MOUNTAIN OF PEACE, MISSIONS AND EVANGELISM

After the death and Martyrdom of Stephen in Acts Chapter 7, we see the Church being dispersed due to the persecution that followed

The persecution caused many in the church to scatter, preaching the good news wherever they went (Acts 8:4).

In previous verses, we see Paul consenting to the the death of Stephen and creating havoc for the Church trying to destroy the Church

Acts 8:1 (NIV) — 1 And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

Acts 8:3 (NIV) — 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

In the Old Testament, to be a scattered people was a sign of judgement (Gen 11:9; Deuteronomy 28:64);

Genesis 11:9 (NIV) — 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Deuteronomy 28:64 (NIV) — 64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

However, what the enemy meant for evil the Lord turned it around for Good

Genesis 50:20 (NIV) — 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

May the Lord turn around for good everything the enemy meant for evil in our lives, family, ministry Church and may God use it to accomplish what He desires in our lives

Acts 8:4–8 (NIV) — 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralysed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

Before his ascension, the Lord Jesus said to his disciples,

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,and to the end of the earth. (1:8; emphasis added)

What we see in the book of Acts (from say chapters 7 to 11) is the progressive move of the Gospel from its Jewish confines, each step is carefully charted

First it was the Samaritans, (through Philip), (Acts 8:4-8) a mixed race with a peculiar view of Scripture. (They accepted only Torah, what we call the Pentateuch.)

Then it was the Ethiopian eunuch, (through Philip) who could not be a full proselyte—but (it might be argued) perhaps he would have been one if he had not been mutilated.

Then comes the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, (Paul) the man who will be the apostle to the Gentiles (see 9:15).

In Acts 10 sees the conversion of Cornelius, God-fearer, a Gentile much attached to the Scriptures and to the Jewish synagogue who had chosen not to become circumcised and thus an unqualified proselyte—a convert—to Judaism.

The apostle whom God prepares to go to Caesarea and preach the Gospel to Cornelius and his household is Peter.

Peter’s repeated vision concerns ritually unclean food. Three times he is told to kill and eat unclean creatures; three times he declines, viewing himself as under the Law’s food prohibitions.

Many have asked how Peter could be so dense, considering the fact that, according to Mark 7:19, Jesus had already uttered a saying declaring all foods clean.

But it is far from clear that his disciples understood the ramifications of Jesus’ utterance at the time.

The end result being that Cornelius and the other Gentiles received the gospel and were baptised in the Holy Spirit

Acts 10:34–35 (NIV) — 34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

The initial impetus to cross lines of race and heritage with the Gospel of Jesus Christ arose not from a committee planning world evangelization, but from God himself.

The Church of Jesus Christ therefore has a responsibility to cross these boundaries

What is at stake in Missions and Evangelism is the universal Glory of God and that of His Son Jesus Christ with respect to the Peace and Joy of all peoples

Missions and Evangelism means sending out people into the global harvest

Peoples could be geographical local locations or people groups

Even when geography is not an issue, culture and language could be

The biblical theme is not merely that God reaches as many people as possible, but all the peoples.

According to the Joshua Project, which tracks the global progress of the gospel among the world’s unreached peoples, there are an estimated seven thousand unreached people groups in the world out of a total of about seventeen thousand ethno-linguistic peoples.

Europe and North America have become more and more like a mission field—but a post-Christian one, rather than a pre-Christian, field.

We are not at our leisure. Rather, we are under the mandate of the grace of God—grace that found us, restored us, redeemed us, breathed life back into our dormant lungs, and brought us back from the grave for a purpose.

And that purpose is that we would, with everything in us, become an amplifier of the beauty of Jesus among all the peoples on this planet.

This mission is crystal clear

It is already crystal clear what the church is to be about—namely, taking the gospel of Jesus to every distinct grouping of people on planet earth at all costs for the sake of his name.

Isaiah 6:8 (NIV) — 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

I love the immediacy of Isaiah’s response

We must refuse to be numbed by the temporary pleasures of this world in a way that prevents us from feeling the eternal weight of heaven and hell.

This God warrants complete abandonment of our plans, our possessions, our hopes, our dreams, and our lives.

We lay everything we have on the table before this God, and we say, “Use me—my life, my family, my church, everything I have and everything I am—for the spread of your glory and this gospel to the ends of the earth.”

Indeed, the only logical response to this glorious God of grace is, “Here am I. Send me.”

So let us set aside any thoughts we may have about being able to witness without cost.

There are both great miracles (escaping the sword) and great martyrdoms (many were killed by the sword).

There is no contradiction here—just the certain knowledge that we are called to give our lives in his service and will one day be called home.

This is not a unique time in history. There is always a cost to reaching people with the good news about Jesus. It is a cost that perhaps many who identify with Jesus may not ultimately be prepared to pay.

But this is the context within which the gospel took root and spread.

Preaching a message of repentance and faith has always been challenging. It has always required courage.

Our goal is not to conserve our lives at any cost but rather to live our life in obedience to the call we have received.

We are not called to ignore risk or to be reckless. Everything must be prayerfully considered.

But to refuse God’s call to go because of hardship is to demand something that the apostles would struggle to recognize as part of genuine Christian obedience.

In our world today there is a loss of conviction of the necessity to evangelise, we are defeated by philosophy and subdued by science

Professor John Gray in his book “Straw Dogs” correctly states that in the West, we live in a Humanistic world. I capitalise it because it is the dominant ideology. Gray calls it a religion

Humanism is not science, but religion—the post-Christian faith that humans can make a world better than any in which they have so far lived.

We have everything to lose by not heeding his voice to go and make disciples of all nations, and everything to gain.

Acts 11:18 (NIV) — 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”