Mission Notes Second Week

SERMON NOTES FROM GOSPEL MISSION 18 SEPTEMBER 2016

Revelation 3 verses 7 – 13

I want to look at the picture the Lord gives us here in verse 8.  The Lord speaks to John on the Isle of Patmos.  “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door.”  We associate an open door with a welcome, a friendliness.  A door has been opened by God for you.  He remains hopeful that you will come through that open door.  It doesn’t matter who you are, how far down you think you are, how religious you are.

This door speaks of a door of opportunity.  This is not of man’s making.  Man could not open a door for you.  The rich young ruler came to Jesus one day.  He realised he didn’t have eternal life.  He asked the Lord “what must I do to inherit eternal life.”  He couldn’t go through with the Lord.  That is what happens in gospel meetings.  We get a hunger for the word of God, would dearly love to be saved, to know he is in our hearts and minds.  Maybe the cost is too high.  We cannot leave the life we are living.  We have to turn away, reject his salvation.  The rich young ruler rejected the Lord and what he could do for him.  The disciples came and asked “who then can be saved?”  The Lord replied “with man it is impossible.”  Man cannot save.  The church cannot save.  Following the church teachings cannot save.  Only Christ can save you.  There is nothing we can do to save a precious soul.  In Acts 8 God opened up the way for the gospel into Samaria.  In Jerusalem there was a young man called Saul of Tarsus.  He was a wicked man and he hated the name of the Lord and the Christians.  He had heard the Christians were filling Jerusalem with their doctrine.  Men and women were coming and being saved.  Saul was angry at the preaching of the word of God.  The devil gets angry at the preaching of the word of God.  Saul was haunting the church so that people had to leave the city.  Philip came and preached the word in Samaria as a result of the people leaving Jerusalem.  There was a man travelling from Jerusalem on the road to Samaria.  He was sitting in his chariot and had the word of God open, reading from the prophecy of Isaiah.  He read of how the Lord suffered and bled and died.  The Lord told Philp to go and speak to the man.  God has opened a door for you to come and trust the Lord as your own Saviour.  God has ways of opening doors today.  Jairus in the scriptures had a daughter who was sick.  He went off to find the Lord.  During the time they walked to his home a woman reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.  She met with Christ through another man’s trouble.  Trouble bring us to the Lord just in the normal every day things.  Something comes to your mind, maybe something that has been said.  Somehow God brings that to you mind.  In John 4 a woman at the well in her normal day practice met with the Lord.  As you come into the meeting tonight the furthest thing in your mind was to trust the Lord as Saviour.  Maybe tonight you are not saved.

The door speaks of options.  Sometimes we come to a house and it is hard to find the door.  When God shows his door of salvation he doesn’t hide it from you.  There are options to the open door.  You have an option right now.  To enter in through the open door or reject it.  God has given you a free will.  God shows you a way that is open and gives you the option to accept Christ.  As Jesus looked over Jerusalem one day he said “how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathers her brood and you would not.”  The prophets had proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ and the people turned to Christ as a result.  This world is coming to a close one day.  In the palace of Agrippa God opened a door for him to hear the gospel of saving grace.  There will be no excuses for you tonight.  Paul stood before Agrippa and began to proclaim the gospel to him.  You know my life Agrippa he proclaimed.  As a result Agrippa said to him “almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”  Is there someone who knows they are not saved.  You would love to be saved.  Maybe you are not far from the kingdom of God.  The young man in scripture was almost but not there.  Paul preached in Athens on the judgment of God, on the creation of God and the resurrection of God.  Some began to mock and laugh while some said we will hear you again.  Others believed that day.  Some thought it was so funny that a man would rise from the dead.  Some wanted to hear it again but there were those who were wise and pleaded for God for mercy on their knees.  What is your option tonight?  Will you take him as Saviour?  See what he has done for you, consider him as you Saviour?  See him coming out of Pilate’s hall, as he was nailed on the cross of Calvary.  Those nails that pierced his hands and feet and a crown of thorns was placed on his head.  His final cry was “it is finished”.  We are dealing with a finished Saviour tonight.  Surely you cannot be saved until you are in heaven some say?  The Bible says “there is no other name give among men whereby we must be saved.”

The door speaks of opposition.  This verse tells of those with little strength and those of the synagogue of Satan.  God had to open the door for them.  There is opposition in the fact we feel we could not enter into this situation.  There was also opposition on the outside as well.  Inside you will hear a voice saying “there will be another time for this” but there is also outside influences who will hinder you by saying “if this is a Christian I don’t want anything to do with them”.  There were those in the early church who said they were Jews and they were not.  There will be great opposition tonight if you want to get saved.  The apostle Paul and Silas came to the place in Cyprus to a counsellor who wanted to get saved.  He had an assistant beside him, a sorcerer who turned his master from the faith.  There will be those who will try to turn you away from the faith.  Many will turn you away from the cross.  People will talk you out of getting saved.  Jesus said “watch out for those who say they are Jews but they are not.”  There are also those who are ministers, claiming to be preaching the word of God.  They will oppose you too.  “Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus spoke of the Pharisees who would not enter in themselves and prevent others from entering in too.  God has opened a door for you.  If you realise you are not saved come to Christ and trust him as Saviour and Lord.

SERMON NOTES FROM GOSPEL MISSION 22 SEPTEMBER 2016

JOHN 12 VERSES 20 – 29

I want to turn you to verse 22 “The same came therefore to Philip which was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we would see Jesus.”  These men were converted to Jewish religion and had made their way to Jerusalem.  I want us to consider the journey they were on and what lessons we can learn.  First they told Philip they wanted to see Jesus.

Notice here that there is a conscience that was stirred.  These Greeks of course were no doubt converts to the Jewish religion.  Somewhere they had come under the teaching of the rabbis, had been taught the doctrines and teachings of the Jewish faith so that when these feasts came around their conscience told them they should be in Jerusalem.  There were 3 feasts in the year they were expected to be at.  How true that - isn’t there something within us that cannot be satisfied until we find Jesus.  They could not be satisfied until they found Jesus.  We wanted something else, to see the Lord.  Here were men and they made their way to the feast.  Their conscience told them to be in this feast where the rest of the people were gathered.  They were like the young man who came to the Lord and asked “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He realised he wasn’t saved.  He had a religion.  He was able to say of the commandments “all these have I kept from my youth.”  He knew in his heart of hearts though he didn’t have eternal life.  What does it mean to have eternal life?  When you close your eyes for the last time it is “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”  Eternal life is yours for ever.  This young man realised he didn’t have that.  As we bring this mission to a close at this stage are you still sitting like in other meetings – unsaved?  No conscience of God in your soul.  That void cannot be filled until you find Christ as Saviour and Lord.  This feast would be there for them to worship.  There is something in us that draws us out to worship.  Satisfied to a degree.  It is not long until you realise there is a void though.  The feast they were celebrating was a feast of remembrance.  They remembered the people, the children of Israel when they were in Egypt.  Remembered the night when God put into place a plan of redemption.  People were being held in slavery and they had to take an innocent lamb and put it to death.  The blood from the lamb was to be poured into a basin, then hyssop was taken which symbolised not the strength of their faith but the weakness of it.  They were to dip the hyssop into the blood and spread it over the door lintels.  People were delivered out of the hands of Egyptians that night because when God saw the blood on the doorposts he passed over that house.  John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said “behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”  He gives atonement for you and me.  Their conscience took them to this feast.  Maybe that is where your conscience takes you on the Lord’s day even in an unsaved condition.  Just because you go to church every Sunday you think that that is your ticket to heaven.  It has nothing to do with it.  Your salvation is based on the one who left heavens glory to appease his father.  Salvation is in nothing else.  You are not on your way to heaven and home.  Will you come tonight?  You and I can be a great church member yet not be saved.  That makes people angry sometimes but that is what scriptures tell us.  I have been born in sin and shapen in iniquity.

A curiosity that gripped them.  Perhaps they had now entered into the city, heard the stories of Jesus now they wanted to meet Jesus for themselves.  The raising of Lazarus was still very much in the mind of the people.  Lazarus had taken ill and died.  His 2 sisters sent word for Jesus to come but he tarried.  When he came he spoke into the tomb and told Lazarus to come forth.  Verses 17 and 18 you cannot get more of a testimony than this.  Verse 11 a clear cut testimony of living and saving grace.  He was living in their community.  The evidence was there for all to see.  “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature”  There was a story in their heart.  To know Jesus.  Maybe there is one you know who has been saved for many years.  You can look at them and say ‘that man or woman is a saved man or woman and that is the person I want to be.’  Remember Zacchaeus - the curiosity filled his heart when he heard Jesus was coming to his town.  He was a tax collector.  Maybe he remembered Matthew sitting at his desk.  Maybe he heard about Jesus coming to him one day and saying “follow me”.  Zacchaeus went out into the street but he had to climb a tree to see Jesus himself.  When Jesus stopped at that tree he told him to come down.  His curiosity led him to meet Christ that day.  These mens curiosity brought them to meet Jesus.  Maybe you need to get your eyes of the religious ceremony and find that man who once died for you.

A challenge he received.  A message that was returned to them.  Verse 23 “the hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”.  It was to his death that he was referring to here.  When that day would come and he would be taken to Calvary to be crucified he would die for the sins of these men.  He brought them face to face with his death.  It is only as I look to the crucified Christ that I can see him as the Saviour of mankind because he is not on the cross nor in the tomb but at the right hand of his father in heaven.  “He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification.” (Romans 4 verse 25)  Jesus is standing waiting for you to make up your mind, pleading because he doesn’t want you to walk away.  These Greeks wanted to see him.  They ended up not just with a glimpse.  They wanted to hear his teaching and follow after him.

A conversion that was introduced – verses 25 and 26.  There is a conversion introduced.  Zacchaeus sitting in the tree thought he was out of sight but Jesus stopped and told him to come down.  We come to that same place to night, the place of decision.  There is only one who can make that decision – you.  You are not saved, you know not the Lord as Saviour, you are still in your sins.  Come to Christ, the one who suffered and died for you is able to open up heaven’s door for you.  Step out of your religiosity and say “we would see Jesus”.  When Simeon saw the baby Jesus he asked to depart in peace “for my eyes have seen the salvation of God.”  Will you come to Christ?  Will you begin your walk with God as Enoch did who began his journey to heaven?

SERMON NOTES FROM GOSPEL MISSION 23 SEPTEMBER 2016

1 Corinthians 1 verses 12 – 24

In these verses we read the apostle Paul is in the midst of an argument, a debate.  He was often in debate with the religious leaders of his day.  He is speaking here of baptism.  Paul makes it clear, he was instrumental in baptism but his full ministry was not this entirely.  Verse 16 the apostle Paul was so aware of the cross in people’s lives that he didn’t want to miss out on that.  He was very quick to get to the cross in any of his teachings.  The gospel is the centre of the bible and the cross is the centre of the gospel.  That is why Paul could say “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.”  He was sure of what the gospel would do.  It is the power of God unto salvation.  Paul was so clear of the cross.

The place of the cross.  Not talking of the location of the cross, that hill of Golgotha but we are talking about the place given to the cross in your life and mine.  What does the cross really mean to you?  Does it have any significance in your life?  Galatians 6 verse 14 “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul brought a basic message each time – that he should glory in nothing except the cross.  All glory was to the cross.  It was the most important event in his life.  Paul in Colossians showed the importance of the cross in their lives.  The preaching of the gospel “bringeth forth fruit as it doth in you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.”  It was bringing forth fruit unto repentance.  With the cross at the centre point it is bringing you to a decision.  As you have listened night after night or maybe down through the years you have to make a decision.  You have listened to the word of God, not talking about a relic on a hill but the cross.  The death and sacrifice paid for our sins.  He gives the attitude of the Jewish people – verse 23.  It was to some a “stumbling block.”  They couldn’t understand it.  Their Messiah was come to deliver them from the yoke of their captors.  They couldn’t understand the Messiah was the one who took the form of a servant and died on a cross.  They wanted a sign, flashing lights.  If you are waiting to get saved, that something will happen that is significant it doesn’t always happen like that.  God comes into your heart, shows you the cross in another light.  He shows you the blood of Christ which cleanseth you from every sin.  That is God’s work and that is what he does.  It could be as simple as you sitting in your seat and you feel that pulling and turning of your eyes to the Lord saying “will you come to me.”  There is no flashing lights, no stars falling from the sky.  Simply look to Christ.  To the Greeks what was the gospel?  Verse 23 “unto the Greeks foolishness.”  They were highly educated people.  They were so well read but could not understand this man would come into the world and die on the cross.  This would be the deliverer from sin.  I wonder what place do you give to the cross tonight?  Which side of this argument are you on?  The cross is a stumbling block or foolishness.  There are only 2 divides.  The two walking on the road to Emmaeus had their heads down, their hearts were sorrowful.  Jesus drew near and walked with them.  “Why are you so sorrowful?”  They began to tell him what had happened in Jerusalem – that the one they believed to be the Messiah was crucified, buried and rose again and they began to say what they thought of it.  They believed he was a mighty king who would deliver them from the Roman Empire.  They had a wrong idea of the cross.  The cross was not to be a deliverance from human enemy, but a deliverer for all time of their situation and the bondage of the devil.

The price of the cross.  The God of heaven took his best, not archangels or prophets but his own son.  To take your sin and mine.  Remember Abraham of old who had one son.  The one son he waited so long for, the son in whom the promise of God was fulfilled.  One day God tested Abraham telling him to take his son and sacrifice him to prove his love for God.  Abraham took his son on a 3 day journey to prove he loved his son.  He knew the cost of sacrifice.  The God of heaven knows what it is like when he sent his son into this world, to be misused and treated badly, bruised and battered until he was unrecognisable.  That is the cost of our salvation.  It cost the God of heaven everything.  It cost the Lord his life.  As you think of the cross don’t think it was cheap, that your salvation cost you nothing but it was very dear to the Lord above.  Isaac asked the question “I can see the wood but where is the sacrifice?”  Abraham replied “God will provide himself a lamb.”  Later John the Baptist cried “behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”  Romans 8 verse 32 “He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  Which side of the cross are you on?  Philippians “Christ being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.  But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.”  He went to the cross to save you and me. 

The pardon of the cross.  That is why we sing “He paid a debt he did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.”  If there was no cross then there could be no reconciliation.  There was a great separation between us and God.  Jesus dying on the cross took that away and reconciled us back to him again.  Christ made a great payment for the debt.  The soul that sinneth he shall die.  You would die in your sins and be in hell for all eternity.  The Lord took on himself the form of a servant, stepped into the world and went to Calvary.  He bore that sin on his own body.  He blotted out the ordinance nailing it to the cross.  It was custom when debt was owed that the invoice was nailed in a public place and marked ‘paid in full’.  The Lord paid our debt on the cross of Calvary.

The peace of the cross.  Ephesians 2 verse 13.  On the cross of Calvary he mended that division between Jew and Gentile.  He paid it all reconciling us to God.  The broken relationship has been mended because Jesus died on the cross of Calvary.  Jesus could say “my peace I leave with you.”  Which side of the cross are you on?  Is there a peace in your heart tonight that passeth all understanding?  Have you taken eternal life from the hand of Christ?  Can you say “it is well with my soul because I trusted Christ as Saviour and Lord?”  The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.  That is the peace of the cross.  I will never find peace in anything else.

The power of the cross – verse 18.  There is a power to break every sin and set you free.

The problem of the cross.  Will you come tonight?  What will you do with the cross tonight?  Come the cross at the end of the meeting, trust the Lord to make you a new creature.  Will I settle the old question?  The cross of Calvary - which divide are you on?  Sitting with those who are perishing or are you on the side that is saved by the grace of God?  If you are on the side perishing you can step over and be saved.

SERMON NOTES FROM MISSION 25 SEPTEMBER 2016

MARK 5 VERSES 25 – 34

This account is about a woman ill for 12 years.  A well known account with many illustrations born out of this story.  Don’t want to look primarily at that - not look at her plight and pain, suffering or the Pharisees.  One little thought – the touch she made changed her life, transformed her life, made her a new creature in Christ Jesus.  Sometimes our minds are taken up with other things, we make God’s salvation so complicated.  We cannot take it in.  It is not doing but believing.  To believe you have got to trust the Lord.  Are you believing him?  It is the condition of our heart that matters, not what we say or do.  That is maybe were you are tonight.  Maybe you are trying to say all the right words but it is not in the saying, it is trusting.  “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Many have said “I have asked the Lord to come into my heart a thousand times.”  You don’t have to do that.  Salvation is not doing but it is in trusting him as Saviour and Lord.  The centurion standing at the cross  witnessed the darkness falling, the words of the Lord “it is finished” and as Jesus gave up the ghost he said “surely this was the Son of God.”  As we come face to face with the risen, resurrected Saviour tonight what will you answer?

The simplicity of the touch.  She didn’t have to run half way down the road.  She reached forth her hand and touched Jesus’ garment.  Her plight was so serious.  She had been with many doctors and only grew worse as a result.  One of the cures was to go to where 2 roads met with tankard of wine and she would be healed.  Another was to plant vine bushes in a trough and watch them growing day by day, yet she was nothing better.  She could find no seasons of healing.  She just got so discouraged.  You were born into this world with the nature of Adam through his sinning in the garden.  All your life you have been trying to remedy that.  Something you have got to do with it. Somehow you cannot find it.  Maybe trying to do the best you can, are a good church attender, help everyone that needs help, all this will get me into heaven but every time you go away discouraged.  One day this woman heard the most wonderful name that ever came into her lips.  She had heard stories of him, how he healed the leper, gave sight to the blind.  If I could touch his clothes just one touch.  It is just a call tonight, lifting your voice in true believing faith.  One touch that is all it is.

Notice the secrecy.  This woman’s heart and mind was filled with what Jesus could do for her.  Jairus had a daughter who was ill.  He wanted to find Jesus to bring him into his home that Jesus would try to heal and raise her to health and strength again.  This woman heard what Jesus was doing, heard this day he was in her street.  Maybe the Lord has been filling your heart throughout this mission, hearing about his death on the cross and suffering for you and me.  Filling your heart and mind with what he could do for you if only you would let him in.  Verse 31 there was a multitude of people there that day.  She touched the hem of his garment.  The crowd was pressing in on him yet he felt this one feeble touch.  Not one person knew what was going on in that person’s heart.  The disciples questioned Jesus ‘look at the crowds yet you felt one touch?’  This woman reached forth and with one touch the virtue flowed out of his body and into hers.  Salvation can be like that.  God can be working in the heart of one person, the person might not know what is going on, what God is doing in your heart but the only person to be touched is you.  This is how personal God’s touch is tonight.  Salvation is personal to you alone.  Jesus said “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”. (John 6 verse 37)  “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11 verse 28)  Salvation is something that is personal.  No-one else could know this woman had touched him on this particular day.  It is your decision tonight.  Are you ready to acknowledge this yet?  Salvation means you need to go deeper with Christ.  Maybe you know about the Saviour.  You know he came into this world that he died on the cross.  Heard what he can do.  Still you sit on the edge.  You haven’t closed in with his offer of mercy.  You can be saved just as you are.

The sincerity of it.  This woman had come to the end of herself.  This woman was determined.  Verse 28 she had heard of Jesus.  She was sincere in her heart.  If she could touch him.  She was sincere about doing it.  Never been saved.  If not sincere about it without the Lord she would never be cleansed.  On one occasion there was a leper who came to Jesus.  He was determined to come and be healed.  He came to where the Lord was.  If thou wilt.  He didn’t say could you?  Sincere in what he believed.  Thou canst make me clean.  That man was made clean.  He came with a sincerity on his heart.  He came believing.  A man came to the Lord, had a son with him who was filled with a demon.  That demon tried to destroy the son.  The devil will do all he can tonight to damn your soul in a lost sinners hell.  We need to be reminded there is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned.  What about you tonight?  That man brought this son to the Lord “if you can help me, please he is terribly afflicted and this demon does all to destroy him.”  He believed all things were possible.  If you are not sincere about the sin you have you will never be saved.  This man said “Lord I believe help my unbelief.”  The size of his faith – “for by grace are you saved through faith.”  Has God been speaking to you?  Do you realise that you are lost and unsaved?  Maybe there was a time years ago when you had an experience but not salvation.  You have been living in that trying the best to keep it up now you need to come afresh.

The surrender of this touch – verse 33 this woman had touched his garment.  The virtue flowed from him to her.  Now he challenged “who touched me.”  She has to acknowledge it as well.  She had to stand up before the Lord, the people, her friends, her family, the religious leaders, everyone.  There is a encounter “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.”  “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10 verse 10)  You can come simply, secretly, sincerely and be gloriously saved but then before you go out you will have to stand and say “Lord it was me.”  Maybe tonight God has been speaking already and you have trusted the Lord.  Maybe you have come back to the Lord.  There has been an apathy, a coldness but now you have decided to come back again and surrender to his leading tonight.

The sufficiency of this touch.  Just one touch and a woman who for 12 years had suffered so much was made whole.  She felt in her body she was completely whole.  If you trust the Lord you will receive the sufficiency of grace not only to save your soul but keep you hereafter in your salvation.