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June 19, 2011 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Matthew 28:16-20 ³Making Disciples´

Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

Jesus came and said to them, ³All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go

therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And

remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.´Despite this command from Jesus, ³In the beginning the [Early Church] was hardly more than a family

affair. The followers of Christ remained near the places they associated with [Jesus¶] career, the sites

of his wonderful works. They measured the health of the churches by their degree of proximity to

these centers. Members of his family were held in special esteem. There seemed to be little vision of

a horizon beyond the Palestinian provinces he had honored in his humanity. The Synoptic Gospels

[Matthew, Mark, and Luke], which reflect the condition of the Church in its early development,

reproduce words which suggest this limitation of mission. They recall an original charge of Jesus to

the twelve disciples: µGo nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go

rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.¶[Matthew 10:5-6]´ 1

Acts shows us that things in the church gradually changed. They changed because some within what

was essentially a Jewish-Christian sect wanted to reach out to Gentiles. Why? Because they knew

they had the Good News of Jesus Christ and they wanted to share that news. Their vision of Christ

was broader than many leaders of the early church, leaders like James ± Jesus¶ brother, and Peter.

Their concern was for the lost no matter that the lost were not Jewish. Their concern may well have

been for Greek speaking Gentiles because they themselves were Greek speaking. Whatever the reason

for their concern, some within the early church pushed the leaders to reach out to the Gentiles. The

first major leader in this movement was Stephen, ³who appears and disappears within a moment. . . .

The speech which Acts 7 preserves in association with Stephen shows him to have been a prophet of

the larger vision, one destined to clash with the Jewish authorities for his activities in attacking their

exclusivism.´2

They stoned Stephen for his radical thinking, but Philip picked up the radical idea that the Good News

was for more than the Jews and went to Samaria to preach Jesus Christ. ³Others carried the work to

Cyprus, Antioch, and Phoenicia.´3

Eventually, as we all know, Paul became the leader of the

movement to spread the message of Jesus Christ to Jews and Gentiles alike. Paul, who had been Saul

the great persecutor of the church, the same Saul who had watched over the garments of those who¶d

stoned Stephen, Paul became the great missionary to the non-Jewish world. Paul went out into the

world to proclaim that God loved all people and that Jesus died for all people ± well at least the people

of Europe and western Asia. The church historian, Martin Marty writes, ³Because the Kingdom of

God which Christ had announced had µthe tendency to become a universal religion¶ (Holtzmann) from

the first, it is difficult for contemporary Christians to picture that only [two centuries] ago the

movement was still identified with Europe and western Asia, and with new outposts in the western

1. Marty, Martin, A Short History of Christianity, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 36.

2. Ibid., p. 39

3. Ibid. p. 40.

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hemisphere. Africa, Australia, the greater part of Asia were hardly touched.. . It was surprising how

little Christianity had done to become, according to its own profession of its genius, universal,

realizing its catholicity.´4

It wasn¶t until the 1790's that the modern Christian mission movement was born through the work of

the cobbler William Carey, that Congregationalist turned Baptist. On May 31, 1792, he preached a

missionary sermon on a text from Isaiah which included a call to µexpect great things from God and

attempt great things for God.¶´5 Carey obeyed his own call and went off to India, but he wasn¶t alone.Missionaries from other denominations followed Carey¶s call to obey Jesus¶ command to make

disciples of all the world, and our modern mission movement was finally back on track from the days

of Stephen and Paul.

Baptists have continued to be leaders in the attempt to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all

people throughout the world. Being as individualistic as we Baptists are, it took the Great Call to

support the work of missionaries throughout the world to bring us together. Because no individual

church could financially support a world-wide missions effort, Baptist churches joined together to

accomplish this mission of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. Missions continues to be our #1

priority as a denomination.

Because missions is such a priority, Baptists have many heroes of the faith to which we can point with

pride. We know of Adoniram and Ann Judson, the pioneer Congregationalist missionaries to Burma

whose convictions led them to receive believer¶s baptism and become Baptists as they were traveling

to Burma. Their ministry initiated the 1814 formation of the American Baptist Foreign Mission

Society which is now our International Ministries. Adoniram was imprisoned for 21 months during

the war between England and Burma. He focused on evangelism and Scripture translation. The

Baptist movement grew to 7000 members and more than 100 national ministers by the time of

Adoniram¶s death in 1850. Ann¶s suffering, extensive correspondence and early death in Burma

attracted many Americans to the support of international ministry.

There are many other less well known missionaries. Jesse Bushyhead was born in the Cherokee Nation in 1804. He was appointed by the Foreign Mission Society to work with missionary Evan

Jones as an interpreter and itinerant preacher. In 1833 Bushyhead became the first ordained Cherokee

minister and in Amohee, TN, founded the first indigenous Cherokee church. His ministry also

included Bible translation and lobbying Congress against the forced removal of Native Americans

from their land. He accompanied and ministered to the Cherokee on the ³Trail of Tears´ along with

Evan and John B. Jones. Bushyhead later served on the Cherokee Supreme Court and was appointed

Chief Justice.

Lulu Fleming was born in Hibernia, FL in 1862. She graduated from Shaw University with a call to

mission work. In 1887, at age 25, she went to Palabala, Congo, as the first African American single

woman missionary appointed by American Baptists. When ill health forced her to return to the U.S.,

Fleming used her recovery time to pursue medical studies. After graduating as a physician, she

returned to Congo as an American Baptist medical missionary. The rigors of pioneer mission service

4. Ibid., p. 319.

5. Ibid., p. 319.

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brought her to her death at age 37.

Astrid Peterson lived to serve Christ and the Chinese people. Following seminary and Chinese

studies, Astrid was appointed in 1930 by the Woman¶s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to

serve in West China. For 21 years she taught English and Bible at a Baptist girls¶ high school,

continuing her work even during World War II when the school was evacuated to the countryside.

Political conditions in China forced Astrid to return to the U.S. in 1951. She continued to serve

Chinese people in San Francisco under appointment of the Home Mission Society. She led a ChineseBible class until age 96.

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I could go on and on sharing biographies of our missionaries from the past. I could do the same thing

for those missionaries who are proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world today ±

people like Duane and Marcia Binkley serving in Thailand, Glen & Rita Chapman serving in the

Democratic Republic of Congo, Gustavo & Joan Parajón in Nicaragua, and Lauren Bethel ± currently

serving as what¶s called a Global Specialist but formerly the one who did such great work with the

young girls sold by their families into prostitution in Thailand. American Baptists work hard to obey

Jesus¶ teaching to ³Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that [Jesus has commanded

us.]´ We can be very proud of how God uses our missionary efforts. As William Carey preached so

long ago, we can and should ³expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.´

We¶re very good as American Baptists at sending out missionaries, be they foreign or home

missionaries. We¶re not nearly as good, however, at being missionaries ourselves I¶m afraid. As a

denomination we¶re evangelistic ± committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with all people

everywhere. As individuals though, we¶re not nearly as committed to sharing the Good News with

others. I¶m not sure why this is. Maybe we¶re too busy. Maybe we don¶t know non-Christians.

Maybe we¶re embarrassed to talk about something as personal as our faith. Maybe we¶re afraid we¶ll

be made outcasts if we share our faith. Maybe we don¶t know what to say. Maybe we think that we

don¶t know enough to witness to non-Christians. Maybe it¶s a little of all of those. Maybe we¶re justcontent to let the missionaries spread the Gospel, or to let the preacher share the message of Jesus

Christ.

Jesus¶ command, however, wasn¶t to, ³Go therefore and hire men and women to make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Train and

support missionaries and pastors to teach people to obey everything that I have commanded you.´

Jesus commands each of us, the brave and the not-so-brave, the extrovert and the introvert, the young

and the old, men and women, rich and poor, busy and not-so-busy ± Jesus commands all of us to make

disciples of all people everywhere.

When I was growing up, occasionally missionaries would visit our church and tell of their work. Most

of the time, they¶d also issue a call to become a missionary, to join them in the Congo or Thailand or

Burma, join them in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Japan or Africa. I haven¶t

6. ³Profiles from The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society,´ International Ministries,American Baptist Churches USA, PO Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851, (IM 4457

5M 4/01), Profiles of Adoniram and Ann Judson, Jesse Bushyhead, Lulu Fleming, andAstrid Peterson.

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heard many calls recently to become a missionary. Perhaps this is because the call to us today is to be

missionaries right where we are. When I was growing up in the µ50's and µ60's, schools couldn¶t have

any events on Wednesday evening because that was ³church night.´ The stores weren¶t open on

Sunday. Not much happened on Sunday afternoon. Just about every church in town had a Sunday

evening service. Most all my friends attended one church or another.

That¶s not the case today, is it? Today it¶s hard to tell it¶s Sunday. Schools hold events whenever they

want. Sunday morning isn¶t reserved for church. Now there are soccer games and baseball practice.I¶m not sure the society in which I grew up could¶ve been called Christian. I do know that the society

in which we live today is not Christian by any stretch of the imagination. We don¶t have to go to

darkest Africa to find people who haven¶t heard that Jesus is Lord. We don¶t have to go to some

Muslim country to find those who don¶t know Jesus is the Son of God. We don¶t have to travel

thousands of miles to make disciples. We only have to down the street, or go next door, or maybe into

the next room.

As a denomination, we have a passion for missions. May we have that same passion as individual

Christians. As a denomination, we strive hard to minister to the body but also to the souls of people

throughout the world. May we strive to minister to both body and soul of the people here in Chico.

We are called by Jesus himself to make disciples, not only of the people throughout the world, but of

the people in our own neighborhoods as well. May we honor that command.

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