The Ministry of Jesus and the Mission of the Church

by John Wimber

or a number of years I have reflected on the purpose i . and mission of the church. Hundreds of books have been written on the church as the people of God, the body of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I can't claim to have more than a basic grasp of what God wants today, in and through his church. I'm still learning. Yet, through this article I want to take some modest steps in extending the border of what we do understand about the church as the community of the Messiah, and the implications for the Vineyard movement. When I refer to "church," I normally do not distinguish between the local church and the universal church, made up of all those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In the New Testament, the term has a certain flexibility, since it can refer to a house church, a city church, or the whole people of God. The word church carries with it two aspects: organism, and organization. The church is an organism, because it's a living entity, made up of Spirit-filled believers, related to one another. At the same time, it's an organization, because there is a necessary structure in which Spirit-filled believers exercise the various gifts of the Spirit. The church is both organism and organization; one aspect without the other is incomplete.
God's motives

Nearly every Sunday School child can recite John 3:16; but let's not forget verse 17 as well: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
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God was motivated by love for a human race blinded by sin. God sent his son "to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). In reality, some reject the lightbecause they love the darknesswhile others gladly respond. "I have come into the world" Jesus said, "as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness" (John 12:46). Even more important than his love for humanity, God sent Jesus to increase the praise of his own glory by fulfilling his purpose for his son. As strange as it may sound, God's motives were ultimately self-centered. He was legitimately motivated by his passion to glorify himself. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the...purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:1112; emphasis added)
Jesus' ministry then and now

Before we can discuss the mission of the church, we must start with God's motives for sending Jesus on his mission. God had very simple motives for sending Jesus to the world: a passion for his own glory, and a love for mankind. Let's consider these motives briefly in reverse order.

As an evangelical had been taught to think of Matthew 28:18,19 (the main "Great Commission" text) as almost the most important passage in the New Testament. The resurrected Jesus, claiming all authority in heaven and on earth, sent the apostles to go and make disciples of all

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nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. From Acts 1:8, we discover the extent of this commission: "to the ends of the earth." No one ever argued that the assignment given to the apostles was not binding on every succeeding generation of the church. Unfortunately, many times when I heard preaching or teaching on "the Great Commission" there was the unintended consequence of making me, and others around me, feel guilty for not chalking up enough "decisions for Christ." I brooded for some time over why the traditional Great Commission rhetoric (evangelism as soul-winning only) usually produced more guilt than motivation. Ironically, I had already won hundreds of people to Christ one-on-one. Still, I wondered: could there be more to the mission of the church than just recording decisions?
Program for planet earth

how does this relate to the mission of the Church? Reading from the first few verses of Isaiah 61, Jesus declared he was sent to preach good news to the poor. Not just the economically poor, or spiritually poor, but to the poor in every way. The good news is for those who have been prepared by the Spirit, and who are humble and receptive to the message of hope. "Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" (James 2:5) The church has been called to continue the ministry of Jesus by taking the same message of grace and blessing the good newsto a dying world. "Good news" means eternal life, but that eternal life begins in this life, so the good news must be translated into a "language" that people can understand. For people in impoverished conditions, the good news may translate into food, clothes, help with shelter, and jobs. For people in the middle class, the good news will translate into something else. A friend who is a Roman Catholic priest in El Paso, Texas once said, "You can't preach the good news, and be the bad news." To go to people and say "Jesus loves you!" and do nothing to help change their circumstances is not a complete message. The gospel is entirely sufficient for conversion, but wherever the gospel is preached, God desires to redeem the whole man, not just his soul. History demonstrates that in a given context, as more individuals submit to the kingdom of God, over time the circumstances of individuals, families, tribes, and even nations are enhanced. Preaching the good news is all-encompassing. It's telling people about Jesus, and salvation, but it's also feeding the hungry. It's praying for the sick, and casting out demons. It's ministering to people with a range of emotional problems. All these come under the banner of "good news." In his recent biography of Aimee Semple McPherson, author Daniel Epstein reveals the massive benevolence ministry that was carried out through McPherson's Angelus Temple in Los Angeles during the Depression. Many people think of "Sister Aimee" as the flamboyant evangelist, dogged by scandal. What is not widely known is that during the 1930s, Angelus Temple was the main social welfare agency in Los Angeles. Hundreds of people were fed, clothed, and led to Christ each week.

Meditating on Luke 4:16-21 shed some light on this subject for me. This passage communicates the essence of Jesus' ministry on earth. I think of this as Jesus' messianic manifesto. According to Luke's account, Jesus has returned to his hometown of Nazareth, and as was his custom, he attended the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus stood up to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:16-21).
Jesus knew exactly who he was, why he had come, and what he must do. This passage revolutionized my understanding of Jesus' purpose on earth. Jesus' mission encompassed more than just saving souls. He clearly identified himself as the anointed servant of God, the promised Messiah, the preeminent Prophet for all time (see Heb. 1: 14). What did his "program" for planet earth consist of? And

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The Ministry of Jesus and the Mission of the Church

John Wimber

Some people in the Anaheim Vineyard have dedicated huge amounts of free time to a ministry in northern Mexico. The ministry gives practical training to pastors, missionaries, and students, so they in turn can minister to very real needs in that area like nutritious food, healthy water, and inexpensive means of solar energy. The volunteers are taking the traditional methods of ministryevangelism, equipping, and buildingand combining them with approaches that bless the people of Baja California at their point of felt need.
The favorable year

political, religious, cultural, and demonic. To fully express the love and compassion of God to the community we must address all the needs present: social, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Jesus has come to set those people free and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. He's come to redeem and save them, forgive their sins, take them out of their plight, and set them on a new road leading ultimately to their total redemption and deliverance when Christ's kingdom comes in its fullness.
The ministry of the church

Furthermore, Jesus was sent to "proclaim release to the captive." He came to earth with the power and authority to release people kept in bondage through "every disease," and "every illness" (see Matt. 4:23). Matthew purposely used terms of a general nature, indicating the broad scope of Jesus' ministry, not the narrowness. Thus Jesus brings a measure of release to the gamut of maladies in which people find themselves entangled, whether they be a direct result of human oppression, or demonic oppression. There are many different kinds of prisoners...not all are behind bars. The nearly universal problem of substance addiction enslaves multitudes without regard to income or racial differences. Jesus was sent to bring "recovery of sight to the blind..." Blindness was of course only one of many kinds of diseases that Jesus healed. Citing his messianic credentials to the disciples of John the Baptist, Jesus said, "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor" (Matt 11:5). More universal than physical blindness is blindness of the soul. Paul wrote, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4). Jesus addressed both kinds of blindness, and his church continues to do the same. The Son of God was also sent to "release the oppressed." Christ came to liberate mankind from the penalty of sin, and release individuals from the consequences of sin, and from the oppression of evil spirits. Oppression in the world manifests in many forms: economic, ethnic,

One of the more powerful points Charles Van Engen makes in his thought-provoking book, God's Missionary People, is that "the role of the local church in the world involves the Church in an apostolate received from, guided by, and patterned after the mission of Jesus." The mission of the church is the continuance of the ministry of Jesus. We only have ministry insofar as we've entered into the ministry of Jesus. Jesus made it very clear that he expected his followers to continue the ministry he began after his ascension into heaven. "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). Before that he told his disciples, "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father" (John 14:12-13). What had Jesus been doing? All the things that he outlined in his kingdom manifesto of Luke 4. Matthew 4:23 also chronicles what constituted Jesus' ministry: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then his fame went through all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them. Therefore, we imitate not only Jesus' ministry of preaching, teaching and communication, but also the ministry that comes through works of deliverance, and healing, and pastoral care.

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I've found that when the Great Commission is presented simply as continuing the ministry and mission of Jesuswherever we find ourselvesit's much easier to motivate people. The disciple-making process is far more than just getting people to register decisions for Christ. It starts with decisions, but a decision is to a disciple as a wedding is to a marriage.
Worship and compassion

It took time to understand what compassion ministry entailed. Several years of intense study of the Gospels as a congregation helped clarify God's purpose for us in our context. We've been called by a compassionate God to minister compassion in his name to the world around us. If we're not worshipping God and winning souls, we haven't done the principal thing. Unless we proclaim Jesus in his fullness, and continue his ministry, we haven't done the essential thing to affect the world around us.
Lifetime process

As followers of Jesus we must not forget that our Lord, while on earth, spoke of carrying the gospel to every nation. Christianity must always be a missionary faith. We start with that as a given. But in working it out, this mission and purpose has to be adapted to every new circumstance. We have to define and redefine our purpose in the short-term, in the same way that a family redefines itself as it grows. There are the childbearing years, then the child-rearing years, followed by the child-releasing years, and believe it or not, there's life after the children leave. The family doesn't change in its overall purpose, but it does change in the way it goes about accomplishing its purpose. I pray that Vineyard churches can remain vital as we understand, in Van Engen's words, "the missiological purpose for which they alone exist, the unique culture, people and needs of their context, and the missionary action through which they alone will discover their own nature as God's people in God's world." When I first became involved with the Vineyard we didn't have a name for the work God was doing through us. Later God revealed that his purpose for raising us up could be summed up in two words: "worship" and "compassion." God was calling us to be worshippers of God and rescuers of souls.

The church is never the same from one day to the next, for she is emerging and constantly developing. This process of "building" is that human part all of us play in the "becoming" of our local organism called the church. As we seek to cooperate with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and build a unified, holy, and worshipping community, we are fulfilling our destiny. As a seedling contains in its "being" all the necessary genetic information to become a full grown tree, the local church is also, by its very nature, what it is becoming. Becoming all God wants the church to be is a lifetime process, but therein lies the excitement of serving a living God. The Vineyard, as a worldwide movement of local churches, cooperates with the Holy Spirit, building as much of the church as we understand. As we grow and mature in our love for the Lord, his Word, and his people, we are changing. We are "on the way" to understanding God's purposes for us, even as we obey what we already understand.

John Wimber is International Director of the Association of Vineyard Churches and the author of numerous books, including Living With Uncertainty, Kingdom Evangelism, and Prayer: Intimate Communication With God, all published by VMI.

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