Missionary Ambition Romans 15: 18-24

Romans:15: I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” 22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

(Forward) Gospel belongs to “all nations”. However, for many churches, the lives of Christians do not reflect this truth –They don’t care that their activities can fulfill the Great Commission –They don’t feel “all nations” has any relation with themselves –They care more for themselves than helping others finding their void in their eternal lives The results are reflected in the following map:

10/40

A, Unbalanced Mission In some area each missionary feed and care for people; in other areas a missionary needs to shepherd over 1 million. That’s the harvest field which mostly resides in the 10/40 window in Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, North Africa

A, Unbalanced Mission Over 90% of the residents in the 10/40 window has never heard of the gospel, even once in their lives

A, Unbalanced Mission Majority of the mission resource are spent in the 1/3 of the world where gospel are well spread, which greatly exceeds the manpower, funding, and materials resources spent in the unreached area Unreached area gets only 8% of the missionary and 1% of the resources

B, Great Challenge Challenge of poverty: 85% of the people living in the 10/40 window are amongst the poorest in the world Challenge of culture: Missionary must drop their own culture and step into a new culture with new language Challenge of religion: 10/40 window are the birthplaces of Buddism, Islam, and Indian religions. And the region also has some of the most difficult areas for gospel to penetrate

B, Great Challenge Lack of resource: Unreached area gets only 8% of the missionary and 1% of the resources Are these challenges the reason for the lack of missionaries? If we don’t have the determination for breakthrough, our mission ministry will be stagnant and stalled

B, Great Challenge Missionary scholar, Dr. Ralph Winter, said 30 years ago that unless we can correct the mistake of redistributing the manpower, resources, and prayer support, breakthrough will be extremely difficult

C, Churches need to recommit to Paul’s mission focus It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation (Romans 15:20) Result of Paul and other missionaries work, by the Third Century, there are no more Jewish Christians Result of Paul’s ministry, by the Second Century, more gentile Christian than Jewish Christians

C, Churches need to recommit to Paul’s mission focus Paul’s missionary focus is not only to pronounce the calling from Jesus, but also to clarify God’s will from the Old Testament Paul’s Calling: to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:18)

C, Churches need to recommit to Paul’s mission focus So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 15:21) God already clarify his message in the Old Testament: So he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. (Isaiah 52:15)

C, Churches need to recommit to Paul’s mission focus Calling is from individuals, but our responses should be to answer to God’s will Paul did not highlight his own calling, but rather reflects God’s will! Therefore Paul’s mission focus is to be obedient to God’s will and direct us to do the same

D, Result of an imbalanced mission ministry Difficulty of the Christians –2000AD: 2.9 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims –2012AD: 2.9 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims If we cannot follow Paul mission focus, not only can we not able to achieve a breakthrough in our mission ministry, we will likely face suffication

E, Our ( CRM ) respons –1997 The mountains of of China, Myanmar mission ministry, the main object: courageous family, Kachin, Miao –In 2001, Mongolia‘s missionary work, the main target: Mongolian and Han –In 2006, Chinese training –In 2008, the missionary work in the Middle East, the main target: descendants of Ishmael –In 2010, Afghanistan, the main target: Afghans –In 2011, northern Sichuan, China, Eastern Tibet, the main target: the Tibetan people

F, You too can share Paul’s mission Claim unreached people groups Adjust your mission fund Partner with missionaries Be a prayer warrior Participate in short term missions

Conclusion Ralph Winter :“Any one can open a door and walk through it, but only a locksmith can deal with a locked door. Missions is “locksmithing” new groups. Once the lock is open(a very special skill), expanding the number of churches is by comparison a relatively simple task. (November- December 2002 Mission Frontiers USCWM

Churches and missionaries need to share Paul’s mission focus in order to fulfill the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations