Thank you, Paul. I don't know that I've ever sung the words of hymn 568 before. If you
got in too late this morning to sing that hymn, you missed something. Wonderful words
about God being the King of the ages.
We invite you to open your Bible and to turn to Luke chapter 24, as today we think again
about the heart-to-heart messages that Jesus was leaving with his disciples as he prepared
to go back to heaven.
I'm going to begin reading in verse 45. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
and he said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from
the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed
in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these
things, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you, that you are
to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. And he led them out
as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came about that while
he was blessing them, he parted from them.
The eyes of America and the world have been on Southern California this last week. The
devastation due to the loss of life, to property damage, and the disruption of community life
has been overwhelming. On Wednesday, the President of the United States visited Southern California.
Why did he go? Well, he may have had a number of reasons in going, but I suspect that one
of the reasons at the top of his list would be to assure the victims of the concern of
their government and their fellow citizens, and to help them lift their eyes off of the
devastation, to focus on the hope for the future. The President came to renew their morale,
to instill a sort of vision that the prospect of tomorrow will be better than the hardship
of today.
Vision is important to individuals, to a community, and I would say as well, to a church. In our
text today, the followers of Jesus had been through some kind of an earthquake in their
faith. They had lost their vision when he was crucified and killed. But after his resurrection
and during his appearances to them, Jesus went about restoring their faith, their hope,
and their sense of purpose. They needed to see tomorrow and to get their eyes off of
the day of their shaken faith.
Like those disciples, the Church of Jesus Christ today needs a vision and understanding
of what it is to do and to be by the plan of the risen Christ. Its people need to see
what it means to be a part of the Church and why commitment to the Church is so worth it.
We need to understand why we should be willing to suffer, to sacrifice, and to serve Jesus
Christ. To see beyond the sacrifice of today into the possibilities of tomorrow is what
vision is all about.
Now if you were asked, what is the vision of your church, what would you say? Actually,
all of us should be able to answer that question. We should all be able to articulate in similar
words what the vision of our church is about. Now we might say, well, it's about winning
souls. It's about equipping the saints. It's about making disciples of all the nations.
And all of those answers are fine. The problem is that we've given an answer that better
describes the mission of the Church than the vision. You see, the mission of the Church
is a broad concept, like winning people to Christ. It's a general, philosophic kind of
statement. We're going to disciple the nations. It's a good place to begin, but that isn't
the vision of a church. The vision of a church, or a Christian ministry for that matter, is
found in a more specific, narrow description of the niche that that group of Christians
plays in the overall mission given to the Church. The vision is specific. It is detailed.
And it's unique to that particular Church's calling. How is it that vision comes about?
Well, we see some lessons about vision in our text today. I invite you to notice with
me that vision comes from Jesus. Jesus imparts vision to His people, here to His disciples,
for the task that He wants us to accomplish together. The vision is the direction that
we understand from Him, that we accept from Him, and for which we are willing to commit
ourselves completely. A vision involves not mere intellectual understanding. It involves
passion of the heart. It involves buying into that particular strategy, that particular
niche that my Church has. It involves ownership. There's great benefit in buying into it.
You will notice that after these disciples had been with Jesus, and He parted from them,
it says, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising
God. What had happened? These men not only understood the mission that they had, they
understood their part in it from what Jesus had shared with them. Because they had a vision
of that, their hearts overflowed with joy. There is joy in the journey for the disciple
who understands the vision that God wants to place in his heart.
For these disciples and for us, there is a context for vision. It is the same. It is
the Word of God. Notice in verse 45, Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
They had heard these Scriptures before, but now Jesus gives them greater insight into
the writings of the Scriptures. The Word of God must forever be the context of the vision
of our lives and of our Church. Vision arises from what God has to say. It provides the
context for how we see ourselves, what our values are, and what we believe God wants
us to do. We say, isn't that a given? Well, actually, it's not. It's not even a given
for churches, let alone individual Christians. For example, there are some churches today
that take their cues not from the context of the Bible, but from the context of our
culture. The whole vision that they have for their reason for existence is found in those
cultural issues that concern them in our day. There is a wide variety of them. For the most
part, these are churches that are mainline and which would be accurately described as
liberal in their theological perspectives. But we need to understand that they have a
vision nonetheless. It's a very driving vision, and they're accomplishing what they want.
The problem that they have is that the vision that they've created is not from the Word
of God. It's from culture. Sometimes there are those who are studying Scripture who actually
find the context for their vision from their leader. There are some churches this way.
The whole vision the church has is funneled through the leader. And when the leader goes
or dies, the vision of the church evaporates because the context for the vision has not
been a shared understanding of the Word of God, but it's been the preacher, the pastor,
the leader. The same can be true of movements. I think the same thing can be said of the
cult that a year ago was capturing the attention of the nation down in Texas. They claim to
be studying the Word of God, and yet their whole vision was wrapped up not in the Word
of God, but in David Koresh, and he led them to disaster. If we're going to have real
vision, the kind of vision that God will bless, it must be within the context of our understanding
of the Word of God. Notice that the source of the vision these disciples had, while its
context was the Old Testament that Jesus opened to them, the source of it was Jesus himself.
He had appeared to them on that first Easter Sunday, and now periodically over 40 days,
he abides with them, he teaches them, and out of that communion with the living Christ,
they receive this vision for what they're to do. Vision must be built upon relationship
in order to capture passion and commitment. One can be committed to a cause and have no
passion, but one cannot be committed to a person without there being passion there.
For example, your marriage. Are you and your marriage merely committed to the institution
of marriage? You can be that, and you can go through your anniversaries year after year
and just be committed to the institution of marriage. The problem is there's no passion
there. But if there's genuine relationship between husband and wife, then there's passion.
Beyond the commitment to the institution, there's a passion that arises out of relationship.
Suppose you were on a rescue team in Southern California heading into one of those devastated
neighborhoods. You would go about that with a great deal of energy, undoubtedly out of
concern for people. But let's suppose for the moment you were going into your neighborhood,
to your home, to rescue your family, would there be passion there? Would there be commitment?
Of course, because there's relationship with those people who are trapped in that house.
My point this morning is that the source of our vision must be Jesus Christ and our relationship
with Him. Our vision must come from Him out of a time spent in prayer with Him, listening
to His voice in the context of His Word. When we have communed with the living Christ and
received from Him the vision that He has for us, then we will be passionate about that
vision because it comes from Him to whom we are committed.
I've already mentioned the distinction between mission and vision. The basis of a vision
has to be the mission. The mission that is given to the church is very clear. Jesus says
it is this, that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed. Notice that
He ties the mission of the church, this broad philosophical statement, to His own mission.
He said that Christ had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead so that repentance
could be proclaimed. In John He puts it this way, as the Father has commissioned me, so
I commission you.
The mission of the church of Jesus Christ is linked together with His mission. I say
this carefully. His mission is not fulfilled until we have done our part. He has completed
the work of salvation on the cross of Calvary, but that is the beginning. The rest of the
mission is that His body, you and I, take that message now to the whole world. That
is our mission. The vision that you and I have for our lives or for our church has to
be based upon this mission that Jesus gives. God's great purpose of redemption was accomplished
by Jesus, but finally it is to be carried out by the church as it proclaims the message
of repentance for forgiveness of sins.
If you are here today without the forgiveness of sins, here we have the basis for your forgiveness.
It is that Jesus Christ suffered and died for you at the cross and paid the penalty
there that God might now be merciful and extend to you forgiveness through His Son. By believing
in Jesus Christ, you can find forgiveness for whatever you have done in the past.
After laying down the mission in general, Jesus gets more specific. Notice the statement
of the vision itself that He wants His disciples to grasp. Verse 48, you are witnesses of these
things. You see how He narrows it? He says, here is the broad picture. Repentance has
to be proclaimed so that people might be saved from their sins. Now He looks at His little
band and He says, you are witnesses of these things. The word witness would conjure up
in their minds all kinds of pictures and ideas that were prevalent in that day.
But notice the more specifics that Jesus gave to them. First of all, it involved proclaiming
a verbal word. It was not enough for His disciples merely to live like good people. They had
to proclaim the message of repentance. They had to speak it. They had to articulate it.
They had to tell it. That's more specific. Then He says that they are to begin in Jerusalem.
You see their vision is getting more specific all the time. Jesus says, you begin right
here in this city. And then He says, and to the nations of the world.
Now Luke captures this just a little differently in his wording when he writes the book of
Acts. He goes back to the same period of time and connects the gospel with the historical
book of Acts. On that occasion Jesus says to His disciples, as Luke records it there,
you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses,
both in Jerusalem, again here, in Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the
earth. So Jesus laid down the specific vision that He had for this group of people. They
were to proclaim with their mouths the message of Christ. They were to begin in Jerusalem
and then work their way out to the uttermost parts of the earth. All cultures, all people
groups ultimately are to hear the gospel.
The Grace Church of Roseville, I think, has a fine mission statement. I think that we
ought to always be looking at it to see how we may want to tweak it here and there, but
on the back of your bulletin you'll find that mission statement. It's there every Sunday
in that block that concludes our worship folder. It says that we are a community of believers
whose purpose is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and to prepare itself through biblical
instruction, service, and fellowship in order to evangelize the world. That's a broad statement.
It's hard to argue against that, isn't it? It's hard to disagree with it because it arises
right out of the context of scripture, as it should, and it lays out for us the broad
mission of what our church is about. But Grace Church of Roseville could benefit from a clearer
vision of its ministry, a better understanding of that unique role that God wants us to play
in this broad vision.
Now we've taken a stab at it, insufficiently at this point, but a stab at it, when we have
described ourselves as a mission center. Jesus said to his disciples, you are witnesses.
The picture we use of ourselves has been that we're a mission center. Now there are all
kinds of ramifications of that that I don't have time to go into this morning, but the
fact is that we can elaborate on that and need to. The vision that we as a church have
must come from God. It will come through our leaders and then be discussed and agreed upon
ultimately and owned by everyone in the church. Vision is not arrived at with a democratic
process. Fourteen ideas of vision aren't put up and everybody lifts his hand for which
one of the fourteen he likes. That's not the way it's done. Vision comes from God through
leaders to the rest of us. And then we together hone that. We refine it. We work it through,
change it here and there until we believe together as a group, yes, this is what God
wants us to be about. Vision is cast by leaders, but it is hammered out by many hands. Right
now our leadership at Grace Church is involved in producing a draft of a vision statement
for us. This is part of a process we're going through of strategic planning. We begin with
the mission. We flow out from there with our objectives, our purposes, our values, and
then we arrive at our strategic plan. Out of that comes the vision of what God wants
us to be. You say, well why is this so important? Well, it's important as I've tried to say
because it develops passion in us. It helps us to understand and to own what the church
is all about. There appear to be a variety of visions within our church as to the unique
calling that we have, to our role. When there are three or four or ten visions of what our
church ought to be, then it dissipates our energy and it confuses our direction. Over
the upcoming months, between now and about April, we're going to engage in a process
that's going to be congregation wide in which we're going to talk about the vision that
God wants to instill in our hearts for this ministry. Now this is important for a second
reason because as we have talked about the development of this site over the last year,
and by about a 97% vote confirmed that that's what we ought to do last summer to remain
here and develop this site. There are some who have fixated on the proposed building
thinking that that is the vision. The thing is that we have to understand that that is
not the vision. That may well be a part of our strategy to accomplish the vision, but
the building is not an end in itself. It has to be the means to the end. Now to be very
candid with you, I wish that a building weren't necessary. I wish we didn't even have to talk
about it because talking about it and going through the process of building and making
all of that happen consumes a great deal of energy. But I'm willing to do that, believing
that it is part of our means to the end. That if we're going to accomplish the vision that
God gives us, most likely we're going to have to build a building here, maybe several phases
of building over the coming years. But having said that, let me reiterate that a building
is not the vision. A building is a means to accomplishing the vision. Vision is never
brick and mortar. Building is people oriented. Vision is seeing individuals who are without
Christ, without hope, without ultimate meaning in life. And it's an understanding of what
God wants us to do and to be to reach those people. That's what vision is. Vision is people
oriented. Here Jesus says to his disciples, you are witnesses. Begin Jerusalem. Go to
all the nations, all the cultures of the world. That is your vision. That could have been
overwhelming to them. And as we look at our vision as a church, we may feel at points
overwhelmed. But the fact is that Jesus also gives us the resource for our vision. We see
that in the next verse, verse 49. I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. Jesus
tells us in the first place that our resource for the vision is not in ourselves. Whatever
it is that God wants us to be and to do, the resources for that do not rest in us. They
rest in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit whom he sends to indwell us. The Holy Spirit
who is the very life of Christ, the Holy Spirit who is the power of God. These people went
back to Jerusalem after Jesus left them and they began to pray. Luke tells us about it
in Acts chapter 1. It says they devoted themselves every day to praying. It is prayer which releases
the energy of the Holy Spirit in the church. How is it that we can unlock the resources
of God so that we can accomplish the vision that he will lay upon our hearts? It is through
prayer. When we as a congregation are so passionate and so committed to Christ, to his kingdom,
and to the vision that he gives us as a church that we are willing to sacrifice and to pray,
to spend time together to pray, then the vision will be realized. Notice that as Jesus was
blessing them, he lifted up his hands to bless them and as he was doing that, his feet lifted
off that mountain and he began to go up. Now I assume he finished what he wanted to say,
but he was lifted up while blessing them and I believe there is significance to that. It
is this that throughout this age, that is the disposition of Jesus Christ, blessing his
people. He went away to heaven blessing his followers and still today that is his disposition
from heaven to pour blessing upon his people. Our resources come from his blessing as well
as from his spirit. How may we know his blessing? How can we be in the position to receive those
blessings and to enjoy them by living our lives in faith and obedience? That is how.
As we sang not too long ago, I think last Sunday, trust and obey. There is no other
way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. When I am living my life, trusting God,
believing him and obeying his word as best I understand it, that I am keeping myself
in that place where I can receive the blessing that he is sending. How sad to rob ourselves
of that blessing by living outside of the sphere of faith and obedience. Everything
that we need to do what God wants us to do, he will provide if we will trust and obey.
We have that assurance. Now it may be that you are saying in your mind, okay I have heard
you but I am not still sure what a vision statement sounds like. Let me share with you
a sample or two of a vision statement from other local churches in other parts of the
country. What I want you to notice is that they don't refer to the Great Commission.
What they say is built on that. That is the mission that all of us have. Here we have
a specific vision statement from churches as to how they define who they are and what
they are there to be about. I don't know the names of the churches or I would give
them to you but listen to the first one. To provide the greater metropolitan area with
a church geared to the needs and lifestyles of baby boomers who are nominal Christians
offering a ministry that is sensitive in personality and characterized by loving, forgiving, accepting
environment. You see there is a church that has captured a vision that is narrowed down
from the general mission exactly who it is after, the kind of values it has, what it
is going to do. Here is an organization to equip professionals in New York City to impact
their web of relationships focusing on reaching non-Christians through cell groups and marketplace
ministries that address urban needs. You see again how they brought the broad mission down
to a vision of exactly what their niche is in it all. I hope that you share the excitement
of my heart this morning as we think about what that vision ought to be for us as a church.
The fact is that we can't do all things and be all things for all people. No church has
the resources to be able to do that. Jesus has a specific niche for us as a church and
together we want to hammer that out so that we understand exactly who we are, what our
values are, and what God wants us to do in light of the great commission. So my request
of you this morning is to pray with us. We are early in the process. The elders are just
now dealing with this. We'll be coming to the congregation weeks ahead. But would you
begin praying now? God, as a church we need to understand more clearly what your vision
is. Would you give that to us? Secondly, would you participate in the process when that opportunity
comes to you? Will you help us to fashion what that vision ought to be for Grace Church
Roosevelt? Third, will you purpose in your heart not only to understand what we ultimately
come to, but to own it as a member of this congregation? To feel passionate about that
vision? To be willing to commit yourself to it? Vision comes from the risen Lord, Jesus
Christ, in the context of what we know from His word, what it teaches. Out of our ongoing
communion with Christ as we pray, we as a congregation will hear His voice, clarifying
our vision and unifying our hearts under His Lordship. And the result of our going through
this process is going to be the same as it was for those disciples. It will result in
unity and joy in the journey. I like the words that Matt sang earlier. There's wonder and
wildness to life and freedom for those who obey. As we think about the church's vision,
let me just apply this a bit more specifically to you individually. What is your vision for
your life? Of course, I'm going to win souls, I'm going to teach my Sunday school class,
but how do you fit more specifically? How focused can you be? Now I suppose it's possible
to be too narrow, but if we say that our own purpose in life is to win everybody to Jesus,
that's too broad. I suppose we need to understand our spiritual giftedness and look at our interests.
What do we enjoy doing? We need to look at what God has blessed that we've done in the
past. Put those things together with a lot of prayer, asking God, and you will eventually
understand what your vision ought to be. Why you are here. It is not just to be a member
of the church, it is not just to win souls to Jesus, it is to do this thing. And when
you understand what that is, it will create a brand new sense of freedom in your life.
There will be joy there. It will liberate you. You will experience new power in serving
Christ because you understand what your niche is, where you plug in. As we do that individually
and as we do that together as a congregation, it will transform us. It will transform us
because there is power in vision. There is power in vision because it comes from a Lord
who has risen from the dead and who is victorious and who chooses to bless our lives for His
purpose in the world. Let's bow together.
Here I pray today with all of my heart that you will generate in this church an understanding
and a passion of what your vision for us as a congregation is. I pray that you will bless
the process that we are entering into. Help us to keep perspective. May we, by trusting
and obeying, be in that place where we can hear your voice and understand what you want
us to be and to do. And Lord, as you do that for us as a congregation, I want to pray that
we individually will benefit from this process too. And understand more precisely what that
unique place is that you have for each one of us in a part of this greater vision for
us as a congregation. We will give praise and thanks to you for how you answered this
prayer. And we anticipate with excitement what you're going to do as we give ourselves
a fresh to you. Amen.