Guiding Lights #2 - "Our Inward Commitment: Disciple-Making" (Colossians 1:28-29)

All right, let's turn our thoughts to the Word of God. We are in week two of three in the sermon series that we are in, which we've called Guiding Lights, a biblical look at the core values of Redeemer Bible Fellowship.

And this morning, if you have a copy of God's Word, which I hope you do, take and turn with me to Colossians chapter one. That's what we're going to be this morning. Colossians and chapter one, Colossians chapter one.

The passage that we're going to look at is verses 28 and 29, just two verses. But I want to read it in its context. And so we're going to read from chapter one, verse 24, through to verse three of chapter two.

So Colossians chapter one from verse 24 through to chapter two, verse three. If you grabbed one of the red Bibles that we give away, that's on page 1043, bottom of page 1043 and the top of page 1044. Colossians chapter one from verse 24 through to chapter two, verse three.

If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me as we come to the reading of God's Word. We do this out of respect for the Word of God as we come to hear it proclaimed. So Colossians chapter one, beginning in verse 24.

Brothers and sisters, this is the Word of God to us this morning. Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for you and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for his body, that is the church.

I have become its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim him. Warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea and for all those who have not seen me in person.

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom.

And Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away but his words will by no means pass away. Allow me to pray, ask for the Spirit's help and we will get to work in God's Word this morning. Let's pray together.

Lord, we ask that as we proclaim your Word this morning, that your Spirit would do a work both in the one who speaks and in your people who hear, that you would grant me clarity of thought and clarity of expression as I seek to be faithful to your Word this morning.

And I pray that as your people hear your Word, that as the Word is preached, that that wonderful work that your Spirit does would take place, that, Lord I pray, that ears would become eyes, that as we hear about the Lord Jesus and we hear about the Word of God, the Spirit of God would transform what we hear into a new vision of the Lord Jesus.

May our hearts be taken up with him and with the mission that he has given us.

And Father, as I pray for us,.

I pray for our friends at Creekside Bible Church this morning, pray for our brother Ross, who is up there helping them out with leading their musical worship this morning. Pray for, I believe it's Pastor Tommy, who's preaching this morning.

Pray that as they have gathered there, that you would bless them. Thank you for just the kinship we have in the gospel, our shared understanding of the mission that we share. I pray for Pastor Lucas, who gives leadership there, and to all the elders.

Pray that your Spirit would be at work there. May disciples be made for the glory of Christ, even this morning. I pray that for them, and I pray that for us even now, as we come to the word of God, and we ask it all in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Please be seated. When our Lord and Savior, King Jesus, was leaving this earth to go back to the glory that he had known since before the world was even an idea in God's mind, when he was leaving, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords gave his disciples, his apostles, their marching orders.

The King had risen from the grave. He was, as it were, going to his coronation, if you will. But as he was going, he gave those who were nearest and dearest to his own heart, he gave them very distinct marching orders.

These were not to be a suggestion. These were not to be something that they did once they did some other things. This was to be their mission. And if you've been around church for any length of time, you could probably recite these words in your sleep.

I put them in the study guide just to make things easier. Matthew 28, Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. 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, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. According to Jesus, what was the mission that he, as the King of Kings, was giving to these first citizens of his kingdom? The mission was to go and to make disciples.

I fear that we hear that word so often, the word disciple. We hear it so often, I think it loses the forcefulness of it. So for a moment, it's actually gonna be kind of important given this is what our message is about today.

Let me define what a disciple is. The word that appears in your English Bible as disciple, that word is an interesting one. It's actually where we get our word maths from. So mathematics, you may think maths and discipleship, where's the link?

Well, it's simple.

The idea of that word is somebody who learns, a learner, a student. I've often wondered, if we swap the word disciple for student, would that change the way we do some things in church? I've often just wondered, because that's what Jesus told his disciples to go and do.

Go and make learners, students, followers of me. And here's the thing, when Jesus said that to his disciples, his disciples knew exactly what that meant because that's what Jesus had done with them. Jesus had called them, so even in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter three, Jesus had called them from whatever they were doing and basically said, drop what you're doing and come follow me.

So the disciples weren't unaware of what this meant because they had three years of sitting under Christ as he made disciples. So how did the early church do? How did they get on with this? Well, I think two things become very apparent when you read the book of Acts.

That's the record of the early years of the church. Number one, the early church under the leadership of the apostles sought to be faithful to that command. There was never any confusion what the command was.

And so they sought to be faithful to it. And the second thing you see is not only did they seek to be faithful to it, I think you can argue they succeeded somewhat in that mission. You're taking notes, Acts chapter six, verse one.

Acts chapter six, verse one, it says, in those days as the disciples were increasing in number. Again, if you read that in isolation, you might miss the force of that. Acts chapter two, how many people got converted?

3 ,000. But by the time you get to Acts chapter six, and this is five or seven years later, five to seven years later, I should say. In that much time, it says the work hadn't stagnated. It wasn't they had this big boom at the start and it kind of cooled off.

It says, no, in those days as the disciples were increasing in number. If you remember Acts chapter six, there's this crisis that happens in the church. The apostles say, look, it's not good for us to leave the ministry of the word to take care of this, appoint people to take care of this.

And that's where the ministry of the deacon begins. But remember how that section ends, Acts six, seven? As the apostles are freed up to do the work of making disciples, Acts six, seven, so the word of God spread.

So the word of God spread. The disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. The disciples are faithful in their mission. And as they're faithful in their mission, the number of disciples increase.

Okay, Kofi, that's the beginning of the church. Well, fast forward a few years, Paul is now on the scene. The premier missionary in lots of ways. Acts chapter 14, verse 21. After they had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples, they would turn to Lystra, to Iconium and to Antioch, the places that they had been previously.

I've often said that we must be careful not to have a view of the early churches though they were perfect and never had any problems. Early church had many problems because people were part of that church.

The churches of the first century weren't perfect, but they were faithful to this mission. They didn't see their mission as creating and cultivating a community. That happened, but catch this, that was the fruit of the mission.

That wasn't the mission. They didn't see their role like many churches today as one of just meeting people's felt needs. That terminology entered the church in the late seventies, early eighties with the rise of the seeker sensitive movement.

But that wasn't the understanding of the apostles. In fact, one could argue in Acts chapter six, there's a felt need in the church. In fact, a very real need. And what did the apostles say? Yeah, we're not gonna take care of that.

Someone else should. I can't remember who it was I heard say years ago that in most churches today, the apostles gave that answer, they'd be fired. They didn't even view their role as building an institution.

They weren't just trying to build an organization to build an organization. No, the apostles understood their mission as to speak the word. And as they spoke the word, disciples were made. And then the wonderful thing is a community formed around that.

That's all we can agree. The early church started off very well. Again, not without its challenges, not without its difficulties, but the early church started off well. And I would argue succeeded in great measure in doing this very thing.

Well, that was then. Let's get to now, we're in 2024. Can we say that the modern church is doing well when it comes to that mission? As somebody who reads widely and as somebody who keeps one ear very firmly planted in these church streets, let me be honest.

I remember I was at school, we had to read Charles Dickens, I believe it's the Tale of Two Cities. Remember how that, those of you who've read that book, remember how that book starts? It's the best of times, it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.

It's kind of like that when it comes to this whole business of making disciples. In the last few years, there's been a resurgence of thinking about this, which I'm incredibly thankful for. So it's not all bad.

There's lots of good happening on this front. Lots of churches are rediscovering and re-engaging with the mission, but it's also not all good. Allow me to paint the picture for a few moments, if I can.

Some of you remember me, you've quoted these statistics before, but if you haven't heard them, in 2022 Ligonier Ministries, whose material we know and love here at Redeemer, Ligonier partnered with Lifeway Research to produce a study.

It was called The State of Theology. You can go and read the findings for yourself, thestateoftheology .com. Allow me to read to you some of the statistics regarding people in the church, not general American population, just the church.

I believe this was a very extensive study. I think they did almost 5 ,000 people. A study of that size is pretty impressive. Allow me to read some statistics to you. 48 of evangelical respondents, so not people out there, people who profess to be Christians, 48 of evangelical respondents believed that God learns and adapts to different circumstances.

If you don't know why that's a problem, that's a heresy. It's called open theism. It says God doesn't know the future, that he learns the future with all of us. That's a heresy. 65 of the same evangelical respondents believed that everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.

This is not going well, because that's also a heresy. That's a heresy called Pelagianism. That's an early church heresy that the church has said for years, no way. Human beings are born sinners. They are not born as sinful as they could be, but by nature, we've inherited Adam's sin.

Human beings are not born innocent, but 65 of evangelical respondents believe that everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God. 53 of evangelical respondents believe that the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not literally true.

That's just over half. 42 believe that gender identity is a matter of choice. 46 believe that the Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior no longer applies. 43 believe that Jesus was a great teacher, but not God.

Pause on that one. 43 of people in this study, and the idea was, if you've ever done a study like this, you want to find people as representative as possible. 43 believe that Jesus was a great teacher, but not God.

To my response to that, it's very simple. If he's just a great teacher, why should I listen to him? There are lots of great teachers out there. And finally, what I believe is the most, to me, the most basic problem, 38 of evangelicals done research in the study said, religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.

It is not about objective truth. I agree with the old missionary, Oswald J. Smith, pastor of the People's Church in Toronto. He said, if religion is simply a matter of opinion, then why do we complain when cultures do things that we think are abhorrent?

If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for you. Okay, maybe that doesn't convince you. Let's look at it from a different vantage point. Let me flip the picture a little bit. I've mentioned this a number of times.

Have you been at Redeemer for any length of time? Christianity Today, last August, August, 2023, dropped a bombshell of a story when they announced that they had done a research study with the Barner Group, that's what they do.

The Barner Group surveyed pastors across the country and discovered that one in four pastors plan to retire by 2030. That's not a bad thing. I don't have an issue with that. That's not the bad news. I mean, one in four, that's a big number, but okay, pastors retire, people get old.

Like, you can only do so much with what you have.

No problem.

It's what was behind the numbers that disturbed me. First, we found out that the average age for a pastor in America is 52. Okay, not terrible. I'm not into age discrimination, so it doesn't really matter how old they are.

But here's what was interesting. This wasn't the first time they did this study. They did this study back in 1993, so that's about 30 years ago. When they did the study in 1993, 33 of pastors were under 40.

The average age was 44, so the age has gone up. And the number of pastors under 40 has gone down. Of the pastors who are about to retire, that one in four, 75%, three out of four said, it is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to become pastors.

77 of that same group said, we are concerned with the quality of future Christian leaders. Kofi, why are you laboring this point? Because if I don't show you the depth of the problem, you won't see the depth of what needs to be done about it.

But here's the thing. I reckon I've just thrown a bunch of numbers at you. I don't particularly like math, so I get it. Numbers kind of make me glaze over too. So maybe, maybe if I can give you a more real world example, this might make my point.

And I think I'm maybe not the person to do it. So for a moment, I'm going to play something. It's a clip from a message. It wasn't actually a sermon. It was a conference talk that Dr. Vodibakar, many of you know that name.

If you don't get to know, he's an excellent preacher of God's word. This is from years ago. So the quality of the clip is not that good. Those of you who know your YouTube, this is in the days of 360p on YouTube.

So the quality of the clip is not that great. But I'm going to ask, give me five minutes and let Dr. Bakar explain this problem that I think we have from a different vantage point. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dr. Vodibakar.

Sound in faith, sound. One of the marks of a man who's been walking.

With God over time is that he ought to be sound in faith. If there is anything that burdens me, it is this idea. In our culture, in the modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, theological, and spiritual maturity in men.

Let me say that again. In modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, spiritual, theological maturity in men. You just can't have it. Nothing above mediocrity. Oh, what do you mean? I mean, we're at this conference and we, I mean, of course we're all about this.

We want men to be mature. We want men to grow up. Listen, I can prove it to you. In most of our churches, if you have a young man who's 16, 17, 18 years old, and this young man is reading church history and he's reading theology, he knows his Bible.

He's studying his Bible. He has a passion for the word of God, has a passion for the things of God, and a passion for the people of God. You know what happens in the average American church? They look at that 16, 17, 18 year old young man and they say, God must be calling you to preach.

Really, why? Because you love the Bible, you love theology, you love church history. You're passionate about the things of God. Now, what we ought to say is, well, that just means you're a Christian, right?

No, not in the modern American church. And you know this is true. In the modern American church, if a young man gets that serious about the things of God, immediately the mediocrity of manhood in the modern American church says, you need to get away from the rest of us because we will not tolerate your passion.

You've got to go get a seminary degree. You've got to go become a pastor. You've got to put Reverend in front of your name so that I no longer feel guilty about my own mediocre pursuits. And because of that, modern American Christianity is the only place in our culture where we will tolerate this cognitive dissonance between a man who will say, I've been walking with God 30, 40, 50 years and I know nothing.

Is anywhere else, I don't care what, you name the field. Name the field where in our culture, and I'm talking about just anybody, just lost pagans. Name the field. I don't care if it's brick laying. I don't care if it's truck driving, whatever it is.

If there's a man on the job who says, I've been doing this for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. And another young man comes to the job and says, hey, I've heard you've been doing this 30 years, 40 years.

I know if there's anybody who can show me the ropes, you can show me the ropes. And we'd all say, yeah, of course. If he's been doing it that long, you ought to be able to come to him. He ought to be able to show you the ropes.

But what if the young man comes to the older man who's been doing this for 30, 40, 50 years and says, brother, you've been laying bricks for 40 years and I've just started. Can I just come alongside you and watch you so that I can learn how to be a bricklayer because I'm sure you're a master at it now.

Oh, I ain't no master bricklayer. I don't know nothing about no bricks. I see we laugh, but how about this? You've been walking with God 20, 30, 40 years. Sir, can I come alongside you as a younger man and you mentor me in doctrine, theology, Bible and church history?

What's the response? I ain't no preacher. It's the only place in America where we accept something so ludicrous. Where a man can say, I've been walking with God 30, 40 years and I proudly declare, I know nothing.

I'm ignorant. I'm a babe in Christ, a 40 year old baby. And I'm not ashamed of it. Nowhere else is that acceptable. Only in the church, only in the church. But the text says, one of the evidences of a man that belongs to God, who has been walking with God over time is that he is sound in faith.

He's sound.

We're called to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. And yet we proudly proclaim that because we don't have ordination papers, we're unwilling and unable to do it.

If nothing else, just having read through the Bible for 40 years ought to make you somewhat of an expert.

Amen.

I remember where, I can still tell you where I was, what I was doing the first time that I saw that video clip. It's 13 years ago. It was my birthday. That's why I remember it. I remember sitting there just stunned because that had been my own personal experience.

And if that doesn't strike you as a problem, allow me to just make this real simple. That's a problem. As I have said for years now, I believe that the modern Western church, and since I live in America, the modern American evangelical church is in the death grip of a crisis of discipleship.

That's the bad news. I've labored that point because like I said, if I don't show you the depths of the problem, I don't show you how ugly things are, the chances are you probably, you, and I say the collective you, as in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, the collective you won't do anything to try and fix it.

That's the bad news. But there is good news. I sincerely believe that this crisis of discipleship does not have to be this way. Things might be bad, but they don't have to stay that way. This morning we're in Colossians chapter one.

We're gonna be in verses 28 and 29. And in two verses, one short paragraph, Paul lays out for us his approach to ministry. And as you might gather from reading verse 28 and 29, it's all about making disciples.

If you haven't guessed my thoughts on this already, let me just lay it out upfront. Let me just ensure that there is no confusion. If Redeemer Bible Fellowship can be known for one thing in this valley, if this church, I can't really business myself with what's going on with all the other churches.

I'm not the pastor of every other church. I'm the pastor of this one. On that great and terrible day when we all stand before the judge of all things, I'm going to give an account for what I did here.

And what I pray for our church is that if we can be known for one thing, my prayer, my earnest passion, my desire above all else, is that again, I can't speak for other churches, but I would pray, I pray, and I do pray that we would be known as the church that discovers, that develops and deploys faithful disciples.

Let me say that again, that we would be known as the church that discovers, that develops and deploys faithful disciples. If I can put it another way, I want us to be known as a church that has a culture, I'm going to use this phrase a lot, that has a culture of disciple making.

That if somebody came in off the street and was here for enough time, they would say, wow, they take making disciples really seriously. Maybe they couldn't use that particular word, but they get the sense that, hmm, they're about something a little bit different.

I long for that. And let me say this, I think that in God's providence, we've been doing that, but this morning, I just want in this message to kind of put it all on the floor. Laura was joking with me yesterday.

She asked me how the sermon was going. I was like, I'm making good progress.

And she was like,.

Yeah, it's not like this is a subject that you can just talk about. Trust me, we could be, I could preach four hours straight on this subject. I will spare you a four hour sermon this morning, but this is a subject that I have become increasingly passionate about.

And if I can be a little bit forthright this morning, I want my passion to be the passion of this house. And I think that what Paul's gonna teach us here in Colossians 1, 28 to 29 might help us get there.

This morning, I really wanna ask and answer one question. How does a culture of disciple making form in the life of a church? How do we become the kind of church that Dr. Barkham was hoping you could find?

Where if somebody wanted to be, and he was speaking at a men's conference, that's why he made so much talk about manhood, but I think his point is universal. Man or woman, because there isn't anything else.

Man or woman, if a church said, we want to see men and women in our church cultivated and made into faithful disciples, how does that kind of culture form in the life of a church? Well, that's what I'm gonna consider this morning.

Here's my big idea. And in fact, because I wanted to save time, I just put it in the study guide so you didn't have to try writing it. Disciple making happens when Christ is proclaimed so that believers become more and more like him by the Spirit's help.

This thing is not that complicated. Disciple making happens when Jesus is proclaimed so that those who have put their faith in Jesus become more and more like him by the Spirit's help. To help us see that this morning, very quickly for the rest of our time, I want to consider five essential attitudes for developing a culture of disciple making.

If this is the mission, and we heard it from Jesus, so it is, if this is the mission, what are the attitudes? I'm not gonna focus so much on the specifics of what to do. Come Wednesday night, we can talk about that in way more detail.

This morning, I wanna start with the attitudes. What do we need to be thinking if we're going to develop a culture of disciple making? Five essential attitudes. Let's get straight to work. First attitude we need to have is that we need to keep Christ central.

We need to keep Christ central. Now for a moment, I need to do a little bit of grammar.

I'll make it real quick.

In most of your English Bibles that you've got in front of you, they'll have some variation of we proclaim him as the opening words of verse 28, but Paul does something that's a little subtle in the original language, and I don't think it's by accident.

Paul doesn't say we proclaim him in the original language. You know what he does? He takes the word him, and he puts it at the front of the sentence. In fact, if you grew up on the King James Bible like I did, the King James Bible picks up on this, and it translates this whom we proclaim.

The Legacy Standard Bible picks up on this. The older NAS didn't do this. The new NAS does. The new LSB, excuse me, does do this. It says him we proclaim. Paul puts Jesus at the front of the sentence, and he's doing that.

It's actually breaking pretty much every rule of Greek grammar, but he does it on purpose.

Why?

He wants to put front and center that this is not about a set of ideas. This is not about a philosophy. It's about a person. Paul wasn't just in the business of proclamation. We'll talk about that in just a moment, but it was a particular kind of proclamation.

It was precise proclamation about a particular person. And in fact, he's been doing that up to this point. So I hope you've got Colossians 1 still open in front of you. I want to know for a moment, just look how much he talks about Christ in this.

Starting up in verse 13. So verse 13, he, the father, has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the son he loves. Verse 14, in him, the son he loves, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Verse 15 to 20, I won't read all of that, but he describes who this Christ is, both in relation to creation and then the new creation. Verse 22, but now he, this Christ, has reconciled you by his physical body through his death to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him.

Verse 24, he describes the church as his Christ's body. Verse 27, he describes that, he says that Christ in his people, not Christ in you, the individual, it's you, plural, the people of God, Christ among his people, the church, that Christ in his people is the hope of glory.

All through this letter, up to these verses that we're gonna look at, Christ has been the central theme of Paul's message. And here, he underlines this point. He says, this is the Jesus that we proclaim.

We, the people of God, proclaim this Jesus. If we're gonna talk about a culture of disciple-making, it starts with deep appreciation for and total devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. When we talk about disciple-making, we're not introducing people to a program.

I am not anti-programs. Programs have their place. You need some sort of structure to make this work. So programs have a place, but programs are a means. They are tools. They are not the end. We're not introducing people to a program.

We're not ushering people into a lifestyle change. That will happen organically as disciples are made. And we'll actually talk more about that later on. No, in making disciples, we are first and foremost, catch this, we are pursuing a deeper knowledge of and a greater closeness to a person called Jesus Christ.

And again, you see this even in Jesus' own ministry. One of my favorite verses about the ministry of Jesus. It's one of those blink and you'll miss it verses. Mark 3, 14, he's picking the apostles, the 12 within his larger group of disciples.

In Mark 3, 14, it says, he appointed 12 whom he named apostles. And it says this, I love this. He says, he appointed 12 to be with him and to send them out to preach. Note the order there, that first and foremost, the 12 were being invited, not just to do stuff for Jesus, but to get to know Jesus.

That's what Paul can say. Philippians 3, 10, remember last summer, we studied this Philippians 3, 10. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.

A disciple making culture is a gospel culture. It's a culture that is rooted and grounded in the coming of Christ and the obedience of Christ for us in the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and the work of Christ in interceding on our behalf, this Christ and all his benefits.

Can I put it to you that this is the fertile soil out of which disciples are made. And if we're going to develop a disciple making culture that has to begin with Christ being central in all we say and all we do.

You can't allow ourselves to be distracted by all sorts of things. This has to be center stage. There's a second attitude that's essential if we're going to be about the business of making disciples. Yes, we need to keep Christ central.

And if we're going to make disciples, we also, attitude number two, need to embrace the place of teaching. We need to embrace the place of teaching. So let's come back to our verse. We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, proclaiming that this was a very simple word, just carries the idea of announcing, of heralding, of preaching, proclaiming, announcing, heralding, preaching Jesus.

This was the heart of Paul's ministry. This is all that Paul did. And you see this again, you look at Paul's ministry, you can see it in the book of Acts. So Acts 13 five, he arrives in this town called Salamis.

And what does he do in Acts 13 five? They arrived in Salamis proclaiming the word of God. Acts 13 38, through this man, through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. We talk about the Bereans in Acts 17 13, it says, but when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and upsetting the crowds.

Paul's message was, Paul's ministry, excuse me, was one of proclamation. The announcement, the declaration of something that had been accomplished or completed, that's what that word means. Paul took every opportunity he could to proclaim, to teach about this person called Jesus.

Jesus had come, Jesus had died, Jesus had risen again to reign, and Paul proclaimed that truth in all of its glory, every chance he got. And Paul wasn't unique in that, he was simply just doing what the believers had always been doing.

So remember in Acts chapter eight, after the death of Stephen, this persecution descends upon the church. And it's interesting, Acts chapter eight verse one says, that all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.

This church that kind of had its headquarters in this one area now disperses because of persecution. But it's an interesting thing that happens, because Acts eight four, it says that those who were scattered went on their way.

Now, those who were scattered, who are the ones that were scattered? Verse one, all except the apostles. So all except the apostles, verse four, went on their way, preaching the word. Acts 11, it's a few chapters on, talking about this same group.

Now, those who had been scattered as a result, Acts 11, 19, those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen, made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word.

Those two verses. Who is doing the speaking and the preaching? It's not just the apostles. Remember the apostles are the ones who stayed in Jerusalem. Everyone else scattered. That tells me something that's really important about this, that the preaching and speaking of the word was not limited just to quote unquote leadership.

Because catch this, while all of us are, no, excuse me, while not all of us are called to formal ministry of the word, so not everyone's gonna stand in the pulpit and preach like I do week in and week out.

Well, not all of us are called to that kind of ministry. All of us are called to some kind of preaching and speaking the word. In the study of God, I put this quote in there from a book called Preaching in the New Testament.