And they sang a new song with these words:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.” ~ Revelation 5:9-10
In the final book of the Bible the apostle John received several grand and glorious visions of the greatness of eternity. In these visions we see the awesomeness of Jesus, we find comfort in the assurance of his victory, and we taste hope in glimpses of the unending and perfect ages to come.
We also find one of our driving motives in doing missions: God uses us to build his one Kingdom filled with people from all backgrounds, languages, and ethnicities. In Acts 17:26-27, Paul wrote that from one man (Adam) God created all the nations and gave them their allotted times and boundaries that people everywhere should seek for him. And in John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
The term missions covers all of our efforts to bring the gospel of Jesus to as many people as we can in as many places as we can so that they might know the One whom they were created to seek, worship, and delight in. We do missions because we are saved only by God’s grace working in our faith, and our faith is developed by hearing the word of God (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 10:5-18).
Our motivation for missions should be a desire to see what John saw in Revelation 5. We should long for the day that a vast, diverse group of people divided and defined by time, language, class, boundaries, and culture all come together as one voice praising the name of our Savior-King.
Abraham Kuyper wrote: There is not a single inch of creation over which Jesus does not say, “Mine!” We do missions because of this truth and because without Christ we are left hopeless in the condemnation of our own sins. Jesus alone served as that sacrificial, slain Lamb whose blood rescues and redeems. Jesus alone can take us from being hostile enemies in sin toward God and each other and make us a kingdom of priests.
Our call in missions is to pray, give, and go.
For resources to pray over the unreached peoples of the world, check out the site: joshuaproject.net.
As Southern Baptist churches part of the offering you give each week goes to the International Mission Board to fund the spread of the gospel in the world. During this time of year we also collect the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering where every penny given goes to directly support missionaries on the field. For more information about the IMB, Lottie Moon, and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering you can check out the website for the IMB where you will also find a link to give online. I would encourage you to first give through your church, but if you are not a part of a Southern Baptist church and want to give, then online is a great option: imb.org/main/lottie-moon.
You can also browse the IMB website, or speak to your pastor or a missionary you might know about ways to go and serve short term or long term on the mission field.
Until the day where that great kingdom of priests is gathered…
This post first appeared at fbcadrian.com.
