[0:00] These sessions were recorded at the Church Planting Conference hosted by the Our Generation Training Center and Vision Baptist Church. It is our desire that you'll be able to learn from these great speakers as they talk about the topic of church planting.
[0:14] Alright, we'll get started here. Now, if you're not going to be here tonight for the evening service, and I have just three or four of them laying on the table, I do have some more.
[0:25] It's called, this is First Century Church Planting, that's what the course is called, and this is Lesson Number 3, The Jerusalem Church and Church Planting.
[0:35] This is really the flagship, this is the message that if I could preach one or teach one, this would be it. Alright, so if you're not going to be here tonight, this is on DVD, and this is the third session of that course, that 25-session course that we taught.
[0:54] And so I have them back there. If we run out, there are more, I can get you one. I just didn't put them out down there. So, alright, we are going to look at the scripture now a fair bit.
[1:06] We're going to talk about a biblical foundation for churches reproducing churches. Here we go. Yeah, works good. That's pretty neat.
[1:17] I like that. Take that guy with me. Who did it? Chris, you got to travel with me, okay? There we go. Great. Alright. Now, a number of years ago, a pastor, well, really he was the director of a mission board, said this.
[1:38] He said, Earl Jessup puts too much emphasis on the local church for starting churches. You know, and I enjoy being challenged. I don't mind that at all.
[1:48] And because of that, I decided to find out really, to my shame, I had really not laid out a biblical framework for what I believed on this.
[2:03] That shouldn't have been the case. It shouldn't have taken me that long. I don't remember. It was in the probably mid-90s, probably 13, 14 years ago.
[2:15] And I'll be honest with you. I started this ministry and doing what I'm doing because I felt it was practical.
[2:26] I may talk about that tomorrow. And as I was challenged and dug into the scripture, I found out how biblical it was.
[2:38] And so this session and tonight's session will lay out that framework. Now, let me say this, and I realize from just knowing Brother Gardner and hearing some of what you men are already doing, I realize I'm with people who basically agree with my position on this.
[2:59] I want you to know I'm for church planning. I don't care how it gets done. As long as it's not illegal, immoral, or unethical, I'm for church planning. All right? I'm for church planning. All right?
[3:09] I've had guys that didn't do it, didn't use the philosophy that I used. I was in a meeting years ago in Canada, and this guy started knocking another guy that didn't plant churches like I am.
[3:22] And he was just ragging on him. I said, wait a second. I said, Brother so-and-so is planting churches, and I'm for that. He may not have the same philosophy I do, but I'm for that.
[3:33] Now, when I get done, though, you're going to think that I don't think there's any other way to plant churches. And I don't. Sorry. I shouldn't say it that way.
[3:47] Look. Take a joke, like Herman Cain or whatever he says. You know, light up. Anyway. These guys don't problem. But anyway.
[3:59] But I believe that if we follow biblical principles, we get a lot more done using biblical principles in church planning. I've had guys get upset with me because I get up and teach, and they say, well, that's not what I did, man.
[4:13] I'm just going to rag on him. Well, rag on me all you want. I mean, look, let's follow a biblical principle if we can, and that's what I want to lay out to you.
[4:24] What does the Bible teach? Well, I believe the Bible teaches that new churches should be reproduced by local churches and not by church planters. That's what I believe.
[4:36] Now, it's because of that belief that I run into these problems. But few churches today ever fulfill this command found in the New Testament, where they actually go out and reproduce a church.
[4:51] Few pastors develop or adopt a philosophy of ministry, which includes birthing churches out of their local church. And so in this session, what we want to do is we want to lay a biblical basis for developing a philosophy of ministry for churches reproducing churches.
[5:08] Now, when you get done here with your academics and your practical training, I don't know how Pastor Gardner does it or plans to do it or how it's set up, but I think you ought to have a written philosophy of ministry that you're going to carry out, not just what you believe, but how you're going to practice.
[5:31] I didn't have that when I came out of college. I mean, when I got done, particularly in church planning, I had no idea what I was doing. A good friend of mine, the first time I met with him, I said, so tell me, what's your philosophy of ministry on church planning?
[5:45] Well, just go out and do it. I mean, it's got to be more than that. You know, his is now, by the way, very good friend of mine. But it's got to be more than that.
[5:57] You've got to know what you believe and why you believe it. What I want to do in this session is I want to lay some building blocks. Just put some building blocks on top. It's really a biblical argument, a biblical basis.
[6:12] You start from here. Because of this, you build of this. Because of this, you build of this. Because of this, you build of this. And what's your conclusion when you put all these things together? Okay? So I think your notes will follow this.
[6:25] So note these building blocks, which I believe will develop a biblical basis for churches reproducing churches. Now, look, if you've got a problem with this philosophy of ministry, I'm afraid you're going to have to take it up on a biblical basis.
[6:42] All right? Because I think what I'm giving you is biblical. So our philosophy of ministry should include churches reproducing churches. Number one, because the church is a living organism.
[6:54] The church is not an organization. It is not an organization. But the church is an organized organism. Every organism is organized.
[7:07] All right? And the church is an organized body of believers. Now, there are several passages. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So, and by the way, I haven't talked to your pastor about what his position is on this.
[7:24] So if I step on some toes or say something, I'm writing a book right now on the church. What I've done in the last 18 months dealing with this cancer is I've done a good bit of writing. And one of the things that I'm working on is a biblical position on the church.
[7:40] I haven't read anything but the Bible. I haven't looked at any other books but the Bible. I was not taught a biblical position.
[7:51] I should have been and would have been. I went to Piedmont Bible College in Winston-Salem. I would have been taught a biblical position on the church had Charlie Stevens been just a little bit younger and still teaching, who started the school.
[8:05] But you know what he did? He brought in teachers from the place that was producing teachers south. Just south, you know, we were in North Carolina. Just one state south, you know, brought in teachers from that school who held a Protestant position of the church, which is a larger body, which I don't hold to.
[8:31] I'm just going to tell you up front, I do not hold to a larger body. I hold that the church is the body of Christ. And Paul said it numbers of times, the church, which is his body.
[8:43] The church, which is his body. The church, which is his body. And when you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 here, this passage of scripture, you'll see this very clearly.
[8:55] The church, in 1 Corinthians 12, 12, for as the body is one and hath many members and all members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ.
[9:07] For by one spirit we all baptized into one body. Now, I don't know what anybody else believes about it. Here's what I believe about that. I believe that the Holy Spirit placed me into the body of Christ when I got baptized by a merchant.
[9:24] You know, like I said, and I'm not going to argue about that on this. It's not what my deal is here. That's just what I believe. I believe the church is mentioned as a body here in this passage of scripture.
[9:38] When I compare this with other passages, the church, which is his body. And then, for by one spirit we all baptized into one body, whether it be Jews or Gentiles, whether it be bond or free. For the body is not one member, but many.
[9:52] And if the foot shall say, because I'm not of the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? We can't take, at least I couldn't take, verse 13 and apply it to some universal body and take everything else of this passage of scripture and apply it to a local body.
[10:05] I couldn't do that. That's against my interpretation, principles of interpretation. Anyway, so when you get down to verse 27 of this passage, I'll forget my notes here if I'm not careful.
[10:19] Down to verse 27, now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. So the church is compared as a physical body.
[10:30] Now, in Ephesians chapter 5, and we're not going to take the time to go there, but it makes it clear that the relationship between Christ and the church is compared to the relationship between the husband and the wife. Now, how many times have you heard this?
[10:45] Well, that church closed. You ever heard that? Yeah, well, that church closed. Churches don't close. Businesses close. Churches die.
[10:59] Churches die. According to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1, churches die. Why is that? Because it is a living, breathing being. And I'm telling you what, that's important.
[11:15] What bothers me, I'm dealing with this in Canada right now. I've got to go home and I've got to meet with about four or five preachers to solve an issue up there. What bothers me about some preachers when they start a church, and this guy said this to me, and I've already taken him to task.
[11:32] I've helped him plant a church. He's a young guy. He loves me, and I love him. But he said this, well, we're thinking about just going up there and letting us go up there and give it a try. No, you don't plant a church giving it a try.
[11:42] Why? Because you are bringing in, bringing to life a being. And I'm telling you, when my grandson passed away at 15 months, I spent a lot of money to find out what happened when he passed away suddenly.
[11:56] I wanted to know. I wanted to know what happened. And yet, I see pastors who go out and start a church, and they'll say, oh, well, you know, he lasted six months or a year, and it just didn't work.
[12:08] He didn't make it. Too bad. What? A church died, and nobody cares? Shouldn't we care? I mean, here is a living, breathing being that is gone.
[12:24] Shouldn't we care? Shouldn't, when we're birthing something like that, shouldn't we put everything we have into it? Everything we have.
[12:36] Why should it just be something, oh, yeah, yeah, if he goes out, oh, yeah, go ahead, go out and start a church. Yeah, that's wonderful. Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll reproduce the church, and, yeah, if we've got a little time, we'll send some people over and knock on doors.
[12:46] Give me a break. This is a living, breathing being. In Revelation 22, verse 17, it is called the bride. As I said, churches die.
[13:02] Businesses close. One is an organism. The other is an organization. The church is not an organization. The church is a living, breathing being. And I'm telling you, that ought to be important.
[13:15] Now, that's building block number one. The church is a living, breathing organism. Now, let's go back to Genesis chapter one and look at organisms. What does the Bible say about organisms?
[13:27] Now, remember, we're building a basis here for what we believe. In Genesis chapter one, we find that, oh, better flip my notes over here.
[13:41] Organisms reproduce after their kind. Every living organism, according to the scripture, reproduces after their kind.
[13:54] When God created organisms, they reproduce after their kind. Now, therefore, churches should reproduce churches because the church is a living organism. You know, when I've got done, and maybe I should say this some of the time, I don't know, but I've had pastors say to me, oh, well, Brother Joseph, we reproduce churches.
[14:14] Really? How do you do it? Well, we send out missionaries and we send, you know, we send out people. They go out and they plant churches for us. I said, oh, you believe in surrogate motherhood, paying somebody else to birth your baby.
[14:27] Of course, that's not taken real well, but that's basically what some people do.
[14:40] You know, I had one good pastor friend of mine said, well, Brother Joseph, we don't have time to, we've got too many ministries going to plant churches. What? Anyway, so churches reproduce churches.
[14:57] So how do organisms reproduce? Well, look here, look at what the Bible says. Genesis 1, we find verse after verse that talk about living organisms reproducing after their kind.
[15:10] Look at verse 11. Just started a brand new Bible. When my first grandchild was conceived, they called and said, we're getting ready to have a baby.
[15:20] And I pulled out a brand new Bible and read through that Bible, marked it up, and put it away for my grandchild. Well, I have five children, and I have 12 grandchildren, one in heaven, 11 here, and I am four behind.
[15:33] I mean, they just kept having, you know, one right after another. What's wrong with these kids? But they're supposed to multiply and reproduce, as the scripture says, you know, be fruitful and multiply, which they have done.
[15:44] But anyway, I finished one. In fact, my wife said to me, she said, will you do one for me before, you know, and I said, sure. So I did one for her. I may not get all my grandkids done, but at least she's gotten one.
[15:55] And so I just started a new one, but I've already, you know, got Genesis and Exodus. And so these verses are already marked, and I marked the word after his kind, after his kind. It's found time after time.
[16:06] Look at verse 11. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, who seedeth in itself upon the earth. And it was so. So we find that herbs and trees reproduce.
[16:20] Then in verse 21, and then in verse 12, it says, after his kind, after his kind. And then we go down to verse 21. And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind.
[16:33] And every wing fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good. So now we have the fish and the fowl that are reproduced. And then you go down to verse 24. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after his kind.
[16:49] And it was so. So now we have cattle or creeping thing. And then verse 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth, after his kind.
[17:02] And God saw that it was good. And then in verse 26 to 28, we have mankind reproduced. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
[17:16] And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and so on. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, created him male and female, created him. So now we have man. Every organism. How many organisms reproduce, reproduce without the active involvement of the parent?
[17:34] None. I said active involvement of the parent. See, most of our churches want to plant churches passively, not actively.
[17:48] All right. But when it comes to organisms reproducing, I mean, those organisms are actively involved. All right. And that's the way it's supposed to be.
[17:59] Now, go back to verse 22 and verse 28 and notice what it says. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the fowls multiply in the earth.
[18:13] Now, look at verse 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
[18:25] Now, notice the word, we see the words there. It says we are to be fruitful and multiply. And that's key when we get into the session.
[18:36] Well, maybe even later in this session we'll talk about it, but tonight we'll talk about it some more. But it says be fruitful and multiply. But also the word replenish is there. Do you know why we need to replenish?
[18:49] Organisms need to replenish? Because organisms die. I am doing right now a study in Canada. Our Canadian history is very young.
[19:02] Church planting in Canada for the Independent Baptist. The Independent Baptist Movement in Canada is quite young. T.T. Shields in the 1920s, 1930s pulled out of the convention there because of modernism.
[19:15] He was connected to W.B. Riley and some of the guys here in the States and so on, but really had nothing to do except the formation of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada. And then they really lost it very quickly, as, by the way, as fellowships do and associations do.
[19:34] I don't know what you're, you know, because I don't know anybody around here. But, you know, I'm not a big fellowship guy. I'm not a big association guy. Okay. Just be an Independent Baptist. We'll talk about that tomorrow for sure.
[19:46] But, anyway, in 1960, there were 15 Independent Baptist Churches in Canada. One outside the Maritimes.
[19:58] 14 the Maritimes, which is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland. These, for those of you Americans who know nothing about our culture or geography or anything in Canada.
[20:09] And one to the west. By 1980, there were 63 churches in Canada. There were 31 in the, oh, you're a good man.
[20:26] What'd you do, rob that from Applebee's or something? Thanks. Great. Thank you very much. There were, I think, 33 in the Maritimes and 31 Quebec West.
[20:43] In 2010, there are 292 listed Independent Baptist Churches in Canada. In the Maritimes, they only doubled twofold.
[20:56] There was a ninefold increase in church planting between Quebec West. And there's some reasons for that. But one of the things I found was this. 43% of the churches in 1980 are not listed now.
[21:13] They either merged, changed doctrine, changed the name, or died. 43%.
[21:24] Now, let's just say 30%. That means we have to plant in Canada three churches a year just to keep up with church planting, with what we've got.
[21:36] So I'm speaking on this next week when I get home. But we have to replenish. And I'll tell you what, if a survey could be done down here, and I don't even know if it could be done in Georgia or any other place, you'd find the same thing.
[21:49] But most of our Baptist churches, you know what's happening to our Baptist churches. They're going contemporary. That's what's happening to them, you know. So, but I'm not even going to, we've got to hurry along here.
[21:59] All right, now, I do want you to notice that when a church is reproduced, it should be similar to the reproducing church. I have five children. None of them are exactly like us, but they're similar to us. I remember when we were with BIMI, we were traveling.
[22:12] Our oldest daughter was quite young. She might have been five, but we were back on furlough. We were in West Virginia. You know how, and I'm from West Virginia. I can say this, all right. This lady in the church said to my daughter, she said, honey, you look like you were spit right out of your mama's mouth.
[22:27] Now, well, what she meant was she looked like her mother, but my daughter did not take it that way. Boy, was she ticked. She didn't say anything.
[22:38] The little five-year-old smart enough, but when she got in the car, she was not happy with that lady talking like that. But she just said, all the ladies, I said, honey, all the ladies meant was you look like your mother. Okay? And our kids do, don't they?
[22:50] You can tell. You can tell. All right? Well, churches are going to be similar, but the fact is, even as children are distinctively different from the parents, so are churches.
[23:01] So when you reproduce a church, it doesn't have to be exactly like you, like your church, but it'll be similar to your church, and we'll talk about some of those things as we get into this. So organisms reproduce after the kind.
[23:13] So now we have two building blocks that we're building here. Now let's build a third building block, and that is this. The Great Commission is given to the local church. I don't think this is something that we have any question about on this, but when you go to Matthew chapter 28, this was given to the local church, which means the church was started in the Gospels.
[23:38] Now I know the Protestant Baptists don't believe that. I believe that as an ancient Baptist. I believe that. All right? So the Great Commission was given not just to the disciples. It couldn't have been just given to them.
[23:50] If it had just been given to these disciples in this passage of Scripture, then once they died, we wouldn't be responsible for it. Yes, they were there. Verse 16, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.
[24:05] And Jesus came and spake to them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
[24:15] And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Now, it was not just given to these disciples, nor was it given to us as individuals. All right?
[24:28] You know, we don't have the right to baptize as individuals. Baptism is an ordinance of the church. And it should be done through the local church.
[24:41] No other place. You'd say, well, what about Philip? Philip wasn't at church. I didn't say he had to be at church. I didn't say that.
[24:55] But Philip was appointed in Acts chapter 6, and I don't know for sure about this, but maybe R.B. Ouellette is right.
[25:06] R.B. Ouellette has a book written called Things That Aren't So. I don't know if you've seen that book, but one of the things he says is in that book, he says, there's no place in Acts 6 that says these were deacons. And it doesn't say they were deacons.
[25:20] Just because Scofield said it doesn't mean it's so, you know, as we've always believed. But so I began looking at that, and I thought, my, if they aren't deacons, and by the way, they were great preachers, I believe that these guys were the ones who led the church planting movement from Acts chapter 8 that went out and did the baptizing.
[25:43] Appointed by the church, they were out there baptizing these people that were converted and planting churches, as you'll see tonight when I get into that. But baptism takes place within the confines of the local church.
[25:56] That's where it's supposed to take place. So the Great Commission is given to the local church, and therefore it's the responsibility of the local church to fulfill the Great Commission.
[26:07] Is there any disagreement on that? I don't think so. I don't think there's any disagreement here in this group that it is the responsibility of the local church to fulfill the Great Commission. You know what that means? That means it is not given to church planters.
[26:20] It is not given to mission boards. It's not given to Baptist Church Planning Ministry. It is not my job as a ministry with Baptist Church Planning Ministry to fulfill the Great Commission, other than through the local church.
[26:36] It's not given to any organization. It is the responsibility, the local church has the responsibility of reproducing churches and no one else.
[26:47] Now that gets me in trouble with submission boards. I understand that. But, so did my phone calls come up on that screen?
[27:00] Did you see that my son called me? Okay, good. I didn't know whether it did or not. I wasn't paying any attention. I saw it. Then it came up and said he left me a voicemail. So, he's probably out deer hunting or something.
[27:13] I don't know. Most assistant pastors, that's all they do. All right.
[27:25] Now, let's build another building block here. The Great Commission is church planting. All right. We've got these building blocks so far. And, I'll have to go back and look at them now. So, the church is a living organism.
[27:39] Organisms reproduce after their kind. Great Commission is given to the local church. Now, building block number four is this. The Great Commission is church planting. All right. This passage, again, we find it right here.
[27:51] Soul winning is only one third of the Great Commission. It's only one third of it. Now, I hope we're making some headway here. I remember years ago, I was at a meeting and I called a pastor friend of mine.
[28:04] I said, look, this next meeting I'm going to, I mean, this may be the first meeting I don't get to finish. I was going to a church where it was all about soul winning. I mean, it was all about soul winning.
[28:15] No discipleship. It was just about, get out there, see how many people you can get to pray the prayer. And, there's another one. I hope I don't, you know. But, anyway, who cares?
[28:27] I'm leaving tomorrow anyway. And, so I go to this meeting and I make this statement. Soul winning is not the Great Commission.
[28:38] This pastor sitting down here had never met me before. He's sitting down here. He said, the first thing he did, he said, is he went like this. He went over to look to see if the pastor was coming to get me. You know. He's sitting up there, you know, and, and he didn't.
[28:53] But, and he let me finish. Soul winning is only a third of the Great Commission. It's only part of it. Part of the Great Commission is to evangelize.
[29:05] We are to teach all nations. We are to go out and make disciples. We are to, we cannot fulfill church planning. We cannot fulfill the Great Commission without soul winning. We've got to get out there and win folks to Christ.
[29:17] We've got to do that. We've got to be soul winners. And, that's part of it. But, but part of it as well is baptizing them. It is to baptize them.
[29:28] We are to evangelize. We are to baptize. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Not only that, we are to mobilize them. We are to teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
[29:39] So, it's threefold. It is evangelized. It is baptized. It is mobilized. Where is that mobilization done? It's done in the church. It's not to be done outside the church.
[29:52] It's to be done through the hospice of the church. God ordained the church for the growth and protection of the believer like God ordained the home for the growth and protection of the child.
[30:05] And, as the home is good for the child, the church is good for the believer. Now, I may say this again, maybe tonight, but, I, you know, as I have become more and more involved in church planning and studied this, the more I study it, the more I learn, the more I see problems in our churches.
[30:29] We have so many people that attend our church but won't become attached to the church. I have a message that I preach about that from Matthew chapter 5. You know the passage that says, you're the light of the world.
[30:42] You preachers here. It's a good message to preach. You're the light of the world. Sitting that set on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick. All right? Well, when you deal with that, it's clear, he says, you're the light.
[30:55] He's talking about Christians being the light of the world. There are two types of lights. One that's under a bushel. One that's on a candlestick. Right? According to that passage of scripture.
[31:06] One is ineffective. One is effective. One's being able to be used. All right. Now, what does the Lord Jesus say is a candlestick?
[31:17] Well, Revelation chapter 1, verse 20, he says the candlestick is the church. And when you put that together, it's quite easy to say and biblically correct to say, if you're not attached to the church, you're not the light you should be.
[31:33] And you will pay a price for that when you get to heaven. Only a light that's attached to the candlestick is an effective light. And if you're not attached to the church, you're not an effective light.
[31:46] So either get in or face the consequences. Probably got to be a little kinder than that. But isn't it true?
[31:58] That's what the scripture says. So it is important that we see that God and the Lord Jesus, when he was on this earth, he made it very clear the importance of the local church and the importance of the church in getting out the gospel and being the place for the believer.
[32:24] That's the place for the believer. And I'm just sick and tired of these people who think they can be, and I make this statement all the time and it gets me in trouble.
[32:37] I say, look, you cannot be a good Christian and not be a part of a good, fundamental, independent Baptist church. And I've had people come back, come out of churches and boy, they've been ticked in.
[32:48] I believe that. If you're not glued, which Paul did when he left Damascus to go down to Jerusalem, he has saved to join himself to the disciples.
[33:00] That word join means to glue. The first thing he did when he left Damascus to go down to Jerusalem was attach himself to the church. The first thing he did. And that's what, and that's what believers ought to do when they leave a community, go to another community.
[33:15] The first thing they should do is attach themselves to the church. And because that's how important it is. And if it's that important to God, it ought to be that important to us. So the totality of the Great Commission is church planting.
[33:30] We need to put a church where people live so they can go to it. We need to plant churches out there. Why, McDonald's believes that.
[33:44] They're not in competition with one another. Why, when I was pastoring in Winnipeg, we had one right across the street. I was a mile from the church, walking home, I passed another McDonald's.
[33:56] How many of you have ever heard of Tim Hortons? Oh, a few of you that are good people here. Best coffee in the world. Man, you can have a Tim Hortons on this side of the street and have a Tim Hortons on the other side of the street and both of them do a great business because people going this way don't want to go over there.
[34:13] They stop here. People going this way, they go there. And they're full all the time. My wife and I pulled up to Tim Hortons the other day and there was this huge line.
[34:23] I went and go fill the vehicle up with gas. She goes inside and it takes her longer to get through the line than for me to get gas. It's like a license to print money, Tim Hortons.
[34:36] But they're not in competition with one another. They're just, you know, they just want everybody to go to Tim Hortons. Why is it we think everybody's got to come to our church? Why don't we put a church where they live?
[34:50] Like McDonald's. Drive up the highway. Exit 61 and 65 and 70 all have McDonald's. And they've touched America. So I'm in a very big way.
[35:04] You know? I mean, they really have. Everybody's been to McDonald's. They'd have never done that if they'd started one mega McDonald's and expected everybody to come there. They didn't do that.
[35:16] They took what they were, worked on it, got it refined, started another one just like that one. They started another one just like that one. They just reproduced what they were and look where it's taken them.
[35:27] But what have we done? What have we done? We said, oh, well, this is great. Let's just get everybody to come here. And we'll talk about that a little bit tonight as well. All right.
[35:39] Now, number five. Let's move on. The next building block. Christ told the local church where they should plant churches. Acts chapter one, verse eight. We looked at this verse, but let's look at it again from a little bit of a different perspective and the book of Acts.
[35:56] And again, tonight, I'm going to say a lot more about these things in a lot more detail. But in Acts chapter one, verse eight, but you shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.
[36:10] Now, Christ gave the area to reach with the great commission. And, and of course, it was, we looked at this in the last session. It's in Jerusalem, all Judea, and in Samaria, and under the uttermost part of the earth.
[36:26] Now, oh boy, do I, do I give away some things from tonight? the church in Jerusalem, the church in Jerusalem, there were 120 in the upper room.
[36:38] And I'm telling you, they were excited about this. They were ready to go. They were ready to go to do this. And he gives them where they're supposed to go. But when, when, when, when revival comes, they don't leave Jerusalem.
[36:50] So, we're going to go all the way over to chapter 8. Tonight, we'll talk about some things in between. But in chapter 8, 8 and verse 1, God had to bring persecution to the church in Jerusalem to carry out what they were supposed to do.
[37:05] And, and we'll look at this in more detail tonight. But, just briefly, take a look at that verse of scripture in chapter, and I'm sure it's, and you'll have to understand, it's how we're putting all this together that brings together this, this biblical concept that we're dealing with.
[37:22] Verse 1 says, and Saul was consenting on his death. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And you'll notice that where they were scattered was Judea and Samaria.
[37:35] Now, that's where they were told to go in chapter 1 and verse 8. All right. And, and so the persecution comes and they're scattered into those areas. And, in that verse of scripture, notice it says, except the apostles.
[37:50] And that's not just thrown in there to take up space. Okay. The, the apostles did not, go. All right. That means, and if you look at verse 4, it tells you who did go.
[38:04] That's, I'll get behind here. So the, so the apostles were not scattered. The laymen were only the believers. So the first church planters were laymen out of the church in Jerusalem.
[38:16] Verse 4. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Well, if it wasn't the preachers, if it wasn't the apostles, who was it? Well, these people had been saved. They were all scattered abroad during this period of time.
[38:30] So, we can conclude that the church, first church planters were laymen out of the church in Jerusalem. And they went everywhere preaching the word.
[38:41] All right? All right? They went everywhere preaching the word. Did I miss something here? Let me back up. I think I did. Come on.
[39:03] Okay, here we go. I think we're back to... All right. First church planters were laymen. Did they have that note up before? Here we go. Acts 8.1. Okay.
[39:14] Here we go. So in Acts 8.4, they went everywhere preaching the word. Now, this word preach means to announce good news. This is... We get our English word evangelize in this Greek word right here.
[39:26] So this word, the word martus is found in chapter 1 and verse 8. And in this passage of Scripture, when they go preaching, this isn't preaching like preach behind the pulpit. It means to evangelize is what it means.
[39:40] All right? Now, let's see if we can get the next one up. There we go. I think we've got it. Now, we don't have this happening in our local churches because our philosophy of ministry does not include it.
[39:51] And why doesn't it? It's because we as pastors were not taught that. I was not taught this in Bible college. When I got on the mission field as a church planter, I had no idea what the Bible really taught about church planting.
[40:03] I had no idea about that. But the result of this preaching and this dispersion was the multiplication of churches. Go to chapter 9, verse 31, and you'll see that.
[40:18] It says, Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Sumerian were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. When you diagram that sentence, it's diagrammed this way. Churches were multiplied.
[40:30] Now, you remember in chapter, Genesis 1, verse, what, 22 and 28, he said, We are to be fruitful and multiply. All right, so here, these organisms are now multiplying.
[40:47] They're multiplying, which is what they're supposed to do. The other words there, let's look at these other two. Oh, come on, man, I shouldn't have done that. Sorry, guys. Go back.
[41:04] There we go. All right, there are three words, churches, rest, and multiplied. By the way, you want to circle the word churches in your Bible, it's the first time it's found. Up until this time, there is one church, which is at Jerusalem.
[41:16] Now, there are churches. Where did they came from? They came from this dispersion. They came from these guys going out preaching, people being saved and baptized. Another word that's important is the word rest.
[41:30] Up until this time, they were forced out by this persecution. All right, but now they had rest. What changed? Did the government change? No. The church changed.
[41:42] And that brought rest. We'll talk about that a little bit tonight. Then the third word is multiplied, and that's what ought to be happening. Now, let's move on. The church of Jerusalem, building block number five, the church, number six, the church of Jerusalem developed a philosophy of ministry which included the reproducing of churches.
[42:03] Now, go over with me to chapter 11, and we'll look at this real quickly. Verse 19, Now they which were scattered and brought upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Venus, Cyprus, and Antioch preaching the word to none but to Jews only.
[42:17] And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians preaching to the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord. Then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all, that with the purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost, and of much faith, and much people was added unto the Lord.
[42:45] Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. When he found him, he brought him to Antioch, and came to pass that the whole year they assembled themselves with the church, taught much people, the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
[42:56] Now, the church in Jerusalem developed a philosophy of ministry which included the reproducing of churches. Notice, first of all, that we find these same believers traveling to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch in verse 19.
[43:10] Now, before, they were scattered. All right? Now, I believe when rest came, and this is a question that's often asked, well, do these people go out there and stay? Some of them did, but some of them went back to Jerusalem.
[43:24] When rest came, they went back home. They had homes there in Jerusalem. They went back home to Jerusalem, to the church there, and then these same laymen end up traveling to cities and preaching and starting churches.
[43:38] All right? So these laymen that are planting churches in chapter 9, chapter 8 and chapter 9, they go back to Jerusalem, and now they begin planning their church planting.
[43:54] All right? They notice they're traveling. First of all, they were scattered. That's the difference between shooting a shotgun and a rifle. All right? A shotgun, often called a scatter gun.
[44:06] It just goes out there. A rifle shoots at a particular spot. All right? You aim a rifle, you point a shotgun. Those are the two different things. All right?
[44:16] Now, these laymen were now traveling to cities, preaching, and starting churches. You see, God forced the Jerusalem church to develop a philosophy of ministry on church planting through this persecution.
[44:31] And how did they do it? Well, the people in the church, under the leadership of the apostles, and I believe the apostles were involved in this in chapter 8 as well as they went up to Samaria and so on, but under the leadership of the apostles and the church in Jerusalem, they developed a plan to go to these three cities, these three places, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and to Antioch, and they preached the word unto these people.
[44:56] We have the information on Antioch more than Phoenicia and Cyprus. We see that later, but they go there and they're preaching the word of God in Antioch and people get saved.
[45:08] Now, this was not something they just put together on the spur of the moment and said, hey, let's leave tomorrow and go up to these three places and preach. No, they planned this thing. Okay, they've done some work on this and the church was involved in this as well.
[45:23] All right? And so the church begins to develop this leadership there and they did that through this persecution. They got to the place where they said, oh, this is what we're supposed to do.
[45:36] Now, pastors can leave their church to develop a philosophy of ministry or God may allow problems to come which may create more churches. I don't necessarily sometimes think a split is bad.
[45:52] Maybe that's what it takes to see new churches planted in an area. I don't think it's the best way to do it but sometimes that's what happens. God used problems here in the church at Jerusalem to plant new churches.
[46:07] The church at Antioch was purposely planted out of the church at Jerusalem and under their leadership. it was purposely done. They traveled up there.
[46:18] They went up there with a purpose. Now, once they got people saved, if you look at verse 21, the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem and they sent forth Barnabas.
[46:33] Now, that word sent means to dispatch. they dispatched him. They picked him and said, we want you to go up to Antioch and pastor that church.
[46:44] I believe Barnabas became the pastor of the church at Antioch. All right? It was under their leadership. So Barnabas goes up there, becomes the pastor of that church in verse 22.
[46:57] The Jerusalem church was responsible for the planting of this church and for the installing of the pastor. Now, when I first started churches, I didn't know what I was doing.
[47:14] I got a group of people together, got some folks saved, baptized them, and said, all right, let's vote on the Constitution. That is dumb. That is just downright dumb.
[47:27] I don't know if you can use the word stupid here, so I'll use the word dumb. That's just not smart. What we have done is we have, from this passage of Scripture, we have developed a system where the reproducing church actually has a business meeting.
[47:50] And at that business meeting, they have three or four votes. One, they vote to organize the new church. Two, they vote to adopt the Constitution. Three, they vote to install the pastor.
[48:02] And four, they vote to transfer memberships. And so, when the new pastor goes to the new community, the church is already in existence as a, as an, in an embryonic form out of the reproducing church.
[48:20] church, I saw a picture during the get acquainted meetings, which we'll talk about hopefully tomorrow, during the get acquainted meetings, which we hold for these new churches, we, we cut the cord.
[48:33] The last night, we have the new preacher preach, and it's turned over to him. And I've always said, you know, that's the night we cut the cord. Well, my assistant, in the last meeting, which they held in Ladysmith, Virginia, just a few weeks ago, I got this picture from them, and I guess the pastor decided this was a good idea.
[48:49] He had a cord there, and they actually had scissors to cut the cord, which made it an independent Baptist church, independent of the parent. And you say, oh, well, that church can't be independent because, you know, they still, they're not, they're not indigenous, they're not self-supporting, and, and, and, you know, they're, they, they're not able to take care of themselves.
[49:10] Duh. I've had five children, let me tell you, once the cord was cut, they weren't able to take care of themselves either. In fact, some are in their 30s, and I don't think they can take care of themselves. Yeah, they still, yeah, kids need help, but they're independent.
[49:25] If my wife had passed away, those, that child could still have survived. All right, that child was independent of that parent the moment the cord is cut. They become an independent individual, and the church should become an independent individual once that meeting is finished.
[49:44] Let that church be their, their church. You say, well, I don't know if I can trust them, but if you can't trust the pastor, then don't use him to start the church. You can't trust him. Don't use him to start the church.
[49:55] Where am I here? Oh, okay. Well, so the church of Jerusalem here, they were responsible for sending Barnabas up there. Verse 22 makes it pretty clear. So we see that the, it clearly indicates that the church at Jerusalem took an active role in reproducing church.
[50:12] Not passive, but active. Their laymen were involved. The church leadership was involved. It all revolved around the local church.
[50:23] Now, these are the building blocks that we've given you. First one is this. The church is a living organism. Are we right on that? I think we're right on that.
[50:35] Two, organisms reproduce after their kind. Genesis 1. No question about that. Number three, the Great Commission is given to the local church.
[50:46] I don't believe that's in question with who we have here. Number four, the Great Commission is church planting. Can that be debated?
[50:56] I don't think so. Number five, Christ told the local church where they should plant churches. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth.
[51:07] It's not enough just to go to Jerusalem and the uttermost part of the earth and forget Judea and Samaria. It's not enough to do that. It's every area. And the church at Jerusalem developed a philosophy of ministry which included the reproducing of churches.
[51:25] I believe it's clear. Now, so because of that, every church should have a philosophy of ministry which includes multiplying churches out of the local church or reproducing churches out of the local church.
[51:40] That's where I get my philosophy of ministry for church planting. All right, that's where I get it from. I get it from the scripture. I've built it on this basis.
[51:52] And I don't think I put too much emphasis on the local church for planting churches. I don't think I do. I think it is the responsibility of local churches to do that. All right, we'll stop it right there.
[52:06] Thank you for listening to the Church Playing Conference hosted by the Our Generation Training Center and Vision Baptist Church. You can find the complete series of record sessions by logging on to www.sermonaudio.com forward slash Vision Baptist.
[52:25] The Church watched.