The Role of Angels in Missions
This sermon addresses a much neglected topic related to angels — their critical role in the advancement of missions. In Revelation 14:6-7, we see angelic armies accompanying the ministry of the 144,000 missionaries, and in this message, Dr. Kayser shows several Scriptural examples of how God sent angels to prepare for humans to bring the gospel, how and why angels play a different role than humans in the bringing of the gospel, and how we can take advantage of the preparatory work of the angels in our own ministry.
Robert Wall says in his commentary on Revelation, "The function of angels throughout Revelation is to facilitate God’s redemptive program..."
This sermon, on the angel's "eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth" in Revelation 14:6-13, outlines several aspects of the gospel that the modern church tends to leave out entirely (which has tended to lead to many false conversions). Dr. Kayser demonstrates how these angels — and Jesus — preached on hell, the wrath of God, God's preparatory work of national judgment, and the Biblical mandate of perseverance. May each of you passionately warn people to flee from the wrath of God just as the army of 144,000 missionaries did in the first century.
Eleven Preconditions for Healthy Missions
Why do some missionaries fail? What makes for transformational missions? Why are so many missions man-centered? How can studying this first century group of missionaries benefit the modern missions movement? This sermon studies the description of the 144,000 missionaries in Revelation 14 and shows eleven things about these men that made them incredible tools for missions — eleven preconditions to healthy missions
The Sovereignty of God in Missions
The story of Lydia's conversion begins with months of seeming gospel setbacks, all directing Paul and his team to the city of Philippi. It continues with only three converts made in that city -- a foreign single mom, a slave girl, and a jailer. But in God's masterful directing of events, through those three three strategic converts Philippi would become one of the healthiest and strongest of the New Testament churches, which would help quickly lead to the entire continent of Europe becoming Christian, and through Europe, missions spreading to the rest of the world. As one missions speaker said, "As we look back, across the intervening twenty centuries, we can see that this is one of the most important events of all time. It changed the whole course of Western civilization. Perhaps no single event since the cross of Christ has so affected the world as Paul's seemingly unpretentious decision to cross a narrow neck of water." As we study the sovereignty of God in stories like these, we learn to be able to rejoice over setbacks such as Paul's team faced, knowing that God is always doing something great.
In Matthew 25, Jesus says that on the day of judgment one of the key proofs of the authenticity of our Christianity is whether we have engaged in mercy ministries. This sermon is on how Jesus, the greatest servant, modeled mercy ministries to His disciples, and how Jesus' example in Matthew 20:29-34 shows us nine lessons for doing mercy ministry.