Essentials #10: MISSION | 11/14/2021
[Various Passages] | 11/14/21 | Will DuVal
This is our penultimate Sunday in our “Essentials” series. And since you didn’t fire me LAST week after I questioned whether or not “The Ordinances” should be in our top 11 core beliefs, I thought that this week I’d try adding a subject that we’ve omitted, but that SHOULD be an “essential”, and that’s the subject of MISSION.
Jesus has left His Church with an all-important mission to passionately pursue and finally fulfill, and it was SO important to Him, that it is recorded in all 4 Gospel accounts and the Book of Acts, as the very last thing that Jesus said before he ascended back into heaven; if Jesus’ life were a movie, this would be his final, climactic TAGLINE that he leaves ringing in our ears; his “I’ll be back” motto:
Mark 16:15 “Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Luke 24:47-48 “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [my] name to all nations… You are witnesses of these things. ”
John 20:21 “Jesus said to them again, “...As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.””
Acts 1:8 “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
And most memorably for US at West Hills, as we remind ourselves every single Sunday as we’re sent back out into this dark and decaying world to be light and salt: Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I [Christ] have commanded you.”
Mission is SO important, I think I’ve preached on it more than any other single topic in my 6 years here, ELEVEN sermons, I counted.
But as I was considering all the different ANGLES I could take, to frame up yet another missional message, I was kind of shocked to realize that I’ve never come at it primarily from the perspective of the AFTERLIFE. In other words: as believers, how does our reflection on the biblical realities of Heaven and HELL motivate our faithful service to Christ’s mission? After all, if Heaven and Hell really ARE biblical realities, and if one or the other is going to be the personal, ETERNAL reality of every human who has ever lived, then what could be more “essential” than that?! And sure enough, we DO include a doctrinal position on the Afterlife, in our “Final Things” statement: We believe that “There will be a bodily resurrection of the just (believers) to eternal blessedness in God’s presence, and of the unjust (unbelievers) to judgment and eternal punishment.”
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The Bible compels us to live our entire LIVES in light of ETERNITY. Francis Chan uses the illustration of a ROPE. Imagine a rope that starts here on stage and then stretches all the way down the hallway through the kids classrooms, down the back stairwell, through the Doxa and youth room, back through the offices… Joy Hall… the kitchen, then out the back door and then wraps all the way around the parking lot. I’m too cheap and lazy, but Chan actually DID this… And then he put a tiny, barely-visible strip of red tape on the rope, here at the beginning, and he said, “Imagine that this rope is a timeline of your existence, and it stretches on infinitely. And the red tape represents your time here on earth.” And he said, ‘Some people spend their entire lives, consumed with their few short years here on earth. “I’m gonna work hard and save, save, save, so I can really enjoy this part right HERE [retirement]... He says, “What about THIS! [the entire rest of rope!]”
This morning, we’re going to focus on the REST of the rope together. Eternity.
But because we’re talking about MISSION, I don’t just want us to reflect on the rest of OUR rope. If you’re visiting this morning and you’re NOT yet a believer, in Jesus - then first of all, we’re SO glad you’re here; you picked a PERFECT Sunday to visit! And for you, YES - I want to invite you to consider your OWN rope, your eternity, this morning.
But for Christ-followers here: we ALL know someone who does NOT know Jesus. In fact, I bet that even as I mention it, most of you already have MULTIPLE people coming to mind - a family member, a close friend, a neighbor, a co-worker. I want to challenge you to think about THEM this morning - THEIR rope, THEIR eternity. Okay?
Let’s pray…
There are 4 essential, biblical truths you need to know about THE AFTERLIFE; you see them printed there in your bulletins:
#1 - The first is that Death is INEVITABLE, IMMINENT, and A RECKONING. Death is INEVITABLE, it is IMMINENT, and it is A RECKONING.
a) First, death is INEVITABLE.
The current death rate, worldwide, is 100%. Death comes for us ALL. There are only 3 certainties in life, right? Death, taxes, and Alabama in the college football playoffs.
More than 150,000 people die every DAY in the world. That’s more than a hundred people every single minute.
None of us knows WHEN or HOW we’ll go, but ALL of us know THAT we’ll go.
Because death is inevitable.
So DA Carson says: “Whatever the church does, it must prepare its members to face death and meet God.” (by the way, I’m gonna quoting a LOT this morning from #1 THE BIBLE, and #2, from David Platt’s 2013 Secret Church conference on “Heaven, Hell, and the End of the World”)
b) Second, death is IMMINENT. Any ONE of us could be numbered among the 100 people that will die in the NEXT 60 seconds. Because our lives are FRAGILE, and they are FLEETING. Scripture is unambiguous about this:
Psalm 39:4-5 “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”
Psalm 102:11 “My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.”
Psalm 103:15-16 “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone...”
James 4:13-14 “...You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
Psalm 90:10 “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” Death is IMMINENT.
c) And lastly, death is A RECKONING. Our death will bring, for each of us, our reckoning. “An accounting, for things done”.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Hebrews 9:27 “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, after that comes judgment …”
Romans 14:10-12 “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God… then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:1-10 “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
Romans 2:5-11 “You are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render
to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil… but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good…”
Acts 17:30-31 “[God] commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness...”
Matthew 25:31-32 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory… then he will
sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
Daniel 12:2 “Then many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Revelation 20:11-12 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it… And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened… the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”
So according to God’s word, within MOMENTS of your physical death on this earth, you will appear - you’ll leave your body behind until the Resurrection of the Dead upon Christ’s return, but for now, your SOUL, your eternal soul - will appear before the judgment seat of God the Father Almighty, to give an account, a reckoning, for how you lived the short time here on earth that God gave you, as a gift, to be used for His glory. And you’ll answer for every single thing you ever said, thought, felt, did and DIDN’T do.
In speaking of God’s “judgment seat”, Scripture envisions our trial in a heavenly courtroom. And for those tempted to think they will be acquitted of their sins on that day, because their good deeds will “outweigh” their bad ones, Jesus makes it clear: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven... You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:20, 48) It’s not about your good outweighing your bad; heaven is for PERFECT people. Imperfect people need not apply.
BUT… But... in Romans ch3, after conceding that NO ONE will be counted righteous on that day, on his OWN merit, the apostle Paul then envisions JESUS stepping into the heavenly courtroom, as his defense attorney: “Yes, my client Paul? formerly Saul? Persecutor of the church? Murderer? He’s INNOCENT, Your Honor. Because his debt, his damages, have already been PAID, by MY sacrifice, in his place, on the cross.
Jesus is the “justifier of the one who has faith in him.” (3:26)
Then Jesus will declare: “Your Honor: I was accounted SINFUL - 2 Corinthians 5:21 - so that HE, Paul… Will… _____ … might be accounted RIGHTEOUS.
That’s the gospel, friends; The divine exchange. And for everyone who has truly repented of their sins and trusted in JESUS for forgiveness, that will determine how you’re gonna spend the rest of your ETERNITY.
John 3:16, 18 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
#2 - And that brings us to essential truth #2 about the Afterlife: that Hell is REAL, it is ETERNAL, and it will be AGONIZING. Hell is REAL, ETERNAL, and AGONIZING.
a) First, Hell is REAL.
Let’s just get this out of the way up front: If the Bible is God’s word, and it is… and if the Bible clearly teaches that Hell is a real, literal place where many, in fact, the vast MAJORITY of people will one day suffer for the rest of eternity, and the Bible DOES clearly teach that, then us not WANTING to believe in Hell, not wanting to believe that a loving God could possibly send ANYONE there - that is a problem with US; NOT with God. Our desire not to BELIEVE in Hell just means that we have an insufficient understanding of and concern for God’s Holiness and His Justice.
Francis Chan says: “Like the nervous kid who tries to keep his friends from seeing his drunken father, I have tried to hide God at times. Who do I think I am? The truth is, God is perfect and right in all that He does. I am a fool for thinking otherwise. He does not need nor want me to ‘cover’ for Him. There’s nothing to be covered. Everything about Him and all He does is perfect.” (see Platt citation…)
And understand this too, friends: fallen humanity’s distaste for the doctrine of Hell matters about as much as the criminal’s dislike of his prison cell; you can hate it all you want, but if you break the law, you’re still gonna end up there. You can dislike it, even DISBELIEVE in it, but it doesn’t change the REALITY, the unquestionably BIBLICAL reality of HELL.
Jesus, who was Love Incarnate, talked about Hell more than ANYONE in the Bible. And he was clear: Hell is REAL.
Matthew 5:22 “whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
Matthew 10:28 “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Revelation 20:15 “ If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Revelation 21:8 “As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Hell is just as real, biblically, as Heaven is. If you start picking and choosing which of Scripture’s explicitly clear doctrines you’re gonna believe in, you will inevitably end up with an impotent God, and an irrelevant Bible.
b) Second, Hell is ETERNAL.
Daniel 12:2 “Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake… some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Isaiah 33:14 “The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Matthew 25:41, 46 ““Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’... these will go away into eternal punishment...”
2 Thessalonians 1:9 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord…”
Jude 7 “undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”
Revelation 19:3 “Her smoke goes up forever and ever.”
Revelation 20:10 “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
So the idea of annihilationism - that maybe God allows sinners to suffer for a time, but then they will simply cease to EXIST, because a loving God couldn’t possibly punish sin ETERNALLY - that simply has NO basis in Scripture.
c) Lastly, Hell will be AGONIZING.
It’s described in Isaiah 66:24 as a place where “their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
Matthew 3:12 “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 13:42 “throw them into the fiery Furnace.”
“In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 8:12b; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30 (6x)
In Mark 9:43-48, Jesus goes so far as to say: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be
thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” → If ripping your own eyes out and then sawing your hands and feet off sounds like HELL ON EARTH to you, then you don’t even wanna KNOW what HELL IN HELL is gonna be like!
Jesus said in Matthew 11:22-24 “And you, Capernaum… will be brought down to Hades… it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.” → If you weren’t here last year when we witnessed the fate of SODOM in our study through Genesis, suffice it to say: that’s where the phrase “fire and brimstone” comes from; but Jesus says: that won’t even TOUCH the eternal fate awaiting those who, like Capernaum, rejected him on earth...
In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus tells the story of a “rich man” who refused to feed his poor but righteous neighbor Lazarus: “The rich man died… and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 “God considers it just to repay with affliction … in flaming fire… those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
2 Peter 2:17 “For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.”
Revelation 14:9-11 ““If anyone worships the beast… he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night...”
Now I want to ask you: would you wish that kind of suffering on your very WORST enemy, for even a DAY? An HOUR? A MINUTE? Imagine watching the person you most struggle to love be doused in lighter fluid and then literally set on fire, in front of your very eyes. Imagine their blood-curdling screams. Imagine the smell. We watched a family friend accidentally catch just his shirt on fire, for about 8 seconds, on family vacation 12 years ago - it was the most horrifying 8 seconds of my life; I STILL have nightmares.
Not 8 seconds… not a minute… not an hour… a day… a year… or a THOUSAND, MILLION, BILLION years… but ETERNITY.
And not just your worst enemies either; Hell isn’t just for the Hitlers and Stalins of the world. “Whoever does not believe [in JESUS] is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ”
So that person who YOU thought of, at the beginning of the sermon, when I said, “We ALL know someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus…”; let me ask you:
How much do you have to HATE them, to know that if nothing changes in their life, they are headed for real, eternal AGONY in Hell, and NOT bother to warn them?
The family friend from vacation: when none of us were paying attention, he snuck down to the fire and thought he’d pour some GUNPOWDER on it, as a fun party trick. If I had known, and I didn’t even KNOW the guy - he was a friend of my father-in-law’s - but if I’d have KNOWN beforehand that it was gonna cost this guy 2 days in the ER, third-degree burns over sections of his body, skin grafts… and if I had seen him carrying the gunpowder toward the fire, how much would I have to HATE him not to SAY something?
Who, in YOUR life, that YOU know, is currently carrying an ETERNITY’s worth of gunpowder toward the flame of God’s wrath, and needs to be warned before it’s too late - You can’t STOP them. Larry could have STILL decided to blow himself up, light himself on fire, even if I had said something. But I sure as heck would’ve said something.
Church: are we SAYING something? Are we WARNING them?
But not only are they at risk of going to HELL for all eternity, but...
#3 - they’re at risk of MISSING OUT on all the bliss of HEAVEN! Because Heaven is REAL, ETERNAL, and GLORIOUS.
a) Heaven is REAL.
Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne…”
Matthew 6:9 “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…”
Jesus is from heaven (John 3:13; 3:31; 6:42)
Jesus returned TO heaven (Acts 1:11; 1 Peter 3:22; Hebrews 9:24)
He resides there NOW (Acts 7:55; Romans 8:34)
He will one day return FROM heaven (John 14:2-3; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thess 4:16-18)
Luke 15:7 “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents...”
Philippians 3:20 “our citizenship is in heaven…”
b) Heaven is ETERNAL.
Matthew 25:44-46 “the righteous [will go away] into eternal life.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
c) And thirdly, friends: Heaven is going to be GLORIOUS!
Isaiah 11:10 “his resting place shall be glorious.”
Jesus described it, in Luke 23:39-43, as “Paradise.”
It’s gonna be BEAUTIFUL...
Revelation 21:10-11 “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
All of Creation will be completely RESTORED:
Revelation 22:1-2 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life… The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Everything will be in perfect harmony...
Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.”
Revelation 22:3 “No longer will there be anything accursed…”
We will be completely free from sin (Revelation 21:27)
Untouched by temptation (Revelation 20:10)
We’ll be ETERNALLY JOYFUL
Isaiah 65:17-19 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth… be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.”
Matthew 25:21 “Enter into the joy of your master.”
Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord… that they may rest from their labors...”
It’s Gonna be the PARTY to end all parties...
Isaiah 25:6 “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine [Sorry Baptists; you’re gonna learn to LOVE the LORD’S wine…], [a feast] of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
Matthew 26:29 Jesus promised his disciples “I [will] drink [this fruit of the vine] new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Hebrews 12:22-23 “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…”
Revelation 19:9 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage
supper of the Lamb.”
Were any of y’all at Busch Stadium back in 2011 for Game 6 when Freese hit the walk off in the 11th inning to win it? Take the ENERGY and the ELATION of that moment, and multiply it by INFINITY, and then stretch it out throughout all of ETERNITY, and THAT is the picture we get, of what it’s gonna be like around the throne of Jesus →
Revelation 7:9-10 “Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
And did you know we’re gonna RECOGNIZE people in heaven?
In Matthew 8:11, Jesus said people are gonna come from ALL OVER, to get seats next to “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven”; we’re gonna recognize them, and each other.
Jonathan Edwards writes: “Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of mere days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above (I’M GONNA GET TO SEE MY 3 MISCARRIED CHILDREN). There the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the satins, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end.” (from Platt)
Now, it’s true that there won’t be MARRIAGE or SEX anymore (according to Jesus in Matthew 22:30) - but for those, like me, who find it difficult to imagine eternal BLISS without that, I would just comfort you with this beautiful analogy from C.S. Lewis:
“I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure, should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer, ‘No,’ he might regard the absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the
reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. ” (from Platt) → I THOUGHT I knew pleasure as a kid, with chocolate… but NOW, there’s SEX! And ONE day, the pleasures of HEAVEN are gonna make us FORGET all about the joys of SEX, and MARRIAGE; because they’re just a SHADOW of the pleasures to come!
(And some of you ladies are thinking, “yeah, yeah, yeah, No Sex… but is there CHOCOLATE, in Heaven?)
And if ALL THAT weren’t enough, you and I are actually going to REIGN WITH Jesus in this glorious Paradise for all eternity!
Daniel 7:27 “‘And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High...’”
Jesus told his disciples in Luke 22:29 “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones...”
2 Timothy 2:12 “if we endure, we will also reign with him…”
Revelation 3:21 ““The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
And the best part in ALL of Heaven, is that we get to enjoy God’s own PRESENCE forevermore
Psalm 16:11 “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
John 14:2-3 “In my Father’s house are many rooms. ...And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Revelation 7:15-17 “he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:3-4 ““Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
So, quickly, and in closing, friends, for this sermon on the topic of MISSION…
if THAT is truly how horrifying Hell is going to be (as much as can be captured in words, anyway)...
And if THAT is how truly GLORIOUS Heaven is going to be…
Then #4 - Therefore, Mission is IMPERATIVE, URGENT, and DELIGHTFUL. It is IMPERATIVE, URGENT, and DELIGHTFUL.
First, Mission is IMPERATIVE.
We already opened with Jesus’ commissioning texts: Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 1. They’re not SUGGESTIONS; they are COMMANDS. IMPERATIVE verbs: “Go… baptize… teach… Preach… Proclaim… Witness…”
Paul said in Romans 9 that he’d wish himself “ACCURSED, and cut off from Christ,” if only he could win his Jewish brothers and sisters to Jesus. THAT’S how imperative the mission was for him; he’d give his LIFE, his ETERNITY for it. And he did give his life, in the end. As did almost ALL of Jesus’ earliest followers.
Second, mission is URGENT.
Today, there are 5 ½ BILLION people who do not know Jesus, and if nothing changes for them, before they die their inevitable, imminent death, they could spend an AGONIZING eternity, cut off from God forever.
The majority of them - 3.28 billion of those 5 ½ billion - don’t even know ABOUT Jesus. They are considered “unreached people groups”, who have NO access to the gospel, they literally don’t even know a Christian, who could tell them the saving good news about Jesus.
So Paul asks rhetorically: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
(Romans 10:14-17)
That’s why we send missionaries, like the Mashburns to the Wolof and Peul peoples in Senegal. That’s why a guy like Jim Elliot was willing to set aside his livelihood and lay down his LIFE to take the gospel for the first time to the Quichua people in Ecuador. He boldly declared: ““Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of His. Consider the call from the Throne above, ‘Go ye,’ and from round about, ‘Come over and help us,’ and even the call from the damned souls below, ‘Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place.’ Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.”
Anybody ready to sell your stuff and get on a plane?
Here’s the only thing I’d say back to Jim Elliot: “YES. But, my lost neighbor next door needs Jesus just as much as the Quichua native does. My unsaved volleyball partner needs the gospel just as much as the Senegalese do. And maybe they’ve already got ACCESS to Jesus, so they have no excuse… Maybe they’ve heard the gospel a THOUSAND TIMES already living in West County… But if it takes 1,001 for the seed of the gospel to FINALLY take root in the soil of their heart, then GOD: Would you give ME the passion and the URGENCY to share it ONE MORE TIME with them! How many times did it take before YOU repented and believed? Anybody surrender to Christ the very first time you heard the gospel? I didn’t. Will you share it again today?
Lastly, mission is DELIGHTFUL.
In Acts 5:40-42, the Jewish religious leaders are worried about the following that this new sect called “Christianity” is gaining, so: “they called in the apostles, and beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then [we hear] they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”
Because to see just ONE PERSON, just one SOUL, saved from eternal agony of Hell, and saved FOR the eternal GLORIES of Heaven, makes it ALL worth it. Beatings. DEATH. Being unfriended on Facebook. Whatever 21st c. “persecution” you might suffer. Jesus is WORTH it. HEAVEN is worth it.