Intro: When you think of buying friend chicken, what’s the first name you think of? Now maybe for you it’s Kroger Deli or Lee’s, but for me and most of America, we think of the name of Colonel Sanders and his Secret Recipe. One of the most closely guarded secrets in America is that special blend of 16 herbs and spices.
Think with me about Coca-Cola. A unique flavored soda that is imitated, but never matched. Now, I know there are some die-hard Pepsi drinkers, and that’s okay, but I’ll stick with a regular Coke Classic. A secret formula that the general public has no knowledge of.
Now, what would you think of someone who worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken who stumbled across the recipe in Colonel Sanders diary, and published it for the world to follow. There would be a lot of short-order cooks in restaurants across the country who would be grateful. Yet, we would think, what a failure, what a tragedy for the company. Someone would carelessly give out a secret recipe that had been carefully guarded for years.
So, what does all that have to do with our faith? We’ve been talking about times when the world sees failure, but God sees a success. Think with me a little bit about Jesus. Here is a man who is God come in the flesh. He is a man on a mission. He is a master planner. He is the one who has the answers to any difficult question. Whenever people came and tried to trick him to give a problem answer, he always gave just the answer that silenced them.
Jesus came to do the work of the Father. He had a plan. And his plan succeeded. Yet, one of the most exciting things we see in scripture is that Jesus didn’t keep his plan a secret; he revealed it to all who followed him. This was the genius of Jesus’ life and ministry. Where others might have tried to hold control and power for themselves, Jesus gave it away. Jesus’ plan for ministry was to give his ministry away.
I want us this morning to think about what this means for each one of us here today.
Shall We Pray.
I. Jesus had a mission in life
And it was not just a mission to die. If Jesus main purpose in life was to come and die, he could have been born in the manger and then executed. Or, maybe you say he had to come to the age where he knew what he was doing. But why wait until he was 33 years old? There was something else that characterized Jesus’ life. That’s what we want to look at today.
Don’t get me wrong. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is of extreme importance. It’s the reason we are here today. It’s why we sorrow not as others, who have no hope. And we’ll talk more about that next week. But this morning I want to look not at his death, but at his life.
Jesus had a job to do. Look with me in John 17. READ 17:1-5
In verse 4, Jesus said he had completed the work the Father had sent him to do. Now, he is not crucified yet! So, this work is not the work of redemption that he will accomplish by his death and resurrection. It is something else. Let’s read on to see what it might be. READ 17:6-21a
Jesus states for us here what his mission was. In verse 6 - it is to reveal the Father. In verse 8 it is to pass on the words from the Father. In verse 18, it is to send them out into the world. In verse 20 we see that others will believe because of their witness. Jesus was accomplishing the work of the Father, which was to start an ongoing process of training men to reach others, train others, and send them out to do the same thing all over again. Jesus had a great plan of multiplication.
Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden were told to be fruitful and multiply. We also, spiritually, are told to be fruitful and multiply. We are to be reaching and training others.
Jesus, coming as God, knew the best way to reach the world. We might say, Oh, it’s too bad Jesus didn’t have email and a website, he could have saved a couple years of travel. If only Jesus had a TV station he could have broadcast his message to everyone.
No, Jesus came at just the time the Father had planned. And he modeled for us the best way to change the world. Through personally reaching people one at a time. Now let’s talk about the exciting part.
II. We are on a mission!
As a kid, I can remember one Christmas my mom and dad bought a race car set for the family. Little cars going around a track with hand controls. There were five boys in my family, and we all wanted to pull the trigger and make the cars fly around the track. We all wanted a turn.
Jesus gives us all a turn! Jesus has set a pattern and he tells us, “You can all take a turn.”
Let’s look again at the great commission this morning. Matthew 28:18-20.
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Jesus doesn’t keep his plan a secret. Rather he reveals it to us and says, “You can all take a turn.” It’s very simple. It starts with going. Jesus really says, “Having gone . . .” He assumes that they will go. He doesn’t try to convince them of the need to go. He simply says, once you have gone, this is what you will do.
Now, as we have been seeing as we have gone through Acts in Sunday School, the disciples at Jerusalem didn’t go! Some of them did, but the others stayed back and enjoyed the comfort of their homes and jobs. And what happened? God allowed persecution to come which drove them all out like they should have gone in the first place.
Where is it God wants you to go? Make sure that you’re willing to follow him. Maybe he wants you to change jobs, or change houses. Maybe he wants you to be a missionary. Maybe he wants you to stay right where you’re at. Obedience starts with first finding out what God’s will is for your life.
Once we are where God wants us to be, the next step is to reproduce. Jesus had a plan: to start a chain reaction of reproduction. How did he do it. He took 12 men, one of whom would betray him, and he invested himself in these men. If we are going to follow that plan, we will need to identify others that we can invest ourselves in.
As Jesus gave his plan for us to follow, it had three parts: To reach others, to train them, and to send them out. Now each part is important. There are some churches that focus just on winning the lost. This is important, but not the most important. There are some churches that focus on having good Bible teaching. This is important, but not the most important. There are some churches that focus on having others go and serve. This is important, but not the most important. We need a balance of all three: winning, building, and sending. All three parts are important. With the fruit of the spirit, each fruit is important. You don’t say, “Today I’ll think I’ll be peaceful: I won’t be loving, or kind, or patient. I’ll be peaceful. No, each part is important. Now, let’s remember, Jesus says “we call all have a turn.” This discipleship process isn’t something for pastors or board members alone, but for every one of us to do.
III. The Question: Will we be obedient to our mission?
In John 6:66, Jesus had disciples who heard the call to follow, but when they were confronted with the cost of following, turned back. It reads, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Will we obey the call that God has given us? That’s the question we need to answer. God does not call us to simply lead a good life, and try to avoid sin. He calls us to reproduce ourselves in others. John 14:12 - I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
John 20:21 - Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
We don’t have to try to accomplish this alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit to be our helper and encourager. Whenever we meet someone, the Holy Spirit within us tells us, “Give a witness for Christ.” We feel embarrassed like we don’t know what to say, the Spirit says, “I’ll help you.” God has empowered us to do the work he called us to do.
In 1 Cor. 15, Paul writes about the resurrection. All believers have been raised with Christ. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed. Then he goes on to say to us all - Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
We are all to abound in the work of the Lord. In 2 Cor. 5 we are told, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
All of us who have been saved have been made ambassadors: God speaks through us to others. Not that we have infallible truth, but the message of the gospel is infallible. Are we willing to share it with others?
Concl: We see the work Jesus left for us to do. Will we do it?
Jn. 14:21 - Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." In verse 23 - "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Are you willing to invest your life in reaching others? The world tells us to live for ourselves? The church often tells us just to study the Bible. This morning Jesus asks us, Do you love me? We show it by obeying his commands. What is the last command he gave us? To go and make disciples: to reach others, teach them, and train them to go out and reproduce themselves in others.
We will talk about discipleship more in the future, but this morning ask yourself the question, am I willing to do the one thing that Jesus asked me to do?
Shall We Pray!
