21-1-31 AM, Amazing Race: How Paul Spread the Gospel throughout the World in 15 Years and We Can Too! #3 Acts 2:41

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” What Steve Jobs said to Pepsi executive John Sculley to lure him to Apple. Sculley mentions it in the documentary Bloomberg Game Changers: Steve Jobs.

The Lord says something like this to you. The last three months have been an invitation to a vision.

Do you want to make it through life sort of, but not really, obeying the Lord when it comes to fishing for men, or do you want to know on your dying day that you gave it your all and your were faithful?

I am inviting you to march with me in faithfulness, and to watch God impact the 60,000+ within 10 miles of our church, and to do this by being faithful to share with those who live in your sphere of influence (Oikos).

The vision is to be faithful with the little the Lord has entrusted to us and to believe God blesses obedience. It is to believe God will do grand things on a personal level, but to know he may do something through our church on a grand scale.

The invitation is to come and see what the Lord may do, but certainly nothing will happen in reaching people if we remain quiet and unfaithful as messengers of the gospel.

So this is a call to rise up as servants of the living God.

We’ve learned that God is at work all around us and throughout the world redeeming mankind.

The gospel is the path that God has provided for salvation.

He’s invited us to join Him in His work.

Missions and evangelism is our honorable part.

Everyone in the church has the invitation & calling to join God in calling people to salvation.

So we work to win people to Christ and to disciple them to be mature in Christ.

While, we may think inviting them to church is all that this means, this is not enough. We need more than a come and see strategy. We need to go and tell. We need to go and engage people with the gospel in mouth-to-ear fashion. Even large event evangelism comes down to mouth-to-ear evangelism and we must all learn how to do this and practice it.

The most powerful tool we have is our testimony, and the message of the gospel.

I think 5/week is a great goal. If you share once a week, that’s a great step. If you share well once a month, that’s great too. But I think, no matter you current pace, the Lord will compel your heart to do more- He wants to teach you to be heads up, eyes up, and ready to share with the person he puts in front of you every day.

If you share, you will win people. But that’s not enough either. People need to be taught to obey what Jesus has commanded.

I can train you to give them short-term discipleship and long-term discipleship.

We have to come to terms that the best context for discipleship is in a small group for that purpose.

Asking for you to come into a DG and be trained to sow the gospel and be trained to train. I ask that you do this so we can have a coordinated effort- to be on the same page in our efforts.

Jesus is calling you to be fisher of men. Make His mission more than a box in your life rarely opened.

It is an invitation to make this work priority.

And what could happen? Back in the day, a man named Paul heard the call of God to bring the gospel and disciple new believers. He helped to see new churches established which continued to spread the gospel and make disciples themselves. Incredibly, over the course of 15 years, enough churches were started in enough places that 25 million people gained access to the gospel.

Principle #1, Paul’s work to spread the gospel and establish churches was driven by the Holy Spirit.

Principle #2, Paul’s work was rapid.

Principle #3, Paul set about his work with clear priorities.

Principle #4, Paul worked six church-planting streams at one time.

Principle #5. Paul passed on authority quickly.

Principle #6, Paul treated new works as full-fledged churches from the beginning.

Principle #7, New believers took ownership in the Great Commission.

Principle #8 Persecution helped, not hurt, the spread of the Gospel.

#9 People were baptized promptly upon believing in Christ.

We need to work to see people baptized soon after a profession of faith.

Acts 2:41 ESV

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

and...

Acts 8:30–38 ESV

30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

In no expression of biblical baptism is there a delay modeled. In scripture, baptism is modeled to take place soon after belief.

It is a command. obedience is o-mmediate

It is a sign. It represents an internal spiritual reality of being baptized by the Holy Spirit and regenerate. It should not be confused or conflated with saving faith.

In our day, sometimes it is delayed so more people can witness it. Sometimes it is delayed because of logistical reasons like the water is out. While less than the best, delays like these may be excusable. However, sometimes people delay baptism to test and see if the person’s prayer of faith was genuine. Some delay in order to see if the new believer bears spiritual fruit, or manages to kick a sinful habit, but this is not appropriate. Baptism is not a marker of maturity, or a test of maturity. That is not its function. If a person understands the gospel and consciously chooses to follow Christ, they should be baptized ASAP.

It is an act of assurance. While the beginning of faith may at times be unclear (“Did I get saved when I prayed to the Lord in my bedroom before bed last night or when I prayed with the VBS leader?”), baptism is a concrete action that people do because they call Christ Savior and Lord. In the future looking back, it is a helpful event to cite as a marker of beginning faith. It is evidence that a person has saving faith in Christ and has declared Him to be Savior and Lord. It counters later doubts of salvation.

We need to baptize ASAP after belief.

#10 Paul established anchor churches in under-served areas.

Acts 19:9 ESV

9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.

and...

Colossians 4:12 ESV

12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

Epaphras learned in Ephesus and then pushed the gospel to Colossae.

Churches served as outposts to support the expansion of the gospel and new churches into pioneer areas.

Already established- Jersualem, Syrian Antioch,

Became established through Paul’s work- Paphos, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus- He helped local believers reach out from there.

Lead climbing- each new nut or quick-draw represents the ability to advance yourself higher and farther.

Our church can serve as an anchor church to support the advance of the gospel. This takes a little adjustment in thought. It means we are working to send our people out there, rather than focus on getting those people in here. Remember, it is go and tell more than come and see. If you take something like a Discipleship Group- wouldn’t it be amazing if something like that could get planted out there and then grow someday into a new church?

Now imagine you- what if you got trained in a discipleship group and then went out there to work among the locals?

If you understand this, you are starting to understand Paul’s strategy.

Attached to this...

Paul pushed key trainers to the leading edges of expansion.

Into new territory

Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus

Timothy in Ephesus (1 Tim 1:1-3)

Titus in Crete (Titus 1:1)

Apollos in Corinth (Acts 19:1)

They were catalysts to help new works get established and to keep pressing forward the work

You put your best leadership into the areas you want to advance. Best leadership arises out of faithfulness. If you want to be considered a leader around here, you start with faithfulness in the basics of the faith. Pastors and deacons and lay leaders I expect to be the best students in Discipleship Groups.

Paul returned to visit new churches a much as possible.- Every field visited was revisited at least once before Paul’s imprisonment.

Looking for people who want to make fishing for men and winning disciples the focus of their lives.

More than just win the occasional person once a decade.

Discipleship Groups to get trained and then go win & train others.

What could happen here?

Let’s do this amazing race together.

Tonight at 6 PM, other groups starting soon. I need you to pray about the idea of being a group leader yourself.