Plant Churches for the Glory of God
If you have a Bible—and I hope you do—you can open up to Acts chapter 9. We will be in a few different texts together this morning, but that is where we are going to start.
Mark Twain once said, "The two most important days of a man’s life are the day he was born, and the day he finds out why. " Mark Twain was not a Christian. Far from it, in fact. And yet, Twain put his finger on something crucial here. You and I were made for purpose. We were made for more than just ourselves — more than a perpetual treadmill of mere existence. We are “why” creatures made in God’s image and made for God’s purposes.
So can I ask you a “why” question? Why did God save you? It is one thing to know that Jesus saves. It is another thing to know why.
And not just for you individually but how about for us, corporately? What is God’s purpose for the church? What purpose did He save us for? And how should that reflect our purpose as a church.
I am eager for the next three weeks of our time together around God’s Word. The elders have asked me to preach a topical series on church planting, as we begin working toward a church plant over the next couple of years. But before we start with any of our efforts, we need to be sure that we are not building them on sand. We are going to open this book and, for the next three weeks, consider what God’s Word says about church planting Because this is the firm foundation from which all ministry — including church planting — must begin.
Rather than our normal practice of opening up to a passage and walking through it verse by verse, we will use more of a wide-angle lens, surveying the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, putting together a biblical framework for church planting.
Through it all, I hope to raise our sails so that we do not merely paddle our way toward a church plant but that God might breathe on our efforts — by His Spirit — so that we might catch His winds and plant in His strength.
For our three weeks in this series, we will consider why we plant churches — that is this week. We will consider how we plant churches — that is next week. And then, we will consider where we plant churches — that is the third week. Why, how, and where — I hope to answer each of those questions over the next three weeks.
So we got our topic: church planting We got our Bibles Where would you go? What does the Bible say about church planting?
We have lots of biblical ground to cover here but can I get us started with one verse?Acts 9:31 says, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
I would like to summarize these next three weeks in three words for you. It is a simple summary of Acts 9:31: Healthy churches multiply.
If you remember nothing else from these three weeks I hope you can remember those three words. “What does the Bible say about church planting?” The Bible says healthy churches multiply.
Do you know why God saved you? It is the same reason we want to plant churches. God saved us not because of anything special in ourselves, not because He was desperate or lonely without us, not because we could ever earn or deserve such a great salvation. No, God saved us to magnify His glory. He saved us that His glory might shine forth.
He loves us but we are not His highest motivation in salvation. That would make God an idolator. No, God’s supreme motivation in salvation is the glory of His name. God saves us for His glory.
And where do we see that glory displayed? We just wrapped up Ephesians and I hope we remember Ephesians 3:21, “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.”
And the more that churches — bought by the blood of Christ — grow in health and multiply the more God’s glory shines forth Until one day, glory covers all the earth, as “waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14).
So that is where this sermon is going. That is why we plant churches. And now that our tires are aligned, and our destination is before us, let us get going there.
God saves for His glory, so we plant for His glory.
Our big idea has two halves and we will take them one at a time. God saves for His glory, so we plant for His glory.
That is why God saves. And that is why we plant churches. Ultimately, it is all for the glory of God.
God Saves for His Glory
We are going to trace the theme of God’s glory in salvation from Genesis to Revelation. I hope to help us see how the whole Bible is about the God-centeredness of God and about His commitment to His own glory. He displays His glory in His Son and through all who are united to Him by faith — in the church.
We are going to drive fast so buckle your seat belts and lean in I will give you the verse references, so you are welcome to turn to them as we walk through the Bible Or I might recommend that you just mark them down for further reflection later. Alright, are you with me? Let us jump in.
Creation
We will begin at the beginning. Genesis 1:1 reads “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God made light and sky and the seas and land. He fixed the sun, and the moon, and the stars perfectly in their place. And He filled His creation with living creatures.
So we can say, together with the elders around the throne, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. (Rev 4:11)” All of creation was made for God’s glory.
As the crowned jewel of His creation, God made man. Genesis 1:27 tells us “He created man in His own image male and female He created them.” And He created them, according to Genesis 1:28, to “be fruitful and multiply,” to “fill the earth and subdue it.”
So from the beginning God made the world for His glory God made us for His glory And God has always sought to fill the earth with His glory — to see His people multiply, as we image Him.
The Fall
And yet we just have to turn our Bibles to the very next page to see what went terribly wrong. Adam and Eve reject God. They suppress the truth of God’s Word, taking the forbidden fruit, and exchanging the glory of God for a created thing.
Together with Adam, all humanity plummeted into a fallen and corrupted state — our hearts became crooked, turned in on ourselves, and God’s glorious image, stamped deep within us, became terribly marred.
This is the great tragedy of the Fall. Not just that sin left us broken and miserable, but that by breaking God’s commands we could no longer reflect His glory, as we were made to.
God made us unique—set apart to bear His image like finely polished glory mirrors and yet we became shattered, tarnished, and broken.
And yet God would not leave us there. He made a promise to save His people through the seed of the woman crushing the head of their enemies so that His glory might be displayed.
Exodus
Fast forward a couple thousand years, and the people of Israel—God’s chosen people—would be slaves in Egypt, under oppression from the mightiest empire in the world. Poor in spirit, His people cried out to Him. And God heard their cries. He raises up Moses, as a most unlikely deliverer—and by His strong arm, God would save His people.
Through many great acts of power, God triumphed over Pharaoh’s manufactured glory, asserting Exodus 14:4, “I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” The Exodus — God’s great act of salvation in the Old Testament—is first and foremost about the glory of God. It has always been true that God saves for His own glory.
The Exile
And yet, as the pages of Scripture continue, Israel persists in their sin. Although they are made in God’s image, and set apart by God’s grace, they keep failing to reflect God’s glory. They turn to idols. They oppress the poor. And with hardened hearts, they reject God’s prophets.
And because God loves His people—even though they have failed to love Him—He sends them into exile in Babylon. This is not destruction. This is discipline. Even in exile, God is gracious to promise salvation. God multiplies mercy, that His glory might be displayed.
That passage we read from earlier, Ezekiel:22-32a is one place we see that really clearly.
The Lord God says, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name. (Ezek 36:22)” He is about to promise salvation in the New Covenant And before He does, He tells them why.
Notice that it is not, ultimately, for their sake for the sake of His people. Three times in two verses, He says that they have “profaned” his name — see that there in verses 22 and 23? No, God says He will act “for the sake of His holy name (Ezek 36:22).
And how will He do it? How will God “vindicate the holiness” of His great name (Ezek 36:23)? He will save for His glory.
Look down at Ezekiel 36:24. And notice the word “I” in all these precious promises of the New Covenant: “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And… I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”
And as God pours forth promise after promise, through His prophet, upon His exiled people, He also makes known why. He told them at the beginning. He tells them again. As Ezekiel 36:32 says, “It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you.”
He will make His fruitless people fruitful, changing their hearts, and filling them with His Spirit that His glory might multiplied and magnified.
God saves for our benefit. But not for our sake. God saves for the sake of His name. God saves for His glory.
And yet, although this salvation had been promised, the question remained: How will God accomplish it?
Christ
In the fullness of time and in the fullness of glory, God sent forth His Son. As John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Here was God’s glory, swaddled in a manger. Walking through Galilee — healing, and forgiving, and raising the dead. All leading up to His most glorious hour. Jesus prays in John 17:1, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”
At the cross, Jesus would be lifted up glorified exiled from His Father, to welcome sinners home. Darkness covered the whole earth, that His glory might shine forth again.
Jesus rose from the grave. Conquering sin and death. Proving that He is the radiance of the glory of God and that God’s glory would be magnified and multiplied until the whole earth would be filled with it.
Before His ascension, the Risen Christ gathered His disciples, and gave them a Great Commission. As Matthew 28:19–20 reads, “... Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”. The church is embedded into the Great Commission, by the way disciples are baptized into churches. Disciples are also taught in churches
This is our King’s command. He saved us for His glory and now, He calls us to be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth with His glory.
And if you have any doubt about the centrality of the church in the Great Commission, all you have to do is keep turning the page.
Church
Do you know what the apostles did when they heard that commission? They planted churches. That is how they understood their task. Church planting among the nations. This is what we see in the book of Acts — it is a book of church planting from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Not so they could boast about anything in themselves or their own name.
No, the apostles would say, Ephesians 3:21, “to [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
The church is the display of God’s glory. It is the diamond of salvation held up for all to see — even the “rulers and authorities in heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10).
The churches grow in health as they “walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31). They multiply. After all, if we are going to display God’s manifold wisdom, it is going to take manifold churches. Churches planting churches that plant churches for the glory of God.
The End
And as we look ahead, waiting for our Lord’s return, we have confidence in His promise. As Matthew 16:18 reads, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The train tracks of history are all headed to Revelation 21:2-3, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” And continuing to Revelation 21:23, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
A new city, with a redeemed people, glorified, in the new heavens and the new earth. God saves His people for His glory He displays that glory in the church. And as churches grow in health and multiply, the redeemed are gathered together around His throne, until Habakkuk’s words prove true — “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Hab 2:14)”
So why did God save you? Why did God save us? I hope we have seen that God saves for His glory.
Now, in light of that let us consider some applications.
Plant Churches for God’s Glory
So let us get practical, here for what is left of this sermon. I know we want to see a church born. And, Grace Baptist, I praise God that is true. But before that day comes, I want us to know why.
As we think about why we plant churches. Let us consider, having a lack of motivation, having bad motivations and having good motivations. And through it all, I pray we would see that the supreme motivation for church planting must be the glory of God!
Lack of motivation
First, for those of us who might feel a lack of motivation.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Alright Ryan. Church planting for the glory of God I get it. But does it have to be us? Does it have to be here? Cannot somebody else plant churches? And besides Singapore already has churches. Do we even need more church planting here?”
Well, I appreciate your honesty. And rather than avoiding those very fair questions I would like to start this section by addressing them head-on.
So could I remind you that just as there is no such thing as an “unborn adult”, there is no such thing as an “unplanted church”? Every church was planted, at some point — including this one!
I thank God that even some of you were part of that!
So in the same way that dog-lovers love puppies. Church-lovers ought to love church plants. It is such a joy to see them born and to watch them grow.
Church planting is not just a fad for the here and now. It is how the gospel is established in a community. And Lord willing, it leaves a gospel legacy for generations to come.
So for all the veteran members here. I know that I can say, together with the more recent members of this church, that we thank God for the gospel legacy you have established here.
We thank God that this church was planted, and that God has used you, over many years, to help her grow.
So that is my first encouragement. If you love the church, you will love church planting.
Next, I would also remind you that it is always easier not to plant a church than to plant one. Within all of us there is a natural bias toward comfort.
And just in case you did not know church planting is not comfortable.
It is costly to go and be part of a church plant. It is costly to stay and send one out.
So in the comfort our flesh, we would never want to plant churches. No way!
Which means — if there is even a spark of motivation in you to see God glorified through the planting of churches. Know that that little spark did not come from you! That is a gift of God’s Spirit And you ought to praise Him for that — in fact, it brings Him glory when you do!
Can I just give you some stats for a minute here? Speaking to the “why Singapore?” question in particular. There are about 6 million people on this island and there are roughly 500 churches.
Now, some of those so-called churches flat out deny the gospel. They are no true church at all. Many more dilute the gospel, or distort the gospel, where the message of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone is either not clear, or not pure.
By God’s grace, there are faithful churches here in Singapore. I am not saying we are the only one. But I am saying that there are far too few!
Even if we are extra optimistic to say all 500 churches are faithful to the gospel, and will remain faithful to the gospel, which is not a guarantee, by the way, we will see that more in our next sermon series, Revelation 1-3, where some churches begin faithful, but do not remain faithful… But let us be extra generous to say that we have 500 forever-faithful churches here in Singapore, that means that to see all of Singapore saved, each church would have to have 12,000 members.
Even just to account for the current number of professing Christians in Singapore, each church would need 2,000 members. Last time I checked, most churches here are not that big!
9 out of 10 people here do not know Jesus. Most churches here are either unfaithful or unhealthy. Singapore may have a strong economy, but Singapore is in a church deficit.
And if we want to see God glorified as churches hold forth the message of salvation, we are going to need more healthy churches. We are going to need those healthy churches to multiply. This is a kingdom investment for eternal gain.
I have been working with some elders to construct a map of the city. Plotting out any strong churches we are aware of. And you know what? I am grieved that there are not many. I put them in yellow dots, and my map has very little. And oh, I pray, that a generation from now. That map would be full of yellow — radiating God’s glory throughout the city.
There are 140 MRT stops on this island. I would like to see 140 yellow dots right beside each of them. A glory beacon for every station. We have got one right here at Mattar. Let us pray for many more. One other thought if you lack motivation to see healthy churches multiply. Do not only think in terms of need. Think also in terms of opportunity.
Singapore is the hub of Southeast Asia. Billy Graham called it the “Antioch of Asia” for good reason! It is so well positioned as a landing pad and a launching pad for gospel work among the nations.
Beloved, I would not be in Singapore right now if I did not believe in that. The Lord turned my heart to serve here in Singapore. Not only because there is need here but also because there is a great opportunity.
It is like what Paul says to the church in Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8, Paul says that the church “became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia, for not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from [them] [throughout the region], but [their] faith in God has gone forth everywhere.”
That church was young, vulnerable, and not well-resourced, by the way. And yet, through them, the gospel multiplied — sounding forth throughout the region.
I pray their example would motivate us to be gospel exporters planting churches throughout Singapore, and to the ends of the earth.
So there are a few things to consider, if perhaps, we lack motivation for church planting. Let us think now about some bad motivations for church planting.
Bad motivations
Well as I understand it many so-called church plants here in Singapore have not really been a plant but a split. Divisions, factions, dissension and rivalry -- those are not good motivations to go start a new church. Rather than glorifying God, it grieves His Spirit, and leaves behind so much pain. We even know that pain in our own history as a church… do we not?
There is a great difference between dividing churches and multiplying them. Healthy churches multiply. Fractured churches divide. So relational strife is a bad motivation to go start a new church. And beloved, I am so grateful for the unity God has given us, even as we are stretched to work toward this effort.
Now, we are not rushing into anything here. We are going to give this ample time. Church splits tend to happen fast. But church plants take time. A healthy church plant will develop in the womb of a healthy church until it is full term.
So while we do plan to start taking steps toward the church plant even this year, all your elders are committed to walking slowly so that all of us can walk together.
And beloved, I am so thankful to know, deep in my bones, that Eugene will be the number one cheerleader for anyone who decides to go and plant. And I will be the number one cheerleader for anyone who decides to stay and send. There is not an ounce of division here not at all.
But there is a baby in the womb, there is a wonderful fullness in the life of our church right now. We feel it here in this room, and even more down on level 3, amen?
This baby is developing and soon, it will be time.
I will give us one more bad motivation: Pride.
Now, pride could manifest as a power grab between two leaders, resulting in a split — that would be like what we just talked about with division. But pride can take another form here too. It can look like church planting for the sake of brand-building. Making much of Jesus so that others will make much of us — that sort of thing. At the end of the day, churches can either build their brand or build Christ’s kingdom. There is no other way.
And you know the clearest way to tell the difference? Brand-building churches do not actually plant churches instead, they plant campuses. It is all tied back to the mothership and while leaders might be raised up and sent out, authority is not released.
Now, Eugene is a gifted leader — he handles the Word so well — and one of the reasons he is such a good leader is that he is not prideful at all. Sincerely, he is one of the most humble men I have ever known. He is not trying to build his brand or the GBC brand.
But he knows that the growth God has given us as a church -- both in our size and especially in our health — is a sheer gift of God’s grace meant to be stewarded for God’s glory.
So he is not trying to plant churches so that he might be glorified, or that Grace Baptist might be glorified, but that God might be glorified.
This is why the church plant is not going to be a campus. It is going to be its own church, with its own membership, and its own leadership. It is what we confess in our statement of faith — that “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation.”
And with this same reasoning, this is why we do not feel at liberty to simply add another service. Because churches gather in one place, at one time.
That is quite literally what the Greek word for “church,” ”ekklesia”, means — an assembly.
Even the early church understood this. Here it is from Justin Martyr, “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place the day on which we all hold our common assembly.”
The New Testament only uses the word church in two ways, autonomous local congregations, or the universal body of Christ. But in both instances it is talking about gathering an assembly in one place, at one time.
Last time I checked in Revelation I did not see multiple heavenly services or multiple heavenly campuses. Rather, the universal body of Christ — the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, and nation are gathered together around the throne, singing glory to God, and to the Lamb.
So one assembly in heaven means one assembly in our churches today. Just like one body assembles with its many parts all together, same place, same time. Just like one family gathers around one table for the family meal not half the family, and then the other half, in shifts.
One church means one assembly. We are not going to grow by adding a campus. We are not going to grow by adding a service.
We are going to grow by planting churches.
To be fair most multi-site and multi-service churches are not prideful. Perhaps they just have not considered that the Bible might actually speak to this
I simply want to say that pride is a bad motivation for church planting. We must give ourselves to kingdom building, not brand building. Planting autonomous churches is both faithful to Scripture, and it promotes humility. It is one way we come together to say, John 3:30 — “He must increase… [we] must decrease.”
So division and pride are bad reasons to start a church. I praise God He has been preserving us from those snares of Satan. And let us be all the more watchful and prayerful against those schemes in the days ahead.
Which leads us, finally, to some good motivations.
Good motivations
Well, we have touched on these already but to underscore them again we can think of these good motivations under three headings – church cooperation, church leadership and church outreach.
So first church cooperation.
Inevitably by believing that one church means one assembly it means you are going to have to partner with other churches. Remember those stats from earlier? The numbers are just too big for any one church to swallow. Brand-building churches view other churches kind of like competition. But church planting churches view other gospel preaching churches as beloved partners!
One evidence that we are ready to be a church planting church is that we pray for other churches every week. We rejoice in what God is doing through their ministries! And I love the thought of how church planting promotes even more prayer. From the sending church to the plant, and from the plant to the sending church, both churches are strengthened to pray for each other — and for other faithful churches.
Cooperation is never less than prayer, but it is often more than prayer, too. And I am excited to see the plant work together with GBC in pastoral training and missions sending and conferences and Weekenders and workshops and all sorts of ways that both churches will be strengthened to cooperate. I am excited about that!
In regards to church leadership, church planting creates more opportunities for people to grow into their God-given gifts.
When God moves some crop to plant them elsewhere, both canopies open up with new daylight for people to step up, and lead and serve, as good stewards of God’s varied grace (cf. 1 Pet 4:10).
That is why there is such good ministry, not only in going to be part of the church plant but in staying and sending too!
Mama will need to be strengthened after delivery, but you better get ready, because there will be more but you better get ready, because there will be more.
Finally church planting encourages church outreach.
If we want more people to be reached with the gospel, we have to plant more churches. Tim Keller has an article titled, “Why Plant Churches?” where he shows how, historically, God has used church plants to be particularly effective in reaching lost people. Statistically speaking, your non-Christian neighbour is more likely to visit a new church than an old one.
He also shows how church planting strengthens evangelism throughout a city. Historically speaking, God has used church plants to breathe fresh winds of evangelistic fruit, not just in that one church, but in all the churches around.
As the elders are considering a target area for the church plant, we are looking at where we have members, and where there is a lack of strong churches. We want to serve an area that is underserved with the gospel, where there are not yellow dots. W do not just want to split our body into two groups with the same sum. We want to see net gain for the kingdom of God, and we trust that God wants to see that even more than we do. He is committed to the glory of His name.
So we do want to see churches cooperate, and leaders grow, and unbelievers reached. I hope we have seen that all of those good motivations are merely channels toward our supreme motivation — to see a glory beacon established.
Because planting churches is ultimately about the glory of God.
One church planting story to close.
In 1871, the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota, sent out a Core Team of 22 members, to plant a church in another part of the city. They had a particular burden to reach some of the Swedish immigrants who were migrating at that time. They even named the church, “First Swedish Baptist Church” — I guess they did not want to be “Second Baptist”.
And over the next century, God would bless them with a healthy ministry — faithfully proclaiming the gospel, building up the saints, and reaching the lost— and they multiplied. They planted 8 churches, and revitalized another dozen. And nearly all of that, they did in partnership with their sending church, First Baptist, by the way.
Together, they worked to see the gospel expand throughout the city.
During those years, the church changed their name to better represent their diverse reach across various ethnic groups in the city. And while they had a number of long-term, faithful pastorates, the church began to age, and their pastor reached retirement.
So in July of 1980, the church now named Bethlehem Baptist Church called a young, inexperienced man to serve as their pastor. His name was John Piper. A man whom God would use to help so many of us see the centrality of God’s glory in all things — including church planting. His vision was not of brand-building but, quote “to magnify Jesus Christ by His word so clearly that He draws people to Himself and builds His church.”
Over the next 33 years of Piper’s pastorate, Bethlehem would go on to plant dozens more churches, Establishing a church planting network and training pastors and church planting teams to plant churches throughout the city, the country, to the ends of the earth.
None of that would have ever happened, had not the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis sent out 22 members to plant a church, more than a century before.
I have had the joy of getting to know Dr. Piper. He knows I am serving here with you all in Singapore, and knowing John, I am sure he has even prayed for us. He is a man of fervent prayer. And since the glory of God is kind of his “thing” I wrote to John, asking if he would help us out with a few sentences for this sermon.
I asked, “Why must God's glory be our supreme motivation for church planting?” He wrote, “I take the question to mean: Why must the desire to see God glorified be our strongest motivation in church planting?” — John, ever the precise man, helpfully sharpened my question before answering it for us.
He continued, “Because this desire should drive everything. ‘Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Cor 10:31). ‘Whatever’ includes everything, and everything includes church planting. Further, the church is the theater for putting on display the glory of God’s wisdom — quoting Ephesians 3:10. [And finally,] because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, and the church is the place where the corporate experience of joyful satisfaction reaches its crescendo:”
And then he quoted Romans 15:5–6, “May God grant you . . . to live in such harmony with one another . . . that together you may with one voice glorify God”
Oh beloved, and why every church was born. That is why every Christian was born again. God saves for His glory, so we plant for His glory. It is all for the glory of God!
Let’s pray.