This coming Tuesday marks the passing of one whose name is great in heaven but little known on earth. After a lifetime of labor in China and India and Africa, Charles Thomas Studd breathed his last July 16th, 1931. Eighty-eight years ago this Tuesday at 10.30 p.m., his last word was hallelujah and he died. Stud was born into a wealthy family, very wealthy family. He enjoyed the fame of accomplished athlete as a cricket player and received a Cambridge education. But hearing the preaching of the American evangelist Dwight Moody, he turned his back on his own life, on his own ambitions, and he placed his hope in Jesus Christ alone. And then in 1885, with no Facebook or Instagram or any of that to keep connected. He left for China as a missionary. He was only 25 years old. Trying to comfort his mom and encourage himself, he wrote a letter to her. Mother, dear, I do pray God to show you that it's such a privilege to give up a child to be used of God to saving poor sinners who have never even heard of the name of Jesus. Parents and Emmanuel, can I encourage us among the many things we pray for our children and talk to them about? Add this to your prayer list. Add that the Spirit of God would use our children to save poor sinners who've not even heard the name of Jesus. Add that to how we pray for our children. And children and adults, I'm always glad that you're here, teenagers, always glad that you're in the room with us. I want you to set your sights on things that are higher than sports and marriage. Set your sights on the privilege of sharing the good news about Jesus. Do that with your life. Well, I referenced C.T. Studd last week, and one of his chief ambitions I put on the front of your order of worship this week. You probably already read it when you came in. Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell I want to set up a rescue shop within a yard of hell. And Stud knew that he could share the good news where he was in England. But he also knew and he came to realize that Jesus had called people to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus commands all of us to share the good news with our words wherever we are. But he also commands his people to go to the ends of the earth as missionaries. And I just want to keep asking us in this short series, is he calling you? What an honor it would be if our loving Lord asked you to go. We all know the stories of old battles. One of the honors was carrying the flag in the battle. You had no weapon. The flag was so big you had to carry it with two hands, and it was your job as you waved the flag to mark the front line, to rally your fellow friends to the fight. And if one carrying the flag is shot, another rushes forward to take up the flag. And carrying the flag was an honor for everybody except the cowards. Well, who among us? Even again, the teenagers, who among us? Who among us will have the honor of carrying the gospel flag of our loving Lord to the ends of the earth? Church family, just want to keep pushing as you are not too young. Catherine and Carson and Haddon and Hank, Charlie, you're waving your hands. Is Caitlin here this morning? Caitlin in the nursery, you're not too young and you are not too old to pray and to go. Millions have never heard of Jesus from Mark, Charles, Haddon, Spurgeon. We ought not to ask, can I prove that I ought to go? But can I prove that I ought not to go? All of this is what we've been thinking about in July. Let me put this, offer this up as we settle into this series. I want to give this to somebody when everything is missions, it's just over 100 pages. Now membership has its privileges, so this is just for a member. And if you'd like to get books that I give away, join the church and you can get books that I give away. So when everything is missions, next week I'll give away one of my favorite missionary biographies. You can actually get this for free. You can go to Pioneer's website, enter your address, and download the e-book free if you like. But I have a hard copy here that one of you needs to take and read when everything is missions, and I'll put it right here on the front seat. There we go. So the purpose of this The elders asked me in June to step back and to think about missions. So the good thing is I'm not going after anybody. There's nothing going on in the church or going on somewhere else. I'm just stepping back to think about what does the Bible say about missions and to bring our understanding back to test it by what the Bible says. So we're trying to clarify and just refocus our thinking of when it comes to missions. And we're not minimizing other kinds of work. We're not minimizing the importance of work and vocation. And as I said last week, I'm very proud of the various vocations and the groups and activities members of this church are involved in during the week. So we're not minimizing work and vocation at all. We're just trying to think especially about missions. The term missions can be like a junk drawer and lots of things can get thrown in there. But just like everything in a junk drawer doesn't actually belong together, could it be possible that not everything in the junk drawer of missions actually belongs there, actually belongs together? So we thought last week, I mean, if concept creep can affect businesses and fields of psychology, can concept creep affect how we think about missions as well? So we're going back to the Bible and just retesting and reexamining our understanding of missions. What is it? And what is the church's primary, primary, ultimate, most important? And are we all missionaries? So last week, we took time to look at Luke 24, 44 to 49. We noted from Luke 24 that not everything is missions and not everybody is a missionary. We thought last week about the message and the mission of missions. What is the message of missions? The message of missions is the gospel. The gospel is the message of missions. And what is the gospel? What is it? Jesus Christ lived and died in our place for our sin. And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead to prove that he paid for our sin. And if you turn from living life your own way, from putting yourself first, and put all of your trust in Christ, God will save you. That's the good news. That's the good news that brings us here. That's the good news that we are to share. And maybe you're here and you need more explanation. That's great. There's grace for failures. There's forgiveness for sinners. Sometimes, I don't know, maybe you're here as somebody who's been away from church for a while. Maybe you've heard certain things about Christians, or maybe we need clarifying in our own mind. But let's remind ourselves, Emmanuel Bible Church, there are no good people in this church. They're only forgiven people in this church. That's what you need to come to Christ. That's why we're here. We boast in Christ who's forgiven us from our sins. And we love to see one more, one more place their hope in Christ. Well, the message of missions leads to Jesus telling us the central mission of missions. And Jesus said in Luke 24, we're to proclaim with our words the gospel. Here's the central mission, proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in all nations. So the primary mission and the words of Luke 24 is to proclaim to the nations that they need to repent and come to Christ alone, that they might be forgiven. And that response is repentance and faith. When we call people to faith in Christ, what are we doing? Well, Philip Brooks, an old preacher, we sing one of his songs around Christmas time, he captured the heart of faith with an acronym. Kids, an acronym is when every letter in the word stands for something. So Philip Brooks said faith is an acronym. F stands for forsaking, A stands for all, I stands for I, T stands for take, H stands for Him. What we need to do in response to God's work for us in Christ is to forsake all and I trust Him. Have you done that? Are you forsaking everything and taking Him alone? That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to keep following him. Forsake all. I take him. That's faith. And then we ended last week telling us the power of missions. You will be clothed, Jesus says, with power from on high and you will be my witnesses. And that power is the Holy Spirit. And remember, beloved, since Pentecost, that's not been reversed. Every one of us has been clothed with power from on high by the spirit. And the Spirit now enables us to carry out this mission, to share the good news, to go foreign places. Well, all of this leads us to our message today in the book of Acts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. If you locate that there in the Christian New Testament, and here's our title for today, The Advance and Activity of Missions. And in particular, I want to look at the powerful advance and the primary activities of missions. We'll spend more time on the first point than the second, but that's our theme for this morning. The powerful advance and the primary activities of missions. Now remember, Luke and Acts are two volumes of the same book. So we looked at the end of volume one last week, and where Jesus commissions his followers to be witnesses of him. And now we're going to look in Acts, because Acts tells us what it looks like to be followers of him, for the church to bear witness in his name and the power of the Spirit to all nations. So, that's what we want to think about. And by thinking about the powerful advance and the prime activities, I hope, church family, that this does two things for us, at least. I hope that the advance of missions, as we listen to it this morning, will encourage us and embolden us to share the good news here. I was provoked and encouraged to good works as I heard you talk about opportunities you're having this morning. I hope that by talking about missions as missions, it stirs us up to do that and to do what we're called to do here. As we hear the advance and the success of the gospel, that we would share the good news here and especially the good news to the ends of the earth. And secondly, I do hope that thinking about the primary, the essential activities of mission, that it brings about clarity and priority and urgency to missions and helps all of us think better about how we use our funds and how we support and what we call it. So let's think now about the powerful advance of missions and the primary activities of missions. So first, the powerful advance of missions. And you can summarize this first point, and then we're going to talk about it for about 20 minutes, in one word, unhindered. That's the summary of the advance of the gospel. The last word in the book of Acts is actually an adverb without hindrance or unhindered. Acts 28.31, Paul is preaching the good news without hindrance. The message of missions, as you read through the book of Acts, advances unhindered in the book. That doesn't mean without opposition. That doesn't mean without persecution. But the gospel is unstoppable. It's all-powerful. It can't be bound. And the gates of hell will shame and sometimes swallow up the lives of those who proclaim the gospel. But the gates of hell cannot stop the gospel. The powerful advance of the gospel is unhindered. It cannot be bound. Now, there's the proposition. Now, let's trace it now through the story of Acts. Let's start with Acts 1.8. Would you locate that? Acts 1.8 will be here. You can turn with me or listen and we'll finally land in Acts 13 and 14. But Acts 1.8. Jesus echoes his own words from Luke 24, 48 to 49. And here's what Jesus says. But you all will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth, to the nations. Now in Acts 1-8, Jesus is not giving us a chronological strategy for missions. First reach your Jerusalem, then reach your Samaria, and when you do those, then go out to the ends of the earth. No, Jesus is telling us that he wants us to move out on all fronts at the same time. This is what will happen with the gospel. And for the disciples, I mean, think of it, for the disciples, Jerusalem was not any of their hometowns. So from the very beginning, this is a call to move out beyond where they live, beyond their neighborhoods, into ever-widening circle, pushing them out to the ends of the earth. So Acts 1.8, don't think of it chronological strategy, but it is a roadmap a table of contents for how the gospel advances, especially in Acts. So let's think about the three categories that we have here. Acts 1-7 records the advance of the gospel in Jerusalem, which again is outside of the disciples' and these followers' hometowns. In Acts 2, the Spirit comes upon all of them, men and women and young and old, and the power of Pentecost lies on us who are in Christ this morning. Beloved, we have the power that we need as Emmanuel Bible Church. We don't need a second blessing. We have union in Christ by His Spirit. And who's the primary figure in this first act? Chapters 2 to 7, it's Peter as he leads in proclaiming the gospel all throughout Jerusalem. And when the advance of the gospel comes to an end in Jerusalem, what happens? Listen to the summary in Acts 6-7. You can turn there or listen. Acts 6-7, and the word of the Lord continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Think how marvelous this is. Just a little over a month earlier, the people of the holy city of Jerusalem, led by the priest, had nailed the Lord of Glory to the cross, and Peter had abandoned him. But now, in the power of the Spirit, loved Peter, forgiven Peter, restored Peter, proclaims the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and what happens? The number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem, and a great number of those priests, I'm sure, who vilified Jesus, now believe. So what happens at the end of Round 1, Acts 6-7, the word continued to increase in Jerusalem. Now Acts 8 records the advance of the gospel to Judea and Samaria. And we see in Chapter 8 that though people violently oppose the gospel, our brothers and sisters whom we will see in heaven die for the gospel in Chapter 8. But though they die, the gospel advances unhindered. In fact, suffering is a means God uses to scatter his people so that more people will hear the good news. God uses suffering to advance the gospel. So let's recapture. Would you turn to Acts 8? Turn to Acts 8. Acts 7 ends with Stephen's martyrdom. And look who comes on the scene in chapter 8, verse 1. When chapter 8 opens, you can start playing Darth Vader's theme. Read it with me. Let's see what happens in chapter 8. And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, so that they were all scattered throughout the regions where? Judea, Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And what happens is God allows the death of Stephen and he allows the violent persecution to come. What happens? Look at verses four and five. Now, those who are scattered did what? They went about preaching the word. What else? Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Messiah. But what's happening? You remember in Acts 1.8, the table of contents, my spirit would empower you to be witnesses to my death and resurrection in Jerusalem. That's chapters 1 to 7. And now to Judea and Samaria, chapter 8. Apparently, the church didn't sense the urgency to go to the ends of the earth. So God uses a wave of persecution to scatter his disciples into Judea and into Samaria. That's what happens. And what are they doing? What are they doing as they go? I'm not minimizing any other kinds of work. But they're not starting humanitarian clinics, though that could be very helpful for advancing the gospel, but they're going the main thing is eight for their mission as they're scattered, they went about preaching the word, especially this. They're preaching to them the Christ. So what do we have so far? Acts 1-8 gives us a table of contents describing the gospel's advance, first to Jerusalem, chapters 1-7, and then through persecution to Judea and Samaria, just like Jesus said would happen and needs to happen. Let's pull over for a moment and take a scenic overlook at these first two points. What are we learning so far? Well, it's getting ahead of ourselves a little bit into the next main point of the primary mission of missions. But have you noticed what they are doing the most as they go through Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria? Acts 4, 5, they're proclaiming Christ. So a primary activity of biblical missions is the proclamation of the word. Second, Do you see that God, by His Spirit, is pushing them out to go to other places? The word increased in Jerusalem. Well, let's have a party and set up a thing. Let's just do this here. But it wasn't only meant for Jerusalem, so He scatters them to Judea and He scatters them to Samaria. So biblical missions is not only driven by gospel proclamation, but biblical missions is always advancing. It's always looking for the next place, for the next people. He drove them far from Jerusalem and into Judea and Samaria. So pastors are wonderful. But they're not missionaries. Biblical missionaries are always following Christ to the next place and the next people. Third, did you notice that advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth is so important that God uses persecution to make it happen? Persecution is not always a setback. Sudden, surprising, unexplained deaths can be the very thing God uses to advance the gospel to people and places it wouldn't have gone otherwise. I mean, isn't that how Jesus advanced the good news for us? He died that we might live. Suffering is a way the gospel advances. Here comes the strong and bruising wind that levels the crop. But it carries the seed far off to rise again somewhere else. For on that day a great persecution came against the church in Jerusalem. But those who were scattered went about preaching the word in Judea and Samaria just like Jesus said in Acts 1 8. And what happened? Acts 9.31 gives us a summary of this time, the gospels advancing in Judea and Samaria. Listen to Acts 9.31, another summary statement. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the church multiplied. Behold, the violently opposed but unstoppable advance of the gospel. It's going out unhindered. But what's left so far? The gospel is going to Jerusalem, chapters 2 to 7. It's going to Samaria, chapter 8. We have a summary in Judea. What's left from the table of contents in chapter 1, verse 8? The end of the earth. And we have that starting in chapter 9 as well. In Acts 9, we have the final frontier. If the beginning of Acts 8 starts with Star Wars, in Acts 9, you can cue the Star Trek theme, the final frontier, to boldly go where no one's gone before. Split infinitives don't matter anymore. Well, Paul is the main figure now in this section. and his own life, if you know anything about Paul, his own life as a testimony to the power of the gospel, isn't it? The man who approved Stephen's death in chapter 8, verse 1, who violently opposed Christians, is now one of the greatest missionaries in the New Testament. I was a blasphemer, Paul writes, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy as the chief of sinners. Saul, who becomes Paul, could not even stop the advance of the gospel in his own life. Praise God that he can overcome the resistance of any sinner, anytime he wants to. And praise God that he loves to pick the worst of sinners to save them. And that means whoever you are this morning, whatever you've done. I mean, put it in all caps and 45,000-foot font, whoever you are and whatever you have done, Christ has come to save the worst of sinners. Is that you? Then there's hope for you. Oh, how He loves sinners like you and me. Well, God commissions Paul, just like He did the disciples, to go to the end of the earth, and that's what Paul does. I make it my ambition, he explains in Romans 15, 20. I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named. And Paul is simply mirroring Christ's own pattern there. All of us are hopefully on different Bible reading plans as a group of us who are trying to read through the New Testament and 90 days this summer. Recently, I've been in the book of Luke. And all through the Gospels you hear this common refrain from Jesus, Luke 4, 43, I must go preach the good news to other towns, for that's why I came. Repeated again and again. Thus, this one book of Luke acts Luke is telling us Jesus is setting the pattern for missions that he commissions his disciples for. Luke intends us to see Paul's passion has been molded by Christ's own methodology. Christ says, I must preach the gospel to other towns. That's why I've called. And Paul comes along. I hear that. I've been commissioned for that. I will go preach Christ where he's not been named. That's why I've been called. What does it mean? Taking a step back for a moment. I think it's this. Can I put it this way? The heart, the bull's eye, the tip of the spear in missions is pushing out and crossing over to the unreached, lesser reached, harder people in places, to the edge of the earth. Jesus was always advancing. Missions and acts is always advancing. Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and now Paul to the uttermost parts of the earth. So, beloved, that's not to undervalue or to say things are unimportant. But the heart of missions, the driving force, the centrifugal force that's pushing out is always to go somewhere else. And it might mean this. that if you stopped advancing, that's fine in a sense. You're a pastor, but you're probably not a missionary at that point. So let me stop and use my own life as an example. Is Brad a church planner? No. Brad's a pastor. Was Brad a church planner? Yes, at one time, but I'm not planning churches now. And this is an established church that should be reproducing itself. I'm now a pastor of this church. And that kind of distinction doesn't minimize any, either of those callings. It just makes clear what's happening and what needs to keep happening. In a similar way, maybe a church or maybe you're supporting somebody individually and you might want to clarify somebody's work. They were sent as a missionary, but now they're acting more like a pastor. They're no longer advancing, but they're pastoring. They're not a missionary at that point, in the way Acts uses the word. They're a pastor. And that's not a bad thing. It just clarifies somebody's role, and it brings somebody's role into better alignment with the Bible, and it clarifies what the support should be called, or where it should be come from, or maybe it should be redirected. I think Timothy's an example of that in the Bible. Timothy's someone who was a missionary. He goes out with Paul. But he settles into being a pastor. Timothy accompanies Paul as a missionary and takes a support in some sense with along with Paul. But at some point, Paul says, we started Ephesus and now you're going to go pastor Ephesus. And the elders who labor in the word should be remunerated. So Timothy teach the church at Ephesus to observe all the things that Jesus has commanded. And that means teaching the church. They need to support its own pastors and then saturate their own area with the gospel and send out their own missionaries. It's time for you to do that, Timothy. And again, it's wonderful that Timothy could transition from being a missionary to a pastor, and maybe it'd take a long time before they could support him. All that could be put into place, but the goal is that they would support themselves, support their own ministry, send out their own ministries. We need pastors, but we need missionaries who are always advancing. Again, think about our own context. 15 years later, should Heritage Bible Church still be supporting Emmanuel Bible Church as a church plant? Not if we're able to do it on our own. And we can. And that was the goal from day one. In fact, you should look at it like this. If Heritage were still supporting us, they could be enabling our disobedience and crippling our growth and advance in the gospel and trust in God to do His own work among us and through us. And we need to be aware of that with missions as well. Sometimes helping is actually hurting. People trust God and watch the Spirit do that there too. That's just one giant implication from Acts 1.8. The advance of the gospel in Acts through the church and now Paul is this, the heart of it. Here's missions, but the bullseye of it, the tip of the spear is pushing out and crossing over to the unreached and lesser reached and harder people in places to the edges in order that you might make and gather disciples. But what happens to Paul as he goes? What happens to Paul as he goes to the end of the earth? I want you to listen to these summary statements. You can write them down or listen. Acts 12, 24. But the word of God increased and multiplied at 1615. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. These are new places. No, I just doing it again. Acts 19, 20. So the word of the Lord continued to increase. And I love this prevail mightily. That's Paul saying in Colossians, I praise God, the word of God is bearing fruit new as it is all over the world. Paul's seen it. And the entire book of Acts again ends in Acts 28. Paul's in prison. He's there because he's been talking about Jesus. We might think it's over. Oh, no, it's over. But remember, suffering is a means God uses to advance the gospel. The whole book, Paul's like, I want to get to Rome. I want to get to Rome. I want to get to Rome. I want to get to Rome. And listen to this in Acts 28, 30 and 31. He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and he welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. That's the advance of the gospel. it started to reach the ends of the earth. So the book of Acts details this powerful advance. And I hope that going through this and thinking about it, we're encouraged to see that we can advance with the gospel to where we are. Everywhere you go in Acts, in every city, this is the testimony. Sometimes through persecution, sometimes through death, sometimes through longer times. Yes, yes, yes, but the word of God multiplies. even to the ends of the earth, preaching Christ where He's not named. And when you put all this together, you have an alternating pattern in the book of Acts as it goes out to the ends of the earth, that the proclaimed word of God produces new converts and new churches. Acts 6-7, the word increased and number of disciples multiplied. That's conversion. Acts 9.31, the church multiplied. That's establishing churches. Now back out to Acts 12.24, the word of God increased and multiplied. That's conversion. Now Acts 16.5, so the churches were strengthened and they increased. That's conversion, discipleship, and establishing churches. And then it comes again to Acts 19.20, the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. So there's this alternating pattern. One set of chapters the word goes out and people are converted. One set of chapters the word goes out and churches are established and multiplied. And what's propelling the new converts and the new churches? It's the preaching of Christ. The proclaimed word produces new converts and establishes new churches. So one principle we're seeing as the gospel advances and from Jesus' words in Luke 24 and Acts 1-8 and Peter's life and Acts chapter 8 and Paul's life, again, that the tip of the spear, the heart of it, missions is pushing out. Always out to the next place, to harder places and people to the end of the earth to gather and make disciples. That's the drive of missions. Another principle we just saw is this, that the proclaimed word of God produces new converts and new churches. That's the advance of missions and the gospel and acts. Now let's move. to the primary activities of missions in Acts. So next big point. I wanna think about two questions. I wanna try to get a working definition of what is a missionary, and then think about what missionaries do as they go. So what is a missionary, and then what are the primary activities as they go? That's what I did. When I read through Acts, I'll offer that challenge to you. Here's two questions I ask. What's the content of their message as they go? Number one, read it, mark down everything they say. And then what is it? And then number two, read through it. What do they do again and again? What are they saying and what are they doing? And I categorize it, I'll share with you later, in three ways. But let's just mention in broad terms and come back next week. So turn to Acts 13 and 14. Here's where we're going to be. Just a little bit of time left. Acts 13 and 14. One question we could say is, you know, why are we looking at Acts and why Paul? Well, one reason is that Luke and Acts go together. And remember, Luke ends part one with a commission to be witnesses, and Acts shows us what being a witness actually looks like. So part of Luke's purpose is to show us the message of missions and the primary activities of missions. That's part of his purpose. Another reason is this. If you take away acts, where do you go in the New Testament to see an example of all of what missions looks like for a church? Where do you go? So not everything is trans. You can't say this happened in acts. We do this today. But Based on Luke's purpose and its unique role in the canon in the Bible means we need to learn something about missions from Acts. When we come to Acts 13, we have something that's never happened before, not even in the Old Testament. Never happened before. For the first time in the New Testament, a church commissions people to go out to be missionaries. Acts 13, 1-3. Would you read it with me? First time it's ever happened in redemptive history. Now, there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers. Look how diverse this is. Barnabas, Simeon, who's called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menean, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and they sent them off. I think. We can see four things about what a missionary is from this, and it's important place because this is where they're first sent out. Number one. Did you notice the Holy Spirit sends out missionaries through local churches? The Holy Spirit set apart Barnabas and Saul through the church at Antioch. The implications of that we'll see next week. Number two, Acts 13 gives us another tiny part of a definition of a missionary. Look at the last phrase of verse 3. They are sent out. Beginning of verse 4, and being sent out by the Holy Spirit. Now stop, think about this. Did you know the word missionary doesn't appear anywhere in the New Testament? And some people say, therefore, foreign missions shouldn't be something that's really emphasized. We're all that, we all do it wherever we are. But the word trinity is not in the Bible, but the meaning is still there. If you're interested in thinking deeply about missions better, I'd encourage you to make friends with somebody with a really cool name and a cool accent. Eckhart Schnabel. Name means beak or snout. You can listen to a lecture of his online. Schnabel is a German scholar who's written in English and he's written easily to understand. He has three magisterial books on missions, a two-volume set, 2,000 pages, and then a reduction of those two volumes in 500 pages. I'd encourage you to look after Eckhart Schnabel. Schnabel reveals that the word missions comes from a Latin word, that the Latin word corresponds to a Greek word that means sent out, that's used 97 times to refer to Jesus and his followers as they're being sent out. A missionary then is somebody who is sent out. That's one reason It's not quite biblical to call everybody a missionary. That's a wonderful impulse, as we should all share the gospel where we live, and we should live like missionaries, with the mindset of a missionary. But not everything is missions, and we're not all missionaries. Why? Because in Acts 13, a missionary is reserved for somebody who's been sent out by the Spirit, commissioned through a church. Third, from this text we see intentionality. They are sent out by the Spirit through the church for a purpose. We want you to go to proclaim the gospel. There's intentionality in what is happening. And fourth, from Acts 13, they're sent out by the Spirit through the church with intentionality to geographical areas, to new spaces and places and faces. That's what happens when we read Acts 13, 4 and 5. So being sent out by the Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God. So I'd offer a start to a definition for a missionary on Acts 13. It's someone who's sent out by the Spirit through the church with intentionality to proclaim the gospel to geographical areas, to new places and to new faces. And the fact that they're sent out on the basis of the commission from Jesus means there's a bias in missions to going to new places and new faces to lesser reached, harder places with the gospel to the end of the earth. That's the bias of missions. That's again why it's not accurate to say everything is missions and we're all missionaries. I mean, have we all been sent out, commissioned by a church, set apart by the Spirit with intentionality to proclaim the gospel to new geographical areas where it's lesser reached and harder accessed? So we're all to share the good news with intentionality where we are. Are you? Who are you praying for that you know that needs Christ? Who have you been friends with long enough? You actually just need to open your mouth and talk about Jesus. Who is that for you? And be encouraged. If God's stirring your heart up to be more courageous and look for opportunities, don't you think He's stirring up the hearts of unbelievers to be ready to hear it? Wherever you are, in your workplace, in your neighborhood. You are there because God's agitating your heart and their heart so that the Word of God can make an entrance into their life. Advance with the gospel. That's true. I want to encourage us with that, to do that. And I want to encourage us and push us to the end of the earth. We're to do evangelism. Some of us should be doing missions at the end of the year. So let's turn to Acts 14, because what happened is what we just saw, what we just saw was that we're all to share the good news with intentionality. That's what they're doing in Antioch, but they're not missionaries in Antioch. They're going to send some people out by the Spirit through the church with intentionality to new faces and new places. Now let's turn to Acts 14. We get to see the first missionary update. They're going to come back to the Church of Antioch, and they're going to bring up the first ever PowerPoint Prezi presentation. They're going to set up their card in the lobby, and they're going to have a potluck afterwards and say, here's what we did. This is the first ever missionary update. 13 they're sent out, 14 they're coming back and giving an update. And the next 14, 21 to 23, they bust out their Prezi presentation. And let's listen to what they say. There are three things, main things they said they did on this first journey. See if you can catch them. Verse 21, Acts 14. When they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium, and now they sail back to Antioch. strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, in every place where he'd been, a church resulted and with prayer and fasting, they committed him to the Lord in whom these new people had believed. So that's what he tells the church at Antioch. And I have a whole four or five pages from Acts just listing what they did. And here's how I summarize these things in my mind. Remember where I was sitting trying to analyze this. Maybe you come up with a better category. I have three E's. What are the three, please hear this word, primary activities of missions? What are the three primary activities of missions when you read through Acts, summarized for us here? The first primary activity of biblical missions is evangelism. 1422, when they had preached the gospel to the city and had many disciples, end of verse 23, in whom they had believed. Evangelism is the first primary activity of biblical missions. In his book, Generous Justice, Tim Keller helps us think through as individual Christians what it looks like for our lives to be about justice as Christians. But he also highlights the primacy of evangelism for the church. He writes, if we confuse evangelism and social justice, we lose sight of what is the single most unique service Christians can offer to the world. Others alongside believers can feed the hungry. But Christians have the gospel of Jesus, by which men and women can be born again into certain hope of eternal life. No one else can make such an invitation. Other things are wonderful. They're needed, but they're not primary. But there's something else. That's central to being a primary activity, biblical missions, what is it? This was new for me as I read. equipping 1423, they're strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith elsewhere. Paul says he strengthened the church, he strengthened the church. So they're not only evangelizing disciples and moving on to the next area, but now they're discipling them to obey all things that Jesus has commanded, which would then include things like how you work and mercy ministry and how you live a life of justice and learning to send out your own missionaries. So evangelism and equipping, strengthening the church. And now a third and final one, a third primary activity of biblical missions is establishing churches, 1424, and when they had appointed elders for them in every church. Now all of these are related to the local church in that area. And if that's correct, that's correct, here are three primary activities of missions Then it coalesced for me. Again, I remember where I was and I thought, is this is this what's if this is what it is. So so a few days later, I read from Eckhart Schnabel. I thought this guy's thought about missions more than I have. And here's what he says in his book, Paul, the missionary on page 28, here's the threefold reality of missionary work. Number one, missionaries communicate the news of Jesus the Messiah and Savior to people who've not heard or accepted the news. Number two, missionaries communicate a new way of life that replaces at least partially the social norms and the behavioral patterns of the society in which the new believers have been converted. That's equipping, that's strengthening, causing them to grow in the faith. And number three, he says, Finally, missionaries integrate new believers into a new community. That's establishing churches. Now, if those three are primary to biblical missions, then I think you have to have at least two of those three happening for it to be biblical missions. And there are many creative ways that this can happen. But it seems to me these three or at least two of these three have to be clicked in intentionally if it's missions in New Testament sense. And the farther away you get from these three things and any two of these things. Well, the less likely it is that you have missions. It may be mission support, which is needed. It may be mercy ministry. It might be a business that you set up to help create the middle class and transition the poor into a better title. Yes. But if it's not involved intentionally from the beginning and towards the end with a combination of these three things evangelism, strengthening and establishing with, through and for the church in that area so that it can turn to go out and do the same. Don't call emissions. That's what I'm I think. It may be really honorable and really courageous and really needed and noble. And maybe a church wants to support that, but just don't call it missions. Why? Because a missionary is someone who's been sent out by the Spirit, commissioned through a church with intentionality to proclaim the gospel, to advance to new places and new faces. And what are the primary activities of New Testament missions? Equipping, establishing the church. So we've seen this morning the powerful advance of missions and the primary advance of missions for you to think about. I met with Jared this week. We talked more about the scriptural data. What does this mean? And what does it look like in the Philippines? And I love having these conversations. I have another one set up with some other missiologists next week, just trying to think better and clearer about this. What does it mean? Oh, beloved, again, I hope I hope that by clarifying what biblical missions is, it provokes us who are not called to be missionaries. To share the gospel even more and better here. And to do in connection with a local church. I mean, think of all the things the Lord could privilege us with. Our loving Lord has honored us with the privilege to be heralds of this news. Who will we share it with this week? Second, I don't want to lose this. I hope by talking about the advance and just pushing us to think better and more deeply and differently, I hope to confront us with going to the ends of the earth. I hope that you'll learn and think and you'll pray and you'll give and you'll go. I was praying with Dave, Pastor Dave, last night. God will send somebody from this church. And it may be our kids and it may be after I'm dead and buried because Jesus is always advancing and he's always recruiting. Will you have the honor? I mean it, brothers and sisters. I want to push us to think about this. And third, by thinking about doing it better here, evangelism here and missions. I want to fill our hearts and our minds with hope and the power of the gospel so that you'll grow in hope as you go, that as you read out, you read it and you tell me what happens everywhere they go, they suffer. But the word prevails. So go. And if you can't go, pray for someone who can. And if you can't go, support someone who has gone. Maybe you'll show up and say, I can't do that, but I'm here to help. Maybe you actually have enough discretionary income that you should cut this or cut this or cut this or not buy that or not remodel that and support somebody on the front lines with your money. were all involved in missions abroad. God's Word and the power of the Spirit and the work of Christ are yours. Let me end, go back to the story of C.T. Studd. Studd recounts that, of course, he had come to Christ and he mentions that he had felt the need, especially to be witnessing to those in his own circle, and he felt that was all my responsibility. And then Studd heard a missionary speaking about the needs in China, and then he was struck by a promise in Psalm 2, verse 8. That's a conversation between God the Father and God the Son. And C.T. Studd reads Psalm 2, verse 8. God says to the Son, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. And Stud hears that and says, that's a promise he still has to keep. Remember last week, why should you go? Because the Moravians read their Bible in Revelation 5, and they said the lamb must have the reward for his suffering, so they went. And Stud reads Psalm 28, where Christ will have the prize for which he died, an inheritance of nations, and that means he says, go. So learn and pray and give and go. Be part of the advance of the gospel. Enter into the primary activities of missions. And I don't mean it in rhetorical flourish, whether or not it's your last word or not, so that your life, when you come to the end like stud, you can say hallelujah. Or you can sing hallelujah for the lamb who was slain. He has the prize for which he died. Let's pray. Oh Lord, thank you that we have heard the good news. We are among those who have believed We're even among those who've been saturated with teaching and instruction. Would you, Spirit of God, set apart from this flock people who would be involved in ends of the earth missions? Lord of the harvest, send forth workers from this church to the ends of the earth. so that all tribes and tongues and kindreds and nations will worship you, so that Christ will have the ends of the earth as you promised. Oh, friends, I just give it a moment of quiet at the end. Maybe you are not a believer, and I call you to faith, forsaking all, I take him. And if you are a believer, Just ask God to use you to share the gospel here and maybe to the ends of the earth.