There are lots of changes happening at First Baptist Church. We are still on track to have our first service in the new sanctuary Sunday Sept. 17th. It will be at 10am and we will only have one service. I’m sure we are all looking forward to the new space. This is the beginning of a new chapter in the life and history of First Baptist Church and I am overjoyed to be embarking on this journey with this congregation. Sunday the 17th, won’t be the end of this project. It will just be the beginning. While there are many things that are changing and have changed in the life of our church, our mission hasn’t changed. We are called by the authority of our Lord, as individual believers and as a church, to His mission. The mission is to make disciples. This building is a glorious work of God and we have seen God’s hand move in mighty ways throughout this whole process. But I don’t believe God has provided this building as an end in itself. It is a tool for us to more effectively make disciples and grow as disciples of Jesus. The mission will not change until the end of the age. To remind ourselves of that, we will examine Matthew 28:16-20 this Sunday as we continue focusing our hearts on who Christ calls us to be at First Baptist Church. This passage is often called the Great Commission. It is what Jesus calls the church (all of us) to be doing until he returns.
Last week as we looked at the end of Revelation, we saw how the Bible is one grand story of redemption. God is moving to restore creation to what was intended in the garden. And you are part of that epic story. You have a place in the movement of God’s kingdom toward His goal. Adam and Eve were commissioned to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth with God’s image. But sin spread with humanity. It spread so profusely that God destroyed all life with a global flood and began again with Noah, who he also told to be fruitful and multiply. But Noah also failed. Then Israel was called to be a light to the nations, and they rebelled in unbelief. Finally, Jesus the Son of God took on a human nature and defeated the sin that pervaded the creation. Now by the Holy Spirit, His people are being conformed to the image of His Son. And so we have the same commission as Adam and Eve - be fruitful and multiply. We spread this image over the earth as we make disciples of Jesus Christ. As we study the Great Commission we find that:
I. The Mission isn’t Given to Perfect Disciples (v. 16-17)
II. The Mission Bears The Authority of Jesus (v. 18)
III. The Mission Is To Make Disciples (v.19-20)
IV. The Mission is Empowered By Jesus HImself (v. 20)
I am looking forward to the book of Hebrews and getting back to preaching section by section. I am still firm in my conviction that verse by verse is how God intends us to study His word. But taking several weeks to remind ourselves of who we are and who we are going to be no matter what is extremely important. Our mission is to make disciples and grow as disciples, and we do that just as the early church did in Acts 2:42-47, by worshiping, connecting, and serving. So in the first Sunday in our new Sanctuary (Sept. 17) we will look at that passage in Acts.
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