TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
Acts 5:12-16
S: Miracles
C: God brings change
Pr: THE CHURCH IS A PLACE OF CHANGE.
Type: Narrative, Inductive
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Be a place of change.
• Be a place where lives are made better.
• Live up to our potential instead of settling.
Version: ESV
RMBC 10 July 05 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Change
An Amish boy and his father were visiting a city and were in a new mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy asked his father, “What is this father?”
The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.”
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them and into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of light with numbers above the wall light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out.
The father said to his son, “Go get your mother.”
Are you looking for a miracle?
The early church saw them.
They saw the lives of people changed.
They experienced healings.
They lived in the midst of miracles.
They experienced the change only the Holy Spirit can make in the lives of people.
TRANSITION:
We returned to the Book of Acts last week.
We have not been studying here for a while.
1. In the book of Acts, we observe a growing church.
And as we consider these first few chapters, and into our passage today, we see that the church has a primary goal.
It is to reproduce.
It is to be fruitful.
It is to see that those that do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ come to have one.
We often call this “evangelism.”
Evangelism is a great word.
In fact, it finds its way into English straight from the Greek.
It simply means “to proclaim good news.”
And when it comes to trusting and believing in Jesus, it is good news.
In fact, there is no better news than God’s grace extended to us through Jesus.
Through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our eternal destiny is absolutely guaranteed.
It does not get any better than that.
In the command of the Great Commission, we are told to make disciples.
I like speaking of making disciples because it is more wholistic in its outlook.
It is the idea of taking a person, no matter where they are in their understanding of God, and taking them further in that understanding.
This, of course, includes evangelism, because the point of knowing that you are in a relationship with God is the key point – it is the point that a heavenly and blessed eternity is owned.
The church has many important duties that are priorities – worship, spiritual growth, care, fellowship, ministry – but there is only one priority that we can do better here on earth than we can in heaven.
His kingdom can grow on earth.
More people can come to know Him on earth.
We can reproduce more fruit – the fruit of people – here on earth.
That can’t be done better in heaven.
It is to be done now!
I firmly believe that it is in the very nature of the church to grow.
God has designed it that way.
2. God gives the church all it needs to grow.
We are not missing anything here at Randall in order to grow.
We have all we need, but we do need to evaluate and redirect resources that we have been given.
Many of you are aware that we entered into the initial stages of an approach to church growth called Natural Church Development.
A few weeks ago, just before VBS, our new area director for CBMNE, Randy Keeley showed us the results of the surveys that 30 of our ministry leaders took.
NCD is a tool to help church leaders assess and revitalize their church.
What is so fascinating with this approach is that it relies on statistical data that shows what are the common principles that growing churches are doing.
It is not a model for us to follow, rather an emphasis on principles from God’s Word.
In the succeeding months, we will be preparing a report that will identify what we found out from our seminar and the improvements we need to make in order to better fulfill our purpose.
There has also been some related activity with what is called the Planning Committee.
This was a little known committee that has not existed in a long time here at Randall that was kind of tucked away in the constitution.
They are working in conjunction with the information that NCD has provided, along with some of their own research, to provide some short, medium and long term goals for us as a church.
Again, all this activity is done in the belief, the firm belief, that God has given to Randall all we need to fulfill our purpose of making more disciples – reproducing – producing fruit that is eternal.
OUR STUDY:
God is into the church succeeding.
And…
1. God is not afraid to move.
God is not afraid to do what is difficult to wake up the church into accomplishing its purpose.
We saw this last week with the dramatic judgment on Ananias and Sapphira.
When they decided that they would rather look good than be good, God caused them to die, right on the spot.
We are never to pretend to be one thing, and then live as another.
God hates that kind of deceit and He will deal with it decisively.
There is no doubt this had a profound effect on the church.
The text tells us that great fear came upon the people.
So, please note, God will purify His church, even when we won’t.
He does not tolerate sin, so we should not either.
Now, after this incident, the church picks up where it left off, and perhaps even more powerfully.
The following text reads…
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
The purification of the church sets the world on fire.
For…
2. The unexpected shatters the shell of cynicism.
Signs and wonders – the miraculous – cracked open the hardness of many hearts, and brought people to faith.
Seventeen times in the book of Acts, we see miracles lead to conversions.
They break through cynicism.
They break through disinterest.
They demonstrate the inherent weakness of false religion.
And they help people understand spiritual truth.
Now signs and wonders are not over the Word.
They are weak on their own, because they do not have the power to transform the heart.
But they are divine witnesses to the value, necessity, and centrality of the Word.
The early church lived this.
They knew where their power was coming from.
3. Power comes from above.
This is why they went to Solomon’s colonnade.
Solomon’s colonnade surrounded the temple area.
It was the Court of Gentiles where anybody could gather – Jews, Gentiles, men and women.
So, the early church’s practice involved going to the temple – a public gathering place.
They met there for daily worship and prayer, and to draw strength for life and living.
It was not a matter that was just one day a week.
One of the neat things that has kind of spontaneously happened recently has been a worship gathering at the Wilber’s house called “Basement Praise” (you can find when the next one is meeting in your Current).
It is simply a time of worship.
I hope you never tire of giving praise to our Lord.
For when we worship, we are given strength to face the world and make a difference in it.
Interestingly, even though great things were happening in the church…
4. Indecision happens (and it is dangerous!).
The different responses to the Presence of living God are fascinating.
When God is marvelously at work in our midst, it is alarming to some, while appealing to others.
Some people keep their arm out because they are not interested in having their sin exposed.
They would rather remain aloof.
And this happened, even then.
That aloofness reminds one of this parable…
ILL Indecision
There was a large group of people. On one side of the group stood Jesus. On the other side of the group stood Satan. Separating them, running through the group, was a fence.
The scene set, both Jesus and Satan began calling to the people in the group and, one by one - each having made up his or her own mind - each went to either Jesus or Satan. This kept going. Soon enough, Jesus had gathered around him a group of people from the larger crowd, as did Satan.
But one man joined neither group. He climbed the fence that was there and sat on it. Then Jesus and his people left and disappeared. So too did Satan and his people. And the man on the fence sat alone.
As this man sat, Satan came back, looking for something which he appeared to have lost. The man said, "Have you lost something?"
Satan looked straight at him and replied, "No, there you are. Come with me."
"But", said the man, "I sat on the fence. I chose neither you nor him."
"That’s okay," said Satan. "I own the fence."
There really is no sitting on the fence.
You are either with Jesus or not.
There is no comfortable middle ground.
You either believe or you do not.
But, according to the text, those that are on the outside looking in had a high opinion of believers when God’s presence is evident.
They were not believers.
And if they did not change, the results would be terrible.
But they do show that…
5. Believers should be respected.
In this context, there was a great respect for the church because of their behavior.
You see, people may not agree with our beliefs, but they ought to admire our behavior.
This means we must be careful how we live.
Ananias and Sapphira were not.
They were living hypocritically.
They acted like they were giving the full price of the property to the church, but they were not.
They wanted to appear generous.
They wanted the acclaim that went with generosity, without doing the work.
If we walk our talk, we have the opportunity to make a difference in an unbeliever.
ILL Personal
I remember one time when we were going out to dinner with our neighbors in Pennsylvania.
And the discussion turned toward Christianity.
It is kind of hard not to when people know you are a pastor.
But I will never forget what they said to Dondra and me, because it was one of the finest compliments we ever received.
They said, “We usually don’t like born again Christians, but you we like. You are real.”
We must remember that our lives may lead others to wanting what we have, namely a relationship with Jesus.
We must never forget that…
6. The church’s primary goal is reproduction.
We see in the text that this early church was a supremely effective church.
They were growing.
They were growing because they were a worshipping church.
They were growing because they were a purified and holy church.
They were growing because they were a church that walked their talk.
And…
7. The power of God was bursting forth.
Miracles and healings were happening all over the place.
And it did not matter if you were rich (they had the cots) or poor (they had the mats), God was bringing healing to their lives.
Luke reports that what was going on was so fantastic, that people believed that Peter’s shadow would heal them.
Now the text doesn’t say that his shadow did, just that people believed it to be so.
But perhaps they were being healed, not unlike the woman touching the hem of Jesus’ garment.
Nevertheless, God was at work powerfully in the early church.
He was judging the church, and the consequences were devastating.
He was also bringing wholeness to the church by healing the sick.
And because of this, the influence of the believers spread.
The message was getting out.
It was spreading, going beyond Jerusalem.
The good news about Jesus was at work.
8. The influence of believers should spread.
The same should be true of us.
APPLICATION:
ILL Salvation
Survivor Eva Hart re¬members the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an ice¬berg tore a 300-foot gash in her starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people."
Although twenty life¬boats and rafts were launched - too few and only partly filled - most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe dis¬tance away.
Lifeboat No. 14 did row back to the scene after the "unsinkable" ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.M.. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. In¬credibly, no other boat joined it. Some were al¬ready overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aim¬lessly in the night, listen¬ing to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of un¬known swimmers would cling to their craft, even¬tually swamping it.
"I came to seek and to save the lost," our Savior said.
And he commis¬sioned us to do the same, but we face a large obsta¬cle: fear.
While people drown in the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain no one rocks the boat.
Yet the boat is not ours, and our safety came only at the expense of the One who overcame fear with love - and saved us.
So, we, as believers in Jesus, the body of Christ must remember what we are as the church.
1. THE CHURCH IS A PLACE OF CHANGE.
We have good news to tell.
We have healing to bring.
But we must know this.
There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news.
We are the evidence!
More and more, the seekers of today are not looking to be entertained.
We dismiss them way too easily over that anyway, because what will capture their attention is different than what captures ours.
They are looking for something they can relate to.
They are looking for a transcendent God.
They don’t want to be entertained.
They want to be transformed."
You see…
2. People are attracted to a place that will make them better.
Can we be that kind of place?
Oh how I believe we can.
There is no sense of living below our potential, when the power of God is available to us.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
RESOURCES:
The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Acts 1-12, John MacArthur
The Acts of the Apostles, William Barclay
The Spirit, The Church and the World, John Stott
Sermoncentral:
How Signs and Wonders Helped Add Multitudes to the Lord, John Piper
Planting the Seed – Watching It Grow, Mike Rickman
Growing Pains, Jeff Hughes
From the Community to the Courthouse, Adam Cruse
Success Follows Cleansing, Paul Fritz
Ignite a Revival, James May
