Beginning at Home

Tonight (October 26) I will bring a message with this title in a missions conference meeting. Following is a brief summation of the message.

The Gospel must be taken home. In Luke 16:27b the rich man in hell cried out for someone to go and warn his brothers of their impending doom. In spite of his personal anguish in hell-fire, this lost soul's concern that others not join him is notable. Though he had every reason to be self-absorbed, he was more evangelistically-minded than many believers today. Think of his indescribable torment as the literal flames of hell engulfed his entire body! Further, his torment was inescapable. From that day to this that rich man has never had one moment's relief from hell's misery! His suffering is also inexcusable. He didn't have to go to hell! Any soul that arrives in hell does so in spite of the warnings contained in Scripture. Isaiah 66:24 describes hell as a place where the souls of men will languish in eternal, conscious suffering. The fire will never go out! We must take the message home so that those we love will never face such a bleak eternity.

A second motivation to take the Gospel home may be found in our Savior's words to the former demoniac of Gadara recorded in Mark 5 verse 19: "Go home and tell thy friends." Our Lord commands us to take the message of salvation home. This delivered man heard his Savior say, "Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Psalm 66:16 declares, "Come and hear, ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." The new believer need not worry that he does not know enough verses in order to testify of his faith, nor should the more seasoned believer fear a lack of theological preparation. Each redeemed soul can and should declare the great things God has done in saving his soul. The Savior also encouraged him to tell how God had mercy on him. This destitute and abandoned man was now a child of God, accepted by the God of the universe as His own son. No longer was he naked, but clothed in Christ's own righteousness. No longer was he out of his mind, but in his right mind by the mercy of God.

The Gospel must also go beyond home to the great beyond. Acts 1:8 declares, "Ye shall be witnesses." That is not a suggestion, nor even a command; it is rather a statement of inevitable reality. Acts 2:32, 3:15, 5:32, and 10:39 reveal that the early believers became witnesses as a natural result of God's supernatural grace changing their lives forever.

The sphere of that witness is found in the words "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." God's plan was that believers saturate their home area and then move progressively outward, declaring the Gospel in every place. In Acts 8:1 persecution effected the moving of the Gospel outward, and the early believers faithfully declared the Gospel everywhere (Acts 8:4). The final step of that outward expansion comes in Acts 13:1 when the Holy Spirit calls the first missionaries.

This is not to be an isolated series of events, but an oft-repeated pattern. As Paul went out, other churches were established to saturate their own area (1 Thess 1:6) which then expanded their influence over broader territories (1 Thess 1:7-8). Then other missionaries, such as Timothy and Titus, carried the Word even further afield.

I believe we have lost sight of this Biblical model. Modern evangelism suffers when our home area is not saturated with the Word. Have you become discouraged in God's service? Galatians 6:9 demands, "Be not weary in well doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not." We must each do our part or the home base will become so depleted that foreign missions will falter. Remember, "the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home." If foreign missions depended on your faithfulness here at home, how would missions fare?