Watching Missions

One of the joys of my job is that I regularly have an up-close-and-personal view of missions. This past week has been especially up-close. The week started with what we call our Vision Retreat. This is an event we host several times a year where people seriously interested in missions come for 2 1/2 days and hear about our agency and most importantly from missionaries themselves. I always enjoy this time because I'm encouraged by those seeking God's direction as they pursue missions. And I'm especially encouraged as I listen to various missionaries tell their story. This time I listened to folks serving in the Philippines, England, Africa, Mexico and Czech Republic.

As the week progressed I got to meet a group who were simultaneously involved in a week of orientation as they prepare to go to the field. There were folks heading to places all over the world. It's hard to be discouraged when you see God working to spread His Kingdom.

Today I enjoyed several hours with a local church, assisting them in evaluating and developing their local missions ministry. So I've felt close to all aspects this week, those going, those there, and those sending.

As I opened our time this morning, I reminded this particular missions committee of the Great Commission in the Scriptures. Now when you ask most folks where we see missions in the Scriptures, they typically say things like Matthew 28 and Acts 1 (and several other passages in Acts). They're right. But it's not the only time, or the first time we see God's plan to spread His fame throughout the world, and save men and women from all nations, tribes and tongues.

After Christ's resurrection and before He ascended, Luke gives un an account of a particular meal Jesus had with His disciples that gives us a bigger picture of missions. In Luke 24:44-47 we read,

44Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  (English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

First we see Him point to "everything written about me." The disciples probably didn't get half of it at the time (I'm speculating of course), but we've certainly had more light shed on this throughout the New Testament. But then He opened their minds. I think this was something supernatural. They'd heard Christ's words since His public ministry began, but as we see in the narratives, they seemed to understand very little (even when Peter answered Christ's question that He was the Messiah, Christ pointed out that he had not come up with the answer on his own but had been shown by God). But here the Bible says their minds were opened. Their minds were opened to the Scriptures. What were the Scriptures at that time? Our Old Testament. And what does He say that the Scriptures say? That in the Old Testament we see Christ would suffer and be raised from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. I wonder if He took them to Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53 or other places in the Old Testament?

Maybe he took them to Exodus 19:5-6. "5Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.) Sounds familiar, right? You mostly likely recall where this passage is quoted in the New Testatent in 1 Peter 2:9 . Peter makes a clear connection between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New Testament (that they are one in the same). I'm not sure what Dispensationalists do with this, but it sounds pretty literal to me to understand this connection from this passage alone. But John also uses the phrase "kingdom of priests" in Revelation 1:6 in talking to the Church. But I think it's even clearer in Revelation 5:9-10 where John connects "men from all nations, tribes, and tongues" to this phrase "kingdom of priests." So while through Israel we see the infant stages of missions as we understand it today, it was no less an essential part of God's heart and plan to elect and save men and women from all nations.

While eating that meal, maybe Jesus took them Psalm 22:27-28, or Psalm 67:1-5. Maybe He taught them the story of Jonah where God showed His compassion on a Gentile nation (Jonah 4:11). Or maybe they looked at Isaiah 34:1 or 49:6 where it is written,

6he says:
"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob
   and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." (English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Here we see Israel would come back from exile to be made (once again) a light for the nations. Certainly we understand that they were to be a good example. But it meant more than some understand it, and the way my mom used that phrase as we'd leave for school in the mornings. God's people were to be missionaries. God was moving (and we see this progression beginning in the Garden) through history "that my salvation may reach the end of the earth." In it's infancy, this movement started in Israel, but the movement was the same movement we are a part of today. Missions is a call to go to all nations with the good news that Jesus is Messiah and has come and paid our ransom. It's a call to all nations (including Israel), so that we, God's people, may be a holy nation of royal priests. This is missions. As Peter says, that we may offer up spiritual sacrifices (not real ones as Christ, the ultimate sacrifice, was once and for all). We're priests offering up spiritual sacrifices. We're doing this as a light to the nations, that God's salvation may reach to the end of the earth. We're to go out and call people to faith. It's not a different faith than the OT. It's the same faith. We've got more knowledge to join with that faith (thanks to further revelation in Scripture). But just like Abraham who believed and it was credited to him as righteosness, all who believe are his children. See Galatians 3:6-8. We don't go to nations and say, "believe" but to Israel (or is it Jews, or it Israelis, I'm not sure) and say, "you're different because of your DNA." But those who believe are children of Abraham. And then, in that passage in Galatians, Paul ties together everything, "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.'" So there it is, back in Genesis 12:1-3, we see the Gospel and the announcement of missions. God's plan has been and will always be one people, one Savior, one way of salvation.

As I continue through life and my study of Scripture, it's continually overwhelming to me to see God's grace permeate in not only His love for His people, but His saving us. The consistency of His character (He is immutable) echoes througout history and the story of redemption. His unchanging, convenantal love amazes me!