Outlined Transcript:
Hello everyone. I just wanted to pick up where we left off in 2025, talking through the supremacy and the sufficiency of the written word of God in missions. I want to share with you some different meditations, ideas, and teaching topics that I've employed in my recent teachings or that I'm preparing for future classes.
I've got a class coming up in a few weeks on intercultural discipleship: how to make biblical disciples in various cultures without accommodating those cultures or compromising the gospel in order to communicate well. It is about knowing how to rightly teach the word that transcends culture and transforms culture. That is what I call the transcultural gospel.
The Wrecking Ball and the Renovation
The gospel is a servant to cultures in so far that it can be like a wrecking ball in a demolition project. It can flatten the bad parts of culture; it can completely raze them to the ground in those places that are inoperable or irredeemable. As Paul says, "all Cretans are liars." There are certainly some cultures and aspects of various cultures that are so far gone, so far abandoned to God, that they can't be redeemed in the particularities of what they believe. Sometimes they need to be broken down by the law and then by the gospel, and then something new must be created in their place.
But other times, cultures are not so irredeemable. They might actually be closer to the intended revealed will of God as it is seen in creation—the book of creation, the book of the world that God has put within the fabric of what He has created in the conscience of man. The law is written on the heart of all peoples. Some cultures are more approximated towards that plumb line of righteousness.
All cultures are somewhere on that spectrum. They're either so far gone or they're very close.
Demolition: Sometimes the belief systems need to be flattened and razed to the ground through polemics.
Renovation: Sometimes they need to be renovated.
If you think of a house, there may be one that is so dilapidated—maybe it was formerly a drug house—that it just needs to be flattened. There's nothing good about it; it needs to be put all the way down to the foundation and then built up again. Then there are houses that are old and maybe dysfunctional in some places, but the bones of the house and the structure are still pretty good. Maybe it needs a new roof, new plumbing, or the carpet needs to be replaced with hardwood floors. They just need to be renovated and upgraded. Sometimes cultures are like that.
The Missionary as Theologian and Linguist
The challenge of being a missionary is knowing how to rightly handle the word of truth so that it is communicated clearly. That is what I try to focus on: the clear communication of the gospel, not the relevant contextualization of the gospel. Though contextualization is important, it is three or four steps down the line.
The main point is that we must start with what the Holy Spirit has been pleased to illuminate throughout the ages: the historic gospel.
How has that historic gospel communicated well and clearly to other cultures?
How do we capture the best of church history and the historic faith?
How do we help people see that they're part of a larger legacy—a package of truth that is not just located in their particular time and place, but is transcendent over all of church history?
This really is the challenge. This is why being a missionary requires that one is simultaneously a theologian and a linguist. You have to be both. You can't just be a cultural aficionado or a theological book nerd. You have to be able to integrate the ability to study the text and to study people to know what God has said that everybody must hear in their own tongue. Then you must be able to say it to them in a way that is convincing, clear, certain, and compelling—and yet still compassionate, knowing they have never heard these categories before.
A Burning Soul for the Word
You don't want to just have a bleeding heart; you also want to have a burning soul. You want to have a soul that is dominated by the word of God. You must see Scripture as the means that God breaks open the hearts of people who are blinded by sin and the dominion of darkness. They need the rays of the light of the kingdom of the Son of God to shine into their heart, and it only comes through the preached gospel from the written word of God.
The famous Sunday school hymn goes like this:
The Bible is the written word of God. It tells about the living word of God. On every page, on every line, you'll find the Son of God divine. If you want to learn to know the King of Kings and you want to learn of all the heavenly things, Read the book. Learn the book and let the book teach you.
This is my heart for what we do in missions. I try to bring the book to people in a way that is compelling, convincing, clear, and compassionate so that they can receive it in a way that is not accommodated or overly contextualized, but is rightly cut.
Rightly Handling the Word
Paul says to Timothy, "Study to show yourself an approved workman unto God, who needs not be ashamed." The question is: how do you study to show yourself an approved workman? The next clause says: "rightly handling" (or rightly cutting) the word of truth.
There is a way to serve God as a workman that can be shameful, that can bring shame upon the ministry. That happens by not rightly handling the word—not rightly dividing it between law and gospel, between grace and God's commands, or between what God has declared in the law and what God has promised in the gospel.
Please pray for us. Pray that our ministry would rightly cut and rightly communicate the word of truth for generations to come. Thank you for your prayers. God bless you.