20-11-1, Missio Dei: The Son Embodies the Mission,
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 48 viewsNotes
Transcript
Review
Review
Presently, the preaching series is about missions. Missions, is the church’s part in the Mission of God, or the Missio Dei.
What is the Mission of God? This is God’s grand redemptive response to the fall of humanity and the corruption of creation. The phrase was coined by a missiologist named Karl Hartenstein in 1934 to emphasize that God’s redemptive action in the world precedes the church.
God was at work forming and unfolding the redemptive plan long before Pentecost or even the Great Commission. It originated long before Christ came in the flesh and died on the cross and was raised (events which give the gospel its crucial and specific parts). Rather, it has been in the heart of God from eternity past and was known even before creation. It is embedded in the revelation of Scripture from the start.
Really, the Bible is the grand story of the Missio Dei. It first appears in creation. It is manifest in Eden. It goes through God’s promises to the patriarchs. It unfolds through Israel from Egypt to Jerusalem after the exile.
The Mission of God shakes the world with the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, His death, resurrection, and ascension. It moves on through the age of the church and is manifest through through the judgments of the nations, the earthly kingdom of Christ, the Great white throne judgment, and then ultimately the unveiling of the New Creation (the New Heaven and New Earth and the New Jerusalem).
The New Creation serves as the the stage for the point of it all, which is that creation would be restored for the purpose of worshipping the glory of God.
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
The Missio Dei is seen in the perfect community of the Godhead. God is One (Deut. 6:4) and is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity upholds and fulfills the Mission of God in His specific way. God the Father is the source of the mission. God the Son is the embodiment of mission. God the Spirit is the empowerment of mission.
Last week we looked in depth as to how the Father is the source, initiator, sender, and goal of the Mission of God.
Today, we see that The Son is the Embodiment of the Missio Dei. To begin with, lets look at the passage of Scripture which is often called “the Gospel in a nutshell”:
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
For first responders, there are those who say what needs to be done and how. Then there are those who go and do what needs to be done, actual rescuers who go into the burning buildings to save lives. These are the ones people think of as their heroes. In our series, God the Father planned and designed the response, Jesus went and implemented it.
The redemption of humanity and creation all hinges upon Jesus Christ. He is the fulcrum of the Missio Dei. Jesus is the linchpin of the grand redemption plan. The mission was designed around Him. It is defined in Him, dependent on Him and is implemented through Him.
Jesus manifests the Mission through 1) His identity and 2) His work. In other words, the Mission of God works because of who Jesus is and what He has done (and does and will do). His identity and work are intimately united and dependent on one another.
First, Jesus is the Son of God and this makes the Mission of God effective. For the redemption of humanity and the creation, you have to have the Gospel. The gospel requires the Incarnation, the sinlessness of Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and His present ministry at the right hand of the father as our advocate.
Further, according to the plan, you have His coming work as the judge and king and finally His reception of worship in the New Creation with the Father. These things do not work unless Jesus is God.
Scripture tells us He is God’s Son...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This means He is divine, 100 %. We talked about last week that the Father eternally begets the Son. The Father and Son are of the same divine essence. They are co-eternal and co-equal, they, with the Holy Spirit are One in divine will and action.
30 I and the Father are one.”
Jesus preceded the Incarnation.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
And Jesus didn’t come to be when He came to earth in human form. He is no creation. He has always been the Son and a participant in the will of God. As mentioned in John 1:3, He’s always been the Word of God and He was the conduit of Creation.
Paul says Jesus...
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Equality with God, being God, has always been.
Because Jesus is divine, He never sinned.
In the Incarnation, Mary came to be with child through an overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, therefore, no sin nature or original sin was birthed into Jesus. Therefore...
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
This means that Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s law of righteousness. Never did He worship an idol, dishonor the Sabbath, disobey His parents, or steal, or lust, or covet. He only loved God and loved His neighbor as Himself (which are the fulfillment of the holy standard of God).
Further, Jesus perfectly obeyed the will of the Father regarding the Mission. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said,
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
and even in the greatest of temptations to go a different way...
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Jesus’ divinity and sinlessness permitted Him to be our wrath-bearing substitute (Romans 3:25). He was a Passover lamb without blemish, which made Him able to receive
Jesus’ divinity allowed Him to endure the wrath of God on the cross.
Jesus divinity allowed Him to impute His righteousness upon us and thereby by justified by the Father (Romans 3:24). In other words, there is no atonement without the divinity of Christ.
Therefore, it is only by Jesus’ divinity that God the Father could be delighted in Him,
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
And, and thereby raise Him from the dead.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
And then reward the Son by glorifying the Son...
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Unless Jesus were divine, He would be unable to sit at the right hand of the Father (Romans 8:34) in the presence of His glory, for the purpose of advocating for us in our present struggle in sin (1 John 2:1).
Unless He were divine, He could not be the perfect king, judge. Completely satisfy His constituents.
Unless He were divine, He would not be worthy to receive the worship of the congregation of heaven (Revelation 22:3).
So, the Missio Dei just doesn’t work without the divinity of Christ. However,...
Jesus Christ is the Son of Man and this makes the Mission of God effective.
The title “Son of Man” carries with it the reminder that Jesus is the culmination of promises God made to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him; and to David, that his throne would be established forever; and to others
It is very important that Jesus be absolutely 100% human, that he became one of us to impute righteousness to us.
For the Mission of God to work, He had to come to us in order to lead us out of sin and guilt in an opposite way by which we were led into these.
How did we become sinners in the first place? Remember, sin came into all the world through Adam. His sin was transferred to all of us. We inherit sin and death.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Some scholars call this federal headship- a single human being of great representative status who does an act which imputes a consequence upon everyone. This is part of us trying to understand original sin.
Jesus had to be human to do a reverse type of federal headship.
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
One caveat is that the righteousness and restoration which Christ imputes is not universal as Adam’s was. It only goes to those who receive Him (3:22, those who believe; 3:25- received by faith; 5:17- those who receive).
blaze the trail for us into the New Creation. Cut the path as no one had ever done before, the path back to God’s intended ideal for humanity. To be healed and eternal spiritual creatures.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
It was necessary that Jesus be a man so He could love us in a way we could understand.
Communication of the Missio Dei; Preaching the Kingdom of God. Prophets had come before, but in Jesus, God came and spoke for Himself in the way we could best understand. In our form and in our humanity and language.
Compassion and felt needs. We feel loved when people come to us. God Himself came hand touched us, healed us, fed us, loved us.
Love His fellow man. Peer to peer love
Show the holistic love of God.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
It is important that Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man so He could broker the reconciliation between the Father and humanity. He is the perfect moderator, able to sit on both sides of the negotiating table.
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Jesus Christ reconciles peace for those who approve Him as their representative. God the Father approves Jesus. Each person must approve of Jesus to be their representative to broker peace between God and man. To accept Him as such means embracing who He is and what He has done. Lord and Savior. The way it works...
Only through faith in the name of Jesus Christ are we saved.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
name includes consciously believing in person and work and embracing these personally through accepting Jesus as Lord and savior.
“It makes sense that the proclamation by which God takes a people for His name would be a message that hinges on the name of His Son Jesus (Piper 140)”
Some people thing that Jesus will save people who are sincere in their faith but who don’t know His name. “If one is saved by Jesus incognito, one does not speak of being saved by his name.” (Piper 141)
The church is the present embodiment of Jesus Christ on earth.
We bear His authority, prayer and works. This all come in His name
We carry His testimony, the gospel (the specific expression of the Missio Dei pertaining to redemption).
We receive inherit the mission for the nations.
Evangelism and Missions
“God has ordained that salvation come to the nations through sent messengers whose obedience preaching of the gospel brings salvation to the nations.” Piper 149
We manifest His love (compassion and relief of suffering); Not only do we preach what Jesus preached but we love as Jesus loved. It is time for us to reunite the Christ-centered gospel with meeting felt needs ministries. Jesus healed the sick and fed the poor. Give of ourselves by serving- Ministry Center
We demonstrate His righteousness (we can now not sin- Christlikeness),
“God’s will is to glorify His Son by making Him the conscious focus of all saving faith.” (Piper 111) We are do continue His mighty significance as the church. His hands and feet.
Shine your light