Piper / Mathis Finish the Mission

Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3486-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

This is no ordinary missions book. The theme isn't new, but the approach is refreshing and compelling, as contributors David Platt, Louie Giglio, Michael Ramsden, Ed Stetzer, Michael Oh, David Mathis, and John Piper take up the mantle of the Great Commission and its Spirit-powered completion. From astronomy to exegesis, from apologetics to the Global South, from being missional at home to employing our resources in the global cause, Finish the Mission aims to breathe fresh missionary fire into a new generation, as together we seek to reach the unreached and engage the unengaged.

 John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don't Waste Your Life; and Providence.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Piper, John

Mathis, David

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

Remember, Jesus Never Lies

David Mathis

Remember, Jesus never lies. Never.

That God “never lies” (Titus 1:2) was an important reminder for Paul’s protégé, ministering among the Cretans, who were, by the admission of one of their own, “always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (v. 12). Paul says to Titus: Remember, God never lies.

And it’s an important reminder for us, nearly two millennia later, especially in regard to the mission the God-man started with his own life, inaugurated in his own death, sealed with his own resurrection, launched in his Great Commission, and promised to bring to completion. The Holy Spirit says to the churches: Remember, Jesus never lies.

Jesus himself has promised—just as surely as he declares over his work of redemption, “It is finished” (John 19:30)—that also his one-day-soon triumphant bride will declare with him over the application of that work in global missions, “It is finished.” The Commission will be completed.

THE MISSION WILL FINISH

In prelude to his Great Commission, Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (Matt. 28:18). Having taken our flesh and blood, and fulfilled the destiny of humanity (Ps. 8:3–8; Heb. 2:5–10) along his sacrificial course, the man Christ Jesus now rules the whole universe (our little globe included) with the very sovereignty of God, ensuring the success of his global mission.

Against all suspicions to the contrary, the sovereign Christ will not be thwarted in carrying out his promise, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). The God-man, risen and reigning, most assuredly will make good on the pledge that his gospel “will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). Wielding the indomitable strength of his divinity, he is poised to guarantee—with absolute certainty—the fulfillment of Habakkuk 2:14: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”1

MISSIONS: ALL ABOUT THIS JESUS

At the end of the day, global missions is about the worship of this spectacular Jesus. The goal of missions is the worldwide worship of the God-man by his redeemed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The outcome of missions is all peoples delighting to praise Jesus. And the motivation for missions is the enjoyment that his people have in him. Missions aims at, brings about, and is fueled by the worship of Jesus.

Another way to say it is that missions is about Jesus’s global glory. From beginning to end—in target, effect, and impetus—missions centers on the worldwide fame of the Messiah in the praises of his diverse peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation. What’s at stake in missions is the universal honor of the Father in the global glory of his Son in the joy of all the peoples.

WHAT IS MISSIONS?2

Rooted in the Latin mitto (meaning “to send”), missions is the half-millennium-old English term signifying the sending of Jesus’s followers into his global harvest of all peoples. For nearly three hundred years, the term missions has been used in particular for world evangelization, for pioneering the gospel among the peoples to whom it has yet to advance.

Among others, two passages in the Gospel of Matthew get to the heart of missions. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 9:37–38, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Missions means sending out workers into the global harvest.

A second passage is Jesus’s sending out of his disciples in Matthew 28:18–20, the epic-making summons we call “the Great Commission.” Here Jesus’s main command, “make disciples of all nations,” follows the charge to “go”—to be sent out. Sending out and going are two sides of the same coin. Jesus and his established church send out, and those who go are “the sent ones,” or “missionaries.” So missions is the church’s sending out of missionaries (the sent ones) to pioneer the church among peoples who otherwise have no access to the gospel.

THE COMMISSION

Perhaps as good a way forward as any in this introduction is to walk just briefly through this Great Commission that gets at the heart of the missionary enterprise.

And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18–20)

“DISCIPLE ALL NATIONS” (V. 19)

We’ve noted already Jesus’s claim to “all authority” (v. 18). In view of such unmatched authority, he then draws out an implication for his followers in verse 19—one of the most important therefores in the history of the world. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .”

The two commands in our English—“go” and “make disciples of all nations”—work together as one charge in the original language. A literal translation would be something like, “having gone, disciple all nations.” The main emphasis falls on discipling, but the going is necessary. In order to engage in this worldwide task of discipling all nations, there must be going. Jesus emphatically does not promise that all nations will come to Jerusalem so that his disciples can merely invest themselves where they are. They will need to go. There are oceans and borders to cross, languages to learn, cultural divides to bridge. Like Paul and Barnabas in Antioch, they should be “sent off” (Acts 13:3) gladly by the church for such work. There must be missionaries.

But even in our current global context, where unreached peoples are clustering in cities where churches already are established, another kind of going must happen: being “sent out” from ordinary, everyday life among people just like us to invest in the difficult spade work of language learning and culture crossing. Even where geography isn’t an issue, culture and language are. So the Commission necessitates goings of all sorts.

Disciple Is a Verb

If Jesus’s charge to “make disciples of all nations” is the heart of the Commission, what does he mean by this discipling? It is clear that he does not mean the mere pursuit of conversion. That won’t work with what follows: “. . . baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Teaching the nations “to observe all that I have commanded you” is not the mere pursuit of conversion. And if discipling all nations doesn’t mean simple classroom information transfer, as we’re prone to think in the West, but “teaching to observe,” what must it involve?

At least it must aim at a kind of lived-out spiritual maturity. This is how many well-meaning Christians today use the term discipleship—as a term for pursuing spiritual maturity. Being a “disciple,” they say, means being a serious, rather than a casual, follower of Jesus. “Discipleship programs” are designed for those intentionally seeking Christian growth, so it goes. Maybe. But something seems to be lacking here, at least as an explanation of what the Commission is getting at.

Jesus’s Example

Within the context of Matthew’s Gospel, is there not more to say? Does “disciple all nations” not call to mind how Jesus himself discipled his men? They were, after all, his disciples. And when they heard him say, “disciple all nations,” would they not think this discipling is similar to the very thing he did with them—investing prolonged, real-life, day-in, day-out, intentional time with younger believers in order to personally grow them to maturity, as well as model for them how to disciple others in the same way?

This sounds like what Paul is getting at in 2 Timothy 2:2, when he instructs his disciple Timothy, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Timothy, my disciple, disciple others to disciple others. Four spiritual generations get explicit mention here: Paul, Timothy, “faithful men,” and “others also”—with the implication that further generations are to follow.3

Discipling, seen in this light, means not merely the pursuit of our own spiritual maturity but getting outside ourselves for personal connection and substantial, intentional investment of time in a few others—the kind of investment for which there must be going to accomplish among the nations. Jesus spent over three years with his twelve disciples. He called them to be discipled at the outset of his ministry (Matt. 4:19), and he gave them the lion’s share of his life until his departure in Matthew 28. He invested his life in his men. It is eye-opening to track in the Gospels how much Jesus gave of himself to his disciples. While the crowds pursued him, he pursued his disciples. He was willing to bless the masses, but he invested in...