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Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 30 October 2009 19:21

God is on a mission!  And His vision and strategy is framed within the Word of God.  “Mission is not just one of a list of things that the Bible happens to talk about, only a bit more urgently than some.  Mission is, in that much-abused phrase, ‘what it’s all about.’” (Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, p. 22).  Wright goes on to define what he means by mission.  “Fundamentally, our mission (if it is biblically informed and validated) means our committed participation as God’s people, at God’s invitation and command, in God’s own mission within the history of God’s world for the redemption of God’s creation” (pp. 22-23).

Several years ago, I preached elsewhere on the subject of “The Biblical Foundation of Missions.”  I discovered that missions is not simply a New Testament idea, but is an over-arching theme found throughout Scripture.  Peter Bowers, our keynote speaker for this year’s Missions Conference, reminded us of that fact as well on Wednesday.  I like to think of it in this way:

In the Old Testament we see Missions in the Plan of God.  This is evident in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings – the three “divisions” of the Old Testament.  In the Law we see it in the promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, in the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-4.  In the Prophets, we hear this theme echoed in Isaiah 2:2 and 49:6, among many.  In the Writings, it is the song of the poet in Psalms 2, 67, 72, 96 and others.

In the Gospels we see Missions in the Gift of Christ.  Each of the Gospels commissions us to fulfill God’s mission. (See Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; and John 20:19-23).

In Acts we see Missions in the Work of the Spirit.  The key verse is Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The rest of that historical record of Acts confirms this.  In Acts 1-7 this mission reaches Jerusalem.  In Acts 8-12 this mission touches Judea and Samaria.  And in Acts 13-28 this mission embraces the ends of the earth.

In the Epistles we see Missions in the Life of the Church.  That is what Paul shows in Romans 15:18-23.  That is how Paul prayed and why he desired prayer in Colossians 4:2-4.  That is what Paul saw in the church at Thessalonica (1 Thess. 1:6-8).

In Revelation we see Missions in the Worship of Heaven.  Revelation 7:9-11, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, … and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’  All …fell on their faces before the throne and  worshiped God.” And thus the promise to Abraham to bless all nations is realized in the presence of God as all nations bless God.

This is our joy and privilege … to be an active part in the mission of God to reach the world.