 Okay, so this morning we're going through the glory of God and the great commission. And we have some handouts that'll be coming out soon. But what I want to do first is I want, let's go to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22 verses one through five. And I'm gonna be asking for your participation this morning. It's not gonna be anything brain-draining participation, but I want participation. So I'll be asking you a number of questions. And I just want you to think through these texts with me and let's participate together. So Revelation 22 verses one through five. This is part of a larger passage speaking about the coming New Jerusalem. The coming New Jerusalem. And we have this little nugget. I'm going to read it to you. And we're going to look first at what kind of glory language that we see in this text. So let's read here. It says this. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. I mean, through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it. And his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. Amen, what a beautiful passage. So please tell me someone or a few of you, tell me what kind of glory language do you see? Think of the past weeks, the past months. We've been looking at a number of texts. We've been seeing a lot of what I'm gonna call in this lesson, glory language and a lot of these texts. So just to wet our whistles a bit, what kind of glory language do we see in this text? Miss Gina. Yeah, river of water of life. Yep. What about that river of the water of life? Yeah, yeah. Amen, amen. That's fine. There's a glory displayed in the splendor of this place, right? And the splendor and the beauty of it. Any other takers on glory language? Pam. Hold on one second, I'll respond. They need no light nor light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light. Yes, yes. You see, there's the clear presence of God, the clear presence of God and you see, like we see in many places in the Bible, speaking of God's glory, the light emanating from him. And this is as clear and real presence in the New Jerusalem that all believers will see and experience. I saw two other hands. We'll take Sarah and then Noel. Is that the two hands or so? The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. So God is seated on his throne and he is, you know, worshiped. Yes, yes, very good. He's on his throne. You see the glory of his position and power, of his reign and rule, yeah? Pastor Michael, y'all fighting over it? Pastor Michael? Yeah. All right, you win, go ahead. Go ahead, back from vacation. In verse four, it says, And his name shall be on their foreheads. Yes. And we spent quite some time thinking through this series thinking about Exodus chapter 34 and how when Moses wants to see God's glory, just show me your glory. And the Lord responds to Moses by saying, my face you shall not see. So there's some type of association with the glory of God and the face of God. And then when God does come and hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, in kind of answer, in answer to the plea, show me your glory. The Lord comes and proclaims the name of the Lord. So there's an association, not only with the face of God and the glory of God, but also the name of the Lord and the glory of God. Yeah, yeah, the face of God, the name, the fact, even in fact, in that little nugget right there that you mentioned, the fact that he is being revealed, right? Like he's being shown, like what you mentioned with Moses, you know? Amen. Did you have something to add? Okay, same thing. Speaking of the name of God, we see two names, if you will, of God here in verse three. It says, no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. What's the significance of this right here, of God and of the lamb? Let's take the lamb first. What's the significance of the word lamb being used here? Have at it. It brings the idea of the sacrifice. When you think of the lamb, typically you think of the sacrifice. Yes, yes. So I believe what it does is it brings forward the crucifixion, the cross, the death of Christ. Yes, yes, very good, very good. God being glorified, Lord Jesus Christ particularly being glorified in his suffering, in his suffering. And now in this case, he's exalted as the lamb. But pointing back, remembering that he was the slain lamb, the slain lamb who took away the sins of the world. Yeah, amen, the throne of the lamb. And we see this, the throne of God and of the lamb. He sits, we say he sits at the right hand of the father. Technically that's the same thrones we see elsewhere in Revelation. And that's actually the same throne that we, his people, will sit on and reign. So it's a very beautiful picture, beautiful picture. So what we have here, what we have here is a new and better Eden. This new Jerusalem is a new and better Eden. The Bible starts off with this beautiful garden of Eden that the Lord has created on this earth and the Bible ends with Eden as well, but a new and better Eden. And let's look at some of the parallels between this Eden and the last Eden. And in verse one, I think what Ms. Gina mentioned, there's a river of the water of life. All right, now, what's interesting is the physical Jerusalem on earth, does Jerusalem have a river in it? There's no river in Jerusalem and Israel. There never was, there's a spring called Gihan, or Gaihan, I'm not sure how it's pronounced. But it's just a spring, it's the water that supplied the water in the pool of Siloam. They use it to irrigate the Kidron Valley, but it's not a river. There's no river in the current Jerusalem, but this new Jerusalem has a river. And if you go to Genesis chapter two with me, and I'll start at verse eight, it says this, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the East, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life, keep that in mind, the tree of life, by the way, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. So it goes on to name the rivers. So this is a river of water of life, and this new Jerusalem, this new Eden. And this wording, the water of life, that should peak up your ears too, right? You think it should cause you, it makes me think of the woman at the well in John chapter four. There's other passages that speak of, not that I'm up here and I'm under a little pressure, I'm forgetting them off the top of my head, but speaking of living water, the water of life, think about Jesus promising living water to the woman at the well, and thinking spiritually, and there also being a physical fulfillment to what he's saying in the new Eden. It's clear as crystal, beautiful and pure. And look at verse two here. I mentioned, I said when we were in Genesis two, to keep your mind also on the tree of life. Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So you have in this new Jerusalem, you have a river of water of life, and then you have in very clear, explicit language, the tree of life. And this could even possibly be multiple trees. I don't know if it's a type of tree or if it's one tree, you know, in Ezekiel 47, it refers to multiple trees here with 12 kinds of fruit. Fruit coming on this tree every single month. Imagine a tree that fruits every month. I wish I had a tree in my backyard that fruited every single month. This is glorious abundance from God, providing every need that must be met. Water and food, everything in beautiful splendor. And even this language about the tree being next to a river and providing its fruit every month. Doesn't that sound a little bit like Psalm chapter one, right? The man who delights in the law of the Lord. On his law, he meditates day and night. And what is that man like? He's like a tree planted by the rivers of water, right? That yields his fruit every what? Season, yeah, and his leaves will not weather. You know, it's almost as if the writer of that Psalm is in a way pointing to the man who delights in the law of the Lord is himself a little picture of the new Eden to come. And these leaves are for the healing of the nations. The nations will be unified and healed in this new Jerusalem, this new Eden. In verse three, we see there's no longer will be, no longer will there be anything accursed, right? So just like in Eden before, before the fall of man, there was no curse. And now in this new Eden, there will be no more curse. There will be no more curse. And he says, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. Adam experienced a pure worship in Eden, a pure worship that we can only imagine to have, a pure worship without sin. And in this new Jerusalem, this new Eden, there will be pure worship once more without the curse. Without the curse. There will be a return to fellowship with God. Just as Pastor Michael mentioned earlier, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. Remember when Adam was caught in his sin and he and Eve, they were hiding and they heard the hid because they heard God doing what in the garden in the cool of the day. He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. There was Adam and Eve before their sin experienced a perfect fellowship with God. And we will experience an even better fellowship with our Lord in the new Jerusalem, the new Eden. And there's a radiant glory here, a radiant glory. We mentioned the, we talked about in verse five, they will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light. And this last phrase is important too. And they will reign forever and ever. What was Adam commanded to do? He was to take what over the earth? Dominion. Adam was to reign. Well, he was to bear offspring and reign over the entire earth, but he failed. But here, there will be a new reign and this new Eden, this new Jerusalem, well, we will reign in perfect reign. And unlike Adam's reign, which ended rather abruptly, this reign will last forever and ever. So we will have a full and final dominion with God, with God and the new Jerusalem, the new Eden. So the point, go ahead, bro, yeah, how about it? I just want to ask a question with like that, the language of the street, the river and the tree. You know, like, had you thought about it? And this is a question. I'm asking a question. Yeah, yeah. I thought in thinking about the text or studying the text, like, should we interpret that as figurative language or literal language or both, like a literal tree and a literal river pointing towards something that's figurative? You know, like, had you thought about that? I just, I'm curious. I was wondering what you think about the text if we should understand that, literal or figurative? I thought a little bit about that and I don't want to, like, speak too definitively. I can tell you some of the thoughts that I had in my head about it. So I think some of this is, would clearly be literal just because it's pointing back because of the clear references to the first Eden and we understand those things about Eden prior being literal. So I think it would be safe to read this text and assume that there would be a tree of life, that there would be a river, that this New Jerusalem is an actual tangible place, that there would be a street and a throne, like, that we will see these physical, like, we will see God's face, you know, we will see the Lamb. At the same time, I did think through the fact that, like, some of this, you know, some of these things may point to a greater splendor that we can't describe and there's other, you know, there's other considerations, like, even, like, further back in this text speaking of the New Jerusalem and, like, the measurements of it, I was reading, I was reading some Jim Hamilton stuff on, like, the measurements and, you know, it makes it sound like small, the New Jerusalem, you know, and he was talking about how some of those measurements may not necessarily be exact measurements of the city but that they could be, they could point to, they could really be just showing us that, no, this place is a grand, you know, this is a grand place, you know, but I haven't given, like, too much thought to really give a clear answer. Yeah, thank you, brother. Raleigh. Just wanted to make an observation. As we've been speaking, like in verse one, it says, then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and you see that none of this happens apart from the throne of God and the Lamb. So it shows us our union with Christ and how he has redeemed us and all of this comes from him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all of this, you see, you see the Lamb as the center of all of this and you see, like, you also see really clear dependence too, right? Upon him, like, this is, he is the temple of the New Jerusalem, as we see, like, earlier in passages prior to this. He is the source of all the blessing. He's the source of the light. Looks like here, he's the source of the river, you know? So this is the Lamb. The Lamb provides all that is needful here, amen. So thinking about this, right? The purpose, the title of our class today is the glory of God and the Great Commission. And we just looked at Revelation 22, one through five, and we didn't say anything about evangelism. We didn't say anything about going to another country. We didn't say any, we didn't talk about missions proper. What would this have to do with missions, Pastor Michael? Well, the reference to the nations in verse two. Yes. In the middle of the street, on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding the fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. You know, you made a comment, which was very interesting. Like, you were talking about, you know, like your first inclination was to interpret those things literal, and in light of what Braulio had said about the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb, and how God and the Lamb provide everything necessary, just like a tree or a river, right? And so, you know, I think the way that this has, like what this has to do with missions is that it is the Lamb who provides the healing of the nations, right? The nations that were cursed by the fall, you know, divided by the fall, and really through missions, through the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is the means that brings souls from every tribe, nation, and tongue into this blessed state. Amen, amen. Yeah, like, when you think of missions, you have to think of the greater story at play. Like, missions is a means to an end. Missions is not the end. You know how sometimes we talk about the reason why we're still here is to make disciples, is missions, right? And is that a false statement? No, it's not a false statement. But sometimes we can say a statement like, make a statement like that and think that missions in itself is the end. Like the reason we're here is to make disciples and that's it. No, making disciples points to a greater reality. It points to a, it points to the end of the story. The Bible starts with Eden. It ends with Eden. The Bible starts with a marriage. It ends with a marriage. The Bible starts with Adam. It ends with a new and better Adam, you see? And missions is what brings people, like what Pastor Michael said, it brings people, it brings the nations into this new kingdom. You see what God had intended in creation and you see what happened through the fall and God and his wisdom, he has ordained for things to be restored and he's ordained through the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem people back to himself and to bring this people into a new Eden where they will reign with him forever. So missions is a means to an end. And then, so when you think of it that way too, right? That heightens your understanding of missions, doesn't it? It makes you think a little differently about it. I like how John Piper, he puts it, he says the purpose of missions or the end to missions is worship. It's worship. You want to see, in the end, you want to see the Lord Jesus Christ worship, receiving the reward for his suffering. You want to see God's plan fully and finally come to pass. So, and when you think like that, you end up seeing the movie and you end up realizing that when you're reading the Bible, you're inside of the movie screen right now and you have a script. And this is an awkward movie because you're sort of reading the script as you go along. You're reading the script and seeing how you're to conduct yourself in this movie. But, so when you think of missions, you must think of the entire story. So missions is a means to an end. It points us to the new Eden, the new Jerusalem, the new Adam. Yeah, Robinson. I think that application could be extended through our entire Christian lives in terms of everything that we do, whether it's evangelism, missions, worship, marriage, work, is within the context of eschatology because when you say eschatology, meaning that it ends with God in the new Jerusalem, right? Which is the end of the story. So everything we do prior to that builds up to that story. So therefore, the same importance we would apply to missions we want to do the same thing for. Every part of our Christian life. Amen, amen. Like no detail left undone. There's another hand, was that right? Yeah. Something that comes to my mind too that I try not to forget or lose track of is the fact that in the church, in the mission of the church, it's not like an extra phase or some different work. Yeah. In this text, you can see that it's the throne of God and the mission of the Lamb. So when we think of the Lamb and what God did in sending the Lamb, we know that what His mission was very clearly. He was very clear about it. But then when we think about acts where the church begins, Jesus said in John 14 and following, I'll not leave you alone or as orphans, I'll come to you. So the spirit is really a continuation of His ministry through us. We're, I know that the atonement is finished, but the work of missions, the work of applying that accomplished work is being carried out by the spirit through us, but that's a work of the Lamb on the throne. So it's not like we're, you know, separate. Or we're, you know, the Lord is with us, even says in Matthew 28. And then in Luke writing about acts, he said, let me write to you off the office what Jesus began to do. So he's not finished in that work. He's continuing through us. So I think that this text reminds me too of my King and my Savior is with me and is sending us. And what is His will for the eventual glory of all things? Well, I'm a continuation of being a means to that end. You know, so connecting us to the Lord and not seeing a separate helps remind of those same things. Amen. Yeah. Thank you, brother. Very good. Very good. Amen. So let's move on to our next text. Let's go to Revelation chapter seven. So I mentioned worship, right? We looked at the new Jerusalem, but we didn't see much of the people. We didn't see much of the people. Now these people aren't yet in the new Jerusalem, but we see a picture here in Revelation chapter seven versus nine through 12. We see a picture of what this worship, what worship will look like. So I'll start reading starting at verse nine. After this, I looked and behold the great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. Man, that's a beautiful picture. That's a beautiful picture. So what kind of glory language do we see in this passage? Not hard. I just said not hard. Come on, come on now. Pastor Michael. Yeah. The word glory is multifaceted throughout Old Testament, New Testament. And so far we've spoken a lot about God's intrinsic glory, his name, his attributes, even here, his extrinsic glory, him revealing himself. Yes. Revealing his majesty. But here we have like the reciprocating. Yeah. It is the people, right? These, this great multitude glorifying God or ascribing glory to God. You know, worshiping and praising God, which is another way of saying, glorying in God. Yeah. Amen. They recognize his intrinsic glory and they recognize the extrinsic glory that flows from him. And they in agreement say, yes, Lord, praise your name, you are glorious, right? What do they praise him for in this text? What do they praise him for? Salvation. Say salvation belongs to our God, right? And, and to the lamb. So we talked about in the previous text the significance of the lamb here. I'm speaking, pointing to Christ's sacrifice on Pam. I noticed that in verse 10 it says, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And then we're in chapter 22 and three it says, but the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it and his servant shall serve him forever or serve him. There's no mention of the Holy Spirit. So I'm just trying to understand if it's a triune, you know, it's mentioned God and the lamb, but not the Holy Spirit. Why is that? Yeah, that's a good point. Like, so, so yeah, it's true that in this particular text, you have, you have these people, they are, they are, they are ascribing glory specifically to the father and to the son. And then the text in Revelation 22 they, we see on the throne specifically the father and the son. I don't, you know, I don't want to try to over answer the question, you know, but I, the way I understand is, and any brothers can help me with that. Brother Tom, how about you help me with that? In chapter four, when it introduces the, when it, when John is brought up to heaven, and we see the throne room of God, in verse four he says, around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the throne sat 24 elders sitting clothed with white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And in verse five it says, and from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. The seven fold spirit of God. Yeah. And so the, the Holy spirit is not missing from the throne room of God. And they, and the things that are going on in heaven at this time, he is right there in the middle on the throne. Yeah. For the throne. Amen. And dwelling his people, and dwelling his people there, I saw a few other hands, Linda, Bralio, Noel, Noel you have in my car ready? In John 16, and you could read this further, but in verse 14, when Christ is talking to his disciples, the apostles, he says, he speaking of the spirit of God, he will glorify me, for he will take over his mind and declare it to you. And so it's the ministry of the spirit, as according to Christ here is that, it's not that the spirit is not glorified, but he really pushes the sun forward. So I think that's a lot of times when you read in the Bible and you don't see the spirit, you remember that passage? He's pointing others, and he emphasizes the sun. Amen. And that's my primary thought about that as well. Yeah. Amen, brother. Thank you, Bralio. Yeah, I was, no, I said it, but I was going to say, the spirit is in God's people, the Holy spirit is in us. Yeah. And we aren't able to worship Christ apart from the Holy spirit, the Lord. So just thinking of union with Christ, how it's because of the Holy spirit in us that we're able to say salvation belongs to our God and we're able to see Him and worship Him. So just thinking of those texts. Yeah, thank you, brother. Was that Linda too? You had a hand? Okay. Cool. Praise the Lord. So, so yeah. So, so thinking here, right, of what's going on, you have a great multitude, innumerable multitude can't be counted. This is the offspring of Abraham. Remember the promise God made to Abraham. Look to the stars. As those stars are, so your offspring will be. You see his offspring here, innumerable, innumerable, you can't count them. Every tribe, tongue and nation, worshiping, worshiping the Lord. And you see them, you see them worshiping in perfect unity, don't you? Every tribe, tongue and nation, think specifically of every language here and they're all singing in unison. So every tribe, tongue and nation speaking the same language. Think of, consider here, this is also old, young, rich and poor. This is, pass some more. Amen, amen, yes. Yeah, especially now, you know, all of this nonsense, you have a number of folks talking about critical race theory, talking about using words like intersectionality in the church, using Marxists, high-minded terms to use within the church, creating special classes of people within the church. And there are no special classes of people in God's church. There's, even when you think about it, like, you know, there's no such thing as a black church. There's no such thing as a white church. Even in the New Testament, when churches are delineated from one another, they're delineated by location, not according to the color of people's skin. And you know, John here in this text, you would think, well, how does he know that this is our many tribes, tongues and nations? He just has to take a look. Like, they're all speaking one language obviously here because they're saying these things in unison. In fact, there's like a call and response going on here that you have all the people saying salvation to our God and to the Lamb. And then the angels respond with amen, blessing and honor and glory, right? And they fall on their faces before the Lamb. Beautiful picture, right? So how does he know these are people of multiple languages? He sees them, just like we can see each of you, right? I see, if you look around, you see multiple colors within this church. I see people who speak multiple languages in this church. How many languages do we sing in? One, how many languages do we preach in? The only exceptions that are made is if you can't speak our language. And then we make an exception, right? Brother Ryan. Amen, yes, it's the praise of his glory. I was just thinking too, like, biblically there's really only two groups in history. There's those who trust in Jesus Christ and worship God and those who do not, you know? And there are all kinds of people, race, color, tongue, nation, language that don't, and there's all that do, but there's these, throughout scripture, there's these two major groups that the Bible recognizes. So when I think of all that's going on today, it just helps me to remember that I'm not, I can recognize distinction and differences, but the real important difference is that whether or not someone's in Christ. And that if I know that they're not in Christ, I have clear example, instruction, and commands in abundance on how to treat them, what they need to hear, how to love them, and not get wrapped up in an unhealthy way with distinctions and dividing lines that aren't really biblical, they're just confusing. Yeah, yeah, amen. And thinking about like getting wrapped up in those foolish things, I mean, when you see a picture like this, it causes you to put aside petty, petty arguments. Imagine, for a prince, I'll use myself as an example. I'm black if you can't tell. I didn't grow up, I didn't grow up listening to the kind of music that many of you listened to. Some of you grew up listening to different kinds of music. Some of you went to different churches that sang in a different style than the way we sing here. Is that something to make an issue of when the whole goal in the end is to worship the Lord together in unity? Yeah, it ends up being a foolish argument, it ends up being a waste of time, honestly, right? When we should do is get about the work of missions together and seeing this as the goal, seeing worship as the goal. So yeah, just like Pastor Mark said, when John sees the many different kinds of people, the whole point is saying, look at all of these many different kinds of people and they are no longer many different kinds of people. They're together in unity and their differences don't matter as they do in the world. And that's what the church is supposed to be a picture of. So let's not let those arguments from the world creep into our church. That is a church killer as a church killer. So these believers, they stand here in rich white robes of righteousness. They're made white in the blood of the lamb. They have worship implements, palm branches. And it makes you think of the triumphal entry where the people say Hosanna to the king of Israel and Jesus' triumphal entry. It also makes you think of the Feast of Booths where Israel, they would worship the Lord with palm branches, they would make these little booths. It says in Leviticus 23 with various plants and they would worship the Lord with palm branches and they were thanking the Lord for his provision for their his provision and taking them out of Egypt. They also, it also did double duty because the Feast of Booths was after their harvest time and they would thank the Lord each year for his provision even that year and providing for them another year of harvest. So you see this beautiful great multitude worshiping the Father, worshiping the lamb using worshipful words, speaking in unison, a call and response like a good jazz song, singing to each other. I'm singing the people singing and the angels singing and they fall in solemn worship before the Lord. And they ascribe glory to him. They recognize his glory and they ascribe glory. So let's look at, let's move on a little bit and see, let's go back down to earth in Psalm 67. And we wanna be thinking of that goal. What should our attitude be? We should our attitude be thinking of this wonderful, this wonderful end, this new Jerusalem, this new Eden, the innumerable multitude, worshiping the Lord. So starting in verse one, says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. We'll stop there before we go on. So the prayer, you have a prayer here for God to be gracious, gracious to Israel. Make his face shine upon them. That's glory language in itself, his face shining upon them. And that, but for a purpose, that your way, that his way may be known on earth, his saving power among all nations. So it's like saying, Lord, bless us that the nations may be blessed. Lord, may you be glorified in us that you may be glorified among the nations. Let's keep reading here, starting in verse three. Let the people's praise you, O God. Let all the people's praise you. And this is the key verse, the key little nugget. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you judge the people's with equity and guide the nations upon the earth. Let the people's praise you, O God. Let all the people's praise you. The heart of someone who sees the new Eden in their mind, they see the worship of the innumerable multitude in their mind is to say, man, let the nations be glad. May the nations be glad in the Lord for he judges the people with equity and guides the nations on the earth. And we don't see that completely now, right? But one day the Lord Jesus will reign on the earth and we'll see that. And we want to see and we want to act with a vision to that happening. Since this in verse six, the earth has yielded its increase. God, our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. So you have this attitude of the people to want to see the nations be glad. Want to see the God glorified showing his saving power among all the nations. That's the heart of God's people when they have a right attitude of the coming glory. When they have a right attitude of the coming new Jerusalem, the new Eden, the innumerable multitude. This is what fuels our missions. And this is a, and you see here, right? This is a delight. This is a delight for the people of God. This is not, missions is not to be a burden something to us. To evangelize to our neighbors are not to be a burden something to us. And you think of duty versus delight, you know? So if, you know, let's say, I'm gonna use Pastor Michael as an example. So let's say Noel invited Pastor Michael over to his apartment. He probably wouldn't do that in real life. And then Pastor Michael comes into Noel's apartment and Noel's like, oh, Pastor Michael, I'm so glad you're here. Man, I really appreciate that you've come. And then Pastor Michael goes, nah, it's okay, it's my job. Let me pastor. You know, now Pastor Michael's not being mean, you know? He's just saying, he's just stating it clearly. He's his pastor, you know? Maybe he needs to check up on Noel. Maybe, you know, he has a duty, right? He has a duty to fellowship with the brethren. He has the duty to set an example in that way. So he's gonna go to Noel's house and eat a meal with him. But now let's flip that, okay? So now again, Noel invites Pastor Michael over to his house. And Noel says, Pastor Michael, I'm so glad that you've come. Oh man, thank you for coming for dinner. And then Pastor Michael says, oh man, it is my pleasure. I was looking forward to coming today, you know? What is that going to do to Noel when he hears that? Yeah, it's gonna, it showed like, and what does that say about Pastor Michael when he says that, right? It shows a completely different heart. It shows a completely different heart. And God, God is glorified when we, when we look at the nations and we have this type of heart, we say, man, let the nations be glad. May the people praise you. We ought to delight in the commands of God. We ought to delight in seeing the story come to an end. We ought to delight in our roles in the story. So now with the remaining time that we have, let's look at Matthew 28, the Great Commission. And I'm gonna ask your help. Considering, I'm gonna read the text and we're just gonna talk and considering the things that we've talked about. Let's try to think of this text now through a different lens than what we might normally think through it. Let's think of this text in the picture that it plays for eternity. So starting at verse 18, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now I'm not gonna explain this text right now. I think we've explained this text many times, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a few pieces of it and I'm gonna ask you in what ways would you think about it differently considering the end of the story? So considering the command to go, how would you think about going differently? Thinking of the end of the story, specifically going. Doreen. Taking the command as a delight, number one. Yeah. Jesus is commanding them, go, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But in context of being in heaven, worshiping the Lamb and everything that we have, it's like, all right, well, this goes beyond mere duty, command with the end going mind of worshiping the Lord. It's like, all right, we gotta make this happen. I wanna make this happen. I'm gonna go talk to people. Hey, come get out of darkness. Look at the light of the Lord. Come and then we show them the light and the beauty that is in the Lamb of God, so. Amen, amen. Yeah, like you think of going, wouldn't that console Rebecca? I was thinking of, our going isn't going out into some unknown, like when we came from England or even when we settled and we went out west, how it was, it was like this uncharted, we didn't know we were settling this new ground, but our going, it's like, we know where we're going, we know what's there, we know what's reserved for us, we know that all these trials that we're gonna have to go through, they're gonna be conquered, like it's secure, you know it's not this, this vague thing. Yeah, yeah, there's a confidence in our going. There's a, we'll have a greater confidence, you're knowing the end of the story. There's a greater ambition, speaking to what Dorian was speaking to, like you're thinking, I mean, thinking of letting, you want the nations to be glad. Thinking of the new Eden, the new Jerusalem, and the glorious picture of the innumerable multitude, worshiping the Lord, that's the type of thing that would make you say to yourself, I want to go as much as I possibly can, would it not? I want to go with a holy ambition. I want to go, I'm gonna be creative in the ways that I can go. If I can't make it at this time, well, what other time can I? I'm gonna use every opportunity that I can. So if you're with someone, you think of, man, how can I speak to this person? You have opportunities here at the church in corporate evangelism, right? And you say, man, I can go, corporate evangelism, I can go, I can go with my brothers, encourage my brethren, I can go, maybe you've been a Christian for some time and you can take another brother under your wing. What a perfect time to consider going. What a perfect time. So yeah, you should be strongly encouraged to go corporately. So you think about it, think about what a wonderful opportunity that is, and it's a delight, not just a duty. I have a little quote, I have a book here. This little Piper book, Let the Nations Be Glad, and Piper quotes this other missionary in here. He was even speaking of the motivation. Sometimes we feel a real burden for a particular person or a particular group of people, and praise God for that, that he would put a burden on our hearts for other people, but sometimes you may not feel a certain burden, but you know the end story, and do you not love God if you're a Christian? So listen to this little quote, I thought it was helpful. He says, don't wait for a feeling of love in order to share Christ with a stranger. You already love your heavenly father, and you know that the stranger is created by him, but separated from him. So take those first steps in evangelism because you love God. It is not primarily out of a compassion for humanity that we share our faith or pray for the lost. It is first of all, love for God. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, 7 through 8, with God with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Humanity does not deserve the love of God any more than you or I do. We should never be Christian humanists taking Jesus to poor, sinful people, reducing Jesus to some kind of product that will better their lot. People deserve to be damned, but Jesus, the suffering lamb of God, deserves the reward of his suffering. So knowing the end of the story, it'll affect the way even your motivation. You don't need to feel like a pit in your heart to evangelize someone. You just have to love God. You have to know the end of the story. I'm gonna skip a little bit to Acts chapter one. Verse eight, this is part of the Great Commission as well. This is before Jesus ascended into heaven. And he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Like this is sort of like a thesis statement for the book of Acts. Acts actually follows this pattern. And you have all the way up until Stephen's death in chapter seven, they're in Jerusalem and in Judea. Acts chapter eight, they're in Samaria. And then after that, you can't even keep up there. They're going to the ends of the earth. It's city after city after city after city. So consider that pattern. Think of your duty here first. Think very critically in your mind about what you can do to evangelize to those who are around you, to those who are in your sphere of influence, those in your neighborhood. Think around your church. Think corporate evangelism. And I'm mentioning corporate evangelism very deliberately. It is one of the best ways to become a good evangelist. It is one of the best ways to be effective in the kingdom of God. So think corporate evangelism. And think beyond that, think of your Samaria. Think of those, Samaria wasn't far away from Jerusalem and Judea. It goes like right there. But those people were outcast, they were different. So think of those who may be close to you, who may be unreached in some way. It could be due to language. It could be due to religion, something about their culture. What can you do to reach them? Or how can you support others who are able to reach them? I think in Orlando, we have a large group of Spanish, people who speak Spanish and don't speak English. That might be considered a group that might fall into that category. What can you do to help them? Do you speak Spanish? Do you know other people who are? And what can you do to help them? Now think to the ends of the earth, right? We have a pattern at our church, praise the Lord of planting churches all over the place by God's grace, right? We have Guatemala, we have New York coming, we have Daha Bon Lord willing, right? What can you do to support those efforts? And but not just what can you do, right? It's what can you do with the end in mind? It makes it that much more important. It makes it that much more of a glorious effort. It takes away that mundane feeling when you go. So when you come here on a Saturday morning to go knock on doors and you're tired and you're wiping the eye boogers out of your eyes, right? And you're thinking, oh man, it's another Saturday and I don't feel like going. And there's no music in the background and it doesn't feel glorious. You remember the end. Remember the end in mind. The end is glorious. So keep that in mind in your missions, in your mission. We don't want to short change ourselves and more importantly, we don't wanna short change the kingdom of God in this endeavor. So next week, we're gonna have part two of this lesson. So this week, we've looked at the end goal, right? We looked at the purpose of missions as worship. It's the glory of God and a new Jerusalem and a new Eden. Next week, we'll look at how God is glorified and suffering in missions. So let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, what a glorious end there is in mind for us who believe. And what a glorious work it is to be involved in your work to spread your gospel, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. May he receive the reward for his suffering, Father. May your beloved son be glorified in our hearts. May he receive all the praise, do his name. May the nations be glad. Lord, that is the cry of our hearts and we pray that you would increase this understanding in us, help us to look to the end as we work now, give us fervency, give us confidence. Lord, we're very grateful to you that we have this privilege to work in your vineyard. And Lord, please bear fruit, bear fruit from our labors. We can do nothing apart from your spirit, nothing apart from you working in us, nothing apart from you being with us in this. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.