JESUS’ OPERATIONS ORDER

The Situation Report
Every good commander of troops presents those he leads with an operations order to ensure they know their mission and how to accomplish it. But before the mission is given the troops need to know what they are up against; so he begins by providing the situation, primarily focusing on intelligence concerning the enemy’s tactics in the commander’s area of operation. Jesus presented His disciples such an operations order in Matthew 10 a year before they set out on their mission to make disciples of all nations. He tells them, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves…. Brother will betray brother to death …. All men will hate you because of me” (Mt 10.16-22). Not only is our enemy hunting us, these wolves we encounter dress themselves like sheep and call themselves our brothers.

Paul warned the Ephesians of this exact situation, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20.29). The enemy isn’t only indiscernible from the friendlies, he also looks just like the soldiers fighting him. Though we are sent out like sheep among wolves, we are not sheep sent to be slaughtered. But we will be if we don’t know our enemy’s modus operandi.

The enemy is after those who are “just escaping from those who live in error” as well as those who already have “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior” (2Pt 2.18-20). Their tactics are threefold:
1) To keep us ignorant of truth (Eph 4.14).
2) To keep us happy with what our ears want to hear (2Tim 4.3).
3) To keep us hopeful with empty promises (2Pt 2.1-20).
And if none of those tactics work, they got one left that will send chills down a disciple’s spine: persecution. The situation makes the mission evermore imperative.

The Mission Statement
A soldier without a mission is like a weapon without its ammunition—empty. Therefore, it is the duty of the commander to ensure his followers are always perpetually engaged in the unit’s mission no matter the situation at hand. A disciple’s mission is to “make disciples,” but a year before this command is commissioned, the disciples were trained to engage a specific target. “Jesus sent [them] out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel’” (Mt 10.5, 6).

Because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who could just as easily be lost sheep as wolves in wool, our Lord issues us a command that must be obeyed lest we make disciples of wooly wolves rather than wayward sheep. His mission has become our mission (Mt 15.24) for He made disciples of those who claimed to know God, but were ignorant of His ways. Their mission was His mission because His commission would become theirs.

Paul’s mission was clear because his readers’ situation was perilous: “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away… to a different gospel… [for] there are some who… want to change the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1.6-8). This other gospel tells us studying God’s word is optional, praise to God is our expression of love, or that following Jesus means nothing more than calling yourself by His name. These are those lost sheep that the preachers of this other gospel want to keep ignorant. These sheep are those who follow a gospel that itches their ears. These sheep are those who believe in empty promises. These sheep are the mission of those called to make disciples.

Executing His Orders
Execution orders provide the plan through which the mission is accomplished. In Jesus’ Operation Order the mission is to find the lost sheep of Israel, but who are they are and what do you do with them once they are found? Jesus tells His disciples, “When you enter a town… find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave…. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave” (Mt 10.11-15). The worthy are those who welcome you in like a person greeting a friend, but the unworthy are those who “love father or mother… or son or daughter more than [Jesus].” Jesus continues, “And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10.37-38). The unworthy are those unwilling to sacrifice what they love in order to love Jesus. The unworthy are plentiful; the worthy require finding.

Once Paul found worthy people who were willing to listen to him, he told them, “Walk worthy of God, [who we] constantly thank… because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers. For you brothers became imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus” (1Thes 2.11-14). They were worthy because they received God’s word taught by men as a message—a mission—from God and imitated those who did likewise. How do you know they are worthy? Well, they do as you do.

The apostle John believed so boldly in Jesus’ message, “Whoever listens to you listens to Me” (Luke 10.16), that he told those who imitated him, “Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us” (1John 4.6). You find the worthy by staying with those who will listen. You train the worthy by getting them to follow Jesus as you do.

Our Service, His Support
This paragraph of the Army operation’s order provides the Soldier the means with which he can accomplish his mission. A commander wants his followers to know who’s got their flanks covered and who’s supporting their fight. Jesus first told His disciples whom they should not depend upon: “For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother… and a man’s enemy will be the members of his household” (Mt 10.35). Too often Christians depend upon their families to support their mission of making disciples not realizing that such dependence could be detrimental to their fight.

If I decided not to accomplish Jesus’ mission, my family would not disown me; they would love me as their flesh and blood anyway. If I turned from Jesus my corporeal friends and colleagues would not question my faithlessness; they would like me as a friend and colleague anyway. If our spiritual accountability derives from those whose spiritual growth does not depend upon our friendship, then our accountability will be forever bound to the temporal rather than the eternal. This is why Jesus tells us to use our worldly wealth to make eternal friends (Luke 16.9) and why our title of “friend” ought only to be bestowed upon those who obey His commands (John 15.13, 14).

Our support for our discipleship ministry should come from fellow disciples who are our collaborative partners. Jesus says, “The one who welcomes you welcomes me…. Anyone who welcomes a [disciple] because he is a [disciple] will receive a disciple’s reward” (Mt 10.40-41). Those who support our mission to seek the lost sheep of Israel will receive the same reward as those who reach these lost sheep, because without them, we could not accomplish our mission. God has given us people to serve and people to serve us; so don’t hinder their service lest your efforts only result in self-hindrance.

Chain of Command
The Army operations order ends with a reminder to the troops of who is in charge and how they are to be contacted. In the military, we learn the science of leadership through the practice of obeying orders given to us from those who serve in positions above our “pay grade.” We learn the art of leadership by giving such orders to those who serve “under us.” But we only learn the value and the true meaning of leadership when we serve those who are over us or under us despite the orders which are given us. Jesus says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Mt 20.26), because it is only through service to your neighbor that you truly learn to fear your God.

Personally, I do not believe in altruism. Looking into the darkest recesses of my soul, reading the words of the worst of all sinners (Paul), and listening to the excuses of every Christian I’ve ever met, I cannot fathom a world in need of a savior where but one true altruistic person exists. Therefore, when it comes to doing what is right and true, there is no one person you ought to call your “leader,” because every one of them will fail. Jesus told His disciples, “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10.28).

We may become involved in the mission of seeking the lost sheep because someone told us we should. But if we continue to obey because of man instead of God, we may escape the judgment of man, but we will still face the judgment of God. We obey people because they can reward us. We obey God because it is our duty and we are but unworthy servants who expect nothing but the phrase, “Well done,” in return (Luke 10.17).