The 5th Purpose
of Your Life
Jesus: "In
the same way that you gave Me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in
the world." John 17:18 (Mes)
"As the
Father has sent Me, I am sending you." John 20:21 (NIV)
"The most
important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus
gave me - to tell people the Good News about God's grace." Acts 20:24
(NCV)
John 17
The High
Priestly Prayer
1 Jesus
spoke these things; and lifting up
His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may
glorify You,
2 even
as You gave Him authority over all
flesh, that to all whom You have
given Him, He may give eternal
life.
3 "This
is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4 "
I glorified You on the earth,
having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.
5 "Now,
Father, glorify Me together with
Yourself, with the glory which I had
with You before the world was.
Read John Stott
quote from Piper p.9 of Let the Nations be Glad!
MY 5th PURPOSE
IS that I was made for a mission.
Bigger than
"Evangelism"
Compassion for
the lost is a high and lofty motive for missionary labor. Without it we lose
the sweet humility of sharing a treasure we have freely received. BUT
compassion for people flows FROM a prerequisite of passion for the glory of God.
A “Heart
for the lost” or the world is an abstract concept to many. As with most
feelings it is difficult to sustain. Don’t wait for a feeling of strong
benevolence to propel you into bold evangelism. Take the first steps because
you love GOD preeminently! Ephesians 6:7-8. Jesus deserves the reward for His suffering. Focus on your role in
glorifying Him thusly.
"You will
be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth." Acts 1:8 (NIV)
-
"Jerusalem" = the people closest to me
-
"Judea/Samaria" = people near but different from me
- "Ends of
the earth" = everybody else!
"This was
God's plan for all of history which He carried out through Christ Jesus our
Lord." Eph. 3:11 (GW)
COMPLETING MY
MISSION
1. I MUST SHARE
WITH THOSE IN MY WORLD.
"‘Go
back home and tell people how much God has done for you.’ So the man went
all over town telling how much Jesus had done for him." Luke 8:39 (NCV)
"Be ready
at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in
you." 1 Peter 3:15 (TEV)
"...God
does not want anyone to be lost, but He wants all people to change their hearts
and lives!" 2 Peter 3:9 (NCV)
2. I MUST DARE
TO REACH BEYOND MY WORLD.
"Whatever a
person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me
tell him about Christ and let Christ save him." 1 Cor. 9:22b (LB)
"Stoop down
and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete
Christ's law." Gal. 6:2 (Msg)
"Real
religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out
to the homeless and loveless in their plight..." James 1:27 (Msg)
"I was
hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me a drink. I was a
stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me
clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited
Me." Mt. 25:35-36 (NLT)
Jesus replied,
"Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything... for love of
Me and to tell others the Good News, who won't be given back, a hundred times
over..." Mark 10:29 (LB)
If you had
the cure for cancer—you’d share it! Yet why don’t people
share the Good News?
3. I MUST CARE
ABOUT THE WHOLE WORLD.
Jesus said to
His followers, "Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to
everyone." Mark 16:15 (NCV)
"If you
insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their
lives for My sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it
means to really live." Mark 8:35 (LB)
"David
served God’s purposes in his own time..."
Acts 13:36a
(TEV)
"Send us
around the world with the news of Your saving power and Your eternal plan for
all mankind." Ps. 67:2 (LB)
Another reason
people hesitate is they think folks aren’t interested in spiritual
matters…NOT TRUE. Recent survey showed 34 Million Americans said
they’d go to church if they received an invitation from a friend. So is
your mission to get people to come to church?
A Gallup pole
recently showed that teens are MORE interested in talking about God than sex,
drugs, money, etc…
--People NEED
the Lord…and we are called to reach them
Now I want to
focus on what is lacking in the book for a while: I alerted you early on to the
problems of chunking the purposes and looking at them separately, not holistically.
In this case the Great Commission has often been advanced without the flip side
of the coin- the great commandment.
Drawing on texts
from the Old and New Testaments, John Piper demonstrates that worship is the
ultimate goal of the church and that proper worship drives missionary outreach.
He describes prayer as the fuel of missions work because of its focus on a
relationship with God rather than the needs of the world. He goes on to
illustrate that while suffering is the price of missions, God is worthy of any
sacrifice. He examines whether Jesus is the only way to salvation and discusses
the extent of the missionary enterprise, seeking to define the scope of the
task and the means to reaching "all nations."
"Missions
is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. Missions exists because
worship doesn't." This is the opening line of this book, and it is the
foundational premise on which it is written.
Piper writes
about a God who is worth serving, worth going to the nations for, and who is
worth suffering for. There is no greater cause in all the world than the glory
of God and Piper eloquently describes how Missions is intimately connected to
that cause.
Perhaps the most
striking point in the book is the idea that God is passionate for his own
glory. In fact that God is passionately establishing his glory in the nations.
It is not that God is in constant need of affirmation, but that He knows that
His glory is the "chief end of man"...and of God.
The chapter on
Suffering is incredible. Piper's writing is as convicting as it is motivating.
The reader is left asking the question "Do I believe in a God like this?
Do I serve a God who is worth suffering for?"
God has honored
his church with the privilege of joining Him in his work in the world. Piper is
a man who understands this privilege, and who invites us to join Him as well.
This is one of
the best books I've ever read. Unlike so many books on missions, Piper does not
try to cajole his readers into the mission field with tear-jerking stories of
how third-world nation children are starving, as if God were in need of
missionaries. Instead, Piper unfolds God's great plan to glorify himself
through missions--that all nations might turn to Christ. Piper is right on when
he wrote -- missions exists because worship doesn't. Soli Deo Gloria
Critique
"Missions
is not God's ultimate goal, worship is" (p.15). Because God is supremely
great, because He is passionate about His own glory, and because enjoying Him
is the greatest satisfaction a human can have, "all of history is moving
toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and His son among all the
peoples of the earth" (p.15). The progression is God, people, God.
Missions begins and ends in God.
In the west, tolerance and
pluralism increasingly are replacing the belief that Jesus is the only way to
salvation, even within some Christian circles. With the patience and precision
of a heart surgeon, Piper analyzes questions about the need for people to have
a conscious faith in Christ for salvation, and the consequences of not having
such a faith. The answers he gives are born out of thorough knowledge of
Scripture and a compassion for people in light of the sacrifice of Jesus on the
cross. For anyone who is wrestling with the centrality of Christ in God's plan
of salvation, or for those whose work requires they give an account of this
centrality, this is highly recommended reading.
Not satisfied to
deal with just one difficult subject in his book, Piper goes on to end
"Let the Nations Be Glad" talking about missions as a mandate to
reach "people groups." In his typical fashion, he doesn't embrace the
idea of evangelizing "unreached peoples" simply because it is
popular. He does careful exegesis of many New Testament passages which refer to
"ethnos," the Greek word for a nation, or nations of people (as
opposed to a political nation). Grasping this meaning in Scripture is key to
understanding correctly what the Biblical mandate "go and make disciples
of all the nations" really means and how it is to be accomplished. To
further strengthen his interpretation, Piper undergirds it with the Old
Testamental hope "that God would one day be worshipped by people from all
the nations of the world" (p.181).
Martyrdom of
Christians p. 75.
Perhaps one of
the most important contributions made by "Let the Nations Be Glad" is
the assurance that the task is not futile, but is ordained by God for
completion. Missions starts with God, He works through and unto people, who
will then assuredly bring Him glory forever.
Application
This book has
motivated me to encourage people to think more strategically in their attitudes
towards mission. It has also challenged me to see with fresh clarity that
‘sacrifice language’ can be misleading if we do not appreciate that
to give up for God is only ever to gain!
Nexrt
week’s Assignment- no reading in book-- handout only!
Prepare your
purpose statement.
Do we take our
comfortable lives and make them the measure of what the Bible means?
If
Christ’s death is really substitutionary, shouldn’t I escape what
he bore for me? Christ died for us so we would not have to die for sin- not
that we wouldn’t have to die for others. Our death in Christ is never in
judgment. Christ’s death is both substitution and pattern. 1 Peter
2:20-21
Suffering
deepens faith and holiness
Suffering makes
your cup increase
Suffering is the
price of making others bold
Suffering fills
up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions- not in atoning sufficiency-
but in that they are unknown to people not at the cross.
Suffering enforces
the missionary command to go.
The supremacy of
Christ is manifest is suffering.
Not ultimately
sacrifice- but we gain the greatest joy.