Missional
Notes
Transcript
We are on Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost.
Intro
Intro
Kids: What is a mission?
It’s when you’re given a job to do. A special assignment, like being a secret agent who needs to break into the vault, or a soldier who needs to take out the enemy base, or an explorer who needs to find a new route over the mountains, or a doctor who needs to find a cure for a strange new disease.
When someone has a mission, they have a clear goal that they are aiming for and they need to bring their skills and strength and resources to pursue the end result.
Kids, did you know Jesus gave us a special assignment? He has given us a mission.
That means we should bring our skills and strength and resources to pursue the end result that Jesus gave us.
Now, If you asked someone on the street, “what is the mission of the church?” what would they say?
Make good people
serve the poor
Deceive people and take their money
It’s a good thing to help the poor, it’s a good thing to be a godly person and help others become godly, but neither of these, strictly speaking, is the mission of the church.
Thankfully, Jesus has been very clear about the mission that the church should be on. Throughout history there have been times where the mission has been temporarily sidelined or forgotten, yet if we come back to the Word of God, Jesus has told us what our job is. And we should stick with that job until it is finished.
Jesus has given us our mission, and what we call it, when someone gives someone else their mission, is we call it a “commission”. If you have been given a mission and sent off to do it, we say that person has been “commissioned”.
In the Bible there is a passage that we nicknamed “The Great Commission” because Jesus gave a mission to his disciples. But did you know there is more than one great commission? Each of the 4 Gospels (the stories about Jesus life) contain a great commission from Jesus. We’re going to look at these commissions this morning! But, we are going to focus on the Great Commission in Matthew and bring in the others along the way.
We’re making our way through our Church’s core Values. These are things that we hold as core to our identity as a church. These should probably be core to every church, but we’re specifically thinking about our church body here, in Flooding Creek Community Church, in this place, in the 20s, with these people. What should we hold dear and never give up?
Christ Focused
Word Based
Prayerful
Missional
So what does it mean to be Missional?
If we’re not just here to be good people and help the poor, what are we here for?
Well, we will look at what Jesus has commissioned us to do, but to prepare us, lets look at what Jesus came to do!
Jesus’ Mission
Jesus’ Mission
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Son of Man. He was the long promised messiah who was born in Israel in about the year 3 B.C. He Was fully God in human flesh. 100% God, 100% man.
He’s known around the world as being a religious figure in Christianity, but he’s also known as being a prophet and a teacher and healer. He lived a good life and he suffered an unjust trial and was executed by the civil & religious authorities of his time.
It’s not uncommon for us to wonder about our identity and purpose in the world: Who am I really? What am I here for? What’s my purpose? Not Jesus!
Jesus had a clear purpose and identity. He knew that he was on a divine mission. He knew what he had to do. And he stuck to that objective come hell or high water.
There’s a great story that give us a summary of what that mission was:
Jesus was passing through a town. Large crowd.
There was a bloke named Zacchaeus, he was a tax collector. He was an agent for the roman occupiers who collected tax, but also collected more than required - he was skimming off the top, taking more money than he should and keeping the excess from himself. A slimy, deceptive, thieving, greedy, rebellious man. And to top it off, he was short.
Climbed a tree to see Jesus over the crowd (rather undignified)
Jesus stopped to say: Come down, I having lunch at your place today.
Jesus came in, met with him and ate with this sinner.
Then Zach, having met the Son of Man, the Son of God, he repented of his sin. He repented of greed, repented of his frauds. His repentance would be actual, it would be demonstrated by giving half his belongings to the poor, and paying back his victims 4 times as much as he stole from them.
Zach was saved. Salvation came to that house because that man was freed from his sin. He was rescued from bondage to sin. He was figuratively lost in his sin, and that day he was saved.
Then this story is ended with Jesus proclamation:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
Lost sinners like Zach
But also lost sinners like you and I.
Even the best person you know is a sinner. All of us have made mistakes, all of us have done the wrong thing at times. None of us are perfect. Even if we’re technically upstanding citizens in the eyes of others, God can see our hearts, and the disgusting thoughts we have had. We’re all sinners.
We’re all lost.
Jesus came to eat with sinners like you and me.
Jesus comes to the weak and lost and rebellious, the greedy, the fraudsters, the cheaters, the thieves, the lairs, to those that cut-corners, to children who don’t obey their parents, to murderers, to adulterers, to abortionists, to coveters, to the porn-addicted, to drunks, to gossips, rapists, to defamers, to slavers, to the deceived, to people who don’t worship the LORD God. He comes to the likes of you and me.
We are lost under the weight of our sin, wandering away from God in the darkness, groping about for some answer, some cure to our terminal condition.
Jesus came to seek and save those people. Jesus came to seek and save us!
He did it because God the Father sent Him on that mission.
In pursuit of that mission he hit all his objectives:
Was perfectly obedient
Said only what the Father told him to say.
Never deviated from the plan
Proclaimed the Good News
He fulfilled all the prophecies about the messiah
He performed signs and miracles.
He submitted to an unfair trial,
Was crucified and buried,
Rose from the dead!
Made a sacrifice for sins, defeated death.
Sent the Holy Spirit.
He needed to die and rise again as part of seeking & saving the Lost - it was a critical objective.
Jesus was on Mission from the Father to seek and save the lost.
Jesus Commissions Us
Jesus Commissions Us
So what does Jesus’ mission have to do with our mission?
We’re not the Son of God in flesh. We’re not perfect like he was. We can’t perform miracles like he could.
But,
We are on the same mission that Jesus is on.
Although his critical mission objectives are complete, (life, death, resurrection), his mission is ongoing.
There are still lost people in the world. There are still people who need to be found and brought into slavation.
The seeking and Saving isn’t done yet, and so Jesus has given us the job of continuing that mission under his oversight:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Jesus sent his disciples, and by extension all the disciples that followed, he sent them out on the same mission that he had. As the father sent me, I send you.
This all falls under Jesus authority. He has taken over.
The first King Adam bowed the knee to Satan who usurped authority over the earth,
Jesus kicked Satan to the kerb, and has taken up his proper place as King over all the world. he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus with all authority, gives us our marching orders. Out of his place as our big boss he gets to direct us on His mission.
Kids, Dad & Mum are your boss, employees we have a boss over us, our country has a group of bosses in Canberra, but you know who is boss over all the other bosses? Jesus!
Jesus is the mighty mighty king! Jesus is the mighty mighty king! God made him the boss of everything!
So not only is Jesus the boss by virtue of his “rank”, i.e. God. He is also the boss from earning it, and he from his position of authority recruits us into his mission to seek and save the lost.
So how do we do it? What will it look like if we’re on mission?
We Make Disciples Everywhere
We Make Disciples Everywhere
In Matt 28 After noting that he has all authority, Jesus gives specific instuctions to his 12 disciples who represent God’s new people in the New Covanent:
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, ...
GO and make disciples (we’ll talk more about making disciples in a bit), of all nations.
every nation,
any nation,
each nation,
ALL NATIONS!
To put it another way, God’s people are to seek and save the lost everywhere. In every corner of the world!
This has been the plan all along!
We sinned and rebelled against God in Eden, God exiled us because of our sin and unholiness. But he started his mission to reunite us back to God. He started with 1 man - Abraham, then built him into a nation called Israel. GOd used this nation as his platform to re-unite the world back to God.
Isaiah prophesied back in the days before Jesus:
Isaiah 2:2–3 (ESV)
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
God is bringing all the exiled nations of the world back to Himself!
He has done it, and is doing it through Jesus!
All the nations, lost people from all over the world will come to the LORD and join him once more!
This is the prophecy of old before Jesus, but then if we look forward, there is another prophecy that paints the picture:
Revelation 7:9–10 (ESV)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
That is where we are heading. That’s the goal, that’s what will be the result of us being on mission under Jesus!
Salvation for the multitudes! Redemption for the nations!
We’re
Motley crew 12 blokes in Palestine. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Ends of the Earth!
From there this salvation has been spreading across the world!
Now geographically the Gospel has pretty much reached every region of the world, but it has not reached every heart. Even if there was a church on every street corner, the mission keep going until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!
In Sale, that means make disciples here! In order to reach the big picture of the multitudes streaming into Zion and amassed around the throne of God, you need to makes disciples in Sale Memorial Hall on 3rd March 2024.
We make disciples in our homes on 4th March 2024.
We make disciples in our communit of the 5th March.
We make the disciples by reading the Bible with Joel.
We make disciples by inviting Angus to church,
We make disciples by teaching Sophie about Jesus,
We make disciples by worshipping the Lord together on Sundays,and we make disciples by baptising...
We Baptise Disciples
We Baptise Disciples
Jesus tells us the key elements of how to make disciples, starting with baptism...
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
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,
Initiation ceremony, citizenship.
Great news for us at here!
Numbers themselves are unimportant, but I had to count it up other other day:
· 2021 – 1 (1 child church background)
· 2022 – 6 baptisms (1 adult church background, 4 teens church background, 1 Child church background)
· 2023 – 5 baptisms (1 adult covert, 1 adult church background, 3 teens church background)
· 2024 – 2 baptisms so far (1 grown up in church, 1 adult conversion)
Even though it may look very ordinary here, week to week, month to month. It doesn’t seem like big changes are underway, yet person by person, we are making disciples.
If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, come get baptised!
We Teach Disciples
We Teach Disciples
Next Jesus tells us another step of discipleship:
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Preach the Word
Teach the Word
We’re On Mission with Jesus
We’re On Mission with Jesus
Jesus didn’t just send us off on mission and go put his feet up!
He comes with us!
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We operate here in mission with Christ overseeing and directing us!
We’re Powered by the Spirit
We’re Powered by the Spirit
One of the ways Jesus does that is through the HS:
And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
We Proclaim Forgiveness of Sins
We Proclaim Forgiveness of Sins
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
In Summary
In Summary