LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 89

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5. Bible Study 2
How does the church send out the Gospel “To the Ends
of the Earth”? This is the topic of our Bible study today.
What are the scriptural foundations, and what can we
learn from the earliest missionaries, from Jesus and the
apostles about how to bring Christ to the ends of the earth?
We will consider Word and witness as the means for mission.
In the early Christian church, “church orders” or “church
manuals” were used by missionaries to teach new Christian communities how to live their lives under grace.
Church orders are based on the scriptural call to make disciples by baptizing, teaching, and celebrating the Lord’s
Supper. The Didache, or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, was a primitive church order for missionaries to Jewish communities that contained instructions on how to baptize and celebrate the Lord’s Supper, how to pray and do
works of charity, and how to show hospitality at the table.
It was not a book of techniques in evangelism, but a
portable manual giving pastoral directions to missionaries
on planting Christian communities.
Luke-Acts is not a manual for missions either. Even so,
it tells us a great deal about how the church became the
body of Christ, including some specific pastoral examples
of how Christian communities were created among Jews,
Samaritans, and Gentiles. Acts shows how the Spirit creates the church where Christ dwells by the proclamation of
the Gospel and through miracles that release people from
the bondage of sin, death, and the devil. And where Jesus
is, there is His peace as He and His missionaries are received with hospitality at the table.
But the mission Luke-Acts narrates was not as successful as early Christians hoped. God’s purpose for the world
confronted some hard realities. Rejection and resistance
were major factors in the mission; martyrdom proved to be
a reality throughout the mission; and there was a controversy over mission objectives to Jews and Gentiles.
The resistance and rejection of the Jews was keenly felt
by the church in Acts. Luke is realistic in showing no great
resolution to this dilemma. Today’s church must learn from
the struggles of Jesus and His disciples to be patient and
faithful in the midst of a world that God controls, and to
deal with rejection and resistance without compromising
the content or goal of the mission. For God is in control of
mission. His mission is full of surprises, but God will even
use opposition to the mission to move the mission forward.
The church’s confidence comes from the Lord of the mission,
who gives her strength to survive in a hostile, pluralistic
world.
What are the means for mission in Luke-Acts? Jesus
sends His disciples into all the world to proclaim the good
news of the kingdom of God through Word and witness.
This Bible study will consider three ways in which the
church becomes the body of Christ in the world:
1. Jesus prepares His disciples for mission
2. Jesus gives His disciples the content of the mission
proclamation
3. The disciples continue the pattern for mission in Acts

I. Jesus Prepares His Disciples
for Mission
Luke 9:1–6—The Sending of the Twelve
Preparations for the church’s mission begin in Jesus’
ministry when He sends out the Twelve. He gives the disciples the privilege of participating in the pattern of his
preaching and miracles of healing.
Luke 9:1–2
“And He called the twelve together and gave them power
and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and He
sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal.”
And that is exactly what they do.
Luke 9:6
“And they departed and went through the villages,
preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere.”
By preaching the Gospel and testifying to that preaching
through miracles, the Twelve continue the ministry of the
prophets in the Old Testament and the ministry of Jesus
by announcing that the kingdom of God is present. When
the Twelve return to report everything they had done, Luke
calls them “apostles” (Luke 9:10). For the first time, the
twelve disciples have engaged in apostolic ministry. In the
post-Pentecost church, Jesus’ pattern of preaching confirmed with miracles will be repeated in the apostolic ministry of Word and Sacrament, preaching accompanied by
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus sends the Twelve into a ministry that will leave
them completely dependent on the Lord of the harvest.
They are sent without provisions.
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