Just before we get into the text today, I just kind of want to remind everybody kind of what's in front of us. We do have the 44 page book that we've handed out to most of the families.
If you've yet to pick one of these up, we do have them out at the Welcome Center. And I would love to get that to you regarding our Eternal Impact Initiative. And as we've been laying out the last two months, how we feel that we've prayed about this over the last year, God leading us in this direction for an Eternal Impact Initiative, really focusing in on, you know, what is the vision and the mission of Lighthouse Baptist Church? And what is the core values or what are the core values of Lighthouse? And we know that the mission of the church is to know Christ and to make Him known. That is what Lighthouse is here to do, is to know Christ and to make Him known. And the core values, pastor has preached on two of the three the past two weeks, to glorify God supremely in all that we do and to love people sincerely where they are. And so today, as we get ready to jump into the text, we're going to be looking at to carry out the Great Commission with Passion. That is the third core value of Lighthouse.
So why does Lighthouse exist? To glorify God supremely in all that we do. To love people.
Sincerely where they are. And to carry out the Great Commission with Passion. And that's what we're, you know, if someone was to ask us, it's kind of like the makeup of our church, right?
It's the DNA. This is what Lighthouse is. This is what we breathe. This is what we take in. This is what we put out. And, you know, it's not just here locally as we're talking about this Edify, you know, the local body. We want to Edify, build it up. We want to expand the local ministries here at Lighthouse Baptist Church of Xenia. But also we want to extend, which is then the future building project that we've had the videos for, the pictures out there with. And as we've come today to do the Big Give Sunday as an initial kickoff of this for the next two years is kind of that extend portion and then, or extend. And then the last thing is extending the gospel, I should say. And so when we think about extending the gospel, we want to take on 10 to 12 new missionaries over the next two years. We want to, as well, we're going to be planting a church plant this fall. And that's one thing that I would inform everybody that's here this morning. And you may have an interest in that.
And what does that look like? We are planting a church in Huber Heights, Ohio, and that will be an informative meeting March 30th here at Lighthouse in room 107 after second service that day. And that's for anybody that may be interested in helping go temporarily to that church plan or long term to that church plant and be of service to that work that will be taking place there and expand that. So we're going to be expanding and extending the gospel of Jesus Christ into a community that needs it. And so then, you know, we're looking at not just that one church plant, but we want to be a church plant that plants several churches is what we want to do. We want to be a church that plants several churches into the future. And over the next five years, we plan on planting at least two churches in that timeframe, but to continue that, not just to end at that five year mark.
And that's kind of the heartbeat of this mission today that we're going to talk about with carrying out the commission with great passion. And if you have your Bibles, we'll begin in Matthew 28. Matthew 28 is where we'll begin at.
And when you find your place, if you're able to stand to honor the reading of God's word. Picking up in verse 18, the word of the Lord says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore and make disciples. Therefore, teach all nations are making disciples, basically baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you, and I am with you always, even unto the world.
Amen. And then we'll be over in Acts chapter one as well. Verse eight says, But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your mercy and your grace. Lord, we thank you that you came to seek and to save that which was lost. Lord, we are so privileged to have your word in our hands.
You've perfectly preserved it through the years, Lord, that that it is the inspired word of God. And we come to you this morning seeking the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And Lord, we pray that you would be with our services as we've sang songs of worship to you. Lord, we pray that I would prepare our hearts to receive your word and Lord, that it would take root in our hearts, that it would begin to conform us to the image of Christ, that you would give us a passion, Lord, to carry out your great commission.
Lord, hide me behind the cross, get me out of the way. Lord, just pray that if there's anyone here today, Lord, that doesn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that today would be the day of salvation for them. And Lord, that if there's one here that does not know you, that they would come, Lord, that they would be drawn to you this morning. Lord, I pray for the saint here this morning as well, Lord, that they would be sanctified, that they would be set apart, that they would be filled with your spirit, Lord, to live a passionate life for Jesus Christ, to tell others of what you've done for them. And Lord, may we leave here carrying out the great commission with passion, for it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. Well, I think we can all say that last words are important, aren't they? We can think of a dear loved one as they were getting ready to pass that shared their last words with us. And we think of maybe somebody we looked up to that was a mentor as they retired and went off into retirement, whatever it may be in our workplace.
We can think of maybe an athlete doing the same thing and they retire and they just go off in the distance. And as we read these words this morning, these are some of the last words that Christ gave his disciples. He's commissioning them to this great commission.
It's not an optional thing. It is being commanded that they do these things. And then he says that you go therefore and you teach all nations or you make disciples basically. He says that you baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and you teach them to observe all things in which I have commanded you. And then in John 20 verse 21, he said, then said Jesus unto them, peace be unto you as my father hath sent me, even so I send you. And so we've been sent, we've been commissioned to go to share the gospel, to live out a radical life for Jesus Christ and push the gospel forward into the dark recesses of the world.
And this is exactly what Jesus's instructions were to his disciples. The book of Acts, if you've read through the book of Acts, there's just this spirit of revival that's moving and Christ has ascended to heaven and this is like a transitional period where they are giving many miracles and wonders and signs to validate that they are the apostles of Christ and the gospel explodes. They don't hesitate to do the mission. They go with boldness, with urgency, and with passion.
They carry out the Great Commission. They spread the gospel from Jerusalem to all the known Roman world at that time. The same Holy Spirit that empowered them is living and dwelling inside of us today, empowering us to do the same thing, to live out the Great Commission passionately. And what's interesting is that these men, it says in the book of Acts, were ignorant and unlearned men. I can relate to that sometimes, right? Sometimes I think back into my childhood, I'm like, how did I survive it?
Especially my teen years, that sort of thing. But these were ignorant and unlearned men, it tells us, but yet it says that they took note that they had been with Jesus. And because they had been with Jesus, when we get towards the end of the book of Acts chapter 17 verse 6, it says this, and when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren and the rulers of the city.
These that have turned the world upside down have come here. These ignorant, unlearned fishermen, different types of, you know, these guys are now being radically used to turn the world upside down for the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were passionate about it. They went out to share their faith.
And so there are examples for us to ask these challenging questions, I would say, this morning. What drove them to be so passionate about sharing Christ with others? How did they remain so bold in spite of the persecution that came their way? And what can we learn from their obedience and faithfulness to Christ?
I would say that the book of Acts serves as a blueprint for us as a church today and how we are to model to live out the Great Commission with passion. The question is, are we ready to take up this mission and to go forward with passion to see it to its fulfillment? And that's what we're about here at Lighthouse. And when we're talking about the local church, we're building up the local church, we want to continue to go out, expand, to reach other recesses of the world that we are not impacting yet. And so God has called us into this passionate pursuit of his mission with passion, just as these disciples did.
And think about this. Typically, if you're passionate about something, you're going to talk about it, right? Stand around somebody and just listen to a conversation for a while and you'll begin to pick up what they're passionate about. Is it cars? Is it sports?
Is it, you know, cooking, whatever, maybe fishing, hunting, these sorts of things. And it just comes out, doesn't it? It's natural. They exude it because they're passionate about it. And so you think about this area in which we live, like, it's not too hard to pick out who's a Buckeyes fan, right? And after they won the national championship, they're wearing their clothing and, you know, they're yelling O-H, somebody's yelling I-O, and it's all over the place, right? And they're passionate, they're talking about it and how they beat down Tennessee and how they ran through the SCC and all that, you see where my heart's at now. But what we're passionate about, we talk about, don't we?
It comes out. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5-11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And then three verses later in verse 14, he says, for the love of Christ constrains us. And so this is a passionate thing that Paul was passionate about. He's passionate about the gospel. He's passionate about living out the Great Commission. And therefore, we must only conclude that if we can go day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and never speak of our candidate, Christ Jesus, we either don't really believe in him or he just doesn't excite us enough to talk about him. And so we must conclude that, again, where's our passion?
Where's it at? What do we talk about? The other realm you could go with it is, you know, the checking account. Where I spend my money at is kind of where my heart's at, right, at times. I can remember early on in our marriage, and I've shared this with my 242 group and some other people within the church, I was just not smart as a young married man. I'll just say that.
My wife stayed at home, took care of our daughter. I worked, and I felt, hey, it's payday. It's time to get a new gun, right? And so, like, it was no checking in. Hey, do we have formula for robbery?
Do we have diapers? This sort of stuff. And it's like, hey, it's time to just go out and get what I want. I was passionate about it.
I talked about it. And it's one of those things that as these things well up in us, you know, and we have our affections torn towards that or drawn towards that, we kind of spend the money in that area as well. And so our enthusiasm, I would say, when we start thinking about the gospel, our enthusiasm should be so contagious and so inspiring that it would make others want to join in with us on this incredible journey. If you've ever been around somebody, they're just so, their joy is overwhelming. Like, you want to be a part of it. You want to be around them. It flows over into your life, and whatever they're passionate about, you kind of get passionate about as well. And so just as fans rally around their favorite teams, I say we need to rally and carry out the great commission with passion. That brings us to our first point this morning. You see here in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, he says, But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
And so as we think about this, the Holy Spirit is the power behind the church. You car guys, you know, you may have, like, you know, somebody dropped off a car, whether, you know, just name your dream sports car, whatever it may be. It could be a Bugatti. It could be a Shelby Mustang. You know, it could be a Chevelle, you know, a 68 or 69 Chevelle Super Sport. And whatever it may be, you think about that.
And say you go out to start it, and it doesn't start. It's probably a Ford. Don't write me a letter. Don't write me a letter.
I'm just saying. I drive a Ford, so don't write me a letter. But when we think about that, and say you pop the hood of that car, whatever it was there that your dream car is, there's no engine.
Like, man, I got robbed. Like, who took my engine? And that is what the Holy Spirit is to the church. The Holy Spirit is the engine.
It is the driver. It is the force in which it empowers us as believers to live out the Great Commission. And so the apostles, they did not carry out the Great Commission in their own strength. They were moved by the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill Christ's commissioning. And so Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come. In Acts 1-8, the Spirit is now here, and they begin to do the mission that Christ has called them to.
I love what John Stott said. He said before Christ sent the church into the world, he sent the Spirit into the church. And that's the same principle for us today. We must be filled with the Spirit in order to live out the Great Commission. And there's this promise of power of the Holy Spirit. When we look at that verse, the first thing it says is that the Spirit has come.
That is the first thing. The Spirit empowers. Once the Spirit has empowered according to Acts 1-8, the second thing is that they become witnesses, he tells them.
And the third thing is that the Gospel then spreads outwardly. And so the Holy Spirit is the source behind the boldness, the power. And when we think about this power here, it's the Greek word dunamis. And it carries the meaning of strength or power, the ability. It's an inherent power or a power residing within a thing by virtue. And that's what it's speaking out of here.
And I love E.M. Bounds, what he said here. He said, the Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but men. He does not come on machinery, but men. He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer. And so we must be a people of prayer. We must be filled with the Spirit in order to do the work of the ministry. The disciples had already been with Jesus for three years.
Think about that. They followed Jesus around for three years and they weren't doing what they were supposed to be yet. And, you know, you imagine like anybody have somebody at work, you train, you're like, are they ever going to get it? Are they ever going to get this? Like, I've been with them for three years now and they still don't have this job down.
Like, what is going on? And so they're following Jesus around for three years and they still were missing things. They still didn't have it all together. And yet when the Holy Spirit comes, and some of that I believe is also the resurrection validated some of that stuff for those early disciples, those early apostles. And that was a wakening up moment for them. But then when the Holy Spirit comes, the engine was put in and they were ready to go. And it says in this verse that they were witnesses. And so what is a witness? And I think we can talk about that a little bit.
We mostly understand that. We have a lot of law enforcement that attend our church. But there are two requirements necessary for one to be a witness. And they're the following. A witness must have seen or heard that which about he or she seeks to bear witness to. And then the secondly is a witness must tell others what he or she has heard.
And so then a witness is one who gives testimony of an event, a person, or a circumstance that took place that they were an eyewitness account to. Now let's relate that to the disciples. They were an eyewitness account to what they saw in the life of Jesus for three years. They lived with him.
They did ministry together. And so these witnesses, they saw the things that the Lord had done for three years. And they begin to go out with the power of the Spirit to tell others of what Christ was doing. And I love 2 Peter 1 16, it says, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
Now when we made known unto you the power of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses, eyewitnesses of his majesty. And so as you have studied probably the book of Acts, there's this great division, right? And the book of Acts in chapter 1 through 12 is kind of primarily focused in on Jerusalem and that area of Judea, Samaria. And then Acts 13 through Acts 28 is the gospel going outward to Antioch. Antioch's the hub. Now it's kind of like Chillicothe started Lighthouse Xenia, so Chillicothe would have kind of been like the Jerusalem there. They send Pastor Josh out here to Xenia, and now Xenia is kind of like the Antioch.
And you follow in there and it's kind of continuing to go out. And so that's kind of how the book of Acts flows, and Acts 1 through 8 is really focused in on Jerusalem. Acts 8 through 12 is really Judea, Samaria, and like I said, after that it goes into the uttermost parts of the known world of that time or the Roman Empire. And so this day of Pentecost comes, they're empowered with the Spirit, and Peter preaches boldly. Three thousand souls get saved, and when we think about that, Peter before the Holy Spirit came, he was fearful. He denied Christ three times. He wasn't taking a stand for Jesus. And yet when the Holy Spirit came upon him, and he was filled with the Spirit, he boldly stands up and proclaims Jesus Christ.
And he says it right to the religious leader's faces too, doesn't he? He's like, he's giving it to him. And he's like, you did this, and then you crucified Christ, the Messiah, and he's laying it out for him.
What changed? It was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had empowered him. And then we see that the same Holy Spirit that indwelled Peter indwells us. Romans 8-11 says, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
I don't know about you this morning, but I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of me. It convicts me of my sins. It lets me know when I need a witness to somebody.
Anybody that's like, you're like, ah, not so great about that one. That gets me uncomfortable to have to share the gospel with a person I don't really know that much. And so the question is, are we willing and ready to allow the Holy Spirit to use us to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, to live out the Great Commission passionately?
If the church is to reach a lost world, I would tell us this morning that with the good news of Christ, that we must reflect what 1 Peter 3.15 says, and that is to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you the reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear. And so that's the heartbeat. And just like the press secretary, you know, there's always kind of been a press secretary at the White House. They are the spokesman. And they go to that podium and they stand there and they speak on behalf of the United States, more so on the behalf of the president, whatever administration it is, what he or she thinks is irrelevant as they stand at that podium.
Whether they agree with what it is the president is saying or doing, it is irrelevant. Their job is to speak on the behalf of the president. And so then they have to not only speak on the behalf, but then like the media is just like landblasting them, right?
They're like hitting them with all these questions. And that's kind of the picture of us as Christians. We're the spokesman for Christ. We need to be ready to receive the questions that we're going to get from a lost world that has a lot of questions in regards to, you know, Jesus Christ and salvation. And so we need to be prepared for that. And we see that the Holy Spirit's role in the Great Commission, he convicts the lost as John 16, 8 through 11 tells us. And let me say this. It's not by any eloquency of speech that anyone saves someone.
It's only by the working of the Holy Spirit. If you were here in the first service, I couldn't, in the announcements, I couldn't get my tongue out of my way. Like I was stumbling over my words. I was like, man, what's going on? Am I having a seizure here?
What is happening? And so just know, like from my perspective, like I know that it's not going to be the eloquency of my speech is going to win somebody to the Lord. It's only by the Holy Spirit and his drawing and working in the hearts that one is transformed into the kingdom of light from the kingdom of darkness. And so not only that, but the Holy Spirit unites the church. We see that in Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47. It says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and in prayers. And then jump down to verse 44 says, and all that believe were together and had all things in common. So you see this oneness that they're coming together. And they sold their possessions and goods and parted them unto all men and every man had need. They continued daily with one accord, not a Honda, but one accord in the temple and breaking bread and from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. This unification they were bringing brought together because they were walking in the Spirit. After Pentecost, the Spirit unites believers and fellowship, prayer, generosity and mission.
You know, they begin to sell stuff so that they can bring it to the treasury to put it together. So then they can put it to the need of the body of the church. And then the last part of verse 47, it says, and the Lord added to the church daily.
So the great commission is impossible. I would tell us this morning without the power of the Holy Spirit. In order for us to live a passionate life and carrying out the Great Commission, we too must be filled with the Spirit just like the church must be filled with the Holy Spirit. The question is, do you pray regularly for boldness to share the gospel? Do you pray for divine opportunities to share the gospel? Some of us are afraid to.
I was that way early on. Like I'm like, if I pray for this, I know the Lord is going to give me somebody that I'm gonna have to share the gospel with and I'm not ready for it. I mean, I would go out on visits with Pastor Josh. I'd be so happy.
He would do all the talking. I just sit there and pray. And then many of you heard that story. And one last visit that one day he knocks on the door and he disappeared. I'm standing there.
The ladies look at me. I'm looking at her and I'm like, when's Pastor Josh going to start speaking? Turn and he's nowhere.
I don't know where he moved to. He was gone. What that did is that told me that I needed to get better at sharing the gospel. I needed it. I needed to be ready to share the gospel. And so again, if we pray for boldness to share the gospel, God will give it to us.
If we pray for divine opportunities to have people come across our paths, he will give that to us. That brings us to our second point today as we were talking about spreading the gospel. And really, we're kind of journeying through the book of Acts here. And so the gospel spreads beyond comfort zones is the second point.
Spreading beyond comfort zones. And this is found in Acts chapter 8. There's this great persecution that comes upon the church that is a catalyst for the mission of the local New Testament church.
And we'll pick up in verse 1. It says, And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the apostles. The apostles didn't go.
That's interesting. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made lamentations over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into house, every house, and hailing men and women and committing them to prison. They therefore were scattered abroad, went everywhere, preaching the what? Preaching the word. They weren't the preachers.
Remember, they stayed there in Jerusalem. The church went. They evangelized. They proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And this guy, Saul, who later will become Paul, was unwilling to sit idly back as Gamaliel had commanded in Acts chapter 5. And if you're familiar with that, you know, as Peter is preaching the gospel boldly, they're like trying to get rid of these disciples. They're beating them. They're saying, hey, stop preaching the gospel.
And they're walking away. Thank you, Lord. It's great that we got beaten because of your name's sake and we're worthy to suffer for you. And they come to this point where Gamaliel, he says, hey, if it's of God, you can't stop it. Praise the Lord for that, right? He says, if it's of men, it'll go away. And so here we are, 2,000 plus years later, knowing that it is of God.
And I love how Tertullian said this. Speaking of Christian persecution, he wrote this, kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. Your injustice is proof that we are innocent. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow. The blood of Christians is seed. And indeed, the blood of the martyr of Stephen was a seed that was sown into the soil that birthed the church, into the other recesses that it was supposed to go.
You know, what Satan meant for evil, God purposed for good, didn't he? John 12, 24 says, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And so the seed of Stephen planted in the ground in Jerusalem is still bearing fruit to this day, isn't it?
The church is continuing on. You know, Rome would come along and they were trying to squash out Christianity as much as they could. They would dip them in wax, burn the Christians at night to light their gardens, throw them to the wild beasts to be fed. This great Roman empire that built roads 2,000 years ago, that if you go there today, that you can still drive on those roads, yet we can't have a road here in Xenia that lasts more than a month and a half, it seems like, without a big crater, moon crater in it.
I mean, what in the world? But they had this power to, and they thought that they could just squash out Christianity. And God laughs at it, and he says, no. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And scattering in the Old Testament was a sign of judgment. If you remember back to the Tower of Babel, as they continued to build that tower and God scattered them, that was a sign of judgment. But in this case, the church's scattering was a sign of judgment on its enemies, the enemies of the gospel. The enemies of the church tried to kill its message, they tried to kill its messengers, but God had it all completely under control. It reminds me of Genesis 50 verse 20, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.
And so the gospel's still going out, and it's still saving many people. And there are different words for scattered in the Greek, and when we look at this in this text here of Acts chapter 8, one means to disperse something, like ashes across the ocean. But that's not the term that's used here in Acts chapter 8. The Greek term that's used here for scattering is on the basis of basically that you're scattering it in order for it to be planted.
It's kind of like a farmer back in this era, the first century, they would take seed and they would just scatter it, they would just throw it, and then have the modern farm equipment that we have today, but it was being scattered with the purpose of it being planted to take root and to produce fruit. Instead of being silenced, they preached the gospel everywhere they went. They tried to put the gospel message down, they tried to silence it, but everywhere they went, they preached it. And so what seemed to be a tragedy became an opportunity for the gospel. And sometimes, can I say this to us this morning, sometimes that God allows disruptions in our life to happen for an opportunity for the gospel to be continued in furtherance.
Nobody likes a job loss. Sometimes those things happen, and we're so focused on the temporal, like our circumstances and what's going on in those moments. But when we step back and maybe get an eternal perspective of this, God could be ordaining that moment to get you around a new circle of people, to share the gospel with a new group of people. Let's flip it to the other side of promotion.
You have to change buildings, change companies, or whatever it may be, and you're going to another location. God is divinely intervening to working all things for His good according to His purpose, and we just need to be faithful in those moments to take the time for the gospel's sake to share the message of Jesus Christ. And next we see that in this Acts chapter 8, there's this guy named Philip, and he begins a ministry here in Samaria, and we pick up in verse 5, it says, Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake. Hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many and were possessed with them.
And many take with palsy that were lame, were healed, and there was great joy in that city. What's interesting here is you do a study on Philip. He's a Hellenistic Jew. Actually, again, we know that the apostles stayed, so he wasn't one of the apostles. He is a deacon in the church, and we know that from Acts chapter 6. He's mentioned in there with the men of honest report in Acts chapter 6, verse 5. It also says later on in Acts 21 that he is an evangelist, and that the apostles end up going to his house there, and he was one of the seven that were the deacons chosen at the church. And so he was driven away from his home. He was driven away from his occupation. The question is, did he allow that to stop him from sharing Christ with others? Did he allow that to stop his passion for the Great Commission?
And the answer is no. He continued to press forward, and despite the temporal issues that he was going through, graven as they were, he traveled 40 miles north to Samaria, which would have taken one to two days, depending upon if he walked it, it would have been two days, or if his animal back, he would have been there in a day. Again, he's a Jewish believer. He preached in Samaria, a region that the Jews did not like to go through. And this word preached is in the imperfect active, meaning that he began to preach and he kept on preaching. And that's what we're called to do as followers of Christ. We're to preach the gospel, not once, not twice, but we're to continue to preach it, to continue to live it out to a dying and lost world.
They're also lying too. But the result of this is that many Samaritans believed, and they experienced great joy. In fact, when you got saved and the great joy that came over you, the weight that was relieved, the weight that was taken off your shoulders in that moment. Now you think about a city that's in spiritual darkness that needs the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's going out and they're proclaiming it and people are getting saved. There is great joy that is coming to that city.
I love what Spurgeon said on this, much rejoicing. There was joy in Samaria because the gospel was preached there. Men did but know it, the greatest boon a city can have is to have the gospel preached in it. Remember the old motto, he says, of the city of Glasgow, let glass glow flourish by the preaching of the word. No city flourishes so well as that which is clear, has a clear, powerful gospel bell ringing in the midst of it. He says, lastly, it is a famishing city, which has not the bread of life, but it is a flourishing city, which has the bread of life that is freely dispensed from the pulpit every Lord's day by loving hands. And that's what I'm so thankful for and why Lighthouse is being blessed as we look across what the Lord has done over 15 years. And all we seek to do is to glorify God supremely in all that we do, to love people compassionately where they are and to live out the great commission with passion. And we lift him up, we preach the word and he draws men unto him. And what a blessing it is that the word is preached and it is necessary.
When we look around the world, it's not getting any better, is it? We need more gospel presence. We need more people going to reach this lost and dying world. When we think about this passage here, there's a revival that breaks out in Acts chapter eight. Like this is revival. It is going on.
It is booming. People are getting saved. They're getting baptized.
This revival is taking place. And look what verse 14 says. It says, now when the apostles were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God.
Think about that for a moment. Word traveled fast even in that day. They didn't have socials that they could get on and send it out rapidly, but word is making its way back 40 miles to Jerusalem. Hey, there's a revival breaking out up there.
You need to go see what's happening. And so they send Peter and John and they go up and they check out what is going on up there in Samaria. And they begin to preach the gospel in many villages. Look at verse 25. And they went and they had testified and preached the word of the Lord. And so here, Peter and John are returning to Jerusalem.
And what did they do? They preached the gospel in many of the villages of the Samaritans. If you think back to John chapter four, they were there. They were in Sychar.
They passed the woman going to the well. They were in Sychar where the Samaritans were. They didn't tell anybody that, hey, come see the Messiah.
He's out at the well. They come back. Jesus is like, hey, I've got meat to eat.
I already ate. And they're like, who brought him lunch? They're all confused. And then here comes the Samaritan woman bringing the whole city back to him. They got it this time, didn't they? They were empowered with the Spirit. The Spirit empowered them to live out the Great Commission. And so we see the gospel spreading outside of Jerusalem now to Judea and to Samaria. And the question I would pose for us this morning as we think about this group of people that were hated by the Jews, are there people that we avoid sharing the gospel with? Maybe because of cultural differences or past conflicts or maybe it's a personal bias.
We need not to do that. The gospel is for everyone. It's for whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so Acts 11, it speaks of this Great Commission being passionately lived out as well. In Acts 11, verse 19 through 21, it says, now they which were scattered abroad upon persecution that rose about Stephen's travail as far as Phineas and Cyprus and Antioch preached the word to none, but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus, Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and hand the Lord was with them in a great number, believed and turned to the Lord. And so here again, the gospel spreading.
The word goes back to Jerusalem again in verses 22 through 23 and glad tidings, it says, then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church that was at Jerusalem. Now this time they didn't send Peter and John, they sent Barnabas. And so Barnabas is going to go up and check out what's going on and see this outbreak of the gospel and people being saved.
Can you imagine, like it would be pretty exciting, right? I mean, there's this revival breaking out and the gospel spreading, people were getting saved and they want to check this out and see what's happening. And so when he came, he had seen that the grace of God was glad and he was glad and extorted them all and with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord. And so you would think that God would leave Philip there as this great revival's breaking loose and Barnabas has come to check it out and like, hey, keep it going. He's like, no, he separates Philip. He tells him, hey, I need you to go down this desert road. There's this one guy that I need you to preach the gospel to and the Ethiopian eunuchs there and he's got the scroll and he's reading Isaiah 53 and Philip asked me, hey, do you know what you're reading? He's like, no, I don't unless somebody should explain it to me.
Anybody ever been that way in your life? You're traveling down the road or whatever and you're like, I don't even know why I'm going this way or you end up at a store, you don't even know why you're at that store. And then all of a sudden, it's one of those divine appointments that God has placed in your life that you would share the gospel with someone and that they might hear it and hopefully be saved, that their heart would be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so think about that. Sometimes God calls us to leave our comfortability to share the gospel with one specific person. Are we sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading in our daily interactions? Do we see interruptions in our schedules as just that interruptions or are they opportunities to share Christ with someone?
That's the question that we have to ask ourselves. And so this missionary journey continues. Paul in Acts chapter nine, he gets saved. He's going around as Saul, he's persecuting the church and has a real life encounter with Jesus Christ. God tells him in Acts chapter nine, verse 15 that he'll suffer many things for his sake, for God's sake and for Christ's sake.
And so he continues, he gets saved. He becomes one of the greatest missionaries outside of Jesus Christ. He traveled extensively preaching in synagogues. This is Paul in marketplace before kings reaching people of every background.
And his strategy was pretty simple in a lot of ways. He preached the word, but he didn't compromise. He would kind of try to meet what the culture was but he never compromised the gospel itself. In first Corinthians chapter nine, verses 19 through 23, he says, for though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself a servant to all.
He goes on to say basically to the Jew, I became a Jew, to the Greek, I became the Greek so that I may win some to the Lord. And so he trained up disciples. He trained up leaders at the church of Antioch. And you see that in Acts chapter 11, verse 25 and 26 then departed Barnabas to Tarsus. Barnabas had been ministering in Antioch for a year.
It's exploding. He needs help. He needs more laborers. And you know, Matthew 9, 38, pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he'd send forth laborers into his harvest field. And so he's like, hey, I know that this guy Saul who is now Paul is over in Tarsus and he goes and gets him and he says for to seek Saul and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people.
So they're discipling people. And then, you know, Paul, when we think about his life, man, he endured it. He was passionate for Christ. He endured shipwrecks, beatings. At one point they stoned him. They thought he was dead. They threw him out of the city. He gets up that same day and he walks down to the next city and starts preaching the gospel.
Like who does that? Paul. And so a practical application for us is as we start to identify this Jerusalem, Judea, Samarian uttermost. For us individually, when we think about this, our Jerusalem as individuals is our family, our friends, coworkers. Corporately as a church as we gather, it's the city of Zinnia. That is our Jerusalem. But then we take a look at Judea and individually this is probably our communities that we live in. People we interact with on a regular basis, but we don't know them well. Corporately as a body, this is Greene County. You know, this is the Greene County area.
Then we look at the next step out from there, Samaria. And for us individually, those are people that are different from us, maybe a different culture. Maybe it's a different social class, maybe a different lifestyle. Corporately, it's Michigan. I mean, we just know that, right?
It's Michigan. They're the enemy. And uttermost, that's self-explanatory.
It's everywhere. And so we must be open to divine appointments. We must go where God sends us, which brings us to our third and final point, making disciples and planning churches. That's what we see picking up in Acts as you continue on as this Great Commission and as the Holy Spirit saying, you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. Now we're reaching the uttermost part. And that's really what the book of Acts does.
It's just a logical flow of all of this. The Great Commission is not just about making converts. It's about making disciples and establishing strong biblical churches that continue on the Great Commission. The apostles preached the gospel and invested in believers. They trained leaders and planted churches to sustain the mission.
And it works. We're here, right? We are a church plant that was sent out of a church plant who was sent out of a church plant who was sent out of a church plant, and you just see the multiplication process that continues.
And that's where we're at. It takes time to develop leaders who are ready to be sent out, right? And we think about that, and we've talked to other churches that have gone through some building projects, and they're like, why didn't we just send people out?
And they're like, well, we don't have any trained people. What I love about Lighthouse is we're training disciples. We have a Lighthouse Bible Institute. We're training men for ministry to be sent out to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can send a body of people out, but you need to have a leader, right? You need to have a shepherd for the sheep. So how are we doing as a church in America?
It's interesting. In 1972, 92%, 92% in 1972 of Americans identified as Christian by the census data. Where are we going? According to the current trends, by 2070, that will drop below 50%. So what does that mean for us? In about a century's time, we will have gone from a majority Christian nation to a minority Christian nation if the trend continues.
We should feel the weight of that this morning. This means that church plants in the US or church planting in the US will need to double or triple the current rate to address the population growth and the anticipated church closures of older congregations that have just died out. In addition, when we think about that, what does that mean in numbers? The American church will need to plant 215,000 churches over the next 30 years just to remain status quo. 215,000 churches.
But what that doesn't account for is the unaffiliated that are drifting away from the church. To meet the need to reach those people, we need to plant another 60,000 churches as well. So 275,000 churches need to be planted in the next 30 years to meet the need. And so you may say, Braden, how are we doing?
What does those stats look like currently? Well, in 2014, 4,000 new evangelical churches opened annually and 3,700 closed annually for a net gain of 300 churches in 2014. Fast forward to 2020, 3,000 churches started yearly. There's a drop-off already from 4,000 to 3,000. And annually, 4,500 churches closed their doors. Next Sunday, there's going to be 135 less churches in America that will have their doors open than today. So we see the need, and we should feel the weight of this this morning, for a net loss of 1,500 churches. To put it in perspective, we need to plant 8,000 churches for a net gain every year over the next several decades to meet the needs.
And I want to just sit there for a minute and feel the weight of that. I mean, Lighthouse is great. What you see happening here at Lighthouse is not what's happening everywhere. And I know you've heard Pastor Josh say that, but to put it into perspective, it's just not. We had two people join the church Wednesday night. That's more than some churches have in an entire year.
You know, it's sad the state of some of this stuff than where we're at. And why do we want to plant churches as our church? You know, we need to send people. We need to reach and push the gospel forward. Because this is the reality of what our kids and grandkids are going towards. I don't know about you, but I want my kids and my grandkids to be around Christians that push the gospel forward, that are living the adventurous life for Jesus Christ.
It's important. And you may say, Brayden, I'm never going to be a church planter. I'm never going to be a missionary. Can I tell you this morning that you may share the gospel with someone who is going to be?
You know, I think about that. The person that shared the gospel with D.L. Moody, did they know exactly what he was going to become? Absolutely not. Nobody even knows that person's name, but they know D.L.
Moody. And I think back in my own personal testimony 13 years ago, as Pastor Josh came to my house and knocked on the door and shared the gospel with me, and two weeks later, I got saved. Neither of us knew what this would look like. We didn't know that I'd be coming on staff and that I would, you know, be in ministry or looking to plant a church in Huper Heights this year. But we're just called to be faithful, to share the gospel, to tell others about him. And so how do we reverse these trends? Can I tell you it's not by hiring more talented staff? And I can tell you we're not going to water down the message here at Lighthouse. We're not going to water it down. We're going to reach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And that's what we're going to do. The kingdom advances, and may I say this, how we reverse this is collectively as a whole, as a church body, everybody.
We've talked about this 100% and doing 100%. This even speaks to the gospel and reaching people with the gospel. If we would collectively radically commit this church family of an intentional way of orienting our lives to pushing the gospel outwards and advancing the kingdom of God. And we see this role, the church's role in it. In Acts chapter 13, verses 1 through 3, it says, Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen, I call him Manny, which had been brought up with Herod the tetriarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. And so here this church at Antioch, that was the hub of a great work that the Lord was doing. They were ministering unto the Lord. We don't minister unto men, we minister unto the Lord.
They begin to pray, they begin to fast. And the Lord says, Separate me Barnabas and Saul or Paul. These are the two best guys on staff. You would think like, hey, can we send Lucius?
Can we get him out of here? Barnabas, the son of consolation, he's an encourager. He's the guy that's at the front door as you come in the church this morning like, Glad you're here, buddy, and he's giving you a big hug and that sort of thing. That's Barnabas. And Paul, he's Paul.
We know Paul from the Scriptures. And so these two men are key essential people within the church. Yet this church held loosely to them. They open handedly held these men of God, these disciples. Can I say to us here at Lighthouse that we should always be that type of church?
That we are those that have resources coming in, that we're building them up, edifying them why they're here, and we send them out for gospel ministry. That's what Lighthouse should be about. There's a picture of this, I think, in Israel. There are two bodies of water. There's the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Obviously, the Sea of Galilee, if you've ever been there, it's a very lush environment, lots of farmland, agriculture, it's beautiful, life just blooming.
You think about springtime right around the corner, everything starts to bud, all that. And then there's this Dead Sea. And it's exactly what the name says, Dead Sea. There's nothing that can live there.
One gives life, one produces no life. The River Jordan runs into the Sea of Galilee, and it runs out of the Sea of Galilee. It dead ends into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea holds it. And can I say as a church that we need to be loosely holding those that God have called to ministry to allow them to go to plant churches and to work the ministry that God has called them to, to steward the resources well here at Lighthouse, but then also not just the men, but think about our missions program. We've got over 60 missions work that we send money all around the world so that the gospel can reach even further into the uttermost parts. Thank you for your faithfulness to that. Because of you today, there's people all around the world that are preaching the gospel, and you're not there, but fruit is being put to your account this morning as you contribute to those ministries.
And I just want to close with this as we think about this. A church that ceases to live out the Great Commission, that ceases to do these things, quickly becomes a dead church. And that's why I'm so thankful the Lighthouse is an exciting church. We seek to lift up God, to glorify Him in everything that we do, to love people where they are, and to carry out the Great Commission with passion. And I think about my own family, and I'm so thankful for this church.
Many of you have similar testimonies. I was saved through the ministries of this church. My family has been eternally changed because of the ministries of this church. My kids have been saved through the ministries of this church.
My wife, she was already advanced, right? She was already saved before she got here. But as a church, we need to continue to press forward with the Great Commission, to press forward and live it passionately. And so in closing today, do we see the Great Commission as our personal responsibility, or do we see that as something that only the qualified people should do? Am I willing to encourage, or am I willing to endure discomfort and even persecution for the sake of Christ? .
