The Average Missionary Life

Introduction

As of today, the IMB has 3,673 missionaries on the field advancing the cause of Christ, and I might know the names of five of them. One of the ways that God has worked to most shape my heart over the last few years is by letting me meet people around the world who He is using to the work that before I’d only read about and to realize that it’s happening every, single day in the lives of ordinary people in anonymity and obscurity.

A few years ago, in one of my seminary classes, I met a man by the name of Aubrey Sequeria. Aubrey was originally from India where there is a population of more than 1.3 billion people, only three percent of which are professing Christians. But, Aubrey was reached by an IMB missionary, whose name I don’t even know, with the Good News of Jesus. And, what this anonymous, obscure missionary set into motion through living out the gospel in India, he couldn’t have imagined. You see, Aubrey is brilliant. And, today, Aubrey has a Ph.D. from Southern Seminary, and he didn’t get that Ph.D. so that he’d have a cool certificate on his wall. He got that Ph.D. because Aubrey is in the process of beginning a top flight seminary in his homeland of India so that the vast and lost population of India might be transformed in the Kingdom of Christ. And, the work that God accomplished through that anonymous missionary all those years ago is the very same work that you and I have the privilege and responsibility to take part in. We share in the missionary responsibility, and we are called to the missionary life. And, it’s this life that I want us to examine this morning in the Gospel of John.

God’s Word

Read

The First Missionary

If I were to ask you to name the twelve disciples, I’d guess that Andrew would be one of the easiest ones for you to leave out. When we read the gospel accounts, truthfully he’s a fairly forgettable guy. Yet, most scholars consider Andrew to be the very first Christian missionary, the very first follower of Jesus to go to someone else and tell them that Jesus was the Messiah, the Hope. In fact, he’s the very first disciple of Jesus whose name we’re given at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and he’s the perfect person for us to see and learn the normal pattern of the average missionary life (headline). And, I use the phrase ‘average missionary life’ synonymously for the most typical form of the Christian’s life. It’s how the Great Commission will look in most of our lives.

Missionaries live for somebody else’s “platform”.

v. 40 “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” First, missionaries live for somebody else’s “platform”. Verse 40 is really kind of funny when you think about it. We’re introduced to Andrew, but we’re introduced to Andrew through other people. It’s like John is telling us, “You know him. He hangs out with Ed and Joe at Jack’s every Thursday.” We’re told that he was John’s disciple, became Jesus’ disciple, and that’s he’s Peter’s brother. This is how he’s known. Andrew is ‘ole what’s his name.’ People when they’re trying to place his face always end up with, “Oh, you’re Peter’s brother! Yea, I kind of remember you.” Why would John introduce Andrew this way? It’s because he doesn’t expect many people to know who he is. He introduces him as Peter’s brother even before he introduces Peter!

Andrew was a servant working in the shadows for the glory of God. Andrew was living a life that opposes the very advice that we often give to our children as they graduate from high school. He wasn’t ‘making a name for himself’. He was making a name for somebody else. He was making a name for somebody greater. Originally, Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s disciples, that’s how he’s introduced. And, it’s interesting when you think about it that he adopted the type of ministry that his original mentor had. John the Baptist could have built a platform for himself as big as he wanted. He could have continued to accumulate disciples for himself. His popularity preceded Jesus’ popularity. His platform was established first. But, John the Baptist wasn’t preaching for himself. He wasn’t building his platform. He was preaching so that when the time was right he might point to Jesus and say, “Behold the Lamb of God!” His ministry was about building Jesus’ platform so that he pointed Andrew to Jesus, and Andrew entered the disciple ‘transfer portal’ and began to follow Jesus. And, it’s this same form of ministry that Andrew adopts so that he goes to his brother, his apparently more charismatic, potential-filled, brash brother Simon, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!” I’ve found him! And so, the most significant thing that we know about Andrew is not how well established his platform became, but rather whose platforms he helped to promote from the shadows. It was him that God used to reach the leader of the disciples and the early church. It was him that God used to initiate the advancement of the Kingdom for Jesus. And, most of us don’t even know his name.

You Can Be Andrew

I think most of us grow accustomed to hearing these inspirational stories of supernatural occurrences on the mission field, and we miss out on realizing that what’s most common among most missionaries is living an ordinary life intentionally aimed at glorifying Jesus and serving others. That’s why you don’t know most of their names. You don’t know most of their names because they are servants in the shadows spreading the glory of God. This is what’s most typical in the life of a missionary, and in the life of every Christian. It’s to go to work and raise your kids and serve your church and coach little league and do a host of other seemingly insignificant, anonymous tasks aimed intentionally at glorifying Jesus and serving others. And man, that’s good news for us, and that’s a responsibility for us. For many of us, we think, I’m not super gifted or very charismatic or very bold, and I don’t see many extraordinary things in my life. So, I’ll just sit back and watch. But, Andrew’s life teaches us that “YOU” can be a missionary with your ordinary life so “YOU” must be. You’re just ordinary enough to live the typical missionary life, and God has a plan, a wonderful, specific, joyful, meaningful plan for the Andrews just like he does the Simon Peters. You’ll never fully know on this side of heaven how God will use your ordinariness to accomplish his purposes, but you can be assured that obscure “faithfulness” is “greatness” by the measure of God.

Missionaries live out somebody else’s “purpose”.

v. 42 “He brought him to Jesus.” Next, I want you to see that missionaries live out somebody else’s “purpose”. Most of us are living for a single purpose: to make our lives more enjoyable. That’s why we see children, really at an unprecedented rate, cutting their parents out of their lives when they reach adulthood. It’s why we avoid people that challenge us or frustrate us. It’s why we have children or avoid children. It’s why we ultimately do the more noble things that we do. It’s because we think each of these things will make our lives more enjoyable, or at least more bearable. But, the missionary’s life is aimed “upward” and “outward”, not “inward”. That is, it’s to have such confidence in the goodness of God that you adopt his purpose, spreading his glory, as your purpose. It’s changing your aims and your goals and your ambitions so that they reflect God’s. You see, missionaries don’t primarily go to share the gospel because there’s a bunch of good people out there. They don’t primarily go because their family has good folks in it. Missionaries primarily go because “God” is “good”. And, the goodness of God sends them to love their parents and their neighbor and the nations. The reason that Andrew followed John and then Jesus, the reason that he went to his brother Peter about the messiah is a singular reason: He was confident in the goodness of God, and he was committed to discovering it and sharing it.

There’s a particular pattern that we see in Andrew’s life that is an emphasis in John’s gospel. He only comes up three times in the Gospel of John and in all three occurrences, he’s doing the same thing. Here you see it in verse 42 when it says of Andrew going to Peter, “He brought him to Jesus.” In , you’ll remember there was a great crowd of more than 5000 that had gathered to hear Jesus teach, and then Jesus told the disciples to feed them. They’re all dumbfounded as to how, and you’ll remember that there it’s Andrew that brings a young boy with five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus, which Jesus uses so that each disciple has a basketful to take with him after it’s over. Then, in , some Greeks approach Phillip and then Andrew trying to figure out who Jesus is, and Andrew brings these Greeks to Jesus. So, every time we read about Andrew, he’s bringing people to Jesus. Y’all, that’s all an ordinary, normative, typical missionary does. They meet people and know people, and they bring them to Jesus.

Share What You Know with Who You Know

And, it should follow a similar pattern to Andrew. He begins with his family (Peter), and then he expands to his Galilean neighbor (the boy), and then he lands on the nations (Greeks). So, the missionary starts with their “family” and then goes to the “nations”. He starts with “one” and then just keeps going! My goodness, we overcomplicate the Christian life. We over-romanticize what it means to live on mission for Jesus. Just share what you know with who you when you know it. That’s it. Mom, you can live on mission as a missionary every day as you raise your children. Just share what you know as you know it with them. Man, you can reach the people that you work with. Just get excited about Jesus every week, and then tell your buddy what’s changing your life. You can reach the mom and dad. Be good to them and kind to them and patient with them, and share with them what you learn about Jesus. Keep learning. Keep digging. Keep going deeper. Keep being amazed. And, then just tell others as you are. You don’t have to be a studied theologian; you just have to be a passionate, vibrant follower of Jesus. I’m a disaster, honestly. But, Jesus has amazed me for the last 20 years, and the more I learn, the more I see, the more amazed I am. So, I’m just a walking, talking disaster sharing his amazement. Begin at home, and begin with one. Begin today by sharing with your family, by sharing with one how wonderful Jesus is, and then do it again.

Missionaries live by somebody else’s “power”.

v. 41 “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” Lastly, missionaries live by somebody else’s “power”. A missionary is only as strong and only as good as his message. This early, Andrew couldn’t have understood the full glory of what it meant when he told his brother, “We have found the Messiah.” But, it was that single sentence, not his eloquence, not his brilliance, not his prominence, but his message that came with such power and force that within a few short years Peter would be the leader of an earth-shattering, society shaping movement that he would ultimately give his life for. The hope of every missionary is that the power is in the message and not the “messenger”.

Honest to goodness, the only way that I won’t mess my children up is if God intervenes. The only way that I won’t destroy our church is if God intervenes. The only way that I’m able to bring any good into any person’s life is if God intervenes. But, y’all, that’s what the message is. God has intervened. “We have found the Messiah.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” So, though we are frail and fragile and failing, God has intervened so that wherever we take his message it will not return void. We can have the assurance that if we will just take the neighborhood boy with his lunch to Jesus that Jesus will supply the intervening, sovereign power that makes all the difference.

In AD 66, Andrew, the shadow servant, was condemned to die by crucifixion. The Romans, especially fed up with him and his defiant preaching, fashioned a cross in the shape of an ‘X’ and bound his hands to it, meaning that his death would take far longer to transpire. It’s said that as Andrew topped the hill and drew near to his cross that he cried out: “The nearer I come to the cross, the nearer I come to God; and the farther that I am from the cross, the farther I remain from God.” And, for three days he hung there. Even as he hung, he preached Christ and him crucified. After three days, some of Andrew’s disciples pleaded with the governor that he be released over to them in his weakened state. Overhearing them, Andrew cried out: “O Lord Jesus Christ! Don’t let your servant, who hangs here on the cross for Your name’s sake, be released to dwell again among men! Please receive me, O my Lord, my God! You I have known, You I have loved, to You I cling, You I desire to see, and in You I am what I am.” And after these words, the Lord took him from the earth. And, that’s what the average missionary life is about. It’s not you building your platform and discovering your purpose and living by your power. It’s to live for Jesus’ platform and to live out Jesus’ purpose and to live by Jesus’ power so that you can say with Andrew, “In you I am what I am.”

Questions:

Why are we tempted to build our own platforms and to make a name for ourselves? What’s so difficult about serving Christ from the shadows? Why does it tempt us to believe that our faithfulness doesn’t matter? Why is it so wonderful to serve Jesus from the shadows?

How can we use our ordinary lives to be missionaries? What are some examples of opportunities for ‘obscure faithfulness’ in our lives? What are some ways that we diminish the opportunities of ordinary life by wishing or waiting for something more ‘extraordinary’?

How does it change our approach to missions when we go because God is good rather than going because people are good? How does it help us remain encouraged if living on mission doesn’t go the way we wish it would?

How does every missionary begin? What would it say about a church if she went to the nations but never reached out to her family and neighbors? What would it say about a church if she only concerned herself with those close by and never went to the nations?

What is our message, and what is the power of our message? How does that help you when you don’t feel up to the task?