Have any father we thank you for this day. We thank you that you come to us you Come to us with Your commitment and with your love to call us to yourself to build us up in our faith and Enable us to walk in your ways and father we pray with David that You will help us to be those who are humble because you delight to instruct the humble in your ways and direct the humble in your paths So Lord humble us before you today and teach us some your word. We pray for Jesus sake our men
in class last time we were talking about the way evangelism takes time and I looked at the example of the conversion of the Ethiopian unit recorded for us in Acts chapter eight and What we observed there was several things first that this was the work of God primarily rather than Philip, though he certainly had a part to play in it and Secondly, we observed that whenever anyone comes to faith, there's a history behind that and I urged you if God and I won't say if let's say when God is called you to minister so he's going to prosper and bless your ministry So I will say when You have the privilege of seeing people come to faith or of leading people to faith It's important for you to ask them the question tell me What God has been doing in your life tell me How come you're paying attention to what I've said to you today How come you respond into this sermon? Because you know that it wasn't Because you preached the best sermon in the world or Where the best evangelist that this person has come to faith you know that God has been at working their life And you want to know what God has been doing So it's very helpful to ask that question And you'll find it very instructive when you do because you'll discover that God has been at work In the person's life often for many years in all sorts of ways Important question to ask because it helps us to see what part God has to play in the conversion of someone And what part we have to play and our part is often a very small one And it's appropriate to recognize that so that we give honor and glory where honor and glory are due That is to The Lord himself Now In speaking about that I want to turn on to our next point here some of you may wonder But we're not getting very far in one sense here. We are we're still in one sense on our first section on post-modernism And we're progressing rapidly through the semester the reason for that is I'm constantly adding new things into what I want to say Which I hope is to your benefit because It means that you don't just get to hear the same thing year after year If you were to take this class over and over again, but So my outline Which start off being brief outlines of a couple of our lectures end up extending To all sorts of things and that's why we appear to be going slowly hopefully we're not actually I've been adding a lot more in as we go along But in our outline We come to point three here The emphasis the new is the emphasis in the new testament is on sewing And on personal relationships
when it teaches us about The task of evangelism
Much of what we usually teach when we teach about evangelism is How to reap That is How to lead somebody to explicit faith In Jesus Christ And of course it's important and helpful to know how to do that. So again, please don't take this as a criticism of particular methods of evangelism It isn't intended to be
we need to know how to reap how to Help people to see those fundamental things that it's necessary for them to believe and respond to to come To saving faith in Jesus Christ
But when you read the new testament to pistols um, they don't teach us how to reap Actually most of what they say about evangelism Is actually about our lives And we've noticed some of those passages already
First Peter chapter two versus 11 and 12 where Peter urges us to live such good lives among the pagans that they will glorify God on the day he visits us and First Peter 315 now that does speak about what to say but It doesn't so much teaches how to reap The context of Peter's words in purse first Peter 315 is of You being criticized unjustly for your life and In that context Peter urges us to be always be prepared to give an account to give an answer a defense of what we believe to anyone who asks us The reason for the hope that we have And again that the point is that the person Has observed that there's a hope in your life. There's something about you. That's different And they are saying what is it? What is the reason for this hope in your life and then you give an account of your faith Of why you believe See even there where it's one of the Most explicit passages about verbal evangelism in the letters in the New Testament It's calling you to tell the person why you're a Christian
not To simply summarize what the central points of Christianity are that the person needs to respond to But why you are a Christian Very similar in Colossians chapter 4 verse 6 where Paul urges us to make the most of every opportunity we have To share the gospel and He speaks there about our whole way of life and the way we speak at let your conversation always be Gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer Everyone and again the focus is on answering
When the opportunity arises in a conversation But with someone or in Titus 2 11 and 12 he urges people in their workplace to To work in such a way that they may make the teaching about God our savior attractive Now My point in saying this is not that It's wrong to learn how to reap and not that it's wrong to To seek to have conversations with people about the gospel that's not my point at all But my point is this that in the New Testament we see most opportunities for verbal evangelism arising out of personal contact with unbelievers They arise out of relationships Out of situations in which we are living before people in our places of work in our neighborhoods in our families in our communities And as we get to know people and as they get to see our lives We are urged to pray that God will open doors for us and we'll give us opportunities to share the faith that we have Because people see that there is something different about us
But a lot of what the New Testament teaches us is about sowing Rather than reaping You remember the two examples we've looked at in the gospels of Jesus talking to the expert in the law who came to him with the explicit question What must I do to inherit eternal life And to the rich young Leader of the synagogue who came to him with the same question Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life now the one was sincere and the other wasn't But with both of them Jesus is sowing rather than reaping He is taking them where they are And seeking to move them further along the path To sow a seed of God's truth in their heart And to nurture that there Rather than immediately bringing the person To faith in himself You remember I pointed out with neither of them does Jesus share the gospel Because they weren't ready for it yet. They actually both needed to hear the law To understand that they were sinners before God Before they were ready to hear the gospel So Jesus was sowing Jesus was sowing and of course the New Testament itself uses this language In John chapter four after his encounter with the Samaritan woman One of the things that Jesus says to the disciples As they see the Samaritans coming across the field towards them and they wore white clothes Jesus uses this image of sowing and reaping He says Others have sowed and you are going to reap the harvest Even now the fields of white to the harvest. Well these people are coming Because of what Jesus has sown and reaped in the life of the Samaritan woman And then what she sows in the village when she goes back And then the people come to meet Jesus and Jesus and the disciples are now going to have the opportunity to reap a harvest over the next few days in this village But after some sowing has already taken place Now of course the New Testament as I said uses this language and if you turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter three
Paul talks about sowing and watering and planting And making things grow
uses the image of giving growth there rather than reaping and he's In the context he's speaking about the way In the Corinthian church they had divided into groups following the various different teachers Peter and Paul and a policy and so on and then Paul in responding to this problem asks a question in verse five What after all is a Paulus and what is Paul what what what is our place In this that you should say that You're a disciple of Paul or you're a disciple of a Paulus Well, what's our place So very important question Now earlier in Corinthians and this is going to be a challenge to some of you who are ready pastors earlier in Corinthians Paul addresses the fact in chapter one that he didn't baptize many of them even though he was responsible under God's providence for leading many of them to faith and One of the things one of the temptations for a pastor is that whenever We see somebody coming to faith we want to baptize them kind of as like a seal of the fruitfulness of our ministry But Paul says very carefully I didn't baptize many of you and then he gives a list of just a couple of people he baptized And he tells us the reason why he didn't Because he didn't want them to follow him What to think they owed their salvation to him But to recognize that they owe their salvation to Christ and to God The very challenging words Because it's very easy to Develop a kind of sense of ownership of people Especially where God has used to you to help them come to faith But Paul consciously worked against that in not letting people look at him that way Because he knew the weakness of his own heart and he didn't want to think that way about himself Then he didn't want other people to think that way about him
So he asked the question what after all is a palace and what is Paul Only servants only servants Through whom you came to believe That's indeed true But as the Lord has assigned to each his task
God gives us different tasks in this work of evangelism of communicating the gospel I planted the seed A palace watered it But God made it grow So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything
But only God Who makes things grow and notice how strongly Paul puts that He's not saying that he and a palace are literally nothing He's singing comparison with what God does We are nothing Because he's the one who gives life He's the one Who makes his word grow We may sow it We may plant it, we may Tend it, we may water it but God is the one who gives life So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God Who makes things grow the man who plants And the man who waters have one purpose and then he says of course we're not nothing We indeed have a responsible task And each one will be rewarded according to his own labor What we do does matter He's not saying that his Task of sowing or watering is Is meaningless It is genuinely significant. It's so significant that God is going to reward him
Daniel talks about those who turn many to writers in the shining like stars in the kingdom of God The scripture doesn't hesitate to speak that way and the apostle Paul himself speaking about himself as this What is my crown of joy or of boasting on the day of the Lord Jesus? Is it not you? For you are my glory and joy Oh God when we stand before him is going to In his kindness in his mercy even though we are nothing in comparison what he does in saving people God Is going to reward us Paul says that and so he knows that when he stands before the Lord And the Philippian believers are going to be there many of whom Came to faith partly through his ministry They're going to be his crown of joy or of boasting he's going to see the fruit of his labors When he stands before the Lord and at that it is going to be a wonderful reward She's not saying what we do is insignificant God takes it seriously he In his love and wonderful kindness will reward it For we are God's fellow workers That's a responsible task we are God's fellow workers God has given us the privilege Of calling us to be his fellow workers You are God's field God's building Of God's the one who owns the whole thing Now this is his field that he gives life To the plants that are growing in it now this is his building and he is the one that builds the building and who designed it And he calls us to be labors Along with him in The task So we need to have a broader view of evangelism first to see The great part that God plays which is so much greater than our part and then to Think about what it means for us to learn to sow And to water and not just simply to reap So we have a wider understanding Now what I want us to think about here and this is going to move away from your outline is to think about God's commitment to the work of salvation and To look at some examples of how God actually saves us How he saves people
One of the questions and let me approach it this way one of the questions that unbelievers often ask But also many questions ask is this one What about people who haven't heard the gospel What about people who haven't heard the gospel And when we ask such a question and I'm sure most of you have asked that question at some point or questions Like it What is behind that question is this why aren't more people Christians now? Where's God? What's he doing Why are so many people judged why doesn't he get the gospel out Is he truly a God of love Is he fair and just in his judgment now when we ask such questions Whether we recognize it or not We are giving the impression That we care more about people's salvation than God does That's the impression that we're giving and Sometimes maybe if you're going to be honest with your own heart you've even thought that way When you Think about people Around the world We give the impression sometimes that we would do anything to make sure lost people are saved Whereas God we think is perhaps too laid back about the whole problem And the destiny of unbelievers And so what I wanted to think about is is really the question is God truly reluctant To save people Or actually who is it Who is really reluctant To be involved in the task of angelism
Now if you study the history of mission and you will have been some of you perhaps already are taking Church history classes in which you are learning something about the history of mission or taking classes with Dr. Jennings where he Will address Issues related to the history of mission One of the things that you will discover very quickly Is that the church Has actually always been exceedingly reluctant To go out and proclaim the gospel I don't have time to give you a history of mission right here but You can look up all sorts of examples Throughout the history of the past two thousand years Well, let's say longer than that and see how reluctant people are just think of the story of Jonah Oh, there's a reluctant missionary God sends him to Nineveh, Jonah refuses to go That he goes in the other direction He's so desperately anxious that the Ninevehites might not be saved He doesn't want to go even when God commands him to
And when he gets there And proclaims God's truth And the people come to repentance. He's very disappointed That he's thoroughly miserable. He says I want to die Think of that as an evangelist whose work has been successful And he says I want to die Because he doesn't want God to save people now. Jonah's an extreme example, but I wonder really how different we are
How earnestly remember the example of Jane Fonda How many of you prayed for Jane Fonda's conversion
Genuinely sincerely eagerly Is that how you respond to those who are the enemies of the church And the enemies of the gospel and the enemies of Christ I wonder how many people prayed for the conversion of Saul
The church is reluctant Very reluctant for lots of examples from the early centuries of The gospel spreading to great areas of the world not because somebody went there intentionally But because they got taken there As a captive as a slave as a prisoner of war
That's how the gospel went to India
There is a legend about it Which was thought to be entirely legendary Until people started discovering a few years ago all sorts of historical inscriptions Where some of the details of those legends turn out to be historical fact but the legend goes like this that Christ appeared to the apostle Thomas in a vision or dream and commanded him to go to India and he said no Just like Jonah I don't want to go there it's too far away And so he God captured and sent there as a slave And eventually was martyred There put to death by Hindu Brahmins But while he was there the king of the part of South West India that he was in was converted and the king's name was Gunda forus And other Hindus were converted too and the church was started there Now that was thought to be entirely legendary until they discovered inscriptions with that king's name on them And The motto of a church in India is quite confident that this is a true history of their origins But whether that one is legendary or not there are dozens of examples from the first three or four hundred years of the church Of stories like that That's how the gospel went to Ethiopia
to Christians who were shipwrecked on the shores of the red sea and were taken captive To the court in Ethiopia Nobody sent a missionary there
But that's how the gospel went there and the church started there It's the same with Ireland It's the same with Scandinavia Nobody sent missionaries to the Vikings
In Norway and Sweden and Denmark and Iceland They came dozens of times And attacked all around the coast of Britain and Ireland And Many of the places they attacked were monasteries Where the gospel was loved and revered And they killed people and they raped people and they Destroyed their property and burnt their monasteries down and they took some of the monks captive back to Scandinavia And that's how the gospel went to Scandinavia nobody ever sent any missionaries there Now there are dozens of Of a cans like that in the history of missions Across the face of the whole earth Where God sends his people even though they Are reluctant to go and Let's look Because as an example of this right in The early chapters of acts
You remember how explicit Jesus is with the great commission
If we look at acts chapter one And of course Jesus gives the great commission on many occasions
But on this account that we have here His words are tremendously explicit if we start in verse 4 this is after the resurrection On one of the occasions Jesus appeared Was physically present with his disciples It says on one occasion while he was eating with them This is a genuinely physical resurrection. He's sitting them. They were reclining eating a meal with them He gave them this command Don't leave Jerusalem Stay in Jerusalem But wait for the gift my father promised which you've heard me speak about for John baptized with water But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
So when they met together they asked him Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel they have An agenda for Christ Despite all that he's taught them for three years And in the days after the resurrection and he's already given them the great commission several times But there to go out into the whole world it appears several times during the gospels before his death as well as after But they have something quite different in mind They have in mind that God is going to restore the kingdom to Israel right now And they're going to sit on thrones ruling over Israel and over the world And so that's what they're wanting to happen They have an agenda and it's the restoration of Israel immediately With them in positions of authority Remember they kept asking Jesus about that you know we want to sit on your right hand and your left hand When you establish your kingdom and that's what they're wanting to happen Drive at the Romans They were temporarily disappointed because Jesus was put to death and they thought Everything they had hoped for from him was destroyed But now he's raised from the dead again and they thought well now it's going to happen Yeah, we were disappointed for a while there, but now we're going to get what we want Jesus is going to reign as king right away So are you now are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel and Now lots of us have our agendas for Christ too What's your agenda personally? In terms of what you think should happen in your life What you would like him to do for you An agenda for your ministry or for your financial security Or perhaps an agenda for this nation And we want to make this a great Christian nation again And what's your agenda For Christ what is it that you have on your heart that you want him to do
And of course some of those desires may be appropriate But what's your agenda for Christ well Jesus responds to the agenda the disciples have for him He said to them it's not for you to know The times or dates the Father has set by his own authority In other words, this is not no concern of yours
It's not for you to know Now Christians find it's so hard to Take those words seriously
Think of all the speculation at the turn of the millennium By Christians
I had people saying to me Seriously as I traveled around the country and here in St. Louis Now this is obviously the beginning of the end And people had an agenda for me they said You know, have you sold your home and bought a place out in the country and I said well what for They said well, you know the millennium's coming The end is approaching everything's going to break down. It's just the sign that Christ will be back soon So I said well, why should I be going out to the country and buying a house out there and they said well You need to get out there and stock it with food and weapons And I said well, you know, what are the weapons for What why would I as a minister of the gospel Need to stock my home with weaponers and Food and I had several people say this to me seriously Christians So that when starvation starts happening you can shoot the people who are trying to steal your food
uh I was flabbergasted You know is this what it means to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ but You know and we may laugh and I love but this is just so shocking
That's worse than Jonah Let's just kill the hungry people Never mind going and burying oneself in the countryside so that I can be secure As society breaks down Jesus looked at people and he had compassion on them
And he fed the hungry he didn't shoot them When they came to him for food
Now but people were so sure they knew the times and the seasons But Jesus said it's not for you to know Actually on another occasion he said that The angels in heaven don't know And if that isn't enough for us said the sun doesn't know
Christ said that he didn't know When he was coming back to establish this kingdom This is in the father's authority. You have Christ doesn't know you can be quite sure that you won't You know, it's as simple as that You know god isn't going to reveal something to you that he has hidden from his son You know The times and the seasons are in the father's hand but of course people respond to me and say well It's the exact moment of the day that Jesus is talking about And we can know the approximate time and the season and maybe the year well no That's just playing with words It's not for you to know The times or dates the father has said by his own authority What what what are they to know You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and in the ends of the earth Wait in Jerusalem Until the day of Pentecost and then get going Don't wait there any longer Get going Now on the day of Pentecost I mean Jesus is so clear isn't he Wait in Jerusalem and then go that's your task not sitting around waiting for God to bring the kingdom in The going out and proclaiming the gospel in Jerusalem in Judea in Samaria and to the ends of the earth and Jesus says that over and over again Right before his ascension and we record it it's recorded in Matthew chapter 28 and you all know the passage Because it's the most It's the path the version of the great commission that we look at most frequently But Jesus tells them that that to go add into all the world And proclaim the gospel and make disciples of all the nations and that he's going to Have all authority in heaven and earth so they can do that So he he gives them an absolutely explicit command He gives them a promise You're going to have the power of the Holy Spirit to go and do this task. He is the primary witness Jesus that already taught them that In that long discourse he has with them on the night before his death He says you are to be my witnesses But the Holy Spirit is the great witness He's the one who's going to go out and convict the unbelieving world of sin and of righteousness and judgment You all know the passage in John chapter 16 So you're going to go in the power of the spirit The spirit's going to be at work in the hearts of people Convicting them the spirit is going to empower you to go
To live faithfully and to proclaim the truth powerfully and courageously
The spirit's going to go before you and open doors for you into people's lives And Jesus says in that past year Matthew 28 he says all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth therefore go Jesus is going to have authority over The heavens that is over the power of satan Who keeps people in unbelief and darkness But Christ has authority to rule over the nations But they might come to faith in him and the power of Satan might be restrained And Jesus has authority on earth Here's the one who rules the nations so that the gospel may go into the nations Is the only superpower The only superpower and a lot of what we read in the history of the mission of missions is God ruling the nations just think of the recent example in all of our lifetimes In the last 12 years since I've been here teaching at covenant seminary With the fall of the iron curtain and the opening up of vast sections of the former Soviet Union in eastern Europe And Mongolia and other places to the gospel in a completely new way Christ is ruling the nations So that the gospel may go out into all the world This is what Jesus promises the disciples He could not possibly be clearer both in his command and the great encouragement he gives them Wait in Jerusalem and then go And then if we turn to Acts chapter 2 on the day of pentecost As if his command wasn't explicit enough Jesus gives them a wonderful kind of foretaste of what he has in mind In terms of the harvest from the nations And you all know this account That look how strongly Luke puts it verse 5 Now they were staying in Jerusalem God fearing Jews and he adds later that they were Gentiles as well From every nation under heaven he tries to be as clear as he can people from all over the world Are there in Jerusalem when they heard this sound A crowd gathers together and they all hear the gospel being proclaimed in their own language And then he gives a list of some of these people How is this how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Meeds and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia Fridja and Pamphillia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene Visitors from Rome both Jews and converts the Judaism Creations and Arabs We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongue I don't know if you've ever done a careful study of this But if you look at what Luke says here What he does it's quite remarkable He gives you a list of people from every point of the compass
From every direction out from Jerusalem Going out to all the nations to all the world to proclaim the gospel There are people from way up to the far northeast in Parthia and Elam and the Meeds And residents of Mesopotamia Way away Now the Roman Empire is one of the biggest empires the world ever seen But some of these people are from way beyond its borders Oh Parthia that's over towards Afghanistan That's a long way away
And so on and you could go right around the compass Most of you probably have in your bibles a picture of this and you see that Places off to the far west like Rome the capital of the Roman Empire Long long way away over on the west coast of Italy And people from out in the islands in the Mediterranean sea like Crete People from way down in the southwest off in Africa You know they are there too And people up to the north So up into Europe into the parts of what is today The what were 12 years ago parts of the Soviet Union Now people from all around Arabs down to the south in the desert And Southeast so from every point of the compass people from All over the Roman Empire and beyond its borders And people from all the different kinds of humanity you look at this list carefully You'll see that there are people who are descendants in terms of where they come from from Or from the different sons of Noah And people with every possible kind of language You know Lucas telling us And even more god is doing something you know god's saying I have in mind The conversion of people from every tribe and tongue and nation on the face of the earth That's what I have in mind and I'm just going to give you a little picture of it today On the day of Pentecost of what your task is And what I want to do So what you see on the day of Pentecost and of course it's a wonderful Probedential act of god that day of Pentecost is the feet of feast of first fruits the first fruits of the harvest Now the Jews themselves long before the coming of Christ Saw the feasts of harvest as being Pictures as being symbolic of gods harvest from the nations They understood that themselves And gods doing that on this day If you look at the prayers From those feasts that the Jews use they talk about god bringing a harvest of the nations coming To faith in him and coming to worship and serve him So here's God's harvest his first fruits from the nations. It's literally a feast of first fruits And this vast number of people believe So Jesus giving them a foretaste, but then he said after that day He stained Jerusalem till then Then he shows them what he has in mind and then he says go
But in fact they just simply stayed And it's not to act eight that we read Of how they begin to go out To the other horizons to which Christ called them to ruslim judias samaria and the ends of the earth
And what's fascinating about this is Saul even before his conversion Is used by Christ for the spreading of the gospel There at the beginning of chapter eight saw was there giving approval to stevens death On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem. Notice these words Luke 2 is a very good writer And he chooses his words very carefully He's an excellent historian And all accept the apostles Are the apostles were the ones who were told to go
personally repeatedly by Christ Stay in Jerusalem till the day of pentecost and then go All except the apostles were scattered throughout judia and samaria there's your second and third horizon Jerusalem judia Samaria Godly men buried steven and mourned deeply for him but Saul began to destroy the church going from house to house He dragged off men and women and put them in prison Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went And it took that Philip one of the deacons appointed to oversee the distribution of food going down to samaria and people being converted there And then later in chapter eight you have Philip Oh being used by God to bring salvation to this Ethiopian
You know but Oh when they don't go God sends them
They get sent by persecution Now again there are Hundreds of examples of this in the history of the church The gospel being proclaimed by As a result of persecution of the church which sat still Of captivity of enslavement
All sorts of means except the church saying let's plan a mission Let's go out to the world to those who haven't heard the gospel And take this wonderful news of Christ with us And we'll read about What God had to do to get Peter to go and speak to a Gentile Later we'll look at Acts 10 very carefully But that's an extraordinary account of a reluctant apostle and an eager God committed to saving the household of Cornelius But notice how the gospel First began to go to Gentiles who were pagans In any significant numbers She Cornelius And the Ethiopian Unic already God fear is Everybody worshiped the God of Israel The fairly easy Gentiles But look at Acts 11 verse 19 and here Luke picks up what he's been saying at the beginning of chapter 8 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution In connection with Stephen So he's picking up right from the beginning of chapter 8 Traveled as far as finisher That's in North Africa Cyprus add in the Mediterranean And Antioch Up in Syria Telling the message only to Jews Some of them however And of course this is the real problem and we'll look at this in detail later How hard it is to go beyond your own people That's what they were struggling with but some of them however And who were they he tells us Men from Cyprus and Cyrene For these aren't part of the original church in Jerusalem It's not the apostles the one Given the great commission These are converts some Cyprus Presumably people perhaps converted on the day of Pentecost And Syrini's Syrini's from North Africa They went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also Telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus the Lord's hand was with them And a great number of people believed and turned the Lord Well when the apostles hear about it they don't go themselves. They send Barnabas Who again is one of the deacons They stayed in Jerusalem. They did not obey the great commission They didn't start planning mission trips Across Judea across Samaria And to the nations to the ends of the earth The church went When it was scattered by persecution and then the apostles didn't go
And when the gospel did begin to be proclaimed to the nations it was proclaimed by People who were from the nations themselves from Cyprus and North Africa And if you turn to Acts 13 The beginning of Acts 13 we find the first account of A really planned mission Where the church has actually we've got a responsibility to go. Let's do something about it Now Again, it's not the church in Jerusalem
Which is planning this And the original apostles In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers It's a fascinating church. Francis Schaefer used to say about this church that this was his Favorite church in the New Testament because of its Intercultural and interracial mixture of leaders and congregation There's Barnabas Simeon who's black. That's what that means Lucius who's also from North Africa from Cyrene Manin who's a Jew like Barnabas And Saul Of the persecutor of the church who's now converted converted And then they Send Saul and Barnabas off on the first missionary journey and then the church is actively Going out to proclaim the gospel But as you look at church history what you find repeatedly Is the church shrinking back into just staying in its own Jerusalem we may use that word The place in which They were converted the place where they belonged The place they regarded as kind of home base Just staying there And the whole history of missions is about God pushing the church out The church's reluctant God Isn't reluctant God is sending the church out
Even up until very recently since it's only in the 1790s That's just over 200 years ago
That Protestant churches Seriously became involved in mission
From the time of the Reformation in the early 1500s Until the 1790s That's almost 300 years There is very little Concerted effort To go out beyond the borders of what was thought of as Christendom I'm not saying that the reformers weren't interested in proclaiming the gospel Now it's wonderful to read for example the account of Calvin who is basically training masses of missionaries in Geneva And sending them Primarily back into France which was the country from which he came And during his own lifetime Perhaps two million people were converted in France through those missionaries a lot of people Now they sent lots of missionaries and it was very dangerous to go A lot of them were killed It was against the law what they were doing They had to hide constantly from people you read the accounts of the period and it's just remarkable Just the courage of people so it's not that they didn't proclaim the gospel They did all over Europe they re-avangelized Europe Now there are there are a few exceptions Here in North America there are a few Very tiny attempts To reach out to Native Americans But mostly the church didn't do that
Just joined with everybody else in slaughtering them and Sending them away pack off to a reservation somewhere out of our way rather than Proclaiming the gospel There are a few other examples there's small examples of Missionaries being sent to India Just a very few From Denmark in particular And the Moravians were committed to mission work They had some few missionaries in Greenland But it isn't until the 1790s that the modern missionary movement as we know it really gets going And it starts with William Carey And William Carey was a British cobbler Oh he wasn't One of the leaders of the church
And he wrote a little book because he read the New Testament and he thought well actually we're supposed to go And it was a revolutionary idea You may think that's strange because we take this so much for granted But this is part of the responsibility of the church we're supposed to go
But do you really think that let me ask you what's your purpose in coming here to seminary are you actually saying to God Lord hear my send me you are the Lord of the harvest send me out to whatever part of your harvest field You want to send me to or are you saying to the Lord Lord I'm here to train but I'm heading back home as soon as I can possibly get away from here back to my Jerusalem Is that what you're saying? I'm serious now. I'm really serious You need to be open to God to send you wherever he wants you to go. I'm very seriously
You have no right to say to God. I insist on going back to my Jerusalem Because that's where I'm comfortable and that's where my wife's family are and that's where my family are and I want to be there For the rest of my life because that's where I feel secure and that's where I know people and that's why I know the culture
God is brought to you here to covenant seminary so that you might be prepared To pray and to fast like the people at the church in Antioch and say Holy Spirit send us where you want us to go and make us willing to go there wherever it is Now that's God's calling for us The William Kerry wrote a little booklet and in that day they weren't into snappy titles I've been struggling with this with my book on evangelism which is just coming out in the next month or two Trying to get a title that's satisfactory to me and to the publishers But Kerry didn't worry so much about titles and his title was an inquiry Into the obligation of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen That was his title Just this little booklet he wrote it's still a classic An inquiry into the obligation The responsibility the necessity the duty Of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen now such a strange title isn't it He used means well of course we've got to preach the gospel to them But but people responded to Kerry no, he don't if God wants to save them. He will that's his business. It's not ours It's just you know stay at home And when he went he had so little support Matt that's the beginning of modern missions
Here in the United States. It's just the same Around the same time Just a couple of years after Kerry went to India was a group of college students Who were praying together the haystack prayer meetings called
And felt constrained by God to go out And do foreign missions to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel we need to take just a quick break here and then We'll come back To where we are For those college students see the church wasn't saying Of all these great strong churches with wonderful doctrine and great teaching and Solid community and so on they weren't saying well, that's Let's go They were just saying let's stay Right where we are in our own Jerusalem and you know even today
The overwhelming majority of evangelical Bible believing faithful churches Have absolutely no involvement In mission Accept in their own Jerusalem The great majority of churches that are committed to the gospel of Christ Have no involvement in either praying for Giving to Supporting or sending out Missionaries to proclaim the gospel to those other horizons
Judea Samaria and the ends of the earth That's the practical reality Okay, the church is reluctant But God is not and if we study the history of mission We don't find an eager church and before You judge Past Christians too Hardly you need to examine your own heart and say Lord Am I prepared to say here am I send me
Are my only saying to the Lord Lord, I'll go but I'm going to tell you where I'm going to go and it's where I feel comfortable No, it's not that you shouldn't Love your own people from who you've come that's not the point We don't need to start despising our own nation our own people our own race Our own culture our own context our own family To see the call to go somewhere else Think of what the apostle Paul said and he's the apostle to the Gentiles Absolutely wonderful words if you turn with me to Romans chapter nine
Romans chapter nine He's Paul is talking about his concern for his fellow Jews
He says I speak the truth in Christ I'm not lying My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart I could wish that I myself were cursed And cut off from Christ For the sake of my brothers Those of my own race The people of Israel It pulls the apostle of the Gentiles. He devotes his life to going across the face of the earth To preach the gospel in places where it hasn't been preached yet That's his intention. That's his longing
But at the same time he cared very deeply for his own people so deeply for them But he can say these astonishing words I could wish that I were a cursed Cut off from Christ if it would bring about their salvation
Who else said exactly the same thing Moses that's right Moses is exactly the same words It's only occasion after the golden calf When they've been idolatrous Washed at the golden calf Called at the Lord that delivered them Oh, and God threatens to destroy the nation completely And raise up from Moses a new nation to take their place because of their wickedness and And what Moses says is no Lord don't do that You know, I would rather you cut my name out of the book of life And that you did this to your people Now that's how much Moses loved the people of Israel. This is how much Paul loves his fellow Jews
Don't be ashamed of loving your family of loving the place in which you come of Loving your people of loving your race. That's not a problem To love your brothers But God calls us to have a bigger heart than that
He calls us to be prepared to go where he wants us to go You need to Get on your face before the Lord. I'm serious to get on your face before Lord and say Lord Make me willing to go wherever you want me to go to whomever you want me To go Because the great commission stands before every one of us individually as well as before the whole church And before any particular congregation in which you are apart These are the marching orders for the church for the whole of this age Jesus says I am with you always till the very end of the age It's not a temporary commandment It's the marching orders for the church for the whole age
It's the marching orders for every congregation of which you and I are apart to be praying For mission So Jesus challenges his disciples in Matthew chapter 9 at the end of the chapter if you just turn to it with me Matthew chapter 9
Verses 35 omens. It says when Jesus went through all the tans and villages teaching in their synagogues preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like she put out a shepherd Then he sent his disciples the harvest is plentiful, but the workers of you Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. That's where you have to start That's where every one of our churches starts and that's where you and I had to start saying Lord send out Harvesters into your harvest field Across the nations of the earth Across the whole earth send them out Lord Well, when you pray such a prayer you've got to be prepared to add And send me Lord That's what you want Send me So we need to be praying For this task of the church We need to be supporting the mission of the church one of the things you see as you read through The epistles is that whenever the apostle Paul plants a church he immediately Urges that church to start supporting the missionary proclamation of the gospel Brand new churches When he's in Corinth
At first when he goes there Paul is working as a tentmaker That's always his when he goes to plant a church in a new place He starts off working because he won't work to be paid
When he's preaching the gospel to unbelievers
But then it says after he's been there for a little while Silas comes and Timothy and they come and Paul is able to devote himself To full-time preaching of the gospel to use our expression today Though it's a thoroughly unbiblical expression Oh Nobody can be a part-time Christian But Paul is able to devote himself The book of Acts says to preaching and teaching and testifying about Christ And why is he able to do that because they bring a gift from the church in Philippi which is only just recently planted And Paul happily receive gifts and already planted churches to do the work of proclaiming the gospel In fact, that's what he encourages them to do So as soon as churches establish they start supporting mission And as soon as churches are established they start sending missionaries That's what Paul has in mind You know Paul goes around and he finds a few likely looking men and women and he takes them along with him To be involved as fellow laborers with him in the proclamation of the gospel That's what he does everywhere So every new church you look at the list of people the Paul has going with him Timothy and Titus and Gaius and Aristarchus and so on and all these people And They're coming from all these different churches. They immediately get involved in supporting and sending missionaries out So it's the task of the whole church. It's the task of every one of our churches No church today can say that it's being faithful to Jesus Christ if it's not involved in the missionary outreach of the gospel To its own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth
We have our all our own equivalents to those of course
But God calls us to go And he calls each one of us as well as our churches to have an open heart To this task to pray for it To support it to give to it To send and to be ready to go ourselves
The church is reluctant, but God is not What is God done for our salvation?
Oh, he has done several things First the scripture teaches us that God planned for our salvation before the foundation of the world
The scripture is quite plain about that. This isn't some late event that happens in God's purposes. He plans For our salvation Secondly, he prepares all the way through here. I'm here. I'm having a Without intending to I'm having a nicely a literated outline but You know he plans and then he prepares for people the nation of Israel Through whom the Messiah is going to come He prepares them for thousands of years And then he sends his son Now God is committed to our salvation so committed That he gives his own son Where the apostle Paul and Moses could say Lord block me out of the book of life. Let me be a cursed That they might be saved. They couldn't do that But Christ did that. That's exactly what he did. He was a cursed
For our salvation he experienced hell Being cast out forsaken by his father That we might be saved But even with that objective fact of the death of Christ in history Just by itself nobody Is going to be saved Now that may sound like a blasphemous thing to say. It's not because God also sends his Holy Spirit To draw people to faith in Christ Jesus himself says in John 6 no one will come to me except the Father draw him You know the world is not filled with people who are desperately seeking to become Christians Paul says in Romans 3 no one seeks after God
The human race is not filled with people anxious to be converted Now it's filled with people who are rebels against God Who God draws to faith in Jesus Christ Who God pursues who God wooves who God calls out to all day long. That's how the scripture speaks C.S. Lewis expresses it accurately. He wrote this about his own conversion. He said finally I was dragged reluctant Kicking and screaming the most reluctant convert into kingdom. That's C.S. Lewis Now that that's you too You weren't eager To be saved. God was eager to save you You don't have to be a hyper Calvinist to believe this You've just got to know your own heart and the hearts of other people And to take the scripture seriously when it says no one comes to me except the Father draw him You know write those words off
Without the work of the Holy Spirit no one will become a Christian because he God is committed to salvation He prepared for it. He planned for it. He sent his son He sends his spirit to draw us. God is not reluctant. He's committed to save. We're the ones They're reluctant If anybody is we need to stop there