Appointed To Bear Fruit: A 90 Day JourneySample

God’s Missionary Strategy

God desires that all should be saved through faith in Jesus. So, it’s interesting that while Jesus prays for Himself, His disciples, and all believers, He doesn’t pray for the lost souls of this world. That doesn’t mean that Jesus is not concerned about the world. From Scripture, we know that the Father loved the world so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to save us (John 3:16). Instead of praying for the world, Jesus prays for all believers, because He knows that all who abide in Him will bear fruit by proclaiming salvation to the world. The most important prayer that can be offered for the world, then, is for believers to proclaim the gospel so that the world will believe in Christ and have eternal life.

Jesus gave us His glory so that we would be one and, that through that oneness, the world would come to faith in Him. Jesus often spoke of glory and being glorified. This glory referred to His death and resurrection. Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). God is most glorified through the fulfillment of His plan of salvation. Jesus went to the Cross to glorify the Father and, was in turn, glorified by the Father. Jesus prayed, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27-28). The Cross was the ultimate expression of God’s glory. In the Cross, God’s justice, righteousness, holiness, and love are displayed for all the world to see. The Father poured out His wrath on the Son, so that we would become recipients of His love through grace.

This glory has been given to us so that we might become perfectly one. The glory of the Cross is the Son humbly submitting to the Father’s will and denying Himself, even to the point of death on the Cross. Now we, as His disciples, must take up our own cross. In fact, we find glory in the ministry of the Cross. With humility, we can testify to the salvation that Christ has given us and, through self-denial, can give of ourselves so that others might be saved through Christ’s sacrifice. We can become perfectly one with other believers, because of our common salvation. We are one in the ministry of the Cross. And as a result, the church throughout the world gives itself fully to the cause of the gospel. Carrying our cross is not burdensome, but rather a privilege. When Jesus fell on the way to Golgotha, Simon the Cyrene, was tasked by the Roman guard to pick up Jesus’ cross and carry it the rest of the way for Him. The curse of the Cross was borne by Jesus alone. However, we can carry the cross of salvation with honor, knowing that our obedience brings glory to God. The Apostle Paul writes, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation” (II Cor. 1:6). Our suffering is for the salvation of others.

The missionary strategy of God is that the church—believers filled with the Holy Spirit—will form new communities around the world to exhibit God’s love and salvation by what they say and do. As we live in a community modeled on the oneness of the Father and Son, the world will know that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and will come to understand God’s great love for them. Before anything else was created, the Father loved the Son. This love is an unceasing perfect love. Jesus says, that through our oneness, the world will know that this love is also for them. Through Jesus, we can have a love relationship with God for all eternity. It’s this oneness with God that is a proclamation to the world that God loves them. If God can save people like us, then the world will know that they, too, can be saved—no one is beyond the reach of the work of Christ. 

Application:  Are you exhibiting God’s love to the world?