Sermon series: What Matters Most
Introduction
One of the most effective ways to illustrate transformation is the "before/after" technique. You see this approach used in the media all the time. A weight loss product shows a person in a heavier, less attractive state and then immediately follows up with a slimmer, more attractive shot, which resulted after using the particular product. The setting varies but the idea is the same: this service or product can change things in your life.
Consider a different type of "before/after" commercial, one that uses the disciples of Jesus as a model.
The Before shows a couple of discouraged, intimidated, disoriented men, huddling behind closed doors out of fear of reprisal from the religious leaders (v. 19). The After paints a radically different picture, one of boldness, vision, and deep conviction.
Our text shows us the bridge between the two pictures. It reveals to us how Jesus led His followers to become kingdom change agents. It is a perfect picture of missional leadership. It helps a leader know how to influence people so that the mission of God, the Great Commission, can be filled.
I. The essence of missional leadership
Missional leaders understand and practice one essential component of effective leadership: a focus on both purpose and people, results and relationships, or task and togetherness. It is not either/or. It must be both/and. One can never be isolated at the expense of the other.
A humorous example of this is found in the movie, "O Brother Where Art Thou?" Everett, Delmar, and Pete, having broken out of prison, are running to hitch a ride on a train. A major impediment is that they are chained to each other. Everett, the self-appointed leader, climbs up into the boxcar first, followed by Delmar, and encounters several hobos. Rather than concern himself with getting Pete on the train, he asks, "Any of you boys smithies?," obviously seeking to free himself from the chains. However, in his preoccupation with the task, he neglected to help Pete on the train, who falls while running along side. Of course, the result is that both Everett and Delmar are yanked off the train along with Pete.
God calls the church to mission. A church exists by mission like a fire exists by burning. If there is no mission, there is no church, only a façade of an institution. The missional leader, however, sees God's mission in light of God's people and vice versa. It is about both task and relationships.
Why am I sharing this with you, the congregation, and not only to the staff or to a leadership group within the church? It is because every person is a leader. Every person has influence. One thing is true about every person: at least once during every day of your life, you will have a leadership moment. You will have an opportunity to influence someone. The only question is whether you will do it to the glory of God or to the benefit of yourself.
This balance will test each one of us. Each of us tends to focus on one aspect more than the other. Some of us are very goal-oriented. We pursue with great determination. Stoplights are seen as instruments of Satan. Do you know such a person? Please don't point them out right now.
This type of orientation can be very productive toward the accomplishment of a task but frequently does so at the expense of key relationships. Over time, a person with an exclusive task focus finds themselves at odds with most people and thus unable to complete the mission.
On the other hand, some people are naturally relational. They love to spend time interacting with people, talking, visiting, holding hands and singing Kum-Ba-Yah. Everyone likes this type of person but frequently very little tangible results are seen. Everyone feels good but nothing is accomplished.
Jesus shows how true leadership is both about results and relationships. When He appeared to the disciples without coming into the room in the normal way, through a door, He blessed them with a standard Hebrew greeting (e.g., 1 Sam. 25:6), "Peace to you!" He repeated that greeting a second time. Take note that Jesus did not begin by hurriedly saying, "C'mon, guys, we've got a big task to do!" Also, they would have expected a rebuke or recrimination. However, none was forthcoming. Christ sought to put them at ease. He ministered to them on a personal, relational level.
However, this did not simply become a therapy session. In the same breath as His affirmation, Christ gave the disciples a staggering commission, "As the Father sent Me, I also send you." (v. 21) Though He uses two different verbs for "send," the connection is still striking. Just as God the Father sent His Son to be a missionary, so every believer is commissioned by Christ to be a missionary. That is the purpose and the task for which God has saved us.
The verb tense for "sent" (HCSB) is the perfect tense, indicating something in the past that still has implications into the present. Its continuation is found in the commission, "I also send you" (v. 21). The work which Christ began was to continue through His followers (Acts 1:1).
Of course, we must not make the mistake of thinking that leadership is merely what we say. Jesus embodied the mission. In fact, his very body carried the marks of His devotion to fulfilling God's purpose. He showed them His hands and His side so they could see the personification of the Great Commission (v. 20). Paul could make the same type of statement (Gal. 6:17). We must live the mission and model a tireless dedication to it.
One of the great dangers in leadership is the travel agent syndrome, which is describing places to which we ourselves have not gone. Missional leaders are first missional Christians. A well-known leadership axiom is that leaders must know the way, show the way, and go the way. We teach what we know but we reproduce what we are. As teachers, we should evaluate ourselves not merely by the content that others hear but the character that others emulate.
Our actions should bear evidence that we focus on results and relationships, people as well as purpose. Anything less is not missional leadership. It was Jesus' missional leadership that prompted the Before and After in the disciples. True leadership effects change within the Body of Christ so that the Great Commission and the Acts 1:8 mandate become reality.
II. Empower people for the mission
Jesus did not merely give the Great Commission and leave His followers to fulfill it on their own. He did what every true leader does, He empowered them to complete the task. (Once again we see the balance between purpose and people.) After establishing the mission, Christ breathed on the disciples and invited them to receive the Holy Spirit (v. 22).
Students of the Scripture have various understandings of the meaning of this incident and how it relates to the Day of Pentecost, where the Bible describes the coming of the Spirit. Some make a distinction between empowerment for life and ministry, while others view this as a sprinkling of the Spirit as opposed to fullness. Perhaps it would be best to view this as a teaching exercise on the part of Jesus. He instructed them to receive the Spirit but we are not told that they did, as we explicitly told in Acts 2 regarding Pentecost. The fact that Christ breathed on them (v. 22) seems to indicate some symbolic imagery, relating back to Genesis 2:7 and the life-giving breath of God in creation. It is safe to assume that Jesus was teaching them, pre-Pentecost, about the necessity of the Holy Spirit for the completion of the divine mission.
The empowerment that human leaders provide is obviously of a different nature than that provided by Jesus. Nevertheless, He gives us an example to follow. Great leaders are great coaches who walk people through the missional process.
Teaching people is a key dimension of empowerment for ministry. Educating people in the full counsel of God is foundation for developing missional Christians. Yet this education is more than just pouring content into the mind. Perhaps the imagery of breath was not just accidental on Jesus' part. We must put our very selves into the lives of people, as did Paul (1 Thess. 2:8).
Empowerment includes putting the necessary tools in people's hands and developing the necessary skills to use those tools. The tools may be finances, printed resources, assessment tools, or other types of information. The skills needed might be witness training, vision casting, teambuilding, or strategic planning.
While information is necessary, so is inspiration. Horace Mann once said that trying to teach without inspiring is like trying to hammer on cold steel. Leaders educate but they also inspire.
III. Inspire people for the mission
You can put the tools in people's hands for the mission but they also need the fire. Where does the inspiration come from? How do leaders motivate their people to sell themselves out to the cause of Acts 1:8?
Telling people what they need to do is one thing. However, they must also come to understand why that task is significant and worthwhile. Reggie McNeal tells the story of a janitor at a resort in South Carolina. One of his responsibilities includes polishing the hardwood floors every day, working with a buffing machine. The man in question often refers to himself as "the vice president of floors." Somewhere along the way, a leader has helped him see the significance of what he does. And Reggie adds, "And his floors show it!"
Jesus highlighted the significance of the disciples' ministry when He said, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain [the sins of] any, they are retained." (v.23, HCSB) The verbs forgive and retain are in the perfect tense, indicating that the disciples' declarations reflect what has already taken place. In addition, any is plural, denoting that individuals are not in view but the whole of humanity. Followers of Christ can say with authority that anyone with faith in Christ is forgiven, period.
Missional ministry takes Jesus seriously when He says "any." The gospel offers hope to any person, the moral and the immoral. The soccer mom has no inherent moral advantage over a prostitute. Missional leaders help the church realize that "whosoever" means anyone.
For over twenty years, Dan Rieland served with John Maxwell, one of the foremost leadership gurus in North America. When Maxwell pastured a church in San Diego, Rieland was an intern on his staff. One morning, while John Maxwell stood in the church foyer visiting with a couple of church members, young Dan walked past them all without speaking a word or acknowledging their presence.
Maxwell politely excused himself and followed Reiland to his office. He walked in, while Dan was turning his computer on, and said, "You have thirty seconds to convince me not to fire you right now." Startled, Reiland began to nervously stammer, "Why? What did I do?"
"You walked past me, your boss, and several members of this church and did not speak a word. You did not even acknowledge our existence."
"I know, I know. But I had a lot of work to get done."
John Maxwell paused and spoke some words that Dan Reiland believes changed his life and ministry. The consummate leader simply said, "Your work was out there in that foyer."
Yes, we have work to do. Jesus has given us the Great Commission and Acts 1:8. We must also focus on the people He has called us to partner with in that cause. There are only two things that will last forever, people and God's Word. These are the only things He is going to take off this planet. When we strike a balance between tasks and relationships, we are building on the things that last forever.
Conclusion
What a striking contrast the disciples made! What an advertisement for the power of missional leadership! Before was a group of visionless, lifeless men, locked behind closed doors in search of safety. After was a band of missionaries, whole-heartedly devoted to the task of reaching the world for Christ. Like them, we too are tempted to fearfully seek out security. May God use missional leaders in our midst to create a Great Commission resurgence among us so that the nations might rejoice in Him.