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Let's stand to read Matthew 28:18–20:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18–20)
No passage of Scripture more defines the life of William Carey than this one. And no life more illustrates the passage than William Carey.
Carey lived in a day when many around him—even strong, theological Christians—rejected that the Great Commission was a mandate for their day. They assumed it was for the early apostles only. Or they assumed some eschatological event in the future had to happen before the gospel could be released to the world. That was the view of the Baptist John Gill.
Carey knew such views were flawed and would speak and write against them. And then he would pray to see more saints give themselves to the Great Commission in his own day. And then he became the answer to his own prayers.
He did not think himself a great man. To his nephew Eustace he wrote,
“I can plod and persevere. That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”
William Carey to his nephew Eustace[1]
We’ll see there was a greatness to Carey that made him a catalyst in the history of the church.
First I’m going to give you a biography of Carey, and then I’m going to consider how we should respond to such a life.
Prayer
Carey was born in Northamptonshire, England, central England. Before he left for India, all of his life and pastorates weren’t more than 50 miles from where he was born, never in cities of any great significance.
He was born in 1761—30 years after the First Great Awakening in the American colonies, a revival connected to Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley. Carey was born 16 years before the Colonies declared Independence from England.
His father was a weaver and schoolmaster, and his grandfather was also a schoolmaster (C, 3[2]). This allowed for Carey to have a basic education, but he lacked the means for any significant education. He was educated from 6 to 14 years old in his father’s school.
But he was a curious soul. He was so obsessed with Christopher Columbus and his travels, his friends called him “Columbus” (C, 18). He was fascinated by plants and animals, an obsession he would take with him to India.
With few other prospects, Carey became a shoemarker. He would practice the trade for a dozen years from 16 to 28-years-old. Such a trade meant being an apprentice first, and he landed on the doorstep of Clarke Nichols of Piddington. Wikipedia tells me that the population of Piddington in 1931 was 342 people.
Nichols had another apprentice, a Christian named John Warr (C, 24). Warr was a Congregationalist, which at the time meant he was a Nonconformist—“not conforming” to the Church of England. At this time Carey “disdained Dissenters” and was profoundly condescending toward them (C, 24). In Carey’s day being a Dissenter or Nonconformist meant you could not serve in government, be an officer in the military, or graduate from a university (C, 5).
John Warr was a passionate evangelist, and talked of Christ often to Nichols and Carey. Carey was converted at this time, though he doesn’t know when.
When the king called for a day of prayer and fasting when the war with America wasn’t going well—for England!—Carey went with John Warr to the “meeting-house” (C, 27) of his Nonconformist church. This was February 10, 1779. Carey was affected by the preaching and the people. He became a Nonconformist and remained in those circles all his life.
Carey was always drawn to books and reading. One day he came across writing in an unknown script and sought help. It was Greek, a friend told him. That friend would tutor him in Greek, but Carey’s abilities soon surpassed the teacher’s (C, 27). He added Latin and Hebrew to his list of languages in the coming years.
June 10, 1781 married Dorothy Plackett, who was illiterate but who came from a “puritan” home (C, 31). In their early marriage, “He loved his wife, stitched his leather, studied his books, progressed in his Latin and Greek, and dressed and kept his own first garden, worshipped with the village saints, and exulted in their first-born, naming her ‘Ann’” (C, 31).
A year later William Carey and his daughter Ann suffered from a severe fever. Ann died from the illness. Carey was left bald on the top of his head at 22 (C, 31).
About this time Carey was asked to take part in a plan to provide “lay preachers” to various small congregations in the area (C, 31). His preaching was well received.
At this time his influences came into focus. One was local, Andrew Fuller. He was a prominent Reformed Baptist leader in the area, and Carey heard him preach on many occasions. They would become lifelong friends and Fuller a huge supporter of the mission in India.
Another influence was the writings of the American Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). Edwards combined several things not always joined together. He was a Calvinist and yet he was passionate about the expansion of the gospel throughout the whole world. Edwards also wrote a biography of the missionary David Brainerd that was second only to the Bible in its importance for Carey. In the founding charter of the mission in India, one of its core principles was to think often of David Brainerd and the life he lived among the Native Americans.
And Edwards also called for regular gatherings of prayer for the advance of the gospel throughout the world (G, 49, 50).
Carey did part ways with Edwards on baptism. Carey started as a paedobaptist but as a young man he began to search the Scriptures and became convinced that baptism was for only those who with a “conscious faith and consecration” (C, 34). So, at 23, he was baptized (C, 34).
But another influence might be less obvious.
Soon after his baptism someone lent him Captain Cook’s Voyages. These were the log books of English Navy Captain James Cook (1728–1779). Cook had sailed all over the world, almost literally. And he published his adventures. Carey was transfixed by it all—the lands, the cultures, the adventure. And all by an Englishman.
Yet, it wasn’t just the adventure of it. He was struck by the reality of so many unbelievers who were engaged in so much evil. Their godlessness led to cannibalism, child sacrifice, and all kinds of barbarianism (C, 35).
At this time Carey was drawn to teaching, the profession of his grandfather and father. He went 10 miles away to the town of Moulton and started a school (C, 41). He was still a shoemaker. Teaching was a passion and a ticket to learning himself.
While in Moulton the local Baptist church was pastorless. He began to fill in on Sundays as he was able. He was a godsend. Eventually he was ordained as pastor in Moulton in August, 1787, and given a small stipend.
Carey was keenly aware of his own lack of education. But he was not deterred by this. He persisted in teaching himself languages. He had already taught himself Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. And in Moulton he added French and Italian. In these Moulton years, Andrew Fuller had a hand in finding a patron for Carey who would pay him enough weekly that he could stop his shoemaking and give more time to study (C, 46).
Eventually he was invited to be part of a pastors discussion group. An elder pastor John Ryland asked for discussion topics. Carey wanted to discuss the Great Commission. He said, if the promise in the Great Commission of Christ’s presence with us is still true, is it not still true that the command to teach all the nations is still true? (C, 47).
John Ryland was a Hyper-Calvinist and follower of John Gill, and would have none of it. The story is told that he said, “Young man, sit down, sit down! You’re an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He’ll do it without consulting you or me. Besides, there must first be another pentecostal gift of tongues!” Ryland would later deny the story, but given Ryland’s theology, it’s likely that he did rebuke Carey along these lines (H, 41).
Carey was undeterred.
On the wall in his workshop he had a map of the world filled with all the information about all the world’s populations he could gather from any source (C, 47). He noted population totals and anything about the religion of the people. S. Pearcy Carey wrote, “His globe was his other Bible” (C, 48).
“The call of God came to Northamptonshire Baptists at Clipston in 1791, at the Association’s Easter gathering in the meeting-house on the hill” (C, 63). Two men had preached sermons calling for a global vision for the evangelization of the world. Carey thought the moment ripe and appealed for action, for the beginning of a mission to the unreached (C, 64).
The others were not ready yet, but they decided that Carey should revise and publish a pamphlet he wrote on missions. It has had a massive impact combined with the life he went on to live.
The title, An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen (1792).
The work is divided into five sections. In Section One he looks at the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16–20 and considers whether it’s still binding on Christians. He said, Yes! If Jesus’ promise to be with us till the end of the age is still true, then his command is still on us. For those who say that the need in our country is too great, he says they already have the means of grace.
In Section Two he reviews all of church history and the missions that took place throughout each century. In Section Three he presents a chart of all the countries of the world. He gives their population, size, and a brief description of their religious state. He estimates there are 781 million people, hundreds of millions of them spiritually lost. Wikipedia says the population in 1800 was 1 billion, so Carey isn’t far off. He wrote of the need in many countries—some without a written language, many without a gospel witness, many living with horrific pagan practices.
In Sections Four and Five he presented practical ideas about the mission might be accomplished. He spoke of the kind of men who should be missionaries—resourceful, godly, married, able to farm and hunt. Ideally they’d travel with others who could help support the missionary.
But then he also spoke of Christians joining together in missionary societies governed by mission boards, who could organize the support to keep the missionaries in the field.
What is astonishing about all this is how completely Carey did exactly what he described. Like I said, he had never even travelled throughout England. And yet, God gave him an apostolic vision of missions that he spent the rest of his life fulfilling. Amazing.
Not long after publishing this pamphlet he preached what has been called “The Deathless Sermon” in May 1792. It was to a gathering of Baptist ministers in a rural meeting-house. It was a two-point sermon: (1) Expect great things. (2) Attempt great things. Eventually it has gotten paraphrased as “expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” The pastors were inspired to give toward missions but no great action was taken.
Late in the evening when William Carey realized no mission work was going to start, he was devastated. He turned to Andrew Fuller, “Is there nothing again going to be done, sir?” (C, 78). Fuller was overcome by Carey’s emotion and by the Holy Spirit. Immediately a resolution was made to form “A Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel, among the Heathens” (C, 78).
Their unofficial motto was Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (H, 52).
Offerings were taken up. They were profoundly modest and the amounts would be mocked by others. Yet, they were like the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8 who didn’t give out of their wealth but out of their “extreme poverty,” and to God it was a lavish generosity (2 Cor 8:2).
Biographer S. Pearce Carey said, “In human terms they realy were nobodies from nowhere, with no influence beyond their village bounds. Indeed, their villages were so obscure that a mid-Englander would have never heard of them! Braybrooke, Cottesbrooke, Foxton, Thrapston, Arnesby, and Roade were unknown place-names” (C, 83).
But with the forming of this missionary society finally real movement was happening, though it would take another year before he left.
One of the figures to enter the circle of this developing missionary society was a Dr. John Thomas (1757–1801), an English Baptist medical doctor.
Thomas had reachd out to Carey after returning from India. He was working there as a doctor and desired to see a true mission to Bengal (G, 71). He heard about Carey and the interest in missions and wanted to make an introduction.
Ultimately, this arrival of Thomas is why Carey went to India. Carey’s original intention was Tahiti—still impacted from Captain Cook’s journals. India was selected, and it was decided that Thomas and Carey would go together.
Thomas and Carey were not the first Englishman to go to India, but they were the first to go entirely to preach Christ (C, 133).
Thomas would be a complicated partner, at times a Godsend and at times a total disaster. But, he was the man God raised up.
June 13, 1793, Carey and his entourage left England and sailed for India. Carey and his wife would never return. Carey was 31 years old. He lived another 40 years but never returned to England. He would live and die basically where he landed in India.
Joining Carey and his wife was son Felix (b. 1785), William Jr. (b. 1788), son Peter (b. 1789), daughter Lucy (b. 1791), and a very young Jabez (b. 1793, a month before departure).
When they arrived their hardships began immediately, the first being financial. Due to Thomas’ miscalculations, they were almost immediately destitute.
Another early hardship was his wife’s emotional condition. Their financial condition was profoundly difficult for her.
The year after they arrive she got dysentery and son Peter got sick. Peter died from his illness, only five years old. She had a kind of mental break she never recovered from (C, 137). It got to the point where she became paranoid and even delusional. After another bout with dysentery, S. Pearcy Carey wrote, “her brain became the haunted chamber of morbid fancies and tormenting fears” (C, 158).
Another son Jonathan would be born to them in India in 1796. Carey hoped Jonathan would rejuvenate his wife, but he didn’t. She died in 1807 after 14 difficult years in India.
After they arrived in India, the first order of business was how to survive. There were natural threats—tigers in the woods, cobras, diseases.
Finances were the larger threat, though. Their income was minimal, and he was determined to be self-supporting as soon as possible. Profit from his garden and making indigo were attempted.
Carey had a decent knack for small businesses and was able to piece these sources of income together to do moderately well. Before long he was able to write the missionary society that he no longer needed their assistance (C, 155). This was a very up-and-down situation, however.
Communication between the mission and England was difficult. At one point, Carey did not receive letters for 2 years (C, 159). His arrrived there, but there’s didn’t reach Carey. This brought misunderstandings and unanswered questions. The mission society were puzzled that there were no converts but Carey was creating a profitable business. Was he now going the way of the trading company? Ultimately, Carey was able to reassure them his priorities were unchanged.
Actually, Carey began immediately as an evangelist, as much as his knowledge of the language would allow. Every Sunday and several nights a week he would visit villages and any gathering available to preach Christ (C, 161).
He was voracious in learning the Indian languages and dialects: Sanscrit, Hindustani, and more besides (C, 168–169). Within four years he had translated several books of the Bible into Bengali (C, 169). In March 1801 the first Bengali NT is finished (C, 199).
In terms of conversions, these years appeared to be fruitless. Yet, Carey was dogged in his determination:
I would not abandon the Mission for all the fellowships and finest spheres in England. My greatest calamity would be separation from this service. May I be useful in laying the foundations of Christ’s Church in India; I desire no greater reward, nor can conceive higher honour....Christ has begun to besiege this ancient and strong fortress, and will assuredly carry it.
William Carey in a letter[3]
In terms of the culture he was reaching, we can say a few things.
In 1799 he witnessed a widow burning. When a man died and his body was being burned, it was considered a great act of holiness for the wife to join her husband on the funeral pyre. He saw this as an outrage. He asked if it was the widow’s choice, and the crowd assured him it was. He continued to appeal, but it was fruitless. He never forgot the event (G, 151).
To this can be added the sacrifice of infants to the god of the river. “Childless wives were taught to vow to the sacred river that if she would grant them children, they would give one back in solemn sacrifice.” Pushed into the river, the infants either drowned or were eaten by crocodiles and sharks (C, 212).
Eventually, Carey would play a part in these practices being illegal (C, 212).
Thanks to Carey’s work and the work of the missionary society back in England, others joined Carey in the mission. William Ward had joined him in 1799, and Joshua and Hannah Marshman that same year. All three would die in India as missionaries, first Ward (1823), then Carey (1834), and the last Marshman (1837).
Carey was committed to an egalitarian leadership style and demanded a total submission to the mission. All was for Christ and the mission (C, 185).
William Ward was a printer by trade, but he “would become the best preacher at Serampore and would prove to be all but indispensable as the mission’s ‘printing press manager, cross-cultural pastoral counselor, and peacemaker’” (H, 97).
Joshua Marshman possessed an extreme diligence, was unflappable, and also “more pugnacious by nature than either Carey or Ward” but would become an invaluable “apologist for the mission” (H, 98). They would need it at many points!
“They agreed that publication of the Scriptures was their first objective” (C, 186).
Eventually Carey moved from Calcutta and surrounding areas to Serampore (C, 182). A fairly international city but “overwhelmingly Hindu, and Brahmin influence specially dominant” (C, 183).
The covenant at Serampore, read three times annually – C, 240.
The Serampore Mission Covenant
To set an infinite value on men's souls.
To acquaint ourselves with the snares which hold the minds of the people.
To abstain from whatever deepens India's prejudice against the Gospel.
To watch for every chance of doing the people good.
To ‘preach Christ crucified’ as the grand means of conversions.
To esteem and treat Indians always as our equals.
To guard and build up the hosts that may be gathered.
To cultivate their spiritual gifts, ever pressing upon them their missionary obligation—since Indians only can win India for Christ.
To labour unceasingly in biblical translation.
To be instant in the nurture of personal religion.
To give ourselves without reserve to the cause, not counting even the clothes we wear our own.
Let us often look at Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the people. Prayer, secret, fervent, expectant, lies at the root of all personal godliness.[4]
Carey’s linguistic abilities were remarkable. Ultimately he would translate the Bible into “six of the great languages of India—Bengali, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Oriya—as well as parts of the Scirptures into twenty-nine other languages” (H, 100). “As a grammarian, Carey was brilliant” (H, 100).
Carey also had an unwavering dedication to this task. In 1803, a decade after he got to India, he wrote to Andrew Fuller, “If we are given another fifteen years, we hope to translate and print the Scriptures into all the chief languages of Hindustan” (C, 389). God gave him another 30 years, and his goal was achieved in some stunning ways.
A certain convinction of Carey’s, though, prevented his translations from achieving what they could have. He believed that the translation should mirror the original Greek and Hebrew as closely as possible, rather than capturing the vernacular as well as possible. Within 33 years his Bengali translation was replaced. By contrast, Adoniram Judson’s (1788–1850) translation into Burmese has endured for over 200 years.
The slogan of Carey’s became a deeply-felt conviction for the mission: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God” (C, 187). This was from his “Deathless Sermon” preached back in England when they formed the missionary society.
Finally in December, 1800, seven years after landing in India, they baptized their first convert. Krishna Pal had heard the gospel from others, but then he heard it from Carey and their mission. The culminating event was a separated shoulder that Krishna Pal got from an injury. Dr. Thomas helped with the shoulder. Carey’s son Jabez proved an effective gospel witness to him. Eventually Krishna Pal came to faith and proved a faithful and very effective evangelist (C, 197). Dozens would come to Christ through his preaching.
Krishna Pal was poor and therefore part of a lower caste in India. The Serampore missionaries made a decision about the bitterly divisive caste system in India. They decided early on that they would reject any semblance of caste in their discipleship or church building. To them it was simply antithetical to the gospel (C, 199). Earlier Christian efforts had tried to accommodate caste and Christianity, but it had disastrous results.
Thus, when an upper-caste “Kyast” named Pitambar Singh was converted, he broke his caste and ate with Krishna Pal the converted carpenter (C, 222). As Carey would later say, “The Cross is mightier than the Caste” (C, 244).
In 1801, Carey was hand-picked for an unexpected position. He became a professor at Fort William College in Calcutta, a British effort to train English leaders for work in the country. He served there for almost 30 years (C, 206). His credentials were not academic (he had no degree), but purely for his unprecedented knowledge of the languages and culture. As his resume he could hand the administrators his recently translated Bengali New Testament (C, 207).
This would provide support for his long-term efforts of gaining mastery of the languages. He would create grammars and dictionaries of a half-dozen Indian languages and dialects, many of these used for decades (C, 211, 216).
Because of Carey’s favor, the Vice-Provost of the college, helped launch a Bible translation department (C, 231). The Bible translation and printing began to grow exponentially in scale.
Yet, with every advance, Carey felt an increased vision. He was consumed by the project.
His daily regimen was to pray, translate the Bible in several different languages, continue to study his Greek and Hebrew, attend to his classes, preach when he had the opportunity (C, 236–237).
In 1816 the mission felt called to establish a college. They proposed to build Serampore College as a place of “Eastern, Western, and biblical learning” (C, 325). The goal was to equip “native evangelists” and others desiring the education they provided. The scale was unprecedented, far surpassing the level of education others had seen as sufficient for Indians. But it also far surpassed the instincts of “untravelled British Baptists, so many of whom were shy of college training for even their own ministers” (C, 326).
As an institution it would reject the caste system and all people from all castes to study together. The hope was that the education would be strong enough that upper caste families would send their sons to study alongside lower caste men. The college was free for the poor, and 11 upper caste Brahmins sent their sons to study alongside the several dozen other lower caste students.
One of William Ward’s daughters would go on to start a free school for Indian girls, something incredibly rare (C, 334).
By 1821 more than 1,400 believers (half were Indian) were baptized (H, 105).
Throughout their years there, the mission experienced major setbacks.
Sometimes the battle was with the government or the East India Company, forbidding them from preaching in the open. Whenever they were blocked, they pivoted and adjusted their evangelism to the new limitations (C, 251–257).
At one point back in England the charter for the East India Company was being renewed. The East India Company was a trading company set up to open trade for England into India and the east. Many wanted to see missionaries expelled as part of that. But the mission society worked tirelessly. Even William Wilberforce the great abolitionist would appeal in Parliament on behalf of Carey and the missionaries. They won the vote and were allowed to continue (C, 265).
In 1812 there was a fire in their printing office. It is unknown how it started, but it spread rapidly. They lost everything except five printing presses—a significant rescue. But an immense amount of paper, dozens of translations of the Bible in progress were lost, prepared type-sets for new Bibles awaiting publication (C, 285–289).
But they rallied together and that night recounted God’s blessings. “In twelve years their one Bengal church of eleven members had become eleven churches, with an average of thrice eleven in each. They had twenty native evangelists. Calcutta’s membership had doubled in the previous year to 110, and its missionary spirit was most active” (C, 290). Carey’s sermon the next Sunday was from Psalm 46, “Be still, and know that I am God” (C, 291).
But back in England, the fire had an unexpected effect. As Christians back home heard of what was lost, they finally grasped the scale of what the mission had achieved. They were stunned at the achievements by their little band of missionaries (C, 293).
His family joined him in the mission. He was widowed twice on the mission field, Dorothy dying in 1807 and his second wife Charlotte in 1821.
His son Felix eventually went to Burma as a missionary. In a letter Carey said to him,
Let the Burmese language occupy your most precious time, and your most anxious solicitude....Observe a rigid economy. Missionary funds are the most sacred on earth. Cultivate brotherly love.....Preach the never-failing Word of the Cross. Be instant in season and out. Do not despise the patient instruction of one Burman....The day when our Saviour says to you and to us ‘Well done!’ will make amends for all we feel at parting.
William Carey in a letter to his son Felix[5]
His son Jabez was converted in 1812 about the age of 19. Ultimately, he, too, would become a missionary. A letter as he was leaving for Ambon in Indonesia:
A few hints from a father who loves you tenderly will, I am sure, not be wasted. Trust always in Christ. Be pure of heart. Live a life of prayer and of devotedness to God. Be gentle and unassuming, yet firm and manly....Feel that you are a man, and always act with that dignified sincerity, which will command men’s respect....A gentleman is the next best character after a Christian, and the latter includes the former....Labour incessantly to become a perfect master of the Malay (language)....But your great work, my dear Jabez, is that of a Christian ministry....Should I never see you on earth, I trust we shall meet with joy before His throne.
Your very, very affectionate father
William Carey in a letter to his son Jabez[6]
At 70 years old, Carey wrote a letter to Jabez:
I am this day seventy years old—a monument of divine mercy and goodness; though, on a review of my life, I find much, very much, for which I ought to be humbled in the dust. My direct and positive sins are innumerable; my negligence in the Lord's work has been great; I have not promoted his cause nor sought his glory and honor as I ought. Notwithstanding all this, I am spared till now and am still retained in his work. I trust for acceptance with him to the blood of Christ alone; and I hope I am received into the divine favor through him. I wish to be more entirely devoted to his service, more completely sanctified, and more habitually exercising all the Christian graces, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness to the praise and honor of that Savior who gave his life a sacrifice for sin.
William Carey, letter to his son Jabez, May 17, 1831[7]
When the time of his death did come, Carey expressed more ability to rest in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. He had no doubts he would be received in heaven through Christ.
Jabez would die of a fever before Carey’s own death (C, 358).
Carey died June 9, 1834, when he was 72. On his tombstone with his name and dates he asked that an excerpt from an Isaac Watts hymn be inscribed:
A wretched, poor, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall.
Isaac Watts, “How Sad Our State”
What do we do with William Carey? His life was unique in so many ways. I recently heard a sermon by seminary president who seemed to basically yell at his audience because they weren’t more like William Carey. He commented that Carey dreamed about the lost in India, and then angrily asked us what we dreamed about. That is NOT how to respond to the life of William Carey.
First, you have to see that God uniquely gifted and empowered Carey. God has a million ways that he makes us in very customized ways for the life he wants us to live.
One small example is the way Carey responded to the journals of the Navy Captain James Cook. It birthed a longing and passion in him for the world that never left him.
Even John Newton, the slave-trader turned pastor and writer of “Amazing Grace” said of William Carey:
Such a man as Carey is more to me than bishop or archbishop: he is an apostle.
John Newton (1725–1807)[8]
Yes! I do believe Carey had the gifting of an apostle. Remember his vision in his early pamphlet on missions. He saw strategically how a nation could be reached with the gospel. Saw how normal Christians could work together to see it happen. And then he did it, and it bore tremendous fruit. The fact it resulted in thousands converted and dozens of churches planted tells us, this is apostolic gifting.
What is your gifting? A key part of bearing fruit in the Christian life is having some sense of how you’re gifted, and then using those gifts for Christ and his kingdom.
Don’t be paralyzed about what your gifting is. Pray. Look at how God’s providence has worked in your life. And then move forward. He is the Good Shepherd who guides the sheep. He’ll direct you.
Second, Carey reminds us that good doctrine and a passion to reach people are friends, not enemies. Carey was a 5-point Calvinist, a convinced Baptist, and an excellent Bible scholar. And out of that theology he knew that God wanted the church to be first and foremost faithful to Christ, but then faithful to the mission. Carey preached true Christian integrity. But he also preached the Great Commission mandate. All out of his theology.
Third, Carey reminds us that the mission of the church is always a mission of the church and not of an individual. The Great Commission is given to Christ’s church, his people on earth. Not one or two or 100 individuals.
Carey was never alone. He didn’t call himself. Or send himself. Or live an independent life. He banded with a dedicated group in England, and then he banded with a dedicated group in India, and kept these connections alive over the years. It was always a community of Christians that allowed for Carey to bear such good fruit for so long.
Fourth, Carey was absolutely determined to bear fruit doing what was before him. Whether Carey was a shoemaker teaching himself Greek in England or a university professor in India, whatever he was doing, he was determined to do it all for Christ and his kingdom.
Carey’s life should make some of us ask, am I working hard enough? But others should ask, am I working hard enough at the right things? That’s a hard question to answer.
Fifth, is there a ministry step you can take? A mission trip this summer? Being more committed to investing in the people of Cornerstone? Sharing the gospel with that friend whose been on your mind? Don’t despise the small steps for Christ. These have ways of multiplying!
Sixth, remember that it is our Triune God who is “the Lord of the Harvest” (Matt 9:38), directing all things and empowering all Christians to accomplish his will. He will save his elect. Not one of them will be lost. We are workers in his harvest fields, but he is the Lord of the Harvest. We don’t need to worry about whether the Great Commission will be accomplished. Our God will accomplish it!
Remember Revelation 7:9–12. It will happen. Our Lord of the Harvest will bring in every last one of his people. One day we will all be together praising our God:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev 7:9–12)
May we join him in that harvest wherever he places us and doing whatever he calls us to do.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Col 3:23–24)
Amen. Let’s pray.
[1] Cited in S. Pearce Carey, William Carey (1923 orig.; London: The Wakeman Trust, 1993), 20.
[2] C = S. Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1993); H = Michael Haykin, The Missionary Fellowship of William Carey (Ligonier: 2018); G = Timothy George, Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey (Christian History Institute, 1998).
[3] Cited C, 171.
[4] Cited C, 240.
[5] C, 270–271.
[6] C, 303–304.
[7] Cited H, 118.
[8] Cited H, 2.
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