More than 300 years before the time of Christ, Alexander the Great was marching across Asia Minor.  Under his leadership was the greatest army ever assembled to that time.  They had conquered every foe.  No one could stand up against them.  When they reached the Himalaya Mountains, the leaders on the front line came back to Alexander filled with concern and dismay.  “We have marched off the map,” they said. “We should go back to where we know.”  They had literally marched off the known map of that time.  Alexander listened to them, and then said this: “Mediocre armies always stay within the known areas.  The great armies always march off the map.”
Alexander the Great wasn’t the only conqueror to give the orders: “March off the map!”  In our verse today, Jesus, the One who conquered death, gave those same orders to his “army.”  Fellow soldiers, Jesus gives us the same command.  March off the map!  As we listen to Jesus’ words today, we are compelled to 1) March together as a Spirit-led Church;  2) To march together as a risk-taking Church; and  3) To march together as a reproducing Church.

First: 1. MARCH TOGETHER AS A SPIRIT-LED CHURCH.  Before Jesus tells us what He can expect from us, He tells us what we can expect from Him.  Before sounding the orders to march, our Saviour makes a promise.  He says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”  Thank our gracious Lord He isn’t sending us out alone!  To figure things out on our own!  He gives us the Holy Spirit to give us direction!  To let us know what we should be concerned about.  Because that isn’t something that comes naturally.

Remember the disciples who first heard these words from Jesus?  They walked with Jesus for 3 years.  They witnessed the resurrection.  For 40 days, Jesus made it crystal clear He had conquered death.  But what is their final question to Him?  “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).  Hello!  They needed the Holy Spirit’s guidance!

Friends, without the Holy Spirit, that’s you and me.  That would be our congregation.  That would be our entire church body.  Like those first disciples, it is so easy to let our personal ideas about what the church should be doing interfere with what the Lord wants done.  It can be so easy to get caught up in outward, worldly details, and end up doing “small-c” church work instead of “Capital C” Church work.  Programs can become more important than people; beautiful buildings can become more important than bodies won for Christ, our personal expectation of what church should be becomes more important than what God says it should be!  For a truly healthy church, our focus must be on “Church work” rather than “church work.”

That’s why Jesus sends us his Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, as He speaks to us in the Word, makes sure we aren’t left spiritually wandering or wondering.  The Spirit leads us to see Jesus as our Saviour and recognize that our job on earth is to be witnesses of that Saviour.  The Holy Spirit will keep us, our congregation, and our church body focused on that track.

But not only does being a Spirit-led Church provide direction for our marching.  Being a Spirit-led Church gives us confidence to march.  Christ says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”  Look at what the Holy Spirit’s power did for those disciples.  Just a few weeks earlier, one of those men fled naked out of the Garden of Gethsemane and another one crumbled under the questioning of a servant girl.  All of them abandoned Jesus. 

But later, those same disciples, now with the Spirit’s power, were changed from frightened cowards to fearless confessors!  Empowered by the Spirit, they could even perform miracles such as driving out demons and curing diseases.  But the greatest demonstration of the Spirit’s power was not seen in outward miracles, but in the effect their message would have on human hearts and lives. Remember Pentecost? The disciples preached to large crowds assembled in Jerusalem.  Under the Spirit’s power, their message took hearts filled with hatred of Jesus and turned them into hearts pulsating with love for their Saviour.  That is power!  Amazing power!

And that same amazing power of the Spirit has been given to us!  We have the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation.  But at times, we forget, don’t we?  We forget or underestimate the power that the Holy Spirit gives us in that gospel.  Do we ever, like those first disciples, sit around and wring our hands about the boldness of Jesus’ enemies in the world?  We look at the fact that there are more unbelievers in the world today than at any other time in history, and we’re ready to give up!  We forget that God has placed into our hands and hearts the raw power of the Gospel, which is no less capable of creating and sustaining faith today that it was in the first century!  Friends, there is no more “high impact” ministry than the preaching of the Gospel!  Through the Word, God still converts unbelievers!

This mighty act is carried out every day.  It is the greatest act the world will ever see!  As a Spirit-led Church we have the power to pour water on a baby’s head and apply God’s Word (like we did today) and know that another child is brought into God’s kingdom.  As a Spirit-led Church we have the power to offer bread and wine connected with God’s Word and know that a sinner is assured of a right relationship with God.  As a Spirit-led Church we are equipped with the tools to bring down the devil’s walls, to cut through the hearts of stone, and let the Spirit lead people to faith in our Saviour.  Fellow soldiers, we can march together confidently as a Spirit-led Church because we are guided by the Spirit of God and equipped with the power of God!

And with the confidence the Spirit gives us, we can also 2. MARCH TOGETHER AS A RISK-TAKING CHURCH.  Jesus brings that thought to mind when He tells us, “You will be my witnesses.”  Did you hear that?  He isn’t just talking about what we will do.  He is telling us who we will be.  Why is being a witness a risky business?  Look at the disciples.  They were tortured for mentioning Jesus.  They were tried, imprisoned, banished, and executed for simply talking.

At the end of the book of Acts, we hear that Paul is under house arrest in Rome for witnessing to Christ.  And yet, we read “For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.  Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Friends, the Apostle Paul is like a speeding driver pulled over for going 20 over, who upon receiving a warning, peels out in front of the patrolman at 160 kph, kicking gravel into the squad car behind him!

As we strive to become more faithful witnesses today, we need the Holy Spirit no less than the disciples did!  It still takes borderline insanity, from the world’s perspective, to be a witness!  Employers frown on “religious talk.”  Schools ban commandments and prayer.  Law is presumed to be practiced with no religious backbone at all!  Candidates for office are torn apart because of their faith.  TV talking heads make even the smallest measure of Christian faith look like the highest reading on the “stupid meter!”  On and on the world goes on trying to squelch the witness concerning Christ.  Right on down to the ferocious persecutions going on in various corners of this globe today.  Let the world try to quiet the witness!  Christ has promised us “You are my witnesses.”  And He gives us no less a Holy Spirit and power than He did to the apostles!

I know, it can be risky to be a witness, can’t it?  The worst threat might even be that internal one.  The fear of failure.  Will I say the right thing?  Will I embarrass myself?  Will I embarrass my Saviour?  Will I walk away with more questions about my own faith?  Faced with those risks, we often adopt the fearful attitude of the servant who buried the talent his master entrusted to him instead of putting it to work.  The fear of failure makes witnessing risky.

But so does the fear of success.  Aren’t we, at times, like those soldiers who came back to Alexander the Great and said, “We should go back to where we know”?  Witnessing can lead us to places we’ve never been!  It can take us out of our comfort zone!  The people moving into our neighbourhoods are different from us.  How do we reach them?  How do we penetrate the big cities?  Can we afford to do it?  Are we willing to change the way we do ministry, as long as it doesn’t change the message, in order to reach them?  Are we willing to back alternate mission strategies to reach out in places like China, Pakistan, Nepal, or Indonesia when we can’t put an expatriate missionary on their soil?  Are we willing to do what it takes here in Mississauga?

Risks are there, but haven’t we seen how God blesses us when we take risks in his name?  You saw in the video the blessings of Hmong ministry.  Was reaching out to a new people taking a risk?  You bet it was!  It forced our church body to look at ministry from a different perspective.  It prompted us to develop a new ministerial training program which helps train leaders from other cultures.  And it took one of the “biggest risks” – money.  But look at what God is doing through those risks.  He has led several Hmong brothers to become full-time pastors.  Some of those Hmong pastors have been used by God to spread the gospel to other Hmong in their own communities.  Others are scattered around the U.S.  Still others have gone back to Southeast Asia to reach out with the gospel.  God moved us to take a risk and now hundreds of people from another culture are marching together with us as a Spirit-led Church.

Or how about Divine Savior Lutheran Church in Doral, Florida?  They took a risk by building a high-quality school before they ever built a church or even established a congregation in order to share the Gospel, become a church in their community, and support the costs of their ministry.  They took a risk.  It had never been done before.  It took a huge amount of money.  And a lot of work.  But the risk paid off for God’s kingdom.  They are self-supporting now, and the school is at 280. We think this is an opportunity WE have to witness Christ in our community.

Friends, do you have any doubts God wants us to be a risk-taking Church?  Listen again to his orders: “You will be my witnesses.”  He isn’t negotiating with us.  He isn’t asking for input.  He isn’t concerned about whether or not being is witness is what we had in mind.  He isn’t offering us options.  We will be what He makes us to be!  Witnesses!  Fellow soldiers, let’s march together as a risk-taking Church because that is what our Saviour calls us to be!

Now for the fun part.  What does a Spirit-led Church and a risk-taking Church become?  It becomes 3. A REPRODUCING CHURCH.  Jesus finished his command by saying: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  And almost immediately, we see this come to fruition.  Within 10 days of Jesus giving the marching orders, Christianity becomes a worldwide event.  People from Arabia, Africa, Italy, and Greece were all there to hear Peter’s Spirit-led, risk-taking witness of Christ.  And they believed.  3000 were added to their number that day.  Later on we hear Peter witnessing before the Jews at the temple in Jerusalem and before the Sanhedrin.  Philip begins the witness to the Samaritans and also to the Africans.  Paul witnesses through Asia, Greece, Italy, and the islands in between.

Today, the testimony of those eyewitnesses of Christ continues to go out.  Today, Christ’s Church is still a reproducing Church.  When a mother sings, “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb” to her baby, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  Whenever a baby is baptized and brought into the family of God, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  When a pastor tells his congregation, “Through Jesus you are forgiven,” God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  When a grandfather witnesses to his grandchildren from his deathbed, “I’m going home to my Saviour,” God’s Church is a reproducing Church!  It begins at home, at “Jerusalem.”

But it goes to the ends of the earth!  Whenever the Gospel is translated into new languages, which is happening in our synod, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  Whenever missionaries march into new countries like Mozambique with the disciples’ message, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  When we send young people around the world to teach ESL, and they witness their faith, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  When we use the Internet to make a Spanish worship service available to people all over the world, God’s Church is a reproducing Church.  God’s Church is marching off the map!

Fellow soldiers, by God’s grace we are part of that march!  (Cross of Life examples)  May the gentle voice of the Saviour be heard through us above the constant roar of the things of this world.  Its message is as simple, profound, and powerful as it was when that early witness first relayed its content.  It begs all people to cast an eye on that faraway hill outside Jerusalem.  Only there will they “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”   Amen.