*See below to explain the picture
It is a universal problem that exists in all academic fields: the more one knows, the more one is likely to boast in their knowledge. This is very dangerous territory for the Christian, however. While on the one hand there is room for being thankful for our achievements, we must realize that pride is antithetical to the gospel and therefore there is absolutely no room for it. There should be a difference between how a Christian doctor sees her training in comparison to the non-Christian. All of our knowledge and wisdom should be seen as a gift from God and used for service towards others.
Unfortunately, seminary students in training are not exempt from this area of pride in their knowledge. If anything – because pastors and ministry leaders are held in high esteem by their communities – seminary students might be in even more danger than other professions when it comes to being tempted by pride. As the Apostle Paul tells us, knowledge puffs up but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1).
This problem of pride amongst future church leaders is an epidemic that is largely going unnoticed. I myself have suffered and continue to suffer with it, but I am thankful that by God’s grace he has revealed the areas of my heart that have wrongfully been prideful in my seminary pursuits. To that end, I want to list five signs that you might be a prideful seminarian and the corresponding real gospel truths that go along with them.
1) Because you are in seminary, you think the church owes you a ministry position.
Whoever desires a position in ministry desires a noble task (1 Tim. 3:1). However, it is entirely possible to desire a ministry position with the wrong motives. A good sign that you are filled with pride in your seminary pursuits is that you believe simply because you are taking or have taken seminary classes you deserve a position in ministry. This might be subtle in that you work behind the scenes to elevate yourselves above others. Perhaps you subconsciously criticize the way your current leaders do things and think you could do it better. It could also be obvious in the way you talk to your community or your leaders. You might even outright confront your leaders and make demands to be in a leadership position.
The gospel truth is that no one is qualified for a ministry position. It is only by the grace and mercy of God that anyone is qualified to lead. If you want to even begin pursuing qualifications for ministry, start with the guidelines laid out in 1 Timothy and Titus. True qualification for ministry begins at the cross and remains at the cross. Your seminary education should lead you into a deeper understanding of the state of your wickedness and your need for Jesus. It should lead you to a deep desire to serve God’s people with all that you’ve been trained and equipped in. Only then may we begin to think ourselves even remotely ready for ministry leadership.
2) You want everyone to know how much you know, so you needlessly quote things that don’t need quoting.
One of the surest signs that you are a prideful seminarian is that you want others to know how much you know. For you it is not so much important that others understand what you know, so much as that they know you know things (how much wood would a woodchuck chuck…). If you are prideful in this area, you go out of your way to quote a bunch of dead dudes in random conversations. If you’re educated in the original languages, you want everyone to know so you unnecessarily use it (*see the cover picture for this article…ironnyyyyyy!). Your theological knowledge is not a way for you to serve others, but to be superior to them.
The gospel reality is that every single word we read and learn in seminary is to be used for the church. Any gift we are given in the areas of teaching or knowledge are to be used for the Body of Christ, not ourselves (1 Corinthians 12). Nobody cares how much theology you know, the only thing that matters is how you serve your brothers and sisters with what you know. The duty of a ministry leader or pastor is to take their seminary knowledge and make it applicable to the heart of the Christian such that it draws them closer to Jesus.
3) You want everyone to know that you’re in seminary.
Another strong piece of evidence that you are a prideful seminarian is that you want everyone else to know you are in seminary. Because you think seminary makes you a somebody, everyone else needs to know that you are taking seminary classes. You might even try to drop this fact through the art of the #humblebrag, which really means you just want to boast and brag over your brothers and sisters.
The gospel truth is that without Jesus we are nothing (Eph 2:1-10). Jesus makes us a somebody, not our seminary classes or the books we are reading. Again, nobody cares that you’re in seminary if you aren’t using it to serve the church.
4) You are overly critical of your peers.
A guaranteed sign of pride in your seminary education is that you believe it makes you entitled to critique and “offer advice” to your peers…all the time. If this is a problem for you, then you never stop to listen for advice because you’re always the one giving it. You speak when you’re not spoken to and offer criticisms when they’re not warranted. You probably critique your leaders behind their backs. Every time you learn something new in the classroom you twist conversations to make it apply to someone else. Your own heart isn’t being changed because you’re too busy trying to change others.
The hard gospel truth is that every piece of knowledge you learn in the classroom needs to impact your own heart before it can impact someone elses. Your time in seminary should be a time of increased listening and heart transformation (Prov. 12:15), not increased criticism of your peers. Don’t be a know-it-all. Instead, confess your sins to your peers and show them how your heart is being changed by your seminary education.
5) You constantly want to best yourself over your seminary brothers and sisters.
While there is always room for healthy competition, the seminary classroom can quickly turn into a place of unhealthy and unhelpful boasting. Because you are prideful, you want to be better than your peers in the classroom. You don’t like it if they get better grades than you, so you come up with excuses. You probably brag about your opportunities to speak outside the classroom. You want everyone to know that you’re smart (or so you think), so you find ways inside and outside the classroom to boast in your knowledge.
The gospel truth is that the seminary classroom should be a place for humility and encouragement of one another. There is no room for boasting in our knowledge or education – is that not contra-gospel? Instead, our seminary classrooms should be marked by a deep sense of humility and grace, constantly seeking to build one another up (1 Thess. 5:11). You should not seek to prove your intelligence, but build up your peers that they might be strong in their own pursuits. If you’re getting ministry opportunities that your peers aren’t getting, then you should be building up your peers in preparation for those experiences. If we can’t be graceful towards one another in the classroom, then how are we going to be graceful to the men and women in the church that we serve?
If you struggle with pride in any of these areas, my encouragement to you is not to feel down and out. Jesus died for prideful sinners like us. Read, meditate, and pray Philippians 2:1-11. Pick up a copy of Valley of Vision and pray through “Man A Nothing” and “Humility in Service.” They will wreck your face. Confess your sins to your church, and resolve to serve them with your whole heart.
40 And the LORD said to Moses, “List all the firstborn males of the people of Israel, from a month old and upward, taking the number of their names. 41 And you shall take the Levites for me—I am the LORD—instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel.” 42 So Moses listed all the firstborn among the people of Israel, as the LORD commanded him. 43 And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names, from a month old and upward as listed were 22,273. 44 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle. The Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD. 46 And as the redemption price for the 273 of the firstborn of the people of Israel, over and above the number of the male Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels per head; you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel of twenty gerahs), 48 and give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for those who are over.” 49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites. 50 From the firstborn of the people of Israel he took the money, 1,365 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. 51 And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses. – Numbers 3:40-51
The Book of Numbers is one that is saturated with deep theology, instruction and application for the Christian today. However, possibly because of its lackluster title, troublesome combinations of law and narrative, and its numerous lists of names and numbers the book itself is one that is often overlooked. If we take the time to study this book we will come away with robust teachings on God’s people, the nature of man, hamartiology (the study of sin), the nature of God and Christology. This should be of no surprise to us – with the Hebrew name for this book being “In the Wilderness,” it should take no time at all for the Christian today to relate in many ways to the Israelites in the wilderness. Like the Israelites, we too are living in an “already, but not yet” scenario. We have been brought out of our slavery to sin through Christ, and are awaiting the fulfillment of a promise on his return. We are a people that has been set aside, redeemed and spoken for in Christ, called out of one reality (the realm of flesh and sin) and placed into another (the realm of Spirit and life).
Indeed, in the Book of Numbers we find a thorough and robust shadow of the person and work of Christ. There may be no clearer picture of this than in the Levitical substitution of Israel’s firstborn in Numbers 3:40-51. Through a detailed study of this particular passage, we will see not only how this passage fits in with the surrounding narrative of Numbers but also how the Levitical Priests are a shadow of the atonement sinners are to find in the work of Christ.
A Brief Background
To get an accurate background on the Numbers narrative, we must first remove ourselves from this particular text and return to the Israelites entrance into the wilderness in the book of Exodus. Having been given the task of leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, Moses knows he cannot accomplish this task without the presence of God guiding and protecting the people of Israel. In Exodus 33:16 Moses asks,
For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” [1]
God graciously granted Moses’ request, and for the duration of the wilderness narrative we find God leading and dwelling among his people. But all is not well, for our God is a holy God who cannot dwell in the presence of sin or disobedience. So while God will guide and protect his people throughout the forty years in the wilderness as their greatest hope, he is also their greatest threat. To provide a buffer for his people and to prevent his wrath from destroying them, God sets up a very specific system for the delineation of tasks for his people.
It is in the first census that we begin to see a specific group of people set aside for a particular task: the Levites (Num. 1:47-54). The Levites are set aside to take care of the tabernacle – the dwelling place of God. This passage is where the purpose of the Levitical Priesthood begins to take shape:
But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel.[2]
A Holy and Just God demands that he be approached in a very particular manner; only those who have been cleansed and purposed for approaching the tabernacle may do so. Were God to dwell amongst his people without any instruction or guard and someone approached the tabernacle without being cleansed, they would instantly be struck dead. In the act of providing the Levitical priesthood as a buffer for the Israelites, we see God’s goodness and grace to his people.
The third chapter of Numbers begins the instruction for the Levites. Broken up by the various sons of Levi, these clans of Levi are given specific instruction as to their placement around the tabernacle and their particular tasks in the assembly and care of the tabernacle. It is in the closing verses of Chapter 3 that we come to the role of the Levites in their provision of atonement of the people of Israel.
Particular Atonement for the People of Israel
The Book of Exodus is key to understanding the book of Numbers. It would be a mistake for any reader to remove any book of the Pentateuch from the surrounding narratives. Such is the case with Numbers 3:40-51. To properly understand what is being said in these verses, we must remember the tragic and final plague that took place before the Exodus: the death of the firstborn of the people of Egypt (Exodus 12:29-32). It is in this passage we not only see the death of the firstborn of Egypt, but also the redemption of the people of Israel. The firstborn of Israel were a symbol and representative of the entirety of Israel. When God passed over the firstborn of Israel, he consecrated them as his own (Exodus 13:1).
Such is the foundation for our understanding of Numbers 3:40-51. Immediately as our passage begins, the LORD makes his plans known to Moses in regards to the Levites,
“List all the firstborn males of the people of Israel, from a month old and upward, taking the number of their names. 41 And you shall take the Levites for me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel.”[3]
The Levites are to replace the firstborn sons of Israel. As the firstborn previously bore the weight of the people, the Levites will now take their place. “The Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD” (Number 3:45b). Stopping at this point in the passage, a question should come to mind in regards to what has been read so far: how is this substitution to take place, is it corporate or individual? It is good news to us that God’s Word is clear in this area, and thus he has something to teach us through the Levitical substitution. Previously the Levites had been numbered at a total of 22,000 males. In contrast, the firstborn Israelites are numbered at 22,273 (Numbers 3:43). What God reveals to us next is striking. At this moment in time, God does not simply look at these two numbers and determine they are “close enough,” but rather it is his decree that all of the firstborn of Israel must be individually spoken for:
And as the redemption price for the 273 of the firstborn of the people of Israel, over and above the number of the male Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels per head; you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel of twenty gerahs), 48 and give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for those who are over.”[4]
Each individual firstborn of Israel was spoken for in the Levitical substitution. Close is not enough in God’s service. This substitution is crucial for us to understand in terms of the role of the Levites and the nature of God’s salvific plans for his people. As God’s chosen substitute they are substituted on an individual basis. Indeed, even the ones who could not be spoken for by an individual had to be spoken for in payment.
God’s Particular Atonement is Necessary for the People of Israel
The people of God are an idolatrous people. As the Bible speaks of God’s people as his bride, it is no wonder then that it speaks of our sin as adultery and whoring. Our default nature is not to approach God the way he says to approach him, but we want to approach God on our own terms. As Pastor, Professor and Scholar Iain Duguid says,
The problem with living sacrifices is that they have a habit of crawling off the altar.[5]
The people of God need mediation, someone to stand in our place and make our presence right before God. This is especially evident in the people of Israel, where time and time again throughout their wilderness journey either Moses or the Levitical priesthood needed to make atonement for the people. A clear example of this is in Numbers 25, when the people of Israel are not only metaphorically but literally whoring themselves with the daughters of Moab. During this time, the Israelites began to bow down and worship Baal, the god of the Moabites. Such an act can only result in the kindling of the great and just anger of the LORD. Such sin is taken seriously in the eyes of the LORD (Num. 5:11-31) and the only result for the people of Israel is death. In order to stop the fury of the LORD against Israel, it took the priestly act of Phinehas the son of Eleazar to put a stop to the sin and thus the fury of the LORD against his people (Num. 25:7-9). Scholar Gordon Wenham articulates this so clearly:
The priest, in his life and acts, must personify, even incarnate, the character of God. This is precisely what Phinehas did: he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. In other words, because Phinehas executed the sinner, expressing so clearly and visibly God’s own anger through his deed, that anger was turned away. He made atonement for the people.[6]
In the plan of God’s redemption, there are two aspects that must take place for redemption and salvation to take place. The first is that a sacrifice must be made – something has to die. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22b). The second is that someone has to pay the price of obedience that Israel owes to God. While previously the firstborn sons of Israel bore the responsibility of living obediently and devoted to God, the Levites now take their place. The firstborn sons could never have fulfilled this role because they were never intended to. In God’s sovereignty he chose the Levitical priesthood before the foundations of the world that they might bear the responsibility for the people. In this salvific act for the atonement of Israel, God not only reveals his plans to us but also adds another pointer to the Messianic hope that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
Conclusions
The Book of Numbers is filled with profound insights and relevant teaching for the life of the Christian today. While often overlooked, it contains rich insights into the character of God and his work with his people. There is perhaps no passage in this book filled with richer implication to the Numbers narrative and the people of God today than the narrative in Number 3:40-51. I make this claim on a number of grounds.
The first is that we as readers today see the severity of our sin in the Levitical substitution of the firstborn of Israel. Would sin not have to have serious implications if there not only needed to be a special group of people set aside with the specific task of atonement, but also that the weight of Israel’s disobedience had to be carried on the backs of individual Levites? Sin does not moderately mar us in the sight of God such that we can still approach him on our own terms; sin radically corrupts us and defiles every part of our being. The consequence of sin carries significant consequences, and we see that in the need of setting aside the Levitical priesthood for necessary particular atonement for the firstborn of Israel.
Secondly, we see the glory of God displayed in his salvific methods of providing redemption for his people. God does not know us corporately or on a general sense, but he knows us by name. He knows his people individually, before the foundations of the world he knew us and predestined us to be adopted as sons and daughters (Eph 1:4-5). Unlike other pagan religions that say man must work to be able to only know God in a general sense, YHWH knows his people in a very specific and intimate sense.
Third, the particular substitution for the firstborn of Israel is a clear and vivid pointer to the person and work of Jesus Christ our Savior and King. As the book of Hebrews tells us, Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and yet as a greater priest than Melchizedek he is the guarantor of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22). Having Melchizedek already known as a greater priest than the priesthood of Aaron (Hebrews 7:4-10) – and Jesus is a greater priest than Melchizedek – how much greater then is the priesthood of Jesus in comparison to that of the Levites? Indeed, if the Levites substituted for the firstborn of Israel on a one to one basis, how much greater is our High Priest who substitutes for his people on a one to many basis (Hebrews 7:27)?
Fourth, in the setting aside of the Levites for particular substitution we see the necessity of God’s people to be obedient. The Levitical priesthood was set aside for a life of obedience, and they were to be exemplary in their holiness and obedience (Leviticus 21). Such is the reality for the Christian today; we are chosen and set aside as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Just as the Levites needed to be exemplary in their holiness as priests, so too should the Christian be devoted to a life of holiness and obedience in all walks of life. To the one who is given much, much is to be expected.
Finally, in the particular substitution of the Levitical priesthood we see the assurance of our salvation. Just as the Levites were able to provide assurance to all of Israel that they were interceding and making sacrifices on behalf of the people, we too can find our assurance in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Duguid provides a great exposition of this when he says:
Nor has Christ simply substituted for humanity as a mass, making it possible for some undefined number of human beings potentially to be saved. Like the Levites, who substituted for the firstborn of Israel on a one for one basis, redeeming each particularly, so that those who remained over had to be purchased one by one, so also Christ’s perfect life and death atoned particularly for all of his elect. He did not simply write a blank check that was sufficient for humanity. On the cross he wrote a check that specifically provided the payment for each and every one of his elect people, not just making their salvation potentially possible but actually purchasing them. He therefore now owns each one of us, just as God purchased the Levites, obliging us to live lives that are wholly devoted to him.[7]
God’s salvation is particular, it is purposeful, and it is payment for the sinner. God had a redemptive plan for his people long before the world was formed, and we see that clearly in Numbers 3:40-51. God knew that in order to dwell amongst his people, sacrifice had to be made and a buffer had to be in place. Time and time again throughout Israel’s story in the Old Testament we see the necessary intercession of the priesthood on behalf of the people. Praise be to Christ that this was not a permanent reality, but was merely a shadow of the reality to come in him.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ex 33:15–16.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Nu 1:53.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Nu 3:40–41.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Nu 3:46–48.
[5] Iain M. Duguid, R. Kent Hughes, and general editor, Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 104.
[6] Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers: an Introduction and Commentary (Nottingham, England.: IVP Academic, 2008), 211.
[7] Iain M. Duguid, R. Kent Hughes, and general editor, Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 55-56.
This week’s articles follow, but first – a sermon excerpt for all those who haven’t listened to the new Beautiful Eulogy album yet…
1) Fox News’ Highly Reluctant Jesus Follower
But then the pastor preached. I was fascinated. I had never heard a pastor talk about the things he did. Tim Keller’s sermon was intellectually rigorous, weaving in art and history and philosophy. I decided to come back to hear him again. Soon, hearing Keller speak on Sunday became the highlight of my week. I thought of it as just an interesting lecture—not really church. I just tolerated the rest of it in order to hear him. Any person who is familiar with Keller’s preaching knows that he usually brings Jesus in at the end of the sermon to tie his points together. For the first few months, I left feeling frustrated: Why did he have to ruin a perfectly good talk with this Jesus nonsense?
2) To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members with Beer
With mainline religious congregations dwindling across America, a scattering of churches is trying to attract new members by creating a different sort of Christian community. They are gathering around craft beer.
I think some of this could be a fine para-church ministry, but I’m really concerned about the “ho-hum” approach these people seem to have to the gathering of God’s people and approaching God with reverence.
3) 91 New Thesis Concerning Modern Heresy
Earlier this year, I was going over Martin Luther’s 95 theses, and it occurred to me that many of them apply to the teachings we call the prosperity gospel. The comparison isn’t exact, of course. Prosperity teachers may be popular, but they aren’t part of the majority church as were the teachers Luther opposed. And if you remember from reading Luther’s list, he gives the Pope all due respect, suggesting that he is being misrepresented, not that he is teaching heresy himself. We can’t say that for the preachers of the prosperity gospel.
Here’s my list, taken from and based on Luther’s original–and four theses short. You see today’s Wittenberg doors on the right. They’re bronze, so we’ll have to post new theses with sticky tack. You’ll also see that several of the theses here are Luther’s own statements, taken from this translation.
4) Bolz-Weber’s Liberal, Foul-Mouthed Articulation of Christianity Speaks to Fed-Up Believers
These are the people who put her memoir near the top of the New York Times bestseller list the week it came out in September. They are the ones who follow her every tweet and Facebook post by the thousands, and who have made the Lutheran minister a budding star for the liberal Christian set.
And who, as Bolz-Weber has described it in her frequently profane dialect, “are [mess]ing up my weird.”
A quick tour through her 44 years doesn’t seem likely to wind up here. It includes teen rebellion against her family’s fundamentalist Christianity, a nose dive into drug and alcohol addiction, a lifestyle of sleeping around and a stint doing stand-up in a grungy Denver comedy club. She is part of society’s outsiders, she writes in her memoir, its “underside dwellers . . . cynics, alcoholics and queers.”
Again, I’m OK with some of her attitudes and tactics – I’m all for more authentic people and preachers – but I maintain that a cleaned up person, and a preacher of the Word, should have the sensibility to know that poor language isn’t to be tolerated in the pulpit. Also, I’m generally cautious about anything that classifies itself as “progressive.”
5) A Reading Plan for Augustine’s City of God
The City of God must be read against the backdrop of the sacking of Rome, where critics argued that Rome fell after it embraced Christianity and lost the protection of the gods. Augustine argued that the pagan critics were defining goodness on the basis of the satisfaction of their own desires, rather than the true definition which sees that the ultimate good is found in God alone. Augustine shows that everything in history happens for good purposes, if goodness is rightly understood. He pointed to the pagan desire to return to the city of Rome, and argued that their desire was right but their destination was wrong. True happiness could only come in the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God.
One of the reasons that Augustine’s work remains unread today is because of its length and digressions. In lieu of an abridged version, Michael Haykin of Southern Seminary offers a selective reading guide to the book, which I’ve included below for those who want to take up one of the great classics of the Christian tradition.
6) How I Shut Down Two Porn Shops
As stoked as I get when one of the places I pray about closes down, let me be clear that my prayers are not vindictive or self-righteous. We need to be grounded in the Father’s heart of love and compassion as well as His heart for justice. I don’t pray for porn shops and strip clubs to close down because I want a power trip. I pray because these kinds of places are strongholds of addiction, spiritual oppression, and the dehumanization of both men and women.
When I pray in this way, I pray for a blessing on the next people who will occupy the buildings I target. I pray that God would break the spiritual strongholds and curses within those spaces. And I pray that He would bring healing, freedom and repentance to the previous owners of the place.
7) John MacArthur Answers His Critics
John MacArthur’s Strange Fire conference has come and gone and the book will be shipping next week. Whatever you felt about the conference, there is little doubt that a lot of work and a lot of discussion remain as we, the church, consider the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the aftermath of the event, and with the book on its way, I think we all have questions we’d like to ask Dr. MacArthur. A week ago I asked for your questions and sent them through to him. Here are his answers to the first batch of questions. I anticipate adding a second part to this interview within the week.
Zuhair Ahmad via Compfight cc
In the Fall of 2012 I took a course on Christian missions that really helped shape my Biblical understanding of the need and call of Christian missions. Of all the resources and material we digested for the course, there was perhaps no book that had greater impact on me than M. David Sills’ book Reaching and Teaching. As I have been too busy to write anything “original” lately, I wanted to go back to this text and share some motivation and encouragement for cross-cultural ministry.
The passage below is an excerpt from Reaching and Teaching that is specifically speaking on Paul’s missiology and his methods, with the implication that Christians today can learn much from Paul. Christians often think of missions as something overseas in destitute places – and while certainly there is a great and growing need for effort on this front – the local missions frontier cannot be completely abandoned either. Sills point therefore in the below passage is to show that the Christian does not need to go overseas for cross-cultural ministry, as it is currently being brought to our doorstep. Learning about other cultures, learning other languages, and learning how to break down cultural walls can be just as applicable in the West as it can be overseas.
Someone has said that a missionary is “anyone who cannot get used to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity.” When using a broad definition like this, we would have to say that of course Paul was a missionary. In fact, using a broad understanding of the term, the great English Baptist preacher of the nineteenth century Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” His point was that all true believers should have hearts that long for the salvation of lost people everywhere. However, we need to define the term more precisely, or everyone and no one is a missionary.
A technical definition begins with the etymology of the word. The word missionary comes from a Latin word meaning “to send”; therefore, a missionary is “a sent one.” However, a fair question – and the one which this book addresses – is, “Sent to do what?” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that Christians are ambassadors for Christ, sent with the ministry and message of reconciliation: preaching the gospel, making disciples, and teaching disciples to observe all that Christ has commanded us. Certainly, this should be true in the life of a missionary, a sent one.
A proper definition of the term missionary distinguishes the missionary from an evangelist or preacher by including the idea of crossing boundaries for the sake of the gospel. These boundaries may be linguistic, geopolitical, socioeconomic, or cultural. In our modern age of globalization, one does not have to cross salt water to be a missionary. There are people groups traveling and living all over the world, bringing their languages, worldviews, religions, and cultures with them. Regardless of where you live in today’s world, you will find people nearby who identify with other languages and cultures. God provides intercultural ministry opportunities in virtually every corner of the world.
If a missionary is someone who intentionally crosses boundaries to share the gospel, make and teach disciples, and plant churches among them, then Paul was clearly a missionary. John Polhill writes, “No descriptions fits Paul better than that of missionary. Acts consistently portrays him in this role. The patterns of missionary activity established by Paul are in many aspects still followed today.” The Lord Jesus sent Paul to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:47, 22:21, 26:17), and the Bible is clear that Paul faithfully discharged his duty and sought to fulfill this calling. Paul was so evidently a missionary that Barnett writes, “Paul the missionary became the great example for centuries of those who would leave the security and comfort of home for the perils and uncertainty of the itinerant missionary.”
…
Let us then define an intercultural missionary in this way: one whom God has called and sent as an ambassador of Christ with the message of reconciliation to make disciples, baptize, and teach to obey all that He has commanded, and who intentionally crosses cultural boundaries to do so. The life of David Brainerd illustrates the fact that one does not have to cross salt water to fulfill such a calling. He engaged Native American indigenous peoples, learning their language and culture, and preached gospel in such extreme conditions as to hasten a premature death. Countless other missionaries in the pages of history crossed cultural barriers, learned languages, suffered persecution, planted churches, discipled, and taught indigenous pastors who converted from paganism – all without ever leaving the shores of their home continent.