The Means & Goal of Missions

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Mike K)

Good morning family!

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Announcements:

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Romans 8:31-33)

Prayer of Praise (Daphne Brewton)

God is For Us

Jesus Paid it All

Prayer of Confession (Joel Whitcomb), Self-reliance

Assurance of Pardon (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Come Praise and Glorify

Facing a Task Unfinished

Scripture Reading (Acts 13:1-3; 14:21-28)—page 1095 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Mike K)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to love the local church

Prayer for kingdom partner—Ham, Justin & Angie (IMB)

Prayer for US

Prayer for the world—Cambodia

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

On April 16, 1858, a pastor named John Paton left Scotland to take the gospel to the South Pacific.

This was not a friendly place to outsiders. The people were tribal, often violent toward foreigners, and missionaries before him had been killed. But Paton believed Christ was worth the risk, so he went anyway.

One night, a group of hostile villagers surrounded his home. They were prepared to burn the house and kill the missionaries.

Paton and his wife couldn’t fight. They couldn’t run. So they did the only thing they could do. They prayed.

Hour after hour, through the night, they prayed. They expected at any moment the house might erupt in flames. But morning came and the attackers were gone.

About a year later, the tribal chief who led that group came to faith in Christ. Paton eventually asked him, “What happened that night you surrounded my home?”

The chief replied: “We were afraid to attack because the house was surrounded by hundreds of tall men in shining clothing with drawn swords.”

Paton had seen no one. And as amazing as that is, it gets even better.

Later, when Paton returned home, he learned that at the same hour he was being surrounded in the South Pacific, his sending church in Scotland had gathered for an intense, unplanned prayer meeting because they felt a strong burden to pray for him. [1]

That story reminds us of something essential about missions: Missionaries never go alone.

Even when they stand in a distant land, surrounded by danger, they are carried by the prayers, support, and sending authority of a local church.

And that’s not just a moving story from church history — it’s the pattern we find in Scripture.

When we open the book of Acts, we don’t find heroic individuals launching independent ministries.

We find churches worshiping, praying, sending, supporting, and receiving missionaries.

This morning I want to show you from God’s Word a simple but important truth:

Missionaries are sent by and for the local church.

And we see this idea most clearly through the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 13:1.

The book of Acts begins with these famous words from Jesus...

Acts 1:8— “...you 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.”

In many ways, these words can be viewed as an outline for the book of Acts.

SHOW ACTS MAP

In chapter 2, the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples with undeniable power. And the gospel spreads throughout Jerusalem.

Then in chapter 8, the church in Jerusalem is persecuted, so the believers begin to scatter. And the gospel spreads throughout Judea and Samaria.

Then in chapter 11, a church is started in the city of Antioch, which is in modern-day Turkey.

And from this one local church, we see the gospel beginning to spread to the ends of the earth.

And from Antioch Church’s example, we also see that Missionaries are sent by and for the local church.

Our outline is very simple this morning:

From Acts 13:1-3, I want to show you how Missionaries are sent BY the church,

Then from Acts 14:21-23, we’ll see how Missionaries are sent FOR the church.

Let’s begin by considering how...

1) Missionaries are Sent BY the Church

Acts 13:1—Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Verse 1 begins by telling us about the leadership at the church of Antioch.

Just as at PBC today, the New Testament model was not to have a single leader in the church but a team of qualified, godly men leading the church together.

In Antioch, these men are Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul.

Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus. His parents named him Joseph, but the apostles gave him the nickname Barnabas, which means “Encourager.” [2]

We don’t know a lot about Simeon. Some believe he was the man who carried Jesus’ cross. His nickname “Niger” means black, so it’s likely Simeon had dark skin.

We know even less about Lucius, except that he was from Cyrene in Northern Africa.

Manaen was from the political class, being a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch.

And Saul is the former Pharisee who once persecuted the church before he became a Christian. He’s also known as Paul.

These five men are the ones tasked with leading the church in Antioch.

And things were going pretty well in Antioch.

They were a healthy church. They had a team of qualified leaders working together to teach them.

They were a diverse church. Even their leaders came from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

They were a holy church. People in town noticed how serious they were about following Jesus that they started calling them “Christians,” which basically means “little christs.” [3]

They were a giving church. The believers in Antioch learned about a famine in Jerusalem so they collected and sent a special offering to help the believers there. [4]

The Antioch Church had a good thing going.

I’m sure they would have loved for things to stay the same. But God had other plans...

Acts 13:2-3—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.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

The church is worshipping Jesus as usual, when something unusual happens.

The Holy Spirit tells the church to set apart and send out Paul and Barnabas for a special work.

The text doesn’t tell us what or where this work is, but I believe this is a calling to be sent out as missionaries.

Let me just remind you about John Folmar and Scott Logsdon’s definition that I shared with you last week...

“Missions involves churches sending qualified workers across linguistic, geographic, or cultural barriers to start or strengthen churches, especially in places where Christ has not been named.” [5]

Let’s test what Paul and Barnabas do by this definition...

They are sent out by the church in Antioch.

They are qualified workers.

They cross barriers—they go to Seleucia, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, another city called Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.

SHOW PAUL’S 1ST MISSIONARY JOURNEY MAP

They start and strengthen churches wherever they go.

And they certainly are focusing on places where Christ has not been named.

But here’s what I want you to notice that is so important for our study this morning: Paul and Barnabas are sent by the church.

I believe that God intends for missionaries to be sent BY the local church.

Alright, let’s stop and think through some practical applications of this truth...

First, we must assess those we send.

I grew up in a church culture where it was fairly common to hear preachers challenge young people to devote their lives to Christian ministry.

A few weeks ago I told you how I felt called to be a missionary to Australia at the ripe age of 12.

Now it is certainly a good and wonderful thing for young people to give their lives to Christian ministry. But what was often missing from the churches I grew up in was an emphasis on assessing people before sending them out.

It’s much easier to send the young person who wants to be a missionary to a missions agency and let them assess him than to asses him ourselves.

But in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas do not simply tell the church, “We’re going to be missionaries!” They are called by the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit also leads the church to affirm that call before sending them out.

If someone wants to be sent out from PBC as a missionary, we should spend a lot of time with them to assess them before they go.

How do they spend their money? How is their parenting? How is their marriage? Are they hospitable? Do they faithfully proclaim the gospel? Are they faithful church members? Do they faithfully serve?

Of course we’re not expecting perfection, but we want missionaries to be mature and faithful before sending them to the field.

One missiologist named Mack Stiles puts it like this: “If you wouldn’t put the would-be missionary on your church staff—assuming you had the funds to do so—don’t put them on a plane.” [6]

Now if we want to be a church that sends people to the nations, we need to work backwards from that. We’re not going to all of a sudden have a mature person who’s ready to go. We need to have a church culture where people are learning to love the lost, they’re learning sound theology, they’re learning how to raise their children faithfully, and more. In other words, we need to be a church that shepherds sinners from lost to leader.

But also...

Second, we must support those we send.

When the church in Antioch sends Paul and Barnabas, the implication is that they’re also supporting them so they can go.

We too have a responsibility to support those we send. But how can we do that?

If you’re a member at PBC you should have received a letter in the mail this week with a Pray/Send/Go card.

SHOW PRAY/SEND GO CARD SLIDE

Let me take a moment and explain what we’re wanting you to do with these cards.

Every Christian should be able to commit to pray. If you’re willing to do that, put your information at the top and check the appropriate boxes indicating your willingness to pray.

Some of you are willing and able to go. Now some of you may be interested in learning more about a career in long-term missionary work. And if so that’s amazing! We want to help assess you and prepare you to go. But many of us will never go long-term. But we can still support our missionaries by going on short-term trips to encourage them in the work they’re already doing. If you’re willing to do that, check the appropriate boxes where you’re interested in going.

Some of you are willing and able to send. Since it takes money to send people, we’re asking for some of you to consider giving above and beyond your normal giving to help us do a better job supporting our missionaries.

Even though every member should’ve received one of these cards, we’re only asking you to fill out this bottom portion one per household.

And we’ve perforated this section so you can turn this part anonymously if you desire.

Next week after the sermon we’re going to have a special moment where we’ll turn these and pray over them together.

If you’re not a member but you want to take part in this, or if you didn’t receive a card in the mail, you can pick one up at the missionary table in the lobby when you leave this morning.

Alright, we’ll talk more about praying, sending, going next week. But that’s how we work together to support those we send.

Third, we must oversee those we send.

We’re going to talk more about what Paul and Barnabas did as missionaries in just a moment.

But before we do, I want you to look at what they did when they returned home from their first missionary journey.

Turn ahead in your Bibles to…

Acts 14:27—And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

Because they were sent out by the Antioch church, Paul and Barnabas returned to that same church and gave a report of what God did in and through them.

This is just one way that a local church can and should oversee those we send.

It’s not enough to simply outsource all missionary accountability to a missions agency. We the church need to take time to keep our missionaries accountable.

We do this by calling them, texting them, meeting with them over Zoom, visiting them, and bringing them back here to occasionally report back to us.

Now if we’re going to assess, support, and oversee our missionaries, we need to rethink the traditional approach to missions.

One common approach is the pushpin approach. Think of a map with a bunch of pushpins representing all the nations all over the world where we’re supporting missionaries. And the more pins you have the more you care about missions! Right?

The problem with this approach is the more missionaries you have, the harder it is to actually care for them well. A church with a missions budget of $20,000 could support 40 missionaries at $500 a year. Or they could support 2 missionaries with $10,000 a year. Which approach would allow them to be more engaged with their missionaries?

I’m a firm believer that our approach to missions at PBC should focus on depth, not breadth. Our goal is not to support as many missionaries as possible, but to care for every missionary we support as well as we possibly can!

Because missionaries are sent by the church.

Which means, if you’re a member of this church, you have a shared responsibility to help us assess, support, and oversee our missionaries.

But what are we wanting our missionaries to do?

From Paul and Barnabas’ example we see that...

2) Missionaries are Sent FOR the Church

Let’s fast forward to the end of Paul’s first missionary journey so we can get a glimpse of what missionaries should be doing on the mission field.

About two years after Paul and Barnabas were sent out from the church in Antioch...

Acts 14:21–23—When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and 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, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Now remember, Paul and Barnabas are going to places that had not yet been reached. They didn’t have churches or believers when they arrived.

So the first thing Paul and Barnabas did everywhere they went was tell people the gospel.

In verse 21 it says they “preached the gospel” in the city of Derbe.

Like we said last week, don’t think of that term “preached” in the same way you think about a sermon like this.

The word simply means to proclaim or to announce.

Christian, this is our responsibility. To proclaim the good news.

And what is the Good News?

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL (creator, curse, Christ, call)

Unbeliever: would you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus today?

After Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the gospel, inevitably some people would respond.

Some would turn from their sins and trust in Jesus.

And then they would make their faith public through baptism, which is the first step of Christian discipleship. That’s what verse 21 means when it says they “made many disciples.”

Not baptized? We hope to have another baptism service on March 22, and we’d love to celebrate that with you!

And then those baptized believers would be organized into communities called churches.

So everywhere they went, Paul and Barnabas started new churches.

The local church is God’s greenhouse where Christians grow. Leading people to Jesus without leading them into a church is like delivering a baby without placing that baby into the loving arms of a family.

But Paul and Barnabas didn’t stop with starting churches...

They went back and visited all the other churches they had started in order to strengthen them.

They encouraged them to persevere. They reminded them to expect suffering. They prayed for and with them.

And they didn’t leave newborn churches as spiritual orphans. They ensured each church had qualified elders to lead and shepherd them.

Whether they’re starting new churches or strengthening existing churches, I believe God intends for missionaries to be sent FOR the local church.

Alright, let’s stop and think through some practical applications of this truth before we conclude...

First, we need to redefine “success” in missions

It’s very common in the missions world to measure success by numbers: “This many people helped, this many conversions, this many baptisms, this many churches started.”

Paul and Barnabas could have reported much higher numbers to Antioch if they didn’t go back and visit the churches they started.

They could have saved even more time if they didn’t worry about raising up elders in each church. That is time-consuming work!

But success in missions is more than mere numbers!

If churches are being started and strengthened, the work is successful!

Second, we should prioritize the work with the strongest connections to the local church.

It’s not wrong to dig wells, start orphanages, or administer vaccines. All those things can help support the work of missions. But if the gospel isn’t being proclaimed it’s not missions!

And it’s certainly a good thing to evangelize the lost all over the world. But it’s far better to do so in connection with a local church.

In their book Prioritizing Missions in the Church, Aaron Menikoff and Harshit Singh say this: “If new believers have no concept that they are to be saved into a congregation, then they don't really understand Christianity. . . . Evangelism without the church [is] like job-placement counselors who do training without a career in mind. It's an exercise in futility.” [7]

So as we consider which missionaries and ministries to support, we should consider their connection to the church.

Third, we should rethink how we do short-term trips

If missionaries are sent for churches, then short-term trips should serve that same goal.

Do you remember how I told you about my friend Carlos? When I wanted to give money to a group of hungry kids in the Dominican Republic, he told me to do it “through the church.”

When we send teams, our goal should be to strengthen local churches, not merely to do good works in our own name.

And we shouldn’t insist that every mission trip has to be primarily an evangelistic trip. Some trips can be about encouraging or equipping existing churches. After all, that’s what Paul and Barnabas did on the second half of their missionary journey.

Finally, you can apply this even without ever getting a passport.

If missionaries are sent “for the church,” then the local church should be central to your life right now.

If you haven’t already, you should commit to church membership.

If you’re not already, you should be regularly serving in your church so you can use your gifts to help the body grow.

And if your church involvement has dropped in your list of priorities, let today be the day you confess that and commit to prioritize Jesus’ people as you should.

Let me take you back to the story we began with.

On that night in the South Pacific, John Paton and his wife looked alone—surrounded by enemies, waiting for morning, praying for mercy. But they weren’t alone. God was with them, and God was holding them up through the prayers of their church.

And Paton understood that missions isn’t mainly about quick wins or flashy results. He urged missionaries to go somewhere needy, stay put, and build “with patient teaching and lifelong care a church that will endure.”[8]

That’s exactly what we saw in Acts. Paul and Barnabas didn’t just proclaim the gospel and move on. They returned. They strengthened disciples. They appointed elders. They committed churches to the Lord. Because missionaries are sent by and for the local church.

And here’s why we must be committed to that pattern: we are not free to invent missions on our own terms.

As John Bavinck, a 20th century missionary pastor in Indonesia once wrote: “The work of missions is the work of God; it is not lawful for us to improvise.” [9]

So as we close, let me call you to respond.

If you are not trusting Christ, don’t settle for an imitation. Don’t settle for religion or morality or vague spirituality. Turn from your sin and trust in Jesus today.

And if you are in Christ, commit yourself deeply to His church. Serve her. Strengthen her. Support her mission.

Pray. Send. Go.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

O Church Arise

Benediction (1 Cor. 15:58)