The Marks of a Missionary
Jesus: Hope of the Nations
Isaiah 6:1-9 - ©Dr. Larry L. Thompson (2003)
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. [2] Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. [3] And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." [4] At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. [5] "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." [6] Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. [7] With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." [8] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" [9] He said, "Go and tell this people:" ’Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”
Introduction
Today we close our month long series, “Jesus: Hope of the Nations” and our Month of Missions emphasis with an exciting look at how God puts a missions heart into His people. Please turn to Isaiah 6:1-9.
Isaiah, whose name means “Jehovah saves,” stands out as one of the greatest of the prophets. Indeed, none can so worthily be called the “Mission Prophet” as he. Through days of crisis and disaster, unprecedented in the history of his people, he constantly is calling people to faith in the only God who could deliver them. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was of royal blood, or at least of noble descent. According to the Talmud, his father, Amoz, was a brother of King Amaziah, which would make Isaiah and King Uzziah cousins. His training also must have been of a high standard, for as we read his prophecy we are impressed with the majesty and originality of his thought, as well as the superlative quality of his language.
In the chapter before us we have the sensational story of the call of a missionary and an insight into the man himself. We shall look at three aspects of what God looks for to make a heart for missions!
I. A MISSION HEART SEE GOD (Isaiah 6:1)
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple”
News of King Uzziah’s death had reached the young man of God, and in an agony of grief and sorrow he entered the courts of the temple in order that he might seek comfort from the Lord. Often the Lord will use a crisis in our lives to focus our attention on Him and to draw us to Him.
As he waited in the divine presence, he had a vision. This was the method God often used to speak to His servants in Old Testament times. Today we have the inspired Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God to instruct us concerning God’s purposes; provided we spend time in waiting upon the Lord. The heavenly vision had to do with the glory of God, and teaches us a lesson: namely, that THE LORD CALLS US TO SEE HIM BEFORE HE CALLS US TO SERVE HIM.
1) They See Him Personally “. . .I saw the Lord. . .” (Isaiah 6:1). When Jesus told His disciples of Isaiah’s vision He said that the prophet “. . .saw His glory and spoke of Him” (John 12:41). This glory was, undoubtedly, the outshining of God’s own holiness. As Isaiah recounts this vision he tells of angelic beings known as seraphims. All of them were singing to one another, saying, “. . .Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:2-3). What a lesson this must have been to the young prophet! Well does Scripture say: “Pursue. . . holiness without which no one will see the Lord”; and I could add, “without [holiness]. . . no one will [serve] the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
2) They See Him Positionally “. . . I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. . .” (Isaiah 6:1). Note that Isaiah saw the heavenly throne in the year that King Uzziah died. Herein is a divine principle. It is only when man is dethroned and God is enthroned that we are brought into the realization of the sovereign power of the Lord of glory. It is while God was enthroned in Uzziah’s life that he reigned righteously and prosperously; but when he became self-sufficient and arrogant God had to judge him so that he died a leper (2 Chron. 26:23).
3) They See Him Purposefully “. . . Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). God’s purpose is to fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord in order that God may receive Glory!. If we have caught the vision of the true heart for missions then our service is taking this message into the world; this must be our supreme objective (Acts 1:8). First-century Christians took this so seriously that they reached the whole of the then-known world in some thirty-three years. Why are we not accomplishing the same task in our generation? Because we have lost the vision of God. The greatest need of the church today is to once again see the glory of God: His power and purpose. Missions will never be what it needs it be in this church until the Messiah is where He needs to be in our lives.
II. A MISSION HEART SURRENDERS TO GOD (Isaiah 6:5)
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” The vision of God in His holiness always creates a sense of our own unworthiness and SURRENDER before Him. In the verses before us we see the ministry of the Spirit working in the prophet to produce a heart for missions:
1) THERE WAS PERSONAL SURRENDER (Isaiah 6:5)
Isaiah cried, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Six times over in the preceding chapter Isaiah thunders Out the message of doom to his own people, but he does not seem to sense his own need until the heavenly vision breaks in upon him. One glimpse of the glory of God and he is filled with a sense of guilt concerning his own sinfulness and he it now at the point of personal surrender. It was also true of Peter who “. . .fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8); and of Paul who, when he saw himself in the light of the heavenly vision, exclaimed: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). God has to bring us to this point of surrender before we can ever serve Him; for unless we learn the nature of our own sinfulness we shall never seek the nature of God’s holiness, and without holiness and our personal surrender, we cannot serve the Lord.
But surrender to the Spirit not only reveals the nature of our sinfulness, but also the nature of our helplessness. Isaiah exclaimed, “I live among a people of unclean lips,” (Isaiah 6:5). No picture more vividly portrays utter helplessness than a leper among lepers. BUT THIS IS WHERE GOD OFTEN HAS TO BRING HIS PEOPLE IN ORDER TO GIVE THEM A HEART FOR MISSIONS IF THEY ARE TO TRULY SERVE HIM. As long as we are self-sufficient, God can do nothing with us.
2) THERE WAS A PURIFYING SURRENDER (Isaiah 6:6-7). In
[6] Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. [7] With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Because of his utter sinfulness the missionary’s first need was for cleansing; so the seraphim took the live coal from off the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips, saying, ”Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (Isaiah 6:7). The altar here speaks of Calvary, and the live coal suggests the application of the cross to our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can bring the purifying power of the cross to bear upon our sinful natures so that self decreases as Christ increases in all the glory of His resurrection life (Rom 8:13). This is a process, the attitude of a life time where we constantly count upon the Holy Spirit to purify us so that we will be clean vessels, useful for the Master’s work.
3) THERE WAS A POWERFUL SURRENDER (Isaiah 6:6).
“Then one of the seraphs flew to me…” Just as Isaiah needed the purifying touch of God for his sinfulness, so he required the powerful touch from God for his helplessness. This is precisely what the Holy Spirit effects in the believer’s life. This is the meaning of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians when he asks that the believers might be “. . .strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). It is out of our own sense of helplessness that we look to God for His power to enable us for the ministry of missions and for Christian service.
III. A MISSION’S HEART SERVES GOD (Isaiah 6:8-9)
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" [9] He said, "Go and tell this people:" ’Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.” Purified and Powerful the Missionary now begins to PRAISE! The prophet was now ready to hear the voice of God and be commissioned to his mission. This is always God’s way. When we have been brought to the end of ourselves and begin a life in the Holy Spirit, we are ready to serve God responsively and redemptively.
1) HIS HEART IS RESPONSIVE
His words were, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). When the triune God asked the question, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8) the answer was already settled in the missionary’s heart: “. . .Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
When people do not respond as readily as this it is painful evidence that they have never seen or sensed God in all the glory of His person, power and purpose. Are you holding back from the voice of God’s divine call? Remember, the Savior weeps at this very moment in His soul over a lost world. Tens of thousands die every day, and even more are born every twenty-four hours to face a world that is becoming increasingly godless, Christless, and hopeless. Have we no heart? Have we no sense of mission in this call from God?
2) HIS HEART WAS REDEMPTIVE
“. . .Go, and tell. . .” (Isaiah 6:9) For the missionary Isaiah this was a commission to go and preach a message of judgment, a most unpopular task.
Similarly, we must not despair as we face a sinful world. The gospel is still “. . .the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16), and the word of our mission’s call to us is ‘‘. . .’Go, and tell’. . .’’ (Isaiah 6:9) No greater honor could be ever conferred upon any Christian. No commission could be emphasized with greater authority. Are we prepared to go and tell? Are we prepared to underwrite a mission’s ministry that will go and tell? This is God’s priority program until Jesus returns.
Conclusion
Jesus Christ is our King. He came once to die upon a cross for our redemption. Very soon He is coming back to reign and to judge. His commission to us is to go and tell the world that He is a living Savior today, but a coming Judge tomorrow. Are we prepared to die to self, ease, and indifference in order to go and tell sinful men and women that Jesus saves? Only such a person has a burden and passion to win the lost at any cost. Only such a person has the true Marks of a Missionary!
Mine are the hands to do the work;
My feet shall run for Thee;
My lips shall sound the glorious news:
Lord, here am I; send me.
