Main Idea: The church is a community whose focus is to fulfill His mission

Those words were adopted as the purpose or mission statement of FBC, Jonesboro, as part of our Long Range Plan in May of 1998. In business, education or really in our life we must keep reminding ourselves why we are doing what we are doing. The church must do the same. We can be guilty of trying to be all things to all people at all times and dissolve our effectiveness.

Jesus was the master at making sure that what he asked his disciples to do would be challenging, compelling and comprehensive enough that it would call for the highest devotion and commitment to stay on task. In fact his words in Acts 1:1-11 remind me of the old E. F. Hutton commercial. You remember the slogan, "When E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen." Well, here it’s, "When Jesus speaks, disciples listen."

I read a story about former NBA player Larry Bird that illustrates it well. During the final seconds of an especially tense game, Boston Celtics coach K. C. Jones called a time-out. As he gathered the players together at courtside, he diagrammed a play, only to have Bird say, "Get the ball out to me and get everyone out of my way." Jones responded, "I’m, the coach, and I’ll call the plays! Then he turned to the other players and said, "Get the ball to Larry and get out of his way." It just shows that when the real leader speaks, people listen. (21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell, p.49)

The words of our Lord were his mission statement to his disciples both then and now. They come at the end of 40 days of living among his disciples after his resurrection. They are words, I believe, spoken not in an "Oh, by the way…" manner but ones that are the result of concern over the disciples' confusion. Luke says in verse 3 that Jesus had been teaching them for at least 40 days. Yet after 40 days time with the Risen Christ they still struggled to stay focused. He promises them power unlike any ever known on earth and yet they are concerned with, "Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (v. 6).

Jesus reminds them that the timetable for the end of time is not their concern. He comes back to the theme of power again and says in essence, "This is it. I’m going to tell you one more time why you are here. These are my last words so get it and get it now! ‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth’" (Acts 1:8). Just so there would be no discussion, he is immediately transferred to heaven. The disciples are left with his words and they can only obey them or disobey them.

The first thing I notice was that his words defined a mission that is so challenging that only God’s power could attempt it! Jesus’ mission to them was not going to be something they could accomplish in their own strength. In other words, it would not be "doable" with human power. Earlier Luke records Jesus telling the disciples that they are to be filled with the Holy Spirit’s power from heaven. (Luke 24:49). He told them in Acts 1:5 that this power would be so overwhelming to them that they would be immersed by it. The source of this power would be the person of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ mission statement to these disciples was of such a challenge that it was humanly impossible from the beginning. What they were to do was literally make a different world. They were not told to go back to Jerusalem and take surveys of the opinions of the demographics of the city. They were not told to go back and form a focus group to shape their strategy. They were not told to hold a seminar on methods of evangelism. They were told to go back and wait for power—Holy Spirit power. It would be the power of the Holy Spirit alone that would enable them to meet the challenge!

Another thing that stands out about Jesus’ mission is that his mission was so compelling that it would become the focus of the disciples’ life. He tells them that after they receive the power they will become "my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). The power of the Holy Spirit would so transform them that they would be compelled to tell others about Him. That telling or witnessing about him would begin where they were at the moment—Jerusalem, the very center of their world. It would expand to the surrounding area of Judea where people were like them. It would stretch to Samaria, a place populated by a group of people culturally different from them. If that were not enough, they were to extend this telling to the absolute farthest known places of their imagination—"the ends of the earth."

What Jesus is telling them is that while the challenge is greater than you can humanly do, it is "doable" when my power compels you! It’s as if they had no other option once the power came upon them. It is obvious that to experience the Spirit’s power is to equally be compelled to witness anywhere, any time, in any way possible. That compelling would be the focus of their life.

Jesus’ mission was challenging, so challenging that it’s humanly impossible and compelling, so compelling that once the power came there was no other option but to witness for a lifetime. His mission was also comprehensive, so comprehensive that only eternity can measure it. (Acts 1:8, 11). This last statement "even to the remotest part of the earth" defines the extent to which this task would carry them. The world for them ended at Rome. That was the epicenter of their world. Yet Jesus world define for them that this mission was to go beyond what they thought was the end of the world to the places they had only heard stories of before. "Out there" as far "out there" as they could ever dream and yet still farther.

Jesus’ mission is completely comprehensive. They were to tell and keep telling, go and keep going until they made the "remotest" the most familiar. They were to do this, the angel implies, until He comes back. In these words Jesus covered both the direction and the duration in time of the task of these disciples.

Do you see the power of his words? His mission is so challenging only God’s power could attempt it, so compelling it would become their life’s focus and so comprehensive that only eternity can measure it. That, my friends, is the ultimate mission statement.

Our words are our human attempt to describe what we believe God’s will to be for FBC Jonesboro. I believe, though, that they parallel these criteria found in these words of Jesus.

Let’s ask, first, if this statement describes something that only God can do? In other words, can we improve people’s lives to equip and challenge them to serve, grow deeper spiritually and share God’s love unconditionally on our own power? Absolutely not! These tasks will not be done with our human efforts driving them. I’m not saying that we sit around in this room waiting for a Holy Spirit "jump start." I am saying that the challenges that face our church now and for the future to fulfill our mission won’t be overcome without Holy Spirit’s power.

What are those challenges? There are the challenges of our current culture. George Barna, in a new book called Boiling Point, says that moral and spiritual anarchy rule our culture today. He believes we are in a culture that has no guidance and wants no guidance as to how we should live and behave or what we should believe. There are also the challenges that face the church as an institution. Barna points out that "overall Christian ministry is stuck in a deep rut. Our research continues to point out the need for behavioral modeling, strategic ministry and a more urgent reliance upon God to change people’s lives. Like the churches of Laodicea and Sardis, described in the Bible as distasteful to God because of their complacency and spiritual deadness, too many Christians and churches in America have traded in spiritual passion for empty rituals, clever methods and mindless practices. The challenge to today’s Church is not methodological. It is a challenge to resuscitate the spiritual passion and fervor of the nation’s Christians."

We face also the challenge of our own church and our community. The reality is that in the next 18 months the spiritual landscape of Jonesboro is going to be shifting. As churches leave the downtown area and our population shifts beyond the bypass, it will be a challenge to stay vital. We cannot allow ourselves to say that what has always been is the way it should always be. One of the great quotes for missing the opportunity to read the signs of the times is the Decca record executive who passed on a contract with the Beatles in 1963. His reason, "Boy bands with guitars are not going to make it." The harsh reality is that we are a prime candidate for plateauing as a church. If we are to do more than survive, but thrive, it will take an absolute passion for the power of God to fulfill our mission!

What about the question, "Is it worth my life?" Is it something so compelling that I can give my life to it? Unequivocally, yes! We are stating that our job is to so affect believers’ lives that they don’t make a difference in their world but make a different world. Do you realize how different our world would be by our fulfilling these ideas? If members here were equipped to effectively transform their world? If members were fully understanding the difference true worship can make in our lives? If members here were so overwhelmed by God’s love for them they were compelled, compelled to exhaustively share that with others? Is this worth giving up my time, my energies, my comfort level and my life? Yes! Absolutely yes!

There is one more question: "Do these words reflect something that is timely or timeless?" In other words, is it something that is going to last? I believe these words define for us a mission that we as FBC Jonesboro will be doing fifty years from now. As long as there is a believer who has yet to discover that they are to serve, as long as there is a believer who has yet to discover that they are to know the depth of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and as long as there is one person on this planet who has yet to hear what it means to know Jesus Christ as Savior, then our mission is vital. That doesn’t mean that it is so generic that it is meaningless. It means that it is so comprehensive that it is timeless!

Is it challenging? Yes, only God can do it! Is it compelling? Yes, it is something worth your life! Is it comprehensive? Yes, it will not be complete until "This Jesus…" as the angels said, comes again!

Conclusion: This month Erik Weihenmayer will attempt to do what no one has done before and that is to be the first blind person to climb Mt. Everest. Erik lost his sight at age 13 but never lost his passion for living and overcoming any barrier to his restrictions. He is a certified sky and scuba diver, long distance biker, marathon runner as well as a skier and mountaineer.

In 1995 he scaled North America’s highest peak, Mt. McKinley; in 1997 he toped Mt. Kilimanjaro, and in 1999 he climbed Argentina’s Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America. Now he is attempting to reach the top of the world. How does he do it? He has trained himself to follow the climber in front of him, using his sense of hearing, listening to the footsteps around him and by a bell tied to the climber ahead. He is depending totally on the leadership of the one who can see where they are going. In an ABC News story the interviewer said that when Erik reaches farther than the eye can see, he will prove that "you don’t need sight to have vision."

I don’t know what is ahead of us. I don’t know what we will face. What I do know is that we have a mission that only God can do, that is worth our very life and will never end. I know that the only way, the only way we can stay the course, see and seize the opportunity is to walk by faith, faith in the one who has gone and is going ahead of us. I don’t need sight to have vision. I need faith, and so do you!

Sunday, April 29, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org