WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.740 We are finishing up a series this morning that we've been calling the vision and values 00:00:06.740 --> 00:00:13.740 series where we've been looking at our DNA, who we are, and let me read our vision one 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:14.740 more time. 00:00:14.740 --> 00:00:22.940 Our vision is to be a healthy city center church in and for Edinburgh committed to the 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:30.740 gospel of Jesus Christ in worship, discipleship, community, and mission. 00:00:30.740 --> 00:00:34.859 And so today this final sermon we look at the topic of mission. 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:40.620 Now the tricky thing about looking at mission, talking about mission in one sermon is because 00:00:40.620 --> 00:00:43.500 everything is mission. 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:44.500 Worship is mission. 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:48.780 You know, we've all been sent by God and created by God into this world to worship the 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:49.780 living God. 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:51.740 And that means we're on a mission to worship. 00:00:51.740 --> 00:00:53.539 And discipleship is mission. 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:57.300 All of us have been called by God and commanded to follow Jesus all the way to the point of 00:00:57.300 --> 00:00:58.539 great cost. 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:00.900 And so discipleship is mission. 00:01:00.900 --> 00:01:02.579 And community is mission. 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:05.659 We've been called to love one another, ask Christ to love the church. 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:07.659 And so community is also mission. 00:01:07.659 --> 00:01:12.780 Anytime God says get up and go and do something, that's mission. 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:18.060 And so all of the things that we've talked about so far in this series are mission. 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:24.100 And today we want to think a little bit more, we want to focus a little more on the outward 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:30.219 facing dimension of our mission, which is the mission to go into the city we've been 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:37.300 put in to make disciples, to bring people that are not God's people and show them what 00:01:37.300 --> 00:01:42.820 it means to be God's people by letting them hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word 00:01:42.820 --> 00:01:48.020 of the gospel that comes through Jesus Christ. 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:53.060 We've got to talk about this because mission is not well received. 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:59.019 This aspect of mission particularly is not well received in the 21st century at all. 00:01:59.019 --> 00:02:06.659 Late modern people, 21st century people prefer that religion be a private matter. 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:09.819 And really that's what secularism means. 00:02:09.819 --> 00:02:13.460 Secularism is not so much atheism. 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:18.099 Secularism is the separation of religion from the public sphere. 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:20.860 It's when religion is totally privatized. 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:24.900 And so in our secular age, the age we live in, people don't like mission because they 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:31.819 think it's fine if you're religious but don't make me into your mission. 00:02:31.819 --> 00:02:37.860 Don't bring what's private and personal into a public sphere and make me into your mission. 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:43.379 Now there are right ways and very wrong ways of being about mission. 00:02:43.379 --> 00:02:45.379 And that's a big discussion. 00:02:45.379 --> 00:02:52.259 But what we have to hear today, in some sense no matter what society thinks is the Acts 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:58.740 1 verse 8 command where Jesus comes and says, you are my witness until the gospel goes to 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:04.180 the remotest parts of the earth, until Jesus comes back is what Jesus says here in Acts 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:05.180 1. 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:09.819 And so we've got to see that that's the call, the mission. 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:12.379 Jesus says you are a witness. 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:13.699 And so let's think about that. 00:03:13.699 --> 00:03:17.099 Three things, three lessons I think here from the text. 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:18.819 First the fact of mission. 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:20.780 Secondly, the nature of mission. 00:03:20.780 --> 00:03:24.340 And then finally we'll ask about the how of mission. 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:27.019 So first the fact of mission. 00:03:27.019 --> 00:03:34.379 In verse 2 it says that Jesus had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles that 00:03:34.379 --> 00:03:36.340 he had chosen. 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:41.259 And so what we see here in this passage that there is one very clear command, you are to 00:03:41.259 --> 00:03:44.060 go and be my witnesses. 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:48.780 But it says that he gives that command to the chosen apostles. 00:03:48.780 --> 00:03:50.859 And that's very important. 00:03:50.859 --> 00:03:52.179 What is a chosen apostle? 00:03:52.179 --> 00:03:57.439 An apostle, capital A apostle, the qualification, what does it take to become one? 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:03.659 You have to have been there and seen Jesus Christ resurrected flesh in person. 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:06.859 And he had to have called you and made you into one of the 12. 00:04:06.859 --> 00:04:08.979 And that's who's being talked about right here. 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:16.219 But when we read a passage like this and he says, you are to be my witnesses, it's tempting 00:04:16.219 --> 00:04:19.219 to say well who? 00:04:19.219 --> 00:04:23.740 And we see very clearly that it's the chosen apostles are being called here. 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:24.980 Obviously, he's commanding them. 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:27.420 You are to you chosen apostles. 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:32.379 Having seen Jesus Christ in the flesh resurrected, you're to be my witnesses. 00:04:32.379 --> 00:04:35.300 And just the fact of mission is simply this. 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:43.180 You got to say at the very beginning that this command cannot be just about the 12, 00:04:43.180 --> 00:04:45.259 just about the chosen apostles. 00:04:45.259 --> 00:04:49.460 And one of the ways that we know that is because when you look at the outline of the book of 00:04:49.460 --> 00:04:54.860 Acts and we mentioned this, I mentioned this in week one, the thesis statement in verse 00:04:54.860 --> 00:05:02.540 8 is you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:03.939 the earth. 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:09.139 And when you look at the outline of the book of Acts, the outline actually matches exactly 00:05:09.139 --> 00:05:10.779 the thesis statement. 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:17.379 Jesus command in chapter one verse 8 because in chapters one to five, we read the witness 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:20.139 of the apostles in Jerusalem. 00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:24.019 And then in chapter six to eight, it's all about the witness of the apostles in Judea 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:25.540 and Samaria. 00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:29.699 And then in chapter nine, all the way to the end of the book, it goes out from there, from 00:05:29.699 --> 00:05:31.659 Judea and Samaria to the very ends of the earth. 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:37.180 And one of the things that is important to notice is that when it gets to the ends of 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:43.380 the earth, chapter nine to 28, what we see is that it's no longer just the apostles doing 00:05:43.380 --> 00:05:45.500 the witness. 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:51.460 And it's important to say this, that the word apostle in Greek simply means messenger or 00:05:51.460 --> 00:05:55.180 ambassador or one who has been sent. 00:05:55.180 --> 00:06:01.460 And so sometimes the New Testament uses a capital A concept of apostle, the 12, the chosen 00:06:01.459 --> 00:06:03.180 plus Paul. 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:07.939 And sometimes it uses a lower case A concept of apostle. 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:12.180 And who is included in the lower case A concept of apostle? 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:16.979 Every single person who believes in Jesus Christ, you're an apostle, not an upper case 00:06:16.979 --> 00:06:19.219 A, but a lower case A apostle. 00:06:19.219 --> 00:06:22.419 You've been called, you've been sent, you're an ambassador. 00:06:22.419 --> 00:06:28.339 And we see by not only the book of Acts, but by tradition that the gospel by both capital 00:06:28.339 --> 00:06:34.619 A and lower case A apostles goes to Antioch, North Africa, to the Greek Isles, to present 00:06:34.619 --> 00:06:39.619 day Turkey, to Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, to Italy. 00:06:39.619 --> 00:06:41.659 And that's just the book of Acts. 00:06:41.659 --> 00:06:46.379 But then we've got extra biblical sources from the second century and the end of the 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:51.579 first century that tell us by tradition that the apostles, both upper case and lower case 00:06:51.579 --> 00:06:58.819 A, went to present day Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and as far as west as France, within just 00:06:58.819 --> 00:07:00.620 a century after the gospel. 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:06.699 Now that's a lot of territory, but at the same time it's small because it's not the 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:07.699 ends of the earth. 00:07:07.699 --> 00:07:12.139 And the word end here in verse eight is the word eskatos in Greek. 00:07:12.139 --> 00:07:14.860 It actually means the remotest, the farthest. 00:07:14.860 --> 00:07:21.180 The farthest place you could possibly imagine, that's where the gospel has to go before Jesus 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:22.180 Christ returns. 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:28.540 And so the important thing here, just to hear is point one is the primacy of mission in 00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:31.060 the Christian life. 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:35.699 What we're seeing here is that our identity, if your identity this morning, we know at 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:39.420 least that there are nine here who have professed faith publicly this morning. 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:43.980 Their identity, your identity, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ this morning, is that 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:52.300 Jesus turns to you and says, you are a witness to the gospel until it extends to every single 00:07:52.300 --> 00:07:53.420 corner of the earth. 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:54.660 You're an ambassador. 00:07:54.660 --> 00:07:55.660 You're commanded. 00:07:55.660 --> 00:07:56.660 You're called. 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:58.160 You're a missionary. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:03.819 No matter if you stay home or if you go wherever God's put you, there's a primacy in the Christian 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:05.460 life to mission. 00:08:05.460 --> 00:08:12.819 We might say like this mission is actually the essence of what we are as Christians. 00:08:12.819 --> 00:08:13.819 That's the first thing. 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:17.219 The second thing then is this, the nature of mission. 00:08:17.219 --> 00:08:18.899 We know the primacy of mission. 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:23.420 We are sent by Jesus to be missionaries, ambassadors, witnesses. 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:29.899 But the question that this text I think really wants us to ask is from verse eight, Jesus 00:08:29.899 --> 00:08:31.740 says you are my witnesses. 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:35.379 We've got to ask the question, well, what is a witness? 00:08:35.379 --> 00:08:42.299 And let me give you a too long definition of a witness and then I'll break it down and 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:44.740 we'll think about it together for just a minute. 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:46.379 So here it is, four things. 00:08:46.379 --> 00:08:53.899 A witness is a person who bears the testimony of Christ as an instrument of the Holy Spirit 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:59.179 to the point of great cost for the sake of the kingdom of God. 00:08:59.179 --> 00:09:01.819 I want to work backwards through those four. 00:09:01.819 --> 00:09:09.019 So first, Jesus tells us here that a witness is a person who lives for a greater reality 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:12.219 and that is for the kingdom of God. 00:09:12.220 --> 00:09:18.180 You see, if you look down at verse three, it says in verse three, he presented himself 00:09:18.180 --> 00:09:25.779 alive, resurrected to them after his suffering by many proofs and for 40 days he appeared. 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:29.500 And then it says, for those 40 days, what did he do? 00:09:29.500 --> 00:09:33.300 He spoke about the kingdom of God to them. 00:09:33.300 --> 00:09:37.300 And then if you look all the way down at the end of the passage at verse 11, the angels 00:09:37.299 --> 00:09:42.539 come and they say that Jesus Christ who has ascended into heaven will come back to you 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:49.899 just like this in the same way he will descend when the kingdom of God comes, we're told 00:09:49.899 --> 00:09:51.659 in the next verse. 00:09:51.659 --> 00:09:56.219 And so Jesus taught them all about the kingdom of God and then we learned that actually if 00:09:56.219 --> 00:10:02.299 you're a Christian today as a witness, you live in a very specific time period, a very 00:10:02.299 --> 00:10:04.819 specific age of history. 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:11.100 And that age is the age between the ascension of Jesus Christ and the de-sension of Jesus 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:14.020 Christ, the coming again of Jesus Christ. 00:10:14.020 --> 00:10:19.420 And in between that, in that age, the church age as we often call it, every single Christian 00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:24.820 has been called to be a witness from the ascension to the return of Christ. 00:10:24.820 --> 00:10:30.140 And where to be a witness to a greater reality, Jesus says, for 40 days he said, you're to 00:10:30.140 --> 00:10:34.540 be about a reality that's greater than yourself, you're to be about the reality that is the 00:10:34.539 --> 00:10:35.539 kingdom of God. 00:10:35.539 --> 00:10:43.379 Now, we've got a task in this age that we live in until Jesus Christ returns. 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:49.179 And it's to be about the greater reality, the kingdom of God more than our personal 00:10:49.179 --> 00:10:51.179 realities. 00:10:51.179 --> 00:10:56.179 And if you think, if you were just to just take a few minutes and think about all the 00:10:56.179 --> 00:11:02.179 gospel preaching churches in Edinburgh and all that they do, all that they get up to 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:09.219 on a weekly basis, it would be an absolutely enormous list. 00:11:09.219 --> 00:11:11.139 Take St. Columbus just by itself. 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:14.379 We have Sunday worship twice, every single Sunday. 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:21.859 We show, a lot of you will show hospitality to one another this afternoon. 00:11:21.859 --> 00:11:25.779 We've got prayer meetings, teaching series, Bible studies, city groups, international 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:28.859 mission support, sparkle sisters, caravan. 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:34.220 Many of you are involved in peripheral ministries, individually, food banks, poor relief. 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:39.220 We've got committees, officers, budgets, crash, kids' church, a training program. 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:41.379 We have an accountant. 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:42.980 And we do tax audits. 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:47.740 And the list could be doubled and tripled and quadrupled. 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:51.980 And people don't even realize how much the church is involved in and has to do all the 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:52.980 time. 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:56.019 And if you looked across all the churches that are preaching the gospel in this city 00:11:56.019 --> 00:11:59.019 and made that list, it would be absolutely enormous. 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:07.819 And listen, Jesus Christ says all of that is got to be for the kingdom of God. 00:12:07.819 --> 00:12:12.220 We do a tax audit for the kingdom of God. 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:15.419 Everything supports the mission. 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:22.659 Everything here is about supporting the mission of taking a greater reality to people who 00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:24.340 are looking for hope. 00:12:24.340 --> 00:12:27.220 And that greater reality is the hope of the coming of the kingdom of God. 00:12:27.220 --> 00:12:30.500 And this is what Jesus says it is, a quick definition of the kingdom. 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:35.420 If you're looking for something that seems so hard to define in a quick phrase, the 00:12:35.420 --> 00:12:37.899 kingdom of God is this. 00:12:37.899 --> 00:12:46.700 Jesus is coming back to bring God's people into God's land under God's rule. 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:48.379 And that's the kingdom of God. 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:53.740 When Jesus brings God's people into God's land under God's rule. 00:12:53.740 --> 00:12:57.500 Without sin, without death, without disease, without disaster, that's the coming of the 00:12:57.500 --> 00:12:58.500 kingdom of God. 00:12:58.500 --> 00:12:59.820 And I'll just, we've got to move on. 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:07.500 But let me say, unlike other religions, unlike many of the other world religions who say 00:13:07.500 --> 00:13:14.060 that salvation is actually about escaping the world, Christianity, Jesus Christ comes 00:13:14.060 --> 00:13:20.500 into the world not to rescue us from the world, but to rescue us with the world. 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:24.740 To recreate the cosmos, to establish the kingdom of God on earth. 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:30.340 God's people in God's recreated land without disease and death and sin and disaster, that's 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:32.019 the coming of the kingdom of God. 00:13:32.019 --> 00:13:33.940 And that's what we're witnesses to. 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:35.700 All right. 00:13:35.700 --> 00:13:39.059 We've got to live for the greater reality of the kingdom of God. 00:13:39.059 --> 00:13:44.259 And secondly, to the point of great cost. 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:46.259 To the point of great cost. 00:13:46.259 --> 00:13:53.139 Everything about missions means giving away personal freedom, personal preference, your 00:13:53.139 --> 00:14:01.340 time, your money, your gifts, and giving them to God, to God in service of God. 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:08.460 If you look down at verse six, it's the apostles, when they came together, they asked Jesus, 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:12.340 Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:19.220 And look, here what they're saying in that question, Lord, today is today the day that 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:22.220 you're going to bring the kingdom to earth. 00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:29.660 And what they were asking was, are you going to establish your power and our power right 00:14:29.660 --> 00:14:33.259 now as a life of total comfort? 00:14:33.259 --> 00:14:35.180 That's what they were hoping for. 00:14:35.180 --> 00:14:42.040 And what they missed when they asked that question is the irony of mission. 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:43.860 And we hear the irony of mission. 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:46.539 It comes to us from Hebrews chapter 12. 00:14:46.539 --> 00:14:54.259 And Hebrews chapter 12, it says that when Jesus Christ went to the cross, He was utterly 00:14:54.259 --> 00:14:57.099 shamed for our sin. 00:14:57.099 --> 00:15:03.019 And yet it was for joy set before Him that He endured. 00:15:03.019 --> 00:15:10.019 And you hear the irony of mission in that, that Jesus gave Himself up completely to utter 00:15:10.019 --> 00:15:12.980 shame and death at the cross. 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:17.980 And in it, He had total joy in the midst of His mission. 00:15:17.980 --> 00:15:24.500 And that irony, that combination where actually the greatest joy in life is when you give 00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:28.539 yourself to great cause for something bigger than yourself. 00:15:28.539 --> 00:15:32.500 That is exactly what the disciples, the apostles, miss when they ask the question, are you going 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:34.100 to bring the kingdom today? 00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:39.259 Can I get straight to personal comfort and pleasure and power today? 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:46.259 Now we don't have time to spend here to prove this, but it's become, I think, watching the 00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:50.419 allure of celebrity across the 20th and 21st century in the modern West. 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:57.580 It's become a common sense notion that comfort, we know this, we see it, comfort does not 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.939 equal joy in life. 00:16:00.939 --> 00:16:07.379 And instead, what actually equals joy in life, real joy in life comes with great expense 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:11.340 for mission, giving ourselves to something greater than ourselves. 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:16.740 Mission costs everything and it breeds joy simultaneously. 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:25.860 And that means if you want a life that is fully alive, be about the mission of God. 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:30.259 Spend yourself and put away your personal preferences and live life for the mission 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:34.460 of God and you will know great joy. 00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:39.420 We have to live for the kingdom of God a greater reality to the point of great cost, third 00:16:39.420 --> 00:16:44.420 how, by bearing testimony to Jesus Christ. 00:16:44.420 --> 00:16:50.019 Now that's really what the heart of witness means, bearing testimony to Jesus Christ. 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:51.540 There's a couple of things here. 00:16:51.540 --> 00:17:00.220 One, the word to witness is actually a judicial term in Greek that refers to witnessing in 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:05.579 the courtroom, making verbal public witness in a judicial setting. 00:17:05.579 --> 00:17:10.779 And that tells us something very simple and what it tells us is that there is no witnessing 00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:17.500 to Jesus Christ apart from words, that we have to speak words in order to witness. 00:17:17.500 --> 00:17:22.059 What Jesus means here when he says, you are my witnesses, is he's saying you are to carry 00:17:22.059 --> 00:17:28.740 the word of the gospel, the message of the cross, the death resurrection of Jesus Christ 00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:35.059 force in into the world and that there is no accomplished witness without speaking words. 00:17:35.059 --> 00:17:43.259 Now last week, Derek looked at Acts chapter 20, which is a parallel passage to Acts 1 00:17:43.259 --> 00:17:49.019 where we're given an account of what ministry looks like, of what mission looks like. 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:52.460 And Paul says something very similar in that passage that Derek mentioned. 00:17:52.460 --> 00:17:58.819 He says that the Ephesian elders were to carry on the testimony that Paul had shared with 00:17:58.819 --> 00:18:01.740 them, the testimony of Jesus. 00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:10.779 And what he means by that, bearing the testimony of Jesus in word, in speech, is telling the 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:19.259 story of God's work through the story of Jesus and how it's impacted your own personal life. 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:24.859 Now it's super important to say that because testimony in the Bible most often does not 00:18:24.859 --> 00:18:30.660 refer to teaching about Christian doctrines. 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:34.339 And you see that actually if you look at Paul's letters, when you open Paul's letters and 00:18:34.339 --> 00:18:39.099 he's writing to the church, he's writing to pastors, he's writing to church leaders, 00:18:39.099 --> 00:18:44.980 he talks about the theological complexity of what happened to us when we believe the 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:45.980 gospel. 00:18:45.980 --> 00:18:50.620 He talks to us about justification and sanctification and glorification and the relationship between 00:18:50.620 --> 00:18:54.779 baptism and the Lord's supper and all sorts of doctrines. 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:58.819 But when you look up in the book of Acts and you see Paul going city to city and church 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:02.200 planting, he doesn't do any of that. 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:06.500 When he goes to the center of the city to talk about the gospel, he doesn't say the 00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:10.579 word justification, sanctification, glorification, election, predestination. 00:19:10.579 --> 00:19:12.500 He doesn't do that. 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:20.660 But he tells the story of the world and the light of the story of Jesus Christ and what 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:23.220 it meant for his life. 00:19:23.220 --> 00:19:27.779 And that's what it means to bear the testimony and word, to be able to tell the story of 00:19:27.779 --> 00:19:33.059 your own life in light of the story of Jesus, of what Jesus has done. 00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:36.099 Now that's not all, however, about witness. 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:41.460 There's one more thing and that's that when you look across the book of Acts to witness 00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:44.380 is always accompanied. 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:47.500 Words are always accompanied with deeds. 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:52.460 It's very rare to look across the Bible and see the ministry of witness where word and 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:57.140 deeds, acts of love, love are separated from one another. 00:19:57.140 --> 00:20:01.579 And instead what we see across the New Testament is that they go hand in hand. 00:20:01.579 --> 00:20:08.940 You can never have witness without word, but witness is always accompanied by acts of love. 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:14.420 The manner of life is absolutely critical to the ministry of witness. 00:20:14.420 --> 00:20:21.059 And Jesus in Matthew chapter five, when he's preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he says, 00:20:21.059 --> 00:20:26.940 my hope for you is that by the way you love people, that the world would see your good 00:20:26.940 --> 00:20:30.820 works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven. 00:20:30.820 --> 00:20:34.460 We're told that deed is absolutely intertwined with word. 00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:37.220 Word is primary, but deed is necessary. 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:39.220 That they're interdependent that they go together. 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:42.220 Acts 20 again that we looked at last week. 00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:49.620 Paul ends his explanation of what ministry is in Acts 20 by saying, by such good works, 00:20:49.620 --> 00:20:52.140 you must help the weak. 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:57.420 And the weak in that the Greek word for weak there means sick, poor or outcast. 00:20:57.420 --> 00:21:02.460 And so he says, Ephesians elders, when you're going, the ministry, yes, is bear the testimony 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:05.980 of the story of Jesus, but don't forget the weak. 00:21:05.980 --> 00:21:10.019 Don't forget good works that they're absolutely necessary. 00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:15.460 Let me tell you a story about this, a true story. 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:23.819 In the early church in the year 360, the Roman emperor Julian wrote a letter to a priest 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.140 named Arsaceus. 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:30.420 And he was a polytheistic priest, a priest of the Roman and Greek religion. 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:36.140 And he headed up one of the large temples in the Macedonia area where lots of these churches 00:21:36.140 --> 00:21:37.580 have been planted. 00:21:37.580 --> 00:21:44.580 And he writes this letter because he's upset the emperor that Christianity has displaced 00:21:44.580 --> 00:21:48.420 the Greek and Roman religion entirely in the region. 00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:49.660 And this is what he says about it. 00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:51.500 Listen to this. 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:54.660 He says this to his chief priest. 00:21:54.660 --> 00:21:59.380 What we are doing to reestablish our religion is not sufficient. 00:21:59.380 --> 00:22:02.500 Why do we think that it is sufficient? 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:09.300 And we have not yet observed how the kindness of the Christians to strangers, their care 00:22:09.300 --> 00:22:15.820 in the burial of the dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance 00:22:15.820 --> 00:22:19.180 the cause of their mission. 00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:23.420 Each of these things should have been practiced by us. 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:29.860 If anyone of the priest is not acting like this, dismiss them or persuade them to. 00:22:29.860 --> 00:22:32.980 Tell the priest to stop drinking so much. 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:35.340 I'm devising a plan. 00:22:35.340 --> 00:22:41.420 Build hostels for the strangers in every city and be kind to the immigrants like the Christians 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:42.420 do. 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:46.180 I'm ordering a fifth of our food supply to be given to the poor. 00:22:46.180 --> 00:22:53.420 It is disgraceful when no Jew is a beggar and the pious Christians not only care for 00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:59.380 their poor, but they do all the work caring for our poor. 00:22:59.380 --> 00:23:03.580 Everyone can see that they are doing it for us. 00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:11.900 The classical mission in the church has always been the Greek word is logos, ethos, pathos, 00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:18.100 meaning logos, the word of the gospel, ethos with character, with good works, and pathos 00:23:18.100 --> 00:23:19.940 with great zeal. 00:23:19.940 --> 00:23:23.460 And that comes together to make mission. 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:29.780 Now we've got to be for the kingdom of God to the point of great cost in word and deed 00:23:29.780 --> 00:23:33.860 ministry and lastly as an instrument of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:33.860 --> 00:23:36.660 And I just want to say something very brief about this. 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:40.540 Jesus says here, Luke says here in verse one. 00:23:40.539 --> 00:23:45.859 I, in the first book, dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. 00:23:45.859 --> 00:23:49.019 He's talking about the gospel of Luke there. 00:23:49.019 --> 00:23:55.579 And some people have said that the book of Acts needs to be renamed the Acts of Jesus 00:23:55.579 --> 00:24:00.579 Christ by the Holy Spirit through the work of his witnesses. 00:24:00.579 --> 00:24:03.899 Because in the book of Luke, it's all that Jesus began to do and the book of Acts, it's 00:24:03.899 --> 00:24:08.619 what Jesus continues to do by the Holy Spirit through his witnesses. 00:24:08.619 --> 00:24:13.419 He says in verse five and six, it's not time for the kingdom to come instead. 00:24:13.419 --> 00:24:15.259 You're about to be baptized by the spirit. 00:24:15.259 --> 00:24:19.099 And it's just simply to note this. 00:24:19.099 --> 00:24:23.379 All of us recall, if you're a Christian today, you are called to be a witness, to take the 00:24:23.379 --> 00:24:30.339 gospel forth, to make disciples, to go into the city, and you do it with the presence 00:24:30.339 --> 00:24:32.739 of the Holy Spirit in your life. 00:24:32.739 --> 00:24:37.859 Meaning you have ministry power. 00:24:37.859 --> 00:24:43.259 Jesus Christ at the beginning of this ministry, the ministry of the church, he issued the Holy 00:24:43.259 --> 00:24:50.979 Spirit to the church, to his people, and has given every single one of us ministry authority. 00:24:50.979 --> 00:24:53.019 You don't go just in and of yourselves. 00:24:53.019 --> 00:24:54.019 You actually hear that. 00:24:54.019 --> 00:25:00.659 You actually go into the world as a witness with ministry authority, with the power of 00:25:00.659 --> 00:25:06.979 Jesus Christ through the spirit commissioned with the presence of God himself with you 00:25:06.980 --> 00:25:09.099 as you go. 00:25:09.099 --> 00:25:14.860 And that means while the calling is huge, you've been given great power. 00:25:14.860 --> 00:25:17.099 That's not of yourself, but of the Holy Spirit. 00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:20.140 Now lastly, let's close with this. 00:25:20.140 --> 00:25:22.299 We've seen the fact of mission and the nature of mission. 00:25:22.299 --> 00:25:26.860 Finally, the how of mission. 00:25:26.860 --> 00:25:32.980 The problem before us as a church, a church in a place like Edinburgh on the Royal Mile 00:25:32.980 --> 00:25:41.620 in 2022 is that we seek and long for revival in the midst of a post-Christian society. 00:25:41.620 --> 00:25:49.539 The latest numbers are that 2.5% of people who live in Scotland attend a gospel preaching 00:25:49.539 --> 00:25:55.220 church at best once a month. 00:25:55.220 --> 00:26:00.980 And that means that the majority of people across the land do not have not heard the 00:26:00.980 --> 00:26:05.860 gospel or not hearing the gospel or not walking through the doors of a church. 00:26:05.860 --> 00:26:11.259 And we have the challenge that only God can bring revival and yet we can be a renewing 00:26:11.259 --> 00:26:17.220 church that prays for revival, that seeks revival, that longs for revival by praying 00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:21.500 and by going out in mission and acting in great wisdom. 00:26:21.500 --> 00:26:24.620 Now let me just say something as we close about the problem. 00:26:24.619 --> 00:26:31.179 The problem is this, that we are in a post-Christian society, not a Christendom culture. 00:26:31.179 --> 00:26:32.259 And what's the difference? 00:26:32.259 --> 00:26:39.579 A Christendom culture is a culture where people will come to church and so getting the word 00:26:39.579 --> 00:26:41.939 out is very easy. 00:26:41.939 --> 00:26:46.899 And a Christendom culture is one where people have shared religious ideas that they all 00:26:46.899 --> 00:26:48.859 basically agree on. 00:26:48.859 --> 00:26:54.059 So very common in Christendom cultures, people believe God exists. 00:26:54.059 --> 00:26:55.899 Something is wrong with me. 00:26:55.899 --> 00:26:59.619 There is a sacred supernatural order that I cannot see. 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:05.220 And that means that you can have in a Christendom culture an attraction mission model in a 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:06.539 church setting. 00:27:06.539 --> 00:27:11.940 Meaning we expect most people in the city to come through a church door at some point 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:13.899 and at some point hear the gospel. 00:27:13.899 --> 00:27:19.940 And so ministry has got to be all about multiplying events within the walls of the church. 00:27:19.940 --> 00:27:24.779 And that's the model in a Christendom culture, but we do not have that. 00:27:24.779 --> 00:27:27.220 Instead we live in a post-Christian culture. 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:34.140 And it's very important to say why sociologists, why theologians call this a post-Christian 00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:35.340 culture. 00:27:35.340 --> 00:27:38.019 And not just a non-Christian culture, but a post-Christian culture. 00:27:38.019 --> 00:27:45.259 And the reason for that is in a post-Christian culture, the culture actually wants the goods 00:27:45.259 --> 00:27:46.900 of Christianity. 00:27:46.900 --> 00:27:53.220 It wants the goods of the kingdom of God without acknowledging the king of the kingdom. 00:27:53.220 --> 00:27:57.540 And so the goods that Christianity brought to the west like democracy and freedom and 00:27:57.540 --> 00:28:01.100 individual rights and voting and the list could go on and on. 00:28:01.100 --> 00:28:05.540 The culture wants those goods, but doesn't want to acknowledge the king, the Christianity 00:28:05.540 --> 00:28:08.220 that brought those goods into the culture. 00:28:08.220 --> 00:28:14.259 And so one pastor puts it like this, if it is true that more and more people lack any 00:28:14.259 --> 00:28:19.140 common religious foundation and that the dominant cultural narratives are making the 00:28:19.140 --> 00:28:24.500 Christian faith more offensive, not less, then we've got to find new and compelling 00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:29.099 ways to share the gospel in this new generation. 00:28:29.099 --> 00:28:31.460 Now let me just leave you with this. 00:28:31.460 --> 00:28:34.619 Two things, two ways to do this, two very important ways. 00:28:34.619 --> 00:28:37.940 And this is what we're going to be taking up, coming up at the engine room on Wednesday 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:39.779 nights, the how of this. 00:28:39.779 --> 00:28:40.779 And here they are. 00:28:40.779 --> 00:28:47.259 In this new generation, relationships are everything, relationships are everything. 00:28:47.259 --> 00:28:53.259 For most of church history, sharing the gospel has actually happened through lay people, 00:28:53.259 --> 00:28:59.059 non-ordained people, talking to others about the faith through close association, friendship, 00:28:59.059 --> 00:29:02.139 colleagues, family members and neighbors. 00:29:02.139 --> 00:29:05.940 That's been the majority method throughout all of Christian history. 00:29:05.940 --> 00:29:11.220 And today in the 21st century, people are moved much more by relationships than anything 00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:12.220 else. 00:29:12.220 --> 00:29:13.220 People are looking for community. 00:29:13.220 --> 00:29:18.900 And so relationships are pivotal for sharing the gospel, for being on mission in this new 00:29:18.900 --> 00:29:19.900 age. 00:29:19.900 --> 00:29:26.059 Secondly, and lastly, it's very likely as well that in the midst of those relationships 00:29:26.059 --> 00:29:31.940 that gospel conversations today are going to be, have to be different than they've been 00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:34.380 in the past. 00:29:34.380 --> 00:29:37.180 And let me just give you one quick example. 00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:42.300 In the past, it's not uncommon for a person to say something like, I don't know how there 00:29:42.300 --> 00:29:47.940 can be a God in the midst of all the evil that I see around me, the problem of evil, 00:29:47.940 --> 00:29:50.380 very classic. 00:29:50.380 --> 00:29:58.460 But today it may be more common that people are actually asking questions about what Christianity 00:29:58.460 --> 00:30:08.819 provides for them that they can't get elsewhere, such as, can I find a meaning in life that 00:30:08.819 --> 00:30:12.480 won't be taken away from me? 00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:15.900 Is there a satisfaction in this world that isn't fleeting? 00:30:15.900 --> 00:30:20.180 Is there a freedom that isn't just based on my feelings? 00:30:20.180 --> 00:30:25.660 Is there a justice that doesn't get redefined with every single public protest? 00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:30.460 Is there love that is something more than a market transaction where people will come 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:33.820 and they'll go quickly from my life? 00:30:33.820 --> 00:30:40.820 And people, that means people today in the modern secular West, they lack fulfillment. 00:30:40.820 --> 00:30:46.420 And the gospel comes and says that there is ultimate freedom in Jesus Christ. 00:30:46.420 --> 00:30:49.540 There's an identity that can't be taken away from you in Jesus Christ. 00:30:49.540 --> 00:30:52.860 There's meaning that will never leave you in Jesus Christ. 00:30:52.860 --> 00:30:54.180 There's hope that is secured. 00:30:54.180 --> 00:30:56.860 There's life in Jesus Christ, not death. 00:30:56.860 --> 00:31:00.299 There's God himself in the coming of the gospel. 00:31:00.299 --> 00:31:03.220 You get God, you get the very thing you were made for. 00:31:03.220 --> 00:31:04.340 He doesn't change. 00:31:04.340 --> 00:31:09.500 And that's likely the way the gospel will need to be presented in this modern secular 00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:10.500 age. 00:31:10.500 --> 00:31:17.220 Now, 2.5% attendance in gospel preaching churches throughout the land. 00:31:17.220 --> 00:31:22.500 We are called to be witnesses, and so we have an enormous task in front of us in the coming 00:31:22.500 --> 00:31:24.100 age. 00:31:24.099 --> 00:31:35.579 And all of this, none of this, I should say, is to make us feel crushed by guilt or inspired. 00:31:35.579 --> 00:31:42.179 Because guilt and inspirational motivational talks, TED talks, have no sustaining value 00:31:42.179 --> 00:31:44.379 in our lives. 00:31:44.379 --> 00:31:49.740 The only way that we are going, that we as a church family are going to leave this place 00:31:49.740 --> 00:31:57.259 and be about the mission of witness that we've been called to, is if every single day we 00:31:57.259 --> 00:32:02.779 look up and say, I want to be a witness for Jesus Christ because I know that I am the 00:32:02.779 --> 00:32:06.380 person who has received ultimate mercy. 00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:09.620 I know today that without the gospel, I have nothing. 00:32:09.620 --> 00:32:15.620 I know today that all I have is Jesus Christ and that He's come for me in great love. 00:32:15.620 --> 00:32:18.940 And so I'm willing and I'm ready to go out in great love. 00:32:18.940 --> 00:32:23.340 God can't do it, and inspirational talks can't do it. 00:32:23.340 --> 00:32:28.940 It's got to be the power of the gospel itself in our day-to-day lives. 00:32:28.940 --> 00:32:34.100 We've got to be able to say, I've been shown great mercy, and so I'm ready to step forward 00:32:34.100 --> 00:32:35.380 and show great mercy. 00:32:35.380 --> 00:32:39.059 That is the power that motivates true mission. 00:32:39.059 --> 00:32:40.059 Let's pray together. 00:32:40.059 --> 00:32:47.580 Father, we ask that you would send us from this place with hearts motivated and moved 00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:52.419 by the power of the gospel to be witnesses for the sake of the kingdom. 00:32:52.419 --> 00:32:54.980 And we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:32:54.980 --> 00:33:20.940 Amen.