At St Faith’s we have a one week break from our normal preaching program. So last night at our Young Adults small group we took a week off from our Matthew 22-25 series. In Matthew 24:14 it says that the “gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” I thought it would be worthwhile thinking a bit more about mission to the Nations. So we watched the above Together for the Gospel sermon from David Platt.
Our group found this talk particularly compelling and fuelled some fervent prayer for the Nations.
Justin Taylor has a solid summary of the talk on his blog. Here is the basic outline…
One Overarching Truth:
A high view of God’s sovereignty fuels death-defying devotion to global missions.
Three Underlying Premises
(1) Local ministry and local mission are totally necessary.
(2) Global missions is tragically neglected.
(3) Pastors have the privilege and responsibility to lead the way in global missions.
Four Theological Truths in the Revelation 5:1-14
(1) Our sovereign God holds the destiny of the world in the palm of his hand.
(2) The state of man before God apart from Christ is utterly hopeless.
(3) The greatest news in all the world is that the slaughtered Lamb of God reigns as the sovereign Lord of all.
(4) The atonement of Christ is graciously, globally, and gloriously particular.
Four Implications of What We Should Do
(1) Let us lead our churches to pray confidently (for the spread of the gospel to all peoples).
(2) Let us lead our churches to give sacrificially.
(3) Let us lead our churches to go intentionally to all peoples.
(4) Let us lead our churches to die willingly.
This quote from Joseph Tson was very challenging:
During an early interrogation I had told an officer who was threatening to kill me, “Sir, let me explain how I see this issue. Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. Here is how it works. You know that my sermons on tape have spread all over the country. If you kill me, those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood. Everyone will know I died for my preaching. And everyone who has a tape will pick it up and say, ‘I’d better listen again to what this man preached, because he really meant it; he sealed it with his life.’ So, sir, my sermons will speak ten times louder than before. I will actually rejoice in this supreme victory if you kill me.” After I said this, the interrogator sent me home. Another officer who was interrogating a pastor friend of mind told him, “We know that Mr. Tson would love to be a martyr, but we are not that foolish to fulfill his wish.” I stopped to consider the meaning of that statement. I remembered how for many years, I had been afraid of dying. I had kept a low profile. Because I wanted badly to live, I had wasted my life in inactivity. But now that I had placed my life on the altar and decided I was ready to die for the Gospel, they were telling me they would not kill me! I could go wherever I wanted in the country and preach whatever I wanted, knowing I was safe. As long as I tried to save my life, I was losing it. Now that I was willing to lose it, I found it.