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courtesy of the
Caleb Project
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Motivations for Mission Seven Biblical Bases for World Mission
A. GREAT COMMISSION MODEL
All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am
with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:18-20, the classic
Great Commission passage, is a command to be obeyed. The key here is
obedience. (Cross-reference Mark 16:15 & Luke 24:47). We must be
obedient to God if we love him (John 5:3).
B. RESOURCE/RESPONSIBILITY MODEL
What are our responsibilities
before God?
God has given us resources, and
he has also given us responsibilities in each of these three areas. Psalm
67 shows how God’s blessings enable us to fulfill our responsibility to
evangelize non-believers:
God be gracious to us
and bless us,
This twofold emphasis of God's
blessings and our responsibilities in world evangelization are found
throughout the Bible. See Genesis 12:3, Matthew 28:18, and 2 Corinthians
5:17-20.
Another facet of the
Resource/Responsibility model is understanding our responsibility before
other people. We have heard the gospel, and yet there are more than
two billion people who have never heard it! We have the great blessing of
salvation, but with it, the great responsibility of telling other people
about it too (Romans 10:13-15).
Those who have never heard the
gospel are still held responsible before God through general revelation
(Romans 1:18-21) and through their conscience (Romans 2:11-16), and if
they do not fear God, they will be judged to a Christless eternity. When
Jesus says that no one comes to the Father but through him, he means it
(John 14:6). Because of our sin and rebellion against God, we all deserve
the same judgment (Romans 3:9-12). Notice that it is not our fault that
they are doomed to hell; the unevangelized deserve to go to hell just as
much as we do. But we can be motivated to mission work because of the
simple fact that we know the gospel and others do not, and that we are
therefore responsible to tell them.
C. COMPASSION MODEL
Throughout the gospels, we see
Jesus’ compassion for physically and spiritually needy people:
And seeing the multitudes, He felt
compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like
sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36; see also 14:14,
15:32, 20:34) When we are at school or work, when we are in the shopping mall or in the inner city, when we go to people’s homes, or see people through the window of our car, are we moved with compassion? How can we NOT be moved when we see people in need? Physical needs (1 John 3:17) should ignite our compassion as well as spiritual needs (Jude 22 & 23), and we should seek to minister to both. Usually the meeting of a physical “felt” need can lead to opportunities to minister to a person's spiritual need.
D. HISTORICAL MODEL Throughout history, God has used his people in growing his kingdom. God was involved in the lives of Adam and Eve and faithful descendants who passed the fear of God on to Noah and from him to Abraham (Genesis 31:53). After creating the 70 family/nations at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), God's next act was to call Abram and give him a covenant: I will bless you ... and so you shall be a blessing ... and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3). God chose to bless Abraham and use him to bless all the family/nations separated at the Tower of Babel! Paul confirms this meaning in Gal. 3:8 & 29. God repeats this covenant to Abraham (Genesis 18:18, 22:16-18), Isaac (26:4), and Jacob (28:14). Abraham carried the knowledge of God to Egypt (Genesis 20). Before Israel entered Caanan, word had already gotten around to the nations about their God (Joshua 2:8-11)! Old Testament Jews knew that God desired his people to tell all families/nations/ethnic groups about him:
A
David
entered combat with Goliath in order that all the world would know of
Israel’s God (1 Samuel 17:46).
A
Isaiah
49:6 (Anticipates the ends of the earth hearing.)
A
Jeremiah
4:2 (If Israel obeys, the nations will hear.)
A
Ezekiel
36:22-23 (God's purposes are for all nations!)
A
Habakuk
2:14 (How completely does God want the world evangelized?)
A
Daniel
3-6 (The exile carried the Truth to Syria, Babylon, Persia, and Media!) Jesus reminded the Jews that their blessing was for all nations. His kingdom was intended for all peoples (Matthew 8:11; Mark 11:17). After Jesus' resurrection, he taught the disciples from the Old Testament (the New Testament hadn't been written yet) that “repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:45-47). The apostles at Pentecost understood that mission is an extension of God's covenant to Abraham (Acts 3:25), and they spread the gospel all over the Roman empire (Acts 17:6). Tallying up to this point, the gospel had been proclaimed in the entire Middle East as well as North Africa and parts of Europe and Asia! Faithful missionaries evangelized Europe and more of Asia in the Middle Ages, and later, in the 1600's, overseas missions and colonization began in earnest (Columbus, William Carey), covering much of the coastland of the world. In the 1800's, missionaries began to push inland (Hudson Taylor, Interior Missions). Let us join this glorious march of history!
D. TASK MODEL
Now we are beginning to see
closure as missionaries concentrate on reaching the last people groups who
were overlooked in history and have not yet heard the gospel. Jesus
wouldn't have given us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18ff) unless he
intended us to actually complete the task. Preaching the gospel to every
group of people must occur before the end:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the world world for a witness to all the nations, and then
the end shall come. (Matthew 24:14)
The end of the task is in sight!
It is estimated that there are now only seven non-Christians per believer
in the world. Fewer than 10,000 cultures have no Church or Bible! These
“unreached peoples” are the final frontier of missions, and there is a
great need for thousands of new missionaries to reach them. We have the
resources to complete the missionary task in our generation – if every
evangelical church were to focus on one of these unreached peoples, we
could finish the task five times over!
We can end this model by looking
at the fulfillment of the task of world evangelization at the end of time.
God gave such a glimpse into the future to John in Revelation 5:9:
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and
to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with
Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
E. PARTNERSHIP MODEL
As members of the body of
Christ, God has uniquely gifted us to play an important role in the work
of the Church (1 Corinthians 12-14). Our giftings and activities should
contribute to the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the church.
Perhaps 1% of the people in the Church have gifting and calling to
cross-cultural church planting, but the spiritual gifts of the other 99%
still have as much bearing on missions as they have on worship and
edification at home! For instance:
Do you see the big picture? All
these gifts work together in the body of Christ to extend the kingdom of
Christ together. Consider your own spiritual gifting and calling; how can
you work in partnership with the body of Christ to participate in world
evangelization?
F. WORSHIP MODEL
All nations whom Thou hast made shall
come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and they shall glorify Thy name.
(Psalm 86:9)
God created and saved people in
order to receive glory from them (Ephesians 1:4-6). He intends to be
worshipped by representatives from every nation (Malachi 1:11, Mark
11:17)! God is jealous about his glory and will punish those who don’t
honor him (Isaiah 48:11, Acts 12:23), but his glory grows as more people
adore him from every different culture. Missions is the means to God’s
greater glory.
Those of us who love God
naturally want to bring other people to worship him too (Psalm 96, Isaiah
12:4-5), and in fact, we are commanded throughout the New Testament to
bring glory to him (Matthew 15:16, 1 Corinthians 10:31). When we see how
valuable Jesus is, we will not only worship him ourselves, but we will
also desire for him to receive honor from every creature in heaven and
earth (Revelation 5:12-13).
Worship is both the fuel and the
destination of missions. One day missions will cease and there will be
nothing but worship for the rest of eternity!
For from Him and through Him and to Him
are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans
11:36)
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Compiled by Nate Wilson, Caleb
Project Church Mobilization Specialist. Thanks to the many people who
contributed ideas to this overview, including, but not limited to: Frank
Barker, Ken Wilson, Paul Stein, Ralph Winter, Don Richardson, Bob Sjogren,
Jim Camomile, Ted Elder, Steve Hawthorne, and John Piper. Scripture
quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.
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