MISSIONS-SUCCESS
The
fundamental basis of all Christian missionary enterprise is the universal
authority of Jesus Christ, “in heaven and on earth.” If the
authority of Jesus were circumscribed on earth, if He were but one of many
religious teachers, one of many Jewish prophets, one of many divine
incarnations, we would have no mandate to present Him to the nations as the
Lord and Savior of the world. If the authority of Jesus were limited in heaven,
if He has not decisively overthrown the principalities and powers, we might
still proclaim Him to the nations, but we would never be able to “turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18).
Only because all authority on earth belongs to Christ dare we go to all
nations. And only because all authority in heaven as well is His have we any
hope of success.
John Stott
The Great Commission, One Race, One Gospel,
One Task, 1966.
The greatest
missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never
considered a foreigner.
William Townsend
One might
think that shame would now drive us to our task (of missions). Do the commands
of our Lord mean so little to us? Are we indifferent to Him? Or,
if not shame, pity on those who have not heard. Are we unconcerned at
the cries of the heathen? Can we weep at television drama and sit dry-eyed
before the needs of the lost? Such questions shame us, yet I know that shame
will not move us as we ought to be moved. We will need a larger motive than our
own humiliation to finish the task. Even the spiritual poverty of the pagan
will not do it. We must have a grander vision…a new vision of God. And
that vision is majestic, glorious.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
15, 24.
The God who
is worthy to be known and served for who He is, is
Himself the answer to this world’s longings. And those who know Him best
are best equipped to serve Him. He is their message. If we have discovered the
glory of God in the face of Christ, we must not hold back. The God of glory
must be made known.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
152.
This God, who
is King, is worthy to be known and to be proclaimed for who He is. The
missionary who proclaims this God cannot fail. If his message extols the
sovereign God, it will be significant even supposing it is never the means of winning
one soul. The message will not be lost. It cannot be lost. It will remain as
something precious. Before men and angels – yes, and before the demons of
hell – it will be praise to God! “For we are unto
God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved,
and in them that perish” (2 Corinthians 2:15).
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p. 51-52.
In 1956 Life
magazine told of the shocking death of five missionaries in the jungles of
Ecuador. For several months these men had tried to make contact with the
primitive Auca Indians. On their first attempt to establish a camp, they were
brutally murdered! Today these same Auca tribesmen are all Christians. They are
leaders of a small congregation that worships near the spot where the
missionaries died. Many educators and government leaders have expressed
astonishment at the miraculous change in these Indians. How did it happen? The
answer lies in the love of God expressed to these people by the sister of Nate
Saint and the wife of Jim Elliot, two of the martyred missionaries. Led by God
who is love and not vengeance, these women were able to break down the walls of
distrust. In time they were able to share the gospel with these tribesmen and
see the love of Christ transform their lives.
George Sweeting
Who Said That? Moody Press, 1995, p. 325.
There are
four reasons we can be absolutely sure that the mission of God will triumph in
the world. First, the word of Jesus is more sure than the heavens and the earth
(Matthew 24:35). Second, the ransom has already been paid for all God's elect,
and God did not spill the blood of his Son in vain (Revelation 5:9). Third, the
glory of God is at stake and in the end he will not share his glory with
another (Isaiah 48:9-11). Fourth, God is sovereign and can do all things and no
purpose of his can be thwarted (Job 42:2).
John Piper
The Driving Convictions Behind
Missions, Nov. 2, 1996, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
(Salvation of
another) is what man cannot do. It
is impossible. Only God can take out the heart of stone (Eze. 36:26). Only God
can draw people to the Son (Jn. 6:44, 65). Only God can open the heart so that
it gives heed to the gospel (Ac. 16:14). Only the Good Shepherd knows His sheep
by name. He calls them and they follow (Jn. 10:3-4, 14). The sovereign grace of
God, doing the humanly impossible, is the great missionary hope.
John Piper
Desiring God, 1996, p. 198, Used by
Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
More and
more I am persuaded from Scripture and from the history of missions that God's
design for the evangelization of the world and the consummation of His purposes
includes the suffering of His ministers and missionaries. To put it more
plainly and specifically, God designs that the suffering of His ministers and
missionaries is one essential means in the joyful triumphant spread of the
gospel among al the peoples of the world.
John Piper
How Few There Are Who Die So Hard, Bethlehem
Conference for Pastors, February 4, 2003.
If missions
languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to
go everywhere and preach to everybody is not obeyed until the will is lost by
self-surrender in the will of God. Living, praying, giving and going will
always be found together.
Arthur T. Pierson
[God]
may direct some to leave their homeland to go to proclaim the Gospel in a
foreign land. There is a great temptation in such circumstances for people to
revert to the legalism of thinking that they are being heroes for God because
they are leaving their homeland to endure the rigors of living in a foreign
land. Those who are directed to do hard jobs for God must remind themselves
that these rigors are simply for their health. As these difficulties help them
become more like Christ, they will sing a song of praise unto God, and as a
result “many will see it and fear and put their trust in the Lord”
(Psm. 40:3). People who regard themselves as invalids rather than heroes will
make excellent missionaries.
Daniel Fuller
Gospel and Law: Contrast or Continuum?
Eerdmans, 1980, p. 119.
The
primary qualification for a missionary is not love for souls, as we so often
hear, but love for Christ.
Vance Havner
The thing
that makes a missionary is the sight of what Jesus did on the cross and to have
heard Him say, “Go.”
Oswald Chambers
You will
never make a missionary of the person who does no good at home. He that will
not serve the Lord in the Sunday school at home, will
not win children to Christ in China.
C.H. Spurgeon
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