Forward from resurrection: Mission 2.0 …

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Many Christians are still enjoying the afterglow of the joy experienced in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. And many church leaders are exhausted from the extra work big Easter services take!

But the days after Jesus’ resurrection are about moving forward. Now that Jesus had accomplished the portion of God’s mission only He could accomplish – the redemption of humanity and defeat of death – He would soon commission His followers with an ongoing portion of His mission, version 2.0. That version would be to go make disciples of all the world (Matthew 28:18-20).

Here’s the humbling and exciting news for us: It’s that “mission 2.0” version that has also been passed to all of us who are disciples of Jesus. Here is our “commissioning” in scripture as spelled out by the Apostle Paul:

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.

Our assignment in “mission 2.0” is to be Christ’s ambassadors. A writer identifying himself only as Douglas shared an insight about what it means to be an ambassador for Christ:

    A few weeks ago I was driving down Route 3 from Augusta to Belfast, and I noticed the car in front of me — a bright, shiny-red Mustang with two signs printed on the back. The first sign was the name of a driving academy and a telephone number. The second sign had three simple words: “DRIVE THIS MUSTANG!”

    It was quite a contrast to the driving academy in my hometown; their cars are nondescript, uninteresting vehicles, and if the academy put a sign on their cars that said, “DRIVE THIS CAR,” everyone would laugh.

    And I thought, “The car represents the academy in two ways: The sign represents the academy in words, but also, the car itself is a representative of the academy. People who see the Mustang will know all the information they need to contact the academy, but it is the Mustang itself that is the real advertisement. People who see this car will say, “That is the academy I want to go to!”

    In the same way, we must be the “advertisement” for Christianity both in our words, and in our lives. Our words tell others about salvation which is to be found only in Christ. But our lives must be an advertisement for Christianity as well; when people look at our lives, they ought to say, “That’s a life that’s a cut above the rest, and if that’s what Christianity is, I want that!”

We live in life after Jesus’ resurrection, mission 2.0. It our privilege and appointment as ambassadors to represent Jesus with how we live, and to reconcile people to God with message of reconciliation (the Gospel).

Let’s get busy!

Scotty