The mission of the church begins with Jesus Himself. “God had an only son,” David Livingstone wrote, “and He was a missionary…” His was not a self-appointed job. He was commissioned or sent by God to accomplish a purpose. Jesus multiplied His effectiveness by transmitting God’s commission to His disciples making them missionaries also. Jesus had recruited them in order teach and equip them for ministry so they could be sent out to accomplish God’s purpose as well. His disciples in turn were train new Christians to be missionaries as well. The book of Acts records the progress these missionaries made in building Christ’s Church. Acts is about ministry and missionaries. In the church’s earliest days, every Christian felt compelled to share the good news about Jesus Christ with others. The book of Acts leaves no room for misunderstanding. The church has a very distinct mission and each Christian has the responsibility to be actively involved in ministry. The priority of the church’s mission is to reach others with the good news of Jesus Christ. Eugene Peterson sums up this mission in his paraphrase of Acts 1:8 from his work “The Message”; “What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.” By very nature the church has been called to grow and to be involved in the lives of others. The task is huge but we can accomplish it through the power of Christ. The results will be startling if we start by loving one person at a time. Today let’s look at the Lord’s commission and we can turn our world upside down for Him.
I. What’s the motivation for the mission?
A. The truth: God still loves the world; He sent His Son to save the world; His Son commissioned His Church to carry on this mission.
1. The disciples are to go (rather than the temporal emphasis, “having gone”) and make disciples.
2. The object of their mission is to disciple “all the nations.” Here we run into the Greek phrase “panta ta ethnç” once again.
3. This means so much more than just trying to evangelize people.
4. Making disciples means instructing new believers on how to follow Jesus, submit to Jesus’ Lordship, and to carry out His mission.
B. The health of the church depends upon the extent of our awareness of fellow Christians, and our concern for those who need Jesus.
1. The aim of Jesus’ disciples, therefore, is to make disciples of all men everywhere, without distinction.
2. Critical to the discipling process is ongoing instruction of new disciples in order to ground them in the authoritative teachings of Jesus.
3. The risen Jesus is central to the existence and proclamation of the church. There would be no gospel if there had been no resurrection.
4. It is the risen Jesus, to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given, who here commissions his disciples and in effect the church of every period of history.
5. They are to go everywhere with the message of good news in the name and authority of Jesus.
II. What’s the cost of carrying out our mission?
A. The cost is in dollars as well as dedicated lives.
1. No church can boast of being dedicated to Christ’s mission and not use all their resources to prove it.
2. American Christians are faced with some serious rethinking of their priorities and responsibilities to those outside the church.
3. Americans throw enough food away every day to feed most of the starving population of the world.
4. We are blessed with abundance while so many struggle to find enough food to survive another day.
B. A precedent found in New Testament Christianity.
1. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians includes an appeal to the Gentile Christians to help their fellow Christians in Jerusalem during their great time of need and suffering. (2 Corinthians 8:13-15)
2. The word “hard pressed,” employed now for the last of its nine times in 2 Corinthians refers to trouble that impacts a person or a community from external forces.
3. By using it, Paul expresses an assumption that the dire economic predicament of the Jerusalem Christians has come through no fault of their own but most likely from the regional famine which has continued for over ten years and possibly on top of that, religious persecution from loyal Jews who find the growing presence of Christians in their midst an irritation.
4. Paul believes that Christian giving should come out of a recognition of genuine need.
5. We will never be able to convince others that Jesus loves them if we continue to go through life with blinders on refusing to see the needs that are all around us.
6. Out of our financial resources we need to support ministry, out of our talents and abilities we need to minister to people.
III. What is the message the church is to carry?
A. We are not saved by any works of our own, any ritual, regulation, or memorized formula.
1. Paul in Romans 10 does an excellent job of summing up the message of the church. (Romans 10:8-10)
2. The main point is that the word of faith is near you. This simply reinforces the fact that the source of our salvation is not works that we do but the saving work of Jesus, which is made known to us through the word of the gospel.
3. We are saved the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and so is everyone else.
B. What distinguishes the Christian ministry from social relief programs is Jesus Christ.
1. Romans 10:10 if you remember insists that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Jesus gave this same message in John 14:6; “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
3. Romans 10:13 promises that every one who calls upon the Lord will be saved, but listen very carefully to it in context with verses 14 and 15. (Romans 10:13-15)
4. In this passage we see that no one will here the message if we don’t do our part in carrying out the church’s mission.
5. We are partners in taking the saving message of Jesus Christ into the world around us.
IV. What method should we use to accomplish our mission?
A. There is very little debate among evangelical Christians that the Church has a mission throughout the whole world.
1. There is a real debate though over the method we are to use in taking the message and presenting the message.
2. The four elements for effective fulfillment of the church’s mission is obedience to the Lord’s command, made possible only when the attitudes of availability, worship, and submission characterize the believer’s life.
3. While we can be busy doing many good things, in the midst of them we can miss what church’s true mission really is.
4. Christ has given us some very clear marching orders; “Go and make disciples…baptizing them…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.”
5. This connection between the authority of Jesus and the fulfilling of the tasks now assigned to the disciples and those who come after them in Matthew’s and every church is made plain in the connective, “therefore.” Jesus’ authority (v. 18) and His presence (v. 20) will empower His disciples to fulfill the commission He now gives them.
B. Have you ever considered the early church’s program? To make disciples, gather them into clusters of believers, nurture them in Jesus Christ so in turn they could make disciple.
1. Look at Paul, everywhere he went he challenged his hearers to accept Christ and to become involved in active fellowship with the new community of believers, the church.
2. Much more emphasis needs to be put on the point that each Christian is called to be actively involved in ministry.
3. Scripture is clear that we can not turn a blind eye toward our responsibility to meet the needs of those in the church and outside the church.
4. The Gospel is a message of equality; everyone is of great worth in the eyes of God.
5. Nothing breaks down social and economic barriers quicken than the message that Jesus died for and loves every single person in the world.
6. Our mission makes it the first priority to lead others to Jesus Christ and welcome them and accept them unconditionally into His family.
C. The message for us is simple?
1. Ministry is not for just the people who are paid to do it; Christ has commanded each of us to “go”.
2. Why do you think He wants all Christians to be actively involved in ministry?
3. Consider this if you would on the average each person influences 3.5 people ever two weeks.
a. How many people will be reached if we rely only on the preacher in a year?
b. How many people could be reached for Christ if everyone does there part?
4. So do really want to turn the world upside down for Christ?
5. Each of us then needs to become actively involved in ministry for Jesus Christ.
A young man, a skilled mechanic, was driving a visiting minister from his home town, fifty miles across the country, to another city. En route, they passed a huge factory consisting of perhaps twenty buildings scattered over several hundred acres. "Do you see that red brick building over there behind this gray stone one?" the mechanic asked. "I work on the second floor on the south side. There are seventy-four of us in that department, and as far as I know, I am the only one in all that crowd who ever goes to church or tries to live a Christian life. Sometimes I have to remind myself that, as far as that department is concerned, I am all there is of the Christian Church. If I don’t do good work, then the Church has failed as far as those men are concerned. If I can’t be relied upon, then the Church is undependable. If I am careless, then some poor unfortunate soul may have to pay for the Church’s carelessness. It is pretty serious business being the Church in the midst of seventy-four other people."
