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.
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