welcome everyone to our next lecture our final lecture in the mission in biblical perspective series we've looked at mission and old testament perspective mission in the gospels mission in acts and in this lecture we are looking at mission in the epistles and so consistent with our key text approach to mission in biblical perspective whereby we identify key biblical themes by looking through the lens of two key texts we're going to explore mission in the epistles by using revelation 7 9-10 and first corinthians 15 um 1 through 11. and we're also going to dip into some other texts here and there to help frame these but before turning to our texts again i just want to uh we'll make a couple of general observations about mission in the epistles but i want to recommend for those of you who would like to dig deeper especially around this this theme of a biblical theology of mission there's a good little book or maybe not quite so little um but salvation to the ends of the earth by andreas kosenberger and peter t o'brien and um you know similar to the outline of this course it looks in the old testament the gospels paul and john the general epistles and so it's a great overview of mission and biblical perspective and so when we come to this this idea of mission in the epistles it's a bit different than acts and the gospels and so in contrast with the gospels and acts the epistles are written to specific audiences um and so the letter to the romans is written to the romans the letter to the church at corinth is written to the church at corinth whereas the gospels and the acts have a more general audience in mind and so where there are there are generally applicable themes that emerge from the epistles what we see is mission described in very specific terms both that of the apostles such as paul who's writing these letters and they're the call to christians to live faithfully in particular contexts and one of the themes that does come out through many of the epistles is this appeal to christians to live faithfully in the context of persecution and so in some cases it's not yet to the point of shedding blood but this idea of god's people the church as a contrast community with the world and whatever it is that's going on in the world the church is something different this shines through in almost all the epistles in some way and so one of the surprising things though as we come to the epistles is this question of why there aren't more direct appeals to evangelism we see the activity of evangelism implicit and leaking through in various places for example in colossians the way that this church heard about the gospel that it wasn't through paul but it had come to them from one of paul's workers and now paul's writing this letter to be sure that the the faith that they have is is the right one but the fact that the gospel advance and mission had happened that's the reason that this letter is is there at all and so often what we have in the epistles is this indicative imperative paradigm um where paul will begin the epistles by saying this is who you are and then follow that often with this is how to live and the this is how to live is often framed in terms of living well living ethically living morally living faithfully living righteously in the context of a perverse generation but what we don't want to do is make the mistake of thinking that that that that appeal to good living is sufficient that's all we have to do is is live faithfully for jesus and the world around us is going to want to follow him yes we should be salt and be light but there is more um and just one thing when we come to the epistles is that paul's role is essential as he wrote so many of these epistles and what we do see in the epistles is paul often reflecting on his own approach to mission both his conversion his calling and his methods his principles his practices and how he has gone about mission in these various cities and so what we're going to do in this lecture is as i mentioned we i've chosen these two key texts one of them is pauline and one of them is john from revelation we're going to look at revelation 7 um and uh 9-10 and then first corinthians 15 1 through 11. and what i'm trying to do here um and again there's so many different texts that we could have gone to but what i want to do is because of my reading of every nation mission plays out between the great commissioned mission and this great throne room telos i want us to go to the end and see this is what the picture looks like and then come back to how is it that that's fulfilled so if we have the mission of jesus this great commission mission where jesus sends us and then we look ahead to the picture what is it that happens in between these two things of the mission and the culmination of that mission well i would suggest that there's two things there's activity and there's a message and the activity is going and engaging and reaching people and making disciples and preaching the gospel but there's a message and that is the gospel and what i would suggest is that that message of the gospel is the thing that bridges this mission of jesus in matthew 28 with this end result that we read about in revelation 7. and so we're going to start with revelation 7 start with the end and then work our way back and the other thing that i just point out here at the beginning is that in your lecture notes there is the opportunity to go into much greater detail and so in the lecture itself because i know some of you have a quite short attention span and i'm working with you um the for those who want to drill deeper there you'll you'll find a lot more they're in your lecture notes and so i would encourage you to read through those so let's read our text our first text here revelation 7 9-10 please pull out your bible um and look at this with me and then we're going to unpack this this is a core text not only for christians but especially for us here at every nation and we want to understand this in a deep and profound way 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 let's just unpack this and see what this is all about first of all we see that the result of mission is a great multitude look at that little phrase a great multitude that no one could number now remember that this was written before the gospel had gone global yes by this time if john's writing in the towards the end into the first century who knows in the 80s and 90s we we don't know exactly maybe a little earlier than that but um the gospel had spread throughout the roman empire was leaking in in other places but it was not this big thing that that we we see now and so yet here this prophetic vision of this is how it goes now this is encouraging for this um and for those of you who are in context where the gospel is growing quickly and you can see visible tangible results the point of this is that even what you see is just the tip of the iceberg that this great multitude is bigger than any of us can imagine and for those of you who are working in contexts that are gospel resistant and where you labor in labor and labor and you don't see quick and immediate results this encourages us to keep going because every little bit matters in the context of eternity do not grow weary in well-doing for we will reap if we don't grow weary the second thing that we see is that the result of mission is people of extreme diversity from every nation all tribes all people's languages god's people are geographically ethnically linguistically diverse the riches the richness of god's godness cannot be appropriately expressed by just one kind of people we see that diversity in this great throne room scene number three the result of mission is people standing before the throne that is the lost have been saved those who were far from god have been brought near that what so encourages to me about this is that salvation is not a potentiality it's a guaranteed fact these people are actually around the throne they have been brought safely into the very presence of god number five the result of mission is a holy people those gathered around the throne are wearing white robes the problem of sin has been dealt with god's people stand before him without any stain or spot unhindered by the sin sinfulness failures of their previous life the work of god in bringing people safely home is a holy people number six the result of mission is an acknowledgement of christ's lordship now you can read in greater detail in your notes but there it says that with they had palm branches in their hands they're waving these palm branches and this dips back into palm sunday in this idea that the palm branches were a symbol of the hopes of the messiah that this this jesus that they're worshiping with these palm branches that he's not just savior he's also lord he is the messiah who has come to redeem and to establish god's kingdom number seven the result of mission is worship they're crying out with a loud voice now some of us work in contexts that are more naturally reserved like germany and scotland but when we're around the throne there's not going to be quiet sections and liturgical sections and pentecostal sections and white people sections and african sections everybody is going to get their praise on now let's turn this around the appropriate response of seeing in person the glory of the lamb of god is to erupt and cry out in a loud voice that's a whole sermon in itself but for the sake of time we move on number eight the result of mission is a celebration of salvation the song that they're singing the song of the redeemed that's arising is salvation belongs to our god now it's important to note that the song of the redeemed is this celebration that god saves now this may be an oversimplification but maybe not that four main theological themes throughout scripture number one god is holy god is great god is good god is love and god saves now these these themes come together because this declaration of salvation is the integration of the first three themes that god is holy god is great and god is good and love and this idea that the interface between god's holiness justice and his love and mercy is salvation in other words because god is great he can save but because he is good and loving he does save now there's variation on this theme of salvation by grace through faith alone and you can go and see romans 3 21-26 ephesians 2 1-10 but this idea that salvation belongs to our god because number one god is the only one who can save and number two god is the only one who does save and so what's being declared about salvation belongs to our god is an affirmation is that this is the only way that anybody ever gets saved is god breaking into their lives and actually saving them and that little saying salvation belongs to our god is a quotation from psalm chapter 3 verse 8 a psalm describing how david fled from absalom as he's david is reflecting back on his experience he said you know what salvation belongs to god god is the one who saved me when i looked at my situation in the natural there was no hope but god broke in god intervened and so salvation is always from and to god saves us from sin from judgment and from death and he saves us to adoption justification forgiveness and eternal life we'll be picking up some of those themes in systematic theology next year in your year three now the other thing just to observe here is that this is a sister text to revelation chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 where it says and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open it seals for you were slain and by your blood you rant some people from god from every nation tribe language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our god and they shall reign on the earth now the thing that i'd like you to note is that those gathered around the throne are those that have been ransomed those who are purchased by the blood of jesus number one for god number two from every nation tribe language people and nation number three unto being a kingdom of priests and reigning with god and so you can compare this with acts chapter 20 verse 28 where paul describes the church as those obtained or purchased with christ's blood in short those who end up around the throne are those that jesus has purchased and number nine the result of mission is doxological the lasso phrase is and unto the lamb so the result of human mission is that jesus is worshiped when we faithfully steward the gospel so that god exercises his saving power through the gospel it accrues to the glory of god as paul writes in romans 11 36 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever amen now i hope you've gotten a flavor that i'm i've just skimmed over the top of these each one of these little phrases in revelation 7 9 and 10 is worthy of a sermon or a lecture depending on what mode we're operating in itself but i just encourage you to pause and reflect and meditate on each phrase of this is this is the destination the telos the end towards which we are moving and the link here is that the the what is it that takes us from this mission of jesus which says go into all the world and make disciples to that being fulfilled and what i'm proposing is that the link between these that stands between the great commission and the great throne room is the gospel stewarding this gospel of actually going into these nations and preaching this good news of who jesus is what he did and what that means in other words the throne room is populated by people of every nation when god's people faithfully steward the gospel in every nation now when we talk about the gospel we're going to look at first corinthians 15 and just i want to start though by reading the every nation seminary summary statement of the gospel this is what it says we believe the gospel is the good news that god became man in jesus christ to reconcile lost people to himself he lived a perfect life a perfect sinless life on our behalf and died on the cross for our sins he was buried and on the third day he rose from the dead securing our redemption forever having triumphed over satan and the forces of darkness he ascended into heaven as lord of all everyone who repents and believes in him receives forgiveness of sins and eternal life now with that summary in our back in our our minds in the background of our minds i want us to come and look here at our key text number two and again there are multiple lectures that could be done on this text um what you're getting ready to hear is just a quick run through this just pointing out some of the key things that are here so let's read this and then we'll unpack it now i would remind you brothers of the gospel i preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word i preached to you unless you believed in vain for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures that he appeared to cephas then to the twelve then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom were still alive though some have fallen asleep then he appeared to james then he appeared to all of the apostles last of all is to one untimely born he appeared also to me for i am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god but by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace towards me was not in vain on the contrary i worked harder than any of them that was not i but the grace of god that is with me whether then it was i or they so we preach and so you believed so we're just going to unpack this and see what we can learn about mission in this letter to the corinthians now i would just remind us as we're walking through this that paul is writing here to a church that he's already established so this is a church planted by paul he's not trying to correct something he's just and he starts by saying i'm reminding you of this and so sometimes we have this idea that the gospel is like for those who don't yet know jesus and then we go on to the deeper things but here he wants the corinthians to come back to the message that he's already given them and he underlines the same point in first corinthians chapter 2 where he talks about i determined to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified he's coming back to that picking up that same theme and remember this that these letters would have been read aloud in a church and the way that the the strategy of an epistle works is that you leave the most important point to the last now this church in corinth by this i mean there are a number of different issues that paul's dealing with in this letter a big one is clarifying their understanding of the resurrection which all comes in the rest of this chapter 15 but here we have this cortex of paul bringing them back to the gospel and so with that in mind let's just unpack this number one is the priority of the gospel he starts by saying now i would remind you brothers this is something that paul would do often he's not timid in reminding them i know sometimes as pastors as leaders we we feel the need to want to be creative and to come up with something new whereas paul didn't um you can do a study in paul's letters to timothy where the the big idea is what i received i have passed on uh you know pastor steve talks in a hundred years from now this idea of the baton that we pass on and it's our mission our values our culture and the gospel now three of those as we pass on if we do a good job passing on to the next generation it means that that next generation will be every nation in the same way that we're every nation but that fourth of the gospel is the one that steve says this is the indispensable one because if you drop that that next generation is not even christian and so the gospel is the main part of the baton that we have to pass on and so paul is saying i am going to remind you of this because the second point is that this is of first importance um and so i'm going to remind you of this and of the gospel that i preached to you and this idea that the gospel is not just for how we come to christ but it's also how we live in christ um that the gospel gives us identity and i'm working hard not to preach that whole message right there but that's an important thing the gospel defines who you are who god is and who we are in christ number two is the singularity of the gospel paul says i want to remind you about the gospel that i preached to you and this is an important idea we're going to unpack this later in our residential week but it's simply this that the gospel is singular but evangelism is plural let me unpack that by what i mean there is one gospel and paul makes this point in galatians chapter 6 verses galatians 1 verses 6 through 9 where he says i'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of christ and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another one but that there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of christ but even if we were an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preached to you let him be accursed as we've said before so i say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one that you receive let him be accursed the reason that paul is saying this is because there's one gospel and these galatians were tampering with this gospel so this is why paul's writing to the corinthians i'm going to remind you about the gospel that i gave you so there's one gospel but evangelism is plural and we're going to unpack this when we uh at our residential week in the the intensive when we look at the gospel or and mission in contextual perspective and try to understand this tension between syncretism where we are so overly defined by the the context where we're doing ministry versus obscuritism and that that is where we haven't done a good job translating the truth of the gospel into a way that can be understood but we start with this idea that the gospel is singular but evangelism is plural so you can see that for example in acts 13 14 and 17 where paul is preaching to three different contexts and he preaches three different messages and so evangelism there's lots of different ways that we communicate the gospel but there's one gospel and so i'm simply at this point simply going to say this that every generation must accurately understand and clearly communicate the gospel without the first the second is impossible so let's keep going here back to first corinthians 15. the third thing is the appropriate response to the gospel he says which you received there's always a human response to the gospel receive reject or ignore and so here paul is writing to people who have received it so he's not trying to get them to he's talking to people who have already received the gospel and then number four the appropriate posture towards the gospel is in which you stand so this is an important idea this one gospel is what defines the standing the identity the life the perspectives the values the ethics of a christian it's not merely what saves us it denotes the the zone in which we live life number five the benefits of the gospel he says by which you are being saved it is the gospel that saves a person if a person is being saved it's because they have believed the gospel the gospel is god's power unto salvation and it works it's able to save now that word saves the creek word sozo and it's used of the deliverance of the israelites from egypt and exodus 14 13 and of deliverance generally from evil or danger and so in the new testament when we talk about being saved it's especially used with reverence or great deliverance of the great deliverance of the guilt and pollution of sin that jesus has accomplished the author of hebrews calls our great salvation now a different context but we just mentioned that salvation occurs in these three time zones where we say i have been saved it's a fact based on what has happened in the past i am being saved this is the process of sanctification and i will be saved this is glorification so i have justification sanctification glorification three dimensions are salvation and three time zones now if i just lost you on that that's okay we're going to come back to that in systematic theology and unpack that in very careful terms all right number six is the requirements of the gospel if you hold fast to the word that i preached to you holding fast implies active reliance it speaks to a keeping a cherishing a possessing of the gospel it is a person holding fast who experiences the benefits of this standing and believing there's no promise of salvation for a person who doesn't believe or hold fast the gospel and then he comes again back to the priority of the gospel again he says for i delivered it to you as of first importance not second not third not fourth first importance and so this is a good observation for us that being a minister of the gospel is primarily about deli faithfully delivering the gospel to people paul delivered to the corinthians what he had received from god and so along with living a life that is consistent with and reflective of the gospel the most important thing that we can say about our ministries is that we have faithfully delivered or stewarded the gospel this is the baton that we have to pass on if we get this right if we get the gospel right there's a chance that we'll get other things right but if we get this wrong nothing else matters that's why paul calls it of first importance it's not somewhere in the top five list this is number one now a similar statement would be what paul writes to timothy in timothy 1 15 this is a trustworthy statement and deserving of full acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners and so you could just pause right here and ask is the gospel of first importance in your ministry or have other things come to the top and are somehow crowding that out for paul this is number one number eight what i would observe here is the unoriginality of the gospel paul says which i also received our job is to pass on the gospel not to get theologically creative now consider what paul tells timothy in timothy 1 3 i urge to remain at ephesus so that you'll teach people not to teach a different doctrine first timothy 6 20 through 21 look guard the deposit avoid the irreverent babel and contradictions of what's falsely called knowledge second timothy 1 14 by the holy spirit who dwells within you guard the good deposit entrusted to you our job is to be sure that we receive the gospel and pass it on we can't pass on what we have not received and then that brings us to the heart of the gospel paul unpacks the thing that he has received and i want to just slow down here and focus on this because this is the heart of the gospel christ died for our sins there are three things of this first important gospel that frame this gospel for us and help us understand it now this could be called the gospel in a nutshell christ died for our sins in that one little statement we have the who of the gospel the what of the gospel and the how of the gospel the who of the gospel is christ the what of the gospel is that he died and the how of the gospel is for our sins so in this one statement we have a christology a historicity and a theology the christology the who of the gospel is that the one gospel is christologically accurate going back to that every nation seminary gospel summary that i read that god became man in christ what did he do he died the one gospel is historically accurate he and we see this in the creeds that jesus lived he died he was buried he was raised he appeared and then number three is for our sins this is the why of the gospel the one gospel is theologically accurate now there's so much that we could unpack about this and this is all there in your notes that um we see with christ we have this the the the christ died for our sins the first point being christ this idea that our gospel is christ centered number two it speaks of the lordship of christ it speaks of his death um we see this all through the bible this this the the the fact of the these appearances of jesus and how the facts of the gospel are confirmed um paul describes this in romans chapters uh chapter one verses one through four when he he gives a gospel summary statement and so all of this is pointing to this idea that um the gospel is this fact-based message and then in addition to that um we also see that in the creeds and then so christ died and the third one is for our sins this is affirmed all through the the the bible in the gospels we see this in the statements of jesus jesus talking about his own death what that was for paul often teaching about christ dying for romans 5 6 christ died for the ungodly 5-8 christ died for us galatians 2 20 who gave himself for me first timothy 2 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all galatians 1 4 who gave himself for our sins and then peter teaching about christ's suffering for christ also suffered once her sins the righteous for the unrighteous and you know we see this in just this idea that christ died for our sins what we call penal substitutionary atonement we're going to unpack that in greater detail when we get into systematic theology but what i want you to see here is that this little phrase christ died for our sins is this very heart of the gospel this is what paul gave to the corinthians and what he is now bringing them back to um and so to i'm working hard just to not slow down here too much um and unpack this but this idea of what that little phrase means is is so essential to us and we'll be unpacking that more later so back to first corinthians 15 the 10th thing that we see is what we call the authenticity of the gospel this idea that what jesus did this christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that what jesus fulfilled had already been promised then we again have the historicity of the gospel he was buried the confirmation of the gospel he was raised from the dead and then back to the historicity of the gospel he appeared to cephas of the 12 to more than 500 to james to all the apostles than to me and then again back to the idea of there being this one gospel paul says so we preached paul is again highlighting the consistency of his ministry it's not just that there's one gospel but this is the gospel that we preached and then there's also one response he affirms that this is what you believed so you believed and so in summary the biblical gospel has these three core ideas that paul describes in first corinthians 53 christ died for our sins a statement worthy of a much more thorough unpacking than we can do in this lecture there is a bit more detail though there in your lecture notes and so these three gospel elements are the identity of jesus christ the work of jesus he lived he died he was buried he was raised and the result of that work it was for our sins jesus dealing with the issue of sin so that we might end up around that throne worshiping the lamb of god so in conclusion let me just sort of review and summarize the gospel of jesus according to first corinthians 15 1-11 the gospel is christological it all centers on christ his life death burial and resurrection number two the gospel is theological it's god's answer to thy dilemma marked by human sinfulness and god's righteous wrath and judgment of sin thus christ died for our sins the gospel is biblical everything the apostles preached about jesus was according to the scriptures the gospel is apostolic jesus appeared to over 500 people but especially to the apostles who were eyewitnesses and they appealed to their eyewitnesses this proven demonstration and they appealed to their eyewitness accounts that they were eyewitnesses as the the proof that their message was true um number five the gospel is historical the death burial and resurrection of jesus are events not ideas the gospel is personal it's given to be experienced through faith and repentance the gospel is universal christ the new adam redeems people from every tribe tongue nation it doesn't save everyone but its sweep is comprehensive and last of all the gospel is eschatological set in the context of first corinthians 15 what we experience in time when in this life we hear the gospel respond to the gospel and follow jesus is fulfilled in the transition to the new age of the consummated kingdom in which we receive glorified bodies a new heaven and a new earth the holy spirit is the down payment that all of that is going to happen so as we stand back and look at mission in the epistles starting with this revelation chapter 7 verses 9 and 10 picture we see people from every nation tribe and language gathered around the throne worshipping the lamb singing the song of salvation and what we've observed is that the way that they get there is when we do what paul is calling the corinthians to in first corinthians 15 and that is to faithfully steward this message christ died for our sins the who of the gospel the what of the gospel and the why of the gospel if we do that if we faithfully steward that message then that great throne room vision will be fulfilled [Music]