MISSIONS

Why Missions?

Why are we involved throughout the local community and the world for the cause of Christ? Why is it our joy and call to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not yet know of Him? God's word makes evident our role and responsibility as Believers in this!

Here's why...

• Biblical Basis of Missions
• 14 Reasons

The Biblical Basis for Missions

When you think about missions, what is the first verse that comes to your mind? For me it has always been Matthew 28:18-20, or better known as the Great Commission. All my life I thought missions was some one hit wonder found in Matthew. I never understood why people made such a big deal out of missions when there was only one verse. I mean come on there's two verses on handling snakes! Then God opened my eyes, much like he did to His disciples in Luke 24, to see the Scriptures.

God showed me that missions is not found in just a few verses, rather there is a global thread that weaves throughout Scripture. I want to walk you through that global thread, and my hope is that you will see three things. 1) These are not mission verses; rather they reveal the context of everything God does. As one man told me, "You will never understand Biblical Christianity until you understand it in its proper global context." 2) If you are a believer with a pulse, then you have a responsibility in world evangelization. 3) This is what God has been pursuing since the beginning, and He will be the only One who accomplishes it. As John Piper so beautifully said in Let the Nations Be Glad, "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship does not."

To best see this global thread you must see the Bible as one book and not sixty-six different books with sixty-six different messages. Every good book has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. So here's how the Bible breaks down:

Introduction:Genesis 1- Genesis 11
Body: Genesis 12 – Jude
Conclusion: Revelation

In the beginning, God creates the heavens, the earth, everything in and on the earth and mankind. Everything is perfect and in Genesis 1:28 we see the first command given to mankind. "And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" Right off the bat God blesses mankind and then tells them to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. And what are they to fill the earth with? Worshippers. Mankind responds by sinning and getting thrown out of the Garden. God then sends a massive flood on the earth to wipe out all mankind but Noah and his family and a bunch of animals. In Genesis 9:1 they get off the ark and here's what we read, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." God has just wiped out all creation, and begins again with Noah by giving him the exact same command he gave to Adam and Eve. Just in case they missed this command, God gives it to them again just six verses later in verse seven. So how does mankind respond?

In Genesis 11, mankind comes together on a plain in Shinar and all are speaking the same language. "Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). Just like Adam and Eve, mankind responds by sinning against God. They decide to not go anywhere and make a great name for themselves. So how does God respond this time? "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city" (Genesis 11:7-8). He's not impressed, and He sends them away in seventy different directions speaking seventy different languages. You can read about these seventy language groups in Genesis 10. Question: How is God going to get His name, the name that is to be worshipped in all the earth, to all these different peoples?

"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed'" (Genesis 12:1-3). God chooses one man to bless beyond belief and through Him bless all the peoples of the world. God promises to do for Abram what mankind was trying to do for themselves just one chapter ago. Isn't that amazing?! Not only does God promise to bless Abram and his offspring, He also promises to bless all peoples through him. God even repeats this same promise to Isaac (Genesis 26:4-5) and Jacob (Genesis 28:14). God chooses a man whom He will make into a nation that will be a missionary nation for a missionary God (see Exodus 19:5-6).

It is evident throughout Israel's history of God's desire to bless His people and through them bless all peoples. For example, the plagues He sends on the Egyptians to rescue the Israelites were not sent to only bless Israel with deliverance. In Exodus 9:16, God tells Pharaoh that "for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." When God hands Goliath and the Philistines over to David and the Israelites, He does not just do so to save His people from harm. He rescues them according to David, "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel" (1 Samuel 17:46). When God rescues Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace, he does not just rescue them because He loves them and wants to bless them. He blesses them with salvation from the flames to open the eyes of a major Gentile king named Nebuchadnezzar. He then writes a letter "to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth" (Daniel 4:1) telling that the Most High God's kingdom endures forever, not his. When King David prays, "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us," (Psalm 67:1) he goes on to explain why he and all Israel were asking God to bless them. They asked God to bless them and be gracious to them and make His face shine on them, "that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations" (Psalm 67:2). God even promises a Messiah to Israel. Here's what God has to say of His servant, "it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will also make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6).

The Messiah, as we know, is named Jesus. When Jesus comes on the scene in the New Testament we shouldn't see anything different with His life. He appoints twelve Jewish men to follow Him, and they all watch and observe as Jesus ministers to the international among them. For example, he heals the servant of a Roman Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13. In Matthew 15:21-28, He heals a Canaanite woman's daughter from a demon. In John 4, He ministers to a Samaritan woman at the well. These are just a few of the instances where he ministered cross-culturally. His disciples are curious by all this because they were expecting the Messiah to come and restore the kingdom to Israel. However, they missed that He comes first as a suffering servant. They follow Him to His death on the cross. He then rises from the dead and is witnessed by over 500 people. He has one main message that He keeps telling His followers. All four gospel accounts record it and so does Acts.

In Matthew 28:18-20, He tells them to "go and make disciples of all nations." In Mark 16:15, He tells them to "go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." In Luke 24:47, He tells them that "repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." In John 20:21, He tells them that "as the Father has sent me, so am I sending you." And in Acts 1:8, He says that they "will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The phrase "to all nations" in the Greek is the phrase "panta ta ethne". It means "to all ethnic groups." Jesus' command was not to merely go to all countries and preach; rather it was to go to all people groups and disciple the people groups. Today's estimates tells us that approximately 6400 people groups on the planet have little to access to the Gospel we hear every week. They are considered unreached people groups because they do not have an indigenous church among them with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their own people. They are different than your next door neighbor because your next door neighbor is your next door neighbor. They can hear the gospel. Close to two billion people today have never heard the gospel and will not hear without someone going to them.

Reaching Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth is not the job of missionaries. It is the job of the Church! If you are a believer with a pulse then you have a responsibility in world evangelization. Missions should not be just "another" ministry of the Church; rather it is the main job of the Church. As we've seen so far, God has commanded worship in all the earth and promised to bless all the peoples of the world. So does He keep His promise made long ago to Abraham?

Conclusion: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Revelation 7:9-10) Isn't it great to know that in a day and age when most people can't keep a promise for more than five minutes God keeps His promises through thousands of years?! Many Christians today seem to want a purpose driven life. You can read the book titled as such, or if you will allow me I think I can save you some time and money. Memorize Revelation 7:9. This is what your Father has been going after since He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This is God's big picture purpose for the world. If this purpose is worth His ultimate sacrifice, then have you found something else more worthy to pursue with your life? Each day you will be tempted and ruthlessly persuaded to pursue the Great American Dream. I prefer to call it the Great American Hoax because it promises wonderful things, but it leads to destruction and death. It is a modern day equivalent to what mankind pursued in building the Tower of Babel to make a name for themselves and not go anywhere. Don't be deceived!

OK, so it is evident from just these few verses of Scripture that God's heart beat for all peoples to worship Him in truth and spirit. The question now is how do we join up with Him in His passionate pursuit of the nations? We'll call them the five habits of a world Christian. A World Christian is not a worldly Christian, rather a Christian who has come to realize God's purpose for the nations and have come to realize that as His followers we have a responsibility to think, act, believe and live in accordance with this truth. So here are the five HABITS (not options or roles) of a world Christian: Prayer, Sender, Goer, Welcomer, and Mobilizer.
By Bryan Padgett

14 Reasons for Missions

Sometimes I wonder, just like anyone, "Is my work necessary?" As someone whose job is to motivate people into just getting involved in world evangelization, I find myself reflecting and learning and adapting to many different audiences, needs, perspectives – whether it's one person or a thousand. Specifically with missions, there are many motivations that God uses to spark interest in people and move them into some kind of involvement. Here are fourteen (just because I haven't thought of # fifteen...yet).

1) The Promise (Gen 12:1-3) – Because God has promised to bless all nations (or people groups) on the earth. What better motivation and encouragement can we have than the understanding that missions (blessing the nations with the Gospel) is in the sure purposes of God.

2) The Purchase (Rev 5:9) – Because Jesus has already purchased people from every tribe and nation with His blood. Like the Moravians motivated by this purchase we should repeat what two Moravians missionaries said as they set sail for India, "May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering!" In other words, He has already purchased them; our job is only to gather in what is His.

3) Because the Harvest is plentiful (Matt 9:37) – Now this is for all the numbers gurus out there who are motivated by sheer statistics. Today, out of the 6.5 billion people on the planet, over 4 billion are without a saving relationship with Christ. More tragic is that 2.4 billion of these who are lost have no means to hear the message of salvation through Christ – they are cut off from the gospel through lack of missionaries, lack of resources, etc. If you lined them up in a single file line they would wrap around the earth 25 times. The majority of these people are located in the area of the world known as the 10/40 Window. The harvest is plentiful!

4) Because the Laborers are few (Matt 9:37) – This is probably what runs through my head the majority of the times I get up to speak. Only one in every 20,000 believers will ever take the gospel to those who are out of reach of the church. What's worse than that? Out of all the cross-cultural missionaries in the world, you would hope that the majority would be working where the majority need is. However, only 2.5% of all the 430,000 missionaries are working in the 10/40 Window. More laborers are needed.

5) Because the Destiny of the Lost (Rom 1; John 3:18; John 14:6) – Now this is harder to take in, but I believe the Bible gives us no means by which a person can be saved other than through Christ's work, and by exercising faith in His name. This means not by other religions, not without hearing specifically about Christ (through evangelism and missions) and not because they died without hearing. The Scripture leaves no loopholes for those living in ignorance. All are born in sin, the Cross has real meaning for salvation, and the Great Commission is necessary for people to hear and be saved. If this shocks you, you may have been influenced by the universalism that is gossiped among church goers. In Romans 1 (creation) does exactly what God designed it to do – it condemns people, leaving them without an excuse and knowledge of a creator – but not salvific knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. This makes missions not only important, but urgent.

6) Logically Necessary for Hearing the Gospel Message (Rom 10:14-15, Acts 8 (Philip) and 10 (Cornelius)) – This goes along with the last one. Every time someone comes to Christ in Scripture there is a human messenger involved. It would be great to think that God would draw people to Himself in the world apart from someone going. He is able, but this is not the means He has chosen to use. The Church is the means. The Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah (the OT Bible!) and still God miraculously transported Philip, a human messenger to explain Christ to him. An angel appears to Cornelius, a god-fearer. But still Peter must be summoned and travel all the way to Cornelius' house to explain the gospel to him before he could be saved. Why didn't the angel just tell Cornelius? It would have saved a lot of time and gas money for Peter – but God used a human messenger. Missions and evangelism are necessary. I hope we are speaking the message around us as well – they must hear.

7) The Example of the Church (Acts 1:8, 10, 15, Rom 15:20) – The early church has given us a model to follow. They went out, sent out their own missionaries like Paul and Barnabus, and evangelized the Gentiles beyond the reach of the gospel in their world.

8) The Descriptive Future is Prescriptive for Today (Rev 7:9, Rev 21:24-26) – Now, it's tricky but follow this logic. If there are people described in heaven in the future – it is logical that they must be reached with the gospel at some point in history. So because we see a great multitude gathered around the throne fromevery tribe, people, and nation – we must labor to begin with this end in mind, bringing it into reality as God uses us to fulfill it.

9) Because We Will be Held Accountable (Ezek 33) – Here is a passage that will cause you to re-evaluate life. The people of God, meant to be a blessing to the world, were held accountable for not warning others of the danger coming. Will believers be held accountable for their obedience to the Great Commission? It may mean great reward-loss by many Christians for failing to use what God has blessed them with to bless the nations.

10) Because To Whom Much is Given Much is Required (Luke 12:47-48) – Here is Jesus' measuring standard. It's like a blessing and obedience math formula. Our accountability may be based on our resources, our understanding, or our ability – more given equals more expected.

11) Because the Church is the Means (Rom 1:5, Gal 3:14-15, 2 Cor 5:17-20) – You are God's ordained means for the blessing of Christ reaching to all the nations, just like He promised (Gen 12). Jesus has purchased them (Rev 5:9) and commissioned us with the task of gathering them in for God's glory.

12) Because History Awaits the Fulfillment of the Promise (Matt 24:14) – Not sure how it's all going to play out, but if God has promised that all nations are reached and Jesus says here that the gospel will be preached to all nations...then the end will come – it just seems logical. The story of history seems to be arranged on the thread of this mission, even the history we are a part of today. That is exciting!

13) Because the Glory of God is Yet to be Known (Hab 2:14; Ps 72:19, 86; Isa 11:9) – There are actually about a dozen times that Bible talks of God's glory "filling the earth as the waters cover the sea." God has created people to worship Him and that worship is being given to other lesser things right now. Missions is spreading the worship and enjoyment of God to those who are not currently worshippers, because God's glory is increased by the increase of His church in the world. As John Piper says it, "Missions exists because worship doesn't. Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak."

14) The Commands of Jesus (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8, 13:47; John 20:21) – And last of all – because Jesus commanded it. Just as Jesus says in John 14:21, "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me," or1 John 3:24, "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him." I hope we can all stand before him in the end and hear him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

by Claude Hickman
www.thetravelingteam.org