Battle Drill #39:

Communicate the Mission!

Proverbs 29:18 (NAS95)

This month, I am finishing our 2022 sermon series, “Train to Live on Mission Today: The Battle Drills of a Christian Soldier.” After laying a firm foundation from 2 Timothy 2:1-4 so we can properly understand how the Bible uses the soldier imagery as a metaphor for the Christian life, we have then taken a year-long journey through the book of Proverbs.

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Communicate the Mission!” It is standard military practice to ensure that all soldiers know the mission so that even if they are the last soldier remaining, they can seek to accomplish their unit’s objectives. In fact, leaders communicate the mission of the next two levels of command so that soldiers, when necessary, can take on an even great responsibility to ensure the mission is accomplished. A common military example of this is when a higher-level commander knows that the ultimate purpose of his unit is to gain control of a specific bridge to ensure the army can successfully get across a river. He communicates this mission so that a soldier doesn’t think guarding an intersection on the way to the bridge is the only thing that needs to be done to accomplish the mission. While guarding an intersection is important, and it needs to be done without distraction, it serves the larger purpose of helping the unit seize the bridge so that the general can move his forces into position for what comes next. Every task must work toward the accomplishment of the larger mission! That same is true for the church!

For us to CM, continue the mission, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves to communicate the mission so that we know how what each of us is called to do fits into the larger purposes of God. So, whether you greet people, help collect the offering, hold babies, teach children, work with youth, teach a class, prepare and deliver foods, send cards, help others with practical assistance, provide counseling, make videos, do visitations, care for the facilities, cut grass, fill potholes, keep the books, manage a webpage, send emails, or run a sound board may all that you do be to the glory of God, as Paul said in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

But isn’t that every good father’s desire – to watch their children fulfill the purpose of their lives? John said in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” My brothers and sisters, John wasn’t talking about his spiritual children – the Church, and that is the whole purpose that I as your pastor must train all of us as a congregation to keep communicating the mission to one another and to our youth and our children. Because we will have no greater joy that to hear of one another, our youth, and our children walking in the truth. Yes, that includes you as parents teaching your children in the Way of Jesus because you are the primary disciple-makers of your children. You bear the responsibility, but we, your church family, are your partners in accomplishing this mission. The mission of God that we all must know, not just missionaries and pastors, was given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This is the mission we must keep communicating! We hear Jesus proclaim His great rescue mission in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Then again in Acts 1:7-8 when Jesus spoke of the coming Pentecost:

“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Our battle drill for today comes from Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.” Allow me to show you something that is going to bring today’s teaching together for you – the word “vision” is actually best translated, “revelation.” It is not talking about our plans, but God’s Word! Listen to this short explanation of Proverbs 29:18:

The familiar KJV “where there is no vision” is misleading. The word “vision” is the revelation (ḥāzôn) a prophet receives. Also the KJV translation “the people perish” does not refer to unsaved people dying in sin. The verb pāra‘ means to cast off restraint. So the verse is stating that without God’s Word people abandon themselves to their own sinful ways. On the other hand keeping (obeying) God’s Law (cf. 28:4, 7) brings happiness.^[1]

Or said more plainly, Tony Evans taught it this way:

Without the wisdom God’s Word gives, people are prone to throw off all restraint. This, in fact, is a description of our culture today: people are running into walls and down blind alleys for lack of truth. The remedy to the problem is found in hearing and receiving biblical instruction.^[2]

Interestingly, the Greek word for “truth” in 3 John 4 is used right before today’s proverb in Proverbs 29:14, “If a king judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever.” Talk about a strong position for a king to be in to win the game, better than castling to protect your King in the game of chess is for a king to judge the poor with truth, to stay on mission according to God’s Word. Why is this important? Because if the people don’t know the truth, then they will go astray, throw of restraint, live outside of God’s purposes for their lives and miss out on the many blessings of knowing His Word and living according to it!

We have a lot to learn about ministry in the church from the game of chess. If we are going to communicate the mission through our lives, then we need to know not only the ultimate goal – the King, but we also need to know what we are to do as one the unique pieces on the table, whether a pawn or bishop, a knight or rook, and how we each fit into the strategy of God’s plan. That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

“Where there is no vision” (v. 18) refers to the absence of an open revelation of the word and will of God. It does not necessarily mean that if there are no plans being made, the people will perish. Rather, it calls for prayer, preaching, and consecration, so that God’s plan for life may be known.^[3]

This is exactly how I see my calling. I am going to share with you two Scriptures that undergird my ministry philosophy – how I answer my pastoral calling. The first is from Acts 6:4, which captures the collective voice of “the Twelve” when they were calling forth the deacons of the Church (Greek for “servants”) to do the work of ministry, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” I am convinced that I am, through the Word and prayer, and the ongoing work of the Spirit to consecrate the congregation, that I am not to lead you in trusting our plans or initiatives, but in trusting God’s Word and Spirit to lead us in the mission of God. Therefore I pray, “Lord, please don’t bless our plans, but bless us to be a part of your plans, and to know the difference.” I put no hope in the integrity of my (our) ways, but in the infallibility of God and the inerrancy of His Word – His vision for His people will never perish!

Second, Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11-16 shape my calling as your pastor because they show me how we, each of us, fit into God’s mission purposes for sending Jesus Christ from Heaven to Earth to show us the way to salvation:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

It is a revelation (“vision”) from the Lord which keeps a person and a people in the way. Outside of the way, we perish, we fall, we stumble. What is it we are to bring to one another, to encourage one another, to lift one another up, to equip one another? Is it our own strategic plans filled with mission and vision statements, goals and ambitions, marketing schemes and church growth strategies? No, there can be no worldly or humanistic approach to doing church. Rather, our scripture lesson is clear that it is the vision of God, given to us through the revelation of God, His Son Jesus Christ, as Paul taught us in Colossians 1:13-20:

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

You were blessed to be a blessing! That is what I’m trying to communicate to you and that is what I want your life to communicate to all who know you – you are to communicate the rescue mission! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

We communicate the mission because that is how the mission is accomplished, as revealed to us at the end of all things in Revelation 12:10-11:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (emphasis added)

We CM when we keep the vision of God, His Word, in our hearts and on our tongues, when we meditate day and night on His Word, when we are like trees planted by streams of water, when we are like fruit-bearing branches abiding in the Vine – the One who is the source of the vision, when we find rest for our souls in the easy yoke of Jesus, the Fulfiller of the Law. We have been blessed to a blessing! We have been enlisted to communicate the mission of God!

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 968.

[2] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible, 2019), 743.