God’s Plan for Missions 2

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We are seeing the church make a deliberate effort to carry the gospel to the whole world. The book of Acts is the story of how the early church understood the words of Jesus Christ when he said in John chapter 20, verse 21, as the Father has sent me, so send I you.

We come to the book of Acts and we learned last week in the first five verses about the calling to missions. We saw in the church at Antioch that God, through the Spirit of God, had called out these two men, Paul and Barnabas, and that they would assemble a team that would begin and launch a missionary journey.

Bible scholars call it the first missionary journey. As we begin in chapter 13 verse 6, all the way through chapter 14 verse 28, we witness this first journey that Paul and Barnabas were on. Their mission, their assignment from heaven, was that they were to go into these particular cities and they would plant Bible -believing churches.

They would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many would come to Christ, but yet some would resist the gospel. This morning as we understand God’s plan for missions, we’ve learned how the calling to missions works.

But I also want us to understand today the challenge of missions. We are under this impression that whenever we surrender to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, that it will just always be easy.

Well, this morning when we look at the challenge of missions, we understand that God’s plan for the gospel message was not to be just limited to the Jewish people, but it was an inclusive message to go to every home and every heart, that it was a message to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

But there would be challenges that not everybody would like, that Paul and Barnabas are out there trying to win people to Christ. We pick up in verse 6 and we note the first challenge of missionary work is dealing with deception.

The Bible says in verse 6 of chapter 13 of the book of Acts, now when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar -Jesus, who was with the pro -counsel, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.

This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God. But Elmas, the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the pro -counsel away from the faith, then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord.

And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time, and immediately a dark mist fell on him. And he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand, and then the pro -counsel believed when he saw him.

what he had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. A sorcerer, a false teacher, a sorcerer, a magician who dabbled into the occult named Elmas, which is simply a translation of the Arabic word magician, was trying to resist the gospel and trying to deceive those who wanted to hear the Word of God taught.

We understand that this individual was doing everything they could to stand against the advancement of the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet what we witness here is that as Paul and Barnabas are going out, right at the inception of their missionary journey, right out of the gate, they are dealing with deception.

And I want you to note how they deal with that deception. Do you see, Saul? Do you see Barnabas just laying down and saying, now let’s not ruffle any feathers, let’s not upset anybody, let’s just try to all get along so we can go along.

No, would you come back with me to verse nine. Then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s not doing this in the flesh. He is filled with the Spirit of God, looked intently at him and said, oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

Friends, he calls out the false teacher. He doesn’t just say, write a letter to him and say, please quit deceiving people, but publicly he calls out the false teacher. He addresses and confronts the false teaching, which is a reminder to all of us this morning that we are called to stand against false teachers and we are called to stand against false teaching.

Jesus warned us in Matthew seven to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. I’m telling you that today in America, we are captivated by our senses.

We are shaped by our experiences and all too often we are led astray by appearances. And what we need to make sure is that even as we are out there sharing the gospel, whether it is our missionary colleagues who are taking the gospel across the world, or whether it’s our ministry trying to share the gospel across the street, that there will always be this deception that we have to deal with.

There has to be a boldness, a holy boldness, and a spirit filling within us willing to stand against false teaching. Because the devil is working 24 seven to make sure that the gospel does not go to different people, that the gospel does not reach the heart.

and the homes of people. The devil is going to do everything he can to trap people into false teaching. That very much like this man, this pro -counsel, that he was hungry for the word of God. He invited Paul and Barnabas to come and to share the gospel with him.

He invited them to come and teach him the word of God. But yet this sorcerer, this magician, this occultic person tries to step in and resist the true teaching of Jesus Christ and what does the apostle do?

He calls them out. Now when we’re trying to identify false teachers, it can be very confusing because there are many teachings in our land and even in the world there are many religions that are in our land and we have to be alert to these things and how do we identify false teachers?

I want you to remember that it comes down to three questions. that you have to ask when you’re trying to identify false teaching. Within the family of God, within the body of Christ, there are going to be differences.

But that doesn’t mean that’s false teaching. It doesn’t mean that’s heresy. How do we identify what is true heretical teaching? Number one, what do you believe about Jesus? I want to know what people believe about Jesus Christ.

Now think about this. I want to know, do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he offered himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, that he is the savior of the world, and that on the third day he arose from the tomb and that he has ascended into heaven and he is at the right hand of the Father.

What do you believe about Jesus through the years, church? Those of you that have been with me from the beginning of our ministry here, you know that there have been times that we have called out false teachers.

We do not call these false teachers out because we are somehow antagonistic towards them or that we might even be jealous of them or that we don’t even like their style of ministry, but rather we call them out because they do not believe in the same Jesus that you and I believe that is found and presented to us and revealed to us in the word of God many years ago.

And I told the church that Joyce Meyer is a false teacher. And I’ll tell you what, I could have created a firestorm because Joyce Meyer does not believe when Jesus Christ hung on the cross that he was God.

She denies the deity of Jesus Christ. I have the quotes, I have the video clip. I’m glad to present it all to you, but I know that so many are infatuated with the appearances and I know that many are infatuated with the…

razzle, dazzle, and you’re easily sucked in to the false teachers and their ministries, and you buy into the poison that they are feeding you. I understand when your heart is hurting, and you’re wounded, and you’re struggling, that it’s easy to grab the quickest medicine that you can find, only to find it is not the right medicine nor is it the truthful medicine that’ll heal your heart.

The second question that we ask when we’re dealing with deception is what do you believe about salvation? What do you believe about salvation? There’s only two types of teachings about salvation. You either believe that you’re working your way to heaven, you’re being good enough to get to heaven, that you’re doing something or you’re not doing something so that you’ll be accepted and be able to go into heaven,

or you believe that Jesus Christ did all the work on the cross for your salvation. You believe in Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should what church?

Both. We can’t brag and say, Lord, look at me. I went to church so often I got a pin. I put money towards the church. Look at me, Jesus. I should be worthy to be able to enter into heaven. Friends, I want to tell you that the best of us are not worthy to enter into heaven, amen?

That the best of us, the prophet Isaiah said, that our righteousness is as filthy rags. And friends, I want you to know that even at your best, you fall miserably short of the perfection and the righteousness of God, and that the only way that you and I can be saved from our sins and be worthy to enter into heaven and to live with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever is by faith in Jesus Christ.

And what he did on the cross, what Jesus did on the cross, for you to say that, well, I’ll believe in Jesus, but I’ll also work my way to heaven. I’ll kind of combine them together is an insult to the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

What you’re saying is that his work on the cross was not good enough. It was not sufficient enough. And so you’re just gonna come in and you’re gonna kind of fill in the gaps and you’re gonna kind of make it better.

No, my friends, Christ paid it all. Jesus did all that was necessary. You say, well, then pastor, why should I work? Why should I do anything? Well, first you’re created and designed by God to work for the Lord.

But ultimately, why do I work? Because I love Jesus Christ. My labor of love is not… It is not to earn merit, it is not to earn salvation with God. My labor of love for the Lord is because I love Him and I want to show my love to Him and I want to show my gratitude to Him and therefore I am busy for the Lord.

I am active in the cause of Christ. I am doing everything that I can that more people might experience the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. Don’t you believe church that the work of Christ and the plan of salvation is good news to mankind?

Oh, amen. Now friends, the third question. How do I discern and identify a false teacher? First, what do they believe about Jesus? What do they, number two, believe about salvation? Number three, what do they believe about the Bible?

Friends, I believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God from Genesis all the way to Revelation. I don’t believe the Bible just contains the Word of God. I believe the Bible is the Word of God.

And I believe that God breathed his word through his prophets and through his apostles who were designated at a certain time and a certain season that they would reveal to us what God’s word is, the Old Testament, the New Testament.

It all comes together to give us the message of God. It all comes together to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t believe the Bible’s a buffet that we pick and choose what we want and that we kind of just say, well, I like that part, but I don’t like that part.

I’m not one of those preachers who said, oh, the Old Testament, we don’t need it. No, my friends, we need God’s word from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Can God’s people say amen? Now friends, if you don’t believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God, if you don’t believe it’s God breathed and came from heaven and delivered to us and preserved for us today in our language that we have been given,

if you don’t believe that, my friends, we can’t work together. Because this is the word of God. And I’m not going to put down the word of God. I’m not gonna diminish the word of God. I believe that faith comes by hearing the word of God.

I believe the word of God will strengthen you, comfort you, encourage you, guide you, teach you, equip you, and train you, and all the things that you might need. God’s word is sufficient to do its effective work in our hearts and the prophet Isaiah said that his word, God’s word, would not return boy.

God’s word will do its mighty work. And so when we’re dealing with deception as we are out there friends, remember that those are the three areas. Now we may have differences. Some of you may want to be a Presbyterian.

Some of you may want to be a Pentecostal. Some of you may want to be a Baptist. Some of you may want to be a Methodist. And some of you may want to have a different title. Whatever titles you want. You slap whatever label you want.

But here’s the only. The only thing I care about, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. And you see, people say, well, I’m of this, I’m of that, and my grandma was this and my grandpa was that.

Friends, it doesn’t matter. God doesn’t have grandchildren. It’s your relationship with God. I’m a pastor, I have three children, I have three grandchildren, but they all have to give an account to God themselves.

They don’t get any special privileges, because their dad was a pastor. Everybody has to give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that, church? Oh, I hope so. Friends, the challenge of missions as we’re sharing the gospel, not only locally, but globally, is that we have to deal with deception, but I want you to see the second challenge is dealing with frustration.

We come down to chapter 13. Now, I’ve already told you that Paul and Barnabas, they put this team of people together. It included, obviously, Paul and Barnabas, but it included, Luke, it would include Timothy and Titus, and it would include a young man whose name was John Mark.

But would you notice with me in verse 13? Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John, that is John Mark, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. Have you ever started out and as you were getting on a journey and you had a task and you had a job and you had an assignment and then all of a sudden your team started falling apart?

Have you ever tried to go out there and share Christ with someone and you were responsible for certain things and other people were responsible for certain things and come to find out that the other people didn’t do their job and now you’re all alone trying to do it yourself?

This is the frustration that the Apostle Paul is experiencing, that he has gone and set out with this team, but all of a sudden, there is a young man who leaves. Now the question is why did John Mark leave Paul and Barnabas?

Luke never tells us. We’ll learn more about John Mark and John chapter 15. We encourage, the story ends well, but in this moment, there is frustration in the heart of the Apostle Paul because people who said they would do something did not do something.

People who promised that they would help never showed up and stepped out instead of stepping up. And so now Paul is frustrated as he is dealing with the departure of John Mark. We don’t know if John Mark left because of a physical problem, an emotional problem, a spiritual problem.

We don’t know. He could have gotten homesick and said I’m coming back. I can’t be away from mamas, fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Have you ever felt like that? Well, whatever the reason was, he’s not there.

And this was so difficult for Paul that we’ll… learn later that it became a point of conflict and dissension between him and Barnabas. We’ll learn about that later but I want you to remember this that as we are serving God people are at different seasons and different levels of their faith and people are going through different things in their life and sometimes the team that you put together may not always be as reliable as you want them to be and they may not be all that they should be and they may not step up when you need them to step up and they may not fill in the gap and help solve the problem and advance the cause of Jesus Christ like you would like them to and what you need to remember is this that when we go into the journey of life and as we are serving God whether we’re on the mission field on a mission trip or we are trying to share the gospel with others that people are flawed how about that how many of you know that nobody’s perfect All of you that are perfect,

would you please stand and make yourself known to this congregation? As I tell people that if you’re perfect, please don’t join an imperfect church, amen? Because you’re gonna mess it all up. You see, friends, as we’re serving with our brothers and sisters in Christ, guess what?

Sometimes they fail us. Sometimes they disappoint us. Sometimes they discourage us. But what I’m trying to say is this, sometimes rather than coming to be a blessing and coming to be a help and to be an encouragement, sometimes we come and we got all of our frustrations and we got all of our angst and we just kind of let it all out and we’re just kind of discouraging people everywhere we go and we’re just dropping all these emotional bombs on people rather than coming to the house of the Lord and people being built up and encouraged and strengthened and excited about serving God and wanting to love God more and love people more,

they walk away frustrated. And I want you to understand something. What does Paul and Barnabas do? Did they quit? Did they fold up their tent? John Mark quit. He went back home. He’s not going with us.

Let’s just give up. No, my friends, your assignment does not stop because one person failed you. Your assignment in heaven that God has called you to do is not finished just because someone offended you.

How many times have I seen this as a pastor through the years of me serving the Lord? How many times people are offended and I can’t get them reengaged. I can’t get them back involved. Somebody said something.

Somebody didn’t do something. Somebody forgot somebody. Friends, great is our reward in heaven. All that I do for God is not based on how people respond. It’s not how people handle situations that I wish they’d have handled better, but it’s based upon my love and my commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you serve God, you are going to face frustrations. I want you to see the third thing. they had to deal with, and that was opposition. Now we come to chapter 13, but I want you to jump down to verse 50.

We’ll back up into this section here a little bit. The Bible says in verse 50 that the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.

What we see is that the civic leaders of this area stirred up opposition that drove Paul from the city, drove his whole mission team from the city. What was their response? This is what I want you to see.

Look at verse 51. They shook off the dust from their feet against them and they came to Econium and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Are you with me, church? There are gonna be challenges in serving God.

There’s gonna be challenges in getting the gospel out and there might. even be opposition. You thought everybody would love you. You thought everybody would get behind you. You thought everybody would welcome you.

You thought everybody would hug you. You thought everybody would give you a pat on the back. But the truth is not everybody’s for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I could take you all the way from chapter 2, chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 8, chapter 12, and now chapter 13 of all the times that the apostles were opposed for preaching, teaching, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now what is happening here in verses 14 through 52 is that Paul is giving an overview as he is sharing the history of Israel through the Old Testament. He was invited to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was invited to come to a synagogue.

We’re going to jump in the middle of his sermon and I want you to go to verse 22 of chapter 13. The Bible says that when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will.

Man, friends, when I read that sometimes because I know more about David’s life than maybe some other people do is that I say, well, that’s not always true. David many times failed God. David many times disobeyed God, but yet the consensus and the conclusion of his life is that he was a man after God’s own heart and he was a man who desired to do God’s will.

The reason I want to share this with you is this, that God is not so much interested in the perfection of our life as he is in the direction of our life. This morning you may have come here and you may be struggling in your journey of faith.

You may be just kind of conflicted in your faith and not sure and you may be struggling that, hey, how could God ever look upon me because I have failed him so many times. Friends, I want you to know that it wasn’t that David was perfect, it was that every time David failed God, he knew that he needed to run to God, and he came to God, and he asked God’s forgiveness, and the Bible teaches us that God restored him and gave him back the joy of his salvation,

and God was able to use David because David’s heart was a heart that was for the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, I don’t want you to give up on your family. I don’t want you to give up on your children.

I don’t want you to give up on your brothers and sisters in Christ. There may be detours in our journey of faith. There may be stumbling blocks in our journey of faith. There may be times that we trip and we get trapped, and there may be times that we fall flat on our faith because we have failed.

We failed God, we disobeyed God, we made bad choices, and we made bad decisions, but I want you to know there is a savior in heaven who is more than ready to restore you back into the family of God and back into fellowship with God.

And the Bible teaches us this is why Jesus Christ went to the cross, that he might pay the price and the penalty of our sins, and you and I could enjoy the forgiveness that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can God’s people say amen? You can read it later, but Paul is describing here how God’s hand was directing the nation of Israel’s affairs, how all of the past was a gift from God, and now the greatest gift has come to them, and that great gift is Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 23, from this man’s seed, meaning David’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus. Jesus is the savior, he forgives us of our sin. I want you to jump over to verse 38.

The Bible says, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, what man, who? Jesus, this man is preached to you, the forgiveness of sin. All of the Bible is about Jesus. All of history is his story.

It is about helping every one of us to experience the redemption, the grace, the forgiveness, the mercy that is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’ve stumbled in here and not sure why you are here, you are here because Christ is calling you to experience his forgiveness in your life.

How did the people respond? We’re back in verse 50. They stirred up. I mean, Paul gives us great presentation of the gospel. It’s powerful, it’s meaningful, it’s benevolent, it’s come get saved, it’s wonderful.

But the Bible says they stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city and they raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas. How did they respond? Verse 51. they shook off the dust from their feet.

Verse 52, the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. When you’re out there serving Christ, you’re gonna get pushback. There are times you’re gonna give the greatest presentation. You couldn’t believe it came out of your mouth about how God saves people.

And yet people will resist you, oppose you, and yet what is to be my response? I don’t want you to have a pity party. I don’t want you to quit. I don’t want you to curl up and say, I’m done. I want you to shake the dust off your feet and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ.

You don’t serve other people. You’re not their servant, you’re God’s servant. Now God will use us to serve others. Yes, I am with you on that. But if the people do not wanna hear the gospel, then our job is not to cry.

Our job is not to quit. Our job is not to get angry, but it’s to shake the dust off your feet and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. by friends and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 13, we see the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

We see his team and one of those individuals was Barnabas and God has set them apart that they would serve. And then we see how the gospel is going forth. And so this is really God’s plan for missions.

God wants us to reach people. We think about our families. We think about our communities. We think about our country. And then we think about the world. And that’s what God wants us to do. This is Pastor Mike Sanders.

And I wanna remind you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.