be living and active among us, Lord, that you would open our eyes, open our ears to be able to behold what you have for us in your word today. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, good morning. If you're new here, my name is Ricky, and I am so glad to see— man, our first service had people— I was expecting— here's what happens, man. If you're from El Paso— if you're not from El Paso, let me explain what happens. Rain of any kind is the El Pasoan kryptonite. It is— we are unavailable on rainy days. If we wake up and it is raining, the plans are canceled for the day. I mean, we are— it's raining, you know? And I remember trying to explain this to people who are new here. They're like, "But it's just raining," you know? Now, obviously, we've had some flooding and stuff like that. You got to be careful. But I just want to commend El Pasoans that are here. Great job, guys. We did it. We got out to church and we survived the rain. So good job. The people not from El Paso are like, is he joking or is he not joking? It's in the middle. It's right there. It's right there.
Well, we're continuing our series on what it means to be an Antioch church. This is kind of a miniseries we're doing, and we're laying out kind of our vision for the year and for hopefully, God willing, many years to come. Now, we talked last week about being an advancing church and a neighboring church, and You know, over the last week, I have read a bunch of headlines of all kinds, political, health, cultural, financial, all this stuff going on in our country, going on in our world. And there's, every day in the newspaper, there are needs that cry out for our attention, right? Financial needs, mental health needs, educational needs, social needs, reconciliation needs, political needs. All of these things are crying out for us, vying for our attention and our involvement. But brothers and sisters, let's remember, out of all of the many needs in our city and in our country and in our world, no need is greater than our world's need for Jesus Christ. In every way, on every level, Jesus is most fundamentally what we need and what our world needs.
And so we talked about that last week, that our desire is to proclaim and to demonstrate the reality of Jesus in our world world today. But how does that happen? It happens through the church. How do we get— how has God seen fit to get Jesus, the message about Jesus, and the demonstration of Jesus to the world? It's through the church.
Now, what we're going to talk about today, though, is, okay, well, if our world needs Jesus and the way that the vehicle for getting Jesus to the world is the church, how do we make sure we have a church that can do that?
Now, my boys have just started to finally— as a dad, I'm excited. They're finally interested a little bit in the— in cars. Now, we named one of them Ford. I felt like that was like he was going to be a big car guy. Not, not so much, you know. So slight disappointment, but that's okay. It's fine. We'll take it. And so as they just started to be more interested in cars, they— this is— you forget that kids, they show up not knowing anything. They just don't know anything. And so this is what their assumption was initially. When they saw a truck or like an Expedition or something massive, they'd be like, that's a fast car. That's probably the fastest car in the neighborhood. And they would determine fastest car in the neighborhood by size. And then I tried to say, well, no, 'cause they're heavy, et cetera, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera. So they're like, oh, it's the small ones. Small ones are fast ones. This one's the fastest, it's a Mini Cooper. This is a Fiat, it's the fastest. And I'm like, no, it's not, that's, okay. Again, kids don't know anything. So, and I'm like, no, but it's, usually sports cars are the fastest, usually. So then they would look for cool cars that they thought were sports cars and be like, oh yeah, this is the fastest. And I'm like, well, maybe not necessarily, right? So you got one neighbor with like an old base-level Mustang and then another neighbor who's making a custom tricked-out Honda Civic Like, my money's on the Honda Civic, right, in that race. And so I'm trying to explain this to them. And finally, they're just getting frustrated, like, well, but how do you know which car is the fastest? And then I finally was like, guys, it's the engine. The engine determines what's the fastest. And then they looked back at me and said, Dad, what's an engine? And I was like, whoa, I failed as a father. This is— I submit my resignation as a father right now. But we have some neighbors that are working on their cars, and that one neighbor in particular does a lot of work and rebuilds cars, and so they could see the engine, so finally they understood, oh, that is what determines how fast the car goes ultimately, right? You could have a tiny car with a huge engine, that thing's gonna rip. You can be a big car with a tiny engine, that thing's just gonna just barely chug along, right? What matters is the engine, and in the same way,
6 · Applies the car engine analogy to establish the theological principle that external church impact depends on internal church health, not external size, and that both large and small churches can have either strong or weak internal engines for the gospel
For the church, if we're gonna be a neighboring church, a gospel-advancing church, a church proclaiming Jesus to the world around us, if that's gonna be true, what matters is how we do that is our engine, the internal workings of the church, right? If we wanna have external impact, we need an internal health that continues to drive us forward. Now, this is true. You can have a big church with a small gospel engine that really doesn't do a whole lot for the kingdom. You can have a small church with a roaring gospel engine inside of it that's doing all kinds of stuff, planting all kinds of churches, and advancing the gospel in all kinds of ways. How then do we as Cross of Grace make sure that what's under the hood is going to advance the gospel in our city and in our world?
7 · Previews the sermon's three-part structure (training, interdependence, one-to-one ministry), reviews last week's content, and previews next week's content, then signals the transition to the first main point about training
So, we're going to look today at 3 traits internally inside the church that have to be present, that have to be, as it were, driving the church forward. And let's review real quickly. Last week we talked about being an Antioch church, and that means advancing the gospel outside of us, neighboring around us. And then today we're going to talk about training, interdependence, and one-to-one ministry. And then next week we're going to talk about being Christ-centered and a hope-filled church. So let's jump in. First, training.
8 · Traces the biblical narrative from Antioch's leaderless beginning through Barnabas and Paul's year of ministry to Acts 13:1, demonstrating how Paul and Barnabas intentionally developed multiple diverse leaders who could sustain the church when they left for missionary work
Now we pick up the story in the book of Antioch with— when we last left this church in Antioch, the gospel had gone out in this community, but there weren't any leaders. There were no leaders among them. And so Barnabas is sent by the guys in Jerusalem to help establish the church, and he realizes he needs help, and so he goes out and gets Paul the Apostle— or, well, he wasn't Paul the Apostle yet. He was just Saul from Tarsus. So he goes and gets Saul from Tarsus, and these two men begin the work of establishing the church. Now, skip ahead, though, back to Acts 13. Look at Acts 13 with me, verse 1. It says, "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers," plural, like, "Oh, here were some of them." "Barnabas," okay, we know him, "Simeon who was called Niger," I don't know who that guy is, "Lucius of Cyrene," I don't know that guy, "and Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch," I don't know how that guy got here either, "and Saul." So, what we're meant to understand is that these men are the leaders of the church, that over the year that Paul and Barnabas spent with the church, they helped intentionally to develop and raise up more leaders, right? And in fact, the church must have had leaders not just kind of at the highest level, but a number of leaders, so much so that the church would be in safe hands when in Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas leave and go do missionary work. So Paul and Barnabas, one of the effects of their teaching wasn't just helping everyone understand the Bible more, it was raising up intentionally raising up leaders for the church.
9 · Highlights the ethnic, social, and background diversity among the Antioch leaders listed in Acts 13:1, demonstrating that Paul and Barnabas intentionally raised up leaders who looked very different from one another rather than selecting only one type of person
And one of the other things I love about this passage is that the leaders that they raise up look very different from one another. There is great diversity in this, right? You've got Barnabas and Saul who are, you know, Jewish backgrounds. Saul, a Roman citizen, so there's some difference there. Highly trained. Barnabas, maybe just a good faithful brother. But look who else is there. There's Simeon who was called Niger. Niger meaning dark, meaning that this was— his skin was— he was a brother, okay? His skin was darker. He's from Africa, right? This is— and you're thinking, how did that guy get to Antioch? Remember, Antioch is a metropolitan city, people coming and going. And so they didn't go, well, I'm not that guy. He's African. No, they're like, this guy, there's some leadership potential. Also, who do you see? Lucius of Cyrene. This is like a Greek, Greek name, a double Greek name. I don't know what the equivalent is. I'm going to say some last name. It's going to be offensive to somebody ethnically. So I'm not gonna do that, but just everybody knew this is a Greek dude, right? Just very Greek, very different from Simeon, very different from Paul. And then my favorite, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, right? So this is a Jewish nobleman who was probably, like, grew up with Herod. And you're like, "I didn't think Herod was great for us." No, he wasn't. He's not great. And yet somehow this guy gets— they meet him, he becomes a Christian, and they say, "Yeah, this guy, Herod's friend, he's going to be a leader in the church." Right? One of the things that's beautiful about this is it's not just one type of leader that look one way, act one way, talk one way. These are— this is a diversity of leaders that appear out of those who are being saved.
10 · Demonstrates from Acts 11:26 that Paul and Barnabas's intentional teaching over one year—not passive waiting—produced these diverse leaders, and emphasizes the surprisingly short timeframe (one year) in which new Christians became key leaders, possibly even elders
Now, what's very important to recognize is that this does not happen by accident. It's not as though Paul and Barnabas are sort of waiting around, like, just waiting, like, "I guess we'll just keep praying and then a leader will appear, you know, out of nowhere. Boop! Like, here's a leader." No, they are intentionally training and instructing the church. Look at Acts 11:26. It says this: "For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people." Right? And some of that teaching was probably just helping people understand what it means to follow Jesus, but some of that teaching was very likely by implication how to lead like Jesus, how to grow as a servant leader in the mold of Jesus Christ. And last thing to notice about this church, this did not take— because you look at that and you think, okay, how long should that take for Paul and Barnabas to raise up some elders, you know, and other leaders so that the church would be self-sufficient without them? And I'd be like, ah, just spitballing here, but like a decade. Maybe 10 years, 20 years, something like that. And it says that they were with the church for a— I like how Luke says it— for a whole year. And you're like, a year? Yeah, man. So some of these guys went from becoming Christians to being discipled to being a key leader, maybe an elder, even within a year, possibly. Maybe a year to two is the time frame here.
11 · Attributes the transformation of these diverse leaders—from their former lives to servant leadership—to God's radical grace working in their hearts, while also acknowledging the church's intentionality in developing them
Here's the thing. This is a mark of the radical grace of God. These leaders in Antioch are the mark of a radical grace of God, right? You've got a guy, Manaen, who was probably rich and powerful and hooked up with Herod and could just do that for the rest of his life. God changes his heart. All of a sudden, he's like, "Man, I want to be a servant leader in the church." You got Paul the Apostle, right, probably the foremost rising scholar of Judaism, zealous to persecute the church. Jesus meets him, stops him, shows him amazing grace, changes him, and all of a sudden all he wants to do is go wherever God's called him to do, go wherever God's called him to go, and preach Jesus, right? You got Simeon, maybe he wants to go back home to Africa. No, he says, "No, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to be part of this," right? This is just God's fingerprints all over this, but there was intentionality behind it from the church as well.
12 · Applies the exposition of Antioch's leadership development to define what an Antioch church is—one that regularly trains disciples to be servant leaders at various levels—and establishes this as the congregation's expectation
So here's the point: an Antioch church is a church regularly training disciples to be servant leaders. And I think the expectation is that, that we want as many as possible who God has called to be servant leaders at various levels of the church and the community— we want to equip them to be servant leaders.
13 · Personal story of the pastor's own unlikely leadership development as a socially awkward 19-year-old intern who was suddenly thrust from coffee-getting to leading a budget meeting, illustrating how a pastor intentionally raised up leaders by giving them opportunities they didn't feel ready for
Now, I am one of those people that seemed a very unlikely late teens leader, right? I was a nerd, my social skills were low, and my fashion choices were questionable. And so the— I remember doing an internship when I was 19 at a church, a large church that was out in the D.C. area. And as part of this internship, I was on a creative team that was helping put on a singles conference, right? And it was great. I loved being part of this singles team. And mostly my role was to do this, to get the coffee. I had a number of coffee orders from the team. I was there, I would get the coffee. I wasn't particularly good at it. There was some soy milk fiascos. Soy was put in the wrong coffee. Words were exchanged. You know, I'm just trying, like, I'm not good at this. I'm not even good at the coffee. But I'm there, I'm trying to serve, I'm running things down, I'm picking things up, I'm trying to do my best. And after a few months, the pastor who was leading the singles conference, they had a big meeting, they had to make some budget decisions. And so he said, "Listen, there's this crazy counseling case just came up. I'm not going to be able to go to the meeting." So— and I could tell he was trying to come up with a plan. And so he looks at us in the room and he goes, "So Ricky's going to lead the meeting." And my thought was, who's Ricky? And then I thought, he's looking at me, but surely not this Ricky. This is not the Ricky that's gonna lead the meeting. And so we had like 5, 10 minutes before the meeting. I'm not joking, we had like 5 or 10 minutes before the meeting. He walked me through, okay, here's the agenda, it's already set. Here are the 3 decisions you need to do. This one guy sometimes will be a little negative, so I want you to, you know, Here's the way you kind of lead him through that. And then this other person is probably gonna weigh in with a crazy idea, so here's how you lead through that. And just like, you got this, man. All right, man, let me know how it goes. And then he just took off. And he wasn't totally insane. I'd been in the meetings, you know, I'd— but for me, I thought, this is not what I signed up for. I signed up to be a coffee guy. That's the level of church I'm gonna serve at. I'm the coffee guy in the church. Somebody needs a coffee, I will get you a coffee, man. I did not sign up to make budget decisions for a singles conference. Right? And yet the thing I love about this pastor— his name was Eric— the thing I love about Eric is he was just like, you know what? I'm not just going to build this team into me. I'm going to raise up other leaders. I'm going to give this guy a shot. I'm going to see what happens. Right?
14 · Applies the personal illustration to the Antioch model and then to Cross of Grace, imagining how Paul and Barnabas would have invited people into ministry, calling for a culture of intentional leader development rather than passive waiting, and celebrating concrete examples of this happening in the church
And that is— that's what I want you to see. That's the culture that must have been going on in Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas were not just, hey, we're going to build this all into me. They're like, hey, Lucius, you did a great— that was some great input in the Bible study Tuesday, how do you feel about leading a Bible study next Tuesday? You know, Manea and Man, when you ministered and prayed for that couple, that was awesome. There's actually 3 more couples that could use that kind of ministry. What do you think about joining me as we go minister to those couples, right? They are bringing people along to become servant leaders in the mold of Jesus. So what does that mean for us as a church? Well, it means that training leaders, raising up servant leaders is and should be our culture. We want to make it normal. I think over the years, you know, as I've been at the church, sometimes even I can drift into having a mindset where it's just like, well, you know, hopefully some leaders appear this year at a church, you know, just like just pop out of nowhere. And sometimes every once in a while God blesses us with somebody like that. But more, I think our culture should not just be waiting for a super leader to arrive, but rather saying, hey, if you're leading a CG, who around you could you ask to lead a Bible study and help learn to lead a CG? We did this in my community group. A number of our guys led over the summer. I didn't lead any Bible studies over the summer. I was supposed to lead one, and then I gave Drew like 20 minutes notice and he did a great job with it. And this is just, you know, this is what I think should be happening. Our Sunday team leads. I love seeing— is she here? Abby. I love seeing Abby because I was dropping my kids off. And Theresa was telling me that, I think this is right, Abby, that you're our youngest, like, class lead, right, in the 9:00 AM service, which is awesome. I'm sorry I'm embarrassing you, but I just loved it 'cause I was praying about this stuff and raising up people and I hand my kids off to Abby and I'm just like, yes, that is awesome. That is what the church should be doing. We wanna celebrate those things and lean into those things. So that's, so if we think of, okay, what's under the hood of the church, One of the things that must be pumping and going back and forth is a training culture that raises up leaders.
15 · Exposes the countercultural church-to-church interdependence in Acts by showing how Jerusalem generously sent Barnabas to Antioch despite their own persecution and hardship, how Tarsus released Paul, and how Antioch reciprocated by sending financial aid to the poorer Jerusalem church rather than hoarding resources for their own growth
All right. Next mark is interdependence. Now, one of the things you see in Acts 11:13 is a countercultural approach to church-to-church relationship. The churches here are not just living kind of in their own walls, inside their own walls. Churches, and I can even be guilty of this as a pastor, we're like, "Hey, we don't want anybody to leave. We just want to keep everybody we have. We're very, you know, busy with our own stuff." And like, "Hey, this church may be having a crisis. Like, great, we'll say a prayer for you, but we're busy right here." But that's not the approach. That's not the life that these churches are living. Look, you see this in 3 places. First, you see this in the way that they practically just support each other. In verse 22, the church in Jerusalem— by the way, a church undergoing persecution, a church undergoing hardship, a church in Acts 12 who loses one of their key leaders to death and has another one jailed— that church says, "Barnabas, one of our best guys, you're going down to Antioch," right? They generously lend what they have, give what they have to Antioch, and then Paul goes to Tarsus. Now, the implication is that there's a church in Tarsus and Paul is a part of it. And listen, man, if we had Apostle Paul here, I think all of us would be like, should Paul stay here or go to another church? We'd be like, let's have him stay here. You know, if he comes to you for counsel, hey, you know, Barnabas brought me this opportunity, he's asking for help in Antioch, I would be like, you know, Paul, I've got a word for you. It's no, just don't go. Is that a word from the Lord? I don't know, but it's a word from me. Just, just stay here. I would like to keep The guy who wrote most of the New Testament, or is going to write most of the New Testament, just here. They don't do it. They let him go. They send him to Antioch. And then, here's what I love. Then Antioch lives this culture out in return, right? In Acts 27 to 30, they get this prophetic word that there's going to be a famine everywhere. They know this. They know the church in Jerusalem, frankly, is poorer than they are. Antioch is a financially wealthier church. Jerusalem, great theological riches, not a lot of money. You gotta remember, most of these guys were fishermen, blue-collar dudes, poor people, right? There's a lot of widows that they're caring for. And so they, in Antioch, they proactively gather money up and send it to this church in Jerusalem. Now, that's countercultural for us in America. It's like, man, if you're doing well, things are going well, you need all the money there, man. You gotta keep investing in staff, and you gotta keep investing in programs. You gotta build it bigger. Nicer building, you gotta get the lasers, you gotta get the fog, you know, whatever. And we gotta, we gotta build this thing up. And they're like, nah, man, we're good. Send the money to Jerusalem. They need it. You see that, that back and forth. Jerusalem gives what they have. Antioch gives what they have. They do it together.
16 · Demonstrates how Jerusalem, Tarsus, and Antioch worked together missionally by generously releasing their best leaders (Barnabas and Paul) for church planting despite their own needs, and how Antioch stayed connected to the mission through reports and financial support
Second thing you see is in the area of mission. They're working with one another in the area of mission. Now here's what I love. At this moment in Acts 13, where Paul and Barnabas, they get identified and they're deployed, they're sent out. If I'm the guys in Jerusalem, I'm kind of having my hand up and I'm going, hey man, if Barnabas is going anywhere, I think he's coming back to Jerusalem. Like, I don't know if you heard, but James just got killed. This would be a great time to get another really strong leader, right? Or the guys in Tarsus could be like, oh man, like, great. If Paul— oh, Paul's leaving Antioch? Perfect. We can't wait to welcome him back. Actually, he's going on a missionary church planting thing way away from you, right? That's what's happening. These churches are generously saying, "Man, okay, the best thing for the sake of the gospel, these two guys go." And the church in Antioch stays connected to the mission. In Acts 14:27, you don't have to turn there, but I'll just tell you that Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, and it says that they declared all that God had done. They gathered the church together, and then they declared all that God had done. What God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. So Antioch doesn't even just send these guys off and be like, "All right, peace out. You're dead to us now. Good luck out there." They're keeping in touch with Paul and Barnabas. They're returning and sharing the stories, right? They're united in mission together. The implication is also that there's financial partnership going on with this missionary endeavor.
17 · Shows the third area of church interdependence—theology—by demonstrating how Antioch brought a theological controversy to Jerusalem for joint resolution rather than deciding in isolation, emphasizing the importance of working together to preserve sound doctrine
And last, the other place you see it is theology. These churches are together practically, missionally, and theologically. One of the things that happens is Paul and Barnabas come back to Jerusalem, and there's a controversy that arises, a key theological controversy. And so you read in Acts 15:2, "Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question." Meaning this, that Antioch's throwing a flag on the field and saying, "Hey, man, we got a theological issue to decide." We got to work through this together. And they, representing Antioch and these other churches, go and travel to Jerusalem, and together they work on preserving the faith and making sure there's a strong theological foundation.
18 · Makes the theological claim that Christ died not just for individual Christians or individual local churches but for a family of churches—a body of church bodies from every tribe and tongue united together—and that this unity is what Christ longs to see lived out
Here's what I think you should see in Antioch and in these— the relationship of these churches. We often talk about how Jesus died for us. When we think of us, though, we usually think of individually, right? Like, Jesus died for me. He didn't just die for me, he died for us. He died for this, this. But he didn't just die for this Cross of Grace in El Paso. He died for a family of church families, right? A body of church bodies here, and with Pastor JP in India, and our friend, my friend Nathan in the UK, all to Carlos and to Andres in Guadalajara, like all of those guys. That is what Christ died for. People from every tribe, tongue, and language, and people group united as churches, as the body of Christ. That's what he died for. That's what he longs to see, this unity lived out.
19 · Applies the interdependence principle to Cross of Grace by affirming their commitment to gospel partnership through Sovereign Grace Churches, acknowledging the difficulties of partnership while asserting the biblical conviction to continue partnering no matter what, rooted in how Cross of Grace's founders understood Acts from the beginning
So, here's the point. Antioch is an interdependent church, and so must we be. We do not want to be a lone ranger church. I was talking to Chuck about the beginning of the church, and You know, Chuck would joke about how, you know, at the beginning of the church, the pastors of the church, even members of the church, they weren't super developed theologically. They didn't know all, you know, this stuff. But they knew one thing from reading the book of Acts. They knew that churches were not supposed to do life on their own. And so even 40 years ago, they went out and were like, "Man, we got to find a family of churches. We got to find people to partner with in the gospel." And so for the last number of decades, we've been part of a family of churches. Had a number of names over the years, but now it's called Sovereign Grace Churches. I think it's a good move. We started out as People of Destiny, which definitely sounds a little bit like a cult and definitely kind of front-loads us and what we're going to do. We're a people of destiny, right? And then over the years, as God's matured us, we're like, you know, maybe we should highlight God's grace instead. Maybe that should be kind of the first thing. So we've made that move. I think it was a good move. And yet we have seen God's sovereign grace over the many years. Now, we've seen in partnership with other churches that partnership is hard. There can be unity— a disunity. There can be controversy. There can be suffering. Sometimes you suffer with others in a way that you're like, "Man, well, I don't even think I want to enter into what's happening over there, but as gospel partners, I'm going to enter into what's happening over there." We continue to do it, church, because we believe it's biblical and believe it's worth it. We are committed to gospel partnership. And even if, like, we wake up tomorrow and our family of churches is gone, we as a church would want to live out this conviction no matter what. We'd find another group of churches or another, another. We would just keep partnering because we believe this is what God has done.
20 · Provides a concrete multi-generational illustration of church interdependence through the Richardson family sent from Cross of Grace to Phoenix 30 years ago, whose ministry led to churches in Tucson, Santa Ana, and potentially Anaheim, demonstrating the gospel multiplication that happens when churches generously release their best leaders
Now, maybe if you've not been here for a while, you're wondering, what does that even look like? I don't understand. You know, acts, but what does it look like practically among our family of churches? Well, let me give you one example. So over 30 years ago, we sent a family called the Richardsons out of our church to Phoenix. And Trey Richardson was one of our absolute best. He turned down multiple job offers from IBM to move him to other places. He kept taking pay cuts to stay in El Paso. And yet the one thing that finally did move him was a church that needed another pastor. Seemed like his gifts matched, he moves out there. He helps establish and strengthen this church. But along the way, that church developed some more leaders. And one of those leaders, his name was Derek, and he ended up moving to Tucson and becoming a pastor of the— our sister church now in Tucson. And so Derek begins training up other leaders, and he disciples a young man named Kyle. And Kyle, as much as Derek wanted to keep him, Kyle had a burden for church planting. Planting. And so Derek generously sent him on to Santa Ana. And Kyle is a good friend of mine now, planted in a wonderful church in Santa Ana. And that church now has a— Kyle's developed another elder there, and they're hoping to plant into Anaheim Colony in California, right? That is the kind of thing that only happens when interdependent churches work together to advance the mission. That's what we want to continue to do.
21 · Applies the interdependence principle concretely by naming specific church partnerships (Carlos, Abelardo, Helman, JP) and explaining that Cross of Grace financially supports JP's church planting in India despite having no prior relationship, simply because they are gospel partners
So what does this mean for us? It means this, that, that we want to live our local church life, not just alone in isolation, but with other churches. We want to know what's going on with our friends Carlos and Abelardo and, and, and the other guys in Wadis, right? We want to know what's going on with Helman in West El Paso. We want to know what's going on with JP. Maybe if you're new here, you're like, man, you keep talking about this Indian guy, JP. Was he a member here at some point? Do we know him? Does anyone know him? Nope, we're just gospel partners with him and we're sending a bunch of money to him in India to help him start a gospel— by God's grace, a gospel family of churches in India. Right? This is what we're meant to be about.
22 · Transitions to the third main point (one-to-one ministry) by clarifying that church health doesn't ultimately depend only on what leaders do, setting up the importance of member-to-member ministry
All right, now let me end with this, which I think is most relevant to all of us. We want to be given to training, given to interdependence, but also given to one-to-one ministry, because I don't want us to have the impression as a church that what matters ultimately is just whatever the leaders do. That's not true.
23 · Demonstrates from Acts that the church in Antioch was planted not by prominent leaders like Paul or Barnabas but by ordinary Christians doing one-to-one ministry, with no prominent leader emerging among them initially
What you see in Acts is one-to-one ministry is one of the things that powered the church and drove it forward, right? Remember that the people who planted the church in Antioch, none of them were Paul, none of them were Barnabas, that none of them were prominent. In fact, Jesus Fernando in his commentary on Acts says this: We are only told where they come from, which suggests that no one emerged as prominent among them. Right? So when Barnabas gets down there, he's looking for, "Who's in charge here?" They're like, "Is someone supposed to be in charge? I don't know." Right? Nobody— it's just one-to-one ministry.
24 · Makes the theological claim that much of the early church's growth came through ordinary Christians sharing the gospel in one-to-one ministry, and that Jerusalem's pattern in Acts 2 represents the normative pattern repeated wherever the gospel takes root
And A.G. Fernando continues and says this: This great work was done by ordinary Christians who went and shared the gospel. In fact, much of the growth of the church must have happened through such people, as should be the case today. Right? We don't get a full picture of the kind of ministry going on one-to-one in Antioch, but in Acts 2, we do get a picture of the one-to-one ministry of the Jerusalem church. And the Jerusalem church's ministry, I think we're meant to see, this is the kind of thing every time the gospel hits a city. This is the kind of thing happening in Antioch and in Abyssidian Antioch, and in Crete, and in, you know, wherever else. This is what's happening.
25 · Exposes Acts 2:42-47 to show that while apostolic leadership was present, the church's daily life and growth came through all believers learning together, praying, sharing possessions, hosting in homes, and evangelizing, not through a performance model where leaders do ministry and members spectate
It says that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, and many signs and wonders were being done through the apostles. And you might think, okay, well then, great, all we need is some apostles and leaders, right? That's how the church advances. No. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Right? So there was leadership, but among all the members of the church, they were learning, they were praying, they were helping one another financially. They were hosting people in their homes. They were out in the community telling people about Jesus, right? This is not just a church where it's like, "Okay, well, we're all going to be here and you're going to lead forward and we'll just kind of cheer you on from the stands, like, 'Yay, great!'" No.
26 · Applies the Acts 2 pattern by redefining church as a halftime huddle rather than a performance, where the congregation receives instruction and is then sent out to do ministry, establishing that one-to-one ministry must thrive in an Antioch church
We've often said that the church is not a performance where the performers are on the stage and everybody else is sort of in the audience and they're like, "Oh, that was a good sermon. That was a good sermon." That was nice, right? Church is a halftime huddle in which we go over the game plan, which is the Bible, and then talk about how the Lord is going to send us out during the week to do his work of ministry. An Antioch church is a church in which one-to-one ministry thrives.
27 · Makes the theological claim that the pandemic taught the church that one-to-one ministry is essential to being a church, arguing that livestream services without bodily presence were not truly church but a performance theater, because what matters is physical presence together
And one of the things I think that we're meant to learn, church, from the pandemic of the last year is this: that one-to-one ministry is essential to what it means to be a church. I don't know— listen, I thank God for the 6 to 8 weeks or whatever it was that we just did livestream and everybody was at home. And I know that not everybody has been able to come back, or not everybody was able to come back for a while. I'm not trying to condemn anybody, but what I'm trying to say is this: when we were just here with like a a little camera right there. There's a camera right there. Nobody here. It was like me and John and another guy. I'm grateful that hopefully people were encouraged spiritually, but whatever that was, it was not church. It was some kind of weird performance theater thing, because this is what matters.
28 · Supports the claim about bodily presence being essential to church by quoting Colin Hansen's reflection on how the body of Christ requires physical assembly—hearing babies, seeing reddened eyes, chatting with the recovering addict, tasting communion, feeling worship—concluding that children need to know the church members
Colin Hansen, writing in the New York Times, reflects on his own church having to not be able to meet and then be able to meet, he says this: "The body of Christ, or church, isn't the same when you separate its members. The hands and feet and ears and eyes need to be assembled for this body to work for the good of all." Christians need to hear the babies crying in church. Amen, church? Amen. We need that. They need to see the reddened eyes of a friend across the aisle. They need to chat with the recovering drug addict who shows up early but still sits in the back row. They need to taste the bread and wine. They need to feel the singer's crescendo toward the assurance of hope in what our senses can't yet perceive. And this last line I love as a dad. He just says, "My daughter needs to know the church members."
29 · Applies the pandemic lesson by calling the congregation to never again view one-to-one ministry as inessential, defining church as the before and after moments—showing up early, staying late, inviting the lonely to lunch—not just the service itself, and establishing this as an engine driving the church's mission
Church, may one of the things we take out of the last year, year and a half, be this: that none of us will ever consider the one-to-one ministry of the body on Sunday and during the week as inessential to our lives. This is not just— the church is not just, okay, when the lights go on and when the lights go off, and that's the beginning and end of church. Church is showing up beforehand. Church is meeting afterwards. Church is some guy inviting somebody to lunch that looks lonely, right? This is what it means to be a church full of one-to-one ministry. And that is one of the engines that drives the church forward to mission.
30 · Synthesizes the three internal engines by showing their necessity—without training there are no leaders, without interdependence there's no gospel partnership or strength, without one-to-one ministry there's no health—and establishes the principle that the church sends what it is, meaning internal health determines external impact
What I hope you see is this. If training is not happening in the church, the church is not going to have any leaders to send out or leaders to stay with the church to keep it strong and help it to grow. If interdependence isn't happening, we're not going to be in partnership. We're not going to have a heart for the world or the world beyond ourselves, nor the strength theologically, missionally, practically to advance the gospel. And if one-to-one ministry is not happening, the church will not be healthy. Here is the reality. The church sends what it is. The church only sends what it is. We're not going to— we can't be an unhealthy church in these areas and then be like, "Well, this guy will be great and we'll send him and it'll hopefully go fine." No, we send what we are.
31 · Pastoral aside acknowledging a mid-sermon course correction prompted by the Spirit during the first service, shifting from human responsibility to divine enablement—establishing that while members power the church, the Spirit of Christ powers the members, preventing the sermon from becoming mere moralism
So, here's where I want to end. I had a totally different ending in the first service, so you guys get a totally different ending. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure, like in the second service, totally different ending. Because I really felt like God impressed something on my heart as I was wrapping up the first service, and it's this: what powers the church is its members, right? But what powers the members is the living Spirit of Christ in them. Even though we should receive this as a charge, that, man, we want to as Cross of Grace train leaders, we want to partner with other churches, we want to do one-to-one ministry, we must remember that that it's not ultimately just up to us.
32 · Establishes the theological foundation that Jesus himself builds his church through his Spirit working in and through Christians, explaining why one-to-one ministry works (the living Christ enabling Christians), why evangelism works (the Spirit awakening the dead), and why the Antioch transformations happened (Jesus changing hearts), concluding with confidence that Jesus will continue building his church regardless of circumstances
Jesus gives us this promise in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." The reason one-to-one ministry works is that the living Christ inside one Christian, he enables that Christian to bring life giving hope-stirring encouragement to another Christian and brings, in a sense, their deadened heart to life, right? What makes it possible for one Christian to share the gospel with somebody in the community and that actually work is that the Spirit of God goes before them, the Spirit of God using that Christian and awakening that new believer to life in Christ, right? That the only reason this works is that Jesus is the one building his church. That's the only reason that the church in Antioch could even work. Why would Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod, care, give a rip about what happens to the church? Jesus changing his heart. Why would Paul the Apostle, the guy hunting down Christians and inflicting bodily harm on them, suddenly be sent out to start churches? The living Christ. That's why this is precious, and that's why we can have confidence, church, that no matter what this next year brings or the year after that brings, we know one thing: Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
33 · Concluding charge flowing from the theological foundation just established—because Jesus builds his church, we respond by raising up leaders, working with other churches, and ministering to one another
Therefore, let's raise up some leaders. Let's work with other churches. Let's minister to one another. Amen.
34 · Closing prayer turning the sermon into doxology by celebrating specific examples of God's grace in transforming individuals within Cross of Grace (the pastor himself, Vince, kids' ministry teachers, greeters, worship team), calling the church a living miracle of grace, and asking God to help them treasure this gift, be a healthy church, and send what they are by grace to the world
You stand and let's pray. Ah, Heavenly Father, Lord, I just feel in this moment that the grace in this room, in the Christians that are gathered here— God, what a gift. What a gift that you would take a Pharisee kid, church kid like me, and change his heart selfish kid and make him want to even care about other people. God, what grace that you would take a guy like Vince that was once an addict and all of a sudden turn his life around to the point where he preaches the gospel in this pulpit. What grace in the fact that the teachers in our kids' ministry were once far away from you, and now they're right now as we speak giving the gospel hope that change their lives to the kids that they're in front of. God, what amazing grace that the greeters on Sunday that you have welcomed into your family when they were far from you now welcome other people. What amazing grace that the people on this worship team whose once were— their direction of enthusiasm and praise was far from you, all of a sudden has been reoriented, redirected, and now they sing to you. God, this church is a living, breathing miracle of grace. Oh Lord, help us to treasure it. Help us to never take it for granted. And Lord, I do pray, I do pray that we would be a healthy church, a church that, that you help us to be something unique and full of grace in a dark, lifeless world. Lord, may we be able to send what we are by the grace of God to our city and our region and to a world that so desperately needs it. Amen.