SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Acts 12:24; 19:20
God created the first humans and He gave to them the command “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28.
Growth is God’s business. He is about the spiritual growth. This spiritual growth comes about as a result of the Word of the God growing in us individually or congregationally (Acts 12:24; 19:20). Spiritual growth is a growth in love for God and our neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40). When we grow in our love for God and neighbor then the results of it will come naturally. The first church grew spiritually in Acts 2:42-47a.
As a consequence of this growth, we see GOD growing the church in Acts in three ways. The church grew:
a. Numerically.
b. Geographically.
c. Cross-racially.
{Let us look at the first way through which the church grew under God’s direction, numerical growth.}
I. NUMERICAL GROWTH
When the Holy Spirit was sent to the apostles, the people were “amazed and perplexed.” While some were in awe, others were mocking saying that they were drunk. Peter stood up and he preached Christ’s sovereignty and lordship. “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” (2:41). Their faithful obedience to the Lord in baptism marks the beginning of the reign and lordship of Christ. They were very happy of their new relationship with the Lord and “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” (2:42-47a). This passage gives us some marks of their immediate spiritual growth. Marks of this growth were the devotion to God, fellowship with other Christians and respect from non-believers. As a result of this growth Luke records that “…the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (2:47b).
By Acts 4:4 the number grew to 5000 men, and here women are not numbered. I believe that women were saved also. At Acts 5:14 the counting stopped and we read “…more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
Acts 6:1 says that “…the number of disciples was increasing…” This statement introduces a conflict that arose in the Jerusalem church in regard to Grecian Jew widows. The matter was brought to the apostles who proposed the solution. Having dealt with the problem in a godly way, Luke tells us “…the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased RAPIDLY, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”(6:7). So the spiritual growth, that is evident in this case, brings for the church a rapid growth and also priests were coming to believe in the Lord. In likewise 9:31 and 16:5 continues this record of growth in a daily growth rhythm.
We read about 3000 on 2:41. We read of 5000 men on 4:4. Then we don’t have numbers, but we have “more and more,” “increasing.” Why did the numbering stop? I believe that there is a reason behind. God through Luke wants to tell us that the numbers are ends to means. They are consequences of the real growth, the spiritual growth toward God and neighbor. Numbers are God’s business; our business is the spiritual growth. When we grow spiritually, GOD will grow us numerically.
“The only value of numbers is in comparison; that’s why you find statistics in columns.” WAYNE JACOBSEN. People today are so much focused on the numbers, and they miss the nature of true growth. As a minister of the gospel, I am asked many times “How is the church doing? How was worship today?” And guess what the next question is! “How many are coming now? Or, how many were present today?”
If we grow in our love toward God and our neighbor, then GOD will grow the church in numbers.
{God grew church numerically, but He also grew the church geographically.}
II. GEOGRAPHICAL GROWTH.
Initially the church was growing in Jerusalem. But they were staying there and not going anywhere else. Chapters 1-7 in the book of Acts focus on the work of the body of Christ in this area. The church was doing very well, except for this fact.
But in chapter 8:1 we read that “a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” It looks that they had fallen in their comfort zone, and were enjoying themselves too much. It is possible that they are feeling well about themselves, and God, the author of growth caused “a great persecution” to come upon the church. The church scattered and “those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” What they did not do on their own, God caused them to do in the hard way. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed Christ there (8:5). As a result of his evangelistic tour in Samaria “…when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” Acts 8:12
“Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.” (Acts 11:19). Not only the gospel went to the nearby Samaria, but it also went to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch.
At this time, God brought into the life of the church Saul of Tarsus, who is best known to us as the apostle Paul. He started missionary trips throughout Europe and Asia. Luke speaks of three missionary trips Paul took. The church now was growing not only numerically but also geographically as new ground was being broken.
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (1:8). Jesus had an agenda. He had made them know the agenda. But they had stopped at first step of Jesus’ agenda. It took the persecution to dawn on them that their witness needed to go to the next step. And so slowly they went to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the world. God used the Christians to preach the gospel wherever they went. It came naturally for them, because they loved God and they loved their neighbors. They were concerned about their lost state. They had a message that they did not keep only to themselves in their homes, but took it with them in every part of the world they went. God was using their spiritual growth to bring the gospel in every area of the world.
God can use us today, if we allow Him to use us. As we grow toward God, then we will desire more to bring the gospel to more locations. At this moment God has grown the church in Albania into 14 locations, 13 cites and one village. Albania has over 2800 villages and over 100 cities and towns who need the gospel of Christ, and God can use us to take it to them. We have to find our Jerusalem and from there to go to our Judea, Samaria and ends of the world.
{God grew the church numerically. He grew the church geographically. He also grew the church cross-racially.}
III. CROSS-RACIAL GROWTH
In the beginning we have a Judean church. The church was all Jewish, and they had remained in Jerusalem and its surroundings.
Chapter eight though we read about Philip’s evangelistic campaign in Samaria. Because of their past and their intermarriages with the people who were brought to live in Israel after the Assyrian Captivity they were not liked much by the Jews who considered them Gentiles. They were not liked by Gentiles, because they considered them Jews. Nobody claimed them, though they were 50-50 Jew-Gentile. But Philip’s campaign brings them into the kingdom of God. The church was growing toward other races as well.
Finally, we have the gospel going to Cornelius and his obedience to it. Cornelius was a Roman centurion that served as eye-opening case for Peter and his six companions (11:12) that the gospel was for Gentiles also. Peter’s speech before the brothers and his relating of the events showed that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well (11:1-18). Now there was a new door open for Gentiles. Right after this discussion Luke relates “Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” Acts 11:19-21. The effects of these efforts were that Greeks started to believe in the Lord.
From chapter 13 and on we have the Apostle Paul preaching the gospel to all people, of all nations and races. Possibly, He preached the gospel even to the Illyrians (Rom. 15:19). “…from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” There are two meanings to this statement: 1) All the way to the borders of Illyricum, or 2) All the way including Illyricum.
So we see a slow move from Jews to Samaritans, Greeks and all nations of the world at that time. From Jews, to 50% Jews, to 0% Jews. God was slowly using the spiritual growth of the church to have them understand the cross-racial nature of the gospel.
{Let us conclude our thoughts and try to make applications for us today.}
CONCLUSION
Twice in the book of Acts, Luke says that the Word of God (the effects of it) increased. "But the word of God continued to increase and spread." (Acts 12:24, NIV) "In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power." (Acts 19:20, NIV). As a result of the growth of the effect of the Word, in the individual Christians and local churches God caused the church to grow numerically, geographically and cross-racially.
Through these types of growth, God showed that the Good News is for all nationalities, races, genders, classes, or habitats. Paul sums this up "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26-28, NIV).
For God the Gospel has no borders! The only borders to it can be our lack of growth and our not allowing of God to grow us and use us for His purposes. Albania is a country that is more and more being populated by people of different nationalities and races. Most of Albanian localities do not have a congregation of the Lord’s Church established. Allow me to ask each of you a very personal question: Are you allowing the Word of God to grow in you, so in turn God can use you to grow His church in Albania numerically, geographically and cross-racially?
