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The Mission of the Church

The Mission of the Church. Eschatology and the Mission of the Church. Eschatology involves us in a Christian philosophy of history.

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The Mission of the Church

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  1. The Mission of the Church

  2. Eschatology and the Mission of theChurch • 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 God’s eschatological (final, eternal) salvation in Christ. • Eschatology means you need to proclaim the Gospel to the nations, (Jew and Gentile alike)! • Rev 21:23-26 - 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 God’s plan was to lead to God’s opening the floodgates of salvation to all peoples, how much more should North American Christians take to heart God’s 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.

  5. Implications of Biblical Eschatology Take the message of your resurrected Lord and declare it to the world!

  6. “Missions is not theultimate goal of theChurch. Worship is.Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!

  7. Worship, therefore, is the fueland goalof missions. It’s the goal of missions because inmissions we simply aim to bring the nations into the whitehot enjoyment of God’s glory.(Scripture)

  8. But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t 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. 104:34, 9:2).

  9. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’strue worth, the light of missions will shine to thedarkest peoples on earth.Missions begins and ends in worship. Missions is not God’s 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 God’s sheer uniqueness compared to all the other Gods of the nations, and how this motivates missions:Isaiah 64:4From 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 humanrace 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 24:14 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 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.

  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.

  30. 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.

  31. 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 24:14 "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 5:9 and 7:9-10 show that there will be some from every tribe, tongue, nation and people before the Throne.

  32. “Every tribe, tongue, and nation.”

  33. “The Lordreigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands beglad!” (Ps 97:1).“Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and singfor joy!” (Ps 67:3-4).Return

  34. John 15:11 (ESV)These things I have spoken to you,that my joy may be in you, and thatyour joy may be full.Matthew 25:21 (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 17:25"God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.”Mark 10:45"The Son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”Return

  36. Isaiah 46:1-4Belbows 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 11:28-30 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

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