Session 2 Sermon- John Jones

How's everybody doing? God is good, right? So, I freely confess that I am more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I thought that was just for you. So, if you want to go ahead and get your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 4 to start.

And I'm probably going to read from 1, at least to 13 or 11. One of the things that, I want to say God challenged me on in terms of my faith very early on was sharing what God had done in my life, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as I could.

So, really early on, and with absolutely any form or fashion and very poor understanding, I began walking around the sidewalks of Lincoln, Gastonia, Charlotte, wherever I could go. A couple college campuses, I even dared to go there.

I passed out tracks and shared the gospel with as many people as I could. And something that I quickly found out was everybody, undoubtedly, was a Christian already. There was an alarming number of people who I could walk up on, inebriated, on the sidewalk.

I could walk up on them in the middle of something that was clearly not Christian behavior and they would tell me that they were faithful members of churches and that they went every Sunday, Wednesday, any time the door was open.

And I got to thinking, I might need to go to the church house too, because it's more efficient. If all of you are going to the same place, I can talk to you all at the same time, as opposed to walking piles and piles of miles to do something.

And I've found that judgment begins at the house of the Lord. There's piles of times that if we do this wrong, think about this for a second, if we get this wrong here, in the framework that God has established for His people to flourish, what hope does the world have?

The Unity and Calling of the Church in Ephesians 4

Right? So, you have your text, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, I'm sorry if you didn't get to Ephesians chapter 4, starting in 1. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of a calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of spirit to the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you've been called, and one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift, for it says, when He ascended on high, He took captive captive. He gave gifts to people, but what does He ascended mean, except for that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth.

The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens to fill all things. And He Himself gave some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to the equipment of the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we reach unity in the faith and knowledge of God's Son, growing into a maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.

Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning and cleverness and the techniques of deceit, but by speaking the truth in love, let us grow every way into Him who is the Head, Christ.

From Him the whole body, fitted and knitted together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for the building itself up in love by the proper working of the individual part. Let's pray together, Father in Jesus' name.

Lord, I only want what You've given us to be out today. God, I pray that everything that is said from behind this holy desk be in accordance with Your will and Your word. Lord, I need You to touch me, that I might in this moment be able to communicate what I feel within me and what I feel You've laid on my heart.

I pray that You give the increase as You see fit, in Jesus' name I pray. And all God's people said, God's authoritative command over evangelism is so important because whenever you share the gospel with somebody, undoubtedly this will happen.

Who told you to do that?

By what authority do you come to me and tell me whether I'm right or I'm wrong? So there's a couple things we need to discuss in terms of, one, what is evangelism? What is evangelism as it is itself? It is simply sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it is as impossible to do as sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not one person has ever got to the top of that mountain or to the bottom of that ocean, whichever analogy you want to use, you feel free to put it in there.

There is more to the gospel of Christ than we can uncover. How can the finite uncover the infinite? But in what we have, in as much manner as God has given us the ability to, we're to do that very thing.

Whether that's by testimony and telling people what God has done for your life individually, or whether that's through breaking the word open and doing the same thing there. We can only testify of the things that we have seen and the things that we have heard.

Therefore, we need to be students of the word and we need to have a relationship with Christ in such a manner that whenever He asks us to move, we move. It's His authority that we work in and not our own.

And this can cause somewhat of a problem if we never have our authority checked, right? One of the things that I do so enjoy about this group of fellows that we call the laborers is that we don't agree on everything, brother.

And if I say something that I really believe is right, and Pastor Foster doesn't believe it's right, I've heard him say it, I'm going to check you on that one right there.

Prove it.

We need that. We need that. We shouldn't be a people that are so afraid of our own beliefs that we can't give a reason for what we believe. And we better have something we can back up what we believe.

It had better be in the word of God. So God's authority starts with an order. God is not the author of confusion. And everything God does seems to be done decently and in order in so much a way that everything is above the table.

There's no secrets hidden from anybody. And you can see it as good as I can see it. And it's His desire that you see it as good as I see it. We don't have truth that's folded up into certain secret channels.

You have to go through somebody else to get to this truth. We have the Word before us. We have the Spirit in us. We have the blood on the cross as evidence that there was somebody killed. And we have an empty tomb that He's alive.

You understand? The point is that these truths are available to all, but there is an order God has dignity. Let's go back and let's look at 11. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some teachers and preachers.

I've always looked at this as an order of operations.

It took my mind to go to math.

In terms of order of hierarchy, we don't adhere to in the strictest sense because we don't believe there's apostles anymore. But they wrote the Word, and we have the Word. So we have evidence of the things the apostles taught and said right before us all the time at our access.

So in a way, they're still with us, aren't they, in the Word of God. And then there was prophets. We have the Old Testament slapped full of prophets where there was all kind of foretelling that was coming on, or foretelling.

And I believe today God still teaches us things by His Spirit and His Word in the form of prophecy, not a future retelling event, but rather pulling the truth from text out in front of us. Does that make sense with me?

I'm looking around at people who aren't nodding, and I'm used to that in the church of God. So my point is there's times that whenever you're reading Scripture, if you're reading it in the flesh, it stops right there.

That's how you have worldwide atheists who've read the Bible front and back in multiple languages and still don't believe. It's because the power of God is not in the Spirit of God, it's not in them revealing the truth of Scripture and making that truth come off that page and relatable and ultimately usable to see those people saved.

There's an order to this. God has set His church up in such a manner that He has called and set people aside for certain works, and that doesn't seem to fit into our modern view of church today or our modern view of America, really, where everybody gets a trophy and everybody has the same position, and everybody uses the same bathrooms.

The point is that there's an opportunity to understand that there are people that God has asked to lay things down and walk away from, and these people have a solemn obligation to God and His people. They're servants.

That's why we call them ministers. The word minister means to serve. They're to serve the people in so much as that the people are to be brought up in the faith. They're to be edified as a group of people.

My understanding for a biblical church is founded in these few lines of text. These few lines of text sum up, in my opinion, the perfect working church group. And in these few pieces of text, it is impossible for a working church group to be void of evangelism.

To be void of evangelism is to, in my opinion, is to walk outside of the order God has laid out for us. So, if we look at... Let's look at this text one more time. The more I read Scripture, the less you hear from me.

And the better off I feel about the whole ordeal.

Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers

So when you get to 11 and he says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists. Now, we see evangelists and immediately you're thinking evangelism. No. Apostles, we've got the Word of God that the apostles breathed on by the Holy Ghost to give us.

Prophets quoted by the apostles. This is a two-fold thing where there's always a check and a balance. The apostles are going to testify to the things that God told to the prophets because, after all, the apostles are being moved on by the power of God, through the Spirit of God, and they're telling the Word of God.

And it had better line up with what the apostles said whenever they moved by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, right? So you have a two-fold testifying thing going on right here. Then you have an evangelist.

This office of evangelist, to the best of my understanding, is one where this person is more mobile than center line. These are the people that carry this gospel all over the world. These are the people that God has given a gift to travel, to be very uncomfortable, to be uncomfortable, to be a people who talk, to never meet a stranger.

You or whoever met somebody who never meets a stranger. I believe that God has called and gifted these people to do these kinds of things because that ain't normal. That ain't normal, right? And then you see pastors.

These people are the leaders that tend the flock. Brother Johnson said earlier today that shepherds smell like sheep. Pastors smell like the congregation. They're to serve the congregation day in and day out.

Evangelists should be working with the pastor when they come, not blowing in with the fiery five and then leaving the mess behind for him to go around and pick up. These are supposed to be fitly joined together, working a work that God has established in such a way that the church is edified.

Then you go after that to teachers. This is where I feel more comfortable in teaching because I get to hide behind the Word of God. It's where I want to be. At the same time, teachers are just like pastors.

Pastors can be teachers. Not all teachers are pastors. Not all pastors are teachers. But there's a further zoning in on a group of people. How many Sunday school teachers are in the room? How many small group leaders are in the room?

You're teachers. You fit into this organizational chart, which means you have a solid obligation. You have a solid obligation to the people that you're teaching. We don't go over our Sunday school lesson on Sunday morning unless it's just to polish up something that you've sharpened all week long because you prayed for it, right?

After we get to the teachers, these people fit together in a perfect body or to what? Equip the saints for the work of the ministry, to build up the body of Christ. So there's an order and done in a certain way.

God's authority is seen clearly in an order that is established. Since Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian church,.

We're going to come back to that. I really like that portion of Scripture.

God's authoritative in His compliance. Hang on a second.

I'm going to go back to it anyway.

We're going to get outside of my notes.

Is that okay?

The Order and Growth of the Church in Acts 6

Turn to Acts chapter 6. So many times when we get through Scripture, you take a teaching and then you say,.

Apply it.

Show me how it's relevant. Show me what I can do with it. Well, that's my job. If I'm to be faithful to do what I just said I'm to do, I need to show you how that looks, right? When everybody has it, somebody say amen.

Praise the Lord.

Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose from part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows being overlooked in the daily serving of bread.

So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

All right.

That's a statement. Fiction will get you where they're for. And if all my kids was here, they'd tell you what are there for me. You got to ask yourself, what's it there for? So there's a statement here that's made.

Let's think it through. What has happened up to this point with the church? Nobody had anything independent of anybody else, right? They all sold everything they had. They took their belongings and laid them at the apostles' feet so that everybody would have equal.

Nobody would be in need. Now we see an example where there's been undoubtedly something, some friction among this layout because there's somebody that appears to be in need.

That isn't served.

What's the first thing that apostles do? They say stop. They'll come gather around, figure out where we dropped the ball. They're still people, right? They're still men. They're still human. Then they say it is not right for us to stop this mission that God has given us.

They're apostles, right? So there are some people that are elected to serve because we don't want anybody left out. You see the order? It's beautiful, isn't it? So, therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom you may put in charge of this task.

For we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. The statement found approval in the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, man, where's Tyler?

How do you say that name? Say it with me. Of course. What's the next one?

All right.

Praise God.

I got a man in my corner. You don't even know what that means. Timon, not the one with the warthogs, Parnimus and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, and these they brought before the apostles, and after praying they laid hands on them.

The Word of God kept spreading. What happened? There was an order. There was a problem to begin with. We found a solution. As soon as the solution was made, the Word of God kept spreading. This is evident that the order being followed works.

It works. We shouldn't deviate from something we know works. You don't want to be the guy who tries out the first parachute for the brand new assembly line. You want the guy who packed the last parachute on the known assembly line, right?

So the Word of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith, and Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

But some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen, including Cyreneans and Alexandrians, and some from Sicily and Asia, arose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom of the Spirit which he was speaking, and they secretly introduced men to say, We've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.

And they stirred up by the people, the elders and the scribes, came up and dragged him away, brought him before the council, and put forward false witnesses who said, This man incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and all the customs which Moses handed down to us, and fixing their gaze on him, and all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel.

So our brother Stephen was elected to serve the saints inside of the church in Jerusalem. Why is he on trial? For feeding orphans? No. For spreading the gospel. He's on trial for doing the very thing he was set aside by God to do, to share the gospel.

See, his office or his position as a servant did not negate his obligation to follow the Lord in his proclamation of the gospel. So that's why he was... First of all, that's the reason Jesus was put on the cross.

That's the reason all the apostles were called into the court was because they wouldn't stop talking about Jesus. That's the same thing our brother Stephen has done here. He's talking about Jesus, and because the Spirit of God is in him, and because he has authority to do such, even when the wisest of the wise come up against him, they can't say nothing, that he ain't got an answer.

So they have to lie. Notice the mirroring. You have order and sublime order. You have the Word of God growing and being faithfully admonished.

Through all the Jerusalem.

And then you have the opposite of that. You've got chaos mixed with lies and deceit. And they have to bring up a false narrative in order to even get this man in front of the court. So, using this truth in Scripture, if you see something that is chaotic and there's deceit in it, you know it's not of God.

If it's not decently, if it's not in order, and if the church isn't edified in it, stop.

Back up and punt. Something ain't right.

I didn't mean to chase that squirrel, but I had to. God is authoritative in his compliance. Matthew 28, 16 through 20. The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore, therefore, go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

Do not make converts, but let the word of God speak. He let them know, this is the authority you go with. All authority in heaven and earth is mine, says the Lord. Therefore, go and make disciples of the whole world.

Teaching them, and that's how you make disciples, is teaching them, right? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always. I'm hurrying, y 'all, because I know we've got to do the question and answer. Luke 24, 44 through 49. And he told them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened his mind to understanding the scriptures. He also said to them, this is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in the name and his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you're endued with power from on high. You could not fulfill the Great Commission without God doing it in you.

The work that we're called to do, and that's all of us, is to share the gospel. The work that we're called to do is commanded to be done. Let's establish that. We don't get to pick and choose which of Jesus' commands we get to follow.

We get to follow them all. There's a buddy of mine who works in a machine shop with me. We'd ask him how many. He'd say, all of them. We don't deliberate and say which ones. We teach. We make disciples.

This is our life's goal. We do so because the authority to do so has been given to Jesus, and Jesus gives it to us to do. He doesn't give us authority or permission to go share some nonsense that you've thought up.

He doesn't give us permission to say every single thing that comes out of my mouth, God told me, just like you're hearing from God. He doesn't give you permission for that nonsense either. Everything that He's told us to say, you can find in Scripture.

We may disagree on the interpretation of it, but we can't disagree with the words on the page. It is important that we adhere to this teaching, that we do everything Jesus tells us to do, full stop. God is authoritative in His message.

So let's back up. God is authoritative in His order. Everything we see God do, from creation to consummation, is done in a divine order. Christ's death on the cross was, the Bible says, a predetermined counsel has set up to make this happen this way.

God upholds all things by His power and through His word. So it is divinely appointed, it is a divine order. God is authoritative in that order. He's authoritative in His compliance.

You do this or else.

There's no B. This is plan A and that's it. There ain't no I don't feel like it. He don't care. This is not about us. This is about Him. Everything in our life is about Him. It's His story, right? And He's authoritative in His message.

There's one stern warning. With all my heart, I pray that you listen to it. It's this. You'll turn to Galatians, first chapter. Starting in six. I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

Which is really not another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we've been preaching to you, you'd be accursed.

As I've said before, so I'll say again, if any man preach to you a gospel contrary to what you've received, he's to be accursed. The strongest language you see Paul really use in terms of how to deal with people.

The one thing, the one thing that makes everybody in this room uniquely qualified to share the gospel is this one gospel message. We don't have our own version of the gospel message. You may say it in a different way because you have a different accent, but there's only one gospel message.

The thing I love the most about the Labors podcast and the Labors themselves is there's never been an episode that I've seen or been a part of when we left,.

Somebody didn't share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we start all the way at the beginning.

This is where I like to start.

I'm long-winded at times, Brother Zach. I need to know how we got in this mess. It cost us sin.

It was our fault.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is deeper than I can explain to you in a few minutes to where we would all get the full understanding of it. But I can tell you enough about it to where you can go and be saved by it.

You can be carried by it. You can be in love with it. And you can read it every day of your life and I promise you, you'll never exhaust it. The King of glory gave a command to a man about what not to do and he dropped the ball.

Go fix it.

And because of that, sin entered into the world and death reigned because of that. And God being uniquely qualified and justified and rightly condemning all of creation to hell because of His own reasons and His alone, He decided to love us.

He came.

Not an emissary.

God came.

And He put Himself on this earth.

He didn't find it. He didn't find it that He should come with all kinds of majesty and glory.

That would befit a king. But no, He'd come in the form of a servant. And He took on the form of a servant. He washed the feet of those that are supposed to be following Him. He spent His days knowing what it's like to be tired and angry.

Knowing what it's like to be hungry and tempted. And yet without all of that, never was there guile in His mouth.

Never.

He remained perfect and spotless because the Bible says He had to. And being taken with cruel and wicked and evil hands, He was taken. They nailed our Lord to a tree so that that sin could be nailed to that cross.

So that there could be an answer.

For that sin.

So that God's wrath could be satisfied on the sin-due man on the only thing that could take the wrath of God and ever have a chance to be anything other than just completely eradicated. And that's God Himself.

And because there was no sin in Him and because He is God, He was able to rise from the dead.

By His own power.

Nobody acted on Him externally. This is a power that is His. He is God. And He shook off death because it could not hold Him. And He rose from the dead. He rose from the dead where He reigns forevermore as King of glory.

And this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can a God love somebody that much?

I don't know.

I don't know.

But He's a good God.

We're going to pray and we're going to worship Him. We're going to worship Him because He's worthy of it and for no other reason alone. For no other reason alone we're going to worship Him. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best news ever graced creation.

Robert, I don't deserve it.

I don't deserve it.

But let God be glorified that there be any among us saved. Let God be glorified and let God be glorified alone. As I get ready, let's go to the Lord in prayer. I pray that you prepare your hearts as we end in worship and as we transition to the question and answering portion.

I want to tell you home folks from Vertical Live,.

You're going to get tired of hearing this.

Thank you. Thank you. God, I felt like family since the day I walked in. Y 'all have done nothing but be kind to me,.

To the team.

You have shown the love of Christ over and over and over again. And to open up the home shows that you're led by somebody who has a vision for evangelism.

That's no small thing. That's no small thing.

Let's pray, y 'all.

Father, in Jesus' name.

Lord, I want to thank you for carrying me.

God, I want to thank you.

For your grace. I want to thank you for your mercy, Lord.

God, I pray that you touch these people.

And that they have a glimpse.

Of what your depth of your grace looks like, what the depth of your forgiveness looks like.

That they can get.

Just a taste of the love.

That you've shed on us. You're good, and I love you.

I praise you, Jesus.

In Jesus' name, I love you.