The Missionary Purpose of God for His Church
by Alan Redpath"Christ is not interested in an empty dictatorship based on enforcing his rights."
All of us at this conference must be impressed with the fact that it was planned with a great sense of urgency and with a great vision. The mission field is brought right to our doorstep here. We have all the information we require concerning missionary conditions throughout the world. We have the challenge of this fellowship. We have the inspiration of these meetings. All of this places upon us a tremendous responsibility.
In seeking to discharge this responsibility we should re-think together the Great Commission of our Lord to His disciples, which is God's purpose for the church until our Savior shall come again. Let us therefore read the last three verses of the 28th chapter of St. Matthew together.
The Great Commission naturally divides itself into several parts because the inclusive little word "all" is repeated four times: "All power is given unto me; teach all nations to observe all things; I am with you all the day."
All power: the authority of Jesus Christ is absolute.
All nations: the purpose of Jesus Christ is universal.
All things: the precepts of Jesus Christ are inflexible.
All the day: the Presence of Jesus Christ is abiding.
I believe that those words contain the irrevocable purpose of God for His Church today. First, observe the absolute power of the Lord Jesus Christ: "All" power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." In the Greek New Testament there are two words which are translated into English by the word "power." One is dunamis, that power which we receive from God. The other, exusia (authority), is held entirely as a prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I receive the dunamis only in the measure in which we submit to the exusia. If we would know the all power in our hearts, we must know the all authority on the throne of our hearts.
The word dunamis appears in several verses in the New Testament. Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Again in Romans 1:6 the Apostle Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God." The word means ability. It's the word that Paul used in Phil. 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who 'dynamites' me."
The other word authority (exusia) is used exclusively in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1:21, Paul said that God has set Christ "far above all principality and power." In Colossians 2:15, Paul said concerning the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, "Having spoiled principalities and powers (exusia) He made a show of them openly." The Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign over all powers of hell.
In Luke 5:24 Christ said, "that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." He has authority on earth to forgive sins. He is also absolutely sovereign and supreme in His power in the individual life. In Romans 9:21 we read, "Hath not the potter power (exusia) over the clay?" The authority of Christ is all-inclusive. All power in heaven, all power in hell, all power on earth are His by sovereign right. And He faces you and me in His absolute supremacy in all these realms and asks, "Has not the Potter authority?"
We have come to Urbana to confer about many subjects. But the subject of the supremacy of Jesus Christ cannot be discussed, because it is not for debate. It will never be on any committee agenda. It is not a matter that you will settle in the open meeting. It is something that you will be deciding alone on your knees in your room by your bed when, with complete surrender of your will, you acknowledge that Jesus Christ who is Lord in heaven, Lord in hell and Lord over the earth, is sovereign over all your life.
This is the only basis for any missionary cause. If you go to Indonesia or Africa, South America or any other mission field on the basis of the immense need alone, you will be back before you finish your first term of service. The only thing which gives a missionary the grip and the courage to stay on the job is his surrender to the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The terms of the missionary call are still "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." There is a great danger that we will respond to an appeal which is entirely on the level of our emotions. Unless you experience (to quote Dr. Tozer) "the crisis of an encounter with God" where your will is broken and you submit once and for all to the supreme authority of Jesus Christ in your life, you will never stand the test of Christian service.
I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will single you out by His convicting power and look you full in the face, right into your soul, saying to you, "Am I Lord?"
"All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth," and on the basis of submission to His complete supremacy we find His universal purpose, '"Go ye therefore and teach all nations." The word here for "teach" is the word "disciple" and the purpose of God for His Church today is to make disciples and not to get converts. A disciple is a convert plus.
I remember in England before the war we had a brand of gas with the advertising slogan, "Plus a little something the others haven't got." I couldn't find more apt language than that to describe the New Testament meaning of disciple. You see Christ is not interested in an empty dictatorship based on enforcing His rights. His Lordship achieves its purpose only as we are prepared to live the life of a committed Christian, a disciple. A disciple is one who has bowed to the supreme authority of Jesus Christ as Lord and therefore has received the uttermost of the dunamis of the Holy Spirit in his life.
People will say, "Oh God, I want power. I want the fullness of the Holy Spirit in my life. I want Him to control my life, flowing through my life in blessing to others." Let me say that you will never know that power unless you're prepared to pay the price.
I don't always like the authority of Jesus Christ in my life. The flesh would rebel against it, but I'm beginning to learn that if I want the fullness of His blessing, I must acknowledge the uttermost of His supremacy. He will give the Holy Spirit in fullness only to the life that is crucified, to the life that has died to self, to the life that has been willing to pay the price. The Holy Spirit will never anoint the flesh with power, for then we would take the glory to ourselves.
But if God can find in Urbana a fellow or a girl who is prepared honestly to face the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in every department of his life, who is prepared honestly to submit to Him in every detail, God will pour the fullness of His power into that life enabling him to live a disciplined life in the enabling of the Holy Spirit.
The missionary goes not to make converts, but disciples. It takes a disciple to make a disciple. If you're only a convert living an undisciplined life, you can never produce a disciple. And it is only the disciplined Spirit-filled Christian who can stand the on-rush of communism and satanic powers abroad in the world today. Only the quality of Christian life, which is true discipleship, can stand the test.
In the third place we have His inflexible precepts: "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." A disciple is not only a committed man, surrendered to Christ, but he is also an obedient man, instructed and taught by Christ. Believing must lead to doing. "Teaching them to observe" not some things, says the Master, but "all things that I have commanded."
When you and I know Christ as our Savior, then, as Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." The Christian is delivered from the condemnation of the law, but he is not delivered from the responsibility to fulfill the law of God. Romans 8:4 says that the righteousness of the law is to be "fulfilled in us (not by us) by the Spirit, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Therefore, as Christians we are commissioned in this universal purpose of God for His Church, to preach the gospel to all nations, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever He has commanded us.
In this age, discipline is a very unpopular word. I don't think many of us have realized the sheer thrill of a life that's lived under the authority of Christ in which the will of God and the purpose of God can be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ has saved us in order to send us out into the world to demonstrate the power of His transforming love. I say this with a great sense of urgency.
When I was about 19 or 20 years of age I worked in the office of an accountant in England. I had no use for what I called "religion." I thought it was utterly boring. To me life was full of fun and excitement and thrills. Of the fifty or sixty of us who worked together in the office there was one man who was a Christian. He was different from everyone else. Everybody arrived in the morning about a half-hour late. He was always on time. We all wanted to stop at 11 o'clock for refreshment; he never did. We liked an hour-and-a-half for lunch (we were only allowed an hour); he would take an hour or less. We all wanted tea about three; he never stopped for that. If we worked until four, we thought that a pretty good day's job, although the office closed at 5:30; he often stayed until six.
It was my unfortunate experience to work with him. I didn't like it, because I had to work so hard. He was so desperately consistent! There was something about that man that made me wild. I know why now. I knew deep in my heart that he was living the quality of life that I should live. But I was too much of a coward to live it. In that man's presence I always felt uncomfortable.
Well, I did my best to knock the religion out of him. But it worked just the opposite way and after six months, he and I knelt down together and he led me to know Jesus Christ as my Savior. The lesson that I learned was that it is impossible for a man who is unsaved to be neutral to the gospel in the presence of a committed Christian. Let me repeat: it is impossible for an unconverted fellow or girl to be indifferent to the claims of Jesus Christ in the presence of one who is living a disciplined life in the power of the Holy Spirit. That life by virtue of its righteousness, its integrity, its honesty, its purity, its transparency constitutes a constant challenge to everyone.
I believe that's the greatest need of this convention. The average Christian today challenges nobody. He can rub shoulders with the world, can meet with unconverted people and they're no different. Yet the inflexible precept deeply woven into the Commission of the Master is that we should make disciples of all men, "teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you."
Has your life been straight and honest, or do you exaggerate? Has your life been full of love or has it been critical of other people? Are you right with God in your giving, or are you holding back something that you owe? Is your life gracious or bitter? Ask yourself. He is there as the Spirit of Truth to make you truthful. He is there as the Spirit of Love to make you loving. He is there as the Spirit of Grace to make you like the Lord Jesus. Are these things evident in your life?
Fourth, we have His abiding presence: "Lo, I am with you all the day." That's not a promise, it's a fact. There's no condition. It is a promise of the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ within His Church on earth, in your heart and mine. There is no day but that His presence is with you--days when everything goes right and days when everything goes wrong, days of great joy and of great victory, days of great sorrow and great temptation.
Philippians 4:5 illustrates this: "Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand." Paul did not mean the Lord is coming soon. He meant the Lord is at your elbow. The Lord is by your side. He is so near.
But I want to ask you this question: Are you quite sure that you'll always be glad of the Presence of Jesus? What about the things you look at, the things you say, waking moments, your closing thoughts? "I am with you," said Jesus, "all the day."
If each one of us will accept this great purpose of God for himself, there's enough key personnel in this auditorium to change the whole evangelical life of America! It's a solemn thought. There are enough here to lift it from the realm of mere mechanical orthodoxy to dynamic power. There are enough people to lift evangelical life in this continent from high passionate emotionalism and appeal to Holy Spirit-inspired conviction of sin.
Is Christian North America ready to pay the price? I say that to my own heart as much as to you. Stop and think a bit. How much in our methods has been spectacular? How much appeals to the flesh? How much needs no travail, but only a business head or good organizational ability to set up a program? When Zion travails, she brings forth her children. When the Church is prepared to die, she shall live in resurrection life.
The commission of Jesus Christ has never been "entertain them, teach them jazz choruses, do anything to get converts." The challenge of the New Testament commission of Christ is the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ within His Church, resulting in the outpoured fullness of the Holy Ghost through His Church. There is the dynamic feature of conviction of sin, the encouragement of hastening the tremendous and thrilling day when the accomplishment of all His purpose shall be complete and Jesus Christ shall come and take His people home.
I hope that you have caught the implication of what I have said for your own personal life and witness. Frankly, it's not easy to talk to you like this. It's not easy to follow the line which I believe the New Testament tells the preacher he ought to follow. I am absolutely convinced that if the two thousand Christians here at Urbana were honestly prepared to act, live and move in the light of God's great purpose for the Church, I believe we could shake America. Are you prepared for that? The whole world has its eyes upon the leadership of this continent.
And I say that the greatest blessing that you could bring to Asia, to Africa, to the Far East is to send men and women filled with the Holy Ghost, surrendered in every detail of their lives to the absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ who have cut out the frills and the nonsense and who are prepared to live and hazard their lives for the gospel.
Are you prepared to do that in your life?
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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