As a pastor is responsible to preach about missions and the need in the world, there should be specific things he studies so he can bring this before the church. Not only should the pastor of the church be studying these things, so should we! So, let’s look at what three areas pastors and Christians should be looking at to help see the need for missions in the world.
- – The world in its sin and misery— Study the world. Get to know the whole world and the different countries of the world. What is said today, is most Christians and pastors only know a handful of countries and where they are, but we should know all about the world and learn as much as we can about the countries of the world. Not only get to know individual countries and where they are, but also, see the great need in these countries. See that in many countries people are dying each and every minute and waking up to spend eternity in hell! See the over 7.6 billion people in the world and the state is which they are. The fact is that most have never heard the gospel and are heading straight towards hell. Keep looking and seeing the statistics of death in countries and let it break your heart. Don’t see it just as numbers, but as individuals, as souls, as people just like you and me, but with no one to share with them the good news of salvation. Then think of what state you would be in if no one shared with you the gospel and know that billions of people are like that all over the world! Let it break your heart and motivate you to do something. If we would stop looking just at our community, our city, our county, our state and our country and start looking at the whole world, it would move us to do something. It would make us realize how great a need for the gospel is all over the world!
- – Christ’s love— After looking at the sin and great need in the world, we must look at the love of Christ. Realizing that John 3:16 is not just a verse to quote, but to seriously think about the love of Christ. That He would leave heaven, to come to earth, to suffer and die for you and for me, but not just for you and for me, but for the whole world! Dwell upon and mediate upon this love that Christ showed. How awesome and how humbling it is for us to think of Christ loving us and dying for us WHILE WE WERE STILL DEAD IN OUR TRESPASSES AND SINS! While we and the world had no desire for Him, He loved us and desired us to be His and gave His life for us. As you dwell upon how much Christ loved you, it should constrain you and motivate you to action! It is why we do what we do as Christians. It is the only reason we must go! The love of Christ should compel and urge us forward. But not only do you think of His love, but of His power. The fact that because He loved us and died for us, He has the power and authority to command us to go. But He promised not to leave us alone in the task of reaching the world. He said He would go with us. That He would give us the same power to overcome the world and to reach it with the gospel!
- – As Christians and as churches we are the link between the two— We are the link between the world and the love of Christ. You see we have been shown the love of Christ and it
- should compel us to go to a sinful world and proclaim the message of salvation! That, as Christians and churches, is the whole purpose for being on the earth— to get the gospel to the whole world. The supreme end of the church is missions! God is waiting and wanting to use us to get the gospel all around the world and yet, we have been so inwardly focused we have missed seeing the great need all over the world!
We have seen the three things that pastors, but also, we as Christians should focus on when it comes to world evangelism. If we would take all three of these things seriously and dwell on and think about these things we would then go to God in prayer as to what we can do to reach the world in this generation! If pastors resolve in their heart and mind that the missionary problem is a personal one, they can convey the need to their churches and if we, as Christians, realized the missionary problem is a personal one then we will do what must be done to get the gospel all around the world!