This Christmas, performances of Handel's Messiah will still fill concert halls. His musical setting of Bible verses, selected by his friend Rev. Charles Jennens, is a brilliantly undiluted gospel narrative. Around halfway through, is a chorus from Psalm 68:11 - "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of the preachers". Although translations vary, the meaning is clear: God gives His message to be distributed by many believers, so that others can respond to it in faith.
The next piece is a missionary soprano aria from Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." These preachers are not locked in their pulpits, but they move out from their comfort zones with God's message, and take it to people who are without hope and without God - announcing that only the Lord Jesus can bring peace.
Following that is another missional chorus, "Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the earth." This is from Romans 10:18. The movement of the preachers was not simply local or national, but international. The Apostle Paul often found such travel to be very dangerous, as he reported in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28.
Jennens (1700-1773) was 15 years younger than Handel (1685-1759); he knew the gospel of Jesus well - from all parts of the Bible. He put the words into a sequence that tells the gospel story. He understood that the purpose of Christ's incarnation, passion and ascension - was that people from every nation might hear the news that the Prince of Peace had come to die for them.
Cross-cultural mission blossomed in the 18th Century. The Lord convicted the UK church to go overseas with the gospel; and so, the Baptist Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society were founded.
The Lord convinced them that spreading His Word was their commission; that preachers should be many and not just a few; that their gospel travelling was beautiful to the Lord, even if hazardous to them; and that their words would be God's Word to their hearers. The result was a huge evangelistic ministry that changed Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
BeaconLight never intended to work overseas. However, the Lord enabled Word@Work to be read internationally - linking us with gospel workers in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. That was some 300 years after the Baptist, William Cary; the Anglicans, John Venn, Charles Simeon and William Wilberforce; the Congregationalist, Edward Williams, and the Presbyterian, John Love stimulated great gospel missionary movements, which were also concerned for social justice.
Today, apart from a significant ministry in UK prisons and other 'restricted communities', most of BeaconLight's ministry is in East Africa, Nigeria, and Ethiopia in Africa; Malaysia, Myanmar and Nepal in Asia; and the greatest penetration of Word@Work into communities is in the Pacific Islands.
So, if you hear The Messiah this Christmas, remember that 300 years ago a missionary movement was founded. It brought the God-given Word of Christ's saving grace across the globe, and many believed.
BeaconLight believes the same. The Lord has led us unmistakably to those same areas of the world - supporting a new generation of 'beautiful feet' to go and preach the gospel of peace.
As many Christians prayed earnestly and gave financially 300 years ago, please strengthen your fellowship with us as the Lord leads.
Happy Christmas from the BeaconLight team!