How to Send out Missionaries
Notes
Transcript
Years ago “Missiologists Peter Wagner suggests for the first time in History that there appears to be light at the end of the Great Commission tunnel!”
Wagner refers to the U.S. Center for World Mission and its aggressive work to make the gospel available to all people groups by the year 2000.
What is an un-reached people group? an identifiable group of people distinguished by a distinct culture, language, or social class who lack a community of Christians able to evangelize the rest of the people group without outside help. The only opportunity for the people group to hear about salvation is through an “external witness.” Most missiologists consider 2% of the population becoming Christ followers as the “tipping point” at which the group is generally considered “reached” with the Gospel.
Unengaged Unreached People Groups: According to Finishing the Task, there are 218 remaining unengaged, unreached people groups numbering over 5.7 million souls that are still beyond the reach of the Gospel. These 218 ethnic groups are perhaps the neediest of the needy as they are unengaged, which means that no church, no missionary, no mission agency…no one has yet taken responsibility to tell them about Jesus Christ.
Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (ESV) The Greek phrase for “all nations” is “panta ta ethne” which refers to all of the ethnicities or people groups of the world. We believe that Jesus was very clear in stating that His gospel would be preached to all nations/ ethne/ people groups before He would return.
Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” (ESV) The apostle John gives us a glimpse of what worship in heaven will look like. The Bible has made it very clear that God will not be satisfied until there are people from every people group represented in His heaven.
NOTE: Now Luke shows gives us the window into the early missionary movement, where there is a complete and total willingness to be used by God, no matter what the personal cost might be.
BIG IDEA: We are called out and Called Up!
BIG IDEA: We are called out and Called Up!
Different Verbs for Call
Call After - to give a child the same name as someone else
Call around - to go to someone’s house to visit them
Call away - to ask someone to go somewhere else
Call back - to return a phone call or to phone someone again
Call for - Publicly demand that something be done
Call forth - To elicit a reaction
Call in - to phone
Call off - To cancel an organized event
Call on - to visit someone
Call down - to find fault with; or reprimand someone.
The Church however, is the Ekklesia of God: The Called-Out ones.
Salvation includes both human faith and Divine appointment.
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
We are called up to be good soldiers of Christ.
3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
Paul was suffering in prison at the time he wrote this letter to Timothy, he expected Timothy to be willing to suffer for the faith. Timothy was to suffer as a good soldier for Christ. This is what we are called up to do. To defend the faith, to fight the good fight, and to run the good race.
1. Called out-called-up people are those who believe in a darkness busting faith.
1. Called out-called-up people are those who believe in a darkness busting faith.
WE MUST RECAPTURE THAT IN OUR DAY! We are the most resourced and technologically advanced and blessed culture in the history of the world. Thank God for the resources that we now have at our disposal which now makes penetrating the unreached people groups of the world a much greater responsibility than it was 50 years ago. We must learn to have the mentality of the early Church.
SEND OUT CALLED PEOPLE
SEND OUT CALLED PEOPLE
13:1-3
Up to this point when the Church has sent someone out on a mission, that mission was not specifically to evangelize, but to check up on evangelism. The actual evangelism itself seems to have taken place spontaneously, usually in the local synagogue, or in very specific situations under the leading of the Holy Spirit like; Philip and the Ethiopian, and Peter and Cornelius.
NOTE: Now Barnabas and Paul are specifically set apart for the work of the Lord. Notice that this was not by their own initiative, but by the Spirit of God.
PLACING THEIR HANDS ON PAUL AND BARNABAS SHOWS
Christian unity in the Spirit
Fellowship and purpose in the Holy Spirit
The power of the Gospel was superior to any of the pagan magic.
BARNABAS AND PAUL AT CYPRUS
We assume that the Church provided what was needed for the mission.
Cyprus was not untouched by the gospel (Acts 11:19 in the scattering after Stephen’s death)
The mission strategy
Go to the cities
Go to the synagogues first (Rom. 1:16-17); but if they don’t listen, proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.
Carry out all ministry as a team (the only exception arising in Acts 17, Paul’s spontaneous speech on the Areopagus).
NOTE: Barnabas and John Mark were both from Cyprus. John Mark went along as a servant helper, he was a rookie, or an intern. Assuming that Christians were already there, however, this was not a pioneer effort. This was possibly meant to encourage and confirm Jews already committed to Christ in Cyprus.
Expect mixed Results
Expect mixed Results
SUPPORTING IDEA: When the gospel is preached there will always be mixed results; some accepted the message; some rejected the message. Sometimes the rejecters were hostile, becoming major stumbling blocks in the path of those trying to understand the truth.
Bar-Jesus (Elymas) Jewish sorcerer and false prophet. Sorcery and magic had been banned in all Judaism, but it’s practice continued. The word Elymas means sorcerer.
Sergius Paulus: served as an attendant of the Roman proconsul, whom Luke describes as intelligent, and sufficiently interested in theology and Jewish history to call Paul and his friends to his quarters for a discussion.
ELYMAS (BAR-JESUS) Luke makes his motives clear, he wanted to turn the proconsul from the faith proclaimed by his guests. Sergius Paulus had not yet trusted Christ; that occurs in verse 12. Elymas was troubled by the arrival of Paul and his friends, possibly the threat to his own job security brought him to debate the missionaries in an attempt to keep the proconsul in pagan darkness.
BAD CHOICE FOR ELYMAS
Saul now identified as Paul filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas, similar to the way that Peter stared down Simon. In both cases the overarching power of the Holy Spirit directed the encounter.
Paul is not a Christian name as some might think, it is a Roman name. Up to this point Saul of Tarsus has been nothing but a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents. Here we have completely Roman setting, a Gentile context for the gospel which will identify and characterize Paul’s ministry for the rest of his days.
10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
Paul calls down the hand of the Lord in blindness. His name was Bar-Jesus (son of the Savior); but Paul calls him a child of the devil.
NOTE: The blindness of one light for another: when Sergius saw this miracle, he believed. The intelligent proconsul had “put it together,” we see the striking contrast of the Jew being plunged even deeper into darkness while the believing Gentile launched the missionaries, and particularly Paul into a new life long career of proclaiming the gospel to the gentiles.
2. Called out-called-up people are those who believe in a universal gospel for all.
2. Called out-called-up people are those who believe in a universal gospel for all.
Paul’s First Recorded Sermon at Antioch
13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
A Universal gospel for all begins by looking at our past.
A Universal gospel for all begins by looking at our past.
HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
SUPPORTING IDEA: Paul’s first sermon like that of Stephens begins with the historical foundation of Christianity found in the Old Testament of how God dealt with Israel. (perhaps Paul recalled Stephens great handling of the historical side of the gospel)
With an uplifted hand he led them out of Egypt.
He gave them them the promised land as an inheritance
After that he gave them the judges
They asked for a King and he gave them Saul (big in stature, hansom, good man of war.)
NOTE: All of this leads to King David, a man after God’s own heart, and out of Davids offspring God raised up for Israel a Savior Jesus.
UNIVERSAL GOSPEL
Jesus was crucified
He was buried in a tomb
God raised him from the dead
He was seen by many witnesses
36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41 “ ‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’ ”
Supporting Idea: The Resurrection not only settles the promise of God, it also sends God’s forgiveness and shows God’s grace and mercy.
Paul left no fuzziness in his message, note the legal aspect that Paul so often draws into his message. Justification is a legal term describing the standing of the believers before God.
13:42-43 Now Paul brings the warning by quoting Habakkuk 1:5.
A universal gospel for all brings even the most hardened sinner to the foot of the cross.
A universal gospel for all brings even the most hardened sinner to the foot of the cross.
Move on to the receptive Gentiles
Now the whole city turns out to hear the message, however, as expected the Jewish people filled with jealousy began to contradict Paul by reviling them. This caused Paul and Barnabas to speak even more boldly.
NOTE: The huge turning point is made in vv. 46-47 when Paul indicates that they are moving on to the gentiles.
46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
You Jew’s who have always thought of yourself as sufficiently righteous to take advantage of God’s gift; so we’ll offer it to the Gentiles and see what they say.
Explaining Biblical Forgiveness (vv. 38-43)
Jesus told the story of a wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14.
In Jewish society, the parents of the betrothed generally drew up the marriage contract. The bride and groom would meet, perhaps for the first time, when this contract was signed. The couple was considered married at this point, but they would separate until the actual time of the ceremony. The bride would remain with her parents, and the groom would leave to prepare their home. This could take a while. When the home was all ready, the groom would return for his bride without notice. The marriage ceremony would then take place, and the wedding banquet would follow.
In his parable, Jesus compares heaven to a wedding banquet that a king had prepared for his son. Many people had been invited, but when the time for the banquet came and the table was set, those invited refused to come. In fact, the kings servants who brought the joyful message were mistreated and even killed.
The king, enraged at the response of those who had been invited, sent his army to avenge the death of his servants. He then sent invitations to anyone his servants could find, with the result that the wedding hall was filled.
During the feast the king noticed a man “who was not wearing wedding clothes”. When asked how he came to be there without the furnished attire, the man had not answer and was promptly ejected out into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The king is God the Father, and the son who is being honored at the banquet is Jesus Christ, who “came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him”. Israel held the invitation to the kingdom, but then the time actually came for the kingdom to appear, they refused to believe it. Many prophets, including John the Baptist, had been murdered.
Note that it is not because the invited guests could not come to the wedding feast, but that they would not come. Everyone had an excuse. How tragic, and what an indictment on human nature, to be offered the blessings of God and to refuse them because of the draw of mundane things!
The wedding invitation is extended to anyone and everyone, total strangers, both good and bad. This refers to the gospel being taken to the Gentiles. This portion of the parable is a foreshadowing of the Jews’ rejection of the gospel in Acts 132. “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you rejected it and do not consider yourself worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”
This was Jesus way of teaching about the inadequacies of self-righteousness. From the very beginning, God has provided a “covering” for our sin. To insist on covering ourselves is to be clad in “filthy rags” Isaiah 64:6. Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame, but they found their fig leaves to be inadequate. God took away their handmade clothes and replaced them with skins of sacrificial animals. In the book of Revelation, we see those in heaven wearing “white robes” Revelation 7:9 and we learn that the whiteness of the robes is due to their being washed in the blood of the Lamb. We trust in God’s righteousness, not our own. Philippians 3:9
To summarize the point of the parable of the wedding feast, God sent His Son into the world, and the very people who should have celebrated His coming rejected Him, bringing judgement upon themselves. As a result, the kingdom of heaven was opened up to everyone who will set aside his own righteousness and by faith accept the righteousness God provides in Christ.
Those who reject the gift of Salvation and instead cling to their own self-righteousness will spend eternity in hell.
NOTE: The phrase do not consider yourself worthy is not only interesting, but curious. One can hardly imagine synagogue Jews thinking of themselves as unworthy of eternal life. Perhaps we should see here just a bit of Paul’s irony which might be paraphrased, “You Jews, who always consider yourself so righteous, now you do not think you are sufficiently righteous enough to take advantage of God’s gift; so we’ll offer it to the Gentiles instead and see what they do with the gift.”
APPLICATIONS TO MAKE
1. Be available for whatever God wants you to do and wherever he want you to go.
1. Be available for whatever God wants you to do and wherever he want you to go.
2. Pray for willing workers to be sent out into the harvest.
2. Pray for willing workers to be sent out into the harvest.
3. Understand the gospel clearly, and be able to present it without confusion.
3. Understand the gospel clearly, and be able to present it without confusion.
4. Recognize that God’s sovereign grace prevails in all human activity.
4. Recognize that God’s sovereign grace prevails in all human activity.
The day disciples carried stones
Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; December 21, 1926 – June 15, 2015) was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca (now known as Huaorani; also rendered as Waorani or Waodani) of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. Returning to the United States after many years in South America, she became widely known as the author of over twenty books and as a speaker.
Elisabeth tells a story, a fable of sorts about the day Jesus asked the disciples to carry stones. IN the morning he told them to find a stone which they would carry all day. WE can imagine them selecting the lightest and smallest they could find.
As the story unfolds, that night Jesus and the disciples made camp. At mealtime the disciples asked what to do with the stones. jesus told them, “I’m glad you asked. I will now turn those stones to bread, and that will be your evening meal.” As the disciples ate the few bites they had carried throughout the day, they pledged never to be caught in such a dilemma again.
Sure enough, the next day Jesus asked them in the morning to pick up stones and carry them all day. What a day! lugging heavy boulders from place to place with the happy anticipation of a full meal that night. When they made camp, the disciples asked the same question, but this time the Lord’s answer was different. “The stones? Just place them over there in a pile. We don’t need them anymore.” When the protestations and complaining had died down, Jesus had only on question for the disciples band: “For whom did you carry your stone today?”
The basic idea of the fable is that effective missionaries, pastors, deacons, elders, bible study leaders, and disciples of all kinds do what they do for the glory of Christ alone, not for their own benefit. Paul and Barnabas left home to travel for Jesus’ sake. They entered into a confrontation with a wild- eyed sorcerer for Jesus sake. They proclaimed the gospel to hesitant Jews for Jesus’ sake. They endured persecution at Pisidian Antioch for Jesus’ sake. The result was not pain and complaining, but rather rejoicing-even at the times of great difficulty.
We may very well ask ourselves the same questions about the difficulties in our lives today: “For whom do we carry our stones for today?” Only when we see Christ as the center of everything we do; only when our motives center on how best to please him; only when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us as he did Paul and Barnabas will we really be able to honestly say, “I carried my stone for Jesus alone.”
We are called out and called up to carry our stones for Christ alone.
NOTE: Paul and Barnabas come to Iconium, where it says they stayed for a long time, however, the people of the city were divided over the message both Jew’s and Gentiles, a plot was in the making to stone them, therefore, they now escape to Lystra and Derby.
3. Called out-called-up people are those who believe it is all worth it.
3. Called out-called-up people are those who believe it is all worth it.
NOTE: Paul and Barnabas come to Iconium, where it says they stayed for a long time, however, the people of the city were divided over the message both Jew’s and Gentiles, a plot was in the making to stone them, therefore, they now escape to Lystra and Derby.
The Gospel almost always receives varied responses
The Gospel almost always receives varied responses
Was it worth it? What do you think Paul would say. All those miles, all that time. The persecution! the stoning! the humiliation! We haven’t the slightest hesitation recognizing that Paul and Barnabas thought every moment of their first missionary journey extremely valuable by heaven’s standards. They finished their journey with “eternity’s values in view”; and, as Paul repeatedly explained in his letters, all the hostility and opposition meant nothing if he could fulfill God’s plan for his life and ministry.
It was also worth it to the Church at Antioch. Picture Paul as a modern day missionary busting out his ipad and showing all of the pics from pisidian Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra! Imagine the gasps in the room in Antioch as he flips to the pics of the Lyconians dragging out the bulls and wreaths to worship him. Imagine the tears when the believers see the pictures that Barnabas took of Paul lying near death outside the Lystra gates. See the harbor at Attlia and the mountains north of Iconium. We “ooh” and “ahh” with the audience at the magnificent sunset shots taken from the back end of the ship on the way home to Antioch.
Mainly Paul wants us to see the pictures of the new converts. Look at this small group. Here’s one more. Look at those two there. Here we see a man and his wife who both trusted Christ on the same day. Was it worth it? Was it worth it to the people who responded to the gospel?
8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.
11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
ZEUS AND HERMES (v.12)
There have been two inscriptions that have been found by archeologists near Lystra that identify the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes as worshiped in the Lycaonian portion of Galatia. One reflects the dedication to Zeus of a statue of Hermes, and the other refers to a “priest of Zeus.”
As chief of the Olympian gods, Zeus was the Greek equivalent of the Roman Jupiter. In Greek fantasy religion, Saturn married Rhea. They became “father and mother of the gods” and gave birth to Zeus. He, in turn, through various marriages and illicit unions, became the father of most of the greater gods of the pantheon. Hermes parallels the Roman Mercury, known both as the messenger of the gods and their chief spokesperson.
Now the Romans generally accepted and worshiped gods of conquered peoples and added them to their collection. In addition to gods of their own which paralleled the Greek deities, they worshiped Athena, Isis of the Egyptians, and, had the early Christians let them, might very well have added Jesus along with the worthless gods in the pantheon.
NOTE: Paul and Barnabas responded immediately by tearing their clothes, a sign of remorse as at a funeral procession of someone who has died. We have picture throughout scripture, such as David tearing his clothes in sack cloth and ashes after his great sin. Paul and Barnabas want to make it abundantly clear that they are men just like those in Lystra. Most likely this is a pointing to our sinful nature, that we are all sinners in need of grace.
2nd Paul and Barnabas bring an indictment on their pagan Gods, expressing that they should now turn to the living God of the Universe who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them.
The Gospel places its primary emphasis on God’s grace
The Gospel places its primary emphasis on God’s grace
COMMON GRACE
This identifies God’s grace that is poured out on all men and women regardless of their faith or state of righteousness.
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
It is through common grace that the Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of unbelievers so they can understand the gospel; through special grace the Spirit regenerates the heart and brings the believer to Salvation.
Common Grace also explains why unsaved people can do good things, why unsaved people can be pleasant and kind, sometimes even more gentle than members of God’s family. That is because God’s common grace curbs the devastating effects of sin in the world so it does not reach its full extent.
Acts C. Common Grace (v. 17)
Osterhaven offers a useful definition:
Common grace is understood to be the unmerited favor of God toward all men whereby 1) he restrains sin so that order is maintained, and culture and civil righteousness are promoted; and 2) he gives them rain and fruitful seasons, food and gladness, and other blessings in the measure that seems to him to be good (Osterhaven, 172).
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Wherever the early missionaries went, the bad guys in black hats were not far behind. Since Paul alone had been doing much of the talking therefore he felt the brunt of their wrath and their stones.
The Gospel will always confront evil and darkness in the world.
The Gospel will always confront evil and darkness in the world.
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 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.
NOTE: Luke leaves some of the details to speculation about what took place at this stoning. Did Paul’s rising constitute a miracle? Was the deliverance from the angry mob and Paul’s reentry to the city a miracle in itself?
Paul mentions the stoning in
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
Paul might have undergone a near death, or out-of-body experience on this very occasion which he describes in
1 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
The best way to interpret what happened to Paul is to assume that he was very badly beaten up but quite alive when the disciples gathered around him outside Lystra that day. Paul would say that it was worth it all. All of the pain, the joy, dark prisons, the angry mobs hurling rocks at him.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
Things are tough all over - but not impossible.
Things are tough all over - but not impossible.
Things are tough all over - but God knows our problems.
Things are tough all over - but God knows our problems.
Things are tough all over - but we can be faithful to our commitments.
Things are tough all over - but we can be faithful to our commitments.
Things are tough all over - but we rejoice in the midst of our problems.
Things are tough all over - but we rejoice in the midst of our problems.
CONCLUSION
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. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples.
Acts IV. Life Application: The Single Starfish
The Single Starfish
Walking along a beach one day, a boy saw a man pick up a starfish and throw it back into the water. “Why did you do that, mister?” asked the boy.
“Because the tide is going out, and the starfish would be stranded here and dry out. In all likelihood, he would be long dead before the tide comes in again,” responded the man.
“What difference could it make? Surely there are thousands and thousands of starfish in that ocean. What difference would it make if you throw just one back in the water so it can live?”
“It makes a great deal of difference to this one” smiled the man as he walked on down the beach, perhaps to find another starfish.
What difference does it make if we hand out a gospel tract to a filling station attendant or a bellman at a hotel? What difference could it make if we precisely outlined the gospel in a Sunday school class on a day when we know two unsaved visitors are present? What difference would it make if we sacrifice a bit in order to send missionaries to those hidden peoples of the world we talked about at the beginning of chapter 13? Like the lame man Paul healed at Lystra, it makes a great deal of difference to each one as an individual.
People don’t trust Christ in huge groups; that became the second and third century way of “making Christians.” People trust Christ one by one and, like the starfish thrown back to the sea, receive opportunity for life by hearing the gospel.
Acts V. Prayer
God, make us willing to accept persecution, embarrassment, humiliation, or whatever else is necessary to be your faithful witnesses to people around us who desperately need the gospel no less than the Jews at Pisidian Antioch, the sophisticated Gentiles at Iconium, or the raw pagans at Lystra. Amen.