Each One Reach One Series

ENGAGE

About once a month I have lunch with a group of guys that I went to high school with. Although some of us didn’t even know each other when we were in high school and one of the guys in the group graduated quite a few years before me, we have a great time together because of the common bond we share – our faith in Jesus.

None of us were disciples of Jesus when we were in high school and each of our stories of how we came to put our faith in Jesus are completely different. But the one thing those stories have in common is that there were one or two people who God brought into our lives that were instrumental in us coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. And for each of us, the people who God brought into our lives weren’t pastors or ordained “clergy”, but just ordinary people who loved Jesus and who loved us enough to make sure we knew about Him. For me one of those people was the woman who has been my wife for nearly 41 years now.

TENSION

What I’ve found over the years is that is usually how God works in drawing us to faith in Jesus. Even when people seem to come to faith through some church ministry or as a result of a big evangelistic event like a Billy Graham or Greg Laurie crusade, there are still almost always some individuals that God has brought into their lives who were instrumental in convincing them to attend that kind of event in the first place.

So I think I stand on pretty firm ground this morning in assuming that all of you here this morning who have put your faith in Jesus had one or more people that God brought into your life that were instrumental in your decision to become a disciple of Jesus. But I want to turn that idea around on all of us and ask whether you have been that person in someone else’s life? And my guess is that if you’re anything like me you would probably have to answer that question “Not as much as I would like to be or should be.”

TRUTH

So this morning as we continue our study in the book of Acts, we’re going to see what we can learn about how each of us can be that person in the lives of others. Today is our 5th message in this series, which I’ve titled “Gathered to Go”. We’ve been looking at the early church and discovering how the disciples of Jesus were gathered as a body not just for their own benefit but for the purpose of going and bringing the kingdoms of Jesus near to others.

On the day of Pentecost the church went from 120 to over 3,000 people in one day as Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, got up and preached a powerful message from God’s Word. Perhaps that would have been something similar to our modern day crusades led by people like Billy Graham or Greg Laurie – but with one slight difference. All, or at least nearly all, of the 3,000 who became part of the church that day were genuine believers.

Billy Graham once estimated that probably only 25% of the people who came forward at his meetings actually made a genuine decision to become a disciple of Jesus. But some more recent studies indicate that perhaps he was way too optimistic. Those studies indicate that only between 3 and 6% of people who “come forward” at a crusade are any different in their beliefs or their behavior one year later. Now considering that Mr. Graham preached to more than 200 million people, even 3% would be a very significant 6 million people, so I certainly don’t want to minimize the impact of those kinds of events.

But what is interesting to me is that after the day of Pentecost, we never again see any evidence that the church continued to grow as a result of that kind of big public event. Instead we see that…

God’s kingdom is brought near to others when

each one reaches one

We’re going to see that very clearly as we look at Acts chapter 8 this morning.

After the choosing of the seven that Ryan taught about last week, the narrative in Acts focuses on one of the seven – Stephen. As he was doing great wonders among the people, some who were jealous claimed that he was speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God and they had him arrested and then brought false witnesses against him. In Acts 7 we read about how Stephen uses the Scriptures to testify that Jesus was the Messiah who they had killed. So he is stoned to death as Saul, who would have his own encounter with God shortly thereafter, looked on with approval.