From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is full of promises
about God's plan for world evangelism. He has a global plan and He is bringing
it to pass in our day as never before. In fact, more people are born into God's
family in these last days
God's character makes world evangelism central in His
thinking. He already has shown the beginning of His plan and He predicts the
completion. His faithfulness assures us that it's going to happen.
- God's
character makes world evangelism inevitable. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). From the overflow of His
loving nature, He desired a being to love Him back. The fall of Adam did
not change God's character. He continues to so love the world that He gave
His own Son to buy us back for that love relationship. If love was the
reason for Jesus' first coming, love also is the reason He hasn't
come again. Peter tells us that the delay is because He doesn't want
anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9)
- God's
activity proves what His heart is like.
Every major act of God since the Fall is a missionary act.
- God
favored Abraham in order to bless the whole world through him
(Gen. 12:1-2). He needed a people isolated from the moral pollution of
the nations - so they could receive a revelation of Himself without distortion
and be His messengers of God's saving truth.
- The
Exodus was God's way of re-establishing His missionary task force
which had been in danger of extinction in Egypt.
- As
His task force became corrupt, running after other loves and other gods,
God disciplined them, sending them into captivity in order to
purify them. He was creating the spiritual and social context into which
He could come Himself and find a foothold.
- The
incarnation is when God's only Son left His homeland to become one
of us in order to save us.
- God's
promises assure a successful conclusion to His plan. 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...and
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Gen. 12:2-3). It
is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of
Jacob...I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring
my salvation to the ends of the earth (Is. 49:6).
- God's
command means we must think the way He thinks, act the way He acts. Jesus gave the "Great Commission" many
times:
- As
the Father sent Me, so I send you
- All authority is given Me in heaven and earth; go therefore and disciple the nations (Matt. 28:18-19)..
-
Still Hungry? Luke 23:47-48; Acts 1:8; Mark 16:15
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