Church On Mission | Sent

What this episode covers

About the Talk: Jesus told his disciples they were to go (Matthew 28:19) as light (Matthew 5:14-16), as witnesses (Luke 24:48) empowered by his Spirit (Acts 1:8). Elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus’ disciples are said to be entrusted with the gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:4) and ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). All of which requires that his followers be sent, which he says specifically in John 20:21: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” The two words translated here as “sent” and “sending” are not the same, though ‘nothing should be made of the change, as if the clue to the verse lay in two kinds of ‘sending’’ (D. A. Carson). Interestingly, in a previous mention of this parallel sending, John records Jesus using the same words each time for ‘sent’: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Carson’s comment should be noted here too. So what does it mean for Jesus’ disciples to be sent “as” the Father sent him? That little word “as” implies that there are parallels between the sending of Jesus and our being sent by him. It clearly cannot mean that we are being sent to accomplish the same saving work that Jesus was sent to do, nor that his mission has come to an end, with our mission now replacing his. Rather, his disciples are sent to continue the mission that Jesus inaugurated in the sense of making known what he has accomplished. If his mission was to effect reconciliation between God and mankind through the forgiveness of sins, then we are being sent to make that same mission known (see v 23). If he was sent in the power of the Spirit, we too are being sent in his power (see v 22; cf. Acts 1:8). If he was sent as the light for all nations, we are also being sent to bring that light to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8; cf. Matthew 24:14). And just as he was faithful to his calling, so we are to be too - ‘Just as Jesus represented the Father faithfully and obediently, so they are to represent Jesus faithfully and obediently and spread the message of forgiveness and salvation in him’ (Andreas Kӧstenberger). To know that we have been sent by Christ himself brings both great dignity and great responsibility to our part in God’s mission. Great dignity because we could not be sent with greater authority (see Matthew 28:18); great responsibility because we could not have been sent with a greater message (see 2 Corinthians 5:20-21). As we go, one of the important things to remember is that inputs, not outputs, are our responsibility. Our task is to love, to befriend, to speak when we have opportunity, to pray, care and share. We then trust that God is working ‘at the other end’ to accomplish his purposes, as C. H. Spurgeon illustrates: ‘When the Mont Cenis Tunnel was being constructed through the Alps, a party of engineers worked from the Italian side for six years, and expected at the end of that period to see an open roadway through the mountain. They knew that the work would take, at the rate they were going, at least twelve years, and yet they knew it would be completed in six years, because there was another party, on the French side, working to meet them; and, accordingly, in due time they met one another within an inch of the planned location. I cannot understand these miracles of engineering, and do not know how two tunnelling parties manage to meet each other in the heart of an mountain; neither do I know how the Lord’s work in the consciences of men and women will fit in with mine, but I am quite sure it will, and, therefore, in faith, I go on working with all my might.’

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