We’re on a Mission

Message including Paraguay Feedback, March 2014

When we talk about mission we have to realise that we are not talking about a passive exercise.  Mission is an activity that is based upon a command (Matt 28:19-20).

Mission is a task.  The Cambridge online dictionary defines it as follows:

“an important job, especially a military one, that someone is sent somewhere to do” or

“any work that someone believes it is their duty to do,” or

“something that you say when you have finished doing something that you were told to do - mission accomplished.”

In our SERVE mission we talk of five things:

Sacrificial Living,

Extending the Kingdom,

Relationships,

Vibrant Worship,

Empowering People.

When we talk of mission we are talking about two of these areas: our desire to Extend the Kingdom and our desire to Empower People.

How?  When we become involved in mission - even in a small way - we become empowered in our faith because of our involvement in extending the Kingdom.

We’ve all been called this year to join in our mission through the oneplusone initiative.

Mission will always flow from our confidence in the Gospel.  

1. The Mystery

Romans 11:25-30: 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

‘The deliverer will come from Zion;
    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

27 And this is my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.’ 

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now[ receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

This is a perplexing passage in the Bible.  It descries God’s mystery of the Gospel in a unique way.  It implies that the whole of Israel will be saved.  a couple of things to note here:

God loves Israel and uses them as an example to the world, how they fall away throughout the OT but God still loves them and woos them back.

The plan of God for Israel is a mystery.  It’s very difficult to interpret this passage literally for we know all people have to repent of their sins individually (Romans 10:9).

The plan of God for Israel is a mystery.  To interpret this passage allegorically (that God is speaking of the Church Universal) is to lead us into error.

What we do see in this passage is that the Gentiles - the non-Jews, you and me - need to hear the Gospel as a way of hastening God’s plan for the Jews!

At the risk of upsetting some here (and on the podcast) I get a lot of people telling me to join groups praying for Israel.  There’s nothing wrong with that in itself - we are told to pray for the peace in Israel (Ps 122:6).  I also love some of the organisations run by Messianic Jews who help us understand the Jewish roots of Christianity.  

But friends, if we are to see Israel saved, God’s mystery worked out in that nation, we have to promote and share the Gospel with the gentiles as our first priority!  The Bible is clear on this!  When the full number (whatever number God has placed on this) comes into the Kingdom then Israel will be saved (Rom 11:25b-26a).

How does this work?  I don’t know, it’s a mystery!  it is clear though where our efforts should lay.

2. The Message

God's Plan of Salvation

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

The question is, how can a person have the Son of God?

- Our Problem:

Separation from God

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

According to Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of His Son.  Why did Christ have to die for us?  Because Scripture declares all men to be sinful. To “sin” means to miss the mark. The Bible declares “all have sinned and fall short of the glory (the perfect holiness) of God” (Rom. 3:23). In other words, our sin separates us from God who is perfect holiness (righteousness and justice) and God must therefore judge sinful man.

- The Uselessness of Our Works

Scripture also teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. 

The Bible tells us that there is no one righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:9-10). 

Added to this are the declarations of the following verses of Scripture:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not of works, so that no one can boast. (See also Titus 3:5-7; Romans 4:1-5).

No amount of human goodness is as good as God. God is perfect righteousness.  Because of this, Habakkuk 1:13 tells us God cannot have fellowship with anyone who does not have perfect righteousness.   In order to be accepted by God, we must be as good as God is.  

Before God, we all stand naked, helpless, and hopeless in ourselves.  No amount of good living will get us to heaven or give us eternal life.  What then is the solution?

- God’s Solution

God is not only perfect holiness but He is also perfect love and full of grace and mercy.  Because of His love and grace, He has not left us without hope and a solution.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the good news of the Bible, the message of the gospel.  It’s the message of the gift of God’s own Son who became man (the God-man), lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the grave proving both the fact He is God’s Son and the value of His death for us as our substitute.

Romans 4:25 He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification. ( See also Romans 1:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18).

- How Do We Receive God’s Son?

Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Bible states He that has the Son has life (1 John 5:12).

We can receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as our Saviour by personal faith, by trusting in the person of Christ and His death for our sins.

John 1:12 But to all who have received him--those who believe in his name--he has given the right to become God's children (See also John 3:16-18).

This means we must each come to God the same way: 

as a sinner who recognises their sinfulness, 

realises no human works can result in salvation, and 

relies totally on Christ alone by faith alone for their salvation.

Having confidence that when Jesus said He was the only way, He meant it! (John 14:6).

3. The Mission

Romans 15:20-21: It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written:

‘Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.’

The mission hasn’t changed.  It is still to take this message to where it has never been preached.

This is where we will start to turn our attention to the recent fact-finding trip to Paraguay.  You’d think in South America everyone has heard the Gospel.  You’d be wrong.

The thing that really impressed me about John and Rachel McDonough was their desire to do three things:

to preach the Gospel where it was where no one has preached it.

to do this without imposing western culture on a people group.

to become part of a community and earn the trust there before sharing the Gospel.

Now my notes are ending here and I’m going to concentrate on the PowerPoint pictures and videos.  You can listen to this message preached at www.lifechurchchelmsford.com/resources