CROSS CULTURAL MINISTRY CM 3303 Let The Nations Be Glad

Visible Reminders of the Holy A Lifestyle of Worship A Lifestyle of Prayer A Lifestyle of Suffering

Let the Nations Be Glad The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Suffering

Author John Piper Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church; Minneapolis, Minnesota Head of Desiring God Ministries –

Suffering We measure the worth of a hidden treasure by what we will gladly sell to buy it.

Suffering Matthew 13:44 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Suffering The extent of his sacrifice and the depth of his joy display the worth he puts on the treasure of God. Loss and suffering, joyfully accepted for the kingdom of God, show the supremacy of God’s worth more clearly in the world than all worship and prayer

Suffering Mark 8:34 34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Suffering Galatians 2:20 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Suffering So we must not water down the call to suffer. We must not domesticate all the New Testament teaching on affliction and persecution just because our lives are so smooth. It may be that we have not chosen to live in all the radical ways of love that God wants us to.

Suffering Mark 8:31 31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Suffering The call to suffer with Christ is not a call to bear our sins the way he bore them tbut to love the way he loved

Suffering 1 Peter 2: For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Suffering Hebrews 13: Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Suffering Afflictions are our vocation, whether we are missionaries or not. But this is especially the calling of those appointed to reach the unreached peoples of the world. Paul is the prototype of such missionaries.

Suffering 2 Corinthians 11: Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

Suffering Does God allow or appoint the suffering of His messengers?

Suffering Six Reasons God appoints suffering for His Servants – Deeper Faith and Holiness – Suffering Makes Your Cup Increase – The Price of Making Others Bold – I Make Known of Christ’s Afflictions – Suffering Enforces the Missionary Command to Go – The Supremacy of Christ Manifest in Suffering

Suffering God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And the supremacy of that glory shines most brightly when the satisfaction that we have in him endures in spite of suffering and pain in the mission of love.