The Bible Binge: Mission's Intelligent Design (Acts 14:21-28)

Seeking the peace of the city. Barrel race raking.

Friday and Saturday we were at the rodeo. We spent time with our friends and neighbors. It was good to see some of the other churches out there this year. Is this what the church is to be doing?

There is a story in the Old Testament. It is after Israel has been in the Promised Land a few hundred years. They have been serving false gods for a long time and God had promised them if they worshiped other gods, they would lose the land. Sure enough.. his patience wears out, and Babylon, the world power, destroys Jerusalem, destroys the temple, and takes most of the people hundreds of miles to the east to live in Babylon. Along the way, just like they had worshiped false gods, false prophets who do not worship God continue to have the ear of the people. And once they get to Babylon, these guys are telling the Jews that they’ll be back in Jerusalem in no time.... don’t sweat it, this will all be over soon.

And God sends his own prophet Jeremiah… and in Jeremiah 29, he tells Jeremiah to tell the people that it won’t be over soon. They are going to be in Babylon awhile. In fact, God tells the people.. get married, find jobs, build homes, raise you family… throw weddings for your kids… and then weddings for the grandkids. Build yourself a life. You’re going to be there a long time. And at the end of the paragraph, here’s what God says:

Jeremiah 29:7 “Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”

This isn’t about just making do. Pursue the well-being of whatever city you end up in. Work for the benefit of those who carted you off out of your own country. Seek the best for the people who are your enemy. Live life to the fullest for the economy and the culture of Babylon. And that’s what Israel did. They got jobs. They had families. They built their lives.

We have spent the past 4 years pursuing the peace of Los Fresnos. And that includes what we’ve been doing this weekend. Sponsoring the barrel race rakers. handing out Bibles. Handing out t-shirts. Talking to people along the way. Pursuing the peace of Los Fresnos. This reflects what God wanted from Israel. This is what God desires of the Table. He gives people grace through the church.

This is part of the gospel moving from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. This is part and parcel of what the church is to be doing. Community building. Leaving this place better than when we found it.

Review of the Acts 1:8 concentric circles

We talked last week about Jesus’ promise to use His followers to spread His Good News from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. I showed you this graphic… this is the promise of Acts 1:8:

These concentric circles are the places mentioned, and the gospel of Jesus is going to move from the center outward. You’ll see here that the Table is at the end of the earth. The story of Acts is moving from Jerusalem, where the disciples are in Acts 1 and 2 to the end of the earth, which is Rome in Acts 28.

Here’s how Acts 1:8 helps us understand the Book of Acts:

This verse is a template for the book of Acts.

This verse shows us what the kingdom looks like.

This verse shows us what history looks like.

This verse is a promise.

As we have been reading our Bible Binge we have been following the story of Jesus keeping that promise. He keeps his promise in spectacular ways… thousands come to have faith in Jesus through the Good News of who He is and what He does for us in forgiveness of our sins.

How is Jesus keeping His promise?

But the question then becomes… how? How is all of this happening?

The Great Missionary Paul is the main human character of the Book of Acts. The main character is Jesus. And He is using a guy named Paul to move the Good News from Jersualem to the ends of the earth. Paul, in the chapters you’ve been reading, has been church planting. He is planting where there are synagogues. You see, that’s the rest of Israel’s story. While they were in Babylon, they built synagogues. Places to gather and worship… mini temples.. all over Babylon. And when they finally came back to the Promised Land, they brought the idea of synagogue with them. And they spread synagogues all over Israel and eastern Europe.

Paul, in the book of Acts, is following the path of itinerant rabbis who went from city to city planting synagogues. From city to city to town to town, Paul follows the path of the traveling rabbis into the synagogues and he tells the Good News of Jesus. And in those places, churches like our own are planted. They come to life.

We get to chapter 14 and we find that God has been actively expanding his people from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. That circle graphic is becoming a reality. Paul and Barnabas have been travelling through northern Israel and into what we now know as Turkey. And at the end of their trip they give a report to the church that sent them. And this is what Dr. Luke tells us:

Acts 14:21–28 “After they had preached the gospel in (Derbe) and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith...They passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. After they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch...After they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported everything God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.”

This is a snapshot of Jesus making good on His promise to use His followers to spread the Good News from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. All of these are cities and towns where people are hearing about Jesus’ love and forgiveness and believing it and then gathering together as a church.

How were churches planted?

Paul was strategic in where he was going. He looked at the map and said… OK, there’s a synagogue… let’s go talk about Jesus. But that also raises the question.. how were churches planted? Dr. Luke in the book of Acts doesn’t leave us guessing. Jesus was also strategic.

Fourteen times in Acts we are told these two things:

The Word of God spread

The church increased in numbers

Over and over and over again… the Word of God spread or increased. And the church increased in numbers. The first is causing the 2nd. 14 times. The Good news is moving to the ends of the earth because the Word of God… or the Good News of Jesus is moving to the ends of the earth.

The spread of God’s Word and the growth of the church

What can we say about the increase of the Word and the increase of the church?

The Word of God fuels or causes church growth.

The Word of God is central to mission.

Jesus promises that His Good News will be spread all over the world, and he’s going to use the Good News to connect people to himself. Again, this is all strategic. This isn’t willy nilly. Paul is strategic in going to the synagogues, and Jesus is strategic in the spread of His word and the churches being planted from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

How is that Word spreading?

Luke also tells us that the Word is spreading through very specific means:

Seven times in the book of Acts the increase of the Word and the increase of the church is specifically tied to preaching and teaching the Word.

Proclamation and teaching is mentioned in Acts 38 times (Six times in combination)

Monologue and Dialogue

The Word of God (preached and taught) fuels church growth.

The Word of God (preached and taught) is central to mission.

Whenever you see the word preaching and teaching being used, especially in Acts… this is what preaching and teaching means… preaching is the word for monologue. One guy prophetically speaking in a group setting. Teaching is dialogue. This is important. In the life of the church, it’s important that at certain times, there’s only one guy talking and everyone else is listening. We call that preaching. In some settings, there is this fancy word call homily, or sermon. That means that in this moment God’s Word is being proclaimed and we are all listening.

Teaching is when we are in a dialogue. Someone is teaching, but there is conversation. Kind of like a class. And again, God’s Word moves from Jerusalem through the monologue of His Word… unidirectional speaking… and dialogue… bi-directional speaking. He uses both. This is why the preaching time is important to the growth of our church. Jesus has promised to use His Word in preaching AND teaching to grow his church. The church is not a club. And it’s more than a gathering. It’s why we have defined what a church is this way:

A church is where God’s people have gathered to hear God’s Word is preached and receive His sacraments.

This is how the church exploded across Israel and eastern Europe and finally into Western Europe and into Asia… the Good News of Jesus spread as His Word was preached and taught and as people received the Sacraments. Primarily through family and friends from house to house.

The Mission’s Intelligent Design

Jesus using Paul was very strategic. Here’s how that is playing out in the chapters you are reading this week and next. The Good News moved from Jerusalem to a city called Antioch. And in that church in Antioch they commissioned two of their church leaders… two elders.. to strategically go where the synagogues were.. Barnabas and Paul. The intelligent design of the Gospel looks like this:

This is what the concentric circles look like from Antioch. All of these are towns and cities where churches were planted through the preaching and teaching of the Word. One of those towns is Ephesus. In Ephesus, there were church leaders who sat down and strategized just like they did in Antioch. And they sent out teams, working with Barnabas and Paul… and John, one of Jesus’ best friends, and Timothy, one of Paul’s students helped fuel mission from Ephesus. And this is what that looks like in the book of Acts as you are reading in your Bible Binge:

You see… none of this is willy nilly. This isn’t random. This is Jesus using people in strategy to expand the gospel and increase his kingdom from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

And that brings us to Los Fresnos:

None of this is set in stone. These are all simply ideas. The question is… what would what happened in Acts look like in Los Fresnos? I firmly believe that churches are supposed to follow the pattern of the churches in the book of Acts. This was their mission. This is our mission. This is how Jesus is moving the Good News all over the world in all sorts of cultures and contexts.

And you’re never too small or too big to not be part of this intelligent design. The Table is part of Jesus’ big plan. And each one of you is part of his mission… to provide forgiveness, life, and salvation to everyone in Los Fresnos… and beyond. The Table is doing this…our mission of preaching and teaching the Good News begins right here… in Word and Sacrament in our Sunday gathering. It doesn’t end there. We are working on kingdom expansion as we pursue the peace of the city in Los Fresnos. We have a Bible study in north Brownsville and one at Arnie’s on Wednesday. Where else could we do that? And, there are going to be opportunities in the near future, to help new works in Port Isabel and Brownsville, and north of Los Fresnos.

There are so many people that need to hear about Jesus’ love and forgiveness. The Gospel of Grace. He has done so much for us. He wants to use us to provide that Good News to so many more. We may be small… but we’re always going to be pushing that envelope of strategically reproducing ourselves wherever Jesus has us. The MIssion’s Intelligent Design in Acts is the Gospel’s Intelligent Design for Los Fresnos and beyond.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

Mission all begins here. Right here at this Table. This Table is on the move. Jesus is always expanding His kingdom through Word and Sacrament. He is present, expanding His kingdom with Himself.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.