Why Preach in Regions Beyond?
Norm Lewis


The Apostle Paul was never content to keep the gospel within the Christian community. In the gospel Paul had something the world needed, and he knew it. He expressed his desire to the Corinthian Christians in this way. “Having hope,” he wrote, “to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.” Why did Paul say that? Why did Paul strive to carry the gospel to regions beyond? Why did he want to get God’s message past the Christian frontier? This is the question I would like to consider with you. For it has to do with us. There are still regions beyond, areas where Christ is little known or unknown. Why should we preach the gospel there?

1. CHRIST’S MISSIONARY COMMAND INCLUDES THE REGIONS BEYOND

This missionary command was given several times by the risen Lord. Just what did He command His followers to do before He should return? The Bible answers this question in final chapters of the Gospels and the first chapter of Acts. Five chapters of the New Testament contain the plainest information in the world about Christ’s missionary command. In Matthew, He says, “Disciple all nations.” In Mark, He says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” In Luke, He says, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” In John, He says, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” In Acts, He says, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me ... unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Yes, Christ commanded His Church to carry the gospel to the whole world. This includes the regions beyond. These are our orders.

Years ago there was a bad train wreck in the east. Two trains came together head-on. As one of the dying engineers was lifted from the smashed cab of his overturned engine, his fumbling fingers drew a yellow paper from an inner pocket of his work jacket. “Take this,” he said weakly, “it will show you I was given wrong orders.” The engineer in-sisted he was not to blame for the tragic wreck. His orders were wrong. But no Christian at the judg-ment will be able to defend his missionary failure with such an argument. The Bible will shut his mouth. Christ said, “Go, make disciples among all nations. Preach the gospel to every creature. Be witnesses unto me unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Our orders are clear. They include the regions beyond.

2. OUR LORD’S ILLUSTRATIONS 
INCLUDE THE REGIONS BEYOND


He said, “The field is the world.” Our Lord here compares the missionary task to the work of a farmer. The farmer prepares the soil, sows the seed, fights the weeds, and finally reaps the harvest. Re-member, the field is the world. Have we sown the gospel seed everywhere in the world? Have we shared the good news equally in all lands? No, we have not. We have been selfish. We have repeatedly sown the gospel seed in a few favored parts of the world. We have desired its benefits for ourselves and for our children. We have almost forgotten the people in far-off lands. In this we have done wrong. We have not obeyed our Master’s command.

In Argentina I had a plot of some five acres of ground. An Argentine, Manuel Burgeno, asked if he could cultivate the land. I told him to go ahead. Burgeno did a good job on the part of the field he cultivated. But he left more than an acre untouched by the plow. I asked him why he left that ground uncultivated. He said, “Too hard.” Is that our atti-tude toward world evangelization? We favor the easy places. Are the unreached places too hard?

STARVED

I remind you of a metaphor Christ used. He said, “I am the bread of life.” Christ declares that He is essential food. Without Him no man can live. He said again, “For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” We Americans do not understand the mean-ing of physical hunger. Millions of people in other lands suffer hunger pangs by day and by night. They never have enough to eat.

Ray Davis, Associate Director of the Sudan In-terior Mission, has spent many years in  drought that had afflicted a great section of that land. He said, “As we sat down to eat our modest meal, we could see groups of famished, emaciated people out-side our home. Hungry little children were crying for food their starving parents were unable to give them.” Said Davis, “Often it was simply impossible for us to eat our own food.”

Oh that we might feel compassion for multitudes that starve spiritually. They lack the gospel we have failed to give them. Christ is the bread of life with-out which no man can live. Men unreached by the gospel are dead. Unless the gospel reaches them they must remain forever dead. Jesus said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man ... ye have no life in you.” Remember, we need not murder Afri-cans or Asians or Latin Americans with machine guns or atom bombs to be guilty of their blood. We need only withhold the gospel from them.



LIGHT A LAMP

Another metaphor our Lord used was that of light. He said, “I am the light of the world.” Wicked men thought they had put out that light when Jesus was crucified. But the light had passed to other lives. Jesus had said to His followers, “Ye are the light of the world.” If the light we have is for the world, dare we keep it from part of the world? It is good to have large beautiful lights in your living room and dining room. But if you leave the back entrance in utter darkness, someone may fall down the cellar steps. So with gospel light. Men out yonder grope in the blackness and shadow of death. Every soul in the darkness of heathendom is waiting on us. We must send the light. We must light a gospel lamp within sight of every man on earth.

JUST ONE WAY

Still another of Jesus’ metaphors was that of the way. He said, “I am the way ... no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” There is one way that leads men to God. Just one. Think of those who do not know the way. Missionary Duane Stous told me in Paraguay of the night he found the way to life while others died. Stous was in California with other Christian fellows training for missionary service. They were called out to fight forest fires. Divided into five-man squads they battled the flames all day. Darkness had fallen when 



someone brought sand-wiches. They stood eating ravenously. Suddenly a call came from the ridge road above them. “The fire has broken through! Run for your lives!”

Stous and a companion started upward toward the road. The other men ran down the canyon. Desperately the two men climbed. The billowing heat, the hellish flames came closer. It was awful. Death was at their backs. More than once strength seemed gone. Finally they staggered on to the road. A car came. They circled around to the mouth of the canyon where they hoped to meet the other fel-lows. Through the long night they searched. 

They called and called. In vain they listened. No reply. Daylight brought the awful answer. Fourteen charred bodies lay on the canyon floor. Fiery death had overtaken the fleeing men. Jesus Christ is the only way for men to reach heaven. His solemn meaning is clear beyond question. “No man,” He said, “cometh unto the Father but by me.”

3. CHRIST’S ILLUSTRATIONS AND COMMANDS SHOW THAT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN THE REGIONS BEYOND IS BASIC TO GOD’S PLAN

Let us imagine ourselves standing on a distant star, looking back at our globe. God had a lost world on His hands. The Bible says that “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). 


Again we read concerning mankind, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The Bible removes any doubt we may have about men being lost. It is not a question of how many sins a person must commit in order to be lost.

LOST ALREADY

The truth is that Jesus Christ came into the world to face the horror of Calvary because men were lost already. The Bible says, “He that believeth not [on Christ] is condemned already, because he hath not believed” (John 3:18). Christ himself puts this fact beyond all argument. He says  God provided one way to save lost men. He was willing to send His Son. And God’s Son was willing to come as the “Lamb slain from the founda-tion of the world.” For this we praise God.

But is praise our whole business? No. It is not enough. We must obey God. We must reach the un-reached with the gospel. If not, we leave them to die never knowing. They cannot know of Christ un-less we tell them. Unless they know, they cannot live. We must tell them. This is man’s part of redemption’s plan. God’s part is the death and resur-rection of Christ. Man’s part is the preaching of  repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name among all nations.





4. THE CONDEMNED MILLIONS IN REGIONS BEYOND HAVE HIGHEST PRIORITY FOR GOSPEL PREACHING

It is not just that the unreached millions are lost. That alone is worse than we can understand. It is not simply that those millions, as the Bible says, re-main “dead in trespasses and sins.” It is not alone the fact that they are “without hope and without God.” These facts are true of unsaved people every-where. They apply to men and women of privileged intellect among the most enlightened nations. To remain unsaved anywhere is dreadful.

But the unreached of earth cannot help them-selves without our help. This fact should underlie our Christian activity. The Word of God is very plain. It says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). If that statement were not qualified, we might take it to mean that any pagan without gospel light could cry to God and be saved. But the Bible qualifies that statement. It goes on, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” There, bold and plain, the task of the Church is set forth: bear the gospel to all men. Which unsaved man most deserves your help? The one who can hear the gospel or the one who cannot? What group most needs your help? Those who can hear the gospel, or those who cannot? To ask the question is to answer it. Hundreds of tribes still wait for their first portion of God’s Word to be translated into their language. Who are the young people willing to make those translations? Who are the men and women who will pray them out to the field? Who will work to support them? Who, Christian, if not you? Great metropolitan areas in many lands are unevangelized. Who will go do that job? Who will support those who go? Who will give them power through prayer? Who, Christian, if not you?

World evangelization means to offer Christ to all men everywhere. We cannot justify the neglect of unreached areas. To be sure there are many worthy causes. But no other cause occupies first place with God. This one does. God has spoken on this matter. He commands us to finish this work. It is wrong for us to pour large efforts into other things simply because they are good. The good may be the enemy of the best. If Christians would give all to get the gospel to the regions beyond, the world task could soon be finished.

GOOD OR BEST

Weigh carefully the difference between doing things which are good and doing that which is best. The difference is illustrated by the tragic experience of a drawbridge operator. This man, years ago, op-erated the drawbridge at Passaic, New Jersey. One afternoon he had opened the bridge to let a boat pass. His boy was playing nearby. Suddenly from a dis-tance sounded the whistle of an oncoming express train. The operator realized in a flash he had blund-ered. The bridge should have been closed. Instantly he threw the levers. At that moment he was horri-fied to see his boy slip and fall into the river.

The father faced a hard choice. His boy was drowning. Every instinct urged him to leap to the rescue. But another duty came first. Hundreds of passengers’ lives were at stake. The man knew it. He stayed at his post. The bridge slammed into po-sition. Seconds later the train thundered safely across. Only then did the father leap to save his boy. But he was too late. Life had gone when the body was recovered. Did that father do right? Yes, he did. He faced a difficult choice. To have saved his boy would have been good. But to save the passen-gers was his first responsibility. That father, under awful pressure, chose what was best.

Christian, your choice may not be so difficult as that. But it is similar. Do good wherever you can. But make the main thrust of your life that of taking Christ to earth’s unreached masses. Many kinds of help are needed. Keep your vision clear. Make your commitment to Christ real. God will show you what to do.

(Reprinted from “Go Ye” Means You! by Norman Lewis.)