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Posted: 11/18/2007

The Church and the Nations

"THE DAY OF THE LORD" AND THE NATIONS Luke 21:5-19; Malachi 4:1-2a The thread running through each of the lessons is the Day of the Lord. This is appropriate since, in the liturgical calendar, the coming week marks the Sunday before Advent, the Sunday of Christ the King. The proper theme for this week should be, then, the Day of the Lord which will mark of the beginning reign of Christ as King. The Old Testament frequently connects judgment with the Day of the Lord. Jeremiah 7 gives an instance of that. This chapter also seems to be the background for the setting of Jesus at the Temple giving His own prediction of judgment. Isaiah gives two insights of a different nature into the Day of the Lord in two of his Servant songs, Isaiah 45:22, 23, and Isaiah 52:13. Each of these looks ahead and sees the reign of God over all His creation, all nations. Each of them shows the Day of the Lord as the climax of God's salvation history, and thus, each shows how the plan includes the ingathering of all the Gentiles, the nations. Paul takes these concepts and shows their fulfillment them in the messianic rule of Jesus Christ. The Day of the Lord will reveal God's plan of grace for all sinners, Jew and Gentile. "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." (45:22a) He goes on to say that there is only one God, who is the creator of all humankind. Therefore only He can offer universal salvation. And indeed He swears - of greater reality than a promise! - He swears that every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance. Paul sees this fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. He joins the hymn of Christ in Philippians 2 to God's salvation history. Because of who Jesus is and what He has done, we see the Day of the Lord as the climax of God's salvation history. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess allegiance because God has sent Jesus Christ as the Messiah. What Isaiah saw will happen because Jesus is the Messiah who gives a universal offer of salvation. As preface to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, Isaiah states that He shall "sprinkle many nations". (52:15) The background of this odd phrase is Leviticus 14:7, where the atoning blood of the sacrificial lamb is sprinkled on the defilements of lepers. The blood of the Messiah's sacrificed blood will atone for the sins of the nations. "Those who have not heard will hear, those who have not been told will be told." (52:15) Paul takes that verbatim as evidence of God's intent for all the nations to hear the preaching of the Good News. (Romans 15:21) Jesus makes two statements which seen obvious in the light of these solemn truths. "The Gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations and then the end will come. (Mt. 24:14; Mk. 13:10; cf. Luke 24:47) And secondly, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." (Mt. 28:19)

		THE LEAST EVANGELIZED .... THROUGH THE EYES OF THE NIGERIAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT Suffering shall surely accompany the spreading of the Good News. Jesus makes this quite clear in His teaching to His disciples. (Luke 21:16-18) In fact, He says, in some cases the suffering of disciples will come from betrayal by fathers and mothers. While we are aghast at that possibility, many in fact know the truth of this most agonizing form of betrayal. On the recent trip to Nigeria for training of missionaries for work among the unreached, we met one young man with such a story. He had the scars that told us the truth of his near martyrdom. His family was Muslim. This man was converted by his soccer coach who was a Christian. When he went to his family and told them of his new faith, his father took a knife and tried to gouge out his eyes. These are the scars of testimony. Somehow he escaped his father and kept his vision. Later, on another visit to his family, his own grandmother put a charm with an evil spell on it in the meal she served him. He knew the power of this and knew it could kill him instantly, as was his grandmother's wish. He felt he could not avoid eating the food. Saying a quick prayer for the Holy Spirit's power to neutralize the power of the evil spirit, he ate the soup - and was not harmed. At a later visit, his grandmother seemed to know that her time for dying was drawing near. She called him over and asked about his health. He knew she was asking for his forgiveness, which he gave her. With that he witnessed to her of the Savior and His power to forgive and bring eternity with God the Father by trusting in Him. The end of the story at this point is that she still lives but has not accepted Christ as Messiah. The young man was there for the training so that he could be a missionary to the Fulani people of northern Nigeria, themselves a Muslim people.

Church Steps . . . Towards the Nations Check out the last verse of the Old Testament and see what Malachi anticipated. Then apply that to your family. Sunday Scenes gives a weekly comment on the lectionary for a cumulative perspective on the missionary theme of Scripture. Rev. Tad de Bordenave, Founder and Former Director