Before Jesus ascended to the Father he laid out his plan to follow…
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
As you progress through the book of Acts, in the early chapters the new church is growing, having fellowship, having meals, getting instruction/teaching from the apostle. (Acts 2:42-47) During the time of Pentecost (50 days after the passover) it would be fair to say that many nations were represented in Jerusalem. (Acts 2:1-12) IT was not Jesus command for all nations to come to Jerusalem to hear the gospel. Jesus has commanded the believers in Jerusalem to go out.
What you see in starting at the end of Acts 7 with the death of Stephen is God bring persecutions into the church such that caused a scattering…
Acts 8:3-4 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
I was thinking about this in light of church culture and what it means to be missional. It is the biblical mission of the church to “go”. Churches have been good about promoting the “come and see” concept of Jesus when he called his disciples. However, Jesus command was never, “Come and See”. The ultimate goal was never for us to see how many people we could pack into a building or location. The command was to “go”… to scatter… to get the heck out of Dodge and spread the gospel.
In a day when attendance and size is a self-centered mark of success perhaps a more appropriate measure would be who many are engaged in mission. Acts 1:8 restates Jesus command…
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Being missional is about having a simultaneous relational gospel reach that extends locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. This would be the correct biblical approach that Jesus commanded.
Coming to church is not the apex of discipleship. We are not spiritually successful if we come to church every time the doors are open. The question we should be asking is “Is my life truly missional?” or “Where am I taking the gospel in my missional life?” or “How far is my gospel reach?”.
I often look into my life and wonder what things could I change to be a better missional disciple.
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Matthew 6:19-21 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Could I do with less? Could I spend less on myself and give more to the mission? Could I do without certain comforts to have more of a missional impact? Or better yet how can I take what I have and “squeeze the missional life out of it”? How can I be missional with my cloths, shoes, computers, phones, books, music, instruments, townhouse, blog, websites, Jeep, skateboards… and the list can go on and on… is God getting the glory with EVERY aspect of life?
