There’s a true story about a young boy named “Greggy” who was playing on beach. He spent long hours working on intricate sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath his hands. But then one day, some bullies came along and the kicked and smashed them all. And they did this day after day after day.
Now, Greggy wasn’t big enough to fight back, but one day he thought of a solution. He built his sand castles as before… but this time he placed them on top of a foundation - a foundation of cinder blocks, rocks, and chunks of cement. Then when the bullies came along, he … disappeared… and he watched from safe distance as the bullies kicked at what they thought was only sand. (A personal story related by Gregory P. Elder)
Jesus said He was going to do the same thing. He told Peter, “on this rock (Peter’s confession) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18
You see, Jesus came to do two distinct things:
1. He came to save the lost
2. And He came to build His church
Now the church Jesus came to build (of course) is us. Jesus came to take sinful folks like you and I (the LOST He’d come for) and build a church even the gates of hell couldn’t stand against. Peter told the early Christians: “… you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house...” 1 Peter 2:5
WE… ARE… THE CHURCH. And Jesus died to put us together (like living stones) into a living church. Do you remember that thing they taught us in Sunday School “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple. Open it up there’s all the people”? (For the uninitiated, you can see it at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CX-XmNjVAAAhzuk.jpg). But it’s not true. This (holding up hands to form the church with the steeple) isn’t the church. The Church is not a building. – it’s “the people (you and me).
And Ephesians 5:25 tells us this church was SO IMPORTANT that “… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Now, I’ve said all that to lay the foundation for what Luke was writing about in Acts: “In the first book (the Gospel of “Luke”), O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up…” Acts 1:1-2
In his GOSPEL (Luke) Luke did all kinds of research for that book. He interviewed people, checked their stories, etc. because he wanted to tell about Jesus living and dying and rising from the dead. You see Luke wasn’t a witness to life of Christ (like Matt Mark & John) but he wanted to give an accurate description of what Christ did for us for his friend “Theophilus”.
But then God prompted Luke to write a 2nd book – The Book Of Acts - and in Acts, Luke intended to tell us how Jesus accomplished His goals if saving the lost and building his church. Now this is important – because any church that doesn’t make it highest priority to save the lost and build the church is failing to obey and honor Christ.
Of course… the question is: HOW was Jesus going to go about accomplishing those goals?
ILLUS: There’s an old legend which says when Jesus had ascended into heaven and Gabriel asked him, “Lord what plans have you made for carrying on your ministry in the world? How will people learn of what you have done for them?”
Jesus responded, "I left that to Peter, James and John, Martha and Mary. They are to tell their friends and their friends will tell other friends until the whole world has heard the good news."
Gabriel then asked, "What if Peter is so busy with his nets and Martha so full of her housework and the friends so preoccupied that they all forget to tell their friends? Don’t you think you should make a ‘Plan B’ in case this doesn’t work?”
And Jesus answered, "I have no Plan B”
In other words: the Church (that Jesus died to establish) was only going to succeed because His followers (you and I) step up and do our part. And the story says: “There is no plan B”. We’re It!!!
But now – while that’s true - that actually isn’t the whole truth. Notice what Jesus tells His disciples: Acts 1:4 says “… (Jesus) ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to WAIT FOR THE PROMISE of the Father…” What was this promise? The Holy Spirit! But why wait for Him? Why didn’t Jesus just say “Hey guys, go out and share your testimony and let’s get this church started.”
Why didn’t Jesus say that? Well, because the Spirit was key to what Jesus wanted done. In verse 8 Jesus said
“… you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my WITNESSES in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
What Jesus is saying is this: Yes, the church would be built by folks like Peter, James, John and Mary and Martha, etc. BUT they would do what they do because of the Spirit of God working IN them and THRU them. In fact, the book of ACTS of often called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” And Jesus is telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit would 1. Give them power from on high and 2. Make them effective witnesses.
Now, let’s take this one step a time. 1st Jesus said He was sending the promised Holy Spirit… to give them power. The Spirit of God was going to be actively involved in building Christ’s Church. WITHOUT THE SPIRIT the church wasn’t going to succeed.
Now… you do realize that same Holy Spirit that was in the early church is at work even NOW in the church. If a church succeeds it’s because the Spirit is doing his thing. If the Spirit isn’t working in the church… there’s no power.
ILLUS: A few years back, a storm that knocked out power on the north side of town. I first noticed it when I saw that the traffic lights weren’t working. I didn’t think much about it until I tried to stop into CVS and pick up some batteries. One of the clerks met me at the door and explained: “I’m sorry we have no electricity. We can’t sell you anything.”
That’s odd! Such a thing never occurred to me. I just took it for granted that I could walk into that store – even in a power outage and I could get whatever I wanted. But that wasn’t true. They had no electricity. THEY HAD NO POWER. Without that electricity, their machines wouldn’t work. They couldn’t run their computers; they couldn’t open their cash registers. They couldn’t log their sales. They were literally shut down because… they had no power. Electricity empowered them to do what they were meant to do.
In the same way, God’s Spirit empowers the church to do what God designed us to do
But too often, churches don’t behave like that. They act like the Spirit has NOTHING to do with their congregation: 1) They don’t bother to PRAY about what they plan to do. 2) They don’t bother to ask if is this activity/goal/focus – is something that God even wants. 3) In fact – for all intents and purposes – they act like they don’t need God’s help in anything. They’ve got it all covered… they’ve got it all figured out.
But if you’re not going to depend on God’s Spirit to build His church… what’s left? Gimmicks. Gimmicks are what they turn to.
• A church in Phoenix got lots of attention when they advertised that folks would receive a "Chocolate Sundae" if they showed up on … (PAUSE) Sunday.
• And there was a church in California that advertised itself as the "Taco Church." They offered free tacos to anyone who showed up for worship. Previously they had advertised themselves as the "Pancake Church."
• A few years ago some churches hid $5.00 bills under a few chairs in sanctuary (don’t bother to look, we didn’t do that). Their advertising invited people to come and find a “treasure” at their church.
Now I haven’t anything against gimmicks – in and of themselves. I mean every church seems to do that once in a while. But my problem is that too many churches use gimmicks as a substitute for the Spirit.
Now, how do we avoid doing that? Well… 1st WE PRAY. We ask what God’s Will is in the church. I don’t have to expand on that a lot because it’s just that simple. We’re asking for God to guide us by the power of His Spirit.
2nd – WE WORK AT HAVING THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. It’s found in Galatians: “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness Self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Those terms are simple. They don’t require a Bible College education to understand. They describe how “Spirit led people” should treat others and how they should behave in “the church”. Without those traits a church cannot succeed for Christ. They can have the biggest and grandest congregation, an advertising budget that would make a Wall Street company salivate and give away tacos, pancakes and chocolate sundaes till the cows come home… and they’ll still be failure.
Paul says it this way: “… do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of Redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:30-32
If we don’t grieve the Spirit, if we don’t let bitterness and wrath and anger… etc. to be in the church. If we are kind to one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving - THEN… the Spirit will be active in our church.
And He is. I never cease to brag about the loving and gentle attitude of this congregation. It’s an attitude that existed long before I even came to minister here over 20 years ago.
(PAUSE)
So, first – Jesus sent His Spirit to give His church POWER.
2nd – Jesus sent His Spirit …to make us BETTER WITNESSES.
ILLUS: Before I became a preacher I was Real Estate salesman. And I was good. In the midst of terrible recession I sold 3 houses when other agents struggled to sell one. I was good. And so when I became a preacher I set about being a salesman for Jesus… and (again) I was good. In my first church I worked hard on a husband and wife and I got them baptized. And I never saw them again. That annoyed me. I worked hard to get those folks into the baptistery but that’s all I’d gotten done. How come? Well, because I’d forgotten that Jesus promised that “when (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” John 16:8
You see, what I had done with that young couple was to step into the Spirit’s territory. I tried to do His job for Him.
The Spirit has a job and I have a job. The Spirit’s job is convict the world of their sin, need of righteousness and the fact that there’s a coming judgment. But that’s not what I was called to do… that’s NOT MY JOB!!!
What is MY job? My job is to be a witness.
Witnessing is telling others what Jesus has done for me and what He means to me. The Apostle John talked about that kind of thing in I John 1:1 & 3 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life… so that you too may have fellowship with us...” John – an apostle and a firsthand witness to Jesus’ life and ministry – he did exactly what you and I can do. He told about what he’d seen and experienced and what Jesus meant to him.
And here’s the deal – if you don’t KNOW what Jesus means to you or what He’s done in your life… you haven’t got a witness. You’ve nothing to offer anyone. If you don’t know what He means or what He has done for you, then you need to some serious soul searching to figure out why.
Paul wrote about this in Romans 10:14-15 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching (sharing their faith)? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news”
If I do MY job - if I preach/share my faith - then I make it easier for the Spirit to do His job. If I witness and share about what Jesus means to me and about what Jesus has done for me, then the Spirit can CONVICT them of their need for Christ.
Jesus does depend on you and I to share our faith in Him and our witness depends on the Spirit to convict people of the need of change in their lives.
CLOSE: I’d like to close out today’s sermon by telling the true story of young woman named Jan had been attending a conference on witnessing. One of the issues that was stressed at that conference was the importance of LISTENING to unsaved people. Most people don’t listen to others. We often will engage in conversations waiting to give our opinions rather than really listening to what others have to say.
So, Jan was at this conference and after one of the sessions, she and a few of her friends were relaxing in the hotel whirlpool. Just then 2 adolescent girls joined them in the tub. One of the teens, named Brittany, began passionately telling her friend about an upcoming Wiccan gathering she was planning to attend. (Wiccans believes in many gods under a mother goddess. Their religion includes the use of herbal magic and witchcraft.)
Jan later noted: “Normally we would have tried to counter the girl’s ideas, but we decided to listen instead. I said something simple like, ’Wow, you really sound excited about this!’”
And that was all the encouragement Brittany needed to launch into a 5-minute explanation of why she was so attracted to the Wiccan rituals. The bottom line was that she’d had a really traumatic time in high school and the Wiccans accepted her. And then she said, “I’ve gone through so much stuff just trying to make it through high school that I’ll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life!”
Jan responded: “It must be hard for you to even imagine a future where you’d be free from all of the pain you’ve gone through?”
Tears began to form in the young girl’s eyes and then - with complete sincerity-she said, ’Sometimes I wish I could be born all over again. I’d really like to start over from scratch.’
After a long pause, my friend asked if she would really like to be born again… and the girl responded “Yes, I really would.” (The book Irresistible Evangelism (Group Publishing) includes the story of Jan, a staffer with Athletes in Action.”
Now I want you to notice what happened there. Jan wanted to share her faith about Jesus… but the Spirit gave her the opening she needed. Only the Spirit could have put those words in Brittany’s mouth – “I wish I could be born all over again.”
We believe in a Spirit who gives us the power and ability to effectively witness for Jesus.
INVITATION
