A Church That Sends

A CHURCH THAT SENDS

Acts 14:24–28

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Big Idea: God calls His church to be more than a place where people sit; He calls His church to be a people who send.

Main Points: (1) A Sending Church Reaches New Places  |  (2) A Sending Church Releases Faithful People  |  (3) A Sending Church Rejoices in God's Work

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INTRODUCTION

Opening Question (Hook)

Let me ask you a question before we open the Bible this morning. If someone put a notebook in front of you right now — a plain, simple notebook — and said, "Fill this with the names of people you personally led to faith in Jesus Christ," how many pages do you think you would fill?

Some of you would say, "Pastor, I'd be hard-pressed to fill half a page." Some of you might say, "I have none." And if you're honest, that question might sting just a little bit because most of us know deep down that we have not made the most of the open doors God has placed in front of us.

Now I want to tell you about a woman and her little notebook of names:

Opening Illustration — Linda's Notebook

Richard Blackaby tells the story of a woman in Western North Carolina — we'll call her Linda — who had been in church most of her life. She was faithful, she was present, she knew her Bible. But by the time she reached her sixties, she had never once shared her faith with another person. Not once.

Now somewhere along the way, Linda's church offered a class on how to share the gospel with others. And Linda, to her credit, signed up. But as the weeks went on and the final class approached, the pastor announced that next week, they would not be sitting in a classroom — they would be going out, knocking on doors, and sharing the gospel face to face.

Linda began to plot how she was going to be sick that day.

The pastor pulled her aside and said, "Linda, don't worry. I'll lead the conversation. All you need to do is pray and run interference if anything distracts us." So Linda went. And sure enough, in the middle of the gospel presentation, a teenage daughter came walking in the front door. Linda sprang into action, pulled that girl into another room — and then, with no pastor nearby, no notes in hand, and nothing but sheer desperation, Linda started to share Jesus with this teenager.

In her own words: she flubbed the opening question. She misquoted the Scripture. She used the wrong verse entirely. After stumbling through what she described as a thoroughly messed-up presentation, she finally said, "Do you want to accept Jesus?"

The teenager said, "Yes."

Linda, baffled, said, "Are you sure?"

The girl said, "I am."

Linda went home that night, opened a notebook, and wrote down that teenager's name, the date, and a brief description of what happened. Then she prayed and asked the Lord for just one more name, because that name looked lonely sitting there all by itself on page one.

Years later, Richard Blackaby sat with Linda — now in her eighties — and she handed him that notebook. He flipped through the pages. When he reached the end, he found more than 3,100 names.

Not 3,100 people she had spoken to. Three thousand, one hundred people who had said yes to Jesus. And the last line in that notebook still had room for one more name.

Transition to Text

Now I want you to hold on to that image, a church full of people with notebooks, carrying the gospel to people who need to hear it. Because that is exactly what we find in the book of Acts. This morning, we are going to look at a church that understood what it meant to send. A church that didn't just gather to celebrate; it gathered to be equipped and sent.

Would you open your Bible to Acts chapter 14? We will be reading verses 24 through 28.

Read the Text

"Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 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. And they remained no little time with the disciples." — Acts 14:24–28 (ESV)

Here is what I want you to see this morning. Paul and Barnabas have just completed a grueling missionary journey through Asia Minor. They've been stoned, run out of cities, and chased across the region. But they did not quit. They went back through every city they had visited. They strengthened every new church. They appointed elders. And now — now they are coming home to Antioch.

Antioch is the church that sent them. And there are three things I want you to see this morning about what kind of church Antioch was — and what kind of church we must become.

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1. A SENDING CHURCH REACHES NEW PLACES

Acts 14:24–25

Explanation — What the Text Says

"Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia."

Paul and Barnabas were on a mission. They were not wandering. They were not killing time. Every location— Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga, Attalia — every one of those names represents a place where real people lived, worked, raised families, and died without the gospel.

And Paul and Barnabas moved through those places with gospel purpose because there was a church behind them that had already decided: the gospel is not ours to keep. The gospel is ours to carry.

Notice what the text says they did in Perga: they spoke the Word. That's it. No mention of a building. No mention of a strategy session. No mention of a budget committee. They spoke the Word of God in a place that needed to hear it — and that was enough to get the work started.

Application — What It Means for Us

Now let me ask you something. When is the last time our church asked the question that Antioch was asking? Not "How do we keep what we have?" but "Where has the gospel not yet taken root?"

Because here is the reality: there are unreached people groups on the other side of the world who have never heard the name of Jesus. There are growing communities an hour from here with no gospel-preaching church. There are neighborhoods within five miles of this building where people are searching for something — and they don't even know that what they're searching for has a name.

A sending church does not wait for the world to come to it. A sending church goes. It prays for new works. It gives toward new works. It raises up people for new works. And some of you — some of you sitting right here this morning — may be the very person God is calling to go start one of those new works.

The question for you individually is not, "Am I able?" Linda was not able — and God used her anyway. The question is, "Am I willing to let the gospel move through me to someone who doesn't have it yet?"

Illustration — The Closed Post Office

Some years ago, there was a small town in rural America where the post office closed. The nearest mail distribution center was now forty-five minutes away. And for months, the people of that town just didn't get their mail — not because the mail wasn't being sent, but because nobody was willing to drive it the last few miles to where people lived.

You have received the good news of the gospel message. Now you have been entrusted to deliver that good news to others. Yet, there are people in your neighborhood, your workplace, your family who are not receiving the message God has given you — not because God hasn't sent it, but because you haven’t been willing to take it the last few miles.

A sending church reaches new places.

"The gospel was never meant to be hoarded in the church like a museum piece. It was meant to be carried outside these walls into the world."

Transition to Point Two

But reaching new places requires something costly. It requires us to do what Antioch did — and what very few churches are willing to do. It requires us to often send out our best people.

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2. A SENDING CHURCH RELEASES FAITHFUL PEOPLE

Acts 14:26

Explanation — What the Text Says

"And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled."

This one verse carries the heartbeat of the entire passage. That phrase — "commended to the grace of God" — takes us back to Acts chapter 13, where the church at Antioch laid hands on Paul and Barnabas and sent them out. They released them. They didn't hold a committee meeting to discuss whether they could afford to lose two of their finest leaders. They prayed, they fasted, they laid on hands, and they let them go.

And now, at the end of the journey, Paul and Barnabas have come home to the church that sent them. That phrase — "the work that they had fulfilled" — is a beautiful phrase. It means that what Antioch started by sending, God completed. The mission was not abandoned. The work was finished.

And here is what I want you to see about the pattern in this text: God calls. The church recognizes the calling. The church sends the person. Leaders are established. Churches are strengthened. And God receives the glory.

Application — What It Means for Us

Now I want to be honest with you this morning, because I think this is the point where most churches stumble.

Sending will cost us. If we are going to be a sending church — a church that plants other churches, commissions missionaries, and raises up gospel workers — it will at times cost us leaders. It is going to cost us financially. It is going to cost us, people we love and depend on. Some of the most gifted people in this room may one day sense God calling them out — and if we are a sending church, we will not guilt them into staying. We will pray over them, lay hands on them, and release them.

Because here is the thing, Antioch understood what we tend to forget: we do not measure faithfulness by how many people we can keep. We measure faithfulness by whether we obey the mission Jesus gave us.

And that mission was not, "Gather all the talented people and build the biggest church you can." The mission was, "Go and make disciples of all nations." That requires sending.

Are we praying that kind of prayer? "Lord, raise up pastors from among us. Raise up missionaries from among us. Raise up church planters from among us. And Lord, give us the courage and the faith to send them when You call."

Illustration — The Barn vs. The Field

A farmer does not measure the success of his harvest by how much seed he keeps in the barn. The seed in the barn is safe, comfortable, and completely unproductive. The farmer measures success by what happens when the seed leaves the barn and goes into the ground.

The church is not a barn. The church is not a place where we store faithful people and keep them comfortable and safe. The church is a field, and sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is take our best seed and plant it where it is desperately needed.

Linda wasn't sent to a foreign country. She was sent across a living room. But the principle is the same. When the church releases faithful people to carry the gospel, God multiplies what the church gives away.

"A sending church does not lose people. A sending church invests in people. And God gives back more than we ever sent out."

Connection to Ordination and Commissioning

There is a reason that in Acts 13, the church at Antioch laid hands on Paul and Barnabas before they sent them. There is a reason that in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas appointed and ordained elders in every church they planted. The church is not a loose collection of individuals doing their own thing. The church is a body, and when the body recognizes God's call on a person and commissions them for the work, something significant happens. God honors that act of obedience.

Transition to Point Three

So a sending church reaches new places. A sending church releases faithful people. And then — when the workers come home, and the report is given — a sending church does something that ought to be the most natural thing in the world. It rejoices.

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3. A SENDING CHURCH REJOICES IN GOD'S WORK

Acts 14:27–28

Explanation — What the Text Says

"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."

Paul and Barnabas come home, and the first thing they do is gather the church. Not to present a budget report. Not to show slides of their travels. Not to talk about what they accomplished. They gathered the church to talk about what God had done.

Notice the language carefully. They declared "all that God had done with them." Not what they had done for God. What God had done. The missionaries came home as witnesses, not celebrities.

And the headline of their report was this: God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Do you understand what that means? The people who were furthest from the covenant, furthest from the temple, furthest from the law of God — those people were coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. The door was open. Nobody could shut it. And it wasn't Paul who opened it. It was God.

Application — What It Means for Us

I want to ask you something very practical. When you hear a report about a church being planted, what is your first reaction? When you hear that a missionary family your church supports saw fifteen people come to faith last month, how does your heart respond?

If we are honest, there is a real temptation for us to respond with mild interest. We nod our heads, we say, "that's wonderful," and we move on to lunch or the next thing. But that is not how Antioch responded. Antioch gathered. Antioch listened. Antioch celebrated. Because Antioch understood that every open door for the gospel is evidence that God is still at work in this world.

But an even more challenging question is “how do we respond when we hear that others are sharing their faith? That they are witnessing to others? Is God using them for the Kingdom advance through the Gospel?

A sending church does not receive mission reports with indifference. A sending church receives mission reports like fuel for worship. Every name in Linda's notebook is a reason to praise God. Every baptism in a church your giving helped reach is a reason to lift your hands and say, "Lord, do it again."

So let me challenge you to do something this week. Find one of our missionary names. If you don’t know anyone, please get in touch with Bob Wiley; he would love to connect you with some of our missionaries. Then, learn where they serve. Ask what God is doing through them. And then pray — not just for them, but with them. Because a sending church stays connected to the work it sends out.

Illustration — The Phone Call vs Worship Service

Some of you have sent a child off to college or far from home. And you know what it's like to wait. You know what it's like to check your phone at night, hoping for a text, a call, anything to give you that encouragement that they are doing okay. And you know that when that phone finally rings — when you hear that voice say, "Hey Mom, Hi Dad” your attention is peaked and you are invested in every word that comes from their mouths. No matter the time of night or day they call.

Why is it so easy to give our attention to someone we love like our child, yet when it comes to church, we will sit in our pew on Sunday morning and yawn through a sermon, think about lunch while worship, or disengage during a mission report? The only difference is investment. When God is using those sent outside these walls into the mission field that is in our jobs, neighborhoods, and stores we go to, that is reason to worship God using those who are within our church.

"Mission reports ought to be a vibrant part of our worship services — because every open movement of God is proof that God is still saving sinners, and God is still doing what He promised."

Transition to Closing

Antioch gathered to hear what God had done — so they would be stirred for what God would do next. That is a sending church. And that is the question that now stands before us.

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CLOSING CALL

Church, we must decide what kind of church we are going to be.

We can be a church that gathers and sits — or we can be a church that gathers and sends.

We can be a church that spends all of its energy preserving what we have — or we can be a church that invests what we have in the spread of the gospel.

We can be a church that prays, "Lord, bless us" — or we can be a church that prays, "Lord, use us."

Antioch was not a cul-de-sac of blessing. Antioch was a launching pad for the gospel. And by the grace of God — that is what we must become.

A church that reaches new places.

A church that releases faithful people.

A church that rejoices in God's work.

Because the mission is not finished. The gospel is not chained. The door is not closed. And God is still calling His church — this church — to send.

And somewhere out there right now is a teenager sitting in a living room, waiting. Waiting for someone to stumble through a gospel presentation. Waiting for someone like Linda to ask, "Do you want to accept Jesus?" Waiting for a church that is willing not just to sit, but to go and send.

"There is still room in the notebook. The only question is whether we are willing to go fill it."

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

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