HOPE
EQUIP THE NEXT GENERATION
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 28:18
NOVEMBER 16, 2008
This past week on Wednesday night, Barb and I were returning home after spending the evening with some folks from the church. It was about 10 o’clock at night and we were driving south from Highlands Ranch to Castle Pines North where we live. And as we came on the Grigg’s Road (and Grigg’s is a dirt road, at least the part of Grigg’s that we were on)and as we were approaching Daniel’s Park Road we saw a car turned over right in the road. The window was crushed and the lights were out—although it looked like there were some dashboard lights on. We tried to call 911 and we couldn’t get any reception on our cell phones, so we drove up to a little higher ground right where Grigg’s and Daniel’s Park Road meet and we were able to access South Metro.
They sent the paramedics and they sent police officers. They asked us to stay there with our lights blinking so they could locate the scene and we did that and then we went with them. The police officer told me that the people in the car, whoever was in the car, an individual or maybe more, had fled the scene. They obviously had survived the crash, they survived the rollover, and they had fled the scene. There were no license plates on the car and the car was a stolen car. As Barb and I drove home we were trying to piece together what could have happened. Perhaps some kids had been up to Daniel’s Park, maybe they’d been drinking, maybe using drugs, but somehow lost control of their car as they left and rolled it. And because the car was stolen, they just took off, fled the scene.
This past week our son Drew had his car smashed into down in Denver just outside his flat. The car was parked about 10 feet from the front door of his building, and somebody came by and just crashed into the car and stole Drew’s medical bag. He’s an ophthalmologist and the lenses that he uses to help people were stolen. I don’t know. Maybe there’s a black market for lenses like that. They’re worth thousands of dollars.
Sometimes it feels a little bit like the world is crazy. Every once in a while, the thought occurs to you that it feels a little bit like our society is unraveling. Certainly, segments of our society are unraveling. There is a significant societal dysfunction, and subcultures of dysfunction. There are subcultures that have failed to equip the next generation. It may have gone on over multiple generations this failure to equip, this failure to disciple. And the consequences for our nation and for our society and for our national culture are great.
We are the church of Jesus Christ, and the Bible warns us that if we would be light in the world and if we would be salt on the earth, if we would serve the cause of heaven on earth, we must equip constantly the next generation. We cannot fail. The price is high. Secularism and even apostasy is just one generation away if we fail in this call of Jesus Christ to disciple.
We look at the Great Commission (and that was our Scripture for today), and I think to some extent the Great Commission has been misunderstood. Many people view the Great Commission as a call by Christ to his people to evangelize the world, and that is part of the call of this Great Commission. Jesus wants us to evangelize the world. But the focus, the thrust, the heart of the Great Commission is a call to discipleship. “All power, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and disciple all nations. 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. And keep doing this until the end of the age. Never fail.” That is the call that Christ has placed upon his people.
Discipleship was part of the Jewish Shema. So, you look at Deuteronomy 6 and you don’t just see, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.” But the Shema also says, “The words which I tell you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children.” The Word of God in the Shema to the people of Israel is that you must equip the next generation. You must disciple the next generation. This concept of discipleship was built into the rabbinical order in the nation of Israel. So, rabbis trained disciples. Our Lord Jesus Christ chose disciples and trained them over a three-year period. Jesus equipped a future generation of leaders. For three years he taught the disciples, that they might be equipped and ready to lead.
Some of the great classic books written in the Christian world—F.F. Bruce’s The Twelve, or Coleman’s Master Plan of Evangelism—remind us that Jesus has given us a model. What he did with the 12—how he trained them, how he equipped them, how he discipled them—is the call of Christ on all of his church that we would do the same, that we would take the time to train and equip and raise up each generation that follows us.
This morning I want us to begin by looking at the past. Then I want to take a little time looking at the future, and we’ll see what God is telling us in the present.
We begin by looking at the past with regard to equipping the next generation. What has happened in the past?
And as we look at the past, I want to think of a movie clip set long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars. What is that all about? What is Yoda about? What is Luke Skywalker about? A little bit of Eastern religious philosophical mumbo jumbo and hocus pocus? But ultimately, all the Star Wars movies and all the Star Wars books, which have so enhanced the fantasy genre of literature, are all about discipleship. The great central theme is discipleship and equipping. In the context of light and darkness, and good and evil, so much is at stake. So, you see Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda seeking to equip and disciple Anakin Skywalker and failing. The result is Darth Vader and the triumph of evil. You see Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda seeking to disciple Luke Skywalker and succeeding, and there arises a generation of hope. This is the theme that is throughout the Star Wars story. And in a sense it’s a biblical theme.
The Bible talks about light and darkness. The Bible talks about good and evil. There is a great war. There is a great battle taking place between light and darkness even at a supernatural level, even in the heavenly places, and a great battle between good and evil here on Earth. So much is it stake whether we fail or succeed in terms of equipping and disciplining the next generation. We see it biblically. So, you look in the Book of Judges in the Bible, you come to Judges 2 and you see Moses has discipled Joshua. And Joshua was a great leader in his generation. But now in Judges 2, Joshua has died. And with Joshua his generation has died. You have this statement in Judges 2 that there rose a generation after Joshua that knew not the Lord, a generation that knew not the Lord.
Biblical scholars debate whether that failure was Joshua’s. Having been discipled, did he then fail to disciple the next generation? We don’t exactly know. But we do know this: That next generation was not discipled, they were not equipped, and there came, as you see as you go through Judges and even in the second half of Judges 2, a great apostasy. The result of that failure to disciple was that apostasy spread over Israel and a great evil enveloped the land. God raised up the Judges, from Gideon to Samson, from Deborah to Barak to Jephthah, in order to challenge this evil that had come to Israel because a generation had failed to be discipled. It is a huge issue. Much is at stake.
Now, you come to the New Testament and you see Paul’s instruction to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 3 and 4, Paul knows that his time is short and that his death is near and Paul knows he needs to hand off the baton to Timothy, his disciple. He has equipped him, trained him, to lead a future generation of the faithful. Hear Paul’s words as he writes to Timothy: “Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life; what befell me at Antioch, Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. Indeed, anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have received it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which were able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ. For all Scripture is inspired of God as profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God might be complete, equipped for every good work.
“And I charge you, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his Kingdom, preach the Word, the urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort the unfailing patience and in teaching for the time is coming when people will no longer endure sound teaching. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking and they will tum away from listening to the truth and wander into myth. But as for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. For I am already at the point of being sacrificed. The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I’ve kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” This ends Paul’s passion.
As he hands off the baton, he knows how important it is that he ran the race well and that now Timothy runs the race well. So much is as stake. In those early centuries, when you look at the first, second, and third centuries, the message of Christ swept over the civilized world because generations were faithful to equip the next. And the gospel of Christ went forth in power. Future leaders were trained.
Now, of course, it’s not always been that way in history. I’ve been studying in the last couple of weeks about Timothy I. Certainly most of you have not heard of Timothy I. But you’ve heard of Charles I. Charles I was Charlemagne, Charles the Great. Charlemagne became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800 AD In that time, in the Middle Ages, Christianity dominated Europe, and you have these great power bases in the Christian world: Rome, the center of papal authority, and then Constantinople, the seat of the patriarch. So, you have Christianity around the year 800 dominating Europe and even the Middle East, dominating Northern Africa. What was the Roman Empire was dominated by the church of Jesus Christ with the Pope at Rome, the patriarch at Constantinople, and the Holy Roman Emperor on the throne.
But what a lot of people don’t realize when they study that period of history is that there was another segment of the church of Jesus Christ, and it was also huge. It was headquartered not at Rome or Constantinople but at Seleucia. Seleucia was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, not far from Baghdad, and Seleucia was the headquarters of Timothy I and the Nestorian Christian movement. Christianity in the Far East extended all the way to China.
If you look at Britain in the year 800 AD, and you look at the church of Jesus Christ in the British Isles in 800 AD, you would see two great ecclesiastical metropolitans. One was at York, and the other was at Canterbury. And that’s all there was in England, York and Canterbury, the two ecclesiastical metropolitans. But under Timothy I in Seleucia, he had 19 ecclesiastical metropolitans with 85 bishops and his ministry extended all the way to China. One-fourth to 1/3 of the Christians in the world was under the catholicos of Timothy I. Amazing. And I think what was so unusual and different about Timothy I is that the Christians in his realm were living with Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims and Taoists. The Christians that were part of Christendom in Europe, in Rome and in Constantinople, dominated nations and governments and they ruled. But where Timothy I was it was different. This is where Christianity was strong, but a minority, and faithful in the midst of cultures and nations that did not always agree with them.
I think the church of Jesus Christ has reached a time… We’re not like the Holy Roman Empire. It’s not like it was in Europe when Rome and Constantinople were seats of Christian power. It’s more like it was in Seleucia. It’s more like it was in the Far East. It’s more like it was under Timothy I. We find ourselves in a multicultural situation. There are many belief systems. There is pluralism and syncretism and atheism, and we’ve been called to hold the faith, to contend once and for all for the faith that was delivered to the saints and to be faithful unto death. That call is upon us.
You can look back. You can look back in the Middle Ages and it doesn’t matter whether you look at Europe or the Middle East or Asia. The same principle holds true. Where Christians were faithful to equip and disciple, the gospel flourished. And when they failed, the gospel failed. Light and darkness, good and evil; it has always been that way. And so, the call of Christ is upon us today.
Now, if you were to try to think of a song that kind of energized you and kind of made you want to dance a little bit, what would the song be? “It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A…” It’s funny. Believe it or not, at the Chapel service this morning the people started dancing all over. It was pretty amazing. That Chapel service is pretty rowdy. Now, Barb and I have traveled to many parts of the world, and the amazing thing is people sing that song in Europe and people sing that song in Asia. They all know that song. YMCA. The tragedy is for most of them that’s all they know about the YMCA. And maybe that’s true of you. Maybe all you know about the YMCA is that song.
The YMCA was established in 1844 in the city of London by George Williams. George Williams loved Jesus Christ and he wanted to establish residences and accommodations where young people who were traveling could stay and they could be evangelized and discipled and put into Bible study groups. That was the original vision of the YMCA: The Young Men’s Christian Association. The YMCA has spread all over the world. It’s now in 90 nations with 30 million YMCA members, 15 right here in the United States of America.
But the YMCA has changed. It has lost its original vision. My brother Greg worked as an executive at a YMCA in California, in the Glendale YMCA. It was a great Y. It was an evangelical YMCA. They had wonderful Christian camps on Catalina Island. And they had Bible studies that drew hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids. In fact, churches in that area couldn’t even get youth groups going because all the kids were going to the YCMA to learn about Christ and to go into Bible study groups.
But we all know that’s not normal—not anymore, not for the YMCA. It has become more and more secularized. I was asked a few years ago to teach a Bible study at a YMCA in Aurora, and I was delighted. I said, “Wow, this is great that you would want me to teach a Bible study.” They said, “Just one thing … just one thing, we want to make sure that you don’t mention Jesus Christ.” And I was incredulous. Teach a Bible study and not mention Jesus Christ! I mean, the Old Testament all points to the Messiah, who is Christ. And the New Testament is Christ revealed. You can’t do a Bible study and not talk about Jesus Christ. It’s so PC. YMCAs vary, depending on the leadership, but the YMCA movement has changed because at some point in time there was a failure to disciple and equip the next generation of leaders. That’s how it happens, you see.
You might have noticed that yesterday Princeton played Yale in football. Probably you didn’t notice that, but Princeton played Yale in football yesterday, and that’s kind of a big deal in the Ivy League. But there wasn’t a prayer prior to the game… did you know that there was a time when before every Ivy League football game there was a public prayer? You see, Ivy League schools were founded by Christians, by evangelicals and by churches and by pastors.
A few years ago, Barb and I went with Drew, who was interested perhaps in attending Princeton, and we walked around the Princeton campus and we went into Nassau Hall where the Continental Congress once met. In Nassau Hall, there’s this big picture of John Witherspoon, who was president of Princeton. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a Presbyterian pastor and a lover of Jesus Christ. In Nassau Hall there’s this big picture of Jonathon Edwards. Jonathon Edwards was president of Princeton—the evangelist, the missionary to the Indian nations and peoples, the theologian, the pastor, the lover of Jesus, the writer, the author, president of Princeton. But of course, it’s all changed, it’s all changed and there has been this gradual movement to secularism as along the line multiple generations failed to equip and disciple the next generation of Christian leaders.
It’s not an uncommon story. You can see it in the Methodist educational movement—from the University of Southern California, USC, founded by Methodist Evangelicals, fight here at DU. A few years ago I was in Dan Ritchie’s office when Dan was the chancellor of DU. And Dan was showing me pictures of past chancellors who were Methodist bishops, and they had their ecclesiastical garb and at that time DU was a Christian school. But you see, somewhere along the line a generation or two failed to equip or disciple. So, much is as stake, so much.
So, here we are at Cherry Hills Community Church. We want to be faithful. We want to equip the next generation. We have Sunday school classes. We have over 2,000 children that come every few weeks. We have over 1,400 children in our Sunday school every week. But we have over 2,000 children in the Sunday school, and we’re committed to them, and we need you. We need you to go into the classroom and help equip a future generation of Christian leaders. Accept the call of Christ. We need 1,000 volunteers in the Sunday school every year just to equip the next generation. We have Christian schools here. Some people wonder, “Why does Cherry Hills Community Church have 3 Christian schools?” We have a preschool, an elementary school, and a middle school. It’s because we want to raise up a generation of women and men who love Jesus Christ to be light and salt on the Earth. We are committed to equipping the next generation.
In his prayer, Gene mentioned Valor across the street. Thank God for that Christian high school. Many of us years ago had a vision to be part of something like this. Valor is a separate 501(c)3, but we have some shared governance with Valor and I’m also privileged to sit on the board at Valor. We are committed to raising up men and women who will serve Christ as long as they draw breath and be salt in the corruption and light in the darkness. Gene mentioned Colorado Christian University and Denver Seminary. I’m so privileged to serve on the board of Colorado Christian University. And what’s it all about? What are we trying to do? Raise up, equip a generation—indeed, generations—of future Christian leaders. Of course, they’ll go in every arena of life. Some of them will go in the corporate world, some into the marketplace, some into churches, some on the mission fields, but they’ll know the Word of God and they’ll serve the kingdom of Heaven. That’s the call of Christ upon his people. We want to pass the baton.
Did you watch the Olympics this last summer? Barb and I love the summer Olympics. For years I competed in track and field, and we both love track and field. Did you notice in the last Olympics that were in China that the men’s relay team and women’s relay team both dropped the baton? It was just kind of this “ugh,” moment. Because once you drop the baton, it’s over. And Christ wants us to understand that if we drop the baton, it’s over. You’ve got to be faithful. Secularism, as I’ve said before, is just one generation away. We’ve got to be faithful. That’s the call of Christ upon us. So we have an outreach department. And I believe, as God brought Gene to us years ago and the staff has grown and so many of you have volunteered, we have the best outreach department in America of any church. I’m so grateful.
We have opportunities for you to go and be involved in equipping a generation of future Christian leaders all over the world. I want to give you a few examples: Frontier Laborers for Christ, Daniel Kalnin. Dan is a friend of our church and our partner in ministry, and he established Frontier Laborers for Christ in Thailand, the Golden Triangle, in Southeast Asia. Dan, when he’s on leave or furlough, often times comes back and joins us here at Cherry Hills and I just love this guy. God has anointed him to do great things in Thailand. And so, he’s established this whole new concept on the mission field, and instead of just planting churches they are establishing Christian villages. They are just literally creating Christian villages, which are like church communities in the tribal regions of Thailand.
These villages are so awesome in their complete scope of ministry because they offer prayer, worship, and fellowship, but also education and social development. They offer theological development, health education; they offer a study of human and civil rights; and they look at economic opportunities and provide economic opportunities and incentives for people in the village. These are Christian villages. They are so awesome is the king of Thailand, who is now 77 years old, the oldest reigning monarch on the Earth, has gone to visit these Christian villages and is just impressed with what God is doing.
You understand the generational ministry of these Christian villages. You have moms, dads, their children, and you have grandparents and grandchildren. And so you get a chance to impact generations and provide a future generation of leadership. We send teams over there to Thailand. We would like you to go. We’ve sent many teams over there to see what Daniel is doing and to be involved in the work. We need you to pray. We need home teams. We need prayer teams. We need you to go. It’s an amazing opportunity to equip a future generation.
I’ve mentioned Global Connections before. It’s a wonderful ministry. Some of you, by the way, after last week when I mentioned South Korea and North Korea and Dr. Lee and Dr. Chung and the possibility of partnering to do wonderful things over there for Christ, some of you have come and volunteered to go on a team. Many of you volunteered to go on a team to North Korea. How awesome. We just don’t have a team in place yet. We’re still developing what it’s all going to look like. But thank you for your willingness to go. And Global Connection is a ministry that looks like they are going to want to partner with us in North and South Korea and maybe Saddleback Church in California, too. It’s a pretty awesome deal.
But Global Connection works in many parts of the world, and they work in Central America. My brother Greg works with Global Connection in Central America—Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica—and we have work down there through Global Connection where we are developing future Christian leaders and equipping them. It’s just awesome. Just recently, my brother Greg was telling me, we had a group go down from Cherry Hills, a group from our church. And Greg’s a member of our church, but you know how it is. It’s hard to get to know everybody, so you go on a deal like that and you get to know some folks. He was telling me how everybody’s so wonderful. Everybody from the church that went down there to work was so wonderful, and it was just so great to get to know them. In every way, when you go on one of these short-term mission teams, you impact generations of people. But it changes you, and you make new friends. It’s just an awesome deal and we want to invite you to be part of this stuff.
I was thinking too of Paul Pillai, Paul has been an old friend through the years. Paul works in India. It’s an amazing story. Joe Stephens, who actually married Barb and I, was my pastor growing up. Joe first introduced me decades ago to Paul. Paul works with National Inland Mission, and he’s developed the Grace Bible College. And the Grace Bible College in India trains hundreds and hundreds of young people to be pastors and to go forth and establish churches. Just last year through Paul’s ministry they established 92 churches in India. Paul also heads up in India the Bethesda Children’s Home. The Bethesda Children’s Home takes kids that are abandoned or orphaned or poor and loves on them and takes care of them and adopts them. Many of those kids then grow up and go to Grace Bible College there in India and they become pastors and they plant churches. This is part of equipping future generations of leaders. We’re sending teams over there. Paul’s always wanting me to come and teach at Grace Bible College. We’ve had people go over there and teach, but we’ve sent many teams over there. We want you to be part of this, to part of the Great Commission, the call to equip generations for Christ.
We have so many ministries locally that equip future leaders and you can be part of them. And we need a little bit of your time and your talent and your treasure to make these ministries thrive. Luis Villarreal is one of my good friends, and Gene and Luis and I meet regularly. I’ve mentioned this before. Just this last week we had lunch with Luis, and he’s the head of Save Our Youth. I think Luis is one of the greatest Hispanic leaders in metropolitan Denver and the state of Colorado, certainly one of the greatest Christian Hispanic leaders. He’s just a great guy. Lu has established Save Our Youth and there’s just hundreds of kids that need mentors. So we’ll train you to be a mentor and link you up with a kid, and you get a chance to pray for that young person and have them pray for you. You get a chance to help them in their education, that they might one day compete for the dignity of a job. And you get to be their friend and love them in Christ. We prepare you for it and encourage you in it. We need mentors. Hundreds of you have been mentors, but it’s all part of equipping the next generation of leaders. We want to be faithful.
Our HOPE series comes to an end, but in a sense it never ends. We are always helping the poor, we’re always looking for open doors for the gospel, we are always planting churches, and we’re always equipping future leaders. We just need you. We need you to be mobilized in service and transform the community, elevate the urban poor, and impact the world for Christ. Let’s close with a word of prayer.