0140. Antioch Was a Church That Was Endowed with the Missionary Spirit
Antioch Was a Church That Was Endowed with the Missionary Spirit
"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
"And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away" (Act_13:2-3).
1. The Church at Antioch stirs our hearts toward giving some of our best men to other fields and service.
How many there are who want to keep their pastors forever at home. They know nothing of that yearning that must come to every true man of God, "That I might preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you."
How many there are who are willing to give their money to some far off Gospel call, but are unwilling to give their children or themselves. We pray the Lord of the harvest, that He will thrust forth laborers into His harvest, but when He wants to thrust forth some of our very own, we hesitate and draw back from the sacrifice.
Illustration: Dr. Torrey said, on one occasion, that he was seeking complete victory in his own soul, about the going of his beloved son to the far away mission field. He was in the guest room at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Suddenly he happened to catch with his eye, a motto on the wall, which read, "God had but one Son, and He gave Him to be a missionary." Immediately Dr. Torrey fell on his face and yielded his son for China.
2. The Church at Antioch was interested in the souls of men beyond their own bounds. It is always true, that a soul-winning church, a church which is active in saving the lost at home, is always a missionary church, seeking to help the distant heathen to God.
A missionary church will always be a growing church; an anti-missionary church will be a dwindling church. This is true also in individual lives.
The Baptists split almost half and half early in the eighteen hundreds, on the question of missions. After one hundred years has gone, the Primitive Baptists number scarcely as many as they did in 1800, while the Missionary Baptists number into the millions.
God’s law is irrevocable–"Give, and it shall be given unto you", and again, "There is that withholdeth * * it tendeth to poverty".
God has given the command, "Go ye into all the world", and we must obey His voice.
Illustration: When James Gordon Bennett called Henry M. Stanley of Paris, he is reputed to have said, rather bluntly, "Find Livingstone." Stanley replied: "How much money do you place at my disposal?" The answer was, "Fifty thousand, or a larger sum, never mind the money–find Livingstone."
We have our orders to go and find the lost of every land. We must count no sacrifice too great, no cost too large, our business is to find the lost and bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the excavations of Pompeii, there was discovered a crippled boy, evidently of the lower class, with the jeweled arm of a woman around him. We must put our arm around the lost and the dying, if by any means we may save some.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR