Witnessing to your World
Gladstone Baptist Church – 17/4/05
One of my favourite subjects at school was physics. I know that most of you are just groaning inwardly now because you can’t think of anything worse. And I know that all the theory and the equations and the mathematics was pretty bad, but I used to love to have fun with the experiments and used to love finding out how things worked. Right from a kid I used to wonder how things worked and why things behaved as they did. Why is it So? Did you ever wonder how things worked? Here are some of my favourite memories about physics …
What about breaking light apart into it’s colour spectrum
What about all those fun mirrors and lenses you got to play with. Distorting things and reversing images.
Things like the static generator … How much fun was that.
Well tonight I want to give you a bit of a physics class. I want to tell you that physics is related to mission. It can actually help us explain what God wants us to do in our witness to the world.
You see, I learnt in physics that there are 2 different and in fact opposite forces that exist which I want to demonstrate to you right now …
If I take this ball on a string and swing it around and around – the ball goes from hanging down vertically to going around my hand in a horizontal plane. If I were to let this ball go what would happen? It would fly off some direction because it has some velocity. What is keeping the ball going around and around? It is the string and more importantly a force that I am applying to the string. It is a force that is pulling the ball back towards the centre. It’s like this ride. Without the cables pulling the planes back into the centre, they’d all fly away. This force is called a centripetal force – meaning a force that pulls towards the centre. Here’s another example of a centripetal force - What happens if I toss this ball up? It will fall back down - right. There is a force applied to that ball which we call gravity. It is actually a kind of centripetal force. The force pulls the ball to the centre of the earth or as close as it can get before it hits something…
The opposite force to centripetal forces are centrifugal forces.
Has anyone ever been on one of these old merry-go-rounds. And really got it spinning fast? Apart from feeling really dizzy and a bit sick, what force do you feel?? It’s a force outwards. You feel like there is something just pulling you away from the centre of the merry-go-round. That’s called a centrifugal force.
See isn’t physics fun? Centripetal forces pull things into the centre. Centrifugal forces push things away. Remember it this way. Centripetal forces Pull things to the centre. Centrifugal forces make things flee from the centre.
But how does this relate at all to missions????
Well God has asked us to be both CENTRIPETAL AND CENTRIFUGAL in our mission activity. But we need to be more centrifugal than centripetal. Did you know that?
Most of you are wondering what type of drugs I’m on aren’t you. But I’m completely sober. What I mean by this is this… We are meant to be involved in centripetal activity – activity that ATTRACTS PEOPLE to us here and now. To where we are right now. Centripetal mission would be waiting for people to notice us and come along to church or a homegroup or to our church related activities. This sounds all nice doesn’t it, but it doesn’t work very well in practice as I’ll explain soon.
But just as we are called to invite people to be a part of God’s church body – That’s centripetal activity, God also wants us to be involved in Centrifugal mission activity. 2B Centrifugal mission activity would be GOING OUT FROM where you are now to where people are. It is fleeing from our nice holy huddle in this church building and going to where the fish are biting. When you decide to go fishing, you don’t expect the fish to come to you in your lounge room so that you can still enjoy the comforts of your couch. No you can’t stay on your couch and expect to catch fish. If you want to catch fish, you need to be prepared to get up from your comfy couch and get out in the boat or walk down a river bank to where you know fish are present – but not just any old fish – hungry fish!!!! - Right. That is centrifugal activity. Going out from where you are to where the fish are. Not expecting them to come into you, but going out to them instead.
When we look at the bible we see examples of both centripetal and centrifugal mission activity. Some people have looked at the Old Testament and believe that it was focussed on Centripetal activity. They look and see that God chose this special guy – ABRAHAM. He was to be the father of many people who were to be a blessing to all nations.
Gen 12:2-3 - “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
And so from this one man, a great nation developed - ISRAEL. A nation that was chosen – that was special to God. They were to stand as a beacon in the dark world, attracting people from all nations to the light – just like bugs being attracted to the light. God said that they would be a kingdom of priests …
Ex 19:6 - Although the whole earth is mine, you a will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
As priests they would represent God to Man and Man to God. They would be the go-between. So all of Israel were to priests, but there were also a special group of people who were PROFESSIONAL PRIESTS …
God told the people to make a tabernacle so that he could dwell with them. These professional priests who were taken from the family of Aaron were to work in the tabernacle and me the go-betweens between Israel and God.
When the Israelites wanted to worship God, hey came to the tabernacle, because that is where God lived and the professional priests did their work of sacrifice and mediation.
When people from other nations other than the Israelites wanted to worship God, where did they go? There was only one place to go. To the tabernacle, because that is where God lived and the professional priests did their work of sacrifice and mediation.
Is this centripetal or centrifugal mission? It’s centripetal. Anyone who wanted to worship God had to come to a central place. All the sacrifices, all the offerings were done at the temple. That was where the professional priests were. That was where God lived. Now God originally designed the tabernacle as a tent and so it could move. This was good, because if they desired, the people of Israel under God’s guidance could have gone to the other nations to share God with them. But after about 700 years, King David and Solomon came along and they wanted a more permanent building for God. So they decided to build not just a new tent, but a temple made of stones and wood. It was not transportable, it was fixed now in Jerusalem. It was even more obvious now, that if you wanted to worship God, you had to come to the temple. The worship of God became centripetal and unfortunately so to did the witness of the nation of Israel.
Remember that I said that God had said that the whole of the Israelite nation were his priests – not professional priests, but priests. They were supposed to bless the whole world and be the go-between between God and the world. They were supposed to go centrifugally to all nations and witness to the goodness of their God. Remember his promise to Abraham – I will make you a blessing to all people. Unfortunately the people of Israel didn’t understand or grasp this concept. They didn’t understand that they were priests called to take God to the nations and then incorporate them into their family. They didn’t understand that they were different to the professional priests were tied to the tabernacle and had to minister where the tabernacle was. Their role as priests was portable and they were supposed to go out centrifugally to witness.
The Israelites abandoned their centrifugal task and settled down for the easier centripetal task. They could have gone to any country in the world to share God’s word. But they didn’t. Instead of being centrifugal and blessing others, they decided to become centripetal and demand God to bless them instead. Instead of going to all nations to share God with them, they expected other people to come to them. Instead of welcoming others from other nations and including them in their nation as brothers, they actually began to set up walls that would forever protect their position of privilege and mark these other nations as different, separate, inferior.
In the large, the Israelites became centripetal instead of centrifugal. There were some exceptions though - people who went and witnessed to other nations … …
- Joseph – taken to Egypt to save his family, but also all of Egypt
- The exodus included many other people not Israelites – Ex 12:37-38
- Moses’ father was the priest of the Midianites who came to praise God through Moses’ influence – Ex 18
- Rahab was influenced toward God in her home town Jericho – she was a Canaanite – Josh 6:23-25
- Ruth was witnessed to by Naomi in Moab – she was a Moabite – Ruth 1
- Elijah was sent to a widow of Zarephath – 1 Kings 17:7-8
- Jeremiah was to be a prophet to the nations – Jer 1:3
- Daniel sent to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar through his witness came to praise God – Dan 4:37
- Jonah was sent to Ninevah and Assyria – Jon 3
God’s plan was for his kingdom of priests to be going out centrifugally to impact the nations of this world for God. The nations were then to be invited back to become part of God’s people and worship God at His Temple. In short, Israel were to be CENTRIFUGAL AND CENTRIPETAL in their approach to missions. King Solomon when he was dedicating the temple recognised this fact …
1 Kin 8:41-43 “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name— 42 for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm [How will they hear? By people going to tell them of course] —when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
Unfortunately, Israel for most parts ignored the centrifugal part of going out and witnessing to the nations. They were more than happy to sit back and let all the nations come to them. They were centripetal.
When we come to the New Testament, Jesus corrects these mistakes of the Old Testament Israel. Jesus’ great commission is very clear that the disciples were to go into all the world. Acts 1:8 says that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The early Christians were taught that the physical temple of bricks and stone was no longer important. God did not dwell in a physical building but our bodies. We are THE TEMPLE …
1 Cor 6:19 - Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
Peter taught that we are a group of PRIESTS, just like Israel. We still have the role of declaring God to the world.
1 Pet 2:9 - But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Unlike the Israelites long ago, we don’t need to bring people back to a central temple to worship God. They can worship God wherever they are because God resides in them – in their bodily temple. So the task for us now is even more to be CENTRIFUGALLY focussed – to be Christians who go out and witness to God’s glory. People who turn to God need to be brought into fellowship with the church – that’s true – but it is fellowship within the local church. If our witness takes place in Gladstone, the local church is a church in Gladstone. It our witness takes place in Malaysia, the local church should be one in Malaysia. So there is a small centripetal aspect, but we are called primarily to be centrifugal Christians who take God’s word out to the nations.
If I had to ask you to put yourself on a scale – with one end being a centrifugal Christian who is going out into your Jerusalem, your Judea and your world to witness to others and the other end being a centripetal Christian who is happy to sit back here in this church building and live a good Christian life and wait for people to be drawn in through these doors … where would you put yourself.
Over the last 2 weeks we’ve been talking about witnessing in our Jerusalem, our Judea and our world. You can’t have just a centripetal mindset and be successful in any of these three spheres. Let’s consider for a moment – Gladstone, our Jerusalem. How many non-Christian residents of Gladstone are we going to get just walking in this door because the were walking past the building and heard some nice music. Not many – let’s face it, most people in this community don’t even know we exist. If we are going to witness to those in Gladstone who don’t know God, we need to be centrifugal and go out to where they are at – the football matches, the work places, the social clubs. We need to let them see our lives, we need to tell them about God’s greatness. Then we can invite them to come back with us to church or home group. But seldom does living a life in a glasshouse encourage others to come and join you.
How about our Judea – Australia. How many of the people in Australia are we going to influence by being centripetal Christians and waiting for people to come to us here in Gladstone. Not many – most Autralians wouldn’t even know where Gladstone is. If we are going to influence Australia for Christ, we need to be centrifugal and go to where they are at. We need to take the gospel to them.
How about the world? Do we have any chance to influence our world for Christ by being centripetal? No – not a snow flake’s chance in hell. Then why are we happy to be centripetal and not be involved in supporting in some way missions to the world?
God has called us to the world to witness. To do this we need to be going into the world. We need to be leaving where we are. The challenge for us is to figure out how to do that. I am not under any illusions – I don’t think it is reasonable for every single person here to pack up their things, jump on a plane and go overseas to begin to be a witness. I think that GOING INTO OUR world is reasonable for some of you - for probably more of you than you would be comfortable with. But I don’t think everyone sitting here today will become missionaries overseas. But all of us can GO INTO OUR community and nation. What I do believe strongly, however, is that every single person here should be supporting some form of witness overseas PERSONALLY.
How?
- By adopting a missionary or a mission project who is working overseas.
- By praying for a missionary working overseas
- By giving money to support a missionary working overseas.
I would encourage you to do this personally, not just through the church’s funds. Gladstone Baptist Church gives 15% of our income to missions we have several missionaries that we support which is great. But I know that if you don’t support a missionary personally or directly, then you won’t really take an interest in them personally or directly. Can I have a show of hands who has read a newsletter of one of our church supported missionaries this year? See – We see them as the missionary our church supports rather than the missionary I support. I want to challenge you to consider committing to supporting a missionary personally. Committing to give to their work above and beyond the money you give to the church already – because we still want to support the work of this church and the missionaries we support. But I challenge you all to consider taking personal ownership of someone and their work.
Here are some of the missionaries that Deanna and I support financially and in prayer … This is Julie and Simon Iveson. They are ministering in Indonesia in a place called Yogyakarta. Simon is a chemical engineer and lectures at one of the universities and Julie is a nurse, midwife and full time Mum. They are very involved with student work on the university campuses there.
This is Mark & Susan Chapman. They are church planting in the mountain regions of the Phillipines. They have been there for close to 10 years now and have planted several churches in the mountain villages of Mindanoa & Mindoro
This is David & Sylvia Hicks. They are working in Ethiopia at Addis Ababa. They initially were working in Sudan, but were forced out of that country by the civil war and violence and now they are both teaching at a Christian school in Ethiopia. It has many missionary kids attending that school and David is now the principal of it.
When you begin to personally get involved in supporting the work of others, you become Centrifugally focused rather than centripetally focused.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on the missionaries our church supports and there will be various presentations given about people and people groups. I encourage you to commit to supporting at least one person or people group personally and become a centrifugally focused Christian who is taking a witness to the world.
