God’s Calling into the Harvest

God’s Calling Into the Harvest

Acts 16:6-10

Theme: There are three mission calls in this passage.

Introduction: What is a missionary? What do they do? Why do they come to churches like ours and raise support? These are good questions and I will try to answer them for you.

In this passage God gives us two very important considerations regarding worldwide missions.

Isaiah 6:8-9: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” (Isaiah 6:8–9)

First notice God is issuing a mandated call for missions: who will go for us?

Secondly God is giving a mandatory purpose: Go And Tell.

Missionaries are not people who are working for a job. If we want to eat or need a home or a car for transportation, we get a job to pay for it. However, missionaries do not have a traditional job as we think of. Missionaries have a calling upon their life.

All of us are called to be missionaries. Mark 16:15. Some are called to go full time to another country and spread God’s Word. This calling is an internal summons by the Holy Spirit to those who will hear and heed. This requires dedication of the entire life. There is an internal compulsion, all absorbing desire for God’s work.

The verses in Acts are about Missionary Paul who is on his second missionary journey. He has already been serving and God shows us His work in the heart of these missionaries.

There are three mission calls found here in this passage. These explain what God is doing the lives of these men.

I. Call of a spiritual need v.9

“Nothing makes a man strong like a call for help.” (George MacDonald).

A. Man’s desperation

Hurricane Hellene has left major devastation in the southeast. There are cries for help. A good friend of mine is responding to cry for help through his nonprofit organization for food, cothes, and supplies. 1. Here is the cry of perishing humanity who desperately needs help.

2. When we see the greatness of God, we see our poor desperate condition without Christ.

3. This desperation has been described in various places in Scripture

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;” (Ephesians 2:1)

“But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2:11)

“I waited patiently for the Lord; And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” (Psalm 40:1–2)

B. Man’s distress

1. Man cannot deliver himself from this condition.

2. Here the man cries out for someone who can help.

3. There are many cries of help because people are in a desperate spiritual condition—only Christ can deliver us from our condition

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all that mourn;” (Isaiah 61:1–2)

4. Human effort cannot raise us up, religion cannot get us closer to God, nor can any religious ritual take us to heaven.

Missionaries have a particular calling because they recognize the spiritual need of mankind. They know something that those to whom they are called don’t know. Their desire is to spend the rest of their lives answering to the cry of man. This cry is the internal emptiness they are trying to fill with “imitation Saviors” in our world.

Another call that is quite apparent is the to a specific place.

II. Call to a specific place v.10a

God’s guidance was first negative since they attempted to go into the province of Asia where the leading city was Ephesus. They proceeded north to east and they were forbidden. God had planned for the people in Ephesus and Bithynia to hear the gospel later. Since God is all knowing, His timing is perfect.

A. Godly direction

1. As the missionaries were seeking God’s direction, they were sensitive to His leading in their lives.

2. The Holy Spirit was leading them in v.26, v.7, and the v.10.

3. The Bible says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: And he delighteth in his way.” (Psalm 37:23) It has also been said, “The stops of a good man are ordered by the Lord.”

4. God was sending Paul to Europe and because of Paul’s obedience the western world was evangelized—which includes you and me.

5. God was sending Paul to Gentiles to a very strategic area that connects the west with Roman provinces in Asia Minor.

6. It is amazing the places God sends missionaries to. Johnny Eposito is one of my dear friends. God sent him in his mid-50’s to communist Laos. He is using him tremendously to reach people with the gospel.

B. Godly compulsion

1. God compels a missionary to go to a specific place.

2. There is a call to this place with a passion and burden to reach them.

3. As Paul listened to the cry of the people, his compulsion was urgent and he had to go.

4. In travelling to the few mission fields of the world, many of the nationals tell me send us more missionaries.

5. This internal compulsion to go to a particular place is unquenchable—just as God has called us here to reach military in Germany, God has called all of us to serve right where we are.

There is the call of a spiritual need, there is a call to a specific place, and there is a call of a special message.

III. Call of a special message v.10b

A. The manner of communication

1. There is a call here to “preach.”

2. The manner is Biblical to communicate this special message

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21)

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

B. The content of the communication

1. The message is the gospel—death, burial, and resurrection

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

2. The gospel is centered in what Jesus has already done for us on the cross to pay for our salvation.

3. We must not preach anything else but Christ and Him alone

“For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

Conclusion: The church has one mission and that mission is tied in with the heart of the missionary. We are called to reach the world and with this calling comes a responsibility to join in world missions. The start of missions is in our own heart. First, do you know Jesus personally? Secondly, what are you doing to reach the world yourself? Yes, we can pass out tracts and hang door hangers, but there are also people in other parts of the world crying out. Japan, Philippines, Hungary, Mexico, Romania, Germany, England, and Thailand. They are crying out for someone to go. We must send them, we must reach them, we must tell them about Christ. It is the church’s united vision for us.

“Missions is the reason we live. The minute the Church gets on her knees, the minute the Church sells out to advancing the Gospel into the dark areas, Satan is done” (John Willis Zumwalt)