We are coming to the last words of the Apostle Paul, and we get a glimpse of
the missionary heart of this great Apostle. The problem with many American Christians, and perhaps some of you in this room, is that to you, Christianity is just such a personal thing; you don’t ever want to share it. You have your ticket to heaven, you have your eternal fire insurance, and frankly, you don’t really care whether anybody else goes to heaven or not.
There are hurting people all around us. If you’re content to hang on to the gospel
and not share it with anybody else, you don’t share the missionary heart of the Apostle Paul. Let’s read about it here in Romans 15:14-24.
Did you notice the three locations there? Jerusalem was the beginning point
of the Christian church. Then he said, “round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Now we would call that modern-day Yugoslavia, all the way over to that part of Eastern Europe. Then Paul says, “I’m probably going to come see you guys in Rome, but it’s only on my way to Spain.” Now, had you looked at a map of the civilized world when Paul was in Corinth and wrote these words in about 56 or 57 A.D., you wouldn’t have found Spain on the map, because it was such an utter end-of-the-earth at that time. In those days, they thought the earth was flat. If you sailed much past Spain, you were going to drop off the end of the earth. Paul says, “My heart’s desire is to go where Christ has never been preached,
even if I have to go to the very ends of the earth.” We know Spain is not the end of the earth. We know the earth is a globe, and we can go all the way around the world, taking the gospel.
The modern missionary movement really got started about 150 years ago with people who were concerned about the continent of Africa. There was a Scottish preacher by the name of Robert Moffatt who was serving in South Africa. He returned to Scotland to try to enlist more missionaries. On a cold, rainy night, he went into a little church in Scotland. To his dismay, the only people in the service that night were women. Back in those days, women didn’t go alone to the mission field. He started to cancel his message, because there were no prospective missionaries there, but instead he preached to them about the need for the Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers. He made this statement, “Every morning when I get up
and look at the horizon, I see the smoke from a thousand villages where the name of Christ has never been heard.”
Robert Moffatt didn’t know there was a teenager, in that service. He was hidden up in the organ loft where his job was to pump the bellows for the pipe organ. This teenage boy, standing up in the organ chamber, heard every word he said, and he was haunted by that phrase, “The smoke from a thousand villages where the name of Christ has never been heard.” So this young man decided he would become a missionary. His name, by the way, was David Livingstone. He became a medical doctor and went to Africa. He was not content to stay in South Africa, where there were few native Africans; instead he explored the inner continent. He was a great missionary and a great explorer. He was the first white man to traverse the continent of Africa from east to west. He discovered Victoria Falls. He traveled over 29,000 miles and mapped one million square miles of previously uncharted territory.
When David Livingstone first began his ministry there, some of the native tribes opposed him. One particular warlike tribe said they were going to kill him and everyone in his party. One afternoon as they were setting up camp, word was out that these warriors had been tracking him all day, and they were outside the camp
and they were going to attack and kill everyone when it got dark. I have the words David Livingstone wrote in his journal that night on January 14, 1856. “It is evening.
I feel much turmoil and fear in the prospect of having all of my plans knocked on the head by savages who are just now outside the camp.” Those who studied his handwriting said you could even see the fear in the way he wrote the letters. He wrote, “But Jesus said, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the earth.’” Livingstone wrote, “This is the word of a gentleman of most strict and sacred honor, so that’s the end of my fear. I feel quiet and calm now.” Even his letters are straight now. They didn’t attack that night. Later the tribe was brought to faith in Christ. A couple of years later, David Livingstone asked the chief of the tribe, “Do you remember the night
you were tracking my party?” “Yes.” “We had heard rumors you were going to attack us.” The chief said, “That’s right, we were ready to attack the camp that night and kill you and everyone else.” David Livingstone asked, “Why didn’t you attack?” The chief said, “When we got close to the camp, we looked and saw 47 warriors surrounding your camp with swords in their hands.” David Livingstone was baffled. They didn’t have any guards, any warriors. Later when he was on furlough in Scotland, he shared this story at a church that was supporting him.
A man came up to him afterwards with his prayer journal. He said, “Look, I wrote it down, January 14, 1856, was that the night?” David Livingstone said, “Yes.” The man said, “That night a group of men came to pray for you. We prayed for your protection. I wrote it down. There were 47 men praying that night for you.”
David Livingstone got so immersed into the Dark Continent most people thought he was dead because they had not heard from him for years. The New York Times hired Henry Stanley, an explorer, to search out Africa and find him. Finally Henry Stanley ventured in on this one camp, and there was the only white man for miles and miles around. In that classic statement, he walked up to David Livingstone and said,
“Mr. Livingstone, I presume?” Henry Stanley was a journalist, not a Christian, but he developed a friendship with Livingstone and was led to Christ. I love what Stanley said about Livingstone. “He converted me to Christ, and he wasn’t even trying to do so.” What a mark of a Christian man. Stanley tried to get Livingstone to return back to civilization to receive medical treatment, but he refused. He wrote, “I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had only one son, and he was a missionary and a physician. A poor, poor imitation of him I am, or wish to be. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die.”
Some of you, have been to London, England and perhaps have toured Westminster Cathedral. There in the floor David Livingstone, this great missionary explorer, is buried. What few people know is that that’s just his body. His heart is not buried there, because not long after Stanley left, when Livingstone was 60 years old, the people in his camp heard a noise in his tent and went in at 3 a.m. There was Livingstone on his knees in prayer, dead. According to his wishes and his written instructions, his heart was removed from his body, and his heart was buried in Africa.
Because, he said, “My heart has always been here, and this is where I want my heart to stay.” They shipped his body back, and it is buried in Westminster Cathedral, but his heart will always be buried in Africa.
Do you remember the Great Commission? Matthew 28:18-20. When I read this command, called the Great Commission, would you do me a favor? Underline or circle the word or words you think are most important in this Great Commission.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, [the word there is “ethnos”] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
What is the most important word? A lot of times, people circle the word “go” or “make disciples” or “nations” or “baptizing.” I believe the most important word in that command, is the first full word, “them.” Baptizing “them”—teaching “them.”
The target of missions is not a plan. It is not a program. It is not even a strategy.
It is people.
Who knows if maybe in this service right now, there is a child, a teenager or an adult for whom it’s not the smoke of a thousand fires in Africa that haunts you, it’s the thousands of people groups around the world who have never heard the name of Jesus? Who knows? God may be putting his hand on you today to be the next David Livingstone, to be the next Lottie Moon, to be the next Paul the Apostle.
Let’s go where Christ is not known and let’s tell the good news. It is commanded by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And there is no escaping His command. Many people love to give money for Missions. We call ourselves a “Mission-minded church.” If that is true, if that is truly our passion, folks, it’s time for us to put our heart where our money is.
