On December 1 and 2, 2018, I was privileged to speak at the missions weekend for Northfield Community Church in Northfield, MN. You can find more information on the church here.
I gave two messages. You can learn about the first here, but the second, “The Theme of Missions in Scripture,” traces missions from Genesis to Revelation, exalting the God who is creating for himself a people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev 7:9). The sermon urges us to act out our roles in God’s divine drama both as goers and senders in a mission that is for the sake of Christ’s name among all the nations. I trace twelve stages:
- Mankind’s original commission (Gen 1:27–28)
- God’s lasting commitment to magnify himself universally (Gen 3:15; Num 14:21; Hab 2:14; Ps 72:1–2, 17–19; Isa 11:1–2, 9–10)
- The need for curse-overcoming blessing (Gen 11:8–9)
- The means for curse-overcoming blessing: the two-stage Abrahamic promise (Gen 12:1–3)
- The move from Abraham being the father of a single nation to being a father of a multitude of nations: the significance of the single, male deliver as agent of blessing (Gen 17:4–6; 22:17–18)
- The flow of salvation history
- Stage 1: The Mosaic covenant and Israel’s “come and see” calling (Exod 19:4–6; Deut 4:5–8)
- Israel’s failure and destruction (Deut 31:27, 29; 2 Kgs 17:13–15, 23)
- The hope for the day of good news and global blessing (Isa 42:1, 5–7; 49:2–6; 51:4–5; 52:13, 15; 53:11; 61:1–3)
- Stage 2: The new covenant and the mission of good news.
- The mission of the Messiah becomes the mission of the church.
- The present and lasting praise to the reigning savior and satisfier of the nations (Rev 5:9–10; 7:9–10).
