Foundational Truths for Missions

Sermon

Introduction:

**Read Acts 8:26–40 and pray**

**In April 2009, the Millennium Tower in San Francisco opened it’s doors

-The building was a 58-story, luxury condo tower

-The beautiful skyscraper cost $350 million and took 5 years to build

-However, under the surface, there was a major problem with the building

-When the builders began the project, the tower was built on piles 90 feet below ground

-But the piles did not rest on any bedrock

-And so within 7 years, the building had sunk 16 inches and was leaning

-the building had to undergo foundation and structural repairs, which ended up costing $100 million**

-No matter how expensive or fancy looking a building is, it’s unstable and dangerous if it’s not built on the proper foundation

-And in the same way, it’s entirely possible for individuals and churches to build fancy missions programs and spend lots of money on what they call “missions”

-However, if our understanding and practice of missions is not based on the sure foundation of God’s Word, then no matter how much money and effort we spend, our efforts will be unstable and dangerous

-As we begin our missions emphasis these next three weeks, I want to take you to the book of Acts to look at five foundational truths that we can apply to missions

-And my prayer is that God will use this beautiful passage to refocus our attention as a church, and your attention as an individual, back on the solid foundation of God’s Word in the area of missions

-The book of Acts is all about the Risen Christ working through the Spirit and the Word to spread the Gospel throughout the world

The book begins as we read this morning, with this promise from Jesus:

The New King James Version Chapter 1

Acts 1:8

This is not some church growth strategy, where each of us is supposed to start at our “Jerusalem,” and then move to our “Judea and Samaria”, and then go to the ends of the earth

-No, this is simply a promise from Jesus about what He will accomplish

-And the book unfolds just as Jesus predicts here in the text

-Peter preaches on Pentecost, and 3,000 souls are saved and added to the church

-Then, the apostles face persecution

-Then Stephen is stoned

-Then Saul begins persecuting the church, and Christians scatter from Jerusalem sharing the Gospel

-Here in chapter 8, we follow Philip, who was one of the 7 chosen in chapter 6 to take care of the widows in the church

-Philip begins the chapter by going to Samaria, the second place Jesus said the Gospel would go, and finding great success there!

Verses 4-8 tells us that many people were being saved, miracles were being done, and there was great joy in that city

And that section ends with:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

This brings us to our text today, which teaches five essential truths about God’s mission of saving the lost,

-which can help refocus us as a church on the solid foundation of God’s Word as we begin out missions emphasis:

Start

The New King James Version Chapter 8

26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.

-As Philip is ministering in this fruitful field of Samaria, he gets direct orders from God, given to him through an angel:

“leave here and go south along a road in the desert from Jerusalem to Gaza”

-That’s a very strange command!

-the ministry in Samaria is booming!

-People are getting saved left and right

-Philip is doing miracles and casting out demons

-The city is pulsing with the joy of their newfound faith in Christ

-I don’t know about you, but I can imagine how I might respond:

“You want me to leave this awesome place of ministry to go to the desert?

“Why can’t I stay here where people are getting saved and growing??

“What’s so important that I need to go now?”

But Philip doesn’t protest:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

27 So he arose and went.

Here’s where we see our first two foundational truths about missions:

1. God is the Great Missionary

-God here is the seeker of sinners

-God is the sender of gospel workers

-He’s the One who called Philip to leave Samaria and go to the desert to share the gospel with someone

-Why?

-Because He’s a God who seeks and rescues sinners!

-Missions wasn’t our idea!

-It’s not something that Christians came up with!

-It’s not as if the early apostles, after Jesus died and rose again, were sitting around one day having a meeting and thought,

“You know what? We really should move out from Jerusalem and tell others. I don’t think Jesus ever thought about doing that, but I’m sure He would like that idea!”

-No, God is always the God who seeks and saves the lost!

-And so understand, that the creative mind and the driving force behind missions is not us!

-Yes, we are the agents that God uses, but it’s His idea and it’s His mission!

-And guess what? He’s the Only One who can save sinners!

-And so He’s the One who’s going to deploy His people to do it!

-Which leads to a second truth here in this text:

Brothers and sisters . . .

2. Missions is built on the foundation of obedience

-If it’s God’s mission . . .

-And He’s the One who’s going to seek and save sinners . . .

-Then it’s simply our responsibility to be obedient!

-That’s what Philip does here!

-You’ll notice throughout our passage that Philip really doesn’t do anything remarkable here

-As a matter of fact, a lot of the action throughout the passage happens to Philip

-That’s because God is the Great Missionary, and it’s Philip’s responsibility to simply be obedient to what God commands Him

-Brothers and sisters, what God desires from you in this matter of missions is obedience

-If God works in your heart, and you feel the burden you to leave your home and pursue missions, your responsibility is obedience

-If God leads you to stay where you’re at, meaing that you pray for our missionaries

-And give sacrificially to see them be sent out

-Then that means the responsibility you have is obedience

-I hope that’s not only a challenge, but also a comfort and encouragement

-So often, when it comes to this area of missions, we can live in this vague feeling of being overwhelmed and guilty

-There are so many people who need Christ!

-so many unreached people groups!

-so many languages that need Bible translations!

-And we should certainly be burdened by the need to see the Gospel go forth

-But remember, it’s God’s mission!

-He will accomplish His purposes to spread His glory throughout the earth

-It’s your responsibility to be obedient to His commands

So Philip obeys

-And now he finds himself on this journey out in the desert, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza

-And as he’s making this solitary journey, he comes upon a fellow traveler:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

27 And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning.

-Luke here piles up four terms to describe this person we meet in the desert

First, he’s a man

2. Second, he’s from Ethiopia

-Now, this would have been the territory south of Egypt, there in Africa

-So he’s not a Jew,

-he’s a gentile

3. Third, he’s a eunuch

-While this term could just mean someone who was a royal official . . .

-it often meant the person had been castrated, which was probably the case here

-Now, we’re not sure how or why this happened

-Oftentimes, when one group of people conquered another, if they kept any of the more capable, intelligent men to serve in the the royal palace . . .

-they would castrate them to make sure they didn’t pose a threat to any of the women in the royal family

-So it’s possible something like this happened to this Ethiopian, but we’re not told for sure

4. Fourth, he’s a man of great authority

-He served under the queen of Ethiopia

-And specifically, he was in charge of her treasury

-So let me try to put all this together for you:

-Here’s a man, a gentile, who lives in Ethiopia

-And somehow, he becomes a worshipper of the one true God of Israel!

-We’re not sure how:

-perhaps in some of his international dealings with others, he’s met worshippers of the one true God

-or perhaps he has been to Jerusalem before on business and was converted then

-But this man, because he wants to worship the One True God, travels probably hundreds, or even thousands of miles to Jerusalem

-A journey that would have taken several weeks

-And when he gets to the Jerusalem, he wouldn’t have even been able to go very far into the Temple complex

-Why?

2 reasons:

He’s a Gentile

-Gentiles wouldn’t have been allowed into the inner court of the Temple

-In order to go there, you had to essentially become a Jew

2. And second, he’s a eunuch

-which means he would have been forbidden from entering the assembly of the Lord

The New King James Version Chapter 23

Deut 23:1

-And so this man would have travelled for weeks, gotten to Jerusalem, and would have had to stay in the outer courts of the Temple, which was called the court of the Gentiles

-Perhaps he would have prayed and worshipped from there

-Perhaps he would have done his best to try to get a glimpse of some of the sacrifices

-However, before he left Jerusalem, it seems that he made a purchase

-Because as Philip comes upon this eunuch, he’s reading something:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

8:28 he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

-More than likely, the eunuch had bought a copy of Isaiah while in Jerusalem, and as he’s going home, he’s reading this scroll, trying to understand more about the God whom he went to Jerusalem to worship

-And so as Philip sees the chariot out here in the desert, God has another command for Philip:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

8:29 “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

-And so Philip obeys yet again

-He runs to catch up with this chariot . . .

-which, was probably some kind of wagon with a cover from the sun, being pulled by some horses

-And as Philip pulls up close to the chariot, he hears the eunuch reading the book of Isaiah out loud

-And so Philip, upon hearing him read out loud, asks him a question:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

8:30 “Do you understand what you are reading?”

And the eunuch replies

The New King James Version Chapter 8

8:31 “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

Brothers and sisters, those are weighty words aren’t they?

This brings us to our third foundational truth about missions:

3. The Lost Need Someone to Explain the Scriptures

-The eunuch tells Philip:

“I need someone to help me understand!”

“I need someone to guide me!”

“How am I going to know God, unless someone takes the Scriptures and helps me know Him?”

Brothers and sisters, isn’t this still true today??

-How are people in Morrocco going to come to Christ unless someone guides them?

-How are people in Indonesia going to every become worshippers of the One True God unless someone helps them understand the Scriptures?

-How will any of the 7,000 unreached people groups ever come to know the joy of loving Christ without someone to come guide them?

-Brothers and sisters, people have to go to them!

-Our churches must send people in order to go and guide people’s understanding through the Scriptures so that they can know and love Christ!

Paul himself says,

The New King James Version Chapter 10

Romans 10:14

-Without someone taking the Scriptures to them and explaining the Gospel, those who have never heard the good news about Christ will spend eternity in hell

-God didn’t create a plan B!

-It’s not as if God said, “Ok, the main plan for Christians to send out missionaries to go, spread the Gospel, and plant churches

“But if that doesn’t go super well, then I’ll send out messenger angels to go share the Gospel to these people”

-Brothers and sisters, this is God’s plan:

-we must send out gospel workers to take God’s Word and and teach God’s Word to the lost

So the Ethiopian eunuch invites Philip up into the chariot

-And he shares with him where he’s been reading in his scroll of Isaiah

At this point, he’s made it all the way to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah

Let me read some of this chapter to you that the eunuch had been reading:

The New King James Version Chapter 53

3 He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

And it’s these last two verses here that the eunuch reads to Philip

And he asks Philip:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

34 “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”

the Eunuch had traveled hundreds, or maybe thousands, of miles to Jerusalem!

-He had seen the Temple!

-He had seen the sacrifices and the religious rituals!

-And yet he had no clue about Jesus

-He didn’t know that God had sent His only Son to take on flesh

-He didn’t know that Jesus had suffered on His behalf

-He didn’t know that Jesus had been mocked and beaten,

-that He had paid the penalty for his sin by dying on the cross

-He didn’t know that the Temple and the sacrifices that He’d just witnessed all culminate in Jesus!

**I remember visiting my cousins when they were missionaries in Cambodia

-I was about 12 years old

-And our families were taking a trip outside of the capital city there in Cambodia

-And so we were travelling through the countryside

-And our car ended up breaking down there in this rural part of Cambodia

-And we broke down not far from a house

-And the house was little more than four walls and a thatched roof

-And so this Cambodian family came out to talk to us

-There was one or two adults and several children

-My aunt and uncle spoke the language, and so began to converse with them

-And after a while, my uncle asked them if they knew who Jesus was

-And they told him, “No . . . does he live around here?”**

-And brothers and sisters, how will people like that ever hear unless someone goes and tells them the good news that Jesus died and rose for them?

-The eunuch didn’t know about Jesus!

-“Who’s the prophet talking about??”

And then we get to the heart of this entire passage:

The New King James Version Chapter 8

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.

4. Christ must be proclaimed

-I don’t know if there’s a better verse on evangelism in the entire bible

-there’s three aspects of what evangelism is right here in this verse, and I want you to see them right there in your Bible:

Philip opens his mouth

-does everyone see that?

-Evangelism must ALWAYS include the verbal proclamation of the Gospel

-Always.

-there was a T-shirt that was popular for a while that said, “preach the Gospel wherever you go, use words if necessary”

-That’s complete and utter baloney

-No one will ever get saved through you being a really nice person

-Your neighbor will never fall to his knees and repent and believe in Jesus just because you’re nice to him

-Yes, we ought to be nice and live righteously and be a good testimony!

-But as others have pointed out before, if that’s all you do, then your neighbor will die and go to hell believing that you’re a nice person

-Brothers and sisters, we don’t send out missionaries to go live overseas just to be nice people

-or dig wells

-or start orphanages

-or teach people how to farm

-Those can all be good things!

-But they do nothing to help the eternal state of the lost unless there is a verbal proclamation of the Gospel!

2. He begins with the Scriptures

-All of our evangelism must be firmly based in the Scriptures

-Sometimes we think that evangelism is about being smart and clever

-We see these clips on social media of Christians debating atheists and leaving them stunned with some clever comeback or witty one-liner

-And we can think that evangelism and sharing the Gospel is about being a good debater

-or being a really creative thinker

-it’s not!

-Evangelism is mainly about sharing the truths of God’s word with those who do not know or understand them

-you don’t need to be a clever, witty, creative person in order to share the Gospel

-You just need to know your Bible

-And in missions, we don’t need charismatic debaters and or social media influencers

-We need well-trained men and women who work hard at knowing the Scriptures

Philip opens his mouth, he starts with the Scriptures, and then . . .

3. He preached Jesus to him

-That’s what evangelism is, isn’t it?

-It’s when you verbally share the truths of the Scripture with someone and point them to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only means for salvation

-The Scriptures ultimately point to Jesus as the only hope for reconciliation with God

-And so our witness to others must focus on Christ

-And listen, missions is more than just telling people about Jesus

-We talk a great deal here at our church about the centrality of planting churches in missions

-And that’s true! Church-planting is God’s plan for people to be gathered into a growing body that can then see others saved

-But before you can plant a church, you must begin with gospel proclamation!

-people must have Christ proclaimed to them so that they can repent and turn to him

Finally, we see

5. Missions produces joyful worshippers

-The eunuch believes

-He believes the message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

-That He died and rose again

-And so the eunuch wants to be baptized, showing that he is now a follower of Christ

-So the eunuch stops the chariot

-And he and Philip go down into the water and Philip baptizes him

-And as soon as the eunuch and Philip come up out of the water, the Holy Spirit catches Philip away

-Philip disappears as the Holy Spirit transports him somewhere else

-Philip is found in some other city, doing what he’s already been doing:

-Preaching Christ

-But how does the eunuch respond?

The New King James Version Chapter 8

8:39 the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.

-We don’t know what happened to the eunuch after this

-He presumably went home to Ethiopia

-Perhaps he was able to share the Gospel with his family members and friends

-Perhaps a gospel work began in Ethiopia

-But we’re not sure, since we’re not told

-But we are told, is that the eunuch went away rejoicing

if the eunuch resumed his reading in Isaiah on the way home, he would shortly get to this passage:

The New King James Version Chapter 56

Isaiah 56:3

-This is the result of missions!

-This is what happens!

-Lost sinners are turned from their sin to the Savior

-And they become joyful worshippers of Jesus Christ

-This doesn’t mean that every time we witness, people will immediately get saved

-It doesn’t mean that when we send out missionaries, they’ll immediately see tons of people come to Christ

-But it does mean that when we’re faithful to share the Gospel,

-When we’re faithful to open our mouths, start at the Scriptures, and preach Christ

-God will use our efforts to advance His mission

-There will be those who hear the Gospel from faithful Christians and believe it to be the power of God

-And those who believe will find the joy that can only be found in Christ

-It means that when we send missionaries, who are equipped, ordained, and sent out of our church

-Who go and move their families,

-perhaps learn a new language

-and begin to faithfully proclaim the Scriptures

-God will use those efforts

-and there will be the opportunity for people to finally understand who Jesus is, and they can go from being haters of God to lovers of God

-they can go from being enemies of God to being sons of God

-they can go from being worshippers of idols to being worshippers of God

-John Piper has said,

“Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”

-And when we are faithful to obediently share the Gospel, there will be many who reject it

-But we can be confident that there will be some who find it to be the power of God

-And when we as a church give up our best families to the mission field

-When we faithfully pray each Sunday and Wednesday, and in our own personal time with the Lord for our missionaries

-When we sacrificially give of our wealth to fund the efforts of good missionaries

-We can be confident that God will bless our efforts,

-And that there will be those who become joyful worshippers of the Savior

-Why?

-Why can we be confident that this is the case?

-Back to our first truth:

God is the Great Missionary

-He’s the One who’s running this operation

-And so when we’re obedient, we can trust that He will use our obedient efforts to call those whom He has chosen from death to life

Brothers and sisters, these are weighty and wonderful truths:

God is the Great Missionary

Missions is built on obedience

The Lost Need Someone to explain the Scriptures

Christ must be proclaimed

But Missions produces joyful worshippers

So what does this mean for us as we close?

-Let’s start with what this means for us as a church

-We must continue to keep our focus on missions:

-not because it’s trendy or cool

-not because it makes us feel good about ourselves

-But because it’s important to God

-We must make sure that we’re doing missions according to God’s desires, not according to the newest fashions or trends or methods

-There’s a lot organizations and churches trying to take shortcuts and manufacture quick results in missions

-But it’s our responsibility to make sure that we’re following God’s instructions laid down in his Word for us

-people have to go

-The Scriptures have to be taught

-Christ must be proclaimed

-So this is why as a church we teach and preach about this issue regularly

-This is why we set aside 3 Sundays every year to really focus on this

-This is why we hammer these kinds of issues in our mission trip preparation

-Let’s keep our focus on this, because it matters to God

-Now, what does this mean for each of you individually?

-It’s been famously said that there are only 3 kinds of Christians when it comes to the area of missions:

-goers

-senders

-and the disobedient

-That’s it!

-Perhaps some of you, God will lead you to go to a foreign mission field

-If you’re interested in this, please come talk to us pastors

-We want to help you determine if that’s what God desires of you, and then we want to equip you with that

-But for most of you, God is not calling you to leave

-And if He’s not calling you to leave, it means He’s calling you to be a sender

-What does it look like to be a sender?

-First, it means being a faithful Christian right here where you’re at

-You may not be a missionary, but God desires you to be a faithful member at a local church

-to be someone who’s growing in your understanding of God’s Word

-and to be someone who’s faithfully sharing the Gospel where you’re at

-Second, it means being a prayer warrior

-I’m not going to ask anyone to raise their hands, but if I were to ask how many of you systematically and regularly pray for our missionaries, I wonder how many here would be able to raise their hands

-Part of being a faithful sender is regularly praying for our missionaries:

The New King James Version Chapter 4

Colossians 4:2

-Third, it means being a faithful giver to missions

-Even if you don’t have much

-Even if you’re struggling to scrape by

-you can give something to missions

-The same Savior who took the small loaves and fish from the boy and multiplied them to feed the thousands is certainly able to take your small offering and multiply it greatly

-These are three non-negotiables when it comes to being a sender!

-this is what God desires of you

-Finally, perhaps some of you will be able to go on a mission trip

-For those who are voted on members of our church, we take mission trips each summer

-Perhaps God would lay it on your heart to do the hard work we require in preparation and going to be a blessing to those on the field

-Brothers and sisters, God is the Great Missionary!

-He sent His Son to rescue and redeem for Himself a people!

-Let us go

-let us give

-and let us pray

-to see people rejoice in Christ who have never yet heard of Him