Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-119 (Topical Sermon)

YOUR LIFE AS A MISSIONARY

by Rod Benson

On Australian TV in 1996 there was a well known bank advertisement ending with the words, “For the most important person in the world . . . you.” Effective advertising appeals to one of two basic human emotions – fear or greed – and this ad appeals to both to sell its service. Fear that later in life you won’t have enough money to get by, and greed in the sense that if you invest you’ll have so much more!

One thing is certain about modern Western culture: it encourages us to look out for number one, to acquire things, to obey the advertisers, to become self-centred consumers. But it’s not a 20th century phenomenon.

In June 1544, when Philip the Prudent sailed to wed Mary Tudor of England, his father ordered him to go with a “minimum of display.” So he took only 9000 nobles and servants, 1000 horses and mules, three million ducats in gold, and a mere 125 ships. Several hundred years later, an early doctor at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore by the name of W.W. Halstead, used to buy his suits at London tailors and his dress shirts from Paris, and he would send his shirts back to Paris to have them laundered!

Whether we have the means of Philip the Prudent, or of Dr Halstead, we certainly find self-aggrandisement natural and self-denial exasperating. “I am the most important person in the world!” We can almost convince ourselves. But when we enter the kingdom of God, when we join God’s great family, he asks us to live by other, radically different values. Indeed, he gives us freedom from self- preoccupation, and helps us look to others. He delivers us from the values and principles of this world, and gives us the power to serve others sacrificially, to model what John Stott calls the Christian ‘counter-culture’.

Throughout the Bible God has a habit of breaking into people’s lives, turning their lives around, giving them wonderful blessing, and then saying, “Now go and help someone else.” Look at Abraham: God says to him, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

He says, “I’ll fill your life with blessing. So take your eyes off yourself, and take a look at the nations around you, all the peoples of the earth, who are going to be blessed through what you do.” God chose Abraham, and blessed him, but both the choice and the blessing were for service. God chose Abraham, God chose Israel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul – he even chooses us. But always it’s for a purpose: we’re chosen to serve. And the corollary of this is that if we don’t live up to responsibilities God has given us, our calling is in doubt.

Come with me to Exodus 19.

This chapter gives detailed instructions to the people of Israel as they prepare to enter the covenant. It’s three months since they left Egypt and witnessed the mighty saving power of God. Verse 3 is the start of a large block of teaching stretching through the rest of Exodus, right through Leviticus to Numbers 10. Moses ascends the mountain to talk with God on behalf of the people, and God gives him a message, a prophecy, for their future.

The people of Israel had been rescued from slavery, redeemed by the blood of the lambs they painted on their doors (Exodus 12), and led to safety by Moses. They had witnessed their emancipation from slavery, the miraculous death of their enemies, and they had arrived at the edge of the desert beyond which lay the land God had promised to Abraham. A new life stretched before them.

As they fled Egypt, all they had to do was trust God that he would deliver them. Now God explains the nature of their relationship with him more fully: verses 4-5a. They need to practice a life of obedience as well as faith in God’s saving power. If they obey God, they will be his “treasured possession” – he will be their king; and they will be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (verse 6). “That’s the vision – the destiny – I have planned for you,” says God.

But hang on! “A kingdom of priests”?? That means everyone, women included! Whatever happened to the priests and Levites, and the exclusion of women from service? That all came later, when the people demonstrated they were unwilling to serve God in the way he desired. In the beginning, every Israelite citizen, every descendant of Abraham and Sarah, was a priest. To be a priest in this sense was to enjoy free access to God’s presence, and to serve as God’s representative to the nations. Just as God had called Abraham in order to bless all peoples, so God chose Israel to be his missionaries to the nations! Wow!

In God’s eyes there would always be a difference between Israel and the nations. For example, the Israelites weren’t to worship Gentile gods or marry their children. But they were to be a light to the nations, dedicated to the one true God, characterised by virtuous and ethical living, and welcoming the nations to their land, their temple and their God. See Isaiah 42:6, 49:6; 2 Chronicles 6:32; Psalm 22:27-28.

That was Israel’s mission: to serve as priests to the nations, to be God’s missionaries. Notice, though, that the nations would be attracted to Israel. They would come to Jerusalem to worship the true God, and be taught from his law, and learn to live as his people.

This missionary activity would happen in three stages. First, Israel would allow non-citizens to enter the community (e.g. Ruth). Second, entire nations would be attracted to the God of Israel, drawn by his glory and power, the splendour of his worship, and the ethical standards of his community. Third, and ultimately, all the nations would know and worship God – there would be universal knowledge of the one true God. “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” (Psalm 22:27).

As well as glorifying God, mission was to be the core of Israel’s existence, their reason for being, their responsibility to God. And mission was not the responsibility of an elite class of ‘super- believers’ – it was for everyone! But Israel failed, except for isolated instances such as Ruth the Moabite, and the days of Solomon when nations did indeed flock to Jerusalem and learn of the one true God. But on the whole, Israel failed miserably.

And what amazes me is that God turned in his salvation plan for the world, and called a new people to himself, a people redeemed like Israel by the blood of the Lamb. He called the church, and mission is also the core of the church’s existence. Just like Israel, every member of the church is a priest, and every member is a missionary. Or at least they should be, because that is God’s desire for us.

Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt 28:19f). That’s what we call the Great Commandment of Jesus to everyone who follows him. We’re to go and disciple the nations, and the presence of Jesus will go with us! Not only that, but we’ll receive his divine power as well! “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Come to this Jesus right now, where you are. Perhaps you need his forgiveness and cleansing from sin in your life. Perhaps he needs to break the chains of slavery and free you, like he did for the people of Israel. Or maybe you’re not living in the Spirit, or you need his presence and power to fulfil his mission in the world.

No matter what the problem, Jesus understands, and Jesus will solve it and heal you! “As you come to him, the Living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9).

Same God, same blessing, same mission as Israel! Mission to the nations! Go do it.

——————–

E126 Copyright (c) 2003 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).

To talk with Rod about this message, email <>. To subscribe direct for his weekly sermons, email <> with “subscribe-river” in the subject.