INTRODUCTION

Significant amounts of time, sweat, thought, finances, and patient work has been and continues to be expended by many Protestant and evangelical churches in foreign missions. Much effort is devoted, for example, to the area of Bible translations throughout the world into many languages that still do not have faithful translations. Along with that, much work is done to bring the Word to those who have not heard the gospel in their recent generations and who dwell in the bondage of idolatry, a cult, the occult, or a world religion.

What is of concern in this article are the motives behind much foreign mission effort. In contrast to some common motives in foreign missions, what does our Lord of the harvest teach as proper motives that guide faithful missions in His service for the gathering of His church?

SOME COMMON MOTIVES

There are several common motives that one can observe in the writings of and interviews with foreign missionaries or those involved more broadly in the support of foreign missions.

One motive among some is that churches and individual Christians must reach out to as many of the unconverted and unbelieving as possible before it is too late. This motive is molded by a pre-millennial view that Jesus Christ will return at any moment, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. Before Jesus returns at any moment, the church needs to get the Scriptures and the preaching of the gospel to as many unchurched people as possible so that they have the chance to repent and to believe the promise of the gospel in Jesus Christ. The church must do that because once Jesus returns, it would then be too late for anymore to have the chance to be saved. According to this view, the church must be motivated to labor fervently to her utmost to get as many unconverted exposed to the gospel and converted as soon as possible.

Second, another motive is based on the heresy that God loves everyone. It is argued that because God loves everyone, the church to her utmost must bring that gospel to as many as possible. Everyone whom God loves must hear that message of His universal love. Missionaries must show that God loves everyone and wants to save as many as want to accept His love and so be saved. Filled with a zeal for a universal and common love of God, many expend great effort among the objects of foreign missions.

Third, another motive is based upon the heresy that Jesus died for everyone. Similar to the previous error, many proclaim that either Jesus did die for everyone to make salvation possible for everyone or that Jesus did die for everyone who hears the gospel and makes that salvation possible by His atonement for everyone who hears the gospel. Since Jesus died for everyone who hears the gospel, the church must then preach that gospel to as many people as possible in order to make salvation in Jesus Christ possible for them. Filled with a zeal for a general atonement of Jesus Christ and a “well-meant offer” of the gospel, many proclaim the gospel in the hope that as many as possible will “accept” the well-meant offer of salvation.

Fourth, another motive is that missions should improve the social and earthly situation of the unconverted. Beyond the work of legitimate and wise benevolence, this motive aims at an improvement in the level of the poor or socially oppressed to a higher or different standard of living than what they, in God’s providence, have been accustomed to living. Accordingly, the church is supposed to be motivated not only to preach the gospel, but also to include in her official work the construction and operation of day schools, vocational schools, church buildings, medical clinics, hospitals, and orphanages.

Finally, there is another motive based on the idea that true Christianity will eventually triumph among the nations of the earth. While one Anglican missionary admitted that the Christianity that will dominate the world will have a significant number of nominal, unbelieving Christians, yet society will be in all marketplaces of life, including religion, Christian. It is evident from histories of Protestant mission work throughout pagan nations and tribes that many foreign missionaries were motivated in their arduous work by this expectation of a grand victory and earthly triumph of the gospel in a golden, millennial age of Christianity. Still today, Protestant and Reformed foreign missions are motivated by this post-millennial view that, through progressive conquest of a multi-pronged, foreign mission work, true Christianity will become the dominant, universal religion for 1,000 years before the final appearing of Christ.

THE MOTIVES OF JOHN 10:16

In contrast to the aforementioned motives, our Lord gives the proper motives for foreign missions in John 10:16: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

First, in developing a proper motive for foreign missions, Jesus sets before us the “must” of God’s counsel. He does this when He Himself explains that the gathering of His sheep is the work that is necessary for Him to do. The necessity for His work of bringing in the sheep is not an attempt to save as many as possible before it is too late, but the eternal good pleasure of God in election. In election, the Father chose in Christ all of the sheep and gave them to Him by name. All of those sheep, whom God has ordained to eternal life, Christ will bring in, and He will not lose even one. What continues to move Christ to gather His sheep is, not to get as many as possible before it is too late, but to gather unto Himself exactly as many as the Lord has determined and to leave without excuse unto their condemnation those who were never His sheep. To that “must” foreign missions must conform its motives.

Second, what moves Jesus to gather His sheep, and what moves us to be tools in His hand to gather His sheep unto Him, is His love. This love Jesus expresses in His words: “other sheep I have.” This “having” does not mean that Jesus loosely is associated with some sheep whom He vaguely knows, but this “having” is an expression of His love whereby He has known His elect from eternity by name. Their names are written upon and in Him. These He has in perfect knowledge and love, while the rest of mankind He does not have, but curses, and will soon judge them for their wickedness and unbelief unto their eternal condemnation. Jesus gathers His elect sheep out of the nations of the earth and out of their sin and darkness unto Himself. From this perspective, the church must be motivated by that sovereignly particular and omnipotently conquering love of Christ for His specific sheep and proclaim fervently and vigorously that love of Christ for His sheep. Let this understanding of the particular and efficacious love of Christ move foreign missions unto persistent and confident labor in the service of Christ, who will thereby, throughout the New Testament, find and rescue all of His sheep, losing in the process not even one.

Third, regarding these sheep, both those whom Jesus had gathered in Old Testament history from mostly the nation of Israel, and the “other sheep” whom Jesus would gather from the nations of the earth after Pentecost, He said, “…and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). His death on the cross, in which He laid down His life as a complete and all-sufficient atonement, was not intended for everyone, but was intended for and fully accomplished the redemption of His sheep and them alone. When Jesus laid down His life, He did so in the confidence that all those “other sheep” for whom He died must be saved and surely will be saved. This definite atonement of Jesus Christ is the proper and sure motivation for the foreign missionary to proclaim the gospel and issue the call to repent and believe. His confidence in his labors is that Christ did not shed His blood in vain, but each one for whom He shed His blood will be saved and they will be gathered unto Him in His good time.

Fourth, Jesus addresses what will gather His other sheep among the nations of the earth. What sure power and tool motivates the true church of Jesus Christ to labor in the service of Christ to preach His Word in foreign missions? What will motivate the church to go forth in the confidence that it will surely work and serve the Lord’s purpose? Jesus answers these concerns when He said, “…and they shall hear my voice” (John 10:16). Hence, the tool for us today is not continuing miracles and special revelation, as the Pentecostals teach, nor movies of Jesus and Scripture. What gathers the sheep is the voice of Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel by the inner working of the Holy Spirit who opens the hearts of His sheep so that, as they have been ordained to eternal life, they might believe in the Lord. Motivated by that truth of the powerful voice of Jesus Christ, the missionary must preach the Word of God patiently in true hope.

Finally, in contrast to a post-millennial view of the future, Jesus teaches that He will gather His sheep into one fold under Himself, the one Shepherd. The Lord does this in the earth when He gathers believers and their seed unto Himself in true faith in local congregations and denominations that uphold the three marks of a true church and faithfully exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Nevertheless, it becomes evident through history that Jesus gathers from the nations of the earth only a remnant so that His flock appears in this life always as a “little flock” (Luke 12:32). The smallness of His flock appeared at the very time Jesus taught the truth of the Good Shepherd in John 10. Then, the majority around Him were not His sheep, but only a small minority were His sheep. That smallness of His flock will continue, as God intends, until His final appearing. This motivates foreign missionaries not to give up, faint, or be dismayed when discovering that true Christianity according to the Reformed confessions is marginalized, despised, and rejected. Instead, it should move them to labor in the wise reality that the flock of Christ is gathered through tribulation (Acts 14:22) by which the true flock’s place in this world remains narrow and small. In fact, it will continue to become narrower for future generations until the anti-Christian kingdom vehemently persecutes the faithful flock of Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

Let foreign missions then resist the temptations of false motives that corrupt the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and its faithful proclamation. Instead, let us serve the Great Shepherd of the sheep according to His doctrine and be motivated by what He has done, is doing wondrously by His Word and Spirit, and must yet bring to pass shortly according to the Father’s will for the final gathering of His sheep and lambs unto Himself in eternal glory.