Sermon for MHBC (29 November 2020). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
“Mission is what the Bible is all about.”[1] That bold claim is made by OT scholar Christopher Wright. I think he’s right. The idea of mission or missions is not simply derived from a handful of Bible verses. Nor is it something that only applies to a select few people who are willing to move to foreign lands. Nor is it simply about giving some money to missions organizations a few times a year. The idea of missions is rooted in a much deeper purpose—namely, God’s intention for his creation. This is why we can speak of the mission of God (missio Dei). In fact, the idea of mission is rooted in who God is. Mission comes from the Latin word “to send.” The Trinitarian God is a sending God. The Father sends the Son,[2] and Father and Son send the Holy Spirit.[3] God is moving toward his creation. So mission begins with the one true God. It is part of his character. And because it is part of his character, we see this movement toward his creation in the sweeping story of Scripture.
In Isaiah 13–23, there are a series of judgments spoken against various nations, and at first glance, these may seem harsh, but I want to show you the heart in these texts. In these texts, God is fulfilling his plan for creation. He is redeeming creation—and not just one nation or one group of people, but all of his creation. He is on mission, moving toward his creation.
I want to give you a snapshot of God’s mission in Isaiah 13–23 before looking at an extraordinary text in Isaiah 19.
We struggle with the idea of judgment, but we must remember that the Lord’s judgment is righteous and perfect. We aren’t talking about an arbitrary, fickle, or impulsive deity. Since God sits outside of time, his emotional “responses” are totally unlike ours.[4] When we speak about God’s anger and judgment, we are talking about something wholly different from human anger and judgment. In Isa 14:1, we are given insight into the Lord’s purposes: For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
Note two things. Judgment against the nations, which was pronounced in ch. 13 is for the restoration of God’s people. “For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob…” Why? Because he made a covenant with them and he is faithful. And the second reason, which is really astonishing, is to gather people from other nations and include them in God’s people. “Sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.” God’s plan is not to wipe out the nations in a fit of anger. His plan is to bring them to himself.
Nations will look to Israel. Why? Because there will be a good king there. Look at Isa 16:5: then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness. That phrase steadfast love is one word in Hebrew that refers to the Lord’s covenant faithfulness. So the Lord is doing what he promised to do. He promised David in 2 Sam 7 that one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. That’s what Isaiah is talking about. And this forever king will bring justice and righteousness swiftly. He will not be like corrupt rulers or power-hungry politicians.
All of this will serve to bring worship to the one true God. Isaiah 17:7–8: In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense. There will be no more idolatry. But this won’t just be Israel. This will be the world.
Look at Isaiah 18:7: At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.
So through all these judgment pronouncements is a thread that speaks of a day when the Lord will establish a kingdom with a good king and all the nations will come to it. God is on mission. Let me show you one of the most spectacular texts in the OT in Isaiah 19.
Now if you remember the biblical story, you remember that Egypt is one of the great enemies of Israel, and Egypt becomes synonymous with a much larger, let’s say cosmic, struggle in Scripture.
Isaiah 19:18: In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction. People speaking the language of Canaan in the land of Egypt will swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts.
Verses 19–20: In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. Do you remember what Israel did when they were in Egypt? They cried out to the Lord, and he heard. Here is this amazing reversal where the people of Egypt will cry out for a savior, and the Lord will deliver them.
Now who is this savior? Well it’s the son of David, the good king, that Isaiah has been telling us about. And as the book goes on, he will continue to tell us about him. The NT will clearly identify the savior as Jesus.
Verse 21: And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.
There’s an idea throughout the book of Exodus. The Lord is doing signs and wonders so that everyone—Israel, Pharaoh, and Egypt—will know the Lord. In Christ, the book of Exodus is fulfilled. In Christ, God is bringing the nations to himself, making his ways known.
Verse 22: And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. Again, we see how the Lord’s judgment actually brings healing, but there’s also this amazing promise that he will heal them. How will he heal them? Isaiah will tell us in ch. 53 that someone will suffer for the sake of others and we will be healed (same word) by his wounds. Christ is the atoning sacrifice. He suffers and dies to bring healing to the nations.
Let’s finish out these verses. Verses 23–25: In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth (remember the promise to Abram: “Through you I will bless all the nations”), whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” Did you catch this? Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands. The enemies of Israel become the people of God.
How is this possible? By now, you probably know the answer. This is possible through Christ. This is how God does what he promised to do. In Luke 24, the risen Jesus reveals to a couple of disciples that all of Scripture is about him. In other words, Christ is the interpretative key to everything in the OT. Christ brings about this new thing that God promised to do. Now we could spend all day talking about that new thing, which we sometimes call the new covenant, but let me summarize briefly. God is perfectly holy. Humans rebel. Yet, God chooses Israel to reconcile and redeem his creation. But for the holy God to be in Israel’s midst, they must follow a series of procedures including sacrifices. The Lord knows that they can never do this. He says as early as Deuteronomy that it will be impossible for them. And the stories show us that. But the prophets begin to talk about something new. God promises to give his people a new heart—a heart that desires to obey him, a heart that is capable of obeying him. He promises to put his own Spirit in them, to cleanse them, to purify them, and to take up residence in them. Now how could that ever be possible? They need sacrifices just to have God dwelling in the tabernacle and the temple. It will require a better sacrifice—a one-time sacrifice that will be entirely sufficient. No human can do that, so God himself aims to do it. In Christ, we have the perfect sacrifice. In Christ, we have the perfect priest, who can bring us into the presence of God. And in Christ, God is putting his Holy Spirit into people.
That’s what we see in Acts 2 for example. Remember the Spirit falls upon them, and they begin to speak in different languages. Why different languages? Because God is reversing a curse that goes back to Genesis 10 and the Tower of Babel. And by reversing that curse, he is bringing the nations to himself like he promised to do in Isaiah. He is a God on mission.
Now I know that MHBC prioritizes missions. But what I hope I have successfully shown you is that mission, first and foremost, begins with God who moves toward his creation. It is God’s desire to bring his creation to himself. Second, I hope that you see that Christ is the key to a proper understanding of mission. I don’t mean this statement as a low-blow, but I want to be clear: we are not doing missions by giving some donations; missions occurs when Christ is proclaimed. I say this because without Christ, Isaiah’s vision is not possible. Giving money is great and necessary, but Christ is the key to God’s activity in our world. And if we give money without ever telling anyone about Jesus, we aren’t missions minded. A church is not a missional church just because it has a lot of projects. It is missional when it proclaims the Father who sent the Son so that we might receive the Spirit.
I’ll add a third point to that as well.. The Spirit initiates and empowers our participation in God’s mission.[5] Read the book of Acts. “Wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit falls on you, then you will be my witnesses.” The Spirit points to Christ. Our best efforts are dead in the water without the Spirit. Only those who have been captured by God’s missional movement can be effective missionaries. Incidentally, this means every Christian is a missionary. We are participants in God’s mission. That means our lives, our actions, our careers, our families, are all means by which we proclaim what God has done in Christ. Of course, the beauty of everything I’ve said this morning is that God will accomplish this even when we fail. The Spirit initiates and empowers. He is fulfilling his mission with imperfect people like you and me. John captures the final vision in Revelation 7:9: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Imagine that scene. God is inviting us here at MHBC to participate with
[1] Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, p. 29.
[2] E. g. Matt 10:40 (par.); John 3:17; 5:23–24, 30; 16:5; 1 John 4:14.
[3] This statement broaches the filioque controversy. I am, of course, following the Western tradition. Significant texts are John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7; Rom 8:9.
[4] Of course here I am referring to the classical conception of God who is passionless. Hence, my inclusion of quotes around response. In a certain since, the Lord is responding to nothing since he does not experience time in a linear fashion. This may seem like an undo philosophical exercise, but in fact, it is quite significant as a rebuttal to those proposing open theism. The key theological attribute is aseity.
[5] Acts 1:7–8