Heritage Christian Fellowship
Sunday, January 18, 2026

      • Acts 1:1-2ESV

      • Acts 1:3-4ESV

      • Acts 1:5ESV

      • Acts 1:8ESV

      • Acts 10:34–48ESV

  • All Hail the Glorious Christ
  • Praise the Lord who Reigns Above
  • I Will Sing Of My Redeemer
  • Offering/It Is Well With My Soul

  • Introduction

    Overview of Acts

    Every week, one of the most challenging parts of sermon preparation is the editing process.
    So much of our labor in studying and writing must necessarily end up on the cutting room floor.

    Bringing Back What Matters

    One of those things that I edited out last week—that finds its way back into our message today—is a proper introduction to the book of Acts.
    This was not done out of convenience.
    On the other hand, our text today provides both the thesis statement for the book of Acts as well as its general outline. So I thought it fitting to add this intro to the book here.

    Housekeeping: Who Wrote This Book?

    As I alluded to last week, this book is written by Luke the physician. He wrote it as a continuation of his work, likely sponsored by a man named Theophilus.
    In Luke 1, Luke addresses this man as “most excellent,” This language was reserved for officials and those of high social standing, suggesting that Theophilus was such a person.
    And Luke wrote this work with a shepherds heart, writing for Theophilus—Luke 1:4—“so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.”
    This purpose of his writing of the gospel is most certainly his purpose in writing this second account of all that Jesus did and taught through His Apostles for the first 30 years of the church.
    Luke was the doctor and travelling companion of Paul, but he is also recognized by church history as well as the secular world who studies ancient documents as a historian. He writes in the genre of historical narrative, and he does so by documenting and compiling, in great detail, the eye-witness accounts of those who were there on the scene.
    Later in Acts, he writes with the plural pronoun, “we,” indicating that his own experiences also served as a source for his account.

    A Key Distinction: Descriptive, Not Prescriptive

    One thing to note about historical narrative is that what is being written in the Book of Acts is descriptive, not prescriptive.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    What that means is that we must be careful not to fall into the trap of taking everything that we see the church doing in Acts and using it as a manual for how the church operates today.
    Most of the time, Luke is describing history, not prescribing direct and exact applications for us.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    That’s not to say that there aren’t instances where we are intended to directly apply what occurs as instructive for how we should do church. And we will strive to make those applications clear as we get to them. But much of the intended applications that we see in the historical narrative of Acts are actually explicitly given to us in the rest of the New Testament, many of which were written during the time frame of the events of the Book of Acts.

    The Main Point:

    As I indicated last week, and will argue again today, our text is one of those that extends from the Apostles through church history, applying all the way to us today.
    In my first sermon we saw in verses 1-3 that we are witnesses who continue Christ’s ministry.
    In verses 4-5, as well as verse 8, we learned that we continue Christ’s ministry by the power of the Spirit.
    And today, in verses 6-8, Luke records that this continuation of Christ’s ministry is a mission that goes to the ends of the earth.
    And this is my main idea today
    Main point: We are witnesses with a mission to the ends of the earth.
    We are witnesses with a mission to the ends of the earth.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

    Reading

    Prayer

    Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for gathering us in Your presence today. As we open Your holy Word, we acknowledge our complete dependence on You. Help us—especially as I stand to preach—to handle Your truth rightly. Grant me, Lord, to speak Your Word with faithfulness to the text, with clarity so all may understand, with authority as from You, with passion born of conviction, with wisdom from Your Spirit, with humility before Your majesty, and with power through your spirit to pierce the hearts of your people and the lost with your Word. Open our hearts to receive what You would say to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

    1. What Our Mission is Not - vs. 6-7

    Transition

    We are witnesses with a mission that goes to the ends of the earth. And in verses 6-8 we will see our mission defined.
    First, beginning in verse 6 we will see what our mission is not.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Look down at verse 6 with me

    i. Were the disciples wrong?

    Acts 1:6 ESV
    6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
    So here we have what seems to be a perplexing question from the disciples.
    Or is it?
    Most commentators think that this inquiry was totally off base.
    However, let’s put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes.
    First of all, we understand from past encounters with this line of reasoning that the Jewish people in Jesus’ day had an expectation that the coming of the Messiah went hand in hand with the establishment of His literal rule and reign on the earth, particularly over the Romans.
    We saw this very thing in the last chapter of Luke with the disciples who were on the Road to Emmaus. As Cleopas relaid to the events of the death of Christ to the man whom he did not know was Jesus, Luke 24:21
    Luke 24:21 ESV
    21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel…
    And one of the main reasons for this is that the interval between the first coming of Christ and the second coming is not explicitly taught in the prophets.
    Instead what you have are prophecies like Ezekiel 36 and 37.
    Remember this is the famous prophecy of the New Covenant where God promises the restoration of Israel to the promised land, the promise of regeneration, the promise of the Holy Spirit indwelling all of His people, and then the climax of this glorious prophecy ends like this:
    Ezekiel 37:24–25 LSB
    24 “And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My judgments and keep My statutes and do them. 25 “They will inhabit the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, which your fathers inhabited; and they will inhabit it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever.
    The disciples had seen the Lord resurrected to life thus fulfilling the promise of the Davidic Covenant that David’s Son would rule forever.
    They had heard Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant, which He told them at the Last Supper, He purchased with His blood.
    To make things even more vivid. They were standing on the Mount of Olives, a mountain top that we will see next week has prophetic significance regarding the restoration of Israel.
    Remember also that this was on this same mountain that a few weeks earlier Jesus spoke the great eschatological teaching we call the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 and 25.
    It is not hard to see the apostles making all of these connections, thus leading to their question, “Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
    However, regardless if it was a logical question or not, it still shows that their focus was not on the mission of continuing the work of Christ.
    Instead their focus was on the political ramifications of having the Roman empire upended and all the power that would come to the disciples of the King.
    They were already distracted from the mission before Jesus even gave them their mission.
    That’s how much distraction the political power of the kingdoms of this earth can offer.
    Remember that this was the content of Satan’s final temptation of Christ in the wilderness.
    He thought that he could stump Jesus with offering him all the dominion and rule over the kingdoms of this world in exchange for Jesus’ worship and submission.
    Why should Jesus have to wait for what was rightfully His?
    Why should the disciples have to wait for what seemed to be the very next event on the prophetic calendar?
    But Jesus resisted the devil, causing him to flee.
    And the source of our Savior’s strength was His trust in and love for His Father.

    ii. Not for you

    And this is exactly what Jesus points the disciples to in verse 7.
    Acts 1:7 ESV
    7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
    It is not for you to know.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    The literal rendering is much stronger than that—it does not belong to you to know.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    That knowledge is not something we get to possess.
    We don’t have the right to that knowledge.
    Like a government document that is way above your security clearance, you and I are not on the need-to-know list.

    iii. Times and Seasons

    Now if you’ve studied eschatology to any level of depth, an objection might be coming to mind here. Jesus instructed the disciples on that very mountain about the signs of His coming.
    He laid out a relevant timeline of events with specific words like “immediately after this event,” and “then this thing will come to pass.”
    And yes that is true.
    But times and seasons carry a different idea than a relative timeline.
    The word for times—chronos—refers to a quantity of time—like a specific date and hour.
    Here is Jesus’ point: it is not your job to set dates.
    That knowledge does not belong to you.
    So don’t do it.
    Don’t forward the email.
    Don’t buy the book.
    Don’t click on the blog post.
    That information is not yours.
    What about the seasons? This word seasons—kairos—speaks of the quality of time—like the specific circumstances, situations and conditions of an event.
    And Jesus’ point is that it is not for us to know either. If you had the ability to know all the conditions of the event what do you think you would be preoccupied with?
    You’d be so stuck shaping and molding and playing historical chess to create all the right circumstances.
    It is not for us to be prophets about specific dates, or political strategists trying to organize enough Christians to donate to the temple rebuilding fund or the red heifer project.

    iv. The Father has Fixed

    Now with all that being said I have two important applications before we move on to what our mission is in verse 8.
    First, just because Jesus says that the times and the seasons of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel are not our business does not mean that the promise of the restoration of Israel will not be fulfilled.
    Let me ask you this: When the disciples ask their question, does Jesus immediately rebuke them because they’ve misunderstood the nature of the kingdom?
    Did he tell them that they need to cease thinking with physical expectations and spiritualize their understanding of the yet unfulfilled promises about Israel?
    The fact that Jesus does not correct their expectation of a literal, earthly kingdom of Israel must not be ignored.
    Their understanding of the promised kingdom was correct; their desire to know its exact timing was wrong.
    The promise of the restoration of Israel will be fulfilled.
    How do I know?
    Look back at verse 7: It is not for you to know times or seasons… that the Father has fixed by His own authority.
    Can you and I change the times or seasons that God has ordained?
    We don’t have that authority.
    He does.
    We are not sovereign over human history.
    It’s His story. He is sovereign.
    He fixed the time for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.
    The idea behind that word for fixed is that of a stone placed in a permanent spot.
    God’s not going to remove it, shift it, or change His mind about it being there.
    Why? Numbers 23:19
    Numbers 23:19 LSB
    19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?
    That is the indicative application I wanted you to see—God will accomplish the promises He made to Israel.
    That future event in history is fixed in His Plan of Redemption.
    It is not ours to know exact dates or circumstances of the Father’s fulfillment of future promises.
    Just trust that He will accomplish His sovereign plan.

    Pithy Summary

    The kingdom will come. The timing is not ours. Trust the Father’s plan.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Application: Trust Your Father

    And that leads me into an application of that reality.
    Spurgeon put it this way:
    “There is something better than knowing the times or the periods; it is good enough for us to know they are under the Father’s authority.”
    There is no reason to worry about the future events of history.
    For the same reason, there is no reason to worry about the future events of your life—no matter how cloudy, or even how dark and grim they may seem.
    Why?
    Notice who, specifically, Jesus tells us that these future things are fixed by.
    He doesn’t just say God set the times and seasons.
    He doesn’t use the Almighty One, or the Sovereign One, or the Lord Your God, to describe who has authority over the future.
    What does Jesus emphasize?
    It is who?
    The Father.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    And this is what you must come away from this knowing.
    Everything in the future—on the grand stage of the world, and on the small stage of your life—is crafted and sovereignly orchestrated by your Father who loves you.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    So when you are filled with worry,
    and heartbreak,
    wondering,
    “Why am I going through this?
    Why me?
    Why is this so hard?
    Why is this so confusing?
    Why is this time and season so difficult?”—
    Remember these words from Jesus: Your Father has fixed these times by His authority.
    And your Father loves you.
    His heart is so full of mercy and grace and boundless love for you.
    Remember the picture that Jesus gave us of the Father’s heart toward us sinners who repent.
    The Father of the prodigal ran to embrace His son.
    Remember how Jesus contrasted the love and grace of the Father to even wicked earthly father who would never give a stone when their son asks for bread.
    Matthew 7:11 ESV
    11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

    Pithy Summary:

    Remember that it is the Good Shepherd who leads you into the valleys of the shadow of death on the way to His house where you will dwell forever.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    And when you are in those dark valleys, where is He… dear church?
    He is With you.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Trust your Father and cast all your anxiety upon Him… for He cares for you.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Times are fixed. Seasons are set. But they are fixed by your Father.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    2. What Our Mission is - vs. 8b

    Transition to What Our Mission Is
    So after detailing what is not for us to know, Jesus informs us of what our mission is in verse 8,
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Look down with me as I read,
    Acts 1:8 ESV
    8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

    i. Witnesses of Him and to Him

    First see that we are to be His witnesses.
    We belong to… Jesus.
    It is His work we continue.
    It is His redemption and resurrection we proclaim and live out.
    Not only do we belong to Him—as witnesses we testify about Him.
    Christ is the focus of our mission.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    A witness of Jesus is someone who tells the truth about Him.
    [Pause to let it set in] As John wrote in his first letter, 1 John 1:1–2
    1 John 1:1–2 ESV
    1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
    Again, at its core, to be a witness is to be someone who sees something, and testifies about it.
    And we have behold, with the eyes of our heart, that Jesus is the Risen Lord.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Application: The gospel message we believe and proclaim

    And this is our simple testimony:
    Jesus Christ was God come in the flesh.
    He lived a life of perfect holiness.
    He died a death as a perfect sacrifice for sin.
    But He did not stay dead. Dear church He is risen — He presented Himself alive,
    and now He is exalted in Heaven.
    This is the gospel we proclaim: that if you believe in this Christ…if you believe that this Jesus was the divine Son of God…if you believe that the life He lived and the death He died was on your behalf…if you believe that He rose again and is exalted as Lord…then you will be saved.
    This is the gospel we testify to and this is the gospel we live in light of.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    And if you are here and you have not believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, hear the words of Peter just three chapters later, Acts 4:12
    Acts 4:12 ESV
    12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
    You cannot save yourself. All those other religions offering a path of self-justification or moral achievement lead strait to the gates of hell.
    He is the only Way. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

    ii. Purpose Statement of Acts

    As we will see, this commissioning by Christ is the purpose statement of Acts.
    With His last words Jesus said “you shall be my witnesses…” and Luke records this term “witness” 25 more times in his book.
    As Peter said at Pentecost, Acts 2:32
    Acts 2:32 ESV
    32 This Jesus… God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
    Again as Peter preaches in Solomon’s portico, Acts 3:15
    Acts 3:15 ESV
    15 you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
    Paul, speaking of the commissioning he received after his conversion on the Damascus road, said this in Acts 22:15
    Acts 22:15 ESV
    15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
    The Apostles beheld Jesus’ majesty as the risen Lord and they proclaimed Him and His gospel as faithful witnesses.

    iii. No Volunteering

    And the question is, are we faithful to this mission?
    [Pause to let it set in]
    None of us chooses to be involved in this mission or chooses to opt out of it.
    This mission is not just something for some Christians who feel called to be a missionary or an evangelist.
    It is not just something for some Christians who feel anointed by God to give their lives to preach and teach.
    As I said last week, each one of us is commanded by Christ to make disciples.
    So then, are you and I obedient to our King?
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Notice the definitive language of Christ in verse 8: “You shall be My witnesses.”
    If you are a follower of Christ,
    if you have believed in His gospel and proclaimed Him as Lord,
    if you are a member of this church—
    this is your mission: you shall be His witness.
    If people do not understand that we are about Christ, then we have failed the mission.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Like I said last week we must live up to that title of Christian.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    In order to truly be called a follower of Christ your life and your message must communicate that you follow Him.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    What the world should know about each of us, and what the world should know about this church, is that we are all about the Lord Jesus Christ.
    Why?
    Because this is Christ’s command.
    We have been commissioned for this work.
    He has given us our purpose.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Application: Are we faithful?

    Now we talked last week about the example of Christ in verse 1, to do and to teach.
    We talked about how we are all to be involved in the work of the ministry.
    Just as there is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian, there is no such thing as a paralyzed part of the body of Christ.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Each of you is to engage in serving and building up of the body in whatever ministry God has called and gifted you to.
    We are not just here in church to sit under the word preached. We are also here to serve the body.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    We are here to bear one another’s burdens, correct those who are straying, and encourage one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
    We are here to be teaching the next generation in our homes and in this church.
    We are here to engage in the discipleship of our children or of those younger in the faith than us.
    We are to be teaching and reaching the lost around us with the love of Christ and the message of His gospel.
    But this morning, before we get to our last sermon point I want to press in on our personal conduct,
    In Titus 2, Paul indicates that how Christians live their lives lays the platform for the believe-ability and effectiveness of their personal witness. Older and younger men and women are instructed in that chapter to live in such a way that, Titus 2:5, the “word of God may not be slandered.”
    And our conduct and our doctrine is to be, Titus 2:8, “irreproachable, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”
    A few years ago, at Clarus conference, Mark Dever was teaching on Romans 2 and he said something so profound:
    “You take God’s name in vain, not by swearing, but by sinning.”
    [repeat and pause for emphasis]
    “You take God’s name in vain, not by swearing, but by sinning.
    Do you, Christian, live in such a way as to bring shame and dishonor to him?
    Consider carefully your responsibility before the world as the one who bears Christ’s name.
    You don’t need to be perfect to be a Christian, but you do need to be truly born again.”
    It is not just your mouth that must proclaim that Jesus is Lord. Our lives must demonstrate the reality of that faith with true fruit.

    Pithy Summary

    We are His witnesses. Not volunteers. Not optional.
    We are commissioned and commanded by Christ our King.
    Do we cause the watching world to confirm the message we bring with the way we live?
    Or does our conduct cause them to curse His name?
    To quote MacArthur again:
    “The messenger must manifest the power of the message he is proclaiming.”
    [Pause to let it set in]

    3. Where Our Mission Goes – v. 8c

    After defining the focus of our mission—what it is not in verses 6-7, and what our mission is in the middle of verse 8—Jesus gives us the scope of our mission at the end of verse 8.
    Look back with me at the text.
    Acts 1:8 ESV
    8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

    i. Outline of Acts

    I want to start by pointing out that here we have the very outline of Acts. God, in His sovereign will, orchestrated the first 30 years of the church to follow this pattern laid out for us by Christ.
    The apostles carry out their mission from Christ, first in Jerusalem in chapters 1–7. These chapters center around the foundation of the church at Pentecost and the apostles’ preaching and teaching and is bookended by Peter’s sermon at Pentecost and Stephen’s sermon before his stoning outside the city.
    In chapters 8–12 we see the mission expand out to Judea and Samaria as the Gentiles begin to be reached with the gospel, first by Philip and then by Peter. This section includes the salvation of the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul.
    In the last third of the book we begin to see the mission expand like concentric ripples out into the ends of the earth, beginning with Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey in chapter 13 and ending with Paul’s journey in chains to Rome in chapter 28.

    ii. End of the Earth

    Now before we conclude, I want to zero in on this phrase, “end of the earth” this morning.
    Why does Jesus say it like that?
    There are many ways to describe the global scope of the mission. Why “ends of the earth”?
    Turn with me to Isaiah 49. In verse 6, God the Father declares to His Son, the suffering Servant,
    Isaiah 49:6
    Isaiah 49:6 LSB
    6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the preserved ones of Israel to return; I will also give You as a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
    Since Genesis 3, the world has been a dark place filled with sin.
    It is twisted, depraved and wicked.
    As the song goes, “do you feel that the world is broken?” We 100% do.
    But there is One Person: the Servant—and there is one Work: His suffering on the Cross that brings salvation’s light to all the nations, Jew and Gentile.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    He suffered, died and raised to life—
    that He may call us—
    out of the darkness of our sin—
    into His marvelous light.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    And where does the Father promise that the light of His Son shall go?
    To the end of the earth.
    Do you want to know what mission you are part of?
    Our mission is that which brings light from heaven to conquer the darkest corner of the earth.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Do you want to live a life of significance?
    It doesn’t get more significant than the mission of the church.
    It does not get more grand than the mission of Christ which goes from one end of the universe to the other.
    Turn back further to Psalm 72. Psalm 72 is a messianic prophecy about the glorious rule and reign of the Davidic King.
    In verse 8, King Solomon writes, Psalm 72:8
    Psalm 72:8 LSB
    8 May he also have dominion from sea to sea And from the River to the ends of the earth.
    The Messiah will have dominion.
    That is a word that points all the way back to Genesis 1, when God created Adam and blessed him saying Genesis 1:28
    Genesis 1:28 LSB
    28 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.”
    That word, dominion is rarely used, and Solomon uses it to point out that this Messiah will have the dominion, the rule over all creation, that Adam lost in the fall.
    He is to have dominion from the River, likely the Jordan River — from Israel’s boundary, to the end of the earth.
    The Messiah will not just reign over Jerusalem.
    He won’t just reign over Israel.
    He doesn’t just reign over your hearts in a spiritual way.
    One day, He will rule as far as every eye on earth can see.
    That is His destiny.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    One more passage. Go back a little more to Psalm 22. This is the famous Psalm prophesying vividly of the crucifixion of the Messiah.
    Jesus quotes verse 1 of this Psalm on the cross when He says with David, Psalm 22:1
    Psalm 22:1 LSB
    1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me…
    Well at the end of Psalm 22, after the Messiah is executed, He starts speaking again, implying what?
    He is Risen.
    In verses 22 and following the Risen Messiah receives the answer for why He was forsaken by the Father, look at verse 27, Psalm 22:27–28
    Psalm 22:27–28 LSB
    27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh, And all the families of the nations will worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s And He rules over the nations.
    All the ends of the earth, men and women from every nation will remember and repent of their rebellion against God and return to Him through the Son.

    Application: This is why We go

    This is why we go to the ends of the earth.
    This is why the global mission of the church is so grand in its scope.
    This is why we endeavor to support and send out missionaries to Myanmar, and Cameroon, and Turkey, and Mexico.
    This is why we plan short term trips to assist and encourage our missionaries.
    We have the extraordinary privilege of expanding and extending the dominion of Christ.
    We send and we go to the ends of the earth because we long for Christ to experience His full reward.
    We go where His redemption, and His reign, and His reward must be.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    What greater love offering could we give to our Lord than to play a role in His mission —
    A mission to save a great multitude which no one could ever count, myriads and myriads of redeemed from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the Lamb to cry out to Him in worship saying, Revelation 7:10
    Revelation 7:10 ESV
    10 “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
    Of this glorious day, the Prophet Isaiah wrote that the Suffering Servant would see His seed, the joy for which He endured the cross, His redeemed bought by His blood, He would see us and be satisfied.
    This is the epic culmination of our mission. The worship of the Savior by all those He came to save.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    As Piper is famous for saying,
    “missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is”
    How awesome is it that Christ includes us in this glorious work?
    [Pause to let it set in]
    The mission of being a witness of Jesus Christ is the most noble, most honorable, most history-making, world-changing work in all of history.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Oh dear church, may our zeal to see our Savior glorified and exalted motivate us to be faithful in carrying out our mission—in our homes, in our communities, in our city, in our nation, and to the ends of the earth.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    Punchy Summary (for quotable emphasis): The mission is global.
    The scope is epic.
    The goal is worship.
    The light goes to the ends of the earth.
    And we get to take it there.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Conclusion

    Transition and Synopsis

    In conclusion, we are not prophets or political activists trying to orchestrate the coming of Christ.
    No.
    We are sent by Christ to be witnesses—carrying out His mission to establish His reign to the ends of the earth and call His redeemed from every tribe and tongue and nation to repentance.
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Call to Action

    Our mission—whether we accept it or not—is to be witnesses with a mission that goes to the ends of the earth.
    [Pause to let it set in]
    We are to be witnesses to Christ.
    We proclaim Him.
    The question I ask you again is this:
    Are you faithful and effective at what Christ has commanded and commissioned you to do?
    [Pause to let it set in]
    As Spurgeon writes,
    “every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
    [Pause to let it set in]

    Closing Illustration

    So many in the early church faithfully lived up to this commissioning and sealed their witness to Christ with their blood—proclaiming the truth that they knew with their last breaths.
    So much so that the Greek word for witnesses—martures—came to be synonymous with those who gave their life for Christ.
    Their dying testimony, “the blood of the martyrs,” as the second-century theologian Tertullian stated, “became the seed of the church.”
    Seventy years ago this last Thursday—and I will finish with this—seventy years ago Jim Elliot and his four missionary companions were killed in the jungle of Ecuador by the Auca Indians they were reaching with the gospel. Five young wives lost husbands. Nine children lost fathers that day.
    Jim’s wife Elisabeth, in her biography of her husband, recorded that the world “called it a nightmare tragedy.” But then she added,
    “The world did not recognize the truth of the second clause in Jim Elliot’s credo:
    He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep… to gain …what he cannot… lose.”
    He was a faithful witness to the end.
    Will you be?
    Let’s Pray
    Benediction
    Beloved congregation, as we go from this place, let us hold fast to our identity and calling: We are not called to speculate on times or seasons, nor to chase earthly power, but to trust our loving Father who has sovereignly fixed all things in His plan. We are witnesses of the risen Christ—proclaiming His grace that saves, living out His truth in holy conduct, and carrying His light empowered by the Spirit to our homes, our city, our nation, and to the very ends of the earth. May this mission fill us with zeal, that every tribe and tongue might turn to worship our King, for the glory of His name.
    Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
    2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”

      • Acts 1:6ESV

      • Acts 1:7ESV

      • Acts 1:8ESV

      • Acts 1:8ESV

      • Isaiah 49:6ESV

      • Psalm 72:8ESV

      • Psalm 22:27–28ESV

  • Communion/Give Me Jesus
  • Turn Your Eyes

      • 2 Corinthians 13:14ESV

      • Ephesians 1:16–21ESV

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