"Missio Dei"
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference:
Context
Context
Today is the day! We have finally made it to our annual missions offering.
Since we have a special focus on missions today, we are going to take some time to talk about missions.
From about the age of 12, I grew up in a Missionary Baptist Church, but we didn’t really talk a lot about missions. To be quiet honest, none of the churches I grew up in talked a whole lot about missions from the pulpit.
To be fair, it was not because they didn’t care about missions, they did. We had foreign missionaries that we supported on a monthly basis and we also spent money locally in the area of missions as well. I believe they didn’t talk about it a whole lot simply because it was thought to be a given.
Unfortunately, it is not as much a “given” topic as we might think. When we grow up in church all of our lives, it is easy for us to forget that not everyone does. Everyone did not grow up in church. Everyone is not born in the pew, so to speak. So there are things, like missions, that we have to teach from the pulpit, as well as in our Sunday School classes, in order for everyone to know what they are and why we do them.
So, today we are speaking on the topic of “Missio Dei”: The Mission of God.
Content
Content
The Purpose of Missions
The Purpose of Missions
The first thing we have to do, is establish the main purpose of missions. When we talk about missions, many people automatically default to some train of thought that consists of sending money somewhere overseas, giving money directly to a missionary who will be going overseas, or maybe even going overseas ourselves to put up a building, dig a well, or be involved in some other special service project.
Even though all of these things may very well have their place within the overarching theme of missions, they do not represent the purpose of missions in and of themselves. The purpose of missions is so much more than that.
It not only encompasses those who are overseas, but also those who are right here in our own hometown.
Though it does require money to perform certain missional strategies and projects, money is not the “end all, be all” of missions. It does help, and in some situations, is even required, but the main thrust of missions requires no money at all.
So, what is missions?
Missions - The actions performed by the church to accomplish the Mission of God.
All missions must stem from and be rooted in God’s mission. So, before we can fully understand the concept of missions within the church, we must first understand God’s mission, which is given to the church.
Gailyn Van Rheenen states in his book titled “missions”, “God is a missionary God who enters into human contexts and sends various sorts of missionaries to participate in His mission.”
God has been calling people as missionaries from the very beginning. He called Abraham to go into a distant country; He called Moses to deliver His people from Egypt; He called David to establish His kingdom; He called Nehemiah to rebuild that kingdom.
All of these men who were called by God to be a part of His mission, were therefore missionaries. Their purpose was to fulfill His Mission.
The greatest missionary of all was of course Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world, taught the things of God to a few faithful disciples, planted the first christian church to ever be in existence, travelled the entire region of the Holy Land preaching repentance and faith in God, and was ultimately murdered because of His message of grace. Everything Jesus did was in complete alignment with God’s Mission.
Long before Jesus came on the scene, we read this in Isaiah:
7 How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Do you hear the heart of God in this verse? “How beautiful...are the feet of him...” God is expressing is feelings towards those “who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation...” God is pleased with those who do such things. He considers these words a beautiful thing.
And what is one of the first messages we receive of Jesus in the NT?
10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
The angel tells the shepherds in the field, “He has come. The one you have been waiting on has finally arrived. I bring you ‘good tidings’...
Isn’t that what Isaiah said… “How beautiful are the feet of Him who brings good news...who brings glad tidings of good things…”
Jesus is the beautiful one who will proclaim peace and salvation.
Later on in His ministry, Jesus tells us:
10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
This is the mission of God: to seek and to save that which was lost.
The Mission of God has always been, and will always be, the salvation of mankind.
This is why Jesus came… to fulfill that mission:
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
In His parting words, Jesus passes on this Mission of God to the Church:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
The Mission of God was the Mission of Jesus, and the Mission of Jesus became the Mission of the Church.
So simply stated, the function of missions within the church is the efforts put forth by the church to accomplish the Mission of God to seek and to save those who are lost.
That is “The Purpose of Missions”. If we lose sight of that, then we have lost the heartbeat of missions. You can throw money at people and organizations; you can build buildings and dig wells; you can host events and feed and clothe the homeless… But if the heartbeat of all of these things is not about reaching the lost with the Gospel of Christ, then you are not operating within the Mission of God and therefore, you are not operating under the true function of missions.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
This is the heart of God. God wants all men to be saved, so He has commissioned the church to accomplish this, as much as possible, through the preaching and sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many as we can possibly reach.
Sharing Jesus with the lost includes the lost right here in our own community, as well as those around the world, and sharing Jesus with someone takes no money at all. All it takes is a person who is willing to have the conversation.
With that being said, we need more people who are willing to contribute to this work:
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
All throughout the NT, we are told over and over what our mission is:
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
47 For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
We are called to share the Gospel, to proclaim the goodness of Christ to all who will listen. Why? Because it is the message of the Gospel, and only the message of the Gospel, that has the power to convict sinners and lead them unto repentance:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
The purpose of Missions is to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus. That is the heartbeat of all missions.
The Progression of Missions
The Progression of Missions
Now that we understand the purpose of missions, we naturally have to ask: “Where do we start?”
This is an essential part of missions. Thankfully, Jesus (in some of His last words spoken to the disciples) gives us a glimpse as to what this needs to look like.
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 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.”
First, let me say that this text is the general teaching as to how we are to progress through our missional efforts.
With that being said, certain people are given a specific calling by God upon their lives to serve in the area of missions. These people must follow the Lord’s calling in these things, but as for the general operations of the church, this text can help us to unpack how to focus our missional efforts.
When we break vs. 8 down, we see that Jesus is telling His disciples that once the Holy Spirit has come upon them, they will be witnesses for Him. But when we look closely at this verse, we see a progression. Notice that the first place mentioned is Jerusalem.
As you can see on the map here, Jerusalem is a city. It was one of the major cities of Israel and still is to this day. They were to start right there in their own city. Notice next, that they were then to expand their reach to the whole southern territory of Judah. Judah is this whole southern region of God’s country.
So they started in their city, then they expanded to the region, but then it says their reach would go even beyond that....to the region up here called Samaria. After that, He tells them they would reach the ends of the earth.
So when we ask the question, “Where do we start?”. Well, we start right here in Allons, TN. We start right here in our own city, reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, we are to expand the territory to the region of Overton County. Once we have established efforts here in Overton County, we are to expand to the next region and so on.
Now here is why I showed you this. In our current culture, things have changed a lot. Instead of actually having to travel to another territory, we can simply send money electronically to someone who is already in that region. Now there is nothing wrong with doing that per say, but there is something wrong with doing that under the understanding that you have checked some box off on the world missions map.
Here is what I mean. It is a good thing that we support people who are in other parts of the world. They are being used by God there to accomplish His mission by spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the lost of that region. There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing support to these individuals as they go and do this. Matter of fact, I would encourage everyone to do this, churches and individuals.
The problem comes when we send some money to someone who is doing the work, and then think that that is all we have to do.
NO...NO...NO!!! They may be accomplishing the Mission of God in their lives, and we may be financially supporting them in this effort, but that does not mean that we are accomplishing the Mission of God in our lives. We are all called to be a part of God’s mission to reach the lost with the Gospel.
So two things we have to be careful of here:
We cannot come to the conclusion that since we are supporting someone else who is doing this work, that it gives us a pass on doing it ourselves.
This is unbiblical. We must all be attempting to reach the lost with the Gospel. There is no pass with this expectation. If we all went out of this building each Sunday with the sole purpose of sharing Jesus with just one lost person each week, do you know how much of an impact that would make on this community. Huge!!!!! Just one person each week.
We cannot support people around the globe through missions and forget to evangelize those right here in our own town.
This too is unacceptable. It starts here. This is the central hub of our church, so this too should be the central hub of our evangelistic efforts.
The Practice of Missions
The Practice of Missions
Now that we understand the Purpose of Mission and the Progression of our missional efforts, what does this look like in actuality?
15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
We know from these verses, that God has called us to be a light in the midst of a very dark world. We are not only to shine, but shine brightly so that all who are in the immediate vicinity can benefit from the light we shine. So how do we do that?
Is it wrong to support to a missionary financially though we ourselves are not personally going where they go to share the Gospel? NO! Not at all.
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Missionaries have a special calling upon their lives to enter into another culture that is not their own, learn that culture in its current context, and then understand how they might introduce Jesus within the context of that culture so that those who are a part of that culture might see and understand their need for Jesus.
This means they have to learn their language, learn their way of life (what is ok and not ok; how they operate), how they do life with one another, and every other aspect that one can think of. Once this has been accomplished, then they can effectively introduce these people to Jesus in a way that does not offend them and in a way that can be understood.
This is a lot to take on. Having the support of others so that they can spend their time doing all of this makes all of the difference in the world. We are not supporting these individuals so that they can go on an extended vacation, we are supporting them so that they might reach the lost for Christ.
Ok, well what about doing drives where we give away food or clothing? Is that wrong?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
This is definitely an applicable text for today, is it not? This phrase, “I’ll be praying for you” has become almost habitual to us. We say it all of the time. I wonder how often we actually do pray for them?
Furthermore, if we say we are going to pray for them but then do nothing to actually help them, have we done all that God has commanded us to do? That is what James says here right… “What does it profit?”
The insinuation, or expectation given here, is that we are obviously supposed to help with their needs.
The caution with this, is that we are not called to just give away stuff aimlessly. We are to seek out people with the purpose of sharing the Gospel, and when there is a need, we are to shine the light of God by sharing the love of God with these people.
I don’t know how many of you were able to make it the day Bro Gene Cole was here with us. He is with the Riverside Baptist Association and he heads up our Disaster Relief Team. I love what he had to say when he was here. He made it clear that when they go to a home to remodel, or rebuild, whatever the need might be, their first goal is to share Jesus with those people while they are. They present the Gospel to them, pray with them, and while they are there, they also help with a need.
That is what we are talking about. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ has to be the main focus, but it is to be accompanied with meeting the needs of those people to the best of our ability.
Commitment
Commitment
As we come to a close, let me first say this:
If you here this morning and you are not a Christian, know that God loves you. It was no mistake that you made it here today. I want you to know that God loves you unconditionally, and He has proved that through the sending of His own Son, Jesus, to die in your place. Also know, that we here at Allons Baptist Church want nothing more than to see you come to Jesus in faith. We would love to walk alongside you as you begin your journey with God. So when we have this moment of invitation here in just a moment, come on up here so we can pray together.
Now for those of you who are already saved, I want you to use this time of invitation to come and pray as well. Come and thank God for all of the missionaries around the world, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in places that do not know Him. Pray for this offering that we are about to take up specifically for missions, that He would bless it, multiply it, and use it for His glory.
This altar is open for all.
