Mission – Part 1

This morning we are going to move forward onto the third leg of the stool – Mission.  We have focused on Worship and Community, but if all we had were worship and community, it would be great, but it would fall short of God’s plan for His church.  What do I mean by that?

God is a Missionary God.  He intentionally sent His Son into this world to save it.  God sent Jesus on a mission to seek and save that which was lost (Jn. 3:34; 4:34; 5:23-24).

Later, after Jesus had been raised from the dead He would tell His disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (Jn. 20:21).  Notice “as the Father has sent Me…”  In other words there is a comparison or correlation between how the Father sent Jesus, and how Jesus sends His disciples.  Jesus has sent His church.

What has Jesus sent the church to do?  Mt. 28:18-20 – to make disciples of all the nations.

Has Jesus sent the entire church to do this work, or only a small portion of them?  Some will argue that Jesus was speaking only to His 11 apostles at this point, and so the work of making disciples was theirs alone.  However, there are two things in this passage that show me that Jesus was speaking to all believers for all time.

First, at the end of this Great Commission, Jesus tells them, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  If this Great Commission were only for the 11 apostles, there would be no need to tell them He would be with them to the end of the age. They would all die within 70 years, before the end of the age. The fact that Jesus will be with His church to the end of the age, tells us that the Great Commission is laid upon the church until He comes back, not just the 11 apostles of the first century.

Second, Jesus tells His apostles that when they make disciples, they are to teach them to observe all that I commanded you.  Well, Jesus had just commanded them to make disciples of all the nations.  Therefore, all the disciples that they make must be taught to observe that command as well.  In other words, every disciple is commissioned to make other disciples.  This is not just a job for the apostles, or the evangelists, or the spiritual leaders of a congregation. This is an assignment laid on every disciple of Jesus.

Therefore, if you are a disciple, God has called you to be a disciple maker.  What that means is that we need to see ourselves as missionaries. That must be a core part of your self-identity.

Who do you see yourself as?  Perhaps as a wife or husband or father or member of a church or employee of a particular company.  That is all true, but it is not complete. If you are a Christian, you are also a missionary, and you need to start seeing yourself as one.

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