Focus 2020 – The Great Commission: Perspectives from LeadersSample

The Giver’s Reward 

Bible passage: 

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it … 

They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out… We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may be fellow workers for the truth. 3 John 2–3, 6–8 

Devotional: 

John, while living in Ephesus, writes a letter to both commend and instruct Gaius, a disciple who leads of a group of believers in a nearby neighborhood. He commends him for how he treated a group of travelling missionaries. When these missionaries arrived in Ephesus, they reported on the faithfulness and love of truth displayed by Gaius and this small gathering of believers. 

John knows that these missionaries will return and visit this small church again and so he instructs Gaius to “send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.” 

Three missional principles: 

1. Gospel mission must be rooted in a passion for the truth of the Gospel. 

John praises Gaius for his faithfulness to both teach and walk in the truth; for his integrity of belief and life; for walking the talk. The travelling missionaries reported that Gaius and those he led were people who loved the truth of the gospel. 

2. Gospel mission demands equal sacrifice from both the goer and the sender. 

John instructs Gaius to send this band of missionaries on their way “in a manner worthy of God.” This is a very humbling and probing thought. John makes it clear that the measure of our heart for God will be found in our commitment to ensuring that people everywhere have opportunity to hear the Gospel. 

3. Gospel senders who share in the sacrifice of the goers will share equally in the reward of the goers. 

Throughout the Scriptures we are called to be workers together with God. Senders work together with goers. As we sacrificially support those who we send, those who go for the sake of the Name, we are considered their fellow workers in gospel witness and we will share in their reward. 

Quote: There is no better way to receive and sustain the blessing of God than to send in a manner worthy of God. 

Question: Is our offering for the mission worthy of God? Does our heart for God lead us to sacrifice? Our love for God will be measured by our commitment to sending. 

Murray Cornelius 

CEO, The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada