From Every Nation
The From Every Nation Podcast is designed to encourage and equip the next generation of missionaries to take the gospel into the world. Join us as we interview missionaries to hear first hand about their life and ministry. Learn firsthand what strategies, barriers, and opportunities they faced on the field. The FEN podcast also equips you today, for the missionary work the Lord has planned for your life. The FEN podcast is the official podcast of the Tom Elliff Center for Missions at Oklahoma Baptist University
From Every Nation
The Gospel and South Asian Cultures
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This episode is a recorded class lecture given while Nathan Shank was on campus with us in the Fall of 2024.
Join us for a compelling conversation with Nathan Shank, the IMB Affinity Leader for South Asia, who shares his extraordinary journey and insights from over two decades of work in the region. Nathan walks us through his initial deployment to South Asia and his current leadership role, providing a unique perspective on the vibrant cultural and religious tapestry of South Asia. We promise you'll gain an understanding of the non-negotiable components of the gospel and the linguistic diversity among South Asian Muslims, including significant Urdu and Bengali-speaking populations. This episode sheds light on Nathan's profound experience and the challenges of evangelizing in a region rich with Hindu, Muslim, and other religious traditions.
We also navigate the spiritual landscape through the lenses of 2 Corinthians 4 and Psalm 49, contrasting the challenges posed by major religions with the hope and redemption offered by the gospel. Nathan helps us explore the notion that redemption cannot be achieved through human efforts alone, emphasizing God's role in redeeming life. By examining scriptural themes beyond mere verse numbers, we uncover the profound hope and assurance found in faith. Whether you're curious about the spiritual dynamics of South Asia or seeking deeper theological insights, this episode offers rich, thought-provoking discussions that illuminate the path of faith and redemption.
Welcome and thanks for listening to the From Every Nation podcast, the official podcast of the Tom Elliff Center for Missions at Oklahoma Baptist University. I'm Kyle and I'll be your host as we learn to live as those sent out to spread the gospel. So I have with us today nathan shank. He's the imb affinity leader for south asia and so he's on campus with us today and tomorrow. We're hosting a missions forum tomorrow at 3 30 in the tulsa royalties room here where he's gonna share there there as well, and you all may have may hear him if you're in any of Dr Smith's classes, because he'll be speaking in those as well. But I'll let him give a more thorough introduction and kind of explain what his job title is. But he's going to be with us talking in class today.
Speaker 2So yeah, my pleasure, kyle, thank you. My name is Nathan Nathan Shank. My wife and I went to the international mission field right out of college. I graduated in May of 2000 from college. I went to college in the 90s is what I'm telling you and by the summer of 2000, may I graduated, by June I was in the field personnel orientation of the International Mission Board, which later Dr Smith ran for 15 years, 17 years, 15 years. And then by August of the same summer I was international deployed to Nepal with the International Mission Board and the journeyman program. And that was exactly 24 years ago.
Speaker 2Right, I'm 48 years old this year, which means we have, as a point of introduction, if you do the math on that, we've been able to commit at this point, half our life to engaging South Asian peoples wherever we find them around the world. So a bit of a turning point for us as we begin to think through quite a bit of my thinking. My heart has been focused and my history has been focused on engaging South Asian worldviews. Now we can get back into that a little bit more as we go, but today we lead the South Asian affinity with the International Mission Board. I even got look at this, albert. They're upping their swag game a little bit. If anybody's got a fly pole, I'm told I can put it right here for your fly fishermen. Isn't that nice? Not really. You get new clothes when you come to the US, so I'm kind of proud of my new shirt.
Speaker 2International Mission Board is the most important point and worth mentioning just now. We deploy and send people around the world to engage lost people, share the gospel, know what to do when they say us, make disciples, form churches and reproduce leaders who can do all those things. We can get back to that another time. That said, what I want you to do right now, I want you to give me what we're two-thirds, we're about halfway through the semester. I want you to give me in your own handwriting and we're not going to turn this in. This isn't a quiz, this is a guest lecture. Give me five sentences, five components, five non-negotiables. That sentences you would offer to present the gospel. I'll give you three to five minutes. Pound out three to five sentences you believe these are non-negotiable, essential components of the gospel. In sentence four what needs to be known, understood, believed upon in order to be saved by that gospel? Okay, we do have a marker, excellent board marker, here. Now this, this little exercise, might fit exactly with the curriculum, the content you've already had in this semester. Obviously, it's still open and subject to revision as you continue to learn, as you continue to put your own gospel seed sowing to work. I wonder what and how much agreement we'll have across the classroom if we put these components out to our colleagues, to our classmates, as you write and continue. I'll give you a couple more minutes. We're not in a hurry, but I'll tell you.
Speaker 2In South Asia, the countries we consider the affinity of South Asian peoples would be Pakistan and India, nepal, bangladesh, bhutan, sri Lanka, the Maldives. What we call South Asian peoples are the people, groups, the nations, tribes, peoples and languages that inhabit that geography. If you go back into history, even pre-British Raj in South Asia, in India, in Pakistan, bangladesh, we're talking about groups impacted by Sanskrit, by what we often call Hindustan, those with the caste system and the organized fearful worship of spirits that we call Hinduism. What you may not know is even since, in the last thousand years, let's say with some of the Mughal invasions and others down from the Khyber Pass, came Islam as well across South Asia Today, in those same countries the largest by population, the largest Muslim population on earth. Bonus point for anyone who can name the country the largest Muslim population on earth Indonesia is number one and with Malaysia tucked somewhere between two, three, four, five. We would also, in the top five, count India, pakistan and Bangladesh, so that nearly 660 million Muslims occupy what we call, among South Asian peoples, pakistan, india and Bangladesh. People don't think about India as a Muslim nation. It's right there in the top five and together those three countries, you realize, make up nearly a third of the world's Muslims globally. But there are more Urdu speakers, urdu speaking Muslims, than there are Arabic speaking Muslims, depending on exactly how far we classify Arabic, that there are as many Bangla, bengali speaking Muslims as there are Urdu speaking Muslims. So two of the three or four, with Indonesian being there, bahasa Indonesian, I believe it is two of the three or four largest Muslim-speaking languages of the world, right there in South Asia as well.
Speaker 2Somebody want to throw out what was the first one you came to? The Bible is God's Word, it's alive and it has authority. What would we know about the creator except what the creator reveals about himself without the word of God? Then, romans 1 it is rightly called by Paul Romans 1, 16, is it in your heart the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, first for the Jew and then the Gentile? Romans, chapter 1, verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. It's actually given in that case.
Speaker 2Robert Stein called it. It's like an anthropomorphic means, a word that's used to give a human quality to an inanimate object, as if it has its own dunamis. The word power in Greek is the same word from which we draw. The word dynamite eventually comes in our English language from the word dunamis. It's the power of God unto salvation. It's the dynamite semantically associated, the dynamite of God, and it's not talking about Paul or Peter or any particular preacher. It's the Word of God itself that has that power, as if it's living and active.
Speaker 2Beautiful, right, okay, someone else, what's your first component of the gospel itself? We have no gospel except the gospel recorded in Scripture. Thank you, brother, that there is one God who created all things. How many of you have something very similar to that? Okay, good, we're not passing by the scripture, because he reveals himself inherently and by inspiration. There's one God who created all. If he's the creator, he is also, in that case, all powerful. He created by his word. For that matter, then he is the only pure and appropriate judge of what is good, or even very good, as we read in Genesis. Right, anyone else?
Speaker 2If there's one God who created all things, what would you offer as a second component of the gospel? We'd have to go to the problem of sin and evil. Wouldn't we Somebody have a component of the gospel there? So this God who created all, this one God who created all things, also included a standard. He gave laws among man, and man fell short of that law. We call it sin. Okay, excellent, that sin is the universal experience of man, even flowing from our own nature. Right? Romans 3.23. At the Baptist school, that wasn't tongues, that was Nepali. Romans 3.23, all right, by the way, at any school that wouldn't have been tongues, that's Nepali, at every school. That said, we have fallen short of that one God standard. Anybody have a third component? What would you put next to that? There's one God who created all things. Man fell short of that standard.
Speaker 2We call it sin, and it separated us from that creator. What's next? If it's not in the right order, we're going to circle around. I promise you the jigsaw puzzle is going to fit and it's going to be beautiful. So go ahead and add a piece. What do you got? Yes, in order to restore what was separated.
Speaker 2It's truth that only there could only be the one speaking and acting from perfection was the only one who could make right what was broken. He prepared a body, he was born into the world, he lived sinless life in order to restore relationship with man. How'd he do it? Someone want to offer a fourth component. He'd restored that relationship by dying in our place. Not only dying in order to pay the just punishment for sin. If not, then that righteous judge is no longer righteous. If he doesn't punish sin for sin. If not, then that righteous judge is no longer righteous. If he doesn't punish sin, right. But how loving is that righteous judge? He died in our place. He rose again.
Barriers to Understanding the Gospel
Speaker 2Why is the resurrection important? As we share the gospel. To whom was Jesus' sacrifice offered? Hebrews tells us. He appeared once for all, now also in the heavenlies, even as the curtain was torn in the temple. He didn't appear in the earthly tabernacle. The earthly temple, no, the earthly temple, hebrews tells us, is a picture, a replica of the realities that are far greater, even in heaven. So when, at the culmination of the ages, the writer of Hebrews could say, jesus appeared not in an earthly tabernacle, not an earthly temple, he appeared in the very throne room of God and presented once for all the sacrifice of atonement by his own blood. He entered the throne, the presence of God and he offered the sacrifice of his own blood. And why is the resurrection important? It's proof, it's evidence that the sacrifice was not only accepted, it was sufficient. Across the book of Acts specifically, jesus could say in his own words I have the authority to lay down my life and authority to take it up again Across the book of Acts.
Speaker 2When the preachers in the book of Acts, peter and others, are preaching, they say over and, over and over again it was the Father who raised the Son back to life. The Father breathed life back into the Son. The Father not only accepted the sacrifice, the Father's testimony is that the sacrifice was sufficient. How do you know? The Son came back from the dead, the power of an indestructible life Right, proving that it was done for all time. That's our beautiful resurrection.
Speaker 2Give me another component of the gospel, one more. What did we do? Four or five Got one more. We also receive that free gift by confessing. There are be worth a good set of questions for Dr Turner to understand.
Speaker 2And look at the pictures of right response to the gospel across the New Testament. I'm going to summarize it by saying something like this there's one God who created all things, heaven and earth. He created man also in his own image for the sake of relationship. But that man's sin fell short of the glory of God, the standard of God, and because of that sin was separated from God. You realize that that same God so loved the world that he took on flesh. He lived and walked and dwelt among us in order to fulfill the plan. He had to restore creation, to restore mankind into his presence by forgiveness, by the sacrifice of atonement. Jesus also then died on the cross according to the Father's will, as it says in Isaiah. It was the Father's will to crush him right. Not only did he die in order to pay for the sins of the world, according to John 3, he also was raised again to life by the power of an indestructible life. And in that right response for all who would seek after him, for all whom the Father would call, he gives them the ability to be called the sons of God that they also, like him, might take up a cross and follow after him. There's four or five components, right? Hopefully there's something similar in your own words, with a variety of verses. Those same components make it to your paper.
Speaker 2I want you to tell me today what we're actually going to spend the rest of our time on, depending on how it goes, in conversation. As we wrestle with Hindus 1.4 billion Hindus in South Asia, nations like India, nepal as we wrestle with nearly one-third of the Muslims in the world in Pakistan, india and Bangladesh, if I told you, I can take you within three, four, five hours in my house, depending on the rain, and show you exactly where Gautama, 6th century BC, the Buddha, was born and had his supposed enlightenment. Take you within 100 miles of some of the same place where the Hindu Vedas were written, where the Gautama, the tree that they say under which Buddha was enlightened, and show you the birthplace of Sikhism, even though it takes root in the Punjab, later North India. Sikhism born within the same area, same geography. Jainism other world religions associated with South Asia.
Speaker 2I want to tell you that the barriers of the gospel the topic for the rest of our conversation today are actually quite simple. Somebody open 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4, and let's see, we would want to read verse 4, 5, and 6. And if you underline in your Bible 2 Corinthians 4, verse number 4 is going to say something like, something like the little g.
Speaker 2Notice the little g, lowercase g, the little g, god of this age. Do you see it? The little g God of this age has blinded the eyes of unbelievers so that they do not see the glory of God revealed in the face of Christ, who is the image of God. If it's worth underlining, underline that little g, maybe circle it, depending on your study method, circle that little g. Someone?
Speaker 2Look at verse 6 for us, because there's a contrast for us in the same passage. If the little g God of this age is blinding the eyes of unbelievers verse 4, what's the capital G, god of the universe, the one who said let there be light. What's he up to? Verse 6 now, this isn't Star Wars we're talking about. This isn't some dualism, never-ending forces wrestling back and forth to take the same ground, and subsequent sequels, or even prequels, right where there's never resolution between light and dark.
Speaker 2No, no, we know how the end is written. We know very clearly what comes with judgment Even this little g-god of the age bound and thrown into the lake of fire Eternal death. And yet there's something going on under God's plan, under God's power and control, that the little g-god of the age has been given sway for a time. That time is tied to this timeline. You guys realize that time is a part of creation. Genesis 1.14,. He put spheres in the vault of the sky to govern the day and the night, to give us days and weeks and even seasons. Time is part of creation. Do you realize that? So when we think about God and we think about eternal purposes, we need to be thinking and realizing we're talking about something wholly other than time as we understand it in creation. What is eternity? It's something wholly other than time as we have it ordered from creation to judgment. And yet this little g God of the age has been given this season, this time to blind the eyes of unbelievers.
Speaker 2Verse 4, all the while the capital G, creator is shining light into the hearts of men that their eyes might be quickened, that their hearts might be made alive, that they might see and call out on the one who saved them. If that's verse 4 and verse number 6, where are we and what are we up to in an evangelism class? I'm going to point we're going to make a little gospel sandwich here, aren't we? Right there in the middle of verse 4 and verse 6, we have verse 5. Someone want to read verse 5? What are we up to in the midst of that reality? What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus. Christ is Lord, and ourselves as your servants, ourselves as the attendant to the bridegroom, using John the Baptist's words. John, chapter 3, for the sake of your service. That's what Paul could say, so that if the little G God of this age is blinding and the capital G God is shining light, we find ourselves, you're studying what it means to be caught right in the middle In verse number 5. Now get this, brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2What's the number one barrier for Hindus? This isn't the world religions class, it's the evangelism class. But if we're going to engage Hindus, if you're going to come to work with us in South Asia as a career, what would you say? What do you know of Hinduism that would say this is the number one barrier, that there is one God who created all things would be the number. I would put that as the number one barrier for Hindus in understanding the truth of the gospel. We used to do a pastor-teacher, we still do a pastor-teacher training. We call foundations, and it's revolutionary, when we start the foundations training for people who've come out of Hinduism, that we draw a timeline with a very real beginning and a very real end and we tell them the time is linear from the creation to the judgment. The notion that there's a starting and an ending suggestive that there must be one who is greater. It's all of our apologetics, all the way through church history the unmoved mover, the uncaused cause, 11th and 12th century thank you, aquinas. That cosmological argument, the truth that there is one God, a creator, that was our first component of our gospel presentation, wasn't it? And the number one barrier for 1.4 billion Hindus in the world exists because there's a little G-God of this age blinding the eyes of Hindus.
Speaker 2If I asked you what's the number one barrier for Islam, we might need to put two or three on the table. But if we wrestled together, could we come to one barrier for Muslims coming to faith? What would you say? It is the sovereignty of Jesus. Two or three on the table. But if we wrestled together, could we come to one barrier for Muslims coming to faith? What would you say? It is the sovereignty of Jesus. When you say sovereignty, you're ascribing to Jesus an attribute that's only true of Allah, of God himself. What do you mean to say, young man? That Jesus is, if only God is sovereign and Jesus is sovereign, who is Jesus, brother and sister? You just made a case that Jesus is God. What's the number one barrier for Islam?
Speaker 2You're telling me that Allah would stoop and soil himself to associate with the depravity of man. Muslims are going to choke right there. They're not going to be willing to accept that God would ever soil himself by associating with the sinfulness of man. How could Jesus be God? How could he take on flesh? How could he be subject to death? These are not truths that they would accept concerning Allah. And yet he demonstrates his love for us in this. He actually Philippians 2, doesn't cling to what could be held and grasped about God. Rather, he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, humbled himself, being made a human likeness, submitted himself even to death, death on a cross.
Speaker 2John, chapter 1, over and over. It's not just for Jehovah's Witness. All right, as you do your apologetics, lean and wrestle into John chapter 1 and read Isaiah with John chapter 1 open and tell me the gospel writer John, wasn't deep and thick into the 40s and 50s of Isaiah. You tell me that God himself could speak through Isaiah and say I am alone in Israel's light, there is no other. Oh, john chapter 1 introduces us to the light of the world that there is no other God before me. I am God. I will not share my glory with another.
Speaker 2Isaiah 43 and 45 and 46. We have seen His glory, john 1. Glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Okay, so you tell me how it works that only God is glorified and Jesus has the glory of God. Then who is Jesus? Over and over again, we have these truths that John was an apologist, having read Isaiah and, again and again, the statements of the sovereignty, the power, the light, even the grace of God revealed in Christ in John chapter 1.
Speaker 2The eternality of the Word, when only God is eternal, only God knows the beginning from the end, the greatest barrier in Islam, that Jesus is God, that God would soil Himself to associate with man, so that our second component of the gospel God identified in order to redeem. He's the one who crossed the barrier, the bridge, it's the barrier for about 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, and the little G God of this age isn't blinding the eyes of unbelievers. Islam and hinduism, that's uh, that's t-ball right. How about buddhism? Let's get a little, a little more in depth here. What's the greatest barrier for among buddhists, any idea?
Speaker 1is it like kind of a workspace it is?
Speaker 2it is works based. We can talk about merit when we talk about response in just a minute. I love it, the eightfold path but the truth is you can say that about any of these same religions, right? You guys realize a little bonus as we push pause on the broader topic for just a second. Ask Dr Turner this and Russell. She may have much further in-depth study and opportunity to speak on this, but as I work with these other worldviews for the majority of my adult life, I'm going to tell you all religion is a confession.
Speaker 2All religious effort is a confession that something is broken that we're trying to put back together. Why do you climb that hill and put prayer flags? Something's not right and has got to be fixed. It's a confession why and when all these religious systems are bound to the abilities of man, they all find themselves based on merit. I've offered this prasad, the Hindu, says the small offering to a deity. I've gone to this confession, says the Catholic. I've submitted to the church's sacraments. I've pursued the five pillars of Islam Merit, merit, merit, merit. And all of it is a confession. We know something's broken right here and we've done our best to try to figure out from our own strength, how to fix it, in which case one of the major components of the missionary task is actually testified to by world religions. You're separated from God. Something's wrong and in the futility of your own merit you know you would be done practicing that religion if you could say it was fixed. No, your efforts tomorrow testify against you. That merit is never enough, isaiah.
Hope in Redemption
Speaker 2Let's see Psalm chapter 49, verse 5, 6, and 7. We're still on that topic a little bit and we're still asking the question what's the barrier for Buddhists? They're a merit-based religion, but there's something more specific there. Look at Psalm 49. Anywhere we see merit as the organizational unit, the karma, the inshallah of Islam. If God wills, if God can look, the measuring scales of all that's good I've done and all the bad weighed against it. Any of those religious systems pursuing merit. What does Psalm 49, verse 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 to 11,? What does it have to say? What verse is it? Verse 6, no one can redeem the life of another. Is it 7,? Thank you Isaiah. 49, 7,. No one can redeem the life of another or give to God the ransom for life. The ransom for life is costly and what? No payment is ever enough that they should live on forever and not see decay. Is that they should live on forever and not see decay? Is it verse 11? This is the fate of those who trust in themselves and of those who approve their sayings.
Speaker 2What verse is that? 13. All of this God, mountaintop experience, where we're trying with different roads, to get to the top and somehow take hold of God, all of that merit. Look at the good I've done. And the Bible, david, tells us right here no payment is ever enough, that they should live on. No one, no meritorious system ever capable of reaching up and taking hold of God. It's never enough.
Speaker 2Verse 15, there's some good news there too. But God will surely redeem my life in the grave. He will take me to himself so that from the top of the mountain. The only hope as all these roads, the hindu or the buddhist might say, lead to the top of the mountain and yet none of us get there. The only hope is that from the top of the mountain, god reaches down to take. None of us get there. The only hope is that from the top of the mountain, god reaches down to take hold of us and bring us to himself. Do you see it in verse 15? 15, right, dr Smith? It was Tom Wolfe who used to say who was great at memorizing scripture? Don't worry about the verse number. If you get the chapter, you can find it Psalm 49. Somewhere. The verse number. If you get the chapter, you can find it Psalm 49. Somewhere around verse 5. Is it there, merit? Thank you, what was your name?
Speaker 1Garrett.
Speaker 2Garrett, what's the barrier for Buddhists? It's a merit system. What's the primary barrier? Somewhere around, yeah, they don't like to believe that anything is real, right, like it's kind of all an illusion. Okay, so we're stacking up some of these same barriers. We might even be building off them, as buddhism is a reform movement within hinduism.
Speaker 2Originally one god who's the judge? One righteous standard by which men will be judged. What is sin? When everything is an illusion, when there's actually no beginning and no end, because there's no creator, specific, knowable creator in Hinduism, how could we possibly say that he has a standard? We're back to scripture, right To say the fact that if he hasn't revealed and we're actually just trying to discern and you can discern this pathway and I can discern that, and we might even consider our ancestors the path, maybe they can intercede on our behalf with all these Bhagwan, with all these local deities, and we're bound to 10 million gods before we know it.
Speaker 2I'll tell you this, 2006, just after sitting as a married couple, my wife and I went in 2000. We met in 2001. We got married in 2002. We attended a little seminary and we went back through the IMB's field, personnel orientation, and Albert and Kay Smith were on the scene, sent us again to South Asia and our supervisor, as we walked in that summer, our supervisor sat with the team. He said you guys, we're having all kinds of challenges because every time we share with the Buddhists we're doing a creation of Christ story set in that. What do we say? Gospel seed sowing, trying to engage worldview. But it goes several weeks through creation and all the Old Testament accounts before we get to the cross, and we might be 10 or 12 stories or weeks even into our time of evangelism. And the barrier that keeps coming up when we say that God's plan was that the Son would die in the place of sinners, isaiah 53, right, it was the Father's will to crush the Son. That's where the Buddhists choke and they can't swallow the gospel. How can you say that God, your Creator, has blood on His hands, that it was His plan to kill?
Speaker 2We were at that meeting in May of 2006, and this same supervisor passed out journals to all of the team members and said instead, for the summer the next hundred times you share the gospel with a Buddhist, we're going to start with the blood. We're going to start with the cross. We're going to ask the question cross. We're going to ask the question. If they're going to choke on the notion that God's plan was to take a sacrifice for sin, then let's find out. In the first conversation, and in doing so he gave us and he said you got a hundred page journal. I want you to keep notes on the next hundred reps over the summer, just like pushups. You want to be good at push-ups. You get good at push-ups. You do push-ups. So the next 100 reps, keep track, keep a journal, get the name, get the phone number, get the response. But start with the blood, start with what they consider a barrier, see how far we get. And at the end of the summer we're going to compare our notes and see. Is there a more efficient way than spending 15 weeks with somebody who's eventually going to show you the barrier? Let's start with the barrier.
Speaker 2So Hindus are out right. One God created all things, even man in his own image, but because of sin, prepared a body associated with mankind, stooped from heaven to associate with man that he might die as a sin sacrifice. So Hindus are out with the one God and Muslims are out with the fact of the incarnation. Jesus himself is God and Buddhists are out that the plan of God was to take a sin sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, even from his own son, and billions and billions are taking a pass on this gospel we call simple, but that gospel's not easy. And the resurrection came next as our fourth component. Right, he died as a sin sacrifice but was raised again to life. I'll shortcut it for you. If there be a billion secularists or atheists in the world, the largest atheist nation being China, but you realize there are actually very or atheists in the world, the largest atheist nation being China, but you realize there are actually very few atheists in China, there's a covering of atheism, there's a covering of secularism, of communism, but in their heart, eternity is still set right there waiting for truth.
Speaker 2If secularism would deny the supernatural and we're preaching the resurrection a lot of times the response would be what came toward Paul in the book of Acts, won't it? They stumbled at the resurrection, the supernatural that God actually willed that the Son breathe again, come back from the dead, over and over again in the book of Acts, and they scoffed at Paul for such words, right? So a billion atheists, a billion secularists, those who believe in science, take a pass on the supernatural. 2 Corinthians 4.4, the little g-god of this age is blinded by the eyes of unbelievers. The gospel we can do five minutes and get to five components of a simple, straightforward gospel. But don't confuse the fact that that gospel is simple. That doesn't make it easy Because it's actually opposed in this world. That opposition is actually organized Even by that little g God of this age, blinding the eyes, and billions upon billions have a barrier to the same components of that simple gospel.
Speaker 2I don't know how you read and see this. This is evidence also in my heart, of the truth of those propositional statements. There's one he's the creator. You remember our last component of the gospel? What was it had to do with? Response? Right, I said as a summary, he called His disciples to take up their cross and follow after Him. It is more than pray, a prayer to be washed of your sins, isn't it the demands of lordship? We call repentance, the ownership that it implies of our lives, the instrument of death that Jesus modeled and carried we're also commissioned to take up.
Speaker 2Now we've picked on a billion Hindus and Muslims and Buddhists and secularists about how many Christians are out there in the world? And is there a barrier to walking with Jesus, the little G God of this age isn't just working on the lost, he's working on even those who've been exposed to the light. Right? Any questions on this? The value of that exercise? See if you can put the propositional truths of the gospel in order, Put them on the page.
Speaker 2There are worldviews all around the world that are organized, actually, that have become systemic, have become institutionalized, even in such things like the caste system or the pillars of Islam or the meritorious religions, systems of the world, to actually enforce, reinforce or even get those same worldviews to choke on one of these propositional truths. To me that's evidence, everything Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 and 2 Corinthians 5, as we destroy contentious arguments and everything that sets itself up against the glory and truth of God. Right, and that's evangelism, that's outreach, that's seed sowing, that's what we say. All of that with the power of God giving light, shining light into the hearts, in which case we do it with prayer. It starts with prayer Even as we commit to the soil on which we're going to seed, throw the seed right. Any questions about these religions, about merit, about right response, how and where? And what do you see About the IMB? They give out shirts. Anyone's interested, but you got to give half your life first, right, albert? I mean Dr Smith, anybody. What question would you have about South Asia, about the Marvel universe I'm just kidding, I see a Marvel shirt back there.
Speaker 2Greatest difficulty we run into in doing our ministry, it's my flesh. That's the great, whether you realize it or not. That's your greatest barrier too, as you go along. It's to be crucified, it's to be handed over again and again. The hard part, romans 12,. We have a tendency, as a living sacrifice, to keep lopping off the altar. You know, constantly can. We were asked a few weeks ago. We're at our stateside conference every few years we come back to the United States and they check to see if all the screws are still tight. You know, and we were there with a bunch of folks who'd served more than 20 years and they all had something to share. And when they asked what's the key to sustainability on the mission field? Be a good confessor. Be a good confessor because you're going to blow it. You're going to blow it and in the confession you're going to realize a power much, so much greater than yourself. You're going to blow it and in the confession you're going to realize a power much, so much greater than yourself, so much greater than your ability. You guys do realize that there's.
Speaker 2We constantly teach Hindus across North India a word from their own vocabulary that they have. They have really hard time understanding. It's the word grace, anugraha. They can understand justice nyai. They can understand daya mercy. But this, receiving what you deserve, nyai, justice, not receiving what you deserve, is daya mercy. But receiving something you don't deserve, tell me how that fits with karma. Tell me how that fits with moksha and dharma of any kind, organized religion of any kind. How does that fit with merit? Merit if that's your hope. It doesn't. So anugraha, grace. I think it's true to apply it to ourself.
Speaker 2The greatest challenge in ministry was your question to extend it to others. Acts, chapter 2, peter could preach in 3,000 line up for baptism right we have before the day of Pentecost there, after the resurrection we have three times and him being restored. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep, peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep, peter, do you love me? You guys love the Sermon on the Mount 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew On the night Jesus was arrested. Which of the Sermon on the Mount disciplines did Peter break?
Speaker 2You ever considered that the night Jesus was arrested, think about what Peter's up to the rock and think about contrast that cross-reference with the Sermon on the Mount. You've heard it said long ago do not murder. But I tell you, if you say to your brother rocka, you fool, you committed murder in your heart. Peter, how did he do the night Jesus was arrested? Here's a little spoiler he wasn't going for the ear when he swung the sword, he was trying to get the whole thing, but he even failed at murder that night. Right, do not murder. And he tried. And let your yes be yes, sermon on the mount and your no be no. Do not swear an oath. And it was the. I love the fact.
Speaker 2I have a daughter who's 12 years old. Her name is Phoebe. It was the servant girl who put him to flight. The servant girl intimidated the rock and he denied three times in the courtyard. It's time to go right. And what else? When you pray, pray this way. And he slept and do not worry. And he rebukes jesus, it will never happen to you. Get behind me satan. This guy who failed over and over again was the plan, he was the one. When he's, when you've back Peter, you'll strengthen your brothers and 3,000 believed when he preached the gospel in Acts, chapter 2. Extending grace to others is also our master's example. You'd be surprised what broken sinners who stand up again, how the world can see something different in grace that breaks the enemy's back. That's our time today, lord. Go with these students and use them as they pray and as they seed sow For those on their list. We pray a day of salvation. God bless you guys.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening to this episode. The Tom Ellef Center for Missions exists to equip the next generation of missionaries at Oklahoma Baptist University. Regardless of your major, you can come to OBU, get a world-class Christian education and get. Thank you and come visit us at OVU.