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Hear the word, “missionary,” and your mind may conjure up the image of a spiritually–elite super Christian, equipped with machete and pith helmet, traipsing through the jungles of some far-away land, engaging a primitive unreached people group with the gospel. Truth is, the vast majority of missionaries are everyday people like you and me. If you are disciple of Jesus Christ, you have a missionary calling. Like Paul and Barnabas sent out to engage the Roman world, God calls each of us to go and be a witness for Jesus Christ, whether at school, at work, in the neighborhood, or across the world.

 

April 26, 2009

Back to the Blueprints
(16) Go!
Acts 14

Rev. Bill Azbell

Let me start with a question. What would your life be like without a relationship with Jesus? Think a moment on that. Think of all of the blessings of a life with God: the deep joy, hope, the unconditional love and forgiveness; peace; eternal life; meaning and purpose; Christian relationships. I could go on and on. Now, in your imaginations, erase all of those things from your life. When I consider my life without God, my mind conjures up a rather colorless and despairing image.

I am so very grateful that throughout the years God has put people in my life to help me know Jesus. Think of all the people in your life who have made it possible for you to enjoy the blessings of a life with God. And not only in your lifetime, what about the long chain of Christians stretching through history that has brought the good news of Jesus to our time and place. An army of Christians, missionaries, pastors, teachers, and everyday people, from the early days when the church first emerged, until now, decided to reach out beyond themselves, with extravagant love and sacrifice, so that we might enjoy a relationship with Jesus. I don’t want us to take that for granted.

And it all goes back to the early church we read about in the book of Acts, the church that agreed with God that the blessing of Jesus was too good to not to share with the whole world.

And so we come to Acts chapter 14, and to Paul and Barnabas, who were pioneering missionaries in Christianity’s early expansion, men who took to heart Jesus’ marching orders for the church in Acts 1:8:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Having moved out locally and regionally, from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, the Jesus movement now extends to the world beyond, with Paul and Barnabas leading church history’s first missions trip.

In the Jewish mind, the world was divided into two people groups. There were the Jews and then there were the Gentiles, which was everybody else. We learned back in Paul’s conversion story in chapter 9 that God had a special calling for Paul which was to take God’s name into the Gentile world. And Acts chapter 13 and 14 describes that decisive period when Paul embraces that call, setting out on the first of his three missionary journeys.

Launching out from Antioch, Paul and Barnabas begin a breathless itinerary through Cyprus and modern day Turkey. Let’s pick up the story upon their arrival in the city of Iconium.

At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders (Acts 14:1-3, NIV).

The two missionaries begin their outreach at the local Jewish synagogue. In attendance are both Jews, and God-fearing Gentiles. Initially, the people respond positively to their message and many believe. God’s presence is strong through Paul and Barnabas, evidenced by their performing miraculous signs and wonders.

Now I want to pause here, because this raises an important point. The miracles prove that God is, indeed, the authority and power behind this mission trip. You see, this idea to initiate ministry far away from home did not just arise one day in the imaginations of Paul and Barnabas. It was God’s idea. Right before the start of this mission trip, in the first part of Acts 13, the church in Antioch is worshipping together and the Holy Spirit says to them, “Set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work I have for them (13:2).” And then we read in 13:4 that the two of them are sent on their way by the Holy Spirit. This is not a human mission; it’s God’s mission.

You see, God is a missionary God. What I mean is that God has a mission, a purpose for the world, and out of his infinite love for all people, he sends himself into the world to accomplish it. He is a sending God, sending Jesus into the world to reveal who God is and to draw people unto himself; sending the Holy Spirit; and sending the Church into the world to continue his purposes. The Church exists to further God’s mission in the world. That means that God has a purpose for Zionsville Presbyterian Church, and that means that God has a purpose for each and every one of you. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, God wants to send you into the world, to participate with him in advancing his kingdom among all nations and people groups on earth.

Back to our story in the city of Iconium. One group of troublemaking unbelievers riles the crowd up, such that Paul and Barnabas are in danger of being physically harmed, and so the two missionaries “get out of dodge” heading south to the remote city of Lystra. Let’s read here, chapter 14:8-16.

In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

When Paul and Barnabas entered a new city, their typical ministry strategy was to start in the local synagogue. Well, there is no mention of a synagogue here in Lystra. This is a thoroughly pagan, Gentile city. The missionaries are way out of their comfort zone here, stepping out of ministry which is somewhat familiar to them and into that which is very unfamiliar, where they have no cultural or religious connection.

Upon seeing Paul heal a crippled man, the crowd gets pretty worked up, as you can imagine, and what ensues is a rather comical, cross-cultural experience. The people shout out in a language Paul and Barnabas can’t understand. Evidently the people think these two are gods in human form, and so they begin to assemble some livestock, put some garlands around the necks of these animals, and bring them forward to sacrifice to the missionaries. It’s possible that at first Paul and Barnabas are deeply touched by the gesture. I can just hear Barnabas saying to Paul, “Isn’t that nice, they’re bringing us some decorated cattle. The last town didn’t do that,” but then the two catch on to what is happening. Well, they immediately put a stop to it and begin to preach.

Our call to mission necessarily involves moving outside of our comfort zones and into uncharted waters, crossing boundaries of race and language and worldview and socio-economic status. God’s mission pushes the edge, always pursuing those on the outside, people on the margins, the least and the lost.

For you and me, this boundary crossing, is not only about going into downtown Indianapolis or to another country. You step outside the doors of this church today, and you enter a cross-cultural experience. It’s pretty clear that Christianity’s influence on our culture is declining. We can’t take for granted that people even have a basic understanding of the God of Jesus Christ.

You don’t need to cross an ocean and travel thousands of miles to go to the mission field. The mission field has come to you. Every day, all around us, are people who do not know the blessing of a relationship with Jesus. God is calling you to be a messenger of the good news of Jesus, a witness, to these people. When you wake up in the morning and walk out into your daily routine, you are on mission with God. As you go to your office or to school this week, you have a purpose and that purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ. As you wait in line at the grocery store, God invites you to open your eyes to the need around you, and to bless people in his name, maybe with a kind word or deed or prayer. As you get to know the other soccer parents, or lend a helping hand to your neighbor, God is at work, drawing people to himself…through you.

I want to make an observation about sharing Jesus with people around us. It’s true that we need to keep our eyes and ears open to opportunities to share Jesus as they arise, but some intentionality is also called for. The early church had to take deliberate and decided costly action to reach the non-believing world. And it will take deep levels of commitment and focus on our part, as well.

We can have that kind of relational intentionality right in our neighborhoods, workplaces, doctors offices, and restaurants. Some suggestions. You could write down the names of two or three of your friends that don’t know Jesus, and you could commit to pray for them until they come to Christ, or until you or they die. You could make an effort to get to know your neighbors, maybe through hosting a block party, or through having one family a month over for dinner. Or you could make it a point to visit the same restaurant on a regular basis to get to know one of the wait staff. Tell your spouse that you need to visit El Rodeo or Famous Dave’s each day, because it’s ministry. Well, that didn’t work for me! I find a good thing to do is to gently lead conversations to the spiritual. The simple words “God bless you,” or “How can I be praying for you?” can show someone God’s love. I’m not talking about making people into projects. That’s not God’s way. I’m talking about making genuine friendships with non-believers so that they have the opportunity to get to know the one who wants to be their best friend, Jesus Christ.

Let’s go back to Paul and Barnabas. Chapter 14:19-20.

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.

Crowds are fickle, and this one’s mood suddenly turns murderous, as they seize upon Paul, and pelt him unconscious with stones. Dragged outside the city, Paul is left for dead. Miraculously, he gets up and stubbornly goes right back into the city.

Paul’s missionary journeys are full of significant difficulty and suffering. As one commentator suggests, the early church is shaped on the anvil of suffering. It comes up against tremendous opposition, but the church cannot be stopped. The church is on God’s team. And God’s team wins.

The underground church of China testifies to this. Not long after Mao Tse-tung took power roughly sixty years ago, he set out to eradicate all religion from society. The church in China at that time was patterned according to Western traditions and was well-established. There were an estimated 2 million people. Mao kicked out all the foreign missionaries and ministers, nationalized all church property, killed all the senior leaders, either killed or sent to prision all second and third-level leaders, outlawed all public meetings of Christians, and then carried out one of the cruelest persecutions of Christians in history. The aim of Mao’s Cultural Revolution was to extinguish Christianity (and all religion) from China. At the conclusion of Mao’s reign in the late seventies, and the lifting of the “Bamboo Curtain” in the early eighties, foreign missionaries and church officials were allowed back in. They expected to find the church weak and battered. On the contrary, they discovered that Christianity had spread like wildfire. The estimates then were about 60 million Christians in China. And it has grown significantly since then, by the millions actually. And remember, they had very few Bibles, “no professional clergy, no official leadership structure, no central organization, no mass meetings.” This was not the work of human hands but the work of God.^[1] God’s team wins!

God does not leave the work of global missions to professional missionaries and clergy and church workers, alone. He entrusts this work to each and every one of us. Your call and my call is to use the gifts and resources we’ve been given by God and to go into the world as witnesses of Jesus. Each of you is gifted by God, and God can use each of you in powerful ways. Stepping into God’s mission will not be easy. You might come up against significant opposition. You may get shot down when you try to share your faith, which can be embarrassing. You may not get that promotion at work because of your refusal to step on other people’s backs at work or to lie or bend the rules. You may lose friends. You might not be invited to some of the parties you used to be invited to. But you’re on God’s team. And God’s team wins.

The recent movie, The Cross (2009), traces the true story of evangelist Arthur Blessitt. About forty years ago, Arthur was working on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California, when early one morning, Jesus spoke to him, “Arthur, take the cross off the wall of your building and carry it across the country on foot. Identify my message on the highways, roadsides, where the people are.” Arthur listened. He has carried that twelve foot wooden cross more than 38,000 miles, in 315 countries, island groups, and territories, through 52 war zones, risking life and limb all for the purpose of telling people about the love of God in Jesus. Arthur’s global pilgrimage has in his words, “put him in touch with people in all their hurts, pain, struggles, dreams, wars, happiness, hunger, greed, generosity, hate, and love.”^[2]

So ZPC, like Arthur Blessitt, let’s take this cross up here off the wall of this church and let’s take it out into the world and identify the message of Jesus on the highways and on the roadsides, in our work places and in our schools, in homeless shelters and in affluent households, in prisons and in country clubs, in neighborhoods and in remote countries. Arthur Blessitt encourages people to make their life’s vision about loving the next person God puts in front of them, and then the next person, and the next person. That’s a vision to live by.

Where we last left the story of Paul and Barnabas, Paul is stubbornly heading back into the city, where he had just about lost his life. They continue their trek through Asia Minor, stopping on the way home to encourage the fledgling congregations they had started. They end their journey where they started, in Antioch. After gathering the church together, they report all that God had done through them.

We’re going to follow suit at this time. We’re gathered together as the church this morning, and we’re going to tell some stories of what God has been doing through us. Let’s listen to these four ZPC’ers who have embraced the call to “Go!”

 

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[1] Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 19, 20.

[2] www.blessitt.com