Last time we thought about how, since the Cross, Resurrection and Pentecost, Christ has been bringing more and more people into his Church and his `kingdom`, a whole alternative way of doing things lived under his leadership and by his guidance; and the last thing he did on earth (Matt 28:18-20) was to call each of us to active partnership in this. So then how? That’s our topic in this final post of our Foundations course!
We really can make huge differences in this hurting world; and if we’re growing like Jesus, we must use everything we are and have, just as he did, for that. The heart of this spread is our sharing of the gospel of salvation, spreading God’s Word (Matt 28:18-20 again, Acts 6:7, 12:24). This is the most fruitful thing we can do: not just because its results are eternal, but also because it and its implications are the remedy for the root causes of our biggest problems; the key remedy for corruption and environmental selfishness for example. And the Church’s mission, doing what God’s sent us to do, means using everything God gives us to repair the disastrous results of our race’s rebellion and bring God’s goodness in: which includes spreading medical care that confronts disease, spreading education (literacy especially), spreading justice, good stewarding of the environment in this time of disastrous climate change, and much besides. All this is part of our adventurous calling to bring as much as possible of God’s goodness on earth. And then, more than that: Revelation 21 depicts history’s final culmination, with God bringing into being a glorious `new heaven and new earth`, where there will be `no more death or mourning or crying or pain`, and we’ll move into the life God created us for (2 Cor 5:5): to be in his presence forever. It’s hard to imagine (but well worth trying!) how fantastic this will be. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us `no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him`; Ephesians 2:7 says that God plans to use the coming ages to show us just how colossally he loves us. God is a God of infinite love, joy, and creativity, and it’s going to be unbelievably wonderful to experience that fully. In comparison we have only tasted the slightest droplets of love and joy even in our best moments here!
But then: there could be nothing more tragic than to miss out on this. Hell is absolute separation from God, and therefore absolute separation (if we can imagine it) forever from all love, and joy, and peace, and hope. No one could conceive of anything more catastrophic; God’s love, and above all what that love motivated Jesus to do on the cross, must motivate us each to do all we can to ensure that nobody, anywhere at all, fails to realise the huge consequences of joining their lives now to Jesus, or not. If we’re separated from Jesus when we die, that means permanent, disastrous separation from him; if we’re joined to Jesus when we die, we’ll be with him forever in heaven, sharing glory beyond our wildest dreams. If we see things the way Jesus does, we’ll know people throughout the world desperately need to hear this.
Practically, then, world evangelism and global mission are an essential imperative, an indispensable part of being Jesus’ disciples; reflecting the passionate heartbeat of our God for this lost, dying world, and his desire to bring us out of darkness, into his kingdom, and into his joy. Consider how Scripture makes this point regarding each member of the Trinity:
God the Father loved the world so much he gave the biggest thing he could for it (John 3:16). IF we’re growing like God, we will love the lost world the same far-reaching way!
God the Son came here, sent into the lost world by the Father, and now sends us in precisely the same way (John 17:18). IF we’re growing as His disciples, we’ll see our lives as being sent into the lost world, just like him…
World evangelism is consequently the single prime consequence for which God the Spirit was given (look at Acts 1:8)! And when the Spirit swooped down on his people on the day of Pentecost, the immediate result was that 3000 people became believers from a vast array of nations (Acts 2)…
So this must mean (but it’s something we must make the effort to grasp) that living for God’s mission to the whole world can’t be just for a few specialists we call `missionaries`; it’s the natural, indispensable life-shape of anyone at all who is truly growing like God. To be a Christian is to be a missionary. This is the adventure our Master told us should shape our lives after the resurrection (Matt 28:18-20): `Go and make disciples of all nations`, Jesus said, `and surely` – as you do it – `I am with you always, to the very end of the age!`; that is, draw other people from every nation into God’s loving purposes, to live for him here, and to be ready for his return (1 Thess 1:9-10)!
This is the greatest adventure of all! Obviously it must be a part of our church’s teaching programme – the relevant biblical passages, but also some summary of the wonderful things God has been doing, and where also the needs remain, worldwide (see below for sources of resources on this – and this is a time to be creative, with food and music from elsewhere in the world!); and, how we as individuals can become actively involved. Whether we’re called right now to our own country or to somewhere else, God has given us people right where we are who he wants us to point towards becoming disciples. BUT, each of us is also called into the grand adventure of making disciples from every nation worldwide; because all of us can travel anywhere in the world and help make disciples there as we pray (and as we give)! And it’s as we do so that we reflect the passionate love of God for the world – live out our discipleship of Christ – and live out the prime purpose for which God’s Spirit was given us….
How then can I fulfil the role God has created me for in all this? Where does the Holy Spirit have a place for me to join the adventure? Here’s a quick sketch of the big picture worldwide.
Here in Europe we’re used to growing spiritual deadness and decline (though a recent survey in Britain has shown the tide turning to an unexpected degree: see https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revival ). But worldwide, God’s church has grown massively over the last century, compared to all previous generations. She is far stronger and more numerous in parts of Africa, east Asia and south America, than in cultures like Europe that have been trying to live without Christ. Indeed, Africans have been leading the largest churches in Britain and in Europe as a whole. But always we need each other; these huge newer churches still need our prayers and various kinds of partnership – Bible translation, for example. But even bigger missionary challenges lie in other areas that are still unevangelized. Memorize these four parts of the world and pray for them, perhaps when you’re in the car or on the bus:
The Muslim world – from the Atlantic (Morocco) east to Bangladesh, and including much of Africa as far south as for example Senegal or Mali.
God’s church has grown massively in recent decades in the two huge countries of Asia: China, where despite horrendous persecution last century there are now far more Christians than there are people in Britain; and in India too. But vast areas of these huge nations still haven’t heard much about Jesus.
Parts of Russia, particularly Siberia and the Caucasus, are unreached and very difficult to reach.
Perhaps the most resistant part of the world, after the muslim lands, is actually continental Europe. Countries like Belgium and Italy can be incredibly hard for the gospel. (What is our responsibility if our church is somewhere near the European continent, and possibly bigger than all but a few churches anywhere on that continent? If our church is in the UK but has no missionaries in Europe, is it really likely that in a fellowship bigger than perhaps 60 there is no one whom God is wanting us to contribute to this region, that is so near and yet so desperately needy spiritually?)
But maybe living in one of these areas is not a realistic option for me at this present time. What then can I actually do to live caring practically for the lost world, the way that God the Father did when He gave His only Son for it? Three things at least!
We can make a huge difference by investing our prayers. If we’re growing like God, we’ll learn to care for the world as He does, and so to pray for the world. The global prayer atlas Operation World is a wonderful tool with masses of prayer information on every country worldwide. (Valuable snippets from each country are also on www.operationworld.org.) Use it as you hear about particular places in the news!
Have a look also at OM’s website https://www.uk.om.org/Listing/Category/prayer-resources, and WEC’s https://wec-uk.org/prayer; these are two really great agencies working worldwide. And as the saying goes, `Know something about everywhere and everything about somewhere!` Perhaps pick one part of the world and get to know it well, through regularly reading a missionary magazine, or diarizing a regular visit to a website. For example OMF’s www.omf.org.uk is great for east Asia, Latin Link’s www.latinlink.org for south America, AWM’s https://www.arabworldmedia.org/ or Frontiers www.frontiers.org.uk or Interserve’s www.interserve.org for the Muslim world; or one type of ministry – www.ifesworld.org for student movements in 120 countries worldwide, or www.wycliffe.org.uk for Bible translation.
Each of us should surely arrange to get at least one missionary’s specific prayer letters regularly. Think imaginatively too about what they probably need your prayers for, whether they mention it each time or not: their life with God and his Word… good contact with unbelievers and effective witness… their church experience and what it means for them… health and physical safety… friendship and loneliness… coping with the language and culture… the preaching they do… relationships with colleagues… their singleness or their marriage… their financial support… their children or elderly parents… Praying about the nitty-gritty makes a real difference!
(And by the way: how can we show them love as real human beings? Let’s be creative… why not send them some food they may be missing from home (eg marmite if they’re British?!- so long as it won’t perish on the way or cause problems at customs!); or can they download music where they are, and if not then some music of the kind they love; or a humorous book; or a magazine about their or their children’s hobbies; or again, something showing care for their elderly parents? And let’s not forget how much birthday cards and Christmas cards can mean, for the missionaries or their children.)
We can make a huge difference by investing our giving – learning to deploy the money God has trusted us with for maximum impact in the lost world. To start with, `missionaries` working in a country other than their own aren’t an elite different from the rest of us; they too need money for their children’s needs, for travel and insurance, for pensions and holidays and everything else we feel we ourselves should have money for! My own church’s budget for example can’t support any of our missionaries 100%; the rest is picked up by individuals who care about them. (And in heaven we will meet the people who were blessed or even converted because of their ministry that those individuals made possible.) More widely, giving through mission agencies like the ones in the previous paragraph is a good way to ensure your giving is well invested; so is giving for our brothers and sisters (yes) who are facing horrific persecution and often in desperate need; through Open Doors for example (www.opendoorsuk.org), or Release International (https://releaseinternational.org/ ).
Lastly; we can make a huge difference by investing our own time and futures carefully and deliberately, so as to bring God’s gospel and love into the unreached parts of the lost world – whether we’re called to stay with the unreached in our own country, or somewhere more interesting! For some of us that might mean getting involved with outreach to students who come from unreached countries abroad, many of whom become Christians here: talk to Friends international https://www.friendsinternational.uk/ . And there may well be Muslims, Hindu and Sikh friends we can make all around us.
And to many quite `normal` people God will give the joy of carrying his gospel to a part of the world where it’s hardly known: maybe for twelve months, maybe for a career. Again, have a look at OM’s website, www.uk.om.org ; or find out about opportunities teaching English in some of these countries (in the UK at least you can get the necessary TEFL qualification in 120 hours of study, ie as little as 4-6 weeks full-time or 10-12 part-time, and it’s not expensive…)
God is beside us as we think about these things. Let’s hear his call. He is certainly calling us to ‘dream big dreams’ of what he can do globally through us, as we pray, as we give, as we invest our lives. Let’s aim to live a life that leaves big footprints for him! Whether he is calling us to invest our next few years in his kingdom into the unreached in our own country or somewhere further afield, and whether his plan for us is what we call “full-time Christian service” or something different — as Jesus said, the prime consequence when the Spirit’s power comes on each of us is that we should ‘be my witnesses in Jerusalem’ (our own immediate situation), ‘and in all Judaea’ (our surrounding country), ‘and Samaria’ (somewhere involving crossing cultural and ethnic barriers), ‘and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). We have no idea what great things God can do with us, with our prayers, our giving, and our lives!
I heard the estimate not long back that half the world still has not heard the gospel properly. This is the context in which everything else we do belongs. Throughout history God has been doing ‘more than all we ask or imagine’ (Eph 3:20). Now he calls us to live lives whereby we do things that will really last; to build something that will still be there to his glory, a million years from now!
PS A few more ideas as to how our own church can keep this vision on track: If God’s Word is making clear that world evangelism is a `normal` part of discipleship, then the crucial question is, how can we include it as a `normal` part of every activity in our church? Can each homegroup or small group be encouraged to adopt some aspect of missions involvement to work at together? Is there a global component lifting up our vision in each prayer meeting? Can there be a five minute `global item` in our service each month: an item from one of the websites mentioned above; or a presentation on a particularly challenging people group they feature; or update and prayer for a missionary your church or one of your groups is supporting, or for a sister church in another country (the agencies mentioned above can help you with this); or the possibilities for taking part in a summer team (see for example https://www.uk.om.org/pages/category/options-to-join?Take=18 ); or yet again, a major international news item and the implications of that (Operation World can help here) for mission and the church in that country? (This last one can be a very effective way to help people realise that prayer and world events are actually part of the same universe! I remember one Danish student remarking after her first exposure to such a thing: `I never thought prayer could be so practical!`) Or again, it can be really helpful to have a `missionary` speak on a `normal` topic – the `quiet time` for example, or reasons for faith, or singleness – the examples they use will doubtless bring in a broader context and so widen our understanding. (And: who should they have a meal with while they are with you?)
And remember: an overview of the state of play worldwide can be very important, because the activities of an individual `missionary` toiling in a village on some Amazonian tributary or Indian or European suburb may seem insignificant unless we understand their work’s context; unless we’ve learnt to see that there is a vast area unreached with the gospel, one small sector of which is now being reached through their activity (and our prayerful support!) Remember too: if through your enthusiasm for these things just two of your church members catch the vision (maybe on just one occasion), and go to the front line abroad as a result, that could end up with numerous person-years of strategic service taking place that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Satan knows this and will discourage and sabotage such efforts if he can — so we’ll need a few people who make it their specific prayer that these things will happen and bear fruit! But God is with us!; it is he who loved the whole lost world so passionately he gave his only beloved Son; and it is his Spirit who works through us now to encourage each other to pray, to give, and to go with him! There are many possibilities for us to do our part imaginatively and creatively; but above all it is our Lord whose love and power are flowing out gloriously and savingly through all this; and his Word will never return to him empty!
