Four Beneficial-Rhetorical Questions to Help You Evaluate the Effectiveness of Your Missions Ministry – Rom. 10:14,15
While the world hunts for Osama Bin Laden, many missionaries feel tempted to give up on a Muslim world that is becoming increasingly hostile to the gospel. Indonesia reports that nearly all missionaries are under such persecution that they have either fled the country or taken refuge in the capital city Jakarta. Yet, Christ has yet to revoke His great commission of Matthew 28:18-20 so we are still under obligation to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.
The four rhetorical questions in this passage provide great incentives for sending missionaries to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Paul the apostle gives us four penetrating questions that seek to persuade and instruct his audience about a serious involvement in world missions. Paul knew that without Christ people are on their way to an eternity of agony in hell.
Let us examine the four questions of Paul to learn what we can about the motivations, methods and people that God still wants to use for the spreading of the gospel’s message. Use the following four questions as evaluative criteria for helping you and your church evaluate their effectiveness in spreading the gospel in the same manner that the apostle Paul would.
1. Paul asks, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? It was obvious to Paul that a Biblical knowledge of God was necessary before people could place saving faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Paul knew the desperate predicament that people without a scriptural knowledge of Christ are in.
Illustration: Every forty seconds of each day, approximately 100 people die. 32 know little or care not to know Jesus Christ because they come from traditional religious backgrounds, are secularists or agnostics. 20 of those people come from a Muslim background and know only about a god of judgment, but scoff at the idea that Jesus Christ is God. 15 of those people come from a Hindu background (mainly India) where they do not believe God is a personal Father but merely hope for some promotion to a higher reincarnated state. About 5 of those 100 come from a Buddhist background (Southeast Asia) where they are taught to worship millions of gods that can somehow help them to evolve to a higher level of oneness with the principle of the heavens. 28 out of the 100 represent all Christians but 16 of those come from a Roman Catholic background where most are taught to obey the rules, regulations and depend on the sacraments and the absolution of their priests for a way to heaven. 12 out of the hundred come from various types of Protestant backgrounds, but only 6-7% of the hundred are actually born-again Christians who have a personal saving faith and relationship with Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Even thought it is 2000 years since Christ walked the dusty roads of Palestine, there is still a need for missionaries, for preachers and for those who will take the gospel to those who need to herald the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are yet to believe.
The non-christians of the world cannot know and call on a Lord unless they know of Him. It is our obligation and privilege to be catalyst, mobilizers and messengers of the gospel to the approximately 93% of the world’s population who will go to hell with a knowledge of and a saving faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
2. Paul also asks the question, “How can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?” Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We should not imagine that people will automatically turn to God when they are in trouble. Although it is true that all people are intuitively aware of a higher being they are ignorant of a personal God in Christ Jesus whom they can find salvation unless they are told about the gospel.
Illustration; We can thank God for those who are involved in radio and television evangelism around the world, but this is only a beginning step of getting the gospel to 6.2 billion people on the face of the earth. People do not find salvation unless they find it in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Illustration: Only 7% of the world’s population presently has a personal and saving relationship with Jesus Christ so there is much work yet to do. Those who have been raised in a Christian country like the United States may not realize that there are still more than 3 billion people who are yet to hear the gospel for the very first time.
Illustration: More than 8,800 ethnic groups of the world’s 18,000 people groups of the world do not have access to a gospel speaking preacher of the gospel. As a result many of the world’s population is lost in the kingdom of darkness with all its cruelty, evil and sinfulness.
Illustration: Having lived among many wonderful people in Africa for nearly twenty years that did not know Christ as Savior, I can attest to the fierce spiritual battle that wages daily between those of the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. It is a life and death struggle in spiritual, social, and emotional ways. Ask the Lord to help you take a course like Perspectives on the World Christian Movement to help you equip yourself with the tools that are necessary to play your role helping to complete Christ’s great commission of Matthew 28:18-20.
3. The great apostle also asks the question, “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” A preacher not only proclaims the truth but teaches the meaning of God, Christ, the fallen state of man, grace and saving faith.
It often takes many years of preaching before people come to a point where they are capable of making an intelligent decision to trust Christ as their Savior and Lord.
Illustration: If it is true that an advertisers knows he must get his message out seventeen times on radio, TV or in a newspaper before saturation of his produce it made in the public, how much more do we need people who will persistently preach the gospel of Christ so the world may know of the only way to find eternal life.
Illustration; When I minister in Nigeria, I learned that the first SIM missionaries started their work in 1893 but the first church was not started until 1908. It took nearly 83 years of preaching and teaching before the SIM daughter church, the Evangelical Churches of West Africa, was able to take responsibility for its own leadership role. Thousands of missionaries had to sacrifice their entire lives for the sake of preaching to people who had to be instructed in the very basics of Biblical teaching of salvation, sanctification and service through the church.
Paul knew that many of the non-christians of the world need a great deal of teaching before they can come to a saving knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ. Cultures and peoples who have lived without Christ as their Savior tend to degrade into such ugly states of debauchery that it takes a great deal of grace, patient and endurance to educate them about the true God in Christ and His wonderful gospel of love.
The injustice, anger and lawlessness in a society with Christ is proof that sin is self-destructive. Only Christ provides a total solution for individuals and nations.
4. Paul also asks, “How they can preach unless they are sent?’
Illustration: For a little more than about $30 per month you can send a local preacher to help start and develop a new church in some of the needy area of the world through numerous mission organizations. The Bible League of South Holland, Illinois last year helped to start more than 3000 churches and led more than 280,000 people to Christ through the indigenous church planters that they help train and support in more than fifty developing countries around the world.
Mission agencies have learned that there are now far more effective ways to get preachers to people of unreached groups if we will only think more strategically and act more tactically. Check out ChristianAid.org and BibleLeague.org or GFA.org
Ask the Lord to help you be involved in praying that the Lord would send forth more harvesters and teachers into the mission fields of the world.
Do more to give toward missionaries from the developing world who can reach their own people with the gospel.
Evaluate how mission programs in your church can be more effective in sending preachers into areas that are still yet to hear a contextualized preacher for their people.
Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15) What are you doing to obey His great commission?
