Cultivating Missional Living - As the Father Has Sent

As The Father Has Sent Me

In the first sermon of this series, we examined the missionary nature of God and the “sentness” of us, His church. Our God is a missionary God who sends a missionary church. We learned the word missional is the adjective used to describe the church as sent, it is a missionary entity. But, this is only half of the story.

I want to make you aware of something known as the “missional-incarnational pulse.” Here the word missional expresses the sending nature of the church, while the incarnational represents the embedding or implanting of the Gospel into a local context. So, in other words, missional speaks to our direction-we are sent, while incarnational is more about how we go.

The Incarnation

The word incarnation comes from a Latin word that literally means “in the flesh.” The Incarnation, refers to the incredible act of love and humility where God took it upon himself to enter into the depths of our world so that the reconciliation between God and humanity may be brought about. The Incarnation is God’s ultimate missional participation in creation. (John 3:16-17) When God entered into our world in and through the person of Jesus, He came to live among us. John 1:14 …The Word became flesh and dwelt among us….Might I offer you an alternative translation…The Word became flesh and blood just like us, and then moved into the neighborhood.

Incarnational Living

The Incarnation not only qualifies God’s acts in the world, but must also qualifies ours. Hear this, If God’s central way of reaching the world was to incarnate himself in Jesus, then our way of reaching the world should likewise be incarnational. Now let me just say that “The Incarnation” was a unique historical and theological event. There is absolutely no doubt that “The Incarnation” of Jesus was a special, unrepeatable event. And to be clear as we enter the world of others, we most certainly cannot take on another’s identity in the fully integrated way that Jesus did. But we most certainly can make a distinction between “The Incarnation” and incarnational ministry, the asking of believers to model their lives after the life of Jesus.

The Apostles did. They insisted that Jesus is to be the model for Christian living.

1 Peter 2:21 for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in His footsteps.

1 Corinthians 11:1 be imitators of me, (Follow my example) as I am of Christ, (as I follow Christ)

Peter makes clear that Jesus’ life is to be our example. And Paul states simply that we can follow his way of life because he is so closely following the way of Jesus.

Paul makes this point even more strongly in the letter to the Philippians. In Chapter 2 he tells us that our attitude should be the same as that of our Lord’s.

Phil. 2:5-7.

It is often assumed that this passage commends Jesus’ humility, which absolutely is clear in this text. But Jesus’ humility is commended insofar as it is expressed in his giving up of his identity as God, and of his divinity)

So first, to follow Jesus’ example means that we should share his profound humble identification with sinful humankind (v. 7b-8a) being born in the likeness of man, taking on the form of a servant, and being found in human form….

Second, those of us who wish to emulate Jesus should be aware of His equally humble willingness to empty himself and make himself nothing for the sake of God’s redemptive purposes (v. 6-7a) …who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…For us to embrace an incarnational ministry, we must then be willing to relinquish our own desire and interest in the service of others.

      So this speaks to two very important ideas related to incarnational ministry-the concepts of “proximity” and “presence”

Proximity

Incarnational ministry must involve living in close proximity with others. We cannot demonstrate Christlikeness at a distance from those whom we feel called to serve. So, just as Jesus took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, we must do likewise. This for some requires moving geographically to be closer to those whom God has sent them. But at the very least, it demands that we create time and space to be directly and actively involved in the lives of the people we are seeking to reach.  (God entered into Time and Space and for 33 years Time and Space were constant for God, He got involved in a very real way, with the lives of those He created)

Presence

The Concept of presence moves beyond mere proximity to identification and surrender. Jesus identified with and advocated for those he was called to. As Paul says, He humbled himself. He literally emptied himself for the sake of others. This realization suggests an incarnational approach that calls us to relational identification with our neighbors that will lead to tangible acts of love and sacrifice.

It is helpful to recognize that Jesus’ words from John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you,” are most often used to emphasis the sending of the disciples, and subsequently the church. But we must not neglect the first half of the passage. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me.” The word translated as (Or in some cases just as) means “like” or in a similar manner.” In other words, we need to be sent “like” Jesus was sent. ….To whom, and in what manner was Jesus sent?....He was sent to the down and outers of society. ….He was with and for tax collectors, the oppressed, the poor, the diseased. Again, taking Jesus as our example, we are called to do “Likewise.”

In my life the concept of incarnational witness has always been relegated as a way of expounding on the character of Missions, specifically in the vocation or calling of being a missionary. And I accepted that because I lived much of my life with this idea that some are called to be missionaries. But hear me, in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God revealed himself as the One who is with and for his creation. And now, as the Risen Lord sends His Spirit to empower His church, I see that we, the church, not just some who are called to missions, but we the church, are called to become God’s People. People who are present, to have a presence, in the world, with and for the world. Like John the Baptist, pointing always to Jesus.

Incarnational witness is then, a way of describing not some calling. It is instead a way of describing Christianity in terms of Jesus Christ as the messenger, the message and the model for all, all, who follow Him. So, for us to speak of the incarnation missionally is then to link who Jesus was, what Jesus did, and how he did it, in one single great event that defines all that it means to be Christian.

Our Response

So, what does all this talk of identification, proximity, and presence have to do with our daily living?

Well I know you might get tired of me saying this, but it is all about relationships. It is about getting close enough to people to listen. Getting close enough to understand their hopes and dreams. And close enough to actually like and love them as individuals.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was a friend of sinners…..a friend of sinners. What constitutes friendship? That is a good question. I do not have time to answer it. But let me just say. When a person invites you to meet and spend time with their friends, you can assume that that is what a friend is. A person whom you spend time with. There was a sense of quirky holiness about Jesus that drew people to him. It has been said that people who were not Like Jesus, liked him. ….So, as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t that also be true of us? Well, this will not happen in our life without our living among people.

So ? what is it going to take for us to incarnate the life of Jesus in our neighborhood? What is it going to take for us to really move into our neighborhood, maybe, for the very first time?

When I talked last year about our mission here at Ridgecrest and have shared on several occasions with individuals. I spoke about the DNA of who we are in Christ. I asked what should that be, I answered well a couple of things it should be is lovers and blessers of other people.

And From the very beginning, God’s way of reaching and restoring the world has always been through a blessing strategy…so how do we in a very practical way that’s theologically grounded explain to people how they could bless people in places they are incarnating?

B- Begin with prayer. We want to ask, ‘God’ how do you want me to bless the people in the places you’ve sent me to?’

L- Listen. Don’t talk, but listen to people, their struggles, their pains, in the places God sends you.

E- Eat. You can’t just check this off. It’s not quick. You have to have a meal with people or a cup of coffee. It builds relationships.

S- Serve. If you listen with people and you eat with people they will tell you how to love them and you’ll know how to serve them.

S- Story. When the time is right, we talk and we share the story of how Jesus changed our life.

Genesis 12:2-3 says, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Look for the complete Sermon at rcbcdallas.org