Romans 10:14-15

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Wayside is an evangelistic missions-minded church. We are interested in missions. We give money to support missionaries, and we have missionary prayer meetings, and an annual missions conference. We believe in missions at home, and we also believe in world-wide missions. Our outreach in our local area includes money for Signal Mountain Christian School, Wayside Christian Preschool, Bethel Bible Village, Channels of Love, AAA Womens Services, Chattanooga Rescue Mission, Student Venture at Red Bank High School, and Why kNow. We are also involved with Signal Mountain Social Services, Habitat for Humanity and various outreach efforts to help the homeless.

A little farther from home, we support Navigator missionaries, and Campus Crusade missionaries working with college kids at UT Knoxville, and on the U of S. Carolina campus in Columbia, SC. Ginnie Strom is working with Bantu refugees in Atlanta Georgia. We help train PCA pastors at Greenville Theological Seminary. We give money to Covenant College on Lookout Mountain. The TN Valley Presbytery is starting a new church in the Eastlake area of Chattanooga, and some of our giving to our Presbytery goes to help with that.

Globally, Wayside supports missionaries around the world in India, Japan, South Africa, Hungary, Tanzania, Singapore and a Christian Radio Station on the Island of Haiti.

Our Scripture passage today reminds me of a missions conference theme we need to do one of these years: BEAUTIFUL FEET. It gives us some great information about how to do missions for the Lord Jesus Christ. How does missions work? This passage gives us an orderly outline.

I. Missionaries must be sent.

A. Sent by God -- It is God who sends missionaries. If you have not been sent by God, DON'T GO!

Galatians 1:1 "Paul, an apostle-sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead..."

• 19 ¶ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"
• 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
• 21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
• John 20:19-21

B. Sent by the Church

• 1 ¶ In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.
• 2 While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
• 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
• 4 ¶ The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.
• 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
  (Acts 13:1-5)

II. Missionaries must proclaim the Gospel.

• "How can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:14)
• "They proclaimed the word of God..." (Acts 13:5)

A. Social work, charity, good deeds is only a beginning, a wedge, an interest grabber.

B. Living a good live is not witnessing.

C. There must be the actual proclamation of the Gospel, both negative and positive.

Negative: The truth about the personal sin and lost condition of each person must be preached and taught.

Positive: Jesus must be proclaimed as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

Clearly: Jesus did not come (PRIMARILY) to give you a more abundant life. He came to be your Savior. Jesus must not be preached as a self-help, wealth, prosperity, happiness pill. People will flock to that message, just as the 5,000 flocked to Jesus for literal bread. But God is looking for people who see themselves as miserable, wretched, poor sinners, in fear of death and Hell, looking for mercy and forgiveness; looking for the Bread of Life! That's what the Gospel is all about.

Witnessing: To be a witness for Jesus is NOT to say: "Look at me! Look at how Jesus made me a better happier person! Why don't you become a Christian, too!" Our lives are not that good, we are not that good, we are not much to aspire to. Witnessing is to say: "I'm a sinner, and Jesus died for me. My sins have been forgiven. He died for you, too, if you are looking for a Savior. I hold Him out to you as the Bread of Life."

• 9 ¶ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
• 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
• 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector.
• 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
• 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
• 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
  (Luke 18:9-14)

III. People must be willing to hear and listen.

• 17 ¶ Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: "My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
• 18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.
• 19 But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar-not that I had any charge to bring against my own people.
• 20 For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."
• 21 They replied, "We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.
• 22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect."
• 23 ¶ They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
• 24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.
• 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
• 26 "‘Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
• 27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’
• 28 "Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!"
  (Acts 28:17-28)

When Paul came to Rome, he found that the Jewish community there knew very little about him, AND THEY WANTED TO HEAR HIM SPEAK. This was a providential act of God. But after Paul had preached his message, the number of those who continued and wanted to learn more shrank drastically.

24 "Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe."

A. God must open hearts. Only God can soften the hard sinful heart.

• 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
• 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.
• 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
  (Acts 16:12-14)

B. Prayer for God to work is a vital ingredient in missions. That's the only way we can find people with open hearts, wanting to listen. It is not our eloquence that brings people to Christ. Paul was more eloquent than you or I can ever be, yet most rejected his Gospel message.

• 1 ¶ Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
• 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
• 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
  (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
• Lu 11:2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: "‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
• 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
• 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
• 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
  (Matt 9:36-38)

IV. Those who hear must believe.

Saving faith is a mixture of head belief and heart belief, that manifests itself in a public identification with Christ.

• 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
• 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
• 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
  (Romans 10:9-11)

V. Those who believe will call on the name of the Lord.

To call on the name of the Lord, or to call on the Lord, means to pray. Christians are people who have prayed: confession, crying out for mercy, giving thanks for salvation, praise to our wonderful Savior.

• 12 ¶ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
• 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
  (Romans 10:12-13)

• 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ— their Lord and ours:
  (I Cor 1:2)

Conclusion: Perhaps there is someone here today who has not yet become a Christian. Or you are not sure of your salvation. Would you join me in praying this prayer in your heart, as I pray outloud?

Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I cannot save myself from the consequences of my sins. I know that I am lost in sin, and that I need a Savior. Lord, I believe that You sent your Son to Jesus to die on the cross for me, to pay the penalty for all my sins. Lord, I want Jesus to be my Savior. I believe in Him. I believe He died for me. I repent of my sins, and I humbly ask that you will help me to live for Jesus the rest of my life. Lord Jesus, be my Savior, please, I pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness and Salvation:

• John 6:37 "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."
• 8 ¶ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
• 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
  (I Jn 1:8-9)
• 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
• 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
• 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
  (Heb 4:14-16)