Unto the Ends of the Earth

Nearly 2000 years have passed since the time that Christ spoke to his disciples and departed with the words we find in Acts 1:7, 8. "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. "

We want to examine carefully the command which Christ gave His disciples and also us as he departed to be with His Father in Heaven. First of -all we will examine what Christ had to say about setting up the kingdom of God. We want to examine the powerful resources we have been given and then we will examine the task that remains to be done.

In Verse 7 of Acts 1 Jesus told his disciples that no one will know when Christ will come and set up His kingdom. We have been studying in Daniel in the Wednesday night Bible study that there is coming a kingdom that will be more glorious than all the kingdoms which ever have existed. Isaiah 11 gives us a picture of what that kingdom will be like. Is. 11 : 6 - 11 The Wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play neat the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy; mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the 'Peoples; the nations will rally to him and his place; of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people... " I believe this may have been the section of scripture which the disciples were asking about there in Acts 1:6.

Unfortunately there have been a number of people who have not read the scriptures well enough and failed to believe the truth of what Christ has said in verse 7. "It is not for you to know th the times or dates the Father has set " There have been Adventists, Jehovah Witnesses, Moonies, Children of God, Baptists and even as few Mennonite Brethren who have predicted the return of Christ to set up this special kingdom but they have all been wrong because Christ has said that no one will be able to know when this kingdom will be set up.

What that means to you and me is that we should live every day, every moment as if Christ is going to return. We need to be so concerned about his coming that we use every opportunity to prepare for that coming. We need to live our lives in such a way that if Christ would come at any moment we would be ready to have him meet with us. Could we invite Christ to come with us to the movies with us, or to school with us? Could we have Christ come and examine our thought life? Are we ready to have Christ come and visit us? Remember that He is going to return and he will come suddenly without any warning. Are you going to be ready? Are your friends and relatives going to be ready?

To get ready for that great day God has given us special responsibilities and power. Christ promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come upon them and they would be given the power to be ready for the return of Christ and to share that message with others that they would also be ready.

God never gives us a job without first giving us the resources with which to complete it. Before Christ commanded his disciples to spread the Gospel to the whole world He promised them power from the Holy spirit.

Looking back to verse 5 of Acts 1 Christ promised to baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Some churches teach that this is a separate experience much like conversion which all Christians must experience if they are to be truly spiritual. They often teach that speaking in tongues is a sure sign of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. I believe that those who teach this are only partly right.

The Word teaches us that all Christians are indwelt with the Holy Spirit when they believe that Jesus has died for their sins and they give their lives over to Him. There is not a separate experience which a Christian must have to receive the Holy Spirit. We are told to be filled with the spirit and this can occur repeatedly. We receive peace, power and sometimes special manifestations when we are filled with the Spirit.

A special construction in the Greek Language is used in some references to the Holy Spirit. In some of the usages of the Holy Spirit, the article "the" is omitted. When the article is omitted the reference is generally to the power, manifestations or gifts which the Holy Spirit gives. This is what Christ promised the disciples. He promises in verse 5 that they will be baptized with (the)Holy Spirit and then in verse 8 he says they will receive power. Both these refer to the same event.

What is to come out of the power that they are to receive? Christ said that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We read in the book of Acts of the Apostles how they were faithful and proclaimed the word. The Question we must ask is have we been faithful to the task of world wide evangelism.

It is only in recent years that men have begun to take seriously this command to go to the ends of the earth. God has given us over 1950 years to obey this command. How have Christians done? What is Left of the task?

To do this I would like to begin by giving some definitions and then an overview of what is yet to be done.

We all know that some people are truly committed Christians. The task of the church is to maintain and to feed these who have already committed their lives to Christ. To these God has given the responsibility to stir up the world and to bring all men into fellowship with God.

There are millions in the world who claim to be Christians but they are Christians by habit only. They go to church once or twice a year or when asked what religion they are they say they are Christians because they are not Muslim or Buddhists. There are other Christians who attend church regularity but they have never experienced salvation. They have never experienced the peace of God and the freedom from guilt. There are some of you in this category here in this congregation this morning. You believe in God but have not yet experienced peace with God and the assurance that you are going to heaven. We who have experienced this peace will continue to share with you about Christ. The message we share with you is that you know there is a God and all you have to do is put your trust in Him.

This kind of evangelism is called by writers of missions

E - 0 It is sharing With people who are called nominal Christians.

- 1 evangelism is directed to those who do not believe and call themselves atheists or agnostics. They live in the same culture and they are no communication barriers to cross as we present the message of salvation to them. Our church, Shantyman's,

-2 evangelism crosses two boundaries. The people to who we are reaching out do not believe in God and they speak a different language. They may speak French, German, Italian or Polish but they are of the same culture. This is the same kind of evangelism done in India between casts or by Christians to different language groups in their own culture.

- 3 evangelism is reaching across language and cultural barriers to win people to Christ. This is the task of Cross-cultural missionaries.

I want to break down the task of world wide evangelism into three areas: The Western world which is made up of North and South America, Europe, and Australia; next is Africa and then Asia including China. This is the picture of the work that needs to be done. ~- (show overhead of p. 119 of The 25 Unbelievable Years)

I would like to show you a distribution of the missionaries in the world and which groups they are working with. ( p. 122 25 Years Winter) The figures I am quoting are 12 years old an most of the population growth has taken place in the Non-Christian world.

If we could sent one missionary to every 35, 000 people we would need 75, 000 more missionaries today.

Statistics show that 25% of all missionaries never make it to the field or through the first term. We would need 100, 000 new missionaries to begin to try to reach the world for Christ. Most Missions boards need 20, 000 dollars to send a worker overseas and to get settled. It would require 2 Billion dollars to get these new missionaries to their field, if we had the manpower.

What about the task in our own area? There are about6, 590 people living in Orillia Township. In Orillia city there are about 25, 000 people. In a survey done by the Orillia Council of Churches they found that in the surrounding area of the 40, 000 people only about 5, 000 people attended church. That is about 12% of the population. This means that 88% of the people in our area are unchurched and even more than that perhaps 92 or 93% need to have Christ come into their hearts and lives. What a tremendous task God has given us. We cannot sit back and rest when so many are going to Hell. We need to mobilize and reach out. We must begin by reaching out to our neighbours and friends. Do anything to lead them to Christ, but do something.

I trust that we can begin in our Jerusalem to reach people and then we will see fit to reach our Judea - the surrounding area. We also need to keep in mind the great task of world mission in our giving and sending of workers into God's vineyard. I trust that you will give sacrificially of yourself, your time your talents and your finances so that God s kingdom can grow. Most of all I wish to plead with those who have not yet given themselves to Christ that you will join the mighty army of God and give your life: to him.

We believe that all those who are baptized believers are those who can partake of the Lord's Table. We recognize that there array be believers in this congregation who are children of God but we feel that those who have taken the step of baptism have publicly given their testimony that Christ lives in their hearts. They have followed the example of Jesus in baptism and have obeyed the commandment to be baptized upon their confession of faith in Christ Jesus.

Communion is also a corporate (act of the members of this church in which they unite together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We would invite those who are not members but are members in good standing with their congregation to join with us if they have been baptized upon their confession of faith.

We would ask you to hold the elements until all have received and then we will partake together. I would like to ask you to receive the tray and hold it for the person beside you until he has taken. Then pass it on to the next person and they will hold it whole you take of the elements. When everyone has received the bread and the cup we will stand and partake together.

Orillia C F C January 17, 1982