Stewardship as Mission
Our gospel passage follows the events of Easter morning; the women going to the tomb, encountering the angels and then the resurrected Jesus who says to them; “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Stewardship is about trust… God trusting us more than our trust in God… God entrusts us with the most valuable gift imaginable—himself through faith in Jesus
Stewardship is about meeting our most fundamental need… a restored relationship with God… stewardship is a way that God transforms us into the character and nature of Jesus
Stewardship frees us… from the things that separate us from God (greed, fear, worry, etc.)
Stewardship is about investing in what is important to God… God’s creative purpose… redemption of creation… so
Stewardship is primarily about people not money… it’s about relationships… God entrusts himself to us so that we can share him with others
We’ve looked at how we live that out in our lives of faith through discipleship, through evangelism, through membership and today we’re going to see stewardship through the lens of mission.
What is mission? We hear the words mission and ministry used almost interchangeably and it may get confusing… are we engaged in ministry or are we engaged in mission? We talk about the mission of the church… “to know Jesus and to make Jesus known” is that the same as being in mission? The answer is yes. To all.
Pastor Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) implies that there is a difference between ministry and mission. He proposes that Ministry is serving the needs within the community of faith—the church—so it is inward focused for the purpose of building up the body to be effective in it’s Mission which is serving the needs of the un-churched; so it (mission) is outward focused. Both are expressions of our overall mission of the church to make disciples of Jesus. While this may be a helpful way to distinguish between outward and inward service the separation of the two doesn’t really have any basis in scripture. The root word for mission is the same for ministry (diakonia). When translated mission (which depending upon the translation we will only see it one to three times in the NT) it is in the context of traveling away from what might be considered a home locale to engage in ministry. So “mission” is a type of, or expression of “ministry.” With that in mind Warren’s designation is helpful because it can help us understand mission as ministry beyond ourselves—whether that is our family of faith (local mission) or beyond our community (national or even international mission). It is this understanding that I want us to focus on.
Jesus spent the majority of his time ministering to both his disciples and to what he called the “lost sheep of Israel.” He had a few encounters with non-Jews and when they demonstrated the faith he was calling for in the Jews he blessed that faith. We might consider Jesus’ mission statement to be John 3:16… for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. So Jesus’ mission is the same as God the Father’s… to restore all humankind in a right relationship with God. The plan to accomplish it however was and is to do it through the church. Jesus discipled Peter and the gang… he entrusted them with his character and nature… to re-present him… and then he entrusted them with his mission: 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
It began locally… where they were in Jerusalem… and initially to Jews… but it quickly spread to include non-Jews too. The ministry that the apostles were engaged in had both a local emphasis… we saw that last week with the passage from Acts… 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
But it also grew to have an outward focus… the account of Peter on the roof praying and the Gentile Cornelius comes to him after being spoken to in a vision… and he asks Peter to come to his home and share the message of Jesus with them… with non-Jews… so Peter does.
Mission is ministry that focuses outside ourselves… as individuals and as the church… to the un-churched.
Mission is an expression of stewardship because we are investing both ourselves and what God has entrusted us with… himself in the person of Jesus… in the lives of people who are un-churched or marginally churched.
Mission is primarily God’s initiative in Jesus’ name and power… Whatever it is we do; we do it in Jesus’ name and power… we re-present Jesus… he is present to and through us… and he is the one that gives us the direction, the energy, and the passion to act.
In the book of Acts (5:12-39) Peter and John are arrested for preaching the Good News that is Jesus, for the second time… so they are repeat offenders… One of the leaders of the temple council (Gamaliel) says… hey let them alone… if what they are doing is of their own invention then it will quickly fade away… but if it is of God you won’t be able to do a thing about it—in fact you may even be fighting against God.
So God leads… God sends… and we respond… we go to where God is already at work… remember the story of Peter and Cornelius? God was already at work there and Peter just responded to the call… Peter preached but it was God in the Holy Spirit that touched peoples hearts and lives… but the catalyst was Peter’s willingness to go… to be sent.
Mission is individual and corporate… We need to note that when Jesus speaks he is not speaking only to Peter, or only to John, or only to Andrew… he is speaking to all of the faithful that will come to believe through the faithful response of the 12… so he is not speaking to us only as individuals… he is also speaking to us as a community of faith… he is speaking to the church.
So Jesus is sending us as the church… individual members working together for a common purpose… to go beyond ourselves… beyond our community of faith to serve the needs of those in the larger community around us…
So why are we supposed to be in mission? We might be able to come up with any number but the only one that really matters is that Jesus asked us to. I don’t think this will come as any great surprise but the great commission wasn’t only for Peter and the rest. We can learn that from a lot of different places in the Bible but we have one this morning… “teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
In the gospel of John Jesus said, “if you love me you will obey my commands”; meaning that if we are disciples of Jesus we will willingly invest what God has entrusted to us… continuing the ministry of Jesus… to achieve God’s creative purpose of restoring people in a relationship with God.
That theme is repeated in all of the gospels as well as the book of Acts… it is one of the most mentioned aspect of the Christian faith next to John 3:16… for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… Why?... so that all who believe in him would have eternal life. So even John 3:16 relates to it the great commission… and why not… it’s Jesus’ mission statement.
We are to be in mission because God cares about the lost… God cares about people who either don’t know him or trust him… to help them realize what it is that they really need…
The primary need that we are trying to fill is their awareness of their need for God… the difficult thing is that so many things of the world get in the way of recognizing that need… This shouldn’t be too hard for us to understand because we struggle with the same problem don’t we… we think that we need so many different things to fill something inside us when really what we need is a restored relationship with God…
That’s why the primary focus of mission is helping people meet their basic physical needs… providing security through helping provide shelter, clothing, food… helping them to develop job skills and the like…
People need to know that they have value… that they can make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others… that’s why ministries like Habitat for Humanity are so successful… or more locally The Mission of Hope or the Women at the Well Prison Ministry at Mitchellville… and we do it all in Jesus name… with no expectation of repayment of any kind… The goal of mission is to make disciples of Jesus… not us… not the local church… but Jesus. And we do that by being Jesus to the people we serve… We offer ourselves as a faith community… we invite, we encourage, we continue to serve… but if folks choose to be part of another church, then we celebrate with them… we rejoice just as Jesus rejoices because what’s important is that they are now part of the family…
In one of the earlier messages in talking about the parable of the talents I shared that the Master entrusted to them more than money. He gave them a way of thinking or understanding of what he wanted done and how he wanted it done… what he really gave them a way of living with others that was a reflection of himself—that’s the gift of discipleship. The result of that was is the same for us… our life of discipleship shows itself when we serve others as we share in the mission of Jesus to make disciples… people shouldn’t see us… they should see a reflection of our Master… Jesus.
This is going to sound familiar but, the important thing in using the gift of mission that God has entrusted us with isn’t the feeding, the providing of clothes, the repairing or building of homes… it’s not the wells that are built or the animals that are provided… it’s not the schools or the books or the supplies… it is the relationships that are developed… it’s in getting to know the people that we are in mission to and with because if we truly are disciples of Jesus then they will get to know Him too.
So where do we start? We need to start where we are…..We encounter Jesus in our lives; we worship but then we begin to question… But some doubted… we are always going to have questions… are we doing the right thing? Is this the way we’re supposed to go about it… the thing is we can’t let indecision or uncertainty about the details stop us from acting… we plan the best we can… we start small… we attempt… we review and analyze… we make corrections… try again… but we are always called to act
My prayer for us is that we can continue to grow in our stewardship of mission. We’ve made some good first steps in the past year with our involvement in collecting food and clothes for Mission of Hope and the local food banks. We’ve made some needed contributions as part of the Ingathering that will make a difference in peoples lives. But I believe that you have a lot more to offer than clothing and food and other material needs. I know this because I know the one who has entrusted you with so much more.
Jesus is already at work in the community around us and he is entrusting us to show people where he is… that he cares… that they matter. It is as we continue to grow into a life of mission that we will hear our master say, “Well done good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.”
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