The Finish Line is Near: 10th Reason to Advance in Missions Today
April 19, 2010 – 12:34 pmIt is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)
On the day of Pentecost a great event was acted out before the eyes of the Jewish nation, a drama that has been repeatedly played out since that time all over the world.
As missionaries have gone throughout the world, unbelievers in various parts of the world, in language after language, have said something like this: “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11). The nations of the world, not just the nation of Israel, have been hearing about God, his works, and his salvation.
The Greek word ethnos, the source of our English word “ethnic,” basically means “nation” or “people group.” The word is found 153 times in the New Testament, with the greatest concentration of its use in the book of Acts.
This is not really surprising, when you think that the book of Acts is the record of the first missionary efforts of the Jewish-born church to reach the Gentiles, the “nations” of the world. The word is found next most often in Romans with its emphasis on the gospel as the message of God for all peoples.
But the third greatest concentration may surprise you. It is the book of Revelation. The books of Acts and Revelation form the “bookends” of God’s plan for the nations of the world, the starting line and the finish line of the work of the messengers of Jesus Christ.
Acts 2:6-11 is the detailed account of the start of the race. Revelation 7:9-10 is the finish line: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
What a spectacle that day will be! What a privilege to be some of those who have specifically worked to make that finish line crowd the group it will be, not native Jews by a special miracle of God proclaiming some of the languages of the world, but mother-tongue speakers of all those languages, proclaiming their praise to God for all that he has done in their heart languages.
My wife Becky and I wrote a song about that day called “Patmos Vision,” and the chorus of the song sums up our feelings about it:
Some from every tribe and nation, Every people, every tongue,
Giving praise to him who sits upon the throne;
And they shout with jubilation, “Salvation to our God,”
And forevermore God’s children will be home.
This concludes the series on “Ten Reasons to Advance in Missions,” but it does not conclude all the possible reasons to advance. May each reason that exists move us the more to be a part of what God is doing in missions in the world today.
Glenn Kerr, guest author for the MM Blog, provides 10 reasons why local churches should advance in their effort to start indigenous church planting movements in regions that do not have a gospel witness.
Glenn J. Kerr is chief translation consultant for Bibles International, the Bible Society of Baptist Mid-Missions. He has worked as a consultant for 15 years, being involved with translation projects on five continents and about 28 languages.
He has a master’s degree in Hebrew and Semitic Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has done graduate studies in linguistics at Michigan State University, and is currently in doctoral studies through the University of South Africa.
He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Bible translation and related linguistic subjects on an adjunct basis at three Bible colleges and universities in the US as well as his consulting work overseas.
