Jerusalem or Antioch

but it is nice to have all of here thisevening everybody likes to sit on theleftside good evening everyone happy sabathto all of you I'd like to welcome everyeverybody here this evening for ourspecial Friday night V service here atBill 7day Church I'd like to welcomethose are watching online happy Sabbathto all of you hope the Lord has beengood to you has been giving you acharacter building week and here we areSabbath is here we're here to Worshipthe Lord as many of you know that wehave a special guest uh speaker thisevening Pastor Conrad Vine and so wewill have a short or truncated songservice this evening again welcomeeveryone here let's let's begin with aword of prayer shall we Heavenly Fatherwe are thankful again that you havewatched over us and kept us safe throughanother week and Lord we come thisevening with humbleness of hearts andthankfulness in our hearts and our mindsand gratitude that thou are truly goodand wonderful God we here to worship youas we come Heavenly Father we confessour sins before you as we do oh Lordcleanse us make us right before youHeavenly Father by the blood of JesusChrist as we come to Worship You NowHeavenly Father we ask for the presenceof your Holy Spirit touch our hearts andour minds as we worship you this eveningthat we will draw closer to you and thatwe will love you and serve you more andbetter each and every day we arethankful those that are here thisevening we are thankful those that arewatching online we ask oh Lord that aswe worship you this evening you blesseach and every one of us draw us closerto you in Jesus name we pray amen amenall right let's sing 308 please 308 holy[Music]thine I will be dear savior holy thyteach me how teach mehow I will do thy will oh Lord not minehelp me help menow holyth holyth holy th This Is MyVow holythy holythy holy thine oh Lord just nowwhat is worldy pleasure wealth or famewithoutth withth I will live them oh for thy dear namethis my wealth shallbe holyth holythine holy thine this is my Vholyth holyth holy th oh Lord justnow as I cast a trans Jobehind come down near come downnear in the presence all in all I findtill my comforthere holythineholy holy thy This Is MyVow holyth holyth holy thy oh Lordjust amen holy thine next song is 381please381381 holy Sabbath day of rest it is aSabbath so is appropriate to sing aSabbath hymn[Music]381holy saath day ofrest high our God Divelybless God created anddiv set aside for Holytime yes the holy SabbathRest by our God Dively[Laughter][Music]bless to us a son shallbethroughout alleternity seek the pleasures of thisEarth with is falling no andMer there are better things instore allon the otherShore yes the holy Sabbathrest I Our God divinelybless to us a son shall[Music]be through out alleternity and as the sabath drathonFR said asonchrisan household and shouldme sing and pray at JesusFe yes the holy Sabbath restare God Divelyblessed to us a son shallbethroughout alleternity asking him for savinggrace also victory in the rain[Music]and to help us by hispower to keep holy everyare yes the holysa by our God Divelyblessed to us a sign shall bethroughout alleternity amen blessed holy Sabbath dayamen next song is 525 please 525 hidingin the 525[Music]ohsave to therock that ishigher thanI mysoul in isconflict and sorrowwouldfly sosful sowe th thy would Ibe thouBL Rock ofAges I'mhiding inthe hideingintheehiding inthee thou bless Rock ofAges I'mhighing inthee in thecome of thenoon time inSorrows blown onintimes whentemptationcasty ispar in theTempest of Life on his wi heavingsea thBL Rock ofesI'mhiding in[Music]theeHinghiding inthee thoubless Rock ofAges I'mhiding in himhowoften theconflict whenPray by thefoe I havefled tomyug andbreathe out mywall howoften WhenTrials Lipillowsroll I have H and in theohRock of mysoulhiding intheehiding inthee thou BLRock ofAges I'mhiding intheamen I'm going to invite thecongregation to stand now as we sing Ouropening hm please367 367 rescue the perishing 367[Music]res the perishing care for the dying Stthem imped from sin and thegrave wait for the Airing one lift upthe Fallen tell them of Jesus the mightytosay resue the perishing careful thedying Jesus ismerciful Jesus willsave though they are sliding him stillhe is waiting waiting the pen child toreceive plead with them earnestly pleadwith themgently he will forgive if they onlybelieve resue the perishing careful thedying Jesus ismerciful Jesus willsave resue the perishing to the demandit strength for thy lab the Lord willprovide back to the narrow way patientlywith them tell the poor wonderer saorhasdied resue the perishing care for thedying Jesus ismercifulJesus Will[Music]let's pray please HeavenlyFather we thank you again that thou hasbrought us here after another week thatwe may come to worship you on your holySabbath day oh Lord we thank you alwaysfor your love and your kindness andgentleness toward us and we thank youHeavenly Father for the gift that youhave given us your only begotten sonJesus Christ that we have been deliveredfrom that Darkness Into His MarvelousLight that we may truly have that joyand peace that only you can give as wegather together this evening Worship YouHeavenly Father we pray for the presenceof your Holy Spirit as we open ourhearts to you lead us and guide us wepray a special prayer for Elder ConradVine as he brings the message thisevening fill him with your Holy SpiritEnlighten his mind and watch over hiswords heavenly father that we may beblessed as we listen to the words inJesus name we pray amen amen please beseated when I contacted Pastor Vineit's been over a year I think it waslast September I contacted Pastor Vineand uh this day today is finally hereit's been a long way I asked Pastor Vinefor some bios to read but he did notgive it to me so I just went to his uhwebsite and I'm going to read some fromwhat you wrote in your website Pastorborn to a pastoral family Pastor ConradVine grew up with his twin brother andtwo sisters in homes across the UK aftergraduating with a business degree andmanagement degree in 1995 he served theUK Public Health Care system before Godled him to Adra in1996 initially serving in asaran BajanPastor Vine served with Adra through2002 in a variety of roles worldwidefollowing Seminary training at new boldCollege 2002 to 2004 he and Luda begantheir pastoral Ministry in London UnitedKingdom after a stint in the Middle EastUnion they served in the PastoralMinistry for four 4 years in Minnesotafollowing which Pastor Vine answered thecall to serve as the president ofAdventist Frontier missions Conrad andLuda were married in December 1999 andregard their marriage as a personalblessing from a loving heavenly fatherthey have twochildren Pastor conre Vine was bornagain and accepted Jesus Christ as apersonal Savior and Lord as a teenagerevery day he sees God lead provide moldand transform so there is a less ofPastor Vine and more of Jesus in hislife Pastor Vine is also an ordainedminister of the Gospel in the 7th DayAdventist Church and serves as apresident of Adventist Frontier Missionbased in Michigan United States PastorVine Welcome to our church time now isyours uh thank you brother for that warmwelcome and it's a privilege to come andstand and share here on this Fridaynight I see some friends here Irecognize brother Bliss from a few a fewmonths ago Josiah Mission School downthere uh just southeast of here and uhpleasure to see you again brother and uhit's a privilege to uh be standing heretonight and sharing as we open theSabbath hours together as you can tellfrom my accents I'm really not fromMichigan um but I was raised in theUnited Kingdom and um when I go back toEngland people say where are you fromand I say well I'm from England they sayoh no you're not uh cuz I've spent somany years in other countries of theworld uh I guess I'm kind of like um hin57 we say in England or a mut when itcomes to my accent but anyway um it's aprivilege to come and share with youtonight and I was wondering what I wasgoing to share with you tonight becauseum uh I had about three or four thingskind of floating around my mind and uhyou know when I come to a church umthere's always like this is what I sayI'm going to talk about but it oftengets shaped at the last minute minuteand sometimes I stand up to talk andwhat I have in my my my notes Here whatI have for my notes sometimes thatdisappears out the window and somethingelse happens so tonight I'm going toassume that what I'm going to share iswhat the Holy Spirit hasn't needimpressed upon me to share with you andI want to start out by saying that aswas reading the introduction uh I I lefthome when I was um just turned 18 and Iwent to Israel to work on a kibuts and Iwas there during Gulf War I and eversince then I've been floating around theworld and it's been incredible privilegeto live in many many different parts ofthe world to to learn from the differentcultures around the world and I'velearned that wherever you go in life ifyou look for the positive you'll find ablessing and every culture has strengthsand weaknesses pluses and minuses and soif you go wherever you go uh in theworld or any City you happen to live inum if you look for something that ispositive God will lead you to somethingthat is a blessing and if you go throughlife with that attitude uh then thatreally carries you through the toughermoments of life so I'm speaking to youtonight with about 30 plus years ofcrosscultural mission experience undermy belt and I'm very conscious of thefact that when when I I got up thismorning about 3:30 and I was packing mybag um and and I have two jackets sortof gray one fits me and one is kind oftight on me as you can see and I pulledout the wrong one and so I looked in itsays slim fit I thought that no longerfits me so I called my wife and saidcould you put the slim fit one somewhereelse so when I grab it at 3:30 in themorning I don't pull pull the wrong suitoff the shelf there so uh anyway I'mgoing to talk tonight about some lessonsfor us as Adventists uh from the theexperience of the early church becauseuh all of scripture is given us not justfor reproof but is it is also given forcorrection and instruction in how weserve as the body of Christ today so I'mgoing to be looking tonight at thedifference between the Jerusalem SDAchurch or the Antioch SDA church and I'mgoing to assume kind of a basic level ofliteracy of the book of Acts heretonight um but I share these thingsbecause it's important um as we comeinto the last days of Earth's historyand we sense the clock ticking towardsmidnight and we're not only approachingum midnight in the world in terms of youknow what's happening but we're alsoapproaching a moral midnight wherepeople no longer know what is right orwrong anymore and and it's like theancient city of Nineveh in the lastverse of the Book of Jonah God saysthere 120,000 people in that City who donot know their right hand from theirleft and why should not not be mercifulto them and so we serve as we sang inthe last hymn a merciful heavenly fatherand he his offer of uh the Everlastinggospel is God's last offer of Mercy to adying and a confused planet and so uhI'm going to share tonight some lessonsthat we may glean today from theexperience of the Jerusalem Church andthe Antioch Churchand uh I believe this does apply to usday now I don't know anything about thiscongregation um I know you're calledburnt Mills SDA I looked you up onGoogle um before I came here and it'sactually um quite a hard thing to cometo a church kind of cold and not reallyknow anything about that church andshare something with them uh as we'regoing to be doing tonight and tomorrowuh but tomorrow I'll be talking aboutsome current events how they fit intoprophecy and in the afternoon we havePastor num with me gentleman at the backthen give give me a wave Pastor Numa uhPastor Numa he was um raised an animistbeing trained to be an animist priesthis father was an animist high priestand God called him out of animism to bea missionary among animists and he'splanted many churches among animistswe'll be learning tomorrow afternoonabout his mission and one of mycolleagues I discovered is in town thisweekend who spent almost 10 years inThailand planting a very large ThaiChurch in one of the big cities thereand he's going to come and share aboutwhat Ministry among Buddhists look likethen we're going to have a Q&Abecause as I drive around um this partof DC I see on every corner there isthere's um amadia mosque there's a Sunnimosque there's Ukrainian Orthodox Churchthere's incredible religious diversitywithin this community and I think it'sincumbent upon us if we're to share ourfaith intelligently and meaningfully tounderstand the people in the communitieswhere we live and where we serve so uhtonight I'm going to be talking aboutlessons from the Jerusalem Church so Iwould say that I've spent uh all myadult life as a missionary now my firstmission experience wasn't verysuccessful and it was it was it was avery painful experience for my mother umI was going into a hospital at the ageof 10 to have my adenoids out and mymother was doing the check-in with meand they said what does he eat and Ithought anything and she said no he'svegetarian and then then they said whatreligion is he my mother said oh he'ssth the Adventist and the nurse saidwell I haven't heard of those and my momsaid well you know that missionary thatjust died in sier Leon of malaria theywere Adventists and the nurse said no Ihaven't heard of Adventists and then mymom said well you know that little babyin a hospital called lomalinda they puta baboon's heart into it just recentlythat was an Adventist Hospital and thenurse says no I haven't heard of themand I could see my mom was struggling soI said you know that lady in Australiawho killed her baby and claimed thedingo took it well she was an Adventistas well now of course she never killedher baby just for the record uh she wasentirely Innocent but at the time that'swhat she'd been convicted of and anywayum the nurse said oh yes I knowAdventists and my mother looked at meand I could see there was somethingother than pure pride in her eyes atthat moment um I think she was probablywishing I'd be quiet anyway that was myfirst conscience um conscience memory ofof sharing my faith so on the screenthere I have a little meme um there Ithink I'm a mystery what my friendsthink I do like Indiana Jones uh what mymom thinks I do and kind of sitting inum sitting in uh sitting among holy menMaybe in India uh what Society thinks Ido like lying in a hammock all day umwhat my supporters think I do and thatwhat I think I do bottom center kindcrawling through the mud every day umwhat I really do is make friendships forthe gospel you see if the gospel is toflow there has to be Trust on both sidesof that relationship and if I do nottrust you that you really care about memy eternal salvation why would I acceptthe Everlasting gospel from you and ifthe Everlasting gospel is to flow itmeans I must take the time to becomeyour genuine friend to so that you knowthat I genuinely care about yourwell-being whether you become anAdventist or not I genuinely care aboutyour well-being and helping you getthrough life just as much as I hopeyou'll help me get through life and sowhen we take the time to become friendswith people friendship um opens the thedoorway for the gospel to flow so anywayI'm going to talk tonight about theJerusalem and the Antioch Churchexperiences and so there's a map of theuh ancient Middle East it's not a modernmap um so it doesn't reflect modernpolitical boundaries um but just just umfor just so you understand um there'sJerusalem all right well you can seeIsrael on the map there um Jerusalem isjust Northwest of the Dead Sea andAntioch if you look up to Turkey umthere's a little bit of a turkey thatdrops down like an appendix into Syriado you see that along the coast therethat little green lump that comes downthe coast there well um that's where themodern city of anakia is and that'swhere um the ancient city of Antioch wasin the time of the first century RomanEmpire and that is where Christians werefirst called Christians that's in thecity of Antioch there and you can stillgo there to this day it's the city ofanakia so what do we know about theJerusalem SDA model of doing Church thefirst thing about it is well it was kindof obvious it was based in Jerusalem anduh that's kind of obvious it was it wasthe headquarters for the early Apostolicmovement and it was where Jesus died andhe rose and where he ascended back toHeaven from and that's where the Eldersof the church tended to be based um theother thing we know about this churchwas there was regular prayer and worshipin the temple and there was Fellowshipin Believers homes so for the firstgeneration at least uh the earlyChristians would go to the temple totake part in the prayer the praise andthe worship in the templeuh you know Peter and John went throughthe gate beautiful to pray that's wherethey let the met the lame man who askedthem to heal him and they would alsohave Fellowship in their believer'shomes so they had a mixture of you mightsay formal worship during the weekendduring the Friday hours and FridaySunset and Sabbath hours and they alsohad fellowship and prayer meetings ineach other's homes we can figure thatout from Acts chapter 1 through Actschapter 6 um so it was overwhelmingly anAramaic speaking Churchso they didn't really speak so muchLatin or or Hebrew or Greek Co Greek thelanguage of the New Testament um theywere overwhelmingly an Aramaic speakingChurch which means that they wereoverwhelmingly of ethnic Jewish descentuh that was the early church there inJerusalem just after Jesus ascends backto heaven and it's led by the apostlesand the elders people like James theElder for instance uh so it wasoverwhelmingly an Aramaic speakingChurch uh Jesus himself primarily spokeAramaic and now what we also see in Acts1-6 that there was really no intent toform a separate religion at the timejust when there was just the JerusalemSDA church but they existed with a verypluralistic um form of Judaism Judaismwas not a monolithic faith it was amonotheistic Faith but it was not amonolithic faith in the time of JesusChrist um in the first century ad so onthe one hand you've got the Sadduceeswere all familiar with the Sadducees Ithink they were they were like the Deepstate in Jewish society and they had ummade an alliance with the Romans so thatif the Romans kept political power theSadducees would control the temple andthrough the temple they would controlthe populace on behalf of the Romans andso the high priests Caiaphas and Annisthey were Sadducees and then there werethe Pharisees and the Pharisees were thepopular heroes in the time of Jesus wetend to give the Pharisees a badreputation but they were the commonHeroes they were the populists of theirtime and they came from the time ofAntiochus epiphanies um over 100 yearsbefore and when Antiochus epiphanies waskilling um Jewish religious leaders fornot wanting to um take part in in umPagan sacrifices in the temple it wasthe Pharisees who objected to this andthey became known as the party of thelaw and they were willing to die topreserve and uphold the Torah um as itwas them and so you had the Phariseesthe Sadducees you had the Asenthe ases were a group who basically saideverything in Jerusalem is corrupt andthey were kind of true when they waswhen they were saying this and so theywithdrew from Jerusalem down to a littlecommune by the Dead Sea called kumranand we've dug up kumran today and theases they produced their own literatureuh such as the war scroll or the scrollof Damascus and they they they weretalking about the Romans and they werelooking forward to a battle between goodand evil and a teacher of righteousnesswould arise who would lead the saints ofGod against the W the the the men ofDarkness that is the Romans and thecorrupt deep state in Jerusalem so whenJesus comes along and when when he diedand goes back to Heaven Judaism wasquite a pluralistic religion in fact yousee hints of this in the gospels becauseit's kind of unclear in the gospelsexactly when Jesusdied I'm not going to open a kind ofworms with this I hope but if you lookin the synoptics Matthew Mark and LukeJesus has his Passover meal on the thirdth night is that correct somebody sayyes please yes Jesus has the Passovermeal on Thursday night and then hesacrificed on the Friday afternoon butin John's gospel Jesus is crucified yeson the Friday afternoon but he's beingsacrificed when the Passover Lambs arebeing slain now if if Jesus had aPassover meal as in the snapics onThursday night they would already havehad Slaughter the Passover lambs and sowhat happened was within Judaism at thetime of Jesus different sects had theirown calendar do and uh the the in withinJudaism even though there were 12 monthsof the year every 13 years they wouldadd another one one month out for everyeight of those 13 years they were knownas intercalated months and the reasonthey did that was um if the if ifPassover time came and there weren'tenough newborn Lambs to slaughter forthe Passover or The Barley Harvest hadnot come in yet if either those twothings were late then they added a 13thmonth then and there to the year beforethe Passover would starts a month lateand so there there were multiplecalendars operative at the time of Jesusand the different sects within Judaismheld to different calendar at the timeof Jesus and things weren't helped bythe fact that um when when the new moonwas sighted over Mount of Olives um theywould light fires that would go all theway up to to Babylon and round to Turkeyto let them know that the new moon hadbeen cited and you can now count 14 daysto the Passover of the first month ofthe Jewish year but in order to confusethings the Samaritans would light firesa couple of days early and so thatnobody really knew when Passover startedokay so the point was that at the timeof the Jerusalem SDA Church in the latenight a30s after Jesus goes back toHeaven Judaism was a very pluralisticreligion it wasn't a monotheist itwasn't a mono monolithic religion eventhough it was monotheistic the JerusalemChurch confessed Jesus of Nazareth asthe Messiah as the Messiah of God and umthere was a very developed christologyin the early Church in the book of Actsbut they certainly confessed Jesus ofNazareth as being the Messiah and thengoing on from this entry into theJerusalem Church was by baptism andbecause the church was overwhelminglyJewish ethnically the Assumption wasthat when you came into the church youcame in alreadycircumcised because uh any any observantJewish boy at the time would have beenobservant as per the writings of Moseson the e8th day after his birth and sothe church was overwhelmingly JewishAramaic speaking and entry was bybaptism wasn't the baptism of John itwas the baptism of Jesus Christ FatherSon and Holy Spirit and uh it wasassumed that you came into the into thisthis group of believers who confessedJesus of Nazareth as being the Messiahit was assumed that you were circumcisedand that church was led by the apostlesuh in particular by Peter and James theElder and so that's kind of the picturewe get in the first six chapters of theearly church there in Jerusalem and ifwe look at what their sense of missionwas their sense of mission was primarilyto their to their fellow Jewishcommunity and that was there within whatwe mod modern day we call Israel whatthe Romans call Palestine um I'm notgoing to get into Political discussionshere tonight but it was primarily totheir fellow Jewish community and theywere looking for the full restoration ofIsrael the Fulfillment of the messagemeic prophecies given through the OldTestament that God gave through theprophets particularly Isaiah andJeremiah and Ezekiel and so in a senseit was kind of backward looking theywere looking back into the Old Testamentuh Old Testament prophets um in order tofind meaning for what it meant thatthey've just seen the Messiah and nowthey going to try and explain theMessiah now that he had come um alsoabout the Jerusalem um Church there wasvery very limited uh intentionalmissionary work among the Gentilecommunities we do know there was somemissionary work for instance philli wascaught up by the Holy Spirit and carrieddown to the Gaza Road where he met aunic from Ethiopia and the Ethiopianunic was traveling by Chariot back toEthiopia now I drove here from beranSprings Michigan and I want to tell youthat if you had to go by horsedrawn CChariot from Jerusalem all the way downto modern day Ethiopia that's going totake you you know you like a one-yearsabatical to a trip like that okay thatwas a tough ride and so this Ethiopianunic who served Candice the queen of theEthiopians was probably on at least ayear-long Hiatus from his work in orderto travel by Chariot or cart from ModernDay Ethiopia without modern roads allthe way up the Nile AC around the Sinaidesert and up to Jerusalem and so therewas Gentile missionary work but it wasvery very limited in those first fewchapters of the book of Acts and itreally only took place under the directintervention of the HolySpirit now um the what we can figure outfrom Isaiah and Jeremiah in Ezekiel wasthat um the the the the Jewish Believersbelieved that there was going to be amassive Gentile conversions and therewill be an end time pilgrimage ofNations up to Jerusalem you find thatfor instance in Isaiah chapter 60 uhwhich people today argue points thatthere'll be one day an Eng Gathering ofthe Arab nations of the world to theworship of Jehovah Isaiah chapter 60 butcertainly if you look in the OldTestament expectation there was going tobe a massive conversion of the Gentilesto the worship of Yahweh or Jehovah andthere will be a pilgrimage up toJerusalem to the worship of the one trueGod now um those who came into the earlyJerusalem Church it appears that theywere circumcised and they had to submitto the full Torah so when you see in theNew Testament um people talking aboutcircumcision circumcision is is um shortShand or code for you must accept thefull Torah of the law of Moses so whenthey said that these Gentile Believersmust be circumcised that was a a shorthand wave saying they must submit to theentire Mosaic law if they're going tofollow Jesus as the Messiah and so um Ithink for obvious reasons not manyGentile men were willing to go alongwith that um anyway they they maintainedin the early church that both faith inJesus and obedience to the Torah werenecessary for salvation that may nothave been the apostolic preacherbut we certainly know from the attitudeof the judaizers um in the early churchthat yes we can believe Jesus is theMessiah but if you believe Jesus as theMessiah then part of following him meansbeing obedient or Torah compliant as yougo through life and so this this wouldappear to be the the Jerusalem SDAchurch but then we can we can comparethat with the Antioch experience andAntioch as we said is based in modernday Southeast Turkey umby by quite uh literally there was noTemple Worship in Antioch because therewas no Temple so they couldn't go to thetemple every Friday night or everyShabbat or Sabbath morning um so itwould appear they had regular worshipand fellowship in Believers homes andwhen we look at what Paul writes in 1Corinthians 11 to the early churches ofCorinth we have our Lord's Supper once aquarter that's because we have aMethodist Heritage and that's when themethodists and John Wesley had theirLord's Supper um they also had Wednesdaynight prayer meetings that's why we doWednesday night prayer meetings inadventism as well we have many much ofour DNA comes from methodism but um thein the early church they would have aLord's Supper on a daily basis whenpeople finished work they'd cometogether for a potluck in somebody'shouse and Paul writes about the abusesof the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11one of those abuses was that the wealthygot off work quickly they came and ateall the food and the poor who had towork longer came for the potluck anddiscovered nothing was left and this wascreating social distinctions within theearly church and the the church issupposed to eliminate socialdistinctions because we're all one inJesus Christ rather than to accentuateand emphasize the divisions that existin society around us but anyway in theChurch of Antioch um they had regularworship and fellowship in Believershomes or house churches as we would callthem today and uh theyalso let me see if this thing works yesthis was not an Aramaic speaking churchas far as we can figure out it wasoverwhelmingly greek-speaking Jewish orGentile Christians so there would beenJews of the dispersion um after the timeof Nebuchadnezzar and and the Jews whodidn't go back to Jerusalem with withzerubabel and Ezra and Nehemiah um therewas a there was a large diaspora acrossthe Roman Empire and they were primarilyGreek speaking that's why we have thesep chant the Greek speaking OldTestament the he chant was written forthe benefits of the greek-speakingJewish community that was scattered allaround the Roman Empire because theyspoke Greek rather than primarily HebrewAramaic and there were also GentileChristians in the Antioch Church so theAntioch Church was was an ethnicallymixed Church compared with the JerusalemChurch which was ethnically much more umhomogeneous and so um they referred toas helenista um in in on in the NewTestament writings um they also confessJesus of Nazareth as the Messiah um butfor the Antioch Church entry was bybaptism withoutcircumcision that's really important umthe apostles did not requirecircumcision when one entered the bodyof Christ it was assumed in JerusalemChurch that was mostly ministering toJewish converts in the Jewish communityand because people were alreadycircumcised it was assumed it was just amatter of fact that Christians would becircumcised but in Antioch entry was bybaptism and there was with there doesn'tappear to be any evidence ofcircumcision as entry into the AntiochChurch model uh this was led not by Pauland James the Elder it was led by Pauland Barnabas and um and and some of thattheir the their co-workers and it is inAntioch that Christians were firstcalled Christians and um Christians iskind of like um it's actually a term ofabuse it just it's kind of like likeyou're followers of the Messiah you'reMessiah is you might might say theyfollow the Christ you Jesus Christ isEnglish Jus Christos is Greek yahoshuahamashia is Hebrew uh so they you followthe Christ you you you're Messiah is youmight say and so in in Antioch umChristians were started they were nolonger viewed as a sect within Judaismbut they were viewed as an entirely newreligion and after you have the um umthe the Jewish writer Josephus Josephusjoined in the Jewish revolt against Romein 866 to 867 he was a commander inGalilee and he was taken captive by theRoman Emperor and he wrote a history ofJudaism and what he did in his historywas he argued that Judaism wasn't somuch a faith but it was a philosophysimilar to the ancient philosophies suchas stoicism cicm cynicism and epicurianISM and that Judaism was just anotherphilosophy and what the rebels weredoing in Palestine wasn't because theywere Jewish it's because they weremisguided but true Judaism was aphilosophy of peace and so um Josephuskind of remodeled what Judaism was inthe eyes of the Roman rulers um but bythe time we come to Antioch uh thatchurch there in the in the uh late 50sand early 60s ad um Christianity isstarting to be seen as a new religion umthe church in Antioch um they had adifferent self- understanding to theChurch of Jerusalem whereas the churchin Jerusalem viewed itself as primarilylooking to engage in mission to theJewish Commin in ancient Palestine or Israel um thethe Antioch model was much moreforward-looking and they viewedthemselves as a launching pad for a newHumanity in which all social and ethnicdistinctions were to be wiped away andreplaced by agape love self-sacrificinglove and fellowship so it was much moreof a forward-looking expression of offollowing the Messiah than what youfound in the Jerusalem experience um sothere was very intentional Jewish andGentile missionary work uh starting inCyprus and go to Asia Minor that'smodern day turkey and into Greece so theAntioch Church were they were confidentthey believed that the gospel was forall people it wasn't just for Jews andit wasn't just for Gentiles so the firstmissionaries they sent out were Paul andBarnabas and they go to Cyprus in Actschapter 13 and when they go to Cyprusthey go to the synagogues but after thatthey go to the Roman governor and hisname is sergus paulus and um he hasbecomes a convert and it's after hebecomes a convert that Saul is known asPaul in the book of Acts and so the thethe Antioch Church was a veryforward-looking Church uh looking tobring the gospel for to All Peoples andthey were eager to win Gentile convertswithout the need for circumcision orTorah compliance and so as Paul wentaround his missionary Journeys he wasfollowed by judaizers not from antio butfrom the church of Jerusalem there's noevidence he was followed by judaizersfrom um from Antioch because the churchthere was primarily Gentile anyway andso in the Antioch Church model Jewishand Gentile Believers Fellowshiptogether freely without ethnicdistinctions and I just want to say thatwhen I stand in front of a church andsee people from every corner of theglobe I say praise the Lord that thisworld is full of division and it's fullof polarization and it's full of hatredand you might say that um nobodyeverybody's hand one way or another ifyou go back through all of our historiesevery body's hand has blood on it andjesus' hand has blood on it but he isthe only one who is innocent of theblood on his hands we are all guilty ofsomething to go back through our past welook at our heritage and our societiesand our cultures so the Antioch model umhad Jewish and Gentile Believers freelyworshiping together without ethnicdistinctions and they maintained thatfaith in Jesus was necessary forsalvation and baptism but circumcisionwas unnecessary hence the Divide um withbetween the judaizers and the ApostlePaul that we read about particularly inthe book Galatians so um that's kind ofa lot on the screen there can you seethat kind of clearly from where you aresitting yes yeah okay so uh if we lookat like the Church of Jerusalem now I'mgetting old so my eyes can I can't seethat up on the screen there have to lookat my own notes here so the Church ofJerusalem had theologies that kind ofsummarizes the two churches here theChurch of Jerusalem had its Theology andpractice focused on the past and theChurch of Antioch had its Theology andpractice Focus on the future the Churchof Jerusalem was very passive reactingto external influences um they wereunder persecution for instance both fromthe high priest and the Sadducees laterfrom the Romans and the Church ofAntioch was actively seeking toinfluence the world around them theyweren't sitting and being victimizedthey were going out there and beingintentional about sharing their faiththe Church of Jerusalem appears to bedefined theologically by the pastwhereas the Church of Antioch wasdefined theologically by the future whatGod wants to do rather than what he hasdone in Salvation history in the past uhthe Church of Jerusalem um guarded itstheological and ethnic boundaries quitecarefully whereas the Church of Antiochum actually had a very different viewthey crossed theological and ethnicboundaries quite deliberately and so onewas a very defensive posture the otherwas a very open-minded and offensiveposture all right the Church ofJerusalem um focused on consolidationfrom the past and the Church of Antiochfrom what we know about it focused onMission and Mission is Messy as we'regoing to learn tomorrow and if you'regoing to engage in Mission you have tobe willing to experiment and you'regoing to have to be willing to makemistakes and then you have to will youhave to willing to learn from yourmistakes um but churches that arefocused on Mission rather thanpreserving the past are the ones thatare going to grow I'll just tell you toyou now that's just the way things areif we're so focused on consolidating andcircling the wagons and defending thepast eventually the past will die outand there's nothing left and so theAntioch Church was focused on outward Fhad an outward focus and was focused onMission and Crossing ethnic andreligious boundaries um the JerusalemChurch focused on the Torah with adominant role for obedience to the Torahfor the followers of the Messiah withintheir midst whereas the Antioch Churchwasn't so much focused on the Torah butit was focused on the grace of God withobedience not to the Torah but to theleading of the Holy Spirit and you seethat even in the call of the firstmissionaries they gather they pray theyfast and the Holy Spirit said set asidePaul and Barnabas for a certain rolethat I have for them so the the Churchof Antioch was listening to the voice ofthe Holy Spirit we may ask ourselvestoday if the Holy Spirit were to die howlong before this congregation would knowthat you know if the Holy Spirit wouldhave die how long before the generalconference would know that because weall have budgets and buildings and plansand programs and people and and all therest of it and policies and programs andthese things like like machines theyjust keep grinding onand the Church of Antioch was led andacted as they were led by the holyspirit so if the Holy Spirit didn't leadthem they weren't going to do somethingall right and it's a beautiful pictureof of how God wants his church tooperate to be listening for andsensitive to the voice of the HolySpirit and so um the the JerusalemChurch was reluctant to cross frontiersof any kind the Antioch Church was eagerto cross Frontiers whether that wastheological geographical or ethnic umthe Jerusalem Church was ethnicallyhomogeneous and the Antioch Church wasethnically diverse and the JerusalemChurch was essentially an Institutionalkind of church when they had when theywanted a church Council they all camedown to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 andthe funny thing about that is is thatPaul argues against circumcision yes inActs chapter 15 and he argues that it isnot necessary for Gentile Believers tobe umcircumcised and in Acts chapter 16 thevery first thing he does is he takesTimothy and he circumcises him so havingargued in Acts 15 we don't needcircumcision the and and they all agreethat Gentile believers do not need to becircumcised the very first thing Pauldoes having argued against circumcisionwas to circumcise Timothy all right it'skind of a a paradox in the writings ofPaul but anyway the the Church ofJerusalem you might say was theinstitutional church and it was astagnant church and it was a dyingChurchand the Antioch model was much moremessy but it was led by the Holy Spiritand rather than being looking backwardsand preserving the past they werelooking forwards to what may be beforethe return of the Messiah and it was theAntioch model that won out between theAntioch model and the Jerusalem model umultimately the Jerusalem modeldisappeared and from history so therewere inevitably tensions between theJerusalem Church and the Antioch Churchand actually you see these tensionsthroughout Christian history not just inAdventist history but throughoutChristian history um there was some uhthere was there's there's always been atension in Christianity between thevisible hierarchy and the leading of theHoly Spirit there's always been thattension um at the time of Augustinethere were Christians and montanistsover in in modern day Turkey who whosaid well the Bishops and thearchbishops saying X Y and Z but theholy spirit is leading us to believe a band c so who who wins out in that kindof conflict the institutionalhierarchical church or or members whoare led by the Holy Spirit and thattension has never been resolved withinChristianity and in a sense it's goodthat we have that tension uh we want tobe led by the Holy Spirit but we alsorecognize the need for order all rightand so how do those things relate toeach other and throughout the Dark Agesthe emphasis was on under the ear ofpapal Supremacy on the authority of thechurch could never be questioned andwith the Reformation um Luther umessentially argue that that counsels ofmen have heard uh so unless I'mconvinced by scripture I will not recanthe says it is neither safe nor wise togo against conscience which is themoving of the Holy Spirit upon yourheart so the Protestant Reformation isbased on an openness as with the AntiochChurch to the moving of the Holy Spiritupon your heart and checking the HolySpirit against the scriptures so thatyou know that God is really leading youin that moment so anyway there weretensions as you can imagine between theJerusalem Church and the Antioch Churchso Jerusalem um those Christians werenot happy that Peter ate with theuncircumcised Gentile called Corneliusin act 11: 1 through3 Peter wascriticized because he ate with anuncircumcised um Gentile calledCornelius so circumcision was a big dealfor the Jerusalem Church Jerusalem sentbarnas to investigate the news coming toJerusalem from Antioch in acts 11:22 soeven though Barnabas what brought PEbrought Paul to the to the Elders ofJerusalem early in Paul's ChristianMinistry and even though Barnabas was ason of encouragement from Cyprus WhoSold land and brought the money and gaveit to the the apostles and that's whatinspired ananas and saf to give some butthey withheld some of the the sale Prothe proceeds from the sail and and theyultimately died from that Barnabasinvestigated what was happening inAntioch in Acts chapter 11 on behalf ofthe Jerusalem Church so Barnabas has areally interesting role to play in theearly Church in Acts 15 in verse one itwas the judaizing Christians in inJerusalem who insisted that newBelievers be circumcised and they wereinsisting on that for all new Believersall around the Mediterranean Basinregardless of whether they had Jewish orGentile background that was theirposition and so um in that Galatians 2we read of a delegation from Jerusalemand they they they found Peter eatingwith uncircumcised Gentiles and uh theythey caused so much shock and shame forhim that he was Drew for fear of thecriticism from the judaizers fromJerusalem and he was then rebuked forhis hypocrisy by the Apostle Paul weread that about that in GalatiansChapter 2 so it's very clear that therewere tensions between the uh JerusalemChurch or the institutional church andthe antiochian church or the spirit-ledchurch there were these clear tensionsabout what it what what are the baserequirements to be within the body ofChrist and then Jerusalem in Acts 21 wasstill zealous for the lawafter all Paul's missionary Journeyswere complete now have you heard thewordZealot Zealot Zealot was one who waswilling to kill um in order to throw theRomans out of their Palestinian orIsraeli occupation and Paul um in inGalatians chapter 1 was zealous for thetraditions of the elders um that's howhe describes himself in hisautobiography there in Galatians chapter1 Galatians 1 and 2 are kind of hisautobiography and to when Paul Paul sayshe was zealous it means he was willingto kill for the traditions of the eldersand he was there giving approval to thedeath of Steven when Steven was stonedfor his faith in the Messiah at the endof Acts chapter 7 there and thebeginning of Acts chapter 8 and it'sinteresting that in Mark chapter 7 Jesusexplicitly condemned um the the the thepeople of of Galilee because he said youknow you you you replace theCommandments of God with traditions ofmen and those traditions paradparadidomi in Greek that which has beenhanded over and the question is um whichwhich thing do you follow that's beenhanded over there are the traditions ofthe F the oral Torah which is thetraditions of the rabbis and then uhPaul was was willing to kill for thoseTraditions that Jesus explicitlycondemned in Mark chapter 7 so Jesus andPaul were on a collision course evenwhile Jesus was in his ministry andwhile Paul was a young man Jesus wasopposing the Commandments uh those thosewho set aside the Commandments of Godfor the traditions of men and Paul waswilling to kill for those Commandmentsof traditions of men as opposed to theCommandments of God um but actually inGalatians chapter two Paul just says hesays the life I now live I live by faithand Son of God who loved me and whohanded himself over for me it's the sameverb that Jesus is the ultimate one whois handed over and he wasn't handed overby sinful man but he handed himself overfor your salvation and for mine and sowe can follow that that which has beenhanded over to us that is of humantradition or we can follow the one whohanded himself over for us that is Jesusthe son of God in Galatians chapter 2:20 and 21 there so um Jerusalem wasstill zealous for the law in Acts 21near the end of Paul's missionaryJourneys which means they were willingto kill I mean they they really to getviolent to uphold the Torah um as wellas faith in Jesus Christ if you're goingto be in the body of Christ and so thishell came to a head in Acts chapter 15and there was the Council of Jerusalemand the judaizers of Jerusalem gavetheir opinion that you must follow thethe Torah by which they meant circumcisecircumcision everything else and theChurch of Antioch represented by Pauland Barnabas and some of the other um ummissionaries they said this is what Godis doing among the Gentiles and if thisis what God is doing then we need tofollow where God isleading and I can tell you you know as amissionary that when you when you followwhere the holy spirit is leading inMission work you open yourselves up forcriticism because in the mission fieldnothing is ever clearly cut or asclearly cut as it appears back in thehomechurches and the reason why acts 15 is agood model for us today is when homechurches want to grow in theirunderstanding of who God is and how Godoperates Among The Lost and theunreached listen to the stories ofmissionaries because they will tell youstories about what God is doing todayamong the unreached and we'll realizethat okay God doesn't fit into theseneat little cookie cutter approaches Godis Way Beyond any of our thinking andhe's is working miraculous waves to savehis children who are behind the veil ofIslam or or the walls of confusion ISMor the mantras of Hinduism and so um theCouncil of Jerusalem the Antioch ProGentile party prevailed over thejudaizers of Jerusalem but despite thisthe judaizers it wasn't even though theycame to a decision that GentileChristians had um they basically hadthree or four requirements they were notto eat food with blood in it they werenot to eat food that had been strangledthat have been offered to idols and theywere to avoid sexual IM moralitybasically that short hand for Leviticus19 through 20 and 21 which is the sexualmorality laws in in in in the law in theTorah and just a reminder that you knowif we're to eat meat today as Christiansthat still applies to us that Christianstoday are still required to eat foodmeat without blood in it if you eatblood if you eat meat so that is you'resupposed we're supposed to be eatingKosher meat not McDonald's burgers okaycuz that's not Kosher meat and so Idon't eat meat myself but if we do eatmeat today then the ax 15 requirement isstill incumbent upon all of us today andum so I hope that's some cheered you allup in a certain way um I discovered theother day that chocolate has the the theI think the Food and Drug Administrationallows so many parts per million ofinsect Parts in your in your chocolateyes that there's a limit on how manyinsect parts and it's mostly cockroachfrom from the ships that come in fromGhana and wherever they grow the the thecocoa beans so when you eat thatCadbury's nut and um um Cadbury's youknow what's it called nut nuts andwhat's that chocolate bar called umCadbury bar um nuts and raisins and nutsor something that crunchy thing in theremay not be a Brazil nut all right it maybe the skill of a skin of a cockroachthat you're eating so anyway technicallyyou might say that chocolate is uncleanfood all right so I just leave that likecheerful thought you can wrestle withyour consciences later about that allright but um anyway but after the counilof Jerusalem the judaizers followed Paulon his missionary Journeys um to insistthat what the Council of Jerusalem haddiscussed was actually decided wasactually Incorrect and that you did needto be circumcised and Paul gets so upsetwith his Juda eyes in Galatians 5 hesays as for these guys who insist oncircumcision he says I wish they go thewhole way and just emasculate themselvesyou know he he's you can sense thefrustration that wherever he goes andplants new churches that that these guyscome along and insisting on circumcisionand they're wrecking what the work thatPaul has done out in the mission fieldso um Paul went further than theJerusalem Council by allowing those withstrong faith to eat food offer to Idolsin First Corinthians 8 so it's reallyinteresting Paul argued in the JerusalemCouncil that we do not need to becircumcised okay but in in Acts chapter16 the first thing he does is goes andcircumcises Timothy and the Council ofJerusalem said um Christians are notsweet food offered to Idols but in 1Corinthians 8 Paul allows for that okayand so it's is what you see here is likea is like a development of Christianthinking because the New Testamentwasn't written in a seminary the NewTestament these are letters written inthe Heat and the emergency of missionand as they're growing as they'reconnecting with with unreached peoplesso the holy spirit is growing the earlyChurch's understanding of of the God'sWill and how God works among the Lost uhwhich is why I said earlier as we engagein Mission as a congregation we grow inour understanding of how God works todayand so if if we want to grow as a churchin our understanding of God and hiswonder and his grace and his Beauty getinvolved in Mission okay because that'swhere you start to see God working inNew and incredible ways and if God lovesum all people on Earth he's not willingthat any should perish then that is thespirit that we're asking God to give ushere tonight as well so um we the finalpoint there is is that the church um inJerusalem initially ministered to theJewish community of modern day Palestineor Israel but there Then followed afterthe Apostle Paul an influx of Gentilesinto the church so it was then a mixedChurch By the time of the act of theJerusalem Council but by about the thedestruction of Jerusalem in ad70 thechurch was overwhelmingly Gentile and itwas ministering primarily to GentileBelievers across the Roman Empire anddown in Ethiopia and stretched Androssinto to India whether is it St Thomas orSt Bartholomew went to India and soforth so the the gos the apostles weregoing out but it does appear that withinthe early church uh that the the ethnicJewish components of the church kind offaded away over the first two to threecenturies and the church wasoverwhelmingly um Gentile even though itwas founded by Jesus Christ who himselfwas Jewish and and so that's how youknow the church kind of evolved in thefirst few years so we need to askourselves tonight what experience shouldwe seektonight and I've just put up there onthe screen there just the comparisonbetween Jerusalem andAntioch and if you just look at thescreen there look at look at thecharacteristics of Jerusalem theTheology and practice focused on thepast it's passive it reacts to externalinfluences um it's defined theologicallyby the past the leaders remain in onespot um we're anxious about taking riskswe're careful about guarding certainboundaries theological boundaries um HowWe Do Church boundaries whether we startat a certain time or not how we dothings in the Lord's supper we'reanxious about guarding those boundarieswe're focused on consolidation often aconsolidation of power within anyaverage congregation you've got two orthree powerful families and oftentimesthose families don't want the church togrow because if it did they would losetheir power and influence so everybodysays we'd like to grow but they reallydon't want it to grow because then powerand influence gets diffused with the newBelievers uh the uh the Jerusalem styleChurch um may be focused on the Torah umwith dominant role for obedience to theTorah and um they're reluctant to crossboundaries or Frontiers so um they maybe reluctant to say hey let's have aMinistry to the homeless let's have aMinistry to the drug users let's have aMinistry to whatever it is becausesomehow they they they they hurt thepurity of our church if people fromthose communities come into our churchon a Sabbath morning um they tend to beethnically homogeneous and they're kindofinstitutionalized that's one kind ofchurch experience we may have today andthe honest truth is is that everyAdventist congregation that I've seenhas elements of the Jerusalem experienceand elements of the antiochianexperience within it and to and the tothe extent that the church will grow isI just want to encourage those churchesto to shift as much as possible to theantiochian experience rather than theJerusalem experience so the antiochianexperience as Theology and practice isfocus on the future that is what God isgoing to do in the future in north inNorthern Washington DC like we're not somuch interested in what he did in thepast we know the heroes of faith for thelast 50 years but we're now focused onwhat God is going to do in the burntMills parts of this country in the next2 or three years that's what our focusis going to be and we're looking forthat in our congregation um we'reactively um seeking to influence ourcommunity we're not just going to sitand hunker down and circle the wagonsand say we're just going to wait waitedout till Jesus comes again that's oneway to do it or we can say we're goingto be a light on a hill we're going tobe the salt of the earth we're going tobe a blessing to this community so ifthis church were to ever close the wholeCommunity would know that something goodhad left theircommunity and we want to get to thatplace as a local church do we not wherethe poor the hungry the homeless theoutcast the marginalized know that thatparticular congregation is a Beacon ofHope and love for that community and ifthat church would to disappear theneverybody would be grieving in theirhearts cuz they recognized that was aForce for good in this community umwe're defined theologically by thefuture and so but what I mean by that isum some people live in the shadow ofCalvary and Calvary is getting furtherand further into the past and somepeople CH choose to live in the everincreasing light of the second coming ofJesus which means for instance a puttingaway of sin in our midst okay the thepre-advent Judgment going on in Heavenabove we don't talk about it much thesedays that implies that we are puttingaway sin in our midst that we areforgiving one another that we're notcarrying burdens or grudges against oneanother that we are living the gospel inour midst so people see we truly loveone another and they're drawn to thatlove because this world is so full ofpolarization and hate so we are drivenby the by the we are we are living inthe ever increasing Lights of the secondcoming rather than the ever in the everlengthening Shadows of Calvary um wesend our leaders out asmissionaries so you you might say ifyou're going to be on the church boardyou need to lead one person to Jesusevery year just think if you'd had thatall right CU those are the leaders theones who actually engaged in Mission wholove their neighbors who are working andlaboring for Souls those are the peoplewho genuinely care for growing God'sKingdom in this part of the world so umwilling to take risks you know you knowthese days if I put on Facebook I likeapples oh boy somebody's going to sayyou like apples well about oranges ohyou'rebananaphobia frop phobic all right sothese days you can't say anythingwithout people hating on you is thatright yeah it's true so a church that isthat is willing to make an impact is achurch that's willing to take risks forGod's kingdom and to do things that maythey're not um heretical but they'recertainly um uh hetero practical I'm I'mtrying to think of the word pass you mayhelp me here there's orthodox authorpratice so hetero practical heteropratice is is new practice that is stillconsistent with the scripture it's justnew ways of doing things um it's achurch that's focused on Mission it's achurch that's focused on Grace theexperience of Grace and uh because whenGod's grace covers you and overflows youand and you kind of swimming in God'sgrace that Grace can then flow throughyou to those around you and so whenpeople experience God's grace it's abeautiful thing which is why in theLord's Supper we don't have it in theJewish sedal you would have the bitterherbs representing slavery in Egypt andthat would then be replaced by drinkingthe grapejuice and that that that that tasteSensation from bitterness to to Silkysweetness illustrates the experience ofGrace so if you want to know what Gracefeels like go home tonight and drinksome you know a spoonful of salt waterthen take a glass of of Welch's grapejuice and the difference in the taste iswhat you got in the Lord's supper or thethe first the Jewish Passover meals is ait's a tangible expression of HowWonderful Grace tastes like what itreally feels like so um we're eager tocross boundaries with ethnically diverseand a dynamic movement so those areevery church has elements of Jerusalemwithin it and every church has elementsof Antioch in it would you agree withthat tonight yes and it's up to us as achurch whatever Church We call we callour home congregation to say okay wehave something of Jerusalem in us wehave something in Antioch in us how canwe kind of shift that scale bit by bitso that we're more antiochian ratherthan Jerusalem because we want to be agrowing Church rather than anInstitutional church we want to be aforward-looking church rather than achurch just circling the wagons we wantto be a church that is a light on a hillthat cannot be hid rather than a churchwhere if the lights went out nobodywould notice okay so we all have thatchoice to make as a local congregationand we see these two examples for us inthe life of the early church so we comeon like motives for Mission like why arewe doing this anyway so there's avariety of of biblical reasons that weyou may adopt for why we engage inMinistry and Mission To The Lost and theunreached around our community so thefirst as you might say the conversionmotive that is we want to get peoplesaved for the kingdom of God theevangelicals tend to focus on that andemphasizes making a personal decisionfor Jesus Christ but what this does isit Narrows the kingdom of God down tothe number of Saved Souls that's kind ofthe the part of the problem with justthe conversion motive then we have theeschatological motive the aerologicalmotive uh this is kind of Adventist youmight say we point Believers to thesecond coming which is good and rightand necessary but the tendency is whenwe just look at the second coming wedon't we forget about or ignore currentinjustices in our society today becausewe say why am I going to fix theinjustices of today because Jesus iscoming it's all going to be fixed anywaylet's just get people ready for thesecond coming of Jesus so um in a senseI'm not arguing that one is good or badjust if you have a primarilyeschatological motive for for winningpeople for Christ then you tend to turna blind eye to the injustices thatpeople are experiencing today in anysociety and so then you have the churchplanting motive again you might havesome some Evangelical some Baptists andmethodists um from the last 200 yearsthe focus there is on buildingcongregations it goes beyond theconversion motive it's the churchplanting motive um and so you're lookingto build new congregations for God amongbe unreached uh the challenge with thisis identifies the visible church withGod's kingdom and Jesus is quite clearthat he has sheep and other flock thatknow his voice and in Revelation chapter18 when the messages given come out ofher my people out of spiritual BabylonGod has his people even within spirspiritual Babylon almost at the very endof time and so um there's a churchplanting motives so these are goodmotives for Mission and you and I mayhave some element of conversion motiveor an eschatological motive or churchplanting motive well you may have aphilanthropic motive and that means youwork for justice and the alleviation ofhuman suffering today a great example ofthat would be the Salvation Army okaythey're a really good example of the thephilanthropic motion that is we aregoing to feed the hungry we're going toclothe the naked we are going to visitthe the sick in the hospital etc etc andso the philanthropic motive Works to toease human suffering and to pointSociety towards a god a god-basedunderstanding of Justice in society thechallenge with this is it can limitGod's kingdom to social improvements inthis world alone and you forget aboutthe coming of Jesus when all things willbe burnt then everything will be madenew again so in each of Our Lives we wewe each of us myself included we havesome elements of the conversion motivewe have some elements of theeschatological motive for Mission wehave some elements of the churchplanting motive and we have somecomponents of the philanthropic motiveand these are all good motives forMission but I think there are bettermotives for missionand the first is this agapelove self-sacrificing love we are in 2Corinthians 5 we are ambassadors ofChrist that means we represent JesusChrist Jesus is the light of the worldin John 1 but in Matthew 5 we are thelights of the world we represent JesusChrist to a fallen and Dying World soour ultimate motive is that we areconstrained we are compelled by the loveof Christ For Those whom he died to saveso it's not something that we have tothink we're not having to say we need todo Mission because Jesus commanded it nowe want our lives our hearts be so sochanged so that when we look at crowdsas did Jesus our hearts are filled withcompassion for those who have noShepherd and it's an instinctive part ofwho we are and maybe God needs to softenmy heart a bit maybe he needs to softenall of our hearts a bit so that we havethat overflow of agape love for ourbrother and our sister in need you knowwhen I was a young man back in the mid1980s that kind of dates me doesn't itum that remember the the the um uh BobGeldof that that English rock singerthey did the live a series for forEthiopia there was a big big famine inEthiopia 1984 1985 and over a millionpeople on the verge of dying ofstarvation and so a bunch of Englishrock stars put together this big liveconcert called live a Wembley concert inBritain and it was the biggest singlebiggest televised event in human historyup until that time and all these rockstars sang their top hits in order toraise money for the lost and as I waswatching this um this I was like 10 atthe time uh this this verse came to mindit says how does God's love abide inanyone who has the world's good and seesa brother or sister in need and yetrefuses to help 1 John chapter 3 andverse 17 so here I was as a Christiansitting at the looking at these rockstars thinking you Godless individualsyet they were demonstrating moreChristian love than I was as a youngChristian so I realized in thatmoment that if I profess to be afollower of Jesus Christ I need God togive me a heart of agapelove so I'm not engaging in Ministry tomy neighbor because I want to plant achurch or because I want to get seesomeone saved and get you know kind of aa notch on my belt as it were oranything like that I am constrained bylove for the for the L lost because theF awaiting them is far worse I that Iwould than I would hope for myself orfor anybody else I I serve you because Ilove youperiod another motive that is acceptablein thegospel is Matthew 28 verses 18 through20 now there are actually Four versionsof the Gospel Commission in the in thegospels and the book of Acts and we'reall very familiar with this passage hereat least I hope we are Jesus says um allauthority in Heaven and Earth has beenbeen given to me go therefore MakeDisciples of all Nations baptizing inthem in the name of the father of theson and of the Holy Spirit and teachthem to obey all things that I havecommanded you and remember I am with youalways even to the end of the age and inthis version of The Gospel commissionJesus commands us to make disciples ofall peoples and a disciple is notnecessarily someone who is on the churchbooks a disciple is somebody who obeysthe teachings of Jesus according to thisgospel Commissionand we can't ask other people to obeythe teachings of Jesus if we're notobeying the teachings of Jesus ourselvesand so I want to encourage you tonightas a disciple of Jesus Christ notnecessarily as a member of a certainchurch but as a disciple of Jesus Christevery day to read a short teaching ofJesus and ask the holy spirit for wisdomto how do I apply his teachingstoday and even if you just did one versea day you do that for 365 days for oneyear and your life will be transformedtotallytransformed I've met people who arenon-christians who know the Bible thegospels better than many Adventists doit's because they're searching fortruth so I want encourage you tonight ifwe to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ itmeans that when people see us they mustsee Jesus Christ so put into practicethe teachings of Jesus in your dailylives okay reader saying blessed are thepeacemakers for they shall be called thechildren of God from there and theBeatitudes blessed are the pure in heartfor they shall see God for instanceblessed are those who mourn for theyshall be comforted and so forth andthese These are deceptively simple yetprofound teachings of Jesus Christ so ifyou get nothing else from tonight I wantto challenge you to do this one thingfrom this day forward every single dayread a simple teaching of Jesus in themorning and ask the holy spirit to guideyou as to how you're going to put thatinto practice through the rest of thatday and as you do thatthe holy spirit will change your heartand you will start to look at Humanitythe way that Jesus does and the way thatJesus did so we are to make disciples ofall people teach him to obey all thingsthat he's commanded you and we're tobaptize them in the name of the fatherSon and the Holy Spirit now that's atheological concept I want to give you aslightly different take on it tonight umthe we we're to baptize in the name ofGod God's um glory is his name and God'sglory is his character so if you baptizepeople into the character of God and Godis agape love God is love it means thatum when you baptize somebody you'resaying that the love of God is going topenetrate every aspect of yourbeing when you go under that water it'snot just in the name of the father Sonand the Holy Spirit it means the agapelove of God is now going to penetrateevery aspect of your being when you comeup from that water the agape love of Godhas touched every painful spot in yourlife every dirty spot in your life everyshameful spot of your life and he startstarting the washing awayprocess so when you were baptized youwere baptized into the character ofGod and that character of God is is likean ocean and I'm like a GL I'm like apee you might say as I'm baptized intothat ocean and come up my old self diesI die to my old way of living I come upto newness of life it is new preciselybecause the love of God has touched thatbitterness I keep in my heart fromsomething that happened in my childhoodor the anger that resides in my my heartbecause of an injustice I experienced atwork or the rage I feel in my heart towhat happened in my divorce or you thelist can go on and on and on okay so tobe baptized in the name of the fatherSon and the Holy Spirit means that thelove of God has touched and started thewashing away process of those pains ofthe past and replace them with somethingthat is beautiful and healthy andwholesome that's the first gospelcommission the second gospel commissionis slightly different if you have yourBibles with you I invite you to turn toit it's in Luke24 and the emphasis here is not so muchon making disciples but there's anotheraspect of the Gospel commission hereLuke 24: 44 through47 and it saysthere um let's just read verse46 and he said unto them thus it iswritten that the Messiah is to sufferand to rise from the dead on the thirdday and that repentance and forgivenessof sins is to be proclaimed in his nameto All Nations beginning beginning fromJerusalem so the First Gospel commissionis to make disciples of all people thatis where to follow the teachings ofJesus the second gospel commission isthat we are to Proclaim um forgivenessof all sins in the name of Jesus Christand calling people torepent that God is offering you fullforgiveness and in a world whereeverybody wants to be a victim based onsomething that happened in the past andwe we'll seek to approve victimhood umlike points you might say in societyum forgiveness is something that isalmost unique to the Christianexperience like in the Middle East todayyou hurt me I hurt you back you hurt meback I'm obliged to hurt you again andyou have these never- ending cycles ofviolence and nobody wins everygeneration there is blood letting we seeit right now in thenews forgiveness is something that isunique to the Christianfaith and the gospel Commission in Luke24 is that we are proclaiming repentanceand forgiveness forgiveness for all sinsin the name of JesusChrist the idea that you can be free ofall guilt from the past is just abeautiful concept you don't have tocarry the existential guilt of whatsomeone somewhere did in your historicalpast and what you did in your life Godis offering you a new beginning there isrepentance and forgiveness in the nameof Jesus Christ the third gospelcommission is found in John chapter 20may you want to turn to it there in yourBibles and so even though we're familiarwith Matthew 18 there's actually fourversions of the go of the Gospelcommission that we find in the teachingsof Jesus John chap 20: 21-23 and it saysthere Jesus said to them again peace bewith you as the father has sent me so Isend you when he had said this hebreathed on them and said to themreceive the Holy Spirit if you forgivethe sins of any they are forgiven themif you retain the sins of any they areretained so in this version of TheGospel commission Jesus um offers thepromise of the Holy Spirit andforgiveness for allsins now have you ever been accused ofsomethingunjustly if you've been accused of doingone thing unjustly how does that makeyoufeel you makes you kind of feel maddoesn't it that your reputation has beenhurt in society that all over theInternet you known as being like acriminal or something like that and yetwhen Jesus went to Calvary he bore allof our guilt and all of our shame it's awonder he even made it to Calvarycarrying that much shame and guilt andanguish but part of the Gospelcommission is that God will give thepromise of the Holy Spirit andforgiveness for all sins who accept thePeace of JesusChrist forgiveness and the gift of theHoly Spirit the promise of the holyspirit is essentially saying that I Godwill will recreate you in my image andI'll give you a new character I'll washaway the works of the flesh I'm going togive in your life life today a harvestof beauty known as the Fruit of theSpirit and the final gospel commissionthat we have is an acts is an Actschapter 1 and verse8 it says and you will be my Witnessesit says verse 1 and verse 8 acts 1 andverse 8 Jesus says but you will receivepower when the Holy Spirit has come uponyou and you will be my Witnesses inJerusalem in all Judea and Samaria andto the ends of the Earth and so part ofthe this other um version of The GospelCommission is that you and I are to bewitnesses to the resurrection of JesusChrist and that word witness is is alegal term the word is martus we get theword martyr from that and we think thata Marty is somebody who dies for theirfaith is that right sobody please sayyes yes okay but that is not what amartyr is in the New Testament a martyrin the New Testament is someone wholives for their faith up to an includingthe point ofdeath it's easy to die for your faithit's harder to live your faithbecause when you have to live your faithyou have to live with social rejectionand persecution and ostracism and cancelculture and so a living witness is one awitness to the resurrection of Jesus inthose days it was if you if you testifythat Jesus is Lord for the Romangovernment you were thrown to the Lionsor you'llbeheaded and that was the consequence ofbeing a witness to the resurrection ofJesus as king Yus curios Jesus is isLord the the the Romans would say Kaisercuos Caesar is Lord and the Christianswould say yesus curios that means Jesusis Lord he's the Risen one not theemperor of Rome and when you said thatyou were you were condemned to die inthe arena so when Jesus says you'regoing to be witnesses to theresurrection of Jesus Christ he's sayingthat when when everything is on the linewhen your job your career your licenseyour professional work your your socialstatus when everything is on the lineyou are not going to deny your faith inme because people then see thatChristianity is worth something it's notjust a a jacket you put on in themorning and take it off in the eveningit's who you are you can't deny who youare so what what would our Proclamationbe we're coming to the end here I knowit's 5: to 9: and we all want to gethome and thank you for coming outtonight so what would our Proclamationbe we've we've looked at the Jerusalemantioc experience we've looked at someum possible motives for Missions whichwere really not that good we looked atsome versions of the Gospel commissionso if we would look at what ourProclamation would actually be that'snot that hard to figure out number onethat Jesus is the Divine Son of God heis not merely a teacher such a prophetas the Muslims say that is Muhammad he'snot just a leader such as Moses and he'snot just a Lesser God such asShiva he is the Divine Son of God he isunique among all the gods there's nobodyhas the attributes or characteristics orqualities of Jesus of Nazareth he's nota demigod he's not a created being he isintrinsically Divine he is without beinghe is Without End and uh he is not ahuman figure such as Muhammad uh he'snot a leader such as Moses a lawgiverand he's not a Lesser God like Ganesh orVishnu or Shiva there is somethingunique about Jesus Christ and his whathe says about himself mean he is eitherwho he is who he says he is or he's aMadman there's no halfway house youcan't say Jesus is an exalted teacher umas some people say today when Jesus saidto the disciples who do men say that Iam Matthew 16 and Peter says well somesay you're Elijah come back Elijah someyou're John the Baptist come back fromthe dead some say you're the prophet tocome and the point about this is it'seasy to hide behind what other peoplesay about Jesus but then Jesus turns toPeter and says but who do you say that Iam and that's where the rubber meets theroad it's easy to have an exalted ideaof who Jesus is Elijah John the Baptistback from the dead the prophet who is tocome and to be completely wrongwhat matters is whether we confess theDivinity of JesusChrist and so our Proclamation iscenters around the Divinity of JesusChrist in the first century ad and inthe second century they had a majorheresy in the church known as gnosticismand it was one of these mysteryreligions and what they would said theywould argue about the Divinity and thehumanity of Christ they essentially saidthat when Christ came he was divine buthe was nothuman and these days we've just reversedit these these days the world says Jesusyes came in the physical form he washuman but he wasn't Divine we justreversed theproblem okay but the essential questionStill Remains who is JesusChrist in the first century they deniedhis humanity and in the 21st century wedeny his divinity but we emphasize theother in each of those centuries and sobut we still have to face the questionwho is Jesus Christ that is the heart ofthe matter and I would say that what ourprocl centers on the Divinity uh ofJesus Christ as the Divine Son of Godsecondly our Proclamation is that Jesusis the unique source of life andsalvation and people need to know abouthim that he he has something on offerthat nobody else has tooffer okay he is outside of time andhistory in the beginning God created theheavens and the earth I mean it's abrilliant statement by Moses you know itwas there was a time before Einsteinwhere we thought that time went fromleft to right and at some point in timethere was a big bang explosion and timeand matter came into existence and nowwe know after Einstein that time matterand space are not separate but they'reinterl they're bound up together youcan't have time with without matter andspace you cannot have matter withoutspace and time you cannot have time uhmatter without space without matter andtime and so that's why we now have likethis the theory of relativity whereeverything is bound up like a ball ofwool rather than like a linearprogression of time with time and spaceand matter coming into existence at acertain point known as The Big Bang andso what Genesis 1 verse one it says inthe beginning that's time God createdthe heavens that is space and the earththat is matter you have time space andmatter in Genesis 1:1 and God is outsideof them it's profoundlybrilliant and what Moses wrote 4 and ahalf thousand years ago we just startingto catch up now and understand that whathe was saying was profoundly truethese simple words were were brilliantway ahead of their time and Jesus Christtherefore is the unique source of lifeand of human salvation and people needto know about him thirdly Jesus offers aunique salvation by grace throughfaith I just want to talk about this fora couple of seconds I spoke about thisat Village Church a few weeks ago we didum uh Jesus and wholesome sexualityprogram for a whole week and uh and I'vebeen looking at like the process ofsalvation for the last like two weeks isjust reading and studying it and I wantto know like how is a man saved that'san important question to know how do youknow if you're saved who has theAssurance of Salvation because there'sso many arguments out there and there'sso many positions out there and you knowI came to the conclusion that thatchildren's song Jesus loves me this Iknow for the Bible tells me so is aboutas good an answer as you're going to getthis side of Eternity but what we dofind particularly in Romans chapters 5-8or 3-8 is that we are saved when wereceive the right n of Jesus Christ byfaith and it is a gift of a gracious Godand the conversion is a gift from Godand the confession and repentance aregifts from God and the faith you exhibittowards Jesus isn't in itself a giftfrom God but we are saved when wereceive by faith the gift of Salvationand the righteousness of Jesus Christand we are not saved by us being 100%obedience to the law we are saved by thePerfection of Jesus Christ and that iswhy so many of us as Adventists have noAssurance of Salvation because we thinkthat when I I lived a sinful life I gotbaptized God's grace saved me fromeverything back then but how do I remainsaved we think if I if I'm 100% umcompliant to the Ten Commandments if Ioccasionally sin God will Top it up witha bit ofGrace and because we know we're Sinnerswe are always plagued by I'm a sense I'mnot saved and we forget that we aresaved when we receive the righteousnessof Jesus Christ by faith on a dailybasis and we ask God to give us the mindof Christ on a daily basis so that westart to think his thoughts and hischaracter overturns our character andthat is the process of sanctification soin a sense we are once saved and dailysaved as Adventists as we a wait thecoming of Jesus Christ so Jesus is aDivine Son of God he is he is the uniquesource of life and salvation he offers aunique salvation by grace through faithand he offers a universal salvation itis all inclusive and exclusive in natureit is inclusive that is God is notwilling that any should perish but thatall should receive eternal life we knowthat and it is exclusive in nature inthat Jesus has say Jesus says no mancometh to the father except through meand that is why Jesus is so hated todaybecause of the exclusive nature of hisclaim to be the way to life now thatfrom a mological perspective you knowlittle little Muhammad who dies at theage of eight in a road accident in jedawho's never heard the name of Jesus ishow is he going to be saved goodquestion yes well when I walked into thechurch here today I didn't say to thepastor when I walked in um can I take alook at your foundations please Iassumed this building had foundations isthat right Pastor there are foundationshere have you ever seen the foundationsno but you assume they're here yes okayso what makes this building possible arethefoundations whether you see them or notthe foundation makes everything elsepossible and that is the death of Christon Calvary whether you know about itwhether you've seen it whether you areconsciously aware of it that Foundationis there foreverybody and then on the day ofjudgment as Paul says in Romans Chapter2 for those who have not heard thegospel how does God those Jud judgethose such little Muhammad well eitherthat the thoughts of their consciencewill either accuse them or excuse themthat is God knows whether people livedin the light that they had through theirHoly Spirit in their conscience and solittle Muhammad May indeed be savednever never having heard the name ofJesus because the foundation is thedeath of Christ on Calvary that makes itpossible then God judges him accordingto his knowledge and the light that hehad so Jesus offers an all-inclusivesalvation that is exclusive in naturethat's what makes him so hated by manypeople today because um he's exclusivein the Salvation that heoffers so inconclusion I come back to that Meme ofmine from the very beginning here I'm amissionary and where do you see yourselfin thatpicture we talked about models forMission and for Mission and what wemight Proclaim as missionaries and as weshare the good news um you may seeyourself as Indiana Jones in the topright of that top left of that picturethere and that there may be times whenyou're called upon to be like IndianaJones there are times when you're in thebottom middle and you've got Deni feveror malaria and just plowing through themuck okay missionaries go through thatas well you live in the midst of Ebolafor instance in West Africa that is whatmany missionaries do go through um notmany missionaries experience the toright sensation of lying on a hammockall day I think the biggest problem thatpastors have is actually burnout ifanything else uh around the world it's acommon feature for pastors burnoutbecause they work way too long but atthe end of the day I hope that each ofus see us in that bottom right cornerthere that we are building intentionalfriendships of love and mutual respectwith our neighbors regardless of theirbackground in order that the gospelmight flow through us as it flowsthrough us they know they Trust thatbecause we have their best interests atheart that what we share is somethingworth listening to so as individuals andas a congregation I just want toencourage you and challenge you tonightto follow the the model of Antiochrather than the model of Jerusalem andto be very clear about the gospel thatyou prepare and the gospel you presentyou may want to prepare for yourself agospel presentation in 30 seconds canyou give a gospel presentation in 30seconds if you had to give a gospelpresentation in one minute what wouldyousay prepare it know it know what youwould say know what text you'd use andbe prepared and ask God to give youthose moments when you can share thatgospel presentation wherever you may beand so may God bless us as acongregation may God lead us with hisHoly Spirit and may God give us anopportunity to be an antiochian churchthat grows and thrives rather than aJerusalem Church that kind of circlesthe wagons and ultimately Fades away toinsignificance the choice is ours isn'tit the choice is ours so let's see howGod leads in the future so why don't weclose tonight with um a sing of hym ofoptimism marching to Zion I think it'shimym number422 and um if we may stand for his finalhymn and brother Dan uh brother o willlead us in the singing of this I make ajoyful not a harmonious noise of theLord and then we will close with abenediction thank you Pastor appreciatethat let us Stand Together As we singOur closing himym 422 marching to Zion[Music]422 comewith love the Lord and let our Jo beknown join s with ACC join in a songwithand theone and around the thr oh we'reMaring toZion beautiful beautifulZ marching upward to Heavenly Zion thebeautiful city ofGod let thoserefus to sing who never knew ourGod but children of the Heavenly Kingthe children of the heaven Kingmaymay oh whereMar to Zbeautiful beautifulZion we're marching upward to Heaven Zthe beautiful city ofGod the hill of Zion Hills a thousandsaet before we re the Heavenly fieldbefore wethe heavy field or walk the CEST streetsor walk the golden streets oh weMaring toZion beautiful beautifulZion we're marching up to Heavenly Zionthe beautiful city of Godthen letour and every tear bedry we're Maring through Emmanuel'sground we're Maring through 's groundto World on high to Fair World on highoh whereMaring toZion beautiful beautifulZion where marching up to Heavenly Zionthe beautiful city ofGod our eyes are closed and our headsare bowed indeed father we're marchingto Zion and father we look forward tothat city where the streets are pavedwith gold where the gates are of Pearland Lord where every tear will have beenwiped away and his death and disease andsorrow are no more and father as we lookforward to that Glorious Day May It BeOur privilege and our joy and ourgifting and our leading from your spiritthat as many people as possible fromthis part of the world join us on thosestreets of gold so father give us a lovefor our neighbor that we've never hadbefore uh May the love of Jesus so Changus and Empower us that we see the crowdsaround us with nothing but thecompassion that Jesus had father Maythere be less of us and more of you ineach of our characters and lives fromthis day forward and dismiss us now withyour blessing as we return to this houseof praise and prayer tomorrow may wecome with Thanksgiving and praise on ourlips in jesus' name we prayamen you all may beseated thank you Pastor Conrad formessage this evening we look forward totomorrow'smessage uh as we uh head on home thisevening please get a good night's restwe want to see you bright and earlytomorrow morning at 9:15 as we begin ourSabbath School class and a song serviceand those that are watching online wewill again stream around 11 o' for thosethat joining us online have a goodevening and have a good night to restand happy Sabbath to all of you andwe'll see you tomorrow morning God blessyou