Sermon Summary for Sunday, June 21st, 2009

I’m thankful to have car insurance.  I keep the proof of insurance in the glove box.  I get it out once a year when I renew my tag but I never really look at it.  The only time that proof of insurance becomes important is if I’m in a car accident.  I’m glad I have insurance but most of the time I just don’t need it.  It has very little practical bearing on my life. 

Unfortunately that’s how many of us view the gospel.  We’re glad we have it, but most of the time we just don’t need it.  It gives us peace of mind in case we’re in an accident and die; otherwise it has very little practical bearing on our life. 

My One Main Desire
Last week I began sharing with you my desire for Aydelotte.  Like you, I have lots of desires for our church.  I would love to do this better or do that differently.  I would love for us to have a mission’s ministry.  I would love for us to have a ministry to the needy in Shawnee.  I would love to have another twenty church members volunteering on a weekly basis.  I would love to have another hundred people gathering with us on Sundays. I would love to see a steady stream of people coming to Christ and being baptized.

Those are all good desires, but I have one main desire.  I brought this desire with me when I first came to Aydelotte and now I’m sharing it with you.  What I would love more than anything is to see the truth of gospel affecting our lives – the way we think, the way we feel, the way look at the world, the way we treat each other, the way we do ministry, the way we worship God.  You see, I believe the gospel isn’t something we accept and put away in our glove box.  The gospel is something we accept and apply day by day. 

I’ve named this desire The Cross-Shaped Church; a church where the gospel affects everything, a church where the gospel is shaping us and changing us and transforming us.  Last week I just gave a broad overview.  This week I want to begin listing what The Cross-Shaped Church looks like.  

Before I do, let me just remind you that you are the church.  When I say I want us to be a Cross-Shaped Church I’m saying I want you to be shaped by the gospel.  Don’t listen to this sermon impersonally.  I’m talking about you and me as the Body of Christ, not some organization you belong to. 

1.       The Cross-Shaped Church is Committed to the Gospel.
By “committed to the gospel” I mean the gospel has first place in our hearts.  A father who says, “I am committed to my wife and children,” is saying they have first place.  He won’t let anything become more important.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”  The most important truth in Christianity is: Christ died for our sins. 

A Cross-Shaped Church is committed to that truth above everything else.  They are committed to the centrality of the gospel.  They are committed to the necessity of the gospel.  They are committed to the veracity (truthfulness) of the gospel.  They are committed to the exclusivity of the gospel.  They are committed to the urgency of the gospel.  And they are committed to the sufficiency of the gospel. 

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

You might think that if we’re Christians and we’re Baptists then we’re committed to the gospel.  But I don’t think we can just assume this.  Studies show fewer and fewer professing Christians holding to a Biblical view of the gospel.  People within the church still hold to the idea that God helps those who help themselves.  I heard one time that most converts to Mormonism in America come from those with a Baptist background.  There are popular Christian teachers today questioning the atonement and redefining the gospel to fit the culture. 

Inside the church the gospel is constantly undermined by error or obscured by scandal or forgotten by neglect.  But the cross-shaped church is committed to doing what Paul told Timothy – “Guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (II Timothy 1:14).   The difference between a citizen and a soldier is one believes in his country, the other fights for it.  The cross-shaped church fights for the gospel. 

 “Fight the good fight of the faith.” (I Timothy 6:12)

The cross-shaped church is resolved to keep the main thing the main thing.  They are resolved to preserve the priority of the gospel and to preserve it against error and obscurity and neglect.  They make sure they believe the gospel themselves.  They make sure its pastors and teachers teach a Biblical view of the gospel.  They make sure new Christians and new members have a Biblical view of the gospel.  They make sure their children understand what the gospel means and how it applies to their lives.  This leads to the second point I want to make.

2.       The Cross-Shaped Church is Well Acquainted with the Gospel.
Here’s another Father’s Day illustration.  There isn’t a man I know who would say they’re not committed to their wife and children.  Most men I know would give their life for their family.  But how well do they know them?  That’s another question.

The cross-shaped church knows the gospel well.  My favorite author, Jerry Bridges, says that in his seventy-plus years of experience he believes most Christians know very little about the gospel.   They know just enough of the gospel to accept it, but that’s all.  Their discipleship, their training in the gospel, is stopped short.  

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  (I Peter 2:2-3)

There are many, many old babies in Christ.  They’ve been Christians for ten, twenty, thirty years but their understanding of the gospel is no deeper than the day they were first saved.  There are young people who grow up their whole lives in church and once they leave the home they don’t just leave the church (I think that’s a misnomer), they leave the faith.  Why?  The gospel was in the glove box. 

The cross-shaped church is well acquainted with the truth that Christ died for sinners.  They know the language of the gospel: Law, sin, judgment, self-righteousness, Hell, atonement, substitution, propitiation, grace, faith, repentance, redemption, new birth, justification, sanctification, glorification.  They know what the language means. 

The cross-shaped church knows the key places in the Bible where the gospel is taught such as Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”; John 14:1, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”; II Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  How can we teach our children unless we know?  How can we teach a lost person unless we know? 

The cross-shaped church knows the implications of the gospel.  For example, Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The gospel implication is that if we’re saved we have peace with God.  God isn’t angry with us anymore.  God isn’t our enemy any more.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  That means if God loved us before we were saved, no sin of our can cause God to love us any less!  Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will not also with him graciously give us all things?”  That means if God gave up Son for us, there is nothing God will refuse to give us if it’s for our good. 

The implications of the gospel are mind-boggling and they are almost endless.  Do you realize that because of the cross, you can be sure that every promise God made to believers will come true?  Do you realize that because of the cross, you can’t just do anything you want with your body?  It belongs to Christ.   Do you realize that because of the cross, sin has no dominion over you and Satan has no mastery over you?  Do you realize that because of the cross, God is always for you – He’s never against you?  Do you realize that because of the cross, God will cause all our suffering to work together for our good? 

The cross-shaped church is well acquainted with these truths and they never get tired of hearing them.  There is strength in the gospel for every labor.  There is comfort in the gospel for every grief.  There is hope in the gospel for every weariness.  There is God and there is Jesus Christ.  And because the gospel is so rich with meaning and significance for daily life, the cross-shaped church never stops teaching and learning the gospel.

Here are five ways the cross-shaped church learns and rehearses the gospel: 1) By formal teaching in sermons and Sunday School lessons; 2) by informal conversations between Christian friends who want to help each other; 3) by singing the gospel in hymns and songs and choruses; 4) by reading good books which lift up the gospel and take you to the cross; 5) by reading the Bible with the gospel in mind (Jesus said the Bible was written about Him); 6) by praying the gospel.

Conclusion
There is much more to say about what the cross-shaped church looks like.  This is only a beginning.  But let me just end by telling you a story.  Years ago when whites enslaved blacks, one plantation owner left a $50,000 inheritance to a former slave.  That’s equivalent to half a million dollars today.  The former slave was informed of his inheritance and told he could make withdraws from the bank any time he wanted to, but he never did. 

Weeks later the banker went to see the former slave and reminded him of the fortune he had sitting in the bank and you know what the old man said?  He said, “Sir, could I have fifty cents to buy a bag of cornmeal?”  His wealth was so beyond comprehension that he asked for fifty cents when he could have asked for much, much more. 

Christian, is that you?  Are you living on fifty cents when you could have much, much more in the gospel?  You’ll never cash in on the riches of the cross unless you’re committed to the gospel and well-acquainted with the gospel.