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AMARILLO?Reflecting on the Acts 1:8 challenge to be Jesus’ witnesses locally and globally, six preachers delivered brief “theme interpretation” sermons scheduled intermittently during the SBTC annual meeting Oct. 24-25 in Amarillo.
The sermons covered such topics as the lostness of the world, the lordship of Christ, and a call to cross-cultural gospel ministry. The following are capsules of each message.
Scott Maze
Admitting that the word “lostness” would not earn him extra credit from the English teachers in the audience, Maze, pastor of First Baptist Church of Borger, said it best describes the condition under which the unsaved live. And, he added, he hoped to “put a compulsion” in the hearts of those listening to reach someone for Christ.
Being lost, he said, is not simply a description of the end state of the unsaved, but a current malady impacting the lives of those living in that condition. Lostness, Maze said, “is our barber, beautician, the person down the street.”
Knowing the burden under which such people live should spur Christians to action. “There should be tear-stained pillows because of lostness.”
It is because of the condition of lostness that Jesus came to seek and save.
The “Jerusalem” of today for the Christian is wherever they live. In Texas, it is a state with an increasing population projected to be 25 million by 2009. Most of those are unsaved, Maze said, which should give Christians a sense of urgency about reaching them.
Maze made a parallel between the Great Commission and the theme behind the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” In the film, a small band of soldiers, lead by Capt. John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, are searching for Private Ryan, who had been given orders to go home. They are charged with finding and saving Ryan before he is killed in battle.
“Someone was your John Miller,” Maze said, making comparison to the Acts 1:8 charge.
Christians should be compelled to share the gospel, not only out of a sense of compassion and desperation for the lost, but because Jesus commanded it. Sometimes, Maze added, believers get too busy “doing church” that they forget the basic mandate. Or they believe the lost will come to them in the churches. He quoted Charles Spurgeon, who questioned whether a person is truly saved if he has never told anyone of his faith.
He used the loss of life from the Titanic as an example of the condition between believers and the lost.
Many of those who perished in the shipwreck did not drown, but died of hypothermia from exposure in the water. Many lifeboats were only half filled with passengers fleeing the scene but who refused to go back and retrieve those in the water for fear their small crafts would capsize in the course of a rescue effort.
“Those who were already saved,” Maze concluded, “did not go back for those who were dying.”
Nathan Lino
A person cannot submit to the Acts 1:8 commission until he completely, in all areas of his life, submits to the lordship of Jesus Christ. The entire Bible hangs on this fact and the command to love our neighbors as ourselves, said Nathan Lino, pastor of Houston’s Northeast Baptist Church.
Lino recalled asking a woman in his church who was seeking a divorce if her husband had cheated on her, had physically harmed her or the children, or had neglected to provide for his family. The answer to each of the questions was no.
Lino, puzzled by her responses, reminded her of God’s opposition to divorce. The woman’s reply affirmed her knowledge of that fact.
“I simply don’t want to be married to him anymore,” the woman stated.
Lino told the convention, “It sickens me that that is not the exception (in churches). It makes me wonder what has happened to God’s lordship.”
Lino said he places much of the blame on those who stand at the pulpit. Using the passage from Matthew 22:36 where Jesus is confronted by the lawyer asking which commandment is the greatest, Lino said the Lord’s response of loving God is not about an emotional attraction to God, but a choice, a decision. He warned that pastors who consistently preach sermons on “warm, fuzzy” love “are going to have an experience-driven ministry.”
He asked, “Where are the sermons on the lordship of Christ? If this is the greatest commandment in the Bible then his lordship ought to be interwoven into every message.”
Lino admitted that such topics as lordship and submission are difficult to address so they are often avoided.
“You are asking (your congregation) to shove their will aside to take on the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
With submission to the lordship of Christ “respect and dignity are restored to the bride of Christ” and personal holiness becomes an issue again with each individual. Lino said the call of the pastor is to make known the lordship of Jesus and to entreat and encourage believers to submit to that authority.
Jim Richards
SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards told the convention the Acts 1:8 mandate comes with a promise of power, a plan to witness, the person, Jesus Christ, of whom we bear witness, and the places to which the witness should go.
That call applies individually and corporately to believers today, Richards explained.
Primary to the Acts 1:8 task is empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which that verse promises.
“These cowering disciples hiding behind locked doors all of the sudden (at Pentecost) became explosive proclaimers of the Word. And it is because they were endued with power from on high,” leading to 3,000 souls saved.
Richards noted that the Holy Spirit is present to produce holiness, calling believers to “a separate lifestyle, a difference.”
The Christian’s peculiarity, Richards said, “is that we cross-grain the culture.”
“The Holy Spirit purifies us and makes us more like Jesus” so that believers may run the race successfully.
Acts 1:8 also states a plan for the disciples to be Jesus’ witnesses, Richards said.
“We are to be a witness of objective truth and subjective experience” through the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, as 1 John 5:13 and Romans 8:16 describe.
“The objective truth enables us to witness about Jesus Christ,” Richards said, adding; “There are those who would say that Jesus is my final authority. And that sounds so pious, but the only thing that we know about Jesus Christ of truth is found within the pages of God’s holy Word.
Acts 1:8 also points to a person?Christ, Richards said. While agreeing that denominational emphases such as Empowering Kingdom Growth have had positive results, “It’s really not about the kingdom, it’s about the king,” Richards said.
“We’re not about building our kingdoms and we’re not about building the kingdom of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. We’re not even about building the kingdom itself?because what we’re to do is we’re to lift up the king and he will build the kingdom.
“He said, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.'”
Richards added, “When we’re Acts 1:8 challenge takers, we’re going to talk about Jesus and uplift him.”
Acts 1:8 also directs the places the witness will go: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world.
Richards noted that previous to Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8, he gave the same essential charge to his disciples four previous times during the 40 days after his resurrection (John 20, Mark 16, Matthew 28, Luke 24).
“In those 40 days he challenged them to be Acts 1:8 followers” and he is calling individual Christians and churches to reach their cities, state, nation and world as well.
“We know that over half of the people in our state do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior nor attend church,” Richards said, noting that among a 22-million person population there are numerous ethno-linguistic groups yet unreac
