Deuteronomy 30:15-20  (NIV, pg. 292)

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed.  You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The idea of mission is being sent with a message.

God wants everyone to hear the Good News, and the news begins in one particular place with one particular person; Jesus in Israel, that message has to be carried to the rest of the world. 

“I want you to take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Acts 8:1-18 (NIV, pg. 1561-1562)

¹ And Saul approved of their killing him.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  ² Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.  ³ But Saul began to destroy the church.  Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.  ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.  ⁶ When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.  ⁷ For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.  ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria.  He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”  ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.  ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.  ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized.  And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.  ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.

Today’s sermon is about missions.  In Acts this is the first time that the gospel has gone out to the Gentiles.

There are four aspects of this mission in the early church: 1) It was organized. 2) Was an urban people.
3) Embodied in four words how Philip influenced the City of Samaria (word, deed, community, prejudicial reconciliation). 4) Telling what they saw (the gospel message).

They preached the word.  They told people what they had seen and heard and done and what had happened to them.  They told people about Jesus.

All of them went from being ministry consumers to ministry providers.

They began to talk about Jesus, the difference He made and was making in their lives, and they invited people around them to learn what they learned.

Think of the apostles as the experts.  They had been around Jesus, received the Holy Spirit, knew the entire story.  So they went, I suspect, to make sure the gospel was being taught, with sound doctrine.

They (apostles) held the new missionaries to a standard of truth, to do what God led them to do.

The new missionaries become providers of the teaching, providing ministry to the people they were sent to.

They were effective because they were authentic.  They shared what they had discovered.  A layman’s talk often is more effective because it is not polished, but it has the ring of truth and authenticity.

We need missionaries who are willing to go to cities and people like us who have already been planted in a city (Silicon Valley).  We need to be The Church of the Silicon Valley.  I don’t fully know what that means, I believe we have been given special gifts, qualities, and skills that can be used with our own words about how Jesus has changed our life.

Philip went and proclaimed the Christ; he preached the Gospel.

Philip’s ministry is communicating the message of God’s love and hope to the world.  (And also, to the people in our lives.)

Philip helped the people physically heal the cripples and cast out demons and evil, healing the people spiritually.  In superstitious cultures everything is the evil figure, while the culture we live in assumes the devil doesn’t exist, and so all problems are physiological.  Whatever ails us, science has a cure.  Which can be every bit as naïve as a superstitious culture where the devil is behind every sheep death, every bad thing that happens.

I think God wants us to know Him through what He has given us, and the experiences of the followers of Jesus who went before us.

We need to help people with physical and spiritual issues.  Backed up with words and deeds.  This is our testimony that Jesus makes a difference in our life.

Others will see how we try to help others in times of crisis and need, this becomes more attractive, and people become more open to Jesus, which makes us different because Jesus is changing our life.

You will not impact the world by faithfully going to church.  You will impact the world by being the church when you go out into the world.

The community of faith.  A follower makes a commitment to follow Jesus.  They make a mistake; they repent knowing Jesus has taken care of their sins.  This new family holds each other accountable for their deeds and growth.

Prejudicial reconciliation (cultural reconciliation) this is what happened in Samaria.  Philip is sharing the gospel which began breaking down the culture behaviors.  Different cultures began to accept each other.  The gospel began to change the city through words, actions, community, and reconciliation.  “There was great joy in the city.”

Proverbs 11:10  When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

Philip heard and believed that he was called to preach the gospel in another city.  He preached Jesus: (in Him is the way, the truth and the life.)  That salvation comes through Him.  Healing comes from Jesus.  What Christ did for all of mankind on the cross for our sins.  Then we can become right with God.

Colossians 3:17  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

There comes a point were everyone has to choose to follow Jesus or not.  Some have chosen Christ, but haven’t quite committed everything to Him and we are lacking the joy that comes when we have total committed in all areas of our life to Christ.  When that occurs, our hearts will be full of joy.

This week give Jesus the freedom in our lives, allow Christ to work in our hearts, allow that joy to flow in our hearts that becomes the fuel to power our mission work in our lives.  God bless.