Missions Archives - Page 6 of 6

Missions and Media

Ben Zornes on February 19, 2017

Introduction:
Every year our congregation sponsors a missions conference, the one we just finished yesterday. It is also our custom to have the sermon following the missions conference be related to the subject of missions in some way. This message is no exception, but it is important for us not to misunderstand. The fact that we mark Good Friday and Easter on an annual basis does not mean that the crucifixion and resurrection are somehow dispensable in other times of the year. The fact that we are done with the missions conference does not mean we are done with mission.

The Text:
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Summary of the Text:
At the end of the gospel of Mark, Jesus gives His disciples their marching orders. This is not the Great Commission, but it is on the same theme as that commission. Go into all the world. When you go into all the world, you will find creatures there. When you find creatures there, you are to proclaim the gospel to every creature.

My focus here this morning is to address what is meant by “world.” How do we “go into” all the world?

When These Words Were Spoken:
When Jesus spoke these words, going into the world meant what we would call travel (going from one place to another yourself), and it meant communication across distance (going from one place to another by means of media). Media at the time largely meant letters, epistles. We have the same basic options—travel and media. The passage of time has not changed the options, but has rather simply changed the ease and speed of those options. We travel with much greater ease, and we communicate with people on the other side of the world with much greater ease.
What should we bring with us when we travel? What should we send with our messages when we write? The answer is Jesus, but this must be understood rightly. This does not mean that all your Facebook posts should be pictures of saints with three haloes.
The fact is that mankind is created as a tool-making creature. Adam was created naked, but given the magnitude of the task he was given—which included digging mines, sailing oceans, and climbing mountains—the creation of tools was a necessity. This means that when we make tools, whether plows and shovels, smoke signals or iPhones, we are not violating our essential humanity. Rather we are expressing it. Contrary to the theory of evolution, we are not over-developed animals who moved away from the “natural” and into the “artificial.” For man, the artificial is natural. We want nothing to do with Rousseau’s “noble savage.” Ten minutes after Adam figured out what that honeycomb was, he started looking around for a stick.
Scattering What You Have:
Now wherever Christians go, they go as themselves. “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only” (Acts 11:19).

Wherever hypocrites go, they also go as themselves. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matt. 23:15).

Your country can only export whatever it is your farmers are growing. When you go somewhere, or when you send a message somewhere, you are simply projecting what you already are. If you are a bore and a bellygod, then social media will simply enable you to engage in some digital scribbling so that people in New Zealand can, if they wish, read about your grumbles over lunch.

But if you are alive, vibrant, and forgiven, we now live in a world where you can project that.

Times of Refreshing:
The gospel is not some tiresome thing that door-to-door salesmen try to talk you into. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). We are actually talking about a cool breeze that blows off the ocean of God’s infinite pleasure and delight. We are talking about times of refreshing, and if we are not talking about times of refreshing then we are not talking about the gospel as presented in Scripture.

Piety is delighted, and delightful. Godliness is free in its enjoyment of the pleasures of God. Obedience is liberty. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). This is quite true—whatever you eat or drink, on whatever day, for whatever meal. This includes, of course, the French fries, but that does not mean that you are to stand on the restaurant chair in order to thank God that you are not like other men, the ones who do not glorify God for the French fries.

The grace of God is good. Do not be like that nun that Brother Lawrence referred to, the one who wanted to be “faster than grace.” This is how we run headlong into scruples and fussing and wowserism. Enjoy your life, the one Christ has given you. And it is not possible to do this without enjoying Christ Himself.

Two Meanings for “Share”:
The charge against the early disciples was that they had “filled Jerusalem” with their teaching. “Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28).

We do not have pastors and evangelists as hired guns to do all the evangelism for us. They are trained and equipped so that they can prepare God’s people for works of service (Eph. 4:12). The saints are to do the work of ministry, not at the same level as someone gifted or trained. But all of us are involved. And to be honest, how much training does it take to share or retweet something?

Gospel First and Last

Joe Harby on February 22, 2015

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The Text

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

²By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

⁵And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

⁶After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

⁷After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

⁸And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

¹¹Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed” (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).

Mission, Vocation, and Body Life

Joe Harby on February 15, 2015

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Introduction

As you have heard here before, mission is not something the church does on the side. Mission is at the heart of what the church is. And so, outreach, mission, evangelism, church planting all amount to the same thing. In this fallen world, the church should be about two things—birth and growth, and mission encompasses both of these. This is what Christ told the church to do in the Great Commission. Mission is why we are still here. But we need to be careful with this emphasis because there are some pitfalls.

The Text

“If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body” (1 Cor. 12:17–20).

Summary of the Text

The apostle Paul is discussing spiritual gifts, and in this section is describing what it means to be a member of the body. His use of member is taken as an illustration from the human body, and this means we shall have to think carefully about what it means to have something in common, including having a particular mission in common. If the entire body were an eyeball, then how could we hear (v. 17)? If the entire body were an ear, how could we smell (v. 17)? But God, instead of doing this sort of thing, has placed a number of different members into one body, according to his own good pleasure (v. 18). And, at first glance, it appears that an ear, an ankle, a liver, and a fingertip have very little in common. God did this because He has a higher unity in mind. If we had one big ear only, we would have no body (v. 19), and nothing would get done. In God’s wisdom, we can have multiple disparate parts, and yet have them all working together . . . on a mission (v. 20). But as mentioned earlier, we have to be careful because hand/eye coordination is not as easy as it looks.

Apparent Unity, Deep Unity

A policeman’s eyes and the eyes of the criminal he is chasing can have a great deal in common. They can both be blue, for example. They can both be nearsighted to the same extent, requiring the same prescription. They might go to the same optometrist. And the policeman’s eyes and the policeman’s heart apparently don’t have anything in common— except for the fact that they share the same vocation, the same calling, the same mission, which right now is that of chasing the criminal with the blue eyes. Both the heart and the eyes are doing their part to help catch the criminal. The eyes of the policeman are not thinking about their shared solidarity with the blue eyes of the criminal. But if we were giving a test to third graders, we might have a picture of the policeman’s right eye, the criminal’s left eye, and the policeman’s heart. What would happen if we told the kids to circle the two items that had the most in common? Right. A mistake would happen.

Another Illustration

Think of a submarine at war, with an assigned mission to seek out and sink ships in an enemy convoy. On that submarine you will find sailors who are part of the fire control team directly—the torpedo gang, say, and you will find sailors who are not a direct part of that team—the cook, say.

How does the cook advance the mission of the submarine? He does it by doing the best job that he can at his assigned post. He does it by cooking eggs. At the same time, he is not permitted to be uninterested in the mission of the submarine as a whole. He cannot detach his interests as though they were identical to his job description—as though he were somehow separate from the rest of the crew. He is part of the mission and must share an interest in that mission.

And yet, at the same time, he is not permitted to be so interested in what is going on in the torpedo room that he winds up being a bad cook. That’s no help either. If someone is called to a vocation—then the first thing to do is to be excellent at that calling. If your job is sweeping out a warehouse, and you spend your time leaning on the broom telling everyone else about Jesus, then what you are doing is stealing in the name of Jesus. Doing a poor job in the name of Jesus is a refusal to talk about Jesus honestly.

The two extremes are these: there are evangelism zealots who want every sailor to be part of the torpedo gang. And there are quiet, stay-at-home types who want to cook eggs and never, ever think about the war.

Yes and No

Should all Christians be prepared to share the message of the gospel to those who might ask? Yes, of course. In an exhortation that applies to all Christians, Peter says this: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15).

At the same time, should every Christian be an evangelist? At the end of our chapter, Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions about various gifts. The implied answer to these rhetorical questions is no. Is everyone an apostle? How about a prophet? Is everyone a teacher? No. Now the gift of evangelism is not mentioned here, but it is included in similar lists of gifts elsewhere (Eph. 4:11), and the body life argument applies. Paul and Barnabas were both missionaries, even though Paul did the bulk of the speaking.

So “evangelism proper” is not something that every part of the body shares in common. We all must have in common a love for God, a love for our neighbor, a dependence upon God’s word, a liberty in prayer, etc. This is what every member in the body should have, provided it is alive and healthy. But the ear doesn’t have to see. The elbow doesn’t have to hear.

At the same time, the elbow has to be interested in what the eye is seeing. The eye has to be interested in what the elbow is doing. This is because the eye and ear are not seeing and hearing for themselves alone. They are performing their functions on behalf of the whole body.

How do you show interest? Every part of the body is to pray for evangelism. Every part of the body participates in the energy. You can pray, and you can give. You can ask questions about how it went. And of course, the reason we want this body to function smoothly in this way is because it is the body of Christ.

Concentric Circles (Advent 2012)

Joe Harby on December 2, 2012

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Introduction

This might seem an odd Advent text, a text more in keeping with Ascension. But as we remember the Lord’s life, we want to remember the beginning at the end, and the end at the beginning. In the blessing of Simeon, Mary was told that her heart would be pierced through, and here, when Jesus departed, He told them that they would be witnesses “unto me”—witnesses of the whole story, as we can tell from the story these men went out and told. When they served as these witnesses, they started with the Lord’s birth.

The Text

“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 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. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:7-11).

Summary of the Text

When Jesus came to earth, the shepherds were on the ground, the angels were in the sky, and the Lord Jesus was in a manger. When He left this earth, the angels were on the ground, the future shepherds of the Church were on the ground, and the Lord Jesus was ascending into the sky.

The disciples asked when the kingdom was going to be established, and the Lord told them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons, which the Father kept in His own power (v. 7). At the same time, they were going to receive power when the Spirit was poured out upon them (v. 8). They were going to receive power, not talking points. When they received power, the gospel was going to spread in concentric circles outward, as when you throw a large rock in a pond—the splash was Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then out to the rest of the globe (v. 8). After He spoke this, He was taken up (v. 9). As the disciples were gazing skyward, two men in white appeared next to them (v. 10) and asked why they were doing that (v. 11). Jesus is going to come again, the same way that He left (v. 11).

You can take this passage as almost a table of contents for the book of Acts. The Spirit falls in the next chapter, in Jerusalem (Acts 1:12; 2:1ff). That initial splash reached the men of Judea (Acts 2:14). We see by the ninth chapter that there were churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31). The rest of the book takes us out through the rest of the Roman world, with intimations of more to come after that—and here we are, on the other side of the world entirely.

Power and Place

The angels didn’t tell the disciples to hit the road as soon as Jesus left. They were to wait for His divine replacement, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God, when He manifests Himself, is not shy and withdrawn. In the Christmas story, He overshadows Mary so that she conceives, and here He overshadows the 120 in the upper room in Jerusalem, so that the world might conceive. The power and Spirit of God came upon Mary (Luke 1:35), and the power and Spirit of God came upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-2).

Places don’t give you power. Power takes you places. Your spirituality is not a function of your GPS coordinates. The first place it takes you is right where you already are, the way you are. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that becoming a missionary will fix your problems—in many cases, it will only amplify them. Mission-heartedness will address your selfishness problem to the extent that such a heart gives itself away to people here. The power falls where you are first, you see the results of it there first, and then you take the show on the road. Power is in the drive train. Place is just the steering wheel.

The Church and Mission

The church does not do missions; the church is missions. So what is the assigned task? Think about this for a moment. Jesus did not say to go out into the world and get a representative sampling. He did not say to get a smidge from here and a smidge from there. He said to disciple the nations (Matt. 28:18-20). How discipled is discipled? Well, how wet is the ocean floor under the Pacific (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14)?

Mission Accomplished?

One of the dangers in sending out church planters and missionaries to Judea and Samaria is that this might make you think you can check Jerusalem off the list. But it doesn’t work this way.

You send out church planters and missionaries to establish a foothold or a beachhead in a new place as soon as you have consolidated a foothold or a beachhead in the old place. The fact that we are ministering in places like the Ivory Coast, or are involved in planting churches in other places in the Pacific Northwest does not mean that we have become a sending church in distinction from a mission church. We remain a mission church (as well as a sending church), and we must remain a mission church so long as a mission remains.

Resisting Mission Drift

Mission drift occurs in different ways. One of them is when the mission is redefined. Why are we here? What is the point? The point of the church is two-fold—birth and growth. But if we get our building (as we may in the foreseeable future), how easy would it be for the mission to change, and turn into “pay for upkeep on the building,” “keep attendance at acceptable levels,” and “become a community fixture?” No—building are staging areas for the next offensive. The mission is not done here until there are only three unbelievers left in town, and they are acting pretty worried.

Romans 62: The Ministry of Fundraising (15:22-23)

Joe Harby on July 25, 2010

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Introduction

We have noted before that the book of Romans is a fundraising letter. The fact that it is so strikingly different from modern Christian fundraising letters tells us all we need to know about the attitude of the modern church to money . . . and to the gospel.

The Text

“For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; Whensoever I take my journey into Spain . . .” (Rom. 15:22-33),

Summary of the Text

Since Paul did not plant the church in Rome, his desire not to meddle with another man’s foundation had kept him from visiting the Roman church (v. 22). But now, done with his current work, and because he could hit Rome on the way to Spain, he thought to indulge a desire of many years and visit them now (vv. 23-24). But before heading west, Paul was going to go to Jerusalem first (v. 25). His ministry there was a financial one, delivering a contribution from Macedonia and Achaia (v. 26). The Gentiles of Greece had an obligation to do this, because they were beneficiaries of the spiritual inheritance of the Jews (v. 27). After Paul had performed this duty, what he called a “sealing of fruit,” he intended to visit Rome on his way to Spain (v. 28; cf. Rom. 1:8-15). He clearly would love the support of the Romans in this endeavor. When he comes, he is sure that he will do so in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel (v. 29). Paul then beseeches their prayer support (v. 30) for his pending trip to Judea. He asks for three things. The first is that he would be spared from the unbelievers of Judea (v. 31). The second is that his financial ministry would be acceptable to the saints there (v. 31). The third is that his subsequent trip to Rome would result in mutual refreshment and joy in the will of God (v. 32). Paul then finishes with a benediction (v. 33).

Paul’s Unknown Travels

We have already noted that this letter was written in the mid-fifties. As we can read in the book of Acts, this trip that Paul was requesting prayer for was a trip that in fact needed a great deal of prayer. He was received by the saints gladly (Acts 21:17), meaning one of his requests was answered. But the unbelievers he mentioned here successfully got a tumult going (Acts 21:27-28), with the result that Paul was arrested/rescued by a centurion. Held for a time by Felix and then Festus, Paul eventually appealed to Caesar, and was shipped off to Rome (Acts 27:1). The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest (Acts 28:30-31), and we are still in the fifties. According to Clement of Rome, a friend of Paul’s, the apostle “taught righteousness to the whole world, having traveled to the limits of the west” (1 Clement 5:7). This refers to Spain, and possibly Britain. Paul wasn’t executed by Nero until the persecution broke out in 64 A.D., so it is safe to presume that Paul was released after the end of Acts, made his way west, and was subsequently rearrested.

A Different Kind of Fundraising

Paul knows the necessity of fundraising. He also knows and fully understands the necessity of not doing it in a way that discredits the gospel. Indeed, the gospel is to be honored and spread by this means, and Paul knows that in order for the Romans to support his work with a clean conscience, he needed to set the gospel he preached before them, and he does so by means of a full synopsis.

Unlike so many, Paul says, he is not a huckster peddling the Word of God (2 Cor. 2:17). So many? That is a telling indictment, and we still need to be reminded of it today. At the same time, to walk away from the responsibility of raising money is to be negligent in ministry. The people of God need to be taught these financial principles. Consider how often Paul addresses it. The one taught should share all good things with the one who teaches (Gal. 6: 6-9). The spiritual nature of ministry does not mean that it runs on air (1 Cor. 9:7, 14).

Generosity in financial matters is a spiritual form of farming (2 Cor. 9:6-7). At the same time, it is important to avoid any appearance of impropriety (2 Cor. 8:20). Paul is exceptionally sensitive at this point (Phil. 4:17), but not so sensitive that he withholds the truth from Christians (Phil. 4:10).

The Fellowship of Money

The word used for “contribution” in Rom. 15:26 is the word for fellowship, koinonia. A verb form of the same root is used in Phil. 4:14, when he says that the Philippians shared with him in his trouble. He does the same in Gal. 6: 6. When Paul takes the gift from Greece to Jerusalem, he does so in order to minister to them. The word is related to diakonos, and refers to service ministry. And the word for the Gentiles ministering in v. 27 is another word we discussed before—leitourgos. This whole subject has to do with religious and priestly service.

Now whenever finances are brought up in a sermon, it is often the case that all God’s people say, uh oh. But all I need to say here is that as a congregation you have been extraordinarily generous with your time, your expertise, your money, your hands, and your homes. The only exhortation I would give you is to make sure you don’t grow slack in this privilege, and that you redouble your efforts to do all this more and more (1 Thess. 4:1,10). There are profound blessings here. To have the reputation of a generous people is good, but not good enough. You should want to be more generous than that.

Guilt-Edged Securities

As believers devoted to generosity, we don’t want to save up guilt-edged securities. Gilt is superficial, but guilt goes all the way down and contaminates everything. You have heard many times that guilt is a poor motivator in giving. But notice what happens when we move this whole subject into the sanctuary. We confess our sins at the beginning of the service, and we hear the words of peace spoken over us from God. That means that when the offering is brought forward, the whole thing is a delight. The offering is part of the consecration offering, and is not part of the guilt offering. Jesus made that offering for us.