Revelation - 3o - The Missionary Church

REVELATION – chapters 2-3 (CONT):

THE MISSIONARY CHURCH

7 CHURCH AGES

7 PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Ephesus

Smyrna

Pergamum

Thyatira

Sardis

Philadelphia

Laodicea

30 – 100

100 – 300

300 – 600

600 – 1500

1500 – 1700

1700 – 1900

1900 –

Apostolic Church

Persecuted Church

State Church

Papal Church

Reformation Church

Missionary Church

Apostate Church

Sower

Wheat and Tares

Mustard Seed

Leaven

Hidden Treasure

Pearl of Great Price

Dragnet

Jesus taught 7 consecutive ‘kingdom’ parables in Matthew 13. The parables, if understood, reveal the secrets of “the kingdom of heaven”.

Matt 13:10-12 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”

1

The Sower

The kingdom is sown.

2

The Wheat and Weeds

The enemy sows a counterfeit seed.

3

The Mustard Seed

Exponential growth of the kingdom.

4

The Leaven

Widespread corruption throughout the kingdom.

5

The Hidden Treasure

A treasure is found.

6

The Pearl of Great Price

The treasure is acquired.

The 7 parables refer to 7 church ages.

Like the other kingdom parables, the “Pearl of Great Price” parable also represents a period in Church history from approximately AD 1700 to 1900, which can be classified as the “Missionary Church”.

No

PARABLE

PERIOD

CHURCH AGE

1

The Sower

AD 30-100

Apostolic Church

2

The Wheat and Weeds

AD 100-300

Persecuted Church

3

The Mustard Seed

AD 300-600

State Church (Constantine)

4

The Leaven

AD 600-1500

Papal Church (Roman Catholic)

5

The Hidden Treasure

AD 1500-1700

Reformation Church (Protestant)

6

The Pearl of Great Price

AD 1700-1900

Missionary Church

Matt 13:45-46 (NIV) “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Like the hidden treasure, the ‘Pearl of Great Price’ has often been incorrectly linked to Jesus.

The merchant is not a lost man seeking salvation. In harmony with the other parables in this discourse, the man in this parable is Jesus.

The man “sold everything he had and bought” the pearl. We have seen how grace, faith and salvation are God’s gift. We did not earn or buy them. In contrast we are taught in 1 Cor 6:19-20 “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

The 18th and 19th centuries are often considered the "Age of the Missionary Church" due to several key factors:

Evangelical Awakening: The 18th century saw the rise of the Evangelical Awakening, which emphasized personal faith and the need to spread Christianity. This movement inspired many to become missionaries.

Pietism: Originating in Germany, Pietism stressed personal piety and devotion, leading to a strong missionary zeal. The Moravian Brethren, a Pietist group, were particularly active in missions.

William Carey and the Modern Missionary Movement: William Carey, often called the "father of modern missions," began his work in India in the late 18th century. His efforts and writings inspired many others to join the missionary cause.

Formation of Missionary Societies: The late 18th and 19th centuries saw the establishment of numerous missionary societies, such as the London Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. These organizations played a crucial role in sending missionaries worldwide.

Colonial Expansion: European colonial expansion facilitated missionary work by providing access to new regions. Missionaries often traveled with explorers and traders, spreading Christianity to Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Second Great Awakening: In the early 19th century, the Second Great Awakening in the United States further fueled the missionary movement, leading to the formation of additional societies and the sending of missionaries to frontier areas and abroad.

These factors combined to make the 18th and 19th centuries a period of significant missionary activity and expansion of Christianity worldwide.

AUTHOR: Gavin Paynter

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Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the NIV: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB: New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (http:// Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV: Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

George Whitefield – Field preaching

The First Great

Awakening

The Great Awakenings refer to several periods of dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American history. The First Great Awakening occurred primarily in Great Britain and her North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. This was one of the most intense outpourings of God’s Spirit in American history and the fire of God was falling everywhere.

New England’s 3 population was about 300,000 and it is estimated some 60,000 were saved during this period, a half of these being previously unconverted church members. 1

In the aftermath of the Great Awakening, hundreds of new, mainly evangelical, churches formed after separating from the established churches. 2

1 Source: web.ukonline.co.uk/freegrace 2 Source: www.crf-usa.org/bria 3 New England consisted of the modern states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut

The 1st Great Awakening

John Wesley was one of the greatest men of God in modern history. Secular historians credit John Wesley, together with his brother Charles, for a great awakening which saved England from the same blood-bath which was experienced just a short distance away in Paris during the French Revolution in 1789. Wesley shook a backslidden nation bound by immorality and unbelief. When Wesley was born-again, England was born-again. The revival that began among Wesley’s Methodists preceded an awakening that swept through all England. 1

1 forerunner.com 2 endtimepilgrim.org

Revival or Revolution?

The Reformation in France had been crushed. Later the French revolution crushed the church and trusted in human reason. State secularism led France into the reign of terror, dictatorship, and war. 2

In 1703, Susanna Wesley gave birth to her fifteenth child, John. It was through her convictions that John became acquainted with daily prayer, a reliance on the Lord, and a giving of one’s self to the service of others.

It was Susanna who told him that he was “a brand plucked from the burning” and was to have a special vocation given by God when he grew up. She was referring to his near death from burning when the parsonage home his family was living in went up in flames when John was 5 years old. 1

In 1729, at Oxford University, he joined the ‘Holy Club’, a prayer group formed by his brother Charles’.

Due to their methodical ways, they became known as ‘Methodists.’ They practiced daily meditation and fasted twice a week. They also visited prisoners at nearby Oxford castle to preach, give communion, and deliver food and medicine. 2

1 Source: http://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/Wesley 2 Source: www.iscuo.org

John Wesley

Susanna Wesley (1669-1742)

In 1725 John was ordained a deacon and 3 years later he was ordained as an Anglican Priest.

In 1736, John and Charles volunteered to go to the colony of Georgia in America as evangelists to the native people. Instead, they found themselves working as secretaries; and their strict attitudes made their dealings with the colonists difficult. Charles returned home after only a few months. John stayed 2 years, but was plagued by troubles. 1 & 2

His stay in Georgia was, however, not without benefit. While sailing to America, he saw a group of Moravian missionaries who were unafraid of a great storm that nearly destroyed the ship. John himself was terrified but the German Christians sang and had no fear. This impressed him greatly.

1 Source: www.iscuo.org 2 Including a failed love affair and an unwanted court case.

Charles Wesley (1707–88)

John Wesley

In 1737 Wesley returned to England. He wrote, “I went to America, to convert the Indians; but O! who shall convert me? who, what is he that shall deliver me from this evil heart of mischief? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near; but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say, ‘To die is gain.’”

Wesley continued to keep in close touch with the Moravians. At one of their meetings - in Aldersgate Street, London, in 1738 - he was converted while listening to a reading of Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Wesley wrote, “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

John Wesley

John Wesley (1703–91)

Wesley found most churches in England were closed to him. Whitefield, upon his return from America, was also excluded from churches and preached in the open air at Kingswood. Wesley hesitated to accept Whitefield’s request to copy this bold step, considering such a method of saving souls as “almost a sin.” He preached his first sermon in the open air, near Bristol. The services were very successful; and he never again hesitated to preach in any place where an assembly could be gathered, more than once using his father’s tombstone at Epworth as a pulpit. He continued for 50 years — entering churches when he was invited, and taking his stand in the fields, in halls, cottages, and chapels, when the churches would not receive him. 1

“God in Scripture commands me, according to my power, to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, confirm the virtuous. Man forbids me to do this in another’s parish; that is, in effect, not to do it at all, seeing I have now no parish; of my own, nor probably ever shall. Whom, then, shall I hear, God or man? … I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to and sure I am that his blessing attends it.” 2

1 Source: Wikipedia 2 John Wesley the Methodist, The Methodist Bookd Concern, 1903

The world is my parish

Preaching outdoors was unusual for a priest in the Church of England. Normally, priests only delivered sermons according to the proper liturgy in a proper church. The Church also objected to Wesley’s “enthusiasm.”

“When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.” – John Wesley

Wesley also began founding religious societies for the formation of believers. This was the first widely successful evangelical movement in the UK. Wesley’s Methodist connection included societies throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland before spreading to other parts of the English-speaking world and beyond. He divided his religious societies further into classes and bands for intensive accountability and religious instruction. 1

Seeing that he and the few clergymen cooperating with him could not do the work that needed to be done, he was led, as early as 1739, to approve of local preachers; men and women who were not episcopally ordained were permitted to preach and do pastoral work. Thus one of the great features of Methodism, to which it has largely owed its success, was adopted by Wesley in answer to a necessity. 1

1 Wikipedia

Too much enthusiasm?

Wesley emphasized care for prisoners, the poor, the sick, and the uneducated. He wrote some 400 publications in his lifetime… Throughout his life, Wesley arose every morning before 5 a.m. for Bible study and prayer. He often rode up to 20 miles and preached 4-5 sermons a day. Over his lifetime, he traveled over 250,000 miles and delivered over 42,000 sermons. He also had the foresight to make plans for the continuation of his work after he was gone. 1

At the age of 87 John Wesley preached 3 times a day, in different places. He passed away in 1791 in London.

Although he didn’t want to break from the Church of England, the Methodist Church in England was formed after his death. 1

John Wesley expressed his concern about future generations of Methodists: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” 2

1 Source: www.iscuo.org 2 Source: thinkexist.com

John Wesley

Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to become the assistant pastor to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. When Stoddard died a few years later, Jonathan became the senior pastor.

The behavior of the unmarried young people of Northampton troubled Edwards. They were ‘frolicking’ at the tavern, and not going to church meetings. When a young man suddenly died of an illness, in his funeral sermon, Edwards warned that even those in the prime of life could die at any moment. Unless they were spiritually born again, he preached, they would surely fall into the eternal fires of hell. Edwards spoke calmly, but intensely, and the young people listened. Some cried out, wept, and fainted at his words. Soon, Edwards was holding prayer meetings just for the young people of the town. Many asked him, “What must I do to be saved?” 1

In 1735–37, a revival swept through Northampton. Overnight, the town was transformed. The citizens sang hymns in the streets, the tavern closed, the young people pursued God in bands, and it was impossible to get into church unless one arrived hours early. 2

1 Source: www.crf-usa.org 2 Source: “Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening” - By William P. Farley

Jonathan Edwards

In 1741, Jonathan Edwards accepted an invitation to preach at the neighbouring town of Enfield, Connecticut. Despite the fact he had delivered “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to his own congregation with little effect, he felt led to use it again at Enfield. 1

His techniques were unimpressive. He always read his sermons in an even voice, but with great conviction. He shunned shouting and theatrical antics. Nothing in his style or presentation could account for what happened that day at Enfield. 1

1 Source: “Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening” - By William P. Farley 2 Source: web.ukonline.co.uk/freegrace

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Jonathan Edwards (1703-58)

His text was Deuteronomy 32:35, Their foot shall slide in due time! He flashed before the people the fiery prospects of eternal damnation. The theme of the message was, “The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.” 1

Men and women stood up and rolled on the floor, their cries once drowning out the voice of the preacher. 1 Strong men held onto their seats, feeling they were sliding into hell! Men shook, some losing their reason. 2 Some are even said to have laid hold on the pillars and braces of the church, feeling at that very moment their feet were sliding. 1

Through the night, Enfield was like a beleaguered city. In almost every house, men and women could be heard crying out for God to save them. Before it was over 500 were saved in the community that day. 1 1 Source: web.ukonline.co.uk/freegrace

Their foot shall slide in due time!

A friend of evangelist George Whitefield, Tennent promoted spiritual revival in New Jersey and New England. Some clergymen thought that his services were too emotional. They spoke out against him. 1

Tennent saw a quite different danger. “For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they have had dead men preaching to them.” 1

On March 8, 1740, Tennent took as his text Mark 6:34, “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion towards them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” According to George Whitefield, Tennent was impressed that he should preach about Nicodemus coming to Christ. Didn’t the crowds of Jesus’ day have religious leaders? Indeed they did. So why did Jesus see the people as sheep without a shepherd? Because, like Nicodemus, those leaders were natural men. They were neither born of God nor filled with his Spirit. 1

1 Source: Christian History Institute

Gilbert Tennent

Gilbert Tennent (1703–64)

In the same way, the churchgoers of New England were like sheep without shepherds. Too many of their pastors lacked personal knowledge of Christ. “To trust the care of our souls to those who have little or no care for their own, to those who are both unskillful and unfaithful, is contrary to the common practice of considerate mankind, relating to the affairs of their bodies and estates; and would signify, that we set light by our souls, and did not care what became of them. For if the blind lead the blind, will they not both fall into the ditch?” 1

Tennent’s remarks outraged Presbyterians. A synod reproved him. Tennent and other New Brunswick preachers promptly withdrew from the association. 1

Gilbert Tennent in New Jersey and Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts provided the climate for Whitefield’s preaching and the First Great Awakening.

Heavenly power swept from Northampton to 150 towns and cities of the North. For 20 years the revival fires blazed and from them sprang 120 new Congregational churches! 2

1 Source: Christian History Institute 2 Source: web.ukonline.co.uk/freegrace/library/Edwards/edwardsbiog.html

Sheep without a shepherd

Whitefield was the most traveled preacher of the gospel up to his time and helped turn 2 nations back to God. The thousands of converts during his ministry were a result of his extensive preaching in Scotland, Wales, and 7 visits to America.

He spent about 24 years of ministry in the British Isles and about 9 more years in America, preaching 18,000 sermons (an average of 500 a year, or ten a week) to some 10 million souls. In 1753 alone he traveled 800 miles on horseback, preaching to 100,000 souls. People usually were saved right during the progress of the service. The altar call as such was not utilized.

It is said that his voice could be heard a mile away without amplification, and his open-air preaching reached thousands. The crowds were the greatest ever assembled to hear the preaching of the gospel before the days of amplification.

George Whitefield

George Whitefield (1714-70)

George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, the son of a wine merchant and innkeeper. Childhood measles left him squint-eyed the rest of his life. 1

While in Oxford, he met John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club. Charles Wesley loaned him a book and this, together with a severe sickness, finally resulted in his conversion in 1735. He said many years later, “Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me, and gave me the new birth.” 1

One of the most famous contemporary aspects of the Methodist outreach to the poor was their ministry to condemned prisoners. The Wesley brothers and their preachers routinely attended those condemned to death and would often go with them in the cart to the gallows.

George Whitefield’s ministry began with his preaching in jails to the prisoners and doing missionary work in the colony of Georgia. 1

He loved Georgia and was not discouraged there as were the Wesleys. He was burdened about orphans, and started to collect funds for the same. He opened schools in Highgate and Hampstead, and also a school for girls in Savannah. 2

1 Source: www.believersweb.org 2 Source: CCN

George Whitefield

Upon returning from his first American trip to London, he thought that the doors would be opened and that he would be warmly received. Instead it was the opposite. Now many churches were closed to him. His successes, preaching, and connection with Methodist societies - in particular his association with the Wesleys - were all opposed by the establishment… However, he preached to as many churches as would receive him, working and visiting with such as the Moravians and other non-conformist religious societies in London. However, these buildings were becoming too small to hold the crowds. Alternative plans had to be formulated. 1

Whitefield wondered if he ought to try preaching in the fields. He concluded he was an outcast anyway, so why not try to reach people this ‘new’ way? Just outside the city of Bristol was a coal mine district known as Kingswood Hill. Whitefield first preached here in the open in 1739. The first time about 200 came to hear him, but in a very short time he was preaching to 10,000 at once. Often they stood in the rain listening, with the melodies of their singing being heard 2 miles away. 1

“The first discovery of their being affected”, he says, “was by seeing the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks.” 2

1 Source: www.believersweb.org 2 www.nndb.com

George Whitefield – Field preaching

One of his favorite preaching places was just outside London, on a great open tract known as Moorfields. He had no designated time for his services, but whenever he began to preach, thousands came to hear - whether it was 6 a.m. or 8 p.m. In the morning some 20,000 listened to him, and in the evening some 35,000 gathered! Whitefield was only 25 years old. Crowds up to 80,000 at one time gathered there to hear him preach for an hour and a half. 1

The largest audience he ever addressed was at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, where he spoke to an estimated 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd. Converts from that one meeting numbered nearly 10,000.

More than anything else, Whitefield spoke with deep emotion in a loud and riveting voice about the need for sinners to convert to Christ in order to save their souls. His listeners often screamed, rolled on the ground, and fainted when he described burning in hell forever. 2

In 1769, he made his last voyage to America. He arrived in Philadelphia in May 1770, traveling on to New England. Never was he so warmly received as now. The crowds flocked in great numbers to see him. 1 1 Source: ww.believersweb.org 2 Source: www.crf-usa.org/bria

George Whitefield

He went from Portsmouth to Newburyport preaching en route at Exeter. Looking up he prayed, “Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home and die.” 1

On reaching Newburyport, Massachusetts, on a balcony not far from his deathbed, he preached his last message to more than 2,000 people and died within an hour after extending the invitation. 1

“How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended.” - George Whitefield

John Wesley preached at the memorial service which was held for Whitefield in England. 1

Although George Whitefield disagreed with John Wesley on some theological matters, he was careful not to create problems in public that could be used to hinder the preaching of the gospel. When someone asked Whitefield if he thought he would see Wesley in heaven, Whitefield replied, “I fear not, for he will be so near the eternal throne and we at such a distance, we shall hardly get sight of him.” 2

1 Source: www.believersweb.org 2 W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers

George Whitefield

A circuit rider

The Second

Great

Awakening

The Second Great Awakening (1790–1840s) exercised a profound impact on American religious history. The numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists rose relative to that of the denominations dominant in the colonial period—the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Reformed.

In the 1760s, Methodist preaching began in America under the leadership of lay persons. In 1769, Wesley started sending ministers to the New World. But when the Revolution began, all but Francis Asbury returned to England. Still, under Asbury’s leadership and lay preachers, the number of Methodist followers had tripled by the end of the war. 1

Following the example of Wesley in England, American Methodist pastors were sent out to cover circuits … Their usual mode of transportation was the horse, and they became known as Circuit Riders. 1 The circuit riders sought out people in remote frontier locations. They came from among the common people, which helped them establish a rapport with the frontier families they hoped to convert.

By the mid-19th century, the Methodist Episcopal Church was the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with over 4 million members. 1

1 Source: www.iscuo.org

The Methodists in the U.S.

Francis Asbury (1745–1816)

Charles Finney was a fiery New York Presbyterian preacher and an important figure in the Second Great Awakening.

As a young law student, his conviction of sin increased. One night he imagined that he was about to die and sink into hell, but he quieted himself as best he could until morning. The next morning on the way to the office, the Holy Spirit presented Christ: hanging on the cross for him, in a vision so clear that he almost unconsciously stopped in the middle of the street for several minutes. He went to the woods, fell on his knees and accepted the Lord. 1

Although he had been fond of law, Finney now lost all taste for it. His whole desire now was to preach the gospel and to win men to Christ. Nothing else seemed of any consequence. He hardly ever used written sermons as he believed that it hindered the Spirit of God from speaking through him. 1 1 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson, “Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians” (1911)

Charles Finney

Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875)

At his first regular meetings in New York people praised his sermons, but for 2 or 3 weeks no one decided for Christ. Then Finney urged all who were willing to accept Christ to rise to their feet and all who were willing to reject him to remain on their seats. This was very unusual in those days, and made many people very angry. He spent the next day in fasting and prayer, and in the evening preached with such power that a great conviction of sin swept over the people. All night long they were sending for him to come and pray with them. Even hardened atheists were brought to Christ. 1

While preaching at Sodom in the state of New York, Finney recalled that “the congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction, and cried for mercy… Nearly the whole congregation were either on their knees or prostrate, I should think, in less than 2 minutes from the first shock that fell upon them. Every one prayed who was able to speak at all.” Similar scenes were witnessed in many other places. 1

Enormous numbers were saved in his meetings in the Eastern U.S. In London, England, between 1,500 and 2,000 persons were seeking salvation in one day in Finney’s meetings. One of the greatest revivals in the world’s history (in 1858-1859), was the direct result of his meetings. It is estimated that 600,000 persons were brought to Christ in this revival. 1

1 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson

Charles Finney

Research showed that over 85% of persons professing conversion to Christ in Finney’s meetings remained true to God. Finney seems to have had the power of impressing the consciences of men with the necessity of holy living in such a manner as to procure the most lasting results. It is said that at Governeur, New York, not a dance or theatrical play could be held in the place for 6 years after Finney held meetings there. 2

Finney is also remembered for innovations such as the ‘anxious bench’ (a place where those considering becoming Christians could come to receive prayer), allowing women to pray in public meetings of mixed gender, and public criticism of individuals by name in sermons and prayers. 1

He was also involved with the abolitionist movement and frequently denounced slavery from the pulpit. Beginning in 1821, he denied communion to slaveholders in his churches. 1

In 1835, he moved to Ohio where he would become a professor and later president of Oberlin College (from 1851 – 1866). 1 Finney continued to preach and to lecture to the students at Oberlin until 2 weeks before he was 83 years of age, when he was called up higher to enjoy the reward of those who have “turned many to righteousness.” 2

1 Source:Wikipedia 2 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson

Charles Finney

Andrew Murray Jr. was born and raised in Graaff-Reinet in SA. It was here, after his education in Scotland and 3 years of theological study in college in Holland, that he returned as a missionary and minister. 2

As a young man, Andrew Murray wanted to be a minister, but it was a career choice rather than an act of faith. Not until he had begun his theological training did he experience a conversion of heart. In a letter to his parents, Murray wrote, “Your son has been born again… I have cast myself on Christ.” 1

For some years, Rev. Andrew Murray, Sr. longed and prayed for revival in South Africa. Every Friday night he spent several hours in prayer. The revivals of 1858 in the US and 1859 in Northern Ireland were reported in the Dutch Reformed journals. Individuals and prayer groups in various places across SA began to pray specifically for revival. 2

In 1860, a conference attended by 374 people was convened at Worcester. Representatives of 20 congregations- Dutch Reformed, Methodist and Presbyterian gathered. The main topic was revival. Andrew Murray, Sr. was moved to tears and had to stop speaking. Andrew Murray, Jr. prayed with such power that some say the conference marked the beginning of the revival. 1

1 Source: www.christianitytoday.com 2 Source: www.gloryofhiscross.org

Andrew Murray

50 days after the conference, revival fires began to burn. In Montague, near Worcester, a revival began in the Methodist church. Prayer meetings were held every night and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, sometimes as early as 3:00 a.m. People who had never prayed before began to pray. Young and old began to cry to God for mercy and continued until midnight. 1

For weeks, the village of Montague experienced great conviction of sin. Men cried to God in anguish. 6 prayer meetings were going on throughout the village. The report reached Worcester, and prayer meetings began there as well. Whole families, both European and native African, were humbled before God. 1

The SA revival then scattered like buckshot and spread to other areas. One pastor reported something of “the glory of the church in the first century”. Some churches could not hold all who came to worship. Spiritual awakening came to places up to 200 miles away. 1

1 Source: www.gloryofhiscross.org

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Church

Growth

Voltaire, a Deist,1 further develops the rationalism of the ‘Enlightenment’, attacking Christianity and finding in man the centre of all things.

The French Revolution of 1789 overthrows the traditions of the Church and briefly establishes the ‘goddess of Reason’. This ‘enlightened’ godless society resulted in a bloodbath during the ‘Reign of Terror’, with over 10 people being guillotined a day at one stage. Robespierre was anti-God and tried to establish man as supreme. He ruled as an irrational and paranoid dictator, eventually meeting the same fate of guillotine execution that he so freely administered to others. 1 Deism is the belief that a supreme creator God exists, but that he does not intervene in creation. Deists reject supernatural events like prophecy and miracles, and reject belief in a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, and the inerrancy of Scriptures. They believe that God’s greatest gift to humanity is not religion, but the ability to reason. Unitarianism is a form of Deism.

18th Century: The bad news

Voltaire (1694–1778)

One of the unfortunate side-effects of religious freedom was the growth of cults. In America, many sects including Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Science were established.

New philosophies such as Darwin’s evolution, Marx’s communism, and Freud’s psychology, attack the traditional Christian view of life and history.

German ‘higher critics’ attack the historical validity of the Scriptures.

19th Century: The bad news

Charles Darwin Karl Marx Sigmund Freud

Count von Zinzendorf established Herrnhut as a Moravian settlement in Saxony, from which the Moravian Brethren begin their missionary work. Missionary colonies were established in the West Indies, in Greenland, amongst the North American Indians, Livonia and the northern shores of the Baltic, to the slaves of North Carolina, to Suriname, to the Negro slaves in several parts of South America, to Tranquebar and the Nicobar Islands in the East Indies, to the Copts in Egypt, to the Inuit of Labrador, and to the west coast of South Africa. 1

“I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.” (von Zinzendorf)

“That the Lamb who was slain would receive the reward of His suffering.” (The missionary motivation of the Moravians)

1 Source: Wikipedia

18th Century: The good news

Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–60)

This century is sometimes called the Protestant Century. Protestants established missions throughout the world. Organizations such as the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, the Sunday School Union, and the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions lead in the spread of the Gospel message.

In the analysis below, note the radical increase in world evangelization and the languages of the Scripture.

19th Century: The good news

Century

% Christian *

Non-white

White

Evangelization of world *

Scripture

Languages *

15th

19%

7.4%

92.6%

21%

34

16th

18.9%

14%

86%

23%

36

17th

22.3%

15.9%

84.1%

25.2%

52

18th

23.1%

13.5%

86.5%

27.2%

67

19th

34.4%

19%

81%

51.3%

537

Source: David Barrett

The Third Great

Awakening

The Third Great Awakening was a period of religious revival in American history from the late 1850s to the 1900s.

New groups emerged, such as the Holiness movement and Nazarene Church.

Charles Spurgeon was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among different denominations, among whom he is known as the “Prince of Preachers.” Spurgeon was to 19th century England what D.L. Moody was to America. Although Spurgeon never attended theological school, by the age of 21 he was the most popular preacher in London. 1

He preached to crowds of 10,000 at Exeter Hall and the Surrey Music Hall. Then when the Metropolitan Tabernacle was built, thousands gathered every Sunday for over 40 years to hear his lively sermons. 1

In addition to his regular pastoral duties, he founded Sunday schools, churches, an orphanage, and the Pastor’s College. He edited a monthly church magazine and promoted literature distribution. 1

Sincerely and straightforwardly he denounced error both in the Church of England and among his own Baptists. An ardent evangelical, he deplored the trend of the day toward biblical criticism. 1

1 www.spurgeon.org

The “Prince of Preachers”

C.H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)

Henry Varley, a friend of D.L. Moody, once said to Moody in his early days of ministry, ‘It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him.’

When Varley said that, Moody said to himself, ‘Well, I will be that man.’ R.A. Torrey said, “I, for my part, do not think ‘it remains to be seen’ what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him. I think it has been seen already in D.L. Moody.” 1

Estimates vary, but Moody is thought to have led as many as a million people to confess faith in Christ. 2

Moody was an incessant student of the Bible and rose at 5 o’clock in the morning, that he might enjoy several hours in prayerful study. 3

He greatly influenced the cause of cross-cultural Christian missions after he met the pioneer missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. He actively supported the China Inland Mission and encouraged many of his congregation to volunteer for service overseas. 4

1 “Why God used D.L. Moody” - R.A. Torrey 2 Christian History Institute 3 Source: www.wholesomewords.org 4 Wikipedia

A man given up wholly to God

It was while on a trip to England in 1872 that he became well known as an evangelist. He preached almost 100 times and came into communion with the Plymouth Brethren. On several occasions he filled stadiums of 2,000 to 4,000 capacity. In the Botanic Gardens Palace, a meeting had between 15,000 to 30,000 people. 1

This turnout continued throughout 1874 and 1875, with crowds of thousands at all of his meetings. Charles Spurgeon invited him to speak as well. When he returned to the US, crowds of 12,000 to 20,000 were just as common as in England. President Grant and some of his cabinet attended a meeting in 1876. His evangelistic meetings were held from Boston to New York, throughout New England and as far as San Francisco, and other West coast towns from Vancouver to San Diego. 1

Moody aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting “The Wordless Book”, a teaching tool developed by Charles Spurgeon. Moody added a 4th colour to the design of the 3-colour evangelistic device: gold - to “represent heaven”. This ‘book’ has been and is still used to teach uncounted thousands of illiterate people - young and old - around the globe about the Gospel message. 1

1 Source: Wikipedia

D.L. Moody

The 6th

kingdom age -

Missions &

Evangelism

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation

William Carey became involved with the Particular (i.e. Hyper-Calvinist 1) Baptists. During this time he read Jonathan Edwards’ account of the life of David Brainerd and became deeply concerned with propagating the Gospel throughout the world. 2

At a ministers’ meeting in 1786, Carey raised the question of whether it was the duty of all Christians to spread the Gospel throughout the world. An elder pastor, J.R. Ryland, allegedly retorted: “Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid and mine.” 2

Carey preached a pro-missionary sermon using Isaiah 54:2-3 as his text. 3 In the sermon he repeatedly used the phrase which has become his most famous quotation: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” 2 1 Hyper-Calvinists fatalistically assert that God’s intention to destroy some is equal to His intention to save others. This view holds that it is pointless to tell the ‘non-elect’ to repent and believe the gospel. Hyper-Calvinism arose from within the Calvinist tradition among the early English Particular Baptists in the mid 1700s. 2 Source: www.biographybase.com 3 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”

1) Overcoming Calvinist fatalism

William Carey is now known as the “father of modern missions.” In 1792 he published his groundbreaking missionary manifesto which consists of 5 parts outlining his basis for missions including Christian obligation, wise use of available resources, and accurate information. The points were:

A theological justification for missionary activity, arguing that the command of Jesus to make disciples of all the world remains binding on Christians.

A history of missionary activity, beginning with the early Church and ending with David Brainerd and John Wesley.

Tables, listing area, population, and religion statistics for every country in the world. Carey had compiled these figures during his years as a schoolteacher.

Answers to objections to sending missionaries, such as difficulty learning the language or danger to life.

A calls for the formation by the Baptists of a missionary society and description of the practical means by which it could be supported. 1

Carey finally overcame the resistance to missionary effort, and what became the Baptist Missionary Society was founded in October 1792. 1 1 Source: Wikipedia

1) Overcoming Calvinist fatalism

Carey ministered in India, translating the Bible into India’s major languages.

He used his influence with the Governor-General to help put a stop to the practices of infant sacrifice and ‘suttee’ (burning of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands). In addition he provided schools for women and an asylum for lepers.

The conversion of Hindus to Christianity posed a new question as to whether it was appropriate for converts to retain their caste. In 1802, the daughter of Krishna Pal, a Sudra, married a Brahmin. This wedding was a public demonstration that the church repudiated the caste distinctions.

Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God

Dr. William Carey (1761–1834)

David Livingstone said:

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honour, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”

“Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

2) It’s a big sacrifice

Mark 10:28-30 Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields - and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”

C.T. Studd was an English millionaire and famous cricketer. He forsook his cricketing fame and family fortune and went to China. He returned 21 years later, broken in health, after serving in China and India. At the age of 53 he unexpectedly received a new and very distinct call to the heart of Africa. He became the founder of the Heart of Africa Mission (now W.E.C. International).

His motto was: “If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

“How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honours of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day?” (C.T. Studd)

2) It’s a big sacrifice

“When I came to see that Jesus Christ had died for me, it didn’t seem hard to give up all for Him. It seemed just common, ordinary honesty.” (C.T. Studd)

I am getting desperately afraid of going to heaven for I have had the vision of the shame I shall suffer as I get my first glimpse of the Lord Jesus; His majesty, power and marvellous love for me, who treated Him so meanly and shabbily on earth, and acted as though I did Him a favour in serving Him! No wonder God shall have to wipe away the tears off all faces, for we shall be broken-hearted when we see the depth of His love and the shallowness of ours. (C.T. Studd)

C.T. Studd (1860-1931)

2) It’s a big sacrifice

Mary Slessor’s mother was a devout Christian but her father was a drunkard. Mary was greatly moved by the death of an older brother who had always hoped to be a missionary and volunteered to be a missionary in his place. On one day Mary heard a missionary tell about Calabar which was located in Nigeria, West Africa. He said something like this: “Calabar is the worst spot on earth! A mysterious, awful land ruled by witchcraft and secret cannibal societies. Human sacrifices, spells, poisons. And the awful custom of murdering twin babies which are considered bad luck. A land of fever, skin diseases, malaria.” 1

Would you have wanted to go to such a land? This would be the last place in the world that most people would want to go! As Mary heard these words her heart reached out to these needy people. She wanted to help them and at the age of 28 she went to Calabar. 1

1 Source: www.middletownbiblechurch.org/missions

2) It’s a big sacrifice

Mary Slessor

“The challenge of the unoccupied fields of the world is one to great faith and, therefore, to great sacrifice. Our willingness to sacrifice for an enterprise is always in proportion to our faith in that enterprise. Faith has the genius of transforming the barely possible into actuality… The unoccupied fields of the world must have their Calvary before they can have their Pentecost.” (Samuel Zwemer, Missionary to the Muslims of Saudi Arabia)

“For me, passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for….’Apostolic passion,’ therefore, is a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations. It has to do with being committed to the point of death to spreading His glory. It’s the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of the whole earth being covered with the Glory of the Lord.” (Floyd McClung)

2) It’s a big sacrifice

Samuel Zwemer (1867-1952)

John Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides islands, which were inhabited by savage cannibals. In fact less than 20 years before, the first 2 missionaries to set foot on one of these islands (John Williams and James Harris) were clubbed to death and eaten! 1

Before Paton left for these islands, an old man kept trying to stop him from going by saying, “You will be eaten by cannibals!” Paton could not be turned from his purpose. “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” 1

With his wife, Mary, John sailed from Scotland in 1857 and landed on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides, an island chain northeast of Australia. With them was another young missionary, Joseph Copeland. 1

The people were as fierce as he had been told. Cannibal celebrations took place in sight of the Patons’ home and human blood fouled the drinking water. The natives frightened Joseph Copeland so much that he lost his wits and died; they continually threatened John. 1

1 Source: Christian History Institute

3) You might suffer

Early the next year, Mary bore a son. Both mother and child came down with fevers and died. With a breaking heart, John dug their grave and laid them in it. Later he said, “But for Jesus, and the fellowship He granted me there, I would have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave!” 1

John remained on Tanna. He went from village to village telling of the love of Christ and translating Scripture into the Tannese language. But finally, when all his supplies were stolen and starvation stared him in the face, he made his way across the island to the settlement of a second missionary. Exhausted he fell asleep. 1

After leaving Tanna, John remarried and worked on a smaller island. He had the joy of seeing the people of Aneityum come to Christ in a way the people of Tanna never had. 1

1 Source: Christian History Institute

3) You might suffer

Adoniram Judson was imprisoned for 9 months in Burma. His sufferings from fever, excruciating heat, hunger, and repeated cruelty of keepers is one of the most challenging narratives in the history of missions. Judson would have fallen except for the tender, persistent ministry of his heroic wife Ann. Under cover of darkness, she crept to the door of Judson’s den, bringing food and whispering words of hope and consolation. 2

While he was gone, Ann fell victim to a vicious fever. Before she died she said, “The teacher (husband) is long in coming; and the new missionaries are long in coming; I must die alone and leave my little one. But as it is the will of God, I submit to his will.” She died at 36 years of age. When Judson returned his heart was broken, as he buried his wife under a hopia tree in Amherst. About 3 months later he buried his third child – next to Ann. 2 1 Wikipedia 2 nationalministries.org, wholesomewords.org, desiringgod.org, believersweb.org

Ann Judson (1789-1826)

3) You might suffer

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.” (Adoniram Judson)

“All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient.” (William Carey)

“We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight.” (C.T. Studd)

“So don’t come out to be a missionary as an experiment, it is useless and dangerous. Only come if you feel you would rather die than not come. Lord Wolsey was right: ‘A missionary ought to be a fanatic or he encumbers the ground.’ There are many trials and hardships. Disappointments are numerous and the time of learning the language is especially trying. Don’t come if you want to make a great name or want to live long. 1 Come if you feel there is no greater honour, after living for Christ, than to die for Him.” (C.T. Studd)

1 Missionaries to West Africa in the 19th century often transported their possessions to the field by packing them in a coffin and shipping them! The expected life expectancy on the field at the time was approximately 3 to 4 years. Upon setting out, missionaries understood that they could die so they brought coffins – for their bodies to be sent back to Europe or America.

3) You might suffer

“Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one.” (Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917, Scottish Protestant minister and teacher)

“Within 6 months, you will probably hear that one of us is dead. When the news comes, do not be cast down; but send someone else immediately to take the vacant place.” (Alexander MacKay, 1849-1890, pioneer missionary to Uganda - How prophetic his words were. Within 3 months, one of the party of 8 was dead; within a year 5 had died; and at the end of 2 years, MacKay himself was the sole survivor. In the face of overwhelming odds he struggled on for 12 years until he too was felled by malarial fever.)

“We did not come to China because missionary work here was either safe or easy, but because He has called us. We did not enter upon our present positions under a guarantee of human protection, but relying on the promise of His presence. The accidents of ease or difficulty, of apparent safety or danger, of man’s approval or disapproval, in no wise affect our duty. Should circumstances arise involving us in what may seem special danger, we shall have grace, I trust, to manifest the depth and reality of our confidence in Him, and by faithfulness to our charge to prove that we are followers of the Good Shepherd who did not flee from death itself…” (Hudson Taylor)

3) You might suffer

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

There is no painless way to follow Christ.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

“And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4).

3) You might suffer

James Calvert (1813-1892)

God’s not looking for ability, He’s looking for availability.

By almost every standard known to modern missionary boards, David Brainerd would have been rejected as a missionary candidate. He suffered from tuberculosis – dying from that disease at age 29 – and from his youth was frail and sickly. 1

Brainerd never finished college, being expelled from Yale for criticizing the worldliness of some members of the faculty. 2 This young man became a missionary to the American Indians.

For 24-year-old David Brainerd, thrilling experiences in God’s presence were regularly interspersed with deep bouts of melancholy in which he despaired of ever achieving anything in God’s service. 3 years later, an unprecedented outpouring of the Spirit upon American Indians erupted after his preaching. This move coincided with a time when the clammy clouds of dejection were so thick that he was seriously contemplating ending his missionary endeavors. 3

Brainerd was a pioneer of modern missionary work. 1 Jonathan Edwards edited Brainerd’s diary into a book that has been used by God to challenge Christians around the world to greater service. Among those influenced by it were the missionary heroes William Carey and Henry Martyn. 2

1 www.wholesomewords.org 2 www.swordofthelord.com 3 http://net-burst.net/tough

4) I’m not qualified or talented

“It is possible for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions.” (John R. Mott, 1865–1955, a long-serving leader of the YMCA & the World Student Christian Federation.)

Gladys Aylward was born in London in 1902 and forced into domestic service at an early age. She always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary, and studied with great determination in order to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down by the China Inland Mission because her academic background was inadequate. 1

Then she heard of a 73-year-old missionary, Mrs. Jeannie Lawson, who was looking for a younger woman to carry on her work. Gladys wrote to Mrs. Lawson and was accepted if she could get to China. She did not have enough money for the ship fare, but spent her life savings from her meager wages earned as a housemaid on alternate transport. In 1930 she set out with her passport, her Bible, her tickets, and two pounds ninepence, to travel to China by the Trans-Siberian Railway, despite the fact that China and the Soviet Union were engaged in an undeclared war. She used a combination of train, ship, bus and mule to reach her destination. 2 1 Source: Wikipedia 2 http://justus.anglican.org

4) I’m not qualified or talented

Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large family and raised in poverty. His alcoholic father died when Moody was 4 years old. 1

His mother struggled to support the family, but even with her best effort, some of her children (including Dwight) had to be sent off to work for their room and board. 1

Moody didn’t attend school beyond the fifth grade. 2 The teacher of the district school didn’t consider him a promising pupil. He progressed poorly in reading and writing, was a bad speller, and poor at maths. 1

He was raised in the Unitarian 3 church. When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in his uncle’s shoe store. One of his uncle’s requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational Church of Mount Vernon. In 1855 Moody was converted to evangelical Christianity when his teacher, Edward Kimball talked to him about how much God loved him. 1

Moody as a young Christian was for a while a mere babe in the Kingdom. His zeal was strong, but his mind was not tutored in the Scriptures, his command of language was very limited, his sentences were broken and ungrammatical. So his first application for admission into church membership was not accepted, as he was thought not to know enough. 1

1 wholesomewords.org 2 Christian History Institute 3 Unitarians deny the full divinity of Christ and do not emphasize human need for salvation from sins.

4) I’m not qualified or talented

His teacher, Edward Kimball, stated, “I can truly say, and in saying it I magnify the infinite grace of God as bestowed upon him, that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday School class; and I think that the committee of the Mount Vernon Church seldom met an applicant for membership more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, 2 still less to fill any extended sphere of public usefulness.” 1

At the age of 20, Moody became frustrated in Boston because of lack of opportunity to work for God so he moved to Chicago, attending the Plymouth Congregational Church. He was so eager to do good that he hired 4 pews in his church, and set about hunting people to fill them. But his efforts were as unacceptable there as in Boston, and he was repeatedly advised not to attempt to speak in public.” 1

A contemporary commented that when Moody began to work for the Lord, he had little more than a half of a talent to account for. But he put his half talent to service so diligently that the Lord added to it continually, until he came to be endowed with 10 talents. 1

1 Source: www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biomoody.html 2 Asked what Christ had done for him, the nervous boy replied that he wasn’t aware of anything particular. Leaders felt that was an unacceptable answer. - CHI

4) I’m not qualified or talented

A casual visit to a Methodist class-meeting led Moody to join a mission band, who spent Sunday mornings scattering tracts throughout the city. He came across a little Sunday school in North Wells Street, and offered himself as a teacher. He was accepted, on condition that he would bring his pupils with him. Accordingly a week later he appeared followed by 18 ragged children, whom he had coaxed in out of the lanes. These he soon transferred to another teacher, and kept on himself in the task of recruiting till the schoolroom was crowded. 1

Within a year the average attendance at his school was 650, while 60 volunteers from various churches served as teachers. During the 6 years these faithful services were kept up, fully 2000 children are thought to have been brought each year within its control. 1

1 Source: www.wholesomewords.org

Young Moody with a class of boys

4) I’m not qualified or talented

In 1857, he began to look after the welfare of the sailors in the port of Chicago. On Sunday mornings he circulated tracts and Bibles, and prayed and talked in vessels, boarding-houses, hospitals and prisons. 1

Moody became awakened to the need to carry the gospel to those sunk in the depths of sin. So he chose the worst section in Chicago, frequented by gamblers, thieves, and the depraved. He hired a rickety saloon for Sunday school services and evening meetings. Then he set about persuading the outcasts to come in, while their unkempt and boisterous children were won over by gifts of maple sugar. There they met, a rude, disorderly crowd, at first without even seats, and with only the shadow of any discipline. They sang hymns and Moody told stories. 1

1 Source: www.wholesomewords.org

4) I’m not qualified or talented

A graphic picture of this is related by a Mr. Reynolds : “The first meeting I ever saw him at was in a little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon-keeper. Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at night. I went there a little late; and the first thing I saw was a man standing up with a few tallow candles around him, holding a negro boy, and trying to read to him the story of the Prodigal Son and a great many words he could not read out, and had to skip. I thought, ‘If the Lord can ever use such an instrument as that for His honour and glory, it will astonish me.’ After that meeting was over, Mr. Moody said to me, ‘Reynolds, I have got only one talent; I have no education, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to do something for him: I want you to pray for me.’ I have never ceased, from that day to this, to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I have watched him since then, have had counsel with him, and know him thoroughly; and, for consistent walk and conversation, I have never met a man to equal him. It astounds me to look back and see what Mr. Moody was 13 years ago, and then what he is under God today… The last time I heard from him, his injunction was, ‘Pray for me every day; pray now that the Lord will keep me humble.’ ” 1

1 Source: www.wholesomewords.org

4) I’m not qualified or talented

You might feel inadequate and incapable to be effective in evangelism.

1 Cor 1:26-29 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

When the educated Jewish rulers “saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

Former shoe salesman, D.L.Moody said, “If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent. After all, there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents.” 1

Hudson Taylor: “God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him” and “God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.”

1 www.boycottliberalism.com

4) I’m not qualified or talented

Long after he became famous in India, becoming Professor of oriental languages in the college of Fort William, William Carey was dining with a select company at the Governor-General’s. One of the guests asked someone else in a whisper deliberately loud enough to be heard by the professor, whether Dr. Carey had not once been a shoemaker. “No, sir,” immediately interjected Dr. Carey, “only a cobbler!” 1

Yet this former shoe-mender was instrumental in translating the entire Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit and Assamese, and parts of 209 other languages and dialects.

“Churches realize that God will do more through their honest mistakes than their disobedience; more through their fumbled efforts than their lack of efforts; more through their awkward attempts to influence their global neighbors than through their grand programs within their comfort zone.” (Mark Mays)

“It is not so much the degree of arts that is needed, but that of hearts, loyal and true, that love not their lives to the death: large and loving hearts which seek to save the lost multitudes…” (C.T. Studd)

1 i.e. not able to make shoes, only mend them

4) I’m not qualified or talented

5) It’s not convenient

While traveling by boat one day, Hudson Taylor entered into conversation with a Chinaman who had once visited England, where he went by the name of Peter. The man listened attentively to the missionary’s account of Christ’s saving love and was even moved to tears, but refused the immediate acceptance of the proffered salvation. A little later, evidently in a mood of great despondency, Peter jumped overboard and sank. In agonized suspense Taylor looked around for assistance and saw close by a fishing boat with a dragnet furnished with hooks. “Come!” shouted Taylor to the fishermen. “Drag over this spot. A man sank here and is drowning!” “It is not convenient,” was the unfeeling reply. “Don’t talk of convenience!” cried the missionary. “A man is drowning.” “We are busy fishing and cannot come,” they responded. When Taylor urged them to come at once and offered to pay them, they demanded to know how much. His offer of 5 dollars was refused. He then said: “Do come quickly and I will give you all the money I have - about 14 dollars.” Finally, the boat was brought and the hooks let down. Less than a minute was required to bring up the body but all efforts at resuscitation failed. Life was extinct. 1

1 www.wayoflife.org

To Hudson Taylor this incident was profoundly sad in itself and pathetic in its parabolic significance. Were not those fishermen guilty of the death of the Chinaman, in that they had the opportunity and means of saving him but refused to use them? Most assuredly they were guilty. “And yet,” says Taylor, “let us pause before we pronounce judgment on them, in case a greater than Nathan answers, ‘You are the man.’ Is it so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of how much worse punishment then, is he worthy, who leaves the immortal soul to perish. The Lord Jesus commands me, commands you: ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15). Shall we say to Him, ‘No, it is not convenient?’ Shall we tell Him that we are busy at fishing or other business and cannot go? … Oh, let us pray and let us labour for the salvation of China’s unevangelized millions.” 1

‘Must you go to China? How much nicer it would be to stay here and serve the Lord at home!’ She made it plain at last that she would not go to China. (Hudson Taylor’s ex-girlfriend)

“Some want to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” (C.T Studd)

1 www.wayoflife.org

5) It’s not convenient

To Hudson Taylor 1 there was “no dream that must not be dared”; no risk that must not be taken, if it came in line of duty; no obstacle that could not be surmounted, if the call of God demanded. “Faith,” he asserted, “laughs at impossibilities, and obedience raises no questions.” 2

“There is nothing in the world or the Church - except the church’s disobedience - to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility.” (Robert Speer, leader in Student Volunteer Movement)

“The man… looking at him with a smile that only half concealed his contempt, inquired, “Now Mr. Morrison do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?” “No sir,” said Morrison, “but I expect that God will.” (written of Robert Morrison)

“The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something.” (Clarence W. Jones)

1 Historian Ruth Tucker says, “No other missionary in the 19 centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.” 2 Hudson Taylor: The Man Who Believed God, written by Marshall Broomhall

7) The task is too great

“When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstition of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph.” (William Carey)

“Never concede to doing something so small that it could be accomplished entirely in your lifetime. Be a part of something that began before you were born, and will continue onward toward the fulfillment of all that God has purposed to accomplish.” (Ralph Winter, Founder/Director of the US Center for World Mission)

“All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal!” (Jonathan Goforth)

“If miracles are not required to maintain your work for Christ, you are not doing enough.”

“Start something so big, that only God can finish it.”

“Get out on a limb. That is where the fruit is.”

7) The task is too great

“If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small.” (Pat Morley, President of the National Coalition of Men’s Ministries)

“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” (Andrew Murray)

“Christ does not want nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible.” (C.T. Studd)

“Difficulties, dangers, disease, death, or divisions don’t deter any but Chocolate Soldiers from executing God’s Will. When someone says there is a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, ‘That’s hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go.’ ” (C.T. Studd)

7) The task is too great

‘The Chocolate Soldier’ by C.T. Studd

A missionary is one who never gets used to the sound of heathen footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity.

“If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a king.” (Jordan Grooms, former Methodist pastor & Bible teacher at Life Challenge, a men’s recovery center in Amarillo)

Nate Saint (1923-56), the missionary pilot to Ecuador who was martyred along with Jim Elliot, said, “People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives… and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”

“Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is - where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge.” (Robert C. Shannon, Christian author)

“God had only one Son and he made that Son a missionary.” (David Livingstone)

“Had I cared for the comments of people, I should never have been a missionary.” (C.T. Studd)

Missionaries

Adoniram Judson had been a child prodigy, learning to read in one week-at age 3! He grew up in a conservative Congregational pastor’s home and went to Brown University where he consistently led his class in grades. 1 Here he made friends with Jacob Eames, a persuasive Deist, and this led to his own rejection of traditional Christianity.

He broke his parents hearts when he told them that he had no faith and that he intended to go to New York and learn to write for the theatre. He did not, however, find his expected fame or fortune there. 2

Eventually he headed West and one night he stayed in a small village inn where he’d never been before. The innkeeper apologized that his sleep might be interrupted because of a man critically ill in the next room. Adoniram was tired but rest did not come. Throughout the night, he heard sounds in the next room - low voices, people moving about on the creaking floor, groans and gasps, but most of all agonizing cries of despair and desperation, coming from the dying man. It bothered him to think that the man may not be prepared to die. All night long He wondered about himself and had terrible thoughts of his own death. How would he face this enemy that his own father would welcome as the doorway to God? His philosophy offered no answers beyond this earthly life. 2

1 “The Life Of Adoniram Judson” by Courtney Anderson 2 www.nationalministries.org, www.wholesomewords.org, www.desiringgod.org

Adoniram Judson

In 1828 he began preaching to the Karens, a race of wild people living in the remote areas of the jungles. A Karen slave was bought by a local Christian, who brought him to Judson to be taught and evangelized. This desperate robber bandit was involved in some 30 murders. Patiently, Judson instructed him until he was converted and subsequently went through the jungles as a fiery evangelist among his people. 1

By 1837 there were 1,144 baptized converts in Burma. Judson would preach and teach all morning and in the evening would hold a service for believers and inquirers. 1

30 years after Judson’s death the work he gave birth to numbered 7,000 converts and some 63 churches. The working staff over which he had oversight consisted of 163 missionaries, native pastors and assistants. There was a publishing house and schools where natives were taught to read. 2 100 years after his death, Burma had some 200,000 Christians.1

1 www.believersweb.org 2 www.middletownbiblechurch.org/missions

Adoniram Judson

Adoniram Judson (1788-1850)

John Wesley tells of a man who said to him, “Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember you cannot serve him alone; you must therefore find companions or make them; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.”

“A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.” (George Whitefield)

“God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the Holy Spirit.” (George W. Peters - professor of world missions at Dallas Theological Seminary for many years.)

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” (Henry Martyn, 1781-1812, missionary to India and Persia)

“If you take missions out of the Bible, you won’t have anything left but the covers.” (Dr. Nina G. Gunter - a general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene.)

Solitary religion?

Impact on

culture

Matt 5:13-16 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

We should not ask, “What is wrong with the world?” for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather, we should ask, “What has happened to the salt and light?” (John Stott)

1 Pet 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

The salt & light

Historian Robert Fogel identifies numerous reforms in the period of the 3rd Great Awakening, especially the battles involving child labour, compulsory elementary education and the protection of women from exploitation in factories. In addition there was a major crusade for the prohibition of alcohol. 1

Christian based reform was also responsible for addressing the issues of feeding the poor, the abolition of slavery, and the establishment of orphanages, schools, hospitals and prisons.

The YMCA 3 became a force in many cities, as did denominational youth groups such as the Epworth League (Methodist) and the Walther League (Lutheran). 1

Primarily because of the China Inland Mission’s campaign against the Opium trade, Hudson Taylor has been referred to as one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th Century. 2

1 Source: Wikipedia 2 Source: Wapedia 3 The YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) began among evangelicals and was founded in London in 1844, by a young man named George Williams. At the time, the organization was dedicated to putting Christian principles into practice. Young men who came to London for work were often living in squalid and unsafe conditions, and the YMCA was dedicated to replacing life on the streets with prayer and Bible study.

Impact on culture

While involved in the slave trade along the West coast of Africa, in 1747 the ship John Newton was on encountered a storm which nearly swamped it. Only by God’s grace were they able to limp back to land. During this storm Newton was awakened to the Gospel and he later became a Church of England pastor, who is best remembered for writing the words to ‘Amazing Grace.’

John Newton lived to be 82 years old and continued to preach and have an active ministry until beset by fading health in the last 2 years of his life. Even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God’s grace and told his friends: “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember 2 things; That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” 2

“When I get to heaven, I shall see 3 wonders there. The first wonder will be to see many there whom I did not expect to see; the second wonder will be to miss many people who I did expect to see; and the third and greatest of all will be to find myself there.”

1 “Great Missionaries: members.aol.com 2 www.wholesomewords.org

Amazing Grace

John Newton (1725-1807)

Abolition of slavery

John Newton influenced William Wilberforce, a young British politician who was the chief instrument in banning slavery from the British empire.

When General Charles Gordon went to Sudan, 7 out of every 8 black people in Sudan were slaves. Gordon was a dedicated evangelical Christian who succeeded in setting many slaves free and eradicating the slave trade in Sudan. 1

David Livingstone raised in Europe so powerful a feeling against the slave trade that through him slavery may be considered as having received its death blow. 2

1 www.higherpraise.com 2 Source: www.christian- action.org.za

William Wilberforce (1759 -1833)

Charles Gordon (1833 - 1885)

Abolition of slavery

The young Scottish missionary, Alexander Mackay, was eager to win as a Christian the powerful King M’tesa, who ruled over Uganda. Soon after his arrival at the capital, he wrote in his diary of an important appearance at the king’s court: “Sunday, January 26, 1879. Held service in court. Read Matthew 11:1-30, about Jesus and John the Baptist. The spirit of God seemed to be working. I never had such a blessed service.” 1

Mackay’s favourite Bible character was John the Baptist, and he revelled in Matthew 3:3 and other passages which tell of the prophet’s commission to prepare the way for the coming of the Saviour. As announced by John the Baptist himself, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” (Matthew 3:3) 1

To King M’tesa the missionary said: “When, in ancient days, the people failed to keep the commandments of God and continued in their sinful ways, God determined to send His only Son to earth to redeem sinners and sent John the Baptist to prepare the people for His coming. I am here, O King, to prepare a way for the coming of God’s Son and I want you to join me in pointing the people of this land to the Lamb of God, who alone can take away the sin of the world.” 1

1 Source: http://www.wholesomewords.org

The missionary, however, was not the only person who appeared before the king and his chiefs. In walked a tall, swarthy Arab in flowing robes and a red fez, followed by a number of black men, who deposited on the floor their bales of cloth and guns. “I have come,” said the Arab, pointing to the bales on the floor, “to exchange these things for men and women and children. I will give you one of these links of red cloth for one man, one of these guns for 2 men and 100 of these percussion caps for one woman.” 1

McKay knew that the king was accustomed to selling his own people, as well as captives, as slaves. He could see that the king was especially eager for the guns and ammunition, for they would enable him to conquer and enslave his enemies. Should he risk the king’s disfavour, and even hazard his own life, by opposing this traffic in human lives? He remembered that, though it cost him his head, John the Baptist did not hesitate to reprove a king. 1 1 Source: http://www.wholesomewords.org

Abolition of slavery

Alexander Mackay (1849-1890)

Abolition of slavery

Nerved by this courageous example, he declared: “O King M’tesa, the people of this land made you their king and look to you as their father. Will you sell your children, knowing that they will be chained, put into slave-sticks, beaten with whips; that most of them will die of mistreatment on the way and the rest be taken as slaves to some strange country? Can you be a party to these crimes, even for the sake of some guns? Will you sell scores or hundreds of your people, or your captives, whose bodies are so marvelously created of God, for a few bolts of red cloth which any man can make in a few days?” 1

The Arab slave-dealer scowled. No man had ever dared talk to the king like this before and the chiefs stirred uneasily, wondering if M’tesa would imprison the bold foreigner or perhaps put him to death. Instead, he dismissed the angry Arab and announced, “The white man is right. I shall no more sell my people as slaves.” 1

With joyful, grateful heart the missionary went to his hut. Later the same day he wrote in his diary: “Afternoon. The King sent a message with present of a goat, saying it was a blessed passage I read today.” “A blessed passage!” agreed Mackay, to whom the passage had long been a favorite. Indeed, the purpose of his life, as he conceived it, was to be a Christian road-maker, preparing a way for the coming of Christ. 1 1 Source: http://www.wholesomewords.org

Robert Raikes was an Anglican layman who initiated the Sunday School Movement. He had inherited a business from his father and initially covered most of the costs himself. The movement started in 1780 with a school for boys (and later girls too) in the slums. Raikes had been involved with those incarcerated at the county Poor Law (part of the jail at that time) and saw that crime would be better prevented than cured. He saw schooling as the best intervention. The best available time was Sunday as the boys were often working in the factories the other 6 days. The best available teachers, were lay people. The textbook was the Bible, and the curriculum included learning to read. 1

By 1831, Sunday School in Great Britain was ministering weekly to 1,250,000 children, approximately 25% of the population. As these schools preceded the first state funding of schools for the common public, they are sometimes seen as a forerunner to the current English school system. 1 1 Source: Wikipedia

Sunday School

Robert Raikes (1736–1811)

Prussian-born George Müller’s early life was not marked by righteousness - on the contrary, he was a thief, liar and gambler. While his mother was dying, he, at 14 years of age, was playing cards with friends and drinking. 1 Müller’s worldly-minded father hoped to provide him with a religious education that would allow him to take a lucrative position as a clergyman in the state church. While studying divinity at university a friend invited him to attend Christian house meetings, where he was born again. 2

Müller, who initially came to England as a missionary, moved to Bristol in 1832 to begin working at Bethesda chapel. He continued preaching there until his death, even while devoted to his other ministries. 2

The work of Müller and his wife with orphans began in 1836 with the preparation of their own home in Bristol for the accommodation of 30 girls. Soon after, 3 more houses were furnished, growing the total of children to 130. In 1845, as growth continued, Müller decided that a separate building designed to house 300 children was necessary, and in 1849, at Ashley Down, Bristol, that home opened. By 1870, more than 2,000 children were being accommodated in 5 homes. Every morning after breakfast there was a time of Bible reading and prayer, and every child was given a Bible upon leaving the orphanage. 2 1 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson 2 Source: Wikipedia

Orphanages

William Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded the Salvation Army in 1865 and became the first General. This Christian movement, with a quasi-military structure and government - but with no physical weaponry, has spread from London, England, to many parts of the world and is known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid.

Booth described the organizations approach: “The three S’s best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the ‘down and outs’: first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.” 1

William preached to the poor, and Catherine Booth spoke to the wealthy, gaining financial support for their work. The Salvation Army’s main converts were at first alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes and other ‘undesirables’ of society. These ‘undesirables’ were not welcomed into polite Christian society, which prompted the Booths to start their own church. 1

1 Source: Wikipedia

Caring for the poor

William Booth (1829–1912)

“Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love.” (Roland Allen, Missionary to China & Kenya)

Mary Slessor (1848-1915) spent 40 years in Calabar and became known as ‘The White Queen Of Calabar.’ In this land there was a wicked custom of murdering twin babies as they were considered to be bad luck. Mary stepped in to prevent their murder and personally raised many of these twins herself. 1

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” (Elie Wiesel – Holocaust survivor & author)

1 Source: www.middletownbiblechurch.org

1) Love

Roland Allen (1868-1947)

Irish missionary, Amy Carmichael opened an orphanage in India and founded a mission which became a sanctuary for over 1000 children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future. 1

“You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving.” That is what Amy used to say, and she lived it. Lived it so deeply it could get her into lots of trouble. One time it seemed sure Amy Carmichael would be arrested and thrust inside an Indian prison on kidnapping charges. And technically Amy was a kidnapper. Many times over in fact! 13 years earlier, in 1901, Amy sheltered her first temple runaway. 2

1 Source: Wikipedia 2 Christian History Institute

Amy Carmichael

1) Love

Temple children were young girls dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests. Over the years, Amy had rescued many children, often at the cost of extreme exhaustion and personal danger. 1

One of her recent rescues was 5-year-old Kohila. Kohila’s guardians wanted her back. Amy refused to return the little child to certain abuse. Instead, she made plans to cause the girl to ‘disappear’ to a safe place. Amy was too well known to spirit Kohila away herself. So she arranged for someone else to do it. The plot was discovered. Charges were brought against her. Thus Amy faced a 7 year prison term. 1

Amy did not go to prison. A telegram arrived on February 7, 1914, saying, “Criminal case dismissed.” No explanation was ever forthcoming, but those who know Amy’s Lord suspect He had a hand in the decision. 1 1 Christian History Institute

1) Love

Robert Morrison (1782-1834)

Robert Morrison was the first missionary to China. 7 years passed before he baptized his first convert and the total number of converts as a result of his work remained small.

“The ‘romance’ of a missionary is often made up of monotony and drudgery; there often is no glamour in it; it doesn’t stir a man’s spirit or blood … It’s not the flash in the pan but the steady giving forth of light, it’s shining on and on that we need out here. Our job is to make all hear the Word. God’s job is to give penetration to His Word.” (C.T. Studd)

2) Faithfulness

2) Faithfulness

William Carey baptizes his first convert, Krishna Pal

Though it took Adoniram Judson 6 years for his first convert, within 2 years he had 18 baptized converts and a Burmese church started. 1 As he himself said, winning a convert in those regions was “like drawing the eye-tooth of a live tiger.” 2

William Carey spent 7 years in India before seeing his first convert. 3

1 Source: believersweb.org 2 middletownbiblechurch.org 3 Christian History Institute

In 1840 David Livingstone received his medical diploma and was ordained. The opium war shut him out of China where he had thought to go; but while waiting he met Dr. Moffat, who said he had seen in Africa “the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had ever been.” “I will go at once to Africa,” said Livingstone. He returned, for one night, to his old home. The next morning at the family altar, David read Psalms 121 and 135, then prayed. Father and son walked together to Glasgow, Scotland, where they parted to meet no more till earth gives up her dead. 1

“Sympathy is no substitute for action.” (David Livingstone)

1 www.wholesomewords.org

3) People of action

David Livingstone (1813-73)

Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission which was established on the principle of faith. No direct solicitation for funds was ever made - the missionaries were to look to God alone and not to men for their financial support. None of the workers was guaranteed any fixed salary. 1

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” (Hudson Taylor)

Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in all 18 provinces.

“I have found that there are 3 stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” (Hudson Taylor)

1 www.middletownbiblechurch.org/missions

5) Faith

Hudson & Maria Taylor

David Brainerd’s heart became burdened for the salvation of the Indians. At that time, there was almost no attempt being made to reach them. Church leaders argued whether they even possessed souls to be saved. Brainerd ignored their contempt and preached all along the eastern coast, traveling thousands of miles on horseback in all kinds of weather. 2

David’s first journey to the Forks of the Delaware to reach that ferocious tribe resulted in a miracle. Encamped at the outskirts of their settlement, he planned to enter their community the next morning to preach to them. Unknown to him, his every move was being watched by warriors who had been sent to kill him. “But when the braves drew closer to Brainerd’s tent, they saw the paleface on his knees. And as he prayed, suddenly a rattlesnake slipped to his side, lifted up its ugly head to strike, flicked its forked tongue almost in his face, and then without any apparent reason, glided swiftly away into the brushwood. ‘The Great Spirit is with the paleface!’ the Indians said; and thus they accorded him a prophet’s welcome.” 1

1 F.W. Boreham 2 www.swordofthelord.com

5) Faith

David Brainerd (1718-1747)

John Paton said he knew of 50 times when his life was in imminent danger and his escape was due solely to the grace of God. 1 Time and again the savages on Tanna lifted their guns to shoot him, or raised their axes to bash him in the head, but always they held back as if restrained by a greater power. 2 On one occasion savages surrounded the mission house and set fire to the church and the fence connecting the church and mission house. Paton ran out and tore up the burning fence, while savages raised their clubs and shouted, “Kill him!” At this moment a roaring sound came from the South as a tornado suddenly approached. The wind carried the flames away from the house. Had the wind come in the opposite direction Paton would have been consumed. It also brought with it a torrent of tropical rain which quenched the flames of the burning church. 1 The savages fled in terror. The next day, a sail appeared and the missionaries escaped on the boat. 2

1 Source: www.middletownbiblechurch.org/missions 2 Christian History Institute

5) Faith

John Paton (1824-1907)

While travelling the back roads of Virginia, circuit rider Robert Sheffey (1820–1902) came upon a ‘moonshiner’ who made whiskey. Robert told the man that his ‘work’ was hurting many people, for when men get drunk, they beat their wife and children, they don’t work, and many other hurtful things happen that are not good. The man hit him for his effort. Robert got down on his knees before the Lord and prayed, “Lord cause a mighty oak tree to fall on this still, and break it into many pieces, Amen.” The moonshiner began to laugh, he said, “There ain’t any oak tree within 200 yards of this place!” That night, a storm came and lightning hit an oak tree high up in the mountain, above the moonshiners cabin. The oak, a very large one, came rolling down the mountain side and wrecked his still. Robert’s prayer was answered. Not only did the man not make any more whiskey; he instead turned to the Lord! 1

1 Source: www.matthew548.com

5) Faith

Once when she was about to visit the Buddhist village of Hirose in Japan, Amy Carmichael asked the Lord what she should ask of Him before she went. She felt impressed to pray for one soul. A young silk-weaver heard their message and became a Christian. Amy’s neuralgia kept her in bed for a month after that. But the next time she went out, she again felt she must pray, and the Lord told her to ask for 2 souls. The silk-weaver brought 2 friends, and they gave themselves to Jesus. 2 weeks later, Amy felt impressed to ask for 4 souls. This was more souls than many missionaries see won to Christ in a year. The visit went badly. Amy wondered if she hadn’t mistaken an arithmetical progression for the leading of the Lord. No one seemed interested in the gospel. Her interpreter Misaki San reminded Amy that the evening service still lay ahead. Not many came to the evening service. Those few seemed distracted. Amy was almost in tears. She wanted to run out, bury herself in the snow. Suddenly the spirit changed. A woman spoke up and asked the way to Christ, and then her son came in and committed himself to the new religion also. At the home of some Christians that evening another woman accepted Christ and the next morning a fourth. Again Amy was ill, this time for a month and a half. For 2 weeks the Lord impressed Amy that she should ask for 8 souls. The other missionaries chided her. “It is not faith,” they said, “but presumption.” 1

1 Christian History Institute

5) Faith

With astonishment, Amy heard them advise her just to pray for a blessing. “Then you won’t be disappointed.” Amy insisted that the Lord himself had wrestled with her. She was terrified, she said, and would never ask this in her own strength. An older missionary agreed with her. He read God’s promise from Jeremiah that nothing is too hard for the Lord. “Let us pray for her,” he said. Needless to say, 8 souls took the Christian way on that visit. 1

On another occasion, Amy Carmichael and Misaki San were asked to send the spirit of the fox out of a violent and murderous man. Village priests had tried their formulas and tortures without success. Trusting that the Lord could drive demons away, the 2 girls prayed and went boldly into the man’s room. As soon as they mentioned the name of Jesus, the man went into an uncontrollable rage. If he had not been tied, he would have leaped upon them. The 2 girls were thrust from the room. Perplexed, they soon recovered their confidence. They assured the man’s wife that they would pray until the spirit left and asked her to send a message when it was gone. Within an hour they had word. The next day, the man himself summoned them, and over the next few days they explained the way of Christ to him and he became a Christian. 1

1 Christian History Institute

5) Faith

Greatest of all George Müller’s undertakings was the erection and maintenance of the great orphanages at Bristol. He began the undertaking with only 2 shillings (50 cents) in his pocket; but in answer to prayer and without making his needs known to human beings, he received the means necessary to erect the great buildings and to feed the orphans day by day for 60 years. 2 Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the 5 homes cost over £100,000 to build. 1

Since 1836, 23,000 children had been educated in the schools and many thousands had been educated in other schools at the expense of the orphanage. In 1834, Müller founded the Scripture Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad. Not receiving government support and only accepting unsolicited gifts, this organization received and disbursed £1.5 million by the time of Müller’s death, primarily using the money for supporting the orphanages and distributing 64,000 Bibles, 85,000 Testaments and 29,000,000 religious books. Other expenses included the support of 150 missionaries, including Hudson Taylor. 2

1 Source: Wikipedia 2 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson

5) Faith

The children at the orphanages didn’t go without meals, and Müller said that if they ever did, he would take it as evidence that the Lord did not will the work to continue. 1 Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. 2

Müller related: “It was time for breakfast at one of my orphanages in England and there was no food. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money in the home’s account. A young girl whose father was a close friend of mine was visiting the home. I took her hand and said, ‘Come and see what our Father will do.’ In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. We sat down at the table with the others and I prayed, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.” At once, we heard a knock at the door. There stood the local baker. ‘Mr. Müller,’ he said, ‘I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow, I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 o’clock this morning and baked you some fresh bread. Here it is.’ Müller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon, a second knock was heard. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. He said he would like to give the children the milk so he could empty the cart and repair it.” 3

1 Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson 2 Wikipedia 3 www.sermonillustrations.com

5) Faith

At the age of 70, Müller began to make great evangelistic tours, preaching in the US, India, Australia, Japan, China, and nearly 40 other countries. He traveled over 200,000 miles, an incredible achievement for pre-aviation times. His language abilities allowed him to preach in English, French and German. He frequently spoke to as many as 4,500 or 5,000 persons. He continued his tours until he was 90 years of age. He estimated that during these 17 years of evangelistic work he addressed 3 million people. All his expenses were sent in answer to the prayer of faith. 1

D.L. Moody’s early work in the rough areas of Chicago, though so unselfish, had often to encounter opposition, abuse, and even threats of violence. Once his life was menaced in a hovel by 3 savage men. They gave him a chance to pray, however, and when he arose from his knees they had fled, being unable to resist the witness of the Spirit. 1

1 Source: Wikipedia & J. Gilchrist Lawson. 2 Source: www.wholesomewords.org

George Müller (1805–98)

5) Faith

“Once,” Moody said, “I received an invitation to be at the opening of a large billiard-hall. I suppose they thought it was a good joke to invite me. I went before the time came and asked the man if he meant it. He said yes. I asked him if I might bring a friend along. He said I might. I said, ‘If you say or do anything that will grieve my friend, I may speak to him during your exercises.’ They didn’t know what I meant, and knitted their brows and looked puzzled. At last he asked, ‘You are not going to pray, are you? We never want any praying here.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I never go where I cannot pray; but I’ll come round.’ ‘No,’ said he, ‘we don’t want you.’ ‘Well, I’ll come anyway, since you invited me,’ said I. But he rather insisted that I shouldn’t, and finally I told him: ‘We’ll compromise the matter. I won’t come if you will let me pray with you now.’ So he agreed to that, and I got down with one rum-seller on each side of me, and prayed that they might fail in their business, and never have any more success in it from that day. Well, they went on for about 2 months, and then, sure enough, they failed.” 1

1 Source: www.wholesomewords.org

5) Faith

When the Sanhedrin commanded Peter and John not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, they replied, “… we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20) Similarly Paul wrote that he was “compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16)

“Lost people matter to God and so they must matter to us.” (Keith Wright, former superintendent of the Kansas City District of the Church Of The Nazarene)

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart.” (Bob Pierce, World Vision founder)

“If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn’t it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of death.” (Dave Davidson)

David Brainerd:

“I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.”

“Life itself appeared but an empty bubble, the riches, honours and enjoyments of it extremely tasteless. I longed to be entirely crucified to all things here below.”

6) Passion for the lost

“Watch out for teachers who preach all manner of insight, yet have no passion for the ends of the earth. When they say that it is ‘just not their ministry,’ they are people who have not seen the heart of God and who are not committed to the complete Lordship of Christ.” (John Willis Zumwalt, founder of Heart of God Ministries)

“I continually heard… the wail of the perishing heathen in the South Seas.” (John Paton, Missionary to the South Sea Islands)

“I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard.” (William Burns)

“I will place no value on anything I possess or anything I may do, except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” (David Livingstone)

“I am willing to go anywhere, at anytime, to do anything for Jesus.” (Luther Wishard)

John Wesley: “Give me 100 men who love only God with all their heart and hate only sin with all their heart, and we will shake the gates of hell and bring in the kingdom of God in one generation.” 2

2 Source: thinkexist.com

6) Passion for the lost

As a youth Amy Carmichael thought she was a Christian, but an evangelist showed her she needed a personal commitment. She gave her heart to Christ. Service to him became the centre and passion of her life. After 3 years of boarding school, Amy returned home because her parents no longer had the money to support her education. Mrs. Carmichael took 16 year old Amy out to buy a dress. Amy found a beautiful one - royal blue - but turned away from it. Her mother was surprised, but Amy explained that clothes were no longer as important to her as they once were now that Christ had given her new purpose in life. She would wait a year until her parents were better able to afford new clothes for her. She never got that dress, because the next year, Mr. Carmichael died unexpectedly. That was the year that Amy started classes and prayer groups for Belfast ragamuffins. She also began a Sunday work with the “shawlies.” These were factory girls so poor that they could not afford hats to wear to church and wore shawls instead. Respectable people didn’t want anything to do with them. Amy saw that they needed Christ just the same as their supposed ‘betters.’ Eventually so many shawlies attended Amy’s classes that she had to find a building large enough to hold 300 and more. 1

1 Christian History Institute

6) Passion for the lost

Amy suffered neuralgia, a disease of the nerves that made her whole body weak and achy and often put her in bed for weeks on end. Friends thought she was foolish when she announced she was going to be a missionary. They predicted that she would soon be back in England for keeps. But Amy was sure God had called her to go overseas. All of her life, she had been learning to listen to his voice. 1

The Carmichaels lost all their money through financial reverses and a change became necessary. Mrs. Carmichael decided to move to England and work for Uncle Jacob. Amy and another sister joined her. Uncle Jacob asked Amy to teach his mill workers about Christ. Amy threw herself into the work, living near the mill in an apartment infested with cockroaches and bed bugs. However, she was constantly sick with neuralgia and had to lie in bed for days at a time. It was clear she must give up the work. 1

It was at the Keswick Convention of 1887 that she heard Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission speak about missionary life. Soon afterward, she became convinced of her calling to missionary work. 2 For years, Amy wanted to be a missionary. Now this desire grew so strong it hurt. She prayed about it and wrote down the reasons she thought it couldn’t possibly be God’s intention. One of the first things on the list was her sickness. 1

1 Source: Christian History Institute 2 Wikipedia

6) Passion for the lost

But in her prayers she seemed to hear the Lord speak as if He were standing in her room, saying “Go.” “Surely, Lord, you don’t mean it,” she said. Again the voice said, “Go.” She agreed. But where should she go? And what about her widowed mother? She wrote to her mom. Mrs. Carmichael replied that the Lord had already spoken to her about it, and told her she must let Amy go. So for over a year Amy tried to find a place to go, but no one wanted her. 1

Nevertheless she set off for Japan in the company of 3 missionary ladies, a letter having been sent ahead offering her assistance to missionaries there. Tears scalded her as she sailed on March 3, 1893. 1

Amy had a constant passion to witness for Christ. On board the ship even the captain was converted to Christian faith after observing how cheerfully Amy faced the dirt and insects onboard. 1

In Japan her neuralgia became so bad that the doctor told her she must leave for a more suitable climate. She subsequently went to India. 1

Amy’s experiences were proof that the Lord truly is in charge of our lives. Even when she became permanently bedridden, God had plans for her. She wrote books that became a deep spiritual witness. 1

1 Source: Christian History Institute

6) Passion for the lost

Amy Carmichael:

“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian.”

“Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod; Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.”

Her example as a missionary inspired others (including Jim Elliot and his wife Elisabeth Elliot) to pursue a similar vocation. 1

1 Wikipedia

Amy Carmichael (1867–1951)

6) Passion for the lost

Ex-millionaire C.T. Studd said, “I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give. I do not suppose there is one that I have not experienced, but I can tell you that those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me.”

“At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.” (John Paton, Missionary to the South Sea Islands)

7) Joy

“… there is the joy of one’s own salvation. I thought, when I first tasted that, it was the most delicious joy I had ever known, and that I could never get beyond it. But I found, afterward, there was something more joyful that, namely, the joy of the salvation of others.” (D.L. Moody)

In 1897, Samuel Zwemer and his wife and 2 daughters sailed to the Persian Gulf to work among the Muslims of Bahrain Their evangelism was largely fruitless. In July 1904, both the daughters, ages 4 and 7, died within 8 days of each other. Nevertheless, 50 years later Zwemer looked back on this period and wrote, “The sheer joy of it all comes back. Gladly would I do it all over again.” (Samuel Zwemer, Missionary to the Muslims of Saudi Arabia)

“Surely there can be no greater joy than that of saving souls.” (Lottie Moon, 1840–1912, Missionary to China)

7) Joy

The harvest is plentiful

The workers are few

How will they hear?

Bible translation

Send (Support)

Prayer

Encouragement

Financial

Go

The call

THE PLEA

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

As Mary Slessor boarded the ship as a missionary to Calabar she saw that the cargo being loaded included barrels and barrels of whiskey. “How sad,” Mary thought, “Scotland is sending hundreds of barrels of whiskey to Africa, but only one missionary!” 1

“This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth!” (Keith Green, 1953–1982, an American gospel singer)

“As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is – lack of heart. The enthusiasm of the kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King.” (Andrew Murray)

“If you want the Kingdom speeded, go out and speed it yourselves. Only obedience rationalizes prayer. Only missions can redeem your intercessions from insincerity.” (William Carey)

“We have a need for 200,000 new missionaries for a new millennium so that everyone in the world should receive the Gospel and that a church should be planted in every people group.” (George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization)

2) The workers are few

“Behind the shameful apathy and lethargy of the church, that allows one thousand million… human beings to go to their graves in ignorance of the Gospel, there lies a practical doubt, if not denial, of their lost condition.” (A.T. Pierson, co-founder of the SVM and AIM)

“I meet a good many people who say to me, ‘I cannot believe that the heathen are lost, because they have not heard the Gospel’; and I fully agree with them. I believe they are lost, because they are now in sin and go on in sin. It is not a delusion as to whether people will be lost. We are lost, because it is a state of nature. The unconverted are lost already, but they can learn that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save, not those who are in danger of being lost, but those that are lost.” (Hudson Taylor)

“Men are in this plight, not because they are unevangelized, but because they are men. Sin is the destroyer of the soul and the destruction of the knowledge of God which is life. And it is not the failure to have heard the Gospel which makes men sinners. The Gospel would save them if they heard it and accepted it, but it is not the ignorance or rejection of the Gospel which destroys them, it is the knowledge of sin.” (Robert E. Speer)

“Someone asked ‘Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved?’ It is more a question with me whether we - who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not - can be saved.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

3) How will they hear?

“There are individuals ripe to receive the Lord in the most resistant and hostile situations. We must take the Gospel to them.” (Virgil Amos)

“How do Christians discharge this trust committed to them? They let three-fourths of the world sleep the sleep of death, ignorant of the simple truth that a Saviour died for them. Content if they can be useful in the little circle of their acquaintances, they quietly sit and see whole nations perish for the lack of knowledge.” (Adoniram Judson, Missionary to Burma, present-day Myanmar)

“You would believe in pioneer missions if your family were part of an unevangelized people group.” (Norm Lewis, missionary to Argentina for 15 years, author of ‘Triumphant Missionary Ministry in the Local Church’)

Do we pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ but never say, ‘Here am I, Lord, send me’?

3) How will they hear?

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

“Oh, that I might be a flaming fire in the service of the Lord. Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth… send me from all that is called earthly comfort; send me even to death itself if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy Kingdom.” (David Brainerd)

After wrestling with deep doubts about going to the mission field, Amanda Smith said, “To stay here and disobey God - I can’t afford to take the consequence. I would rather go and obey God than to stay here and know that I disobeyed.” (Amanda Berry Smith, 1837–1915, a former slave who founded an Orphans’ Home for African-American children in Chicago.)

“As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both.” (J.L. Ewen)

“The command has been to ‘go,’ but we have stayed - in body, gifts, prayer and influence.” (Robert Savage, Latin American Mission)

“We are debtors to every man to give him the gospel in the same measure in which we have received it.” (P.F. Bresee, founder of the Church of the Nazarene)

c) Go

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service… when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.” (C.T. Studd)

c) Go

“If we have not enough in our religion to share it with all the world, it is doomed here at home.” (David Livingstone)

God can and will open doors:

“When God’s finger points, God’s hand will open the door.” (Clarence Jones)

“There are no closed doors to the gospel – provided that, once you get inside, you don’t care if you ever come out.” (Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors)

c) Go

The call:

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.” (Hudson Taylor)

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face – whose mercy you have professed to obey – and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.” (William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army)

“Why do you need a voice when you have a verse?” (Jim Elliot, honour student, all-star athlete, missionary martyred at age 28)

c) Go