Being Sent in Acts & Epistles

July 3, 2007 | Filed Under books, missional |

god-who-sends.jpgIn Francis DuBose’s book “God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission” the author highlights the theological sending passages within 7 Scriptural categories. In past weeks I have shared a short except from each of these categories, including: the Pentateuch, the Historical & Poetical books, the Prophets, the Gospels and finally today the book of Acts and the Epistles.

Peter’s sermon employs the sending motif as he affirmed God’s salvation in his Son: “that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness” (3:20, 26).

 Moreover, DuBose writes:

Acts emphasizes the sending as a part of the unfolding work of God through his people, both individually and collectively. The individual aspect is well illustrated through Paul. When Paul was blinded by the Damascan vision, God sent his servant Ananias to him that through his prayers Paul might receive his sight (9:17). Paul’s special mission to the Gentiles is described by Luke specifically in the language of the sending (22:21; 26:17). Paul also spoke in a special way of the salvation of God being “sent to the Gentiles” (28:28). Paul adopted the title apostle, “sent one,” and defended it in some way as comparable to the apostleship of the original twelve. In Acts 14:14, however, he and Barnabas are called apostoloi, “sent ones,” in a different sense, in a way perhaps foreshadowing and corresponding to the missionary in a later historic sense.

In the Epistles of Paul there are several very clear uses of the sending theme. Speaking to the heart of the Gospel, Paul wrote: “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

In Romans 8:3, Paul emphasized the necessity of God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh because of the ineffectiveness of the law. “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son. . .” Paul also made a strong point that it takes more than preaching for hearing and believing. The proclamation must have a special authority: “How can men preach except they be sent?” (Rom. 10:15).

In the General Epistles, Peter speaks of the “Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). 1 John speaks of sending being at the very heart of the Gospel: “God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him . . . he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins . . . . And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:9-10, 14).

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