Seven Things Every Missionary Needs

Romans 15:20-33

Introduction: If you are a missionary, you need to know about these seven things. If you are thinking about being a missionary, you need to know these. And, if you love missionaries and want to do your part to fulfill the Great Commission, you need to know these seven things.

• 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.
• 21 Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."
• 22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.
• 23 But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you,
• 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
• 25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there.
• 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
• 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
• 28 So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.
• 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.
• 30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
• 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,
• 32 so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.
• 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

I. Missionaries need ambition.

Romans 15:20 "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation."

I Thessalonians 4:11 uses the same Greek word, and also translates it as "ambition." "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you..."

So "ambition" seems to be a good translation. Missionaries need ambition. (Not in the sense of "getting ahead in life.") They need a goal. This has a lot to do with WHERE a missionary goes. Most missionaries feel called to a particular mission field. Maybe Japan. Maybe China. Maybe Germany. Maybe the ghettos of Atlanta or Los Angeles, or Chattanooga. But there is usually a sense of WHERE in a missionary call from God. Not many people say "I'm sure I'm called to be a missionary, but I have no idea where God wants to send me." Paul the Apostle had a wide open field. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was in on the ground floor. As soon as he left Jerusalem, he was headed for places that had never heard the Gospel. He made three specified missionary trips, and a fourth trip, in chains finally, to Rome, where he indeed was a missionary. He always headed North and West, and wanted to go to the FAR West, to Spain. (You probably have a map in the back of your Bible called "Paul's Missionary Journeys."

Missionaries need to know deep in their hearts: "God has called me here. I KNOW it. I'm committed to it. I'm ambitious to win the people HERE to Christ." If this sense of calling goes away, the missionary will find himself or herself in trouble.

II. Missionaries need to focus on the Gospel and Bible teaching.

Romans 15:21 "as it is written: Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."

This is a quotation from Isaiah 52:15, and leads directly to Isaiah 53:1-6 which is the Gospel message.

• 1 ¶ Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
• 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
• 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
• 4 ¶ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
• 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
• 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
  (Isaiah 53:1-6)

It is easy for missionaries to get caught up in EVERYTHING BUT preaching the Gospel and teaching God's Word. We do all kinds of things to gain an opportunity to get a hearing for the Gospel. We teach English in Viet Nam and China. We do medical missions in Africa. We distribute food and clothing in Pakistan. We start guinea pig farms to provide jobs for Quechua Indians in Peru. We start schools to educate children in Belize. We dig wells in India. We do all these things for good reasons, but missionaries must beware of allowing that which is good take the place of that which is essential. We are not really there to teach English, start schools, heal the sick and dig wells. We are there to win people to Christ, to start churches, and to teach them all about Jesus.

• 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
• 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
• 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
  (Matthew 28:18-20)

III. Missionaries need financial support.

Romans 15:23-24 "I have been longing for many years to see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while."

Paul here is looking for financial aid from the church in Rome. ("Assist me on my journey.") Paul knew how to sew and construct tents, and sometimes, because he was NOT financially supported, he made tents to be able to continue his missionary work.

• 1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
• 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them,
• 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
• 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
  (Acts 18:1-4)

The Philippian church is our example for giving to missionaries....

• 10 ¶ I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
• 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
• 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
• 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
• 14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
• 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only;
• 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.
• 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.

Missionary giving is important, and Wayside is doing a good job in this regard, as our many PCA churches that I know of.

IV. Missionaries need to see themselves as servants of the churches.

• 25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there.
• 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
• 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
• 28 So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.
  (Romans 15:25-28)

If God has called you to be a missionary, you need to be sent by a church, or be a group of churches. You need to go, not just in your own name, but in the name of the churches who send you. They are sharing in your work. So, missionaries must see themselves as servants of the churches. This is how Paul's first missionary journey began...

• 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.
  (Acts 13:1-3)

V. Missionaries need faith in God's Providence.

Romans 15:24 and 28 "I plan to do so when I go to Spain....I will go to Spain and visit you on the way."

Paul wanted to continue to go West. He wanted to go to Rome. And then he wanted to go even further, to Spain. That would have been as far West as he possibly could have gone. He probably felt called by God to continue West. But he MAY never have gotten to Spain (but maybe he eventually did.) Paul was eventually taken to Rome, not as he had planned, but as a prisoner. He had been arrested in Jerusalem, after returning there with the financial gift for the poor Christians there. He was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years. Then when it appeared to him that he might be tried in Jerusalem, he appealed to Caesar, and Festus sent him to Rome. In Rome, Paul was again in prison for two more years, but had freedom to preach the Gospel.

• 30 ¶ For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
• 31 Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
  (Acts 28:30-31)

That's where Acts comes to an end. It is an abrupt end and we want to know more! We are not told anything about what happened to Paul, whether he appeared before Caesar, if he was acquitted or found guilty, and if he ever made it to Spain. Interestingly, some very early Christian authors wrote that Paul DID make it to Spain, and started churches there:

Some early documents, such as the letter written by Clement of Rome to the church in Corinth in 69 A.D. indicate that Paul did in fact reach Spain. In his letter, Clement states that "Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being thrown into jail seven times, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the East and West, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the West, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects." The expression "extreme limit of the west" was commonly understood to be Hispania or what is now the kingdom of Spain.

Cyril of Jerusalem (fourth century) wrote, " --one, who from Jerusalem, and even unto Ilyricum, fully preached the Gospel, and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and performing Signs and wonders."

None of us, missionaries especially, know how we will eventually end up. Many of us remember the dedicated missionaries to the Auca indians, who were violently murdered by the people they went to help. Sometimes that happens. Was God taken by surprise? No. Were they truly called to their work there? Yes, as far as WE know. But God in His Providence allowed them to be killed.

We all know of our Arab world missionaries: Omar and Mervat Nuwayhid. They had a wonderful ministry in Jordan. Now their little boy has leukemia and Omar is getting progressively worse with ALS. Why has God allowed these things to happen? We do not know. Missionaries, like all of us, need to learn to trust in the Providence of God, even when it seems that everything is turning to disaster.

VI. Missionaries need prayer support.

• 30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
• 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,
  (Romans 15:30-31)

It's easy. Come to our bi-weekly missions prayer meeting. Get a missionary prayer card, and stick it to your medicine chest, or to your refridgerator, and pray for your missionary when you see it. Do it! It's the right thing to do!

VII. Missionaries need friends and fellowship.

Romans 15:32 "...so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed."

One of the special difficulties of being a missionary is that you are far away from home and from friends and fellow believers. And when we are out there by ourselves, hanging in the wind, it is easy for our faith to grow dim. In our time of laptop computers, the internet and email, it is much easier to keep in touch. But never forget: our missionaries need us!

Conclusion: Here then are seven things every missionary needs.

• I. Missionaries need ambition.
• II. Missionaries need to focus on the Gospel and Bible teaching.
• III. Missionaries need financial support.
• IV. Missionaries need to see themselves as servants of the churches.
• V. Missionaries need faith in God's Providence.
• VI. Missionaries need prayer support.
• VII. Missionaries need friends and fellowship.