Making an Evangelistic Impact on Our Community - Life of Paul Part 62

Hey, thanks for coming today, and I want you to take a Bible.

Let's open your Bible to Acts chapter 1. And, you know, while Brenda and I were on break, we went and visited this local church outside of the area here, and we went to an adult Sunday school class, and because a few of the folks knew who we were, they asked us at the end of the class if we'd come up front and take a few questions, and we said, all right. And so one of the questions, a man raised his hand, and he said, he said, well, he said, my question is, here at this church, we're thinking about getting into a building program. He said, what advice would you have for us as a church? And I fought off the temptation to say, don't do it.

No, no, no. But here's what I said to him. I said, here's my advice for you. I said, if you're going to go into a building program, make sure that the tail doesn't start wagging the dog. In other words, make sure the leaders of your church keep reminding people and talking to people and focusing people not on the building program, but on the reason why you're doing the building program, on the reason behind the building program, and that is the vision, the mission of your church.

Now, it seems to me coming back from summer break, I ought to take my own advice. And so what I want to do is talk to you today about the vision, the mission of McLean Bible Church that lies behind the $92 million building program that we've done over the last six years. Why have we done this? It's not because we're in love with buildings. It's because we've got a mission and a vision that drives us and to accomplish it. God graced us with this property in this building, but it's just a tool to get the mission done. You say, oh, no, Lon, no, no, no, no. You know how many mission, vision messages I've heard.

You're going to give me another one? Why do you do this every September? Well, Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, said this. He said, if there's anything I've learned over the years at Willow Creek, it's not to underestimate how often I need to rekindle the vision, to consistently reeducate our people as to why we are on the track that we're on and why we do things the way that we do. Now, you know, this month I begin my 24th year here as the senior pastor. And let me tell you, I have learned that Bill Hybels is exactly right, which is why I tell people all the time that the two most important sermons I preach every year are not Easter and Christmas. They are the two vision messages that I do, one in September, one in January, because these are the messages more than any other that focus our energies and unify our hearts and define our reason for existence as a church. These messages are critical to our success. And so that's what we want to do today. But I got a few new things to tell you.

I think you'll have some fun with this. So let's repeat. What is the vision? What is the mission of McLean Bible Church?

I want you to say it with me. The vision of McLean Bible Church is, here we go, come on, to make an impact on the secular community around us with the message of Jesus Christ. You see, the driving piston of our vision is community impact with the message of Christ. We're trying to see secularized people, no matter what life stage they may be at, brought to a decision point for Jesus Christ in their life, and then we don't leave them there, but we go on from there to teach them how to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We are interested in ministry, where we move out of our Christian subculture, where we move into the culture of secular Washington, where we cross over the Christian curtain in this town, and where we talk to secular people in Washington about a different way of living, a better way of living that Jesus Christ can offer them. This is the unique area of specialization within the overall work of the kingdom of God that we believe God has called us to as a local church, making a changed life impact on every single person in the metropolitan Washington area. Now you say, well, Solon, where did we get this mission from as a church? Well, we got it, and here's a novel idea for a church, right out of the Bible. Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, notice the order, Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth.

Now what he gave them was a series of concentric circles. He said, I want you to start in Jerusalem, and then you move to Judea, and then you move to Samaria, and then you go to the ends of the earth. But for our purposes here, the important point is that Jesus said to these disciples, Start in your own backyard. Start by going and reaching your own Jerusalem. Start by making an impact on your own city. And friends, in developing our vision as a church, all we think we've done is to obey what the Lord Jesus told us to do, to go and penetrate our Jerusalem for Jesus Christ, to go and saturate Washington, D.C. for Christ. Now, frankly, I believe that this is the duty of every church in every city, is to go do this. But what makes our job so exciting and so significant is that God has given us the most strategic city in the world to go do this in, to go make an impact on for Jesus Christ. Washington is the only city left in the 21st century about which you can honestly say, change this city for Jesus Christ, and the result will change and affect the whole world. Now, you know, I'm sure Des Moines, Iowa, is a wonderful town.

I've never been there, and frankly, I don't really have any desire to go there. But if you reached every single man, woman, and child in Des Moines, Iowa, for Jesus Christ, that would be a wonderful thing to do, but the result of that would not change America, and it would not change the world. Friends, let me tell you something. You reach every man, woman, and child in Washington, D.C. for Jesus Christ, every congressman, every single senator, every Supreme Court justice, every government worker, every lobbyist, every military officer, every lawyer, hallelujah, that would be a miracle. You reach every single ambassador in this town, every single embassy worker in this town, every military attaché from a foreign nation, you reach every foreign student in this town, reach every member of the World Bank in this town, reach every one of these people for Jesus Christ, and the result would be the laws of America, the society of America.

The culture of America would radically change, and the reverberations of that would be felt around the world. What a town. What a town to have the privilege to go get for Jesus Christ and go to war with Miss Annie. This is what we're doing in this town. This is what we're trying to accomplish in this town, and this explains one of our core values, core value number nine out of ten, which says that our church must have an evangelistic impact on its community.

Now let me tell you what we're really saying here. What we're really saying here with this core value is, number one, that as a church family, Jesus called us to be a force in the city of Washington, not just a fortress. He called us to be a player in the society of this town. Number two, we're saying that it is unacceptable for us to exist as a church in this community for years and at the end of that time for us to have made little or no impact on this community.

That is unacceptable. We're saying, third, that the true measure of our success as McLean Bible Church is not how many parking spaces we have or how big an auditorium we have or how many people we have on staff. The true measure of our success is how many people's lives we change for Jesus Christ in this city. We're saying, fourth, that our mission is to saturate Washington, D.C., the urban inner city, as well as the suburbs with the message of Christ until every single person in metropolitan Washington has had the opportunity to hear the message of Christ and respond to it. And finally, we're saying that every dollar people give here, every hour people serve here, every prayer that people pray here is dedicated to this singular mission.

That's what we're saying with core value number nine. Now, I want you to see that the early followers of Christ, the early believers in the New Testament, that they shared core value number nine with us. Now, they didn't write it down, but if we'd have said to them core value number nine, our church must have an evangelistic impact on its community, every one of those early disciples in the Bible would have said, amen and amen, brother.

And you know that's what they did. Look at what they did is they saturated their cities in the book of Acts, read about it, with the message of Christ. For example, the city of Jerusalem, Acts chapter five. The Bible says they brought the apostles in, Peter, James, John, these guys, in front of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court there in Jerusalem, and the high priest said to them, we gave you strict orders not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. Well, isn't that what we're supposed to do?

That's saturating your city, chapter six. And the word of God kept spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great number of Jewish priests became obedient to the faith. Hey friends, this is no small thing. Convincing a Jewish priest to believe in Jesus is like convincing Dr. Atkins to be the spokesman for Krispy Kreme. You understand what I'm saying?

It just doesn't happen very often. And this is the kind of impact they had on that city. Now, how about the apostle Paul? Everywhere Paul went, this was his core value, impact the city that he's in. For example, Acts chapter 16, when he was in Philippi, the crowds charge against him and Silas is this, these men, the crowd said, are throwing our whole city into an uproar.

When they went to Thessalonica, the crowd there said, these men who have turned the world upside down, they've come here now, they're going to do that to our city. And in the city of Ephesus, Acts chapter 19, Paul taught the word of God daily in the school of Tyrannus. This went on for two years so that all, watch this, all the Jews and Gentiles who lived in the Roman province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now this is where we left off in the life of Paul when I went on summer break. Paul was here in Ephesus at the beginning of his third missionary journey.

He had been into the synagogue for three months preaching. Verse 9 says, when some of the Jewish people became obstinate and began to speak evil of the faith, Paul withdrew from the synagogue and taught the word of God daily in the school of Tyrannus. Now who was this guy, Tyrannus? Well, the truth is we don't know. We don't know whether he owned this school or whether he was the teacher in this school.

All we know is that he either rented it to Paul or had simply let Paul borrow it. And for two years every day, Paul taught seekers and believers alike here at the school of Tyrannus. And look at the result. Verse 10, if two years later all the Jews and Gentiles who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of God. Now I want to show you a map to show you how unbelievable this was, what happened here.

Everything you see in green on the map, the whole western part of Turkey today was the Roman province of Asia. Paul spent almost three years from the fall of 53 to the spring of 56 AD in the city of Ephesus where you see the star, the red star on your map. And the Bible says as a result of his ministry there in almost three years, the entire green portion of your map, every single Jew and Gentile heard the word of God. You say, oh, come on, Lon, you don't really believe that, do you? That's like Bible speak, you know, that's like hyperbole. No, no, no, I don't think it's hyperbole at all because a little bit later in this chapter, Demetrius, who is Paul's enemy, is going to say this, verse 26, this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. This is his enemy agreeing that the whole province has been affected by Paul.

Now let's go back to the map and let me show you what happened. You see all the little red circles on your map, the three on the bottom, the cities of Herapolis, Laodicea and Colossae, in fact, Colossae, of course, has a letter in the New Testament written to the church there, the book of Colossians. These three churches were all started in the Lycus Valley during the time Paul was in Ephesus. All of the churches you see north of that that are mentioned in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 to whom Jesus wrote letters. The cities of Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Smyrna, Philadelphia all started during this two and a half year period and there were probably hundreds of other churches that were started throughout the province of Asia that aren't mentioned in the Bible. We don't know about them, but we know about at least these and the Bible says as the result of Paul's ministry there in Ephesus, he marinated this entire province with the message of Jesus Christ in those two and a half years that he was in Ephesus. Now, you know, and let me just say the evangelization of the province of Asia was so thorough during those years that for 14 centuries this province and the churches in it, this was the leading province for the Christian faith in all of the eastern part of the Roman Empire for the next 14 centuries because of the ministry of the apostle Paul. Now, you know, when I was a young believer down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the first year I was a believer, 1971, I began reading the New Testament, never read it before. And I began reading the book of Acts and I read the way these churches absolutely blew their communities apart for Christ and I remember saying to myself, why can't a local church today have this same kind of impact on its community for Jesus Christ?

Why can't that happen? I mean, there in Chapel Hill there were churches all over everywhere and my friends, they weren't doing one thing to reach 15,000 students who were just outside their doors and I kept asking why and I'll tell you the answer. The answer is because they didn't have any vision for it. You take the average church on Elm and Maple Street, what's the vision of the pastor down there at that church? Well, I'll tell you what it is for so many churches, the vision is keep the sheep in the pen, that's it.

Comb the sheep, groom the sheep, don't rock the boat for the sheep, make the sheep feel comfortable and if you do a good job of that, they'll give you more sheep to keep in a bigger pen and then if you do a good job of that, eventually they'll promote you to headquarters where you don't even have to mess with sheep. Now, this is exactly what was happening in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Those churches were playing keep the sheep in the pen. Meanwhile, not 100 yards outside their front door, thousands of college kids were going to hell in a hand basket. I was one of them and those churches weren't doing one blessed thing to reach us. If I'd have waited for the churches in Chapel Hill to reach me, I'd be in hell today, let me just tell you. And I remember as a young believer swearing out loud and saying, God, if you ever give me a measure of leadership in some church somewhere and let me just say at that time with hair out to my shoulders and love beads and bell bottoms and motorcycle boots, the odds didn't look good. But I said, God, if you ever give me a chance to do that, I said you have my solemn promise that I will do everything in my power to see to it that the church I get to be a leader in acts like the churches in the book of Acts and not like the churches in Chapel Hill. And that's how we got the vision that we've got because this thing pulsates inside my veins, that this is our duty, this is our privilege, this is our responsibility. There are thousands of people right outside our doors going to hell in a hand basket and we've got to be like the churches in the book of Acts and go out and seek to reach them.

Now, let me answer one more question before we close and that's this. How did Paul do this? How did he pull this off? I mean, how did he go out and saturate a whole province in two and a half years for Christ?

Well, friends, I want to tell you something that might shock you. You know, during those two and a half years, the apostle Paul himself never left Ephesus. All those cities that you saw with the little red circles on the map, he never went to a single one of those cities and preached.

He stayed in Ephesus the entire two and a half years. You say, well, then how in the world did they reach that whole province? Well, they did it through people like Epaphras.

Say, who's that? Well, Colossians chapter one will tell you. Colossians one, Paul writes, we thank God for you believers in Colossae every day because we have heard of your faith in Christ.

Remember, Paul had never been there. He heard about it. He said, and he said, and you heard the message about Jesus from Epaphras, there's our guy, who is a faithful servant of Christ and who told us of your faith in Christ. Colossians four goes on to say that Epaphras is one of your own fellow citizens. So let me tell you what happened here. It's obvious. Epaphras, a guy from Colossae, came to Ephesus on business, on pleasure.

It was the capital of the province of Asia, the key commercial center. I don't know why he came. He ran into the apostle Paul. He heard Paul preach. He gave his life to Christ. He started attending the school of Tyrannus. He grew into a fully developed follower of Christ. Paul challenged him to be a missionary to his own friends, his own relatives, his own neighbors, his own hometown, and sent him back there. And Epaphras went back, just volunteer everyday missionary Epaphras, and he led people to Christ in that town, preached in that town, and started the church in that town. And folks, every single one of those other circles you saw on the map got started the very same way. How did Paul do it?

Very simple. Paul raised up an army of thousands of volunteer everyday missionaries and dispatched them, deployed them all over the province of Asia during those two and a half years, and they went and saturated and marinated that province with Jesus Christ. That's how he did it. Now, this has huge importance for us today here at McLean Bible Church. If we want to tear this city up the way Paul tore up the province of Asia, how are we going to do it? Well, it seems to me, if we're trying to achieve the same thing Paul was trying to achieve, that we ought to use the same strategy he used. That seems logical.

And they said, but, Lon, wait a minute. We got a lot of things today the apostle Paul didn't have. I mean, we've got youth camps and Tate ministry and CD ministry. We've got targeted ministry to children and young adults and seniors. We've got access ministry for children with special needs. We've got a food pantry and a clothing exchange. And we've got the house down in Anacostia and Daybreak down in Lincoln Heights.

And we've got beginning again for people who've been through divorce. And we've got all these ministries that he didn't have. We've got the radio.

Paul didn't have the radio to use. We've got the radio. And, yes, it's true, we're on 13 secular stations with not a sermon, just a thought. Seven stations with our half-hour Sunday program trying to get up to a dozen with Sunday morning programming. We're on HFS and MZQ and DC 101 and Smooth Jazz and WAVA and Wash FM. And we buy time on Howard Stern. Say, what?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Hey, people, it's not the folks that listen to Christian radio that need a doctor. It's the people that listen to Howard Stern. So why shouldn't we buy time on Howard Stern? We buy time on the sports junkies?

Yeah. Can you imagine you're listening to Howard Stern? I don't listen to him, but I don't think he's very nice. And you imagine you listen to that, and then we come on talking about that?

I mean, people go, what was that? Well, you wouldn't believe how many people come to Christ here who, when we ask them, where did you first hear us, they say, Howard Stern. Unreal. That's true. We get more Howard Stern conversions than all the other radio stations put together. I'm not kidding you. That is the honest truth. And, you know, I think we're doing a better job in this city than most people realize.

I think we've become a player in this city. Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about McLean Bible Church and what's going on in McLean Bible Church. I was down at the White House this summer and had four staffers walk up to me while I was waiting to have the opportunity to go in to meet the president in the Oval Office. Four staffers came up while I was in the waiting room and go, I go to your church, I go to your church, I go to your church, I go to your church. I didn't know any of them, but that's all right.

And they're right there in the White House. And Brendan and I were at a restaurant this summer and we were sitting there. I won't tell you what you want. And the waiter came up to our waiter and said, he said, could you do me a favor? And I said, well, yeah, I guess. He said, can you answer a question? He said, I got a bet.

I got a wager with that waitress right over there. And he points to this young lady. And I said, really? He said, yeah. He said, when I came over here, waited on you and heard your voice, he said, I said to myself, that is the not a sermon dude sitting right there.

No, really, I'm telling you the truth. And he said, I made a wager that I sent the girl over to bring you your drinks and make you talk because I wanted her to hear your voice. And she said, you're not the not a sermon dude. And so she said, we got a bet and I need to know, are you the not a sermon dude? And I said, yes, I am.

And he went, hot dog. I don't know what they wagered. I was afraid to ask. But I did say to him, I said, well, hey, just out of curiosity, how come she didn't think I was the guy? He said, oh, well, she said she hears you all the time on the radio, but she thought you'd be younger. Okay?

It wasn't a compliment. But anyway, the point is, what are the odds of being sitting in a restaurant and somebody recognizes that? Guys, I'm telling you, we're doing a better job in this town than we think we are using these things. But all of that to say, we can use radio, we can use all of these other technological advances, but the real way to reach this city is the old-fashioned way that Paul did it. The secret to reaching this city is to do what Paul did.

And what did he do? Paul raised up and deployed an army of everyday volunteer missionaries to go out and talk to people about Christ in the province of Asia. And if we're going to really reach this city, that's how we're going to do it the old-fashioned way, by dispatching people like Epaphras, by dispatching people into Washington like missionary Bob. You say, who is missionary Bob? Well, I got a letter, and I'll tell you. Dear Pastor Solomon, this letter is long overdue. You see, a couple years ago, a very dear friend of mine, Bob, gave me your testimony tape. For many years, my friend Bob has prayed that someday I would come to know Jesus Christ. I grew up in a conservative Jewish family where I went to temple and Hebrew school very regularly. I was bat mitzvahed at 13 years of age.

My uncle was a rabbi in Puerto Rico for many years, and we observed all the Jewish traditions and holidays. However, although my friend Bob tried many times to witness to me, I was very much against even the idea of Jesus. It wasn't until my boyfriend and I began to discuss marriage that my mind was even open enough to consider the facts. I reflected on how I had grown up in an abusive home where my father was an alcoholic and regularly beat my mother. I thought about how my mother was now on her fifth marriage. I wanted more for my marriage and more for the life of my future children. It was at this time when I finally went back and found your tape from Bob and listened to it.

I listened to it over and over and over. I began studying the Bible and attending Bible studies with my future husband. Five months before we were married, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and my life has never been the same. I have since given your tape to a Jewish friend of mine in California who's also seeking.

I truly believe the Lord has called me, for I can touch people that perhaps other Christians cannot, so I have dedicated myself to becoming involved in being a missionary to other Jewish people. Well, Pastor Solomon, thank you for your time. I just wanted you to know how you and Bob have made a tremendous difference in my life. Folks, this is success right here.

This letter is what success is all about here in Washington. And let me tell you, how did this young lady get reached? She got reached by missionary Bob, not by me.

Missionary Bob reached her, and isn't it interesting, she copied his example, and now she became missionary young Jewish lady to all her friends. You say, well, Lon, that's great. You know, you're up there, brother, just preaching your heart out. God bless you. I give you about a B-plus this morning.

Not bad for the first time back. But if you really think that I'm going to go out there and I'm going to be one of these missionary Susies or missionary Bobs out there, man, you got another thing coming, you got the wrong person. You just don't understand. When somebody tosses me the softball and I get the chance to speak for Jesus, you don't know what happens to me, man. I get caught in my throat and my armpits get all wet, and I stand there and I go, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

I can't get anything out of my mouth. You got the wrong person. I'm no missionary Bob. Wait a minute now.

Let me tell you something, friends. Every single person who is adept at sharing their faith today didn't start that way. We all had to learn how to do it. Nobody is born knowing how to be a missionary. God doesn't drop wiffle dust from heaven on people and turn them into missionary Bobs and Susies. It's a simple matter of skill training.

You just go and you learn how to do it. And that's what Christianity 301 is all about. It's all about learning how to share your faith, and you give us six weeks and we will teach you how to do this.

It isn't that hard, and anybody can learn how to share their faith. And so the action point that I want for today when you walk out of here is, first of all, I want you to be excited about our mission. Hey, God's given us the greatest city in the world, a rock for Christ. This is a wonderful opportunity we have, but I want you to walk out of here saying either one of two things to yourself.

Either I want you walking out of here today saying, you know what? I know how to share my faith. I'm adept at doing that, and I'm committing myself that I'm going to go out and be a missionary every day here in Washington because that's what it's going to take to reach this city. Or I want you walking out of this auditorium saying, you know, I really don't know how to share my faith, but I'm committed to learning how to be missionary Bob and Susie, so I'm going right out in the lobby and sign up for Christianity 301. One way or the other, it's an army of missionaries that's going to reach this city. Not professional missionaries that get paid a salary or on a church staff. Paul didn't reach that province with people like that. It's everyday volunteer missionaries who go out and talk to their relatives, their friends, their neighbors, their coworkers, and do just what Bob did.

Give them an opportunity to respond. That's how we're going to reach this city. And friends, let me tell you, we unleashed 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 missionary Bobs and Susies on this town. We will rock this town for Jesus Christ.

We want you to be one of them, and I hope you'll join us. Let's pray. Lord, thanks for reminding us today why we exist. Thanks for reminding us today of our vision and our core values, and thanks for refocusing us today as to why this building program is even happening. It's just a tool to enable us to rock this city for Christ. And Father, I pray that as people have sat and listened, that you would really work in their hearts and lives and that they would say, wow, I want to be part of that. That's an exciting thing to live for, more exciting than money and stuff, to change lives for Christ like that young lady in that letter. And so, Lord, I pray that we would walk out of here today determined to either be missionary Bobs and Susies or to go learn how to be. God, help us rock this city for Christ, and our prayer is that you would exceed even our wildest expectations and that because of our ministry in this town, all of America and the world feels the impact of that. God, we can do this as the Spirit of God empowers us and as we do our duty. So grant that we would step up to the plate and say, we'll do our part, and God will trust you to do yours. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.