Series: Missions
Category: Core Seminars, The Glory of God, The Gospel, Evangelism, International Missions
Detail:
Welcome.
I. Defining Missions:
State: You have found yourself in the CHBC core seminar class on missions this morning.
Ask: But where do we begin to have a Biblical study of the topic of missions? Should we look at the demographics history
All are worthy topics but none are the proper starting place for a truly Biblical view of missions.
Big idea of Class 1: Missions exists to increase the worship of God through the praise of His glory in the hearts of His people.
First, a definition: missions is the church’s God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered task of making disciples and planting churches among all
More briefly
Let’s unpack each element of the definition:
God-glorifying. We’ll spend most of our time on this one today. So here I’ll just mention that one reason missions glorifies God is that God is the one who commands it
In his Word, God charges us to take the gospel to all nations:
Matthew 28:18–20, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age .”
This is Jesus speaking in God’s name, with God’s own authority.
What is the point of missions? To glorify God.
Christ-centered. The person and work of Christ are the primary motive and central content of cross-cultural missions. Romans 15:20, “…and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation. ”
Paul’s driving ambition was to proclaim Christ
What is the essence of missions? To proclaim Christ.
Spirit-empowered. Missions requires us to rely not on ourselves but on God, whose Spirit powers our public witness to Christ .
Matthew 10:19–20, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ”
What are we reliant upon in missions? The work of the Holy Spirit.
Aside: notice the triune, trinitarian opening to our definition of missions: it involves the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Task of making disciples and planting churches. The primary task of missions is evangelism, that is, sharing the gospel with the aim to persuade.
We cannot convert anyone; that’s God the Holy Spirit’s work.
But what we can and must do is announce the gospel and plead with people to repent of their sin and trust in Christ.
Acts 20:20–21, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ .”
And, when people come to faith in Christ, it is God’s will that they be gathered into local churches.
In the New Testament, wherever the apostles brought the gospel, people came to faith, and they gathered into local churches. So missions should always aim at establishing new, healthy, self-sustaining, gospel-spreading churches.
What is the task of missions? To make disciples and plant churches.
But doesn’t CHBC do that here? We helped plant CBC, NCBC, revitalized Del Ray…?
Among all the peoples of the earth. As Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “make disciples of all nations .”
To where or whom should the gospel message go? To all the peoples of the earth.
Specifically, this involves crossing cultural and geographic barriers. The difference between evangelism and missions is that missions involves crossing some cultural or geographic hurdle. Evangelism is sharing the gospel…missions going , trying to push out the frontier of where Christ is named and known. Hence our brief definition: missions is taking the gospel to other places and peoples.
How is missions distinct from disciple-making or church-planting? It involves crossing cultural and/or geographic barriers.
Ok so that’s the definition: [restate ]
missions is the church’s God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered task of making disciples and planting churches among all
More briefly
Questions
How is this definition different from other definitions of missions?
Have you always understood this to be the definition of missions?
Anything you would take out or add?
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In the rest of our time together we’re going to focus on our primary motive for and foundation of missions: to glorify God.
To understand missions, and our proper place in it, we have to start at the fountainhead, the source, the ground of all …in the excellence of the nature and character of God. As in the book of Genesis, so in our passion for missions, “in the beginning – God!”
As the puritan Thomas Watson has said “We glorify God when we are God-admirers.”
The writer Tom Wells puts it especially well in his book “A vision for Missions.” He writes:
Men must know God. That is the one thing they must do. And this can mean nothing less than that God is eminently worthy to be known in all the length and breadth and height and depth of His Character. The Christian is a God-explorer. The Christian vision is the vision of God.
The missionary vision is the vision of God also . It is not
Questions
What does he mean that the missionary vision is the same as the Christian vision?
How can that be?
How does knowing about God and His character motivate us as Christians to share His gospel with others? We focus on the greatness of God – the same foundation for why ALL Christians want to tell others about Him.
II. The Greatness of God
Let’s look at Isaiah, chapter 40. And let’s look at verses 25–26 specifically:
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
Why is a clear understanding of God’s greatness central to the missionary effort? Doesn’t that just seem like a true, but peripheral point when we are talking about missions after all…an activity?
Throughout history, a view of God’s greatness and the commitment that God has revealed to make his name great among the nations, has been the driving force motivating missionaries and helping them to persevere.
The great pioneer missionary William Carey reflected on his arrival in India in 1763, writing:
When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph! (LNBG, 14)
God is good; he has a good plan to gather every person that Jesus died to save. And God is unquestionably sovereign; His plan to save will succeed because His arm is limitless in its power.
Like William Carey, our deep appreciation of those marvelous truths – of how great our God is – provide the foundation we need for both zeal and perseverance in missions.
And why is this important to say this right at the get-go? In class one in this thirteen-week course on missions?
Because many ground the idea of missions in the need of others. They have a man-centric – rather than a God-centric – view of missions.
“We need to reach XX amount of people…we need to share the gospel with this or that group…”
Similarly, sometimes we ground missions in our own sense of calling:
“God has made clear that I am to do this – I have this calling that no one can dispute…WE must go to the nations because if we don’t, who else will??
This is, in my experience, the conventional wisdom of missions that exists throughout Christendom today – and it often makes US US
As Piper said in his book, “Let the Nations be Glad”:
Missions is not a recruitment project for God’s labor force. It is a liberation project from the heavy burdens and hard yokes of other gods.
But where does this passion to tell others of God’s greatness come from? Where does it originate?
Well it first comes from God Himself…and second, it comes from the glory of His grace towards His children.
God is zealous for His own glory
Our passion to broadcast God’s greatness is rooted in His own passion for His own glory. John Piper has written:
The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own
God is great, perfect, and infinite. So He too, in perfect alignment with His character, glorifies Himself perfectly.
As God says in Isaiah 48:9–11,
For my name’s sake I defer my anger;
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.
Harmony with humility.
So…does God’s passion for His glory make him unloving? Does this turn missions into a utilitarian enterprise? Often a consideration of the God-centeredness of missions can make it seem cold. But that stems from a couple of key misunderstandings about who we are and who God is.
God is not an idolator. He is the most excellent and glorious being in the universe, for God to be truthful He must exalt his own glory above all else. And the enjoyment of him is the best and kindest gift he can bestow on his creatures.
The very fact that missions IS
For the glory of His grace towards His children
But how is all this good news for humans? How do we trumpet a message about God’s greatness to a world under God’s just judgment for sin? By understanding the connection between God’s passion for His glory and His grace. Piper writes “the glory God seeks to magnify is supremely the glory of His Mercy.”
The gospel message tells of the surprising us
But instead, He has decided to glorify Himself
Listen to Ephesians 1, verses 5 and 6, and 11 to 14:
In love he predestined us . . . for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. . . . In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Why did God predestine us for adoption? Why did He cause us to hope in Christ? Why did He give us an inheritance? God did all this in order to be glorified. Did you notice how Paul repeats this theme of God’s glory over and over again? The gospel, this message of God’s mercy and grace towards us (and missions) cannot be and must not be separated from God’s desire to glorify Himself.
Let’s again read what Paul writes particularly regarding Christ’s mission on earth, in Romans 15:8–9.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
Christ Himself chose to come to earth and become a servant, even unto death on a cross, “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy” (Rom. 15:9). Christ became poor for our sakes so that we here, members of CHBC, might glorify God for His mercy.
He died on a cross so that not only we, but people around the world would glorify God for His mercy. That
We see this idea also expressed in Christ’s reaction when he saw crowds who did not believe.
Here’s Matthew 9, verses 36 to 38:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Christ’s compassion expressed itself in a call to pray for more missionaries…pastors…and teachers of His Word.
His two passions, glory and mercy, are actually one. They’re united.
Christ makes it clear here that for the harvest to be gathered, that is, for His mercy to be communicated to the crowd, workers must
And so we , through sharing the gospel message, play a part in God’s glorifying of Himself. He does not need us in any way to do this, but God has chosen us that we might be part of this glorious work He is accomplishing by redeeming a people for His Name – for His glory .
You might think, “if God’s glory is so wrapped up with His church, His plan seems so precarious.” After all, the mission to spread the gospel to all the earth hasn’t been completed, even after 2000 years. Does it seem like God has failed in His purposes, or at least planned foolishly?
No! God has not failed. Indeed, as Christians, we believe that God is the only wise God. That means that we believe that He knows and has chosen the best way in which to glorify Himself.
This plan that He has to receive glory from His people is a perfect one; it cannot be improved on nothing can thwart it . God’s wisdom means that he always chooses the best way to accomplish the end he has in view. This is the plan that God knows will most bring glory to Himself.
As Paul writes in Ephesians 3:8–10,
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
God has chosen for His manifold wisdom to be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through His church ! The way in which we live our lives here in DC and the way in which God’s kingdom expands throughout the world both bring God glory. In His infinite wisdom, He has chosen these means of spreading His gospel.
We may feel inadequate for the task or dismayed by the challenge, but God even works through our limitations to show His sufficiency, and thus expand the praise of His glory.
We can therefore see that God has decided to glorify Himself through showing mercy to sinners. And not only that, but this way of glorifying Himself—in calling us to worship Him and also to spread His fame to the nations—is the best way for Him to receive glory. What a great God we serve! He is worthy of all our praise and of our lives.
How do we respond to a great God, who is zealous for His own glory and who is gracious towards His children? We worship Him.
III. The worship of God
Why does missions exist? Why do Christians labor to spread the Gospel message to those who’ve not heard?
Well, in light of what we have just considered, the Biblical answer seems obvious.
According to Scripture, missions exists because God is great and worthy to be known and loved for his infinite excellence. This excellence of God is the ground of missions, and God-exalting worship is the goal of missions.
Many of us might initially say that missions exists because there are so many lost people that God wants to reach with the news of the Gospel. God certainly does long to call His people to repentance and faith.
Luke chapter 14, verses 15-23 tell the parable of the banquet for which God the father wants many to come in and sends out his servants to compel them to come in so that his house will be full.
God does want to reach the lost with the news of the Kingdom. That is certainly true at one level, but it is not the deepest explanation of God’s motivations. If missions is only We
Consider the following passages:
Psalm 67:3–4, “Let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.”
Psalm 96:3, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!”
Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!”
It’s all about God! And worshiping Him to bring Him much glory.
The praise of God’s greatness in the hearts of God’s people is the goal of the world missionary enterprise. Man is not at the center of missions.
Man is not the goal of missions. The enjoyment of God’s greatness is actually the gift to man and the goal of all God-centered missions. But God is the goal. We’ll understand that more as we go along.
How does this idea that the goal or point of missions is the worship of God affect how we send out workers? Or alter how we plan/strategize about reaching the unreached?
Conclusion
So just to re-state:
Missions is the church’s God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered task of making disciples and planting churches among all the peoples of the earth, specifically as this involves crossing cultural and geographic barriers.
More briefly: missions is taking the gospel to other places and peoples.
God’s passion for His glory exults in the joy of His people through their praise for His mercy.
The real power of missions comes as God’s people are caught up in His passion and goal…worship.
Next week, Caleb will go over a biblical theology of missions – how the basis for missions is rooted in the central reality of God’s redemptive mission throughout history.
Let’s pray.
