The Gospel is the good news that calls out to people to come and be reconciled to God through the death, Resurrection and Ministry of Jesus Christ. Those that respond become a part of God’s Church. This is not merely a message about Christ, but Christ Himself speaking to us, just as He spoke to the woman at the well. When we realise who it is that is speaking to us, then we too would ask Him for the living water! We are drawn into a true fellowship, not only with other believers, but with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. He stands at the door and knocks, inviting each person who hears His voice to open the door and enter into this deep, personal fellowship with Him.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Not sure what it would count for good news for you to hear and someone tells you something and you say, that’s good news. We’re used to saying that. I’ve been hoping to say that when they telephoned me and say your car is fixed and I’m going to be saying to everybody in the house, that’s good news and they’re going to say, it sure is, you’re going to stop trying to borrow our car or cars. Other things cause us to say it’s good news. When you hear someone has been unwell and there’s been a time of hospitalisation but eventually they come out and they’re at home again and we say it’s good news to see you and hopefully when we get going this operation of using the prayer and writing out prayers and putting it in the thing at the back at the front, I never know whether to call that the back or that the back

[00:01:00] but anyway, that one up there where the men sit along and twiddle knobs that’s what I call the back if you put a prayer request in there then make sure you indicate to whom you want it to go to so you’re not worried, you know, we’ve got to know the audience where to share your prayer request and so that’s to allow us to be able to share together with what will sometimes be not good news and sometimes it will be the good news at the other end. And our scriptures are full of promises from God that he takes care of us. The famous Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. When you’re in the middle of some sort of want, there’s different types of longings or needs and wantings. But we’re in the middle of that and something happens and God gives you an assurance.

[00:01:58] It’s a form of good news because it’s coming from him. And I want to talk this morning about good news because the very words good news have become a technical pair put into one in the original language and it is the word that we get gospel from. And the gospel is a good news. And, you know, there’s a lot of people who don’t know what God has for them. And so it is that the church is called the church because it’s a gathering of people who have got something to do with the good news. And this morning I’m talking about what that something is. Peter and his proclamation suddenly as God revealed to him who Jesus was, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus replied to Peter, it’s on your screen, and I tell you, you’re Peter. His name meant rock. And now on that statement that he made,

[00:03:03] God is saying, and on this rock I will build my church. So the first question we’re answering this morning, what is the church? The answer to the church includes the fact that it’s future to Jesus and his ministry. He said, I will build my church. Now the actual word in the Greek language, remember there’s different languages the Bible comes from, but in the New Testament, largely Greek, is the word ekklesia. And the ek means out. But the ekklesia part comes the word to call. The people who are called out to belong to Jesus are the church. The word is used in a more general sense in the Old Testament if they have an assembly, even if it’s not even a Christian assembly, but just a gathering of the people. It’s called an ekklesia. Sometimes the Jewish people would talk about the congregation of the ekklesia.

[00:04:01] The congregation is the gathering of the people who are called out. And so as the Jewish people did in the Old Testament in the time of the Old Covenants, they would come together as they were called out. So in the New Testament, those people who hear the Gospel and respond do so because they come into receipt of a call and call out to belong to Jesus. The Bible says you’re called to belong to Jesus. And that call out makes you someone who’s a Christian. But a part of what it also does is calls you out to come and be a part of the assembly of the called out ones, which is what we are here this morning. Look around please now. Spot faces of the called out ones. Someone’s looking at you too. Because we are the church because we’re called out to belong to Jesus, into the fellowship of the Father and his Son.

[00:05:02] And Jesus said, I will build my church. As Baptists’ understandings have it, we take that to mean that the church is a New Testament happening, though the idea of there being an assembly of God’s people is a part of the old covenant as well. But the church actually began with Jesus and his ministry and that which is about Jesus and the calling outness that Jesus brings and he’s got a technical name. Anybody want to tell me the technical name for what the calling out business is that Jesus set up? What’s the technical name? You know it more than you know you know. It starts with G. What’s the technical name of the process that calls people out to belong to the church? It’s the gospel. And the proclamation of the gospel, because the word gospel, euangelia, euangelia, different endings on it, but that is,

[00:06:02] eu is good and Euangelia is message. And the good message is the good news. The good news, we call it the gospel, it’s just how it is. The word good and news together is gospel. And it is the gospel that makes the church grow. Now, I’ve been reading up about the different ideas different people have, it’s fascinating to read the comments people make about how you grow the church. And some of the advice, we’ve been talking about this in Sunday mornings, is to use good practical principles that you see work. It’s a form of pragmatism, what works, that’s what makes the church grow. Now there’s a truth in that to some degree. And last Sunday, what we’re talking about is the fact that we live in a world that God has made, and God has set up the principles.

[00:07:00] And because he’s the creator and he’s the one that’s put in the plan, he’s the one that set the whole thing going, and that’s not only including our physical world, but also our social world, and also us, because he made us, then there’s certain principles that come out of what God has done that is true and work. but you’ve got to do the ones that God says in his word. It’s not any old principle. It’s not just a pragmatical thing and you take a survey of 10 good churches and some people pick big churches and take a survey, see what they have in common, or that’s what we must do to grow the church. That’s actually a fallacy because you can have a growth of numbers in the particular group if you use the methodology that works by getting more people to come. I’ll give you an example.

[00:07:49] It’s a true enough philosophy or true enough idea that if you want to grow a group of people, then get them into homogeneous groups because they like mixing together and they’ll get in more of their friends and if you get people with the same attitudes and people with the same age roughly and allow them to have groups, then that group will grow. That is a truth. Pragmatically it’s demonstrated so by examining a whole lot of churches and see which ones grow. But what you’re getting is more people. Whether they make a better church or whether they actually become the ecclesia in the spiritual sense is a different question. No, what actually builds the church the Bible talks about and it is what Jesus promised, I will build my church. So it is the actions of Jesus to build the church

[00:08:45] and how we fit into his plan that would make it more a church, not just more people. And right at the heart of that is that he gave leadership of the apostles and the prophets and the pastors and the teachers and the members all involved in using their gifts and that’s what builds the church when we follow the blueprint of Jesus as to how the church is built. Not just follow that which will make your numbers increase because you may be getting more and more people who are less and less Christian. Unless at the same time you gospelise them and you bring them to the place of hearing Christ and responding to him. So this is the whole point of this message this morning that how do you build your church is to recognise it’s Christ’s church and he’s the one that promised to build it.

[00:09:45] and getting into league with him, volunteering to do as Romans 12 does, is to give yourself as a living sacrifice for him to use and letting him dictate where that is, letting him fit you into his plan and you’ll become a part of the building of the church. We’re doing things today by having a potluck. I always smile at that. It means that you get a nice dinner out of some hot pot or you could take the potluck word to mean you can pick a good one or a bad one and you might be yuck. No, I think it’s the first understanding but a potluck dinner is when people bring different things and some busy people have brought a whole lot of extra things for us to have a meal behind the church and do you know the purpose of that is to give people the opportunity to mix more Why do we do that?

[00:10:43] One, because we do have a need for fellowship. But, you know, the fellowship that we’re needing to have is a very particular type of fellowship. It’s actually a fellowship that’s made by the gospel itself and its internalisation within our hearts and lives that makes us click together with others. Because when you come across a person who similarly has found the Lord or has become a Christian or has made peace with God, the language isn’t really what so counts, but the fact that something has happened. And just a few weeks back I had a message, which I get stuck on my messages. I mean to say they keep on not haunting me, but keep on chasing me in the periods of time that follow. So, because I see further things, and this happened with one of the passages we looked at

[00:11:43] where we were talking about the woman at the well. I think the verse is John 4. I’ve jumped a bit. But in the story of Jesus talking to the woman at the well, my message last time in this passage was on the first bit of Jesus, what he said. He said, if you knew the gift of God. And my whole message then was the gift of God is the gospel. And what the gospel says. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you knew the gift of God. And how people come to know the gift of God is you’ve gospelised them. And tell them that God loves them and tell them that he wants to know them and he’s got a call for them to come. But what I didn’t say that previous time was the next bit. I might have mentioned it briefly,

[00:12:41] but it hadn’t struck me, but this verse has been chasing me. and who it is that’s saying to you give me a drink this is what he said to the woman at the well who it is that’s saying to you who is it when the gospel is proclaimed when the good news is heralded what is it that’s happening I tell you it’s because there is another voice the woman at the well not only heard the facts that there’s a gift of God and that’s forgiveness She was aware of her sinnerhood. She was aware of her being out of sync with the Jewish and the Samaritan religions. But who it is that’s saying to you is because it’s Jesus. And the good news is not only the message about him but Jesus himself is the one who’s saying it. And this is something foundational about evangelism that evangelism isn’t just having it said in a nice way

[00:13:42] that people entertain it or having a very famous person doing it or having someone who is a mighty football star or cricketer and will get your listening or having some other thing about them that makes you listen. No, the thing that makes the good news is who it is that’s speaking to you and it’s not just talking of us when we give the gospel, it’s talking about another voice. It’s talking about what happens when you gospelise people that somehow there’s a communication much greater than that which is due to us. It’s that Jesus gets in the act. Whenever you be obedient to him to get under his leadership and somehow or other you find yourself alongside someone at your work or you find there’s a neighbour who comes and chats to you and is wanting to be friendly, you can’t quite spot why,

[00:14:32] but they look like they’ve got a need and suddenly it occurs to you. they need to hear about Jesus and you begin to tell them later on they say when you were talking to me Jesus spoke to me or God spoke to me people worded different ways but they say he got through to me I’m going to tell you that in evangelism what makes it evangelism isn’t just that you’ve got something that gets them listening it’s not just that you have a good lot of music and worship it’s not just that you have a bit of fanfare or you have a big crowd and everybody’s been dazzled because of your smoke machine or whatever it is that you think you’ve made your worship good, I want to tell you that what makes it evangelism is the person who’s speaking. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that’s speaking to you, give me a drink, Jesus said.

[00:15:22] He didn’t really, his intention was for her to wake up. You would have asked of him and he would have given you living water. And the gospel is the gospel not only for what its contents promises, the living water, that’s illustrative of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is if you repent of your sin and put your trust and faith in Jesus, you not only get forgiven but you’ll be able to receive the Holy Spirit and he comes into your person and he creates a connection with you and God and he makes you someone aware of that connection being shared with other Christians and you suddenly come into a fellowship of people who’ve got something together. It is amazing you see scenes where people have become Christians and suddenly realise they’ve got other people that they’re now meeting

[00:16:13] who also have made the same discovery of Jesus. Discovery of his gospel, discovery of what it is to be reconciled with God and they suddenly feel a fellowship. The most unusual way that I saw this illustrated when I was a teacher and they had a conference at Longreach, a good place to name to call it because there’s always a long way away from everywhere, Longreach. And I came from Dajara down to this conference and mostly it was the teachers out in the country enjoying a bit of a drinking time. They did do some good educational talks but the motivation was for the liquid that was going on there and there was one fellow who everybody was milling around who had a drink in his hands and I had never seen him before. I went up and talked to him and he found out who I was and that I was a Christian

[00:17:09] and he put his glass down because apparently he’s quite a drinker and he just had become a Christian and someone advised him, you know, don’t get drunk. The Bible says we’re in a success but rather be filled with the Spirit. And he suddenly had makeup up to him and he’d talk to him and when I said I was a Christian he put the glass down. Decided not to get all sizzled on the weekend. I don’t know what he did later. But later on, a few months later, when I was getting married actually and they have a men’s, some of your friends get and do all sorts of things to you and I was chained up and taken to town, chained up with a big ball around my foot, tied to my feet outside the picture theatre with a sign, last chance to kiss Jim. And I didn’t want to wait for that film to finish

[00:18:04] and so I began working on loosening up the whole thing and I couldn’t get it off my leg but I got it away from where it was fixed and I hobbled down the road and a taxi swooned up and I raced over, pulled the door and said, can I get in? And he let in, it was the same bloke from Longreach. He’d quit teaching, he was now driving taxis and we had a good talk and I was able to have a second time to talk to him but we had a fellowship. You know, in that same camp at Longreach something happened when, this is not to do with my having a thing around my leg, this is earlier, back at the conference, that when one of the sessions was over, I went and it was one of those places where they look after the girls and they have a nice place to go to the lavatory, you know, for them. But we men, we had some outside wall

[00:19:01] that we could go and whittle against, you know. And it had two sides like this. Sorry for the illustration of church but, and I was busy on one side and I absentmindedly began singing a Christian song. And a fella on the other side, joy did. And we had some connection across the wall at that moment when we both had finished our business we went down to the end eagerly. We did not shake hands. But, there was an immediate fellowship. And there’s something about the word fellowship in the Bible which in preparing for today it really struck me. I’ve always thought of fellowship to do with, you know, nice friendly talkings. But in John’s Gospel we’ve seen Jesus in the womb and the well but what about his little letter called 1 John in chapter 1 and verse 3 and 4. And here John, who’s now an old man,

[00:20:08] he’s the writer of the Gospel of John when he was a young man or young girl. He was the younger, one of the youngest of the disciples. He got referred to by himself as a disciple whom Jesus loved. And he wrote later as he got older more and more about love being so central. And in this little letter of 1 John which he wrote in his old age he says, But what’s the key to fellowship? What’s it actually all about? It isn’t just happy times, have a happy day or, you know, meet with your friends that you get on well. No, fellowship, you have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. There’s a spiritual element of the fellowship that the Gospel brings you into. Not only do you get the forgiveness of sins, that’s enormous, not only do you get the gift of the Holy Spirit

[00:21:16] who’s going to help to lead you who’s going to train you, who’s going to push you to keep growing, not only the Holy Spirit but you are welcomed in to a fellowship with the Father. And there’s something about what happens to a person when they’re properly converted and they know Christ. They spot that same thing. Like that bloke the other side of the urinal. He joined in the song. I absentmindedly started singing. And in this middle of this camp, which largely the people were not necessarily Christians at all, they were teachers and they were all stripes and types, but we discovered a fellowship. It’s not the bloke who drove the taxi. It’s another one. But on that camp, I saw a spiritual principle that what we’re introduced to when we come to know Christ is something that is deep.

[00:22:12] The fellowship is not only with us, each of us, but it’s through each of us with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And John says, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. There is a fantastic thing that happens to us when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word. There’s a song about that. When we walk with the Lord in the fellowship with Christ, there’s a fellowship we have with God, with his Son. The one that was speaking to the woman at the well said, if you knew the gift of God, that’s what God gives you in forgiveness. That’s what he did on the cross. That’s the Christian thing that we receive. And then he adds in, and if you knew who it was that is speaking to you, you would have asked of him and he would have given you rivers of living water.

[00:23:24] Do you know that when we come to church here, one of the chief aspects that’s happening here is what’s happening right now. When we open up ourselves, we may have the scriptures open, we may put verses on the screen, or someone may lead you or point out to you, like I’m doing now, what the word of God says. I want to tell you that there is right in front of you a fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And just as Jesus said to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God, what the message says, salvation, future with God. But then he added, and who it is that’s speaking to you? I welcome you to wake up to the fact that when you open this book with prayer, that when you listen with a beating heart to when it is proclaimed, and particularly when someone unfolds to you

[00:24:29] the gospel message of what Jesus has done on the cross and risen again, and what he does when he comes to you and works in your life, the who it is that’s speaking to you through all these happenings is none other than Jesus himself. He said we’re two or more are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst. Jesus is speaking to somebody now. What is it that he says? Do you know in Christian circles there’s quite a discussion, a little bit of an argument between how to exposit Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20 which talks about Jesus calling to people. We’ll put Revelation 3 and verse 20. Jesus says, Behold I stand at the door and knock. Knock. It’s a bit unusual what to say the door is. Some people say it’s the door of your heart which wouldn’t be inappropriate but if you read the verse carefully

[00:25:23] it’s actually the door of the church. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Why I say the church? Because he pictures there being a door but not everybody can hear the knocking. He says, If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him that one and fellowship with him. When it says eat with him in their culture that meant fellowship where you sat down and you’re meant to do more than just gobble down food and say thank you and off you go. You’re meant to spend the time getting close to people and it was an oriental and also a middle you know in the Jewish area a time where people understood that what meals were for was more than filling your stomach it was for the opportunity of there being those connections and fellowship it’s why it’s good for families that eat together there used to be a proverb

[00:26:21] that the families that eat together stay together if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and on and up to him the literalness of it is and eat with him fellowship with him and he with me Jesus is in the fellowship there’s something so beautiful about church every now and then I come across someone who’s got big criticisms of the church whether it’s the one they go to or the church in general or what the church is or is not doing sometimes they have things they should be doing and not every church does everything right nor can they meet every need but it’s amazing to hear the criticisms of the church I don’t believe in ever being a criticism I shouldn’t be anyway of the church it’s easy to slip into that you have to pull yourself back no I’m not going to criticize the thing

[00:27:21] that God created that Jesus created he started he said I will build my church I’m not going to be one of its critics I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. And the promise of Jesus is if you give him a welcome, he will come and have that special spiritual fellowship with you. If you’re a long way away from Jesus, if you’ve found yourself high and dry because you haven’t bothered much to seek him out or if because something’s come in the way and you’ve been disobedient and you haven’t fixed it, the Bible says, God says this, he says if you regard iniquity in your heart I won’t listen to you. It’s put in the third person he who regards iniquity in his heart will not get anywhere with God basically is what it’s saying. God holds us to accounts. And Jesus said to the

[00:28:27] woman at the well if you knew the gift of God but not just what the gospel is, it’s about Jesus and his offer of salvation if you knew not only the content of it but if you knew who it was that’s speaking to you you would ask of him. That’s what happens in church when suddenly people come and they’re aware they’re in the presence of Christ and Jesus has said where two or more gather together in my name there am I in the midst and they become aware something’s coming, getting through to them. Don’t fight it. Understand who it is. Because he’s saying to you this morning, just as he said to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God, what you’re being offered in the gospel, and who it is that’s speaking to you, you would ask of him. And there is a place in growing as a Christian

[00:29:21] to realise Jesus is speaking to you and to respond to that speakingness of him and say, Lord, draw me in close. You promised I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. And Jesus wants your fellowship. He wants your love. He wants you to return that love. He wants it to be a two-way street. Not only that he loves him, but that you love him. He loves you and you love him. do you know that speaking of Jesus we hear when you’ve got a heart that’s open to him you get sensitive across the Christian days to when he’s speaking sometimes in prayer you’d be praying for something that you’d like but you just pray and say Lord I’ll leave it with you because that’s you know you don’t know but there’s other times when you pray and you become aware that he’s speaking back

[00:30:22] and he gives promises or his spirit gives assurances. You pray something and he gives some delight or he gives some burden or he gives something. The voice of Jesus, tell me, have you got any sensitivity to that voice? Have you been practicing listening to it? Not only listening to it, doing what he says. If you knew the gift of God and you knew who it was that was speaking to you, you would have asked of him. There’s a place in Christian ministry where you not only give out the word, but you give opportunity for people to respond to it and to say to Jesus, Yes, Lord, I’m in. Stop worrying about me, Lord, I’m in. Don’t be one of these people that finds you get criticisms of the church or irritations at people or something that’s, you know, really trivial compared to what Jesus was talking about.

[00:31:26] If you knew the gift of God and who it is that’s speaking to you, you would ask of him and he would have given you living water, Jesus said to that woman. If you’ve got some need, if there’s a dry patch in you, if there’s something you can’t understand, what’s wrong with asking Jesus and getting him to understand, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down beside green pastures. Think of the sheep just munching away the beautiful green grass. Beside still waters, he says. All of your needs. The Bible says to us, God says, I will not hold back any good thing from him who walks uprightly with God. And if you’re walking with God, he wants to fulfill, he won’t do you, leave you out. He will respond. And it’s Jesus who’s talking to you and so he was telling the woman, if you really do,

[00:32:34] you’re talking to the Messiah. And if you knew who I was and I’m asking you to give me a drink, then you’d be asking me, Oh Lord, it’s the living water I need. And there is an experience of Christians to go deeper and deeper with Christ and the fellowship that you have with him and the Father. When you come to the place of knowing that he keeps on stirring you and so you ask him, Lord please help me with this, I’ve got this issue, I don’t know whether this is the right way to go, Lord, but will you show me or open up the way or force me to know what the way is. It’s amazing how quickly he answers and says something to you or makes something happen. I never say it has to be this way or that way because you’re dealing with a sovereign, you’re dealing with a king, you’re dealing with the one who’s paid your debt,

[00:33:28] the one who’s conquered death, the one who’s risen again, the one who’s gone to glory and is king of kings and lord of lords, just say, Jesus, speak to me. Tell me what you want me to do. You remember the story of little Samuel, given by his mother to be brought up in the temple because she’d been heard, overseen, overheard crying by the priest. And she prayed for a baby and the priest told her that one would come. And she had born to her little Samuel. And eventually she brings Samuel back to give the baby Samuel to the priest in the temple. And as he grew up, God came. Who is the outspeaker of God? He’s called the Word. It’s Jesus, pre-incarnate at that point. He hasn’t taken on a body yet, but he’s the second person of the Trinity. And he’s the one that brings the communication from the Godhead.

[00:34:33] And a voice came to little Samuel. Samuel? Samuel? So he runs to Eli, the old priest. Tells him what’s going on. He tells him to go and lie down again. But after a few times of getting called again and running back to Eli, Eli twigs as to what’s going on. It’s the Lord calling him. And he says, you go back and lie down. And when he calls again, you say, speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. In the grace of God, may it be the case that some of us today have got an issue and you say, Lord, speak. Your servant is listening. Do what he says. Let him lead you. Sometimes you say, but I’m not sure I get the message right. Yeah, we’re all like that. It’s rather experimental being a Christian. You make yourself willing to obey and you take steps and the Lord will put you on the right track if you pick the wrong little step.

[00:35:36] But you’ve got to be in the way and the Lord can lead you like the servant of Abraham later said when he found Rebekah and brought her back to Abraham’s son, was it? Isaac to marry. And he gave his testimony. He said, I being in the way, the Lord led me. And it’s true when you let Jesus lead you, you become aware of his voice. It’s actually exciting when you’re praying and suddenly you’re aware that the Lord has spoken to you. Sometimes it is to know a direction. You know, get you all in gear. Sometimes it is just a sense of his presence and a sense that he’s with you. And you get so full of joy. Full of joy. Because you not only know the message, but you know who it is that’s speaking to you. May God give you that knowledge and happenstance, happening. I don’t want to use the word experience

[00:36:47] because that equates it to some emotional feeling that may come as a by-product, but the feeling is not the experience. It is a happening or a reality in the realm of the Spirit. Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, says the Scriptures. And in Revelation 3, 20, some people don’t like this verse. I love it. Because it’s talking about the fact that Jesus knocks at the door of the church and he says, any individual hears my voice will get up and open. I’ll come in and particularly go to that person and they’ll fellowship with me. And you can have him fulfill that with you, whatever it means for you to have Jesus help you out. For someone here, it could be that you’ve never really come to terms with being certain of him as your personal saviour. And that could happen this morning.

[00:37:48] If you know not only the message of the Gospel, but who it is that’s speaking to you, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anybody hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and fellowship or eat with him and he with me. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Scriptures. How alive they are. How fantastically powerful. Lord, I know what is the power. It’s not just a current. It’s not just an attitude. It’s a person. It’s the person who in these last days has spoken to us. You spoke to us by a son. You say in Hebrews 1, verses 1 to 3. These last days, God has spoken to us through his son. Lord, may there be more of your speaking in this church. May this be a place where people who come seeking come to hear the voice of Jesus. And may we be found to respond to that voice and enjoy the fellowship that is truly with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that in his name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.