The Mystery of Missions

 

If there was ever anything that sounded a bit old fashioned, it’s probably “missions”. A couple of generations ago, I think part of the image was of missionaries as people who were out of touch, wearing inexpensive, ill fitting clothes, and asking for money. They were also super-spiritual. When I was younger, if you wanted to be super-spiritual you became a missionary. Almost super-spiritual people became pastors. How sad that the church produced such phenomena! 

 

Today, there is such a strong cultural leaning that a person should never try to change anyone else’s beliefs that our knee jerk reaction is that it seems like the wrong thing to do to take the news about Jesus to others- whether around the world or locally. There is no consistency to the notion that beliefs don’t matter, for those who believe this in the end believe that their beliefs do matter. Yet nonetheless, we exist in an atmosphere that makes evangelism and missions suspect from the get-go.

 

Yet when we actually do talk about Him, we see the amazing, liberating way it impacts people- particularly people who have never heard any of it. Lord willing, we’ll hear more about this the next couple of Sundays.

 

One of the most interesting things about missions is that according to the bible it has always been at the heart of God. The story starts when God creates everything, placing Adam and Eve in the garden with a deep, intimate, growing relationship with Himself. They disobey, and sin separates them from intimacy with God, and creates the cascade effect that has so damaged and broken our world and our lives, as every generation has continued sinning. 

 

Yet missions starts the next moment after the fall, when God tells Eve that her offspring would destroy Satan. From this point on, the bible unfolds God’s intent to reveal Himself to every nation. We see it in Abraham, King David, the Prophets, and Jesus is the core of it. Then it just keeps going through the whole New Testament right down to the end of time. In the book of Revelation we see people at the end of time from every tribe, language, and nation standing before the throne of God, worshipping.

 

The mystery is that God would choose to reveal Himself to us through each other, but He has. I call this “the chain of grace” and it’s possibly the greatest challenge and the greatest glory that we can experience with regard to our fellow men. He chose us, and with rare exceptions, not angels or visions, to reveal Himself. Staggering!

 

So here’s my challenge to us in the blog this week. How about sharing a paragraph or two about either:

1. a favorite piece of scripture that has really spoken to you about God’s heart for all peoples.

2. an experience with missions or leading someone to Christ that has made this real to you, or

3. a question you have about these things?

 

In Him,

 

Pastor Dave