I was not raised in an evangelical church. I did go to church regularly and attended Sunday School, but I always felt something was missing. In High School I accepted Jesus as my Savior through the ministry of a parachurch group. Later I began attending a Baptist church in my community, and eventually got involved in the Baptist Campus Ministry at Florida State University. Soon after, I got baptized by immersion and decided to join that Baptist church.
There were basically three reasons I felt led to switch to another denomination. First was that the church I joined always used the Bible as its primary textbook. Scriptural teaching and preaching was paramount in all that was said and done. My former church did not seem to place much priority on biblical doctrine. Oh we studied Bible stories in children’s Sunday School, but I cannot recall ever being challenged to receive Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord. As a result, I was insecure in my relationship with God. I was never really sure where I stood in relationship to Him until I was told the clear gospel and received Christ through the witness of a friend and the evangelistic parachurch ministry.
This led to my second reason for changing churches. The Baptist church I joined, like most Baptist congregations, was committed to evangelism. That is, they had a priority for winning people to Christ, and consistently taught and preached the way of salvation. Again, my old church showed little or no interest in evangelism. In fact, the liberal ministers I encountered were opposed to it. They were of the opinion that one religion is as good as another, and we should not be trying to change people’s minds. This ran totally counter to my own theological beliefs and was a major cause for my leaving when I did. Although I loved many of the people there, I knew I could not remain having such strong doctrinal differences.
Then there was the third major reason I decided to change churches, and I think this was the clincher. One of the most important tasks of any church or denomination is that of world missions. In addition to a strong personal conviction for evangelism God had granted me a vision of the scope of our mission as Christians to reach the world for Christ. The church I joined was committed to that endeavor. In this two part series we will examine both why Christians need to recover the urgency of doing world missions, and what factors are necessary to conduct effective missions in the 21st century. First, let’s consider the reasons why missions matter.
Many liberal voices in some denominations say that Christians should no longer send missionaries to other countries or cultures. They argue that missions were too closely identified with 19th century colonialism and thus were morally invalid. They say others have their own culture and religions and that we have no right to ask them to change. So should we go? And why? Actually these are very good questions:
It is our contention that every Christian should see clearly why we should live with urgency to go and win all nations and peoples to faith in Christ. This is true for three biblically based reasons.
1. We must live with urgency because of God’s character: He loves the world.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible tells us how God created the world and how much cares for it.
1 The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains,
The world, and those who live in it.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers. (Psalm 24:1, 2 NASB)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NASB)
God made the world and all that is in it. Mankind is made in His image, thus He cares most of all for humanity. Regardless of race, nationality, gender, age, cultural history, or anything else, God loves all people.
God’s love compels us to do missions. We must share the gospel without distinction. The world is lost without Christ. Even here in the United States, the majority of Americans are not saved. In fact, the USA is the third most lost country in the world. Only China and India have a greater number of unsaved people than do we. At least 200 million lost people live in this country. 30 million more lost folks are in Canada. North America is indeed a mission field. As amazing as it may seem, there are more than one hundred different language groups just in North America. They all need to hear the message!
2. We must live with urgency because of Christ’s command. We must go because of who Jesus is and because He commanded it.
All four of the Gospels and the book of Acts have a version of what is called Jesus’ “Great Commission.”
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NASB)
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15 NASB – Note: This verse does not appear in the oldest New Testament Greek texts)
46 and He said to them, “So it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49 NASB)
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22 NASB)
“…and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8b NASB)
Paul expressed a similar understanding of the gospel’s expansion.
15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” (Romans 1:15-17)
There is no question that Jesus expected and commanded His disciples to take His message to the entire world. Note how in the Acts 8 passage He presented the boundaries of His commission. They were to start in the local area of Judea, that is Jerusalem and its surroundings. Then they were to go to Samaria, the region near Judea north of Jerusalem. Finally they were to go “as far as the remotest part of the earth.” In other words, there is simply no limit to the scope of where the gospel is to be taken.
That command remains in effect for God’s people today. The Great Commission has never been retracted. Any church or denomination claiming to be authentically Christian, but that does not engage in evangelism, is not a New Testament kind of church. Those so-called theologians who buy into the liberal and postmodern mindset that we have no right to share the gospel with those of other faiths and cultures, cannot actually believe what Jesus and the Bible says. We are to go to local communities, states, the nation, and the whole world. (And maybe in some future time to the Moon or Mars – don’t laugh, it could happen.)
Note one other important aspect of Jesus’ commission. He not only gave the command to go, He also provides the resources to go. Jesus promises that He will send the Holy Spirit to empower His people to preach and teach the gospel. We are incapable of doing what Jesus commands in our own abilities.
As Jesus says,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:8a)
Only then a can we expect positive results. The Holy Spirit always goes ahead of missionaries to prepare hearts to hear the message of Christ. It is ultimately His work.
3. We must live with urgency because of mankind’s condition: We must do missions because humanity cries out for it.
Human beings are by nature sinners. The Bible clearly indicates that we are in dire need of salvation, but we are incapable of saving ourselves.
22 but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:22-24 NASB)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:8-9 NASB)
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23 NASB)
1 Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, 2 by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NASB)
Because of this desperate need we are obligated to carry the saving message of Christ to everyone we can. There is no other way people can be saved. Jesus Himself stated:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NASB)
And as Peter said to his audience in Jerusalem:
10 “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-by this name this man stands here before you in good health. 11 He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12 NASB)
People today are still sinners who need salvation. Unfortunately many Christians do not really believe people are truly lost. If they do believe it, most of them do nothing to demonstrate it. The practical attitude of most Christians is to “live and let live.” We need to remember what is written in the book of Hebrews.
And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27 NASB)
So as we have seen, we must live with a new urgency for missions. God’s character and love requires it. Jesus commanded and commissioned us to go. And, the human condition of sin and lostness necessitates it. The situation in the 21st century is the same as it was in the 1st Century. In part two of this series we will look at some of the key factors involved in doing effective missions in this generation.
© 2021 Tal Davis