Grow! It’s Jesus’ Mission for Us
Jesus planted the first church and his final commandment, the Great Commission, was to go and plant more churches. The Great Commission is often associated with missions, but it isn’t exclusive. The church exists to baptize, teach, and make more disciples, so the Great Commission is all about growing!
Transcript
Why did RiverLife plant another campus? The answer is simple—to grow. But why are we trying to grow in the first place. Each week in this series, we give a different answer to that question.
Last week, it was because it’s God’ plan for humanity.
From the very beginning of creation, we were made in God’s image and it was God’s plan to increase his image on earth through us. And in Jesus, who is the perfect image of God, we can create more of God’s image for God’s glory. Growth is the increase of God’s image on the earth through the increase of the number of disciples and churches.
Now, this week: Why grow? It’s Jesus’ mission for us. Today we’re going to dive deeper into Jesus’ command for us to multiply God’s image on earth by making more disciples.
One of the fun parts of being newly married is imagining what your kids would look like. It’s cool to think of what a little mini-me would look like. As most of you probably know, Pang Foua can’t have kids of our own, and we’ve often lamented not being able to see what our kids would look like. ‘Cause interracial kids are adorable, right?
So, I turned to the one place where all your hypothetical questions can be answered: the internet. So, thanks to MakeMeBabies.com, I can now see what our kids would look like. Wanna see?
Here’s our little boy. Ok, I could see that.
Here’s our little girl. She certainly did not get our hair from me!
And finally… Here’s another girl. Now, wait! How did our kid turn Blasian? What happened here?
We all understand what it looks like to make more of us, but do you know what it looks like to make more disciples? That’s Jesus’ mission for us, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
The Great Commission
Now, when I say, “make disciples,” some of your minds might immediately go to a certain passage commonly known as The Great Commission. Others of you might never have heard of that name before.
It’s from Matthew 28:19-20. “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This verse is often used as the bedrock of overseas missions. It pops up in every Missions Conference you’ve ever been to. It shows up in inspiring videos of missionaries working in Africa or Asia. And there’s a good reason for that. It’s the most comprehensive and theologically rich statement about overseas missions in the whole bible.
Problems with Missions
For centuries, missions have been a core aspect of the Church. But over the last 10-15 years, a lot of aspects of overseas missions work have come under scrutiny. There are a number of parts of it that are problematic. Here are four of them.
The history of Western missions is filled with colonialism, ethnocentrism, and a whole lot of white savior thinking. Enlighted European saints would go out to convert the “savages”. Often, as missionaries shared the gospel, they also forced white Euro-western culture and values. In fact, a research Barna study revealed that a third of Christians 18-34 saw past missions work as straight-up unethical.
In 2009, there was a book published called When Helping Hurts. It showed how a lot of ways the American church approached helping the poor was actually doing more harm than good. And it called into question the ethics and effectiveness of some common short-term missions practices.
Some argue that the cost of a short-term mission trip is not a good use of money. For what it takes to fund 10 people on a 2-week trip, you could fund a resident missionary for 3 months or a local pastor for 6-9 months.
Even the term “Great Commission” is problematic. It’s called that to put it on par with Jesus’ Great Commandment: Love God. Except that the phrase “Great Commission” isn’t in the Bible. At least with “love God”, Jesus literally calls it the greatest commandment. And, anyway, the term wasn’t even widely used until 100 years ago, when famous missionary Hudson Taylor popularized the phrase. So, for most of Christian history, this hasn’t been so “great.”
As I’ve studied all this, I’ve really struggled over the past five years thinking about missions. I have three competing tensions going on in my head.
The Bible is full of commands to proclaim Jesus and make disciples. They can’t simply be ignored.
There’s this growing body of thought identifying very real problems with the way missions work has been done, especially from white, American, well-off churches.
After high school, I went on a short-term missions trip to Haiti with my white, American, well-off church. Regardless of it’s flaws, it was spiritually and culturally significant for me. In fact, I can trace things I do in this church back to that trip.
So, what am I supposed to do with all this? If you’ve had concerns about missions, what are you supposed to do with it? Can we redeem missions from imperialism, cultural blindness, poor training, and good (but flawed) intentions?
Thankfully, the Bible offers some insights into answering that question.
Let’s begin by revisiting that passage in Matthew that’s commonly called The Great Commission. “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Did you know this isn’t the only time after the resurrection that Jesus gave his followers a mission like this? In fact, there are five “Great Commission” passages—one in each gospel and one in Acts. And so together, they paint a much more compelling picture of the mission Jesus has for us.
All five of these are in the back of your bulletin, so you can see them together.
The first is Matthew 28:18-20 that we just read.
Mark 16:15-16 - “15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Luke 24:46-49 - “46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
John 20:21-23 - “21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Acts 1:8 - “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Did you notice any similarities? Ya, there are a bunch! These passages all have three common themes:
Mission
Promises
People & places
Let’s look at some of them.
Jesus gives his followers a MISSION:
Go
Make disciples
Baptize
Teach
Preach
Be witnesses
Forgive
Jesus makes his followers PROMISES:
Authority
Jesus’ presence
Peace
Power
The promised Holy Spirit
Jesus gives his followers PEOPLE & PLACES:
All the world
All creation
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria (your city, county, state)
The ends of the earth
To the end of the age
Is that what you think about when you hear my talk about Jesus’ mission for us? What does this look like in your life?
Let’s start with MISSION. Let me tell you a little secret: Everybody has a mission they’re living by, maybe even a couple. Ya, that’s right. You have a mission that drives your decisions, values, priorities during this phase of your life. The only questions are whether you’re aware of it and whether you’ll admit it.
Maybe your mission is to make money, build financial security
Or have a strong family
Or be involved in your clan
Maybe it’s simply to have fun
Or it’s to be liked
Or maybe you strive to be a good Christian
So, the question is not whether you have a mission. The question is: Does your mission align with Jesus’ mission? Or are you really just doing your own thing?
Now let’s talk about PROMISES. What promises drive you? What promises do you depend on in life? Like mission, we all have them. Just think of it like your favorite Instagram quote.
Here are a few common promises that might be driving you:
Hard work pays off
Family is everything (insert your own Fast and Furious joke here)
Success gives you value and worth
YOLO (east, drink, and be merry)
You are your best self
So, I’ll ask you: Do you rely on Jesus’ promises or your own?
Lastly, let’s talk about PEOPLE & PLACES.
Who are you called to? Where are you called to? If we’re honest, most of the ways we spend our time, money, and energy build our kingdom.
But Jesus is calling us to people and places that are so much bigger than our own little kingdom. He’s calling you to participate in bringing his kingdom down to earth. To get more of his image for his glory.
Now, this one is different than the others. Jesus gave all believers the same mission and the same promises. But he calls us each to something unique and special in his kingdom. What unique people and places is Jesus calling you to?
For example, God has given me a unique calling to love and serve the Hmong community. That’s my people. And, God willing, I’ll be doing that until the day I die. God has also called me to build and grow RiverLife Church. That’s my place. I make disciples here. And, if I’m faithful, there will be more of God’s image in the Hmong community because of Jesus-following, God-image-bearers like you.
Closing
To close, I want to summarize all five passages we talked about today. I want to credit Forest Baptist Church in Ontario, Canada for this. It’s not original with me.
Why did RiverLife plant a second campus? In order to participate in this:
The mission of the church is to make disciples (Matthew) by preaching (Mark) the message of Jesus Christ (Luke) to the whole world (Acts), baptizing those who respond (Matthew, Mark) and teaching them to obey Christ (Matthew), especially in forgiving others (John). The church is under the authority of Christ (Matthew) and strengthed by the Holy Spirit (John, Acts) whom the Father has promised (Luke) to proclaim the message with divine power (Mark).
Will you join us, and more importantly, will you join Jesus in this mission?
Reflection
What is one way you can join the mission Jesus is calling you to today?Mission, promise, people, or place
