God’s Bridge to the Lost

1. Read: 1 Timothy 3:15

2. About the Text:

1) A bridge connects one side of a land-mass to another.

2) One of the most famous bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge in California, connects the city of San Francisco with Marin County across San Francisco Bay.

3) This bridge enables travelers to get to a point that would take many hours to arrive at otherwise.

4) It makes it easier to go from one place to another, and facilitates access. Bridges enable us to go places that would be difficult to get to otherwise.

5) Metaphorically, a bridge is something that connects ideas, thoughts, and people to one another. Bridges are great tools for facilitating communication.

3. Christians are bridges.

1) Christians are bridges for those who are lost in sin because they enable others through their words, examples, and attitudes about God, Jesus, and the Bible.

2) God has left His work in the hands of His church today, “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

3) Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.”

4) In the song, “The World’s Bible,” by Annie Johnson Flint, she expresses this sentiment.

5) “Christ has no hands but our hands, To do His work today. He has no feet but our feet, To lead men in His way. He has no tongue but our tongue, To tell men how He died. He has no help, but our help, To lead them to His side.”

6) How can we be a bridge for God to our friends?

4. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. God has chosen the church as His way of communicating with the world.

1) After Jesus died on the cross, he was then resurrected from the dead (Matthew 28:1-10).

2) At first, His disciples didn’t believe that this had happened.

3) In fact, Mark says, “And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe” (Mark 16:11).

4) Then Jesus appeared to them, and they believed.

5) They were transformed from a discouraged group of doubters into a powerful group of proclaimers.

6) Jesus told them to preach His gospel to the whole world (Mark 16:15), and they began to teach and preach Jesus wherever they went.

7) Acts 5:42 says, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

2. Jesus’ plan was for His disciples to take the gospel to the whole world in His name.

1) In Acts 1:8 he told them, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

2) Everywhere the disciples went, they established churches that would act as seeds for continuing to preach and teach the gospel of Christ in the local community (Acts 15:41, Acts 16:5).

3) By doing this, God’s truth is represented, and humanity has the opportunity to hear and obey the gospel.

3. The church is God’s bridge to bring the message of salvation to everyone.

1. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15: “But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

1) The house of God is the church of God.

2) The church of God is the pillar and ground of the truth.

2. What does this mean? This means that the church is the only organization in the world that God has established for preaching and teaching the message of the gospel.

1) This is because the church is the one place where God brings together people of every race, culture, background, and type to have unity with Him and with one another.

2) Jesus made this possible when He died on the cross.

3) Through His blood, every person has the opportunity to have peace with God and with one another (Ephesians 2:14-19).

3. This body of people is the church, and Jesus is her Savior and Head.

1) Ephesians 5:23 says, “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.”

2) The job of the church is to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ” by “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 3:8, 4:15).

4. The mission of the church can be best described in Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus said: “’Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, evento the end of the age.’ Amen..”

5. The church is truly a bridge from Christ to humanity!

1. The church represents Christ on earth because she is the body of Christ.

1) Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

2) Additionally, Christ represents God because Jesus is the fullness of God bodily (Colossians 2:9).

3) Put these two truths together and we come to understand that the church represents God on earth.

2. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, the apostle Paul writes, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

1) God’s light proceeds from God to Christ, then from Christ to His disciples, and from His disciples to the rest of the world!

2) This means that the church is Christ’s body to accomplish God’s will in the earth. God’s glory today is in His church: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

1. We are members of Christ’s body.

1) We read in 1 Corinthians 12:12: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” Each one of us is a member of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:27).

2) Being members of the body of Christ, the church (Colossians 1:18), we represent God and Christ on earth!

2. Paul said “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20a).

1) This means that we must pay attention to what we say and how we act around others because when others see us, they are judging Christ.

2) We can be a good influence or a bad influence.

3. Paul discusses being a fragrance for Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15).

1) A fragrance influences us in either a good way or a bad way depending on what kind of smell it is.

2) We want to be a good fragrance for God and so influence our friends to Christ.

4. Jesus said that we are salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16).

1) Salt is also an influence that makes things taste good.

2) Light helps us to see when we are in the dark.

3) It influences our sight so that we do not stumble.

4) As both salt and light, we want to influence our friends to know more about God and Christ through the Bible, God’s word.

5. We want to persuade others. Paul wrote, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11a).

6. We are building a bridge to God for our friends!

1. The Church is God’s Bridge the Lost

1) God Communicates to the World Through the Church

2) The Church is the Pillar and Ground of the Truth

3) The Church Represents Christ on Earth

4) We are . . .

a. Members of Christ’s Body

b. Ambassador’s For Christ

c. A Fragrance for Christ

d. Salt and Light

2. Invitation