Biblical Foundations for Missions - IJFM

1 Biblical Foundations for Missions : Seven Clear Lessons Give unto the lord , O ye kindreds of the Give unto the lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts ( :7-8) . by Thomas Schirrmacher T here are many Old Testament texts which address the heathen peo- ples directly. The general tone of these laristic attitude of His people Israel, who claimed Him for themselves alone. To be sure, God's covenant with Abraham ings to the true God. In his prayer in the fish's belly (2:2-10), which includes parts of various Psalms, Jonah remembers texts is Give unto the lord , O ye gave Israel a special position, but that, Those who cling to worthless kindreds of the people, give unto the only in order to bless all the other nations idols (literally, the vapor of emptiness'). lord glory and strength. Give unto of the earth (Gen.)

2 18:18). The com- forfeit the grace that could be the lord the glory due unto his name: plete book of Nahum treats God's word to theirs, the grace that they can only bring an offering, and come into his Nineveh (Nahum 1:1, compare with receive from God. Jonah then prom- courts ( :7-8). This is particularly Nahum 1-3). ises to bring the lord offerings and vows. the case with the Old Testament The book of Jonah begins, as if it (2:9-10). prophets. were a matter of course, with the com- The command to preach God's mes- We must consider those prophets mand that Jonah proclaim God's sage in Nineveh, having been given in who addressed non-Jewish nations exclu- word to a heathen city. Arise, go to Nine- Jonah 1:2 and repeated in 3:2, we see that By far, not only is judgment veh, that great city, and cry against its fulfillment is described with clas- preached against heathen nations but also it.

3 That the sin of the Gentiles is a sin sic terminology of missionary activity: salvation through repentance (see against God, is also considered obvi- Jonah proclaimed and the residents Niniveh in Jonah) or through the coming ous, for they too are under the Law of of Nineveh believed (3:4-5 NIV). The Messiah. God was always the God of prophecy of judgment does not con- God: for their wickedness is come all nations, so that He naturally turns to tradict the fact that the sermon was up before me (Jonah 1:2). the nations. Israel's particular role intended to be evangelistic. Both In spite of his disobedience, was not to hinder salvation for all peoples, Peter in his sermon on Pentecost (Acts Jonah confesses to the sailors in which for Abraham's calling included the 2:14-26) and Paul in Athens (Acts God he believes: I am an Hebrew.)

4 Mandate, In thee shall all families of the 17:14-31), preach judgment only to wait and I fear the lord , the God of heaven, earth be blessed (Gen. 12:3). In for the reaction of their audience which hath made the sea and the dry Abraham, all the nations of the earth before introducing the theme of grace. shall be blessed (Gen. 18:18). land (1:9). He uses the description of The prophet uses the term to God Creator of heaven and earth . For this reason, Paul and Barnabas turn which is otherwise used to describe which the Jews preferred when speaking support their evangelization among Israel's turning from sin to her God. to Gentiles, and which implies God's the Gentile nations (Acts 13:47) with a In 3:5-9, the book reports a mass conver- universal sovereignty over all human quote from the book of Isaiah, It is sion of Gentiles that has few parallels, beings.

5 (Compare 2 Kings 19:15, Isa. too light a thing that thou shouldst be my even in the history of Israel. The report 37:16, 40:12, Jer. 10:11, Acts 4:24, 14:15, servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, ends with the message of 3:12, And and to restore the preserved of Israel: I 17:24-25, Rev. 14:6-7). God saw their works, that they turned will also give thee for a light to the After that, the sailors, having first from their evil way; and God Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salva- prayed every man to his god (1:5), repented of the evil, that he had said that tion unto the ends of the earth (Isa. then cry to the lord (see their prayer in he would do, and he did it not. Jesus 49:6). 1:14), and even feared the lord later uses Nineveh's conversion as an exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto accusation against His Jewish con- Missions in Jonah the lord , and made vows.

6 (1:16). temporaries, For as Jonah was a sign In the book of Jonah, God, who It is very significant that the book of unto the Ninevites, so shall also the created all nations and wants to bring Jonah reports not only the conversion Son of man be to this His salvation to all the peoples, demon- of the heathen in Nineveh but also that the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the strates how He deals with the particu- mariners brought sacrifices and offer- judgment with this generation, and shall INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRONTIER Missions , VOL 13:1 1996. 34. Biblical Foundations for World Missions condemn it: for they repented at the spoken by the prophet Joel (Acts 2:16). Pentecost sermon is held in the face of preaching of Jonah, and, behold one For this reason, he quotes the whole judgment pending over Jerusalem, greater than Jonah is here (See Luke chapter2 (Acts 2:17-21), beginning with which took place in 70 Peter exhorts 11:30, 32, and Mt 12:41).

7 What a dis- the outpouring of the Spirit with his audience, Save yourselves from grace to Jews: Gentiles are being held up miraculous signs upon all flesh (Joel this untoward generation (Acts 2:40), as good examples for them! 2:28) that is, upon Jews and Gen- that is, the generation living in the Jonah being a good theologian, knew tiles alike, upon all men and women, etc., forty years between Christ's crucifixion very well that God wanted to be mer- continuing with terrible judgments and the destruction of Jerusalem the ciful to the heathen Gentiles as well as to (2:30-31) and ending with the statement last generation which had the opportunity Israel. The prophet's anger (4:1) that that from this time on, all can be to repent before the great catastrophe, arose rests on this knowledge, Was not saved by calling on the lord , and that sal- which Jesus had also predicted, All these this my saying, when I was yet in my vation will come out of Zion (2:32).

8 Things shall come upon this genera- country? Therefore I fled before unto When Paul wanted to prove in tion (Mt. 23:36, also generation in Mt. Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a Romans 10:11-12 that all people, not 24:34 and 17:17). gracious God, and merciful, slow to only the Jews, but also the Gentiles, can World Missions in Daniel anger, and of great kindness, and be saved through faith on Jesus Christ, he quotes not only Isaiah 28:16 The prophet Daniel is of double repentest thee of the evil. (4:2). It he that believeth shall not make significance for worldmissions to all the becomes evident here, that Jonah had haste, but also the same promise from nations. On the one hand, the events fled from his evangelistic mission for the- Joel cited by Peter (Joel 2:32) who- of his book takes place among the heath- ological, not from personal reasons!

9 Soever calleth on the name of the lord ens and reports that they have heard As a Jew, the prophet could not endure shall be delivered ). In 1 Corinthians of the God of Israel on an international the thought of heathen Gentiles, espe- 1:2, the description that all who in every scale. On the other hand, Daniel cially their enemies, being treated with the place call upon the name of Jesus announces prophetically how God will same mercy as Israel. Christ is used to define the universal deal with them and that His kingdom Using the first verdant and the with- church. Paul assumes in both cases will one day include the whole world ered gourd, God however illustrates that his audience knows that Joel 2 refers through the atoning death of His Son. His relationship to the heathen, and con- to all flesh. We see Daniel and his three friends at cludes in the final verse with a dis- Paul adopts not only the meaning of the Babylonian Court (Dan 1) and, in tinct justification for Old Testament mis- calling on the name of the lord spite of Chaldean education, they keep the sions, But Nineveh has more than a from Joel, but the significance of the out- commands of the true and living God hundred and twenty thousand people who pouring of the Holy Spirit as well, for (Dan.

10 1:8-17), and with God's great bless- cannot tell their right hand from their God has saved us, by the washing of ing (Dan. 1:15-20), so that Daniel left and many cattle as well. Should I not regeneration, and renewing of the becomes the third most powerful man in be concerned about that great city? . Holy shed on us abundantly the government of three successive (4:11, NIV). through Jesus Christ our Saviour world empires (Dan. 1:2, 2:48-49, 5:29. Missions in Joel ( :5-6). and 6:3-29). The prophet Joel proclaims not only In short, the apostles understood God reveals himself in a dream to the the pending judgment over Israel Joel to proclaim world Missions , which pagan ruler Nebuchadnezzar even (Joel 1-2) but also the future judgment depend on the outpouring of the Holy though the dream could only be inter- upon the heathen Gentiles who Spirit as well as on God's grace, which preted by the Jewish missionary.