MOVING
BEYOND
Mark
1:35-45
Introduction: About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the coast of New England. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness.
Who needed to go that far anyway some argued? What has changed? Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles beyond out of town. Did they lose their pioneering vision.[1] What a tragedy that might have been?
This happened to the early pioneers. This illustration is a reflection of the church in general in our country, but could this reflect our church too? We can start with a great vision but down the road if we don’t maintain it, like the early pioneers, we too can lose our primary vision. We can grow comfortable in just attending church and unwilling to see and move beyond.
The word “Beyond,” is a word worthy of our attention as we desire and need to move beyond ourselves and beyond our limitations, obstacles, and move beyond and into what God has for our lives in 2019. Let’s not underestimate what God has in mind for Hope Church this year. I believe He wants to take us to places with him that we have never been before. Therefore, it is important to remember God’s vision for our Church. Why do we exist as a church? How can we move beyond? Where are we going from here and what does it take to get us there?
I. WHY DO WE EXIST AS A CHURCH?
Imagine these couple of scenarios. On a given
Sunday we average about 40 people. Imagine what would Hope Church look like in
ten years from now, if no other new people, and families join our Church? Hope
Church could become part of the number of churches that are closing their doors
every year. According to one report, “Between
6,000 and 10,000 churches in the U.S. are dying each year. That means around
100-200 churches will close this week.” [2] Personally, I don’t like to use the
term, “Churches are dying,” because the church of Jesus Christ will never die,
it will endure forever. It makes me wonder why so many churches are closing
their doors each week? The pace will accelerate unless our congregations make
some dramatic changes. We don’t want to see the same thing happening to Hope
Church.
Imagine another scenario, if every church member in
Hope Church assumes the role of a “Minister of the Gospel”, prayerfully goes
out and shares the good news of the gospel to one person in 2019, and hopefully
that person gets saved and joins our church what would be the strength of Hope
Church by 2020, we will have 80 people worshipping in this place. If those 80,
repeat the same thing we will have 160 people by 2021. And if that trend
continues by 2024, we will have around 1,280 people. Wouldn’t that be awesome
to see that many worshipping at Hope Church? We may have to have two or three satellite
churches to minister to that many.
I am not all about numbers, but I am all about
impacting lives. That’s what I meant when I said, let’s not underestimate what
God has in mind for Hope Church in the years to come. What is the reason our
church exists? I believe as the scriptures suggest the only one reason why we
exist as a church is to carry out God’s vision. What is God’s mandate and his
vision?
We find it in the very words of Jesus, in the Gospel
of Mark. It is the shortest of the four gospels. It emphasizes the superhuman
power of Jesus. Christ is represented as God’s son in action. Mark tells more
of what Jesus did than what he said. Like a Hollywood motion picture, the author
rushes from one dynamic scene to the next. He uses “immediately” about 40 times
to make the transitions, to indicate a sense of urgency. We will pick up our story from where John the
Baptist was taken into custody. Jesus
came into the region of Galilee preaching the good news of the gospel. He
called his first two disciples John and James, and right away he took them on a
field trip. The came to Capernaum, entered the Synagogue and began to preach.
There he delivers a man possessed with an unclean
spirit. Immediately the news about Him spreads throughout the region. He enters
Simon’s house and heals his mother in-law which lead him to an evening of
healings, miracles and deliverances. Mark notes, Vs 33-34 “The whole town
gathered at the door to watch. So, Jesus healed many people who were sick with
various diseases, and he cast out many demons.” After a night of eventful ministry,
Jesus did not remain in bed the rest of the day, he got up early in the morning
and went up to a lonely place to pray. Simon
and his companions were searching for Jesus, when they finally found him, the
said to Jesus “Everyone is looking for you.” What for? Perhaps for more
miracles and more healings. But Jesus had something entirely different in His
mind. He wanted to move beyond his home town Capernaum. Jesus replied, “we must
go on to other towns as well, I will preach to them too. That is why I came. Vs
29, “So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogue
and casting out demons.” These words of Jesus, has deeply impacted my life.
It was 1990, by then I left my home town, and serving
in YWAM in another city for five years. One day I received news that my mother had
passed away. That broke my heart. As I was
getting ready to go to my home town to be with my family, I prayed to the Lord,
and said Lord speak to me and give me a word, otherwise once I go home, I may
never come back.
As a male child in the family, the pressure would
be too great to stay home and help my dad in running the household. As I waited,
the Holy Spirit brought this scripture to my mind. Mark 1:29, “we must go on to
other towns as well, I will preach to them too. That is why I came.” Those
words clarified my mission and the call of God on my life. After spending a few
weeks at home, I came back to YWAM, kept traveling to various locations preaching
and teaching the gospel. I never knew then; those words would one day lead me
to Sharon.
What happened to me could happen to anyone of us. Whenever
we read God’s word, pray, or listen to the preaching, God might be speaking to
us all the time, in regards to what our mission and His purpose in this world
is. But how many of us are pausing to pay attention to what God is saying to
us? When we actually do it, our lives would be radically changed.
The reason why Jesus came into this world was very
clear to him, but not to his disciples, as they were on miracles and healings. Inorder
to get them moving beyond their hometown thinking Jesus said, we must go on to
other towns as well. Towards the end of
his ministry Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the gospel all over the
world. Matthew 28:18-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Let’s be very clear on one thing, the primary reason
why Hope Church exists is to make disciples of all nations (ethnic) groups and
teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded us to obey, so that in return
they too will go out and do the same and the cycle is continued. When we loose
sight of this vision we become stagnated. In the story we read about a man with Leprosy.
If you know anything about Leprosy during
Jesus time, it was considered a curse and hence a social stigma. The lepers
were often rejected by their family and live on the outskirts in isolation.
Jesus heals this man and strictly tells him to go
back to the temple and show himself to the high priest in the temple. This man
had a choice, he could back to home town, be restored back to his family and eventually
to the community, but instead he chose to go beyond what was familiar and
comfortable. Vs 45, “But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to
everyone what had happened.” In other words, he began to tell his story.
As a result of this one man’s willingness to go
beyond, the crowds were amazed at the power of God and kept going to Jesus. In
both these incidents we see a key principle at work, i.e.; the power of moving
beyond What does moving beyond mean for us today?
II. MOVING BEYOND.
In the beginning of 2019 I was asking the Lord again to give me a sense of direction for our Church and I felt that the Lord was saying to me that we are to move beyond Hope Church. What do I mean by moving beyond Hope Church? As the time goes by, we tend to grow comfortable with what is familiar and become reluctant and almost resistant to move beyond. Moving Beyond Hope Church may mean several things for us. It may mean doing things that are unconventional, or outside the box. Doing things that we may have never done before.
Let me explain. At Hope Church, we know each other, love each other, and put up with each other, that is wonderful and a real strength. We attend Bible times, or Connect groups, sit in our couches and study the Bible. This location is familiar and comfortable. There is nothing wrong with that. But moving Beyond Hope Church means, we will take our Bible Study places.
Some church members are opening up their homes, that’s the way to go! Some groups could take place in Panera’s or Starbucks, we are still exploring that. We will ask ourselves: who is that person or who are the people in my life who need an invitation to one of those groups? It is exciting when we start seeing all of life as ministry.
I was challenged by talking with Mathew as the Thomas family came back from India. Both of Mercy’s brothers work in secular places on in India and another in Riyad Saudi Arabia. In spite of risks involved, both of them take their call seriously and sees themselves as ministers of the Gospel and continue to share their faith with others. There are many who are living in adverse conditions yet remaining faithful to their call.
How about Christians in America? It appears to me that we care too much about our comfort, safety and pleasure than taking the good news of the gospel to those who desperately need to hear it. The Gospel is indeed the good news, we will be selfish if we just keep it only to ourselves. We are called to take the gospel beyond the for walls of Hope Church. In order for us to move beyond in 2019, we will be doing our connect groups in five different places, on different times and days. Look at the bulletin to find a place where you can join a Connect group.
On this second Sunday of 2019 I invite you to join us in prayer, studying God’s word and in fellowship, and go out and spread the good news of the gospel. I believe, when we recognize that each believer in Christ at Hope church is a minister of the gospel, a soul winner, and a disciple maker. And when we intentionally and prayerfully be witnesses for Jesus in our schools, work places, homes and communities. We will see the Kingdom of God expanding and, the Lord adding more people to Hope Church. When that happens, we will continue to remain a resilient, welcoming, and missional Church in Sharon and beyond for many more years to come. Amen!
[1] Lynn
Anderson; Sermon Illustration
[2] https://factsandtrends.net/2018/01/16/hope-for-dying-churches/
