THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
Jesus spelled out the mission for the church in Luke 10:1-7.
1 After this, the Lord appointed 70 other disciples to go ahead of him to every city and place that he intended to go. They were to travel in pairs.
TheLORD brought other disciples into the picture and told them all to prepare people for a personal encounter with Him.
- Just as He prayed for in John 17:20 and prophesied in Matthew 28:20
- The 12 apparently represented the foundation for a new Israel (as the 12 patriarchs served ancient Israel)
- The 70 represented the nations of the world from Jewish tradition that prefigure the mission to the Gentiles
- Like ancient heralds, they were to work in supportive teams of two. The word "sent" comes from the same root as "apostle"
- Their mission, preparing people to meet the LORD, resembled what John the Baptist did
- Malachi described John's ministry in 3:1
- Jesus compared him to Elijah in Mt. 11:14, based on the promise to send Elijah the prophet before the day of the LORD in Mal. 4:5
- According to Malachi, Elijah's end time ministry of preparation begins with restoring families
- That's why Jesus orders HIs disciples to evangelize through house churches and Paul requires elders and deacons to be successful family leaders
- Instead of competing with an institution, families are the core of NT churches. House churches are extended families with elders for parents.
2 He told them, "The harvest is large, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops.
With the New Testament fulfillment of Old Testament promises at hand:
- The field would be so full of souls, the work of harvesting (Jews and Gentiles) called for more than a handful of reapers
- The few already engaged in the work of harvesting, should invite more workers, but not in their own authority. Only those approved by the Landlord can join them just as Jesus appointed them in v.1
- As the Landlord, Jesus will reveal who they are, and how to find them, in the following verses
- Because disciples all answer to Christ, the LORD of the harvest, they coordinate their efforts under His guidance rather than compete with one another
3 Go! I'm sending you out like lambs among wolves.
- The Lamb of God sends His herald/disciples into a hostile world that would rather harm than listen to them.
- This way He can relive His sacrificial life through them as He sanctifies/disciples them
- This has never been truer than it is today. The institution ferociously resists Christ's house church strategy in order to prolong its illegitimate existence
4 Don't carry a wallet, a traveling bag, or sandals, and don't stop to greet anyone on the way.
- Evangelism should be at the entire expense of those evangelized––not those who bring them the Good News
- Neither should it be conducted in the street
- The people who live in the potential house church know the neighborhood better than visiting evangelists. So, the house church can approach and support work in the street better than they can
5 Whenever you go into a house, greet the family right away with the words, 'May there be peace in this house.' 6 If a peaceful person lives there, your greeting will be accepted. But if that's not the case, your greeting will be rejected.
The pair should seek a third child of peace, so they all unite in the bond of peace supplied by God’s Spirit (Ephesians 4:3)
- Where 2 or 3 gather in Christ’s name, there He is in the midst (Matthew 18:20)
- Hospitality is a sign of peace and a desire to support the work
- Though separate, peace links the new home to all the others
- God decides whether or not they have the same Spirit
- The reference to "peace" reminds us of the heart of last days evangelism: restoration of the family. By turning the hearts of fathers and children toward each other, end time workers share the blessing of and promote the peace on which a house church may properly function. A heaven-bound family can nurture and lead others to the Kingdom of God.
- Only families that receive this blessing can turn their home into a house church from which Christ can influence and win the community, as in Ac. 2:47
7 Stay with the family that accepts you. Eat and drink whatever they offer you. After all, the worker deserves his pay. Do not move around from one house to another.
Instead of going from door to door, rounding up people for a central meeting, or even approaching people on the street
- Those who spread the Good News should stay in one place to establish a house church and evangelize in that home, rather than a hall
- For a lasting foothold:
• From which the community can be won, and
• Where, converts can be nurtured
- Not only is the reference to food a sign of the home's hospitality, but also indicates God's approval that it should serve as a house church. The disciples sent by Christ share the same table with the family, that now shares its bounty with others, a sign of its new commission and ministry.
BIBLICAL CONFIRMATION
According to Acts 2, the apostles carried out the Great Commission on the Day of Pentecost.
• They did in fact "Go into all the world," when they attracted and Peter addressed––an international crowd in Jerusalem.
• Jesus chose the word translated "Go," that describes going about your business rather than leaving home and heading abroad.
• The expression, "into all the world," describes the scope of the commission––reaching out to all the families of the earth to build an international church and so, fulfill Israel’s failed mission––rather than a destination. Jesus said that He broke down the wall separating Jews from Gentiles at the cross in order to make them into one new people for God.
• Out to make disciples for Christ rather than for themselves, they "baptized" 3,000 converts "into Him" (cp. Rom. 6:3)––a rite of initiation into the School of Christ.
• Baptism into Christ identified them as those who gave up their old way of life (in national Israel) to become a follower of Jesus and join the new Israel of God.
• In Jerusalem to celebrate Jewish Redemption, they now relied on Christ rather than membership in national Israel to prepare for the Kingdom of God.
• Having established the church, to fulfill the final requirement of their commission, the apostles "taught [their converts] to observe everything that [the LORD had] commanded them."
• Acts 2:42 reports that the baptized converts from Pentecost, "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching"
• And Acts 2:46 describes the new church as a community of house churches that continued, “faithfully and with singleness of purpose to meet in the Temple courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their food in joy and simplicity of heart."
• Following the LORD’s instructions from Luke 10, the apostles utilized house churches to evangelize their neighbors. Acts 2:47 reports the two chief results of their house church activity.
1 "…praising God and having the respect of all the people. Appreciative of what God had done for them, they gained the respect of their neighbors––less than 2 months after Jerusalem condemned and crucified their Leader.
2 And day after day the Lord kept adding to them those who were being saved" (Complete Jewish Bible). Besides reversing the opinion of the people around them, house church ministry successfully evangelized the community, because the LORD used the recently gained goodwill to increase their membership with a steady stream of new converts.
Apparently Jesus derived the house church plan from the report of what God achieved in Egypt, according to Exodus 11:1-3.
• The LORD proved His superiority to Egypt’s gods and magicians by reversing the plagues after they had done their work.
• Pharaoh’s magicians, relying on Egypt’s gods, duplicated some of the plagues.
• But that only added to the problem, since they could neither prevent, nor stop them.
• But reversing the plagues set the stage for the greatest reversal of all
• The LORD predicted that after one more plague, Pharaoh would finally give in.
• In fact, besides letting the Israelites leave, he will actually force them to go.
• This amounted to a complete reversal of his stubborn determination to keep them in the land of Egypt (to build his treasure cities).
• At the same time, the LORD will also reverse the Egyptians’ opinion of Moses and the Israelites
• The 18th dynasty pharaohs wanted to restore Egypt’s former glory, So, Pharaoh’s stand against the LORD appeared heroic at first.
• But as the body bags piled up and the land went to pot, they changed their minds.
• The LORD caused the Egyptians "to look favorably on the Israelites"
• They now considered Moses “a very great man.” Even Pharaoh’s officials and the people alike, "respected him."
• This is precisely what happened after Pentecost
• That the Pentecost converts "praised" the LORD, amounts to admitting they owed Him everything
• Luke says that the house churches "had the favor of all the people" (KJV), just as the (KJV) says, "The LORD gave the people [the Israelites] favor in the sight of the Egyptians." In fact, all the Israelites had to do was ask, and their "neighbors" parted with their most precious possessions (silver and gold).
• At Pentecost, the LORD "added to the church [collectively, all the house churches] those who were being saved." In the same way, at the Exodus, the LORD added to Israel those who recognized His power to save through the plagues (9:15, 16).
Just as the LORD worked through Israelite homes to reverse the opinion of their Egyptian neighbors, He did the same thing after Pentecost. Recognizing the success of God’s power through those homes, Jesus placed house churches at the core of evangelism. Acts confirms the apostles’ willingness to carry out His instructions as they launched the New Testament Church. Jesus commanded them to "teach [converts] to observe everything He had commanded them," to hand down the commission to future generations. The fact that the church grew "daily," every day after that based on house church ministry rather than large evangelistic meetings––passes on to us the inspired way to keep carrying out the LORD’s evangelistic plan.
WHAT WE DO
1. We provide training for house churches to fulfill Jesus’ plan for evangelism.
Click here for a FREE House Church course. Learn how to:
- Crown Christ LORD of your home, so it becomes Christ’s castle
- Make your home:
• A FORTRESS for the family
• An OUTPOST for outreach
• A CITADEL for the community
2. We also provide a weekly meeting, online, where we can "motivate one another to acts of love and good works…[to] encourage one another even more as we see the day of his return approaching" (Hebrews 10:24, 25).
Click here to join us Saturday afternoons at 1PM, Pacific Time for New Covenant Worship for New Testament people (Go to "Links"section on the right and click on the first one).
