INTO ALL THE WORLD!
Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell
First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI
October 2, 2005
“Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation.” [i] When we hear these words of our Lord Jesus as a “Great Commission,” we are able to acknowledge that the Church has been given marching orders.
Similarly, when we turn to the key theme of the book of Acts found in chapter one and verse eight, we find the promise of the empowerment of the Spirit going along with these marching orders: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Clearly, it was and always has been the desire and design of the Lord Jesus that the Gospel should be taken out into all the world. But somewhere and somehow, the early Church forgot this commission, that they were to go outside of Jerusalem and share the Good News with all those in Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.
The Church needed a wake up call, and that’s precisely what it got! God permitted a season of persecution to rage against the church and it was a very serious matter. Stephen had just been martyred by the stoning of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The young Pharisee Saul had been at that scene and he was now acting like a wild animal, raging against the Church and seeking to devour and destroy it. He literally went from house to house to see if any Christians
were living there. If he found any - male or female, it didn’t matter – he would then drag them off to prison.
We might well ask ourselves as to why God would allow such a thing to happen to His people. Well, first of all, the Church had been forewarned of the threat of persecution by Jesus Himself. He made it very clear that inevitable persecution of one form or another comes to those who choose to follow Jesus rather than the ways of the world. In some places, resistance will be mild, but in other places it will be harsh.
But secondly, this outbreak of persecution also caused the scattering abroad of the believers. All but the apostles, we are told, were dispersed into other cities and lands. As a result, the Gospel was being carried beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Whereas Satan and the world meant this persecution of the church for evil, the Lord used this situation for good, in advancing the cause of the Gospel of Christ, rather than in seeing it destroyed.
In this situation, there are some important lessons for us today. They are lessons that are especially appropriate on this very special Sunday when we celebrate our fellowship with Christians all over the world with “World Communion Sunday,” but also on a Sunday when we have commissioned a Short Term Mission Team to go to Honduras.
THE CHURCH ALWAYS GROWS STRONGER, NOT WEAKER,
WHEN UNDER PERSECUTION.
One of the best ways to make Christians more active and zealous for the cause of Christ in the world is to challenge them and to even persecute them. In order for us to see this, note the reaction of the members of the Jerusalem church. They didn’t shut up, deny their faith and stay in Jerusalem behind closed doors for their safety. While it is true that they left the imminent danger behind and moved out into the surrounding areas, it is also quite true that they became even more vocal in their new found communities. Their zeal for Christ had not waned, but had instead been enflamed. This is true of Philip, for example, who proclaimed Christ in a Samaritan city and as a result, “there was great joy in that city.”
We see this to be true of the persecuted Church today. Compare the Church in China today under government sanctions and oppression, with what it was before the days of persecution. Numerically and spiritually, it has proven to be a much stronger body of believers.
Or consider the Christians in the African country of Sudan. A brutal civil war and even the enslavement of Christians has not brought about the demise of the Church. Our brothers and sisters in Christ remain in our thoughts and in our prayers, even as they inspire us in the so-called Western world to acts of faithfulness.
In a comparatively much milder way, I experienced some of this as an evangelical attending a liberal seminary several years ago. My introduction to seminary life came in a warning given to us by a senior student. “If you think you have come here to find your faith,” he told us, “you have come to the wrong place. Instead, what faith you have will be tried as by fire.” He was quite serious! And he was quite right.
I soon discovered that I was one of only two or three evangelicals in the whole student body. One evangelical even left the school before becoming a senior. But, at the same time, I must say that I grew stronger in my own convictions during that time, precisely because of the intimidation I experienced in that setting. You see, when the pressure was on, I was forced to really wrestle with what it was I said I truly believed. I found myself often on my knees in prayer – and that’s not at all a bad place to be!
God molds and shapes us in the course of our lives. But He does so especially in the hard places when the pressure is on, to the point where we can then say quite honestly with Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” I wonder if you have not experienced this in the context of your own families, neighborhoods, schools and places of work. God can and will indeed use such moments for good!
II
IT SHOULD BE THE GREAT OBJECT OF ALL CHRISTIANS
TO MAKE KNOWN THE SAVIOR EVERYWHERE.
We are told that the members of the Jerusalem church, once dispersed, “preached the word wherever they went.” This translation might be somewhat misleading. In the Greek, it is not the usual Greek word for preach. It is instead a verb from which we get the word “evangelize,” to announce the Good News of God’s love and salvation offered in Jesus Christ.
Now, it is not said that it is here that we have ordained ministers, who were preaching in public places and in the synagogues. Nor is it said that they set themselves up as public teachers or preachers of the Word. It is not said that they even wanted this, or that they administered Baptism, or that they founded new churches in the area.
What we do have here is the laity, the members of the congregation, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others in conversation and in lifestyle, and wherever they went. Wherever they went, be it in the synagogue, the neighborhood or marketplace or more, they spoke of the One whom they loved, adored and followed.
Quite clearly, their hearts were full. “Out of the overflow of the heart,” Jesus said, “the mouth speaks,” and so it was that they made the truth known to all who they met. [ii]
Hopefully, this does not surprise you, for it has always been the Lord’s design and purpose to have, not just ordained clergy, but all of His people out into the world as His emissaries and His representatives. Author Becky Pippert, in her classic book on evangelism, points this out for us so very well:
Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are the salt of the earth. And he challenges us not to lose our savor – our saltiness. This means - among other things – that we are to be active in the world as his representatives. We are to get out of the saltshaker and into life itself. Not to be trodden down, but to be zestful witnesses to Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the one who alone gives life and meaning to a dying world. [iii]
When you and I look at the Jerusalem believers, we see them getting “out of the saltshaker” and into the world, and that is precisely what so many of us need to do today! Quite often, we see Sunday morning as a time for us to be renewed and strengthened. We then move into our week with the confidence that God will faithfully meet our needs on a daily basis. But what of the “marching orders” our Savior has given to His Church? Out of our abundance, shall our mouths not speak?
With October being designated here as “Mission Month,” we have the opportunity of learning what our missionaries are doing, both here in the States and abroad. We also havehad the joy of commissioning some of our own to share the compassion, love and word of Christ to those in Honduras.
Let those of us who remain here commit ourselves to lift them up daily in our prayers, that God use their witness for His Kingdom and for His glory. What a wonderful privilege and opportunity!
But dear friends, let us also remember that in a week’s time, they will return. They will return to a mission field here, where all of us have the privilege of sharing in word and lifestyle the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Yes, may we all get out of the saltshaker, and out into the world!