I can remember back about five years after I had become a Christian, I was in a small group meeting where people were sharing from their heart. One man stated that he was afraid to submit to God's will. When asked why, he said, "Because God might send me to Africa." That did not set well with me. Something in me said, "Well I don't especially want to go to Africa either, but if it were God's will I would love it and could not wait to go." I don't know about that man, but 18 years later I have been on several short term trips to Africa and have loved every minute of it passionately. Right now I don't especially desire to go live in Africa, but if God wanted me to He would put that passion in my heart.

The word "missions" is not used in the Bible. A term that I believe we can more easily relate to is "ministry." A person in ministry, whether he/she is a minister in their local neighborhood or around the world, is in effect a missionary.

Some define missions as ministry to a different culture, which it may well be. However ministry is for every Christian. In the Old Testament, God desired that all His people would be priests, but only one group answered the call. Now in the church age, He calls us all priests, or ministers. Ministry, or missions, is not reserved for some select few who receive their paycheck from a church or mission agency.

Having said that, I do also believe that we are all to participate in cross cultural ministry, or foreign missions, in some way. If we are not called to go and live in a different culture, some of us can go on short-term trips. If that is not our calling, then we can pray or send, or in other words give money to the effort. Two billion people have never even heard of Jesus, and one third of the world is made up of people groups who do not have a church to which they may relate. I believe that Jesus will not return until every people group is represented in His Body, as a part of His bride!

God's missionary plans did not begin with the Great Commission that Jesus gave (Matthew 28:16-20), it began with Abram and has continued throughout the Old and New Testaments. God has a ministry/missionary plan for each one of His people. It is a principle that is embedded into His heart and your heart.

"Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

Notice God did not give Abram a command to be a missionary to the nations, only to leave his family. His mandate came in the form of a promise not a command. The emphasis was on what God would do not so much on what Abram would be expected to accomplish. God emphasized the outcome that He wanted to see happen among all of the earth's peoples rather than ordering Abram with step-by-step directives. Abram's duty was to simply obey what he could hear God say.

Our call is the same as Abram's; to abandon all.

We are called to leave our comfort zones. We are called out of our "family" or in other words, out of the world system or the world's culture, to live and operate in the Kingdom of God now. Abram depended upon his family's wealth, now he was commanded to leave all that behind. When we abandon everything in order to depend upon God, it is both uncomfortable and the most satisfying way of living. I can personally testify that when everything that I trust in is taken away, God is free to bless me. The result is that God will then make me a blessing.

If we abandon all we will be blessed and will be a blessing! God will perform all of the rest. He will put His passion into our hearts to reach out as a minister/missionary in a way that will satisfy us beyond our imagination; well beyond all we can ask, think, or pray for (Ephesians 3:20).

This takes the "guilt trip" off of the message for missions, but there is a sobering thought connected.

History records that every time the Hebrews in the Bible, or any other culture in the church age, bottled up the blessings for themselves and refused to bless others, that they suffered great judgement.

What motivates our mission efforts?

When its all been said and done, what will we say?

This is what Jesus said at the end of His life. "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). The only truly satisfying testimony at the end of our lives will be the same. Will we be able to say: "I have finished the work which You have given me to do"? It should not be, "Look at what all I have done for you," or, "Thank you for helping me to live a good and prosperous life."

What was given to Jesus to do? To glorify the Father.

The words glorify and glory have multiple definitions. Here in its usage as a verb, Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary defines it as follows: "It is the revelation and manifestation of all that He has and is." It carries the connotation to unveil the truth behind the veil. It would be like taking a drape off of a new work of art to reveal it to the audience. To glorify God therefore would be to reveal His true character. Jesus had done that.

Jesus' work may have been finished but His Father's work was not.

Jesus said in the next verse, "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5). Jesus was saying, "Now show everyone who I really am." In other words, Jesus was telling God to go ahead with His crucifixion.

How does all this relate to missions? Missions is to reveal or to glorify God.

To glorify or to reveal God is the true motivation for missions. God's heart and what God desires is to be understood. One of the greatest gifts anybody can give to me is to understand who I really am. When someone can go beyond my words and actions and see into my heart and my motivations, I am truly blessed. God has been so misrepresented and misunderstood. He desires to be known, to be revealed, to be glorified. It is one of His passions!

God's character has often been misunderstood. Often it has been a paradox.

Moses had questions.

The scene is the Israelites being led by Moses in the desert wilderness after having fled their slavery in Egypt. Moses had several face to face encounters with the Lord. Now God was instructing him to take the people into the Promised Land, and Moses had some serious questions.

"Then Moses said to the LORD, 'See, You say to me, 'Bring up this people.' But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.' Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people" (Exodus 33:12,13).

Moses was saying, "You said that You know me, now I want to know You!" In verse 33:17 the Lord in effect said, "OK." Moses responded, "And he said, 'Please, show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18).

The Lord agreed to reveal Himself to Moses, to a degree. He told Moses that he should hide in the cleft of a rock, and that when He passed by He would cover him with His hand. God told Moses, "Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen" (Exodus 33:23). Notice God could not allow Moses to come too close to His glory, lest Moses would be destroyed.

When the Lord passed by something very unusual happened. "Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.' So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped" (Exodus 34:5-8).

God spoke some things to Moses that I am sure Moses did not completely understand. He said two things that did not seem to line up with one another.

1."The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…"

2."…by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

This is a clear referral to the passing down of a curse via family generations. It is also an indication of God's wrath. The word iniquity infers generational sin.

Was God revealing Himself as a God of love, or a God of wrath? Or both?

This is a paradox! How could God be merciful and forgive sin, and still be just and not clear the guilty, but rather pass on the generational curses down three to four generations?

Seeing just a glimpse of His glory, just the paradox, caused Moses to worship.

All Moses could do after that encounter was to worship! "So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped." Now hang on to that paradox because we are going to resolve it.

Just before His crucifixion Jesus began to talk about His unveiling.

He said, "But Jesus answered them, saying, 'The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified [revealed]. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain'" (John 12:23,24).

He said, "I have made your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make You known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hears] and that I Myself may be in them" (John 17:26 Amplified Bible). Also read John 13:30-32 and John 17:1,2.

Jesus knew that God's character could not be fully made known to man until He went to the Cross. It seems like He could not wait for this revelation to be made to mankind. I suppose even the angels could not understand what was happening as they heard Jesus talk about the Cross. Perhaps they were even poised to go to rescue Him when He went to the Cross. The victory at the Cross was a mystery hidden, yet a mystery that God wanted mankind to discover.

The veil was removed at the Cross, His true nature was finally revealed.

As a man, Jesus glorified God. As God, the Father glorified Jesus as God and as the Lamb. Yet most people still had no idea what was going on, and none had any idea of the full impact.

When Jesus was glorified on the Cross, think about what some people said if they had been allowed to watch the veil being lifted from His hidden character.

Perhaps if Adam had been allowed to watch he would have said, "Oh, so that is who that animal was that God killed in the Garden for Eve and me."

Perhaps Abraham and Isaac would have said, "Oh, that is who that lamb was that was caught in the thicket just in time."

Maybe the Hebrew children would have said, "That paschal lamb that our dad killed that saved us from being killed, that was Jesus!"

The bronze artesian who, as told in Number 21, crafted the snake for the pole which saved the people from dying, probably would have said, "I had no idea that Jesus was that serpent!"

Moses would have said, "I had no idea that those animals killed in the outer court at the Bronze Altar of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, were actually Jesus, the Messiah!"

While most of the people who saw the crucifixion could not comprehend the significance of this unveiling, we have the privilege now of, through the Holy Spirit, seeing the astounding revelation.

The paradox is resolved! The veil is lifted. Jesus is the Lamb of God!

The entire wrath of God was put on Jesus. Jesus was crucified! Yet He was without sin. All of the consequence of sin and generational curses, the entire penalty, was put on Jesus at the Cross. This is how God remains true to His character revealed in Exodus 34. He is merciful and compassionate, yet He cannot clear the guilty. But He did clear the guilty by putting his entire wrath on His Son Jesus, the only one who was not guilty. The Lord is merciful and forgives (removes) iniquity by means of putting the penalty of the iniquity on Jesus. That was an act of ultimate love! Can you trust the One that died for you?

If the entire wrath of God was put on Jesus, then there is no wrath left for you! All you have coming is blessing. This removes all fear. You may have to stand for it, but it is your inheritance. You may have to turn junk into jewels, but that is your privilege.

Jesus swapped places with us.

God turned His back on Jesus and forsook Him. Jesus was shamed. He experienced abuse of every type. He was rejected and misunderstood. They falsely accused the Creator of being a criminal. He was executed as a sinner, and He became a curse for us, and suffered for all curses for every person ever to be created. Jesus experienced the consequences for every single type of curse and sin that human beings can endure, even yours!

He gave you a new identity.

Not only did He take all of your iniquity and sin, but in doing so He caused you to become a new person, to take on a new race called the New Creation. He became sin so that you could become the righteousness of God.

Missions is more for God than it is for man!

Remember, Jesus did not say, "I have finished the work you gave me by healing many people and making their life better. I had mercy on prostitutes and tax collectors, gave the poor a reason to live, etc." He did all that, but His motivation was something else. He revealed His Father to the world. That glorified God the Father! The Father revealed His Son the Lamb to the world; that glorified Jesus.

My passion is to reveal (glorify) the Lamb of God to those who do not know that He is their Lamb. We should glorify Him not only by the preached, taught and written Word, but we should glorify Him in our bodies, by who we really are in Him (1 Corinthians 6:20).

Psalm 96 gives us some understanding.

"Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples" (Psalms 96:3). Here is a mandate to present God to the nations. Nations are not geo-political countries, but they are peoples and people groups. The word "nations" infers Gentiles, or people who do not have a covenant with God. It refers to the various ethnic groups. This was a cross cultural call to Israel. It was Abram's call, to be blessed in order to be a blessing.

The result of declaring His glory to the nations is that the nations will worship Him.

"Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Give to the LORD glory and strength. Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth" (Psalms 96:7-9).

"All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name" (Psalms 86:9).

Worship follows glory.

Thinking about who God is in Jesus and that He took our place as cursed humanity ought to cause all of us to worship. When Jesus is glorified as the Lamb in your life, and you know that He took your place as a criminal, that He took all of the destruction coming down from your generational iniquities and even from your own sin, all you can do is worship! As this begins to change your life you will have a passion to go bless others, maybe even the nations!

When you declare His glory to the nations and they realize the same thing, all they can do is worship.

While in West Africa this year, I was privileged to visit a village in the jungle where the first Gospel message had arrived less than a year earlier. Our African ministry partners had planted the first church for this "nation." The village people worshipped for almost an hour before anything was said. Then they testified how God had removed their curse and how their lives had been changed. One lady testified that before she knew Jesus that the devil killed all of her children, now that doesn't happen. I could not understand a word they sang or spoke, except through a translator, but I know it was a sweet song to the ears of God. They worshiped in a way that no other people group could worship. God loves the harmony and symphony produced by different tribes, tongues, and nations. Jesus was glorified! God was worshipped. This was one of the highlights of my life!

"But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24). Mission accomplished!

Larry Chkoreff 2002

Larry Chkoreff - October, 2002