God causes everything to work together for good to those who love God and are called by His purposes. Jesus stated God's eternal purpose in those verses we just read. The apostle John expressed it in John 20:31: "these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."
| The Apostle
presents God's eternal purpose for our lives in Romans 8:28-30. "And we know
that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to
those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His
Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He
predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and
these whom He justified, He also glorified." The important truth in these verses is God causes it to happen. God caused all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. It is not some haphazard evolutionary scheme. "In the beginning God . . ." It is not by accident that you are here today. If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour it is not by accident or chance that you have come to know Him. |
The task of missions may not be merely to win as many individuals as possible from the most responsive people groups of the world, but rather to win individuals from all the people groups of the world. It may not be enough to define missions as leaving the safe shore of our own culture to do rescue operations on the strange seas of other languages and cultures. Something may need to be added to that definition which impels us to leave one rescue operations to take up another.
Talking about billions of people might seem overwhelming, astounding progress continues to be made. In 1974, we were stunned by the revelation that 4 out of 5 of the non-Christians in the world were beyond the reach of same-culture evangelism. In the last three decades, that number has been reduced to 3 out of every 5 non-Christians. An easily remembered new insight is that you can roughly divide the world up into meaningful thirds. One-third of the world would at least claim to be Christian; one third are non-Christians that live within reached peoples; the final third are non-Christians within unreached peoples.
In 1974, more than 60% of the world’s population lived within unreached people groups. Today, that has been cut to 40%. This has happened in just a few decades because missionaries have focused on establishing church movements in thousands of previously unreached peoples. While this is significant progress, there is still much to be done.
The essential missionary task is to establish a viable indigenous church
planting movement that carries the potential to renew whole extended families
and transform whole societies. It is viable in that it can grow on its own,
indigenous meaning that it is not seen as foreign, and a church planting
movement that continues to reproduce intergenerational fellowships that are able
to evangelize the rest of the people group. Many refer to this achievement of an
indigenous church planting movement as a missiological breakthrough.“Prayer is the most important activity a born-again Christian can perform. It should head your list of priorities, for certainly the world around us desperately needs prayer. Prayer will open the door for God to do a glorious work in these last days. Prayer will stem the tide of evil.”
The gospel of the kingdom (Mt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mk. 1:14). This
is the declaration in which Jesus Christ is to set up His kingdom on earth and
is present physically to rule.
By “witness” Jesus meant that the “gospel of the kingdom" will be proclaimed in open view throughout entire communities. The gospel of the kingdom is Christ prevailing over evil, liberating people so that they can live obediently and freely under His lordship and blessing. God wants a persuasive display of that kingdom victory exhibited in every people. What better exhibit of God's kingdom than a community of people who are living under Christ's authority? That's why we should aim at obedient disciplemaking fellowships of believers within every people. While not the only way to glorify God, nothing puts Christ's lordship on display like a community of people dedicated to following Him and effectively pushing back against the dominion of darkness.
By “witness” Jesus meant that the “gospel of the kingdom" will be proclaimed in open view throughout entire communities. The gospel of the kingdom is Christ prevailing over evil, liberating people so that they can live obediently and freely under His lordship and blessing. God wants a persuasive display of that kingdom victory exhibited in every people. What better exhibit of God's kingdom than a community of people who are living under Christ's authority? That's why we should aim at obedient disciplemaking fellowships of believers within every people. While not the only way to glorify God, nothing puts Christ's lordship on display like a community of people dedicated to following Him and effectively pushing back against the dominion of darkness.
It is difficult to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of god in societies where the kingdom of man and woman is working so well. This is true with today's urban culture where man is so busy building up his own dream world.
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