Note from Dr. Ed Stetzer: I’m here in Korea at the Lausanne Global Congress. During and after the congress, I am hosting delegates on ChurchLeaders. Today, we have Phillip Miller, pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago.
As a part of the North American delegation to the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization hosted in Seoul-Incheon, South Korea, I’m sharing a few “Learnings from Lausanne” from this historic week as I reflect on the ways in which God is opening my eyes to his heart for the nations.
We just finished the first full day of the congress about an hour ago. The jet lag was noticeably evident for many of the participants, but that didn’t diminish the wholehearted worship of the global church gathered some 5,000 strong from 200+ nations. I’m told this is the largest gathering of the global church in world history. And frankly, it’s a little taste of Heaven.
I’m reminded afresh that God’s heart beats for the nations. God is on a mission to glorify His name by redeeming for himself a people from every nation, tribe, language, and tongue who will come alive in joyous relationship with him, through the redemption of his beloved Son, by the power of his Spirit. From the dawn of creation to the renewal of all things, this is what God has always been about.
In creation, God made humanity in his image and commissioned them to fill all the earth with his likeness, demarcating his rule and shalom throughout all creation. When God chose Abram to be the father of a great nation and covenant people, that blessing was given so that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
In God’s commission to Israel, redeemed from bondage in Egypt, we again see his heart, “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). Israel was to serve a priestly function, living holy unto the Lord as a showcase to the nations of a flourishing life under the reign of God, and mediating his covenant blessings not only for Israel but for the whole world. They were to be a light to the nations, a vision that resounds throughout the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms (67:1-3; 96:1-9; 117:1-2) and Isaiah (42:6-8; 60:1-3), where the nations are invited to come up to Jerusalem to know the living God.
When we turn to the New Testament, the Father sends his Son into the world for the purpose of redemption (John 3:16) as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Jesus is the lamb who will take away the sins, not just of Israel, but of the whole world (John 1:29).
In Luke 24:44-47, the resurrected Jesus explains,
Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled…that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
According to Jesus, all the Scriptures point to the mission of God through the crucified and risen Christ bringing forgiveness to all the nations.
In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus’ followers are sent out to make disciples “of all nations.” In Luke 24:46-48, Jesus declares that he will send the Spirit promised by the Father upon his disciples that they might go and be his witnesses “to all nations.” In John 20:21, Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” In Acts 1:8, Jesus sends out his witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
