This morning we are going to talk about missions. Last year I preached a message by the same title called "Why Missions?" In that message we dug deep into a passage of scripture from the book of Titus to discover the reason we involve ourselves in trying to tell other people the story of God’s love for them in Jesus Christ. Today we look at the same question but with a different passage of scripture, John 3:16.

John 3:16 is without question the most familiar verse in all the Bible that tells clearly the story of God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ. Max Lucado calls it the "Hope Diamond" of the Bible. However it is one of those verses that often because of its familiarity can somehow cause us to forget its truth, power and life. During our recent series on Jonah, I was drawn back to this verse as I saw it revealed in God’s compelling Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh his message. It has become fresh and alive to me as I read the stories of the missionary journeys of Paul in the book of Acts. I have had moments of weeping openly before God as the strength and majesty of this verse swept over me. So it is for many reasons I want us to ask the question, "Why Missions?" and answer it through the words of John 3:16.

Three weeks ago our own Jason and Amanda McCall joined 80 other missionaries as they were commissioned as career missionaries with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to go to Northern Africa. Jason grew up in this church. His parents, bother and sister-in-law and grandparents all claim this church as home. Jason was called into ministry through this church. He spent over a year serving us in collegiate ministry here as recently as this past July. They have a precious young daughter, who is just turning two.

So with all of those roots and ties to this place and this community, why would someone want to leave all that is known and go to a place that is unknown and do something that they have never done before? Why? In Jason’s words: "It began with one cup of coffee on the very last day of a vision trip to Northern Africa. The missionaries said, ‘We need college students,’ and as a collegiate minister, I promised I would send them. Five years and 70 student summer missionaries later, God called me to go back." (www.imb.org, 11/19/2007) Another missionary, Glynis Miller, said, "As a preschooler…I gave my Mom a note while skating on our driveway: ‘God’s sending me to the mission field.’ Now 48 years later, God’s sending David and I to Guatemala."

Why would people like Jason and Amanda, and others commissioned that night, JHS senior Molly Brown, who recently gave her life to missions, and all those who are serving or who have served in any mission calling say, "God needs me to put my body into the message of his love"? Why can’t they just pray more? Why can’t they just give more? Why can’t they just study more and teach more about missions? Why would any clear thinking person imagine that someone they had never met need to hear a story they have never heard from someone they have never known? The answer is that that is what God did when he wanted the world, the entire world, to know of his love for them. For thousands of years he had tried to get people to understand the love he had but at last he knew that it would take the sacrifice of one closest to him, his Son, to tell the story. That is why John would record, " For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

The story behind this sentence is vital for us to understand its impact. While Jesus was teaching in the city of Jerusalem a very religious Jewish leader named Nicodemus came to him at night to discuss Jesus’ teachings. After some questions and answers they tossed back and forth, Jesus said to Nicodemus, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Max Lucado says that what Jesus was telling him was, "Your best won’t do. Your works won’t work. Your finest efforts don’t mean squat. Unless you are born again you can’t ever see what God is up to" (3:16 The Numbers of Hope, p. 4). He was saying that unless God exerts his effort on your life and unless God restores the beauty of your life you can forget about eternity."

It really is all about eternity for us a Christian. Saying that doesn’t ignore the depth of human need that God agonizes over in our world. It doesn’t deny that you and I are to be his instruments of serving for a world that needs help and hope. It means that ultimately all that we do humanly is a bridge to what matters finally and that is eternity. That all people, everywhere, will live forever one of two places after they die, in heaven or in hell. It means that this experience of being "born again" and this reality of living forever is not something that human beings can figure out on their own. It is not something that is intuitive. That is why God sent Jesus into our world to be that message. It is why we must be more than prayers and givers and learners of this story but also tellers of this story.

So, why missions? We become personally involved in missions because we have a story to tell about God who loves us all unconditionally. John 3:16 begins with, "For God so loved the world…." It all starts with God. God has a love for all people that is not based on our efforts, our behavior, our worth, our value, our goodness or our achievements. Neither does he count us out as objects of his love because of the evil, immorality, wickedness, corruption or unspeakable sins of our lives. No, his love is not based on anything good or bad, positive or negative, worthy or unworthy about us. He loves us unconditionally. The object of this love Jesus said was "the world." This didn’t mean the planet but the people who completely rejected him and rebelled against him and want nothing at all to do with him. We are the objects of his love. It is a love that says, "I don’t like what you do but I love you regardless." Why would a love like that be something we would want to keep secret? We do missions because we have a story to tell about a God who loves us all unconditionally.

Another reason we do missions is because we have a story to tell about a God who made an unimaginable sacrifice. John 3:16 continues, "…that he gave his only Son." God’s love for the world did not stand at a distance and wonder what could be done. His love for the world was shown and seen by the unimaginable sacrifice of his only Son, Jesus Christ. God "gave" his Son to the world by sending him into the world as a man who began life, as we all do, as a baby. Yet God also "gave" his Son by allowing his Son to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. It was not something that he was forced to do but it was something that his love compelled him to do. God loved the world so much that he gave to the world and for the world that which was most precious, costly and valuable to him. He did that not as an example for us but to save us from our sins. Every parent who has wept deeply for the sacrifice of his or her child in Iraq or Afghanistan is only a hint of the depth of the unimaginable sacrifice that God has made for us. Why would a sacrifice that unimaginable be something we want to keep secret?

We do missions because we have a story to tell of a God who has made an unlimited offer. John 3:16 says, "…so that everyone who believes in him…." The driving reality is that this unimaginable sacrifice is for everyone—regardless, just regardless—it is for everyone. It means it is an unlimited offer. Try for a moment to put a name or a face around the word "everyone" and see where it leads you. It means every sadistic murderer and every Sunday School mother. It means every person in Jonesboro and every person in Jakarta. It means everyone—whoever, wherever, whatever, whenever, however—it is an offer for everyone.

Yet the offer is not to just to know the story of this unconditional love and unimaginable sacrifice but to believe this unlimited offer, accepting it for yourself. The idea behind "believe" is not just to acknowledge something to be true like saying, "I believe today is Sunday." No, it is an action that takes people out of themselves and makes them one with Christ. In other words, our belief in God’s story, our acceptance of this unlimited offer, changes my life, redirects my life and connects my life to Jesus himself. That is what God asks of us, to believe, to accept his unlimited offer for everyone by making it personally our own. Why would an offer like that be something we would want to keep secret? We do missions because we have a story to tell about a God who has made an unlimited offer to everyone!

Still we do missions because we have a story to tell about a God who has made a promise that is unshakable. John 3:16 says, "…will not perish." God has a love that is unconditional. In his only Son he has made a sacrifice that is unimaginable. The offer of this love and sacrifice is unlimited. Yet all of this is to prevent something for each person that we are destined for without God’s action. The Bible calls it perishing. The word means to be ruined totally. Most of what happens to us in this life we can recover. There are some things we can’t. Human beings, all human beings, are going to be totally and utterly ruined, lost and cut off from God unless something is done for us. That something that was done for us was Jesus’ death for us on the cross.

But here is the good news: God makes an unshakable, absolute promise that everyone who accepts the unlimited offer of his Son for themselves will not perish, will not be utterly lost, will not be cut off from God. In fact his word to us is that once the offer is accepted then the direction of our eternity is immediately redirected toward eternity with God. That promise cannot be changed or altered or reversed for any reason on earth. It is an absolute, final and completely unshakable promise – "will not perish!" Why would we want to keep a promise so unshakable a secret?

There’s one last reason we do missions and that is because we have a story to tell about a God who gives an unending gift. John 3:16 says, "…but have eternal life." Here it is again: eternity. This is God’s goal for every person who has ever breathed life. His goal for them is not just a life that is meaningful now but also one that lasts forever and that "forever" is everything that is best and wonderful. His passion, longing and desire is that everyone in whom there is a heartbeat find their ultimate life with him in heaven for all eternity. But we can’t have that without one thing: eternal life. Life that doesn’t end and isn’t ours to make or create on our own; it’s a gift that he gives freely to everyone who accepts it. Think about it: Every thing that people stood in line for this past Friday to give for Christmas will not last. I don’t care what it is—it won’t last. It is not an unending gift. Yet the gift that God gives—eternal life—is a gift that will never end because it lasts forever. We think people aren’t "standing in line," really waiting for the gift of eternal life. Yet how do we know if we don’t tell the story? Why would we want to keep a story about a gift like this a secret?

I want to show you something that visually impacts us with the need to not keep this story a secret. The International Mission Board website has a page called "The Unfinished Task Clock." At 5:26 a.m. this past Tuesday the population of the world was 6,81,789,702. People hearing and believing the gospel was 735,347,558. People hearing and not believing the gospel was 2,581,381,296. People not having an opportunity to hear and believe the gospel was 3,365,313,388. What convicted me was that the numbers kept changing even as I tried to write them down. That’s because the world keeps changing—people are continually born and continually die, continually believe the gospel and continually reject it and the number of people who may never hear continually grows unless someone is telling them the story! That is the reason we do missions!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

We know a story about a God with an unconditional love, an unimaginable sacrifice, an unlimited offer, an unshakable promise and an unending gift for everyone in the world! Why would we want to keep that a secret?

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org