Mission is God's Mission. God's mission was to reveal himself as the
one who loves the world, who involves himself with the world, who
created, sustains, and nurtures the world, and who sent his Son into the
world to save it. A missionary is a sent one. Therefore Jesus Christ was
a missionary. His mission was the cross, and his mission continues
from the cross to us who seek to continue his mission in the world
today. The activity of the redeemed follower of Christ to extend Jesus work
is "missions".
Detlev Shultz in his book called Mission from the Cross says
this - "the title chosen for this study, "mission from the cross",
specifically addresses the scene in John 20:19 to 23 where the risen Lord
appears before his disciples and commissions them with the task to offer
forgiveness or retain sins. Mission is built on a theologia Crucis,
that is, it affirms the cross as the pivotal point of reference from
which flows and to which returns the preaching of the Gospel. While
appearing in his resurrected body the Lord returns to the Cross by
showing the wounds in his hands and side, which were incurred at his
crucifixion. From this unspoken reference to the context of his death
and victory on the cross, Christ extends the merits of the cross to a
broken world by commissioning his disciples. Mission from the Cross
emphasizes this connection between the cross and the movement of the
Gospel in the world."
With that in mind I am going to be preaching on Christ's mission
from the cross and our mission in our weekly Lenten devotional services.
Ash Wednesday will be a regular service with communion and the imposition
of ashes. But on Wednesday, March 12 we will discuss the mission of Christ and
ours as an assertion of God's love.
On March 19 will meditate upon Christ's mission being universal. On
March 26 we will talk about Christ mission and ours as being the
forgiveness of sins. On April 2 Christ mission establishes lordship over
the world and on April 9 Christ's Mission is to end the struggle between two
dominions. On April 17 Maunday Thursday we think about Christ's
mission is an establishment of the means of grace. Those six worship
services will all revolve around concepts from Detlev Schultz "Mission
from the Cross, available at Concordia Publishing House
