Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Amazing Disciples

Mark Howard

4. It’s Not My Gift

Father in heaven, as we are now focusing on this lesson that we've been going through, again I pray for the guidance of your Holy Spirit, Lord, not just to give us an intellectual understanding but to stir our hearts with the spirit of mission, the spirit that motivated our master.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay now we were in the handout that you have on page, it's page 13 in the handout, which is I don't know what page it is in your hand.

It's the second page back, but it's, The top of the page is number 3, it says, it's not my gift.

Now before I get into that, I just want to tell you where we're going to pick up, but I want to show you something in scripture that I meant to look at this morning.

I hadn't noticed this until some time recently and I just, I probably should preface what I'm about to say by saying, because I mentioned it this morning, that our message is a prophetic message.

You know how Peter, when he was on the boat we talked about this morning, and Jesus performed that miracle of the fish, and how in that moment Peter realized he was in the presence of the divine Son of God?

No more was it the carpenter from Nazareth, but he realized that he was in the presence of 1 who controlled all the forces of nature.

I want you to understand something that when we get into prophecy, and we're preaching prophecy and we hear it sometimes, criticism, people say, Well, we need to tell people about Christ and all we're telling them about is this metal image and these beasts and what have you.

When you're sharing the vision of Daniel 2 and somebody's following along, at some point in that study it clicks for them that this dusty old book in something written 600 years before Christ has just outlined the history of the world all the way down to the present day and it's happened just like it was written.

And in that moment I'm going to tell you what they're not thinking about.

In that moment they are not thinking about metal men.

In that moment they are now thinking that there is a divine hand behind this book and the Spirit of God enlightens their mind and they are gripped as they come face to face with the divinity of Christ just as Peter did in that boat.

That's what's happening in the evangelistic meanings.

They're not just like, oh, metal man, cool.

The Spirit of God comes upon them and they're convicted that the Bible is true.

There's something to it besides just a human book.

And there's a God behind it who knows the future and He knows their future.

Now I'm saying all that to say I am very supportive and strongly affirming of our prophetic message.

Having said all that, sometimes as Seventh-day Adventists we can get more caught up in trying to determine where we are by what's happening in the world with the signs of the times than we are with the mission that Christ gave us.

We're in Acts 1 and if you look at verse 6, we'll pick up in verse 6.

The Bible says, therefore when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Now you understand that the Jews thought that the Messiah was going to come and conquer the Romans and set them up as an earthly kingdom, set up His earthly kingdom.

And so the disciples of Christ had that false understanding that was somewhat addressed.

Jesus had addressed it with them but they still didn't fully get it.

The crucifixion wasn't supposed to happen.

He was supposed to set up his earthly throne.

He went on the road to Emmaus with 2 of his disciples and he tried to reveal to them, look, this is what Scripture said would happen, that the Christ would suffer and die.

Oh yeah, that is what the Bible said would happen.

But now here they are again, okay Lord, we got it.

Now is it time that you're going to set up the kingdom, the earthly kingdom.

Verse 7, And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Now I want you to think about that for a minute.

I mean, he's the 1 that gave the discourse in Matthew 24.

He's the 1 that gave the revelation of John.

Look, it's not for you to know times and seasons.

It's not for you to worry about all this.

But you shall receive power when the Spirit has come upon you.

He's telling him not to worry about the signs of the time?

He couldn't be saying that because he said elsewhere to worry about the signs of the times.

It's not for you to know the times or seasons, but here's the point.

The disciples had a tendency just like we have a tendency to get distracted from the mission that Christ gave.

And the signs of the times and all that we can look at there, the coming of Christ is not going to happen when we expect it to happen if we don't do the work Christ gave us to do.

Go with me to the book of 1 Peter chapter 3.

And I want 2 Peter 3, pardon me, and verse 9.

Now notice what it says, the Lord is not slack.

Let's back up so that we know the context.

Chapter 3 verse 1 says, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, which just means letter, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the what?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as it were from the beginning of creation." So what's the context?

People are going to say the 2nd coming, Jesus is coming, and other people are going to say, no, no, no, look, we've heard this, we've heard this before.

The fathers of all fell asleep saying the same thing.

Now he says in that context, verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, the promise of his coming.

No, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness.

So he's giving us the reason why the Lord hasn't come yet.

But is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So what is the reason for delay that Peter gives right here?

If there is an apparent delay of the Lord, is He slacking on His promise?

Because He is patient, long-suffering, wanting everybody to have that opportunity to come to repentance.

Verse 10, But the day of the Lord will come, it will come, as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God." What does it mean to hasten something?

Don't give me a book from the ABC or some pastor over here says, does the Bible say that we can hurry up the coming of Christ?

Says looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Kameron DeVasher

1. Orientation

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another day of life.

Thank you that we can be right here, right now, on this day, for this purpose.

What a blessing it is, not only to be allowed to have a relationship with you, but also in your wisdom that you have entrusted us as your co-laborers in this work of redemption.

So Now as we turn our attention to our time here, we want to dedicate ourselves once again to you.

We want to invite and appeal that you would send to us your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, to soften our hearts, to sharpen our minds, to make us more like Jesus, that we may be faithful and useful in his cause.

I'll tell you just a very, very little bit about myself because you didn't come to learn about me.

You came to learn about information and resources and tools you can put to use as a missionary.

But I came from the South, as we were just talking about with our dear sister up here.

She's from my hometown of Madison, Tennessee.

And I went to, when I grew up, I grew up in the Seventh Adventist Church.

I like to joke that I'm the single most Adventist person on the planet.

I was born to Seventh Adventist parents in a Seventh Adventist Hospital that my mom worked at, that hospital.

And my parents went to the church just across the street from the hospital, and they still do to this day.

I went to school at the school across the street from the church, an elementary school.

And then when it was time for high school, I went to the Adventist Academy across the next street, right on the same campus from where I was born, went to church, went to elementary school, went to Academy.

And when it was, when I was old enough, I had to leave home finally and I went to college.

But of course I went, we had a college inside of Tennessee at that time and it had just recently gotten a name change to Southern Adventist University, but it was a couple hours from our home, and I went there until I was 22 years old.

I was...and then I took...I got a degree in the only thing...

I don't know if it's the only thing, but it's certainly the thing I was most prepared in life for, which was religious education, because that's all I had had was a religious education.

So I got a degree in religious education and I got a job at an Adventist Academy.

And in that, since that time, I have married an Adventist lady.

We have 3 little Seventh-day Adventist children.

And I'm right here in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, right?

I was literally born in the church, and I haven't left yet.

And I used to think about that not being a powerful testimony, but I realized by looking around the statistics do not bear out that people born in the church stay in the church.

Anyway, I went to Southern Adventist University, but I mentioned the name change.

Before that it would been Southern College of Seventh Adventist.

They stepped it up to university level but before that it had a different name Southern Missionary College that's right and what's interesting is you'll find out that This wasn't unique to that 1 school.

For instance, anybody know what the original name of the Loma Linda University was?

It's College of Medical Evangelists, CME, the College of Medical Evangelists, Southern Missionary College.

I'm thinking about Washington Adventist University, used to be Washington Missionary College.

Andrews University, right here in Michigan, used to be known as the Emanuel Missionary College.

There was the expectation that when you were a Seventh-day Adventist and you got an Adventist education, you were a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church, that you were expected to be a missionary.

It was supposed to be part of our DNA that we were a mission.

We were not just to be another denomination or option amongst Christian churches.

We were to be a movement raised up by God to give a distinct message to the world.

The Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists believes in that mission still to this day.

Thus they have the Emmanuel Missionary, well the Emmanuel Institute that gets its name from that.

In an article from the Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald of August 25, 1903, this description was given.

Emanuel Missionary College has for its sole purpose the training of missionaries.

Oh, and by the way, you can get a career.

It's almost offhandedly, oh, you can be a nurse, you can be a whatever the thing, but the 1 thing you're there for is to be a missionary, and the other thing is the side dish.

In those days every church member was a missionary and every occupation was a mission field.

Loughborough in his book The Great Second Advent Movement wrote on page 396, you'll find this quote there, to qualify laborers fully prepared for work in any part of the world where they may be called in the providence of God to labor is the 1 great desire and aim of the teachers of the Emanuel Missionary College.

I believe that the Seventh-daveness Church and I know this sounds heretical a little bit, but just give me a second.

We have too many members that are merely members.

That we've settled into a membership of this denomination instead of being a missionary for Jesus Christ.

There is this concept that every member is supposed to be made.

I want to take out, I want you to take out your Bibles.

I assume you brought your Bibles with you, yes?

But in Ephesians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, right there in that little sandwich of books, Ephesians.

We find Paul's description of the work of ministry.

And I like to preface this when I preach this in a sermon that every Adventist evangelist is familiar with Luke 23 43 in the problem comma where Jesus when dying on the cross looks to his side and he gives that beautiful promise to the thief on the cross But if you read it with the punctuation as it's inserted in the scripture, it gives a misunderstanding to what Jesus was saying.

Did Jesus say, today you will be with me in paradise?

Or did he say, I say to you today, comma, you will be with me in paradise?

That comma makes a big difference, right?

And we have to explain to people that, what the words are right, but the punctuation gives a wrong meaning to the words.

We have to kind of dissect that a little bit.

Look at Ephesians chapter 4, and look what God has appointed in the church to do the work of ministry in the church.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, the Apostle Paul says, and he himself, and notice that's he, capital H, himself, capital H.

Who is the he himself that Paul received this instruction from?

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

Now clearly, is everyone called to be a pastor, a teacher, an administrator in the church?

But if you say some are, that implies that the majority are not.

So what is the job of those responsibilities?

What is the duty that they are called to?

And does anyone here have a King James Version of the Bible with them today?

I like your southern accent right here on the front row.

So if you could read to us Ephesians chapter 4 verse 12 as it reads punctuation in the King James Version.

For the perfecting of the saints, for the, comma, for the work of the ministry, comma, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Pastors, Bible teachers, evangelists, apostles, all of those listed responsibilities, what are their jobs in the local church, apparently, or for the church members.

The first 1 is to perfect the saints, that's job number 1.

The next 1 is to do the work of ministry, and the third 1 is to edify or build up the body of Christ.

2. What is a Disciple?

Father in heaven, I am so thankful for another day of life, and more than that, Lord, the spiritual life that we have in Jesus Christ.

Father, many of us sit here today with a knowledge of Christ, and don't half appreciate it for what it is and don't realize what it's like for so many who don't know Him and don't know how to know Him.

So Lord, as we've come here to learn how to be Your witnesses, We pray the Holy Spirit that came upon that early church would come upon us, Lord, and would give us an understanding on how to win souls for Jesus.

Now I want you to go with me to Matthew 28.

Some of the things covered this week I know are going to be, there are going to be some things that are repetitive because I know there's this whole class on the Gospel Commission so I'm not going to break down Matthew 28 but I do want to reference it and say a few things about it.

Matthew 28 verse 18, this is the most popular probably text but not the only text about the Great Commission.

Matthew 28 verse 18 says, And Jesus spoke, let's start with verse 16, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and do what?

Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Now, there's so much I want to say, but I'm not going to.

And Literally, it means to teach a person what it means to be a disciple.

I say that because that comes and then baptism comes and then there's more teaching that comes and there are people in our church today, in the Seventh-day Adventist church today that say, you know, why all this teaching before baptism?

But what he says there, and I like it specifically, again, in the New King James, he says, go make disciples, teach them to be disciples.

And how many of you have heard this before, this passage?

I mean, I don't know of most, I don't know, I really don't know many Christians who haven't heard Matthew 28, 18 to 20.

But I will tell you this, there's a great misunderstanding as to what a disciple is.

And I want to just take a moment to look at that because this is the commission.

Incidentally, this commission, if you have read this in the book, if you haven't read the book, Go Teach All Nations in Desire of Ages, I'd encourage you to do that.

In that chapter it's very clear that this commission was not given just to the 11 that were there present at the time, but that this commission belongs to everyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ.

And so it's your commission, it's my commission.

The Lord has commissioned us to make disciples.

Well, you know, if you're told to make something, it's helpful to know what it is you're making.

And if you're not clear and I'm not clear on what a disciple is, then how do we know that we're doing it?

And so I want to take a little time this morning in looking at what the Bible says a disciple is.

We're going through text here for the most part, just looking at different passages in Scripture about discipleship.

We are going to use a handout for our next class, and as many of you have that, and if you don't, we'll get you 1, and you can follow along, but we're going to Start let me ask this question Do you think there's a difference between a Christian and a disciple Okay, let me ask the follow-up question.

So, if we're saying there is and there shouldn't be, then what is the difference that we see if we say, if you are 1 who says, yeah, I see a difference between a Christian and a disciple, what is the difference that you see?

So, I kind of picked up that a Christian, I'm sorry, a disciple is an active Christian.

That's kind of where, but you know, biblically, there is no such distinction.

And I want you to see that in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 11.

Now there's a back story to this and I'm not giving you right now, but I want you to notice that they're building up the church in Antioch And Barnabas is there with the church members.

They're having a lot of success there and so much so he wants to go get Paul in on the action.

And So in Acts 11, verse 25, it says, Acts 11, verse 25, are you guys there?

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people.

In fact, it's interesting here, now some of you may know this, but the Methodist church, the Methodists, the early Methodists did not call themselves the Methodists.

They were called the Methodists by other people and it was a slur because they had a method for everything.

John Wesley had been convicted about the importance of holiness, of living, and so he was careful in his life because he wanted to honor God.

And they said, you've got a method for everything.

Well, evidently this happened with the early church, only they were called Christians.

Man all you ever talk about is Christ this and Christ that.

Oh that would be why people called us Christians today.

So there's not a biblical distinction between a Christian and a disciple.

We're just going to look at a handful of disciple passages in the Bible.

Now before we read in Luke 6, open your Bible to Luke 6, we're going to Luke 6 40.

Before we read this, I want to step out of the realm of Christianity for a minute, okay?

We're stepping out of religion, so I don't want a religious answer, okay?

I'm not telling you to not be a Christian for a minute.

I'm saying I don't want a religious answer for this question because the word disciple is not limited to Christianity.

What in the general sense does the word disciple mean?

When you think disciple, what is a disciple?

They're a follower, a follower of somebody.

To learn of that person so they can what?

3. Your Gift or Mine?

You know, evangelism is a combination, especially training, is a combination of inspiration and conviction.

Inspiration is great, but there needs to be a level of conviction.

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