Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)  

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!”  I cried.  “I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I.  Send me!”

John 17:13-19 (NIV)

¹³ “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.  ¹⁴ 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.  ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶ They are not of the world even as I am not of it. 
¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

The word ‘sent’ in this passage is the Latin word for mission.

Jesus says that He has been on a mission, and anyone who wishes to be associated with Him is also on a mission.

Jesus says, “I have revealed to you”, meaning, I was sent to show you.  Show us what?  God.

Jesus came to show us God, but also, He came to bring truth for a reason.  And what reason?  “I sanctified myself that they may be truly sanctified.”  (Holy.)  Jesus came to show and to save.

Christians are wanting others to know Jesus, because God can’t change anyone, but Jesus can, the Holy Spirit can.

People who love Jesus, who have been helped by Jesus want to talk about Jesus.  This is natural, that is the mission.

You love Jesus, and He is the truth; He has loved and power for people in your life, it is natural to want to tell folks about that.

You become missionaries when love for people and truth is coursing through your veins – mission time.  It is intense because you love someone who is in danger, that is intense.

Christians cannot avoid being missionaries.

Jesus offers not just a drink of water, but plants the whole well in your soul.

The result of the mission and the power for missions and the requirement for mission:

1.      The result of missions is joy.  Vs 13

2.      I have completed the work you gave me.  Vs 4

3.      I have revealed your name.  Vs 6

4.      I’m coming to you; I’m going to die.  Vs 13

5.      I say these things so that they may have my joy.  Vs 13

Because we took God’s spirit in our lives, He graciously, in order to set things right, took our spot on the Cross.

Hebrews 12:2, 3  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In verse 13 Jesus says these things… Which things?  His mission.

Jesus has been telling the disciples about His mission so that they might have that joy.

Humans need a mission.  Joy comes from having a mission.  We find purpose in mission, we find friendships.  Something bigger to be working on people wanting to sacrifice for a larger mission, we want our lives to stand for something.

No kid aspires to work in our offices; they aspire to help people, to change the world, to make it a better place.

When the individual’s happiness philosophy is the most important thing in life, this will destroy the mission, because there is no sacrifice or nothing bigger than happiness.  There is no higher value than my happiness, than there is nothing to die for and nothing to live for, there is no mission in life.

We begin to live for comfort, and the result is we no longer impact the world, change the world or even want to.  We have lost our mission.  And by exaggerating our importance, we actually lose our significance.

When society bought into the idea of my (need first), we gained freedom and lost our mission and joy.

We are shaped by Jesus; we reflect His purpose in our lives.  God came down and died for us, and wants us to be part of His family, which was the same purpose as Jesus – to help people know God.  We want to love Him (Jesus) and serve Him (Jesus).

We are co-laborers with Christ, and part of the promise is that when we work with Christ, we get to see people’s lives change.

Mission is needed for joy, and it is painful to watch so many people these days searching for themselves in the wrong places.

When we lose ourselves, because of Christ, we find ourselves in Christ.  Everyone who is called to Christ is also sent out with a message, a hope, a love for others.

When the 70 went out, they went out vulnerable.  They, like us, would need to get out of their comfort zone to enable them to receive blessings and joy.  The disciples and us need the people we have been sent out to supply our needs.

The requirements needed for the mission.  We are to go into the world the same as Jesus.  So, how was that?  Mighty in word and deed.  (Luke 24:19)

What is something holding us back?  What requirement needs to be considered?  Our personal holiness.

Verse 17 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”  Verse 19 I’m out to make them holy.  And in verse 18 in the middle, (the meat of the sandwich) “I send them out into the world” in mission.

We are supposed to be holy, like Christ.  Have His courage and His gentleness, His character and His fearlessness, His humility and compassion.

We are to become sanctified and grow in holiness.  We are to grow in holiness in the knowledge and love of God because that is what is called for if the world is to be helped.  “For the world’s sake, I want you holy.”

When the 11 disciples were sent out, they had no training and no resources, but they had one thing and that was holiness.

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.  Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.  ~Viktor E. Frankl

The people that come to Christ want to see the holiness of God in your life.  How you respond to tragedy, people harming you, financial setbacks and even illness and death.  They want to see your joy in Christ, in what Christ has done for you.

Until you take on your mission as the core of your life and pursue holiness in order to be the missionary God has called you to be, you need to ask yourself, where are you right now?

God bless, begin your mission this week, come and talk to me about the mission, we can pray about your mission, our mission.  Have a good week.