From the Old Testament we turn to the New Testament – Romans chapter 10. It’s on page 946 if you’re using the Bible in the rack in front of you. And we find ourselves on the doorstep of our annual Mission Conference – something we look forward to; something that recalibrates our thinking, our priorities, our trajectories, even our loves, our commitments. Just as a reminder – some of you may not have heard Billy’s announcements – if you’ve not received this Mission Conference booklet, which highlights our faculty, our schedule, some of the things that we have celebrated that have been accomplished this past year for which we are so deeply grateful, I encourage you to take it. We’ve got hundreds of these around the building. Take them and read them. There’s also this World Watch List that we are using throughout our praying ministry throughout the church. It’s thicker this year than it’s been in past years because there’s much more conflict, there’s much more persecution around the world. These are all around the building. They’re free; take them and use them in your own time with the Lord with your family and by yourselves.
But our theme this year for the Mission Conference is, “How Shall They Hear?” And we think about the countries represented by the flags that hang here in the sanctuary, and you may want to take a moment to look at the back right of the sanctuary. That blue and yellow flag is the Ukrainian flag where today we have missionaries who we love and know personally, they are dear friends of ours, they were here this past summer, who are in western Ukraine right now. They chose not to leave because they wish to represent the love of Christ about which we sang earlier in our service, to people who are terrified, who have no idea whom to trust and how to move forward. They are staying in Ukraine because we are praying for them and we have sent them. Let me let that hang for a moment. It’s not just the news. These are dear friends of ours. And we have the privilege of praying for them and standing with them and cheering them on no matter what the cost.
The question that hangs before us, the reason we are engaged in mission, is the theme of our conference this year – “How Shall They Hear?” And I want us to think about that question, it’s in the middle of a series of questions that frame the structure of mission, what must be the fuel of mission for us to be fruitful in it. Let’s take a moment to pray and then we’ll read the text from Romans 10.
Father, we commit to You this time of reading and reflecting upon Your Word. Cause it to be not just understood but may it be celebrated as we delight ourselves in the high privilege of being summoned and sent forward to engage in the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ as we lift high His cross and the love that is declared to us through that cross. Make this message known throughout the world to the end that we would see Jesus with joy and with confidence as we are ushered into His presence. We ask this in His precious and holy name, amen.
Romans chapter 10, verses 13 through 15. The apostle Paul writes:
“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
This is God’s Word.
I’d like you to think about these questions that the apostle Paul asks because in these questions he highlights five components that have to be present in the mission to which we have been called. He asks the series of questions in verses 14 through 15 that point to five words. And I’ll give them to you in reverse order, the reverse of how he mentions them. He mentions sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling on God. This is the structure of mission. Without these five components, anything we do and call “mission,” really is shortsighted and incomplete. These are the five components that have to be at work in every country represented by each of the flags hanging in this sanctuary. Sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling on God.
Let me show you why this is so important. We evangelical Christians in this country tend to have our slogans, our aphorisms, our proverbs by which we try to describe the Christian life. Some are more helpful or less helpful than others. One of the less helpful ones has been attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, though if you do the research you discover he never said it or wrote it; it’s just assigned to him. And it goes something like this. I’ve even heard it said here – “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” Now the idea behind that is, of course – words sometimes – actions speak louder than words sometimes, and we do need to care very much about how our actions are reinforcing what we are saying. But if we are preaching the Gospel without words, it would be like being sent to the border of Ukraine and Russia to negotiate a peace accord, and “if necessary, use words.”
The same is true here in mission. There has to be a proclamation that is central to what we are called to do. Mission is proclaiming the verbal Gospel verbally and intelligibly to all people everywhere. And the challenge with that is that out of the 8 billion people, nearly, on the planet – we have 7.95 billion people on the planet right now – we’re told that we’ll hit 8 billion people by the end of the year. Out of nearly 8 billion people on the planet, more than 3 billion are unreached with the Gospel, with this message that is central to the cross of Jesus Christ. You’ll read in a note from David Strain at the very beginning of this booklet about those statistics and what yet needs to happen for the Gospel to reach those 8 billion people. And for those 3.2 billion people, five things must happen. Here they are – someone must be sent, that sent one must preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “the Gospel of the kingdom,” as Jesus calls it. Third, the preached Gospel must be heard intelligibly and it must be understood. Fourth, the understood Gospel of the kingdom must be believed. And fifth, finally, that belief must lead the hearer to call on God for salvation. There it is – sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling on God for salvation. My goal today – I’m preaching morning and evening – is to touch on those first two requirements this morning and the final three this evening.
Sending
And so for our purposes this morning, I want us to think first of all about sending. Verse 15, Paul asks, “How are they to preach unless they are sent?” Several years ago I preached a sermon here that made a case for understanding that the book of Romans as a whole is a missionary support raising letter from the apostle Paul to his supporters in Rome, supporters whom he had never before met. And the idea goes back to the idea that if you read the book of Acts, Paul’s main supporters were in his initial sending church, way in the far east in Antioch. And those churches in and around Antioch had supported him to get the Gospel all the way across that known part of the world all the way up to Rome where Paul was preparing to go as he is writing this letter. And then he says in this letter toward the end of Romans chapter 15, he says – here’s the financial ask – chapter 15 verse 20, “Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing” – here it is – “as I go to Spain, so to be helped on my journey there by you.”
And he repeats his intention in verse 28 of chapter 15. “When, therefore, I have completed this” – that is, taking a financial gift to the struggling believers in Jerusalem – “When I have completed this and delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.” So Paul understands that his sending church, way in the far east in Antioch, has gotten him all the way up to going to Rome but they are too far from Spain so he needs a new sending church, a support base, and he writes this letter, sends it by the hand of Phoebe, who is talked about in verse 16, a business woman who is going to Rome. He puts this letter in her hand, scholars believe, she takes it there, they read the letter which talks about the glory and the wonder of what the Gospel is, and Paul is saying, “If it’s so good, how could you possibly enjoy it all by yourself? Don’t you want it to go farther? To the places where it’s not yet reached? Don’t you want to be part of that group that sends me on my way? I’m coming to you so that you can help me get there.” That’s the book of Romans. At the very beginning of Romans and at the very end of Romans, the first paragraph and the last paragraph has this repeated phrase – “This Gospel must go to all the nations.” That’s how he starts and that’s how he ends. All in between is the glory of the Gospel. How can you be content to enjoy it as if it were all about you? And so we begin with sending. “How will they preach unless they are sent?”
This is the eighth Mission Conference that I have participated in here at this church. Prior to that, this church sent my family to eastern Europe and this church supported us generously, enthusiastically, prayed for us, some even came to see us in eastern Europe. And now it’s been such a great privilege to be part of a church that sends, that takes this calling seriously. And there’s been a whole spectrum of sending that we have invested in. On one hand, on one end of the spectrum, you have the sending of people who most of us have never met. People who have been sent to Afghanistan and to Bhutan and to China and Pakistan and India and Tunisia, Iraq, Uzbekistan. Do you know what all of these countries have in common? Their flags are hanging here. They’re countries that are in this book. These are the most dangerous countries to live in and to serve in as a follower of Jesus, and yet this church is resourcing and sending men and women who are in those countries sharing the Gospel today. And you’re sending them there. Your faithfulness in giving and in praying is keeping them there, in places where you and I could not get into. And even if we could, we couldn’t speak their language to make Jesus known. And yet they are doing it today because you are sending them. That’s something we are going to celebrate for all eternity. That’s one end of the spectrum. We are sending people who we have never met, most of you have never met.
On the other end of the spectrum of our sending is taking those who are most precious to us and saying to them, with a lump in our throat, “Yeah, we’ll let you go. Sure, we’ll participate in sending you,” and we take those who are most precious to us and we send them away to places that we, today, can’t get to. I’m thinking about Cory and Heather Brock, who we love dearly. I’m thinking about Ethan and Juliette and Ames and Lewis, now in Edinburgh, preaching this Jesus because we in this church have given up what was precious to us and said, “Yeah, we’ll send you,” and we are supporting them generously and enthusiastically. And then there’s a sending all in between. I think about our friends, whose names I won’t mention because all of this is being transcribed and we don’t want to put them in greater danger, but they’re serving in Ukraine now. Dear friends, grew up in Dallas, have every reason to have left the country and go back where it’s safe in Dallas, and instead they said, “No. We want to make Jesus known to people who are terrified because of the hope of the Gospel.” We are sending them.
And then in the middle of that you realize that you and I are the sent ones. Think of Jesus. Just before He ascended into heaven, He said in John 20:21, “As My Father sent Me, so I send you.” We’re not just the senders. We are the sent ones. “How will they preach unless they are sent?” You have been sent. I have been sent. And we together send those to go to places where we can’t get access today. There is the sending. That is the first part of the structure of mission.
Preaching
Secondly, there is the preaching. Verse 14, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” Brother Ken talked about this earlier. It is the name of Jesus and the message of the Gospel on the lips of people who claim it as their very own hope for life and all eternity. But it’s not just information; it is authoritative proclamation. Not the authority of the preacher or the one speaking; it is the authority of the King of the universe that goes through this preaching that Paul speaks of. It is a message that is being proclaimed, heralded not as information like an infomercial or a social media post that you can just sweep by or change the channel with no real consequence. It is an authoritative proclamation of the message of the King with eternally binding consequences. It is a summons to a response. That’s the preaching that Paul declares to be central in the mission. Jesus Himself, again, just before He ascended into heaven said in Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples.” That “therefore” means, “You’re going with My authority, not your own. You are going not because you think this is a good idea or will necessarily turn out well. You are going because I have all authority and have entrusted it to you. Go, with My authority, with My message, and proclaim the truth.”
The point is, mission requires sending and it requires preaching. It requires, it demands the proclamation of the eternal Word of God which is binding, which is a summons to response. It is an authoritative proclamation of the message and the invitation of the King of the universe. What that means very simply is that mission, while things like medical missions and dental missions and mission where we do education, mission where we do camps, mission where we dig wells, mission where we deal with poverty and social needs, all of those things are good, they’re helpful, but they are never ends in themselves. They cannot be; they must not be. They are platforms upon which we stand to proclaim the Gospel. All of it is a means toward the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mission demands the authoritative message of the King.
What is that message? We can make it very brief. We’ll talk about it more this evening. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1, “I would remind you of the Gospel I preach to you as of first importance. That Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and He appeared personally to hundreds of His followers, and last of all He appeared to me.” There’s the message that must be authoritatively proclaimed as an invitation to respond. The exchange of what the cross is – our sin going to Jesus where He was treated as our sin deserved and His righteousness coming to us so that the Father in heaven looks at us and sees us as perfect and holy and righteous, even now, as Jesus Himself is. That message has to be proclaimed for it to be genuine mission.
Or put it even more briefly, Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 – “God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and He has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” There it is. That message has to be proclaimed in each of those countries represented by these flags and to the remainder of 3.2 billion people who are yet to be reached before the King returns. That’s the fuel of mission. It is sending, it is preaching, it is hearing, it is believing, and it is calling upon the name of the Lord, all to the end of what the book of Revelation describes in ways that we cannot even now imagine.
We’ll come to the final three of these mission components this evening, and I encourage you to return to look carefully at the rest of that, but where all of this is headed is talked about in Revelation 7 verse 9 where the apostle John writes, “And after this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’” This is where mission ends and it’s where the eternal celebration, the adventure of celebration begins. It’s pictured for us so beautifully in the very last paragraph of The Chronicles of Narnia. I’ll end with this. I struggle to get through it because every time I read it my heart starts pounding with excitement and anticipation. This is in The Last Battle, the last page, the last paragraph of C.S. Lewis’, Chronicles of Narnia. And there, Aslan is talking to the children and he says, Lewis writes:
“As Aslan spoke, he no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now, at last, they were beginning chapter 1 of the great story which no one on earth has ever read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
What will get us there? According to Paul – sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling upon the name of the Lord. This is mission. This is our privilege. This is the fuel that will finish the mission. Praise God that we are called to take a part. Let’s pray.
Father, we commit ourselves to You afresh as we have been invited to pray with the prophet Isaiah, “Here we are, Lord. Send us.” Do You think You might could use us? Do You think there’s a part that I might play, Lord Jesus, in finishing Your mission? Here we are. Send us, use us, and accomplish great and mighty things through us that we cannot now imagine. For the sake of the Lamb who gave Himself for us, that we might celebrate for all eternity His glory and worth, even Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.