Sermon Audio

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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Before we launch into the book of Hebrews, we will take some time to remind ourselves of our mission at FBC, to make disciples of Jesus and grow as disciples of Jesus. Last week, we heard Paul tell Timothy to "train yourself for godliness" in 1 Timothy 4:6-10. If you weren’t able to be there, I would encourage you to go to www.fbcmulvane.com and listen to that text. Discipleship is not a destination it is a path we walk all the way until we reach glory. Until that day, we sow to the Spirit as we train ourselves in the things God uses to grow us in godliness. But before we begin detailing those things God uses (which are under the categories of Worship, Connect, Serve). It is important for us to understand what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 4:10 when he said, "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe." When we train, strive, and toil, we must keep our eyes on the true hope. Our hope isn’t in our training. It is in God who has told us how this race will end. When we turn our eyes upon things above, we are able to keep on sowing, and "not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Gal. 6:9). To that end, this Sunday we will examine the first and last section of John’s description of the new heavens and earth, the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-4 and 22:1-5. We will examine what awaits us in eternity and the hope for which we long. We won’t have enough time to walk through all of chapter 21, but I would suggest you read 21:1-22:5 before Sunday because I will be referencing a few things in there. 

We can strive and toil to grow in what we have been freely given because we know where our hope lies. Sunday we will examine what our eternal hope and the glory of our eternal state with Jesus. 

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1 Timothy 4:6-10, where Paul tells Timothy what a good servant of Jesus Christ looks like. What is most striking to me about the letter to Timothy is that though Paul is writing to tell him how to build up the church(es) and how to be faithful as a minister of Jesus Christ, Paul continually draws Timothy’s focus to watching over his own walk and godliness. And it is in this text that he tells Timothy to train for godliness. Having just come out of Galatians, this may sound strange to us. But Sunday, we will see that training for godliness and depending upon the Spirit do not contradict. Even in Galatians, Paul could say that we are to walk in the Spirit as He produces His fruit, and at the same time we sow to the Spirit and not the flesh. This is essential for us to comprehend if we are to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. We must:

I. Be Nourished On The Word of God (v. 6) - (ESV says "train" here but it is more appropriately "nourish"

II. Train For Godliness (v. 7-9)

III. Strive With Our Hope In The God Who Saves (v. 10)

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Galatians 6:11-18 is the final section in the letter. Paul has made his case against the false teachers pushing circumcision in the Galatian churches. They said that faith in Jesus was not sufficient for Gentiles to be saved. They must also be circumcised to be right with God and heirs to Abraham’s covenant. Through this letter, Paul has been terse, abrupt, and confrontational, even placing those teaching another gospel under the curse of God. He has demonstrated that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. He has demonstrated the inability of the law to make sinners righteous. All the law can do is condemn, punish, and point us to the Savior. In Christ we have been freed from the condemnation of the law and we have been declared righteous because Jesus stood in our place, taking the punishment for our sin and imputing to us His righteousness. The gospel is sufficient. The gospel gives us perfect righteousness and nothing can be added by any outward work. But Paul also showed us that the gospel also transforms our hearts by the indwelling Spirit. We are given new hearts in Christ so that we now live out the intent of the law as we serve one another in love. We have been changed by the gospel and now the Spirit Himself produces His fruit in us as we keep in step with what He is doing in us. In this final section, Paul doesn’t introduce anything new but concisely summarizes the important conclusion of his argument. He will contrast the motives of those who boast in the flesh with his boasting in the cross alone. And in the end, he leaves the Galatians with what really matters. "For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" (Gal. 6:15). The Galatians are being caught up in this idea that outward religious works, service, rituals, or laws can add to their standing before God. Paul says what really matters is not what you put on the outside, but what God has done on the inside - what matters is that you have been made a new creature in Christ by faith in the gospel. 

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Aaron Blagg preaching at First Baptist Church Mulvane, KS