The Christmas Model for Missions

Devotion

“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

— John 17:18

Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas. As I, so you.

For example, danger. Christ came to his own and his own received him not. So you also. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you.

But there is a worse danger than any of these which Jesus escaped. So you!!

In the mid-16th century the missionary Francis Xavier (1506–1552), wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Malaysia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God. . . . To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.

The greatest danger a missionary faces is not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

In the end God makes every dagger a scepter in our hand. As J.W. Alexander says, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”

Christ escaped this danger — the danger of distrusting God. Therefore God has highly exalted him! As he, so you.

Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And the greatest danger is distrusting God’s mercy. Succumb to this and all is lost. Conquer here and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

©Desiring God. The Christmas Model for Missions | Desiring God

Prayer

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

— Philippians 2:5-11

Lord Jesus, in Paul’s account of your birth, there’s no harking angels, trembling shepherds, or awe-filled parents. There’s “just” you—in the humility of your incarnation, the beauty of your servanthood, and the magnificence of the Gospel.

Oh holy and glorious mystery: Though you never ceased being God, you truly became man—the God-man, the fulfiller of every God-promise (2 Cor. 1:21); the King of the cosmos cradled in a stable.

Prophets pondered the “when” of your coming. Angels swelled with joy as they considered the “what” of your birth (1 Pet. 1:12). But we are the beneficiaries of the fact you came, and are coming again. Dying as our Substitute, raised as our Justifier, ascended as our Mediator, reigning as our King, coming as our Bridegroom… of all people, we are most blessed.

What do we want Christmas 2020? Renew and refuel our worship of you, Lord Jesus, and increase our servant-love for one another. So very Amen we pray, in your wonderful and merciful name.