Taking the Gospel to the Community

Taking the Gospel to the Community

“Taking the Gospel to the Community”

(Acts 2:40-47)

Series: An Acts 1:8 Church

Every Member a Missionary

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Henderson KY

(2-7-10) (AM)

 

  • Take your Bibles and join me in Acts, chapter 2.

 

We have been talking about what it means to be an Acts 1:8 Church.  We have been looking at passages in the Book of Acts that remind us that every member of this church is a missionary.  Every member is a missionary.  That’s on your bookmark.  Do have your bookmark?  Hold it up.  It says, “Every member is a missionary.”  Let’s say that together: “Every member is a missionary.”

 

First Baptist Church has always been missions-minded, ever since God started this church back in 1839.  We have always been missions-minded, but we want to remind ourselves that the call of our Lord Jesus Christ in Acts 1:8 is to be more than missions-minded.  The call of our Lord Jesus is to be missional.  We are to think missionally and act missionally and live missionally, understanding that every member is a missionary.  I have these two slides up again this morning to illustrate the difference between a missions-minded church and a missional church.

 

Slide: Missions as Spoke on Wheel

 

This wheel represents a “missions-minded” church.  Th church thinks of missions as one of many things the church does like different spokes on a wheel.  So the church is involved in things like men’s ministry, women’s ministry, children’s ministry, and then you see missions.  Missions is just one spoke among many other spokes on the wheel of a missions-minded church.

 

Slide: Missions as Hub of Wheel

 

This wheel represents a “missional” church.  You see that missions is not just a spoke on the wheel, but the very hub of the wheel itself.  Missions is the hub that makes the wheel turn.  Everything the church does is connected to missions.  This is a missional church.  This is the biblical model of church.  This is Henderson’s First Baptist Church.

 

So Jesus’ call in Acts 1:8 is a call to every Christian, every single Christian.  What does Jesus say?  Do you remember?  If you can recall it from memory, do that.  If you need to look at your bookmark, look at it.  Jesus is doing the talking here in Acts 1:8 and He’s talking to every single follower throughout time.  Let’s say it together:

 

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 

Remember Jesus does not say to do this sequentially, as in “First, go to Jerusalem, second, go to Judea.”  No, the advancement of the Gospel is to be done simultaneously.  We are, each of us, to advance the Gospel in these four areas simultaneously.  Turn the bookmark over.

 

It says, “Simultaneously taking the Gospel to the community—that’s our Jerusalem—the commonwealth—that’s our Judea—the country—that’s Samaria, and the continents—the ends of the earth.”  Every one of us can pray, give, or go to our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  Every one of us can pray, give, or go to our community, commonwealth, country, and continents.

 

We’ve been working our way backwards from the continents and now we’re talking about advancing the Gospel to our community.  In Acts 2 we’re reading about how the church began in the local community of Jerusalem.  The context of this passage is the climactic conclusion of a sermon preached by the Apostle Peter in Jerusalem.  It begins in verse 14 and goes all the way to verse 39, but verse 40 says that there were “many other words” that Peter preached.  So it was quite a sermon, resulting in the salvation of 3,000 people.  Amazing!  Let’s read about it.  I’m going to ask you to stand as we read this text which is going to be our spiritual food this morning.

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.  44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,

45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

We’ve been talking about advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth and I really believe that First Baptist Church should have a burden for the nations.  We should think of our church as a global missions center where we meet regularly to glorify God through worship and receive training to reach the nations for Jesus Christ. And reaching the nations means reaching our community.  Someone said, “The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.”  Can I say that again?  You may want to write this down.  “The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.”

 

Your Jerusalem is the first place you will go this morning when you step outside of this church building.  The community of Henderson is our Jerusalem.  If we’re to be missional in the 4 Cs of Continents, Country, and Commonwealth, then we’ll also be missional in our Community.

 

What do missional Christians want to see happen in their community?  Let me suggest three things from this text.  First:

 

I.  We want to see people Get Saved (40-41)

 

Look again at verse 40.  The Bible says what about Peter?

 

40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be (what?) saved from this perverse generation.”

 

The word “saved” is not a Baptist word.  The word “saved” is a Bible word.  It’s a good word!  Missional Christians want the same thing God wants.  They want to see the people of their community get saved.

 

Our greatest need in life is not to feel good physically, not to make a lot of money, not to be wildly popular and successful.  Our greatest need in life is not even to join the church.  Our greatest need in life is to get saved.  Peter said, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”  You and I need to get saved from this perverse generation.  The gospel means good news and we cannot acknowledge the good news of the gospel until we acknowledge the bad news of our condition.  The word “perverse” means “curved” and “crooked.”  It is the opposite of “straight.”  It’s a reminder that we are all born with a sinful condition, a bent, if you will, toward evil.  We are sinners by nature and sinners by choice.  Our greatest need is to get saved from our sin.

 

The Bible teaches that the wages of our sin is death.  This is both physical and spiritual death.  Because of sin we all die.  We all are dead spiritually.  If nothing changes, we die twice.  That is, we die both a physical and spiritual death.  We die physically at the end of our lives and we remain spiritually dead forever and ever in a place called hell.  If, however, we believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him by faith into our lives we will only die a physical death because Jesus has taken care of our spiritual death on the cross.  He died in our place.  He took upon Himself the punishment we deserved.  He died for our sins.

 

We must believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  We must turn from our sin and turn to Christ alone as Savior.  We repent, turning away from sin and self, and turning toward Jesus Christ.  We believe that He died in our place and gave to us His righteousness.  We must believe this and receive Him into our lives as Lord.  He is Master and Ruler of our lives.  We live for Him.  We must do this to be saved.  This is the gospel, nothing less than this.

 

Oswald Chambers said, “We must never confuse our desire for people to accept the gospel with creating a gospel that is acceptable to people.”

 

41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

 

So 3,000 people in the local community of Jerusalem get saved.  The first thing they do to indicate that they are true believers in Jesus Christ, identifying publicly and unashamedly with Jesus, is to be baptized.  They are baptized, picturing that they are united together with Christ Jesus.  They go down into the baptismal waters to picture death and they rise up out of the baptismal waters to picture resurrection, new life in Christ.

 

Missional Christians want to see people get saved.  First Baptist Church reaches the people of her community primarily through our FAITH Evangelism Ministry.  In a couple of weeks we’re going to start our FAITH ministry, 12-weeks of teaching and taking the Gospel to our community.  I hope over 100 of you join me in taking the Gospel to our community through FAITH ministry.  We’re looking forward to our next semester of FAITH and you’ll be hearing more about it in the next couple weeks.

 

Many of our members are involved in taking the Gospel to our community through weekly FAITH visitation and many of our members are also involved in taking the Gospel to our community through other local ministries.  Many of First Baptist Church members are involved in our jail ministry.  I got a letter recently from our new chaplain, Jason Davis.  It says:

 

“Pastor Todd—please share with the First Baptist family that 225 inmates accepted Christ in 2009!  80 submitted to water baptism, thanks in large part to Jim Trader and First Baptist.”

 

Many of you are involved in jail ministry here in our local community, a ministry that really reaches all over the country, and many more of us can be involved.  Others of you are involved in great local ministries such as Marsha’s Place, our community’s crisis-pregnancy resource center where troubled moms and dads hear the Gospel and of God’s love and plan for unborn children—and many more can be involved.  And then there’s the Salvation Army and the Answer Center, and so many other local ministries where we can either pray, give, or go for the glory of God.

 

Missional Christians want to see people in their community get saved.  Secondly:

 

II.  We want to see people Grow Spiritually (42-43; 46-47)

 

We want to see people get connected to a local church where they will grow spiritually.  That’s what happened to these 3,000 new Christians in Jerusalem.  Verse 42:

 

42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers (this is a reference to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper)

43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

 

We don’t have time this morning to unpack these two verses fully, but I want you to see how they illustrate how new believers get connected to a local congregation where they can grow spiritually. They “continued steadfastly.”  It means they were “devoted” to these things.  They were devoted to “the apostle’s doctrine.”  That’s the teaching of the Word of God.  They desired spiritual growth, coming together regularly for instruction in the Word.  They were devoted to coming together in the context of worship, observing the Lord’s Supper together, praying together.  This was a regular, habitual, coming together for the purpose of spiritual growth and worship.  That happens in the local church.  Look down at the last two verses:

46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 

It’s a beautiful picture of the local church alive in the community and growing spiritually strong.  The New Testament just takes for granted that every Christian is an active member of a local congregation.  I mean, it’s just a given.

 

These folks gathered together regularly because they wanted to!  Their lives had been changed.  They were different.  The recent trend in many churches today is “Go until someone offends you, then find another church.”  And you see that everywhere.  People go for awhile and they just think the church is great.  Man, the music is great, the choir is great, the preaching is great, the people are great and then someone says something and they’re offended.  Then off they go to find the next church—someone called them “spiritual gypsies.”  They just move around.

 

Let’s just acknowledge right now that First Baptist Church is not perfect.  Okay?  If we’ll do that at the front end, then we won’t be surprised when someone says something offensive to us.  One of the beautiful by-products of being missional is that it takes our focus off of ourselves and gets us way from looking inward to looking upward and outward.  We are here for others.  We have a love for God and others.  And so we want to see people get saved and grow spiritually.  Thirdly:

 

III.  We want to see people Give Sacrificially (44-45)

 

44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,

45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

 

This is not communism or socialism.  Communism and socialism is a forced kind of giving.  A higher authority demands that you give your money to others.  This is not communism.  This is Christianity.  It is a love for missions and ministry through the local church.  It is the realization that if we’re going to advance the Gospel from the community to the continents then it is going to require sacrificial giving.  We help out our brothers and sisters in need.

 

Love motivates our giving.  I hope when you give during the offertory that you are glad to give.  I mean, love motivates our giving.  We love God and we give because He gave to us.  And God gives the local church body wisdom to rightly use those monies for His greater glory in advancing the gospel from the community to the continents.

 

Conclusion:

 

Missional Christians want to see people get saved, grow spiritually, and give sacrificially.  And every single one of us can either pray, give, or go to our community, commonwealth, country, and continents.

 

To that end, we want to help each and every member be missional this year.  I want to invite you to put together a simple, missional action plan, an M-A-P—Map; your personal missional action plan for 2010.    This is your personal strategy for praying, giving, or going to the 4 Cs this year.

 

I want to invite you to be in prayer about this for a few weeks.  Consider how God can use you this year in reaching your community, commonwealth, country, or continents by praying, giving, or going in 2010.

 

To help you in prayerfully thinking about how you and your family can be missional this year, we want to invite you to take about 15 minutes of your time and go over to the fellowship hall before you head home today.  We’ll have about 20 tables set-up with ideas and suggestions for how you can be involved missionally this year.  Most of the tables are there for you to just get information about how you can be missional this year.  You’ll see information about taking the Gospel to the community, the commonwealth, the country, and the continents.

 

To help you make some notes, we have provided you this red sheet.  And you can take this with you and just make some notes.  We want to help you formulate your personal missional action plan—every member doing this, including pastor and staff—every member putting together a missional action plan.  In a few weeks we’ll complete our plan and commit our plans to the Lord in a special worship service.

 

So take these red sheets and spend a few minutes in the fellowship hall beginning at 11 o’clock.  Walk around and look at all the options and opportunities where you or your family or your Sunday school class can be involved missionally. Your Sunday school class may wish to do a missions project together.  There’s information there at the Missions Fair for what you can do.  Maybe your family will consider an oversees missions trip, or a trip to eastern Kentucky, or maybe you’ll put together some food buckets for victims in Haiti.  There’s information in the fellowship hall for all kinds of missional work.  Or maybe you’ve got an idea you want to share at the “idea table” you’ll see there.  Take the red sheets with you and have some fun, getting information about how God can use you in a powerfully missional way this year.

 

We opened our series with an emotionally-gripping video clip that stirred our hearts about what it means to be missional to the ends of the earth.  We’re going to conclude our series with this video again.  It’s a little different from the very first one.  It’s been edited a little, but I want you to know that when I need to remind myself that I am a missionary to the 4 Cs of community, commonwealth, country, and continents, I just read Acts 1:8 and watch this clip and I’m ready to go again!  Every single one of us can pray, give, or go to reach the nations for Jesus Christ.  The work is not done!  Let’s watch this clip and then we’ll pray.

 

*VIDEO CLIP, “Tears of the Saints” [6:30]

 

  • Stand for prayer.

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