Join the Mission of Jesus
What Does it Mean to Be A Christian? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Intro.
Welcome to church! I’m [Teaching Name Slate] and am enjoying this series of conversations we’re having on Wednesdays centered around this question, What is a Christian? What I love about our church is that you don’t have to be a Christian to be here. However, if you say you are a Christian we want to help you get clear on what that means while you are here..
A Christian is simply a follower of Jesus. Someone who has oriented their life around being with Jesus and practicing the things Jesus teaches his followers to do… so What do Christians do? What is the assignment here?
The book of Matthew is a biography that follows the life of Jesus. In its final chapter, Jesus had gained a following, taught about the kingdom of heaven, and lived a perfect life - but ultimately was also crucified on a cross. But He didn’t stay dead, 3 days later He rose from the dead and it was confirmed when He appeared to over 500 of His followers. In His last moments on earth before He went back to heaven, He left His followers with one last thought… Check out the words of Jesus.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “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.”
Tension.
What do Christians do? Jesus gives a direct answer. Therefore go, make disciples everywhere, baptize them, teach them to obey everything I have commanded. (sarcastically) Great, that’s all we need to do! Easy! I don’t know about you but reading these words are intimidating, convicting, and kind of terrifying. What if I misunderstood something and miss out on what Jesus meant?
(Room for quick hitter personal story here in place of the picture)
Like, have you ever done poorly on an assignment thinking it was super easy, but you just misunderstood the directions? I’m not just talking about because you were lazy or procrastinated, I mean, you thought you did a great job when you turned it in, but you completely bombed it. Maybe you were like this kid. [misunderstand the assignment picture] This kid definitely is out here thinking that his assignment was super easy, but he just misunderstood the assignment. He had to be looking around like, “what’s taking y’all so long? This is EASY!” Haha. At least he wrote it “correctly”.
Truth
Tonight, whether you’re all in on Jesus and don’t want to misunderstand the assignment or you’re questioning what it would look like for you to follow Jesus and you want to know what you’re signing up for… we’re talking about one of the things that Christians do: Christians join the mission of Jesus.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling a crowd about the love of God, why he’s come, and helping them understand their role in all this.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
I don’t know about you but when I read those words of Jesus, I’m like… “wait… me!?!?!” Jesus, have you met me? Haha. I don’t know what I’m doing. (Personal story poking fun at something you had no idea what you were doing but got exposed). The idea of Jesus calling me the “light of the world” is like in college when my flag football team asked me to sub in and play quarterback. My roommate and best friend at IWU was QB1 for his high school and we spent a ton of time in school throwing the football. I would run routes and he hit my hands anywhere I went. He could sling it. Our flag football team was good because of him and how he could read the defense, make quick decisions and get out of the pocket and make plays on the run. He was going out of town and missed a game, so he spent a week teaching me the offense and setting me up to take over as QB while he was gone. I was feeling good, he was feeling good. I was about to have my Heisman moment (strike a pose). Gameday comes and I’m ready and… y’all… I was so bad that I still remember my stat line 15 years later. My final stat line… 0-3. I was sacked twice, threw 2 pick sixes. I was completely exposed.
I think this idea of joining the mission of Jesus and letting our light shine is scary to us because we feel exposed. Like, “the light of the world? Me?” A city on a hill that everyone can see. The way we live, the way we talk about other people, the way we follow Jesus is visible. People are watching.
This blows my mind and is a reminder that following Jesus may be a decision we make privately but it is one that we live out publicly. To put it another way, Faith is to be shared, not hoarded. If we join Jesus as “light of the world”, this means that we join Jesus on his mission to save the world.
Jesus saying this in this way is actually kind of crazy. He is saying “YOU are the light of the world”. We see Jesus speak throughout the Gospels that He is the “light shining in the darkness”, he is the one that brings hope, and in John 8:12 he says “I am the light of the world” but now he’s saying that you/me/WE are the light of the world. He’s not even telling us to be the light of the world, just simply that we ARE. How do we do this???
Application
Let’s move from knowing to understanding tonight. How can we shine brighter and join the mission of Jesus to bring his light to a dark world? It starts here: We have to understand our role in the mission to understand the mission.
(Moonlight Illustration)
I don’t know about you, but this part still messes with me. I’m still not good enough to be the light. We need to understand our role in the mission of Jesus to be effective.
I think it’ll help if we talk about space for a minute and see if we can make more sense of this. I know school just started so you’re excited for a science pop quiz tonight. What is this? [show earth night/day picture] Wait, that’s weird, it’s not flat? Huh… Anyways… you’re right! That’s Earth. In that picture it’s nighttime in Europe and day time for us. What is the big thing that lights up the earth during the daytime? The sun! Y’all are crushing it. As the earth spins, the sun lights up the side that’s facing it. Ok, last question. When it’s dark out, what is this thing? [show full moon picture and leave it on screen] Yep, the moon. The future of NASA and space exploration is in this room folks.
Have you ever been outside at night during a full moon, and it made it easy to see even though there weren’t lights on and the sun had completely set? It’s wild when you think about the concept of moonlight. During a full moon, the sun is on the other side of the earth and the sun is so bright that the light reflecting off the moon lights up our darkness on earth so we can see. The moon isn’t producing any light at all on its own yet we all know what the moon looks like and probably even think about how bright it is. We have the word “moonlight” because we’re so accustomed to the brightness of the moon in our night sky.
How are we “the light of the world”? We are like the moon. We aren’t light because we are so bright on our own. There is no amount of goodness that Christians can do to be the “light of the world”. There is no amount of acts of kindness that can make Christians “a city on a hill” on our own. On our own, we’re like the moon without the sun. Without the sun to light up the sky, the moon would just be a dark chunk of rock. I don’t know about you but that sounds a whole lot like what Jesus was saying in Matt 5:16. When we reflect the light of Christ into the world, we make it easier to see in dark places. It is the sun that shines so brightly on the moon that it can reflect the light to us when darkness comes.
In the same way, without the light of Jesus inside of us, we are incapable of being the light of the world. His light shines so brightly that, when we follow Jesus, his light shines through us to the world around us. Like the moon stays in it’s proper place in orbit around the earth, our role is to stay connected to the light source so we can shine brightly to the world. It’s not our job to go off and do our own thing. We have to stay connected, stay in position, if we’re going to reflect the light of Jesus.
Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he invited us into His mission to reach the world. He made us critical to the mission. I think someone needs to receive that tonight. Jesus is so kind that he doesn’t just save Christians from hell and tell us to sit on the sidelines… he rescues us and invites us to join his mission and makes us essential to his rescuing work in the next person! Jesus says in Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
He is saving and he gives us purpose by inviting us to join him be a part of that rescue. We’re invited into that “seek and save the lost” mission of Jesus!
Now it’s time to get specific. Here are 3 practices to shine Jesus’ light to the world.
1. Live a Beautiful life
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Live such a beautiful life among those who are lost that they would see your light and want to meet the source. We don’t just fight sin so we can be “good people”. When we live “good lives” it shines the light of Jesus into the world. It makes our lives attractive. Do you have anyone you know who just lives a beautiful life? I’m not talking about money or influence. I’m talking about someone who is just kind, non-anxious, healthy. Small group leaders, this the importance of our holiness as leaders that we would live beautiful lives that our students want to follow us as we follow Jesus. For all of us, when we live a beautiful life, others are drawn to the source of our light. Fight sin, pursue emotional and mental health, live well, chase rich and real friendships. When we’re following Jesus wholeheartedly, we’ll find ourselves living the beautiful lives that lost people are drawn to.
2. Share hope
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
Give everyone who asks you the reason for the hope you have. Take a moment and think about the products you love. (pick a couple of products you love/evangelize about and riff on them) I love my Apple products. My MacBook, my iPhone, my iPad. Everyone in my family except for my dad has an iPhone. We purposefully create group chats that he’s not in so we can send pictures and videos without the quality getting all jank. We all berate him to give up and just get an iPhone. I know every iPhone person in here has done this at some point. But are we quicker to push someone to change phone brands than we are to share the hope we have in Jesus? Why is it that we’re more likely to share about something that inconveniences us than we are to to share something that has eternal consequences.
Share hope. Do your friends know the reason you are following Jesus? Do they know why you’re trying to live differently, why you’re trying to date differently, why you’re spending your spring break on a mission trip, why you’re always asking them to come with you on Wednesdays? Why wouldn’t we share the reason for the hope that we have?? The source of our light, Jesus has rescued me! This happens naturally when we get baptized. In baptism, we share our story, the reason for the hope that we have. It’s super public. But what if us sharing our hope became a more regular practice? Like at meal times, or on the bus ride to your lacrosse games, or in the 30 minutes you’re sitting around before practice/rehearsal.
My hope is that we would see that this challenge is for ALL CHRISTIANS in the room. Not just pastors or leaders or that kid who always prays at the end of group. All of us are meant to shine the light of Jesus to the world, all of us must be prepared to give the reason for the hope that we have. All of us.
Let’s end with the easiest one.
3. Invite others to the light source
Don’t just invite them to church, invite them to the light source. We don’t do this because we don’t know the answers to all the questions about God. We have our own questions. Jesus didn’t invite people by debating theology with them. He simply said, “come and see/follow me.”
It’s simply, “hey, come see what Jesus is about”. I know that sometimes, it is as simple as “What are you doing tonight? Come with me, Wednesdays is fun.” I think that for many of us, of our next step tonight is to simply invite a friend to church. That’s how so many of us ended up here, right? (If applicable, give a brief story of how you got to church) I got invited by a friend to come to youth group when I was 16 and after a few months of coming to see the girl I liked, I realized that the light source, Jesus, was reaching out to me.
Closing/”Show of Hands”
How many of you came for the first time at a Back to School Bash at 12Stone? (Pause to see hands raised) How many of you started following Jesus at a Back to School Bash? (Pause to see hands raised and react) How many of you are here because, at some point, some friend invited you to come? Keep your hands up. Look around the room. Imagine if all of the friends that invited us kept the light of Jesus to themselves…. This room would be empty…
The Back to School Bash is next week. We are going to have a ton of fun. The island theme is going to be a blast (share campus specific fun you’re excited for). We aren’t just throwing a party for the sake of fun. We’re throwing a party so your friends would want to come and we’re going to share the hope of Jesus and give everyone a chance to respond to the invitation of Jesus. Who is going to be here next week because you brought them? Who are you going out of your way to invite to the light source? Who is close to you but far from God and, although their world might be in spiritual darkness, you can reflect the light of Jesus into their life and invite them in.
Close in prayer for wisdom and courage in invites.