Daringly Missional
Notes
Transcript
1 | How have I experienced the tension?
We are currently in the third week of our series entitled “One More Life.” This series captures the heartbeat of our church: it starts with who we are (followers of Jesus, Gospel-centered, united as one) and moves into how we live (extravagantly hospitable, fearlessly generous, daringly missional)
When we think of being hospitable or generous, hopefully you can already see yourself in those phrases.
Maybe over the last couple weeks, you’ve realized how you’ve received hospitality and generosity from Jesus—and now you’re learning how to extend it to the people around you.
But tonight we get to our final value, and to be honest I wouldn’t blame you one bit if this one either makes you squirm in your seat or feels like a value for someone else…
We are Daringly Missional.
2 | How have you experienced this tension?
If you grew up around the church, or have been a part of the church for any length of time perhaps you have heard phrases of going on short term mission trips or being a long term missionary to a specific area. Most often this is in reference to another part of the globe. Somewhere not like here.
Oftentimes it does mean exactly that.
But if you have been around Mosaic for very long you might have heard some strange variations of the word like missional (which autocorrect often doesn't agree with as a real word), and perhaps you have seen some type of connection but it hasn’t yet landed.
“Let’s be honest—‘missional’ can sound like it’s for spiritual super-agents. The professional Christians. The bold, the brave, the prayer warriors.
Telling others about Jesus? That sounds weird. Being daringly missional? Sounds like a stretch. So… let’s just go hospitable and generous… with 2 out of 3 and call it a day.
3 | What do the Scriptures say about this tension?
A couple weeks ago Renaut shared a passage from the ancient prophet Isaiah that really connected with me, so let’s revisit it for a moment…
Read Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Here is one of the elite prophets of the Bible, in God’s presence and he knows that he is unworthy… and yet his response to God saying “whom shall I send?” Is simply, “Here I am, send me!”
Like any of us would, Isaiah feels the weight of unworthiness in God’s presence.
The wonder of the moment was too much, and yet Isaiah’s response to the mission is “send me.”
Isaiah didn’t even know what the mission was. He just handed God a blank check and said, “I’m in.”
He would face grueling years of faithful mission, speaking truth to a hardened people.
Decades passed, and the picture only got worse. Babylon invades. Jerusalem is wrecked. The people are exiled. The remnant left behind is reeling. Wasn’t God supposed to reign from that city?
And it’s in this moment—when things seem darkest—that Isaiah receives a vision of good news…
Read Isaiah 52:7-9
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The watchmen on the wall see a messenger running over the mountains, shouting: Good news! Peace! Salvation! YOUR GOD REIGNS!
And this messenger’s feet are marked for their beauty. Not because his feet are clean, but because they carried the message of hope. “Yahweh will return to the city! He will comfort his people, he will redeem their world!”
This is the first time we’re introduced to a powerful biblical phrase: good news. In Greek, the word is euangelion, which means Gospel.
When Christians talk about “believing the Gospel,” this is what we mean putting our faith and hope in good news.
But in the Scriptures this phrase isn’t about just any type of good news, but a specific type… the announcement of the reign of a new King.
Which is what we see in this passage.
At this point if we are the ancient Jews reeling from the destruction of your land and people, you are wondering… who is this going to be?
But then Isaiah gives a twist no one could have seen coming.
Read Isaiah 52:13-15, 53:4-7
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
So here is Isaiah’s curveball…
The one bringing good news… is a servant. And not just any servant—he’s high and lifted up, exalted. That’s kingly language. But then… he’s beaten beyond recognition.
To Isaiah’s audience, this doesn’t add up. Kings aren’t supposed to bleed. Servants don’t save. But here is one who does both.
Then we hear, “He will sprinkle many nations.” That’s temple language—think priests sprinkling blood on the altar for purification. This servant King doesn’t just announce peace—he becomes the sacrifice that brings it.
It doesn’t make sense. It’s completely upside down.
How can a servant be a King? How can victory come through suffering? And yet, Isaiah makes it abundantly clear:
“He was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
This isn’t just good news. It’s the good news. A Servant King who suffers for us.
Humanity is like a flock of lost sheep—wandering, confused, unable to find home, going their own ways…
600 years later, a Jewish rabbi comes preaching a familiar phrase: good news of the Kingdom.
Read Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
To repent is like turning off a path that’s led you into a dead end, and walking back toward the light, where life actually is. Jesus is announcing Isaiah 52—good news from the mountains. The Kingdom is arriving.
But Jesus didn’t carry it alone. He trained apprentices to do the same.
Read Matthew 10:7-8
And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
Jesus was the original message carrier, but now his apprentices carry that same good news forward. The mission of the Kingdom is becoming the mission of his people.
They weren’t elite religious scholars. They were fishermen, tax collectors, zealots.
Jesus’ mission became their mission. His words became their words.
They weren’t called because they were special—they became special because they were called.
They were just like you and I, sheep prone to wandering away…
Each of us, like sheep, go our own way—justifying our choices, reshaping good and evil based on our desires: comfort, efficiency, ease.
But Jesus picks up Isaiah’s theme in a parable…
Read Matthew 18:12-13
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
If you have stared at our graphics throughout this series the lamb is fairly prominent in the images.
This lamb is not where he should be… he is looking at a war zone and he seems bent on going toward it. He has gone astray.
So what can be done? As Jesus tells it, the good shepherd goes into the midst of the warzone to rescue this little lamb.
He goes after the “one more.” In our economy, that’s an acceptable loss. In God’s Kingdom, it’s a rescue mission worth everything.
But how does the Shepherd rescue?
He becomes the Servant King. He’s lifted up—not to a throne—but to a Roman cross. A device not even invented when Isaiah wrote his prophecy.
Why? Why this way?
Read Isaiah 53:4-7
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news—made beautiful because they were pierced.
Jesus did all of this to go after the one.
When he rose from the grave, Jesus declared death had no claim on him—or on the one he came to rescue.
Can we pause there? For those who were lost and wandering—Jesus says, “You’re mine. I’ve got you.”
He gave that same mission to his apprentices—now filled with his Spirit.
Read Matthew 28:19-20
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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go. Carry the message. Make disciples. Teach them. You’re not doing it alone—I am with you.
That’s the story of the early church. Sometimes thousands responded. But other times… it was just one. And both were beautiful.
Read Acts 8:30-35
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
Philip isn’t a spiritual superhero—he’s just willing. He didn’t hold a special degree, He was just attentive to the nudge of the Spirit—‘Go stand over there.’ He didn’t have a sermon. He just had a name, a passage, and a ‘yes’.
And God uses him to explain Isaiah’s servant to a man hungry for truth.
And that man? He becomes the “one more.”
You might still be thinking: but I’m not Philip. I’m not trained.
Neither were most early believers.
Paul reminded the church in Rome:
Read Romans 10:14-17
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
This is not for the elite. It’s for everyone who carries the good news of the Servant King’s arrival.
4 | How can the Gospel bring resolution to this tension in your life?
If you know and follow Jesus, there was a time you didn’t. You were lost. Wandering.
I remember when that was me. My life wasn’t full—it was dark, anxious, addicted. I was trying to numb the ache inside me.
Then my shepherd found me.
And he didn’t just call me to be a pastor—he called me to be a messenger of the good news to those around me.
Even now, I hesitate. I fear rejection. I worry I’ll misrepresent it. I dread the awkwardness.
But the mission remains: go after one more. Not because I’m fearless. But because Jesus is faithful.
No matter the discomfort. No matter the awkwardness. No matter the cost. Because the “one more” always matters.
As a campus, we exist to go after one more Cast Member. We believe the good news of the Servant King can transform WDW. Over the years in our community, we have seen lives changed—and we’re trusting God for many more.
But this mission doesn’t come from the stage—it unfolds in ordinary moments inside break rooms, apartment complexes, in community groups, and discipleship relationships. It happens over cups of coffee and late night runs to Magic Kingdom with a friend.
This is what we mean when we say we are daringly missional: a community that goes after one more.
Not believing in one more as some sort of spiritual DIY project, but simply partnering with Jesus in demonstrating and proclaiming his love to those he has placed in your life. And as they experience that love through you and as they hear the good news from your lips, we get to see what the Spirit of God might do in their stories!
When I think of this, I think of John and Meredith. Help me welcome them to the stage.
(Hibbits Story)
One More Life is our invitation to join Jesus in his daring mission—to carry the good news you’ve received to those who haven’t yet heard.
So for those who call Mosaic home, we’re asking you to pray. Ask God: Who is my one more? And then commit to sharing the good news with them this year.
(Invite band up)
You’re not committing to save them. That’s not your job.
Read 2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
We are ambassadors. Carriers. Willing messengers. God does the saving—we just say yes.
So if it feels awkward… if it leads nowhere… if you feel discouraged—remember: your job is not results. Your job is faithfulness.
How beautiful are the feet of those who carry good news—because they go. They risk. They love.
Let’s pray.
