Missions 101: How the Gospel Gets to the End of the World

Have you ever been stuck in a corn maze, not sure if you’ve already been down that path before? Everything looks the same, and without a map, you could wander forever. That’s exactly what happened to my family when we went to Suter Farms recently. We got apple donuts, chilled cider, kettle corn — and then we dove into the corn maze. At one point, Megan said, “Wow, it’s a lot easier with the map.” And she was right. Life gets easier when you’ve got a map.

That simple moment got me thinking about something much bigger. When it comes to missions — something we talk about a lot at our church — it can feel like a maze if nobody shows you the map. You walk in and see blue boards with pictures of missionaries, flags from Kenya and Argentina and Guatemala, a world map on the wall, and a scripture displayed on the front of the pulpit: Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” These are all signposts. But what are we actually trying to accomplish? Today, I want to zoom out and show you the map. This is Missions 101 — how we get to the end of the world with the Gospel.

A Sobering Reality: Where Will People Spend Eternity?

Let me start with a difficult question. According to the Bible, where will people who do not believe in Christ spend eternity?

Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus himself said in John 3:18, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Revelation 20:13-15 describes a day when “death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works…and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

The clear teaching of the Bible is this: everyone will spend eternity somewhere.

I know I’m wearing a suit behind a pulpit and that what I’m saying is not popular. I understand that. But if it’s true — and I believe it is — it’s the most loving thing I can tell you.

The Remedy: The Gospel of Jesus Christ

So what has God done about this? The Gospel is the remedy.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 puts it plainly: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Because man had sinned, and because God is holy and must punish sin, God provided a way in Jesus. He poured out his wrath on Jesus so that he doesn’t have to pour out his wrath on you.

A simple way to say it is found in 1 John 5:12: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” And in John 3:16, perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

There’s hope. That’s the Gospel. That’s what the word gospel means — good news.

Our Responsibility: Go and Send

So what does that mean for us? We who know Christ are called both to go and to send.

Romans 10:13-15 lays it out like a chain reaction: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?”

And in Acts 1:8, Jesus told his disciples: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jerusalem is where you are. Judea is your region. Samaria is cross-cultural but nearby. The uttermost is every nation, tribe, and tongue.

A church should not only be measured by its seating capacity. It should be measured by its sending capacity.

How It Actually Works: The Missions Process

So how does a church like ours send people to the uttermost parts of the earth? Let me walk you through the process as simply as I can.

It starts with evangelism — people getting saved. Saved people get discipled, taught to follow Jesus. Discipled people get called by the Holy Spirit into ministry. Called people get trained — and if you can’t start a Sunday school class and reach people in your own church, you’ll never do it on the mission field. Trained people get supported. And supported people get sent.

Safe people get discipled. Discipled people get called. Called people get trained. Trained people get supported. And supported people get sent. That’s how it happens.

Right now, we have new opportunities in Argentina and Guatemala. Jordan Franklin is a missionary kid whose family our church has supported since around 2006. He’s been trained by his family and his church, and now he’s ready to go plant a church in Argentina. Cory Wilshire got saved and discipled in his home church in Mount Orb, Ohio, was called into ministry, trained there, and is now in Guatemala reaching people and starting a church. That’s the process working exactly as God designed it.

Why We Give: Four Reasons to Support World Missions

In 2 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul — himself a missionary — writes to the church he planted in Corinth. He tells them about the churches in Macedonia who were giving in an extraordinary way. Their example and his words give us four powerful reasons to support worldwide missions through giving.

1. The Ability to Give Is a Grace of God

2 Corinthians 8:1-3 describes the Macedonian churches this way: “In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” These were people who didn’t have a lot and were going through a lot. Yet in their poverty and trial, they were rich in two things — joy and generosity. And they gave “beyond their power,” meaning they gave beyond what they could come up with themselves.

Where did that come from? Verse 1 gives the answer: “the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.”

We don’t have to give. We get to give. Why? Because we’ve already been reached. I don’t have to fund my own conversion — I’m already saved, I’m already going to heaven. When we give to missions, we give because someone gave so that we could hear. And now we get to be a part of that same chain for someone else.

As Jesus himself said, quoted by Paul in Acts 20:35: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

2. The Attitude to Give Starts With Giving Ourselves

2 Corinthians 8:5 says the Macedonians “first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.” Paul says it is God’s will that you give yourself to the Lord. He bought you with his blood. He created you. He redeemed you. Everything you think you own, you don’t really own — it’s all his.

When we give ourselves to God, what God then does is move us to give to others. When we give ourselves to the Lord first, the giving follows. And that giving flows outward — to missionaries who give themselves to go to the uttermost, who give to others over there, so that God can use them to help others have a heart for God and a heart for others.

3. The Act of Giving Proves a Heart for God

In 2 Corinthians 8:8, Paul writes: “I speak not by commandment…but to prove the sincerity of your love.” He’s not telling them how much to give or commanding them to give a certain amount. He’s saying: this is an opportunity for your love.

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Real love costs you something.

Duty is the training wheels of giving. If you’re just giving the minimum amount you can get by with, it’s saying something about your love for God. As James 2:14-18 puts it, faith without works is dead. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. When you give to what God loves — lost people in every nation — you prove that your love for God is real.

4. The Act of Giving Imitates the Ministry Heart of Jesus

This is the most powerful reason of all. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

Was Jesus rich in heaven? Absolutely. He was completely recognized and exalted. But yet for our sakes he became poor. He was born in a stable, lived as a servant, and died naked on a cross — the only things in his possession nails and a crown of thorns. As Philippians 2:7-8 describes it, he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant…and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

He humbled himself. He became poor. Why? That we, through his poverty, might be made rich — not in material wealth, but in eternal life, made sons and daughters of God.

When we give to missionaries so they can take the message around the world, we are imitating our Savior who gave everything so that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Putting It Into Practice

So before you think about what you’ll give, think about your own heart. Has God given you grace in Christ? Then the question is not, how little can I get by with? The question is, what does a heart that has been reached look like?

The Macedonians gave themselves to the Lord first, and then the giving followed.

There’s a hymn written in 1931 by Frank Houghton, who served as director of the China Inland Mission — the organization founded by the great missionary Hudson Taylor. The words capture exactly what we’re called to do:

“Facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees, a need that undiminished rebukes our slothful ease. We who rejoice to know thee, renew before thy throne the solemn pledge we owe thee, to go and make thee known…We go to all the world with kingdom hope unfurled. No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the Lord.”

Here’s what I want you to walk away with:

• Give yourself to God first. Before anything else, surrender your heart to the Lord. The giving will follow.
• Pray about what God would have you give to worldwide missions. Not what you have to give — what a heart that has been reached looks like.
• Remember the chain. Your giving is how a missionary gets from called to sent. Without support, nobody goes.
• Think about who’s waiting. Some of the people who will hear the gospel through the missionaries we support don’t have a church yet. Some of them will stand before God’s throne one day, and someone like you — through your support — can be the reason they’re there.

We should give to worldwide missions because the ability to give is the grace of God. Because it prompts us to first give ourselves to God. Because it proves a heart for God. And because it imitates the ministry heart of Jesus — who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich.