MISSIONS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
“Missions is the heart of God and the over all messege for all believers and is also he theme of the Bible."1 This missions unites all sixty-six books in the Bible. Paul makes known the mystery of the gospel Ephesians 3:6 stemming from the Old Testament, that it is also for the gentiles and not limited to the Jews only.
From the very beginning of creation the gentiles, or all peoples not Jews, have been a part of the saving grace of the Lord. The apostle's understood this plan and is evident in their writings. On the day of Pentecost Peter quotes the book of Joel saying stated, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Joel 2:32). What the prophet Joel said was fulfilled that day before Peter’s very eyes. Later, Peter enters the house of a Gentile and preaches the good news. The Holy Spirit came upon on all who heard and believed. "All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43). Paul had a clear understanding of the Gospel in the Old Testament and said in one of his sermons, he quotes Isaiah 49:6 where it states, "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."
It was not easy for the Apostles to learn this. Luke 18:31-34 says, "they understood none of these things." H. Cornell Goerner says that Jesus began to show them from the scriptures everything about his death and the father's plan. Jesus also instructed
1H. Cornell Goerner, All Nations in God's Purpose, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979), 11.
James, John, and Peter after the transfiguration on the mountain. These teaching sessions were passages from the Old Testament.2 In spite of these...
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...a heart for missions even before Christ came and iterated this from the very beginning. Israel’s early mission was to be a witness to the world so that when the right time came, the Gentiles would be ready to receive the salvation that was promised to the world.
14Ibid., 85.
Works Cited
Goerner, H. Cornell. All Nations in God's Purpose: What the Bible teaches about missions. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979.
Hedlund, Roger E. The Mission of the Church in the World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1985.
Love, Julian Price. The Missionary Message of the Bible. New York: The MacMillan Company,1941.
Willis, Avery T. The Biblical Basis of Missions. Nashville: Convention Press, 1979.
Meek, James A. Gentile Missions in the Old Testament. Library of New
Testament Studies, 385. New York: T&T Clark, April 2009.
were, Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon,
Oxbrow, Mark. "Anglicans And Reconciling Mission: An Assessment Of Two Anglican International Gatherings." International Bulletin Of Missionary Research 33.1 (2009): 8-10. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.
In other words, evidence of God’s intention to establish diversity begins with the table of nations in Genesis 10 and continues throughout both the Old and New Testaments (Patten, 2013). Therefore, catering to or including cross-cultural communities in our ministry planning has biblical basis. Embracing various cultures abroad when preaching the gospel is also clearly outlined as a needed ministry when reading in the book of Acts, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Acts describes the continued spread of the gospel to new peoples and land. God’s love is not for any one race or ethnic subgroup a love, but for all who will respond to the gospel call.
Turner, David L. Matthew: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
In general, I do not believe that Christian mission and contextualization occurs only when a Christian or a group of Christian travel to remote places in the world to spread the Gospel; that concept of missiology is another way of imperialist point of view. Mission and contextualization occurs every day, not only on mission abroad.
Watts, John D.W. Nahum. Vol. 34, in World Biblical Commentary, edited by David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, 61-90. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984.
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
Walls, Andrew F. 1996. The Missionary Movement In Christian History. 1st ed. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
In order to understand God’s call to missions, we must first explore the topic of missions. A missionary is a person who is called by God to spread the Gospel. I interviewed Larry LeGrande, a missionary with Pioneers, concerning the challenges of being a missionary. He shared with me that “leaving his home as well as his children to go to Southeast Asia is very difficult.” Larry also indicated that “leaving Southeast Asia to return ho...
The Gospel of Matthew is a historical, symbolic narrative of Jesus’ life aimed at the Jewish Christian community...
When other popular teachers died, their movement died with them. However, after the death of Jesus, his movement continued to build strength and grew rapidly. James, Peter, John and Paul, Jude and the writer of Hebrews were convinced of Jesus’ resurrection, they believed this with such conviction that they did not even try to defend or prove this. They stated it as fact. “In each narrative, names are given of those to whom the resin Christ presented himself (Barnett 130)”. This can be verified and proven true, based on eyewitnesses. After the death of Christ, the lives of the writers of the New Testament were radically changed. They traveled where they had not gone to reach out to people outside their comfort zone. They died in their challenge
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
They must flex with each other’s strength and deficiency to in turn strengthen the whole. In an attempt to appeal to the fears, concerns, and rebuttal of his fellow travelers, he was careful to select biblical passages that would exemplify his convictions throughout his sermon as infallible proof of Gods true will and faith in his elect followers. With hopes high and the dawn of a new day, God’s holiest people set out on a righteous mission to settle their new colony.
During early missionaries journeys the Gospel of Christ was shared first with the Jews. These early workers went into the local “synagogue and reading the Law and the Prophets” (Acts 13:15) teaching that, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the scriptures of the Messiah. Today the Law and Prophets are known as the Old Testament. The early church used these scriptures to verify the accuracy of what Peter, Paul and the rest of early church were preaching. The Jews in Berea received the word from Paul and examined the scripture daily to confirm the truth (Acts 17:10-12). These early followers of Christ set the example that today’s believers need to follow.