“ Lamak”* was born into a wealthy, powerful Muslim family in South Asia. His family’s reputation put pressure on him to live like a Muslim. Everything changed when Lamak turned his life over to Jesus Christ while working in Singapore.
When he returned home four years later, he accepted the risks of living out his faith. Despite the danger, Lamak shared Jesus with his family.
His father-in-law reacted violently. He strapped Lamak to a chair and pumped volts of electricity into his arms. He tried to force Lamak to denounce his faith in Christ. Lamak refused.
Though scars remain on Lamak’s arms as a result of this torture, he uses his wounds to share his testimony with others. He now works with a short-term missions worker and has helped plant 32 churches and has baptized 500 Muslim believers.
“The Lord continues to work in mysterious ways through those who are willing to serve Him,” a Southern Baptist mission worker says. *Names changed for security reasons.
But Lamak would never have had the opportunity to do so much for Christ Had he never Heard, the Gospel and Believed on Jesus Christ.
This morning, I want to preach a message that I have entitled, Time to Launch. And I want to base this message on missions on a passage from the letter that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome.
READ: Romans 10:13-17
Our church for years has not only supported missionary’s but also created and established opportunities here to reach out to the lost in darkness and help them to see the light. Many of the ministry’s that we have here at Calais are designed to provide us the opportunity to share the gospel with people in our own area. Whether it be our “Live Nativity” in December, or by providing you tracts there in the foyer, we want to see people come to Christ.
And we do it because “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
But I want us to focus this morning on one question that Paul asks, that is found in verse 15: “… how shall they preach, except they be sent?”
From this question, I want you to see a picture of what God had in mind when He sent His Son to this earth to die for your sins and mine and what He expected of us as a result.
#1. The Foundation Laid
In Matthew 10:1-7 we find a time in the life of Jesus Christ here on earth that gives us clearly a picture of missions and the reality that in order to be one of those “sent” we first must be chosen.
READ: Matt. 10:1-7
Could Jesus have worked it some way that He would have been the one to share the gospel with every creature? Yes. Could He have come up with some other way for people to be saved? Yes. However, God chose to use man for this purpose and Jesus Christ got it started with the disciples.
You and I have been chosen to “preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and “preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:2). We are the ones that God has commissioned to continue this on. We will talk more about this in just a moment.
I want you to notice that not only did Jesus call men but He also sent them. (READ: Mark 6:7-13)
Jesus clearly laid the foundation for missions by calling and them sending them.
#2. The Foundation Launched
After Jesus laid the foundation in regards to missions, it was dependent upon the church to see it launch out into the world. Let just share with you 3 different passages in Acts that give us a clear picture of this happening.
> Acts 2:21,32,36, 38-41 “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. [32] This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
[36] Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. [38]Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [39] For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. [40] And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. [41] Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
> Acts 5:12-14 “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. [13] And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. [14] And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)”
People were being saved and transformed, and having their lives changed in incredible numbers. In Acts 2, we read that 3000 people were saved. In Acts 3, we are told that the number had grown to 5000 men, not counting women, were saved. Now, we are not given a number, but are told multitudes of men and women were added to the church. Some believe that by now there were 10,000 believers. That’s impressive when you consider that it was a town of about 40,000 – 50,000 in population. The only explanation for this was the power of God. Only God through His Holy Spirit can accomplish something as big as that.
> Acts 8:26-38 “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. [27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, [28] Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. [29] Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. [30] And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? [31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. [32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: [33] In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. [34] And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? [35] Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. [36] And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? [37] And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. [38] And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
#3. The Foundation Left
Jesus laid the foundation, it was launched by the early church and now the foundation is left to us.
> Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. [19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
> 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 have been called to reach the unreached people. Who are they? An unreached people is one which has no valid witness of the Gospel in their own culture or a functioning local church base to reach them.
Well, pastor, where are they? The unreached are all over the place, but let me share with you about a certain group of unreached that has resulted in what we call “foreign missions.“ They are found in what is called the “10/40” window. This is an area between latitudes 10 and 40 degrees north, stretching from the West Coast of Africa to the Sea of Japan. All or part of 62 countries lie in this region, of which 57 are considered the least evangelized in the world. Nearly 60% of the world’s population lives in this area yet it receives less than 20% of our missionary labor and 10% of our missionary dollars.
According to the United States Center for World Missions, 66,000 people die each day in the 10/40 window without Jesus Christ … 46 every minute. In this region, nearly 2 billion people have yet to be given their first opportunity to respond to the Gospel. Some of these people share the same geographical region and religion, but they require a separate missionary work because they do not share the same language or culture.
3000 Muslim groups
3000 Tribal groups
1000 Hindu groups
800 Buddhist groups
300 Chinese groups
1900 Other groups
One example of an unreached people is the Kurds of the Middle East. Until they were brought to international recognition after the Gulf War, they remained one of the largest peoples in the world without a valid witness of the Gospel. Although some effort is being made to reach, there is still not a single evangelical Christian congregation among them.
Other well known unreached people groups include the Khmer of Cambodia, the Berber people in Egypt, the Bengali in Bangladesh, the Somali of Ethiopia, the Azerbaijani of Iraq, the Moors in Morocco, and the Crimean people of Turkey. Lesser-known groups to most Christians include the Awadhi (60 million) and Bhojpuri Bihari (68 million) of India, the Malay (13 million) and Sundanese (30 million) of Indonesia, the Hausa (26 million) of Nigeria, and the Punjabi (66 million) of Pakistan.
Although many of the unreached people live in areas considered closed to traditional missionary methods, they cannot be dismissed from our missionary efforts or concern because our command is to evangelize "all nations," not just those that are easy to penetrate. We cannot talk of winning the world to Christ without seriously attacking the problem of reaching these unreached people.
So, what do we do about these unreached people? We can reach them through our:
A. Prayer – 1 Timothy 2:1-4
1. We are to pray because God will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.Without prayer, God’s plan for the world cannot be achieved. Every giving Christian also needs to become a praying Christian. Prayer lifts the work of missions from a human exercise to a spiritual enterprise. Missions cannot be done apart from God’s power.
2. Obedience to the Great Commission requires consistent, specific prayer for the unevangelized.
Our prayers need to be directed specifically to the task of penetrating the barriers that now keep the unreached peoples beyond the influence of the Gospel. Only believing, informed prayer can bring down the walls of resistance that surround these places.
3. We are to pray for our missionaries. In your bulletin you will find a bookmark that provides you a weekly prayer cycle of prayer topics for you to use each day in your vital intercessory ministry. As you use these on behalf of our missionary’s, it will help direct your prayers toward specific areas of need.
> Day 1: Missionary’s relationship to God; primary need!
> Day 2: Missionary’s physical and emotional life
> Day 3: Missionary’s family
> Day 4: Missionary’s ability to communicate
> Day 5: Your missionary’s ministry
> Day 6: Missionary’s fellow workers
> Day 7: Missionary’s country of service
We can reach them through our prayers, and secondly through our…
B. Workers - 2 Corinthians 8:5 "they … first gave their own selves unto the Lord…"
We will never know how many missionaries God would call to the mission field until every Christian has made himself available to God for career missionary service. Many missionaries on the field today are nearing the end of their ability to labor on the field, and there are few people training to replace them -–much less to advance the Gospel to those places where Christ is not yet named.
Maybe you are the one that God has been dealing with in regards to taking the baton of one who has been serving the Lord for years. Maybe you are the one that will fill that vacancy. Or maybe you will get involved on a short term basis.
On May 20, 1995, over 60,000 students gathered in Seoul, Korea’s Olympic Stadium and signed a declaration which included a willingness to devote one year of their lives to help establish a church in a foreign land. Imagine how a similar response among American Christians could multiply our missionary efforts each year.
Christians who would receive training, then use extended vacations to travel to a "closed" field to witness and help that country’s believers establish a church.
Young people who would give up a year of college and pay their way to help a missionary for a year.
Retirees who would use their retirement years to serve Christ in foreign lands.
We have placed too much stress on the “professional” missionary, unintentionally blinding ourselves to the fact that evangelizing the world is every Christian’s responsibility.
We reach the unreached through our prayers, through our workers, and thirdly, through our…
C. Finances – 2 Corinthians 8:9
Many Christians are too addicted to the cares, comforts, and riches of this world to do all they can to see the Great Commission fulfilled. Corporations are willing to invest more for marketing their product than Christians are for sending the Gospel.
In 1986, Coca-Cola claimed that 97% of the world had heard of their product, 72% had seen it, and 51% had tasted it. When Christians make a similar commitment to spreading the Gospel as Coke has done to market their product, then we can expect to see a dramatic increase in mission outreach.
A famous artist once was asked to paint a picture of a dying church. It was expected that he would paint a small and humble congregation in a dilapidated building. Instead, he painted a stately edifice with a rich pulpit and magnificent windows - and hear the door, an offering box, marked “Missions,” with the contribution slot blocked by cobwebs.
CONCLUSION:
Let me share a few statistics as I close to put all of this into perspective for you. These statistics are from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and are what is projected for January 1, 2007 at exactly 12:00:01 am.
> Total Population: 6.577 Billion; 4.398 Billion are non-Christian (67%) and 2.179 Billion are Christian (which includes all active and non-active Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant adherents, & non-affiliated people of liberal, conservative, evangelical, Pentecostal, and other persuasions)
> Of the 67% of Non-Christians - 1.888M are unevangelized (29%) and 2.511M are evangelized (38%)
> Of Christians: 699M (10%) are Great Commission Christians, 1.364M are Partially Committed, and 117M are uncommitted
> They then divided the world’s people into eight major cultures defined by the predominant religion within the group, also considering the group’s geography, language, and history).
> Christian Bloc - 2.234B/796 per missionary
> Buddhist Bloc - 367M/176,150 per missionary
> Folk Chinese - 386M/133,259 per missionary
> Hindu Bloc - 1.021B/177,074 per missionary
> Muslim Bloc - 1.285B/296,786 per missionary
> Tribal Bloc - 223M/16,597 per missionary
> Non-religious - 917M/69,058 per missionary
> Others* Bloc - 142M/34,595 per missionary *includes total global population minus Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Chinese and tribal and non-religious peoples. Includes atheists, Jews, Spiritists, gnostics, Masons, occultists, pseudo religions, parareligions, philosophies, etc.
Jesus laid the foundation of missions and the early church launched it. It is now our turn to take what is left and see it become fruitful the way that God pictured it to be. Are you fulfilling your role in the proclamation of the Gospel?
Paul describes those that are sent this way: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things” (v. 15).
Could Paul, if he were here, say that about your feet?
