1

MISSION UNSTOPPABLE (Rev. 6:12-7:17 October 31, 2005)

This morning we have had the privilege of being a part of the second commissioning service for missionaries from our church this year. Earlier in the year we were blessed to send one family to Central Asia and now we commend to God another family to take the gospel to the Czech Republic. We firmly believe that missions is crucial for a church to be involved in. And yet, I am sure that any of you who read about trends in Australian churches are aware that the commitment of local churches to send missionaries to other countries has waned in recent years. In Australian churches the number of missionaries sent out has dropped markedly and the percentage of church giving directed to missions has dropped. Why? There are a number of reasons for this: 1. The weakness of the church. Perhaps the greatest reason for the missionary downturn is the generalised weakness of the church. We are losing our evangelical roots. We are losing the vision of seeing the Gospel triumph in distant lands. Our commitment to Scripture is waning. We are putting too many roots into the world and not enough into heaven. To send missionaries is an expensive, dangerous, arduous effort. Unless a church is strong – they won’t commit their best people, a large chunk of money and the effort to pray and support. While this is probably the main reason for the downturn in missionaries – there are other contributing reasons. 2. The inroads of universalism. Universalists tell us that Muslims and Jews and Hindus are actually our spiritual brothers – they are on a parallel path to heaven and we don’t need to evangelise them. I am fairly certain that the appeal of universalism doesn’t resonate well in this church. But the reality is that it is finding fertile ground in many churches. Go to Koorong and there you will see many books validating universalism as a theology where twenty years ago there were none.

2

3. The insidious idea that somehow we have done our job. I have divided this point into two parts. a. The concept that the task of missions is nearly done. For years we have sent out missionaries. And it is true that the church in many of these countries where we have sent missionaries is doing well – better than the church in Australia. I am going to give you a few statistics. I am sure you have heard them before:

At this time in world history – more Christians live in Asia, Africa and Latin America – than in western lands. According to Bryant L. Meyers, over half the Christians in the world live in the two-thirds World and nearly 70% of the all evangelicals live in the non-Western world. The Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, alone now contribute about 89% of the individuals who become Christians within a twenty-four hour period around the world. In Africa there are ten countries which have very large Christian majorities ranging from 69% to 92% of their countries’ populations. This area is experiencing the fastest church growth of any region in the world. For example, the Evangelical Church in Ethiopia is among the fastest growing in the world. Believers have doubled to eight million between 1984 and 2000. Then there is Latin America – the only region in the world where the number of evangelical Christians is growing three times as fast as the population. Evangelical Churches here are currently growing at an average of 15 per cent per year. Seventy million evangelicals make up around 14 percent of the region’s population of 500 million. And in South Korea we know that by 1996 there were 40,000 local congregations with over 80,000 clergymen. The total membership of the churches in South Korea at that time was 10 million, i.e. 22% of the total population of South Korea.1

Praise God for this! The Kingdom of God is advancing with power. But, the danger is that when you hear figures like this – some are tempted to say – the time when aggressive missionary work was needed has passed. It is time for the churches in each country to focus on building up its own strength. Allied with this is a second thought.

1 Cited in http://www.ad2000.org/celebrate/ezemandu.htm

3

b. The concept that it is now the two-thirds world’s turn. Along with the phenomenal growth of Christianity in the countries that were once targets for missions – has come the growth of missionaries sent out from these lands. Some more statistics:

It is estimated that the number of Protestant missionaries from Africa, Asia and Latin America in the year 2000 was about 170,000 – accounting for over 70% of the total world’s Protestant missionaries. India has over 100 indigenous mission agencies, which are sending out a total of over 12,000 missionaries. There are over 2,000 missionaries sent out by the Philippines. There are 7,000 local congregations of the Chinese churches outside Mainland China. 1,000 of these churches have sent out over 700 missionaries. In 1996, the South Korean churches had 4,402 Korean missionaries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Oceania. Many missionaries are flowing from the Brazilian Protestant churches into the unreached people groups around the world particularly Africa, the Middle-East and Southern Europe. The Evangelical Missionary Society of the Evangelical Churches of West Africa is the oldest and largest indigenous evangelical mission agency in Africa. It has about 1,200 missionaries working cross-culturally within and outside Nigeria. The Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association has over 50 member-agencies with over 3,000 missionaries.2

We hear these statistics and the unspoken thought is this. Once, we sent missionaries to those lands. The seed was planted – the baton passed. Now it is their turn. We’ve done our bit. If there is still missions work to do – these young vibrant growing churches can handle it. And along with this comes a fourth deterrent to missions. 4. The main task now is to focus on Australia. At the same time we keep hearing how well the two-thirds church is going we keep hearing how poorly Australian churches are doing. Attendance at churches drops year by year. The number of conversions decreases.

2 Cited in http://www.ad2000.org/celebrate/ezemandu.htm

4

So a number of churches have said – our focus should be here – our missionfield is here. Money that was poured into overseas missions should now be poured into local efforts. Our kids are should be called to be pastors and chaplains and evangelists and musicians – rarely missionaries. 5. The missionfield has become very dangerous. Islamic Fundamentalism is on the rise. There is no doubt that many Moslem fundamentalists see it as their sworn duty to kill those who would seek to divert Moslems from the truth. And let us not forget that fundamentalism of many varieties is on the rise – Militant Hinduism, Sheikh nationalism and fundamentalist ideologies of every stripe are on the rise. The world is a dangerous place. With so much need at home – why send our best young men and women into the jaws of the lion? 6. The missionfield has become very hard. Catholicism is digging in. Atheism is getting aggressive in its ideology. Governments are limiting the inflow of missionaries. It is getting so hard. With so much need at home – why send our best young men and women to labour for such little reward? The cumulative result is that the number of missionaries sent out has dropped markedly and the percentage of church giving directed to missions has dropped. So what do we think of this? We should feel ashamed if any of these reasons ever dampen our missionary zeal. 1. The weakness of the church. I would love to spend a lot of time talking about this. The church in the west is weak – and it does rob us of our missionary zeal. The answer is of course stronger churches. A passion to make the name and glories of Christ known here and throughout the world. 2. The inroads of universalism. I don’t think I have to spend too much time talking about this.

5

There is one way to heaven and it is through Christ and Christ alone. I doubt this would impact us here. 3. The insidious idea that somehow we have done our job. I do want to talk about this. Brothers and sisters. It is true that in the 20th century there were more conversions than in all the 19 previous centuries combined. But the task is not done till every tribe and tongue and nation have heard the gospel. And that is far from true. I want to show you a chart.

I am sure you have seen charts like this before. But I hope you understand what they are saying. I want you to look at the top line.

6

According to Barrett, Johnson and Johnstone – there are 14,000 reached people groups in the world and still 10,000 unreached people groups. What is a people group? A people groups refer to groups of individuals, families and clans who share a common language and ethnic identity. More specifically, Scott Holste, director of the IMB’s Global Research Department says, “a people group is the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering a significant barrier of understanding or acceptance.” What can happen is that we can look at this chart and say – wonderful – we have “reached” 14,000 people groups. But what does that mean? Before we get carried away patting ourselves on the back – let me remind you of what we mean by a ‘reached’ or ‘unreached’ people group. An unreached people group, Holste says, is a “people group in which the number of evangelical Christians totals less than 2 percent of the population.” The Joshua Project defines an unreached people group as:

A people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group.

They too set the figure at 2% of the population as Christian. In other words – if a people group has 2 or 3 % Christians – then missiologists class them as reached. There are enough Christians to begin to reach their people. My point is that not only are there 10,000 ‘unreached’ people groups still needing the gospel – but the truth is that many of the so-called reached groups have very small percentages of Christians. They are called reached in that there are enough Christians there if they mobilised – they could start having an impact. Let me show you another map.

7

This is a map you would have to spend some time looking at. What this map does is it assigns a colour to the most dominant religion of an area. If you look at our map – the red is Protestantism and the solid pink is non-distinguished Christianity. We find it in parts of the US, Europe South Africa and Australia and New Zealand. Yes – Protestantism and Christianity – as weak as it is – is the major religious belief here Australia. The point is that only in a few places is Christianity the major religion – and even there – it may be a very weak form of the truth. We still have a lot to do! A number of missions strategists have further refined this world view.

8

Most of the people groups still unreached by the gospel live in places stretching across the northern Africa and Asia. Luis Bush started calling this area: “the 10/40 window” because it describes the areas of Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude North of the equator to 40 degrees latitude North of the equator.

9

• Two-thirds of the world’s population -- more than 3.2 billion people -- live in the 10/40 Window.

• 95% of the people living in the 10/40 Window are unevangelised. Many have never heard the Gospel message even once. Of the 55 least evangelized countries, 97% of their population lives within the 10/40 Window.

• Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are centred within the 10/40 Window. • Half of the world’s least evangelized cities are in this window.

Well, isn’t Southern Africa and Asia closer to this area? Aren’t they best suited to reaching this area? Perhaps – but it is not happening. Bryant Myers of World Vision has estimated that only about one and a quarter percent (1.25% ) of Christian mission giving is going to missions work in the 10/40 Window. So – is the task of missions nearly done? Not at all! Here is our world in graph form:

10

Only 1/3 would even have a passing relationship with Christianity. And the vast majority of those are not Christian. They are nominal, orthodox, Catholic, cultic. The task is far from done. 4. The main task now is to focus on Australia. Don’t get me wrong, we do have to focus on Australia as well as the world. We are to reach our Jerusalem as well as the outermost parts of the world. But we still have to be reaching the world. Reach Brisbane – Yes. But don’t decrease the missions budget – increase the evangelism one. I was talking to a godly saint a whole ago who had been a missionary for many years about what was happening in their church in Brisbane. Their church was going down the church growth path. Of course this meant – a bigger building – once which will cost mega-bucks. They saw the local budget keep increasing – buildings – programs – staff – but no increase – in fact a decrease in missions giving.

11

We can’t just focus on Brisbane – believe me – Islam won’t stay so still. Bob Sjogren and Bill and Amy Stearns write that:

In north Africa, the governments of Muslim countries in one recent year spent more to promote missionary activity in eight north African countries than the total Western missionary expenditure for the entire world.

Our task is far from done! 5. The missionfield has become very dangerous. The missionfield has always been dangerous. They killed Jesus. They killed eleven of the twelve Apostles. They killed Paul. It is dangerous. But to live is Christ and to die is gain. 6. The missionfield has become very hard. It has always been hard. But let me remind you that by the power of the Holy Spirit the Gospel is bringing more into the Kingdom than at any time in history.

12

It is the Kingdom of Christ which is advancing. Jesus is building His church. He is gathering in the saints of all ages.

13

The percentage of those calling themselves Christian is dropping – but not the true Christians. The evangelicals – those who have trusted in Christ alone – they are on the move. The question is not – is Jesus building His kingdom? The question is – are we a part of what He is doing? So what is it that will spur us on to be part of the army of Christ reaching a lost world? To give us a vision for what is happening in the world – I want to look at a passage in Revelation. This passage deals with the breaking of the sixth seal.

14

Look with me at Revelation 6:12. Verses 12-14:

I looked when He [Jesus] broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

This seal signifies the end of the world as we know it. It is the culmination of all of the various judgments of God – the outpourings of wrath before the end times are also encapsulated in this seal. And this great judgment is described in terms of earthly and cosmic disturbances. The world as we know it will end and the destruction will be complete. The day will come when in the timing of God – this world will end. And every person ever born will be divided into two groups. The first group are: Those who will perish on the final day. Those who rejected Christ. Those who refused to accept the good news. We find them in verses 15-17:

Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Today, there are still countless billions who have spurned Christ. And throughout history – so many men and women have rejected Christ. The fools, the deceived, the arrogant, the blasphemous. The day of their judgment will come. The great men and women in the eyes of the world. Those who choose the things of this world and the philosophies of this world. They rejected the truth. But the day is coming when they will know who Jesus is. The Lamb – the Creator – the Judge. In that day. Men will crave death – they will run from the wrath of the Lamb.

15

In 1894, Bert Shadduck wrote a hymn entitled – I dreamed that the great judgment morning.

I dreamed that the great judgment morning Had dawned, and the trumpet had blown; I dreamed that the nations had gathered To judgment before the white throne; From the throne came a bright shining angel, And he stood on the land and the sea, And he swore with his hand raised to Heaven, That time was no longer to be.

And O, what a weeping and wailing, As the lost were told of their fate; They cried for the rocks and the mountains, They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

The rich man was there, but his money Had melted and vanished away; A pauper he stood in the judgment, His debts were too heavy to pay; The great man was there, but his greatness, When death came, was left far behind! The angel that opened the records, Not a trace of his greatness could find.

And O, what a weeping and wailing, As the lost were told of their fate; They cried for the rocks and the mountains, They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

Right now men scorn Christ.

Give me Mohammad. Give me wealth and power.

There is no God. I choose to eat drink and be merry – there is no judgment to come.

But this day will come when the patience of the Lord is ended. When His plan of judgment says time has ended. And then no one will laugh or scoff or make light of hell and judgment. Men will wish death was the end with all their soul. They will feel the full weight of their sin and know the folly of standing before the wrath of the Lamb. But all is not lost.

16

Notice in verse 17 there is a question – Who is able to stand? Chapter 7 answers this question:

Who is able to stand? The whole chapter is the answer. Here we find the second group. Those who will stand on the final day. Those who trusted Christ. Those who heard and accepted the good news. Revelation 7:1-3:

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”

In apocalyptic literature, angels are regularly viewed as God’s agents. Winds are one of the judgments. Here the angels are directed to hold back the wind – they delay this final judgment until the number of the bond-servants of the Lord are sealed. The judgment is coming and will come – but God has His people and they will be gathered in before the final judgment. They are marked out as belonging to God by being sealed on their foreheads by an angel. Later in the book of Revelation, in chapters 13 and 14 we find that all men have one of two marks – the mark of the Lamb or the mark of the Beast – and all must face the wrath of the Lamb or the wrath of the Beast. The point is this – God has His people who will stand on the final day. Who gets this mark? Verse 4:

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.

And verses 5-8 run through the 12 tribes.

17

You want to start a heated argument – get into a debate about the 144,000. I don’t have time to get into this debate this morning. If you really want to get into it – get a copy of my Revelation sermons on these verses. Let me say this. Much of the debate deals with how the two parts of chapter 7 are related.

Verses 1-8 deal with the 144,000 drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel. Verses 9-17 deal with the great multitude which no one could count drawn from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.

I believe that the text itself indicates that we are to take these as references to the same group. This whole chapter – both groups are the redeemed people of God from all ages – but they are described in this way to show that the one people of God include both Jews and Gentiles. It is not done to make a distinction between Jew and Gentile – but to show both are a part of the one true body of Christ. The 144,000 represents all the people of God. All of those Old Covenant Saints and New Covenant Saints who will stand on the final day. 144,000 is a symbolic number. 12 tribes – representing the Old Covenant saints and 12 apostles – representing the New Covenant saints. Jew and Gentile. The people of God are united – they are one. 12 and 12 or 12 x 12 – comes to represent the completeness of the people of God. And 10 x 10 x 10 – refers to completeness. These sealed ones are all the saints of all time – those who will stand on the final day. Then comes the second part of this vision. All these redeemed – from every age – they are the ones privileged to enter into the final bliss the Lamb. Look at verses 9-17:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

18

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

The picture is this. God has His people. In chapter 6 verse 11 – we read that this time is a time for the full number of saints to be gathered. In chapter 7 verse 3 – we see that this time is a time when the full number of saints are sealed. How are they gathered? When Jesus died – there were just a handful of saints. The twelve, the 120 – perhaps a few more. When Jesus returns – verse 9 tells us that the saints will consist of a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues. How did this happen? In Acts 1:8 Jesus told us that we would:

Receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

The plan to gather these saints is for us to take the gospel to the remotest parts of the earth and proclaim the glories of Christ. Acts describes how the Holy Spirit empowered fallible men and women to take the gospel to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and finally to the rest of the world. And since that time the gospel has continued to grow and spread.

19

The Lord is gathering men from every tribe and tongue and nation – every people group on the face of the earth. And we are His means for doing so. We are sent to gather the tribe of which we are a part in Brisbane. And we are to gather the post-communist Muslim tribe of Central Asia. And we are to gather the post-communist atheist tribe of the Czech Republic. Jesus called us to be a part of this great harvest. I want to leave you with one final thought. When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica – in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 he said this:

For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.

Our hope – our joy – our crown of exultation. What drives us on? What sends us to the hard places? What opens our wallets? What sends us to our knees – should be the thought of seeing men and women from every tribe and tongue and nation – gathered before the throne of Christ – on the final day. The thought that men and women are saved from the wrath of the Lamb to worship the Lamb because we were used by God to take the gospel to some of those saints. By going, by giving, by praying. Brothers and sisters – Jesus will build His church – whether we are a part of what He is doing or not. The spread of the gospel is a mission unstoppable. Yes – There is much work to be done. There are many obstacles to overcome. It won’t be easy. But, the spread of the gospel is a mission unstoppable. Nothing has stopped it – not the Jews, not the Romans, not the institutionalised church, not Islam, not the cults, not communism. Nothing can stop it. The nations will hear and be glad. They will be saved. They will appear before the throne of glory. The only question is whether we will heed the words of Jesus and join Him in taking the Gospel to the world. And whether we will join Paul in having this as our hope and joy and crown of exultation.