“You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their eyes… (Acts 1:8)
These were Jesus last words to his disciples on earth… you will be my witnesses, you will tell people about my death and resurrection. You’ll bear witness to people around you, and people in the furthest corners of the earth. This was kind of like his last wishes, except he’s not dead.
People forget. People get busy with other things. People don’t care. People don’t feel it’s worthwhile or possible.
Even as someone who’s been living the full-time missionary life for the last 6 years, I can forget. I can get busy with other things. I can lose faith in the importance and the possibility of this task. It happens to me again and again and again.
It’s so easy to lose the sense of urgency, faith and excitement about being a witness. We can forget that the lost are real people. We can forget Christ’s compassion for them.
We think there are other things, other ministry activities that are more important. But what could be more important than Jesus’ last words to us on earth?
Of all the things we need to be busy with… why isn’t this a priority? Why is finding people that never get to meet a Christian and bearing witness to Christ not first on our list of things to do? Why is getting to some unreached country, learning a language, and talking to people about Jesus not considered a real goal in life, or a proper “ministry job description” by many? Why are many churches disinterested in seeing lives laid down to witness?
I think the enemy works to bury, to cloud out, and to belittle this precious task that Jesus gave to his followers. He works to fill out minds with doubt that it’s even worthwhile to talk about Jesus with others. (See this video).
To keep stoking this flame of passion for bearing witness we need to do 3 things:
Keep interacting with Christ in prayer.
Keep getting out and meeting lost people.
Keep encouraging and spurring each other on.
Just getting out there and looking for chances to bear witness to Christ: It’s worth your whole afternoon. It’s worth years of language learning. It’s worth your whole career.
When we’re sent somewhere else, it means we have to leave. Leaving a place is one of the best ways to see that it’s God at work, and not you.
When we let go of our own influence, we see that he is continuing to work, influencing hearts and minds. Of course, without us.
The same is even truer for the departure of big foreign ministry engines and ministry structures overseas. It can (and must) all be removed, and God’s work will continue.
This is not like withdrawing a first world power from a third world war. Those left on the ground will continue to be armed with all the might of heaven, and will learn to move and steward it well.
When we remove foreign leadership and resources, it gives the locals more freedom to be the generals and heroes God is calling them to be.
Do we really trust that this is true? Do we really believe that the might, wisdom, and strategy of heaven comes from the throne room, and not our from own resources or ideas?
Anything less than this understanding is a terrible delusion, and the root of a nasty, controlling, patronizing and suffocating religiosity.
The greatest victory is not in succeeding and rejoicing in our own efforts and effectiveness, but in being able to resign to be nothing and stay enamored only with God’s working and might, even after he’s let us enjoy great victory and witness a season of effective work with him.
We must decrease, he must increase.
We must take our hands off of people, places, ministries, or situations as soon as he tells us to do so. He is continuing to work in these places and needs to demonstrate that his work is not dependent upon any person, ministry, or denomination.
It’s all dependent on him.
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Roland Allen is by far one of the most repsected and name-dropped names in missions circles, but strangely his words are also constantly ignored. Many love to say they’ve read his books, but few actually want to follow his advice. After all, what he suggests–following Paul’s example–goes so strongly against fleshly desires for accomplishment and control. In Allen’s words:
“St. Paul’s method is not in harmony with the modern Western spirit. We modern teachers from the West are by nature and by training persons of restless activity and boundless self-confidence. We are accustomed to assume an attitude of superiority towards all Eastern peoples, and to point to our material progress as the justification of our attitude. We are accustomed to do things ourselves for ourselves, to find our own way, to rely upon our own exertions, and we naturally tend to be impatient with others who are less restless and less self-assertive than we are. We are accustomed by long usage to an elaborate system of Church organization, and a peculiar code of morality. We cannot imagine any Christianity worthy of the name existing without the elaborate machinery which we have invented. We naturally expect our converts to adopt from us not only essentials but accidentals. We desire to impart not only the Gospel, but the Law and the Customs; With that spirit, St. Paul’s methods do not agree, because they were the natural outcome of quite another spirit, the spirit which preferred persuasion to authority.” (Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours)
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We sometimes worry how it can be possible to connect with random people, very different than us in far away places. This story from some friends of mine shows that God can create beautiful connections instantly:
We had about 1 hour then to go out and prayer walk in the town and see if we could maybe talk to people. With that short amount of time my friend Rachel and I and her baby went for a stroll and ended up on a university campus that was quite pretty with a huge mosque on one and a beautiful tea garden in the middle.
We spotted some covered girls sitting on a picnic table backwards and since there weren’t many other places to sit we asked if we could use the other side. Of course the immediately turned around when they saw our cute baby and began to chat with us.
They told us about themselves. They were both waiting to go in for their final exam that evening. They asked us what we were doing in their small town and we explained that we are going around praying for the black sea in the name of Jesus. Of course they were very interested in that so we asked them if we could pray for them. They were super friendly and sweet and eagerly wanted us to pray. One needed a job and the other blushed and said she would like a good husband. So we prayed for them.
“What sweet people you are!” they said. “We feel like we have known you for a long time.” One said, “I feel a strange feeling in my heart when I am near you. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like a good energy, and peacefulness. I really like this feeling. Maybe it is because you are good people. I can’t describe this special feeling!”
“Well thank you!” we said, “but that is not from us. We are not good people without Jesus.” I then explained how I was living in sin and then how God changed my heart. They were very attentive listeners and as we chatted more I explained my testimony and we explained the gospel to them. My friend then talked about how we try and try to be good and do good works but we keep failing and we are trapped in sin. But Jesus made a way and gave us hope.
They were so warm and responded soo positively to us and our message. We suddenly realized that we needed to go soon so we prayed for them again. They kept exclaiming that they had never opened their hearts this way to strangers and they felt like we were their best friends and they were experiencing a new feeling in their hearts that they never had before! They gave us big hugs and kisses, we went back to meet our friends, got in our cars and drove away!
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Missions goes through phases where we get fixated on this or that method, expecting it to bring great fruit.
People have said different things at different times:
“We need to build church buildings.”
“We need to fund local workers.”
“We need to invest in the community.”
“We need to have really, really credible platforms.”
“We need to build a bridge of trust that can hold the weight of truth.”
“We need to plant churches.”
“We need to provide sustainable jobs and economic means for new believers.”
“We need to start a certain kind of Bible study groups.”
“We need to catalyze DMM movements”
“We need to see the gospel spread through existing community networks.”
But are there any Biblical commands that say we must do any of these things?
No. None. So if any of this has been weighing heavy on you, take a deep breath and relax. You don’t actually have to do any of this. And you don’t have to make others do it.
You just have to love and obey Jesus, and spend your life living to be his witness. You just have to love, encourage, and ‘disciple’ those he entrusts to you.
Let’s look to the gospel as the source of life and fruit, and not the latest method.
Let’s look to the power of God, and not to our human strengths or plans.
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Sometimes we believe that we can’t give something up because we think it’s such a part of us, something that God’s so clearly given us. It could be some gift, that gives us such life and energy, or it could be a ministry that is such a clear blessing to others.
It seems wrong to forsake or squash these good things because we can’t see how God will take these gifts and re-use them in unimaginable ways. All we see in front of us is death. The promise of resurrection can seem so far off and impossible.
One of the hardest things for me in heading overseas was to give up a wonderful opportunity to pursue a potential music career with a really good friend. The music was good. It gave life and energy to me and others. The words brought deep and important truths to many listeners. And I felt like I was alive every time we played.
Giving it up felt like I was killing a God given part of myself, and of my friend too!
But when I got to the new land, I found that the task of language learning would be just as exciting and engaging. It made me come alive and energize me in the same way. And conversations felt like jam sessions with master musicians. I began to love the music of the language that would roll out of my mouth in endless conversations with people who had never before heard the good news. The gift squandered became something used anew.
Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, the very son that God so clearly promised him. Isaac was supposed to be the conduit for all the fruitfulness and everything he knew to be true about God’s promises.
But he still went and sacrificed him. Even though he didn’t understand and it seemed so wrong.
To follow God’s call to take the gospel to the nations, his people will have to make brutal, painful, sometimes seemingly senseless and counter-productive sacrifices. But when we look with faith, we will see him come through on his good promises.
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Normally farmers take great care to make sure they know what kind of soil they’re putting their seed in. They’ll think about what crops were in the year before, how much the soil has been worked, and what nutrients may or may not be present. They’ll do everything they can to makes sure they’re investing in fruitful ground, so they can get the maximum yield out of their seed. These days with modern technology, things can get really precise. Based on GPS signals and various soil samples, machines can automatically adjust the amount of seed sown depending on the quality of the soil in any given location.
But the sower in Mark 4 is a very different kind of farmer. He’s not worried about efficiency, return on his seed, or carefully analyzing the land and his seeding. He just throws the seed out there, and it lands in all kinds of different places. And there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with that.
We should probably be more focused on throwing seed out there like the farmer in Mark 4, and not be so concerned about painstakingly analyzing and trying to find the perfect soil. Because, after all, this is not the kind of farming that we can figure out and optimize using GPS signals and soil samples. It’s a spiritual work of faith, sowing seeds into human hearts, and any sprouting is a miracle of God.
I’m skeptical of any teaching that says we need to find the perfect soil, or work to prepare the soil, and only then sow the seed. Who said we had to do that? And is that even possible?? Just tell people, all kinds of different people, about Jesus. Scatter your seed all over. You may be very, very surprised to see which seeds actually sprout, grow, and bear fruit.
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