On This Rock (Part Four)
Text: Acts 2:42 – 47
So… we’ve been looking at the Church that Jesus builds over the last few Sunday’s… and today will be our last sermon on that… next Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll be back to our study on Romans. Unless He leads us a different way.
But for now… we’re going to be going back to the Book of Acts, and we’re going to look at the exact same verses we looked at last week. Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47 (READ TEXT).
So if someone asked you to describe Church, just using the Bible… you’re not allowed to use any of your experiences, just use the Bible and explain Church to them, what would you say? We have to start with God’s word, otherwise we’ll create all sorts of things that we like, and that we want, and we’ll be saying “I want this in a church, and I want this kind of experience, and this kind of thing.” And we can spend our whole lives doing that. We can spend our whole lives doing things and adding things, and spending money on things, and giving our time and effort to things, but they aren’t even the things that make a church the Church at all. I mean, it would be kind of like if Jesus came to your house, and said I’m going to eat supper with you every night, and He said, “I want grilled fish, and potatoes.” And every night you made fried chicken and Brussel sprouts. And you spent your whole life making that, and then finally it was your time to go to heaven and Jesus looked at you and said, “I ordered grilled fish, and potatoes.” And you saying, “But Lord, I like the chicken.”
I mean; that’s kind of how it is when we do that.
So what does the Word of God say about the Church?
That’s what we’ve been looking at over these last few weeks. Not what you say, or I say, or our congregation says, or our association says, or our denomination says… but what does the Bible say?
Just the Bible?
And what we’ve seen is four main things that have come up. Let’s look at the text one more time and we’ll see if we can spot them (READ TEXT AGAIN).
So one of the things I see right off the bat is love. Look at it
This is a group of people, they’re like a family, they love one another, they care for one another, they meet one another’s needs, what’s mine is yours, they’re so in love with one another, if you hurt I hurt, and if you’re rejoicing over something or celebrating something I’m going to celebrate it with you. It’s just this body of people who really do love one another.
Second thing: it seems like this is a group of people that just had to get this message out. They were on a mission. There are people who don’t know about Jesus and who are going to hell and so this group assembled to get the message out about Jesus.
The third thing: It seems like they gathered in one place, at one time, all as one, and they were focused on the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Communion was a big deal, and they were devoted to praying for one another, fellowshipping with one another, and learning this book
The fourth thing: There was a training or equipping that took place. Leaders were raised up, and they trained others to be leaders. And as all of this was happening, people were being saved. They were being rescued from an eternal hell.
That’s what the Bible shows us.
So then we have to ask ourselves, are we experiencing this? Are churches today like a loving family? Would an unbeliever walk in to First Baptist Church Sharon and be totally shocked when they saw how much we really love one another? Would they be amazed at how much we care for one another?
And as far as urgency and mission… How serious do we take this mission to reach all these people who are lost? Does it really concern us that something like 6.1 billion people are going to hell… if the statistics are right? 6.1 billion people…
OR what about right here in our own neck of the woods… the U.S. Census bureau says that there are 21,559 people in Woodward County… there are about 38 churches in Woodward County.
Nearly 75% of Woodward County’s adult population identifies themselves as “religious” but only about 55% attend services more than twice a month. But let’s say that 75% are all Christians. That would still mean that 5,390 people in Woodward County are lost.
You see; this bothers me… this concerns me… this is why I’m constantly saying that our primary means of growth as a church shouldn’t come through transfer membership, but through conversion.
Do we have the urgency of the mission we’ve been given?
What else do we see the Church in Acts doing? Do we have this type of coming together where we’re all using our gifts to bless one another… where there’s just this fellowship with one another, and praying for one another, and we’re studying the Bible and devoting ourselves to knowing it, and learning it, and living it… as a family?
What do we see in the modern Church in America? Is it more like watching the Trojans whip up on an opposing team, or is it like actually being part of the team and playing the game? If we’re honest, it’s more like watching it right? We go and we watch passively for a couple of hours, then we go home and talk about it… about the plays that were called, and how well the players did… I don’t know about ya’ll but I want to be playing. I want to take an active role… and if I can’t play the game anymore, then I want to coach. I want to help the players perform to the best of their abilities and reach their full potential… I don’t want to be passive. I want to develop that player and send them out on the field with confidence knowing that they’re going to read the play correctly, get off their blocker and make that tackle.
Again; it’s having a family mentality when it comes to Church. We have to have that family mentality where we say, “You know what? I’m going to raise my kids… I’m going to teach them. I’m going to love them… I’m going to show them how to be responsible, and how to have integrity, and how to follow the Lord… so that when they get grown, they can go out and get a job, and start their own families, and take care of themselves and their kids.” But in the Church today it seems like we’re saying, “We want our kids to stay at home forever, and to be dependent on me forever.”
The writer of Hebrews says it this way in Hebrews 5:12 (READ).
You know… August 1st, MariJo and I went to this place in the city called Weight Wise… we’ve both put on some pounds… and they gave us a diet plan that’s helping us loose weight… I’ve dropped eight pounds since the first… maybe more since I last weighed myself. But I was talking to the dietician and she told me I can’t drink milk anymore… at least not until I get to my target weight… and I was upset about that. Because I like milk. And she said to me, “You know, human beings are the only creatures that drink milk past infancy.” So… no milk…
As a family trains up their kids in the way they should go… and then sends them out… so too a Church should be doing. And if you look at it, marriage and family is actually a picture given to us throughout the Bible of Christ and His Church.
In a family, you have a father, who’s the head of the home. He provides for his family… he’s supposed to be the priest of the home. The one who leads his family in their walk of faith. Then you have the mother… the one who is the helpmeet… a helper who is suitable to her husband. Who comes alongside him, and the two of them, working together raise a family… they are supposed to be fruitful and multiply and raise up their kids, training them up in the way they should go.
Well with the Church, you have Jesus, who is the Head of the Church. He is our provider, our sustainer, our great high priest. And then you have the Church – the Bride of Christ… and it’s given this task of continuing the ministry of Jesus here on earth… and Jesus says He will build His Church, and it happens using the means that He has ordained… and we see that disciples are made… and they are trained up, and eventually sent out, to go make more disciples. That’s being fruitful and multiplying. So can everybody kind of see all this? I hope so… but we don’t want to just talk about the shortcomings of the modern Church. WE serve a BIG, BIG, GOD. And where we are weak, He is strong. A God who takes all our shortcomings and makes them into strengths, for His glory, and for His Namesake.
I, in and of myself, don’t have the answers… but in looking at Scripture there are things we can do that will allow us to prioritize these four things I just talked about a while ago.
I’d say that what we see and what we realize is that first of all we have to put aside all the assumptions about what Church is, and what a Christian is, that aren’t Biblical. And go back to Scripture and look at it and ask ourselves what do we really see there?
~ We see leaders who are focused on teaching and preaching and making disciples, by equipping the saints for the work of ministry.
~ We see born again members…
Let me tell you a little story… when I was a teenager… before I was a Christian, I was a pretty adept sinner. And I remember one night I had gone over to a friends house… I was staying the night there. Now this friend of mine… he was just as wicked as I was, but his dad was a big member in one of the local churches. He went to church faithfully, he gave a lot of money to things, and on Sunday morning, he seemed like a pretty pious man. But in his home, he was anything but that. He drank a lot, he cussed, he watched things on TV not becoming a Christian, he was pretty rough on his kids… almost to the point of physical abuse. And that night, we had snuck out of the house, and did things that hooligans do, and didn’t make it back in until sunrise… and my friends dad caught us. And he began letting his son have it. Yelling and screaming, and belittling him. And me, being me… I stepped in between them. And that just made him more angry and he looked at me and said, “You boys just don’t understand…” and he was trying to explain the importance of not doing sinful things… and he said, “Why do you think people call me a Christian.” And I’ll never forget it… his son, my friend looked at his dad and said, “Probably because they don’t know you.”
~ We’ve got to have members who are truly born again… who not only have made a profession with their lips, but their lives are an everyday profession of their faith.
~ Members who love one another like a family… not the one I just described, but a loving family.
~ Members who are focused on the mission… the mission we call the Great Commission
~ Members who will build one another up, and train one another up, and be willing to be trained up and discipled.
~ Members who devote themselves to the Word of God – to the authority of it… not just saying we believe the Bible, but actually obeying it… even when that means doing hard things and things we don’t like, and things we would rather not do. Like forgiving one another. Or loving your wife like Christ loved the Church.
~We see a church that is training leaders, and a church where the members are saying, “Yeah, I want to go deeper in my understanding of theology and doctrine… and I want to get those hard questions answered so that I can always be ready to give a reason for what I believe.” “I don’t want to be a baby that has to be fed... I want to be a mature adult who can feed himself.” I want to be able to sustain myself through the week, so that when I come on Sunday, I’m informed, and studied, and knowledgeable, and ready to hear what God has to say through the message, and be obedient to it.
So when we look at the Church in the Book of Acts and we see these things, and we say, that’s what we need, we need to say, “Let’s not be what we were… let’s be what THEY were! Let’s look at what the Bible teaches. Let’s be the Church that the Bible speaks of. Let’s be effective for the cause of Christ and His mission. Let’s be good stewards of God’s resources, and of the time and talents He has blessed us with.”
In China they have very few actual church buildings like they do here… they don’t have all the programs and they don’t give you the “experience” like we do here in the United States… They don’t have the freedoms and protections we have here either… and yet, the Church in China has swelled to well over 100 million Christians. Some sources even say they’re closer to 200 million. That’s 100 to 200 million people who are willing to spend hours upon hours studying Scripture when they gather together as the Church. That’s 100 to 200 million people who are willing to lose their jobs, and their friends, and their families, and even their lives for the sake of Christ.
They get it. They understand that Jesus is worth it.
But you know what? I believe it can happen here again. I believe that we are Christians… and because we are Christians – we have received power to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. I believe that God can bring a revival to His Church here in America and we can see people who are born again, and delivered from the power of sin and Satan, and transformed. I believe that God can light a fire under us and God’s people will have their eyes opened and their minds opened and they’ll say, “Oh my goodness! What have I been doing? What have I been doing, wasting my time, and my energy, and my efforts, and my finances, wasting it all – ON GARBAGE! On Garbage pursuits. On garbage ideas. On garbage goals… What have I been doing wasting my life on all this garbage, when I could’ve been spending it all the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, and being known by Him.”
I believe that we have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.
So let me ask you this morning… has your view of Christ grown dim? Does He appear as lovely and glorious to you as He once did? Is He still the love of your life?
CLOSING
