OPEN: A Jewish father was concerned about his son, who was about a year away from his Bar Mitzvah but was sorely lacking in his knowledge of the Jewish faith. To remedy this he sent his son to Israel to experience his heritage.
A year later the young man returned home. "Father, thank you for sending me to the land of our Fathers. It was wonderful however, I must confess that while in Israel I converted to Christianity."
"Oy vegh, what have I done?" said the father
So in the tradition of the Patriarchs he went to his best friend and sought his advice and solace.
His friend sadly shook his head - "It is amazing that you should come to me. I too sent my son to Israel and he returned a Christian."
So in the traditions of the Patriarchs they went to the Rabbi. And the Rabbi wept, "It is amazing that you should come to me. I too sent my son to Israel and he returned a Christian. What is happening to our sons? Brothers, we must take this to the Lord.”
They fell to their knees and began to wail and pour out their hearts to the Almighty.
As they prayed, the clouds above opened and a mighty voice stated,
"Amazing that you should come to Me. (pause for effect) I, too, sent My Son to Israel..."
QUOTE: David Livingstone noted: “God had an only Son and he made him a missionary.”
APPLY: Here in today’s text we read that when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven He had a plan.
And this was the plan:
1. I will give you power thru the Holy Spirit
2. This will give you the power to be my witnesses
3. And here is where you’ll witness:
“…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth." Ac 1:8
That was the battle plan
1st they were to witness to their immediate circle – people in Jerusalem
2nd they were to go outside that circle to witness to people in the surrounding areas.
and 3rd they were to witness to the very ends of the earth.
And the battle plan hasn’t changed in the past 2000 years and it is still our call to arms.
1. To witness to those in our inner circle
2. Then to witness to anyone outside that circle
But that last group (the ends of the earth) is the one we’re going to talk about today.
This last group is what we call missions.
The first two kinds of witnessing we can usually do ourselves… and God expects it of us. But we have missions because - that way - we can support full time workers who bring people to Christ in areas we may never get to.
Among the earliest missionaries were men like Paul, Luke, Silas, Barnabas and Timothy.
Sometimes, like Paul, early missionaries supported themselves with something we now call “tent making” essentially working at a trade so that they could afford freely go spread the gospel anywhere as Paul did when he made tents on the side.
Others early missionaries were supported by local churches. Their job was to go out and start new congregations, train workers to keep the new church going, and then move on to the next community to begin another new work.
That is what God has commanded us to do… that IS our mission as a church of Christ.
Now, not every denomination understands this:
ILLUS: Newsweek Magazine did an interview with the head of one of the major denominations in America, and they asked
Q - What will be your focus as head of the U.S. Church?
A – “Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus.”
(10 Questions For Katherine Jefferts Schori – Presiding Bishop-elect for the Episcopalian Church of the U.S.A. - I apologize for not knowing the exact publication date of the magazine)
Notice there was no mention of Christ and His great commission in that answer. All those things that were mentioned by that major denominational leader were worthy goals. But when you compare those goals with God’s mission for us they look almost sickly – and I’ll tell you why.
ILLUS: Back in the 80’s I read the following remarks by another preacher:
“ I couldn’t believe what I had read. The price to kill an enemy soldier in World War II was.....$200,000. In more recent times the price to destroy a life in Vietnam was a staggering $500,000.
In contrast with these astounding figures the average cost to save a soul overseas through evangelism was only $654. Even though we can never put a price tag on the life of an individual these figures should make us stop and think… and weep.
We spent a half-million dollars in Viet Nam to kill one enemy soldier. And yet - had we spent less than $l,000 - we could have saved his soul and changed his future."
No other purpose or mission on earth even compares to the critical importance of what we do.
So, how do we support missions here at our church?
We give 10% of our annual budget to missions
Additionally, we’ve committed to giving 10% of everything donated to our new building to missions
And on top of that, we’ve pledged 10% of our building funds to Lincoln Christian College
We count missions as being everything from stocking our food pantry to supporting a Medical Missionary in Mexico.
In the past, we’ve helped underwrite a new church plant in Iowa
A missionary to Germany
And a mission in Jamaica
What we’re going to this morning is introduce the missions we support now.
INTRODUCE MISSIONS COMMITTEE (the next 10 to 15 minutes was dedicated to their explaining a couple of the missions that we support)
At this church, we believe in supporting missions
• Financially
• Physically
• Prayerfully
ILLUS: William Carey, the great missionary of India, said to a group of supporters once,
"I will go down if you will hold the ropes."
"I’ll go into the caves. I’ll go into the place where you will never go, but you must hold the ropes. I’ll go down if you’ll hold on." Basil Miller, William Carey, The Father of Modern Missions
We’re all part of the team.
ILLUS: In Sweden, there is a congregation asked for donations of white Lego blocks to be used in a life-size Jesus statue. The statue required about 20,000 Legos.
The priest who began the project said that his plan was to pull the statue apart regularly before building it back up again,"
Why would this priest do this?
Because (I believe) he intended to tell his people that Jesus has entrusted to ALL of us the ministry of building His body in the world… and we do that partly thru missions.
A mission poem by Jeff Strite (that’s me!)
God called us to support His worldwide missions
By giving to us His Great Commission
It calls mankind to have - for their sins - remission
And for their souls, in heaven, to gain admission
Now God has given us His explicit permission
To approach the world with His transmission
Now all that is left - is for us not to allow omission
But give ourselves in His service in humble submission
Our mission as a church - is to follow that original battle plan Jesus gave His disciples in Acts 1. We try to repeatedly stress the importance of being His witnesses in Logansport/ Indiana/ And to the very ends of the earth.
HAND OUT INVITATION CARDS FOR FRIEND DAY (one of the underlying focuses of this sermon series)
CLOSE: When our Lord returned to heaven, He was speaking to Gabriel. After discussing the ministry of redemption, Gabriel had a question for Jesus. He asked: “And now that you have done all this for men, what plans have you made to carry the message of man’s redemption to the ends of the earth?”
Jesus said, “Well, there is John, James, Peter, Andrew and the others. That little group of men that I called and whom I have now commissioned to take the message to others.”
But Master,” replied Gabriel, “suppose James and John, Peter and Andrew and the others just don’t go? Suppose they stay where they are? What other plans have you made?”
Jesus replied: “There is no other plan… I’m counting on them.”
