Eyes for Eternity

Luke 6:22- “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Luke 6:23 “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.

Luke 6:26- “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

Jesus said we should be glad when the world attacks us because of our faith in Jesus. Conversely, Jesus said woe to us when we are loved by the world. It’s paradoxical, and yet it’s easily explainable when you see things from Jesus’ perspective. What is His perspective? It’s neatly summed up with a simple phrase: living with eyes for eternity. It means adopting an eternal perspective, recognizing we’re just passing through this life…it’s our next one that truly counts. We want to put everything in this world to work for the sake of the next, including our trials.

Everything that happens to us and around us can be useful to God and to us for the sake of the Kingdom. Therefore, our mission is to respond to life’s twists and turns in ways that maximize our obedience and God’s glory.

The mind for the mission means having eyes for eternity…..

God has commanded that we live with an eternal perspective. If holding an eternal perspective came naturally, He would not need to command it. We choose to continually set our minds on things above. As we develop a habit of setting our minds on eternal things, we begin to handle things differently from those with earth-bound perspectives. As the eternal mindset becomes part of us, other people notice and one day may ask, “How can I, too, gain an eternal perspective on life?”

The mission of the church through God’s wisdom……..

1. The mission of the church is to make disciples. Just before Jesus returned to heaven, He commissioned His disciples this way: “Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you” Matthew 28:19–20. A disciple is a follower, someone who attaches himself to his leader. Therefore, we reason, Jesus sent the church on its mission to acquaint people in every place with Himself. As the church makes disciples, people can admire, worship, trust, follow, and obey Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The church’s members, having become enamored of Jesus Christ, assemble around Him as Master, Leader, Savior, and Friend. Our joyful mission is to put Him on display to every nation.

2. The mission of the church is to glorify Christ. Paul wrote, “In Christ we were also chosen, in order that we might be for the praise of His glory” Ephesians 1:11–12. Part of God’s purpose for the church is to exalt Jesus Christ by the way that the church lives and by what it does. Christ designed His church to represent His supernatural, life-saving work to the world. In His church, Christ shows to the world what a freed and forgiven people can be—people who are satisfied with God as the result of Christ’s joyful, triumphant self-sacrifice. He has planned the church’s values to be His values. He expects its lifestyle to reflect His character, 2nd Corinthians 6:14—7:1; Ephesians 5:23–32; Colossians 1:13, 18; 1 Timothy 3:15.

As the moon reflects the sun, so the church is to reflect the glory of God to a dark world.

3. The mission of the church is to build up the saints. The church is to encourage and comfort its individual members, 1st Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 13:11. “There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other” 1st Corinthians 12:25. Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and the church is likened to a building “joined together and (rising) to become a holy temple in the Lord, and in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit” Ephesians 2:19–22; see also 4:4–25. Jesus Christ designed His Church to showcase God’s family on earth, so that the pagan world can see how God builds His family around Jesus Christ and how that family cares for one another, Mark 3:35 and John 13:35.

The church’s mission is to present Jesus Christ to the world, while He presents to the same world His rescuing work in and through His church.