What is the Mission of the Church - Acts 14:1-7

2:52Wow. And I just said, maybe we should all just take a moment and repent, you know, because I mean, this is, I mean, It was like, these are principles that these guys are learning for the first time and then preaching for years. And that's what makes it really exciting. And, you know, for nine years, we've been looking for property because we're currently renting property. And three months ago, we purchased property in Malawi, two acres right in the heart of the city. And we're going to start building. And I don't have approval to do this or anything, but I'm just going to say, if you want to go and help build a seminary in Malawi, you talk to Thomas when he gets back. And next year, I'd love to see a lot of you go, and I'd love to see you go every year and let him teach and let some of you other teach in our lower programs. And whatever your gift is, we'll find a use for it in Malawi. So I want to encourage you with that, and I hope that missions becomes the heartbeat of this church in a greater way. You're already there, and we appreciate your partnership so much. But we'd love to see more of you involved in that. And I want to encourage you in that. So if you want to give Thomas a special gift when he comes back, welcoming him back, because you're glad to have him back. He loves peanut butter. And so if you want to give him a jar of your favorite peanut butter, let him try. He's got a multitude of uses for them. And if you weren't here at the Bible hour, you just ask anybody who was and they'll help share. But those are just some ideas for you. But please take your Bibles and turn with me. To Acts chapter 14, the book of Acts, chapter 14.

4:42I'd like to take a look this morning at Acts chapter 14, verses 1 through 7. And the title of this morning's message is, What is the mission of the church? What is the mission of the church? Acts 14, verse 1 says this. In Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore, they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, and some sided with the Jews, and some sided with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra, and Derby, and the surrounding region, and they continued to preach the gospel.

6:02I'd like you to imagine that you had entered church this morning, and there was a large bulletin board in the back with a map on it and a Bible verse, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, and it said, go into all the world. Above it, and below it, it said, make disciples. That's a common scene in a lot of churches, has been for decades. You might even have one of those missionary bulletin boards. And I want you to imagine that you walked into a church 50 years ago with one of those boards, and they had a map of the world. And of course, if you buy a map here in this part of the world, America will be right in the middle of it because we're kind of ethnocentric that way. We like to put our country right in the middle. Even though we have to cut Russia in half to fit it on, you know, we put our country right in the middle, which works well for our map because then we'll put a big thumbtack right where the church is at and little thumbtacks all where our missionaries who are supported by that church are. And you get yarn and you wrap it around the big one. It goes to all the little ones. Have you seen these? And then you have pictures of the missionaries that you're supporting and praying for in that church. Have you seen that type of thing? Now, 50 years ago, when you would walk into that church, most of those missionaries, the vast majority of them, would be planting churches, training pastors, preaching, making disciples. Disciples, through baptism, and through the proclamation of the word. Okay?

7:40Today, you go in those same churches. If they had the same bulletin board up, I would propose to you: there's a good possibility that most of those pictures would be of people doing orphan care, drilling wells, helping people with HIV, street children, medical missionaries, what we call social action, orphan care, all good things. But I want to point out to you that there's been a shift in the church concerning missions from what the focus has been.

8:22This issue came to my attention several years ago, almost probably 18 years ago. We had a young man in our church. I was pastoring in South Africa at the time in Johannesburg. And a young man who was recently saved, was a part of our church. He came to me and he said, Pastor, could you tell me what a missionary is? And I sort of thought to myself, well, this is going to be an easy answer. But before I did, and I'm so glad I did, I don't know why I said this, but I just said to him, Why do you ask that question? And here's what he said to me: He said, Because I've met people all over South Africa. Africa, who call themselves missionaries, and I can't figure out what they all have in common.

9:07And that got me thinking. That's an issue. That's an issue. If you were to ask the question to someone, what is the mission of the church? What is your mission here? Why does God have you here as an individual and as a church body? You might get many different answers. Someone might say, well, the Westminster Confession of Faith says that we are to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the chief end of man, and so that is our mission.

9:39Someone else might say, Well, our mission is to love God and love our neighbor, because those two summarize the Ten Commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Thus you have fulfilled the law. That's our mission. Someone else might come in and they say, Well, our mission is really summed up in the 19th century hymn writer's words, we are to trust and obey. And in one sense, you'd be foolish to argue with any of those people about the mission of the church because each one of those describes a faithful Christian life. But the question I have is, what about a missionary? Is being a missionary just a synonym? For being a Christian? Is it the same? Are we all missionaries? Now, generally, in a sense, we all have a part of carrying out the great commission, right? But there is another sense in which missionaries are different. The word missionary is not even found in the Bible. The word missionary actually is from a Latin word, which is mito, which means sent one. And you could be on a mission without even being a Christian. You could be on a military mission, and in a sense, you are a missionary. And Paul and Barnabas were sent out in the book of Acts as missionaries. And in fact, the Greek word that means sent one is apostello. It's where we get the word apostle from. And if you read your Bible, some Bibles, they actually put a big A for apostle when it speaks about one of the 12 apostles, but a little A sometimes for an apostle who's just one sent out from the church. And Paul and Barnabas were sent out on a special mission. So I'm not concerned whether someone uses the term I'm a missionary or not. I just want to have it clear in your mind what a missionary is and what a missionary should focus on and what the priority of the missionaries are. And I'm not even concerned if you have a missionary who's a medical doctor and calls himself a missionary or a missionary who's a pastor and calls himself a missionary overseas. What I'm concerned about is that the Church sends them knows what their missions are and has an idea of what its overall mission is, and it's reaching that mission. And we're going to, I know that's a little confusing. We're going to get there. I'm going to unscramble the egg here in a little bit. Right now, I'm just pouring yolks in.

12:17Paul and Barnabas were sent out from their church in Antioch. Antioch is if you were to look at the Mediterranean world, and you have Africa down here, and you've got Israel over here, and you've got Greece and Italy, and you've got Turkey. In this corner over here, that's where Antioch is from. The church in Antioch was in that northern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. And they were sent out from that church, and the first place that they went to was to the island of Cyprus, not far from that area, still in that corner of the Mediterranean Sea. And they started out on the east side in Selemis, and they ministered there, and then they traveled all throughout the island, ended up on the west side over in Perga, sorry, over in Paphos, and then they took another boat and they went up to southern Turkey. And southern Turkey was a real tough spot in those days. It was a dangerous road, lots of thieves, and there was malaria, there was disease, there was all kinds of, it was going to be a tough road ahead. And that's in Perga, where John Mark, Barnabas' cousin, that's where he deserted them.

13:29But Paul Paul and Barnabas carried on, and they traveled from Perga about 100 miles north to another town called Antioch. They were from Antioch, but they went to another town called Antioch Pisidia. And then they ministered there, and they were kind of not welcomed, and they kind of felt like people wanted to throw rocks at them. And so then they ended up leaving and went over a little bit towards the north or east. They traveled another 80 miles to Iconium, and they stayed in that region, Iconium, and then Lyconia, Lystra, Derby. All those kinds of central Turkey today.

14:04And that is where we find ourselves in Acts chapter 14. All that background is helpful for us because we're going to examine this passage to see what their mission looked like. For those of you who are here who are involved in missions, maybe you've been on a mission trip, maybe you support missionaries, you've probably been involved in a wide variety of different types of missionary activity. Some people might have had their mission to be to evangelize the lost, or to assist the poor, or to comfort the hurting, or counsel those who are in sin, or feed the hungry, or care for the sick, or stop the spread of disease, or stand up for those who are abused, like, for example, human trafficking, or build facilities for people to worship in, or build houses for people to dwell in, or build schools for people to learn in. The list goes on and on. And on and on. The problem is, we need to clarify in our mind what is our main mission. Because if everything is mission, then nothing is mission. So we need to know what the mission of the church is.

15:17Because if we don't, we could be sidetracked with other missions that are very important, but not as important as our main mission. And our passage this morning will help us to see that because it's descriptive. It describes how they carried out their mission. We have some passages that are prescriptive, like Matthew 28, 18 to 20, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. We have other passages like Acts 1:8, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, which was their main area where they all were, Judea, which is the greater area, and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. So those were prescriptions. They were told what to do there. But here, and you could probably go to a number of places in the book of Acts and see the same pattern described of how they fulfilled those prescriptions. Acts 14:1 through 7, we find five descriptions about the mission work of Paul and Barnabas that will help you to keep the right focus as you're involved in missionary activity. Five descriptions. Descriptions, and the first one is this. The mission began with proclamation. The mission began with proclamation or preaching or proclaiming. It says in verse 1, in Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke. The word spoke there is significant. As they had done in Antioch, Pisidian, the town they were in before, they went to the synagogue, the Jewish synagogue. It was both necessary and practical that they went to the synagogue. It was necessary because Jesus had told them to go to the Jew first and then to the Greek. But it was practical because they were Jews. They had an open invitation to the synagogue. And Paul, as somebody who had studied theology under Gamaliel, he would have been welcome to teach in the synagogue. And he would give him an open platform to speak about the Messiah who had come and see if the Jews would accept that. And if he would have started with the Gentiles, the Jews would have never let him into the synagogue. So it was a practical to begin in the synagogue as well. But the primary means they used to communicate the gospel was their mouth. They spoke. They spoke publicly. Their mission didn't begin with social action. They didn't say, let's go in and start a feeding program so that people will see by our good works that we really care about them, and then they'll listen to us when we actually preach. They started with proclamation.

18:04And this was their pattern. Back in chapter 13 of Acts, turn back to Acts 13:5. When they arrived at Selemis, that's on that island of Cyprus. They proclaimed the word of God. When you get down to Acts 13, verse 16, they get to Pisity and Antioch. Paul stood up and, motioning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen. Acts chapter 14, 7, when you see that they carry on, it says, and they continued to preach the gospel. Now, their focus was on proclamation, not because there weren't social needs around them. There were great social needs in the Mediterranean world. There were huge social problems. Rome, for example, was a large city with over a million residents. It had social problems similar to any large city today. Poverty was common there. There was a huge gap between the wealthy and the poor. Unemployment was extremely high, with up to 200,000 people living off of state-sponsored welfare. The living conditions in Rome, in some parts, were very disease-ridden slums. They were terrible. There was crime. There was prostitution, slavery. All those things were a normal part of daily life. But when Paul wrote, the Christians in Rome, he did not write them and say, I can't wait to come to Rome and lead the charge of Christ-centered social justice.

19:41Rather, he wrote them, he said in Romans chapter 1, verses 15 and 16, so for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. So it begins with proclamation. I think sometimes we get the idea in missions that the Bible's just not powerful enough to capture people's attention. And so we need to use something as it used to be. It used to be way back that churches tried to attract people to them using other things in the Bible. And let's have a bowling alley. You know? Now, there's nothing wrong with bowling alleys. Don't get all upset if you're a big bowler here. But, you know, churches, let's put a bowling alley in our basement. People will come to the bowling alley and then we can preach to them. And that carried up. Now today, the new attraction is mercy ministry. Let's be involved in mercy ministry so much that they will see us out there ministering to people. Then we have an avenue to preach to them. And what we're missing here is that. For somehow, and there's nothing wrong with mercy ministry. I'm going to get to that. Don't get all upset. Okay?

21:08I love orphans. Listen, I pastored a church in Johannesburg. We had three ladies from our church quit their jobs and start homes for abandoned HIV-positive babies. And we ended up having four homes. I was the chairman of the board of this organization. We had each home had six kids. We had 24 kids. And we found out that 70% of them, if you put on HIV on antiretrovirals, they would lose their HIV status and could be adopted out. So we adopted out more than 70 kids, kids who had been abandoned, left on railroad tracks in Africa, had no hope, brought to us redemption. I mean, really, it was a sweet ministry.

21:54But that was the outflow of the church. That's what the church does naturally. Anyway, we'll get to that. I'm not against all you people who love helping people. I need help too sometimes. All right. So the problem is that if you think that we need to do those things first in order to establish the right to proclaim, we just don't have a model for that in Scripture. But the Word of God. Again and again and again is used as proclamation to bring people to salvation. It is the primary means that we use, and sometimes we try to use other means and we miss out on what God has given us to use.

22:45It's preaching. It's proclamation. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, Paul said that Christ sent him to preach the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God, the word. 1 Corinthians 1:22, for indeed Jews ask for a sign and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ and we preach him crucified. It is not our eloquence that draws them to Christ. It is not our good deeds that draw them to Christ, but it is the proclamation of God's word. And as they hear it and understand it and apply it to their lives, then they are drawn to him.

23:31Proclamation is essential because faith comes through hearing and hearing by the word of God. I read a story about a man who was a businessman and he joined a new company and he was a Christian, but he decided he wasn't going to preach to people. He wasn't going to share with his mouth. He was just going to live like Christ and let that be the way he preaches to people. His actions. And so time went on and time went on and time went on and finally years, there came a time where one of his co-workers he heard had come to Christ. And so he goes to him. He said, Hey, I heard that you have given your life to Christ and that you are a Christian. And the man said, Yes, that's right. He said, I too am a Christian. And the man looked at him and said, You are?

24:24He said, You're one of the main reasons why I didn't become a Christian. And he said, Why is that? He said, Because I looked at your life and I saw a life of integrity, of peace, and what appeared to be great contentment. And I didn't think you had Christ, and I thought I could get all those things without Christ, like you. You have heard it said that actions speak louder than words. We know what that means: that actions alone mean very little. Sorry, words alone mean very little. But actions alone can be more damning. What I'm trying to say is, you should be preaching Christ. You should be proclaiming Christ. That's part of your mission. The mission begins with proclamation. Spent a long time on that one. We're going to go much faster on these other ones. Second description of the mission of the church. The mission resulted in polarization. In polarization, I mean like polar opposites. Not just it divided people, but like North Pole, South Pole.

25:34Acts 14, verse 1, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and Greeks. No, it's on one side. Look at Acts 13, verse 52. And the disciples, these are disciples from the previous town they were in, Pisidian Antioch, were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So you have on the one side people who believe and they respond to the word. On the other side, take a look at them in Acts 14, verse 2. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Acts 14, verse 4, here are the unbelievers again. But the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. Can you imagine living in a city where half of the people there thought that you were the greatest thing since sliced bread and the other people wanted to kill you? Can you imagine half of the town was cut to the quick and gnashed their teeth at him like they did at Stephen in Acts chapter 7, and the other half were saying, How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news?

26:47As one preacher said it, when Paul walked in a room, it was either duck or pucker. He didn't know what was coming. They either loved him or hated him. There was no middle ground. The people were polarized. And you say, well, how does that encourage me in my mission? Well, it could in two ways. For those of you who are shunned, who are looked down upon, who are despised, who are laughed at for what you say you believe and what you believe, should give you comfort. That's a normal part of our mission. Our mission polarizes people.

27:27And for those who are loved, not a person has ever hated you for what you've believed in. Perhaps it should encourage you to evaluate your message and see if it's clear enough and if it's being proclaimed enough. The gospel of Jesus Christ says that God is holy. He is altogether other than us. He is majestic. He is righteous. And we are unholy. We are unrighteous. There is no one who does good, not even one. Some people say, Where's Malawi? And I say to them, Well, I try to describe Central Africa, and they get this glazed, you know, look over their eyes because it's like Americans still think the world's flat and it like ends at Hawaii and New York, and they just can't, you know, I start to say, well, actually, Africa is not a country. There's 53 countries there. It's a continent. And South Africa is a country. It's not a region. And they're just like, okay, English or history class or whatever, elementary school. I get it, okay? So I can't give them a puzzle or a map or anything. So I just. But then I tell them about the fact that, you know, one thing that I say, okay, well, Madonna adopted two kids from Malawi. Oh, I remember Malawi now. And so my whole ministry is like associated with Madonna. And it's like, it's like, this is, how can this be?

28:51And people say, well, Madonna does a lot of good things in Malawi. Well, from a human perspective, she does. But from God's perspective, she doesn't. Because even if she gave a million dollars to an orphanage in Malawi, it's not good because she's not doing it to glorify Christ. Her motives are for self-glory or for appeasement or to try and get rid of guilt. It's not pure. It's not righteous. It's for herself. It's not for Christ because she does not claim Christ and his glory.

29:25So even the good things that we do, if we don't do them with the motive to glorify Christ, they're not good things. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in this. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that's the good news. He's saved, even if my good things, even if my righteousness doesn't surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees, even if all my good things, if they can't save me, how do I get saved?

29:56God demonstrated his own love for us that when Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, Sinners. It's his goodness. It's his righteousness that we rely upon. And if you have repented of your sins and turned and trusted in Christ for salvation and you believe on his work on the cross and that that's sufficient to pay for your sins, then you are forgiven and cleansed and God looks at you as righteous and holy. And that's the good news. Gospel means good news, but it's bad news if you don't.

30:28If you're still holding on to your own works, righteousness, your self-righteousness, thinking that you can be good enough, you have no hope in this world or the next. People are going to be divided. I was talking to a businessman in Malawi who is Muslim, and he knew that I was a Christian, and we were getting talking, and I started talking about Jesus. He says, You believe in Jesus? He says, I also believe in Jesus. I said, you do. He said, I believe Jesus is a good teacher. You believe that he's the Son of God, but I believe he's a good teacher. I said, you don't believe he's a good teacher. Oh, no, no, I do. Our religion teaches that he was a good teacher. I said, let me ask you something.

31:15If I told you I was God and I went around teaching, telling people that I'm God, would you believe me? No. Would you tell people that I'm a good teacher? No, I tell people you were crazy. Jesus. Claimed to be God. And either he's God, and you believe that, and you fall before him, or you deny that, and you don't believe in who he said he was. But you can't have it both ways. Don't patronize me in trying to say we have a lot in common when you don't believe he is who he said he was. He's either a bad teacher and just say it, or he's king of all creation, the king of kings and the lord of lords.

32:08In John 8, Jesus unmistakably claimed to be God and told the Jews who claimed that Yahweh was their father, he said in John 8:24, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. And he proceeded to tell them that their father was actually the devil. And John 8 ends with the Jews picking up stones to kill Jesus. Later they said, He says, Why do you stone me? For what good work have I done that you stone me? Not for your good works, but because you being a man, make yourself out to be who? God.

32:47They got the message, and they wanted to kill him. Proclamation, polarization. So the mission began with proclamation. The mission resulted in polarization. The mission involved planting. Churches. The mission involved planting churches. Verse 3. Therefore, they spent a long time there, speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who is testifying to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Now, some may read that verse and say, you said they were planting churches, but I don't see planting churches in there. Well, it's there. It's just kind of in between the lines. Let's take a look at it. First of all, I'd like to take a look at the word that it begins with, therefore, or so, depending on what version you have. Beginning of verse 3. It says, Therefore, they spent a long time there. But notice the verse right before it, verse 2. The Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore, they spent a long time there. That seems funny, doesn't it? I mean, you could understand it if you read it and said, and everybody was loving the word preached and they just wanted to be, spend time with the apostles. Therefore, they spent a long time there. But that's not what it says. What it says is the Jews were stirring up the people and embittering their minds against it. Therefore, they spent a long time there. Why? To combat those who were against the church and to help establish the church.

34:18It says they remained a long time. Why? Skip down to Acts 14, verses 21 through 23. Acts 14, verse 21 says, After they preached the gospel in that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch. Iconium is where we are in the beginning of chapter 14, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, saying through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Verse 23, when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. You see, they were establishing churches. I've met missionaries who have no church affiliation here and there. They go around to churches here and they get supporters. They get over there and they don't go to church. They build little kingdoms over there that do lots of good things. I'm not saying they're not believers. I'm just saying they have a low view of church. I was talking to one missionary who's a good guy. I really like him. He was attending our church and then he just kind of wasn't attending. And I said, where are you going to church? And he said, well, you know, Pastor, I kind of see myself as the Apostle Paul. I said, really?

35:50How so? I mean, that sounds pretty good. He says, you know, I just kind of float to float from church to church and just kind of help out wherever I can. I said, which Apostle Paul is that? Is that the Apostle Paul from the Bible? Because that's not the Apostle Paul I've read about in the Bible. Three years he was in Ephesus. The whole time, according to Acts chapter 20, proclaiming and teaching anything that was profitable from house to house. A year and a half in Corinth. In fact, Paul went someplace and he dove into the church, his lifeblood from the church, day and night, not just Sundays, his life, his friends, everything was the church. And the only reason he left the church is because people who weren't in the church tried to kill him. That was his MO. I'll join your church until people throw rocks at me. And then I'll probably move on, but maybe I'll get pelted sometimes.

36:53And what this tells us is they faced opposition and they spoke boldly. God strengthened them so that churches could be established. I started working in Malawi in 1997. I was doing just about everything you can imagine a missionary doing. My dream was to be a bush missionary. I wanted to be in deep, dark Africa, and I got my dream. I was there. I was single because no woman could handle where I was at. Okay, that's not true, but my wife couldn't have handled where I was at. Because when she saw my picture, she says, I'll follow you anywhere except for Malawi. That was before we were married. But anyway, So, so we were there. I was living with a tin roof over my head. I had a brick building, a cement floor, a lot better than most of my neighbors. They had like a mud floor and a grass roof. But, I mean, we had 100 acres of land. We were right on the lake. I was getting, there's no running water, no electricity. I'm getting my water from Lake Malawi. There's hippos and crocodiles where I dip my bucket in. I'm drinking hippo water and living the dream. I mean, what more could you want? I mean, this was it. You know, I was making roads to get out of there. It was great. Rainy season, we were mudded in. It was like Texas. No, it was phenomenal. I loved it. We were building an orphanage. We had a Bible college with 26 students. We had a camp where 250 Malawian kids came to our camp and we're preaching the gospel and they're coming to Christ and we're sending them out on short-term mission trips. It was wonderful. Except for one thing: the local churches were weak and they were starving. And the pastors had little, if any, education in the word. And I began to realize: what am I doing? I'm involved in an evangelistic work, but who's going to disciple the people for the long term? And I left Malawi, having already gone through seminary, but having a high view of the church. And I left to go become a pastor somewhere so I could get experience.

39:01To train pastors in Malawi. Because I thought if I was going to train pastors, maybe I should be a pastor first somewhere. And so I went to a place that wasn't quite as remote where I could get good, godly help and leadership that would help me. And I ended up taking a small church in Johannesburg, and I had several pastor friends around me, and I was there for eight years. And we took a guy who was in our church, a young guy who wanted to be a pastor. We sent him to seminary, a master's seminary in California. He came back after four years. He worked alongside me for three years. Now he's the pastor of that church to this day. And then I went back up to Malawi, and by God's grace, but it's the church. Do you see the church? We can't forget the church. And if you're thinking about supporting someone or getting involved in a work, ask them about their church. What are they going to do when the people get saved?

39:54Is the church an afterthought? Well, we'll worry about that when people get saved. No. Where do we find that in the scripture? They established churches. Some people look at verse 3, and I'm not going to get through all my points. Some people look at verse 3, and they say, the end of it says, who is testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done in their hands. And people say, aha, I got it now. They say, I see. You're saying that it's proclamation, but there's the social action. They're healing people. And so we need to do that based off this verse. But look at the verse more clearly. It says, was testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done in their church.

40:57I want to be clear here. Helping people outside the church is important. We should help those around us. It's not our primary mission. It's not the main thing we should be known for. But it's important. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained in the world. But there's some debate about these verses: did they apply to the world as far as all orphans or mainly those who were in the church? And either way, Scripture is clear that the church needs to be a priority. Because Jesus said, A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples. How are they going to know that you're a disciple of Jesus Christ? Not primarily based on how you. Love people outside the church. Though you should, and I want you to, but primarily on the way you love each other in the church. And what we're finding today is you've got somebody who's out there killing themselves, taking care of people in the world who don't confess Christ, and they're neglecting people in the pew next to them, not concerned about their needs at all.

42:22But in the early church, we find historians write things about the church and they say, oh, how they loved one another. It's astonishing to them the love that the body of Christ has for one another. I'm not saying don't love people outside the church. I'm saying love people in the church first. Love them. Don't go outside the church because you can't stand people in the church. They should miss you. Paul and Barnabas were not the worst guys in Antioch. They didn't send out. They said, well, let's make those two missionaries because we don't like them. You know?

43:02I'm glad they're going to the mission field. That's a lot of problems solved in our church. No. They were the best of the best. Well, I'm not going to get to my next. Oh, let me do say this. The signs and wonders that they did during that time confirmed the word. That was the purpose of it. It really says that. Testifying to the word of his grace, granting me. That signs and wonders be done in their hands. Miracles was a confirmation of the word that was spoken, and it was more common. It was common. These visible, I don't believe that, I believe that God heals today. Nobody would deny that. I don't believe he gives the gift of healing the way he did to Paul and Barnabas, because they could go in and command, and it happened all the time. It was instant, visible healing. And it confirmed the message that was spoken. The writer of Hebrews tells us that was the reason they did that. In Hebrews 2, verses 3 and 4, it says, After the word was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders, by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. In other words, God testified through spiritual gifts, visible gifts.

44:27If you want to know whether I'm preaching the word, and if you want to know whether a first century guy was preaching the word, it was harder to tell what he was because the word wasn't put together yet. Paul was still writing the word under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so they couldn't check. How did they know he wasn't a false prophet? God testified through the signs and wonders. How do you know I'm not teaching false? You have a copy of the word of God. So we're living in a different era. It'd be kind of fun to be able to do what. They could do. I always wanted Moses' thing. You know, Moses with the stick your hand in, it comes out leprosy. Stick it back in, it's normal. That was the way I would shake people's hands at the door. Hang on just a sec. You know, put it back, you know.

45:14I don't need to do that, though, do I? Because it's right there in front of us. The mission began with proclamation. The mission resulted in polarization. It involved planting churches. It often resulted in persecution. And they progressed on. The mission progressed on. I'm not going to get to those today, and that's okay. You've got it there. Let me close with these questions. Because I preached one time on this, and somebody came to me in Africa, and they said, So I don't get it. What if I still want to drill a well for people who are thirsty? Can I drill a well? Here's my answer: answer these questions.

46:03Are you neglecting the proclamation of the word? Is your well drilling so consuming that you're not preaching Christ? If it's not consuming you and you are preaching Christ, you're free to drill a well. Second question: Is it driven by emotions? A lot of missionaries out there with photo-friendly ministry. I could come here and give you a slideshow of orphans and tug at your heart. All morning long. It's not as exciting as training pastors. But we must be word-driven, not emotion-driven. Thirdly, is your ministry unbalanced? As a church, you should have a focus on proclamation ministry. And some of your ministry that you should support certainly should be mercy ministry or social action. But don't be unbalanced and you have all people involved in social action, nobody really doing proclamation ministry, or nobody involved in local churches. Those are big red flags. And lastly, is it too universal? In other words, are you looking at the church with a low view and you're not thinking about people around you and you're trying to devote all your attention and energy to people way far away?

47:19So those are my questions. If you can say, yeah, I'm doing good in all those things and you still want to drill a well, you still want to send a team to help orphans. I mean, Malawi, 17 million people. According to a BBC article, there are 265 medical doctors in Malawi. 265 doctors for 17 million people. My kids, my family, I had malaria. My kids had malaria. One of my kids cracked his head open, had to be airlifted out. My doctors, my daughters, both of them this year had bacterial meningitis and had to be airlifted out. My son had an appendicitis in Africa. You think I don't want doctors in Africa? You think if this church has a doctor, And somebody stood up today and said, I want to go to Malawi, that I would discourage you from sending him? No.

48:07As long as you had a balance and that that wasn't all you're doing. Because if we become all social work, we lose the gospel, we lose preaching Christ. When the mission of the church fails, liberalism flourishes and true worship dies. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this time together. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the privilege of being able to gather around it this morning. Lord, I've touched on some things that are really confusing here, and ultimately, I hope that people have understood that our greatest desire is to worship you, and we want your name exalted. And we see the pattern of that through the proclamation of your word. So clear that it often polarizes people. But churches get planted. And even in the midst of persecution, we're encouraged to keep on progressing with great perseverance. And so we thank you for the privilege of being able to serve you. We don't deserve it, but you do deserve to have your name magnified. And when everybody that we know worships you, our mission is done. Until then, we will carry on. Give us. The strength. Be with this church. Bless them. Encourage them. Get them involved in all kinds of missions, but help their focus to be clear. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.