Study inJohn’s Gospel

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Mark of the Church: Mission

Chap 17v18-19

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IntroductionA minister was approached by an 8 year old girl who had attended summer mission. She asked, “Is it all right if I commit suicide?"

He asked , “Mary, why would you want to do that?"

"Well," she said, "It's because of what I’ve been learning in your church”. She continued, "We were taught that heaven is a wonderful place - no fear, no crying, no fighting, and that we’ll be with Jesus if we have committed our lives to him. Did I hear it right?"

He said, "Yes, Mary. But why would you want to commit suicide?"

She replied, “My parents are regularly drunk. I’ve to get my own breakfast and go to school with dirty clothes. The other children make fun of me. When I get home mum and dad are always fighting and I am very, very afraid. Why shouldn't I commit suicide? Wouldn't heaven be better?"

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IntroductionWhat Mary was really asking was, “Why do we have to live in such a horrible world? Why does God not take us home to heaven immediately we commit our lives to him?” Or, “Why can’t we speed up the process?”

The minister replied, "Mary, don’t you think that God might use your love for Jesus to speak to your parents? They could become Christians too?” And a little later, her mother did!

This story introduces the fourth mark of the church, which, unlike the previous marks, is outward looking focusing on the unbelieving world which is the object of our God-given mission. And, it is for this mission [in part] that the other marks of the church are given.

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In The WorldThe word "mission" means "to send“. But to whom is the church sent? Jesus answers in v18 “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Here is where it is so easy to fail. We rightly support foreign mission and we can even be happy to contribute materially to such work.

Our problem does not lie there. For some it lies in the fact that they keep as far from the world as possible lest they be contaminated by it.

Some Christians develop their own subculture. They only have Christian friends, they only go to Christian meetings. Indeed, they fill up their diaries with them. This is not what Jesus meant when he spoke of his followers being "in the world."

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In The WorldWell what does it mean to be in the world as a Christian? It does not mean to be ‘like the world’; the marks of the church clearly indicate that the church is to be different from it. It does not mean that we are to abandon Christian fellowship.

It means that we are to befriend non-Christians, and enter their lives in such a way that we begin to infect them with the gospel, rather than allowing them to infect us with their worldliness, which is clearly the wrong way around.

We are to be what Paul describes as an ‘aroma of life’. 2Cor.2v 15-16

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In The WorldA minister in Guatemala was sent to a church with 28 members. They met most nights of the week, but they were not growing as a congregation. There was no outreach! They were persuaded to abandon the majority of their evening meetings. Home meetings were established and as the members made their way to these meetings they would invite everyone they met, including those they passed on the streets.

Within 4 years that church had 800 members. Today there is an agricultural cooperative in which the church members buy land for their own poor and they buy and sell the produce their own people supply. The area has been revitalized my mission.

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In The WorldNow you cannot plop that model down into your town and expect it to work in exactly the same way. This is but an example of a church that was determined to break the mould of its church life in order to become the kind of missionary church that Jesus is describing here - one that goes out into the world! Have many of our churches lost sight of the importance of mission?

Some say, “We cant afford it”, thinking of the cost be it in their time, finance and possible persecution! Are we in danger of losing sight of mission as the great objective of the church? Listen to Brunner’s perceptive comment; “The church exists by mission as a fire does by burning”. What happened to the Orthodox Church in Iran when it failed to engage in mission as the land was overrun by Islam? It atrophied!

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To Be As ChristSecondly, our passage addresses the character of those who engage in mission. We are to be like Christ in the world. This is made clear in verses 18 and 19, for Jesus compares the disciples to himself, both having been sent into the world by the Father and both sanctified or set apart totally to that work.

In other words, we are to be in our mission as Jesus was in his mission! If we are to make any impact for God then we are to be like the One whom we are presenting. This is what it means to walk in his steps.

Here lies a second problem as far as the mission of the church is concerned.

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To Be As Christ

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Let me illustrate. Years ago, there was a product on the market for the overweight called "Weight Right," An unsuccessful saleswoman of this product asked her husband, "Why are my sales figures are so low?"

He examined the product which was attractively packaged. He then said, "Let me hear your presentation”. Again this proved to be excellent. "May I see the brochure?" he asked. And as he looked at it he shook his head and said, "Oh, dear, oh dear!"

"Why are you saying, ‘Oh, dear, oh dear?’” she asked. He replied, “Well you look like the picture before taking the product, not the picture after.”

To Be As ChristPerhaps that’s our problem. We’ve a wonderful message to share but if it has not produced in us something of the attractiveness of Jesus then the world will pay us no attention.

Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, whose writings were so formative in developing Hitler’s concept of master-race, was brought up in a village, where he was surrounded by professing Christians.

Sadly, their lives did not reflect their speech causing Nietzsche to turn his back on Christianity. He wrote, “His [Jesus’] disciples have to look more saved if I am to believe in the Saviour”. What biting criticism!

If they had displayed greater Christlikeness of life what might have been the outcome? Are we like Jesus? Are we as he was in this world?

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To Be As ChristRobert Murray McCheyne , the famous C19th Scottish minister, was writing to encourage a young colleague and he said:

“Remember you are God's sword-his instrument, I trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. In great measure according to the purity and perfections of the instrument will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus”.

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Perhaps you’re asking, "In what way am I to be like Jesus?" His life was characterised by joy, so too should ours. As Jesus set himself apart to live a life that would please the Father so should we. As Jesus life was characterised by truth, so to should ours.

Think about it. If we do not have joy, we can hardly commend the "good news" of salvation to anyone.

Geoffrey Fisher former the Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "The longer I live the more convinced I am that Christianity is one long shout of joy."

To Be As Christ

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To Be As ChristSecondly, Jesus said, "For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified." He was sanctified in the sense of being set apart totally for the work God had given him to do - including providing the dynamic for a moral holiness in the life of his people. The parallel in our case is to be set apart totally for the work we have been given to do, which is the work of carrying the gospel of the crucified but risen Christ to all men everywhere. And to display lives that have been transformed in the process.

If we do not do this, or if we are half-hearted about it, the world will know it and will hardly consider our message to be earth-shattering.

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To Be As ChristThirdly, Jesus was committed to the truth of God. And we should live by it to such a degree that the world will point to us and say, "Those people are certainly characterised by the truth they claim to preach."

If this is not the case, we will not win anyone, for the world will hardly be attracted to a church that does not seem to know even its own mind on religious matters. And as we will see in greater detail later we must be like Jesus in love, knowing that if we are, the world will see it and be drawn to him.

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Drawn by GodHow will others be drawn to the faith? By God, of course, for however carefully we try to let the character of the Lord Jesus shine in the world, it is still he and not we ourselves who must draw people to experience the salvation he has to offer. Only God can dismantle the barbed wire fence that people build around their hearts to deny him entry.

Only God can illumine their minds so that they understand the truth that has been communicated. The description of the early church in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 2, gives us a clear indication of this.

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Drawn by GodHaving told us that these early believers “continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine” [that is, in the truth] “and fellowship” [that is in unity], “and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” [which suggests true worship leading to sanctification or holiness] and that they “sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need” [an evidence of their deep and unique love] and that they “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart” [that is, in joy], the passage goes on to add, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved”. Acts 2:42-47.

The Lord did it! And he will do it for us as we accept that task for which we have been sent into the world and live like him!

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