Value 4: Collective Gospel Proclamation

Introduction

We all have people in life that we look up to. Possibly a parent or a grandparent. Maybe a teacher or coach. Maybe a former pastor or mentor. People who were successful and who encouraged and challenged us to grow and become better as well. Usually whenever we think of success in regards to missions, we think of lots of hands raised, lots of lives changed, and lots of people saved. What if I told you that one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the church waited 7 long years to have his first convert? Would you say that this individual and those initial years were successful? So often in our lives, we judge our success by measurable metrics - in church life this is attendance, giving, and baptisms. It’s a joy to see those things increasing! But the measure of our success is faithfulness to the Word of God as individuals and as a church as we’ve been seeing these last few weeks.

William Carey founded the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 with this motto: Expect Great Things From God; Attempt Great Things For God. Carey believed that the Lord was calling him and others to take the Gospel to the nations, yet many people in his home country of England believed this to be a lost cause. He struggled to gain support but eventually left for India with his family. When he arrived he immediately faced hardship - the region he was in, Calcutta, spoke 20 languages frequently. It took a while for Carey to learn each language and then more time to gain trust and even more time to present the Gospel. 7 long and challenging years pass. He loses his wife. He lost sever children to disease. 7 years pass and then Krishna Pal converted from Hinduism to Christianity in 1800. Carey began making disciples and translating the Bible into over 200 languages and dialects during his time in India. By the time he passed in 1834, William Carey led 700 people to Christ in India - just around 16/year. Not the tens of thousands that some might expect. But he was faithful to do what God called him to do and over 200 years later, the work of our SBC International Mission Board is in part based on the work laid out by this first Baptist Missionary Society founded by William Carey.

God never promises His followers that following Him will be easy. He promised that we will have trouble. We will experience suffering. We must die to self. This isn’t easy - but we are also promised that He will be with us every step of the way. This morning as we continue to look at what Jesus expects of His church and the values that we have as a church, we come to our 4th value - Collective Gospel Proclamation. A healthy church will preach the Word, sing as a congregation, and pray as a body. These are things that we primarily do whenever we gather for worship. Worship is more than just singing - it includes Preaching, Praise, and Prayer! Today we see the importance the Bible places on proclaiming the Gospel as a church. Whenever you come to FBC Salem, you will hear the good news of Jesus Christ from this pulpit because God demands His elders to preach the Word. But proclaiming the Gospel is not just something that pastors do. It’s not just something that we do whenever we gather for worship. Let’s look in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, to see what exactly Jesus says about our mission as believers.

Matthew 28:16–20 CSB

16 The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. 18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Christian, aren’t you thankful that Jesus has all authority? In a world that has lost its mind in more ways than one and where people are power hungry, this truth provides our souls with peace. But what are we doing with this reality? What does Jesus expect from His people? Let’s pray that He would give us open ears and hearts this morning to be the people that He would have us be at FBC

All Christians Have Confidence to Go (16-18)

In life it is important to have confidence but we have to be careful where we find our confidence. A study conducted back in 1950 by Gallup asked high school seniors, “Are you a very important person?” Only 12% or 1/8 said, YES to this question. The same question was asked in 2005 of high school seniors, “Are you a very important person?” Do you think more or less said yes this time around? 80% - 10x more than 50 years before - said “YES” to this question. More people today think more of themselves than in any time in human history. We could say that much of our problem in life is not a lack of confidence, but too much confidence that is placed in the wrong thing. If we had no confidence in life then we would do nothing in life. We have to have conviction that helps guide us to do what we believe to be right and confidence that what we are doing is important and will work. But where do we find our confidence? What do we place it in? The Christian says that our confidence comes from the Lord and our confidence is placed in the Lord - not in self, not in sin, and not in society. Christians are a confident people - not a boastful people, not an arrogant people, but a confident people in what Jesus Christ has done. Many of us have heard the Great Commission before here at the end of this chapter, but what is Matthew 28 about? Look at the beginning of this chapter. It’s about the Resurrection! The reality that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died for sinners, rose from the dead, and ascended back to heaven - this is the Gospel and the Gospel gives us great confidence. So much confidence, in fact, that we worship this risen Jesus and trust in Him to work in our lives and the lives of others to change this world. So much confidence, as we talked about last week in Luke 11, to trust that He hears us whenever we pray to Him and that He answers in a way that is in our best interest. We have confidence because Jesus has all authority - not just some, not just most, but Biblically, He has it all.

Because of this confidence, we go into this world of darkness with a message of light and life.

Isaiah 52:7 CSB

7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 55:11 CSB

11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

As we see in Matthew 28, we go out into this world and we share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this good news does not return to God void. He accomplishes something through His Word and we can be confident of this! We either plant seeds, water seeds, or God might use us to be present when it’s time for the seed to be harvested. Either way, we know that God is at work and this must be our prayer - that the God who has all authority, would send us and use us as He see’s fit.

So many in our churches hunger for something called revival. We want to see people worship Jesus and come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, don’t we? Every single revival on record has started with a few things: A conviction of God’s holiness. A hunger for God’s Word. A passion for prayer. Many of these revivals have started with young people! Think of the First Great Awakening in our country - who were some of the early leaders? One was George Whitfield - 25 years old. Jonathan Edwards - 30 years old. We could even throw a John Wesley into the mix at the age of 32. These men were used mightily by God for His perfect purposes. They didn’t bring revival. You can’t plan revival. God sends it. All we can do is be faithful to do what we are called to do and to pray that God would move in our churches, communities, and world. Whenever this happens, whenever the Gospel is proclaimed and genuine revival takes place, we see 3 things

Sleepy Christians Wake Up

Nominal Christians Are Converted

Conscious Non-Christians Come to Faith

As we think on what Jesus has done for us, we remember that there is work for all of us to do and this wakes sleepy Christians up. The average Christian consumes rather than contributes and spectates rather than serves. If we have confidence in the Word of God and the God of the Word, this changes as we wake up and get to work doing what God has created us to do: Glorify Him, Share His Gospel, and Make Disciples. There’s another thing that happens whenever the Gospel is proclaimed and revival breaks out - people who think that they are saved realize that they aren’t. People leading within the church come under conviction that though they might have thought they were saved, they were playing the game. They were never saved by grace through faith in Christ - and they are converted though they might be on the church role for their whole lives. Finally, people outside the church hear the Gospel from sleepy Christians who have woken up and from nominal Christians who have been fired up, they hear the Gospel and they come to church and their lives are changed by Jesus Christ.

Jesus has all authority and He still is in the business of changing lives. We pray and we go and we know that Jesus has all authority. We don’t face a task unfinished alone - we face it head on with a God who has authority and who has given us the responsibility to go and point people to Him.

Daniel 7:14 CSB

14 He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

We have confidence to go into all the world because Jesus has all authority in the universe! He came as the suffering servant, but He rose from the grave as the victorious King that not even death could keep down. This King who has all power gives us confidence to go - because there is no power or threat that we face that can stop our God. We know how the story ends! In fact, it’s already written. The reason that we go is because of what we know. If Jesus truly rose from the dead as the Bible says that He did, there is no rationale excuse for you and I to not share Who He is and what He has done with those around us. We have confidence in Who Jesus is and we have confidence that His Word doesn’t return void.

All Christians Are Commissioned to Go (19)

FBC family, you know this answer: What do we have to do whenever the word therefore appears? See what it is there for. Jesus commissions His people to go… But why? Because of verse 18 - He possesses all authority. Therefore, GO and tell this good news. Go and proclaim the truth of the Gospel to a world marked by loss, despair, hopelessness, and emptiness. Into this fallen world, Jesus commissions His Church to share a message of hope, light, and life.

LifeWay Research released numbers from the 40,000+ SBC Churches and shared this information: More than 40% of SBC churches had no baptisms from the church year 2022-2023. Over a third, baptized 1-5. This means that 3/4 of the 40,000 churches in the SBC baptized 0-5 people in the whole year. We are called to make disciples, church. In order to make disciples, what must happen first? Lost people must be saved. Saved people must be discipled. Discipled people must be sent! This is our commission and in order for lost people to be saved - we must go and tell! The harvest is plentiful. Just guessing here, of the 15,000 people that live in Dent County, 10,000 are lost. The harvest is plentiful. What must happen? We must go therefore and make disciples. What is one metric of seeing how many disciples we’ve made? It’s not the only one, as discipleship includes spiritual growth and that happens in all sorts ways and in all sorts of times. But one way that we can see that process start is with baptisms. We don’t dunk babies, unlike Catholics and Presbys, we immerse believers. By God’s grace, we’re one of the 5% in SBC life who celebrated 20 or more baptisms from summer of 2022 to summer of 2023. We are seeing spiritual growth. We are seeing baptisms. This is good news! But the work isn’t done. It’s only begun. We are all commissioned by Jesus to go into our communities and make disciples who will go and make disciples! This is Jesus’ commission for all believers - not just pastors or deacons or Sunday school leaders.

I’ve had people ask what is in the water in Salem that is resulting in spiritual and numerical growth. Local, regional, national - what’s happening? Can I be honest with you? God is doing His work. God’s Word promises to never return void and whenever the people of God let the Word of God do the work of God, God gets the glory and God works for the good of His people! We are in a season of harvest presently, and the reason why is because of this entire body. You all have connections with people in Dent County that I do not have connections with. God has uniquely positioned you and planted you in an area, whether it be a school, a job, a house, a ball field, a department, a field, and there are people that God has placed in your sphere of influence for you to minister to. Why are we seeing new faces at this church? Because people are living out Matthew 28:19. Going and proclaiming. Sharing and telling. Think about this question: When was the last time that you told someone about Jesus or invited someone to come to church?

For some of you your answer is today or sometime this week - for others, possibly it’s back around Christmas time, and for others it might be quite a bit longer back than that. We are all commissioned as Christians to go into the lostness around us and make disciples of all nations. Sadly, for many the Great Commission is the Great Ommission - we know what it says but we choose to ignore it and expect someone else to do what God has called us to do! We subscribe into the lie that says that I am not needed in this process. I can sit while others serve and everything will be just fine. We can’t all do everything, absolutely, but God has equipped you and saved you for a reason and that reason is to share His Gospel message and serve in His church! As we share and serve, lives are changed - starting with ours.

Notice the scope of where Jesus commissions us to go - to the nations

Acts 1:8 CSB

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Is Salem, Missouri apart of a nation? You bet! This is a mission field, and it is the one that the Lord has providentially placed us in to make a dent in Dent County for His glory! We are to be His witnesses here because we are commissioned to do so! Think of the witness that your life gives to people in Salem, Rolla, Licking, and St. James. Whenever people see your life, what you do and what you say, what kind of witness are you? Are you a spectator whose life says that you go to church when its convenient but not when there’s something more attractive on the calendar? Does your life say that you love Jesus on Sunday and love the world on Monday? Does your life bear witnesses to the greatness of Jesus and your love for Him day in and day out with how you speak to your classmates at school, your coworkers at work, the cashier at Walmart and the waiter at Main Street? We are commissioned to go out into our community and to share the Gospel of Christ here in Salem - this starts with bearing Christlike fruit and sharing Christ’s message. How are you doing there?

How are we doing there as a church? As we think broader - we realize that the nations include other nations. Every December we collect an offering for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and every dollar given goes to help our international missionaries all around the world. This is a great way to share the Gospel and help make disciples! This summer we’re sending a team of 24 to Guatemala to build houses, distribute food, teach English, lead VBS, and share the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people walking in darkness! Why do we do this? Why do people take a week of their time to serve in a Camp Joy, VBS, Love Thy Neighbor, or international mission trip in order to make disciples? Because Jesus commands us to make disciples! If not us, than who? We are saved in order to share.

All Christians Are Compelled to Go (20)

Back in 2020 whenever COVID was first impacting some of the larger cities in the United States, there was a need in places like New York City for travel nurses to come in and assist in these massive hospitals that were struggling to stay in front of this tidal wave of sickness. In all, over 4,000 travel nurses ended up making this trip from their hometowns to New York City to work for months on end helping people battling at times for life. There was an article I read several years ago where a reporter asked several of these nurses, “Why come to New York City during the height of COVID and leave safety and family behind?” Over and over this was the response: I saw the situation and the suffering and I knew that I had to go. Thousands of nurses answered this call to go and serve those sick with a serious condition, risking their own lives in the process.

Christian, we are surrounded by individuals with an eternally more serious condition than COVID as people are walking in darkness and many don’t even realize this as they think that they are perfectly fine! This is the trap that sin plays. You don’t feel sick. You don’t have a lot of symptoms. In fact, you might even feel really confident in yourself and like you have it all put together. But eventually you look around and realize that the promises of this world are nothing more than prison bars that have left you hopeless and helpless. Why have Christians historically answered the call to combat lostness all around the world, at times risking their very lives to do this? Because the Cross of Christ Compels Us! Missionaries used to pack up their belongings in a funeral casket and take them across the ocean to signify that they were going to this country for the rest of their lives - now many Christians are concerned with at the prospect of simply going across the street to invite someone to church.

Look at the end of verse 20 in our text, what does Jesus tell His disciples just before He ascends to heaven? Remember - I am with you always! Why do you and I go to our neighbors and the nations with the Gospel? Because we understand the severity of sin and we understand the significance of our Savior’s presence. As one former pastor shared, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the other room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” The truth of the Resurrection, the reality of Sin, and the brokenness of this World demand that Christians stand up and act. The greatest problem in Dent County is lostness. The greatest problem in this world is lostness. I’ve heard a lot of other problems and a lot of other solutions, and I agree that things have to be done to fix those serious problems. But, y’all, if we solve every other problem but lostness - all we do is make a death pill taste really good. Jesus has a plan - and His plan is for His Church to rise up and take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He Commissions us and His Gospel Compels us to do exactly this.

Romans 10:14 CSB

14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Maybe you’re thinking that this takes you off the hook because you’re not a preacher - not so fast, my friend. The Great Commission is for who? All believers. Who has the responsibility of telling others about the Gospel? You do. My prayer for our church is that we continue to see spiritual growth as we’ve seen these last 27 months - but this church is only so big and the need is too great for us to do this alone. We need 300 missionaries to be commissioned and compelled each week to go out and share the Gospel because God has given you opportunities to share the Gospel that I will never have. Capitalize on them! Don’t buy into the lie that says, “Share the Gospel and if necessary use words” nonsense - the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not be a nice person, the Gospel is this: You were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God who is rich in mercy made you alive by sending His Son to die for your sins not because of how awesome you are but because of how sinful you are and how loving He is. How do you share that without words? You can’t! FBC family, we must share this message with our words and our actions must reflect the fruit of a life that has been changed and saved by Jesus Christ. We are compelled to go and as we go we should invite people to join our Christ-Centered Community!

Next month we begin a study in Daniel on boldness and faithfulness in a messed up world. Do you know anyone who believes that our society is in need of help? This study is a perfect time to go out into your community, our community, and not only personally share about Jesus, but invite someone to come and be apart of what God is doing here as we take time to see how to remain faithful to God’s Word in a godless world - just as Daniel and his friends had to do in Babylon.

Our Church is Commanded to Get to Work

I’ve shared this before, but it bears sharing again because by God’s grace over the last 2 years we’ve had a lot of new faces join us! Our purpose as believers in regards to discipleship is to “pay it forward.” If someone has spiritually invested in you, the best thing that you can do is find someone to invest in. A former pastor of mine, Troy Rhoden, once shared it like this, “The most important thing to make sure of is that you are going to haven… The second most important thing that you can do is bring as many people with you as you can.” If you look in the Bible, you see that God saves His people to share the Gospel with others. Think of Paul and Timothy. Even in the Old Testament, think of Moses and Joshua - Moses led the people out of Egypt, but it was his successor, Joshua who eventually led the people into the Promised Land. Think of Elijah and Elisha, Elijah was used by God in mighty ways, but Elisha performed twice as many miracles as he did. Think about Jesus and His disciples. Jesus invested in the disciples and His 12 disciples would take the Gospel throughout much of the Roman world. These people took time to invest in others, who did the same!

If you look at the screen, you’ll see the results of different types of evangelism. There’s one type which says that you need to make emotional appeals and get someone to repeat a prayer at the end of every service. There are some even who say that a sermon was not successful unless someone walked the aisle afterward. To which we say bologna. You and I can’t save anyone. We’re commanded to proclaim the Gospel and plant seeds and water them, God brings the harvest. I’ve seen many people confuse themselves into thinking they’re a believer because they walked an aisle on an emotional whim and repeated some words and they went back to living for themselves and not for Jesus. But, “I prayed the prayer” was their cry! Y’all, Jesus saves sinners on His timeline. We don’t need more Charles Finney type emotionalism and manipulation. Not on my watch. If we made it our personal goal as a church to see one person saved every month - over the course of a year that would be 12 people. Since arriving here 28 months ago, we’ve seen 44 baptized by God’s grace. But if our goal was 1/month, that’s 12/year. Do you know how long it would take to reach the estimated 10,000 people in Dent County who are not saved? 833 years. Even if the goal was 1/week - the abusive Charles Finney approach of continuing the invitation until one person walks the aisle - 192 years. Let’s up it and say that our church is able to make a disciple every single day - that’s 365 a year… It still takes 27 years to reach all of Dent County. That’s a long time! Addition can’t be the goal - it must be multiplication!

Look at what we could call the discipler model compared to the evangelizer model. If you invest into 2 people a year who are saved and you disciple them and equip them to go and do the same thing and make 2 more disciple-making-disciples the next year who go out and do the same. What is the result? We reach Dent County in nearly 13 years - that’s half the time it takes if we had 1 new convert every single day! If you take that out to include every lost person in the world, we could reach all 8 billion people with the Gospel in 33 years - by 2057. This is our task! There is work to do and we all have a role to play in advancing the Kingdom of God for God’s glory and the good of our community. In 2025, I pray that we can look back on this year and see 300 people working together as a unified body as a healthy church is a church that stands on Scripture and proclaims the truth of the Gospel to a lost and dying world - whatever the cost.

How can we do the work that God has called us to do?

Remember: Only a Disciple Can Make Disciples - I Must Be Saved

Remember: Jesus Works Through His People - I Must Be Obedient

Remember: Jesus Has All Authority - I Don’t Need to Be Afraid

Remember: I Have the Best News to Share

Remember: We Fulfill This Command by Giving our Time, Talent, and Treasure

William Carey once said this, “I will go into the pit, if you will hold the rope.” We need pit divers who will go to the front lines and meet needs head on with the Gospel. And we ned rope holders who will pray and provide the means for others to go. We all have a role to play at FBC Salem in this process! Jump into the pit or hold the rope - either way, let’s be a church that takes serious the Great Commission and continue working for God’s glory and the good of this community.