Context – This is our mission as well – to love people into the kingdom of God through what we say and do. We don’t need an Impossible Missions Force to do it. That’s what Jesus is saying to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. Let’s take a look at it.
Scripture Passage
Matthew 28:18-20 from The Message – Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
Our Mission is NOT Impossible
Jesus didn’t issue this command to a special tactical team of spiritual commandos. He didn’t issue it to the best and brightest religious people in the world. He didn’t command the greatest thinkers and doers of society. He commanded the ones who were committed to Him. They were probably the least qualified in all of Jewish society to start His church with. They were the least likely men in the world to begin transforming lives by the power of God, but they loved Jesus, they were committed to Him, they were willing to allow Him to transform their own lives, and they were willing to be used by Him for His glory.
Likewise, the only qualifications we need in order to be used by God to transform our world are that we have to love Jesus, be committed to Him, be willing to allow Him to transform our own lives, and be willing to be used by Him for His glory.
Translation – the only people in this room who cannot be used by God to fulfill His mission are those who either don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus or who aren’t walking in obedience to Him. If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, you can simply by confessing your sin, asking Him to forgive you for your sin, asking Him to take over your heart and life, and believing He will do it. If you aren’t walking in obedience, you can change that simply by confessing your sin, asking Jesus to forgive you for your sin, making the choice to follow Him instead of your own desires, and then doing it by the power of His Spirit working in your heart. You see, no one has any valid excuses for not fulfilling God’s mission for us here on earth.
Jesus is giving us some simple instructions. Notice I said simple instead of easy. He tells us that our mission is to go out and train everybody we meet everywhere in living as Jesus did, baptizing them as a sign of their faith in Him, and instructing them in how to practice what Jesus did. Simple, but not easy.
In a nutshell, He’s telling us to allow ourselves to be used by Him to help a spiritually dead person become alive in Jesus, to be instruments for transformation in their life, and to show them what being a Christian is all about. All this teaching centers on one thing: relationship with Jesus. Either we have it or we don’t. There’s no middle ground. We can say we’re a Christian all we want but if we don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus we’re only deceiving ourselves. That’s it, bottom line.
Illustration - Maxie Dunnam, in This Is Christianity (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, 60-61) writes this: The famous plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the best-selling book Psycho-Cybernetics, tells a story that gives us a shadowy glimpse of the mystery and meaning of the Cross for our salvation. One day, a woman came to see Dr. Maltz about her husband. She told the doctor that her husband had been injured while attempting to save his parents from a burning house. He couldn't get to them. They both were killed, and his face was burned and disfigured. He had given up on life and gone into hiding. He wouldn't let anyone see him - not even his wife. Dr. Maltz told the woman not to worry. "With the great advances we've made in plastic surgery in recent years," he said, "I can restore his face." She explained that he wouldn't let anyone help him because he believed God disfigured his face to punish him for not saving his parents. Then she made a shocking request: "I want you to disfigure my face so I can be like him! If I can share in his pain, then maybe he will let me back into his life. I love him so much; I want to be with him. And if that is what it takes; then that is what I want to do." Of course, Dr. Maltz would not agree, but he was moved deeply by that wife's determined and total love. He got her permission to try to talk to her husband. He went to the man's room and knocked, but there was no answer. He called loudly through the door, "I know you are in there, and I know you can hear me, so I've come to tell you that my name is Dr. Maxwell Maltz. I'm a plastic surgeon, and I want you to know that I can restore your face." There was no response. Again, he called loudly, "Please come out and let me help restore your face." But again, there was no answer. Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man what his wife was asking him to do. "She wants me to disfigure her face, to make her face like yours in the hope that you will let her back into your life. That's how much she loves you. That's how much she wants to help you!" There was a brief moment of silence, and then ever so slowly, the doorknob began to turn. The disfigured man came out to make a new beginning and to find a new life. He was set free, brought out of hiding, given a new start by his wife's love. It's a dramatic expression of human love that gives us a picture, however faint, of the saving love of Jesus Christ, what we call the Atonement. It’s all about the love of Jesus and how much He wants close, personal, intimate relationship with everyone. Are we going to accept His offer of relationship with Him? And then are we going to live out His love in our lives and fulfill His mission for us? It’s all about relationship with Jesus.
Mission Possible for Our Church
About a year ago, leaders in our church spent a lot of time condensing down what specifically Jesus’ teaching means for our church. God revealed to us what our part is, and it’s written down in our mission statement. Sodaville Evangelical Church exists to:
Love God
Share His love with you
Reach out with compassion
Apply the Bible and prayer to daily life
Notice something – these all deal with relationship.
Everything that is true to God and His Word deals with relationship. Relationship with God and relationship with others. Let me explain.
A very prevalent misunderstanding about the Bible is that it’s all about rules and regulations. So people extend that and say that since the Bible is all about rules and regulations, God must be all about rules and regulations too. WRONG!!! The rules and regulations in the Bible exist for one purpose – to help bring us into close, personal relationship with God. Jesus came for one purpose – to bring us into close, personal relationship with God. The mission God has given us He has given us for one purpose – to help bring people into close, personal relationship with God. This stuff isn’t rocket science. We don’t need to make it any more complicated than it is.
We exist to love God – to be in constant, close, personal, intimate relationship with God. Our relationship with God causes us to love the people around us and to want to share His love with them. We share His love by reaching out with God’s love to meet the needs of those around us. We maintain our close, intimate, personal relationship with God through praying and applying His Word to every facet of our lives. And that models for others what being a Christian is all about.
It’s that simple. Our mission is simple, but not easy.
It’s not easy for several reasons. First, we still fight with our own desires for self-preservation and for having things our own way, and that makes it difficult to be in close, intimate, personal relationship with God until we’re willing to set our own desires aside to follow Him. Second, people who don’t have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus are skeptical – they’ve seen firsthand our failures to live as Jesus did and to love as Jesus loves. Third, people who don’t have a close, intimate, personal relationship with Jesus often haven’t made that commitment because they don’t want to change. And fourth, they often don’t have that relationship with Jesus because no one has ever shared their faith with them. Simple, but not easy. But a lot easier if we are actually living out our mission because of our relationship with Jesus. Loving God, sharing His love with you, reaching out with compassion, and applying the Bible and prayer to our life every day. All out of love for Jesus. That’s what we’re called to do.
Illustration - Kathleen Norris, in Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998, 301-302) wrote, Once I could recognize evangelism not as a matter of talking about the faith, but of living it, I could happily connect it with Ezra Pound's great admonishment to poets: "Do not describe, present," which in writing workshops is often translated as "show, don't tell." In writing, it means allowing readers an experience of their own rather than attempting to control the response .... In evangelism, it means living in such a way that others may be attracted to you and your values, but not taking this as a license to preach to them about the strength and joy that you've found in knowing Jesus. You may be aching to tell all about that, but it may not be the right time for it, or the right terminology.
Living Jesus’ love allows us the freedom to share Jesus’ love and so fulfill His mission for us. The question is: will we do it? What will we choose?
Conclusion
What’s God been saying to your heart this morning? Have you been a Christian "faker," talking the good talk but not having the kind of relationship with Jesus He’s been calling you to? Have you been stopping Him from moving in your heart to live and share your faith? Have you been allowing any number of excuses keep you from living out God’s mission for us? Have you been allowing fear to keep you from reaching out to people around you for Jesus? What’s God been saying to your heart this morning about your relationship with Him and how you live that out every day?
If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, and you feel Him moving on your heart inviting you to enter into that relationship, come forward now and we’ll pray for you and with you. If you haven’t been living out the mission God has assigned to you in your daily life, and you want to commit to starting today, come forward now. If God’s been calling you, don’t delay. Come forward now.