A Going and Sending Church

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 4, 2015

00:00: I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 13th chapter of the book of Acts.
00:22: We are continuing in our series, which we have been in now for almost a year, entitled Beyond Our Borders.
00:36: From the moment we began this portion of the sacred text, we have done so with a specific purpose.
00:42: I wanted us to see and hopefully be moved as a church in seeking the missionary zeal of the early church.
00:54: For far too long, the church in general, but our church specifically, has been too inwardly focused.
01:05: We do not seem to be overly concerned about the world outside, which is dying without the gospel.
01:12: We certainly have not been overly concerned about going beyond our borders, particularly the borders of our nation, with the gospel.
01:23: A statistic was put out in 1996, now I realize this is 20 years old, but it takes time to put statistics together and to put things together, so it is something that I think is still valuable today.
01:37: 9% of the world's population is all that really speaks English as a primary language.
01:48: Think about how many people there are in China, India, and other places that don't speak English as a primary language.
01:53: 90% of the world's Christians come from the 9% that speak English.
02:02: What does that mean? It means the vast majority of people who don't speak English are not Christians.
02:08: We would probably agree with that.
02:11: 94%, this is what really got my attention, 94% of ordained ministers in the world serve the 9% that speak English.
02:26: And 96% of the church's income is spent on, guess who, the 9% that speak English.
02:35: We preach to ourselves and we spend our money on ourselves, and we tell the world to go to hell.
02:45: What a shame.
02:47: What a shame.
02:50: Now again, I know that's a 20-year-old statistic, but do you really think it's gotten much better in 20 years? I don't.
02:57: Another additional statistic from the same year said this, in the United States, for every million people, there are 1,448 ministers.
03:11: So every million people, there's 1,500 pastors or ministers of some sort.
03:18: The next highest is in Africa.
03:21: For every million people, there are only 56 missionaries.
03:26: The next highest after that, South America.
03:29: For every million people, only 30 missionaries.
03:35: Then Korea, for every million people, only 20.
03:38: And then India, for every million people, 15.
03:42: And then China, Indochina, think about how many people are there.
03:47: For every million people, there are three missionaries.
03:56: Consider Walter Heaton.
03:58: I mentioned him already.
03:59: He is our missionary.
04:00: He is in Croatia.
04:01: He and his family minister in a land which is consumed with the false teachings of Rome and rank paganism and atheism.
04:08: He is lonely in a sea of darkness, and he is surrounded by people who will all die and go to hell without the gospel.
04:16: And he is the only one.
04:19: He's there alone with his small band of people that are around him.
04:22: I say only one.
04:23: His group, the small group, is there.
04:26: That should drive us to our knees.
04:28: And that's what this series is supposed to be about.
04:35: It's supposed to be about seeking to increase our awareness, our concern for sharing the gospel in the world.
04:41: This is what makes today's text so important, because today's passage shows us how foreign missions were born.
04:52: One could certainly argue that the church had already been doing missions since its birth at Pentecost.
04:56: We could say the church has already been doing missions because Antioch is a missionary church.
05:00: It was started because men went into Antioch, preached the gospel, and a church was born.
05:05: So missions are already happening.
05:06: But this is the first time we see, really, the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy when He said, you will be my witnesses.
05:12: You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
05:16: We've already seen that.
05:18: We've seen it in Jerusalem with the men like Stephen who was martyred for preaching the gospel.
05:23: We've seen it go to Samaria with Philip.
05:25: But now it's poised to go to the ends of the earth through Saul and Barnabas in their first journey to go out into the world, to go out where Jesus has not even been heard of yet, and preach the gospel.
05:40: So this morning, I want us to look at the church in Antioch.
05:44: I want us to see how God used that church as a launch pad for foreign missions.
05:48: And I pray that God would be pleased to do the same with us.
05:53: And when I say us today, I ain't talking about the general church.
05:57: I'm talking about this church right here.
06:00: Antioch was a local church in a big city.
06:03: We are a local church in a big city, and we need to do more.
06:12: So let's stand and read the first three verses of Acts 13.
06:18: The first three verses of Acts 13 sort of set the stage for all that's going to happen in the weeks to come.
06:24: We're going to go all the way through this chapter, but today we'll look at just the first three verses.
06:29: Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.
06:44: While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
06:56: Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
07:03: Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
07:05: I pray first, Lord, keep me from error.
07:09: Keep me from indulging self.
07:11: Keep me from indulging opinion.
07:13: Help me to preach the text of the Scripture.
07:17: Help me to be focused on what Your Word tells us and the implications thereof.
07:21: I pray that You would open the hearts of Your people to hear the truth.
07:25: And Lord, for those among us who have not yet submitted to Jesus Christ and bowed their knee to Him and received Him as Lord and Savior through repentance and faith, I pray that they would hear today the Gospel and be called to repentance.
07:38: In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
07:54: Carl Henry once said, The cradle and the grave are the two great obstacles to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
08:08: Every day a multitude is born, and every day a vast prospect list vanishes.
08:17: End quote.
08:20: What was he saying? Well, he's saying this.
08:22: Every minute of every day, several people die.
08:25: And those are people who we can no longer reach.
08:28: And every minute of every day, new people are born.
08:32: And there is the people we can.
08:33: So, that's his point.
08:35: He said, every day the mission field, some go out and some come in.
08:38: And you realize how much.
08:40: You know 150,000 people died yesterday? That wasn't on the news.
08:45: Because it happened the day before.
08:47: It happened the day before that.
08:48: 150,000 people a day die.
08:53: 300,000 a day are born.
08:55: These are not statistics I came up with.
08:56: These are just looking online at the general growth statistics of the world.
08:59: We are increasing in population.
09:01: We're up to 7 billion people.
09:02: We've got a lot of people around the world.
09:03: Most populous the world has ever been in the history of man.
09:06: So, we know a lot of people are born.
09:07: A lot of people die.
09:08: But every day a new generation of people coming along.
09:11: They need to hear the Gospel.
09:12: And every day people die having never heard it.
09:14: And die in their sins.
09:17: So, that's his point.
09:18: It's simply to say this.
09:19: The two great obstacles to the Great Commission are that every day people die.
09:26: And every day people are born.
09:28: And numbers like those can make the idea of reaching the world for Christ seemingly overwhelming.
09:34: Somebody hears that.
09:35: Somebody hears that statistic.
09:36: And they say, man, there's so many people in the world.
09:38: We can't even make a dent.
09:40: We can't even make a little nick in the situation.
09:45: Why even try? There's so much.
09:52: However, we cannot allow overwhelming numbers to keep us from seeking to reach the world with the Gospel.
10:01: And that is what makes this section of text so precious.
10:04: Because these people, Saul and Barnabas, they face similar odds, folks.
10:10: It was two men against the world.
10:12: And they didn't sit back and say, you know what, we're not going to make a difference.
10:16: They didn't sit back and say, you know what, we can't.
10:17: Two men.
10:19: We're not going to change anyone's minds.
10:21: We're not going to do anything about anything.
10:23: What did they do? By the power of the Holy Spirit of God, they went out and they planted churches and God brought the increase.
10:31: That's what happened.
10:32: They were sent with the power of God and amazing things happened.
10:37: So let's look.
10:37: We're going to look through the text.
10:38: And then, as always, I'm going to give application after we've walked through the text together.
10:43: So verse 1, it says, Now there were in Antioch prophets and teachers, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius, Cyrene, Manaan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul, five men whose names are given there.
10:57: And we see here, we see the distinctives of the local church.
11:01: We know what this church is.
11:03: We've already studied it back in chapter 11.
11:05: This is the church at Antioch.
11:08: Certain men had come to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles there at Antioch.
11:12: The Gentiles heard the Gospel.
11:14: They believed the Gospel.
11:15: And the church was born there in Antioch.
11:19: Antioch occupies a fertile plain in a western bend of the Orontes River that terminates into the Mediterranean Sea.
11:25: It was a large city.
11:26: It had 500,000 people there in Antioch.
11:30: It was a huge city.
11:31: The only two cities larger in the whole region were Rome and Alexandria.
11:34: This is a big place.
11:37: It was a very important place.
11:38: And it would become the base of operations for Paul's missionary journeys.
11:43: But Antioch wasn't chosen because it was a pure place.
11:46: Antioch, in fact, was far from pure.
11:48: It was a very worldly place.
11:50: And yet God did His work there.
11:52: In the midst of all of that, God brought into that den of paganism His church.
11:58: And He planted it right there.
12:02: So we see where they are.
12:03: They're in Antioch, a large metropolitan city filled with pagan influence.
12:07: And yet we see the gospel flourishing.
12:10: That church is moving, worshiping, growing, and they're now sending out missionaries.
12:15: It says also that there were prophets and teachers there.
12:19: It says there were prophets and teachers.
12:21: Now, those two distinct types of ministries bear out some mentioning.
12:26: What is a prophet? Prophetae in the Greek.
12:28: What is a person who is a prophet? Well, oftentimes, we think of a prophet as somebody who speaks the future or somebody who gives a pronouncement from God about some type of revelation from God.
12:41: That's often what we think about when we think of a prophet.
12:44: And a prophet is simply one who speaks forth the truth or speaks forth the word of God.
12:49: So in the sense that this is being used, are these people who spoke the future? Well, some of them were.
12:54: If we go back to Acts chapter 12, one of the men spoke about a famine that was coming because he'd been given that revelation from God.
13:02: Certainly, at this time in church history, God was speaking His truth through these men who were called prophets.
13:09: Now, do we still have prophets in the church today? Well, let me say this, and at least this is what we teach.
13:15: We teach that today there is no extra-biblical revelation being given, meaning that I can't stand up there and say, God spoke to me and I'm going to speak to you.
13:25: But that doesn't mean that there is not a gifting of prophet, one who would speak the word of God.
13:31: What do you think it is I'm doing? I'm speaking the word of God, and thus I'm exercising the gift that God has given to me, the gift of prophecy, but not in the sense of speaking forth extra-biblical revelation, but rather it is my job to preach and teach the word of God to you.
13:48: So my gifting would not be that of teacher, even though I would say I'm able to teach because that's one of the requirements of being an elder.
13:56: The gift of the man of God who speaks the word of God is the gift of the prophet.
13:59: So that administration of that particular gift still goes on today.
14:03: But we would say it's one who doesn't foretell the future, but one who speaks forth the word of God.
14:08: So, make sense? The teachers in this case, didaskaloi in the Greek, they're the ones who provided the instruction and the interpretation of that which was prophesied.
14:20: So these men had a specific purpose in the church, and that office is still alive today in the eldership.
14:27: We see today the elders.
14:29: What is the one requirement that separates elders from deacons? They must be able to what? Didaskaloi.
14:35: They must be able to be teachers because they must be able to govern with the word of God and be able to interpret the word of God.
14:43: They must be learned men, not ignorant men.
14:46: Not young Christians, and I don't mean that by age, I mean that by they're new believers.
14:50: Because what does Paul say? If a new believer becomes an elder, he gets puffed up, his pride is increased because he's been given all this authority without knowledge.
14:58: Because knowledge and wisdom come with training and discipleship.
15:02: He hasn't had that if he's a new Christian.
15:04: So, we see these offices still having their place today, but at this particular time in history, we see this group of men, and it doesn't tell us who was what, it just said there was these five men in the church, and among them are prophets, ones who speak, and their teachers, ones who discern and explain truth.
15:20: And that was the division here between this group of men.
15:23: They were the leaders, we could say they were the proto-elders, the early elders of that particular church, the ministers of the church.
15:30: And this is a good reminder to us that there is not one gifting in the church.
15:36: There is not one gift that everybody receives, but there is a diversity of gifts among the believers.
15:41: Even in leadership, some are given the gift of administration, some are given the gift of being able to really teach in a specific way, some are given the desire to proclaim the word of God, as I've already said.
15:53: That's what I know.
15:53: I put this on Facebook last night, I don't know how many of you are on Facebook now, it's a big deal, I don't care, but I just put a little note out, because somebody said something about gifts, spiritual gifts.
16:04: I said, you know how to identify what a spiritual gift is? It's something you didn't have before you were born again.
16:10: Because you didn't have it before being born again, because a spiritual gift is given when you get the Spirit, and you don't get the Spirit when you're dead and sin.
16:17: So, duh, I mean, that should be pretty simple.
16:20: I said, I've always been able to talk well.
16:23: I've always had a natural talent that God gave me to run my mouth.
16:28: I just know that I can run my mouth.
16:30: But I never had a desire to study and proclaim God's truth until God saved my soul.
16:35: That's the gift.
16:37: It's not the ability to talk.
16:39: A lot of guys talk a lot better than I do.
16:41: There's a lot of orators who have great giftings in speech, but they have not been saved by the Holy Spirit of God, and thus they are not gifted to preach.
16:48: And that's why a lot of guys call themselves preachers, but they're not preaching the Gospel, because they don't know the Gospel, they've never been saved.
16:53: They talk good, but they talk bad at the same time.
16:57: They speak well, but they speak false.
17:02: So there's a diversity of gifts in the church, there's a diversity of gifts in these men, and it's differentiated between the prophets and the teachers.
17:09: And then we see within the leadership, there's also diversity in where these men are from.
17:14: We see five men, two of whom are already familiar.
17:17: We know who Barnabas is.
17:19: He had been sent there from Jerusalem.
17:22: He had been sent there by the apostles to give this church at Antioch the seal of the approval of the apostles.
17:30: He had gone there to sort of establish it, to be the leadership.
17:33: He himself had gone and brought Saul over to be one of the elders and the leaders in the church, and they pastored there for a year.
17:39: It doesn't say much about the other three men.
17:41: It talks about Simeon, who's called Niger.
17:43: Niger simply is a word for black.
17:45: He's likely that reference somehow his skin color.
17:47: He's probably a black person.
17:49: Lucius of Cyrene is in northern Africa.
17:51: He may also have been a black person.
17:53: We don't know that for sure, but it's modern day Libya is where he is from.
17:57: We know Manan has got a very interesting reference here because it says that he was the lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch.
18:07: Now what does that mean? It actually, I like this Greek word, suntrophos.
18:10: Suntrophos means he nursed at the same breast.
18:14: That's what that means.
18:15: It means that he and Herod were likely both nurse-mated from the same mother, which probably was Manan's mother, because Herod's mother would have been a queen.
18:25: So there are these wet nurses, these ladies who provide nursing for the queen, and so here Manan grew up in the, can't find my word, palace.
18:36: He grew up in the palace.
18:38: This guy comes from royalty, and yet where is he? He's in the church.
18:47: God has brought a diverse group of people into the church.
18:52: He's brought them, he's brought this man, this man who was used to the palatial settings of the palace, and now he's a leader in Christ's church.
19:04: Some even believe that this is the guy who probably gave Luke some of the information he might not have had.
19:09: Remember Luke is a historian, so he's gathering information from sources.
19:12: This guy grew up, this is the same Herod, by the way, who was the one who killed John the Baptist.
19:18: So where do we learn all that information about Herodias and the dance and all that? Well, it was probably common knowledge among the people.
19:23: It probably wasn't something that was secret.
19:24: But who had inside knowledge? This guy who grew up with him, and now he's a leader in the church.
19:31: So there's a diversity of gifts, and there's a diversity of men leading the church.
19:36: And then we see in verse 2, while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
19:51: Now, the regular practice of the church is seen here as worshipping and fasting.
20:02: Now, worshipping is a very interesting term, leiturgunanton, and that's kind of a long word.
20:09: Basically, it's where we get the word liturgy.
20:12: You ever heard the phrase liturgy? People always say, we have a non-liturgical church.
20:17: No, you don't.
20:19: Nobody has a non-liturgical church.
20:22: Because all a liturgy is, is the elements of worship.
20:27: The liturgy is, you hear people say, we have a liturgical church.
20:30: What they usually mean is high church.
20:33: Meaning that everything is laid out in a bulletin in a very specific way.
20:36: You guys have grown up Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans.
20:41: You know.
20:41: You go in, it's written out for you.
20:43: We call that liturgy.
20:44: Why? It's very strict liturgy.
20:47: But somebody said, we don't do liturgy.
20:48: We just come and sing, pray, and preach.
20:50: Well, there's your three elements.
20:52: You're liturgical.
20:53: You didn't even know it.
20:53: You got three pieces of liturgy.
20:55: That's all you got, but that's what you got.
20:58: You see, all this is referring to is they were ministering to the Lord.
21:02: In the ESV, it says, worshiping the Lord.
21:05: It actually is ministering to the Lord.
21:07: That's the phrase that is used there.
21:09: They are performing acts of worship in the assembly.
21:14: Last year, I taught a series on our Wednesday night.
21:18: I often teach series through various subjects, and I taught a series on Lord's Day worship.
21:22: And why is it that we do certain things a certain way? Is it because we just have desperate to be high church? If we were desperate to be high church, we wouldn't have Him playing the guitar.
21:32: I like the guitar, by the way.
21:33: I'm just saying, if we were desperate to be high church, we wouldn't have Him over there.
21:35: We wouldn't do that because that's not high church.
21:38: High church is more traditional.
21:40: I'd be wearing a robe.
21:42: The only thing great about wearing a robe is I could wear shorts and you wouldn't know.
21:49: But there is these liturgies that some of them are tradition, but there are certain things in worship that are important that we should maintain.
21:56: You should maintain praying and praying for specific things, whether it be praying for the sick or praying that God would come among us.
22:04: We have the prayer of invocation that's invoking God's presence.
22:07: We have the prayer of intercession that's praying for people who are sick.
22:10: We have the prayer of consecration that's praying that God would bless the elements that we're going to receive.
22:15: We have the prayer of devotion.
22:16: God, please bless the offerings that are going to be given.
22:19: At the end of the service, we pray the prayer of introspection.
22:22: Seek your hearts to know if you're really in the faith.
22:24: And then the last thing I do, I raise my hands and say what? The prayer of benediction.
22:29: May the Lord bless you as we go this week.
22:31: So we have all these prayers.
22:32: This isn't something we necessarily made up.
22:33: It's something we've drawn from Scripture.
22:34: These are all important things that we do.
22:36: It's all part of the service.
22:37: And I'm not saying this early church set it out just like we do.
22:40: But what I am saying is they were ministering to the Lord.
22:43: They were worshiping together.
22:44: It wasn't some kind of free-for-all.
22:47: What did Paul say should happen in the church? Things should be decent and what? In order, orderly.
22:55: We see churches where people run around all crazy, throw things, yell, scream, have a snake in their hand.
23:01: You've got to know that.
23:01: I ain't going to that church.
23:02: But all this stuff's happening.
23:05: There's no order.
23:07: There's no learning.
23:08: And people come out and they say, oh, I'm so filled with the Spirit.
23:10: And then they go out.
23:12: And what has changed? Nothing.
23:15: They had an emotion.
23:16: And their religion lasts as long as the emotion.
23:20: The intellect must be stirred as well as the soul.
23:25: The psyche and the pneuma together must be stirred.
23:28: For it is through the intellect that we learn the Word of God and are able to apply it to our hearts.
23:39: So we see worshiping.
23:40: Now we see fasting.
23:43: Most of us understand what fasting is.
23:46: Fasting is not eating.
23:47: And that's not a normal practice for us.
23:50: It's not normal for American folks to not eat.
23:52: Did you realize it's not even normal for American folks to get hungry? Most of us don't experience hunger.
24:02: We eat because it's time to eat.
24:06: We don't even go past time to eat to where we would even feel the pains of hunger.
24:10: We just eat because it's 9 a.m., it's 12 p.m.
24:15: I don't know when you eat.
24:16: It's 6 p.m.
24:18: It's time to eat and thus we eat.
24:22: And I realize as a large man talking about fasting, some people might say I'm a bit hypocritical on this.
24:27: I do fast.
24:29: It is difficult to do.
24:31: Your mind tends to think about food when you didn't think about food on the other days.
24:36: And you might not have eaten another day.
24:37: I might go until 6 o'clock in the evening, not eat, not think about food all day.
24:40: But on the day that I say I'm going to fast this day, man, I wake up in the morning, man, a breakfast burrito.
24:45: And your mind shows you that it really is the devil coming and working after you.
24:51: But this is a regular part of worship in the early church.
24:55: We see it twice in three verses.
24:57: They're worshiping and fasting now.
24:59: Then the Spirit speaks to them through the prophet and they worship and fast again.
25:03: Three verses, they fast two times.
25:05: How often do we fast as the people of God? Often wonder about our level of devotion to spiritual disciplines.
25:11: How serious are we? If I said, and I'm going to say this, and I'm not trying to be ugly.
25:17: I don't come up here just to make people mad.
25:18: But if I said we were having a big dinner on the grounds, we were going to have family activities, we were going to have a bounce house, we were going to have all kinds of stuff, and it was going to be a day this week, many of you would change your schedules to get here.
25:33: If I said we're starting a new teaching series this week on the dangers of Islam or the role of American history regarding end times prophecy, man, you would break your back to get here.
25:44: But if I said we wanted to host an hour of focused, intentional prayer this week, in the middle of the week at night, and you're going to have to drive all the way from your house just to come here to pray with us for an hour, I'd be surprised if I saw half a dozen people.
26:02: If I asked you to fast, if I said we're going to, as a church, we're going to fast for Walter Heaton for a day, I'd be astonished if more than a handful of people participated.
26:15: I know some of you first thought in your mind, well, I can't go without eating.
26:17: I have a medical issue.
26:18: Well, I ain't talking to you.
26:20: I'm not asking you to look for excuses.
26:22: I'm saying is there something that you could take out of your life to devote to prayer and fasting? Maybe fast from that cell phone for a day.
26:30: I think that would be harder for me than the food.
26:34: I'm serious though.
26:35: Are we willing to dedicate anything to spiritual devotion at all? This doesn't save us.
26:40: Certainly not saying that this is how you bring about your salvation.
26:42: You are saved by grace through faith and not of yourselves.
26:45: But do we have any dedication to spiritual disciplines at all? The early church did.
26:48: They were dedicated to spiritual disciplines.
26:53: Are we? I wonder if we are.
26:59: So we see after this the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
27:01: In the midst of this devotional time of worship and fasting, the Spirit speaks and He makes two important points.
27:09: One, He says set apart two men.
27:14: And this idea of setting apart specific men for tasks is very important.
27:18: Not everyone, hear this please, not everyone in the church is called to be a pastor.
27:25: Not everyone is called to be a preacher.
27:27: Not everyone is called to be a foreign missionary.
27:34: But the church is called to recognize that calling in other people and set them apart.
27:43: John Newton said this because some people say, well, can the church make someone a pastor? No, the church can't make someone a pastor.
27:50: The church can't make someone a man of God.
27:51: John Newton said, none but He who made the world can make a minister of the gospel.
27:55: It's God who calls.
27:56: It's God who makes a man a minister.
27:58: But the church has the responsibility to recognize and support the man of God in His calling.
28:06: He tells the church He has called them to a work.
28:12: He says, I've set apart two men and I have called them to this work.
28:17: And that's something important to remind us if you look again at the text.
28:20: He said, the work to which I have called them.
28:22: This again is a reference to the personality of the Holy Spirit.
28:24: The Jehovah Witnesses argue that the Holy Spirit is just a force.
28:27: Well, a force doesn't get personal pronouns.
28:31: We don't talk about electricity as He.
28:32: We talk about electricity as It.
28:34: Electricity is a force.
28:36: The Holy Spirit says, I have called them to this work.
28:41: Third person of the Trinity speaking here.
28:44: Ministry is a work that no man can call himself to.
28:47: Likewise, no person can call another person to the work.
28:50: Ministry of the Word is a God-called, Spirit-called work.
28:57: There are many ministers in the world who are what I've heard kind of a southern term, Mama called and Daddy sent.
29:04: I don't know if you've ever heard that phrase.
29:06: Ministers who, you know, Mama called and Daddy sent them.
29:10: They're not ordained of God.
29:12: They assume the role anyway.
29:13: And often this leads to the abandonment of ministry.
29:17: Fifty percent, according to the most recent statistics put out, I think by Lifeway, not that they're a bastion of truth or anything, but they, you know, they can do statistics.
29:27: Fifty percent of men who enter the ministry leave within five years.
29:36: Sometimes even worse than a man leaving the ministry is a man who decides he's happy to lead a heretical or destructive ministry.
29:47: And that's way worse.
29:52: So how does a person know if he's been called into ministry? I know this is sort of off topic, but it's important because I think some of you may be saying today, some of you men out there may be saying, you know, I don't know, but I think that God may be calling me into ministry.
30:04: What can I know? How can I know that God's called me into ministry? Well, the first thing, and I'll show you in Scripture very simply, the first thing is you must have a desire to do it.
30:16: You must have a desire for the work.
30:18: If you don't want to do it, then it kind of stops right there.
30:22: If you want to turn there, just write down 1 Timothy 3, 1.
30:26: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, that's eldership.
30:30: If anyone aspires to the office of eldership, he desires a noble task.
30:35: Two words there.
30:36: He aspires to it and he desires it.
30:38: He wants it.
30:38: It's not something that you can't make somebody want something.
30:45: If a man doesn't want to do it, we shouldn't force him to do it.
30:49: Because ultimately, it's related in a sense to his calling.
30:55: Calling comes with a desire.
30:57: What was it Jeremiah who said? He said, I have a burning in my bones.
31:01: I could not but preach the word.
31:03: I could not do it.
31:07: So a desire is first.
31:10: Second, they must meet the scriptural qualifications.
31:13: 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 outlines for us what the scriptural qualifications are.
31:18: They're very simple.
31:20: They are outlined very specifically.
31:23: But if you just want to, if you can bound everything up and being above reproach, and it tells us what that means.
31:30: So if a man has a desire and a man meets the scriptural qualifications, what is the third thing? The third thing is that he is affirmed by his other believers.
31:40: Believers that he is with.
31:41: And that's what we see here in Acts 11.
31:44: They are coming around and affirming this call.
31:46: They're laying their hands on these men and they're calling them to this work.
31:56: You know the first person I talk to when somebody comes to me and says they think they're being called to ministry? You know the first person I talk to? His wife.
32:08: Every time.
32:09: It's only happened a few times.
32:11: Every time though.
32:13: What I base that on? 1 Timothy 3, 4.
32:16: He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? I go to the wife.
32:26: I say, how does he manage your house? Does he lead your family in personal devotions? Does he lead your children in prayer? Does he lead your children through the Word of God? Can he teach your home? If not, he's not ready yet.
32:39: He may be called, but we need to work on this.
32:49: If a wife has no confidence in the leadership of her husband, how then should the church? There was no greater confirmation in my own heart.
32:58: As to the calling of myself to ministry.
33:01: And I remember my first sermon.
33:02: I remember the desire God put in my heart to preach His Word.
33:05: But I was not confident in my call to ministry for a long time.
33:10: But my wife kept telling me, this is what God has called you to.
33:15: This is what God wants you to do.
33:17: She was the voice of God's Spirit in my life because I was scared to death because of James 3, 1 which said, let no one assume to be a teacher because teachers will be held at a higher standard.
33:28: And that scared me to death.
33:31: And yet my wife was the voice of God speaking to me.
33:34: Confirming to me what God had called me to.
33:37: Now is she the Holy Spirit? No.
33:38: I can show you her driver's license.
33:40: It doesn't say Holy Spirit.
33:41: But we know this.
33:42: God does confirm to us through the voice of others His truth.
33:45: And we hear that and I know this.
33:48: If a man's wife is not confident in his leadership, neither am I.
33:53: I got off the subject.
33:54: I'm sorry.
33:55: Let's get back to Acts.
33:55: But this is important stuff.
33:57: This is leadership stuff because this is what we see.
34:00: The Holy Spirit's calling these men out.
34:02: He's calling them and He's telling the church to send these men.
34:07: So in verse 3 we see, after fasting, this is the second time they're fasting.
34:13: They fasted the first time and God spoke.
34:15: They fasted the second time for what? Not to receive any more revelation.
34:20: They had the revelation they needed.
34:21: They fasted in obedience and seeking for these men.
34:26: And they prayed and laid their hands on them and sent them off.
34:32: Now I thought about this while I was reading this.
34:35: You might think that this church might question the Holy Spirit.
34:38: Why? Because they are sending away their two most gifted men.
34:46: They're sending away the men who have been their pastors.
34:49: For we know over a year and likely longer than that, these two men are among the most gifted men.
34:56: They had served as pastors together for over a year.
34:58: And I can tell you this.
34:59: When God had confirmed in our church just this past year that I was going to be losing two men in this church who were gifted men, that was hard.
35:11: It really was.
35:15: One of the men, as you know, Brother Byron, was called to go to a different school.
35:19: So he now teaches at a school in Knoxville.
35:22: Aaron was called to go to seminary so he left to go to Kentucky.
35:25: And I am thankful that God has not left us without other gifted men.
35:29: Many of you here are gifted men.
35:31: I'm thankful for that.
35:32: But I tell you what, it was hard losing two men who I know that if I were to drop dead in the pulpit, could come stand on my dead body and finish my sermon.
35:39: My wife might not like it, but I'd appreciate it.
35:44: You see, those are men that's hard to lose.
35:48: And this is a situation this church is in.
35:50: You've got two of the most gifted men in the history of the church Send them away, the Spirit says.
35:59: Send them out into the field.
36:04: So they fasted.
36:08: They fasted for those men.
36:09: I imagine they fasted also for themselves, thinking about what now is going to happen to our church.
36:13: We're losing our pastors.
36:15: But we still have men who can lead us.
36:17: We pray for those men too.
36:21: So the church releases them.
36:22: The ESV says, send them off.
36:24: I don't like that phrase.
36:25: Is it King James or New King that says, release them? What does it say there, Mike? Did it say send them away? I think the term release is better.
36:34: Luo is the root there.
36:36: And Luo in Greek means to loose something, like if you unloosen something or to set it free.
36:42: The idea of sending them away, to me, they're sending them off, and they are.
36:46: But at the same time, they're releasing them because they have had them here for over a year ministering to them.
36:52: They're now releasing them into the world.
36:54: They're letting them go.
36:55: It would have been so easy for the church to fight against the Spirit and say, no, they have to stay here.
36:59: We need them.
37:01: No, let them go and do what God has called them to do.
37:08: There was a world outside that needed the gospel, and these two men were ready to take it.
37:13: So now that we've looked at the text, we've looked at the three verses, let me give you the points of application.
37:17: I didn't give you blanks to fill in this week because I couldn't figure out a good place to put the blanks.
37:21: But that's just me.
37:22: I'm just not very creative.
37:23: But if you look at the back of your bulletin, you'll see the outline of the application.
37:27: Let me make just three points of application, and then I'll bring us to a close.
37:31: Number one, and you'll notice in every one of these, I mention the local church because that's what Antioch was.
37:37: It was a local body of believers under the authority of their prophets and teachers, which were their elders, essentially.
37:43: They were there, they were a local body, and they were a going and sending church.
37:48: A Spirit-filled local church is a going and sending church.
37:52: We've already established that everyone in this church is called to be an evangelist in one sense.
37:58: Every one of you is called to preach the Gospel wherever you go.
38:01: If you work at the hardware store, if you work at an office, whatever you are in life, you are to be the presence of the Spirit there, bringing the Gospel wherever you are.
38:11: We are all called to be involved, but not all called to be missionaries.
38:17: Not everyone here is called to go over to Pakistan.
38:20: Not everyone here is called to go over to anywhere else.
38:23: You're not all called to that, but you are called to this.
38:25: If you don't go, you're called to send.
38:28: And we see Antioch, there are five men, but only two go.
38:34: The other men stay and do what? They minister at the church at Antioch, but they are no less valuable because they're part of the church that's sending the men.
38:45: You see, if we're not going, we're sending.
38:49: It should be the business of the church to support missionaries who go.
38:56: We should be praying for and raising up missionaries.
39:00: We should be supporting our missionary better, Walter, who we support.
39:04: We should be doing better at what we do for him.
39:10: We have to be going and sending church.
39:12: That's number one.
39:13: Number two, missionary work is local church based.
39:19: The local church is and should be the foundation for missions.
39:26: Parachurch organizations have overtaken the local church in this duty.
39:32: We forget that there is but one organization that Christ established in the world, and it wasn't Campus Crusade for Christ.
39:42: He established the church.
39:43: Now, I'm not saying God hasn't used Campus Crusade.
39:45: I'm not saying God hasn't used these parachurch ministries, but He's used it in spite of what He's called us to.
39:50: He called us to send missionaries.
39:53: He called us to go out into the world.
39:59: There's often a disconnect between the churches and the missionaries themselves, and thus what happens to the people of the church.
40:05: We stop caring because we're not intimately involved in the life of the men we're sending.
40:13: It's just to us another line item on our budget.
40:17: We support the missions board, we send the money out, and we don't know who or what is happening.
40:23: And thus we lose concern for what's going on.
40:28: We need to be intimately invested in the life of those who we send.
40:32: And thirdly and finally, local church worship should lead us to worldwide missions.
40:38: This church in Antioch, in Acts 13, verses 1 through 3, was not planning a missions conference.
40:48: You show me in the text where they were planning on sending Saul and Barnabas away.
40:53: They weren't.
40:54: They were worshipping and fasting, worshipping and fasting, worshipping and fasting.
40:58: And in the midst of that local church worship, God spoke into their midst and He said, Now send these men out.
41:06: You see, worship, that is true worship, causes us to want to make worshipers.
41:14: That's what evangelism is.
41:16: Do you know what John Piper said? I always love this quote.
41:18: He said, The reason why missions exist is because there's places where worship doesn't.
41:23: We send men out that they might worship God, that they might teach others to worship God.
41:28: There are places in the world today where worship is not happening.
41:31: So we send missionaries to them that they might worship God.
41:35: So our worship should be leading.
41:38: And I say this because you know that some of these guys come in and they're coming from the deepest, darkest places and they bring in the pictures and the children with the distended bellies.
41:49: They have the homes that are dilapidated.
41:52: They show you how they're drinking out of a ditch.
41:54: And our hearts get stirred for a moment.
41:58: And that becomes the motivation for our giving and our sending of the missionary.
42:02: And listen to your heart when I ask this question.
42:06: Should not the lost souls of men, even those who are not poor, be motivation enough for us to send men to them? Should not the glory of Christ be enough to send men that we have to be emotionally manipulated to do what we've been called to do? Isn't the glory of Christ in the world worth sending men? That we have to be emotionally twisted to do it? I don't know.
42:42: I think so.
42:44: But it seems as if it doesn't work that way.
42:48: Our worship should be leading us to send men into the fields.
42:53: And our desire in worship should be that others be brought to the same throne of grace that we have been brought to.
43:03: Now I want to conclude, and I know I'm going kind of long, but I didn't want to split this into two messages.
43:09: So let me just conclude with this.
43:10: I want to conclude with a call to action on behalf of Walter Heaton.
43:17: Most of us know that he has been under serious satanic attack for the past year due to the influence of Islam, which has made its way not only into his community, but into his home through the avenue of his daughter, who, and it breaks my heart to say, was manipulated by a man through the internet to reject Jesus Christ and now want to leave her parents and move to a country where they are raping and killing women.
43:52: And that's where she wants to go because she's been so twisted.
43:55: And so the missionary that we love and support is heartbroken over this thing with his eldest daughter.
44:02: It happened to her while she was away at college.
44:06: She went away to college here in America and was caught up in it here, not over there.
44:17: Since learning of Walter's perilous situation, how many of us have committed times of prayer to Walter? How many of us pray daily for Walter? How many of us have taken to fast on behalf of Walter and his family? We are not the only church that supports Walter, but he is the only missionary we support.
44:59: Are you praying? Are you giving of your own money? Not just what we have as a line item in the budget.
45:10: Are you fasting? He's a world away, pastor, I can't think about it.
45:18: We must.
45:21: We must.
45:27: Now in the future we may have other missionaries that we support, and that's fine, but right now we have but one.
45:34: We have but one.
45:37: What are we doing on behalf of that one man? Years ago a missionary couple left their home to go to a place in Africa to preach the gospel.
45:51: It was known as the white man's grave.
45:53: That was the name of the place.
45:57: So the couple understood the dangers of where they were going, and the man spoke to his church.
46:06: And this was a direct quote from the missionary.
46:08: He said, My wife and I have a strange dread in going.
46:13: We feel much as if we are going down into the pit.
46:17: We are willing to take the risk and go if you, our home church, are willing to hold the ropes.
46:26: Now, I want to stop.
46:28: What is he talking about? That's a euphemism in mission work.
46:31: Remember when Paul was led over the side of the building in the basket? There were men who held the ropes for him.
46:37: Missionaries use that as a euphemism of what we're doing when we're praying for them.
46:41: We're holding the ropes because they're hanging over the wall in a basket.
46:44: He said, I will go, but you must pray because this is serious.
46:49: My wife and I are going to a place where people die, but we will go on behalf of Christ.
46:55: But you must pray, and you must hold those ropes for us.
47:01: And the church committed to it.
47:09: Within two years of ministry, the wife had died of a terrible fever that she contracted there.
47:17: The man also contracted the same disease and knew that he was going to die.
47:23: So he decided to return home to his church, and he came in unnoticed.
47:29: He didn't tell them he was coming.
47:32: He just decided to die at home.
47:34: So he came home, and he came into the church, and he came into a meeting, and he sat in the back as the prayer meeting went on.
47:42: And as the meeting ended, he slowly walked to the front of the church.
47:45: The people were in shock at the look of death on his face.
47:48: They knew death was imminent.
47:49: He was scrawny and feverish.
47:59: And they looked with shock on their faces.
48:00: He turned to them, and he said, I am your missionary.
48:06: My wife is dead and buried in Africa, and I have come home to die.
48:14: This evening I listened anxiously as you prayed for some mention of your missionary.
48:19: I listened for you to mention your missionary to see if you kept your promise, but it was in vain.
48:26: You prayed for everything connected with yourselves.
48:29: You prayed for everything connected with your homes and your finances and your health, but not for your missionary.
48:39: I see now why failure has come, because we have failed to hold the ropes.
48:51: Let's pray.
48:55: Father, I thank you for Walter Heaton and the missions work that you've called him to.
49:03: I look forward, Lord, in the future to be able to do more for him as a church and individuals.
49:10: I pray that you would use this sermon to stir our hearts, that we would understand that we are not gaining any salvation by what we do.
49:20: For us to ever understand that we are saved by what we do.
49:25: But Lord God, to know that we are saved by grace through faith unto good works.
49:31: We have been saved to do that which is right.
49:33: We have been saved to do that which is good.
49:35: We have been saved to do those things which are pleasing to You.
49:39: And sending men to the fields which are white for the harvest is good and right.
49:46: And we pray that You would place it upon our hearts to do these things and do them better than we have before.
49:53: In Jesus' blessed name.
49:56: Amen.
49:58: Let's stand.