Let's Go

So 1 Corinthians 15, 58.

Milo is an English kid, primary schooler, who landed a part in the school's nativity.

And this is how he reported that landing of his part.

I'm a classic one.

Classic role, is it?

A classic part.

Joseph.

One of the Three Ways Men.

What are the innkeepers?

But it's a classic part?

Yeah.

You tell me then, because...

I'm door holder number three.

I'll be holding doors.

Holding doors for who?

Probably Joseph and Mary.

Oh my gosh.

Were you pleased when they said that?

What did you do?

Thank you, Milo.

The Apostle Paul couldn't have said it better himself.

Church, we get to be part of the proclamation of the Gospel.

Using our unique giftedness, we stand firm, immovably strong, fully committed to work of eternal value, knowing all the time our purpose is clear and our labour is not in vain.

Get in there.

Let's go.

1 Corinthians 15:58 has always been very special to me.

It's one of the sort of verses that was embedded in my soul from a very young age and a memory verse.

And I love how clearly it encapsulates so much of what we commit ourselves to.

As followers of Jesus and ministers of the gospel.

And it does so with such an economy of words, doesn't it?

Paul has spent 18 months in Corinth, and he planted a church there and left it for others to lead and see it grow.

And he's now ended up over in Ephesus, a couple hundred kilometres, I guess, to the east over in what we would call now Turkey.

And he has heard a report from the church that he planted in Corinth, and there are problems in the church.

There's division and there is sin.

There's a lot of idol worship.

Aphrodite is a powerful god of that city.

It is an international metropolis.

It's filled with diversity and, I guess, all sorts of opportunities to sin.

And so Paul wrote a letter.

That letter got lost.

We don't have that.

But this is called 1 Corinthians, but it's his second letter that he wrote to address some of these issues.

And then he ends his letter.

Well, there's another chapter, chapter 16, but he ends much of it in chapter 15 with, I think, something akin to, let's go.

Firstly, Paul charges the Corinthians to go believe, go believe.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you, go, believe.

We have a therefore.

And so we always ask this question, why is the therefore, therefore?

And with Paul's writing, often you'll find that the chapter preceding has a lot of the reason for why he says therefore.

Sometimes, like in Romans, he'll wrap up 12 chapters with a therefore.

So whenever we read a therefore, we know, I think, that it's an important word for us to reflect on.

So what has he said that is worth remembering?

Well, he's given the most concise gospel summary we have in the New Testament.

Chapter 15, verse 1, leads into the clarity we find in verse 3 and 4.

Brothers and sisters, Paul writes, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel.

You are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

And now this is the concise gospel.

What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

Hallelujah.

This is the gospel.

Today we have acknowledged a man, we have ordained a man, Ben Shanks, who we sense together has been called to Christian ministry, probably what we would call full time Christian ministry, for the purpose of the work of the gospel.

This is the gospel, verse three and four.

Amen.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how that changes everything.

There are many things that Ben could give his time for as a pastor.

But we want to encourage you to train others and to do it yourself to proclaim that gospel.

1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4.

For Christ to die, he had to live.

It doesn't really talk much about the life of Jesus, but certainly his perfect life is very important.

God has come to us in Christ, and he has lived and died and risen from the dead.

And belief in this historically verifiable narrative, this event that occurred in time and space in and around the Jewish city of Jerusalem, belief in this gospel, we believe, changes everything.

Amen?

Changes everything.

It's good news.

I'll never forget hearing John Wilmot one time.

He's not there anymore, but missionary in Mozambique, and he was reporting back to our church about some of the work on furlough back in Australia.

And he's telling the story, it sounded a little bit like Philip teaching the Ethiopian eunuch what Isaiah meant, but he said they're in the back of the countryside of Mozambique, and they're in the back of a hughes packed with other people, and he's talking about the gospel to this African man who's never heard it before.

And he's unpacking this basic gospel presentation of 1 Corinthians 15, 3 to 4, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

And without prompting, excuse me as my voice sort of gets a little bit more croaky as we go, without prompting with the words good news, this African man hears the story of the gospel and he says, that is good news.

Isn't that nice?

When someone hears the gospel for the first time, and it means good news, but they know it does by the sound of it.

That someone would pay for my sin and that I could live forever by faith in what he has done for me.

By faith in Christ, we are forgiven and receive eternal life, but we can get moved from sharing it.

We can get moved from believing it.

We can get moved from standing on it, from relying on it, from relishing it, from giving God the glory for it.

We can get bored with it.

Therefore, he writes, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you.

And he's saying, stand firm on that gospel, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Let that gospel, Paul writes, fix your posture.

Fix your posture, so you are centered and grounded in that which will not change.

Do not lose the power of the gospel, that simple story, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the eternal life, the abundant life now and forever that we have by faith in Christ.

Don't lose that or you will be buffeted by every wind of doctrine.

You'll be knocked over.

But he's saying, no, stand firm with core stability, spiritual stability that will never change.

And he says in chapter 15, preeminently, we can stand firm because Jesus has risen from the grave and because he rose from the grave, he is the first fruits for all who would believe in him.

Hallelujah.

This is the great resurrection passage, the blood of Christ pays for our sin.

But that wouldn't have been enough.

He had to kick out, as Ben often says, kick out the back of the cave of death and find a way through to eternal life.

And that's what he has done.

We are promised a resurrected body, a new type of flesh, immortal in Christ once we have faith in him, no matter what, it's all good because of the resurrection.

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?

I love that song you picked, Mel.

That was so perfect for this.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, there can be nothing more scary in life than death.

That as Christians, we remember this gospel truth.

There is a hope beyond the grave.

Importantly, Paul writes, Dear brothers and sisters, this is a team effort.

If you look back, the Therefore maybe takes us back multiple chapters.

In 1 Corinthians 3, 6, Paul says, I planted the seed.

Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

There's a team effort happening here.

1 Corinthians 12 is that classic passage, where Paul talks about body life.

He says, We're not doing this on our own.

Certainly as an apostle, it's not just my being empowered by God's Spirit.

No, the Spirit gives manifestation of giftedness for the common good across the church.

To one, there is the message of wisdom.

Others have the message of knowledge and faith, gifts of healing, miraculous power and prophecy, distinguishing between spirits.

People speak in different tongues.

One body, many parts.

Ben, we want to acknowledge that you have, I believe, gifts in leadership, gifts in teaching.

I think you have prophetic gifts in creativity and worship, and I think you have shepherding gifts as well.

How has God uniquely designed you?

Because we're in this together.

It's a team effort to proclaim the Gospel, life, death, resurrection of Jesus, His ascension, the giving of the Spirit, that He will return again, that we have hope beyond the grave.

We are entrusted with this Gospel.

It's our cause.

You know, Mike Poehler spoke at one of our mission dinners, and he said, who has absolute clarity on what they're doing in the purpose of their life?

I don't think there was a hand that went up.

I sort of went...

But can I encourage you, it doesn't have to be a mystery.

This is the purpose, to live our life, to point people to the Saviour.

It looks different for all of us, and it's a windy road, but our purpose is clear.

Go believe.

Go and believe the Gospel, and go persevere.

He writes, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord.

It's probably about 10 years in to his missionary journey, Paul, when he writes this letter.

So he's had ample opportunity to realise this is a long game.

This is filled with challenge.

In fact, remember when he got called by Jesus to remember what Jesus said to him.

I need to tell him how much he will suffer for my name.

There are some challenges in following Jesus.

There's a requirement to persevere.

Paul writes, always give yourself fully.

And, you know, one of the problems or challenges we find in knowing God and serving him is he can do things really slowly, can't he?

Who's worked out that the slow work of God is a thing?

I think it's low-hanging fruit to make this case from the Bible.

400 years of slavery, 40 years wandering in the wilderness, 25 years Abraham waits for the son of promise, Isaac.

He does it.

Jesus had to wait basically 30 years before he could really get amongst it.

God works slowly, often.

But we read, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, and that could sound like a charge for burnout.

Always go hard, but we know the person who burns the candle at both ends isn't as smart as they think.

Isn't as smart as they think.

What does it mean when Paul says, give yourself fully to what we know is a long game, a long-term effort?

We know he's not saying go burn yourself out for Christ, even though we also know that he says in Romans 12, do not lose your spiritual zeal, your fervour.

Don't lose it because you can.

Ben, for you to give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, you need to take care of yourself.

It's logical.

God has given us sacred rhythms, day and night, high tide, low tide, work and rest, awake and asleep.

To give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, you need to take care of yourself because that's who you're giving fully.

Give yourself fully to the work of the Lord.

About 70 of us have been doing a devotions program we call Daily Sevens, and a lot of that program, it's twice a day meeting with the Lord for a short period, doing some devotions and reflection and spending time in silence and just inviting the Spirit of God to speak.

And a lot of this devotional material is about knowing ourselves as we know God.

And I think many of us have found it quite challenging.

Knowing who you are, where you've come from, how God has wired you uniquely and purposefully is what we need to work through to offer ourselves fully as best we can.

Amen?

So Ben, we want to encourage you as you begin ministry as an ordained pastor, don't offer fully someone else for the work of the Lord.

Don't offer fully who you think you should be.

Just offer you.

Offer who God has made you to be.

And that will be enough, and He will guide you into the person He wants you to be.

And of course, unless God only calls Bible college-trained pastors to do His work, and of course that's not the case, this is the truth for all of us, isn't it?

God is not saying, I want you to offer herself fully, no, offer yourself.

And God is saying in that, I know what's happened in your life, and I know there are some mysterious aspects to the question of why I allowed it to happen.

And you know, there's profound mystery when we reflect on life, isn't there?

Because we go through trauma, we go through tragedy, and we don't always get the answer, but I think many of us have discovered that there is power in reframing, there is power in believing that God has purpose in the midst of pain.

He is shaping me so that I can be used by Him through the loss and the grief and the wins and the celebrations so that I can offer myself fully to the work of the Lord.

In John 6, the disciples asked Jesus, what must we do to do the works God requires?

I find this interesting because offer yourself fully to the work of the Lord.

So what is the work of the Lord?

What must we do to do the works God requires?

What is the work of the Lord?

John 6, 29, Jesus answers, the work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent.

So where to persevere, point two, in the work of belief, point one?

Never underestimate the requirement of belief.

This is why we talk about preaching the Gospel to ourselves daily.

We don't just believe and then move on.

We need to believe daily.

Each day we put faith in what Christ has done for us.

Offer the real you, that is, the vulnerable, imperfect, flawed and grace-infused you.

Fully, honestly, to the work of the Lord, which will require whole-hearted belief.

And Paul says in Romans 5, suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, character hope, and hope doesn't disappoint.

Go believe.

Go persevere.

Go hope.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you.

Always give yourself fully to the Word of God.

To the work of the Lord.

Because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Hold on to the belief of the world-shattering truth of the Gospel.

Christ alive, dead, alive again.

It happened.

Everything is now different.

Stand firm in this truth and persevere when the wind turns against you.

Why?

Because you know that your labour is not in vain.

The Greek word that Paul uses here for vain is kenos.

And it means some pretty striking ideas.

Ineffective, empty, foolish, worthless, false, unreal, hollow.

Why on earth would Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writing what becomes the Bible, why would he say, don't worry, your labour is not ineffective, empty, foolish, worthless, false, unreal, hollow?

Why would he ever say that?

It's obvious, isn't it?

Because it's easy to think that it is.

It's easy to think that it is in vain.

In fact, that's where he gets to in 2 Corinthians, the next letter is like, I know all this stuff, Jesus appeared to me in a revelation, but sometimes it's so hard that I feel like giving up.

I feel like my ministry is in vain.

I feel like it's empty and foolish, even though I said at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, the gospel is foolishness to those who don't believe.

But He still acknowledges it can be hard.

So the passage of time as a Christian, we all know, well, not all, but many of us know, people don't make it.

They lose heart.

They stop believing.

They stop persevering.

They abandon the faith.

It happens.

But it doesn't have to happen in the long journey of faith.

Paul writes, you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

And the word know is the Greek word oida, which means to see and perceive.

You know.

He's saying you know with your eyes, you see it, but more than that, you see with your heart and your guts.

You perceive that what you are doing in the name of Jesus for the sake of this simple gospel, that Christ would be God, become human and live a perfect life that we all know we can't live to offer His perfect blood, conquer death, sin, the devil, rise again from the grave and make a way for us to live forever.

That's worth our lives.

Amen.

And that's what Paul has come to.

He's saying, you know, you perceive it deep down that it's worth it.

I would love to, I haven't teed anyone up, so I don't know how this is going to go, but I'd love to pass the mic around and ask you for a 45-second testimony where you could testify today what looked like it was in vain with the passage of time.

God has shown you, no, that was not in vain.

God was at work.

Because our labour is not ineffective and unreal and empty.

God is always working for the good of those who love him and accord according to his purpose.

While you think about that, so I'm just going to race the mic around in a minute.

Your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

I remember being at a funeral service in Blackheath some years ago for an elderly woman.

She was in her late 80s, and there's some wonderful eulogies and tributes.

And then they opened up the mic and said, could anyone give a testimony about Babs Turner?

And there's the whole back row in this Blackheath Baptist Church stand up and they're like, I think, I might be wrong, but I think they say, we're from her year two Sunday school class.

We still remember her.

And we're following the Lord and we are so grateful that we were told the gospel all those years ago by someone teaching Sunday school.

Some years ago, I was, this is a classic youth pastors story, I think.

I've told you this before, some would have heard it, but I was at church in a night service and a guy was in front of me.

I found that he was 25 years old.

In the greeting time, he turns around and I don't know him, but I know his smile.

This classic smile.

I cannot, where is this?

And then it comes out, he says, it's Joel and I still don't get it.

Joel, I know the smile.

He says, I'm the year seven kid that came from your scripture class.

Remember, I'm the only kid that came to that camp.

And of course, I start getting a Mr.

Bean shake in my eye.

That camp, yeah, he was the only one who came to that camp of about 70 kids, three churches, 15 leaders.

The camp that we called Nazareth Camp, because no good thing came from Nazareth.

No good thing came from that camp.

We had a viral vomiting bug, and it had nothing to do with the Internet.

It was horrible.

And they were very badly behaved.

We were left with trauma.

I can only say that.

We were traumatized as leaders.

And I'm just like, oh, wow, okay.

What was it about that camp?

And then he says, he goes, you know, the night that Elliot preached, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, the night that Elliot preached, and he was heckled, and God did nothing.

Categorically, God did nothing on that night.

And he says, I got saved that night.

And even still, I was like, no, you couldn't have, because nothing happened that night.

That was in Nazareth Peak.

He said, no, I got saved that night.

Our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

But gee, it can feel like it is in vain sometimes.

And I know for pastors who bear a load of expectation and hope, you know, it's sort of a bit relentless, this thing, isn't it?

No matter what you feel, you got to preach another sermon.

And I have found that the only way to do that is to just keep coming back to the gospel.

And my labour in the Lord is not in vain, and neither is yours.

So I wonder, could we take a risk?

Anyone have a 45-second testimony to share to remind us that our labour in the Lord is not in vain?

It brought back memories of when in my youth, I went to a small church, and I single-handedly ran the youth group in this church with the help of an older lady, feeling completely inadequate to the task.

And mostly the youth were children of people that went to the church.

And I'd plan it and think, this is not very good.

It's not like youth group here.

A few years later, someone came up to me and said, it was a similar story, you remember me.

And I sort of looked at him and thought, not really, but I won't say that.

And he was the little kid just like that, who was not very noticeable except when he was trying to be noticed.

And I was just absolutely shocked that he remembered me for a start and that he was following in faith.

I did not pick him at that age, and he was following in faith.

And the fact that he came up to me and so that was, you know, it was youth group that did that was just made it all worthwhile.

Stand firm, let nothing move you.

Many years ago when I had my first son, I met a girl in hospital, and we were Christians at the time, and we really got to know this girl.

And I thought, well, you know, I'm challenged to be a disciple of Christ and talk to her about Jesus.

And she took that on board, little known to me, and ended up going to our church after we'd left it.

Now, I was blessed to be at her son's wedding a couple of months ago, and her daughter said to me, you know what, Julie, none of us would be Christians if it wasn't for your relationship of following Christ and relationally walking alongside my mum through difficult times where she became a Christian herself.

And that's like the seeds you sow where you don't think much is going to happen or it's not going to go generationally.

That's generational.

God has blessed through, not because of me, but through me.

Praise God.

We've just come back with the Philippines trip.

And before that started, I actually got a weekend early because I had a team of about 80 people up there in a call centre.

And I caught up 10 years later with a whole group of these people.

And one after the other, they came up and were sharing testimony stories because I was there as their boss, but it was very much, I was running a church at the time, so it was very much firmly planted in Christ, and the team leader actually shared she'd come from a Mormon background.

Her entire family ended up converting, including her mum on her deathbed, who actually received Christ there and then.

And that was just awesome.

Praise God, mate.

For those of you who know Kevin Bloody Wilson, who is a fairly infamous Australian comedian, my testimony is about my brother, who was, in fact, South Africa's equivalent of Kevin Bloody Wilson.

Just to put some context on it, he was infamous because of the quality of his comedy, and it wasn't very savoury.

And I became a Christian over 50 years ago and have prayed for my brother for a long, long time.

And it had got to the point where he was into things like New Age and so on, and I had almost given up on him ever coming to know the Lord.

And then miraculously, about five years ago, I heard that he had gone to a church in Bryanston in Johannesburg, and he had been baptized, and he is now studying Christian counseling at a university in London.

And that's just a testimony to the fact that God doesn't give up when we close to giving up persevere because he answers prayer.

I can say amen and amen to that.

Thank you, man.

Amen.

Everything has changed through the gospel.

Everything has changed because of the gospel.

Paul writes, Go, believe.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Persevere.

Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord.

And go from here and hope, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory for your finished work.

Your incarnation is beyond our capacity to understand the level of humility you have shown in becoming one of us, and then to heroically live the perfect life that could allow you to to finally go to the cross for us.

And then to rise from the grave and make a way for humanity to live forever.

We give you all the glory, Lord Jesus.

And as we consider today such a special day where you are, as you have done throughout history, anointed a person, and you've chosen Ben and you've equipped him, we pray that you would protect him, and you would provide for him.

And thank you that Courtney and Ben are a team who love you.

And so we pray that you would fan into flame the gifts they have and give them the gifts they need for a very fruitful ministry.

Bless them with 100-fold blessing, Lord God, we pray.

And Lord, before we finish this prayer, I just want to bring before you those who are sitting here and feel like it is in vain.

We lift up to you those who are really, really in a tough place.

And Lord, I pray that you might meet them.

Meet them with your presence and your love.

The love that is part of the Gospel.

The love that was hidden in these 15 chapters in the lead up to Therefore.

1 Corinthians 13, this is what love is.

Patient and kind.

Filled with the capacity to cover wrong with grace.

And I thank you that that's you, Lord God.

Your love is demonstrated most fully in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.

And I know your love can be taught to our hearts, the inner person, by your Holy Spirit.

And I pray that that's what you would do.

For those who are struggling today, Lord Holy Spirit, would you testify to their hearts that they are a child of God, that they might today respond with Abba Father?

We appreciate the privilege of being called to be part of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

And we simply say thank you.

We are grateful.

Amen.

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