Impossible Mission

Dear missionary (and missionary candidate, missions pastor, missions support worker, and anybody who is involved in missions in any way, which should be every Christian),

Two things make missions impossible for us. Both the task before us and our ability to accomplish that task should greatly humble us. 

Our greatest objective in missions is impossible for us to fulfill. What we really want to see accomplished is beyond our capabilities. And we won’t be doing the work that God wants us to do until we recognize this one simple fact: we have been given an impossible mission. Thankfully, what is impossible with man is possible with God. Our prayers are the evidence that we understand this truth. Of all the things that we could be putting our efforts into, prayer is the most important thing, because in prayer we recognize that we need God. We cannot do this without him. We need his power.  

What are we hoping to see accomplished in the work of missions? Nothing short of the resurrection of the dead. We want to see hearts changed. And this is true both for the sending of missionaries and for the task of missionaries on the field. We cannot mobilize the church without the resurrection power of God to move in other’s hearts to compel them to take up their cross and follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. And when we get to the ends of the earth, again we are desperately in need of God’s resurrection power. We cannot change the hearts of those we evangelize through our powers of persuasion. We cannot attract them with any number of incentives.  

This is the second great impossibility: our weakness to do what needs to be done. Not only is the bar set impossibly high for what needs to be accomplished in missions, but our ability to succeed in our own strength is greatly overestimated at times. We are the weak, foolish, and ignoble of the world whom the Lord has called and made his own. The Apostle Paul reached this same conclusion in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 when he says, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” 

Paul is amazed at how the gospel both saves and judges. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and it “judges the secrets of men” in the final judgment (Romans 2:16). How humbling this is for us to consider what it means for Christians to have this kind of aromatic ministry. We are not sufficient to bring judgment or to confer everlasting life. There is only One who is worthy “to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9-10).

So, as we consider the task before us, let us remember how impossible it is for us to accomplish it. It can only be accomplished by our resurrected Lord and his Holy Spirit active in our lives. Let this realization drive us to the humble posture of bent knees and open hands. We are completely dependent on God to save and for God to use us should he so choose. He has promised that we will be his witnesses, that he will always be with us, and that he will use the word that we preach. Paul’s response to realizing his insufficiency was to double down on simply and clearly preaching the gospel and to avoid any man-made manipulative tactics. He says, “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

The humble missionary will rely on prayer and be devoted to the proclamation of God’s word. The words of Christ and the power of the Spirit make the mission of the Father guaranteed.