Vision Sunday: People Are Still the Mission

A couple weeks ago Becky and I got to enjoy the beaches of Southern California.  When we go to the beach we take our favorite beach blanket, some snacks and a good book. That week I had fun reading Greg Laurie’s new book, The Jesus Revolution.  In it he records the events and people that set the stage for the Jesus Revolution, and in particular the compassion and prayers of a Pastor’s wife that God used to birth that movement.  Her name: Kay Smith.  In early 1968 God began to put a group of young people on her heart.  She read a newspaper story about the influx of runaways and rebels who’d come to San Francisco for the Summer of Love in ’67, but by early 68, had made their way to Southern Cal.  So one day Kay made her husband, Chuck, drive her to Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach was a surfing beach, but it had become a hippie magnet, with teenagers, peace signs, flowers, beads and drugs everywhere. Greg writes:  “Chuck and Kay would watch the kids staggering down the street or zoned out on the beach.  Chuck would think practical, manly thoughts like,Why don’t you get a job and cut your hair and take a bath?  Then he’d look over at his wife and she would have tears in her blue eyes. “They’re so lost,” Kay would say, “We’ve got to reach out to them!  They’ve got to know a different life!  They’ve got to know Jesus!”

Not much later Kay’s daughter was dating a guy who’d come to Christ out of the Haight-Ashbury scene.  So she asked the boyfriend if he could bring a real life hippie to their home. He did, and brought a long-haired hippie with flowers in his hair and tinkling bells on his trousers. “This is Lonnie,” the boyfriend said.  “Lonnie Frisbee.  I was driving the other day, and I always try to pick up hippies who’re hitchhiking so I can tell them about Jesus.  So I picked up this guy here, and the next thing I know, he’s telling me he hitchhikes around the area so he can tell the people who give him rides all about Jesus. He’s our brother in Christ.” Well that day, Chuck Smith realized that God could use Lonnie to help reach others like him, and the Jesus Revolution was born.  Pretty soon there were hippies were coming to Christ left and right, many moving right into the Smith’s home, then into Chuck Smith’s church, and soon hundreds were coming to faith and coming to Church.  But still Kay had a burden.  They lived near Harbor High School in Newport Beach.  And many afternoons Kay would look out her window and see these long haired teenage boys walking by smoking dope, and she’d stop what she was doing and pray for them.  One of those long-haired boys was 17 year old, Greg Laurie,who one day at lunch heard Lonnie Frisbee teaching the Bible to some students, so Greg listened in and when Lonnie said “There’s no middle ground with Jesus. You’re either for Him or against Him.  So which side are you on? – at that moment Greg knew He wanted to be “for Jesus.” Greg started coming to Chuck’s church, starting hanging around serving wherever he could then one day got the chance to teach the Bible.  Not long after that God used Greg to start a church that would eventually grow to 15,000 people.  And yet Greg was just one of many hippies who came to faith and became pastors or evangelists God used to awaken tens of thousands to faith in Jesus Christ and revive the church in the 1970’s.  And I love what he says at the conclusion of his book:  “The spiritual awakening that rocked the “little country church” called Calvary Chapel is in the rearview mirror now. But the awakening was never about Calvary Chapel.  Nor was it about Chuck Smith, or Lonnie Frisbee, or Greg Laurie, or any other person or church of denomination.  It was about Jesus moving by the power of His Holy Spirit in ordinary human lives.”

I love that!  Because that’s how God has always worked. It has always been about Jesus moving by the power of His Holy Spirit in ordinary human lives.  And there is no greater picture of this then what Jesus told his first followers in the book of Acts: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

People were the mission of God then.  People are still the mission of God today.

When God called Abram, He promised to bless him and make Him a blessing to the nations.  Now today, anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ is blessed to be a blessing. So our vision at Rock Springs is to help unleash every person to be a blessing.  We were saved to be a blessing.  But in order to be a blessing, we need to be with Jesus: to walk with Him and learn to live and love like Him with others.  That’s where we left off last Sunday with the first two parts of our vision: Every person unleashed to be a blessing! Every person following Jesus together!

But there’s a third part of that vision we still need to unpack today and that is this:  Every person empowered for mission.   And that’s what Jesus promised us in Acts 1:8 He gives ordinary people like you and me three gifts that can help us be the mission today.  And the first gift he gives is this:

1. Jesus gives us POWER for the mission Listen to Jesus’ instructions as he was preparing his disciples to begin fulfilling the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. He tells them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but waitfor the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized withwater, but in a few days you will be baptized withthe Holy Spirit.”  Acts 1:4-5

Jesus promised to give them Holy Spirit.  They were to wait for this gift.  This gift would give them the power for the mission.  The same Holy Spirit that was given to those disciples on the day of Pentecost, is the same Spirit we receive when we put our trust in Jesus.  So if Jesus lives in you, His Spirit lives in you.  And if His Spirit lives in you, then you already have in all the power you need to be the mission!

What manner was this power?  How was it manifested in those first followers?  It was the power of the Holy Spirit who moved them to thirst after the Word.  It was the power of the Holy Spirit who moved them to seek God constantly in prayer.  It was the power of the Holy Spirit who moved them to sell whatever they had so they could share with others in need.  It was the power of the Holy Spirit who moved them to open up their homes and include friends and neighbors in their lives.  It was the power of Christ’s love that compelled them to love one another deeply.  And it was the power who moved in their hearts to tell the good news about Jesus, to talk about the cross.  Because Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that was everything, as Paul said, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  1 Corinthians 1:18

Those first Christians had no Theological degrees, no cleverly crafted marketing schemes, no cutting edge worship services. But what they had was the very presence of Christ moving in them, motivating them, giving them great boldness and generosity to bless everyone among them.  This picture of the early church that we so often try to emulate was the direct outcome of a people who were empowered by the Spirit of God. This is the picture of the empowered Church:  They devoted themselvesto the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  Acts 2:42-47

Think about this: God’s Gift produced Good Works bringing about Good Will resulting in God News for all the people.The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  Let me ask you?  Could what happened then happen today? Yes!

But let me ask:  Why isn’t this happening? Could it be we are trying to do too much in our own strength, forgetting that God’s power is magnified in our weakness?  Remember God’s Words to Paul: But he said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

So here’s a thought:  Maybe there’s something about this waiting on Jesus.  Jesus told his disciples to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Now we know the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and Jesus gives us His Spirit the moment we believe.  So I’m not talking about a waiting on to God to give His gift again; but waiting in the spirit of those first disciples.  How did they wait?  They waited by praying together.  And their praying together revealed their weakness –  they could do nothing without the gift of the Spirit.  But their waiting also revealed their faith –  their anticipation – they waited in prayer believing God was going to show up.  As one writer put it:  “They were waiting prayerfully in dependence upon God, spreading themselves out upon the altar and asking the fires of heaven to come and consume their weakness with power.”

What if the reason we lack a first century empowerment, is that we lack a first century dependence?  Perhaps we need a return to the kind of prayerful dependence that marked men like A.W. Tozer who said, “I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion.  I want all that God has, or I don’t want any.”

Do you want all God has?  Do you want God’s power unleashed in your life?  Do want Gods’ power unleashed in our Church?  Then we need to pray.  We need to believe that God wants to work in us and through us today, like He did then. We need to believe we have the Spirit of God to empower us. Then we need to pray bold prayers like this prayer of Paul’s: I pray that out of his gloriousriches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you,being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

Can you imagine what God might do in you if you prayed like this?  It would change your life.  It would change us as God’s people.  We would become what Jesus wants us to become: His witnesses!  That’s WHY Jesus gives us His Spirit.  So He can make us an unstoppable force for His goodness and grace in this world.  Jesus gives us Power for the mission.  But that’s not all he gives…

2.Jesus gives us a PURPOSE for the mission He says that once you receive the Holy Spirit power I am giving you “you will be my witnesses”Acts 1:8 This is our purpose in life – to be His witnesses – to be the embodiment of Jesus so to reveal the good news of Jesus Christ by our words and works.  This why He gives us the Holy Spirit; because this is what the Holy Spirit does. Listen to how Jesus describes the work of Holy Spirit: “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 15:26

“He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” John 16:14  The Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit. He exists to bear witness of Jesus.  Therefore, when you are empowered by the Spirit of Christ, He can’t help but do what He has always done. The Spirit in you will bear the fruit of Jesus, glorify Jesus, speak of Jesus.

That’s what witness of Jesus do.  Think about this:  With His Spirit we share out of our personal knowledge and experience, the truth about this One who gave his all for us, this One who forgave us and this One who fills us with His deep and abiding love: a love that blesses instead of curses; a love that bears all things; a love that never gives up; a love that keeps no record of wrongs; a love that believes in us … even when we are at our worst.

That’s why Jesus gives us His Spirit – so we can begin to love like that.  And when we love like Jesus, we will be His witnesses.  And then it will be easy to give the credit to whom who all credit is do.  We will give praise to Jesus.  We’ll speak the name of Jesus, and tell the good news of Jesus, for there is power in the name of Jesus!

Are you beginning to see why people are still the mission today?  Sometimes I think we have missed the point by putting too much emphasis on worship services, creative outreaches, technological wizardry and marketing campaigns. Nothing wrong with those… but Jesus gave us His power so we would be His witnesses – we the very people He loves; the very people He changes:  He calls us the light of the world.  That’s why He gives us His Spirit.  This is the purpose He gives us. He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit.  He gives us the Spirit’s purpose as His witnesses… all leading to one end: So He could give us His mission:

2. Jesus gives us HIS mission Let’s look at all of Acts 1:8 together now. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 Jesus gives us His mission.  What’s His mission?  To make disciples of all nations.  Jesus wants everyone to know the Father.  Jesus wants people from every tongue and tribe to know the blessing of being the beloved.  He wants everyone to experience the life they were created to enjoy.  That’s what is pictured here.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t stick around longer?  Why did Jesus not stick around for another 40 years and preach the good news to everybody? It was because he spent three years making disciples who would make disciples who would then make disciples: He chose them.  He loved them. He taught them. He modeled the good news of the kingdom for them.  Then He appointed them and sent them.  “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”John 20:21  And we are in the line of those first disciples, and so He still sends us today.  We were meant to be a movement, not an institution, to be a going people not just a gathering people.

So where is God sending us?He wants to send us next door – to love our neighbors, and bless our friends.  But He also sends us outside the Ranch: to people in Eloy Arizona City and Casa Grande. To people in Coolidge, Florence and Maricopa.  Maybe God would send some of us to Robson Ranch in Texas.   All I know is that as long as people are alienated from the One who created them, as long as people are lost and broken, we still have the same mission.

What’s that going to look like?  I don’t know, but God does.  Maybe it will be as simple as starting a few new Journey Groups in Arizona City or adopting an elementary school in Eloy; or helping start a new Church in Maricopa.  But the thing is: we don’t have to know what it’s going to look like, we just need to be willing to go.

And they only way we will EVER be willing to go – is if the Spirit of God that Jesus has already given us – moves us.  And that’s what I want.  Because that’s what Jesus wants.  And my guess is you want this too.  That you want all that God has for you:

You want His power to fill you… His Spirit to move you… so you’ll be a blessing wherever He sends you.

May that not just be our desire today, but our prayer everyday, that God’s vision for His people would be our vision so we might become the mission God has called us to be, that we might become the blessing we are meant to be.  Do we want God’s vision?  Do we want to be His mission?  Then let’s pray.