Foundation Stones #5 – Living by a Life Not Your Own | Christ Within You & the True Christian Life

He knew that a guy named Saul, a fella named Saul, was going to someday persecute the church in Jerusalem, and He knew the church in Jerusalem was going to end. It was going to be killed dead. It would cease to exist, and there were 12 men who knew at least six cities where the gospel would be received. In fact, they knew 35 towns where the gospel would be. And He knew the church in Jerusalem was going to end. It was going to be killed. It would cease to exist, and there were 12 men who knew at least six cities where the gospel would be received. In fact, they knew 35 where the gospel would be received.

It is 10 years later. 10 years later, and Saul…I said to my wife came into the meeting tonight, did you know that Paul of Tarsus was responsible for almost all the growth of the church in the first century. He was causing the church of Jesus Christ to grow even before he was saved. The apostles were in Jerusalem. I don’t know what they’d still be there today if it hadn’t been for Saul. Maybe they were stuck. They may have forgotten the Great Commission.

Saul came and struck with persecution, and the thousands of people fled, and the 12 apostles knew how to go from village to village and town to town, preaching the gospel in Judea. And when those people got out there, into the out yonder, they knew how to leave Jerusalem and go out in pairs and preach in those villages and those towns where the Christians had gone and to raise up the church. Brothers, one of the greatest and fastest growths of the church came through Saul’s persecution. Watch the church.

Three people belong to the church. It is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s located in eternity past. Wherever that is, wherever it is, has nothing to do with this earth. The church is confined to the city of Nazareth for 30 years inside the breast of Jesus Christ. Church life is then confined to 13, 15, or 20 people in Galilee for 3-4 years. Then it is confined in the city of Jerusalem with 3,000 people all in one town for six years. And then finally, boom. 30, 40, or 50 towns are flooded with Christians where there has never been a witness to the body of Christ. They got homes. They start meeting. The apostles come, they preach in the streets. There are people standing out there in the marketplace and saying, “Hey, I saw you 10 years ago. You’re the guy who came through here, weren’t you? I remember you. You were a lot younger. You have gray hair now. You know, you’re getting bald, aren’t you? I remember you young guys. Yeah, I heard you and I repented. What is it you’re talking about? I’ve been wondering why you didn’t come back.

The thoroughness of the Lord preparing these men for anything. Let me give you another illustration. If you read the Gospels real carefully, you will notice that the Lord allowed the 12 to baptize. Did you know that when the Lord was preaching in Galilee, His disciples baptized? How many do you figure they baptized? I don’t have any idea, but I can tell you this: it probably amounted to very little or nothing. No churches came out of it. There was no indwelling Christ. Where were those people when persecution hit? I have no idea, but I can tell you what came out of it. On the day of Pentecost, 12 men had had enough practice at baptizing that they could baptize 3,000 people in one day without a hitch.

The Lord was preparing them for their work. When He told them to go out and pick up the bread on the side of the hill when He fed the 3,000, that was preparation. When He told them to go get that donkey, that was preparation. When He told them to baptize those people, that was preparation. And when He told them to go out to those 35 towns and villages, that was preparation for Paul’s persecution and destruction of the church in Jerusalem, and a great mighty explosion of the growth of the church. And they were prepared. Stephen and Agabus and Silas and Matthias and Barnabas. Who? Philip, all watched, and they watched those apostles go into Judea in twos. The Lord had prepared the 12 men well, and those six young men didn’t even know it, but they were learning to be workers, watching workers for six years.

And tonight, before that camera was turned on, do you know what I was doing? Do you have any idea what I was doing? Well, tell me what I was doing. No, I wasn’t preparing you to be workers. That is something I cannot do. Only God can call you to be that. I was preparing you, in a very small way, for a lifetime of service to the bride of Jesus Christ, to that girl. To serve her and to make her beautiful, to care for that girl. And it is as simple as picking up the bread, sending men out in pairs, and then one day you find out that these little things are monumentally important.

Those six men will one day discover it is monumentally important what they found out in Jerusalem. That fellowship, they would continue with Christ throughout their life and with others. And it would be the bond of the church. I want you to watch one of those brothers. I want you to watch a brother learn well; he was a good watcher.

Tonight, before these cameras, these lights were turned on. I tried to talk to you about being able to see little things. Well, there was a brother out there who saw little things. He had noticed. He had watched. You know what he had watched? He had watched pairs. I doubt that they had ever mentioned going out in pairs. That’s just organic. Won’t you watch this brother? Peter draws him over to the side and says, “Uh, I got this letter. I don’t have time to answer this letter. We get letters like this all the time, but this one is really urgent. Uh, Barnabas, can you take a few weeks off? Barnabas is a young brother. Oh, sure. What is the meaning? I don’t care what it is. There’s these groups of, this is, it’s crazy, this thing. This, I can’t make it out. It seems to me there’s some Jews, some of the chosen people of God, in a town in Antioch. You know where Antioch is? You know Antioch? You had to land in Antioch when you came from Cyprus. And there’s something here about a bunch of Gentiles meeting with them. I don’t know what that means, but you must; you go check it out for me, would you? We couldn’t possibly come; we’re too busy in Judea. The center of God’s work is in Judea. It’s not out in some far-fetched place like Antioch. Will you go, Barnabas? His first assignment?” He goes and he goes to Antioch and does he get, oh an eyeful.

This place has been desegregated. They’ve let the Gentiles in, and they’re all sitting together. There’s nobody on the back row. They’re all sitting there, and they’re uncircumcised Gentiles praising the Lord, and these Jews are saying, “We were looking for Peter. We need big help.” Barnabas said, “Well, he sent me to represent him.” Well, tell us what to do. Shall we throw these Gentiles out? Well, did they call Him Lord? Yes. Did they look like they’re saved? They do, but they’re not circumcised. Barnabas, what are we going to do? Barnabas says, “Well, Peter told me to make the decision. Let’s go for it.” And the instincts are what he learned in Jerusalem.

As soon as he makes that decision, he heads out for Tarsus to find himself a coworker. And in doing that, he guaranteed that the gospel would be preached to you and to me. That’s how important it was that there be co-workers.

Your salvation and mine hung on it, that men work in twos. Paul came there with him, and they learned how to serve the Gentiles. And from there, they took the gospel to the heathen gentile world. Brothers, I want to say it again. The pattern is holding. The pattern is holding, that which began in God, the Christian, the church, and the worker, and the way the Christian life is lived, and the way the church fellowships, and the way the worker is raised up and trained, and the way the worker works, finds its way into Galilee. Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem, and holds even in Judea, when six new workers are raised up. And praise the Lord, that pattern holds all the way to Antioch. And if I live long enough this week, we’re going to get it to its high-water mark.