The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. All right, well, every year we do Missions Week and we have a little devotional. We've talked about how to instill love for missions in your kids. We've talked about Jonathan Edwards and his impact on world missions. That was one of my favorite talks. Last year I did a Zambia report. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a few minutes and look at Acts chapter 13. And we're gonna look at this passage in light of some things that I've been thinking about over the last few months. And so Acts chapter 13. Now, there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Monan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I've called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they had reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John, that's John Mark, as their helper. Now this really, this ends up being one of the great missionary passages the New Testament, and I'm going to point out a few things here. First of all, this is in the city of Antioch, and Antioch was the third largest city in the Empire. but it was an absolutely, utterly pagan city. It was multicultural in a lot of ways. There were a considerable number of Jews and a number of synagogues, but there were also quite a few Arabs and a lot of pagan Gentiles. It was also a political center, and so it not only was the third largest in the empire, but it also was the third most important city the Empire. It was a commercial center and in many ways Antioch was somewhat of a sophisticated and tolerant and morally corrupt city, not unlike many of our metropolitan cities today. Now what happens in actually quite amazing. So I want you to think just I mean I don't know if you can think of a parallel to the Antioch I mean by the way an ancient city in the first century that had half a million people okay so I don't know if you can think of a city that would pride itself on being a a commercial center, sophisticated, artsy, fartsy. I tried to stop it, but it didn't. Tolerant and morally corrupt to the core. I mean, I don't know if you can think of a city like that, but think about that city, all right? So then in Acts 11, what happens in, you see in verse 19, So then those who were scattered because of the persecution, so this is Stephen, that had occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. So here you have these Jews that are actually then dispersed, scattered because of the persecution, and as they are scattered, they're preaching the gospel, but they're making sure that they only preach the gospel to Jewish people. Verse 20, but there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, that would be the Gentiles, also preaching the Lord Jesus. Now, you have to admit that this ends up being, verse 20, is a massive turn in world missions. And it happens through guys that we don't even know their name. It was just some of these guys actually decided, they were from Cyprus and Cyrene, and they go into Antioch, and they just start preaching, not to just Jews, but they start preaching to Greeks, that is the Gentiles, and they're preaching the Lord Jesus. Verse 21, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. So this is amazing. So you've got this handful of unknown guys, and they go to this massive metropolitan city, and they start doing something which was, let's just say, not really kosher at that point, and that is they're preaching the gospel to Gentiles. And God starts to save a ton of them. Verse 22, the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. Oh, don't you know it? And they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. So they sent Barnabas off as an ambassador, as a representative. Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all "'with a resolute heart, steadfast heart, "'to remain true to the Lord, "'for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. "'Considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.'" So Barnabas then gets to Antioch. Barnabas begins to assess this work that's going on. He sees it as a genuine work of God, genuine grace, and then he gets in on ministering to the people there, and he's encouraging them as Barnabas is ministering along with these others God is just saving more and more people verse 25 and he left for Tarsus to look for Saul this is fascinating to me and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch, right? So here's Barnabas. I mean, you have to love Acts. We went through Acts, and it's just wonderful. Barnabas goes to Antioch. He sees what God's doing, and you know what he concludes? I need help. So who does Barnabas pick? He doesn't say, you know what, I'll try to find Peter, or I'll try to find James, or I'll try to find John. He's instead, he's gonna go find the most Jewish guy he knows, which is Saul of Tarsus, okay? Totally of the Lord. And they come back, and they're teaching and preaching, and the Lord is adding to the number, and it is in that, that's the way the church in Antioch begins And then in chapter 13, we see this really, this vibrant church, in a sense, it's a powerhouse church. It's demonstrating generosity and grace. By the way, the next part in chapter 11, they're sending funds to actually help the poor saints and so forth. And so here is this church, and they're demonstrating grace and true life in the spirit. It is a vibrant church. It is a church where people are being saved. The word is being preached, and the church at Antioch was fully gifted and was equipped to serve the body, church leadership was in place, and the word was being preached and taught, people were being saved, and it was a great church. Strong church. Healthy church. Growing church. You could look at Antioch, which is in a sense really the first Gentile church. You get Gentiles that are saved in chapter 10. This is the first real Gentile church. And the exalted Christ, who reigns over his church, had given gifts to his people of evangelists and pastors and teachers. And so here's the church, and then the picture that we get in chapter 13 is, it goes like this. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. So here they are, ministering to the Lord. By the way, the word that Luke uses there is the word for the public duties of corporate worship that gets transferred over from the Septuagint, which would have included, certainly in a Jewish context, prayer, reading the scripture, singing God's praise, exposition of the word, exhortation, and then as Christians, actually observing baptism and the supper. And so in a sense, the church at Antioch is, they're serving the Lord. They're ministering to the Lord. That is, they're doing all the stuff that they are called to do as a church. But then notice, it also says that, They were fasting. Now I'm gonna just say that we're not very good at fasting. I mean, it's just visibly true. We're not good at fasting. But why would the early church fast? Well, fasting is connected in scripture with the idea of seeking God. In fact, fasting is a demonstration that you actually are hungrier for God than you are for food. Periods or seasons of fasting were periods or seasons of intense seeking the Lord and Their seeking God was clearly a demonstration of the church's determination to seek God's will for them. They wanted to be a church that did the will of the Lord. They wanted to be a church that was used mightily in the hands of God. So they sought the Lord with fasting, and it was in the midst of this. Now, it doesn't say it explicitly, but I think that you can imply very clearly that as they're fasting, seeking the Lord, right? So what else goes with, you know, they're praying and fasting. I have no doubt that they're praying missionary prayers. They're praying that God would raise up workers for the harvest. They're praying that God would use them to impact the nations. And so what ends up happening is that the Holy Spirit speaks, and probably through one of the prophets that's mentioned earlier in the text, So the exalted Christ is now directing, or we should say redirecting, some of the gifts that he gave to Antioch into another direction for the advancement of the gospel and of his kingdom. So how does the exalted Christ actually, in a sense, direct the church? He does it through the prayers of the church. He does it through a church that's hungry for him, and he does it through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So then what happens in Antioch is that now this vibrant, growing, healthy, strong church now becomes a sending church. And who do they send? Well, they end up sending Paul and Barnabas. Like, I'm pretty sure that Paul and Barnabas were among the cream of the crop of the church leadership in Antioch, right? I mean, I don't think when, now, when the church members at Antioch wanted to go to counseling, they picked Barnabas, all right? Probably not Paul. Going to talk to Paul is probably like going to talk to Jay Adams. Talking to Barnabas was his son of encouragement, right? So this is why people come to me instead of Daniel. Anyway. I'm actually the nice one. So here's the glorious thing. Is the church at Antioch becomes the sending church, but it's also the Holy Spirit that sends out Paul and Barnabas. You see it right there in the text. So who sends out Paul and Barnabas? The church does. Well, the Spirit does. Well, this is how we bring it together. He sends out Paul and Barnabas through the church. So when the church sends out somebody, it's the Spirit that sends them out through the church. It's really, it's just magnificent, right? So here's my thesis for tonight. The backbone of missions, strong churches which are growing and form a strategic mission centers for sending and going. So that's what, I read Acts chapter 13 and I see the backbone of missions. Strong churches which are growing and form a strategic missions center for sending and going, all right? Now, when I was in college and Ariel and I lived out in the desert, we went to a wonderful little church that was called Desert Alliance. It was Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. And we got there. absolutely loving, loving, loving body. People were wonderful. They, we were by far the youngest people there and they, they loved us and, but it was a church that was only about 25 people. And they had an enormous missions budget. They supported missions so vigorously, but in some ways, in fact, I would say many ways, they neglected trying to strengthen themselves to become a stronger church. In the end, the church folded. And in God's providence, by the way, that church sent $5,000 to Western Conservative Baptist Seminary for me to be able to start my first year of seminary. So the church blessed many people. Many people were incredibly benefited from the church's generosity and their vision for missions. But here's the thing, many more people could have benefited if the church would have had longevity. Many more people could have benefited if the church had actually grown and become stronger and more viable. All right. And so, Ultimately, God is sovereign over the size of the church, right? Jesus is the one who builds this church. And there's absolutely no doubt about that. But what I want to say is that the backbone of missions are churches that are strong, healthy, growing churches that actually end up becoming strategic mission centers for senders and goers, okay? And I would argue the stronger the local church, the more vigorous they are in sending and going. So what are the characteristics of a strong church? You guys know these things, but they need to be said. One, a strong church is a church that's strong in the word. By the way, let's say you had a church that had lots and lots and lots of money and was really interested in sending out missionaries, but was weak in the word and in doctrine. What would be the problem? A bad message. A deficient message, which ends up playing itself out how? In deficient messengers. By the way, this is what kills missions at the beginning of the 20th century in the PC, at that time, the PCUS, Presbyterian Church of the United States, which ends up becoming PCUSA, and that is, you had people that didn't believe in the virgin birth anymore, and you had people that didn't believe in the resurrection anymore, and they're sending out missionaries. So a strong church, by definition, has to be a church that is strong in the word, a church that actually holds that doctrine is important. If you disconnect that, missions dies. Okay? but also a church that's strong in the word is also a church that is actually building worldviews in people's mind. There's a worldview formation that takes place through the preaching and the teaching of the word. And here's why this is important. Doctrine and worldview is because world missions is not just a missions issue. In other words, what I'm saying is missions is not just a matter of the study or discipline of missiology that's over here by itself. Missions is not just line items on a budget. Missions actually is a doctrinal issue. It's a worldview issue. It's a doxological issue. It is ultimately a gospel issue. And so missions thrive in churches that are strong in the word, strong in doctrine, and strong in instilling a worldview. Because that worldview actually, what does the worldview do for you? It actually says there is an ultimate purpose, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And so if the glory of God is the chief purpose for everything, it's the chief purpose for missions. And so having a worldview that informs your missionary vision is absolutely crucial. One of the absolute Achilles heel of evangelical churches is that we disassociate missions from the heart and life of the church. Church is strong in the word, doctrine, worldview, and actually sees missions as woven into that worldview as much bigger than a line item or a discipline to be studied is a church that is prepared. Second, a strong church is a worshiping church. Now, this is related too. So worship, is the main spring for everything else we do. Actually, do you understand that? The idea of worshiping God in spirit and truth corporately is actually the hub of everything else we do. So a strong church is a worshiping church Some of you might, oh, I don't know about that, but I'm gonna say a strong church that is a worshiping church is a church that engages in white-hot worship. Fervent, engaged, God-centered, Christ-exalting, spirit-filled worship fuels missions. Why do we worship? Glory of God. You know you don't come on Sunday morning or whenever to just get it like spiritual buzz that carries you through the rest of the week, right? You're here to worship for the glory of God, right? Memorable statement by John Piper, missions exists because worship doesn't. In other words, there are people in Indonesia that don't worship Jesus. And if you have a passion for the glory of God and the worship of God, and you're fueled by white hot worship to God, then you're gonna be concerned about whether people in Indonesia are worshiping idols or worshiping King Jesus. You're gonna be concerned whether people in Tonopah are worshiping God or worshiping idols. You're gonna be concerned about the glory of God and the worship of God wherever it doesn't exist. So what we do here, in a sense, what we do here in terms of worship, fervent, heart-engaged, God-centered, Christ-exalting, spirit-filled worship, what that does is that is a catalyst to wanna see that spread to where it isn't happening. So strong churches are strong in the word, strong churches are worshiping churches, Number three, strong church is a praying church, a praying church. Now there's a lot that we could say about this. We've done a study, this was quite a while ago, on prayer. Church at prayer in the book of Acts. Absolutely fascinating. So let me just say that, let me say two things about that. One, prayer was a priority of the apostolic church. To actually gather for prayer. Second, there was a direct connection between prayer and the effectiveness of preaching the word. Okay? And if you want to see text, just let me know. I'll send you the notes for that study because it's everywhere. And we actually have the content of those apostolic church prayers, right? So a strong church is a praying church. Now, you do know that the prayer meeting among evangelicals is just about dead. In all seriousness, on Sunday morning in Sunday school, it should be absolutely full because we know we're gonna be praying for missions. Wednesday nights actually should be full, not simply because of the Bible teaching, but because we're here to pray. Spurgeon had a prayer meeting at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, I believe it was on Tuesday nights, and there were thousands of people that would show up every Tuesday for prayer meeting. Spurgeon gave a brief address, maybe about 15, 20 minutes, and then the church went to prayer. And so the prayer meeting, actually, in our entertainment-oriented culture, has lost a tremendous amount of steam. You know why? Because praying is not as exciting as doing other stuff. I don't know about prayer meeting. I don't know if I should go. It's kind of boring. Prayer is the lifeblood of the church. And it is absolutely magnificent that we pray as families and we pray as individuals, but there is also a priority for us to pray together. So on Sunday, what we're gonna do is we'll go through those missionaries, we'll break up into small groups, we'll pray for each other for those missionaries. Guess what? That's not in vain. The God of heaven not only summons us to pray, but he promises to hear our prayers. And what could be more important than praying for the cause of Christ and the advancement of his kingdom throughout this world among people that aren't worshiping Jesus? Number four. A strong church, and I should have added a word here. I added it in my second sentence. A strong church is normally a growing church. Now, if you're familiar with the book of Acts, you are familiar with, I'm just gonna go through these quickly, all right? Acts chapter two, verse 41, this is after Peter preaches. So then, those who'd received his word were baptized, and there were added about 3,000 souls, okay? Now I wanna just tell you that if God added 3,000 souls here in one day, we would all freak out, okay? They were continually, who's the they? Those that were added to the church that day. By the way, the baptism service must have been awesome. They didn't do it like we did it on Sunday, one at a time. They would have been there for three weeks, all right? They must have had, Apostles throughout the river, you know, just, you know, and absolutely glorious. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. So here are these people, and what are they committed to? They're committed to each other, they're committed to the word, they're committed to fellowship, they're committed to prayer. And then you turn over to Acts chapter six, and you go, man, I sure would love to have been a part of the apostolic church, it was so magnificent. Chapter six, verse one, now at that time, while the disciples were increasing, so guess what the churches continued to do from the day of Pentecost, they've continued to grow, a complaint arose. on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. Now, by the way, God uses this crisis in the church, but let me just point something out. The early church, even with the apostles alive, it wasn't like it was sunshine and rainbows, all right? I would just remind you that in the previous chapter, God killed two people because they lied about their offering. So the next time you hear somebody go, oh, for the apostolic days, like, yeah. You'd have seen that and you would have hightailed it out, right? I mean, Ananias and Sapphira. But the church is growing, verse seven. Notice the way that Luke puts this. The word of God kept on spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And then you turn over and you see this same pattern throughout the book of Acts. Acts chapter 12 and verse 24. And this is the key phrase. The word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied. You see the same thing in chapter 19. So God is absolutely sovereign over the growth of the church. Jesus is the one who builds his church. But I want to say that healthy churches ought normally to be growing churches. Now, there are lots of factors. that impact the growth of the church. But I would actually love for us to be disabused of the fact that if we whittle a church down to 12 people because of various idiosyncrasies, that that's not a badge of honor. It's not a badge of faithfulness. I've been to pastors conferences where guys brag about not church growth, but church shrinkage. I'm dead serious. And it is a, to them, it's a mark of how faithful they are in running people off. Now, so, typically a growing church, normally ought to be growing. Now, number five then, a strong church becomes a center for sending and going, okay? So you understand, This comes from 2 John, right? So really you have two categories when it comes to missions, and only two, and that is you're either a sender or you're a goer, that's it. You either are participating in sending out or you are one who goes. Those are the two categories. So strong, healthy churches become Centers for sending and going. How does that happen? First of all, there is two things. One is the raising up of missionaries from within to be goers. And the other would be coming into contact with other missionaries that may not be right in your immediate local church, but that you make a connection with and you help them go. So, a healthy, strong, growing church actually is a church that is actively engaged in raising up and finding missionaries to send. A strong, healthy, growing church will typically have resources to be able to do this. I rejoice that 17% of our annual budget goes to missions. I want to see it get to 25%. Wouldn't that be magnificent, right? 25%. So, goers are raised up, trained, and then sent. How do goers actually get raised up? Well, guess what? Number one, Christian families. Christian families. Do you know who the kids are that are interested in missions? They're the kids of parents who are interested in missions. They're the kids of parents who read them missionary stories with the Millers. You guys know that book? The Miller books? Yeah. Or missionary biographies. And, I mean, where in the world do you think Megan Wilhelm got a, did you think she was like, well, you know, teaching school's kind of boring, I think maybe I'll just go to Poland. No, usually God is at work in the hearts of these kids as they grow up, okay? So, like we have all these kids, okay? All these kids, these kids, those kids, those kids. And guess what? One of you, two of you, 10 of you might end up being missionaries sent out from Grace Community Church. Wouldn't that be wonderful? In fact, God may actually just absolutely pick like the worst kid and send him to India for the praise of his glory and the relief of his family. So Christian families raising kids who love missions. Healthy churches then. How are goers raised up, trained, and sent? Healthy churches then are in a position to help mission candidates get the training. So, let me just put a plug in. This is why, for instance, Reformed Baptist Seminary is so important. When John Cordy decided to be a missionary, he knew he needed to be trained, and he got together with his pastor and he took classes at Reformed Baptist Seminary. This is why connections with other groups like Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals and other like-minded groups are important to help connect us with missionaries. We would never have known about the Latents if it weren't for fire. Strong churches also, not only raise up missionaries and find missionaries, but they also are strategically, should be strategically invested in church planting. Now, I've thought a lot about this too. Church planting is a strategy, as a strong church, grow stronger so it can strategically focus on more needy places for a church. So, What I'm saying is that there's two approaches to church planting. One is just a way of keeping a church at a certain size. And I wanna say that there are actually a lot of challenges in that as an approach. We can talk about that sometime if you want. But I think there's a better mission strategy for church planting, and that is to be a strong local church that actually has the wherewithal to be able to look at needy areas and actually send church planters to needy areas, places with no solid gospel witness. And so even now, there's an organization that we're working on which is going to be Reformed Baptist Churches in Northern Nevada, and it is going to be a cooperative effort between like-minded churches of actually getting church planters into areas in Northern Nevada where there is little or no gospel witness. So the strong church can actually plant, hopefully, and I think most effectively in cooperation with other like-minded churches, in areas that may need support for a longer period of time. If, not that this is real, but if you could imagine, if let's say you wanted to do something in love lock, okay? Well, this is viable, right? You wanna do something in love lock, okay? Do you not think that support of a church plant in Lovelock, for instance, would actually be a longer term project of supporting than if you were to turn around and say, let's plant a church in Reno? Right? You understand what I'm saying? Now, let me just ask you a question. Where do you think the biggest need is? It's Lovelock. Okay, by the way, let me just put my little plug in here. There were things about Tim Keller that I appreciated, but one thing that I think that he did that was detrimental for a long period of time was that he was so focused on reaching the city that we overlook rural America. Rural America needs churches. and we are in a state that actually is, guess what, mostly rural. So if somebody came to me and said, hey, I got a great idea, I wanna plant a church in Las Vegas. I said, well, you know what, there's already three churches down there that I can actually recommend that people go to. You know what, let's go somewhere where there's little or no gospel witness. And so my philosophy of church planting is I'd rather see a church in rural Nevada with no gospel witness than a church plant 30 miles away. So the backbone of missions is strong churches, which are growing and form a strategic mission center for sending and going. So you know what that means? One, it means as a church, It cannot be preoccupied with merely surviving. You do know that that is the vast majority of churches in the United States are less than 100 people, can barely afford a pastor, and are just trying to survive. Okay? Pray to God they survive. Pray that Jesus keeps them, grows them, right? But to be a mission, strategic mission sinner of sending and going means you have to actually be beyond the idea of merely surviving to the next Lord's day. It also means that you can't be a church that's embroiled in factions, divisions, or party spirit. That absolutely kills, not only does it just kill the life of the church, it will kill the mission of the church. Can't be a church that's just lukewarm in worship. There won't be any passion, there won't be any fuel to actually do missions. Can't be a church that's shrinking or barely above critical mass. You can't be a church that's prayerless. So strong churches centered on good doctrine, the word of God, white hot worship, prayer, are the churches that frequently I have a passion for missions. Now, Daniel has reminded me that I've unfortunately said a couple of times that I don't have any more ideas or good ideas or whatever I've said. And I want to say that that's not exactly what I mean when I say that, okay? I'll explain to you what I mean when I've said that later. I'm 57 years old. I don't know how long God's gonna give me. I could not wake up in the morning, all right? So you don't know. But if God would give me a few more years, as a church, we have a wonderful succession plan in place. We really do. And if God will give me more years, what my heart's desire would be is to see not only boys and girls grow up in this church and be sent out for the sake of the name, but also to see churches planted all over rural Nevada, making an impact for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you have a passion for lost souls and the glory of God, you love missions, at home or abroad. And so, as you think about these things, take that mission guide, pray. Get your family praying for missions. Get your kids praying for missions. When the letters come out, read them as a family. And just remember, that there are people that have let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, and here we are in comfort and relative ease. We have a calling to pray and to send, which means support. Let's pray. Father, thank you for that church in Antioch, and Lord, the way that you changed the known world through that church. Father, those missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul started at that church. And so, Father, we pray that you would give us a holy passion to see the gospel spread. We pray that you would give us clearer and clearer vision forward as we seek to make an impact not only in our state, but Lord, throughout the nations. And Father, we pray that you would hear our prayers, and we ask that you would give us the energy and the diligence to give you no rest until you answer our prayers. In Jesus' name, amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.