The Importance of Missions and
Missionaries; 3Jo 5-7
3 John 1:5
Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren,
and especially {when they are} strangers;
As we grow and advance and
come to understand grace one area which is to impact us is in the arena of our
own hospitality, and especially to those who have dedicated their life to the
communication of God’s Word. Gauis is being praised
for his generous support and hospitality toward the travelling evangelists and
missionaries. We see in verse 6 that he sends them on their way. The verb is
not apostello [a)postellw]
which is the verb related to the noun apostollos,
from which we get our word “apostle”; it is a different word, an adverbial
participle of means. Actually the way the sentence reads in the Greek is “you
will do well by sending them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of
God.” The main verb in this second part of the clause is “You will do well.” So
sending them out is a key word in understanding the role of missionaries.
Verse 7 goes on to say
they “went forth for His name’s sake.” They are going forth because of who
Jesus Christ is. The “name” is Scripture brings into focus that person’s
character, who they are. They go forth because of who
he is, and the verb here for going forth is exerchomai
[e)cerxomai]
which means to go forth, to go out from or to go out of. So they are sending
these people forward, and that brings up the entire concept of missions.
What is the biblical foundation
for missions? There is a lot of confusion about what missions
is and there are some technical aspects of the definition that those
write on this subject deal with.
1. The idea of sending authorised and trained people. They
are people who are designated by a local church, recognised by a local church,
to carry out a specific task related to evangelism and biblical training. They
are people who are identified and recognised by a local church. They should not
be people who simply jump up and do it on their own. The biblical model is that
we see them set apart by a local church and sent forth. They may not be
supported only but they have that local church grounding.
2. They are trained. That training
does not have to be formal seminary training but there needs to be some sort of
training. People need to be trained and taught in skills related to teaching
the gospel, skills related to working with people in cross-cultural circumstances.
The main idea in missions per se is
cross-cultural. It may not necessarily involve a cross-language situation. Another
category that usually fits under missions is the support of seminary and Bible
colleges for the training of people who can operate in these areas. It has been
a standard way of approaching missions in many churches to classify missions in
terms of foreign missions and home missions. Home missions would include a lot
of kinds of cross-cultural evangelistic operations, but it could also include
Christian camping and other things of that nature. But we can probably cover
all this by saying it is crossing language and/or cultural division. The first
point that had to do with training people takes up the importance of seminaries
and Bible colleges and Bible institutes. Their purpose is to communicate the
gospel and to teach the Word of God and the whole realm of Bible doctrine
beyond the cultural border of the local home church. After there evangelism there
has to be training and teaching converts the whole counsel, to then go on and
train indigenous leaders and to establish a self-governing indigenous church—the
ultimate goal. Establishing an indigenous church may even take a century or
two.
3. Technical definition:
Missions technically refers to a form of cross-cultural evangelism with
designated individuals who are set apart by a local church to carry out the
work of communicating the gospel, teaching the Word of God and the whole realm
of Bible doctrine, with the end result of creating a self-supporting indigenous
ministry. Part of any such endeavour involves the training and preparation of
those involved to actively handle and teach the Word of God. Thus the support
of such training institutions is also a part of missions.
If
we define missions as cross-cultural evangelism where we are sending the
message of the grace of God into a hostile culture then our first example of
that occurs in Genesis 3:15, right after the fall. The earth is now a hostile
environment—“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed
and her seed.” This is the first indication of the gospel. The first seed is a
reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, and notice that this is one of the very few
places where the term “seed” is related to a woman. The seed is usually related
to the male, not the female. Here it is the seed of the woman and it is specifically
related to the virgin birth. So we see that God has a plan to penetrate the
rebellious human viewpoint pagan culture of man from the beginning. The next example
we see of God penetrating the world with the truth of the gospel is with Noah
in Genesis 6:3ff. God gave 120 years of grace before judgment. Noah got
involved in a 120-year evangelistic ministry. One of the great lessons to learn
from Noah is the lesson of perseverance, because Noah did not have a single
convert. God’s standard isn’t numbers, it is: Are you faithful to my Word and
are you teaching the truth? 2 Peter 2:5 NASB “and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah,
a preacher of righteousness…” He proclaimed righteousness and the way to
righteousness through faith alone in Christ alone, promising a coming Saviour,
and was completely rejected for that 120-year period of time.
After
the flood man continued to deteriorate. Romans 1:21-23 NASB “For even though they knew God, they
did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
God is concerned about
communicating His grace in the gospel even to these rebellious peoples. So He
has a new plan, i.e. Abraham. He was not brought up in a home where he was
taught the truth. Joshua 24:2 NASB “Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus
says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers
lived beyond the River, {namely,} Terah, the father
of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served
other gods.” He came out of a home where they worshipped the moon god and all
the fertility gods that were popular in
Exodus 19:6 NASB
“and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation.” This was God’s missionary plan in the Old Testament with
Isaiah also prophesies in
several places about the impact of the gospel on the nations. Isaiah 49:6 NASB
“He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up
the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also
make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of
the earth’.”
Isaiah 56:7 NASB
“Even those [the Gentiles] I will bring to My holy
mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and
their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For
My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples [nations].” So
the Old Testament clearly prophesies an international impact of the gospel, that
God has a desire to see the Gentiles saved. This same verse is picked up by
Christ and recorded in Mark 11:17. There He is teaching in the synagogue. NASB
“And He {began} to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE
NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”