The Neglected Pursuit of Sending Heralds

Date: 10 May 2026

Place: Trinity Baptist Church, Charlesworth, near Glossop

Preacher: Benedict

Passages: Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; Romans 10:14-15

Listen Below:

The Neglected Pursuit of Sending Heralds

35:07

The Neglected Pursuit of Sending Heralds

A Forgotten Burden

Our Lord Jesus Christ once looked upon the crowds and declared, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” Nearly two thousand years have passed since those words were first spoken, and still they ring painfully true.

The world remains filled with souls who have never heard the gospel. Vast populations live and die without any meaningful access to the name of Christ. Entire tribes, languages, and peoples continue in darkness, untouched by the preaching of the gospel and unreached by the ordinary means through which God gathers His church.

And yet, despite this overwhelming need, the modern church often treats missions as peripheral rather than essential.

The statistics are sobering. In recent years, out of billions of professing Christians worldwide, only a tiny fraction have served as cross-cultural missionaries. The percentage is staggeringly small. Such figures should not merely provoke criticism of others; they should force us to examine ourselves.

Are we truly grieved by the lostness of the world? Are we obeying Christ’s command to pray for labourers? Are we preparing and supporting those whom God may call? Or have we become comfortable while millions perish without hope?

The neglect of sending heralds is not merely an organisational weakness. It is a spiritual problem.

The Church’s Duty to Send

Scripture is unmistakably clear that preaching is necessary for salvation. In Romans 10:14-15, the Apostle Paul asks a chain of searching questions: “How are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

The logic is simple and unavoidable.

People cannot believe without hearing the gospel. They cannot hear without preachers.

And preachers cannot go unless they are sent.

Sent from where? Sent by whom?

They are sent from the Church of Jesus Christ.

This means that missions is not an optional interest reserved for especially enthusiastic Christians. It belongs to the very identity and responsibility of the Church itself. Christ has commissioned his people not merely to preserve the gospel locally, but to proclaim it among the nations.

This becomes even clearer in the Great Commission. When Jesus Christ commands His disciples to “make disciples of all nations,” He is speaking not merely to the apostles as isolated individuals, but to the Church founded upon their ministry.

The apostles themselves could not physically disciple all nations before their deaths. Yet Christ promised to remain with His people “to the end of the age.” The mission therefore continues through the church in every generation.

And this mission is larger than occasional evangelistic effort. Christ commands his church to make disciples, baptise them, and teach them to obey all that he has commanded. The goal is not momentary religious decisions, but the planting and strengthening of churches throughout the world.

This is precisely what we see in the New Testament itself. When Barnabas and Paul the Apostle were sent out on missionary labour, the Holy Spirit spoke not merely to the men individually, but to the church at Antioch: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

The Spirit called. The church sent.

That pattern remains.

Missions Throughout the Whole Bible

Some speak of missions as though it were a narrow New Testament emphasis, but Scripture presents something far grander. The missionary heart of God permeates the entire Bible.

In Luke 24, after his resurrection, Jesus Christ explained to his disciples that the Old Testament itself testified not only to his suffering and resurrection, but also “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).

This is astonishing. Christ includes the worldwide proclamation of the gospel as part of the very substance of Old Testament revelation.

From Genesis onward, God’s purpose has always extended beyond one ethnic nation. The promise to Abraham was that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. The Psalms repeatedly call the nations to praise the Lord. The prophets foresee the Gentiles streaming to worship the true God. Revelation culminates with redeemed multitudes from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping before the throne.

The Bible is not merely a book containing missionary passages. It is, in many ways, a missionary book.

This means that concern for the nations should not be an occasional interest that surfaces during special conferences or annual mission Sundays. It should shape the ordinary thinking, praying, preaching, and priorities of the Church.

The Need for Rope-Holders

Yet missions does not consist only of those who physically go.

William Carey famously spoke of missionaries descending into the pit while others “held the rope.” That image remains profoundly helpful. Missionaries do not labour alone. Sending churches are rope-holders. They support, strengthen, encourage, provide, pray, and persevere alongside those on the field.

But rope-holders themselves must be strong.

Weak churches produce weak support. Spiritually shallow congregations will not sustain meaningful missionary effort for long. This is why spiritual growth matters deeply for missions.

Churches must be grounded in Scripture. Christians must grow in prayer, holiness, compassion, and theological conviction. We must become people whose hearts genuinely long for the glory of God among the nations.

One pastor wisely observed that “missions exist because worship doesn’t.” Wherever Christ is not worshipped, there remains missionary work to do.

And this reality should stir us deeply. Millions today worship false gods, trust in idols, or live without any knowledge of the gospel. There are countless places where songs of praise to the Triune God are not being sung because churches have not yet been planted there.

How can that not move us?

The Compassion of Christ

The missionary impulse is born not merely from duty, but from compassion.

When Jesus Christ looked upon the crowds, he saw people “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” It was then that he commanded his disciples to pray for labourers.

The same must happen with us.

The more we learn about unreached peoples, persecuted believers, struggling missionaries, and spiritually barren regions, the more our hearts should be stirred.

Missions becomes abstract only when people remain invisible to us.

But these are real men and women. Real children. Real souls moving toward eternity.

Without the gospel, they remain without hope.

The Cost and Glory of Sending

To send missionaries is costly.

Churches may lose gifted members. Families may watch children move across oceans. Missionaries themselves may face hardship, loneliness, persecution, or even death.

Yet Christianity has always been a religion of sacrifice because it follows a crucified Saviour.

The Son of God left heavenly glory to seek and save the lost. He suffered rejection, humiliation, agony, and death so that sinners might be redeemed. How then can his church refuse sacrifice for the spread of His gospel?

Indeed, every church planted, every believer baptised, every soul brought to Christ is part of the advancing kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Scripture promises that one day there will be redeemed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping before God. That kingdom is coming. Christ is building His church. And every faithful act of missionary labour participates in that glorious work.

Missionaries are not merely travelling abroad. They are establishing outposts of Christ’s kingdom in the darkness of the world.

A Call to Action

The question therefore confronts every believer and every church: are we willing to participate?

Are we willing to pray fervently for labourers?

Are we willing to give generously?

Are we willing to strengthen churches and support missionaries?

Are we willing to send?

And if God calls us personally – are we willing to go?

These are not hypothetical questions. They are matters of obedience to the risen Christ.

For though the church has often neglected this pursuit, the mission itself has not failed.

Across centuries, Christ has continued gathering his people. Churches have been planted. Souls have been saved. The gospel has crossed continents and oceans because faithful saints prayed, gave, preached, suffered, and went.

Yet there remains much land to possess.

And so the church must once again recover the neglected pursuit of sending heralds.

For the King Himself has declared: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”