The Mission: God's Heart for Your Heart
The Mission of the Church

Good morning Venture. I hope you drank your coffee strong. Cuz I’m back and this time I get to talk about missions!! This is week 2 of our Series on Missions. Last week Keith took us through the Mission of God, this week I’m taking us through the mission of the big C church aka the Universal church. Then Austin is preaching one on the mission of the local church and the mission of us as individuals. This is my passion, so buckle up, cuz it’s gonna be a lot of words per minute and we have a lot of verses, new words, concepts, and stories to get through. So let’s forget any sort of formal introduction and jump right in.

When I was 12 my parents felt called to be missionaries in Kenya. They chose to work among the Masai people of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. So I spent my middle and high school years in East Africa during the 90s. When we went to Kenya in 1992 the Masai were on the Joshua Project’s list of unreached people groups but by the early 2000s God had done such an incredible work in drawing the Masai people to himself that Masai pastors were coming to my father telling him about churches they had gone out and started on their own. My parents got to live what is a missionary’s dream: they worked themselves out of a job. Joshua Project was able to take the Masai off the unreached list. In fact, the Masai are now considered more reached than the United States.

A people group is a distinct ethnic or language group that has their own culture and traditions. For strategic purposes, a people group is the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understanding and acceptance. In other words, a people group calls “us, us” and “them, them” by distinguishing insiders and outsiders. In the Bible, the Greek word “ethne” is often translated “nations” but really means ethnic groups or people groups. To be considered an unreached people group, less than 2% of them must be evangelical christian. Missiologists say that when a people group is less than 2% Christian, they cannot effectively reach and evangelize their own people without outside help.

As a high schooler I never felt called to be a missionary myself. No offense to my parents, but growing up most missionaries seemed like nerds to me. They were all such goodie goodies and if you’ve heard me tell my testimony before, you know I like to go have a good time. At that age I was more broken by the poverty I saw in East Africa than I was by the lostness. So my initial idea was to come to the States, go to college and then return overseas with a relief agency. Long story short, God likes irony. My senior year of college my degree required me to do an internship in a foreign country. So I tried to pick Kenya because I already had a plane ticket back to visit family. My professor caught me though and said I couldn’t do that because it’s where I grew up so it “wasn’t foreign” to me. But since I’m a good African I didn’t take no for an answer and I negotiated with him to let me go to a coastal city in Kenya called Mombasa where I worked under a missionary and could do research with Arabs and Swahili people who are all Muslim.

That summer internship was what God used to break my heart for Islam. Sitting in restaurants, cafes and on streets I heard story after story about how doing good deeds are how Muslims earn favor with God. Things like praying, giving to the poor, fasting, holy pilgrimages and a genuine belief that there is no god but God and Mohammed is his prophet. I sat on the street day after day and watched parents walk their young kids to the local Mosque where they studied Islam and worked on memorizing the Quran. At birth either the doctor or their father will whisper the Muslim confession of faith into their ear so it's the first thing they hear. Everyday, 5 times a day, they recite their prayers. Everyone I met was so kind and hospitable. These were good people who were trying their best to do good things so that God would accept them and allow them into heaven when they died. It was heartbreaking and life changing for me because in so many ways this made sense to me. If you do not believe in the atonement, if you don’t believe in a bloody cross and an empty tomb then Islam makes sense. If I do these things (4.5 of which are biblical things) then God will love me, then God will accept me. And but for the grace of God that he placed me in a Christian home with Christian parents who taught me the gospel from a young age, I too could see myself falling for a works based religion. It’s a good lie. Satan is doing his best work when he sticks closest to the truth.

Having had my heart broken by the lostness within Islam that summer my mind began to shift from thinking so much about physical needs and more towards meeting spiritual needs. Not too long after that internship I started seminary at a very missions focused school. Those professors and the pastor of the church I was attending at the time really helped me as I began to think through “what is missions?” and “what is the purpose of the church?” What I began to realize is that the mission of missions is primarily spiritual.
Christians as individuals clearly should care about all human suffering and Christians should especially care about the terrible eternal suffering facing all those who remain under God’s wrath. John Piper balances it well saying,

“Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering or else they have a defective heart or a flameless hell.”

Relief organizations and ministries of mercy do great things, and we are involved with those. Multiple members of the missions team are with Samaritans Purse DART team and two others very involved with Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief. But at the end of the day what we want to be remembered for most is getting the gospel to those who have never heard it.
The church is a unique gospel community, started by Jesus Christ and consequently it should especially labor to fulfill its unique mission to “guard the gospel, proclaim the gospel and disciple those who respond to the gospel.” (Kevin DeYoung) If our churches fail at that mission no matter what other good things we do, we will have failed in the unique mandate that Christ has given us as (the church). There are lots of well-intentioned organizations, both secular and Christian, making an impact in the world today BUT none of them have been given the task of making Jesus famous among the nations. That commission is for the church! It is fine to do other good things and our church may make decisions about engaging in ministries of mercy and social action, but it is the stewardship of the gospel that remains utterly unique to the church—that is the priority of missions.

If we are convinced that eternal suffering in hell is the worst of all human suffering, what else would we prioritize? Even more, we prioritize eternal matters for love of God. We want our churches to fulfill the God glorifying purpose for which he specifically entrusted us with the gospel in the first place. Calling and discipling all the people saved by the Lamb is the primary mission of missions. Whatever other good things a church may choose to do, that great vision of Revelation 5 and 7 must be our most fundamental objective and the joy toward which we labor.

The 5 Great Commission Texts

The church is the mechanism God uses to reach the Nations. The church is God’s plan A and there is not a plan B. At the end of the gospels Jesus flips the script, Israel’s model in the OT was “come and see.” With the exception of the stories of Joseph, Jonah, and Daniel; God primarily displayed his glory to the nations in and through the people of Israel in a “come and see” model. But the New Testament model is quite the opposite. The New Testament church is commissioned to “go and tell.” Jesus will give us five Great Commission texts. Why five? Shouldn’t one be enough? Well, each one builds on the other. Now the way we read the Great commission texts in our Bible is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. But that’s not how the disciples heard them. We are going to quickly look at them in chronological order as the disciples would have heard them.

Ok, here are the Great Commission texts in chronological order. The first great commission text is John 20:21 “as the father sent me I am sending you.” If all we had for our mission as a church was John 20:21 and someone came up to you in the lobby of the church and said “what is your mission?” you would say, “I’m a sent one.” “What are you supposed to say when you get there?” “He didn't tell me.” “How long is it going to take?” “He didn't tell me.” “What's your goal?” “He didn't tell me.” “How far are you to go?” “He didn't tell me.” If all we had was John 20:21 we are to be sent ones but that's all we would know.

The second great commission text in chronological order is Luke 24:46 this tells us where we go and what we're to say. “Thus is it written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” That's called the gospel. Christ lived, died and rose again, and we are to respond, That is the gospel. And we are to offer this gospel to people from where? “all nations.” For centuries the Jews had gone to their synagogues to hear the Scriptures read and to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and offer sacrifices, and during that time outsiders were allowed to come and watch, to come and see but the expectation had not been to go and tell. This is a huge paradigm shift for Jews. So you can understand the disciple’s confusion when Jesus now commands the gospel is to be proclaimed to “all nations.” “Umm, Lord, not just to the Jews?” “No. Thomas you're going to India, Peter to Rome, Paul to Spain & Rome, Andrew to Turkey and Russia, Phillip to Africa and then Turkey, Matthew you're going to Ethiopia, Bartholomew to Saudi Arabia, Simon to Iran, Matthias to Syria, James you're going to Russia, Mark you're going to Alexandria. John, you're going to Turkey.”

The third Great Commission text tells us exactly what the first two tell us—it's a summary of the first two commands. Mark 16:15 says “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all Creation.” So Mark, Luke and John are all three saying essentially the same thing. So, if all we had were the first three great commission texts and someone asked us “what is the goal of missions?” you might say this, “World evangelism.” But that's not the ultimate goal of missions or the Church. And that brings us to the fourth Great Commission text.

The fourth Great Commission text is the most famous of the five and that is Matthew 28:18-20. “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. And I am with you always to the end of the age.” So now here in Matthew, Jesus adds the layer of “making disciples” to the mission. Do you know how much harder that just made things?! Sharing the gospel with the world is easy. Making a disciple from a new convert is difficult. Now we have to leave home, leave family, travel across cultural and linguistic barriers, learn new languages, customs and traditions, navigate new cities, all while speaking the gospel and making disciples of those who respond. But he also adds that beautiful piece of good news that He is coming with us. He will be with us! We aren’t left to do it alone and in our own strength; He will be with us.

The fifth Great Commission text is in Acts 1:8, and it confirms the help we will get as we are faithful to “go and tell.” Acts 1:8 says “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” God doesn’t give us this impossible task and then just leave us to it. He goes with us! He empowers us and believe me, when a western missionary goes to live in the spiritual darkness of Islam or Hinduism there is no promise they cling to more. When a Christ follower goes up against Satan in one of his strongholds around the world, something like, what happened to Jesus on Good Friday will come against you. And at that point the prayers of the Church and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit are the only way one stands firm.

A minute ago I told you the places where Jesus’ disciples went as missionaries. What I didn’t mention is that every single one of them (except for John, who lived through being boiled alive) were also martyred in those places while teaching the gospel and making disciples. Going to unreached places is hard, it has been hard since the beginning, and it can be violent, it has been for 2000 years. Nevertheless that is what these final marching orders of Christ tell us to do. But we don’t go alone, we receive power when the Holy Spirit lives in us and we are able to be his witnesses even in the spiritually darkest corners of the world. [Recommend Foxe’s Book of Martyrs]

One of the best ways I can think of to formulate the “Mission of the Church” is to take these 5 Great Commission texts and look at the key words of each of them. Three out of five say “go.” One of them says “make disciples,” four of them say “gospel.” Three of them say “people groups.” All of them say some version of the same word, “proclaim, teach or preach.” Allow me to summarize all 5 of those scriptures for us into one sentence using their common words. “Go, proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all people groups.”

This is the mission of the church: Go, proclaim the gospel and make disciples of all people groups.

Who is Jesus talking to when he gives these commands? They aren’t directed at one individual, they are directed at his followers. The men and women who make up the first church. There used to be a time not too long ago where famous last words were really important. Nowadays with hospice care and pain medication we have lost some of this but for thousands of years men and women, especially those in leadership would give their final wishes to their family, friends and followers on their deathbed. We worship a risen Savior who is very much alive but these 5 Great Commission texts can in a very similar way be seen as Christ’s “famous last words” before he ascended. These are his marching orders to his followers, to his bride, his church, and it is our responsibility as people who worship Him and love Him to obey. The church is God's idea. It is his one and only plan for getting to the final scene in Revelation 5 and 7.

Missions matters because God is a missionary God, so his people must be missionary people. We saw last week from Keith, that from Genesis to Revelation, God’s central promise is that he will send a Savior, a Messiah, and that Messiah will win the nations to Himself. Like a missionary, Jesus left His Father behind, learned our language, lived with us, learned our culture, customs and traditions, ate our food, he worked, suffered and was tempted. He spent precious time teaching, preaching and healing, all the things He is now sending His followers to go and do. Jesus is not asking us to do anything He hasn’t done Himself. That's one of many reasons why it is so comforting when he says he will “go with us.” It is through the Messiah that God’s glory covers the earth, it is through Him that the nations will be blessed, it is through Him, through the Messiah, that the lost will be saved. And on this side of the cross it is His followers who bear that good news to all people groups. And only once all have heard, will He return.

It wouldn’t be a missions sermon without this John Piper quote:

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship is the fuel and goal of missions. Missions begins and ends in worship.”

Yet today, there are nearly 3 billion people who have little or no access to Jesus. That's about ⅓ of the world's population. In these corners of the earth there are no churches, no Bibles and no Christians. Many of these 3 billion people could leave their homes and search for days and weeks and months and never find a Christian, a Bible or a church. It is our job based on the final marching orders of Jesus to change that. And he has promised that he is not coming back until we have done so. Our biblical conviction here at Venture is that God is a missionary God, that all people without Christ will spend eternity separated from God, that a central theme of Scripture is God’s desire to win all people groups to himself, that the church’s task in each generation is to proclaim the gospel to her generation and that while the progress of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth may be slow and hindered at times, there can be no doubt about its final triumph!

In Revelation 5 and 7, God gives John an incredible vision. In this vision, all of heaven bursts forth into worship and praise. Among those worshipping, are men and women from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. This is the vision that drives us! This is the goal of not only Venture Church but of THE Church. We pray, give and go to the nations with the gospel so that King Jesus will be worshipped from all corners of the globe. He alone is worthy of worship, He alone saves, He alone is the ONLY way that sinful men can be made right with a holy God. Our lives should be lived in such a way as to contribute as much as humanly possible (time, gifting, prayers, finances, expertise, etc.) to the triumphant scene in Revelation 5 & 7.

Let’s read them:
Revelation 5:9: And they sang a new song saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!

Revelation 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, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

That’s the real End Game right there folks. The global cause of Christ cannot fail. And nothing you do in this cause is in vain. If you’re racist you are gonna HATE heaven. For the rest of us, this is what we have to look forward to and what an amazing thought to think that little ol me and little ol Venture has been commissioned into the work of helping make that scene happen. We will be able to meet people there who are only there because they read a Bible that we purchased and sent or maybe because they heard the gospel through one of us who was willing to go or maybe because they attended a church in their community that we helped to plant. Trying to explain how great that will feel is beyond what my mind knows how to articulate.

Current World lostness Data

So where do we currently stand in accomplishing our mission? After 2,000 years of church history, what is left to do? I’m glad you asked, but the answer is pretty depressing. Nearly 3 billion people live on planet earth today who have never heard the gospel. These 3 billion people live in 7,249 unreached people groups. And as a reminder, unreached people groups are communities where less than 2% of the population are evangelical Christians. There is no indigenous church capable of evangelising the group without outside help. The name of Jesus is unknown here and the Bible may not exist in their language. . These people aren’t ignoring the gospel– they have never had a chance to hear it! As you are thinking through this term “Unreached” do not equate it with “unsaved.” The unsaved have churches nearby and access to the Bible or Christians, they can hear the gospel. The primary difference here is no ACCESS (everyone say “no access.”). The unreached live in places where no one is preaching, no churches exist, and they may not ever meet a Christian! The unreached are unreached for a reason, they are really hard to reach! All the easy ones are already taken.
So with nearly ⅓ of the world's population still considered “unreached” what is the state of the church when it comes to missions? How is the church doing? Again, unfortunately the answer is pretty depressing but the good news is that there is a lot of room for improvement. And for clarity the stats I’m about to go through are the universal church and not Venture specific. These stats were put together some years ago by Gordon Conwell Seminary.

About ⅓ of the earth's population identifies themselves as Christian. This doesn’t mean they are all actually genuine believers. Some merely identify as such because they are a nominal believer or they live in a community that is predominantly Christian, so they just call themselves one to fit in. The next ⅓ of the population has access to the gospel but has chosen not to follow Jesus. They have Bibles in their language, churches in their community and friends or neighbors who are Christian. These people have access to the good news but have chosen not to act on it yet. The other ⅓ are the Unreached, those who have no access to a Bible, a church or a Christian.

Of those who are Christian, 1 out of every 1,800 decides to serve as a missionary. So that equals about 400,000 missionaries worldwide. But 72% of those 400,000 “missionaries” go to places and people groups that we would consider already reached with the gospel. 72% of the missions task force are going to places that primarily identify as Christian. They already have the Scripture, churches and Christians in their communities.

25% of the missionary task force is sent to those who, while not yet believers, have access to the Scripture to Christians and to churches. That leaves only 3% of the missionary task force to handle all of the unreached peoples of the earth. So 3% of missionaries serve ⅓ of the world's population. 3% of our missionaries serving those with no Bibles, no churches and no Christians in their communities.

Financially it's estimated that Christians around the world earn around 42 trillion dollars. Together they give about 700 billion dollars to Christian causes each year. That includes everything, Christian non-profits, churches, youth programs, missions etc etc. So that's 2% of Christian income being given to Christian causes. Of that 700 billion dollars given to Christian causes, only 45 billion is given to “missions.” That's a little over 6%.

So we have 400,000 missionaries and 45 billion dollars to support them and their work. But how is that money allocated? 39 billion dollars goes to places and people groups that are already considered reached. So that’s 87% of the money allocated for missions that is spent in places that already have Bibles, Christians and churches. 5.4 billion dollars or 12% goes to places in the world where there aren’t as many Christians but where they have abundant access to the gospel, access to things like: Christians, Churches and Bibles. That leaves only 450 million dollars or 1% of all missions money going to unreached people groups, the least reached people of the world! So to summarize: thats 3% of our missionary force (12,000 missionaries) armed with 1% of our missions money (or 0.001% of Christian earnings), going out to reach 3 billion or ⅓ of the world’s population. [Global Frontiers/Gordon Conwell/Perspectives on World Christian Movement] To quote the kids, “the math aint mathing.”

So where do these 3 billion unreached people live? 85% of all unreached people groups are located between 10 degrees latitude and 40 degrees latitude, stretching from North Africa to Southeast Asia. We call this the 10/40 Window. It’s in this window of the world that the majority of the world’s nonChristian religions have a firm grip. Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are the primary religious forces of the region. And the church sends only around 3% of its missionaries to this region!

Now, before Lorenda climbs through the screen in Lincolnton and out of that camera in the back to rush the stage and tell you herself. Let me go ahead and mention that there are also unreached people groups in southern Mexico too! The Dysons served among them for years. (I love the Dysons, they serve on your missions team and I’m just picking on Lorenda today to add some comedic relief to what is otherwise a pretty heavy sermon).
While the 10/40 Window houses the majority of the world's lostness, you can see on the map there are pockets of unreached people groups all over the world, including some right here in the States. So that's the state of missions in regards to lostness, the missionary task force, the financial juggernaut, and the geographic landscape.

A Missions plea based off the Gospel

My goal here as I close is that many of you would find yourselves hearing God through my voice in such a way that you are moved to a place of greater need for the everlasting good of lost people and for the fame of the name of Jesus! And when I say “many of you” I do mean YOU. I mean people in their 20s who are just finishing school and getting started in their career. I mean people in their 30s and 40s just reaching the apex perhaps of your energy and your effectiveness where you are. I mean people in their 50s and 60s who are well entrenched where you are and feeling very RESTLESS, that there's got to be more for the next 25 years! And I do mean people in their 60s 70s and 80s who have been lied to by the American dream to the effect that the last chapter of your life is all about leisure. Because if that's true God has played a dirty trick on you because he has set you up to be the freest possible person for leisure at a time in your life when you can enjoy it least. That's not his design, that's why it's not a dirty trick. It is a dirty trick if you buy what you've been told, but it's not a dirty trick if you understand that we have all been called and placed here in every season for His purpose, the purpose of his church.

And please DON’T say in your head right now “okay here he is trying to get people to leave their homes, go to a place of greater need and be a blessing to people who are lost for the fame of Jesus, doesn't he know that America is going to hell in a handbasket? And doesn't he even know that people in my neighborhood are lost and broken and needy? Doesn’t he know that?!” Yes, I do know that, and if God has his hand on you to live flat out for his glory and for the good of the people around you in an everlasting gospel orientation… nobody's going to celebrate more than I am. So can we just be done with that dichotomy? Get that out of your head and be done with that. If that’s the calling on your life, I'm celebrating, God is celebrating. However… some of you are appointed to hear the voice of God through us preaching this series to the effect that this restlessness you've been feeling has meaning and God might be speaking to you about what that is.

If you don’t mind, would you be so kind as to humor me for a moment and let's do a little mind experiment. Close your eyes, take a breath and think back to that moment you first heard and understood the gospel. Do you remember where you were or when it was?  That moment where the Holy Spirit really gripped your heart and convicted you of your sin. That moment where you realized, “God is real, I’m a sinner and I’m in trouble, I need help, I can’t do this on my own.” That moment where you heard or read the gospel and realized, this is true! This is true! Jesus came to die in my place. He lived a sinless life and died the death I deserved, He took my sin and paid my debt. Do you remember how the weight was lifted? Do you remember the pure relief and joy you felt as your eyes and heart were opened to the truth and you put your full faith and trust in Christ? Do you remember being baptized and that fresh, clean slate feeling as you came up out of the water knowing that you and God were good now? Yeah, you weren’t perfect yet but your sins: past, present and future were paid for and you had the certainty of eternity with Jesus. Do you remember all that? Do you remember how life changing it was? And how ever since then, when you sin and get convicted you look back to that moment and remind yourself of the gospel and remember that everything is gonna be ok, because ultimately your salvation is not dependent on you. God can’t see your sin through the blood of Jesus, and you can live bold and confident in your relationship with him as His son or daughter. How amazing does that feel?

Now, with that memory fresh on your mind…imagine a life where you have never heard, read or even had access to that life changing information. Imagine, no parent, teacher, preacher, friend, co-worker, family member, whoever it was that shared it with you, never did. That’s the reality for the unreached people we are talking about today. Information we take so for granted and is so basic and foundational to who we are as Christians; ⅓ of the world's population has never heard it and are totally oblivious to it.
How does that sit with you? Do you care?

As you examine your heart with that question, let me suggest three categories of response:

1) You don’t even know what is going on right now because when I was running us through that thought experiment a moment ago, you had no idea what I was talking about because you have never experienced any of those things. If that is you. I would beg you, right now, to give your life to Christ. You’ll never be good enough on your own. Put your faith and trust in the God who loves you so much that he gave his only son and if you believe in Him you won’t die but instead you will have eternal life. As you leave here this morning I would encourage you to go by the Next Steps room and talk with someone.

2) When we went through that thought experiment you knew what I was talking about, and it brought up all the memories of your salvation experience because you are genuinely a believer. But if you are really being honest with yourself right now over that question, “do you care that so many have no chance to hear the gospel?” your answer is, “no, honestly, I just don’t care.” Let me very gently and in love, suggest to you that you have a defective heart. Your heart is not aligned with God’s or with his Word.
Years ago (and he might still be alive) there was a famous comedian/performer named Penn Jillette. He is an atheist who doesn’t even believe in a God but he once said,

"How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"

So here is an atheist who doesn't believe in an afterlife, yet finds it illogical that someone who does would not share that belief with others. He goes onto say, “I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” If this is you this morning, then stop by the next steps room and ask someone to pray with you. Then get into a small group and get discipled.

3) Lastly, you are a believer and the current state of lostness around the world does break your heart. You realize it’s NOT OK that so many people have no access to a Christian, Bible or a church. You want to see Jesus made famous at the ends of the earth. The next two weeks are going to be really helpful for you as Austin takes us through the Mission of the Local Church and The Mission of the Christian. Come talk to us as God uses that restless feeling you are having to figure out how we as your church can best equip you in fulfilling the mission of the church: Go, proclaim the gospel and make disciples of all people groups.

Discussion Guide