Tonight we are discussing the subject of missions, which is one of the strongest in significance to me. My degree from seminary is in missions. I am Army Chaplain, which I believe is God’s call on me to be a missionary to the culture within the Army. Missions is a priority in my life.
I believe when we think of missions, God has given us a mandate to communicate the gospel to the whole world. One of the text that teaches about missions is Acts 1:8.
Acts 1:8 gives us a road map of what Christian missions should look like.
In Acts 1, Jesus was speaking to the people that where right in front of him. The people were there to see him return to heaven. They were asking him questions about when he would return and how he would return.
His response was;
Acts 1:7
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. (Acts 1:7, NKJV)
Basically, he was saying, “It really is none of your business…but let me tell you what your business is.
But, Acts 1:8 says;
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NKJV)
As we look at this verse we see first that we are to go to Jerusalem.
Does that mean we jump on a boat and go to the holy land—I don’t think so. This was a message of context. He was expressing them how to carry out the task of being a witness.
The first step is to witness
1. Locally.
Jesus wanted the people to share the gospel to their friends and their neighbors. He wanted them to start in Jerusalem—they’re home city.
I remember one time when I was in college. I was sitting outside and a guy came up and started talking to me. We talked about things that where going on in his life and the conversation began to turn towards spiritual things.
I told him that God loved us and that he wanted to have a relationship with us. I told him that we are separated from God because of our sin, but through, Jesus we can have a relationship with him.
This man accepted Jesus into his heart that day.
It was just a normal conversation. A conversation like the ones that you have everyday.
Jesus wants us to go to our home city and share the gospel.
Many times when we think of missions, we think of going over to Africa or the jungles of South America. But Jesus wants us to first go to our own home town. He wants us to go to the people that we see everyday.
Here at FOB Speicher that can simply be inviting your friends to chapel.
Week after week, I have the pleasure of meeting many of the friends that you bring to Chapel. Bringing our friends is an important part of our personal missions strategy. It is a way of opening the conversation to spiritual things and it is a way of introducing your friends to spiritual concepts that can lead to further discussions.
At Fort Campbell, you can get involved with inner-city ministries in Clarksville. Or you can simply get involved with the missions outreach at your local church. There are many way to get involved, but Christ wants us to go to our Jerusalem first.
Then, Jesus says take the gospel to Judea and ?Samaria—the province and the nation. We are to take the gospel
2. Nationally.
While we are not to simply look at missions as International Only, we are not to simply just be active in our local church and our local community. We are to take the gospel to others in our state and our nation.
We are not to neglect our own country. Sometimes, we get so focused on the outside world, that we neglect the lost in the Untied States. Then, we think that the local churches have that responsibility there.
But, Jesus tells that we are to go to Judea and Samaria.
In Bradford Tennessee, Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief organization founded by Franklin Graham, worked with local churches to repair the damage caused tornadoes in April.
Samaritan’s Purse sent two truckloads of heavy-duty roofing plastic to place one the 400 homes that were damaged. About 200 houses were completely destroyed in the tornadoes, along with 24 people killed. (www.samaritanspurse.org)
The work there was done by volunteers. One group was from Virginia and another was from Jackson, Tennessee.
Disasters are a time, when we can help the churches that are in the disaster areas.
And we can help in other areas as well. I have a friend that is planting a church in the northeast. He is from South Carolina and he has traveled to New Hampshire to plant a church to reach the people there with the gospel.
We can get so comfortable in our own surroundings and settings. We think about the people in own neighborhood, we think about the people in our world. But there are people all over our nation that need to hear the gospel.
We can take the opportunity to help during disasters. We can take the opportunity to do volunteer work in Nashville or in another city. We can help plant a church in another part of the nation. Jesus said that the “harvest is great, but the workers are few.” This is no different in the land of plenty, where we think we have enough of everything even enough churches. But we are commanded to go to Judea and Samaria and preach the gospel.
Finally, Jesus says for us to go
3. Internationally.
Look at the verse again:
Acts 1:8—
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NKJV)
Jesus say that are to go to Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth—the King James version says “unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The emphasis is to take the gospel to the remote areas of the world, so that all may hear the gospel.
In Papua New Guinea, Missionaries are excited that another group of Mibus are hearing the Gospel for the first time.
New Tribes Mission Missionary Geoff Husa and seven men of the tribecalled “Mibu” began evangelistic teaching in another village last week. The Mibu men were disappointed when only 65 of the 100 people in the village showed up for the teaching.
One night, the teachers were in their huts discussing the day’s teaching. They decided that they needed to pray that God would get everyone’s attention and that more would show up. They prayed and the next day 100 people were at the meeting.
Another night, Geoff sat with the teachers and began sharing Bible lessons from Acts that are being taught to the Mibu believers. The teachers were awestruck when they heard about the Holy Spirit. They broke into song and praise, and were too excited to sleep until well into the night. (www.ntm.org)
When I hear of the events in other countries; when I hear of the testimonies of the missionaries out in the bush; when I hear of the faith of the believers in the these other countries—I am humbled by them.
The participation in Missions has a tendency to excite your spiritual life from the routine day to day. It can encourage you to be an excited follower of Jesus Christ. It can entice you to share with people who are standing next to us, to share with people who are in our own country, and to find a way to return overseas to share with people, who have never heard the gospel. We are to go to the ends of the earth.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus gives us framework for taking part in sharing the gospel to the entire world. I believe, we all should have a personal strategy for missions. This may not be as formal as I make it—I have to have everything in three points. But, we need to take part in missions as a regular part of our spiritual life.
I’ve read in several places a good formula for developing personal missions strategy is to Pray, to Give, and to Go.
We are to pray for missions.
Pray for the missionaries that are overseas, some in the most dangerous places in our world today. Pray for the missionaries that work in the United States—those that work disaster relief, those that work in crisis pregnancy centers and homeless shelters, those that plant churches in the lowest income areas and the highest income areas. Pray for ways that you can be involved in missions—what kind of missions can you do when you get back, what kind of missions can you do now, here at FOB Speicher?
We are to Pray.
We are to give to missions. We are in the wealthiest nation in the world, we have all of our needs met. There are missionaries all around the world that we can help support. We can be a blessing to them who are in the remotest places of the world. We can partner with them in ministry, by helping them to reach out to those who they have been called to reach. Even as we are from the wealthiest country, many times we think only of ourselves. We need to give to the missionaries in America. There are men and women today who are seeking to plant churches—with no budget. They have to take time away from the evangelistic work to put food on the table. We can give to help disaster relief so that Christians can share the gospel with hurting people. We can give to our local churches to help spread the gospel locally.
We are to give.
And we are to go.
The Bible says in Matthew 28:19 to…
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, …(Mt 28:19-20, NKJV).
We are to go. We live in a very mobile world. Even from Iraq, we can be back home in under 24 hours. Have you ever thought about using some leave time to go on a missions trip?
We are to go.
We live in a country that we can get anywhere in a day. Have you ever thought about taking a mission trip within the states, to share the gospel, to help plant a church, to help serve the poor, to hold a backyard Bible club, or to assist in disaster response?
We are to go.
We live in an area that has plenty of ministries to take part in. Have you ever thought about taking a bigger role in your local church, taking a bigger role in the Chapels on post, volunteering in the homeless shelter in Clarksville, or actively sharing your faith with other soldiers?
We are to go into all the world and share the gospel.
Some of you tonight are wondering about this message that we are to take…this gospel. The gospel means “good news.” So, what is this “good news”.
The good news is that Jesus died on a cross in your place. He died because all of us are sinners. The Bible says that the payment of this sin—this breaking of God’s law, is death. Jesus paid in all.
But we must accept it to receive it.
Have you accepted this payment? You can accept it tonight, right where you are sitting. You can ask Jesus to be the payment of your sin and the leader of your life. You can do this today.
At the end of this service, I will be available to talk with you about this acceptance. Don’t wait another day.
Let us pray.
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All scripture marked NKJV: The New King James Version. 1996, c1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
This sermon was preached in June 2006 at FOB Speicher, Iraq