I was once asked to speak at a church on the subject of missions.  Specifically, I was asked to talk about why the Church should be involved in mission in the first place.  Why should we go and proclaim to others the message of Jesus Christ?  Why should we pray for those who do?  Why should we give financially to the cause of global evangelism?  In short, why should we pray, give, and go?

     Over the next several days, I want to take time to reflect on this critical question.  What follows is part 1: 

Why Mission? A Passion for God’s Glory

     A couple of years ago, I studied the topic of prayer in the Bible.  What I wanted to do was to look at everything the Bible had to say about prayer, bit by bit.  As I went along, one thing I looked at was all the recorded prayers of the Bible.  I asked, “What do the pray-ers of the Bible pray about?”  A number of things stood out, but I’ll mention one that is particularly relevant here.  It seems that many of the people of prayer in the Old Testament had a definite preoccupation with the glory and fame of God among all nations.  Let me refer you to an example:

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone."

(2Ki 19:14-19)

     The background to this passage is complex so I’ll just summarize it.  Hezekiah, the King of Judah, has a big problem.  His kingdom and people are being threatened with annihilation at the hands of King Sennacherib and the Assyrian army.  The Assyrians are no posers, they’ve successfully wiped the floor with quite a few kingdoms before getting around to Judah.  So, Hezekiah, as a man of tremendous passion for Yahweh, the God of Israel, prays.  Hezekiah prays what any of us would pray—“Save us.”  But it is his motive that strikes me.  Of course, he wants God to intervene so that the people won’t perish, so the children won’t be sold into slavery, so the women won’t be raped, so the city won’t be burned to the ground.  But Hezekiah doesn’t mention any of that.  He has a distinct preoccupation with God’s glory.  He basically says, “God, save us, so the nations will know that you are not like other gods.  If you save us, they will know that you really are the Living God.”

     This preoccupation with God’s glory among the nations strikes me as one of the perennial distinctions of the God’s covenant people.  Psalm 67 gives utterance to what should be the passion of all of our hearts:

May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face to shine upon us,

that your way may be known on earth,

your saving power among all nations.

(Psa 67:1-2)

     Several years ago I had the opportunity to play in a Christian band (harmonica & vocals, thanks for asking).  One of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life was traveling with that band to Paris, France for a month of mini-concerts in the Paris subway stations.  We’d set up and play for a few hours as thousands of people passed us on their way to work, home, play, or whatever.  The only songs we knew were about Jesus, so we went with it.  Some people stopped, some people looked, some people ignored us, some came and talked.  It was really a pretty unique experience.

     There was a thought that came to me in that time that lingers in my heart to this day.  The thought of worshipping Jesus Christ in a place where ordinarily, He just simply wouldn’t be worshipped.  I say it lingers with me because still I feel a deep desire to worship Jesus in places where He is usually forsaken, forgotten, or worse.  I believe very strongly in His immeasurable worth.   Jesus should be worshipped at your school, at your workplace, in your home, in your neighborhood, and in every other place.  Is there a place on the planet where Christ is not worthy to be lifted up above all other names?

     Yes, I know, at this point many may disagree with me.  But, I hope not those of you who are disciples of Jesus.  What defines us as followers of Jesus should be this unquenchable passion for His glory, his fame, and the magnification of His name in all the earth.  And as long as a nation, a city, a village, a neighborhood, a home, a heart – as long as there is any place on this planet where Jesus Christ is not magnified above all other names, we should, with every fiber of our being, by every resource at our disposal, in every prayer we can utter passionately pursue the everlasting glory of the Living God in that place.

     And that conviction, inevitably leads to mission.

     Why mission?  Mission is the inevitable outcome of a passionate preoccupation with the promotion of the glory of Lord Jesus Christ among all nations.  So, here is a principle.  There is a direct correlation between the degree to which you value the glory and fame of the Lord Jesus Christ and the degree to which you are personally engaged in global missions.  To wit, the more you care about God’s glory, the more you will pray, give, and go for the cause of missions. 

     So, yeah.  I’ll stop there.  Thoughts?  Comments?  Slanderous accusations? Mindless trivia?