to be and do. Now I think that's an improvement on just doing church. The problem with that one though is that if that's only what it is it becomes what I call a confessional only a confessional church. The church is a place you come to for forgiveness and it dispenses a grace to you when you come and that's what you do. You just come to receive. We come to receive. So to answer the questions why missional communities, why missional communities, in a sense we need to go behind that question about who the church is. There's a presupposition. There's a there's a actual question that we need to be asking ourselves and it's this. Who is God? That's the first question when you're defining the church. Who is God and what has he done? First question we're going to do that today. Simple? Well lots of ink's been spilled over this but we're going to just jump through pretty quickly. Who is God and what has he done? And then the next slide can we just have the next slide? There we are. Number two I'm going to look at these are the three points of the sermon. Number two is who has God made the church to be and what has he created her to do? But to know that that first question needs to be answered. Who is God and what's he done? Who is God and what has he done? Well we've read it today but before we do that we're going to look at the Westminster Confession. That's a big document. The Presbyterians and other church followers believe and there's part of the Westminster Confession there's lots of questions and lots of answers to it and one of the questions is this. Number four is what is God and the answer they give is after doing all of biblical theology of going all through the Bible and checking out the attributes of God they come up with this. God is a spirit, he's infinite, he's eternal and he's unchangeable. In his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth all come from him. Sounds pretty good. They're all good attributes of God we'd all say amen to that. Except according into today's reading from John who is known as the Apostle of Love he's writing to a church that he, people had left the church he was in and they've sort of gone to another church there was some false teaching and he's teaching them about the truths of Jesus, about the true Jesus of who he is and he says this is what God's like. Verse 16 God is love. God is love. Every characteristic of God is love. His judgment and his justice are love. His mercy and his grace is love. It's perfect. It's not as if love is some sort of abstract idea that we've come up with and now God needs to do that to be loving. No, no, no. God is love. You want to know what love is? Read the Bible and look at God who he is. That is love. God is love and everything he does is perfect, perfectly loving. And then, so that answers the first question. Who's God? He's got his love. What's he done? Well John answers that question as well. Verse 9 and 10. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God but that he loved us and he sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We just heard that in Communion. When we were lost he came for us. I'm moving house at the moment. Well I've moved house. It's been two weeks. I looked up Google because it answers everything correctly. Of course it doesn't. How long do you keep the cat inside when you've moved house? Everything from two weeks to six weeks. I mean great, two weeks is the answer. And so yesterday the cat was allowed out and I was listening to 6PR. There we are. That gives you a bit of my age this week. That's an AM station kids. AM. And on that's a radio. We used to call it a wireless. But anyway, 6PR. I'm listening to 6PR and apparently anyone who's 45 years and older don't get on a ladder according to doctors. Just don't get on a ladder. The amount of injuries for men on ladders by the time you're 45 and up is just ridiculous. I'm 47. I took the risk. I got the ladder. Well sorry the cat's out. Alright. Trying to just let it find its new place. It jumped the fence. It jumped onto the neighbour's roof. So I went to get it. Is it a boy or a girl? Girl. Georgie's the girl cat. I love her. And this analogy is falling down. And I took the ladder, put it up against the fence and Georgie came over and I had it. Oh jeez it's embarrassing. I grabbed it. If anyone saw me, the Lord would have. I had this bit of wood I was trying to get it and then anyway I went up onto the second last rung of the ladder. I'm alright. I'm 47. I'm a pastor. What could go wrong? And I'm leaning over the fence and I went to the roof and the cat's me and then I grabbed her and then I'm pulling her and she goes whacks her claws into the roof. Not into me. Although I am scared of the cat believe it or not. I asked Jane. I'm scared of her. Anyway she grabs in there and I eventually pull her off and I sort of grab her and turn around and jump and land on the ground, roll her around. Saved it. And got her and took her into the house and she was safe. Why am I telling you that story? A little bit like what God's like with us. A bit like us. I mean he does it perfectly. He doesn't fall off ladders. But we're a bit like a cat sometimes. God comes for us. That's what the Bible tells us. Not that we loved him first but he loved us and came for us and the person of Jesus and died for a detaining sacrifice of sin. And on that cross he crushed sin. He saved us from his righteous judgment. He saved us from his wrath. He saved us from hell and he's calling us into a family. Not just friends but family. Sons and daughters of God. And so who's God? God's love. What's he done? He's gone on mission and rescued us. That's how we know God's love because he's a missionary God. The triune God goes on mission to reach those who are far from him and to bring them into his family. That's how we know he's love because of that's what he does. That's the ultimate love act that he's a missionary God. Not a God that sits there but a God who comes for us when we were helpless and lost. He comes for us. So what's he done? He's gone on mission and rescued us. Number two. Who has God therefore made the church to be? Well there's several different images and analogies and metaphors and models and that the Bible uses to describe church. Here are just a few. Hopefully they're on the next slide. Excellent. There we go. There's a few. Bright of Christ, Temple of the Spirit. That's interesting but I use that much do we? Household of God, the people of God, the vineyard of God, the flock of God, the body of Christ and the family of God. Many others I could use but there's a few. The family of God. I wanted to pick up that image because families well they're important and all of us in one way belong to them. And we belong to our parents whether we're born or adopted and we belong to each other and we live life together. That's what healthy families do. They belong to their parents, they belong to each other and they live together. That's how they're defined. Not by exactly everything that they do because they do different things but they're together because they share the same name. They share the same parents. They're related. They're together. That's what we're like. It's the family of God. Now this might sound like I'm going off on a tangent but I'm not. A male peacock. A male peacock. We use out his feathers for a whole range of reasons actually and one of them of course is to attract a female. And a science would tell us that whoever has the most you know how they've got eyes on their like those eyes of a peacock who has most of them and who struts around the most. You heard the saying strut around like a peacock. Whoever does that's going to attract the female partner. Not exactly true. Actually sometimes a peacock can show off too much strut around. Sometimes boasting too much and strutting around too much actually turns off potential mates. This week as I prepared for this sermon I was reading some books and of course I turned to one of the great theological books Bazaar Fashion Magazine for insight into this and in it I read an article by a Dr. Rummet Billen and the title of the article was the tall poppy syndrome of Oz. She's an award-winning internationally recognised author and speaker and she wrote this I found this interesting. Egalitarianism and humbleness can be linked to Australian and New Zealand's culture and there is an expectation people should not be boastful or act in ways that are perceived as flagrant. The bottom line is that we are a nation where we don't like anyone getting too big for their boots. We hate arrogance and boastfulness. We cringe when we hear it and this is good because it stops people thinking that they're better than what they are. Now there is a book called the Australian leadership paradox. It's a really interesting book. According to the authors Australians are anti-authority but authority dependent. This is how weak we really are. You ready? Australians demand egalitarian leadership but build hierarchies. Australian want mateship and relational leadership but are fiercely competitive and have a winded-all cost mentality and will gladly stab the leader in the back. We know that from politics don't we? Australians want to be perceived as battlers but success is measured by prosperity. We're an ironic bunch. My point is this deep down all of us want to be noticed. All of us want to be seen. All of us want to be heard. All of us want to feel safe. All of us want to be able to share our wins and our losses. But often in Australia we are not encouraged or allowed to be exceptional so we play ourselves down yet it makes us yearn even more to be seen for who we truly are. We're a muddled up bunch. So we are made to be in a family and in a family we are safe with parents who love and know you. Now some of you don't have that and haven't had it but you do now because there's a God who's safe and he's good and he knows you and he's we know his love and he sent that love by his spirit into us to live in us to love one another. And this brings me to my third point. What has God done in creating the church? What is it to do? His people, his family, what is the church to do? Wow. Well again this is there's lots of debate around this so I'm skating over the top here but I think there's three things from this pass it wait actually there's two things from this passage and one I'm getting from somewhere else I'll tell you when I get to it but I think there's three broad things that we need to do as a church. First one, we are called to love God. It's not explicit in the passage but it is in implicit in verse 19. We love because he first loved us. We love because he first loved us. Drawing time. Diagram time. The end of this sermon which is coming up don't worry. You will get a chance to respond to this. I'm going to hand out some love hearts and some pens and you could write what is God saying to me in this. What am I heard today? Maybe what's the challenge that is challenging this? What's the comfort? Just whatever it is, what does God say to you? You've got to write it down and you'll get a chance to stick it on the cross. So the first point what does God call us to do? Number one as I said love God. That's the first thing we know from John chapter 4 verse 19 many other places but that's from today's passage. The second thing that we are called to do is we are to love one another. Dear friends, since God so loved us we also ought to love one another. Isn't it interesting how John uses the gospel to teach us how to love one another? He doesn't just tell us what to do. When you call people to do especially in actually in anything he goes through the why. This is why you need to do this. The gospel melts our hearts so we can love one another. This is what you need to do. If that was the case you'd be prideful when you do well and crushed when you don't do well. In the gospel he's done it for you and your identity is safe in him. So we are to love one another. Verse 11 of today's reading. So it's love one, oops, change that. Right over here. Love one another. Verse 11. Now I'm going to jump now to the third thing that he calls us to do which is to love others outside of the church. I think it is in the passage but it's easier to jump out of it. I'm going to go to John again because he's the apostle of love. Chapter 13 verse 35 he says this. Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Love others. Something happens when we realize that we love by God we love one another. We can then love others. He shows us off. It seems to be his strategy of reaching people is to show off us. You're the strategist. I'm the strategist. We're the strategy. A few authors Francis Schaefer, Leslie Newby, and these people don't mean anything to you. They all write extensively about this and they call the church the greatest apologetic that we have for the faith. That means it's the greatest witness for a watching world is what God's done for and made a family out of us because we're all different colors, ages, ideas, nationalities and somehow here we are at the back of Willigy. Wow. Only God could do that. Also in chapter 17 Jesus is it's called the great high priestly prayer. He's praying for the disciples right there but he's also praying for the future and he finishes by basically saying the way you are united people will know that Father that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me by how we love each other not only will people know that we belong to Jesus but that people will know that God sent his son on mission for us. That's interesting isn't it? So I did write this down somewhere but I reckon I could do it off the top of my head. I'm gonna have to. In the middle here how do we do all this? What powers us to love God, love one another and to love others? It's verse 16. It says this and so we know and rely on the love of God has for us. We rely on God. We don't rely on each other. Don't rely on me. Don't rely on yourself. That's the worst thing you can do. Rely on God. Rely on God. And how do we rely on God? Because it's good news. We know it's good news to be able to rely on God because we know what he's done ultimately in love. He sent his son Jesus. The gospel is good news of Jesus and so in verse 16 tells us there to rely on God and that which empowers us to love God in love one another and out love the world. Alright now that's what God's made the church for. He's love. We know that. We understand that the love by him, he loves us, loves us, makes the family. We love each other like family because he loved us. Like family even though we were a cap on a roof not willing to be saved. He saved us because he loves us and knows what's best for us. We can then love one another and we can love the world whole range of ways. Mercy ministries and justice ministries and evangelism and a proclamation of the gospel. All good and all right. I'm going to talk about those in the series coming up. But ultimately it comes because it's good news that the gospel is sent to them. It's the good news that allows us to love God to come together. That's a witness. And that's what we do in this service. Coming together now primarily we're going to do a little bit of in. We'll do a cup of tea after this and things will play a little bit. We'll do a little bit of loving one another. A little bit of out happens. Some people come along and check us out. But mainly this space on a Sunday at four o'clock is for worshiping and loving God. And the only way to do that is to have the gospel laid on our hearts again to remember what he's done to love him. I hope that's good news. I hope it's good news. And I pray that if you're apathetic about that I can understand where you are that God will soften your heart and challenge you. That when you are far off, God the universe came after you and brought you into a family rich family. That's good news. And because of that we can love one another. When we let each other write down. And the pastor lets you down. I can love him because I can love pastors. I know many pastors. I can love them. Because of what God's done. Not because of what I do. And we can love one another. And so that space is very good. This is a good space to do in worship. But doing loving each other and loving others. That's a little bit harder to do if that's our role as the church. And the next couple of weeks I'm going to talk more about this. But that's where missional communities come into their own. Because it's in the name. Community, loving one another and mission. It's highly pragmatic now. It just fits. It works. There's a great book by a guy called Alex Absalon and Bobby Harrington. I think it's called Discipleship That Fits. And it talks about what areas that a service, this works well for worship. But you need smaller groups to do proper loving one another. Families and loving others being on mission together. Because we must not simply gather for worship. Because we're a family remember. Remember we don't just gather for worship. We scatter for mission as individuals. That's not a bad thing. You should all be missionaries in your workplace and in your families. I'm all for that. But I think the Bible is often, God's often more. He says we gather for worship and we gather for mission. We gather for worship and we gather for mission. As a church, as a family. And I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks. I'm going to finish with this story and then as I'm telling this story, we're going to ask for the Holy Spirit to just start to talk to us if he hasn't already. I'm sure he has. I had a friend who was in, rather than a prison fellowship in Victoria. It's a ministry to people in jail. And he went into the jail. He'd been ministering to this man for a long time. And it was his birthday. And somehow, getting to bar and prison in Melbourne is very hard to get into, let alone get a cake into. Anyway, he got a cake into to celebrate the birthday of this man. And they gathered around and he'd been just discipling this guy, done an Alpha course. He'd come to faith and he brought in the cake. As soon as he brought in the cake, the inmates saw it and he ran away. He ran away. He's perplexed by mate. He went up to him afterwards and he said, "What happened there?" And he said, "I've never had anyone celebrate a birthday for me. I've never had anyone see me. I've never been noticed. I've never been loved like this." You see, deep down we all need to be seen. We all need to be noticed. And we all need to be loved. And in Christ, He has done that for us and given us a family where you will always be seen. Always be noticed. So much so that He came after you. You know when you lie and bad at night, you, all your thoughts, He knows all of them. He said, "I'm coming after you because He loves you. You're seen and you're noticed and you're loved by the God of love." So, why Missional Communities? That's next week. I just wanted to tell you that God loves you. Amen.