The Church on Mission

THE CHURCH ON MISSION

Matt Slack


July 7th, 2013

Today we’re starting a 4 week series called ON MISSION. This is going to be a fresh look at a
familiar topic. It seems that the Lord is stirring and has us in a season of change right now andwe want to make sure that we’re following Him well. So we thought this would be a good timefor us to take a fresh look at our mission and be reminded of what we’re all about.

As the church we know that we’re sojourners, living here but not belonging. And yet God has avery important and specific purpose for Grace Community Church. Read Acts 2:41-47.
This is Luke’s 2nd book. The gospel of Luke (1st) is about how the gospel was accomplished
through the life and death of Jesus; Acts (2nd) is about how the gospel is to be lived out through the local church. He wants us to know that something happened to these people that changed everything. This was the effect that Jesus had on this new community.

Common folks did supernatural things; broken people displayed the beauty of God. And because of their lives and their message, they were growing in number daily.

This passage is a picture of the church as it was, as it could be and I think what it should be. Now I’m not talking about literally imitating everything in this passage. If we did, we would be eating every meal together, having meetings every day and we wouldn’t own anything-which would make eating together very awkward because we wouldn’t own any clothes. This isn’t a literal prescription of what to do. It’s a summation of how the church operated together and a
demonstration of the heart of the gospel being lived out in community.

And this community had a mission. It was a mission given to them by Jesus himself in Matt.
28:19-20. And in Acts 2 we get a glimpse of what that looks like. We also have a mission. Our
mission is posted on our website and it comes from passages like Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 2:42-47. So let’s take a look at our mission.

Our Mission: Loving God. Growing Together. Serving Others. Going to the World.

How does our mission line up with the Great Commission and the life of early church in Acts 2?
Loving God-Everything we do is motivated by love for God. Without it teaching, prayer,
even fellowship is boring. But with a love for God, comes a love for others and it
becomes a privilege to be together, care for each other and sacrifice for each other.
Growing Together in unity of faith and mission; being joined, connected, equipped and
built up to maturity in Christ. We also grow in holiness-but we do it together. Vs. 42,
fellowship is more than a party or a movie. It’s knowing and being know. It’s sharing the
heart and receiving help-we do all this together.

Serving Others-Meeting needs and sacrificing to do it. Most of our needs are physical
needs like moving or helping with meals or a work project, and you excel at serving and
meeting needs. But there are other needs among us. Some of you have problems and
struggles; spiritual and emotional needs. And there are people here who have wisdom and
encouragement and experience that could serve you if you would let them. If you don’t know who might be a good person to ask, ask me and I’ll set you up. We are to be poured
out for the sake of others.

Going to the World-Vs. 47 says that people were getting saved daily. Remember that this
is a summation of early church life. Reading on in Acts shows us that they didn’t just
spend all their time together and then people showed up saying “I want Jesus”. They went
out. The word was preached. The gospel message was communicated and people
responded and were.

So all in all, I think our stated mission lines up well with the life of the early church. But it’s up
to us to make sure that we are actually ON MISSION as stated. What we usually do when we
evaluate these things is to take a closer look: Are we growing together and how? How are
Community Groups helping us to grow together? Are we going to the world, how? And this is
good and helpful to do but today I want to do the opposite. I want us to step back, put on the wide angle lens and look at whole horizon of the mission that Jesus has called us to. I want to boil it down to its general essence in one word:

Multiplication

The very nature of our mission is multiplication; true, genuine ministry being multiplied: the
gospel being preached, the lost being saved, disciples being trained, relationships being built, the gospel being applied, the church maturing and starting over again. But this doesn’t happen in order. It’s messy and complicated. It’s like having kids.
We weren’t ready to have our first child. And right about the time we thought we might live, our second one came along. Now we had one nursing and two in diapers and then the third came and the fourth. We didn’t wait for Jordan to grow up before we had our second child. Everything was happening at once, imperfectly. We were having kids, training kids, disciplining kids, walking them through life-each at their own stage all simultaneously. And then last year our first child left our home, got married and started his own family where He and Jenn will one day repeat the process. That’s what our mission is like-multiplication.

So what does it mean to be THE CHURCH ON MISSION?

Very simply I think it’s this:

Disciples making disciples and churches planting churches.

Disciples Making Disciples

Within the local church we are to be going out to make disciples. That means actively pursuing other with the gospel-kinda like fishing. And when the Spirit of God saves someone that you were talking to you bring them in (as if you were bringing a baby home from the hospital) and you show them what it means to be a Christian.

You might say, “how am I going to do that?” It’s going to cost something, but this is why we’re here; sojourners gathering other sojourners. But...if we begin to settle into this land that is not our home, if we forget we don’t belong here and what we’re here for we won’t be on mission.  And it’ll hard but we have to pull up stakes. What would you rather do? Watch TV?

Play games?

Down time? 

Just don’t want to make a commitment?

You can’t be a disciple and not disciple. It will mean giving up things that we have grown to
love; some things that we shouldn’t love so much but it’s worth it. Christ is worth it and eternityis worth it. Our family is our first wave of discipleship and we go out from there to other relationships-new believers, somebody in your community group. And you need to be discipled too. Everyone should be being discipled and discipling. I believe this is what’s happening in Acts

2. Disciples making disciples.

Churches Planting Churches, And then churches planting churches.

We see this in Acts. The church is established, the church grows and men are sent out to take the gospel and this New Testament model of discipleship and start a new church and start the process over again. Multiplication: Disciples making disciples and churches planting churches. This is the heart of God, this is the core of the mission he gave the church.

Let’s not let the gospel become a relic, which can be a tendency for quasi reformed, quasi
charismatic, Calvinist, predominantly white churches like us. We love the gospel but if we’re not careful and intentional we’ll treat the gospel like an antique gun; shine it and hang it over the fire place. We’ll put a light on it and show people but we won’t use it. The mission is to use the gun: shoot it, let people hold it, teach them how to take it apart, clean it and put it back together. And of course guard it, but understand it has to be used because, although we are in a place of safety and freedom in Christ there are many still living in slavery and darkness.

This week we celebrated Independence Day. This year we did something new; we sat as a family and read the Declaration of Independence. I know these men were imperfect in many ways but I’m grateful to God for their courage to stand up in the face of opposition and that in His providence, he has allowed us to be a free nation.

But the freedom that we possess as citizens of the United States of America is not an ultimate freedom. This is a freedom that must continue to be fought for. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, millions of lives have been lost in the continued fight for life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But as strong as our nation is, we have no guarantee that we will always be free.

But there is a freedom that is guaranteed forever. It’s a freedom that was fought for and
purchased once for all; a freedom from oppression and tyranny that can never be taken away.

There is a nation being formed whose Ruler is just and good and has already insured the day of victory. And in this nation, life, liberty and happiness are found in pursuing the King and nothing else.

Every citizen is required to give up His life for this freedom but none will die, but One. One
death was necessary for the freedom of this nation-the death of the King. And He died willingly for His people. But the King defeated even death and rose from the grave and is alive. And all who come to this King (Jesus) find freedom and new life and become citizens of a new nation (the church).

We are the church. For us every day is Independence Day. I want you to be reminded daily that you’re free in Christ. I want you to remember daily what it cost Jesus to win your freedom and I want you to be aware every day that there are still millions living in captivity who have yet to hear about the real Jesus and the freedom He offers.

Church, our mission is multiplication; disciples making disciples and churches planting
churches; the name of Jesus spreading; the Kingdom of God expanding. That happens in lives and churches.