Midnight Thoughts on Missions

I seldom flip open my computer after midnight to write and publish in the same sitting. However, when those occasions come where something is pressing on my mind I role with it.

This post is really the convergence of two things in my life at the moment:

1. If you have been tracking with this blog over recent weeks you know I have given attention to the subject of “end times” or “last days” or eschatology. This post is not totally divorced from it.
2. I have been asked to visit my previous church where I studied and trained to enter the ministry. I have been asked to preach with regards to evangelism, missions, discipleship, etc.

The Goal of Missions

Tonight I began to think on these things as I continued to read through Revelation for personal encouragement. There in Revelation we read:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!…Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Revelation 7:9-10, 12

This is one of the heavenly visions granted to the Apostle John by our Lord Jesus. It is a wonderful seen of worship and praise unlike you or I have ever experienced. No matter how reverent the service or abundantly joyous the songs anything this side of eternity will fall short. This worship is pure, and heavenly in the truest sense of the word. And this scene comes at the end, following the last day, upon the completion of every eschatological event. Heaven erupts with praise.

This is the end goal of God’s plan: the worship of his great and holy name. The teaching of the Bible as regards events of eschatology (last things) are but the final pieces in the puzzle of God’s great plan to bring all things to their great purpose: his glory.

“Q. – What is the chief end of man?”

“A. – Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q.1)

So the end goal and result will be the worship and honor of God (Rev. 4:8, 11; 5:9-10, 12-14). Yet that final end is preceded by the bodily return of Christ to earth, the resurrection of the dead, judgement of righteous and wicked, and the New Creation in which God and man dwell as the saints adore their Savior for age upon age without end.

But what about in between now and then? What fills in the gap between Jesus going up to heaven and his return, or to put it more personally: what happens from now, 2020, and Jesus’ return? Does life just go on from one event to another just waiting for Jesus to break open the clouds and return? Do the lives we live have any connection to that final day or is it just work, play, and die?

The Role of Missions

And the answer, praise God, is that our lives as born again men and women, followers of Christ, Spirit indwell saints is not disjointed from Christ’ return whether we see it ourselves or not. That is why missions is commanded and exemplified throughout the Bible. God in his sovereign kindness brings us in as a part of completing his work of redemption in this world.

Allow me to give three points of reference.

• Adam’s Mission and Call. Adam was not just created and given the good life with no responsibility or purpose. He was given commands: Be Fruitful. Multiply. Fill the Earth and Subdue it. Have Dominion. That is the order given humanity in Genesis 1. Then in Genesis two we read: “The Lord God…put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Mankind has always had a mission in this world. To summarize without getting long winded: From the garden in Eden it has been man’s duty to fill the earth with other humans (procreation; evangelism) who worship God.
• Abraham’s Mission and Call. As Genesis carries on we come to a very distinctive break in the book at the beginning of Genesis 12. There we meet a man named Abram. God says to him, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Once again at a key starting point in scripture we find a man put on a mission by God. The apostle Paul would tell us in Galatians 3&4 how this in essence is a pointer to Jesus who would bring the greatest of blessing into the world. Abraham and his descendants had a role to play in the plan of God. Even then God’s plan was working toward an end: the worship of his greatness displayed in the salvation of Jesus.
• Jesus’ Mission and Command. Once the earthly work was completed by The Man, our Savior, he prepared to return to Heaven. His final act before going was to give these very familiar words:  “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.” Where Adam and Abraham and all men had failed The Man had accomplished his mission. The dominion Adam was meant to exercise had been fulfilled by Christ. The blessing of Abraham, according to Paul, came through Jesus. We could look to other fulfillments of Christ but what is important is to see that he is The Man who by his obedient life and death received “all authority in heaven and on earth…”

Christ and Missions

Now he sends his disciples, and his disciples’ disciples, and you, and me, and everyone born again from now until his return, he sends us to continue his victory. That is what missions is at its heart. It is the continuation of the victory Christ has won in his death and resurrection. Missions is going and proclaiming God’s kingdom. We proclaim God’s kingdom begun because God has established his kingdom with the arrival of his Son 2,000 years ago (Psalm 2:4-6).

Missions is the believer going to his neighbor with the news of what Jesus has done at the cross, telling them how he forgives, and calling them to repentance and faith. The believer does the work of missions in continuation with the first command given to man in the garden of Eden:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…”

Genesis 1:28

Every convert is one more rebellious soul subdued in reverence to Christ. Each time a man, woman, or child confesses faith and trust in Christ it is a display of The True Man’s dominion over all opposition. Every person who is evangelized resulting in faith and repentance is one more soul prepared to be resurrected one day, and judged to be righteous and an heir of eternal life.

My brother and sister, we have much work, much worthy work to do at home, in our community, and yes, around the world. You can read blogs and books. you can listen to sermons and studies about “end times”…or you can live it.

Let us always praise God that he has shown mercy to our souls and brought us to the Savior. Yet, let us consider: Who have we brought with us…who are we trying to prepare now, today? Who are you leading to worship God. Let me share a gospel passage from Revelation…I opened with Revelation and I think I will close with it.

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel…And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Revelation 14:6-7

My friends we must remember that a part of the gospel is calling men and women to fear God, to give him glory, to worship him. We call people to that in the now because that is all that will matter in the then.

One day Christ will come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels and all the worship due to him who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb will become the eternal reality. There in will be the saints joy. Yet, as of today what are you doing to join in the mission of God’s people as the day of Jesus’ return get’s closer?

Application:

Read Your Bible:

1. A joyless Christian is a powerless Christian. It is by regular time in the word for personal encouragement by the gospel that our joy is full (1 John 1:1-4). It is from joy that a healthy desire for obedience flows. In light of the grace shown us and the greatness of our Savior as seen in the gospel we will be propelled by joy to faithful service to our king. Read your Bible.
2. Read the Bible and KNOW the gospel. To evangelize and be intentionally on mission does not require a head full of answers to other peoples objections. Primarily the gospel is telling others what God has accomplished through Jesus for his glory and our hope. If you can do that you can effectively take part in the mission God has given us. Read your Bible and KNOW the gospel.
3. Read the Bible to Counsel Others Well. You may not know this but you and I counsel others every day…and we are counseled. This is what I mean. When we have conversations the following happens: you take in information, process it, and interpret it. That three fold process impacts you in great and small ways, for good or bad. We have conversations all day, every day. In each of those we are to varying degrees giving counsel. We should take time each morning to prepare ourselves to engage others. I once heard it said that a pastor will spend 15 hours a week to preach for 45 minutes. In light of that how are we preparing in the morning for all the hours of counsel we will give in that day. Let us read the Bible, know the gospel, and speak that truth with the love of Christ for that day.