Missions exists because worship doesn’t.

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!, 35.

Worship | The Purpose of Missions

God’s word is the means of missions, and worship is the end of missions. The world was made for worship (Ps 96:1; Ps 150:6; Eph 1:4) and the world ends in worship (Rev 7; 21). In creation, God makes according to a pattern, separating and dividing one thing from another. Creation itself is a cosmic temple, made for His image to dwell and worship in. There is a threefold structure to the earth: the garden, the land of Eden, and the wider world (Gen 2:8-9). There is a threefold structure to the tabernacle: the Holy of Holies, the holy place, and the outer courtyard (Ex 26:33-34). Adam is placed in the garden “to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15), just as the Levites are commanded to work and keep the tabernacle (Num 3:7-8). Adam is “set” in the garden before God in the same way that the ark “rests” on Mount Ararat. Adam is “set” in the garden the way that God “rests” in creation (see Gen 2:15, Gen 8:4, Ex 20:11).

God sets Adam aside in the garden for a purpose. He is made for restful cultivation, worshipful work. Man is made for liturgy. Liturgy means the “work of the people,” but it carries the extended meaning of “public service.” Adam is not just set in the garden to do generic gardening for his private enjoyment, he’s the public servant of Yahweh. He’s a liturgical Man, made for the purpose of worship.

It is in this way we can understand that creation is a cosmic temple. “The first Eden sets the pattern for other sanctuaries. It also sets the pattern for the world. The multiplied gardens aren’t supposed to be green oases in a howling brown wilderness. They’re supposed to be the garden of worship in an increasingly gardenified world” (Leithart, Theopolitan Liturgy, 13).

After Christ, the temple is no longer a building, but a people, built out of living stones into the Church, the foundation of which is the prophets and apostles (1 Pet 2:5). As the world is made for worship, so the world ends in worship, culminating in the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:7-10). John sees the new Jerusalem, the mountain of God, descending to earth, prepared as a bride for her husband. The new heavens and the new earth take us back to the tabernacle of God (Rev 21:1-3). The greek σκηνὴν meaning “tabernacle or tent” is used in the septuagint translation of the Old Testament for “tabernacle” as well as the greek New Testament for Christ as the Word made flesh, and for God’s presence in the new heavens and new earth in the new Jerusalem (Ex 26:1, John 1:14, Rev 21:3). As God dwelt in the tabernacle at Sinai, Jesus tabernacled among us, and God will tabernacle with His people in the eschaton. 

From beginning to end, the purpose of creation and the purpose of missions is worship. Worship begins in the garden and worship continues into the garden city of God. Life begins in and finds its ultimate end in worship.