Isaianic View of World Mission

“I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations–to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD–on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

Isaiah 66:19-21

The true and living God is interested in world evangelization. When he revealed himself to Abraham, he said that in Abraham’s offspring, that is, in Jesus Christ, all the families of the earth would be blessed. When he chose the nation of Israel, he gave her knowledge of himself as a trust to be proclaimed to nations who worship and serve idols. Therefore, the singular purpose of our lives is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and to make him known.

The Impotence of Idols

If the gods of this world could save anyone, there would be no need to evangelize. But all idols, including the modern idols of money and ideas, are lies. Throughout the book of Isaiah we find descriptions of idols and their makers: “Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save” (45:20); “They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles” (46:7).

The gods of the world are impotent; they can save no one. The sole Deity, and therefore the sole Savior, is the God of Israel. “I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God” (45:5); “For this is what the Lord says-he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-he says: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other'” (45:18); “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (45:22).

This God is Yahweh, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. It is he who delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage. He is the great I AM, who said, “I AM WHO I AM.” Because he is the only true and living God, he is the only Savior of the world. That fact is stated in a number of places in Isaiah’s prophecy, including in Isaiah 43:11, where God says, “I, even I, am the Lord and apart from me there is no savior.”

Jesus Christ Is the Only God and Savior

Who is this One who is both God and Savior? None other than Jesus Christ. We find proof of that in Isaiah 45. In verse 20 we are told that idols cannot save. Then Isaiah says:

Declare what is to be, present it-let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

Notice, Isaiah is speaking about the only God and Savior here. In Philippians 2:9-10, Paul quotes this verse in reference to Jesus Christ, saying,

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This sole God and Savior, this Lord, this great I AM, before whom every knee shall bow is Jesus Christ.

In John 12, John tells us that Isaiah saw both the suffering and the glory of Jesus Christ in his vision. In verse 38 we read, “This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'” That quotation comes from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which speaks about the suffering of the servant of God. But not only did Isaiah see Christ’s suffering, he also saw his glory. In verses 39-40 we read, “For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: ‘He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn-and I would heal them.'” This quote comes from Isaiah 6, where God appeared to Isaiah in great glory. Now we learn that this God was Jesus Christ, as John concludes, “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (v. 41). And if Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Old Testament, then he is the sole Deity and the sole Savior of the world. That is why there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

The Necessity of Sharing the Gospel

There is no other Savior but Jesus Christ. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus himself said he is the light of the world; the way, the truth, and the life; the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep; the resurrection and the life; the wisdom of God; the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Thus, knowledge of Jesus Christ is essential to salvation. No one will be saved without saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ. But we cannot have this saving faith without hearing the gospel, because faith comes by hearing. That is why we as believers must proclaim the gospel.

What is the gospel? We find a summary in 1 Corinthians 15:

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (vv. 1-4)

This is the gospel message, which can be further reduced and interpreted, as we read in Romans 4:25. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” There is no other God, no other Savior, no other propitiation. If this is true, then world evangelization is not an option.

1. God Gives a Sign

   Let us then turn to the Isaianic vision of world mission. First God says, “I will set a sign among them.” Before world evangelization can take place, God promises to set a sign among his people. What is the sign? I understand it to be the sign promised to the house of David in Isaiah 7. Isaiah came with the gospel to King Ahaz, who was shaking with fear. Isaiah told Ahaz, “God will help you. Ask for a sign.” But Ahaz refused to believe in God. Nonetheless, God gave a sign to the house of David-the sign of the virgin-born son, Immanuel.

   The greatest thing in the history of the universe, greater even than the creation of the world, is the sign of Jesus Christ coming into the world. God sent his Son into the world as the Savior of the world, and it is to this gospel banner that people should gather. It is to the sign of the cross upon which Christ died that the elect sinners of the world are to assemble. Jesus himself said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14). He also said right before his crucifixion, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).

   The cross draws elect sinners to Christ. So it is impossible to have world evangelization without speaking of the cross. Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

   One day the One who died on the cross in humiliation will return from heaven in great glory, as Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:30: “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.” Those who see the sign of the cross and believe now in Jesus will rejoice at the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. But those who do not will have to submit to him, kiss his feet and be sent to eternal hell. I pray all of us will be drawn to the sign of the cross now before it is too late.

2. Sending Some Who Survive

   This text tells us, “and I will send some of those who survive to the nations. . . .” Mission means sending someone. In Romans 10 Paul says, “How can they preach unless they are sent?” But who sends these people? God himself. God loves the world of sinners; therefore, God first sent his only Son to save the world by his death on the cross, and now he commissions people called survivors to go evangelize the nations.

   Who are these survivors? In the Hebrew they are called “escapees.” They escaped divine judgment by their faith in the Lord: “See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like the whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord” (66:15-16). God came in judgment especially upon the Jewish people. Some escaped his wrath by trusting in the Lord. It is this remnant, the believers, whom God will send out with the gospel.

   Unsaved people cannot proclaim the gospel. In fact, this is why the gospel is not proclaimed in many churches. Blind leaders who do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord are leading the blind. But they have nothing to proclaim except depressing human ideas. They cannot say, “I was blind but now I see; I was lost but now I am found; I was dead but now I am alive forevermore; I was condemned, but, having been justified by faith, I have peace with God.” No one can say one word about Jesus Christ unless he delights in his own great salvation.

   What about you? Are you a survivor of God’s wrath? If so, you are sent to the nations as a missionary to proclaim the message of eternal salvation. In Isaiah 6 we read that when Isaiah saw God’s glory, he cried out, “Woe unto me! I am undone!” But God took a live coal from the altar, touched it to Isaiah’s lips, and removed his guilt. By substitutionary atonement he was made clean, and after that he said, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go and tell this people. . .'” (Isaiah 6:8). A saved person is immediately given a commission to speak about the only Savior of the world.

3. Sent to the Nations

   Survivors are sent to the nations. Not only does God love Israel, but he loves all nations. All the families of the earth are to be blessed in the great Son of Abraham, Jesus.

   God is interested in global evangelism. To make this point, Isaiah mentions Tarshish, possibly Tartessus in southwest Spain, and where Paul later expressed a desire to go with the gospel (Romans 15:28). Then he speaks of the Libyans of North Africa, the Lydians in western Asia Minor, Tubal in southeastern Asia Minor, Greece, and “the distant islands,” which stands for the uttermost parts of the earth.

   In Matthew 10 Jesus sent the apostles as missionaries, they were not permitted to speak to the Gentiles but only to the lost sheep of Israel. But in Matthew 28 Jesus commissioned his apostles to go to all nations to make disciples, and in Matthew 24:14 he says he will come again when the gospel is preached to all nations.

   This Isaianic vision of universal evangelization is reflected in the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The remainder of the book of Acts speaks of this spread of the gospel from Jerusalem all the way to Rome.

4. To Whom Are We to Speak?

   In the latter part of verse 19 we read that these survivors are sent to those “that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory.” They were sent to nations that had only seen the infamy of idolatry, of humanly contrived religion.

   There is only one who is famous and glorious: the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Sovereign Lord and conqueror of death, and it is he of whom we are to witness to those who are ignorant of him.

   Having understood from Isaiah that we should minister to those who have not heard of the fame and glory of Christ, Paul wrote in Romans 15:19-20 of what Christ was accomplishing through him, “by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” We are to speak to people who do not know of Jesus, wherever they are.

5. Proclaiming His Glory

   What are we to do as missionaries? “They will proclaim my glory among the nations” (v. 19). A missionary is to proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ; to do so, he is given the Holy Spirit, whose function is to glorify Christ. A missionary is not to exalt himself; he is to lift Jesus higher, declaring his greatness, his perfections, his transcendence, his justice, his wisdom, his holiness, his truth, his eternity, his everlasting love, and his compassion. Lift him high! Exalt Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen.

   Thus, we must proclaim the word of God, because it speaks of the glory of Christ. We are to declare his person and work, that Jesus alone saves sinners because he alone conquered death and alone can give us life everlasting. We are to implore sinners to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, who is glorious as Savior and Judge of all. Just as Isaiah saw Christ’s glory, pagans must also see it, that they will cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” When they do so, tell them this glorious Christ is also a friend of sinners who abundantly pardons all our sins freely.

   But we must also tell them they must surrender to Jesus Christ and confess him as Lord. Saul of Tarsus did so, as he testified in Acts 22:6: “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.’ I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.”

   When you see Christ’s glory, you will fall down and be transformed. If you were arrogant before, you will be characterized by great humility now. So if you claim to be a Christian yet are arrogant, it is because you haven’t seen Christ, and the missionary did not do his job. But when missionaries declare God’s glory, the Spirit of the living God reveals the glorious Christ to our interior parts, and we will humble ourselves. No one repents and believes savingly until he sees the glorious Christ.

   Have you seen his glory? If so, you will never be the same. That is why we must proclaim the whole counsel of God. We must proclaim that Jesus has received all authority in heaven and on earth and that we must receive him as Lord and Savior. (PGM) We must kiss him in total surrender and serve him with complete devotion.

   In the book of Romans we find the call and commission of Paul. Here in three places Paul tells us what is involved in world evangelization. In Romans 1:5 he says, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” There is no such thing as true Christianity without obedience. If disobedience is sin, the result of salvation will be obedience to God. So Paul says that his apostolic call was to call the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith, meaning faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that results in obedience. The first act of obedience is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you may be saved.

   In Romans 15:18 Paul says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God.” Do you obey God? That is the evidence of your being regenerated.

   In Romans 16:25-26 Paul says, “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him. . . .” How nicely we want to bring a disjunction between faith and obedience when God has united them! But faith and obedience are two sides of the same coin; thus, true evangelization causes sinners to obey Jesus gladly.

   Do you want true happiness? You will never find it in the world. True happiness results only from complete obedience to the glorious Christ.

6. Brothers in Christ

   In verse 20 we read something else these messengers will do: “And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain. . . .” No matter what nation they are from, those who receive Jesus Christ are called here brothers. There is no difference between Jewish and Gentile believers.

   Isaiah already spoke of this in Isaiah 2:3, saying, “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.'”

   Some people say Jewish believers are superior to Gentile believers, but that is false. In Ephesians 2:14-20 Paul wrote about the work of Jesus Christ in erasing such distinctions, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

   We find the same idea in Galatians 3:26-29, where Paul wrote, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

   If we are in Christ, we are brothers and sisters. You may live in a big mansion; I may live in a hut. You may be black; I may be brown. These things don’t make any difference. As God’s children, we have one Father, one family, one Savior, one faith, one Lord, one Spirit, one body.

7. An Offering of People

   In verses 20-21 we read, “And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD–on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.”

   Here Isaiah foresees the Jewish Christian missionaries, as a result of their labor, bringing to Zion an offering for the Lord. But this offering does not consist of a bull or an ox or grain or money; rather it is people- “brothers,” Gentile believers, saved by the preaching of the gospel.

   Paul speaks of this idea of bringing people as an offering in Romans 15:15-16, “I have written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”Have you brought anyone as an offering to God? Most of us find it is easier to give money. But have you tried to bring an offering of your son, or your wife, or your neighbor, or your parents, or your relatives, or your friends? Have you ever brought someone who just received Christ and offered him or her to God as an offering?

8. The Priesthood of All Believers

   These people who are coming from all over the world are selected by God to be his priests. In Exodus 19:6 God tells his people, “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In Isaiah 61:6 we read, “And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.” In 1 Peter 2:9 we read, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Finally, in Revelation 1, beginning with the latter part of verse 5, and verse 6, we read, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” This is the priesthood of all believers. There will be no clergy/laity distinction on God’s holy mountain.

9. Coming to Mount Zion

   In verse 20 we read that these people from all nations are coming to God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem, meaning Mount Zion. Some people say this speaks about coming literally to Jerusalem. That may be true, but I do not want to wait for that. We have already come, but not to earthly Jerusalem, but to the Jerusalem that is above, as Paul writes.

   We read about this heavenly Jerusalem also in Hebrews 12. In verse 18 we read, “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire. . . .” In verse 22 we read, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.” In the Greek text the idea is “we have come and we are not going back. We have arrived already.” Where have we arrived? In the heavenly Jerusalem, “the city of the living God. You have come to the thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. . . .” Though we cannot see them, we are in the presence of God’s holy angels. “to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” We have come to the church that was redeemed by the blood of Christ, “whose names are written in heaven.” Then the writer says, “You have come to God. . . .” Oh, we have not come to idols, to humanly created gods who cannot save us. No, we have come to God, “the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” What is that better word? “Father, forgive them.” We have come to worship our God in spirit and in truth.

Applying Isaiah’s Vision

What about you? Do you know this Jesus? Have you heard of his fame and seen his glory? Have you confessed him as your Lord and Savior? If not, I implore you to do so now. It is my duty to demand that. Even if you do not, in due time the whole earth shall be filled with his glory, and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

What if you are a backslidden Christian? If you are, I implore you to return to Jesus Christ. He will receive you. That is part of his glory.

If you are a Christian, there are some things you can do to put this teaching into practice.

1. Know that your life’s purpose is to proclaim Christ’s glory to people who are ignorant of him. Begin with your own children, and then speak to your parents, friends, and neighbors. Maybe God will give you the blessing of bringing an offering of new believers in Christ.
2. Pray and support true missionaries who proclaim Christ’s fame and glory around the world.
3. Commit yourself to knowing and obeying the Scriptures. How can you speak about the fame of Christ and his glory when you don’t know the word of God?
4. Commit yourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that the you may be a bold witness.
5. Open your mouth to utter the name of Jesus to someone today or any day. When you share the gospel, ask the person to surrender to Christ. Without surrender to him, there is no salvation. Do so today! Do not think you can do this tomorrow. There may not be a tomorrow for you or your friend.
6. Think about starting a Bible study in your home. God gave you that house-please use it for him. Invite a friend, give him something to eat, and say, “Let’s study the Bible now.”
7. Finally, consider what Jesus himself said about evangelism. In Matthew 9:36-38 we read, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.'” You say there is no one with whom you can share the gospel? Oh, no. There are plenty of people. You see, we deceive ourselves by thinking no one is interested in Christ. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” This is a problem that Jesus Christ himself recognized. What should we do? Jesus continued, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” So we pray for workers and pray about working for him ourselves. Maybe you will make less money, but you will have the greatest joy seeing people saved by grace.

May God help us to be his missionaries. May we live to know him and make him known. May God pour out the Holy Spirit upon us that we may speak of the sweetest name we know. Amen.