The “Missional Monday” Series
1) Introduction
2) Jesus Intensionally Forms The Church
3) Jesus Calls Us Out From A Previous ID
4) Jesus Sends Us Into Mission
5) Jesus Is With Us In Mission
What I find really interesting about this particular passage of Scripture, is that this community of called out people is formed at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and becomes a major focus of His life.
In this passage, we see Jesus approaching the boat Simon Peter. He hops into it and proceeds to perform a miracle by telling them to cast their nets on the other side. This was no chance encounter. This was no dog and pony show nor was it a special magic trick for the crowds hovering at the beachside. No, this was a deliberate effort by Jesus to reveal a piece of who He was to a specific group of people for a specific reason: calling them to follow Him, to join Him in His mission to catch people alive, restore them, and set them free.
At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after announcing the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy of isaiah in the synagogue and after being tempted by Satan in the desert, Jesus purposefully invites a group of people to follow Him for the purpose of training them and sending them. And throughout the rest of his three years of ministry, a major piece of the Jesus story is Him raising up a group of people to send on mission.
So even at the beginning, a messianic community was Jesus’ goal. The Church was never an after thought or even simply a result of Jesus’ teachings. At the end before He was crucified He didn’t think to Himself, “goodness I better get a group of people together to continue what I am doing when I’m gone!” Nor did he look around Him and see how popular He and His message was and think about capitalizing on that popularity by creating an organized following. No, no. Rather, calling out a gathered people was a deliberate act on Jesus part and His intent from the very beginning of His ministry, because those called out people would later carry forth His mission. In fact, Jesus had us in mind, too, because we ourselves would carry out His mission.
R.T. France in his commentary on The Book of Mark says this of the calling-out event:
“They may, and often will, fail him and disappoint him, but their role is crucial to the achievement of His mission, for it is through this flawed and vulnerable group of people that God’s kingdom will be established.”
Think about that: our role as the Church, the continuing presence of Jesus on earth, is crucial to God achieving His mission in the world. God is establishing His reign and Way of Living through us, the Church. In the words of my good friend John Frye: Unbelievable!
When I preached this message to the church community of which I am apart, I said that as we think about our own reasons for existing we need to remember that mission was on Jesus’ mind when he formed the Church and us. The Church was not an afterthought. Rather, the Church was on Jesus’ mind at the beginning of His ministry and the Church was on His mind because He sending a group of people on mission was on His mind.. He intensionally sought to form a people who would carry forth His mission.
And here’s the thing: it is Jesus who has formed it. He makes that very clear in Matthew 16:17:
“I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Brian McLaren, Jim Dobson, Dwight Moody, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Pope Benedict, St. Augustine, Anslem, Paul, Andrew or Peter have not formed or established the Bride of Christ.
Jesus has. It is He who is building His Church. It’s Jesus’ whole operation, not ours. He started it, He has formed it over the years, and He is continuing to build it into the future.
This realization should both reorient our perspective about why we exist, but also give us comfort that Jesus is and will accomplish His work.
It’s Jesus’ church. He intensionally started it. He is building it. And He has sent it on mission. And in so sending, He has called us out of a previous identity and community, which is the topic of next weeks post…
