What are the stages that we see throughout scripture toward fulfillment of God’s mission.

After the fall of mankind and the flood of Noah’s time God was in the sidelines, without
any direct contact with mankind. God found faith in Abraham however, which resulted in
giving him a promise which said that through him all the families in the world would be
blessed. God was working out salvation for mankind even at that time, by hoping to send
jesus his son to earth. God renewed this very same promise to Jacob. God’s master plan
was to thwart satan and his work and bring the world his creation back to himself., by
establishing his kingdom here on earth. However this understanding of the kingdom of
god is in part eschatological and in part here, already manifested which we through faith
must bring upon the earth and over our lives. Jesus indictaed that this kingdom is not
material or political as the jewish seemed to expect in that day,and still the jewish are
expecting the return of the messiah to be triumphant in a materialistic and political sense.
The kingdom of god as jesus meant was spiritual. The bible says that the kingdom of god
is not food and drink but joy, peace and righteousness in Christ jesus our lord. Our god is
a “missio dei”. This is evident in the way he worked throughout history.in his master plan
to bring the world and the human race back to himself he works in a remarkable way.he
chose Abraham because he chose to have faith in god which was accounted as
righteousness to him. However the choosing of Abraham was not arbitrary. God chose
Israel a very weak nation for god himself says in the bible that he chose Israel not
because they were strong but because they were weak. Israel is central to the whole
world. It was to set an example to all the other pagan nations while gradually god would
make all nations embrace the good news and everyone in every nation will bow down
before him and every tongue will confess that jesus is Lord.
The old testament was a preparation period by god for the ultimate culmination of
missions. In the old tetament the central message is that Yahweh is god almighty and
king over all. This can be seen in many scriptures in the old testament. One such example
is the scripture which says “I am the lord, your holy one, the creator of Israel, your king”.
God chose Israel to become a model nation among other nations and kingdoms of the
world. Israel was to representative of god’s goodness and holiness and set an example of
right living.god poured down his blessings upon Israel and it was to become a land
overflowing with milk and honey. Because Israel had fellowhip with god who called it
into himself he was much more rigid on them regarding their disobedience to him.
Everytime they wandered away from god by commiting abhorrent sins such as baal and
ashtoreth worship and sacrifing children like the pagans around them god punished them
severly. The sacrifice of a lamb every Passover once a year for the remissionof sins was
nothing but a proto type of what would be, in years to come. It was a prototype a means
of making Israel understand god’s glorious redemption plan through sending his son to be
a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. The kingdom of god as seen through israel’s history
in the old testament is that they were a chosen race called to live under his rule and the
concomitant hope of the coming kingdom of god. Israel was to exemplify what irael has
thrown off in the garden of eden, which was obedience to the rule of god. God has tries to
restore the communion he enjoyed with Adam and Eve in the garden of eden. He
established a covenant with the people of Israel in which he promised to be their god and
that they would be his people. At the mountain of Sinai god offered the Israelites direct
communication with him, he offered them his voice. He desperately wanted to talk with
his children. After all his sole purpose in creating them was so, he could enjoy fellowship
with them. However, rather than embrace god’s outstretched hand of love and fellowship,
and endure the accompanying purification process necessary to communicate with a Holy
God, they came up with an alternative solution. To Moses the Israelites said, “why don’t
you go near and all that the Lord our God speak to you, and we will hear and do it” (deut
5:27) rather enjoying face to face communion and a direct relationship with God as
Moses did they were content with a set of laws to live by. The law produces guilt and
ultimately death. After Jesus’s sacrifice and glorious redemption we stand in a position
where we can experience communion with god, yes direct communion just like Adam
and enjoyed with God. In the old testament the people of god truly heard his voice. In
every covenant from Genesis to revelation he had spoken to his children. Below are a few
examples of instances when god spoke to human beings throughout biblical history.

And they ( adam and eve) heard the sound of the lord our god.( gen 3:8)
Now the lord said to Abraham…(gen 12:1)
The lord said to moses(ex 4:21)
Now the lord said to aaron(ex4:27)
The lord spoke to Joshua( josh 1:1)
The word of the lord came…to Ezekiel( ezek1:3)
And the sprit told me (peter) to (acts 11:12)
I (john) was in the sprit on the Lord’s day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the
sound of a trumpet saying “write in a book what you see..” (rev 1:10-11)
But you have come to mount zion and to the cty of the living god…and to jesus,the
mediator of a new covenant,…see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking( heb
12:22,24,25)

God has continually offered communion and fellowship to his people, and they have
broken his heart by refusing him an choosing instead to live under law. Still occasionally
down through the history of the new testament, someone was not content to live by under
rules and sought instead the relationship for which he was created. Probably the man who
achieved the highest level of communion with god is david. He was not one to keep his
thoughts and feelings under wraps.
Jesus said that eternal life is knowing god, not a membership cad you show peter to be
admittd into heaven. “ and this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true god,
and jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”(jn17:3) jesus came to offer us eternal life, a retrn
to the garden where our father is still walking, still loving, still longing, for sweet
communion with us. Hebrews 12:18-25 is a word to the church.the writer compared the
Israelites’ fear at the fiery mountain, where god once offered relationship, to the glory of
mount zion. In verse 25 he said, “ see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking”
once more god is speaking. Once more he is offering relationship. He is saying “ please
do not do what the Israelites did.please donot refuse my voice. Please do not return to the
law. Please do notreject me once more.” We are faced with the same choice.
God’s missiological plan has a bigger vantage point than only communion with his
children. It has to do with bringing the whole world back to him, back to the promise they
once lost. The whole world is crying out in brith pangs and is waiting to see the glorious
redemption and the revelation of god’s sons and daugthters.
The great commission

The great commission was given out at the end of jesus’ earthly ministry a little before
his death. Eachof the gospels ends with and acts begins with the great commission. Why
should the great commission be given now? It is because it was only then, only after
jesus’ death that the centripetal mission becomes a truly centripetal mission. This is
possible for a number of reasons. One is that it is only after christ’s death and ascension
that his spirit, the holy spirit can be sent to the church. At Pentecost the holy sprit was
poured out on the apostles, the first church. Now, a Christian is chracterised by whether
he has been born again, and anyone who has been born again has the holyspirit residing
inside of them. Now, anyone who is filled with the holy spirit, and wherever such a
Christian is, sharing his faith, there lies the centre of Christianity. It is not in Rome, or in
England, but within every Christian if jesus is living within. This is what is meant by
centrifugal. Jewish proselytizing that was carried out by them in everywhere they were
dispersed to is centripetal. The jewish diaspora were dispersed far and wide in the world,
even as far as china. They took their customs, their religion, and their belief in a
sovereign god with them, and built synogouges where ever they landed being careful to
observe the Sabbath and other jewish festivals. The jewish diaspora thus formed the
bridge across which Christianity entered the world. In numbers 23:9 speaking of the
Israelite jews god says “ I see a people who live apart and do not consider them one of
the nations.”

The holy sprit is associated with speaking in tongues which began at Pentecost. At
Pentecost the apostles received the spirit with power when tongues of fire came upon
them giving them boldness to speak. The scriptures too are written under the inspiration
of the holy spirit. It is very clear through his working throughout the centuries that the
holy spirit is interested in mission. After Pentecost when peter gave his first sermon
summoning people to accept the good news of the gospel the people were amazed to hear
them speaking in their own different native tongues. For they have come to Israel from
various parts of the world to celebrate the Passover. Through this language ability, it is
clear that the holy spirit wants to reach all people of the world, to bring them back, to
give them the glorious good news, to save them, redeem them. It could very well be that
the central purpose of the outpouring at pentecost is for missions. At the end of the gospel
of luke jesus says to his apostles’ “ and now I will send the holy spirit, just as my father
promised. But stay here at the city until the holy spirit comes and fills you with power
from heaven.” And power was received from heaven when the apostles who were
gathered in the upper room received tongues of fire. While before they were racked by
fear, and stayed within locked doors now they had the boldness to speak. It gave peter
when he healed the crippled man, boldness to speak to the high priest and say “ leaders
and elders of the nation are we being questioned because we have done a good deedfor
the crippled, do you want to know how he was healed?”. Luke says that jews from every
nation under the heaven was in Jerusalem at that time. As luke points out in acts, “ and
everyone present was filled with the holy spirit and began speaking in other tongues”.
The holy spirit gave them the ability to speak in gentile tongues! When they spoke in
tongues they communicated! The meaning of all this was that probably god intended
missions to be carried out to the whole world. The holy spirit himself is the supreme
strategist, the instrument and motivator for world missions. Not the great commission
itself. How god began the centrifugal mission is a striking example of his intent.
The holy spirit is the sprit of jesus and it is also the spirit of god. In this way jesus
began worldwide evangelization which continues today by the power of the holy spirit.
The church too was established at the same time, at Pentecost. The church is the body of
Christ, and we become its members when we join the church. Just as jesus promised he
destroyed the church and built it up again in three days. For both the jew and the gentile,
the church become one and the same. And this church, the body of Christ, is to carry out
the missionary purpose into the rest of the world.
In the first century after Christ, his two apostles carried the mantle of taking the gospel
to the world. The mantle of missions. They had been given the authority for new
testemant scriptures which they wrote. They planted churches, as each apostles traveled
far and wide to reach the un reached. Thomas went to India, paul to the gentiles,peter to
the jews, and they became pioneers in church planting. They were ambassadors for
Christ, for jesus himself said “ he who listens to you listens to me”. The people of god
were called out of the world and sent to the world.
For the modern church, missionary work should not only be a part of its activities, but
missionary work should be the citeria for all its cativities. Feeding the flock is necessary
and important, but missionary work is much more important. When it comes down to it ,
the graet commission was given to the church to bring the kingdom of god on earth. The
end of history will culminate in the beginning of god’s kingdom. We as god’s sheep and
children should yeran for this kingdom to be established. We should yearn for his loving
rule to come down. We should remember also that god want nobody to peish but that al
should come to repentance. With this in mind we should make it our purpose to reach out
to unbelievers in love and tell them of forgivenss for sins through jesus Christ, and in the
age to come eternal life which has been promised to every believer. In the course of
history we see god essentially as a missio- dei, carefully working out salvation of
mankind. God is in control of history. Go will have his salvation brought down to all
humanity. It is in part achieved through christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and the rest of it
will be achieved in the end of this age with Christ second coming. It is upto us to do the
work given to us in obedience to the great commission until god perfects his will and
purpose for the world.