Four Pillars of God's Work You Can Lean On to Fulfill The Great Commission

Unbelief & God’s Great Commission

I have spoken of nineteenth century missionary John G. Paton in previous sermons. His biography was one of the first missionary biographies I ever read as a Christian. I was so moved by his tenacity and courage for the kingdom of God. I fell in love with his father, who faithfully discipled him and at the age of eighteen, let him go on the mission field to never see him again.

God put a passion in young Paton’s heart for an unreached group of cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands by east of new Guinea. As of 1980, they are called the Republic of Vanuatu.

John G. Paton, met opposition to leaving his home in Scotland and going to preach to the cannibalistic peoples of the New Hebrides Islands. A well-meaning church member moaned to him, “The cannibals, the cannibals! You will be eaten by the cannibals!”

Without hesitation, Paton replied,

“I confess to you that if I can live and die serving my Lord Jesus Christ, it makes no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; for in that Great Day of Resurrection, my body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer!” John G. Paton

Paton’s conversation with the church member exposed the unbelief that had hardened the man’s heart; which I suspect was also prevalent of many of his fellow church members. At some point, this man had lost sight of God’s Great Commission and his ability to fulfill it, at least in the hardest places with the most depraved people. He lost sight of God’s sovereignty, his resurrection hope, his victorious salvation, and his promsie-keeping security that is sealed by the blood of Jesus for all who trust in Him.

Paton did not only catch grief for his passion to reach unreached cannibals from this man. There were others in his church and from other believers in his community that appeared to doubt God’s Great Commission work. This unbelief had spread into the hearts of many in the Christian culture in Paton’s day. Just read Paton’s contemporaries like Hudson Taylor, George Muller, and William Carey. They all lamented the unbelief in God’s work to reach the most unreached people groups. These men seemed radical to many of their time for their passion to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Is the church any different today? Have we lost sight of God’s Great Commission work and his ability to fulfill the plan he began long ago? Have we lost sight of his sovereignty, his resurrection hope, his salvation, and his promise-keeping security for everyone who believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ?

In Acts 25-26, Paul was on mission to reach gentiles for Jesus. Jesus told him he would suffer for his name sake (Acts 9). Though his ministry was filled with suffering, he never waivers. He never looses hope. He always finds a way to endure and be successful in reaching people for Jesus; even when he is falsely accused, imprisoned, and defending himself before corrupt Roman politicians. How is Paul able to stay the course and be successful in his ministry as he struggles to advance God’s kingdom?

Paul’s testimony before Festus shows us four pillars of God’s work that you can lean on as you work to fulfill the Great Commission. Or to put it another way,

As you struggle to fulfill the Great commission, the Spirit empowers you to lean on God’s creative sovereignty, resurrection strength, victorious salvation, and promise-keeping security in order to continue joyfully advancing His kingdom by making much of Jesus.

You can lean into God’s creative sovereignty (Acts 25:9-12)

God’s sovereignty is His ability to freely do all the he wills; that he reigns over all creation and that his will is the final cause of all things.

You see God’s sovereignty in verses like

Psalm 135:6 (ESV)

Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

or

Psalm 115:3 (ESV)

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

or in

Luke 1:37 (ESV)

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

which shows that God is able to do whatever he wills.

Can God be successfully opposed? Of course not! Job says as he prayed,

Job 42:2 (HCSB)

I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

or Samuel says

1 Samuel 2:10 (ESV)

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

God is king of heaven and earth. There is none like Him. Moses proclaims

Deuteronomy 4:39 (ESV)

know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

He is sovereign over every human life. David prays in

1 Chronicles 29:12 (ESV)

Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

As a matter of fact, Jesus teaches us that God is sovereign over the minutest details of your life. Jesus says

Matthew 10:29–30 (ESV)

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

So, when you look at Paul’s situation in Acts 25-26, you must look at it through the lens of God’s sovereignty. Paul is right where God wants him to be, and God is working out his will despite corruption and political motives.

Last week we learned that the Jews hated Paul and conspired to kill him. The assassination was thwarted and Paul was on trial before Felix. The corrupt Jews falsely accuse Paul. They lie to Felix and try to portray Paul as a terrorist leader of a sect (Christianity) that is trying to destroy Rome. Their false accusations get Paul arrested and put in jail.

On top of having to deal with corrupt Jews, Paul is also having to deal with Roman leaders who care more about personal gain from political relationships than doing the right thing.

Felix kept Paul in prison for two years in order to keep the Jews happy and he was looking for a payoff by Paul (Acts 24:26).

Festus heard Paul out, but cared more about doing the Jews a favor (Acts 25:9). He was going to send Paul back to Jerusalem where the Jews would have an advantage over Paul. Paul understood this and appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:10). Festus realizes Paul is a Roman citizen and he meets the criteria to be tried before Caesar, so in Acts 25:12, Festus sends Paul to Rome. This works for Festus’ advantage in the long run. Paul is now out of the way, and he has a legitimate reason to tell the Jews its out of His hands.

For Paul, on the surface, everything looks like God is not present. Paul looks as if he is hopeless in the hands of corrupt Jews and Romans politicians.

Through the lens of God’s sovereignty, we see a different picture. A few chapter’s back we learned that the Holy Spirit put a resolve in Paul’s heart to get to Rome.

Acts 19:21 (ESV)

Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

Furthermore, when Paul was discouraged and imprisoned,

Acts 23:11 (ESV)

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

It was God’s sovereign will for Paul to be in Rome. Paul had no idea that he would have to testify in Rome with chains on his hands and feet. He probably had no idea that he would get to Rome via the legal system. This is why I borrow the phrase “creative sovereignty” from Justin Holcomb to describe what I see happening to Paul in Acts 25. God creatively uses every means necessary to accomplish his will. That means he can use corrupt religious leaders and Romans politicians. He can use manmade legal structures and systems. He can use the rich and the poor, the abled and disabled, the majority race and the minority race. His sovereignty is creative. He can use the biggest of things, and he can even us the smallest of things, such as fleas.

In her book, “The Hiding Place,” Corrie ten Boom explains how her and her sister leaned on God’s creative sovereignty while suffering in a German concentration camp. After being caught helping the Jews, they were taken to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. The barracks they were assigned was infested with fleas.

One night, Corrie was struggling with the flea infestation. She cried as she itched and scratched in frustration. As she struggled, her sister pointed out to her that the guards never enter their barracks because of the flea infestation. This allowed Corrie and her sister to hold Bible studies, sing hymns, and pray with the other prisoners. That night Corrie remembered her sister laying on the straw praying, “Thank you God, for fleas.”

How amazing is God’s creative sovereignty! God used tiny filthy aggravating fleas to keep Nazi guards out of a prison camp barracks so the hope of the gospel could come into one of the darkest places of WWII.

Just as Corrie Ten Boom and her sister leaned on God’s creative sovereignty, so Paul rested in God’s creative sovereignty. Resting is what you do when you lean on God’s creative sovereignty. Your soul is relaxed, trusting that God is at work in the smallest and most frightening detail of your struggle.

We know Paul is resting in God’s sovereignty because he cheerfully (confident, encouraged, at peace with his circumstances) proclaims the gospel. He never looses sight of his mission.

Secondly, his theology speaks to his resting in God’s creative sovereignty. He says things like

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

and

Romans 11:33–36 (ESV)

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

God’s creative sovereignty is a pillar for your faith. He has shown you his creative sovereignty so that you can persevere in the faith until he returns.

You can lean on God’s hope-filled resurrection strength (Acts 26:6-8)

Luke records Paul saying,

Acts 26:6–8 (ESV)

And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,

to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!

Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

In verse six, what “hope in the promise made by God to our fathers” is Paul referring to? Paul, still being a faithful Jew and Pharisee, is referring to what both he and the Pharisees believed God would raise the dead, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to eternal judgment.

The difference between Paul and the Pharisees is that the Pharisees were clinging to their own righteousness of the hope of the resurrection, while Paul preached that the righteous hope in Jesus Christ for the resurrection. Paul is showing them he is still a faithful Jew who is also a faithful witness to God’s Messiah. So, they are not shocked that Paul is preaching the resurrection (Acts 26:8). What is shocking to them is that Paul has put his hope in a resurrected Jesus who promises to raise all who are in Him to eternal life.

Jesus says to Lazarus’s sister, in the Gospel of John,

John 11:25–26 (ESV)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Just before Jesus said this he told Martha

John 11:23 (ESV)

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

to which she said,

John 11:24 (ESV)

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Martha, being a faithful Jew, believed in the resurrection. What she did not know fully was that Jesus will be the source and power of her brothers resurrection. He allowed her brother to die in order to show her that those who put their hope in His resurrection power will live.

What is the hope of Jesus’s resurrection for us?

Like Lazarus,

You will be raised from the dead. Furthermore, not like Lazarus, you will never die again.

Christ ensures you will have a glorified body Like His for all eternity. Paul himself says in

1 Corinthians 15:49 (ESV)

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

and says again in

Philippians 3:21 (ESV)

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Your eternal life is secure because of His resurrection because

You will become completely united to Jesus for all eternity

Romans 6:5 (ESV)

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

and Paul says three verses later

Romans 6:8 (ESV)

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

In your Christ-given resurrected body, you will only experience God’s grace and love.

You never fear God’s judgment but forever enjoy his everlasting life.

Jesus has taken your judgment from God, your eternal death, and in return has given you his eternal life.

John 5:24–25 (ESV)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

These truths about the resurrection provide ope for your heart in the face of struggle. There is coming a day when God will make everything right and you will live in peace, harmony, and unity forever. You can bank on this because Jesus was raised from the dead, and the same power that raised him from the dead and gave Him a glorified body, will be raise you from the dead and give you a body like his.

What does the “hope of the resurrection” strengthen you to do?

The hope of the resurrection strengthens you to continue to labor for the Lord.

Paul’s circumstances did not dictate his faithfulness to His ministry. He kept laboring whether in prison or as a free man.

Paul’ strength to do this comes from his hope in the resurrection. At the end of Paul’s teaching on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he concludes,

1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

The hope of the resurrection strengthens you persevere until he comes to get you, either by death or the second coming.

Paul encourages Timothy in his second epistle to cling to the resurrection to help him persevere, as he himself is about to be martyred by Nero. Paul says

2 Timothy 2:11–12 (ESV)

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

You lean on God’s hope-filled resurrection strength when you believe that the resurrection he promises in the life to come is far better than the trouble you experience in this life. The resurrection strengthens you to continue to joyfully advance His kingdom by making much of Jesus.

The famous Puritan Thomas Brooks captures what it means to lean on God’s hope-filled resurrection strength when he says,

“A man that sees his propriety in God knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, sorrows, afflictions, temptations, desertions, oppositions, vexations, oppressions, and persecutions. And he knows that death shall be the resurrection of his hopes, joys, delights, comforts, and contentments, and that it shall bring him to a more clear, full, perfect, and constant enjoyment of God.” Thomas Brooks

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit-empowered Paul to testify of Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles. When Paul began his ministry he knew he would have to suffer for the gospel, but he had no idea how that reality would take form. His understanding of God’s work in the Old Testament and his new work in the New Covenant, in Jesus, taught him to believe that God is sovereign, and that God uses his sovereignty in creative ways. Paul knew God would get him to Rome, but he did not know how. God knew he would use corrupt Jewish and Romans leaders in a worldly convoluted legal system to get Paul not only to Rome, but to the emperor himself.

The road was going to be difficult, filled with suffering and hardship. What would sustain Paul in his times of discouragement? Trusting in God’s sovereignty, he would also lean on God’s hope-filled resurrection strength given to him through the resurrected Jesus. Paul would rest in the future reality of his resurrection in Christ. From his imprisonment in Rome he told the Philippian church

Philippians 1:20–21 (ESV)

as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Furthermore in chapter 3

Philippians 3:7–11 (ESV)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:13–14 (ESV)

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:20–21 (ESV)

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

It is not radical for Christians to lean into God’s creative sovereignty or his hope-filled resurrection strength. Those two pillars of God’s work are pillars of the Christian faith, given to us so that we can be Christian in our Great Commission. May the church be filled with John G. Paton’s who cling to God’s creative sovereignty and hope-filled resurrection, and say with him

“I confess to you that if I can live and die serving my Lord Jesus Christ, it makes no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; for in that Great Day of Resurrection, my body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer!” John G. Paton

You can lean into God’s victorious salvation (Acts 26:12-18)

You can lean into God’s promise-keeping security (Acts 26:22-23)

Conclusion