His Story/Our Responsibility
Good morning everyone my name is Darius Bauer, I’m the mission pastor at HTC, and this morning we’re going to talk about global missions, God story, and our responsibility.
We want to look at it’s biblical context so that we, as a church and individual believers have clarity on what our responsibility is in the redemptive story that God has been writing for thousands of years.
So today - we lay the biblical foundation for Global Missions and next Sunday is Globl Mission Sunday which I’m super excited about, because we invited leaders, church planters, missionaries from Peru, Germany, and Turkey. These people will share with us about the great work that God is currently doing in their respective nations. Ie of the Peruvian Missionaries will be with HTC Kids during the morning service as well as in the youth group Sunday evening.
I want to specifically encourage to join us on Sunday evening from 6-7.15pm. There will be childcare but we need you to register for that so we can have enough kids workers present.
I believe it will be a great time of encouragement, strengthening of our faith, and we will hear about how you and I can partner with what God is already doing around the globe.
You definitely don't want to miss next Sunday!
Connection to Last Sunday
Last Sunday we finished our reset Sermon series and Pastor Brian highlighted one point that was about the need of a heart to be captivated with the beauty of who Jesus is.
Even as we are going to talk about global missions, today, I want to emphasize the great importance of that same point as it relates to Missions.
Because the center of Missions is to exemplify that very beauty and glory of Jesus ot the people around us in word and action. The forgiveness through the cross, the unconditional grace, that is found in no other religion, saying that God loved us while we were still sinners and enemies.
I have realized in my own life, that in times when my heart was not connected with the Lord and my heart was not captivated by his glory, my passion for serving the poor, or talking to others about Jesus, inviting people to church, that passion was not vibrant either, because my heart was not captivated.
This is a daily challenge for every believer.
Which again, is the reason why the enemy does not want us to read our bible for even just 5 minutes a day or pray, as Pastor Brian encouraged us to last Sunday.
One of the greatest threats to darkness is a believer's burning vibrant heart for Jesus.
I encourage you to keep up the good fight and keep your heart engaged and captivated with Jesus.
Let’s pray.
God, thank you for HTC…
Give us a heart that hungers for your presence and your glory. Cleanse our eyes from the worthless things of the world to behold your beauty and captivate our hearts.
Mission Examples
Today, there are many different kinds of missions all around us:
One of the most famous Missions in American history is the Apollo 11 Mission, first moon landing.
Elon Musk, not long ago. Announced the mission to Mars. If that ever happens, we will have to launch an HTC space mission department, and I will be the space mission Pastor, which certainly will be my dream job.
There are overseas missions through the federal government or military. (D-Day Operation Overlord)
Every corporate company, nonprofit or church has their own mission statement.
There’s the mission of freedom and independence that is being held through democracy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if many of us in this room have our own personal mission statements, that keep you focused and track.
We have all sorts of missions that we are involved in on a daily basis if we know it or not.
But this morning, I dare to suggest that there is one mission that surpasses all other missions because the consequences are far more severe as they surpass our time and life on earth, with implications for all eternity.
That is the Mission of Jesus!
The Mission of Jesus - Matthew 28
The Mission of Jesus is GOD’s MISSION of redemption, restoration, and salvation for all creation, that began right after the fall in Genesis Chapter 3:15, yet the commissioning of and passing on of responsibility to the church did not happen until Matthew 28 or Mark 16.
Matthew 28 is basically God’s mission statement for his plan of redemption and salvation.
So lets read it together…
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them/disciples, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Just imagine for a moment if you would be in the story, standing there with the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, and you see Jesus coming up to you.
You see this man, the same Jesus whom you saw, just a few days earlier, hanging on the cross, covered in blood, breathing his last breath, dying in agony, seeing the Roman Soldiers piercing the side of the lung to make sure that Jesus was dead.
Three days later you’re standing in front of a tomb, where your best friend's dead body should be, but the tomb IS EMPTY!
Just a little while later, you see a man who should have been dead, standing in the same room with you fully alive, and he shows you the wholes in his hand and his feet, saying, “I was dead, but now I am alive. This Jesus, the one who overcame the power of death, the king of glory, the God of salvation, comes up to you, and standing in front of you He says, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.
Would you believe him? (Story from Lebanon: Young man got healed)
Only a faith tested is a faith proven!
And Jesus continues, by saying, “Go therefore and make disciples.”
Jesus actually elaborates in Acts Chapter 1 what he means with “Go.”
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.
This is where we need to understand the intensity of the command that Jesus gave to his disciples.
The whole nation of Israel, the Jewish people, suffered tremendously under the hands of the pagans and gentiles, specifically the Roman Empire.
Jesus called the disciples to cross all barriers of race, language, and culture to reach their very enemies with the Gospel.
The jewish people hated the Romans. Yet right here, Jesus called them to lay aside all hatred, pain and nationalism, to cross all barriers of race, language, and culture to reach their very enemies with the Gospel.
If Jesus called the very first audience to lay aside their prejudice in such a way, it can certainly summon us to do no less.
Story:
Interestingly I never wanted to be a missionary. My heart was to raise up young believers in Germany, equip and empower them to be missionaries amongst the unreached people of the world.
One night when I was 21 years I had dream about Turkey.
The next day I profound encounter with God when I felt the Holy Spirit speaking very clearly to my heart, last night I didn’t call you to pray for Turkey but to be a Missionary to Turkey.
You can call people to be Missionaries unless you have lived your own preaching.
I will give you my heart for this Nation.
Friends, that is the Call to Missions. The Gospel is meant to cross barriers, build bridges, tear down walls that separate and it brings reconciliation.
You and I, we are called to be ambassadors of God's kingdom here in our neighborhoods and in the nations of the earth.
The Gospel is universal, it speaks to every culture, and every person - it is for everyone and all nations.
… and Jesus is not only looking for converts, but he is looking for friends, friends who want to know his heart. Friends who obey his commandments because they love him.
What a powerful message of Jesus in Matthew 28.
Joining God’s story
The second point for this morning is that in Missions, we are joining God's storyline.
Docan Story
You cannot hide from God, in a mosque, in the bathroom, in the trash is a Gospel tract, and one person happens to be there to take it out and passes by a church a few days later and gives his life to Jesus.
God is writing a story that far surpasses our imagination.
Matthew 28, the Great Commission was not given in a vacuum. The context of the great commission is the entire biblical revelation from the beginning to the end.
Right here in the first 2 pages …
Starting in Genesis chapter 3, after sin entered the world, God prophesied that one day there will be an offspring, savior, from the lineage/seed of the woman/Eve who will crush the serpent's head.
The rest of the entire OT is the revelation of God's faithfulness to bring forth the promised Messiah from the seed of the woman.
And along the way God is revealing more and more of his character to his creation.
In Genesis Chapter 12, God continues the story of the Seed by choosing Abraham, a man of faith who lived in the plains of modern-day Iraq, and God made a covenant with him.
Genesis 12: 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you(/through you) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 17: 4/7 Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
God invited Abraham on a journey by saying, “Go from your country, the land of your ancestors, to land that I will show. While this was a command from God it was also an invitation to receive God's promise.
Abraham had the choice to walk away from God and stay in the land of his ancestors, yet Abraham trusted the Lord, he had faith in God, and and was obedient to his call.
God blessed Abraham to be a blessing. And through Jesus, now we have been brought into the Abrahamic Covenant with the implication that you and I are now called to be blessing for all the nations as well!
God's blessing of salvation to all the nations is released through us!
Just like Abraham, your life choice today can release generational blessing not only in your life but in the lives of the people around you!
God’s plan of redemption and salvation for all the nations is not a new Testament idea, it was there since the beginning.
From Abraham the nation of Israel is born and the story of the seed continues …
And then the day comes when the word became flesh and the eternal and infinite God breaks into time and space.
33 years later Jesus tells his disciples, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations!
Here we are 2000 years later in McLean, You and I got wrapped up in this grand story along with 100’s of millions of believers around the Globe, That is the reason why we are partnering with all of our fiends in Peru, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Turkey, and others, because we all have one goal…
-> Malachai 1:11 From the rising of the sun to its going down my name shall be great among the nations.
This is God's story, and he wants you to be part of this.
His Story - Our Responsibility - Call to Action
Some of us are here in this room today have a calling from God to one day live in another nation and to build God's kingdom. Maybe as a full-time missionary or business as mission, like our friends the Chen’s just moved to the Arabian Peninsula.
Then there are others in this room who are not called to move overseas, but we are still called to be a blessing to the nations through the gifts and talents that God has blessed us with!
You can be a blessing to the nations right here by opening your home to international Students. Hospitality is a form of “going”. Inviting others, serving others, loving others.
Maybe you are working in a cross-cultural environment, with an NGO, in the corporate world or with the Federal Government, on Capitol Hill. Be a blessing and let your light shine!
Go on a mission trip with us or another organization.
Help us train people: Tracy Thomas: Peru Mission Trip - didn’t feel God calling her to go but to help equip the team that is going.
What is most encouraging to me, is that there is already some much good happening…
People who were already going on Mission Trips before HTC even started a Mission department, doing Medical Mission trips, in Africa and South America.
I know people in this church who have non-profit organization who are reaching the poorest of the poor, across the globe, making a difference in many lives.
Some of you just signed up to host international students here in your home in DC! You are a blessing to the nations - thank you!
I am so encouraged by the heart of our church and at the same time, I believe this not the fullness of God's dream for HTC in the nations - there is more for all of us!
Be part of making HTC an even more vibrant missional church that reaches in nations in our neighborhood and around globe.
Let’s finish with how we began, let’s set our eyes on Jesus to be captivated by who he is as we are going into one last worship song.
I encourage you to ask the Lord, what is my responsibility in your story?