THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
MATTHEW 22:36-39 & 28:17-20
Church growth is the most study subject of the last few decades. The thrust of most the Church Growth and Church health books and conferences I've read or been able to view could and usually are summed up as: A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow or build a great church. It is a point that most conservative Bible Scholars and Pastors not only agree on but attest to publically. Evangelical Christendom has derived this axiom from two Bible statements by the Church's original founder and Lord.
With all that the Bible teaches us we can get drowned in its knowledge and lost in its depth. Jesus therefore left us with two mountains to guide both individual lives and the church [until He returns for it]. As we walk through midst of life there is so much around us that draws or needs our attention. With all the occupations of day to day living Christians and churches need these Mountains to direct our life so that we can live according to Christ's Great mission. If we don't we will live our life for either the most urgent or pressing need, or, for the things that gives us the most pleasure. Christ would have us live life according to His revealed purpose (CIM).
I. THE GREAT COMMANDMENT, MATTHEW 22:36-40
II. THE GREAT COMMISSION, MATTHEW 28:17-20
The first mountain peak Jesus points us to is the Great Commandments. All of God's commandments are important, but some and particularly these two are more important than others. Jesus said that these two commandments are the basis for the whole Law and the Prophets or the Old Covenant. Where the overarching principle of love toward God and love toward man is enacted, relationships and life are what God intends.
In verse 36 a scribe asks Jesus an important question. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" The scribes had identified 613 separate commandments (365 negative & 248 positive) and had them divided into important and less important categories.
In verse 37 Jesus reveals that the most important commandment is to love God with our whole being. "And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'"
Did you hear that? The Lord God Almighty wants to be loved by us! ...By you! This command is in complete harmony with the fact that He Himself is a loving God. It is in our loving that we become most like God. Remember now this is an Old Testament truth. God has desired a love relationship with the crown jewels of His creation since He formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life.
Notice the command to love is for those who claim the Lord as their God. Those that have entered into personal relationship with Him by saving faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are to love Him. This command to love, this command to become like God, is only possible for those who have the love residing in their lives. Draw on the wondrous love of God and love God with His inexhaustible love.
There are three areas with which we are to love God. The first is with all your heart (lit. out of your whole heart). The heart (kardia) is the center and core of man. It is the hub of man's existence. It is where his will and affections are symbolically located. The Triune God is to be our delight and we should love Him unreservedly, with our whole heart. Our hearts must be one with His will and not allow any other rivals in His rightful place.
The second power by which we are to love God is all our soul ( ). The word is often used in the N.T. in its original meaning of life (MT. 2:20; 20:28; Acts 20:10; Rom. 11:3; JN. 10:11). It signifies the essence out of which life is made and of what gives man life. Our soul is what gives us our immortal nature. What is meant here is to love the Lord our God with all our power to live, with all our vitality.
The third power with which we are to love God is our mind (#962;). The mind is not only the seat and center of an individual's mental or intellectual life but also of man's dispositions and attitudes. The mind is the faculty of thought and understanding. The word indicate the action or activity of the mind. Our thoughts, dispositions and attitudes are to be processed out of and directed by our love for God.
What is meant by all these commands is that man should love God with all the faculties with which God has endowed him. Moreover note the tri-fold use of the word all. Man must use all these powers to the full in our effort and commitment to love God. Love for God is to involve the whole person with total committed.
God's wholehearted love for you must not be answered in a halfhearted manner. When God loves He loves you just as you are. When He loves the world, He loves the whole world. He loves so completely He gives Himself completely, even to the extent of sacrificing His life for us. Greater love, more wondrous self-giving love, is impossible (JN. 15:13). Surely the response to the love of God for you must not be less than what is taught here.
Jesus Himself proclaimed the greatness and priority of this commandment in verse 38. "This is the great and foremost commandment.
If you only have time for one thought before you begin each day, let it be this great and primary commandment.
Not only does the Law teach responsibility to God it also commands responsibility to man as Jesus states in verse 39. "The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus [quoted Leviticus 19:18 and] brings the idea of who is to be loved into clearer focus. This love that God has given to us must be directed not only toward God but also toward man. This love for your neighbor grows out of your love for God. We must love our fellow man who is made in the image of God. It is impossible to truly love God without loving our neighbors. Love for God is expressed by loving others.
The extent of the love we are to have for our neighbor is to love him as we love ourselves. This rule of thumb is a very practical precept. We are to love them in the same way we love our self. We are to want God's best, God's perfect will for their life just like we want it for our life. By neighbor we understand that we are to love anyone who has been providentially placed in our path. (The Good Samaritan story follows this commandment in Mark 10:29- ). This precept indicates that love is a way of daily living with God so that your fellow man becomes the object of open good will.
Jesus brings His answer to a climax by declaring in verse 40, "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
These commandments are the basis for the whole law. If you get these two down you get the basis for the whole Old Testament.
These two commandments fit into each other. They are inter-relational. So much so that John in his epistle will ask how can you say you love God whom you have not seen when you don't love your brother whom you have seen (1 Jn. 4:20).
In its noblest expression, human love is patterned after God's love. May we allow the all-surpassing character of God's love to become our love and our way of loving.
II. THE GREAT COMMISSION, MATTHEW 28:17-20.
The second Mountain Jesus left those who would love Him with their whole being and love others as their self is call the Great Commission. This Great Commission brings the first Gospel to its grand finale. If I knew my time to go on to Heaven was near through illness or indication of age, what statement would I leave with those I loved most? What challenge would assist them in seeing clearly the responsibility of life? What encouragement would stimulate them to accept it?
The Resurrected Lord of Life had such an opportunity to share with His loved ones. Jesus had sacrificially died and miraculously risen from the dead. He knew what only God Almighty could know and related it as only the Man Triumphant could. God in human flesh sounded the clarion call that we who have been born again by His blood and Spirit should bring others into a redemptive Master-servant relationship with Him. Have you taken to heart this last word and testament which Jesus left for us in Matthew?
Confusion between the terms mission and ministry are prevalent today. There are many different ministries within the local church, but only one mission. All the church's ministries and activities are intended to fulfill its one mission. All ministries and activities of the church must ultimately be attempting to fulfill its one mission. Let us look at the last words of Jesus Christ and we will find the mission of the church is to make disciples that make disciples for the purpose of reaching the nations.
Verse 17 tells the disciples' response to seeing Jesus, the resurrected Lord of Life. "And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful." Verse 18 begins, "And Jesus came up and spoke to them."
This appearance in Galilee is [not to be confused with the appearances at Jerusalem and is] probably the same as the appearance to "above five hundred brethren" (1 Cor 15:6), with the eleven being among them. [This is further implied by the statement, they worshiped him: but some doubted, which would be unlikely of the eleven after the earlier appearances and the "doubting Thomas" incident (Jn 20:28).]
After the disciples publically worshiped Jesus as Lord of Life in verse 17 Jesus draws near in verse 18 and begins stating their [commission or] mission. "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."
Here begins Jesus' last will and testament to His follows, His Church. He tells us that He is granting authority to His followers to carry out His last will and testament which is to be their mission in life.
In verse 19 Jesus tells His disciples the GREAT PURPOSE He has for them. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit."
Jesus commissions and commands those who come under His authority to take His Word to the world. [From the Greek text a better translation would be while going into all the world, or as you go into all the world. Evangelism is something you do as you go or as you go through life.
The key to the great commission is not how many you can get to go out for church visitation, but instead how many you can get to witness to others as they go through life.
God wants us to be concern for the salvation of those who live on our block; those who work in our office; those who check out with us in the grocery line; those who work on our house, our car. They walk past your house. There are people everywhere that Jesus wants to touch through your life.
A man was coming out of his house on Sunday morning with his golf cubs in hand. He called out why don't you play golf with us today? We need an extra. The man responded, "You know I don't play golf on Sundays. I go to church. I've told you that before." His neighbor replied, "This is the seventh time I've asked you to play golf with me on Sunday. Not once have you asked me to go to church with you."
Our real need is not for more to go out on church visitation with us, but for more to share Jesus with the people that are all around us. If we focus on Christ, His power will enable us to live for Him. We will give Him glory through our daily life.]
The main verb in the Greek text, make disciples, is in the imperative tense. Disciples are Christians who live and serve Christ in productive ways. We are to make disciples that go to the people of the world in order to make disciples. This command of Jesus was to the whole church in every age.
Though this commission or mission of the Church is Jesus' last will and testament to the Church we find His last or departing words in Acts 1:6-8.
. Jesus defined for us who His disciples are in in Matthew 16:24-27. [Also in Luke 14:26-27. “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. [27] "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."]
If one is not a disciple of Jesus it is next to impossible to complete the rest of the assignment in verse 30. "...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you."
Bringing a man to Christ is only the prelude to teaching him to observe all the thing God has commanded. Discipleship that leads to the winning to Christ and the discipling of others to reach the nations is the church's ultimate goal.
In the second half of verse 20 we find a GREAT PROMISE; 20b. "And lo, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age."
Such a challenging command demands a great promise, and does it ever have one. Jesus promises to be with His disciples all the days of our life.
All the days of our lives suggests all kinds of days: days of hope and days of sorrow, days of accomplishment and days of disappointment, days of victory and days of defeat. Days of strength as well as days of weakness. Days of success as well as days of failure/joy-affliction/ liberty-temptation/health-sickness/laughter-sadness/wealth-poverty/obedience -disobedience/youth-old age. The day of new life, new birth, and in the day of physical death.
What it means is that you will never witness to anyone alone. You will never knock on the door of anyone's home alone. You will never share you faith in the Gospel alone. Jesus will be with you. The One to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given goes with you.
Why do we fear? Jesus is with us! Why do we hesitate? Jesus is with us! If we take hold of that promise it will quicken our steps and encourage our hearts to get on with the purpose of the church.
Remember, He will be with you all the days of your life. You are not alone! Jesus promises, "surely I am with you always, to the very end to the age."
IN CLOSING,
Throughout Matthew Jesus has demonstrated ministry, trained His disciples for ministry, watched their progress in ministry and then He has provided them with the church's mission and purpose. He has just given His life and rose from the death that the purpose of the church might be fulfilled. Having done all that He now hands the baton to us. We are left with the challenge to fulfill the church's purpose by being on mission with Him to continue the work He began. It is a worldwide task.
Christians though are not left alone in the world to carry out the Lord's work. The presence and the authority of Jesus will empower us as we carry out His disciple-making mission to all nations. The Great Commission is the key to Matthew's gospel, in fact it is the key to the entire NT. By obeying it we learn to apply all that we have learned about Jesus' life.
God in human flesh sounded the clarion call that we who have been born again by His blood and Spirit should bring others into a redemptive Master-servant relationship with Him. Have you taken to heart this last word and testament which Jesus left for us?
