God is seeking to reveal His glory to the world. And missionary success in relation to God’s purpose is this: it is possible for me to leave my home country, to go to some faraway place, to build and to establish and to sacrifice, and I can do all of these things and yet fail to bring glory to God.

The Need of Man and the Purpose of God (Part 2 of 3)

Based on Ephesians 1:3-14

In Part 1, we established that the church is not about us—it’s about God’s eternal purpose. We saw that God has a purpose in the world, centered in Christ, and involving His people. Now we discover what that ultimate purpose actually is.

What Is the Purpose of Missions?

You might say, “The purpose of missions is to win souls. It’s to win souls.”

Samuel Zwemer, missionary of bygone days, spent 25 years serving the gospel as a missionary in Arabia and Egypt among Muslims, and at the end of his life, he claimed seven converts. Seven. 25 years, seven.

David Livingstone, 30 years in the heart, traveling back and forth across the heart of Africa, and after 30 years, David Livingstone, in one of his writings, claims two converts. Part of Livingstone’s problem is he wouldn’t claim a convert until he’d watched their life for two years.

You say, “Well, hold on, hold on. I think that the purpose of missions is not just to win souls, it’s to win souls and establish indigenous churches. That’s the purpose of missions.”

Now I submit to you, if God’s plan and purpose for Zwemer and Livingstone was to win souls and the judgment on their success was the number of souls that they won, their lives would hardly be called a success. And if the goal of ministry is simply to establish indigenous churches, they were complete failures.

I don’t know if you’ve taken a drive recently from Lusaka to Kitwe, but the next time you do that, start counting how many—they’re not Jehovah’s Witnesses—how many Watchtower meeting centers there are. Every few kilometers, another Watchtower center, another Watchtower center, another Watchtower center. And you want to know something? They’re all indigenous.

A Missionary’s Vision of God’s Greater Purpose

In 1852, David Livingstone began a journey across Africa from the west to the east in late 1852 that would conclude in 1855. In his journal on June 18th, 1853, David Livingstone wrote this:

Discoveries and inventions are cumulative. Another century must present a totally different aspect from the present. And when we view the state of the world and its advancing energies in the light afforded by childlike—or call it childish—faith, we see the earth filling with the knowledge of the Lord. All nations seeing His glory and bowing before Him whose right it is to reign. Our work and its fruits are cumulative. We work towards another state of things. Future missionaries will be rewarded by conversions for every sermon. We are their pioneers and helpers. Let them not forget the watchmen of the night—we who worked when all was gloom and no evidence of success in the way of conversion cheered our path. They will doubtless have more light than we, but we served our Master earnestly and proclaimed the same gospel as they will do.

You see, to win souls and establish churches is God’s will. But it is not the basic and ultimate purpose of God.

God’s Ultimate Purpose: To Reveal His Glory

God has a purpose in the world. God has a purpose for the church in the world. And God’s purpose is to reveal God’s glory. God’s purpose in our generation is to reveal His glory.

Go back to our text, look at Ephesians 1:11: “In Him, in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things by His sovereign will, according to the counsel of His will, so that”—look at it, verse 12—”so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.“

Look at verse 14: “Who is the guarantee,” that’s the Holy Spirit, “of our inheritance, our future reward of heaven, the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire that which we hope for with confidence,” notice, “to the praise of His glory.“

You see, God’s purpose is to reveal God’s glory.

We Need Supernatural Power to Understand This

We require a power that is greater than ourselves. We reference Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part, the furthest reaches of the earth.” You will receive power for this mission. This power is necessary if we are to know and comprehend the incomprehensible.

To truly understand what God is doing in the church for His glory is so far beyond our human ability to understand and grasp that Paul cries out to God in prayer for them and for us. Look at Ephesians 1:15: “For this reason”—because of these spiritual blessings in Christ and because God in His eternal purpose is working everything together so that through us He might reveal His glory and receive the glory that is due to His holy name—”for this reason.”

“Because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayer.”

So Paul, what are you praying for this church? What are you asking God for on behalf of the Ephesians? Well, look what he says. Here’s his prayer, verse 17: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, and so that you may know what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and that you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in heavenly places.”

Read More