When I think of mission, two things come to mind- the tune to the TV series Mission Impossible,

with this tape will self-destruct in however many seconds and the perhaps now immortal words of Jack

Swigert, from Apollo 13 space mission – Houston, we have a problem, although actually the words he used

were in fact Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here. But I prefer the movie version!

As you will have seen from our reading, the disciples, were being given a mission to do. Mark

clearly records that they are given their instructions look at verses 8 and 9 “Take nothing for the journey

except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. For them

that must have seemed like a mission impossible – take nothing, basically rely totally upon God. For them,

no American style canvassing for money, no contingency fund, no, simply go and as you go, put your

reliance totally on God. And in case they thought it would be easy – Jesus warns them that if any place will

not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against

them. He would not have said that if they were going to be received well every place they went to. But

they and others since then undertook that mission and how different our world would be if the early

disciples had simply said, well, that’s great news for us, but let’s keep it to ourselves? The church has a

mission – to go and make disciples. Where would the church be today if evangelists such as Tyndale, the

Wesley’s, Billy Graham, etc. had not responded to God’s calling to mission. But not all missions are on a

grand scale, some are undertaken by the few, not the many, and our part in the great mission, may not be

to go and preach to thousands in big stadiums, but instead to be Christ where we live.

However, as Jesus warns us when he says if you are not made welcome – pack up and go

elsewhere, mission does not always mean total success – but some success can be found in every mission.

You could not call the Apollo 13 mission a success but within it there is a success story – how the

astronauts, to all intents and purposes doomed to die, were safely brought back to earth. It may have been

many years ago – April 1970 to be precise, but it is a mission that will never be forgotten.

So what about us – and our mission. Well, let’s go back to the PowerPoint. What would you have

thought if after I had shown it if I had simply handed back to Gary? Would you, as I suggest, feel that I had

let you down today? Whether we go to church physically or via zoom we go for three main reasons - to

spend time worshipping God; to share fellowship, and to learn more about God and how we can serve Him

in our lives. If our services did not have all three elements there would be a problem. Preaching and

leading worship – that is ministry – but mission is something further. So what is our mission? Well it hasn’t

changed since the mission recorded in Mark. We are told to go and make disciples, we are being sent out –

just as Jesus sent out the 12. Easy peasy lemon squeezy – no? Well it appears not, as many, like me, find it

incredibly hard to do.

So what stops us? I’ve heard it said more than - who me? Me evangelise – but I’m just an ordinary

person – I’m not a Mike Simm, or a Paul Lilley – I couldn’t possibly go and speak to people about Jesus. Or I

will go and evangelise but only if I am given training. Well, yes training is always useful, and can be given,

but far more important than being trained is looking at the disciples’ example and learning from them –

what did they do? They spent time with Jesus. And then they were sent out. We too need to be in that

position, we need to spend time with Jesus and make Him central to all we do, make Him central to our

lives, make Him the focus of our energies and then, and only then, will we be fully equipped to go out in

His name. But just like with Apollo 13 – our mission may not go as we would expect, it will almost certainly

have its problems, we may look at it and have to say to God – Lord, we have a problem, but we should not

be disheartened, because if serving God there will be successes, we may just need to look in a different

way to discover them.

So this presents us with two questions – who do we go out to, and how do we go out to them,

especially whilst we are locked down?

As to who - well, we don’t have to look at mission as being just overseas – our mission field is here

where we live - in our families, in the streets outside of our doors, to the old and young, the rich and poor.

But when we look we need to look with the eyes of Christ, we need to look with his love and compassion.

We need to look beyond their outer appearance whether that is impressive or otherwise, and instead look

at the heart. We need to be like the twelve and reach out to the community, reach out with His love,

healing in His name, yes, driving out demons if we encounter them, and most certainly preaching, or in

today’s terms, sharing the good news. Every person we meet, irrespective of their social status, or their

wealth, their morals or any other factor, they are our mission field.

Which leads us to the second question, which is how? Churches very often “do ministry”, but

sadly restrict it to being within four walls of their buildings and we do, rightly, have ministries that are

important that take place internally – kids church, the Sunday service to name but two. Becoming a

Christian is the beginning of our journey, to become disciples we need teaching to help us grow, and as the

presentation stated if we weren’t taught by Mike, Jamie, Tracy and others week by week and we were left

to our own devices, it would be so easy to get things wrong and miss out on blessing after blessing. And

other ministries such as Andrea’s superb administration ministry, and those who provide refreshments,

those who set out the school on a Sunday or run this zoom meeting, are all important – but there is a

difference between ministry and mission, and truth is that even though we find it difficult to sometimes fill

these ministries, the reality is that the church in general has more people who are willing to do ministry in

order to keep the church running smoothly, than those who are willing to do mission to help people know

Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. And that has to change. Ministry is important but the mission of

reaching out, otherwise known as evangelism, is vital. And this mission is not only vital – it is urgent. There

is no time to waste, no time to put through committee stages – the harvest in many cases is ready so let us

not waste the time we have.

Each one of us is called to be on the mission team, each one of us has the Holy Spirit within us, to

help us to speak out for God. In Romans 10: 17 we read that “faith comes from hearing the message, and

the message is heard through the word about Christ”. Today the world is full of other beliefs and practices

such as yoga, reiki, mindfulness, new age, Jedi, Buddhism, Islam, agnosticism and atheism and so on and so

forth. Many, if not all, claim to have the answer to life, the universe and everything in it. But we know that

the only truth is in Jesus. We know it, but if we remain silent is it any surprise that the average man or

woman in the street doesn’t know about Jesus being the way the truth and the life – about Him being the

only way, the only truth, the only life?

But look, I know that most, if not all of us, are serious about reaching the lost because in church

and in our private prayers we continuously pray for those of our neighbourhood, our friends and our

families to come in and be saved. We pray for our friends, for our families and even for those we don’t get

on that well with, to come and hear the gospel And we run events to invite them to, all in the hope they

will come and hear about the saving grace of Jesus. But, when we pray for folk to come in I wonder

whether we have the emphasis wrong. Rather than praying them into the church buildings – we should

be perhaps be praying us out of the church buildings. The main focus of our attention and efforts should

be less on getting them in and more on us being sent out. Many churches have giant posters outside

stating that their doors are open to everyone and anyone but, the church needs to do more than that. The

disciples were told to go out into the world to make more disciples from all nations, not to wait for the

world to come to them.

But here we are in lockdown, shouldn’t this address have waited until later in the year – how are

we expected to go out and share the gospel? Well, under normal circumstances we would be out with our

friends, family and neighbours, but actually because we are in lockdown, and because the virus is

constantly in the news we can make a difference today. We can be involved in supporting foodbanks, The

Well, and The Bridge. These services are even more vital today than they have ever been. But not all of us

can be involved there – so what else? Well, we can post positive faith backed views on Facebook and other

social media sites, we have the right to share our Christian views just as much as others who share theirs.

And we can be there for our neighbours, family and friends. We can phone them, skype them, zoom them

and help them, whilst still keeping within the governments guidelines. We can pray for them, we can pray

for their families, we can share the gospel over a chat even if it is 2 metres apart, we can share how God

gives us peace during this strange time. We can tell them that we are caring for them, tell them we are

praying for them and reinforce that we are there for them – at all times. Lockdown does not mean locked

out – God is not locked out of our lives and is only locked out of their lives until they open the door to him.

And should they say its ok for you not to worry about covid19 you’ve got faith, we can answer truthfully,

well actually there are times we do worry, but we also have an inner peace that overcomes that worry,

and you can have the same peace too – it is simply a matter of faith. We can do all that, and more. Yes, we

will meet opposition, but people find it hard to argue against something shared from personal reality. And

often we are the ones to put obstacles in our own way – too often we worry about what people will say

about us, think about us, or even say to us, but we should worry less about that and concentrate more on

what God asks of us. Let us put our reliance, as the disciples were instructed to, on God who is the staff we

must carry with us, and not our possessions, our reputation, or our status.

I would like to finish by telling you a story. I say it not for my self-gratification, but because it took

me by surprise and even now I don’t really know how it happened, apart from being led by God. About a

year before I was made redundant I met up with a colleague from Leicester. We had spoken many times

over the phone as we worked on the same project. We met, because he came to London to hand over his

job to someone else, as later that month he was being made redundant. During lunch, we spoke about

redundancy and I said to him that much as I couldn’t see how my wife and I would manage, we were at

peace about it. He then challenged me with the statement – that’s because you are a Christian. I must

have smiled because he went on so, as a Christian, are you saying that I as a Muslim will not go heaven,

indeed, will go to hell. I was tempted to try and soften my answer – but before I could say anything he said,

tell me bluntly, I want to know. So I did, and I said to him that according to the scriptures, the only way to

the Father is through the Son, and if he didn’t believe then sadly, yes, he was facing hell. I pointed out that

he could choose to follow Christ, and what a joy I had found in following Jesus. And I told him how Christ

died for all mankind. We then both stood silently for a few seconds, and then he said, quietly, thank you – I

need to think about that. I’ll be honest, I’ve never had anyone speak so directly to me and I really wanted

him to give his life to Jesus there and then, but sadly he didn’t, however, the conversation did not break us

– in fact we parted on very good terms, and my prayer is that he and his family will continue think upon

those words. My point is this – it was a difficult conversation, but difficult as it was, and always will be, the

conversation had to take place. His insistence meant I could not stay silent. Today, our mission is not one

of silence, but one where we speak out boldly. The end days are approaching, we know not how far away

they are, but whether the Lord returns in my lifetime, my children’s lifetime, or in a thousand years, He will

return. And until then we have a mission. A mission only we can do, a mission, only we are called to do. A

mission where our commander in chief, Jesus Christ, goes before us. For us it is not a Mission Impossible,

but a Mission very definitely possible. I don’t claim to be prophetic but one of the most significant times of

lockdown, came in the early church – the disciples were hiding in the room afraid to go out, afraid to speak

up for Jesus, but then the Holy Spirit descended upon them and we had Pentecost. My prayer is that this

lockdown will lead to a new Pentecost, but unless you and I speak up and share the truth, who will? Amen