Spiritual Mission

Spiritual Mission: Pt. 1

Introduction: The Missionary Task: South Asia Video

Post-Video:

This Friday morning I will begin my own venture to South Asia with a team of Seminary students and professors to go share the Gospel with Muslims and Hindus in one of the darkest regions on the face of the globe today. For 10 days we will labor to do something we as Christians recognize as Missions. What is missions though? We believe it is:

Every Christian is called to be involved in missions in some way. Some give, some go, but all participate.

As we make our way through Romans, we arrive at a section that the Apostle Paul wrote primarily on his heart for missions and what the basic nuts and bolts of missions.

Thesis:

As we approach Missions you might think of a lot of barriers that come up. “I’m too young to be involved, don’t have enough to give, there’s no way anything I would do could make an impact”. Let me tell you that the God of the Mission does not have any limits, and when he commands us to go you can bet that we will go forward and see every excuse and every fear dissolve because of His power and presence. In we will see that specifically, God breaks through the barriers of race and distinction, he crushes indifference, and he eliminates every hurdle for any man woman and child to come to Him.

1. Missions Without Distinction

(Read 9:30-33)

-Describe God’s eternal purpose for bringing in people from every tribe and tongue without narrowing in on the Jews.

-Describe the Jews unwillingness to receive God despite being hyper-religious

-Describe the Gentiles pursuit of idolatry receiving the Gospel

-You’ll notice Paul is still very concerned about the Jewish people, his flesh and blood, because they actually were trying to do the right thing but did not get the righteousness of God from that. Yet, people that were not Jewish (i.e. The Arab, the Asian, and the Spaniard, etc.) they did not seek to gain the righteousness of God and yet were given it by grace through faith.

-Why would God do that? two reasons:

Missions has no distinction of race. In fact quite the opposite, it is intended that missions is actually God going after people of every color, every tongue, and He will not stop until He has people saved from every corner of the earth. (To use language that we discussed last week, He will not stop until every predestined person will be saved, and He has predestined people from all over the world).

-Second reason God does not simply save the Jews, was because the Jews were seeking to gain this righteousness by a formula of good stuff. Here’s what I mean:

-In attempt to gain favor with God, Jews observe something called the Sabbath day with great strictness. No food will be cooked, it must be pre-prepared. No work or labor of any kind will be done. Some extremely lawful Jews will even “pre-tear” their toilet paper so that they would not work to clean themselves up after using the bathroom. God’s righteousness is not given through pre-cut toilet paper practices, it comes by grace through faith! You can’t earn this, something we will talk about more in our third point, but Paul here is saying they will not obtain favor with God continuing to do these religious rituals.

-You might think it’s comical, but I wonder how funny they think it is when they observe so-called Christians relentlessly going to every church activity and participating in every Wednesday night program just hoping that through that God will love them? If that’s why your here I want you to know you being here is getting you nowhere closer to obtaining your own righteous standing with God. However, I can tell you that if you trust in Jesus Christ and the good news of His sacrificial death and His resurrection, you will be set free forever by grace through faith!

So we see that missions is without distinction, and later we will discuss how it is without any hurdles like the law or religious rituals.

2. Missions Without Indifference

(Read 10:1-4)

-Describe Paul’s heart desire for the lost Jews (remembering the beginning of )]

-Describe the relationship between Prayer and remedying Indifference

-Describe the relationship between knowing people (like Paul knows the Jews) and remedying indifference.

-Paul was so passionate to see His people, who are chasing right standing with God in all the wrong ways, he would rather have sacrificed his own reconciliation with God for theirs if that were actually possible.

-The desire of Paul’s heart, the yearning and longing of his heart, his very pleasure, is for them to be saved. His heart for the lost reflect God’s heart for the lost ()

-That desire for their salvation is interwoven with a prayer life that reflects that. To be honest, you and I don’t pray often for the things we don’t care about. How are you and I ever going to pray for people we are indifferent to of their mere existence?

Statistics of the impoverished people of India:

MUMBAI, India — 

"A slum, for the purpose of the census, has been defined as residential areas where dwellings are unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding … lack of ventilation, light or sanitation facility," Chandramouli said.

Watch Slums video

Post-Video: These are real people. That is really their life, right now, not 10 not 20 or 30 years ago, it is happening now and they have no idea who Jesus is or the forgiveness of sins that He offers them.

These are people close to my heart. I don’t know their names, I barely remember their faces, but I am deeply burdened for their souls. I can’t describe why, or how, God put them there. I believe God put people in your life and on your heart as well, just like Paul, for whom you are passionate to see them come to Christ. Don’t stop in your pursuit. Don’t quench the flames of your desire. Long for them to come to faith more and more, making room for that pleasure in your heart of their salvation by eliminating other pleasures that seek to crowd your attention and your satisfaction. Do not rest until they have heard the good news of Jesus, that’s Paul’s heart and His passion for the Israelites, that Jesus’ passion for the lost of every nation in every generation. What’s your passion? Missions has no room for indifference, so God conquers it in us.

3. Missions Without Hurdles

(Read 10:5-13)

-Describe the law as a hurdle the Gospel conquers

-Describe the Word as the way God conquered our hurdle of ignorance

-Describe personal faith as the response without any hurdles

-The good news of the Gospel is that it is a simple faith. No gimmicks, no sleight of hand tricks, it is truly just coming to Jesus by faith and He will change your life with radical love and forgiveness.

-We used to sing this song to kids in VBS in Texas, I’m sure you have heard it, “A Admit that your a sinner and repent, B Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, C Confess your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord!”

-It’s truly that simple you don’t even have to tear up toilet paper for the Sabbath or make any sacrifices or anything!

-Paul reiterates this over and over again, there are literally no hurdles in the Gospel. Nothing mountains to climb or hoops to jump through, simply trust in Jesus and turn to Him by grace through faith! Literally, everyone who calls on Him will be saved. Not some people, not older people, even children if they were to call on Jesus as Savior would be saved, that simple! You could be the poorest person in the world, or you could be the richest, it doesn’t matter you simply call upon the Lord and you will be saved!

-If God has done everything in Jesus to make Missions free of hurdles, how dare we ever get in the way and put hurdles before anyone. We must never look down on someone and think they are too far gone, too untouchable they will never be saved from their sins. Remember, this is the Apostle Paul, formerly Saul the Persecutor! Who gives him the right as a Christian-killer to be telling Christians about going to the mission field or their own backyard and sharing their faith when he was a Jew who was seeking out Christian leaders to slaughter them and make examples of them for doing just that? I’ll tell you who gives him that authority, it’s Jesus Christ. Who gives you, a suburbanite teenager in the mid-west who doesn’t think anyone will listen to you or that your not cool enough or popular enough or have enough insta followers or snap chats or tictoc views for people to listen to you? Jesus Christ does, so go and do it, no more excuses, let’s go spread the Gospel and point people to simply trust in Him. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Let’s pray.