“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Luke 10:25-27
When I was young sometimes my father would entrust me with a message. It often began with the words, “Go tell Mom…” And then he would give me the rest of the message. I would proudly proceed directly to Mom to deliver the message. I had a message from Dad! Sometimes my brothers or sister would try to pull me away from my task, but I would not be distracted because I had been entrusted with a message that Dad gave me for Mom! “Don’t delay me! I have a message from Dad to Mom!” The message was not my message but the responsibility of carrying the message was given to me!
As a missionary bush pilot one of my greatest privileges was being the messenger. Sometimes we united parents and children but often we carried messages between them. In ourselves the aviation and transportation personnel are often neither the senders of the message nor the recipients of the message, but we do get to participate in the great joy of the deliveries. Before the proliferation of satellite phones, cellular towers and HF email the bush pilot was the most welcome person in the area when he landed at a remote airstrip with the mail and news from the outside world. At the same time, woe unto the bush pilot who forgot to place the mail on the aircraft! We were the link between isolated missionaries and news from home!
In a very similar way, all of us as Christians, after receiving the message for ourselves, are messengers who have the privilege of participating in the joy of delivering a wonderful message. We get to carry the messengers who carry the greatest message ever given to man! We have in our possession the greatest message of good news that the world has ever known! Like the angel of Luke 2:10, we have been given “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” What is more is that we have been given the privilege, and the responsibility, to carry that message to all people everywhere.
Jesus, without Whom “was not any thing made that was made”, made a very strong statement. He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Considering this statement, is there any higher authority which we should obey? His very next sentence included the words “therefore”, “go”, “teach” and “all nations.”
It would seem that He wants His message to be delivered. …Everywhere!
Several things get in the way of delivering a great message. One thing is that the people carrying the message may not recognize the importance of the person from Whom the message came. (The Creator God!?!!)
On the mission field it was one thing to receive from my home country a box of parts such as fuel filters which I would need a few months down the road to put on the lawn tractor. It was quite another thing to receive a package from Mom or our home church with personal notes, extra special food treats, Christmas gifts and tools which we needed to help us to be more effective in ministry!
Another thing that may hinder the delivery of the message is that the bearer of the message may not recognize the importance or urgency of the message.
In aviation, we sometimes mark boxes with the letters “AOG!” “AOG!”usually means something like, “The aircraft is on the ground waiting for parts and the passengers are stranded in the jungle until the aircraft is repaired!” To make it more meaningful to some people perhaps the letters should be, “WLM!” “We’re losing money!” How much more important that our attention should be given to the business of carrying an eternally significant message, from the God who has all power and authority, about something that has very great value in His economy: The eternal souls of men!
A third thing that may hinder the delivery of the message is that the recipient of the message may not recognize the significance, urgency or relevance of the message to their own situation.
It was a very hot and humid day. After an unusually difficult start I finally was able to get the hot aircraft engine running without completely discharging the battery. As I looked out the side of the windshield, I noticed my new ground support assistant trying to get my attention and gesturing with mild enthusiasm. “What is that all about?”, I wondered, quickly glancing around to identify a danger. His mouth was moving but his lips were hard to read. We didn’t have any hand signals that matched his movements. As I shut off the engine to investigate, he finally pointed and shouted something I could understand above the noise of the engine and propeller. It sounded like this: “Paia! Paia!”
His message then came through loud and clear. I quickly got out of the aircraft and grabbed a fire extinguisher. (This all happened in a few seconds.) As messengers part of our responsibility is see the that the recipient understands the urgency of the message!
According to Jesus, the greatest commandment of the greatest message is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
It is much more difficult to love someone whom you do not know and have never met. At the same time it is much easier to love someone who is truly wonderful when other people help you to understand just how wonderful is that person!
We often tell people about a wonderful relative or an exciting event, going into great detail about what we say and what was done.
This is our job as messengers and ambassadors. Our job is to tell people, “My God is SO BIG ..!” We must elevate the understanding of other people about the character and nature of God so that they begin to grasp who He is and who they are in relation to Him based on the truth of God’s written word.
God is the one who spoke everything into existence, the one who is good beyond imagination, the one who is perfect and kind and just and all powerful. He is the God who knows everything, sees everything, and created everything. This God who owns everything and everyone loves you and desires for you to become His heir! This God is so very good and so perfect that you can never measure up to His glory and can never be good enough in your own strength to be with Him! This God always deals with injustice correctly and completely. This God has a message for you. This God loves you and has made provision for the sin that separates you from Him. This God, Emmanuel, became flesh to pay the penalty that you could not pay so that you could dwell with Him in His good, perfect and loving presence. This God requires that you believe Him and receive His gift of life through faith. This God wants you to know Him. This God is worthy!
This God has a message of grace and mercy for people, whom He also loves with a passion beyond imagination, in remote parts of the world where they have never heard of Him. That Creator God is the one who tells us to go tell everyone!
2 Corinthians 5 tells us that we have been given the message of reconciliation, that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation, that we should no longer live for ourselves, that we are ambassadors representing God (who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!) and that we speak on His behalf when we tell people, “Come to God!”
It is our privilege as His representatives to carry His message and to enlist His Redeemed to carry that message to those people whom He loves who have not yet heard the message; “Other sheep have I which are not of this fold.”, and, “My sheep hear my voice.”
My rough guess is that it will take at least 10,000 missionary units on mission to reach the nearly 2,000 language groups which still do not have any access to God’s word. Never has there been a generation with more tools and resources to complete the command. Since faith comes by hearing the word of God which is carried by messengers who are sent, these people will not hear the message until someone is willing to go to tell them and other people are willing to send them.
Will you pray with us that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers? More than 100 Unreached People Groups who have asked that someone come tell them God’s message. We do not have the people to send. Will you be the messenger to go tell them?