This title may be a shock to some of you, but we have been saying this for years. Neither Jesus or any of the New Testament Apostles ever advocated support by foreign funds to indigenous pastors or churches. John was the last of the Apostles to live, and one of his closing word to an elder was, “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul” (3 John 2). There was no promise of monthly support or large sums of money being sent. For Jesus, Paul, John and others, the greatest concern was their spiritual prosperity.
To the same point, Oswald Smith says, “The work should be self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating, and that from the first. No one can be healthy and strong while leaning on another. And, the habit once started is hard to break. Churches have become weak and indolent rather than aggressive and powerful as a result of foreign support. The vision of evangelism and its responsibility has been lost, and the outcome, in many cases, has been most disastrous.” (1) If the habit of promoting foreign support is not supported from Scripture, where did it come from? I firmly believe that it is rooted in our lack of understanding the power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. If it were our constant desire to allow these two divine resources to motivate, guide and supply what is needed, we would see expansion that copies the Early Church. Just so I am clearly understood, I am making a distinction between support for the indigenous work and freedom we have in Christ to help messengers of the gospel plant the seed and start churches. Philippi was a great encouragement to Paul in this way, though Paul worked with his own hands to supply his needs. But there was never a long-term supply network for the indigenous church. Let us make sure we promote a biblical approach to missions that will have this biblical factor in place. (1) Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions, page 133.
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It is impossible for America or any other country to send out enough missionaries to take the gospel to every people group around the world. That is why we promote Paul’s method as a biblical method, and that is why Oswald Smith said, “we can, with a few missionaries, train enough native workers to evangelize every nation (people group). That was the policy of Jesus. He trained the twelve, then the seventy-two, and sent them forth (Matthew 10:5-15; Luke 10:1-12). Let us follow His example. Let every one of our missionaries choose and train his twelve and his seventy-two.” (1)
The nay-sayers who have never tried this will insist that it will not work. It will not work for them because they have never tried it and relied on the power of Scripture and the Holy Spirit. We have current proof that it works. God is moving in certain parts of the world through this principle. What we have seen has totally convinced us of the truth of God’s Word and we will follow this principle as long as God gives us breath. Will you? (1) Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions, page 132. “The vision of the whole field, the whole world must always be kept in view. As soon as converts are won to Christ and a church formed, elders should be appointed to act as overseers of the flock, and the missionary passes on, following the example of Paul, to evangelize other fields.” (1)
Over the years, there has been a practice of missionaries staying in one location for long periods and eventually the missionary becomes a pastor of the native church. This was NOT Paul’s practice. Acts 14:23 clearly shows that Paul and Barnabas equipped the newly planted church with their own “elders…in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” For any church to become spiritually healthy, they must be encouraged by this action so they take responsibility for their own growth and maturity, self-sustaining and self-propagating. No child will learn to walk on their own unless we take our hands off them. Will they struggle to start with? Yes, but through the Holy Spirit in them, they will be strengthened. The act of prayer and fasting is an indication of the level of trust Barnabas and Paul had in the Lord Jesus as the Head of His Church and the Holy Spirit who sealed the Church as belonging to Christ. I firmly believe that following Paul’s model is an indication of how we trust divine persons. (1) Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions, page 132. “Our business is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit; in the taking out of “a people for His name.”
We are not to major on hospitals or give ourselves over to medical work. We are not to erect schools and colleges and spend time educating the heathen. We are not to give ourselves primarily, to the social, political and industrial betterment of those who have no interest in Christ. Nor are we to introduce our Western civilization in an effort to change the manners and customs of the people – only to get a hearing of the gospel. Our work is to preach the gospel and we must not be sidetracked. Institutional work puts the cart before the horse. The gospel must be first. Let us put our money into the souls of men, and our investments will stand forever.” Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions, page 131-132. “No missionary must be engaged (in missions) who doubts the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, His vicarious death, salvation by faith, the need of regeneration, the inspiration of the Bible, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and His pre-millennial Coming, etc. To support any other is nothing short of a tragedy. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We must see to it that our money is not used to help the enemies of the Gospel.”
Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions, page 131. Literally hours before Jesus was on trial and then crucified, He was giving final instructions to His disciples before all the traumatic events began to unfold. Just before His prayer to His Father, Jesus makes this observation to the disciples; “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me” (John 16:32).
This statement may have been a paradox to the disciples, and it may be to us. There are times when we feel abandoned by even our closest friends as Jesus was, or by those we associate with at work or in ministry. There could be a thousand reasons for this to happen, but that is not the point here. Jesus could have become bitter knowing that His closest friends would forsake Him in the hour when He needed the support most. That was impossible! Jesus chose to focus on the fact that His Father was with Him through every painful hour of mistreatment, except for three. So often people (Christians) tell me that no one knows what they are going through and they feel very much alone. We must remind ourselves that human relationships will never rise to the level of friendship in Jesus (John 15:13-14), nor how close God is in our times of trial and loneliness. As God told Joshua, so He tells us; “I will not leave you, or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5c; Hebrews 13:5c). Just when you think you are all alone, remember these words and turn to Him for comfort and strength in mutual fellowship. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 5:8). I came across a quote from A. W. Tozer that reminded me of much of Paul’s life. “Most of the world’s great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his (her) saintliness.” (1)
There is no doubt that Paul knew loneliness, not just by circumstances, but because very few shared his understanding of things revealed by the Spirit, and his deep passion for serving the Lord no matter the cost. In his loneliness, he maintained a confidence we need to emulate: “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So, I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.” (2 Timothy 4:16–17). Notice that being alone did not deter Paul from “fully” proclaiming the gospel (See Acts 20:24). Those who know their calling from God are not afraid to be alone if necessary. (1) Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Christian Publications, 1966, page 168. Jesus referred to Himself as the “light of the world” (John 8:12), but many refused to walk in the light Jesus brought because it exposed where they were in their sin. Many feared coming to the “light [that] has come into the world, [because] people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works [are] evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (3:19-20). There is even a psychological or mental gravitation to darkness because people think it will hide what they are doing. From David’s experience with God, he said of God, “even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You” (Psalm 139:12).
How does God want us to act in response to the light? Jesus gives us the answer John 3 right after the verses quoted above; “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (3:21). John takes this idea of coming to the light a step further; “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). When we understand that God’s light in Jesus does more than expose our condition, but also shows how to be cleansed and freed from sin, we begin to enjoy a fellowship (close association and mutual relationship). The more we understand God’s purpose in this, the more we will want His light to govern and control all we think, say and do. HOW IS YOUR FELLOWSHIP? The conversion and life of Paul is an amazing testimony and example. In his own words, Paul recounts the commissioning from the Lord Jesus for the ministry, even to the Gentiles.
“And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me’” (Acts 26:15–18). As Paul’s eyes were opened at his conversion, so would the eyes of those he was sent to, be opened by the power of Christ in the gospel. They would see light as Paul did; spiritual light that dispels the darkness of sin and rebellion against God. Jesus the “light of the world” (John 8:12), had completely changed Paul’s darkness in his soul to the light. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). If that light is not shining in your heart and life, you will never have the ability to deliver it to others. If you have ever experienced complete darkness when you can’t see your hand in front of your face, you know the sensation of desperately wanting light to break into the darkness quickly. Now, place yourself in the shoes of those who live in darkness and have never seen light. They have no concept of what light is and what it reveals. So it is with everyone who has never received the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Israel lived for centuries in spiritual darkness because of disobedience and turning from the true God to the empty gods of the nations.
Isaiah lived in those conditions, yet was true to his calling by God to proclaim light through the Word of the Lord. At one point, Isaiah prophesied that “Galilee of the nations…the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-16). Notice that God’s word through the prophet is spoken as if it had already happened when in fact it would not come for almost 700 years through the birth of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus makes a similar, but much more far reaching proclamation in Matthew 24:14; “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations [people groups] and then the end will come.” THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL WILL REACH EVERY PEOPLE GROUP! Jesus never raised money or campaigned for this worldwide endeavor. He never built an organization or established an educational center. He only told His disciples, “GO!” (28:19), AND THEY WENT! Luke gives us a first-hand account of how these disciples were driven by the light of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry the light of the Savior to the ends of the earth. Are you a true disciple? What are you doing with the light in you? See Matthew 5:14-16. |
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