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Article Outline:
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There
is a method to my madness.
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New
Life church Vision Statement
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Lets
focus on the Commission
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New
Life – Sent to the Nations
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Are
you going to stay in Missions?
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we
have had Our fill of Fear
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So
what is the remedy for fear?
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THE
commission – What is it?
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We
are included in God’s mission
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He
who is sent is as the one who sends him.
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With
the authority & power of the one who sent him
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We
must do it AS he does it.
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Parallel
structure points out THE clue
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Jesus
is saying I am God but I have come to serve
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Servants
who lead rather than leaders who serve
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THE
Pattern - incarnational mission
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Where
is the church Monday to Friday?
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Validating
truth relevant to you
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No
little people and no ordinary work
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Authority - the
fruit of service
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summary
& Application – sent to s.e.r.v.E.
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summary
– sent to s.e.r.v.E.
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The
tie = your incarnational opportunity in THE marketplace
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The
Bare feet = the heart attitude of a servant
Good
morning! How is everyone this morning?
It’s good to be here. It’s good
to be in the house of God. It’s good to be part of the family of God! Amen!
Now I know
what you are all wondering. Why is Mike
wearing a tie? Perhaps because he wants to look presentable. It is quite counter cultural, you know, to
wear a tie at this church. When was the last time you saw a speaker with a tie
on at New Life church? I remember the
last time I wore one. Paul Nesbit got a hold of it and he just about strangled
me!
Is it so
odd? I have seen stranger sights. I have
seen Wesley Campbell, the Pastor, up here with half his face painted blue.
Oh, it’s
not the tie you are wondering about? It’s the fact I don’t have shoes! Where are Mike’s shoes? Why is Mike preaching in his bare feet?
Perhaps he had a bad year in business? No!
There is an
answer to these questions. There is a
method to my madness. However, for the solution to the mystery of the tie and
shoeless Mike we will need to wait to later in the message.
This
morning our subject has to do with our Vision and Values at New Life church. Over the past few weeks we have been speaking
on subjects that relate to our Vision and our values as a church. A shortened version of the Vision Statement
is “An apostolic community fervently
loving God & others, daily contending for the kingdom.”
The text I
will be teaching from is John chapter 20, verses 19-25. Lets read it
together. "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were
together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he
showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the
Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As
the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on
them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive
them, they are not forgiven."
- John 20:19-25
Lets focus
on the Commission that Jesus gives to his disciples. “As the
Father has sent me, I am sending you."
The reason I have chosen this text is that the word “sent” in Greek
translates “apostello” which is the origin of the word apostolic. Thus as an “an apostolic community” we are
essentially saying “we are a “sent out” community.[i]
We are a community on a mission. What
then is that mission?
If you look around this Sanctuary you will notice all these flags. Each one represents a nation that one of our missionaries has visited over the past 15 years. There are over 60 flags here. Since the Church’s inception we have made it a priority to send out missionaries to the nations!
Over there is the Zambian flag! that is there
because my family and I spent two years in the nation of
When we got back from Zambian in 1996 everyone was asking us “Are you going to stay in Missions?” that was an interesting question, because most people think Missions is something you do over there, in Africa. In fact, most church people think that the Great Commission is for professional ministry people, zealous Christians who have a Call from God to leave their secular jobs and serve Him full time!
However, missions is for everyone,
not just the professionals! If you are a
Christian you are in Missions. Missions is just as
important here in
Problem is, most people can’t
afford to drop everything to travel to some far away place, even for a short
period of time. So the question I want
us to examine this morning is “How do we do missions here in Kelowna? How do we be a “sent out” community in
This questions is of particular
passion of mine. I am still with Youth With A
Lets set
the stage, It’s the third day after Jesus Crucifixion. The disciples are in the
room with the doors locked. They have just been through a very traumatic time.
Jesus, their Lord and master has been summarily executed by the Roman
Authorities on instruction of the Jewish authorities. There are these strange rumors that the tomb
is empty. Word is getting out that maybe the disciples have stolen the body.
Their situation is quite dire. Fear is the dominant emotion.
How many people here have seen the movie Panic Room staring Jodie Foster? I watched it with my children the other day. It’s about a single mother and her daughter who move into a New York apartment. In this apartment there is a special room. It is a room they can escape to if people are breaking into their house. Well, it just so happens that the first night they are there, people are breaking into the house! So they escape to the Panic room. The special reinforced door locks into place and they are safe. But the phone is not yet hooked up so they can’t call the police. YIKES! They are trapped in the Panic room! Later in the movie they are saved by the police but not after many harrowing hours in the Panic Room.
The context we are looking at is the Bible’s version of the panic room. The disciples have locked themselves in this room so as to be safe from the authorities that would most certainly kill them if they found them.
I think of all of our emotions fear is one of the most powerful. We have had our fill of fear over the past year since September 11th, 2001. More recently the Beltway sniper in Washington; Just as we are thinking it would never happen in our own neighborhood, we get news that a Government worker has just shot himself and two coworkers in Kamloops. It is happening here as well.
So what is the remedy for fear? Faith is the remedy for fear.
If we look at the passage Jesus appears in the panic room! The disciples are overjoyed. He shows them his hands and side. Jesus is alive! This is the remedy to all fears. Jesus is alive! This is the good news that propels us out of our place of fear. So this is the context of Jesus’ commission to the disciples and also to us. Because Jesus is alive we need no longer fear the world, the Beltway sniper, terrorists. Because Jesus is alive we have hope for eternal life. We need not fear death. Jesus has overcome death! This is the gospel! The good news.
Now that the disciples have gone from fear to faith, Jesus
has a mission for them and for us. What
is that mission? Lets look at the passage from the
amplified version. The passage from John 20:21 states “Just as the Father has sent me forth, so I am sending you!”
Note the phrase “has sent me forth” This means Jesus has a mission and he continues in that mission. He has not stopped his mission and turned the keys over to the disciples. We are not carrying on the task of mission because the original missionary Jesus has retired! No. Jesus is alive and he is still very much active in his mission.
In fact, the gospel of John repeatedly emphasizes the
ongoing activity of God in
“sending forth”. In John 17:3 Jesus tells us that the Father is
sending the Son. Jesus says “now this is
eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent.” In John
Thus from this emphasis we conclude, mission is God's own going forth, mission is God's work not just our work. There is a church because there is a mission not vice versa![ii] Mission is God's mission first and foremost. It is a mission in which we are included.
Another key phrase in this passage is “just as” which is complimented by the word “so” The disciples are sent AS Jesus was sent. The form of this phrase is similar to a popular commissioning word that was common in the culture at that time. “He who is sent is as the one who sends him.” [iii]
Thus the person goes with the full authority and power of the one who sent him. When Jesus says “I am sending you” He is the Commissioner! Jesus, the one who is alive, who has power over death! The one who is still active in mission! He is the one who sends us! We go as his representatives with all his authority.
However, to exercise that authority, we must follow in his pattern. We must do it AS he does it. So this begs the question then. How was Jesus sent? How are we to emulate him?
Now lets take a closer look at what
it means for Jesus to be sent. John emphasizes this point with the parallel
structure of the text. He repeats the phrase "Peace be with you!" twice. Lets look at what comes after this text to uncover the
meaning. "Peace be
with you! After he said this, he
showed them his hands and side. And then again "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me,
I am sending you." The
The apostle Paul gives us a better idea of what this means. He says "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" - Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus’ mission was to make himself nothing, to take the nature of a servant and die on a cross. This is our model.