Principles of Strategy and Methodology, Part 1

Driving home: And I say to her willingness to learn Arabic, both classic and popular Arabic, and to labor as a woman in a Muslim context, and in the Middle East, I say bless God for such devotion to Jesus Christ.

Martin uses a contemporary publication from a Reformed missionary society that labels a midwife going to the Middle East to practice her profession as a 'missionary' to illustrate a flawed, unbiblical methodology that confuses the definition of a missionary.

What strategy and methods should we adopt in seeking to pursue the task of missions in accordance with the previously established principles. The first six categories were basically the setting forth of unambiguousou etwasенты. of principles and policies of missionary endeavor. Now our concern is, what is a biblical methodology and strategy for carrying out the work of missions consistent with those principles and policies? For example, one thing we could not do, and I will cover the masthead of this publication, but it's a publication of people who are committed to the same confessional stand...

3:57 - 5:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon identifies prejudice (e.g., Peter's struggle with Gentiles) and practical logistical hindrances (e.g., Paul's imprisonments, language barriers) as significant obstacles…

The story of Peter's vision and his interaction with Cornelius, and later his hypocrisy in Galatians, is used as an example of how prejudice hindered the early church's universal mission.

Now, can you think of any instances in Scripture where those things were a hindrance to the church initially penetrating all cultures and all peoples in the midst of great obstacles? Can you think of prejudice and how it operated, and in whom it was operating to hinder the spread of the gospel? Bill? I think it's Bill there.

21:16 - 21:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon identifies prejudice (e.g., Peter's struggle with Gentiles) and practical logistical hindrances (e.g., Paul's imprisonments, language barriers) as significant obstacles…

Paul's experiences with jails, shipwrecks, and Satan hindering his travel are cited as examples of practical logistical obstacles faced by early missionaries.

How about, all right, yes, Doug? All right, he tells them that many times he had longed to come to them, but up until now, he had been hindered in the fulfillment of that desire. And in another place he says, Satan hindered us. How about jails and shipwrecks?

24:09 - 24:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon identifies prejudice (e.g., Peter's struggle with Gentiles) and practical logistical hindrances (e.g., Paul's imprisonments, language barriers) as significant obstacles…

Martin contrasts Paul's ease of travel as a Roman citizen with modern missionaries' need for visas and passports to highlight changing logistical challenges.

I mean, there are some obstacles in the way of Paul accomplishing his worldwide missionary vision. Now, he had certain hindrances logistically that we don't have today, but we have some that he didn't have. As a Roman citizen, he could go anywhere in the world without having to have the approval of the existing government, without having a visa, a passport, and all the rest. All he'd have to do is demonstrate his Roman citizenship, and he was in.

24:48 - 25:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon identifies prejudice (e.g., Peter's struggle with Gentiles) and practical logistical hindrances (e.g., Paul's imprisonments, language barriers) as significant obstacles…

He uses the example of learning Tagalog, with its difficult 'vocables' like trying to 'wrap your tongue around your molars,' to illustrate the challenge of linguistic diversity as a barrier to missions.

He didn't have to struggle with a language made up of an entirely new set of vocables. And what was it that you were first told, Steve, when you were beginning to learn Tagalog, that certain words were like what? I remember it was a very vivid image. You can't remember it.

25:20 - 25:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your heart if you ever develop a narrow spirit or weariness towards missions, as it may indicate a lack of understanding of God's saving grace.

The historical example of the Jewish nation receiving God's curse for forgetting their role as a light to the Gentiles and becoming self-centered is used to warn against a narrow, un-missionary spirit in the church.

If that ever begins to be your attitude, you better ask whether or not you really know the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. Because that is the attitude that brought the curse of God upon the Jewish nation. They forgot that they were favored in order to be used of God as a light to the Gentiles. And when they began to think that being favored, they were God's favorites, to heap up His blessing, God's curse came upon them.

29:55 - 30:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your heart if you ever develop a narrow spirit or weariness towards missions, as it may indicate a lack of understanding of God's saving grace.

Martin reminds the congregation that their own forefathers were pagans only a few centuries ago, emphasizing that someone paid the price to bring the gospel, underscoring the debt owed to others.

And though at any given point, through weariness, through backsliddenness, that might be our disposition for a brief period of time, if that ever begins to be the settled disposition of your heart, I wonder if you really have taken your posture as a hell-deserving sinner, rescued by sovereign grace, because in the case of most of us in this room, there is a trail of people who had this vision to take the gospel to the ends of the earth at any cost. Remember, it's only a few centuries ago that your forefathers and mine were pagans to the core. And somebody was willing to pay the price to bring ...

30:32 - 31:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Shifting focus, Martin poses the question: what factors guided God's servants to their specific spheres of labor, assuming a general worldwide vision? He introduces the study of…

He uses the analogy of throwing rocks on a map to decide where to go to illustrate an unbiblical, haphazard approach to missionary strategy, contrasting it with the principles found in Scripture.

Assuming we have that general concern for the nations, here's the question. In actually taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, what factors were operative in guiding the servants of God to their specific spheres of labor? Did they make a rough map of the world as they understood it at that time? Take a handful of rocks and throw them up with the prayer, Lord, wherever they land, that's where we're going to go?

32:22 - 32:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin reads through Acts 13, tracing Paul's first missionary journey from Antioch to Cyprus, Perga, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, asking the congregation to…

Martin mentions using a white coat hanger as a makeshift pointer for the map, a small anecdote that adds a touch of personal detail and resourcefulness to the teaching moment.

It is the studied judgment of most careful Bible students that the apostle Paul engaged in three major missionary journeys, and this first missionary journey has some helpful principles or some texts from which we can extract some helpful principles. Follow now as I read these passages and see if you can see in them some of the principles by which the apostle and his companions were guided as to the specific sphere of their labor. Acts chapter 13, verses 4 through 6a. Can you all see the map now? And I made a makeshift pointer of a white coat hanger. That's what I was doing back there when you...

33:34 - 34:42 Read in full sermon