Church On Mission: A Gracious and Compassionate God
About this series:
The opening lines or pages of a book are often designed to set the context for all that follows. For example:
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair’ (A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens).
‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen’ (1984, George Orwell).
The same is true of the Bible. The opening pages set the stage for all that follows; it’s long, unfolding story can invariably be traced back to these scenes. In particular, we see God eternally existing and then choosing to create all there is out of nothing. He commissions mankind - the pinnacle of his creation, made in his image - to, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule…” (Genesis 1:28). Then sin enters the world and there follows a spiralling downward away from harmony with God and with people. And yet there is the gospel promise of Genesis 3:15.
And then, following a restating (to Noah) of the commission to, “be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” and the establishing of a covenant (Genesis 9:1-11), we’re introduced to Abram (from Genesis 11:26), called by God to become the one through whom he will accomplish the mission given to mankind and through whom God’s intended blessing of mankind will come about.
This series is designed to explore a few points in the biblical journey that flows from these opening scenes in the Bible, the story of how God’s blessing will fill the earth. It’s clearly only a very few of the many stages on that journey that we could talk about, but they will serve to show how God’s people have always been on mission and how the church today is still on mission today.
Importantly, it is God’s mission. Christopher Wright has said, ‘God doesn’t have a mission for his church, he has a church for his mission.’ God’s intent has always been to fill the earth with his blessing and his people have always been his means for bringing that to pass. It’s important that we have an understanding of the biblical storyline and that we see our involvement as being in God’s mission rather than imagining that we are asking God to bless our mission.
This eight-part series will begin with three practical steps we can all engage with in order to become people on mission - Prayer, Care and Share. These three words represent vital practical elements of a missional lifestyle and they contain a logical progression too. Please keep these three words in mind as we work through the series, especially as ways to apply what’s being said - for example:
What does it look like to be sent? Prayer, care & share.
How can we still be on mission against all the odds? Prayer, care & share.
About this talk:
The story of Jonah has elements of tragedy and comedy, hope and judgement, kindness and harshness. The Bible Project video on the book of Jonah summarises it as ‘The subversive story of a rebellious prophet who hates God for loving his enemies.’
Jonah’s statement in 4:2 is the explanation for why he ran away in the first place (1:3). Though his words here are thrown at God in an accusing manner, they express a great theme throughout the Old Testament, beginning in Exodus 34:6. There, in response to Moses’ request to see God’s glory, “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’” God’s self-disclosure here becomes a recurring theme in the Old Testament as a means of helping God’s people understand who he is and what he is like. Jonah, however, throws it back at God: “I knew when you commanded me to ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me’ (1:2) that you would be merciful and forgive them. I hate that you would be so gracious to a people who are so wicked, who are our enemies and who deserve only to be judged and destroyed.”
Having reluctantly agreed to God’s second command to go to Nineveh (3:1-3), Jonah delivers an extremely short sermon (only five words in Hebrew): “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (3:4). Yet the whole story is one of things being overthrown / overturned: Jonah, God’s prophet runs from God while the pagan sailors in chapters 1 & 3 turn to God; the threat to overturn Nineveh is itself overturned as they repent and change their ways; the message about Jonah becomes a message to everyone who reads the story, challenging all of us who believe God’s mercy should have limits. And the story ends with God expressing his care for the Ninevites, in contrast to Jonah’s lack of care. “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left” (4:11).
That God is gracious and compassionate is the motivation behind his mission - he longs for people to know him, he longs to forgive, to show that he is, “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” And so the biblical authors return to this motif at regular points throughout the OT, which then becomes even clearer in the New Testament as we see that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
And in the life of Jesus we see compassion and grace in action: we’re told that Jesus was moved with compassion on multiple occasions: when he saw the people harassed and helpless, when a crowd that had been following him were hungry, when a blind man asked Jesus to restore his sight, when a leper asks to be healed. It’s also the description of the father of the prodigal son, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him” and of the good Samaritan, “a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” James then expresses the same truth beautifully, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” - he is intensely compassionate, extremely sympathetic, he feels greatly for us.
It is vital that we understand the mission of God to be driven by his compassionate and gracious nature and that our calling to imitate him demands that we are filled with similar compassion and grace as we seek to help others connect with him.
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