In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that he had come to “fin­ish the work” the Father had sent him to do. He prays that his dis­ci­ples all “may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21 TNIV). In John 17 espe­cially, but also in ear­lier chap­ters, Jesus ties his mis­sion to what we might call “the mis­sion of the Trin­ity,” or the mis­sion of God (mis­sio Dei). In Jesus’ mind and action, the Trin­ity, his own mis­sion, and the mis­sion of the dis­ci­ples were all closely related.

Jesus’ Own Mission

Jesus says a lot about his own mis­sion, espe­cially in the Gospel of John. The church often focuses on its own mis­sion before ask­ing: What was Jesus’ mis­sion, and what does that tell us? That ques­tion is impor­tant, since the church’s mis­sion derives from Jesus’ mis­sion and the mis­sion of God.

Through­out Gospel of John, Jesus speaks repeat­edly about being sent by Father to do Father’s will and work; to accom­plish his mis­sion. Over thirty times in John, Jesus speaks of being “sent.” He empha­sizes that his mis­sion derives from the Father’s mis­sion or will. He speaks more of the Father’s agency than of his own––“I am sent” more than “I have come,” for instance—though he does use phrases like “I came” or “I have come” about a dozen times. Jesus is the sent one—sent to do the work God have him to do.

What is Jesus’ mis­sion, accord­ing to John? Com­bin­ing Jesus’ many state­ments (but omit­ting for the moment Jesus’ impor­tant prayer in John 17) yields this com­pos­ite summary:

My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to fin­ish his work. My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am work­ing. The works that the Father has given me to fin­ish tes­tify that the Father has sent me. I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

Three other very promi­nent terms in John relat­ing to Jesus’ mis­sion are “will,” “work,” and “works.” A dozen or so times Jesus speaks of the “work” or “works” of God that he was sent to accom­plish, and sev­eral times of doing the Father’s “will.” Jesus says in John 9:4, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is com­ing when no one can work.”

Else­where in the Gospels Jesus of course says many other things about his mis­sion. Most impor­tantly, he ties his mis­sion to the king­dom of God—preaching the king­dom, telling his dis­ci­ples they should seek first God’s king­dom, and pray­ing, “Your king­dom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven” (Matt 6:10). Key to ful­fill­ing that goal is mak­ing dis­ci­ples among all nations.

In short, the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world to “fin­ish the work” the Father gave him to do (John 4:34; see 5:36, 17:4). For Jesus, “fin­ish­ing the work” meant his sac­ri­fi­cial death on the cross (“It is fin­ished” in John 19:30) and the even­tual total tri­umph of the king­dom of God (“It is done!” in Rev 21:6). The church lives now between that first and sec­ond “It is finished.”

Jesus’ mis­sion, of course, is accom­plished through the pres­ence and agency of the Holy Spirit. It is Trini­tar­ian. Jesus speaks in John of the role the Holy Spirit will play, and many other Scrip­tures reveal the essen­tial role of the Holy Spirit in bring­ing Jesus’ mis­sion to com­ple­tion in the church and in all cre­ation (e.g., Acts 1:8, Romans 8).

The Church’s Mission

What does Jesus’ descrip­tion of his own mis­sion reveal about the mis­sion of the church? Here are four key points:

1. Jesus defines our mis­sion. The church’s mis­sion is not her own; it is Jesus’ mis­sion, and the mis­sion of the Trin­ity. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am send­ing you” (John 20:21). This might be called the Gospel of John ver­sion of the Great Com­mis­sion. Chris­tians are called to God’s mis­sion in the world, liv­ing and walk­ing in the way of Jesus. Jesus said his dis­ci­ples would do the “work” and “works” that he did. In fact, they will do “greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). Jesus was con­cerned above all to do the will and works of him who sent him, not his own. So also with us.
2. Our ulti­mate mis­sion as dis­ci­ples invited to par­tic­i­pate in God’s mis­sion is noth­ing less than the king­dom of God, the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and restora­tion of “all things.” It is that grand and com­pre­hen­sive. Our task as dis­ci­ples and Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ties is to dis­cern our spe­cific and strate­gic part in that larger mis­sion of God. The church as a dis­cern­ing, dis­ci­pling mis­sional com­mu­nity is essen­tial here. We must never lose sight of the big pic­ture and the grand hope, the larger mis­sion within which we find our par­tic­u­lar mission.
3. The power to accom­plish our mis­sion comes from God—from Jesus and the power of his res­ur­rec­tion and from the fill­ing, empow­er­ing, and guid­ance of the Holy Spirit. The power for mis­sion is life in the Trin­ity through Chris­t­ian com­mu­nity. This is what Jesus prays for in John 17.
4. Like Jesus, we are called to serve oth­ers. Faith­ful lead­ers are essen­tial in ful­fill­ing God’s mis­sion. But equally essen­tial is that lead­ers must lead in the way Jesus does, man­i­fest­ing his spirit and char­ac­ter. Chris­t­ian lead­er­ship cer­tainly is more than ser­vant­hood. But it is not less. Philip­pi­ans 2 tells us not only about Jesus but defines our own lead­er­ship. To have the “mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5) is to know and live his mission.

As Jesus’ mis­sional com­mu­nity, the church been given the exquis­ite priv­i­lege and high hon­our of par­tic­i­pat­ing, as Jesus’ ser­vants, friends, and co-​​workers, in the mis­sion of the Tri­une God. We are sent by the Father to be Jesus’ min­is­ters through the work of the Holy Spirit—agents of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and new creation.