To the World One Family at a Time
Missions Month • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Read Ephesians 3:1-12
Paul’s life work was taking the light of the gospel to the world.
How did he do that normally?
Public Sermons in Acts:
Acts 2 in Jerusalem
Acts 3 in Jerusalem
Acts 7 in Jerusalem
Acts 13 to Jews in Antioch
Acts 17 at Athens
Acts 22 in Jerusalem
Notice that these large, public events become more rare as the gospel goes out into the world.
Special Occasion Sermons:
Acts 20 to Church Elders
Acts 24 to Felix’s Court
Acts 26 to Agrippa’s Court
These large, public sermons were not the norm.
And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,
(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
Families were both the means and the goal of evangelism.
John Chrysostom
“Turn your home into heaven; you will do this not when you change the walls or rebuild the foundation, but when you invite the Almighty Lord to your repast. God never disregards any kind of supper. … Where the husband, and the wife, and the children are in accord and united by the bonds of virtue, there is Christ among them.”
John Chrysostom
“If we thus regulate our own houses, we shall be also fit for the management of the Church. For indeed a house is a little Church. Thus it is possible for us by becoming good husbands and wives, to surpass all others.”
Jonathan Edwards, “Farewell Sermon”
"Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual."
The family is the mission.
Make family a little church. Make church a big family.
The family is the mission.