In view of this year’s convention theme, “Through Every Door … Making Disciples,” I want to speak today on why I am a missionary Baptist. I want to put most emphasis upon the word missionary, but I need to say something about my being a Baptist. I am a Baptist partly because of heritage. When I was a child and our family moved into a new area, my mother would always take us children to the nearest Baptist church and enroll us in Sunday School.
I did not know why we would always go to a Baptist church. I knew there were other churches because I would see them on my way to school. But for us it was always a Baptist church. I am grateful now for that heritage. I like to think now that I am a Baptist by conviction — a “convinced” Baptist.
I subscribe to the great historical Baptist principles which have made us a distinct group of Christians, principles like: the priesthood of the believer, the authority of the Scriptures, the autonomy of the local church, the separation of church and state, baptism of believers by immersion only.
During the first year of my teaching at Samford I was visiting with J.W. Drummond in Jasper. J.W. suggested that we visit his Uncle Jim Drummond who must have been in his 80s by that time. He had preached all over Walker County and Cullman County during his long ministry. I asked him, “Bro. Jim, what is the main difference between the Baptist churches now and when you began your ministry?”
He did not need time to think about the answer. He replied immediately: “When I began my ministry, most of the Baptist churches in these counties were not missionary or were antimissionary; now most of them are missionary Baptist churches.” As the churches began changing from being nonmissionary or antimissionary to being missionary Baptist churches, they began adding the word missionary to the name of the church. We seldom see that today because we feel that being Baptist means being missionary.
Why am I a missionary Baptist? First, because of the nature of God. The greatest thing that can be said about God was said by John in his first epistle, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is His very nature. He does all that He does in love. He never does anything apart from that motive. There is no one in this world whom God does not love.
When I was in seminary, during a week of missions emphasis, some of the students took a large globe and hung it by a cord from the ceiling in the lobby of the main classroom building. The opening words of John 3:16 — “God so loved the world” — were placed just in front of the globe. The globe hung there all week. Seeing that globe and reading those words every day that week made a lasting impression upon me.
The prophet Jonah had difficulty with this concept of God. Do you remember the confession Jonah made after he had preached his brief message to Nineveh and the city had repented and God had spared the city from calamity? “I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (Jon. 4:2).
It was what Jonah knew about God that caused him to flee to Tarshish. He knew more about God than he was willing to share with the people of Nineveh. He knew that God would be gracious and merciful to Nineveh should the city repent. So to prevent God from making a terrible mistake, Jonah headed for Tarshish. He wanted God to be like him — narrow in his love, exclusive and prejudiced. It is tragic indeed when we as God’s people are more like Jonah than like God.
Another significant moment in my seminary life came in a worship service on one of the monthly missionary days. The preacher that day was a missionary to Brazil. His text was 1 Timothy 2:4. It reads, “God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” I sat there amazed in the service. Surely I had read that verse before, but somehow it had never registered in my mind. But that day it did.
I realized that if God had His way in every person’s life, everyone would be saved. Peter has a similar statement when he says, “The Lord does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). So there is no one in this world whom God does not love, and there is no one in this world whom God does not desire to be saved.
A second reason why I am a missionary Baptist is because of the nature of the death of Christ. How do we know that God really desires all persons to be saved? Because “Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6). Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “We are convinced that one has died for all.” In Romans 8:30 Paul adds, “He (God) did not withhold His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us.”
A third reason I am a missionary Baptist is because of the nature of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ was designed for all people. You remember the words of Paul in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Listen to the words of the risen Christ on the evening of resurrection day as he spoke to the apostles and their companions. He summed up the teaching of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah in the following way: “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46–47). Paul shows a good understanding of the gospel when he says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12–13).
Surprisingly, Jesus’ own apostles had difficulty embracing this concept of the gospel, particularly Simon Peter. One of the great moments in the book of Acts occurred in the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, as recorded in Acts 10. When Peter arrived at the house of Cornelius, he asked Cornelius why he sent for him. Cornelius told his story of how an angel had told him to send for Simon Peter who would tell Cornelius what to do. When Peter realized it was God who had brought the lost man and the saved man together so that the Roman centurion could hear the gospel and be saved, Peter confessed, “I truly understand — I am catching on — that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). That day Peter came to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly designed for all people, for Gentiles as well as Jews.
A fourth reason why I am a missionary Baptist is because of the needs of the world. I checked with the International Mission Board and was given these figures from their research library: The world population now stands at 6.2 billion people. Six hundred seventy-three million have heard and believed the gospel. Two and three-tenths billion have heard but not believed. Just over 3 billion have not had an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel. The world’s population is increasing at the rate of three per second (net increase) or 250,000 every 24 hours. It is evident that the number of people who are hearing and believing the gospel is not keeping pace with the increase in the world’s population.
A fifth reason why I am a missionary Baptist is because of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20). I asked my wife why she considered herself a missionary Baptist. Her reply was, “Because of the Great Commission.” I said, “What other reason would you give?”
She said, “I don’t need any other reason.” I agree. If we had only this passage of Scripture, that would be sufficient to make missionary people out of all of us if we are obedient to the Lord’s command.
Look at this scene when the commission was given. On some mountain in Galilee the risen Christ said to his disciples, “All 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
To this group of 11 disciples Jesus gave a world task. Four of them had been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, one had been a tax collector in Capernaum, one had been a member of that Jewish underground movement against Rome known as the Zealot Movement, and we do not know the backgrounds of the others. There was not a single member of the clergy among them. They were a nonprestigious group of laymen. Their task was to “make disciples of all nations.” That verb make disciples is the only imperative in the passage. The word go is a past participle in Greek and baptizing and teaching are present participles. Jesus actually said, “Having gone, therefore, make disciples of all nations.” He assumed they would be on the go. And as they go and wherever they go, their task is to make disciples. What they are to teach those disciples is obedience to the Lord’s commands.
Before these 11 can say, “But Lord,” he says, “And lo (or behold or remember) I am with you all the days, to the end of the age.” Not just some days (like Sundays and Wednesdays), not just part of each year, but all the days — hot days, cold days, rainy days, sunny days, days when you feel good, days when you don’t feel good, — all the days. Will there be some time out there in the future when His presence will not be with us? No! He says, “I am with you to the end of the age.” What a promise! It is the only promise he makes in the passage. But he could not have promised anything better.
I know that Alabama Baptists are a missionary people. And I feel that you are missionary for the same reasons I am. We have a God who loves the whole world and who desires the salvation of every person in it. We have a great Redeemer in Jesus Christ who has died for everyone in the world. We have a gospel that is designed for all.
We live in a world that desperately needs the gospel, and we have a commission to give this gospel to this needy world. We also have a promise that we can count on the presence of the risen Christ to be with us as we give ourselves to this world task. So my word to us is: What we are doing is good, it is right, it is commendable, but, beloved, as Paul would say, let us do so more and more!
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