Outreach Promises, Excerpts from Appendix 2

Excerpts from Outreach Promises

Appendix 2: Maps of the Vein of Outreach Prophecy

Digging Deeper

You might think a book on outreach promises should list them all. But that would spoil the fun of finding them yourself.

My mining adventure. In his book In the Gap David Bryant proposes a method to help Christians see the world as God sees it. Bryant advises: (1) buy a new Bible; (2) read it in its entirety with the purpose of identifying everything related in any way to evangelism and missions; and (3) mark all the appropriate texts with a distinctively colored pen or highlighter.

When I read about this idea in 1979, it aroused my wanderlust. But, exhibiting amazing powers of procrastination, I put it off for an entire decade. Finally, in 1990, I purchased a red pen and a large-print Bible for the relief of my on-the-threshold-of-bifocals eyes.

Before long my Bible had turned red. What a mind-expanding experience! God's concern for the whole world is not merely an occasional theme of Scripture. It's the very heartbeat of the Bible. All the world is in all the Word.

Every section I had marked in red was part of the Bible's vein of outreach prophecy. Over the years, I continued to dig in this vein and discovered the materials the Lord had placed there: outreach commands and warnings; and those marvelous gems of encouragement, outreach promises

Maps. Miners are always glad to have maps of the subterranean deposits they seek to unearth. That is what this appendix is--"maps" of the vein of outreach prophecy. Consulting these charts will give you an idea of what to look for in each book. Read the books in any order you like. As you make "Aha!" discoveries along the way, add your own notes to the maps.

If you are the kind of person who prefers to make discoveries on your own, don't consult my notes until after you have read a portion of Scripture. In this way you'll have both the satisfaction of finding treasures yourself, plus the encouragement of comparing your findings with mine.

Before you begin, here are two more pieces of advice.

All-inclusive landmarks. Remember, mining the vein of outreach prophecy is more than simply prospecting for paraphrases of the Great Commission. Often God communicates his concern for the lost through very simple, but all-inclusive terms, such as: all, the world, the earth, man, men, person, nations,tribes, families, Jews and Gentiles, many, us, you, he who, whoever, no one, anyone, everyone, etc.

In addition to all-inclusive terms, the Bible has many all-inclusive teachings or doctrines. Certain things the Lord teaches apply to both your neighbors and the nations. These include: creation, sin, forgiveness of sin, redemption, faith and unbelief, new life in Christ, death and resurrection, heaven and hell, etc.

All-inclusive terms and all-inclusive teachings are your basic navigational landmarks to guide you through the Bible's vein of outreach prophecy. May the Holy Spirit cause them to jump off the page and grab your heart, compelling you to see both your lost neighbors and the billions in unreached people groups.

Staying on course. How can you stay focused on outreach themes while reading the Bible? And how can you remain focused during your prayer time which often follows Scripture reading?

Verbal aids can help you stay focused. The following categories of people express the full expanse of the Bible's all-inclusive words and doctrines.

Religions of the world.
Continents and regions.
Nations of the world.
Ethnic people groups of the world.
Language groups of the world.
Religious and ethnic groups in your own community.

To learn how to use these categories, try this little exercise. Consider John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Meditate on the verse, filling in the word "whoever" with items you select from the list of categories above. As you do so, you will see truths in the text which escaped you before.

Also try visual aids. Have you ever read your Bible with a world map or atlas open before you? Just glancing at the maps reminds you God's Word is intended for those who live in distant places. Use pictures of people from other cultures to keep you thinking globally. Take a National Geographic and cut out pictures of folks from around the world. Mix them together to make your own collage of faces for whom Christ bled and died.

Sample Maps

GENESIS

The Creation and Fall narratives are foundational for all mission work and strategy. From ch. 4 on, "nation" is a key word. God founds all the nations, not just Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are repeatedly promised their descendants will be a great nation, in order that all peoples may be blessed through them.

Judgment on nations: the Flood, Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gen. 49:10 The Man of Peace whom the nations will obey.

PSALMS

The many evangelism and mission themes of Psalms are summarized below.

Messiah is to rule the nations: 2, 18, 22, 72, 89, 110.

The witness of a righteous ruler: 101.

God rules the earth: 8, 11, 24, 33, 46, 49, 60, 68, 76, 108, 113, 146.

All nations will see and hear: 22; 45:12, 17, 47, 48, 57, 65, 66, 67, 72, 86, 87, 97, 98, 99, 113, 117, 138, 148, 150:6.

Judgment of the wicked and the righteous: 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 21, 31, 37, 49, 50, 55, 58:11, 59, 64, 75, 92, 94, 96, 110.

Forgiveness, mercy, and salvation: 32, 36:7-9, 51, 85, 130, 145.

Proclaim, tell: 9, 35:28, 40, 57:9, 66, 71, 78, 89:1-2, 96, 108, 116, 117, 145, 148, 149, 150.

People as lost sinners: 14, 36:1-2, 37, 39, 51:5, 53, 89, 47-8, 90, 143:2.

Idolatry, and the contrasting uniqueness of Yahweh: 4, 77:13-15, 81, 82, 86, 89:6-8, 93, 97, 106, 115, 135.

Creation of the world: 8, 95, 100, 104, 121:2, 124:8, 134:3, 136, 139.

Creation of the human race: 8, 62:9-10, 139.

God's revelation to the world: 19, 97, 147.

Unity of the Church: 133.

Victory understood as a witness to nations - 44, 60, 79, 80, 83, 89, 102, 105, 114, 126, 136, 137, 144.

Persecution for the sake of God's Kingdom: 44.

MATTHEW

This most Jewish of the Gospels contains plenty of mission emphases.

Ch. 1 Note the Gentiles in Jesus' ancestry.

Ch. 2 The Magi from the East.

Ch. 4 Temptation includes all kingdoms; Galilee of the Gentiles.

Ch. 5-7 Sermon on Mt., guidelines for world Christians (5:1-16, 7:7-14).

Ch. 8 Feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Gadarene demoniac.

Ch. 9:35-38 Prayer for harvest workers.

Ch. 10 Instruction to the disciples on their first evangelistic mission.

Ch. 12:18-21 See Is. 42:1-4.

Ch. 13:38 Teaching through parables; the field is the world.

Ch. 15:21-28 The Canaanite woman.

Ch. 16:18-19; 18:18 Loosing and binding on earth.

Ch. 16:24ff Take up your cross and follow me.

Ch. 17:20 Compare to Zech. 4:6-7.

Ch. 18 Meaning of discipleship; faith of little children; reclaim lost sheep.

Ch. 19:16-30 Forsaking things for Christ is what missionaries do.

Ch. 20-21 Workers in the vineyard; parable of tenants.

Ch. 22 Parable of wedding banquet; taxes to Caesar; two commands.

Ch. 23 Law preached to moral, religious unbelievers.

Ch. 24-25. End of time and the coming of the kingdom of heaven, full of information concerning the nations and reaching them (24:14).

Ch. 26:3 Wherever the Gospel will be announced.

Ch. 26:27-28 Lord's Supper, "poured out for many".

Ch. 26:69ff Peter fails to be a witness.

Ch 27 Crucifixion; v. 32 Simon of Cyrene; v. 54 the Roman Centurion.

Ch. 28:18-20 The most well-known version of the Great Commission.

REVELATION

Portrays the global war between the hordes of Satan and the forces of God. The theme is: God wins! In Revelation's spiraling style, words like testimony, witness, overcome, world, kings, tribe, tongue, people, and nation repeat often.

Ch. 1; 5; 11:15; 17:14; 19 Divine identity and global authority of Christ.

Ch. 2-3; 6:9-10; 12:10-11; 14:13 Suffering, persecution, overcoming.

Ch. 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; 15:4; 20:3 God and Satan compete for control over every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

Ch. 2-3; 9:20-21; 12-13; 16:14-21:8; 22:15 Satanic deception, idols, magic, false teachers.

Ch. 17-18 Plagues, judgment; Fall of Babylon.

Ch. 19-22 Victory! Compare 21:6, "It is done," to Jn. 19:30.

Ch. 21:24-26; 22:2 Final victorious reference to nations and kings.

Ch. 22:17 Final invitation to the world: "The Spirit and the bride say, `Come!' And let him who hears say, `Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

Return to Outreach Promises