Most of us come to church on a weekly basis. We take for granted that church will be there for us. What if there were no church in our community? In many cities of the world far larger than we are here in Leamington there are no churches. There are at least 31 churches that gather in Leamington-Mersea every Sunday. What if they were all shut down by the government?
What should our congregation be doing in the world both individually and as a body of believers? If we don't know we might consider doing like the early church did in the book of Acts. What did they do? Were they feasting and fellowshipping? (Oops they were not a Mennonite church.) No. Acts 13 we read that the church leaders fasting and worshipping God. It was during this time that the Holy Spirit spoke to them and asked them to, "Set apart for Me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Let's look at the leaders of this church in Antioch in Syria. Five men are mentioned as the leaders of the Antioch church all from very different backgrounds. What were they doing? They were fasting and worshipping. Perhaps we don't hear from the Holy Spirit because we are not fasting and worshipping diligently enough. Perhaps some of you would like to join me in spending time praying and fasting and worshipping God seeking what His will is for us as a congregation.
From the text it appears that they were immediately obedient in releasing two of the five in their leadership team. Notice that they did not send out just one but two of the leaders of this church. Barnabas and Paul formed a team to spread the news about Jesus dying for the sins of each person. We later read that they could have been others helping them like John Mark who left them part way through the evangelistic church planting journey. Paul seemed to become the spokesman and Barnabas and others helped with prayer and logistics. They all had their responsibilities on the team. They were not lone rangers out to convert the world. They were working together as a team including those that were praying and supporting back in Antioch.
This was one of the key passages to form the direction of my personal ministry. Both Lydia and I had felt a call to go overseas to help spread the good news of Jesus to people who had never heard. Through a series of God events, we ended up going to Japan for a three year term to serve God and to work as a team to help other missionaries and learn how to do church planting from them. Part way through this short term missionary program, we were wondering what God might have in store for us after we finished our first three years.
As I was reading through the Bible to find direction from God as to whether I should continue to serve God in Japan after our short term was up. Reading through the gospels, I came across verses like Matthew 9:36 - 38 "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.'" We need to be praying that God will send out workers to help those who are lonely, struggling, depressed, and hurting in need of assurance, love and compassion.
Then the verse in John 20:21 struck me when Jesus said, "Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you." Jesus had the sense of being sent from the Father. His was not just His own doing but the Father had sent Him to bring salvation to His people. Now He sends others to go and share the good news.
As I was reading through Acts, I was encouraged by people being chosen by the early church to lead in the mission of the church to transform the world. Acts 1, 6 and 13. All have stories of people being chosen to help in establishment of the church. Here in Acts 13 we read that God told the leadership team that they were to send out Paul and Barnabas.
As I continued to read to put together the puzzle about my future direction I was reading in Hebrews 13:17 that I was to submit to my church leaders and obey them. It reads, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you." So I wrote a letter asking our home church for direction giving my reasons based on scripture that missionaries were sent not just adventurers who wanted to help others. After a time of prayer and deliberation they said that they would send me to Japan as a missionary to start new churches.
A new journey for us began as we switched gears from being a computer programmer analyst to a church planter. First we were asked to get more training at a seminary and then more experience as a pastor. These were not road blocks but stepping stones. Finally we were invited to go and work in Japan.
If we look at Paul's growth in the path to becoming a missionary / church planter we see some of the same experiences. First Paul was trained in the rabbinic seminary of the Pharisees. He was schooled in one of the best seminaries at the time to learn the word of God. He was so jealous to keep the purity of the faith that he began to put what he thought at the time were heretics - Believers in Jesus Christ. After that fateful day on the road to Damascus to incarcerate more followers of Jesus Christ his life was changed. He spent up to 3 years in Arabia reconciling the Old Testament with the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. Some believe that Jesus appeared and taught Paul during that time. At some point he returned to his family in Tarsus and that is where Barnabas went to get him to join the ministry team in Antioch and get more experience as a preacher.
We don't know how much time Paul spent with the team in Antioch before God sent him and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. It doesn't look like much time elapsed between the commissioning and the laying on of hands that took place in Antioch. Barnabas and Paul headed to the port of Seleucia to catch a boat to the Island of Cyprus where Barnabas was from. In Acts 4:36 we read that Barnabas was a Levite and sold his property in Cyprus.
The team arrived at the eastern port of Salamis and worked their way across the island to Paphos where God showed His power to do miracles through Paul by blinding a false prophet who was deceiving the government leaders. The proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, believed in Jesus when he saw the power of God in the message of Paul and Barnabas. They had shared the message of Jesus as the promised Messiah and forgiver of sins across the home island of Barnabas. They didn't just stay there but moved on to Southern Turkey and arrived at the port of Perga. By the weekend they were up in Antioch in the district of Pisidia. Jewish leaders were jealous of the popularity of Paul and began to oppose him and his message of repentance and forgiveness and drove them out of town. Barnabas and Paul moved on to Iconium and convinced a large number of citizens both Jews and Greeks to put their trust in Jesus. Their message of grace was accompanied by signs and wonders - miracles which confirmed God's power to save.
When a plot to stone them was discovered, they fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region. In Lystra a man lame from birth was miraculously healed and the people thought that the apostles were gods because of this miracle and wanted to offer sacrifices to them. They had difficulty convincing them that they were just humans like them but Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and stirred up the crowds so that they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city assumed to be dead. As the other believers gathered around Paul, he got up and they moved on to Derbe. In Derbe many people became disciples and after a time, Paul and Barnabas began the return journey though the towns they had previously ministered at Lystra, Iconium and Antioch where they encouraged disciples and appointed elders for each of the churches they had started.
Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch to give a missions report about how God had worked miraculously during the two or three years they had ministered in different places to save so many Jews and Gentiles from a lost eternity and hell.
The mission of the church is to send out people to those who have never heard. Some of those lonely struggling people might be right in our own community. I have been doing some work as a finish carpenter and one of the workers who is painting the house we are working on came from China. We have been talking about China and the Christian churches there. He had never seen a church in China and we told him that there were over 50 million Chinese Christians mostly in House churches and not openly visible because often when they are found by authorities, the leadership is fined, interrogated and thrown in prison. This was a real surprise to this Chinese worker.
Like most people getting an education today the Chinese are fed the line about evolution and the world being billions of years old not the creation of a loving God. There are so many ways to prove that evolutionary sciences has many flaws and is blatantly false. The biggest I believe is to question where the big bang came from. There has to be something from which it started and what is that first cause? Where did the energy ball come from that started the big bang. The evolutionists have no answer from where that came from.
There are a lot of questions we can ask that rock the foundation of the theory of evolution. Things like the Earth's magnetosphere has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years. If we project that back in time millions of years, the earth's magnetic field would be enormously strong keeping the sun's radiation from reaching the earth and making Carbon-14 totally incorrect or the pulling the moon down to collide with the earth. The population of the earth is another proof that the earth cannot be millions of years old but only about 6,000 - 10,000 years old with the flood at Noah's time restarting the population of the world. There were about 2.4 million Jews when Moses led them out of Egypt in 1530 B. C. About the time of Christ they estimate that world's population was about 170 million and today it is at 7 billion and projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. That is a lot of people to evangelize. The job is hugh, gargantuan but we have a bigger God who wants to see every person on this world hear the gospel.
These false theories about the origin of man end up confusing people so much that they do not even believe that a faith in God is possible as this young man told me. By putting out some possible scientific arguments for the young earth, we can question people's faith in the evolutionary theory and open people's mind to the fact that God is the creator of our whole universe and this world. I hope to be able to continue to witness to this Chinese young man in the next weeks. Pray that he will accept the message of Jesus and will begin his journey to faith in Christ.
I still find it difficult to share Christ with unbelievers in a natural way. Paul went to the synagogues where many people believed in the God of Israel but did not know about the sacrifice of Jesus for their sins. When this message was rejected and they were kicked out of the synagogue by unbelieving Jews he found ways to connect with the un-believers in the area.
Paul told Timothy I Tim 1:7 God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. Sometimes we have to be bold and not have the spirit of fear but we need to rely on the Holy Spirit who fills us with wisdom to share what Jesus did even if we know that the person we are talking to has previously had a serious reputation of being anti-Christian. We need to study people to find the chink in their armour which they wear to look like they don't care about our message. Keep caring and showing love. The power of the Holy Spirit is at work. Remember you are not alone because God is with you.
God has placed you at in your family in which there are those who do not yet believe or are wayward. God has brought you to this community and to this church to serve Him. He has called you to bless others with the gifts He has given you through the Holy Spirit. Are you freely using what God has given you to transform the lives of others or are you selfish or fearful? Remember that God loves a cheerful giver and we reap what we sow. So sow lots and cultivate the garden so that you can have the joy of seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ and not just come to church. Let's see if we can transform our families, our companies, and communities.
Will you give your all? Give everything to Jesus and experience His love, joy and peace. Don't hold back and be selfish but be generous giving as much as we can as God leads us. Life will not be without trials as Paul discovered but God will bless you abundantly and give you joy unspeakable.
LEMC 5/27/18
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