Passing the Torch

your bulletins and you see that
we are not in the gospel of Luke. There is even a touch of personal
disappointment. And I suppose even I suppose disappointment is a
good word to stick with that I am just not able. to press
into Luke at this time. I began to realize this about
three weeks ago, and it isn’t the eschatology therein. Really,
the more I study, the more I realize I’ve moved very little. I still
believe that Israel is Israel and that the church is the church.
And we’ll get into all that in time. But as I began to just feel overwhelmed, not at
the process of pulling together one message, but at the thought
of pulling together from scratch. And that’s kind of where we are
in the Gospel of Luke is operating from from ground zero week in
and week out to do that for the next six months, until which
time the Lord does something else in our midst. Just became
too overwhelming to even consider if I thought to do it effectively
and as God’s word requires. And so that by way of kind of
an announcement of explanation, if you will, I appreciate
your your prayers on my behalf. What you don’t know is that even
when I preach from the well, I probably spend upwards of 20
to 25 hours, almost my entire Saturday is spent reading and
preparing and re-preparing what has already been outlined and
structured and preached in the past. And so given that, it probably
requires twice that to start from complete scratch. As you know, even of those passages
that I preached before, I carry them around with me wherever
I go. I constantly am dipping in and out of them. I constantly
bring articles and commentaries with me to interact with. But one of the things that Trey
and I are kind of wrestling with is, and we’ll get into this more
in a moment, is that preaching isn’t the only thing that the
shepherds are required to do. And we know that this is not
an ideal situation, this bivocational deal. We know that there is just
a ton of shepherding and ministry opportunities that just aren’t
being attended to as best we can. And we are, even as late
as this morning, we are in the process of trying to formulate
a legitimate means to to be more effective and efficient in that
regard. And we have even prayed that,
you know, the Lord would raise up workers for the harvest and
there’s plenty of stuff to do. And a lot of times people will
say, you know, I don’t. Number one, you need to know
this about me. I don’t assign anything. I don’t
assign anything because if the Lord hasn’t assigned it to your
heart first, who am I? The ones that I’m looking for,
the ones that God has laid needs and ministry and legitimate things
upon their heart. And essentially all Trey and
I would do then is step out of the way and maybe seek to steer
and guide and nurture you along a particular ministry. But there is much to be done.
And frankly, there’s too much. And so that’s kind of where Trey
and I are. And you can pray for us. We desire
to be better shepherds to this church. And toward that end,
it did not serve our purposes for me to be locked up studying
Luke 50 hours a week when the church is so needy for ministry
in a lot of ways. And that’s just what the church
is. It’s not a shame to you. That’s who we are in Christ.
And that is our grand opportunity as shepherds to minister to you. So it’s kind of with that backdrop,
and it sounds a lot more morose than I ever intended it to be. What we purpose to do is take
up the book of Philippians for at least As you know, that’s
probably at least two years worth of material that we hope to squeeze
it into the next six months and see what the Lord does with it.
There’s there’s so much abundant material there. And apologies
again to the Kriegers who have been with us since almost day
one. They’ve heard. Philippians before, and I just
pray that the Lord will give me enough new words and enough
new alliterated outlines that you will be even unaware that
it’s it’s repeated material. With that, in order to study
the book of Philippians, would you please turn to the book of
Acts? And no, I have not lost my mind. In order to study the book of
Philippians, you need to know how the church in Philippi came
into existence. And that’s why we would seek
to turn back to the book of Acts. I call it Luke Volume 2 because
the great gospel writer Luke is the one that wrote this volume. And even the passages that will
skirt in and out of our passages that Luke was specifically with
some of the apostles and in question. This book has always in these
passages have always been a core part of even the establishment
of Providence Bible Church, and I’ll tell you how I can remember
before we ever came here. I was challenged by a so-called
church planter, one that was from a more modern church with
a more modern approach, who just challenged my preparation or
lack thereof when he asked me specifically, had I done my demographics
yet? Had I done my demographics to
even see if a church was viable here in Fort Collins? And I can
remember my reply and his whole thing was he had this whole method
for planting churches. And I don’t know if it was a
12 step or an eight step or six aspects or whatever it was. But
I do remember that these were extra biblical little things
that he was trying to pin on the approach to church planting,
one of which was a demographic study so that you could know
those to whom you were preparing to minister. Well, I can remember
my reply, and it was born out of this study, this study of
Acts 15 and 16, when I said, you know, I don’t know that there
is any one formula for planting a church because one of the greatest
churches Paul ever planted was done so when he met some women
by a river on the Lord’s day. That’s Paul’s method of church
planting. And it really is no method at
all other than the clear preaching of God’s Word to any he came
across. I remember the rest of my reply
to the demographics question. Had I done my demographics, I
assured him that I was confident there were sinners in Fort Collins. This passage, as I said, has
always been familiar and at a core. But even
that and I say that tongue in cheek, my conversation with this
church planter, because I’ve been humbled by this passage
repeatedly in those things that I missed, those things that were
not plainly evident to me and things that if I had opportunity,
I’d do differently again. For some of you, you’ve known,
I’ve told you before, I’d never go plant a church again without
a plurality. I’d never go plant a church again
without a worship leader. I’m mindful now that you never
put anything into the church that you even think you might
want to remove because people are as traditional after they
do something for a week as if they’ve done it for 100 years.
You be careful what you put in a church. At any rate, I quipped
with one of my seminary professors one time. I thought I was quipping. He thought I was serious that
I should write a book one day about church planting, because
there are there are books worth of anecdotes of mistakes that
I’ve made and things that I would do differently if I were to ever
plant a church again, which I don’t have any intention of doing.
So it’s curious that my subtitle for the message, which you don’t
have, is Church Planting 101. The title in the bulletin is
merely passing the torch, and that talks about the general
ministry of evangelism and planting churches and establishing ministers. But Church Planting 101 is kind
of the title that stuck in my mind. And what I want to offer
to you is components, and I don’t intend to take eight weeks on
this. I would purpose to be now. All
right. I would probably be here next
week at least, but I would purpose to be through this in a few weeks
time so that we can get into the Philippian letter. But what
I want to look at this morning is components of a church planting
ministry. That’s what Paul is doing. That’s
what he’s about. And what we want to just look
at is how was he doing what he was doing? What kinds of things
was he doing? What are some components that
made up a godly church planting ministry? Ministry lessons learned,
really, from the founding of the church in Philippi. And in
order to do that, I want to take you back. We’re going to start
back in verse 33 of Acts chapter 15. I’m going to pick up other
portions from time to time. I’m just going to ask your patience. We’ll dip in and out. We’ll kind
of scoot around the book of Acts and we’ll see what the Lord does
with us this morning. If you would, a good portion
of this passage is there in your bulletin, but not all. And so
it’s good to have your Bible handy. I want to start in Acts
chapter 15, beginning in verse 33. After they had spent time there,
they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who
had sent them out. But it seemed good to Silas to
remain there. But Paul and Barnabas stayed
in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also the word
of the Lord. After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us
return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim
the word of the Lord and see how they are. Barnabas also wanted
to take John called Mark along with them also. But Paul kept
kept insisting that they should not take him along, who had deserted
them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And
there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one
another. And Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.
But Paul chose Silas and left being committed by the brethren
to the grace of the Lord. And he was traveling through
Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Let’s stop right
there. Now, we looked at this passage in a completely different
context a couple of weeks ago, and we’re aware of the breach. And it isn’t my purpose here
to, again, try to decipher who blew it here, Paul or Barnabas. Who was at fault? That isn’t
my purpose at all. We talked about that several
weeks ago and you know my opinion, my thoughts on here. What I do
want to do, though, is go in and look at what they did and
perhaps even why they did what they did to try to just mine
out some details on how we are to operate in our own ministry
here in Providence Bible Church. Components of a church planting
ministry. Number one. Establishing churches,
first of all, is a ministry born out of a heart of shepherding
the flock of God. There are, I can remember one
particular campus ministry in which I was a part, there are
those that are so given to evangelism that they place almost little
or no emphasis at all on what is called discipleship. The heart
of ministry is shepherding. That is the core of what ministry
is. It is taking care of those God-given
saints and nurturing them so that they can be building blocks
for gospel ministry. Look at, again, the passage. Look at verse 36. After some days and We don’t
know exactly how long they were there, but this kind of is an
understatement. It seems like they were there
for some time, perhaps months. Paul said to Barnabas, let us
return and visit the brethren. Now, long before I read this
passage, I was already under duress and conviction and heartache
because of the great needs in our own church to minister. And when I said what I said a
moment ago that we’d touch upon it again, this is the passage
that I had in mind. This is the heart of ministry.
Ministering to believers. And Paul’s focus, it’s not that
evangelism wasn’t important to him, because as you’ll see, he
was doing that everywhere he went. Sometimes for shock value,
I’ve said it this way. We are not told in Scripture
to evangelize. Did you know that? I told you
it was for shock value. The form of the word euangelizo,
to evangelize, is never used in the imperative in the Scriptures.
What I take from that is God assumes that if our sin-sickened
souls have been saved by God’s mercy and grace alone, God assumes
that that good news, that joy in our hearts because of that
is going to overflow and we are going to take the gospel to others.
It assumes that. Therefore, it never needs to
command that. Paul was going about evangelizing
wherever he went, but his heart’s focus was the brethren, was the
church. Let us return and visit the brethren
in every city in which we proclaim the word and see how they are. People, he wasn’t concerned with
their health. You’ve heard me say this before,
and every time I do, then for six months afterwards, people
are reticent to ever share a prayer request about their health. But
God is far more concerned about your soul and about your spiritual
growth in Christ than He is about your health. We spend hours and hours, and
it doesn’t matter what ministry it is, we’ll go around the room
and we share the prayer request and everybody’s got to talk about
the request and how we might fix it. Right? Everybody’s snickering. And most often it’s our bunions
or some such part of our body that’s aching. God isn’t unconcerned. God knows that you have a human
frame. God knows that it’s frail and
feeble and weak and old and getting older. But God’s concerned with your
spiritual growth. And that’s exactly where Paul’s
heart is. When he says he wanted to see how they are, he wanted
to know how they were doing in Christ. Were they growing in
grace? Were they ministering? Were they
beginning to walk on two feet? Were they beginning to devour
meat and not just milk? Were they growing in grace? I
can remember when I was in the restaurant business, one of the
ways I would teach my waiters is you know what? Hot food is
the main thing. That’s almost the only thing
they come in here for. They didn’t come in here to hear
your jokes. They didn’t come in here to feast
on your grand personality. They came in here for hot food. And that’s why I would tell them
hot food is the most important priority you have. And if a man
is sitting there with a hot steak in front of him, but he can’t
take a bite until he has A1, A1 is your number one priority. That’s exactly the focus of Paul. Unless the believers are cared
for, unless the believers are built up, unless the believers
are the priority. There will be no evangelism in
those local communities. It’s exactly what Paul’s concern
was. So one pastor put it. Concern for his children was
in his heart. But infinitely more than that,
he had concern for those churches because they were centers from
which the gospel was to be sent yet further afield. It was an
eminent teacher who once said that he would rather perfect
one saint to the work of ministering than call hundreds of people
to the beginnings of the Christian life. Did you hear that? It’s
almost shocking. It would certainly be shocking
to some campus ministries when all that’s involved apparently
in ministry is putting another notch in your belt. It’s not
the case. He would rather call one Perfect
one saint to the work of ministering, then call hundreds of people
to the beginnings of Christ. This man felt that the enormous
importance of making the church what it ought to be in any given
location in order that the church might fulfill its true function
in that place. That’s exactly what Paul’s heart
was. It wasn’t enough that he had
taken the Gospel to people. It wasn’t enough that some had
accepted. What Paul really desired is that they grow and flourish
and begin to multiply and proclaim Christ where they were. The original purpose, the core
purpose announced by Paul was to visit the churches that he
had previously established. God would take him further, but
that is in his heart. That’s what’s core. And that
must be the core of every church. And I know there are some churches
that take this too far. I remember a church. A church we were in. Whose pastor at one point had
taught that believers were to come to church and we were not
to invite unbelievers. Unbelievers were not welcome
in this church. And I can remember thinking it would take years
to eradicate that not only from the church, but from the society
in general, from the town, from the city. That would take years
to eradicate and to change that kind of thinking. That unbelievers
are certainly welcome here, but it is believers that are the
focus. We’re here to minister to the
saints. We will proclaim Christ. But
it is believers that we’re seeking to build up and edify and strengthen. There’s a second observation
from this same passage, another component of church planting
ministry. Learned from the establishing of the church in Philippi, not
only is are establishing churches born out of a heart of shepherding
the flock on hand. Establishing churches is a ministry
advanced by a pluralized effort. And I’ve already told you, if
I had one change that I would make, I would never go out alone
again. I mean, it was seven years of
not only difficulty, it was seven excruciating, painful, heart
wrenching, troubling years. And a lot of that could have
been avoided in a plurality. Look at the passage. I mean,
it just is all over this passage and this is one place where we’re
going to dip backwards. After they had spent time there,
they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who
had sent them out. Look at verse 35, that Paul and
Barnabas stayed in Antioch. And then in verse 36, Paul said
to Barnabas, let us return. Paul had a mind to go out as
a team. Paul had a mind to operate from
a pluralistic model. Over and over again in this passage,
you read of Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Silas, v. 40. Barnabas
and Mark, v. 39. Go back to chapter 15, v.
22 for a minute. Because it’s really there that
you begin to see that this was truly a pattern that the church
was recognizing and endorsing. In v. 22, And I don’t know if
you remember the context, but the context is the whole issue
of circumcision. And was that necessary for Gentile
believers? And then they had this council.
And then after the council, they began to send them out. And this
is basically where we pick up in verse 22. Then it seemed good
to the apostles and the elders. And there in both cases, in both
groups, you have plurality. Apostles and elders. Together
with the whole church, there is that brotherly accountability
and affinity one for another. It seemed good to the apostles
and the elders with the whole church to choose men, plural,
from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. It wasn’t
enough just to send Paul and Barnabas in this particular case.
Judas called Barsabbas, Silas, leading men from the brethren.
We already talked about Silas two weeks ago. And they sent
this letter with them and they go on to talk about each of these
men and their ministry. The church believed in the safety
in numbers, the church believed in a plurality, the church believed
in that model. And so much of the church, as
we’ve talked about church leadership, has gotten away from that. It’s
absolutely, it becomes even more clear when you begin to talk
about the eldership for the leadership model in the New Testament church.
It’s absolutely clear that plurality is God’s model. Plurality. Thirdly, I told you we were going
to kind of move fast. If you want more information
on plurality, just dip back into the messages on 1 Peter 5. We could go into it more there. Thirdly, establishing churches
is not only born out of a heart of shepherding the flock on hand
and advanced by a pluralized effort. But thirdly, establishing churches
is ministry legitimized by the commissioning of a local church. I remember hearing Tony Evans,
great fiery black preacher. He said one day that some is
sent, others just went. That’s exactly the problem that
you have even to this day in modern churches is some just
went. They have no commissioning behind
them. They have no church support. They have no church affirmation
of their work. They have no church commendation. Look at verse 40. This is the
Apostle Paul. And I take it to mean that the
Apostle Paul was dependent upon their affirmation of his ministry.
That the Apostle Paul wasn’t going to move without the encouragement
and the affirmation of the local church. Paul was not a cowboy. Paul didn’t just go off doing
his own thing because he wanted to. Paul probably brought these
plans to the local church. He laid them out. They prayed
over them. And then they said, yes, this seems good. And that’s
the language that’s used. Seems good. We’re never definitive
exactly about what the Lord’s going to do. I purpose to come
to Fort Collins and you know within two years we have 200
people. I got five or six elders. Didn’t
work that way. Not exactly. Look at verse 40. Paul chose Silas and left. But not before. being committed
by their brethren to the grace of the Lord. They pulled Paul
aside. I think they had a service for
him. They pulled him aside. They had a service for these
men. Perhaps they even laid hands on them and prayed for them.
They commended them to the grace of God. They said, look, if you’re
going to go anywhere for your assistance, if you need anything,
call on God. Why did Paul, of all people,
need that kind of a prayer service? Because Paul believed in the
commissioning of a local church. And we talked about this a little
bit when we talked about the eldership and we talked about
plurality and we talked about what ordination is and is not.
That’s my concern, people, that ordination with a capital O,
where this commission is, if it just sends a guy out into
no man’s land to do anything, I don’t find biblical support
for it. I don’t find biblical support
for a general ordination to the ministry that just says, OK,
we put our stamp of approval out there, now go. You’re no
longer accountable to any local body. You don’t have to listen
to anyone. You don’t need anyone’s help.
You don’t need anyone’s affirmation. That’s not what the Apostle Paul,
that’s not how he functioned. I remember And mind you, I come
before you as one who did receive that general ordination. I did
come here to Fort Collins with the affirmation of a church.
I did come with the support of a local body. I can remember
about six months into the work, though, having Breakfast for
coffee with a brother who said, I’ve always believed that churches
plant churches. And I can tell you after eight
years, nine years, I think we just had our ninth birthday.
I believe that more than ever. Churches plant churches, not
renegade pastors with an idea of their own because things didn’t
work out in such and such a place. Churches plant churches. And
churches need to support those going out if they are able to
affirm them. And men need to wait for that
affirmation. The church is beset, troubled
by way too many men going out there without anybody behind
them, doing whatever they please, When even the Apostle Paul himself
wouldn’t even budge. I want to take you to another
verse. He wouldn’t even budge until the local church had put
their stamp of approval upon him and his ministry. I want
to take you back. Look at verse 33. These are the kinds of things
that you almost gloss over in your reading. unless you really
begin to examine them word for word. In verse 33, it says, after
they had spent time there, they were sent away. They didn’t get
in trouble. It wasn’t that, you know, Paul,
your illustrations are old. We’re tired of your preaching.
You know, go away. That’s not it at all. I get the
sense here that Paul wasn’t going to budge until the local church
affirmed what it was he was purposing to do. They were sent away from
the brethren in peace. There was no breach. There was
no schism here. There wasn’t a fracture in their
relationship with that local church. They were sent away from
the brethren in peace to where? To those who had sent them. This is so radically different
from what’s going on in our churches today. It’s so radically different.
It’s shameful. Shameful what the church has
done. Fourthly, components of a church planting
ministry, a ministry that we can observe. I hope that you
can observe these things playing themselves out from the establishment
of the church in Philippi. And we’re getting there. Not
only is establishing churches a ministry born out of the heart
of shepherding the flock on hand, Advanced by a pluralized effort
legitimized by the commissioning of the local church. But fourthly,
establishing churches as a ministry characterized by serving with
a constant view to discipleship. There is double entendre in in
the little title that I came up with passing the torch, it’s
not just that you’re passing the torch of the gospel to those
that don’t have the gospel to unbelievers. They’re passing
the torch of gospel ministry to those who will carry it on
long after you’re gone. Look at the passage before us,
chapter 16, verse one, since we haven’t read this portion
of the passage, let me read it. Paul came also to Derbe and to
Lystra and a disciple was there named Timothy. I mean, you know
Timothy, and immediately your minds are flooded. Well, this
is Paul’s beloved son in the faith. Yes, it is. And this is
exactly where it happens. This is the pastor to whom Paul
writes not one, but two epistles. Yes, the same one. Paul came
also to Derbe and to Lystra, and a disciple was there named
Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but
his father was Greek. Do you think that Paul might
have had Timothy in mind when he said, let’s go back and visit
all the brethren? Let’s go see how it is with them.
Do you think Paul had his heart and mind on this disciple? I
absolutely believe so. And what he came and found was
exactly what he had hoped for. That the faith had flourished
in him and grown and he had matured in the faith. Verse 2, And he
was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. His faith, his faithfulness was
beginning to spread far beyond the borders of his own little
town. as it always does. Verse 3, Paul wanted this man
to go with him. And he took him and circumcised
him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all
knew that his father was a Greek. That’s the issue. There is no
controversy here. There is no contradiction of
the very mission, remember, that he and his comrades were on,
carrying this letter afar that basically Took away the the issue
from circumcision to the Gentiles. There’s no controversy here.
Timothy was half Jew, half Greek. When Paul took him and performed
this rite, had this rite performed upon him, it wasn’t as a Greek
that he did this because he would have contradicted the very conclusion. But it was as a Jew that he did
this. And that was well within Paul’s prerogative there. Let
me take you back. We’ll just briefly touch on this
issue and close out. Flip back to Acts chapter 15. In Acts chapter 15, here you
kind of get the problem as it lays out. Some men came down
from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be
saved. These are Greeks that they were
talking about, Gentiles that had come to faith, and now suddenly
we’re going to have this extra rule placed upon them. When Paul
and Barnabas had great discussions and debate with them, the brethren
determined that Paul and Barnabas and some of the others should
go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders concerning this
issue. Remember, this is the first council. Big issue. We better get everybody together
and have a meeting. Therefore, being sent on their
way by the church was another opportunity or another occasion
there where Paul was dispatched. They were passing through both
Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion the
Gentiles were bringing great joy to all the brethren. When
they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and
the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God
had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees
who had believed stood up. These are the Judaizers with
whom Paul contended almost his entire ministry. Some of them
stood up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct
them to observe the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders came
together to look into this matter in verse seven. After there had
been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, Brethren,
you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that
by the mouth of the Gentiles, that by my mouth, the Gentiles
would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows
the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit,
just also as He did to us. And He made no distinction between
us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, therefore,
why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the
disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been
able to bear? But we believe that we are saved
through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as also
they are. All the people kept silent and
they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating
what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. Skip down to verse 22 if you
would. This passage we alluded to a moment ago. Then it seemed
good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church
to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul
and Barnabas, Judas and Barsabbas and Silas, leading men from among
the brethren. And they sent this letter with
them. And the letter goes on to detail this very issue and
their conclusion in it. No, we are not going to prescribe
this right to the Gentiles. It’s not proper. It’s not necessary. But what Paul did was minister
to Timothy as a Jew. And to him it was necessary in
order to go conducting a ministry to Jews. One passage that always is and should be the focus of
a church is 2 Timothy 2. In Titus 2, I’ve characterized
it before that you’ve got older men ministering to young men.
I get this image from Titus 2, and I’ve characterized it this
way before, you should always be reaching down. Any believer,
any believer, male or female, and no matter how strong a believer
you are, any believer should be reaching down to other believers.
There’s always someone younger Younger in the faith. Less experienced
than you. Less knowledgeable about the
Scriptures. All of us should be reaching
down and all of us should be reaching up. All of us should
be looking to someone who is more knowledgeable, more godly,
more seasoned, more wise. All of us should be reaching
up. This ministry that Paul was conducted
was characterized by serving constantly with a view to discipleship
because Paul knew his days were numbered. And Paul knew that
the very success of the gospel, the flourishing of the churches,
were dependent upon other young men who would come and grow up
in their midst and take the gospel to others. 2 Timothy 2.2 is the
passage that I mentioned. the things which you have heard
from Me in the presence of many witnesses. Entrust these to faithful
men.” And you know what? It doesn’t even stop there. What
he says is look for faithful men. Godly men. Men with character. Men who have shown an affinity
for the things of God. Men who desire to serve God with
great faithfulness. Look for people like that. and
entrust this sacred treasure. That’s exactly how Paul treats
this Gospel. He treats it like a treasure
that has been entrusted to him, and he says, take this and entrust
it to others. And it doesn’t stop there. The
passage goes on to say, the things which you have heard from me
in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also. And that is the circle. That’s the cycle that goes on
forever. And Paul was in that mode. Paul was constantly looking for
young men whom he could entrust the sacred treasure to in their
own faithfulness. I mean, think of it. We read
the passage. You know that Paul was probably
still suffering the heartbreak of the literal apostasy. That’s the word that’s used there
in that passage for what Mark did when Mark left the ministry. I mean, he apostatized in a sense. He didn’t leave Christ necessarily,
but he had his hand to the plow and he quit. And Paul said, I’m
done with him and my heart is broken over it. I don’t get the
sense that Paul was this arrogant, harsh man. I know that’s the
view that some people take. The softies that side with Barnabas.
I’m kidding. I get the sense that Paul was
so grieved that the work was so grand and so glorious that
for Mark to do what he did just broke his heart. And he couldn’t
entrust that portion of the ministry to him again. Not right then.
You know that he proved his faithfulness to Paul in the future, but at
that time he said no. And that’s what caused the breach.
And so for Paul to be constantly on the lookout for others and
new men, it was a natural thing. I’ll introduce the fifth and
then we’ll close and we’ll pick it up here next time. Church
planning 101, right? Components of a church planning
ministry. Some of the lessons learned from observing the founding
of the Church of Philippi. Establishing churches was a ministry
that was born out of a heart of shepherding the flock on hand,
advanced by a pluralized effort, legitimized by the commissioning
of the local church, characterized by serving with a constant view
to discipleship. Number five. establishing churches
is a ministry conducted by actively awaiting God’s direction. There
are many, many people who would like to sit around and twiddle
their thumbs and all the while suggest and try to convince you
that they are waiting for God to tell them what to do. And that’s not how God works. Get up and do something. Serve
God in some capacity because that is the surest way to elicit
God’s direction for your life and your ministry. Do something. Well, Lord God, we are already
humbled at seeing how Paul’s ministry was conducted in the
establishing of these local churches. Lord, if we would, we would go
back and change a thousand things. But Lord, you have us here in
this moment. You have us before this passage. And Lord God, we
pray that you would examine our hearts and that you would challenge
us with the truths that we glean from this passage. That we have
no regrets 10 years from now. That we can make new and fresh
changes to our life and to our ministry. that you would be glorified
all the more in our lives as we serve you. Lord God, be glorified,
we pray. It’s in Christ’s name that we
pray. Amen.