Not a lot of people know what the Alliance Church is. We get people that will call up, or search the internet, or walk through the door, not knowing a thing about the Alliance. I’ve had people ask if we’re a cult, or new age, or just some fringe group. The reason for this is because the Alliance, as a denomination, isn’t the biggest well known of Christian denominations. Someone hears Baptist or Assemblies of God and they have a general idea of what that means. But the Alliance is such a small denomination compared to some others, that not many people know about it. And so, when people arrive for the first time, we have the welcome bags that give some brief information about who we are.
Which in reality is the basic doctrine that every Christian church believes. But it’s the uniqueness of the Alliance that drew me to it. A lot of denominations started over strife concerning doctrine. I call them secondary doctrines that don’t hold salvation work, but rather human interpretation. Primary doctrine that all Christians adhere to are things like, God is Creator, we are sinners, Jesus is the only Savior. Secondary doctrines are things like when’s the rapture, is it premillennial or amillennial, is it slacks or jeans, is it hymns or contemporary. Primary doctrine is what concerns clear salvation work, secondary doctrine is what concerns our interpretations of non-salvation work.
Since the founding of the Alliance, our focus has been on the primary. An old mantra of the Alliance was “Bring back the King.” This mantra focused on the work of bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth until the return of Jesus. And so, unlike some denominations, the Alliance was birthed, not out of secondary doctrine disputes, but out of the primary desire to see men and women come to know Jesus as their Savior.
And that’s really what it’s about. When we come to know Jesus as our Savior, eternity is opened up to us. We who know Jesus, pass from an eternity of death to an eternity of life. We pass from darkness into the light of God. We move from being children of wrath to being children of grace. From enemies of God to his adopted children. This is the great gift that is given to all those who have put their trust into Jesus as their Savior.
Yet there are countless millions who have not put their trust into Jesus as Savior. From our neighbor that we shoot the breeze with, to the African woman getting water. From the harden atheist to the communist revolutionary. There are countless people in this world that need to hear the life changing Gospel message, and God’s primary prescription for that work is you and I. It was the disciples of Jesus that were given the Great Commission of Matthew 28. Through Jesus’ authority, we are told to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything [Jesus has] commanded…”
When we come to know Jesus as our Savior, we are brought into a two part work of God. This two part work comes from Jesus response in Mark 12, “‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The first work of God in our lives is Jesus’ work on the cross, this is the Gospel. The second work is the work of the Gospel impacting the lives of people through us.
Yet the majority of the time, we tend to error on the side of the work of Jesus in our own lives. Countless devotional books line our bookcases. Sermons are focused on the three ways God can help you in your marriage or finances. The majority of our focus of the modern Church is God’s help in our lives, but when our focus is primarily on this personal work, we miss out on the greater work of God that surrounds us. The two are joined in a separable work that cannot be done one without the other. We cannot love God without loving people, and we cannot be transformed by God without being involved in Gospel work.
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this link of loving God and loving people is made clear through Jesus’ example of sacrifice and dispute. In Matthew 5:23 Jesus states, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
The worship of God, and the work that God is doing between us and the people around us is inseparable. And so we must be about the work that God has called us to if we desire to be brought into a deeper relationship with the God who saves. We must have as much of an outlook focus on life as we do an inward focus. The inward focus looks to seek God on a personal level; the outward focus seeks to make God known to the world around us. The inward is our devotion and worship, the outward is the good works and proclamation of the Gospel.
Both are needed in seeking God and as God’s people we must engage in both as we follow our Savior.
With this Outlook focus, we’re going to spend the next several weeks looking into God’s word to better understand the work that God has given us as individuals and as a church ministry to accomplish what he has given us to do. Each of us has individual ministries that we are to engage in. We have neighbors, family members, acquaintances that need to hear the Gospel and whom God has brought into our lives to do just that.
In addition, God has brought us together in this ministry here in Quartzsite to accomplish his work in this town and to the ends of the earth. It isn’t happenstance that each of us are here today. We are here in Quartzsite for salvation purpose. We are meeting together today in the Alliance Church of Quartzsite, for Gospel work. We cannot be of the mind that I’m attending because I like the pastor, or the music, or my friends, or it’s convenient, but rather realize that God is calling us to his work together.
And so what is that work? What is God calling us as individuals and as a ministry here in Quartzsite.
In the opening chapters of the book of Revelation, Jesus gives seven messages to seven churches in Asia Minor, which is in the area of modern day Turkey. These seven churches have been interpreted in a lot of different ways, one of which is a part of the dispensations of biblical history, with each church representing different eras of church history.
In the coming weeks, we’re going to step back for a moment and look at these seven churches from a different angle. Looking at the churches in the moment in which Jesus spoke to them, can tell us a lot about where the Church as a whole is today, and where God is calling us specifically to his work.
These seven churches can show us what it means to have a balanced work of God in our lives. To have both an inward relational focus, and an outward Gospel focus.
Would you turn with me to the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 1. Here, we’re going to see the basis for both works of God.
John begins his book by writing this, “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
“4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
“7 ‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him, even those who pierced him’; and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ So shall it be! Amen.
“8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’
“9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’
“12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
“17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
“19 ‘Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’”
Now there’s a lot going on in this passage. From the son of man title that connects to Daniel 7:13, to the seven lampstands representing seven churches. But through all that imagery what is the focus of the passage? What is the center point of it all? It’s Jesus.
Its Jesus’ word that will be spoken to the churches. It’s through Jesus’ death and resurrection that this word has come. It’s by Jesus’ will that we enter into this understanding of what he is calling us to. And this is where we must begin, we have to come to a place where we realize it’s about Jesus.
And the thing is, we know this simple truth. We know that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We know that he is the one to whom we are to conform to (Romans 8:29). We know that we are to be his disciples and it’s he that will make us fisher of men (Matthew 4:19). Yet, we try to walk this world in our own will. We know we are to say, “your kingdom come, your will be done (Matthew 6:10),” yet we more often than not seek our own will. Our devotions are about helping us. Sermons are about helping us. A lot of the modern Church is about us, rather than Jesus.
Every time we sense the need to share the Gospel and we don’t, we have followed our will and not Jesus’. Every time we have seen a need of brother or neighbor and know that God has brought them into our lives to be helped, yet we don’t, we have followed our purposes and not God’s. The reason for this, is because we are not taking seriously the work of God that is laid before us.
Notice the reaction to Jesus that John experiences. Verse 17, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”
The prophet Isaiah had a similar experience when he encounter God on his throne. Isaiah 6:1 begins, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’
“4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
“6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’
“8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!’”
The common factor between these two experiences of God, are the realizations of the holiness of God. John fell down as if he were dead by peering at the holiness of God. Isaiah understood his utter depravity in sin at the holiness of God. Yet, in the holiness of God, there is forgiveness. There is a calling out of sin and into the work of God. Isaiah is cleansed of sin and called to the work of God. Jesus points John to his work on the cross and resurrection, and calls him to write to the seven churches.
We must grasp the holiness of God, because when we do, the work of God becomes all consuming. When we enter into God’s holiness, his work becomes a call that we cannot deny. It’s the consuming fire of God’s holiness that motivates the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
So how do we begin to grasp this holiness? We study and meditate on the difference between us and God. We must hold in balance the understanding that Jesus is God with us from Christmas, and that Jesus is far beyond us in goodness. We must think on how much God has done for us to bring us out of sin and to himself. We are not simply tainted with sin, as if a glob of the wrong color paint got on the wall. We are cleansed from sin that permeates every cell of our being.
Isaiah understands just how deep sin goes when he writes in his 64th chapter, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (v.6).”
The imagery of a shriveled leaf and being blown by the wind means that without the work of Jesus, every action, every purpose, every movement of our lives is dictated by sin. We must come to a realization that this is who we are without Jesus. We are not a little bit good, we are not just slightly influenced by sin, we are solely unholy and lost without Christ. He is holy, perfect, and good. So much so, that even the angels in heaven do not look upon him, because even they are not as holy as he is.
Through pondering the holiness of God, the work of God is brought into view. The angel says to Isaiah, “‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!’”
We have been brought out of death into life. The darkness has been washed away in the light of Christ. We are no longer enemies of God but his children, so God what will you have us do? This should be our response. Because of God’s great work on behalf of this sinner, what would you have me do God?
And this is where he is calling us. To the Outlook. What is the next work of God that there is? If we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, what work am I being called to? Who is the next person I should share with? What next project, cup of water, ministry should I support or do?
In the holiness of God, the work of God becomes vital to our very relationship with the holy God. Because we are seeking to do whatever God desires, because in his desire he saved me. The wretched person that I am apart from Jesus’ work, is made anew and now what would God have of me?
The Alliance was founded on this primary principle. Jesus saved me, now how can I be used in his salvation work?
This week I want to challenge you to study and meditate on Isaiah 64:6. Think on the holiness of God. Think on the separation between God and man because of sin. Think on the vast work of God to bring us out of sin. Think on how sin permeates every cell of our being, and how Jesus washes us clean of that sin. Then think on the work of God. From God’s holiness are you actively saying, send me? We need to struggle with this this week. We need to be asking God, what would you have me do? Who would you send me to?
There are so many ministries that are vying for our attention, we need to step back and say, ok God, what would you have me do? In your holy work, where shall I go, send me.
Let us be a people who seek to understand the holiness of God, and who are willing to be used by God in whatever capacity he deems necessary. Amen.
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