PENTECOST
2
June
21-23, 2025
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
2 Timothy 1:3-9
“EVERYONE A
MISSIONARY!”
It’s probably not that way for young
people now. There are so many stories and exciting things that grab their
attention. When I was a young boy with little to no screen time, the stories
you heard at school or church got your imagination running. That was normally
the case when you heard about or read about missionaries, Christians who went
off to far off lands. With slow travel and no electronic communication, they
were cut off from their families. They would eat strange foods, go to remote
locations, have to learn foreign languages. Why would they do such things? For
the love of Christ and the love of lost souls. As my mind raced to put pictures
to what my ears heard or my eyes read, being a missionary seemed both scary and
exciting at the same time. It also seemed so noble. St. Jacobi has a strong
connection to world missions. Our sister, Kaye Eckert, who recently got to go
to heaven, was the executive assistant to the Administrator for WELS World
Missions for many years. Deb Koeller’s parents, missionaries in Thailand. As we
saw on the WELS Connection, the Doebler’s son and family, world missionaries,
now in Australia. Our teacher Lisa Terek was born in Africa. Why? Parents there
as missionaries. Our new teacher Becky Birkholz and her husband, also world
missionaries. Tom Strackbein spent his youth in Puerto Rico. You guessed it,
missionary family. It’s almost like everyone around here is a missionary!
And that is exactly the point that the
word of God we have listened to today had made clear. In the reading from
Isaiah, God said to all His people, “You are my witnesses.” In the Gospel
lesson we heard how the Lord Jesus healed a man who had been tortured by demons
and then sent him off as a missionary, “Return home and tell how much God has
done for you.” And then in the second lesson we are spending our time on the
Apostle Paul, probably the greatest Christian missionary who ever lived, made
the same point. For those privileged to know and believe in Jesus Christ,
everyone’s a missionary!
When the Apostle Paul wrote this
letter he was in prison at Rome, chained. But the power of God was not chained.
“I thank God, whom I serve with a clean conscience as my ancestors did, as I
constantly remember you in my prayers night and day.” Paul did not whine or
complain about the circumstances God let him be in. Instead, he used the power
of prayer as he prayed for Timothy. At this time Timothy was a pastor in the
city of Ephesus. These were not easy times for Bible believing, Christ
professing Christians whether they were in prison or not. Certainly the
temptation for Timothy was there to avoid Paul’s fate, to keep quiet about
Christ. But he couldn’t. Paul encouraged him. “For this reason I am
reminding you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the
laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a
timid spirit, but a spirit of power and love and sound judgment. 8 So
do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.
Instead, join with me in suffering for the gospel while relying on the power of
God.” Paul reminded Timothy of who he was, a missionary.
But he wasn’t the only one Paul
mentioned. “I remember your sincere faith, which first lived in your
grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that it also lives
in you.” How did it happen that Timothy, who had a Gentile, probably
unbeliever father, had the gift of faith? Missionaries had taught him God’s
truth. Missionaries named Lois and Eunice. Influencers in his live who filled
the role of grandma and mom but understood they were missionaries, sent on a
mission by the Lord Jesus to raise young Timothy in the way of the Lord and
most likely without any idea of how God would multiply their efforts to spread
the Good news of free forgiveness in Christ to many, many people. Back then
everyone was a missionary.
And nothing has changed. Today every
believer in Christ is a missionary for Christ, just not all in the same way.
Let me give you an example from my life. Wally and
Susie Ebert. Both enjoying heaven right now. They were dairy farmers with a
farm a couple of miles outside of Watertown. Through our church and school at
St. Marks they had made a connection with my family and hired my older brothers
and then me to help occasionally with farm chores but especially to help stack
hay bales in the mow for each cutting. It was not the way it is now with large
round bales or big rectangles handled by farm equipment. These were 50-60 pound
bales that had to be stacked by hand. It was hard work. Sweaty work. Dirty
work. But fun work. Each season we would find friends from Northwestern Prep or
College to help each haying season. They paid us well. The going rate in the
early 80s for farm work was $2 per hour. (Chris hates it when I tell this story
because she only got $2-3 a day!) They paid us $4 an hour. We were happy and
grateful. One day after the hay was up and Susie came out with the checkbook to
pay us, Wally and Susie sat us down. Wally said, “Boys the Lord has given us
the job of taking care of the cows. We love them and love it. But we don’t get
off the farm much. You boys are studying to be pastors and teachers. We want
you to tell people about Jesus for us. From now on we will pay you $10 an hour.
Pay for your schooling. Preach Jesus for us.” If the inflation calculator I
used is to be believed, in today’s dollars they were paying us $40 an hour to
bale hay. Of the guys who worked on that crew over the years 7 are currently
serving as pastors, 3 as teachers and 2 graduated Northwestern and realized God
had made them good at doing other things. Each has served several terms as
congregation and Board of Elders chairmen. The Eberts realized that God had
made them good at dairy farming and God’s cows needed care and God’s people
needed milk, but they never forgot that all people need Jesus to be saved, and
they found a way to be missionaries as well as dairy farmers.
And
that, brothers and sisters, is the question and challenge I have for you. Do
you see yourselves as what you are? Missionaries. And do you understand how and
to whom the Lord has sent you? Is there a Timothy or Timothette in your life
that you have influence on as an Aunt or Uncle, Mom or Dad, Grandpa or Grandma?
Can you be Wally and Suzy Ebert and rack up treasures in heaven, souls saved,
through others as you do your needed and necessary jobs that serve God and help
His people all the time fully understanding that you are also a missionary? And
in the words of the great mission hymn, “Hark the Voice of Jesus Crying” Let
none hear you idly saying there is nothing I can do. Paul was in chains and in
prison and he was busy, praying. Some of you may feel imprisoned in a body that
is not working well so you are stuck having to worship online, cut off from the
full worship experience of church. Is there really nothing you can do? Will you
pray for me, the pastors and teachers, your church, your synod? Would you like
a copy of the LWMS missionary prayer calendar to guide your specific prayers?
We’ll get one for you. You are a missionary.
Like
with the Apostle Paul, Satan may try to keep you on the sidelines. But for most
of us the prison and chains that Satan uses to try to stop us is not made of
brick and mortar but Affluence and Apathy. Affluence. We are so blessed. So
many toys and fun things to attract our attention and time. Great blessings
that Satan tries to use to get us to forget our first love, Jesus Christ, and
our first calling, missionaries. Apathy. Do you believe that souls who reject
Jesus, who die in unbelief, go to Hell, or do you think God was just kidding
and He let His Son be brutalized, hang on a cross and be forsaken for show? You
know the truth. Souls without Christ are dying souls. Our mission from Jesus is
to tell them the great things God has done for us. Everyone’s a missionary,
somehow, someway.
It’s
summer time, a good time to make sure your fans are working. Not just the ones
that keep us cool, but also the faith fans. Fan into flames the gifts God has
given you. Your pastors and teachers are constantly checking ourselves. Are we
majoring in Major? Are the things we are first concerned about as we seek to
have a first class congregation and school first and foremost about properly
proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and are we in the word daily? How
about you? If you haven’t before considered yourself a missionary, make sure
that faith fan is working, pray for the Spirit’s guidance and then enjoy, the
sometimes hard but eternally rewarding work of being a missionary. That is what
you are! Amen.
