Challenge Toward the Eternal Legacy (Acts 11:19-26) 1/21/24
Eternal Answer of the 1st 2nd 3rd RUTC:
Challenge Toward the Eternal Legacy (Acts 11:19-26) 1/21/24
We are sharing the three blessings (eternal inheritance, eternal masterpiece, eternal legacy) within the covenant “eternal answer” we held onto this year.
“Eternal Inheritance” is the blessing we received when we received salvation in Christ (combined into 7 journeys, 7 bartizans, 7 guide signs). We must stand firm and wait as we continuously go through spiritual training so that we experience this throughout our entire lives and it becomes ours.
“Eternal Masterpiece” is the blessing that God creates with all our things. Even with small things, try to concentrate holding onto only Christ, only God’s kingdom, and only the power of the Holy Spirit. Your life itself and your everything will become a masterpiece.
The “Eternal Legacy” that we will hold onto this week is something that God desires to leave behind through us. Why is this important?
First, God has chosen and delivered our lives long before creation. That is how important our lives are. So rightfully, what our lives leave behind will be important. It is the evidence and the traces of the days we lived. That will not only remain on earth, but also eternally (Romans 16:25).
Second, those traces are traces of God and the evidence of those who lived within God (Book of Evidence). Through the evidence and traces that we leave behind, the 237 nations, the posterity, and the future will live.
Third, the chosen and remained ones, the disciples must arise. The gospel must be proclaimed to the ends of the earth so that Christ returns for the beginning of the new heavens and new earth (Matthew 24:14). If we do not have this eternal hope, believers become the most pitiful. However, that day will surely come, and the eternal reward, glory, and crown that we will enjoy are set aside for us.
The passage shows us the Antioch Church that was raised to leave behind this eternal legacy and the people and their legacy that they left behind. This is the model for our One Mind Church as well as for all churches.
- The Antioch Church was a place where people who first knew and enjoyed this spiritual legacy from God had gathered. “Eternal inheritance,” “eternal masterpiece,” and “eternal legacy” actually all means the same thing. It refers to things that come from God.
1) To leave behind as this eternal inheritance, masterpiece, and legacy, God chose and saved us (Ephesians 1:3-14).
① What is the salvation we received? To give us all these blessings, the everlasting God chose us before creation and sent His Son to make us righteous and holy as His child (3-5).
② Why did he do that? To praise that glorious grace through us, and to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ (6-10). Others will see that we praise and give thanks in God’s grace in our lives. They will see and realize Christ and works of saving all nations and the posterity will begin.
③ God named us His inheritance, and to confirm that, he sealed us with His Holy Spirit (11-14). Inheritance can mean “possession,” but it also means “joy.” We are God’s possessions that will fulfill God’s will forever. At the same time, we are His joy. Our individual lives that have been saved become God’s joy.
2) Paul was someone who persecuted the church and approved of the killing of many believers (Acts 8:1).
① In Damascus, God broke Paul and named him “my chosen instrument” (Acts 9:15). Our past is not important. Give thanks to the grace of God that has called you from that past and desires to use you. Make your past into a springboard. Our reality today is also not important. Holding onto the spiritual reality and spiritual blessings will determine your future. That is the fact. Problems and are problems. Persecution is not persecution. Through the people who were persecuted and scattered, the masterpiece of Antioch Church was formed.
② How did God use Paul? This is the blessing that we must enjoy in the courtyards, and the masterpiece and legacy that God desires. God promised to raise Paul up to proclaim His name to the gentiles (237 nations and 5000 people groups), the kings (summits), and the Israelites descendants (posterity). God used his life exactly in that way.
③ God attached the Antioch church and a church officer like Barnabas. He created the 5 member team to send them into the world. That is how our One Mind Church was established, and we are also going forth in that blessing (our church’s CVDIP). Our individual lives and Church are God’s inheritance, masterpiece, and the legacy to leave behind.
- Now, what must we challenge for? God desires us to leave behind three legacies.
1) Legacy of evangelism. This is the first legacy that those who have the gospel of grace must leave behind.
① When we stand before God, the legacy that remains forever is the people that have received salvation through us. The nameless believers who were scattered from persecution and arrived at Antioch proclaimed the Word even there (19). The Word is what revives (John 6:63). That Word became flesh and came as the Christ to save lives (John 1:14).
② The church must always be in the saving movement (life movement). Only then will you come alive and your posterity come alive. We must see the history of people who came alive. We must leave behind a church that saves unbelievers, crumbled individuals, and people who experienced failures. Paul confessed that he considers his life worth nothing when it comes to proclaiming this gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). God has given us everything.
2) Legacy of missions. This is what makes the Antioch Church special.
① When everyone was sharing the gospel to their own people, this church was established as they evangelized to the gentiles and the Greeks (20). Multiethnic ministry is the starting point to saving all nations. That is why God used the Antioch Church as the church to save the world.
② To do missions more in detail, we created our 5 member teams(Acts13:1-3). They prayed and gathered their offerings to commission Paul and Barnabas as the first missionaries. This was a legacy that God was most pleased with. When we concentrate on the works that God is pleased with, He will give us health, finances, and people.
3) Legacy of posterity. Saving the future generation is ultimately saving the future and preparing for the eternal future.
① This is the reason Paul’s team that the Antioch Church commissioned sought for the synagogue wherever they went (Acts 17:1, 18:4, 19:8). Even is the Jewish nation was destroyed, they raised the synagogues and raised the posterity. Thus, many intellectuals and summits arose. Without the gospel, they became enslaved, encaptivated, and colonized. Even if they did produce summits, they were wrong summits, fake summits, and evil summits. This is what we must plant inside of our posterity. The gospel. That is how the authority of curses, destiny, Satan, and hell will end.
②The future generations raised through Paul’s team like Timothy, Titus, and Onesimus saved the world. They were people destined to crumble, but rather became spiritual leaders and saved the future church. That is why our work of establishing the Sunday school ministries, Summit School, Preschool, and the RUTC movement is so crucial and urgent.
Conclusion – All we need to do is go into 24-hours holding onto eternal inheritance, eternal masterpiece, and eternal legacy. Doing consistently, whenever you have time, is 24 hours. Put your heart into it, prayers into it, and offering into it. We are challenging towards that. That is when we ourselves and our church will become God’s eternal inheritance, masterpiece, and legacy, and that place will become God’s sanctuary.