Mercy Hill Church of San Jose

Filling our City with the Gospel: Mission
Mark 8:34-38

When you read church history, one of the most powerful lessons I’ve seen is that in every age Jesus has been faithful to the church, strengthened the church, advanced the church.  But I’ve also noticed that in every age the church has unique blind spots.  Areas of sin they just don’t see.  We can see them, by looking back with 20/20 hindsight; but they could not see them.  I’m thinking of how beginning with Constantine many churches allied themselves with the state, or how during the Middle Ages many thought the church should reclaim Palestine from the Muslims through physical force.

But that raises the question – what blind spots do we have today?  When believers 100 years from today look back at the church in America – what blind spots will they discern?  I think one might be our blindness to how Jesus calls every one of his followers to the mission: that we are each called to help people who don’t know Jesus come to know Jesus.  That’s what I want to talk about today – our mission. 

We are taking four weeks to study the rhythms that we see in the early church – rhythms which enabled the early church to fill their cities with the gospel.

Two weeks ago we talked about faith: how in the early church every believer trusted Jesus to fulfill all His promises, and the result was joy and peace, love for others, and costly obedience.  Then this rhythm of faith resulted in community which we talked about last week: how the believers encouraged each other to trust Jesus’ promises, which resulted in even more joy and peace, even more love for each other, and even more obedience to Jesus.  Then these rhythms of faith and community resulted in mission, where every believer was involved in advancing the gospel, loving and serving and sharing Jesus with people who do not yet know Jesus.  And all of this resulted in a rhythm of regular multiplication, where every believer reproduced himself or herself in the lives of new followers of Jesus, and (to put it into our language) every home group was multiplying, and every church was planting churches.

So this morning I want to focus on the rhythm of mission, by having us study Mark 8:34-38.  Let’s turn there together.  If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring one to you.  Mark 8:34 is on page 844 in the Bibles we are passing out.

Tradition tells us that Mark wrote this gospel as he was in Rome listening to Peter teach people about Jesus.  Peter was an apostle, and Peter was an eyewitness of these events, and Mark wrote down what Peter, the apostolic eyewitness, taught about Jesus.

And look at what we read here in Mark 8:34-38 –

34            And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35            For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

36            For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

37            For what can a man give in return for his soul?

38            For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

This is a strong, sobering message.  And we can see that even more when we ask -- who is Jesus talking to?  You might think he’s just talking to the apostles – preparing them for leading the church after he’s gone.  Or you might think he’s just talking to believers – calling them to a higher level of commitment.  But he’s not just talking to the apostles.  He’s not just talking to believers. 

Who’s he talking to?  Look at the beginning of v.34 –

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Before Jesus started speaking, He specifically called the crowd to come and listen with his disciples.  So this teaching is for everyone. 

And the reason is because he’s explaining what it means to follow Him, which is the same as explaining what it means to become a Christian.  So this is an evangelistic message.  He’s not explaining what it means to be an apostle, or what it means to be an evangelist.  He’s explaining what it means to become a Christian; to follow Jesus.

So what does it mean to follow Jesus?  Read vv.34-35 again --

34            And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35            “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.”

So what does that mean?  When Jesus talks about taking up your cross, and losing your life, you could think Jesus is talking about martyrdom; dying physically.  Now we should be willing to do that, but that’s not what Jesus is talking about here.

The reason is because Luke quotes Jesus as saying that we must take up our crosses daily (Luke 9:23).  So taking up our crosses must be something we can do day after day after day.  Which means Jesus can’t be calling us to martyrdom, which you can’t do day after day.

So what is he calling us to?  Read v.35 again --

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Jesus calls us to lose our lives for His sake and the gospel’s; which means devotion, not martyrdom.  He’s calling us to devote our lives entirely to Jesus and the gospel.

And we can see more specifically what that means in v.38.  Here he describes people who are not devoting their lives to Jesus and the gospel; look at what he says --

“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words [“me and my words” is the same as “Jesus and the gospel”] in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man [that’s Jesus] also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

So not devoting your life to Jesus and the gospel means being ashamed of Jesus and the gospel in this sinful generation – with people who don’t know Jesus; which means that devoting your life to Jesus and the gospel means not being ashamed of Jesus and the gospel in this sinful generation – with people who don’t know Jesus.  So what Jesus is talking about is evangelism – making Jesus and the gospel known to people who don’t know Jesus.

So following Jesus means being devoted to making Jesus and the gospel known to people who don’t know Jesus in your neighborhood, in your workplace, amongst your friends, in this city, in the world.

Now if you’ve met Jesus, if you know Jesus’ love and forgiveness and power and wisdom and goodness – then this just feels right.  Because you know through God’s Word, and by your own experience, that Jesus is the supreme value in the entire universe.  And when you come to know Jesus, you want to devote yourself completely to making Him known.

But what about the other things you’ve been devoted to?  Maybe you’ve been devoted to career, or to money, or to comfort.  What should you do about those?  Career and money and comfort are not wrong.  But they are not worth devoting your life to.  Only Jesus is worth your total devotion. 

So you do what Jesus says -- you deny yourself and take up your cross: you say “no” to those other things you used to be devoted to, you die to those other things you used to be devoted to – and you devote yourself fully to making Jesus and the gospel known to those who don’t know Him.

So let this sink in.  Following Jesus means a whole new life purpose: making Jesus and the gospel known.  Your purpose is to make Jesus and the gospel known.

Now if this sounds radical, let me suggest that it’s because this is a blind spot.  This would not have sounded radical to the early church.  But today we think being a follower of Jesus means going to church and maybe a home group.  But the early church understood that following Jesus meant devoting your entire life to making Jesus known.  Today we think our purpose is to support pastors so they can make Jesus and the gospel known.  Not true.  The pastor’s job is to train and equip you to make Jesus and the gospel known.  Your purpose is to make Jesus and the gospel known to those who don’t know Him.

So here in Mark 8 Jesus is telling crowds of people what it means to follow Him.  And what it means to follow Jesus is adopting a new purpose for your life – that of making Jesus and the gospel known to those who don’t know Him.  That’s not something some followers of Jesus do.  That’s something all followers of Jesus do.  That’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

So what’s at stake in whether or not I do this?  To answer that read vv.35-37 again --

35            For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

36            For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

37            For what can a man give in return for his soul?

38            For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

What’s at stake is whether you save your life or lose it, whether you save your soul or lose it, whether at the Second Coming Jesus welcomes you or is ashamed of you.  What’s at stake is your eternity.

Not because evangelism earns you eternal life.  It won’t.  And if you try to earn eternal life through your evangelism you won’t do evangelism and you won’t gain eternal life.  Because there’s only one way to receive eternal life – and that’s by trusting Jesus – the one who did earn eternal life by His life and death and resurrection.  The only way to receive eternal life is by trusting Jesus.

But Jesus calls you to devote your life to making Him and the gospel known.  So if you trust Him, then what will you do?  You will devote your life to making Him and the gospel known.  And if you don’t devote your life to making Him and the gospel known, what does that show?  That you don’t trust Him.  Which is why you wouldn’t receive eternal life.

So what’s at stake here is everything – because this will show whether you really trust Jesus or not.  So trust Jesus.  Look at His wisdom in creating the universe.  Look at His power in calming the sea and healing the sick.  Look at His compassion in feeding the 5,000.  Look at His love for you on the Cross, taking your punishment upon Himself, paying for your sins.

So this Jesus, this wise, powerful, compassionate, loving Jesus tells you to lose your life to make Him and His gospel known. So trust Him – and make this your life purpose.

So where do I start?  Let me give you nine suggestions.

First, trust Jesus to do this in you.  If you feel like you can’t do this, you are not alone.  None of us can.  But look at what Jesus says when he calls Simon and Andrew in Mark 1:17 –

And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men."

Were they already fishers of men?  No.  How would they become fishers of men?  Jesus would make them into fishers of men.  So what did they need to do?  Follow Him.  Trust Him.  And He would make them into fishers of men.

Second, abide in Christ.  In John 15 Jesus is clear that unless we abide in Him, we can do nothing.  So set your heart on Jesus.  Seek Jesus in His Word and prayer until He pours His love into your heart, until you are rejoicing in Him, until you are full of Him.  You’ve got to experience the gospel if you are going to share the gospel.  So experience the gospel.

Third, nurture love for people who don’t know Jesus.  Jesus loved people.  He loved Zaccheus the tax collector, Nicodemus the Pharisee, the woman at the well.  Jesus loved people.  And He calls us to love people.  So seek to have Jesus’ love poured in to your heart, and genuinely love others.

Fourth, make connections with people who don’t know Jesus.  Some of you already have these connections; others of you don’t.  Start with your neighborhood.  This summer Jan and I hosted two barbecues for our street – which enabled us to make lots of connections.  Join them in whatever they like to do – Texas Hold ‘Em, Settlers of Catan, going to the movies, watching Flash Forward.  Or invite them to join you in whatever you like to do.  If you can’t think of how to make connections, ask Jesus to give you wisdom.  He will.

Fifth, learn their story, their hopes and dreams and past.  Get to know them.  Ask them questions.  Listen to them.  Ask them more questions.  Listen some more.  Hear their heart.  Hear their longings.  Hear why they need Jesus.

Fifth, serve and love and care for them.  As you get to know them, listen for needs they might have, and take steps to help them.  Ask if your home group could help them put in their new lawn.  Offer to baby-sit while they go out for a date-night.   

Seventh, share the gospel with them.  Tell them about your life with Jesus.  Share when your faith in Jesus is strong.  Share when your faith in Jesus is weak.  Share how Jesus is meeting you in the Word.  Share how Jesus works in your life.

And when the time is right, ask them if you could share with them what it means for you to know and trust Jesus – and share the gospel story with them.  If you don’t already have a gospel presentation you use, check out the Four Circles gospel presentation that I have found helpful (tinyurl.com/dhfx45).  But learn some gospel presentation.

Eighth, pray for them.  Pray for Jesus to save them, to open their hearts, to open their eyes, to reveal Himself to them.  Pray.  And fast.  And then pray and fast some more.

Ninth, be part of a group of people who share this life-purpose.  Following Jesus means devoting our lives to making Him and the gospel known.  But we won’t be able to sustain that purpose by ourselves.  We need to be around others who share that purpose.

That’s what our home groups are for.  Home groups are a gathering of followers of Jesus, which means they are a gathering of people who are devoted to making Jesus and his gospel known.  And as we share that purpose together, and encourage each other in that purpose – we will keep strong in that purpose.

Questions?

Jesus says that following Him means devoting yourself to making Him and the gospel known to people who don’t know Him.  Trust Him.  And devote yourself to making Him and the gospel known in your neighborhood, workplace, friendships, city.

Sunday Morning Worship: 10:00am

Allen at Steinbeck Elementary School
820 Steinbeck Dr
San Jose, CA 95123

Ph. 408.997.9387

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