Reading: “And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” Acts 1:7-8

We need to remind ourselves sometimes that we are Trinitarian. According to Acts 1:7-8 the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is the foundation, the message and the effective operation of missions—the promise of the Father, the work of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul incorporates the three persons in the Godhead when he refers to the gospel as “the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). Christ of course is the focus of the gospel message (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), but the gospel starts with the Godhead. When Adam sinned in the garden it was God who came—but He came preaching Christ, “God’s Lamb” (Genesis 3:15 cf. John 1:29). The Third Person of the Trinity, preceding from both the Father (John 14:16) and the Son (Galatians 4:6) makes this work affective in the world through His Church.

There are no gaps, loopholes or blindspots in Trinitarian missions. This is the confidence of every missionary or preacher, indeed every Christian. He/she goes out in the will of God, presenting Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit!

“God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the Holy Spirit.”   —George W. Peters