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Voddie Baucham - Missions Part 2_ The Conflict of Evangelism · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: So let us begin. On last week, we looked at
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  Speaker 1: the picture of missions from a redemptive historic perspective. We
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  Speaker 1: looked at missions from the Old Testament all the way
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  Speaker 1: through to the New Testament, to the Great Commission, beyond
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  Speaker 1: the Great Commission. But today, we want to look at
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  Speaker 1: the Great Commission itself. If you remember on last week,
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  Speaker 1: what we did was we sort of set the set
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  Speaker 1: the tone, set the foundation so that when we finally
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  Speaker 1: got to the Great Commission, we realized that it wasn't new,
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  Speaker 1: that this was the same thing that God had been
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  Speaker 1: saying to Israel since the establishment of Israel as a nation.
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  Speaker 1: And so if you'll open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28,
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  Speaker 1: we'll now look at this what is really the most
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  Speaker 1: full-orbed expression of this call to mission that we have.
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  Speaker 1: And the first thing that we'll see is that it
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  Speaker 1: happens in the context of a conflict. So first we
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  Speaker 1: introduce the conflict, verses 11 through 15. Verses 11 through
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  Speaker 1: 15 is the conflict. While they were going, behold, some
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  Speaker 1: of the guard went into the city and told the
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  Speaker 1: chief priests all that had taken place. And when they
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  Speaker 1: had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave
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  Speaker 1: a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said,
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  Speaker 1: tell people his disciples came by night and stole him
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  Speaker 1: away while we were asleep. And if this comes to
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  Speaker 1: the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you
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  Speaker 1: out of trouble. So they took the money and did
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  Speaker 1: as they were directed. And this story has been spread
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  Speaker 1: among the Jews to this day. Now this is the
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  Speaker 1: conflict that helps us to comprehend missions. What's the conflict.
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  Speaker 1: There are people who are willing to accept anything about Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: except the fact that he rose from the dead. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: anything you say about Jesus, people will accept. Some outlandish
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  Speaker 1: story comes up about Jesus, and people jump all over
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  Speaker 1: the outlandish story, and they're ready to believe it. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have a fraction of the evidence to back it
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  Speaker 1: up that the New Testament does, but people just want
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  Speaker 1: something other than what the New Testament says. Some Gnostic
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  Speaker 1: gospel comes up. some pseudepigrapha comes up, some writing from
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  Speaker 1: somewhere comes up, and people who deny the Bible to
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  Speaker 1: the cows come home, say, uh-huh, well, look at that.
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  Speaker 1: There's the Acts of Paul and Thecla. There's the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: of Thomas. There's the this, there's the that. And they're
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  Speaker 1: accepting these things without a shred of evidence simply because
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  Speaker 1: it's something other than the gospel. This is the conflict.
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  Speaker 1: So when we think about missions, we have to think
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  Speaker 1: about missions in terms of this conflict. We are not
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  Speaker 1: going into a waiting world longing to hear what it
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  Speaker 1: is that we have to say. We are piercing darkness.
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  Speaker 1: We are going into enemy territory. We are going into
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  Speaker 1: a world where people are under the sway of the
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  Speaker 1: prince of the power of the air. We are going
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  Speaker 1: into enemy territory. And so we have to understand this.
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  Speaker 1: And this text brings this up in myriad ways. First,
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  Speaker 1: understand the use of money here. If you'll remember, there
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  Speaker 1: were 30 pieces of silver and Jesus was turned over
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  Speaker 1: by Judas for 30 pieces of silver. Now we have
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  Speaker 1: these individuals, these soldiers, accepting money in order to lie
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  Speaker 1: about Jesus' resurrection. Second, understand the nature of of this lie,
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  Speaker 1: these men come. And again, if you're a Roman soldier
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  Speaker 1: and you have been charged to, uh, to, to hold
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  Speaker 1: a captive, um, if that captive escapes, you pay with
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  Speaker 1: your life. So these soldiers, they haven't run away. They've
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  Speaker 1: actually come in to inform and to report what has happened,
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  Speaker 1: meaning they are ready and willing to accept even their death.
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  Speaker 1: as a consequence for having lost their charge. And so
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  Speaker 1: this is why, look at it again. Tell the people
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  Speaker 1: his disciples came by night and stole him away while
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  Speaker 1: we were asleep, while we were asleep. Now you die
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  Speaker 1: for that. If that was the truth, these men would
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  Speaker 1: die for that. Look at this. And if this comes
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  Speaker 1: to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep
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  Speaker 1: you out of trouble. Because if you're a Roman soldier
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  Speaker 1: and somebody's giving you some money and they say, here,
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  Speaker 1: take this money and this is your story. We were
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  Speaker 1: asleep and his disciples came and got him. Time out.
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  Speaker 1: Because if we tell that story, we die. If we
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  Speaker 1: tell that story, we die. So these powerful government officials,
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  Speaker 1: understanding the nature of the consequences these men would face,
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  Speaker 1: then say, hey, If this comes up to the governor,
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  Speaker 1: we got your back. So they took the money and
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  Speaker 1: did as they were directed. And this story has been
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  Speaker 1: spread among the Jews to this day. Not just among
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  Speaker 1: the Jews, folks. This story has been spread throughout the
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  Speaker 1: world to this day. The idea that we explain away
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection. There have been PhD dissertations written to explain
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  Speaker 1: away the resurrection. during the height of the era of
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  Speaker 1: higher criticism in the 19th century, for example, there were
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  Speaker 1: theories that abounded and dissertations that were written about theories
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  Speaker 1: like the swoon theory. The swoon theory is that Jesus
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  Speaker 1: wasn't really dead. He merely swooned. It only appeared that
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  Speaker 1: he was dead. And then he woke up. Again, the
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  Speaker 1: swoon theory does not coincide with the facts as we
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  Speaker 1: read them in the Gospels, because these were people who
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  Speaker 1: were experienced at execution. Execution was an art and a
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  Speaker 1: science for the Romans. They knew how to execute someone.
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  Speaker 1: And when you read the account in the Gospels, it's
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  Speaker 1: obvious that they carried through their executions with the same
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  Speaker 1: kind of precision that they always did, even down to
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  Speaker 1: piercing him through his side, puncturing the pericardium, basically stabbing
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  Speaker 1: him in the heart and blood and water rushing out.
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  Speaker 1: There's no way that he survives that. Just the blood
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  Speaker 1: loss alone, there's no way that he survives that. But again,
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  Speaker 1: the swoon theory, it doesn't comport with the facts, but
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  Speaker 1: people don't want the facts. They want something that makes
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  Speaker 1: the gospel not true, okay? There's the conspiracy theory. The
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory is the idea that basically the apostles made
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  Speaker 1: up this story about Jesus and his resurrection. The problem,
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  Speaker 1: of course, with the conspiracy theory is that there would
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  Speaker 1: be a body. You follow? If there's a conspiracy, there
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  Speaker 1: would still be a body in that grave. So the
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory basically goes something like this. You know, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is crucified. He's buried. There's, you know, Roman soldiers who
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  Speaker 1: are guarding his tomb. There's a meeting of the apostles
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  Speaker 1: and they say, hey, I know what we should do.
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  Speaker 1: We should make up a lie. These same guys who
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  Speaker 1: all ran away the night before suddenly say, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to make up a lie. And the lie that we're
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  Speaker 1: going to make up is that Jesus was resurrected. And
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  Speaker 1: we're going to tell everybody this lie that he was resurrected.
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  Speaker 1: And not only did this happen, you know, idea past
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  Speaker 1: muster within the group. But also nobody within the group
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  Speaker 1: raised their hand and said, excuse me, while this is
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  Speaker 1: a great idea and all, he's in there. Because in
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  Speaker 1: order for this idea to work, he can't be in there.
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  Speaker 1: And remember, this is as simple as moving a stone.
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  Speaker 1: I say simple, it would have been a stone weighing
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  Speaker 1: tons and it would have taken, a number of people
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  Speaker 1: in order to remove the stone, but you could remove
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  Speaker 1: the stone, walk in, and say, there he lay. I've
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  Speaker 1: stood there at what we believe to be his tomb,
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  Speaker 1: not at the Roman Catholic site, which is in the
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  Speaker 1: wrong location inside the city gates, but in the actual
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  Speaker 1: garden tomb outside the city gates by the place of
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  Speaker 1: the skull, where he would most likely have been laid.
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  Speaker 1: You stand there, you stick your head in, you see
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  Speaker 1: where he would have lain. You can walk in. You
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  Speaker 1: have to crouch down a little bit, but you can
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  Speaker 1: walk in to see where they would have laid him.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been very simple to demonstrate that he
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  Speaker 1: was still in the grave. So the other alternative would
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  Speaker 1: have been that they overwhelmed these guards. Again, these frightened men,
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  Speaker 1: who ran away. Peter's running from a little girl the
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  Speaker 1: night before. And we believe that just a few days later,
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  Speaker 1: they took on the most powerful fighting force known to mankind,
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed them, moved the stone, took the body, and then lied.
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  Speaker 1: And eventually all gave their lives for this conspiracy. Conspiracies
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  Speaker 1: don't work like that. Conspiracies break down when people start
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  Speaker 1: losing their lives. Usually before. And once your conspiracy is
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  Speaker 1: above two people, it's got zero chance of surviving. The
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  Speaker 1: other alternative that people floated was the idea of the
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  Speaker 1: hallucination theory. The hallucination theory basically says these people wanted
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  Speaker 1: to believe this so badly that they just hallucinated. And
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  Speaker 1: so again, John comes and he hallucinates. Peter comes and
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  Speaker 1: he hallucinates. They go to the other disciples and they
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  Speaker 1: all join in the hallucination. Thomas wasn't with him though.
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  Speaker 1: So a week later they had the hallucination again and
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  Speaker 1: Thomas is there. Then, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
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  Speaker 1: more than 500 eyewitnesses hallucinate at the same time. This
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  Speaker 1: doesn't work. But again, these are theories that were floated
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  Speaker 1: and people held onto simply because we'd rather believe anything
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  Speaker 1: than believe that grows from the dead. So when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about missions, we have to understand that this is
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  Speaker 1: the conflict between And oftentimes when we forget this conflict,
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  Speaker 1: we get discouraged. And many people don't want to have
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  Speaker 1: anything to do with the mission of the church. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because we had this idea that somehow, you know, God
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  Speaker 1: will call us and we will go. And as we
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  Speaker 1: go and we preach to people, they will come and
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  Speaker 1: they will wrap their arms around us and they will say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing the gospel
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  Speaker 1: to us.
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  Speaker 2: When.
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  Speaker 1: That's usually not the case. It's usually not the case.
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  Speaker 1: There are people who preach the gospel their entire lives
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  Speaker 1: and don't see converts. Think about how long Isaiah preached
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  Speaker 1: and Jeremiah preached. They did not see the same type
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  Speaker 1: of thing that Jonah saw. You realize that what Jonah
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  Speaker 1: saw was not the norm for the prophets. It was
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  Speaker 1: completely outside the norm. The norm for the prophets was
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  Speaker 1: to preach to a stiff-necked people and to not see response.
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  Speaker 1: William Carey and other missionaries, they did not go places
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  Speaker 1: and see overwhelming response. That's usually not the case. And
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  Speaker 1: it's because of this conflict. There is a spiritual war,
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  Speaker 1: a spiritual battle taking place. Even the disciples were affected
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  Speaker 1: by this tendency toward unbelief. Look at verses 16 and 17.
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  Speaker 1: Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain
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  Speaker 1: to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him,
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  Speaker 1: they worshiped him, but some doubted. Try to wrap your
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  Speaker 1: mind around that. Because so many times, here's our attitude.
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  Speaker 1: Here's our attitude. You have a friend, a loved one
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  Speaker 1: who's unconverted. And what do you pray? You pray that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord will show them something. Because if they see
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is, then they'll believe if they see what?
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  Speaker 1: What is it that people can see that the disciples believe?
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  Speaker 1: didn't see. These individuals saw Jesus perform his miracles for
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  Speaker 1: three and a half years. These individuals watched him be
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  Speaker 1: crucified and then they saw him resurrected and the text
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  Speaker 1: says some doubt it. So what is it that we
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  Speaker 1: think we can bring to people that will somehow be
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  Speaker 1: more powerful than the resurrected Christ? Nothing. Folks, this is
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  Speaker 1: the conflict. This is the conflict. So let's look at
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  Speaker 1: the context, the context of the Great Commission. Jesus came
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  Speaker 1: and said to them, all authority in heaven and on
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  Speaker 1: earth has been given to me. That is the context
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  Speaker 1: of this commission that we've been given. It is Christ
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  Speaker 1: and his authority, all authority in heaven and on earth.
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  Speaker 1: Why all authority? The key here is this phrase, heaven
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  Speaker 1: and earth. Jesus always had the authority of God. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: never stopped being God. The incarnation did not rob Jesus.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
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  Speaker 1: Did not rob Jesus of his deity. So why is
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  Speaker 1: it that only now, he says, he has all authority?
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  Speaker 1: Now he has authority over death, hell, and the grave
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  Speaker 1: by virtue of his resurrection. Folks, the incarnation not only
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  Speaker 1: changes time, the incarnation actually changes the Godhead. There is
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Godhead who now has a physical body.
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  Speaker 1: He did not before. There is a member of the
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  Speaker 1: Godhead who has tasted death. He had not before. Not
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  Speaker 1: something we usually think about, right? This changes even the Godhead.
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  Speaker 1: And so Christ in his incarnation takes on a second nature.
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  Speaker 1: He has never stopped being God, but now he has
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  Speaker 1: a human nature as well as his divine nature without
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  Speaker 1: any co-mixture of those natures. And now he has actually
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  Speaker 1: tasted death and overcome death and defeated death in his flesh,
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  Speaker 1: in his body. This has transpired. So when he says,
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  Speaker 1: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given
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  Speaker 1: to me, understand that there is death. A sense in
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  Speaker 1: which even the Godhead has been forever changed by the
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  Speaker 1: miracle of the incarnation. Therefore, it says, this is Ephesians 4,
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  Speaker 1: when he ascended on high, he led a host of
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  Speaker 1: captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended,
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  Speaker 1: what does it mean? But that he had also descended
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  Speaker 1: into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is
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  Speaker 1: the one who also ascended far above all the heavens
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  Speaker 1: that he might fill all things. Colossians chapter two, verse
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  Speaker 1: 13 to 15. And you who were dead in your
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  Speaker 1: trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
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  Speaker 1: together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by
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  Speaker 1: canceling the record of debt that stood against us with
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  Speaker 1: its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to
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  Speaker 1: the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put
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  Speaker 1: them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
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  Speaker 1: Christ disarmed these rulers and triumphed over them. This is
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  Speaker 1: what happens at the cross. This is the authority to
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  Speaker 1: which he refers. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. partook of
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  Speaker 1: the same things, that through death he might destroy the
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  Speaker 1: one who has the power of death, that is the devil,
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  Speaker 1: and deliver all those who through fear of death were
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  Speaker 1: subject to lifelong slavery. This happens because of the incarnation.
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  Speaker 1: Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the
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  Speaker 1: ruler of this world be cast out. concerning judgment, because
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  Speaker 1: the ruler of this world is judged. I'll refer you
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  Speaker 1: back to our series on Revelation, the idea of the
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  Speaker 1: significance here. Chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. Then I
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  Speaker 1: saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his
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  Speaker 1: hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
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  Speaker 1: And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is
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  Speaker 1: the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand
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  Speaker 1: years and threw him into the pit and shut it
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  Speaker 1: and sealed it over him so that he might not
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  Speaker 1: deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.
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  Speaker 1: After that, he must be released for a little while
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  Speaker 1: without going into all of this for the sake of time.
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  Speaker 1: And because as I said, We dealt with this in
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  Speaker 1: our series on revelation. Um, basically the amillennial position and
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  Speaker 1: amillennial eschatology is not one that doesn't believe in the
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  Speaker 1: millennial reign of Christ, but it believes two things that
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  Speaker 1: set it apart. Number one, it believes that the thousand
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  Speaker 1: year reign of Christ is symbolic that the thousand years
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  Speaker 1: are not a literal thousand years, but a symbolic thousand years.
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  Speaker 1: Why does it believe this? Because this paragraph is filled
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  Speaker 1: with symbols. Coming down from heaven, holding in his hand
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  Speaker 1: the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
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  Speaker 1: This is not. An angel holding a physical key and
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  Speaker 1: a physical chain. This is symbolic language. The devil is
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  Speaker 1: not bound by a physical chain. That's symbolic, all right?
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  Speaker 1: And even people who are, you know, premillennial and believe
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  Speaker 1: in a literal thousand-year millennium, even they don't argue that
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  Speaker 1: this first part of the paragraph is literal, which is
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  Speaker 1: ironic because Because they fought the amillennial position saying you're
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  Speaker 1: just not taking scripture literally. Right? When the fact of
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  Speaker 1: the matter is, this is not literal. And the number 1,000
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  Speaker 1: is not literal. It's 10 times 10 times 10. So
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  Speaker 1: you get the number 3 and the number 10. The
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  Speaker 1: number of God and the number of completion. You get
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  Speaker 1: all of that. And you get a huge number. Right?
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  Speaker 1: That's the idea. That it's a huge number. It's a
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  Speaker 1: huge number and it's a significant number. The other problem
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  Speaker 1: that people have with this is they say, well, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 1: During the millennium when Satan is bound, if this was
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  Speaker 1: the millennium and Satan is bound, then you wouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: all of the death and the war and the destruction
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  Speaker 1: and this and that and the other. Time out. The
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  Speaker 1: binding is very limited and specific. What does it say?
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  Speaker 1: and threw him into a pit and shut it and
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  Speaker 1: sealed it over him so that he might not deceive
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  Speaker 1: the nations any longer. That's the purpose of the binding,
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  Speaker 1: that the nations might not be deceived, that the gospel
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  Speaker 1: might prosper among the nations, which is exactly what has
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  Speaker 1: been happening since the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We are in the millennium now, okay? So the amillennial position,
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  Speaker 1: number one, believes that that thousand years is not literal.
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  Speaker 1: And secondly, believes that the millennium is now. It's now.
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  Speaker 1: It's right now. We're in the midst of it. That's
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  Speaker 1: why this is the missionary age. Amen? That's why the
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  Speaker 1: gospel is flourishing among the nations even now. Folks, we've
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  Speaker 1: gotten to a point to where we can actually count
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  Speaker 1: the number of unreached people groups. The number of language
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  Speaker 1: groups that don't have the scriptures in their language. And
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  Speaker 1: when we look at the numbers... This is something that's doable.
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  Speaker 1: It's doable within a generation to get the scriptures into
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  Speaker 1: all of those remaining language groups. It's doable within a generation. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because Satan is bound and he is not able to
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  Speaker 1: deceive the nations like he was able to deceive the
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  Speaker 1: nations before. But why does this happen? Because when Christ
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  Speaker 1: raises from the dead, he says... all authority in heaven
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  Speaker 1: and on earth is given to me. That in itself
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  Speaker 1: bolsters the amillennial position, bolsters the belief that the millennium
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  Speaker 1: is now and that the binding of Satan is now.
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  Speaker 1: Because Christ says right now, all authority in heaven and
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  Speaker 1: on earth is given to me. All of it, every
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  Speaker 1: last bit of it. So, he also has authority in,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: as the faithful witness, as we see in Revelation. For
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the sake of time, we won't deal with all of that. Okay,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: what about the content? What about the content of this commission?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: We see the conflict, right? The conflict is our adversary,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the devil, the prince of the power of the air,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: People who would rather believe anything than believe the gospel
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: is true. Blinded eyes. Hostility toward the gospel. That's the conflict.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: The context, however, is Christ, who says all authority in
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: heaven and on earth is given to him. That's the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: context wherein this commission was given. So whatever this commission is,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: it is going to be accomplished.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Because Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: So it's important to remember the context. By the way,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: this is what motivates us and encourages us in our mission.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: The fact that it's going to be accomplished. So what
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that means is, even if I don't see legions of
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: people coming to faith in Christ, through the work to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: which I've been called, I can still trust in the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: completion of the task because the one with all authority
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: in heaven and on earth is the one who has
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: given this commission and is the one who is going
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: to see it through. Amen? So my part may be
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: to plant, my part may be to water. I may
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: not see the increase, but he is going to accomplish
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: this task. So what's the content? What is it that
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: we're told to do in light of the conflict And
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: this context. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: that I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: to the end of the age. The content. It is global.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: It is multi-ethnic. It is evangelistic. It is comprehensive. That's
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the content of the great commission. It is a global, multi-ethnic, evangelistic,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: and comprehensive commission. Let's look at each of these. It's global. Go,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: or as you go. As you go. In other words,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: this commission is only carried out as the people of
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: God go. Go where? Everywhere. As we go everywhere. The nations.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: The nations. Go make disciples of Pantata Ethne. Every nation,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: every people group. Okay? This is global. This is global.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: There's no one, there's no part of the globe that's
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: not covered by this commission. It's global. Acts 1.8. You'll
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: We mentioned this last week. And you'll be my witnesses
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the remotest parts
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of the earth. Now, when we talk about missions, it's
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: important that we interpret that text rightly, okay? And I
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: know that, you know, we look at that and we see,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you know, these particular words, you know, as the gospel
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: is going forward. But it's important for us to understand
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: what they represent, okay? You'll be my witnesses first in Jerusalem. Now,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: when he says Jerusalem, what he really means is Jerusalem.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: And then in all Judea. Now, when he says all
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: of Judea, when you really look at that carefully, what
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: you realize is that he was actually talking about Judea.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: And then Samaria, okay? And when you do an in-depth
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: study of what he meant when he said Samaria, you
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: realize that what he actually was referring to there was Samaria.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: And then to the remotest parts of the world. And
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: on this one, when you look at that very carefully,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you understand clearly that he means places like America.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: No, no, see, no, actually, no, that's not what it means,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: because see, America is the epicenter of, you know, of Christianity,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: and it's the epicenter of God's global work, and So therefore,
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: when he said Jerusalem, he meant, you know, here.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Al-Jadiyah, he meant kind of our region, Samaria. That's places where,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you know, other people sort of live in the remotest
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: parts of the world. You know, that's like, you know, deepest, darkest,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Asia and Africa, whatever. No, no, actually, Africa
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and Asia are closer to the epicenter of Christianity than
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: America is. Africa and Asia.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Would have been known to the apostles and heard the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: gospel early. America, unknown. The gospel doesn't get here too late.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: This is the remotest parts of the world. And it
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: is because people heeded the call that the gospel came
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: here to the remotest parts of the world. You see,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: we have the gospel because people left home and brought
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: it here. Think about that for a moment. We have
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the gospel because people laid down everything and came to
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: what at that time was a hard place. And in
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: this hard place planted their lives and planted the gospel.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: And that's why we have the gospel here. It's very
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: important that we understand this. Because as Americans, it's so
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: easy for us to view ourselves as the center of
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the Christian universe when we're not. It's so ironic that
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: people talk about Christianity as being a Western religion. Really?
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: A Western religion? Born and bred and rooted in the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Middle East? No, sir. This is not a Western religion.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: It is a global religion, but it has its roots
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: in the Middle East, in the ancient Near East. The
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: pattern of the apostles was that this is global, that
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: it's global. Why? Why would that have been their pattern?
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: This would have been their pattern because they would have
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: understood it from the beginning. You remember on last week,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: we talked about the fact that as Jews, they would
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: have had this missionary context. They would have understood this context,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: even as Jews. Now as Christians, they see the fulfillment
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of these promises that God made. And the Gentiles are
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: beginning to come into the fold. It's what they would
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: have expected. It's what they would have anticipated. It's what
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: they would have prayed for. It's what they would have
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: longed for and yearned for. So now they're going. They're going.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: And they're going throughout the globe. It's a multi-ethnic commission,.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: We get our word ethnic from this word for nations
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: or peoples. This implies translation. This implies translation. It's interesting.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: You say missions to a person today and most people
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: think feeding me hungry and digging water wells and maybe
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: building some buildings. Come on, be honest. You say missions today,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and that's what people think, right? Missions is about social justice.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Missions is about spreading the wealth to different parts of
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: the world. You say missions 150 years ago, and people
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: would have immediately thought about translating the scriptures into the
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: language of other people. That would have been the immediate thought.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: We've got to get the word of God into people's
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: language so that they can know God. That would have
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: been the immediate thought. Not we need to feed, we
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: need to clothe, we need to house, we need to, no.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And there would have been a thought of education. Education.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Christians were on the forefront of education and higher education.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Why? Because our religion is an intellectual one. You need
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to be able to read the scriptures and understand the scriptures.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: So if you're going to take the gospel to people,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: you're going to take the scriptures to people. If you're
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: going to take the scriptures to people, they need to
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: be literate. This is why education and missions are linked inexorably.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Education falls under the category of our missionary outreach, okay?
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: It implies church planting. It implies church planting. Okay? That's
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: why we exist. That's why we exist. To plant churches.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: It's been incredibly encouraging to watch that happen even here.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And it's been a tremendous blessing to watch God plant
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: churches through this church. But that can't be That can't
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: be it. That can't be it. We need to plant
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: more churches and we need to plant churches in more
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: places because ultimately this is the mission. This is what
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: we do. I had somebody ask me about this just
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: not long ago. And, you know, we were talking about missions,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: church planting, and they mentioned something about church planting. And
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, you know, to them that That was something
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: that we were involved in and engaged in and had
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: experience in. And he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that's a big deal for you guys, isn't it? And
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I said, no, no, it's not a big deal for us.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: It's a big deal for God. It's what it means
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: to be a healthy church. We've forgotten that. In the
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: midst of this age where we believe the health of
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: the church is determined by the growth of the individual congregations,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: where we have no concept of planting churches in other
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: places in this age. We think church planting is something,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: you know, for a select group of individuals. Like it's,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that's the special forces of Christianity. No, healthy churches plant churches.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: It's like, it's like families that grow. Healthy churches plant churches.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: This is what we do. This is who we are.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we plant churches close to us. Sometimes we help
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: partner and plant churches far away. But ultimately, it's about
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: planting churches. The mission of the church is not to
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: feed the hungry. It's not to clothe the naked. It's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: not to give shelter to people who don't have shelter.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: That is not the mission of the church. Did I
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: say that that's unimportant? Did I say that Christians shouldn't
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: do those things? No, I did not say that. Christians
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: should do those things, and those things are important. But
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: when we are known for those things and not for
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the proclamation of the gospel, what we have said is
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: people going to hell is acceptable as long as they
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: have food, clothing, and shelter on their way. That's the
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: wrong answer, folks. That's the wrong answer. We are about
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the proclamation of the gospel and planting healthy churches. Paul's
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: missionary journeys gives us a picture of this. What did
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: he do in his missionary journeys? He planted churches. Paul
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: didn't go, you know, to Asia Minor and take money
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: and feed people and, you know, dig wells and things
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: of this. I mean, again, life would have been rough
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: for the people in these different places. He didn't go
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and do that and then come back and report and say,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: here are the number of people who now have clean
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: drinking water because I went to, no, he planted churches.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: He planted churches. He planted churches. And as a result
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: of planting churches, people there now had their lives impacted
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: so that things like their drinking water and housing and
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: clothing would be affected as well. But we can't get
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: there too fast. The pastoral epistles also makes this clear.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: It's an evangelistic commission baptizing them. We go and we
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: do evangelism. The name of the Father and the Son
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit. This implies conversion. This also implies
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the rejection of false gods, the rejection of false gods.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: We don't go places just to help people live a
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: little bit better. We don't go places to help people
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: add a little Jesus to whatever it is that they're
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: already practicing, okay? This is why the early missions in
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the book of Acts set off so much controversy. Everywhere
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Paul went, there was either revival or a riot, or both.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Everywhere he went. Partly because he's confronting false religions with
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the gospel. It's a comprehensive commission, teaching them to observe
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: all things. This leaves nothing out. This implies long-term commitment.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: And it impacts people and culture. This is important, folks.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: You know, oftentimes... We think about the world in terms
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: of first world, third world. and there are ways that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: we think about this and things that we believe about this.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: And we say that there are certain people who are
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: just better off because of X. And there are certain
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: ways to look at this. Because of the influence of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Darwinian evolution, what our tendency has been is to look
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: at this in terms of the ethnicity of prosperous people.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And so you look at people and you say, well,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the prosperity in the world, if you look
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: at it, it's focused mainly around Europe. And then, you know,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, out here in the Americas, especially,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: you know, here in North America, because Europeans came here,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: it's an ethnic thing. It's because people of European descent
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: are just superior. And so they build superior cultures. And
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: that's what we've seen. Nothing could be further from the truth.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: And there are people who believe this. There are people
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: in third world countries who believe that the reason that
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: they're in the condition that they're in is because their
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: skin is dark. And dark skinned people just don't build cultures.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: There are people who believe this. Paul Washer, you know,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: is one of my dearest friends. He's been here and
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: preached for us before. Paul Washer, actually in a sermon
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: in Zambia, addressed this issue when he was there on
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: one trip. And he said something that has stuck with
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: folks for a long time. Because he saw, even as
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: he traveled throughout the world, in Asia, in Africa, in
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: South America and other places, this idea that people in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: the third world had that, you know, somehow we're inferior.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to lighter skin people because they're the ones who have
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: great cultures. And it must just be because we are
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: the darker, inferior races. And he said, as only Paul
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Washer could, the difference is not ethnicity, it's the gospel.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Before the gospel came to Europe, they were painting themselves
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: blue and eating each other. And it's true, folks. Europeans
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: were barbarians before the gospel came. It had nothing to
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: do with the hue of their skin. It had to
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: do with the degree to which the gospel infiltrated every
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: area of life. That's the difference. The prosperity that people experience,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the freedom that people experience, it's because of the gospel.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: And the great irony is that now Europe and America
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: are rejecting the gospel and we're becoming barbarians again. Killing
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: our young. Embracing and celebrating homosexuality. Killing our old. This
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: is what barbarians do. It's the gospel that transforms culture.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: And so if all we do is go in and
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: throw some money at folks and dig them some wells
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and give them some clothes and build them some structures,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: but there is not the gospel, then we're gonna spend
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the rest of our lives, really the rest of their lives,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: because they won't last long, doing the same thing over
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: and over and over again. But if the gospel is
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: brought into a culture, and takes root in a culture,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: and the implications of the gospel are taught to a culture,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: and people understand how the implications of the gospel impact
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: and infiltrate every area of life, then you see cultural
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: transformation on a grand scale. Now you're not just giving
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: people fish, you're teaching them how to fish. And it
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: makes a difference. This is the problem with hit and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: run missions. The idea that all we need to do
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: is go somewhere, show them a film, and ask them
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: to raise their hands, and then come back and report. Listen,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: if reports are accurate from some of these film projects
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and other hit and run evangelism projects, if reports are accurate,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Asia and Africa have been saved multiple times over. If
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: the reports are accurate. Because people come back and like thousands,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: thousands were saved. Because we showed a film and then
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: asked people to raise their hand. And in order to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: be kind to the foreigner who brought us nice stuff, sure,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: we raised our hands. And you go back a year later,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: five years later, ten years later, they're still mired in paganism.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: but it's worse because now if somebody comes with the gospel,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the response they get is, yeah, we already did that.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Now they've been inoculated. You see, our commission is a
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: comprehensive one. It's not just hit and run. We go
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and we proclaim the gospel and we lay down roots.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: so that we can take the time to explain the implications,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: so that lives are changed and transformed. This is why
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the church doesn't just migrate from place to place to place.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: This is why, you know, the apostles didn't just take
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: everybody and say, okay, you know, here we are, and
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: we're here, and we're evangelized, let's just all go somewhere else,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: you know, that could be there. No, no, no. Not
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: everybody goes everywhere. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest parts of
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the world. You know, most people in Acts, didn't get
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: past Judea? Think about that. They didn't get past Judea.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: They didn't get to Samaria. They didn't get to the
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: remotest parts of the world. Does that mean they were
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: unfaithful or unsuccessful? No. No. Not everyone is called everywhere.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Because when ground is taken, it has to be secured. Secured.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: So yeah, there are some who will go to the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: remotest parts of the world. Praise God for them. They
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: are no more significant in God's plan than people who
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: are called to be faithful in Jerusalem.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: This is like the woman whom God calls to, you know,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: give her life to her family and raising her children
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: that somehow thinks that she's inferior if there's not something
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: more that she's doing with her life. Hmm. Nothing can
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: be further from the truth. Bloom where you're planted. Be
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: faithful where God's called you. If your mission field is
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: the children in your home who need you to do
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: this very thing, what do they need? They need you
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: to bring in the gospel. And then they need you
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: to instruct them in all the things which he's commanded us.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: That's what they need. That's what they need. That's your
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: mission field. Don't neglect that mission field for another.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: Amen? Amen.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll stop here so we have a few
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: minutes for questions. Yes?
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: Can you elaborate on the idea of the immutability of
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: God with the idea of God changing brain and flesh?
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. The idea of the immutability of God, the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: idea that God doesn't change with the idea that the
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Godhead is essentially changed because there's one who takes on flesh.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: depends on how you're defining change. If by change you
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: mean God learned something that he didn't know, God doesn't
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: learn things that he didn't know. If by change you
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: mean God adapts and whatever so that he can better
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: handle things. No, that doesn't happen. But if by change
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: you simply mean there wasn't A person in the Godhead
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: who had taken on flesh. And now there is a
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: person in the Godhead who had taken on flesh. Yes.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: That change. It doesn't change who God is.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: It changes the circumstances within the Godhead because now you
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: actually have one member of the Godhead who has a body.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Which is an amazing idea. Jesus didn't have a body before.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: And now he does. You know, he never tasted death before.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Now he has. This is why he is our perfect savior.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Anybody else? No questions. No questions. If you don't ask
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: me questions, I'll ask you some.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: Do you think Africa may become the next Christian nation
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: as opposed to America or Europe?
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Do I think Africa might become the next Christian nation
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: as opposed to America or Europe? Well, first, Africa is
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: not a nation. It's a continent that has 55 nations.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: And that's a very common mistake. We talk about Africa
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: like it's one country, and it's not. Nor is Europe,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: even though they're trying to become that. Do I think
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: that Africa may become the epicenter of Christianity? It could.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: It could. There are a lot of people who talk
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: about the epicenter of Christianity moving and moving south because
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: of things that are happening in South America and things
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: that are happening in Africa and places like that. And
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: I think to a certain extent, it's true that that
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: is happening. But by the same token, we can't take
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: lightly what has happened here in the U.S. For example,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: wherever you are in the world, even when God is
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: moving in South America and Africa and Asia or wherever,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, when God is moving and there are people
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: who are coming to faith and there are churches who
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: are growing and so on and so forth, when they
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: want to grow in their learning and understanding and they
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: need books to help them Guess where they get them from?
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: Right here. Because there's nowhere, nowhere that has the wealth
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: and depth of theological learning and expertise that we have here.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: And it will take generations for that to be accumulated
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: in other places, in their context. That just doesn't happen overnight.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: The other thing is, when you think about America, it's
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: easy for us because we're here, you know. And we think, oh,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: so many things are changing and so many things are
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: getting so bad. But if you go somewhere else, if
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: you were to go somewhere else and live, you know,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: for a year or two or five in a place
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: where the gospel is really, you know, progressing and advancing.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: One of the things that you would realize is that
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: people there are listening to preachers from here. Because some
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: of the greatest preachers in the world are here. How
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: many of us are listening to preachers from other parts
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of the world, right? I mean, you know, we're so
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: spoiled that we don't realize, you know, what we have.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: And then the third problem, I think, is that we
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: have this assumption that if we're faithful and if God
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: is really here and really at work and really moving, well,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: that's going to mean that we're going to have bigger
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: churches and, you know, all of our you know, politicians
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: are going to reflect what we believe. And, you know,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: our laws are going to reflect what we believe. And,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: you know, we're not going to have this moral problem
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: and that moral problem, dah, dah, dah, dah. Nothing could
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: be further from the truth. You know, I mean, we've
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: experienced something here that the rest of the world hasn't experienced.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: It's not the norm. You know, the norm is that
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: Christians are in the minority. The norm is that living
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: as a Christian with Christian, you know, morality and sensibilities
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: puts you on the outside. culturally, not on the inside.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: It brings persecution. So I think, you know, you combine
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: those three things and it makes us sort of overreact
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: to what's happening in the Southern Hemisphere.
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, great question. Seth's question is basically, what is the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: correct way for us to think about or to balance
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: the idea that the church's mission is to be the church,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: to plant the church, to take the gospel and plant
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: gospel churches in other places with the idea that there
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: is so much involvement in humanitarian work and so on
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: and so forth. And we call that mission. I think
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: two things. One, I am not going to say that
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the humanitarian stuff is bad or wrong. It's people are
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: made in the image of God and to be a
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: blessing to people is, is a blessing. That's why most
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: hospitals are called Baptist, Methodist, you know what I'm saying,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: or whatever, because Christians, as mercy ministry did this, the
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: idea of the orphanage, the idea of all of this,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: this is Christians doing mercy ministry. But we've always understood
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: that mercy ministry came out of this foundation of our mission, right?
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: And so it was part of our mission. It was
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: rooted and grounded in our mission. I think what's wrong
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: today is, is not that we're doing mercy ministry, but
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that we've separated mercy ministry from the mission of the
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: church and we've called it the mission of the church.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: So now instead of people who have a desire to
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: do mercy ministry being rooted and grounded in the mission effort, right?
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: And gospel centered and accountable to this gospel centered locale,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: we now just sort of go off as Lone Rangers
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: and call this the mission of the church. And because
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: there's so much wealth in America, you can raise funds
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: and go and do that and call yourself a missionary
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: and say that God is blessing it because you were
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: able to find enough money to keep on doing it.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: And our theology is so bad in this area that
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: we don't even have a check, you know, in relation
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: to these things. There are a lot of people out
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: there on the mission field who are not part of
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: a church and haven't been part of a church for decades.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: You know, campus ministry, is a prime example. In many
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: campus ministries, you have people who go out to campus,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: and I say this because, you know, you're a college student,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: and you know this. There are campus ministries out there
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: on your campus, and basically this is how they work.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: We're here, we're going to evangelize the University of Houston.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: and we're going to have our weekly meetings, and we're
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: going to have our discipleship groups, and we're going to
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: have all these things for the students, right? And we
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: do all of these sorts of things. Well, we're not
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: going to be connected to any particular church because we
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: don't want other churches to be threatened by the particular
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: church that we're connected to because then they won't give
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: us money. And since we're not really connected to a
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: particular church, we'll tell people you need to find a church,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: but we won't really push that. So we'll have people
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: in our leadership who are not members of a church,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: not accountable to a church, and essentially our weekly meeting
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: here on campus is their church. And then when people
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: get saved, if they're really on fire, guess what they'll do?
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: When they graduate, they'll go raise support, come back to
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: the campus, and do the same thing. They won't go
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: be part of a church. And so you have generations
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: of campus ministry leaders and campus ministers who know nothing,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: nothing of authentic Christianity in the context of a real church.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: That's sick. That's not healthy. That's sick. Okay. That's a
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: sickness in the church today. And that's just one example,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: but what's the problem. We're disconnected from the source. We're
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: disconnected from the church. Jesus came to build one thing, right?
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: He came to build his church. That's what he came
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: to build. Everything else that we do has to flow
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: out of that, has to be accountable to that, has
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: to serve that. When we're doing that, man, then it's great.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: You know, it's great.
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Listen, there were several questions in those two.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: Let me back up and deal with the first one.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: And this is, how do we capture or captivate the
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: younger generation that's passionate about reaching people with the gospel?
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: How do we captivate them and direct that rightly. I
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: think one of the things that we have to do
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: is we have to have a biblical theology of mission.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: We have to do this. We have to have this conversation.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: That's why we're doing this. This is a conversation we
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: have to have. And it's a conversation that's not happening.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: And because we have this sort of churchless mentality in general,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: when people think about Christianity, they don't think about the church.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: The church is a place that you go, right? Y'all
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: know the next book after this one that I have
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: coming out. in May is the book titled Churchless Christianity.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: And one of the analogies that I use, especially as
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: it relates to young people, is that young people have
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: kind of a Starbucks mentality when it relates to the church.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I like this Starbucks over here. It's got
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: good coffee. There's another coffee shop on the other side
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: of town. Every once in a while, I'll go over
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: there Um, because the coffee may not be as great,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: but the ambience is better, you know, and then, you know,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'll go and I'll just, you know, not do
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: coffee at all. I'll go to somebody, you know, that
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: that's the attitude that we have toward the church, you know? Yeah, sure.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: I show up sometimes and, you know, membership is, what
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: is that? You know, um, you know, commitment to the
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: church doesn't exist. I'm here to be entertained. You know,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: I'm not here to be connected. I'm not here to
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: be accountable. I'm sure to be entertained. And if there's
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: something entertaining on the other side of town, I'll run
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: over to the other side of town and I'll enjoy
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: that as long as I, you know, enjoy it. And
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: when I don't enjoy it anymore, I'll come back over here,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: you know, or maybe I'll go, you know, that's the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: attitude that we have toward church. And so when you
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: have that sort of churchless mentality and you couple that
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: with the passion of youth and this desire for the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: world to be reached, well, I can also have a
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: churchless mission, right? I can just say, you know, man,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: I heard about this sex trafficking thing, you know, this
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: is a big deal with the young people now, you know,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: I heard about this sex trafficking thing and I want
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: to get involved in this and I want to eradicate
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: sex trafficking. And so I'm going to go not to
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: my church, you know what I mean? And figure out
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: what in our context would make sense for us to do.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go to an organization that's not connected
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: to or accountable to a church so that I can
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: rid the world of this You see, this is what's happening.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: But it's because we have a faulty understanding of the
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: church and a faulty understanding of missions. That's why this matters.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: That's why we need to talk about this. That's why
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: we need to have this, you know, this series. And
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: so then the question is, would it then be wrong
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: for people to sort of run off and, you know,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: do these things in these various other directions? Yes, to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: the degree that it's not connected to and accountable to
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: The local church. But again, this is foreign. What I'm
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: saying is foreign, right? What I'm saying people would call,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: you know, legalistic. People would call unrealistic. People would call,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Look at all the things
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that we've been able to do and da-da-da-da-da and so
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: on and so forth. Okay, yeah, we've fed a lot
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: of people. Yeah, we've helped a lot of people. But
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: we've also created an entire generation, probably two generations now,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: that have no sense of the importance and the centrality
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: of the local church. It wasn't worth that. Nothing's worth that.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Short-term missions, again, short-term missions is important and
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: helpful when it's connected to a long-term mission. So short-term
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: missions in terms of, you know, I'm just going to
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: go do whatever with this organization that's not connected to
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: a local church, that's not connected to indigenous ministries, that's
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: doing whatever. Listen, you want to go dig water wells
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: for people There's nothing wrong with going and digging water
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: wells for people. Nothing at all.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Humanitarian mercy ministry. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Don't call
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: it missions. Now, if you're planting churches and you're connecting
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: that to this idea of digging water wells, and when
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: you get on the ground, you're going to be connected
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: to a local church that that's doing missions, you see
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? Now you can say we're involved in
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: the mission of the church. Medical missions and things of
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: this nature. Great, when you're connected to the ministry of
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: the church. Absolutely. The whole thing in Zambia, in African
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Christian University. One of the things that makes this attractive
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: and a possibility as we think about it in terms
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: of eldership and even beyond as we brought in involved,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: you know, even, uh, uh, David and, and, um, um, and, and,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: and to a lesser degree, Josh, um, is the idea
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: that this is connected to local churches. This is a
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: school that's under the authority and the auspices of local churches.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: This is the, this is the, this is, this is
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: a mission outreach. of local churches. This is part of
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: this whole idea that people need to be literate and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: understand the gospel and we need to train ministers who
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: are literate to understand the gospel and we need to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: be attached to, connected to, accountable to the local church.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: When you look at what Harvard and Yale and Princeton
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: and others were established to be and what they've become today,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: it's the major distinction. There is absolutely no accountability to
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the church, you know? So anyway, short-term missions, it'd be great.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: It'd be great. Most people don't just get up one
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: day and go into long-term missions. Most of them have
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: experienced something short-term, you know, and that gave them exposure
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: and understanding, broadened their horizons. They understood, you know, global
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Christianity and what's happening. And it was that that, you know,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: led them on.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: Can you comment on the kind of large-style crusade efforts
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: that you generally see that are very visible and popular
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: in South America?
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: And is there a place for that?
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: The question is, is there a place for large-style crusade efforts?
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: And the answer is, absolutely. Because it happens in Acts 2. So,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah. I can give an unequivocal yes to that.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? Yeah, well, that's two different things there.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: When you talk about these, you know, large-style, you know,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: evangelical crusades, you know, what happened in Acts 2 happened
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: because of another event that gathered a crowd, right? It wasn't, hey,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: let's go hand out flyers and let's go do whatever
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: and then we go get a crowd. It wasn't that.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: So while my answer is yes, that doesn't mean that
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: this whole process that you see people like Reinhard Bonnke
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: and others going through in order to build ministries that
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: are based on this are effective and biblical because they're not.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Because one of the things that has to happen is
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: It has to be connected to the local church. You
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: have to have this idea that people who are hearing
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: the gospel are going to be, you know, followed up
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and discipled and, you know, taught to observe whatsoever I've
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: commanded you in the context of a local church. Um,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: and so, you know, to, to that degree, yes, you can.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: And there are, there are different ways in different times
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: to when you can gather crowds together, especially in third
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: world countries. You know, sometimes just having a foreigner to
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: come in, you know, he's gonna be doing whatever. That's
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: something that can sometimes, you know, gather a crowd of
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: people to come and hear the gospel. And there's nothing
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: inherently wrong with that. But what we're seeing, you know,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: when you bring up this sort of specific, this specific version,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: what we're seeing there is promises of health, wealth, and prosperity,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: gold in your teeth, you know, healing crusades and these
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: sorts of things. And so you've got desperate people, poor people,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: you know, ravaged with sickness who are being lied to
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: and told to come to these meetings so that they
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: can get what other people have gotten when the fact
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: of the matter is other people haven't, you know. Now
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: ask these people for, you know, the, oh, where was it? Pensacola.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: What was the big Pensacola revival? The second time. What
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: was the guy's name? Guy who, you know, kicked people
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: in the face or whatever. What's that? Todd Bentley. You know,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Todd Bentley. I mean, this thing was going, this thing
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: was huge. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people come
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: in there. And there are all these reports from Bentley about,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: you know, healings and this, that, and the other. Do
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: you know when that thing finally fizzled out? It wasn't
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: when he had an affair and he left his wife
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: or the other woman and all this sort of stuff.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: You can recover from that. But when it really fizzled
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: out was when he was interviewed, I think it was
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: on Nightline. And they asked them for records of these healings,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: these miracles. And they brought some stuff in. And he's like,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: what is this? This is all scratched out. We don't
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: have doctors. We don't have this. We don't have that.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: There were no records. They were saying, we've recorded this
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: many miracles and healings and this and that and the other.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: There wasn't one. There wasn't one. Other than some psychosomatic things,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: people getting up saying, I don't feel this anymore. Later on,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: they felt the pain that they didn't feel during that
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: you know, moment or whatever, but there was, there wasn't one.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: And so what's happening is people are coming because of
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: false hope, you know? And that's what's, that's what, what's
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: heart rending about what's going on in those types of things.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: And they're preying on the weakest and the poorest people
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: in the world and taking advantage of them.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: You know. So.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Great question. The question is when you connect this
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: with Revelation 20 and Jesus, you know, talking about, you know,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: I'll be with you to the end of the age,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: the idea of Satan being bound. And then there's that phrase,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: him being released for a little while. Again, I'll refer
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: you back to that series on Revelation, but that idea
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: is that's the end of the age. He's released at
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: the end of the age. And literally all hell breaks loose.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: It's unlike him. anything that people have seen. Does that
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: mean that nobody will be saved during that time? Well, no,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: because there were people saved before that time, right? There
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: were people saved before that time. There were people saved
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: before Jesus went to the cross. There should be some
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: amens around here on that. How many times have we
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: talked about the fact that people were saved the same
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: way before Christ as they were after Christ? They believed
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: in the Savior to come, right? So it doesn't mean
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: that nobody can be saved during that time. But what's
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: significant about this time is the way that the gospel
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: is progressing among the nations, among all of these nations.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: So at the end of the age, it's not like
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: there's a period and the gospel will be effective and
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: reach the nations. And then at the end, There's a
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: period where it won't be effective and reach the nations.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: The gospel will have reached the nations by then. What's that?
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Our goal will never change. Our goal will never change.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: And that's not going to be a long time. That's
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: not going to be a long time. Those are those
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: days that by God's grace will be cut short.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: Time.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: Time's up. Next time, ask questions earlier. Let's pray.