On Mission Week 3 - Missio Mathétés

 Last week I told you about my hopes for my high school baseball team that were quickly dashed by reality. Well when I went to college, those hopes didn’t get any better. In the spring of my high school year, I had already decided to go to Simpson College because I wanted a place where I could grow in my walk with God. I picked Simpson because it had everything I was looking for in a Christian college. That choice was solidified when I met the coach for the baseball team. He seemed to know what he was doing, the practice I attended was well organized, and the team seemed to be focused on becoming better. A far cry from my high school team. 

So it was decided, I started in the fall, and the first day on the field, I learned that the two coaches had quit at the end of the last season. Not only them, but several of the players were not returning for various reasons. On that first day, there was only eight of us and I learned quickly that baseball wasn’t a priority of the school. Simpson’s team at the time was little more than a club team. We were intercollegiate only as far as we put the effort into it. We had to pay for almost everything, from uniforms to trips. 

In the years I played for Simpson, only one of those years did we have more than twelve players consistently. One year we went on a week road trip with only eleven players; playing much bigger schools like Vanguard, Occidental, and Master’s College. That last one had two teams, of which we played the “B” squad. But because of our situation, I had to learn to play more than one position. I had to become a utility player. Now when I was younger I played other positions, and from time to time on my high school team I had to fill in other places. But I never knew those positions. In college I had to know every position inside and out. Which, I found enjoyable. Looking back over my entire time playing baseball, I realize that my favorite position to play was first base, a position I only played my final spring season. During my college career, I realized that as a player, your job is to develop with the needs of the team in mind, just has much as for your own purposes. I had more fun on that team than any other, because I learned to be everything the team needed. 

And it’s this idea of developing as an individual that brings us back to our sermon series, where we’re talking about being on mission with God. The reason we’re walking about mission, is because, we have a tendency as people in general to either not understand what the Mission of God is and our part in it, or we get so caught up in life that we neglect God’s mission. 

So, in our first week, we looked at God’s overarching mission. In that, we talked about how God’s mission is to restore his creation’s access to his presence, which is the place we find fulfillment. God’s mission has three milestones: First, it’s his perfect good creation, humanity’s rebellion in sin, and their entering into eternal death, which is eternal separation from him. From there, God’ work is to bring about Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, which results in the forgiveness of sin, and opens our relationship with him that is to be experienced now and lasts into eternity. The final milestone is the culmination of all God’s work in Jesus’ return, which brings a new creation and an eternity to experience God’s goodness. This has been and is God’s mission in our fallen world.

In our second week, we talked about the Mission of the Church. As a body of beliers we are to bear witness to what Jesus has done. This witness includes both the proclamation of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and is shown through Christian unity, where grace and love are given out. Now we talked about how there are things we have to divide on based on what the core of the Gospel is. Since Jesus states that he is the only way, that separates Jesus from other belief systems. However, we tend to divide more on secondary and third tier issues that are not at the core of the Gospel, and it’s at the core where we need to unite, and give grace to those areas that are disagreements. Finally, we are to also make disciples. That means every believer is a part of every other believer’s growth. We are to be encouragers, mentors, brothers, and sisters to each other as we each walk Jesus’ path.

With God’s mission and his mission for the Church clear in our minds, we turn to the final mission, which is the mission of the Mathétés (ma-thay-TAYS), the mission of the disciple. Like we said last week, there is a lot of overlap between the Church’s mission and the disciples’ mission, because the Church is made up of disciples. However, there are a few things that we must be doing as disciples on an individual level, which then strengthens the greater Church

To be consistent in our series, we’re only going to look at three facets of God’s mission for his disciple.

To start off with, in the first eleven verses of the opening of John’s Gospel, John gives us an introduction to Jesus and his mission. John writes, “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. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

“6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

These verses tell us that the Word of God is an eternal person who is both unique in relation to God, and God himself. This Word brought all things into existence, and in verse 14 we learn that this Word takes on human flesh and becomes known to us as Jesus. In the Word taking on human flesh, John the Baptist, a different John from the writer, bears witness to Jesus’ work. The writer tells us that the Word brings true light, true illumination to what God has been doing. And this Word bringing light first comes to the Jewish people. The people that God had worked with for thousands of years as he brought his mission to fruition. But Jewish people rejected Jesus, they rejected their God. This is reality of the mission of God. And it’s here that we get verses, 12 and 13, “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The writer states that if you receive Jesus then you become a child of God. It’s not because you’re good enough, or that you willed it to happen, but because you responded to God and then God brought you into his family. This is the end goal of God’s mission. That he would have a people, children, who willingly embrace him, and in turn, he willingly embraces. 

This is the first aspect of our mission, to be children of God. It’s really easy to think that God’s mission for me is to do something. To evangelize people. To build ministries. To do something with my life that leaves a mark for the kingdom. But in reality, our primary mission is to be his children. It is why Jesus uses the terms Father and Son. God’s intention was to build a family. We are to be more than servants, more than workers, we are to be children of the Father. Princes and Princess of the King.

This is why Paul writes Romans 8:14-17, “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” If we don’t have this realization, then everything becomes work for a master, rather than bringing joy to a parent. God is our Abba, our Papa, our Father, and we are his children, if we receive Jesus’ life, death and resurrection on our behalf. This is what it means to receive Jesus’ as Savior. It is to be received as a child of God.

The next aspect follows the first, and comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14-16, “14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

When we receive Jesus as Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ light is placed in us. When Jesus’ light is placed in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are to shine the light to people around us. We are to not hold back the light, nor be ashamed of it. Light is meant to brighten darkness and bring attention to perils. Street lights are there to help us see our way down the sidewalk and roads. Lighthouses are there to warn ships of treacherous waters. Jesus’ light shinning out from us is to illuminate this dark world and to point back to God. 

Paul would writer this in Colossians 1:27, “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The hope of God through Jesus, which now indwells his children, is the hope of the world. God chose to use individuals to be lights who gather together as the Church to light dark places and reveal destructive paths, so that people may turn from sin and receive Jesus as Savior. This then fulfills God’s mission of bringing people back into his presence, that they may be children of God.

And how do we shine this light? We might think that it’s evangelism or sharing the Gospel with someone. In reality it’s seeking to live out God’s holy life, relying on the Holy Spirit to do so. It’s living Jesus’ command of loving God with with all heart, mind, soul, strength. It’s asking for greater transformative work in ourselves. It’s learning to trust ourselves fully to God, laying our will down before his own. It’s seeking the greater and sweeter things that God has for us. It’s living the abundant life of Jesus, by abiding in him for all our sustenance. It’s failing and turning back to God to be lifted up. Like a kid who fell of their bike and scraped out knee, we call out for our parent to come and fix our hurt. 

In other words, to be light, its to be in relationship with God and not hiding it. That relationship is to overflow to others, thus fulfilling the second great commandment of loving people as ourselves. By doing this, we are fulfilling the mission God has for us.

The final facet is the speaking aspect. We must never have it in our mind that we are to never speak of what God has done. But too often we think it has to be done as if we are an evangelist. We think, in order to fulfill God’s mission, we must be a street preacher like Ray Comfort, or lead huge rallies like Billy Graham. In reality, we are to fulfill Peter’s word in 1st Peter 3:15, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect …” We are to honor Jesus as holy, the way we do this is to be prepared to make a defense, or to give an answer to why we live in the hope of Jesus. Why do we live as a child of God? Why do we live shining Jesus’ light? We’re to be able to give an answer to someone who questions that. It’s why we provide the apologetics class on Wednesdays. It’s why we do apologetics series throughout the year. 

As a pastor, one of my jobs is to equip you to give answers. And as you grow, your understanding of what Jesus has done grows, and your answer to questions deepens. But at the core, our answer is a sharing of what God has done for us. It’s our witness to his greatness in our lives. It’s the reason why we personally have hope. There is an answer to every question that people propose. Some answers take more study to share, but our primary witness is to the transformative work that God has done in us as we put his words into practice and we rely on the Holy Spirit to strength and guide us. 

Knowledge is a good thing, but only when it’s put into action, which is wisdom. Knowledge by itself, divorced from action, simply puffs us up. Which ends with us thinking of ourselves greater, and in turn leads to a diminished witness to the Gospel. I would take a hundred believers that seek and struggle to live holy lives and do not know more than their own hope in Christ, than a thousand apologists who know a lot but do not live it. 

God’s primary mission for us as individuals is to live out the life he has saved us to live. We do that by putting into action his words. It’s loving the unlovable. Praying for those that hate us. It’s serving those who cannot repay. It’s standing firm on Jesus’ words that he is the only way. And it’s laying down our will, for that of our loving Father. It’s also sharing our hope with others. It’s being able to articulate why we trust in Jesus. When we do these things, we are fulfilling God’s mission for us as individuals. We are living out being his disciples. If every individual disciple took a greater concern for their own spiritual health, the mission of the Church would be fulfilled, and we would see the greater work of God happen all around us.

My challenge for you this week is to take an inventory of your walk with Jesus, preparing your hearts for the coming weeks when we talk about discipleship. Are you living as a child of the King? That means you are cultivating a relationship with God as Father, in a loving relationship of parent and child. Are you living that out among people, letting God’s work in you effect others? Until that relationship is cultivated, you will always be frustrated with not being able to share your faith. But when we hone in on our relationship with God, God will bring us into situations where we will be asked to give a reason for our hope. And because of our deeper life with our Father, we will be able to speak of the great things he has done. Take this week to bask in the love of God, for if you received him as Savior, he desires to dote upon you with all his love, mercy and grace. 

Let us be firm in our relationship with our heavenly Father, and through that, shine before others, that we may share the great hope that Christ has accomplished in us. Amen.

On Mission Week 2 - Missio Ekklésia

 As most of you know, I played a lot of baseball growing up. In my sophomore year, though I practiced, I never played on a team. The main reason is because the school I attended for that year, didn’t have any formal sports. In my junior year, I changed schools, and one of the reasons I chose to go to the school I did, was because not only did they have a team, but they had won their league the previous year. To top it off, they were only losing one player to graduation, and only one player was a entering his senior year. That meant that the core of the team was my age, and we would have two more years to win. I was excited to play at that school.

However, I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. See, the year the school won, there were a lot of factors that I didn’t know about. First, the league was trash. Some schools were in a building phase, others were too small to really field a good team. Those issues had been worked through, and in my junior year, the other teams had grown. Secondly, our coach wasn’t a baseball coach, he was a guy who liked baseball. Liking a sport and being able to coach a sport are two different things. There are a lot of Monday quarterbacks, but only a few who are out on the field. The talent on the team was never coach to development, they won their league on their own raw talent and drive to win. But as other teams grew, they were outpaced. Without a coach who could cultivate their talents, the team just floundered. It’s one of the reasons that when I went to college I was so poor at batting. In the two years I was with that team, I had batting practice maybe three times. The coach’s philosophy was that those at the top of the batting lineup should get the most practice. Being a pitcher, I was always put ninth, and so rarely got to practice my hitting. 

Thirdly, most of the guys on the team thought they were good enough. They believed they didn’t need to get better because they had won in the past. So when I got there, they didn’t feel like they needed to put the effort into the game to improve themselves.

Due to these three factors, our team took third both years I was there. The team wasn’t willing or able to prepare for the task they took the field to accomplish. Therefore we lost to those schools that took their playing seriously.

This idea of taking our task seriously is what leads us back into our sermon series, where we’re talking about the three missions every Christian should be engaging in. In our first week we looked at the foundation for these three missions, the Missio Dei, or God’s mission. In that we saw how God’s mission contains three milestones: His creation and the fall of humanity into sin, his work in bringing about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and then his bringing all those who trust in him as Savior into his presence, which starts now and goes into the new creation. And we saw how God’s mission is to restore his creation’s access to his presence, where we find fulfillment.

  From God’s mission, we get a little more narrow, as we talk about Jesus’ mission for his Church. This is the Missio Ekklésia, or the mission of Christ’s gathered people. Now, in the mission of the Church, and the mission of the individual disciple there’s overlap, because the disciple is a piece of the gathered Church. But there are three aspects that the Church in general has as it’s mission that is supposed to be done in the midst of the gathering. So let’s take a look at the three aspects of the Church’s mission.

The first aspect is that the Church is a testimony to the work of God in front of the world. Jesus’ final words in the book of Acts chapters 1, verses 7-8, are a response to his disciples’ question about the restoration of the kingdom. Jesus says this to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In Jesus’ words, we learn that, as a Church, our job is not to concern ourselves with the time of Jesus’ return, instead we are to be witnesses to the work of Christ throughout the whole of the world. Too often we get bogged down in future predictions or signs of the return of Christ, and in doing so miss the need to be witnesses. Should we desire Christ’s return? Yes! Should we be prepared and know the signs of the return? Yes! But not at the expense of being his witnesses. Because, as a Church, we are to bare witness to our great and glorious God, who will return in his timing.

By conducting ourselves as witnesses, we are actually participating in the return of our King. In Jesus’ final sermon in the Gospel of Matthew, we get this statement by Jesus in chapter 24, verse 14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The testimony that is proclaimed about the Gospel to the ends of the earth is the catalyst to the return of Jesus. The Church’s witness is vital to this. No individual believer can accomplish the work of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the world. Many of our brothers and sisters have lived and died in the steady march of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. As we walk as the Church today, we are to make sure that we are doing our part in moving the Gospel to places that have not yet heard it. We must be joining together with whatever arm of the Church God has connected us with to bring about the testimony to all peoples. That’s why I don’t care if you’re Alliance, Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Anglican, Reformed, Calvinist, Armenian, Free will. I care that those who hold to the core of the Gospel bear witness as a gathered people of God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus. The Church’s focus should be holding to the core teachings of Scripture, being a witness to the work of the Lord, until the day he returns.

This witness leads us into the second aspect of the Church’s mission which is that the Church has to be unified. In Jesus’ final public prayer before the cruxifixction, he stated this in John 17:20-23, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Too often we get hung up on doctrines that have no bearing on salvation. Is Christ, the only way of salvation? Yes! Is he coming pre, mid, or post tribulation? Who knows! What we do know is he’s coming back. So why do we divide on things where grace should abound? I do not have to like certain musical style, certain worship service formats called liturgies, nor do I have to agree with every sub-point of theology, but what I do have to love are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have to love them with all their quirks and deficiencies. And they have to love me with all my quirks and deficiencies too. It’s easy to divide, it doesn’t take a strong person to divide, division is weakness, unity on the core, setting aside those small infractions, of the Christian faith is hard, and it takes strong mature believers to do it. 

Paul would tell the Ephesian Church, “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (4:15-16)” I would rather see love from the people of God, who by grace accept each other’s differences over non-salvific issues, and are being built up in Christ, than a congregation who knows a lot of Scripture, yet has no love for each other. The loving congregation will always see God’s blessing, while the other, as Paul states, will be a clanging gong (1 Cor. 13:1), clanging along wondering why God hasn’t moved in their midst. 

The final aspect is Jesus’ words, that we know as the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19-20, “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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Church as a whole are to make disciples of nations. On Wednesday nights I teach our apologetics class. As of right now there are three courses in that class. Course one is Basic Beliefs of Christianity, number two is World Religions. Right now we’re going through course three which is Counter Arguments. Several times throughout the years, when I have taught the Basic Beliefs course, people have come up and said, “I didn’t know about some of the doctrines we’re talking about.” Now I have put more challenging discussions within the course to help the class grow in seeing the bigger picture when it comes to the discussion between the theological sides, but there are basic things that I have been surprised to see many people do not know. 

This is an issue of discipleship. If we have been in the faith for a decade or longer, we should have a clear grasp on basic theology. We should be clear in what it means that God is Triune, and the difference between faith alone for salvation and living out good works after the point of justification. And know what those words I just said mean. We should be able to clearly share our testimony of what Christ has done for us. We should have a decent grasp over where to find core teachings within the Bible, on things such as worry, prayer, and love. And, we should be implementing those things in our lives. Last week we looked at Colossians 1:25-26 to see God’s mission, but Paul continues as to make another point as well. Starting in verse 25 of Colossians 1 we read, “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (v.25-29)”

We are to be discipled, trained up in the faith that we are saved to live out, and we are to train up others to be disciples as well. It’s the Church as a whole. There are no non-disciples within the Body of Christ. Everyone is a disciple, who calls on the name of Jesus for salvation, and everyone is to participate in both their own discipleship making process and the making of disciples. This is how the witness of the Church to the the Gospel is seen in the world, and how love and unity is built within the Church to show that Jesus is the Savior. 

The mission of the Church is the mission of individuals being built together by Jesus himself to grow into his people. We are to be a reflection of our Savior in purpose and love. When the world sees that reflection, they see a witness to the great work of God in the world. 

As individuals, we must see ourselves as a part of the Church. Paul states it like this in 1st Corinthians 12, “… But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (v. 24b-27)” Individuals who make up the body, who are so interconnected with each other that they suffer as one, and are honored as one. This is why it’s important to meet together, to share with each other, to grow alongside each other. As disciples of Jesus, there is no lone ranger. We cannot hope to be where God wants us, unless we are also alongside other believers being built as Christ’s Church. 

So my challenge then for you this week is to take each of these three aspects of the Church’s mission: witness, unity, and discipleship, and ask, “How am I doing in my witness of what Christ has done? Have you loved Jesus’ Church the way he does? Are you being discipled, and are you discipling others? For each of us it may look a little different. If you’re a traveler, snowbird, winter visitor, RTR, or Rv’er, it’s going to look different than if you live in one place full time. If you’re traveling, I want to challenge you to experience a denomination that isn’t one you’ve experienced before. As long as they hold to the core of the Gospel, visit their congregation, you will meet different people who you will one day worship alongside of in heaven. Build that witness, build that love and unity. For your own discipleship, read through a basic theology book. Make sure you’re clear on the faith that you hold. One book that I might suggest is Charles C. Ryrie’s Basic Theology. It’s bite size, but goes over a large amount of theology every Christian should know. And then, disciple someone else. Discipleship always begins with prayer, then encouragement, and maybe mentorship. Being a disciple-maker is living your life with someone else. It’s not classroom, or sermon teaching, it’s living your faith out with a less mature believer. 

God is calling us to be an important part of his Church as he builds her up for his glorious return. Let us then participate fully in that building process that we might bring honor and glory to our great Architect. Amen.

On Mission Part 1, Week 1 - Missio Dei

  The show, Mission Impossible, never made much sense to me growing up. The premise of the show was that every mission the agents were sent on would be an impossible mission to accomplish. If you wanted something as simple as an assassination or something stolen, you could send in an agent like James Bond; he could wine and dine his way in, but by the end, things were blown up and people knew who he was. But if you wanted things to be truly covert, you sent in the likes of the IMF, the Impossible Missions Force. If the assassination had to look like an inside job, or if the thing that needed to be stole had to be willing given up, you sent in the IMF. They were the covert of the covert.

They always got the impossible jobs, because they were impossible for anyone else, it’s literally in their name. And yet, they had an almost 100% accomplishment rate. Apparently, the missions were not impossible. In fact, I could only find a few instances where the IMF’s perfect streak could be said to have been broken. But even in those circumstances, the job was basically accomplished in the end. 

It’s also interesting to me that the tropes they used, impossible missions, messages blowing up, made their way into other shows, such as the A-Team, Charlie’s Angels, and the cartoon Inspector Gadget. The idea that a team of specialized agents who could accomplish the impossible is seen in all sorts of shows, from NCIS to Criminal Minds to the Avengers.  At the core on all these types shows, and really most of all story telling, is the mission and the need to accomplish it, even if it takes everything from you. 

It’s this idea of mission that brings us to our New Year’s sermon series where we are going to first look at the Mission of God and then narrow that down to how we can grow into fulfilling are calling within that mission. This sermon series will be a little different than those we’ve done in the past. Usually our series cover an overarching topic like our look at the attributes of God for our Christmas series. This series will cover two topics, God’s mission and our relationship with him, showing how both are linked together, giving us a fuller understanding of our place within the work of God.

Part one, are the Missios, the missions. In part one, we’re going to cover God’s mission, Missio Dei, the Church’s mission, Missio Ekklésia (ek-klay-see'-ah), and the individual disciple’s mission, Missio Mathétés (ma-thay-TAYS). 

So let’s start where we should always begin, with God himself and his mission. 

God’s overarching mission is woven throughout the whole of the Scriptures. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, God discloses his work. This disclosure happens over centuries of time, with Paul remarking in Colossians 1:25-26, “25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”

God did not disclose his full work and plan at any one time, but rolled it at over the course of human history. The writer of Hebrews, would open their letter with, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (1:1-2)”

Paul would also write that this hidden mission was even before God created time itself. Paul writes to his protégé in 2nd Timothy 1, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. (2 Timothy 1:8-9)”

We can only fully know God’s mission, because we are on this side of the cross. Only through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus can we understand the fuller scope of God’s work. So it’s fitting that this series comes after our Christmas series on who God is, because his mission is rooted in who he is.

Now to understand God’s mission, we have to have a clear understanding of the overarching story of Scripture, which can be broken down into three milestones.

The first milestone is what takes place from Genesis 1 through Genesis 3. In the creation account of chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, we get two focal points, the first of which is creation in general, which we’re told in Genesis 1:31 that, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” The second focal point is the creation of humanity in Genesis 2 and God’s establishment of law within the creation for his image bearers. God sets boundaries by which his creation is to live by. Within these boundaries, there is the idea there are two forms of knowledge: one which leads to life and is with God, and that which we seek on our own apart from God and which leads to death. God’s intention in this whole work is to pour out his presence and allow lesser beings to experience his holiness and love. 

From here the story continues of humanity’s downfall and separation from God by their act of rebellion, which comes by way of their choice to accept a different truth than God’s. They rebel against the created order and try to become like God. This leads to both a physical death and the more egregious spiritual death. It is why God gives Adam the warning in Genesis 2:17, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17)”

This milestone shows us both God’s intent and the state of reality we’re in. God’s intention was that this creation experience his holiness and love. That through their relationship with him, they would grow and mature into beings worthy to carry his image. Yet through their desire to achieve knowledge on their own, they fall into a state where they can never achieve what they desire most. Because their desire can only be fulfilled in connecting to the God who created them for purpose.

This leads us into the next milestone. From Genesis 4 onward, God is working on many different levels as he deals with the sin of rebellion that humanity is in. He works with Cain before and after he kills his brother. He works with Noah to stop the rampant death and destruction of humanity upon each other and the world. He then begins to work with Abraham where we get one of the first major insights into God’s mission. We read in Genesis 12:1-3, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

In other words, God is going to use Abraham’s lineage to bring about his ultimate fix for the problem of humanity’s sin, and through Abraham it will be a blessing for everyone. This is important because God gives us both a hint and a goal. The hint is that the fix comes through Abraham. The goal is that God desires to bless the all people. This shows us that the wrath of God to punish evil is not his end desire. His desire has always been for the blessing of his creation, but with that blessing, he has to deal with the issue of sin. 

Fast forwarding, it’s in the Servant Song passages of Isaiah that we begin to see that God’s fix is through both the nation of Israel and a particular servant. But his fix isn’t just for the people of Israel, because we read in Isaiah 49:6, “[God] says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

This very passage would then be recited when an old man saw Jesus, the Word become flesh, as a baby being presented in the temple. Simeon would declare over Jesus, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32)”

Jesus, the God-man, the holy Word of God become flesh, was God’s solution to the problem of humanity’s sin. Paul would make the comparison between Adam, being the cause of sin in this world, with Jesus, who pays the penalty for sin. As we stated in our Christmas series, for a human to pay for sin, they would have to live a perfect sinless life. They could not even say the smallest of white lies. But even then, that would only possibly cover one other person’s sin. This is why the infinite God had to descend, to make a perfect and infinite sacrifice for all people. 

Jesus’ payment for our sin leads us into the third milestone in God’s mission. The goal of Jesus’ sacrifice was for people to be freed of sin and walk in God’s eternal life. Paul would reference this in chapter 6 of Romans declaring this when he writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

“5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (6:3-14)”

This is God’s goal for us now. God created us to be with him, that’s the point of Genesis 1-2. God created a universe where his presence could be experienced with a creation of his own image. But for those image bears to embrace God’s presence, they have to be of free will to do so. They have to accept to be a part of his presence, and that comes through a desire to live within the holy order that God creates. Adam rebelled against that order, but even then God forgives our rebellion through Jesus and ushers us into a new creation where his presence can be experienced by all those who choose it.

This is why at the end of human history as we know it, we’re told this in Revelation 21:1-7 by John, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’

“5 And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6 And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.’”

God’s intention is to restore our ability to be in his presence, this is the end goal of his mission, this is the Missio Dei. God creates a place for his creation to experience his holy and loving presence, redeeming us from our own sin, that we might then experience his holy and loving presence for eternity in a new creation.

We are now living in the time before all things are made new. Within this time frame there are two sub-missions, that those who have called on Jesus’ name are to be a part of, these we’ll discuss in the weeks to come.

My challenge for you this week is to re-read, Revelation 21:1-7, and see the great holy and loving presence that God has called you into. Then see how his mission is accomplished in all those who have trusted in him as their Savior. 

Let us be found in that presence, where no eye will tear, nor heart will morn, and no pain will be felt, because our lives will be set for eternity in the presence of our God. Amen.

God in the Manger Sermon Series - Wk 4 - Life to the Lifeless

  One of the most memorable things I ever experienced in school was life science. Growing up we would do a series of science experiments where we would have to put water in jar, then cover it with cellophane, put it in the sun and and see it condensate. Or we would have to get several handfuls of dirt and see what was in them. But by far my biggest wow moments came from watching a seed germinate on a paper towel.  So I wanted to take a moment and just watch a time lapse video of a seed growing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w77zPAtVTuI

Just amazing isn’t it? It might be mundane, but when we see plants, animals, the people around us grow over time, we’re experiencing life happen. Its when you haven’t seen a kid in a while, and you’re amazed at their growth. Or when you go into a city you used to live in and see the new homes and business where once only fields rolled on. Growth is a part of life, change is a part of life.

And it’s the idea of life that brings us to our final week in our God in the Manger series, where we’re going to end with God’s attribute of life.

But before we get into this last attribute of God, let’s recap the last three weeks. In the last three weeks we’ve talked about three attributes of God. His infiniteness, his personableness, and his holiness. God’s attributes are the things he is, not what he does. They are things that he has always been and always will be. God is the Savior of the world, but that is a role that stems from his attributes. When he makes all things new, God will no longer need to act in a saving manner, because he would have completed his task of salvation.

So the first attribute we covered, God’s infiniteness, which incorporates his all-powerful, all-knowing, and eternal nature, is seen in the Christmas story with God the Word, Jesus, being wrapped in flesh. This wrapping of God’s infiniteness in finite material, leads us to God’s infinite forgiveness when Jesus sacrifices himself on the cross. An infinite payment for sin.

The second attribute, God’s personableness, shows in that he comes personally to humanity to reestablish relationship with people. God’s intention has always been to have personal relationships with humans on an individual bases. Jesus’ personal coming and the interactions he had with others, points to this. Jesus’ eventual sacrifice then opens the door for each of us to have that personal relationship with God.

Then last week’s attribute was God’s holiness. God’s goodness and justices are all connected to everything he does and his being perfect. God is holy, and he created the universe and all that is in it to be holy. God’s intention is for us to be good as he is good, so when we sin, and commit acts that are contrary to that good, he seeks to reestablish his holiness in our lives. When the Word becomes flesh, and walks among humanity as Jesus, that holiness continues. Jesus lives a holy life, he is presented temptations from the enemy and the world, yet choses to continue in holiness. When we accept Jesus’ infinite and personal sacrifice on our behalf, God’s Holy Spirit then indwells us, bringing his holiness into our lives. That work of the Spirit then brings us closer and closer into holiness, which we’ll experience in its wholeness, in eternity. 

With God’s infiniteness, personableness, and his holiness in our minds, let’s look at God’s attribute of life.

The Scriptures presuppose that God is the source of all life. In the book of Job, we get this declaration, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (33:4)”

The Psalmist writes poetically, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (139:13-16)”

In the creation of the first man, we’re told in Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

In the very first words of the Bible we’re told, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)”

When speaking to Moses at the burning bush, Moses asks God by what name should he tell the elders of Israel that he comes by. We read this reply, “I am who I am … Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:14)” This is known as the tetragrammaton, with the Hebrew consonants of YHWH, the first of these being sounded out as Yah, which means the creator or source of all life.

God is life, and from him all life comes and is sustained.

This life of God is contrasted with the non-life of other “gods” or idols. The prophet Jeremiah states, “Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. 6 There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might … They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! 9  Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. 10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. (Jeremiah 10:5-6, 8-10a)”

Speaking with the Greek philosophers in the book of Acts, chapter 17, Paul states, “For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Because God is life, he doesn’t see life and death the same way as we do. In fact when he first calls Moses to the burning bush God introduces himself as, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (Exodus 3:6b)”

Jesus would pick up on this when he was talking about the resurrection of the dead. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus states, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:31-32)”

Though this body may die, that is not real death. Real death is an eternal separation from God’s life. That’s why God is seeking to bring life to us. 

The Christmas story is the life of God coming to bring life to humanity. At the beginning of John’s Gospel we read, “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. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)”

Jesus would then go on to say in that same Gospel, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (John 5:26)”

Then, at the seemingly final death of a woman’s brother, Jesus gives this great statement as to where life is to be found. Jesus states, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)”

This is the true point of Christmas, it comes down to one question, “Do you believe this?” Do we accept that Jesus is the infinite God wrapped in finite flesh to bring infinite forgiveness? Do we realize that God desires a personal relationship with us? Do we accept that God is holy and our sins separate us from him, yet in his holiness he reaches out to us, lives holiness and then offers his holiness in place of our sin? And because of all this, Jesus offers his life to anyone who would accept it. His life begins now and last through eternity, and though we may die in this corrupted body and world, we will live eternally with him? Do you believe this, is the question.

In reference to this is the question of Christmas, do you believe? Jesus would go on to state, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6b)” This statement brings all things together. Only through the way of Jesus can we experience the truth of our separation and his forgiveness which brings about true life. All the questions of why, are answered in the person of Jesus. All the questions of what’s to come, are answered in the person of God made flesh who walked among us. 

“Do I believe” is the question that we should be asking during this Christmas season. If I do, then I rejoice in the Savior’s birth as the focal point of the season and that rejoicing continues as I read his word, and learn to love him and love the people around me. If I answer no, then I must wrestle with his claims of being God in the flesh. I must struggle against who he is, not against what a pastor, theologian, philosopher, scholar, or joe-sh-mo on the street says. God is personally calling out to each of us to answer the question, do you believe this? Not does you friend, parent, or spouse believe, but you. Because God is personally calling, it’s a personal choice.

If you haven’t thought seriously about the call of Jesus to have your sins forgiven, or if you are just now searching for who God is, do not let this Christmas pass you by without diving head first into knowing Jesus as Savior. If you need to talk as you wrestle through this question of belief, my phone number is on the front of the bulletin and I am willing to meet with you as you wrestle through these questions.

My challenge for this week is, no matter if you believe Jesus is Savior or not, as you celebrate Christmas, contemplate these two verses of Scripture: John 1:4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” And John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Think on these two passages, and write down what the implications of that means for your life. If you accept Jesus as Savior what does that mean in light of these verses? And if you reject him as Savior what does that mean?

Jesus is calling each of us this Christmas season to a deeper understanding of who he is, and who he is, is true life of all mankind. Amen