WORLDWIDE VISION

Introduction

-I’ve figured out that I have gotten old, because I have caught myself starting stories with phrases like “BACK IN THE DAY”

-So, back in the day when I was kid even into young adulthood, when you had an important message that you needed to get to someone, there was only two ways to get that message across:

You could call someone on a telephone or you could write a letter—and that was about it. Although, I guess in the later years you could fax something to someone. (When that came out, that was big stuff—but that was more for businesses than personal.)

-If the message was urgent, you could call. If the message wasn’t as urgent you could write.

-But I got to thinking about it, if you need to get a message across to someone today, you have an unbelievable amount of ways to communicate that message:

~You can email someone; you can call on your cell phone; you can text; you can FaceTime; you can Tweet; you can post on Facebook; you can message or post on Instagram; you can message or post on Snap Chat; you can Group Me; you can Skype; and there are probably about a zillion other ways that you can get your message across to the right people that I don’t even know about. And I guess you can write a letter still too.

-I say all that to relate my message today to what I have been talking about the past several weeks. Being a church that is going to be on mission and stay on mission takes some radical actions and radical obedience on our part.

-And part of this missional and radical way of thinking is being reminded that we, as the people of God, have a message that needs to be communicated not just within the church walls, but throughout the entire world----being a church on mission takes a worldwide vision.----The worldwide vision is that God’s people go out and go forth and share the gospel message all around the world.

-And there is no doubt that we as conservative, Evangelical, Southern Baptist Christians would completely and utterly agree with that. We all say AMEN, HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD—yes the message needs to go forth. But there is a part that we might not verbalize==a part of us that might add to that belief that we expect somebody else to be the one to go out and share the message to the world, not ourselves.

-But Scripture gives us a different picture. Jesus said: Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Lk. 12:48 ESV)

-We have been given the life-saving gospel of Jesus Christ—much has been given to us, much has been entrusted to us; therefore, there is a great requirement and demand of us to go forth and share that message.

-I’ll put it this way: Last Sunday and the Wednesday before that James reminded us that we are not a holy huddle. If we do become a holy huddle, at some point you’ve got to break the huddle and play the game. My hope is that all of us get into the game of getting the message to the world.

Romans 10:13–17 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

I) There is a prioritization of the message

-In the first 9 chapters, Paul had pointed out that all people have a little knowledge of God because He revealed Himself in creation and revealed Himself through the law, but all people reject Him.

-Since all people reject Him all people are guilty and are therefore condemned for rejecting Him. And yet God has made a way of salvation/deliverance for these condemned rebels, but that way is limited to faith in Jesus Christ. As v. 13 of the passage said: ALL WHO CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WILL BE SAVED.

-That is the message that needs to get out there, and Paul says that now there is an unction/compelling placed upon disciples to send that message forth throughout the world----this is the priority of Christianity.

-And in vv. 14-15 he drives that point home that this message is so important----he kind of takes things backwards from effect to cause

-So think about this: How can someone call on Jesus if they have never believed in Jesus? And how can someone believe in Jesus if they have never heard about Jesus? And how can someone hear about Jesus without someone preaching Jesus to them?

-You can’t call on someone you don’t believe on, and you can’t believe on someone you’ve never heard of—and the only way people are going to hear is if the message is personally taken to them and explained to them.

-And it is so easy for us to sit in our air-conditioned church in our comfy pews and think that it is somebody else’s problem. But I want you to think about this:

~According to the Joshua Project there are 4382 unreached people groups—which according to their definition, an unreached people group is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.

~These people groups represent 3,148,650,000 individuals. So there are over 3 billion people in the world with no real gospel access.

-And every one of them will go to hell without the message. My question is: DO YOU STILL THINK THAT IS SOMEBODY ELSE’S PROBLEM?

-I think there might be some faulty thinking in some people’s theology. Some people might think that God will allow people into heaven who have never heard of Jesus—because how could God send people to hell who never heard?~~~~they go to hell because they are sinners like everybody else.

-Again, think of what Paul tells us—the only way to be saved is to call on the name of Jesus Christ. But you cannot call on someone you don’t believe in, and you can’t believe in someone you never heard of.

-That is why this message has priority—but then listen to the rest of his argument here—they cannot hear without somebody preaching—so not only is there a prioritization of the message…

II) There is an obligation of the messenger

-How are people going to hear without someone preaching and how will they preach without being sent.

-I have to point out a fault in some of the translations we use. In v. 14 some translations will say something to the effect: how will they hear without a preacher, and then in v. 15 how will they preach if they are not sent

-Some people might look at those verses and think they found an out----they’ll say: AHA! YOU HAVE TO BE A PREACHER WHO IS SENT IN ORDER TO REACH THE WORLD; SINCE I’M NOT A SENT PREACHER I DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING THAT MESSAGE TO THE WORLD.

-Well, hold on there a second sparky before you hurt yourself—this is not in any way talking only about people called to vocational ministry or vocational missions.

-the better translation says HOW CAN THEY HEAR WITHOUT SOMEONE PREACHING, AND HOW WILL THEY PREACH UNLESS THEY ARE SENT—so the question is who is sent to do the action of preaching

-And the answer is that the church is sent to preach the gospel so that people will hear, believe, and call on the name of Jesus. And who is the church? The church is the people—the body of believers.

-That means we all are sent to preach—and the word preach simply means to proclaim the gospel—preaching does not mean standing behind the pulpit and doing what I do.

-God has placed the obligation of proclaiming the gospel upon every believer in the world. Now, is our church going to reach all those people groups much less our own community? No, but we can at least reach someone because eternal souls are at stake.

-Reaching people with the gospel is a beautiful thing. It makes me wonder: what’s your definition of beauty? What makes someone or something beautiful?

-Paul quotes Isaiah saying: HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOOD NEWS!

-You might not think of feet being beautiful, but when those feet are connected to an obedient child of God who is walking to some place to share the good news that Jesus died to pay for their sin and they can receive that gift by faith and have eternal life with God forever—there really is nothing more beautiful than that.

-You know, probably one of the most famous messengers in history that we think of is Paul Revere. He is known for bringing a message to the colonial militia that warned them of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord. We summarize his message as: The British are coming! The British are coming! His message saved many lives and helped turn the tide of the Revolutionary War.

-He was an important messenger with a very important message. How much more important is the message that we have? How many more lives are at stake with the message we have?

There is the prioritization of the message

There is the obligation of the messenger…

III) There is a sacrifice for the mission

-Faith in Christ will come from hearing the words of Christ—but it is not necessarily easy to get that message out.

-We Americans like everything to be easy and fast—we like to have a fast food spirituality==cheap and served to us the way we like it. But that is not the reality of Christianity. True Christian work can be dirty and hard and slow—and it takes great sacrifice on our part to make it happen.

-It might cost us some persecution; it might cost us some time; it might cost us some money; it might cost us some resources; but no great work was ever done without sacrificing for the cause—and getting this message to the world is no different.

-There is even the frustration that most people will not respond to the message that we give—as Paul points out in v. 16==THEY HAVE NOT ALL OBEYED THE GOSPEL

-But we spend the time and resources in getting the message out to the world for the sake of the few who will respond—their souls are precious to the Lord—we want bigger and better, but the Bible makes clear it is a small remnant who believe, and we make sacrifices to reach them

-Paul said in 2 Cor. 12:15—

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls (2 Cor. 12:15 ESV)

-Are we willing to spend the energy and time and resources for their souls, or are we going to spend our energy and time and resources on selfish pursuits.

-How are we going to explain to God that we thought it was much more important to buy that new boat, buy that new motorcycle, spend our time playing video games or watching TV rather than making sure the message went forth throughout the community and the world?

-So maybe we need to adjust our priorities, adjust our schedules, adjust our budgets so that the world hears the message and can call on the name of the Lord.

-Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. But how are they going to call on Him if they do not believe in Him? And how will they believe in Him if they’ve never heard of Him? And how will they hear of Him if someone does not proclaim the message to them that Jesus Christ died and rose again for them to have eternal life?

Conclusion

-There may be some here who have never called on the name of Jesus Christ—there is no other name by which you must be saved—during the invitation come and believe and call on Him.

-Christian, come and pray that God would show you your part of being a messenger to go out with the message. And come and pray that God would raise up messengers to go out with the message. And come and pray that God would open up wallets and purses to get the message out throughout the world. And come and pray that we as a church will always have a global vision.

-Or maybe you are looking to join a church home that has a vision of reaching the world with the message of the gospel, and we would love for you to be a part of this church family…