Focused on Jesus, the Missionary Call

Text: 2 Timothy 2:8-13

Focus: Jesus Example for us.

Function: To help people embrace, go along with, the sacrifice of Christ Jesus

Form: GOK

Intro:

A good friend of mine attended a Bible study that I lead in Bible College. He was an artist. God called him to leave his home, move to Quito Ecuador where he managed the print shop for radio Station HCJB.

In that position, he complete the life-work of Jim Elliott. Jim Elliott was also a missionary to Equator. He went with his companion up a long river to a tribe that had never heard about Jesus before.

In their attempts to just meet the tribe, when the tribal leaders offered some of their women to them as a token gesture of friendship, and they refused, the tribe snuck into their camp and murdered them.

Elizabeth Elliott, his wife, instead of burying her head in sorrow, getting angry with God, letting grief overtake her life, letting fear of the people who murdered her husband went back to the tribe, preached Jesus to them and many of them accepted Christ.

My friend was assigned the management of the project whereby their language was first translated into English, then it was given written words based on the English character set. The written language was taught to the people, and then, the Bible was translated and they have the opportunity to see God's revelation of Himself in the written word.

The project, from beginning to end spanned two lifetimes, 2 generations.

Some of them suffered hard. Some of them studied hard and participated in work that would seem pretty boring to a person like me. Some of them lost their lives. And no one, no one, considered the project worthless, the lives that were sacrificed for the sake of the gospel as having been wasted or any of the effort to be in vain.

These people were true martyrs, and heroes of the faith.

Not only did they bring Jesus, but they also brought better agriculture, better medicine and shored up the lives of families.

And beyond that, my friend tells me of the cultural exchange. The beauty of the people that he got to know and work with. He incorporated their art and the fabric of their culture into the teaching and work. It wasn't just a mission to turn a pre-industrial culture into a Western culture. These people were highly civilized, but not in our fashion. But they brought a relationship to Christ Jesus to them.

What if you were Jim Elliott's mom and dad? What if you were Elizabeth Elliott?

What drives people to give their lives to God and to make that kind of sacrifice?

When Christians have done so much for God and lived such sacrificial lives, what does that say about us?

When I was 13, I heard a message given to your based on Isaiah 1. God is calling out to the heavens and the earth with a plea. God says: Who will go? Whom can I send? And Isaiah answers: “Here I am God, send me.”

I responded to that message and came home. I told my dad God called me into mission work. Dad said, “no one gets called into mission work without having a place God has called them to.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but dad was asking me to ponder: “Missions, or Service to God.”

I didn’t know where, I just knew I was called, and the only foreign place I knew of, where missionaries gave their lives in service was Haiti. My youth pastor was raised on the mission field in Haiti and I heard all kinds of stories, some terrible, some wonderful, about life in Haiti, and sacrificial service to Jesus.

So, when I went to bible college, it was clear that Pastoral ministry was the track I was to take. I talked to the department head and he said this to me, I will never forget it, he was quoting Keith Green when he said: “In Matthew 28 Jesus said go. He said that to everyone. It isn’t whether or not you are called to missions, it is whether or not you are called to stay behind. “Phil” he said, “Phil, this land needs pastors who will lead people into sacrificial lives where they stop focusing on themselves and start focusing on Jesus. There is a mission field right outside the door. There is a mission field downtown in this city where people are just as desperate as they are in Haiti. You, You respond to God’s call to go, and leave the place up to God.

A few weeks ago, Ruth Woods, from Ladies aid said this to me: “Pastor, my grandson left the service of this world to join the kingdom of God. He studied and is now in L.A. starting a church. One of his parishioners needs a kidney. He got himself tested and they found him to be a match and now he is giving a kidney to God.”

Elizabeth Elliott’s husband was killed, she spent her life in the jungle, my friend, Mike gave up the comfort and security of his job here in the United States as a graphic artist to raise his kids in a foreign land and continue that work. Ruth’s grandson gave his own flesh in service of the Kingdom.

If these saints, people just like you and me, not people in ancient biblical times, but people who live in our own lifetimes can live such sacrificial lives, then why do the petty things about our own comfort, and who looked at us funny, and how our needs aren’t being met.

It isn’t about us. Paul says, Remember Jesus Christ…

I don't know how you feel about it, but when I see people like that, it seems to me that the things that I get angry and upset about are pretty petty.

Why follow this missionary call?

Focused on Jesus.

That is what Paul is talking about.

When his life is over, and they write on his tombstone, he wants this phrase: Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

This is the command, this is the call: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

Jesus Christ, raised from the dead is His gospel.

He is chained for good news. And he says: God's word reveals Jesus. He is chained for the gospel, but God's word is not chained. God’s word, not chained. Gospel=God’s Word.

God's word is good news. When I think about guys like the one who wanted to burn the Quran, or the church that says it is standing up for God's word and is abusing people are funerals, I think, apparently, they haven't read this verse.

Then we move into one of the first praise choruses recorded in Christian history.

This early Church was being persecuted. Many were killed and hunted down by the Romans, just because they believed in Jesus.

And these songs reminded them of how great and faithful God is.

This song is both a warning, and a call to remain faithful.

They were comforted with this song.

And the whole things starts with a condition. The whole song is 4 If, Then statements. If we die, we live, if we suffer, we reign, if we deny, we will be denied, if we lose heart, he won’t.

If we died with him is the beginning condition.

I loved the way Ruth Woods started her statement to me: “My grandson left the service of this world to join the Kingdom of God.”

From the King James Version, If we be dead with him.

Paul said: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live...”

When we move into that role of being crucified with Christ, we move into that role of privilege that the rest of this hymn proclaims.

If we share His death, we share His life. If we endure, we reign. If we deny, we too will be denied, but when we lose faith, He is faithful, He will help us through.

We are His body. We are His. We are His to encourage, strengthen, redeem, lead, feed, comfort, empower, equip and use.

This Hymn. Keep the faith. Don’t stop. Remember the reward. Don’t quit. And trust Him to give you the strength.

I hired a youth pastor. I told him the first day that he worked for me. “If it is up to me, you will not fail in this job.” I am here to give you whatever support, grace, forgiveness, help, encouragement, and personal discretion that you need in order to fulfill your duties to God’s family.

What I didn’t say was: “This is me, my style, my expectations, my performance standards and since you work for me, you have to adapt.”

In that last line, Jesus is saying the same thing to us. “I am here to encourage and equip you. And when you run out of gas, or ideas, or hope, or even faith, I promise to be there to assist, with my miraculous power, in your weaknesses. Just don’t quit on me.” It isn’t membership, because membership implies the privilege that the club is there to serve you. It isn’t just a partnership, because that is still a contract. This is family. More than family even. This is our body. When the knee joint doesn’t work right, we don’t cut off the leg, we go down to Dr. Poe and get it fixed right up.

During that time, we are in pain. During that time, the entire body suffers. During that time, the other bodies around us love us and are willing to help us.

So what about that denial. What about that “Just don’t quit on me?”

Think of where the Children of Israel would have been had God had not encouraged Moses when we wanted to quit on them, when his leadership caused them to endure tremendous risks and change.

Think of where the Children of Israel would have been if Moses hadn’t encouraged God, when God got tired of the way they abused Moses, or refused to have faith in Him.

If we are faithless, He is faithful. If we are faithless to Him, He remains faithful to us. If we don’t have faith, it isn’t His fault.

TLB: ¹³Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, he remains faithful to us and will help us, for he cannot disown us who are part of himself, and he will always carry out his promises to us.