The old geometric adage states, "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line." While that is true, it seems that we seldom find ourselves traversing that straight line! This is particularly true when we take a look at the work of missions in the Christian church.
The early church was given a clear mandate to proclaim the gospel "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Point "A" was Jerusalem. Point "B" was the rest of the world. It seemed that the church could not leave Point "A" to get to the task of carrying the gospel to Point "B." So, God intervened in a most unusual way to accomplish His gracious purpose of declaring the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost world. Out of this was born the first missionary movement.
We must understand that the one behind the work of missions is our God! The great passion of our God is to reveal His glory to the ends of the earth through His people as we proclaim His gospel and display the magnificence of His grace in our lives. This is the purpose of missions. And this is a purpose in which all who are redeemed must be involved.
William Carey, the founder of the modern missionary movement, put this responsibility of the work of missions in clear terms. "If it be the duty of all men, where the gospel comes, to believe unto salvation, then it is the duty of those entrusted with the gospel to endeavor to make it known among the nations for the obedience of faith." With this in mind, let us see...
I. The Master Strategy
Throughout the Bible we find ourselves constantly reminded of the sovereignty of God. His rule, reign, and exercise of authority over all of creation can be seen throughout the events of history. Our world does not have a haphazard existence. Things do not just happen by chance. Behind the workings of history remains the master strategy of our great Sovereign. While man operates freely in humanity, "God's sovereign providence stands over and above our actions. He works out His will through the actions of human wills, without violating the freedom of those human wills" [Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, R.C. Sproul, 62]. He accomplishes His purpose, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us, "O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will give thanks to Thy name; For Thou hast worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness" (Isa. 25:1).
The missionary movement is just such a plan. Obviously, the church in Jerusalem found plenty of evangelistic work to do in its first few years after Pentecost. Travelers and religious pilgrims continually streamed into Jerusalem, which gave the church an open door for extending the reach of the gospel. But the command of Christ was for the gospel to be carried to the regions beyond Jerusalem. While I do not think we can fault the apostles and early believers for their great labors in Jerusalem, with noble intentions of evangelizing, the fact remains that they had not set forth on following the full extent of the great commission. They were having great ministry, but the Lord planned more for them.
I believe we can learn an important truth at this point. Whenever Christians find themselves in the midst of busy and effective ministry, they must not simply assume that they are totally fulfilling all that the Lord desires of them. There may be other dimensions and other directions in which they must go forth. It is imperative that they remain sensitive to the teaching of Scripture and the clear leading of the Holy Spirit through the circumstances they encounter, so that they might fulfill the will of God in their lives.
The master strategy of our Lord will do whatever is necessary to bring His people into His will. This can be seen by the persecution that broke forth upon the church in such a way that the Christians were scattered into the regions outside of Jerusalem. God accomplished His will through the means of persecution. He causes "all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
1. A divine tension
In the first seven chapters of Acts we get a good picture of what the church was doing in Jerusalem. They had the attention of the masses of the people through the extraordinary working of the Holy Spirit in their midst. The apostles had been used of the Lord in healing some individuals, so that those events opened doors for the gospel. The church continually gathered, "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (2:42). They met together, ate meals together, worshiped together, and prayed together. The purity of their fellowship and unity was maintained by the attention to divine standards and the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. chapter 5). While the apostles gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word (6:4), the Seven served the body's physical needs. Stephen boldly proclaimed Christ Jesus as Lord and for this he was stoned to death. It was at this point that everything seemed to change. A dramatic shift took place in the church from which it has never returned.
The church in Jerusalem experienced exponential growth. They had grown to enjoy a relative measure of peace that was occasionally interrupted by jealous Saducees. Most of the people of Jerusalem held the church in esteem, that is until the mob-induced stoning of Stephen. At that point persecution became the norm for the church. "And on that day [referring to the day of Stephen being stoned to death] a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." "That day" is emphatic in the Greek text. That day became not only the day of Stephen's stoning and the day of great persecution of the church, but it became the day the missionary movement began.
It is important for us to realize that the church lives in a tension. I mean this in a positive manner. We have the tension on one hand of making sure that we grow spiritually, nurture those in the body, develop our spiritual gifts, exercise Christian service, worship, pray, encourage one another, develop in spiritual disciplines, etc. This is Christian growth or growing in grace. It is the ongoing work of sanctification in our lives. And it is something for which the church exists. We must never neglect growing in grace. To neglect it, while substituting religious-oriented activity, will lead to the gradual eroding of our whole spiritual fabric.
On the other hand, the church does not just exist for its members. We are to be the church-militant, as it is called, the army of God on mission in the world. We are to be a people with a passion for the souls of men that is manifest by our evangelism and mission labors. We are to be the bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ to a sin-darkened world. We proclaim the only light and hope for humanity.
The problem in the first church is that they were somewhat stuck in Jerusalem. They were growing in grace and certainly reaching people with the gospel in Jerusalem. But the Great Commission had not been rescinded. They still had the challenge of getting outside their comfort zone with the gospel of Christ and carrying its life-giving message to the ends of the earth.
We face this same tension. The church is not given the either/or option of growth or evangelism and missions. It is a both/and demand from our Lord. We are to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18) and "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:16).
One of the Adversary's shrewdest devices is to keep churches off of this biblical balance. If we neglect growing in grace in order to emphasize evangelism and missions, then we are doomed to offering an anemic, powerless, man-centered gospel. If we neglect evangelism and missions in order to just grow in grace, then we are doomed to being an extremely spiritual group of navel-gazers. Neither of these out-of-balance positions should be our lot. We must seek, by God's grace, to maintain the divine tension of spiritual growth and evangelism and missions.
2. A furious assault
Satan is always against the church. He continually assaults the church to render it ineffective in both spiritual growth and outreach. He is called "your adversary" (I Pet. 5:8) because of his activity against the people of God. We have already noted in our study of Acts that the adversary attacked the church both from without and within. The external attacks have been primarily leveled at individual leaders rather than the rank-and-file member of the church. But now that changes as "a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem." The Greek is again quite emphatic in referring to THE church in Jerusalem. It was the only church and now it was being assaulted by fierce persecution.
The term used of Saul "ravaging the church" conveys the ferocity of the persecution. "But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison." One author said the word means "a brutal and sadistic cruelty" [Stott quoting Barclay, 145]. The word was originally used of someone being mangled by a wild beast. Saul's motivation after the murderous stoning of Stephen grew into savage proportions. He became the Jewish Gestapo agent, entering house after house, carting believers off to prison, torture, and brutality.
Brethren, let's be frank at this point. Our desire is that we might always be spared of such assaults. Yet, this persecution did not come without the sovereign hand of God allowing it. Can we explain it? Perhaps not. But we can see that out of the evil brought upon the church, God worked good for not only the church but multitudes of others through their labors. It is a clear reminder that we are citizens of another world (Phil. 3:20) so that we must not be bound by the comforts of this life to the neglect of the eternal.
When persecution comes, and it has come to millions of believers in our century, those facing it can run away and hide; or they can deny the faith and join the persecutors; or they can accept persecution with grim resignation; or, as the case of our text, they can see what God is doing providentially and get involved in the work of God. "Therefore, those who had been scattered [diaspeira] went about preaching the word." The proper way to face persecution or trials of every sort, is to see it as a God-ordained opportunity for extending the gospel of Jesus Christ into pockets of darkness.
John Piper's book, Let the Nations Be Glad!, is one of the finest treatments on the subject of missions that I've ever read. I commend it heartily! He recounts a story that shows the hardships one group of people faced that only served to open a closed door to the work of evangelism.
Thousands of Koreans fled what is now North Korea in the 30's as the Japanese invaded. Many of these settled around Vladivostok. When Stalin in the late 30's and early 40's began developing Vladivostok as a weapons manufacturing center, he deemed the Koreans a security risk. So he relocated them in five areas around the Soviet Union. One of those areas was Tashkent, hub of the staunchly Muslim people called the Uzbeks. Twenty million strong, the Uzbeks had for hundreds of years violently resisted any Western efforts to introduce Christianity.
As the Koreans settled around Tashkent, the Uzbeks welcomed their industry and kindness. Within a few decades, the Koreans were included in nearly every facet of Uzbek cultural life.
As usual in God's orchestration of global events, He had planted within the relocated Koreans strong pockets of believers. Little did Stalin suspect that these Koreans would not only begin enjoying a wildfire revival among their own people, they would also begin bringing their Muslim, Uzbek and Kazak friends to Christ.
The first public sign of the Korean revival and its breakthrough effects on the Uzbeks and Kazaks came on June 2, 1990, when in the first open air Christian meeting in the history of Soviet Central Asia, a young Korean from America preached to a swelling crowd in the streets of Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan. [Piper, 98-99]
3. A glorious repositioning
The persecution leveled at the church proved to be a glorious repositioning! As John Piper expressed it, "The suffering of the church is used by God to reposition the missionary troops in places they might not have otherwise gone" [Let the Nations Be Glad!, 96]. The troops had been stationed in Jerusalem for several years. They had not moved. Now, with the persecution taking place, "...those who had been scattered went about preaching the word." Saul ravaged, the church was scattered, and the gospel was spread.
We do not live by mere chance and coincidence. God works in the affairs of humanity to carry out His eternal purpose. He is not a passive Creator who takes no action upon His creation. He is not an impotent, weak God who is afraid to do anything in the world. God is constantly at work! And we better rejoice that He is working or we would be living in vain! He works and repositions His people for effective missionary work.
When we understand that we live by divine design, that "the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord," then we can face all of life with the joy of the Lord. If God is working in our circumstances, whether by trial, adversity, persecution, or happy times, He is positioning us to be used by Him for His eternal purpose. Since He commissioned every believer as an ambassador for Christ (II Cor. 5), He will put His ambassadors in the places where He desires to be represented. Think of your job as a missionary assignment. Young people and children, realize that your place in the school you attend is more than that of a student. You are a missionary on divine assignment to carry the gospel! It may be job transfers, stays in the hospital, new school districts, new neighbors moving in, etc., all of these become places for missionaries to go to work.
Perhaps God's design is for you to go beyond our nation's borders to carry the gospel. We must not become so busy in our Jerusalem that we forget that there are still Judea's, Samaria's, and remotest parts of the earth. Has the Lord brought foreign missions to your attention without you even realizing it? Perhaps you have the chance through your work to be stationed in another country. Could that be the Lord moving you for missionary purposes while your company pays your expenses? Perhaps you are able to retire from your job and still remain in good health. Could it be that God has prepared you for a whole new chapter in your life, one of a missionary on foreign soil? Perhaps some of you young people will have opportunities to study abroad. Could it be that those are missionary opportunities ordained by God for you?
These are just a few examples to which I'm sure you can add. The reason for these examples is help us realize that God's purpose is greater than the little sphere of our world. He may want to use us in ways we never thought possible. The work of God's kingdom must be carried out by those who are part of His kingdom. We need to adopt the attitude of the saintly David Brainerd who wrote in his journal, "My soul was concerned, not so much for souls as such, but rather for Christ's kingdom, that it might appear in the world, that God might be known to be God in the whole earth" [A Vision for Missions, Tom Wells, 123]. Let's us have hearts that burn with a passion that our God might be known throughout the whole earth!
II. The Spontaneous Movement
Once the persecution began, the church had to move out of its comfortable setting in Jerusalem into the regions beyond. That was difficult for these Jewish Christians. They were accustomed to avoiding other races and cultures, particularly the Samaritans. When Philip crossed into Samaria with the gospel, the Holy Spirit broke down an invisible curtain that stood between the church and the expansion of the gospel. Jews looked at the Samaritans as half-breeds who had a defiled version of the worship of Jehovah. Philip, a Hellenistic Jewish Christian, laid aside any prejudice and pre-conceived notions and preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God gave much fruit out of this unexpected missionary venture.
The church responded spontaneously to the persecution and subsequent missionary labors. While many of the great missionary works have been carefully planned and orchestrated, there have been plenty that have happened spontaneously because Christians have been sensitive to divine opportunity. I read about a pastor in Bulgaria who was arrested and placed in prison in 1985 because of preaching the gospel. He was sentenced to eight months in prison after a 'kangaroo court'. While he was in prison, he sought to use this time of adversity as a point of witness for Christ. Once he got out he wrote, "Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church. God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free" [Piper, 101-102].
1. Develop a mission posture
I think that it is important to see that we have no record by our careful historian, Luke, that would even suggest that the Christians complained over their persecution and dispersion. No one griped. No one whined. No one petitioned the Sanhedrin. No one acted with self-pity. Instead, they believed with simplicity that their God is sovereign over every situation in life. Therefore, they must view even the persecution and scattering as God-ordained to accomplish His purpose. They developed what we can call a missionary posture.
By this I infer that every Christian should view all of life as a mission opportunity. If we live with an earthbound mentality, thinking that we exist for our own good and our own comfort, then we will never develop a missionary posture. Instead, we must see that we are ambassadors for Christ's sake and that we are witnesses of Jesus Christ's power to save.
Tom Wells made a striking statement as one of the primary theses of his book, A Vision for Missions: "Those who know the most about God are the most responsible and best equipped to tell of Him" [9]. I had to stop and think for a while when I read this. I believe he is right, of course, but I also realize that sometime we who have good knowledge of the gospel are doing very little passing it along.
Look at the example of Philip. He was not the apostle Philip, but one of the Seven (Acts 6). When he had to flee Jerusalem due to persecution, he did not try to hide his identity as a Christian, but instead "began proclaiming Christ to them." He had a mission posture.
When Paul and Silas landed in the Philippian jail, they gave a clear witness to the jailer who became a believer. They had a mission posture.
Do you try to consciously or unconsciously hide your Christianity at school or on the job or in the social settings in which you find yourself? Do you have two faces, one that is Christian and the other that is your work-face or school-face? Get the light out where it can be seen! You are a missionary wherever God puts you!
2. Declare the gospel of Christ
Luke uses two terms which merit our attention. First, he says that the ones "who had been scattered went about preaching the word." Preaching is the Greek word that means "bringing or bearing the good news." That is what preaching is all about anyway: it is bringing the good news of God's Word to hopeless lives. It is good news because of the power of sin at work in every lost soul. It is good news because without the gospel a person has no hope for this life nor eternity.
Our preaching needs to be "the word" as he points out in this text. We are not simply telling a string of stories and tying them together with a few Bible verses. We are to give the good news found in God's Word so that the truth of God is understood and might be acted upon. This implies that there must be "content" to what we have to say. We are not to try to attract people with cute, felt-need oriented talks. We are to give them the Word of God so that they might come to know the God who has given us this Word.
He also uses the word "proclaiming." "And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them." This word [kerusso] forms the key word used for preaching or proclamation in the New Testament. It was a word that referred to a herald who announced messages from the king. In essence, that is precisely what every Christian witness is doing. We are announcing messages from our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are proclaiming Christ, or literally, 'preaching to them the Messiah'.
The message of the church is not the "church" and all its activities but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When Paul went into Corinth, he was not interested in delving into the latest in philosophical fads. He preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified! We are not to try to give the current psycho-babble as a substitute for modern minds; we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the only truth than can save fallen men. We must dig deeply into this gospel so that we know it and are flooded with its content. But we must not keep it to ourselves! We must announce the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners!
Our responsibility is not to save others, but to proclaim the truth that alone can save when applied by the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord who does the saving, we are just message-bearers. When David Brainerd preached to the Indians in the 18th century, he recognized that he could not manipulate the Indians into salvation. He was to faithfully preach and let the Spirit of God do the rest.
Friday, Oct. 5 [1744]...After some consultation, the Indians gathered, and I preached to them...I was exceedingly sensible of the impossibility of doing any thing for the poor heathen without special assistance from above: and my soul seemed to rest on God, and leave to him to do as he pleased in that which I saw was his own cause. [Wells, 124]
You can be assured that the Lord Himself is much more interested in the work of evangelism and missions than all of us combined! He has come to save sinners. And He will bring about that saving work through His chosen instruments, those redeemed of the Lord. Wherever the Lord takes us, let's be vessels who pour forth the riches of the gospel of Jesus Christ to sinners.
III. The Joyous Response
Philip preached "and the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing....And there was much rejoicing in that city." You may not always have a willing audience for declaring the gospel of Christ. But more often than not, even when it appears people are uninterested, someone is listening and hanging on to every life-giving word which you speak. Then there are those times when people are overwhelmed by the gospel of Christ and listen attentively until faith ignites in their souls. Then comes the joy!
Martyn Lloyd-Jones has pointed out in several of his books that the chief characteristic which we see following those who truly come to faith in Christ is this thing called 'joy'. It is the outshining of the inward work of God in the heart. Joy cannot be contained. It is the overflow of the Christian life. It is evidence that our greatest delight is knowing and glorifying our Lord. "For God's glory is most reflected in us when we are most delighted in Him," writes John Piper [33].
When you have been graciously brought to the place of forgiveness and the knowledge of God through Christ, you cannot help but be joyous. It should be an oxymoron to use the term 'a joyless Christian'. How can we be joyless when the source of all joy dwells within us?
Here is the exciting thing about missions: you are bearing the good news of Jesus Christ to joyless people who are living in the darkness of sin. When they meet the Savior their darkness is turned into light and their sorrow into joy! And you have the privilege of seeing God at work! This missionary privilege is for all of us, for all who belong to Christ are to be missionaries of the good news throughout their lives in every place they go.
Conclusion
The early missionary movement began in the strange setting of persecution. We must learn something from this. The Great Commission is still operative today. We are to go with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Carry this gospel into your neighborhoods, into your workplace, into your school, into your community, and yes, into all the world. Some of you may need to re-think your plans for the future to include this missionary mandate which is yours as a child of God. Some of you young people and adults may need to dedicate yourselves to the work of missions in foreign lands.
Let's be the people of God on mission for Jesus Christ with the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners!
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