Purposefully Missional (2/12/2023)

Jesus in You: Purposefully Missional (Acts 1:8, Acts 14:14, Acts 15, Acts 28:41)

We do not get to choose our purpose. We do not get to create our mission. Jesus, who indwells us by the power of His Holy Spirit - tells us what we are to do. And lest there is any confusion - he makes it abundantly clear in the simplest and most succinct mission statement: Acts 1:8. This mission will not fail. It will go on by the living power of the Holy Spirit alive in his church. You see this mission in the Spirit compelled travels of Paul: Acts 13:4-6, 13-14a, 46-49 (note in v49, it was the Lord's message), 52 (believers filled with JOY and the Holy Spirit), 14:1, 21-28 (note: in 14:27 they call what happened, "everything that God had done.") This is still our mission. It is unending. In fact, the very last word in the book of Acts is "Unhindered." When you get to the end of the book, it appears that the church may be in trouble. The great apostle Paul is in chains. He is in Rome. He will soon be executed by the word of Caesar. But Luke tells us that the work of the church is alive and well. It will go unhindered.

But having made that pronouncement at the end of Acts - (like the book end to the mission) - in the middle of the book there are two warnings to the church. There were and are, two things which threaten the missional purpose of the church: Pride and Division. These are the two great enemies of every church. In Acts 14:14, Paul and Barnabas go to great lengths to combat the temptation of Pride. They fight pride with humility of spirit. They go to war agains pride. (They could barely constrain the people). And in Acts 15 they likewise go to war for Unity in the body. In John 17:9-26, Jesus prays for the disciples then and now. And his prayer is all about unity - unity with one another, in Christ - a unity that first exists between Father and Son, Son and Spirit, Spirit and Father. The church is to be the community of believers who reflect the very unity of God that has existed from the very beginning: "Let us make humankind in our image, to be like us."