On Mission

The great commission: Laid out in the Gospels, played out in Acts, promised in Revelation

Back to this thing of Jesus wandering the earth and gathering some followers. Just what was the God Man up too anyway? He could have done so many different things. Heck, according to John He did so many crazy things that  “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Now that is crazy talk. Jesus did so many things that the entire world could not hold all the books that would be written. That is a lot of things. Three years of stuff that the world cannot contain. I am getting a headache just trying to think of that much stuff.

We do know one of the crazy things He was up to was gathering some followers and teaching them about the kingdom. He was resetting things and decided to train up some folks in His way. But here is the cool thing about God He is so into the details that He was not just showing/teaching He was making. Go figure, creator God and all. In Mark 1:17 He says, “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Notice here that Jesus issues a call “follow.” He then issues a promise “I will make.” There is a transaction here that if we will do something, Jesus will then do something. There is an essence that the act of following will result in a transformation. He will make something (creator Jesus), not He will show how. That is super sweet. It is not left up to our skill set, our calling. We love to talk about our calling and skill sets as if God can’t do what He wants. He is the creator and He makes people into new people. Jesus emphasizes this by picking a bunch of mediocre types from different walks of life and makes them all do the same thing. You will all be fishers of men is what he tells them. Matthew was not Jesus’ accountant. He was his disciple. He was a fisher.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gives a command to the crew who had been following Him around. They follow Him all over the place, but not too far away, and He teaches them the kingdom. When this kingdom teaching is done He gives them a task. He has made them fishers. Now He tells them to go fish. “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.” The order of things here is amazing: Make disciples, baptize them, teach them what I taught. See how it works. He says get some people who will follow. Get them baptized and teach them the kingdom.  See Matthew 5-7. When the kingdom living portion is understood or at least attempted or at least desired send them out to make more fishers. Pretty weird how Jesus keeps forgetting to have people accept Him as their personal savior or ask Him into their heart. He just keeps discipleing, baptizing and teaching the kingdom.

Fast forward. Jesus has left earth and taken His seat on the throne. He talks to the Father about us quite a bit. The crew is left alone, told to hang out and wait for the Spirit. So they did and that is pretty amazing right there. I hate waiting for my check at a restaurant. They waited and waited and then stuff happened. They got all wild and went out into the streets and started gathering a new crew. In Acts 2 Peter comes out of the room and starts preaching. Peter tells the masses, “repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter is feeling it now that he just got this very cool gift. It is interesting here that Peter does not promise salvation, he promises the Spirit, which we are told in other places leads us to the wilderness, or truth in others but always to Jesus. Salvation does not seem to be a moment but a movement not from something but rather to something. (Later topic. Not for now. The Spirit leads us to Jesus, not salvation. How many of us are seeking the wrong thing? Too crazy controversial. Note to self. I should drop this idea. It makes people uncomfortable.) Discpleing brings them to baptizing which leads to the Spirit, which leads to teaching. In verse 42  we are told, "and they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So then we get back on topic and we are shown just what makes the disciples leave town, start going to the nations. In Acts 8:3-4 it says, “Saul was ravaging the church. Those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.” It seems the next phase of the commission is born out of escaping death and beginning the process of the commission wherever they ended up. This probably explains the slowing of the commission process because we found a place where we could stop running. In our desire to avoid all things uncomfortable we sought peace and safety. When we found peace and safety we sat still and forgot our job.

But here is the good news. This task of going to all nations and telling all tribes will be accomplished. We will once again go and that means the peace and safety net is going to wear out. It is made clear in Revelation 7:9 “And behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes.” Stunning, The great commission is a done deal. It is a promise. John saw it. At the end of the age the commission has absolutely been completed. (Another note to self. Revelation is actually in the bible. It might explain how this all turns out. Too controversial.) We know the job will get done and we also know it will only be done through us. So the only thing that is uncertain is when this will be finished.

We are told in 2 Peter 3:8-13 that we absolutely are going to make this thing happen and it is clear that we will determine if He returns in 5 years or 5000 years. In these verses there are references to time and how the Lord will bring about the conclusion of the age. Verse 9 speaks to God’s patience that all may hear and come to Him.  Verse 12 speaks to a hastening of the end of the age by not being sidetracked by things of the world. Specifically mentioned is that God demands lives of Godliness and Holiness.  Our pursuit of these two things will directly lead us away from safety and back to our job of fishing. Hastening is done through us accomplishing our assignment.  We are to make prayer and we are to fulfill the commission.

It seems clear that we will be made to be like Jesus. We will be baptized then we will be taught to do what He did. Wash rinse repeat. He shows us how it works and there seems to be a motivation in the going that has to do with escaping where you came from because we are tired of people trying to kill us So we move to a new place.. We are shown that this task is not just doable but it is promised, that it will be done. We are reminded that the faster we get it done the sooner He returns.  SWEET. This is simple stuff for a stiff-necked people. God’s people are always stubborn and forgetful. Going to the nations is nobody’s calling. It is a command. As my genius friend put it, our calling is to obedience. Most people are pretty unhappy with that calling, last time I checked.

Following

On that day when Jesus stepped out and began to choose disciples were Peter, Andrew, James and John the only ones fishing? It is a critical question. How we answer will probably go a long way to forming who we think this God is and How he goes about making decisions. We do know for absolute certainty that Jesus walked up and said for them to follow Him and they said yes. And off they went. We also know a few other things because they are not in scripture. We know that the four did not ask Jesus into their heart. We know Jesus did not ask them to pray a prayer. We know that they did not tell Jesus that they believe in Him and then go back to their jobs. And we for sure know that Jesus did not join them at their work. We know this because He asked them to come join Him at his work. And off they went. So we can conclude that either Jesus put the entire fishing economy of the region into a recession when the four followed Him or there were in fact other fisherman and Jesus never bothered to ask them to follow. In truth Jesus cruised the streets daily, going from town to town, and apparently He did not ask most of them to follow Him either.

There are all kinds of directions to take this. We could argue that not everyone is called to the apostle level. We could argue that some are just called to the disciple level or the spectator level. We could do that or we could ask what set these followers apart and how do we sign up for the set apart level because the set apart level at the very end were the only ones left walking with Him. The 11 and some other followers were still all in when everyone else had long gone back to doing something else, following someone else perhaps.

In John 15:16  Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." That's good news isn't it? He chose and they said yes and He did it so they can bear fruit and that fruit will abide. In verse 5 He says, "I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Here is what we for sure know. Peter, Andrew, James and John did nothing to be asked to follow. They were not special, they were not the best fisherman (fast forward to when they went back to fishing and caught nothing til Jesus showed up and told them which side of the boat fish hang out on.), they did not earn the call. They did say yes when they could very well have continued in their no. So it seems to work a little like this. Jesus says follow me and some of us say yes and some of us keep saying no. But long before we say yes or no we already know that He is God. The truth is that every single one of us, even those of us who say yes, used to say no. We all were rebels, we all were haters of God. We all made Him our enemy. We were all dead. And while we were all dead, while we all hated God we knew there was a God and we all said no. We know this is true because in Romans 1:18 and 19 we are told, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God had shown it to them."

Here is God's love: He has made himself known to every single person who has ever lived. He has revealed Himself to everyone who will ever live. He revealed Himself to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. He showed Himself to Hindus who made gods to look like the things of god. He made Himself known to the Greeks who created a team of gods to explain all things. He revealed Himself to muslims and aztecs, to mayans and athiest. He has revealed Himself to everyone already. He has already called out to everyone and very few have said yes. But there are some, there are a few, who are wandering among us just waiting for someone to tell them what they already know.

We are like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the matrix. We are offering to unplug all the no's and yet there are only a few yes's. And this is what we are made for. God could have done it an infinite number of ways and yet this is His way. He has made Himself known and all have declared themselves to be hostiles. But there are a few of us that are awakened in the mystery that is how God moves and we say yes. We say yes to the unbelievable and we do the unthinkable. We start trying to set all the captives free and sometimes they too awaken.

It makes absolutely no sense that this is how it works. And when my God makes absolutely no sense then I know I am following something so other than that it must be real.  There is none like Him.

Did Jesus cruise up and down that beach that day asking all the fisherman to follow? He didn't need to. Every fisherman already knew who God was. Every fisherman had already declared Him as enemy. But there were four who were about to say yes. There were four who were never going to be the same again. Jesus didn't need to ask all the fisherman to follow, just the four who were going to say yes. There are those among us who are ready to say yes and He already knows who they are. God has revealed Himself to everyone and everyone has said no. There absolutely is not a single yes to the revealing of God. Our task is to go to the no's (that is everyone) and we are to offer to unplug them. Here is the rub. Only the ones who are prepared to say yes will say yes. We won't talk them into their yes. They have always longed to be a yes they have just always been held captive by their no. Each and everyone of us who has said yes absolutely knows that we were a no longing to be a yes. Each and everyone of us knew there must be more than this.

We always ask the wrong questions. We are always asking if God this and God that then why this or why that. All we really need to ask Him is who is ready to be unplugged and then go do it. The why matters not at all. The why of God only distracts us from our unplugging job.