Exalting God

The Church’s Mission 

So the church is a called-out body of redeemed individuals drawn together in Christ as one family.  Surely there are more articulate definitions, but hopefully this one will serve us well and guide us throughout our study and more importantly our pursuit of establishing healthy churches for the glory of God.  Yet, there is more we need to know. 

Okay, we are a called-out body, but why were we “called out”?  This is a good question, and it has answer.  To word the question differently, we need to ask, “What is the mission of the church?”  This is more important that many realize.  I fear that a lot of Christians will respond to this question with a resounding rolling of their eyes, as if to say the answer to the question is obvious.  However, the state of the church reveals that the church at large may not affectively grasp what the mission of the church actually entails.  In fact, it is entirely possible that we have begun to place the proverbial cart before the horse. 

David Bosch phrases it this way.  Speaking of the early church, he writes: “Mission was understood as being derived from the very nature of God…Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…a movement from God to the world…There is a church because there is a mission, not vice versa.”[1]

Did you catch that?  The task God has set before us, which is to be his ambassador’s in this world, does not exist because there is a church needing something to do.  No, the church exists because there is a mission that must be fulfilled.  This is huge.  Every Christian and therefore every church which exists needs to grasp this concept, for it provides a constant reminder of who we are and what we have been commissioned to do. 

Life is not about us.  Ministry is not about us.  Worship is not about us.  Eternity is not about us.  It is all about him.  We exist for the glory of God, not the other way around.  Moreover, we exist for the good of humanity.

It’s was a preservative

One of the best ways for us to understand our mission as Christians and therefore the church is to give our full attention and obedience to Christ’s words to us from the Sermon on the Mount.  There Jesus tells us that we “are the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13a). 

The metaphor is clear.  For centuries man has been using salt as a means of preserving meat.  Prior to the advent of modern refrigeration, the only way to preserve meat was to rub a great deal of salt into the meat and allow the salt to extract the moisture from the meat, thereby working to prevent the growth of bacteria and ultimately the decay of the meat. 

Much the same way, the church has been sent into the world with a mission.  We are to act as a preservative for this wicked world.  Earlier I mentioned the need for the church to be infused into the world; this metaphor is what I was referring to.  Just as salt is rubbed into meat so as to prevent decay, so too the church is to be rubbed into the meat of this world with the goal of being used by God to draw out the sin and wickedness that is present.  But how do we do this?  How can we as sinful individuals be affectively used by God to identify sin in others and preserve them?

First, we must understand the gospel and embrace it as truth, for only through the gospel of Jesus Christ can the wicked be forgiven and justified before God.  Apart from the piercing power of God’s word we have no weapon and no ability to draw out sin from anyone.  I can yell from the rooftops that cohabitation is wrong and evil in the sight of God, but unless the power of God through gospel is presented I am accomplishing nothing of eternal significance.  For the church to be salt it must embrace and unapologetically proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second, as Christians we should also be living in such a way as to attract people to God.  I say this because we all know that our lives, even on our best days, fall drastically short of God’s righteous standard (Isa 64:6).  Therefore, our goal is to draw attention to God through lives that are selflessly devoted to him.  This is an attribute the early church exemplified.  Think of Paul as he spoke with the Athenians.  Through his teaching and witness he left them wanting more of God. 

They said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean” (Acts 17:19-20).  What a great example of being salt in a decaying world.

However, Jesus knew that not every Christian and therefore every church would live out their design.  So he aimed the rest of this metaphor at them.  He continued, “…but if salt has lost its taste” (Matt 5:13b).  Now scientifically we know that salt does not lose its saltiness, but it can however be adulterated or spoiled.  That means that we must conclude that Jesus was referring to churches who were meant to be the salt of the earth, but because of compromise and indifference have become infused with the world. 

Of these churches we ask: “Is there any discernable difference between you and the world?”  Yes, we are to permeate this world with the message of Christ’s atoning death and the freedom it brings, but if we look no different than the world around us we have failed.  This painful reality led Jesus to conclude his metaphor by saying, “…how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matt 5:13c). 

These words should scare us, for Jesus says quite bluntly that if salt is corrupted it cannot be restored (naturally speaking of course).  In fact, from a human perspective it has been rendered completely useless and therefore must be cast out and destroyed.  This means that a saltless church is a worthless church.  Okay, that sounds really harsh, but Jesus made his point didn’t he? 

It should be clear that Jesus takes the health of his body so seriously that he is willing to speak the truth in love and shock his body into reality when necessary.  Thankfully, although this is impossible with man, all things are possible with God  (Matt 19:26).  Any Christian or any church who finds themselves having lost its saltiness can be restored by returning to the source of their saltiness, and Christ is the source! 

Anytime we cut through the haze of life and see that our lives have been spoiled because of an infusion with the world we must return to the fountain of living water and ask God to restore to us his original intent for our lives.  Again, we may not be able to re-establish the saltiness, but God can. 

It’s was a beacon

A concluding thought by Jesus on this matter came by way of another metaphor.  This time he teaches us that in him we are beacons of truth in a truth-denying world.  Yes, we are salt, but we are also “the light of the world” (Matt 5:14a).  Again, we are his ambassadors sent into this world with the purpose of magnifying Christ so that this world will be unable to deny his existence and power. 

We are like a great city built high and magnificent upon a hill.  When the light of God’s glory shines brightly through us we cannot be hidden or cast aside as irrelevant.  When God chose to cause the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” to shine within our souls and through our lives (2 Cor 4:6), he worked to use us to cast the light of his truth onto the sin of this world.  Therefore, it is foolish and utterly inconsistent for us to claim the name of Jesus and then stick our lamp under a basket (Matt 5:15).  It just doesn’t make any sense!  Rather, we are to let our lights “shine before others, so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16).     

Both of these metaphors are powerful.  From the outset the church was meant to be a preservative for the world and a beacon to the world.  In other words, we are to be in the world, living and interacting with others while doing all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).  Withdrawing from society and seeking seclusion amongst fellow believers is not what God envisioned for the church. 

That means that we who have been made new by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ are to take the treasure of Christ    – the gospel – which has been deposited into us and share it to others (Acts 1:8; 2 Tim 2:1-2).  This is what it means to be the church of the living God here on earth.

The question is, however, are we doing that?  Now I understand the various temptations here.  Some of you may be tempted to start listing ministries and quickly draw the conclusion that we are salt and light based on a logical deduction.  Meaning that because we have this program and this program we are therefore salt and light.  This approach is somewhat of a mathematical approach: A + B = C; therefore,   A = C – B. 

Please don’t fall into this trap.  Jesus was not giving us a formula with these two metaphors.  Rather, he was exposing the natural tendency of the heart to grow complacent.  We don’t set out to lose our saltiness our hide our lamp under a basket.  Yet, it happens to Christians and to churches everyday.  So as you prayerfully and humbly ponder your own life and daily workings of our church, ask yourself where your heart is.  We’re not salt and light if we have to force it.  Now that is not intended to be a dogmatic statement regarding our salvation, but it is meant to reveal that if we find ourselves in that situation it means that we are missing something vital to our walk with Christ.

Granted, the early church was not perfect, but taken as a whole and contrasted with the words of Christ we can definitely learn a great deal about what the church was meant to look, act, and feel like.  The imagery of a body and a family are two characteristics that must be present and define a God-called group of individuals claiming to represent Christ.  A preservative and a beacon, these are two components of our missional mandate from Christ that likewise must be present and define a God-called group of individuals claiming to represent Christ.

Now if only it were as easy as I just made it sound.  Regardless of difficulty, however, if we want to be the salty church God intended, we must take time and search for reasons these attributes are so hard to maintain.  This study, which I have entitled, Vital Issues Facing the Church Today, is meant to highlight several important concerns that when misunderstood or misapplied can have drastic affects upon the church.  In the messages which follow we will be discussing the root of our joy, the sovereignty of God, worship, the gospel, unity, godliness, ministry and evangelism. 

Yes, there are many more concerns, but these are some of the issues that I feel are extremely vital to the church.  They are important issues that we must get right. 

So the question now becomes this: Will we as a body prostrate ourselves before God and ask him to grant us the grace we need to lament our short-comings, the humility we need to praise him for our strengths, and the courage we need to become a church which honors God through faithful ministry and biblical character?  I pray that we will.