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May 22, 2021 08:00am

Seekers Part Two: The Mission of God

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In a previous article, I suggested that church leaders need to clarify the idea of a “seeker.” Then, I proposed three questions to help define the issue.

What is God doing in the world (i.e. the mission of God)?
What is the church’s role in God’s mission?
How should the church perform its role?

This post tackles the first question.

What is God Doing in the World?

Praise God that Romans 3:10-11 (‘no one seeks for God’) is not the end of the story. Scripture provides various accounts of people seeking God:

Zacchaeus: Why was the wee little man climbing a tree to see Jesus (Luke 19:1-10)?
Nicodemus: Why was this ruler of the Jews willing to risk his reputation to speak with Jesus (John 3:1-21)?
The Ethiopian eunuch: Why was he so interested in the Isaiah scroll if he couldn’t understand it (Acts 8:26-40)?

If there is “no one [who] seeks for God,” how do we explain Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, and the Ethiopian eunuch? Notice the common theme in each story:

An angel of the Lord directed Philip to the Eunuch (Acts 8:26). Jesus told Nicodemus that, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). And after Zacchaeus was converted, Jesus explained, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

In every episode, God was seeking the sinner before the sinner was seeking God. It is by the Holy Spirit that hearts are convicted of sin and drawn to Christ. That’s why we pray for the lost!

The mission of God, therefore, is to seek and save those who are lost, multiplying disciples around the world for His own glory (Genesis 1:27-28, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). Keeping with the sports recruitment analogy, God is the master recruiter.

If God is seeking sinners, what role does the church play in evangelism? That’s the topic of my next post.