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Voddie Baucham - The Conflict of Evangelism · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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