Over the next several weeks we’ll examine City Groups at The Paradox: their vision, their identities, who they are and how they live. This is the fifth installment of the series and will look more into the how the people of God as counter-cultural missionaries.THE CHURCH IS A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD – MISSIONARIES(2 Corinthians 5:17-21; John 20:21)
If I don't believe the Gospel, then I will dedicate my life to a lesser mission and purpose that is guaranteed to fail in the end because it will not overcome sin and death (i.e. a nice home, car, money will not go with me to the grave; a successful career could easily be taken away, etc). But if I believe the Gospel, I no longer need a purpose to justify my existence. I have been justified through Jesus fulfilling his mission and purpose and I join him on the mission that is guaranteed to succeed. Our proof is the resurrection - nothing could stop him, not even sin or death. My justification is not connected to my success of the mission and yet, I am part of the mission that will succeed and the fruit of it is eternal.
God sent his son, Jesus, to Earth to take on human form and live within culture. He worked, ate, and interacted among the people, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He lived in such a way that those around him could see and experience what God was truly like. Jesus came so that all people, places and things could be restored to a right relationship with God. In the same way, we believe we are missionaries sent into our culture to restore all things to God through Jesus. We live this out through involvement in a City Group.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. – 1 Corinthians 5:17-21
What would it look like for your City Group to be a family on mission?
THE CHURCH IS A HOLY NATION – PARADOX-CULTURE(Matthew 5:14; Jeremiah 29)
If I don't believe the Gospel, then I will either be a syncretist or a separatist. I will either seek to find my identity and purpose in the world through relationships and stuff (syncretist) or I will be religious and moral and separate from the world because I am pious and better than those “pagans” and don’t want their “filth” around me or my children (separatist). But if I believe the Gospel I have a humble confidence because I am completely accepted by God but only through Jesus’ work on the cross on my behalf. So I am confident in my acceptance and worth in Christ and don’t need anything the “world” offers but I am humble because the only reason I am accepted is because of Jesus and not anything I have done. This frees me to be in the world but not of the world.
“Once in cities, Christians should be a dynamic counterculture. It is not enough for Christians to simply live as individuals in the city. They must live as a particular kind of community. Jesus told his disciples that they were “a city on a hill” that showed God’s glory to the world (Matt. 5:14-16). Christians are called to be an alternative city within every earthly city, and alternate human culture within every human culture, to show how sex, money, and power can be used in nondestructive ways.” — Tim Keller in “A New Kind of Urban Christian,” Christianity Today, May ‘06, p. 38
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16
Do you tend to be “syncretistic” or “separatistic”?
Find a City Group near you here.
Read all of the installments of this series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.
