The Church that Jesus is building is Mission Minded

Purpose: To persuade the listener to begin to be mission-minded.

Introduction:

it has been reported that a preacher, Jimmy Jones from Michigan, related the struggles of his Detroit-area church. Faced with tremendous unemployment, decreased contributions, and ever-increasing utility bills, the church voted to decrease its giving to missions. One week later the church reversed its decision.

Jones told the listening group, “We learned that you can be a church and not pay your gas bill, and not have a building; but you can’t be a church and not be missionary.”

Mission:

Central Idea: Mission-minded people promote the presence of the Lord Jesus in the world.

I. By taking the initiative in reconciliation (Gen 3:1-3)

A. Explanation: When Adam and Eve failed in Eden, God took the initiative to find them.

B. Illustration:

  In the book titled Can a Busy Christian Develop Her Spiritual Life? Jill Briscoe writes:

C. Application: We all miss the mark at this point more than we care to admit it because it takes Christ to make us the Bigger person in certain conditions.

II. By reflecting his light to all people groups,so that His salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).

A. Explanation: Isaiah writes about the suffering savior who will personally do what Israel failed to do; that is to represent the Light of the Lord to the nations. Upon His earthly sojourn he told his disciple that they were to be the light of the world after his departure. In other words they were to be reflections of the Him: The Light.

B. Illustration: The Great Commission is the Plan (No Plan B)

C. Becoming reflections of Him means becoming his disciples and having our lives transformed by him.

Dwight Moody’s Prayer

III. By persevering in the work until the End of the World (Matt. 28: 18-20).

A. Explanation: Old Testament Allusion, Here Jesus alludes to Daniel 7:13–141

1 Keener, Craig S. 1993. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

B. Illustration: A generation ago, Dr. F. B. Meyer said this about the local church: “It is urgently needful that the Christian people of our charge should come to understand that they are not a company of invalids, to be wheeled about, or fed by hand, cosseted, nursed, and comforted, the minister being the Head Physician and Nurse; but a garrison in an enemy’s country, every soldier of which should have some post or duty, at which he should be prepared to make any direct sacrifice rather than quitting.”

C. A Mission minded church is aware of the condition of the world and committed to their charge.

Conclusion:

Other churches may fail to be mission minded, but not the Church that Jesus is building.

The church’s mission can be summed up in five general tasks. The order in which they are listed is not intended to suggest priorities. Biblically speaking each is vitally important. By stressing one more than the others, different groups of Christians have tended to see them as alternatives. God, however, allows us no choice.

1. It is to be involved in stewarding the material resources of creation. This means encouraging a wise and harmonious use of the natural order created by God, by engaging in the numerous aspects of conservation and the elimination of pollution (see Nature, Theology of). The church will point to the creator’s gift of life for all which implies renouncing greed, and a restrained enjoyment of material goods by all in such a way that future generations will find life sustainable on earth.

2. It is to serve human beings without distinction and whatever their need. It has a compassionate task to aid refugees and the victims of drought and famine and to help set up development schemes, literacy campaigns, health education and housing programmes. It has a particular responsibility to minister to the needs of the handicapped, old people, the bereaved, children at risk and families in tension, and to rehabilitate offenders against the law, alcoholics, drug-addicts and chronic gamblers.

3. It must bear witness to ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’ (Eph. 4:21). This includes a number of tasks, sometimes separated into apologetics, pre-evangelism and evangelism. Bearing witness means both the verbal communication of the apostolic gospel and visual demonstration of its power to bring new life and hope to human relationships and communities.

4. It should be engaged in seeing that God’s justice is done in society (see Righteousness; Society, Theology of). In particular, the church will be active in promoting and defending the integrity of family life against easy divorce (see Sexuality), abortion, casual or abnormal sexual relationships, pornography, the exploitation of women and children, and experimentation on early human life (see Bioethics). it will also seek alternatives to policies which give rise to more homeless, badly educated, undernourished and unemployed people. It will fight for human rights and against human discrimination (especially racism; see Race). Finally it will challenge the inexorable build-up of weapons of mass destruction and the increasing arms trade between rich and poor nations (see War and Peace).

5. It has a responsibility to show what it means in practice to be a reconciled and liberated community in the midst of a corrupt, distressed and despairing world. It is sent to demonstrate the reality of God’s unmerited grace by practising forgiveness (see Guilt), the sharing of goods and resources, by eliminating prejudice and suspicion, and by exercising power as servanthood, not as domination and control. The church is to be both a sign and an agent of God’s purpose to create a new order where his peace and justice will reign.

Missiology engages in serious theological reflection on all these aspects of the church’s mission.

Charles Wesley wrote:

A charge to keep I have,

A God to glorify,

A never-dying soul to save,

And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,

My calling to fulfill:

Oh, may it all my pow’rs engage

To do my Master’s will!

Arm me with jealous care,

As in Thy sight to live;

And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare

A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,

And on Thyself rely,

Assured, if I my trust betray,

I shall forever die.