Practice #3: Be On Mission 24/7, Part 1

What I love about this last practice, Jesus answers the question definitively about our purpose. He says to you and says to me: If you're going to follow Me, you come before God; you do it on a daily basis. If you're going to follow Me, the way we're going to do life, not alone, we're going to do life in community.

Then now He says: Be on mission, 24/7.

Here's what I mean by that.

It's to develop the habitual outward focus on the needs of others to demonstrate Christ's love and compassion, building bridges to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, being on mission, it’s not just some job, or it's not just serving in the church here or there. All those things are important, but you and me individually being on mission, it's developing a mindset where we're constantly looking for the needs of other people so we can share the compassion and the love of Christ that builds a bridge that allows them to respect us, and to have curiosity and interest so we can share the good news. Christ died for your sin. He rose from the dead. Here's the good news. You're forgiven. It's an amazing, amazing story that we get to tell.

For those in leadership and pastors, let me tell you that being on mission means the focus of your small group or the focus of your church needs to develop a culture of serving in love with the containers of small groups that multiply where you're empowering the people in the church to meet the greatest needs in your community, the least of these, the helpless, the hopeless, the marginalized, the people caught in the sex trade, the poor.

Let me remind you and me of three facts that are true of every single person who's placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

Fact number one is we have a new standing before God.

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been,” notice past tense, “justified by faith,” present tense, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Fact number two, we receive the Holy Spirit and we are in a new community.

Romans 8:15 says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters] by which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”

And then fact number three, we are given a new assignment to be on mission.

Jesus said, “Follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men.”

And when it comes to purpose, when it comes to mission, Jesus is absolutely clear what His mission is. And then He is absolutely clear about what He's calling us to. Listen carefully, here's Jesus' mission clearly stated: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Could it get any clearer? That's why I came. He came to seek and to save hurting, isolated people that are stuck, to save them, to secure them, to bring them to the Father.

In Mark 10:45, He says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and,” get this, “give His life a ransom for many.” What's a ransom? A ransom is what you pay to purchase someone out of a difficult situation, the purchase price of Jesus' blood.

He died in your place, in my place, for the people of all the world, for all time to - literally the word is - to “atone” or to cover or to make salvation possible for whosoever believes.

But He didn't just come with a purpose, He modeled it.

Let me give you a few ways that Jesus modeled this purpose of seeking and saving the lost.

First, He had compassion on the multitudes.

In Matthew chapter 9, verse 36, “Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them” - why? “… because they were distressed and downcast like a sheep without a shepherd.”

This word compassion is very, very interesting. It's not just empathy. The Greek word is splankna. It comes from the internal organs.

It's a picture of seeing someone's need, seeing someone hurting, seeing someone suffering, seeing someone trapped in an addiction. And it's not like, Oh, that's too bad. It's this visceral something down inside that I mean, you just feel like, I can't not do something to help this person. And when Jesus saw the multitudes of His time, He had compassion because He saw that they were distressed, their life was not working.

And then another keyword, and they were “downcast.” And when Jesus saw the multitudes of His time, and when the resurrected Jesus, at the right hand of the Father, sees all the needs of the world, when He sees the hurts and the pain, the corruption, the injustice, when He sees the poverty, when He sees hurting people, people caught in sin, people that are struggling, the conflict in marriages, the loneliness, the isolation, He sees mankind distressed and downcast. And His heart is not judgment, it's compassion.

And so, He modeled that for the disciples. He deeply, deeply cared and does care about people. And then what did He do? He spoke the truth in love.

I'm reminded of the conversation with Nicodemus. Now, think of this. This is an expert. This is a guy that's super morally pure. This is a guy who knows the Old Testament backward and forward. This is a guy that has position and they had this conversation and he wanted to find out more about Jesus. And in the conversation, Jesus looks right at him. I mean, this is the expert.

He says, "Nicodemus, you must be born again. You can know all about God, you need to know Him; you need to have a spiritual birth. Jesus modeled - “I came to seek and to save the lost.”

But there are moments, even with people that have very high standing, you speak the truth even though it may sting, but you do it in love.

Not only that, He met people right where they were and He showed grace and acceptance without compromising the truth.

One of my favorite stories in all of the New Testament is the story of the woman at the well. And yes, yes, He violated the culture of even meeting with a woman. Yes, she's a Samaritan. I mean this is like the difference between Blacks and whites in the fifties. I mean, this is, the cultural barriers and the hatred between these two - Samaritans and Jews - was very high. She couldn't believe… but He met her right where she was. And He didn't start off with, "Hey, I realize you had five husbands and the guy you're living with isn't..."

He looks at her with compassion and He says, "If you knew the gift of God and what He has for you, the living water, you would ask Me for a drink." And, you know, she takes it pretty literally and goes, "Well, you don't even have a bucket." And then He reveals gently, meets her right where she's at and He tells her about her past and she surmises that He's a prophet. And instead of condemning her, never compromising the truth, He said: I came for people like you. I came for people whose lives are a train wreck. I came for people whose lives aren't working.

A woman like her felt used and abused and was passed from man to man and no one cared. And the reason that she was out there at that time of day because she was ostracized from the other women. And Jesus said, "You matter to me." And He actually then uses her to reach a whole group of people.

Or remember, Zacchaeus is up in the tree and he's a tax collector, and He didn't just say, you know, you're despised and if I hang out with you, people are going to think less of me." Jesus looks at him and goes: Zacchaeus, I need to go to your house. Why don't we grab a meal? In fact, why don't you invite your friends? And all the religious leaders and "What's He doing over there?"

You see, He was on mission and He met people right where they were. He never the truth, but He went to where they were; He built bridges. And the disciples, all their preset mindsets of what it meant to be righteous, He's blowing their mind like you're talking to a woman, you're talking to a Samaritan, you're eating. In that culture, when you ate with someone, you were saying, we have genuine, real relationship. A Pharisee wouldn't even walk into the house of a Gentile, let alone eat with him. Jesus broke barriers because He cared deeply about people. He was on mission 24/7.

Now what He does is He says to His disciples: It's going to be really rough and so I want to model something for you. We're going to boldly share the message even when there's persecution, even when there's pushback, even when they try to kill you for it.

And so, in John chapter 10, He begins to talk about His message of the Good Shepherd. He talks about His sheep hear His voice. And by the time He gets to the end of that message in verse 31, it says, “So they took up stones again to kill Him.”

He's modeling that there's no compromise.

We're going to build bridges, we're going to love people. I'm going to do whatever it takes to reach distressed, downcast people that are lost and hurting.

I love that passage. You know, we all know John 3:16, but most people don't know John 3:17 and 3:18, where it has this perspective where the Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. God's heart as He sees lost people, when He sees people in immorality and lifestyles of all kind and confusion and wickedness and things that sin has shaped and warped their lives, His heart is: I love you. I want to forgive you. I want to heal you and I want to restore you.

And He modeled that for His disciples. And then more than modeling it, near the end He says: Okay, you saw what I did - remember? Follow Me; I'll make you a fisher of men.

Then He gave them a global mandate.

And notice in Matthew 28, Jesus came to them and said, "All authority,” literally all power, “in heaven and in earth has been given to Me." So, resource is not going to be a problem. You've seen Me raise people from the dead. You've seen Me speak and things happen.

I've cast demons out. I speak to the oceans, to the winds. All authority has been given unto Me. “Therefore,” literally as you go about your life, “make disciples of all nations.” Well, how? “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

In that culture, if you are a Jew and you were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, you are saying, "I'm coming out of this community and I'm joining now this community because that old person is now dead and I'm new, alive, with a new family and a new identity." That's what baptism really meant.

And then after the new identity of becoming a part of this new supernatural community called the Church, He says then, “Teaching them” - what? to go to a service, teaching them to sing songs, teaching them to be a little bit nicer than other people. What's it say? No, no. “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

In other words, everything you heard Me teach and everything you saw Me do, I want you to teach them what I taught you and then I want them to do what I did because you are doing what I did. That's a disciple, that's an apprentice, that's a follower. That's a student who says, I want to be like my rabbi. I want to be with my rabbi. I want to imitate my rabbi and I want my life to so grow that I would have disciples or followers that would reflect my relationship that I'm becoming like Jesus and they're becoming like Jesus.

Do you see the difference? He didn't say make decisions. He didn't say, see how many people we can get into a building and "grow a church." Those are important parts, but that's not the commandment. Make disciples of every nation and don't think nation as like China or Russia or different countries. The word is “ethnos.” So, inside even the United States, there's all kind of ethnos or different people groups, groups of people that need to know: God died for you, He loves you, He has a plan for you, He's for you.

And then, He gave him a supernatural message. He goes: That's the commandment and you'll never be alone and I've got all this authority, but I'm going to give you a supernatural message of reconciliation that as you speak this message, the Spirit of God is going to take the clarity of that message. And as people's hearts are open, by the Holy Spirit, as you begin to teach exactly what I taught you, you're going to see people come to be followers of Me, just the way that you were."

The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it's one of my favorite passages in all the New Testament. He talks about his motivation. Now think about, those of you that maybe have been around the scriptures a little bit more, and, you know, he's been beaten a couple of times. He's been left in the deep, you know, he’s persecuted and he just keeps getting up. He just won't give up. What was it that motivated the Apostle Paul and the same motivation that God wants to be in our heart and our mind as we come before Him daily, as we do life in community and as we are on mission 24/7?

Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 14. This is his motivation: “For the love of Christ compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died.” [The] Apostle Paul says: I'm compelled. I can't not share. I can't not care. God has so loved me. He's hemmed me in before and behind and up and down, and He's hemmed me in with His love because I've become absolutely certain and convinced that one died - Jesus - and He died for all. This message, this life, this forgiveness, this restoration, this healing, it's available to everybody. And he says: That's what motivates me.

And so, his mission then, verse 15, “He died for all, that those of us who live,” notice this. Listen to this servanthood, listen to the focus, “…that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him,” Jesus, “who died for them and was raised again.” Do you see the flip? Do you see the mindset? That's why we have to go into training.