1108. The Mission of the Church

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series about the role of the church.

Jason Ormiston, a faculty member in the Bob Jones University School of Religion, will bring today's message. I've been looking forward to this opportunity to talk with you about a pretty massive topic, the mission of the church, and I think as many of the speakers will say to you, we'll do our best to get through as much material as we can, but really, I just want to speak from my heart to yours about this thing about mission, the mission of the church. And when you use the word mission, we're talking about something in action. I appreciated what Kevin DeYoung said in his book, What is the Mission of the Church? He defines mission simply as this, a specific task or purpose that the church is sent into the world to accomplish. So the purpose of the church is obviously, I hope you realize this, to bring glory to God.

And you can look to the book of Ephesians for that. For the mission of the church, what we're going to use today, in the time that I have with you, is we're going to go through three passages in the Gospel of Matthew. Now the reason for using Matthew, it may surprise you that I would go there, because I view Matthew as the text that the first century church used to get things going. Because the first century church was comprised of Jews, and as they read through the book of Matthew, they would understand what God wanted from them.

But let me try to illustrate just a bit. What is the mission of the church? When we talk about this, perhaps you think, first of all, proclamation. Gospel proclamation.

I mean, that is the mission. After all, the Gospel is propositional. 1 Corinthians 15 is very clear that we are to preach Christ, that he died, was buried, and rose again, according to the Scriptures, and rejoice in the fact that he's coming again. Romans 10 tells us that you cannot understand unless someone preaches. So you can't just live it out, you've got to proclaim it. And so this is where a lot of us may land, that the mission of the church is to proclaim the Gospel to all the world, and do it without being ashamed about it. But how about this second option? How about this option called social reformation?

Justice reconciliation? What am I talking about? Well, are you bothered at all that one in eight people drink water in this world that could kill them? One in eight. And that's coming off of a website called waterwellsforafrica.org. Or how about Ebola? Does Ebola bother you at all?

Do you realize that the World Health Organization director has called it the greatest peacetime challenge that the world has ever faced? With estimates, they're estimating that in November, over 20,000 more people will be infected. And if it continues at the rate it's going, 1.4 million people could be infected by January.

What's the church supposed to do about that? Do we need to get over there and just say, hey, get saved before you die, get saved before you die? Or how about malaria?

Have you heard this before? You know, we could actually, with Ebola, it's difficult because we're still working on what is the cure, but malaria, we know we can do something about that. And so maybe a church should get behind the idea of trying to just end malaria. 483,000 children per year, that's 90% of Africa die of malaria each year. 1,300 kids who lose their lives, will lose their lives every day by a mosquito bite. Should you care about that? 1,300 bit by mosquitoes.

All right, how about one more? Human trafficking. Are you aware that there are slaves today?

This is coming from freedom424.org, and I'm borrowing it from one of the students that gave a presentation in class just last week. There are estimated to be 27 million slaves worldwide. The industry brings in 32 billion a year, and those numbers are increasing daily. Reportedly, 161 countries are affected by human trafficking as either sources, transit centers, or destinations. 80% of trafficked victims are women, but more and more young girls and women are being sold, trafficked, or forced into prostitution. And this is just heart-rending, that the average age of trafficking victims worldwide is 12 years of age.

Every 120 seconds, a child is sold into slavery, 30 per hour, 720 per day, 1.2 million a year. What's the church supposed to do about that? Well, there are people that have come up with a solution. How do you respond to this particular mission statement? Or perhaps you would call it a summary of what we could do, the whole church with the whole gospel to the whole world. What if we do that?

Wouldn't that be great? Now I expect that when you look at this, I expect that those on the main floor might think with me that, you know, this mission statement is clear, it's concise, it's compelling. Finally someone said it. Perhaps you're thinking, yeah, it's about time that we get things in order. I mean, we do hear from our chancellor frequently, the most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today, so let's do something about it.

Let's get mobilized, let's get going. And that's what I would expect you to say as you would look at this, at least if you care at all today as I'm talking to you. But you know that there's another group that when they see that, it would rise within them, great concern.

Great concern. And what we're dealing with I think is not just a balcony main floor thing but a generational gap. Millennials, you look at this and you'll say, this is right, we need to get together because we can do this. The baby boomers, Gen Xers are saying, hold up a second, wait a second, who's defining the whole church? And please tell me, who's defining the whole gospel? I don't think we need help defining the whole world. That's pretty clear. And I just want to note for you the tension that exists because I don't think we're talking about the same things. I think in general, student body, I'm talking from my heart, I think that in general, when you hear what seems to be restrictions regarding who you're going to partner up with, with the church or an organization, you sit there and you say, oh, they don't get it, they still don't get it.

When are they going to get it? And then when you talk about this statement is my statement, the whole church, whole gospel, whole world, some of us sit there and say, do you understand what you're saying? Who's defining the church? Who's defining the gospel? Well, I can tell you that we can have hope here. It's this, right here, it's the word of God that will give us definition.

And that's where I want to go together with you. And I also want to state to you that this is not some fancy mission statement I came up with. Lausanne Congress, if you see the Lausanne movement, they've had three meetings. It started in 1974. Billy Graham founded it.

John Stott has written much on this. And then they've had another meeting in 1989 in Manila, Philippines. And at the Lausanne conference, they had the Lausanne Covenant in Manila. They had the Manila proclamation where they're encouraging the redefinition of these terms.

And then most recently in Cape Cod, Cape Town, Africa, they had a 2010 conference. And they're constantly looking and trying to say, who is the whole church and what is the whole gospel to the whole world? And it's really in the spirit, John Stott puts it this way, the spirit of Lausanne is the stirring by what God is doing in our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelism. When I start and I read this stuff and I hear it and I think to myself, life is but a vapor that appears for a moment and vanishes away.

I don't want to be held back by restrictions and by people saying you can't do it. I want to say we can do it. The gospel is given to us. Let's go get it.

Let's go out there and share the good news. And then you have some saying, well, hold up. Have you heard a quote made popular by Augustine in the essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, in all things charity. I'm going to give you the Ormiston spin on that. Okay. In the essentials, I think before we have unity, we need to have clarity.

We can't unite around something that we don't know what we're talking about. So let's use Matthew as our guide. Let me invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Matthew 16 verses 13 through 20.

Now I only have a chance given time to spend just a little bit of time in each of these passages, but we'll allow the word to dwell in us richly and hopefully we'll see the point each of these passages bring up. I want you to see from this passage, look with me, Matthew 16 verses 13 through 20. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

I want you to see something. The mission of the church, the very first time we see reference to Ecclesia, the called out ones in the Gospels here, Matthew chapter 16, we have our first reference in verse 18. The mission of the church is to simply proclaim the great confession. I want to encourage you to proclaim the great confession.

So what are you talking about great confession? Well notice in verse 13 the context. To be in this area called Caesarea Philippi, it's a very beautiful area. It is high and lifted up. It is from a quote from where Jesus walked in National Geographic.

It's situated near one of the sources of the Jordan River, 9,232 feet high, majestic Mount Hermann snow-covered throughout most of the year in the immediate background and it's truly a landscape of unforgettable picturesque. And then on top of that the theological nature of it is that it was the center where Philip the tetrarch said let's exalt Caesar and he built this territory of all these false gods and these images and so here we have Jesus with his disciples and they're on this backdrop of God's creation in the midst of all of these false idols and he turns to them and he says hey I have a question for you guys. Who do people say that I am? Notice he's asking the disciples. This is the context we find in verse 5.

He's talking to them. Now as he asked them this question they respond in a particular way. They respond by saying John the Baptist. Well chapter 14 we've already had a reference to potentially thinking Herod thinking that Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life. They were aware of Elijah in the prophecy in Malachi 4-5.

Perhaps some think that. How about Jeremiah? Why would they think he's Jeremiah?

Perhaps because of his bold assertions as he's talking about the judgment oracles in chapter 11 or the downplaying of the temple in chapter 12 and then maybe one of the prophets. So he hears them out. Then he looks at them and he says but whom say ye that I am? Now who speaks up? Simon Peter. Why does he speak up? Because that's just what Simon Peter does. He just says I'll speak up.

I'll do that. I'll tell you. I'll tell you who you are and he makes this bold assertion. He says thou art Messiah. Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God and I don't know if Peter was sitting there going wow what did I just say?

That was profound. I love how Jesus kind of puts him in his place and says you know blessed art thou Simon son of Jonah bar Jonah your flesh man flesh and blood. You just said something profound but I want you to know it didn't just come out of view because he goes on to say flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in heaven. This statement thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God the great confession. Jesus responds by saying to him thou art Peter and this word Peter is the word petros or the reference to small rock and on this rock Petra a massive rock I will build my church.

I want you to hear that I will build my church. Now there's debate as to what Jesus was actually talking about. Is he referring to I'm going to build the church on you Peter or I'm going to build the church on the confession. I think in context which is so important if you look down at verse 20 it says don't tell anyone what you just said. I think it's talking about more of the confession but if you pull in Peter being significant in it he was significant. He is one of the living stones that set up the foundation according to the rest of the New Testament. So don't get distracted by all your options get on point with me on this. The church's mission is to proclaim that he is the Christ the Son of the Living God.

If we want to be on mission we need to be right there. When you go to church you need to make much of Jesus Christ. You should not go to church because the pastor preaches well. You shouldn't go to church because they have a program that meets your needs. You shouldn't go to church because that's where you can use your gifts.

That is not that's insufficient. We go to church to proclaim that he is the Christ the Son of the Living God. I want you to understand this. It is not about you. It is not about me. It's about Christ. So as we start to grasp that we start to understand the great confession and we ask ourselves the question am I on mission or am I finding myself having roast preacher for lunch every Sunday.

Oh that was okay but you know that illustration kind of flopped. How about Christ? Do you go to church for what you can get out of it or what you can give in worship to Christ? What a beautiful statement that Christ makes when he tells them I will build my church. I think we get into this mess of trying really hard to build the church. He says I'm gonna do that.

Just make much of me. You let the building part rest on me. I will build my church and when I do that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And when I look at this there's this great promise that Christ will preserve his church. Now as we talk about that is he talking about that we will never see a local church ever die?

Obviously not. In America 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors each year according to the Barna study. And we have reference to churches that are losing thousands of people every year to nominalism and secularism. But when it comes right down to it Christ says I will build my church. His confession will go out.

Are you gonna be on mission in that area? Christ promised to do that. I want you to look at the second passage. The second passage we're gonna find is in chapter 22 verses 34 through 40. Now this is an interesting one because the first one is the great confession. The second one I want you to understand is the great commandment. So we are to proclaim the great confession we're to practice the great commandment. So when we talk about what does this mean well notice what what happens here in Matthew 22 starting in verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence they were gathered together then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question tempting him saying master which is the great commandment in the law. Now what they were trying to do they were testing him they were trying to trip him up they noticed that the Pharisees had put the Sadducees to silence or muzzled them so that they didn't have a voice so they thought this is my chance we're gonna get him the lawyer the one who's given to the law is going to trip up Christ actually that will never happen and never did happen. But they wanted to get him talking about all these commandments. Which is the best? You have an opinion on what is the best? I love a coffee book that we have that we can put on our coffee table actually we don't have a coffee table so we put it in a shelf and pull it out on occasion but it's called the book of awesome you ever heard of that the book of awesome where it talks about little things that are awesome I'll just pull out one how about awesome is when in during the night you're having a hard time sleeping for a variety of reasons and you simply flip over your pillow the other side of the fellow of the pillow he says folks because it's flat when you're sagging fresh when you're stale and cold when you're hot baby it's awesome okay he goes on to talk about other things like a cashier who comes and jumps to the occasion when you have the person in front of you who's the flyer guy forcing the store clerk to cut out every coupon or the guy that no math Jack who sneaks in piles of extra items into the express lane and acts like it's no big deal or the one the the fidgety grandma with a ton of coins and then you have this spry cashier that jumps up and says next lane please and you say awesome and so here the Pharisees are like you know we're gonna we're gonna get you on this one there's this thing called the law and there's a lot of options in fact we've turned it into six hundred and thirteen options so which is the best you know I love how Christ responds he doesn't even talk about referencing taking sides he looks right at them and he says without hesitation thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind and then he goes on to say this is the first and great commandment the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets and so we have reference to that his answer is scriptural because he quotes back from Deuteronomy 6 5 and Leviticus 19 18 his answer is simple he goes from this concept of 6 13 to 10 down to two let's summarize it one half of the Ten Commandments first four second half second six his answer is substantial he says on these hooks hang all the law and the prophets and so the question is are you pursuing a genuine relationship with God are you pursuing a genuine relationship with those around you and I love how this reference to allow shout love is in a future tense which indicates that he is hopeful that this Pharisee this expert in the law might actually buy in and convert because that's how Christ is he's very hopeful when he presents the gospel notice the reference to you're still loving with all your heart that has really referenced to your thoughts with all your soul that's a reference to your emotions and with all your mind that's a reference to your will you're all in when it comes to worshiping God and then if this is the way you are with God then this is the way you're gonna be with others so what's the mission of the church I think as we keep it and look at it Matthew as a guide for the first century Church it's to make much of Christ then as you're living out the gospel not just proclaiming Christ but you're worshiping God sincerely and you're looking around and identifying needs and you're helping people and if this is not clear enough for you one of the experts in the law came to Jesus and said can you help me know who is my neighbor and what does Jesus do in response he breaks out from in the book of Luke the parable of the Good Samaritan you know who your neighbor happens to be whoever you notice is hurting right next to you the mission of the church is for us to proclaim Christ and for us to love God and love our neighbor as ourself it's not that complicated within that boundary includes many many things I mean you can care about what's going on with human trafficking you can care about what's going on with Ebola you can care about what's going on with malaria but you need to make sure you keep everything in proper perspective but I'm afraid what's happened is we've had this great swing away from caring about other people and on to just saying we're right with our doctrine so deal with it people see right through that and I know you see right through that and I'm calling you back to the mission love God love your neighbor as yourself and if the Spirit of God is provoking you to think of someone who really needs you to love on them why aren't you doing it I don't have enough time to develop all this but let me end with this thought on the last one Matthew 28 16 through 20 is this a familiar passage to you I hope so it's a reference to the Great Commission what we need to do is we need to participate in the Great Commission participating in the Great Commission I didn't use the word fulfill because I don't think we're able to ever fulfill the Great Commission during this era but we sure can get our hands dirty involved in the lives of others what Stephen Jones would call dirty handed discipleship in this passage talks to us about the reference of a group of people 11 coming together on a mountain and it says very clearly Jesus was there and they worshiped him but some doubted and I want you to know that as we're called to fulfill the mission of the church and make disciples of the nations it's normal for us to hesitate and even to doubt can I do this is this what I really should be doing the thing is we are because verse 18 all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Jesus says go ye therefore and teach all nations or make disciples and I perhaps you've heard this before the main verb in this verse is make disciples it's teach all nations and it's directed is towards all nations not just people that look like you talk like you act like you smell like you so while going assuming you're doing this make disciples baptizing connecting them with the local church teaching them great theology in the name singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the age so we need to get back to making disciples and we have an emphasis on that this particular semester and it's an emphasis that God placed on the church for all the ages and I just have questions for you are you actually engaged in making disciples so let me help you with trying to bring it all together this is my effort in application the first thing I want you to consider with me I want to ask I want you to ask the question do you really trust Christ to build his church do you some of you come from homes of pastors or missionaries and your parents are really struggling right now encourage them with the fact that Christ will build his church what we need to do is just proclaim Christ he is the Son of God let's rejoice in that you aren't the Christ the Son of the Living God and let us rest in that fact trust Christ to build his church how about this question are you a disciple of Christ you're too called to be a disciple of Christ now what I'm saying this I'm talking about a real disciple loves God you worship him all of your mind all of your emotion all of your volition that's a decision you have to make and then how about this last one make a disciple for Christ let's get on mission let's identify one person imagine this this is from John Thompson in his book urban impact imagine having only a brief time to live with the mission of providing salvation for all mankind and starting a movement that would affect millions of people for all eternity the millions who never heard the truth would go into eternity without God what method would you use Christ chose to use small groups in life on life sometimes one-on-one one-on-two or one-on-three discipleship he lived with his twelve disciples whom he constantly taught through instructions corrections rebuke personal example and training so I'm back in Minneapolis and we're sitting there going man we're not on point I mean we are trying hard to reach these who God is bringing us to Christ these image bearers so we shut down the league we started over instead of going after the brightest and best athletes were going d1 we started with seventh and eighth graders it was fun no more dunking going on you know who came Alan Anderson the joy of seeing a guy like that enjoying Christ the joy of following Christ obediently and being willing to say I'm not on point I need to get back on point okay I want you to understand what I'm saying to you I think in basic application if we could begin a discussion between the Millennials and the Gen Xers or the baby boomers about what is the church what is the whole gospel and how do we take the church the message of the whole gospel to the whole world that's where we need to be that is our mission are you on point let's pray together God I pray that you would take these words from Matthew and encourage us to follow you in Jesus name amen you've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by dr. Jason Ormiston which is part of the study series called Christ's body the church join us again tomorrow as we continue this series here on The Daily Platform