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Day 2: The End Of World Missions

Jake Potter, author

Read

Revelation 5:9-10

9 And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

    and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

    from every tribe and language and people and nation,

10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

    and they shall reign on the earth.”

Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Reflect

The verses above demonstrate the ultimate goal of missions. In Revelation 5, we see how Jesus ransomed people from every tribe, language, people group, and nation with the blood that he spilled on the cross. Then in Revelation 7, we see a great multitude worshiping God in heaven, comprised of every tribe, language, people group, and nation. This prophecy of the great multitude, whom Christ has ransomed will be fulfilled. As we discussed yesterday, missions will have achieved its purpose at this point, because a great multitude from the whole world will be worshipping God.

To explain the significance of these verses, I want to share a personal story. For those who don’t know me, I serve on staff with our student ministry team. But in addition to being passionate about students, I am also passionate about world missions, specifically missions in Japan. Since 2016, I have been regularly serving on mission trips to Japan as well as partnering with missionaries who are currently living over there long term. Japan is an open country – at least, legally. But despite its open borders, Japan remains the second largest unreached people group in the world, with a mere 0.5% of its population being Christian.

On my first mission trip to Tokyo, I went on a prayer walk with my missions team. On our walk, we came across one of the largest graveyards in Japa, Yanaka Cemetery. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a sea of Buddhist graves. There must have been hundreds of thousands. As I walked the rows of graves lined with wooden sticks adorned with Buddhist writings in symbols most cannot read, it struck me that all of these people died without knowing Jesus. But as we continued walking, I came across a single tombstone that was in the shape of a cross. I was struck by the significance of a Christian grave in the middle of hundreds of thousands of Buddhist graves, and I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me that this is what my life should look like—a life lived in faithful worship of the One True God, in the midst of a world that does not know him.

As we continued walking in the graveyard, we got lost, and as we tried to find a way out, we found a section that was pushed to the far outskirts of the graveyard that was entirely Christian graves. It was relatively small compared to the rest, but its testimony was huge. At first, I was saddened, because despite the testimony of these Christian lives, Japan is still by and large not receptive to the gospel. But then I remembered the worlds of church father, Tertullian that “the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church.” Looking at numbers, it would seem that these seeds have fallen on hard soil. But in that moment, I was reminded that God always fulfills his promises. As it says in Revelation 5, the blood of Jesus purchased people from every tribe, every tongue, every people, and every nation. The seed that has been sown in Japan WILL bear fruit, for God is calling the Japanese people to himself. 

And this isn’t just true for the nation of Japan. God is calling the people of the world back to himself, and the seeds that have been sown will be bear fruit. The image of the great multitude in Revelation will come to pass, and on that day, missions will be no more. But in its place, people of every tribe, every language, every people group, and every nation, will worship God forever and ever. With that end goal in mind, we should be motivated to push forward and get involved in world missions.

Respond

How does the vision given to us in Revelation 5 and 7 demonstrate God’s heart for the world? How should it motivate us as believers?

Mission Trip Highlights

In this section, we will be highlighting our mission trips. There will be a mission trip meeting to hear about all our trips on November 15. We’re also including a link so you can go and read more about each trip and pray about whether or not you feel God calling you to participate. He may be calling you to go, or enable someone else to go by contributing financially to their trip.

CZECH REPUBLIC – March 6-13, 2021: https://cfhome.focusmissions.com/!#/18995/czech-republic-esl-spring-break-trip

We will serve at schools in Prague, Czech Republic alongside missionaries, Matt and Patty Schonhoff.  Participants will teach English lessons (you do NOT have to be a teacher to do this) and engage in English conversation with all levels of students to form relationships and share the Gospel. Patty serves at the Christian International School of Prague (CISP) teaching English/Language Arts to middle school students from all over the world.  Matt serves at Evangelickȧ akademie (EA) teaching English Conversation to Czech high school students.  While both schools have their origins as Christian schools, most of the students are not Christian and many don’t believe in God.  During the week, time will be spent forming relationships allowing ample opportunities to share your faith and the Gospel.

MOROCCO – June 11-18, 2021: https://cfhome.focusmissions.com/!#/18807/morocco-n-africa-medical-training-church-planting-evangelism

Using Medicine to Plant Churches – This trip is open to all adults. Medical training is a huge plus, but not necessary, as we will train all trip participants here to train the nationals over there. We will partner with “Teach To Train” (TTT) an outreach of East-West Ministries to equip the countries experienced church planters and evangelists to do basic medical care and to use TTT’s medical backpacks. These medical backpacks give them access to unreached Muslim villages that we could never get access to as Americans, and because our trainees are Christians, they cannot get access to without this medical equipment. Once in the unreached villages, they will evangelize and plant churches.

To see info on all trips, click here: https://cfhome.focusmissions.com/!#/

About the Engage God DailY

Jesus invites us to know him personally and engage with him daily. Through daily Bible reading and prayer, we can grow in our relationship with him. The Engage God Daily is a daily resource designed to help you better understand the Bible and take you deeper into the concepts taught on Sunday mornings.

Use this guide to prepare for next Sunday’s teaching. Each day presents a reading, Scripture, and a prayer to help grow in your walk with Christ this week. 

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