August/September 2001

THE CALL TO MISSIONS
by Jean LeStourgeon

After my return from Romania in June, I was inspired to listen again to an audio recording of a speech I heard John Piper give at the 2000 Ligonier conference in Orlando, Florida. The 2000 conference was on missions and I had just returned from my second short term missions trip to Romania. My soul was tremendously encouraged through that conference and it seemed to confirm so many things that the Lord had been teaching me on the Romanian mission field as well as encouraging my thinking in new ways.

I had forgotten just how passionate John Piper is about missions until I listened to the tape again. Piper reported that there are still 2 billion persons who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I met one of those 2 billion people in Romania this year. I'll call her Sophia. Sophia is a single mother, who is pursuing her Bachelor's degree in the Social Sciences at the University. She is now working on her thesis and is already planning to return for her Master's degree. Sophia and I discussed our common interest in the plight of women. As I listened to Sophia speak and share her philosophy I realized that I was Sophia 20 years ago. She was me and I was her: Determined to become educated, determined to make a better life for herself, and most of all determined to be independent. I also never wanted to be dependent on anyone, including God.

A few weeks after returning from Romania, I received an email from Sophia. She shared that a man named Chuck, a team member from the next missionary team that came to the organization where she is employed, shared the gospel with her and she accepted Christ as her Savior. As the word says one plants, another waters and even another brings in the harvest. God is good to let me see the fruit of my and many others watering and seed planting in her life. It is true "others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." (John 4:38)

Honestly, I recognized the hunger and thirst in my friend and sister in Christ, Sophia. But from my perspective, which is constrained by human flesh, I figured she was a ways off from accepting Christ as her Savior. I was thrilled with the opportunity that God had given me to share His love and His word with her, but I must admit my surprise at her email so soon after our conversations. I saw so many obstacles to overcome. But, John Piper reminded me that when God, by His irresistible grace decides to overcome our resistance to His grace, then the salvation deal is signed, sealed and delivered. What an awesome truth. God and God alone saves.

This month I want to challenge your perspective on missions, whether your mission field is across your neighborhood or across the sea, Piper encourages us to be "sold out for the glory of God among the nations." In his speech, Piper exhorts us, especially those who consider themselves Calvinists, to look at the basic doctrines of the faith and see how absolutely radically they support the doctrine of missions. He uses the five points of Calvinism, the acronym TULIP, to illustrate His case.

T = Total depravity - all people everywhere, are fallen, sinful, spiritually dead and perishing with out the illumination of the gospel. Piper calls the T in tulip "a missionary bugle call." When we read scriptures like Ephesians 2:1-5 you were dead in your transgressions and sin...but God...made us alive with Christ, it should sound like a trumpet blasting in our ears, calling us to take our place on the battle field of missions. People simply cannot become spiritually alive without the illuminating truth of the gospel imparted by the Holy Spirit.

U = Unconditional election - In Isaiah 66:20 and elsewhere we see the promise of God to "bring all your brothers, from all nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem." No nations, no peoples, and no tongues are excluded from God's purposes because of social class, creed, religion, race etc. Piper reminds us that God chooses His people unconditionally and therefore no condition can be used to withhold the word of hope from any group or person for any reason. Christians have a missionary mandate to ensure that no peoples are excluded from hearing the proclamation of the gospel.

L = Limited atonement - Piper explains that Calvinism goes up to what Armenians believe and beyond. Armenians believe that Christ died for all in the sense (John 3:16) that who ever believes in Christ's atoning work will have eternal life. However, Piper believes the scriptures teach that the atonement is much broader than that, in that, Christ accomplished more on the cross than simply the purchase of a valid offer of salvation for everyone who hears the gospel. Christ purchased the New Covenant promises for His people through His death on the cross. Those promises are stated in Jeremiah 31:33 "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people." God, by writing His law on our hearts and minds, makes us His people. The scriptures teach us that Christ did not simply die on the cross to give us a choice to be saved, but Christ died on the cross to effectively purchase His bride with the dowry of His blood. Revelation 5:9 "and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." That is a missionary doctrine.

I = Irresistible grace - "Irresistible grace?" one might say, "I resist the grace of God all the time." In fact we can often look at the events leading up to our own salvation and see where and how we resisted God. In Acts 7:51 Stephen speaks of the stubbornness of the hearts of God's people and how they even resisted the Holy Spirit. Not much later, in chapter 9, we read about the conversion of Saul, one the most rebellious, self-righteous and stiff-necked Jews of them all and a supporter of Stephen's death by stoning. Irresistible grace is best explained like this: God's grace is resisted until He is pleased to overcome the stubbornness of a person's heart and grant him repentance unto salvation. For the believer with a missionary heart it does not take long before they experience the hardness of men's hearts towards the gospel. Our hope and comfort is in the knowledge that the work of regeneration of a man's soul is solely by the grace of our sovereign God. I witnessed that in my friend Sophia. It was by and for God's good pleasurethat He determined to over come the resistance of her heart by His glorious grace at the moment in time that He did. Our hope in missions is the irresistible grace of God, it is our promise, and it is our sustenance in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Irresistible grace is a missionary doctrine.

P = Perseverance of the saints - God sustains His missionary saints through difficulties, trials, suffering and hardships so that they will continue to trust in and serve Him. God Himself causes us to keep believing in the gospel, in order that the gospel will continue to be preached. This is an irrevocable promise according to Mt. 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come". Jeremiah 32:40 further explains the promise of God to His people, "I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me." The new covenant promise purchased by the atoning work of Christ is accomplished when God makes us into new creations, by changing our hearts. God said through the prophet Ezekiel "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (36:26). Piper explains, "Almighty God is pleased to put faith, repentance, fear, love and perseverance into the heart of the saints, blood bought by his own son, and awaken it afresh every morning no matter what." The promises of God to preserve His saints are the only reason that the great commission can be fulfilled.

Piper says that Calvinist churches should be the most radical, risk taking, daring, mighty, joyful and confident churches on the face of the globe. He challenges us that if our churches are not those things in regards to missions, then we need to repent.

I want to challenge every reader of ChristianDiscipleship.com to do the same. Whether you adhere to the reformed Calvinist Christian doctrine or some other, God has commanded us all to fulfill the great commission. I pray that the articles, Bible studies and devotionals in this month's edition of ChristianDiscipleship.com will challenge you to consider your commitment and participation in carrying out the great commission.

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