Love the World - Mission

God of rescue and restoration, thank You for Your great and beautiful mission in the world. Here I am Lord, fill me with Your Spirit and send me.

Pause and pray

Today we continue to explore how Jesus lived out the three loves at the heart of Christianity. So far we’ve explored how He loved God through prayer and creativity, loved others through justice and hospitality. Today we are reflecting on how Jesus encourages us to love the world through the practice of mission.

Ever since Adam and Eve chose ambition over obedience, God has been on a mission (Gen. 3). From the moment sin and death entered creation, God’s plan to break their power came into being. Over centuries He revealed Himself first to a family and then to a nation. Into this nation came Jesus, sometimes called the second Adam, who chose obedience over ambition (1 Cor. 15) and through His death and resurrection God’s mission reached its climax. The way to God is open, and in this moment captured by Matthew, Jesus commissions His disciples to join in with the next phase of God’s mission. To carry the good news of what’s happened to all nations.

I am included in Jesus’ commission. I am a disciple, commanded to make disciples, but I do not do it alone. In the book of Acts Jesus promised that God’s Spirit would accompany and empower me (Acts 1:8). So I pause now and invite the Holy Spirit to fill me again.

Pause and pray

Who am I discipling? Like the Apostle Paul, who am I inviting to follow me, as I follow Christ? (1 Corinthians 11:1) Who am I teaching to obey Jesus’ commands, either literally or with the example of my life? I pray for them now.

Pause and pray

The Jewish ambition was for a free and restored Israel, but Jesus revealed that God’s ambition is far greater. The invitation to forgiveness and Spirit-fuelled life to the full is not just for them, but for all nations. Even with this command, if I read the book of Acts I learn that it took the disciples a while to understand this and to join in with God’s mission beyond the boundaries of Judaism.

Am I willing to listen to the call of Jesus to make disciples today; even if it takes me beyond the boundaries of my culture, my comfort zones, or even my nation?

Jesus, I thank You that the Great Commission comes with an even greater promise - that You will be with me, to the very end of the age. With Your presence giving me strength, I choose obedience. Give me the courage to love the world by ‘discipling’ everyone I meet today.

Amen.