ENGAGING IN GOD’S MISSION for the Church

 ENGAGING IN GOD’S MISSION for the Church

When you get to know God you come to realise that when John said God is love (1Jn 4:8, 16) – not, ‘God is loving’ – that God actually loves those He has created as His family (Eph. 3:14-15)! His love for His family is incomprehensible (Eph. 3:17-19). Considering this, we can see that when You are love, Your willingness to entrust others (whether they be heavenly or earthly) is a risk You’re ready to take. And take it GOD has. Within the 39 books of the Old Testament we read of the dramatic story of how GOD entrusted certain members of His heavenly family with divine mission to assist His earthly image bearers – and yet some of these more powerful heavenly members (who were also members of ‘the Divine Council’ referred to Psalm 82:1 and 89:7) chose to rebel and corrupted humankind. Yet GOD entrusted a man (Abraham) and his family-line who became a clan then a tribe which became twelve tribes which became a nation which became a kingdom (Acts 7:2-53). But GOD entrusted these people with a much bigger purpose. They were all called by GOD to carry out a mission. GOD’s mission for these people, Israel, was for them to be so close to Him that they delighted in His love, His presence and His Commands (Exo. 19:7), so that all of the other surrounding nations would long to also enjoy knowing and loving GOD just as Israel did (Isa. 42:6; 60:3). The union of GOD with Israel was to be like a marriage (Ezek. 16:8).

He 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.”
Isaiah 49:6

But despite GOD entrusting the ‘patriarchs’ of Israel – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s descendants with this mission, they too rebelled. Their rebellion was depicted by the prophets as adultery and harlotry (Isa. 1:21; Jer. 2:20; Ezek. 16:15; Hos. 1:2). Yet, despite this grievous betrayal of those whom GOD loved as they rejected Him and His love, GOD declared through the prophet Hosea that –

¶ Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them,
“You are not My people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
Hosea 1:10

And in Paul’s letter to the Romans he refers to this prophecy by Hosea (and another by Isaiah) and says that this has now been fulfilled by those who have accepted Christ and become members of His Church – including both Jews and Gentiles –

As indeed He says in Hosea,“Those who were not My people I will call ‘My people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
¶ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of them will be saved.
Romans 9:25-27

After Christ had atoned for our sins as our Substitute, He commissioned His New Covenant disciples to take up the abandoned mission that had originally been given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — to be the light of the world (which He had already mentioned in Matt. 5:14) and to take the gospel into all the world and make disciples of all nations (just as ancient Israel was to do). But each of the four Gospel writers emphasize a different aspect of this Great Commission.

The Gospel of Matthew
A Teaching – Discipling Mission

“…teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded…”

And Jesus came and said to them,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
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, 
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20

The Gospel of Mark
An Evangelistic Mission

“…proclaim the gospel to the
whole creation…”

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons;
they will speak in new tongues;
they will pick up serpents with their hands;
and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;
they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Mark 16:15-18

The Gospel of Luke
A Prophetic Mission

“…and that repentance for the forgiveness
of sins should be proclaimed in His Name
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem…”

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself…
¶ Then He said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about
Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then He opened their minds to understand
the Scriptures,  and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you.
But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:27, 44-49

The Gospel of John
A Pastoral Mission

“…Feed My lambs…
Tend My Sheep…
Feed My Sheep…”

¶ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,“Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love You.” He said to him,
“Feed My lambs.” He said to him a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him,
“Yes, Lord; you know that I love You.” He said to him,
“Tend My sheep.”  He said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time,
“Do you love Me?” and he said to him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him,
“Feed My sheep.”
John 21:15-17

GOD’S MISSION FOR THE CHURCH

Often we hear preachers who seem to suggest that Christ has only given Christians a very narrow mission (or purpose). I hope that what I have just drawn out of each Gospel’s closing commission from Christ, that Christians — or, I should more accurately say the Church — has been given a much broader mission than just “Go and evangelise!”

 

THE TEACHING MISSION

Matthew tells us that part of our mission is to teach. This mission is carried out in different ways depending on (i) the relationships involved, (ii) the context of the meeting, (iii) the ages of those being taught, and (iv) the content of what is being taught. For example, the relationship of a parent and child involves the parent teaching their young child or children the stories of the Bible over the dinner table / in the car on the way somewhere / as they take a walk together / or, as they holiday together. If their child or children are older (primary and high school age) the same contexts apply, but the parent also teaches their child or children to self-feed their soul through modelling and teaching them how to pray and deal with life’s problems prayerfully, and to model and teach them how to read and study the Bible. Parents are also responsible to teach their child or children how to worship privately and in church, fellowship with other church members, and to confidently share their faith in Christ. The ministries of a church supplement this parental mission – which is why the gatherings of a church take place corporately (all together) on a Sunday, and in small groups through the week, to further equip believers of all ages through teaching. It’s also why those who are teachers – particularly in Christian schools – are also ministering to young learners as a part of the Church’s mission.

 

THE EVANGELISTIC MISSION

Mark’s Gospel describes the Church’s mission as evangelistic which can be confirmed with supernatural evidences. This suggests that there is a strong role for prayer as we seek God to move in the hearts of non-believers with appropriate miraculous signs to confirm the gospel to those we are seeking to reach. Once again, the first mission field that parents have is their own child or children. Our evangelism is not merely an event, but a journey — even for parents with their child or children — which is why our evangelistic mission does not end with someone “praying a ‘sinner’s prayer’ (even our own child or children). One of the, if not the, most effective ways we can evangelise is to introduce a non-believer to a community of believers (your family, your church family, social gatherings of Christians such as: men’s breakfasts, women’s dinner parties, youth group outings, fishing trips, board games mornings, etc). Thus, our evangelism is not “one size fits all”. Evangelism can be our witness to one other person, such as, one person sharing Christ over coffee with another person.

Our evangelism can also be invitational (inviting someone to church or an outreach event). We cannot escape that Christ’s mission for the Church involves evangelism – with the aim of leading a lost sinner to the forgiveness of sins that can only come through accepting Christ as their Saviour. You do not need to be an evangelist to participate in evangelism. We can pray for God to use us in helping others to come to know Christ. We can also pray for others to be more effective in their evangelism.

And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective
for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
Philemon 6

 

THE PROPHETIC MISSION

Luke’s Gospel describes an aspect of the Church’s mission as prophetic. He refers to Christ commissioning His disciples to call people to repentance. This is what prophets did. Some people believe that we cannot call non-Christians to obey God. But Jesus did. Jesus also told His disciples in Matthew’s version of the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” and to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded” – and our prophetic mission involves confronting cultural ideas that are untrue, wrong, and dangerous. These ideas are promoted through the arts, media, celebrities, activists, and politicians. Our prophetic mission can be carried out each Sunday from our pulpit, in the school yard through the week, in the tea room at work, on the shop floor, or catching up with friends for coffee. I trust that you realise by ‘prophetic’ we are not suggesting that we to make predictions, rather we are calling people to repent and to surrender to Christ and accept His Word.

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me,
“You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers
who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 19:10

 

THE PASTORAL MISSION

As I shared last Sunday, John’s Gospel concludes with Christ charging Simon-Peter to pastor Christ’s lambs and sheep. I suggested that this is recorded in John’s Gospel for our benefit as church leaders to appreciate that our divine mission is not just teaching, or evangelism, or to be prophetic, but to also pastor. Just as Jesus charged Peter to feed lambs, we too must care for our young and our young Christians. When Jesus told Peter to tend My sheep, we too must tend to people pastorally by encouraging and comforting them through life’s trials and triumphs. When Jesus called Simon-Peter to feed My sheep, He would have meant that Peter was to teach people how to not just know God’s Word – but how to apply God’s Word to their lives. We also must spiritually feed and nourish those who belong to Christ so that they too know how to apply God’s Word. Pastoring demands living as an example for others to follow. This example reflects each of the aspects of Christ’s mission for His people. That is, pastors must be able to teach, evangelise (2Tim. 4:5), be prophetic by calling people to repent and obey Christ, and to lead people into a close knowledge of and fellowship with God and His Word. We want to be a church that pastors well.

 

ENGAGING IN GOD’S MISSION FOR OUR CHURCH INVOLVES YOU AND YOUR GIFTS

Each of these broad categories of God’s mission for the church invites you to participate with your brothers and sisters as we do so together. Our church needs more teachers, more evangelists, more prophets, and more shepherds, in order for us to fulfil Christ’s mission. At the right time, Jesus will return. And when He does, He will have ensured that all of those His Father has predestined to be in His family will have been gathered. It amazes me that GOD has entrusted us – His earthly family – with such an important mission. But unlike ancient Israel under their Old Covenant, He has entrusted to us His abiding presence and power through the sending of the Holy Spirit. But even more amazing than this is the realisation that He has done so because He unconditionally loves us (Rom. 5:8) – and has enabled us to experience His love in a way that we can share it with with our world – which, quite frankly, could do with the knowledge and experience of some infinite, unconditional love at this time!

I urge you therefore to be a missionary and join with us in prayer, support, and service as we strive together to carry out this mission. It is my hope that our church will be a glimpse of what the fulfilled mission described in Revelation 7:9-10 looks like – 

¶ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:9-10

Pastor at Large,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

What would you do if you found a newborn baby at your doorstep?

 What would you do if you found a newborn baby that had been left at your doorstep? Hopefully your answer sounds similar to “I’d take care of him or her.” What if it wasn’t a baby? What if it was a helpless young child or a teenager, or an adult, who turned up at your doorstep requesting your assistance? I hope that each of us would also be prepared to help whoever it was. What if it was not an abandoned child, youth, or adult? And what if it was not your front door? Instead, how might we each respond if it was a spiritually abandoned and spiritually needy person who turned up at your church seeking the ultimate help: how to be saved? While you might feel a similar compassion as you might have felt for the abandoned child at your doorstep, you may not be as confident in how you would spiritually help this person seeking a connection with God through Jesus Christ. “Where would I begin?” “How could I be an effective discipler of a new believer?” you might ask. Well, I’m glad you have asked. For any Christian to effectively disciple a new believer it must involve an individual, a small group, and a congregation.

By this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and
so prove to be My disciples.
John 15:8

WAYS OF DISCIPLING A NEW BELIEVER

I. Discipling by an individual

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation—
First Peter 2:2

Every believer is called to disciple and is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. Our feelings of inadequacy are often the result of our underestimating just how much God has done in us and how much we have spiritually grown as a result. Compared with a newborn believer who desperately needs spiritual nourishment and care, who knows next to nothing about God and HIs Word, you are a veritable source of perpetual spiritual sustenance.

In fact, if you have already been associating with pre-Christians, you may have already been discipling unawares. This is because discipling a new believer often commences not when he or she gives his or her life to Christ but when you become his or her friend! In this way, a person can be discipled to Christ. This might involve a period of time when the pre-believer has watched how you handle life’s difficulties. It might also have included discussions you have had together about the bible or God. Your friend may have also had questions about why you think Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to be forgiven of our sins. Your friend may have accepted your invitation to attend your church, or a Christian meeting, and, despite outward appearances, left that meeting with ‘a spiritual stone in their shoe’. Then the day may have come when the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in their formally dead soul becomes obvious. It seems to be demonstrably true that by far most people who become Christians do so because of a personal invitation from a friend.

 A trusted friend can lead a new believer to Christ and lay a foundation in their soul of understanding that salvation is by faith in Christ as an act of God’s grace (Eph. 2:8-9). This does not require a textbook or a special workbook or even formal bible study notes. Much of my discipling of spiritual newborns has taken place in a café and on the back of a paper napkin where I have doodled an explanation of the gospel. Meeting for a coffee or a light meal is where the newborn can be shown that salvation is not just a moment, a decision, or an event—salvation also brings a new identity, a new attitude, a new lifestyle. This new life comes with a new “life map” called the bible. By simply reading through one of the Gospel stories together each week and then asking two key questions after a minute or two, the newborn believer is being discipled. As they begin to understand their new life that can be shown that it is confirmed and represented by water baptism which pictures the believer’s old life being buried in the waters of baptism and their new life in Christ being represented by coming up and out of the waters (Rom. 6:1-4).

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.
Romans 6:4

II. Discipling by a small group

 Every disciple is called to be a part of Christ’s body of believers. When each of our children were born, Kim and I were both there to greet them. As our little family grew each of our subsequent children were soon introduced to their siblings, then their grandparents, then their aunts and uncles. So it is spiritually. The initial discipleship of a newborn believer is most naturally commenced one-on-one. But as soon as possible the new believer must become acquainted with their brothers and sisters in Christ in a regular small group meeting.

¶ For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
¶ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
First Corinthians 12:12, 27

It is within the regular small group meetings, the microcosm of the new believer’s larger church family, that they learn to participate by sharing and praying with others, being prayed for, observing how to study God’s Word, asking questions, being corrected, witnessing how to repent, and increasingly how to know God.

As a member of a small group, even if you are not the small group leader, you are still contributing to the discipleship journey of a new believer in how you model your walk with Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

III. Discipling by a congregation

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Every member of a small group of disciples is called to be a part of Christ’s larger body of believers – the church congregation. Disciples of Christ must be tamed and taught to live within a community of believers. Sin separates people but Christ brings people together. Our carnal natures crave being the centre of attention placing ourselves in the middle of our little world. But our new nature longs to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ where we each together make Christ the centre of our now enormous world! We do this by: meeting together and giving heed to the preached Word of God; singing our worship of God together with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”; offering up prayers of thankfulness to God;  and regularly celebrating the ordinances of Christ, especially the Lord’s Supper. As the church congregation assembles it also enters into a time of larger fellowship where teaching and admonishing take place – often in a very indirect way.

If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
First Timothy 3:15

It is in the larger congregational worship and teaching assembly that a new believer is indirectly discipled by the example of other believers. This is why when you gather (or do not gather) together with your church family on the Lord’s Day you are teaching a new believer a very profound lesson about the importance of obeying Christ’s command not to neglect to gather together (Heb. 10:25). New believers notice when and how you worship God, how you listen to the preached Word, and how you pray in public. In my early years as a Christian teen I noticed that before the service had started, an elderly gentleman in our church would always stop and bow his head in prayer whenever someone in the church building began to pray. He would then wait for them to finish praying before he would continue on his way. No one taught me to do this. But I was deeply impacted by this unspoken and indirect example of this mature disciple of Christ. It has remained my practice to this day.

 

CAN YOU HELP?

Over the past few weeks we have actually had spiritual newborn babies “dropped off at our church’s doorstep” so-to-speak. I need people who can be spiritual parents/brothers/sisters to these newborn believers. Ask any parent and they will tell you that being a carer takes time and patience. Newborns can be messy. Newborns can make mistakes. Newborns can seem to be slow to learn. But remember, you were a newborn once. Each of us can play a role in discipling a newborn believer. You already know more than enough to start. For some you, your newborn disciple will be your own children or grandchildren. For others it will be your friends or even your new friend. To disciple someone one-on-one all you need is time together and paper napkin (the café and coffee are just bonuses). To disciple someone in a small-group all you need to do is to invite them along and let them observe what intimate fellowship with other believers looks like. To disciple someone within a congregation all you need to do is: sincerely worship God; attentively heed the preaching of God’s Word; engage in fellowship after the service (hopefully by introducing your invited friend to others – or by introducing yourself to the invited friends of others); and, serve wherever and however you can.

As we approach the Tasmania Celebration with Will Graham weekend at the end of May we expect that we will have even more newborn believers to disciple. This is why we are going to have a church dinner on the Sunday after the Celebration (on June 5th) and then follow it up for the next three Sundays with Christianity Unpacked which will be a supper, a testimony, a brief presentation, and a time of discussion around tables. All this is designed to connect newborn believers with a one-on-one discipleship opportunity, an invitation to join a small group, and an introduction to the larger congregational meeting. This is how we will disciple a new believer and what we would do if the Lord left a newborn spiritual baby at our church’s doorstep. Will you join me?

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.