As I am writing these few words to you, I await the arrival of some very dear friends to this church. More than friends, actually, for they are a part of this church in her ministry around the world. They are our partners in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are some of our missionaries.
Our church loves its missionaries and tries to convey that love to them in many ways that are right and good. Many of you will recall being involved in special projects to touch the lives and work of our dear friends. Some of these things have included making blankets, sending arthritis medicines, and many other projects. And I have no doubt that we will be privileged to have involvement in other such areas again.
However, it is important that we remember that not all missionaries leave hearth and home to travel to another country or culture. When our Savior gave what we call the “Great Commission”, He did not state that it would only be accomplished when we obeyed that mandate cross-culturally. What He said was, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, meaning that wherever we go we are to be about the business of baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that (Jesus has) commanded.
Therefore, it is pretty clear that in the Master’s world view, there is not really a separation between “missions” and “evangelism.” In His economy these are one and the same—synonymous terms meant to describe our endeavors in obedience to His command. What I mean is this: each one of us is a missionary when we declare the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Part of what gets in the way of understanding this is that we have often tied the idea of being a missionary to a “foreign” country. That is, a person has been a missionary if they went to a land with a different culture or language or government than our own. But even that is true of every believer because this world is not really our home! Each and every one of us is called to a land different than that to which we belong, and our area of endeavor is the world!
Over the past many months we have been discussing our relationship to the world around us, and we have discussed some heady things. But I can easily say that no understanding is more important than this grasp of the fact that God has us here to declare His message to the world. It is our place of ministry. It is our assignment.
When we think of our relationship to the world in light of this, there are some very clear things revealed in the Bible. First of all, it is without doubt that the world is our mission field. As Jesus was interpreting His story of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13:38, He said, The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one.
Now what is particularly interesting about this is that the Master is making sure we understand that within the professing church there are both possessors and professors. We cannot tell the difference physically or by sight. We are unable to discern the hearts. And that is why we must continue to make the truth known among all those with whom we come into contact! Just because a person says he is a Christian that does not make it so! Jesus reminds us that the whole world—including the church—is the field of our endeavor, and we must be faithful workers in that field.
In addition, we find that Christ is our template, or our pattern if you will, for the way in which we are to work in this field of the world. As the Savior prayed on the night before His death, He said to the Father, As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world (John 17:18). There are many wonderful applications of this truth, but among the applications is that we may look at the approach of Jesus in this world for a model of what our approach should be as we labor for God in this field.
There are many directions we may take this application, but I will settle for just one. Let us consider our passion as we live and minister in the field of the world. Can you see Jesus having a “whatever” attitude? Not likely. Instead, we know the Son of God to be a man who cried out His message and made His truth known by what He said and what He did among the people. How passionately do we serve the King who placed us in His field of harvest?
A man traveling along a dark road one stormy night met a man coming from the opposite direction who said to him in a hesitant manner, “I think maybe the bridge is out. At least I heard something to that effect.” The traveler was not impressed by this half-hearted, half-warning and decided to keep going ahead. A little farther on a man came rushing out of the dark to him and shouted, “Stop! Don’t go any farther. The bridge is out!” So passionately convincing were his tones that the traveler turned back, and his life was saved. Now, I am not advocating that we act like madmen, but certainly the second individual typifies how we are to witness, with passion and conviction.
And why shouldn’t we possess passion and conviction? After all, we are not called to share our opinions or provide alternatives to other good things. Not at all! Rather, we have been given the privilege of proclaiming the eternal truth of God. In Romans 1:8, Paul tells the church, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” This does not mean that everyone simply knew the Roman church had faith, but rather they knew the content of that faith! As the church grew bold in Christ they were spreading the only thing that could make a difference in every life for eternity—the Gospel! And they were doing it together.
Recently I saw a news story of a horse-pull exhibition that took place in Canada. One horse pulled 9,000 pounds, another a little more than 8,000! Together you would expect them to pull about 18,000 pounds. But no! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 pounds! That is a lot of pulling.
The principle is called synergism. By definition, the simultaneous action of separate agents working together has a greater total effect than the sum of their individual efforts. In other words, more can be done in a team effort than can be accomplished solo. In order for the principle of synergism to work like it should, there has to be teamwork. As we are called to make an impact for eternity in the field that is the world, every person in the church is valuable and needed. Together we can use the proper relationship to the world around us to bring glory to our worthy God.
Posted on October 1st, 2007 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
