Harbor Church - Mid City

Investigating Jesus—On Mission

Acts 1: 1-11, Mid-City May 23, 2010

We’re in a series on investigating Jesus and today we’re going to look at what Jesus has to say about mission. Now this is a pretty important topic. Let me ask you---do you know what the mission of your life is? Can you articulate it. Well, that is what we’re going to discuss this morning: your mission in life.

Now you see the mission of Jesus laid out for you in v3. We see that the resurrected Jesus keeps appearing to the disciples over a 40 day period and notice it says there was one subject on his mind: the kingdom of God. .See that was Jesus’ mission—bringing the kingdom of God.

So what is the kingdom of God? Chris Brewster, in his really helpful teaching last weekend at our servant leaders meeting, quoted Orlando Costas on this. He has a good definition, which is this, ““The Kingdom of God stands for a new order of life.” That is, in essence, what the kingdom of God is—a new order of life.

This new order is what the entire life and ministry of Jesus is about.. He begins his public ministry with it, keeps teaching on it throughout, and ends with it. In Mark 1:15, the very first thing he does when he comes back from the desert is proclaim the good news of God, gospel news, “that the kingdom of god is near.” Then in the middle of his ministry he teachers his disciples to pray saying, “Thy kingdom come, here on earth, as it is in heaven.” That the new heavenly order would invade the earthly order. And then, not surprisingly, in the last book of the Bible, Jesus closes out the Bible by giving us a vision of the new order (the kingdom) in Rev. 21: 1-5, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making all things new.”

So the kingdom stands for a new order that Jesus inaugurated here and now. Not just pie in the sky some day. I was talking to Sarah Carter last weekend at our servant-leader’s meeting. She said, “I think I would have checked out of Christianity a long time ago if it weren’t for the gospel of the kingdom—of a new order that takes us into earthy things and earthy problems and earthy inner-cities that matter her and now. If the gospel was only about what happened when I die, then I would have checked out a long time ago.”

Some of you are considering following Jesus, but herein lies one of the biggest obstacles. You have heard a kingdomless message and it is the very thing that is keeping you from becoming a Christian. It isn’t about a new order now—it is about getting your ticket punched one day. They have purchased fire insurance policy out of hell and are, therefore, able to live like hell on earth. And you look at their life and think, “No thanks. If that is what being a Christian is about, then I don’t want it.”

Rich Stearns, the president of World Vision, has a great response in the title of his book. He says, “There is a hole in your gospel.” The hole is that of mission—of a new order here, of the kingdom. That is v8-9. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Witness to what? Well he tells you in v3-4. A witness to thing he kept talking about in all of his resurrection visits—the kingdom of God. Then he says, my Spirit—Holy Spirit—is now going to empower you to do the same. So come join me in mission—the mission of continuing the work of the kingdom that I kicked off.

Now, notice, he gives them a missions strategy—first in Jerusalem, where he told them to go wait to receive Holy Spirit, then Judea, then Samaria, then the ends of the earth.

If you read the book of Acts, this is exactly what happened. First, they proclaimed the kingdom where they were in Jerusalem which you see detailed in Acts 1-7, then they went to Judea & Samaria in (in 8-12). Then, in Acts 13-28 you see the mission to the ends of the earth.

Now in our text the disciples did as Jesus told them. The first stage of their mission was Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was incredibly strategic. Jerusalem had people from all over the world, many whom had immigrated back to Jerusalem after being dispersed through a series of invasions, & others who were just there to celebreate the special Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

So what happened in Acts 2 at Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit did fall on them and empowered this gathering of the natons represented in this urban center in Jerusalem, and so when the Holy Spirit falls on Jerusalem in Acts 2, it as if the Holy Spirit has fallen on a gathering in New York at the United Nations.

I hope you are starting to see the similarities between Jerusalem in our text and San Diego. In fact, this is why an Alabama boy left Sweet Home Alabama to come to San Diego. People don’t leave Alabama, especially not to go to CA. I wish I would have tape-recorded some of the comments we got, “Boy, mark my words—bunch of hippies and liberals out there.”

So why would we? Bradford and I are convinced there is no more strategic urban center that we could give our lives to. My friends, Think about the gold mine that we find ourselves in here in San Diego, especially in City Heights. We’re one of 17 designated cities of refuge by the United Nations. That means that God, in his kindness, has chosen to bring refugees and political asylum seekers from all the world to us right here—this is Acts 2—it is a gathering of the nations.

Moreover, it isn’t just refugees and asylum seekers--we sit on the most crossed continental border in the United States. And we’re at the int’l hub here in City Heights. You know that City Heights is dubbed the Ellis Island of the West Coast. God is bringing the nations to our doorstep. This is why, my friends, our long-term vision for missions at Harbor Mid-City to the ends of the earth flows out of our current mission to the nations that God has brought to us. We pray constantly that one of the central way that we’ll be involved in missions to the ends of the earth is by seeing people from all the over the world meet Jesus right here, be raised up into servant-leader, and sent back to their country to establish his new order of things. Global missions flows out of local mission

This is why, in mission chapter 1 for us here at Harbor Mid-City, w e’re firmly focused on equipping every single one of you to live missionally. What is missional living? It is living out your mission to establish a new order of things—to be about the renewal of all things. See we don’t just want to be a church that does missions—we have a few missionaries that we support in India

John Perkins addresses this notion of missional living versus being a church that does missions better than just about anyone. He grew up in MS and moved to CA after his brother was killed in a racial incident. To his utter surprise, Jesus called him back to MS-this place of such horror for him, to establish a new order of things in a little town called Mendenhall, MS. And here is what happened.

He met the pastor of First Baptist Church, which, as he tells it, was a big thing for a black man in 1960 to meet the pastor of first church, especially First Baptist. That is the top of the ecclesiastical pecking order in the south. Perkins looked at him in this big, white, wealthy church and said, “How can you send missionaries to Africa when down here in this ghetto where I live these young folks are dropping out of school and young folks are getting pregnant at 13 or 14? These jails are going to fill up. How can you justify that in the light of the Scripture, when the Bible says you shall be my witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria? If you can’t grow cross-culturally in your own city, then you don’t have a gospel for the world.” Did you hear Perkins? If you can’t grow cross-culturally in your own city, then you don’t have a gospel for the world.

See that is just it. We want a gospel for the world to incarnate here, to be demonstrated here in our Jerusalem and then just naturally seaps over to the ends of the earth. Well, of course the nations—it happens every day here.

It begins with every single one of us working to establish this new order in every square inch of San Diego (to paraphrase Abraham Kuyper). a new spiritual order through church planting, a new social order through works of mercy & justice, & a new cultural order through learning to follow jesus at work. Now, in the remainder of our time this morning, we’re going to discuss why we focus so much on church planting.

But why plant churches in San Diego in 2010? I get this all the time. Let me let you watch a little video on this prepared by a good friend of mine with the Acts 29 network. VIDEO CLIP

My friends, here is the reality. Planting churches is the single best way to see people get connected to Jesus. Specifically, we’re looking to plant 100 Harbor sites by 2040 and encourage 1500 other gospel-centered church plants through gospel partners. To fuel this renewal, we take 10% of your offerings and put that into the work of church planting.

MIKE MCBRIDE: I am going to call Mike McBride up now and have him share with you about our next upcoming church plant in Golden Hill

(2) Judea (geographically near, culturally near): Riverside County, L.A. County, Orange County

Now, we’re obviously not going to spend as long on these next phases of mission. But you’ll notice in v8 the next progression of the gospel is to Judea. Judea was an area that was geographically near to Jerusalem and it was also culturally near to what they were used to in Jerusalem.

For us, this would be like Riverside, LA, and Orange County. Geographically near and somewhat close to what we’re used to culturally. Not exactly the same, but also not Somalia. Now you may not be aware of this, but the Harbor Network is involved in missions—of establishing this new order—in these counties. We’ve worked with Redeemer in New York to establish what is called Vision LA, which is a church planting movement in LA that is somewhat modeled after Harbor. Dick Kaufmann, our movement leader, goes up there once a month to coach and guide there movement, and we’re consulting with them about fueling church planting movements in these counties.

(3) Samaria (geographically near, culturally far): Tijuana

Samaria was geographically near, but culturally far. The Samarians had intermarried with those from invading nations and had adopted their cultural and spiritual practices, so to establish a new order in Samaria would require a cross-cultural mission.

Such is the case with Tijuana. Though it is only a few miles from us, it is very distant culturally. Now, here in Mid-City we have many people who grew up there, have family there, and spend a good bit of time there. So they will be very important in helping us get involved in the establishment of the new order that God is already doing in Tijuana. We are also developing a partnership with a man named Daniel Nunez who is leading a church planting movement in Tijuana. So, naturally, Tijuana is going to be increasingly on our missions map as we move forward.

(4)Ends of the Earth (geographically far, culturally far:

Finally, you see that in v8, and in the book of acts, the gospel progresses from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Obviously, the ends of the earth are both geographically far away and culturally far away.

I have already mentioned to you our long-term mission strategy—connect the nations who have gathered here in our midst to Jesus and then allow them to lead us back into their countries to join in the establishment of the new order. But this won’t be our only strategy to the ends of the earth. We have already hosted church planters from literally all over the world who have come in to glean from our model of church planting. Church planters from India, Chile, Canada, London, and beyond The Harbor network is currently thinking through ways we can partner together in missions to the ends of the earth and taking some short-term trips.

One other way that we’re getting involved in this mission of establishing Jesus’ new order to the ends of the earth is through hosting church planting interns with us. Seima Aoyagi and his family have done a 2 year church planting internship with us and they are now going back to Japan to plant churches. Seima can you come up and tell us about what Jesus is calling you to do.

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