Sermon Tone Analysis

The Mission of God

Backstories are importnant

kids getting into trouble without knowing the back story

Good books and movies develop the backstories to the characters and plot

Inception: the whole movie is a backstory

The hymn ‘It is Well’ has a powerful backstory

How Horatio G. Spafford penned the lyrics over the site in the ocean where his four daughters died a few days earlier when their boat crashed.

Horatio G. Spafford

without back stories we fail to realize the power, the significance, and meaning of stories.

There are many bible stories and passages that people know without knowing the backstory.

So with this in mind look with me at the great commission in

Let me read it

I have heard countless sermons preached on this passage at church, mission conferences, evangelism training, youth conferences, church planting assessments and so on.

I’ve heard enough sermons on this passage they all start to blend together.

However, a sermon I have never heard on the Great Commission is one where the backstory is explained

Over the last two weeks I have begun to tell you the back story to the great commission, and this morning I will attempt to fill it out a bit more and we will see how the great commission is truly one of the most glorious texts in all the bible.

Over the last two weeks I have begun to tell you the back story to the great commission, and this morning I will attempt to fill it out a bit more and we will see how the great commission is truly one of the most glorious texts in all the bible.

lets pray.

So what is the mission of God?

The mission of God is to bring all things into subjection to Christ.

This was the mission given to Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were commissioned to be Fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth, take dominion.

The original Fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth, take dominion.

They were to take the glorious of Eden, the temple of God, the sanctuary of God, and expand its boarders not only to the rest of Eden, but to the whole world.

His image bearers reflecting the glory of God over all creation.

His image bearers reflecting the glory of God over all craetion.

All people, all societies, all culture, all creation was to be adorned with the majesty and glory of God.

and all things would be subjected to God in glory.

However, something happened.

Sin entered the world and the mission of God became difficult, painful, and even impossible.

There is now pain in childbirth

so being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth with image bearers is no longer an easy task.

And the ground was cursed due to the sin of Adam, so the subduing and taking dominion of creation was now contentious.

for just as sin cursed the heart of man causing him to become a slave to sin and death, so creation likewise was cursed and is enslaved to sin and death.

So the mission of God given to Adam and Eve is now not only difficult, but impossible.

Rather than seeing men image God, we see cain murdering the image of God when he killed Able.

The world was suffering under the weight of the curse of sin, and death spread to all men.

The world became completely evil to the point that God sent a flood to judge all creation for their rebellion.

After the flood we see the same thing beginning to happen.

The Noah was a new Adam

And Noah’s son Ham became a new Cain who sought to pervert the image of God.

Rather than taking the image of God to the ends of the earth, humanity rebelled against God and gathered together.

In Babel we see humanity not wanting God to receive the glory, instead they wanted to make a name for themselves.

They wanted their image to be worshiped

They wanted to become like God on their own terms.

So God once again judged humanity for their rebellion and confused their languages

Thus the nations of the world were formed.

If the Mission of God was to succeed God would have to do it himself.

So God took for himself one man named Abram.

He took him out of the desert land and the howling waste of the wilderness.

He chose Abram to be the apple of his eye and protected him and gave him a new name, Abraham.

It was through Abraham that God would continue his mission to bring all things into his subjection.

To glorify all creation.

To fuse together heaven and earth.

Abraham become the father of the Jewish people

And God made a covenant with Abraham - and it was a covenant or promise, that God promised to fulfill.

God promised Abraham that from his seed would come the promised one who would crush the head of the serpent.

How would Abraham bless and become the father of the nations?

Also, God promised that Abraham would be the father of a multitude of nations, and that all these nations would be blessed through his descendents.

We know that true blessing only comes from God, and for Abraham to become the father of nations means that the nations would have to

to give an idea of the scope of this promise, God took Abraham outside and told him to look up at the stars, and he said to him that his offspring would outnumber the stars in the sky.

BACK TO THE GARDEN

God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

However, due to sin they failed to do this as God commanded.

So Abraham and his wife Sarah are like a new Adam and Eve, God has told them that they too will fill the the earth with their offspring.

But God did not put all of this responsibility of Abraham, instead God told Abraham that He would be the one to do it.

For the curse of sin was so strong that for the mission to succeed.

God would be the one to do it.

In fact, Abraham’s inability to advance the mission of God even one step was made obvious by the fact that he and his wife Sarah could not have kids.

How were they to fill the earth if they could not have kids?

They were unable to even do the first part of creation mandate of being fruitful and multiplying.

So God waited until his body was too old to have kids, and then showed his power and his faithfulness by allowing Abraham and Sarah to have a child.

This was to show them that it was indeed God who is fulfilling the mission.

However, through Abraham all the nations of the world would one day be blessed and call him father.

As the story of the bible continues there are hopes and dreams for the day when all the nations of the world would be rescued from the curse of sin that keeps them far from God.

And that God would dwell in their midst like he did with Adam in the Garden.

God gives Abrahams decedents a taste of what it will be like when he raises up Moses to lead them out of slavery in Egypt.

They crossed through the waters of the red sea and entered a new creation or sorts as a redeemed people.

God then gave Moses directions on how to build the tabernacle, which was modeled after the Eden.

And God came and dwelt in the tabernacles and the people of Israel camped all around it so that God would be in their midst.

As good as this was, it wasn’t Eden, and sin’s power still claimed authority over the hearts of men and the nations.

God then raises up King David, a descendent of Abraham, and the greatest king Israel ever had.

David fought against evil and advanced the boarders of Israel

Israel’s kingdom grew greatly under the rule of King David.

Near the end of David’s life God made a covenant with him, much like he did with Abraham before.

God promised David that his throne would be an eternal throne.

That his descendents would rule the people of God for all eternity.

By promising David this eternal throne was to promise him that through his offspring the people of God would have dominion over all the earth.

This was not a localized promise, that his throne would rule Jerusalem for eternity, but it was cosmic in scale, that David’s offspring would subdue and have dominion over the entire created order for all eternity.

These are two huge promises in the OT that guarantee that the mission of God would indeed succeed

To Abraham God promised to make him the father of many nations

all those nations that are in rebellion, enslaved to sin, under the rule of dark powers will one day be blessed by the seed of Abraham, and all the nations of the world will one day call Abraham their father.

To David God promised to give him an eternal throne

The throne of David would be established for all eternity, and that a descendent of of David (and therefore Abraham) would sit upon the throne and rule and reign for all eternity as king over all!

If you continue to read the OT you will see the prophets longing for the day when these promises would be fulfilled,

waiting for creation to be restored,

waiting for the snake crusher,

waiting for the Son of Abraham who will bless the nations,

waiting for the son of David who will come and sit on the eternal throne subduing and taking dominion over all things.

yet, like the waters flowing from the temple in the mission of God is patient, gradual.