What is the Mission of the Church?

“It is a culture of evangelism that is not dependent on events, projects, programs, and ministry professionals. Instead it is a culture of evangelism that is built on people filled with the power of God’s Spirit proclaiming the gospel of God’s grace in the context of their every-day lives and relationships.”

Burden: To conduct our lives in a manner which commends the Gospel to others around us , and then to speak it.

Eventually we must get around to speaking it. We often times have good intentions and we rightly so we do well to conduct our selves in a manner that commends the excellencies and works of Christ, but we eventually must open our mouths and speak it. Speaking is essential to the gospel.

In fact when we do not need permission, nor do we need to earn the right to speak the gospel. We have been given the authority to do so by Christ. That does not mean that we can just go out and offend people with our words even if it the truth of the gospel.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

“You have heard it said, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words” and while this seems good in the surface. It fails to capture the essence of the gospel. No one ever got saved by merely observing the moral behavior of believers, but at some point the gospel must be spoken. That is why some have rather said in response “preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use amplification.”

GOD LOVES THE CHURCH AND HAS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR HER.

Evangelism should be apart of the DNA of the church, the very ethos of her culture.

“The gospel is not the ABC’s of the Christian life - the way of salvation, but the A to Z of the Christian life.” Tim Keller “Paul’s Letter to the Galatians”

Paul proclaims in Romans 1:16-17

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Gospel Convincing Conversations

“that you may proclaim the excellencies”

God can do for you what He did for me. We commend the works of God to others. What is the works of God? His mercy which He graciously poured out on His people in transferring them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

In a real sense the gospel is merely to proclaim what God has done in saving us from our sin.

I was at a group prayer time a few years ago we would meet with some pastors from the area. We would gather down town to pray. I remember one particular time as we were praying there was a man sitting over in the corner just watching. I recognized him, in fact Roy and I had been at his house a few weeks or months before this time. We had opportunity to share the gospel with him. I left his house convinced that this man did not know the Lord. Flash forward back to our prayer group. The pastor who was leading caught the gentleman's attention and asked out loud do you want to come and pray. He nodded and came over and prayed but it was not anything remotely like the sinners prayer or anything. All of the sudden they all started clapping and praising God that this man had trusted Christ or something. I was very confused because there was no no gospel presentation, no mention of sin, the cross, Christ nothing. I went over to the guy leading and confronted him and about it.

The world stumbles in the darkness

Isaiah 59:10 ESV

We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

Gospel Commending Conduct

There will always be people and churches that poorly reflect the gospel. But we must be careful that we do not condemn the whole for the few who do not live up to the gospel.

“I keep thinking that one day I am going to show up to work and find out that it was all an act and it never did”

Another one of my co-workers just a few months ago texted me out of the blue from 7 years ago. He saw me on Facebook, or something, not a Christian, not far from it, but he said to me hope you are well, one of these days I am going to come visit your church.

Living your life before men, does not mean perfection. It does not mean that you never get angry or that you never say the wrong thing, but when you do there is opportunity to seek forgiveness and to be humble, and to acknowledge your faults and sins.

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Gospel Commissioned Church

Peter mentions here that that the identity of the church is the she is a people. Not a ethnic group, not a country, or nation, but a people a 3rd race made up of people from every nation tribe and tongue. Comprised of every believer who professes the name of Christ. A people united and gathered over 2000 years of church history all the way back to Peter. The shot heard across the world.

Matthew 16:13–20 ESV

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

I love Jesus it’s His people I can’t stand. The problem is those are the people whom He sacrificed His own life for, those for whom He bled and died. To be certain there is no excuse for the state of many churches, that we see there is no excuse for the abuses and atrocities churches have committed, repentance and reconciliation are called for in these instances, but the reality is that God works through the church, and private Christianity is an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms.

Conclusion:

How many of us have friends of neighbors that we have wanted to share the gospel and we think well I will just live my life and one day the opportunity will come up for me to speak, but the right opportunity never does.

What about those of you who might have the attitude that is is the job of professional, pastors and evangelists and missionaries whose job is to do this? Peter doesn’t leave room for this type of thinking, the church will never grow that way that it is supposed to unless the people of God are all on mission, each one doing their part to carry out the mission of the church.

The last point is that the mission of the church is to proclaim these things and to conduct ourselves so that others might glorify God on the day of visitation. The Lord Jesus is going to return and going to judge the world in righteousness. The Lord knows their number He has counted the elect, but it is the job of the church to proclaim it. God builds His kingdom through the church not independent from it. We preach the Gospel and invite them to come a glorify God with us. When is the last time that you commended the church to someone. When is the last time that you shared your faith or invited a

We are not islands floating free, but are sent out by the church to do the work that God has called us to.