Sent || All For Jesus
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Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Act 1:6-8
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Pray with me pray and slide go ahead and have seat.
Sometimes we get stuck in rhythms and ruts. We play the same scenes in our families over and over - wishing we could escape, but it’s Christmas season, and Aunt Betty is coming over, so we are going to have the same awkward conversation, which ends in the same argument, again.
There’s like a gravitational pull that keeps us fixated and orbiting the same wrong ideas time and time again.
Did you know what a ship in orbit actually is scientifically speaking? When a rocket get’s into space it’s not instantly weightless - why, because there is still gravity - Weightlessness is like the feeling of falling - and that’s what orbit is.
Astronauts on the space station are constantly and perpetually falling - but their velocity forward means they keep missing the earth. So Orbit is them constantly falling around the planet! It takes quite a bit more energy to break that orbit - and launch into deeper space, they’d need an escape velocity.
Even though the astronauts were literally launched off the planet - they remain in this cycle around the world, constantly falling, stuck under the spell of gravity.
Humans have an incredible knack to keep orbiting the same mistakes. Which is exactly what makes the scene in Acts 1 so striking. Because if there's any group of people you'd expect to have finally escaped their old orbit, it would be these disciples.
In Acts 1, the scene we read is of the resurrected Christ, before his ascension - these are his last words! He was crucified, dead, buried, three days later he rose again - and Acts 1:3 says that he actually spent forty days teaching them about the kingdom of God!
These disciples - which Luke will record as the 11, and the women followers of Jesus, and his brothers - literally had a front row seat to Jesus life, all his teachings, and then witnessed the greatest miracle - the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus consistently talked about the kingdom of God - and how the good news was going to spread to the ends of the earth. This was his message! The yes and amen of the promises of God were being fulfilled in Christ and then in his followers.
And on the day of the ascension after weeks with the glorified Christ - what do the disciples ask christ again?
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
Y’all - this is old testament pre-resurrection thinking! They fall into the orbit of the past again. This is the same question the jews had been asking. Same small-kingdom, nationalistic assumption they'd been orbiting for years. Even after the resurrection, they were still stuck in the same gravitational pull. It would take the Holy Spirit — the escape velocity of the church — to break them out into what Jesus actually intended.
And what did Jesus intend? Well good news - he tells us. Look at verse 7 first -
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
This is a correction - a “hey - you need to look at the Father and trust him. Where he goes I go, and where I go, you need to go.” So many humans, so many believers, go around trying to suss out the signs and the times, where what Jesus is saying here is humble - and it’s what he lived:
Stop trying to figure out all this grand stuff! You are not God. Go and do wherever you see the Father Go and do what he did. This is what Christ’s ministry was:
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.
Notice that this is based in relationship rather than religious ordinances.
But Christ doesn’t stop there in his correction - he then gives the disciples what they need for their escape from orbit:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The disciples question reveals their orbit around the same small view of kingdom - but Jesus answer blows the lid off - all fueled by the power of Holy Spirit to go way beyond what they thought - the scope of what God is after - the entire world!
And it’s worth noting - he's not introducing a new mission. He's calling them back to the original mission. Back to what God told Abraham in Genesis 12: 'all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.' Israel was never the point. Israel was always the pipeline. And now the pipeline was about to burst: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth. The entire world, all peoples, all nations, was always the goal.
The Church — the peculiar people of God — is called to join Christ on his mission to the ends of the earth. To be a believer is to be sent. We were never meant to build our own small kingdoms and stay comfortable. We were made to work with Christ as he builds his.
It’s important to note, and I want to make sure we don’t miss this: When Christ commissions the Church to be witnesses to the ends of the earth, this wasn’t a new command! This is a callback to what God has been doing since the beginning.
And I mean very beginning - way back in Genesis 1. God makes mankind in his image, and he gives them a command - Look at Genesis 1:28
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
From page one, God's mission was global. Fill the whole earth with image-bearers who reflect me.
We see it again in Genesis 12, God chose Abraham, and made a covenant with him, not just for Abraham, but for the whole world. Look specifically at what God says, Genesis 12:2-3
I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The blessing was never meant to stop at Abraham. It was always meant to flow through him — to all peoples on earth.
In Exodus 19, After God rescues the Israelites out of Egypt, look what he tells them: Exodus 19:6a
and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’
Notice the word priest - that’s mediator language.Israel wasn't chosen because they were the point. They were chosen because they were meant to stand between God and the nations — representing him to the world. They were to be the pipeline, leading the nations to God!
We see this same thread throughout the Psalms and the Prophets. I mean - look at Psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon us so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for you judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth. Let the peoples praise you, God, let all the peoples praise you. The earth has produced its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.
That’s not a prayer for personal comfort and blessing. It’s a missional cry - the blessing is to pass from us unto the nations!
And the prophets - Look at this from Isaiah 49:6
he says, “It is not enough for you to be my servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
It’s not enough for just the tribes of Israel! God has always thought bigger than his people did.
We see that in the New Testament - particularly in Acts, which we read - God expanding the Church’s vision, and giving them the escape velocity to accomplish the mission. Believers are sent people.
And in Revelation - we see John talking about the finished project. Revelation 7:9
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
So when Jesus tells the disciples 'to the ends of the earth' he's not launching Plan B. He's finally telling them what Plan A has always been. God has been on mission from the first page of the Bible to the last. And now, through the Spirit and through his Church, that mission goes public.
Two things we need to note here though before we move on.
First: God is the missionary. We are joining him.
The mission is not something we came up with, and the mission is not something we take to God. The mission is God's. He was on it long before we showed up. He'll be on it long after we're gone. Every faithful missionary in every generation is doing one thing joining what God has been doing since Genesis 1. And if you are a believer - you are called to be sent too.
Second: Heed the warning of Israel’s failure.
here's the sobering thing. Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests — mediators for the nations. But over and over, they forgot. They turned inward. They treated the blessing as something to hoard rather than something to share. They confused being chosen with being the point. And I don't say this to bash Israel. I say it because the Church is capable and has succumbed many times to the same failure. Where we fail to be on mission and become nothing more than peculiar clubs full of grumpy, judgy people. Where Jesus, as he warned the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, removes their lampstand — takes away their status as a witness — because a church that has stopped shining is no longer really a church.
Friend - we are called to be sent to the nations to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are perishing!
This is the call - the great commission:
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
That’s about as clear as it gets, but I want to highlight something i think get’s missed. “I am with you always to the end of the age.”
I am with you always, to the end of the age.' Which means what? It means wherever you go, he's already there. He's not waiting for you to bring him. He's not somewhere else. He's with you always — which means he's with you at the destination before you ever arrive. He's already at work in that coworker's life. He's already at work in that neighbor's story. He's already at work in that unreached tribe. Your job isn't to bring him. It's to join him. Theologians call this Missio Dei
Listen to how Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary and church planter in the new testament talks about it.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Notice what Paul says he did. He planted. That's it. Apollos watered. God gave the growth. Paul understood something that we forget all the time: God is the one on mission. Missionaries don't bring God to a place. They plant seeds where God has already been at work in the soil. And God, in his time, gives the growth.
Your job, my job, the missionaries our church supports around the world, none of us bring God anywhere. He was already there. We plant. We water. He grows. He’s the one on mission - we step out to join him.
And we see the supernatural evidence of his working all the time. A Great example is Christ’s work amongst muslims!
Tom Doyle was a missionary for eleven years in the Middle East and Central Asia working amongst majority muslim populations. In his book, “Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?” Doyle records a story of a Saudi Arabian woman named Kamila. Kamila had a dream of a man wearing white robes commanding her to go to a certain address in a different city. Specific like Supernatural GPS coordinates. She went, and knocked on the door, and an Egyptian Christian answered the door. And That believer had a dream the night before that a stranger was coming, and he was to tell her the good news.
Missiologists cited in Doyle's work estimate that between 1 in 3 and 1 in 2 Muslim-background believers today report first encountering Jesus through a dream or vision — often being told to seek out a specific person or place where they would hear more. Some are told specific streets, specific names, specific houses. When they go, they find a Christian waiting. Missionaries in the 10/40 window increasingly report meeting seekers who found them, because Jesus had already appeared to the person in a dream and told them to look for a specific Christian.
How great is our God?
Now here’s the rub - some of us love hearing the those stories about those people doing that worker over there, but we fail to realize that it’s the same God who’s working here in our nation too.
The same God who prompted Kamila in Saudi Arabia is prompting your coworker. The same God who sent that Egyptian believer to open the door is sending you to answer when someone asks. The same God who's been at work in unreached tribes for centuries is at work in the person who lives across the street from you.
This is not somebody else's job! If God is the missionary, and God is at work in your neighborhood too, then he has placed you within arm's reach of people he has been drawing for years. And your job is to notice. Your job is to plant. Your job is to water. Our job is to be fully engaged with Christ on mission - and friend’s he’s on mission indeed. Are you engaged, or are you resistant?
Why is it that we resist being engaged with Christ on mission? If God has been on this mission since Genesis 1, and if Jesus made it his last command before ascending, and if the Holy Spirit was poured out for exactly this — why do so many of us live like it's not our job?
Well for some of us, it’s because we like to control our small kingdoms rather than surrender. Mission requires surrender.
Some of would rather accumulate rather than invest. Mission requires generosity — with our time, our money, our comfort.
Perhaps because we like predictable. Mission requires being led into conversations we didn't plan and places we didn't choose, and will definitely inconvenience our sense comfort.
Some of us resist because we feel like we need to be an expert in apologetics before we start. That we need to be prepared to win arguments in order to win people - friend put that to rest.
For years, growing up in church, I felt like evangelism was a dirty word, because I felt so incapable at it. I decided it must not be my gift - so I just turned to “my stuff” you know preaching and things. And In doing so I largely stopped being in proximity to unbelievers - which is a dangerous state - why? Because Jesus hangs out with the lost - therefore so should I.
Well, God used my interests to get me into community with the lost - for me, it was competitive lightsaber fighting and the alternative scene in the Twin Cities. It was a huge community - and they were lost, and proud in their sin. When they found out I was a pastor, again I was met with such skeptism and even resentment. But I fell in love with those people. They became dear friends. And we had conversations about life, and faith, and sin, and all of the above. and I prayed and prayed for them - and was active in the group for years. They even started calling my their pastor - which was only slightly mocking.
When I was active, despite many conversations, I didn’t see any of them turn to Christ - despite prayer and conversations. And I confess - it was discouraging. However, over the last three years, I have had three of my friends in that group reach out to me that they are now followers of Jesus. They were so excited to share with me and thanked me for being a believer in their midst.
Friends - it was that community of lost people that catapulted our family into Church planting - we must reach the lost, even if it’s uncomfortable and inconvient, and you don’t know what to say - if the Spirit of God is working there - and He is, then when we show up there, we just have to join with him in love and trust him to guide us.
It will require each of us to think bigger than our small circles and kingdoms. I wonder if the reason so many Christian lives feel spiritually stuck is exactly what we saw in Acts 1: we're still in orbit around our own small kingdom, when Christ has been offering us escape velocity into his.
Church, here's what I've been sitting with all week. What if the Spirit of God isn't waiting on us to work up the courage to be sent? What if he's already sending — already pushing, already trying to catapult us outward — and we've been stifling him?
Paul warned the Thessalonians: 'do not quench the Spirit.' The Greek word means to smother a fire. To extinguish a flame. The Spirit is a rocket engine God ignited in every believer at conversion — and the whole point of the engine is to launch us out of orbit, out of our small kingdoms, into the mission of Christ. But we can smother the fire. Paul told the Ephesians we can grieve the Spirit. He told the Galatians we can fail to keep in step with him.
Every time you sensed a nudge to say something to a coworker and talked yourself out of it — that was the Spirit sending, and you stifled him. Every time you felt the whisper to invite that neighbor over and made yourself too busy — that was the Spirit sending, and you stifled him. Every time you sensed you were supposed to give more than felt comfortable, or speak up when it was easier to stay quiet, or reach out to that person on your heart — that was the Holy Spirit doing what he was poured out to do. And we can either keep in step with him, or we can quench the flame.
Here's the good news, friends. If we stop stifling him — if we start keeping in step — the Spirit himself will do what we've been trying and failing to do in our own strength. He will launch us. He will send us. He will catapult us. Because he was poured out on the Church for exactly this. He IS the escape velocity. He's already working. Stop resisting. Let him send you.
To be a believer is to be sent. And to be a believer is to be filled with the very Spirit who does the sending.
in jerusalem, judea, samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
So What?
As an Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, we say that missions is our middle name - but I pray that it wouldn’t be in name only.
And I pray that it wont be in support only.
One of the reasons I love the Alliance is our emphasis on world missions in the hardest to reach places, and we support our workers through the Great Commission Fund. Workers in the alliance working overseas are compensated through this fund - so when we give to the GCF, we are funding all the workers around the world - it’s a mighty investment. Our church gives 10% of everything received to the GCF, and I would encourage you, friend - you can give directly to it above and beyond!
But I want to push us, that we don’t get to outsource our calling through giving to the GCF. Not everyone is called to reach Muslims in Jordan - but to be a believer is to be sent, some get sent around the world, and some across the street.
So what? Stop stifling the Spirit. Keep in step with him. Say yes to the nudge. Answer the whisper. Show up in the places he's already prompting you to go. Because he was poured out on you for exactly this — and he's ready to catapult you when you stop resisting.
Evangelism isn’t reserved for missionaries and pastors - it’s to be the everyday experience of the believer. It starts with the heart of Christ and believing that God is still on the move.
So here is my challenge for you: who are 2-3 people that don’t know Christ you see often (maybe a coworker, a good friend, a relative etc). Write down their names and commit to praying for them daily. Pray that God saves them, pray that he blesses them AND Pray that you would be obedient and open to speaking the truth to them.
Then, when you interact with them, and you feel the nudge, act. Maybe your coworker starts sharing about a difficulty in their life - and you feel the nudge to offer to pray - say that! “Hey, I hear you, could I pray for you? God always helps me in my life, and I’d like to ask him to help you.” Then pray for them.
2-3 names, pray, and act.
And yes - we should continue to give and support work around the world - but we cant forget, the Church is the sent people of God.
I’d love to end with a commission for you all. Friends - we come together to focus on God and his word - but we need to recaputre that when we leave here we are missionaries on the field. You are sent. So, Would you stand? I am going to read the great commission, Acts 1:8, and pray a commissioning prayer over us all.
invite worship team up, and pray
