Missions throughout the Bible

What I'm doing this morning is a bit of a survey our thing here as we reached forward. If you remember, our theme is mission, and our theme is advancing the Gospel to all peoples in all places. This is the mission of the Church, advancing the Gospel to all people in all places. In our second session, every day, we're going to look at the doctrines of grace, that idea of remaining faithful holding back to those doctrines of grace. And it's quite interesting that we bring these two things together because oftentimes, as we've spoken of before, this is the charge or the accusation against reformed doctrine, is that somehow there is a contrast, a contradiction, or a chasm between the idea of holding to the doctrines of grace and the idea of pursuing passionately the mission of advancing the Gospel to all peoples. And so it's my prayer that these things will be brought together for us as we consider them each day. As I said this morning, my goal is to give us an overview. Oftentimes when we think about missions, or if you say missions, we believe that the idea of missions begins in the Bible and the Great Commission. Most Christians, if you ask them about missions, that's what they think. They think that all of a sudden, there were this brand new idea that Jesus came up with after the Resurrection, and that new idea was the Great Commission, and that basically in the Great Commission, Jesus says, guys, we're going to change and now we're gonna go on and we're gonna try to reach the world, as though in the Old Testament it will all about Israel. You know, Israel basically having that attitude is if us for no more shut the door. Okay, that's what we believed, that that was Israel's idea, or that that was God's idea for Israel, that it would just be God choosing his people election predestination, and that the elect of God would just sit there and be the elect of God, and that they would not have outreach or impact. However, a careful reading of the Old Testament will give us a very different understanding. Why don't we see missions in the Old Testament? Well, first, our fixation on the Great Commission. We're fixated on the Great Commission as the only place I did just the epicenter of our mission, but the only place that we could find idea of our mission our lack of familiarity with the Old Testament, and also to some extent, a distansational bias that has a radical distinction and departure and lack of continuity between the Old Testament and Israel, and the New Testament and the Church that sees a radical departure between the two, a radical departure between God's plans for the two, that sees two distinct plans for two distinct peoples. This is an ideology to which we have in large part been exposed and by which we have in large part been influenced. Two things, the great clue. There's a great clup in Matthew twenty three fifteen. And again you might want to just write these down. My advice would be to write these passages down as we go through them and then look them up later, because we're going to be in quite a good, quite a number of places, and it actually might be a great benefit to not have the slides, because with the slides you have a tendency to sit there and watch them and not write these things down. But I want you to write these things down because we need to be aware of this. Matthew twenty three, fifteen, woe do you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of Hell as yourselves. Here's the question, where would these legalistic letter of the law, we're the people of God and you're not pharisees, get the idea of crossing the sea to go make a convert. Yeah, we're wondering about because again we think the idea of missions is just this New Testament idea. It's a radical idea that Jesus came up with after his crucifixion and then resurrection. He says, hey, we're gonna do a new thing. We're gonna go and make converts of all people. But yet here in Matthew twenty three, you remember the Great Commission is in thatte twenty eight. Here in Matthew twenty three, he's talking to the Pharisees, and they are so zealous about converts that they'll cross the seed in order to make converts. There was a group of people, these these proselyites, these converted Jews, these people who were gentiles who converted to Judaism. How did that happen? How did you have gentiles converting to Judaism? If the Jews were just hiding their message under a bushel us for no more shut the door unless they had a vigorous missionary mindset, which they did. Why because they read the Old Testament, That's why. And if you read the Old Testament you will see a vigorous missionary mindset. First, this is part of the dominion mandag Genesis one twenty eight. God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiplied, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. This is not just about them having children. In order for this to happen, they're going to have to communicate something to their children. Every generation that's born is have to be told from the previous generation who God is, why he made the world, why he made man, and what man's mission is in the world. Because of who God is and because of what God has done. This is the same mindset when we get to the Abrahamic covenant Genesis chapter twelve. I want you to turn there, Jenesis chapter twelve. Genesis chapter twelve. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house, to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name greater, 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. That's missions God did not call Abraham so that one particular line, one particular family, and one particular nation could be blessed. Of God. His gold from the beginning, even in establishing his covenant with Israel, was to bless all the nations. That means gentiles were not secondary to God's plan. Gentiles were in God's plan from the beginning, contrary to the popular idea that Jesus came to offer the kingdom to Jews, and if they had accepted it that would have been in but they didn't. Therefore, the gentiles got a chance. Now we're in the gentile age, and this parenthetical period, and his parenthetical period is going to end. Then this is going to be this great rapture. God's going to go back finish when he started with the Jews. See this is the differensational idea. This passage of scripture explodes that myth Gentiles were never an afterthought. They were never an afterthought. It was always in the mind of God, always in the heart of God, and always in the heart of God's truth people, that the message would go beyond Israel and the Israelites. The purpose of the plagues as move forward to Exodus. In Exodus chapter nine, verses fourteen to sixteen, beginning of verse fourteen, for this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your service and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pescilis, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up. Why did he raise up Pharaoh? For what purpose was Pharaoh raised up? Why was Pharaoh's heart heartened? Why did God hearten Pharaoh's heart? But for this purpose, I've raised you up to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. That mission God dealt with Pharaoh, the way he dealt with Pharaoh, so that the Gospel would go forth to all the earth, so that the message of Israel and Israel's God would not be kept with Israel, but that it would go forth to all the earth. That's why God takes on the most powerful man in the entire world and brings him to nothing, so that the word can go forth. How about Israel among the nations. Go ahead just a little bit to Deuteronomy twenty eight, Kien, and all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by my name, sorry by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you, so that all the people will see one Samuel seventeen forty six. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. This is that little boy named David. You remember him, Remember that little boy named David. They God man to be the Lion. Remember them. And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. What did David want? David didn't just want for the Philistines to be defeated. David didn't want for this land to belong to Israel. David attitude was not us Lord, no more shut the door. David's attitude was I'm gonna whip you today, and I'm gonna do it in such a way and towards such an end that people will hear about what happened. And when they hear about what happened, it won't be so that they will know that there's a little guy named David in Israel, but that they will know that there is a God in Israel. This is missions Israel's worship, First Chronicles, sixteen thirty one. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations the Lord rings. Let them say among the nations, that's the gentile nations people. The goal and the delight of the jew was that the gentile nations would know and join in proclaiming that there is a God in Israel. Temple worship, second Chronicle, six thirty two and thirty three. Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country, for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstressed arm, when he comes and prays toward this house here from heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. This was the purpose of the temple. The purpose of the temple was not just so that God could dwell the people of Israel. See, you have this tabernacle that follows the people around, and it's in the center of the people. The message of the tabernacle is that we're the people of God, and He is in the midst of us. They established this temple, and the message is still that we're the people of God and God is in the midst of us. But the message is everyone come and meet his God. And so in the prayer of dedication of the temple, the prayer was not simply us, for no more shut the door. The prayer was when the foreigner comes, and when the foreigner worships here, blessed the foreigner, so that when he goes back to his people, he will tell his people about the God that he met here in the temple, and that the name of God would spread abroad throughout the earth. This is missions Amen. The Messianic sums some two getting our seven. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise be warned, O rulers of the earth. The Father gives the son, not Israel. The Father gives the son the nations. Amen. This is the covenant of redemption, the covenant of redemption between the Father and the son. Before there was time, the covenant of redemption between the Father and the son was not I'm going to give you one particular ethnic group, but that it would be eight people for God's glory, from every nation and tongue and childred and tribe Psalm twenty two, Verse twenty seven and twenty eight. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of nations shall worship before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Again, here's the idea of the gentile nations worshiping before God. This is missions. So even as Israel gathered together and sang their songs, remember the Psalms. This is the Psalm book of the people of Israel. As the people of Israel God together and sang their songs, they reminded one another in song, again and again and again. God's plan is beyond us. God's playing this bigger than us. God has called us for a purpose, and that purpose is that the nations might be blessed and the nations might know God. This is missions. This is mission mindedness, Divine Declaration, Psalm forty six ten. Be still and know that I Am God. We know that, right. We usually stop right there, be still and know that I am God. That's good, hey man, Sometimes we need to do that, right, Just be still, be still and know that I'm God. But when you take the time to be still at the end of your being still, please don't miss the rest of the verse. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. There's the guarantee of the success of missions. God says I will be exalted among the nations. It is going to happen. We don't go forth in our missions hoping that maybe somehow we can be good enough, we can be smart enough, we can be innovative enough to maybe maybe convince them. No, we're going forth and guarantee victory. We're going forth in the name of the God who says I will be exalted among the nations. And so we go and we preach the gospel, and people reject the gospel, and we go preach the gospels of war, and people ask us, why is it that you're not discourbaged. You're preaching the gospel and these people are not responding. Because I serve the God who says I will be exalted among the nations. You just sit back and watch God. This is mission mindedness. This is who God is, and this is who God's people have always been. The Psalmist desire listen to this in Psalm seventy two, the verse eight, may he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies licked the dust. I don't know why. I don't know why with it. Maybe there's something wrong with me. But see Versus by Christ. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. I love passages like this, passages. What's all this? May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. This is God's dominion. This is god dominions that spreads across the entire earth. Amen, that's what we all desire. Right. May desert tribes bow down before him, that's just good, the remotest people in the world, desert tribes. May desert tribes go down before him. That means everywhere. Amen, from sea to shining sea, and desert tribes by down before him. But then there's the peace that we forget and get enemies lick to God. We forget the test part of the mission as well. You see, here's what we think. This is how we've been conditioned to believe. If we go and we've preached the Gospel and people come to faith, then we've been successful in our mission. But if we go and we preached the Gospel, and people remain in their rebeyon against God. We've failed. Uh uh uh. Listen. God will be glorified not only by the salvation of sinners, but also by the punishment of the wicked. Amen. God is glorified and the punishment of the wicked. Listen. When you are in glory and you realize that there are people who've gone to hell, you will not be sad. Amen. I know we can't understand that right now. By the way, if you're not sad, now you have a problem. Amen, we won't be sad. And then now we're sad. If you're the type of person when a sinner dies and you just stand over him and go, well, they went to hell, good for them. We need talk, amen. But in eternity and the presence of Almighty God, when his wrath is poured out against the wicked, it will not be a sad thing for us. The psalmist continues. May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Notice this. Notice that there's no there's no idea here of there being a contradiction between God on the one hand, being the God of Israel and on the other hand, being the God who is pursuing all the nations. He is the God of Israel, and as the God of Israel, he is pursuing his fame among all the nations. Amen. Blessed be his glorious name. Forever, may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen. Prayers of David the son of Jesse are ending. It's just good. There's the idea. Here's the idea, the prophet's vision. So you know, we've seen in the Law, we've seen in the wisdom literature. Then a us look in the prophets. Certainly the prophets are just gloom and doom. Right, Certainly the prophets don't have a missionary mindset. We certainly we won't find that. Certainly we won't find in the past and the prophets a passion for people to come to know God. Right, I mean the passion that the prophets they're just about people giving what they deserve. Right, wrong, Isaiah said the two verse three and many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go to law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You see, in a lot of ways, what the prophets were doing was calling Israel back to their mission. In many ways, what the prophets are doing is bringing judgment upon Israel because they've forgotten who they are and whose they are. They've forgotten why they exist. Israel has become comfortable. Israel has begun to reflect the nations instead of evangelizing the nations. And that's the problem. Instead of the nations being evangelized by Israel, and instead of the nations receiving the law from Israel, Israel begins to accommodate and assimilate that which they find in the nations. This is in a large part problem that the prophets or that God has with the people, and that the prophets communicate to them Idah twenty four to sixteen. From the ends of the earth, we hear songs of phrase of glory to the righteous one again from the ends of the earth Isaiah sixteen, verse three. And nations shall come to your life and kings to the brightness of your rising, Amen, Jeremiah three seventeen. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it. So the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil hearts. Amen. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Jeremiah sixteen nineteen. Oh Lord, my strength and my strongholds, my refuge in the day of trouble. To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say, our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no prophet. Is the idea of people rejecting the lies that they have been sold for generations and coming to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Micah chapter four, verse two. And many nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For our descience. Shall both the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem again Michael, chapter five and verse four. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure. For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth Tobacco two fourteen. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. As the waters cover the sea. Again, this is everywhere, as the waters cover the sea. This is the guarantee of the success of our mission. Zephini two eleven. The Lord will be awesome against them, for he will stamish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down each in its place, all the lands of the nations zachariax who eleven. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. We read that again. Let me read that again. Okay, many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, and shall be my people. The idea for Israel in their mission was not that we are Israel, and we're the people of God, and so here we are at the center and the core of everything that is godly, and we invite other people to come consider around and watch us be God's people. This is what we saw last night in the Sesus two, that God has made the two into one. God does not have two mistac people. He does not have to the saint plan. He has always had and continues to only have and will always have, one people, one people, one people. This is why the church is called the Israel of God. We are grafted in to Israel. And again, for those who sit and continue to speak blasphemous lies against us, to those who slander us, let me say this as clearly as I can. The idea of replacement theology is not reformed theology. We don't replace Israel. We are Israel. Israel is the Church, and the Church is Israel. The idea of replacement theology is repugnant to us. God hasn't changed his mind. We see right that it was always God's plan that his people would include Jew and gentile. We're drafting in. We're one amend does God is God is not Jacob. God doesn't pick favorites among his children. Amen, somebody. It's not as though when we get to heaven, you know who God is going to be saying, oh, oh, a wonderful Jewish babies to be here talking to much. We loved him. Oh I love jul No, absolutely not. I am a descendant of Abraham according to faith. Amen, And that will dwell in your midst And you shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sin me to you Malachi one to eleven. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place instants will be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. Folks, from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end, over and over and over and over and over again we see this idea of missions. Let us never again succumb to this faulty idea. And by the way, this is just a fraction of the passages that we could have looked at. I wanted to give you a sampling from all the different types of literature in the Old Testament, but this is just a sampling. And if you read the Old Testament with your eyes open to this idea, you will see again and again and again that Matthew twenty eight and the Great Commission is not a new concept, but it is actually Jesus reaffirming the mission that has existed from the beginning. It's always existed. This is why in the New Testament the Apostles were so excited about seeing the Gentiles come to faith, because this was the fulfillment of the promise that God has made to its people Israel. This was exciting. What he had been said, all alone was coming to pass. You and I are fulfillments of this promise. Think about this. Thousands of years ago, thousands of years ago, three four thousand years ago, Jewish people sang songs, and in their songs they cried out to God, believing and hoping that one day this would be true. Got me think about that for a moment, believing and hoping that one day this right here would be true. That what started with a small, ragtag bunch, actually what started with one man, and Abraham. Abraham is the first Jewish person God invented in ethnicity right there in Abraham. Abraham wasn't born as Jewish to realize this, Abraham was part of another people group, part of another ethnicity. So God invented this ethnicity with this one man, Abraham and makes this promise, makes this covenant with Abraham. He has no idea. Abraham can't even comprehend how he's going to have a son, let alone, how he's going to become a nation, let alone, how all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed in him? And so here is God. I'm gonna bless you, and I'm gonna give you this great land, and I'm gonna make you a great nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in you. And Abraham, I mean, in all honesty, this old man is good done for He's saying, hold on, can you back up a little bit? A son, I mean, forget, forget trying to believe God? For the land, How am I going to take this land? Can't comprehend I'm going to take this land? Man? How am I? And then if I take this friend, how am I going to fall this land? God? Have you met Sarah? And yet here we sit? Ay? Man, here we sit? Well, what about in the New Testament? In the New Testament? Again, if I say missions and we think New Testament, we immediately think the Great Commission. So step one we have to understand that missions doesn't begin in the New Testament. Okay, that's step one. And so we've seen that so far. Right, this is, yes, are here. Okay, we've seen that so far. Now here's step two. As if step one wasn't a big enough step, step two is. There is much more about missions in the New Testament than just the Great Commission. Let's look at a couple of examples. First, the Lord's prayers, the Lord's Prayer. Shall we say the lords Prayer together our Father gard in heaven, hallow be thy name that Kingdom Come. I will be gone on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, says we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from the evil one. Right, so we know this, right, there's the Great Commission. I mean, there's the Lord's Prayer in the catechism, whether it's We's Mister Short of Catechism or the Baptist Catechism, and most catechisms, what you do is you get an idea of creation and then an idea of fall, an idea of redemption, an idea of becoming consummation. We make sure that we understand those things, and then generally we move to the take commandments and the Lord's prayer, so we understand those things. And so catechism again you're learning through a series of questions and answers. Okay, this is the idea of catechism. Oftentimes we think of catechism as not being ironically, you think of catechisms as not being part of the perform tradition. That really wasn't part of the reform tradition. That was that was, that's part of another tradition. The earliest catechism, the earliest performed catechism, was written I believe the fifteenth twenty two or fifteen thirty nine. Remember we begin the Reformation in earnest in fifteen seventeen October thirty first, fifteen seventeen. Within a few decades we have Luther's Catechism, and then Colvin's catechisms come shortly thereafter, and there are other catechisms that are written at every juncture of the Reformation. There are catechisms written at every juncture. The catechisms are designed to teach the Great Reform Confessions of faith. This is the way we teach the confessions is through catechises, and so the idea of catechizing. By the way, the idea of catechizing was not just religious. The idea of catechizing is how you taught children. Everything was through catechism. And so when you went to grammar school, the idea was that you learned your grammar through catechism. And I don't mean just grammar like the grammar of the English language, but grammar meaning the basics, the basics of every subject. You see, the basics of every subject you learned through groat memorization. Grammar school was all about memorizing. It was only after you got the grammar and you memorized everything that you went on to your next level of education and began to apply those things. Okay, but you start with the grammar and generally you learn again grammar through catechism. Our ABC's we learn our abcs. How wrote memorization? Do you know how to use them? Nope, don't worry about it. Just learn your abcs right. Our our math time tapers two times two is for two times three is six, two times four eight. I mean again, you just do this over and over and over again. And when you're a child, this is your attitude. Why why they're memorizing things over and over and over. Why? Why? Why? And then one day you're doing a higher math and you come up against something and then food it just happens. Why because you memorize them and it's in there right, This is the purpose of catechism. Okay, now on the catechism. Listen to these questions and the catechism about the Lord's prayer. Question what is the first petition? Answer hollowd be thy name? Questions? What do we pray for in the first petition? That God's name may be honored by us and all men? Question? What is the second petition? Thy kingdom? Jump question? What do we pray for in the second petition? Answer that the Gospel may be preached in all the world and believed and obeyed by us and all men. Question? What is the third petition? Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven? Questions what do we pray for in the third petition? Answer that men on earth serve God as the angels in heaven. Folks, the Lord's Prayer is a missionary prayer. Has the petitions in the Lord's Prayer have to do with the advance of the gospel to all men, even the Lord's prayer Matthew ten eighteen. And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the gentiles. Persecution had a missionary purpose. Persecution still has a missionary purpose Matthew twenty four to fourteen. 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. Our eschatology is tied up in missions Mark eleven seventeen. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all all the nations. But you have made it a dinner robbers. Okay, time to be honest. Time to be honest. Everybody look up here. It's time to be honest. Tell the truth. We've quoted that verse, had of it. And when we quote that verse, our tendency is to leave off the last clause. My house shall be called a house of prayer home, tell the truth. Haven't you done that before? Okay, let me go in, tell the truth. I've done that before. We missed something. Let's look at it again. My house shall be called a house of prayer altogether for all mass again, for all nations. We're not together for all nations. That's missions, that's missions. That's a missionary mindset. That as Christians, just like Israel, could not have an attitude that did us for no more shut the door. Neither can we as Christians, as new Covenant believers. How much more Listen, if the people of God in the Old Testament before the coming of Christ, we're to have missionary deals. How much more now that we are made aware of the fullness of God's plan of redemption. How much more we who now understand that all of those things in the Old Testament were merely tight and shadows and have been fulfilled in the person and worked of Christ. How much more should we be zealous for soul? Amen? How much more should we who are Gentiles and not Jews by birth have a passion for the Gospel to go to the nations. Look two thirty to thirty two for my eyes to seeing your salvations that you have prepared in the presence of all people's alike, for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. This is what's poking over Jesus. This is what's poking over the baby Jesus again, that we're waiting, right, we're waiting, We're waiting, We're waiting. One of my favorite hymns, Oh Come o Coming Manuel, I love, Oh come on coming Manuel, Oh come on Coming Manuel and Ransom Chactive days where I am here they are, But think about this for moment. Here you are you Victoria. Is this four hundred years of silence since the closing of the Old Testament. The prophets haven't spoken, The nation is gone, the Roman is ruel and rain. You're in Jerusalem, but you're under Roman authority. Everything's in shadness in terms of this covenantal hope, and all of a sudden the Promised Messiah is born. And when the Promised Messiah is born, what does the prophet said, Alike, for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. He's first a lot of revelations in the Gentile and then he says, and glory to your people Israel. So even in the midst of despair and desiring for the nation to be restored, they still had a sense of missionary zeal. Luke ten two. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest. Again, this is before the great Commission John twelve thirty two. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This is the purpose of the cross. Now, Matthew twenty eight. After all that, Amen, Now we get to Matthew twenty eight. It goes back to sixteen. All authority in heaven and earth, it's given to me. All authority in heaven and hurt is given to me. All authority in heaven, and He's given to me. Again, there's the guarantee of our success. Before Christ gives this commission, he announces, by the way, all authority is mine. And at the end of it he says, look, I'm with you to the end of the age. So there's a bracket. There's a bracket around this commission. And the bracket around this commission is I've got all authority, and I'm with you. Amen, fear not, thanks, fear not. As we go forward, he has all authority and He's with us. 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've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age, to all nations, to all nations, to all nations. Again, we read this, and usually usually when we read this, we think, there's this radical idea. Now that the resurrection is taking place, here's the age of the gentiles. Go out to all the nations, so that we can finish up this work for the gentiles, and they give it. No. What Jesus says here is completely consistent with everything that was said in the Old Testament, in every part of the Old Testament Amen, Mark sixteen fifteen. He said to them go into all the world and proclaimed the Gospel to the whole creation. We're gonna say more about the Matthew twenty eight passes. We're gonna spend a whole session on the Matthew twenty eight passages. So don't worry about that. Accepting one and verse eight, This, by the way, is the feat the statement of the Book of ass If you understand accept one in verse eight. If you want to share and the progression of the rest of the book, you understand how the book is organized in Acts chapter one, verse eight. Basically, Luke is telling you what he's about to tell you. He's about to tell you of the progression of the Gospel through these different checkpoints. And you also understand the appearance of tongues when you understand Acts chapter one of our Faiths, because as the Gospel is moving forward and breaking through these different barriers, you see these tongues. Okay, So anyway, that's another discussion for another time, especially something that we need to be prepared with when we talk to our Pentecostal brethren who try to make the argument that this is normative for the church. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tongues not normative for the church. Tongues play a very specific role in the Book of Acts. And there are people who come and they say, we just need to be like the Church and the Book of Acts. Well, if all we needed was to be like the Church in the Book of Acts, we wouldn't have gotten the epistles. Let me say that again, If all we need is to read the Book of Acts and just do what we see in the Book of Acts. Why did we get the specific instructions of the epistles? Say this after me. Narrative is not normative. Again, narrative is not normative. Just because something happened in the Bible doesn't mean that that's the normative way for it to happen throughout the history of the church. Annon eisens the fire. Did that happen? Yes, it did. God kill them dead in church. And the second one was pretty amazing because Peter stands there and he says, Peter says, you know what, listen, here come the guys who carried your husband out. They're about to carry you out. This is before she drops dead. Right, did it happen? Yes? It did. Is that the normative way that God handles church discipline? No, it's not. Praise the lords for that man, although as pastors sometimes we never mind. Okay, that's we can cut that part. We can cut that part out, yea. So now listen to what the act, chapter one, verse eight. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be Here's what's interesting. When he cares about if people come up to you and all the time they count me, and they you know, well, have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? What the evidence of speaking in tongues? I don't know if they ask all that around here, they ask you that have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues? I say no, But I have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of being a witness. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now you want to talk in tongues or you want to go spread to gospel? Amen? Which thing is more spirit feel to go out and tell people about Jesus, or to sit up saying, untied my bow tie and hun die and all that you know? I come on now, oh Mama, my need hurt. Whatever that says, Which one is more spiritual? Which one is more spirit field? What is the purpose of the spirit. The purpose of the spirit is to spread abroad the Gospel among the nation. That's the purpose of the spirit. It's amazing to me that there are people who are holding on to this gift that they see in the Book of ass And by the way, this ghip that they see in the book of actual languages, not murmuring. It's actual languages, and it's actual languages in order for the Gospel to be understood by different people. Here's what's ironic, and here's how you know when it's faith. There are people who spend all their time speaking in tongues but don't avent the din and translating the Backpa. Huh, isn't that amazing. The gift of tongues, it acts, was so that people could hear the Gospel in their language, not so that they can stand around in church and try to drown one another out with incoherent noise. This this is missions, and we've taken something that ought to be driving us to missions and turned it in on ourselves. Acts thirteen forty seven. For soul, the Lord has commanded us, saying I have made you a light for the gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Amen. I made your life for the gentiles, the gentiles, the gentiles, the gentiles, Hey, gentiles, God loves us. Amen. It'll be envious of Jewish people. Most of them don't know God in fact, most of the Jewish people in the world meet the Gentiles and tell them about God. Ironically, Amen, Romans one to five, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations. Sounds just like the Old Testament goodness Romans ten, twelve to fifteen. For there is no distinction between jew and Greek, for the same Lord as Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sin As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good News? This is our mission mindset the Latians, three Ages and the Scripture. Foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by Spain, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you all the nations, we will all shall all the nations be blessed. So don't you think that that my interpretation of the Abrahamic coven that's Paull's interpretation of the Abrahamic Covenant, that that Abrahamic Covenant was a foreshadowing of the Gospel being preached to the Gentiles the Latis three fourteen, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. This is through Abraham Revelation five to nine. And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the stroll and to open its steals? For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language, and people and nations. By the way, it doesn't say by your blood you made possible the ransomness of people for God. It says, by your blood you ransom it. There was a toonement that took place on the cross. The atonement of the elect took place on the cross. Not the potential atonement, but the actual atonement of the election took place on the cross. So Jesus could say, Nah, it is open, but it is finished. Amen. He says, on the cross it is finished. Revelation seventy nine. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languagests, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with tom branches in their hands. So what's the takeaway? One? God has always been on mission. Amen. God has always been on mission. God hasn't changed. God hasn't changed. He's always been on mission too. God has always called, taught, and expected his people to be on the mission. This is what it means to be God's people. Being on mission is about being the people of God. Being on mission is consistent with being the people of God. When we are not on mission, we are not being what the people of God are called and created and expected to be. This is God's mission. God uses his people in order to accomplish his mission. Therefore, by definition, being God's people means to be on mission. Amen, Third Lady, the whole of Biblical Revelation as a missionary nature and the missionary stope from beginning to end. This is who God's always been. This is what God has always done. This is what God has always been moving toward, and the consummation of all things comes at the end of this mission. Excuse me just a minute. I need to find one thing that I meant to put in here but I didn't. We'll close with this second THET three, second THEE to three Again. The idea of missions and its pathology will end with this second the three beginning verse one. Anybody who holds to the doctrines of grace is very familiar with second Peter three to nine. Anybody who opposes the doctrines of grace is very familiar with second Peter three to nine. Will reverse nine first, and then we'll go back. The Lord does not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, But it's patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God wants everybody to be saved. Right. This is the connection of missions and eschatology. Back in verse one, pay attention to the pronouns. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved, Who's you? The beloved? Who's you? Love? Who's you? They'll be loved again? Who's you They'll be loved? Hold on to that and both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you, who's you, should remember the predictions of the Holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. Who are they? Scoffers? Who are they? Who's you? Who are they? One more time? Who's you? Who are they? They will say? Where is the promise of His coming forever? Since the Father fell asleep? All things things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact. Who's they? That the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, And that by means of these the word that the world that then existed was deluged with water and perish. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exists are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the undoplics. They want to know why Jesus hasn't come back yet. Okay, the scoffers one and all you say, he's coming back. Why hasn't he come back yet? But do not over this, overlook this one fact. Who we're not talking to or about scoffers anymore? Who's you? Who are there? But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one dars is a thousand years, and a thousand years that's day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some cows slowness, but is patient toward you. Who's you? Who's you? Not wishing that any should perish any of who? Thanks you. It's just a simple matter of grammar. Folks. People continue to throw this verse up all the time. Hey, if you'll just take a few moments, it's a simple matter of grammar. This is easy to answer. The Lord has not sold for his promise of some cool slowness, but it's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish or any of you, but that all should reach repentance, all of the wood, all the the love. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved in the earth, and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Why hasn't the Lord returned because all of his elects have not yet been gathered. Therefore, in the meantime we do missions. Yes I believe in election. Yes I believe in predestination. Yes I'm a five point Calvinist. You want six, I can do six. You want seven, and I can go seven. And yes, I believe with every fiber of my being that we ought to be passionate about winning souls, because that is one of the main reasons we still remain. There is a mission that is yet to be completed. We are on that mission. We are the tip of the sphere of that mission. Let us go forth preach this gospel that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Amen.