Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is week #3 of our series called We Are. We have dedicated an entire month to exploring who we are at ACC. Who God has called us to be. The unique church that He has called ACC to become.

In the first week of the series, we talked about our vision. We are a church with an intense vision. And we pursue our intense vision with great intensity. We’re dead serious about who we are and what we do. This isn’t a game to us. It is life and death. Our vision makes an eternal difference, so we’re not going to approach it lightly. We’re all in.

And being all in is what we talked about last week. We are a church that requires 100% commitment. Many American Christians believe that a half-hearted, wishy-washy commitment to the church is ok. But it’s not ok with Jesus, so it is not ok with us. God has called our church to something more. He’s calling us to 100% commitment.

Today, in the third week of our series, we’re talking about the primary reason we’re here. We are here to make heaven more crowded. That’s why we are a church that is laser-focused on lost people. Today, God is going to blow our hearts up for those who don’t know Him yet.

This entire series comes from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was given a vision from God to rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem. Without walls, the people of Jerusalem would be attacked and conquered by their enemies. They were sitting ducks. God planted a vision in Nehemiah to rebuild the walls, and much of the book of Nehemiah tells about how this vision came to reality.

But in the middle of the book, we see that the situation in Jerusalem wasn’t looking great. No big vision ever becomes a reality without big time complications. Implementing a huge vision is never easy. It’s never going to be all smooth sailing.

The situation in Jerusalem was bad. The people were working full-time on the walls, which meant they weren’t working their regular jobs anymore. Money was running low. Some people were running out of food.

Others had to mortgage their fields, vineyards, and homes to buy food. This put them in debt that they couldn’t handle. In this period, interest rates were between 40-50%. (And we think our economy is bad!)

Others had been forced to sell their children into slavery. It’s impossible for us in 21st century America to comprehend, but debt slavery was a common practice in the ancient Near East. The children of those who couldn’t pay their debt became servants of the lender until the debt was paid off. A son that was sold into slavery worked at hard labor. A daughter that was sold into slavery often became a sexual slave.

That was the situation of the Jewish people. And Nehemiah was outraged.

He called a large meeting with all the nobles and officials, and he let them have it. He couldn’t believe they were charging their own people interest. He couldn’t believe that people were mortgaging everything they had…even selling their own children…to buy food. It was unthinkable to him.

In Nehemiah 5, starting in verse 9, Nehemiah said, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”

“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”

At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.” (Nehemiah 5:9-13, NIV)

Throughout this series, we’ve been talking about Nehemiah’s vision to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. But here, we see what was truly in Nehemiah’s heart. It wasn’t really about the walls. It was about people.

His vision was to help people. That’s why he was building these walls. Not because he wanted an impressive construction project on his resume. He did it for the people.

And Nehemiah’s heart for people really shows itself when he saw that the people were buried under a crushing amount of debt. He was surrounded by people who owed a debt that they couldn’t pay, and he was laser focused on helping them.

We are also surrounded by people in debt. It’s a debt that they can never pay, because it is sin debt. When we are sin, the Bible tells us that we owe God a debt that we can never, ever pay.

And if a person has this unpayable sin debt, the Bible calls that person “lost.” But here’s what we have to understand…we have a God who is singularly focused on reaching them.

In Luke 19, Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10, NIV)

Jesus often referred to Himself as the Son of Man. He’s talking about Himself here. This verse is the mission statement for His entire life. The entire reason He came was to seek and to save the lost. That was the singular purpose of His life.

And that had better be the singular purpose of His church. If a church isn’t reaching people with the gospel, that church is failing at their mission.

Don’t try to sell me on the notion that a church that isn’t reaching people is all about ministering to their members. Don’t tell me that church is all about helping their members grow and mature.

If those church members were growing, they would be bringing people to Christ. If they were spiritually mature, they would be busy making heaven more crowded.

There simply is no Biblical argument in favor of a church that isn’t reaching people. It just doesn’t exist.

We are here to reach lost people for Jesus. And we will never back down from the mission. We will not let up. We will stay the course. We will make heaven more crowded. That is why God has put us here in the first place.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells two of his simplest parables. These parables, or stories, are pretty easy to understand…but they are also some of the most powerful stories Jesus ever told. If every church understood the truth these two stories, we would reach the world with the gospel.

Luke 15, starting in verse 3. “Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:3-7, NIV)

In this story, Jesus tells us about a shepherd that has a flock of 100 sheep. He does a head count and realizes that one of them has gone missing. Now, this flock was sizable enough that some people might not have been too concerned if only one was missing.

But in our story, the shepherd does the unthinkable. He leaves the other 99 sheep in the open country and goes in search of the missing one.

And when he finds it, he doesn’t punish the sheep for wandering off. It wasn’t beaten with a rod, as was often the case. Instead, the shepherd hoists the sheep on his shoulders and gently carries it back home.

And then, he does something even more out of the ordinary. He calls his friends and neighbors to come and celebrate the recovery of the sheep. Sheep were property. Nothing more. And unless a person had a very small flock, losing one was just considered the cost of doing business in the shepherding industry.

One sheep was normally seen as expendable. You didn’t leave your entire flock to search for one missing lamb. And you definitely didn’t throw a party when you found it.

But this shepherd doesn’t fit the mainstream thinking. He doesn’t share the priorities of his culture. This sheep meant the world to him. It wasn’t expendable. He would do whatever it took to rescue it.

Then, Jesus immediately follows this story with another one. Pick it up in verse 8. Jesus says, “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10, NIV)

This story is a parallel to the story of the lost sheep. In this story, it is a woman who loses a silver coin. The coin in question was a drachma. It’s hard to know exactly how much it was worth. Some have suggested it was worth about a day’s wages.

When the woman discovers that she has lost this coin, she sets out on a mission to find it. She lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and searches everywhere until she finds it.

And then, she does exactly what the shepherd did in the previous story. She calls her friends and neighbors to come and celebrate the fact that she found her coin.

Celebrating a sheep was strange enough, but it was REALLY strange to celebrate finding a single coin. It was worth far less than a sheep. It seems like a pretty insignificant thing, but she threw a party to celebrate the recovery of the coin.

Both of these stories teach a very simple, but very critical, truth about God. Lost people matter to God. They matter more to God than we will ever understand.

The shepherd and the woman in Jesus’ stories both represent God, and how He feels toward lost people. And these stories should be the fuel in our church’s engine, as well.

If God feels this strongly about reaching lost people, then our church had better be all about reaching lost people. It’s really that simple. We are a church that is laser-focused on lost people because we have a God that is laser-focused on lost people.

When you think through these stories, you see that both the shepherd and the woman cared deeply for something that seemed insignificant to other people.

The sheep and the coin were of little consequence to the average person in this culture. Sure, you would be annoyed if you lost one of these things. But you wouldn’t turn your life upside down to find them. They weren’t that important.

That’s exactly how the church has often viewed lost people. Sure, we think they should come to Jesus. We think that it would be nice if they were saved. But honestly, it’s just not that important to us. It’s not going to bother us if they go to hell.

If it doesn’t bother you, you need to repent. You need to repent today. You need to beg God to forgive you for your calloused conscience and your sinful heart.

There is no such thing as an expendable person. There is no such thing as an insignificant person. And it is never ok for a church to sit idly by as people enter into eternity without Jesus.

A lot of people in the church today have come to see lost people as the enemy. The live sinful lifestyles. They use words that make me uncomfortable. They listen to music that makes me uncomfortable. They have sexual proclivities that make me uncomfortable. They go to places that make me uncomfortable. They just flat-out make me uncomfortable, so they must be the enemy.

First of all, those of us in the church should understand this truth. Lost people are going to act like lost people. I’ve never understood Christians who expect lost people to act like Christians. That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.

And secondly, we’ve got to recapture this truth. Lost people are not the enemy. They are victims of the enemy. And we are not called to avoid them. We are not called to look down our spiritual noses at them. We are called to rescue them.

In these stories, both the shepherd and the woman went to ridiculous extremes to rescue what was lost.

The shepherd left 99 perfectly good sheep to find the one that was lost.

The woman turned her house upside down on a mad hunt to find her lost coin.

Both of them didn’t give a second thought to what their neighbors would think of them. The opinions of others didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was finding what was lost. And if that meant that everyone else thought they were crazy, so be it.

As the church of Jesus Christ, we are called to go to ridiculous extremes to reach people who are lost. Ridiculous, audacious, seemingly crazy extremes.

But that’s not how the church has historically approached evangelism. The evangelistic approach of the American church has largely been about, “You come to us. You come and learn our language. Learn our traditions. Learn to fit into our culture. You come to us.”

The shepherd didn’t wait for the sheep to come to him. He left everything and went to find it.

The woman didn’t wait around, hoping that she would just stumble upon her lost coin. She turned her life upside down to find it.

That is how Jesus approached lost people, and that’s how He has called us as his church to approach lost people. Jesus hung around at wells. He spent time in the marketplace. These were the social gathering places in this society.

In other words, Jesus went to where people were. He didn’t wait for them to find Him.

When was the last time you purposely went out of your way to rub shoulders with a lost person? When was the last time you went to where they are…where they are comfortable? Instead of waiting for them to enter your comfort zone?

God is calling our church to leave what most Christians consider normal. To leave what is considered safe. He is calling us to go to ridiculous lengths to rescue people who are lost.

That is going to mean a lot of sacrifices on our part. That is going to mean sacrificing deeply held traditions. That is going to mean leaving the comfortable in favor of the uncomfortable. That is going to mean doing some things that seem crazy to other people.

In the story of the lost sheep, the shepherd left 99 sheep in order to find one. He sacrificed the security of 99 sheep to rescue one.

As a church, we’ve got to be willing to sacrifice our security to reach lost people. A lot of what the American church does today can be classified as comfortable traditions. The church does these things because it makes their members comfortable. But it doesn’t help them reach anybody. And that is not just sad. It is sinful.

It would be a sin for us to remain comfortable on our way to heaven while we allow people all around us to go to hell.

That means that when we sacrifice a comfortable tradition…when we make changes…when we do things differently…this is the question that we all have to ask.

Will there be more people in heaven if we do this?

Will this change help us be more effective in communicating the gospel? Will this transition help us reach more lost people for Jesus? If we do this, will heaven be more crowded? If the answer is yes, then we’ve got to grab onto it with both hands. We’ve got to embrace the change, even if it takes us out of comfort zone.

When it comes to the church, this has got to be the question that we always ask. Will there be more people in heaven if we do this?

Any decision, any mission, any vision that is launched at our church…this question should be the first one that is asked.

The question is not, “How much will it cost?” The question is not, “Will everybody like it?” The question is not, “Will this make me uncomfortable?”

The question is, “Will there be more people in heaven if we do this?”

Here at ACC, we are laser-focused on lost people. This is the first question we ask every time we consider a decision. Will there be more people in heaven if we do this? That’s what matters to us. That is hardwired into our DNA. We are laser-focused on lost people.

We have this focus because Jesus had that focus. Lost people were His mission. And that’s why we have to think differently than many churches.

When my family moved into our house here in Amelia, I met one of my neighbors. We were making small talk when he asked what I do for a living. I told him that I’m the pastor here at ACC. He immediately responded, “Wow, you have a tough job. Keeping everybody happy.”

The first thing that told me is that he’s had a rough church experience in his past. And the second thing it told me was how prevalent this idea is in our culture. A church exists to keep its members happy and comfortable and satisfied.

That is not our mission according to Jesus. In the story of the lost sheep, the shepherd left his flock of 99 to find the one lamb that was lost. He risked the security of his entire flock to rescue one sheep.

And then Jesus said this to wrap up the parable in Luke 15:7. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7, NIV)

Let’s put that in modern-day terms. There is more rejoicing in heaven over one lost person who comes to Christ than 99 people who are already saved. There is more rejoicing over one outsider than 99 insiders.

That’s why our church has to more concerned with the outsider than the insider. I can’t remember who said this, but it’s true. The church is the only organization in the world that exists for people who aren’t members yet. That is absolutely true.

Most churches organize around the preferences of the already-convinced. We will structure our church in a way that gives preference to the outsider instead of the insider. We will put reaching lost people ahead of our own personal preferences.

And if that bothers you, then you have some growing to do. People who are truly spiritually mature will give up their rights first. Someone who has matured in Christ wants everyone to come to Christ, and they will be the first in line to sacrifice their rights and preferences to make it happen.

I’m already going to heaven. My ticket is punched. But I don’t want to go alone. And none of my rights and personal preferences are more important than someone else’s salvation. I will sacrifice what I want if it allows our church to reach more lost people for Jesus.

And so many of our people have done that same thing. I am so grateful to you. So many of our people have gone through a ton of change…and it hasn’t always been changes that they have liked. But when they see the number of people coming to Christ here at ACC, it makes it all worth it. When someone crosses over from death to life, it makes every bit of work and sacrifice worth it.

Spiritually mature people will give up their rights and preferences first. That allows our church to follow the example of Jesus. It allows us to be more concerned with the outsider than the insider.

Think again about what Jesus said in Luke 19. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10, NIV)

This was the reason that Jesus came to earth. It was, and it still is, His mission. Only now, He carries out this mission through His church.

The church cannot passively pursue this mission. Lost people matter deeply to God. He has given us the task of leading the search-and-rescue mission.

Let’s bottom line it. The bottom line is that hell is real. Everyday, we are surrounded by people who really will spend their eternity there unless they meet Jesus. And no tradition, no sacred cow, no amount of comfort should stand in the way of rescuing them.

And that’s why our church is laser-focused on them. We are a church that is laser-focused on lost people.

It’s easy to get so caught up in other stuff that we forget that our mission is people. Nehemiah didn’t allow himself to get so focused on the walls that he forgot who the walls were for. He didn’t get so involved in his project that he forgot his people.

The church can get involved in more projects than you could every count. But if the purpose of the project isn’t people, then the project is a sinful waste of resources. It is a diversion of attention. It clouds the mission. And ultimately, a project-oriented church will cause a lot of people to never be reached. When the church is focused on projects, hell gets more crowded. When the church is focused on people, heaven gets more crowded.

We are not here to do projects. We are here to reach people. And that will mean constant change. Constant adaptation.

Now, you’ve got to hear this. The gospel message never changes. In Hebrews 13, the Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” (Hebrews 13:8-9a, NIV)

Jesus never changes, and what we teach about Him never changes. We always have and we always will preach the gospel. We will preach Christ crucified. We will preach Christ resurrected. We will preach Christ as the only way that we can be restored to a right relationship with God.

The message we preach will never change, but the methods that we use to communicate that message will always change. But as long as we stay true to the gospel and we are seeking the most effective ways to communicate that message, God will honor us. And heaven will become more and more crowded.

Nehemiah never forgot why he was there. He was there for his people. They were drowning in debt, and he did what they couldn’t do when he had their debt canceled.

Some of you are drowning in debt. It’s the debt of unforgiven sin. But our church is all about showing you the way out. And the way out is through Jesus.

Here’s how the Bible says it in Colossians 2. “When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14, NIV)

Jesus took your debt. He paid the price that you couldn’t pay. The cross means that your debt is paid in full forever.

And that’s why we are committed to giving you a chance to respond to the gospel every single week. We don’t do this because we think it’s a nifty way to end our services. We offer a chance for you to respond because heaven is real. Hell is real. And the difference between the two is Jesus.

Today can be the day when you cross over from death to life. Today can be the day when your debt is canceled forever. Your past sins can be forgiven. Your present and future sins can be forgiven.

Last week I baptized a fellow named Howard. And our church celebrated his baptism, just like we celebrate every baptism. But there was one thing that you didn’t get to experience because I was the only one that heard it.

Before Howard walked out of the baptistery, he looked at me with a huge smile on his face and he said, “I am free!”

Yes he is. And you can be, too. Freedom is exactly what Jesus offers. And He offers it to you right now.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: church, evangelism, Luke 15, Nehemiah, vision, We Are