Sermon: To the Ends of the Earth

An overview of the United Church of God in New Zealand, the South Pacific Islands, Tonga and Southeast Asia.

Presented by Jeff Caudle
Cincinnati, Ohio - March 28, 2009 (33 minutes)

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Sermon Transcript

Good afternoon, and I'd like to bring you greetings from people in this area of the world — down at the bottom is New Zealand, that's where my family and I live, we've lived there for about nine years now. And then our responsibilities for all those little dots out in the Pacific, the various island nations which we'll talk about in a little while. And also, I go to this area to the left, above Australia to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and as we go along we'll look at some of that and I'll have a pointer to show you some things in a little while. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you this afternoon; we've been having some very informative classes this week and look forward to even more information the next few days.

The title of my sermon, my presentation, is To the Ends of the Earth. They asked for a title about ten days ago, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to talk about although I did give them the title. Anyway, I've spoken on this in the past and I'd like to cover a few things with you. As it happens I was born in Texas but my family moved to Toledo, Ohio so I lived in Toledo for about fourteen years when I was a youngster. In the mid 1960's there was a television program, black and white of course, from Detroit and it was put on by a man named George Pierrot, some of you might remember that, it was just a travel show. I was about 5 or 6 years old, I used to sit in front of the black and white TV and dream about going to all these places he was talking about and it gave me the travel bug even as a little boy so about 25 years ago when I was at Ambassador College, I started having the opportunity to travel to various places.

The bible talks about this idea of "to the ends of the earth" and if you could turn with me first to Acts 1, this particular slide will be up here for a little while until we get into the good stuff. I'd like to look at a few scriptures since we are here for the Sabbath, to look at God's word. Acts 1:4, we'll just break into this.

Acts 1:4 — And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which He said, you have heard from Me...they were waiting for the holy spirit.

V. 5-7 — For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now. Therefore when they had come together they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

V. 8 — "But you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

And that's where I got the title of this sermon, To the End of the Earth — and actually if you were to go on to a bible search engine, you'd find that this term, "to the end of the earth" or "to the ends of the earth" is used a number of times in the old and new testament. Now you might not have thought about this, because you're the Home Office, the center of the universe of course, but compared to Jerusalem, you are literally, at the ends of the earth.

I went on a website to try to find the distance from Jerusalem to Cincinnati, but they didn't have Cincinnati, they had Columbus, close enough. From Jerusalem to Columbus is approximately 6,100 miles. Jerusalem to Auckland, where I live is 10,000 miles. Jerusalem to Singapore is about 5,000 miles, Jerusalem to Santiago, Chile is 8200 miles and I believe that we probably have the subscribers that are the furthest away to the ends of the earth from Jerusalem, and that is in a tiny little island in the Tahitian Island group in the South Pacific, it's an island called Rurutu and it's 11,400 miles from Jerusalem, way way down here at the bottom, in these French Polynesian, where you might see my little red pointer here, to your right above the Pacific Ocean. So we have a group of subscribers there actually, there's a lady who has been taking the Good News for several years. After much literature and just a couple of years ago, she wrote me and said, "By the way, we've been translating all of your literature into French for our Sabbath group because we want to learn and most of the people speak French." I wrote her back, well we have literature in French! So we've now been sending them English and French language literature. But they are literally at the end of the earth, as compared with what Christ was talking about here in verse 8.

Christ meant this — I was reading in one commentary, it said, "If He meant something a lot closer He would have said it -Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria." They said, "If He wanted it closer or in the district He could have said Galilee or something like that, He must have really meant to the end of the earth." And of course His vision was much greater than those around Him.

You think about Genesis 2, talks about how God envisioned that human beings were to multiply and fill the earth. Now we might think of that only in physical terms but if those people had continued to follow God's way, those people who multiplied and filled the entire earth, they would also have taken along with them the knowledge of God's truth and the whole world would have been God's world. And of course we know that didn't happen and we're yet waiting for that to occur. But God meant to fill the whole earth and to send His ways along with it, that was His intent. Of course human beings drew back together at the tower of Babel, they didn't want to go out and fill the earth, they wanted to be together. They said, no, that's not the plan, we're going to scatter you again, He changed all the languages and they started to fill the earth.

Let's look at another scripture in Deuteronomy 33. Again, this phrase, to the ends of the earth, is used in various places. It was God's intention that mankind was to fill the earth and that this whole world would be God's kingdom, one nation. Verse 13 — I think you'll recognize these are the blessings given to these various men.

Deut. 33:13 — And of Joseph, he said, "Blessed of the Lord is his land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew and the deep lying beneath, with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, with the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills."

You might stop there to think, what is in the mountains, what is in the hills? Precious minerals, oil, all these various things that God has blessed Joseph with.

V. 16 — "With the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who is separate from his brothers."

V. 17 — "His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox, together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

And indeed, New Zealand is a long way away and there are people of Joseph there and that land is very blessed. In fact just before services today a gentleman was telling me that a lot of Americans would like to come to New Zealand, would like to get a vacation home or migrate there, a lot of people are coming to New Zealand and Australia as a matter of fact for that very reason. They have spread, they have pushed people to the ends of the earth. You don't need to turn there but in Psalms 2:8 it says:

Psa. 2:8 — Ask of Me and I will give you the nations of your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

It wasn't just a physical command or a physical requirement God had of human beings, He actually wanted His ways to fill the entire earth. Let's look at Matthew 28. You know it's a common thing for us to like to stay close to home, we get comfortable in one place, we don't want to move too much, maybe we go away for a vacation or holiday, like to travel, but after a few days you probably want to get back home again, to your own bed, your own food, your own culture, your own ways. But the ways of God, He intended them to go a long way, much further than just nearby, He wanted to spread everywhere.

Matt. 28:16 — Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit, teaching them to observe the things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age."

Now we're very familiar with this, we know this is the commission that God gave the Church, we're doing it at this very time. Let's look at verse 19 again:

V. 19 — "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...all nations, not just some, not just fifty percent of them, not just those who are of one ethnicity or one background or one skin color or one language, it's for all the nations.

In our part of the world, as has happened in the United States, we've had migration from many countries, you will see in a little while here. In the Auckland congregation alone we have ten to twelve nationalities, most of them are first generation immigrants, different skin colors, different languages, we'll talk about that in a little while, but it's a bit uncomfortable for many in New Zealand to have all these migrants, does that sound familiar to you? But it was God's intent that human beings move, to fill the whole earth. It's also His intent for us as a people of God, the Church, to spread His ways to all those people. Over the years some people have said, why did you ever leave America, why would you want to live overseas, why would you want to go someplace that's a little uncomfortable and go to these other places around the world? Well that's because we're suppose to do that, that's what God's commission is, that's His idea, to spread it all over this earth and beyond.

Now let's look at a few slides —again, this is the area which we cover, you see up here in the left side, it's Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and then down here at the bottom, south-east of Australia, and it's a three hours flight by the way, the distances are quite great. From Auckland, New Zealand down here to L.A. is a twelve hour flight, 17 hour flight to come here to Cincinnati — the world is vast! And on the other hand, we have brethren in all these different countries all over the place and it's spreading further and further. It's a beautiful land — I'm just trying to attract you, this is advertising! We could do the whole things for ½ hour and you'd just be drooling you know! Lots of sheep, four million people, forty-eight million sheep - used to be sixty million sheep! We have about 150 members spread all over both islands, you might not realize that New Zealand is actually two large islands and off the bottom here, we actually have a member who moved from America this year, from Minnesota and she is living on this tiny island way down at the bottom, Stewart Island, with her husband. It is literally at the end of the earth and it's beautiful.

And twelve nationalities in the New Zealand congregation, I will list some of them — Fijians, Tongan, American, British, Filipino, Australian, Zimbabweans, South African and Kiwi's (New Zealanders), there may be more I've missed.

This is a rather old shot of the Auckland congregation, we have about sixty people every week but in this group we have various nationalities, we have about 30 Tongan's in the Church who have moved down from Tonga in the last few years and to give you some idea of their dedication, they come every week but they've told me they only understand about 50% of what I'm saying during services, but they follow along with the scriptures as best they can. We do have a remedy for this which I'll show you in a few ministers.

We had a youth retreat out on the west coast, back behind you is the Tasman sea and a few thousands miles away from there is Australia. Again, it's a very diverse group and various nationalities and this little group of young people. Andre Van Belkum, he was here for the Feast in New Zealand a few years ago, he and his wife are trying to immigrate to New Zealand, he'll be helping me out in the ministry, out been working almost forty years in Southern Africa and they're looking forward to coming to New Zealand where their daughter and four grandchildren are, so it's a big attraction.

Now on to the South Pacific above us, New Zealand down here, up here where the dot is is Fiji and over here is Tonga, we have brethren in both countries but we have readers not only in Fiji and Tonga but in the Cook Islands, up here in Samoa, of course over here in Tahiti, to the left, Vanuatu which is French speaking and then New Caledonia we have readers and also way up here, north of Australia in the Solomon Islands we also have readers. So in this vast area...also in Kiribati we have readers in this vast area. Now to give you some scope, for me to fly from Auckland down here to Fiji is about 3.5 hours flight. To get beyond that to these other places would be small planes and it could be easily four or five more hours flight and at great cost as well. So the fields are white but the laborers are few and it's going to be a challenge if these people actually ask for baptism, ask for visits, so it is something to consider as we go forward. It's good to have this kind of growth and progress but it's also a challenge that we have to meet as we go forward.

Here's the readership, New Zealand has about 4500 readers, we're allowing it to grow up and up, Fiji about 200. Solomon Islands up to 156, Vanuatu 59. Most of this growth comes from internet advertising from the Home Office and from Australia and we really appreciate that because it's free of charge and it's very productive.

Here is the pastor in Tonga, Heamasi Taufoou, some of you might have met him here in previous years at the G.C.E. All of the Tongan brethren either have migrated to New Zealand, Australia and America or they will shortly because of economic reasons it's just better to be overseas. So what Heamasi is doing now, each Sabbath he records the sermon or the bible study in Tongan, burn it onto CD's and send it to New Zealand and Australia so they can listen to it in their own language since they don't understand me. So it's working very well and eventually Heamasi himself will probably migrate to Australia and then there will be no brethren left in Tonga. Tonga is the first church in the world to keep or reach the Sabbath and as you might know, it's already tomorrow morning, about 8 am on Sunday in that part of the world. My daughter's are just getting out of bed!

Some Tongan brethren, beautiful voices, they sing acappella, they have no music, they just have a pitch pipe, gives the note and they say, "Ready, set, steady, sing!" And they all sing, in four part harmony by the way, it's beautiful!

We'll jump ahead to Asia, you can see it better on the map now, we have brethren who meet weekly in Singapore, the other brethren though in Malaysia and in parts of Indonesia are spread apart, they'd have to fly an hour or more between themselves, amongst themselves to see one another, they don't see each other but once a year at the Feast of Tabernacles. We've had the Feast in Singapore for the last couple of years, this year it will be in Bangkok in Thailand. It's a three country circuit, it's not a three city circuit, unlike what you might have here, we have brethren in these countries and we have a lot of new attendees, some stick, some don't but it's very exciting, we have a lot of requests. Even in Malaysia, people have been asking me, do you have church services in Kuala Lumpur, which is the capital — several people have asked me that recently, so we're going to need to do something, perhaps have a periodic bible study there.

Again, these areas are vast and I live in Auckland, to get to Malaysia is about a seven hour flight one way, so I pastor that area too, it's a bit of a juggling act, I go to Asia about four times a year. The Singaporean brethren, they're Indians, Chinese of course and in this picture there are some Indonesians. This is the Feast a couple of years ago, Feast site in Singapore. In the children's choir we have Indians, Indonesians, Americans and a little Indian over here, it's wonderful...and this is my little monkey at home.

Edward is an Indonesian, he's been in the Church about twenty years, he's translating some of our literature into Indonesian and it's quite exciting for them, we're hoping to be able to spread the gospel in their language soon.

You may have read along the way about this lady, she's been a member about thirty years, May or Laiw May, she's Chinese from Northern Sumatra in Indonesian, and her brother who is older than she, his name is Finn. He's paranoid schizophrenic and though he's on medication, sometimes the medication doesn't work and many many many times he's tried to kill her. We've written about this in the past, we'd appreciate your prayers for her. Very recently he injured her quite severely and she's still on medication getting treatment, he's tried to kill her in various ways. Afterward though he's very contrite and it's very difficult for her to know what to do. Institutionally, that's not an option, as she's told me, it's basically would be like a death sentence for her brother and she doesn't feel she can do that so she's chosen for the last twenty odd years to take care of Finn, so we would appreciate your prayers for both of them and for her safety.

On the left is a young lady who is a member in Jakarta, Angelita. This is the first baptized member in Indonesia, Mrs. Lim, probably been in the church about 35 years. These folks have been around a long time as well. This gentleman here, he worked on one of the cruise ships that came into Times Square or to Manhattan — he came there, he was walking around Times Square about 30 years ago and he found a Plain Truth on a stand, took it with him back home to Indonesia and he was baptized. See we never know how these things work — to the ends of the earth, literally! Amazing.

God expects that His word would be spread around the earth to all peoples and we know at this time it will only go to a few people, only a few people will be called and chosen but we look forward to the time when it will go to everyone. Abraham was of a similar mind and he was commanded to go out to a new land. Let's look at Hebrews 11 if you would please. It is more comfortable to stay at home, it's more comfortable to stay in a culture that you're used to, you just have a quieter life, not to say that you don't have problems, I'm fully aware of that and realize that the United States has its fair share at the moment, and it has a ripple effect of course around the world. But Abraham was willing, in faith, to go out as God commanded him. Let's look at verse 8.

Heb. 11:8 — By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Now when you plan a trip, you know where you're going, in fact you might plan for months and months if not many years, financially and otherwise. He did not do that, he didn't know where he was going; he didn't know where God would take him. In a similar way, the Church of God today, and for a long time now, is going out into places out in the world, wherever God would like to call people. The beauty of the internet is that people in really really remote places, like those ones I told you about earlier, Kiribati, they found us on the internet, e-mailed me and asked me for literature. What are the odds of that? How would we ever reach people without these types of technological tools? Of course God can do it other ways, as you see with that man with the Plain Truth in Times Square, but that's a very unusual circumstance of course. Abraham however, went out, obeyed God and he knew he had a spiritual responsibility to do this and it would impact many many people.

V. 9 — By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. So he had a vision, not just physical, but spiritual.

V. 11 — By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

Ladies, if your husband said, "We're going to move to Kiribati," would you go? But Sarah went, not knowing where they would end up, what the conditions would be and of course you realize he was greatly blessed, he was a very competent person, he had great flocks, great wealth and God blessed him in this new place. But it is scary, it's difficult to go out and go and live in different places. The first place I moved to was in 1982 and I went to a refugee camp in Northern Thailand, you might remember, if you've been around awhile, the programs we had then and it was very unusual, very strange, couldn't speak the language, couldn't speak Thai but I ended up staying there eight years, you know you never know how these things will work out in your life and I guess I would encourage you, young people particularly to consider your future, how God might be able to use you, not just in this United States or North America but perhaps other parts of the world. You can learn languages, you can do a lot of things that you might not think you might be able to do and God will help you along the way.

V. 11 — By faith Sarah herself gained strength — God took care of her and what happened?

V. 12 — Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead...he was a goner apparently, no, he was elderly, they shouldn't have been able to have children...from that one man were born as many as the stars of the sky and multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

V. 13 — And these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

V. 14 — For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

Here you are in Cincinnati at the ends of the earth, compared with Jerusalem. Your forbearers, your ancestors came this far but what we're really looking to is the whole earth would look to God, realize that they're strangers and pilgrims on the earth and that they look for something far better than what is around us. This seems comfortable of course, what we have around us, but what's more important is what Abraham and Sarah looked to — a new homeland.

V. 15 — And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out...they got homesick...they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

The few brethren that you just saw on the screen, they kept the Sabbath yesterday — or today, however you like to look at it — they believe the same things you do, they don't believe that they're going to be alive forever; they look forward to the Kingdom of God, to the resurrection, to the change, the return of Jesus Christ. They look forward to a heavenly country. And the good news is gone out to all areas of the world and it's going further and further. We have a very very big job ahead of us. Abraham had that vision, we need to have the same type of vision ourselves. If you would turn with me to Hebrews 2. God wanted human beings to multiply and fill the whole earth, to go to the ends of the earth, He also wants His ways, His truth, His way of life, to go to the ends of the earth as well, but He has even greater plans than that, that are to go throughout this earth and beyond.

Heb. 2:5-8 — For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under His feet." For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

We're part of a family, part of a vision, we have goals, we're looking forward to the Kingdom of God, you know Christ has come before us and He's coming back, He's going to lead us forward into His kingdom. But it doesn't just stop with all of us, it's not just for this little group or the little groups that we have all over the world, it's for all nations and eventually he will subdue the entire earth. Remember back in Hebrews 11, they had the vision of the future, they were convicted about the kingdom of God, they expected that to go everywhere and that was their goal. Let's conclude with me now, look at one scripture, Matthew 24:14.

Matt. 24:14 —"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

The end has not yet come, we still have a responsibility, we still have brethren to take care of, we have brethren that we don't even know about yet who will be coming to us. If you would turn with me to Philippians 3 and then we'll conclude. We welcome you to attend the Feast in all these international areas, we encourage you to do so, the brethren love to have visitors and I think the other thing is you would see that they have the same vision, sing the same hymns, have the same goals. We are all one body around the earth.

I want to read Philippians 3:20 from the Living Bible, you might want to listen along, it's slightly different.

Phil. 3:20 — (LB) — But our homeland is in heaven, where our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is, and we are looking forward to His return from there and when He comes back, He will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like His own, using the same mighty power that He will use to conquer all else everywhere.

Sounds like "to the ends of the earth!" Not only the earth, but beyond and that's what we've been speculating about for years and years haven't we? But we need to keep going so that we make sure that we're here when He does come to subdue the earth. We're a part of that team that He has built and that we're faithful to the very end.

So appreciate the opportunity to be with you today and if you have any other questions about any of these areas, please let me know, I'd be happy to talk with you afterwards.