By Buddy Johnson, Regional Coordinator for South America, BMA Global
Executive Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the annual sermon that was preached at the national meeting on April 26. You can find the first part in the May 3 issue on page 1.
Internal Concerns of His Work with Churches
“Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches” (vs. 28). The word translated “care” is compared to being caught in a rushing crowd — pressure, anxiety, almost trapped, like being in the crowd at the opening of Walmart on Black Friday. Paul’s love for the churches he had planted was not unique to Him. He had learned from the best. Jesus had started the very first church and had shown a love no one had ever seen. Paul knew this love and wrote to the Ephesians, “…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
Paul loved the churches (all of them), not because they were his but because they belonged to his Master. Jesus was the one who had saved every member. He was the one who had added them to the church. He was the one whose story every one of them had heard and believed. Paul loved the churches because they were bought and paid for by his Master, Jesus Christ. Paul had gone into these cities where he knew absolutely no one. In almost every city, he was rejected by most but he was received by some. Some of us have also gone into cities where we knew no one and have started churches there. We have seen God touch hearts, save souls, add them to His church and use them for His honor and glory. We knew them when they were drunk, sick, angry, bitter. We knew where they lived, what they ate, where they worked, what beer they drank, their kids’ names, their fears, and their problems. Why would Paul do this and why would your missionaries do it? I can tell you why. Because He (Jesus) did it. “He came unto his own and his own received him not, but unto as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:11-12).
Paul was concerned for the churches because of their “wishy-washiness” or lack of consistency. “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (Gal. 1:6). “For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies” (II Thess. 3:11). These were pretty big issues that concerned Paul.
Then there were smaller issues. He was concerned because of their women fussing! “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2). This doesn’t seem quite as serious as the others he mentioned.
Big stuff and smaller stuff concerned him. Can you imagine the people who were constantly questioning him about different doctrines, informing him about persecutions, problems and deaths? Some of the mixed congregations of Jewish and Gentile believers were fussing and arguing. He was constantly thinking about the churches. We all have heard of different problems in BMA churches and are concerned. We pray for all the churches, but especially for those we have personally begun. I am concerned, and I believe you are as well! Why are we concerned? I think it is because we care. Paul cared! You don’t care for those you don’t care about! There are three areas I think we all really care about as we “go together.”
• We Go Together as Baptist Churches — Some of us are Ford people. Some others criticize and trash-talk our Ford trucks. We’ve heard all the smart acronyms — Fix Or Repair Daily, Found On Road Dead, Funny Old Road Dog, etc. My truck is 12 years old and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the newer pick-ups. Some of my grandkids think it’s cool because it has cranks to lower and raise the windows. It has some problems, but it is tried and proven. I open the door, get in, insert the key, start it up and it takes me where I want to go and the motor that powers it has always brought me home to Taffy. I trust it, believe in it and take care of it. Nobody else is responsible for my Ford Truck — only me.
In a similar way, we are Baptist people — BMA (Baptist Messing Around). Others criticize the name, trash it as a “denomination,” remove it from the name of their church, seem to be ashamed of it and, I fear, don’t care for it the way Paul mentioned in his letter. It, too, has some problems, but let me suggest that the problems aren’t with the Baptist name, nor with the Doctrinal Principles we teach, but possibly with the people who drive it, or don’t care for it properly. However, the truths and Spirit that power the church have helped millions of us on our journey and will always take us home to Jesus.
We hold certain Bible truths that separate us from most others. For example, this is our definition of a church from our BMA Doctrinal Statement — “A New Testament church is a local congregation of baptized believers in Jesus Christ who are united by covenant in belief of what God has revealed and in obedience to what He has commanded.”
We are Baptist churches! It appears that some do not agree with the name and have removed “Baptist” from their church’s name. I’m sure they have their reasons, which many of us don’t understand. During the past year, I have made of list of churches that have removed “Baptist” from their name. I was going to read it tonight, but I’m afraid yours might be on the list and I sure don’t want to offend anyone. Some seem to be ashamed to identify with those of us who hold dear our Baptist heritage. Then there are some who should change the name of their church because they do not preach some of our “Baptist” principles! Some receive just anyone from just any church. Some don’t ask for letters from sister churches anymore. Some receive people who have been immersed by churches that preach and practice heresies; those who ordain ladies as leaders. Those who support or are sympathetic to the LGBXYZ agenda. Paul wrote this about some like these guys who criticize those of us who are real BMA Baptists: “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (I Cor. 10:12). Of unbiblical marriages, he said, “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (II Cor. 6:17).
If our definition of the church is as I have mentioned, how can our ordinances be of a universal nature? Do we take anyone into our fellowship just because they claim their baptism from that church is the same as ours? Paul feared what could happen in Ephesus when he said goodbye to the elders of that great church — “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). Later, in his absence, I don’t know what happened, but John wrote what Jesus had said, that the folks in Ephesus had “left their first love.” His concern for the churches was constantly before him!
Y’all should see some of the stuff that comes out of non-Baptist churches in foreign countries and has snuck into our Baptist churches. We Baptists are some of the only churches who believe salvation is forever! We call it perseverance of the saints, once saved always saved, eternal security, etc. Jesus didn’t stutter when He said, “I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish and nobody can take them from me” (John 10:28).
Some say, about Baptist churches, “Well, it’s just a name”. But names mean something. For example, let’s take the name Johnson. It goes way back to the time of Jesus — “Blessed art thou Simon “bar Jonah” or “Son of Jonah,” which is son of John when translated into English. John’s son — Johnson! A couple of Jesus’ disciples were Johnson boys. A couple of American presidents, our current BMA president and vice president, some of our BMA Missionaries and many BMA pastors are or were Johnsons. Ask our 19 grandchildren and most of their friends. The name means something, but it is more than a name. “Baptist” stands for truths and principles that date back to the time of Jesus, and He told us to teach them to everybody.
Charles Haden Spurgeon, that great Baptist preacher, said this: “We believe Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents.”
As Baptists, we believe (as did Spurgeon) in the perpetuity of the church. We believe that local churches authorize the missionaries who go around the world, to plant churches who authorize missionaries who go somewhere else to plant churches that do the same. That is how our churches were begun and that’s how we do mission work! Churches who teach what Jesus taught have been around since He started the very first church. Not only Baptists believe this. A Catholic Cardinal, Stanislaus Hosius, wrote in 1524 the following: “Were it not that the Baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past 1,200 years, they would swarm in greater number than all the Reformers.” Known through the years as Albegensis, Waldenses and Ana-Baptists, we are Baptists with a heritage that should make us proud and determined to be more biblical than everybody else. This should be a concern for all of us. Paul was concerned daily for all the churches. I think it was E.V. Hill, concerned by sin in his church, preached a sermon entitled, “It Makes Me Want to Holler.” I don’t know if Paul wanted to holler or not, but he was suffering for the welfare of the churches he had started. We are concerned for the welfare of our churches. We go together as Baptist churches!
• We go together as missionary churches — Every real missionary knows what the purpose of his mission is. If there is no purpose in his mission, his is just a trip! Paul addressed this in verses 13-18. The title of this part of his sermon was, “You can’t reach any farther than you can reach!” That makes sense to me.
The churches we plant around the world can enlarge our reach and go farther than we have ever gone! Our best strategy is II Timothy 2:2 — “The things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” The real joy of a missionary is seeing the churches he started reach farther than he could ever reach. We can boast of what the Lord does with His churches! The very first church I planted in Mexico is planting 10 churches today in places I never went to. My little story can be duplicated around the world as our churches reach farther than ever. What is lacking? Hope. We teach them, help them, then “play Lazarus with them” — we loose them and let them go and our hope is that they will do what they have learned. Hope that when your faith is increased, we will reach farther than ever.
I was asked at a Church Planting Conference in South America, “Bro. Buddy, if you could ask one thing from God, for you, what would it be?” I told him, “I’ll tell you in the morning.” I was troubled all night trying to find a suitable answer. I told him the next day. “I would ask for God to give me, that ignorant, simple, stupid, faith I had when I was a kid missionary.” Many of us have years of experience, learning, degrees, status… but God blesses faith that works around the world. I thank God for the young men and women who are living their vision of faith around the world as missionaries, but I have concerns! The biblical pattern for missionaries was clear in Acts when God called pastors. Jerry and I were pastors when God called us. How long has it been since we have seen pastors surrender to God’s call to go somewhere to plant new churches? I have concerns! Ours are Baptist churches, ours are missionary churches and ours are associational churches.
• Go Together as Associational Churches — Our churches serve together! R. G. Lee once said in a sermon, “Together the bricks make a wall, together the trees make a forest, together the soldiers make an army, together believers make a church.” I know that together our churches make the Baptist Missionary Association. Together the churches of the Baptist Missionary Association of America have sent men like Jerry and me and those who are sitting at your table. Together, here are some of the things you have done:
Together you have paid our salaries; together you’ve fed our families; together you’ve educated our children; together you’ve bought our cars and paid to have them repaired… often; together you’ve paid our rent, leases and mortgages; together you’ve dressed our bodies; together you’ve bought our toys, iPhones, the Macs, Hey! Dudes; together you’ve bought the Bibles, hymn books, literature we have taught and distributed; together you’ve built or paid for our meeting places; together you’ve helped support the ChangeMakers our foreign churches have sent and are sending; together, BMA churches have prayed for us, together you visited our mission fields, together you have loved our families, together you have held the ropes, and together you have interceded for us. together y’all have caused God to bless our work, our families and us. A whole list of other blessings. As missionaries, the very least we can do is honestly work hard to finish the task you have sent us to finish! Paul worked with many churches, and he told the folks at Corinth that he had “Robbed other churches to serve them.”
There is a special love for the babies you bring into the world. You love all kids, but yours are special! The churches a man begins are special to him. He loves all of them but the ones he starts are special. He knows every member, every problem, every testimony, every hardship, everything! Paul started about 16 churches and, though he knew of other churches, he loved the ones he started! Those who pastored the churches after him loved them one way, but he loved them as having begotten them! You men know what I mean if you have started churches! He loved them, He prayed for them, cared for them, was concerned for them and worried about them.
• “When I heard about your faith and love for the brethren, I cease not to give thanks for you in my prayers” (Eph. 1:15-16).
• “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer…” (Phil. 1:3-4).
• “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you…” (Col. 1:3).
• “We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love…” (I Thess. 1:2-3).
• In I Timothy about Ephesus, “that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to the junk that is going around, for some have been swerved unto vain jangling…” (I Tim. 1:3-4, 6). I know some of them in South America!
• To Titus in Crete 1:10-11 — “Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for fifthly lucre’s sake…” They are “all liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” (Titus 1:10-11). I know them also!
• “I thank my God, making mention of you in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith you have for the saints…” (Philemon 4-5).
He knew about the good, the bad and the ugly of every church he had started. He wrote them as God spoke to him about them. Someone wrote, “If Paul could see America, we’d get a letter, too!”
Buddy, what are you saying? I’m saying you don’t care for those you don’t care about. But those you know and love, you care about, are concerned for, worry about and pray for. You do it every day. In today’s technology, Paul would have them on speed dial, text lists, Instagram, twitter and message chats and would pray for them every day during his quiet time.
My heart’s desire and prayer to God for our BMA is that, 50 years from tonight, those who hear the voice of God’s message will be found faithful. Missionaries called and sent will win souls, disciple believers and plant churches that send missionaries who win souls, disciple believers and plant churches until Jesus comes.
Some say, “Buddy, we don’t need to go back 50 years and do things like y’all did back then.” I say, “You’re right, we need to go back 2,000 years and do things like they did back then.”
Paul ends his remarks to the Church in Corinth by saying: “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (II Cor. 13:11).
Things that are without — the physical, external, temporal things around us often take all our energy and much of our resources! But the internal, spiritual, eternal care for the churches are things that should claim priority in our lives every day!
