Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

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CONTEXT

CHAPTER OVERVIEW: After Cornelius and other Gentiles are reported to have received the Holy Spirit, the church in Jerusalem agrees to send teachers to the church in Antioch. Now the church in Antioch sets up an initiative for a new mission. In the next two chapters, Barnabas, Saul (who after Acts 13:9 is called Paul), and their companions go on their first outreach expedition through Cyprus and into Pamphylia and Pisidia in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Based on this journey, commentators note that the preaching of the Word always brings forth new adherents, but also enemies of the gospel or false prophets, who—whether out of ill will or ignorance or both—continue to resist the message. As people come to faith from various regions and ethnic groups, commentators recognize the universal appeal of the gospel.

Esther Chung-Kim et al., eds., Acts: New Testament, vol. VI, Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014), 171.

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Ver. 47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, &c.] For though Christ in his first commission restrained his disciples from going into the Gentiles, and preaching to them, yet when he enlarged their commission after his resurrection, he bid them go into all nations, and preach the Gospel to every creature; and told them, that they should be his witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth; see Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8 unless this should rather be thought to refer to what follows: saying; or as it is written, as the Syriac version supplies; or because so saith the Scripture, as the Ethiopic version, namely in Isa. 49:6. I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles; to enlighten the Gentiles that sit in darkness, by the preaching of the Gospel to them, and the spirit of God attending it: this supposes the Gentiles to have been in darkness; as they were about divine things, before the times of the Gospel: they had no true knowledge of God himself; for though they knew there was a God, they did not know, at least but few of them, that there was but one God; and none of them knew any thing of him as in Christ; they had not a revelation of his will, they were without the written law, and were strangers to the true manner of worshipping the divine Being; they knew nothing at all of the Messiah, and of his righteousness and salvation by him; nor of the spirit of God, and the operations of his grace, nor of the resurrection of the dead, and were very ignorant of a future state: it was therefore an unspeakable mercy to them, that Christ was appointed to be a light to them; not in a way of nature, as he is that light which lightens every man that comes into the world; but in a way of grace, through the ministration of the Gospel, and by the special illuminations of the divine Spirit; whereby they see there is a righteous judge, and that there will be a righteous judgment; and that sin is exceeding sinful, and can’t be atoned for by them, and therefore they are in themselves miserable and undone; and they further see, that pardon and righteousness are only by Christ, and that salvation is alone in him. The words are spoken by God the father to his son, and express the eternal decree of God, and the designation of Christ to be the light of his people; the mission of him in time as the light of the world, and the exhibition of him in the Gospel, for the illumination of men by his spirit and grace. In the Hebrew text it is, I will give thee, &c. for all this springs from the free grace of God; Christ in all respects is the gift of God, as he is the head of the church, and the Saviour of the body, so as he is the light of men; and it is necessary that he should be light, in order to be salvation, as follows; for though men may go to hell in the dark, yet not to heaven; the way of the wicked is darkness, but the path of the just is shining light: those whom God saves, he enlightens with the light of life: that thou shouldst be for salvation to the ends of the earth; impetratively as the author of it, and applicatively by means of the Gospel, which publishes salvation by Christ; and is the power of God unto salvation, to Gentiles as well as Jews, even to all that believe, in what part of the world soever they live: thus what was decreed and resolved on by God the father, and was declared by him to his son, is applied to his ministers and ambassadors, who personated him; so that what they did, he may be said to do; and who by them was to go, and did go to the Gentiles, and enlighten them with the light of the Gospel, and became salvation to them; so that this prophecy is produced by the apostles, to vindicate their conduct, as well as to shew the agreement between the command of Jesus Christ to his disciples, and the decree of God the father; as also to illustrate and confirm the particular order, which the Apostle Paul had, to go to the Gentiles, and to which he may have a regard here; see Acts 26:17. In the Hebrew text it is, my salvation; provided, promised, and sent by God, the Saviour of his people.

John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 2, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809), 272–273.

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STUDY

Evangelism. The proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed. The goal of evangelism is to participate in God’s work of bringing *salvation through *faith in Christ as enabled by the Holy Spirit. Traditionally, Reformed theologians see no contradiction between God’s *predestination of the elect and the necessity of sharing the gospel with unbelievers through *preaching, conversation and relationships. Reformed evangelism has historically emphasized God’s *sovereignty, the efficacious work of the Holy Spirit and the responsibility of God’s people to invite others to hear and respond to the call of the gospel.

Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 50.

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Evangelism Particularly Important for Laypeople

Themes: Church: Nature; Evangelism; Mission

“Evangelism is … the whole life of the church surging forth into the world to accomplish the mission given to the church by her Lord.… Particularly important is the witness of laymen, for they, still more than the clergy, are Christ’s representatives in everyday life, in the frontier region where the church and the world collide.”

SOURCE: T. A. Kantonen, The Theology of Evangelism (Muhlenberg, 1954), 96.

John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

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Spurgeon’s Early Dedication to Evangelism

Themes: Evangelism; Joy

C. H. Spurgeon converted on January 6, 1850. On June 11, 1850, [he] wrote to his mother: “I have 70 people whom I regularly visit on Saturday. I do not give a tract and go away; but I sit down and endeavour to draw their attention to spiritual realities. I have great reason to believe the Lord is working …” (p. 166). [This was] eight days before his sixteenth birthday!
His first convert gave him such rejoicing that he wrote: “If anybody said to me, ‘Someone has left you £20,000,’ I should not have given a snap of my fingers for it, compared with the joy I felt when I was told God had saved a soul through my ministry” (p. 167).

SOURCE: Richard E. Day, Shadow of the Broad Brim: The Life and Legacy of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Judson, 1955).

John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

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Two Stories ( One Here) of Hesitating to Evangelize

Themes: Evangelism

On one occasion D. L. Moody played tennis a whole afternoon, without mentioning religion, with a young fellow who was expecting to be buttonholed at once, and was ready to resent it. It was after he had won the young fellow to himself that he won him for Christ (p. 44).

Frances Ridley Harvergal during the school holidays used to have some of the village girls at the rectory to teach them singing. But she never spoke to them on spiritual things. Years later, she was asked to visit a dying woman, whom she discovered to be a former pupil from her singing class. “I often wished in those days that you would speak to me about my soul, and I often lingered at the gate when the others had gone, hoping you would do so, but you never did. Sometime afterwards someone else led me to the Saviour, but I ought to have been yours, Miss Frances, I ought to have been yours” (p. 103).

SOURCE: Edward Last, Hand-Gathered Fruit (Prairie Book Room, 1963).

John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

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The Local Church and Evangelism by Erroll Hulse

Present Day Evangelism by A W Pink

The Art Of Man-Fishing by Thomas Boston

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DEVOTION

Every Place is a Place to Talk about Jehovah

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BONUS SERMON

Gospel Missions – Acts 13:49 by C H Spurgeon