God's Heart for Missions
Have you ever thought of missions as primarily a New Testament concept? I know I have. After all, the Great Commission is found in the Gospels and Acts. Also, much of the book of Acts and the following Epistles highlight and are connected to the missionary exploits of the Apostle Paul. The problem is that if our understanding of missions is confined primarily to the New Testament, we miss out on so much of what is truly at the heart of missions – namely, the missionary heart of the God of the Bible.
The missionary heart of God is evident all throughout the storyline of the Old Testament. The limits of a brief article do not allow us to trace this theme thoroughly. One place this theme appears multiple times is in the book of Psalms. Psalm 46 and 96 are two of the Psalms that provide us a window into the missionary heart of God.
Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 96:1-3 – “Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!”
In Psalm 46, God declares that His name will be exalted among all the peoples of the earth. Then in Psalm 96, the psalmist David boldly proclaims that God is worthy to have His name declared among the nations. Because this is true about God, in verse 3 David calls God’s people to proclaim His glory and marvelous works to all the peoples of the earth. David Wells, in A Visions for Missions, summarizes David’s words in Psalm 96 this way, “God is worthy to be known and proclaimed for who He is.”
God is a missionary God. He desires to have His name proclaimed among all peoples. To that end He sent His Son into the world, and in turn, His Son sends all who would follow Him to the same end. Our hearts long for the day when we will gather with people from every tribe and tongue and nation and lift our voices worshipping our God, but between now and then, He has called each of us to live out His missionary heart. As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus is sending us (John 20:21) to go into all the world (Mark 16:1) to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) through teaching repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name (Luke 24:44-49) by means of the power of the Spirit (Acts 1:8).
During our upcoming Missions Emphasis from March 26 – April 2, we will consider some of what it might look like for each of us to live out the missionary heart of God with the theme My Part in Missions: Praying, Giving, Sending, Going. Paul Campbell (church planter in Utah) will be with us the first weekend. Ronny Marmol (Director of Church Relations at Frontline Missions) will be with us the second weekend. David and Maribel Bell (church planters in Spain) will be with us both Sundays.
I pray that God would use this focused time to grow His missionary heart in each of us.