The Biblical Foundation For The Worldwide Mission Mandate Analysis

Johannes Verkuyl’s article, The Biblical Foundation for the Worldwide Mission Mandate is an extremely thought provoking one. I would like to single out the portion where he examines the book of Jonah as I find it to be quite insightful. I have read and listened to sermons on the book of Jonah but Verkuyl’s presentation is different. He develops his discourse in two parts- the background of the book of Jonah and an analysis of the book’s eight scenes. He begins by revealing how Israel was reluctant to participate in God’s mission and how they interfered with His efforts. Verkuyl then breaks down the book of Jonah into eight scenes. Each scene reveals how Jonah resisted going to Nineveh and by extension how God’s people have also opposed God’s
Verkuyl explains that “Jonah is a lesson in educating a person to be a missionary: it reveals the need for a radical conversion of one’s natural tendencies and a complete restructuring of his life to make it serviceable for mission” (45). If we are to be useful as participants in the missio Dei, we must also come to a place where we allow God to mold and shape us for the mission. From Jonah, I see that we must align ourselves to the purposes of God and not come with our own preconceived ideas of who deserves God’s mercy and who doesn’t. As missionaries if we see people and nations through God’s eyes and not through ours we will develop the same compassion God has for those who do not know Him. We will be filled with the same mercy that God has for His
First, we should not wait for the lost to only come to us but we need to go out to them. In my opinion our role as the church is both centripetal, to attract the lost into coming into God’s kingdom but it is also centrifugal, we must go and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Secondly, the book of Jonah reveals to me reluctance on our part as the church to fulfill our missions mandate. Although I must say that it is not that all churches do not have a heart for missions, but the sad thing is that these churches are the minority rather than the