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Series: Other Speakers

Sunday 3 November 2013 – Justus Swart

Is 9:6-7; Gen 11:1-9; Gen 12:1-3; Acts 2:5-13; Matt 28:16-20; 2 Cor 3:2

“Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with righteousness from that time on and forever.”

We live in the confidence and assurance of this verse; that no matter what happens, the kingdom of God is always on the increase. Our God is above all things, yet chooses to be intimately engrafted in both the trivial and the significant moments of our lives. It is a constant realm of Lordship that rules in our hearts, minds, and spirits; giving shape to us as an individual part of a community built across history. Unless we are submitted to the leading of the Spirit, we cannot engage, interact with or see this Kingdom.

Knowing this, we are required to make a shift in our minds. When it comes down to the core, the church is not a struggling entity trying to survive on the fringe of society, but is in fact the very center of all that takes place in this world. The church is God’s way of communicating to the world that He is king.

In Genesis 12:3 God calls Abraham saying; ‘I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations’. God has now chosen to reveal his faithfulness through a particular people, calling them into a particular way of life in order to bless the nations.

Knowing that the Church is God’s way of blessing the nations, we are required to constantly re-examine how we show love to those who are unsaved. We simply cannot settle for being polite members of society, but need to actively engage in the lives of others by demonstrating faithfulness to our God. We need to be frequently asking ourselves whether our lives are open to those we meet, and that our gospel is visible in our daily lives. In the Great Commission given to us in Matthew 28, Jesus clearly invites his disciples to go out into the world to ‘teach them to obey all that I have commanded you’.

Our primary evangelistic tool is the way in which we choose to live our lives, not just by making moralistically good choices, but by being devoted to loving God and our neighbor. Paul reminds us of this in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

‘You yourselves are a letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to read. It is clear that Christ himself wrote this letter and sent it by us. It is written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not one stone tablets but on human hearts’

We as Christians are urged to live hospitable lives in order to reveal the love of God to the nations! We are God’s chosen vessel, so let’s boldly reach out and be the light to the world!