Missions exist to make much of Christ not missions. The church’s supreme priority is to serve, honor, praise, love, and worship God, in Christ—in all she does, this is her mission. She exists, and will forever exist, to make much of Christ. That is her appointed preoccupation.
But we must also be clear that the church’s mission to make much of Christ relates to people. We don’t make much of Christ to Christ, and then make nothing of Him to other people. As our priorities relate to nonbelievers, we are responsible to go to them, in deep humility, compassion, and concern, making much of Christ to them, because they don’t. This is why the church is in and not of the world. The church alone has been entrusted to steward the gospel of grace to a lost and dying world. She exists to know and make Him known, to love as she is loved, to hope and share her hope, to enjoy and spread her joy. In all of creation, She is the only institution that has been charged with the high responsibility of knowing and making known the person and work of Christ. Who else knows the worth of Christ, but the church?
We are to labor and sacrifice to proclaim and advance the knowledge of Christ wherever He is not treasured. The great reality of the church is that she treasures Christ—and in this world, she does so exclusively. Christ paid in love the unspeakable price of His life to redeem a people for His praise.
This mission is not narrow. The praise of Christ should abound as far as the curse if found. The local church must be globally minded. Our passion for missions is a passion for Christ to be exalted—He deserves the praise of the nations.
Intrinsic to the glory of Christ is the global scope of missions. “It is too light a thing,” says the Father regarding the Son, “that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). The necessity of a global aim derives from the scope of salvation. The scope of salvation derives from the surpassing worth of the Savior. “It is too light a thing” for the glorious Christ to suffer the unspeakable indignity of the scandalous cross to redeem only a corner of creation. God saves for His sake (Ezekiel 36:22; Isaiah 48:9-11; Psalm 106:8). The gospel must be proclaimed “for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5). The Moravian missionaries of old captured the heart of missions when they sold themselves into slavery to reach an otherwise unreachable people, crying out as they sailed away, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His sufferings.” The worthy Lamb of God, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), was slain to ransom “people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Why global missions? Because anything less would be “too light a thing.”
When our priorities are right, we see more clearly. The more Christ-like we become the more authentic our love and compassion will be for those without Christ. No one will ever love lost sinners more than Christ. Keeping Him first and central is our greatest gift to humanity. Our passion for missions must seek God’s glory and man’s gladness through the gospel of Christ.
Missions, then, serves as a key means to our chief end. We promote Christ, through witness, to promote Christ in worship. Missions involves making much of Christ to people who don’t, for His glory and their everlasting gladness.
Missions Sunday — February 23
Making much of Christ in learning about and celebrating the work of missions in the world through TBC.
Special 10:30 a.m. & 6:00 p.m. services
Special Guest: Dr. Bob Provost
(Slavic Gospel Association)
Join us for a special a.m. & p.m. service (including a dessert fellowship) with special guest, Dr. Bob Provost of the Slavic Gospel Association. Trinity Bible Church has enjoyed a long relationship with SGA and Dr. Provost, so we are excited that he can come and share how God has used this ministry to reach the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.