Missional Purpose
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Grow, and it’s all about how to experience real life change, how to experience real life transformation. We’re calling 2020 A Year of Transformation, and the stuff we’re teaching in this series are the very building blocks to experience not an episode of transformation, but a lifetime of transformation.
Now one of the questions every generation tends to wrestle with is what’s my purpose?... It’s what’s my purpose in life? Why am I here?...Some people think they know their purpose, but they’re not really certain. Others are certain, until something tragic happens like a near death experience or the death of a loved one, and they start rethinking their purpose again. But there’s also those who believe there’s no purpose to life at all. They think we’re a bunch of living cells that suddenly exploded into existence with no purpose, no meaning, and we just need to accept the reality that we live, we die, and that’s it. How’s that for morning motivation? The alarm goes off and you’re like “Yay! It’s a new day with no purpose, no meaning, and another day closer to my death.” That’ll get you out of bed in the morning...But what about you? What’s your purpose in life?...What’s your purpose? Why are you here?...One of the things I love about Jesus and the Christian life is that he gives us purpose. Jesus gives us purpose, he gives us a reason for being here. He gives you a reason for being in the school you’re in, the job you’re in, the neighborhood you’re in, the city you’re in. Jesus gives you purpose, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. So let’s turn to John 15:11-16 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle, keep turning to the right, you’ll find John. We’ll be in John 15:11-16. The title of today’s message is Missional Purpose, and here’s the big idea. If you abide in Jesus, you’ll align with his mission... If you abide in Jesus, you’ll align with his mission, and live with a missional purpose.
Context:
Here’s your context. John the author of this book of the bible, is recording a time in history when Jesus is about to be crucified. Jesus knows he’s about to die so he tells his disciples, his followers how to keep abiding in him even after his death and resurrection. He teaches them 5 things they can do to continue growing in his love. It’s not 5 things to earn his love, it’s 5 things to continue growing deeper in his love, and so far we’ve talked about 3 of those 5 things. We’ve talked about #1 abiding in his word, #2 obeying his word to bear fruit for God’s glory, and #3 abiding in loving Christ-centered community with others. Today we’re talking about #4 which is to align with Jesus’ mission, to live with a missional purpose. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
John 15:11-16 states, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” One of the things I’ve repeatedly said in this series is Jesus wants his joy to be in you, he wants his joy to be in me, he wants our joy to be completely full of him. Jesus wants us to live joyful fruitful lives in him. In vs 1-10 he says for that to happen we need to be connected to him as our vine, and the way to get connected to Jesus as our vine is by believing in the gospel, by believing Jesus is our Lord and Savior who died for our sins on the cross. When we believe in that gospel message we’re immediately connected to Jesus as our vine, and he starts producing his joyful fruit in our lives. He starts transforming our character into more like his, which starts producing all kinds of joyful fruit in our lives, relationships, church, and city. But it all starts with believing in the gospel, and then it continues growing deeper roots in the gospel, growing deeper roots in Jesus by living out the 5 things he’s teaching us in this text.
Again vs. 11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Last week I mentioned that Jesus is both our standard and our source of love. He commands us to love one another as he’s loved us, and it’s impossible to live that out without him. But with him, with him as our vine, as our power source, we’ll be able to live it out over time, and the key word is “over time.” Just like fruit on a tree grows gradually over time, the joyful fruit of Jesus grows in us gradually over time. We’re a work in progress, but Jesus helps us to make that progress. He helps us to grow in loving one another, as he’s loved us. When he talks about laying his life down for his friends, he’s talking about the cross. He’s about to lay his life down for our sins on the cross, and he says there’s no greater love than this. There’s no greater love than the gospel, than him laying his life down for our sins.
Vs. 15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit...” There’s the 4th thing Jesus teaches us about abiding in him, it’s to align with his mission. It’s to align with his mission, it’s to live with a missional purpose. Jesus says I chose you, I appointed you, and that’s purpose. If someone chooses you and appoints you to something they’re giving you a purpose. In this case Jesus is giving us the purpose to GO and bear fruit. The word ‘go’ is important, because like I said last week some Christians treat the church like it’s a cruise ship. They expect to be served instead of being the one that’s serving. They come and sit, instead of come and go. But the church isn’t meant to be a cruise ship, it’s meant to be more like a Coast Guard ship. We come, get equipped, then go in our city on a search and rescue mission to help those who are drowning. One of my pastoral friends and mentors J.D. Greear puts it like this. “God is like a spiritual tornado. He’ll never pull you in except to send you out. He’ll never bless you except to be a blessing. If you get sucked into the vortex of His power, it’s because He has a plan to powerfully send you out.” City Awakening Jesus chose you, he appointed you not to come and sit, but to come and GO. He’s given us so much purpose in life, and one of those purposes is to glorify him by obeying his command to go and bear fruit. God wants us to help relieve people of some of the societal ills and sins that are drowning them. He wants us to spread his joyful fruit in our city, by reconciling others to him through the gospel so they can receive his joyful fruit for their lives too. In fact Jesus says something incredible in John 14 which is a part of this same discourse, it’s a part of this same teaching in John 15. He says this in John 14:12.
John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do...” That’s an incredible statement! Jesus is saying his followers will do “even greater works” than the works he’s done! How’s that even possible? I mean we can’t heal the sick like him, raise the dead like him, preach with as much wisdom as him. So what’s he mean we’ll do greater works than him? When he says this he’s talking about the quantity of his work, not the quality of his work. He’s saying we’ll reach more people living on mission together, than if he stayed living on mission in Israel. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to continue his mission in the world through us, and it’s what’s been happening for nearly 2000 yrs. The past 2000 yrs Jesus has been continuing his mission through his followers, and it’s led to billions of people following Jesus globally! Are you living like that’s your reality? Are you living as a Spirit empowered follower of Jesus, fulfilling your missional purpose in our city?
Again John 15:16 states, “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, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Jesus says this 5 times in ch’s 14-16. He repeatedly tells us to ask anything in his name, and it’ll be given to us. When Jesus says this he isn’t saying if we tack on in the name of Jesus at the end of our prayers we’ll get whatever we want. In the name of Jesus isn’t a hashtag to our prayers, it’s a reminder to align our hearts with the will of Jesus when we pray. It’s about us praying for things that’re in line with his will, and you know what’s in line with his will? Bearing fruit!...Bearing fruit in both our lives and our city...He said in vs 11 he wants his joy to be ‘in you,’ and in vs 16 he wants us to ‘go and bear fruit.’ Jesus wants to produce his joyful fruit in our lives, and through our lives in our city. It’s two things he wants for us that’re in line with his will, and if we pray for those two things he promises it’ll happen! He doesn’t promise it’ll happen when we want or how we want, but he does promise it’ll happen. The question is do you believe his promise? Do you believe he sent the Holy Spirit to empower you to go? Do you believe he’ll bear fruit in your life and through your life in our city if you ask for it? Some Christians say they believe it, but they don’t live like they believe it, and let me give you 4 reasons why. It’s 4 reasons some Christians aren’t fulfilling their missional purpose. Now I know how this works. Some of us will hear these 4 reasons and start beating ourselves up with guilt. But don’t view it as a sledge hammer to beat you down, view it as God pruning you to bear more fruit. View it as God bringing something to light that’s preventing you from fulfilling your missional purpose. He wants you to work on this stuff not to beat you down, but to bear more fruit.
#1 Missions is for paid professionals = Some people don’t fulfill their missional purpose because they think missions is for paid professionals. They’re like “It’s not my job to talk about Jesus with others, that’s the pastor’s job. I’ll invite my friends to church, but it’s the pastor’s job to talk with them about Jesus.” People who believe this have an incorrect view of missions, because Jesus didn’t promise to send the Holy Spirit to a few select leaders. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to every believer! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower every Christian to live on mission in our city. Its true he calls some people to play unique leadership roles in the church, but he calls every Christian to play an empowered missional role in the world. Every Christian’s called to live on mission in our city, not just the pastor, the staff, the so-called paid professionals.
#2 Missions requires more training = Some people don’t fulfill their missional purpose because they believe they need more training. It’s true that the church needs to help equip people to live missionally, but some of you’ve been in the equipping stage for years. You don’t need more equipping on sharing Jesus, you need to be faithful by actually going to share Jesus. You need to be faithful in fulfilling your missional purpose in our city. But some of you may actually need more equipping, and our church has been taking steps to try to improve in this. One of the things we’ve mentioned over the past several weeks is our Discipleship Pathway which you can take online, and it’ll give you several practical next steps to help you grow in sharing Jesus with others. I’d encourage you to take it with somebody else so you can help each other to grow. We’ve also preached on this topic in the past where we’ve given some practical tips on how to share your faith. We even did an entire series called Cultivate, which was about how to share your faith in tough soils, in tough contexts like Orlando. You can access all this on our website.
#3 Missions is scary = Some people don’t fulfill their missional purpose because they think missions is scary, and truth be told, it is sometimes scary. Depending on the context you’re in it can be very scary. Being scared to talk about Jesus doesn’t mean you lack faith, it’s letting fear continue to keep you silent that means you lack faith. If fear keeps you silent about Jesus, it means you don’t have faith that he can fulfill his promise to bear fruit through you. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations, and before he says this he tells us all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. So even in our fear we can have confidence in going, because of who’s doing the sending...You can have confidence in going, because it’s Jesus who’s doing the sending...You can have confidence, because all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him for us to go make disciples, for us to go and bear fruit.
#4 Little belief in the gospel = Some people don’t fulfill their missional purpose because they have little belief in the gospel. They say they believe in the gospel, but they really believe in keeping their reputation, over sharing the gospel for people’s salvation...They say they believe in the gospel, but their lack of missional living is speaking louder than their gospel belief...Perhaps this is why some of you haven’t ever led a single person to Jesus in your lifetime. It isn’t because the gospel doesn’t have the power to save, it’s because you haven’t believed the gospel enough to cause you to live missionally, to cause you to pray with belief for others to be saved in our city. Romans 1:16 states, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Do you believe that’s true? Do you believe that’s true and are you living like it’s true...or is your lack of missional living speaking louder than your belief?
One of the greatest preachers in Christian history was Charles Spurgeon, and he said this in a sermon he wrote in 1873. Spurgeon states, “He who really has a high estimate of Jesus will think much of him, and as the thoughts are sure to run over at the mouth, he will talk much of him. If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child’s ear, you will be telling it to your husband, you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent. Your heart will speak and your eyes will flash, as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor...It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus, and a totally silent tongue about him.” City Awakening Jesus saved you and gave you a purpose. He saved you and gave you a purpose. So don’t let this guilt you, let it grow you! Let it unleash the power of the gospel inside you. Let it fan the fire of faith in our church so the gospel would burn so deeply in our hearts, that it’d cause us to fulfill our missional purpose in our city, to make disciples of all nations, to reach people and reach the world with the gospel.
The Big Idea:
Here’s the big idea. If you abide in Jesus, you’ll align with his mission...You’ll align with his mission, you’ll live with a missional purpose. So when you wake up tomorrow don’t view it as just another day to take your kids to school, go to work, going through the motions of another day. Don’t view tomorrow as just another day, view it as another opportunity. It’s another opportunity for you to partner with Jesus on fulfilling your missional purpose in this city. Both our personal growth and our growth as a church is hindered when we don’t do this. When we’re not fulfilling our missional purpose, not believing in the power of the gospel as deeply as we should, it hinders fruit from growing in our lives, marriages, families, relationships, our church, city, and world.
Matthew 13:58 states, “And Jesus didn’t do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” It doesn’t say Jesus didn’t do any mighty works there, it says Jesus didn’t do many mighty works there. He was still doing mighty works in that city, he just wasn’t doing many mighty works in that city because of their unbelief. What if the same is true for us? What if the same is true for you, me, our church, our city? What if God wants to do many mighty works in and through our church, but He’s waiting for us to believe the gospel more deeply, so we’ll live missionally and pray persevering prayers for people to receive the gospel in our city? City Awakening Jesus chose you, he appointed you, to play a role in the ‘greater works’ he promised. He chose you, he appointed you to pour his joyful fruit in you, and to spread his joyful fruit through you. If you believe that, then let’s live like we believe it. Let’s fulfill our missional purpose in this city.
COMMUNION
At this time let’s have those serving communion start passing the plates...Communion’s a reminder of the gospel, it’s a reminder of the missional purpose Jesus lived for us, through his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of him, in remembrance of what he did for us on the cross. So as the plates are being passed take a few minutes to pray asking Jesus to forgive you of any sins you’ve committed, thank him for dying for those sins on the cross, and then pray for those you know who are yet to receive the gospel. Let’s pray.
On the night Jesus was betrayed he was sharing a meal with his friends. He took some bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper ended he took the cup, blessed it, gave thanks for it, and said“This cup is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink of it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done.” City Awakening let’s eat, let’s drink, then let’s stand to worship Jesus believing what we sing, and singing like we believe it! Let’s stand and declare this song over our city!