SBS | 4th Quarter of 2023 | CPAD Adults | Theme: To the Ends of the Earth – Preaching the Gospel to all Peoples until the all Peoples | Sunday Bible School | Lesson 3 – Cross-cultural Missions in the Old Testament

1. Cross-Cultural Missions in the Old Testament
October 15, 2023
Teacher's Day
Lesson 3

2. GOLDEN TEXT
“And he said, Little and that thou be my
servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, and to
bring back the guarded of Israel; I also gave
you to be a light to the Gentiles, to be my
salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Is 49.6)

3. PRACTICAL TRUTH
God's love for the nations must be the same
objective of all those who fight for the
salvation of lost souls.

4. DAILY READING
Second – Is 42.5-7; 43.10-13 - The Israelites as God's servants and
witnesses
Tuesday – Ez 22.1-5 - The deviations, disobedience, idolatries and moral
sins of the Israelites
Wednesday – John 4.42 - Jesus: Of Israel as the Savior of the World
Fifth – Is 45.6,22; 49.6; 52.10 - Prophecies of restoration that include the
nations among the redeemed
Sixth – 1 Rs 17.8,9,23,24 - God in search of a foreign person through the
prophet Elijah
Saturday – Jn 1.1,2 - God in search of a nation through the prophet Jonah

5. BIBLE READING IN CLASS
1 Kings 17.8,9,17-22; Jonah 1.1,2
1 Kings 17
8- Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying:
9- Arise, and go to Zarephath, which is in Sidon, and dwell there;
behold, I have commanded there a widow woman to support you.
17 – And after these things, it happened that the son of this woman, the
owner of the house, fell ill; and his illness became much worse, until
there was no breath left in him.
18 – Then she said to Elijah: What have I to do with you, man of God?
Have you come to me to bring to remembrance my iniquity and to kill
my son?

6. 19 – And he said to him: Give me your son. And he took him from his lap,
and carried him up into the room where he himself dwelt, and laid him on
his bed,
20- And he cried out to the Lord and said: O Lord my God, have you also
afflicted this widow, with whom I live, by killing her son?
21 – Then he measured himself over the boy three times, and cried out to
the Lord, and said: O Lord, my God, I beg you, let this boy's soul enter
him again.
22- And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the boy's soul entered him
again, and he revived.
Jonah 1
1- And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:
2 – Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and cry out against it, because
its malice has come up to me.

7. INTRODUCTION
In the previous lesson, we saw God's missionary nature through
his relationship with Abraham. This lesson aims to consider the
nation of Israel as a chosen people, with a missionary purpose,
and to take as an example of this missionary movement the
biblical narratives about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, and
the journey of the prophet Jonah to Nineveh and, finally, ,
analyze God's covenants with humanity based on the nation of
Israel, in the Old Testament. However, the concept of “mission”,
as we know it today, does not appear clearly in the Old Testament
in relation to the nation of Israel as God's chosen people.
Keyword: OLD TESTAMENT

8. I – ISRAEL, A PEOPLE CHOSEN FOR A
MISSIONARY PURPOSE
1. God's plan. The Lord our God planned, since ancient times,
that the testimony of Jesus Christ would be proclaimed to all the
inhabitants of the Earth (Gen 12.3; cf. Mt 24.14; 28.18- 20). In
other words, the divine will was for all the inhabitants of the earth
to have knowledge about the person of Jesus. In this sense, the
means planned by God for the world to know his Son passed
through a nation. The Father called the nation of Israel to be a
missionary people. In this way, the Israelites should be witnesses
of God (Is 42.5-7; 43.10-13).

9. 2. Israel's failure. The Israelites became contaminated
with the pagan religions of neighboring peoples, in
addition to being very concerned with racial and national
identity, leaving aside the vocation of being witnesses for
God. In this aspect, there are many biblical accounts that
account for the Israelites' deviations, their disobedience to
idolatry and moral sins that relativized the covenant with
God (Ez 22.1-5). However, amid all this, Israel did not
cease to be a blessing to other nations.

10. 3. Israel's contribution to the world. Despite her flaws,
God made Israel a blessing to the nations. For example, the
Jews received and preserved the Old Testament, translated
it into Greek, the most used language at that time; in
addition to Jewish scribes keeping alive the idea that one
day people and nations would hear the Word of God and
respond to it. In this sense, Jesus Christ, the incarnate
Word, came from Israel as the Savior of the World (John
4:42).

11. SYNOPSIS I
Although Israel failed in its mission, the
nation contributed to revealing God's plan
to the world.

12. II – GOD’S LOVE TOWARDS OTHER
NATIONS
1. The eyes of God over all people. Johannes Blauw, a missiology
scholar who has written on the Old Testament foundations for
missions, asserts that from the beginning God kept his eyes on all
nations and peoples. We can see this in chapters 40 to 55 of the
book of the prophet Isaiah, in the trip of the prophet Elijah to
Zarephath and in the book of the prophet Jonah. In the prophetic
books we find prophecies of restoration, including a future day in
which the nations will be among the redeemed (Is 45.6,22; 49.6;
52.10). Therefore, God's concern for the nations is clear in the Old
Testament.

13. Elijah and the widow of
Zarephath | painting by Jan
Victors (VICTORS, 1640).

14. 2. The widow of Zarephath and the prophet Elijah. Sarepta is an
ancient Phoenician city, located near the south of Sidon. When Elijah
prophesied the great drought that would occur in the land and would
punish Israel, God sent him to the city of Zarephath, the home of a
widow who was very poor. When Elias arrived, she was preparing the
last food she had at home, already convinced that she and her son
would die soon after. But, when the widow obeyed Elijah's word, she
was blessed with the miracle of the cruse (the multiplication of flour
and oil). Then her son fell ill and died. At that moment, Elijah did a
wonderful thing that she would never have expected. By the power of
God, the prophet resurrected the boy and restored him to life. The
boy's mother said: “By this I know that you are a man of God and
that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true” (1 Kings 17:24). In
this way, God became known to a foreigner.

15. Raising of the son of the widow of
Zarephath | Painting by Louis Hersent
(HERSENT, 1819).

16. 3. Jonah's Mission to Nineveh. Jonah was one of the few biblical
missionaries to foreigners. It is no coincidence that the theme of his
book is “the mercy of God toward all men” (Jn 1.2; 3.2; 4.4-11). Even
though he did not have clearer knowledge about how Israel should bless
the nations, Jonah was specifically ordered to go to Nineveh to warn
those people about the divine judgment that was about to befall the
Ninevites, as a consequence of their many sins. . Nineveh was the capital
of Assyria, a wicked, cruel and immoral nation (Na 1.11; 2.12,13;
3.1,4,16,19). The Pentecostal Study Bible (CPAD), when commenting on
chapter 3 of the book, highlights that it was one of the most notable
spiritual awakenings in history, when the king called on everyone to fast
and pray and, therefore, judgment did not fall on they. As the city was
not condemned, due to the people's repentance, the prophet was deeply
indignant. However, the Lord made him see that He loves all humanity
(Jn 4.11).

17. Monuments of Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853
(LAYARD, 1853)

18. SYNOPSIS II
Through the account of the widow of Zarephath
and Jonah in Nineveh, we can witness God's love
for the nations in the Old Testament.

19. III – COVENANTS BETWEEN GOD AND
HUMANITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
1. Covenants of God. With the fall of man, all creation
became subject to sin (Gen 3.1-6; Rom 8.20). However, God
provided means to redeem humanity and restore lost
communion (1 Pet 1.19,20). Thus, He established some
alliances with man in order to make His glory known among
the nations and receive legitimate worship from them.
Therefore, in the Bible there are covenants called conditional
and unconditional between God and humanity.

20. 2. Unconditional and conditional covenant. The Unconditional
Covenant is a sovereign provision of God, through which He
establishes an unconditional or declarative contract with man,
obliging Himself in grace, by an unrestricted oath, to grant, on His
own initiative, blessings to those with whom He compacts ( Gen
12.1-4). The Conditional Covenant is a proposal from God, in
which, in a conditional and mutual contract with human beings,
according to pre-established conditions, He promises to grant
special blessings to the individual, as long as they perfectly comply
with certain conditions, as well as to execute precise punishments
in case of non-compliance (Dt 28). Thus, through his alliances,
God made a worldwide commitment to King David, which
resulted in the advent of the Lord Jesus as Savior, sent by God to
the world (Gal 4:4).

21. SYNOPSIS III
There are conditional and unconditional
covenants in the Bible that make God's glory
known among the nations.

22. CONCLUSION
We have seen that God's plan encompasses all humanity.
His aim is to reveal his glory to all people. On several
occasions, Israel was warned by the prophets not to keep
the message of salvation to themselves alone, but to
proclaim “his glory among the nations, his wonders among
all peoples” (Ps 96-3). This is a very important root of the
Old Testament to understand missions in the New, the
topic of the next lesson

23. REVIEWING THE CONTENT
1. What did God call the people of Israel to do?
The Father called the nation of Israel to be a missionary
people. In this way, the Israelites should be servants and
witnesses of God (Is 42.5-7; 43.10- 13).
2. What did God make Israel compared to other nations?
God made Israel a blessing to the nations.
3. What two biblical examples, according to the lesson,
show God interested in foreign people and nations?
The account of the widow of Zarephath and Jonah in
Nineveh.

24. 4. What are unconditional and conditional covenants?
The unconditional covenant is God's sovereign
willingness to establish an unconditional or declarative
and unrestricted contract on his own initiative; The
conditional covenant is a conditional and mutual
contract with the human being.
5. What did God establish with man and what was the
purpose of this?
Through his alliances, God made a worldwide
commitment to King David, which resulted in the
advent of the Lord Jesus as Savior.

25. REFERENCES
CPAD. Até os Confins da Terra: pregando o Evangelho a todos os povos até a Volta de Cristo.
Rio de Janeiro: Casa Publicadora das Assembleias de Deus (CPAD), 2023. (Lições Bíblicas,
Adultos CPAD).
HERSENT, L. Raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath. [S. l.], 1819. oil on canvas, height:
134 cm (52.7 in) Edit this at Wikidata; width: 144 cm (56.6 in).Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angers.
Disponível em:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raising_of_the_son_of_the_widow_of_Zarephat
h&oldid=1118843682. Acesso em: 8 out. 2023.
LAYARD, A. H. The Monuments of Nineveh. [S. l.], 1853. Illustrations of Nineveh, 1,960 ×
1,153.British Museum. Disponível em:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artist%E2%80%99s_impression_of_Assyrian_pala
ces_from_The_Monuments_of_Nineveh_by_Sir_Austen_Henry_Layard,_1853.jpg.
VICTORS, J. Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (Museum of John Paul II Collection): Art in
the Christian Tradition. [S. l.], 1640. oil on canvas, 645 × 599 pixels.Nashville, TN.
Disponível em: https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu//act-imagelink.pl?RC=56669. Acesso em:
8 out. 2023.
SOCIEDADE BÍBLICA DO BRASIL (org.). Bíblia De Estudo Plenitude Revista E Atualizada.
Barueri, SP: SBB, 2005.

26. SBS | 4th Quarter of 2023 | CPAD Adults | Theme: To the
Ends of the Earth – Preaching the Gospel to all Peoples until
the Return of Christ | Sunday Bible School | Lesson 3 –
Cross-cultural Missions in the Old Testament
Slides created by Celso Napoleon

27. LESSONS:
1. The Great Commission: An Ethnocentric Approach
2. Transcultural Missions: To their Origin in the Nature of God
3. Cross-cultural Missions in the Old Testament
4. Cross-cultural Missions in the New Testament
5. A Pentecostal Perspective on Missions
6. Praying, Contributing and Doing Missions
7. The Church’s Responsibility towards Missionaries
8. Tentmaking Missionaries
9. The Church and Missionary Support
10. The 10/40 Window Challenge
11. Missions and the Persecuted Church
12. The Missions Model of the Church of Antioch
13. The Purpose of Missions
14. Missions and the Return of the Lord Jesus