When Pastor Rhett was expressing his joy to be back at Emanuel, I amen that. It's good to be back here. It's good to see your faces. It's good to be in Pennsylvania last week and preach. It was good to see what was going on in that church, but it made me long to be back with you all and to see your faces. It is true in this case, sounds like with Rhett too, that absence made my heart grow fonder for all of you. Grateful for what God is doing in parts of the world, in our nation, and more grateful for what He's doing here in our own midst. Well, this morning, as Pastor Dave mentioned, I want to start a short series on the subject of missions. We'll get back to Samuel, Lord willing, in August. And the short series is the fruit of a focus study that the elders asked me to give myself to during June. So during the month of June, they wanted me to focus on this subject, this topic of missions. So it's been a full month. I've read or re-read five different books, multiple journal articles, seven audio talks, talked to four pastors, some mission agencies, and spent probably the most helpful two full days with nothing but the Bible open going through the book of Acts. Very helpful. So I hope to share with you the fruit of that focus study, and I'm grateful the elders asked me to do that. Why is this important, church family? Well, it's important because concepts and definitions matter. Organizations, your own your own fields, organizations and businesses and fields of study can experience things like concept creep or mission drift or mission inflation so that now it means everything. What a business used to be about is no longer what it'd be about, or now it's about more than what it used to be about. When a business experienced that, it shows up in the results in the company, in the way it treats customers, and so on. Similarly, social psychologists explain, here's another example, that concept creep and their own field of study is, quote, reshaping many aspects of modern society. For example, one example they argue for, the concept creep is responsible for a widely expanding definition of trauma that now includes things much broader and more subjective than three decades ago. And as a result, they tell us that definitions of trauma today tend to abandon most of the restrictive elements of the Diagnostic Statistics Manuals of Mental Disorders criteria for objective trauma. Well, what's the result? Well, among other things, a widening definition of trauma that includes subjective experiences have led to, you know, you've heard of them, safe spaces on campus that now people can be protected from because of the trauma of alternative viewpoints. This has prompted certain psychologists to write articles like this in journals, how trigger warnings are actually hurting mental health on campus. What does that have anything to do with missions? It's this, that concepts matter, and definitions matter, and when definitions are expanded, When you have concept creep, when business drifts from its mission, things begin to change. So what I just want to do in this series is just keep asking the simple question this month of what is missions? What is it that missionaries are to be doing? Because how we define that concept and understand it will shape certain things about our lives, it will shape the budgets of churches like ours, and even our relationship to people of the world. So some people will argue, all of these well intended, that everything is missions. Others will say that we are all missionaries wherever we are. I remember growing up in a church for a few years, maybe it was like your church too, and when you left there was a sign that said you are now entering the mission field. Some argue we are missionaries not only wherever we are, but we are all missionaries whatever we do. Everything we do, some think, as long as we do it in the name of Christ, is missions. So some would say that police work is missions, and digging wells is missions, and NGOs are missions, and building homes is missions, and human trafficking is missions, and soup kitchens is missions, and on and on it goes. Anything we do in the name of Christ is missions. I read one Christian author who even spoke of caring for creation is missions. Now, with these kinds of diverse understandings, we need to do something really simple go back to the Bible and test our understanding of definitions based upon what the Bible says. That's what the church always needs to do, what we need to do again and again, always reforming back to the Bible, back to the Bible, back to the Bible. So we're thinking of questions like, what is missions? Are we all missionaries? Is whatever we do mission work? And what would concept creep look like? when we're talking about missions. That's what I want us to think about together. Think about this series on missions like we did with our evangelism series that we did in the fall. We asked the question of what is the gospel? There are lots of implications of the gospel. You might even say things are issues that tie back to the gospel that we need to think about. But we asked again and again, what was the core, the kernel of the gospel? The part that if you left that out, it's no longer the gospel. So maybe you remember, we used the illustration from a study at Stanford that there was a team trying to isolate the part of the bee's venom that stung. What part of the liquid that goes into your arm, or wherever it is, actually stings? So what's the heart of the Gospel? What's the part that stings and saves? So what is the Gospel? Do you remember? Are we sharing it? What is the good news that's brought us all here today? What's the essential gospel? Maybe you're not a Christian. Maybe you've heard lots of things Christian believe and may be confused because this and this and this and this. Here's the gospel of first importance. Jesus lived and died for sins in our place. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead in a body that proved he paid for sins. And if you turn from your sins, your self-worship, your self-love, and place your hope in Jesus Christ alone, you will be saved. That's the good news. Let no one in here say, when you stand before God, I never heard that before. This is the good news we celebrate. Do you believe this? So what we did with asking what is the gospel is what we want to do with this little series on missions to clarify. And I want to emphasize some key words. We're asking what is central to missions. What's the priority of missions? What's the indispensable emphasis of missions? Because there are lots of good things. Don't misunderstand me. There are lots of good things that Christians can do and can do. Very noble things and courageous things all over the world. There are lots of things that you as an individual Christian can give yourself to. Not minimizing any of that, we're simply seeking to regain clarity on what missions is according to the Bible. What is the mission of the church as an organization? And listen, I want to encourage us that we're not simply fighting over semantics. Because understanding missions rightly is important, because as one writer put it, there's something more fearful than death and more wonderful than human flourishing. Conscience, torment in hell is worse than death, and one reason we need missions. We should care about alleviating temporary suffering, but we care more about eternal suffering. Pleasures forevermore at the right hand of God and the new heaven and new earth, where the Lamb is all the glory, is more wonderful than human flourishing on this earth only. So I want to begin this morning by looking at Luke 24. Matthew, Mark, Luke. The third book of the Christian New Testament. We're going to look at Luke and Acts next week, Lord willing. And Luke and Acts together, especially Acts, show us the powerful advance of the gospel and the church's primary mission. So that's our title for this series, the gospel's powerful advance and the church's primary mission. That's the series title, the gospel's powerful advance and the church's primary mission. Here's our title this morning. It's a mouthful, but it's helpful for me to remember. What is the message of missions and the mission of missions? What's the message of missions and the mission of missions? That's our title this morning. Luke 24. If you're not aware, Luke and Acts go together. They're one book. So Luke is volume one and Acts is volume two. Luke is referred to as the beloved physician who accompanied a man named Paul on his travels. And he wrote Luke and Acts. So I want to begin by looking at the end of Luke, because the end of Luke tells us when you read Luke, Acts tells you what you hear in Luke 24, you're going to see played out in the book of Acts. So that's where we're going to start. So Luke 24, 44 to 49. Let me give us four things that I want us to see. Four things, and then we'll read the text so you can know where we're going. By giving you the title already, I want us to see the message of missions. The central mission of missions, the message, the central mission of missions, the reach of missions and the power of missions, the message. You can say all that 10 times really fast. It'd be better than I will. The message, the central mission, the reach and the power of missions. We're going to read that now in Luke 24, 44-49, and listen. Listen first as Jesus defines the message, and then listen as Jesus gives us the central mission. Luke 24, 44-49. This is what Holy Scripture says. Then He said to them, These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. That everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scripture and said to them, thus it's written that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. Behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." This is the word of the Lord. Now, real quick in passing, did you notice how Jesus told us to read the Old Testament? He told us to read the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms in a way that sees them testifying to His suffering and resurrection. That's what He says. Learn to read your Bible, especially the Old Testament, with cross-shaped lenses. It's all His story. Did you hear first what the message of missions is? Jesus tells us what the message of missions is. Look at verse 46. He gives us three things. Number one, the Messiah should suffer. Number two, on the third day, he would rise from the dead. And number three, repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in the name of the one who suffered and rose again. That's the message of missions. Beloved, if we leave any of those three things out, we don't have the Good News. If you add to these three things, you don't have the Good News. If you minimize any of these three things, you don't have the Good News. With His last words, Jesus charged His followers with the Gospel. That's the message of missions, the gospel. And what's the mission he gives? He charges the church to do something with the message. What is it? Well, there are two parts. Verse forty seven. First, we are to proclaim something. What is it we should proclaim? We proclaim that repentance for the forgiveness of sins is in his name. Now, isn't that good news? Whoever you are, whatever you have done, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die in the place of sinful people like you and me, that whoever with whatever is in your life believes in Him, that person will not perish but have everlasting life. That's good news. That's the message of missions. Christians aren't simply proclaiming Jesus is Lord or that the Kingdom has come or that one day He will right all wrongs and make a new heaven and new earth. What does Jesus say is the message of missions? Proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Gospel is the message of missions. Think of it this way. What's the one thing that the church can do as an organization that nothing and no one else can do? What have we been entrusted with? That if we don't do it, it doesn't happen. Proclaiming this news. It might be surprising to think about, And again, beloved, I'm not minimizing at all certain kinds of good and noble work. In fact, I can say I am proud as a pastor of the various kinds of work that many in this church are involved in. Yet as Christopher Little challenges in an article called, What Makes Mission Christian? Think about this for a moment. There's nothing particularly Christian about humanitarian work. For example, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey and the United Nations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Heartland and the European Union are all striving to eliminate human suffering for philanthropic reasons. But unless Christian missions transcends philanthropy, then the work of holistic missions practitioners is superfluous. There is no earthly shalom apart from repentance and the forgiveness of sins. That's how he starts to make all things new. The one thing the church can do that nothing and no one else can do is proclaim the gospel. So what's the first part of the mission that Jesus gives to us? Proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of the one who was crucified and rose again. What's the second part of the mission? Look at verse 48. This is the key word that shows up in the book of Acts. And now you are witnesses of these things. We proclaim the gospel and we bear witness to the gospel. And that, in large measure, is what Acts is about. Jesus commissions His followers with this message of His suffering and resurrection, and He tells them to be witnesses of this message to the ends of the earth. Acts 1-8. You will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. And what Jesus says in Luke 24, He's reemphasizing in Acts 1-8. That we are, as our mission, our central primary mission, to proclaim the gospel and bear witness. And the entire book of Acts records what missions is and what missionaries do. This means that we are witnesses, we are not innovators. We bear witness to a historical message and a risen and reigning Christ. We bear witness to the message that repentance and the forgiveness of sins is offered in the name of Christ for all who will come. So stop for a moment and let's kind of examine ourselves with this message of missions and the central mission of missions. Are we sharing these three elements when we share the gospel? We may need to emphasize one element more than the other, depending on whom we're talking to. We may need to deal with them in a different order or different emphasis or slow down and talk about one category for an extended period of time. But if we're not sharing this, we're not sharing the gospel. Can I put it this way? That stings and saves. Second, are we using this language? Are we bearing witness to the crucified Christ with our lives? Are we bearing witness that this is most important? Sometimes we bear witness to many things about Christianity, but we leave out the heart of it. That He died, and He rose again, and He demands people everywhere to repent of phrase and acts. What do people say that our lives bear witness to? Friends, ask this simple question. Do our friends and our co-workers know that we're a Christian? When you're in the checkout line at the supermarket, Monday is my day off and we'll often go to Trader Joe's. My wife is so much better. And when they say, how was your week? And she will say, here's what we did at church. What a simple way to let people know that you're a Christian and to share the gospel. Do people know that? Is that what your life is pulsating with? What does our time and our media say what consumes us? Beloved, bearing witness to what we think is a Christian perspective on a social issue may be really helpful, but it's not sharing the Gospel. Guard it. Proclaim it. Bear witness to it. Are we even sharing the gospel? Recently, Kenny LaVertue sent me a text and said, have you shared the gospel with anyone lately? In church family, I had just missed an occasion to share the gospel. On the way to Pennsylvania to preach last week, we swung by and we saw, we swung by, we swung by to see Becky's sister who is in Lewis, Delaware, and George Whitfield preached there twice. 1,500 people on the street. I'm in the building where Whitfield stayed the night before he spoke. Me and this lady, and she's talking, I think, she has no idea about George Whitfield. And I think, share the good news with her. And I did it. And I get the text from Kenny, have you had a chance to share the good news with people? Oh, brothers and sisters. And I'm sure there were other opportunities I wasn't even aware of. Are you bearing witness to Christ and His love for you? Not out of guilt, but He's loved me. I want other people to praise this name forever. Are you sharing the good news? What is the worst that could happen to you here in America if you shared Christ with your friend? Is Christ worthy of that? What kind of friend are we if we don't share the news about Jesus who loved us and died that people could know him? Be a good friend, a better friend. Fourth, Jesus' words are helpful for churches like ours. In Luke 24, I think it helps us begin to evaluate missions and missionaries. What do we mean? Well, if people are not engaged, and we'll think more deeply next week, in proclaiming the message of missions and bearing witness to the crucified and risen Christ, they might be doing really, really good work and helpful work, but they're not doing missions work as Christ defines it. For example, Earlier this year, I think many of you here, maybe most of you, Laura and Kenneth came and they shared about their ministry. And that afternoon, the elders had a chance to sit down with Laura and Kenneth and hear more. And we didn't know Kenneth, so let's really examine and evaluate what he's doing in his past. And during the time Kenneth mentioned in the past that he'd been in a very dangerous country, and he got into the country with an organization that was doing humanitarian work as a basis to share the good news about Jesus. But Kenneth said the longer he was there and he worked with the organization, it came clear they were simply interested in humanitarian work. And Kenneth left the group. Not because that's not needed, but he's interested in sharing the good news. This is not to denigrate that kind of work, or to say that humanitarian work isn't important, but in light of Acts 1-8 and Luke 24, let's be careful about calling those things missions. Maybe a church still wants to support something like that, perhaps. But don't call it missions. Maybe you would want to take it from a global benevolence fund, a big mercy fund, a global diaconate fund that you have. Wonderful. Great. The point is that the mission, the central, the primary, the indispensable mission that Jesus gives to the church is to proclaim and bear witness to the repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name. And that kind of thinking helps keep the gospel clear, prioritize things that are truly missions, and as you live and share, of course, you'll work for the betterment of the people around you. So to summarize, from Jesus' charge, we've seen two things so far. That the gospel is the message of missions. And second, the primary, the ultimate mission is to proclaim the message of the gospel, to bear witness. To the repentance of sin and forgiveness, so we've already hit the first two points, the message of missions and what's central. what is ultimate, what must be happening, if nothing else is, to the missions of missions. Now I want us to notice the reach of missions. Here's the reason Jesus gave us the command. Look at verse 47. He wants us to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He wants us to proclaim it in his name. Where? To all the nations. Now, if Jesus charges the church with reaching all the nations, we need to think for a moment about what all nations actually means. Nations doesn't simply mean, or I could say only mean, like nations we think of today. There weren't any national boundaries like that, and national boundaries and even the names of places change. Some would prefer something like people group. The exact sense of the word, however, is hard to define in the Bible. And it's hard to define because of the various ways the Bible uses this word, nations. For example, we get our word ethnicity from this word. And there are various ethnic groups that exist in any one nation that even speak different languages and have different cultures. So the term all nations can refer in the first century, John 11, to the nation of the Jews. Or it can refer to ethnic groups within the nations. So the Bible has broad and narrow senses. And further, you know, the glorious scene of redemption in Revelation 5-9 envisions people from tribes and languages and people and nations. Why is a precise sense of the word nations so hard to pin down? And why is there this verse in Revelation 5-9 that seems to divide things even more? Here's how one pastor answered it that was helpful for me. God probably did not intend for us to use a precise definition of people groups in a way that would lead us to believe that we could ever stop doing missionary work because we concluded that all people groups under our definition had been reached. In light of Matthew 24 14, as long as the Lord has not returned, there must be more people groups to reach and we should keep on reaching them. That's the nature of missions. There's always somewhere else to go. There's always another frontier to hit. It's always advancing to a new area. People that have lesser access or restricted access, who are lesser reached or a kind of place. How do we know that? I think one way that we could define all nations is Jesus uses a synonym for this. So next to Luke 24, 47 and 28, you could write Acts 1.8. Here's what I mean. When Jesus repeated this command from Luke 24 in Acts 1.8, here is how He explained it. You will be my witnesses. And now He doesn't say all nations. He says you will be my witnesses. to the uttermost part of the earth." What does all nations mean? The end of the earth. What does that mean? Well, good luck. The end of the earth is what Jesus means. I want you to proclaim this message to all nations. Jesus, what do you mean by that? I mean the uttermost parts of the earth. Go to the end of the world. That's where I want you to go. In other words, Jesus, when He says in Luke 24, He's telling us, in a sense, there's always somewhere else to go. There's more people to reach who haven't heard or who don't have the kind of access. I was speaking with somebody who's in Indonesia and said, I'm here, but I can get in a boat to that island and nobody thinks anybody's been there with the good news yet. How many islands make up Indonesia? That's the end of the world. You see what I mean? There's always another place to advance. So the reach of mission as Jesus defines it is the uttermost part of the earth. The end of the world. So let that press in around us. I want us to think of some implications of that. This is in my notes for this. Just as an aside, I don't know if it's fully accurate, but I heard of a church in the area. Let me give you this example. This means that all races are made in the image of God and that racism is sin. Heard of a church who hired an African-American pastor and it split the church. Ah, that is evil. That's one implication. Every people group, the ends of the earth, are made in the image of God. Here's an implication. Let Jesus' words press in and around us. I want it to press in and around us and then press out the members of this congregation to the end of the earth. our Lord who loves us and died for us, do you realize He privileged the church with the message of missions to go to the end of the earth? Will you go? You know the name of C.T. Studd? There's a great biography of him. By a guy with a funny name. I think it is. I don't think anybody's last name is this. Norman Grubb. G-R-U-B-B. Here's the name. I read it at the beginning of seminary. C.T. Studd, cricketer and pioneer. Sir to Eric Little. In Scotland, Studd was a stud athlete in England. He was part of the Cambridge Seven. a group of university students who left university and went to China as missionaries. They were looked at as wasting their youth. Why China? Surely, Stud, you can be a witness to your fellow athletes. Does God really want you to give up your influence among the athletics and the athletic world? That was the kind of thing they were saying to Stud and to Eric Little. But Stud explained. Maybe you've heard this little phrase that Stud wrote. Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Some want to live within the sound of church and chapel bell. I want to set up a rescue shop within a yard of hell. That's the end of the earth. The reach of missions. God's great love for us should push us out to the end of the earth. Listen carefully and lovingly. Jesus' charge in Luke 24 means that not everyone is a missionary. It's a good impulse. It's well intended. It's helpful to think even we should live like missionaries. For we are all to bear witness to Christ. But that's not the way the Bible defines missions and missionaries. Here's what I mean. The Great Commission means we're all evangelists. We need to all be sharing the good news with the people we come in contact with. All of us are under this. We're all evangelists, but we're not all missionaries. As we see here and see spelled out in Acts, a missionary is someone who's been sent out from a church to the uttermost parts of the earth to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins, to make disciples and gather them. Thus, one writer puts, the task of evangelism is not the same as missions. Missions is what moved Paul away from the people of Asia Minor and Greece and pressed him toward the unreached people of Spain. Romans 15, 24. So every Christian is an evangelist. But every Christian is not a missionary. Every Christian is called to handle God's word well. Not every Christian is called to be a pastor. Every Christian is called to share the good news. And every Christian is called to go to the end of the earth. And I think it's needful to preserve. So let me give you an example for our own church family. Some behind the scenes, a little bit. Every time that we have people, December is usually a Missions Emesis month, and every time we have people come in December, I meet up with them and one of the things I say with the speakers is, come after us, admonish us, encourage us. Don't tell us we're all missionaries. Don't do that. You're not going to help us because if you say that we won't feel the joyful pull of the Great Commission. Tell us to reach people where we are fine. That's not missions. In a book called When Everything is Mission, the authors write, listen, this is why it's important. When every Christian is a missionary and everything is missions, we got the mandate to reach the ends of the earth. And beloved, please listen, I have responsibility before the Lord and under this text as I sit under it and try to hear it, to preach it well, and you have responsibility to listen well. I'm not minimizing work and vocation. and saying those things aren't needed and necessary. Not downplaying the good works individual Christians can be engaged in or that we can give towards. I'm not demeaning anybody's work here. But as Stephen Neal, I think helpfully observed, if everything is missions, nothing is missions. So let us as the church feel Jesus' words pressing in and around us and pressing us out. Let us remember we're all involved in evangelism. We're not all missionaries. So finally, here's how I would kind of put some of this together. Jesus' charge in Luke 24 demands that we all share the good news. All of us should be sharing the good news. Strategizing and planning and loving and serving demands we all share the good news. I think Luke 24 shows us the implication that all churches should be supporting ends of the earth missions. And it demands that some of us should pursue the nations as missionaries. Some of us should pursue the nations as missionaries. Why not, listen, why not you? Maybe you're even a young adult or a child, Sasha or Drake or Carson or who else? Michael or Daniel or Corbin. You're not too young to start praying and talking to mom and dad. About pursuing missions is something God might want you to do. None of us is too old and none is too young. It's not too late. It's not too early. Let goods and kindred go and then go that the nations of the earth might praise the name of the Lord our God forevermore. Learn about missions. Read the stories of Amy Carmichael who went to India. Follow the pattern of Laura's life from our own church. Get to know George Lyle. An emancipated slave who started one of the oldest Afro-American churches in Savannah and then was sent out in 1782 to Jamaica as the first missionary from the United States. Learn the stories of John and Betty Stamm and C.T. Studd. William Carey, who went to India. Read to the Golden Shore about Adoniram Judson, who went to modern-day Myanmar. Learn of his perseverance. And read about Judson's wives, two of them who died as missionaries. You'll read them and find in the language of Titus 2, they were devoted to their children and to their husbands and keepers at home, that the Word of God is not blasphemed, Titus 2, but they used their gifts to advance the gospel. Anne Haseltine Justin, his first wife, was one of the first female Protestant missionaries from America. She was one of the first to translate any of the Bible into the Thai language when she translated the Gospel of Matthew in 1819. His second wife, Sarah Boardman Judson, translated Pilgrim's Progress in Burmese, which I understand is still in use today. She also translated the New Testament into the MON language, the tribal language of a people group in Myanmar. Learn. Read the stories. We pray. Luke 24 demands that we all share the Good News. It demands that churches support and think well about what missions is. And it demands that some of us will pursue the ends of the earth as missionaries. And I want to keep asking myself and us, will you? Should you? Where will the power come from to obey this call from our loving Lord? And it's not a matter of guilting us into something or cowboying up our courage that would never glorify God and it wouldn't last. Jesus tells us in Luke 24, 49, where the power of missions come from. Look at it. I'm sending you, he says, the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. But what's the power from on high? Well, Acts 1.8 We know, and it's not a what, but a person. Acts 1.8, you will receive power, Acts 1.8, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. Beloved, the spirit that was poured out at Pentecost, Pentecost has not been rescinded. The Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, on sons and daughters and young and old, so that we might go and be witnesses to the ends of the earth. We have the promises of God, the presence and power of the Holy, clothed with power from on high. That's the Holy Spirit that's been poured out on all flesh. And we have the design of the atonement of Christ. Based on Psalm 2, Christ will have, He will, not might, Christ will have the prize for which He died, an inheritance of nations. You know, as Jonathan Owen has said, much of our problem in the Christian life is not due to a lack of effort or a lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. We are armed with the power and presence and promise of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I want us to think about what it means, how the design of Christ's redeeming work gives us power and motivation for missions. So last week I was preaching in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the same area as a town called Lidditz, Pennsylvania. One thing about Pennsylvania, I don't know who's from there, There are lots of toll roads, and they're not spending them on the roads. Really bad roads and lots of money to travel them. That's my impression, again, of Pennsylvania. We're in Lidditz. Lidditz is the home of the oldest pretzel bakery in the United States. Still going on. It was also the place granted by William Penn to Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, an Arabian pastor and missionary and hymn writer. We sing one of his hymns, Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness, and he went with a group of Moravians and settled in Liditz, Pennsylvania. Moravians hailed from modern day Czech Republic and they sent missionaries around the world. And their calm manner and their hymn singing, even on a crossing of a ship to Savannah, led eventually to the conversion of John Wesley. What motivated Moravian missionaries, many of them? Well, here's an account that provides an insight that my understanding is became a rallying cry for Moravian missionaries as to where they should go and why they should go. There were two young Moravian men in their 20s who heard of an island in the West Indies with no or little gospel witness, made up largely of a slave colony. And to get to the island, these two young men sold themselves into slavery to pay their passage and to get entrance into the slave colony in the West Indies. This wasn't a four year term. They sold themselves into lifetime slavery to go to this island of West Indies that they were told people have not heard the good news here. They boarded the ship in Copenhagen and 20 of the first 29 missionaries died in the first few years. But the account goes that the two who went first linked their arms and lifted their hands and cried out to and tearfully to their friends gathered on the shore. May the lamb that was slain receive the reward for his suffering. This became the rallying cry of the Moravian missions movement. Jesus, here's their reasoning. Revelation 5 says he purchased people from every tribe and nation and tongue. Therefore, the lamb that was slain will have his reward and we will go. May the lamb that was slain received the reward for his suffering. The atonement of Christ propelled the Lord's people to go to the end of the earth. A promise. A guarantee. Beloved, our risen and reigning Lord, the King of Kings, has given us the message of missions, the Gospel. He's given us the central mission of missions. Proclaim and bear witness to that gospel. He's given us the reach of missions to the end of the earth. And he's given us the power, his promises, his presence, and the design of the atonement. This is the message and mission of missions. Learn. Pray. Give.