series: Shine Together #
verse: Luke 4:16-30 #
Notes: #
Intro: #
PJ opens with a story about his time at the Porch, a service on Tuesday evening that’s provided by Watermark mega church. He talks about the grand worship experience with the insane production quality, talented musicians, and excited pastors. But he asks the audience, “is the goal of the church to become more like that?”. To become more known, larger, and have a greater impact? And what ultimately makes a truly healthy biblical church? It’s not about the size or grandeur. Let’s explore Luke chapter 4 verses 16 to 30 to find out what makes a healthy church.
A healthy church acknowledges her spiritual poverty #
In the text, Jesus is visiting his hometown and goes to the synagogue. Now for context, people are already amazed and impressed by this figure named Jesus. So the crowd of people that surround Jesus at the synagogue are waiting in anticipation for his message. But Jesus grabs a scroll written by the prophet Isaiah, and simply says one sentence, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. It’s an amazing message. He’s saying that he is the prophesized Messiah. But the crowd was initially amazed, but then turned sour at him. They demanded he perform miracles and heal people. But Jesus refuses, because he is not entitled to do as they request.
There’s a misconception that faithful servants of God are deserving of better. That they should be benefited for their “sacrifice and service”. But this could not be further from the truth. God’s grace extends to everybody. Not just believers, not just those that are faithful. And this also means that just because you are a believer doesn’t mean that you are entitled to wealth or prosperity.
A healthy church exists for the spiritually poor #
Let this not be misunderstood. We need to pour into people within our church as well of course. But the idea is that the point of our existence is to extend out Jesus’ love unto others. Especially those that haven’t heard of him. And even those who have accepted Jesus as their savior has things they must do. They must proclaim every single week, “I need Jesus”. And we are called to reject our subscription to so many societal beliefs such as caring about our image. Caring about material goods, or how much we own. Social status and prestige, etc. If you think that your faithfulness has earned God’s grace and favor, you must confront your misalignment with Jesus’ message and identity. Believing that you earned your grace means that you are acting as your own God. That you are falling victim to idolatery to yourself.
Our mission is to live and gather and do ministry for the spiritually poor. How can we effectively impact the spirtually poor. We must reject our fleshly and worldly desires for one.
A healthy church is willing to become poor #
This is the hardest part Jesus was chased away from his own hometown synagogue because hew as preacing the truth. We should be willing to lose what the World values in order to remain faithful to the mission of Jesus Christ. We do not have to follow the trends of the modern day society. There is a difference between what we need and want. Like let’s look at the purpose of missional fields. These people are without AC and potentially the essentials like clean water. And yet they still joyfully praise the very same God that we worship on Sundays.
This doesn’t mean that we have to get rid of all of our worldly possessions and go be monks in a forest. But ask yourself this. Would you be okay if you lost your job tomorrow. Would you be