Unknown Nations Podcast

  This is the Unknown Nations Podcast, where we'll be sharing about reaching the nation where Jesus is unknown. 

 Welcome to the Unknown Nations Podcast highlighting what God is doing in the most spiritually dark places in the world. Today we are going to be talking about a topic that goes back centuries about the one way missionaries. How do we tap into that spirit today? I can't wait.

There's going to be some fun stories we're going to be talking about, but at the end, we really need to ask ourselves, Lord, how do we tap into that? Not that necessarily we are going to go, but how do we capture the spirit of the one way missionaries so that all the nations on the Earth can have a gospel witness?

My name is Greg Kelley, with Unknown Nations where we have the honor to serve God by helping reach the most zero access barrier ridden spiritually antagonistic spoken word reliant people groups on the planet giving birth to the church in impossible places. And to have that kind of an attitude giving birth to the church in impossible places, it requires a certain mentality. It requires something that we even see at the very origin, uh, the first church, which of course is captured in the Acts of the Apostles, when we see the church  persecuted in Jerusalem, and it's scattered and it found itself in Judea and Samaria being led by a bunch of ragtag individuals, former, uh, people who were carpenters and people who were waiters and people who were kind of mismatched people who didn't have training or they weren't equipped for it, but they were led by the spirit of God and they facilitated the first generation of Christianity as they were scattered out.

And one of those particular leaders was a guy by the name of Stephen. He, Stephen was really the first martyr. He was the first person who said yes to Jesus. And because he said yes to Jesus, he was killed because of that. There, see, there's something that is going on inside of the person who even in the face of death says yes to Jesus.

And that's what Stephen can show us that determination,  irregardless of what you're facing, irregardless of the consequences of saying yes to Jesus. You will never deny your faith in Jesus Christ. And for that he gave his life. And there's so many examples throughout history that we can look at that were people who have been burned at the cross, people who have been thrown in prison, people who have lost their family.

I can remember one of our first stories that we've got out of a people group called the Fulani, there was a missionary. So this, this is a brother  who came to know Christ from the Fulani people, which is considered one of the most aggressive muslim people groups, not just in Africa, but in the whole world. And this guy had a radical transformation and gave his life to Jesus and when he did, when the village chief, where he was at, and the, and the village chief among the Fulani is considered the the judge, jury and executioner all in, all in a single person.

And when he found out that this Fulani man had converted, that is just totally unacceptable. And this guy, uh, confronted him, our friend who came to know Christ. And he said, you are not a Christian. You are a Muslim. And he said, he said, I am, I am a follower of Jesus. And he, he took away everything from him.

This guy has that kind of authority. He took away all of his cows, which of Fulani, that's, that's what they're known for. The Fulani, they own cows and many of them. And they took all of his cows away. He said, I'm still a follower of Jesus. They took away his wife. They gave his wife to another man. They killed one of his children, all of these things.

And none of them, uh, discouraged him, f from perspective of denying his faith. They threw him in prison. So here this man is who's lost basically everything, they've thrown him in jail. And his wife who had been given to another man, visits him in jail and says, she's pleading with him, and begging him, "just say you'll deny Christ, or whatever this you've done, come back, you can have me again, and we can live our lives." And he, he testified that Jesus had changed him, genuinely deep within him, and it was such a powerful encounter he had that she gave her life to christ.

These people became missionaries. There's something going on inside of that life that has been utterly transformed, that even in the face of death, you will say yes to Jesus.  I think of for all of us we can trace our missions, if you will, origin back to a group called the Moravians in 1727.

There was a group of people who themselves had been persecuted for being followers of Jesus, the Moravians. And now we're, we're in the country of Germany and they gather together as they're surrounded by their oppressors and they gather together to pray. And there was 48 people, 24 men, 24 women. They gathered together and they said, "let's pray."

And they said, "let's pray for 24 hours. Hour at a time, this person for an hour, that person for an hour." And they said during that prayer is very interesting. The testimony, when you look at the journals of those encounters back in August of 1727, said the prayer sensitized them to the unheard idea  of taking the gospel to people who had never heard of Jesus. Cross cultural missions had not even ever happened.

It was an unheard of concept at that point in time, and it was because of the Moravians, and because of prayer that this this captured their heart that they said we will take the gospel anywhere. And now, the whole the reason that the one way missionary is a term, in and of itself, is because it actually referred to the people in that era,  and the the Moravians were the ones who sent out really the first one way missionaries. And the idea is that you're going someplace and you're probably not coming back.

You're a cross cultural missionary. In fact, they had a very specific suitcase. It was called a casket. They packed all their stuff in caskets, and they would go to their destination to share the love of Jesus Christ, knowing that if they lived three years, five years, it would probably be generous, because they were going to be dying and they would permanently be inside of that casket.

That's why they were called one way missionaries. So we'll six months into this prayer meeting back to our friends, the Moravians, uh, the challenge was given.  We need to send from this body of 48 people a commitment,  to taking the gospel to the nations. 26 people stood up and they said, "we want to be volunteers to take the gospel."

It may have been down the street. It may have been around the corner, but it was taking the gospel beyond their own gathering, even to the ends of the Earth. And they were called to an area called the West Indies, which would be today U.S. Virgin Islands, okay? So there were slaves there and that's what they had heard about,  they had been impacted by this notion that there were slaves being put on boats and shipped down to the West Indies. And these people had never heard of Jesus.

All these slaves, by the thousands were gathering in these islands. And the Moravians had heard about that, and they said, "well, we, we want to go." That, I mean, can you imagine, like you, you get challenged to, to go to a place that had never heard of Jesus and you can't think of a more difficult place;  Islands that are thousands of miles away, filled with slaves of languages you don't speak, and yet, that is where god led them to. And what happened in that when that plea came out?

There was two young men, in the prime of their life, in their early 20s, who said, "we will go." Realizing they would become one way missionaries, probably never seeing their family again, their mother, father, friends, family, all understood that. And they, they were actually saddened by that idea. I mean, yeah, that's exciting.

But I think part of this whole idea of the one way missionaries is the ability to count the cost, count the cost. What's it going to take to get the gospel into a place that it's never been. And what happened as the story unfolds, as these two young men got on a boat. And they went to the West Indies. As they were leaving, they could hear in the distance, these two young men yelling out: "May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering. May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering." 

And that became the battle cry for the Moravians that launched the modern day missions movement that impacted William Carey, that impacted John Wesley, that impacted heroes of the faith, including you and I. Our origins really can be traced back  to that gathering, and I think of another person, again, this is around the twen- the turn of the 20th century. Uh, an individual who heard this idea that,  the gospel had never been to a certain place.

Now, this, this man was named A. W. Milne, and he had heard of a group of people in the new hybrids, which this is an area just to the east of Australia. Again, islands, and he knew two things about this area. He was a one way missionary; he knew he was going on a one way trip. That's what he was committed to because they had never heard of Jesus.

And these are the two things he knew : they said, "well, the people there, the locals are cannibals." So, he had that piece of information. The second piece of information he had is, "and every missionary that's attempted to go there, was killed." 

With those two pieces of information, he packed his casket. And off he went there. Why? Because he was motivated by this idea, they didn't have the opportunity to ever hear of Jesus. 35 years later, 35 years later, they put on his casket the words: "When he came, there was no light. When he left, there was no darkness." 

Friend, that is the opportunity for a life on point, that's tied into the power of the holy spirit can have even to this day today.  I want to share a few scriptures with you, here in closing, as we're looking at this because how do we tap into that spirit of the one way missionary today?

And there's a few things that the, that the lord put on my heart to share with you. The first thing is just this recognition that my life is temporary . This vessel right here is just temporal. There's nothing permanent about what I've got going on, and if in James chapter 4:14, it says, "How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while and then it's gone." 

Well, I can attest to that. And I think you can attest to that. It is just temporary. What God does with us is His business. If we kind of have that idea that, Lord,  today is yours, tomorrow is yours, and everything in between is yours, use it for your glory.

And Psalms 39:4-5, it says: "The Lord remind me how brief my time on Earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered. How fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you. At best, each of us is but a breath." 

How powerful is that? Such truth that's, that's packed into there. One of my dear friends, he has a ministry that's called Eternity Ministries, and I, and I think that name is so powerful because it's the idea of it's all about eternity, everything that we do. We should look at it from a standpoint of this temporary life ultimately impacting eternity.

The second thing that I would point out to you: "How do, again, how do we tap into that, that spirit of the one way missionary today?" is "Where are we storing up our treasures?" 

Well, in Matthew 6:19-21, it tells us where we're storing up our treasures. Cause if you're, if you're focused on your stuff here, you're going to miss it.

 But if you're storing up your treasures  someplace else, it's a whole different matter. So, it says, "Don't store up treasures here on Earth where moth eat them and rust destroys them and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven." 

Verse 20: "...where moths and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal."

What are you investing in?  How, how are we acknowledging the idea, there's only three things that will last for eternity. Only three things:  it's the word of God, it's you, and the people you influence. Those are the only three things that are going to last for eternity. So, it just makes sense that we would invest ourselves in them. The next thing I would say is, "again, "how do we tap into that spirit of the one way missionary?" is to recognize what Jesus priority was."

And we can find that very simply by saying, "well, what's the last thing he said?" You know about the book we wrote called "Last 4 Words". If you haven't gotten a copy, look into that, read that book. That will inspire you because the last thing Jesus said is found in Acts 1:8, when he said, "When you receive the Holy Spirit and power, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and [last four words] ends of the Earth." 

That's Jesus' priority. That the gospel would go to all the nations so those are the things that we need to capture in our spirits. This idea of my life is temporary. This idea that i'm storing up my treasures in heaven and there's only three things that are going to last for all of the ages: the word of God, me, and you and the people that I influence.

And finally, that I recognize the priority of Jesus' last words. I'm convinced the one way missionaries understood that. I'm convinced they led their, led their life on point,  around those things. And I'm convinced that you can do it today. You might not pack your stuff in a coffin, and travel around the world, but God can use you just like he did these precious one way missionaries.

Well, thanks for joining us today on the Unknown Nations Podcast. This is our website at unknownnations.com to learn more about how you can get involved. Subscribe, follow, and join us on this incredible journey of faith, hope, and transformation. Join us in making Jesus known at the ends of the Earth. The impact you can have is immeasurable, and together we can see God's kingdom expand into the darkest corners of the world.

God bless you.