For the Nations

William Carey exhorted the church of the late 18th century with these inimitable words, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Too often, the 21st century church doesn’t expect a thing from God, nor is there much an attempt to do anything great for God. Sure there are churches who have gone out on a limb through the years, but we have all become much too much like a business run corporation instead of a living breathing organism that the Word of God calls the church to be as a body.
So, with this beautiful, passionate, and longest of benedictions in Romans 16, Paul comes to the end of the greatest theological book in the Bible with much the same thought he started with, “according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations” Romans 16:26 (HCSB). He had previously challenged the church “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations, on behalf of His name in Romans 1:5 (HCSB).
If the church has been called to anything, she is called to propagate herself over and over again to any and all peoples. The call to missions rings out loud and clear for the established church to commit to no matter the size nor the financial resources. We have all rec’d the same calling.
Once we are saved, Christians are established by the truth, which explains why Paul wrote this letter: to explain God’s plan of salvation to Christians so they would be established, and so they would share the truth with the lost. After all, we cannot really share with others something we do not have ourselves (Weirsbe, Be Right).
We look around us in the US and think that all the world is like us. Certainly, if they are not, it could only be because they have rejected Jesus as Savior and Lord. Surely they have been told by someone. Yet there are nearly 1 billion 600 million people who have been given only once choice, the choice of hell. They have never even been offered the opportunity to reject the gift of eternal life though Jesus Christ our Lord. That number is staggering. The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board has right at 6000 missionaries overseas. Let’s do a little mental figuring (alright, I admit, I used a calculator). That means if every missionary was given an assignment to go to these people alone, they would have responsibility over 266,667 people per missionary. This is an all but impossible task. Now, let’s see what could happen if we released the church. There are 16 million Southern Baptists alone, but let’s admit that we can’t find most of them and could only get one out of four to buy into the vision of reaching the nations. Now, we have whittled it down to 4 million. Then, let’s get each of those to commit one week of their time every year to help established missionaries reach the nations who have never heard. We have now moved our mission force from 1 missionary to 250,000 people to 1 missionary to 400 people. A large number, yes, but it could be workable with time. What I am saying is it is possible if the church is released to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task. And we’re only one of many denominations. What if we all caught the vision to reach the nations? What could happen?
Let’s face it, Jesus didn’t just die for the south or the U.S., but for all the nations…for all. This was always on Paul’s mind and was ultimately what he gave his life for, that all nations, not just the Jewish nation, would know Jesus Christ personally.
The 10/40 window is the area of the world that extends from 40o north parallel to the 10o north parallel and includes countries such as India, China, North Korea, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Chad, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Iran, and Iraq. It is these nations that we must be willing to put ourselves in his place and understand that it is up to us whether or not this world comes to know Christ and His salvation as well. It is up to us!
We are called to the nations. When I say we, I mean each and every Bible-believing church that includes every individual. Here’s 4 reasons why I believe the Bible says to every one of us about reaching the nations.
1. Every Church Has the Power to Speak the Gospel to the Nations
We read in Romans and see the power has already been provided. “Now to Him who has power to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25a).
God has given each of us the power of His Holy Spirit that lives inside each of us. That power was never intended for us to simply consume it upon ourselves. It is working in each one of us so that we can speak the gospel to the nations.
Listen to the words of the Bible that affirms that idea:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
We have been given power not to overcome or defeat nations, but that the nations might be saved. It is the message for the nations, the Jew and the Greek and we must tell that they might believe.
If you believe this is true: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” Romans 1:16. Then we must go!!
2. Every Church Should Understand the Nations Need the Gospel (Romans 16:25b-26a)
according to the revelation of the sacred secret kept silent for long ages, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures
For eternity past, the truth that the Gospel would be shared with every nation and nationality was kept hidden. When God attempted to get his people to share the message with the nations, all they could do was avoid that task with much more fervor than they avoided worshipping other gods. As was the case of Jonah when he ran as far he could in the opposite direction.
But as much as the OT believers couldn’t understand the reason that they should proclaim God’s Word of redemption to the world, it was all the New Testament believers could think of doing. They were consumed by it.
So with their desire, God brought the nations to Jerusalem, and as we see in Acts 2, Peter preached willingly and with great power to the people that were gathered from all over the known world for the festival that week.
But our example didn’t stop there. Phillip preached to an Ethiopian Eunuch who brought the Gospel with him back to Ethiopia. Soon, Paul was called to Rome. He then felt a great desire to go to Spain as well. What was the result? The governor accused these men as the people who turned the world upside down! They took these words of Jesus as if they applied directly to them, “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations” Matthew 24:14. They could not imagine not being a central part of such an opportunity to change all the world.
3. Every Church Is Commissioned by Jesus Christ to Go to the Nations (Romans 16:26b)
We then read that it is “according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations.”
Paul’s vision of reaching all the world was being transferred to the believers in Rome. We don’t know how many people there were in that church, but we do know that there were some believers already there, and we also know that there were house churches in Rome. For instance, Priscilla and Aquila had a church that met in their house.
Whatever the actual size of this church was, it was a smaller church that Paul was sharing his vision from God with. This was not the mega-church in Jerusalem or Antioch. So, he reminds them of the commission of Jesus Christ referred to in verse 26 what is called “the command of the eternal God.” This is nothing less than the Great Commission.
His commission has not changed from when it was spoken by our Lord. Whether it be that small, fledgling church in Rome a small 21st century church in Mount Pleasant, SC. Are we only called to go and make disciples of our neighbors? No, the call is to make disciples of all nations. My concern is that we think too small too often. Let’s hear these words again for the first time:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19
And that wasn’t the first time that Jesus told us that we would have the privilege and opportunity to witness to the nations:
“You will even be brought before governors and kings because of Me, to bear witness to them and to the nations.” Matthew 10:18
4. Every Church Will Worship Jesus Christ with the Nations (Romans 16:27)
“to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Why do we go to the nations? Jesus deserves every nation’s praise. This is how this letter to the Romans ends…with worship. That is how history will end…with worship. It is what we will do in eternity…worship.
Matthew Henry reminds us that all praise is only worthy when it comes to Jesus. He tells us, “All the glory that passes from fallen man to God, so as to be accepted of him, must go through the Lord Jesus, in whom alone our persons and doings are, or can be, pleasing to God.” We will worship Jesus Christ, the King of the nations this way with these words:
“Great and awe-inspiring are Your works, Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the Nations. Lord, who will not fear and glorify Your name? Because You alone are holy, because all the nations will come and worship before You, because Your righteous acts have been revealed” (Revelation 15:3-4). There will be people from every nation there worshipping around the throne. We are called to be a part of making that happen.
Read Revelation 7:9-12 with me:
“After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! 11All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying: Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Notice that it says that it will be every nation, tribe, people, and even language. That’s people from everywhere, and we are called to be a part of insuring that that will happen. Can you say, “Wow” ?
Jesus is calling His Church, every Bible-believing church, everywhere, no matter what denomination to tell the nations. They wait to hear. What will we do? What will you do?

No Johnny Come Lately Here

In light of my last post, I feel that I need to share my history with the SBC.

I went to Sunday School at Isle of Palms Baptist Church in South Carolina. Little did I know at the age of 9 that I would one day be ordained into the ministry and serve as a deacon there.
At the age of 13, I was saved at a crusade sponsored by an SBC church by an SBC evangelist. As my family came to Christ over the next months, we chose to go to that same church. In the 1970's, our church was in the top 10 of all baptisms in the SBC. So, as a teenager, I was avidly involved in winning my friends to Christ, many of whom were saved a baptized at Southern Baptist churches.
I went to college, then after graduation, served on the mission field as a liaison between the SBC and Trans World Radio in Swaziland Africa.
Upon my return, I immediately began a new ministry as a youth minister at a church in the Charleston, SC area. I served 4 years where I was involved in the Charleston Baptist Association. It was during those years that I went to my first SBC convention, Atlanta 1986. I was thrilled to be a part of the conservative resurgence.
Over the next 25 years, I have been to multiple conventions to assure the conservatives stayed the course. Unfortunately, recently, because of health problems, I have not been able to attend many conventions, but still support our SBC through Cooperative Program giving and Lottie Moon offerings.
I went to an SBC seminary (SEBTS for the doubters) became a pastor at an SBC church, and am now a church starter fully affiliated with the SBC, the SCBC and the CBA.
Finally, my great-grandfather's grandfather was also an avid Southern Baptist as a behind the scenes founder of the this "new" denomination in 1845 (He's enshrined in the wall of Lawtonville Baptist Church in Estill, SC).

With all the boring background stuff out of the way, I need to say that I have been concerned for our convention for many years. I have experienced waste and mis-placed resources and wept as our Cooperative Program money was wasted on lavish hotels and expense accounts and excessive salaries. Regardless of the problems I personally had with these expenditures, I worked hard to get to the mission field only to be told there was not enough money to fund us. So, as a pastor, I attempted to begin an African-American work with the help of the SCBC and NAMB, once again only to be told there was no money. I then became a church starter hoping that someone, somewhere would help support our start. But, alas, I wasn't one of the few chosen ones the strategists had meticulously picked out. So, there was no money from the convention for us. All the while the WMU and the SCBC were adding staff in the convention building. They were taking our millions and putting it into what I felt was more and more bureaucracy. In an attempt to stop this, I asked at the SCBC convention in 1999 if the additional CP giving we were being asked to give as churches would be used to plant churches and do evangelism. I received no answer from the SCBC platform. I stated that I believed the extra money would only be used to fund more jobs for the SCBC's ever-increasing bureaucracy. I was summarily dismissed as the call was made for any other questions. I knew then that unless things changed, this was the plight of our convention...to sustain itself though the offerings of many churches that sacrificed their financial resources to support fluff at the top. We are told that the Christian life was one of sacrifice, yet I saw very little in our own convention.
Thank the Lord, that was then, this is now. Enter Johnny Hunt and the GCRTF. They have called for radical change, and the SBC 2010 confirmed by a 3 to 1 margin that vision. Soon our state conventions, our boards, and our committees will have to organize the GCR as they begin to place the money where it is needed most: the cities, the northeast, the west, and the nations.
I really can't believe that I have seen this in my lifetime. I am thrilled.

5 Reasons I'm Excited for the SBC's New Direction

It has been a great 3 days at the Southern Baptist Convention. We have seen the Lord do great and mighty things.

We affirmed our support for the cooperative program and increased our monies to the international mission board. All was done with such a sweet spirit even when there was dissent...as there always is.
I was able to tweet a lot. Some of the tweets about our SBC leadership got very negative and demeaning, so I tweeted this:

"Why do people claiming Christ's name spew venom? Every idle word men tweet they shall give an account. Be careful how u tweet.#sbc2010"

After that, the venomous tweets slowed to almost nothing. So, I was able to do a little for the kingdom...even on Twitter.

Now, here are the reasons for my being so encouraged for the SBC:

1. I am so excited for the future of our International Mission Board and their goal to reach all the peoples of all the nations with the the life changing message of Jesus Christ.

2. I am excited for the future of the North American Mission Board as they plant churches as never before working with the IMB to reach the 600 unreached people groups in our owen country.

3. I am excited that we will be supporting our missionaries with more money than ever before as the SBC give 51% to them for the first time in our history, and increase our Lottie Moon (International missions) and Annie Armstrong (US Missions) offering to $200 million (175m last year) and $100 million (70m last year), respectively. With these additonal offerings, we will be able to reach our nation and the nations as never before. No more retreat. No more calling missionaries home. We will not only get our IMB missionaries back on the field, we will open doors and as Jerry Rankin shared that the total propagation of the Gospel is now in reach. Is that not incredible that we are even able to say that? I never thought I would hear those words in my lifetime from an SBC leader. But they were said, and we can do it!

4. I am excited as never before for us as Southern Baptists reaching the masses in the cities, the Northeast, and the West...for the kingdom of God.

5. I am excited to see what God is going to do as we serve and obey Him as never before as a convention, through every church, every family, every believer.

Finally, I want you to READ THESE POWERFUL WORDS:
"Now to Him who has power to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the sacred secret kept silent for long ages, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations— 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to Him be the glory forever! Romans 16:25-27 (HCSB)

Jesus is worthy of every nation worshipping Him. May we all be a part of that becoming reality.

For a full report on the 2010 SBC click here.