I feel that I should recap on part one of this blog. I was made aware of a rally in Sydney in support of the Muslim burqa for women, and this resulted in a discussion which finished up as a Christian defence of the Australian culture against an Muslim claims that “Western secular society was flawed.”
I then went on to examine overall Israel’s performance in prosecuting the Plan God had given them to be a blessing so that the other nations would be drawn to them and in the process toward The God of Israel. The record shows that they failed in this endeavour as a generalisation but there were some spectacular successes. This is where I wish to pick up the story.
One of these accounts is the story of Queen of Sheba. She had heard reports of how God had blessed Israel under King Solomon, and came to do her own assessment. This was what she had to say to Solomon in 1 Kings 10:9. “I praise the LORD your God. He is pleased with you and has made you king of Israel. The LORD loves Israel, so he has given them a king who will rule fairly and honestly.” In the Old Testament there are other accounts where other rulers gave recognition to the God of Israel but few turned from their gods
Then came the event that changed everything for the “Gentiles.”
Jesus (Saviour) Christ (God with us), is born in a stable somewhere in Israel, at least that was how big a deal it was for Israelis who were known as the people of God. Suddenly the deal is changed, almost like an overnight sensation here was this man who was so counter cultural that the establishment had no idea what to do with him. He was talking about the Kingdom of God as if it was a present reality and told his followers to do things that were wrong according to Israeli law.
Eventually he is killed by the establishment but not before He has trained a group of believers in the new plan God has for men. He summed it up in two vision statements. First was when He was asked about the greatest law, he answered with “love the Lord your God with your entire being and also to love your neighbour as you love yourself”
The statement was about the New Missionary Plan, it went this way “Go to all parts of the world, make believers, and teach them all I have taught you. This plan is still in effect today and is applicable to all His followers today. For almost 2000 years Christians have followed this plan to a greater or lesser degree. Of course there have been more forgettable moments in the history of world mission for example there was the Conquistadores in South America who used the Old Testament method of colonisation, take the lands and put the natives to the sword.
The other significant example was in the colonial push into Asia and more specifically a continent called Australia. While there was some early purging of the local people, allegedly in self defence, the bigger thing was the assumption that the culture of the colonialists was superior to that of the indigene. The natural consequence of this assumption was that the Aboriginal culture was all but wiped in just over a century of colonialism
Nowadays we are more informed as missiologists, it would never happen now. Now we have learnt what the early followers knew the best missionaries are “local,” and most times the best culture for a people group is their own. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, but after all what is so great about the culture that we have come from.
So then where do we stand from a Biblical basis? Not much has changed from the early church, apart from the fact that we do not have the constraint of preaching to the Jews first. The mandate still remains to Go, to Make Disciples, and to teach them about the faith that they have entered into. The fundamental paradigm of Love is still foundational, in fact it is the thing that lifts a follower of Jesus out of the muddling crowd. It is the way that we treat others that makes people think that we may have something worthwhile.
What is different is that we in Australia have large numbers of people from other cultures within our local areas. We can go to a people group without leaving our state let alone, country. One other thing about today is that we no longer live in a country that is even notionally Christian. this is a challenge to all of us, or should be. We who know the words of life that also have the mandate that Jesus placed before us Go, make disciples, and teach them the way of life.
What is Jesus saying to you, about God’s missionary mandate?
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