Gospel Prism

As our church team and I prepare to go to Africa this week, I want to address this fundamental question, “Why go overseas?” It’s a question that some might have especially as one considers that we have both the poor and lost here at home. In fact, I have been asked this very question by some. Why are we so concerned for places like Africa and Mongolia and Cambodia and the many other places around the world? Couldn’t we do more with our energy and resources here in the United States? I’d like to address this question by first bringing us back to the very last words Jesus spoke before he ascended to heaven in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

For Jesus, this Gospel witness was not about merely bearing testimony to His work in the city of Jerusalem or in the land of Judea or even the northern part of Palestine, Samaria. The Gospel witness was to go forth to the “ends of the earth.” This concentric advance of the Gospel would be the ongoing mission of the apostles and the early church, and it continues to us today. So what compels us to go to all the world, and not merely stay here at home?

1. Jesus compels us to go to all nations in light of the Gospel.

There is no greater impetus as a Christian to go to all the world than the Gospel itself. To understand the weight of this command is to go back to Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus’ great commission over his disciples. The ‘therefore’ in verse 19 is not just for the preceding verse 18, but I think you can say that the ‘therefore’ is meant for all of the Gospel of Matthew. In other words, it’s as if Jesus is saying, “I came as God in the flesh, I was born as an infant in a cow’s feeding trough, I was tempted by Satan, I was baptized by John the Baptist, I performed signs and wonders, I taught in parables, I was confronted by Pharisees and confronted their legalism, I was unjustly arrested, I was mocked, beaten, spat upon, I was forced to disrobe publicly, I wore a crown of thorns, I was abandoned by you my disciples, I was nailed to a cross, I was suffocating and bleeding simultaneously, I was forsaken by my Father, I died, and I arose on the third day in fulfillment of all the prophecies written about the Messiah in the OT, and I did it all so that anyone who would believe in me would be received with my perfect righteousness and I would bear their sins on the tree and they would be accepted as now sons and daughters of my Father, THEREFORE GO and make disciples of all nations. The call to go to the ends of the earth is rooted in this Gospel of God in Christ.

Not only do I have this evidence in Scripture through the transitional word ‘therefore,’ but all of us in this room are the fruit of people understanding the blessings of the Gospel and then heeding Jesus’ command to go. If you are any ethnicity other than a Jew, you only came to know Christ because people heeded this command of our Lord’s to bring the Gospel outside of Israel, where it first began. So in a sense we are all the fruit of the labors of disciples of Jesus obedient to bring the Gospel to ALL nations. And these people responded to this command, not because they believed in missions or had a comprehensive missions strategy. The Gospel was being spread before the US Center for World Missions ever came into being. There were NO missions agencies, no apparatus for financial support, and no Internet to research people groups. No, people left their homes and their comforts and their families because they EXPERIENCED THE GOSPEL as their ultimate source of joy. As not just new found believers, but armed with the idea that they were saved eternally, and that their sins would no longer be counted against them because of what Jesus had done for them, they went with joy to the ends of the earth.

If we are stuck with the idea that we should think about missions because we owe God our missions duty, or because we feel sorry for the people of the earth, or even if we think people need to hear the Gospel or else they will die eternally without it, such motivations will eventually run dry. This is every reason why missionaries in the field grow tired, weary, and often come back home discouraged and sometimes even disillusioned. But the Gospel, more than that which must be shared with others, must be much more than that. It must be the MOTIVATION and BASIS upon which we consider missions in the first place.

And frankly speaking, this motivation alone is what compels me and our team to go to all the world. If it was just about the poor and the lost, then our going for 2 weeks would make no significant difference in those lives at all. Some have asked, “Isn’t it better to simply send the money we spend on travel to Hands at Work, than to go.” Without the Gospel, I believe the answer is yes. But God stirs our hearts because of the work of His Son. We respond by going to such places to see, observe, and be stirred. And then we come back and perhaps, our lives will be lived quite differently, with an even keener awareness and passion to live wholeheartedly for Christ. The Gospel’s ability to transform our motivations and our hearts can radically impact not only us, but generations, and even the world through a ripple effect of Gospel advance in ways we could never have imagined.

2. The Gospel is for all nations equally, not just for our nation.

Secondly, the Gospel is for all nations equally, not just for our nation. When Jesus said that the Gospel would spread beyond the borders of Israel, He was setting a new paradigm for the world. Before Jesus, the only Chosen people were the Israelites. But as Paul writes to the Galatians in 3:27-29: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” The promise is now reserved for those baptized into Christ. The people of God would no longer be restricted to ethnic or nationalistic lines. Moving forward, the people of God are now spiritually identified as those who trust in Christ alone. According to John, Jesus gives those who believe in Him the right to be children of God. (John 1:12)

And this is how Christians today should think about the world. We are a part of God’s world where the Gospel must be presented equally to all. Strangely enough, however, there is this latent chauvinism even amongst Christians that have an America first mentality. I have even heard of some being lightly rebuked for “going out there” when there is “so much need here.” Somehow, the poor and lost have been pitted against one another, as if to say one group of poor is more worthy of our Gospel message than another. But Jesus’ Gospel commands us to go forth to all the world. Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 destroys this type of thinking. When the lawyer desired to justify himself for his good works for God, he asked this question, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer to this question was not merely those who lived around his neighborhood, but rather, the neighbor was a foreigner, a hated Samaritan, a beaten traveler. Sadly, jingoism and prejudice is what guides our hearts and minds to believe that serving the lost and poor at home is more important than serving the lost and poor abroad. And while serving the lost and poor at home is important, this does not displace serving the lost and poor throughout the world. Jesus does not make that distinction post-resurrection and neither should we.

3. God’s renown through the glory of His Son is at stake.

Perhaps there is no more compelling reason to be concerned about missions globally than the glory of God’s renown and great name. This is the Bible’s heart’s cry. Isa 12:4 proclaims: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.” Paul’s letter to Rome records that the Gospel has a critical mission: “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” (Rom 15:9) And Rev 5:9 teaches us that nothing will stop this from happening: “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Missions abroad is not a choosing of which people to serve that is more or less deserving. Missions abroad is to become enthralled with Christ’s exaltation to all the world for all time. Missions home and abroad is merely a means to the end of worshipping our great God eternally. And so, in light of the Gospel, we are sending this team today with a joyous response from the heart of the Gospel itself.

So…

1. Serve the lost and poor home and abroad. There is no dichotomy. I am not pitting my caring for those abroad by saying those at home do not need the Gospel. The natural outflow of the believer is to care for our neighbor where they are in this world. We should not feel sorry and apologize for serving neighbors abroad. Rather, we must do more abroad. But we also can very well be serving the lost and poor at home and experience the joy of the Gospel in doing so.

2. Remember the Gospel’s Advance to the world. The Gospel’s natural advance is to move outward, never to be limited by geographical boundaries. We are not Americans first. We are Christ-exalting, Gospel-centered people first and this transcends geopolitical loyalties. This heart kills racism and ethic prejudice. This heart, the Gospel heart, knows that every person needs to hear the good news. And one day we will all be worshipping Christ together because of His work, not ours.

3. Pray for Wellspring, Africa, Asia, etc. and missions. Would you pray with us as we go. We do not go apart from you. We go with you as one body. Like Paul and Barnabas who were sent out by the Antiochian Church in Acts 13, so too we go in such a way. We represent your heart to the church in Africa. Please pray that more than food and medicine will be provided, but first and foremost, people’s hearts will be ripe for the Gospel to be heard.

4. Remember the Gospel. This is our underlying emphasis for both the team and the church. We are not do-gooders. I am not sending people, resources, energy, and time to be humanitarian. But when I think of Matthew 28, I remember Matthew 1-27 and how gracious our God has been to us. It is with this heart that I say, “Lord, so long as I have breath, may that breath be lived for your glory and renown.” This trip is about His great mercy to me and to you. And so we go in response to His grace. We go to remember how gracious He has been to us and to tell others how gracious He is to all.