The Mission of God

What would you say is your aim in life right now?

Getting through next week? Getting a degree or a job? Getting the kids through school or university? Getting the house/garden/garage (delete as applicable) sorted out?

At any given time we all have certain aims. And we need them. Because without purpose, we can’t live. We can exist without purpose, but we can’t live.

Neil Postman wrote a book on our culture’s addiction to entertainment TV – with the very telling title: Amusing Ourselves To Death. As someone else wrote: ‘Modern life is largely about killing time before time kills you.’ But we can’t live like that. Someone else again wrote, ‘It isn’t tragedy which crushes our spirits but triviality.’ No wonder, then, that a World War 2 veteran said this in a radio interview the other day: ‘In some ways the war was the best time of my life, because I had a great purpose for living – something I’ve lacked ever since.’

Well today’s sermon in this series on knowing God is on ‘The Mission of God’ - ie, what is God’s purpose for our lives in this world? So if we’re Christians, it’ll answer the question, ‘What on earth are we here for? Why hasn’t God just taken us straight to heaven already?’ And if you’re not yet a Christian, it’ll answer the question, ‘What would it involve to become one? What would it mean to swap your purpose for your life for God’s purpose for it?’

So let’s turn to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5. To get this in context, we need to back up to 4.17, the start of Jesus’ public teaching:

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The ‘kingdom of heaven’ is Bible jargon for the situation where everyone present willingly lives for God as King. And that won’t happen until the end of history. Have a look at the picture:

The crown stands for God, the box underneath stands for history, and the kingdom of heaven lies beyond that right hand end of history. And when we each go through the right hand end of that box, our attitude to God in this life will determine our destiny in the next. If in this life right up to the end I’ve said to God, ‘Keep out of my life; I want to run it my own way,’ he will say, ‘Keep out of my heaven.’ Because we can’t have the kingdom if we won’t have the king. And hell is where those who’ve told God to keep out are given what they’ve asked for, forever.

And in the light of those awesome issues, 4.17, Jesus began to preach, “Repent” – which means turn – turn and be forgiven back into relationship with God – cross that dotted line in the picture. And forgiveness is available for anyone because Jesus paid for it when he died on the cross.

That’s what Jesus preached. And what he called others to preach, too. 4.18:

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men [ie, give you a new, over-riding purpose of making me known to others].” At once they left their nets and followed him.

He then calls some more disciples, then chapter 5, v1:

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying…

So you could entitle the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew 5-7) ‘Training For Fishers of Men’. And if we’re to understand this mission for our lives, we need to get two things straight:

Firstly, OUR DIFFERENCE FROM THE WORLD… AND HOW TO COPE WITH IT (vv1-12)

In vv3-9, Jesus describes what people who belong to the kingdom of heaven are like. Look down to v3:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (vv3-9)

There’s not time to unpack all that. But the point is: people who genuinely belong to the kingdom of heaven are utterly different.

Eg, look at v3: they’re poor in spirit – ie, they admit they’re spiritually bankrupt and constantly needing God’s forgiveness. And in v4, they mourn - over their own sinfulness first, but also over the sinfulness they see around them. Well that’s utterly different from the world. The world thinks we’re neurotic about sin and far too negative. The world says we’re all basically good – although it still locks and alarms and insures its cars and its houses– because after all, people are basically good! And the world doesn’t mourn at sin; it laughs at it - in the tabloids and on reality TV and so on.

Or look at v6: those who genuinely belong to the kingdom of heaven ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’. Ie, they’re passionate about always trying to do the right thing in God’s eyes. Which again is utterly different. A friend of mine once said to me he reckoned he could make a small fortune by tiny alterations of the bills for his company. ‘What stops you?’ I said, ‘Fear of discovery,’ he said, ‘Why what would stop you?’ And I said, ‘Knowing God was looking.’

Or v9, they’re ‘peacemakers’. How many of them do you find in your office or staff room? Back-stabbers, gossips, stirrers, quarrel-pickers… but peace-makers? That’s utterly different.

Vv3-9 don’t describe the world’s behavioural norms, do they? They’re God’s behavioural norms. The behavioural norms of the kingdom of heaven.

A while back I went on a last minute break to Majorca. I bought Elisabeth Smith’s Instant Spanish in the airport bookstore. She’s a great believer in practising out loud and by the time the flight was called I was already up to, ‘My name is Ian and I work in Newcastle’. And if you’d asked me why I was speaking Spanish as if I was already in Spain, I’d have said: because I’m going there.

And to those trusting in him, Jesus says we’re to live as members of the kingdom of heaven - as if we were there already. Because we are going there. That’s our primary identity and purpose in life.

So if you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian first before any other identity or purpose. Eg, you’re not a secretary. You’re a secretarial Christian. You’re not a student; you’re a studying Christian; not a parent, but a parenting Christian. And so on.You don’t work primarily for the company or the local authority, but for the kingdom of heaven – although God has seconded you to work within the company or the local authority. But in case of a clash of interests between the kingdom and the company, say, the kingdom has first allegiance. Can you lie for the company? No.

And we’re to live out that ‘righteousness’ in v6 – the right thing in God’s eyes – publically and everywhere. We need to think out not just how to do our jobs Christianly but how to play sport Christianly, how to go to a party Christianly, how to do everything Christianly. And if we do… people won’t like it. Verse 10:

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Say and do the right thing in God’s eyes and people won’t like it. And we’ll get stick for it. And this is the one Jesus expands on, v11:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (vv11-12)

And that reference to ‘the prophets’ who spoke for God shows that Jesus isn’t just talking about getting stick for doing the right thing; but also for saying the right thing – speaking up for God and about God.

Eg, down at the Cambridge Mission I spoke on there’s been some nasty press in the student newspapers - calling us brainless, intolerant and arrogant. After my talk on ‘Don’t all religions lead to God?’ (‘No’ is the short version of that talk), someone came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I am seething at what you’ve just said. It is so bigotted.’ Both of us main speakers had people very obviously walk out of our talks. Phillip Jensen, the other speaker, quoted a verse about homosexuality in one talk and a letter to one student newspaper called for a police investigation.

Which is all a relief because Jesus said, ‘Woe to you when all men speak well of you,’ didn’t he? (Luke 6.26) And he was talking about Christians in general, not just public preachers.

That’s an example of saying the right thing. But doing the right thing will land us in just as much trouble. I heard of a Christian just the other day – she’s in a new job and the boss explained that he slipped everyone a “tax-free bonus” that people “agreed” not to declare. She explained that she’d have to declare it (that’s ‘righteousness’). In fact, she suggested he didn’t give it to her at all. He obviously didn’t take her seriously, he gave her the money and she declared it - and the tax-man investigated and it ‘blew the cover’ of all the rest. How popular do you think she was in that office?

We are to be utterly different from the world. And the world will not like us for it. And how to cope with that is to remind ourselves, vv3-12 that we are ‘blessed’, ie, we’re the fortunate ones, we’re the enviable ones (even if we get slandered, cold-shouldered, arrested, whatever) – because (end of v3 and v10), ‘ours is the kingdom of heaven.’

That’s the first thing we need to get straight: our difference from the world… and how to cope with it.

Second, OUR MISSION TO THE WORLD… AND HOW TO COMPROMISE IT (VV13-16)

In vv13-16 Jesus basically says the same thing twice, using two different images – salt then light. Salt first, v13:

“You are the salt of the earth….”

That’s our God-given mission. That’s why he’s left us here on earth rather than taken us straight to heaven. The only question is: what does that mean?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Salt was used for loads of things, then as now: for seasoning, as an antiseptic, as a fertiliser, as a food preservative, for sprinkling on sacrifices; the list goes on. Now many people say that Jesus must have meant Christians are to be a preservative in society – combating moral decay just like salt rubbed into meat combats literal decay. Which may be right. But it’s guesswork. Better to ask whether Jesus uses the same image elsewhere (and so let one part of the Bible shed light on the meaning of another)– which he does in Luke 14.34. Jesus says:

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile [ie, as a fertiliser]; it is thrown out.” (Luke 14.34-35)

That’s so close to Matthew 5.13, it’s the best indicator of what Jesus had in mind in our verse: Christians are to be a ‘fertiliser’ in society, ie, an active ingredient to bring about the growth of what’s good in otherwise rotten soil.

So, eg, a Christian friend who’s a retired teacher used actively to think of topics of conversation to steer the staff room round to – so that it didn’t just swing round to gossip and sleaze. And he noticed that on his lunchtime playground duty – Tuesdays – one of the younger teachers always ate her sandwiches sitting out in the corridor. He asked her why and she said, ‘It’s the tone of the conversation. It makes such a difference when you’re in there.’ Isn’t that a lovely tribute to a ‘salty’ Christian?

That’s saltiness – actively fertilising the good in otherwise rotten soil. And the message of v13 is: don’t lose your saltiness. Ie, don’t lose your distinctiveness. Eg, don’t conform to the conversational norms. Or to the company norms – eg, there are things Christians shouldn’t say or do or sell for the company.

And there’s a corporate side to all this as the body of Christ, which is what The Christian Institute is trying to catalyse. If you don’t know about it, pick up some information at the back. The Institute’s mission summary is ‘Christian influence in a secular world’, and we need to be organised, concerted ‘fertiliser’, acting together in our professions and in our democratic processes for the good of our society.

So, don’t lose your distinctiveness. We must not conform. We must contend.

Salt. Then, Jesus’ other image: light, v14:

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (vv14-16)

The background to that is Isaiah 60, where Isaiah looked forward to Jesus’ coming as The Light of the World, and to those who believe in him becoming lights to the world – reflecting and so revealing something of God in their words and actions. Isaiah 60.1:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light…” (Isaiah 60.1-3)

And just as the message of v13 is don’t lose your distinctiveness, the message of vv14-16 is: don’t hide your distinctiveness. Those are the two ways we can compromise our mission to the world. Instead, says Jesus, ‘Let your light shine before men...’

Not hiding our distinctiveness means, eg, being known as a Christian where we are – at work, in our sports team or our musical society or whatever. Eg, if we’re asked what we did at the weekend, we can label ourselves pretty easily by saying that among other things we went to church.

Not hiding our distinctiveness means, eg, not spending all our time in Christian circles so that, although we may be different from the world, the world never actually sees us, so we’re no help to the world as a witness. Maybe some of us need a 6-month plan to unpick too many church commitments and get out from under the ‘bowl’ of JPC so we can actually give more light to our neighbours or family or whoever.

And notice, finally, the goal of our mission, v16:

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Can I encourage us with the thought that goodness is powerful. I spoke at a Thanksgiving Service for the new daughter of some friends, Richard and Rachel. And I talked to their elderly neighbours afterwards. I said, ‘What brought you along today?’ They said, ‘Well, these two have been so good to us, and we knew it was something to do with their beliefs.’ I told Richard later for his encouragement and he could only think of a few things like cutting their lawn for them. ‘Unspectacular’, ‘ordinary’ goodness is powerful.

But: v16 doesn’t cancel out vv10-12. With much of our goodness - our doing and saying the right thing - people will see it, and connect it with God (v16), but, vv10-12, they may well give us stick for it. They may well not like us for it. In fact they may hate us for it. Cut my lawn? ‘Yes, please,’ says the world. Take a moral stand? Start evangelising? ‘No, thanks,’ says the world. But remember: there’s just no correlation between the responses we get from people and the effect our witness is having on them in the secrecy of their own hearts. I’ve had some strongly negative responses from people who’ve actually been on the brink of becoming Christians – they just didn’t want to let on what effect my witness was having on them.

So, ‘What on earth are we here for? Why hasn’t God just taken us straight to heaven already?’ The answer is: we’re here to be different from the world so as to have a mission to the world. Here to live and speak so differently for God that the world knows there’s a God – because it sees that there is a people of God. And we can only serve the world if we are utterly different from the world. We cannot be similar to the world and any use to it. We cannot be popular in the world and any use to it.

And if we’re no different, it’s not just that we’re no use to the world. If we’re really no different, it means we still are the world – and we ourselves need to respond for the first time to that call of Jesus with which we began: “Repent [turn and be forgiven back into relationship with God as King], for the kingdom of heaven is near.”