BFM Last Things + Missions

Introduction

One of the things that has been amazing about getting to know each and every one of you more is to see your heart for other people and the love that you have for one another! As a church body love is extremely important as we live our lives and minister to those around us. Tonight we are going to be mixing things up a little bit once again in our BFM study as we look at both articles 10 and 11 (Last Things and Missions). I was preparing to simply do article 10 but I felt compelled to do both of these articles at the same time because I genuinely think that they are related. Whenever we think of “last things” we often think of our eternal destination. Some of us might think of the various bowls and trumpets in Revelation that bring in destruction and judgment. We might think of the reign of Christ and the final judgment. Some of us might think of our eternal hope of living in the presence of God while knowing that other people will suffer for eternity in hell. The kicker in all of this talk about “last things” is that your perspective on these things can be changed if you are a child of God instead of a child of Sin. If you are saved then you have nothing to fear regarding the “last things”, however if you are not then Revelation is a terrifying book to read. Missions and Evangelism should be things that the Church is extremely passionate about if for no other reason than the fact that we believe what the BFM states about “last things”. If we genuinely believe that there is a heaven and a hell then we should share the Gospel with others!

So, with this in mind let’s spend the first part of our time tonight looking at article 10 of the BFM on “last things”.

“God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.”

Matthew 16:27 NASB95

27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.

Mark 8:38 NASB95

38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Luke 12:40 NASB95

40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

Acts 1:11 NASB95

11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

Romans 14:10 NASB95

10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

1 John 3:2 NASB95

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Last Things

We know that the book of Revelation can be a very confusing book due to the dozens of translations and opinions regarding certain things within it. We know that some people believe that Christians will be raptured up before the “bad stuff” happens. Others believe that Christians will be forced to persevere through the tribulation. Some believe that Revelation is to be taken literally while many others think that the book is Apocalyptic Literature and is not to be taken 100% literally like historical narrative (like Acts). There are a lot of things in throughout Scripture that divide us, however one of the most divisive subjects is on the end times. What the BFM does in this article is give a brief, unifying statement that all Baptists can gladly affirm. As has been the case in several of these articles where there can be some controversy, the BFM seeks to find common ground and it certainly does that in article 10.

Baptists have affirmed various beliefs about the end times throughout our history. Prominent, Godly men in our convention have taught significantly different teachings. I say this to say that we can disagree regarding this topic and still have common ground as well in some capacity!

Christ will return visibly

Christ will judge the world

There are 2 destinations for people when they die: heaven and hell

Regardless of where you fall in other areas, we all can agree regarding these three things! Let’s dive into these areas of common ground a little bit more.

Christ will return visibly

In the early church there was a heretical teaching that believed that Christ appeared to them secretly and taught them things not found in Scripture. This has been an ongoing problem for the Church today as we know that the Mormon faith believes in this as well. People think that Jesus returned and visited them and told them things not found in Scripture. This is an extremely dangerous platform to build your beliefs on. As Baptists, we believe that Christ is in heaven, seated on the right hand of the Father and one day will return! This will be a visible moment and the entire world will know that it happened. This will not be a secret meeting for the believers at Morgan Baptist Church but it will be something universal that all people will witness and experience! He will in fact return - this is something we can all affirm regarding the last things.

Christ will judge the world

As we have talked about on several occasions, justice is something that our world says that we desire but is something that we personally hate. We want grace, mercy and forgiveness. At school whenever a student gets in trouble for doing something wrong the 12th time, he cries “just give me another chance, don’t send me to the principal’s office, i’ll be good!” We don’t want justice on ourselves, we want another chance.... and then another.... and then another! Now whenever someone we don’t like is in a similar situation we want justice given to them because “they deserve it!” What we see in Scripture and in the BFM is that Christ will judge the world. Praise God, though, that we do not get what we deserve! If justice was served and we got what we deserved, we would be separated from God for eternity in a place called hell. Praise God that Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness. We know that some Christians will receive blessings and rewards in heaven, however the bottom line is that if you are in Christ then you will be judged as if you are Christ. Just as God reckoned Abraham’s account with righteousness, our accounts are reckoned with Christ’s righteousness. This is something that all Baptists can agree upon.

2 Destination: Heaven and Hell

There are several different theories on hell. One theory that I have heard a lot of in recent months is called “Annihilationism”. This theory states that non-Christians will suffer in hell (it could be a billion years or it could be a trillion years) and eventually they will be annihilated and cease to exist. If you have ever heard of this view then you probably immediately thought that it was silly because “hell is eternal”. I want to pause and state that there is more Scriptural evidence in the New Testament that affirms that those in hell are annihilated than Scripture that supports the idea of eternal torment. Interesting, is it not? Being that as it may, though, Baptists generally affirm that hell is a place of eternal torment where non-Christians experience the wrath of God without the mediating person of Jesus Christ. Whether you subscribe to annihilationism or eternal punishment, though, we can all agree that hell is where non-Christians go. We also affirm that there is another place where Christians go - heaven! Heaven can get a bad reputation from non-Christians because it can sound like a boring place where all that we do is sing songs, wear white robes and try our very best to not upset God. Heaven is so much more than that!

As Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor W.T. Conner stated, “Heaven is no lazy man’s paradise!” There will be so much joy in heaven because we will be dwelling in the presence of the Creator God Himself. We will be singing praises to God and experience fulfillment in that.

Obviously heaven and the return of Christ are topics that peak the interest of evangelicals today. Even among atheists there is an interest in the end times and their very own future. Books such as “Left Behind” have sold tens of millions of copies world wide and have convinced many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) of how Revelation will play out. What I want to point out is that these books and other books like them are the opinions of various authors rather than what Scripture blatantly says (or does not say). I love Christian fiction, but we must recognize that it is in fact fiction!

Lastly, many Christians believe that they are the generation that will experience the rapture. Christians in the 1st century believed that Jesus would return in their very own lifetime. Christians in the centuries since have thought the same! What we must keep in mind is that whether Christ returns or not in our life, He will return one day because He said that He would! The BFM article does a nice job of providing a balanced and carefully worded statement that all Baptists can affirm regardless of your view or perspective on a specific topic such as the rapture or the tribulation.

Evangelism and Missions

The reason that I wanted to combine these two articles is because if we believe in the end times article then there must be a massive response regarding Evangelism and Missions. We have spent several weeks talking about Missions and how the Great Commission commands us to share the good news of the Gospel with the world! As one atheist put it, “If there is such a place as hell then I would expect every Christian to let me know that there is an alternative out there.” This is the task of the Church today! We must evangelize the world around us and be missional in the way we live our lives. The BFM states this in article 11:

“It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.”

Matthew 9:37–38 NASB95

37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Romans 10:13–15 NASB95

13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

2 Timothy 4:5 NASB95

5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

What is an Evangelist?

It is not enough to simply live a life that bears witness to those around us, we must verbally bear witness about our faith in Jesus Christ. Our actions and words must be aligned! We cannot come to church on Sunday and live a lifestyle that is worldly in word and deed from Monday-Saturday. The BFM helps to highlight this importance by showing the need for “verbal witness” and to “preach the gospel to all nations”. We are all Evangelists and Missionaries. As we go throughout our life, we are called to share the Gospel and make disciples.

The responsibility to make disciples is not a “boring” task but an honor and privilege! We are so miniscule in the salvation process but by the grace of God, some of us have had the opportunity to be the vessel that God uses to open the eyes of another person or maybe the person who has the opportunity to share their testimony with someone who is interested in learning more about “Christianity”. This is a great honor that we get to play a part in. Some churchgoers believe the lie that they are not capable or supposed to share the Gospel with others because that is the “pastor’s job” or only experienced Christians are allowed to do that because “I don’t know what to say!” The fact of the matter is that we are all called to be evangelists. Nearly 1/4 Southern Baptist Churches did not baptize a single person in 2018 and over 90% of Southern Baptists have never led someone to the Lord - not that you save them but you help them through that process. These numbers are concerning and should motivate us to share the Gospel and be mission minded.

Let’s answer a couple of questions regarding missions:

What is the goal of missions? The goal is not social service, feeding the hungry, building houses, or planting churches as good as all of these activities are. These actions may function as part of the process toward meeting the goal. Further, neither baptism nor church membership serves as the goal. The one goal of evangelism/missions is making disciples of all the nations, all the people groups of the world.

What is the scope of missions? According to the BF&M, the scope of evangelism/missions encompasses all nations. The term translated “nations” in the New Testament is the Greek word “ethne,” a term descriptive of a people or language group. The International Mission Board estimates that over 6,500 unreached people groups remain in this world. 1.6 billion have never heard the name of Jesus.

What is the motivation to do missions? The BF&M identifies three rationales for evangelism/missions involvement: love, the necessity of the new birth, and obedience to the command of Jesus. According to the BF&M, the new birth experience produces a love for others. Evangelism/missions is love in action rather than proselytizing, imperializing, or spiritual arrogance. We are given a command from the King and we must obey because the eternal state of the world is at stake if we don’t!

What is the proper way to do missions? Verbal witness is the primary method of evangelism/missions. Paul highlighted the importance of a verbal witness in , “And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” Some individuals claim to witness by “living a Christian life.” Yet, if a Christian never verbalizes the reason for the distinctive Christian lifestyle, then no one will believe because of that lifestyle. The verbal witness, however, loses credibility if not “undergirded by a Christian lifestyle.” The importance of this truth can hardly be over emphasized!

Praise God that more and more people are buying into the command to share the Gospel with the nations. It is my prayer that we strive to be a mission minded church and we pursue mission avenues that we can participate in both locally and internationally. We already do so much for missions through offerings and partnerships with organizations and Praise God for this fact! However we must never believe that we are “doing enough” when it comes to missions. We can always do more!

If we genuinely believe in heaven and hell, we must believe in the importance of missions. We have to share the Gospel with the lost because, as Paul says in , how will someone know if they have not heard? There are billions of people out there who have no idea about there eternal destination. This must break our heard and motivate us towards missions.

I pray that this week we would strive to be mission minded and realize that living a Christ-like life is not enough. We must put our words to use in conversations with those around us. Both our actions and words are extremely important when it comes to the missions process.