Promise Fulfilled: One People from All Peoples

Guest speaker Sean Cooper, of Global Serve International, traces the story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation to show that God's purpose has always been to gather a people for Himself from every tongue, tribe, and nation, fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ and the Great Commission. He challenges believers to examine whether God’s global mission—especially to unreached peoples—truly matters to them, not necessarily by all going, but by all being meaningfully engaged in God’s worldwide purpose through the local church.

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  We, as a church, want to be a loving community, making disciples of Jesus Christ generationally and globally. We had an opportunity present itself a few months back, where, as you know, one of our members is being sent out on mission, and his wife, and their missions organization was available this weekend to come, and we're doing a couple of things with them, building a relationship with the missions organization with Global Serve International, and then also getting a great opportunity to have our hearts refreshed on our mission. Next week I will look at Acts 13, and the local church's responsibility for the mission. And today we have with us Sean Cooper, who is with Global Serve International, and he's an Arkansas native, and he is here with us today. He leaves behind four kids, 11, eight, four, and two. So, thank them for their sacrifice. He has been in ministries for a long time, they've been in 48 states, and even knows not to say Spokane. He's been here before, and we are, we are excited to have him. Let's tie these things together, our generational and are international here is a scripture that ties this together for us. It's another of the great commission verses, Luke 2446 Jesus said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and we continue to be those witnesses. So, let's welcome up Sean, Sean Cooper. Thank you for joining
  
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  us.
  
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  It's a pleasure to have you. Thank you.
  
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  Thanks, Dan. Good morning, Faith. If you guys have your Bibles with you, open them up to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12, and while you're turning there, as Dan said, I hail from the great state of Arkansas, and yeah, go Pixui. I often joke that when you're from Arkansas, it's great to be anywhere, including Spokane. So I'm thankful to be here. I found myself here a number of years ago doing an event with a group of college students, and there was a young man within that group, who stood up and said, I'd like to give my life to go into the ends of the earth, and that young man and his wife currently serve with GSI, the organization that I work with, doing something very similar to the couple that you guys are preparing to send out to the ends of the earth, and so, yeah, just thankful to be a part of this morning. So, thank you for having me. If you guys would follow along as I read Genesis chapter 12 verses one through three. Hear now the word of the Lord. Now, the Lord said to Abram, "Go, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Friends, let's pray together. Father, thank you for a chance to gather this morning, and plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps, and so, Lord, we all come here gathered this morning, because you have brought us here. You have directed our steps this morning to this place, God, to hear from you. Lord, apart from you we acknowledge and recognize that we can do nothing. So, Father, would you now be pleased to work, and would you work through your word and through your spirit? God, would you open our eyes to behold wonderful. Things from your law, and would you open our ears to hear, and Lord, not to merely hear words, but to be doers of your word. God, you alone must make the soil of our hearts ready to receive your word now, God, you alone must protect it from being choked out and snatched up by an enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy, and with the cares of the world that we bring in here this morning, and so make the soil of our hearts ready to receive your word this morning, and God, would you please bear fruit from it, some 3060 and 100 fold. We look to you for our help. You are the Maker, Lord of heaven and earth, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, friends, I thought it would be appropriate for me to tell you a little bit about myself, how I got here, and what we're going to talk about this morning. Would that be all right with you guys for me to tell you just a little bit about myself, how I got here, and what it has to do with you. Growing up, I was raised in a textbook, sort of low-income, blue-collar family, and as a young kid, my dad's idea of fun would be to take me out on the weekends and make me help him cut wood. It was not funny as a kid, I promise you. I did not think that in the least. In fact, as a kid, I felt like it was a great way to ruin my childhood. I remember being probably somewhere between the ages of seven and 10 years old, running a Husqvarna chainsaw, right, which is a lawsuit waiting to happen in today's world. And I remember thinking, as a kid, why are we out here? And so I felt like, as a young kid, it was sort of my responsibility to let my dad know just how terrible I thought that he was, and that often manifested itself in me complaining, moaning, fussing, belly aching, and that would go on to a point, and like any good father, my dad would tolerate my complaining up to a point, and then he would simply say, "Listen, Sean, enough's enough. I've heard all I'm going to hear, and if you never want to cut another piece of wood or drag another piece of brush in your life, then I want you to listen to the advice I'm about to give you, and my dad would say, "This, Sean, here's what you need to know about life: you need to grow up, you need to go to college, you need to get a great degree, and the reason that you need to get a great degree is so that you can get a great paying job, and the reason you need a great paying job is so that you can pay someone else to cut your wood. And in that moment, friends, I thought my dad actually knew something. I actually thought maybe he's on to something, and so what I heard growing up as a young kid that my purpose in life was was to chase this thing that we call the American Dream. Now, he never said it in quite those exact words, but that's what my dad was sort of driving at. That my purpose in life was to chase this thing that we call the American dream. We're all familiar with what it is, and I don't fault my dad for telling me what he said. And here's why: we didn't grow up in a Christian family. Our life was not governed by this book, right here, the Bible, God's word. Our life was not governed by a Christian worldview, and so all my dad told me to do was what he thought was best, and what I quickly found out was that that's what sort of the rest of society and culture was telling me, that my purpose in life was my high school teachers, my high school classmates driving me and pushing me towards this purpose of settling into this comfortable American life, safety, security, financial comfort, all those kinds of different things. And so I was convinced that that's what I was supposed to do. I had the chance to graduate high school and eventually head off to college, and if I were to sort of sum up my entry into collegiate life, faith Bible. I would have summed it up like this: me, my agenda, and just a little bit of God. That was my on-ramp to college life, me, my agenda, and just a little bit of God. So that's any kind of a Christianity whatsoever. I was happy to have sort of God along for the ride, as long as he didn't interrupt my hopes, my dreams, my wants, my goals, my aspirations, and then all of that changed my sophomore year of college, when God sent this minister into my path. And friends, I wasn't looking for this guy. In fact, he came out of nowhere. I felt like I got sideswiped by this guy, and I remember him sitting me down and saying, Sean, I'm going to share some things with you about life. Life is not about you and your agenda. In fact, you probably need to think about getting over yourself. Now, here's what I haven't told you. Little known fact, I'm an only child. You're like, it's starting to make sense. Okay, and so this guy, in many ways, confronted me boldly. Courageously, and he said, Sean, life's not about you, and it's not about your agenda. I'm here to tell you things that you probably need to hear, but you might not necessarily want to hear. And then he said, not only am I here to tell you that life's not about you, and not about your agenda, and that you should think about getting over yourself, but he said, Let me do you the best favor that I possibly could. Let me tell you, what life is about. Life is about God, and life is about God's purpose and God's agenda. And God has a very basic purpose and agenda, and it's this: it's making himself famous worldwide, among every tongue, every tribe, all nations, all peoples, and all languages, and he is doing that through the finished work of his son Jesus Christ, and he said, "I don't want you to take my word for it, I want to show it to you from the text. And then, friends, he did something I'd never seen before. He took this book, the Bible, he opened it up in Genesis chapter one, and he watched me from Genesis chapter one, cover to cover, all the way through the book of Revelation, he even went through the maps in the back. Did you know there are maps in the back of your Bible? And he basically unfolded for me from God's word, dear friends, what God's purpose was to make God known among all peoples through God's son. He closed the Bible, and then he stared at me quietly, waiting for the spirit to work, and in that moment, dear friends, here we are, some 22 years later. The simplest way I can explain what happened was that the spirit of God took the word of God, right, which is living and active, right, sharper than a double edged sword, and used it to bring me under the most immense conviction of sin and selfishness, and staring before me was this clear reality that from Genesis to Revelation God had this purpose to gather a people to Himself, and as I sat there coming to this realization through the spirit opening up my eyes, I looked over on the floor, and it was as if my agenda was over here on the floor, smoldering in a little pile of ashes, because up to that point in my life, dear friends, I had never heard God talked about in such a profound and awesome way. Up to that point in my Christian life, I had never heard the Bible cover to cover talked about in such a grand and unifying way. Up to that point in my Christian life, I'd never heard about God's global purpose, right? This thing that we call missions talked about in such a profound way. In fact, if I can be very honest with you guys, at that point in my life I had zero interest in God's global purposes, none. I was apathetic, I was indifferent. I thought missions is not for me, that is for someone else somewhere else. If I can be very candid with you, I was like, man, missions is for weird people who don't fit in in America, that's why we mail them overseas. Okay, some of you can't believe I said it, some of you probably thought it, and you just won't admit it. So, I'll just say it for all of us, okay? And I don't mind saying that, because some of my closest, dearest friends, who are serving at the ends of the earth, they're cut from a pretty unique cloth. Nonetheless, here I was, dear friends, face to face with God's word in a way I never had been before, and through a kindness of the Lord to open up my eyes to see this reality. Here's what became apparent to me. This thing that we call missions, it matters to God, and if it matters to him, the question I was asking myself is, does it matter to me? If missions matters to God, does it matter to you, Sean? And that's the simple question that I want us to walk out of the door this morning answering. If missions matter to God, dear friends at Faith Bible, does it matter to you? And by answering and asking that question, I am not saying or suggesting that all of us are meant to go overseas. In fact, few of us will probably go, and many of us will stay. But all I'm driving at is to simply send us out the door, answering and asking the question. If it matters to him, does it matter to us, no matter our location, no matter our vocation, no matter what age of life I'm in, or what stage of life I'm in. If this matters to him, and I wave the banner of Jesus Christ over my life, if I say that I am united to Christ alone by grace alone, through faith alone, then it must matter to me. It is not optional to say right that it matters to the head. Then it must matter to what the body to matter to the groom. It must matter to what dear friends the bride to say I'm really into Jesus, but I'm not into. The missions thing, friends, that's like a bird saying I don't do air, that's like a fish saying I'm not into water. It is by necessity, as those who are united to Christ, that what matters to Him matters to us. And so, what we're going to do this morning, with the remainder of our time, is I'm going to walk us, with God's help from Genesis all the way to Revelation, I don't know what time they told you you thought you're going to get out of here, but what we want to do right is we want you guys to see from God's word that this thing called missions, it is not my idea, it is not Dan's idea, it's not GSI's idea, it's not some denomination's idea, right? It's not the couple you're sending out the doors idea or your missions committee's idea, dear friends. It's whose idea it's God's. And if it's his idea and it matters to him, then it must matter to us, and it must, I would argue, stain every fabric of our life. And so with that, as we begin to walk through the story of God's word, the story gets started in Genesis chapter one with two people on the planet, Adam and who, Eve. It's not a trick question. And God comes to them in Genesis 128 and He gives them the very first commandment in the Bible, and this is what we're told, that it says, God blessed them, and God said to them, Adam and Eve, I want you to be fruitful and multiply, and I want you to fill the earth. Now, this happens to be the very first commandment that God gives mankind in Scripture, and I often jest, fully say it's not only the first commandment He gave mankind, it's also about the only one that we've managed to keep. You can talk about what that means on your drive home, okay. But now that I've got your attention, here's what I want us to recognize. All jokes aside, really and truly, God is saying, Adam and Eve, I want you to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, grow your family, grow it big, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and I want you to spread out, and I want you to populate the planet, and here's why. Because at this point in the story, dear friends, God and mankind are in perfect union and communion with each other, and so as Adam and Eve begin to populate the earth physically, teaching and training their descendants what it means to know God and to worship Him and to glorify him and treasure him as they fill the earth physically, they will populate the earth spiritually with a planet full of people who know and glorify God. This is why Habakkuk can say that God wants his glory to fill the earth like the waters cover what the sea, and so God is after a planet full of people who know him, praise him, and worship him. In fact, the refrain of scripture is, "It not, I will be their God and they will be my what, my people. However, by the time we get to Genesis chapter three, we know that mankind sins, they sever their relationship with God. By the time we get to Genesis chapter six, verse five, the Bible says that every intention in mankind's heart was only set on evil all the time. Six chapters into the Bible, utter wickedness fills the earth, and in Genesis chapter seven, God responds, and He floods the earth and wipes out everyone and everything, with the exception of Noah and his family and the animals two by two. And then what we find is that we in Genesis nine one, God comes to Noah and blessed him and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and do what faith Bible fill the earth. Notice, we're not more than 10 chapters into the entire Bible, and twice now God has commanded mankind to fill the earth, fill the earth. it's a crystal clear command, but what's the difference between Genesis nine and Genesis one? Sin, sin has now entered the picture in the story, in the narrative, such that mankind is at rebellion, at enmity, and at war with God. I often say that there is no such thing as a neutral party between God and humanity. And what do I mean whenever I say that? Well, dear friends, it's not as though humans are walking the earth indifferent to who God is. The Bible is crystal clear about this. You either love God and you hate sin or you love sin and you what hate God. Paul is clear in the New Testament about that fact. You either love God and hate sin or love sin and hate God, and so all of this enmity and rebellion comes to a head, if you will, two chapters later, when we find ourselves at this story many of us may be familiar with, called the Tower of Babel. Now, the whole earth had one language and a common speech, so here we find ourselves 11 chapters into the Bible, and no matter where you went on. Planet Earth, everybody was speaking, how many languages? Faith, one, right, English. And as men moved eastward, the Bible says they found a plane in a place called Shinar. Listen, they settled there. They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower that reaches to the sky. Why? So that we might make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. God said go, and humanity said what God said. Humanity said, now listen, dear friends, I said this in the first service. You don't have to have a Bible degree, right? You don't have to be on staff at a church. You don't have to have really great interpretive skills to figure out that this right here is what we call direct disobedience. This, in many ways, is the apex of human defiance, humanity shaking their fist in God's face. Now, any careful Bible reader, when they get to this point in the story, should be on the edge of their seat, which I see that you all aren't. Now, why should you be on the edge of your seat at this point in the story? Because what had God done with rebellious, wicked humanity just a few chapters back, wiped them out. What's he going to do here? Well, we knew he promised he wouldn't do about water, but you get to this point, you're like, is he just going to send them all sailing into the sun. We do find that God responds in both judgment and mercy. Chapter 11, seven and eight, says this: And the Lord said, "Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the tower. Now, before everybody was speaking how many languages? One. And now we go from one language to many languages. We go from one location to many locations. In fact, right here in Genesis chapter 11, this is where all of the known languages in the world today can trace their historical roots to. If somebody asks you, "Where do the languages of the world come from? and you're a Bible-believing Christian, this is your answer right here. God scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Now, linguists will tell you, okay, I'm no professional linguist, but I work with men who are. Linguists will tell you that we estimate that there are roughly 7000 languages in the world today. 7000 of those 7030 100 of them earmarked that number are what we would consider to be totally unreached, and when I say unreached, what I mean is they have no Bible in their language to read about Jesus, no one there who speaks their language clearly enough that can preach to them, and no believers that they can regularly fellowship with in order to be built up, they have nothing, zero access to the gospel, and the only way they're going to get it is if someone, what goes if someone is sent out of the church to go to them, and so when I say unreached, I'm not merely talking about those who we might be neighbors with that are unsaved, and while that's important, that we should reach out to them and share the gospel. I'm not talking when I say unreached about my unsaved neighbor, Tammy, who manages Panera, or Matt, who works for the fire department. His wife, Ellie, is a nurse. I'm not talking about John and Alex Ann across the street from us, who just had their first little baby girl. My neighbors are wonderful folks, love getting to know them. They might be unsaved, and they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are not unreached. I can walk across the street and share the gospel with them and build a relationship with them. When I say 3100 languages that are unreached, we're talking zero access to the gospel. Now, the encouragement to you guys, Faith Bible, is this is what you are doing to prepare to send this couple out from your church into this cross-cultural context to learn one of these languages in order that they might proclaim the gospel, see a church planted, see elders and deacons raised up and established, the Bible translated, and come home. So be encouraged, but we find ourselves back at Genesis chapter 11, and this is the question that's begging, what I've been arguing up to this point, is that God wants a people gathered to himself, right? God desires to have a people gathered himself, but the paradox of Genesis 11 is that he's done what he's scattered them, and so the question at Genesis 11 that's begging is, what is God going to do to kick start the gathering process? Now, we don't have to go far to find an answer, because I had you turn in your Bibles there at the very beginning. Just a chapter later, we're told that the Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and Abram, I want you to go to the land that I will show you. Here we are, God is going to pick one man, essentially to kick start the gather. Process, the Bible tells us his name is Abram. The Bible also tells us that when God interrupts his life and his agenda, that he is 75 years old. We have a word for that in America - it's called what? Retired. And when God breaks in and speaks to Abraham, let us be clear that Abram is not looking for God at this point in his life. Joshua chapter 24 tells us that Abram and his father were idol worshipers. Further, Romans chapter three tells us that no one seeks God, no, not what one, and Abraham is no different, but God sovereignly and graciously and mercifully breaks in and speaks to Abram, the same God who spoke the universe into existence, is the very God who is commanding him to leave. Notice, it's not a good suggestion. It doesn't matter whether it's well timed or convenient for Abraham, it's a clear-cut command. Now, what is it that he is commanding Abram to leave? I think it's necessary that we park it here just a little bit in Genesis chapter 12. For this reason, Genesis chapter 12, I would argue, is one of the most important passages in our entire Bible. If you miss what's going on in Genesis 12, I would contend that you're going to miss your whole Bible. Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, thought it was so important that it should have been written in our Bible in letters of gold. You don't have to agree with everything that Luther says, but that's a tall statement. And so, while we park it here, I want us to unpack what is it that God's commanding Abram to leave. Well, notice number one, your country or your place at the time, Abraham was living in the land of Ur. It was very easy to spell, you are okay, my kind of place. When you're from Arkansas, it was a port city that sat in the Persian Gulf. It was rich in commerce and trade, and, as I've already said, it was soaked in idolatry. And so, when God comes to Abraham and speaks, he commands him to have a decisive break away from his place and his idolatry. Second, notice that he commands him to leave his people, his family, those who he's done life with, those who he shares the closest relationship with, those who serve as his support system, if you will. Abraham, I'm commanding you to leave your place, I'm commanding you to leave your people, and I'm commanding you to leave your father. Now, if you're Abram, and you are living in the ancient Near East, sometimes we've got to pause right and remember this is a real historical person, real historical event, and recognize that if you're Abram living in the ancient Near East, you do not have the plethora of options that are at our disposal today, right. We are plagued as Americans with over choice, what we want to do, what we're interested.. I mean, all these options that we have at our fingertips, those didn't exist. Abraham, if you're Abraham, what are you going to do for a career, for work, you're gonna do what? Who does what your dad does, and where are you gonna go? You're gonna go where your dad goes. So, you're gonna do what your dad does, you're gonna go where your dad goes, and hopefully, if you outlive your father, you stand to receive his inheritance. And so, just so we're clear as to what it is that God is commanding Abraham to walk away from, the answer is everything. Abraham, I want you to strike a match, light it on fire, throw it onto your 401 k, and watch it burn. But then God's going to go on to promise him, Abraham, I'm commanding you to leave your place, because I'm going to give you a place, and that place isn't merely going to be just a little sliver of land in Palestine. How do we know that? Because Romans 413 says Abraham stood to be heir of the world. Further, Abraham, I'm commanding you to live your people, because I'm going to give you a people more numerous than the stars in the sky, more numerous than the sands on the sea. And Abraham, I'm commanding you to leave your father, and here's why, because I'm going to become your father, and Abram, if you get me, don't miss his faith Bible, Abraham, if you get me, you get what all to get, God, dear friends, is to get all, there is nothing more that heaven could give us than God himself. This is why Paul can say over in Second Corinthians, having nothing yet possessing what faith everything to get God is to get all. And how do we get God? We get Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through who me. For there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And so this is why God can go on and promise him another series of promises. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, whoever curses you, I will curse. And through you, Abraham, all peoples on earth will be blessed. All peoples, depending on what translation of the Bible you read, it may say something along the lines of all families, all peoples, all nations, all clans, for the most part, to not be over simplistic, those words are synonymous. That's who the blessing is for, all peoples, tribes, tongues, nations, and languages. But the question that we must ask at this point is, what is the ultimate blessing? What is the ultimate blessing that's eventually going to make its way to every tongue, tribe, people, nation, and language. It's not Abraham's material or temporal blessings, although we know that he was one of the wealthiest men in the ancient Near East, as Genesis 13 tells us. What's the ultimate blessing that God can give us? It's Himself. And so, what do we learn from Genesis 12, one through three, but that God is preaching the gospel, the good news, right here to Abraham. And if you were to say to me, where do you get that from, Genesis 12? Well, Paul's going to tell us over in Galatians three eight that God preached the gospel, the good news to Abraham, saying, in you all nations will be blessed. What's the good news of the gospel? It's that God is going to fix what mankind messed up back in Genesis chapter three, when we chose to sin, and the way He's going to fix it is by sending Jesus down through Abraham's family bloodline, and 1000s of years later Jesus is going to step onto the scene, fully God and fully man. He will live, dear friends, the perfect, sinless, spotless, blameless, totally righteous life that none of us in this room have ever got a shot at living ever, and he's going to do it in thought, in word, and in deed. Just think about that thought, word, and deed. What sinful thoughts did you bring in here this morning? What sinful words did you say this week? Something that was proud, something that was slanderous, something that was gossipy. Never mind thoughts and words. What about deeds in perfect fulfillment of the law? According to Matthew 517 he steps onto the scene, lives the life we could never live, and then he marches to the cross, and he dies a death that you and I deserve to die for our sins in our place as our substitute. And then he's buried in the grave, and three days later, God the Father, through the power of the Spirit, raises him from the dead. The whole Trinity is involved in the resurrection, proving and demonstrating to the world that Jesus is exactly who He said he was, and then he goes on and says, whoever, whoever will turn away from their sins and put their faith and trust in who Christ is and what Christ did, whoever, rich, poor, young, old, male, female, American, Chinese, Indonesian, Laotian, whoever will turn away from their sins and look to Christ, God says, 'I will wipe your slate clean, forgive you of your sins, reconcile you to myself, declare you right, make you right, and bring you into enjoying me in eternity forever. That gift of the good news of the gospel is eventually going to make its way, where, dear friends to every tongue, every tribe, and every nation. I want you to see it with your eyes. The rest of the Bible story hangs off of this promise right here, and so get used to hearing me say this phrase, because from this point forward, what you're going to notice that God is going to start to fulfill His purpose through His promise. I'm probably going to say it about two dozen more times before we get out of here. God fulfills his purpose through his promise. I want you to see how he repeats this promise to Isaac in Genesis 26 Isaac, through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed. He repeats the promise to Jacob. Jacob, do you remember what I told your father Isaac and your grandfather Abram? Through you, all nations, all peoples will be blessed. Abraham, I'm blessing you to be a blessing. Isaac and Jacob, I'm blessing your family to be a blessing. The blessings coming to you because I'm intending to move it through you. And so, here's what happens: we go from one man, Abram, to one family, Isaac and Jacob. And then God's going to grow that family into one nation, the nation of who, your friends, Israel. Israel, you're going to be my chosen people, but it is for my chosen purpose, and my purpose is to fulfill a promise, and my promise includes blessing all peoples. Now that's a lot of alliterating and a lot of peas. So I'm gonna give it to you again. You ready? Israel, you're my chosen people. It's for my chosen purpose. My purpose is to fulfill a promise, and that promise includes blessing all peoples, both Jews and what Gentiles. Because I am at work gathering a people to myself from all peoples. Now, by the time you get right, well, let me back up and say it this way. If you were to summarize the Old Testament, there's a lot of ways that you could do it, but here's one working summary statement for the Old Testament. Okay, out of all the nations that God scattered at the Tower of Babel, he chose one nation, Israel, to reach what all nations. So say it with me: out of all the nations, God chose one nation to reach what all nations, Israel. You're blessed to be a blessing, right? You were to be a city on a hill, so to speak, a light to the nations. Now, by the time you get to the end of Genesis, right, which you guys are walking through right now, as Dan exposits the scriptures for you guys, you get to the end of Genesis, and I would argue that the tension at the end of that book is so thick that you could cut it with a knife, and here's why, at the end of Genesis, how many people are there in Abrams family Bible pop quiz? 70. Okay, that's like the first eight rows over here. And why is the tension so thick? Because God's made these grand promises that they would be more numerous than what the stars in the sky and the sand on the sea, and further he's promised them a land and a place where he would dwell among them, and they're not living in the land or the place, they're where they're in Egypt on foreign soil, and so you're like God, but then when you turn the page from Genesis to Exodus, what do we find as Abraham's small little families living in the land of Egypt, but that God begins to multiply them into an exceedingly great number, we're told, hearkening back to Genesis 128 be fruitful and what multiply, hearkening back to Genesis 91 be fruitful and multiply, and so God begins to multiply them. There's a new pharaoh in charge. He looks around and says, I've got a free labor force on my hands, and he begins to enslave them, abuse them, act shrewdly towards them, and oppress them. And this doesn't just go on, friends, for 10 years, 15 years, 30 years, 180 years, it goes on for nearly four centuries. It gets so bad that finally Israel cries out to God and says, Lord, you have got to deliver us. And God says, Israel, I have heard your prayer, and I remembered the promise that I made to who, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When it says that God remembered, it's not because omniscience, like, forgot. It's a reminder for you and me to recognize that the entire Exodus account is grounded in this promise that God has made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so God says, "Mo, I want you to go, and here's how we're going to do it. 10 plagues later. Why 10 plagues? Egypt, arguably the most powerful nation in the known world at that time, 10 plagues later has been raised to the ground, because each one of those plagues was meant to address an Egyptian god, lowercase G, but then we are told in Exodus 916 more specifically, God says, but it was for this purpose that I, God, have raised you up, Pharaoh, to show you my power, so that my name might be proclaimed where in all the earth, when God delivered Israel and redeemed them out from under the hand of Pharaoh by his mighty right arm, he wasn't doing it merely and only for Israel. If you read through the Exodus account, by my count, a half a dozen times, God says, "I'm doing what I'm doing so that the Egyptians will know that I'm God, and not merely the Israelites and merely the Egyptians, but what's Exodus 916 say? The whole what, so that the whole earth might know my name 40 years later after the fact. This event is still front page news in Jericho, and so God is at work immediately in the 10 plagues, fulfilling his purpose through his promise. Now, eventually we know that the Israelites, right, roll out of Egypt, they look over their shoulder. Pharaoh's army is floating in a body of water, and they're not more than a few days out into the desert. And what are they doing? Faith Bible, they are complaining. They sound like a 10 year old in the woods, Moses, you have brought us out here to kill us. Listen, it's like what the irony of it is, they're asking for a cup of water, and the most powerful army in the known world is floating in a body of. Of water, and we're like Israel. When are you ever going to figure it out? And you're like, maybe he's being a little hard on those guys, but what should we be saying to ourselves? When are what? When are we right? We're cut from the same cloth. When are we going to figure it out? Are we not fickle creatures, dear friends? One minute they're begging to get out, and the next they're crying to do what? Go, the onions were good. I mean, this stew was awesome. You're like, and so God says, Israel, because of your unbelief, you're going to take laps in the desert for 40 years, begin walking, and Moses goes to the mountain to get the law, and what do we find that God's at work fulfilling his purpose through his promise, not only in the 10 plagues but in the giving of the law and the 10 commandments. How do we know? For Deuteronomy 46 says, Israel, observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and your understanding to who the nations, there were many reasons why God gave the law. Many wanted to show Israel that they couldn't keep it, that they needed a savior. I think one of the implications that we learned from Deuteronomy 46 is simply this: Israel's obedience to God, dear friends, was meant to be a reflection of God. Let me say that again. Israel's obedience to God was meant to be a reflection of God. The law is not a bad thing, right? Paul speaks of it in Romans seven as good and righteous. The psalmist says it's like a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. In First Timothy, Paul tells Timothy the law is good for those who know how to use it rightly, the law is an extension of God's character, and so is Israel right followed God. They reflected God, so to speak. They again were to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations. No surprise when we get into the New Testament, we begin to talk about the people of God in the New Testament, what are we referred to, dear friends, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? We're to be salt and what light. So, whether it's the 10 plagues of the 10 commandments, God is at work fulfilling His purpose through His promise. Eventually, we know that Israel takes the land, they're established. First man out of the gate is King Saul, terrible start, lousy finish, and on his way to the throne, right on on his coattails, is a young man by the name of David, and David has an infamous battle with who? Faith Bible, did I come to the right place this morning? David has an infamous battle with who, Goliath. This day I will strike you down. I will remove your head, give the dead bodies of the Philistines to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. When David, when God, I should say, uses David to slaughter Goliath to deliver and to save his people. It's one more way for God to put himself on front page world news and say not only to the Egyptians, to the Israelites, to the Canaanites, but to the Philistines, I am the one true God. Bend your knee in allegiance to me now. Eventually we know that David has many sons after taking the throne, and one of them is named Solomon. And on Solomon's way to the throne, God says, "Ask me whatever you wish, and I'll give it to you. And Solomon says, "I need wisdom and understanding to lead the people of Israel. As a parenthetical side note, by the way, that's a great prayer to pray for your elders, they need wisdom, and they need understanding. It can be difficult to lead, and so they would covet. I can guarantee your prayers that God would give them wisdom and understanding to lead you guys. Close parentheses. When God gives him his wisdom, he says, "Hey, I'm not only going to give you the wisdom, but I'm going to give you the wealth. But when God gives Solomon, listen, dear friends, his wisdom and wealth, is it merely for Solomon? Is it merely for Israel? No. How do we know? Because First Kings 433 tells us that people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his great wisdom. The Queen of Sheba is going to march several 100 miles north from probably somewhere in modern day North Africa all the way up to Jerusalem to listen to this guy speak and to look at his stuff, and by the time this pagan Gentile queen walks out of the presence of Solomon, what is she saying? Blessed be the God of Israel, blessed be the God of Israel, Jesus in the Gospels is actually going to use her as an example of what believing faith looks like. I think on good New Testament warrant, you and I will spend eternity in heaven worshiping with the Queen of Sheba and. First service, I said worshiping the Queen of Sheba, and someone came and corrected me afterwards and said, I don't think you meant to say that. I said, I didn't, that's blasphemy. I think on good New Testament warrant, we will spend eternity worshiping with the Queen of Sheba, because Jesus is going to use her as an example to condemn his own countrymen, for their unbelief. Nonetheless, let me review whether it's the 10 plagues, the 10 commandments, the Red Sea, the River Jordan, David and Goliath, Solomon, and his wisdom. If time would allow us, dear friends, look at all these other Old Testament examples. We could go till 4o'clock this afternoon. The Ethiopian eunuch, the mixed multitude, naming the Syrian, Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite, whether it's Persian kings, right, whether it's Babylonian kings, whether it's four chapters in the book of Jonah where God says to this reluctant prophet, I want you to go preach to the Ninevites, and Jonah says what God says, Jonah says right back to Genesis 11, there is nothing new under the sun, and Jonah says, you know what, I'd rather go sit under a tree and die than go tell the Ninevites God-hating, merciless Ninevites, who you are and what you're like, because they just might repent, and they might come to see through your work that you're a God who's gracious, patient, merciful, abounding in love. Friends, not only is it in these other Old Testament examples, but it's all over in the Psalms. By my count, God mentions His purpose among the nations and the peoples, whether it's through salvation or judgment, more than 90 times in 150 psalms. Here's one you guys are probably familiar with. Psalm 40-610, says, "Be still and what? Know that I am God. Okay, now if you go read Psalm 40-six, it doesn't look a thing like this. The mountains are quaking, the earth is melting, right? It is coming apart at the seams, so to speak. But here's Hobby Lobby for you. Now, listen, we buy our crafts at Hobby Lobby, so don't feel like I'm hating, okay? We pay our monthly bill to them, just like everybody else does. How do I know that it looks like this? Because, as I travel and preach and speak, I see it in your homes, in your foyers, in your living room, in your guest bedrooms, in your bathrooms. Sometimes it's got a picture of the ocean with some sand. It's peaceful, it's quiet, serene, but you're like Psalm 46 doesn't look a thing like that. And here's what we often miss: is that at the end of the psalm, we're told that God is commanding you and I to sit still and know that He is God, because He will be exalted among what, dear friends, all the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth. Now I realize, at risk of saying this, it matters not to me what news station you watch. Psalm 46 is a reminder of you and I to step back and to say to ourselves and to be reminded from God's voice that no matter what's going on between China and Taiwan, what's going on between Russia and Ukraine, what's going on between Iran and America, what's going on between Israel and Palestine, that in all of these things He is providentially, sovereignly, and meticulous ly fulfilling what that promise to make himself known in ways right that we might not be able to fully comprehend himself to all the nations, and so I would just exhort us to come back from the noise that we hear on that box sitting in our living room, and say to ourselves, in all of this, God, I don't quite get all of it, but what I do know is that you are working to exalt yourself among all nations and all peoples. Now, the remarkable thing is that as we turn the page from the Old Testament and into the New, listen, we could talk about major prophecies, we could talk about minor prophecies, we could talk about Isaiah 49 six, we could talk about Malachi 111 For sake of time, is why walk us into the New Testament. Here's what I want us to see. The interesting thing about walking into the New Testament is, you turn the page from the old to new, in one sense you can say that nothing changes, same purpose, same promise, all peoples in one sense, as you go from the old to the new, you could say nothing changes, and at the same time you could say that as you turn the page from the old to the new, what, dear friends, everything changes, because Christ has now come, and as. Jesus steps onto the scene, and we watch his public ministry take place over a three year period of time, looking at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He takes with him this island, if you will, of misfit toys, and for three years we get to watch him engage in public ministry, blessing the nations. Jesus is not only a blessing to the nations, dear friends, in his death and resurrection, he was a blessing to them in his very life and public ministry. How do we know? Because he heals a Canaanite's daughter, because he's engaged in healing the servant of a Roman centurion in Matthew eight, he feeds 4000 Gentiles in Matthew 15. That's entirely different than the feeding of the 5000 which were probably primarily Jewish. The 4000 were in the southeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, in a region called the Decapolis. Deca stood for 10. There were 10 Roman cities down there, and I've read that some theologians and scholars would argue that between the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 Jesus has his bread of life discourse in John chapter six, where He says, "I'm the bread that's come down from heaven, and I take that you gather all of that together. What is Jesus saying to you and me, that there's enough bread, friends, to go around for who everyone, for both Jews and Gentiles? Nonetheless, we know that after watching him this engage in public ministry, bringing his disciples with him, showing them what it looks like as he's going to prepare to hand them the baton, we know that eventually he marches to the cross, where he's crucified and resurrected, and post crucifixion, or post resurrection, pre ascension, we say that again. Post-resurrection, pre-ascension, Jesus comes, and He gives what we call during this 40 day period of time the Great Commission. Now, some of you guys are like, He is 49 minutes in, and He just got to the Great Commission. We finally made it to the missions verse. Now, what have I been arguing all along, that what he's going to command in these five passages has been promised in the soil of the Old Testament. It has been growing this whole time. The great commission passages, dear friends, do not arrive in the New Testament de novo, out of nowhere, right? He is essentially commanding what had been promised in the Old Testament. Now we don't have time to look at all five of these passages in great detail. I would invite you to come join me this afternoon. Right, we're going to walk through the whole book of Acts in the first session this afternoon, and then we're going to walk through what's it going to take to see churches planted, disciples raised up, the Bible translated in these cross-cultural minority language groups. So, I don't have time to elaborate on all that could be said about the Great Commission passages, but I want us to notice that there are a few things that are similar and different, and there are a series of things that are worth pointing out. The first commissioning passage, the one we're most familiar with, the longest one in the most detailed, comes to us in Matthew 2818 through 20. This is what Jesus said to them: 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, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. And behold, I am with you always to what the end of the age. I am with you always. Do you not hear the echoes of Genesis 12, when God said to Abram, "Go to a land that I will show you, and doesn't bother to tell him where he's going or how long he's staying. What difference does it make if God is going with you? And here Jesus right is affirming that exact same thing, that I am with you to do this work. Now, if you were to go back and look at verse 16 of chapter 28 one of the details that Matthew points out for us is that Jesus tells the disciples post resurrection, pre-ascension, during this 48 period of time, Acts one three, that they are to meet Him at a mountain near Galilee. Now, that little detail in verse 16, where they're told to go from Jerusalem to meet Him at a mountain in Galilee, is not accidental or arbitrary. In fact, mountains serve as a major motif through the whole Gospel of Matthew. How do we know that? Because the gospel opens up with the Sermon on the Mount. We find ourselves at the Mount of Transfiguration, we find ourselves at the Mount of Olives. And then here we get to the end of the Gospel, and we find ourselves on a what mountain? Now, what do we know to be significant about mountains from the Old Testament? Well, one of my seminary professors would often say, on mountains in the Old Testament, heaven comes to meet earth. In other words, God comes to speak. And so, when Jesus opens up by saying, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me, as they stand on a mountain. What is Jesus saying about himself? What is Matthew trying to get us to understand to capture that this is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords? It is God incarnate. In fact, when they stand on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the voice of the Father confirms, 'This is my son, what does he say? 'This is my beloved son. Listen to him, the same brother that would come from among you in Deuteronomy 1815 to him you are to what listen, and with all of that contextual background, you now start to feel the weight and the freight of what Jesus is going to say to them, all authority to do what. Well, notice, dear friends, he tells them that they are to make disciples, that's what they're to do. Now, this isn't the time or the place to have an entire conversation about discipleship. Tomes of books have been written about that particular topic. Just know that I am encouraged to come here as a guest, and to see that discipleship is built into the fabric of your church. I would merely exhort and encourage you to answer a couple questions. Paul exhorts older men to disciple younger men, older women to disciple younger women. Dear friends, are you discipling someone, and is someone discipling you? If so, what's their name? Are you engaged in the work of discipleship? Now, while more could be said about discipleship, he tells them, notice how they're to do it. How are they to make disciples? Well, they're to go, they're to what, teach, and they're to what baptize. They're to go, they're to baptize, and they're to teach. What are they to teach? They're to teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded. How's Paul going to say it in Acts chapter 20? I did not shrink back from teaching you the whole counsel of God, not just the red letters, the whole what, the whole thing, little by little, bit by bit, expositing the text like you guys do week in and week out, feed them the whole council of God, but what I want us to notice right with Jesus commanding them to make disciples. I think something that's often misunderstood among evangelical Christians is that the aim and the goal and the outcome of the Great Commission is that Jesus just wants us to do lots and lots of evangelism, so that there's lots and lots of more Christians, as though the fruit of an apple tree is more apples, the fruit of an apple tree isn't merely more apples, dear friends, it's what more trees, and so what we see is that where disciples are made, if you come this afternoon as I walk through the book of Acts, what you'll see is that where disciples are made they are then gathered into churches where they regularly participate in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, and they sit under the apostles' teaching. What am I driving at here? Though it is implicit in the text, is that the heartbeat of Matthew 28 is not just lots and lots of disciples, but more what churches that church planting is at the heart of what's being said here in Matthew 28 because the evidence of that is seen in the book of Acts. How else could we look at this from historical theology? What did the Protestant reformers say as they were moving away from Rome? How do we define what a church is if we're not that? What are we? And so, what did they come up with? They said, "Where the word is rightly taught and the ordinances are rightly administered. There we find a what church, and what do we see in Matthew 28 Ordinances and what word? Now that takes us to the second commissioning passage, and we'll have to make quick work of this. I'll circle back to that slide here in just a second, but what I want us to see in Mark 1615 and I recognize we can have a conversation about this out in the lobby about whether or not this is in the original text or not. We can easily go back to Mark 1310 and he's going to say something similar, but what we notice in 1615 is that Jesus said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation in Mark's commissioning passage, notice that it's broad, the whole world, all creation. Notice the similarities that they're to go. Notice the similarity of proclaim, similar to teach. Now, what I want to point out here, I'm going to have to go backwards, is that in the Matthew passage, hang with me, because we're in reverse order here. In the Matthew passage, when Matthew says, "Go make disciples of all nations, we tend to think of the word "nations" as a geopolitical state, but when Jesus said these words, we didn't have those lines on the map. How do I know that? Because in 1947 we took out a pencil and drew a line between North Korea and what South Korea, and then in 1989 we decided to take out an eraser and erase the line between East Germany and West Germany, but when Jesus said these words and he gave the Great Commission, we weren't holding the pen and the. Eraser, so what did he mean when he said nations? Well, if you take that word nations and you translate it back into Greek, it's the word ethnos or ethne or ponta ethne, whether it's singular or plural. Which word does it look like in English? Ethnicity. Go and make disciples and plant churches among all ethnicities. So, what's an ethnicity? I would argue it's primarily defined by languages, and where did those languages come from? Faith Bible, Genesis, what, 11. So, God wants churches and disciples, right, planted and made among every single one of the ethnic groups. Here's the point. The Matthew text is specific, it's narrow, every single one of those ethnic groups, whereas the Mark passage is broad, the whole world, all creation. Now, I would contend from the Mark passage that if we're going to do this among cross-cultural settings, faithful proclamation is going to necessitate and demand two things: clarity and proficiency. Let me say that again. If we're going to do this in all the world across cultural settings, it's going to demand clarity and proficiency. We have to be clear with the gospel that we preach. This is why Paul can say in Colossians 44 to the Colossi church, pray that I would be clear in the words that I speak, and if Paul is praying for clarity as a gospel minister to preach the gospel, how much more who you and me, and if we're going to be clear, we must be proficient, meaning we must know how to speak the language well, because the clarity of the gospel is at stake, and so your workers that are being sent, friends, what you might find is that they're spending numerous hours during the first three to four to five to six to seven to eight years while they're there just learning the language, and we do them no favor by telling them just work through a translator. We do them no favor by saying, where's all the glory stories of all the people that you've led to the Lord, when what they're trying to do is learn the language clearly, so that they are proficiently, so that they can then do what speak clearly, right? We want them to be able to learn the language proficiently, so that they can speak clearly. That brings us to the third commissioning passage. And hang with me here. What I want us to see from the Luke text again, similarities and differences. Jesus said to them, thus it's written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name among what all nations. So, do you see the similarity of all nations? Do you see the similarity of proclamation? What's unique about Luke's commissioning passage is Luke is going to give us what I call the substance of the gospel. What do I mean whenever I say the substance or the ingredients of the gospel? Well, there's four of them here in the text. Notice, first Luke says, 'Thus it is written. Luke grounds his understanding of the gospel in the Old Testament. I've already argued that Paul tells us in Galatians three eight that God was preaching the gospel to Abraham in Genesis 12, the writer of Hebrews chapter four verse two is going to tell us that those who wandered in the wilderness heard the good news, the gospel had been preached. Right now, what was growing out of the soil of the Old Testament? Well, that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day, what, dear friends rise, the whole Old Testament had been pointing to and bearing witness to the person and the work of Christ. It's about Jesus primarily. This is why I can say to the Pharisees in John 539 you search the scriptures for eternal life, but to them, right, they bear witness to who to me. This is why Peter can say in Acts 10, when he's at Cornelius' house, all the prophets bear witness to who, to him, to his person and work, and the fact that he would come, suffer, and on the third day rise. So, ingredient number one, thus it's written, what was written, the crucifixion and the resurrection, or the suffering and the resurrection of Christ, that historical event, Christ's crucifixion and resurrection demands a response from everyone. What response does it man? Demand ingredient number three: you must repent, and what believe? Repentance, right, and faith, two sides of one coin. Revelation demands we respond, and for those who respond in repentance and faith, what's the fourth ingredient that Luke gives us? They will be offered the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God forever. So, the gospel ingredients that Luke gives us, and that the apostles are going to preach sermon after sermon after sermon in the book of Acts, is they're going to ground it in the Old Testament, they're going to move it to Jesus, and then they're going to say, "Here's who He is, we bore witness to Him, you must respond in faith and repentance to Him, and for those who do, you'll be forgiven and reconciled to God forever. Those are the four. Ingredients. What's my point? The apostles didn't make it up. It wasn't the time to be cute or catchy. They were to preach what Jesus told them to preach. That brings us to the fourth commissioning passage in John 2021 This is what it says. Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is referred to 40 times as the sent one. On the 40th time, the tables turn, and it goes from Jesus being the sent one to who the apostles, and by extension of the apostles, the church. In fact, sentness is a major theme in the Gospel of John, and I would argue that the idea of sickness and the nature of sickness is grounded in the very Trinity. What do I mean by that? The Father sends what, dear friends, the Son, and the Father and the Son then send the Spirit, and the Spirit comes and indwells God's people, and through the Spirit indwelling God's people, they are now sent by the church. This is what Dan's going to talk about next week in Acts 13. It's the church that sins. The church is a sending society, if you will. Now, two quick things I want to point out. What does it mean to be sent from the context of John's gospel? Here's what it doesn't mean: we are not sent to atone for sins. So then, what does it mean positively? Well, I would argue that it means at least two things, number one, we will serve, and number two, we will suffer. Where do I get that? In John's Gospel, in John 13, when he washes the disciples' feet, he says, I am giving this as an example to you, you are to serve others, for a servant is not above his what faith master, and a messenger is not above the one who sends him, that's the link. Two chapters later, he uses the same phrase that a servant is not above his master, but it's in the context of suffering. And so, what can we expect as those who will be sent? We will do what, serve, and we will what suffer. That brings us to the last commissioning passage, all of the great things that I'm mentioning, this impossible task of making disciples, gathering them into churches, administering the ordinances to them regularly, preaching to them, ensuring that qualified elders and deacons are raised up to care for their souls spiritually and their bodies physically, to do this proficiently and clearly to include the ingredients of the gospel to be sent to serve and suffer is nothing we can do on our own strength. What do we learn from this text? You will receive power when the Holy Spirit, what has come upon you. We must have the spirit to do this work. The great commission is not go try harder, it's get on your knees and pray what longer, asking God to do the very impossible thing that unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in what we labor in vain. Dear friends, and so five commissioning passages making up the great commission carried out historically seen as fulfilled in the book of Acts, which we're going to cover this afternoon, and all of that brings us to the very last text. And thank you, dear friends, for staying a little over on time with me. Let us close in Revelation 79 which says this: John gets a vision of what heaven's going to one day look like. He says, "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. When we hear those words, a great multitude. What should we be thinking? The stars in the sky, and the what, the sand on the sea, and where will they be from? Every tongue, every tribe, all nations, and all peoples, and they will stand around the throne, and they will worship Jesus forever. What did God want in Genesis chapter one? A planet full of people who, what knew him and worshiped him, and what will he get in the new heavens and the new earth? A planet full of people from all peoples. Dear friends, if it matters to him, I send you out the door, exhorting you to ask the question, Does it matter to you? Promise made. See it as we close. Promise made. Promise what kept to him be the glory. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this morning. God, we praise you that your word does not return void. God, thank you that you would be pleased to use vessels as weak as us, who is sufficient for these things? Paul says so. Help us in this matter. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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