Who Is Responsible for Answering the Call to Missions?
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
even so I am sending you.” John 20:21
John 20:21 – Answering the Call to Missions
First Sunday in Lent – March 6 2022 (am)
Prayer for Illumination:
For your glory, O Lord, and for the glory of Your name,
and for your kingdom and the extension of your fame,
for all the world to hear the reason that Christ came,
and for our wayward hearts, that they might trust the same.
Give us ears that hear what Your word has to say,
And hearts that perceive the good and perfect way,
And feet to go and a will to obey,
All that your Word teaches us today.
Amen.
Scripture Reading: John 20:19-23 (906 in the pew Bible)
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I’m sure I don’t even need to ask if you remember the major event that was taking place in April of 2020, life changing as that event was. It was an event that few of us thought would ever happen and were it to happen, we couldn’t believe it would happen in our lifetime. But alas, it did, and in many ways, we’re still learning to live in its aftermath. Of course the event I’m talking about is the retirement of Pastor Ray Glinski
If you’ve only joined us in the past two years, allow me to explain. Ray Glinski was and is still the longest standing Elder and Staff Member of Grace Church primarily serving in role of Missions & Shepherding Pastor. Having served more than twenty years with us, it was in April of 2020 that Ray Glinski finally retired and I was asked to fill his shoes.
So for nearly two years now I’ve been filling the role of Missions Pastor. It has been an absolute delight to do so, as I’ve loved working with our amazing missionaries and our GO Team. But it has also been a bit daunting
Many of you will know that I’m also the youth pastor here – and while youth ministry can feel a bit daunting in its own right as you have to keep up with the topics that are on the minds of our students, and teach Scripture in a way that meets them where they are at, and be fun while recognizing the limitations of your body, and which students are not worth challenging for a frisbee or volleyball if you value your ACLs.
Even in light of that, the role of Missions Pastor can feel even more daunting. Perhaps it’s because of the scope of the role, which is basically the whole world. Perhaps it’s because of my own limitations. For example, evangelism has never been one of my strong suits. Neither has apologetics, though I’ve slowly grown in my ability to defend the faith but have struggled to do so in ways that are winsome. Perhaps it is due to my own inexperience. Many of you will know I did spend six years on the mission field but, as most long term missionaries will tell you, after six years overseas you’re still just getting started and the years of fruitfulness tend to still be ahead of you, not behind you. Or even my lack of formal education as I’m also not a missiologist, nor do I have any degrees in this subject. Or perhaps it’s because you’re the one’s the Lord’s given me to work with!
But here we are – in it together – me as your missions pastor, and you, the church, both tasked with reaching lost and dying world for Christ. How are we going to do this?
Though I joke, I’m serious when I say that the weight of this task and this position has not been lost on me.
How are we supposed to engage in missions as a local church?
So for the past two years, since taking my position, I’ve been asking myself this question – How are we supposed to engage in missions as a local church? How are we, as a church, going to be faithful to keep missions a priority? How are we going to engage in the global work of reaching the nations far away? The work of identifying and raising up and sending out and supporting missionaries to unreached and underreached people groups? How are we going to engage in the local work of reaching our neighbors next door? The work of local evangelism and being Christ’s hands and feet to our communities and our schools and our businesses and our cities How are we going to keep from becoming a church that can’t see beyond its own walls? Or a church that is motivated more by preserving the status quo than the great commission? Or a church that allots the work of missions to them, out there, but doesn’t own it among us, in here? How are we going to answer the call to missions?
Well that is the very question we aim to answer over the next three weeks in a series I’ve titled, “Answering the Call to Missions.” A series in which we aim to answer three questions over the next three weeks: (1) Who is responsible for answering the call to missions? (2) Where will we go to answer the call to missions? (3) What ought to be our goals as we answer the call to missions?
And my primary aim for this series is not to simply to educate you on missions, but rather that we all, as a church, will understand and then answer our Lord’s call to the work of missions.
Towards that end – let’s begin by opening back up to our passage for today – John 20:21
The Context of our Passage
Our passage in set in the book of John on the evening of Jesus’ resurrection. Thus it falls in the time between Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension, which means these are among the final words and final instructions of Jesus’ earthly ministry prior to taking up his throne in heaven
As we zoom out to the whole New Testament, in particular the gospels & Acts, what we find is that in each of the gospels & Acts there are words spoken by Jesus – between his resurrection and ascension – with which he commissions or sends out His disciples and in which he defines the assignment he is leaving them to accomplish until the day he returns.
It’s not uncommon for us to refer to Matthew’s account of these words as the Great Commission – words that were spoken by Jesus many different times and in slightly different ways during his 40 days on earth following the resurrection but Matthew wasn’t the only one to record this commission – they show up in Mark and Luke and John and again in Luke’s second book – Acts.
So we must understand that, “The Great Commission is not just a single command or statement. Rather, it is a series of statements made by Jesus over the course of many days.”[1] And we’re going to begin our series by looking at John’s account of this commission where Jesus says: (v. 21) ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’
The shortest of the commissions, just three simple phrases, let’s take them one at a time.
1. The Message of the Mission (Peace be with you)
What kind of greeting is this?
Upon appearing with his disciples in a locked room, the resurrected Jesus greets them with what would have been the normal, conventional greeting – Shalom Alaykum – Peace be with you. It is how Jews said hello to one another back in Jesus’ day, and still do today. But, it would appear, and I would argue, that Jesus is doing more here than simply saying hello.
What makes us think that? The first is because of what has just happened. Jesus has just been raised from the dead – having been killed and laid, very dead mind you, in a tomb – which was sealed and guarded – this Jesus is suddenly found standing among his disciples – in a locked room. And he says, “Peace be with you.” Could it be that he means more than just – “Hello” or “Good evening”?
The second thing is that this is the second time Jesus has given this greeting since appearing. He says “Peace be with you” and then, shows his hands and side to the disciples, and then says it again “Peace be with you!” Could it be that Jesus isn’t just being repetitive but rather, that he wants his disciples to hear more in these words than their conventional usage?
If they mean more than “Hello” – what exactly does Jesus mean by them? Is He just trying to calm the disciples’ nerves because of the fright he gave them from appearing unannounced? Is he just saying chill out! Or is he telling them they don’t need to be afraid of the Jews? What does he mean by this?
I believe we get a clue to what Jesus means from something Jesus said earlier in John – back in John 14:27. There Jesus was teaching his disciples about the peace he would one day give to them. And here is what he said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” And a few chapters later he adds to this by saying, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
I believe both of these point to the fact that Jesus’ words in our passage today mean more than just “hello.” I believe his words in John 20 are the fulfillment of these earlier promises. In saying “Peace be with you” – he means exactly what he is saying – “Peace, the peace promised in chapters 14 and 16, be with you, now. He’s saying, “now that I’ve died and risen and defeated sin and death, this peace is yours.”
So what kind of peace is Jesus extending to his disciples?[2] Drawing from ch. 14 we see it is peace for you, a personal peace. It’s a personal peace, peace that is spoken to individuals from the very heart of Christ – from His heart, for your heart. It’s a peace that Jesus speaks to his disciples in response to their troubled hearts. It’s a peace that looks you in the eyes and says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” It’s peace that knows all that troubles you and says, “You are anxious about so many things but look at me, look into my eyes, I’m going to take care of you, you don’t need to worry about anything.”
It’s also a peace that is “different from the peace that the world gives.” How does the World give peace? The world gives peace with retirement accounts. The world gives peace with health insurance. The world gives peace with police officers and door locks and security cameras and missile defense systems and bomb shelters and North Atlantic Treaty Organizations. And we’re very thankful for these things, especially when it feels like our peace might be threatened. But the peace Jesus gives is different from these.
The peace Jesus gives is different because it isn’t the kind of peace that can be taken away. The peace Jesus offers his disciples is a peace that remains, even when the retirement accounts are empty and health insurance fails to pay and when the police aren’t there to save. It’s a peace that remains when your health falls apart, or society falls apart, or when the rockets begin to fall and bomb shelters are no longer safe and when enemy forces invade and when your very life is not guaranteed from one moment to the next – it’s peace that is able to remains on those days. It’s a peace that isn’t based on what is going on in the world around you because it is Jesus’ peace – my peace I give to you Jesus says – and Jesus’ peace is peace with God. It’s the peace that God’s sinless Son experiences with His perfect Father and it is by means of Jesus’ death and resurrection, his sacrifice in our place, that HIS PEACE is given to us that we too might be at perfect peace with the Father – and abide in God’s love to the same extent that Christ does
That is the peace Jesus is offering to his disciples when he says to them here: “Peace be with you.” It is a conventional greeting that contains an unconventional and unbelievable meaning – that sinful people can be reconciled to a Holy God. And it is all through Jesus Christ
And we must understand that this peace that Jesus offered his disciples back then, is the same peace he offers each of us today. This peace is the message of God’s mission – the gospel – the good news that through Jesus we can all be reconciled to God and have real and lasting peace with him.
Have you received this peace? As you watch the news or check your finances or walk into school – do you have this peace? You can – it may sound too good to be true – but you can. If you will just believe in Jesus Christ and trust in Him – he will give you His peace – this world will only give you trouble – but take heart – Jesus has overcome the world.
2. The Man to Fulfill the Mission (As the Father sent me)
Having expressed the message of the mission to his disciples, he now commissions them to take this message to the world. He does so with these words: “As the father sent me, so I am sending you.” In doing so, he invites the disciples to understand their commission as an extension of his own. And for us to understand our sending – we must first ask – How has the Father sent Jesus Christ?
How has the Father sent Christ?
Now the Gospel of John has many things to say about the sending of Christ, but three passages help us to summarize the reason behind God’s sending of Jesus. The first of these is John 3:16-17 which says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Here we see the Father sent His Son in love for the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. Then in John 6:38 we read, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” This reveals that Jesus understood his sending as a mission to carry out the Father’s will – not his own. And finally John 8:29, “And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” Here we see Jesus understood his mission as one on which the Father was with him, guiding him and strengthening him along the way.
What we see in these three passages is an affirmation that the Father had not sent Jesus to accomplish something new in the world, but rather, to be the Man who would fulfill the one abiding mission that God himself put into motion after the Fall. Put another way – we see that our God is a missionary God and has always been a missionary God. Since the day Adam sinned, and even before it, God has been about the work of reconciling sinful humans to himself. Throughout the Old Testament - from Genesis to Malachi – God has been teaching the World about his character and his ways and their need and inability to meet that need – so that he might draw them to himself. And all that God has done up to this point has been leading up to the day when He would send His Son - not to condemn the world, but to save it; not to enact a different strategy, but to fulfill the one abiding mission that had been in the works all along. A Mission he would not send Jesus on alone – but one he would accomplish with him, guiding him and strengthening him along the way.
That is at least a beginning to the depth of meaning behind the phrase “As the Father has sent me”
And as such, it is the basis on which we are understand Jesus’ next phrase “so I am sending you.”
3. The Messengers Sent Out to Accomplish the Mission (So I am sending you)
So how does our sending mirror God’s sending of Jesus? Like Jesus, we are being sent out on a rescue mission. Just as Jesus was sent to save, so Jesus’ disciples are sent to save a lost world. Just as Jesus pointed people to himself for salvation, so the disciples are to point people to Jesus – for salvation and for peace with God. Just as Jesus came not to condemn the world, so our mission is not to communicate condemnation but rather hope and life and the good news of salvation. Surely people can reject that good news, but ours is not the job to condemn them if they do – ours is the work of pleading and praying for them to change their minds before it is too late
Like Jesus, we are also called to join the one abiding mission of the Father. Just as Jesus was sent out as the man to fulfill God’s one abiding mission to save his creation so the disciples are to understand their own mission as the continuation of the Father’s one abiding mission put into action in Genesis and in God’s mind from the beginning of creation.
Like Jesus, we are not asked to carry out this mission alone. Instead, we are assured by our sender that He will be with us. As we see in the next verse, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Jesus says it another way in Matthew’s gospel: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (28:20) We are not just asked to do missions for Christ but rather with Christ![3] How sweet is that! Who, having known and tasted the love of Christ wouldn’t want to be on mission with Him?!?
This Call to Missions is for Each Us
My main goal for this morning is for us to hear all of this and then to stop and reflect on the fact that this call to missions was not just for the original 12, nor is it a general invitation to missions, rather it is a personal commission for each and every one of us.
To say it another way, just as the Peace Jesus offers his disciples in this passage is offered to each of us, so also the call to missions is every Christ followers calling . . . and the question I want us to end with is this – Will we answer the call?
Will we answer the call of our Lord to spread the message of God’s one abiding mission that peace with God is available to everyone who might believe in Jesus Christ? For those who have owned this message as a personal message of peace to you, will you now own this calling as a personal calling to missions? That is the question I’d like to put before each of us today – will you answer Jesus call to missions?
I have five questions that I hope to help you get to the point where you feel like you can say yes – yes I will own this calling as my own. Here they are:
Will you lay down your excuses? Evangelism, missions, sharing the gospel, whatever you want to call it can be a terrifying prospect for some. We can feel like we just aren’t built that way, not wired that way – but when we look at Jesus’ commission – we don’t see a loophole for those who aren’t extroverts or apologists, we see a universal calling upon all disciples – but if we back up a little bit, we also are reminded of Jesus’ message: Peace be with you. Will you lay down your excuses and receive Jesus’ peace? A peace that is stronger than death - to carry you into missional outreach? Will you let Jesus prove to you all the ways that his peace is better than the peace the world gives – like the peace promised by not engaging, not asking questions, not going across the street, not engaging in conversations, or not threatening to disrupt the group by inviting others in. Could it be that obeying Christ’s commission will lead to a deeper sense of Christ’s peace than staying home ever could?
Will you let Christ lead? Jesus promises his presence on this mission – will you ask him to fulfill that promise. Will you begin to pray and to ask Christ to make his presence with you so palpable that you know he is with you as you answer the call to missions. Will you let him lead you to the people and into the conversations he would have you go as you spread His message?
Will you commit to having one gospel conversation over the next three weeks? If you’re anything like me – your first application of a message like this might be to go read a book on the subject. I’d like to challenge you to have a conversation before you read a book. This is one area where I believe the best way to learn and grow is by doing, and not just by reading. Reading will better serve you after you begin the conversations because you’ll have categories from experience to put the information into your mind.
Will you broaden your definition of missions? You can probably tell that I’ve used missions in a very broad way. I hope it’s clear by now that I’m not simply saying you all need to become missionaries in another part of the world. What I mean by missions today is anything that spread’s Christ’s message and furthers Christ’s kingdom – whether near or far. We can sometimes put missions into such a small box that we would be right to say that we aren’t called to it. As if missions is just street preaching or door to door evangelism or scripture translation in a remote jungle. We are so thankful for those who do these things but I don’t believe we’re all called to do that. But we are called to take the message of peace and reconciliation we’ve received from Christ and pass it along to others. That can be parents to your children, Sunday school teachers to your students, it can happen during VBS and on a church retreat or during carpool or around the lunch table, you can share it with your friends – not only the random person you’ve met on the street. Let the Lord lead you to who He wants you to share with – your job is just to have the message ready.
Will you share this journey of answering the call to missions with others? We want to become an outreach oriented church but I don’t think that will happen if we keep the struggles and joys of outreach to ourselves. If we go into this as if we’re all on our own in this area, if we never talk about our fears or anxieties, if we never celebrate God’s answers to our prayer to lead us in this, not matter how small they might be, so let us share this work with one another.
Will you choose today, resolve in your heart, to hear Jesus’ calling into missions as Him speaking to you, and will you say, “Here I am Lord, send me.”?
I pray you will.
__________________
[1] Steve Leston
[2] My observations in this section were greatly aided by John Piper from the following article: Piper, John. “Perfect Peace for Anxious Souls.” Message Excerpt. July 25, 2018. Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/my-peace-i-give-to-you/excerpts/perfect-peace-for-anxious-souls
[3] Peters, 252
NEXT WEEK: Answering the Call to Missions, Nick Conner