The Sharing of Jesus’ Mission

The word mission is derived from ancient words that include the meaning of give, bestow, and to let go, send.  Jesus’ mission was to bestow and give to the world the message that God Loves and that humanity is, and can be, a part of that Love if they choose.  Jesus sent his students, his disciples, into the world to share that gift, to bestow that message, to everyone that entered their lives.

The point of today’s lesson is that the truth about Jesus is too big to just keep to ourselves.  As we are part of God’s Love we will want to share and bestow that love on everyone that entered OUR lives too.

The identity of Jesus is compelling and invites us to identify with Him. His identity transforms us as we join with God and identify with Him as His followers. Jesus’s completed mission has now become our mission; we are commanded and equipped to tell others about the life, ministry, and mission of Jesus. Even as the early church shared the gospel of Christ both corporately and individually, we too are to share the gospel of Christ’s mission.

Luke 24:44-53 highlights for us the sharing of Jesus’ mission.  In our previous lessons he has reported on Jesus resurrection and his appearances to the disciples, and of his interactions with the two on the road to Emmaus.  Now Luke tells us what Jesus taught his students.

Luke 24:44-45

44 He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

Jesus reminded the disciples of what he had said prior to his suffering, crucifixion, death and resurrection.  He referred to the words that he spoke to them “while I was still with you” as he was preparing them for the time when he would no longer be physically present with them in about 40 days.  By claiming his teachings as “my words” Jesus highlighted his voluntarily surrendering to God’s plan to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.

Using his resurrection appearance as a teaching opportunity Jesus pointed the disciples’ attention to what had been previously written about the Messiah.  He was directing them away from their emotional response and towards a better understanding of God’s Messiah’s mission.

Jesus referred to the whole of the Scripture written at that time, the Old Testament: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (or Psalms, referring to the largest book in this section). This is the only place in the New Testament where all three divisions of the Hebrew Old Testament are specified; usually only the Law and Prophets are mentioned. This may be because the Jews did not finalize the books in the “Writings” section until about AD 90 (perhaps in response to New Testament books).

Jesus noted that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  The word must can be rendered necessary it is necessary that what was written about Messiah be fulfilled with Jesus’ mission. Jesus—His birth, life, ministry, teaching, suffering, crucifixion, death, and resurrection—is the focal point in human history because he IS the fulfillment of all of the prophecies spoken of God’s Messiah.

Then Jesus turned on the lights for them.  Luke did not specify exactly what Jesus did to open their minds. Perhaps part of this opening of their minds involved the presence of the Holy Spirit in a way these disciples had not previously experienced. Perhaps what Jesus said or did referred to His teaching them how to understand Scripture more accurately. Whatever Jesus said or did during his “40-Day Bible Study” helped His followers to think in a new way. They had a new understanding of what they had failed to grasp over the previous several years. These disciples gained this new understanding of Scripture not through their own study, but rather through Jesus’s revelation. When He opened their minds Jesus allowed them to arrive at a new focus and desire for their actions in life, loving others as God Loves others.

In the next passage we see that Jesus himself again specifically what his mission will accomplish.

Luke 24:46-47

46 He also said to them,“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, 47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Jesus specifically states that the Scriptures indicated that Messiah would suffer, that Messiah would die and return to life on the third day.  These things Jesus had accomplished. Jesus continues that repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name.  This was to be his students mission, but not just in the capital city of Jerusalem, but in all the nations.  Historically we see the disciples taking the message from Jerusalem to the Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish region, and from there to all of the non-Jewish countries of the world.

One aspect of the gospel message is that, unlike what the Jewish world was expecting, Jesus would suffer and be crucified. But it is not the full message; the gospel is not complete without Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus was in the tomb during three days. It is the proof He is who He said He is. Jesus’s resurrection serves as the affirmation and verification that his messages regarding God were true. 

During the first century AD, a number ofJews claimed to be God’s Messiah. They were killed—and they stayed dead. Not so with Jesus! God raised Him from the dead early that Sunday morning. The apostle Paul compared Jesus’s resurrection with the Jewish religious offering of first fruits. This offering was a down payment Jews made when they took to the priest the first fruits plants produced to show they would bring their whole tithe when the full harvest was complete. Paul wrote that Jesus’s resurrection demonstrated God had accepted Jesus’s atoning sacrifice of Himself for humanity’s sin, and that, at the final resurrection, God would raise those who had died in Christ, a central component to the gospel message.

Many believe repentance as just feeling sorry for something they’ve done.  This gets one stuck in the “I’m just a worthless wretch” syndrome.  The Bible defines repentance as a change in a person’s mind/heart that results in different actions in his or her life. So it’s less about “I’m a worthless wretch” and more about “I am changed.  I was a worthless wretch, but I will endeavor to become a worthy member of God’s family.”

If there is no change in our behavior to seek to become a worthy family member, then there has been no repentance. Repentance is our initial step in responding to the gospel. Until we repent; until our minds/hearts are changed so that our actions change, we have not genuinely repented and we continue to delude ourselves and others into a false reality. 

Jesus directed his disciples to preach this repentance away from our selfish harmful natures, endeavoring to become selfless helpful members of God’s family in the name of the Messiah.  The phrase in his name indicates in his nature or in his character and indicates, basically, He showed you how, do it like he did it!

But Jesus did not limit the Gospel message to just Jewish people, or to just good people, or to just civil people.  He commanded that the Gospel be shared with everyone who would listen. Jesus intended that the gospel should spread like a powerful tsunami, flowing from Jerusalem to all the nations. Jesus’s mission for His students then continues to be the mission of us students today as the next section of verses reveals.

Luke 24:48-53

48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.” 50 Then he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 And while he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up into heaven. 52 After worshiping him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they were continually in the temple praising God.

Jesus note that “you are witnesses of these things.”  He may have been referring to any or all of the following:

• The historical facts of the gospel, e.g. suffering, death and resurrection.  

• A person’s response to the gospel message, e.g. repentance and God’s forgiveness of sins.

• The proclamation of the gospel to all peoples on the planet.  We are NOW in a time where we CAN witness that the gospel message CAN be shared via satellite, LITERALLY to every part of the planet at the same time.

A witness is someone who tells what he or she has seen or experienced.  Regardless of the capability of the gospel message being spread world-wide in an instant, like the Ethiopian Eunuch the message requires a witness to explain what it was that they got out of the message.

Consider this thought experiment.  You know NOTHING about the gospel message, but one day you come across a broadcast that represents that a man, a teacher, was slandered, falsely accused, had suffered, was killed, buried and came back to life, and that you should change your entire life to follow his teachings.  

That is the meat of what happens in the gospel message, and that presents the basics of a life change, but where is the why? This is where witnesses come into play. We provide the why for one who only knows the who, what, when, where and how.  

WE get to BE the why as we explain how and why our lives have changed. 

Our witness is less of a “1) don’t be bad, 2) be good” story as we get to share what it did for US as individuals, e.g. “I find that I have much less stress when I focus on God’s path rather than having to deal with all of the personal politics of everyone around me in charting my own path.” We need to focus on our “WHY” witness so that we may share the benefits of the Gospel message–reunification with God and becoming an angel, a messenger, FOR God.

Jesus didn’t send us out to witness to the WHY without help. He promised that the Holy Spirit would carry on this work. Perhaps it is a bit silly, but I like to image it as God gave us a radio receiver and transmitter with which we could communicate directly with God. All we need do is to “tune in” and communicate and we will hear straight from the source. When we communicate (pray and meditate) with God we will find the direction in which we need to proceed, if we but listen.

At the conclusion of the 40-day Bible Study Jesus led the group to Bethany, a small village on the Mount of Olives on the road to Jericho, less than two miles southeast of Jerusalem. Bethany was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, as well as Simon the leper. Several events in the New Testament occurred in or around Bethany. 

The word then refers to the next event that happened. When they were addressing God, Jews usually prayed with their hands lifted up toward heaven. When blessing someone, the person doing the blessing frequently placed hands on the head of the person being blessed. A blessing frequently involved asking God to help the other person, often a close friend or offspring, by empowering that person for a specific task. The word while implies that Jesus’ blessings took some time, as would a father’s blessings for his children. Perhaps Jesus gave each disciple a blessing that focused on his or her specific needs and mission. 

The Gospel accounts of Matthew and John focus more on Jesus’s resurrection appearances in the Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish/Jewish region north of Judea and Samaria. Neither Matthew nor John recorded Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Luke’s final chapter of his Gospel account and the first few chapters of Acts focus on events in and around Jerusalem, a predominantly Jewish Capital city and region. Luke recorded Jesus’s ascension twice in both Luke and Act, mentioning different details each time. 

Verse 52 is Luke’s first mention of worshiping Jesus. Jewish worship frequently involved prayer, a statement of faith, Scripture reading, a brief explanation of Scripture, and singing of a psalm. However, Luke did not specify exactly how these disciples worshiped Jesus. But as Jesus had already been sharing and explaining scripture it is safe to assume statements of faith, song and prayer could easily been included.

Afterward they returned to the capital city of Jerusalem. Although Jesus was no longer physically present, He would be spiritually present with them through the Holy Spirit connection. The great joy Luke referenced here may have resulted from their (1) new knowledge of how to understand Scripture better, (2) comprehension of Jesus’s completed mission, (3) understanding of salvation, (4) commission as witnesses, (5) promise of the Holy Spirit to empower them and connect them closely to God, (6) blessing by Jesus, or (7) being privileged to witness as Jesus ascended into heaven. Likely, this great joy resulted from all seven of these things. When we are rightly related to Jesus, we, too, experience great joy.

Verse 53 notes that after returning to Jerusalem, they were continually in the temple praising God. Luke began his Gospel account by describing an event at the temple in Jerusalem (the angel speaking to Zechariah). Luke closed his Gospel account in a similar manner, by referring to the disciples being continually in the temple praising God. Etymologically a temple is a clearing cut out for the worship of deity.

In Jerusalem the Temple stood as the center of Jewish religion and was likely the place were the disciples continued their teaching and witnessing of the gospel message. But in A.D. 70 that Temple was leveled by the Romans. Now our temples are the core of our beings and, like the disciples, we should be continually in our Temples praising God.

The truth about Jesus is too big to keep to ourselves. Because we have encountered the risen Lord, we need to figure out for ourselves how we will share with others the who, what, when, where and how of Jesus, but we must also never forget to share the WHY as we have witnessed it in OUR lives.

Being in our temples continually praising God is a good place to start!