Act 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
This involves crossing physical boundaries, linguistic as well as cultural boundaries.
When missiologists talk about evangelism they often refer to different levels based on the boundaries that must be crossed. There are 4 levels of evangelism according to Ralph Winter.
E-O Evangelism
1. Preaching within a church setting to unbeliever, or teaching in a Sunday school class.
2. No frontiers to cross
3. No cultural distance or very little.
Ordinary or E-1 evangelism
1. Jerusalem and Judea
2. Frontiers to Cross: Between Church and World
3. Cultural Distance: Little or None
4. Examples: Sharing Christ with your unsaved neighbor
E-2 evangelism-cross-cultural
1. Samaria
2. Frontiers to Cross: dialect and culture
3. Cultural distance: Significant, not great
4. Example: Navajo Christians working with Mongolians, American working with Brazilian middle class
E-3 evangelism, cross-cultural
1. Ends of the earth
2. Frontiers to Cross: language, culture, and world view
3. Cultural distance: Great
4. Anglos reaching non-English speaking Hopis in Arizona, American missionary to China.
Evangelism must occur at all levels because there is a harvest of souls at each level if we have a clear vision, heart motivation and Holy Spirit mobilization.
Jesus addressed these elements in Matthew 9:35-38.
Mat 9:35-38 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
To reach the harvest we must have:
Clear Vision of the Challenge of the Multitudes
Heart Motivation of Compassion for the Lost
Holy Spirit Mobilization of the Laborers
1. Clear Vision: the challenge of the multitude
The first thing I notice is that Jesus saw the multitude. He took note of how many people were lost and in need of a shepherd. It was not just a few people, it was a multitude.
When we look at the statistics of the world population distribution and how many are unsaved it can be overwhelming.
World population: about 7 billion
Number of non Christians: 5.5 Billion
Total Number of People Groups: 16,700
Total Number of Unreached/Least reach People Groups: 6,900 based on 2% evangelicals and less than 5% adherents according to the Joshua Project.
About 5,900 of the 6,900 people groups live in restricted areas
86% of the world's Hindu, Muslims, and Buddhists have never met a Christ-follower
GEOGRAPHIC BARRIERS: remote, harsh climate, difficult access, or nomadic.
LINGUISTIC BARRIERS: illiteracy, no scripture in their language, unwritten language, terminology confusion.
CULTURAL BARRIERS: persecution, closed to change, Christianity viewed as a “foreign” religion.
In the past ten years for every 1 new believer in North America and Europe there have been nearly 30 new believers in developing countries like Nigeria, Brazil, India and China.
From 1985 to 2008 long-term missionaries (4+ years) sent out by U.S. mission agencies has been flat to declining.
Rise of Asian, African and Latin American Missionaries
Latin Americans: 21,000
Nigerians: 15,000
India: 40,000
Filipinos: 10,000
Chinese: 50,000
Koreans: 20,000
Only about 1 out of 10 cross-cultural foreign missionaries minister among unreached people groups.
World Religions by Population
Christians 2,292,454,000
Muslims 1,549,444,000
Hindus 948,507,000
Nonreligious 639,852,000
Buddhists 468,736,000
Chinese folk religionists 458,316,000
Ethnoreligionists 261,429,000
Atheists 138,532,000
Other 149,290,000
Source: David Barrett, Todd Johnson & Peter Crossing, “Status of Global Mission, 2010, in Context of 20th and 21st Centuries,” Int’l Bulletin of Missionary Research, Jan. 2010, p. 36.
We have to have eyes that see who is around us, what is happening around us, what are the true needs. It is easy for us to become insensitive to many things including people in need. We can pass by someone who may truly have a need but because we don’t take the time to see the need we pass on by. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to always keep our hearts sensitive to be able to see the needs around us. Becoming a World Christian will only happen when we begin to see the needs of the people around us as well as the needs throughout the world. We can become pretty focused on just doing our own thing and not consider what is truly happening around us. Missions was not on my radar screen for many years. I knew about missionaries a little bit but becoming involved in missions was not in my vision. I did not have a clear vision of the needs of the world. My life was pretty much wrapped up in what I was doing. Everything changed for me after my first short term mission trip to Mexico. I saw needs that I had never seen before as well as opportunities to impact people’s lives. I am here today as a result of that trip and am thankful that the Lord helped me get a clear vision of the needs of the world.
2. Heart Motivation: Compassion for the lost.
God wants to give us his heart for lost and hurting people. He wants us to be moved in our gut just as this word compassion means in the original Greek. When we have compassion we suffer with the people. We can see needs but if it does not affect us, does not produce compassion to want to meet the needs it really does not matter. Sometimes we see needs but we lack compassion because we think the people should do something themselves to meet their need or if they stopped doing something the need would go away. We can rationalize and judge them and not do anything to help them. We must always remember we are where we are by the grace of God and we really don’t deserve what we have but God has blessed us so we can be a blessing to others.
Jesus saw the lost condition of man and compared them to sheep without a shepherd. Sheep need a shepherd. They don’t do well on their own. They get into all kinds of trouble if the shepherd is not around. They frighten easily and panic. They eat the wrong foods and can die from it. They have to be led not driven, they follow their leader. They have no way to defend themselves like other animals that have claws or sharp teeth. They can butt heads but that is about it. They cannot run very fast so they are easily caught. They lack self-control and can literally eat themselves to death or eat until the grass is completely pulled out by the roots thus not able to reproduce and will turn lush green areas into brown dirt wastelands. If they get knocked over on their backside they cannot get up without the help of the shepherd. They have to be attended to when they are cut or the flies will cause infection and drive them crazy. I am not sure if Jesus had all these characteristics in mind when he made this statement but I have to say that all of these things about sheep have been true in my life and in the lives of others I know. Without Christ our lives are messed up!
We live in a world with horrendous things happening to people. The moral restraints that once were part of many cultures has been abandoned. I was reading an article by Greg Koukel and he described the moral slippery slope that has happened to kill unwanted human beings. It began with legalized abortion in which the baby was killed in the womb. Then it proceeded to partial birth abortion in which the baby was almost out of the womb with the exception of its head which was crushed by sucking out its brain so the head could pass through without problems. Now people are talking about after-birth abortion in which unwanted children are killed after they have been born.
The unborn need to be protected as do many other groups that are suffering and being exploited.
Orphaned Children
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
163,000,000 children in our world are orphans.
Source: www.4to14window.com “Trafficking Children, An Epidemic”
Many orphaned children live on the streets and are exposed to all forms of evil that they should not have to see or experience. Thank God for orphanages that can take them in and give them the proper care but how much better is it for them when they can be taken into a Christian family and be given godly care and love. Many churches are now challenging couple to take in orphaned children to provide a home for these children who have done nothing to put themselves in these situations.
Human Trafficking:
24-30 Million slaves
70% females
50% children
Thailand: Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but Thailand is a global sex tourism destination.
In Thailand there are as many as 60,000 prostitutes under the age of 18.
An estimated 40,000 women and young girls from Myanmar are forced into the sex industry in Thailand each year.
The UN report estimated that in Asia alone, “one million children are involved in the sex trade under conditions that are indistinguishable from slavery.”
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 1.39 million victims of commercial sex servitude domestically and transnationally.
Woman in Chains:
Over 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide are women.
Women make up over 50% of the world’s population, earn 10% of the world’s wages and own 1% of the world’s property.
Women are not permitted to own land in Colombia, Nepal, Kenya, Ethiopia, Panama, Chile, Iraq and Egypt.
Two-thirds of the 880 million adults in poor countries who can’t read or write are women.
Two thirds of all children worldwide who don’t go to school are girls.
(source: www.freetheslaves.net)
AIDS Epidemic
33.4 million worldwide have AIDS.
40% know they are infected
Observations-
Most affected regions- USA, South Africa ,Eastern Africa, India
Severely affected regions- China , Russia, Brazil, Vietnam
Less affected regions –Australia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan
The needs are great and we have to have hearts motivated by compassion to do something to make a difference in the lives of the people affected.
3. Holy Spirit Mobilization
The final part of Jesus description of what he saw and felt was a call to pray that the Holy Spirit will send laborers into the harvest field because the needs were great but also that there was a huge harvest that was ready to be harvested.
Mat 9:38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
Jesus did not call for passive prayer but for earnest prayer. The word for prayer has the meaning of binding yourself to someone and begging that something be done. Have you ever seen a child do this to their parent when they want something or as I have seen when they do not want the parent to leave. They cling to the parent’s leg and cry out for the parent to not leave them. This is the picture Jesus is communicating when he calls us to pray earnestly.
Our prayer is to be directed to the Holy Spirit who is in charge of the harvest. He is now the administrator of carrying out God’s plan to reach the nations with the Gospel message. He is in charge of sending out the laborers into the harvest field.
The Greek word for “send out” really means to thrust out with force. When I think of being thrust out my mind goes into movie mode in which you see a bouncer at a bar throwing someone out the swinging doors into the street. This is “thrusting out with force.” Perhaps this force needs to come upon people to get them to loosen their grasp on the world and everything that keeps them from going to the needy. The Holy Spirit has a way of thrusting us into situations in which we are unfamiliar and at time unwanted because that is how he can get our attention to see the things he sees and wants to do something about.
There is a new book written by a young man, Jay Milbrantd from my hometown in Minnesota called, “Go . Do.” In an article written in the Daily Globe, May 5, 2012, Jay explained how his life was changed by being thrust into an unfamiliar, unwanted environment.
Once that goal was achieved [attending law school], however, and he found himself studying on the Pepperdine campus in Malibu, Calif., Jay found the pressures and doubts overwhelming. He skipped class to attend a conference featuring lawyers “who were going into the world’s most dangerous places to help those in the greatest need.” After hearing their stories, he went home and amended his list of life goals to include “Go and do something.” He spent the next two years pondering that goal, weighing what he thought he “should” be doing as a law school student against the dare with which he had challenged himself.
After much soul-searching, he finally accepted the dare.
Malibu to Thailand
Jay arranged a summer internship with an organization combatting human trafficking and booked a ticket to Thailand.
“That was 2007. I’ve been back many times now,” explained Jay. “The Thailand experience in itself was really the major life-changing experience. I went not knowing what I was going to do. I wanted to create this film on human trafficking, had this big idea, and then when I got there I was told I would have to go out and do outreach. I didn’t want to do outreach. I thought, ‘This sounds like a waste of my time.’ I ended up going against my will and had my heart broken for these kids that I met on the street, and that became what that entire summer focused on. Those are still the kids that I go and see once or twice a year and help with their education.
Someone was praying for Jay and the Holy Spirit thrust him into a new place and from that experience his life was changed. He is now helping others have this same life changing experience. We must be people of prayer, earnest begging prayer that the Holy Spirit will thrust people into the harvest field.
As we close the service let’s be reminded again of having a clear vision of the challenge of the multitude; a compassionate heart to motivate us to action and earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit to mobilize and thrust workers into the harvest.
One final thing I want to mention is that we are often the answer to our own prayer. The Holy Spirit may desire to thrust you out of where you are to put you in a place where he can use you to reach the harvest of souls.
Be willing an open to the Holy Spirit’s work in your life to bring you to a new place.
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