3 Principles for Effective Missionary Work

1:30Surrounded by men and women who are passionate about God, who are passionate about his gospel, and who are passionate about seeing the gospel go forth to all the corners of the earth. And so, today, our hope is that God would give you a desire, or would grow your desire, to see mature disciples made all over the world, to see people from every tribe, tongue, and nation worship the one true God through his Son, Jesus Christ. And since the great commission was given to all of us, but many of us won't be called to go to the nations, then we have to do our part. We have to work hard at being faithful senders to the nations. And being faithful senders includes not only recognizing and training and commissioning missionaries to go all over the world, it also includes faithfully supporting them. And so, this morning, we're going to be taking a look at Colossians chapter 4 in the passage that we just read. And we're going to be learning three principles for effective missionary work that are all tied into us being faithful supporters.

2:45And so, let's begin this morning as we take a look at this text together. Our first principle for effective missionary work is that effective missionary work requires a vibrant connection between senders and goers. Effective missionary work requires a vibrant connection between senders and goers. Now, it is immediately obvious from the text that Paul and his fellow missionaries had a deep connection with the church at Colossi. And what's amazing is that Paul did not plant this church. Epaphras planted this church. Look on the screen at these verses from Colossians chapter 1.

3:27We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. So it seems from everything that we know in the New Testament that Epaphras was converted under Paul's ministry while he was in Ephesus, and then he brought the good news back to his hometown in Colossi.

4:09And Paul and perhaps other workers in this text had never met these believers here before, and yet they desired to have a vibrant, ongoing connection with this church. When he wrote, Paul made an effort to include greetings from Aristarchus. And Mark, Justus, Epaphras, Luke, and Demas. But he does so much more than just include greetings from his fellow co-workers, his fellow laborers. As you see in verses 7 through 9, he is sending these two men back, Tychicus and Onesimus. He's sending them back to Colossi for two reasons. Look at verse 7.

4:54First reason, so they would know all about my activities. That's Paul's activities. So they would know about what's going on through their missionary efforts. And then look at the very next verse. Look at verse 8. He says, I'm sending them back that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. So, friends, how important to Paul was a vibrant connection between senders and goers? How important was this? In his mind, it was so important that he was willing to pull two co-workers, two fellow missionaries off of the field for an extended period of time, Tichicus, his beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, and Onesimus, whose name means useful.

5:49He was willing to pull these two brothers off the field for an extended period of time because that's how important an ongoing, vibrant connection between the senders and the goers was. Was to Paul. The sole purpose of sending these guys back to Colossi was to let them know how they are doing and to encourage their hearts. So just review that for a moment. Paul and his missionary companions are working themselves to the bone for the gospel. At least Paul and Aristarchus are doing time in prison for preaching the gospel as they are writing this letter, and yet he wants to make sure that the church back home is informed and encouraged.

6:39And that's incredible. And it's not just incredible, it's really, really convicting. Because you see the same attitude displayed by the missionaries that we have sent out. Our missionaries are working hard to see the gospel go forth among unreached people groups. They're sacrificing a great deal, and yet every one of them makes time to write us a regular update, to schedule Skype calls with our members and members of their Barnabas teams, to come back on furlough and to share what God has been doing with them and how they are so that our hearts would be encouraged.

7:18They understand that effective missionary work requires a vibrant connection between senders and goers. The question is, do we see how important that is? And I don't just mean for them. I mean, if you are living thousands of miles from home in a foreign land with little or no Christian fellowship, then of course a vibrant connection to your sending church would be important to you. That would be a top priority. But do we see how important a vibrant connection with our missionaries is for us?

7:56Because I think too often in the local church, we see mission work as something that they do, they being the missionaries. That's their thing, that's their work, that's their calling. But, church, these are our brothers and sisters in Christ. These are our family members. This is our work together. And it's only when we begin to see them as our family members who are partnering with us to do the work that we have been given, that we've all been called to do, that we will see the importance of a vibrant connection with them.

8:34There can be no effective missionary work, not long term, without a vibrant connection between senders and goers. So that's our first principle today. The second principle that we see in this text is that effective missionary work requires mutual concern for spiritual maturity. Effective missionary work requires mutual concern for. Spiritual maturity. I want to direct your attention to verses 12 and 13. Paul says this. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

9:33So Paul reminds us that Epaphras was himself a Colossian. He's the one who brought the gospel back to his hometown. But now he's not there anymore. He's not physically present to minister to these people that he shared the gospel with and established in the faith. Instead, now, where is he? He is traveling and ministering with the Apostle Paul. So he can't be there to physically be present with them and minister to them, but he can do something that is just as important, which is to pray for them. And I want you to notice the kind of praying that he is doing. Look at how Paul describes it again. He is struggling on their behalf.

10:23He says he is working hard for you, and not just for you, but for those in these neighboring towns of Laodicea. And Hierapolis. He is struggling. He is working hard. Again, how convicting is this? Here you have a missionary pouring himself out for the kingdom of God. Meanwhile, he is struggling in his prayers. He is working hard for these people who are back home living their ordinary lives. And friends, I can't say that I'm often struggling in prayer for our missionaries. I mean, we do our best to remember them as a family during our times of devotion or when Kendra and I pray together. We pray for them each week in our prayer meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6.30. We try to put them before you on the screen on Sunday morning so that we're remembering them. We're praying for them together. And so I think we are, a lot of us, we are praying for our missionaries, but are we struggling in prayer for them? Are we working hard? Are we going to war in the spiritual realm for these people that we have sent out? Our brothers and sisters, our co-laborers in Christ. I don't think my prayer could be described as struggling or working hard all the time for them.

11:42And what exactly is Epaphras praying for the church? The content of his prayer is very important. Look again at what he says. He is praying that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. When he left Colossi, Epaphras didn't just bid them farewell and hope that everything would continue on. He didn't say to himself, okay, I've preached the gospel. These people have believed the good news, and now I'm just going to leave and I trust everything will be okay. No, he poured out his heart to God on their behalf.

12:23And within the context of the letter, we may even know some of the things that he was actually praying for them because Paul goes to the trouble of recording his and his co-laborers' prayers for the church in chapter 1. Look at the screen again. He says in verses 9 through 12 of chapter 1, And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all his power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13:26There's so much there. You could preach a whole sermon series on this prayer. Alone. There is so much there. It's a great example of the specific things that as he is struggling, as he is laboring and working hard for them, what is he praying? He's praying for their spiritual maturity. He's praying for them to be filled with all wisdom and insight. He's praying that their lives would be fully pleasing to the Lord, that they would bear fruit in all of their life and their activity.

13:53And here's the thing: if a missionary like Epaphras is struggling in his prayers for his sending church, asking God to help them stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God, shouldn't we also be struggling in prayer for the missionaries that we have sent out? Shouldn't we be struggling in prayer that they would stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God? Yes, we should. And we should, because it's very important to note: not all missionaries stand firm to the end.

14:32Not all missionaries stand firm to the end. I want you to look at verse 14. In verse 14, you have these greetings from Luke, but then also from this man named Demas. And Demas was one of Paul's co-laborers. He is mentioned in several different letters in the New Testament. But sadly, in Paul's last letter that we know of, 2 Timothy, Paul writes this: Look on the screen. Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

15:14See, the bottom line is that Demas, one of Paul's closest ministry associates, didn't make it to the end. Judas, one of Jesus' 12 apostles, did not make it to the end. And many missionaries in our day, because of discouragement, because of loneliness, because of burnout or spiritual warfare or moral failure or any number of other reasons, don't make it to the end. Friends, I think one of the biggest mistakes that Christians make is assuming that spiritual leaders, that pastors, that missionaries will stand firm to the end.

16:07I think it's one of the biggest mistakes that we make is we just assume that because these men and women are spiritually immature when they started out in vocational ministry, that they will stand firm to the end. The spiritual warfare is unbelievably intense. And so we must make sure that we are struggling and laboring in prayer for our Missionaries. We must pray that God would help them stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. We have to struggle for them. Effective missionary work requires mutual concern for spiritual maturity.

16:48And then, third and finally, effective missionary work requires us to fulfill the ministry that we have received. Effective missionary work requires us to fulfill the ministry that we have received. I want you to look with me at verse 17. Paul writes this, and say to Arcipus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. Now, just for a moment, I want you to pretend that you're Arcipus. Your friends call you Archie. You're an ordinary person leading a fairly ordinary life. You're serving the church. Maybe you're even hosting the gathering. It seems that way from the letter to Philemon where he's addressed and there's a church meeting in his house, and so it seems like maybe he's opening his home and he's serving in that way. And the Apostle Paul has written this letter to your church, which according to verse 16 is not only going to be read to your church, but it's going to be read up the road in Laodicea.

17:52And also, it's going to be read by hundreds of millions of people for the rest of the time until Jesus returns. And you're with the church body one Sunday, and the brother is up there, and he's reading this letter. And you love Jesus, and you're trying to pay attention. But you're also thinking about what you might have for lunch. And how does Ohio State lose to Purdue? And then all of a sudden, the reader says, and say to Arcipus, See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.

18:37Now, I don't know what ministry that Arcipus received from the Lord. Was it an evangelistic ministry? Was it a teaching ministry? Was it a serving ministry? A ministry of helps? We don't know. And, church, I think that's the whole point. I think that's why this verse is in the Bible. Why else would God have Paul write this very specific command to this very specific person that we know almost nothing about and preserve it for all believers for all time?

19:12Well, I think this is why. Because this command applies not just to Arciopus, but to every one of us. I am Arciopus. You are Arcipus. Every one of us is Arciopus. I mean, who is this man? Just an ordinary Christian? Leading an ordinary Christian life, he was a member of the body of Christ. And because he was a member of the body of Christ, he had an important role to fulfill so that the great commission could go forward and all the people of the earth could hear the good news of Jesus. For that to happen, he needed to fulfill the ministry that he had received from the Lord.

19:58So, friends, most of us are ordinary Christians with ordinary callings. We are friends and neighbors, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, students and teachers, citizens and saints. That is what we are. Ordinary Christians leading ordinary lives, but we also have been given extraordinary gifts from the Holy Spirit. And these extraordinary gifts that we have received from the Holy Spirit, according to Scripture, are to be used to build up the body of Christ, to make disciples of all nations, to see the great commission fulfilled. And so every one of us has a ministry to fulfill, broadly to make disciples of all nations, as we say in our mission statement, but more specifically, that includes either faithfully going to the nations or faithfully sending others to take the gospel to the nations. Now, many of us are called to. To be faithful senders to the nations. And since that's true, we have to ask ourselves the question: what ministry has God called me to fulfill?

21:12What ministry has God called me to fulfill to be a faithful sender to the nations? For some of you, God has called you to be an advocate, to advocate for our missionaries so that our church body is constantly remembering them in our prayers, so that we are struggling for them and laboring for them just as they are for us. Others are called to encourage missionaries through writing letters and setting up Skype calls and even going to visit them.

21:45Others are called to finance missionaries through sacrificing some of our monetary or other resources so that the work can go forward. And still others are called to help our missionaries by offering our time, the skills that we use every day at our jobs in order to serve them in some particular way. And so I want to make mention that out there in the hallway, there's a little chalkboard right when you leave this room. And there's some areas that you can sign up and say, I want to use my gifts, my skills, my finances, whatever it might be, to serve our missionaries in a more direct way. I want to encourage you to do that. But every one of us has to answer that question. What ministry has God? Called me to fulfill as a faithful sender to the nations because effective missionary work requires us to fulfill the ministry that we have received.

22:43So, friends, Jesus' great commission to make disciples of all nations wasn't just given to the original disciples, it wasn't just given to those men and women who answer the call to go to the nations. The great commission was given to every single Christian, to every one of us who calls on the name of the Lord. And while most of us won't go to the nations, we are all called to participate in sending those faithfully who do go to the nations. Being faithful senders includes not only recognizing and training and then commissioning missionaries to go, but it also includes faithfully supporting them.

23:21And our faithful support is used by God to sustain effective missionary work. Let's pray. Father, our desire from the very beginning of our church has been to faithfully send out the ones that you call to go to the people who have never heard the gospel, who have no access to the good news of Jesus, so that they could be saved. We so want every tribe, tongue, and nation to come to faith in Christ. And we know that we ultimately play a small part in that, God.

24:15We are one local church, one small body of believers that is a part of your universal church and a part of the things that you have been doing since before the foundation of the world. And so we don't take pride in ourselves. We don't boast about whatever achievements that we have or may have. We look to you and we say, God, this task that you've given to us is impossible. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough money. We don't have enough resources to do this work.

24:54But, God, you do. You have all of the people at your disposal. You have all of the resources at your disposal. And we want to be faithful to you, God, because you are worthy of worship. You are glorious and you are worthy of worship. And so, God, we thank you for all of the great work that you have done in our hearts over this past decade. And that as you've changed our hearts, we've seen people get excited to give. And support and to go to the nations. That is great. And we want to see more of that.

25:41And so, God, we pray that you would fill us with faith. Give us a vision of your glory, a fresh realization of who you are in all of your wonderful, perfect, infinite attributes, so that our great desire becomes seeing all people worship you. It's in the name of Jesus, our great Savior, our friend, our brother, that we pray these things. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.