We believe in the missionary God.
This is not just about believing in the mission of God, or the mission mandated to the church. When we say: We believe in the missionary God, we’re saying something about the nature and purposes of God that ultimately must be reflected in the people who call themselves the community of God’s people.
A missionary God calls a missionary people
The story of Abraham
Most of us know the story of Abraham. Of how God called him to leave his home and family to journey to a new home, a home God would give to him. We know about the promises God made to him: to have a son, to be the father of many nations. We know about the great test of faithfulness that Abraham faced when God called him to sacrifice his only son, and we know too the faith Abraham expressed even at that time and the vindication he experienced from God. As we trace his story we see a fallible man whom God loves, reveals himself to and move towards a life fully lived for his purposes. And, in the story of Abraham we expressed the missionary heart of God.
John Stott says of Genesis chapter 12 that: The previous eleven chapter lead up them [ the opening sentence] ; the rest of the Bible follows and fulfils them.
Chapter 12 contains the first occurrence of a covenant promise that will be repeated over and over again in the OT: I will be their God, and they will be my people. It is in chapter 12 that God reveals his missionary character.
Chapter 11 takes us to Babel, the high point of human expansion and endeavour to this point in history. But God’s plans are not human plans. He calls a man, Abram, to turn around and walk in a different direction, to go against the flow of human expansion and rebellion. He calls him to follow God faithfully and wholeheartedly.
The promise is simple. If Abram is obedient, if he is faithful, then God will lead him to a land that will become his home, he will make him into a great nation and his children will become the vehicle for God’s blessing of people across the whole world. The promise is made clear in Gen.22:18 through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. No wonder Abraham becomes a focal point for both Old and New Testament writers.
The nature of God’s blessing
Ultimately the nature of the blessing that God wants to give is expressed in the New Testament most famously in John 3: ...that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. God’s greatest blessing is not wealth or power. It’s not health or even long life. It’s not influence or great skill or ability. It isn’t even a great ministry. God’s greatest blessing is eternal life. Its forgiveness for sin and a promise of a place in God’s great house forever.
A missionary God wants a missionary people
In truth, the missionary God calls his missionary people.
- Go into all the world and make disciples
- As the Father has sent me, so I send you
- You shall be my witnesses...
According to Jesus we are like a vine, designed to bear fruit and when we do we glorify our Father in heaven.
If mission is part of God’s character then it ought naturally to be a part of the nature of the church that bears his name. To be the people of the missionary God we need to be a missionary people. And to be a missionary people we must follow the example of the missionary God.
Jesus defined his mission:
- Bringing the kingdom of God near (Matt. 4:17)
- Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets (5:17)(Later Jesus would answer a question about the greatest commandment with the words: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love others as you want to be loved. He went on to say: All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. (22:37ff))
- To bring forgiveness
- To call sinners rather than the righteous
- To reveal the Father
- To build his church
- To give his life as a ransom for many
In Luke’s gospel he defined his mission at the beginning of his ministry by reading from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, the oppressed will be set free and the time of the Lord’s favour has come.
How does this translate into lifestyle?
#1 Recognise that God has called the church to be a missionary community
#2 Choose to seek to live a missional life(More about God than about self.)
#3 Follow Christ’s example (Love others, serve them.)
#3 Pray persistently and consistently for opportunities.
#4 Invite others to join the journey
This is what Isaiah had to say: Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. (Isa.58:10)
#3 Pray persistently and consistently for opportunities.
#4 Invite others to join the journey
This is what Isaiah had to say: Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. (Isa.58:10)
