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Living Sacrificially for the sake of the Great
Commission
By
Shaun Willcock
How
seldom is mission work even discussed among Christians, let
alone actually supported!
The call to the ministry
is a divine call, and it is true that not all Christians are
called to it. And even of those men who are called into the
ministry, not all of those are called to missionary work.
There were a number of ministers in the church at Antioch, but
only Paul and Barnabas were called into missionary work (Acts
13:1-4); the others stayed behind to minister to the church
there. Some are called as evangelists (missionaries), whereas
others are called as pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11).
Not
all men are given the necessary linguistic abilities, the
necessary physical qualities, nor the spiritual qualification,
to be a missionary. It is certainly true that "we have many
members in one body, and all members haven not the same
office"; that we have "gifts differing according to the grace
that is given to us" (Rom. 12:4,6).
Nevertheless, ALL Christians must be intimately
involved in mission work! Intimately and sacrificially
involved! You may not be called by the Lord as a missionary,
to go to some foreign land to preach the Gospel; but if
another man is going, making great sacrifices necessary to
serve the Lord as a missionary, then you must take the
sacrifice to send him, and to support him when he is
there!
Somewhere along the line, it has become part of
the thinking of many professing Christians that sacrifice is
something only the man called as a missionary has to make;
that sacrifice is his particular calling, his particular
burden to bear. But this is a great error: the truth is, all
Christians are called to live sacrificial lives for the sake
of Christ and His Gospel! But that doesn't sit well with many
professing Christians, particularly those who live in what is
called First World countries.
These
Christians - prosperous, cushioned, comfortable -wallow in a
life of ease, and often the lap of luxury, never lift a finger
to do what they can for the dissemination of the Gospel to
some needy, sin-darken corner of the world. "That is the job
of the missionary" they say. "The Lord has called him to live
that kind of sacrificial life, not me. My calling is
different. I have a job, a wife, a family. I have
responsibilities and other
commitments."
They
fail to understand (or conveniently ignore the fact) that the
missionary may have also a wife and family (1 Cor. 9:5); that
he too has responsibilities and commitments; and that whether
one is a missionary or not. I ask you, reader, to consider
whether or not are you the kind of Christian I am
describing.
There are many professing Christians who can
wax eloquent about various doctrines of the faith, including
the doctrines of grace and the sovereignty of God - but their
theology doesn't move them to live a sacrificial life. A
perishing world does not move them. Neither the lost teeming
millions of Africa or Asia, not the world just outside their
own front doors, moves them. The world goes on in darkness,
hell-bound, down the broad way, but they remain unmoved.
If
their theology is so sound, why does it not produce practical
fruit? Many who are so soundly orthodox when it comes to the
sovereignty of God, do absolutely nothing in fulfillment of
Christ's great commission! They are so busy theorizing about
how, precisely, God saves the lost that they are not actually
going out and preaching to the lost, or supporting those who
are! they are so sure that they have true Gospel doctrine in
their heads, yet it make no difference to how they live in the
midst of a world on its way to hell. Then know nothing of
living a sacrificial lifestyle!
So let
us consider this matter. What exactly does it mean to live a
sacrificial lifestyle? A number of things.
For one
called as a missionary, it can mean sacrificing many modern
conveniences, many luxuries. Many missionaries endure great
hardships, sacrifice so much, go without so much, take the
Gospel to new lands. But before you nod your head and say,
"Yes, that's so true, but it's the missionary's calling, "
consider yourself, Christian! It's true that you may not be
called to a missionary, but even so, you can and should, live
sacrificially! For although you may not be called as a
missionary yourself, you are called to support those who go to
the fields, and you are called to live at all times with
eternity in view, and putting the needs of your fellow-man
first.
The
Lord Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven, and laid down
His life at the hands of His enemies -laid it down as a
sacrifice - to save His people; and you, if you are one of
those for whom Christ sacrificed so much, can certainly make
sacrifices too, for the work of missions! And many
missionaries have laid down their very lives, in far-away
lands, and their bodies have been laid to rest in lonely,
forgotten graves. They sacrificed so much. There are those who
are doing it still, at this very time. Ought not those who
remain behind to make sacrifices as well?
Do
you really need very new mod-con, the latest this and that?
You who have so much - do you really need even more? Is it not
time for you to read and carefully ponder such Scriptures as
Heb. 13:5 which says, "Let your conversation be without
covetousness; and be content which such things as ye have"? Or
1 Tim. 6:8, which says, "And having food and raiment let us be
therewith content"? If you have been under the mistaken
impression that only the missionary needs to live
sacrificially, then it is high time you were better instructed
from God's Word. So much more could be done to advance the
Gospel throughout the world if those who name the name of
Christ would begin to live as Christ lived, and to obey what
He taught!
There is nothing wrong with having possessions.
We all have them and some have more than others, and that is
how it has ever been and ever will be. A rich man will
naturally have more than a poor man, and there is nothing
sinful about this. But "them that are rich in this world" are
charged to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to
distribute, willing to communicate (1 Tim. 6:17,18); and what
great good could be done for missionaries and for mission work
if those who have much would live more sacrificially, and
support the work of Christ as it is in their power to do!
And
although you may not be what is considered a rich man in your
own country, if you so much as own a car you are a rich man
compared with many preachers in Africa who are traveling about
on old and battered bicycles, seeking to conduct missionary
work, evangelistic work, in remote areas! And if you live in
an air-conditioned, carpeted house, you are rich compared with
some missionary in a mud hut in some Third World country! And
if you go out to eat from time to time in a pleasant
restaurant, you are a rich man compared with that man who,
like Paul, is "in hunger and thirst, in fastings often in cold
and nakedness," in order to preach Christ in some dirt-poor
and neglected part of the world (2 Cor.
11:27).
Wealth is a very relative thing. Poor you may
indeed by the standards of your neighborhood or your country;
but there are those who would find it hard to believe, were
they able to compare your lifestyle with theirs. Think on
these things, and then, perhaps, you will be willing to
sacrifice so much more for the sake of the Gospel of
Christ.
But living sacrificially can mean other things
than a lowered standard of living. It is true that
missionaries living in jungles and among barbaric tribes have
make great sacrifices in their lifestyles, living in very
rough conditions with no luxuries, etc.,and this is the
traditional picture most people have of the foreign
missionary. But we must keep in mind that this is only one
type of missionary work! Many are called to be missionaries in
the very sophisticated and civilized societies! And this has
been always the case. Paul the apostle, for example, was often
to be found, even for months and years at a time, evangelizing
in the world's great cities! This idea that the missionary
always goes to live with half-naked savages and eats grubs and
spends a large amount of his time fending off snakes and
crocodiles is a gross over-simplification, no doubt
popularized by the false notion that the sophisticated parts
of the world, the "civilized parts" are "Christian" and
therefore do not need to be evangelized.
Not everyone called to mission work is called
to live in very poor conditions. If, for example, a man from
the Congo was called by God to go as a missionary to London or
Paris, his living conditions would actually be for the better
than those in his home country! He would enjoy a standard of
living unknown to millions of his fellow-countrymen! A
sacrificial lifestyle for the missionary, then, does not
always mean a lowered standard of living. Well then, in such a
case, what kind of sacrifices would he have
make?
Sacrifice, for that man, would mean loneliness,
culture shock, etc.,etc. To live in a concrete jungle, a huge
city, with no friends, no family, in a foreign culture, unable
to speak the language for perhaps many months, adjusting to
new foods, new customs - this is a great sacrifice for any man
to make! Loneliness is indeed a terrible enemy. And, yet,
while the missionary is far from home, having sacrificed all,
having left behind his loved ones and everything that is
familiar to him, all too often his brethren in Christ back
home go merrily on, with hardly a thought for him, or others
like him. Hardly a prayer ascends up to God's throne on his
behalf, hardly a tear is shed for him, hardly a letter is
written. A sacrificial lifestyle is to be lived by all
Christians!
Not just the missionary , but by those who
remain behind as well! They are to sacrifice their time,
writing to those on the mission field, praying much for them
(Rom. 15:30-32; Eph. 6:18,19), etc. They are to sacrifice,
their money, providing his needs, caring for him (1 Cor.
9:3-18). And also, surely his example of selfless sacrifice
should move those who remain behind to speak to their
neighbors, the people they work with, and others, about Christ
and His Gospel! If some Christians sacrifice so much for the
sake of the Lord and His Gospel, all others can sacrifice a
whole lot more!
Then too, when a young missionary leaves home
and loves ones and all that is dear and familiar, his parents
are called to make a great sacrifice at that time as well. Oh,
what a heart-wrenching sacrifice this is for them to make!
They may not be going to some foreign field themselves, but
they are called to make a sacrifice almost as great.
They are called to
stand back, and to say, "Whatever hopes and dreams I had for
him, these are not important; he is the Lord's chosen
instrument, and I must be content to let him go and serve the
One who has called him. I may never see him again; he may even
die in some far-away place and I will never know it; but his
is the Lord's servant, and I must willingly make this
sacrifice."
But there are
parents, professing Christian parents, who do all in their
power to prevent their son from going forth as a missionary!
They cannot bear it. They view it as a waste of a useful life.
They would much rather he went to a university like other
young men, and became an educated, important man in the
community, a wealthy and successful man (as the world measures
these things), with a good home, a good wife, and children for
the grandparents to pamper and spoil. What are the parents
willing to their children go to the mission fields? No wonder
Jesus said, "He that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worth of me" (Matt.
10:37)!
Christian parents
must love their children, but there is such a thing (and my
readers must understand me at this point) as loving them too
much. Christ must be loved supremely, but there are parents
who make idols out of their children. We read once of a
mother, whose son was going to a foreign mission field,
standing on the platform at the railway station as his friends
and family had gathered to see him
off.
It was a great
sacrifice for her to make; it cost her much in human suffering
and emotion to be there that day, watching him leave, knowing
she might never see him again. But when one asked her how she
could bear it at all, she replied, with Rom. 8:32 in heart and
mind, "God spared not His Son." Ah, that was a mother who had
seen to the very heart of the matter! God spared not His own
dear Son, but delivered Him up for all His elect; and the
sacrifice she was called upon to make was a small one in
comparison with that. If God could do so much for her, sparing
not His own Son for her salvation, then she would not spare
her son, either, that others sitting in darkness and the
shadow of death might hear the glad tidings of the Saviour of
sinners.
Christian
parents, are you prepared to make such a sacrifice, if the
sovereign Lord lays His hand upon you child and sets him apart
for such a work? Or will you try to hinder it, reluctant to
make such a sacrifice yourself, for the sake of your Lord and
Master?
And there is the
sacrifice made by the wife of the missionary, who has to
follow her husband into new, stranger, often hostile parts of
the world with the Gospel. What a sacrifice she makes! Far
from home, friends, family, all that she knows and
understands, struggling in her own sphere against obstacles
her sisters back home will never struggle against or even
imagine, often having to raise children in such circumstances,
and often too, having to watch he children die, carried away
by some exotic disease that takes them suddenly, or even by
some strange disease which would be easily curable at home,
but for which there is no cure out on the field. Yes,
missionary's wife pays a high price
indeed.
But now a word to
you Christian women whose husbands, although not called as
missionaries, still want to serve their Lord in some way: are
you prepared to make such a small sacrifice, when your sisters
in Christ on the foreign mission fields have made great ones?
If your husband wants to go out one or two nights a week, door
to door witnessing for Christ, will you hinder him? Will you
stay at home complaining, unwilling even to make this small
sacrifice? Or will you join him, and sacrifice some of your
time as well, to serve your Lord?
In conclusion:
although you, as a Christian, are not called to be a
missionary, you are called to be mission-minded; to have
mission work at heart, and to sacrifice for it in various
ways; to live for a higher purpose, in other words, than
merely your own self! May you be stirred in your heart to
examine yourself in this matter, to examine your motives, and
your goals, and the things that mean most to you; and to make
it the business of your life to live sacrificially for the
sake of the lord Jesus Christ and His blessed
Gospel!
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