Studies have shown that the most fulfilled and satisfied people alive are the people who have a sense of mission in their lives. They live for a purpose higher than themselves.
The Apostle Paul exemplified this truth. He was always happy. Even in prison he had joy. Just read the letter to the Philippian church that he wrote from jail!
What was Paul’s mission? This is what he said on his way to Jerusalem when he knew he was going to be arrested.
"The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to tell people the good news about God’s grace." Acts 20:24 (NCV)
Here is a key insight into the mind of a missional Christ follower. Completing the mission of telling people the good news about God’s grace is "the most important thing" to them.
What is the most important thing in your life?
Are you committed to being a messenger of the good news about God’s grace to other people?
In the Bible this mission is called THE GREAT COMISSION.
Let me say it with the accent on the first syllable of the second word, The Great CO-Mission. The prefix “co,” means “together,” like in “co-author” and “cooperate.” God is offering us a chance to work together with Him on this mission, to cooperate with Him in fulfilling the mission that is nearest and dearest to His heart!
The Great COMISSION is so important that it is recorded in each of the Four Good News Accounts and also in the book of Acts. Let’s take a quick survey of the Great Commission.
Matthew, writing his Good News Account with a Jewish readership in mind writes:
18Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)
Mark, the shortest of the Good News Accounts because he was targeting the Romans who were people of action more than words says:
15 And then he (Jesus) told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Mark 16:15 (NLT)
Luke, the physician, is writing to try and open the minds and hearts of those steeped in Greek culture and lays more heavily on repentance because a lot of the Greek philosophers taught that thinking was more important than actions.
47 It must be preached that men must be sorry for their sins and turn from them. Then they will be forgiven. This must be preached in His name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. 48 You are to tell what you have seen. Luke 24:47-48 (NCV)
John, writing with the entire world as his audience give the most succinct and straightforward rendering of the Great Commission of all the Good News writers. He records these words of Jesus.
“As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21 (NLT)
Jesus no doubt told His followers about this mission over and over. The good thing about having four different Good News Accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus is that God knew different people would need different perspectives on the Great Commission to be motivated. But they all basically say the same thing.
And if those four renderings don’t move you, the Book of Acts records one final account of Jesus repeating His mission for His people.
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.” Acts 1:8 (NLT)
These are some of the very last words spoken by Christ before He went back to heaven! He already told His followers time and again what to do, what mission He was leaving with them, but just before He departs He reiterates it. It’s like He’s saying, “This is what it’s all about! This is what I came to earth for! This is what I want you to do until I come back!”
Jesus gave the Great Commission at least five times in five different settings and that’s why Jesus’ mission should matter to us!
What are the components of this universally important task that we are privileged to undertake?
If you put those five occurrences of the Great Commission in Scripture together you will see 3 things we’re supposed to do on this mission of ours.
The Three Essentials of Our Mission:
1. Go and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28:18
A disciple is a follower, a student. So Jesus is saying that the first element of our mission is to go and find others and encourage and lead them to follow Jesus just as we do.
The verbs, “go,” and “make” are to be combined in one fluid motion. Christ’s followers are to go into all the world, to all nations (all people groups – no one is to be left out) with the mission of making disciples.
We don’t sit around and wait for the world to come to us. We go. We make disciples. We actively participate in telling the Good News about Jesus to others with the specific outcome in mind that they too will become followers of Jesus.
But the verbs aren’t the only important part of the mission. The place also matters.
Many Christ followers interpret the Great Commission this way: “Go into all the surrounding community and make disciples.”
That is clearly NOT all of what Jesus said. We just act like it is. It’s part of the mission, but not all of it. We act like if we tell our neighbors and co-workers and family and friends, the people in our little part of the world, that we have fulfilled our mission. We haven’t. We haven’t been obedient to the mission Christ gave us as His followers until we have been involved in a world-wide witness.
Acts 1:8 mentions Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Our Jerusalem is our city. Our Judea is our state. Our Samaria is the United States, and then there’s the rest of the world. Our mission is to tell our city the Good News about Jesus but we are not to stop there.
Remember what Luke said about the Good News? "It must be preached that men must be sorry for their sins and turn from them. Then they will be forgiven. This must be preached in His name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. 48 You are to tell what you have seen. Jerusalem was just the beginning."
Our city is just our "beginning." The witness began in Jerusalem but Christ didn’t intend for everyone to have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to discover the Good News. He commissioned His followers to go around the world with the Good News! Our mission is to tell every people group the good news about Christ.
The book of Acts later detailed how this worked. The early church prayed and sent missionaries like Paul and Barnabas, Silas and Luke, John Mark, etc. The folks that stayed home prayed for and provided financial support for those who went, but it became a cooperative effort to fulfill the Great Commission.
Today, if we’re not praying for and financially supporting missionaries we’re missing a big part of the mission. By all means share the Good News about Jesus here at home. But also get involved in sharing it around the world by supporting those whom God has called and gifted to go around the world.
Have you ever wondered why God made the mission work this way? Why did Jesus give us the mission of going and making disciples for Him? Why didn’t He stay on earth and keep on doing Himself? Why doesn’t He enlist angels to go and make disciples for Him? Wouldn’t they be more effective since they exist in the supernatural realm?
Mike Milton wrote this in an Internet article:
"When my father died I was six years old. After the funeral, Aunt Eva took me and we went through his possessions. That is a hard thing to do as some of you know. Well, my dad didn’t have many possessions. But of all the things we found, the one that lasted for almost all of my growing up years was a bottle of Old Spice cologne.
Like many children, I was intrigued by this stuff that my father splashed on his face. So, when I found it, I took the lid off and took a whiff. It reminded me of my father. So, at six years old, I threw some on my face. It tingled and stung a bit on my childish face. But it smelled like my father. I didn’t use it for years afterward. But we kept that bottle of cologne in the medicine cabinet. And every time I washed my face, I opened the cabinet to check and see if the Old Spice was still there. Aunt Eva never said anything, but she never moved it either. She must have known. The Old Spice was the only thing I had of my father’s to grow up with.
Later, when I started shaving as an adolescent, Aunt Eva bought me a bottle of Hai Karate! I don’t think they make it anymore. It was all right. But it just wasn’t the same. It was supposed to make girls go crazy and, according to the commercials, one would have to fight them off with playful karate chops. That didn’t work either. I can honestly say that I was never attacked by a woman wanting to smell my Hai Karate! And, most important, it just didn’t have the right smell. It didn’t remind me of my father.
Our heavenly Father instituted sacrificial offerings in the Old Testament. We are told that they were sweet smelling offerings and had a pleasing aroma to the Lord. (Exodus 29:18) What did that mean? It meant that there was a smell of sacrifice that pleased God. Later we would understand that this was a sign to point to Jesus Christ. His life and his death were pleasing to God. Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament sacrifices.
But, there is also a wonderful teaching in the New Testament that Christ’s followers share the aroma of Christ.
"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV)
God sends those of us who have Christ’s aroma on us to show how very wonderful life in Christ can be.
We who are following Christ faithfully are the best advertisement for the Good News! So we are the ones who have been entrusted with the mission of going and making disciples. We are the ones who have the aroma of Christ that brings others to Him!
So, the first element of our mission? We are to go and make disciples of all nations.
And once we have encouraged someone to make a faith commitment to Christ, we tell them about the next step in the Great Commission.
2. Baptize new believers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19
Baptism is such an important step of obedience to Christ that He included it in the Great Commission.
Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19
Why is baptism so important that Christ included it as part of the mission? The Bible teaches this about baptism.
21And baptism, which is a figure, does now also save you [from inward questionings and fears], not by the removing of outward body filth [bathing], but by [providing you with] the answer of a good and clear conscience (inward cleanness and peace) before God [because you are demonstrating what you believe to be yours] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:21 (Amp)
So clearly the Bible teaches that baptism does NOT wash our sins away. That’s not its purpose at all. We just saw last month in John’s first letter that the blood of Christ is what washes our sins away when we make a faith commitment to Christ. (1 John 1:7 - …the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.)
Baptist is a figure, a symbol, of what happened when we placed our faith in Christ.
Here’s how Paul puts in writing to the Roman church.
4 We were buried in baptism as Christ was buried in death. As Christ was raised from the dead by the great power of God, so we will have new life also. 5 If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life.
6 We know that our old life, our old sinful self, was nailed to the cross with Christ. And so the power of sin that held us was destroyed. Sin is no longer our boss. Romans 6:4-6 (NLV)
One of the reasons we practice baptism by immersion, not sprinkling or pouring, here at Pathway is because it pictures burial. Baptism is supposed to represent burial. Christ was completely buried after His death and so we new Christ followers identify with Christ and his death and burial by being immersed all the way under the water. (It also shows that we have buried the old person we used to be, along with the old way of life we used to lead.)
Then, when the new Christ follower comes up out of the water, it is a picture of Christ’s resurrection! It pictures the new life we have in Christ as well. “Sin is no longer our boss.” Baptism is a public proclamation of our new freedom in Christ. Just like the power of the Holy Spirit freed Him from the tomb, He frees us from the power of sin having control over us and we are baptized to make a public display of our new freedom.
There’s a personal testimony about baptism I think shed’s light on it’s importance.
Paul Harvey wrote in Guideposts Magazine about his own baptism. He said that even though he had received almost every reward for his broadcasting ability that he still felt empty inside.
One summer, however, he & his wife were vacationing in a place called Cave Creek, AZ. Sunday morning came & they decided to go to church. So they went to this little church, & there were only 12 other people present.
Harvey says that He believed in Jesus, but he had never gone forward in a church service. He became a follower of Christ one night when he had prayed in his hotel room & asked Jesus to come into his heart, but he felt that there was still something that was missing.
He said that the preacher got up & announced that his sermon was going to be about baptism. Paul Harvey said, "I yawned. But as he started talking about it I found myself interested. He talked about the symbolism behind it, & how it symbolized the complete surrender of one’s life to Jesus Christ, & how there was nothing really magic in the water. But there was this cleansing inside that took place when you yielded yourself to Jesus."
Harvey went on to say, "Finally, when he came to the end of his sermon he said, ‘If any of you have not been baptized, I invite you to come forward & join me here at the pulpit.’"
Paul Harvey said, "To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into the depths & rose again I knew something life changing had happened…. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain contradictory Paul Harvey’s, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit in my life.”
Paul Harvey went on, "The change this simple act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because baptism is such a public act & because one’s dignity gets as drenched as one’s body, I discovered a new unself-consciousness in talking about my beliefs."
Baptism. It’s the second part of the Great Commission.
Then, after going and making disciples; after baptizing them, Jesus gave us one more mission component.
3. “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” Matthew 28:20
After someone decides to follow Christ they need to see themselves in the role of a student of Christ’s instructions. Those of us who have been following Christ long enough to have learned Christ’s commands need to pass them on to the new followers.
It might be the command to feed the hungry or forgive those who have wronged us. It might be the command to be baptized or to go and make disciples. But whatever the instruction of Jesus brand new baby believers should not be left to fend for themselves any more than a newborn should be left at the hospital.
New believers need to be taught to have personal time with God, to read the Bible and pray every day. They need to know that they won’t grow if they don’t. They need to be taught that consistent worship with the church is vital.
For this third element of our mission to work then, there must be older believers willing to take the time and make the effort to share Christ’s instructions, and younger believers willing and committed to learning Christ’s instructions.
Neither the mature believer nor the new believer can afford to miss being a part of this process because without this teaching the mission isn’t completed! It would be like a soldier who had been sent into battle who gets back to his superior officer and says, “Yes sir, we gathered all of the proper intelligence, we secured all the effective weapons, we even went out to the battlefield! We just didn’t want to spend all that time getting dirty and making personal sacrifices to complete the mission.”
What good is going and making disciples and baptizing them if they’re not going to be taught?
Some mature believers have learned the basics so they’re satisfied to sit back as if they’re finished with their mission. Not so!
Some new believers have their free ticket to heaven so they think it’s over and done. It’s only begun!
The mission is not done until everyone we have tried to tell everyone alive the good news about Jesus!
Do you know what is 750,000 miles long, reaches around the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day?
The line of people who are without Christ.
Jack Kelly, foreign affairs editor for USA Today, tells about being in Mogadishu, the capitol of Somalia, during a famine. “It was so bad we walked into one village and almost everybody was dead. There is a stench of death that gets into your hair, gets onto your skin, gets onto your clothes, and you can’t wash it off.
We saw this little boy. You could tell he had worms and was malnourished; his stomach was protruding. His hair turns a reddish color, and the skin becomes crinkled as though he was 100. Our photographer had a grapefruit, which he gave to the boy. The boy was so weak he didn’t have the strength to hold the grapefruit, so we cut it in half and gave it to him. He picked it up, looked at us as if to say thanks, and began to walk back towards his village. We walked behind him in a way that he couldn’t see us. When he entered the village, there on the ground was a little boy who I first thought was dead. His eyes were extremely gazed over. It turned out that this was the first boy’s younger brother. The older brother kneeled down next to his younger brother, bit off a piece of grapefruit, and chewed it. Then he opened his younger brother’s mouth, put the grapefruit in, and worked his brother’s jaws up and down. We learned that the older brother had been doing that for the younger brother for two weeks. A couple days later the older brother died of malnutrition, and the younger brother lived. I remember driving home that night thinking what Jesus meant when he said, “There is no greater love than to lay down our life for somebody else.”
Will you lay down your life to complete Christ’s mission?
In 1981, I was a young pastor of 25 and my mom was dying of cancer in Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana. I drove down every day to see her and spend time with her.
One day, on the hour or so drive from where I pastored in Wabash, Indiana to Muncie, I prayed the entire way, "Jesus let me say something encouraging to my dying mother."
I walked in her room just as a nurse was walking out. I smiled and said, "Mom, how are you today?" She said,
"I’m great. Did you see that nurse who just walked out?" I said, "Sure." She said, "I just got to tell her the good news about Jesus!"
I didn’t encourage my dying mother. She encouraged me. She showed me that as long as she was involved in the mission that Christ gave her she had joy.
I want those of you who will commit or recommit yourself to God’s essentials of a missional life to come forward and kneel for a prayer of commitment.
