Why Be a Missionary?

(Matthew 28:18-20)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
Why would anyone want to be a missionary?
Im sure youve asked yourself this question at some time in your life.
Why would anyone want to give up the comforts of home
And put themselves into such a difficult situation
Of trying to convince others that the Gospel is true
That they have committed crimes against God and are under His judgment,
But that He will forgive them if they stop breaking His Law,
Trust His Son to save them, and begin to live for Him.
Maybe its because they understand
That this is exactly what Jesus calls all of us to do in the Great Commission.
Good news isnt really going to help anyone, unless you share it with others.
Someone must do it, or no one will be saved.

Jesus once told the Jews this parable:

A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he
sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, Come; for everything is ready
now. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, I have
bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me
excused. Another one said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to
try them out; please consider me excused. Another one said, I have married a
wife, and for that reason I cannot come. And the slave came back and reported this
to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave,
Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and
crippled and blind and lame. And the slave said, Master, what you commanded
has been done, and still there is room. And the master said to the slave, Go out

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into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my
house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste
of my dinner (Luke 14:16-24).
What does this mean?
The man who paid for the dinner is the Father.
The dinner He prepared is the kingdom of God
Not only the forgiveness needed to enter that kingdom
But the blessings that are in it through His Son, Jesus.
Those that were invited were the Jews.
When everything was ready
When the time had come to send His Son into the world
The Jews wanted nothing to do with it they rejected Jesus.
And so God, in His anger, rejected them
But only after He had given all of them the opportunity to receive Him;
After He sent His servants to preach to them for forty years.
But because of their rejection,
He commanded His servants to preach His Good News to all nations
So that the dinner hall would be filled with guests
So that the Kingdom of God would be filled,
So that He might give them to His Son to honor Him for the work He had done.
Thats why you and I are here today,
Paul writes, By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles (Rom.
11:11).

B. Preview.

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What Id like for us to see this morning
Is that this parable is all about Missionary Work.
What does the slave represent
The one who was sent to those invited,
And then to those who werent?
He is a missionary,
And he represents what the Lord calls His church to do.

As you know, each year for the past 16 years

This being the 17th
Weve had a special series in October
To commemorate the Reformation
That revival God sent to His church in the 16th Century,
When He pulled back the veil
Behind which the established church had hidden His Gospel,
And allowed it to shine again in full strength.

We commemorate this event because we dont want to forget:

1. The mercy God showed His church,
2. The truth of the Gospel that He uses to save,
3. And the events He brought about to promote that truth.

This year, were going to consider another facet of Gods work:

How He brings His Gospel to the world
The work of missions.

And so throughout the month of October, were going to set our study on John
aside
And in the mornings focus on the Biblical basis for missions,
And in the evenings, consider some very encouraging examples of those who have
done this work.

So lets begin this morning by considering three things:

1. What missionary work is.
2. Who it is thats called to do Missionary work.
3. And why we should do Missionary work.

II. Sermon.
A. First, what do we mean by missionary work?
What is a missionary?
What do you think of when you think of a missionary?
We usually think of those
Who give up all the comforts of their home and native country,
Go to a foreign country,
Learn their language and culture,
That they might communicate the good news of Jesus Christ,
So that they can be saved.
Thats partly right.

We also think that this work is for a select group of elite Christians
Who are specially called to this by our Lord
Thats also partly right.

What I would like us to consider is that the Biblical definition of a missionary is

broader.
First, it doesnt apply only to those who share the Gospel cross-culturally in foreign
countries.
Consider our text: How many nations does Jesus tell His disciples to evangelize?
He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19).
All nations certainly include the one they were living in.
Jesus says in Acts 1:8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
They were to begin in Jerusalem
Where they were
And then expand their circle until they reached the farthest parts of the earth.

Why do we call those who do this work missionaries?

The word comes from the Latin missio, meaning to send.
It means one sent to propagate [spread] religion.
They are called missionaries because they were sent by Jesus command:
He says, Go . . . make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19).

One thing we will come back to later this month,

Is that Jesus didnt send them merely to share the Good News with others
That was only the first step
He sent them to make disciples.
That includes baptizing and teaching.

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He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you (vv. 19-20).
The ultimate goal of missionary work is to create, by Gods grace,
More laborers to take part in the work of the kingdom.
This is how it advances
This is how it grows;
This is how it will eventually fill the earth.

B. So far weve been holding the work of the missionary

At arms length so we can examine it more closely without being threatened by it.
At this point, I would like for us to zero in a bit
And ask the question, Is this work only for the elite?
It is only for those the Lord has specially gifted and called?
This may be true with regard to foreign missions
Because doing that work requires certain gifts.
But we need to understand the Lord calls all of His people to be missionaries.

Consider to whom He gave the Great Commission:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth. Go therefore . . . (vv. 18-19).
He gave it to His eleven remaining disciples.
But why did He give it to them?
It was that they might lead the church in evangelism.
Consider again what Jesus says in Acts 1:8, But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

Yes, Jesus was once more speaking to the eleven,

But the eleven werent the only ones who received this Spirit and power.
We read in Acts 2:1-4, When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all
together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent
rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there
appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each
one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Earlier, a hundred and twenty persons had gathered to pray
And to wait for this blessing the Lord had promised (Acts 1:14-15).
There could have been less here, or there could have been more,
But everyone present received the Spirit.
Paul tells us that every believer is baptized by the Spirit,
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).
He says every believer is commanded to be filled with the Spirit,
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the
Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
And he says the Spirit brings the power to do Gods will
He writes to Timothy, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power
and love and discipline (2 Tim. 1:7).

Its interesting that when Paul instituted persecution against the church in
Jerusalem,
Scattering all the believers throughout Judea and Samaria,
Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word (Acts 8:4),
Literally, they went about evangelizing.

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All the believers in the early church received the power to be witnesses,
And thats exactly what they did.
Thats the kind of heart the Spirit gives
One that wants to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
Thats the kind of heart Hes given you
If you belong to Him this morning,
The same kind of heart He gave Isaiah
One that is willing to do His will.
When the Lord needed a man to take His message to His people in Judah
To warn them of the coming exile,
He asked, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? (Isa. 6:8);
Isaiah replied, Here am I. Send me!
He said that because of Gods Spirit within Him.
The Lord sends us with bad news
To tell others theyve sinned, and if they dont repent, judgment is coming.
But He also sends us with good
If you turn from your sins and trust Jesus, you will be saved.
As those who have received this message, you are to share it:
Jesus says, Freely you received, freely give (Matt. 10:8).

C. Finally for this morning, Why should we do Missionary work?

We should do it because this is what Jesus, our commander in chief, tells us to do:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching

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them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20).

Just because Jesus gives us His Spirit and the desire to do this work
That doesnt mean were always going to want to do it
The struggle that is going on in our hearts between the flesh and the Spirit is very
real.
Even Paul struggled at times with obedience, but realized that he still had to do it,
whether he wanted to or not.
He wrote to the Corinthians, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of,
for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do
this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship
entrusted to me (1 Cor. 9:16-17).

Jesus has also called us to evangelize.

Its one of the reasons He saved us.
Its why He leaves us here on earth, after He saves us
So we can share His good news with others.

When we ask the question, Why should we do missionary work?

The first answer is, Because its our duty.

But there are other reasons that can lighten this responsibility:
Such as love love for the Father, love for the Son.
The Father loved you so much, that He sent His Son to suffer and die for you, when
you were still His enemy.
What should you do for Him?

The Son loved you so much that He was willing to take your obligation to obey.

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He was also willing to take your guilt to Himself and die for you so that you could
go to heaven and not suffer in hell.
How much do you owe Him?
Heres at least one reason you should love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul and strength.
Heres why you should be living for His glory,
Why you should always be asking yourself in everything you do, Whats in it for
Him?

Heres another reason:

Evangelizing is the only way Jesus can receive His reward.
His sheep are only gathered in when the Good News is shared.
This is the only way His kingdom advances.
Do you want Him to have His reward?
Do you want His kingdom to move forward?
Then you need to evangelize.

Have you considered what a privilege this is?

He hasnt given this work to angels, but to you and me.
We have the great honor of being His ambassadors and sharing this good news.

What about those you care for?

This is the only way your unsaved family members, friends and neighbors
Can escape hell and enter finally into heaven.

Yes, the work can be uncomfortable if youre not prepared,

If youre not filled with Gods Spirit.

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It can mean you will face hatred, that youll lose some friends,
That youll even be persecuted.
But it can also be the most fulfilling thing youve ever experienced
If you will yield to what the Spirit leads you to do and reach out.

Tonight and throughout the evenings in October,

Were going to look at some example of those
Who gave themselves to this work to encourage us
To see that no matter how difficult it might have been,
To them it was worth it, and it will be to you as well.
I encourage you to come, that they might encourage you. Amen.

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