WEBVTT 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:08.179 Well, good morning again. We are nearing the end of a sermon series that we've been in this fall 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:16.800 called Read, Mark, Learn, and we've been studying the doctrine of Scripture. We've been looking at 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:22.699 the relationship that we have with God through His Word. We've been looking at some of the 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:29.339 characteristics, some of the attributes of Scripture to better understand how is it that we 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:35.119 read and study God's Word? How is it that we relate to God through His Word? We've looked at 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:41.480 the truth, goodness, and beauty of Scripture. We've looked at the clarity of Scripture, the 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:47.480 sufficiency of Scripture. We've looked at the Bible as a reliable historical document. 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:53.900 In this morning, we come to look at another attribute, another characteristic of God's Word, 00:00:53.899 --> 00:01:04.420 that God's Word is missional. It's missional. Our world is inundated with information and content. 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:14.759 There are thousands, millions of books, articles, videos, podcasts, TV shows, TED Talks, and on and on 00:01:14.759 --> 00:01:22.180 and on. Our world is saturated with media and information. In such a culture, it's tempting to 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:28.280 treat Scripture as just one more source of information, one more way that we consume ideas 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:35.280 and media in this huge buffet of content and information. It's tempting to treat the Bible, 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:42.740 treat Scripture that way. But this is not how Scripture comes to us. It's not how the Bible talks 00:01:42.740 --> 00:01:48.820 about itself. To read God's Word isn't just to consume more content and information, 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:57.479 but it's to encounter the living God. It is to encounter the God who acts and who speaks. God's 00:01:57.479 --> 00:02:04.319 Word and His actions are so integral. They're so inseparable. It's impossible to separate them. You can't 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:13.879 have one without the other. God created the universe with words. He created the universe by speaking. 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:22.919 God speaks and things happen. His words and His actions are inseparable. And so when we say the 00:02:22.919 --> 00:02:30.599 Bible is God's Word, part of what we mean when we say that is that we encounter a God whose words 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:39.319 are inseparable from His actions. Another way to say that is that God's Word shows us God's mission. 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:43.439 God's Word is missional. And so we're going to look at that this morning. And we're going to look 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:50.439 at two aspects of that. We're going to look at how God's Word reveals the story of God's mission, 00:02:50.799 --> 00:02:55.579 and we're going to look at how God's Word reveals the shape of His mission, the story of God's mission 00:02:55.579 --> 00:03:01.759 and the shape of His mission. So first of all, that God's Word reveals the story of His mission. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:08.919 It reveals the story of His mission. The Bible comes to us not as a theologyverständious, 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:16.979 textbook. It comes to us as an unfolding story about a God who seeks to rescue his good creation 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:22.019 from sin and evil and death. And as the story unfolds, we get more and more clarity about how 00:03:22.019 --> 00:03:28.019 God accomplishes this mission. And some of you who are in the drama of Scripture class 00:03:28.019 --> 00:03:35.740 may have been studying this this fall, this unfolding drama, this unfolding story of God's 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:42.060 word. In Genesis 1, God commissions humanity. He commissions his image bearers to fill all 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:47.980 creation with his glory, with his goodness, with his love and justice. God commissions humanity to 00:03:47.980 --> 00:03:55.360 rule and reign in his place. And that's God's original creation intent. But this original 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:01.879 mission in creation gets hijacked, of course, in Genesis 3 in the fall when sin enters the world. 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:09.019 Sin and death come into God's world, not as a natural part of it, but as enemy evil intruders. 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:15.759 But just as soon as things go wrong in Genesis 3, we have a promise from God. We have a promise 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:21.779 from God that he will one day destroy these enemies of sin and death. And when he says in Genesis 3 that 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:29.040 the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And how exactly God is going to fulfill 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:37.700 this promise in Genesis 3 remains to be seen until Genesis 12. And in Genesis 12, God makes a covenant 00:04:37.700 --> 00:04:43.600 with Abraham that through this one man, Abraham, and through his family, God is going to bless all the 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:50.300 nations of the earth. God's mission to redeem his good creation, to push back the effects of the fall 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:57.220 and sin and death, is going to happen through Abraham's family. And how exactly that's going to work, 00:04:57.220 --> 00:05:02.300 how God is going to redeem his creation through Abraham's family, becomes even more clear 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:10.520 in the story of Israel, in the Exodus. In the Exodus, we see that God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt. 00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:16.940 And he commissions them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And he says to them, 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:23.660 if you live in covenant relationship with me, and if you keep my law, not only are you going to flourish, 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:28.640 not only are you going to thrive, but through you, I'm going to bless all the nations of the earth, 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.880 just like I promised to Abraham. God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled in the story of Israel. And as 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:41.960 the story of Israel unfolds, we get even more clarity into how God is going to do that when we see 00:05:41.960 --> 00:05:48.260 God's eternal covenant with David in 2 Samuel. So you have the story of Israel unfolding, and that comes 00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:55.839 in a sharper focus in 2 Samuel, when God promises to establish God's throne forever through the line 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:01.620 and kingship of David. And so it's through this king who embodies all that Israel is supposed to be, 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.480 that God is going to rescue the world, that he's going to save and bless all the nations, 00:06:07.060 --> 00:06:12.439 restore all of creation, defeat sin and death once and for all through this Davidic king. 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:19.719 And that, in a nutshell, is kind of the story of God's mission in the Old Testament. And all of 00:06:19.719 --> 00:06:25.600 these aspects of this story, they build on each other, they culminate on each other, and they find 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:31.759 their fulfillment ultimately in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true image of her who fulfills that 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:38.759 original creation mandate to extend God's glory and his character to all creation. Jesus is Abraham's 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:45.300 true offspring, through whom all the nations come to be blessed. Jesus is the true Israel who kept God's 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:51.060 law and intercedes for the world as a priest, and he's the true Davidic king who sits on God's throne, 00:06:51.180 --> 00:06:59.439 who sits on David's throne, and whose kingdom lasts forever. Jesus's life, his death, his resurrection, 00:07:00.039 --> 00:07:05.740 and his ascension are the climax of this story because they are the ultimate and decisive events in God's 00:07:05.740 --> 00:07:13.600 mission to rescue his world and defeat sin and death once and for all. And so this Sunday in the church 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:19.240 calendar is Christ the King Sunday. Would it be more helpful if I turn this off and use one of these 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:33.319 microphones? Are we on? Okay, great. Sometimes you just got to go with your gut, right? So Jesus, 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:44.759 his life and his death and his resurrection are the climaxed true king who has come to rescue his good 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:51.759 world. And so this story of God's mission that starts in creation, that goes throughout the Old 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:57.920 Testament, is fulfilled in Christ. Now all of this is important because all of this is in the background 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:03.840 in Matthew chapter 28 when Jesus gives this mission to his disciples, this mission that we call the 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:10.340 Great Commission. This whole story, all of these things about Jesus being the true king, all of this 00:08:10.340 --> 00:08:18.139 is in the background as Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth 00:08:18.139 --> 00:08:23.319 has been given to me. And this makes sense if you've been following the story up to this point. 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:30.620 This is a statement of a victorious king who has conquered his enemies. All authority in heaven 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:36.819 and on earth has been given to me. You can't make a bigger statement. So it's a statement of a victorious 00:08:36.819 --> 00:08:44.679 king and it is also a recommissioning. It's a recommissioning of humanity's job description in 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:51.720 Genesis chapter 1. Just as in Genesis chapter 1 in that passage that we read earlier, God tells 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:58.440 humanity to fill the earth with his glory, with people who bear his image. So in Matthew 28, Jesus 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:05.600 tells his disciples to fill the earth with the glory of God, with people who are his disciples, with people 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:12.680 who follow him. And that's because following Jesus is about the restoration of God, of the image of God 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:20.699 and humanity. So Matthew 28 is this, not only this great commission, it's this great recommissioning 00:09:20.699 --> 00:09:27.500 of Genesis chapter 1. And so what is that mission? Well, in verses 18 through 20, Jesus says, 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:34.099 go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:39.620 the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:46.779 always to the end of the age. And before we dive into more about the details of this great commission, 00:09:46.899 --> 00:09:54.159 I think it's important to pause and reflect on who Jesus is giving this great commission to. Who is he 00:09:54.159 --> 00:10:04.039 speaking to? He's speaking to his ragtag band of blue-collar disciples who are uneducated and unqualified 00:10:04.039 --> 00:10:11.039 in the eyes of the world. It's to these flawed, broken, sinful men and women that Jesus says, 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:13.719 go and make disciples of all nations. 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:20.279 And I don't know about you, but that sounds to me like the worst strategy in the world. 00:10:21.079 --> 00:10:26.079 Like Jesus is the king of all things. He's just said, all authority in heaven and earth belongs 00:10:26.079 --> 00:10:32.039 to me. And he is the one who gives away his mission. I mean, wouldn't it be better if he just 00:10:32.039 --> 00:10:37.439 did everything and accomplished everything himself? I think it's kind of like having a game of pickup 00:10:37.439 --> 00:10:43.539 basketball in your neighborhood park, playing a game of three-on-three basketball, and LeBron James 00:10:43.539 --> 00:10:49.919 is on your team. And you're just playing like your friends. LeBron James is on your team, and he just 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:54.799 keeps passing you the basketball. And you're like, LeBron, stop passing me the basketball. Just dunk on 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:59.779 these guys. Like you're one of the greatest players of all time. Right? That's kind of what it's like. 00:10:59.779 --> 00:11:08.579 But the beauty of the biblical story is that God always restores in redemption what he starts 00:11:08.579 --> 00:11:16.220 in creation. He commissions humanity once again to join in what he's doing. He rescues lost humanity 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:25.779 and turns to us and says, here's the ball. I'm giving you the ball. By grace, we have been invited 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:32.000 into the greatest mission in the universe. By grace, we have been invited into the greatest story 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:38.480 ever told. And so if you're here this morning and you're wondering, does my life have any meaning at 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:45.839 all? Does my life have any purpose at all? This is it. This is it right here. What greater story could 00:11:45.839 --> 00:11:51.259 your life be part of? What greater mission could your life be part of than the redemption and the 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:58.980 restoration of all things through Jesus, the King who has already conquered sin and death in our place? 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:06.360 And this is really important as we think about our relationship with Scripture because this is why 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:13.080 being immersed in Scripture, being immersed in not just the content of Scripture, but being immersed in 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:19.220 the story of Scripture is so important. We spend a lot of time talking about the different attributes of 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:25.399 Scripture in this series about how, why, and how we should study God's Word. But another reason why we 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:31.480 should study Scripture and be immersed in it is so that we know how to live out God's mission that he 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:38.340 has given to us. Among the many questions that we should be asking when we read and study God's Word 00:12:38.340 --> 00:12:43.740 is what does this teach me about the nature of what God is up to? What does this teach me about the 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:50.120 nature of God's mission? And how does it equip me to play a part in it? How does it equip me to play 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:59.700 my part in it? The Improvised Shakespeare Company is a theater group in Chicago. It was founded in 2005, 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:08.340 and they do what their name says. They put on improvised Shakespeare plays, which sounds kind of crazy. 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:16.000 But what they do is they start the show by asking the audience for a random title, a random word, 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:23.940 a random phrase that becomes the title of the show. And then they proceed to improvise an entire story, 00:13:24.040 --> 00:13:31.980 an entire play based on just that title. But they do it in entirely Shakespeare language, 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:40.080 entirely Shakespeare style, rhythm, characters, even plot structure follows a kind of Shakespearean 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:46.200 style and ethos. And their website says this about their performances. It says, 00:13:46.539 --> 00:13:53.659 nothing has been planned out, rehearsed, or written. All of the dialogue is said for the first time, 00:13:53.740 --> 00:13:59.100 the characters are created as you watch. And if you've ever, if you're ever wondering where the story 00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:07.060 is going, so are they. And the reviews are amazing. The reviews are, I've never seen it myself, but 00:14:07.060 --> 00:14:11.259 from what the reviews say, it's incredibly entertaining. This is a critically acclaimed show. 00:14:11.680 --> 00:14:19.960 They've won many awards. And I don't know about you, but I have to ask, how in the world could actors 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:28.700 improv an entire Shakespeare play? And the actors can do this because they have utterly immersed themselves 00:14:28.700 --> 00:14:35.300 in Shakespeare's works. They have utterly immersed themselves in all of his plays, all of his works, 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:41.160 all of his characters. And they have so immersed themselves in it that it has become a part of them. 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:47.180 They know the language and the stories and the character and the style by heart. They know it by heart. 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:52.580 It just becomes part of them. And friends, this is a picture of what it looks like to be immersed in 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:59.200 God's Word. Not just that we know all of this content, but that we know how to live out the story 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:09.680 of God's mission. How do you know how to live out the mission of God at a tech startup? How do you know 00:15:09.680 --> 00:15:16.520 how to live out the mission of God at a university? On the hill, working for a non-profit at a law firm, 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:25.240 as a teacher, as a parent, as a spouse, as a grandparent? How do you know how to live out God's 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:30.919 mission in all of these different spheres and vocations? You have to be immersed in the story 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:38.480 of God's Word. When we study God's Word, we need not only to ask questions about personal application, 00:15:39.319 --> 00:15:45.960 how does this apply to my personal life? But we also need to ask questions about cosmic redemption. 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:52.379 How does this passage show me the grand story of God to redeem and to reconcile all things through 00:15:52.379 --> 00:16:00.939 Jesus, of which I get to play a part, of which I get to play a role? That is what it looks like 00:16:00.939 --> 00:16:07.019 to be immersed in the story of God. So first, God's Word reveals the story of God's mission. 00:16:08.059 --> 00:16:14.559 And secondly, God's Word reveals to us the shape of his mission, the shape of his mission. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:21.179 So in Matthew 28, Jesus gives his disciples the great commission, the great recommissioning in 00:16:21.179 --> 00:16:27.619 Genesis 1, and he says, go and make disciples of all nations, every tribe, tongue, and nation of all 00:16:27.619 --> 00:16:31.799 different ethnic groups, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, 00:16:32.419 --> 00:16:39.459 and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And so the shape of this mission involves both 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:49.200 proclamation and demonstration. It involves the words of the gospel and the deeds and the actions of 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:56.379 the gospel. There's a popular saying that gets quoted sometimes in some different Christian religious 00:16:56.379 --> 00:17:05.779 circles. I don't know who this was actually originated by, but there is this phrase, there is this saying 00:17:05.779 --> 00:17:14.359 that says, preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words. Preach the gospel at all times, 00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:25.079 if necessary, use words. And I just want to say that that is entirely wrong. It is impossible to preach 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:32.539 the gospel without words. Why? Because the gospel isn't about you. The gospel isn't about us. It is about 00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:40.700 the finished work of Christ who is a suffering and conquering king. That is news. And that news has 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:50.740 to be proclaimed with words. Even your most holy and loving life, even my most holy and loving life 00:17:50.740 --> 00:17:57.740 isn't good enough for somebody's sins to be forgiven and for them to be united to a relationship with God. 00:17:57.740 --> 00:18:05.620 No one is going to look and observe my life and just conclude, you know, there's probably a holy God 00:18:05.620 --> 00:18:12.200 who I'm separated from, who I probably need my sins to be forgiven. And there's one mediator between God 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:16.920 is man and his name and Jesus. And I believe if I believe in him, I'll have everlasting life and I'll 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:22.160 have the Holy Spirit. Like no one's going to look at my life and conclude that. Like no one's going to get to 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:29.360 that conclusion. Why? Because the gospel is a message that has to be proclaimed. And so the mission of the 00:18:29.360 --> 00:18:39.519 church making disciples of Jesus involves, has to involve the proclamation of God's word in preaching 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:46.279 and teaching, sharing the gospel and evangelism, in public settings, private settings, one-on-one, 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:54.920 in homes and neighborhoods, in schools. You cannot have the mission of God without the proclamation of 00:18:54.920 --> 00:19:02.920 God's word. But you also can't have the mission of God without the demonstration of God's word, 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:09.119 without the demonstration, the loving actions and deeds of the gospel. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:17.139 we're to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. 00:19:18.379 --> 00:19:24.979 Well, what is it that Jesus has commanded us? What is everything that Jesus has commanded us? How would you 00:19:24.979 --> 00:19:32.639 summarize that? Well, we actually summarize it every Sunday in our liturgy. The summary of everything that 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:39.640 Christ has commanded us is to commands, love God with everything that you have and love your neighbor 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:47.400 as yourself. We're to make disciples of Jesus who love God and who love neighbor. Mature disciples of 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:53.280 Jesus are people who know what it looks like to love. They're people who know what it looks like to 00:19:53.280 --> 00:20:00.100 love God and love neighbor in every area of life. And so integrating our faith in our workplace, 00:20:00.099 --> 00:20:06.399 serving our city, feeding the hungry, parenting children, caring for refugees, these are all ways 00:20:06.399 --> 00:20:10.699 in which we participate in God's mission because they are ways that we love God and love our neighbor. 00:20:12.199 --> 00:20:18.159 And you might say, well, you know, a lot of non-religious people do these things. A lot of 00:20:18.159 --> 00:20:23.480 secular people do these things. So what's the difference? What's the difference between us doing 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:28.719 these things and them doing these things? Well, there's a lot of things we could talk about, but the main 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:34.160 difference, the primary difference, is our demonstration of the gospel, our demonstration of 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:42.339 God's word, is always and necessarily married to the proclamation of God's word. You can't have 00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:47.360 proclamation without demonstration. Proclamation without demonstration is like telling somebody 00:20:47.360 --> 00:20:55.440 to dance to a song, but only giving them the lyrics. Like, that's just going to look really awkward. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:00.580 If you tell someone to dance to a song, but you only give them the words, you only give them the 00:21:00.580 --> 00:21:07.039 lyrics, there's no music. Demonstration without proclamation is like telling somebody to sing a 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:12.299 song they've never heard by just playing the instruments and by not giving them the words, 00:21:12.539 --> 00:21:18.680 not giving them the lyrics. And friends, we have the greatest song in the universe for people to hear. 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:27.320 It will make all of creation sing and dance. And so we have to play a song that has the most beautiful 00:21:27.320 --> 00:21:32.279 lyrics and has the most beautiful music. We have to proclaim the truth of the message and demonstrate 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:41.720 the beauty and the goodness of that message through loving action. One of the best modern examples, I think, 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:48.600 of bringing together both proclamation and demonstration is the ministry of John Perkins, 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:55.960 who is a pastor, author, civil rights activist in Mendenhall, Mississippi, right outside of Jackson. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:04.960 And John Perkins had an unusually powerful impact on the Christian community because of how unusually 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:13.120 holistic his ministry was. It was unusually holistic. He and his wife founded a number of organizations, 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:19.100 the biggest of which is called the Christian Community Development Association. And what's amazing 00:22:19.100 --> 00:22:25.620 about John Perkins' ministry is that it involved lots of proclamation and lots of demonstration. 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:32.700 It involved evangelism, sharing the gospel, teaching, preaching, vacation Bible school for kids, 00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:39.200 addressing Bible literacy for poor communities, for people on the margins in this small town, 00:22:39.840 --> 00:22:44.559 people who were on the fringes of society, proclaiming the gospel to them, teaching the Bible to them. 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:51.080 But his ministry also involved lots of demonstration, helping people at the margins with food and housing. 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:55.660 They started daycares. They started health clinics. They helped people register to vote. They helped 00:22:55.660 --> 00:23:02.299 desegregate schools. They did ministry in prisons, after school groups, youth summer camps. And it goes on and on 00:23:02.299 --> 00:23:09.500 and on. The breadth and the scope of John Perkins' ministry is enormous, and its legacy continues today. 00:23:10.299 --> 00:23:16.119 And if you read John Perkins' writings, if you read his books, you become aware that there's a deep sense 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:23.819 of how integral and inseparable proclamation and demonstration are. In his book, A Quiet Revolution, 00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:31.200 he talks about how their ministry in Mississippi began with lots of Bible teaching and evangelism. 00:23:31.419 --> 00:23:35.099 That's actually where they started, by sharing the gospel with people who were on the margins 00:23:35.099 --> 00:23:42.399 in Mendenhall, Mississippi. But they quickly learned that proclamation and demonstration need each other. 00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:47.500 And so he talks about this in his book, A Quiet Revolution. And he talks about what he calls 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:55.559 real evangelism, real evangelism. He says, real evangelism brings a person face to face with all 00:23:55.559 --> 00:24:03.480 the needs of a person. It is cruel to share the words of life with a person without also sharing the 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:10.119 things that a person needs to live, James chapter 2. But also we can get caught in the shallows of 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:16.880 paternalism if we help meet people's physical needs without sharing with them the understanding that 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:24.160 they can have a new quality of life with God that lasts forever. Real evangelism brings us face to 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:31.460 face with all the needs of people and then reaches out to them to make them whole. I think that's a 00:24:31.460 --> 00:24:36.620 beautiful picture of the inseparable nature of the proclamation and demonstration of God's mission. 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:42.980 But perhaps the clearest place to see real evangelism is the ministry of Jesus Christ himself. 00:24:42.980 --> 00:24:51.960 Jesus came preaching and he came healing. He taught in the synagogue and he fed the 5,000. 00:24:52.839 --> 00:25:00.299 He forgave people's sins and he restored people's bodies. He brought a salvation. He brought a gospel. 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:07.460 He brought a kingdom that restores the whole person because he is the king of all things. He reigns over 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:15.720 all things and he has come to restore all of creation. And so that is what we mean when we say 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:22.200 that the Bible is God's word, that God's word is missional, that invites us both the story of God's 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:28.039 mission and it invites us into the shape of his mission. And so we have to, if we're going to live 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:33.860 out that mission of our lives, we have to immerse ourselves in it. Not just looking to the Bible to be a 00:25:33.859 --> 00:25:40.779 source of more content, but to be a story that we actually inhabit and embody in our everyday lives. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:47.000 And the word of God also empowers us to take that mission out to the world through word and deed, 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:55.000 through proclamation and demonstration. But if you're anything like me, and we think about the 00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:03.700 the bigness, the vastness, the grandeur of God's mission, it's easy to feel sometimes overwhelmed by all this, 00:26:04.180 --> 00:26:10.579 overwhelmed by the grandeur of the story of God, by its scope, by its size, its mission. I mean, the Great 00:26:10.579 --> 00:26:17.039 Commission is to make disciples of all nations. I mean, there's no greater mission than that. It's also 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:24.720 sometimes intimidating to figure out what this looks like in the ordinariness of life. It's 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:30.379 intimidating to figure out what does this look like for me in the complexity of today's culture that 00:26:30.379 --> 00:26:35.759 we live in. Thinking about this practically can sometimes be intimidating and overwhelming, 00:26:36.420 --> 00:26:44.200 but what I want us to see is that if this is what we're part of, if this is what we're invited into, 00:26:44.200 --> 00:26:52.160 then God promises to be with us through his word. As I think about living out God's mission in my own 00:26:52.160 --> 00:27:03.319 life, I think, man, I need help to do that. I need grace. I need power. I need wisdom. I need discernment. 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:11.059 I need encouragement. I need motivation. I need examples for how to do this. Where am I going to find that? 00:27:11.059 --> 00:27:18.079 Where am I going to find all this? We find it in God's word. The power we need, the encouragement we 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.980 need, the wisdom that we need, the examples that we need, the motivation we need, all comes to us 00:27:22.980 --> 00:27:29.419 through God's word, and God's word is where God is present in Jesus Christ through the power of the 00:27:29.419 --> 00:27:37.480 spirit. The beauty of the Great Commission is the last line that often goes unmentioned, and Jesus says, 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:46.400 Behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age. In verse 20, Christ is present in his word by 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:54.140 his Holy Spirit to empower us for his mission. We are not on our own, and having that promise of his 00:27:54.140 --> 00:28:02.380 spirit, of his presence with us through his word, it not only invites us to participate in the grander of 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:11.040 the story of God's word, but it drives us again and again into God himself, into his arms, into his 00:28:11.040 --> 00:28:22.680 presence, into his peace, and into his love. Let's pray. Lord, we give you thanks that you are king, 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:31.400 that you're the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and Lord, you not only accomplish redemption for us, 00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:39.200 but you invite us into your story. You invite us into your mission. Lord, give us grace to follow you, 00:28:39.300 --> 00:28:46.100 to obey you in every area of our lives, in every place where you've called us to live out on mission. 00:28:46.200 --> 00:28:52.340 God, thank you that you're with us. Thank you that you promise to empower us to live out the 00:28:52.340 --> 00:28:57.800 mission that you've called us to. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.