Old Testament and Church Today
What does it mean to be a missional church? Our mission… the church’s mission… today should be that of God’s mission. Understanding God’s mission in the old testament and church today are important pieces of discovering what it really means to be a “missional” church.
We see our role described in the words of Isaiah– to be the members of his mission force…
The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.-Isaiah 61:1
Understanding the old testament and church today helps to fill out the mission of the church. Of course Jesus repeats this verse from Isaiah to describe his mission. Look more closely as this concept described in the New Testament:
The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
-2 Corinthians 5:18 - 21
Mark Roberts does a great job of summing up our missional church focus on his blog.
To learn more about what it means to be sent, look more deeply at the redemption mission that was initiated in the old testament and fulfilled in the church today. God has always been seeking man and our exploration of the scheme of redemption that began in the Old Testament can help to strengthen our insights about our role today.
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