All in on Mission

As Christians, you and I have one mission in life: to make disciples of Jesus, starting with ourselves. As we finish up today our annual sermon series called Crosstown Basics, we recall that the only way to make and to be made into a disciple of Jesus is by the gospel, in community, and on mission. This morning, we are thinking about the importance of mission for making disciples.

Now of course mission is important to make disciples! How else can one become a disciple other than by hearing about Jesus? But when we talk about mission, we aren’t simply talking about what we sometimes call evangelism, the act of telling and (hopefully) convincing non-Christians to become followers of Jesus.

We need to think of mission much more broadly than that. If the mission is “to make disciples,” then what we are talking about here is the role that engaging on mission plays in our own formation as disciples of Jesus.

The passage we are looking at this morning suggests to us that as we live our lives intentionally on Christ's mission, we grow more in love with and committed to Christ and his kingdom. Why is mission important for making disciples? Because mission brings depth to the community, brings maturity to the Christian, and visibility to the kingdom.

Mission Brings Depth to the Community

First, mission brings depth to the gospel community.

If indeed a credible gospel community is an essential component of making disciples, and being made into a disciple, then mission is essential because of the part it plays in developing the credible gospel community. Just as the gospel creates gospel community, so mission cultivates it. Without mission, gospel community withers and dies.

Deeply Thankful for the Community

But let's be more positive here. What we can sense, as much as we can see, in this first chapter is the joy waiting for us as we live intentionally on mission together. In verse 3, Paul expresses his genuine gratitude to God for the believers in Philippi: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.”

You can sense the positive tone here, can't you? Paul is deeply, deeply thankful for this particular Christian community. When he remembers them, he gives thanks for them, and it seems he remembers them often, every time he prays. And when he gives thanks for them, he isn't like some of us who feel obligated to write a thank you note to someone who has been a blessing to us. He feels joy as he gives thanks. It is his great joy to thank God for these believers.

Go down to verse 8 and you'll see this sense of joyful depth more. “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” This is a community of believers that Paul feels a deep attachment to.

And he tells us why he feels so deeply connected to them, starting in verse 5. It is “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” And then, in verse 7, he speaks of holding these believers in his heart because they are all partakers of grace with him, both in his imprisonment and in defending and conforming the gospel. What does he mean that these Christians are his partners in the gospel? What does he mean that they are partakers with him of grace?

Partnership Is Participation

The word partnership is the word sometimes translated fellowship. It can also be used to speak of a financial contribution (Rom 14:26), and we know that the Philippian believers were indeed material contributors to Paul's missionary efforts. He speaks of this at length in chapter 4, even saying that the Philippians were the first and only church, for a time at least, who “entered into partnership” with him (Phil 4:15). So, in one sense, to be a partner in the gospel means to be a financial supporter of a missionary. This is good and commendable. We partner with missionaries as a church in this way. Some of you may do the same individually as well. That’s good!

But it is easy to see that this is not the extent of the partnership that Paul has with this church, and certainly not the main point. Central to understanding the biblical word partnership is that its primary characteristic is not simply having something in common, a mutual interest. That is, of course, another aspect of it, but the primary aspect of fellowship is participation.[1] And by participation we can't simply have in mind spare change thrown into a collective pot—and we also don't mean bringing a bag of chips to the church fellowship potluck. Unless of course, that's all you have.

No, by participation, by partnership, we're talking about being all in, holding nothing back. This word is even used in classical Greek culture to refer to marriage because it implies the deepest and most intimate association between human beings.[2] It means being fully committed, with all that you have.

Paul says that he feels such joyful intimacy with these believers because they are partners with him in the gospel, they are all in on this shared mission. The gospel is their central concern, as it is with Paul. And that is why he feels so close to them. You want depth in Christian community? Then you need to be all in on gospel mission with your gospel community.

It has to be said over and over again: Christianity is not a spectator sport. It demands your all, or it is nothing to you, easy to dispense with once the weekly worship service is over. A disciple of Jesus—otherwise known as a Christian—is someone who is a partner in the gospel. And those who are partners in the gospel will find themselves drawn deeper into community with other gospel partners. This is why mission is essential to disciple-making.

Sharing in God’s Grace

This same emphasis on participation is also seen in the word partakers in verse 7, and it is another reason why mission leads to depth in the Christian community.

See the participation? These believers participate in the same grace as Paul, and they do so both in imprisonment—when the mission is rejected—and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel—when the truth of the gospel we preach has its “mic drop” kind of moments of validation. Amazing that Paul can call being imprisoned a grace, but that’s exactly what he says, and he says something quite similar in verse 29: “it has been granted to you” to “suffer for his sake.” While the mission of God is sure to succeed, it often succeeds straight through hostility rather than by avoiding it.

There really is a richness and depth to genuine, sincere, authentic Christian community. Some of you have tasted it here. Some of you are seeking for it, wondering if you might find it here. I can promise you this: wherever you find depth in Christian community, it won’t be because every relationship will be easy and natural; it will be because you will find yourself sharing with others in the same grace of God that is at work, in suffering and success, making us into disciples of Jesus.

Mission Brings Maturity to the Christian

And this leads us to a second reason why mission is essential for making disciples. If a disciple is someone who is maturing in their faith, then mission is indispensable for that maturity and for bearing the fruit of that maturity.

Mission Is How the Good Work Is Completed

Take a look at verse 6. After expressing his gratitude for these believers in Philippi for being active partners with him in gospel mission, he says this: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The verse seems a bit out of place; the passage would read smoothly without it since verse 7 relates quite nicely with verses 3-5. But what Paul seems to be saying here is that just as sure as he is in the validity of what he is doing, he is equally sure of the benefits that await his Christian partners because of their partnership with him in the gospel. They are going to profit from this mission; Paul is sure of it. The mission will not fail, and all who are partners in it will reap the benefits of its success.

The one “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” What is this good work to which he refers? Here is where we have to be sure we have our thinking and assumptions lined up with Paul's. He says that he is filled with joy at the partnership he has experienced from the Philippian believers. But now he says that just as he has benefited from the partnership, not just with material provisions, but with the regular experience of joy, so they, too, will benefit from the partnership. As they partner in the gospel they will have the good work started in them brought to completion. This good work is in them. It has to do with what God is doing in them even as God is also doing all kinds of things through them. As we engage in God's mission together, we become the kind of human beings we really want to be. Mission is how disciples of Jesus—genuine human beings—are made. As a pastor, this is one of my greatest joys, to see the maturing of believers—the kind of people they become—as they live all in on mission.

That this is what Paul has in mind comes out more in verses 9-10. Paul doesn't just give thanks for the believers in Phillipi. He also intercedes for them. It is his “prayer that your love may abound more and more.” He wants God to bring to completion the good work of love he started in them, so that the love of the believers—for God, for his mission, and for his people—will become even more abundant. A mature Christian is one who abounds in love.

Discerning What Is Good

The good work also includes “knowledge and all discernment.” While Paul wants nothing to hold back the love of the believers, this love he desires to abound is no sentimental love but a deep, discerning and wise love that brings the believers to “approve what is excellent.” He says something similar in Philippians 4:8, when he urges Christians to not be anti-world, despising the creation, and refusing culture. He wants them to be discerning, yes, but also to be the kind of people who are full of love and can see truth and goodness and beauty all around them.

Now how can we Christians in our day shed our reputation as people who are against the world, who are not known as wise lovers, and who see nothing good in the diverse cultures of the world? Answer: by participating in God's mission, which is doing all we can to spread to the entire world the good news that God has effected his salvation in the world through Jesus Christ.[3] To proclaim without any reservation that there is a new king in town, that what you are looking for is right here in front of your eyes, if you have eyes to see it.

Becoming Pure and Blameless

As we participate in this mission, we can be sure that God is at work in us as well as through us. He is changing everything, making everything new. And it starts with us. “If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). God is already remaking us into the citizens of heaven we already are. He is making us “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:10). He's getting us ready for the return of our king and the consummation of his eternal kingdom. How is he getting us ready? By sending us on his mission.

Nothing will make us more confident of the gospel than being all in on it as full participants. And nothing will make us more cross-shaped, more like Jesus, than living on this mission. And when the King comes, we who have been all in will be “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” We will be the human beings we were always meant to be.

You know, it's not so hard to get into this kingdom. God welcomes everyone: anyone who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. But to be saved is not to simply be allowed in to God's kingdom. It is also to become conformed to the realities and virtues of that kingdom. We are not seeking professions of faith alone. We are seeking transformation by that faith. And that is hard. The way is hard, Jesus says. And that's because the old self doesn't die easily.

Mission Brings Visibility to the Kingdom

This, then, leads us to the third reason why mission is necessary for disciple making. You see, the Christian mission is not simply about making the gospel known, it is also about making the kingdom visible. The gospel must be preached, but the kingdom needs to be seen. Mission brings visibility to the good news of the kingdom of God.

Completing Paul’s Joy

Once more consider the joy that Paul felt toward these believers for their partnership with him in the gospel (v. 5), a partnership which he was sure would lead to the completion of the gospel’s work in them (v. 6) even as he benefited from the gospel work he could do through them, through their financial and prayer support.

But as we keep reading in Philippians, it is clear that Paul’s primary focus is not on how the Philippians have partnered with him for gospel work in Rome, where he is; he is much more concerned with the gospel work being done in Philippi, where his readers lived. Gordon Fee points out that while verses 12-26 are the kind of thing we might find in a missionary prayer letter, as Paul rejoices over what has happened to him to further the gospel in Rome, he hastens to urge them to bring his joy “to completion by getting their act together in Philippi.[4]

See it there in verses 27-30? This is what being all in on mission looks like. It means doing what we can to help churches in other places, but whatever we hope will come about in the places where our church Goers and Partners are living, we must be just as concerned to see the same kinds of things happen right here where we are living.

United for Mission

So here in the last four verses of chapter one, and on to the emphasis Paul makes in chapter two, we see what this entails. If you and I are all in on mission, then we must stand “firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil 1:27). “Complete my joy,” he says in Philippians 2:2, “by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” If we’re going to execute the mission of God’s kingdom then we have to be united, we have to get our act together, we have to strive to be a credible gospel community. One more time: without a healthy church and without healthy Christian relationships, mission doesn’t have a chance to succeed. Gospel, community, mission—these three cannot be separated from each other.

Of course the church is a diverse people, called together from all of the nations and languages and peoples of the world. No surprise if we find in the church people with whom we have all sorts of ways of differing from each other.

But all of us need to humble ourselves before Paul’s inspired words calling for unity with one another for the sake of the gospel mission. If we believe the gospel of the kingdom, then how in the world could we ever allow our views and perspectives on any number of other things separate us from one another? Not if we are all in on mission. What else could be more important?

Embracing Kingdom Realities

But it sure seems as if too many Christians care more about the same kinds of things that our non-Christian friends and neighbors care about than we do about the kingdom of God and the gospel that announces it. The same things that frighten them frighten us, and so it doesn’t seem like we have any good news after all. In verses 27-28, Paul urges the believer to stand united for the faith of the gospel with what one Christian leader calls a non-anxious presence.[5]“This is a clear sign to [the world] of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God” (v. 28). Division among people needs no explanation, especially when they are a diverse group. What gets the world’s attention is a diverse community who are unified by something that has the power to transcend the fears of our news feeds, our politics, and even our sincere attempts to believe and to do what the Bible instructs.

This is the gospel claim, the Christian claim, that has that power: that Jesus is already the world’s true Lord, that his kingdom has been inaugurated on earth as in heaven, and that we who believe this are called to live like we mean it. As Paul says in verse 27, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

So what can we do? Where do we begin?

Like the Philippians, being all in on mission will undoubtedly require you to sacrifice your money and your possessions. No surprise there. But for us members of Crosstown Church, we are being given an incredible opportunity to be united together for the sake of the gospel right here in this part of our city, to keep the light of the gospel glowing to our neighbors.

Are you all in?

Brothers and sisters, this is what it is all about. The kingdom of God advances by God’s design through his redeemed people, working together, all for the “faith of the gospel.” And as we commit ourselves above all else to the mission of God, not only can we expect to see more disciples called to follow Jesus, but we can expect to see our own lives become conformed more and more to the life of the one who loves us so deeply that he would give us the right to be called the children of God.

What a privilege. What a responsibility. Let’s be all in on mission!

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[1] Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 82. [2] Walter Bauer et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG), 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 552. [3] Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 82. [4] Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 83–84. [5] Mark Sayers, A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders (Chicago: Moody Publisher, 2022).