A Holy Ambition en

A HOLY AMBITION:
TO PREACH WHERE CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN NAMED
A COLLECTION OF SERMONS BY
JOHN PIPER
COMPILED BY
DESIRING GOD
OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN PIPER
Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Preaching

God Is the Gospel Beyond the Bounds
Dont Waste Your Life Pierced by the Word
Gods Passion for His Glory The Supremacy of Christ In A Postmodern World
The Pleasures of God Life as a Vapor
Desiring God A God-Entranced Vision of All Things
The Dangerous Duty of Delight When I Dont Desire God
Future Grace Sex and the Supremacy of Christ
A Hunger for God Taste and See
A Godward Life Think
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ Contending For Our All
The Legacy of Sovereign Joy Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
The Hidden Smile of God Finally Alive
The Roots of Endurance The Future of Justification
The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God Jesus: The Only Way to God
The Innkeeper John Calvin & His Passion for the Majesty of God
The Prodigals Sister The Pastor as Scholar & the Scholar As Pastor
The Gadarene Ruth: Under the Wings of God
Bloodlines Spectacular Sins
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood A Sweet & Bitter Providence
Whats the Dierence? This Momentary Marriage
The Justification of God What Jesus Demands from the World
Counted Righteous in Christ When the Darkness Will Not Lift
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals Thinking. Loving. Doing.
Find many free audio, video, and written resources by John Piper (including translations!)
at www.desiringGod.org.
A Holy Ambition: To Preach Where Christ Has Not Been Named
2011 Desiring God Foundation
Published by Desiring God

Post Oce Box 2901
Minneapolis, MN 55402
www.desiringGod.org
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

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photocopy, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher,
except as provided by USA copyright laws.
ISBN: 978-0-9827689-9-0
Cover design: Stuart Hanberg

Cover photo: NASA Visible Earth
First printing 2011
Printed in the United States of America
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The
Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture references marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the
Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973, Division of Christian Education,
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.
CONTENTS
PREFACE 9
Bill Walsh
INTRODUCTION
1 A Holy Ambition: To Preach Where Christ Has Not Been 15

Named
John Piper
2 Missions: The Worship of Jesus and the Joy of All Peoples 23
David Mathis
PART ONE: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF GOSPEL-CENTERED MISSION
3 The Story of His Glory 37
4 Those Who Have Faith Are the Sons of Abraham 55

5 If You Are Christs, You Are Heirs of the Promise 60
PART TWO: THE MANDATE OF WORLD MISSIONS
6 Other Sheep That Are Not of This Fold 73

7 The Unfathomable Riches of Christ, for All Peoples, 85
above All Powers, Through the Church
8 The Aroma of Christ Among the Nations 95
9 Gospel to the Nations, Generosity to the Poor 105
PART THREE: THE COSTS AND BLESSINGS OF MISSION
10 Doing Missions When Dying Is Gain 117
11 I Am Sending You Out as Sheep in the Midst of Wolves 131

CONCLUSION
12 Declaring His Glory Among the Nations 143
APPENDICES
1 Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly 155

2 Driving Convictions Behind Cross-Cultural Missions: 159
Fourteen Foundational Tenets for Fostering a Missions
Movement
PREFACE
PREFACE
BILL WALSH
A s I travel throughout the United States and abroad, I am amazed at

how often I run into people doing cross-cultural ministry who tell me
that John Pipers book Let the Nations Be Glad! was a key influence in their
calling. I have conversed with such people on four continents now. So it
seems that many have been challenged and launched into missions by the
prophetic call that God has placed on Pastor Johns ministry.
In my own case, I did not come from a background that placed much
emphasis on missions. To be honest, it was hardly on my radar. After join-
ing Bethlehem Baptist Church in 1999, however, it wasnt long before I was
exposed to this grand theme of Scripture. I distinctly remember where I was
sitting in the downtown sanctuary when it first began to land on me. In
the middle of Johns sermon Let All the Peoples Praise Him,1 I sensed the
Lord moving me towards becoming an engaged sender. Immediately after
the service, I leaned over to my wife and shared a plan of action that was on
my heart. Little did I realize that this moment would be the seed that many
years later would grow into a shift in my vocational calling, giving rise to
what I am engaged in today.
God ordains the means by which his will is made known. He is the
God of both means and ends. He sends both messenger and message to call his
people in mission. He calls the witness and provides the words of good news.
He ordains the prophet and the prophecy. Both are vital, although they dont
always appear together. The apostle Paul personally visited the cities of Asia
Minor to teach and make disciples. He also sent divinely inspired letters,
which had formative impact on the early church and still instruct us today,
thousands of years later.
As the archetype, God sent us a Person and a Book (which testifies to
that Person) in order to gather to himself a people for the fame of his name.
Today he sends goers to every part of the world and he deploys technology
1
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/let-all-the-peoples-praise-him
9
PREFACE
of all kinds to reach even the hardest places. He calls us to engage in the
global cause both as field workers and as content dispatchers.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him

who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings
good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says
to Zion, Your God reigns.2
In the last century the demographic center of global Christianity has

shifted south in a big way. Huge numbers of people are being added to the
church daily in Africa, Asia, and South America.3 But the supply of bibli-
cally trained shepherds to lead these churches is in no way keeping pace. In
Europe, on the other hand, the church is in decline, struggling just to stay
in existence in some places. In many of these world regions there is a theo-
logical dearth, a famine of sound resources, making the church susceptible
to false teachings of all kinds.
This tremendous need is hard for those of us in the West to imagine.
We have unending access to good teaching in many formats: printed books,
e-books, magazines, websites, radio channels, MP3s, and online stream-
ing video. Our problem is not one of famine but of malnourishment. The
North American church is often weak from ignorantly choosing spiritual
junk food, while huge stores of life-giving sustenance are at our fingertips.
Historically God has used the written word as a vital means of building
his church, whether its the printed Scriptures in the language of the people,
the writings of the early church fathers, or the pamphlets of the Reforma-
tion. As Richard Cole notes,
The Reformation itself seems to be almost unthinkable

without taking into consideration the printed pages of
Luthers sermons, essays, addresses, and biblical transla-
tions. Indeed, the Reformation went hand in hand with
2
Isaiah 52:7; cf. Romans 10:15.
3
Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (revised and updated
edition; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of World
Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith (Downers Grove: IVP Academic,
2009).
10
PREFACE
book and press. There is in all the centuries preceding the

sixteenth century nothing comparable to the print media
explosion of the 1520s, an upsurge of activity that coin-
cided exactly with the Reformation in Germany.4
By Gods design, doing missions with content, in all its modern formats,
continues to be one of the most eective means for advancing the gospel.
It is key to equipping the next generation of leaders. According to Ralph
Winter, this is one of the most strategic ways to minister:
There are two things in the entire history of missions that

have been absolutely central. One, obviously, is the Bible
itself. The other is the printed page. There is absolutely
nothing else, in terms of mission methodology, that out-
ranks the importance of the printed page. Meetings come
and go and personalities appear and are gone. But, the
printed page continues to speak.5
Since 1994, the mission of Desiring God has been to create and distribute
resources that spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for
the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.6 In the spirit of all peoples, we
are working to get resources into globally accessible formats and languages
in support of the cause of missions. We hope to remove barriers that hinder
the free flow of solid biblical teaching, especially to world regions that need
it most.
For this anthology, we have selected and arranged key sermons and
articles from more than 30 years of John Pipers preaching on missions.
It is our hope that this material will prove a helpful supplement to Let the
Nations Be Glad!, written almost 20 years ago. The format of the sermons was
more or less kept intact with only minimal edits. We thought it might prove
a useful model for preachers to see how Pastor John goes about preaching
4
Reformation Printers: Unsung Heroes, Richard G. Cole, Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal,
Vol. 15, No. 3 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 327-339, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540767
5
Ralph Winter, quote for Bible Pathway Ministries.
http://www.biblepathway.org/English/FriendsOfBP.html
6
http://www.desiringGod.org
11
PREFACE
missions and the way Missions Focus week is handled at Bethlehem Baptist
Church. Another reason is that Let the Nations Be Glad! already provides
a sustained voice in the form of an academic monograph. We wanted this
anthology to be, in part, on the preaching of missions.
Our prayer here at Desiring God is that God would be pleased to use
this new anthology to strengthen his global church. And that the disburse-
ment of gospel-centered resources in various formats and through various
media might mobilize senders, goers, and resources so that the good news
that Our God reigns will gather and strengthen Gods people in every
corner of the world.
Bill Walsh
Director of International Outreach
Desiring God
12
INTRODUCTION
A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER ONE
A HOLY AMBITION:
TO PREACH WHERE CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN NAMED
ROMANS 15:1824
JOHN PIPER
AUGUST 27, 2006
For I will not venture to speak of anything except what

Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gen-
tiles to obedienceby word and deed, by the power of
signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of Godso
that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I
have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus
I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where
Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone
elses foundation, but as it is written,Those who have
never been told of him will see, and those who have never
heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so
often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since
I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and
since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope
to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on
my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your com-
pany for a while.
Romans 15:1824
T here are three things in this text that I think we should focus on. All
of them have direct implications for your life (even if you are currently
not aware of them), and all of them relate directly to God and his purposes
in the twenty-first century. I see, first, a holy ambition; second, an immea-
surable need; third, a global strategy. So lets take these one at a time and see
how they relate to each other and to us and our world today.
15
A HOLY AMBITION
1. A HOLY AMBITION
Verse 20: And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where
Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone elses foundation.
Paul was controlled by a holy ambition. I say he was controlled because
he says in verse 22, This is the reason why I have so often been hindered
from coming to you. And he says at the end of verse 23, I have longed for
many years to come to you.
When you long to do something for years and years, but you dont do
it, something or someone must be controlling you to the contrary. And
what was controlling Paul and keeping him from going to Rome is that he
was not finished with his ambition in the regions from Jerusalem to Illyri-
cum. But finally, he says in verse 23, I no longer have any room for work
in these regions. And then in verse 24: I hope to see you in passing as I
go to Spain.
In other words, he was controlled by an ambition to preach the gospel
to those who had not heard the name of Jesus from Jerusalem to Illyricum
(modern-day Albania), and he would not turn from this ambition until it
was fulfilled. But now the work is done in those regions, and his ambition
is taking him to Spain. That frees him finally to do what he has wanted to
do for yearsnamely, visit the church in Rome and enjoy their company
for a little while.
It is a good thing to be controlled by a holy ambition. Are you con-
trolled by a holy ambition? I am calling it holy because its aim is holyto
see people from all the nations who have never heard of Jesus believe in him
and become obedient to him and be saved by him from their sin and from
Gods wrath. I am also calling this ambition holy because it comes from
the holy God and his holy word, as we will see in a few moments. It is right
and it is good to be controlled by a holy ambition.
Do you have a holy ambition? Not everyone should have Pauls ambi-
tion. One plants, another waters (1 Corinthians 3:6-8). Each has his own
gift (1 Corinthians 7:7). Each stands or falls his their own master (Romans
14:4). But I think God would be pleased if each of his children had a holy
ambition.
16
A HOLY AMBITION
HOLY AMBITION FOR GIRLS AND BOYS

Little children, listen to me carefully for a moment. I know the words, holy
ambition, are unusual and you dont use them every day. Holy ambition
means something you really want to do that God wants you to do. Some-
thing you want to do so much that doing it keeps you from doing other
things that you also really like to do. Paul really wanted to go to Rome for
years. But he didnt go because he wanted something else more. He wanted
to preach the gospel in Asia and Greece where people didnt know about
Jesus. He really, really, really wanted to do this. We call that kind of desire
an ambition. And we call it holy ambition when it is something God
wants you to do.
Do you have one? Probably not yet. Youre still a child. Thats what
youre supposed to be. But some day you wont be a child any more. And
one of the dierences between being a child and growing up is that grow-
ing up as a Christian means you get a holy ambition. Most little girls, my
Talitha included, really want to have and play with dolls. Thats a good
thing. But the day is going to come, little girls, when you will put away the
fun of playing with dolls and grow up into the even bigger, better joy of car-
ing for real babies in the nursery. And maybe you will even lead a ministry
someday of caring for hungry babies far away, or lonely babies who have no
mommy or daddy. And for some of you this will become a holy ambition.
For others your holy ambition will be something else.
And boys, listen. If you are like I was, what you really want is a ball, a
truck, and gun and somebody to play with. Ive never had a real gun (except
a pellet rifle). But I shot a lot of bad guys with my Matt Dillon pistol and
my Lukas McCain-like, circle-handled rifle. I loved playing football with
my friends and digging roads across the street for my trucks and drawing
my pistol so fast you couldnt see it. It was fun. And that was good.
But some day you wont be a little boy any more. And one of the dif-
ferences between being a little boy and growing up is that growing up as a
Christian means you get a holy ambition. And that means the fun of guns
and trucks and balls gets small and the joy of fighting for justice and salva-
tion gets big. Growing up means getting a holy ambition to wield the sword
of the Spirit mightily and drive a truckload of love to the needy and kick
Satans rear end in the name of Jesus.
17
A HOLY AMBITION
Mom and Dad, single people, young and old, Christians should have a
holy ambition. Something you really, really want to do for the glory of God.
It is something that controls you. It helps you decide not to go to Rome
yet. It gives eternal focus, organization and passion to your life.
THE SOURCE OF HOLY AMBITION

Where does it come from? A crucial part of the answer is given in the link
between verses 20 and 21. Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gos-
pel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone elses
foundation, but as it is written, [then Paul quotes Isaiah 52:15] Those who
have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will
understand.
Now here is the amazing and relevant thing about this for us. We know
from Acts 9 and 22 and 26 that Paul was called by the risen Christ on the
Damascus road. Jesus gave Paul his mission in Acts 26:18, I am sending
you [to the Gentiles, the nations] to open their eyes, so that they may turn
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by
faith in me. So he got a calling straight from the risen, living, all-sovereign
Jesus Christ to be a light to the Gentiles.
But thats not what he says in Romans 15:21. He doesnt say, I have
this ambition to be a light to the nations who dont know Christ because
Jesus called me on the Damascus road. He says, I have this ambition
I am controlled by a passion to preach where Christ has not been named
because Isaiah 52:15 says, Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.
What do you make of that? Heres what I make of it. When Jesus called
Paul on the Damascus road to take the gospel to the Gentiles who had never
heard, Paul went to his Bible (what we today call the Old Testament) and
looked for a confirmation and explanation of this calling to see how it fit
into Gods overall plan. And he found it. And for our sake he speaks this
way. He doesnt just refer to his experience on the Damascus road, which
we will never have. He refers to Gods written word that we do have. And
he roots his ambition there.
So my answer to the question, Where does your holy ambition come from?
18
A HOLY AMBITION
is this: It comes from a personal encounter with the living Christ (not neces-
sarily as dramatic as the Damascus road), shaped and informed and empow-
ered by the written word of God. As you meditate on the law of the Lord
day and night (cf. Psalm 1:2)as you immerse yourself in Gods wordhe
comes and takes some truth of that word and burns it into your heart until
it becomes a holy ambition. If that hasnt happened yet, saturate yourself
with the word of God and ask him for it.
2. AN IMMEASURABLE NEED
God doesnt lead us into ambitions that are pointlessthat you will regret
at the end of your life. There is always a need to be metnot a need in
God, but in the worldby a holy ambition. Holy ambitions are not about
self-exaltation. They are always a form of love. They always meet someones
need(s).
Now what is the immeasurable need Paul refers to in this text? Verse
20: Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ
has already been named. That means that Paul has set his face like flint to
preach the gospel to people who have never heard of Christ. They dont even
know his name.
THE NATIONS HAVE NO EXCUSE

Now heres the question: If these people dont even know Jesus name,
then are they responsible to believe on him for salvation? And if not, then
wouldnt it be safer for them just to leave them in their ignorance and be-
lieve that God will have mercy on them and they will be saved because they
havent heard of Jesus? Why, Paul, do you suer so much to preach the
gospel to people who have never heard the name of Jesus?
Paul gave the answer in Romans 1:1823. Read it with me slowly and
soberly and feel the weight of it the way Paul must have. These words are
written about all those peoples and nations that have never heard the name
of Jesus and that Pauls holy ambition is driving to reach.
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all un-

godliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their un-
righteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known
19
A HOLY AMBITION
about God is plain to them, because God has shown it

to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world, in the things that have
been made. So they are without excuse. [Those are the fa-
tal words that define the immeasurable need Paul sees; the
nations that have never heard of Jesus will have no excuse
at the judgment day.] For although they knew God, they
did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they
became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts
were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Paul says in Romans 2:12, All who have sinned without the law will
also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will
be judged by the law. Everybody will be judged according to that which
they have access. And everybody will perish who does not hear the gospel,
because everybody suppresses the truth that they have and lives in rebellion
against God. There is only one hope: hearing and believing the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
The need of the nations who do not know the name of Jesus is an im-
measurable need. It is an infinite need. The greatest need that can be imag-
ined is the need of the nations to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe.
Because the gospel of Jesus is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16). And no
one is saved without it.
Not every one of you is called to go like Paul. But you cant be a loving
person and not want your life to count or contribute to the meeting of this
great need.
3. A GLOBAL STRATEGY
But some of you God is calling to join Paul personally and vocationally in
this particular global strategy. Heres the strategy. And it is amazing. If you
are newer to Bethlehem, listen carefully for how we understand missions.
20
A HOLY AMBITION
Here are Pauls amazing statements.

First, verse 19b: From Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum
I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. Thats from Jerusalem
up through Syria, across Asia Minor (Turkey), down through Greece on the
east side and up the west to northern Italy where Albania is today. Paul says
he has fulfilled the gospel there. And he underlines that astonishing state-
ment in verse 23 by saying, I no longer have any room for work in these
regions. And then in verse 24 he says, I go to Spain.
What in the world did he mean that he had no room for work from Je-
rusalem to Illyricum? It is not a risk to say that there were tens of thousands
of people yet to be evangelized in those regions. We know this because Paul
writes to Timothy at Ephesus (in this very region) and commands him to
do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). In other words, there are
people that need to be evangelized. And Paul says his work is done in this
region.
We take that to mean: Paul is not a local evangelist; hes a frontier mis-
sionary, a pioneer missionary. That is, his calling and his ambition is not to
do evangelism where the church has been planted. The church should do
that. Pauls calling and his ambition is to preach the gospel where there is
no evangelizing church. There are no Christians. They dont even know the
name.
MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, AND HOLY AMBITION

The terminology is not whats crucial. Whats crucial is the distinction.
There are frontier or pioneer missionaries, and there are evangelists. Mis-
sionaries cross cultures and learn languages. And frontier missionaries pour
out their lives by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the
power of the Spirit of God (Rom. 15:18-19) to break through thousands
of years of darkness and the reign of Satan over a people who do not know
the King of kings and the Savior of the world.
This was Pauls ambition. And since the great commission to make
disciples of all nations is still valid and there are peoples today who do
not know the gospel, therefore every church should pray that God raise up
many frontier missionaries, and make all of us evangelists.
I can imagineindeed I praythat ten years from now someone
21
A HOLY AMBITION
perhaps ten of youwill write a letter home from an unreached people and
say, I am here to speak the gospel to those who have never heard, for as it
is written in Romans 15:20, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel,
not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone elses
foundation. God burned that word onto my heart and turned it into a holy
ambition at Bethlehem Baptist Church, August, 2006.
Lord, please, do that. Amen.
22
A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER TWO
MISSIONS: THE WORSHIP OF JESUS AND THE JOY OF ALL
PEOPLES7
DAVID MATHIS
M issions is about the worship of Jesus. The goal of missions is the

global worship of Jesus by his redeemed people from every tribe,
tongue, and nation. The outcome of missions is all peoples delighting to
praise Jesus. And the motivation for missions is the enjoyment that his
people have in him. Missions aims at, brings about, and is fueled by the
worship of Jesus.
Another way to say it is that missions is about Jesus global glory. From
beginning to endin target, eect, and impetusmissions centers on the
worldwide fame of Jesus in the praises of his diverse peoples from every
tribe, tongue, and nation. Whats at stake in missions is the universal honor
of the Father in the global glory of his Son in the joy of all the peoples.
WHAT IS MISSIONS?
Rooted in the Latin mitto (meaning to send), missions is the half-mil-
lennium-old term signifying the sending of Jesus followers into his global
harvest of all peoples. For nearly 300 years, the term missions has been used
in particular for world evangelization, for pioneering the gospel among the
peoples to whom it has yet to advance.
Two passages in the Gospel of Matthew get to the heart of missions.
Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 9:3738, The harvest is plentiful, but
the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into his harvest. Missions means sending out workers into
the global harvest.
A second passage is Jesus sending out of his disciples in Matthew
28:1820, the epic-making summons called the Great Commission. Here
This chapter written by John Pipers executive assistant David Mathis appeared originally in
7
Dont Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day, edited by Kevin DeYoung (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2011).
23
MISSIONS: THE WORSHIP OF JESUS AND THE JOY OF ALL PEOPLES
Jesus main command disciple all nations follows the charge to goto
be sent out. Sending out and going are two sides of the same coin. Jesus and
his established church send out, and those who go are the sent ones, or
missionaries. So missions is the churchs sending out of missionaries (the
sent ones) to pioneer the church among peoples who otherwise have no
access to the gospel.
JESUS COMMISSION
Perhaps the best way forward in this chapter is to walk through this Great
Commission that gets at the heart of the missionary enterprise.
And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], All authority

in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
JESUS HAS ALL AUTHORITY (VERSE 18)

First, Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
him. From all eternity, the divine Son had all authority as God, but now,
by virtue of his taking on our humanity and accomplishing our redemp-
tion, the Son comes into all authority as human, as the God-man. He
has fulfilled the destiny of humanity (Ps. 8:38; Heb. 2:510) and rules the
globe with the very sovereignty of God, ensuring the success of his global
mission.
He will not be thwarted in carrying out his promise, I will build my
church (Matt. 16:18). The God-man most certainly will make good on his
pledge that his gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as
a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14). He
guarantees the fulfillment of Habakkuk 2:14, that the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
MEGALOMANIAOR LOVE?
Is it megalomania for Jesus to use all authority to make himself the most
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A HOLY AMBITION
famous person in the universe? If knowing Jesus were anything less than
the greatest of enjoyments, then his pursuit would be unloving. But he is
the most valuable Reality in the universe. Knowing him is the surpassing
worth that makes it gain to count all else loss (Phil. 3:8). Therefore, it is
profoundly loving for Jesus to exalt himself. He cannot love the nations
without putting himself on display because it is only him that truly satisfies
the human soul. This makes Gods heart for God the deepest foundation
for missions.
So the bedrock of the Great Commission is most ultimately not Gods
heart for the nationsamazing as that isbut Gods heart for God. And
Gods pursuit of his glory makes the cause of missions unstoppable. As
surely as he will not give his glory to another (Isa. 48:11), so the Commis-
sion will not fail. His honor is at stake. When we pursue the glory of God
in the worship of Jesus in the global cause of missions, we get on board
with a mission that will not abort. Jesus will build his church. The task of
missions will finish.
DISCIPLE ALL NATIONS (VERSE 19)

In view of his unmatched authority, Jesus draws out an implication for his
followersone of the most important therefores in the history of the world.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
The two commands go and disciple all nations in English work
together as one charge in Matthews original Greek. A literal translation
would be having gone, disciple all nations. The main emphasis falls on
discipling, but the going is the necessary path. In order to engage in this
worldwide task of discipling all nations, there must be a going. Jesus does
not promise that all nations will come to Jerusalem and so his disciples can
continue to invest where they are. They will need to go. Oceans and borders
must be crossed. Like Paul and Barnabas in Antioch, they will need to be
sent out (Acts 13:3). There must be missionaries.
But even in our current global context, where unreached peoples are
clustering in cities where churches already are established, another kind
of going must happen: learning a language and new culture and being
sent out from ordinary, everyday life among people just like us. Even
where geography isnt an issue, culture and language are. The Commission
25
necessitates goings of all sorts.
DISCIPLE IS A VERB
So if Jesus charge to disciple all nations is the heart of the Commission,
what does he mean by this discipling? He does not mean the mere pursuit
of conversion. That wont work with what follows: baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. Teaching the nations to observe
all that I have commanded you is not the mere pursuit of conversion. And
if discipling all nations doesnt mean simply classroom information-transfer,
but teaching to observe, what must it entail?
At least it must entail spiritual maturity. And so this is how many well-
meaning Christians today use the term discipleshipas a term for pursu-
ing spiritual maturity. Being a disciple, they say, means being a serious,
rather than casual, follower of Jesus. Discipleship programs are designed
for those intentionally seeking Christian growth, so it goes. Maybe. But
something seems to be lacking here.
JESUS EXAMPLE
Within the context of Matthews Gospel, is there not more to say? Does
disciple all nations not call to mind how Jesus himself discipled his
men? They were, after all, his disciples. And when they heard him say,
disciple all nations, would they not think this discipleship is what he did
with theminvesting prolonged, real-life, day-in, day-out, intentional
time with younger believers in order to bring them to maturity as well as
model for them how to disciple others in the same way?
This sounds like what Paul is getting at in 2 Timothy 2:2, when he in-
structs his disciple Timothy, What you have heard from me in the presence
of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others
also. Timothy, my disciple, disciple others to disciple others. Four spiritual
generations get explicit mention here: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and
others alsowith the implication that further generations are to follow.
Discipleship, seen in this light, entails not merely the pursuit of spiritu-
al maturity but the need for personal connection and substantial intentional
investment of time, the kind of investment for which there must be going to
26
A HOLY AMBITION
accomplish. Jesus spent three years with his twelve disciples. He called them
to be discipled at the outset of his ministry (Matt. 4:19), and he gave them
the lions share of his life until his departure in Matthew 28. He invested
his life in these men. It is amazing to track in the Gospels how much Jesus
gave of himself to his disciples. The crowds pursued him, but he pursued
his disciples. He was willing to bless the masses, but he invested in the few.
ALL NATIONS
But if disciple refers not merely to conversion but spiritual maturity, and
even the personal investment of the disciplers life, what about all nations?
Here Jesus has struck a note that is part of a biblical symphony spanning the
Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
From creation, God has been concerned with all the nations. The
genealogies of Genesis trace the origin of all nations to Adam through Noah
and his sons (Gen. 10).8 And with his blessing of all nations in mind, God
called a moon-worshiper named Abram to Go from your countryto the
land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nationand in
you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12:13). Note the
word all.
From Abram (renamed Abraham, the father of a multitude of na-
tions, in Gen. 17:45) would come Gods chosen nation, Israel. This na-
tions special relationship with God was to bring about blessing to the rest
of the worlds nations who were separated from their creator going back to
their father Adam.
For the sake of the nations, God worked in and through this one na-
tion for two thousand years. He multiplied her number, delivered her from
slavery, led her through the wildness, defeated her enemies, established her
in his Promised Land, and brought her to her highest point of peace and
prosperity under the kingship of David and his son Solomon. With the
temple completed under Solomon, it looked as if Gods blessing now was
poised to come to the nations through Israels flourishing and the nations
submission to her.
8
Acts 17:26 confirms that God made from one man every nation of mankind.
27
COME-AND-SEE
In 1 Kings 4, Israel has become as many as the sand by the sea (verse 20).
Solomon is ruling over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land
of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt (verse 21) and said to have
dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates (verse 24). Is this the
fulfillment Gods promises to Abram in Genesis 12:3 and 15:5 to make his
descendants as numerous as the stars and to bless the nations through his
ospring? Has God brought all his purposes to pass in Israels prosperity
so that now climactically all the peoples of the earth may know that the
LORD is God (1 Kings 8:60)?
But the sin problem that began with Adam still remained, with Is-
rael herself suering from the same sinful condition as all the nations. Just
as the nations needed the blessing of forgiveness, a new heart, removal
of divine wrath, and restoration to God himself, so also did Israel. And
1 Kings 112 Kings 25 catalogues how sin destroyed Israel in less than
half a millennium as she fell from the height of Solomons reign to the utter
depths in the destruction of Jerusalem and in exile under the Babylonians.
But the prophets, even amidst their strong denunciations, promised
stunning hope beyond the exile for the remnant who would return to God.
And it wouldnt be the mere restoration to Israels former days, for as the
prophet Isaiah announced, It is too light a thing that you should be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the
end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).
God had more in mind for the blessing of the nations than, Come
and see Israel and eat from her scraps. In the Great Commission, we find
Jesus monumental revelation to his followersand through them to the
worldof the mission for world blessing that God has had in store from
the beginning: Gods people knowing and enjoying him in Jesus and going
and telling all the nations about him.
As Jesus prepares to go to the cross, he is the one who promises, This
gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as
a testimony to all the nations. And Jesus is the one who charges his dis-
ciples to disciple all nations and promised them, You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
28
A HOLY AMBITION
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts
1:8).
GO-AND-DISCIPLE
Jesus has ushered in a new season of world history in which God is no lon-
ger focusing his preparatory redemptive action on Israel in a come-and-see
fashion (when in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in
their own ways, Acts 14:16). But now with the full accomplishment of the
gospel of his Son, God has widened his scope, so to speak, to all the nations
and inaugurated the Spirit-empowered age of go-and-tellor better yet,
go-and-disciple.
And so the apostle Paul says that the essence of his ministry is to bring
about the obedience of faith for the sake of [Jesus] name among all the
nations (Rom. 1:5) and that the gospel is now being made known to all
nations (Rom. 16:26). Gods global purpose, being exercised through the
authority of the risen and reigning God-man, is to make worshipers of his
Son among all the nationsevery tribe and tongue and people.
When Jesus grants the apostle John a glimpse of the end, John hears a
new song, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you
were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe
and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). Two chapters later, John
sees a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from
all tribes and peoples and languages, standing [in worship] before the throne
and before the Lamb (Rev. 7:910).
THE POST-CHRISTIAN WEST AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

In pursuit of all nations, Paul brought the gospel to Philippi in Acts 16, and
for the next seventeen-plus centuries, Christianity took root in particular
in the West (Europe and eventually North America). The sixteenth-century
Reformation deepened the roots in many respects, but the horrific seven-
teenth-century religious wars fed the eighteenth-century Enlightenment
and with it modernism and secularism.
Today the West, once the stronghold of global Christianity, is becom-
ing increasingly (and quickly) post-Christian. There are pockets of signifi-
cant blessing and great hope for advance in the days ahead, but by and large,
29
the church that once stood at the center of Western society is finding herself
at the periphery (which, in Gods economy, may be a very good thing for
the Western church).
But the slow decline of Christianity in the West has not meant global
decline for the gospel. Jesus will build his church. The last 50 years have
produced a stunning and historic global development as Christianity has
blossomed in Africa, Latin America, and Asiain what many are calling
the Global South. The figures can be misleading, since they can report
only professing Christians, but even allowing for significant inflation, the
general trend is astonishing:
Europe was home to over 70% of the worlds professing Christians

in 1900, but by 2000, it was less than 30%. In the meantime, Latin
America and Africa had become home to over 40%.
Africa had ten million professing Christians in 1900about 10% of
the population. But by 2000, the number was 360 millionabout
half the African population. This may mark the largest shift in reli-
gious aliation in world history.9
The number of practicing Christians in China is approaching the
number in the United States.10
Last Sundaymore Christian believers attended church in China
than in all of so-called Christian Europe.11
In a word, the Christian church has experienced a larger geographi-
cal redistribution in the last fifty years than in any comparable period
in its history, with the exception of the very earliest years of church
history.12
GOING WITH THE GLOBAL SOUTH

This amazing trend raises the question for some as to whether the West is
finished sending missionaries. Will it not now be left to the Global South
to finish the Commission? The clear answer is no. First, dont discount the
9
Philip Jenkins, Believing in the Global South in First Things, December, 2006, No. 168, p. 13.
10
Mark Noll, The New Shape of World Christianity, p. 10.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
30
A HOLY AMBITION
power of gospel-advancing partnerships between the West and the Global

South. But second, these partnerships should not mean merely sending
Western money, but Western people. Going is necessary for discipling.
According to www.JoshuaProject.net (which tracks the global progress
of the gospel among the worlds unreached peoples), there are an estimated
6,550 unreached people groups in the world out of a total of about 16,300
ethno-linguistic peoples. The Joshua Project lists 1,540 of these unreached
peoples as unengaged, meaning that there is no current missionary work
among them. With so much work yet to be done, it will take the gospel-
partnership of the whole global churchWestern, Hispanic, Asian, Afri-
can, Eastern European, Russian, Middle Eastern, and moreto take the
message about Jesus to the worlds final missionary frontier, the peoples
most hostile to the gospel.
But not only does this new global situation create promise for new ways
of partnering both in sending people and resources, it also gives rise to new
possibilities and problems in the West.
THE PROMISE AND POTENTIAL DANGER OF MISSIONAL

In the last decade, a new term related to missions has come into use among
evangelicals doing domestic ministry: missional. The most insightful of those
using the term recognize that the West is quickly becoming post-Christian,
and that this shift raises important questions about what it means to do do-
mestic ministry. Europe and North America have become more and more
like a mission fieldbut a post-Christian, rather than pre-Christian, one.
Since the term evangelism carries for many the baggage of Christendom days
when the general biblical worldview was prevalent enough in society that
street-corner confrontations and stadium crusades found more traction and
produced more genuine converts, the emergence of the term missional (in
place of evangelistic) signifies that the times are changing in some significant
degree, calling for new missions-like engagement. This new thinking is a
good development, but with it comes a potential danger.
The potential danger is that with the discussions about being mission-
al and every Christian being a missionary, the pursuit of all the peoples
by prioritizing the unreached may be obscured. We need to preserve a place
for the biblical category of reaching the unreached. The biblical theme is
31
not merely that God reaches as many people as possible, but all the peoples.
He intends to create worshipers of his Son from every nation. The push for
being missional captures something very important in the heart of God,
but the danger is when it comes at the cost of something else essential in
the heart of God: pursuing all the nations, not merely those who share our
language and culture.
THE PRIORITY OF THE UNREACHED

We need both-and. Our churches should both pursue mission among our
own people as well as missions among the worlds unreached peoples. One
way to sum it up is to say that we cant be truly missional without preserving
a place for, and giving priority to, the pursuit of the unreached. It doesnt
matter how much a church may say that she is being missional; she is not
fully missional in the biblical sense if she is not pursuing both mission at
home (traditionally called evangelism) among her native reached people as
well as being an engaged sender in support of missionaries to the unreached.
As the West grows increasingly post-Christian, it is easy to see the obvi-
ous need for the gospel opening up around us to the neglect of the frontiers.
Missions is a summons to the frontiers. And more and more those frontiers
arent the romantic savages living in the woods that make for the missions
stories of the previous generation, like Bruchko, Peace Child, and Through
Gates of Splendor. Todays frontiers are home to the globes most hostile
people to the gospel. Dont think jungles and loinclothes. Think flat, hot,
and crowded in the worlds urban mega-centers. God is bringing the un-
reached peoples out of the woods and into the cities for the completion of
the Commission.
THERE WILL BE SUFFERING AND MARTYRDOM

Which means there will be suering. Many of the 6,650 unreached peoples
(and the 1,540 unengaged peoples) are unreached (and unengaged) for a
reason. They are profoundly hostile to the gospel. But the suering and
martyrdom to comeand they will come13will not be a setback for our
sovereign Savior.
It is generally accepted that there were more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century than the
13
nineteen previous centuries combined.
32
A HOLY AMBITION
Suering is not only the consequence of completing the Commission,

but it is Gods appointed means by which he will show the superior worth
of his Son to all the peoples. Just as it was fitting that heshould make
the founder of [our] salvation perfect through suering (Heb. 2:10), so it
is fitting that God save a people from all the peoples from eternal suering
through the redemptive suering of Jesus displayed in the temporal suer-
ings of his missionaries.
This is why Paul could rejoice in his sueringsbecause he knew that
in them he was filling up what is lacking in Christs aictions (Col. 1:24).
What is lacking in Jesus suerings is not their redemptive value but their
personal presentation to the peoples he died to save. And in the suerings
and martyrdoms of missions, the sent ones fill up what is lacking by show-
ing Jesus superior value and pointing to his suerings in their own.
So, yes, the call to the Great Commission is a call for martyrs, but it is
not a call for kamikazes or colonial insensitivity. It is a call for shrewd mis-
sionaries captured for Jesus worldwide fame and satisfied so deeply in him
that they can say with Paul, To die is gain (Phil. 1:21).
JESUS WILL BE WITH US (VERSE 20)

The power for life-reorienting giving for missions and life-risking going in
missions, for suering and for martyrdom, is the enjoyment of the one
whom we preach. Missions is not only powered by Jesus universal author-
ity, founded on his finished work, and modeled in his ministry, but mis-
sions is sustained by the promise of his presence and the pleasure we have
in him. He says behold to make sure he has our attention because this is
really precious. Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
He will be with you. At the border of the closed country, in the learn-
ing of an arduous language, and in the disorientation of a new culture,
he will be with you. In speaking the gospel when your hearers may turn
on you, in persecution, and in jail, he will be with you. And when youre
pressed to renounce the faith or die, he will be with you. He loves to be with
his people to give them the grace to say with Martin Luther, from the heart,
Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also.
33
The body they may kill;

Gods truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever.
Missions is about the worship of Jesus and the joy of all peoples. And
as surely as Jesus is Lord of the universe, the Great Commission will be
completed. He will build his church. He will be worshiped among every
people. And in him will his redeemed people, from all the peoples, forever
rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory (1 Peter 1:8). To
Jesus be the glory. Amen.
34
PART ONE:
A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF
GOSPEL-CENTERED MISSION
A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER THREE
THE STORY OF HIS GLORY
JOHN PIPER
H uman beings, by nature, dont draw the same conclusions that God
does from many facts, and we dont feel the same way God does
about the conclusions that he draws from the facts. What I mean by human
nature is a mind, an attitude, a bent that thinks badly about many things.
It is found in phrases like, by nature we are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
By nature, there is something wrong with us. We dont just do bad
things; we have a bad nature. We might be able to say that two plus two is
four, but then we do terrible things with that ability. Another text would
be 1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit because they are foolishness to him.
If God says something strange, we dont like it. We by nature regard
lots of things that are true as foolish. So theres something wrong with us
when God draws conclusions from things that look strange to us, we get in
his face and we disagree with him and call him into question.
The older I get, the more I see evidences of this in me and in other
Christians in the way we read our Bibles and in the way we respond to prov-
idences. An example of this that is moving me into this issue of missions is:
in order for us to have a heart for the nationsa heart for the unreached,
close and distant, individuals and ethnic groupsin order for us to have a
heart for the nations that is strong enough, deep enough, durable enough,
God-centered enough, and Christ-exalting enough to be the kind of heart
it should be, we need to base this heart for the nations on the same thing on
which God bases his heart for the nations.
OUR THOUGHTS THE SAME AS GODS THOUGHTS

Now so far I dont think our thoughts would be dierent than Gods
thoughts. You know the text, Your thoughts are not my thoughts, your
ways are not my ways (Isa. 55:8). Thats because the mind of the flesh is at
enmity with God, and we think all kinds of things that God doesnt think.
37
It doesnt mean that he cant and we cant think the same thought as unbe-
lievers, like the earth is round instead of square. It means there are many
facts from which God draws conclusions but from which we dont draw
the same conclusions. And he feels about them ways we dont feel. But, so
far in that little analogy, were okay. Were thinking Gods thoughts. So far
were saying in order for us to have the kind of heart for the nations that is
durable enough and strong enough and deep enough and Christ-exalting
enough and God-centered enough, in order to be what it ought to be, we
need to base that heart for the nations on the same thing God does. So far,
were thinking like God, if were there.
GODS PASSION FOR HIS OWN NAME AND GLORY

But when we see what God bases his heart for the nations on there are a lot
of backs that get up, because what God bases his heart for the nations on is
his passion for his own name and his own glory. I go all over the country and
the world saying this, and I watch the reactions, I field the questions, and
I have discovered for about thirty years now that this thought, that God
would be jealous for his name and on the basis of that be given to pursue
the nations and their salvation and their judgment in the measure that he
decides, is alien to many believers, not to mention unbelievers.
Since that is so alien to us, what I want to do is to build my case that
God bases his heart for the nations on his heart for himself. And in doing
that I want to lay out texts, because what I think is of no consequence what-
soever if it doesnt correspond to biblical truth. The only thing you should
care about is Does what Piper says correspond to what the Bible teaches? Thats
all that matters. My authority as a pastor isnt what counts, my being older
than most of you isnt what counts, my having a certain level of education is
not what counts. What counts is, Does this man get under the Bible instead of
over the Bible? Does he submit and then talk plainly about what he finds here,
in such a way that ordinary folks can say, Yes, that must be what it says and
what it means, because there it is.
GODS HEART FOR GOD

Gods heart for the nations is built on Gods heart for God. Gods zeal to
reach the nations with the glory of his Son and save sinners is built on his
38
A HOLY AMBITION
zeal that his name be exalted in and through the worshipping of Christ.
Thats the argument. And the way to argue for it, I think, is to simply look
at an array of texts that show that God does everything for the sake of mag-
nifying his glory.
GODS ULTIMATE GOAL

Heres my thesis: Gods ultimate goal in creation and redemption is to uphold
and display his glory for the enjoyment of his redeemed people from every tribe
and tongue and people and nation. This is the main thing. This is Gods ulti-
mate goal, and it happens to be for the enjoyment of his redeemed people.
And those people, in Gods design, happen to be of every people and tribe
and tongue and nation. Oh, how I would love to make the case that this
diversity, this cultural and ethnic and racial diversity here, is essential to this!
God did not make us as dierent as we are culturally, ethnically, and racially
for nothing. Its not an accident. Its not a punishment after the tower of
Babel. This is because a diverse song sung to the Redeemer is more glorify-
ing to the Redeemer than a simple song in unison. If we all sang one note,
from one culture, from one ethnicity, from one race, it would have a loud
and glorious sound, but oh, it would not look or sound like the song that
will be sung to the Redeemer from such diversity as he is winning it from.
But thats for another time
Gods main, ultimate goal is to uphold and display his glory. That is the
seemingly oensive thing to many people. It just sounds so self-centered,
self-exalting, and feels bad to people. The key to why Gods self-exaltation,
that is, the pursuit of the magnifying of his own glory, is not vicious but
virtuous, not unloving but loving, is this word enjoyment. He is doing it for
the enjoyment of his people. If God did not preserve and exalt his glory,
you would not be given the very thing that you were designed to be most
satisfied by, namely God, and Gods glory. He is the one being in the uni-
verse for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue and the greatest act of
love. When you stand in front of God, if youre thinking Gods thoughts
and not the worlds thoughts, what you want is for God to say, Hey, stand
in front of me and watch THIS! And then for him to be God, in his fullness
of grace and justice, so that you can spend eternity enjoying that and going
deeper into that.
39
GOD IS A CROWN OF GLORY

Consider Isaiah 28:5: In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of
glory, and a diadem of beauty, for his remnant. What will it mean that he
will be a crown of glory? Whose head will it be on? Hes the crown. He is
not the head. Its going to be on your head. Take a deep breath. He will be a
crown of glory and a diadem of beauty. In other words, he will satisfy every
longing for glory and beauty. Everything good that you ever longed for will
be satisfied in him.
Therefore, it is loving for him to lift himself up and say, Here I am,
world! Admire! If you did that, you would be unloving, because you are not
all-satisfying. He is. You should simply go all over the world, pointing to
him. Say: World, look! Look at Christ especially, because there, when Christ
died, the glory of the grace of God was magnified, which is the apex of all
his glory, which is why Christ is the center of everything.
TO THE PRAISE AND THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE

The texts we are going to look at were not chosen for theological reasons. I
am a lover of this doctrine, predestination. I choose it because it is chrono-
logically first in the universe, no, first in reality, before the universe. Look
at Ephesians 1.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adop-
tion as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose
of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which
he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:3-6)
Ill paraphrase that: God, before the foundation of the world, set his heart
on being praised, because its the ultimate thing. Choosing, predestining,
adopting are all means. Jesus was a means, at this point. And the goal is,
the purpose is, that we praise the glory of his grace, which was supremely
manifested in Jesus, which was planned before the foundation of the world.
40
A HOLY AMBITION
So theres my first argument: From the beginning, in God, before we

existed, Gods design was to get praise for his glorious grace.
IMAGES ARE CREATED TO IMAGE

The next item in my chronology is creation. This is Genesis 1:26-27:
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own im-
age, in the image of God he created him; male and female
he created them.
What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Books by the

hundreds have been written on the imago dei, as its called. Its a huge issue.
Is it reason, is it emotion, is it that we have moral accountability? How are
we like God? Im going to avoid the whole controversy and say something
much simpler: Images are created to image. Right? Why do you ever set
up an image of anything? To image it! You put up a statue of Stalin, you
want people to look at Stalin and think about Stalin. You put up a statue of
George Washington, look at it and think about the founding fathers. Im-
ages are made to image. So if God made us, unlike all the other animals, in
his image, whatever it means in detail, this it means clearly: Gods the reality
and were the image. Images are created to set forth the reality.
Why did God create man? To show God! He created little images so
that they would talk and act and feel in a way that reveals the way God is.
So people would look at the way you behave, look at the way you think, the
way you feel, and say, God must be great, God must be real. That is why
you exist. God didnt create you as an end in yourself. Hes the end, youre
the means. And the reason thats such good news is because the best way
to show that God is infinitely valuable is to be supremely happy in him. If
Gods people are bored with God, they are really bad images. God is not
unhappy about himself. He is infinitely excited about his own glory.
Thats why the Son received the words: You are my beloved son. With
41
you I am well pleased. Take those words, Well pleased. God doesnt say
hes okay with Jesus. Hes not just okay with Jesus! He is absolutely thrilled
with Jesus as the image of himself. So if we go about the world making our
choices in what we watch on television, do on the computer, handle money,
use food, so that it communicates to the world that these things are our
treasure, rather than God, that these things make us satisfied rather than
God, hes getting the bad press, and were not doing what we were created
to do. We were created to image God. So, God predestined for his glory and
he created for the display of his glory.
GOD ACTS FOR THE SAKE OF HIS NAME

Staying in chronological order, were moving to the Exodus next. This is
Ezekiel 20:5-9:
Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day when I chose Israel,
I swore to the ospring of the house of Jacob, making my-
self known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them,
saying, I am the LORD your God. On that day I swore
to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt
into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing
with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. And
I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes
feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves
with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. But
they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to
me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes
feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.Then I
said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my
anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But
I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be pro-
faned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived,
in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing
them out of the land of Egypt.
Now right here we begin to see something thats going to climax in the
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A HOLY AMBITION
cross of Christ, namely, that the ground of the deliverance of a rebellious

people is Gods jealousy for his name. If God, at this point, had not been
supremely jealous for his name, wrath would have fallen upon the people
of Israel:
Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and

spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of
Egypt. (v. 8b)
Thats what they deserved. But something checked that just disposition in
God, namely,
But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be

profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they
lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in
bringing them out of the land of Egypt. (v. 9)
SALVATION EVIDENCE OF GODS WRATH

Get that principle. There are so many Christians today who see the salva-
tion of God as an evidence of their worth instead of Gods worth. That
doesnt work here. It just doesnt work. When they walked through the sea
on dry land, what should they say? We must be really good! No! They de-
served wrath, and they got deliverance, because God is really great, and
meant to be known as great.
Here is the way Psalm 106:6-8 puts it:
Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed

iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they
were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast
love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved
them for his names sake, that he might make known his
mighty power.
Oh, how thankful I am for worship leaders who get this, who are constantly
43
saying, Were going to glory in our Redeemer! Were not going to glory in the fact
that saving me must mean I am glorious. Were not going to talk like that. That
doesnt satisfy the soul. Thats the carnal mind using the cross to buttress its
ego. There are many people that do that, but the cross crucifies the ego and
puts all worth on Jesus and the Father.
WHY TEN PLAGUES?

Now to the book of Exodus itself. God says:
And I will harden Pharaohs heart, and he will pursue them,

and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the
Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. (Exod. 14:4)
That is really strong language. I dont know if youve ever asked why God
used ten plagues to deliver Israel from Egypt instead of one. If you thought
like the world you might think, Well, he did his best for nine and then
he really pulled the trump card at ten and it worked. Thats not the case,
because we read at the beginning of the story that he was going to multiply
his signs in Egypt. He didnt start with one and hope it worked, and then
went to two and hope it worked, and went to three and hope it worked, and
finally, the tenth plague works and he says, Whew! I dont know how long
this might have lasted. Thats totally foreign to the context. God planned
to multiply his signs in Egypt. Why? Because he meant to get glory over
Pharaoh, who was so against God. He meant to magnify himself. The Exo-
dus, which is a pointer to our exodus from sin, was based upon Gods zeal
for his name. This is a huge event in redemptive history, is it not?
HEALTHY JEALOUSY
A few months after the exodus came the giving of the law:
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make
for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow
down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God
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A HOLY AMBITION
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on

the children to the third and the fourth generation of those
who hate me (Exod. 20:35)
Have no gods before me because Im jealous. What does jealous mean

here? There is some jealousy that is bad, and there is some jealousy that is
good. I just did some premarital counseling recently, and I looked at some
personality things that I saw, and I queried them about how he would feel
if she hung out with her women friends after they were married, and he
with his men friends, and other things. I probed because I was scratching
for unhealthy jealousy: Youre mine! You be home every night! You give
everything to me! Now, that would be unhealthy jealousy.
There is, however, a very healthy jealousy. If Nol decides shes inter-
ested in another man, if she starts hanging out long hours at Starbucks with
him, having deep conversations about her heart, and gets farther and farther
from my heart, I should be really angry. And God is really angry when we
hang out in inappropriate ways with the world. Why? Because were de-
signed to bestow all the glory on him, to get our deepest and most profound
satisfaction from him. He is intending to say in the law, Im number one,
period! And youll be destroyed if you dont agree. Now that kind of talk really
turns people o. But you need to say it like that just to wake some people
up to how carnal and self-centered they are. Thats the law.
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness a long time. Why? Why did
he spare them? These were really, really rebellious folks, like us.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilder-

ness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my
rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and
my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would
pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make
a full end of them. But I acted for the sake of my name,
that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations,
in whose sight I had brought them out. (Ezek. 20:1314)
45
Weve seen that before. It happens over and over again in the history of
Israel.
GOSPEL BEFORE THE GOSPEL

We will skip the conquest of Canaan and move to the Israelites asking for a
king. I love this passage because it is so full of gospel before the gospel. We
saw the gospel in the exodus, that the salvation of a rebellious people was
rooted not in their worth, but in Gods worth. And here were going to see
it again. The people have asked to have a king like the nations, and Samuels
not happy about that, and Gods angry about that. So what happens?
And all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants
to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have
added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.
And Samuel said to the people, Do not be afraid; you
have done all this evil. (1 Sam. 12:19-20a)
I dont remember how many years ago it was, but there was a point where I
read this and I thought, that is a very strange connection. The connection
between fear not and you have done all this evil is really weird. It should
be, Fear! You have done all this evil! Fear! But it says, Fear not, you have
done all this evil. Thats gospel. Thats what I mean by gospel. This is unde-
served grace, undeserved mercy. Why? Whats the basis of it?
Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not
turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD
with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty
things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For
the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great names
sake (1 Sam. 12:20-22a)
So in the Exodus the people were delivered and not shown wrath because
God was jealous for his name in Egypt. Here the people have committed
treason and impeached God and said, We want another kind of king. We
want to be like the nations. We dont like this theocracy business. We want
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A HOLY AMBITION
another king. Later they called it sin, when Samuel preached to them and
then said dont be afraid. Samuel could have said Dont be afraid because
God is merciful, God is gracious, God keeps covenant love. He could have
said all these things and they would be true, but what he said was the Lord
will not cast away his people for his great names sake. How do you pray
in response to that?
HOW DO YOU PRAY?

I remember back at Fuller Seminary, my world was being blown to smith-
ereens in the spring of 1969, and then the next year as well. I went through
Copernican revolutions because all the stars must come crashing down in
order to rebuild your world when youve been man-centered all your life.
Nol and I had just gotten married in December of 1968 so she was walk-
ing through this with me. We had this beige couch in the living room of
that little back house on Orange Grove Boulevard (we paid $85 a month
for that whole house). We knelt by that beige couch and prayed every night
as a young couple and I remember saying to Nol, You know, you can tell
when somebodys theology is being turned upside down by the way they
pray. Because we just were praying dierently. Texts like hallowed be thy
name were just exploding. That wasnt a throwaway phrase anymore! Hal-
lowed be your name was a request to God to make himself strong in the
world and great in our hearts. So Im asking you, How does your discovery of
God aect your praying?
Heres one way:
For thy names sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is

great. (Ps. 25:11)
Do you pray that way? Does that kind of thinking come to your mind? It
sure didnt come to my mind until I had my eyes open to texts, hundreds
of them, like that.
We do say this now, just in other words. We say, In Jesus name I pray,
amen. Because thats the name. On this side of the cross, we know the name.
Its Jesus. God has put his son forward to exalt his own righteousness and
preserve his own justice in the saving of sinners, so that when we call down
47
mercy, totally underserved, who are we going to appeal toourselves?

Nothing works except: For your names sake, O Lord. Make your name great
in forgiving my sins and using me, broken and imperfect as I am.
Or how about:
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his names sake.

(Ps. 23:3)
Why does he sanctify you? How do you pray for sanctification? Lord, lead
me in paths of righteousness for your names sake today. I want you to look great
today.
BROKENNESS BEFORE JOY

Nol and I had a rocking chair that I bought for her when we had our first
baby in Germany. I sat in that chair every Sunday night. There were no
Sunday evening events in Germany, and I read for about a yearmaybe not
quitethe Religious Aections by Jonathan Edwards. Two or three pages a
nightI dont know how many pages. I could not take much of that book.
It was absolutely convicting. I recommend it to everybody. People ask me,
Where should we start in reading Jonathan Edwards? I say, Religious Af-
fections, not Freedom of the Will. Thats really hard. But Religious Aections,
you can handle that intellectually. But you wont handle it morally; it will
wipe you out.
Ezekiel 36 jumped o the page in the chapter on evangelical humilia-
tion, which is actually the title.
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord

GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I
am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which
you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which
has been profaned among the nations, and which you have
profaned among them. And the nations will know that I
am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through
you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.It is not for
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A HOLY AMBITION
your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that
be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your
ways, O house of Israel. (Ezek. 36:2232)
The reason that blew me away in 1972 is because I was surrounded by

books on self-esteem. I wrote reviews of two of them for The Journal of
the Evangelical Theological Society. It was red-hot gospel coming out of the
world into the church in those days, the gospel of self-esteem. And as I read
this, I said, None of those books would ever quote this text. They would
never, ever, ever say, It is not for your sake I will act, says the Lord. Let that
be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your sins, O house of
Israel.
There must be genuine, devastating brokenness before leaping for joy at
the cross. The cross first says, It is because of you that I am here. Thats what
it says, meaning, Your sin is so horrible it requires the death of the Son of God
for God to be vindicated in the saving of your soul. It was a missing emotional
piece, I think, toward completing my life.
JESUS GLORIFYING THE FATHER

We see the same thing in the New Testament. Jesus said:
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work

that you gave me to do.. (Jn. 17:4)
In accomplishing the work that Jesus received from the Father, he was glo-
rifying the Father. And in John 7:18 Jesus said:
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own
glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent
him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
God sent Jesus to get glory for God. God sent Jesus to get glory for God!
Thats why he sent him.
49
Romans 15:8-9 says:
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circum-

cised to show Gods truthfulness, in order to confirm the
promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the
Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
The reason God sent Jesus to the Gentiles was so that they would glorify
God for his mercy.
There are two thoughts here: glorify God, and bestow mercy. How do
they relate? I have talked with a lot of seminary students over the years that
have been charged with writing integration papers for their seminary expe-
rience, meaning, Put it all together in a paper. Choose the integrating ultimate
reality and write a paper with your whole theology around that. And the ways
divide in talking with people, because they often choose mercy. Mercy is
infinitely glorious, and I wouldnt begrudge anybody writing a paper that
integrates the whole Bible around mercy. But its not the most ultimate
thing. You can see it in the grammar: That the Gentiles might glorify God
for his mercy. What does that little preposition for mean there? Glorify God
for his mercy. Wouldnt you paraphrase that, Glorify God on the basis of his
mercy? That is, the experience of mercy prompts the glorifying of God for
the mercy. And if thats the case, which I think it is, then its the glorifying
of God which is ultimate, and the receiving of mercy is penultimate.
But you dont have to choose. If we had to choose, there would be no
gospel. God gets the glory, we get the mercy, and thats the best of all pos-
sible worlds. I wouldnt want it any other way. The natural mind says, No,
I really cant be happy unless I get the glory, and I dont like a God who doesnt
need a little bit of mercy. You hear people talk about forgiving God. Ive got
to watch my language when I hear things like that.
Romans contains the most important paragraph in the bible, probably.
Its dangerous to say things like that, but if I had to choose, it would be
somewhere in Romans 8 or somewhere in Romans 3.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

(Rom. 3:23)
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A HOLY AMBITION
Paul sets up the issue in terms of glory, because back in Romans 1 we read
that we have all exchanged the glory of God for images, especially the one
in the mirror. So Romans 1:23d:
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for im-

ages resembling mortal man and birds and animals and
creeping things.
You get to Romans 3:23, and it says: We have fallen short; which is literally,
we lack. We lack because we have traded the glory of God for lesser things.
We have turned away from it and embraced our favorite glory. All have
sinned, and thats what sin is. Preferring another glory to Gods glory is what
sin is. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
HOW GOD JUSTIFIES SINNERS

Now here is how God justifies sinners: By his grace, as a gift, through the
redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a expiation by
his bloodor propitiationbetter by his blood, to be received by faith. This
was to show So heres the aim.
This was to show Gods righteousness, because in his divine

forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show
his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
(Rom. 3:2526)
God saves you through the horrible price of the death of his son, be-
cause in saving you he passes over your sins and that has to be vindi-
cated. If God passes over sins in the Old Testament and in your life, if
he just passes them over, what does it look like? Sins belittle the glory of
God, making his glory of little value. How then can God be righteous
and forgive you? And the answer is, he killed his son to show how seri-
ous sin is. He bruised his son in order to magnify the worth of his glory.
51
Which turns the Christian life now into the verse that my dad quoted
to me more than any other, I think:
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to

the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)
Everything in redemptive history has been God acting for his glory, there-
fore everything in your life is to join him in that purpose. The reason youre
on the planet is to join God in making much of God. Every human being
that youll ever meet, anywhere in the world, in any culture, according to
Romans 5, is disobedient and rebellious and needs to be justified by faith
alone. Theyve all stopped glorifying God for who he really is and we go to
call them back to glorify God.
WHY IS JESUS COMING BACK?

Heres another text from 1 Peter:
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; who-

ever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God
suppliesin order that in everything God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. (1 Pet. 4:11)
I pray this more than any other text, I suppose, as we meet downstairs be-
fore the services:
Why is Jesus coming back? Were jumping all the way to the end now,
the second coming. One last text, 2 Thessalonians 1:9-10:
They will suer the punishment of eternal destruction,

away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his
saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed,
because our testimony to you was believed.
Second Thessalonians 1 gives us two reasons why the Son of God is
52
A HOLY AMBITION
returning to earth: to be glorified and to be marveled at. I never thought

that for the first 22 years of my life. Anybody asked me why Jesus is com-
ing back, Id say, Hes coming back to get me. Coming back to save me. And
thats true. Its just skewed. I was ignorant. My mind was not his mind. My
thoughts were not his thoughts. They werent based on what Gods thoughts
are based on. The Son of God is coming to be glorified, and the reason that
is love is because your joy at that moment will consist in making much of
him!
ADMIRING THE MOST ADMIRABLE

Ayn Rand, the atheistic philosopher novelist, said in Atlas Shrugged: Ad-
miration is the rarest of pleasures. Now in her mouth, that was absolutely
scornful, meaning, There arent any admirable people in the world, except me
and a few philosopher business types. But in my mouth, that means I am
made, unlike all other animals, to admire. And my deepest joy will consist
in admiring the most admirable. And there is only one who is most admira-
ble: Christ, the image of God fully. And when he comes, my fullest joy will
consist in fulfilling the purpose for which he came, namely to be admired.
So his glory and my joy come together.
Now, if you embraced this, then when you talk about, for you were
slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and
language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and
priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:910),
you know why hes doing that, why Jesus came, why he bought people from
every ethnic group, why we send out missionaries. And the answer from
Romans 1 is, For the sake of the name.
So all of that, simply to lay a foundation here at the beginning of this
volume, that if we want our heart for the nations to rest upon Gods heart
for the nations, it should rest upon the basis of Gods heart for the nations,
namely, Gods heart for his own glory.
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A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER FOUR
THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH ARE THE SONS OF ABRAHAM
MARCH 20, 1983
JOHN PIPER
Thus Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him

as righteousness. So you see that it is men of faith who are
the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gos-
pel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the
nations be blessed. So then, those who are men of faith
are blessed with Abraham who had faith.
Galatians 3:69
CAN YOU BE A CHILD OF ABRAHAM?
T he Word of God from this text for us today is that anyoneJew or

Gentile, rich or poor, male or female, white or black or brown, quick-
witted or slow, old or younganyone can be a child of Abraham and in-
herit the blessings promised to Abrahams children, if you live by faith.
The structure of the text is simple. The main point is stated in two
dierent ways, once in verse 7 and once in verse 9. And each of these is
preceded by its Old Testament support. Verse 6 quotes Genesis 15:6, Abra-
ham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And
verse 7 draws out of that verse together with verse 5 a general inference: So
(or: therefore) you see that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. The
thing that makes a person a son of Abraham is faith. Then verse 8 quotes
Genesis 12:3 (and 18:18), In you shall all the nations be blessed. And
verse 9 draws out the inference, So then, those who are of faith are blessed
with Abraham who had faith. The thing that qualifies a person to inherit
Abrahams blessing is faith. So the main pointthe Word of God for us
today (expressed in verses 7 and 9)is that anyone of us who lives by faith
is a child of Abraham and will inherit Abrahams blessing.
55
I can think of at least two reasons why most modern people would
simply shrug their shoulders at this announcement. One reason is that they
have no idea what it means to be a child of Abraham and no sense of the
stupendous value of the blessing promised to Abrahams children. And the
other reason is that they cant see how a 20th century American who doesnt
have a Jewish cell in his body can be called a child of Abraham. In other
words, if this promise in Galatians 3:69 is going to strengthen our faith
and increase our joy, we have to dig in and see what it means and how it
is grounded in the Old Testament. And thats my aim: the advancement
and joy of your faith (Philippians 1:25), because I know that genuine faith
works itself out in love (Gal. 5:6), and when people see the sacrificial love of
Gods people, many are gripped and give glory to him (Matt. 5:16). So for
the sake of our faith, our love, and ultimately, of Gods glory, lets see how
Paul gets verses 7 and 9 out of the Old Testament, and what they mean for
us today.
NOT DEPENDENT ON PHYSICAL DESCENT

A great deal in this passage hangs on what it means to be a child of Abra-
ham. So lets try to answer that question first. The first thing that needs to
be said is that Paul thinks sonship does not depend on physical descent. For
example, in Galatians 3:28, 29 he says,
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor

free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ. And if you are Christs, then you are Abrahams
ospring, heirs according to the promise.
So the first thing to be said is that Jews and non-Jews can be ospring or
children or sons of Abraham. Sonship does not depend on physical descent.
Romans 9:6, 7 confirm this:
Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and
not all are children of Abraham just because they are de-
scendants.
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A HOLY AMBITION
But we dont even have to go beyond our text to see this. Arent verses 7
and 9 referring to the same group of people? Verse 7 says that those of
faith are sons of Abraham. And verse 9 says that those of faith are blessed
with Abraham. Surely, these are the same people: sons of Abraham, who
will, therefore, enjoy the blessings promised to Abraham and his children.
But it is clear from the connection between verses 8 and 9 that these people
include Gentiles. Verse 8 quotes Genesis 12:3, In you shall all the nations
(i.e., Gentiles) be blessednot just Jews. And from that Paul infers verse 9:
So then, those of faith are blessed. So the believers of verse 9 must include
Gentiles, and since these are the same as the believers in verse 7 who are
called sons of Abraham, the sons of Abraham must include Gentiles. Thats
the first thing about being a son of Abraham: it does not depend on physical
descent from Abraham.
I know it sounds strange to us, but it is very close to the heart of the
gospel: white, Anglo-Saxon protestants can become sons of Abraham; His-
panics and Laotians and Cambodians can become sons of Abraham; black
African Muslims can become sons of Abraham; anti-semitic, redneck Nazi
vigilantes can become sons of Abraham; Hitler could have become a son of
Abraham.
WAS PAULS VIEW BIBLICAL?

Before we ask what that sonship involves and why it is good news, we need
to ask whether Pauls view of Abrahamic sonship is the same as the Old
Testaments view. It is no good telling our Jewish friends that we are sons of
Abraham if they can simply point to the Torah and show us that Paul has
distorted what Moses taught. Turn with me to Genesis 12:13. Here is the
foundational promise of the Jewish people.
Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and

your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will
show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you and make your name great, so that you will be
a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who
curses you I will curse, and in you shall all the families of
the earth be blessed.
57
When God chose Abram to found a new nation, he made sure that Abram
knew that the Jewish people were being created for the world. Their mission
is to be a blessing. Their destiny is to serve all the nations. (Gen. 18:18
says the same thing, and uses nations, i.e., Gentiles, instead of families.)
This is the text Paul quotes in Galatians 3:8, In you shall all the nations
be blessed.
But is this blessing which the nations get the same as sonship? Is there
any clue in Genesis that the nations would be blessed in Abraham because
they would become his sons? Yes, there is in Genesis 17. Here God spells
out the terms of his covenant with Abraham and says in verses 4 and 5,
Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the fa-

ther of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name
be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have
made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Some have tried to refer the nations here to the Ishmaelites and Edomites,
who can trace their physical descent to Abraham. But surely the word mul-
titude in Genesis 17:4, 5 means more than two. Surely God has in view
here the same nations that will be blessed in Genesis 12:3 and 18:18, name-
ly, all the families (nations) of the earth. In other words, Genesis 17:4
explains how the nations of Genesis 12:3 and 18:18 are going to be blessed.
They are going to be blessed because Abraham will become their father.
They are going to be blessed by becoming sons of Abraham. So it does not
look as though Paul has distorted the Old Testament when he teaches that
Gentiles can be sons of Abraham. Thats the first thing we need to see about
Abrahams childrenthey include more than Jews. They can include you
and me. (See Romans 4:16 and 17 to confirm that Genesis 17:4 lies behind
Pauls thinking about Gentile sonship.)
MUST BE LIKE ABRAHAM

The second thing to notice about being a child of Abraham is that it means
being like Abraham. In John 8:39 the Jews defend themselves against Jesus
criticisms by saying,
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A HOLY AMBITION
Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, If you were

Abrahams children, you would do what Abraham did.
Jesus shows us two things in this response. First, he shows us that they are
not Abrahams children, even though they are Jewsand so he confirms
our first point, that being a child of Abraham is not the same as Jewishness.
And the second thing he shows us is that being a child of Abraham means
being like Abrahamdoing what he does: If you were Abrahams children
you would do what Abraham did. In Galatians 3:6 what Abraham did was
believe God. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righ-
teousness (Gen. 15:6). Then Paul infers from this in verse 7, So you see, it
is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith, so
if you do what he did, if you have faith, you will be his child.
So the first thing we said about being children of Abraham is that its
not the same as being a physical descendant. Anyone here can become a
child of Abraham. Now the second thing weve said is that being a child of
Abraham involves doing what he didnot in every particular, of course,
but in the essential thing, namely, believing Gods promises. Abraham be-
lieved God; therefore, those of faith are children of Abraham.
HEIRS OF BLESSING OF ABRAHAM

The third thing to say about sons of Abraham is that they are heirs of the
blessing to Abraham and his descendants. Galatians 3:29 makes this espe-
cially clear:
If you are Christs, then you are Abrahams ospring, heirs

according to the promise.
Remember, this comes right after verse 28 which shows that Paul has in
mind here male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek. The most as-
tonishing thing asserted here is that Greeksuncircumcised Gentiles!are
heirs of the promises made to Abraham. You and I can become beneficiaries
of Gods promises to Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham and belong
to Jesus Christ. (Romans 4:16 and 17 also show that Gentiles are made
heirs of the promise because of faith. See also Galatians 3:14 and 4:30.)
59
Those are the three things I wanted to say about being children of Abra-
ham: 1) It is not the same thing as being JewishGentiles can be included;
2) it means being like Abraham, especially trusting the promises of God like
Abraham did; 3) it means inheriting the blessings promised to Abraham.
So the question that begs to be answered now is: What are those bless-
ings? Is there anything in this inheritance that should interest a 20th century
American businessman, housewife, student, professional, laborer, teenager,
senior citizen? I think there is. Ill mention two of themtwo things that
you inherit if you are a child of Abraham. And each of these is promised
in order to take away a fear that you have (or ought to have): 1) The fear
of meeting an infinitely holy God loaded with all your sin; and, 2) the fear
of death.
THE PROMISE OF JUSTIFICATION

First, if you are a child of Abraham, part of your guaranteed inheritance is
the bequest of justification. And only justification can take away your fear
of meeting God loaded with your sin. Notice Galatians 3:8,
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the

Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abra-
ham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.
This verse teaches that the reason the Scripture promises blessing to the na-
tions through Abraham is that God intended to justify people from every
nation.
Since the Scripture saw God justifying the Gentiles

therefore the Scripture promised blessing to the Gentiles
through Abraham.
So the promised blessing of Abraham must involve justification. And you

recall from the connection between Genesis 12:3 and 17:4 that the rea-
son the nations will be blessed is because Abraham becomes their father.
They become his children. Therefore, justification is part of our inheri-
tance as children of Abraham. If you are his child, then, and only then, you
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A HOLY AMBITION
are justified.
Which means that in spite of all your sins, God reckons you to be
righteous. If you are a child of Abraham, all the things you have done wrong
or ever will do wrong are forgiven because of Christ, and God does not hold
your sins against you. I dont know of any cultural, intellectual, or techno-
logical changes over the past two thousand years that makes this inheritance
any less needed or less desirable today than it was for the Galatians. This and
this alone can take away the fear of meeting an infinitely holy God loaded
with our sin. So the first thing we inherit from God as children of Abraham
is justification, acquittal of all our sin. (And this is the basis for all the other
blessings!)
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT

Second, if you are a child of Abraham, part of your guaranteed inheritance
is the Spirit of God who seals you for eternal life. Only the Spirit can take
away the fear of death and hell and replace it with the hope of eternal life.
Notice two key texts from Galatians which make this plain. Galatians 3:14
says that Christ became a curse for us,
that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come

upon the Gentiles, in order that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith.
This verse teaches that part of Abrahams blessing which we Gentiles can
inherit is the gift of the Spirit. One of the marks of the children of Abraham
is that they are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ (2:20; 4:6, 29).
The connection between this and eternal life is then brought out in
Galatians 6:8,
He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap cor-
ruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit
reap eternal life.
The only ground out of which eternal life can be harvested is the ground of
the Spirit. If you plant your life in the flesh, if you count on what you can
61
achieve and enjoy in this world, then the harvest you will get is corruption,
death, and hell, for that is an immeasurable insult to God who oers him-
self to you in the Spirit. But if you plant your life in the Spirit and count on
what he can do through you and for you, the harvest you will get is eternal
life. So when Galatians 3:14 says that the Spirit is a part of our inheritance
as children of Abraham, it implies that only the children of Abraham will
enjoy eternal life. And that takes away the fear of death and hell, which is
just as real and terrible in the 20th century as it was in the first. (Note: the
Spirit is not explicitly promised to Abraham in Genesis. It is promised to
Gods people in Joel 2 and Ezekiel 36. Pauls assumption is that whatever
goes into making the children of Abraham what they ought to be is a ful-
fillment of Gods intention in the promise to Abraham. See Genesis 17:7.)
In summary, we have seen five things about what it means to be chil-
dren of Abraham. 1) It is not the same as physical descent from Abraham.
Even 20th century Gentiles can be Abrahams sons. 2) It implies being like
Abraham, a chip o the old block, as it were, especially in his life of faith.
3) If you are a child of Abraham, you inherit the blessing of Abraham. You
become the beneficiary of the promises God made to his children. That
means 4) you are justified, acquitted by God of all your sins on the basis of
Christs death in your place. And finally, 5) if you are Abrahams child, you
have the Spirit who will lead you into eternal life.
FAITH AND SONSHIP

Therefore, it is surely no overstatement this morning to say that the most
important concern of your life is to make sure that you are a child of Abra-
ham. So I close with an observation from our text and an illustration. The
text makes plain that the only way to be a child of Abraham is to live by
faith. Literally, Galatians 3:7 says,
Know therefore that those of faith, these are the sons of

Abraham.
The test of whether you are of faith is not whether you once made a decision
somewhere in the past, but whether your life is a life of faith. The child of
Abraham can say without insincerity,
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A HOLY AMBITION
I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but

Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)
I end with an illustration. Picture heaven as Orchestra Hall and the music
of the symphony as the glory of God. Everybody here knows that faith is
the precondition for entering that hall and enjoying that music. But some
of you, I fear, have gotten the notion that trusting in Christ is like buying a
ticket to Orchestra Hall once for all, and that you can put this ticket away in
your pocket as the guarantee of your admission someday, even though the
aections of your life are captured by the music of this world. That is not a
biblical view of saving faith. Its a delusion.
Faith is a precondition for enjoying the symphony of Gods glory not
in the sense of getting a ticket, but in the sense of getting an ear for heavens
music. The real precondition of enjoying the music of heaven throughout
eternity is a new heart which delights in the things of God, not a decision
card which you carry in your pocket to ease your conscience while your
mind is captivated by the delights of this world.
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A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER FIVE
IF YOU ARE CHRISTS, YOU ARE HEIRS OF THE PROMISE
JOHN PIPER
MAY 1, 1983
Galatians 3:2329
Now before faith came, we were confined under the law,

kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that
the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might
be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are
no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are
all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is nei-
ther male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christs, then you are Abrahams ospring,
heirs according to promise.
I see four steps in Pauls thought in Galatians 3:2329. First, before faith
came Israel was confined under the law, which functioned like a custo-
dian (or tutor or governess), which gave restraint and guidance but couldnt
give or ensure the promised inheritance (3:18). Second, Christ came and
with him a great movement of faith. Third, wherever men and women unite
with Christ by faith (symbolized in baptism), they are justified, and become
children of God and heirs of his promise to Abraham. Fourth, therefore, we
who are in Christ are no longer under the law. Lets try to understand each
of these steps in the paragraph.
CONFINED UNDER LAW

The first step is taken in verses 23 and 24,
Now before faith came, we were confined under the law,
65
kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that

the law was our custodian until Christ came.
The word custodian refers to a servant of the family responsible to watch

over the son, from the nursery to his entrance upon manhood. He governs
the childs behavior until the child has the maturity to do what is right
without external constraints. The custodian or tutor or schoolmaster
does not have the power to make the childs heart good, nor can he give the
child his inheritance.
Thats how the law functioned for Israel. It provided direction and re-
straint. It prescribed the way a mature child should behave. But it could not
give Israel a new heart nor could it give the inheritance. And according to
Hebrews 4:2, the reason the law did not benefit Israel was that it did not
meet with faith. Faith is the mark of maturity which the law prescribed, and
so the law kept Israel under restraint until faith came. The law instructed
youthful Israel how to live a life of faith in the merciful promises of God
(cf. Exodus 14:31; Numbers 14:11; 20:12; Deuteronomy 1:32; 8:17; 9:23;
28:52; 32:37); but the response was, by and large, adolescent rebellion.
Israel, for the most part, did not humble themselves, and so the law func-
tioned to expose Israels sin and hold them under restraint until the day
when God began to take away the blindness and give them a heart to trust
him (Jeremiah 24:7).
And the law works that way today, too. If you dont have a heart to
trust God and rely on mercy, the law will feel like a burdensome, oensive,
deadening job description given by a harsh schoolmaster. But if you do
have a heart to trust God and rely on his mercy, then the law will feel like a
much-needed and desired prescription from a wise and beloved Physician.
What the law is for you depends on what you are toward the Law-giver.
First John 5:3 says, This is the love of God, that we keep his command-
ments. And his commandments are not burdensome. But for Israel the law
was by and large a burdensome job description for earning their blessing,
because it did not meet with faith. (There were obvious exceptions, as Psalm
1 and 119 show.)
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A HOLY AMBITION
FAITH HAS COME

The second step in Pauls thought is that faith has now come. Its coming is
simultaneous with the coming of Christ. Verse 25,
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a

custodian.
What does he mean: Faith has come? I dont think he can mean that no
one in Israel had saving faith before Christ came. Abraham did (Gal. 3:6).
And Psalm 32 portrays a man whom the Lord reckons righteous by faith
apart from works (Rom. 4:68). Hebrews 11 gives a believers hall of fame
from the time of the law. So Paul does not mean that no one had faith
before Christ came, or that justification was by works before Christ came.
There were believers who were justified by faith all along; Paul says 7,000 in
the time of Elijah (Rom. 11:4).
I think what Paul means when he says that faith has come, is that by
Gods grace a period in redemptive history has come in which great num-
bers of people, especially Gentiles, are responding to Gods Word in faith.
Faith has come means that a great movement has begun whose members
are marked by this above all elsethey trust like little children in the mercy
of God. When the law was preached, it was met with very little faith. But
when the gospel is preached, many believe and are saved. The movement
has spread around the world. The reason for this is not that the law taught
men to earn salvation while the gospel oers salvation freely to faith. No,
both the law and the gospel oer salvation freely to faith, and both describe
the obedience that shows the genuineness of this faith. The reason why the
law mostly shut people up in sin while the gospel wins faith from large
numbers is that the preaching of the gospel is accompanied by a powerful
work of the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of the listeners (Acts 16:14; 2
Cor. 4:6). Faith has come means that God is fulfilling the promises of
Ezek. 36:26 and 27 to give new hearts (Jer. 24:7; Deut. 30:6).
If God were not causing the gospel of Christ to be accompanied by the
convicting, opening work of the Spirit, the gospel would shut us under sin
just like the law did. But that was not Gods plan. And every one of us here
who lives by faith in the Son of God is living evidence that by the sovereign,
67
eectual grace of the Holy Spirit faith has comeeven to us, and taken
up residence in our hearts, and made us new. If you know the hardness of
your own heart apart from renewing grace, you thank God every day that
you are a believer.
UNITED TO CHRIST
The third step in the text is that faith in Christ so unites us to him that all
the benefits he can give become ours. I took the family to see The Black
Stallion Returns last Thursday. A boy named Alec Ramsey stows away on
a plane and flies to North Africa, trying to get back his horse. Then he
begins to cross the desert, and he is told something about the tribesmen of
the desert that saves his life and his mission. He hears that they have such
a high sense of honor that if you say you want to be their guest, they will
stake their life and possessions on protecting you. So even though Alec was
totally broke and could not purchase protection and help, yet he got their
protection and care twice by simply declaring his need and desire to be their
guest. He appealed to their honor, not his worth. And he was saved.
Thats how it is with Christ. If you entrust yourself to Christ, and say
you want to be his eternal guest, and wear his garments, and accept his
customs, his honor is at stake; he cannot refuse you. You have so honored
his value and trustworthiness, that he would be denying himself to turn you
away. And so all he has is yours. Foremost in verse 24 is justificationthat
is, acquittal of all guilt, forgiveness of all sin. Then, as verse 26 says, son-
ship. To belong to Christ is to be a child of God with all the stupendous
privileges implied in that relationship. Another way to say the same thing
is verse 29:
If you are Christs, then you are Abrahams ospring, heirs

according to the promise.
To be a descendant of Abraham and to be a child of God are virtually the

same in Pauls mind. You become both when you entrust yourself to Christ
and say, I want to be your guest.
And one of the most wonderful things in Christs household where
guests become family members is that our own racial, social, and sexual
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A HOLY AMBITION
status does not make us any more or less than child and heir. Verse 28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor

free, there is neither male nor female.
Woe to the presumptuous guest who thinks that his Jewishness or free sta-
tus or maleness has won his admission to the Lords house, or merits a
greater share of the inheritance. Ephesians 2:19 says that Jews and Gentiles
in Christ are fellow citizensand members of the household of God.
Ephesians 6:9 says that masters and slaves have but one master in heaven,
who shows no partiality. And 1 Peter 3:7 says that husbands and wives are
joint-heirs of the grace of life in Christ. When Christ admits us into his
protection and care by faith alone (May I be your guest?), every possible
ground for boasting is removed, whether racial, social, or sexual. We are all
utterly dependent on the honor of Christ, not our value or our distinctives.
And nothing is more secure than the honor of Christ.
NO MORE CUSTODIAN
Finally, the fourth step is simply this: we are no longer under the custodian,
the law. We will talk more about this next week. But this morning let me
just say this. Being under the custodian or under law means here being
oppressed by Gods demand when you have no power to fulfill it. You either
rebel against it, or you try forever to keep it in your own strength. In either
case the letter kills (2 Cor. 3:6).
But that is no longer our relation to the law. We are not under it any
more, desperately trying to climb it to heaven. For us the ladder of the law
has fallen and become a railroad track of joyful obedience. It is not on us
any more as a deathly burden; we are on it. What has happened? The answer
is given in Galatians 5:18,
If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The Spirit so transforms our life as we trust the promises of God (Gal. 3:5),
that we love what God loves and hate what God hates. And so his law is no
longer a burden but a mountain railroad of joy.
69
My prayer is that many of us would learn how to rest in the Pullman

car of grace and delight ourselves in the Lords itinerary.
70
PART TWO:
THE MANDATE OF WORLD MISSION

A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER SIX:
OTHER SHEEP THAT ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD
DONT WASTE YOUR LIFE COLLEGE EVENT
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA
JOHN PIPER
MARCH 30, 2008
O ne of the most moving books I have read about the history of modern
missions is The St. Andrews Seven by Stuart Piggin and John Rox-
borogh (Banner of Truth, 1985). It tells the story of how the life and teach-
ing of Thomas Chalmers at the University of St. Andrews inspired six of
his best students in the 1820s to radical missionary commitment which
resulted in 141 years of combined service on the mission field.
One of the most brilliant of these young students died while he was still
18. Already his memoirs filled two volumes. He said in one of his addresses
to the mission society at the university:
We know of no oce in the Church of God where the

very highest mental attainments can be more beneficially
employed, than in the oce, all despised as it is, of the
Christian missionary. (p.53)
The reason I mention this book is that it illustrates historically what I am

trying to bear witness to in my life and church, namely, that a vision and
zeal for missions can and should flow down from a vision of the greatness of
God and his grand design for the world.
That group of students was part of the second generation of modern
missions. The same thing is illustrated from the first generation, too. Let
me illustrate this from the life of William Carey, the father of modern mis-
sions who gave 40 years of his life in India and who never went home on
furlough. (Taken from p. 13 of A Vision for Missions by Tom Wells, Banner
of Truth, 1985.)
In 1797, four years after he came to India, Carey tells us of being con-
73
fronted by a Brahman. Carey had preached on Acts 14:16 and 17:30 and
said that God formerly allowed all men everywhere to go their own way, but
now he commands all men everywhere to repent. The Brahman responded,
Indeed I think God ought to repent for not sending the gospel sooner to
us.
Here is a crucial need for deep Biblical doctrine. It is not an easy objec-
tion to answer. Listen to the kind of answer Carey gave and see if you would
have thought of such a thing.
To this I added, suppose a kingdom had been long overrun

by the enemies of its true king, and he though possessed of
sucient power to conquer them, should yet suer them
to prevail, and establish themselves as much as they could
desire, would not the valor and wisdom of that king be far
more conspicuous in exterminating them, than it would
have been if he had opposed them at first, and prevented
their entering the country? Thus by the diusion of gospel
light, the wisdom, power, and grace of God will be more
conspicuous in overcoming such deep-rooted idolatries,
and in destroying all that darkness and vice which have so
universally prevailed in this country, than they would have
been if all had not been suered to walk in their own ways
for so many ages past.
What an answer! The sovereign God rules the nations in such a way that
even the ages of unbelief will redound to his glory in the most pagan of
countries when the gospel victory comes! Carey did not say that God was
unable to get the gospel to India sooner simply because of his stubborn and
disobedient people. He knew that such impotence is simply not worthy of
the name of God.
So the modern missionary movement got its start in an atmosphere of
strong doctrinal commitments. They were the commitments of the great
American pastor and theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards wrote The
Life of David Brainerd, the young New England missionarya biography
that deeply influenced Carey. And on the boat to India, Carey said he com-
74
A HOLY AMBITION
forted his mind by reading sermons of Jonathan Edwards who had died
forty years earlier. For example: June 24, 1793,
Saw a number of flying-fish. Have begun to write Bengali,

and read Edwards sermons and Cowpers poems. Mind
tranquil and serene
The keynote of Edwards and Careys theology was the centrality of God
and the glory of his sovereign grace. The origin of modern missions sprang
up among pastors in England who were decidedly doctrinal in their life and
preaching. Andrew Fuller, Samuel Pearce, John Sutclie and William Carey
were all of this sort. This was the little band of brothers from which such
amazing things sprung in the beginning of the modern missionary move-
ment in the late 1700s.
Their majestic view of God moved them to lay claim to the nations on
behalf of the risen Christ who said, All authority in heaven and on earth
belongs to me. Therefore, go make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18
19). The modern missionary movement was born in this majestic view of
the sovereignty of God and the global authority of Jesus Christ.
Later on such names as David Livingstone, Adoniram Judson, Alexan-
der Du, John Paton, etc., were driven by the same vision. They loved the
historic doctrines of Biblical Christianity.
I love their vision of God because I have found it in Scripture and this
God is magnificent. My aim is to show how in my own experience the
majesty and the glory of God and his absolute authority and power awaken
and sustain a passion for world missionsthe reaching of all the ethno-
linguistic people-groups of the world with the good news that the Son of
God, Jesus Christ, has come and died in our place to remove the guilt and
condemnation of sin and has risen from the dead to destroy death and se-
cure everlasting life and joy for all who will believe on his name.
My text for this message is taken from John 10:16. Jesus says,
I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring
them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be
one flock, one shepherd.
75
This is the great missionary text in the Gospel of John. But in order to
understand this missionary promise of Christ we have to notice at least six
things in the context of John 10.
SIX OBSERVATIONS FROM CHRISTS MISSIONARY PROMISE
1. JESUS CALLS HIMSELF A SHEPHERD.

Verse 11: I am the good shepherd.
Verse 14: I am the good shepherd.
The flock of God is the people of Israel. We know this because later, in verse
16, Jesus refers to other sheep that are not of this fold, namely Gentile con-
verts. This leads to the second observation.
2. SOME SHEEP ARE CHRISTS AND SOME ARE NOT.

Verses 3b-4: He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When
he has brought out all his own, he goes before them.
Verse 14: I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me.
In other words, not all the people in the flock of Israel truly belonged to
Christ. Some were his sheep; some werent.
3. THE REASON SOME SHEEP BELONGED TO JESUS SO THAT HE

COULD CALL THEM HIS OWN IS THAT GOD THE FATHER HAD GIVEN
THEM TO THE SON.
Verse 29: My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all and no
one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand.
This is Jesus way of talking about the doctrine of election. God has chosen
a people for his own. These are his sheep. He then gives them to his Son so
that they can be saved by faith in him. You can see this clearly in John 17:6
where Jesus says to his Father,
I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave

me out of the world; thine they were, and you gave them
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A HOLY AMBITION
to me, and they have kept thy word.
And you can see it in John 6:37,
All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who
comes to me I will not cast out.
So Jesus can speak with confidence about some sheep among the flock of
Israel that are definitely his, because they first belonged to the Father before
they ever came to Jesus or believed on Jesus. The Father had chosen them
for himselfthine they wereand then he had given them to the Son
and thou hast given them to me (see 6:39, 44, 65; 17:9, 24; 18:9).
4. SINCE JESUS KNOWS THOSE WHO ARE HIS, HE CAN CALL THEM
BY NAME AND BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY HIS THEY FOLLOW.
Verses 3b-4: The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own he goes before
them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Verse 27: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Be sure you see the thrust of these verses: being one of Christs sheep enables
you to respond to his call. It is not the other way around in these verses:
responding to his call does not make you one of his sheep. If you hear and
recognize his voice it is because you already are one of his sheep, chosen by
the Father. You come to the Son because the Father is giving you to the Son
(Jn. 6:44, 65).
That is the startling thing about this chapter. And it can be very oen-
sive to a self-sucient, unbelieving heart. It reveals to us the presumption
of ultimate self-determinationof thinking that the final, decisive determi-
nation of our salvation lies in our own power. Listen carefully to verse 26:
You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.
The final boast of unbelief is destroyed by the doctrine of election. Those

whom God chose he also gave to the Son, and those whom he gave to the
77
Son, the Son also called by name, and those whom he called hear his voice
and believe.
5. BUT THAT IS NOT ALL THAT JESUS DOES FOR HIS SHEEP.
Verse 11: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for
the sheep.
Verses 14-15: I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know
me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life
for the sheep.
In other words, to echo the words of Paul again,
those whom the Father has made his own, he also gave to the Son,
and those whom he gave to the Son the Son also called,
and those whom he called he also justified by laying down his life for
the sheep.
6. ON THE BASIS OF THIS SACRIFICE JESUS GIVES ETERNAL LIFE TO

HIS SHEEP AND IT CAN NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY.
Verses 27-30: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one
shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is
greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand.
I and the Father are one.
In other words,
Those whom the Father chose for himself he also gave to the Son,
and those whom he gave to the Son the Son also called by name,
and for those he called, he also laid down his life,
and to those for whom he died he gave eternal life, and it can never be
taken away.
The picture we have in John 10 is of a great shepherd who sovereignly saves

his sheep.
The Father gives them to him.
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A HOLY AMBITION
He dies for them.

He calls them by name.
He gives them eternal life.
And he keeps them safe forever.
What a great salvation we have! What a great Savior!

And now a great danger arises for us. Satan takes every great truth
and throws up a plausible distortion of it. He did that in William Careys
day. Some Christians had taken this pride-shattering doctrine of salvation
through sovereign grace and twisted it into an in-house, elitist doctrine for
the private comfort of the chosen few with no burden to reach the nations
of the world.
But God in his mercy has again and again made clear to his servants
that his salvation is not the prerogative of any one group on earth.
Just when the Jewish disciples begin to feel like they are the real select
heirs of Abraham, Jesus strikes in John 10:16: I have other sheep, that are
not of this foldamong the Gentiles.
Just when the early American Puritans were settling in to their chosen
status as the New Israel in the New England, Jesus said to John Eliot, I
have other sheep that are not of this Puritan foldamong the Algonquin
Indians. And 100 years later to David Brainerd, I have other sheep that
are not of this Congregational fold among the Susquehanna.
Just when the Particular Baptists of England were being frozen in the
unbiblical ice of hyper-Calvinism, Jesus spoke to William Carey: I have
other sheep that are not of this English foldin India.
Just when the mission agencies and churches were growing content
with the coastland successes around the world, Jesus stirred up Hudson
Taylor, I have other sheep that are not of this coastal foldin the middle
of China. And to David Livingstone: In the middle of Africa.
And just when all of western Christendom began to feel content in the
20th century that every country of the world had been penetrated with the
gospel, Jesus came to Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wyclie Bible
Translators, and said, I have other sheep that are not of this visible world-
wide foldamong the hidden tribal peoples, thousands of them with not
even a portion of Scripture in their language.
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John 10:16 is the great missionary text in the Gospel of John: I have
other sheep that are not of this fold! Every time we start to get comfortable
with just us, it is like a thorn in the cushion on the pew. Every time a board
of world missions begins to get comfortable with the ten or eleven fields
where we are planting churches, John 10:16 is like a bugle call: I have other
sheep in thousands of peoples yet unreached by the gospel.
But this verse is far more than a mere goad. It is full of hope and power.
It is a deep and broad foundation for great mission eorts. So I want to
look at four things in John 10:16 that should fill us to overflowing with
confidence in our missions dreaming and planning and labor.
FOUR REASONS WE SHOULD DO MISSIONS CONFIDENTLY
1. CHRIST HAS PEOPLE BESIDES THOSE ALREADY CONVERTED

OTHER PEOPLE BESIDES US.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. In that context he meant the
nations beyond Israel. By implication it means today Christ has a people
beyond the church. They belong to his Father. There will always be people
who argue that the doctrine of election and predestination makes missions
pointless. But they are always wrong. It does not make missions pointless;
it makes missions possible.
I remember John Alexander, a former president of Inter-Varsity, saying
in a Q&A at Urbana 67,
At the beginning of my missionary career I said that if pre-

destination were true I could not be a missionary. Now
after 20 years of struggling with the hardness of the human
heart, I say I could never be a missionary unless I believed
in the doctrine of predestination.
It gives hope that Christ most certainly has a people among the nations. I
have other sheep.
It was precisely this truth that encouraged the apostle Paul when he was
downcast in Corinth.
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A HOLY AMBITION
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be

afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you,
and no man shall attack you to harm you; for I have many
people in this city. (Acts 18:9-10)
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. It is a promise full of hope for
those who dream about new fields of missionary labor.
2. THE VERSE IMPLIES THAT THE OTHER SHEEP THAT CHRIST HAS
ARE SCATTERED OUTSIDE THE PRESENT FOLD.
This is made explicit in John 11:51-52, where John explains a word of
prophecy spoken by Caiaphas, the high priest.
He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest
that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the na-
tion, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the
children of God who are scattered abroad.
World evangelization, for the apostle John, is the ingathering of the chil-
dren of Godthose sheep that God has chosen and intends to give to the
Son. And the point for our encouragement in missionary strategy is that
they are scattered. They are not all pocketed in one or two places. They
are scattered everywhere. The way John put it when he wrote the book of
Revelation was this:
You were slain and by your blood you ransomed men for
God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
(5:9)
This is why all the talk in our day about reaching unreached people groups
seems to me to be totally Biblical. So we may be sure on the authority of
Gods word that among all the peoples of the world we will find those who
belong to the Father. This is a great encouragement to get on with the task
of frontier missions and to reach all the unreached peoples of the world.
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3. THE LORD HAS COMMITTED HIMSELF TO BRING HIS LOST SHEEP

HOME.
He promises to do it. I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must
bring them also. He will bring them.
This does not mean, as some of the hyper-Calvinists thought it did in
Careys day, that Christ will gather in his sheep without sending us to call
them! In John 17:18 Jesus says,
As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.
We continue the mission of Christ. So Jesus prays in John 17:20,
I do not pray for these [his disciples] only but also for those
who believe in me through their word.
In other words, just as Jesus called his sheep with his own lips in Palestine,
so he still calls them today with our lips, and they hear his voice and follow
him (cf. 1 Jn 4:6). He does it. But not without us!
This is the wonder of the gospel. When it is preached truthfully in the
power of the Spirit it is not merely the word of man. It is the word of God!
(1 Thess. 2:13).
In other words, even today it is just as true as it was in Jesus day: My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (Jn 10:27). It
is Christ who calls in the gospel. Christ gathers. I will build my church!
(Matt. 16:18). We are only ambassadors speaking in his stead. That is why
Paul said in Romans 15:18,
I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ

has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gen-
tiles.
So we can take heart: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
the Son of God (Matt. 28:18) and he declares, I must bring in my other
sheep. He will do it.
Which implies the final word of hope from the text.
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A HOLY AMBITION
4. IF HE BRINGS THEM THEY WILL COME!
I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring
them also, and they will heed my voice (John 10:16).
None of Christs sheep finally reject his word. And none believe without it!
What else can keep you going in a hard and unresponsive place of ministry
except the confidence that God reigns and that those whom the Father has
chosen will heed the voice of the Son?
I close with a story about Peter Cameron Scott who was born in 1867
and founded the African Inland Mission. He had tried to serve in Africa
but had to come home because he contracted malaria. The second attempt
was especially joyful because he was joined by his brother John. But the joy
evaporated as John fell victim to the fever. Scott buried his brother all by
himself, and at the grave rededicated himself to preach the gospel. But again
his health broke and he had to return to England utterly discouraged.
But in London something wonderful happened. We read about it in
Ruth Tuckers From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya (Zondervan 1983)a book that
I hope all of you will read.
He needed a fresh source of inspiration and he found it at

a tomb in Westminster Abbey that held the remains of a
man who had inspired so many other in their missionary
service to Africa. The spirit of David Livingstone seemed
to be prodding Scott onward as he knelt reverently and
read the inscription,
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold;

Them also I must bring.
He would return to Africa and lay down his life, if need

be, for the cause for which this great man had lived and
died. (301)
My prayer for you is that God might deepen and broaden the Biblical
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foundation of your vision for the world. May he open our eyes, not only to
the fields that are white to harvest, but also to the majesty and splendor and
glory of his sovereign grace.
And may we be carried over all the obstacles and discouragements by
the great confidence that the Lord himself will gather the ransomed from
every tribe and tongue and people and nation. I have other sheep that are
not of this fold. I must bring them also. They will hear my voice! And
when all have heard and believed the end will come. And the kingdoms
of this earth shall be the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Dont
waste your life. Open your mouth and become the voice of the Sovereign
Shepherd.
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A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE UNFATHOMABLE RICHES OF CHRIST, FOR ALL PEOPLES,
ABOVE ALL POWERS, THROUGH THE CHURCH
JOHN PIPER
OCTOBER 24, 2004
Ephesians 3:113
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on be-

half of you Gentilesassuming that you have heard of the
stewardship of Gods grace that was given to me for you,
how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I
have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive
my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made
known to the sons of men in other generations as it has
now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs,
members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in
Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made
a minister according to the gift of Gods grace, which was
given me by the working of his power. To me, though I
am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to
preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the
mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,
so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in
the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal pur-
pose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence through our
faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am
suering for you, which is your glory.
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THE UNFATHOMABLE RICHES OF CHRIST
F rom the above text we are going to focus on Ephesians 3:8-10. And we
are going to move backward through this text, passing from the widest
view to the most narrow view, or from the biggest picture of things to the
smallest, or from the greatest goal of missions backward through three suc-
cessively smaller means to reach this great goal.
FOUR STEPS
So we will move in four steps: first, from the display of the wisdom of God
to the innumerable angelic armies (v. 10); second, to the means that God
uses to display this wisdom, namely, the church, the gathering of the people
of God from all the nations of the world (v. 10a); third, to the means of this
gathering, namely, the preaching of the of the unsearchable riches of Christ
among all the nations (v. 9); and, finally, to the means of this preaching,
namely, you and me, the least of the saints (v. 8).
So we move from the display of Gods great wisdom to the world of
angels, to the church gathered from all the nations; to the preaching of the
gospel of the riches of Christ to the simple, sinner-saints, who live and min-
ister by grace alonethe missionaries.
I go backward in this order because I want to end with you. God is not
done with the work of missions. He said go make disciples of all nations.
And then he said, I will be with you to the end of the age. The promise is
good till Jesus comes, because the commission is binding till Jesus comes.
Therefore you and I face the question individually what our role is in obey-
ing the great commission to reach all the unreached peoples of the world
with the gospel of the riches of Christ.
That is where I will end this morning, Lord willing. My aim is to awak-
en and confirm and encourage a sense of Gods leading in your life toward
cross-cultural missions. And so at the end of this service I will invite you
to come to the front so that I can pray for you and so that you can receive
a card from the Missions Department here for your support and encour-
agement and guidance. I dont want you to be taken o guard at the end.
I want your decision to come to be prayerful and thoughtful. So lets pray
now that God would be at work to awaken and confirm and encourage your
own sense of his leading in your life.
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A HOLY AMBITION
A PICTURE OF THESE FOUR STEPS

Now I want to create a picture for you of these four steps. Remember we are
going to move backward through the text from the display of Gods mani-
fold wisdom (v. 10b), to the gathering of Gods global church (v. 10a), to
the preaching of Christs unsearchable riches (v. 8b), to the service of Gods
ordinary missionary (v. 8a).
Picture in your mind a great, wise painter, painting on a huge canvas
with many brushes, most of them very ordinary and messy. The painter is
God, so you cant picture him. Hes invisible. But he intends for his painting
to be the visible display of his wisdom. He knows people cant see him, but
he wants his wisdom to be seen and admired. His canvas is huge. Its the
size of the created universe. I know you cant really imagine looking at that
canvas because you are in it. But do your best. And God is painting with
thousands and thousands of colors and shades and texturesa picture as
big as the universe and as old as creation and as lasting as eternitya pic-
ture we call history, with the central drama being the preparation, salvation,
and formation of the church of Jesus Christ. And he is using thousands
of dierent brushes, most of them very ordinary and very small because
every minute detail is crucial in this painting, to display the wisdom of the
Painter. These brushes are Gods missionaries.
Thats the picture. Now theres a reason in the text that I am encourag-
ing to have a picture like this in your mind. Its in the word manifold in
verse 10:

the heavenly places.
This Greek word for manifold occurs in the Bible only here. It is very
unusual. Half of it (poikilos) is used to mean, wrought in various colors,
diversified, intricate, complex, subtle. Its basic idea is of varied in color.
Then Paul puts a prefix on the word that means many (polupoikilos). So
the emphasis is very many colors and variations and intricacies and subtle-
ties. So, since that is in the text, I want you to think of the display of Gods
wisdom as a universe-sized painting with innumerable colors and shadings
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and texture. It is unsearchably intricate.
1. THE DISPLAY OF GODS MANIFOLD WISDOM (V. 10B)

Now lets go to our four steps and start in verse 10 with the greatest goal of
history and missions. so that You can see from the words so that
that Gods purpose and aim for missions and the church are now being ex-
pressed. The riches of Christ are preached to the Gentiles, the nations, and
the church is gathered from all the peoples

So this is Gods goal. He created the world, and he redeemed a people

through the death of his son (see Ephesians 2:12-19), and he sends mis-
sionaries and gathers his church by the preaching of the riches of Christ
so that that through the church the manifold wisdom of

God might now be made known to the rulers and authori-
ties in the heavenly places.
Thats the goal of all of history. That is the goal of missions, the central
drama of history.
This universe is finally about the many-colored wisdom of God. His-
tory exists to display the infinitely varied and complex and intricate wisdom
of God. Missions is the means that God uses to gather the church. And that
gathering from all the nations is the focus of this wisdom-displaying paint-
ing. You see that in the words through the church:

might now be made known.
But stay with the display of Gods wisdom for a moment. The next point
has to do with the church. Look who the audience is in verse 10:
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A HOLY AMBITION

This means that the painting, and the drama of history and redemption that
it portrays, from creation to consummation, is meant to show angelsthe
good ones and the evil onesthe greatness of Gods wisdom.
Missions exists, and the ingathering of Gods elect exists, and the church
exists so that angels would stand in awe of the wisdom of God. God displays
his wisdom in history so that the worship of heaven would be white hot
with admiration and wonder. The good angels never fell into sin, and only
marvel at the wisdom of Gods grace from outside, so to speak. No angel
will ever sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. They are not wretches and have never been lost. This is our song and
our joy, and they can never sing it or know it. But God wanted them to see
it. And so his aim in history is to display the wisdom of his grace in the way
he saves the church by justifying the ungodly from all nations by faith alone
on the basis of Christ alone. And the angels love to stoop down and get as
close as they can to the wonders of redemption and how God prepared and
saved and gathered his church (1 Peter 1:12).
And the demons (Ephesians 6:12)the evil principalities and pow-
ersmust look at this painting and watch the wisdom by which they were
defeated in the very moment they thought they had triumphedin the
death and resurrection of Christ, and in the blood of the martyrs. Just as
Revelation 2:10 says,
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into pris-

on, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have
tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the
crown of life.
Just when God paints a dark color of the death of his witness and the devils
begin to gloat, God picks up another brush and with orange and yellow and
red makes that dark death serve the beauty of his wisdom. And the demons
gnash their teeth.
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The final glory of the painting Missions is that every brush stroke
will add to the infinitely intricate display of Gods wisdom to the armies of
heaven. So lets turn now from the display of Gods manifold wisdom to
2. THE GATHERING OF GODS GLOBAL CHURCH (V. 10A)

We have seen in verse 10 that it is through the church that the great
divine Painter is displaying his manifold wisdom to the armies of heaven
and hell. But now notice that the church is being gathered from all the na-
tions. Verses 89,
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this

grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles [there is the
first pointer, the Gentiles are the non-Jewish nations]
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for
everyone [there it is again: we are to spread the gospel to
everyone] what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages
in God who created all things.
The mystery hidden for ages is exactly this universal scope of the gospel
to include Gentiles and not just Jews in the covenant people of God. Verse
6 makes this crystal clear:
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members

of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ
Jesus through the gospel.
The nations share in the promise made to Abraham. They become part of
the historic people of God. They become true Jews (Romans 2:29).
We have seen all of this in Romans 11. Wild Gentile branches are be-
ing grafted into the tree of promise, and broken-o Jewish branches will be
grafted in when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Its the complex and
strange and intricate way that God is saving his church from all the nations
so that none can boast that brings Paul in Romans 11:33 to the exact place
he comes in Ephesians 3:10, namely to the praise of Gods unsearchable
wisdom:
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A HOLY AMBITION
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge

of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how in-
scrutable his ways!
That is what God aims at in heaven and on earththe praise of his many-
colored wisdom in the way he is saving and gathering his church from all
the peoples of the world. There are twists and turns in history that no one
ever dreamed would bring about what God designed. There are no wasted
strokes on this canvas as God paints his wisdom in the history of missions.
Which leads us now to the means of this gathering. How does mis-
sions advance? How is the church gathered from the nations to the praise of
Gods many-colored wisdom?
3. THE PREACHING OF CHRISTS UNSEARCHABLE RICHES (V. 8B)

In Ephesians 3:89, Paul writes,

grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is
the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who cre-
ated all things.
Missions happens by preaching to the nations the unsearchable riches of

Christ. Missionaries lift up Jesus Christ and all that God is for us in him,
and God gathers his elect from all the peoples of the world.
That term the unsearchable riches of Christ is worth a year of ser-
mons. But I give you one pointer to what it means. In Ephesians 2:12 Paul
tells the Gentilesthe converts from the nations
Remember that you were at that time separated from

Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world.
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In other words, once, all that God had ever promised in the Old Testament
for the glorious future of his people was not theirs. They were excluded from
everything God promised. Now verse 19 is the gospel message based on the
cross of Christ:
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are
fellow citizens with the saints and members of the house-
hold of God.
That is what missionaries preach everywhere they go: youyou Uzbeks,

you Maninka, you Kachin, you Shandai, you Swedes, you Germans, you
Russians, you Britishyou who trust Christ are now part of the covenant
made with Israel. You are fellow citizens. You are members of the household
of God. You will inherit every promise ever made if you believe in Christ.
All of them are yes to you in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). You will inherit the earth.
You are heir of the world. You are children of the maker of the universe in
Jesus Christ. All things are yours. And Jesus Christ is the sum of all those
things, and all things will show you more of him and increase your joy
forever.
Ephesians 2:7 says that it is going to take eternity for God to exhaust
on you the unsearchable riches of his glory in Christ Jesus:
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasur-

able riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus.
It will take ages upon ages upon ages for the riches of Christ to be searched
out.
That is what missionaries say to the nations of the world and show
themthat Christ died and rose again so that people from every nation
might be one in this inheritance.
Which leaves just one final question: Who are the brushes? If God aims
to display his many-colored wisdom with the canvas of world history, and
if the in-gathering church from every people and tribe and nation is the
main drama on this canvas, and if missions is the means of gathering and
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A HOLY AMBITION
establishing that church among all the peoples, who are the brushes God
uses to paint this drama?
4. THE SERVICE OF GODS ORDINARY MISSIONARIES (V. 8A)

The brushes he uses are messy, ordinary people who have seen the unsearch-
able riches of Christ and are willing, and often eager, to take these riches
to the nations. The brushes are broken, sinning, ordinary missionariesof
whom the world is not worthy (Hebrews 11:38).
Verse 8 reads:

grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ.
There are two reasons Paul mentioned that he was the least of all the saints.
One is because he was a hater and persecutor of the church and of Christ.
He never got over that God had chosen him in spite of his horrible past.
The other reason is to remind you today that he can do the same for you.
So here is one of the greatest incentives of all to draw you into missions.
God intends to use ordinary, messy, small paint brushes on the canvass of
the history of missions because every minute stroke of his brush matters.
Every bright stroke of triumph and every dark stroke of suering matters.
He is an infinitely wise painter. He knows what he is doing with your life.
Not one stroke will be wasted. You can trust him with your life. Yield to the
wise hand that would paint with your life.
Oh, what riches we have to give!
So I want to invite you to come. And I want those of you who do
not come to feel good about not coming because of how committed you
arefor nowto sending those who come. This is a partnership. Sitting
is an obedience. And coming is an obedience. If God has been at work
in your life to stir you to look seriously toward cross-cultural missions in
your lifeshort-term, mid-term, or long-termI would like you to come.
I would like to pray for you and give you a card for your encouragement
and support. Why dont you who are already missionaries and already com-
mitted to going join the rest.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
THE AROMA OF CHRIST AMONG THE NATIONS

JOHN PIPER
OCTOBER 29, 2006
2 Corinthians 2:1217
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even

though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit
was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus
there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in tri-
umphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance
of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma
of Christ to God among those who are being saved and
among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from
death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
Who is sucient for these things? For we are not, like so
many, peddlers of Gods word, but as men of sincerity, as
commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in
Christ.
T oday is the second Sunday of our Fall Missions Focus. It has been our
pattern for many years to close this service with a call to come to the
front of the sanctuary for everyone who believes God is stirring in your life
to move you sooner or later toward cross-cultural missions longer-term. So
please pray with me that God would confirm in this service what he has
been doing in your life, or may begin to do today.
THE APOSTLE PAUL: FRONTIER MISSIONARY

Before we turn to the text from 2 Corinthians let me put it in a mission-
ary context. The apostle Paul was a missionary. We have seen that with
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crystal clarity in Romans 15:20 where he said that his ambitionhis holy
ambitionwas:
to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been

named, lest I build on someone elses foundation.
He was called to the frontiers, where the church was not yet established. We
call this frontier missions, or pioneer missions, or missions to unreached
people groups. Paul was the first and probably the greatest. But Oh what
a lineage of lovers followed in his train! Right down to this day and this
church and this service.
You can state the reason for this two-thousand-year lineage of mission-
aries in lots of dierent ways.
The last thing Jesus said to us in Matthew 28:1820 before he went
back to heaven was:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to

me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nationsAnd
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
He has all authority over the souls of all people and nations, he promises
to be with us to help us, and he commands us to go. That is valid today
because the end of the age has not come.
Or you can give the reason for missions like this:
Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from
day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his mar-
velous works among all the peoples! (Psalm 96:2-3)
God created the world to display and magnify his glory. People who dont
believe dont magnify the glory of his grace. We want them to. We want the
earth to be filled with the (acknowledged!) glory of the Lord like the waters
cover the sea.
Or you can give the reason for missions like this:
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A HOLY AMBITION
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life (John 3:16).
The love of God extends salvation to all. Everyone who believes on Jesus has
eternal life with Jesus, and everyone who doesnt perishes. Missions is the
answer of our heart to that love.
Or you can give the reason for missions like this: According to the
rigorous statistical eorts of the Joshua Project, there are 15,988 distinct
ethno-linguistic peoples in the world. Of these, they count 6,572 as un-
reached, that is, fewer than two percent of them are Christians. Two point
six billion people live in those unreached people groups. Just to give you a
flavor: Of the 100 largest unreached people groups, 44 are in India, 8 are in
China, and 7 are in Indonesia and Pakistan. The three largest are the Japa-
nese in Japan, the Bengali in Bangladesh, and the Shaikh in India. Of these
100 largest unreached peoples, 43 are Muslim, 36 are Hindu, and 9 are
Buddhist. Twenty-two of them have populations over 20 million. In other
words, there is a great work to be done in obedience to Jesus. And Jesus has
all authority to get it done.
One of the great longings of my life is that we at Bethlehem would
be the sending base of ever-increasing numbers of missionaries to the un-
reached peoples and that we would send them with ever-increasing eec-
tiveness and ever-increasing biblical-faithfulness and ever-increasing care
for them and their families. When I think about not wasting my life, this is
what I think about as often as anything: study and pray and write and speak
and lead in a way that results in more and more visionary young people
and restless mid-career people and wise, mature retired people who pull up
their stakes, pack their tents and go with Jesus and the gospel to unreached
peoples of the world, no matter where they arefar or near.
GOD USES HIS WORD IN THE MISSIONARY CALL

So with passion in mind, and praying as we go, lets look at one mission-
arys testimony about what it means. Keep in mind that God oftenvery
oftenuses his word to awaken and confirm his calling to the work of
missions. May that happen now, as I simply unfold 2 Corinthians 2:12-17.
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The situation behind this text is that Paul wrote a painful letter to
Corinth and is anxious about whether had alienated them or healed them.
So he sent Titus to Corinth to find out how they were doing. It may help
to have the geography clear: Corinth is in the southern tip of Greece. If you
go up the east coast, you come to the northern part of the peninsula called
Macedonia where Thessalonica and Philippi are. Just to the east across the
Aegean sea that separates Greece and Turkey today was Troas.
LEAVING AN OPEN DOOR TO FOLLOW A RESTLESS SPIRIT

This is where we pick up the story in verses 12-13:
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even

though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit
was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus
there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
So, even though there was an open door for the gospel in Troas his heart was
so troubled by the situation in Corinth that he decided not to stay but to
keep moving to where he might meet Titus on the way back from Corinth.
Im not going to linger here, but this is very striking and may relate to
where you are in your life. A door is wide open where you are. Much needs
to be doneright where you are. But your spirit cannot rest. So it was with
Paul. And amazingly he left the open door of Troas behind and followed his
restless spirit. Should he have left Troas? Should you? He did. And because
he did, we have this amazing portion of scripture.
PAUL WAS CONQUERED IN CHRIST

So now Paul is in Macedonia and at last Titus comes. He doesnt say that
here. But he does in chapter 7 (vv. 5-7):
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had

no rest, but we were aicted at every turnfighting with-
out and fear within. But God, who comforts the down-
cast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only
by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was
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A HOLY AMBITION
comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your

mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
That is whats behind chapter 2. But here in chapter 2, Paul exults in a very
dierent way over this news. He chooses two metaphors or word pictures
that are shocking. First, he says in verse 14,
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in

triumphal procession.
This doesnt mean what you probably think it means. The word translated
lead in triumphal procession (thriambeuonti) refers to what a great Roman
general does when he leads in captivity those enemies he has conquered and
takes them to their death or to slavery.
The word is used one other place in the New Testament. You can see
this meaning in Colossians 2:15:
[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them

to open shame, by triumphing over (thriambeusas) them
in him.
So in Colossians, Paul says God leads the devil in triumph, and in 2 Corin-
thians, he says that God leads Paul in triumph. Both have been defeated in
their rebellion against God. Both are being led in triumphal procession and
shamed for their rebellion. But the great dierence is that Paul is in Christ
and Satan is not. Verse 14 again:
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in

triumphal procession.
In other words, Paul was defeated and taken captive; but he was brought to
faith and forgiven and justified and made a glad and willing servant of the
greatest General who ever was. Paul was in Christ and that makes all the
dierence.
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A PICTURE ACCOMPLISHING TWO PURPOSES

So why does he use this word picture? Because he wants to accomplish two
almost opposite things at the same time. One the one hand, God is trium-
phant and Paul is in his service. But on the other hand, God is like a great
general and Paul is conquered and called to suer in his serviceeven die.
Thats what this word picture accomplishes.
One the one hand, Paul wants to rejoice and thank God that the Cor-
inthians have repented and that his painful letter did not alienate them
but blessed them. Thats a triumph worth exulting over with a triumphal
procession.
But on the other hand, he knows that there are many adversaries
in Corinth who do not accept his authority as an apostle and who have
preached a dierent gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). He calls them super-
apostles in 11:5 and 12:11. They dont recognize Pauls authority, and they
dont see Christ in his ministry. In other words, Paul knows that he is not
triumphant as a missionary the way some think he should be. Some people
are converted. And some are not. Some see Christ in him and some dont.
They only see weakness. He has some success and some failure. So he choos-
es a word picture that describes him both as belonging to a great victor, and
as a conquered enemy whose service of the king is to suer and look weak
and even die for himled in triumphal procession as a defeated foe in the
service of the king.
A SECOND PICTURE
Thats the first picture. The second picture is of his life as a sacrificial oer-
ing that has a sweet fragrance before God. This picture starts in the middle
of verse 14:
and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge

of him everywhere.
So Paul pictures his missionary life and ministry as spreading a fragrance of

the knowledge of Christ. And the reason I say it is a picture of a sacrifice be-
ing oered to God is that in verse 15 he says that the aroma is first to God.
It is like incense being oered to God: For we are the aroma of Christ to
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God (v. 15a). Not first to the world, but to God.

Ephesians 5:2 gives the best explanation of this picture:
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant oer-

ing and sacrifice to God.
So when Christ died for sinners, it was like a fragrant oering that was
very pleasing to God. Now here is Paul standing in the place of Christ as a
missionary and suering like Christ in the service of his conquering Lord,
and he says, We are the aroma of Christ to God. In other words, when
we suer as missionaries in the service of Christ, its like Christ suering
for the lost, and God smells this fragrance of sacrificial love and it pleases
him. Thats the picture so far. But then comes the heart-rejoicing and heart-
breaking parts of missionary service. This aroma of the love of Christ in the
sacrificial service of the missionary may please God, but it does not please
everybody. This aroma divides the world. Look at this division in verses
15-16,
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who

are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one
a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance
from life to life.
THE HEART-BREAKING SIDE OF MISSIONS

In other words, some people smell the sacrificial love of Christ in the life of
a missionary and it only smells like death. They hear the gospel and all they
hear is death. They look at the cross and all they see is death. They see no
life. No hope. No future. No joy. And so they turn away. And if they turn
away forever, they die. They are the perishing. The smell of death leads to
death. Thats the heart-breaking side of missions. They are people who dont
believe. They dont see Christ as precious. They dont see his suering as a
treasure. They dont smell his death for sinners as the sweetest fragrance in
the universe. Its not a satisfying fragrance. Its simply the smell of death.
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THE HEART-REJOICING SIDE OF MISSIONS

But there is the heart-rejoicing side of missions. Verse 16:
to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a

fragrance from life to life.
Those who are being saved smell the death of Christ as the aroma of life.
They see in his death the substitute that they so desperately need before
God. The Son of God dying in their place is the fragrance of life. So they
dont turn away. They believe him and receive him and embrace him and
treasure him and they liveforever. Smelling Christ as the aroma of life
gives life.
Those are Pauls two pictures of his life as a missionary. First, God con-
quered him when he was his enemy. He is now leading Paul both in tri-
umph and in suering. There is reason to exult in this procession. And there
is reason to groan in this procession. Pauls calling is to show the suerings
of Christ to the world in his own suering. Second, the other picture is of
Christ as a sweet-smelling sacrifice or incense to God, and Paul sharing in
Christs mission and suerings so that he becomes this very fragrance in the
worldwhich some smell as life and live, but others smell as death and die.
WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS?

Now Paul asks at the end of verse 16and I make it our closing question
Who is sucient for these things? Who can bear the weight of knowing
that the aroma of your Christ-exalting life will lead some to eternal life and
others to eternal death? Its as serious as if you walked down a busy city
street at lunch hour and some would smile and come in behind you and be
saved, and everyone else would drop dead. Who could bear it? Thats what
Paul asks.
In one sense, the answer is no one. But thats not Pauls main point.
He said in 2 Corinthians 1:12 and Romans 1:5 that he carries out this very
ministry by the grace of God. He is not sucientyou and I are not suf-
ficientin ourselves. No missionary feels sucient. But 2 Corinthians 3:5
says, Our suciency is from God.
So the utterly crucial question for many of you, as you have prayed and
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A HOLY AMBITION
thought about giving your life, or a substantial part of it, to missions, is:
Can I do this? Can I bear this weight of being the aroma of Christ in some
new place? By Gods grace, you can.
FIVE TESTS
Paul gives us five tests in verse 17 to help us know the answer to these ques-
tions. I will turn them into questions for you to answer:
First, do you treasure Christ enough so that you do not peddle his word?
Paul says, For we are not, like so many, peddlers of Gods word. That is,
these peddlers dont love Christ. They love money and use Christ. So the
first test is: Do you love Christ more than money?
Strictly, the next four phrases in verse 17 all modify the word speak. Liter-
ally: we speak from sincerity, from God, before God, and in Christ. So I
ask you:
Second, will you speak from sincerity? Will you be real? Will you mean
what you say? Will you renounce all pretense and hypocrisy?
Third, will you speak as from God? That is, will you take not only your
commission from God, but your words and your authority from God? Will
you speak his words and not your own? Will you speak in his authority and
not your own? Will you draw your strength and guidance from his power
and wisdom, not your own?
Fourth, will you speak as before God? That is, will you reckon him to be
your judge and no man? Will you care more about his assessment of your
words and not be deterred by human criticism?
And, fifth, will you speak as in Christ? That is, will you get your identity and
your assurance and your confidence and your hope and your courage from
your union with Christ?
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NO PERFECT MISSIONARIES
There are no perfect missionaries. The answer to these questions should be:
Oh yes, Lord, as much as I know my heart, that is what I intend to be. Help
me. To love you more than money. To be real and sincere. To speak your
word. To fear no man. To get all I need from Christ.
In a moment, I would like to invite all of you who believe that God is
moving you toward cross-cultural missionary work sooner or later longer-
term (not just a few weeks but for some years), to come to the front and let
us pray for you. And if you want to move forward with the Nurture Pro-
gram for missionary training, we will give you a card to fill out so that our
mission leaders can be in touch with you and serve you in whatever way will
help you. I am thinking of children who are old enough to have thought
this through and young people and young adults, men and women, married
or single, mid-lifers and retirees. God has his ways to loosen your roots. If
you can discern what he is doing, I hope you will come.
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A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER NINE
GOSPEL TO THE NATIONS, GENEROSITY TO THE POOR
OCTOBER 23, 2005
Galatians 2:110
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with

Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of
a revelation and set before them (though privately before
those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim
among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not run-
ning or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with
me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a
Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in
who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in
Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slaveryto
them we did not yield in submission even for a moment,
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they
were makes no dierence to me; God shows no partiality)
those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to
me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been en-
trusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter
had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for
he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry
to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to
the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who
seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to
me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and
me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the cir-
cumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the
very thing I was eager to do.
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T oday is the second Sunday of our Fall Missions Focus. It has been our
pattern for many years to close this service with a call for everyone to
come to the front of the sanctuary who believes God is stirring in your life
to move you sooner or later toward cross-cultural missions longer-term. So
please pray with me that God would confirm in this service what he has
been doing in your life, or may begin to do today.
The first thing I want to do is walk you from Galatians 1:6 to 2:10
so that you can see the flow of Pauls thought. Then we will work our way
backwards and focus on three things: the poor, the gospel, and the call
finally, your call. Seek to hear it as I preach.
PAULS GOSPEL IS FROM CHRIST, NOT MAN

Paul is astonished. The Galatians are about to abandon the gospel because
some professing Christians had come among them preaching the necessity
of circumcision for salvation. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone
on the basis of Christ alone was at stake, and Paul can hardly believe what
he is hearing. Verse 6:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who

called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a dif-
ferent gospel.
Then he tells them there is no other gospel that can save anyone from sin
and hell, and if anyone tells you there iswell, listen to his words in verse 9:
As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is

preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received,
let him be accursed.
In street language, but very literally: To hell with him.

Then he argues that his gospel is truly from Jesus Christ, not from any
man or from his own head. Verses 1112,
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that
was preached by me is not mans gospel. For I did not
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A HOLY AMBITION
receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received
it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Then he defends this amazing claim by reminding them how incredibly his
life had changed. In verses 13-14 he reminds them what a zealous persecu-
tor of the church he was. Then in verses 15-17 he describes the change in
his life and that it came without going to Jerusalem:
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and
who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to
me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,
I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go
up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but
I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Then (verse 18) after three years he made a 15-day trip to Jerusalem and
met Peter and James the Lords brother; then he disappears for 14 years into
Syria and Cilicia.
The point of all that was to say: My gospel is from Christ and not from
man. I am not a secondhand apostle. My authority and my message are not
derivative. They come from the risen Christ, not Peter and James.
But now in chapter two he continues this emphasis but adds an empha-
sis on unity with the original twelve apostles. Paul knows that if his gospel
and his apostleship are rejected by the original twelve apostles, there would
be an intolerable split in the foundation of Christs church and he would be
running in vain. So he must establish his independence and his unity with
the original apostles. That is the point of 2:1-10.
VERSES 1-2
Then after fourteen years [a long time to establish his in-

dependence] I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
taking Titus along with me [taking Titus, an uncircum-
cised Gentile convert right into the hotbed of Jewish legal
conservatism as a test case of his gospel of freedom]. I went
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up because of a revelation [Christ told him to go, this is

not a human strategy] and set before them (though pri-
vately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that
I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was
not running or had not run in vain.
VERSES 3-5
Things got very tense for a while as the circumcision partyhe calls them
false brothers!tries to force the issue of the necessity of circumcision. But
Paul does not budge because the gospel was at stake. This is the other gos-
pel that he called damnable in chapter 1 verse 8.
But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be
circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false
brothers secretly brought inwho slipped in to spy out
our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they
might bring us into slaveryto them we did not yield in
submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the
gospel might be preserved for you.
VERSES 6-9
These four verses represent one of the most important moments in his-
toryall of history! Unity is reached among the founding apostles of the
Christian Church, and the gospel is safeguarded from one of its earliest
threats. I think it would be fair to say that for the first and greatest mission-
ary to the Gentiles the most essential thing in missions was to get the gospel
rightexactly right. Otherwise he would be running in vain.
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they

were makes no dierence to me; God shows no partial-
ity)those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing
to me [He continues to stress his independence. His gospel
is from Christ, not man]. On the contrary, when they saw
that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircum-
cised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to
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A HOLY AMBITION
the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his

apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through
me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas
and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace
that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellow-
ship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles
and they to the circumcised.
VERSE 10
Then, finally, Paul adds verse 10. There is one other thing we agreed on:
Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing

I was eager to do.
Paul agreed with the apostles that concrete financial compassion for the
poor was a crucial part of apostolic ministry.
Now lets turn around and go backward through this text and this time
only focus on three things: the poor, the gospel and the call, and end with
your call. Pray that God would make it plain as I preach.
POOR
First, the poor. What I want us to see is four things: That the apostles were
of one mind about this, that it was important enough to mention alongside
the purity of the gospel, that Paul was not just willing to do it but eager to
do it, and finally, that the passion and this priority for the poor came from
Christ himself. The first three are crystal clear from verse 10:
Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing

I was eager to do.
They are agreed. They mention it explicitly along with the gospel they share.
And the eagerness of Paul is made clear. The very thing I was eager to do.
Not a burden but a blessing. I love to bless the poor.
But where did this passion and this priority come from? For Paul
I think we should say it flowed out of the heart that the gospel created
109
(2 Cor. 8:9). A forgiven heart is a compassionate heart. But for the original
twelve apostles, they have not only the new heart of compassion, but also
memories of the way Jesus himself lived.
The vision of the judgment in Matthew 25:3536 where Jesus says,
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I
was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited
me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Zachaeus gives half of his possessions to the poor, and Jesus says,
Today salvation has come to this house (Luke 19:9).
The evidence of salvation is practical, financial compassion for the poor.
Jesus words to the man who invited him to a feast,
When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the
lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they can-
not repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the
just (Luke 14:13-14).
And inauguration of Jesus ministry in Luke 4:18,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed

me to proclaim good news to the poor.
And so many more places could be cited. The point is: the apostles were
agreed on the importance of ministry to the poor because it flows from the
center of the gospelthe crossand because Jesus lived it out. The apostles
were eager to bless the poor. It was part of their foundational ministry. I as-
sume therefore it should be a crucial commitment in the church todayin
missions and in the ongoing ministry of the church.
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A HOLY AMBITION
And it isnt just the Christian poor. Galatians 6:10 says,
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to every-

one, and especially to those who are of the household of
faith.
Yes, take care of your own. But the heart of Christ does not neglect unbe-
lievers. Paul said in Romans 12:20,
If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him

something to drink.
Christians who have the heart of Christ and who follow in the paths of the
apostles remember the poor, to do as much good for them as we can.
GOSPEL
Then we take our second step backward through the text to the centrality
and purity of the gospel in verse 5:
To them [those who were insisting on circumcision for sal-

vation] we did not yield in submission even for a moment,
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
How attractive it may seem at timesespecially in missionsto alter the

gospel and make it fit the situation so as not to oend anyone. But Paul
doesnt do that. The Jewish Christian cultural and religious expectation of
many was that circumcision was necessary. Cant Paul concede that for the
sake of peace? And not only did Paul refuse to submit even for a moment,
he says, but he even called them false brothers (in verse 4). This is really
strong. One slight adjustment to justification by faith alone, and Paul calls
the change damnable in Galatians 1:8 and calls the people false brothers.
So the point is: What gospel our missionaries take to the nations is re-
ally important. Let our missionaries be utterly clear about what the gospel
is! Let none of them say that doctrine doesnt matter. Let none say that small
changes to the gospel cant hurt anybody. May every missionary under pres-
111
sure to compromise the gospel say with the apostle Paul, We did not yield
in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be
preserved for you. This is tough love at home for the sake of the nations.
And that includes the poor. May every missionary to the poor say with
Jesus and the apostle Paul, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor (Luke 4:18)the real
good news of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis
of Christs blood and righteousness alone, to the glory of God alonethe
good news worth dying for.
CALL
Finally, take a third step backward in the text to look at Pauls calland
ponder your own. The great gospel promise and hope is Romans 10:13,
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
That is true in a jail at midnight in Philippi where a Gentile jailer listens to

two Jews singing in their chains. Its true in the inner city projects of Bang-
kok. Its true in the rubble of Pakistani mountains and Guatemalan villages.
Its true among Somali refugees in Minneapolis. Its true in Mexico and
Kazakhstan and Kenya and Cameroon and Russia and Papua New Guinea
and the Philippines and Senegal and Japan and Bosnia and Germany and
Ethiopia and Peru and Bolivia and Ecuador and Brazil and the Czech Re-
public and Austria and Syria and the Ivory Coast and Turkey and China
and Oman and the United Arab Emirates and England and Uzbekistan and
Indonesia and India and Zambia. The gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God
saves all who call upon him in truth.
But, Paul asks in Romans 10:14f,
how are they to call on him in whom they have not be-
lieved? And how are they to believe in him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without some-
one preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are
sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those
who preach the good news!
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A HOLY AMBITION
This is what God did for Paul. He called him and sent him. And this is
what God does today. God sends people. He does it in a thousand ways. It
is amazing how he does it. He is doing it now, I believe, in this room. Just
awakening it for some. Bringing others to deep conviction.
Look at what happened to Paul in Galatians 1:15-16:
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and
who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son
to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gen-
tiles
Notice how Paul says it: God revealed his Son to me, in order that I might
preach him. The way Paul met Jesus and knew Jesus became his call to be
a missionary. God revealed his Son to me and the eect was: I became a
missionary. I crossed the cultures from Pharisaic Judaism to all the forms of
Gentile unclearness in the Roman world.
I dont know how God is doing it with you. He has his ways of stirring
us to the point where we know we must move. We must venture. We must
go toward the unreached and toward the poor. And you know that these
are almost the same now. Eighty-five percent of the poorest of the poor
live in the 10/40 Window (from West Africa to the Pacific Rim 10 degrees
North to 40 degrees North). And 95% of the least reached peoples live in
the 10/40 Window. In other words, globally speaking, the most unreached
peoples and the poorest peoples are almost the same.
A call to the unreached peoples is almost the same as a call to the poor-
est of the poor. Oh, that God might raise up more and more from among
us to go!
In a moment I would like to invite all of you who believe that God is
moving you toward cross-cultural missionary work sooner or later longer-
term (not just a few weeks but for some years), to come to the front and let
me pray for you and give you a card to fill out so that our mission leaders
can be in touch with you and serve you in whatever way will help you. I am
thinking of children who are old enough to have thought this through and
young people and young adults married or single, mid-lifers and retirees.
God has his ways to loosen your roots. If you can discern what he is doing,
113
I hope you will come.

It will mean a love for the poor and trust in the gospel and a sense of
God leading and Gods provision. To stay in your seat I hope means: I re-
dedicate myself to be a good sender, a good rope holder. Lets pray.
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PART THREE:
THE COSTS AND BLESSINGS OF MISSION

A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER TEN
DOING MISSIONS WHEN DYING IS GAIN
WHEATON COLLEGE
JOHN PIPER
OCTOBER 27, 1996
M y mission statement in life and my churchs mission statement is,
We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in

all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
I love that mission statement for a lot of reasons. One is because I know
it cannot fail. I know it cannot fail because its a promise. Matthew 24:14,
This gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world

as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will
come.
(And I hope that you know that nations doesnt mean political states.
It means something like people groups, ethnic-linguistic groupings.) We
may be absolutely certain that every one of them will be penetrated by the
gospel to the degree that you can say that a witness, an understandable self-
propagating witness, is there.
Now let me give you some reasons why we can bank on that.
THE PROMISE IS SURE

The promise is sure for several reasons.
1. Jesus never lies. It was Jesus who said Matthew 24:14, not me.
Heaven and earth may pass away, but my word will never
pass away.
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So this mission that were on together is going to finish. Its going to be

done, and you can either get on board and enjoy the triumph or you can
cop-out and waste your life. You have only those two choices, because there
is no middle option like, Maybe it wont happen, and I can be on the best
side by not jumping on board. That wont happen.
2. The ransom has already been paid for those people among all the nations.
According to Revelation 5:9-10,
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for
you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people
for God from every tribe and language and people and na-
tion, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to
our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Theyre paid for, and God will not go back on his Sons payment.
I love the story of the Moravians. In northern Germany two of them
were getting on a boat, ready to sell themselves into slavery in the West
Indies, never to come back again. And as the boat drifts out into the harbor
they lift their hands and say, May the Lamb receive the reward of his suf-
fering. What they meant was that Christ had already bought those people.
And they were going to find them by indiscriminately preaching the gospel,
through which the Holy Spirit would call them to himself.
So I know this cant abort, because the debt has been paid for each
of Gods people everywhere in the world. Those lost sheep, as Jesus called
them, that are scattered throughout the world will come in as the Father
calls them through the preaching of the gospel.
3. The glory of God is at stake.
Christ became a servant to the circumcised in order to con-

firm the truthfulness of God, so that he might make strong
[or sure or reliable] the promises made to the patriarchs,
and in order that the nations might glorify God for his
mercy. (Rom. 15:8-9)
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A HOLY AMBITION
The whole purpose of the Incarnation was to bring glory to the Father
through the manifestation of his mercy to the nations.
The glory of God is at stake in the Great Commission. Back in 1983 at
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Tom Stellermy sidekick now of 17 years
and I were both met by God in amazing ways. Tom, in the middle of the
night, couldnt sleep, so he got up, put on a John Michael Talbot song, laid
down on the couch, and he heard our theology translated into missions.
(We are a God-glory oriented people, but we had not yet made sense of
missions like we ought.) John Michael Talbot was singing about the glory of
God filling the earth the way the waters cover the sea, and Tom wept for an
hour. At the same time God was moving in on me and Nol to ask, What
can we do to make this place a launching pad for missions? And everything
came together to make an electric moment in the life of our church, and it
all flowed from a passion for the glory of God.
4. God is sovereign. God is sovereign! A few weeks ago, as Im preaching

through Hebrews, we arrived at Hebrews 6. As you know, this is a very dif-
ficult text about whether these people are Christians or not when they fall
away. And in verses 1-3 there is this amazing statement (which is just a tiny
piece of the massive biblical evidence for why Im a Calvinist!) that says,
Let us press on to maturity, leaving behind the former

thingsand this we will do if God permits.
When we looked at this, there fell across my congregation the most unbe-
lievable silence, because we heard the implications. You mean God might
not permit a body of believers to press on to maturity?
God is sovereign! He is sovereign in the church, and he is sovereign
among the nations! One testimony to this is in the article in Christianity
Today that came out a few weeks ago retelling of the story of Jim Elliot, Nate
Saint, Pete Flemming, Roger Youderian, and Ed McCully. Steve Saint tells
the story of his dad getting speared by Auca Indians in Ecuador. He tells
it after having learned new details of intrigue in the Auca tribe that were
responsible for this killing when it shouldnt have happened, and seemingly
wouldnt have and couldnt have. Yet it did happen. And having discovered
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the intrigue he wrote this article.

I want to read one sentence that absolutely blew me out of my living
room chair. He said,
As [the natives] described their recollections, it occurred to

me how incredibly unlikely it was that the palm beach kill-
ing took place at all. It is an anomaly that I cannot explain
outside of divine intervention.
I can only explain the spearing of my dad by virtue of divine intervention.

Do you hear what this son is saying? God killed my dad. He believes that,
and I believe that.
According to Revelation 6:11, when you have a glimpse of the throne
room and the martyrs who shed their blood for the gospel saying,
How long O Lord? How long till you vindicate our blood?
the answer comes back,
Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a
little longer until the number of their fellow servants and
their brethren should be complete who were to be killed as
they themselves had been.
God says, Rest until the number that I have appointed is complete. Hes
got a number of martyrs. When it is complete then the end will come.
THE PRICE IS SUFFERING

The price is suering, and the volatility in the world today against the
church is not decreasing. It is increasing, especially among the groups that
need the gospel. There is no such thing as a closed country. Its a foreign
notion. It has no root or warrant in the Bible, and it would have been unin-
telligible to the apostle Paul who laid down his life in every city he went to.
Therefore, there are martyrs in this room.
Statistically its easy to predict. One Sunday recently there was a focus
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on the suering church, and many of you were involved in it. World Mis-
sions Fellowship was involved in it, and you all saw videos or heard stories
about places like Sudan where the Muslim regime is systematically ostraciz-
ing, positioning, and starving Christians so that there are about 500 martyrs
a day there.
I get very tired of people coming to look at sta positions in my church,
which is in downtown Minneapolis. We all live in the inner city, and one of
the first questions they ask is, Will my children be safe? And I want to say,
Would you ask that question tenth and not first? Im just tired of hearing
that. Im tired of American priorities. Whoever said that your children will
be safe in the call of God?
YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is a wild-eyed radical group that I
love. I got an email on September 1st,
One hundred and fifty men armed with machetes sur-

rounded the premises occupied by the YWAM team in In-
dia. The mob had been incited by other religious groups in
an eort to chase them o. As the mob pressed in someone
in a key moment spoke up on the teams behalf and they
decided to give them 30 days to leave. The team feels they
should not leave and that their ministry work in the city
is at stake. Much fruit has been seen in a previously un-
reached region and there is great potential for more. In the
past when violence has broken out between rival religious
groups people have lost their lives. Please pray for them to
have wisdom.
Now this is exactly the opposite of what I hear mainly in America as people
decide where to live, for example. I dont hear people saying, I dont want
to leave, because this is where Im called to and this is where theres need.
Would you please join me in reversing our self-centered priorities? It seems
to be woven into the very fabric of our consumer culture that we move to-
ward comfort, toward security, toward ease, toward safety, away from stress,
away from trouble, and away from danger. It ought to be exactly the op-
posite! It was Jesus himself who said,
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He who would come after me let him take up his cross and
die! (Matt 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23)
So I just dont get it! Its the absorption of a consumer, comfort, ease culture
that is permeating the church. And it creates little ministries and churches
in which safe, secure, nice things are done for each other. And little safe
excursions are made to help save some others. But, Oh we wont live there,
and Oh we wont stay there, not even in America, not to mention Saudi
Arabia!
I was in Amsterdam a couple weeks ago talking to another wild-eyed
wonderful missions group, Frontiers, led by Greg Livingstone. What a great
group. Five hundred people sitting in front of me who risk their lives every
day among Muslim peoples. And to listen to them! During the conference
they were getting emails, which they would stand up and read, saying,
Please pray for X. He was stabbed in the chest three times

yesterday, and the worst thing is his children were watch-
ing him. Hes in the hospital in critical condition.
Then they say, This is a missionary in the Muslim world, lets pray for him,
and we would go to prayer. Next day another email comes, and this time six
Christian brothers in Morocco have been arrested. Lets pray for them, so
we did. And so it was throughout the conference. And at the end of it the
missionaries were ready to go back.
Do you think Im going to come back to America and be the same?
Do you think Im going to stand up in front of my church and say, Lets
have nice, comfortable, easy services. Lets just be comfortable and secure.?
Golgotha is not a suburb of Jerusalem.
Let us go with him outside the gate and suer with him
and bear reproach (Hebrews 13:13).
SUFFERING IS ALSO THE MEANS

But in saying that there will be martyrs and there must be suering I havent
yet said the main thing about the price of getting the job done. Thats
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because suering is the means and not just the price. Its the means.
Now heres what I have in my mind: Im going to read a verse for you
thats very important, that is, Colossians 1:24. A few years ago its meaning
just came crashing in on me. Ill show you how I got it.
Now I rejoice, Paul says, in my suerings. He was a very strange
person. I rejoice in my suerings is very counter-cultural, very un-Amer-
ican, very counter-human. I rejoice in my suerings for your sake, and in
my flesh I do my share on behalf of his Body [that is, the ingathering of
Gods elect] in filling up what is lacking in the aictions of Christ. Now
thats on the brink of blasphemy. What does he mean by filling up what is
lacking in the aictions of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ?
He does not mean that he improves upon the merit and the atoning
worth of Jesus blood. Thats not what he means. Well then, what does he
mean?
I typed into my computer Bible program the Greek word for fill up
(or complete) and the word for what is lacking and found only one
other place in Scripture where both of these occur together. Thats in Philip-
pians 2:30.
The situation is that Epaphroditus was sent from the Philippian church
over to Paul in Rome. He risks his life to get there, and Paul extols him for
risking his life. He tells the Philippians that they should receive such a one
with honor, because he was sick unto death and risked his neck to complete
their ministry to him. Heres the key parallel verse:
Because he came close to death for the work of Christ,

risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service
to me.
This is the only other place where these two words come into conjunction:
to complete what was lacking in your service to me. I opened up my
100-year-old Vincents commentary on Philippians and read an explanation
of that verse which I think is a perfect interpretation of Colossians 1:24.
Vincent says,
The gift to Paul from the Philippians was a gift of the
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church as a body. It was a sacrificial oering of love. What

was lacking was the churchs presentation of this oering
in person. This was impossible, and Paul represents Epaph-
roditus as supplying this lack by his aectionate, zealous
ministry.
So the picture is of a church that wants to communicate love in the form

of money over to Rome, and they cant do it. Theres too many of them.
And its too far away. So they say, Epaphroditus, represent us and complete
what is lacking in our love. Theres nothing lacking in our love except the
expression of our love in person there. Take it and communicate it to Paul.
Now thats exactly what I think Colossians 1:24 means. Jesus dies and
he suers for people all over the world in every nation. Then he is buried
and, according to the Scriptures, raised on the third day. Then he ascends
into heaven where he reigns over the world. And he leaves a work to be
done.
Pauls self-understanding of his mission is that there is one thing lack-
ing in the suerings of Jesus. The love oering of Christ is to be presented
in person through missionaries to the peoples for whom he died. And Paul
says, I do this in my suerings. In my suerings I complete what is lacking
in the suerings of Christ. Which means that Christ intends for the Great
Commission to be a presentation to the nations of the suerings of his cross
through the suerings of his people. Thats the way it will be finished. If you
sign up for the Great Commission, thats what you sign up for.
About three years ago I was working on Let the Nations Be Glad, and I
hid away at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, IL. I hid because I didnt want
anybody to know that I was there, so that they wouldnt bother me. My wife
and kids were at home, and I was working 18 hours a day.
Then I got word that J. Oswald Sanders was going to be in chapel.
Eighty-nine years old. Veteran. Great missions leader. And I said to myself,
Shall I go public and risk having to talk to a lot of people and getting
dinner engagements and all this stu and not getting anything done? But
I wanted to hear him, so I snuck into the back of chapel and listened to
him. And this 89-year-old man stood up there, and I was just oozing with
admiration and desire to be like this when Im 89. And he told a story that
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A HOLY AMBITION
so embodies Colossians 1:24.

He said there was once an evangelist in India who tromped across the
roads to various villages preaching the gospel. He was a simple man, no
education, loved Jesus with all his heart, and was ready to lay his life down.
And he came to a village that didnt have the gospel. It was late in the day
and he was very tired. But he goes into the village and lifts up his voice
and shares the gospel with those gathered in the square. They mock him,
deride him, and drive him out of town. And he is so tiredno emotional
resources leftthat he lies down under a tree, utterly discouraged. He goes
to sleep not knowing if hell ever wake up. They might come kill him, for
all he knows.
And suddenly, just after dusk, he is startled and wakes up. The whole
town seems to be around him looking at him. He thinks hes a goner. He
starts to tremble, and one of the big men in the village says, We came out
to see what kind of man you were, and when we saw your blistered feet
we knew you were a holy man. We want you to tell us why you got blis-
tered feet to come talk to us. So he preached the gospel and, according to
J. Oswald Sanders, the whole village believed. Thats what Paul means by I
complete in my suerings what is lacking in the aictions of Jesus.
Now I have one other little parenthesis about J. Oswald Sanders. At 89
years old he said, Ive written a book a year since I was 70. Eighteen books
after 70! There are people in my church and all over America quitting on life
at 65 and dying on the golf course in Nevada, when they ought to be laying
their lives down among the Muslims like Raymond Lull.
Raymond Lull, 12th-century Oriental scholar and Muslim missionary,
retires and comes back to Italy. He does his Oriental language thing for a
while but eventually quits and begins to ask, What am I doing? Im going
to die here in Italy. Why not die in Algeria across the Mediterranean? And
so, knowing thats what it will cost him to preach publicly, he gets on a
boat at 80-something years of age and crosses the Mediterranean. He stays
underground a while encouraging the church, and then he decides this as
good a time as any. So he stands up and preaches, and they kill him. What
a way to go!
Listen, you 60-year-old folks, Im 50. Im almost there. Im getting let-
ters from the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), and theyre
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trying to get me on their lists so I can get discounts on trains and airplanes.
Im almost there, so Im talking to myself here (and my church has heard
me say this and theyre going to hold me to the fire) when I say that when
youre old you not only dont have anything to lose in martyrdom, you get
discount fares.
Why should we think that putting in our 40 or 50 years on the job
should mean that we should play for the last 15 years before we meet the
King? I dont get it. Its all American lies. Were strong at 65 and were strong
at 70. My dad is 77. I can remember when my mom was killed, and he
was almost killed, in a bus accident in Israel. And I picked him up ten days
later with her body and him in the ambulance, and all the way home from
Atlanta to Greenville he laid there with his back wide open, because the
wounds were so bad they couldnt stitch them. And he kept saying, God
must have a purpose for me, God must have a purpose for me!
And here we are 22 years later, and his life has exploded with minis-
try! Hes working harder today at 77 for the nations than ever before. He
prepares lessons from Easley, South Carolina, including some tapes. And
theyre in 60 nations with about 10,000 people believing in Jesus every year
because God spared my dad and caused him not to believe in retirement.
THE PRIZE IS SATISFYING

Now the last point: How do you love like that? Where are you going to get
this? Are you feeling ready for this? Do you think you have it within you to
be able to endure this?
Read Stephen Neills A History of Christian Missions. On page 161 he
describes what happened in Japan when the gospel came there in the 1500s.
The Emperor began to believe that the incursion of the Christian faith into
their religious sphere was so threatening that they must end it. And he did
end it, with absolutely incredible brutality! It was over for the church in
Japan. And I dont doubt that the hardness and diculty of Japan today is
largely owing to the massive (though short-term) triumph of the devil in
the early 1600s.
Twenty-seven Jesuits, fifteen friars, and five secular clergy did manage
to evade the order of banishment. It was not until April 1617 that the first
martyrdoms of Europeans took place, a Jesuit and a Franciscan being be-
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A HOLY AMBITION
headed at Omura at that time, and a Dominican and an Augustinian a little

later in the same area. Every kind of cruelty was practiced on the pitiable
victims of the persecution. Crucifixion was the method usually employed in
the case of Japanese Christians. On one occasion 70 Japanese at Yedo were
crucified upside down at low water and were drowned as the tide came in.
I cried three days ago when I read that, because Ive got a good enough
imagination to picture the lapping water with your wife on one side and
your sixteen-year-old on the other.
Are you ready? You think youve got that within you? You dont. No
way does anybody have that kind of resourcefulness within them. Where
are you going to get it? Thats what I want to close with.
Youre going to get it by believing the promises of God. Hebrews 10:32-
34 is my favorite text about where you get the resources to live like this.
Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened,

you endured a hard struggle with suerings, sometimes be-
ing publicly exposed to abuse and aiction and sometimes
being partners with those so treated.
Now let me stop there and give you the situation as I read it. In the early
days of the church persecution arose. Some of them suered outright and
publicly, and others had compassion on them. Youll see in the next verse
that some of them were imprisoned and some of them went to visit them.
So they were forced into a decision. Those who were in prison in those days
probably depended on others for food and water and any kind of physical
care that they would need, but that meant that their friends and neighbors
had to go public and identify with them. Thats risky business when some-
ones been put in jail because theyre a Christian. So those who were still
free went underground for a few hours and asked, What are we going to
do? And somebody said Psalm 63:3 says, The steadfast love of the Lord is
better than life. Its better than life. Lets go!
And if Martin Luther would have been there he would have said,
Let goods and kindred go,

this mortal life also.
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The body they may kill,

Gods truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever.
Lets go!
And thats exactly what they did. Heres the rest of it. Hebrews 10:34:
You had compassion on the prisoners and you joyfully

accepted the plundering of your property.
Now heres what happened. It doesnt take any imagination. I dont know
all the details precisely, but heres what happened: They had compassion on
the prisoners, which means they went to them. And their propertyhouse,
chariot, horses, mules, carpentry tools, chairs, whateverwas set on fire by
mob or maybe just ransacked and thrown to the streets by people with big
knives. And when they looked over their shoulder to see what was happen-
ing back there they rejoiced.
Now if youre not like thiswhen somebody bashes your computer
when youre trying to minister to them, or you drive downtown to minis-
ter and they smash your windshield, get your radio, or slash your tiresif
youre not like this, youre not going to be a very good candidate for martyr-
dom either. So the question is, How are you going to be like this? I want
to be like this. Thats why I love this text! I want to be like this.
I make no claim to be a perfect embodiment of this; but I want to be
like this, so that when a rock comes sailing through my kitchen window
like it has done twice in the last couple of monthsand smashes the glass
and my wife and children hit the floor not knowing if its a bullet or a gre-
nade, I want to be able to say, Isnt this a great neighborhood to live in?
This is where the needs are. You see those five teenage kids that just rode by?
They need Jesus. If I move out of here, whos going to tell them about Jesus?
When your little boy gets pushed o his bicycle and they take it and
run, I want to be able to take him by the neck while hes crying and say
Barnabas, this is like being a missionary. Its like getting ready for the mis-
sion field! This is great!
Now I havent gotten to the main point of the text yet. How did they
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A HOLY AMBITION
have the wherewithal to rejoice at the plundering of their property and the
risking of their lives? Now we get it:
Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession

and an abiding one.
This is what I call faith in future grace.

If you are a Christian, God is holding out to you indescribably wonder-
ful promises. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore, you can
confidently say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do
to me? (Hebrews 13:5-6) Well, actually, man can kill you. But that is no
defeat, because you know what Romans 8:36-39 says:
We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered all day long

Yet I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ
Jesus.
Therefore, nothing ultimately can harm you. Remember what Jesus said in
Luke 21:12-19?
Some of you they will kill and some of you they will throw
into prisonYet not a hair of your head will perish.
Some of you they will killyet not a hair of your head will perish. Its
just Romans 8. Everything, including death, works together for your good.
When you die you dont perish. To die is gain.
Doing missions when death is gain is the greatest life in the world.
So I pray that you will come along and leave behind the American way
of security and ease and comfort and retreat and withdrawal and emptiness.
Leave it behind and join this incredibly powerful movement. There are stu-
dents all over the worldlike in South Koreaready to stand up and lay
down their lives for Christ. I invite you to do it, too.
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A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I AM SENDING YOU OUT AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF
WOLVES
JOHN PIPER
OCTOBER 21, 2007
Matthew 10:1631
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of

wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Be-
ware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and
flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged be-
fore governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness be-
fore them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over,
do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are
to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that
hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your
Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother
over to death, and the father his child, and children will
rise against parents and have them put to death, and you
will be hated by all for my names sake. But the one who
endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you
in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you
will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before
the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher,
nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple
to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If
they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how
much more will they malign those of his household. So
have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not
be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell
you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whis-
pered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those
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I AM SENDING YOU OUT AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES
who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him
who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 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. Fear not, therefore; you are of
more value than many sparrows.
W hen Jesus had finished his great saving work, and had laid down his
life to save millions and millions of people who would believe in
him, and had risen from the dead, he gave this final mandate to his disciples
in Matthew 28:18-20,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have com-
manded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age.
That mandateto go and make disciples of all the peoples of the worldis
as valid today as the promise that supports it: Behold, I am with you al-
ways, to the end of the age. If the promise is valid today, then the mandate
is valid today. And the promise is valid because its good, Jesus said, to the
end of the age. So until Jesus returns the promise holds that he will be with
us. And that promise is the basis of the mandate, and so the mandate holds
today. Jesus is commanding uscommanding BethlehemGo make dis-
ciples of all nations.
THE APOSTLE PAULS AMBITION: FRONTIER MISSIONS

The apostle Paul is the most prominent missionary in the New Testament.
He gave his life in obedience to Jesus mandate. He said in Romans 15:20-
21,
I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where

Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone
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A HOLY AMBITION
elses foundation, but as it is written, Those who have

never been told of him will see, and those who have never
heard will understand.
This is the dierence between the local evangelist and a frontier missionary.
Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5, Do the work of an evangelist.
That means: As the pastor of a local church in a place where the gospel has
already taken root, keep on winning people to Jesus. They may know about
Christianity and live near lots of Christians there in Ephesus, but keep on
evangelizing them. Tell them the gospel. Show them love. Keep on trying
to win them. Thats local evangelism. And all of us should be a part of it.
But this is not what we mean by frontier missions. Frontier missions
is what Paul did: I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where
Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone elses foundation.
Frontier missions is crossing a culture to plant the church where the gospel
has not already taken root. This is the mandate that is still valid for us today.
The job is not done. And the word of our risen King Jesus is binding on us
today as much as when he first gave it.
UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS

This is why we speak of unreached people groups. Jesus gave the mandate
to us to make disciples of all these groups, and Paul modeled what frontier
missions looks like, making it his ambition to proclaim the gospel where
the church was not already planted. And today the mandate holds (Make
disciples of all nations), and the promise holds (I will be with you to the
end of the age), and the stakes are eternal (Whoever believes in the Son
has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God remains on him, John 3:36).
WHO WILL GO?

So the question is, Who will go? Who will proclaim the gospel of Jesus
Christ where the church is not yet planted and flourishing? Should I go?
I ask myself this at least once a year. And I mean it seriously. I am willing
to go. I think every follower of Jesus is bound by the cords of love and
obedience to say, I am willing to follow you wherever you lead me. Every
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believer in Jesus should say, Here am I, send me, if that is your will.
It is not the Lords will that all of his followers be frontier missionar-
ies. But some he calls. How he does it is a wonderful and mysterious thing.
No one can explain how the work of God in your life rises to the level of
a compelling call to missions. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is
marvelous and unfathomable in our eyes. But this we know, from Scripture
and from church history and experience, that one of the instruments God
uses to awaken a compelling calling to missions is the preaching of the word
of God. And specifically the preaching of passages of Scripture that describe
the mandate and its costs and blessings. So that is what I want to do in the
time we have left.
THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN TO JUDGE ISRAEL

In Matthew 10:16-33, Jesus is telling his disciples what it will cost to bear
faithful witness and make disciples in the coming years and what blessings
they can count on to sustain them. The text relates directly to the next forty
years after he departs, but it is true in principle for the rest of the age. He
says in verse 23,
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for
truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the
towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
I dont understand the coming of the Son of Man in this verse as the sec-
ond coming of Christ. If it were, this text would be false.
Just like the New Testament speaks of the coming of the kingdom of
God in several stages and manifestations, it also helps to think of the com-
ing of the Son of Man in several stages and manifestations. He came to
earth the first time and died; he came as the risen Christ from the dead; he
came in judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans
armies; he has come in power from time to time in Great Awakenings. And
he will come in visible bodily form at the end of the age.
So I take Matthew 10:23 to refer probably to the coming in judgment
in AD 70. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly,
I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before
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the Son of Man comes to judge the Israelwhich happened in a decisive

way forty years later.
A FEARLESS WITNESS IN THE FACE OF DANGER

But the fact that these verses refer directly to the work of spreading the
gospel to unreached people between AD 30 and 70 does not mean they are
irrelevant for us. What Jesus says about the cost and the blessings of the mis-
sionary mandate in these verses is true today. And his main point is crystal
clear: Be a fearless witness in the face of danger. My prayer, as I draw your
attention to it, is that the Holy Spirit would use it awaken or confirm his
calling on your life.
SIX COSTS OF FRONTIER MISSIONS

This text powerfully speaks for itself. So let me, without too much com-
ment, focus our attention on six costs and ten blessings of being on the
frontline of frontier missions. These diculties are the kind of thing we
may expect today even if in Gods forbearance we may be spared some of
them. First the costs.
1. The cost of being arrested by authorities. Verses 16-18:

wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Be-
ware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and
flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged be-
fore governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness be-
fore them and the Gentiles.
2. The cost of family betrayal. Verse 21:
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father

his child, and children will rise against parents and have
them put to death.
This is almost unbelievable: Fathers and children will so be so opposed to
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the Christian faith, they will want each other dead rather than believing.
3. The cost of being hated by all. Verse 22:
You will be hated by all for my names sake.
Be careful that you dont elevate friendship evangelism to the point where
this text makes evangelism impossible. You will be hated by all does not
mean: You cant do evangelism.
4. The cost of being persecuted and driven out of town. Verse 23:
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.
5. The cost of being maligned. Verse 25b:
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how

much more will they malign those of his household.
Jesus died in our place so that we might escape the wrath of God, not the
wrath of man. He was called to suer for the sake of propitiation; we are
called to suer for the sake of propagation.
6. The cost of being killed. Verse 28:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill
the soul.
So they can kill the body. And sometimes they do. Dont ever elevate safety
in missions to the point where you assume that if one of our missionaries is
killed we have made a mistake. Jesus said plainly in Luke 21:16,
Some of you they will put to death.
For two thousand years, thousands of missionariesunnamed people of
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whom the world is not worthyhave counted this cost and put their lives
at risk to reach the lost with the only message of salvation in the world. And
the reason they could do this is because the blessings so outweigh the costs.
TEN BLESSINGS OF FRONTIER MISSIONS

May the Lord make these ten blessings that I am about to name overcome
all your fears and give you a passion to know him like this.
1. The blessing of being sent by Christ. Verse 16:

wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
I am sending you out. It is deeply satisfying thing to be sent by the living

Christ into his work.
2. The blessing of being given words by the Spirit of God. Verses 19-20:
When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you

are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say
will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who
speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
What a wonderful thing it is to sense the presence and power of the Spirit
in your life, giving you the words you need.
3. The blessing of experiencing Gods fatherly care. Verse 20b:
For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you.
Jesus makes explicit that the one caring for you is your Father in heaven.
You may have to leave father and mother to be a missionary. But you will
always have a Father who cares for you.
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4. The blessing of salvation at the end of it all. Verse 22b:
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
When all the costs have been paid, we will have the great end of salvation.
We will be raised from the dead with no sorrow or pain or sin, and we will
see Christ and enter in to his joy and hear the words, in spite of all our
imperfections, Well done.
5. The blessing of knowing that the Son of Man is coming in judgment and
mercy. Verse 23b:
You will not have gone through all the towns of Israel be-
fore the Son of Man comes.
This was a great encouragement to those persecuted disciples. Jesus comes

at just the right time in historical judgments and deliverances, and he will
come at the last day and vindicate all his people.
6. The blessing of belonging to Jesus household. Verse 25b:
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how

much more will they malign those of his household.
Whatever rejection we may experience, Jesus wants us to be sure we are

ever aware: This rejection is a sign that you are mine. You are part of my
household.
7. The blessing of knowing that the truth will triumph. Verse 26:
So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will

not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Nothing is hidden that will not be known. For a season in this world,
people will mock your proclamation of the truth. They will say, What
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is truth! But know this, and hold fast to this blessing: The truth will be
known. Your proclamation will be vindicated. Nothing is covered that will
not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Count on it. What is
scoed at now will be written across the sky someday. And one minute of
that vindication before all your enemies will make every act of patient en-
durance worthwhile.
8. The blessing of having an immortal soul. The soul of the Christian is

indestructible.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and be-

lieves him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come
into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John
5:24).
We have already passed from death to life. Henry Martyn, the missionary
to Persia, said that he was immortal until his work on earth was done. True.
And he would have also agreed that in the fuller sense: You are immortal
after your work on earth is done. That is Jesus point here.
9. The blessing of having a heavenly Father who sovereignly rules the small-
est details of life. Verse 29:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
Jesus mentions the fall of a sparrow to the ground because nothing seemed
more insignificant than that. Yet God, your Father, oversees that and gov-
erns that. So you may always know that your Father, who loves you as his
precious child, oversees and governs every detail of your life.
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10. The blessing of being valued by God. Verse 31:
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many

sparrows.
God does not despise his children. He values his children. For two reasons:
One is that in union with Jesus Christ all of his perfection is imputed to
us. The other is that by the Spirit, we are being changed from one degree of
glory to the next, and God loves the sanctifying work of his own hands. He
delights in what we are becoming.
GODS CALL TO FRONTIER MISSIONS

How does God call people to give their lives in missions? He does it, along
with other influences, by the mysterious and wonderful awakening of fear-
conquering desire for the work through the preaching of his word. He does
it by helping us count the costs so there is no romantic naivet about mis-
sions. And he does it by filling us with a longing to know these blessings
to the full.
For many of you God has been doing this for some time now. And
this message is a seal to what has already been done. For others of you, this
message has awakened a new sense of calling. And you really believe God is
stirring you to go. May the Lord confirm his work in your life.
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CONCLUSION
A HOLY AMBITION
CHAPTER TWELVE
DECLARE HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS14
JOHN PIPER
JUNE 29, 2008
I n this final message, I want to strike two notes: singing and nations
music and missionsfor the glory of God. These are what stand out to
me from Psalm 96. How shall we think and feel with God about nations
and about singing, and how are they related in this psalm and in the age to
come? And how are they related to Jesus?
Here is the way I am thinking about the sequence of these messages.
After the overview from Psalm 1 to establish that the Psalms are Gods word
and that Psalms are songs, and therefore they aim to shape our thinking and
our feeling, we looked at spiritual depression and how to be discouraged
well (Psalm 42). Then we looked at guilt and regret and how to be bro-
kenhearted well (Psalm 51). Then, coming out of that discouragement and
regret, we rose into gratitude and praise and blessing the Lord (Psalm 103).
Then last time we saw that we are often bitterly opposed and sometimes
horribly treated and that the heart cries out for justice and for the punish-
ment of our adversaries (Psalm 69). And we found relief from this rage in
the assurance that the imprecatory psalms will indeed be fulfilled, and all
wrongs will be duly punished, either on the cross of Christ for those who
repent, or in hell, for those who dont. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
As for you, love your enemy. God will handle those who sin against you.
Nobody gets away with anything in the universe.
Jesus Christ has been the key and goal of all these Psalms. They are not
complete without him. So it will be today.
MADE FOR GLOBAL PURPOSES

So now with our anger relieved, and our sense of justice sustained, and our
This is the final message in a series of sermons entitled Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God.
14
These messages are referred to throughout the message and can be found online at
www.desiringgod.org.
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DECLARE HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS
hearts full of gratefulness that as far as the east is from the west so far are
our transgressions removed from us (Psalm 103:12), and our mouths and
souls full of blessing to God for all his goodness, what could be missing?
Where do the Psalms take us finally? The answer is that God has made you
for global purposes. God has made you for something very large.
STRIKING THE NATIONS NOTE

You may think that, when discouragement is past and guilt is relieved and
anger is assuaged and your mouth is full of blessing, the reason for your
existence has been attained. In one sense, you would be right. There will be
nothing greater than blessing the Lord with overflowing praise and grati-
tude.
But there is something missing. God did not make known his ways or
reveal his glory or display his marvelous works for you alone, or for your
ethnic group alone. He did it with a view to the nationsall the nations,
not political states, but nations like the Cherokee Nation, the Navaho Na-
tion, the Waorani Nation. Peoples the Psalm calls them. So the first note
we will strike is the nations note.
FOR THE NATIONS

Trace with me the focus on nations in this Psalm. The psalmist says that
Gods people should do at least three things for the nations.
1. DECLARE GODS GLORY

First, declare to them the truth about Gods glory and works and salvation.
Verses 23,
Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from
day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his mar-
velous works among all the peoples!
Tell of his salvation, declare his glory, declare his marvelous works. Do this
among the nations. Do this among all the peoples. All of them. Leave
none out. Verse 10 sums up your declaration with the message of the king-
ship of God over the nations,
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A HOLY AMBITION
Say among the nations, The Lord reigns!
2. SUMMON THE NATIONS TO JOIN IN

Second: Summon the nations to join the people of God in ascribing glory
to God and singing praise to him. Verse 7:
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to

the Lord glory and strength!
Verse 1:
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
So, dont just tell the earth the facts about the greatness and the glory of
God; bid them to join you in praising him. Call for their conversion. All the
nations must bow before the one true God of Israel, whom we know now as
the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
3. WARN THEM OF JUDGMENT

Third, dont just declare his glory to them, and dont just summon them to
join in ascribing glory to him, but warn them that the reason they must do
this is that they are depending on false gods and judgment is coming on all
the nations. Verse 5:
All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord
made the heavens.
Verse 10:
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he

will judge the peoples with equity.
Verse 13:
He comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge
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the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithful-

ness.
In other words, when he says, Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and, De-
clarehis marvelous works among all the peoples, and, He is to be feared
above all gods, and Tremble before him, all the earth, and, All the gods
of the peoples are worthless idols, he really means all. The God of the
Psalms lays claim on the allegiance of every people. All of themin all their
unimaginable diversity of culture and religion.
EVERY NATION, ALL THE PEOPLES

Do not, the psalm implies, leave out any nation, any people, any family
all of them must convert to the true and living God and abandon all their
other gods. Do not let any unloving trend of multiculturalism make you
shrink back from the loving work of calling every people from every other
religion to repent and ascribe all glory to the one and only true and living
God.
Listen to this (not from Psalm 96) and see if you can guess where it is
coming from:
I will praise you among the Gentiles (nations), and sing

to your name. And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles
(nations), with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all
you Gentiles (nations), and let all the peoples extol him.
And again Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will come, even
he who arises to rule the Gentiles (nations); in him will the
Gentiles (nations) hope. (Romans 15:912)
Those are quotes from the Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah piled up by
the apostle Paul to support what? The coming of Jesus as the Messiah for all
nations. Heres the context (verses 89):
I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised

[the Jews] to show Gods truthfulness, in order to confirm
the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the
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A HOLY AMBITION
Gentiles (the nations) might glorify God for his mercy. As

it is written
Then come the Old Testament promises summoning all the nations to
praise God for his mercy, namely, for the work of Jesus Christ on the cross
in dying for sinners and making mercy possible for rebel, Gentile sinners
like us.
MADE TO SING OF GLORY

How should you feel about this emphasis on all the nations, and all the
peoples in Psalm 96? And in the New Testament? God is not telling us
this for the purposes of feeling exhausted, but for the purposes of feeling
exhilarated. And I mean both missionary goers and missionary sendersall
of us who believe in the one true God, revealed most fully in the God-man
Jesus Christ.
Why do I say this? Look at verse 1. This missionary impulse to all the
nations is flowing from singing and calling for singing.
Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the
earth!
This is a singing mission. This is the way you feel when your team has won
the Super Bowl or the World Cup or the cross-town rivalryonly a thou-
sand times greater.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works

among all the peoples!
We are speaking of glory. We are speaking of marvelous works, not boring

works. Nor ordinary works. We have tasted and seen that this God is greater
to know than all other greatness.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised (verse 4).
We are exhilarated to know him and sing to him and call the world to sing
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with us to him.
You were made for this. I mean all of you who say from the heart, Jesus
is Lord. When you confess Jesus as the Lord of the universe, you sign up
for significance beyond all your dreams. I mean businessmen, homemakers,
students. To belong to Jesus is to embrace nations for which he died and
which he will rule. Your heart was made for this, and there will always be a
serious or mild sickness in your soul until you embrace this global calling.
THE LARGEST CAUSE OF ALL

Listen to J. Campbell White, the first secretary of the Laymans Missionary
Movement in the early 1900s. This movement was born among business-
men who were captured by a holy ambition to get behind what God was
doing in the massive Student Volunteer Movement. Here is what the main
leader among laymen said:
Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of

their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ
within his followers except the adoption of Christs pur-
pose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure
and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the
boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the
fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting
everything into Christs undertaking are getting out of
life its sweetest and most priceless rewards. (J. Campbell
White, The Laymans Missionary Movement, in Perspec-
tives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 225)
How should you feel about the global purpose of Jesus Christ to be glorified
among all the nations? You should feel like this cause is the consummation
of your significance in life. Many other things are important in life. But this
is the largest cause of all. Every follower of the Lord of Lords and King of
Kings embraces this purpose and finds the consummation of his reason for
living in being a part of this great purpose of God to be glorified among all
the nations.
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A HOLY AMBITION
STUNNING SHIFTS AMONG THE NATIONS

And what is the situation among the nations today? Stunning shifts are
taking place as God gathers his elect from all the nations and sends his
church to all the nations. Europe and America are not the center of grav-
ity in world Christianity any longer. The center is shifting south and east.
Latin America, Africa, and Asia are experiencing phenomenal growth and
are becoming the great sending churches. Read about this in Philip Jenkins
books The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity.
But I would plead that all of you become familiar with Joshua Project
and People Groups. Here you find out who the nations, in the biblical
sense, actually are and how many there are and how reached or unreached
with the gospel they are. Joshua Project says there are 1,569 unengaged
people groups (no missionaries or church), and 6,747 least reached groups
(fewer than 2% evangelical). How I thank God that there are people doing
this dicult work of research to help us know the task that remains before
us. Go to these sites, and start learning what the global situation is. And
then dream how your life as goer and sender might be more fully involved
in declaring his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all
the peoples.
How should you feel about the nations of the world? A passion for
their salvation and a thrill that God rules over them all and calls us to be
his emissaries to them all with the best news in the world, and that he will
have a people of his own from all the nations, singing to him and ascribing
glory and strength to his Son. You were made for this kind of joy. All the
other joys of the Psalms, all the other emotions of the psalms, are taking us
here: the glory of God celebrated and sung by all the peoples of the earth.
Which brings us to our second note to strike in this message: singing.
STRIKING THE SINGING NOTE

Flying like a banner over all the emphasis on the nations in this psalm are
verses 1 and 2, and they are all about singing.
Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the
earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation
from day to day.
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Why would you begin a psalm about the global reach of Gods kingdom
and the duty to tell of his salvation from day to day and to declare his
glory among the nationswhy would you begin such a psalm with the
command to sing to the Lord a new song?
The answer is simple: You cant summon the nations to sing if you your-
self are not singing. And we are summoning the nations to sing. Verse 1:
Sing to the Lord all the earth.
Verse 11 says,
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.
Even nature is being summoned to be glad. And singing is the consumma-

tion of that gladness and that rejoicing. This psalm is calling us to spread a
passion for the glory of God in all things for the joy all peoples. And then to
summon them to ascribe this glory to God in songs. This is the hardest and
the happiest business in the world.
And you cant summon the nations to sing if you are not singing. So
let me suggest why in this global missionary context the psalm would stress
singing new songs. Notice that these new songs are to the Lord. Not just
about the Lord. Verse 1: Sing to the Lord a new song. Its not wrong to
sing about the Lord. The Psalms do it all the time. But when new songs are
being written and composed and sung to the Lord, something is happen-
ing in the church. Its a sign of unusual life and vibrancy. People are not just
living o the spiritual capital of previous generations, but they are dealing
vibrantly with the living God and their songs are being sung to him. He is
real. He is personal. He is known. He is precious. He is present. Worship is
more intense and more personal and more engaging.
A NEW SONG IN OUR DAY

That is what the psalm calls for, and that is what has been happening dur-
ing my entire adult life. Around the world there is a new song and a new
vibrancy and a new personal engagement in singing to the Lord. And the
really astonishing thing in our time is the way this awakening of singing to
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the Lord with new songs has such a strong global and missionary flavor. To
my knowledge singing has never been more at the forefront of missions as
it is today.
God is doing something wonderful in the fulfillment of Psalm 96. It is
far bigger than any one church, or any one ethnic group, or any one region
of the world. The global church is singingsinging to the Lord, singing
new songs, and singing about Gods Lordship over the nations.
And I would simply say: Dont miss what God is doing. Be a part of it.
Get the nations on your heart. Think rightly about Gods global purposes.
Feel deeply about his marvelous works. Sing with all your heart to the Lord.
And be a part of summoning the nations to join you.
THE CENTER OF OUR SINGING

And may the center of our singing be the same as the center of the new
song we will sing in the age to come, namely, the song of the Lamb who
was slain.
And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take
the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by
your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe
and language and people and nation, and you have made
them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall
reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:910)
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APPENDICES
A HOLY AMBITION
APPENDIX ONE
PROSPERITY PREACHING: DECEITFUL AND DEADLY
JOHN PIPER
FEBRUARY 14, 2007
W hen I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is: If

I were not on the inside of Christianity, I wouldnt want in. In
other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you.
Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. Its
deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like:
Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has can-
not be my disciple (Luke 14:33).
And its deadly because the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin and
destruction (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to preachers and ministers
of the gospelboth stateside and abroad.
1. DONT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT MAKES IT

HARDER FOR PEOPLE TO GET INTO HEAVEN.
Jesus said, How dicult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the
kingdom of God! His disciples were astonished, as many in the prosper-
ity movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even
higher by saying, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. They respond in
disbelief: Then who can be saved? Jesus says, With man it is impossible,
but not with God. For all things are possible with God (Mark 10:23-27).
My question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to de-
velop a ministry focus that makes it harder for people to enter heaven?
2. DO NOT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT KINDLES

SUICIDAL DESIRES IN PEOPLE.
Paul said, There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought
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nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But
if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But then he
warned against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against
preachers who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid
of it. He warned, Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into
a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into
ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It
is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and
pierced themselves with many pangs (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
So my question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to
develop a ministry that encourages people to pierce themselves with many
pangs and plunge themselves into ruin and destruction?
3. DO NOT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT ENCOURAGES

VULNERABILITY TO MOTH AND RUST.
Jesus warns against the eort to lay up treasures on earth. That is, he tells us
to be givers, not keepers.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where

moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in
and steal (Matthew 6:19).
Yes, we all keep something. But given the built-in tendency toward greed
in all of us, why would we take the focus o Jesus and turn it upside down?
4. DONT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT MAKES HARD

WORK A MEANS OF AMASSING WEALTH.
Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own
hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have. The
purpose was to have to give.
Let him labor, working with his hands, that he may have to
give to him who is in need (Ephesians 4:28).
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A HOLY AMBITION
This is not a justification for being rich in order to give more. It is a call to
make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no reason why a
person who makes a lot should live any dierently from the way a person
who makes just enough lives. Find a wartime lifestyle; cap your expendi-
tures; then give the rest away.
Why would you want to encourage people to think that they should
possess wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to
keep their lives more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that
not add to their generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not posses-
sions, is their treasure?
5. DONT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT PROMOTES

LESS FAITH IN THE PROMISES OF GOD TO BE FOR US WHAT MONEY
CANT BE.
The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we
have is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says,
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content

with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, The Lord
is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?
(Hebrews 13:5-6).
If the Bible tells us that being content with what we have honors the prom-
ise of God never to forsake us, why would we want to teach people to want
to be rich?
6. DONT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT CONTRIBUTES

TO YOUR PEOPLE BEING CHOKED TO DEATH.
Jesus warns that the word of God, which is meant to give us life, can be
choked o from any eectiveness by riches. He says it is like a seed that
grows up among thorns that choke it to death:
They are those who hear, but as they go on their way they
are choked by therichesof life, and their fruit does
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not mature (Luke 8:14).
Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that
Jesus warns will choke us to death?
7. DONT DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY THAT TAKES THE

SEASONING OUT OF THE SALT AND PUTS THE LIGHT UNDER A
BASKET.
What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the
light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit
of wealth tastes and looks just like the world. It does not oer the world
anything dierent from what it already believes in. The great tragedy of
prosperity-preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awak-
ened in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the
name of Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this,
the world simply sees a reflection of itself. And if it works, they will buy it.
The context of Jesus saying shows us what the salt and light are. They
are the joyful willingness to suering for Christ. Here is what Jesus said,
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my ac-
count. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were be-
fore you. You are the salt of the earthYou are the light of
the world (Matthew 5:11-14).
What will make the world taste (the salt) and see (the light) of Christ in
us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather, it will be the
willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through suering, all
the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus. This is in-
explicable on human terms. This is supernatural. But to attract people with
promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus. It is
not what he died to achieve.
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APPENDIX TWO
DRIVING CONVICTIONS BEHIND CROSS-CULTURAL MISSIONS
JOHN PIPER
JANUARY 1, 1996
ADAPTED FROM DRIVING CONVICTIONS BEHIND FOREIGN

MISSIONS AT BETHLEHEM BAPTIST CHURCH
T here are at least 14 convictions that have driven Bethlehems com-

mitment to missions in recent years. The leadership knows them and
loves them. They shape all we do. If you are a part of Bethlehem, you need
to know them too.
May the Lord cause them to capture your heart and fill you with fresh
zeal for the greatest cause in the world. There are only three kinds of Chris-
tians when it comes to world missions: zealous goers, zealous senders, and
disobedient. May God deliver us from disobedience!
CONVICTION #1GODS GOAL IN CREATION AND REDEMPTION IS A

MISSIONARY GOAL BECAUSE OUR GOD IS A MISSIONARY GOD
God created man and woman to fill the earth as his image-bearers (Genesis
1:2628). He created us for his glory (Isaiah 43:7)not to gain more glory
for himself but to invite people from every tribe and tongue and nation into
the enjoyment of his glory.
God is perfectly glorious and self-sucient in the fellowship of the
Trinity. So he had no need for people to praise him, but he had a profound
desire to share his glory and joy with a redeemed people.
Gods desire to bless all the nations to the praise of his glory is the
golden thread weaving its way through the Scriptures and the history of re-
demption. Jesus Christ himself in his self-emptying and in his identification
with sinful humanity to the point of his substitutionary death on the cross
is the perfect manifestation of the missionary heart of God.
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CONVICTION #2GOD IS PASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO HIS FAME.

GODS ULTIMATE GOAL IS THAT HIS NAME BE KNOWN AND PRAISED
BY ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH.
In Romans 9:17, Paul says that Gods goal in redeeming Israel is that [his]
name may be proclaimed in all the earth. In Isaiah 66:19, God promised
that he would send messengers to the coastlands afar o that have not
heard my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among
the nations.
We believe that the central command of world missions is Isaiah 12:4,
Make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is ex-
alted.
The apostle Paul said that his ministry as a missionary was to bring
about the obedience of faith for the sake of [Christs] name among all the
nations (Romans 1:5). The apostle John said that missionaries are those
who have set out for the sake of the name (3 John 7). James, the Lords
brother, described missions as Gods visiting the nations to take out of
them a people for his name (Acts 15:14). Jesus described missionaries as
those who leave houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or chil-
dren or lands, for my names sake (Matthew 19:29).
CONVICTION #3WORSHIP IS THE FUEL AND THE GOAL OF

MISSIONS.
Back in the mid-80s God drove home to many of us that a God-centered
theology must be a missionary theology. If you say that you love the glory
of God, the test of your authenticity is whether you love the spread of that
glory among all the peoples of the world.
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions
exists because worship doesnt. Gods passion is to be known and honored
and worshipped among all the peoples. To worship him is to share that pas-
sion for his supremacy among the nations.
In heaven there will be no missions; only worship. Gathered around
the throne will be worshipers from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation (Revelation 7:7). Thus the goal of missions will have been accom-
plished. But until that is the case, true worshipers who have tasted the good-
ness of the Lord will not be content until they have invited the nations to
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join them in the feast.

Worship is an expansive and a contagious joy, and thus it becomes the
fuel for missions. A shared joy is a doubled joy. Gladness in God will pro-
duce in us the same yearnings felt by the psalmist, Let the peoples praise
you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing
for joy (Psalm 67:34). Our hearts desire is to join Jesus and the Father in
their pursuit of true worshipers (John 4:23).
CONVICTION #4GODS PASSION TO BE KNOWN AND PRAISED BY

ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH IS NOT SELFISH, BUT LOVING.
God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the ulti-
mately loving act. And the reason is easy to see. The one and only Reality in
the universe that can fully and eternally satisfy the human heart is the glory
of Godthe beauty of all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, God would
not be loving unless he upholds and displays and magnifies that glory for
our everlasting enjoyment.
If God were to forsake or dishonor or disregard the infinite worth of his
own glory, he would be unloving in the same way that a husband is unlov-
ing who commits suicide.
Perhaps the best way to see that Gods passion for his fame is an expres-
sion of his love is to notice that Gods mercy is the pinnacle of his glory. This
is what he wants to be honored for above all else. You can see this in Romans
15:9 where Paul says that the reason Christ came into the world was so that
the nations might glorify God for his mercy.
Do you see how the convictions already mentioned come together in
that little phrase: glorify God for his mercy? God gets the glory; we get the
mercy. God is praised; we are saved. God gets the honor; we get the joy. God
is glorified for his fullness; we are satisfied with his mercy.
So to sum up our convictions so far, there are two basic problems in the
universe: God is profaned and people are perishing. God will not suer his
name to be dishonored indefinitely, but will act mightily to vindicate his
name and glorify himself among the nations. God has planned a way to do
this by saving the perishing through the death of his Son, Jesus, and making
them a worshipping people who enjoy his glory.
In the sacrifice of his own Son for the sake of the nations, God reveals
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the pinnacle of his gloryhis mercy. So the salvation of the nations and the
glorification of God happen together in missions. They are not at odds. It is
a loving thing for God to pursue his glory like this.
CONVICTION #5GODS PURPOSE TO BE PRAISED AMONG ALL THE

NATIONS CANNOT FAIL. IT IS AN ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN PROMISE. IT
IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19, he gave it a
massive foundation of certainty. He said, All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go therefore
In other words, nothing can stop him: I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). This gospel of
the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony
to all nations; and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).
There are four reasons we can be absolutely sure that the mission of
God will triumph in the world.
1. First, the word of Jesus is more sure than the heavens and the earth
(Matthew 24:35).
2. Second, the ransom has already been paid for all Gods elect, and God
did not spill the blood of his Son in vain (Revelation 5:9).
3. Third, the glory of God is at stake and in the end he will not share his
glory with another (Isaiah 48:911).
4. Fourth, God is sovereign and can do all things and no purpose of his
can be thwarted (Job 42:2).
In the September 16, 1996, issue of Christianity Today (p. 25) Steve
Saint, whose dad, Nate Saint, was martyred in Ecuador in 1956 by the
Auca Indians, wrote an article about new discoveries made about the tribal
intrigue behind the slayings of Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Ed
McCully, and Pete Fleming. He wrote one of the most amazing sentences
on the sovereignty of God we have ever readespecially when you hear it
coming from the son of a slain missionary:
As [the killers] described their recollections it occurred to
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A HOLY AMBITION
me how incredibly unlikely it was that the Palm Beach kill-

ing took place at all; it is an anomaly that I cannot explain
outside of divine intervention. (Italics added.)
There is only one explanation for why these five young men died and
left a legacy that has inspired thousands. God intervened. This is the kind of
sovereignty we mean when we say no one, absolutely no one, can frustrate
the designs of God to fulfill his missionary plans for the nations. In the
darkest moments of our pain, God is hiding his explosives behind enemy
lines. Everything that happens in history will serve this purpose as expressed
in Psalm 86:9,
All the nations you have made shall come and worship be-
fore you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
CONVICTION #6ONLY IN GOD WILL OUR SOULS BE AT REST.

The one trans-cultural reality that unites every person of every culture is
that God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:12). Every person
has been created in the image of God and has the stamp of God on his in-
nermost being. In our alienation from God there is a void that the nations
try to fill in a multitude of God-less ways, but always come up empty. Only
God can satisfy the soul with the depth and endurance of joy that we crave
for. Thus the loving pursuit of missions is the glory of God in the eternal
joy of the redeemed.
CONVICTION #7DOMESTIC MINISTRIES ARE THE GOAL OF

FRONTIER MISSIONS.
This conviction addresses the tension that develops in a mission-driven
church between those who have a passion for ministering here to our own
desperately needy culture, and the radical advocates of taking the gospel
where they dont even have access to the Source of any ministry at all.
By domestic ministries I mean all the ministries that we should do
among the people in our own culture. For example, ministries relating to
evangelism, poverty, medical care, unemployment, hunger, abortion, crisis
pregnancy, runaway kids, pornography, family disintegration, child abuse,
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divorce, hygiene, education at all levels, drug abuse and alcoholism, envi-
ronmental concerns, terrorism, prison reform, moral abuses in the media
and business and politics, etc., etc.
Frontier missions, on the other hand, is the eort of the church to
penetrate an unreached people group with the gospel and establish there an
ongoing, indigenous, ministering church.
Now stop and think about that. What this means is that frontier mis-
sions is the exportation of the possibility and practice of domestic ministries
in the name of Jesus to unreached people groups.
Why should there be tension between these two groups of people? The
frontier people honor the domestic people by agreeing that their work is
worth exporting. The domestic people honor the frontier people by insist-
ing that what they export is worth doing here. A crucial training ground
for frontier missions is on the home front engaging in domestic ministries.
CONVICTION #8THE MISSIONARY TASK IS FOCUSED ON PEOPLES,

NOT JUST INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE, AND IS THEREFORE FINISHABLE.
Many of us used to have the vague notion that missions was simply winning
to Christ as many individuals as possible in other places. But now we have
come to see that the unique task of missions, as opposed to evangelism, is to
plant the church among people groups where it doesnt exist.
Revelation 5:9 is a picture of how Christs death relates to missions:
Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals for thou wast slain
and didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation. When the church has been planted in all the people groups of the
earth, and the elect have been gathered in from all the tribes and tongues
and nations, then the Great Commission will be complete. Missions will
be over.
The task of missions is planting the church among all the peoples, not
necessarily winning all the people.
CONVICTION #9THE NEED OF THE HOUR IS FOR THOUSANDS

OF NEW PAUL-TYPE MISSIONARIES, A FACT WHICH IS SOMETIMES
OBSCURED BY THE QUANTITY OF TIMOTHY-TYPE MISSIONARIES.
Timothy left Lystra, his hometown (Acts 16:1), and became a church
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worker (a Timothy-type missionary) in a foreign place, Ephesus (1 Timothy

1:3), which had its own elders (Acts 20:17) and outreach (Acts 19:10). This
is the model of a Timothy-type missionary: going far away to do Christian
work where the church is fairly well established. It has biblical precedent
and it is a good thing to do, if God calls you.
But thats not what Paul was called to do. His passion was to make
Gods name known in all the unreached peoples of the world. He said that
he made it his ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already
been named (Romans 15:20). One of the most stunning things Paul ever
said is in Romans 15:19, 23: From Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum
I have fulfilled the gospel of ChristI no longer have any room for work in
these regions. This stunned me, when I finally saw its implications.
No room for work between Jerusalem and northern Greece! His work
there is done in spite of all the unbelievers that remain! He is now moving
on to Spain. How could he say this? The answer is that he was a frontier
missionary, not just a cross-cultural missionary. He was called to reach the
unreached peoples, where there is no church to evangelize its own people.
What most Christians dont know today is that there are probably ten
times more Timothy-type missionaries in the world than there are Paul-type
missionaries. And yet there are still thousands of people groupsespecially
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and tribal peopleswho have no access to a
gospel-preaching church in their own culture.
Patrick Johnstone and others published in late 1996 a book entitled
The Unreached Peoples (Seattle: YWAM Publishing, 1996). In it the 2000
least-reached people groups are listed on pages 102111. This gives you
an idea of the remaining urgent need for missionaries who are willing to
cross language and culture for the fame of Christ and the salvation of the
perishing.
Therefore, our prayer for Bethlehem is that we put a very high priority
on raising up and sending frontier missionariesPaul-type missionaries.
Not that we diminish the sacrifice and preciousness of the Timothy-type
missionaries, but that we realize what the utterly critical, uniquely mission-
ary need is in the world, namely, there are thousands of people groups with
no access to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
Only Paul-type missionaries can reach them. That must be a huge
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priority for us. Without the gospel everything is in vain. A crucial role that
the Timothy-type missionaries play is to raise up Paul-type missionaries
among the peoples with whom they are working.
CONVICTION #10IT IS THE JOYFUL DUTY AND THE AWESOME

PRIVILEGE OF EVERY LOCAL CHURCH TO SEND OUT MISSIONARIES
IN A MANNER WORTHY OF GOD (3 JOHN 6).
But before we can send them, we must grow them or identify the ones
who have been grown elsewhere but whom God is calling us to send. Ac-
cording to 3 John 78 there is a biblical mandate that we ought to support
missionariesa certain kind of missionaryone who has gone out for the
sake of the name. For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting
nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, that
we may be fellow workers with the truth.
There is a big dierence between a church that has missionaries (on
the back of their bulletin or as a line item in their budget) and a church that
sends missionaries.
To send in a manner worthy of God is to so recognize the supreme
importance of proclaiming the name of God in word and deed among the
nations that we will do whatever we can to support those who go out for the
sake of the namespiritually, practically, emotionally, financially.
CONVICTION #11WE ARE CALLED TO A WARTIME LIFESTYLE FOR

THE SAKE OF GOING AND SENDING.
To send in a manner worthy of God and to go for the sake of the name, we
must constantly fight the deception that we are living in peace time where
we think that the luxury of self-indulgence is the only power that can break
the boredom. O may God open our eyes to what is at stake in the war raging
between heaven and hell.
The spirit of the great missionary, Paul, must grip us more and more. I
count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suered the loss of all things, and count
them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8).
In wartime everything changes. The luxury liner, Queen Mary, became
a troop carrier, and instead of bunks three high they were stacked seven
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high. Resources are allocated dierently in wartime. And we are in a war far
more devastating than World War II.
A wartime lifestyle presents itself not as a legalistic burden, but as a
joyful acknowledgment that our resources arent entrusted to us for our
own private pleasure but for the greater pleasure of stewarding them for the
advancement of the kingdom of God (Acts 20:35; Matthew 6:33).
CONVICTION #12PRAYER IS A WARTIME WALKIE-TALKIE NOT A

DOMESTIC INTERCOM.
In wartime prayer takes on a dierent significance. It becomes a wartime
walkie-talkie and no longer a domestic intercom. Jesus said to his disciples,
You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you
should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, in order that
whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you (John
15:16).
Notice the amazing logic of this verse. He gave them a mission in
order that the Father would have prayers to answer. This means that prayer
is for mission. It is designed to advance the kingdom. Thats why the Lords
Prayer begins by asking God to see to it that his name be hallowed and that
his kingdom come.
James warned about the misuse of prayer as a domestic intercom to call
the butler for another pillow. He said, You do not have because you do not
ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so
that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:23).
Prayer is always kingdom oriented. Even when we pray for healing and
for help, it is that that the kingdom purposes of God in the world may
advance. Otherwise we have turned a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic
intercom.
Let us pray with the apostle Paul, that the word of the Lord may spread
rapidly and be glorified (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
CONVICTION #13OUR AIM IS NOT TO PERSUADE EVERYONE TO

BECOME A MISSIONARY, BUT TO HELP EVERYONE BECOME A WORLD
CHRISTIAN.
As we said earlier, there are only three kinds of people: goers, senders, and
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the disobedient. Its not Gods will for everyone to be a goer. Only some
are called to go out for the sake of the name to a foreign culture (e.g., Mark
5:1819).
Those who are not called to go out for the sake of the name are called
to stay for the sake of the name, to be salt and light right where God has
placed them, and to join others in sending those who are called to be cross-
cultural missionaries.
In Gods eyes both the goers and the senders are crucial. There are no
first and second class Christians in Gods hierarchy of values. Together the
goers and the senders are fellow-workers with the truth (3 John 8).
So whether you are a goer or a sender is a secondary issue. That your
heart beats with Gods in his pursuit of worshipers from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation is the primary issue. This is what it means to
be a World Christian.
CONVICTION #14GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED IN US WHEN WE

ARE MOST SATISFIED IN HIM; AND OUR SATISFACTION IN HIM IS
GREATEST WHEN IT EXPANDS TO EMBRACE OTHERSEVEN WHEN
THIS INVOLVES SUFFERING.
It is amazing how those who have suered most in the missionary cause
speak in the most lavish terms of the blessing and the joy of it all.
Start with Jesus: If any man would come after me, let him deny him-
self and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life
will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save
it (Mark 8:3435).
We save our lives by giving them away in the cause of the gospel. This is
what Paul meant when he said, This slight momentary aiction is prepar-
ing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians
4:17). And, I consider that the suerings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).
According to Paul suering completes what is lacking in the aictions
of Christ (Colossians 1:24). This is the way that the Great Commission
will be completed. To suer in this way means that our labors for the love
of his name will include a personal presentation of his suerings through
our suerings to those for whom he died.
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Samuel Zwemerafter 50 years of missions labor (including the loss

of two young children in North Africa)said, The sheer joy of it all comes
back. Gladly would I do it all over again. And both Hudson Taylor and
David Livingstone, after lives of extraordinary hardship and loss, said, I
never made a sacrifice.
When people who have suered much speak like this, their God is
magnified. If God can so satisfy their souls that even their suerings are
experienced as steps into deeper joy with him, then he must be far more
wonderful than all that the earth has to oer. Psalm 63:3 must really be
true: The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life.
A while back we had the opportunity to hear J. Oswald Sanders speak.
His message touched deeply on suering. He was 89 years old at the time
and still traveling and speaking around the world. He had written a book a
year since he turned 70! We mention that only to exult in the utter dedica-
tion of a life poured out for the gospel without thought of coasting in self-
indulgence from 65 to the grave.
He told the story of an indigenous missionary who walked barefoot
from village to village preaching the gospel in India. His hardships were
many. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement he came
to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was driven out of town
and rejected. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down
under a tree and slept from exhaustion.
When he awoke, people were hovering over him, and the whole town
was gathered around to hear him speak. The head man of the village ex-
plained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they
saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man, and that
they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the
message that he was willing to suer so much to bring them.
So the evangelist filled up the aictions of Jesus with his beautiful
blistered feet.
* * *
These are our driving missions convictions at Bethlehem. If God opens your
heart, you will see that there is no better way to live than in the wartime
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lifestyle that maximizes all you are and all you have for the sake of finishing
the Great Commission. Because in this way God is magnified, we are satis-
fied, and the nations are loved.
When it comes to world missions, there are only three kinds of Chris-
tians: zealous goers, zealous senders, and disobedient. Which will you be?
Please join us in spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things
for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
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SCRIPTURE INDEX
Genesis 1 Kings
1:26-27 41 4:20-24 28
1:26-28 159 8:60 28
10 27 11-2 Kings 25 28
12:1-3 27, 57
12:3 28, 55, 57, 58, 60 Job
15:5 28 42:2 162
15:6 55, 59
17:4 58, 60 Psalms
17:4-5 27, 58 1 66, 143
17:7 62 1:2 19
18:18 55, 58 8:3-8 24
23:3 48
Exodus 25:11 47
14:4 44 32 67
14:31 66 42 143
20:3-5 44-45 51 143
63:3 127, 169
Numbers 67:3-4 161
14:11 66 69 143
20:12 66 86:9 163
96 143-51
Deuteronomy 96:2-3 96
1:32 66 103 143
8:17 66 103:12 144
9:23 66 106:6-8 43
28:52 66 119 66
30:6 67
32:37 66 Ecclesiastes
3:12 163
1 Samuel
12:19-20a 46 Isaiah
12:20-22a 46 12:4 160
28:5 40
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A HOLY AMBITION
43:7 159 24:14 24, 117, 162

48:9-11 162 24:35 162
48:11 25 25:35-36 110
49:6 28 28 27
52:7 10n2 28:18 82
52:15 18 28:18-19 75
55:8 37 28:18-20 23-34, 96
66:19 160 28:19 162
Jeremiah Mark
24:7 66, 67 5:18-19 168
8:34 122
Ezekiel 8:34-35 168
20:5-9 42-43 10:23-27 155
20:13-14 45
36 62 Luke
36:22-32 48-49 3:22 41-42
36:26-27 67 4:18 110, 112
8:14 157-58
Joel 9:23 122
2 62 14:13-14 110
14:33 155
Habakkuk 19:9 110
2:14 24 21:12-19 129
21:16 136
Matthew
4:19 27 John
5:11-14 158 3:16 96-97
5:16 56 3:36 133
6:19 156 4:23 161
6:33 167 5:24 139
9:37-38 23 6:3b-4 77
10:6-31 131-40 6:26 77
10:16-33 134 6:27 77
16:18 24, 82, 162 6:37 77
16:24 122 6:39 77
18:18-20 132 6:44 77
19:29 160 6:65 77
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7:18 49 Romans
8:39 58-59 1 53
10 78 1:16 20
10:3b-4 76 1:18-23 19-20
10:11 76, 78 1:23d 51
10:14 76 1:5 29, 102, 160
10:14-15 78 2:12 20
10:16 75-84 2:29 90
10:27 82 3 50
10:27-30 78 3:23 50, 51
10:29 76 3:25-26 51
11:51-52 81 4:6-8 67
15:16 167 4:16-17 58, 59
17:4 49 5 52
17:6 76-76 8 50, 129
17:9 77 8:18 168
17:18 82 8:36-39 129
17:20 82 9:6-7 56
17:24 77 9:17 160
18:9 77 10:13 112
10:14f 112
Acts 10:15 10n2
1:8 28-29 11 90
9 18 11:4 67
13:3 25 11:33 90
14:16 29, 74 12:20 111
15:14 160 14:4 16
16 29 15:8-9 50, 118
16:1 164 15:9 161
16:14 67 15:9-12 146
17:26 27n8 15:18 82
18:9-10 81 15:18-24 15-22
19:10 165 15:19 165
20:17 165 15:20 95-96, 165
20:35 167 15:20-21 132-33
22 18 15:23 165
26 18 16:26 29
26:18 18
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1 Corinthians 5:18 69
2:14 37 6:8 61
3:6-8 16 6:10 111
7:7 16
10:31 52 Ephesians
1:3-6 40
2 Corinthians 2:3 37
1:12 102 2:7 92
1:20 92 2:12 91
2:12-17 95-104 2:12-29 88
3:5 102 2:19 69, 92
3:6 69 3:1-13 85-93
4:6 67 4:28 156
4:17 168 5:2 101
7:5-7 98-99 6:9 69
8:9 110 6:12 89
11:4 100
11:5 100 Philippians
12:11 100 1:21 33
1:25 56
Galatians 2:30 123
1:6-18 106-07 3:8 25, 166
1:8 108, 111
1:15-16 113 Colossians
2:1-10 105-14 1:24 33, 123, 124, 125,
2:20 61, 63 168
3:5 69
3:6 67 1 Thessalonians
3:6-9 55-63 2:13 82
3:14 59, 61, 62
3:18 65 2 Thessalonians
3:23-29 65-70 1:9-10 52
3:28 56. 59 3:1 167
3:29 56, 59
4:6 61 1 Timothy
4:29 61 1:3 165
4:30 59 6:6-10 155-56
5:6 56 6:9 155
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2 Timothy 5:9-10 53, 118, 151

2:2 26 6:11 120
4:5 21, 133 7:7 160
7:9-10 29
Hebrews
2:10 33
2:5-10 24
4:2 66
6:1-3 119
10:32-34 127
10:34 128
11 67
11:38 93
13:5-6 129, 157
13:13 122
James
4:2-3 167
1 Peter
1:8 34
1:12 89
3:7 69
4:11 52
1 John
4:6 82
5:3 66
3 John
7 160
7-8 166
8 168
Revelation
2:10 89
5:9 29, 81, 162, 164
175

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A HOLY AMBITION:

TO PREACH WHERE CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN NAMED

Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Preaching

2011 Desiring God Foundation

Published by Desiring God

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

Cover design: Stuart Hanberg

1 A Holy Ambition: To Preach Where Christ Has Not Been 15

PART ONE: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF GOSPEL-CENTERED MISSION

3 The Story of His Glory 37

4 Those Who Have Faith Are the Sons of Abraham 55

PART TWO: THE MANDATE OF WORLD MISSIONS

6 Other Sheep That Are Not of This Fold 73

PART THREE: THE COSTS AND BLESSINGS OF MISSION

10 Doing Missions When Dying Is Gain 117

11 I Am Sending You Out as Sheep in the Midst of Wolves 131

12 Declaring His Glory Among the Nations 143

1 Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly 155

A s I travel throughout the United States and abroad, I am amazed at

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him

In the last century the demographic center of global Christianity has

The Reformation itself seems to be almost unthinkable

book and press. There is in all the centuries preceding the

There are two things in the entire history of missions that

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what

HOLY AMBITION FOR GIRLS AND BOYS

THE SOURCE OF HOLY AMBITION

THE NATIONS HAVE NO EXCUSE

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all un-

about God is plain to them, because God has shown it

Here are Pauls amazing statements.

MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, AND HOLY AMBITION

M issions is about the worship of Jesus. The goal of missions is the

And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], All authority

JESUS HAS ALL AUTHORITY (VERSE 18)

DISCIPLE ALL NATIONS (VERSE 19)

necessitates goings of all sorts.

THE POST-CHRISTIAN WEST AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

Europe was home to over 70% of the worlds professing Christians

GOING WITH THE GLOBAL SOUTH

power of gospel-advancing partnerships between the West and the Global

THE PROMISE AND POTENTIAL DANGER OF MISSIONAL

THE PRIORITY OF THE UNREACHED

THERE WILL BE SUFFERING AND MARTYRDOM

nineteen previous centuries combined.

Suering is not only the consequence of completing the Commission,

JESUS WILL BE WITH US (VERSE 20)

Let goods and kindred go,

The body they may kill;

OUR THOUGHTS THE SAME AS GODS THOUGHTS

GODS PASSION FOR HIS OWN NAME AND GLORY

GODS HEART FOR GOD

GODS ULTIMATE GOAL

GOD IS A CROWN OF GLORY

TO THE PRAISE AND THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE