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.
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