Topic: Understanding Missions Today
Speaker: Dr Bijoy Koshy (International
Director of Interserve/ Indian medical doctor)
Interserve: http://interserve.org.au/
What is missions?
It’s been 150 years since William Carey
started the modern mission movement.
Church now largely exists in the global
south.
Missionary force is now coming largely from
the south of the world.
In 2015, 75% of new missionaries in this
agency came from countries such as Korea, Brazil, NZ.
Missio Dei: The Mission of God, Making
Himself Known, Ps 19: The heavens declare the glory of God.
What is eternal life? John 17:3: Knowing
God.
Missio Dei in the Old Testament:
Primary agent of the revelation of God was
the nation of Israel.
Personal stories of call and ministry were
played out in the context of the bigger story of Israel.
Primarily, the dynamics of the community of
the nation was to attract others to God.
Place of all the elaborate rituals and
festivals: building a spiritual and worshipping community who would reveal God.
God’s dealing with Israel: whether in
blessing or punishment was that they and others may know how He is (especially
see Book of Ezekiel).
Missio Dei in the New Testament:
John 17 Mission of Jesus: Make the Father
known and make possible relationship to Him.
Isaiah 49:6 Salvation may reach to the ends
of the earth.
Our Mission Today:
Follow Me.
Go and do likewise.
Following Jesus is about taking on His
mission.
Matthew 28:18-20 Make disciples of all
nations.
Acts 16:9-10 This needs to be read along
with Matthew 28. It’s not “I have a call so I go over there and do a piece of
work”. It’s only validated in the “come and help us” of the local church. It
does not stand by itself, but by the call of the community! The growth of the
national church.
How you do what you do reveals who Jesus
is.
John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.
John 13:35 Love.
John 17:23 Unity.
Our very existence as a community of God’s
people is the revelation of God in us.
Who we are is more important than what we
do.
Talking about salvation doesn’t make sense to
the unsaved. People have to see how it looks like in the community for it to
make any sense. Be submissive to each other and come into community to each
other.
Interestingly, in theology 602 class today, we were talking
about the mission of Jesus of Nazareth:
1)
To
proclaim the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:38-39; cf. Mark 1:14-15, 24; Luke 4:18-19)
l “Build your kingdom” quite common in English praise
songs. What does it mean? We sing songs like these, does it match with NT about
how Jesus inaugurated his kingdom? Is it a good metaphor? Your kingdom come?
Physical (build) vs spiritual. We want to “build” God’s kingdom? Is this
language ok in the post-colonial era? Roman Catholic baggage? Concrete idea, of
castles, city walls, etc. Very political geographical connotations. Sometimes
the expression “kingdom” is offensive to people (political). The idea is about God’s
rule. Jesus’ mission is to demonstrate the rule of God. The rule Jesus
demonstrated was not recognisable and people were very confused. People liked
what Jesus was doing: subversive character, different from what people were
expecting, but it’s a threat to the establishment even before Jesus said
anything. Are we doing things the same way as Jesus? Or the way the world
expects mighty wealthy church to do? The world cannot recognise the strangeness
of the Gospel. Even in the area of charity: the wealthy people give the
leftover to the poor. Jesus did it not because he’s living in a palace, but
because he had true compassion on people. There were plenty of leaders (eg.
Zealots, etc), but Jesus had pity on them because they were shepherdless. If
the signs of God’s rule were about “rebuilding Solomon’s temple” etc. then
Satan had no reason to tempt Jesus. Jesus could have had an easier way to rule
the earth, but he rebuked Satan. God’s rule not just climaxes of feeding the
hungry/releasing the captives/healing the blind, but to overcome the power of
death, of Satan, not through violence, but to throw himself into the source of
violent power, and overcomes it because of who he is.
l Fulfilling the time: Jesus has a definite way of
overthrowing the enemy in the fulfilment of time.
l Overthrowing the enemy: His refusal to defend
himself, on the cross, his death. If the signs of God’s rule/kingdom only
primarily lie only in feeding the poor, eliminating the wrong systems etc.,
then the cross was not necessary and we only need the socialists.
l Preaching good news to the poor: Blessed are the
poor. Blessed are those who are persecuted on my behalf. In Mark, Peter’s
confession falls to the ground because it’s not a mature confession. Peter confessed when he saw Jesus performing all sorts of miracles. But then when Jesus predicts his death, Peter rebuked Jesus. Jesus then rebuked Peter. The Roman
centurion at the bottom of the cross made the mature confession, “surely this
is the Son of God”. Building orphanages, etc. are important. But most important
is the reality of the cross and resurrection. Wherever Christians are is God’s
rule. Wherever Christians are suffering and kept in faith, God’s rule is there.
Be sober about what we believe. The signs of God’s rule is not always what we
like to see.
2)
John
12:44-50 Purpose of coming is to reveal the Father. Proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favour. Not to judge, but to reveal. But there will be a judgment.
3) John
1:10-11; cf. v. 5: The world did not know him… his own people did not accept
him.
l
Rejected, as prophesised in Isaiah,
in the first coming. In the second coming there is not option: just judgement.
You will know the full identity of Christ but you will not have any benefit or
option to reject or receive at all. Our missional calling is to reveal God and
proclaim God’s reign.
What do I envision as the climax
of my ministry? When my church becomes mega church?? How do I want to climax my
life?
These are not wrong in of
themselves, but are they to be the centre climax?
Discipleship, the centre of which
is Jesus Christ, should be the centre climax.
Miyon has been talking a bit about
the topic of the prophets in class last week and this week:
There are lots of people calling themselves to be prophets
and apostles. As Christians we all can be prophetic and apostolic, but some
people are specially gifted. One distinguishing quality of the Prophets:
Conveying to people God’s profound feelings & longing for Israel. Based on
the word of God, have passion & compassion. To be able to dwell in God’s
emotion and convey that to people. Prophets
are not only given access to God’s words, but also God’s pathos, including
God’s infinite compassion. They’re screeching in the middle of the night an
octave higher when everyone’s still asleep. During reign of Hezekiah, people
were proud, while the Prophets were asking people to repent, “singing out of
tune”, discordance, not concordance. Prophets also have access to God’s
profound wrath against sin. They could only scream out while everyone else
thinks they’re doing ok, eg. “the enemies can’t attack us” etc. One of the ways to remedy our sickness is to sit before God and ask God to give us a sense of
his compassion for the world. Even as finite creatures, we need to feel as God
does towards the world. We’re not automated machines or just a workforce in the
world. We are emotional beings. We need to feel God’s profound feelings for the
world. Make sure our hearts are not calloused against sufferings and injustices
around the world. Ask God to fill us with the proper emotions so that we can do
his will on earth out of the same heart, not with a lukewarm heart.
And on the topic of revivalist awakening movements:
l
Some people got too carried away by
the experience but their lifestyle is unchanged. The Holy Spirit is not about
witnessing outwardly miracles, but it is about growing in the capacity to love
God and reflect God in our lives.
l
Miyon discourages discussing/focusing
too much on outward signs. Instead, take time to disciple people.
l
Different people have different
worship styles: sit quietly, vs. nod head, vs. dancing, etc.
l
John the Baptist: did lots of weird
thing. Rees Howells: touched deeply by the Welsh Revival, led down the path of
intercession for many years, before seeing Revival across Southern Africa from
1915-1920. Weird things happening during the Pyongyang revival before Japanese
occupation. Weird things that we can’t make sense of. Whilst not everyone
touched by the experience get converted, out of these experiences came out the
most remarkable Christians.
l
Western culture: Strong analytical
ability. But you don’t need to be a Christian to analyse a phenomenon. People
do weird things when they first encounter divine power. Some people may be
converted and find their lives transformed, some people may revert back to
their old experiences.
l
Miyon believes discipleship is the
only cure. It is the Spirit that disciples us. The qualities referred to as the
“fruits of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23) cannot in their entirety be produced
in human lives by unaided self-effort. They are a supernatural work.[1]
No comments:
Post a Comment