We Are Sent and Sending

Introduction

God’s people are a people who are sent and are sending. We learned last week that God sends us into the world as agents of his salvation. And God sends us into the world as messengers of his Word. It became clear that our God is a sending God. This morning we will explore this more by looking at how this sending is the work of the Holy Trinity. Then we will look at how and for what Jesus sends us into the world. Lastly, we see how we are to send others. 

1.  Our God is a Sending God

God’s mission, sending and being sent, originates, has its roots, its life, in the Holy Trinity. All three Persons of the Trinity are involved in this sending. 

God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus. At the right time according to God’s eternal plan and purpose He sent Jesus into the world to become human, and to save the world. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (Gal 4:4-5) “When the times reach their fulfillment” (Eph 1:10) God put his plan into effect. “… at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rm 5:6). God the Father sent Jesus, his Son, to do his will. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit. John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” Verse 26— “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” 

God the Son sends God the Holy Spirit. John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” John 16:7, “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus promised his disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised you” (Lk 24:49.) And when He sent them, “he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22) Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to empower us, to teach and guide us in the truth, to testify about Jesus, to give us the words to say, to speak through us to the world.

God the Son sends his disciples. During his time on earth Jesus sent first the twelve (Lk 9:1-6; Mt 10:1-15; Mk 6:7-13), and then 72 others (Lk 10:1-24). After his resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (Jn 20:21). Jesus gave them the Great Commission to make disciples of all peoples (Mt 28:18-20).

God the Holy Spirit sends God the Son. Jesus is sent with, and in the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus for and gave him his mission. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me … Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:18-19). The Holy Spirit filled and led Jesus in his ministry. “Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness …” (Lk 4:1). At his baptism the Spirit descended on him (Mt 3:16; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22). The Spirit of holiness appointed Jesus the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead (Rm 1:4). Through the eternal Spirit Jesus offered himself unblemished to God (Heb 9:14). 

God the Holy Spirit, along with Jesus, send the apostles, disciples, and us. The Spirit chose, named, and sent the first missionaries from Antioch (Acts 13:1-4). The first believers went out to be witnesses only after they were baptized with, and received power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5,8; 2:4). The Holy Spirit guided them on their missionary journeys (Acts 16:6-7).

To summarize then, God the Father and God the Spirit sent God the Son. God the Father and God the Son send God the Holy Spirit. God the Son and God the Spirit send the people of God. Isn’t this awesome?! We see here the mysterious, loving, and beautiful work of the Holy Trinity. We see the life and mission of our extraordinary God in action. And we, as God’s people, are called to participate in this life of sending and being sent. Today God is still sending people for the salvation of the world, and for the revelation of his Word. And therefore Jesus sends us …

2.  Jesus Sends Us into the World

How does Jesus send us? What does he send us to do? When Jesus called his first disciples he said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19 ESV). Jesus invites us, “Follow me, join my life, live with me, learn from me.”  “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” (Mk 3:14-15) 

Jesus called them to be with him. They spent time with Jesus. They learned from him. He trained them. They understood who he is and what his mission is. They bore the cost of radical discipleship. They witnessed everything—his life, his teaching, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. “Follow me” Jesus said. They followed him, and they remained his followers. We must remain followers of Jesus. We must abide in Christ all the time. We must continue to learn from him. We must continue to grow in him. Only as humble followers can we be effective to do what he sends us to do. 

“I will make you fishers of men” — Jesus calls and sends his disciples, including us, to continue, to replicate, and to extend his ministry and mission. What was his ministry? In Matthew 10 Jesus sent out the the twelve on their first training mission. Just before that is a summary of all that Jesus was doing. “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt 9:35-37) And then Jesus sent them out into the harvest, “he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction” (Mt 10:1). Later Jesus also sent out 72 messengers, and told them, “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near you.’” (Lk 10:9)

Today the harvest is still plentiful. And Jesus calls and sends us into the world to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom, to drive out demons, and heal the sick. We must proclaim that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, came, suffered, and rose from the dead on the third day. We must preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations. (Lk 24:46-47)

Like the first disciples Jesus sends us out with his authority to do his ministry. Our mission and ministry come from Christ alone, and we are doing it with his authority. It’s not our work. It’s not about us. What we say and do, Jesus says and does through us! What a great calling and privilege! But this is also a tremendous responsibility. So we must make sure that we are in Christ and remain in Christ. That we live life with Jesus all the time so that people can see Jesus in us and through us. We can do it. Because Jesus, and all his authority and power is with us. Do not fear, do not doubt! Be courageous! We are on a mission commissioned by the Lord! The power of Christ, the Holy Spirit, changes us into witnesses, into fishers of people. 

“I will make you fishers of men” — That is, disciple-makers. Jesus calls and sends us to make disciples of all nations, of all peoples. The Great Commission is not an option. It is not just one of a long list of many church activities that we need to check off. No! The church has one mission in this world—to make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ! We must make Jesus’ last words our first priority. We must make the Commission Great again! 

The Great Commission tells us to make disciples as we go. I talked about this last week. All of us are sent. Wherever we are going, wherever we live life, there, as we are going, all the time, we must make disciples. 

3.  We send!

Not only are we sent, but we also send. We are a sending church. Some of us have received the gift to be apostles and evangelists. Some of us are called to be full-time missionaries, evangelists, and church planters. As a church we are the senders of these servants. How should we send them? We find some great instructions in a small, little read book, 3 John.

Faithfulness is the mark of a sending church. “It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,  even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love.” (3 Jn 3-6)

We must be faithful to the essential truths of the gospel. That is the truth of the incarnation, that Jesus was truly God and truly human. Jesus is the promised Messiah. It is the truth of the cross and Jesus’ atoning death for our sins; the truth of his bodily resurrection. It is the truth that Jesus is the only Lord and Savior, and that He will come again. Sending churches are truth-walking churches. How else can we be witnesses of the truth, proclaim the truth, and send messengers of truth into the world?

We must be faithful to the missionaries we are sending. We do so by loving them. Our love for them is expressed in three practical ways—sending, going, and supporting. “Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.” (3 Jn 6-8)

Send them on their way — the Greek word used here for sending means to make all the necessary arrangements and preparations for someone’s journey. And to provide for the journey. And all this should be done “in a manner that honors God.” We must do it in a way that will have God’s approval. Imagine that it is Jesus himself that we are sending on his mission. How will we do it? What will we do for Jesus? That is how we should be sending others.

As we send others we must remember that they are not tourists. They go out “for the sake of the Name.” Missionaries go into the world for the sake of the Name of Christ. They go with Christ’s authority, with Christ’s presence, for Christ’s glory. Not for our sake and our church’s glory. It is a sad fact that some churches send missionaries for their own name’s sake. They want to receive glory for how good they are at doing missions, extending their churches to others parts of the world. And when their missionaries do not perform, when numbers of converts, baptisms and church growth are not rolling in, they come down hard on those poor missionaries.

The missionaries we sent are not business travelers. They are not going for money. They go out in faith with no support of their own. And so we show them faithful love by supporting them. 

“We ought” is a weak translation of the Greek. It should read, “we are obliged to” or “we owe it to them” to show hospitality to such people. We owe it to them to support them. Paul viewed such financial support as a matter of “obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ” (see 2 Cor 9:12-14). Thus, supporting the ones we send includes being generous in giving. John Stott says, “All Christians are called to be generous, but some are given the particular ‘gift of giving.’ Those entrusted with significant financial resources have a special responsibility to be good stewards of those resources.”

John concludes, “so that we may work together for the truth.” All of us, the senders and the sent, are working together for the truth. It is not just the missionaries working for the truth, while we pay the bills. We are in this together. Another problem, is that some think, that when they send and support missionaries, they have fulfilled the Great Commission. No! As you go, all of us, are send to make disciples of all peoples. This is not the exclusive task or calling of some believers.

Last, but the most important. We must pray for the harvest. We must pray for the ones we send. Prayer must be our first task. We must bath our sending, the going and our support in prayer. Without prayer … well, do I need to say more.

Conclusion

 From Jesus flows our mission, the mission of the church, until he comes again. Jesus sends us into the world. We are to be in the world, although we don’t belong to the world. Jesus calls us to be with him. He sends us to go in his name to do his work. All of us do his work as we go in life, living our everyday lives. And some of us do his work as we go to other places. Jesus sends us to the ends of the earth and until the end of the world.