Embedded Church - Pennsville
Let’s open our bibles to Acts chapter 17. At our last General Assembly in Indianapolis, Alicia and I watched a worship service on Friday night. The speaker for Friday night was our General Superintendent Dr. Duarte. His message was around the theme, Jesus is Lord, and he commissions us to go. Now, I don’t know about you. But when I heard those words, "Jesus is Lord, Go.” I felt God say to my heart what he asked very simply to Isaiah, Who will I send?
Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.” The mission of God is to reconcile people from death to life, in Jesus Christ. God has called us to be Christ filled and a space, a people, a bride, the local church that embodies the rescue plan for the entire world. And what an honor it is to be a part of what God is doing here in the local church.
One great prayer I have for us is that we together will see with eyes wide open the call to be missional mined people carrying the light of Christ into a dark world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We carry the gospel in us. Have you ever thought about this.. the gospel as an invitation. Don’t we all like receiving invitations in the mail? Don’t you remember as a kid, being invited to a party through an invitation.
That feeling you got to be included and welcomed. The treats and food set out before you for the celebration. Don’t you remember how good it felt to have the resources to invite others to your celebration? The friends and family that would come surround you to celebrate with you. Everyday God is inviting you and me with great love and compassion to the table to witness the grace of being in his great presence.
Every week, we come to the church to celebrate this great invitation to come… Isaiah speaks of the compassion of the Lord, 55 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55 When I think of the free invitation, I also think of Revelation 22, where the Spirit and the Bride say together, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
All throughout history God has called his people to come, because he is an inviting God. As we learned during Easter he calls us to become curious. To be willing to be like Mary and Mary to hear the invitation and have the curiosity to come and see for ourselves that God is good and faithful and indeed that Jesus is not in the tomb. He calls us to step out by faith to witness the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And then once we witness the goodness of God, through the Fathers plan for our great salvation in Jesus Christ, he calls us to go and tell. So we are invited to come, and then with great love and passion we are called to go… we are invited and called, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was resurrected in three days, and asked to step into the great commission shackled not to sin, or to our past life, but to be as a servant, and begging debtor, anchored by faith, to Jesus Christ to go and be light to the world.
Isaiah begins to set the tone for the great commission, he says, “I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Is. 49:6” Jesus tells us through John’s gospel, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” John 12:46 And then in Matthew, Jesus gives us a foretaste of the great commission by saying, You are the light of the world…
How many of you know that the gospel is not as powerful or effective if we keep it within the walls of the church? What would be the point of laughter and joy within the walls if it never pours out from the four walls of the church to the people living in darkness? We see paintings of people in hell crying out to God to save them. We read Bible accounts of the rich man begging Abraham to have Lazerus to come and give a drop of water.
Where’s the compassion in our hearts to witness first hand, neighbors and coworkers and family members of our own community living in a physical hell, right now, without Christ, without hope, without life, without light because everyday we watch people in our community live in darkness keeping the joy and the light within us and holding it from pouring out of us because we’re afraid to be labeled Christ followers. .
Keeping the gospel within the walls of the church is not going and telling. I believe that is why God brought us outside today. To show us that we are, at this moment standing in the mission field. A year ago or so, Pastor bob and I drove the car down into the ball field and we got out and with great deepness his in voice, Pastor bob began to cry out to God to bless this church and to bless this field.
It’s to be a field of growth and building. It’s to be a field of mission and to see the gospel being lived out as we serve one another and the community. Almost a year later, God has blessed us with amazing opportunity to do just that. He has in the last two weeks brought over 250 people to this property through little league and 4-h. You and I are literally standing in the mission field today.
The gospel is alive. It’s alive within you and me. The light of Christ is in you and me… The gospel doesn’t need anything added to it. One thing we do no need to do is dress up or adorn, or to make the gospel more appealing than what it already is. It’s already appealing. It’s already good and life changing and of course, it’s simple. I believe it’s simple, because I am not an educated man.
The gospel is simple enough for my heart and mind to grasp, it’s simple enough for anyone. Let me give you a promise. I am not an expert. I have no expertise in what God is calling you and me into reaching this community. I am nothing but a sinner saved by grace, and the gospel is my testimony to the world, being lived out in the world that Jesus loves us.
And because of his Spirit in me, and with me, and for me… I can hear the call in Matthew 28 where Jesus says, I commission you to go and tell the world that Jesus is alive, The Lord commands us to Go. Dr. Duarte said “If God is calling you to GO, don’t wait until you have all the answers. Be like Abraham and go now.” How would you respond to that?
I’ve been praying for this church since my sabbatical asking God, “what is the future of this church”, and I believe God is calling Momentum Church to be a missional church. One Church with multiple congregations serving and witnessing to the community. Look with me in Acts 17 and verse 17, it says: 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
Paul in Acts 17 began at the temple, but then in verse 17 Paul moved from the temple into the marketplace to become a tourist, to ask questions to be curious of what the community they were embedded in beloved. He wanted to build relationship with the people to ask them what they believe, and what they were experiencing in life. And through relationship and simple conversation he was able to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To be a missional minded church we must learn to move from the temple to the marketplace. That means we need to be where people are if we’re ever going to impact this community for Jesus. The Marketplace is where people are. That is where everyday life is lived out. The marketplace was where men and woman and children would go to buy and sell. It’s a public space. A missional church learns that we are not fixed.
I hear all the time that we’re just pilgrims, that we’re just passing through. But I need to remind us, that our church building is not meant to be our permanent residences. It’s a tool. We had church today, here, outside. A missional church must learn to move beyond the confines of the four walls of the church to enter the spaces where people gather in their daily lives. Do you want to know why I believe this is important?
I believe this is important because it gives the church the opportunity to have it’s eyes opened to the greatest need that this world needs, and the greatest need this word needs is the gospel. Look with me in verse 16, it says, 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. We’ve got to learn to see the world for what it is: It’s Broken.
This week I was at Koenobles and I met a lady that knew me from the school board meetings. And we were talking about praying before the meetings and I was telling her that I knew one of the meetings were going to be harsh. There was a lot of uproar about Covid and wearing masks in school and I went to that meeting and I walked up to the pulpit and I began to pray for God’s presence, and peace and unity.
And when I turned around I began to get emotional and the further I got up the ramp to leave, the more emotional I got. And by the time I got to the main doors, tears were pouring out of my eyes and once I got into my car, I began to weep uncontrollably. Why? What happened? The Spirit had whispered into my heart this Scripture, (Luke 19:41-44) “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” I saw the world for what it was, it was broken and it desperately needed Jesus.
And just as important, I needed Jesus. We’ve become numb to the fact that this world, including those of us who showed up today need Jesus. Paul saw the idols of Athens and so his eyes were open to seeing they needed Jesus. It’s easy to become numb to our surroundings.… My bottom drawer in my dresser is broken. I fixed it once, but it broke again. And over time I began to just not care that it’s broken.
Right now, it’s still broken. And so, Alicia washes our clothes and she folds them and she takes my white t’s and she opens up that broken drawer and puts them in, and closes that broken drawer. It’s ugly…. The drawer not my wife. It’s ugly, but it also has became normal to her and i.. We have found a way to live around the fact that it needs fixed. What it has done is that, it has created within her and I this mindset that this broken drawer is normal.
We’ve worked around the issue long enough that it has become a familiar thing to us. Church, We can becomes so familiar to the broken things around us that we no longer see them as broken. If we’re ever going to pour of of this church and see the need in this community we need to show up to where they are, and then we need to pray that God gives us the eyes to see the world for how it truly is, it’s broken and full of idols.
What are some familiar things in your life that prevent you from seeing the brokenness of the world? Ya know, a part of repenting is being honest with how we are living our life. How we interact with people, and how we live a life that s contrary to the gospel we believe. Paul tells us, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, He also reminds us in Romans, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Jesus puts it plainly to us when he tell us in John, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” That to me, would be a missional minded church. An embedded church is a church that embeds itself within the community to serve its community, to build deep meaningful relationships within the community. And you know what? To build relationships with anyone, many times takes Longevity.
You see, the Bible tells us that Paul preached at the synagogue, then at the marketplace, and was then he was invited to the Areopagus. He went from church, to the community, and basically, to a place of intimate conversation. And it’s there, when we are in those private and intimate conversations where a decisions are truly made. Yes, Church, evangelism works. We can lay tracks, we can preach in the open air, proclaiming that Jesus is coming.
All of these methods have their place and can be effective in reaching a wide audience. But, if we truly desire to make the greatest impact in our community, we must recognize the power of being where people are and having intentional relationships that are rooted in authenticity. And keep in mind, not everyone we encounter will immediately come to know Jesus. The reality is that, like in Paul's story, some will ridicule and reject the message we share.
But there will also be those who are genuinely interested, who desire to know more. It’s not solely about the quantity of people we reach, as much as it’s also about the quality of the relationships we build with one another. When we have meaningful relationships that open up opportunities to walk alongside others, engaging in conversations that dive deeper into their doubts, thier questions, and life struggles. It’s in these relationships that provide space for vulnerability, trust, and mutual understanding.
It is within these contexts that the transformative power of the gospel can be fully realized. It creates a safe place where people will be more receptive to ask, why are you at peace? Why do you have faith.. and it’s there, in the laboratory of relationships that we can point them to Jesus, and say… because I know he, who is peace. You see church, Sometimes, we’ve got to reach people in our world that first become companions and friends of us before they will ever be willing to be introduced to Jesus.
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