“Taking the Gospel to the Continents”
(Acts 1:1-8)
Series: An Acts 1:8 Church:
Every Member a Missionary
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson KY (1-10-10) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open them up to the Book of Acts.
This morning we are kicking off our theme for this new year of 2010. And this theme will continue into the ensuing years because it’s a theme we’ve already embraced, we’re just bringing a sharper, laser focus to it as we never have before. We’re talking about our being an “Acts 1:8 Church.” We are an “Acts 1:8 church.” What kind of church are we? An Acts 1:8 church.
A couple years ago, when we studied the Book of Acts together we learned what being an Acts 1:8 church was all about. Acts 1:8 is Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, where we read our Lord Jesus’ great commission to all Christians. He says, “You are My witnesses,” in these four areas of “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” Jesus was speaking first to the disciples of His day. They were to take the Gospel to their community of Jerusalem, to the greater geographical area of Judea, to the still greater geographical area of Samaria and to the greatest geographical area of the ends of the earth. And these four areas are to be reached continually and simultaneously; that is, at the same time. Jesus does not say, “First share the Gospel with everyone in Jerusalem, and then, and only then, share the Gospel in Judea,” etc. He does not say, “Do this first and then do this second and do this third,” etc. No! In essence, He says, “You have these four geographical and cultural areas in which you are to be working continuously; simultaneously. You are my witnesses simultaneously—at the same time—in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”
We are to do the same today, simultaneously taking the Gospel to these four equivalent geographical areas. An easy way for us to remember what is our Jerusalem, Judea, and so forth is “the 4 Cs.” Our Jerusalem is the community of Henderson. Our Judea is the commonwealth of Kentucky. Our Samaria is the country of the United States. And the ends of the earth are the continents all over the globe. So we are to take the Gospel simultaneously and continually to these four areas, the 4Cs. We’re an Acts 1:8 church.
And every one of us is to be doing this. Every single one of us is a missionary. If we are Christians then we are Christ’s disciples and therefore included in this commission, where Jesus speaks to His disciples. Every one of us is a missionary. Go ahead, turn to the person next to you and say, “I’m a missionary.” In fact, let’s be sure every one of us has one of these bookmarks. You may not have received one when you came in so let’s be sure each person gets one. You see it says, “Every Member a Missionary” and then Acts 1:8 is printed on the bottom. On the back are listed the 4 Cs of community, commonwealth, country, and continents. Now just place your bookmark there at Acts, chapter 1.
And let’s ground this Acts 1:8 in context. We’re looking at the opening chapter of the Book of Acts. I’m going to read these introductory verses, verses 1-8 while you follow along. Luke, the writer of Acts, tells a man named Theophilus why he is writing this letter that is known to us as the Book of Acts.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
5 “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 “But you shall receive power (say this verse with me) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
- Pray.
Introduction:
The purpose of these four Sundays remaining in January is to focus on each of these “4 Cs,” each of the four areas to which we are to be taking the Gospel simultaneously and continually. Most of you are studying these four areas in your Sunday school classes. And we are working backwards through these areas, beginning at “the ends of the earth” and working back toward Jerusalem.
One of the reasons we are starting with the “ends of the earth” is to stress that Jesus wants us to be working as hard at reaching the continents as we are in reaching our community. Remember, we are to be taking the Gospel to these four areas simultaneously and continually. So today we are going to stress taking the Gospel to the continents.
Some of you will recall this simple three-point outline from back when we studied Acts a couple years ago. I’m going to briefly review the first two points and then we’ll spend the remainder of our time under the third point. First:
I. Remember the Main Person of the Church (1-3)
Luke, the writer, mentions his “former account” of all that Jesus began “to do and teach.” He is referring to the Book of Luke. And so Luke is saying that he is now going to tell us what happened since Jesus’ resurrection. These three verses remind us that Jesus Christ is the main person in this book and He’s the main person of the church. Secondly:
II. Remember the Mighty Power of the Church (4-5)
In verses 4-5, Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the fulfillment of a promise, the promise of God’s sending to them the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. He says, “John (the Baptist) baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So the mighty power of the church is the Holy Spirit. Then, number three:
III. Remember the Major Purpose of the Church (6-8)
Well, what is the major purpose of the church? Jesus will tell us in verses 6 and following:
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
This is a good question. The disciples are talking with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. They are wondering, “Hey, is this the consummation of God’s plan? Is this the end of time in which You will right all wrongs and reign here on earth?” Jesus’ answers in verse 7:
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
In a word, Jesus says, “No.” No, now is not the end of time in which all things find their consummation and fulfillment. Jesus says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” In one sense, Jesus is saying, “This is not your major purpose, okay? You are not to busy yourself trying to figure out when the end of the age will come. It is not your major purpose in life to plot out when you think the end of time will come. Don’t busy yourself with “end-times charts” and books and studies which attempt to spell-out the precise time or season the Father has determined to bring about the end of the age. This is not your major purpose in life.”
So if this is not our major purpose in life, what is? Verse 8:
8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
There it is. There is your major purpose in life and my major purpose in life. Jesus says, “It’s not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. Don’t busy yourself with things that do not comprise your major purpose in life. Here’s what to do: be My witnesses. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be—this is not a suggestion, it is a command—you shall be—every member is a missionary—you shall be My witnesses in these 4Cs, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”
Again, note that Jesus does not say, “Start in Jerusalem.” Does Jesus say that in verse 8? Does Jesus say, “First, start in Jerusalem, then, secondly go to Judea?” It does not say that. The language is such that the church’s role is to be regularly, continually, and simultaneously taking the Gospel to these four areas until Jesus returns. First Baptist church is to be regularly, continually, and simultaneously taking the Gospel to the community, to the commonwealth, to the country, and to the continents. We as individual missionaries are to be taking the Gospel to the community, the commonwealth, the country, and the continents.
So don’t let anyone catch you saying something erroneous like, “Well, I know that world missions is important, but Jesus said to start in your hometown.” No! Jesus does not say to start in your hometown. The Great Commission of Acts 1:8 is not sequential. It is simultaneous. We are to take the Gospel to these four areas simultaneously.
So one of the reasons we are beginning our study with taking the Gospel to the continents is to remind us that we are to be doing this right now. We should be working as hard to reach the continents as we are working to reach the community.
So how are we doing? How are churches doing in reaching the continents? Check out this video:
**VIDEO, “Tears of the Saints” [6:00]
The statistics in this video clip are staggering. Nearly 2 billion people have not heard the Gospel. The population of the earth is 6 billion. Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population has not heard the saving message of Jesus Christ. That’s 6,000 unreached people groups.
A people group is a sociological grouping of individuals who have a common affinity with one another, usually sharing a common culture and language. There are 16,000 people groups in the world and 6,000 of those are unreached. They have not heard the saving message of the Gospel.
The majority of these unreached people groups reside in what is called the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is the rectangular area that encompasses North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It is called the 10/40 window because this area is located between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. It’s like a belt that covers these areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, where are located mostly Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.
2 out of every 3 people in the world live in Asia. Let me say that again. 2 out of every 3 people in the world live in Asia. 70% of Asians have never heard of Jesus Christ. With half of the world’s population living on less than $2 a day and 30,000 people starving to death every day, how urgent is it that First Baptist Church Henderson take the Gospel to the continents?
How important is it that we as a church work as hard to reach the continents as we do the community?
One of the last quotes in that clip is from American theologian Carl F.H. Henry. Henry said, “The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.”
The encouraging news is that you and I can make a difference. Any time we do anything to advance the Gospel to the continents, we are fulfilling the mandate Jesus has given us to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Historically, our church has been missions-minded. Some of you may not realize we give about a quarter of our budget to missions. 15% of undesignated giving goes to the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program, a mechanism that uses all funds given by Southern Baptist churches and channels that money to missional work all over the globe. So every time you give your tithe, 15% is going to support some kind of missions work.
Every year in December, Southern Baptist Churches such as ours take up a special offering known as the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. This offering, named after international missionary Lottie Moon, is used entirely for the international missions. Our church goal this year was $25,000 and I’m glad to report that we met and exceeded that goal, giving $29,348. Every penny of this special offering will go to support international missionaries.
By God’s grace our church continues to progress from being missions-minded to being missional. That is, we are beginning to think more and more as missional members. Every one of us is a missionary and we can each of us be involved in taking the Gospel to the continents. We recognize that, while giving money every Sunday during the offering, is a great way to support international missions, there is still so much more to be done.
We can be involved in so many other ways, many of these ways are very exciting. We can give to specific mission endeavors across the continents. We can engage in trusted, mission partnerships such as the ongoing work of the Shults family in Brazil, the ongoing work in Jamaica, where Brother Matt will be taking students this summer.
And we have a new partnership in Thailand. This past fall First Baptist Church gave money to support the training of pastors in Thailand and Laos. A team from our church joined with another team from a church in Las Vegas and we went to these two countries to preach and teach the Gospel. I want to show you this short clip of the man who is standing at the border of these two countries and hear his thank you to First Baptist Church and his vision for the future. He will be speaking first in Thai and then in English. This clip is edited and it’s just about 3 ½ minutes total.
**VIDEO CLIP, “Thailand/Laos Border” [3:43] (Showed later in PM Service)
We’re going to talk more about what God is doing in this great work in Thailand and Laos this evening when our Thailand Team shares about all the missional projects that took place while we were there. You heard this man address the statement that is sometimes made: “Oh, just send them money.” He stressed that while it is important to give material things, the people of these countries are greatly encouraged by the physical presence of brothers and sisters from America. Both are needed! Maybe you will get a chance to go to Thailand this year. Maybe you’ll get to go to Brazil. Maybe another area to the ends of the earth.
This brochure is available in our church office. It is entitled, “Opportunities for International Service.” It is published by the International Mission Board and it contains a number of opportunities where you can be involved in taking the Gospel to the continents. It tells how a person of any age can be involved either as a volunteer, as a family, as a college student, as a healthcare professional, as “a regular person,” serving anywhere from a week to several years. These are available in our church office and will also be available during our “Missions Fair” you will be hearing more about in the upcoming weeks.
Sometime ago a businessperson asked, “If your local business closed down, would anyone in the community care? Would they miss it next week?” This question has been applied to the church: “If your church closed down, would anyone in your community care? Would anyone miss it next week?” It’s a good question, but we need to take it much further than that. We’re asking, “If our church closed down, would the world care? Would the world miss it?”
We’re an Acts 1:8 church. Every member is a missionary. We are to simultaneously take the Gospel to the community, the commonwealth, the country, and the continents. The Gospel is Good News only if it gets there in time.
- Stand for prayer.
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