Missio Dei-Christology-Ecclesiology-Missiology

Jared Daugherty

Pastor Steve Triechler

Act’s Paper

14 December 2011

R e v o l u t i o n:

Missional Men Reforming the Family

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Colossians 1:15

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation.

Romans 15:20

There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, than the mere pleasure of God.

Jonathan Edwards

Hope believes that God is not done.

John Piper

Introduction:

                The Mission of God (Missio Dei), Christology (the study of the work of Christ), Ecclesiology (the study of the purpose and what is the church), and Missiology (the study of the contextualized mission for us in time, place, and people with which we live) all must have the continued thread of who is God and what was/is He up to then, now, and in the present future along with our future forever with Him. One should be able to find the mission of God in every passage in Scripture.

                I have set out to point to Jesus in every facet of this paper showing that He will build His church and we get to join God in this continued mission in the specific context to which He has called us to go as well as how we are to go for his glory and His Name’s sake. God is not a revolution for He is always relevant. God does not change and yet He changes us and we change, times change, and contexts change. So, God’s people must be revolutionaries keeping in step with what God is doing, how God continues His mission, where it is being done or else we are nothing more than change without currency and a people without a mission because we left His mission and did our own thing. In other words, if we misunderstand the Missio Dei everything else is off target and not on mission. This would be like creating a culture for men without planning for a future of what to do with those men and the major importance of why it is not good for men to be alone. We would probably just kill things, break things, recreate things, and then break those very things again. Women, enter stage left. J Without the men so goes the family, but without the women there cannot be a family. Men who walk with God and are led by His Holy Spirit, who love Jesus, their wives, kids, and culture are the revolution because they are on God’s mission.

Missio Dei – the Mission of God:

                What is the mission of God and what is He up to? This is the question that I hope to answer with His Word and in so doing He might be proclaimed and glorified. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. (The Pleasure of God, John Piper) The word ‘mission’ can be best defined as sent or sending which is what can and should be rightly understood as God being a missionary God with a purpose and intention. He did not lose sight of this with sin entering the picture in Genesis 3 and scratch His head like a guy rejected after asking a girl to a dance and then say to Himself, “now what am I going to do, I suppose plan ‘B’ would be in order?” No. I would like to submit that God in eternity past before the creation of the world always had plan ‘A’ and still has plan ‘A’ which is glorifying Himself as God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in perfect community with Himself and always will get His glory. God did not change his mind like a junior high kid wondering about who to like and for how long. His mission was and is not to show us how great we are and how wonderful life can be with Him but rather the Missio Dei is God who showed and continues to show us that only when we are in Him looking, loving, being, in Him, and only then can we truly be satisfied and understand His plan for us in His Son Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, what the church is and how we proclaim the good news not that we are a great people who have God on our side, but more that we worship a holy, loving, great, gracious, and just God who welcomes us to Himself and asks us to join Him by His side in His mission.

                If God being a missionary God, then the Missio Dei points to missionaries sent investing life in culture where they share the gospel message of which saves, seals, sanctifies, servants conformed to the image of God as His church on mission doing the work prepared in advance as an evangelist into all nations past, present, and future. We were created for His glory, so our entire being glorifying Him making the most of Him is where we receive our joy. This concept of existence is revolutionary, for the sole purpose of being and desiring to be with God is that we get to be with God not because we have to all of a sudden changes everything for how we live, what we do with our time, where we go, how we go, and continue to go. We see that God throughout human history has a plan to bring His people into a right relationship with Him for His glory.

Genesis 1:1- In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

                Since everything created always begins and ends with God, this passage must be first. (see also John 1:1) The word in Hebrew here for God ('elohiym) here is the plural form of God not as in multiple gods, but in one God three persons, which I believe to be the first reference to the Trinity. We can see here already what God is up to. He did not need us because He was lonely, but created for His own glory, something to be mentioned later. The next chain of verses in the creation account point to God speaking everything into existence (ex nihilo- out of nothing according to Hebrews 11:3) when read, “And God said,” (I.E. Genesis 1:3). It does not just record what God said, but the fact that when God says something it also takes place and it is obedient to Him. For instance, “Let there be light”, and there was light.

Genesis 1:26-3     1- Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

                                                So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;                                                                        male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

                This passage speaks of the Imago Dei, but I believe it helps us understand the Missio Dei as well. How and why we are created is important. What God created us for and in what way we were created reeks of God’s mission to the world and how we keep this mission in mind helps us understand our main goal that is best summed up in the Westminster Confession: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and [by] enjoying Him forever.” God says that He made us in His ‘image’ (tselem) and ‘likeness’ (dĕmuwth) which also means that we are different than the angelic beings or animals. We are God’s image bearers such as things like reason (believers and non-believers in Jesus), but we have lost the original righteousness which was transferred upon us from Adam which is we are now born into, a sin nature. Sin tainted and stained everything, sin had left its crimson stain, but He (Jesus) washed it white as snow. This righteousness will be restored later only through Jesus. This is important for the mission of God is bestowed on us for future generations, albeit we are in a shell of the original righteous design because of Genesis 3. We see that a glimpse of what God is up to in that He created us in His image and likeness and then specified that we are to be fruitful and multiply as well as have dominion over living creatures.

                It also says that we are blessed by God ultimately making God Happy in himself for we were also distinguished from all other creation in that we were created “very good” because of our great God. Later on in chapter two of Genesis we see that man was created with work to do, which has not changed, but became more difficult due to the curse of sin and death in Genesis 3. God’s mission involves significant work begun and finished on His behalf that we failed to do in Adam yet He fulfilled in Jesus. We are God’s mission and we are on His mission. The end result of the mission of God is that He is glorified as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is only possible through temporary (shadow) sacrifice in the Old Testament and ultimately given and shown clearly in the New Testament. This mission began with creation, but because of the fall (sin), we now have the continued mission of God the Father sending God the Son who planned and prepared to leave His throne before the creation of the world in eternity past which leads to God the Father with God the Son sending God the Holy Spirit, and then God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit sending ‘us’ the church into culture being witnesses and proclaiming the gospel to all generations.

John 17- After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

   “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

    “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

   “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

    “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

   “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

   “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

                This passage known as the high priestly prayer of Jesus has much significance in regards to the mission of God and how it practically plays out from God’s perspective and how it looks for His people. Previously we see Jesus speak to the disciples as that they would receive the Holy Spirit who guide them in truth and glorify Him. (John 16:14) Then Jesus moved to pray with overcoming the world in mind, to God the Father and that they, Father and Son, might glorify one another in verse one and the purpose of the mission coming closer to fruition and truly the next stage of God’s mission which is that of continued work of God the Holy Spirit through the disciples with whom He has chosen and those (us and all who believe) in the message preached by the disciples. The word ‘glory’ (doxazō) and ‘sent’ (apostellō) are prominent in this passage which help us better understand God’s mission (send/sent) to the world from eternity past to the present. The Old Testament shadows become realized in Jesus and then continued through the Holy Spirit. Hope believes that God is not done. God will receive His glory and continue His mission. (See Romans 11:33-36 on God’s glory/doxology)

Acts 12:24-13: But the word of God increased and multiplied.

                And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.

                Here we have a great passage that points to who is sent out, by whom they are sent out, and basically what they do when sent out. (There is much more to be said on the topic when we discuss ecclesiology). The great part of this passage is that we see people on mission with God and the point of going out and fulfilling the mission or service that they were commissioned to do by God. They were set apart by God, and then sent out after prayer and fasting. J They also were not simply sent to build wells or start work in an orphanage for two weeks and then return, but the previous passages in Acts and the following passages in Acts show that they planted churches that would last in regards to preaching the gospel, winning people/gathering them in a local congregation, teaching and equipping them for service, appointing leadership, and then continuing this wherever they went. This is the continued mission of God. This passage as well as a thorough reading of Acts would state the same. (More to be discussed in the ecclesiology/missiology sections) Thought it would be good to note that God sends His people on His mission. A few fun notes:

*ESV translates ‘service’ in Acts 12:24; the Greek actually uses the word ‘mission’ (Diakonia).

*‘Sent’ by the Holy Spirit in Acts 13:4 (Ekpempō) vs. ‘Sent’ in John 17 (apostellō) both are virtually the same.

Ephesians 1:3-14- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

                First off, we see that God the Father initiates by electing in verses 3-6 before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless, God the Son redeems in verses 7-12, and God the Holy Spirit seals in verses 13-14. There are multiple points in this passage that could give us a glimpse into what God planned and purposed as mission. We did not deserve election, predestination, adoption, redemption, regeneration, sanctification, and eventual glorification, but God in His perfect plan ‘A’, these are all part of what He chose to do before the world began which He created. He brought order out of disorder. All are done according to His great mercy and grace. We read ‘in love’ he predestined us not because of how great we were, but because of how great He is! The entirety states spiritual blessings that we have “in Him” or “in Christ” which puts the champion Rock Star role in God’s corner, not ours. This is God showing off Himself as the only reason and purpose for life along with hope beyond the grave, but it is all ‘in Him’ or ‘in Christ’. This is revolutionary God who changes us and pursues us with radical abandonment for His glory and Namesake! He is changeless, yet how He changes us for His purposes determines our steps in such a graceful way in lovingly joining His mission. One of the clearest pictures of the Missio Dei is the cross and the empty tomb which shows what must be done perfectly by Him, through Him, and for Him as the only means to save and deliver any dreadful sinner from the pit of hell and all for His glory. The mission of God points to and through the cross from death to life.

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Christology – The Study of the Work of Christ Jesus:

                If we rightly understand the mission of God, our next logical question must be who is Jesus and why does it matter? What is this good news (gospel) that He brings and why is it life transforming? Jesus is the most popular person written about in human history and more books, blogs, documentaries, and movies have been done on Him than on any person, yet still so many do not profess faith in Him for eternal life and will sadly and grievously die in their sin forever apart from Him never knowing God’s special grace, but only his common grace. So knowing lots about Him apparently is not enough. Why? What makes Him so popular and so controversial? Many think He is their homeboy and yet others associate Him with whack jobs who protest funerals of grieving servicemen families portraying a vengeful God rather than a loving one. Why do both parties mix their metaphors or simply just need a bigger dose of the other’s hand clenched beliefs? The Jesus I hope to point to, is the Jesus of the Bible! Jesus is the hero foreshadowed in the Old Testament by men prophesying, 30 year worker hammer swinging, people loving, broken and sick folk healing, cross carrying, crucified for sins dying, resurrection tomb exploding, eventual white horse riding, sword slaying, King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s crown of thorns wearing, and Savior of all who believe.

(Creation to fall) Genesis 3:1-24- Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said,"The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

 The LORD God said to the serpent,

   "Because you have done this,
   cursed are you above all livestock
   and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
   and dust you shall eat
   all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
   and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
   and you shall bruise his heel."

 To the woman he said,

   "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for^[f] your husband,
   and he shall rule over you."

 And to Adam he said,

   "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
   and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
   'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
   and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
   you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
   for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
   and to dust you shall return."

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—"therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

                This must be quoted when looking at the two chapters before…bliss. God creates everything good and man is very good. Then sin happens and the fit hits the shan. J Or something like that. Actually it was exactly that! Ultimately everything changes in those few moments when the man and woman sin and believe the devil rather than God. He could have destroyed all in Genesis 3 immediately knowing that we would choose sin over Him ultimately getting us kicked out of the garden leading to eventual death, but that is gracious in itself. Death then becomes gracious in that despite it like sin not being part of God’s mission we will not live forever in sin, but rather we would understand sacrifice and substitution on our behalf through blood. Not our blood, but Jesus’ blood. Because of the ‘fall’ nearly everything in the rest of scripture until the last two chapters in Revelation longs for redemption and points and foreshadows Jesus in the Old Testament and then the Word becomes flesh (Jesus) and moves into the neighborhood fulfilling perfectly the promise to be the better Adam who will restore life, redeem it, and bring us back into the garden with God forever. The promise of Jesus is the first gospel ever preached in Genesis 3:15, known as the proto-evangelium. There is a promise of victory over Satan, sin, and death. God did not lose His cool and freak out, but rather knew and planned for when not if man would sin. Jesus was ready to come to earth in eternity past and reconcile people unto Himself.

(Redemption) Isaiah 53:1-12- Who has believed what he has heard from us?
   And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
   and no beauty that we should desire him.

 He was despised and rejected by men;
   a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief
and as one from whom men hide their faces
   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he has borne our griefs
   and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
   and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
   so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
   and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
   stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
   and there was no deceit in his mouth.

 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
   he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
   he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
   and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
   and makes intercession for the transgressors.

                Here we have one of the most beautiful prophecies and less shadowy of Jesus in the Old Testament as to who He was, how He would come, what He would do, and what it would mean for us and the ultimate mission of God to His people. He was and is the Christ who came to earth with the purpose of dying on the cross which appeased the wrath of God as our substitutionary atonement and ultimately for God’s glory. He was perfect in every way, the God-man. (fully God and fully man, also known as the hypostatic union) He was and is the chief Shepherd that laid his life down for His sheep. He also was the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was the kinsman redeemer who redeemed our death sentence and bore the penalty that should have brought eternal separation, but rather brought righteousness to us. He was the revolution that brought life out of death by conquering Satan, sin and death that only a revolutionary God could bring to pass from eternity past to present and future.

(By Grace through Faith) Ephesians 2:1-10- And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

                ‘But God’ one of the sweetest two word passages in all of Scripture. We were dead in our sins and could do nothing but continue to walk in a fallen and broken world all alone and without hope, ‘but God’ in His mercy and love something only a revolutionary God could do made us alive in Christ, the anointed one who was promised and perfectly fulfilled the law, and by gifting us to Himself for His glory. When reading this passage rightly we don’t simply see a people who are saved by grace and through faith, but more importantly we see the hero God restore and save sinners who were going their own way, our own way for His glory and our good. We are not saved from our works but saved from God’s wrath and our own wretched sin for good works prepared ahead of time. Dead to sin, alive in Christ. Jesus died to save sinners, but most importantly He died to glorify Father.

(Prophet)John 12:44-50- And Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me."

                Here we see that the belief that God gives us is genuine and like the author of Hebrews states, without faith it is impossible to please God. Jesus points to the Father and the Father sustains the Son and Holy Spirit brings community and fellowship. Unless we are granted regeneration we cannot get out of sin and believe, but rather are dead in our trespasses. God loved the world so much that He sent His only ‘begotten’ Son that whoever believes in the one Name that is above all other names, Jesus, will be saved for good works and eternal life. We cannot earn our salvation, for as Jonah 2:9 states that salvation is of the Lord. It is by grace alone and faith alone. What is this grace/gift that God gives, but the freedom and salvation from Satan, sin, death, and hell, but also the gift of His Holy Spirit. He, who has ears to hear, let him hear. This authority that Jesus has is in submission to the Father in perfect obedience. He is a prophet in that He speaks plainly and truthfully calling out sin and living a life of repentance.

(Priest) Hebrews 9:11-28- But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you." And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

                Jesus is our high priest who made intercession once for all who believe before a Holy and righteous God ending the separation of curtain between holy and most Holy place. God thus resides in us the new temple of God’s Holy Spirit. His blood does not need to be sprinkled over and over as a temporary sacrifice, but a perfect once. There also is no separation between Jew and Gentile for we are all brought together as one people, the church. Jesus is our high priest who not only is the high priest, but is also the lamb. He not only makes the sacrifice, but is the sacrifice. He is the slayer and the slain along with the just and justifier. He fulfills the old covenant which was a shadow of what was to come which perfectly follows His mission to His people. This good news that Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for the forgiveness of all who believe, was buried, yet rose from the dead three days later as He promised and had been prophesied! He restores our relationship with God and makes peace. God now looks at us, those who believe, who have been appointed to eternal life in Jesus’s name as righteous and co-heirs with Christ. He is the stone that the builders rejected and became the cornerstone of a whole new world. Jesus was and is a revolutionary. No one would dare die for the unrighteous, but while we were sinners Christ died for us. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life which is what we get to do forever in praise and glory to Him.

(King of Justice and Restoration) Revelation 19:11-16- Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

                Here is one of the most detailed passages that is glorious and terrifying all at the same time. It all depends on whose side you are one. It is not that we all get into heaven because of the crew we hang with, or family we were raised in, or church we were baptized in, but rather if our names are written in the book of life. If we confess with our lips and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead repent and believe we will receive eternal life and life to the fullest forever with God. If we are not in Christ Jesus, the judge and the anointed one sent from God, then we will be judged and eternally separated from God and His grace living forever in a literal hell as enemies of God. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and ultimately every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, it is just that for some it will be too late. No one is without excuse as we are told in Romans 1. God is just and justifier in being on mission glorifying and being a righteous Judge. Sin must be atoned for, whether by our own blood or by the blood of Jesus. Jesus comes on the horse to bring revolution to the old completely with a new heaven and new earth. This revolution is what all have waited for and feared the most. To God be the glory.

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Ecclesiology – The Study and Purpose of the Church:

                What is a church or the church and what are the elements of a true church? Just because it fits in the garage doesn’t make it a car. We must be careful and honest when looking at how and why we defend the structure and purpose of the church. We know that Jesus will build it, but how we follow God in His mission of building, reforming, and rebuilding matters. Our theology on the church must not be a mile long and a foot deep. We began discussing the mission of God, the ministry of the Jesus, and now we move on to the Holy Spirit His ministry in the church. If we are not a Spirit –led church then we might as well go home, hang our heads, and give up. If we are to actively go into the world and penetrate culture as the church with the ability to open a can of whoop ass on the kingdom of darkness by preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, we must have God’s Holy Spirit leading and directing us. The scripture passages below are listed as sign posts of a real church and how they can be distinguished from Para-church, social justice clubs, and political or unorthodox gatherings and perhaps even heretical people groups. Just for clarification, Para-church ministries do some great things and must not be held as heretical or damaging, but in and of themselves are not and do not pretend to be a church. So what is a church? The Greek word, ‘ekklesia’ which means ‘church’ can have many definitions. For the sake of time and space I will define the church as so with the help of Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in his book Vintage Church, ‘the local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.’ This is the local church and last specification that must be mentioned is visible verses invisible. Visible is what we see, and invisible means true believers of the past, present, and future, in other words the elect. The church is the body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit. We don’t really go to church, but are the church. In other words we don’t have to love Jesus, but we get to and take joy in doing so. We leave our worship gathering on Sunday mornings, or evenings, or whatever night we choose to gather and leave, but church is still in session. How we go matters and what we do as we go also shows whether or not we embrace the form or function and understand each ones purpose in regards to mission, vision, and core values.

Matthew 16:18- And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hellshall not prevail against it.

                God will build His church. There is a church because there is a mission and not vice versa. This church that Jesus builds as His bride will prevail forever. God is God and we are not and so let us join God in His mission as the church, the new Israel.

Matthew 28:18-20- And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

                As we ‘go’ we make disciples and then baptize and teach them. They become missionaries sent investing life in culture where they share the gospel message of which saves, seals, sanctifies, servants conformed to the image of God as His church on mission doing the work prepared in advance as an evangelist into all nations past, present, and future. We don’t stay here, but missionaries who are followers of Jesus are sent out to plant churches that send missionaries sent out investing life in culture where they share the gospel message of which saves, seals, sanctifies, servants conformed to the image of God as His church on mission doing the work prepared in advance as an evangelist into all nations past, present, and future to plant churches, etc. This is all done in the ‘Name’ of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We get to spread God’s name and fame.

John 14:12- "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

                This amazing passage in Scripture, says that the church will do greater works than what we saw Jesus do, because He set out to build it, but we continue the mission of God as His church. Now we do not do this alone, but rather with the Holy Spirit leading and directing our feet each step in the journey.

Ephesians 3:8-10- To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

                This amazing mystery of the Gentiles being grafted into the vine with the Jews and the church being the new Israel which is spoken of the Apostles Paul, pioneer and revolutionary church planter, is the continued mission of God. It is through the church that God makes His will and purpose known throughout all generations until He comes back! The church exists in and through Jesus Christ. We are then to go and plant new churches! He will continue to build and renew people, His bride the church. Come Lord Jesus!

Acts 1:8- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

                This passage shows the beginning of the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church on God’s mission preaching and teaching and being witnesses to the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth which includes us in Minneapolis and in all cities, states, nations, countries, and continents of the world. This is not done by our might or strength, but by God’s Holy Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6) It is done only by the power of the Holy Spirit! As the father has sent me, so I am sending you. (John 20:21) The church gets to participate in God’s mission as God’s mission. The bride gets dressed up for the wedding to meet her husband, but is only able to be clean and white because of her husband.

Acts 2:42-45- And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

                Here we have a little view of a few of the characteristics practiced by the early church, they read the Word, met together, broke bread, and prayed. We find in other parts that this is not all they did, but a sample for us the church. We must be careful of legalism, but on the other side must be specific as to what a church is and does for the glory of God. Not because we have to but because we get to.

Acts 20:17-28- Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:

    "You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

                Here we have a great example once again some of the things practiced by the church: serving in humility, declaration of the Word of God, meeting in homes regularly, filled with the Spirit, protecting and caring for ourselves and the people who make up the local church under leaders which we call elders and deacons. We must remember that we were bought with a price. What can wash away my sin? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left its crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

Acts 6:7, 9:31, 12:24, 16:5, 19:20, 29(?)-

                All these passages in Acts show the growth in regards to the mission of God in the establishment and expansion of the church. They are helpful in showing us what was done previously to the glory of God that caused growth. The debate goes back and forth between a small church, mid-size church, and mega-church. The fact remains if we are healthy, we will grow in numbers physically and spiritually. This might be one person a year, but none the less, we will grow, otherwise we become like manna (bread from heaven) hoarded things always become stale with no room to grow. We want to grow mostly in two ways: growth through conversion and reproduction (biological or people having babies) rather than transfer growth.

1 Timothy 3:14-15- I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

                We know from a careful examining of Scripture with word upon word, and passage upon passage, book/letter next to one another, how we are to conduct ourselves as the church. We have the Word of God as our instruction in all matters. Context, context, and more context, is what we need. We cannot hold firmly to the secondary issues so strongly with clenched hand like smoking, music, and modes of baptism and leaving all the doctrines of primary issues up for debate. This can and should not be. We must flip the hands and know what to hold firmly to as primary issues like atonement, the Trinity, virgin birth, Jesus being fully God and fully man, salvation by faith alone, etc. (closed hand) as sound doctrine and secondary issues as open handed issues. How we do this pleases and glorifies God and failure to do this rightly damages often making heretics or well-meaning people. Let us not be well-meaning people, but rightly-meaning people proclaiming the entire gospel and not just half of it which would then be no gospel at all. Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. How and what each church looks like in that context becomes missional.

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Missiology- What does this look like in our context?

                The context to which I contend and desire to go is the mission field of Men. Our missiology is going into the culture of men. It will involve super commitment from our men, to know men and reach the men who have networks of other men. This means we contextualize most things for the men, so that the men understand in a practical, relational, spiritual, and missional manner as to what this life is about and why it directly involves them in changing their culture, neighborhood, and city. It is the foundational ripple effect of one man whose eternal destiny is changed by Jesus Christ and now had a new lens for how he also views other men and even women for the sake of the gospel. It is all starts with one man, his girlfriend, wife, friends, or whoever all notice that he is now a new man, but not just new like a car that can get old and lose that new car smell, but rather a new man in that he treats his own life differently in every way, but also in how he treats them now better than ever because He now has the Spirit of Jesus. This is contagious whether to men or women.

                In order to create this culture it will mean keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, listening and reading His Word, on my knees in faithful prayer for those men and courageous women who will be willing to spend the rest of lives in culture redeeming it for kingdom purposes as the church on God’s mission. If we forget the men we lose the family, but without the women we cannot have families. J This paradox is true, so when I say I want the men from all ethnicities, genres, styles, and tribes, tongues, and nations, what I am really saying is I want to raise up the former video game playing, pot smoking, illiterate to college educated, gang banging, head banging, hipster, hip-hopster, still living in mom’s basementer, prankster, poverty prone, blue collared, white collared, up all night sleep all day typesters who still find time to sleep with their girlfriends with no desire for marriage or kids, etc. etc. etc.…to become real men rather than a culture of boys. Training these men will require repenting of sin and moving them from fake or artificial men (Look like men, but are simply immature boys on the inside) into real masculine men who love Jesus with careful time, commitment, mentoring, discipling, and coaching who will rise up by God’s grace to the rightful role and their God given responsibilities which will ultimately uplift the women in their lives whether their moms, sisters, girlfriends, wives, co-workers, etc. to be prized and cherished rather than brutalized, beaten, impregnated, and cheated on. These men who love Jesus will be strong and better men than what culture puts out, not because they pick themselves up by their own bootstraps, but because they are transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and full of the Holy Spirit equipped for service and worth emulating by the boys who desire to be men, husbands, fathers, and Jesus worshipers someday. We want men to love, protect, and uphold the women to the glory of God having godly children. This is the dream and vision of church planting in Minneapolis by God’s grace and wisdom of His Holy Spirit to uplift Jesus near downtown, uptown, and midtown one person at a time for the glory of God.

                The gospel message will be contextualized for the men with sensitivity to the women in mind because the women will be drawn to true men, real men. The starting point with men is that they often need more law to start with which helps them understand true grace for this points to the gospel and how their way has failed them along with cultures way. It is the backyard scuffle with one another that turns into a full on brawl, but at the end of the battle even a brutal war upon each other, both shake hands, fist pump, and more often than not become true friends and co-warriors together covering each other’s backs. May we be men who stand up and fight for the right things as God’s men redeemed by the blood of Jesus saved for good work to do which every man has been programmed to do since before the fall by the power of the Holy Spirit. Real men love their wives the way Christ loves the church meaning they are not harsh, but allow them to become more lovely and tend to them so that they naturally grow to be women who love Jesus and uplift their man. Real men have sons and daughters: sons who desire to grow to be just like their daddies who are real men and daughters who desire to marry someone just like their daddies who are real men. Real men know where they stand, whether to stand up, remain standing, or stand firm. May we be real men who forever cultivate our cultural and spiritual soil and landscape and tending to that which has been planted until the return of the King, Jesus Christ. Who was, and is, and is to come. This is the revolution I desire to the praise of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one man, who loves Jesus, at a time which is the foundation for the family.

Missional Men Reforming the Family Are:

• Real Men Who Rightly Confess, Repent, and Reform -Psalm 51:1-12, Habakkuk 2:4, Ephesians 2:8-10, Philippians 2:1-11, 1 John 1:8-9, Romans 3:23-26, Galatians 5:1, Genesis 3
• Real Men Who Redeem, Renew, and Revolutionize Culture -Matthew 5:14-16, Acts 17:16-33, Romans 15:20, Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 8:34-38, Galatians 3:10-14, Jeremiah 29:5-7, Revelation 21:4
• Real Men Who Provide for family, Protect the defenseless, and Prevail in persecution -Luke14:25-33, Romans 5:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 5:1-33, James 1:2-4, Acts 20:17-28, 1 Peter 3:1-7
• Real Men Who are Warriors, Worshipers, and Workers -Ephesians 4:1, 6:10-20, 1 Timothy 6:11-12, 2 Timothy 2:1-10, Proverbs 16:27, Habakkuk 3:1-2, John 4:20-26, Romans 12:1-2
• Real Men Who Follow Jesus, Fight for the Truth, and Fortify Sound Doctrine -Jude 3, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 2 Timothy 3:16-4:2, 1 Peter 3:15, Matthew 4:19, Romans 10, John 14:6, Acts 4:11-12