Pastor Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church and as a missionary pastor I regularly
get asked questions regarding missions and church planning and living in a foreign country
and I decided I want to start making regular videos to discuss these things to help people
that have questions, people that might want to become missionaries one day or might want
to visit on a missions trip and so in this video what I want to discuss is Acts chapter
one verse eight.
This is a very famous verse in Baptist churches you'll often see Acts one verse eight on the
wall behind the church and they'll say that we're trying to reach our Jerusalem and I
think that's a great phrase and a great idea and I'm going to read you Acts chapter one
verse eight real quickly.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and on the uttermost
part of the earth and so here Jesus mentions four different areas and he first mentions
Jerusalem which is where they are located and so the first church it was meeting in
Jerusalem what he's saying is I eventually want you to branch out into other areas and
as we read through the book of Acts we see that the fulfillment of that is really getting
churches started in these areas and so I want you to notice in this verse it says both in
Jerusalem it says both but then four places are mentioned the question would be why does
it use the word both if there's four places mentioned but the Bible saying is both in
Jerusalem and in all Judea both in Jerusalem and in Samaria both in Jerusalem and onto
the uttermost part of the earth the idea is that as you're branching out and getting churches
started in different areas that you can never forsake your local area the first local area
that God has blessed you with that God has led you to that you're centrally located in
that must remain strong as you're also going out and starting churches in other areas question
is did they obey this well not really at first because what you see is them doing a lot of
soul winning they're getting persecution and the church is growing it's becoming huge which
the enemies of God are very mad about then in Acts chapter 7 you have the famous stoning
of Stephen and then of course Saul who would one day become Paul the Apostle was there
for that event and then in Acts 8 verse 1 the Bible says and Saul was consenting onto
his death and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at
Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria
except the Apostles so all of a sudden they're scattered into Judea and also Samaria which
are two of the areas that Jesus said he wanted you know them to reach not just Jerusalem
but all Judea and then Samaria but notice it was the church at Jerusalem they have that
one church at Jerusalem then in Acts 9 verse 31 then had the church is plural rest throughout
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria or edified and walking in the fear of the Lord in the
comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied now all of a sudden they've got churches started
in Judea all Judea says and also Samaria which are two of the areas mentioned in Acts chapter
1 verse 8 so the idea that Jesus is referencing is the idea of church planting because if
you really want to fully reach Samaria what you need is a bonafide real church in that
area that's going soul winning every single week it's preaching the Word of God it's getting
people baptized that is doing their best to fulfill the Great Commission and labors are
being added into the harvest to go out and do the work and so every church should have
this mindset of wanting to get churches started not just becoming a strong church in your
local area but eventually get churches started now of course you've got to start with your
Jerusalem you've got to become strong in your local area before you're gonna be able
to reach other areas but the goal is that as you grow and as another church invested
to start your church in the past you ought to do the same as you grow and become strong
and invest into starting in a new church yourself of course there's a lot of questions that
come up like what about missions trips to fulfill this Acts 1 verse 8 and things like
that what I'll say is missions trips are a great supplement to Acts chapter 1 verse 8
but if you really want to fully reach those areas you need to get churches started before
our church in Manila was started we actually had a missions trip and what that told us
was there's definitely a need and we decided pastor Amanda's decided let's go and start
that church so missions trips obviously have their role and there's certain areas of the
world where maybe you can't really start a church but a missions trip is a great thing
to do at this time really the idea that for every church ought to be we want to become
strong and grow and eventually reach all Judea eventually reach Samaria eventually
your best to reach the uttermost part of the earth and if every church had that goal we
could do a great job of getting real bonafide churches started throughout the world thank
you and God bless