The Mission

Acts 1.1-8

Jesus is leaving. He has invested His life into these apostles of His, teaching them the things that they need to know. And now it's time to leave. But before He does, He gives them a command. These are His last words to them before He leaves them. And the command is simple. It boils down to this: 'You have a mission. Spread My Gospel.' This command is repeated at the end of each of the Gospels. First, from Matthew: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...' Then Mark: 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.' Luke: 'And [Jesus] said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”' And now John: 'Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”'' And likewise, we have it in our text: '...and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' These are Jesus' last words. That fact underscores how important they were and are. Jesus could have said anything as his last word. He could have reminded the apostles about some special doctrine to keep pure. He could have mentioned the importance of worship. He could have talked about the details of His return and the importance of looking forward to it. These things are all important, but they are not Jesus' last words to His Church. No, instead Jesus spoke about the mission of spreading the Gospel. It is this that we will look at this morning.

Over the years we here at Faith Reformed have undergone some change, some progress, some maturing. I won't say that it has always been pretty, but we have been changed. It seems to me that it's time for some more change. It's time for us to take the next step. And I think that this next step is to be toward a greater understanding of and devotion to the mission that Jesus gave to His Church. Our mission is the spread of the Gospel. But doing the mission is not the goal. Let me be clear. To quote the Apostle Paul, the goal is that 'at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' That's the goal. That's what we want to see more and more, until that profession of faith fills the world. And the means to that goal is proclaiming the Gospel. That's the mission. Remember, the reason that we are alive is to make Jesus look good. When unbelievers see us doing that, that's the proclamation of the Gospel, that's pursuing the mission that Jesus gave us.

Now, there are lots of questions that could be asked here. But I'm just going to deal with one. How are we to do this? How are we to pursue this mission? Our text tells us. I'm going to point out three thoughts from the text that will, together, go a long way to answer that question. The first thought has to do with the word 'witness', 'You will be my witnesses'. It used to be popular, especially in some circles, to talk about 'witnessing'. This was referring to talking to others about the Gospel. Our text uses that word in a more specific way. Listen to Peter on the day of Pentecost. 'This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.' Peter is making an important claim here. He is telling the crowd that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Jesus is alive. And to press that upon the consciences of his hearers, he then tells them that he and the other apostles saw this with their own eyes. They spoke with Jesus and ate with Him. This is not just some fact that they heard about. They experienced something. Peter is telling the crowd that they were all witnesses to the truth of Jesus' resurrection, and that if called upon in a court of law they would gladly testify to that fact. In contrast, none of us are witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. We did not see Him after He was raised from the dead. So, we cannot be witness in the way that Peter and the others were. But we can 'witness' in another, related, way. Let me use something from Pastor John Piper whose ideas lie behind much of this sermon. He makes a comparison between being a witness and being an advocate. An advocate marshals evidence about the Gospel in order to present it to others and attempt to persuade them. He's the guy who says, 'You asked me why I believe the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life. Here are five reasons why I do.' That's being an advocate for the Gospel, and that is something that is needed. But a witness to the Gospel says something different. He says, 'Let me tell you what I have experienced. I have experienced the Gospel. My life is changed because of what Jesus has done to me. Let me tell you about that and then watch my life so that you can see it.' Just as Peter told the crowd that he and the others had experienced something, we are to say that we have experienced something. To be sure, the unbelieving world around us needs to hear some good advocacy for the Gospel. They have questions that need to be answered. We all need to be able to do some advocating. But advocating without being a witness to what Jesus has done in your life is only part of the job. People need to see the Gospel. They need to see what Jesus has done in you. So, when Peter writes, 'always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you', part of the answer needs to be the witness of your life. If our lives are no different than theirs why should they join us?

I've talked to you about the mission. The Church is to spread the Gospel to the end of the earth. And I've told you that one key element in pursuing this mission is being a witness of what we've experienced by the Gospel. Those two thoughts lead to this question. What do we do to develop as witnesses so that we can be more faithful to Jesus' call to spread the Gospel? Listen again to the text. 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and [then] you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' Whatever the goal a person may be working on, one crucial issue that he must grapple with is the question of ability. 'How will I be able to do this? What resources can I look to and depend on to achieve my goal?' Consider the popular answers to this question. People look to the force of personality, the power of money, the weight of numbers and the relentlessness of dogged persistence. The Church will never succeed by appeal to any of those. Jesus told us to depend on the Spirit. It is the power of the Spirit that will enable the Church to conquer the ends of the earth.

Let me read you a couple of places in the Scriptures where this power of the Spirit is explained or pictured.

'God gave us a Spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.' We are so captured by our fears. That shows in many different ways. Let me pick just one. Why are we so silent when opportunities to bear witness to our experience and knowledge of the Gospel present themselves? In so many cases, we are afraid. The Spirit of God changes that. It is His power that overcomes our fears in this area and every other.

'And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.' Stephen was a remarkable man, full of the power of the Spirit. Do you see how it shows? Here is someone to reckon with, whose life and words have real power. And that power was not due to some special personality. It was the power of the Spirit within.

And then let me choose one of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists. In seminary I met a pastor from Uganda. You need to bear in mind that this was the time of the tyranny of Idi Amin. This pastor told me of the time when two of Amin's thugs came to kill him. The approached him after a worship service and told him what they were going to do. He simply asked if he could pray first. After hearing his prayer, they told him that they could not kill him. They had looked around them at the people of that church. They knew some of the women because they had murdered their husbands. And yet, these women, now widows, were filled with joy. This joy was so obvious that the men could see it, though they could not explain it. So, instead of killing this pastor, they were both converted. The Gospel spread a little more that day. And it spread because of the witness of the joy of those widows. That was something that only the Spirit could produce. If we are going to be able to succeed at the mission that Jesus has given to us, we will need what only the Spirit can give.

Mission. Witness. Power of the Spirit. Three thoughts from our text. That leaves us with a question. What do we do now? Jesus told the apostles to wait. He wanted them to wait for Pentecost. This was the next stage in God's plan to redeem a people for Himself. There was the incarnation, Jesus' life and ministry, the cross, the resurrection and ascension, and now Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit upon the Church. All of these are one-time historical events. None of them will be repeated. None of them needs to be repeated. What that means for us is that the Spirit has already come. We don't need to wait for that. He is already here to give power to His Church. And that is so very encouraging. We are able to pursue the mission. All that we need is readily available to us. The Spirit is here. He is here to give us whatever is needed. But that raises a question. If the Spirit is here in power, shouldn't we be seeing more? If we have at hand whatever resources that might be needed, why aren't we seeing more of the spread of the Gospel through us here at Faith Reformed? That, I think, is a very important question that we need to deal with. I need to say that I don't have a clear answer to the question. I do have a few possibilities, though. I think that part of this has to do with leadership. The Spirit has been dealing with me about how I need to lead as a pastor. I need to do better. He has also been developing my own awareness of the mission of the Church. Part of the answer has to do with me as your pastor. It has occurred to me that this lack could also be related to the process of becoming mature. You can't run before you are able to walk. Maybe we've had to learn some things before we're ready to take the next step. And there may be other things going on as well. In a way, it's not crucial that we know what the exact obstacle is, as long as we can see that it's time for some change. If we can see that, what happens next is clear. We need to pray. We need to come to our Father and tell Him that we know that we have been given a mission, that we know that we need to be witnesses of our experience of Jesus as well as advocates, that we know that the power of the Spirit is necessary. We need to come to the Father and tell Him that we want to obey and then ask Him to tell us where we go next. That applies to us as a church, as families and as individuals. Please understand. If we are going to accomplish the mission Jesus has given to us, there are things that you must do. The first thin is to pray. Pray for the Spirit to move us ahead in whatever way He wants so that we would be faithful disciples of Jesus, so that we would be faithful to the mission that He has given to us. If we do that, I am positive that we will see the Spirit move and get us to the next step, whatever it may be.

So, in a way, the sermon boils down to one thing. We need to pray.