The Jesus Church - Week 1: God’s Embassy is the Local Church | Acts 2:42

We are identified the fourth defining character of the church.

God's world.

Did you know that before John Adams served as the second president of the United States, he actually served our country as our very first ambassador.

In the year uh 1782, John Adams traveled to the country of the Netherlands and he established the very first embassy of the United States.

Adams had a very specific diplomatic mission that he was uh chosen to fulfill.

He was told uh to seek out the elite and the influential of the Netherlands, to seek out their politicians, to seek out uh their bankers, in order to secure financing to support the United States Army as it fought uh the Revolutionary War.

And because of his tireless work, eventually uh Dutch politicians were the very first around the world to recognize the sovereignty of the United States.

That then allowed Dutch bankers to extend to the U.S.

armies fighting the Revolutionary War the offer of a very sizable loan.

And I want you to think about this.

Without the work of the ambassador and without the work of the embassy uh furthering the interest in the mission of the United States all the way back in 1782, it's very likely that our country and our soldiers fighting that Revolutionary War would not have had the proper armaments to fight the British forces.

It required an embassy to advocate for them, an embassy to fulfill that mission in a foreign land.

Embassies, however, aren't just a crucial asset for a country during times of war.

They're also a great asset during times of peace.

Today, the United States has embassies around the world.

163, if you like to count.

And each of these embassies, like that first embassy in the Netherlands, represents our country's interest and our mission, even as that embassy just on the other side of the embassy gate is located in a foreign land.

That means that the grounds of an embassy, its building, its furnishings, don't belong to the country just outside the gate.

They belong to the homeland.

And did you know this?

Inside the gates of an embassy, the values that are upheld and the laws that are followed, they're not the laws and the values necessarily of the country that's just on the other side of that gate.

They follow the laws of the homeland.

The values of the homeland are upheld.

Does anybody like espionage movies where the spy runs around in a foreign country?

And you've seen the scene where the spy is running throughout the city streets, being chased by a foreign police, being chased by a foreign army.

And what is the spy looking for?

The gates of the embassy.

Because the spy knows if I can get over that gate, if I can get through that gate and get inside, I won't be arrested.

The laws observed in there are the laws of my home country.

And much like this country and countries throughout the world have established embassies to promote their interest and their mission around the world, God's kingdom has established its own set of embassies.

Embassies that promote God's interest and God's kingdom.

God's embassy, well, you're a part of it.

It's the local church.

God's embassy is the local church.

Just think about these words of the Apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20.

2 Corinthians 5:20

I love this verse.

Paul says this, we are Christ ambassadors.

God is making his appeal through us.

We speak for Christ when we plead.

Come back to God.

Or in Philippians chapter 3, we'll put that on the screen.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Philippians chapter 3, verse 20.

Philippians 3:20

We are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.

And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

Think about those two verses, and reflect on the reality that is the local church.

Specifically, reflect on the word ambassador and the phrase citizens of heaven.

Together, that word and that phrase teach us that God has established the local church.

Jesus Christ, through the apostles, established the local church as his embassy on foreign soil to declare the sovereignty of his kingdom.

I'm reminded of John the Baptist, that locust-eating guy who lived in the wilderness.

I'm reminded of his message as he prepared the way for Jesus.

John the Baptist just simply said this: He says, The kingdom of God is near.

Repent of your sins and believe the good news.

John the Baptist was declaring the sovereignty of God's kingdom.

And God has established the local church as his embassy to further his mission in the world.

That's why Jesus, in his famous teaching called the Sermon on the Mount, he tells his disciples that you will be my salt and you will be my light.

And because we are God's embassy, we live according to the values and the laws of a kingdom that's not of this world.

That's why 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9 says that God's people, you are a chosen people.

1 Peter 2:9

As God's people, as God's church, you are a royal priest.

As God's people, as God's church, you are a holy nation.

You are God's.

Hold on to this phrase, you are God's very own possession.

He's laid claim to you.

I love listening to Tony Evans preach in a sermon a couple of years ago.

He made this statement.

He said this, the church does not represent the country it's in.

For all those reasons, we can say God's embassy is the local church.

But there's a problem.

There's a problem.

The church is tempted and has often fallen to the temptation to adopt the interest and mission of the country and culture that surrounds it and not of the kingdom that has sent it.

The church is tempted and falls to the temptation to live according to the values and wisdom of that country and culture.

Wisdom that says it's okay to call names and antagonize.

Wisdom that says that you can value feelings over truth and that truth doesn't even exist.

Wisdom and values that says that every decision really is a private decision.

And no private decision ever has public consequences.

My friends, that's a lie.

Private decisions have public consequences.

Maybe that's why God's word reminds us that our sin will find us out.

In those ways and in so many more, God's church has forgotten that it represents a kingdom that is not of this world.

And this has brought all sorts of chaos and confusion to the church, and it prevents the church from promoting the interest and the mission of God in the world.

So, what's the solution to that very real problem?

Hear this we are one of God's many embassies in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Right?

We are one of God's many embassies in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Our embassy gathers at 200 West Main Street in downtown El Dorado.

And what I'm about to say is simply this: for us to remember and to represent the kingdom that God sent us out of at this particular location, as this particular local church, we just have to return to our first love, Jesus Christ.

Why Jesus?

Why do we have to return to Jesus?

He's the Son of God, He's the Savior of the world, He's the Lord over all creation.

And Jesus, listen, when Jesus was born of a virgin, born of Mary, at his birth, the kingdom of God arrived.

And then throughout his ministry, as he performed miracles and as he taught crowds of people, he showed the world what the kingdom of God is like and what it means to be a part and live as a citizen of that kingdom.

And then as Jesus goes to his cross, through the cross, he opens up the way so that you and I can be a part of that kingdom.

And through his resurrection, when his buried body began to breathe, he reminds us that nothing, no power in this world, no force of man can defeat the kingdom of God.

And then when Jesus, well, one day he's gonna come again, and the kingdom of God will fill this earth.

We'll fill all of this earth, will fill all of the cosmos, not just this earth, but everything that scientists have ever seen with a telescope and things that are still even yet unseen.

And Jesus, listen, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower the church to be God's embassy on foreign soil.

We must return to Jesus because Jesus is the King of the kingdom that sent us here in the first place.

Friends, we must be the Jesus Church.

That's the title of the series we're beginning this morning.

Throughout the series, here's what we're gonna do.

We're going to identify and dwell upon one characteristic each week of a church where Jesus is the first love.

And together, these characteristics show us what it means to represent Jesus and his kingdom on this foreign soil.

How we can be God's embassy in this foreign land, how we can promote the interest of God and the mission of God in this world.

They'll endow us these these defining characteristics of the Jesus Church.

They will endow us, listen, with the values of Jesus' kingdom.

The defining characteristics of the Jesus Church.

They're found in Acts chapter 2, verse 42.

Acts 2:42

Here they are.

Acts 2, verse 42.

Acts 2:42

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.

Let's read it one more time.

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.

Four straightforward defining characteristics.

That verse, Acts 2.42, it comes on the heels of this mass conversion of Jews in the city of Jerusalem.

Luke tells us immediately prior that about 3,000 Jews had repented and committed their lives to Jesus Christ.

And that group of 3,000 then joins the apostles and the other disciples, and they form the Jesus Church, the very first Jesus church.

They are people who what?

Can't get enough of the apostles' teaching.

They can't get enough of the fellowship.

They can't get enough of sharing in meals.

They can't get enough.

They want to spend hour upon hour in prayer.

That very first Jesus church, they were committed to being God's embassy in Jerusalem.

It was a church that was committed to the mission of God's kingdom, that wanted to exemplify the values of God's kingdom.

And do you know what happened?

Again, Acts 2, verse 47 tells us that all the while praising God, so they're doing those things, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of people, and each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who are being saved.

Acts 2:47

A church devoted to those four defining characteristics enjoyed God's blessing.

And more people came to faith.

What might God do if we were committed and as devoted to those four defining characteristics?

If we were the Jesus Church, could we see something similar happen in our own midst?

If we uh laid claim and took hold of that truth that we are God's embassy in El Dorado, that we take cues not from a country nor from a culture, we take cues from the kingdom because we are the Jesus Church.

And as the Jesus Church, the first defining characteristic is this we must be devoted to what the apostle's teaching.

The apostles' teaching.

That's the characteristic we're going to talk about today.

So in the ancient world, an apostle was appointed by an emperor.

So Jesus wasn't the only person with apostles.

Emperors had apostles there, bureaucrats had apostles.

An apostle was someone who was called by someone who was in authority, and they were commissioned and called by them to a specific task.

And wherever that apostle went, they spoke for the authority figure.

So in the case of the emperor, if the emperor said, You're my apostle, when that apostle would go to a foreign land and speak on the emperor's behalf, it was like the emperor was speaking.

He carried the same authority of the emperor.

And to disobey the emperor's apostle was in effect to disobey the emperor himself.

Jesus understands this dynamic when in the Gospels he designates twelve of his disciples to be his what?

And then in the book of Acts, a man named Paul, he's also brought into the mix, and he is commissioned to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now, here's what those apostles shared in common.

They each had received a very unique calling on their life, and each of them had had an encounter with the resurrected Christ.

So we hold all of those things together and realize this.

The early church, the first Jesus church, was devoted to the apostles' teaching because they recognized that the voice of the apostles was an authority over them.

When the apostles spoke, it was as if Jesus was in their midst, speaking directly to them.

To this very day, the words of the apostles teach us how to obey King Jesus in our personal life and how we live for King Jesus when we gather as his church.

And everything the apostles taught centered upon Jesus.

In a nutshell.

And the apostles devoted the words they spoke and the words they wrote to the gospel of Jesus Christ because only the gospel of Jesus Christ can transform lives.

Only the gospel can declare the sovereignty of God's kingdom in this world.

Only the gospel lays out God's mission in the world.

Only the gospel will empower those apostles to be the Jesus church in Jerusalem.

Will empower us.

Only the gospel will empower us in El Dorado to be God's embassy in this foreign land.

And the Apostle Paul.

He concisely summarizes the gospel in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning with verse 1, says this.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you when you received, which you received, and on which you have taken your stand.

By this gospel you are saved.

If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you.

Otherwise you have believed in vain.

Verse 3, for what I received I passed on to you as of first importance.

In other words, pay attention to what I'm about to write.

That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared.

Those four verses wonderfully summarize and demonstrate the level of devotion that the Jesus Church must give to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In verse one, the phrase is simply this the gospel I preached.

But you can more literally translate that phrase to read, The gospel I gospeled to you.

The gospel I gospel to you.

Then at the end of verse 2, there's the phrase, the word I preached to you.

That phrase can literally be translated, the word I gospeled to you.

And it's this gospel that Paul says, I gospeled, and this gospel, um, this word that I gospel to you, that Paul says that we uh stand on, we are saved by, and that we cling to.

Like permeating that.

Paragraph is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's everything for Paul.

It's all about the gospel.

And this is how you know it's an authentic gospel.

It points people to Jesus Christ.

Any gospel that you hear that doesn't first and foremost point you to Jesus is not the gospel that is revealed in the apostles' teachings.

It's not the gospel.

It's not the same thing.

So what exactly do we mean by the word gospel?

What do we mean by that word gospel?

Pay attention to these phrases again in 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul says that what foremost Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised, he appeared.

Christ died, he was buried, he was raised, he appeared.

Each of those phrases names a critical moment in the last days of Jesus Christ on this earth.

It points us to his cross, to his burial, to his resurrection, and then to his appearances.

So here's a definition.

When we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, here's a simple definition.

Scott McKnight, a New Testament scholar, says this that the gospel is the story of Jesus Christ, is the saving news of God.

The story of Jesus Christ is the saving news of God.

That definition reminds me of that old hymn I grew up singing by Fanny Crosby, which we we cry out, tell me the story of Jesus.

Right on my heart, every word.

Tell me the story, most precious, sweetest that was ever heard.

We cry out, tell me the story of Jesus, because the story of Jesus is the gospel.

It's the saving news of God.

And let's think about how each of those phrases in 1 Corinthians 15 tells the story of Jesus.

And specifically tells the story of Jesus so that we understand it to be what?

The saving news of God.

So that first phrase, that Christ died for our sins?

That first phrase, here's what it does: it reminds us that a non-negotiable part of the story of Jesus is the cross of Jesus Christ.

Like if you're going to tell the story of Jesus, you have to look to the cross.

Because the cross reveals to us and reveals to the world who Jesus truly is.

At the cross, here's what Jesus does.

Jesus is fully God and fully man.

And at the cross, Jesus identifies with us.

He experiences at the cross both the depths of the pains of this world and the depths of our sin.

And as Jesus identifies with us, and he says, I know what it's like to be you, I know what it's like to be human, I know what it's like, I feel the weight of the sin that's in your heart.

I feel the pain that you've experienced in this world.

And as Jesus identifies with us, he then dies for us.

Paul first says that Christ died, and he points us to the cross because at the cross Jesus shouldered the punishment for our sins.

And the punishment for our sins, according to God's word, according to the scriptures, is a double death: a physical death and a spiritual death.

And this shapes the message of the Jesus Church because we are people who call for repentance.

We call people, we call one another to turn away from sin and to turn to Jesus Christ.

To place your faith in King Jesus who died for you.

That you can be forgiven by Jesus.

You can be reconciled to God because of Jesus.

And you can receive the free gift of God's salvation.

But remember, there's also a gospel culture that takes root because of the fact that Jesus Christ died.

Hear this.

If we are to be a Jesus church, this can never be a gathering of people where we promote guilt and shame.

If we're to be a Jesus church, guilt and shame have no place when God's people gather.

We are a people who are share grace and forgiveness with one another, who try to demonstrate love towards each other, who pursue reconciliation at all cost because why?

Christ Jesus died for our sins.

That's what it means for us to be God's embassy in a foreign land.

Right?

The world's not forgiving, the world's not filled with grace, the world is absent of love.

But we don't share their values.

We don't share their interest.

We share the values and the interest of God's kingdom.

And then the story of Jesus continues.

We travel to his grave.

I'll be honest, this is the part of Jesus' story.

Baptists don't know what to do with.

We get a little shaky, like we just kind of skip over this detail that Jesus gets buried.

But hear this: when Jesus enters his tomb, he carries our sins with him and puts them to death.

Not just reminds us that sin has a consequence, that sin separates us from God, that sin destines us for hell, sin sends us to our grave.

But praise God, hallelujah, Jesus died for our sins.

And because Jesus really died, he offers us the gift of what?

Eternal, abundant life.

And this is why the culture of the Jesus Church is this that we seek to live lives that are freed from the power of sin.

Jesus took our sin with him into the grave so we can be people who name our sin.

Not the sin of other people.

That's important.

We identify that in the culture around us, but maybe we just start with ourselves and we name the sin that is still enslaving us, and we ask God to give us the freedom to live apart from that.

We refuse to serve sin.

All because Jesus carried that sin to his grave.

And then the story continues.

On the third day, what?

Jesus was raised.

His buried body began to breathe.

Hear this the Jesus church exists in the afterglow of the resurrection.

Like the radiance of the resurrection shines on this place and on this gathering of people, and on God's gatherings of people around the world, because Jesus is alive.

That culture for a Jesus church then means if the radiance of resurrection permeates this place, then we refuse to agree with the mantra that that's just how the way the world works.

We refuse to agree with that because that statement reflects what?

The culture and values of the world.

And why do we want to reflect in our life together and in our personal lives the culture and values of the world?

We cannot because Jesus is alive.

And to know that there's a God who loves us and sent Jesus for us.

This means that the Jesus Church, in a way, lives its life in a posture of defiance towards the world.

Right?

We defy at times culture and country because the kingdom's far better.

The final phrase that Paul uses to identify that critical moment in Jesus' life is the phrase, and that he appeared.

That points us to the 40 days of Jesus' earthly ministry that occurred following his resurrection.

The 40 days between Easter and Ascension, when he publicly announces to the world that he is risen from the dead, and during those 40 days, he commissions his disciples to share his story with the world.

And you know what Jesus fairly simply does and straightforwardly does over those 40 days?

He just reminds his disciples it's all about the gospel.

It's all about the gospel.

You're gonna have to get over yourself, you're gonna have to get over your differences, you're gonna have to learn to work together, you're gonna have to learn not to live as a citizen of the Roman Empire, you're gonna have to learn to kind of live beyond your Jewish heritage, you're gonna have to learn to live beyond all these kind of cultural constraints in your country of origin, because ultimately, for my mission to go forward, apostles, disciples, for my mission to go forward, for my interests to be um reflected in the world, for you to live according to my values, you have to realize it's all about the gospel.

The gospel, that's the apostles' teachings.

That's why the early church are devoted to it because they knew they would find Jesus.

They knew that they would meet Jesus.

They knew that the power of the gospel could turn the world upside down.

Appointed by Ronald Reagan, uh George Schultz served as uh Secretary of State uh for six and a half years.

Schultz was known for keeping this large globe in his office, and he used that globe as a testing tool when he would interview uh prospective ambassadors, or when an ambassador had returned to the United States and was preparing to go back to their post.

George Schultz would look at that prospective ambassador or the ambassador who was about to return, and he would spin the globe and say, You need to look over this globe and prove to me that you can identify your country.

Prove to me you can identify it.

It was a geographic literacy test, right?

And without fail, all the ambassadors would put their finger on the country to which they were being sent.

Then one day, uh one of Schultz's old friends, a guy named Mike Mansfield, um, was there for an interview.

Mansfield had been tapped to be ambassador to Japan.

Now, he didn't like lay off on his old buddy, he he gave him the test.

He he spun the globe.

Mike, identify your country.

Look over the globe and identify your country.

And Mike Mansfield, he took out his his pointer finger and he just put it right on the United States.

And he said, That's my country.

That's my country.

Reflecting on that moment, George Schultz commented this.

He said, Never forget you're over there in that country, but your country is the United States.

You're there to represent us.

Much like every U.S.

ambassador and every United States embassy that's around the world, the local church represents God's kingdom no matter its location, no matter where it's been sent, no matter where it's been established.

And we are there to represent God's interest and to further God's mission.

And that is the essence of what it means to be the Jesus Church.

And a Jesus church, listen, we will only, we will only fulfill God's mission, only further it in the world when we accept the fact that what?

It's all about the gospel.

Let's stand together and pray.

King Jesus, we thank you for the good news of your gospel.

That you died for our sins, that you rose again on the third day, and that you will come again.

That your story is the saving news of God.

Lord, we we consecrate this church once again to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that it would be the message that we share and the uh the gospel culture would take root, that we would reflect your interest and your mission in the world.

And we believe, God, that the gospel is still a message that changes people's lives.

So I pray that that message of the gospel, that simple message that Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 15, that the apostles devoted their words to, that gospel would change a life this morning.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

As we prepare our hearts to sing another song together, we enter our time of response, a time when you can respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you want to put your faith in Jesus this morning, trusting and believing that He is God's Son, He died for you, and He rose again so that you might have life.

We would invite you to come forward as we sing.

If you've been visiting First Baptist and you want to make First Baptist your church home, you want to be a part of the Jesus Church, a church that is devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to sharing meals, and to prayer.

As we sing, you can come as well.

We would love to have you join our fellowship this morning.

But here's what I believe is true.

No matter the stage of life or the point of the journey that you're on, God is speaking to you right now.

So as we sing, listen to his voice.

And whatever he says at this hour, say yes to him.

Say yes.

Let's sing together.