Why Should Churches Today Continue to Send Missionaries Outside Their Own Nation?

Why should churches today continue to send missionaries outside their own nation?

You know, as we look to the New Testament, one of the things we see is that the faithful church is a sending church and the faithful church is a going church. And put into the context of the world of the first century, it was incredibly revolutionary for Jewish Christians to leave the context of Israel and go elsewhere, and to go throughout the Mediterranean world which was the known world in terms of where they could go.

And yet you have in the New Testament, I think, a duality. We are citizens of an earthly kingdom, but we're ultimately citizens of a heavenly kingdom. And thus we have an obligation and a certain responsibility to earthly kingdoms, but we have a far greater responsibility to a heavenly kingdom. And as Augustine said in the 4th century, we're in an earthly city, but we're made for and are already residents of a heavenly city.

And it's a part of the responsibility of Christians to share the gospel, to take the gospel, to preach the gospel. Because that is the means whereby God calls sinners to salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's how Christians are made. That's how conversions take place. And there's been an assignment from the very beginning going back to Jesus that that means going— going where? Well, going unto all the nations, or going so that we make disciples of all the nations. And so there's a going outside your own nation, and you know the definition of nation has changed somewhat, but outside your own people group, outside your own ethnic comfort zone, to go take the gospel where otherwise it would not be heard, to plant churches where otherwise there would not be churches.

There is a domestic responsibility. There's a responsibility that Jesus makes very clear— if you live as a citizen of the Roman Empire, there's a certain responsibility that comes with that citizenship, I think unapologetically so. I also think that in a biblical theology there is a function for nations as operational collectives to which is owed a certain patriotism, a certain allegiance and loyalty. And so I think some of these things had to be hammered out with fear and trembling in every generation.

In our generation, I think one of the temptations is just to say we'll just minister right here, thank you, and some other church or some other denomination, some other group will take care of itself, or it's just not primary in terms of our responsibility. So I think there is a proper patriotism, loyalty, allegiance to what can only be described as our homeland. But Christians know, as the early church determined, we are citizens everywhere and nowhere in earthly kingdoms at the same time. But we are eternally citizens of a heavenly kingdom and that's our ultimate allegiance and that command is our ultimate command.

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