WEBVTT 00:00:00.340 --> 00:00:08.835 Brothers and sisters, it is a real privilege to be with you today and what a joy to sing those songs to God's glory. 00:00:08.835 --> 00:00:17.574 So when the elders first reached out to me and were asking me to come, they shared that the theme verse for the weekend was Philippians 1.5. 00:00:17.574 --> 00:00:32.621 And so when we read that it says Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, that it says because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, this is a passage in which Paul is thanking God for the partnership that he has in the gospel with the church in Philippi. 00:00:32.621 --> 00:00:48.531 And so this morning that our Sunday school service those of you that were here earlier heard us talk a little bit about what that looks like practically for the church to engage, why the church should be engaged in partnership for the gospel with the workers which you send out. 00:00:48.531 --> 00:00:53.009 And tonight we're going to talk about a little bit more specifics about what it looks like practically. 00:00:53.009 --> 00:01:05.250 But today I hope you'll indulge me if we just go over and do some review of the theological underpinnings, the biblical narrative that tells us about God and his heart for his global glory. 00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:09.004 So I apologize to those of you that are visiting for the first time. 00:01:09.165 --> 00:01:24.501 I'm not the regular speaker here, so you will not get the dynamic excellence that you normally may be accustomed to, but I want to begin by just asking a very, very simple question, and that is what does God think about the people around the world that haven't heard about him? 00:01:24.501 --> 00:01:31.569 Now, I don't know if you've ever really considered this, so I'm going to talk to you about somebody specific rather than just making it a general, hypothetical question. 00:01:31.569 --> 00:01:57.503 I'm going to tell you about a little girl, and her name is Silik, silik Bichi-Olovna, and so Silik Bichi-Olovna has grown up as a member of a people group in central Siberia, among a people group that are known as the Tuvans, and so her father and her father's father and her father's father's father, as far back as they can remember, have herded sheep and goats, and they live kind of like in these yurts on the steppe of Siberia. 00:01:57.503 --> 00:02:00.653 It gets down to minus 40, minus 50 in the winter there. 00:02:00.653 --> 00:02:10.460 So when that happens they huddle around their stove and they're pretty much indoors for six months at a time, and then in the summer she runs and plays while her dad takes care of the sheep. 00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:20.390 Her mom has a job at the government school for the little village nearby, she teaches at the kindergarten, and Sailuk Bichi Olavna grows up her whole life in this environment. 00:02:20.390 --> 00:02:27.675 Now, there is no church in her language, there's no Bible translation in her language, and so her parents are what are known as animists. 00:02:27.895 --> 00:02:32.026 Now, animists believe that the spiritual world controls the physical world. 00:02:32.026 --> 00:02:41.021 So whether or not they get sick, whether or not their sheep wander into the river, whether or not wolves show up, all these things are controlled by the spirit world. 00:02:41.021 --> 00:02:46.783 And so, to make the spirit world happy, they would claim to be Tibetan Buddhists or shamanists. 00:02:46.783 --> 00:02:48.748 Either one is fine with them. 00:02:48.748 --> 00:02:56.032 They will go to the Buddhist temple, they will ask the lama to pray over them, they'll spin the prayer wheels, or they'll go to the shaman. 00:02:56.032 --> 00:03:08.808 They'll pay him some money and then he will speak to the spirit world and tell them you know when they should have that birthday celebration, or you know whether they need to avoid any car journeys for the next two weeks, because the spirits are saying bad things about them, all those kinds of things. 00:03:09.379 --> 00:03:20.674 So I don't know if you can imagine what life is like in an animistic worldview, because for most of us we are so used to a comfortable life that is just very American and very divorced from that reality. 00:03:20.674 --> 00:03:25.420 But for most of the world they believe that the spirits control what happens to them. 00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:33.967 And if you give that any thought at all about the logical implications of it, it doesn't take very long before you realize that you live in fear all the time. 00:03:33.967 --> 00:03:34.868 Why? 00:03:34.868 --> 00:03:38.283 Because you never know if you've made the spirits fully happy. 00:03:38.283 --> 00:03:39.486 How do you know? 00:03:39.486 --> 00:03:41.953 Have I spun the prayer wheels enough times? 00:03:41.953 --> 00:03:44.485 Have I hung my prayer flag in the right place? 00:03:44.485 --> 00:03:46.611 Should I have hung a second prayer flag or a third? 00:03:46.611 --> 00:03:52.868 When something bad happens to them and you ask them why, they'll say well, I must have made the spirits angry in some way. 00:03:52.868 --> 00:04:04.010 You know, I dip my toskarak, my little nine-eye spoon, into the milk and I flicked it to the north, south, east and west every time I ate this week, but maybe I forgot on Tuesday. 00:04:04.010 --> 00:04:09.664 You east and west every time I ate this week, but maybe I forgot on Tuesday. 00:04:09.664 --> 00:04:12.569 You never know when you've done enough to make the spirits happy. 00:04:12.590 --> 00:04:33.391 So Silek's dad, in just pure fear and terror that he lives in constantly, has turned to drinking alcohol and he is constantly drunk and beats her and her mother, and this is the life in which she's growing up in utter poverty, in utter ignorance of the fact that Jesus came to earth thousands of years ago to die for her sins. 00:04:33.391 --> 00:04:40.050 Now I want you, with that reality in mind, to answer the question does God care for Silic? 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:52.949 Does he care for the millions upon millions, and even billions of little boys and girls who are growing up just like that all over the world in people groups completely without access to the gospel? 00:04:52.949 --> 00:05:05.262 I think it's a sobering reality that we need to sit in a little bit sometimes as Christians, because I think that we can tend to forget that, yeah, it's easy for us to say the obvious answer is that yes, of course God cares for her. 00:05:05.262 --> 00:05:06.285 But how? 00:05:06.285 --> 00:05:07.247 What does it mean? 00:05:07.247 --> 00:05:10.473 What has God done for her to show his care for her? 00:05:10.473 --> 00:05:13.747 So we're going to take a look at what the Bible says about that question. 00:05:14.149 --> 00:05:20.300 Now, normally, when you gather, your pastor is going to open up a single passage and he's going to exposit that passage, teaching what it means. 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:22.004 But today we're going to do something a little bit different. 00:05:22.004 --> 00:05:30.163 We're going to go through the whole narrative of scripture, so we're going to be taking a 30,000 foot view at what's going on in all of scripture. 00:05:30.163 --> 00:05:32.949 So if you don't want to keep up, that's okay. 00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:38.029 Don't feel like you have to turn to every passage, because you're going to be turning to a bunch of them, but if you want to try, I invite you to. 00:05:39.391 --> 00:05:40.932 I want to go back to the very beginning. 00:05:40.932 --> 00:05:41.492 To start with. 00:05:41.492 --> 00:05:47.095 I want us to think about do you remember what is the very first thing that God ever said to his creation? 00:05:47.095 --> 00:05:49.935 After he makes Adam and Eve, what's the very first thing he says to them? 00:05:49.935 --> 00:05:52.877 Be fruitful and multiply. 00:05:52.877 --> 00:05:53.858 That's the answer I usually get. 00:05:53.858 --> 00:05:56.886 Some people guess that's don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:05:56.886 --> 00:06:00.382 Actually, if you read carefully, there's something he says before that. 00:06:01.283 --> 00:06:03.187 Let's go to Genesis 1.26. 00:06:03.187 --> 00:06:13.749 God says let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 00:06:13.749 --> 00:06:17.386 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. 00:06:17.386 --> 00:06:19.170 He created him Male and female. 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:22.625 He created them and God blessed them. 00:06:22.625 --> 00:06:29.028 The very first thing God says to Adam and Eve is he pronounces a blessing upon them. 00:06:29.028 --> 00:06:33.668 Why have Adam and Eve done anything at all to merit God's blessing? 00:06:33.668 --> 00:06:41.528 No, they've literally three words before been created and God blesses them instantly. 00:06:41.528 --> 00:06:46.586 It shows us something of the character of God and why he created humanity. 00:06:46.586 --> 00:06:50.569 Doesn't it that God would bless them before he does anything? 00:06:50.569 --> 00:06:54.208 Then he says be fruitful and multiply. 00:06:54.208 --> 00:06:55.271 Fill the earth and subdue it. 00:06:55.271 --> 00:07:00.369 Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:10.427 So I'm going to propose that we can begin to see God's great idea for humanity Enjoy my blessing and extend my glory. 00:07:10.427 --> 00:07:14.254 God blesses them utterly without merit. 00:07:14.254 --> 00:07:20.170 They have just been created and he says I want you to enjoy my blessing Now. 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:24.783 I want you to extend my glory, be fruitful, multiply. 00:07:24.783 --> 00:07:34.343 My plan is for my image bearers to be all over this world, multiplied in every corner of it, glorifying me. 00:07:34.343 --> 00:07:37.067 Enjoy my blessing Now, extend my glory. 00:07:37.067 --> 00:07:40.353 So God's given them this command. 00:07:40.353 --> 00:07:46.302 He's created Adam and Eve in his image, to reflect who he was, in order that they might bring him glory. 00:07:46.302 --> 00:07:48.146 In short, they are created to worship him. 00:07:48.146 --> 00:07:51.422 And now God says I want the whole planet full of worshipers. 00:07:52.223 --> 00:07:53.867 So what happens in the story. 00:07:53.867 --> 00:07:58.021 Just a couple chapters later, we read that they fail. 00:07:58.021 --> 00:08:03.392 There's a fall and a removal from the garden and the removal from fellowship with God. 00:08:03.392 --> 00:08:05.305 So has God changed his mind? 00:08:05.305 --> 00:08:06.529 Does he have a new plan? 00:08:06.529 --> 00:08:08.266 Does he go to plan B for creation? 00:08:08.266 --> 00:08:10.867 You know, maybe we've got to come up with a new plan. 00:08:10.867 --> 00:08:15.130 No, he says I want you to enjoy my blessings and extend my glory. 00:08:15.130 --> 00:08:18.050 In fact, a few chapters later, humanity gets to a peak. 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:24.637 There's so much corruption and evil that God judges them and he saves only Noah and his family from the flood. 00:08:24.637 --> 00:08:27.863 Do you remember what he says when they get off the ark? 00:08:29.487 --> 00:08:39.104 Genesis 9, verse 1, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:08:39.104 --> 00:08:41.388 We haven't gotten to a plan B. 00:08:41.388 --> 00:08:42.389 It's still plan A. 00:08:42.389 --> 00:08:55.148 Judgment came, noah and his sons are saved, and God says enjoy my blessing Now, go and extend my glory, go, fill up this earth that I made for you. 00:08:55.148 --> 00:08:56.846 It's the same plan. 00:08:56.846 --> 00:08:58.625 So do they obey? 00:08:58.625 --> 00:09:03.192 Is the earth filled up with God-glorifying people on every corner? 00:09:03.192 --> 00:09:06.840 No, what happens Again? 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:10.475 Just a few chapters go by and we're already reading the story of humanity's failures again. 00:09:10.475 --> 00:09:11.639 What happens? 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:32.533 They gather in the plains of Shinar, and instead of saying let's go, spread across the earth to glorify our God, they say come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. 00:09:32.533 --> 00:09:35.067 It's the opposite plan, isn't it? 00:09:35.067 --> 00:09:38.428 Don't enjoy my blessing, extend my glory. 00:09:38.428 --> 00:09:40.303 Stay in one place. 00:09:40.303 --> 00:09:41.788 Extend our own glory. 00:09:41.788 --> 00:09:50.472 It's like humanity has a plan that's in direct defiance to God's plan for his name to be glorified across all corners of the earth. 00:09:51.095 --> 00:09:57.211 First of all, the concept of making a name for ourselves is basically the same as let us bring glory to ourselves. 00:09:57.211 --> 00:10:00.505 We're going to see later that God has a concern for the glory of his name. 00:10:00.505 --> 00:10:03.682 That is basically the same as his command to extend his glory. 00:10:03.682 --> 00:10:08.505 That is, god wants it to be his name that is lifted up and worshiped. 00:10:08.505 --> 00:10:15.470 And at the Tower of Babel, noah's descendants say no, we want our name to be lifted up and made great. 00:10:15.470 --> 00:10:23.434 Secondly, they resolve to gather together Rather than spread out to create a diverse community of worshipers all over the world that God has planned. 00:10:23.434 --> 00:10:27.388 They want to gather together and stick in the same place. 00:10:27.388 --> 00:10:28.491 So what does God do? 00:10:28.491 --> 00:10:33.265 He confuses their language and he forces the diversity that would have come naturally if they had obeyed him. 00:10:33.265 --> 00:10:36.399 And in Genesis 11.8, it says so. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:41.341 The Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city. 00:10:41.341 --> 00:10:50.528 So now people are being spread across the globe, like they were supposed to do in the first place, right, but now we have a problem. 00:10:50.528 --> 00:10:52.363 Now they speak all these different languages. 00:10:52.945 --> 00:10:58.643 How is God and his name and his fame going to be heard by all these different peoples that he's now created? 00:10:58.643 --> 00:11:01.068 In the table of nations, genesis 12. 00:11:01.068 --> 00:11:14.631 , god picks a man named Abram and he says to him Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. 00:11:14.631 --> 00:11:14.993 Why? 00:11:14.993 --> 00:11:18.082 So that you will be a blessing. 00:11:18.082 --> 00:11:22.049 Enjoy my blessing, extend my glory. 00:11:22.049 --> 00:11:29.470 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:11:29.470 --> 00:11:32.408 God has not given up on his divine plan. 00:11:32.408 --> 00:11:43.371 We're still in plan A, the plan that he intended from the time of creation, and I think many of us read the Old Testament as a story about God interacting with the Jewish people, and it is. 00:11:43.371 --> 00:11:47.090 But God's plan is never just for the Jewish people. 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.330 It's always for his name to be glorified by everyone. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:58.971 Israel is supposed to be a beacon, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation that reflect his glory to all these different nations. 00:11:58.971 --> 00:12:04.032 Have you ever looked at a map carefully, where God put Israel? 00:12:04.032 --> 00:12:08.360 It's fascinating. 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:15.524 Look at a map sometime of where the nations of the earth, the major civilizations, were in the time of Abraham and then consider where God places the nation of Israel. 00:12:15.524 --> 00:12:18.291 There's a big giant nation up in Turkey. 00:12:18.291 --> 00:12:25.466 There's a big giant nation on the upper, on the lower Nile Valley, there's one in the upper Nile Valley and there's one in Mesopotamia. 00:12:25.466 --> 00:12:27.386 Those are the major civilizations of the day. 00:12:27.386 --> 00:12:33.971 And where does God place Israel, the one place that's not a major desert, to walk between those nations? 00:12:34.919 --> 00:12:41.868 God says I want you here as a signpost on the main highway showing people about me. 00:12:41.868 --> 00:12:45.229 It's supposed to be about my glory among all the nations. 00:12:45.229 --> 00:12:48.424 Does Israel do that? 00:12:48.424 --> 00:12:51.729 They faithfully administer their task. 00:12:51.729 --> 00:12:54.028 They just witness to all these other nations. 00:12:54.028 --> 00:12:58.445 We hear so many stories about every nation looking at Israel seeing the holiness of God? 00:12:58.445 --> 00:12:59.664 No, that's not what happens at all. 00:12:59.664 --> 00:13:10.326 Right, over and over and over again, we go through this pattern of Israel failing to reflect the glory of the God who had chosen them as his nation. 00:13:10.326 --> 00:13:21.330 Let's look at some verses that remind us that, even in the midst of that whole story, that God is interacting with these Israelites, that his passion is still for the glory of his name among all nations. 00:13:21.330 --> 00:13:25.004 I don't want you to think that I'm making this up, that I'm imposing this on the text. 00:13:25.004 --> 00:13:26.547 I want you to see it with me. 00:13:26.626 --> 00:13:29.270 Why does God send the plagues on Egypt? 00:13:29.270 --> 00:13:33.222 Exodus 9.16 tells us for this purpose. 00:13:33.222 --> 00:13:38.822 I have raised you up to show you my power, so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 00:13:38.822 --> 00:13:45.234 When the spies come back and they report to Israel, hey, there's giants in the land God promised us. 00:13:45.234 --> 00:13:47.025 You know we're going to be destroyed. 00:13:47.025 --> 00:13:53.005 And God says because of their faithlessness, I'm going to destroy them, I'm going to wipe out this nation. 00:13:53.005 --> 00:13:54.063 Why does he not do it? 00:13:54.063 --> 00:13:59.572 For the sake of my name among all nations, numbers 14. 00:13:59.572 --> 00:14:01.264 What about the Ten Commandments? 00:14:01.264 --> 00:14:02.048 What does God say? 00:14:02.048 --> 00:14:04.121 Why did he give those to Israel? 00:14:04.582 --> 00:14:11.309 Deuteronomy 4, 1-8 tells us, so that God's name would be made great among all the nations. 00:14:11.309 --> 00:14:15.594 When God parts the Jordan River so the Israelites can walk across on dry land. 00:14:15.594 --> 00:14:17.716 What does Joshua 4, 24 tell us? 00:14:17.716 --> 00:14:29.253 It says that he did it so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. 00:14:29.253 --> 00:14:31.278 Why is it that word peoples and not people? 00:14:31.278 --> 00:14:32.240 What's the difference there in plural? 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:38.384 Why does Joshua 4 say that God did this so that all the peoples of the earth may know that he is mighty? 00:14:38.384 --> 00:14:47.461 Well, we begin to see a concept called people groups or language groups, what the New Testament will call ethne, these ethnic groups. 00:14:47.461 --> 00:14:49.485 I want all of them to hear about who I am. 00:14:49.485 --> 00:14:52.730 I'm the one that made them back at Babel. 00:14:52.730 --> 00:14:54.941 I want them all to hear about me. 00:14:54.941 --> 00:14:58.528 I want to be glorified by all these nations. 00:14:59.990 --> 00:15:04.125 Later in Israel's history, we see a shepherd boy named David standing before Goliath. 00:15:04.125 --> 00:15:13.624 Now, I don't know if you've ever thought about this story, but I think this is a powerful, actually, image of missions in many ways. 00:15:13.624 --> 00:15:18.634 We see God picking the most limited person in all of Israel's army to go up against the giant. 00:15:18.634 --> 00:15:20.900 Why, now? 00:15:20.900 --> 00:15:26.472 Okay, israel does not have a giant of Goliath's size that can meet him man to man. 00:15:26.472 --> 00:15:33.984 But I guarantee somewhere in Israel's army there's a guy who's six foot five and ripped and like their fastest swordsman, right. 00:15:33.984 --> 00:15:37.613 Why does God not pick that man to go up against Goliath? 00:15:37.613 --> 00:15:43.307 David tells us in 1 Samuel 17, 46,. 00:15:43.307 --> 00:15:52.211 He says this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 00:15:52.211 --> 00:15:57.607 Because when the little boy beats the giant, nobody thinks the little boy was special. 00:15:57.607 --> 00:16:01.571 Everybody says, oh, god is special. 00:16:01.571 --> 00:16:03.927 All the nations are going to hear about this. 00:16:04.760 --> 00:16:09.899 The time when a little boy beat a giant, that's the point of that story, and David knows that. 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:11.395 He knows he's not the hero of the story. 00:16:11.395 --> 00:16:12.775 God is the hero of that story. 00:16:12.775 --> 00:16:16.760 God is telling a much bigger story than just him versus a giant. 00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:20.179 He's telling a much bigger story than Israel versus the Philistines. 00:16:20.179 --> 00:16:25.121 He's telling a story about who he is, a God that created the world. 00:16:26.291 --> 00:16:31.736 Later on, his son, solomon, is made wiser than any other man, and 1 Kings 4.34 tells us why. 00:16:31.736 --> 00:16:38.865 For the sake of the name of the Lord among all nations, solomon himself was wise enough to know this. 00:16:38.865 --> 00:16:42.583 You know a lot of people by this time in Israel, have forgotten about all these other nations. 00:16:42.583 --> 00:16:49.730 They're totally consumed with their own nation and what's going on and what's happening, the political struggles that are happening there. 00:16:49.730 --> 00:17:00.375 But Solomon builds the temple and in 1 Kings 8.43, he dedicates it in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people, israel. 00:17:00.375 --> 00:17:09.954 See, that was the point of the temple, that was the point of the David and Goliath story, that was the point of crossing of the Jordan, that was the point of all these other stories. 00:17:09.954 --> 00:17:15.217 It's supposed to point to God and say we're going to extend his glory to all these nations. 00:17:15.657 --> 00:17:23.778 Now, when Israel fails to be the beacon that God created her to be, god allows Israel to be captured and taken into captivity as slaves. 00:17:23.778 --> 00:17:26.544 And why does he do that? 00:17:26.544 --> 00:17:34.163 He says I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations. 00:17:34.163 --> 00:17:40.883 You, israel, are being faithless to me and that reflects on me and my name, and I won't have it. 00:17:40.883 --> 00:17:44.329 My name will be great among the nations. 00:17:44.329 --> 00:17:48.401 Even in the exile, god is still concerned for the nations and how they see him. 00:17:48.401 --> 00:17:51.138 He rescues three of the exiles from a fiery furnace. 00:17:51.138 --> 00:17:56.140 Daniel 3.29 says he does it for the sake of his name among the nations. 00:17:56.140 --> 00:18:01.955 Daniel is rescued from the mouths of the lions for the sake of his name among the nations. 00:18:01.955 --> 00:18:03.558 Daniel 6.25 and 26. 00:18:03.558 --> 00:18:07.772 And finally, god brings Israel back from exile into the promised land. 00:18:07.772 --> 00:18:14.683 Ezekiel 39.25 to says he does it for the sake of his name among all the nations. 00:18:15.144 --> 00:18:29.173 See, over and over and over, the story of the Old Testament that we think is just an Israelite story is a story of God saying Israel, you're supposed to be a beacon because I'm concerned about the glory of my name among all the nations. 00:18:29.173 --> 00:18:33.844 That's why it matters Israel, that you're faithless. 00:18:33.844 --> 00:18:40.502 The whole story of the Old Testament is Israel saying we're all about the enjoy my blessing. 00:18:40.502 --> 00:18:41.971 We like that part. 00:18:41.971 --> 00:18:42.753 That part is good. 00:18:42.753 --> 00:18:44.699 The extend my glory. 00:18:44.699 --> 00:18:46.502 We stop short of that. 00:18:46.502 --> 00:18:49.914 Enjoy my blessing oh yeah, I like that part. 00:18:49.914 --> 00:18:53.742 God, enjoy my blessing, extend my glory. 00:18:53.742 --> 00:18:56.193 Ooh, that sounds like it might cost me something. 00:18:56.193 --> 00:18:57.897 Not so much about that. 00:18:57.897 --> 00:19:02.836 Does that sound like any other people group you might have heard of on Long Island, possibly? 00:19:02.836 --> 00:19:05.844 We like to enjoy God's blessing. 00:19:05.844 --> 00:19:08.076 We don't like to extend his glory because it costs us. 00:19:08.497 --> 00:19:10.221 The Old Testament is a God-centered story. 00:19:10.221 --> 00:19:21.499 It's the story of a God who created a whole world full of people who he wants to know his name, to know who he is, to recognize how glorious and how worthy of our worship he is. 00:19:21.499 --> 00:19:27.513 And it closes with the book of Malachi and God makes one final promise about the glory of his name. 00:19:27.513 --> 00:19:35.726 He says in Malachi 1, for from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. 00:19:35.726 --> 00:19:45.085 In every place, incense will be offered to my name, a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 00:19:45.085 --> 00:19:47.537 So how is God going to do that? 00:19:47.537 --> 00:19:49.996 Israel hasn't extended his glory. 00:19:49.996 --> 00:19:51.200 So what now? 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:56.175 Well, after Malachi, we have 400 years of silence, right by the time Jesus is born. 00:19:56.175 --> 00:20:00.080 The Jews don't even believe that God wants the nations to be saved at all. 00:20:00.080 --> 00:20:01.998 We hear almost nothing about that in their culture. 00:20:02.730 --> 00:20:05.819 However, hopefully, this part is pretty well known to you, this part of the story. 00:20:05.819 --> 00:20:07.013 I hope nobody here is going. 00:20:07.013 --> 00:20:07.817 I wonder what happens next. 00:20:07.817 --> 00:20:13.913 Jesus is born, right, he lives his life among the people of Israel. 00:20:13.913 --> 00:20:15.777 He dies to pay the price for our sins and then he's resurrected. 00:20:15.836 --> 00:20:23.951 And there's a very familiar passage in Matthew 28, where Jesus comes and says to his disciples all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 00:20:23.951 --> 00:20:35.863 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. 00:20:35.863 --> 00:20:39.730 Does that sound familiar? 00:20:39.730 --> 00:20:42.134 It's the same plan. 00:20:42.134 --> 00:20:45.362 I want my name to be glorified by all these nations. 00:20:45.362 --> 00:20:50.423 Go, make them into disciples. 00:20:50.423 --> 00:21:02.905 He says it in every one of the Gospels's some version of this, and we hear over and over again jesus saying the same plan enjoy my blessing now, extend my glory. 00:21:02.905 --> 00:21:07.777 I want to be glorified everywhere in the world, among all the different nations. 00:21:07.777 --> 00:21:10.351 So who is jesus speaking to in this passage? 00:21:10.351 --> 00:21:13.160 Is he just speaking to the 12 people that are sitting in front of him? 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:15.536 No, how do we know? 00:21:15.536 --> 00:21:19.019 Well, he says till the end of the age, I'll be with you. 00:21:19.019 --> 00:21:21.916 Those people aren't around anymore and we're still in the same age. 00:21:21.916 --> 00:21:22.799 So he's talking to us. 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.416 He'll be with us until the end of the age. 00:21:25.416 --> 00:21:32.299 And he says that Greek phrase make disciples of all the different ethnic groups. 00:21:32.339 --> 00:21:38.232 This morning, those of you that were here in Sunday school, we used an analogy of ponds, of lakes, for this concept of ethnos. 00:21:38.232 --> 00:21:39.817 Right, what is an ethnos? 00:21:39.817 --> 00:21:43.333 An ethnos is the group of people among whom the gospel can spread. 00:21:43.333 --> 00:21:47.482 So if I throw a rock into a pond and it makes a splash, the ripple can spread. 00:21:47.482 --> 00:21:52.134 So I can share the gospel with someone that speaks the same language as me and they can understand it. 00:21:52.134 --> 00:21:58.422 And if the Holy Spirit works, they can accept it and then they can go and share it with someone else, and then that person can share it with someone else. 00:21:58.422 --> 00:22:01.806 As long as we all speak the same language, the ripple can keep spreading. 00:22:06.509 --> 00:22:08.316 But Jesus says I want all the languages to be glorifying me. 00:22:08.316 --> 00:22:12.029 It's not enough for me to be glorified by the people that speak English. 00:22:12.029 --> 00:22:13.131 I want to be glorified by the people that speak English. 00:22:13.131 --> 00:22:19.299 I want to be glorified by the people that speak Vietnamese and Azerbaijani and Indonesian, and it's not even those big, giant languages, it's every tiny little language. 00:22:19.299 --> 00:22:24.875 I want someone there worshiping me because you have enjoyed my blessing, now go and extend my glory. 00:22:24.875 --> 00:22:30.976 I want you to fill up this earth with image bearers from every different tribe and tongue and nation who worship me. 00:22:30.976 --> 00:22:39.311 That has been God's plan all the way back to Babel that every ethnic group would have God worshipers enjoying his grace and extending his glory. 00:22:39.311 --> 00:22:42.657 It's still his plan today, in 2025. 00:22:42.657 --> 00:22:43.579 It's still going on. 00:22:44.662 --> 00:22:46.511 The pages of God's story are not finished. 00:22:46.511 --> 00:22:49.076 He's writing it with every day that passes. 00:22:49.076 --> 00:22:56.820 So how are we, the Church of God, charged with going and making disciples out of all the ethnic? 00:22:56.820 --> 00:22:58.336 How are we doing with that mandate? 00:22:58.336 --> 00:23:20.619 It's a good question, right, because there's still a lot of people like Silik Bitiolov out there who haven't heard, whose language has failed to receive one person, to come and learn it, to start that ripple happening, to share with the first person in that language the glorious news of Jesus' blessing that they can then begin to extend his glory among. 00:23:20.619 --> 00:23:22.777 So we're going to talk about that in just a second. 00:23:22.849 --> 00:23:24.817 First of all, we're going to go through the book of Acts very quickly. 00:23:24.817 --> 00:23:30.779 So in the beginning of the book of Acts, we hear Jesus give a promise. 00:23:30.779 --> 00:23:37.921 So, first of all, he's given four different commission statements, right, great commission statements to go and make disciples to all nations. 00:23:37.921 --> 00:23:50.036 And then he gives us a promise in Acts 1 that says you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, to the end of the earth. 00:23:50.036 --> 00:23:59.556 So, right before his ascension, jesus promises them the Holy Spirit's going to come, and then you're going to begin the task that I've given you to make disciples of all these nations. 00:23:59.556 --> 00:24:06.931 You're going to start in Jerusalem, then you're going to go to Judea, then you're going to go to Samaria and eventually you're going to go to the uttermost parts of the earth, depending on the translation you have there. 00:24:06.931 --> 00:24:09.553 So does that sound familiar? 00:24:09.553 --> 00:24:14.096 Enjoy my blessing, the Holy Spirit, and then go and extend my glory. 00:24:14.096 --> 00:24:17.259 So the Holy Spirit did come and they preach in Jerusalem. 00:24:17.259 --> 00:24:18.420 Many of them are saved. 00:24:19.201 --> 00:24:24.724 However, have you guys ever noticed that at the beginning of Acts, we only hear about the ministry in Jerusalem? 00:24:24.724 --> 00:24:27.166 It goes on and on and on. 00:24:27.166 --> 00:24:39.719 All these incredible things that are happening in the first few chapters of Acts the early church is born, all these exciting things, but it's all happening in Jerusalem and, more importantly, it's all happening in one language. 00:24:39.719 --> 00:24:40.842 It's all happening in Hebrew. 00:24:40.842 --> 00:24:43.771 It's only happening among the Jews, one ethnos. 00:24:43.771 --> 00:24:48.251 The ripples are spreading and spreading, and spreading, but it's not going to the other ethne. 00:24:48.251 --> 00:24:54.875 And so at some point the early church becomes such a threat to the religious order that they murder a man named Stephen. 00:24:54.875 --> 00:24:59.176 And then I have a friend that likes to say if you don't do Acts 1.8, you get Acts 8.1. 00:24:59.176 --> 00:25:05.375 They didn't go to Jerusalem, and then Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, they stayed in Jerusalem. 00:25:06.338 --> 00:25:07.080 So what does God do? 00:25:07.080 --> 00:25:20.272 There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were scattered throughout the regions. 00:25:20.272 --> 00:25:20.814 Where Of Judea and Samaria? 00:25:20.814 --> 00:25:21.556 Oh, where have we heard that before? 00:25:21.556 --> 00:25:23.981 I promise it's almost like stepping on a little ball of mercury. 00:25:23.981 --> 00:25:25.332 Right, they spread out. 00:25:26.733 --> 00:25:30.000 Now, hopefully, as a church we are spreading out willingly. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.964 We are spreading out joyfully to extend God's glory. 00:25:32.964 --> 00:25:41.372 But when we don't, he will do something like Babel, like the persecution that happens here, to spread us out. 00:25:41.372 --> 00:25:45.039 I will be glorified by all these nations. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:47.852 Whether you want to or not, it will happen. 00:25:47.852 --> 00:25:51.700 Malachi 1.11 told us right my name will be great among the nations. 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:54.994 The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. 00:25:55.015 --> 00:25:57.422 Habakkuk 2 says this is going to happen. 00:25:57.422 --> 00:25:59.513 You better get on board. 00:25:59.513 --> 00:26:03.126 And so there arises this persecution. 00:26:03.126 --> 00:26:05.333 They're scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. 00:26:05.333 --> 00:26:07.759 And what happens when they get there? 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:14.827 So do they immediately all recognize like, hey, I'm not really cut out to be a missionary, I didn't go to seminary, I didn't take any cross-cultural communication courses. 00:26:14.827 --> 00:26:16.592 I better stay in my house and hide away. 00:26:16.592 --> 00:26:20.221 No Ordinary believers Acts 8.4,. 00:26:20.340 --> 00:26:23.134 Now those who are scattered went about preaching the word. 00:26:23.134 --> 00:26:35.613 It's the natural outflow of being a Christian is saying I have enjoyed his blessing, now I'm going to extend his glory among those around me Everyday, regular people. 00:26:35.613 --> 00:26:36.896 They're the ones that start this movement. 00:26:36.896 --> 00:26:38.421 So what happens next? 00:26:38.421 --> 00:26:38.662 Now? 00:26:38.662 --> 00:26:39.752 I don't know if you've ever noticed. 00:26:39.873 --> 00:26:49.314 In the book of Acts there's this very pivotal scene, and missionaries can see this way, maybe even easier than pastors and seminary students, because we're so immersed in this world of different languages. 00:26:49.314 --> 00:27:02.961 But there's a very critical shift that happens in Acts 11, where everything up until this point has happened among one ethnos, the Jews, and finally somebody's going to take the gospel and throw a rock in a new pond. 00:27:02.961 --> 00:27:06.018 What happens in Acts 11, 19 through 21? 00:27:06.018 --> 00:27:21.632 It says Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch speaking the word to no one except Jews, why that's the only language they spoke. 00:27:21.632 --> 00:27:32.897 They're traveling around, ripples are spreading and spreading to Judea and Samaria, and they're traveling around and they're telling all the Jews about it because they only speak Hebrew. 00:27:32.897 --> 00:27:45.023 But in verse 20, some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, also the Greek speakers, preaching the Lord Jesus. 00:27:45.023 --> 00:27:48.161 And we have this massive pivot in the book of Acts. 00:27:48.161 --> 00:27:56.903 Everything till this point has been centered around what's happening in Jerusalem and we have a big pivot to what starts to happen in this new city of Antioch. 00:27:56.903 --> 00:28:02.082 And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 00:28:02.082 --> 00:28:04.673 Somebody just threw a rock in a new pond. 00:28:04.673 --> 00:28:13.582 The Greek-speaking world is now starting to ripple and now from Antioch, we're going to see that this is a much bigger pond. 00:28:13.582 --> 00:28:15.213 In fact this might be called an ocean. 00:28:15.213 --> 00:28:24.510 This is the whole Roman empire of Greek speakers that the gospel is starting to pivot and it's beginning to ripple out from Antioch and what happens? 00:28:24.510 --> 00:28:29.294 In this point the gospel has only traveled in miles, but it's all happening in one language, so it's all one ethnos. 00:28:29.294 --> 00:28:31.819 And finally somebody recognizes. 00:28:31.819 --> 00:28:35.119 Hey, jesus told us we should make disciples among all the nations. 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:37.691 Maybe we should reach out to these Greek-speaking guys. 00:28:37.691 --> 00:28:45.753 And in the Sinti of Antioch they begin this great work and the Holy Spirit is with them, and a multicultural church is born. 00:28:45.753 --> 00:28:53.210 Two chapters later, the leaders of that church are praying and fasting and they're seeking the Lord and something really vital happens Now. 00:28:53.310 --> 00:28:58.979 I don't know if you have ever thought about this prayer meeting in Acts 13, but I think it's incredibly significant. 00:28:58.979 --> 00:29:20.760 Do you realize that if you were to trace back the person that led you to the Lord and then find out who led that person to the Lord, and find out who led that person to the Lord and who led that person to the Lord, and you go far enough in generations back I don't know how many, you know hundreds and maybe thousands of generations your great, great, great grandfather in the faith, you can trace it back to this prayer meeting? 00:29:20.760 --> 00:29:23.818 Almost certainly if you're in this room today and you're a believer. 00:29:23.818 --> 00:29:35.691 The way you heard about the gospel started here in Acts 13, with a church praying, fasting, seeking the Lord. 00:29:35.691 --> 00:29:36.834 And what happens at the beginning of Acts 13? 00:29:36.834 --> 00:29:42.579 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said set apart for me, barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. 00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:47.253 Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 00:29:48.875 --> 00:29:58.840 The first church in history to intentionally send missionaries to go extend the glory of God to new places, to new peoples, to new ethnic. 00:29:58.840 --> 00:30:04.501 This church is saying, hey, we have to respond to what Jesus is calling us to do. 00:30:04.501 --> 00:30:07.882 That's what we're for as a church. 00:30:07.882 --> 00:30:14.070 We're supposed to be about doing this mission that we got and the church is praying about it. 00:30:14.070 --> 00:30:22.056 They're fasting, they're seeking the Lord and the Holy Spirit says these two guys Now let me ask you, are these two guys the church wanted to lose? 00:30:22.056 --> 00:30:29.651 I mean Saul and Barnabas Like, these are probably their top two guys, these are two of their elders, right? 00:30:29.651 --> 00:30:37.068 They're not sending out the guys that like, oh, the guy that you know, we or two of their elders, right, they're not sending out the guys that like, oh, the guy that you know, we don't really know what he does and he's got a little oddball and whatever. 00:30:37.068 --> 00:30:40.834 They're sending out their best, because that's how important this task is. 00:30:40.834 --> 00:30:42.489 We have to go get it done. 00:30:42.489 --> 00:30:45.451 The Holy Spirit says these are the people I want doing it. 00:30:45.451 --> 00:30:52.115 The first church to recognize the size of the task and say, whoa, we have to start doing something. 00:30:52.115 --> 00:30:54.286 We have to start discipling all these ethne. 00:30:55.789 --> 00:31:05.096 Starting from that little church in Antioch, you can draw a direct line today, thousands of years later, across the ocean, way over here in Long Island. 00:31:05.096 --> 00:31:13.548 We are all the products of churches that were planted by this prayer meeting, that then went out and planted churches. 00:31:13.548 --> 00:31:14.712 That then went out and planted churches. 00:31:14.712 --> 00:31:15.857 That then went out and planted churches. 00:31:15.857 --> 00:31:18.507 That went out and planted churches, and on and on, and on and on, until we get here today. 00:31:18.507 --> 00:31:20.010 But guess what? 00:31:20.010 --> 00:31:22.798 We haven't gotten to the end of the age yet. 00:31:22.798 --> 00:31:28.489 Jesus said I will be with you always to the end of the age when he gave us this promise and we haven't gotten there. 00:31:28.489 --> 00:31:40.394 That chain that goes back those thousands of years stretches through generations that were beaten, tortured, imprisoned for their faith, and God is still calling us to the same mandate he gave them. 00:31:40.394 --> 00:31:44.654 Jesus told us we needed to make disciples of all the ethne. 00:31:44.654 --> 00:31:47.992 He would be with us to the end of the age, and we haven't gotten there. 00:31:47.992 --> 00:31:49.836 It seems weird. 00:31:49.836 --> 00:31:54.737 Thousands of years have gone by and we still haven't gotten to all the ethnic. 00:31:55.826 --> 00:32:00.726 So if we look at where are all the ethnic groups in the world, how many languages are spoken in the world? 00:32:00.726 --> 00:32:03.092 You can talk to linguists about this and I'll tell you. 00:32:03.092 --> 00:32:06.228 This is the water in which I swim professionally. 00:32:06.228 --> 00:32:10.925 And so somewhere between 7,000 and 11,000 languages are spoken in the world today. 00:32:10.925 --> 00:32:13.549 Now, which of those numbers is accurate? 00:32:13.549 --> 00:32:16.355 How many of them are dialects versus languages? 00:32:16.355 --> 00:32:18.157 This is something you could go to. 00:32:18.157 --> 00:32:24.887 You know professional linguists and have fierce debates with. 00:32:24.887 --> 00:32:25.529 I'm not too interested in that. 00:32:25.550 --> 00:32:29.566 My question is always is the gospel likely to spread across this border If it's a dialect or if it's a language? 00:32:29.566 --> 00:32:31.249 I don't, it's not so important to me. 00:32:31.249 --> 00:32:34.413 It's like is the gospel naturally going to spread between these people and these people? 00:32:34.413 --> 00:32:38.328 If not, then this is a separate ethnos and we want to reach them with the gospel. 00:32:38.328 --> 00:32:50.450 Now that becomes a pretty difficult technical question when you're going into these places in the world today, because the truth is, globalization is causing languages to go extinct faster than we're reaching them with the gospel. 00:32:50.450 --> 00:32:58.334 If we look at that example of, if there's 11,000 of them, how many of them have a gospel witness? 00:32:58.334 --> 00:33:03.750 Well, somewhere around 3,000 to 4,000 of them don't have a Bible or don't have a church. 00:33:03.750 --> 00:33:07.973 So at a minimum we've got that many left to do. 00:33:12.531 --> 00:33:13.894 You guys have been thinking about this. 00:33:13.894 --> 00:33:16.230 All weekend, I think we've been talking about it. 00:33:16.230 --> 00:33:20.557 We looked at Philippians 1.5 and that partnership in the gospel. 00:33:20.557 --> 00:33:26.617 What does it look like for us to go into a world where we're still not done with the job that we have? 00:33:26.617 --> 00:33:37.115 We talked this morning about taking a name off the board, saying we can't reach thousands of unreached people groups. 00:33:37.115 --> 00:33:39.007 We just can't do it. 00:33:39.007 --> 00:33:42.134 But if we're faithful we can do it to one. 00:33:42.134 --> 00:33:46.531 We can take one name off the board, we can take two names off the board. 00:33:46.531 --> 00:33:48.902 We can see people go into those people groups. 00:33:48.902 --> 00:33:49.746 We can support them. 00:33:49.746 --> 00:33:50.567 We can pray for them. 00:33:50.567 --> 00:33:51.691