Why Missions?

2006-02-04

People Need to Hear About Jesus

People need to hear about Jesus. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you understand the urgency in which we need to share the Gospel message. Knowing Jesus is the difference between real living and going through the motions. Knowing Jesus is the difference between life and death. Jesus is the door to the sheep pen (John 10:7), and no one can find peace with God until they have had an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Ever since I came to Christ, I have had the deep desire to see the closest people to me come to know Him. It is a difficult thing to think about people you love being tormented in hell for eternity. If you have placed your trust in Christ, then you understand this feeling. When you share Christ, and people are not receptive to Him, you might begin to get frustrated, and sometimes may even take it personally. I have felt this many times before. But it is important that we do not lose heart, and to continue to lovingly share Jesus when the opportunities arise. People were patient with me when they shared the message, for it took me a few years to recognize my need for salvation. Continue to pray for the salvation of others and for opportunities to share the message of the Cross with others. We need to be ready at all times and in all places to share the Gospel (1 Peter 3:15-16). People need to hear about Jesus.

A Central Issue in Foreign Missions

I once had a conversation with a man at a church function, and when I told him I had an interest in tribal evangelization and church planting, he told me not to forget how much work was needed to be done here in America. When I talk with Christians from other church backgrounds, the reaction is very similar: why go to other countries when people in the United States are in great need?

Surely this is an important, valid question that needs to be addressed in order to bring unity to the Body of Christ on the issue of missions. First I must admit twenty-first century America seems to have fallen from a great spiritual height over the last century. Some of it is liberalism in the church and forsaking Jesus as the only way to salvation in the name of ecumenicalism. The Bible is being compromised and is transformed from inerrant authority to relative opinion. Trusting in Jesus is confused with various political personalities and their agendas, which may or may not be biblical in nature. Poverty is rampant in our cities. Crime is high, including drugs and school shootings. The list carries on indefinitely, and we cannot deny it. The Lord wants to see non-Christian America repent, as we should also.

America, however, is a nation that has an enormous amount of witness for our master Jesus. A certain Christian from World Team stated in a presentation [1] that about ninety percent of Christian workers and supplies go to where there is ample Gospel witness, and nine percent of the same go to unevangelized areas where there is access to the Gospel. This leaves one percent of Christian workers and supplies to go to places with no Gospel witness.

Consider this: according to a New Tribes missionary [2], about 2000 languages in the world have no Gospel witness: not one Christian, and not one verse of the Bible in their native tongue. Yet the Lord is calling people “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9), even as Jesus commanded the disciples to go to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). With this many groups left without Gospel witness, it ought to be a priority of the Church to see these people reached for Christ.

Motivation for Missions

A missionary from Romania once shared four reasons as to why we should be involved with world missions. First, from Mark 16:15, there is a command from above. God told us to preach the gospel to everyone in the world. Second, there is a cry from below (Luke 16:27). The rich man in Luke 16 begged God for someone to go to his brothers who were still alive and tell them to repent. It is too late for those who have died without hearing the Gospel. Third, there is a call from the outside. In Acts 16:9, a vision appeared to Paul for him to go to Macedonia and preach the Gospel. Unreached people from all over the world long for the redemption found only in Christ and are ripe to be rescued from spiritual darkness. Fourth, there is a constraint from the inside. In Acts 4:20, Peter and John could not do anything but speak of the Gospel, in which its power they saw in the risen Christ (see also Romans 1:16). We also must minister to each other to the end that all people will hear the message of God’s grace (1 Corinthians 16:15). [3]

When I think about others going to hell, especially people close to me, it is very upsetting. A friend of mine once said that there is something about seeing other people’s pain that makes you want to love them. This is very true, and even truer when you think about people’s eternal destiny when they do not place their trust in Christ. When thinking about eternity, and about people and where their destiny lies, we are reminded of the urgency to share Christ with as many people as possible. The reality is clearly presented in Scripture, such as in Revelation, about the upcoming Tribulation and judgment to come.

As heartbreaking it is to think about this, the most important reason to respond to God in the area of missions is God Himself. He wants all people to hear the message of the Gospel, for Christ died for the billions of people on every continent in the world. The main motivation to go to the ends of the earth with the message of hope is God, because He is the one who empowers us to do so. God says repeatedly in His Word that people will hear the Gospel from every ethnic group and respond. Missions exists because worship of God does not. Though we want people to come to Christ so they can be saved from the coming wrath, the main reason for missions is because God desires worship from all people: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God’s heart is in seeing people come to Him in faith. How do our priorities measure up to where God’s heart is? What are we willing to do about it?

References

1. Tim Smith. Presentation. February 25, 2003.

2. Greg Sanford. Sermon. March 19, 2000.

3. Romica Iuga. Sermon. December 11, 2005.