The birth of foreign missions is traced through the Book of Acts, beginning with the preparation and witness in Jerusalem, then expanding to Samaria, and finally reaching the Gentile regions beyond. The sermon highlights the transition from Jewish-only evangelism to including Gentiles, exemplified by the church in Antioch where diverse individuals like Barnabas and the formerly enslaved Simeon ministered. It emphasizes that the expansion of the gospel, particularly foreign missions, is initiated and empowered by the Holy Spirit through prayer and fasting, as seen in the separation of Barnabas and Saul for their work. The message concludes by underscoring the ongoing need for prayer, faithfulness, and support for missions as God's program to reach the world.
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I sincerely trust that you have taken the opportunity to visit the bookstore. I try not to forget to remind the Lord's people of the opportunities to get Christian books, tracks, many other items there. I'm sure that The purpose of the bookstore is to make known the truth. And you can be a help in that ministry. I've often said that it's possible to have a good memory, but a short one.
And some folks have asked me for some things, and I do not know just who they were, but I tried to oblige. someone asked me for the outline on the book of James and I have it but I haven't the slightest idea who asked for it now if two people come to me I'll know that one is perambulating around the pole of veracity and it does belong to somebody seriously and Then you remember the little poem that we read at that wonderful birthday and anniversary luncheon we had the other day.
And I was asked for that, and I wrote it out, and that belongs to somebody. Will you claim your belongings, please? The little chart has been... before you. We're not going to say a lot about it. It's our new chart on the dispensations of Scripture, color-coded, six colors, and it comes in this size and in a smaller size that can be folded and put in your Bibles. It is just for the purpose of teaching dispensational truth.
And I think that's foundation truth. I believe that We need a revival of good old dispensational truth. So many have not had those studies in its recent years, and so there it is. Now, if there are those here tonight that are visiting and you have bookstores in your area that are Christian and you're interested in Knowing how to secure those, I can tell you that after the meeting. Now tonight, I'd like you to turn to the Book of Acts.
Tomorrow morning, we'll finish our work with you in the Book of James. We've had a wonderful attendance at those morning meetings, as well as the evening, and we're thankful to you for that. Tomorrow morning we're going to deal with our last verse or two, and then tomorrow night we're going to bring a closing message from this great book of Acts, and we'll be speaking on the Gospel Goes International. And tonight we're speaking on the birth of foreign missions. The book of Acts as I have already indicated to you, is to be divided into four great divisions.
And in the first chapter we have what we may well call preparation for worldwide witness. And that preparation pinpoints itself at verse eight. In verses, excuse me, in chapters two through the fourth verse of chapter eight, you will read, to your delight, the witness of the church in Jerusalem. The gospel in that section is preached at Jerusalem as the center.
Then beginning at verse five of chapter eight through the end of chapter twelve, the witness of the church, that is the preaching of the gospel, and joy is a transition. And we move out of Jerusalem and into Samaria. And if you please, we find that God did a wonderful thing in Samaria. And as we look at the thirteenth chapter, on through the end of chapter twenty-eight, we study the witness of the church to the regions beyond.
So now the gospel goes from the Jew in Jerusalem to the Samaritan, with whom the Jews had little or no dealings. And then we move toward the Gentile in chapters ten and eleven, and in thirteen through the end of the book, we are dealing with the gospel and the Gentiles in particular. It's a wonderful book. You've studied it, I'm sure, many times. And what we've had to say is just a little post-script. on what you've already studied, I'm sure.
As I look at the eleventh chapter of the book of Acts and verse nineteen, I'm reminded of some things that I've read and studied in the seventh and eighth chapters of Acts. Because in verse nineteen of chapter eleven I read Now they who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
Those who were scattered from Jerusalem, continued to offer the message of the gospel to the Jew and the Jew alone. Now some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they were come to Antioch spoke unto the Greeks. That is, these were Grecian Jews, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Where? Notice?
When they were come to Antioch, a great number turned unto the Lord. And so a local church was born through the gospel preaching and through faith in Jesus Christ in the city of Antioch. a powerful city commercially, a great city from the viewpoint of idolatry. It was a lewd, licentious city. It was a city that was built across the trade routes and all manner of persons gathered in that great city.
Oh, what a place for the gospel to be preached. And what a place for the harvest through the gospel preaching. And I'm so glad tonight that I can read this blessed word that a great number believed. And it encourages our hearts, doesn't it? That it doesn't make that much difference so far as the power of the gospel is concerned. How deep and dyed are sinners in a city, or how dark is the moral life and the behavior of people in a city, or how very, very much they are steeped in idolatry, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
You've read Isaiah fifty-three one. Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Have you studied it? The word report in the Hebrew is the word message. Isaiah spoke out and I sent a plaintive note in his voice. Oh God, I've been faithful in declaring the message of redemption. I've offered the consolation and the salvation of God to these people, but they're careless. They are unmindful of their soul's needs.
O God, who hath believed your marriage? And then he says, To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now you and I know that God is pure spirit being, and that God is without physical parts. Why then speak of God's eyes and God's ears and God's arm? because it's a beautiful way to reveal the characteristics of God's nature and work to the hearts of men. In our day, we think of the long arm of the law, the power of the law.
We speak of the military arm. We speak of the naval arm of defense. it speaks of strength and so what Isaiah said was Lord who has believed our message and to whom is the power of God revealed and Paul picked it up when he wrote Romans one sixteen and he said I'm not ashamed of the message the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation and so forth now In Antioch, barriers of opposition were broken down, and many, many believed.
And a local assembly was formed by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel in that benighted city, and it stood out in the city like a diamond in a ring in a beautiful setting. but a diamond in a ring. And I tell you tonight, at the center of that diamond, the glories of the gospel and the blessedness of the truth of God scintillated. And men had opportunity to see in these living demonstrations of faith in Jesus Christ what God could do in the transformation of life.
Now, there were those that ministered in the church at Antioch. And passing over quite a bit of Bible material, I turn hurriedly to chapter thirteen and verse one. And I notice in verse one this word. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as, and now God gives us the names of five of them. Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene and Manan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetra, and Saul.
This is indeed very interesting to me. This is a roll call of some mighty men of God. It says there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers. Now prophets are spokesmen for God. That is, they forth told the truth of God. They were spokesmen for the Lord. Sometimes their message was predictive, but many times their message had to do with instruction or exhortation or, shall I say, comfort and consolation.
Many times it had to do with encouragement. These were prophets and teachers. The teacher has to do with the instruction. of the Word of God. Yes, he speaks forth the truth, but the teacher is one to whom God has given an enabling that permits him to analyze and expound and in a logical manner tell forth the truth of God to others. In Second Peter two in verse one, we have evidence that the day came when the prophetic office merged with the teaching office.
For there the two words, prophet and teacher, are used interchangeably. Now in the city of Antioch and in the church that God planted there, there were five stalwart men of God his service. Isn't it good that God gave us their name? It's not important that any man receive glory for his ministry. But I do believe that God can be glorified in this list of names. But I read here that one was named Barnabas.
My Barnabas was a stalwart. Oh, he had a little difference with Paul, and Paul had a little difference with him. But I think that was patched up in time. Yes, Sometimes the brethren fall out a little bit, but they realize in time, at least they should, and I think most do, that their differences are less important than the great task of holding forth Jesus Christ in all of his glory and his saving power to a lost world. Here is Barnabas, man from Cyprus.
all man. Yes, when the brethren in the church at Jerusalem wanted to send for information about the church at Antioch, they chose Barnabas. That's how he got there. And I noticed Simeon. Now Simeon has a Hebrew name. But his Latin indication is Niger. Now, Niger is the Latin for black. Now, here's a man who had a Hebrew name, who had a Latin designation, and who was black.
And he is a man of God in the church. I see another. His name was Lucian. He could have been one who came to Antioch from Cyprus or Cyrene. And Menean, think of that. He's described as having been brought up with Herod the Tetra. Who was this man, Menean? He was the foster brother of Herod Antipas. The tetrarch of Galilee, no less.
God reached down into the political center outside of Judaism in Palestine. And he saved this half-brother or this foster brother of Herod Antipas, mind you. And when anybody is saved out of the Herodian family, that's worth flying a flag. Believe me, that was a family steeped in murder and intrigue and in sin. And God lifted this man out of the family. And here they are, five men of God, different backgrounds.
Yes, I'm sure different ministries, even though they were together prophets and different personalities, different emphases in their ministries. And we read that they ministered to the Lord and fasted. I have looked at this very carefully. I cannot make out of this in translation they ministered for the Lord. And you can't do it. The case here demands that we translate and as they ministered to the Lord and fast.
Dear friends, tonight they were engaged in prayer, in the fellowship of prayer and communion with God. How wonderful it is that when We find five men of this stature that these men refuse to depend upon ability and reputation to see them through service. We need more than human ability. We need more than a name. We need more than a reputation and an education. And these men knew that, and so they quietly closed the door, as it were, to further ministry, and they gathered together for prayer.
That makes ministry to reveal the power of God. All is so much we can do after we have prayed, but there's so little we can do before we pray. Grove City, Pennsylvania, I had an embarrassing experience at night. I've often said I'd like to write a little book on beds I've slept in. And that might really have more chapters than I think the most. But the bed broke down in the middle of the night. I was in the church in what they called the prophets' chamber.
I don't know what Isaiah would have thought of that. or some other prophet. But I was in the prophet's chamber and the middle of the night that maple bed broke down, the sideboards broke in two. I wonder why. Well, cheap bed, you know, poor wood. Well, whatever I do in the middle of the night. Nobody in the church. So I put the suitcases under the sideboards, made up. All right. In the morning, I thought I'll speak to the Dominic. And I went down to his office, but the pastor would be in.
This was years back. I haven't seen anything like it since. There was a sign on the door. This pastor is not to be bothered. Before nine thirty in the morning. From seven to nine thirty, he engages in prayer and in the study of the Word of God. And unless it's an emergency, he is not to be bothered. I didn't even know. What was my problem compared to getting hold of God for service?
These men knew that they had nothing to give. unless it was supported by a prayer ministry. And I would tell God tonight, Christian, that you and I would get along with the Lord and settle this matter that we cannot do for God unless we pray. I say away with those prayerless service, opportunities of service. way with those times when we witness without any preparation of heart through prayer. No wonder we strike out.
No wonder we drop the ball. We're not conditioned through prayer. I say that with a heavy heart tonight because it's a matter that we all have to face. These men face it. They said, we will not teach and we will not exhort apart from prayer. And then they fasted. Now fasting in itself can be an empty exercise. But these men were so occupied with Christ, so occupied with the power of God, that the appetites of the body fled, and they simply became very insignificant.
You see, when you have really entered, as it were, into the holiest of all with God, and you know that your hand is on the mercy seat as you pray, and you sense the presence of God in the room, where you pray. A call to lunch disinterests you. You lose the sense of bodily need and you're occupied with the need of the soul. Jay Wilbur Chapman in London had meetings and he was striking out.
Very few people were coming into that meeting place and he wrote later and said, that one evening when the place was so miserably attended, he looked out and saw praying John Hyde in the audience. And he asked Mr. Hyde to come to the platform and pray. And as he prayed and held on to God, the front door of the building opened and the people began to come in and they came in and the place was filled and blessing was there. And he said to Mr. Hyde, Can I have a little visit with you?" They made the appointment. He entered into Mr.
Hyde's room. Mr. Hyde turned the key, locked the door, and fell on his knees. And Chapman wrote and said that all that he could hear was the deep breathing of this man of God. And then he heard, Oh, God. And he repeated the name of God time and again. And he said the power of God took over that place in prayer. And Chapman said that one prayer session with praying John Hyde changed his ministry for Jesus Christ.
Do we know that we need to pray? If the gospel is to be given out in an expanding ministry, we need to support it in prayer. And while these men were not conscious at the moment of what God was about to do, they nevertheless realized that God was about to do something, and it was important to pray. And this beginning of foreign mission was that which had its roots in prayer. And you can go down through church history, and you can read of instance after instance, beginning with about the seventeenth century, when men gathered for prayer, and out of those prayer meetings came the answer to the call to foreign service.
be it India, be it Africa, or some other far-flung part of Earth. Foreign missions had its beginning in a prayer meeting in Acts thirteen. I would say tonight, if my God is to do anything for a local assembly by way of outreach, if young people are to be called out of the assembly for service, out on the foreign lands. Dear brother that's ill tonight, Brother Wilson, someone has got to take his place.
Some young man in some assembly must be raised up by God if Jesus tarries to take his place. And dear friends, that can be accomplished by prayer. God works through prayer. So we read, as they so ministered and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, that's when you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Not an audible voice, no. When I was dean at Man of Bible Institute until the death year, A young Korean graduate of a seminary in Seoul, Korea, came to me.
And he said, God wants me to teach here. Well, I felt like Laterno. Young man came to Laterno and said, the Lord told me to tell you that you were to buy me a new Buick so I could make my pastoral calls. Now, you didn't talk to Laterno that way. Tarno said, well, the Lord hasn't told me I'm in the beauty business on that. Well, I believe that sometimes people take others for granted. And for just a moment when I was getting off on there, some illustration.
Nevertheless, It says here that they fasted and the Spirit of God said, the young man from Korea, I said to him, what makes you think that God wants you to teach here? He said, when I graduated from the seminary, I went out on the hillside in Korea and there God made a bush burn. And I saw God in the burning bush. And he gave me a piece of advertising material with his name and stuff on it. And here was a burning bush. And he was standing before the burning bush. Now, friends, the Spirit of God does not speak that way today.
He speaks through the Word. And he speaks directly to us through the Word. And through the impressions that the Spirit of God is capable of of determining in the inner man and the Spirit of God's voice is easily recognized by the spiritually minded Christian. Separate me, Barnabas and Saul. Well now we have to have men by name set before us here. And so the Spirit of God is very selective. He doesn't send everyone to Angola.
And he certainly doesn't send everyone to Mexico or to El Salvador or to Europe or to Zaire. But he has a man for a job. Barnabas and Saul for the work of a specific person or a specific place. He said this, he added the words unto which I have called them. Now they have a call, and these brethren have an assignment.
And so two are to be separated from the five. The three remain, the two to go off on an errand for God. And these two were to carry the gospel message outside the environs of Palestine and to those who were steeped in idolatry and in wickedness and who had never heard of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now then it says, And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, the laying on of hands in this context was a means of identifying those who were supporting them in the ministry, sending them forth with the call of God upon these lives.
And, dear friends, they sent them away thus. So they, now notice, while They were sent with the recognition and the support in prayer and otherwise doubtless of those that remain behind in reality. They being sent forth were sent by the Holy Spirit. Sent forth by the Holy Spirit. As I read the Scripture and read of the Lord of the harvest, pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he will thrust forth labors, I ask the question, who is the Lord of the harvest?
It is not Jesus Christ because he's the one who spoke those words. And I see no evidence that the Lord of the harvest in Scripture is God our Heavenly Father. It is my sober judgment, as I study the word, that the Holy Spirit Himself is the Lord of the hearts. And he it is who selects the workers. And he it is who selects the place of service. And he it is who selects the support and the sustenance and all else that goes into a witness for God in the regions beyond.
Now, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, the Lord of the Harvest, they departed unto Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus, and now the gospel leaves Palestine. And they go to the island of Cyprus. I have flown over it a number of times, and I look down upon that rugged island, and I say to myself, this is the spot that God chose to dispatch the gospel to as the foreign missionary enterprise developed under the guidance of the Lord.
And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John, that is John Mark, as their helper. Now notice this, they cannot expect as they go forth for God and serving God's place to be without some difficulty created by the evil one. Wherever the gospel is successful, we'll discover that either presently or in due time Satan will provide opposition.
He'll even do it while you're trying to win someone to the Lord. Someone will come along and join the conversation. Or something will interrupt. Satan opposes the gospel testimony. Now how did he do it here? When they had gone through the island unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus, son of Jesus, who was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Pallas, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God.
What an opportunity. But Elemith, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation which stood them. Satanic opposition. I remember Ralph Davis, who was the general secretary of the Africa in the mission, telling about moving into the bush in the heart of Congo as it was named then. And he saw hanging from trees, skulls, and he knew enough as a missionary that you do not pass those skulls out there with impunity.
But he, trusting God for protection, went past them, and as he did, was nearing the village, he could not speak a word. But he could pray. The satanic opposition was so great that he was paralyzed for speech. And this has happened in South America. And dear friends, No matter where one goes forth today, whether it's Europe or whether it's Africa, whether it's Australia, or whether it is any other spot, Satan is there to oppose, either personally or through a messenger of the evil one.
Now we read that Elamist withstood him. seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. The devil would not have interfered with any other operation. Had this been another politician or statesman, a representative of another city or country, the devil would have done nothing but just let the gospel come into the picture. and allow for the possibilities that this important man shall come to know Jesus Christ and Satan is there to perform his work.
Then Saul, and now we have a change, who is also Paul. Now we'll have a name change. Saul, in the Hebrew, means desired or asked. Probably his parents asked God for him and named him Saul. But now his name is Paul from here on out. And it means little. It's his Roman name. For you see, the gospel is now going into the Roman Empire in depth. It will reach the princes of the Roman Empire.
And now he will use his Roman name. And perhaps he was happy to use it For it meant little. And Paul's estimate of himself was such that indicated a wonderful spirit of humility, a man of God. Filled with the Holy Spirit, set his eyes on him and said, O full of all deceit and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert? at his purpose, the right ways of the Lord, and now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee.
And you see, he was stricken blind. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. And what were the results? And what happened subsequently? Now when Paul and his companions loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John, departing from then, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia. And you know that they ultimately visited other cities and then turned around.
and moved homeward only to come again to Antioch. And thus the first missionary journey, the expansion of the gospel ministry had taken place. And in a real sense it becomes the portrait of what is yet to come. And what must come in a real sense in our day if the word is to go out. In nineteen o three, Bolshevism boasted of only seventeen members in all of Russia.
But today communism controls two billion souls. It is said that every communist working in the United States, having a salary, gives thirty-five percent of his income to the support of communism. I believe it was in the year nineteen seventy that it was said that there were forty-two thousand missionaries from the United States in foreign fields. Tonight, there are nearly twenty-five hundred languages that have never yet been reduced to writing.
The gospel and its preaching must have the word of God for the people to read and believe. Therewith to be saved, it must be presented to them in their own language. A friend of ours was trying to translate the word of God for his tribe. He came to the word grace, and he found no word for grace in the tribal language.
And he said, well, I'll have to go on. I'll pick it up someday. In due time, a national worker came along and preached. And he chose a text that had the word grace in it. And the missionary reported that the national preacher, when he came to that word grace, held his Bible out before the people. And he said, if I hold this Bible out to you, you may take it, but you have to pay me for it. But he said, if I hold it out to you, we're holding for salvation to man and extending it to man with both hands.
And in this case, They are nail-pierced hands. Dear friends, if I could put together tonight into one company, every born-again believer in the world, and every true place of fellowship and ministry for God, if I could put them all together, I would say this. that the task of the Church of Jesus Christ tonight is to extend the Word of God's grace to the hearts of men.
That our young men and young women shall be brought to the place where they see themselves as being capable of being used for God. in a multitude of ministries on the foreign field. Way back yonder, way back, the foreign missionary movement was born in a glorious context of success in the church at Antioch. And down through the years, the church has marched on and on. And I give you one word in closing tonight.
Isaiah wrote, The pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. That word in the Hebrew pleasure is the word for program. At the right hand of God tonight is our Savior. And in his hand, a nail-pierced hand, the program of the gospel will not be defeated. Communism cannot defeat us. I say to you tonight that one day Stalin said, we have pulled down the capitalists and now we'll pull down the Christians, God from the skies.
And you know, God heard that and God took the challenge. You can believe it. The Bible indicates the destiny of Russia. God took the challenge. And tonight there is no power politically. There is no power financially. There is no power that Satan possesses or man possesses, that can withstand God's power and God's determination that the gospel will accomplish His glorious purpose. You and I need to pray.
We need to give ourselves and give our sons and our daughters. We need to support the word of God. Every assembly should be proud tonight of what has been accomplished. For I say to you without fear of contradiction, that the assembly missions and missionaries abroad and in our own country are unmatched by any group in all the world considering signs. Their ministries have been glorious and victories have been many. Oh, may God help us to hold that flag high and the banner of Jesus Christ and all that it signifies to us.
May we hold it for and continue to go for it and send for it and support what we send and who we send until finally the program of God in missions has reached its culmination in the rapture of the church when the church will be translated and then of course the gospel will still be extended to man in the tribulation period. But the program of which I speak tonight is the program that he has committed to the church of Jesus Christ.
God wants us to be faithful. Faithful. There's no substitute for faithfulness to Jesus Christ, shall we be. just going to quietly close. Let's bow our heads and hearts. Just ask God what He would have us to do as to the challenge of missions.
Who will take the place of those who leave the work? Our young men, young women, come from our own families. Let's turn them over to God right now. Let's examine our own labors to see if we keep the missionary challenge burning brightly in our own fellowship. May God search our hearts in these days. We commit thy word in every element of this service into thy wonderful hands tonight.
Oh, God, God help us to see a world sinking in the quagmire sin. Oh, God, help us to see perishing men, perishing families tonight. perishing society. God help us, give us a burden, and show us what we can individually do, what our assemblies must do, and dismiss us with this burden upon our souls through Jesus Christ.