“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” The kingdom strikes back. The season of God has come! By choice, humans joined the enemy’s camp. At first, it seemed as though the enemy was winning. But God had a plan to take back the world from the enemy. The author of Mark’s gospel saw God’s redemptive story unfolding before his very eyes. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus destroyed the power of sin and death and restored God’s rule.

The kingdom of God is at hand. But it is not quite here yet. Until God completes this restoration of his kingdom, we have an errand to run.

The gospel of Jesus Christ brings a new global perspective to God’s work in the world. Jesus could not have evangelized the entire world by himself. As the Father had sent him, he was now sending the disciples. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). The word translated as disciple stems from the Greek word mathetis. That word, mathetis, is derived from tthe word mathe with the inflection on tis. Mathe means to learn. (We have the English word mathematics which is believed to have come from mathe.) Thus disciple means learner. The gospel writers had this nuance in mind when they used the term mathetis in their writings. The NIV translators applied their best judgment from the context and inserted a preposition “therefore” at the beginning of Matthew 28: 19. The literal translation goes something like this: “As you are going make disciples…”

John 20:21 is John’s version of the Great Commission. John used the Greek word apostello which means “send.” This second meaning of apostle applies to all believers. In the same way that God sent Jesus into the world, Jesus was sending his disciples and us into the world to make disciples of all nations. Some of us think that we think that we can be a high school teacher or computer programmer or medical doctor and be a disciple at the same time, and that we need to balance our commitments between these two callings. But the truth of the matter is that we are all disciples from first to last. The very purpose of our lives is to learn from Jesus and grow in his image, becoming like him in his perfect humanity. We emulate the beauty of Jesus in real life, so that this world becomes a better place because of us. Discipleship is a gift and a privilege and what we do in every aspect and corner of life.

In the book of Acts, the gospel ministry gained momentum and spread like wildfire, crossing the boundary into Gentile territory. Jewish believers did not know what to do with the Gentile believers. The Jewish Christians had a hard time accepting Gentile believers into their synagogue-like fellowship meetings. The issues were cultural. Peter and the other apostles sought to settle this matter in the light of the gospel. They convened the Jerusalem conference to hear out the case under the leadership of James, the brother of Jesus. After prayerful deliberation, they understood that both Gentiles and Jews believed the same Christ and received the same Spirit; there was no difference (Acts 15). This was the turning point in world mission. The apostle Paul was vindicated and found new impetus for his personal ministry among the Gentiles. The apostles served their generation and proclaimed the gospel to the ends of the known world.

In this two-part series, we have been discussing the topic, “How can we read the Bible through the lens of God’s mission?” We can read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as one single unit with the theme of God’s redemptive mission. The people involved in the Bible stories were were ordinary women and men. But God called them and worked through them to revealed his redemptive plan. Did God’s mission fail because his workers failed? As long as God lives, his world mission will not fail. The degree of godlessness in the world seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. I asked a number of students at Yale about their spirituality. By my assessment, the level of spirituality — the percentage of students deeply interested in spiritual matters — stands at about 10%. In 1724, when Jonathan Edwards was a tutor at Yale, that percentage was about 60%. Over the years, spirituality at Yale has sharply declined. Obviously, we have been failing to reach Yale students with the gospel. Yet God’s work is going strong and he will restore his rule at Yale.

Every company or organization today has a mission statement. Their mission statement reflects the company’s or organization’s goals and commitment to maximize their potential. God’s mission statement is to redeem our earth. UBF International is dedicated specifically to campus mission; our guiding principle to serve campus mission more effectively. But if we are aligned with God’s mission, we cannot limit ourselves to campus students. We should be ready to welcome anyone, and not exclude anyone who does not happen to be a student. We cannot exclude ministries who are not specifically engaged in campus mission. If we emphasize UBF’s unique mission to the exclusion of others, God’s mission will be tainted. Our mission is not the mission of any person or organization. Our mission, the true mission of the church, is God’s mission.

The ultimate purpose of God’s mission is to establish the worship of God. Look at the composition of worshipers described in Revelation 21. It includes all ethnic groups. In the New Jerusalem, there will be people who are yellow, red, black, chocolate, white and every other color. Our God is the God of the universe. He is the God of love and justice.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” speaks about two aspects of God’s character: love and justice. God loves to show off his love. At the same time, he is the God of justice. His rule on earth as it is in heaven was interrupted by human failure. The enemy’s deception and the fall of man were the catalysts for God’s world mission.

God’s mission is to restore his rule on earth. Very soon he will destroy Satan’s counterfeit kingdom and establish his own kingdom. Since the beginning of time, God has been moving forward with this world-mission task. We are called to to participate and accomplish God’s world mission purpose in our own generation.

Let’s briefly examine what God has been doing in biblical human history. At the exact time that humans failed, God chose to love humans. Think about this: God does not stop loving us every time we make a mistake. As human culture and civilization flourished, unbridled human behavior spread unabashed. Noah’s ark of judgment and salvation did not solve the human problem. Humans found a way to live on their own. They were smart, resourceful, and technologically innovative. When God confused their language at the Tower of Babel, it was not a punishment; it was to show his love for them.

Out of a chaotic world, God called one man, Abraham to bless him to be a great nation and a blessing to others (Genesis 12:1-3). Here God’s salvation story took a different turn. Through this one man and his descendants, God had a plan to bless the whole world.

Through Abraham’s descendants, God’s world-mission purpose was being worked out in Egypt. A serious question arises: “Why would God allow his people to suffer slavery in Egypt?” Firstly, God was building a nation of people who would bear his name among the nations. God’s people were well trained by the yoke of slavery. Secondly, and more importantly, God wanted to reveal his glory through stubborn Pharaoh. God was able to wipe out Pharaoh of Egypt, but God allowed Pharaoh to be stubborn for his own glory (Exodus 9:15ff).

Beyond the Exodus, the story of God’s chosen people continued to unfold. We owe our biblical history to the story of the chosen people, Israel. The position and status of these chosen people was such that another question arises: “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too?”

God is the God of the universe. Before he was the God of Moses, he was the God of Abraham. Before he was the God of Abraham, he was the God of Adam. And before he was the God of Adam, he was the God of the universe. He is the God of all people of all nations. Thus, the idea that the Jews were inherently special, and that all people on earth would come to God only through them, is simply not biblical.

The temple in Jerusalem was not merely for Jews. Solomon’s temple was to bear the name of the Lord “so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you” (1 Kings 8:41). Later, when referring to the temple, Jesus said: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17). God’s mission extended beyond Jews to the Gentiles.

God was with people of other religions. It was unfortunate that his chosen people failed to accomplish his world mission purpose. As a father disciplines his son, God chastised his chosen people. The Babylonian captivity was God’s “left hand” in action. The Jews of the Diaspora became salt and light to the world. They proclaimed the name of God wherever they went, intentionally or otherwise. The book of Esther occupies a unique position in the middle of the Bible, even though it does not explicitly mention God’s name. This book gives us some idea of what God was doing with the people of other world religions. Esther, a Persian name, means “Star”; her Hebrew name was Hadassah, meaning “myrtle.” Should uncle Mordecai have counseled her to proclaim her Jewish identity and keep her Jewish name? For whatever reason, Mordecai told Esther to hide her Jewish identity, at least for a while. By doing so, Mordecai was immersing himself, contextualizing himself, into the local Persian culture for the sake of survival in this foreign land. But uncle Mordecai also knew how to stand up and pull the trigger when the call came. At the critical moment, he called on Esther and said, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) Esther realized that God had a plan and vision for her life. She took a risk with her life and said, “If I perish, I perish,” in order to save her people from annihilation. The implication is that God sent Esther to the royal court of the Persian Empire because he loved Persians. As she went, she revealed the name of the God of Israel to the Gentiles so that they too would fear him.

The world and its dwellers are the focus of God’s mission. The justice of God demanded that all people of all nations be given an opportunity to hear the gospel.