Let The Nations Be Glad

by Gentle Reformation

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.  Worship is.  Missions exists because worship doesn't.  Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.  When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.  It is a temporary necessity.  But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions.  It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory.  The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God.  'The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!' (Psalm 97:1). 'Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!' (Psalm 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions.  Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching.  You can't commend what you don't cherish.  Missionaries will never call out, 'Let the nations be glad!, who cannot say from the heart, 'I rejoice in the Lord... I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High' (Psalm 104:34; 9:2).  Missions begins and ends with worship.

If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored.  I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God.  When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the remote peoples on earth.  And I long for that day to come!

Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak.  Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to 'declare his glory among the nations' (Psalm 96:3).  Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claim upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God."

John Piper
Let The Nations Be Glad