From the July 15 sermon “Jesus Unifies His Church,” preached by Pastor Dave Bruskas:
Unity is a gift we receive from Jesus; it’s not a status we achieve. Not only does Jesus model the unity he wants his church to live in, he also makes that unity a reality; he accomplishes it, according to John 17, by being in us. A Christian is united or is one with Jesus, which means we’re united together through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Unity in the church—whether it’s doctrinal, missional, or relational unity—is about our identity in Christ. When we experience the unity that Jesus gives his church, we make a statement to the watching world.
Why We Need to Be Bible People
Listen to me, Mars Hill Church, we love the Bible here. We want you to love the Bible. We want you to study the Bible. We’ve got amazing opportunities for you to study the Bible.
In just a few months we’re hosting our first ever National Resurgence Conference, in October, in a wonderful place, Irvine, California. And the simple theme is because Jesus lives, we live for Jesus.
We want to train you in the Bible. We want you to know the Bible. And this is applicable to you whether you’re a pastor at a Mars Hill church, or you are a stay-at-home mom. We want you to come and we want you to be trained.
We’re going to be rolling out in the next few months, Mars Hill training days. We want to teach you the Bible. We want you to be hungry for the Bible.
We don’t ever want to stop short of the Bible like the Sadducees. And we don’t ever want to go beyond the Bible like the Pharisees. Because we want to live in the doctrinal unity that Jesus has with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. We need to be Bible people.
Don’t Call It “Your” Ministry
There’s one mission, there’s just one mission, and it’s the mission that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are on. To redeem a lost world. To save sinners. To transform sinners into saints, those are set apart for God, those who worship God. You and I may have different roles to play, but it’s his mission; not our mission. The mission belongs to him. There’s one mission at Mars Hill Church.
Jesus says this most clearly to his disciples in Matthew 28. He says, “As you go into the world, go into the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teaching them to obey everything that I’ve taught you.”
So at Mars Hill Church we have one mission, it’s quite honestly the same mission that every church that follows Jesus has. And that is to make disciples, so we want to make disciples because that’s what Jesus told us to do. And we want to start new communities of disciples that we call churches. So we want to make disciples and plant churches.
And you have no ministry, nor do I, apart from the mission of Jesus. If we are going to live out the unity that Jesus wants us to have, then all of us, all of us, all of us without exception are missionaries on mission with Jesus.
