Global evangelism course
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Learning
habits
Lectures
1. Biblical foundations
2. History
3. Culture
4. Strategy, part I
5. Strategy, part II
6. Nazarene
missions
Syllabus
Time
requirements
Missions Bible verses
Missions slogans
Index of
Bible passages used on this site
Canaan: Strategic land
bridge
Needed: harvest workers
Missions songs
Want more out of
life?
10/40 Window
Searching for God's will?
An African
martyr's statement on commitment
Short term missions
experiences
10 ways to ruin mission trips
If you were to ask most Christians for a list of Bible
passages having to do with missions, how many verses would they give?
Not many. No doubt the first missionary scripture to be
mentioned would be the Great Commission in Matthew
28:19-20 or the similar wording in Mark 16:15. Acts 1:8 would be mentioned and maybe Paul's
"Macedonian call." Someone might think of Matthew 24:14 ("This gospel of
the kingdom will be preached in the whole world . . and then the end will come"). At that
point, however, most believers would bog down and start looking puzzled trying to think of more
missionary Bible verses.
The Bible has 32,000 verses in it. When people can think of
only a half dozen missions Bible verses, does that give them the impression God doesn't place a high priority on missions?
The material in Genesis 1-11 is the introduction to the
story. These first eleven chapters set the stage for the story. Then, in Genesis 12 God takes a
giant step forward in the story by choosing Abraham. God says to Abraham: "All peoples
on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:3). That covenant is later repeated to
Abraham, and then it is repeated to Isaac and finally to Jacob (Genesis 18:18; 22:17-18; 26:24
and 28:12-14).
The promise of blessing to all peoples through Abraham's
family is a promise which the Apostle John would later see fulfilled. John describes that
fulfillment in Revelation 7:9: "I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no
one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in
front of the Lamb."
Between that promise in Genesis 12 and the vision of its
fulfillment in Revelation 7 the Bible is replete with indicators of God's passion that all peoples
would know and serve Him.
At Mt. Sinai, the Lord told Moses
to say to the people: "Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of
priests" (Exodus 19:5-6). That is, the whole nation of Israel was chosen to be agents of
reconciliation between God and sinful humanity. Several decades ago, liberal scholar Norman
Gottwald titled his Old Testament introduction A Light to the Nations.1
That title was a recognition of how much those words from Isaiah 49:6 should define what God
expected of His chosen people.
After the crossing of the Jordan River, Joshua told the
Israelites that God "did this so that all peoples of the earth might know" (Joshua
4:24). As Solomon prayed the dedicatory prayer for the Temple he had just constructed in
Jerusalem, he said that the Temple had been constructed "so that all the peoples of the earth
may know your name" (I Kings 8:43).
If you will leaf through the book of Psalms, again and again
you will see phrases like "ends of the earth," "all nations," "the whole earth," "the peoples," and
"all the earth."
The prophets repeat the affirmation that the world, not just
Israel, is God's focus. A prime example is Isaiah 45:44: "Turn to me and be saved, all you
ends of the earth."
Remember Jonah's story? Contrary to
popular thought, the little short book is not a lesson in obedience. [ devotional thoughts on Jonah ] Jonah's story is the
missionary book of the Old Testament. It portrays God's call for us to get our hearts in line with
his love for all nations. [ more on Jonah ]
Throughout the Old Testament God seems to be calling His
people to be involved in world evangelism using two forces: centripetal (attracting the nations to
their Temple as the graphic shows) and centrifugal (going out to the nations as the graphic
shows).
Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave seven basic commands that have come to be known collectively as the Great Commission. They:
This oft-quoted Great Commission is not all that Jesus
had to say about world evangelism, however. There's more, much more.
Not long after Jesus began his ministry, He preached what
we call "The Sermon on the Mount." In that sermon Jesus gives His
followers a model prayer (The Lord's Prayer). One of the first petitions
in that prayer is a missionary one: "Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven."
His will cannot be done on earth until "every knee" bows
before Him. So, a prayer for His will to be done on earth is a missionary
prayer, isn't it? Each time we pray that model prayer, we are praying a missions prayer.
While on the cross Jesus cried
out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Believers have long speculated
as to what Jesus meant by that question which He asked in His dying moments. The conclusions
that many people make do not fit well with our understanding of God as triune. How could God
forsake God?
Could it be that Jesus was quoting those opening words
from Psalm 22 in order to get people to think of the closing words of that psalm: "All the
ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow
down before him"?
The point of all this is to say that missions is not merely
contained in the Bible. The missions enterprise does not merely find a basis in the Bible. From
beginning to end, the Bible is an intensely missionary book. It not only encourages world
evangelism, it demands it.
Theologically, we Wesleyan-Arminians ought to be the
most missionary minded of all believers. After all, if salvation is a gift offered freely to all,
shouldn't we be out shouting it around the globe?
Shouldn't our understanding that Yahweh is a seeking and sending God mean that we as His
people should also be seeking and sending hosts of believers to announce the good news of the
gospel to the lost?
Shouldn't the "perfect love" to which we are called compel
us to be broken-hearted over those peoples who have yet to hear the gospel once (while many of
our neighbors have heard it over and over again)?
Shouldn't our belief in "prevenient" grace say to us that God is right now at work in
various parts of the world, preparing people for the gospel message which He expects us to carry
there?
A key figure in encouraging Nazarene missions outreach is Susan Fitkin. Mrs. Fitkin [ biography ]was the first president of what has become Nazarene Missions International [ resources page ]. She was a fiery promoter of world evangelism. She published a little booklet titled "Holiness and Missions" [ read booklet ] in which she works her way through the context of lots of traditional holiness passages in the Bible to prove that you can't be a good holiness preacher/teacher without also being on fire for world evangelism. By the way, speaking of Mrs. Fitkin, I've got a student-written biography of her on this web site [ read article ].
Genesis 12:1-3; 28-13-15
Exodus 9:14-16; 19:6
Joshua 4:23-24
I Kings 8:41-43, 59-60
Psalm 2:8-20; 7:7-8; 8; 9; 18:49; 22:26-28; 24; 33; 44:14; 46; 47; 48:10; 50; 57; 65:2; 66; 67;
72:18-20; 82; 86:8-13; 87; 93; 96:1-20; 106:8; 108:3; 117; 126; 135
Isaiah 40:5; 42:4; 45:22; 49:1-6; 56:6-7
Ezekiel 26:33; 36:22-23
Daniel 2:27; 4:1-2; 6:25
Matthew 3:3; 4:8-11; 6:9-10; 8:5-10; 24:14; 28:18-20
Mark 11:17; 13:10; 16:14
Luke 4:25-43; 10:27; 24:45-47
John 3:16; 4; 20:21
Acts 1:8; 2:5-12; 10:9-23, 34-35; 13:47
II Peter 3:9
Revelation 7:9
[ Longer list of Bible passages on missions ]
1Gottwald, Norman K. A Light to the Nations, New York: Harper & Row, 1959.
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Howard Culbertson, 5901 NW 81st, Oklahoma
City, OK 73132 | Phone: 405-740-4149 - Fax:
405-491-6658
Updated: February 9, 2019