To the ends of the earth

Acts 13:38-48 ³⁸ “So, gentlemen, brothers, let it be known to you that through this Jesus forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you, also forgiveness from everything from which you could not be justified through the law of Moses. ³⁹ In this Jesus, everyone who believes is justified. ⁴⁰ So watch out that what is said in the prophets does not happen to you: ⁴¹ Look, you scoffers, be amazed and perish! For I am going to do something in your days, something you would never believe, even if someone were to explain it to you.”

⁴² As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, the people kept begging them to speak again on this same subject on the next Sabbath. ⁴³ When the meeting of the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴ On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of God. ⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with envy and began to contradict what Paul was saying by slandering him.

⁴⁶ Then Paul and Barnabas responded fearlessly, “It was necessary that God’s word be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles! ⁴⁷ For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord. All who had been appointed for eternal life believed.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever.” (Revelation 1:5–7)

Our sermon text for this Mission and Ministry service was read as our Epistle lesson. I will share again verse 47. This is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Coca-Cola is one of the most recognizable companies in the entire world and for good reason. Last year they spent almost 4 billion dollars, nearly 12% of all the money they earned, on advertising. As a result, more than 90% of the world’s population has seen the Coca-Cola logo. In the 200 countries where it is sold, the average person consumes a coke product every four days. Little children in Tanzania hold a Coke to their lips. Poor farmers in Panama quench their thirst with a Coke. Factory workers in India drink a Coke on their break.

Coca-Cola has spread their products to the ends of the earth. They are able to do that because they are a multi-billion dollar company.

The prophet Isaiah understood the mission of the promised Messiah. It was too little of a task for the Messiah to only save the Jews. The coming Christ would also be the Savior for the Gentiles, for the rest of the world. His salvation would reach to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).

How were Paul and Barnabas supposed to carry this saving gospel to the ends of the earth? They didn’t have billions of dollars to spend on advertising the Savior. Plus, they had fellow missionaries who were giving up and walking away from the ministry. That’s what the cousin of Barnabas, John Mark, did. He had been so excited to join Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. He was on fire for the gospel and wanted to tell everyone he met about Jesus. But, after the initial work on the island of Cyprus, St. Luke reports: “From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13).

John Mark wasn’t ready to go to the ends of the earth.

Who could blame him? Wherever Paul went, he faced opposition from the place he least expected it – his own people, his fellow Jews. The first place Paul visited wherever he went was the local synagogue. The Jews had been waiting for the Messiah since the Lord first promised a Savior to Adam and Eve. They were watching and waiting. Every year when they celebrated the Passover, they set a place for the Messiah at their tables and waited for Him to come. Paul had the incredible privilege of telling them that the Messiah had come – and He was Jesus of Nazareth! Jesus fulfilled the words of Isaiah and all the other prophets who pointed to the coming Messiah’s suffering, death, and resurrection.

No matter how clearly and passionately Paul preached this message, many refused to believe it. The rejected it. They rejected Paul and his companions. Paul and his missionary team faced ridicule, beatings, and even jail time as they tried to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

How were Paul and Barnabas supposed to carry out their mission of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth when they faced such opposition?

If Paul and Barnabas – probably the greatest missionary team there ever was – couldn’t carry out their mission, then how will we?

We want to increase our mission field to the west of Racine. We want to build a one-campus school downtown. Those take commitment, effort, and lots of money. We rejoice that our congregation has doubled in size from 14 years ago. We are saddened, though, that many of our members refuse to make worshiping their Savior a priority. We have had people quit the church because we have preached the Law to them and pointed out their sins. We have gone canvassing in our neighborhoods and had doors slammed in our faces. We have had threats of protests when we’ve invited a speaker to talk about his conversion from homosexuality back to Christianity. People will pack Miller Park to watch the Brewers in the playoffs, but people are not packing our churches to hear about the Savior.

How can we hope to share the gospel to the ends of the earth when we are constantly facing an absence of money, an abundance of apathy, the lack of a clear vision for the church, and the rejection of the gospel by so many? This is a huge mission field that God is calling us to enter, but the task seems too difficult, too large … too impossible.

It is a difficult mission field. It is an immense mission field. But, it is not an impossible mission field. That’s because we have a Savior who promises, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

We simply enter the mission field – with our offerings, with our efforts, with our prayers, and with our whole bodies – and let the Holy Spirit do the work. All we have to do is find a way – digitally, verbally, physically – to share the gospel. The Holy Spirit will bless the work.

Paul preached in Pisidian Antioch: “Let it be known to you that through this Jesus forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you.” That is the message that Paul took with him to central Turkey, to Greece, and even to prison in Rome. That is the message we preach in our pulpit, teach in our classrooms, and train our people at Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary to teach and preach in our classrooms and pulpits.

A portion of Epiphany’s offerings are given to the Synod as our CMO – our Congregational Mission Offerings. The CMO from Epiphany and all our other WELS churches go to MLC and the Seminary for training future pastors and teachers. I’m excited that we may be sending three of our high school seniors to MLC next year to become teachers. And, we have a few more who want to go to MLC in future years.

Our CMO also supports Home and World Missions. Our congregation is receiving mission money for our School Chaplain from Home Missions.

Our Synod’s oldest foreign mission is actually within the United States. The Apache Mission is located in eastern Arizona on the White Mountain Apache Reservation and the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Between the two reservations there are 3600 members, eight churches, one preaching station, and two Lutheran elementary schools. For 125 years, we have been sharing the forgiveness of Jesus with the Apache Mission.

Pastor John Roebke was a few years ahead of me in school. He is currently a Missionary in Malawi, Africa. He shares what happens with the people of Malawi as they hear and believe the good news about Jesus: “When they see water splashed on their child’s head, or the head of an adult, they understand that Baptism saves souls by washing away sin’s stain and covering them with the pureness of Christ. When they see people swallowing wheat wafers and sips of wine, they understand that Communion is uniting them with the body and blood Christ used to pay for their freedom. When they see the pastor standing in front and hear him say, ‘I forgive you all your sins in name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ they understand that it is Christ who is speaking to them, the same Christ whose words give eternal life.”

The same water and Word that gave us life gives life to everyone who believes it, no matter where they live and no matter who shared it. Paul and Barnabas relied on that message. It didn’t even matter whether the people believed it or not, as Paul later wrote, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). When Paul and Barnabas preached the truth of God’s Word it worked! “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

God has given our Wisconsin Synod incredible opportunities to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth and it works! We have been taking the gospel of Christ to places like Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa, Indonesia and India in East Asia, Albania and Bulgaria in Europe, and Columbia and Ecuador in Latin America.

Thanks to advances in Internet and cell phone communication, now people around the world are coming to us for news about Jesus! There are people around the world who watch our sermons on Facebook.

A generation ago U.S. soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. Communism had devastated Christianity. But, for more than 30 years, WELS has been sharing the gospel with Hmong immigrants from Vietnam who have migrated to the United States. One of our WELS Hmong pastors, Pastor Lor, put his sermons on the Internet. The Christians in Vietnam found those sermons and asked Pastor Lor to come to Vietnam. Now, by the work of the Holy Spirit, there is a Lutheran church body in Vietnam.  The Hmong Fellowship Church in Vietnam wrote, “We thank you for the WELS training for the past three years. Now, we believe that we have salvation. Without that, today we would still be living in the darkness of Satan. We believe that God already answered our prayers through the WELS.” The WELS is also the only Christian group with permission to build a training facility in Vietnam!

We understand that it’s impossible to personally take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Not everyone can teach a Bible study in Nepal, instruct a seminary student in Russia, or teach Lutheran Elementary students on a reservation in Arizona. We can still take the gospel to the end of our driveways! We all have opportunities to interact with neighbors and friends. It might even include reaching out to our own family members.

Research done among unchurched people shows that 56% of those surveyed would come to church if a Christian friend or neighbor simply invited them to worship. 56%! That number jumps to 80% if someone they trusted invited them to a Christmas service. People want to come to church. They just don’t know where. Or how to get started. You just simply need to invite them.

After worship today, we are going to watch a clip of the new WELS evangelism movie entitled “To the Ends of the Earth.” We’ll use this movie for the next few weeks in Bible study to dig into God’s Word to equip ourselves to be better sharers of the gospel.  

Will you join us? I pray that you will. Taking the good news and sharing it may seem and even feel impossible sometimes. But, we don’t need to be Coca-Cola and have billions of dollars to spend on advertising. As we hear from our missionaries and look at what’s happening around the world, God is reminding us that His Word is strong enough to change hearts and lives. He isn’t calling us to do the impossible. He’s just calling us to share a very personal message. Jesus lived for me. Jesus died for me. Jesus rose again for me.

That’s a message for little children in Tanzania. It quenches the spiritual thirst of poor farmers in Panama. It changes the lives of factory workers in India.

Just like Paul – through our offerings, our prayers, our efforts, and our person witness - we can proclaim to the ends of the earth, “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you!” Amen.

“Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17)