Almost everyone loves to travel—we enjoy planning a trip, taking a vacation, or just watching the travel channel and learning about exotic locales. But few people have ever visited Timbuktu. This city of about 20,000 lies on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in west-central Africa, in the country of Mali. Somehow, through the years, Timbuktu developed a reputation for being the most remote and inaccessible place on earth. I don’t know if that’s true, but what I do know is—God wants to bring the gospel to the primarily-Islamic people of Timbuktu.

From here to Timbuktu, the Lord intends for His word to be proclaimed across the entire globe. There is no nation, no tribe, no hamlet on the face of the earth that God doesn’t want the gospel to go. Jesus told his disciples, “You will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NLT). In other words, “You will be my witness from here to Timbuktu. You will be my witness from here to the last place on earth.”

Last month, Earl Haubner visited us from Central Brazil Mission and reported on the work they are doing by boat along the Amazon River. This morning, Chance Newingham spoke to us during Sunday School about the work being done in Sierra Leone, where sparsely-equipped hospitals and beleaguered staff battle Ebola—a disease whose victims outpace the number of beds being built.

When we hear about some of the struggles and difficulties they face, we wonder—what would compel a person to leave hearth and homeland to go to a place like the remote jungle villages of Brazil or the African plains of Sierra Leone? What would motivate us to give our money, our means, our young people, our children, or our very lives in this effort? I think the Bible gives us three unquenchable motives for taking the gospel from here to Timbuktu and everywhere in-between.

The first is the character of our Sovereign God.

 

• THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGN

 

Missions was throbbing in God’s heart when He sent Jesus to die for all the world. Missions didn’t really being when Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world…” (Mark 16:15). Rather, it began with, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16).

God loves people no matter where they live on planet Earth. No geographical or cultural boundary limits God’s love. No barbed wire can fence him in, and no concrete wall or internet security system can block him out. God’s love reaches the teeming cities of China and the streaming jungles of Brazil. He loves the islanders and the highlanders. He loves the stressed-out urban dweller crammed into a high-rise apartment, and he loves the reclusive loner who lives in a backwoods cabin on the river. He even loves atheists, agnostics, and garden-variety heathens.

When the Bible says “God so loved the world,” it doesn’t mean God love planets or populations; He loves individual people. He doesn’t love multitudes; he loves men. As Saint Augustine put it, “He loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us.” Because he loves us, he wants every human being on the planet to know him, to experience his love and be reconciled to him.

The apostle Paul writes: “And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20 NLT). God’s love compelled Jesus to seek and save the lost. And his love compels us to do the same. We are, as Paul said, ambassadors of Christ.

A few verses earlier Paul underscored our motivation for being his representatives: “For the love of Christ compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14 NKJV).

The love of Jesus is the driving force behind our mission. It’s why we do what we do. It’s why I preach from this pulpit. It’s why my family attends comic-conventions and hands out comic-book gospels. When the love of God gets ahold of you, it presses you into action. The Message paraphrases this verse, saying: “Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do” (2 Corinthians 5:14 MSG). Does God’s love move you? Does it compel you? Does the love of God have the first and last word in whatever you do? If so, then you know how important it is for us to carry God’s message of love and reconciliation into a lost world.

But that’s just our first motivation for missions. The second driving force for taking the gospel from here to Timbuktu is the command of our Savior.

 

• THE COMMAND OF THE SAVIOR

 

Each of the four gospels contains what we call the Great Commission. It was one Jesus’ last commands before ascending into heaven. Some 500 seekers and skeptics gathered on a hillside near Galilee and listened as Jesus announced:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV).

We may not have been standing on that hillside twenty centuries ago, but his command to them is still his command to us. So it’s important that we understand factors involved in this commission:

First, is an authority.

Jesus said, “All authority has been given unto me…” The entire Gospel of Matthew stresses the authority of Jesus. There was authority to his teaching. He exercised authority in healing and even in forgiving sins. He had authority over Satan and he delegated that authority to his Apostles. So at the close of this Gospel, Jesus made it clear that He has ALL authority. Since Jesus has all authority, we are obligated to obey him.

What he says, we should do. Where he sends, we should go. An African convert, while visiting a school where girls were learning to sow, noticed a simple principle: wherever the needle went, the thread followed. That, he decided, represented his relationship to God. He prayed: “O Lord, You are the needle and I am the thread.” Wherever God led, he would follow. The same should be true in our relationship with God. If Christ commands it, we should do it.

The second part of the Great commission is an activity.

Most people read the Great Commission and believe that God has commanded us to “go”! In fact, someone once pointed out the first two letters of God and gospel are the same: GO! But that’s not the activity Christ prescribes here. The Greek verb translated go is actually not a command, but a present participle (going). The only activity commanded in the entire Great Commission is “make disciples.” Literally, Jesus is saying, “While you are going, make disciples of all the nations.”

Which means that missions isn’t just about going to remote jungles or dark continents; rather, it’s a command to make disciples of Christ as we go, wherever we go. The Great Commission isn’t just for missionaries or preachers; it’s for every Christian. No matter where we are, we are called to make followers of Jesus. We do that by baptizing them and teaching them all that Christ has commanded us. So your mission is not necessarily to travel; it’ not the Great Commute. Rather, your mission—as you go into your own world—is to tell people about Christ. There are limitless ways to fulfill that mission, whether it’s handing out gospel tract for Halloween, or giving away comic-book bibles, or just sparking spiritual conversations with your friends and family.

Finally, the Great Commission also includes an ability.

I read this week about a woman in dire need of a beauty makeover. She went to her salon with a fashion magazine photo of a gorgeous, young, lustrous-haired model, showed the stylist the trendy new cut she wanted and settled into the chair. The stylist began humming a catchy tune and got to work on the woman’s thin, graying hair. She was delighted by the stylist’s cheerful attitude until she recognized the melody. It was the theme from “Mission: Impossible.”

Some people see the Great Commission as an impossible mission too. They think I’m too shy, or too young, or too old, or I just don’t know the right things to say. But with Christ’s commandments, come his enablements. Jesus promised to be with us always, which means we’re never alone when we’re doing his work. It’s a partnership. No matter where he leads or what circumstances we face, Jesus is with us and he is in control.

So our first motivation is the character of the Sovereign, and next is the command of the Savior. One last motivation provided by the Bible is the condition of sinners.

 

• THE CONDITION OF SINNERS

 

In 1980 the total population of the world was 4.4 billion. That December, I was born and the population exploded to 4.4 billion and 1. During my lifetime however the world population has grown exponentially. We are fast approaching 7.3 billion people on this planet at an increase of 97,000 per day.

And the vast majority of them are spiritually lost.

There are approximately 1.2 billion Catholics and nearly as many Protestants on the planet, which leaves 5 billion people who have no relationship with Jesus at all.

We’re making progress. In 100 AD, just a few decades after the birth of the church, the ratio of Christians to non-Christians was 1:360. Thanks to the work of missionaries across the centuries that ratio has steadily decreased to roughly 1:7. That’s good news, but it isn’t nearly enough. There are still billions of spiritually lost people all across the globe. They are your friends, your relatives, your co-workers, and your neighbors. Some of them live in places so remote they have virtually no access to the gospel. And without Jesus, they have no hope.

In a pint-sized parable about paths, Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-15 NIV). Jesus has given us the job of directing traffic here on earth. It’s our responsibility to steer as many people as possible onto the narrow road that leads to eternal life. We have to warn people that if they don’t switch lanes, they are headed for destruction.

Years ago Mercedes Benz’s engineers designed and developed the energy-absorbing car body, a design that has been copied by other car companies because of its success in reducing passenger injury in accidents. When someone asked a spokesman why the company doesn’t enforce its patent on the design, he replied, “Because some things in life are too important not to share.”

The same is true for the gospel of Jesus. It’s too important not to share.

 

Conclusion:

 

These three things—the character of the Sovereign, the command of the Savior, and the condition of sinners—ought to motivate us to go, to pray, to give, and to become globally-minded Christians.

While we’re thinking globally, I want to invite Chance to come up here for just a minute and share with you about how you can share God’s love on the other side of the world…

 

Invitation:

 

None of us here today are likely to ever visit Timbuktu. But each one of us encounters people on a daily basis who are in desperate need of the love of God. If you’re here today, and you know that you’re on the narrow road that leads to eternal life, and you want to know more about how you can help take the gospel across the globe or maybe you just need some tips on how to share your faith effectively, I’d love to help you with that.

And if you’re here today, but you’re still on that broad highway that leads to death and destruction, I want to urge you to change lanes and get on the narrow path. If I can help you make that decision, please talk with me while we stand and sing.