Our Great Goal - World Missions

If you would go ahead and take your Bible and I want you to turn to two different places this morning Say repeatedly I don't want to perform Bible drill in any of our messages, but sometimes I will ask you to turn to Multiple places will be in two Main truths passages this morning turn first to Acts chapter 13 Starting in verse 1 I want you to mark that passage Acts 13 starting in verse 1 and Then turn back over to the left a little go to Matthew chapter 28 and we'll start in verse 16 We'll look at the Matthew passage first and then we will turn over halfway through the message to Acts 13 It will help you if you've already had that marked that way we can progress smoothly through the message Now we've been in this series You're familiar with by now the series is called messages from the pastor's heart for quite a few weeks We spent 11 weeks on the family Then we spent two weeks on the ministry opportunities that God has put before us Now I would encourage you to maybe go back and study your notes If you missed any of those messages go back and listen to them.

I think it's important for you to Receive all that the Lord wanted us to receive these were burdens. These were subjects These were issues that the Lord has had on my heart for quite some time Especially the matters concerning the family. I believe that we can always use some adjusting some correction some teaching concerning the family I think that those messages were very timely and of course the two messages that deal with the ministry Opportunities that were before us we need to be very conscious of the ministries that God has for us and we need to capitalize be responsible For the provision of ministry that we have in this day in this time Now this morning we come to the last of the burdens the last of the burdens but realistically this was the first burden that God put on my heart as As these great needs were giving rise in my heart way back at the end of the summer Truthfully, I think I spent the entire month of August consumed with this subject.

I did a lot of reading I did a lot of studying. I listened to many different messages on This subject now. What is this subject? If you listen to brother Keith if you heard some of the things he said You probably picked up by now that we're going to be looking at the subject the burden of missions the burden the subject of missions now My ministry experience is limited.

I understand that and my missions experience is Limited as well, but I have been faithful to be involved in the missions that the Lord has put before me Couple of quick examples and then we'll get into the message I remember years ago when I was at First Baptist Church in Ellisville, Mississippi God opened up the door for us to do lots of missions in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana Some very what some people call dangerous ministry. We did a lot of ministry in the French Quarter to homeless people We helped the church a struggling church.

We helped them in children's ministry and vacation Bible school ministry But once a year sometimes multiple times in the year I took lots of students and adults and we did some very productive ministry in that city setting and You know lo and behold God began to work on me and show me my hypocrisy You know Lord began to show me that it's really easy to get Excited about a week's worth of ministry and he began to show me that they were very similar ministry needs right down the road from our church we poured our hearts we developed a Missions ministry in a local trailer park and I'm thankful that that ministry is still thriving today As I progressed in student ministry as I went to my next church that church was involved in different ministry Endeavors I had the opportunity to go to Russia on a missions trip.

There were some aspects of that ministry that trip were good Some were not every ministry opportunity is never perfect and then as I Transitioned in the pastoral ministry, you know my ministry and missions experience here It's primarily been through Luke and his ministry in India and that was a wonderful trip a wonderful opportunity And I have desired to lead us and take us to be involved in that ministry as it develops Of course, we have ministry right down the road. That's missions as well Now what am I showing you as the Lord has opened up doors of missions and ministry in my life?

I've tried to be faithful to walk through those doors and be obedient to the opportunities that God has put before me Now this morning The title of what we're going to look at it's a very bold title It's a gripping title, but it is called our great goal world missions our great goal that is world Missions now this is within the context of the church There have been ministry opportunities that I have done that have been within the context of certain parts of the church I'm speaking About the church as a whole the total context in the work of the church in regards to world missions you see the truths that we're going to deal with the first main truth come out of the Matthew passage and the second main truth come out of the Passage in acts acts chapter 13.

This will be a part one and a part two I hate to say it, but we will divide these messages next week with our baptismal service. We will not look at this Subject we'll look at baptism and conversion and then we'll pick back up with the part two not this Sunday but the next So you see the main truths we're going to look at the church is called to this task And then the church at Antioch is our example Let's read this passage in Matthew Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 16 But the 11 disciples Proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated and when he saw them they worshipped him But some were doubtful And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go Therefore and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age Now you should know where this fits chronologically in the life of Jesus This is after the death of Christ on the cross.

This is after the resurrection But this is before the ascension. He is giving the last instructions to his apostles And we have these passages that are before us now We have right before us what is called the Great Commission We find accounts of the Great Commission in other places. We have it here in Matthew We have a we have it in the Gospel of Mark the Gospel of Luke and most of us know The Bible most of us who are familiar with our scriptures.

Maybe we've been in church for years We are familiar with these passages Some of us have headings in our bibles maybe above verse 16 that might read the Great Commission Many of us have maybe seen banners in churches Maybe have even seen permanently displayed passages of Scripture that refer to the Great Commission in Churches we have studied these passages in Sunday school lessons We've heard them preached at missions conferences and we've heard them preached and quoted by missionaries through the years But we have the Great Commission Given by Jesus to the Apostles right here in this verse So main truth number one the church is called to this task.

I want to make three observations out of these passages First of all, I want us to see that there is an authority in this calling There is an authority in this calling Jesus came up. He's speaking of him. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth That's out of verse 18. Now the King James reads power Now our modern translations read authority the King James reads power, but I could best be understood in light of the original language as Authority, but here we must see who and I emphasize who is Giving this command and that is the living Lord Jesus Now in our study of the gospel of John we should know accurately who Jesus is we should have a proper Christology Jesus is the Christ.

He is the promised Messiah He is the Son of God and he is God Himself he is the God-man the Messiah the Son Christ Jesus that is a proper Christ ology I Like how John MacArthur speaks of his authority. This is a rather lengthy quote, but let me read it I quote it was in light of his absolute Sovereign authority that Jesus commanded go therefore and make disciples of all nations The transitional word is therefore and I'm still quoting Because I am sovereign Lord of the universe Jesus was saying I Have both the authority to command you to be my witnesses and the power to enable you to obey that command So what do we see we see the authority in this calling in all around us?

There are different authorities in this world. We have political positions We have people in government and they have authority We have people in law enforcement and they have authority there are people in authority around us But what we see is Christ's authority and as MacArthur says it is an absolute Sovereign authority why because he is God?

Second I want you to see there is action in this calling All authorities been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples Now this word make it's a verb But many of you might not realize that it is the dominant command in these verses Now most of you and most people make the assumption that go the word go is the primary command here But that is not the case when you look at the original construction of the language The word go is better translated from the original as you are going Many have made the mistake of emphasizing go the word go above and beyond this dominant command of Making disciples and it is important vitally important to see here that at the heart of this making is making true Disciples those who have been converted by God those who have true saving faith Disciples are born into the kingdom and then they are formed as Christ wants them to be This being born is the act of regeneration and then being formed is what we call sanctification But I want you to notice something in this action.

It's rather funny Christ is calling and commanding them to do what they cannot do They don't have the ability to birth someone in the kingdom They don't have the ability to do any of these things he is calling them to do what they can't do But he promises to give them power to do what they can't do and that is to make disciples So what do we see the action here he is calling them with his supreme authority to go out to go over the cold Dark Mountains and to make disciples seeing them born into the kingdom and then on that road to sanctification Of being made more like Christ.

I want you to see third there is work in this calling There is work at this calling now at the center of this word make is True believing on Christ people are born into the kingdom then after the miracle takes place That is when the work begins now evangelism is work, but yet there is a twofold work here Christ is commanding that they be Baptized after their conversion, but then he is commanding that they be taught go back to the verse go therefore And make those disciples of all the nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things So what do we see he says teach them to observe all the things that you've seen in me?

And you know of me and all the things that I will give you and look this teaching is not Easy it is work and it it takes time it takes years months even generations to do this work So what do we see there is an authority in this calling there is action in this calling to make disciples And then there is a work in this calling Now a couple of questions First question who is this Commission? This great Commission who is this Commission who is this task given to?

Now we know that these are the Apostles but yet there were other disciples there as well But what we have here is the beginnings of the New Testament Church These Apostles were the early church fathers and if you father them in their journey They will go out and begin the New Testament church and they are the ones that will propagate this work So this Commission this task is given to the early church It's like a question what is the purpose of the Commission?

The purpose of the Commission is that the church might fulfill this goal Now this leads me to an understanding and it should lead us to an understanding The goal of the church is not to grow in numbers It's not to grow in resources and buildings The goal of the church is not to preach the word to pray and to build the saints The goal of the church is not to build strong families the goal of the church is not to build strong Pete young people who love the Lord the goal of the church is to fulfill this great Commission and all of these Previously mentioned things are to be obtained so that the fulfillment of the great Commission can be reached All these things should take place in the life of the church.

So the goal can be accomplished. I Know that that struck a chord with some of you Pastor you mean the goal is not to build strong families. The goal is to build strong families so that we can reach the goal You say pastor we're not supposed to have the goal of having strong young people in the Lord We acquire a reach for that goal to have strong young people so that we can reach and fulfill this goal The ultimate goal is to take the gospel to the nations The ultimate goal is that the church is called to this task In an application.

I think we really really really need to let that soak in we are familiar with this passage You're familiar with this teaching But you are most likely not familiar with the fact that this is the ultimate goal in the ultimate Task of the church all that we do should come to the place where we desire to reach this goal And every goal that we would accomplish every task that we would put our hands to is to ultimately do this task Most of you many of you probably never heard of this Christian he's rather famous in some circles. His name was Oswald J.

Smith He was a famous Presbyterian very solid Presbyterian in the beginnings of the 20th century he's long since been dead, but he was very much a a Statesman in the area of missions if you go and read about his church and how much mission work they did It's rather rather astounding, but he made this very simple comment and it captures it very well Oswald J.

Smith says the Lord did not tell us to build beautiful churches but to evangelize the world and Everything we do and everything we accomplish and everything we set our hearts and minds to do should Ultimately be to reach this goal and that is taking the gospel to the nations making disciples of the nations Let's continue main truth number two. We'll turn over to Acts chapter 13 for this We will look at the church at Antioch is our example.

We're just going to look at three verses here Now there were at Antioch in the church That was their prophets and teachers Barnabas and Simon who was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Mani and Who had been brought up with Herod the Tetris Arkansas? We're familiar with Saul while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting and praying The Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work To which I have called him then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them. They sent them away Now here in the book of Acts.

We have a transition in the book right here in verse 13 Previously the emphasis had been on Peter but after chapter 13 Paul becomes the emphasis as he takes the gospel to the Roman world and Here we find him at the church at Antioch now Antioch was a Roman city and the capital of the province of the day and it was located some 300 miles North of Jerusalem now in a very simple way. I want to say it like this Antioch was a rotten city It was rotten to the core with immorality and the worship of pagan gods You might say pastor that sounds like all those other Roman cities.

That's the truth It was a very rotten and pagan city now there were Jews there, but the society was totally pagan but other than Jerusalem There was not a city that Revivaled Antioch in spreading the gospel in the first century It was the great sending church from where the Apostles went to spread the gospel to the entire Roman world For observations I want to make here First of all, I want you to see that the church at Antioch they understood this task at hand they Understood this task at hand now here you will notice the Absence of some teaching and that is teaching on the Great Commission What am I saying?

They understood this teaching that is because they understood This was the goal of the church now we will see that there was specific instruction given here But behind the specific call they had an understanding that the Great Commission Was the task of the goal of the church so that did not need to be taught or corrected here So they understood the task at hand Second I want you to see that they were Worshiping they were a worshiping church Verse 2 says why they were ministering to the Lord and fasting They were worshiping ministering and they were fasting the King James and the New American read ministering the English Standard reads Worshiping now in the original this word is used to describe Priestly service we see in verse 1 church officers Mentioned if you go back and look so we see here that the worship Practices were being attended to by the leaders within the church So with that in mind, let me go back and look at the verse while they were ministering to the Lord those church officers Were fulfilling their duties faithfully before the Lord and the people were Participating in this worship so they were worshiping in the church Third I want you to see they were praying in the church We see that alluded to at the beginning of verse 2 and while they were Ministering to the Lord and they were fasting now you will notice that word fasting is mentioned But the word prayer is not mentioned in verse 2 now Simplistically fasting is the setting aside of food for the purpose of seeking God more seriously in prayer I've said it like this before it is denying your flesh Denying your fleshly desires to earnestly seek the Lord in prayer and that is what they were doing Just the mention of this word tells us that they were very very serious in their prayer ministry They were very vigilant in prayer.

They were very sacrificial in prayer But not only were they vigilant they were constant in prayer Because if we go all the way down to the end of verse 3 You will see after this specific work of God they continued in prayer So the work that God did here in Antioch was preceded by prayer It was received in prayer and it was maintained in prayer serious prayer vigilant prayer So they were a praying church Fourth I want you to notice that they received a calling What do we see while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting notice what it says the Holy Spirit said Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them here We see that they received an inward calling directly from the Holy Spirit of God now notice who received the calling It was Barnabas and Saul and the church But what I want you to notice is this word Set apart go back to the text the Holy Spirit said set apart for me I want you to take notice of that word set apart the King James read separate This word was used to describe the act of marking off boundaries and Paul used it multiple times in his writing to describe His call as an apostle Both Barnabas and Saul had previously been called But now they are being called to a special task and that of taking the gospel to the Gentiles So the Spirit of God said that Barnabas and Saul God is setting you aside.

God is marking you off for this task and The church heard the Spirit say you set aside these two men you mark them off for this task And then what did they do? It says that they laid hands on them as a sign of this work and they sent them off So they received a calling the men Barnabas and Saul and The church so what do we see here these Christians this church they understood the work They understood the task of the Great Commission.

They were worshipping as they should they were Sacrificial and diligent in their prayer and they received a divine Calling this is the work of God in a local church And look this is a work of God that relates to the goal of the church to go and impact the world a church individuals in the call of God Now an application. I want to ask a question For the church in Antioch to strive to reach this goal Do you think that correct? Information was enough Was it enough just for them to have memorized that Great Commission passage? no, and Just like so many people in the church today.

I'm afraid some of you here might have the right Information you might know the passage you might be able to quote it Maybe you learned it years ago in Bible drill or your post personal devotional time, but possessing the right Information is not enough and I believe the Lord wants to come and bring about an inward call in us To engage in this work.

It's not enough to possess the information What's needed is the Spirit of God to come and bring that information to life in our church in our midst? to do what to seek to accomplish the goal of evangelizing yes the world Now as we move to the conclusion I want to Give a very simplistic overview in two words the goal in The example if you really want to write it down this way you can just write down golden example What I'm trying to help us see is that the goal of the church is far greater than all of these good and Noble and worthy and needed goals that we do have We've been working very hard through the years and these are Noble and and they are honorable things that we've been seeking to do But ultimately it must lead to the one goal and that is to take the gospel around the world and the word example Anyon Barnabas saw I believe every question or every excuse that you could lay out there as to why we can't do that task Can be answered by looking at this example?

They were in a pagan land More than likely they were not very large in size and More than likely they did not have many material resources. Oh, but they had the call of God. I Was reminded of this example this past week Like I said earlier we enjoyed the church conference that we went to heard a lot of good preaching Was ministered to but I heard one of the ministers give an example and he gave the testimony of his own church Now I have to admit halfway through the example halfway through the testimony.

I didn't think too much of it He began to explain how he and his wife now he's an itinerant minister, but he and his wife over 28 years ago We're part of planting a church as a matter of fact. He said that he and his wife are the last two charter members of the church But he went on to say that in 28 years. They are up to the average attendance of about 75 people Well immediately that's where I got critical.

I Immediately thought that's all the people they've reached But then very quickly he went on to say that in 28 years they have been responsible for starting and planting over a hundred churches and placing pastors in those churches and That's where I got humble You see the goal It's not about our size It's not about our wealth. It's not about our resources. It's about the question. Will we be?

Responsible for this goal There are many signs to church health But one which cannot be ignored is world missions The primary verb here make cannot be ignored in all Nations cannot be ignored and it must be our primary goal to take the gospel Where he tells us to take it Now what's the title of the message our great goal? Our great goal could that be our great goal could that be your great goal could that be my great goal?

Could that become our heartbeat and that is to do whatever the Lord would call us to do to take this precious? gospel around the world Our great goal world missions Next week we'll pick up with part two and I believe this will be the beginnings of a work that God is doing in us Let's pray Lord Jesus, I thank You.