The Mission of the Church

1
The Mission of the Church
2
Eschatology and the Mission of the Church

• Eschatology involves us in a Christian philosophy
  of history.
• That philosophy of history means that we must
  carry on the mission of the Church, the
  eschatological announcement of the Good News of
  Gods eschatological (final, eternal) salvation
  in Christ.
• Eschatology means you need to proclaim the Gospel
  to the nations, (Jew and Gentile alike)!
• Rev 2123-26 - 3 And the city has no need of sun
  or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God
  gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By
  its light will the nations walk, and the kings of
  the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and
  its gates will never be shut by day--and there
  will be no night there. 26 They will bring into
  it the glory and the honor of the nations.

3
The New Jerusalem and the Nations

• Cultural and individual diversity is not erased
  in the New Heavens and Earth, it is redeemed from
  the fracturing and division of the curse of
  Babel!
• The mission of the
• the Church finds its
• fulfillment in the New
• Jerusalem.

4
Eschatology and Mission

• If Jewish Christians needed to discover that
  their special role in Gods plan was to lead to
  Gods opening the floodgates of salvation to all
  peoples, how much more should North American
  Christians take to heart Gods transcontinental
  plans for gathering his international family!
  History and our own nearsightedness have chopped
  our view of the church into little pieces,
  randomly sliced apart by mere political
  boundaries. But that fragmented, myopic view of
  the church is too small What would change if,
  for example, North American Christians were to
  ask themselves seriously where in the world the
  Lord could best use the financial resources he
  has temporarily entrusted to us, or the resources
  for biblical and theological study at our
  disposal? Dennis Johnson, The Message of Acts,
  pg. 48.

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Implications of Biblical Eschatology

• Take the message of your resurrected Lord and
  declare it to the world!

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Missions is not theultimate goal of theChurch.
Worship is.Missions exists because worship
doesnt.John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!
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Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of
missions. Its the goal of missions because
inmissions we simply aim to bring the nations
into the whitehot enjoyment of Gods
glory.(Scripture)
8
But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion
for God in worship precedes the offer of God in
preaching. You cant commend what you dont
cherish. Missionaries will never call out, Let
the nations be glad! who cannot say from the
heart, I rejoice in the Lord...I will be glad
and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy
name, O Most High (Ps. 10434, 92).
9
When the flame of worship burns with the heat of
Godstrue worth, the light of missions will
shine to thedarkest peoples on earth.Missions
begins and ends in worship. Missions is not Gods
ultimate goal worship is.
10
The ultimate foundation for our passion to see
God glorified is his own passion to be glorified.
God is central and supreme in his own affections.
There are no rivals for the supremacy of God's
glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater.
He does not disobey the first and great
commandment. With all his heart and soul and
strength and mind he delights in the glory of his
manifold perfections. The most passionate heart
for God in all the universe is God's heart.
11
The deepestreason why our passion for God should
fuel missions isthat God's passion for God fuels
missions. Missions is theoverflow of our delight
in God because missions is theoverflow of
God'sdelight in being God.
12
Missions flows from the fullness of God's passion
for Godand it aims at the participation of the
nations in the verypassion that he has for
himself.Scripture
13
Think about Gods sheer uniqueness compared to
all the other Gods of the nations, and how this
motivates missionsIsaiah 644 ?From of old no
one has heard?or perceived by the ear,?no eye has
seen a God besides you,?who acts for those who
wait for him.
14
Isaiah is stunned that the greatnessof God has
the paradoxical effect that he does not
needpeople to work for him, but rather magnifies
himself byworking for them, if they will
renounce self-reliance and"wait for
him.Scripture
15
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.Scripture
16
The difference between the true God and the gods
of thenations is that the true God carries and
the other gods mustbe carried. God serves, they
must be served. God glorifieshis might by
showing mercy. They glorify theirs by gathering
slaves.
17
A God who cannot be served is a God who can only
be enjoyed. The great sin of the world is not
that the human race has failed to work for God so
as to increase his glory, but that we have failed
to delight in God so as to reflect his glory. For
God's glory is most reflected in us when we are
most delighted in him.
18
Compassion for the lost is a high and beautiful
motive formissionary labor. Without it we lose
the sweet humility ofsharing a treasure we have
freely received. But we have seenthat compassion
for people must not be detached frompassion for
the glory of God.
19
John Dawson, a leader in Youth with a Mission,
writes Have you ever wondered what it feels
like to have a love for the lost? This is a term
we use as part of our Christian jargon. Many
believers search their hearts in condemnation,
looking for the arrival of some feeling of
benevolence that will propel them into bold
evangelism. It will never happen. It is
impossible to love "the lost." You can't feel
deeply for an abstraction or a concept. You would
find it impossible to love deeply an unfamiliar
individual portrayed in a photograph, let alone a
nation or a race or something as vague as "all
lost people."
20
Don't wait for a feeling of love in order to
share Christ with a stranger. You already love
your heavenly Father, and you know that this
stranger is created by Him, but separated from
Him, so take those first steps in evangelism
because you love God. It is not primarily out of
a compassion for humanity that we share our faith
or pray for the lost it is first of all, love
for God.
21
Humanity does not deserve the love of God any
more than you or Ido. We should never be
Christian humanists, taking Jesus to poorsinful
people, reducing Jesus to some kind of product
that will bettertheir lot. People deserve to be
damned, but Jesus, the suffering Lambof God,
deserves the reward of his suffering.
22
Of course, the the motive of compassion and the
motive of zeal for the glory of God are not
separate. God-centered compassion (which is the
only kind that cares for people eternally) weeps
over the the misery of people who reject God's
glory and drink the cup of his wrath.
23
God is calling us above all else to be the kind
of people whose theme and passion is the
supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be
able to rise to the magnificence of the
missionary cause who does not feel the
magnificence of Christ. There will be no big
world vision without a big God. There will be no
passion to draw others into our worship where
there is no passion for worship.
24
God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a
worldwidepurpose of gathering joyful worshipers
for himself fromevery tribe and tongue and
people and nation. He has aninexhaustible
enthusiasm for the supremacy of his nameamong
the nations.
25
The Scope of the Project

• Matthew 2414
• And this gospel of the kingdom will be
  proclaimed throughout the whole world as a
  testimony to all nations, and then the end will
  come.

26
The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North
Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately
between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north
latitude. The 10/40 Window is often called "The
Resistant Belt" and includes the majority of the
world's Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.
The 10/40 Window
27
The 10/40 Window
28

• The original 10/40 Window included only
  countries with at least 50 of their land mass
  within 10 and 40 degrees north latitude. The
  revised 10/40 Window includes several additional
  countries, such as Indonesia, that are close to
  10 or 40 degrees north latitude and have high
  concentrations of unreached peoples.

29

• An estimated 4.43 billion individuals residing
  in approximately 8,808 distinct people groups are
  in the revised 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is
  home to some of the largest unreached people
  groups in the world such as the Shaikh, Yadava,
  Turks, Moroccan Arabs, Pushtun, Jat and Burmese.

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Why the 10/40 Window?

• The 10/40 Window has several important
  considerations first, the historical and
  Biblical significance second, the least
  evangelized countries third, the unreached
  people groups and cities fourth, the dominance
  of three religious blocs fifth, the
  preponderance of the poor sixth, the strongholds
  of Satan within the 10/40 Window.

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Joshua Project

• Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking
  to highlight the ethnic people groups of the
  world with the least followers of Christ.
  Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group
  information is critical for understanding and
  completing the Great Commission. Jesus said in
  Matthew 2414 "This gospel of the kingdom shall
  be preached in the whole world as a testimony to
  all the nations, and then the end will come."
  Jesus directly links His return to the
  fulfillment of the Great Commission. While no one
  knows the date or time of His return, we do know
  that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached
  to all the nations first. Revelation 59 and
  79-10 show that there will be some from every
  tribe, tongue, nation and people before the
  Throne.

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Every tribe, tongue, and nation.
33
The Lordreigns let the earth rejoice let the
many coastlands beglad! (Ps 971).Let the
peoples praise thee, O God let all the peoples
praise thee! Let the nations be glad and singfor
joy! (Ps 673-4).Return
34
John 1511 (ESV)These things I have spoken to
you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be full.Matthew 2521 (ESV)His master said
to him, Well done, good and faithful
servant. You have been faithful over a little I
will set you over much. Enter into the joy of
your master.Return
35
Acts 1725 "God is not served by human hands as
though he needed anything, since he himself gives
to all men life and breath and everything.Mar
k 1045"The Son of man came not to be served but
to serve and to give his life a ransom for
many.Return
36
Isaiah 461-4Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their
idols are on beasts and cattle these things you
carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts. They
stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save
the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
"Hearken to me, 0 house of Jacob, all the remnant
of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me
from your birth, carried from the womb even to
your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will
carry you. I have made, and I will bear I will
carry and will save.Next
37
Matthew 1128-30 ?Come to me, all who labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.Return