The Power Behind Missions.

Read Acts 1:1-8

When we talk about great missionaries, some names that might come to our mind would be: (slides)

Paul (Asia and Greece), William Carey (father of modern missions, 1793, to India), Hudson Taylor (1853, to China, founder of China Inland Mission), Adoniram Judson (first American Protestant missionary to Burma, now Myanmar, 1813).

Let’s not forget that most of the apostles became missionaries to the uttermost of the earth: Peter went to Rome; Andrew went to what is Russia; Thomas went to India; Philip to North Africa and Asia Minor; Matthew to Persia and Ethiopia; James, son of Alpheus, to Syria; Simon, the Zealot, to Persia; and Bartholomew to India, Armenia, Ethiopia, and So Arabia.

What did it move all these men to leave the comfort of home, to sacrifice their families, and being willing to die accomplishing their mission? The powers behind missions! What are those powers?

The power of love.

Love is more than a virtue, it is a force, a power that pushes us and strengthen us to do incredible things for those we love. Talking about the power of love reminds me about an old song:

Por amor se han creado los hombres En la faz de la tierra Por amor hay quien haya querido Regalar una estrella

Por amor fue una vez al calvario Con una cruz acuestas Aquel que, también por amor, Entregó el alma entera.

That song only reiterates what the Bible says.

That song only reiterates what the Bible says.

The main power behind missions is the power of God’s love for man.

The power of God’s love for man.

Even before God created man, God knew that man would fall into sin, into the devil’s hands, and would deserve eternal torment in Hell, separated from God’s holiness.

But in His love for His creatures, God prepared a plan to save man: showing His love, He would send His own Son to show mankind the love of God.

John 3:16 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Due to God’s love for man, our Lord Jesus, the divine missionary, came to earth with a mission, to carry our sins and suffer death at the cross to pay the penalty due to man’s sin: (slide)

Jesus carried our sins...

Isaiah 53:5 NASB95

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

5

The power of God’s love for man is what moves missions. Missions exists to tell men about God’s love. The gospel is a message of God’s love.

The power of man’s love for God.

Loving God is also like a power is us. A power that helps us to be obedient to Him.

When we love God, we want to do what pleases Him. Reaching the lost is one of the things that pleases Him the most.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. Being His witnesses in all corners of the earth is not a recommendation, it is a commandment!

Do you really love Him? Is that love empowering you to do the mission? slide

2 Timothy 1:7–8 NASB95

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

2 tim 1:7-8

The power of love for neighbor.

When you love someone, you seek the best for that person and are willing to do whatever is necessary to save him/her from danger.

The power man’s love for neighbor.

When you love someone, you seek the best for that person and are willing to do whatever is necessary to save him/her from danger.

Our neighbor is not only our brother in Christ, but also those who do not know Jesus and, therefore, are in danger of going to Hell.

If God has allowed them to be still alive is because they still have a chance to repent.

Our love for them impulses us or empowers us to go and try “to save others, snatching them out of the fire”. ()

Illust. Strangers saving girls from recent fire at dance studio./ Edgewater, New Jersey, 4/10/2018

That’s exactly what love should make us do for unbelievers!

The first power behind missions is the power of love; the second is the power of the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Holy Spirit.

Without the power of the Spirit, missions cannot be accomplished: “you shall be my witnesses when the Spirit comes upon you” ( ).

Why? Because:

The Spirit gives us the valor to witness.

Luke 12:11–12 NASB95

“When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Luk 12:11-12

After Peter and John were arrested for healing a lame man, they were brought before the rulers to be interrogated and threaten, but they, full of valor, witnessed to them:

The Spirit gives us the valor to witness:

Acts 4:8–12 NASB95

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Act 4:8-12

After the confrontation with the rulers, they ordered then to stop talking and teaching about Jesus, and let them go. What did the disciples do? They went to his own and praised God and prayed saying, “grant that your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence”.

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Acts 4:31 NASB95

And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Act

Have you ever thought that that might be your problem? That you do not speak the Word with boldness because you lack the fulness of the Spirit!

Acts 4:8 NASB95

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,

Stephen, who was stone for witnessing, with valor given by the Spirit, faced the ultimate price a missionary pays: death! slide

The Spirit gave Stephen the power to face death for witnessing:

Acts 7:55 NASB95

But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

The Spirit gives us the words to witness.

You do not need to be a educated person to be able to witness of Christ. The disciples did not go to seminary or college; they were simple fishermen, but who knew Jesus. Yes, they spent three years with the Master, listening and seeing Him to speak to the crowds, but that was it. How many years have you know the Master?

When they were interrogated by the rulers, the instruction given to them by the Lord became a reality.

Which instruction? This one: (slide)

Luke 12:11–12 NASB95

“When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

The rulers were puzzled when that happened: (slide)

Acts 4:13

Acts 4:13 NASB95

Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

If we want to do the mission, we must love God and our neighbor, a we must depend on the power of the Spirit. How can we have that power if we do not yield to voice of the Spirit, if we do not seek the fulness of the Spirit?

The mission is to big to make it on our own!