E - Equip

Introduction

Well, good morning!

Listen, I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to be here this morning. I’m excited to be in the House of the Lord, to be with my people. I’m grateful that I get to serve the Lord today, in this way, by teaching His Word. And listen, I’m actually really pumped about our passage this morning and what I think God wants to show each of us.

And so if you have your Bibles, and I really hope you do…if you’d keep them open to Acts 2 and Acts 11…we’ll get to that in just a moment. But of course, before we do that, let’s recite our memory verse together. Remember it’s Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47…and we’re learning it in sections…we’re memorizing verses 42 and 43 this month. And so, we’ll read it together one more time this week…and then begin to recite it by memory starting next week. And so, if you’re ready…let’s read these first two verses together.

Acts 2:42–43 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

[Prayer]

Alright…if you’ve been with us, we’ve been walking through a sermon series called This is Church: How Does God Build a Body?…And the purpose of this series, it’s been to really dig into our new memory verse and really examine what it means to be a local church…like, what’s our purpose…what does God intend to do through us…how does He use this body to build us each up individually? What’s the point of all of this? And if you remember we’ve been using our new discipleship pathway here…the A through E pathway…that models what it was these believers devoted themselves to and how we can be like these first century Christians. And of course, so far…we’ve talked about the importance of assembling together as God’s people…we’ve talked about our devotion to the Word of God…we discussed how important it is that we find Christian community among the people here at FBC…and then last week, we discussed our purpose as a disciple and our role in discipleship…which of course, if you’ve been following along with us, gets us to the E this morning…which is Equip.

We assemble together, we dig into the Bible together, we find community together, we disciple each other…all for the purpose of equipping each other for the Great Commission. A lot of times, when we talk about the Great Commission, our minds, they go to these unreached places internationally…we think about missionaries and those called to go to some of these remote places and share the gospel with the people there…and listen, we definitely need to be doing that too…but the Great Commission, it happens everywhere…It happens in your home…it happens in your neighborhoods…it happens in your schools or in your workplaces…And listen, God’s called you, specifically to reach the people in each of those places. He’s called you to advance His kingdom to those people. Whether your realize it or not, as a disciple of Jesus, we’re all missionaries and we’ve all been called to take part in the Great Commission. And guys, part of us doing everything that we’ve talked about so far…the assembly, bible study, community, discipleship…those things are meant to help equip us for the Great Commission.

And so, this morning, to help us look at this idea of equipping…I want us to look at this passage here in Acts chapter 11 that talks about one of my favorite churches in the New Testament…there’s a lot of churches described and there’s a lot churches that we see in the New Testament…but listen, the church of Antioch, that was a church that was missional…that was a model Great Commission church. They cared about reaching the lost in their town and they cared about reaching the lost around the world.

Antioch, it was a church formed by ordinary Christians, as we’ll see today…Christians that were simply obedient to the Great Commission charge…and Antioch was a church that really paved the way for gospel advancement around the world. This church, it was established in the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world, just behind Rome and Alexandria…and so, you can imagine, it was large, diverse…there were about 500,000 people there. Antioch, it was known as “the queen of the East.” And because of this, there were all kinds of pagan religions there. But if you’re a history buff, if that’s your thing…it was this church that changed the world the most…it wasn’t the home church in Jerusalem, it was this church…a church that lasted about 700 hundred years until the rise of the Ottoman Empire…and throughout their history, they were known for being a sending church…they were known for planting churches and reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And listen, in our passage this morning, there in Acts 11; there’s two things these people from Antioch show us today…number one, how to be equipped for the Great Commission…they give us an awesome model to follow when it comes to evangelism…and then number two, how to stay equipped for the Great Commission…how we keep people engaged in their mission field.

And so, if you’re there with me, let’s look at this first point together.

I.) Are You Equipped for the Great Commission? (vv. 19-21)

Are you equipped for the Great Commission?

Listen, when we talk about things like evangelism…sharing your faith with those around you…it’s scary, right? This can be a difficult topic to discuss because the reality is, we all hate rejection…and we’re all afraid of our own capabilities…like we’re not qualified or we’re gonna mess it up in some way or we’re just not ready. What I love about this passage, not only is this the start of the church in Antioch, but it shows us just how easy it really is to be successful in Jesus’s charge to “make disciples.” There’s actually five things this passage shows us about evangelism and how we can all be effective disciple makers.

Look at verse 19 with me again. Luke, the author, he says, “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.”

Obedience

Guys, the first thing I want you to see here…when it comes to evangelism…the foundational piece of the Great Commission…it’s obedience. Listen, I get it…I understand how difficult it is to share the gospel…but guys, the first thing we need to understand when it comes to being successful in the Great Commission, it’s just being obedient. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commands.” Our faith, it involves us just being obedient because we trust the One that’s charged us.

Look at that passage again…it says they were persecuted, they were scattered…they were forced to leave their homes…they were forced to find refuge in all these different cities…And listen, what’s it say they did in doing that? It says they began sharing the Word, right? In each of these places. And listen, I want you to notice this…it doesn’t say that they stopped and asked God what He wanted…They were just obedient. They knew what was expected of them. They understood what it meant to be a disciple…they understood that following Jesus, it meant they were to be fishers of men. And they were ready to be obedient.

Guys, for us, we have this nasty little habit of saying, “Well, let me just pray about that first!” I come up and ask you to come to Honduras with us or to go to our partner church plant in Donora, PA…I ask you to come on some mission trip with us…and a lot of times, your response, “Let me pray about that!” Guys, let me be as blunt as I can with you for just a moment. If God’s given you the physical capabilities…you don’t need to pray about those types of opportunities…we’re not asking you to go and surrender your life, to go and live in an unreached country. We’re asking you to take a day or a week at most and share the gospel with a people who desperately need it. You don’t need to pray about that…Jesus gave you a verse! And guys, He said, “GO!” If you’re a disciple and if you’re being discipled like we talked about last week, then you know God’s will…it’s not lost…it’s not some mystery…its for us…its for you…its for me…to make disciples.

Listen, if you were walking through town and you saw this this person stranded on the railroad tracks and this train was barreling down the tracks. Guys, there’s not a person in this room that would stop and say, “Well, let me pray and just see what God wants me to do!” NOOO, you’re gonna stop everything and you’re gonna rush to that person and you’re gonna do everything in your power to save that person…because that’s what anyone would do…and because you know that’s what God would want you to do! Guys, there’s just some things you don’t need to pray about. If you have the opportunity to share the gospel or if you have the opportunity to go somewhere for the gospel…just be obedient. Get out of this 1st world comfort for just a moment and lean into what it is Jesus commanded you. Quit using prayer as a crutch…quit taking what God meant for good, and using it to accomplish your own desires.

The question isn’t whether you’ve been called to this mission, the question’s where and how you’re called. The call to be involved in this mission was a call that Jesus gave when He said, “Come and follow me and I️ will make you fishers of men”. It is up to us to be obedient to that calling. That’s the first thing about being equipped for the Great Commission…just be obedient.

Intentionality

The second…it’s being intentional. Pay attention to those words again in verse 19. “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution…” These first century believers, they were intentional. They cared about the souls of the people around them. And if there’s anything you take away from these guys here, let it be that they were intentional. Listen, these believers, they were losing their lives because of the gospel…and yet they were sharing it, right? I don’t think there’s anyone that can question their intentionality here. Every time they opened their mouth to talk about Jesus, it might’ve been their last breath…but yet, it says it the midst of their persecution…it the midst of their scattering, they shared the Word.

And I’ll say this too…guys, none of us have ever experienced persecution…not a single person in this room today has experienced persecution. We were all born in a free country and even though our country’s gotten much worse over these last several years, none of us have experienced persecution. Our lives have never been put in jeopardy because of the gospel or because of our faith. These believers were…and yet, they were still intentional…mainly, because they loved Jesus.

Guys, I just want you to take a moment and just search your own heart…what are some of the reasons why you fail to share the gospel?…Nothing that’s going through your mind right now compares to what these believers faced on a daily basis. The reality is, we just need to start being intentional with the people around us. We just need to start seeing the people around us as people made in the image of God. We need to start caring about the lostness around us.

Romans 9:3, Paul says, “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.” Paul was willing to give up his own salvation just to see people he didn’t even necessary know, come to Christ. The question this morning…if you really wanna gauge your own intentionality…what are you willing to give up for the gospel…what are you willing to give up, just to see people come to Christ?

Discomfort

Number three…we need to be willing to be placed in uncomfortable situations.

Look at verse 19 with me again. Luke wrote, “19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.”

And so listen, while these believers were obedient to the Great Commission command, some of ‘em still fell a little short. Look at what it says…it says they shared with no one except the Jews…those that were like them…those they were comfortable with…those they shared similarities with.

Listen guys, if we’re honest…we’re a lot like this first set of believers here. We have this idea, this misconception, that God’s not gonna call us to be uncomfortable…we’re willing to do anything Jesus asks, as long as it doesn’t challenge the comforts we’ve set up for ourselves.

But look at verse 20, something changes here in Antioch. It says, “20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also...”

They understood the Great Commission…they understood Jesus’s heart…and listen, they began to take it to those that were nothing like them. They began to take it into difficult situations…and difficult environments…into a completely different culture.

And listen, we don’t know the whole story here…we know they were being persecuted…we know that God allowed the church to be persecuted at this time…and I believe He allowed them to be persecuted because they weren’t going out…they weren’t making disciples of all nations…they weren’t leaving Jerusalem…and so, I think He allowed ‘em to experience persecution so they’d be forced to go to the nations. Sometimes God places us in uncomfortable situations to push us…to grow us…and ultimately to do what He’s commanded us to do. The reality is, if you study your Bible…if you study the history of the church…God calls us into uncomfortable situations…and part of being equipped for this mission, it’s to be willing to be uncomfortable. If you’d just be willing to lose your comforts, you’ll be amazed at how God’ll use you and at the same time, build up other kinds of security in your life.

The reality is, the only way you’ll get to this point…the only way you’ll start placing yourself in God-ordained discomfort, it’s to start seeing the 2.2 billion people in the world that don’t know Jesus as just a statistic and start seeing them as people made in the image of God…people that are just as valuable to Him as you and I are. People that understand what it means to be alone…people that feel hurt just like you and me…people that experience pain and shame and guilt…people that walk through the same struggles in life…it’s to see these people the way God sees these people, seeing it as every bit the tragedy that it is for you or me to go to a place called Hell. When you begin to see people through God’s lens…when you begin to share His heart for these people…you’ll adopt the same mindset as Christ…just as Paul mentions in Philippians 2…and you’ll be willing to do just about anything to see people come to Christ.

We have to get pass our comforts and we have to start focusing on the mission before us. That’s where success flourishes.

Knowledge

Fourth…when it comes to being equipped for the Great Commission, we have to have the right knowledge.

Look at verse 20 again. Luke writes, “20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”

Guys, I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal…but these guys understood their audience…and they understood the gospel well enough to apply properly in their context. They weren’t speaking to just the Jews anymore…and so, what’d they do? They pivoted…they didn’t preach Jesus as Messiah…they preached Jesus as Lord. Now, you’d think this wasn’t huge…but you see, the Jews, they were expecting a Messiah…they were expecting a Savior…they had an understanding about Yahweh as Lord…and so, Christians were able to start with Jesus as the Messiah with them. You see it time and time again with letters and books directed to the Jews…but these Christians, they started with Jesus as Lord because these Hellenists or these Gentiles…they worshipped pagan gods…they had no foundation of the Jewish faith…they didn’t know Yahweh…and so, they started with Jesus as God.

Here’s the point…you need to the know the whole gospel of Jesus in order to be equipped to share it. And listen, you don’t have to be some Bible scholar or theologian…you don’t have to be this expert in systematic theology. You just have to share what Christ has done for you and how He’s changed your life.

Guys, share the bad parts about the gospel…that in the beginning God created us good and perfect…but that we ruined that…we rebelled against God and we brought this pain and suffering and death on ourselves. You just have to share the worst parts of the gospel…that there’s nothing we can do to fix this problem ourselves and that as a result…we will die and we will spend an eternity separated from God.

Share the good part…that God loves us and sent His Son Jesus to redeem us. Share that Jesus is God and that He became flesh…that He lived a perfect, sinless life…that He died and rose again…And guys, share the best part…that salvation, our redemption, it’s a free gift…that all we have to do is repent and believe.

Guys, it’s simple…we just have to know Jesus’s story and we just have to share it. And listen, what humbles me so much…its that God could’ve chosen a million different ways to share this story…but He chose you and me to advance His kingdom. You have to stop looking at the Great Commission as a burden and you have to start seeing it as a great privilege. A privilege that God’s called you specifically to!

Faith

And then finally, the last thing we see here about being equipped for the Great Commission, it’s pretty simple…it’s to depend on God’s sovereignty.

Look at verse 21 with me again. It says, “21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”

Guys, the actual power behind the gospel…it has nothing to do with our words…or our ability…it’s not our power that saves people…it’s not our performance…it’s all dependent on the power of the Lord. From cover to cover, the Bible says, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” Our call, its not to save people…our call, it’s to obedience…it’s to sharing the greatest news ever…the hard part, that’s up to God.

And listen, when you stop evaluating how good your gospel presentation is and start placing your faith in God’s sovereignty, you’ll start to realize your role in the Great Commission. Our job, it’s not that hard.

Listen, years ago, I’ve shared this story with you…but I had the opportunity to share with a co-worker. It was the very first time I ever shared the gospel with someone else. It was scary and listen, it was bad. I mean it was really really bad. I’m not even sure I talked about Jesus…But I talked about Cain and Abel…I talked about Moses and the golden calf incident…I talked about David and Bathsheba…I mean, I literally talked to this guy for like 2 hours and at the end of it, I was sure I just sealed his fate. I was sure, I just sent this guy to hell single-handedly.

But guys listen, when we got into my truck that night, to go to our hotel…he looked over at me with tears in his eyes…and he told me, “I’m ready to turn to Jesus.”…and he did, right there in my truck. I’m not sure how he got Jesus from my gospel presentation…but by golly, he heard the gospel, he understood it, and he was saved that night.

Here’s my point…it had nothing to do with me…I was just obedient…i was intentional about my co-worker…I loved him, I didn’t want him to die not knowing Jesus…I was willing to be uncomfortable. It was in my workplace…I was scared…I thought for sure I’d lose my job. I knew the story when the time was right…I was able to eventually show him how to turn to Jesus…and ultimately, through all of that, God gave Him new life…He used my obedience and by His power, Darryl’s life, it was redeemed. My performance, it wasn’t the best…but God used it.

Guys, that’s all it takes to be equipped for the Great Commission…that’s all it requires…Obedience, intentionality, discomfort, knowledge, faith.

But listen, you can’t do it alone…we need each other to stay equipped for this mission.

II. Are You Staying Equipped for the Great Commission? (vv. 22-26)

The second point…or the second thing we see here…its how to stay equipped for the Great Commission.

Look at these last several verses here…this last point, its super quick…but it’s very relevant for us as believers and what we’re called to here at FBC, to one another. Look at verse 22 with me again. It says, “22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”

And so, the church in Jerusalem…the leadership there, they start hearing rumors of the mighty work that’s happening in Antioch…and immediately, they send Barnabas to check things out there…to see if the work’s real, if its truly of God. They wanted some accountability around what was happening. They needed to evaluate it so that they could endorse it to others.

And I get it, accountability, its looked down upon sometimes…kind of like what happened with some college revivals last year…it was criticized that leaders went to check things out and it was criticized when they spoke negatively of it. Personally, without going into details, I don’t think what happened last year in the news with ‘a certain college’ was actually revival…revival spreads and revival endures…but that’s the reason there needs to be accountability…when leaders went there, they realized the message being presented wasn’t entirely true and the fruit being seen wasn’t on pace with Christian revival…and so, it wasn’t widely endorsed by most biblical leaders…Just because someone proclaims Jesus or does good things in Jesus’s name, it doesn’t mean its of God. There needs to be accountability around those things…number one, because we want the gospel to be accurately communicated because we love Jesus…and number two, because we wanna see genuine conversion and discipleship taking place. And listen, that’s exactly what’s happening here in Jerusalem and Antioch…they sent leaders because Antioch didn’t have any kind of leadership and their wasn’t any kind of accountability there.

But listen, when they recognized it was a work of God, those leaders, they encouraged the believers in Antioch. It says, Barnabas, whose nickname was the “Son of Encouragement,” it says he exhorted them. Guys, we’re called together to encourage each other…to exhort each other to remain faithful…the Great Commission it’s hard, especially after you receive rejection after rejection…and the only way you continue on sometimes its because of the encouragement you receive from other believers…we need each other to stay equipped.

And then, what we see, Barnabas sought after Paul to join him in helping to further instruct them and disciple them. Guys, notice, these believers in Antioch, they were already reaching people…they were already seeing a ton of fruit in Antioch…they had formed a nice church plant at this point…a growing church plant…and I’ll say this too…a church plant formed by a bunch of unnamed, ordinary Christians…it wasn’t the Apostles that formed this thriving church or some other pastors…it was everyday, ordinary laypeople…unnamed Christians, were the heroes of this story…but notice, even despite their obedience and fruit…they needed further instruction and discipleship…we have to constantly push each other…instruct each other…disciple each other. It’s what we’ve been talking about. We need to be digging into the Word together…we need to be practicing our evangelism strategies with each other…the more educated and practiced we are, the more successful we’ll be on the mission field. Listen, in the next month or so, we’re gonna start having these evangelism workshops that help us learn how to share…and it’ll give us opportunities to share…you need to be involved in these things so you’ll stay equipped for the Great Commission.

But look at this last thing……it says, “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” Guys, part of us staying equipped for the Great Commission, it takes us coming together, giving the world the right testimony of who we are. It says, these believers, they were the first people to be called Christians. And listen, this was a derogatory term at first. This was the name that unbelievers in Antioch called these believers. It literally meant “little Christ,” “imitators of Christ.” What they were saying, it was that these believers, they were different…they were like that man Jesus, that nutcase…that man that was crucified because He thought He was King of the Jews. These believers, they’re walking around like Him thinking that there’s some Father in heaven that’s gonna save us and that’s good and loving…and they’re trying to love on everyone they come in contact with…they’re like that Jesus dude. They’re Christians.

Together, these believers kept their testimony…together, when they went out, they didn’t lose their cool…they didn’t lose focus on their mission, even despite persecution or despite ridicule or despite rejection…together, they were called Christians…together, they maintained their testimony…a testimony that ultimately allowed them to continue reaching the world for Jesus Christ. That’s why I’ve been saying for weeks and months now…you need to find your most intimate and most important community here at FBC…because our aim, together, it’s to preserve our testimony so that we can stay equipped for the Great Commission.

Closing

And so, in closing…two questions…are you equipped for the Great Commission? And are you staying equipped for the Great Commission?

Ultimately, those two things come back to everything we’ve been talking about over the past five weeks…are you gathering with God’s people regularly and consistently?…Are you devoting yourself to His Word, learning how to love Him even more?…Are you finding your most important relationships, your community here in your local church?…Are you apart of the discipleship process here at FBC? Are you learning what it means to follow Jesus and teaching others what it means to follow Jesus…Together, all those things help us be equipped for the mission laid before us…and together, all those things help us stay equipped for the Great Commission.

And so listen, ask yourself those two questions as you bow your head and close your eyes with me this morning.

Are you equipped and are you staying equipped for the Great Commission? Search your heart…do you find it a tragedy that there’s people that are dying every minute without knowing Jesus?…Do you feel this sense of urgency to share the gospel? Do you have a heart for the lost? Guys, that’s what Jesus promises when we make the decision to follow Him…that He’ll make us into fishers of men. He’ll give us that desire. That’s why we gather…that’s why we’re called together…its for this mission. We build each other up for the work of ministry…which is reaching the lost.

And so listen, if that’s you this morning…you just lack that passion or desire…ask Jesus to break your heart for the lost. Ask Him to give you those desires. Ask Him to show how to become like these first century believers that we read about in Acts 2….have Him show you where you’re not invested…make a commitment to start being intentional in each of those areas and let the church become in your life what Jesus meant it to be. Would you do that this morning?

But listen, maybe you’re here and you’re not a follower of Jesus. You can’t be equipped for the Great Commission because and you lack a heart for those separated from Jesus because you’re one of those people.

Guys, just as I shared a few minutes ago…the gospel, it involves bad news, worst new, good news, and best news…the bad news, it’s that we’re sinful…every one of us…we’re wicked, we’re depraved…we’re selfish…and that sin nature, it impacts everything about us…it causes pain, it causes illness, it causes tragedy, and ultimately it causes death. All the bad you see, its because we’ve chosen to rebel against a good and gracious God who created us out of nothing and gave everything. He made us in His own image.

And listen, the worst news…its that sin…there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re all gonna die…and we’re all gonna experience the wrath of God for all eternity because of our sin…and that’s true because God’s just. He’ll always do what’s right and He’ll always give us what we deserve.

But listen, the gospel…its about the good news, right?…and the good news its that God loves us, despite who we are or what we do…which is why He sent His Son, Jesus…who the Bible says is God Himself. And He sent Jesus because Jesus would live a perfect, sinless life and go to the cross and wear the weight of our sin…He took on our punishment so that we wouldn’t have to…again, God’s just, right? And so, someone had to pay for our evil. And so, He paid for it Himself. And He died our death. He took on His own wrath. And the good news, it says, Jesus rose again…defeating death and sin forever…but listen, the best news of the gospel…its that salvation…redemption, its a free gift offered to us. We don’t have to do anything…we don’t have to be these good people, we don’t have to perform, we don’t have to do anything except repent and believe…we just have to recognize who we are and turn to Jesus…and believe…believe that He is who He says He is…and the Bible says, when we do that, we’ll be saved.

And so, maybe that’s what you need to do this morning. You can do that right where you’re at. You don’t have to do anything special. Just talk to Jesus. He’s faithful and He will hear you.

And so listen, whatever it is this morning…whatever the Spirit’s placing on your heart right now…would you just be obedient? Would you submit yourself to Him and let Him lead you? Take some time to respond…and we’ll close in just a moment…If you need me, I’ll be right down front.

[Prayer]