Latest / The Ethnos360 Podcast / Wait — the Great Commission Starts in Genesis?
Transcript
- Ethnos360: Welcome friends to the Ethnos 360 Podcast, where we talk about vital topics, have honest conversations, and unpack the Great Commission. This episode is part of the series we call Rooted and Mature. We hope you come away with greater understanding of how God will accomplish His work through us as we work together toward the goal of seeing every people group reached. I'm Keith. I am part of Ethnos 360. I'm sitting today with my guest, Josh, who works in our advancement department. And one of the things that we love doing, Josh, is talking about God's word and how it points us towards one God's story, but that story is wrapped up in missions. And that's where we make I mean, that's where we do what we do and what what we love to talk about. So I just thought this would be cool. We've got a list of verses here we're gonna walk through and ⁓ just kind of take a survey. a beginning, middle, end of the story and we'll we'll talk it through. So the beginning of the story. Tell me what you what you how does this all start in Genesis? Yeah, actually I let me just take one step right before we jump in. I was just thinking, like, why does this even matter? Like why are we even involved in missions? ⁓ man. It's actually because it's what God's word says. It's not what Ethno three sixty says. It's not what any organization says. It's not what any church says it's actually what does God's word say about it? And so does God's word just give a few honorable mentions to the idea of missions? Right. Or is there this clear theme from Genesis to Revelation? I think that's that's really what we're talking about. And 'cause I grew up I grew up Matthew twenty eight, eighteen, nineteen. Boom. Yeah. That's your missions story. And then everything else is kinda whatever. You know, it's like it there's a lot of other stuff in there. But really we Like you say, I think it's all through scripture from beginning to end. So let's talk about that. How does this yeah how does it start? Yeah, so Genesis one, I mean, we see at the beginning, God creates the heaven and the earth with just his voice. I mean, we meet the creator being the amazing God of who he is. And at the end of as he's creating on the sixth day, he creates I mean, really, he was setting up the world. They all the entire like ecosystem, he's setting it up. And who is he setting it up for? Man. Man to honor himself, right? To honor him. And so on the last day of creation, he creates Adam and Eve. And this is what he says to them in Genesis one, twenty eight. God bless them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. So when I see God bless them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, I'm thinking, okay. So he just, hey, enjoy the garden and it's an odd command to multiply and then fill the earth. Like I just thought why doesn't he just want them to Yeah, occupy the garden. Like it's an awesome setup there. No, I know, but his right off the bat from get go was Hey, this garden's just kind of a launching point. Multiply, disciple, teach, fill the earth. Fill the earth with my glory. And that's really ⁓ that's really what it comes down to. The entire earth was designed to give him glory. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. I know ⁓ I know with the Haywa people, they were they're always like, How do we get back to that right there? That's what we want. We want to go back to the garden, you know? I think we all do, right? And and we will get there one day in a in a new earth, but yeah. So that's the command right out of the launch. And how does how does mankind respond to this awesome gift of not only a place to live, but a purpose for living? How does man respond? Well, we know in Genesis three, we call it the fall. That's where Adam and Eve they ate of the only fruit they were not allowed to. They sinned. Sin entered the world into the story, into all of our lives, because one man sinned, all have sinned. Every baby born from then to now is a sinner. Like my kids, I didn't teach them to bite each other when they get mad at each other. I'm not gonna tell you that. They just know it. It's in their soul, in their hearts. That sin is a terrible thing that entered the world and this is how it happened. ⁓ then we go through the story, yeah, Cain and Abel. We get we keep going and when I look in my Bible in Genesis six. As we just continue the thread and what Genesis says, like what's Genesis six six chapter titled for you? A world gone wrong. Yeah, a world gone wrong. It's like, wow, that actually seems pretty terrible. And so like Genesis six five, the Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. There's nothing known in the sun, brother. Right off the right off the bat, they're already doing what we do today, right? Like just six chapters in, creation is is on Gone astray. And then what happens? Consequently, God sends an a flood to flood the earth and kind of start over. And man, I I I've talked to people about this, and they're like, Man, that's terrible that God would do that. But it's also interesting that there's one man in his family that actually trusted God. He wanted to preserve the human race. Like the human race was already going to kill each other. They were going to destroy each other, like what we see in Genesis 6. But God says, Hey, like Noah and your family, you believe in me, build this ark, because I'm actually gonna flood the earth and you guys are gonna keep this thing going. Well, again, mankind over and over again, six chapters, they've done nothing but rebel, as far as we can tell, haven't followed the command at all. So really God would would have been justified to even just wipe out Noah and his family. Sure. And yet and yet, in the midst of all that, he's like, No, I'm gonna preserve the earth, I'm gonna preserve Mankind, I'm gonna preserve this relationship. Yeah. So that ⁓ I can continue to to commune with humanity and humanity can continue to have the opportunity to give me glory. I'll save some of them. Yeah. Then we get to Genesis 9 1. So I don't know if you wanna All right. Then it says then God bless Noah. So this is post-Ark. The flood goes down. Post Ark, God blesses Noah and his sons, and he tells them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Okay, that sounds familiar. Yeah, right. Like we just read that, right? Fill the earth. Fill the earth, fill the earth, and ⁓ be fruitful and multiply. So again, this has never been about you know, making ourselves a camp or ⁓ an estate or any of that thing, a fortress. That's not what we're about. It's always about filling the earth, spreading out, and giving him glory. That's ⁓ to me, that's just amazing that. It's all it's like off rents, repeat, right? It's same thing again. Here we go again. So all right. Yeah, in Genesis one, we we start to ask the question, like, what is God's will? And so you see that first command to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and you're like, okay, maybe that's what it is. Then we get to, yeah, just a couple chapters later to what he's saying to Noah. It's the exact same thing. So that should be an indicator for us. Yeah. God wants the earth to be filled with people who know and love him. Like that is what God is going for. That's what we see right at the beginning of all of Scripture. You know, it's funny 'cause I know a lot of people debate all this history often t I I personally believe in a in a ⁓ a literal understanding, ⁓ you know, a historical view of the scriptures. Yeah. The point is this. We miss the point when we get caught up in those details and how did it happen and did it all those things. Yes, I think it happened, and I know I don't know how, but I it did happen. But the point is not that. The point really is God created us to be in fellowship with him and to serve his purposes and to do what he He wanted us to do. He gave us his his purpose. And the point is that we continue to just walk away from him and walk away from his purposes. You know, and that's I think that's just the nature of humanity. Well that's what we see right after Noah and his family. They got the boat. They have kids, they're fruitful, and they multiply, but they don't fill the earth. Instead they actually gather in one place. We have a name for this, the Tower of Babel. And it's just so interesting when they were coming together, they were completely ignoring. God's one thing you wanted to do, to be fruitful and multiplying, fill the earth. They said, No, we don't want to do that. We actually want to build a name for ourselves, build a city. Let me let me just let me just read this like this first couple chap ⁓ couple verses here. Yeah. ⁓ 11 at ch it's Genesis eleven one. At that time, some of the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. That would have been awesome. As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and they settled there. They began to say to say to each other, Let us make bricks and harden them with fire. In this region, bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used instead of mark mortar. Then they said, Come let us build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches the sky, we'll make ourselves famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world. Directly against what God wants them to do. Yeah, and you were you were talking earlier about what what's your thought on that? That idea of stone and tar and mortar and all that stuff there. Well, I read that and I just thought and I've heard this from others, like, why why did they use tar? And the only thing that makes sense is they are maybe a generation or a few generations after this flood. So they every culture in the world has a flood story, from my understanding. That's pretty well known. And so they knew the flood happened. Like their great grandparents, they were in the flood, right? Yeah. And so they know this. creator being can flood the earth. And so what they're doing with that tar, I think, what I believe is they're trying to make this tower waterproof. They're saying, God, we're not doing your way, we're gonna do it our way. And the worst thing you could do to us is flood us, we're gonna make this thing we'll hide up on top. You know, or whatever. You know what's crazy is, yeah, it's ⁓ Genesis six fourteen, build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar. So here they are know the technology. They they've got the The rudimentary technology of waterproof and I I I without a doubt, they're just trying to escape the thought of God possibly being able to to punish them again for doing the exact opposite of what he wants them to do. You mentioned earlier, let's just pause here for a second. You mentioned earlier that the Bible is a story. What we i in any good story, you always have the the setting and the characters, you have the plot, and then ⁓ At the end, you'll have a conclusion, right? And there'll be this growing, this growing ⁓ climax of excitement and energy, and something's you know, you got this tension and what's gonna happen, and then there'll be a resolution of that, and then the conclusion. So now I I believe that Genesis really has established the portion of the story that we need, the characters in the setting. Characters, humanity, and God, and God, and ⁓ good angels and bad angels, we got those guy in there. Okay. And then you also have the setting, which is the earth. It started off right in the garden. Now it's progressed through a flood. Then it's gone to a city. Eventually, humanity does get scattered, right? It says there in verse what is it? Eight, eight, eight, and nine. And that way the Lord scattered them all over the world and they stopped building the city. And that's why the city was called Babel, because that's where God confused the people with different languages. And in this way, He scattered them all over the world. I don't know how that whole scattering went. I've heard people say, you know, there are it's almost like God picked them up and put them there. And and you wonder if that's maybe because there are people eating stuff in you know different parts of the world that it's like, how did they come up with the idea to eat that and sustain themselves if God didn't put them there and say, do this so you can survive? But yeah, I don't know how he did it. Maybe maybe it was just the language is confusing and they wandered on land bridges. Again, I think we get bogged down and trying to figure out how it all happened. Yeah. When the reality is is we need to know that that God accomplished his purpose of filling the earth with humanity. Now the question is, are we holding our part of multiplying? And I believe Physically and spiritually. Physically and spiritually. There you go. Yeah. So we get into Genesis twelve, and that is the plot is set. Okay. And you know, God has an earth and he has them actually the earth is filled with people. But now he has this main problem. These people that are scattered around the world don't know who he is. Right. They have this separation from God because of their sin that happened in Genesis three that all human beings have. So that's that's where we get the end of the introduction and we get into Genesis twelve where God calls this man Abram. And yeah, we can just read verses one through four. So yeah, twelve, one through four. The Lord said to Abraham, Leave your native country and your relatives and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and to a great nation. I'll bless you and make you famous, and you'll be a blessing to others. I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with content, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. So Abraham or Abram departed as the Lord instructed him, and Lot with went with him. So yeah, I'm seeing some same things that we heard in the introduction. Be blessed and to be fruitful and multiply and be this blessing across the entire world. I haven't looked at it, but in many ways it almost seems like I guess Noah obeyed and he he went out and did whatever. But this is definitely a guy who responds in obedience by actually leaving his home country. Yeah. Cross cultural ministry. Yeah, which is kind of r up until this point is kind of an odd thing, right? Everyone's No, let's stay here, let's stay here. ⁓ and and he's the first guy that says, Okay, that's what you want me to do, God. I'm in. I'm in. What do you think that means when he says all the families of the earth will be blessed through you? Yeah, when you're just reading it at face value, you you know, some questions start coming up, and we look at the entire narrative of scripture, we know what God's talking about. He's talking about Genesis three fifteen, the coming Redeemer. God is talking about, yeah. That deliverer, that redeemer that's gonna come, he's gonna come through your family. He's gonna bless the whole world. That's cool. I mean, again, though, it it goes back to blessing the whole earth. It's not just about you being blessed, Abram, and your line being blessed, or your family, or your nation being blessed, but it's again, it goes back to the idea. His purpose is always to fill the earth with his blessing, with his glory, with his people. All those things. Pretty crazy. It's it's like that again, watch rinse, repeat, and we still can't get it. So all right. So what happens next in the story that you want to talk about? Well, I think it's if if you miss it in the call of Abraham, God makes it super clear because then he calls Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The exact same thing. Like, I'll bless you and make you a great nation. So these are his kids. Abraham's kids. Okay. And then what happens at the end of Well, let's actually read that Genesis twenty six, ⁓ verse four. All right, I'll read it. It says, I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky. I will give them all these lands, and through your dis descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Again. Crazy. I'm gonna I'm gonna highlight right here. All the nations again. Yep, and then it goes to Jacob. And Jacob, I think it's the story where he falls asleep, he sees this stairway going to heaven, and God is calling him, like, I'm gonna make you a great ⁓ name, and you'll be famous because your offspring will be a blessing to all the world. And then what happens at the end of Genesis, God changes Jacob's name to Israel, and the rest of the Old Testament we're following this one family, Israel, and how God is using Israel to be a light to the nations. Right. Right. And that's why I mean when you flip to Matthew, just everyone who who reads through the Bible, you know, you you're gonna see we're gonna see that eventually, that it's through Abraham that is the coming Messiah, right? Yeah, the gene. Jesus Christ, right? The Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the one that's coming to redeem humanity, he's gonna come through Abraham. All right. Yeah, the stage is set now, like we said, now we're in the middle of the plot, and yeah, Israel gets taken in captivity by ⁓ Pharaoh and Egypt. Okay, some some pause there. Yeah. So Abraham's promise of being made a nation, that comes true. And that nation is Israel. Yep. And what now say what happened to Israel? Well, Israel just began to get so large that the Pharaoh said, Wow. Those guys are gonna take us over. We better enslave them. And so that's what happens. And then we get into the book of Exodus and God calls Moses, Let my people go. I'm sure you've seen the Prince of Egypt. Absolutely. That's exactly where we're at in the story. Yep. ⁓ Yeah, so that's what what happens. That's what God uses their time in Egypt to make a great name for himself through Israel through the tent plagues as they go out. Crazy. Crazy. So let's let's read it, Exodus nineteen. Think that's the next one, right? Yeah, five and six. Go ahead. Nineteen five and six says, Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all peoples of the earth, for all the earth belongs to me, and you will be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. This is the message you must give the people of Israel. Yeah, I mean this is a This is just proving the point. And I like how there's a author out there, Todd Aaron. He's a good friend of Ethno 360. And he says this God has one plan reaching all the nations. He has one method, it's using his people. So here's the first proof of that. He wants to use his people, Abraham. Hey Abraham, I want you to go out and do this. I want to use you to be a light to the nations. Now, explicitly, Israel, I want you to be a light to the nations, be a holy people. A kingdom of priests. Don't be like the other nations around you. I want them to see you that you act different. You don't kill your kids for idol worship. You don't do these different things. You're different. And I want them to come to you and say, Wow, what is different about you? Who are you worshiping? What is different about you guys? Right. They were based they were supposed to be the big billboard, right? Exactly. Like come follow God and and and worship him. And that was that that was their call. Again, a missionary call for the people of Israel. Right. The the line of Abraham, they were they were to be missionaries for all the peoples on earth. Wow. Yeah. So that was the God told that directly to Moses, and then later in Deuteronomy, Moses tells this to the people of Israel. Deuteronomy four, ⁓ verses five and six. Look, I now teach you these decrees and regulations just as the Lord my God commanded me on the mountain. Right? Y'all exodus. that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy. Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear these decrees, they will exclaim, How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation. That's how God wanted it to be done. Right. So he's again he's saying the reason you're doing this stuff is not because you got to. It's because you get to, and when you get to do these things. I'm going to see let these other nations see you, the surrounding nations see you, and they're gonna be like, We want what you got. Yeah. You know, it's funny because ⁓ I worked in the country of New Guinea for a bunch of years, and I would say the biggest calling card why people groups come and ask us to to, you know, hey, can you put church planners in our location? Can you can you come and work with us? The biggest reason is that right there. They They see the neighboring tribe and they see the long term effect of Bible teaching, literacy, discipleship, church planning. They see all those things going on and they can see the contrast. They see a community because it not only does the gospel change individuals' lives, it changes families and communities. And then, you know, they'll hike over the mountain and they're overvisiting and they're saying, What's changed here? What's different? And it's this right here, what what he's told them in Deuteronomy. He's saying other nations are gonna come along and they're gonna see what what I can do and they're gonna want that. Yep. And they and then those people actually crazy enough, they'll actually write our organization and say, Hey, can we get that? We want that. We want whatever they had, that's what we want. Yeah, and we've even read some of those letters from ⁓ Yeah, yeah, people banging for missionaries. Yeah. And it's because of that right there. They see that the surrounding people see God's power on display and they want that. They want that. Wow. Cool stuff. All right. So it would've worked had the Israelites just done what he said. What's he say there? He just says, obey obey me. That's all he says. Obey the law. Be my goodful. And yeah, we know they weren't perfect. And so God said, Yeah, that actually that whole generation is gonna have to die before you enter the promised land. Moses dies, Joshua raises a what a great name. What great name I hear. Yeah. And so what's interesting when I went by Josh, I don't think Yeah, he was a bit Josh. When we get into the book of Joshua, it's interesting to see what was Israel well known throughout the whole world. Okay. And whenever we see Joshua sends out the spies into Jericho, what happens? Those spies, some of ⁓ meet ⁓ Rahab. And this is what she says to them in two ⁓ nine through eleven. Find that real quick. Yep. ⁓ yeah. I know the Lord has given you this land. This is her talking to them, she told me. We are all afraid of you. Everyone in this land is living in terror, for we have heard how the Lord has made a dry path for you to cross the Red Sea when you left Egypt. So yeah, there's no Instagram, there's no cell phones, no somehow other nations have already heard about Israel who just crossed the Red Sea forty years earlier. Like words getting around. They have a powerful God. They know who he is, they worship him and They're forced to be reckoned with. Yeah, right there at the end of level eleven she says, For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Like God has done exactly what he said he would do. He says, I'm gonna put my full power on display. And guess what? All the nations are gonna see it. And now we see all the nations surrounding are going, ⁓ yeah, we know it's coming, you know. So she throws herself on the mercy. Yep. Of Joshua and Caleb and says, Hey, when your God saves you and gives you this land, save me too. You know, which is kind of cool. So in in many ways, that's the way Joshua and Caleb, that's the way missions is supposed to work. As we live our lives, we're putting God's full glory on display. That's why we wanna we wanna be like Christ. That's why we wanna let his word and his holy spirit guide us and direct us and change us and make us like his image. Because when people see that, they're gonna say, I don't know what you got, but I want that. Yeah. And ⁓ it's working. It's working for Joshua and Caleb, but unfortunately, the rest of the nation, right? They just say, Sack it. We're not doing that. We're gonna go our own way. We're gonna make our own plan. Yeah, a lot of ups and downs throughout their time, conquering the land, getting in there. Yeah. Doing some things right, doing other things terribly. It the first thing you show, the first the next pe passage you have that we run to is the kings. And that that wasn't God's plan. The plan was not for the for us to glorify one guy and lift up one guy and honor one guy. ⁓ that wasn't the plan at all. And yet Israel's like, That's what we want. Everybody else has that. We want that, you know? And again, he's saying, Well, I had a I had a I had a different way I was gonna work this out. But He gives them a king. So what happens in First Kings chapter 10? Yeah, I just love how it's still going off of what God told Moses, and then we see in Deuteronomy what Moses is telling the people to be that wise ⁓ nation for others to come to them. So we see in in 1 Kings 10, ⁓ let's see here, 23, I believe it is, about King Solomon. And this is what it says: King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth, people from every nation. Came to consult him and hear the wisdom God had given him. So so even in all their ups and downs, what's happened? God's faithful and God is still using his people and he used Solomon to draw the nations to sure Solomon, but then Solomon was showing them this is our God. This is why we are different. These are the decrees he's told us and this is how to live a better life and trust in the creator of all things. Not the created, but the creator. Any closing thoughts as you just kind of consider what we've covered so far? Yeah, I mean, we are just in the beginning of the intro and the plot of how God is going to use his people. You know, God has one one plan, it's to reach the nations, is one method, and it's using his people. We see that in the Old Testament, and I'm sure in our next conversation as we get into the New Testament, that's the same thing God wants to do. God wants to you use you and me, the church, to do the same thing now. You know, it's funny because so many people think of the old, you know, Old Testament and they say, Well, God just seems like, you know, he was so much harsher then. And I'm like I I look at it and I see the exact opposite. ⁓ grace. I mean, humanity with the the ⁓ least amount of rules to follow necessary, right? They just continue to rebel, rebel, rebel, rebel. And not only does he s he continue to save them by their faith. But I love too that he continues to deliver on his promises. You know, he continues to deliver on his purposes. Even when they're not delivering on their purposes, he continues to deliver on his purposes of drawing the nations to himself. He will he will build his church. We know that from the New Testament, right? He will build his church. He will accomplish his purposes. So yeah, I think we can rest in that. All right. We'll join up at this next time. All right. We'll jump into looks like we have Psalms next on our list. We'll jump in there and go from there. But thanks, Josh, for coming in today and ⁓ talking about God's plan and God's purpose for us. Thank you for investing the time to listen to today's episode. It's our prayer that what you heard causes you to think more about your next step as a believer who understands the Great Commission. 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