I'm on a Mission from God
Jake and Elwood said it best. The Blues Brothers (1980).
Elwood: “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.”
Jake: “Hit it.”
If you’ve ever seen The Blues Brothers, you know that Jake and Elwood Blues were on a mission from God.
They had the black suits, the black hats, the sunglasses, and a beat-up 1974 Dodge Monaco police car. They also had a rather remarkable ability to cause catastrophic property damage while remaining completely convinced of the righteousness of their cause.
Their mission? Get the band back together and raise enough money to save the orphanage where they grew up.
Along the way, they managed to offend just about everybody, including the Illinois Nazis, the police, a country-and-western audience, and pretty much the entire city of Chicago.
All in the name of God.
I love those guys.
Now, I have an announcement.
I’m on a mission from God, too.
No, seriously.
And before you start backing slowly toward the nearest exit, hear me out.
Apparently, God Has a Sense of Humor
For more than thirty years, I worked in IT management and consulting. I managed projects, budgets, schedules, deliverables, risks, issues, and people who couldn’t seem to understand why a deadline was called a deadline.
I attended meetings about meetings. I sat through PowerPoint presentations that probably violated the Geneva Conventions. I used phrases like “resource allocation,” “stakeholder alignment,” and “let’s take this offline” without any apparent sense of shame.
And after three decades of that, I’m now a pastor.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Actually, you could, but nobody would believe you.
I certainly didn’t see this coming.
I’ve also been through some pretty dark seasons in my life. I’ve struggled, failed, made a mess of things, and discovered that I’m considerably less impressive than I once imagined.
Turns out, realizing you’re not the center of the universe can be a rather liberating experience.
Who knew?
Through it all, God has been extraordinarily gracious to me. And today, I have an opportunity to spend my life helping other people know Jesus Christ and grow in their relationship with Him.
Which brings me back to this mission business.
The Mission Briefing
Shortly before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gathered His disciples and gave them their marching orders.
Matthew 28:18–20. We call it the Great Commission.
Jesus begins by declaring that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Then He commands His followers to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything He commanded.
And He finishes with a promise:
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:20 ESV
That’s it.
There’s the mission.
Make disciples.
Not build a religious empire. Not become a Christian celebrity. Not accumulate enough Bible knowledge to win arguments with strangers on Facebook.
Make disciples.
People who come to know Jesus Christ, trust Him, follow Him, learn from Him, and increasingly live the way He taught us to live.
And notice something else.
Jesus didn’t say, “Go and make converts, teach them how to behave in church, and make sure they vote correctly.”
He said to make disciples.
There’s a difference.
A disciple isn’t somebody who checked the Jesus box on a religious questionnaire and then went back to business as usual.
A disciple is someone who follows Jesus.
Imagine that.
Unfortunately, There’s No Exemption for Introverts
Here’s where things get a little uncomfortable.
The Great Commission wasn’t a special assignment reserved for people with seminary degrees, impressive speaking abilities, or those disturbingly enthusiastic individuals who enjoy knocking on strangers’ doors at 8:00 on Saturday mornings.
The command was given to Jesus’ original disciples, but the mission continues through the church as disciples teach others to obey everything Jesus commanded.
Which means that if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re part of it.
Congratulations.
You’ve been recruited.
And no, you don’t need to become a pastor, quit your job, move to Africa, or start greeting everyone at Starbucks with “Have you heard the good news?”
Please don’t do that last one. The baristas have enough to deal with.
But you do have a role to play.
Maybe it’s sharing the gospel with a friend. Maybe it’s helping a younger Christian understand Scripture. Maybe it’s walking alongside a man who’s trying to put his life back together. Maybe it’s loving someone who’s having a particularly difficult time being lovable.
It isn’t always glamorous.
Sometimes it looks suspiciously like having coffee with somebody and listening to them.
But here’s the important part: The mission belongs to Jesus. We’re simply invited to participate in what He’s doing.
Good News: You’re Not the Savior
This is particularly reassuring to those of us who have spent much of our lives attempting to manage everything.
I have some experience in that department.
I used to make plans, establish objectives, identify dependencies, assign resources, and monitor progress.
And when things went sideways, which they frequently did, I would develop a recovery plan.
Somewhere along the way, I began to realize that my relationship with God was not another project I was supposed to manage.
Neither is anybody else’s.
I cannot save another person.
I cannot argue someone into the kingdom of God.
I cannot manufacture repentance, produce spiritual growth on demand, or make anybody love Jesus.
And neither can you.
That’s God’s work.
Our responsibility is to love people, tell them the truth about Jesus, teach what He commanded, and trust Him with the results.
As Paul put it:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” — 1 Corinthians 3:6 ESV
That’s a pretty good division of responsibilities.
And unlike some of my former IT projects, this one actually has a competent executive sponsor.
A Word About the Actual Mission
There’s something else worth mentioning.
The Great Commission isn’t fundamentally about getting people to join our church, adopt our political opinions, or become more respectable versions of themselves.
It’s about Jesus Christ.
His life. His death. His resurrection. His lordship.
The good news is that God has acted in Jesus Christ to rescue sinners and reconcile us to Himself.
We respond by repenting and believing in Him.
And repentance is about a whole lot more than cleaning up your act.
It’s a turning toward God—a change of heart and mind that results in a changed direction.
Jesus didn’t come merely to make bad people behave better.
He came to give dead people life.
That is a considerably bigger deal than improving somebody’s Sunday morning attendance record.
And those of us who know Him have the extraordinary privilege of sharing that good news with others.
Not because we’re better than anybody else.
Trust me. I’m a walking exhibit in the case against that particular theory.
We share it because we’ve experienced His grace ourselves.
Getting the Band Back Together
Jake and Elwood believed they had been given a mission, and nothing was going to stop them.
Not the police. Not the Nazis. Not even a suspiciously large number of destroyed police cars.
Their confidence was wildly disproportionate to their competence.
Come to think of it, I can relate to that.
But here’s where the comparison ends.
The mission Jesus gave His followers isn’t a joke, a movie plot, or some grand adventure in which we get to play the heroes.
Jesus is the hero.
He is the one who died for us, rose again, and possesses all authority in heaven and on earth.
We are ordinary, deeply imperfect people who have received extraordinary grace.
And somehow, in His wisdom, God has chosen to involve people like us in His work.
That’s astonishing when you think about it.
So yes, I’m on a mission from God.
I get to help people know Jesus personally, learn to walk with Him, and discover the joy and freedom of a life surrendered to Him.
I don’t have all the answers. I still have plenty of rough edges. And I certainly haven’t arrived at some lofty level of spiritual maturity where everything is figured out.
But I know the One I’m following.
And that’s enough to get started.
The really exciting thing?
If you belong to Jesus Christ, you’re on a mission from God, too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my sunglasses.