Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (1886)

Mark 7:31-37
(Outline for a Missions Sermon)

Missions is the holy military campaign of the faithful under the leadership of
Christ, the Prince of salvation, into the kingdom of darkness, the campaign of conquest
of the Church in the world for the salvation of immortal souls, a war of liberation of the
children of God, who want to lead their fellow redeemed from the terrible bondage of
the devil, sin, and death into blessed freedom. It is therefore an equally great and
difficult, as blessed work and requires a united work of all believers if everything
should be well accomplished and rich spoils of victory won. Therefore, the common
celebration of mission festivals is an excellent thing. Today we have gathered for such
an occasion. May the Lord let it be blessed! He has given us a glorious missions text in
today's Gospel. The labor of love of those who bring the deaf and dumb to Christ is a
lovely picture of missions. It shows us the desire, duty and comfort of mission work.

The holy work of missions of believers. We consider

1. their blessed desire of missions; it springs
a. from true faith of the heart.
1
If those who brought the deaf and dumb to
Christ, would not have believed that he could help the same, they would not have
brought him to Christ, they would not have prayed for him; so their work was a work
of true faith. With what joy they have introduced him to Christ when He came into their
country. So desire of missions are found only among believers who have experienced
this desire in their hearts, whose salvation is found in Christ. So Andrew cried out in
holy joy to his brother Peter when he found Jesus, "We have found the Messiah", and
Philip said to Nathanael: "We have found Him of Whom, etc."
2
So the believer cries out
in blessed delight: "Come, taste, how gracious the Lord is!" and wishes the entire world
would like to come to such salvation;
b. from the perspective of the great physical and spiritual misery of the heathen.
The great misery of the deaf-mute: never had the sweet mother's word: "My child!"
penetrated into his ear, never had the words "My Father!" gone over his mute lips, but
the most terrible thing was that he could not hear the Word of life. This is a vivid
picture of the misery all the heathen, who go in darkness and the shadow of death,
without God and without hope (evidence from the history of missions). Therefore, it is

1
Mark 7:32.
2
John 1:40-45.
the blessed desire of believers to bring the Word of life to these spiritually deaf people,
to fill their mute mouth with the praise of God, to lead them from their misery to the
blessed freedom and hope of children of God
3
;

2. their holy duty of missions. As the friends of the deaf-mute exercised a duty of
love toward him, so the mission of all believers is a holy duty, namely
a. of gratitude to their Savior, Who demonstrated to them such great unmerited
grace and has acquired and will give this grace to all sinners;
b. of obedience to Jesus, because He has expressly commanded this work to
them
4
;
c. of love to their neighbor. If one could be a Christian, in whose heart the love of
Christ is poured out by faith, then who could be indifferent to the misery of the
heathen, who would know that only Jesus could save them, and yet did not want to
help bring Jesus to them? That is why our mission offerings are not intended as a gift of
our free will, but a sacred duty we fulfill most zealously;

3. their certain comfort of missions;
a. the Lord will bless their work by saving many souls as surely as He so
willingly heals the deaf mute at the request of his friends. What a comfort! Their work,
their prayer, their gifts are therefore not in vain in the Lord
5
;
b. Word and Sacrament are today still so strong and vibrant, as the means that
Christ uses among the deaf-mute, which are a picture of his means of grace. Christ still
today calls out a powerful "Ephphatha" to countless souls (evidence of glorious
examples from the history of missions).
Otto Hanser

3
Isaiah 60:5.
4
Matthew 28:19-20, 5:13-14, 6:10; Isaiah 60:1; Acts 26:18.
5
Ezekiel 33:11; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9; Romans 11:32.