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Every Tribe
Revelation 5:9
Revelation 5:9
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation;
"Kindred" = tribe
What is holding back the
Lord's return? Not much!
But here in our text we find one possibility.
The gospel has not been preached to every tribe yet, though we are
getting very close. The 144,000
Jewish evangelists during the tribulation will reach some from every tribe
for sure even if we don't!
Mission agencies like
New Tribes Mission and
Baptist Missions to Forgotten Peoples
are sending missionaries into the darkest, most remote jungles of the earth,
fulfilling the Great Commission "...to the uttermost part of the earth."
We don't often think about
such peoples, but this week our team is going to just such a people, cut off
the world completely. When our
puddle jumper plane lands on a small dirt strip we are not there yet...we
take a canoe several miles to our island with no power, no communications,
and no Dr. Pepper!
God cares about every
tribe. I want to begin by
simply letting God tell you, in His own words about His priorities.
First there are Old
Testament promises:
Psalm 22:27-28
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is
the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations.
Then there are Old
Testament prayers:
Psalm 67:3
3
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people
praise thee.
Then there are Old
Testament commands:
Psalm 96:3
3
Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all
people.
Psalm 96:10
10
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth:
Then there is the great
New Testament Commission from the risen Christ:
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
The 'end of the world' is
not just a timeframe, it is also a place!
Our team will be far from home and out of touch w/ loved ones, but
God is ever present and goes with us!
Then there is the
apostle Paul's great life of utter dedication to this mission:
Romans 15:20-21
20 Yea, so have I strived to preach
the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another
man's foundation:
21 But as
it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that
have not heard shall understand.
Then there is the
magnificent picture of the final outcome of God's purposes in history:
Revelation 5:9-10
9 And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation;
10
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall
reign on the earth.
This is the big picture.
This is what Christianity is about. This is God's design in world
history—that people from all nations and tribes and languages come to
worship God through Jesus Christ.
You might say, "But isn't
the gospel about finding forgiveness of my sins and getting the hope of
eternal life, and being filled with the Spirit of holiness and being changed
into the image of Jesus so that I am a better mom or dad or son or daughter
or friend or employer or citizen?" And the answer is, Yes. But if that is
all you dwell on in your walk with God, you miss the big picture. You miss
the bigger point of it all. You're like a bat boy at Busch Stadium who
thinks the great point of the World Series is to hand the players their bat.
So I urge you this morning
in the name of Jesus to wake up and to enlarge your heart and to stretch
your mind and to spread your wings. Mount up above your limited life – yes a
very important life, which God does not belittle – and see the great and
thrilling big picture of God's global purposes for the history of the world
which cannot fail.
Isaiah 46:10
10
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure:
And as God gives us wings
to rise up with a new worldview and we see the world the way He sees it,
many of us, I pray, will be loosened from our present situation – job,
neighborhood, nation – and called to an engagement in this great historic,
global purpose of God called missions, to pray, the give and for some that
they will surrender to be a goer and not just a sender.
And to that end I give you
2 Timothy 4:17 as a great encouragement, and great incentive, a great hope
for what it will be like to venture something new and radical on Jesus.
2 Timothy 4:17
17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me;
that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all
the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
So here Paul is at the end
of his life – this is his last letter. He has been left alone in
2 Timothy 4:16
16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men
forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
But then back in verse 17 he says
four great things:
1.
"The Lord
stood with me," just as He promised all His missionaries He would do: "I
will be with you to the end."
2. "...and strengthened
me". He is the Risen King, the
Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and all authority belongs to Him over
all nations. This Lord stood with him and strengthened him.
3. This strength was
for the proclamation of the gospel, not just to be comfortable and
secure. "The Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the
preaching might be fully known." "You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you," Jesus said in Acts 1:8, "and you will be my
witnesses." The power and the strength of the risen, authoritative Christ is
for witness to the gospel that Christ died for sinners and rose again and is
gathering His people from all nations.
4. And the fourth thing
Paul said was that this proclamation of the gospel was that he got this
strength and spoke this gospel "that all the Gentiles might hear."
"Let every
kindred every tribe on this terrestrial ball,
to Him all
majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all!"
What's that
sound in Rev. 5:9? "It's all
God's children singing glory, glory, hallelujah He reigns!"
This was Paul's passion to
the end. Spread, spread, spread the gospel. Even when Paul died he prayed,
"O Lord, let my dying magnify Christ among the peoples of the earth!"
(Philippians 1:20-21).
Philippians 1:20-21
20 ... that with all
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my
body, whether it be by life, or by death.
21 For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.
The Lord stood with me;
the Lord gave me strength, with that strength the gospel was preached; and
the aim was the Gentiles - all the nations. That was Paul's experience of
Christ's faithfulness and nearness and help. And it has been the case with
thousands of missionaries in tens of thousands of crises. And it will be
your experience when you follow Jesus where He leads.
A hundred years ago John
Paton, from
Once he was surrounded by
a mob seeking his life. He hid in a tree above them and spent a terrifying
night there. He wrote later,
"Yet I sat there among the
branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my
Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul . . . as I told
all my heart to Jesus . . . I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in
such a tree, to feel again my Savior's spiritual presence, to enjoy His
consoling fellowship." (Autobiography p. 200).
This is the promise of
Christ to you when you venture your life on a mission for Him.
Alexander Duff, who was
born in
"Why should I, who have
been the child of so many mercies, be faithless or doubting? If any man
living should trust in the Lord absolutely, and cast upon him the burden of
all his cares . . . I am that man. All my days I have been a child of
The Lord stood by him,
guiding him all is life. He will do that for you too as you offer yourself
up to Him for his use and His mission. But
it doesn't mean that we will be spared terrible losses. It means Christ is
there and governs all things and helps us and sustains us and turns all
losses into gain as we trust Him.
William Carey, the father
of modern missions left for
Carey was out of town in
"In one short evening the
labours of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God! I had
lately brought some things to the utmost of perfection of which they seemed
capable, and contemplated the missionary establishment with perhaps too much
self-congratulation. The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply
to him." (Mary Drewry, William Carey: A Biography, p. 154).
Carey knew, and Carey
learned painfully to know better, that the mission of Christ goes forward by
looking more simply to Him. "I will be with you, I will help you." In all
his losses, the Lord stood with him. He never forsook him. Never could he
have endured as he did without him.
His watchword was "Expect
great things from God, attempt great things for God." In that order! First
trust him. Trust his promise. He will stand with you. He will give you
strength. Then . . . THEN . . . "attempt great things for God." You will
open your mouth. The nations will hear and be glad.
That is my call to you
this morning. Put your life in His hands and trust him to be there as you
venture something new for Him.
It's time we get the salt
out of the shaker, and take Grace to another place!
[with helps from John Piper]
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