E-Connected Archive - February 2010
God's Big Picture |
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The Bible from beginning to end
When we take the Bible as a whole and read it from beginning to end we can see the clear divine purpose of God running all the way through it. What’s the purpose? To redeem people from every tongue, tribe
and nation for His glory.
It’s exciting to see how we fit into the big picture story of God – come take a sprint through the scriptures with us and see it unfold…
Abraham receives the Great Commission
If you asked most people about the Great Commission they’d probably tell you it was given by Jesus. The Great Commission appears much earlier than that – two thousand years earlier in fact. It was given to Abraham in Genesis 12 when God says He will bless Abraham and all nations on earth will be blessed through Him. This is the foundation for the story. The promise continues through Isaac and Jacob, and in the story of the exodus it goes global in a big way. We don’t often think of the exodus in terms of ‘mission’ but check out Exodus 9:13-16. Moses gives Pharoah an ultimatum and is very clear about the purpose behind what’s happening - to proclaim God’s name throughout the earth.
David sings the Great Commission
When David kills Goliath he declares the whole world will know there is a God in Israel (1 Sam 17:46) - it’s all about God’s glory. All through the Old Testament, the Great Commission keeps popping up time and time again. In fact, when we get to 1 Chronicles 16 we find a lyrical version of the same thing - David sings it as a prayer...“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.” 1 Chronicles 16:8 is the start of the song. Grab a Bible and read through to verse 36 to catch the rest.
It’s clearly shown again in Psalm 67 and in 1 Kings 8:41-43 Solomon gives voice to the Great Commission as a prayer.
The BIG eternal promise - The BIG eternal purpose
Right through the Old Testament, we hear the purpose and promise of God being given to all sorts of people in all sorts of places. It’s a big eternal promise of salvation. And the focus is not on what we’re saved from but on what we’re saved for. God reveals His glory to us - and to all nations - in order to receive glory from all of His creation (Psalm 96). We’re saved to worship. It’s what we’re designed for. It’s the big eternal purpose. We believe all people are important and we want all to hear but the big driving force behind all we do has to be the massive worthiness of God. It’s to see all nations, tribes and peoples giving Him glory and praise.
The big focus and ambition of Paul
Some of Paul’s teachings are much debated. However, as we track the life of Paul in the book of Acts and in the many letters he wrote, one thing is very clear - his focus. Paul clearly saw the world as divided
between those who knew about Jesus and those who hadn’t
heard.
“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’” Romans 15:20-21
Paul had a big vision which kept him going through many trials, challenges and difficulties. We too need to keep the glory of God in our focus in such a way that it inspires us to keep going (Romans 1:5).
The Year 2010
There are currently 228 ‘unengaged’ Muslim people groups with populations over 100,000 – many are millions. This sounds like a lot – and it is – but mission partners working in the Muslim
world believe it’s possible to
engage all Muslim people groups
by 2025.
We know how the story ends...
... and what an ending it is!
Four thousand years ago, God promised Abraham that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. Two thousand years ago, Jesus said the gospel would be proclaimed among all nations and then the end will come (Matt 24:14). The result will be a great multitude of Jesus worshippers that no-one can count from every nation, tribe, people and language (Rev 5:9, Rev 7:9).
What will be achieved in this decade? Time will tell. One thing is certain; as believers we are living in the most exciting time to be alive in the history of the Great Commission. You don’t want to miss out!
Note: This article is based on material from the Perspectives course,
Filling up the Afflictions of Christ by John Piper & www.missionfrontiers.org