Why Missions?
God’s people are pilgrims and sojourners in this world. Therefore, it is natural for Christians to view themselves as missionaries. The church is the embassy of God in the world, and all Christians are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor 5:20).
Ambassadors are citizens of another country, and they journey and take up temporary residence in a foreign land. In this, we see Jesus leaving heaven to take on the difficult task of being the representative Son of God in the colony of men (Phil 2:5–11). His kingdom is not of this world because He is the King of the Kingdom of God. God sent His Son on a mission of redemptive love, so that God could fulfill His will, in reconciling His elect to Himself. Jesus’ mission was to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21), and to destroy the works of the usurper, Satan.
If God is a missionary God, and Jesus exemplifies mission, in His first advent into the world, then we must consider our mission as Christians. This begins with the commission, “Go.” Jesus Christ accomplished His mission project, and as He was departing from the field for His heavenly home, He made His disciples into apostles. Go, from being hearers and learners. Go, to all nations, even to the uttermost part of the earth.
The extent of the mission includes every tribe and language. Missiologists call them “people groups.” The Father said to the Son, “Go.” The Son said to the church, “Go.” The Father and the Son said to the Spirit, “Go.” The Holy Spirit came into the world, in part, to indwell and inspire the church to fulfill her mission. They “Go” together.
Go into all the world (Mt 28:19–20). The work is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. A disciple is a follower who practices the life of her Master. This includes disciplines. Jesus made disciples of his rag tag group of twelve. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and He lived life with His disciples for three years. They learned to be disciples by watching, listening, learning, and mimicking the life of Christ. They lived in the presence of His love, under His reproof, and then went in the power of the Holy Spirit, post-Pentecost, to reproduce the life of Christ (Acts 1:8).
Making disciples includes teaching them. Christians live together in local gatherings. They congregate for corporate worship. One aspect of worship is learning. The church preaches and teaches Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). They employ the means of grace, or spiritual disciplines to experience the manifestation of Christ being formed in them, by His Spirit. The Spirit employs the written Word to progressively set Christians apart from the world (Jn 17:17). They remain in the world, and the Spirit keeps them in the world.
The teaching of disciples is for obedience to the commands of Christ. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments (Jn 14:15).” Obedience to Christ is a labor of love, done as unto the Lord. His commands are not burdensome, but they are the grace and rule for a good life. The good life is the one pleasing to God (Heb 11:6).
The obedient life is a life of faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26). So when Jesus says, “Go,” His people go in the direction of the Spirit, which is always in alignment with the Scriptures. Therefore, to teach a disciple of Jesus Christ, is to teach her the doctrines of grace. She grows in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18). This teaching by the Spirit, through other Christians, helps to conform the Christian into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient to His Father, and He has left an example for us to follow in His steps, which can lead to suffering and persecution (1 Pet 2:21).
The first step of obedience for a new believer in Jesus is baptism. To follow Jesus, one must first receive the covenant sign that identifies the person with Christ. This is the covenant of grace, cut on the Cross of Calvary in His blood. God’s faithful covenant partner is the God-man, Christ Jesus. All those who are in Christ, are in the covenant by association (union with Christ). Christians are in union with Christ, by His doing (1 Cor 1:30). When an elect person hears the Word of God and receives the regenerating baptism by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 10:47), she responds in obedience to the command of Jesus to be baptized in water. Here is the covenant sign.
From this first obedience comes subsequent obedience. A Christian’s faithfulness is a gift and product of the indwelling Spirit (Rom 8:9, 11), who gives gifts to men (Eph 4:8), and who also produces spiritual fruit (Gal 5:22–23). God’s design of the converted believer begins to manifest in the sanctification of His adopted son (Rom 8:15, 23; Eph 1:4–5). God began a good work (Phil 1:6), and He will complete it in accordance with His will and good pleasure (Phil 2:13).
As the author and perfecter of faith in His people (Heb 12:2), He gives them the life He intends for them (Jn 6:63). There is a unity and diversity in God’s work of crafting saints. Salvation is a work of God, alone (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1). From election to glorification (Rom 8:30), God is causing all things to work together for good for those who love Him, and who are called according to His purposes (Rom 8:28).
His purposes include missions. Local and global assignments are given by Him. Who is my neighbor? He lives in my home, and she resides on the other side of the planet. The heart of missions is love from a pure heart of gratitude and desire to make His name great among the nations. The song of the redeemed goes with the beautiful feet of those who bring good news.
The Spirit is in missionaries to preach good news to those separated from God and Christ because of sin. Ambassadors have a ministry of reconciliation because God is not just the God of the Jews but of the Gentiles, also. He uses missionaries to call out true Israel from the Jews and Gentiles (Acts 15). How would they hear the Gospel message without a missionary? Therefore, it is God who appoints missionaries to take His message (Rom 10:14–17).
The world has a dark history of treatment of Christian missionaries (Mt 5:10–12). Missionaries offer themselves as martyrs (witnesses) in life and sometimes in death. The offense of the Cross comes to sinners in a rebellious world. Being exposed by the righteousness of Christ, the unrighteous suppress the truth in hostility toward God (Rom 1:18, 30).
Killing the messenger, in the hope of killing the message, is the sad history of the prophets of Israel, the apostles, and the missionaries (Jn 16:2). The blood of missionaries serves the good purpose of being the seed of the Gospel in foreign lands. God honors the sacrifice of missionaries. The world will never be rid of Christian missionaries, because God has ordained their service to the end. Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you,” and in this way, Jesus’ promise, “Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20),” is accomplished.
The power of the Holy Spirit is the power at work in missionaries. It is a power to suffer climates, political calamities, and persecutions. Health and wealth are often great problems for missionaries. The apostle Paul was greatly hindered by the lack of financial support from the church (2 Cor 8–9), yet he refused to offer them the Gospel for a charge (cost). Timothy suffered ill health, which required wine to kill the bugs in his stomach.
Church history records the martyrdom of all the apostles, save for the apostle John, who died of old age at Ephesus. The enduring power of the Spirit was also accompanied by the guiding power of the Spirit, who denied Paul access to northern Asia (Acts 16:7–8). Missionaries are sometimes led to a locale only to be redirected to a new location, as the Holy Spirit deems best. In this, missionaries are exemplary pilgrims, unable to settle in this world or in one spot for very long.
The book of Acts of the Apostles is sometimes referred to as, “Acts of the Holy Spirit,” because all that God did in the early church was empowered by the Spirit. God used persecution to scatter the Christians into diaspora. The Jewish believers were then accompanied by the Gentile believers, in going to preach the Gospel to the whole world, in anticipation of the end.
Missionaries proclaim Christ’s death until He comes again, to judge the living and the dead (2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5). He will establish a new heavens and a new earth (Is 65–66; Rev 21–22), for His kingdom to be more than just in the Spirit, as it is today (Rom 14:17). In the resurrection, bodies and souls of believers from every age, and from all parts of the earth, will find prosperity and security in the New Jerusalem (Jn 5:28–29; 1 Cor 15). This is the end of the road for the missionary. They take up their cross and follow Jesus, wherever He sends them, keeping their eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of their faith, with a view to the consummation of all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).
The world needs Christian missionaries; or rather, God’s elect in the world need missionaries to “come over and help us,” as was the cry of the Macedonian vision received by the apostle Paul at Troas (Acts 16:9). The churches need to support missionaries, financially, as the Philippians did with Paul. Missionaries that have wrong motives should be reproved. Missionary sending churches should teach other churches to be missionary sending churches. Missionaries need to work, diligently, against disunity that so easily plagues them, via attacks of Satan. Every Christian should participate in supporting or going as a missionary.
The reward of the missionary for going out to the highways and hedges is a crown, the reward of labors in service to their King, who will say to them on that day, “Well done, good and faithful slave, enter the joy of the Lord (Mt 25:21, 23).” For the joy set before them, missionaries die daily to this world, with great expectation of the Kingdom of heaven.
Why missions? We have a short study to consider some reasons. First, God is a missionary. Second, Christ has commissioned missionaries. Third, the Holy Spirit has come to fill God’s people, with His purpose for mission work. Fourth, the commission is for all Christians. Fifth, the apostle Paul, in the book of Acts sets the New Testament extension of Jesus’ missionary work. Sixth, the church commissions the missionaries in their midst (Acts 13). Seventh, churches are planted as a result of missionary work. Eighth, things that divide Christians in the natural world are replaced by the Spirit of Christ, as global bridges are built between believers through missionaries.
My dear reader, are you supporting missions or are you participating in the mission enterprise? The commission for mission is for you. If you are not participating, pray and ask God to show you where to invest or participate. Missions is one of the most rewarding Christian experiences. God is glorified and nations are glad. Your life is but a vapor (Jas 4:14), and your best years should be given to missions in some way. May God bless you as He works His plan for missions in you and through you, for His glory and for your joy. Go!
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 2, 2020
