No Other Gospel

I have been pondering the Gospel and the mission of the Church a lot lately. Today is no different.

Galatians 1:6-10 (ESV)

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The true message of the Gospel of Jesus is of the utmost importance.  I have found so many that talk of the gospel but when you hear their "gospel" you find that it is lacking.  A troubling thing.  At what point is a partial gospel message no longer the gospel at all?

As a ponder this I find myself humbled because I am certain that at times I have not given the most complete gospel message.  Yet I find myself continually challenged to improve my understanding and presentation of the Gospel.  Recently I was challenged by a man who said I talked too much about sin and that Jesus never declared anyone a sinner.  Some people would have just disregarded this person, but I will be pondering this in my heart and increasing my study on the subject to ensure that my teaching and presentation are accurate.  

What about you?  How is your Gospel message and understanding?  Does the Gospel you know and share include the following?

• An understanding that God exists
• That God is the creator of all
• That God exists as 3 persons in perfect unity
• That God the Son came to earth as the man Jesus
• That Jesus was fully God and fully human
• That Jesus lived a sinless life
• that Jesus willingly gave himself up to suffer and die for our sin on a cross
• That Jesus sacrifice is the only way to have our sin and its penalty removed from us.
• The penalty for sin is death and eternal separation from God in a place of suffering called Hell or the Lake of Fire
• That Jesus rose from the grave after 3 days
• That Jesus has been given all authority to judge
• That Jesus the judge also has the ability to save
• Salvation is when we recognize our sinfulness and repent of our sin, accepting Jesus and His sacrifice as payment for our sin and making Jesus our lord.
• Jesus will declare salvation for all who truly follow Him
• Those who accept this gift of salvation by the Grace of God through Faith in Jesus are secured by Jesus and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
• We who receive Salvation are to live in obedience to Jesus and His Word (The Bible) 
• Our primary Goal in this life as a follower of Jesus is to Glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
• As we go through this life we are to grow in our faith as a disciple, living and speaking so that others would also come to know our Savior and Lord, Jesus.

I know that this is not an exhaustive list but consider what happens when significant Biblical Truth is not being understood when a "gospel" is being shared.  I have heard people talk of how you can be a Christian and an Atheist, that following the teaching and life example of Jesus makes you a Christian and has nothing to do with believing God.  This of course is a total lie and is so very far from the Truth.  I have heard people talk of God as love, and of course Love is one of God's key attributes as taught in the Bible.  Yet often a message is given that God is love but no balance of our sin and God's justice, showing that Jesus is the answer.  A God is love, accept Jesus as your friend and go to heaven message is not a full Gospel.  Some have been told a message that included a lot of talk about God and His Holiness, our sinful state and how our behavior must become pleasing to God.  Yet the Bible teaches that our behavior will never please God, only through the saving Grace of Jesus will we ever be in a place where God is pleased with us.  We live an obedient life not to please God more, but because we are to live submitted to Him and to give Him honor, our lives are not our own.

Anyway I could go on and on but I ask you to consider embracing a True and Full Gospel.  If you want to learn more about the Gospel try out this video.
http://youtu.be/-nhgIV16piw

Pastor Bruce

The true gospel of Jesus Christ - by Paul Washer (playlist)

The importance of the Gospel, the True Gospel as found in the Bible.  I urge everyone to view this video clip and consider what brother Paul Washer has to say.  This is a matter of highest importance.  I care about you and want you to know that there is a good God who cares as well.

Pastor Bruce

Should Church have a strategy? or just a Biblical model?

I have been taking in some info again lately on Church leadership etc...  and one thing that has come up is that the Church needs to do more than just pray, the leaders need to do more than just read their Bibles and such talk then ends with an encouragement towards strategic planning.  Yet I am not convinced.  Sure I agree with the logic of failing to plan is planning to fail, but maybe the modern Church movements are to concerned with their model upgrades, strategic planning and visionary goal setting.  Not that it is wrong to move forward but I believe we are not spending enough time in taking the "Church" back to the Biblical model.

The Bible gives us plain teaching about the operating principles for the Church.  Read the New Testament starting with Acts and look for how the Church did things, how leadership was trained up, how leaders were put in place, how the Church grew and was established and how multiplication of Churches occurred.  You can see a pretty clear pattern of principles for the Church to operate by.  Our Mission has not changed, we are to go and make disciples, baptising them and training them.  The process of going through life and taking the testimony of the Gospel of Jesus with us is still to be how we live.  The Church is to expand because we take the message of the Gospel to the lost world around us and as people respond to Jesus we form new local Church communities.  In these new Church communities we train and equip the new believers until they are ready to move forward in an autonomous and yet interdependent way as a part of the greater Mission of the Kingdom.

So here is what I see taught plainly in the Bible as a strategy for the Church.  If you are starting as a Church planter like the early Apostles, then begin by loving the community around you enough to share the Truth of a Biblical Gospel of repentance found in Jesus.  Then take the new believers and begin to train them and baptise them and continue to train them so that they would be true Disciples of Jesus.  Part of this training is to get everyone to serve with their gifts and abilities, to grow as leaders and to know how to go and make more Disciples of Jesus.  This should lead to more Churches being established.  Proper Biblical strategy replicates roles as well as abilities, we should not fear that we are training someone to take our role, we should enjoy that reality.  

If you are starting in an existing Church situation then you have a harder job.  You need to begin by helping your current Church get on board with the Biblical mission we have been given by our Lord Jesus.    Then follow the same principles as above but they should be happening out of the team in your current Church, instead of the lone or small Church planting team.

The Biblical model allows for big Churches and small Churches but whether big or small, they are all to be "replicating" Churches.  No Church should set a strategy based on a singular high calibre leader, rather the high calibre leader needs to do the hard work of replicating their ministry in others who are called to join them in it.  Then as the Church grows it will be ready to replicate.  Too many large Churches today have embraced a model that allows for the glorification of people by seeking to create larger and larger audiences for them to talk to or sing to etc...  These types of paradigms create an attitude that it is better to listen to this particular person and so we will add another thousand seats to grow, or we will add three more satellite locations to grow.  Instead they should be preparing other leaders to grow where new work is needed.  This way the model can be replicated easily also it is a better fit for the way the Bible teaches us to grow Churches.

Believe me it can be a struggle, but more and more I am convinced that it is the road I must stay on.  I must seek at all costs to follow the Biblical model.  You can choose to join me in this, not by moving here and joining FFBC (although you are welcome) but by making a commitment to be Biblical as much as you can be and to be a part of helping your local Church to do the same.

Let us walk together

Pastor Bruce