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Back to The Future: The On Purpose Church
Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorite movies, and my favorite trilogy of movies.
And one thing you’ll quickly learn about me is that I think of everything in terms of movies.
One thing that I like to do is wonder which actors would play which of my friends.
Do you ever do that?
Craig (need picture) = Robin Williams.
Not because he is funny, but because his nose and his chin are both the same length.
Paul?
Uly?
Me?
I constantly find analogies and parallels between movies and the Bible.
Not that the movie writers are Christians or anything, but there are definitely parallels between character types, story themes, etc., that can be an effective illustration of the Gospel.
In Back to the Future, a couple parallels I see will serve as our ongoing analogies for our message series this month.
While Valley Avon is continuing in the Because You Asked series, we are going to examine God’s vision for us as a church here in Bristol.
As we go through this series, I encourage you to also listen to or watch the Because You Asked series online.
We will look at God’s vision for us in 4 steps:
First, what is the purpose of the church in the first place?
That’s what we will look at today as we take a 30,000 ft view of why God established the church, and what the church’s primary mission is.
What it means to be an On Purpose Church
Next week, we will look at what our obedience to God’s commands for us as a church should produce in us as we are faithfully obedient.
What it means to be a selfless church.
Our third week will focus on our work as disciple-makers, and our specific philosophy and methods that we will use here at Bristol.
What it means to be a disciple-making church
And finally, our fourth week will examine what our specific role in our city will be, as found in, and founded upon God’s Word.
What it means to be a community church
And, just as a bonus, our Labor Day weekend service is going to be one big party.
We are going to thank God profusely for His provision and faithfulness to Bristol over its first three years.
We are going to celebrate each and every volunteer among us, and thank God for them.
We will have a couple of testimonies about how God grown some of you through being a part of Valley Bristol.
And we will officially step into our new future as we praise God for the new chapter into which He is leading us.
But first thing’s first.
Today we begin our Back to the Future: What the Church is Meant to Be series, which is all about God’s intention and vision for us as His church.
We are looking at the big picture today, the main purpose of the church as a whole, and how that same purpose applies to us as Valley Bristol today.
So we are calling today’s message; Back to the Future: The On Purpose Church.
The reason we are using the Back to the Future theme is; a) its an awesome movie and its fun.
b) In order to properly discern God’s vision for Valley Bristol in our next chapter, we need to go back to God’s intent for the church in the first place, and that will inform what our future might hold:
The DeLorean (picture): Apart from being a really cool-looking, yet bad running car, the DeLorean was the vessel, empowered by the Flux Capacitor, that brought Doc Brown and Marty McFly all around the space time continuum.
For us, the DeLorean represents discipleship.
Now, as I have learned, I don’t see the dichotomy between evangelism and discipleship.
I see discipleship as the vessel, the DeLorean if you will, that takes you to everywhere you go in the Christian life.
From evangelism and onward, discipleship is the vessel we take.
And for us as a church, we need to see discipleship as such, so that we don’t create a false dichotomy between two coexisting aspects of our Christian life.
And in that, discipleship is much more than just head knowledge and Bible trivia, discipleship is our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual transformation into people who are more Christ-like.
Yes, knowledge is a part of that, but not the only part.
And of course, for discipleship to be possible, it must be empowered by God, or, for our illustration, the Flux Capacitor.
In the clip we just watched, Doc Brown and Marty McFly have just returned from the future to find that their home in 1985 is all messed up.
The 1985 that they came back to is not the same 1985 from which they left.
They are in an alternate 1985.
The things that were actually true about 1985 had been altered, and now 1985 is a bizarro world that bears only a slight resemblance to what it was supposed to be in reality.
I want to suggest to you that the same thing has happened to the western Christian church to a degree.
Of course, the church is the Bride of Christ and so I want to be careful not to throw stones at her, because I am a part of her, as are those of you who trust in Jesus alone for salvation.
At the same time, we cannot deny that the western church is not in need of a course correction when it comes to the church’s primary purpose and mission on earth.
In modern times, the church has become about so many things, and in the process, we’ve lost sight of the main thing, our God-given purpose, and our reason to be gathered together in the first place.
We read about the early church today, and we look at it and we desire to be a part of that kind of body of believers, and the fact that we do that tells us that we do not live in such a community of Christians.
In modern times, the church has become about so many things, and in the process, we’ve lost sight of the main thing, our God-given purpose, and our reason to be gathered together in the first place.
As we go through this month of August, we are looking at God’s purpose for us as a church as we prepare to reach the city of Bristol in Jesus’ Name.
And to do this, we need to first look at the why the church was established in the first place.
The Reason God Established the Church was to proclaim the Gospel to the nations
The Result of the Church’s Existence is a Community of People who love God and each other sacrificially
It is important to note right at the start, that there is a difference between the spiritual and practical purpose of the church, and the relational benefits of the church.
In other words, there is a difference between the reason the church was established, and the results of the church’s existence.
And the problem that has stifled the church’s mission in recent decades and maybe even over the past century or so, is that we’ve mixed up the results of the church for the reason for the church.
Its time now to get in our DeLoreans and go Back to the Future as we discover what it means to be an On Purpose Church.
Lets pray.
Ok, as we seek mission clarity from this passage, let’s break it down into bite size sections, and from there, we can draw very logical conclusions as to God’s primary purpose for establishing the church on earth.
Scripture is clear that faith in Christ is what transforms one’s life, replacing fear and anxiety with bold confidence that rests on the sure promises of God.
Paul is clear in these verses, even referencing that the salvation of Jesus Christ is available to anyone and everyone who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
That’s why Paul writes that the blessing of faith in Christ is open to both the Jew and Gentile, and their respective differences between them are no longer so when the source of their lives is found in Jesus Christ.
“Calling on the Lord...”
According to the Apostle Paul, calling on the Lord and trusting in Him are very much the same thing.
Paul acknowledges that we call on the Lord for salvation, but he also indicates that we call on the Lord throughout our lives as we grow and mature in Christ Jesus.
And so, what we learn from these verses is that it is essential for new life, and for maturing life, that all people call on the name of the Lord.
In other words, evangelism, that is, the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what the world needs.
Now, Paul continues this line of argument and teaching with the next logical step.
Here, Paul uses three rhetorical questions to make his point.
First, no one can call on someone they don’t believe in.
This underlines his previous point that evangelism is absolutely necessary for the world that is lost in sin.
Second, no one can believe in someone they’ve never heard of.
A person needs to hear the gospel before they can receive or reject it.
Now, the verb “hear” is figurative and literal.
In Paul’s day, there weren’t printing presses.
In fact, this book of Romans that we are reading from right now did not exist yet.
And, while they did have the Septuagint (an early OT), the predominant way to spread any kind of news or information was word of mouth.
It is literal in that the believers are now being charged to literally, orally, tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which they profess to believe themselves.
For us today, “hear” is both literal and figurative, in that, there are tons of non-oral ways to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
Think about the fact that it would blow the Apostle Paul’s mind that I can write this message that I’m preaching today, and in a matter of seconds, it can be available on the other side of the world.
What do you think Paul would think about how we use our unlimited and unfettered access to worldwide media and information distribution?
Third, the need for hearing requires someone to share the news, i.e., an evangelist.
In these short verses, Paul teaches us that
We are saved to serve, and the most important element of that service is to bear witness to the saving power of Christ.
No one can call on someone they don’t believe in.
No one can believe in someone they’ve never heard of.
Someone needs to tell them about the hope and life in Jesus Christ.
Now, Paul is writing to a church, the church at Rome, that is, a community of Roman believers.
So the next line indicates the mission of that community, i.e., the church.
Paul says that those who proclaim the gospel are sent to do so.
That those who are sent are intended to proclaim the Gospel, that’s why they are sent.
Well,
Who has God sent in this age?
The Church.
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