| Introduction The PMU meeting the day before the synod meeting was, in many ways, very encouraging. We are planting five new churches. It may not seem like much, but for us is huge since in the past 20 years we have successfully planted a total of two churches. We welcomed Louis Cloete as a candidate missionary to South Africa. And Michaela Sharpshair is going to Uruguay for year in a joint effort with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We approved the pastoral care project in Recife and Doug Leaman has already started to implement it. Right here, we heard Teenie's plan to go to the Middle East and Resa and Mali's great report on their medical mission trip to Honduras. Yet for a while now, I have been feeling convicted about my own attitude toward missions, which I think is reflected in our church's attitude toward missions. With all these amazing things happening just in our denomination and church, I have found that my part in it to be dismal, not even praying. And because of my lack of emphasis on global and local missions, our church under-emphasizes global and local missions. This is something that needs to change. I am not sure how to change it, but I think a good start is to preach and pray about it. To consider Christ's supremacy over missions and see if the Lord blesses and leads and uses us for the discipling of all nations. Psalm 46:10– Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Missions: reaching people who don't know there is a Jesus to be believed in. I. Jesus's Example, 35 A. Notice here that Jesus went to the people in order to minister to them. 1. He ministered by preaching the Gospel. 2. He ministered by healing. 3. A complete person focus. B. Notice also that he went to ALL the cities and villages: not some or most. 1. Jesus was eager for all to hear the Gospel Lk. 4:42-43– Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; but He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent." a. The people of Capernaum wanted him to stay: "Stay here, there is a lot to be done here!" b. But Jesus had a calling and he went. 2. I think that in this occasion, Jesus exemplifies what he later on commands his disciples to do. Mt. 28:19– Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… 3. Jesus commands us to go because he himself went. II. Look!, 36-37 A. Notice his reaction as he ministered to the people: when he saw, he had compassion. B. The word translated in the NKJV "he was moved with compassion" is related to the word for entrails. 1. In antiquity, strong emotions were associated, not the heart as we are used to do, but to the abdominal area. 2. The idea is of a strong, visceral emotion that permeates a person's whole being. 3. Some have suggested that this word can be translated as having your stomach tied into a knot. 4. Jesus's stomach was tied into a knot at the sight of lost people. C. This is key here: he saw lost people and he had compassion. 1. Why aren't we more moved about lost people? When was the last time we cried over the fact that there are lost people all around us? Why am I not yearning for the salvation of my mom and my dad? 2. I think the answer to these questions is that we have taught ourselves not to see them. 3. Someone has said that "the moved heart always follows the seeing eye." 4. Our stomach is not tied into a knot over lost people because we have trained ourselves not to look. a. My parents trained me not to point and stare at people who have physical differences and we have taught ourselves to do the same thing concerning lost people. b. We have gotten ourselves into an evangelical elevator mentality. 1) The elevator law – we have taught ourselves to do the same thing with lost people – what if we break the elevator law? 2) We have taught ourselves to do that concerning lost people. 5. In 1994, Steve Green came out with a song called "People Need the Lord." a. Not the greatest lyrics, but gets the point across. b. Next time you go shopping, play this song as you walk around – look at the people that walk by and the play the song. Everyday they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, Headed who knows where? On they go through private pain, Living fear to fear. Laughter hides their silent cries, Only Jesus hears. People need the Lord, people need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door. People need the Lord, people need the Lord. When will we realize, people need the Lord? c. That's true of every one of them. D.When Jesus looked at the people, his stomach got tied into a knot because he saw people wandering about without direction, without purpose, like sheep going to the slaughter. 1. Why are we not more moved with compassion? We are not looking. The most unread piece of literature in this church is PMU's Mission Banner. 2. If you want to look, go to Operation World website (www.operationworld.org) and see the dire need for missionary to go to places that you have never heard of. 3. If you want to see the lost, pray for them and you will look at them. 4. In the parallel passage in the gospel of John, Jesus says Jn. 4:35– … Behold, I say to you, lift upyour eyes and lookat the fields, for they are already white for harvest! E. As a response to his own reaction to the condition of the people Jesus says two things: the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, 37. 1. He uses a farming analogy, which may mean two things. a. The barns are full; it has been a bumper crop. 1) Jesus made this statement at the height of his popularity during his earthly ministry. 2) Thousands were following him; multitudes wanted to be with him. 3) If Jesus was speaking today, it would be equally true a) From 1945 to today the number of Christian in the world has gone from 3% of total world population to 12% of total world population. b) It has gone from 80 million to over 700 million Christians in the world. c) China in 1949 when the missionaries were kicked out had about 850,000 Christians; today it is estimated that anywhere from 60 to 100 million people are Christians in China d) Sub-Saharan Africa is 50% professing Christian e) We live in a time of unprecedented spiritual harvest and the gates of Hell are not prevailing against the Church. 4) If that is what Jesus meant, then he would be speaking from the perspective of a farmer who has worked hard in harvesting all the crops and is now sitting on his porch looking at a full barn. 5) I don't think that Jesus meant that. b. Jesus meant, not the reaped harvest, but the ripe but unreaped harvest in plentiful. 1) Then as today, the vast majority of people in the world is lost. 2) Do you realize that as we sit here this morning, 9 out of every 10 people in the world are lost and are hell bound? 3) There are 7 billion people in the world today and 3.4 billion currently have never heard of Christ and there isn't anyone trying to reach them. 4) Where are these people? a) In places like Kazakhstan, Dagestan, Uttar Pradesh, Mauritania b) But also next door to your house, in your school, in your work place (not unreached but still in need of Christ). 5) Two out of every three people in the world have not heard a clear explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and some of them are your neighbor. 6) In India (1 billion people) alone there are more lost people than in North, Central and South Americas combined plus the entire continent of Africa. 7) Today there are close to one billion people who claim to be Muslims. 8) The harvest is plentiful; there is a lot to be done. 2. But the workers are few. a. 70,000 young people are currently enrolled in Bible colleges and seminaries like WRS pursuing degrees in Bible knowledge. 1) These are the people who are seriously considering full-time, vocational ministry. 2) 10% of Bible college students and 2% of seminary students are considering missions (5% of the total 70,000) b. U.S. population is less than 5% of world population 1) 95% students going to minister to 5% of world population – the majority of it have some notion of Jesus. 2) 5% students going to minister to 95% of world population – the majority of it has not heard about Jesus not even once. c. The numbers are out of whack. d. Every single missionary in the world is crying for help and they are not getting any. III. Pray!, 38 A. The word translated Prayis a more intense word than the regular word for pray. 1. The idea is of imploring, begging. 2. Thus, pray earnestlyto the Lord of the harvest. B. Do we want more harvest workers? Then we need to pray. 1. Somebody might say, "I want to go, but at my age I can't go." 2. Or, "We want to give more, but we are maxed out." 3. Yet Jesus says absolutely nothing about going or giving and he says everything about something all of us can do: PRAY. a. The average church spends about 2 minutes in corporate prayer for world missions. b. The average pastor spends 7 minutes a day in prayer for anything. c. 1% of husbands and wives in the church pray for more than God's blessing on their food. d. And we wonder why more people are not going. C. Want to change that? Do you want see workers in the field? Do you want to see the nations being discipled for Jesus Christ? PRAY. 1. Not any type of prayer, earnest prayer. 2. Remember Jacob in the book Genesis (32:22-28)? Gen. 32:22-28– And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." a. He wrestled with God till God said let me go! b. Does he say that to you as far as your prayers are concerned? Or does he say, "Hmm… I was wondering where you have been."? D.When we pray earnestly – individuals, families, churches – the Lord of the harvest will send the workers into the field. 1. The word translated send outis the Greek word ekballo. a. It is a word usually used for casting out demons where the demons have no choice but to leave the person. b. Word also used for Jesus's cleansing the temple in John 2 – he drove them out. 2. When we as a church pray earnestly, God will thrust his people into missions and there will be nothing that can be done to contain it. IV. Go! 10:1, 5 A. Now, be careful as you pray for workers. B. Don't be surprised if the Lord tells you to go as an answer to your prayer – the same people the Lord presses to pray, he often presses to go. C. Look at what Jesus did after he told his disciples to pray. Lk. 10:2-3– Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves." D.One last warning, if you go, be prepared to die – 45 million Christian martyrs in the 20thcentury.
There are only two things in the Bible that come out by prayer and fasting: demons and missionaries. I prefer praying for the latter. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God revived us to the work of missions? Young and old? Even if everyone left our churches to the mission field, God would take care of filling our churches back up again. The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few. Therefore, pray.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-lost-world-mt-935-38.html
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