Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged Paperback by John Piper & David Mathis

Author:John Piper & David Mathis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Missions
ISBN: 9781433534836
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2012-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

144 John Piper

world “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all

people” (Titus 2:11). And when he summed up his life and minis-

try, he said it was all about the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24):

I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if

only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from

the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

The heart of the missionary message to the nations is: God will

save you from your sin and guilt and condemnation by grace

through faith in his Son Jesus Christ. We go with a message of

grace, not a message of condemnation.

IN SUM

So to sum up what we’ve seen: God’s great purpose in the world is

to be known and praised and enjoyed and feared. And the truth

about him that he wants to be known and praised and enjoyed

and feared is

•  he is the one and only true and living God, the Father of Jesus Christ;

•  he is infinitely just and holy in all his ways, settling all accounts justly either on the cross for believers or in hell for those who reject his truth;

•  he is sovereign over all the affairs of men and nations, and over the saving mission of his church through the all-authoritative, risen Christ;

•  and he is a God of boundless grace to all who come to him through

Jesus.

THE MISSION WILL BE FINISHED

Because he is gracious, he aims to be known among all the peo-

ples. And because he is sovereign, he will be known among all

the peoples. “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall

not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). “I have other sheep that are

not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). This

gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole

world as a testimony to all nations” (Matt. 24:14).

This is the great hope and confidence that created the mis-

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Let the Peoples Praise You, O God! Let All the Peoples Praise You! 145

sionary movement of the Christian church. And this is the hope

and confidence that will sustain us until we finish the mission.

And it will be finished.

ONE FINAL POINT

There is one final point that needs to be made from Psalm 67—

from the beginning and ending of this psalm. The psalm begins

and ends with the connection between the people of God being

blessed by God so that the nations will be blessed by us. We saw

this in verses 1–2: “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.”

What we have not noticed is that when the connection is

repeated at the end of the psalm it is harvest time, and the bless-

ing on the people of God is mainly a material blessing. Verses 6–7:

The earth has yielded its increase [there has been a great

harvest—this is a harvest psalm];

God, our God, shall bless us.

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