One Church One Mission
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on August 2, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
Every organization has to grapple with this question: Why are we here? Do we exist to maintain traditions, provide a service, or gather around a common interest?
The church has to ask it too. Scripture gives us living pictures of the church: a body, brothers and sisters, a family. What does that mean for us as a community?
It means more than occupying the same room, watching, or asking, “What am I receiving?” Those are the questions of an audience. A community participates, joins together, and has a common mission. As a church, we ask, “How are we going to glorify Christ together?”
Acts 13 and 14 give us a living picture of a church that understood this.
Our restoration heritage has emphasized unity: a common pursuit of what we see in Scripture. Is that what is pulsing through our veins? Is that what we are about?
We sometimes think unity is something we must manufacture. But the Spirit is already in the church. Jesus prayed that his people would be one as he and the Father are one. We need to realize that unity as we live the Christian life together.
Every healthy congregation lives in three directions at once: upward toward God, outward toward other people, and inward toward its own growth as disciples.
In Acts 13, the mission’s center shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch. Luke is doing more than recounting Paul’s travels. He shows how the Holy Spirit advances the gospel through a united church. A good description of Acts would be the continuing acts of Jesus through the apostles.
At Antioch, prophets and teachers are ministering to the Lord and fasting. The Holy Spirit says, “Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” They fast, pray, lay hands on them, and send them out.
Before we talk to people about God, we have to talk to God about people. The atmosphere in Antioch is one of worship and attention to God’s direction.
It’s easy as we move forward to latch on to Paul. When I was working on my master’s degree in North Carolina, I used Wake Forest’s Divinity Library. They had whole sections just on Paul. You probably couldn’t read all the books written about him in your lifetime.
But look at where the text puts the emphasis: the Holy Spirit calls them. Paul and Barnabas are partners with God. The mission belongs to him.
These people come from different regions and cultures, with different personalities. Yet they share one Spirit and one mission. Later, Paul addresses people at Corinth who want to identify with the person who baptized them. He reminds them that they sow and water, but God gives the growth.
Before the church speaks to the world, it listens to God. A strong church can welcome the challenges of its age because its direction comes from him. We look upward first.
Then the church looks outward. Sent by the Holy Spirit, Paul and Barnabas travel to Cyprus and preach in the synagogues. Sergius Paulus, a Roman official, wants to hear the word of God. But Elymas, a sorcerer and false prophet, tries to turn him away from the faith.
Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, confronts him. Elymas becomes blind for a time, and the official believes, astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
As they travel through Cyprus, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, they meet different people and different forms of opposition. There is religious and political resistance, spiritual opposition, and physical violence. But it is one gospel, and God’s mission keeps moving forward.
We could look at those conditions and say, “This doesn’t seem like the right time. Let’s wait for a more favorable season.” But there will always be resistance. The church has a calling to take this message outward.
At Pisidian Antioch, Paul speaks in the synagogue. He tells Israel’s story: God’s work through the fathers, Egypt, the wilderness, the kings, and the promise fulfilled in Jesus. The rulers condemned Jesus, but God raised him from the dead. Through him comes forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is the golden thread through that history. Wherever we read in Scripture, we should be able to hear his heartbeat.
The Gentiles hear the message and beg to hear it again the next Sabbath. Why are they moved by a story about Hebrew history? They hear grace. They hear about a true God who made everything, loves them, and wants to forgive them because of who he is.
They want to know more. Paul and Barnabas urge them to continue in the grace of God.
The next Sabbath, the crowds come. Some leaders respond with envy and opposition. Paul and Barnabas explain that God has commanded them to be a light to the Gentiles and carry salvation to the ends of the earth.
This was always part of God’s purpose. Abraham’s family was to bless all the nations. Isaiah spoke of God’s servant bringing justice to the nations, opening blind eyes, and bringing prisoners out of darkness.
What happens when God’s people forget that outward mission? They can stand in the way of the very work they were called to join. God’s goodness is available to everyone, yet some want to keep it for themselves.
I doubt you would hear a congregation say, “We don’t want other people to know the love of Jesus.” But how often do our actions convey that message?
We need to see beyond our own interests and look outward to what God wants to do.
The church also looks inward. In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas return to the places where they have preached. They don’t leave and never come back. They are intensely interested in the disciples’ journey.
Conversion is part of that journey, but discipleship is lifelong formation. It requires nurture and attention. They strengthen the disciples, encourage them to continue in faith, prepare them for hardship, and appoint elders.
They report what God has done, and this part of the story ends where it began: with the church gathered together.
That rhythm continues. We look upward, seeking God, listening, worshiping, and submitting. We take that overflow outward, proclaiming Jesus and serving through hardship. We keep growing inward, encouraging and equipping one another, celebrating together, and forgiving one another.
Despite our best efforts, we sometimes mess up. When you dance with another person, no matter how good you are, sometimes you step on their feet. Learning forgiveness is part of being a community.
If we lose any of these directions, we lose our answer to “Why do we exist?” Without looking to God, we can become a social club. Without looking outward, we become self-focused. Without nurturing disciples, we fail to strengthen the people God has brought together.
The gathered church worships; the scattered church witnesses. The gathered church commissions; the scattered church endures. Then we gather and celebrate again.
We come together to be formed for our mission in the world. When we scatter into different places, we are still united. When the world sees that unity, it sees Christ.
We may not sail to distant shores or have the glorious stories we imagine. But when you are willing to point people to Jesus, you will not believe the stories that will be told when you get to glory.
One church, one mission: point to Jesus and help people become like him.
If you don’t know Jesus, he invites you to make your start with him. He wants to make your life new, bringing wholeness, peace, and eternal love. He has already said yes to you on the cross. He is inviting you to say yes in return.
