I prepared this message as the theme for our mission-trip team in the summer of 2002.
Introduction: For this year’s trip, I have chosen John 4 to be somewhat of a theme for our team. So much of this passage deals directly with what our trip is all about—inviting people to drink of the water of life. And there is no better example of how to evangelize than the example of Christ Himself. Christ never dealt with people the same way, but he always seemed to be able adapt his message to fit the specific needs of his hearers. And He always seemed to be able to use the present circumstances and situations around him as an avenue for dealing with people about their need for salvation. Not that it’s bad to have a set gospel presentation, but the mark of a gifted evangelist is his ability to have such a grasp of the truth of the gospel that he can approach the sinner from any different angle. I debated just going through this passage and examining the specifics of it, but there is way too much here to cover in 25 minutes.
So instead, I would like to key in on one specific phrase and establish it further from Scripture and then draw out some of the implications for us in our evangelism. That phrase occurs in v. 23. But lets establish some of the context before we get there. Earlier on in the chapter, Jesus encounters the women at the well in Sychar. He confronts her with her own emptiness and offers her true and lasting satisfaction by drinking the living water. Then they begin to talk about worship. And Jesus cuts through the eternal issues of worship and gets to the heart of the issue. Pick up with me in verse 20:
“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
The woman wanted to debate the external issues of worship to cover up her sin, but Jesus deals with the true nature of worship and goes at the woman’s heart from another angle: worship must be “in truth,” that is, with a proper understanding of the nature, character, and work of God, and worship must be “in spirit,” that is, a worship that comes from a heart of joy and thanksgiving regardless of the location. This is a vital truth for us to get a hold of. We so often think of worship as something that takes place only in a Sunday morning worship service, but this is exactly what Jesus is arguing against. One thing you might be thinking at this point is why Jesus let the conversion be diverted from discussing salvation earlier in the chapter. Why did he not turn things back to her need of salvation? Maybe he knew she just wasn’t ready—that’s one possibility. But maybe he is not really dealing with something so different than what he was before. In other words, maybe her emptiness and need for living water is not something entirely different from God’s pursuit of true worshippers.
We often think of worship as something distinct and different from being saved, but is it really all that different? What is a worshipper? Is a worshipper something different than a Christian? I would submit that he is not. Every true Christian will be a worshipper of God, and every true worshipper will be a Christian. We don’t often think of evangelism as the making of worshippers though. But maybe we should. Notice what the text says in the end of verse 23, “The Father is seeking such to worship him.” In other words, God is on a mission to get for Himself true worshippers, those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. This is God’s mission, and I would submit that it is not a different mission from His mission to see people saved, but that they are one and the same mission! This same mission was the mission of Jesus. Look down with me at verse 27. The disciples had returned with food and invited Jesus to eat. Notice his response in verses 32–34: “But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”
So what Jesus was doing by confronting this woman with her need of living water and by doing the will of Father and finishing His work was ultimately a pursuit of getting praise and worship for His Father.
So I would like for us to consider this evening the issue of our ultimate motivation for missions, noticing the vital connecting between evangelism and worship. Why should we do missions or evangelize? Most missions and evangelistic appeals are made on the basis of man and his needs. For example, one sign at BJ’s recent missions conference was covered with faces of people and read, “Six billion reasons for the great commission.” We are often told of how many people are perishing without Christ every time we take a breath. Down at school, there is a saying that we often say in chapel, “The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today.” Now let me say that this is good. Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion on them. Exhorting people to do missions for the sake of lost, needy people is a good thing. And we certainly lack the love for others that Jesus had and calls us to have as well. So let me make clear that what I am about to say is not intended to undermine that motivation for missions at all. It is a good one and a biblical one, and we need more of it, not less.
The problem is that most of the time, that is where the appeal to win the lost ends. It ends on man and his need. It is almost exclusively anthropocentric, or man-centered. But I would submit that there is an even higher reason for missions. There is a higher motivation that we need to have in order to be doing missions for the right reason. You see, its not enough for us to be doing the right things, although this is certainly a vital part of it. God is concerned about our motivation behind why we do what we do. And I believe that for us to be biblical in why we want to see people saved and grow to become like Christ we must have the same reason that God has. Okay, so what is God’s ultimate motivation for missions? When we answer this question, we will have answered the question of what our ultimate motivation should be.
I’d like to take just a few minutes now and survey the NT and see what I believe is the supreme and ultimate motivation for missions. I would ask you that you take the time to flip to each of these passages that we will examine so you can see them for yourself. Maybe you will want to jot down the references to come back to and consider later.
Acts 15:14 “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.”
Romans 1:5 “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name.”
Romans 8:28–30 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
Romans 9:22 “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”
Romans 15:8–11 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. 10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.”
Ephesians is one of the greatest doctrinal books in all of the Bible, where Paul delves into the depths of God’s salvation and the blessings that His children experience as a result. And here in this passage, Paul answers for us a very important question: “Why did God save us?” Our first response is, “Because he loved us,” an answer which is true and biblical. But Paul goes one step beyond that here, showing that God saving us is not ultimately about us, but ultimately about God.
Ephesians 1:3–6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Ephesians 1:11–12 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
Ephesians 1:13–14 “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 2:4–7 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
The word translated “show” here in our English version most likely doesn’t just carry the idea of “be.” If I am going to “show” you kindness, I am simply going to “be” kind to you. The word can mean that, but I don’t think that that is what is intended here. It would not make much sense for Paul to say that God showed us His grace in saving us so that he might show us his grace in the future. I would therefore argue that the meaning here is the idea of “demonstrate, manifest, or put on display.” In other words, God has saved us so that He might put on display the greatness of His grace and therefore receive the unceasing worship and joyful praise of His people for all eternity! God’s glory is the ultimate motivation for why God has saved you.
Ephesians 3:7–11 “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:”
So I submit to you that the ultimate motivation for missions needs to be a passion for God to receive the glory and praise and worship that He deserves—that His name might be exalted in the earth, that He might be great and all-glorious in the estimation of His people, and that unceasing praise from joyous hearts might continually sound out to the praise of the glory of His grace. This must be our ultimate motivation for missions, because this is God’s ultimate motivation for missions.
So to talk about the “six billion reasons for the great commission” without talking about the supreme reason for the great commission is inadequate. To try to stir people emotionally to win the lost by statistics of how many people are dying without Christ without drawing their attention to the God who is worthy of and demands to be worshipped is a skewed focus. And to say that “the most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today” is someone inaccurate, when the most sobering reality in the world today is that God is not receiving the worship and praise and obedience that He so much deserves today.
Now I am not trying to pit the one motivation against the other. They are both good and biblical, and both need to be present. What I am trying to do is to exalt the motivation that is so often missing or at least neglected to the place of preeminence where it belongs.
Let me try to state the relationship between these two motivations another way: the rich blessing that man experiences in having his sins forgiven and receiving joy is not an end in itself, it is the means to the highest end or goal of God being glorified. So God aims to glorify Himself by showing us grace and freeing us to become worshippers of Him. I believe it is vitally important that we keep both of these as our motivations for evangelism and missions, AND that we keep them both in their proper place and relationship to each other.
One text that I believe sums this up so well is Romans 11:36 “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” In other words, God is in some sense the originator and planner of all things, in some sense the agent of all things, and also the goal or end of all things. To sum it all up in a simple phrase: IT’S ALL ABOUT GOD!
I want to challenge you to do a study that I guarantee with be transforming for you—a study that I began 4 or 5 years ago. That is a study on the self-glorification of God—that God does everything that He does ultimately for His own glory. I remember when I first began to see these passage in Scripture that for so long were hidden to me, that frankly I was somewhat bothered by them, because they presented to me a God somewhat different than I had known before, but I believe a God more in line with the revelation of the Scripture.
Begin by looking up phrases like: “for my glory,” “for the sake of my name,” “that I might be glorified.” You will find that there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of texts that emphasize this—not to mention the hundreds of times in the Psalms where God is basically telling us, “Praise me, worship me.” Begin to mark them in your Bible or jot them down in a notebook, and you will find that (1) God created the world for His glory, that (2) He governs all the affairs of this world for His glory—the nations, the weather, horrible events like 9/11, and that (3) He saves people from their sins for His glory. Your view of God will greatly increase, and you will realize that your job is ultimately about God being glorified, you exercise habits, your entertainment, your whole live is about God being glorified and worshipped because of His greatness. In essence then everything becomes an attempt to answer this question, “How can I best put on display the greatness of God through my life?”
Let me try to summarize some of this by reading to you the opening page of a book on missions that our team read together this year. He says very well the point that I am trying to emphasize to you tonight.
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97:1). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Psalm 67:3–4).
But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!”, who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…. I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.
If the pursuit of God’s glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man’s good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth….
Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Psalm 96:3)….
Answers to some objections:
1. Does this de-emphasize the need of man? No, it rather does the opposite—by exalting God, you are exalting that which is man’s only hope of having his needs met.
2. Does this make God seem kind of selfish? No, because for God to be seeking His own glory and praise and worship is to invite man into the only thing in life that can really give Him meaning and fulfillment. Man was made to worship and praise God, and until He is born again and freed to worship God as supreme rather than Himself, he is empty and miserable (so the woman with her many lovers). So for God to exalt Himself and call men to worship Him is to offer them the living water that can truly satisfy them so that they never thirst again. So God glorifies Himself in the joyful praise of His people who have experience God’s wonderful grace.
So What?!
Is this important, or is this just some theological concept to talk about but that has no practical significance?
1. First, whether or not it does have any practical significance is somewhat irrelevant because it is biblical and therefore important for us to believe. If this indeed is the teaching and emphasis of the Scripture, then certainly it should be our focus as well.
2. Secondly, it is not the case that it has no practical significance. God never gives us truth for no reason. All theology is practical, because God intends all theology to affect the way we will live our Christian lives. Right theology is essential for right practice. This truth is so clearly seen in two of the major theological treatises of the NT: Romans and Ephesians. Romans 1–11 is primary theology with interspersed exhortations. Then comes Romans 12–16 where Paul draws out all the implications from that theology that should influence the way Christians live. Ephesians is the same way. Ephesians 1–3 is basically doctrinal. Then comes a point of major transition where Paul unfolds what that doctrine should mean for the everyday live of the Christian. So I would argue that this is not merely some dry theological concept with no practical relevance for your Christian life.
Okay, then, what are these practical implications for our daily lives?
1. This should affect the way you pray. You should pray that God would get glory to Himself. Since this is central in God’s heart, it must be central in ours and in our prayers as well. You will begin to pray like Jesus prayed in John 12:28, when he prayed, “Father, glorify thy name.”
2. This should give you confidence that your prayers will be answered, because this puts you in line with God’s plans and purposes. In praying this you know that you are praying according to God’s will.
3. The fact that missions is ultimately about God and that God is seeking worshippers guarantees the success of the mission. Jesus said, “I will build My Church.” Success is certain because God is the one pursuing the worship of men and women from every nation. This should give the evangelist great hope and confidence that God will bless the preaching of His Word. What a blessing to know that the success of what we are about to do does not rest ultimately on us or even ultimately on those we will give the gospel to, but the success rests ultimately on God!
4. This fact will help us to become better evangelists. The greatest missionaries are the people who are the greatest worshippers. Evangelism is nothing more than the overflow of your delight in God. If God is the object of your delight and praise because you have seen and experienced the greatness of His grace, then evangelism is simply the overflow of that praise into the lives of other people. Those who share little of the gospel and share little of the Word with other believers are those who are not delighting themselves in the Lord. We speak of what we are most delighted in, and if God is the object of your praise and worship, evangelism will certainly be there. You commend to others what you cherish yourself. Illustration: You have a great computer, a brand new car, a favorite basketball team, a favorite restaurant, etc., so you commend brag on it and commend it to others. Worshippers are the greatest evangelists!
So a problem bigger than the fact that we don’t love people as we ought which leads us to not evangelize as we ought is the problem that we don’t love and worship and praise God as we ought. The problem of lack of evangelism will fix itself as God’s people get consumed with a passion for knowing and loving and enjoying and worshipping Him. So this is very practical. Where a heart for God’s glory exists there will be great involvement and activity in evangelism and world missions.
5. You will produce better evangelists. When you are used to see God make a worshipper, you also see God make an evangelist.
Conclusion:
God is central in the universe. He is central in all that He does, so He must be central in all that we do. God and His glory must be the primary motivation that we have in missions. As we strive to win people to Christ we are striving to see God glorified by men and women become worshippers of Him. Let this truth influence how and why we give out the gospel, let it motivate us to be more fervent in giving out the gospel, and let it influence the way we pray.
For Further Reading:
John Piper, Let The Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions.
Tom Wells, A Vision for Missions.
Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created The World.
For Bible Study:
Exodus 14:4, 17–18; 1 Samuel 12:20–22; 2 Samuel 7:23; 2 Kings 19:34; 20:6; Psalm 25:11; 106:7–8; Isaiah 43:6–7, 25; Jeremiah 13:11; Ezekiel 20:14; 36:22–23, 32; Matthew 5:16; John 12:27–28; Romans 3:25–26; 9:17; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 10:31; Ephesians 1:4–6, 12, 14; Philippians 1:11; 1 Peter 2:12; 4:11