Getting Excited About Missions


Sermon by Derek Thomas on February 15, 2009

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The Lord’s Day
Evening

February 15, 2009

Missions
Conference 2009

Psalm 47

“Getting Excited About Missions”

Dr. Derek W. H.
Thomas

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 47. With our
Missions Week now impending, this evening I thought we would look at this Psalm
with a view to getting excited about missions because, as we will see in the
Psalm, God is all about missions; as we will see in this Psalm, it is at the
heart of every true believer to be as excited about missions as God is excited
about missions. Before we read the Psalm together, let’s look to God in prayer.

Lord our God, we bow once again in Your presence.
We would be still and know that You are God. We come to thank You for the
Scripture. Every jot and tittle of it, every syllable, every word, every
sentence, every chapter, every book that it contains…all of it given by the
out-breathing of God, and profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction,
and instruction in the way of righteousness, that the man of God might be
thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Now bless us, we pray. Come, Holy
Spirit; grant illumination as we read this Psalm together. We ask it in Jesus’
name. Amen.

TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH.

“Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of
joy!

For the Lord, the Most High, is
to be feared,

A great king over all the earth.

He subdued peoples under us,

And nations under our feet.

He chose our heritage for us,

The pride of Jacob whom He
loves. Selah

“God has gone up with a shout,

The Lord with the sound of a
trumpet.

Sing praises to God, sing
praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing
praises!

For God is the King of all the
earth;

Sing praises with a psalm!

“God reigns over the nations;

God sits on His holy throne.

The princes of the peoples
gather

As the people of the God of
Abraham.

For the shields of the earth
belong to God;

He is highly exalted!”

Amen. May God bless to us that reading of His word.

This is one of the great songs in the Psalter, one of
the kingship Psalms, sometimes thought to be depicting a ritual that may have
taken place in the devotional religious ceremonial life of Israel when the king
was enthroned, and perhaps services were held in the temple recalling the
enthronement of the king. Whether that’s true or not, this is definitely a Psalm
that sings of the enthronement of God as King. It echoes sentiments in Psalm 46.
It’s similar, you might recall, to some of those Psalms right at the end before
you come to Psalm 100 — Psalms 93, 96, 97, 98, and 99. All of those Psalms are
very similar to this Psalm, extolling the kingship and rule and reign of God.

There’s a cinematic technique that always amazes me
when I see it, where a camera will start with a wide-angle lens and you’ll see
an enormous vista. And as the movie progresses, that scene gets more and more
into focus and zooms in and in and in, and eventually that picture will pass
through a window, and without a break in the movie the camera all of a sudden
seems to be on the inside, and now moving around in the building. Perhaps you’re
familiar with what I mean. Imagine that in the reverse, because in this Psalm
you have a picture of hands clapping in the temple, worshipers of Israel giving
praises to God, but it focuses and zooms outwards and outwards and outwards
taking in the whole of Israel, and then all of a sudden nations of the world are
joining in the praises of God. It’s about catching a vision…catching a vision
for missions…catching a vision for the redemptive purposes of God…catching a
vision for what it’s all about, what history is all about, what this world is
all about, where this world is going; that the agenda ultimately is not
determined by acts of Congress or bills of Senate or Presidential speeches, but
by a sovereign God who rules and reigns and has a plan and a purpose.

In 1627 through to 1640, that thirteen-year window in
the seventeenth century, something in the region of 15,000 Puritans left the
shores of Britain (predominantly England) and came to New England. The seal of
the Colonists at Massachusetts Bay was Acts 16:9 — “Come over to Macedonia and
help us.” Among them was a man by the name of John Eliot. John Eliot was 27
years of age. He was ordained to the gospel ministry at a place called Roxbury,
a mile or two outside of Boston. Thirteen years later, at the age of forty, he
became convicted by the 23 tribes of Indians — “nations,” he called them. They
were individual tribes speaking individual languages, with an individual
culture. He would spend the next 44 years (until he was 84) working among those
different Indian nations in New England — translating the Scriptures, preaching
and teaching the word of God. It’s an amazing story. Just one man who caught a
vision for the nations of the world.

This Psalm is designed to get us excited about
missions. I want us to see four things in this Psalm.

I. There is only one God, and
He rules and reigns over all the nations.

The first thing — and it’s the predominant
thing, it’s the obvious thing: this Psalm is about the rule and reign of God
over the nations of the world; that there is only one God:

“Shout to God with loud songs of
joy!

For the Lord, the Most High is to
be feared,

A great King over all the earth.”

Verse 7:

“God is the King of all the earth….”

Verse 8:

“God reigns over the nations;

God sits on His holy throne.”

That’s where the Psalm begins, with a great vision of God.

We live in a world that has dethroned God. We live in
a world that is constantly marginalizing God. We live in a church world, an
ecclesiastical world, that constantly marginalizes God. And this Psalm is saying
God rules, God reigns, God sits upon a throne. Kingdoms may come and kingdoms
may go, but God is, and He rules and He reigns. He’s on a throne tonight.
He’s sitting on a majestic throne, and He has all power and all knowledge and
all wisdom. He’s everywhere present. He’s the one God: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit: the only God there is. And He rules.

Imagine this Psalm at various points in the history
of Israel. Imagine this Psalm being sung in the time of David, when David is
surrounded by his enemies, when David is seeking to preserve his own life. He
turns to this Psalm: ‘God rules; God reigns; God is in control.’

Imagine this Psalm in 701 B.C., when the Assyrians
and Sennacherib had come and Sennacherib was threatening Jerusalem. You remember
in Isaiah 36, 37, and 38, he sends letters — threatening letters: “Where is the
king of Hamath, where is the king of Arpad?” (kings that he’s conquered and
overthrown) and he’s taunting Hezekiah. You remember what Hezekiah does with
that letter? He takes it into the temple and lays it before the Lord as if to
say, ‘Lord, here it is. This is what Sennacherib is saying. This is what this
earthly potentate, this earthly dictator is saying.’ God sits upon a throne. God
rules. God reigns. God sits upon His holy throne.

Imagine this Psalm in the time of Jeremiah. In our
Sunday School class this morning, we were looking at Jeremiah 32. Uncle Hanamel
(we all have an “Uncle Mel” in our family) …Jeremiah had an Uncle Mel who wanted
to sell him a piece of property, a sweet deal at a good price. The only problem
is that the land was in Anathoth, and the Babylonians were in Anathoth and they
were laying siege upon Jerusalem. In less than a year, Jerusalem would fall. And
Jeremiah’s uncle is trying to sell him a piece of property. Do you remember what
God said? Let me remind you what God says to Jeremiah. He tells him to buy this
piece of property. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God rules. God reigns.
God sits upon His holy throne.

In 250 AD, the Roman Empire had been in existence for
a thousand years, and it was falling apart at the seams. God rules. God sits
upon His holy throne.

In our own century, we saw the rise of the Third
Reich, proclaiming to be a force to contend with for a thousand years. Where is
it now? It has gone the way of all flesh because God is King, because God rules,
because God reigns. God is the only certainty there is.

Our history, our future, our lives are not determined
by the acts of men, whether kings or presidents or dictators. Not even by
democracy. They are ultimately determined by a sovereign God who sits upon a
throne. What a vision! What a vision of a great, sovereign God! Is that what you
need to hear tonight? Is your God too small? If you’re here and you’re concerned
about this or that or the other…you’re concerned about your family, you’re
concerned about your children, you’re concerned about your job, you’re concerned
about your income… “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

“Shout to God with loud songs of
joy!

For the Lord, the Most High, is
to be feared,

A great King over all the
earth.”

I sometimes wonder when I hear us talk, you and I, about
the forces abroad in the world today…the great forces of darkness and evil and
malevolence. God is still King. He still rules. He still reigns. He hasn’t lost
His ancient power. That’s where the Psalm begins, with a vision of a great God,
a sovereign God. Let’s remind ourselves of it.

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II. Jesus Christ as Lord rules
over the nations of the world.

But this is a Psalm not only about a God who rules
over the nations, it’s a Psalm about the rule of Christ over the nations.

Who is this God who rules? Part of the answer to that is that it is Christ who
rules. It’s not without some significance that the early church read verse 5,
and what do you think they thought of when they read “God has gone up with a
shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet”?

Of course, what the early church thought of was the
ascension, the ascension of Jesus: “God has gone up with a shout;” God has risen
from the dead. And into this Psalm, into this picture of a God who is in control
and a God who rules and a God who holds the nations in the palms of His hands,
the early church saw a picture of Christ. It’s not just the rule of a powerful,
determinative God, but the rule of a God who redeems and a God who saves, and a
God who sends His own Son into the world on a rescue mission of sinners who
otherwise would end up in hell — to redeem them, to call them unto Himself.

You see the climax in verse 9:

“The princes of the peoples
gather

As the people of the God of
Abraham.”

Isn’t that beautiful? You see, this isn’t just a picture of
nations bowing unwillingly and acknowledging with grit in their teeth that God
rules and reigns. There is coming a day when every man and every woman, everyone
who has ever been and everyone who ever will be, will acknowledge that He is
Lord. “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord.” Every tongue, and every knee, no matter who they are — even the reprobate
will acknowledge His lordship. But that’s not the vision here.

III. A Psalm about missions.

The vision here is “the princes of the peoples
gather as the people of the God of Abraham.”
Imagine that! This tiny,
insignificant little nation of Israel, and it’s writing a Psalm under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit and saying the nations of the world and the
princes of those nations are going to one day bow, and they’re going to come not
simply as the princes of the world but they’re going to come as the people of
the God of Abraham. They have been converted, you see. They have been brought to
Jesus Christ. They’re acknowledging that they’re part of the family of God:
they’re part of the kingdom of God; they are the children of Abraham. That’s a
great picture, isn’t it?

“I will build My church,” Jesus says at Caesarea
Philippi. “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail
against it.” Not all the forces of darkness combined in all of their malevolence
will prevail against the kingdom of God and the purposes of God in Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus say at the close of Matthew’s Gospel? “All
authority in heaven and earth is given unto Me.” As the risen and resurrected
Lord, all authority in heaven and in earth is given unto Me.

That’s the vision for missions, isn’t it? “Go into
all the world and make disciples of every creature”… “All authority is given to
Me.” It’s a picture of the Second Psalm. It’s a picture of that pre-temporal
covenant between the Father and the Son, and the Father is saying to the Son,
“Ask of Me, and I will give You the uttermost parts of the world for Your
inheritance.” And here’s this Psalm seeing a future, seeing the nations of the
world, seeing the princes of those nations, and they’re gathering now as the
people of the children of Abraham. And they’re giving Him glory and they’re
giving Him praise, and they’re giving Him worship. The nations are under His
feet. The Mighty Victor has risen from the dead and defeated principalities and
powers, and made a show of them openly in the cross:

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but
[had] made himself of no reputation…and [had] humbled himself even to the point
of death…. and God has highly exalted Him, and given to Him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Oh, this isn’t just a picture of the sovereignty of
God. It’s a picture of the rule and reign of King Jesus. Jesus sits on a throne
tonight, and the ultimate course of this world and the ultimate course of
history is not determined by those with political power — not in the ultimate
sense. The ultimate course of history is determined by the decree of God.

Now catch that vision, friends. Catch the immensity
of that vision. That’s not the vision of CNN, nor is it the vision of Fox News.
That’s the vision of Scripture. That’s the vision of God. That’s the vision of
the purpose of God, and God is calling us as His people to get into that vision,
to catch a glimpse of that vision. That’s what it’s all about. It’s a missionary
Psalm. The nations assembled before Him as the people of the God of Abraham.

You see a little glimpse of it. You see a little
glimpse of it at Pentecost. You remember at Pentecost, Luke is describing the
scene as they gather for that festival in Jerusalem, and there are Parthians and
Medes and Elamites and dwellers of Mesopotamia, and Judea and Cappadocia, and
Pontus and Asia, and Phrygia and Pamphylia, and Egypt and parts of Libya. And
what’s Luke doing when he’s giving you that list of nations that have gathered
to Jerusalem? He wants you to catch a little glimpse of what will be. There at
Pentecost, on the other side of Calvary, on the other side of the resurrection,
on the other side of the ascension as the inaugural event of the pouring out of
the Spirit and the fulfilling of God’s plan of redemption — there you have that
little cameo portrait in Jerusalem of what one day will be, in all of its
fullness and in all of its splendor, and in all of its greatness: the nations of
the world bowing down to the feet of Christ, and acknowledging themselves to be
part of the peoples of the God of Abraham.

Do you believe it, my friends? Do you believe that?
Do you believe that’s possible? That out of every tribe and every tongue, and
every people and every nation God will gather to himself this immense army of
people?

Let me recommend to you parents in your family
devotions…and if “family devotions” sends a shiver down your spine, let me sort
of recommend something much easier to you. At mealtimes, when the family is
gathered together for a meal — however infrequent that may be (that’s another
problem for another day) — but as you gather together for a meal, get a hold of
something like Operation World, a little book with lists of facts and
figures about various countries, various nations of the world.

Some of you watched this week — it did the email
rounds…it was certainly sent my way — a YouTube video on current and future
world trends. And you perhaps remember the opening segment of it. Do you
remember what it said? “If you’re one in a million in China, there are 1300
people just like you. If you’re one in a million in India, there are 1100 people
just like you.” It takes your breath away, doesn’t it, to take in the sheer
vastness of those numbers?

I’m told as of this week there are 1,569 “unengaged
people groups;” that is, people groups where there are no missionaries of any
kind, of any description…1,569 unengaged people groups in the world today. There
are 6,747 “least reached groups;” that is, groups where of the population less
than two percent have heard an adequate presentation of the gospel.

This is a missionary Psalm. It’s meant to excite us
about being caught up with God’s mission, God’s purpose, God’s design in the
world. Consider short-term missions. Consider joining one of the mission teams
here in the church. Consider on a regular basis making praying for missions
something that you do.

IV. This is a Psalm about
worship.

You know…did you catch it? It’s the fourth
thing I want us to see. Not only is this a picture of God is King, not only is
this a picture of Christ ruling and reigning, not only is this a missionary
Psalm; did you notice the main thing here, how the Psalm actually begins?

“Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of
joy!”

It’s about worship, isn’t it? The vision is of missions,
but the principal thing is about worship.

What is it that John Piper says all the time?
That missions is not the ultimate thing; worship is. Missions exists because
worship doesn’t. God’s aim, God’s plan is not just to save people, but to save
them in order that they might praise Him; to save them in order that they might
worship Him and adore Him and glorify Him.

There’s coming a day when there is going to be a new
heavens and a new earth, and it will be populated by every conceivable nation
and tribe and tongue and people, and every single one of them will be giving
praise to God with shouts of joy and hallelujahs that will make Handel’s
Hallelujah!
Chorus pale into insignificance by comparison. Now that’s
the vision.

You see, it’s a determinative indicator of ourselves
as Christians whether that vision excites us or not, isn’t it? Here’s a test
tonight. Here’s a challenge. Here’s what I want you to go home and think about
tonight and pray about: If that is what it’s all about, if that’s the main
thing, if that’s the principal thing, if that’s the chief thing to get excited
about, does it excite me? Does the thought of Missions Week at First
Presbyterian grip you and excite you? That you — you! — are caught up in
something that is at the very heart of God, because He only has one Son and He
sent Him as a missionary? That’s the closest thing to God’s heart.

You call yourselves Christians, followers of Christ,
servants of Christ, lovers of Christ. Does that do it for you? Is that it? Is
that your vision? Is that your chief end? Is that what excites you? Because you
were made for this. You were remade in Jesus Christ for this, to catch that
vision.

Oh, Ligon tells us he loves this hymn, For All the
Saints
:

“The golden evening brightens in
the west;

Soon, soon to faithful warriors
comes their rest;

Sweet is the calm of paradise the
blest,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

“But lo! There breaks a yet more
glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in
bright array;

The King of glory passes on His
way.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

“From earth’s wide bounds, from
ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl stream in
the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost,

Alleluia! Alleluia!”

That’s the vision. That’s the vision. Let’s pray together.

Our Father in heaven, instill in our hearts now
that vision of Your ultimate purpose in this world. We want to be a part of it.
We want to be caught up in it. We want it to be the one thing for which we live,
that we are soldiers of Christ, ambassadors of Christ here in this city. Father,
we pray this week as we begin our emphasis on missions, particularly on
Wednesday night and next Lord’s Day, we want this place to be full, overflowing,
demonstrating our impassioned love for what You love. Grant us, O Lord, tonight
an all-consuming desire to be out and out for that main thing for which Christ
came: to fulfill that covenant with Abraham, that through him the nations of the
world will be blessed. Use us. Use us as channels for Your glory. We ask it in
Jesus’ name. Amen.

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