Sermon Tone Analysis

*#3 **Mission** of the Church*

Mission Impossible: How Can We?

*Introduction*:

            For the last two weeks, we *studied* and *learned* about the origin and the purpose of the Church and final *consummation* of the Church.

It began with God the Father and the Son will take His Church to hand it over to His Father.

This is the *identity* of the Church.

If this identity, as originally given by God, is *intact* in our lives, the Church could be the *most* *powerful* entity in the universe But, *realistically*, we know this is not the picture of the Church in church history.

*Many* *years* *ago* a survey was conducted in the one of the Universities in the

 

land of reformation, Germany:         *A Survey In Reformation Country*

 

      At the great *Erlangen* University in Germany a religious survey

      was conducted among the thousands of students.

Some very revealing

      facts came to light.

Among the questions asked were the following:

      1.

*Who is Christ?*

Only *16* percent could answer the question.

2.

How does one become a Christian?

*92* percent were ignorant.

In the land of Martin Luther only *8* percent knew the way.

      3.

Would you like to know more about how to be a Christian?

*70* percent

           revealed a hunger to know more about becoming Christians.

/                                                                                    /(Prairie Overcomer)

/ /

*What happened to the Reformation fire in the country where it began?*

We observe the same account with the *7 churches* in the book of *Revelation*: *thriving*, *zealous* churches in Asia Minor but losing their testimonies they vanished from where God placed them.

*What happened to them?*

There are so many different churches and each one has unique way of doing the Church such as: *Mainline* churches, *Fundamentalist* churches, *Evangelical* churches, *Holiness* churches, *Pentecostal* churches, *Baptist* churches, *Charismatic* churches, and *Roman* *Catholic* churches so on.

When we look at their philosophy of doing the church: there are: *soul*-*winning* churches, *social* *action* churches, *Lighthouse* churches, *classroom* churches, *special* *purpose* churches so on.

The globalization, especially in Canada, has brought the *multi-cultural ethnic* churches in our midst.

The most of these churches are striving to *please* the Father, utilizing their backgrounds and theological understandings of the Church for the growth.

Those are all good ways of doing the Church but if we *miss* the *ultimate* *purpose* and *mission* of the Church, it would be the most pitied endeavor in the world.

We must *define* then the *Mission of the Church* to fulfill the *purpose* of the Church.

That will lead us to a proper understanding of *doing the Church* within the context of its own theological, historical and philosophical framework.

We have learned that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to be the “*praise of the glory of His grace*.”

*/How then, should we fulfill this purpose so that our Lord Jesus will take up the Church of His glory, one day, to His Father to present us as God the Father has intended it to be before the beginning of the time/*.

From this perspective, an author *Darrell Guder* in his book “*Missional* *Church*” said: “We have come to see that mission is *not* merely on activity of the Church.

/Rather, mission is the result of *God’s initiative*, rooted in God’s purpose to restore and heal creation/ [to Him]” (Guder, /Missional Church/, p. 4, emphasis added).

I believe he is right.

*The Mission of the Church*, therefore, is not what we come up with as goals and objectives for the local church but it is to fulfill the purpose of the Church which God has planned before the foundation of the world.

“*/Mission/**/ is founded on the mission of God in the world, rather than the church’s effort to extend itself/*” (Guder, /Missional Church/, p. 82).

This aspect of Mission of the church gives us a *fresh* *outlook* toward our churches.

We go through the motion of setting the goals and objectives, even *mission* *statement* of the church.

All are commendable and good, nothing wrong in themselves, but if these are *not based* on the *theology* and the *purpose* of God, then we must ask a *serious* *question*.

So many cases, we set up our own mission statements (it became a trend among the Evangelical churches) and try to achieve its goal.

But just going through the motion of setting the mission statement does not mean we are fulfilling the ultimate Mission of the Church.

In order for us to find out the purpose of the Church, as we have done for the last two weeks, we must establish the *theology* of the Church, the *Ecclesiology*.

As we saw, the doctrine of the Church includes: the knowledge of *God* (Theology), the knowledge of *Christ* (Christology) and the knowledge of the *Holy* *Spirit* (Pneumatology).

*The* *Trinity*.

We established the theology of the Church by looking at the involvement of the Trinity for its *conceptualization* and *consummation*.

Now we can tackle the *Mission* of the Church.

It *lies* between the origin (*conceptualization*) and the end (*consummation*).

It’s the process we engage in between them.

*What would bring the praise and glory of His grace to God the Father?

* It is the work of grace to which we *participate* that no human being would take credit to but God alone.

This includes all areas of the Church in its scope and activities.

The Mission of the Church is *aligned* by the origin of the Church and its consummation of it.

What *we* *fill* between the two becomes very crucial for the Church, *either we become what God intended us to be in His grace or we become the product of mere human enterprise*.

Guder says,

            The church is *not* simply a gathering of well-meaning individuals

            who have entered into a social contract to meet their privately defined

            self-interests.

It is, instead, in intentional and disciplined community

            /witnessing to *the power* and the *presence* of *God’s reign*/.

“The church is the place in which the freedom and reconciliation opened in  principle by Christ must be lived in social concreteness”

                                                            (Guder, p. 159, emphasis added).

*The **Mission** of the Church is to exercise the reign of God in His power and presence that the Kingship of God becomes evident**.*

The Church is the entity that enjoys the *presence* of God and the *power* of God.

This is the most basic and important theological understanding on the Mission of the Church.

*It is the Community where God is the King* and He rules with His power through grace.

This understanding of the Mission of the Church surly affects the methodology of everything what the Church does.

There are *two sides* to the Mission of the Church as I see it.

One is that the Church *becomes* Community as the way God intended, that is the *internal authenticity*.

Then, the other side is that the Church *fulfills* what God */entrusted/* to the Church, this is *external authenticity.*

The Church that God intended can not and should not ignore either one of them.

The Church must have two wings to fly high above the earthly reign.

Paul asserts:

            but speaking the truth in love, /we are to grow up/ in all aspects

            into Him, who is the head, even Christ, /from whom the whole/

/            body, being fitted and held together/ by that which every joint

            supplies, according to the proper working of each individual

            part, /causes the growth of the body/ for the building of itself in love.

(Eph.

4:15,16, emphasis added)

 

This is *internal* *authenticity*, exhibiting the reign of Christ in *togetherness* for growth.

*Jesus is the King* and we follow His order with gladness.

Then, the *external* *authenticity*.

Paul again asserts:

            To me, the very least of all saints, this /grace was given/, /to preach/ to the

Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and */to bring to light/* what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God,

            who created all things; *in order that* the *manifold* *wisdom* of God might

now/ be *made* *known*/ /through church/ to the rulers and the authorities

            in the heavenly places          (Eph.

3:8-10, emphasis added).

What Paul is saying is very intriguing.

God gave him grace to preach the unmeasurable blessing of Christ for mankind, *in order that* man be saved?

I am sure that is a part f it *but* Paul did not say that.

What did he say.

“So that the manifold wisdom of God be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.”

Here “*manifold* *wisdom*” means “variety of colors; *many colored*.

In another word, church declares many colored (rainbow) wisdom of God which is *sufficient* for *any* human affairs.