Gather 25 Conference Message

In the few minutes I have, I want to share two realities that call for one response. So we’re just going to dive right in. Two realities.

1. We Live in a Day of Urgent Need

Number one, we live in a day of urgent need. Over 3 billion people today are still unreached by the gospel. And just to make sure we’re using the same definition for that term, unreached doesn’t just mean lost; doesn’t just mean apart from God in sin. Unreached means lost and you’ve never heard the good news of how you can be saved from your sin, and you likely don’t have a Christian around you or a church near you who can share that good news with you.

So sometimes people say, “Well, I don’t know why we talk about unreached people around the world. I mean, there’s unreached people in my office.” Or “There’s unreached people in my neighborhood.” But those people are not unreached. You say, “How do you know?” Well, because they’re in your office or yourneighborhood—they have access to the gospel. Right?

We’re talking about people who, practically, today are being born and living and dying and going to eternal judgment for sin without ever even hearing the good news of how Jesus came to save them from sin. Over 3 billion people [are] unreached, which means, so follow this, there are more unreached people today than ever before in history. The world population is exponentially expanding, including among unreached people groups. That means what’s happening on our watch today is more people being born, living, and dying without ever even hearing the gospel than ever before in history. We’re living in a day of urgent need.

2. We Live in a Day of Unprecedented Opportunity

Second reality: We live in a day of unprecedented opportunity, meaning we have more opportunities to reach people with the gospel today than ever before in history. The church in the New Testament never could have imagined the opportunities that are available to you and me. How long would it take Paul to travel from one city to the next by foot or by boat? And it didn’t always work out very well.

To think that just a couple of days ago, I was with my wife and our six kids in Metro Washington, D.C., and then a machine picked me up, transported me through the air, set me down on literally the other side of the world—in about 24 hours with snacks along the way. Paul never could have fathomed this. He would have loved Singapore Airlines. 

Or just think how long it took Paul to write a letter, and it taking weeks and months, then, to get it sent to different people in different cities … and weeks and months to get a reply back. He never could have fathomed being able to communicate around the world in real time in multiple languages through a device we carry around in our pockets. This is amazing travel technology.

The globalization of today’s marketplace. I just spent the last couple of days with leaders in tech and business and investing and entrepreneurs in Singapore who have opportunities to go to the nations through their work. Do we realize God has designed the globalization of today’s marketplace for the spread of his glory among the nations? He has the whole thing rigged: the globalization of the marketplace, the migration of peoples, the movement of peoples to different places here in Malaysia—so many different people groups represented. The Uber I took right before I flew over here was with a man from Pakistan who had never heard the gospel until we were in an Uber together. God has brought people from the nations to us.

What a unique day we live in when it comes to the urbanization of the world. Early 1800s, 3% of the world lived in cities. Today that’s more than 50%, and most estimates are that by 2050, over 70% of the world will live in cities. God is bringing the peoples to the cities to be reached with the gospel. You put all of that together … you realize … and on top of the collaboration opportunities we have in the global church, exemplified by what’s happening right now with brothers and sisters gathered together around the world—seeking God together in worship and prayer, hearing from the Word together— we have more opportunities to spread the gospel to the nations than ever before in history. This is Esther, like “for such a time as this” … what a time that you and I get to be alive with the greatest news in the world!

But something has to change for far too long.Traditional methods for making Jesus known in the world have been woefully inadequate. Traditional missionary sending has relegated the task of spreading the gospel among all the nations to a select group of missionaries and mission organizations. But just look at the data as one example. Almost 50 years ago at the initial Lausanne Congress, there’s a man named Ralph Winter who highlighted the reality of unreached people—talked about unreached people groups; called mission organizations to focus on unreached people groups. And in the 50 years since then, mission organizations have talked about unreached people, researched unreached people, held conferences on unreached people, turned entire mission organizations upside down to focus on sending missionaries to unreached people. And 50 years later, there are more unreached people in the world than when that started.

Why? Well, it’s not because all of those things were bad. All those things were really good. The problem is, while all of those things were happening, the majority of Christians have still been sitting on the sidelines expecting missionaries and mission organizations to do what we are all made to do. Spreading God’s glory among all the nations is not a program for a few people. Spreading God’s glory among all the nations is the purpose for which we have breath. With over 3 billion unreached people in the world, we don’t just need a few hundred, or even a few thousand, more missionaries living to reach them. We need hundreds of thousands and millions upon millions of Christians living to reach them. This is the need in our day. Millions of men and women in whom the Spirit of Jesus dwells living and working and leveraging travel technology, urbanization of the world, globalization of the marketplace, migration of peoples, accumulation of wealth, collaboration of the global church altogether for the spread of the gospel to every single person in the world. Which leads to the response.

The Response

So how is Jesus calling us to respond to this urgent need with this unprecedented opportunity today? The same way he responded when he saw the need in his day. It’s where Mark began us with this time in Asia—in Matthew 9—it’s been mentioned already and gathered in North America. Matthew 9:37–38: “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore [do what?] pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Here is the response to urgent need and unprecedented opportunity in our day, as the church. We must be desperate for Spirit-given power and devoted to Spirit-led prayer. Jesus said, start here, Pray for the harvest field … then go. Then he said the exact same thing in Acts 1, after rising from the dead, he gathered his disciples … told them, You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Now I’m guessing that verse is familiar to many of us. A good friend of mine named Vance helped shed light on this scene for me. So just imagine it: Jesus has gathered with his disciples on this mountain outside Jerusalem. They’re still overwhelmed that Jesus died and is now alive again, risen from the grave. They’re pretty excited. And Jesus says, All right guys, here’s the plan. He says, We’re going to go start back in Jerusalem. But think about that. What just happened in Jerusalem? They just killed Jesus there. If you’re a follower of Jesus, the last place you want to go is back to Jerusalem right now. They hate you there. So Jesus says, That’s where we’re going to start—where they hate you.

But then, that’s not where we’re going to stop. He says, We’re going to go from there to Judea and Samaria, and as soon as they hear that, put yourself in these disciples’ shoes, because Jewish people hated the Samaritans. So Jesus just said, Alright guys, here’s the plan: We’re going to start where they hate you, and then we’re going to go where you hate them. And then we’re not going to stop there. Then, next, we’re going to go to places in the world you don’t even know exist— the ends of the earth—places you don’t even know how to get to. So Jesus says, We’re going to start where they hate you; we’re going to go where you hate them; then head to places you don’t know how to get to. 

And then as soon as he says this, all of a sudden, he starts floating up to heaven … and not levitation a few inches off the ground … we’re talking a flight up to the sky. A cloud totally takes him out of their sight, and these guys have no idea what to do at this point. They’re all owned. So they look up into heaven, and the whole scene plays out as, all of a sudden, a guy is standing next to him, next to them, and they jump back and say, Who are you? And they say, This Jesus who went up to heaven is telling you to go and do what he told you to do. And what did he tell him to do? He told them to go back into Jerusalem and do what? And pray. 

And that’s exactly what Acts 1:14 tells us. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer …” Notice it does not say, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to strategizing … All these with one accord were devoting themselves to whiteboarding a plan.” Don’t miss it: By this time, it’s 120 disciples. They knew that what Jesus had told them to do was so big [that] there was no chance they could do it on their own. They were common, uneducated, ordinary men and women who had just been given a charge to change the world, and they knew they needed the power of God, which then led them to Acts 2. 

So imagine this scene. Imagine like you’ve never heard it before. Imagine it was happening in this room, or wherever you’re gathered right now. “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”

So let’s just picture that … and what does that sound like? So it’s not an actual wind, like blowing through your hair, it’s just the sound of a mighty rushing wind. Let’s do this on the count of three: Let’s make whatever sound you think that is, okay? That’s what we’re going to do. Wait, wait … on the count of three. You’re so eager. Okay, here we go … you ready? Alright, 1, 2, 3.

All right. I don’t know if that’s what it sounds like. Sounds kind of eerie. And we got some owls over here. I don’t know what’s going on. So anyway, okay, so you’ve got the sound. Like, all of a sudden, just imagine this happening in this room … this sound of a mighty rushing wind, like massive wind. And then verse 3 says, “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” What does that mean? Like a tongue as of fire. What does a fire-tongue look like … resting …? 

Look at the person next to you and picture a fire-tongue on top of them. What do you do? Fire tongues resting on each of them … “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” … Whoa! Wait a minute. All? Like, you think Old Testament … Did a lot of people have the Holy Spirit on them, or just a few people? Just a few people. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah … the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke. Now it’s totally different—it’s everybody. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, “and [they] began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

That word “tongues” there is” languages. Can you imagine that? I know AI is helping us out right now … what if we didn’t need AI? Just shout out loud. If you could speak one other language all of a sudden, what would you speak? What would you say? Just think of different languages. Imagine right now in this room, everybody’s speaking the wonders of God in different languages. Wherever you’re gathered, if we were all able just to speak the word of God in all these different languages. Now imagine this whole scene: mighty rushing wind, fire- tongues on each other, speaking the wonders of God in all these different languages; and then step back and realize the exact same Holy Spirit who did that on that day is the same Holy Spirit who’s living inside of you right now! That will knock you out of your seat if you really think about it. And that’s kind of the point. You have this Holy Spirit inside of you, not so that you can sit still and stay stagnant in a world of urgent need with unprecedented opportunity. You have this Holy Spirit inside of you to go to your neighborhoods and to the nations filled with Spirit-given power and devoted to Spirit-led prayer.

Spirit-Led Prayer and the Advance of the Gospel

This is the whole story of the church in Acts. You look … if we had time, we go through it … every major advance of the gospel in the book of Acts comes specifically in response to Spirit-led prayer. Every single time we see the gospel going forward, it’s a result of prayer. It’s the story of the church in Acts. It’s the story of the church in Asia. Just think about the Korean Peninsula. In 1900, Korean Peninsula, less than 1% Christian. Then 1907, Pyong Yang Revival, a small group of church leaders and missionaries comes together to pray. And as they’re gathered in these settings, just like we’re gathered right now, they start praying and confessing sin in a way nobody had planned. People start confessing their sins against each other, falling on their faces, weeping over their sin, lasted well into the night … like many people are experiencing right now. And then the marks of Korean revival were born earnest, passionate prayer, devotion to God’s Word and spreading the gospel in the world. They scattered from that place. 

People started praying every morning for two, three hours at a time. They’d get together on Friday night, pray late into the night, or all night into the next morning. And over the next 100 years, less than 1% Christian in 1900 … by 2000, over 10 million followers of Jesus in South Korea alone, not even counting our brothers and sisters in underground locations in North Korea. And not just 10 million Christians, but sending out missionaries around the world. Can you imagine that today? Picture a country that’s less than 1% Christian right now— picture Afghanistan. Can you imagine a hundred years from now, 10 million followers of Jesus in Afghanistan, and Afghans sending out missionaries all around the world? Do you believe God can do that?

Absolutely. God can do that. Our God can do that. And our God, our God will do that when his people pray. So let us lay aside prayerlessness and the pride that it shows. Prayerlessness is pride. If we’re not praying, it’s because we’re full of pride. It’s because we’ve convinced ourselves we can do it on our own. What if one of the greatest hindrances to the spread of the gospel in our day is not the self-indulgent immorality of the culture, but the self-sufficient mentality of the church? What happens when we fall on our faces and we plead for God to do what only God can do in our lives, in our families, and in the church, and among the nations? We will see God do what we see Him do all over the book of Acts. It will be the story of the church in Asia, the story of the church in North America, and everywhere in between.

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]