Why I Want to Have a Big Part in Missions
Missions Emphasis Series
Chuck Sligh
February 26, 2012
TEXT: Mark 16:15 – “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
INTRODUCTION
Henry Van Dyke’s said, “The missionary enterprise is not the church’s afterthought; it is Christ’s forethought.” My prayer is that missions does not become just an afterthought in our church program.
Our text is known as “the Great Commission,” which is found in different forms five times in the New Testament. Each of the four Gospels and the book of Acts record the Great Commission, and each instance is worded so differently, that it suggests that they are not different remembrances of a single time Jesus uttered the Great Commission. Rather, Jesus must have commanded—not once, but at least five times—that we are to go out into all the world and reach the lost for Christ, each time with a slightly different emphasis or focus.
Now, if our Lord says something ONCE, we ought to take it seriously. But when He says something FIVE times, it’s obvious He’s trying to get an important point across and we had better sit up and really pay attention.
If we would follow the HEART of God and obey the COMMAND of Christ, we will have a heart for evangelism and missions—both here and abroad.
Oswald Chambers said, “When the Spirit of God comes into a man, He gives Him a world-wide view.” John Wesley said, “All the world is my parish.” Brethren, all the world is OUR field of service and we too must have a world-wide view.
Jesus said in Acts 1:8 – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We’re called to reach our Jerusalem for Christ—Grafenwoehr post and the town of Grafenwoehr.
• We have not yet done all we ought to do to reach our Jerusalem. May we reach out to our friends and neighbors and co-workers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Second, we’re called to reach out beyond our Jerusalem to our Judea and Samaria. – That’s why we support missionaries to Germany and nearby countries.
• We’re also called to reach “the uttermost part of the earth.” Put together, this is the task of worldwide missions.
I’m thankful for the missionaries we already support, but I want our church to do much more. I want our church to have a BIG part in missions, and I want each of you here individually to have a big part in missions too.
Let me tell you why:
I. FIRST, BECAUSE OF THE UNFAIR DISTRIBUTION OF GOSPEL WITNESS IN THE WORLD.
OBJECT LESSON IN POWERPOINT:
• We’re told that the world’s population is presently about 7 billion people. You see here 100 stick figures, each representing 70 million people. 100 X 70 million = 7 billion, so each stick figure represents 1% of the world’s population.
• Of the world’s population, only 6% are natively English speaking and 94% are natively non-English speaking, so this next slide separates these two groups out.
• Now here’s a startling fact!—Fully 90% of the ordained preachers in the world minister to the 6%. That means that only 10% of ordained preachers minister to the remaining world’s non-English speaking 90%.
Let me ask you—Is that fair? Someone has said, “It’s not fair for anyone to hear the Gospel twice until everyone has had the opportunity to hear it once.” Tragically, vast numbers of people around the world will go through their entire lives and never hear even once a clear presentation of the Gospel and a loving invitation to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
To understand the unfairness of the distribution of Gospel witness in the world, consider this: Our furlough in 2000 we lived in Greenville, South Carolina. In the Greater Greenville-Spartanburg area, the population was about 200,000—roughly 15-20 times the population of Grafenwoehr and its satellite villages. I looked in the Yellow Pages in Greenville and counted 506 Baptist churches in the metropolitan area of Greenville-Spartanburg. (And that’s just BAPTIST churches.) I’ve seen several places in the Greeenville-Spartenburg area which there were Baptist churches across the street from one another and two more within a quarter mile of those two.
In comparison, I could take you to cities in Brazil with 200,000 people with perhaps no more than ONE Baptist church, and some cities in the interior are larger than that with NO Baptist churches, although, praise God, there may be some other groups or denominations preaching the Gospel, but still, the numbers are nothing even remotely comparable to what you have in the U.S. You will find something similar in many other parts of the world.
Jesus said, “…Go ye into ALL the world, and preach the gospel to EVERY creature.” (Mark 16:15) But that’s not being done. We aren’t preaching the Gospel to EVERY creature. For the most part we’re preaching to the same people over and over and over again.
So I want to have a BIG PART in missions because of the unfair distribution of Gospel witness in the world.
II. SECOND, I WANT TO HAVE A BIG PART IN MISSIONS BECAUSE OF THE SKEWED EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS TO REACH THE LOST FOR CHRIST.
OBJECT LESSON IN POWERPOINT: Listen to these statistics:
• 90% of all money spent for evangelism by all churches of every type is spent to reach the 6% of the world that is natively English speaking.
• That means that only 10% is spent to reach the rest of the 94% of the world that is non-English speaking.
Again, I ask you—Is that fair? When I think of how much money people in the West spend on extravagances and luxuries compared to how much we spend to reach the lost, I’m ashamed.
POWERPOINT GIVING/SPENDING COMPARISON CHART – Listen to the following facts. – They’re a little outdated, but try as I might, I couldn’t find more up-to-date statistics, but they should be sufficient to illustrate what I’m saying.
• Missions giving in U.S. and Canada amounted to $750 million in 1996. $750 million sounds impressive until you hear how much is spent on other things by Americans and Canadians:
• In the same year, U.S. tourists alone spent $20 billion in foreign countries, and $6 billion getting there and back—a total of $26 BILLION spent on foreign tourism compared to 750 MILLION for worldwide evangelism of every kind.
• In the U.S. in 1996 over $3 billion was spent for PET FOOD and another $3 billion was spent on PET ACCESSORIES. – While people lavish money on dogs and cats and ferrets and hamsters and pot-bellied pigs without souls, we toss a few coins to the lost—who DO have souls—around the world.
• In 1988, Americans spent some $13 billion on TOYS and GAMES.
Do you get the picture? Something’s out of whack here. There’s nothing wrong with having wealth per se, but when I see the extravagance and indulgence of Westerners as a whole—I cannot help but be struck by what all that money COULD be used for in the Lord’s work.
Illus. – Years ago a missionary returned to England for a brief furlough after many years of faithful service in India. He was invited to a dinner at a great summer resort where he met many women of prominence and position.
After dinner he went to his room and penned a letter to his wife. He wrote, “My Dearest Sweetheart: I’ve had dinner at the hotel. The company was wonderful. I saw strange things today. Many women were present. There were some who, to my certain knowledge, wore one church, forty cottage organs, twenty libraries and 30,000 Bibles.”
You see, in his great longing for the means to provide the Gospel for spiritually hungering millions in India, he could not refrain from estimating the silks, satins, and diamonds of the guests at the dinner in terms of his people’s needs on the mission field.
Few, if any, of us are rich here today, but I want to tell you—there is a lot of stuff and gadgets and toys and clothing and furnishings and material things that Christians spend their money on that they REALLY DON’T NEED—much of the money for which could be used to advance the cause of Christ.
I’m not saying some of these things are wrong. However, there needs to be a different mindset among God’s people today of living modestly to generously for the things that last for eternity.
III. THIRD, I WANT TO HAVE A BIG PART IN MISSIONS BECAUSE OF THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON TIME AND ETERNIT AND TEMPORAL THINGS.
The Psalmist said, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten [that equals seventy years]; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore [or eighty] years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)
POWERPOINT TIME AND ETERNITY CHART:
The Psalmist said that the span of most people’s lives is about 70 years, 80 if you’re fortunate.
• That may seem like a lot of years in comparison to a century.
• But compared to a thousand years, it doesn’t look so long.
• And compared to a million years, you can’t even put a dot on a chart to show it.
• If that’s so, what is 70 or 80 years in the light of eternity?
Your 70 years or so you spend on earth is so tiny in comparison to eternity that it is infinitesimally insignificant. And yet most of our attention in life is devoted to the things of this brief life span, and most of our money is spent for the things of THIS life. And yet none of those things will outlast this life. In fact, Peter tells us that everything on this earth someday is going to be destroyed in a great ball of fire.
Illus. – One day a preacher friend of mine came to see me, and my secretary told him to go on in to my office and I’d be there in a moment. When I came in, he was looking over my pretty extensive library, which i was very proud of and had spent a considerable amount of money to amass. I said, “Well, what do you think?” He simply said, “Too bad it’s all going to burn up some day.”
You want to know what—All the things you spend money on—all the time you spend at work just to earn money to accumulate more money in the bank—that’s all going to burn up someday!
I realize that we should plan for the future by savings and retirement investments, but money can be invested in something that will last for ETERNITY—missions to the far-flung corners of the earth and evangelism at home.
Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
There’s only one way I know of that I can lay up treasures in heaven. That’s by winning folks to Jesus and investing my money in programs and people involved in winning people to Jesus.
IV. LASTLY, I WANT TO HAVE A BIG PART IN MISSIONS BECAUSE CHRIST’S SACRIFICE FOR ME PROMPTS ME TO SACRIFICE FOR HIM.
In talking about what motivated him to service, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14 – “For the love of Christ constraineth us…”
I have used some visual aids to help you visualize why you ought to have a big part in missions—STICK FIGURES to represent the world’s population and the distribution of Gospel preachers; PENNIES to represent missions giving; VARIOUS CHARTS to convey various truths we have discussed this morning.
It’s interesting that it was the Lord Jesus Himself who gave the local church two of the most powerful visual aids to illustrate the love of Christ and how it ought to rouse us to ACTION to reach the lost around the world for Christ.
• The first is the ordinance of BAPTISM—a vivid visual picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ which He endured because of GOD’S LOVE FOR US – Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth [demonstrated] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
• The second is the ordinance of THE LORD’S SUPPER that is a graphic representation of the giving of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood—both done out of love for you and for me—and for the billions of people the world over, many of whom have yet to hear of the love of Christ – John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
These are visual aids far more sublime than anything I have used this morning. Oh, the love of Christ ought to compel us to want to have a BIG part in missions, to make us want to SACRIFICE for a cause worth sacrificing for.
• Yes!—to sacrifice OUR LIVES to surrender to go to the mission field;
• Yes!—to give of OUR TIME to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send more laborers into His field and that He would uphold those already there.
• Yes!—to sacrifice MONEY to get to the mission field missionaries willing to go.
Illus. – To illustrate what I’m talking about, listen to the following story:
I saw in a dream that I was in the Celestial City—though when and how I got there I could not tell. I was one of the great multitude which no man could number, from all countries and peoples and times and ages. Somehow I found that the saint who stood next to me had been in Heaven more than 1,930 years.
“Who are you?” I said to him.
“I,” said he, “was a Roman Christian. I lived in the days of the Apostle Paul. I was one of those who died in Nero’s persecutions. I was covered with pitch and fastened to a stake and set on fire to light up Nero’s gardens.”
“How awful!” I gasped.
“No,” he said, “I was glad to do something for Jesus. You see, He died on the cross for me.”
The man on the other side then spoke: “I have been in Heaven only a few hundred years. I came from an island in the South Seas—Erromanga. John Williams, a British missionary, came and told me about Jesus, and I too learned to love Him. My fellow-countrymen killed the missionary, and they caught and bound me. I was beaten until I fainted and they thought I was dead, but I revived. The next day they knocked me on the head, and then cooked and ate me.
“How awful!” I exclaimed.
“No,” he answered, “I was glad to die as a Christian. You see the missionaries had told me that Jesus was scourged and crowned with thorns for me.”
Then they both turned to me and said, “What did you suffer for Him? Or did you sell what you had for money which sent men like John Williams to tell the heathen about Jesus?”
I was speechless! And while they both were looking at me with sorrowful eyes, I awoke, and it was a dream! But I lay on my soft bed of comfort and ease, awake for hours, thinking of the money I had wasted on my own pleasure, my extra clothing, costly car, and many luxuries; and I realized that I did not know what the words of Jesus meant: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34).
CONCLUSION
Dear brother, dear sister, let me ask you:
• What have you done for Jesus? – Think about what He has done for YOU.
• What have you sacrificed for the cause of Christ? – Think what He sacrificed for YOU.
• What are you going to do about worldwide evangelization?
I hope as we really focus on missions during our missions conference Thursday through Sunday, you’ll ask yourself those questions. I hope you’ll be open-minded and willing to be used by God as part of God’s means to get the Gospel to as many as possible before it is everlastingly too late. I challenge you to trust God—and have a BIG part in missions through Grace Baptist Church—through praying, through giving and through going.
