Over the last several weeks I have been writing about God being a sending God. Today, I am continuing this theme by discussing the Great Commission passages in the New Testament. Let’s start with Matthew’s Great Commission.

God sent His son, Jesus, on mission to the earth to seek out and to save a people for God. Luke 19:10 states, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” “The Savior’s mission was first to seek out or pursue lost people and then to save them,” writes Aubrey Malphurs. Liefeld states, “The verse itself expresses the heart of Jesus’ ministry.” His Son continues the Old Testament’s mission of God into the New Testament. “There is within the person of Jesus a spirit that reflects accurately the mission Dei, the mission of God.” Jesus taught the disciples they were to take on the mission of God through the commissions of the Bible (Matt 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:47-48; John 20:21-23; and Acts 1:8).

Matthew

The Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20) was Jesus’ last words to the disciples as He was about to ascend back to the Father in heaven. This passage is still very important for the follower of Jesus Christ; the commission is the mission Jesus left for His disciples and His church to fulfill. Missiologist David J. Bosch believes “the ‘Great Commission’ at the end of the gospel is to be understood as the key to Matthew’s understanding of the mission and ministry of Jesus.”

The Great Commission mandate, in the book of Matthew, could be the key missionary passage in the Bible. John Harvey says, “Sent by the one who has all authority, who enables them to overcome any obstacle, and who is always present with them, Jesus’ followers are to make disciples of all the nations, disciples who are obedient in carrying out the task entrusted to them.” Jesus’ supreme command, therefore, is for those who are His disciples to become His instruments for making disciples of all nations. Jesus’ own earthly ministry was to make disciples for Himself, and that is the ministry of His people. Jesus encourages those who are listening that He will be with them until the end. He will see the mission to completion. Rick Warren states that this command is “so significant that Jesus repeated it five times, in five different ways, in five different books of the Bible.”

Bret Aune. Congratulations on being the third winner of Free Book Friday. I will have your books to you in a few days. Hey everyone, check in next Friday for your next opportunity to pick up some free books.

Here we go with another Free Book Friday give away. For all you who really enjoy digging into the original languages of the Bible here are two (2) great resources.

The Complete Word Study Old Testament

The Complete Word Study New Testament

Remember, you can retweet this  and be entered to win. The random drawing will be held Saturday morning and announced here.

LifePoint Church recently released a music project called “Illuminate, Children of Light“. I encourage you to purchase the CD for yourself and then get another on for a friend.

Micah Huebner, one of the worship leaders at LifePoint Church, explains the backstory for the song “I See The Poor” in the following video. Thanks to all the folks who made the project a reality and to those who are purchasing the CD. Half of all the proceeds from the sell of the Illuminate CD are going to send mission teams around the world. Purchase more CDs right now…all of you.

‘I See the Poor’ Song Story from LifePoint Church on Vimeo.

This weeks winner of Free Book Friday is Cat Pruitt. Congrats on picking up two John Piper devotionals, A Godward Life vol. 1 & 2.

I started the Free Book Friday giveaway last week as a way of giving my library away before my family leaves for Belgium. I heard from several of you about how much you are hoping to win. Here is another opportunity to get new reading material.

This weeks Free Book Friday giveaways are by John Piper.

A Godward Life vol. 1

A Godward Life vol. 2

Remember, just click the retweet button at the top of this post. The winner will be drawn randomly and then posted on the blog tomorrow.

Brussels is listed as #11 on The Global Cities Index 2010.

from the article:

So what makes a Global City? Not size alone, that’s for sure; many of the world’s largest megalopolises, such as Karachi (60), Lagos (59), and Kolkata (63), barely make the list. Instead, the index aims to measure how much sway a city has over what happens beyond its own borders — its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation. To create this year’s rankings, we analyzed 65 cities with more than 1 million people across every region of the globe, using definitive sources to tally everything from a city’s business activity, human capital, and information exchange to its cultural experience and political engagement. Data ranged from how many Fortune Global 500 company headquarters were in a city to the size of its capital markets and the flow of goods through its airports and ports, as well as factors such as the number of embassies, think tanks, political organizations, and museums. Taken together, a city’s performance on this slate of indicators tells us how worldly — or provincial — it really is.

I have been studying a while about God’s movement in Scripture and how He sought out a person or people who were to be called by His name for His purposes. Following His call God would send them out to accomplish His work.

Abram was one of the first in scripture that God sought and then sent out.

Jerry Rankin states, “The global missions movement is scarcely a hundred  years old, but the task of evangelizing the nations was in God’s heart before the foundation of the world; it was expressed in God’s call to Abraham before it was set into motion in the first Christian century.”1  God chose through Abram to execute His mission plan for a people who would join Him in seeking to bring a redemptive work to all people. In Genesis 12, God extends His call to Abram to go on a journey with Him. Ron Blue writes, “Although God did not reveal the destination of Abram’s journey, He lavished on His obedient servant some incredible promises.”2

God’s covenant with Abram was to make through him a great nation of people, and through Abram all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen 12:2-3). The covenant that God made with Abram, later renamed Abraham, is repeated in Genesis 22:18, “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice,” to remind him that God is looking and calling a people to Himself who will take up His heartbeat and mission.

Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser writes, The fact remains that the goal of the Old Testament was to see both Jews and Gentiles come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah who was to come. Anything less than this goal was a misunderstanding and attenuation of the plan of God. God’s eternal plan was to provide salvation for all people; it was never intended to be reserved for one special group, such as the Jews, even as an initial offer!3 Paul echoes this in the New Testament. In Romans 4:13, he identifies Abraham as the “heir of the world.” “In Galatians 3:8 he argues that the promise in Genesis 12 foreshadows the gospel going to all nations.”4

John Stott writes, “Now we are Abraham’s seed by faith, and the earth’s families will be blessed only if we go to them with the Gospel. That is God’s plain purpose.”5  The Abrahamic covenant was so important to the story of the Old Testament and the mission of God that He repeated it three times to Abraham, once to Abraham’s son Isaac (Gen 26:4), and once to his grandson Jacob (Gen. 28:14).

Who else in Old Testament do you see God seeking and then sending?

1 John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson, ed 31 s., Missiology: An Introduction to
the Foundations, History, and Strategies of World Missions (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers,
1998), 30.

2 Ron Blue, Evangelism and Missions: Strategies for Outreach in the 21st Century (Nashville:
Word Publishing, 2001), 21.

3 Walter Kaiser, Missions in the Old Testament: 33 Israel as a Light to the Nations (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 2000), 10.

4 A. Scott Moreau, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing World Missions: A
Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 31.

5 Ralph D Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A
Reader (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1981), 18.

This video is so funny to me because it reminds me of a friend.

If you haven’t seen this before take time to watch, it is only 1 minute. If you have seen King Curtis, relax, watch again and laugh one more time.

Chrissy Wilson!

She won the MacArthur Commentaries for Free Book Friday. Congratulations.

Everyone make sure and check back next Friday to see what book (s) will be up for grabs.