The Mission

Introduction.

• • 1. Share about the visitors you most recently brought to church or Bible Talk personally.

• • 1. How met them.

• • 2. How you brought them along.

• • 2. Ask the young disciple about their evangelism.

• • 1. Lifestyle evangelism.

• • 2. Group evangelism.

• • 3. Cyber evangelism.

• • 1. Facebook.

• • 2. Instagram.

• • 3. Tiktok.

• • 4. Do they know how, where, when and with whom?

Point 1. Jesus’ Mission

• • 1. Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

• • 1. What was Jesus’s mission in life?

• • 2. What should ours be?

• • 3. What other mission or purpose are you tempted with?

• • 1. Studies?

• • 2. Looking good in the eyes of others, family or friends?

• • 3. Career?

• • 4. Making money?

• • 4. Why was this not Jesus’s mission on earth?

• • 2. 1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

• • 1. Who are you trying to save right now?

• • 2. Do you have list of people you are trying to save?

• • 3. How are you going about it?

• • 1. Discuss practicals of organising this list.

• • 2. Discuss practicals of weekly follow up to bring them to church

• • 3. Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

• • 1. Who has all authority of whether we get into heaven?

• • 2. Is go an active or a passive command? Is it an option?

• • 3. What does it mean to make someone into a disciple?

• • 1. Analogy of making table into a chair, bits left over and bits added.

• • 2. This takes time and concentrated effort.

• • 4. Now you are baptised what are we meant to help you do?

• • 1. Obey the going and making disciples.

• • 2. How do you feel about that?

• • 4. Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

• • 1. What was Jesus’ mission?

• • 2. What is each disciple’s mission?

• • 1. When we die the only things we can take with us is other souls.

• • 2. Is this your consuming aim at the moment?

• • 3. If not, why not?

Point 2. Disciples Mission.

• • 1. John 15:1-16 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

• • 1. Glorifying God in John 15 is bearing the fruit of making disciples, not simply baptizing.

• • 1. Matthew 28:19 commands us to “go and make disciples.”

• • 2. John 15:16 commands us to “go and bear fruit that will last.”

• • 2. To bear fruit, one must be “in the vine,” otherwise we will be cut off.

• • 3. Jesus is the perfect discipler, but He is also the perfect disciple of God.

• • 4. To love God is to obey His commands.

• • 1. Discipling helps our hearts to want to obey His commands. (Matthew 28:20)

• • 2. Therefore, we must love one another, even to the point of laying down our lives for each other.

• • 2. The Book of Acts: 

• • 1. Acts records the 30 years from the beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost to Paul’s arrival in Rome – signalling that the gospel has gone to the known world.

• • 2. The church in the first century was a movement.

• • 1. Not a community or local church.

• • 2. Not a monument to one man or past glory.

• • 3. Discuss the growth of the first century church when all Christians were striving to be fruitful – making disciples.

Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts 2:47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 4:4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

Acts 5:14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

Acts 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Acts 11:21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Acts 12:24 But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Acts 13:49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

Acts 14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed

Acts 14:21 They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch

Acts 16:5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Acts 17:4  Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

Acts 17:6 (RSV) These men who have turned the world upside-down have come here also…

Colossians 1:6, 23 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace

if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”

• • 4. The known world was evangelised by 61 AD, in a generation! (Paul is in prison when he writes Colossians – Acts 28.)

• • 5. Therefore, Jesus’ vision became a reality – “the evangelisation of the nations in a generation!”

• • 3. Discuss and pray for:

• • 1. World Evangelism.

• • 2. Mission Teams.

• • 3. Your Kingdom dreams… how can you use your talents for God?

• • 4. See latest Crown of Thorns project.(Here is Jan 2024)