BALANCE
“Balancing the Church”
Acts 2:41-47
If we trace God’s hand back to the book of Genesis and follow it through the OT, we find that God is the creator of two institutions. (1) The family and (2) the church. And we quickly realize that the two are very similar. They are similar in the way they are designed and similar in what God expects from them. Listen to these words…. I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God, I’ve been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood. Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, I’m a part of the family, the family of God.
Have you heard that before? I hope so because we sang it about ten minutes ago. Bill Gaither wrote it 50 years ago. And God began forming his forever family thousands of years ago. We don’t know exactly how long ago … The Bible just says it happened in the beginning. We don’ know how long he thought about it before he started; but we CAN trace his hand all the way back to these two institutions that he put into place.
And that is what the scripture seems to tell us that he had in mind. The church is a family and families are better when they stay together. Community matters. And this is why. You can mark it down that anything that matters to God, Satan wants to destroy. So he attacks the church and he attacks the family. So we must remember this and keep in mind a couple of things that really matter…..
• Families are better when they work together
• Churches are better when they work together
Solomon said that one may be overpowered; two can defend themselves. All of us need to know that someone has our back. Someone is watching out for us. Because here’s the deal---you can try; in fact you can work really hard at it but you cannot live life on your own. Every one of us have 3 basic needs in this area…..here they are…..
1. We all have a need for other people to walk with us. Life gets dangerous at times. It gets complicated. The path is not always clear. Often in fact usually there are traps set i[for us in many places and traps are always hidden. That is what makes them a trap. So we don’t always see them in time but if we have someone walking with us they can help us navigate the really dangerous spots.
2. We all have a need for other people to work with us. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:10 … two are better than 1 … if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. We need people to work with us, don’t we? I don’t mean that in a literal sense as in a workplace although that helps. I mean it as you do when you say---hey man, work with me on this!!! I need some support. Work with me!
3. We all need other people to watch out for us. Satan can throw a lot at us and when you are going through a time of spiritual warfare, it’s nice to have someone helping us fight the battle. Paul said in Phil. 2:3-4, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
So this morning we come to the book of Acts, chapter 2 and the Bible says that now God’s people are being filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter stands up to preach and when he finishes, 3000 people have given their lives to Jesus. And now the family of God begins to prosper and grow. They grow spiritually; they grow in numbers; they grow in relationships. The growth is balanced. You see if the church only grew in numbers and failed to grow spiritually or failed to grow closer to one another, then the church would die. Write this down.
Church growth is much more than just numerical growth.
It’s not just about the numbers.
It is about balance.
I have read this passage many times through the years---have preached on it many times – it just never seems to grow old to me. There is just something exciting about seeing a great number of people coming to know the Lord--- at one time. Let me remind you that in acts 1:15 we are told that there were 120 people in the church. Then in acts 2 there are suddenly 3000. Then in acts 4 the number grows to over 5000. And then we are reminded in acts 2 that every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. One more thing—at this time women were not included in the count. Or children. So the actual number was even greater.
But one of the questions that always comes to mind for me is this. With the church growing to 120, then to over 3000, then to over 5000--- with all of this happening in a few short weeks, how do you handle that many people? How do you KEEP all of them? The answer is balance. Finding balance.
This passage gives us at least 4 things we must do together to achieve balance in the church.
(1) A balanced church is a church where both unchurched AND churched people meet together. A balanced church must include those who KNOW Christ and also those who do not. Someone has said that the church is the only organization in the world that actually exists for those who do not (yet) attend. We must never be satisfied with what we have. As long as there is one lost person in our community we must reach out. Some of the churches in our area are growing but some of the growth takes place because some people simply move from one church to another. I see it all the time. But the church does not exist to swap sheep. We are here to reach lost sheep.
So the primary place where we try to reach people is right here---the worship service. We want to involve everyone in worshipping God/Jesus. That will be the main thing we do in heaven and it must be the main thing we do now. If we’re going to spend eternity together in heaven worshipping Jesus then we need some practice now. The best thing you can do each week is to invite someone. Invite anyone you know who is not already in church somewhere. We must grow together in worship.
(2) To achieve balance churches must grow together, through groups. (v. 46) Now, do the math. Homes were small in that day. Over 5000 were in the church. They certainly could not all meet in one place. So they met in homes. We need to do the same. Consider how many people we could involve in Bible study if more of us opened our homes to a group. Whereas we might accommodate up to 125 in groups here---think about how many we could take care of in homes. Think about it. We have about 8000 sq. feet here. If every family in this church had a 1000 sq. foot home, and hosted a group we would have over 80,000 square feet of space.
Verse 42 tells us that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. The met every day to learn and grow. You see when it comes to learning the complete teaching of God’s word, we will never “arrive.” We will never reach the point where we will say --- I think I’ve got it down… all down pat now. I pretty much understand it all. We simply cannot exhaust the teachings of God’s word. Churches must learn together.
(3) To achieve balance churches must fellowship/grow together. Verse 42 and 46. For me it is hard to even say the word fellowship without picturing a group of Baptists eating together. But the word is more of a verb than a noun. The Greek word is Koinonia and it refers to the bond that believers have. As believers we share a connection that others do not. And because we do we must spend time together growing that relationship.
• Churches must pray together. V. 42. Someone has said the early church used to pray and fast. Today we just pray and fast. This church was started with prayer. As a result…
• We have seen people healed because of prayer
• We have seen people saved because of prayer
• We have seen relationships mended because of prayer. Families restored.
• Marriages restored.
We must never stop praying and we must never stop praying together.
(3). To achieve balance everyone must use their gifts. Every member of the body of Christ has a spiritual gift. And usually the way you will find it is by getting in the game. Take a football player for instance. He stands on the sidelines. If the coach never puts him in the game, he will never find out what he can do. Will never know what he can do best. He and the coach both just stand there and guess. I think I could block, I think I could throw, I think I could tackle, etc. So I say, jump into the game. Get in a place of ministry. You have a gift! Use it! And if it doesn’t work for you we will move you to another position. And another if necessary. But you will never find your place by sitting on the bench.
(4) To achieve balance churches must give together. There, I said it. There are at least 4 things we expect from those who attend here.
• Be here when we worship together
• Get in a group and grow.
• Use your gift. Find a place to serve.
• Give. Give financially.
In a church in the Deep South, where the preaching style was a “talk back” sort of style, the pastor was getting the congregation excited about their future. The preacher said, “This church is like a crippled man who needs to get up and walk under the power of Jesus.” The congregation replied, “Let it walk preacher, let it walk.”
Then the preacher said, “This church, like Elijah on Mount Carmel, has got to run.” The congregation replied, “Let it run preacher, let it run.”
Then the preacher said, “Like Isaiah, This church has got to mount up on wings like eagles and fly.” The congregation replied with enthusiasm, “Let it fly preacher, let it fly.”
Then the preacher added, “Now if this church is going to fly it’s going to take MONEY.” The congregation replied, “Let it walk preacher, let it walk.”
When a church has those 4 things in common they cannot be stopped.
