Jym Shorts - September 22, 2016
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. -Acts 13:2-3
The passage above marks the official starting point for Christian missions to the nations. Philip had preached the gospel in Samaria to “half-Jews” (Acts 8), Peter had taken the gospel to the Roman Cornelius and his household (Acts 10), and in Acts 11 some Jews went to Antioch and preached to Hellenists there (Greek speaking Gentiles), but an official mission movement did not start until the Holy Spirit of God initiated one at Antioch, setting Barnabas and Saul apart for the work. The church at Antioch, in obedience to the Lord's command, laid hands on them as a way of commissioning them for the Lord's work and sent them off to Cyprus, the homeland of Barnabas. The rest is, as we say, history.
Barnabas and Saul (Paul) met with success during their first missionary journey, taking the gospel from Cyprus to the Roman province of Lycia, through Pisidian Antioch (a different city than the Antioch from which they had departed), to Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and then back again to Antioch in Syria (I know, it gets confusing), and finally back to Jerusalem to report on their travels and the Lord's work among the Gentiles. They also desired to seek instruction from the elders in Jerusalem on how Gentiles were to be included in the church. All along their journey they met with opposition and persecution, performed signs and wonders, and saw men and women converted from the dark world of paganism to the light of the gospel and hope in Jesus Christ. Christian missions continued unabated from that time forward, sometimes formally, at other times informally, with the message of salvation moving steadily from person to person until it had permeated the whole known world (Col. 1:23).
As we enter into our second week of our three-week Missions Emphasis, we will focus on a passage from 3 John. You don't hear many messages preached out of 3 John. In fact, this will be my first. 3 John is one of those short epistles that just kind of sneaks by you. It is a personal letter from the apostle John to his friend Gaius, a man that John says he “loves in truth.” John commends his friend and, it appears, the church of which he is a part, for their role in welcoming missionaries into his home and then sending them on their way, well provisioned for the work that God had put before them. John is pleased with Gaius and the church because they were assisting fellow believers as they spread the gospel “for the sake of the name (of Jesus).” Gaius sacrificed time and material comfort in order to further the kingdom of God. This is the very thing that we will do as our Missions Emphasis comes to and end on October 2. We will all ask each other, as it were, to consider sacrificing our own time and material comfort for the sake of the name, as we send out workers into the harvest fields.
There is so much work that is still to be done for the kingdom of God. I believe that God is asking us, as he asked the church in Antioch, to set apart some for the work to which he has called them. I don't expect to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the same way that the elders in Antioch did during this crucial turning point in the early life of the church, but I do expect that God still has a plan for the church to engage in missions so that all the nations might hear that there is hope in Jesus Christ his Son, and in Jesus alone. Please join with me in being a part of the long and noble history of churches sending missionaries into the world, well provisioned and encouraged by the support of those who have partnered with them for the sake of the name.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym