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Let the Nations be Glad

The supremacy of God in missions

John Piper

ISBN: 9781844745012
280 pages, Paperback
Published: 19/11/2010

£12.99

Contents

Preface to the Third Edition

Introduction to the Third Edition: New Realities in World Christianity and Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers

Part 1 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Purpose, the Power, and the Price

1. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Worship
2. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Prayer
3. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Suffering

Part 2 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Necessity and Nature of the Task

4. The Supremacy of Christ as the Conscious Focus of All Saving Faith
5. The Supremacy of God among “All the Nations”

Part 3 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Practical Outworking of Compassion and Worship

6. A Passion for God’s Supremacy and Compassion for Man’s Soul: Jonathan Edwards on the Unity of Motives for World Missions

7. The Inner Simplicity and Outer Freedom of Worldwide Worship

Conclusion

Afterword: The Supremacy of God in Going and Sending Tom Steller

(Extract from the Preface to the Third Edition):

John Stott has sounded the note I love to hear and echo:

The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God..), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.

He said this in relation to Romans 1:5. There the apostle Paul sums up his calling as a missionary: “[I am called] to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” Notice: “For the sake of his name!” Stott exults again in this great Pauline passion:

"We should be “jealous” . . . for the honour of his name—troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed. And all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honor and glory which are due to it."

O for the day when more pastors and scholars and missionaries would not just say that but feel it as the driving force of their lives!

The apostle John applies this Christ-exalting passion to all missionaries when he says, “They have gone out for the sake of the name” (3 John 7).

My friend and comrade in the Greatest Cause for over thirty years, Tom Steller, wrote an afterword for this book based on that text in 3 John. I have dedicated this book to Tom with deep affection.

As we get closer and closer to the finish line together, we want to give our lives to creating, sending, and sustaining world Christians who live and die “for the sake of the name.” Increasingly, what burns inside us is the question, Where do such God-centered, Christ-exalting, missions-driven people come from? We believe they come from God-besotted, Christ-addicted, Bible-breathing homes and churches and schools and ministries. That is what this book aims to nurture.

There is a God-enthralled, Christ-treasuring, all-enduring love that pursues the fullness of God in the soul and in the service of Jesus. It is not absorbed in anthropology or methodology or even theology—it is absorbed in God. It cries out with the psalmist, “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. . . . Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth” (Pss. 67:3–4; 47:6–7).

There is a distinct God-magnifying, Christ-exalting mindset. It is relentless in bringing God forward again and again. It is spring-loaded to make much of the Triune God in anthropology and methodology and theology. It cannot make peace with God-ignoring, God-neglecting planning or preaching or puttering around.

Such God-entranced people are what we need. For example, even after all these years, I am still happy to say that Let the Nations Be Glad! is like a little skiff riding on the wake of the massive undertaking of Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk and their team in publishing Operation World. Would that every Christian used this book to know the nations and pray.

I look at this great, church-wakening, mission-advancing book, and I ask, “What kind of mindset unleashes such a book?” Listen.

All the earth-shaking awesome forces unleashed on the world are released by the Lord Jesus Christ. He reigns today. He is in the control room of the universe. He is the only Ultimate Cause; all the sins of man and machinations of Satan ultimately have to enhance the glory and kingdom of our Saviour. This is true of our world today—in wars, famines, earthquakes, or the evil that apparently has the ascendancy. All God’s actions are just and loving. We have become too enemy-conscious, and can over-do the spiritual warfare aspect of intercession. We need to be more God-conscious, so that we can laugh the laugh of faith knowing that we have power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). He has already lost control because of Calvary where the Lamb was slain. What confidence and rest of heart this gives us as we face a world in turmoil and such spiritual need.

There it is. Where are the teachers and preachers and mission executives and seminary presidents who talk like that? Their number is increasing. I want to be one. I want to breathe any little spark of Godward zeal I can into the reader’s soul. Feel free to ransack this book for wherever you feel that breath. It doesn’t have to be read straight through.

Let it be clear: This book is not just for missionaries. It is for pastors who (like me) want to connect their fragile, momentary, local labors to God’s invincible, eternal, global purposes. It’s for laypeople who want a bigger motivation for being world Christians than they get from statistics. It’s for college and seminary classes on the theology of missions that really want to be theological as well as anthropological, methodological, and technological. And it’s for leaders who need the flickering wick of their vocation fanned into flame again with a focus on the supremacy of God in all things.

Tom Steller and I love Jesus Christ, we love the church, and we love missionaries. Our united prayer and commitment, from the home base of a missions-mobilizing local church, and the newly founded Bethlehem College and Seminary, is that God will be merciful to us and make our labors fruitful for Christ’s “Imperial Majesty.” May he raise up generations of world Christians who are willing to lay down their lives to make the nations glad in the glory of God through Jesus Christ.