(Note: The title and some of the ideas for this message came from the Rick Warren sermon of the same name.)
Today we turn to the fifth and final purpose for our lives, which is to carry out our mission in the world. Now, as we saw last week, we each have a ministry to other believers, to those in the family of God; but we also have a mission in the world, among those who do not yet know Christ. Just as there are various kinds of ministries in the church, there are various kinds of missions in the world. God may call you to be a pastor, or a plumber, or a pediatrician; he may call you to be married or single; he may call you to serve on the school board or the city council; he may call you to do any of a thousand things for His glory. The possibilities are endless. But there is also a common mission which we all share, and that’s what I’m going to talk about this morning. Listen to Christ. Speaking to the Father, he says:
"In the same way that you gave Me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world."
– John 17:18, Msg
Did you catch that? Christ has given us "a" mission. Along with the original twelve disciples, we all share one overriding mission in the world, even as we play out our various individual roles. And Jesus makes this clear, when just two verses later, he says,
"My prayer is not for them alone." (i.e., not just for the Twelve) "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. . . " – John 17:20, NIV
In other words, this mission applies to each one of us; it applies to anyone, anywhere in the world, during any century; who comes to faith through the message of the gospel. Again, speaking to the Twelve, Jesus said,
"As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you." – John 20:21, NIV
And so the logical question is, "sending us to do what? What is the mission Christ is sending us into the world to accomplish?" All right, here it is.
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
– Matthew 28:19-20, NIV
Our mission is to make disciples. A disciple is simply a follower of Christ. Now, making disciples has two parts. The first part is leading someone to Christ; sharing with them the good news of forgiveness and eternal life, so that, God willing, they may place their faith in Him for salvation. That’s the beginning of the process of discipleship; that’s the "baptizing them" part. Baptism represents their initial entry into the family of God, known as conversion. Now, let’s be clear – we can’t save anyone. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. But we are commanded to do what we can do, and that’s to deliver the message.
The second part of making disciples is training them to follow Christ; instructing them in His teachings and helping them to live an obedient life. That’s the "teaching them" part. And both parts are essential to the process. If you look at the back flap of the bulletin, you’ll see that our mission as a church is to "glorify God by helping people say ’yes’ to Him and developing them into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ." Same thing, just stated differently. "Helping people say ’yes’ to God" is the first part of making disciples, which is proclaiming the gospel to unbelievers with a view to their conversion. And then "developing them into fully devoted followers of Christ" is the second part, the teaching and training.
How do we know that this command applies to us, and not just to the original twelve disciples? A couple of reasons. First, because the command was to make disciples of all nations, that is, the entire world. And that clearly was beyond the ability of twelve men to accomplish. In fact, world missions experts estimate that even now, twenty centuries later, there are between one and three thousand unreached people groups in the world – tribes or communities which share a common language and identity, but which have no Christian church or gospel witness. There’s a lot yet to be done.
Another indication that this command, the "Great Commission," applies to us, and not just to the apostles, is the promise Jesus tacks on at the end: "surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Well, the twelve apostles all died a long time ago, and the end of the age hasn’t come yet. The "end of the age" will come when Christ returns. And so, when Jesus promised that He would be with those who carry out his command to make disciples, he couldn’t have been speaking just about the Twelve. He was speaking to you, and to me, and to all believers, from the first century until the day of his return. In other words, Christ was speaking to them, not merely as individuals, but as the spiritual representatives of all Christians.
As we go into the world and interact with unbelievers, our focus is on the first part of that process, the evangelism part. Because before anyone can be taught to follow Christ, they have to first believe in Christ. Now, evangelism has a bad name, among both non-Christians and Christians. We don’t like to do it, and they don’t like it done to them. It evokes images of someone showing up at your door uninvited, with a crew cut and a bad suit, trying to pressure you into praying the sinner’s prayer. Or maybe one of those TV preachers, with a Rolex and a permanent wave, stomping around a stage and yelling that you have to either "Turn or Burn!" Many of us have had experiences with church folks who were well-intentioned, but whose approach to sharing the gospel seemed more like a canned presentation, a sales pitch, than a real conversation.
But evangelism doesn’t need to be like that. God doesn’t need us to be used car salesmen, or prosecuting attorneys. He just needs us to be witnesses. The word "evangelism," in Greek, simply means "telling the good news". And that’s all we have to do. We don’t have to pressure people; we don’t have to memorize a sales pitch; we don’t have to rack up conversions and put notches on our Bible. All we have to do is tell people about Christ. What he did and what he taught, and what He’s done in our lives. That’s all. God will do the rest. And in fact, God has to do the rest, because we do not have it in our power to change anyone’s heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. But the amazing thing is that God has given us a critical role in the process of conversion, and that is to be witnesses. As Christ said just before he ascended into heaven,
"You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." – Acts 1:8, NIV
Now, I’m going to talk about how we do this, but before I do that, I want to mention something else. You may have noticed that we don’t have an "altar call" at the end of the service. We don’t play endless choruses of some hymn while we exhort you to raise a hand, or walk the aisle, or come to the front. Why? Because it’s not necessary. Not only that, it can easily turn into emotional manipulation, and God doesn’t need us to use those kinds of tactics. Instead, we simply tell the story, every week, of what Christ has done, and what he can do in someone’s life. We trust in the power of the Word and the Spirit. And God has blessed us with several conversions, in spite of our not having an altar call.
All right. How do we go about fulfilling our mission to share the gospel? How do we go about "witnessing" to Christ? First, we have to go to our "Jerusalem". That’s our immediate context, our friends, and family, and co-workers, and neighbors. The people who cross our path every day. When Jesus spoke to the disciples in Acts 1:8, they were standing in Jerusalem. That was their home base, and that’s where they were supposed to begin. In the same way, our starting point shouldn’t be the primitive tribes in the jungles of Indonesia. Our starting point should be the people around us, the people we come in contact with, our existing network of relationships. And yet, these are often the hardest ones for us to talk to about spiritual matters. Why? Well, several reasons. First, we don’t want to come off as judgmental or holier-than-thou. We’re afraid that what they’ll hear is, "You need to believe in Jesus and turn your life around. So that you can be saved and perfect, like me, instead of being lost and condemned, like the putrid sinner you are." That’s a valid concern. And you know how you avoid it? By being honest. By not pretending to have it all together. By not pretending that being a Christian has solved all your problems, or changed you into a junior Mother Theresa overnight. By admitting your faults and your shortcomings. In short, by being real.
And frankly, that’s one of the main impediments to evangelism. Christians who think they’re supposed to be perfect. And so they either pretend, and put on a mask (which fools no one), or they clam up and say nothing about Christ, for fear that they’ll be accused of hypocrisy. They won’t admit that they have problems like everybody else. Why? Either because they’re too proud, or because they think God’s reputation needs protecting. But trust me, God can take care of his own reputation. And besides, the people who know you – your family, and friends, and co-workers – they already know you’re not perfect. So just be honest. Tell people what God has done in your life, and also acknowledge that He has a lot of work still to do. And keep reminding yourself that the reason that you are a member of God’s family – the only reason – is that God was gracious to you. He called you to Himself, and drew you to Himself. It wasn’t your intelligence, or moral superiority, or insight, or anything else about you, that brought you to faith. It was the grace of God. Listen:
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him . . ." – John 6:44, NIV
"All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!) . . . And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God."
– Ephesians 3-5, 8 NLT
Another reason we sometimes balk at bringing up spiritual things is we think people won’t be interested. But that is often not the case. If people do seem indifferent or resistant, they’re probably just putting up a defensive shield against the kind of insensitive sales-pitch approach that I talked about earlier. They’re worried that you’re going to give them some canned presentation and pressure them to kneel in prayer, right now, right there in the office. And they want no part of that. But, if you are willing to ask questions and listen to their story; if they can see that you genuinely care about them, and are interested in what they think, you will often find a deep hunger and interest in spiritual matters. It takes more patience, and more genuine engagement in people’s lives, but it tends to be much more fruitful. Listen to what Paul says,
"Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him." – 1 Corinthians 9:22b, LB
Don’t just dump your load of spiritual truth on them and walk away. People resent that, as well they should. Instead, try to find some common ground. Look for a connection. Listen to them, and eventually, they’ll be willing to listen to you. And God will do the rest.
A third reason we are reluctant to speak of the most important thing in our lives, which is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, is that we’re afraid we might not know the answers to all their questions. "What if they come up with some objection to Christianity that I can’t rebut? I’ll be humiliated and they’ll go to hell." Well, first of all, when people ask hard questions or attack our beliefs, they’re probably not looking for a specific answer as much as they are probing to see how we respond. They want to know if we’ve checked our brains at the door of the church. They want to see if we’ll welcome their honest questions, or whether we’ll get defensive and belligerent when they ask us to give the reasons for our faith. Again, they’re not expecting you to have solved all the riddles of the universe. But they do want to see that your faith has some logical consistency. They don’t want to be told, "just believe what we say, and don’t ask insolent questions." That’s not what Jesus did, and it’s not what we should do.
So what should we do? First, be prepared. Read the Bible. Read Christian books. Seek to grow in your knowledge and understanding of the faith. The apostle Peter writes that, "if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." (1 Peter 3:15, NLT) And when you get asked questions you can’t answer, try to find an answer so that you can be ready the next time. Talk to me. I’ll help you. That’s my job. But in the meantime, don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something. Just say, "that’s a good question. I’ll have to think about that and get back to you." And then do it. They’ll respect you more if you act as if your belief system has some basis in logic. Which it does! Because it’s the truth. And if you absolutely get stumped with a question, don’t worry about it. Because fundamentally, it’s not our learning and intelligence that will convince people of the truth of the gospel, it’s our love. And so your attitude in responding to attacks or questions will say a lot more than the specific answer you give.
Let me ask you this question: Why do we do it, aside from the fact that it’s commanded, and that it’s one of the five purposes for which God made us? Why do we share the gospel? We do it because of love. We do it because we care whether the people around us go to heaven or to hell. We do it because we would never go back to living life without God, and we don’t want them to live that way either. If we love them, as Christ calls us to do, then how can we not tell them the most wonderful news anyone could ever hear? How can we keep it all to ourselves, and not even try to pass it on? We can’t. As Paul puts it:
"It is because of this solemn fear of the Lord, which is ever present in our minds, that we work so hard to win others . . . Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit, but because Christ’s love controls us now." – 2 Corinthians 5:11, 14 LB
We share the gospel with those we know, not because it’s always easy, or pleasant, or successful, but because Christ’s love controls us. And how do we share the gospel? The possibilities are endless. Giving literature to people [sermon booklets, books, Bibles]. Inviting someone to a Bible study. Inviting someone to church. Talking with them over a cup of coffee. Giving them a Christian CD to listen to. I guarantee that if you ask God for opportunities to talk to people about Jesus Christ, he will give you those opportunities. And probably more than you know what to do with. All you need to do is take the bull by the horns and trust God for the rest.
Very briefly, I want to talk about the rest of Acts 1:8
"You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." – Acts 1:8, NIV
"in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." In addition to reaching out to those in our immediate vicinity, those who are already in our relational network, God also calls us to go to those farther away. Farther geographically, through supporting international missions, and praying for missionaries, and perhaps even participating ourselves in a foreign missions project. But we also need to reach out to those who are farther away from us culturally, or socially, or economically. Those who are sick, or aged, or poor, or marginalized. Our mission is to take the good news of Jesus Christ to them as well. It will cost us something, certainly. But if we do so, we have this promise:
"Jesus replied, ’Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything. . . for love of Me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a hundred times over. . .’"
– Mark 10:29, LB
No one who takes a risk to tell someone about Christ will ever be a loser, no matter what the outcome. In closing, let me share with you a final verse that encapsulates what Christ is calling us to do. Let’s you and I embrace this call as our own purpose in life.
"Jesus said to His followers, ’Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.’" – Mark 16:15, NCV
Let’s you and I, today, embrace this call and obey it, as an essential part of our purpose in life.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
