Are You a Missionary or a Mission Field? — Alan Redpath

Good evening, everybody. Good evening, everybody. Thank you very much. I'm glad you're not mad with me already. There were two Englishmen, two Welshmen, two Irishmen, and two Scotsmen who were thrown up on a desert island and lost for six months.

When they were discovered, the two Irishmen were fighting, the two Welshmen were singing, the two Scotsmen were talking about home rule for Scotland, and the two Englishmen, well, they weren't speaking to each other because they hadn't been introduced.

Now, we get the reputation of being what you call snooty. English people like to call it reserved, but I would be very grateful if in these days you would help me by taking the initiative, coming up and telling me your name and where you're coming from, and let me have a word with you, because I would like to enter into your friendship, into your hearts, and to know as many as possible before this week is over.

The Calling to Be a Missionary or a Mission Field

Now, will you turn with me to the Acts of the Apostles in the first chapter and the eighth verse? Before we turn to the Word, let us turn to the Lord of the Word for a moment of prayer, and will you echo, please, in your heart the prayer which I would offer on your behalf and mine.

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Speak just now, some message to meet my need which thou only dost know. Speak now through thy holy word, and make me see some wonderful truth thou hast to show to me.

For Jesus' sake. Having got a little of the sound of this hall, which is not easy to speak in because it isn't designed for public speaking, may I just ask you, do you hear me? Anybody who doesn't hear me, stack up your hand.

Excuse me being Irish. Can you hear quite clearly at the back? Right? Thank you. Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. He shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and he shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in old Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

Everyone in this hall this evening is either a missionary or a mission field. May I repeat that? Everyone here tonight is either a missionary or a mission field. What is it that makes the difference? The moment in a fellow girl's experience when they stop running their own lives and hand over the management to Jesus Christ as Lord.

When he is really Lord of your life. You start being a missionary. You notice I said when he is really Lord. In Great Britain, omit the great, in Britain we have as you know a Queen and we have a constitutional monarchy.

The Queen is on the throne. She is number one. She is our recognized sovereign. But she has nothing whatsoever to do with the government of the country. Harold Wilson and company for better or worse handle that.

And the more things go on the less the Queen has anything to do with it. She's on the throne. The government make the decisions. That's called a constitutional monarchy. And we Christian people seem to imagine, many of us, that we can get away with that in the spiritual realm of life.

And set up a constitutional monarchy in which we say that Jesus Christ is Lord. But we make all the decisions. May I ask you very frankly tonight, who makes the decisions in your life? Who chooses your career?

Who chooses your friends? Who chooses the books you read? Who chooses how you spend your money? Who makes the decisions? Christ or you? There is a question in the New Testament which he asked, which I have never been able to answer.

It's this. Why call ye me Lord and do not the things that I say? The bankruptcy of our Christian living is entirely due to our partial obedience to Jesus Christ as Son. We refuse to take our hands off the reins.

If anybody here falls into that category tonight, whether you realize it or not, my friend, you are a desperately needy mission field. Professing Christian, a member of CE, a member of your church, even perhaps a leader.

But you refuse to give Jesus Christ absolute control. You are a mission field. But there are many people listening to my voice, who by the grace of God have sold out to Jesus Christ, and he is Lord of your life.

The Urgency and Sphere of Christian Witness

This verse has something to say to us tonight about our witness. And that's the subject about which I want to talk to you. May I say that I haven't come 15 ,000 miles from Britain to preach nice, entertaining, easy sermons.

I've come here with a great big concern in my heart. For people, for Christian people, that we may realize that time is not on our side. That it's nearer to the midnight hour than we think. And this perhaps is the moment in the history of the endeavor movement, when it must catch a fresh glimpse of the lordship of Christ and obey it or perish.

Let me speak to you concerning the sphere of our witness. Ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Of course, you may be a missionary in your home.

If Jesus Christ is lord of your life, he may require you to be a missionary right there. And you may be a missionary in your school, in your college, in your university. You may be a missionary in your Jerusalem, in your Judea.

Or maybe the lord wants you to be a missionary in your home state, in your Samaria. But it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he wants you to be a missionary in the uttermost parts of the earth.

And may I say tonight that none of us has the right to settle down in the job in which we are placed. Especially if we were in the job before we came to know Christ as lord. We have no right to settle down in that job without taking to him the whole question of where he wants us to serve him.

Ninety percent of Christian work today is done among ten percent of the world's population. Ninety percent among ten percent of the world's population. It took from the time of creation to the dawn of the 20th century for world population to reach one billion, 1 ,000 million people.

It has in the last 60 years trebled that figure, more than trebled that figure. And it is increasing at the rate of 75 million people a year. There are more un-evangelized people in the world today than ever in history.

Two-thirds of this world's population know nothing about Jesus Christ. This is an impossible task for 40 ,000 missionaries. That is the sum total of missionaries on the field. But God never intended 40 ,000 missionaries to do it.

Remember that Christianity is always only one generation removed from total elimination. May I drive that home by repetition? Christianity is only one generation removed from total elimination. God has no grandchildren.

You can have spiritual grandchildren. It's a wonderful thing to lead someone to Christ. It's even more wonderful to see the person you led to Christ leading somebody else. You can have spiritual grandchildren.

But God has no spiritual grandchildren. He has only children. Someone has said that the strength of every movement depends on its ability to mobilize every member of it to propagate what it believes. That's the reason for the tremendous upsurge in the Muslim faith in this last decade.

It's the reason for the tremendous breakthrough of Jehovah's Witnesses. It's the reason for the tremendous advance in Mormonism. Propagation by the individual adherent of what they believe. Failure to do that is the reason why Christianity has its back to the wall.

A recent article in Christianity Today published in the States, a country incidentally, which is very fond of statistics. And these are statistics for which I cannot vouch. But they are near enough home to make me feel very uncomfortable that in the average evangelical church role, five percent of the congregation don't exist.

Ten percent can't be found. Twenty-five percent never attend church. Fifty percent never contribute a penny. Seventy-five percent never attend a prayer meeting. Ninety percent have no missionary concern.

And ninety-five percent never win anybody for Christ. Is that true of you? Are you among that ninety-five percent? Listen, how long is it since you tried to bring someone to Jesus Christ? Have you ever done?

The Gospel’s Sufficiency and the Necessity of Hearing

What a challenge! Would you mind answering in your mind, not to me, you come to that, but in your mind three questions, which I have had to put to myself as I prepare this message today. One. Was the death of Christ upon the cross adequate to provide for the salvation of everybody?

Get it? The answer to that question is unmistakably yes, adequate for everybody, but effective only in the lives of those who repent and believe. Question two. Because of the cross and what Jesus did there, is everybody going to be saved one day?

That's what a lot of people would have us believe. That if there's anybody landed in hell, that means a breakdown in the love of God. Therefore everybody must be saved. With all the authority of the word of God behind me, I say the answer to that question is no, everybody will not be saved.

If that was true, you'd have to tear up the gospel of Matthew and the book of Revelation and other sections of your Bible. Question number three. Can anybody be saved without hearing the gospel? My answer to that question is unmistakably no.

Romans chapter 10 and verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him whom they've not heard?

How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? The motto of Satan in the Old Testament was, keep Jesus from the cross. And how nearly he succeeded. The motto of Satan now is, keep everybody from hearing.

And how easily he seems to be succeeding. Of a little girl who went for the first time to a party. And the little girl goes for the first time to the party. Her mother always says the same thing. Now, be a good girl, won't you?

And when she came back from the party, her mother said to her, well, were you a good girl? And she said, well, mummy, I wasn't too good and I wasn't too bad. I was just comfy. You were a comfortable Christian.

Merely comfortable. One of Britain's great preachers, who's now in glory, was the minister of St. Paul's Portmouth Square, Colin Carr was his name. And I remember him saying at a youth meeting some years ago, I used to pray, Lord, show me what it means for a soul to be lost.

And he said the Lord never answered that prayer. Because if he had, I believe, I would have gone off my head. Think about people in a lost eternity. Hell has gone out of our preaching. Believe that someone who dies without Christ is doomed and you afford to be a comfortable Christian in the light of that truth.

The Subject of Witness: The Whole Christ

The sphere of our witness to the uttermost parts of the earth. Secondly, the subject of our witness, ye shall be witnesses unto me. Not to a movement, not to an organization, not to a church, but to me, to Christ.

Evangelism has been defined as the preaching of a whole Christ to a whole man by the whole church in the whole world. The Christ of eternal glory. The Christ who became a baby at Bethlehem. The Christ of the pure and spotless unholy life.

The Christ of the atoning death on Calvary. The Christ of resurrection power who ascended into heaven. The Christ who gave back to everyone who believes in him his Holy Spirit. The Christ who reigns in glory till every enemy shall be his footstool.

And the Christ who one day shall come back again. A whole Christ to the whole man, to his mind, to his emotion, to his will. And you have never secured a convert till you have got all three of those. A man's mind and emotion and will.

A whole man. By the whole church. Not just a few people interested in evangelism, but everybody, everywhere in all the world. That's evangelism. That's the priority task of every person here who's been born again by the Spirit of God.

About a month ago, from my younger daughter at home, she's just coming up to 18. She'd be mad with me if I told you this. But she wrote in this letter to me that she was going with a boyfriend now. She's kept them at bay recently.

And as far as I know, because I may be wrong, this is her first real boyfriend. He's a member of our church. He's a very good, keen Christian fellow. I'm very happy about it. But I say, I've had a letter from her every week now and they're simply dueling with this boyfriend.

You know, I'm getting so excited about it. You know, she says he's wonderful. He's super. He's fab. That's the word we use in Scotland. That's equivalent to beaut. Beaut. That's right. Yes. Well, he's all that, you see.

He's absolutely wonderful. He's the last word. You know, I'm really beginning to wonder if he's the fellow I think he is. But she thinks he's marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. She's absolutely taken up with him and she's got me so excited that I'm longing to get home to see her.

The disciples could not but speak the things that they have seen and heard. They'd fallen in love with the risen Christ. Their hearts were filled with the Holy Ghost. They were compelled to obey God, compelled to speak for Him.

And somehow the thing became infectious. Anything infectious about your Christian faith? You can only witness to somebody who is real to you. Is Jesus real to you? Do you love him? Have you spoken about him?

Have you begun to be a missionary? Where you are right now? Because he so thrills you and fills you? You sang tonight, We Will Go Anywhere With Jesus. Have you gone across the road to speak to your friend about him?

Have you told your family that you love him? Your girls, your friends at school? Do they know? Has he caught the glow? You see my daughter is so in love with this boy that she says he's wonderful and she's made me enthusiastic.

Does anybody ever catch the glow from you? The reality of Christ shining out from your life. The subject of our witness, oh our wonderful Lord Jesus, ye shall be witnesses unto me that the last thing and the most important thing, the secret of our witnesses, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

The Holy Spirit as the Secret of Witness

The secret of our witness. These disciples were absolutely useless without the Holy Spirit. They'd been three years at school with Christ. They'd been eyewitnesses of his death. They'd seen the risen Lord.

They'd seen the marks of the hands and nails in his hand. But they were helpless, helpless to do anything for him without the Holy Spirit. Jesus, his last words to them before he went to heaven was, I am with you always.

Go and preach the gospel to every creature and I am with you always. But Lord, you're just about to leave us. Ah yes, but you remember what he said to them in the 14th chapter of John's gospel and the 16th verse.

I will send you another comforter and he shall be with you and shall be in you forever. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you and shall be in you. At that hour ye shall know that I am in my father.

Ye are in me and I am in you. Now he has come to be in them like that. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come to you and ye shall be witnesses unto me. That's the only secret. Forgive me, it's not more Christian endeavour.

If you mean by that more effort, more work, more prayer, more Bible study, more hard work in my church. That's not it. It's more room for God, the Holy Spirit. There's a little town called Balenina. The most Protestant town in the world I imagine.

Very few Roman Catholics. The lady there had a succession of cottage meetings on three Wednesday evenings. Her next door neighbour was the one Roman Catholic in that street. And so she asked her to come and the Roman Catholic lady said, sorry, can't come.

Not allowed to. But after the meeting she was very curious and said, do you have a good time last night? Oh wonderful, we had a great meeting. How many do you have? 27, my house was full. Come next week.

Can't, not allowed to. Next week went by, second meeting was held, same conversation over a wall or garden. Did you have a good meeting last night? Wonderful, how many do you have? 51, my house was full.

51. Will you come next week? Can't, not allowed to. Third week went by, third meeting, next morning same conversation. Have a good meeting last night. Oh thrilling, best of all. How many do you have? 62, my house was full.

That was too much for an Irish Roman Catholic. So she said, here, you said your house was full when you're 27. The next week you got 51 and the next week 62. It's impossible. Oh no, perfectly easy she said.

Easy? Well how do you do? Didn't you hear us? What do you mean didn't I hear you? Well she said, all we did was put the furniture out in the garden. Listen young people, there's some spiritual, unspiritual furniture in your life that's got to be thrown out before God can get control.

The Holy Spirit fills what I'm prepared to empty. Have you ever been to Christ and said to him, oh God, use me for Jesus' sake and if it costs anything empty me of myself that I might be filled with your spirit.

Ye shall receive power. Ah, have you the Holy Spirit in your life? If you're a Christian you have. If you've been born from above he is in you but he might perhaps doesn't control you. It's one thing for the Holy, for you to have the Holy Spirit.

It's for another thing for him to have you. It's one thing for you to possess Christ in his indwelling life. It's another thing for him to possess all of you and use you. You see, I repeat, it's not more Christian endeavour.

It's not what I do for Christ that matters. It's what Christ does through me. According to the power of him who worketh in me mightily. Oh says Paul, I work, I work, I'm labouring, I'm giving my whole life to Jesus but thank God it's not my effort, it's his mighty power flowing through me.

Submission to Christ’s Authority and Spiritual Power

We're desperately needing mission field this evening. Listen, there are two words in the New Testament which find their way into our English Bible and translated by the word power. The one is a word that means authority and almost always it is used in reference to Christ.

For instance, hath not the potter authority over the clay? He hath been raised up far above all principalities and powers. Authority, authority. And the other word is the word that we have in our text.

Ye shall receive power and it's a word that means dynamite, dunamis. Oh my, with only a few nights here but I long that there shall be an infusion of dynamite into Christian lives at this time. Have you the Holy Spirit but no dynamite, no power?

I'll tell you why. Let me tell you why. Listen, oh you've already found that this sort of preaching isn't an entertainment. It's not funny, it hurts but listen I'll tell you just why. I know it from experience, I'm not preaching at you.

I've known it in my own wretched miserable life. I had no power because I wasn't prepared to submit to authority. I walked down Regent Street in London not so long ago and when I was walking down on a nice warm summer day I found all the buses were lined up, two abreast and all were stationary, engines ticking over, driver at the wheel, knows nothing moving.

Being an accountant by nature I started counting the horsepower under the hoods, the bonnets of those buses. Soon lost count, hundreds of thousands and I arrived at the bottom of Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus it's called and I found the reason why they're all stopped.

The traffic lights were out of order and a little five foot eight London policeman stood there, little fat man he was and he had one hand on his hips and one hand up in the air like that. He wasn't even looking at the buses but I tell you that none of those buses do and I stood and watched him absolutely fascinated and I said, I didn't say to him but I thought it, you think yourself no end of a swell guy, I don't think you're important.

My, I expect you've got a wife and a few kids and you live in a little suburban house in London like I do. Do you know what I'd like you to do? I'd like you to go off duty right now, I'd like you to go home and put on a suit of clothes like mine and come back to Piccadilly Circus and stand and do that.

You'd be in a hospital in 10 seconds, either that or dead. All those drivers and all that horsepower didn't care a scrap for a fat little London policeman but I tell you this, they cared a mighty lot for the authority of Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London Police with which uniform that policeman was vested.

Because the man was under authority, he was in power. No bus dare move, no horse dare move an inch. Christian, what you want here tonight, what I want is to get right under the authority of Jesus in your life and look up to his face and say Lord and mean it with all your heart and from that moment on there's dunamis, dunamis, ye shall receive power and you shall be witnesses unto me.

Prayer for Total Surrender and Spirit-Filled Witness

Let us pray. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me. Have you received the gift of life in Christ? Is he within you? Have you his power in your heart?

Does he control you? Have you got Jesus? Has he got you? On this night of the convention, the whole mission fields of the world would be radically transformed if every person in this place went out of this hall spirit filled to live under the control of a risen Lord.

Let us ask him to do it for us in a second prayer. My failure, my sin, and I have tried to keep the reins in my hands and refuse to yield to thy sovereignty. Bring us at thy feet in total surrender to the lordship of Jesus and send us out with dunamis dynamic to live for thee and for thy glory for Jesus sake.