Mission Statement of the Church

For those of you who have kids and can remember leaving their children alone, whether it was for an hour, an evening or a day you understand that the most important thing that you wanted to them to remember were your last words.

“I love you, remember your homework”, “I love you don’t forget to do the dishes and clean your room.”  “I love you, remember no parties and don’t burn the house down.” 

Jesus’ last words to his kids, the apostles were read for us earlier. 

Now just a word of warning, don’t go looking for that particular conversation in your Scriptures cause you won’t find it.  At least you won’t find it exactly like that because that is a compilation of the recollections of those who heard Jesus’ last statement.  Just as each of you will walk away from the sermon this morning remembering certain things I said each of those at the ascension of Christ remembered what to them appeared to be the most important parts of Christ’s last class with them.  Those fragments by the way are found in Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-19, Luke 24:47-49 and Acts 1:8-9. 

This is week six of our Red Letter Summer series where we are looking at those words that are written in Red in the Bible.  And those Red Letter Words are the words of Jesus. 

Two weeks ago we looked at the first Red Letters in the book of John and these are the last Red Letters words in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

It is out of this particular conversation that Matthew gleaned what we call the great commission, now I know that for those of you in sales your idea of a great commission is 25% of the gross and while that is “a” great commission it is not “the” Great Commission. 

This is in reality the mission statement of the early church.  You know what a mission statement is right?  It is when you have boiled the purpose of your life or the life of your church down to a concise statement of purpose.  At Cornerstone we can tell you that Cornerstone Wesleyan Church exist to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit.  That is our mission statement, the short version is Cornerstone Wesleyan Church exist to reach pre-Christians, the even shorter version is We are here to help de-populate hell.  The mission statement of Christianity is this “Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded.”

That my friends is why Christians are left in the world, to fulfil that mission statement.  You see if Cornerstone Wesleyan Church does not reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit, then we have failed to do what we set out to do. 

Our mission statement does not say that Cornerstone exist to provide Wesleyans with a place to worship in Hammonds Plains, nor does it say that we exist to have this beautiful building or that we exist to do what other churches in the area are already doing or that we exist so that our people can have a pastor call on them when they are feeling in need of company. 

The reason that we are here, our passion, the all-consuming reason we exist should be to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit.  That is why we are here and if we don’t accomplish that, then we have blown it and might as well turn this building into a furniture store or a car dealership.

I have said that to say this: The greatest measure of our success is how well we fulfil our mission statement.  And a mission statement is really just your vision set down on paper.  And just a word to the wise here, the vision has to be from God.  Too often churches use vision in much the same way that a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support then for illumination. 

A vision or mission statement is not for the express purpose of supporting what we are doing now, instead it is a reflection of what God wants us to be doing and sometimes there is a difference. Our measure of success will be whether or not we are fulfilling our mission statement. 

But it’s more than that for you and for us because along with the mission statement that we have for our church is Christianity’s mission statement which was laid down by our Lord, Jesus Christ in His last public address to his followers: “Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.” 

If we are not doing that then we have failed, so a few questions about “it”.

1)  What Is It?   There has to be a reason why the church is here and why the Lord leaves us in the world after we get saved.  I mean let’s think about it, the world is cold and uncaring, full of pain and grief and heaven has none of that.  The old song is right when it say “Heaven is a wonderful place, full of glory and grace.”  And so isn’t that where we really ought to be?  But that isn’t where we are. 

So, why are we here and not there?  Well, Jesus offered a couple of suggestions in his teachings when he told the disciples in Matthew 5:13  “You are the salt of the earth.” He added to that in the next verse when He said Matthew 5:14  “You are the light of the world.”  And so we are told that we are to be an influence in the world, both preserving it and flavouring it as salt and lighting the way brightening it as light.  But there has to be more to it than that. In John 20:21 Jesus, tells His disciples why they are being sent out John 20:21 “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

 So we are being sent by Christ in the same way that Christ was sent by the Father, and why was that, To keep people out of hell, right?  John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Winning the lost is the bottom line that’s why we are here, that ought to be the mission statement of every Christian and every Christian Church, to reach the lost.  The problem though is that the main focus of the church and of Christians is not the lost, it’s the found.

You say that’s not true preacher, oh no?   When churches are willing to sacrifice their children in order to hold on to their traditions and preferences what makes you think they would do more for strangers?

Open the cheque book of most evangelical churches and see where the money is spent.  Open the calendar of most Wesleyan Churches and see where the time is spent. Is the majority spent on reaching the lost or on making the found more comfortable?  Do churches expect their pastors to spend the majority of their time and effort on the sinners or on the saints?  It’s easy to say we have a commitment to winning the lost but our beliefs are confirmed by our actions not by our words.  In other words my friends, talk is cheap.

Sometimes I get the impressions that most Wesleyan’s don’t really believe the Bible.  I mean we are supposed to, the discipline tells us that we believe the Bible, our preachers tell us we believe the Bible from the pulpit, and when we compare ourselves to the liberal churches we tell other people that we believe the Bible, but personally I think that we are lying.

Has anybody seen the movie “Schindler’s List”?  The plot is about a German industrialist during the Second World War who saved a pile of Jews from the concentration camps and certain death.  Do you know why he did that?  Well he was convinced that if he didn’t save them then they were destined for the gas chambers.  His mission was to save Jews from a certain death.

30 or so years ago Air Florida flight 90 flew into a bridge and crashed into the Potomac River.  In response a man named Arland Williams jumped into the February chilled waters and saved five people from drowning.  Do you know why he did that?  Well, he was convinced that if he didn’t save them then there were destined to drown.  His mission was to save people from drowning.

Are we convinced that people who don’t know Jesus are lost?

It was Charles Spurgeon who wrote:  “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Sounds like Spurgeon was committed to keeping people out of hell.   

2000 years ago Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived 33 years, took the sins of the world upon himself and died on a cross.  Do you know why he did that?  Well he was convinced that if he didn’t save the world then they were destined for hell fire.  His mission was to save the world

Today most Christians are concerned with themselves and most churches are concerned with keeping Christians happy.  And do you know why?  Because they are not convinced that the people of the world are destined for hell.  You say ”That’s pretty harsh isn’t it preacher?” 

No if I wanted to be pretty harsh then I would say that Christians are convinced that those people are going to hell and that they just don’t care and that would make them monsters.

2) Where Does “It” Happen? 

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Basically that means “here there and everywhere.  Too often we qualify the word missions by adding either foreign or home to the beginning of it.  But the church only has one mission and that is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

We have an obligation to reach people where ever there are people. Jerusalem was where theywere at, that’s Hammonds Plains, the HRM,  in all Judea meant in their entire country, Samaria was the place next to Judea where the people were a bit different but a bit the same, maybe that is another province or across the line in Maine and of course to the ends of the earth covers everyone else.  That means that we have an obligation to reach our next door neighbour, to reach the guy across the street, to reach the lady on the other side of town, those in Ontario and Michigan as well as those in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

And it needs to be intentional.  It won’t just happen.  If you don’t plan a way for it to happen then don’t count on it happening.

At Cornerstone reaching the lost is a priority, not just in Hammonds Plains which is our Jerusalem, but also in our Judea, our Samaria and to the very ends of the earth. 

One thing that we did when Cornerstone was in the planning stages was to list our core values.  Those are the principles that our church was founded on, there are seven and we live and die by those seven core values, they are non-negotiable and they are what Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is all about, if you like our core values you’ll like us, if you don’t like our core values then perhaps you’d feel more comfortable in another church.  Three of the seven core values are

1)  Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to the reaching of pre-Christians through relational evangelism.  Evangelism is and will remain a priority.  

Every dollar spent, every staff person hired, every program instituted will have to answer the question how will this reach the lost?   This is our Jerusalem

3)  Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to reaching the lost and will make tithing our general offering to world and home missions a priority.   We are already Supporting Kerry and Carol Allison in the Ukraine, Carl and Mya in Haiti, Robin White in Japan as well as supporting the work in both Suriname and Ghana.  As well as Kevin and Laura Myers with their new church in Sidney.  That is our Samaria and the very ends of the earth

6) Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to planting additional churches.  We have assisted in planting churches here in the HRM and around the Maritimes with both people and money and some day we are going to take an active role in starting a new church in the Elmsdale Enfield area.   That is our Judea

The vision has to be bigger than these four walls, it has to be bigger than Hammonds Plains and it has to be bigger than Nova Scotia or the Canada. And it has to be bigger than home missions or foreign missions, what it needs to be is a vision to  make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

3) Who Is Supposed To Be Doing It? If we were to look at who was there on the day of the ascension we would discover the eleven remaining apostles, but the great commission had to have been for the entire movement at that time, it wasn’t enough for those eleven to be committed to evangelism without the rest of the group being committed as well. 

The great commission is meant to be a mission statement for all of Christendom.  It doesn’t matter what Christians call themselves, whether it be Wesleyan, Nazarene, Baptist, Pentecostal or whatever.  They have a common mission and that is, that is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.  For Christianity to survive, Christianity has to be committed to the mission of winning the lost.  When we stop making disciples and baptizing people then at that point the Church will begin to die, and will die within one generation.

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of Christianity; it needs to be a burning passion for the Wesleyan Church.  Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our denomination will become just another empty shell in the ecclesiastical wastelands of our country.

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of the Wesleyan Church it needs to be for this church right here.  Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our church will become just a service club, we’ll be like the Lions or the Rotary Club.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the Lions or the Rotary club it’s just that they are not the body of Christ and we are, or at least that’s what we are supposed to be.

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for this Church it has to be for you.  Without the desire to win souls what do you become?  What does it say about you as a person if you aren’t willing to put yourself out just a little bit to ensure that someone that you care about doesn’t end up in hell?  You see everything boils down to our responsibility. 

If we aren’t committed to the mission, then our local church won’t be and if the local churches aren’t committed to the mission than the denomination won’t be.  And if the denominations aren’t committed to the mission than Christendom won’t be.  Maybe we need to adopt the adage of salespeople who say “If it’s going to be it’s up to me”

The problem is that even though most Wesleyan Churches are sound evangelically they are sound asleep evangelistically.  And I’m here today to say, “That ain’t the way it’s supposed to be!”  Our main purpose for being here is very simply to depopulate hell.  Somehow we need to get a grasp of the reality of hell fire and realize that those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour are destined for a Christless eternity and will be tormented forever.  Do you believe that?  Do you believe that people today, people we know and people we don’t know will suffer for eternity because we didn’t do anything to prevent it?   There are times that I think most Christians take Mark Twain’s position on heaven and hell when he said, “I don’t want to express an opinion. You see, I have friends in both places.”  but we have to express an opinion because that is part of the deal of being a Christian.

It would be so much easier to convince people of the value of evangelism if the Bible said that the only way that you would get into heaven is if you brought somebody with you, but it doesn’t.  However listen to the words of Christ in John 14:21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
You want to be loved by God and by Jesus?  Sure you do.  Well here’s the ticket all you have to do is to obey Christ’s commands and one of those is Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”

If that was a command of Christ and we don’t do it then John 14:21 says that means that we don’t love him, and only those who love Christ are loved by the Father and only those who are loved by the Father are going to get in.

I love the story told about when Calvin Coolidge was Vice President of the United States.  One day the Vice President was presiding over the Senate, one Senator angrily told another to go “straight to hell.” The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer, and Cal looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate. “I’ve been looking through the rule book,” he said. “You don’t have to go.”  Friends we need to be in the business of telling people that we have checked the rule book and they don’t have to go.”

4) How Are We Supposed To Be Doing It?  The power of the Holy Spirit is the means, the method is not defined.   Deng Xiaoping said “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”  When we allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives neat things happen.  The Bible tells us in: Mark 16:17-18 (Jesus Said) These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

Now some people get really caught up in those particular things, but they are simply indications of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who minister.  It is a promise of enablement and protection.  When Kerry and Carol minister in Ukraine they speak in a new tongue because their mother tongue is English.  When Medical missionaries minister in a hospital in Sierra Leone and Haiti aren’t they placing their hands on sick people to heal them?  I don’t think that you ever have to worry about me picking up snakes, but I was convinced that the drinking deadly poison was a direct reference to Australian Coffee.

Sometimes we get so caught up in how we should do it that we never do it. What should the church look like?  What should the church sound like?  What songs should we sing?  Should we have pews or chairs?  Let me share with you my new favourite quote Thomas Jefferson said “In matters of style swim with the current in matters of principle stand like a rock.”

Do you remember when Nike used the phrase “Just Do It.”?  I would like that to be my message to the church, “Just Do it”  Listen again to the promise of Christ in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

There are two things that happen when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, two evidences of his presence. 1) We receive power 2) We will tell people about Jesus.  If our lives do not exhibit power and we are not witnesses than it would appear to be very obvious that the Holy Spirit has never come upon you.

As far as evangelism on a personal level that is all of our responsibility, you can no more shirk that than you can walk past a drowning man and not throw him a rope.  But on a broader spectrum there are those who God has called to reach people where you can’t.  Let’s face it, realistically we can’t all move to Cape Breton to plant a church, you can’t move to the Ukraine to help Kerry and Carol Allison to minister to street kids or to Haiti to help Carl and Maya in the Work there.  But that doesn’t remove the obligation that God has placed on you to reach the lost in those places, it simply changes how you can do that.

Instead of going to the Ukraine, or going to Haiti or going to Japan you help Kerry and Carol, Carl and Maya and Robin to go.  Even though you can’t be there your prayers can be there and your money can be there.    You may not be able to say, “Here am I send me” but you can say, “Here I am, let me help send others.

Let’s not forget our mission statement “Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded.”

What do you Want?

The Palestinian sun beat down on the two friends as they listened to John exhort the crowds to repentance.  For the past few weeks they had followed John everywhere he had gone, listened to his message, and watched the crowd’s reaction. 

At first they were sure that he was the one that the prophets had pointed to.  The one who would deliver Israel from the hands of the Romans.  This guy even looked like a prophet, that long wild hair, a beard that reached down to the middle of his chest and the eyes, his eyes shone with a zealots rage.

But as he preached he said things like, “I am not the Christ”, and  “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”

Who would it be? Who could be more powerful then John the Baptist?  And then today, a day that really had nothing special about it John said, “Behold the lamb of God”.   He was the one, the one they had waited so long for the one who was going to change the world, the messiah, the Christ, the son of God.  They were so stunned that they just turned and followed him,  thinking that he didn’t look so special as a matter of fact John looked more like a messiah should look then this man.

But they didn’t say anything they just followed wondering what they should do next, what they should say, how they should approach him.  And then it happened he turned around and saw them following and asked them point blank, “what do you want?”

This is week four of our Red Letter Summer series.  For something to be marked in Red Letters means there is a certain importance or significance attached to it.  The practice began over 500 years ago when they started marking Holy Days on the Calendar in Red.  They were Red Letter Days.  And then, just a little over a 100 years ago the first Red Letter New Testament and Bibles were printed with the words of Christ printed in red.  I would suspect, although not a hundred percent certain that the majority of bible printed today would be Red Letter editions.

And these are the first words of Christ as recorded by John, obviously not the first words of Christ, simply the first written down in John’s Gospel.

  

The question is asked in John’s gospel Chapter 1 verse 38, and was asked almost 2000 years ago by Jesus of Nazareth.  But it is a question that is timeless.  It is a question that remains, the question of the day, the $64,000 question.  The question that Jesus Christ still asks everyone who seeks to follows after him.  “What do you want?”   “What are you after?”  And it is a good question. 

Jesus Christ wanted to know what these two men wanted, why they were following him and what they were looking for.  Notice that he didn’t ask, “Who do you want”  but instead he asked “What do you want?”

Were they the legalist who wanted to indulge in conversations about the law?  You know the Pharisees?  They’re still around today.  You know the ones if Christ returned tomorrow they would proudly tell him “We didn’t let anyone call themselves a Christian if they weren’t Wesleyans, or they smoked or drank, or wore their hair too long or went to the movies or danced, or had any fun at all.”

Or maybe they were just ambitious time servers, they were after power and position and were just seeking  to use God for their own means, and they’d follow whoever they had to follow.

Or maybe they were fierce zealots who were looking for a political demagogue or military commander to overthrow the pagan Romans and restore Israel to her proper greatness.

Or perhaps they were just humble men of prayer  looking for a light to point them toward God and the higher calling.  Or then again maybe they were just puzzled bewildered sinners who were stumbling along through life and were looking for a light on the road.

Whatever and whoever they were Christ recognised one thing in them, and that was the fact they that wanted something.  And however noble or base their motives were they were after something.

And as we come to Christ two thousand years later we have to recognize the truth of the fact that everyone who comes to Jesus is looking for something.  Good, bad or indifferent it doesn’t matter the fact is that you are looking for something.

Everyone of us is striving for something as we plod through this life, from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year.  You are looking for the one thing that makes you tick, the thing that shakes your tree, rattles your chain, floats your boat or scratches you where you itch.

There are those who seek security, you know a house, a job, a family, and when their life approaches those twilight years a pension.  And there is nothing wrong with seeking security but it is a low goal.  A basic goal of survival.

Others are looking toward their career, the power, promise, position and prestige.  They pour their heart and soul into their work.  And if it is directed to good it can be a high aim, but often it has a price that must be paid.  And if that price is sacrificing family and enjoyment, and sometimes God then it becomes a distorted aim.  And of course it is limited by the horizon of time and health.

The thing that most everyone is seeking is peace with God, and when we find that then he directs our aims and points us in the right directions.

If Jesus Christ was to tap you on the shoulder this morning and ask you “What are you after from me, what do you want?”  what would your answer be?

Perhaps it’s time that you thought about it, “what do you want?”

Matthew 16:9-10 Jesus said “Don’t you understand even yet? Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed with five loaves, and the baskets of leftovers you picked up? Or the 4,000 I fed with seven loaves, and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up?”

1) Some Were Looking for Stuff.  I wonder how long it was after Jesus started feeding the multitudes that some people only came for the sandwiches?  

There are those today who have commercialised the gospel and are trying to make a buck from it.  Now you may think that is a new problem but one of the reasons that Martin Luther left the Roman Catholic Church was their practise of selling indulgences, profiting from grace.  You could pay now and sin later. 

And Paul wrote in Philippians 1:15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives.

Paul saw that there were those who preached for themselves.  And really if we think of those who preach for monetary gain we don’t have to look very far to find the excesses.

The problem is that we often focus on the major excesses, but if we ignore the Benny Hinns and Joel Osteen, we discover that some of those very people who were hurling stones at the TV evangelists need to examine their own lives.

Some of the TV Evangelists are earning ten time what an average Canadian family makes and probably fourteen or fifteen times what the majority of their supporters make.  But if you can’t admire these men for anything else admire their ambition and dedication to the task.  If nothing else you have to admit they preach well.

Some of the poorest preachers in the world are preaching for the very same reason that the Copelands and Jakes are preaching for.  And the difference between 1.6 million dollars a year and twenty thousand dollars a year is minute if the dollars are the reason why the person is preaching.

The bottom line is not how much you make in marketing Jesus, it is the fact that when you preach to simply make a living, or because it’s a job, or to drive a rolls Royce you are simply pawning the blood of Jesus Christ to make a few bucks.  And that applies equally to the millionaires as to the pauper who preaches because he has neither the talent or inclination to do anything else.

And this doesn’t just apply to preachers, there are lay people out there that are just as guilty, they see Christianity as an investment. Years ago I had a friend in Amway and you could always tell when the speaker at a weekend rally had been a Christian because Bruce was in church on Sunday hoping that this was another step to success.

There are people that say “Well if I give God this amount of money then he will double it.”  or “ If I go to Sunday school, morning worship, and mid-week services then God will see to it that I prosper.”

What do you want? Be honest, if it’s material blessings you want then at least be honest enough to admit it.

But that’s not all people are looking for, Mark 3:10 He had healed many people that day, so all the sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him.

2) Some Were Looking for Healing  There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.  The reason that the sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch Jesus was because Jesus was healing sick people.  You’d have to be  fool to be sick and see people being healed and not want to be healed as well.

But for some that’s all Jesus is.  A healer.  When they are sick, or their children or family member is sick they remember that Jesus healed the sick and they begin to pray and they contact Karen and ask to be put on the e-prayer chain. 

It kind of reminds me of the story of the two old guys who were talking the day after a hurricane went through and the first one said, “Quite the storm last night.”  To which his friend replied, “Yep, God probably heard a lot of unfamiliar voices.”  It’s unfortunate that some people only talk to Jesus when it’s storming in their lives.

And I believe that Jesus healed people two thousand years ago, and I believe that he still heals people today.  But he is so much more than a healer, he didn’t come to heal our bodies he came to heal our souls.  I sometimes wonder how God must feel when we never have time for him until we need a favour.

Jesus came to bridge the gap between us and God, to allow us to enter into a relationship with the King of the Universe, Master of all Things, and there are those who treat that relationship like a giant vending machine.  Put your prayers in, pull the handle and wait for a blessing to pop out. 

You think of all the people that Jesus healed in the Gospels and we never hear from them again, they don’t appear at the cross, or at the resurrection.  At no time in the book of Acts or in any of Paul’s letters is someone described as the blind man that Jesus gave sight to or the cripple man whose legs were healed. 

Two things that we should never forget when we talk about Jesus and the accounts of those he healed, he didn’t heal everybody, and everybody he healed eventually died.  It wasn’t a forever healing.  Although there is a forever healing, and that is the healing of the soul that Jesus offers.   

But not everyone who comes to Jesus is looking to become wealthy and or healthy. 

 Mark 10:37 They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”

3) Some Were Looking for Power   Jesus had just gotten through talking about his crucifixion and what happens? The Sons of Thunder, John and James, want to get dibs in on the power and the influence.  Kind of like Ashleigh Brilliant who said “All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power.”

Where had they been, had their minds been on vacation?  Christ has just finished saying that he would be mocked, and scourged and spit on and killed and they say “ Yeah yeah, oh by the way when you get your power can we be your vice-presidents?”  Come on guys give your heads a shake and see if they rattle. 

They had come to Jesus believing he was the Messiah but not necessarily knowing what type of Messiah.  They obviously pictured him overthrowing the Romans and establishing an earthly kingdom.  He was saying one thing but they were hearing another thing.  He must of felt like Foghorn Leghorn who said “I keep pitchin’ ‘em and you keep missin’ ‘em. Ya gotta keep your eye on the ball.”

Today there are men and women who come to Christ because it is the political thing to do.  And that has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with what people think.

If the reason you come to church each Sunday is because of what people would say if you didn’t then you are looking for the very same thing James and John were looking for.

If you are hoping that people will say, “Oh what a good person, they go to Cornerstone” then you are looking for power and position.  In one community I pastored there was a politically correct church, if you wanted to be seen by those who counted then you went to that church.  And the only thing some of those people wanted was the political and social benefits that could be reaped from the name of Christ.

Luke 10:25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

4) Some Were Looking for Eternal Life. 

And that’s valid, that’s part of what our salvation offers.  However there are a lot of people out there who are taking Jesus Christ as nothing more or less than a fire escape from hell.  They don’t want to suffer the torment of hell so they say the magic words and Allah kazzam they are on their way to heaven.  And all they have to do is come and sit in church every Sunday to keep the promise current.

Hold unto your seats, Jesus didn’t come just to save you from hell.  And Jesus doesn’t want you to accept him just to escape hell.  The sincerity of the person who comes to Christ simply to get into heaven can only be compared to the child who performs for his parents so he can receive a candy or some other treat.

Do you remember in the Eighties when Oral Roberts told the world that he had a vision where God told him if he couldn’t raise eight million dollars for medical missions that he was going to die?  Jimmy Swaggert responded to that by saying “God is not a terrorist.”

And yet there are many people who come to Christ as hostages under the threat of hell.  There is no joy in their Christian life, because even though they have been given the promise of eternal life through repentance and forgiveness they live under the constant fear of losing that which God has given them.  And no wonder some Christians are so miserable, they think they are paying a ransom of their fun so they can get into heaven.

If your primary reason for coming to Jesus Christ is to achieve eternal life then your aim is like the person who only wishes to be secure in this life, not wrong but it is low and it is base.

There is more to Christianity then a hell to be shunned and a heaven to be gained.  There is a life to be lived, a God to be worshiped, a Christ to be served, a joy to be expressed and a world to be changed.

What do you want ?  Eternal life?  Ok that’s fair, but there is so much more than that.

John 21:15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

5) Some Were Looking to Love Jesus.  

I don’t know why Peter followed Jesus the first time, I really don’t.  Perhaps he saw an opportunity to pick up a few extra coins, maybe he knew that Jesus could heal his Mother-in-law  or perhaps he saw the opportunity to become more than a fisherman.  Or maybe he was looking for eternal life.

I don’t know why Peter followed Jesus the first time, but the second time around Jesus made sure that his motives were pure.

If you are in this for the money then there is a good chance that you will die broke, if it’s a healing you are looking for it will only be temporary.  If you’re here for the power and position don’t be surprised if you are humbled.  And if eternal life is your only goal, well fear can only keep you faithful for so long.

When it comes right down to brass tacks, right down to where the rubber meets the road the only answer to the question “what do you want?”  can only be “Jesus I want to love you and serve you.”  no more, no less.

It was John F. Kennedy who said “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”  Perhaps it wouldn’t be a stretch to rephrase that and say “Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for your God.”

And it’s when we come seeking to enter into that relationship with Jesus, when we offer him our love that so often those other things happen.  I truly believe that there is prosperity in the gospels.  Not a magic genie in the bottle type prosperity but when grace gets a hold of us it makes us better people, better parents and better employees and those things pay dividends. 

The person who comes to Christ and gets their addictions under control, the liar and thief who come to Christ and become honest people, people who can be trusted.  The employee who becomes a person of integrity and provides his employer with all that he is paid for and more.    And there are tangible benefits to being a changed person. 

And Jesus does offer healing in this life and Jesus does offer healing in the next life and that is the promise of eternal life.

And here is the promise, 1 John 4:9-10 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

And so today, as we come to the communion table, Jesus is still asking “What do you want?”