Phases of Effective Ministry

I'm fearful of reducing the miraculous to handouts. And overheads. I don't believe that if you do A, B, C, this will happen. That is an affront to a sovereign God.

You cannot reduce sovereignty to a sheet of paper. What is it about our ministry that can't be reduced down to some formula that can be explained only in light of this is what God has done.

This is the door that God is open. All we happen to be is in the way.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of a church? How do you know if a church is doing what it's supposed to do?

Well, there may be many ways to answer that question, but today, Steven Davey is going to point out one important truth. An effective church will always be birthing new ministries. At the same time, an effective church will be reproducing itself in its own community and around the world. That's exactly what we find in the early church.

And today, Stephen's going to teach you why they were so successful. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy.

And today he has a lesson for you entitled Phases of Effective Ministry.

When we get to x 14 and the last paragraph, it's sort of like taking a stroll through these phases all in just a few verses. We were encountering in this paragraph some basic truths that will refresh our memory and challenge our thinking as we evaluate ourselves in light of the text. Paul and Barnabas didn't have Pepsi or pizza, but they had they had great passion and purpose. You noticed that right away. In fact, if you weren't with us in our last discussion here, remember how they were revered as gods and then St. Paul was stoned, left and supposedly dead. They preach the gospel and iconium and Listerine. They've moved about rejection on one hand and cult worship on another. Their ministry would have been this roller coaster ride of highs and lows, and he would write about it in Second Corinthians as we read that he was crushed and overwhelmed at times despairing even of his life. Let's go back and refresh our thinking in verse 19 as we read. Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having won over the multitudes. They St. Paul and dragged him out of the city. Supposed to be dead x 14, verse 19. Now, that was that overwhelming moment of despair while the disciples stood around him in arose and entered the city, the text goes on to say, In the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derby, where they discussed quitting the ministry follow. He went away with Barnabas to Derby, where they decided to come up with a message, a different message that would be less life threatening. Now the Bible delivers these startling words.

They went away to Derby and preached the gospel. This is incredible spirit, enabling determination and persistence. They didn't remodel their message or change their tact. This preaching the gospel could be considered phase one. They're speaking to unbelievers. You could call it the stage of initiation. They are simply exclaiming Christ's truth.

You'd think after the responses they'd received, they changed into something else. No, they continue to preach the gospel.

The question is, what's the gospel? Then tell us here, who defines the gospel today? Tradition. Church fathers. Synods. Public opinion.

Who has the truth of the gospel? Who has the authority to give entrance and to heaven, as it were, and condemned to hell? Well, David declared himself one 19, one 60. The sum total of Vij word is truth. Jesus Christ declared and John eight. That you shall know the truth in relation to his words. And the truth shall set you free. It is found in the word Galatians Chapter two. Paul refers to the truth of the Gospel. In fact, Galatians one. Paul exhorts the church that if anybody comes preaching another gospel than the one they receive. Let them be what? Let them be a curse. It is in the clarion call of the Scripture solar script. Torah is the call of the church. The Scriptures alone, which define the truth as opposed to the councils of men. So then how do the scriptures, the authoritative word from God related to the Gospel, would set you free or condemns to eternal bondage? What does the Scriptures say is the gospel? That's where you want to go to find out where you can turn, if you like. But for the sake of time, we're going to keep moving that in first through these Chapter 15. I'll just quote it. He defines the gospel posses. This is the gospel which I preached under you by which also you are saved. All as interest. He is saying, I am delivering a gospel message that I preach to you by which you are saved. So it's time to sort of sit on the edge of your seat. You you're in Paul's day.

It is this definition. Paul says he's about to declare that determines the difference between forgiveness of sin and condemnation, bison, salvation to heaven or judgment in hell. And I delivered to you that gospel by which you were saved. Well, what's the gospel?

He goes on and he says, you know how Christ died on the cross. According to the scriptures, he was buried. And on the third day, he arose according to the scriptures. That's it. That's the gospel.

It is the finished atoning work of Jesus Christ alone. The dying, burying, resurrecting work of Christ.

That is the gospel. Anything else is to concoct another gospel.

The word gospel in the Greek text is simply you angeli on it could be translated. The good news. That's all it means. The good news. And it is defined as the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That work of burying, dying, burying, resurrected. And his work is complete. You don't add anything to that good news. You don't take anything away from that goodness.

Any other good news is not good news. The works of men that would condemn for who would be good enough. Good intentions that would not work. Who would have the best of intentions? They would falter and waver adherence to a church. I personally believe more people find hell through the doors of a church than they do find heaven.

Anything else is enslavement. Apart from the word of scripture that defines the gospel as the work of Jesus Christ alone, it might be the nine practices of Hinduism has exposed in the Bhagavad Gita that I pulled out and just reread.

The awful circle of despair might be the five precepts of Buddhism. That is another gospel, might be the seven sacraments of Roman ism. They all have in common that they lead the religious individual not into religious freedom, but into religious bondage. They are man made outside of Solar Scriptura.

The gospel, according to the New Testament, is supposed to be good news. The reason most people do not find the good news is they cannot hurdle. The bad news for the good news begins with bad news.

The bad news is you and I are sinners, hopeless, condemned for all, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Rome is 323. But if you can admit to that and come to Christ as your savior, you can move into the good news, which is Romans 324. That is being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ as the Gospel and Romans eight one tells us that those who have accepted this gospel, literally, this person of Jesus Christ. There is no condemnation then to them who are in Christ Jesus period.

That is goodness. And this is what Paul is preaching to them.

I want you to notice the next phrase in verse 21 after they preach the gospel to that city and had made many disciples stop. They were making disciples. Has it ever occurred to you that the church has not been told by Jesus Christ to make converts?

The church has been commanded by Jesus Christ to go into all the nations and make disciples. Evangelism is simply the initial step of the process. It is the initial step of the journey. It is the initiation of the commission. It is not the fulfillment of the commission. Go and make disciples. And it tells us here that they were making disciples. By the preaching of the gospel.

So the next question is, what is the disciple? Does it really tell us here in this text? So we have to go elsewhere for very quick thoughts. A disciple, first of all, as someone who's asked for it, salvation, that is the word disciple throughout the Book of Acts is a term for someone who's placed his faith in the dying, very resurrecting work of Jesus Christ for salvation. There isn't any distinction, by the way, between a Christian and a disciple. Over and over again, you find the analogy between the life of the believer and that the cycling learning process of one of the same. In fact, disciple means mufti or his Matthei taste, which means simply learner or follower. It's someone who is following Jesus Christ who's learning after him. A disciple is not some special category of Christian who become a Christian. And then maybe one day I'll become a disciple. No, you become a disciple the day you place your faith in Jesus Christ. One interesting paragraph from an author reads it this way The disciple of Jesus is not that delux or heavy duty model of the Christian like that, especially padded, streamlined and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. The disciples stands on the pages of the New Testament as the normal basic individual who is traveling toward the kingdom of God. So a disciple, ladies and gentlemen, is simply somebody who's asked to become one. By placing their faith in Christ. Secondly, disciple is someone who is immersed because of it. The market, the disciple given the lesson. Matthew, Chapter 28 is Water Baptism DEBITED Zo. My immersion baptism by immersion is that literal translation of the word.

The mark of someone who is already identified spiritually with a death, burial and resurrection is in the presence of witnesses identified physically with the burying in the water, which represents the grave and the resurrecting out of the water. It is that outward display of something that has already happened inwardly. You do not become a disciple by being baptized.

You are baptized because you are a disciple and you are simply declaring that truth and fact to the world. Third, a disciple is someone who is reformed in light of it. Salvation is accomplished in a split moment when you perceive the savior. Discipleship is an adventure of a lifetime.

It's an invitation to radical personal reformation. You will never be able to say, ladies and gentlemen, all that thing about being a disciple. I mastered that.

What's next? Never. It is a process that is inaugurated on the day of your conversion to faith in Jesus Christ alone. A disciple is one whose life is being reformed.

One author put it this way A disciple is a person whose life is a conscious and constant identification with the Lord through words, behavior, attitudes, motives and purpose. Fully realizing Christ. Absolute ownership of his life. Joyfully embracing the savior of Christ. Delighting in the Lordship of Christ to living by the abiding and dwelling resources of Christ. According to the imprinted pattern and purpose of Christ for the chief end of glorifying as Lord and Savior, this is not only the purpose of salvation, but this is the fulfillment of salvation, redemption from self and devotion to the Lord.

And to this, every Christian has called to say, Boy, I've got a long way to go. Is it possible for a disciple to sin? Well, study the disciples and the don't ask such a question. It isn't a matter that we're perfect. It is a matter that we are progressing.

However, I frankly believe the pews of our land are filled with people who have no conscious decision to follow or hunger after righteousness, no thought of glorifying Christ, no personal interest in Christ word and no intention whatsoever in advancing the Church of Jesus Christ.

They are self deceived. They are not disciples.

Paul exhorted his audience to make sure to examine themselves, to make sure they are of the faith. You want to examine yourself, get out the gospel or the epistle of of John, his first epistle.

And you just read through it and you examine yourself to see if you have the hunger for righteousness. A thought of glorifying Christ.

The intention of serving his church, desirous to learn of his word disciple is one is reform because he's one fourth. The disciple is someone who's suffered or who is suffering because of it.

Now, we're gonna have Paul specifically deal with that issue in a moment. But for now, here in Derby, Paul and part of us are involved in making disciples, although we talked about bringing people to faith in Christ, baptizing them, teaching them there's reformation occurring. Now, notice, stage two is orientation. Now they will go back to cities and we get to see phase two. We've just discussed what they're doing. And phase one is they declare the truth of Christ. Now we go back with them to cities where they have already preach the gospel and people have already believed and we see the establishment of Christ Church. There are several key phrases that come out of these next few verses. Verse twenty one again after they preach the gospel. And that city made many disciples.

They return to Lystra into Iconium and to Antioch. And those, frankly, are astounding words to me. Let's refresh our memory. Pacetti in Antioch. It was in that city where they were driven away and probably beaten and iconium. There was a plot to kill them. They discovered the plot and they fled for their lives.

Lystra they were first worshiped as gods. Was this in Hermès? And then Paul was stoned and left for dead. They returned there. They returned to those cities. I went back there. Why? There's a startling words. Why? Why would they do that? Because of the priority of establishing Christ Church. Notice how they did it. The first phrase there and the first part, a verse 22. They strengthen the souls of the disciples. This was not a fitness program. Vitamins and good food, all that.

They strengthened the souls of the disciples. Strengthening the soul is a phrase that's coupled with teaching the word and other passages of scripture. It is by the word that you gain strength. If you're having a weak Christian walk, if you're a disciple that wavers, it is because you are not in the word.

It is the word that produces strength spiritually. It does not come by osmosis. You don't get it. One hour in church a week has to be dedicated to the word. And this was their priorities. They strengthened them that as they taught them, they noticed the next phase. They encouraged them to continue in the faith. Does that mean they could lose their faith? Does that mean they could lose their salvation? Not at all. In the New Testament, you'll discover the word faith refers to at least three different arenas. If you want to add this, you're thinking and studied on your own to be wonderful. You have questions about this. The first kind of faith the word tells us about the New Testament is decisive faith or that is saving faith. When the object of your faith in Christ replaces the object of your faith, being yourself, saving faith is a transaction that occurs at a moment of time, just like you place your faith in that chair. You came and sat down.

Second, there's doctrinal say the word faith is used to refer to a body of truth. Paul would tell the believers in Corinth to contend for or you could render to defend the faith.

That is this body of true doctrinal precept upon precept that the church is to defend the word faith is used to refer to that body of truth. Then there is daily faith. This is the faith where you. Day by day rely upon Christ, your Savior and Lord He the disciple. Are you the disciple?

And you rely entirely upon him for strength, for wisdom, for direction. That's daily faith. For we walk not by sight, but by what faith. That's daily faith. Paul tells the. Lever to take up the shield of what faith so they can extinguish the darts. The fiery darts of the evil one. So this is a daily process of exercising, developing faith. It is that faith that Paul is exhorting and encouraging the disciples to continue in with the pressures, the struggles, the difficulties, the temptations of life. They exhorted them to keep the faith.

In fact, that the next phrase provides the context for this necessity of daily faith.

Look at the last part of verse 22, continue in the face and saying through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God here is presented as future tense.

We are disciples marching toward this literal coming kingdom of Christ strained honor, and it's presented here in the future tense. The phrase doesn't mean you have to suffer so that you can get into the kingdom. The phrase means that going into the kingdom will involve suffering. We tend to view suffering as a surprising event according to the Bible, suffering as a standard encounter. So much so that Peter would write Beloved. Don't be surprised by the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing.

You'll be surprised as if some strange thing is happening to you. But to the degree that you are sharing in the suffering of Christ, keep on rejoicing. This is standard activity for the disciple heading toward the kingdom.

A disciple is someone who is suffering in some way for the cause of Christ.

Finally, in this phase or stage of orientation, Paul and Barnabas established the church. You read a verse twenty three. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commanded them to the Lord in whom they believe the word elder. Here is the original word press buta Roy gives us our transliterated word. Presbyterian, the elder, the press butut Roy were given the administration and leadership of the body, the flock. Peter will write later that the flock is to submit and follow the leaders.

The elders are to with integrity, lead with love.

And so what's happening here? You're just sort of in the meat and potatoes of the New Testament. You're watching the establishment of a new church teaching and encouraging people who are struggling, exhorting them to maintain the faith.

Then they're dealing with the form that always follows function. It is the the leadership of the church, the office of Elder and the ordinances would come by their leadership in all of this is happening.

They are establishing Christ Church, having made disciples for Christ. Stage three evaluation. The last part of this paragraph strikes me as simply this the excitement of God's work.

The key phrases would be what God has done or what God has opened the door that God is open. Look at verse twenty seven, and when they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith of the Gentile. It's interesting because the imperfect tense of the verb to report indicates that the story that Paul and Barnabas wanted to tell the church couldn't be told at one sitting. They had to have several sittings or several meetings. This is the first missionary conference in the history of the New Testament church.

Maybe not like we do it, but what you have here, several meetings where Paul and Barnabas shared the news. Let us tell you about Lystra. You won't believe what happened there.

They called Barnabas Zoos. And I've been everybody just burst into laughter.

We were worshiped until we stood firm for Christ. And then Paul could show them the marks on his body. He would say, later, I buried my body, the marks of Christ. They would weep together and laugh together and pray together as they reported. You do not read.

And when they gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that they had done to notice how they had opened the door thing.

Now listen to what God has done with us. Listen to how God has used us. There's been a point in your life as a believer, as a disciple headed toward the kingdom, whereas his disciples, you're able to say to somebody, your family, your children, your spouse, your church, your class. Guess how got used to me.

This past week.

Nothing more exciting than knowing that somehow you got in his way as he was at work and he used you as his disciple servant. That's all they're doing here.

Listen to what God has done with us. Listen to how he's used this. He's open this door of faith into the gentile world and imagine the thrill in that congregation as they are these sending church. They are now reaping the investment they've poured into the lives of Paul and Barnabus and they're sharing in the fruits of their first missionary enterprise.

Well, we give you a couple of thoughts by way of application close. First of all, anything effective in ministry is going to be reinforced by encouragement. Paula Martinmas didn't brazen the town here, preaching evangelistic sermon or to a move on and just hope the believers found their way. No, no, no. Facts for the last hundred years, beginning with Charles Finney, with other kind of evangelism that I believe has brought great disservice to the church.

God did not call us to do anything less than make disciples. So they go back. They go back. They go back. They they write what you hold in your lap as the body of truth so that these people stay in the faith, established the church, appoint needed leadership, commit to a body of truth. You're part of God's church. This local assembly experiencing the same things. And we need the encouragement of leaders and fellow brethren and the encouragement of the word. Second, anything eternal is going to be accomplished by God's involvement. May I ask you a question? What is it about your church that can be explained only in light of God's involvement? Let me put it this way. And I had this question posed with other students in the class. If the Holy Spirit left this ministry, Colonial Baptist Church sometime this afternoon, how long would it take us to figure out that we were doing everything on our own?

I have been asked many times, and I'm always uncomfortable when I'm asked what is it about Colonial that's caused growth or their perceived notion of effectiveness?

I was asked a couple of months ago to teach a seminary course in the summer, a module in the north, the seminary in the north. On the subject of church growth. And they gave me three days and I pick nineteen ninety nine because it was the latest one they offered.

And I wanted to shove it as far as I could. So I'm frankly uncomfortable with that subject. I'm fearful of reducing the miraculous to handouts and overheads. I don't believe that if you do A, B, C, this will happen. That is an affront to a sovereign God.

You cannot reduce sovereignty to a sheet of paper. What is it about our ministry that can't be reduced down to some formula that can be explained only in light of this is what God has done.

This is the door that God has opened. All we happen to be is in the way.

Few months ago, some preachers visited our services, looked around, listen to me preach and left and said, we don't know why that church is growing.

Good, Good. I came looking at the wrong things. What is it about your life that can be explained only in terms of God's involvement? What development is taking place right now that you have to simply say this is what God is involved in with my life?

What ministry? What exercise? A trial? Well, you know, you are abandoned to a sovereign God who alone is at work. The only way to live. By the way, as individuals and as a corporate body family.

The exclamation of Christ's truth. The establishment of Christ's church. Well, that brings the excitement. I've got to work.

If you're involved in church ministry, you're involved in God's work, or at least you're supposed to be. I hope Stephen's reminder and challenge has been helpful for you today as you think about your own ministry. You don't want to be involved in things that can be explained by your own plans and your own efforts. What really matters is what God is doing and being involved in the things that only can be explained by the power of God. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. We're working our way through a series Stephen taught many years ago from the Book of Acts. The lesson you heard today is entitled Phases of Effective Ministry. If you missed a portion of this lesson or any of the lessons in this series, we post them all to our Web site and you'll find us online at Wisdom Online, dawg. Now, if you haven't been to that site in a while, you might be surprised because it's been completely redesigned. All of the resources that you're used to are there, including the complete archive of Stevens teaching, as well as our online store containing all of Stevens books, Bible study guides, commentaries and more. Again, that's wisdom online, dawg. Be sure and take a look. Today, while you're there, you'll notice an opportunity to sign up to receive our monthly magazine entitled Heart to Heart. Heart to Heart is a resource that we send to all of our wisdom partners. And we'd be happy to send you the next three issues just for asking those three issues would be our gift to you. There's a form that you can use on our Web site to request those copies. Or you can call us today. Heart to Heart magazine features articles to help you grow in your Christian faith and a daily devotional guide to keep you grounded in God's word.

It's a resource that you'll keep near your Bible and refer to every day if you prefer calling us. Our number is eight six six. Forty eight. Bible or eight six six four eight. Two four two five. Three were in the office on weekdays from eight thirty a.m. to four 30 p.m. And we'd love to talk with you and sign you up. Thanks for joining us today. And tune in next time for more Wisdom for the Hearts.