Sermon Transcript
Hope you’re in a great frame of mind as we come back to our discipleship series, Be One, Make One. And if you brought a Bible, I want to invite you to just open it up and turn to Acts chapter 11. We’re going to work from there into a couple other passages. If you didn’t bring along a Bible, the message notes has a few of the passages on it, so you can use those. Hey, let me just say also that in your bulletin this morning, there’s a card.
And this card announces what Lisa announced. It gives you some information about Easter. And so that’s great because it’s a good reminder. But also, we wanted you to have this so that you could hand this out to somebody else. You can invite them to come be a part of our Easter services next week or our Good Friday service.
Over on the table, there’s a whole stack of these cards. So I would encourage you not just to hand out one, but hand out several. And so pick up several of those cards off the table this morning, take them with you, ask God to open a door, and, you know, go through that door and hand this to somebody. There are a lot of people in the community, right, that are open to coming on Easter. They may not come on Palm Sunday, but they might come on Easter.
So, you know, why not make that available to some friends and see what God does in that regard? Well, I want to talk this morning about this matter of the baton that we have in the race that we’re running. Life is, uh, life is like a relay race. So it’s not all about the individual performance, even though individual performance is important even in a relay race, but it’s also about the baton pass. And so, uh, you can go on YouTube and find a clip or two of a relay race.
This is the relay race from The 2008 Munich competition. This is the men’s event, the 4×100 relay. And if you watch closely here, the American team is next to the outside. So you see the guy right there next to the outside in the blue, that’s the American team. But you may be watching some other team right now, I don’t know.
But anyway, watch this. So he’s passed the guy on the outside, they’re in first place until this. And they drop the baton. Watch the finish here. There are only 4 teams that finish.
All the others had a problem on the baton exchange or something else happened back earlier, especially in that 3rd baton pass. They play this back so you kind of get a little better perspective of what happens here. If you’re looking at the next outside lane there, you can see the baton drop, but still, if you didn’t see it, you can see it right here.
And of course, that was devastating because there was a feeling that our American team was going to take the gold medal, and they were out of the competition as a result of the lost baton and not making the handoff. Now, I think that’s a great example for what it is we’re trying to focus on and have been focusing on the past 3 weeks, and today’s the final message in the Be One, Make One series where we’ve essentially, with the discipleship matter, been talking about a baton pass, that we’re involved in trying to get a baton into the hand of another person or other people. And we’re asking ourselves the question, so what is it going to take for us to do that better than we’re doing right now, perhaps? Obviously, we don’t want to drop the baton. Jesus is very interested in us passing the baton.
If you wish, you could see Jesus in the grandstand And even if there’s nobody else in the grandstand, Jesus is there and he’s watching us, not just to see how we’re going to do on our individual run, but also how we’re going to do with that baton pass. Will we make the baton pass? Will we be faithful to do what it is that he’s asked us to do, which is to go and to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teach them to do all that I’ve commanded you. And he said, and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. And so we said, well, let’s think about this using Bridges as an acronym, and let’s focus on 7 essential areas that will help us make successful baton passes.
And we began with the B. What’s the B stand for? Anybody remember? Begin with prayer. So we don’t want to do this in our own power.
We want the Lord to take us wherever it is he wants to take us and open doors. So we begin with prayer. We are, which is reach out to unbelievers. So, part of the discipleship matter concerns the reaching out to the lost world. That’s the going aspect of Matthew chapter 28, verse 19.
So, we reach out to unbelievers. The I is invite others into your life. And so, as we’re reaching out, and we kind of focused on this a couple of the 3 weeks, We also build friendships with people, and we just through this friendship see what God’s going to do. Let’s extend a hand to others, begin to build relationships, and see what will come. Maybe a discipling relationship will develop.
And then the D is determine their need. Where is this person at spiritually? We have to be sensitive to where they are. Maybe they’re not connected to God. Maybe they are connected to God.
Maybe they’re a brand new believer. Maybe they’ve been a believer for a long time. So, we want to consider that. We don’t want to use sort of just this template that, you know, this is what I always do with people when I disciple, but it’s more adjust to the needs of the situation of the relationship. So, that’s the D. And then last week we talked about the G, which is grow them up.
And we talked about how important that is. And we went back on Paul’s first missionary journey and we saw that he went through these cities where actually they persecuted him, they threatened him, and also they stoned him. And Barnabas was a part of this deal as well. And yet he came right back through those cities after all of that happened because growing people in the faith is very, very important. We can’t birth new people in Christ, so to speak, and just let them die.
We’ve got to do what we can to be a part of the growth process. So we looked at that last week. Now I hope as we’ve been looking at this together, some of us have been here all 3 weeks and this being the 4th week. And hopefully we’re making progress. I trust that things are happening.
If you look back over the last 3 weeks, that some progress is being made in your life in these areas. Or let me say it differently. You know, we’re not just trying to gain a bunch of good information. This is great information. So it’s not, though, that we’re just trying to gain only information, but the Christian life is all about what?
It’s about transformation. So it’s the applying of that information, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us so that our lives are transformed. So when we talk about this process, the hope is, is that if we’re a Christ follower, all of us are involved actively in a process of passing the baton. And what we’ve been talking about is just helping us see ways to do that better. So having said that, we’re just going to come back to the last 2 today and finish this off.
And I think these are very important for us to see as well. And I want to come back again to Barnabas and Saul, to the relationship that they shared. I want to draw out of that relationship 5 pictures, if you will. You could call them frames if it was a video and this video only had 5 frames in it. We’re going to look at all 5 of those frames.
And I want you to see the process of discipleship that they shared together, because I think this will be real helpful as we think about another matter related to discipleship. So, if you’ve got a pen out or a pencil and you want to jot down some notes, we’ll put a couple of them up here on the screen for you. But we’re going to go back to Acts, chapter 11, a passage we already looked at where Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch. And when he got to Antioch, he checked out what God was doing there and saw that there were many Gentiles that were coming to faith in Jesus. And he continued to teach them and grow them up in the faith.
And as a result of that, more people came to faith in Christ. And as a result of that, he saw that he had a need. He could not get this job done alone. So Barnabas— we’re picking it up in verse 25— it says Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. The first frame that we need to just remember in this discipleship process is what you see here where Barnabas initiated a relationship with Saul and Saul followed.
So Barnabas initiated, Saul followed. What’s the idea here? Well, if you were with us a couple of weeks ago, you remember that Saul had been basically on the shelf or sitting on the sideline or he was on the bench, but he was not welcome in discipleship circles at this point. You’ll remember that. Even Barnabas early on introduced him to the disciples and all of that, and so he went away for safety.
Keeping for a time. He was possibly in Tarsus for as short as 2 years, but for as long as 8 years. And we don’t know how long it was. All we know is that Barnabas knew that Saul had tremendous potential. And so when there was a need in the growing church in Antioch, Barnabas went down and found Saul.
He initiated a relationship. So we’re right back to this I here. And Saul took Barnabas up on his invitation to come with him over to Antioch and be a part of the ministry that was taking place there. All I want us to see again is that if we’re going to be involved with others, we’ve got to take the initiative. The second matter here is that he brought him to Antioch, and the reason that he brought him to Antioch was to be an assistant to him or to assist him in the ministry that was being done there.
So, the second frame I want you to see here is Barnabas taught. As Saul assisted. Essentially, Barnabas was in a teaching ministry. He was shepherding the people in Antioch. He knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he asked Saul to join him.
Saul came and joined him, and no doubt at the beginning of this joining in the ministry, he was proving himself. He was demonstrating faithfulness and hopefully building trust in the people. So if you know Saul’s past, you know that this was a guy that was not trusted. And through an assistant kind of ministry, no doubt, he would be able to establish some kind of credibility. I don’t know how long that assistant went like that, but what I do know is that we jump quickly to this next frame, which is Barnabas taught and Saul taught.
And so you see in verse 26 that it says this, so for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church, and they taught great numbers of people. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. What’s taking place here? Well, there’s a growing sense of accountability, I guess you could say, but there’s a growing sense of responsibility where now you’ve got 2 teachers. So it’s no longer just who?
Barnabas. But now it’s also Saul who’s teaching these new disciples in Antioch. And what’s interesting is that the impact of their ministry had such an impact, or the ministry had such an impact in Antioch that these new disciples are now called— do you see it? They’re Christians. So this is the first time Christians is actually used in the Scriptures.
They’re called Christians. And what’s a Christian? It’s a little Christ. So their lives are being transformed in such a way that the others who were labeling them saw them as little Christs. They were manifesting the same kind of qualities that Christ had manifest.
So you have this all developing as a result of this teaching transformation ministry that’s taking place in Antioch. But again, in this discipleship process, it didn’t all just happen at one time. There was initiation to start a relationship. Saul came to Antioch and He assisted Barnabas, and then he took on teaching responsibilities. Now look at verse— or chapter 13 and verse 1 with me.
Go on over to chapter 13. We’ll jump around just a little bit here this morning. Chapter 13, verse 1, it says, in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. So we’re talking about the same church. And then it gives us a list of some of these prophets and teachers, evidently.
Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Let’s just stop there for a minute. Who’s first on the list? Who’s first on the list? Barnabas.
Who’s last on the list? Saul. I think that’s fascinating, quite frankly, because I think, again, it’s demonstrating this discipleship process. Discipleship doesn’t happen in one frame. Discipleship is something that happens in process over a period of time.
And it’s not, you know, accidental that the Scriptures are giving us up to this point in time Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, and Issylus now has Barnabas and 3 others and then Saul, but all of them were involved in a teaching ministry there. So, there’s a developmental process that’s taking place, but keep on going. Look at verse 2. And while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, and again, here it is, first Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. Go down to verse 4.
The 2 of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit— so the Holy Spirit calls them out, they leave the church at Antioch. They were sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, and they went to Seleucia, which is a seaport near Antioch. And then they sailed from there to Cyprus. And we saw a map of this last week. Cyprus is an island about 100 miles away By the way, he didn’t mention this last week, but Cyprus is the place where Barnabas was from.
And I think it’s fascinating that when God took these 2 teachers out of the church at Antioch and decided that they needed to have a bigger or a more widespread ministry, that he first took them to Barnabas’ homeland. It’s almost like another one of these examples in Scripture where God cares about your family. God cares about your home. He cares what’s going on there, and he gave them the opportunity to go to Barnabas’ home and minister on that island. So when they arrived, it says, at Salamis, a city there, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.
And notice the they, so both of them are teaching. John was with them as their helper. There was a third person along, John Mark. We’ll talk about him in a minute. But keep on going, because if you go on down in the passage to verse 6, you’ll see that they go across the island to Paphos.
And there they met a Jewish sorcerer and a false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer— for that is what his name means— opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, you are a child of the devil, an enemy of everything that is right, You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?
Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun. Who said that? Who said— who made this statement? I mean, this is a pretty bold statement, right?
Who said this? It’s Saul, right? It’s not Barnabas, it’s Saul. And immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. This is Elymas.
And when the proconsul saw what had and he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. And then it says, and from Paphos Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. Now this is the 4th frame in this discipleship development process, and it’s possible, you know, for us to read something like this and really miss what’s happening here. But essentially what you see happening here is this: is now Paul is teaching. Paul is teaching and Barnabas is assisting.
There’s a transition that takes place at this point. You say, how do you see the transition, Dave? Well, go back to verse 9. Saul’s name has changed, right? Do you see it there?
This is the first time that Saul’s name has changed. It’s changed to Paul. So now he’s going to operate by his Roman name. That was his name in Rome, Roman language, but It’s changed to the Roman name, which is going to potentially open up doors to reach the Gentile audience that God has for him to reach. There’s a second matter.
Instead of Barnabas stepping up and becoming the primary spokesperson at this point, Paul— and it’s the first time— Paul is the primary spokesperson. And if you play this out now throughout the rest of Paul’s first missionary journey, and then we can go on the second and third journeys and the journey to Rome. Paul is the primary spokesperson from this point out. So there is a huge change that’s taking place here. It’s not that Barnabas doesn’t teach anymore, it’s just now Paul is pushed to the forefront.
So you’ve got Paul’s name changed, you have Paul taking center stage as the primary speaker, but then also you have another statement. Notice it in verse 13 where it says, from Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed. You think it would have said, had it been saying what it’s been saying all along, Barnabas and his companions sailed. No, it’s now Paul and his companions sailed. And the reason for that is because Paul has assumed new responsibility in this discipleship process.
Now let me show you one more frame. Go to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15, and we’ll pull all this together in just a minute. In Acts chapter 15, you have the Jerusalem Council. So after the first missionary journey ends, there are a lot of questions that are being asked about what must a person do to be saved.
And there’s a big discussion that they have at Jerusalem. They hold the first council. You’ve heard about, you know, church councils throughout history. Well, the first church council was in Jerusalem, and it’s found in Acts chapter 15 where they ask the question, what must a person do to be saved? And they have a dialogue about whether or not they got to keep the law, and they come to some conclusions about that.
And basically, ultimately, they say a person is saved by faith in Christ alone, and they’re not saved by the law. Well, after that council, they sent the apostles out to distribute that information to others. And of course, one of the ones who was distributing that information would have been Paul. Paul and Barnabas. But pick it up in verse 36.
So, we’re after the council, we’re after the first missionary journey, and it says, sometime later, so we don’t know how many months or years or whatever or days, Paul said to Barnabas, sometime later Paul said to Barnabas, let’s go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing. Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with him. But Paul did not think it wise to take him because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, again back to his homeland.
But Paul chose Silas and he left. And if you keep on reading the text, and I’ll just stop there, he chose Silas and he sailed for Syria. So he went off in an opposite direction. What do you have here? You have a 5th frame.
What’s this frame? Paul now initiates the ministry. Paul initiates, and you want to say at this point, and Barnabas followed, but there was such a sharp disagreement that Barnabas didn’t follow Paul anymore. He basically turned the ministry over to Paul completely. He stepped back, and he went a different direction and picked up John Mark, who Paul was not willing to take with him.
I think that’s an interesting play in and of itself, and actually is a demonstration of Barnabas’ desire to disciple a person who still had potential, even when somebody else, in this case Paul, didn’t see his potential. That was just Barnabas. I mean, you know, if you want an example of the person that you want to be, be a Barnabas. Be a person who sees potential in a Saul. That’s sitting in Tarsus and be a person who sees potential in a John Mark who’s sitting on the sideline because he dropped the baton while he was on the first missionary journey.
It’s a great picture, but don’t miss what both of them are after in this point. What are both of them after? By the way, Silas then is the one who ends up following Paul. But what are they both after? They’re after doing the work of ministry, but they’re not going to do the work of ministry— listen— alone.
They’re going to do the work of ministry with somebody else. Do you see it? And they’re going to start all over again in this process of making disciples. So essentially this process is, it’s a baton pass. It didn’t happen in one step.
It happened, we could say, at least in 5 steps. It happened in a process, but it’s absolutely a necessity to pass the baton to somebody else over a period of time in a way that they’re ultimately going to get it. That’s the point. Now, all of us hopefully have said, that’s what I want to do. And essentially, when we do that, we are basically with somebody else, and this is past the stage of information.
We’re with somebody else enlisting, and this is the E, got to have an E here, right? We’re enlisting participation. Okay? We’re enlisting the participation of somebody else in this discipleship matter with us. We’re coming to them and we’re saying, will you join me in the effort that God has for us, and let’s do this together?
But there’s a baton pass gradually over a period of time in this effort. So let’s apply that. If you’re a parent, isn’t this your desire? It’s to pass the baton to your children. It’s to get them involved.
Participating in ways that ultimately is going to build in them responsibility and maturity. Isn’t that truly the case? So, you know, you need to go learn how to make your bed. You need to wash the dishes. You need to take out the trash.
You need to be responsible about doing your homework without me asking you to do that. I mean, what are we doing? That’s, that’s a baton pass. If we’re working with friends, if we’re working with family, whoever it is, We’re just trying to pass the baton. How did the baton pass happen here?
Hey, you want to come and minister with me? Great, thanks. And then there’s some assistance, and then they’re teaching together, and the next thing you know, Barnabas is pushing Paul. And I think this actually happened more organically than anything, but Paul’s stepping to the forefront, and Barnabas is now assisting him as he’s in the forefront teaching. It’s just this gradual baton pass.
And sometimes this can happen with unbelievers. In the first service, Al Krueger was here this morning, and some of you know that Al Krueger is one of our elders. Well, Al Krueger, when he first came to this church, he was not a believer, but he was invited to come to the church and to sing in the choir. Somebody said, hey, we have a choir. I know you enjoy singing.
Would you like to sing in the choir? Now let me ask you a question: is it okay for an unbeliever to sing in a choir? I guess so, because we do it here. In fact, it’s a good thing. And Al’s not the only one who’s come to faith in Jesus as a result of being in the choir.
Somebody invited him, somebody enlisted him into participating in the choir, and as a result of that, over a period of time, he heard about Jesus and he came to receive Jesus as his personal Savior. What was that? Discipleship in the making. And essentially, that’s what you But that’s, that’s what we’re after here, isn’t it? It’s discipleship.
It’s to see people grow up to be responsible, to get off the bench, to mature in their faith. Maybe it’s as a result of participating they change careers. Maybe as a result of participating they begin to serve, whereas before they didn’t serve, they were just basically people that were being served. There are so many wonderful developmental things that can happen if we just get people participating, if we find ways for them to participate. Some of you are thinking right now about some unbelieving friends that possibly could be a part of your life in things that you’re doing right now.
Maybe you have a missional community, and so you invite your unbelieving friends into the missional community to go serve food at St. James Park. Is that okay to invite an unbelieving friend to go serve food at St. James Park? Absolutely. What’s going to happen there? They’re going to be with others that have an interest in caring for the poor and the needy, and perhaps in the context of building a relationship, God will do something life-changing in their heart.
It’s wonderful. Now I want to point out one other matter in this. We, we could easily miss this. We read over it probably every week since we started this study. But if you go back to Acts chapter 13 and verse 2, it says, while they were worshiping the Lord— so this is those teachers, and they’re worshiping God and they’re fasting.
So, I mean, they are totally committed in their faith. And it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said— and I haven’t said anything about the Holy Spirit, so I wanted to come back here and and finish our thoughts with just this focus. The Holy Spirit said this to the church, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And then if you look at verse 4, it says, the 2 of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. The thing I want to point out here is that if we’re not paying attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, we’re not going to see the supernatural work of God in our midst.
We have got to pay attention to the work of the Spirit. And so they were being responsive in their discipling process to the work of the Spirit. So the S here is to submit to the Spirit, is to submit to the Spirit. Now some of us, you know, when you hear that, that’s just like, we don’t talk about that, you know. That’s creepy to me.
Submit to the Spirit. What exactly does that mean? Well, it’s not creepy. It’s, it’s, it is just a work of surrender. I think that’s the best way I could say.
What does submission mean? It just means surrender. It’s a willingness to say to God, Lord, if, if you’re at the church there at Antioch and you’ve got 5 teachers, submitting to the Spirit is saying, okay, Lord, if you want to take 2 of our best teachers, Barnabas and Saul, and you’re going to take them somewhere else, That’s great. We want to support that work. That’s submitting to the Spirit.
Submitting to the Spirit can take place in a variety of ways, but it’s just— it’s a spirit of surrender. And the Apostle Paul learned the importance of that. In fact, on the first missionary journey, he wrote about the work of the Spirit and how important it is that we get in line with the Spirit and what the Spirit wants to do in us and through us. And so in the book of Galatians, he wrote this book while he was on his first missionary journey, which was the result of the Holy Spirit leading them on the journey. And so while he’s on this journey, Paul writes the book of Galatians and he says statements like this with regard to the Spirit.
Are you so foolish? Galatians 3:3. After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? He’s writing to people who think that now that they’re Christ followers, they’re going to make themselves the Christ followers the Lord wants them to be by their own effort. And Paul says, no, no, no, this has to be a work of the Spirit, not a work of the flesh.
It’s not the work of, you know, you trying and trying and trying. It’s going to be the work of the Spirit and you surrendering to the work of the Spirit. A couple chapters later in chapter 5 he says, so I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. If right now you’re struggling, and as I struggle, with the sinful nature, what’s the key to overcoming the sinful nature? It’s to submit to the Spirit.
It’s to live by the Spirit. It’s this surrender. Lord, you gotta take me ’cause I’m not gonna be able to pull this off. Later on in the same chapter, verse 25, he says, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. So if you have the Spirit, you’re living, the Spirit’s living within you, then you walk in step with the Spirit.
And then just before that, he says, and this will be the fruit of the Spirit or the results of the Spirit. You’ll be a person who’s filled with love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now, does that list look good to you? I mean, wouldn’t you like to see that in your relationships?
He’s saying this is the result not of human effort. This is the result of the Spirit. It’s the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruit of the Spirit is the result of being led by the Spirit, living by the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit. So, I wanted to end with this because it would be easy to look at this discipleship process and say, well, that’s just like apprenticeship at work, or that’s just like, you know, mentoring at work.
And we’re all involved, hopefully, in relationships like that in work environments. If you’ve never seen one, go over to Starbucks and watch how they pass the baton to the new workers and how they take them through an essential process. But we’ve got— we’ve got something nobody else has. We’ve got the Holy Spirit. And this process should be driven by the Holy Spirit.
And it will be driven by the Holy Spirit if we surrender to the work of the Spirit. So what I’m saying now is anybody in the room that’s sitting here this morning and saying, I don’t think I can do this disciple-making thing, well, on one hand, you’re right. And on the other hand, we can do this because it’s the work of the Spirit. And the Spirit working through us will direct us and put us where he wants us to be and enable us to do what it is he wants us to do. For instance, Acts chapter 16, the Apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey and he’s trying to figure out Lord, where do you want us to go?
Just maybe like right now, you might be saying to yourself, Lord, what does this mean in my life right now? Who is it that you want me to disciple? Who is it that you want me to pass the baton to? What is it that you want me to do? Well, they had questions like that related to their life and ministry at that point.
And so it says in Acts 16:4, as they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they grew daily in numbers. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia. But then this, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. In their minds, they’re thinking, we’re going to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit intervened and said, no, I don’t want you to go to Asia.
So when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia. Why would they try to enter Bithynia? Because they were thinking, I guess that’s where God wants us. But the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and they went down to Troas.
And during the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. And after Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now what that tells me is that submitting or surrendering to the Holy Spirit and the work that God wants you to do isn’t an exact science, okay? I can’t give you a formula on this. If you’ll just do such and such and such and such, then you’ll always be where God wants you to be.
No, this is just the moment-by-moment result of surrendering to whatever it is that God wants you to do and following his lead. And in that surrender and that willingness to walk in a direction He’ll lead you. He’ll lead you. Pastor Chad Norris, who’s a pastor over on the eastern side of the United States, simply said it this way: the Promised Land becomes visible as you walk toward it. Let me say it again.
The Promised Land becomes visible as you walk toward it. So right now you may not know, as you’re sitting here right now and you’ve been hearing this series for these weeks and you’re saying, I’m not really sure how this is going to apply in my life, that’s fine. As long as you are willing to submit to the Spirit. In fact, in some ways this is like bookends. Do you see the bookends?
These are supernatural bookends, and that’s how we want to see this process of discipleship. The supernatural bookends are you begin with prayer. Lord, I don’t know how this is going to work out in my life, but I’m, I’m available. Open the doors and I’ll walk through the doors. And so you begin, as Chad says here, you begin to walk through these doors But it becomes visible as you walk toward the better future, whatever that better future is that God has for you.
And all the while, here’s the other bookend, it’s a surrender to the Spirit. So let me just give you the most recent example I can of how this transpired in my wife— my wife— my life this week. I went to Chipotle for dinner. Bernice was out of the area, so that’s where I feed myself when she’s gone. Either that or TV dinners.
It’s really good around the Gudgel home when Bernice is gone. And so I went over to Chipotle and I did the normal. You guys have been there, probably just about everybody in this building’s been there. I went in, I got in the line, and it was the usual line where people don’t talk to each other, right? They’re usually looking at their phones.
Nobody’s talking, nobody’s looking at each other. And so I didn’t have my phone out. I looked around, the guy who came up right behind me didn’t have his phone out. And I don’t know why, I just felt a little prompting. And by the way, this is what the Holy Spirit will do.
The Holy Spirit will just give you a prompting. I mean, He may give you a vision. Gave them a vision. But there’s sometimes just a little prompting. It could just be the circumstance.
It just could be availability. So there was just a little prompting, and I think I said something like, it’s nice that the line isn’t too long. Something to that effect. Now that’s unusual, right, to say anything in that line? But I just felt a little prompting, and he wasn’t on a phone, so I said, it’s nice the line isn’t too long.
He responded and he asked me a question. And now we’re off to the races. And essentially the rest of the time of getting up to the counter, we’re now talking to each other, which is really unusual because usually that doesn’t happen, right? How many times you’ve been in Chipotle where people are actually talking in the line, people that they don’t know, right? So now we’re in a conversation.
I get to the counter and he asks me this question, so what do you do? And I said, well, actually I’m a pastor. And he said, well, why you do that? And I’m about ready— the guy’s saying to me, so what do you want? So I turned to him and I said, hey, give me a couple minutes, maybe we can talk about that.
So I’m ordering now, he’s in line, he’s ordering, and we get, you know, I get to the cash register, it’s time for me to check out, and at this point You know, typically what I would do at this point is I’ll pay and then I’m off to the races to get in my car because I’m all alone and I’m going to go home and I’m going to eat in front of the television alone because that’s what guys like me do. Okay? So that’s what I was planning on doing. And I looked at him and he’s still interested, you could see. And I said, so, hey, you want to have dinner together?
On the patio? He said, yeah, that would be great. So now I’m going to have dinner with somebody I don’t know who’s asked me a question. We went out onto the patio, we sat there, and for the next 45 minutes we had a wonderful dinner together. We really did.
And it was fun just to get to know this person, to begin to build a relationship, to find out a little bit about his spiritual beliefs, to find out where he is in this spiritual process. We’re all in a spiritual process somewhere. And at the end of the 45 minutes together, I said, hey, you want to like maybe do this again? And he said, yeah, I would really be interested. I come here a lot.
And I had found out during the dinner that he comes there maybe 3 or 4 times a week, so much more than me, but that doesn’t matter. And so I guess we have an opportunity to get together again and see where this thing might go. By the way, I found out in the conversation that that he’s actually not from here. He’s from Michigan or something like that, which explained to me why he was willing to talk in the line to me, actually. You know, hasn’t been corrupted yet by this, we don’t talk to each other in Silicon Valley in lines, you know, standard that we all abide by here.
Why did that happen? It’s just a prompting. And I honestly believe this, I really do. I believe God wants to use every one of us. And I believe if we will begin with prayer and we will reach out and we will invite people into our life, hey, you want to have dinner?
In that short few minutes together, we got all the way up to D in the sense that I got an understanding spiritually where this person is and have an opportunity now to build a friendship. And that kind of thing isn’t something that just can happen to me. That’s the kind of thing that can happen to every one of us. So if I was going to summarize this whole series, I’d put it under this: you can impact tomorrow by making a baton pass today. And God wants to use every one of us.
If you’re a Christ follower, God wants to use you to make a baton pass today. And we make that baton pass by making disciples. And it’s not something that we can do in our own power. It’s something that God will do through us if we’re available to be used by him. And you might even find yourself having God open doors in Chipotle lines.
It might happen. And you’re going to look back and you’re going to say, that was the work of God. That was the work of God. Well, let’s pray together. Lord, thanks for helping us this morning again.
As we’ve considered this subject, consider it in light of 2 people that had a relationship that tremendous things came out of— Barnabas and Saul. And really, there are all around us Sauls who need a Barnabas. These are people that have tremendous potential. Here in the Silicon Valley, there are so many people that could potentially, through a relationship with you, impact the world. And so I thank you that you’ve placed us here in this place to live and to minister and to love people and to help people wherever they are in their spiritual journey.
And so we pray that you would help us be the representatives that you want us to be and not only run the race well, but also do our best to make baton passes that will help people move toward you and toward a new life now and toward an eternity with you forever.
And I thank you that you’ve made that possible for every one of us through Jesus Christ. And let me just stop just for a moment in this prayer and say If you still have not yet got into the game by becoming a member of Jesus’ family, the Lord longs for that relationship to begin with you, and he invites you into that relationship. But you got to say yes, you want it. We say yes by faith. We say yes by belief.
Bible says that if you will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. And so our encouragement and hope for you is that you will respond to the Lord as many of us that are sitting in this building already have. We have asked the Lord to save us from our sins and to give us a new life in Christ. And we’ve come to believe that Jesus is the Savior, and we’ve come to believe that with not only our mind, but also our will and our emotions. And we’re growing to become different people, and we invite you into that journey and that relationship.
And if you’re not ready for that, may I just say to you this morning, just at least pray to God something along the lines of, Lord, if this is real, then show it to me. Help me know it so that I can come to believe something that I don’t believe. Right now. And God, thank you that when we come to you in that way, you hear our prayers, you adopt us into your family, and then you don’t abandon us. You help us grow up in you.
And thank you for how you’re growing us even this morning as we have had this time together to sing and to praise you and to encourage each other through your word. May we be the people that you want us to be that bring pleasure to you. And we thank you for the opportunities that are ahead of us and pray that we’ll follow your leading and see you do a greater work in the future than perhaps you’ve ever done through our life, even up to this point in time. And we ask all of this in Jesus’ name, amen. Well, we’re going to have our praise team, our band come back up.
And before we go this morning, we decided that it would be good to make available to you a baton. And the reason is because we want to, as a church family, take greater steps forward in the future in doing this discipleship thing, in making disciples and passing that baton, and not just to one person, but, you know, to person after person after person. And so this morning, I think it would be appropriate to just invite you to make a commitment in that direction. Now, it may be a recommitment. But for some of you it’s going to be a first commitment to say, you know what?
I’m going to be one and I’m going to make one. I’m going to be a disciple who makes disciples. And if that’s the first time that you’ve made that commitment, then that’s great. So, in grabbing one of these batons this morning, this baton can remind you of that commitment to be one and make one. In fact, we’ve put on it, be one, make one.
It may be that you’ve already made that kind of commitment in the past, and this will just be a good reaffirmation or recommitment to be that disciple maker, Lord wants you to be and me to be as well. And so I would encourage you to pick up one of these as well so that we’ve got a visual reminder of what God did in our hearts throughout this series, but especially here at the end. We just have a visual reminder to be a disciple maker, okay? So you can, during this song, come up and pick one of these up. They’re in the boxes up here, or you can After the service, come up here and pick one of these up, but it’s yours as a gift.
Put it somewhere where it will remind you of this responsibility and privilege we have to make disciples, okay, to pass the baton. And we have it in different colors. Somebody came up after the first service and said, you know, that’s the wordless book, the different colors. And so if you want all 5 or whatever, I think— we don’t have white though. So that’s a problem.
But anyway, so we do have some others here. You take your favorite color. If you already got a baton and you didn’t like that color, exchange it, whatever. But we just want to, you know, put something in everybody’s hands that’s willing to receive this as a gift this morning. And let’s let this help us all make disciples in the future in ways that will honor the Lord, okay?
Amen to that. Let’s stand together as we close. And please, as we
