Faith Promise

Please open your Bibles to Romans 10:9-15 which we will read in a few minutes.

(You can insert your own intro here. this is what I used)

[Ten days ago when Michael and Cailyn Wheatley were here for our Faith Promise service things got mixed up and we ended up not making the presentation for Faith Promise commitments. And, you know what? That’s OK. If the Lord God can take the dust of the earth and create a human out of it He can certainly make something good out of whatever mistakes were made that night.

On that night we were introduced to the Extreme Nazarene arm of the missions of the Church of The Nazarene.

Today we’ll be talking about what we commonly know as the traditional missionary arm of the church.]

With that in mind let’s go ahead and read: Romans 10:9-15

The second part of Romans 10:15 is a direct quote from Isaiah 52:7 and I love how the International Children’s Bible phrases Isaiah 52:7 …

Isaiah 52:7 ICB

“How beautiful is the person who comes over the mountains to bring good news. How beautiful is the one who announces peace. He brings good news and announces salvation. How beautiful are the feet of the one who says to Jerusalem, ‘Your God is King.’”

If we look at Romans 10:13-15 in reverse we see that it is

1) A beautiful thing when someone brings the Good News of Jesus Christ

2) But first someone must be sent

3) The one who is sent will preach the Good News to those where he is sent

4) Those who hear the Good News will believe what they hear

5) Those who believe what they hear will call up on the name of the Lord

6) Those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved!

(Illustration ... this is the one I used)

[A few years ago we showed a video either in church or during a Wednesday evening gathering where missionaries went to a tribe in Africa who knew absolutely nothing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This tribe was animist and worshipers of their ancestors. There would often be armed conflict between them and the neighboring tribes.

Every day the missionaries would have a time of teaching the Bible to the tribe and the entire village would come to hear what would be said.

These missionaries began teaching them starting in Genesis with creation, through the necessity of blood sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin and up to the time of Jesus.

When it came time for the crucifixion to be told they had men from the village take part in reenacting the story and when the blood of Jesus was shed on the cross they immediately understood that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of their own sins.

When they understood this they all stood up and started shouting, “It’s true! It’s true!” and they kept that up for two to two and a half hours.

During this time of shouting and praising Jesus for His gift of forgiveness of sin the missionary was being held high in the air on the hands of the villagers.

(Read Isaiah 52:7 ICB from the screen again)

A short time after this some of the men from the surrounding tribes came to the village and said, “When we look in our eyes we see only darkness but when we look in your eyes we see light. We want what you have.”

Now this testimony was not of a Nazarene missionary but the good news of Jesus is being taken by Nazarene missionaries to people with darkness in their eyes all over the world and Jesus is transforming them into followers of Jesus, the Light of the world.]

OK. Now let’s look at Ephesians 4:11 NKJV

“[Christ] Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.”

Now, which of these categories would include missionaries?

When we think of Evangelists we think of preachers who go from church to church holding special revival meetings, predominately preaching in established churches to those who have already heard the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Missionaries are just Evangelists who go to foreign countries but the difference is that they declare the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ to those who have never heard.

But in addition to Evangelists we see missionaries filling the roles of prophets, apostles, pastors and teachers as well.

(Next use examples of missionaries supported by your denomination or church. These are the ones I used.)

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Phillips, Jonathan - Romania

Jonathan Phillips serves as a specialized assignment missionary with the Church of the Nazarene. He lives in the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara, Romania.

Jonathan first came to Romania as a study abroad student during his sophomore year at Eastern Nazarene College. During this 6-month cultural immersion experience, he took academic classes covering Romanian language and culture, while also serving in local Nazarene ministries and living with a Romanian host family.