Part 8 of series: The Mission of God and the Missional Church In my last post in this series, I began to explain how Jesus has sent his followers into the world to proclaim the good news. This is one main reason he has filled us with his Holy Spirit. Traditionally, Christians describe this task by the word “evangelism,” an English version the Greek verb that means “to tell good news.” But something gets lost in translation for many of... Read more
Like Jesus, we have been sent to proclaim the good news. In addition to telling his disciples to wait for the Spirit to empower them, Jesus explained what the Spirit’s power would accomplish: When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Even as the Spirit came upon Jesus in his baptism to anoint... Read more
In my last post I showed that Jesus sent his followers into the world to replicate his own mission of making disciples. We who follow Jesus are to make more followers of Jesus. It’s easy to accept our charge to do the ministry of Jesus without really thinking about what we’re doing. “OK,” we might say, “That’s just fine. We’re to do the ministry of Jesus. Great!” But when we stop and think about it, we have accepted an astounding... Read more
In my last two posts I summarized the mission of Jesus. In a nutshell: 1. Jesus was sent by God in the power of the Holy Spirit. 2. Jesus was sent to proclaim the good news. 3. Jesus was sent to enact the good news. 4. Jesus was sent to form a community of the good news. 5. Jesus was sent to consummate the good news through His death and resurrection. By dying upon the cross for our sin and... Read more
The Demonstration of God’s Love Romans 5:6-11 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 Recently I received a note from a young woman who was struggling with a renewed sense of her own sinfulness. She saw clearly just how wrong her sin was and how much it dishonored God. Though she was a Christian, she was convinced that God looked upon her with anger and... Read more
Yesterday, I began to summarize the mission of Jesus in light of the mission of God in the Old Testament. I based my discussion on a passage from chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel. Here’s that passage, once again: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed... Read more
If you were to ask the average Christian, “What was the mission of Jesus?” you’d no doubt hear that Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins, so that we might have eternal life. I believe this is true, profoundly and wonderfully. But I also believe it’s not the full story. The mission of Jesus, though ultimately centered in the cross and though leading to life after death, is far more inclusive than many of us have been... Read more
God created human beings so that we might have fellowship with him and serve as faithful managers of his creation (Gen 1-2). God was to be the King who reigned over heaven and earth, and we were to be his royal family, those through whom he would implement his reign. Yet we sinned against God, disobeying him because of our prideful desire to equal to him. We were not satisfied with fellowship with the King as his prince and princess.... Read more
Today, I’m beginning a blog series that considers what it means for the church to be missional. The use of the word “missional” to characterize the church is relatively new, but it has become widespread. In fact, people use the word “missional” so much that it seems almost to be losing its meaning altogther. This, I believe would be a great loss for the church and the world. So, in this series I’m going to examine what it means, from... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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Another Nail in the Coffin of Religious Freedom on College Campuses
The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of San Diego State University in a lawsuit brought by two Christian student groups. They claimed that the university’s nondiscrimination policy for student groups violated their constitutional rights. But the court held in favor of the university, concluding that their policy is constitutional. (You can download the court’s decision here.) Here is the official policy, according to the court’s decision: On-campus status will not... Read more