Outreach Commands and Warnings

In the vein of outreach prophecy, we find different materials. Each has its own purpose and value, but the most precious, like glittering gems, are outreach promises.

Mining can be dark, dirty, and dangerous. While you read the next few pages, the earth will tremble and you'll expect a cave-in. But fear not. God has lessons for you to learn even in the dark.

Outreach commands. The vein of outreach prophecy contains many commands to spread Christ's gospel. Here are two.

Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples (Ps. 96:2-3).
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mk. 16:15).

Outreach Warnings. The vein of outreach prophecy also contains warnings to people who fail to witness as God desires.

The Lord promised the patriarch Jacob, "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring" (Gen. 28:14). Ultimately, the Jews would bless all nations when Jesus the Jewish Messiah came to redeem us all. In addition, God wanted the righteous conduct of every Jew to draw others to faith in Him.

Often, however, Israel's unfaithfulness and idolatry led the nations away from God. After they were conquered and exiled, the Lord declared, "Israel is swallowed up, now she is among the nations like a worthless thing" (Hos. 8:8).

Similar warnings of judgment appear in the New Testament. Paul laments, "God's name is blasphemed among the nations because of you" (Rom. 2:24). Jesus said, "But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God" (Lk. 12:9).

Their purpose. Why did God place outreach commands and outreach warnings in the Bible? Outreach commands reveal God's desire to save all people and His plan to use us as His ambassadors to the lost. Outreach warnings alert us to the danger of selfishly keeping God's blessings to ourselves. We need this information, because Satan wants us to believe this lie:

Christians do not need to proclaim the gospel of Christ to non-Christians, because God surely will pardon all good, sincere people regardless of what religion they follow.

What do you think of this idea? What do God's outreach commands and warnings teach you about its truth value?

Inner accusations. Like heartburn after pepperoni pizza, talking about outreach commands and warnings can result in a guilty conscience. Place a 4 by the accusations you have felt.

__ a. I don't know if I can rise to these challenges.
__ b. At times I've failed to witness when I should have.
__ c. So much needs to be done, and I'm only one person.
__ d. I feel pressured to witness to everyone I meet.
__ e. I am weighed down by the lost state of millions of people.
__ f. I feel guilty for not having done more in the past.
__ g. I don't love people enough to sacrifice for their sake.

Don't feel bad if you check all seven. I could. God's outreach commands and warnings accuse us, simply because we are imperfect witnesses. Sometimes we are just plain lazy or chicken or apathetic about the people who face eternity without Christ.

Reinforce the ceiling. At this point you might be thinking: "Thanks a heap for dragging me into this mine. I suspected this topic might arouse guilt feelings, and now it has. When I hear God's law in His outreach commands and warnings, I feel tremors of judgment about to bring the ceiling tumbling down on us."

We need some solid timbers to reinforce our mine. You will find those timbers in the next section.

Prayer: Lord, keep me safe as I venture into this mine.
Action: Recall an experience in which the Bible's outreach commands and warnings made you quake with guilt.

Braced by Grace

God designed outreach commands and warnings to show us our failure to be a light to the nations, so that we might repent of our disobedience and apathy. However, all by themselves, outreach commands and warnings can not motivate or empower us to perform what they require. So, when we are flattened by a cave-in of guilt and shame, what can we do?

Gospel promises. We do what Christians always do with their sins. We confess our faults and lean on God's mercy toward us, His mediocre ambassadors. Read the four gospel promises below and feel the rubble of sin and shame lifted off you. For emphasis, I took the liberty to add brief comments in brackets.

1. [God] has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done [such as evangelizing the lost] but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus... (2 Tim. 1:9).

2. But if anyone does sin [against God's command to make disciples], we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn. 2:1-2).

3. For it is by grace [not by evangelistic activity] you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works [even diligent mission works], so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

4. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent [plus nothing]" (Jn. 6:28-29).

Which statement best summarizes these gospel promises?

__ a. I am saved by doing my best to evangelize the world.
__ b. I am saved by trusting only in the saving work of Christ.

For those who believe the gospel, the answer is obvious, but we must tell our accusing consciences the truth repeatedly, so that we always rest on the Lord and not on our own efforts.

Sturdy beams. Exploring the vein of outreach prophecy can be scary. Without strong timbers to brace the walls and ceiling, we would perish in a cave-in of guilt. But our gracious Lord has provided sturdy timbers for our safety--the very beams of the cross of Christ. We are safe, because of God's solid, enduring promises to GIVE us redemption, grace, pardon, peace, and eternal life.

With this security, we can continue to mine the vein of outreach prophecy without fear.

Prayer: Lord, in the blood of Jesus, cleanse me of my outreach failures, as You faithfully do with all my other sins.
Action: Recall an experience in which a gospel promise comforted you and assured you that your faith is worth sharing.

Outreach Promises

Good, the tremors are over. Now we are safe to proceed digging. So far, we have excavated outreach commands and warnings. While useful, God deposited something else&emdash;something glittering and precious&emdash;in the vein of outreach prophecy. Keep digging. We are about to unearth God's good stings for Christian outreach.

An English teacher would have slashed the previous sentence with a red pencil. I mixed two metaphors, combined two different word pictures. This is a literary no-no. But I did it on purpose. Outreach promises are so grand that one metaphor alone can not do them justice. Throughout this book I use two word pictures.

First, outreach promises are like gems concealed in the earth of the Bible. To mine them takes effort, but once discovered, you will be amazed at their value and usefulness. Second, outreach promises are good stings, God's cure for the outreach paralysis caused by doubt, fear, and discouragement. A regular dose of this medicine will invigorate you to share Christ both near and far.

Rather than mixing metaphors, I prefer to think of this as constructing with two good materials, like stones and mortar.

Outreach hope. In Romans 15 Paul the Missionary reveals his skill as a prospector of outreach promises. Let's begin with Romans 15:4: "Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

What kind of hope is Paul talking about? In the Bible "hope" often refers to the hope of heaven, but the context reveals this is not the case here. In Romans 13-14 Paul urges mutual acceptance in mission churches which were experiencing intercultural tensions. In the second half of Romans 15, he invites the Christians in Rome to participate in a missionary expedition to Spain. The context reveals that the hope in Romans 15:4 is not the hope of heaven, but the hope of evangelizing the nations. Outreach hope!

To motivate the Romans to support the mission to Spain, Paul could have resorted to outreach commands or warnings, but he knew endurance and encouragement arise from outreach promises, not outreach commands or warnings. That's why he refers to outreach promises in Romans 15:8: "For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs" (italics mine).

Some may argue that the phrase in italics only refers to messianic promises. However, Paul surely is also referring to outreach promises, because he continues by quoting four of them:

... so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy as it is written: "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name" [2 Sam. 22:50]. Again, it says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people" [Dt. 32:43]. And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples" [Ps. 117:1]. And again Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse [Christ] will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him" [Is. 11:10] (Rom. 15:9-12).

Outreach promises. Paul reaches into the vein of outreach prophecy and pulls out four gems glistening with hope.

Some outreach promises are like "the Gentiles will hope in him." They are prophecies stated in the future tense concerning the spread of the gospel. Other outreach promises are like "sing praises to him, all you peoples" or "I will praise you among the Gentiles." These don't sound like promises, but Paul, Missionary to the Gentiles, understood them as statements of optimism that God will fulfill His global purposes. All four verses are good stings.

Since Paul defines outreach promises so broadly, so should we. An outreach promise is any word God has given us, "so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" to proclaim the name of Christ (Rom. 15:4).

When we know and rely on God's outreach promises, we are more likely to obey His outreach commands. The promises assure us He will bless our efforts to expand His gracious reign to others.

Outreach prophecy. Before we go on, I should clarify that I use the term "outreach prophecy" in two ways.

In the wide sense, the word "prophecy" means anything said or written by a prophet or other Bible author. Therefore, outreach prophecy in the wide sense is any Bible text which talks about expanding God's kingdom by proclaiming the gospel. All such outreach prophecy in the wide sense is the source of what Bible scholars call the biblical theology of evangelism and mission. I have been using this wide definition when I refer to the vein of outreach prophecy.

In a narrow sense, outreach prophecy refers to the predictions of worldwide evangelism mentioned by Jesus in Luke 24:47. An example is Isaiah 11:10, quoted by Paul in Romans 15:12 above. An outreach prophecy in the narrow sense is always an outreach promise as well. Whenever I speak of outreach prophecies, in the plural, I am talking about predictions such as these.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, replace my outreach pessimism with hope.
Action: To get the big picture of Rom. 15, read the entire chapter.

Prospecting 101

To discover jewels, you must be able to distinguish gems from mere stones. To mine outreach promises, you need to know what you are looking for.

Familiar verses. One of the best places to find outreach promises is in gospel promises. Consider the classic text John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This verse brims with encouraging phrases for us who believe this gospel promise and wish to proclaim it to others.

"The world" shows the good news is for all with whom you share it. You are never wasting your breath.

"Whoever believes" affirms that miraculous conversions surely will occur by the Holy Spirit's working.

"Shall not perish" points to the eternal success of the rescue operation performed by witnessing about your Savior.

Less familiar. Here is a lesser known gospel promise. "On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces..." (Is. 25:7-8). The phrase "on this mountain" points us to Calvary where, for a time, it seemed death had gobbled Jesus up. But in reality He had swallowed up death--forever.

Outreach encouragement abounds in the phrases "all peoples/nations" and "from all faces"? Where Christ is not known, death is a riddle. Hindus spreading the ashes of their dead on the Ganges River do not know the answer to the riddle of death. Nor do animistic Africans who serve--and at times fear--the spirits of departed ancestors. Hard-boiled agnostics in West admit they don't have the answer. But in Isaiah 25:7-8, God vows that announcing Christ's resurrection to your neighbors and to the nations will indeed solve the riddle for those who hear and believe.

All-inclusive. The verses quoted above, are rich in all-inclusive terms like "all," "peoples," and "whoever." When you hear your pickax clink against an all-inclusive term, you are probably near an outreach promise. Circle the all-inclusive terms in the verses below.

Éthe son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28).

But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself (Jn. 12:32; see Is. 11:10.).

This is not a mere word-search exercise. It's people-search too. As you read these all-inclusive terms, what lost friends or unevangelized people groups come to mind?

Subtle promises. Outreach promises can also be subtle. John 14:6 is an example: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

At first glance, this may not appear to be an outreach promise. But think about it. The words "way," "truth," and "life" are often used to describe religions. If you take this into account, then Jesus is saying, "No human religion can grant people salvation. But I can!" This promise should renew our determination to witness to people who claim all religions are the same.

Bible stories. Not all outreach promises are brief statements. Entire Bible stories also can be considered outreach promises.

For example, the story of God healing Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5 reveals how the Lord desires to save people who do not yet know Him. Jesus even referred to this story in His first sermon in Nazareth as an example of how He intended to proclaim the kingdom of God (Lk. 4:16-27).

In John 3 we find Jesus speaking about conversion to Nicodemus, a pious, wealthy and influential Jewish man. In the next chapter, John 4, Jesus talks about living water to a loose-living, poor and unimportant Samaritan woman. These two people could hardly be more opposite. Yet they both need the same thing, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. God can call anyone to faith, regardless of where he or she may stand on the wide continuum between Nicodemus and the woman at the well.

Bible stories such as these are outreach promises. At the same time, the individual verses within the stories are also outreach promises (See Jn. 3:17-18 and 4:35-38.).

An invitation. Outreach promises are the precious gems in the vein of outreach prophecy. So put on your miner's helmet, grab your pick, and let's go digging for outreach promises.

If you were touring a diamond mine, the guide would warn you, "No samples allowed! You can look, but you can't touch!"

However, this mine belongs to God, and He placed these gems in it to help you overcome your outreach doubts, fears, and discouragement. So, in the coming chapters when you see something interesting, go ahead and grab it. Hold it up to the light. Turn it in your hand. Enjoy its beauty. Keep it. It's yours!

Prayer: Lord, I never realized you offered me such riches! Help me to identify Your outreach promises and treasure them.
Action: On a card write an outreach promise from this chapter. Commit it to memory, and repeat it for personal encouragement.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.