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The Provocative Church-The Society Of The King (2 of 6)

By Charlie Vensel | June 14, 2008

NOTE: This Sermon Series is based on Graham Tomlin’s Book, The Provocative Church, and a sermon series done by Rev. John Holland at New Covenant Anglican Church in Oviedo, FL.

We are in the second week of a six-week series on becoming a provocative church. Evangelism is not only fearful for many inside the church, but is also distasteful to many outside the church. We live in a culture where it is a sin to proselytize, where you are welcome to believe nearly anything you want so long as you don’t try to convince another. People make private choices about religion from the buffet of spiritualities on display. There are no longer any grand stories that give us identity and morality and beauty. In this context, Christianity supposedly has been shown up. Pilate’s question to Jesus captures our day well, “What is truth?” (John 18:38 NIV)

Yet Jesus came to witness to the truth. His kingship is not won by the political and military revolutions as common in the ancient world as they are today. No, Jesus’ kingship was demonstrated through the sacrificial love that overcame the power of evil and atoned for sin. His kingdom is one of mercy, justice, compassion, truth and ,above all, love.

The task of evangelism, therefore, is inviting people to come under this rule, his lordship. Evangelism is the call to enter the kingdom of God. Last week we saw that evangelism works best when we so desire God that the unreached are attracted to the faith and when we live such public, holy lives that the lost are provoked to inquire about the faith. This morning, I want to reemphasize that the ministry of evangelism is done best by a community, by the church as a whole and then by individuals.

Let us pray…

As Graham Tomlin suggests, the legend of Robin Hood captures in a number of ways what the kingdom of God is and what it means for us to be the people of the king. In the tale, Richard the Lion-heart, King of England, is away fighting the Third Crusade, and during his absence Prince John oppresses the people with economic and social injustice and conspires to take the throne. In Sherwood Forest, a nobleman who has been denied his title gathers a band of followers to oppose the injustices of Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood and his Merry Men take from the rich and give to the poor. For the nation, they symbolize the hope of restored justice when King Richard returns. To the sheriff and prince, they symbolize the certainty of their defeat. And in the forest as they feast and sing and dance, Robin Hood and the Merry Men, along with Maid Marian, anticipate the celebration when Richard finally lands on English shores again.

The legend of Robin Hood illustrates the church’s role in the world. We are the band of men and women who witness to the merciful justice of the true king, who enact his rule in the present, who remind the powers of this age that their time is up and who anticipate now in our celebrations the joy of Jesus coming return. We are a society of King Jesus, an outpost of the New Jerusalem. And evangelism works best when each local church lives and serves in just this way. When collectively, rather than just individually, we are his royal priests for the sake of the world around us.

The phrase “royal priesthood” or “a kingdom of priests” comes from the Old Testament lesson. In Exodus 19, Israel has arrived at Mount Sinai. The ancient people of God had seen what the Lord had done to Egypt in the ten plagues and the deliverance at the Red Sea. Like a mother eagle, the Lord has pushed Israel out the nest and swooped down to catch the hatchling on her back carrying it to safety. Like a bridegroom, the Lord came for his bride to led her to his chamber.

Now that the redeemed nation stood in God’s presence, it was time for the wedding ceremony. Israel was to enter covenant with God. The Lord made lavish promises of love. Although the whole earth belonged to God, Israel would be his treasured possession. The nation was his “kingdom of priests,” meaning this nation which God ruled was composed of a priestly people. Every Israelite was to live wholly in God’s service and to enjoy the right of access to him. And, as priests, the people had the responsibility of representing God to the nations by carrying out the duties of priests: bearing the Word of God; praying for the peoples; and ministering through the sacrificial system. So while Israel was “a holy nation” set apart to God in his love and service, that service included the call to magnify his name to the Gentiles.

How was Israel to do this? “…obey me fully and keep my covenant,” (Exodus 19:5 NIV) the Lord said. Israel had to pay attention to the word, and she had to faithfully obey it. Listening obedience was required of her. And it is still required of God’s people today. As Moses led Israel from slavery in Egypt to the presence of God at Sinai, so Jesus has led all those who trust in him from the slavery of sin and death to the presence of God by the Holy Spirit.

Christ has rescued us. He is our mother eagle, the Robin Hood to our Maid Marian. And we are his people, his society. The apostles Peter and John quoted Exodus 19:6 and applied the phrase “a kingdom of priests” to Jewish and Gentile Christians alike. We are God’s treasured possession. We are his royal priesthood bearing the message, praying for a lost world, and ministering his sacramental presence.

How do we do that? By listening obedience! Dear friends, if we truly desire to reach Littleton with the good news of Jesus’ lordship, then we must be a people who listen to God’s voice and obey the word he speaks. We must listen to his word, day by day. Listen to the Scriptures in our reading, and memorizing and meditating whether we’re in the quiet of devotional time, or the business of housework, or driving. We must listen to his word in prayer, sitting quietly until the still small voice speaks the message we need to hear. We must listen to the Spirit’s voice throughout our day. The word the Spirit speaks when we are afraid, when we are tempted, when we are distressed, when we are annoyed, when we are rejoicing, when we are grateful. Those are the words we need to hear.

And as we listen to his voice, we must obey, no matter what he asks. Whether his presence is manifest or whether he feels a continent away, we obey. We are faithful to our king. The word he speaks is the word we carry out. And the more we obey, the stronger we will become and the more attuned our ears will be, and the more obedience he will bless us with. And in the midst of that obedience, others will ask, and he will have us speak the message to them.

The book of Acts gives us marvelous pictures of Christian community as a royal priesthood, a society of King Jesus. Our listening obedience is magnified when it is carried out corporately. At the end of chapter 2, we find a description of the first church, the initial society of the ascended Christ. They devoted themselves to corporate worship: teaching, fellowship, Eucharist, prayer (v. 42). They experienced a holy fear (v. 43a). The apostles performed signs and wonders (v. 43b). They practiced radical generosity, selling property and possessions in order to care for the needy (vv. 44-45). They met not only in the temple courts, but also from house to house and shared meals together (v. 46a). They ate with gladness and simplicity and worshiped God (vv. 46b-47a). And because of this kind of community life, they enjoyed favor with the people and God added to their numbers (v. 47b).

Do you see? The first Christians focused on being the church and the Lord gave growth. They were taken up with what God called them to be and let the doing flow from that. Their emphasis was on the affections of their hearts and the disciplines of their wills. And the city was attracted; their neighbors found it provocative. Then the Lord blessed with conversions.

The first Christians’ lives were oriented around the king’s values. They treated their time, learning, money, meals, homes, and hearts as their king had modeled and commanded. They were his society, his band of merry men in and for the world. They re-imagined the story of the world, their stories, their identities and the whole of life right down to the smallest details around their Lord. They saw, they imagined life differently and then enacted what they saw in Jesus.

The 20th century French theologian Jacques Ellul said that Christians must live in the world. We may not retreat from it, nor will we convert it entirely to Christ before his return. Neither will we accept the world the way it is. Christians are honest about evil and brokenness, and we have a prophetic voice to say the world should be different and better and a prophetic obligation to show at least in part what heaven on earth looks like.

The church is a sign of a different kingdom, a different way of life, and a way of being. Ellul said that a distinctive Christian style of life was the key to the rebirth of Christianity in the West. The church certainly has been right to throw off the excesses and abuses of early fundamentalism, but the church certainly has been wrong to lose a distinctive style of life that makes us a people radically different than the world. Far too often, we have forgotten how to be Merry Men!

So the evangelistic task before this church is discerning how we live as a society of King Jesus in the neighborhoods and workplaces of our Sherwood Forest. We’ve made a good start of it. We disciple each other in our dining rooms; we love the needy in their living rooms; we worship the Triune God in his throne room.

These things are happening in this church. But there is much more for us to live: More listening to the word, more holiness to cultivate in our lives, more re-orienting our priorities and activities so that we are in relationship with the unreached, more holy fear and gladness and simplicity of heart, and more radical generosity to the needy; whether it is money, time, friendship, or possessions. This is the task of the church and each of us. If we want to provoke the lost in this community to seek our Lord, then we must listen to how he wants to use us. We must hear his word to us as a church. Then we must obey. Then we will be a society of the king.

But, I suggest that we cannot do these things alone in the privacy of our own homes and our own individual lives. Left to ourselves we become too busy. We become too stingy. We become too inwardly focused. We become too secretive about the challenges of our lives; we smile in public and weep in private. You know, one of the distinctive marks about the Christian Faith is that we are to be in the world. We are not drawn to stay on mountaintops, to enter life-long monasteries; the goal of the Christian life is not retreat into private, but public engagement.

We must be in honest and intentional relationships with other Christians if we are to stand a chance; that is the biblical model. We need the accountability of each other, the prayers of each other, the gifts of each other, the wisdom of each other, and the help of each other. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV) This cannot happen in the worship service alone. The church is about much more than a Sunday service. Remember, the Acts’ 2 passage is not describing the Sunday service, but life outside the walls of the church.

So, how do we work this out? What platform do we use to reprioritize our lives, to allow ourselves to be accountable to others, to strengthen us to engage the world, rather than retreat from it, to learn to exhibit this gladness and simplicity of heart, radical generosity to the needy in terms of time, money, friendship, and possessions? How do we become an Acts 2 church?

Last week, I introduced the concept of “Community Groups” to you. I even suggested that the name was intentional to remind us of our purpose. It is the platform that we will use to strengthen us as individuals and as a community, and engage the world around us.

Many small groups exist for the purpose of Bible study. There is nothing wrong with that. However, my experience with small groups per se is that they are often inwardly focused private gatherings, and often times they become places where the blind lead the blind. A leader asks the group, “What do you think about this passage?” The group, in round-robin fashion responds with a plurality of private interpretations and theologies. At the end of the day, no one is sure what they believe and what application they are to make to their lives; it is doctrine by committee. Some “small group” Bible studies work well, but they are the exceptions, rather than the rule, but even then, they often remain inwardly focused, serving only those present.

How is a “community group” different? Well, number one, we exist for the purpose of developing deep and honest relationships with each other. We bring our testimonies together, we open up with one another, we begin to count on one another, and we begin to hold each other accountable for living the Faith we proclaim, for believing the Gospel in the deep recesses of our soul, and for making progress in our Christian lives.

Number two; we have dinner and fellowship with each other; there is something holy about sharing a meal with each other. We discuss the Scripture readings and the sermon from the Sunday service. We intentionally recount all that we heard and understood, collectively applying the insights, and examining our individual lives. We share areas in our lives that need to change. Those who have walked our paths and overcome our burdens share their wisdom. We pray for each other.

Number three; community groups have an outward focus as well. Members of each group are to be actively engaging those in their circles of influence (coworkers and neighbors) for the sake of friendship; developing relationships with the unchurched. Here, we share insights into how to befriend these people, how to talk to them, and how to be involved in their lives. We pray for these new friends weekly, that they will come to Christ.

Number four; while community groups meet every week in someone’s home on Sunday evenings, one of those weeks every month, in lieu of the Sunday meeting, and probably on some other night, they throw a party. It could be in someone’s home, going to a Bronco’s game, a hockey game, the symphony, a camping trip, a fishing outing, dinner and a movie, or whatever. This will provide a place where group members can invite those that the group has been praying, for nothing more than fun. It is not to be an invitation to “Come join a group from our church that is going to….”, but “Some of our friends are getting together for __________. I think you’ll have a good time.”

The intention is to bring those we are praying for into larger circles of friendship; it is to deepen relationships; and to provide a place where people are provoked to desire and begin to ask questions. The monthly party is not an evening of prayer and study, or overtly churchy, but honest to goodness hospitality; extending the right hand of fellowship to your new friends. Eventually, when the time is right, these new friends might be asked to come to a function at the church, or to join the community group. In 2008, like never before, people are longing for friendship and community; real friendship, relevant friendship, and relational exchange.

Number five; the group will practice mercy, sharing, and generosity. If someone in the group has need, the community group as a whole will attempt to meet it. If someone needs a ride to the airport, the community group is the logical place to start. If someone needs to borrow a snow blower, the group is the place to start looking. If someone needs a ride to the doctor, the group is the place to ask. If someone cannot afford their auto repair, the group is the place to go first.

But it is more than just for those in the group. The group will be looking up and down their streets to see whom they might loan a snow blower to. If they hear of a neighbor or a coworker that has fallen on hard times, the group gets together to purchase groceries or pay the power bill that month. If they learn of a single-mother nearby, they offer to baby-sit one Saturday so the mom can run errands, or perhaps organize some hand-me downs or purchase a gift certificate to the Gap. If you learn of a neighbor who has a leaky faucet and you have that skill, go fix it for them. The possibilities are endless, but this is incarnational ministry at its best. This type of ministry will shock the world, provoke questions, and create desire! This is Robin Hood ministry! This is Jesus ministry! This is Acts 2 ministry.

Let’s be honest. Few of us will ever live this kind of sacrificial and intentional life on our own, and we need to be in community to keep us faithful. The Sunday service is great, but it cannot hold us accountable week to week. We need each other for more than an hour and a half on Sunday mornings if we are to grow this church together, yeah, even live a truly relevant, real, and relational Christian life individually. We can’t do it alone. We are not built to do it alone.

I remember when I first heard these thoughts shared by someone and I was challenged not only to join a community group, but also to lead one. I remember thinking, “Great! Yet, another thing I have to do. People would be coming to my house on Sunday night of all nights. I’m tired. Monday starts early. What do I have in common with that guy or that lady? I’ll have to clean the house. I don’t have time for the friends I have, let alone time to make new friends. I don’t have any money to share. I don’t want to share my life story with people I don’t know that well. I don’t want people in my business.”

I remember my objections well, but in the midst of all my objections, the Lord spoke clearly to me, “This is exactly why you need to do this; you are too busy and self-absorbed. And, it is exactly what you need in your life. It is exactly what the world around you needs.” So, I became a small group leader. We had a variety of ages in our group, a variety of marital statuses, and a wide variety of backgrounds. But, it worked. We worked hard to share our testimonies with each other as honestly and openly as possible. We all became fast friends that I can still turn to today for prayer or any need. We became involved in our neighborhood. We helped some people financially. We learned to share; we learned to minister as well as be ministered to. We became far more intentional Christians, and held each other accountable for our Faith and holiness of living, and challenged each other in the area of relational evangelism.

Yes, there were weeks when I dreaded it and I looked at it as another thing to do, but by dessert on Sunday night, it was always the highlight of my week. This community group model brought many into our former church. We saw some come to faith and some prodigals return; we saw a number of baptisms of both children and adults. By God’s grace, we created a community that provoked questions and created desire among those around us.

Are you scared right now and rattling off a list of objections like I did? If so, that would be normal, but I pray that you would hear the voice of the Lord as I did in saying, “This is exactly what you need. This is exactly what the world needs.”

Not only am I asking everyone in this congregation to belong to a community group, but also I am still looking for community group leaders to get this ministry up and going. I’m hoping that we would have three to four groups: Central - right here near the church for which we have a leader, West - towards the Front Range, East - Centennial, and perhaps South – Highlands Ranch.

Once we have three leader/volunteers, Frances and I will model the community group evenings for you over a month or two. We will spend some time as a group, doing these very things, equipping you to lead your own evenings. Leaders are not required to host the evening each week; that can be split up among group members; though not everyone in each group is expected to do so or is able to do so. Leaders just need to facilitate the evening and act as the liaison between the community group ministry leader, which is me for right now, and the group. Would you prayerfully consider stepping into such a position?

Leader or not, if this church is to be an effective witness for Christ in the community, the church must have Robin Hood’s vision; Jesus’ vision. And it is not enough to agree with that in word and thought, but this ministry takes feet. We need to be a people who plunder injustice, loneliness, and brokenness. If we are to have any hope of reaching people for Christ, or for growing this church, or for reaching higher levels of spiritual maturity even individually, we must re-prioritize our lives, develop intentional relationships outside the walls of this facility, and be in the midst of a group of people that challenge us to hear the Word of the Lord and respond.

May we all learn to be Merry Men. May we strive to be an Acts 2 community.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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