By John Stott
(Nearly five years ago a small group from Glendora and Rancho Cucamonga churches heard a talk by noted evangelical scholar and leader the Reverend John Stott, author of “Basic Christianity” and other classics. Here is a summary of his remarks made in Loma Linda, Calif. on Nov. 2, 2005 — Ed.)
When I think of evangelism or mission work I think of the quote that “evangelism is merely one beggar telling another where he got bread.”
Today mission is out of favor. Hostility to the Gospel is growing. Pluralism – a multiplicity of beliefs – is the pop ideology of the day. The independent validity of all religions is highly touted; evangelism is often seen as intolerance or arrogance.
“What right have you to intrude into other’s beliefs?” people ask today. “Leave me alone.”
I agree that some attitudes have been and are arrogant and even imperialistic, but…we can’t surrender world evangelism to please the current wisdom.
We preach and teach the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ. He must be made known across the world. He isn’t simply the Greatest he is the Only.
My text tonight is the whole Bible. We will see that Mission is deeply rooted in the heart of God. We will look briefly at five sections of Scripture:
God the Father’s actions in the Old Testament in particular
The Gospel witness to the Son
The Acts of the Holy Spirit
The Epistles – The Young Church on Mission
Revelation – the Climax of the History of God’s Mission
We soon learn that each fresh section is a full mission disclosure. First, the Old Testament shows God as a missionary God. Yahweh was not just a tribal God of the Israelites. Abraham is told in Genesis 12:1-4 that his offspring will be blessing to all people. We Christians are thus the beneficiaries of a 4000 year old mission vision that began with Abraham. The great God told Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were but then righteous men in the city (Genesis 18). That shows the compassionate heart of God for even the worst of sinners.
Next, we see that the Christ of the Gospels is a Missionary Messiah. Jesus’ activities on behalf of the lost and the least showed that the mission to Israel was but a temporary restriction. He praised the Roman centurion for his faith, spent an extended visit among the hated Samaritans, and melted at the faith of the lady from Syro-Phoenicia. He was almost killed for reminding worshippers in his home-town synagogue that Elijah had to flee form his fellow-Israelites to a city of Sidon and that Naaman the Syrian was the only leper Elisha healed (Luke 4).
Even Matthew’s Gospel with its distinctive Jewish flavor is written against a global horizon. We read of the Wise Men from the East, of the multitudes from the East and West who will sit in the Kingdom of Christ, of the fact that the disciples are panthe te ethne – to all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
Third, the Book of Acts shows a Missionary Spirit at work. “Is anyone thirsty,” Jesus asks in John 7 and the book of Acts shows that need being met. The phrase, “being filled with the Spirit” echoes again and again. William Temple, the most distinguished Archbishop of Canterbury of the 20th century, once wrote: “No one can be indwelt by that Spirit and keep it to himself. If there is no flowing forth He is not there.”
The Epistles also shows a missionary church at work. The early church is not a social club. Temple defines it as “the only society which exists for the benefit of its non-members.” Many churches today are self-centered and need to be turned inside out. The Epistles assume a Christ who reaches out. Philippians 2:15 says we are like stars in the midst of a dark world. Paul says the Gospel sounded out from his Thessalonian churches (1 Thessalonians 1:8). He and Luke are shipwrecked while on the way to carrying the Gospel to Rome. This was a church that knew it existed for those outside its walls.
Finally, the Apocalypse shows a worshipping church in heaven made up a Great Multitude no one can number – a huge ingathering from all the nations, languages, tongues – countless, innumerable. An obviously international redeemed community.
The Church is this way because mission lies at the heart of who God is.
Mission is the global outreach of a global people of a global God.
We must let it out, the flowing forth of God’s Spirit of Mission. We are not to be detoured by narrow-minded parochial concerns. All of us need to take action. Christianity is not a safe smug selfish escapist little religion but an explosive and centrifugal force.
God’s mission – and it is his first and foremost – flings us out into God’s world. May God make us global Christians because he is a global God. Let us find ways of sharing in his mission.