1. Greetings, review of complex sentences, write a complex sentence about your break, read sentences.
2. Introduce Adventures of Missionary Heroism and the different homework format.
3. Take notes from the slides on the following article:
From What is a Christian Missionary? Hollie Gilman christianity.com
The Great Commission
In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commands His apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Every Christian Is a Missionary
“Every Christian is a missionary or an imposter.” Charles Spurgeon’s famous quote asserts that any true worshipper of Jesus Christ would desire that the world know Him. This definition could include anyone using their talents and abilities to advance the Kingdom. We are all called to go, and therefore as we are going about our daily lives, we are missionaries fulfilling this calling along the way.
What Does it Mean for Missionaries to Go?
In Acts 1:8, Jesus describes going to “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Jerusalem—Speak/teach/act the gospel in your daily life in nearby places
Judea—Speak/teach/act the gospel for those who have similar languages and cultures but who do not live nearby
Samaria—Speak/teach/act the gospel for those who have very different languages or cultures but live nearby
The Ends of the Earth — Speak/teach/act the gospel for those with whom we have have almost nothing in common.
Missionaries who are sent out or go for the primary purpose of evangelizing largely unreached people groups at “the End of the Earth” are placing themselves in a window of the world where most have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. We see this example in the Apostle Paul: prison, snake bites, and shipwrecks.
Missionaries go to spiritually dark, often hostile places in the world, leaving the comforts of home behind, for the sake of hoping to introduce people to the good news they have never heard and plant gospel communities, and often they are families bringing children with them.
Modern day missionaries leave their home, extended family, friends, church, comfort, good schools, good health care, choices for their children, safe peers, grandparents, and holiday dinners. There is a cost to this type of service, and some even bear the burden of a prison cell for the sake of the gospel.
What about Those Who Stay?
As John Piper explains, to belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations. “That means that there are no coasters. There are no people who say, ‘Missions is not my thing,’” Piper said. “You can be a goer, you can be a sender, or you can be disobedient. There is no other option but those three.”
As senders we can mobilize, helping people get to the field by funding, training, calling out, and supporting those who are called to go and connecting them to the church.
Missionaries in the Old Testament: Abram and Jonah Were Sent Out.
Abram was the first man to be called by the Lord Himself to, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you,” all so that someday “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:1-3).
Jonah was sent by God to the wicked city of Nineveh to “call out against it the message that I tell you” (Jonah 3:2). The result was that the people believed God and repented.
The Most Famous New Testament Missionary
Likewise, we see Paul, a man who was also called by the Lord to go as “a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). The Lord promised from the beginning that He would “show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). As Paul went to proclaim The Way of Christ, he assembled groups of believers, churches, for his protege Timothy and others who would stay behind to build while he moved on to continue to spread the gospel. Though he often expressed his desire to stay or revisit his fellow believers, he obeyed the missionary call to continue to go.
God’s Global Plan: A Great Multitude from Every Nation
We see the beauty of God’s plan in Revelations 7:9:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”
The good news is that every Christian gets to participate in the work God is doing. Remarkably, He allows us to join in the fulfillment of His plan.
We are to participate in fulfilling Christ’s command to go, baptize, teach, and make disciples. Go where? Go to anyone who needs to hear the gospel, be baptized, be taught, or become a disciple. Go to your Jerusalem, Samaria, and Judea, to your neighbors and the nations.
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