Topic
Missiology
44 sermons · All topics
The Conversion of Lydia
Acts 16:6–15 presents the Macedonian call and the conversion of Lydia as twin demonstrations of divine sovereignty in the advance of the gospel. The Holy Spirit's redirection of Paul's itinerary, the night vision, and the sovereign opening of Lydia's heart at the Philippian riverside together show that gospel missions proceeds by God's appointment, not human initiative or chance. Lydia's conversion illustrates the full ordo of grace: effectual calling, forgiveness in Christ's blood, and the imputation of his righteousness received by faith alone — all confirmed outwardly in her immediate baptism and hospitality. The sermon presses the church to embrace both the means of gospel preaching and confidence in God's sovereign grace as the only ground of missionary hope.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 5
Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17:11–16 reveals two central petitions: that the Father would preserve the disciples by His name, and that He would protect them from the evil one — not by removing them from the world, but by keeping them within it. The sermon traces three arguments for preservation: Christ's own keeping of the disciples during His earthly ministry, His impending physical departure, and the world's settled hatred of those who belong to Him. Against this backdrop, the interceding Christ prays not merely for survival but for joy — that His people would suffer without losing sight of the strength that joy in God provides. The application is direct: Christians are left in the world for a reason, and the mission of gospel proclamation gives meaning to every trial they endure.
The Cross of Christ in the Book of Acts
The cross of Christ is not a threshold event left behind at conversion but the perpetual heartbeat of Christian life and worship. Working through the theme of the cross as it appears across the Book of Acts, this sermon traces six dimensions of the cross under six headings — divine purpose, divine promise, divine providence, divine power, divine proclamation, and divine proficiency — demonstrating that the crucifixion was planned in eternity, foretold throughout redemptive history, carried out through providential means, accomplished by the God-man himself, heralded by apostolic messengers, and effectually applied to all whom the Father gave the Son. The central application is a call to restore the art of marveling in the cross daily, not only on the Lord's Day, as the only fitting response to the reality that the God of heaven and earth took human flesh to bring many sons to glory.
The Ministry of Paul in Corinth
What does faithful gospel ministry look like when met with sustained opposition, rejection, and fear? Expounding Acts 18:1–11 within Paul's second missionary journey, this sermon traces four movements: Paul's strategic arrival in Corinth, his testimony in the synagogue, the fierce Jewish opposition and his response, and the Lord's night vision that commands him to speak because God already has a people in the city. The sermon argues that sovereign election and human culpability stand together — the God who predestines the elect also holds every rejector accountable for his own blood. A closing application presses believers toward faithful gospel proclamation, the planting of churches, and the catechesis of covenant children as genuine instruments of the effectual call.
The Great Commission
The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16–20 is grounded in the absolute authority of the risen Christ, who possesses all power in heaven and on earth and commissions His church to make disciples of all nations. The passage contains four grammatically imperatival commands — going, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching — each examined for its precise theological and ecclesiological force. Believers' baptism by immersion follows upon credible profession of faith, not the reverse, and the Trinitarian formula of baptism grounds the church's confession of one divine essence in three persons. The sermon closes by situating the Great Commission within the full passion narrative: the life, death, and resurrection of Christ are themselves the content the church is sent to proclaim, and Christ's omnipotence and omnipresence are the twin assurances that the commission will not fail.
The Savior of the World
John 4:27–42 traces three interlocking movements — the Samaritan woman's testimony, Christ's teaching on the harvest, and the Samaritans' confession that He is the Savior of the world — to argue that Christ's saving work crosses every ethnic and religious boundary without exception. The passage exposes the active and passive obedience of Christ as the twin grounds of justification: His perfect compliance with the law of God and His atoning death together constitute the righteousness sinners receive by faith alone. The Samaritans' declaration in verse 42 is not merely a first-century curiosity but a standing gospel call — Christ is the Savior of the world, and all who hear are summoned to come and see Him.
The Hope of the Nations
Psalm 67 frames both the church's need for God's mercy and the church's missionary calling to the nations as inseparable realities. The psalmist's threefold petition — mercy, blessing, and communion with God for the church — is the ground from which prayer for the salvation, worship, and righteous governance of the nations flows. Drawing on the Aaronic blessing, the Abrahamic covenant, and the New Testament's Great Commission, the sermon argues that the church's received grace creates an inescapable obligation to proclaim that grace to the ends of the earth. The closing application calls the congregation to corporate prayer, support of the missionary enterprise, and fidelity to the gospel message as the only means God has ordained for the hope of the nations to be realized.
The Ministry in Rome
Acts 28:11–31 records the Apostle Paul's arrival in Rome under house arrest and his sustained ministry to the Jewish leaders there, demonstrating that divine providence — not Roman law or Jewish opposition — governs the advance of the gospel. The sermon traces Paul's two meetings with the Roman Jews: his defence of his innocence and his grounding of the gospel in the hope of Israel, and then his full-day exposition of Christ from Moses and the prophets, which divides his hearers between belief and hardened unbelief. The open-endedness of Acts is shown to be deliberate fulfilment of Acts 1:8 — Christ's commission to witness from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth has been accomplished. Hearers are called to resist fear, to proclaim Christ from the Scriptures with confidence, and to rest in sovereign grace as the sole explanation for why any sinner believes.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 18:1–11 records Paul's arrival and eighteen-month ministry in Corinth, one of the most morally degenerate cities of the ancient world. The sermon traces Paul's gospel strategy — reasoning in the synagogue, enduring Jewish opposition, and turning to the Gentiles — before dwelling on Christ's night vision to Paul: 'Do not be afraid, for I have many people in this city.' The doctrine of election explains how Christ could speak with certainty of many yet-unconverted people awaiting the call; the gospel, not moral reform or civil intervention, is the sole instrument for transforming a corrupt culture. The sermon closes with a call to pray for and to be men who preach Christ and Him crucified, stand under opposition, persevere in weakness, and believe the promise that Christ is present with His church in the great commission.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 6
Acts 17:16–21 presents the Apostle Paul in Athens, a city saturated with idolatry and celebrated for its philosophical culture. The sermon traces three movements in this brief passage: Paul's provocation of spirit at the sight of rampant idolatry, his deliberate response of preaching Christ in both the synagogue and the public marketplace, and his engagement with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who summon him to the Areopagus. Paul's example establishes that righteous anger at the transgression of the First and Second Commandments, mingled with grief and compassion, is a mark of God's people — and that the fitting response to such provocation is not silence but the proclamation of Jesus and the resurrection.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 5
Acts 17:10–15 records the ministry and departure of Paul and Silas at Berea, where the Jewish hearers were commended as 'more noble-minded' than those in Thessalonica because they received the word with readiness and examined the Scriptures daily to verify Paul's proclamation of Jesus as the Christ. The sermon expounds three movements in the text — the perseverance of the missionaries, the tenacity of unbelieving opposition, and the noble-mindedness of the Bereans — and draws sustained application from Nehemiah 8 and the parable of the sower in Luke 8 on the right reception of God's word. The Berean example is pressed as a standing model for the church: Scripture is sufficient and self-evidencing, and the truth has nothing to hide and everything to gain by investigation. Hearers are exhorted to come to the word with expectancy, attentiveness, reverence, and responsiveness, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 16:35–17:9 records Paul's departure from Philippi and his gospel ministry in Thessalonica on the second missionary journey. The passage presents two interlocking lessons: Paul's principled invocation of his Roman citizenship to protect the integrity of gospel ministry, and his rigorous expository method of reasoning, explaining, and demonstrating from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ who had to suffer and rise. The sermon draws out three grounds on which a Christian may lawfully invoke civil rights — innocence, governmental accountability, and future precedent — while insisting that the efficient power behind every conversion is the sovereign grace of God through the Holy Spirit, not the eloquence of the preacher. Hearers are called to imitate the relentless faithfulness of Paul, Silas, and Jason, and to proclaim the kingship of Jesus regardless of civil hostility.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 3
Acts 16:16–34 traces two episodes in Philippi: the exorcism of a slave girl's python spirit and the midnight conversion of the Philippian jailer. The passage confronts the reader with the hostility that faithful gospel ministry provokes — illegal imprisonment, beating without due process, and the solidarity of civil and commercial interests against the missionaries — while demonstrating that neither chains nor stocks can suppress the prayer and praise of those conquered by grace. The climax turns on the jailer's question, 'What must I do to be saved?', and the apostolic answer cuts through every form of salvation-by-works or salvation-by-experience: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. The sermon presses hearers to distinguish justification from sanctification, to receive the gospel offer without complicating it, and to rejoice as those delivered from sin, damnation, and the righteous wrath of God.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 2
Acts 16:6–15 traces the divine hand behind the second missionary journey's westward turn into Macedonia and the conversion of Lydia in Philippi. The Spirit's successive prohibitions of ministry in Asia and Bithynia are not judgments on those regions but demonstrations that God actively directs the missionary enterprise according to his sovereign purpose. The conversion of Lydia — a woman whose heart was dead in trespasses until God opened it to receive Paul's preaching — illustrates that the efficient cause of every conversion is divine grace, not human ingenuity, while the instrumentality of gospel proclamation and the responsibility of hearers to believe remain fully intact. The sermon calls the church to define missionary work precisely as the Spirit-sent, church-commissioned preaching of Christ crucified, rejecting both Arminian confidence in the sinner's free will and hyper-Calvinist reluctance to call sinners to faith.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 1
Acts 15:36–16:5 records the opening of Paul's second missionary journey — beginning with a sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, continuing through Paul's recruitment and circumcision of Timothy in Lystra, and concluding with a summary report of churches strengthened and growing daily. The sermon argues that God's sovereign providence overruled the division between two godly men to send out two missionary teams, and that Timothy's circumcision was a strategic pastoral act entirely consistent with Paul's settled rejection of Judaizing. Throughout, the exposition presses the congregation toward a recovery of faithful, word-centered ministry as the only legitimate means of church growth and stability.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 11
Acts 14:19–28 records the conclusion of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey: Paul is stoned at Lystra, left for dead, rises and continues preaching, and the two apostles retrace their steps to strengthen the newly formed churches, appoint elders, and finally report to the sending church in Antioch of Syria. This exposition draws out three interlocking realities the journey illustrates — the inevitability of tribulation for God's people, the centrality of gospel proclamation and discipleship to the church's mission, and the sovereign power of God who confounds his enemies, sustains his servants, and saves sinners through the foolishness of preaching. The sermon presses listeners to measure their own commitment to Christ and his cause against the tenacity of those who opposed it, and to receive the appointment of faithful teaching elders as God's appointed means for the church's perseverance.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 10
Acts 14:8–18 presents Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, where a miraculous healing of a congenitally lame man provokes the crowd to mistake the apostles for Zeus and Hermes. The sermon moves through three movements: the healing and its spiritual significance, the apostles' repudiation of pagan worship, and Paul's proclamation of the living God to a purely pagan audience. Particular attention is given to the doctrine of divine impassibility — the classical confession that God is without passions — as the necessary corollary of divine immutability, with pastoral argument that this doctrine secures rather than undermines the believer's confidence in God's unchanging love and justice. The sermon closes with an appeal to repent of all idolatry and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior for sinners.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 9
Acts 14:2–7 records the apostolic ministry in Iconium: Jewish opposition, the faithful perseverance of Paul and Barnabas, and the eventual division of the city. The sermon expounds these three movements in the text while devoting extended attention to a doctrinal excursus on the proper relationship between faith and repentance in gospel preaching — arguing that repentance is not a preparatory work the sinner performs before coming to Christ, but the inseparable companion of faith, both being gifts of God in the covenant of grace. The practical conclusion calls the church to faithful, courageous, wise, and Spirit-dependent proclamation regardless of mounting opposition.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 14:1 records that Paul and Barnabas 'so spoke' in Iconium that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed — a phrase that raises the question of the relationship between divine sovereignty and the ordained means of gospel preaching. This sermon works through a biblical theology of preaching drawn from Romans 10:14–17, 1 Corinthians 1:21–25, and 2 Timothy 4:1–8, arguing that God has foreordained not only the elect unto glory but also the means of their calling, supremely the faithful public proclamation of Christ crucified. Against moralistic preaching, life-as-gospel sentimentality, and entertainment-driven church culture, the sermon insists that only the verbal declaration of Christ's atoning work can save souls. Hearers are exhorted to pray for the raising up of qualified preachers, to support gospel church-planting, and to attend to the preached Word with the seriousness that faith coming by hearing demands.
Free Grace Baptist Church - January 26, 2020 AM
Acts 14:1 records that Paul and Barnabas 'so spoke' in Iconium that a great multitude believed — but what accounts for that result? This exposition grounds the success of apostolic preaching in the sovereign election of God (Acts 13:48; 16:14) while insisting that God has ordained preaching as the indispensable means to call his elect to faith. Drawing on Romans 10:14-17, 1 Corinthians 1:21-25, and 2 Timothy 4:1-8, the sermon argues that faithful gospel preaching — Christ crucified, delivered with conviction, rebuke, and exhortation — is not optional for the church but is the very instrument God has appointed for the salvation of sinners from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The application presses the congregation to pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to raise up and send out qualified preachers, and to receive the preached word with the seriousness that faith-producing hearing demands.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 7
Acts 13:44–52 records the second Sabbath in Pisidian Antioch, where almost the whole city gathered to hear Paul and Barnabas, provoking the envy and blasphemy of unbelieving Jews. This sermon works through three movements: the opposition of the Jews, the bold response of Paul and Barnabas, and the spread of the word. The exposition holds together the responsibility of those who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (v. 46) and the absolute sovereignty of God in election (v. 48), demonstrating that consistent Reformed theology requires both without collapsing either into hyper-Calvinism or Arminianism. The closing application presses hearers toward faithfulness now as the surest preparation for future persecution, and calls the unconverted to look to Christ without waiting for a private disclosure of their election.
Isaiah 49:1-6
Isaiah 49:1–6 presents the second of Isaiah's four servant songs, in which the servant of the Lord addresses the nations directly, announcing that his mouth — made like a sharp sword and a polished shaft — is the weapon by which God will accomplish worldwide redemption. The servant is identified as the true Israel, fulfilling what national Israel failed to do, and his conquest extends not merely to the restoration of Jacob but to the Gentiles and the ends of the earth. Apparent failure and rejection, seen both in Isaiah's own ministry and in the Lord Jesus Christ's earthly preaching, do not negate the servant's mission, because his reward is with God. The sermon presses the church to faithfulness in preaching and hearing the Word of God as the appointed means by which the servant's conquest advances.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 15, 2019 AM
Acts 10:1–8 introduces Cornelius the centurion — a devout, God-fearing Gentile who prays, gives alms, and teaches his household — yet the passage presses a decisive question: was he already saved? This sermon argues from five lines of evidence within Acts 10–11 that Cornelius was not yet in covenant with Christ, and that the chapter's primary emphasis is the formal inclusion of the Gentiles in the covenant of grace through the preaching of the gospel. Against Roman Catholic inclusivism and Protestant pluralism alike, the sermon insists that remission of sins comes only through faith in the name of Jesus Christ, as Peter declares in verse 43, and that God honors the ordained means of gospel preaching as the instrument of that salvation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 11, 2019 AM
Acts 9:26-31 records Paul's first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem, where his attempt to join the disciples was met with fear and suspicion before Barnabas vouched for him to the apostles. The sermon traces three interlocking themes: the indispensable ministry of supporting figures like Ananias and Barnabas, the biblical pattern of bold gospel proclamation modeled by Paul and attested throughout Acts, and the threefold blessing — peace, edification, and multiplication — described in the summary statement of verse 31. The application presses the congregation to pursue these blessings not through programmatic gimmicks but through walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and to pray earnestly for those who preach the Word.
The Ministry of Philip in Samaria
Acts 8:5–8 records Philip's preaching ministry in Samaria — a region despised by Israel as racially and religiously impure — and presents it as the deliberate fulfillment of Christ's commission in Acts 1:8 to carry the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. The sermon traces the historical background of Samaritan alienation from Israel, the fourfold summary of Philip's ministry (his preaching, the response of the crowds, the authenticating miracles, and the resulting joy), and the theological significance of the Spirit's confirmation through Peter and John. Against contemporary debates over racial justice, the sermon argues that the cross of Christ — preached faithfully in his offices as prophet, priest, and king — is the only power that reconciles divided peoples and extends the kingdom of God across ethnic boundaries.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 15, 2018 AM
Acts 1:1-8 introduces Luke's second volume not merely as a history of the early church but as a record of what the risen and enthroned Christ continues to do and teach by his Spirit through the Apostles. The sermon examines the prologue (vv. 1-3), where Luke establishes the resurrection as infallible and certain fact, and the apostolic commission (vv. 4-8), where Christ commands the Eleven to wait for the promised Spirit before going as witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The inseparability of doctrine and deed, the sovereignty of God over the timing of the kingdom, and the necessity of the Holy Spirit for both mission and sanctification are drawn out as the governing themes of the entire book.
The Great Commission, Part 5
Christ's closing promise in Matthew 28:20 — 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age' — is the assurance that undergirds the entire Great Commission. This concluding exposition of the gospel of Matthew draws out three summarizing observations: Christ's omnipresence sustains the church in her disciple-making mission, his active headship equips her for ongoing ministry through the gifts described in Ephesians 4, and the Commission's scope demands both a love for the visible church and a concern for her future across all nations. The sermon calls believers to prize the church as Christ's bride, to train and send men for gospel ministry, and to trust that Christ's promised presence is conditioned on obedience to the Commission itself.
The Great Commission, Part 2
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) commands the church to make disciples of all nations — a task grounded not in human ingenuity but in the absolute authority of the risen Christ. This sermon distinguishes the institutional church's primary calling (gospel proclamation, baptism, and teaching) from the broader activities of individual believers, arguing that the church compromises her distinctive mission when she substitutes social amelioration for disciple-making. The command to baptize is examined in its proper order: conversion through gospel preaching precedes baptism, which is itself a sign of union with Christ, remission of sins, and newness of life — not a means of conferring salvation. Drawing on the Abrahamic covenant, the Isaianic servant songs, and the Messianic Psalms, the sermon traces the 'all nations' scope of the commission as the fulfillment of promises running from Genesis 12 through to the risen Lord's own declaration.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 19, 2017 PM
This expository sermon on 2 Kings 5 traces the threefold structure of Naaman's healing: the providence of God working through a nameless Israelite servant girl, the conversion of a Gentile enemy of Israel, and the judgment upon the covetous Gehazi. The sovereign Lord is shown to govern Syrian politics, military affairs, and the destinies of servant girls alike, so that his free grace — which cannot be bribed, manipulated, or earned — reaches even those outside the covenant community. The congregation is called to see in Naaman's conversion a pattern of genuine New Covenant salvation: humility under the gospel, confession of the one true God, gratitude expressed in worship, and a sensitive conscience regarding ongoing sin.