The Church of Jesus - Purpose & Mission of the Church (Daily Devotional)

Hello everyone and welcome to Living Supernaturally, the daily devotions by All People's church, where we take a few minutes to spend time in God's word to build our faith up and to live a life that is fruitful in God's kingdom. This week, we are focusing on the theme of the church of Jesus. And today we want to really emphasize the purpose and the mission of the church. Jesus gives us our purpose and the mission of the church in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20, which is very well known as the great commission. It says, ‘Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 things, for I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ This is one of the clearest commandments Jesus gives to us as a church. What is the purpose? What is the mission? I want to focus on five words in this passage. First, He says, "All authority has been given to me." Jesus does not send us on our own strength or on our own authority, He sends us under His authority which covers heaven and earth. So we go in His name, backed by His name, backed by all the power of the kingdom of heaven, backed by all the power of God. This is such an encouragement that the church is really powerful because we receive power from His authority, from the kingdom of heaven. Then He says to go. So, the church is a ‘sent out’ people. The natural posture of the church is not to be sitting or lay passive; it is to go to go into our neighborhoods, our villages, our towns, our nations. And then as we are going, we are going with His authority. And then He says make disciples, that's the third point. This is one of the main commands in this passage. Not just to be people who believe in Jesus but to make disciples, people who are genuinely following Jesus and reproducing His life, His teaching on earth. And then He says to all nations. So, there is no geographical limit, there is no ethnic boundary, no cultural preference. The church's mandate is to cover the entire earth: all the towns, all the villages, all the nations of the earth. And so, we must pray that Lord, build your church in every town, every village, every nation, that is His desire. Then the fifth one, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded. The mission includes thorough teaching that is ongoing. What is this? What does this mean? What teaching? Teaching of God's word, the truth of God's word. Not just bringing people to salvation and leaving them but discipleship is a process of teaching, modeling and growing together. So, five things, first He says all authority has been given to me, then He says to go, to make disciples of all nations and then He says teaching to observe all things that I have commanded. I pray that we will be reminded that as a church we will truly obey and follow what Jesus has mandated for us. Let's pray, Father, we just thank you for this time. We thank you for this reminder of the purpose and the mission of the church and I pray that each one of us as we follow you, as we are part of your church, that we will step up, we will rise up and take our place. So, we just thank you for this time, thank you for this reminder, thank you for this truth, in Jesus’ mighty name we pray, Amen.
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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week's theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week's devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.