The Mission of the Church

Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

THE BODY

Two years ago after a couple of years of not playing, I decided to pick up playing 7 a side football again. I thought I was in reasonably good shape and I had no injuries I was aware of. But even so, I decided to play in defence the first week just to be careful. As we were warming up, taking shots at goal before the game I wound up to strike the ball and as I stuck the ball I felt my right quadracep cramp up. I stretched some more and decided to play on - but within three minutes my right leg was in agony and I couldn’t continue. It took me months to recover and play again.

I got injured because I had been inactive - I hadn’t kicked a ball in anger for two years and so when I tried to do it I got hurt. Bodies require regular excercise to stay healthy.

Now two weeks ago we looked at 1 corinthians 12 - and saw Paul there describing the Church using the imagery of a human body. The Church of Jesus Christ therefore is a body - comparable to our own bodies. Now however well made this body is, if it doesn’t excercise, or doesn’t know how to excercise properly it will be injury prone and weak.

It is vital therefore that the Body of Christ, the Church, be active. I believe that the weakness that we see in the church today, and indeed the weakness we see in the life of many believers is down to this one thing - inactivity. It wonderful that many are having incredible encounters with God, and it’s good that there are many who are knowledgeable about God’s word, but if we do not put these great privileges to use then they are wasted. The Church grows less influential, and the Christian who was once on fire for God becomes lukewarm.

It’s exactly what happened at the Church at Laodicaea - their attitude was ‘I’m rich, and wealthy, I have no need of anything’. They had become lazy, focussed on themselves and had become slovenly and lukewarm in their faith.

So, in order to be healthy, in order to grow strong - we the Church must be active - we must put all the blessings that God has given us to work.

However - it’s no use the Church just being active, active in any old way she pleases. No. Activity for activity’s sake profits nobody.

To use the football analogy again - I played my best, and profitted my team the most when I knew my position, when I knew my role and executed it. If I just decided I didn’t much like playing in defence anymore and wandered up the pitch to play as a striker my team captain would yell at me to get back in defence! Because I left the team weakened at the back because of my ignorance.

This is the same with the Church - it’s not just that the Church must be active, be busy doing things. She must be active doing the right things - the things which God has commanded her to do. We must understand the role - the mission that God has given to the Church and then execute it if we are to please Him.

SO WHAT IS THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH?

So what is our mission as the Church? How are we to understand it?

Mission - “A special assignment given to a person or a group.”

Some have made the point that the word ‘mission’ doesn’t even appear in the Bible, so we ought not to make too big a fuss over it. But that’s not really true - the latin verb mittere where we get mission from, corresponds to the Greek verb apostellein which appears over 100 times in the new testament. And it means send. So when we ask ‘what is our mission’ we’re asking ‘what have we been sent to do?’

So what has God sent His church to do in the world? Well there are many things that spring to mind immediately:

Love our neighbour

Care for the poor and needy

Transform our communities

Evangelise

Some have had a more narrow view of the mission of the Church and may simply say - our mission is evangelism. Others more recently have understood the churches mission as being much broader and looser - “communities of common people doing uncommon deeds.” Darrell Guder

Others have said that the mission of the church today is to co labour with God in His mission, to be about His business. This is something very good in most senses. However, there are things which are God’s business that certainly oughtn’t to be our business as His church. For example - it’s God’s business that He will slay the wicked when Christ returns (Rev 19:21), but that had better not be something that we take on ourselves to co labour with him in now!

The clearest statement in all scripture of the mission of the Church is found in Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is of course known to us as ‘the Great commission. This is what Christ commanded His Apostles to go and do as He was ascending to heaven.

To go

To make disciples of all nations

To baptise them

To teach them

So the mission of the church is broader than simply making converts - it’s about making disciples. And we see that the mission of the church is narrower than doing good works, or transforming our communities - it’s about making disciples.

MAKING DISCIPLES

The closest thing we have to an example of ‘a disciple’ in the world is ‘an apprentice’. Someone who is an understudy of their master, who follows them around and learns their trade.

So our mission goes beyond simply preaching the good news, it goes beyond even winning converts, our mission is to make apprentices out of those converts.

The goal of our mission is to win new converts, establish these young disciples in the faith, and incorporate them into a local church. - O Brien - Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul: An Exegetical and Theological Analysis

The great commission isn’t just for full time ministers, or for gifted evangelists, it’s for the whole church, it’s for you, it’s for me. We are all commanded by Christ to be disciples who make disciples. Maybe He will call some of you to go and do this oversees or in other cities, perhaps for others you are called to be a missionary to your place of work, or in your college or school. Each of us is to have the mindset of a missionary - even if our mission field is as small as our family.

And our responsibility is to make disciples. Not win church members - not build great ministries or great buildings, but to make disciples.

God will judge each church on this criteria - not how many campuses did you build, or how many soup kitchens did you run, but did you make disciples?

This was the work of the early church and so it should be ours too:

Acts 14:21–23 ESV

21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

HOW WE MAKE DISCIPLES

Jesus mentions a few things in the great commission in relation to making disciples - the action of going out, baptism and teaching.

Go - the first step is often the hardest. It can be scary to step out in sharing our faith with others, what if they laugh? What if I am rejected? But Jesus gives us a reason not to fear, He says ‘Therefore go’. What’s that therefore there for? It’s connected to what He said before - ‘all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me’. We are representing the King of heaven and earth, we go in His name, in His authority and in His power. If He accepts us then does it matter who rejects us? So whether it’s inviting a neighbour to church, or sharing your faith on social media - fear not. Christ is with you.

Baptising them - A disciple isn’t just someone who believes in Christ, a disciple is someone who obeys Christ. And disciples are commanded to be baptised. It is the sign and seal of God’s covenant with that person. (Baptism service soon)

Teaching - discipling involves teaching. You may think - well, I’m not a pastor, I’m no theologian, I can’t teach somebody! Of course you can - every Christian can teach a new convert something. You can speak to them from your knowledge of God’s word, you can teach them about God’s character from your own testimony - you only need to be one step ahead of someone to be able to teach them something!

Also take Jesus’s example of teaching - He didn’t sit his disciples down in a classroom and lecture them. He shared His life with them - He let them get access to Him. Teaching is more than head knowledge - it’s teaching obedience to Christ through our lives.

A missional church is a disciple making church. And each of you is called to both be a disciple and be a maker of disciples.

How can you do this? Family worship/Open your home (hospitality)/Share your faith with coworkers and friends/Invite them to church or alpha.

Mission month - January

Remember that Christ said you are not alone in this - Lo, I am with you always - to the end of the age.