Conversations within a missional Church

The waiting is over! It’s Christmas.

Two thousand years ago, the nation of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah for hundreds of years. The waiting was over, the Messiah was born.

Living in the church age we miss the significance of what it meant to wait for Jesus. For us it is a historical fact.  

But when Jesus did arrive, many people missed him. They missed his coming because they were expecting something grand and earth shaking. Yet the moment God took on flesh was almost anticlimactic, and the nation missed the significance of the incarnation, they missed the Messiah.

Mary was a young mother, poor and desperate. She was not a household name; people didn’t notice her and Joseph walking into Bethlehem that night. They were non-descript poor folk from out of town.

Jesus was born in a stable and placed in an animal feeding trough. The smell of urine and dung was heavy in the air. There was no midwife, no sterile surgery, nor any attendants. The Messiah was born.

The religious leaders of the day, if they were even looking for the birth of the Messiah, would have looked to palace courts and wealthy homes, people of renown, people who would be worthy of raising the Christ Child. But Jesus was born in poverty, the most humble of births.

He was one of us. The God who created the universe by speaking a word, is now one of us.

I want to look at four ways Jesus identified with us.

Born as one of us.

 Jesus was born vulnerable, weak, and dependent on his family (See Luke 2:6-7).

God’s presence in the flesh, presented as simply as a baby in a feeding trough. Raised by the most unlikely couple.

Mary and Joseph were humble, but they both responded to God the same way, when He promised His presence through this miraculous baby, they believed!

Jesus was born, the one called “Immanuel”, which means, “God with us” (See Matthew 1:23).

Jesus was born like us, vulnerable, weak, and dependent on his family. In his perfect humanity, he needed others to care for him. Just like us.

Lived as one of us.

Jesus lived as “God with us”, enjoying life’s pleasures and enduring life’s moments of boredom and pain. The Bible tells us that in Luke 2, that he was strong and filled with wisdom. He had the favor of God on him, and he loved to spend time in the temple questioning the teachers. But he also lived a normal life.

Jesus lived like us, enjoying life’s pleasures, he played games, got bored, and enjoyed a good meal (See Matthew 11:19).

He fasted, he stayed up all night praying and then he also slept when others couldn’t. He spent years learning a blue-collar trade and worked with his hands. He made friends and lost friends, just like us. In fact, Jesus was so normal, that his own family thought he was crazy when he began his ministry and began attracting crowds (See Mark 3:21). They didn’t know at that time; he was God in the flesh.

Suffered as one of us.

Jesus suffered as “God with us”, getting sick, growing tired, losing loved ones, and fighting temptations (See Hebrews 4:15).  Just like us.

Jesus experienced the heartbreak of betrayal. He felt the brokenness of this world and the limits of his own body. Just like us.

Jesus has empathy for us because he suffered like us in this world. He knows the pain and struggles of these earthly bodies. He is not aloof and distant from your suffering. He suffered like us.

Died as one of us.

Then Jesus did something you and I haven’t done. Something very human, but still very foreign to us, he died.

We all will die one day, but we haven’t yet. Jesus has experienced something universally human—but that we living humans haven’t gone through yet. Jesus died as “God with us” (See 1 Peter 3:18).

Because Jesus died and rose again, we can approach our own death with confidence that death is not the end (See 1 Corinthians 15:19–21).

Jesus experienced the full weight of the curse, the loneliness and horror of death, so that we would be able to approach death knowing we are not alone.

Joining Jesus in his death, we will also join him in his resurrection life. Jesus became like us so that we could become like him— alive forever.

Christmas, the birth of Jesus is way more than significant than a baby being born, it is the reality of God himself, becoming like one of us to identify with us, to live, suffer and die as we do, so that we could know that He is real.

There are millions of people who go to church every year, who are attracted to the idea of Jesus, but miss out on the reality of the person Jesus. Do you know the reality of Jesus, the person who lived and died for you?

For everyone of us, we need to have the moment when we are drawn by the holy spirit into the reality of Jesus.

You see, we as church goers and good Christians can get so tied up with the idea of Jesus and the rote spiritual disciplines, all of which are good, but we can connect with the idea of Jesus and never really grow in relationship with Jesus.

You cannot have joy in a relationship with the idea of a person, you need to know the reality of the person (See John 15:11).

No other religion has a god who came down and humbled himself to invite us into a relationship that is life giving and full of Joy.

Every other religion is a series of steps to attain to, to become like their god or to seek approval from a deity. Only the one true God has become like us, to save us.

Are you one of His children?

Do you like waiting?

Waiting can often be painful, in fact, some of the greatest pain we face in life is because we are waiting. Waiting for dreams to be fulfilled, waiting for God to break through and answer our prayers.

But God is never in a rush, He is always on time, and we struggle with that.

Maybe you are in a season of waiting, and it seems that God is not hearing your cry.  

Before the birth of Jesus, Israel was waiting. They had been promised a messiah, who would redeem them and set them free. There had been so many prophesies about a messiah who would establish a new kingdom, and they were waiting.  

But as hopeless as the situation was, God was at work. God was orchestrating all human history to this one pivotal moment in time (see Galatians 4:4).

Zechariah and Elizabeth were also waiting, waiting for God to bless them with a child, a hope that they had given up on. There is so much in the account of Zechariah and Elizabeth that reminds us of Abraham and Sarah, almost 1800 years earlier. They were both old and beyond childbearing age, they both had angelic visitations and they were both promised a son who would fulfill the promises of God.  

Zechariah and Elizabeth righteous and devout people, blameless before God (see Luke 1:6), and yet they had no children. They had an unfulfilled dream; they were carrying pain. The Bible makes it clear that their pain was not because of some sin they had committed.

Many of us can identify with that kind of pain. Dreams of childless parents, yearning for a child. Dreams of being married when the years seem to be rushing by. Dreams of health when the chronic illness seems to linger on. The temptation is to think that maybe you did something wrong, maybe you disappointed God, maybe you missed what God had planned for you.

Sometimes our pain can be as a result of sin, but often it is not.  So, we stand before God, waiting, sometimes with feelings of bitterness (God, what have you done?), guilt (God, what have I done?), or both. Waiting on God’s presence, we find it hard to hope for good news.

Mostly, our struggle is because we have an expectation in mind, a timeline that we expect God to move in. But God works for His glory, and the greater the miracle, the more God gets the praise.  

Zechariah and Elizabeth were waiting, the nation was waiting. While they were waiting, they continued to be faithful (see Luke 1:10). Even a multitude of people outside the temple were waiting, expectant for God to move in power for them. Zachariah was faithful and even after all the years of silence from God, he was still burning the incense and obeying the law.

As we know, God heard their prayers and at the appointed time, the Savior, the light of the world was revealed, and their hope was fulfilled.

God sent the angel Gabriel, to announce the birth of John the Baptist, the one who would prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah. Finally, the four hundred years of silence was over, God has spoken!

But even with the incredible visitation of Gabriel, Zechariah didn’t believe (see Luke 1:19). In spite of this declaration and display of heavenly presence, Zechariah doubts. He explains to Gabriel that he is simply too old to be a father.

We must remember that Zechariah was a priest, and he would have taught the scriptures telling the account of Abraham and Sarah who were blessed with Isaac, even when Sarah was ninety years old. He knew the history, he believed God could do it, but he didn’t believe it for himself.

This is something we all struggle with. When we hear an amazing testimony of God answering prayer for someone, we doubt that God could do that for me.

There is a difference between knowing God’s promise intellectually and waiting on God’s promise personally.

God delivered on His promise and Elizabeth conceived. Her shame and decades of reproach were removed (See Luke 1:25).

But this was no ordinary child. This was to be John the Baptist, the one prophesied in Isaiah 40:3. And later Jesus would say that John was the greatest man ever born (See Matthew 11:11).

Not only was the promise fulfilled, but it was also way more significant that Zechariah or Elizabeth could have imagined. The waiting was over, the promise was about to be fulfilled.

What are you waiting for from God today?

Does it seem that God is taking too long? Maybe you feel that He is not hearing your cry?

“Be assured that if God waits longer than you could wish. It is only to make the blessing doubly precious. God waited four thousand years, till the fullness of time, ere he sent His son. Our times are in His hands; He will make haste for our help speedily; He will make haste for our help, and not delay one hour too long”. Andrew Murray

God is never late in fulfilling His promises.

Is there an area in your life where you feel “barren,” failing to live up to your own (or someone else’s) expectations?

Why don’t you take that pain to the Lord today, wait on His perfect timing and trust Him for the outcome.

Last week, Debbie and I were blessed to attend a conference called Replenish, hosted by the North American Mission Board. We have attended similar conferences before and have always enjoyed the time of worship, encouragement and refocusing on the call of God on our lives.

However, we noticed that something was different with this conference. And as we processed the sessions of teaching, we realized that none of the speakers were pastors of large churches or had authored best-selling Christian books. In fact, you would probably have never heard of their names. But the content of their talks was life giving and real. Filled with, “in the trenches” stories of real life and ministry in a small to medium church environment. This is something I was longing for in our age of celebrity Christianity.

The Apostle Paul made a similar point to the church in Corinth, when he wrote, “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, all you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s”, 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

Apparently at that time in the early church, there was division between groups of people who had been baptized by different church leaders. The church members were prideful in their association with the leader who had baptized them and this was causing painful disunity in the Body of Christ. The root concern is people who follow man rather than following the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. And sadly, this still occurs today, and even on a greater scale than the first century church.

The greatest tragedy in following man is that everyone is a sinner saved by grace and flawed. The more we set our eyes on a fallible leader, the more likely we are to be disappointed by them in the future.

Most of you have heard about the challenges that Forerunner Church and IHOP are facing currently. My goal is not to make any judgment since we don’t know the outcome of the investigation.

In a situation like this, we are often tempted to point fingers and jump to conclusions, maybe even posting our opinions of the church on social media. I would suggest that we refrain from any such activity, as it will produce no life-giving fruit.

In preceding verses of 1 Corinthians 3 we read, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God,” 1 Corinthians 3:18-19.

I would suggest that the wisdom we need to apply is to grieve with those who grieve, love them and care for them as we are invited to do so. Most of all, we should be praying for the church, praying that the Body of Christ in South Kansas City will become known for proclaiming and demonstrating the hope of the Gospel. And as a church we would always set our eyes on Jesus as we are encouraged to do in Hebrews 12:2.

Pastors and churches don’t always have healthy relationships. Sometimes leaders fail to lead, and other times congregations do not follow. The author of Hebrews writes clearly about this as he closes the letter (see Hebrews 13:17-19). 

Let’s look at what he says to the leaders first.

Leaders are People Who Lead

There is no shortage of training, books, and seminars on leadership, but sadly there is a lack of godly leaders in the church—leaders who lead humbly and selflessly like Christ. 

The author points out three characteristics of a godly church leader: 

Watchfulness

Hebrews 13:17 says church leaders keep watch over their congregation’s souls. 

The picture here is of a shepherd who is vigilant as he sacrificially watches over the flock. The elders/pastors of the church are to primarily focus on the spiritual growth of the church. 

What does that look like practically?

• Watch against false doctrine.

This is more than teaching the truth; it is also ensuring that people are not veering off into false doctrines (See Acts 20:28-30). 

The enemy has always tried to twist the truth and infect the church with false teachers. The elders are to stand united in the truth as they proactively guard it. 

• Watch against deceitful behavior.

In 3 John, John warns the church about a man called Diotrephes (3 John 9).  Evidently, he was a man who loved the power of leadership and was full of pride. The church has always been susceptible to men and women who take advantage of position. The elders are called to expose and root out such behavior. 

• Watch against divisive behavior.

Splits and factions in the church caused by divisive people will always be a challenge for leaders to identify and confront (see Titus 3:10-11). This divisiveness doesn’t just affect one or two people, it affects the whole church. 

•  Watch for spiritual growth.

The elders are to keep alert and diligent for the spiritual development of the church. We all have a responsibility to be growing in our faith and knowledge of the Word. The elders’ role is to keep people moving forward. 

Accountability

Hebrews 13:17 says that Christian leaders will be called to give an account for how they performed their duties (see Hebrews 13:17). This is a sobering reminder for anyone in Christian leadership. 

This accountability is two-fold: 

1. To the church.

Churches should expect that the pastor/elder maintains a Christian walk that sets an example for the believers. 

2. To the Lord. 

One day we will all stand before the Lord, and he will judge us based on our calling and the gifts that he has given us (see James 3:1). Church leaders should expect to give account for their leadership of the flock. 

Conduct

Hebrews 13:18 reminds us that the behavior of the leader must set an example for the church. 

Pastors are ranked based on their skills in preaching, administration, counseling, and others.  But how highly do we rank their character?

The way a spiritual leader behaves in private and public must never waiver from his Christian convictions (see 1 Timothy 3:2). The history of the church is littered with men who have lived double lives and brought shame and destruction on the church. Character matters more than skills. A Christian leader whose character matches their convictions should be commended. 

Congregations are People Who Follow

What is the response of the congregation?

Faithful leaders need faithful congregations who are committed to the mission of the church. 

Sadly, in our entertainment saturated and individualistic society, we have many people who view the church as simply a convenient societal construct that we can attend or participate in as it suits us.  

But the gathering of the Body of Christ is powerful and vital for all believers. This was tested during the COVID season in 2020 (see Hebrews 10:24-25). 

We are called to stir one another up, holding each other accountable in areas of spiritual disciplines. This cannot happen if one attends church once a month. 

As we come closer to Christ’s return, we must regularly encourage one another by meeting together. The days of passive church semi-attendance are over. We don’t value church because it has become too much of a convenience and not an essential priority when in fact we should prioritize gathering together over sports, schoolwork, family events, etc. 

What characterizes a faithful congregation?

Obedience 

Hebrews 13:17a tells us that obedience is required. This phrase conjures up pictures of authoritarian leaders forcing their subjects into submission, but this is not at all what is taught here. 

The church is to obey and submit to the leaders as they see the leaders taking the responsibility seriously for caring for their souls. Servant leadership compels people to submit out of love. It is the model Jesus gave us. 

Unity 

Hebrews 13:17b tells us that it is to our advantage when we follow our leaders in unity.How we respond to leadership in the church affects the whole church. We are a family that is sometimes messy and sometimes challenging, but we are a family drawn together by the Spirit of God. We labor, learn, and share joy and grief together (see 1 Corinthians 12:26-27). 

When the church walks together in unity, despite differences, it produces fruit that is profitable for the whole church. 

Prayer 

Hebrews 13:18 tells us to pray for our leaders. As leaders pray for the church, the church should pray for them. What if, instead of focusing on our leaders’ deficiencies, we prayed for the Lord to bless them? 

Kent Hughes writes, “How different the modern church would be if the majority of its people prayed for its pastors and lay leadership. There would be supernatural suspensions of business-as-usual worship. There would be more times of inexplicable visitations from the Holy Spirit. More lay people would come to grips with the deeper issues of life. The leadership vacuum would evaporate. There would be more conversions.”

If we are to move forward in health as a church, it begins with the prayer meetings. The gathering of the church to pray is the most important meeting of the week.

 Will you commit to follow our church’s leaders in unity and pray for us?

I believe that one  disservice that churches throughout the centuries have committed is confusing solemnity for holiness. A grim attitude and hushed silence is appropriate for a funeral, but a person who acts this way in church is not more holy than the next person. 

Now, I am not in favor of gross disorder, but we could do with a bit more joy in our church services—and here is why: we are a chosen and redeemed people who have been set free from the bonds of sin and death. Why then are most churches filled with seemingly emotionless people? Of all people in the world, Christians have the most reason to be joyful.

Joy and Happiness

There is a difference between joy and happiness. 

Happiness is dependent on external factors. We experience happiness because of things that happen to us, things outside of us that we see or experience. Thus, happiness is not really a choice we make.

Joy, on the other hand, is a purposeful choice, and it is much deeper and more significant than happiness. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit that flows out of a relationship with Christ Jesus as Lord of our lives (see Galatians 5:22-23). 

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a one-verse parable in verse 44. This parable is about a man finding the treasure of the kingdom of God. He finds the Gospel and realizes that in order to gain the reward of the kingdom of heaven, it will cost nothing and everything at the same time. He goes joyfully to sell all he has. As followers of Jesus, we are called to sacrifice by dying to ourselves, giving up our dreams and submitting our lives to the lordship of Jesus. But it is not a burden, because as Jesus taught in this parable, there is greater joy in the kingdom of heaven than the earth. This world is not a joyful place. But the joy of the Lord is a joy that no one can take away. It is a deep-seated peace with God, founded on faith in God and His eternal promises. 

Joy and Fruit

During the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples, he shared many things, including the call of God on his followers to be joyful. Being joyful is directly connected to bearing fruit. In John 15, Jesus describes himself as the vine, the Father as the vinedresser, and his followers as the branches that are pruned and called to produce fruit. According to verse 5, this fruit comes from abiding in Jesus.  

Abiding in Jesus is walking with Jesus. It impacts and incorporates our whole lives. Abiding in Christ affects where we go, what we do, and what we think about. We are called to abide in Christ and bear fruit in every dimension and aspect of our lives. We cannot expect to abide with Jesus for one hour a week and then produce fruit!

So what fruit are we to bear for Christ? Our minds might immediately go to the task of soul winning and discipleship. But what if that kind of fruit is really the byproduct of the real fruit? I would suggest that the fruit that Jesus is talking about in John 15 is the fruit of the Spirit, which Galatians 5:22-23 tells us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What if people were drawn to Christ and to Christlikeness because of the fruit of the Spirit we display, specifically the joy we exude?

Joy and Prayer

In John 15:7, Jesus makes a promise that has been grossly misused by believers all over the world, saying, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” In fact, Jesus repeats a similar phrase six times in chapter 14,15, and 16.  

When Jesus said, “whatever you ask for in my name”, he’s not giving us a formula for getting whatever we want; rather, he’s laying down a principle of aligning our desires with God’s. As we pray in Jesus’ name for the kinds of things Jesus himself would pray for, things that will honor God and bring glory to His name, God will give us what we ask so that He receives the glory (see John 16:24). 

James explains this in James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

As you abide in Jesus and pray in his name, you will be filled with joy (see John 15:11). 

Joy and Sin

How many times have you heard in church that joy is the key to overcoming sin? Unfortunately, probably not very many. Sadly, we are given the impression that the best way to overcome sin is to live a monastic lifestyle and never enjoy any of the blessings that God gives us. That is willpower religion, and it does not produce life or fruit. Trying to live the Christian life separated from the vine, hoping to be good enough to produce fruit on our own, is dead religion, and the result is what we read in verse 6—it leads to being cut off from Christ. 

In truth, the joy that comes from abiding in Christ is what gives us victory over sin and temptation in our lives. As we taste and see that the Lord and His ways are good (see Psalm 34:8), our affection for lesser things will fade.

Losing and Choosing Joy

This is a difficult conversation with Jesus because we so easily lose our joy. We are too easily pleased by the happy things of this world. God designed you and I to rejoice in Him. That is what we were made for; do not settle for a lesser joy. 

In order to have joy, we must be born again. Without Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will have fleeting moments of happiness but lack the deep-seated peace with God that allows us to experience joy. 

But even after we are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, there are circumstances that cause us to lose our joy. We might lose our joy through sickness, suffering, and depression, or by being overcome by the cares of the world. Psalm 55:22 is a great promise for these times, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

We can also lose our joy through unforgiveness, unrepented sin, anxiety, and fear. When we bring these to the cross of Jesus in repentance, we can once again know the fullness of joy that Jesus promised. 

Where have you lost your joy today? You can regain it by abiding in Christ.