Text: Matthew 28:19, Title: RRB 3: All The Nations! Date/Place: NRBC, 7/5/09, AM
A. Opening illustration: some of the slides from Closing the Gap, 293 mill unreached unengaged peoples,
B. Main thought: we have a calling and purpose to carry the glorious gospel of Christ to the nations, so that they may make much of Him and enjoy Him forever.
A. Constantly Remind of the Goal
1. Less we become man-centered, or program-driven, we must consistently remind ourselves why we do missions. It is not to get as many people to heaven as we can, although that is helpful. It is to bring as much glory to God as humanly possible, through people being joyously satisfied in Him. God has said that there will be a numberless number from every tribe, tongue, and people, and nation around the throne worshipping together. And He has promised that at least one from every nation will be there.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship therefore is fuel and goal of missions.” –Piper, “The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission, nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing, strong as that is, especially as we contemplate the wrath of God, but rather zeal, burning and passionate zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ, only one imperialism is Christian, and that is concern for His imperial majesty, Jesus Christ and for the glory of His empire!...And we should be jealous for the sake of His Name, troubled when It remains unknown, hurt when It is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed, and all the time anxious and determined that It will be given the honor and glory to which It is due!” –Stott,
4. We are very forgetful, especially when we are comfortable or in crisis. The fact that there are about 6 billion people in the world right now who are not worshipping God, needs to be regularly front and center. And if we are truly passionate about the glory of Christ, then our zeal for missions never ceases or wanes for very long. For we are so thrilled with His sufficiency and joy, that we desire for as many people as possible all over the world to experience this joy, and reflect heavenward a part of the glory due Him. Therefore, we must continually refresh ourselves to the height, depth, breath, and width of the glory of Christ, and His commitment to manifesting that glory, especially through the suffering of missionaries.
B. Develop a Heart for the Nations (prayer)
1. God has a heart and passion for the nations of the earth, for He loves people. And God not only wants the nations to worship, He wants the nations to carry the gospel to the nations. He wants believers in the Yanamarca Valley, who don’t even exist yet as believers, to share the gospel with surrounding villages and nations! Our hearts, our passions, should be growing more likened into what His passions are as we are conformed unto the image of Christ. Tell about doing Google Earth with the People Group overlay.
2. Matt 12:21, Rom 15:12, John 4:35, Ps 89:9, 22:27, Isa 66:19, Rom 1:5, Zeph 2:11,
3. Illustration: read the words to Our Heart Our Desire, When David Livingstone, the great missionary doctor and explorer who opened up the heart of Africa to the gospel, died in 1873, his body was buried in England, where he was born, but they took his heart and buried it beneath a tree in a small African village that was full of people who respected him, indicative of his love for the nations, Many Faces illustration
4. We should seek to put ourselves in position to have our passions enflamed with zeal for the nations. We should read books, blogs, and magazines that speak of the plight of the nations. The IMB website is a spectacular resource, Frontiers.org, the US Center for World Evangelization, Operation World, On Mission. And this is not simply the job of the WMU and the missions classes on Wed nights and during VBS. SS teachers must constantly be a trumpet heralding the needs of the nations and the fact that there are millions who are dying without having a chance to know Him. Ministry leaders, deacons, in fact, all church members should constantly think on the nations. Put of reminders in your home, where you read and pray, listen to music that exalts Christ and propels us to go. There really is no excuse for each one of us not praying for missionaries, people groups, and the advance of the gospel at least weekly; access to information is so easy. God knows that this will result in prayer; prayer for the nations! And there must be a revival of prayer for the nations, not because it is on the calendar, but b/c we love them, and Him!
C. Allocate Resources Accordingly (giving)
1. We are God’s servants, His body on earth, and we have been entrusted with a certain amount of resources for completing the mission set before us. We have been given one of the great tools of the modern missionary age—the Cooperative Program. We are richer than most nations under the sun. In Myanmar (and 100 other countries) there is widespread starvation at this moment; children are dying, many of which have never heard the word of God. Millions of orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa now due to the AIDS crisis. And our culture would have us worry about our economy, greenhouse gases, melting glaciers, whales, and the oppression of gay rights!
2. Luke 16:1-2, Matt 25:14-30,
3. Illustration: the IMB had to restrict appointments this year because of a shortfall in funds, think about the fact that we could support a Peruvian Church Planter to go and live in the Yanamarca Valley (including a house and salary for three years), reaching lost and dying people in Acolla, Marco, Janjaillo, Tunamarca, and Pomacancha, for about what we pay to cut our grass and edge our sidewalks for a year,
4. We have the best missionary plan in the world (that is not just my testimony). We must always support the cooperative program! Thank God for people like you who know that, and refused to let us shave off even a little a couple of years ago. “There he goes with the grass cutting again.” If it makes you happy, I can pick others—choir ministry, youth ministry, office supplies, electricity (2). This is not just an agenda, nor is this about power or even money. This is not a slogan or a catchy book title or a soapbox. It is war! And the Commander in Chief, Jesus Christ, has entrusted us with enormous resources. Don’t think for one moment that He is not going to ask us to give account as to how we used them! Don’t think that He will not ask the leaders of our church and the leaders of our denomination to detail their reasoning of expenditures of kingdom funds! We must remember that we are at war; we have a goal (to put the gospel in every ethno-linguistic people group on the planet); and we must best use the resources available to us! Desperate times call for desperate measures! Many churches are taking Christmas in July offerings for Lottie Moon to make up for the shortfall in funds. What if we took up $10K in July & $10K in Dec?
D. Actively Provide Opportunity (going)
1. Finally, we must go! Even though, going is actually a participle (not the main verb) in this command, Jesus assumes that we would go. And the early church didn’t move fast enough, and so God ordained the scattering of the church under persecution. Writing a check, allocating funds, and taking up offerings is not enough! Jesus assumes we will go. We must go, all of us!
2. Acts 8:1, 4, 11:19,
3. Illustration: After a daring and successful 1942 bombing raid over Japan, led by Jimmy Doolittle, Bombardier Jacob DeShazer was one of eight downed in Japanese-occupied China. The military rulers took savage revenge on them. Three died by firing squad. Jake DeShazer, in solitary confinement and consumed with hatred of his captors, frequently fought with his guards. In return he was cruelly beaten. But one day, a guard thrust a Bible into DeShazer’s hands. In the dim light of the cell, Jake read and was gripped by the prophets, which he reread six times. Moving on, Jake read with mounting excitement about Jesus. Reading Romans 10:9, DeShazer fell to his knees and prayed for forgiveness. Jake forgave his captors as God had forgiven him. He realized that they mistreated him because no one had offered Jesus to them. If he survived his prison ordeal, DeShazer promised God, he would do so. Released at war’s end, he trained for missions, returned to Japan and over the next 30 years witnessed to thousands who flocked to see the "Doolittle raider."
4. This is the best thing you can do for missions! This is the best thing that missions can do for our church. This is the best thing that will help us develop a heart for missions. Tell of the heart that my mom now has for the people of Peru. This is how God will raise up future missionaries. We must send our children oversees before they get out of high school. We must take our seniors on trips to minister, not to tour retirement villages. There is no biblical retirement. Use your retirement to serve Christ overseas. Wouldn’t it be great to have a dozen career or retirement missionaries come from NRBC? Many of you have never been. Make it a point to go to the nations. If you are absolutely physically unable, find the nations here in Tifton, work at reaching them. One large UUPG in Brazil was the Japanese! And of course, many must stay and hold the ropes in prayer and giving for the ones that can go. Do not allow the things of this world to divert you from missions. Make the commitment now! Some of you should go for life. There are those here today that may fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus on the field 4 life
A. Closing illustration: The late Dr. A. J. Gordon concluded his last pastoral letter to his church (Clarendon Street, Boston), with these words: "Forget not that your first and principal business as a disciple of Christ is to give the gospel to those who have it not. He who is not a missionary Christian will be a missing Christian when the great day comes. Therefore, ask yourself daily what the Lord would have you to do in connection with the work of carrying the news of salvation to the perishing millions. Search carefully whether he would have you go yourself to the heathen if you have the youth and fitness required for the work. Or, if you cannot go in person, inquire diligently what blood mortgage there is upon your property in the interests of foreign missions -- how much you owe to the heathen, because of what you owe to Christ for redeeming you with his precious blood. I warn you that it will go hard with you when your Lord comes to reckon with you if he finds your wealth invested in superfluous luxuries or hoarded up in needless accumulations instead of being sacredly devoted to giving the gospel to the lost. "But remember that consecrated giving will be impossible unless there be first a consecrated giver. Therefore, I counsel you to seek the special grace and anointing of the Holy Spirit, that he may work in you that consecration of heart and life on which so much depends." “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of this life—these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a sacrifice.” –David Livingstone
B. Recap
C. Think of the hundreds, or thousands that may thank you for giving, praying, and going. Will you meet people from among the nations in heaven that will be there because you went?
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
