[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]
Message segues out of a Willow Creek Drama on Acts 2, “And every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.” Reach front as final actress says, “Every day.”
But not this day.
On Easter Sunday morning,
- the Disciples were hiding they had seen Jesus crucified, and were fearful they would be next.
- The Jews who had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival were still sleeping that morning.
- The people of Jerusalem, who had jeered at Jesus and clamored for his death 3 days earlier, were snug in their homes, unaware of what was about to happen.
- The priests, who plotted Jesus’ death, were at peace. The threat He had presented to their leadership was quelled… or so they thought.
- On Easter Sunday morning, just before sunrise, there was no hope, and there was no church. (look around at the empty stage)
The people of Jerusalem lived in occupied territory. Their land was ruled by the Romans. The Romans governed them, the Romans taxed them, the Romans enslaved them and their children. It’s estimated that in 33 A.D., as many as 90% of all people living in the Roman Empire were slaves.
Once there had been hope. For 3 and ½ years, a prophet named Jesus of Nazareth had roamed the cities and hillsides proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. People flocked to hear Him. People were stunned by His teaching. Hope was lit in human souls, for a better future and an outrageous eternity.
Then came Friday. Jesus nailed to a cross, and hope was nailed there with Him.
Read the speeches of Jesus in the NT sometime.
When Jesus cast a vision for this kingdom of heaven people were so smitten by the idea sometimes they could hardly breathe.
Then read about Good Friday. When Jesus Christ breathed His final breathe on that cross, it was like the wind was taken out of the lungs of the world.
When Jesus walked across a field, or climbed a hilltop, people were drawn to Him like a moth to a flame. His words were powerful. His demeanor, irresistible. His descriptions, life-giving. His promises… almost too good to be true.
One time, when a large group of people turned away from Him, Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Will you be leaving too?”
To which they said, “Are you kidding? Where else would we go? You alone have the words of life!”
If you’ve ever seen a stock chart of a growing company, the story of Jesus and His church looks very similar. The stock starts out low and then spurts forward gaining value and shareholders. Then it regroups a little before gaining more value and more followers. Slope by slope by slope the stock progresses forward. The story of the church is very similar.
There are 4 upward curves to the story of Jesus, and each high is significantly higher than the one before it.
The first upward move takes places when Jesus Christ starts out by the river Jordan, a solo act. He’s baptized by John in the Jordan and begins to attract followers. First a little group, then a bigger one, then a bigger one, then a crowd.
When the crowd realizes that Jesus is serious about the life He’s promising them, some of them fall away. It’s too much for them. They can’t handle the idea of full commitment to anything, even if it means full fulfillment of all their hopes.
So there’s a little dip.
And then a huge regrouping begins that climaxes on Palm Sunday. This second high is far higher than the first one.
By the time Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowd cheers, throws their coats down in front of Him so that He can walk on them, like they would for a conquering king, and then starts shouting, “Hosanna” to Him. “Hosanna” means, “Lord, save us.” At the fever pitch of this moment, they worship Him as the Savior of the World.
…Which rattles the Jewish leaders. And starts a downward curve.
These Jewish leaders begin to think that if Jesus gets any more popular, He’s going to dethrone them from their positions of authority. So they plot His destruction.
And the dip of all dips ensues.
On Thursday evening, they capture Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, prosecute Him in six trials between midnight and 6 a.m., and by 9 a.m., they have Him nailed to a Cross.
…Where His life is poured out, for the sins of the world.
As His Disciples watch, it seems to them like hope is been spilled out with each drop of blood that runs down the cross. When the final drops are spilt, all hope is gone.
The disciples place His body in a Tomb, roll a stone in front of it, and then slink away in despair.
When Jesus died, their hope died with Him.
Ah!... but then came Easter! Easter is a upward surge like no one could have ever imagined.
On Easter Sunday morning, Jesus did what only God could do. For those who wondered if there really was a God in the universe, Jesus provided the proof when reenergized the dead flesh of His body, He rolled the stone from the entrance of the Tomb, burst from the grave and announced to His Disciples that He was back and the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven was alive and well and about to begin.
What could go higher than that?
Well, for the next 40 days Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven, preparing His Disciples for it. Then He told them to wait 10 more days and ascended to heaven, leaving the promise of the kingdom in their hands.
10 days later, the church was born, and all charts were burst.
Let me show you its account from Acts 2.
At the beginning of the chapter, the Disciples are together, praying, when the Holy Spirit descends on them. They make their way to the Temple Mount, where Peter gives his very first sermon.
Acts 2:41 says,
41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. – Acts 2:41
The chart starts going up again in a very dramatic way, doesn’t it friends?
None of these folks have ever been part of a movement before. And none of them have ever seen a church, because there has never been one before. But the kingdom of heaven has come to them and they are so touched and so moved and so full of enthusiasm for it that the Bible says:
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47
The chart just continues to soar.
I think the church may just be THE single most misunderstood organization or entity on the planet.
When I was a little guy, we used to attend church religiously: every Easter and Christmas. We would go to this service and I would watch it all happen and go, “Okay, so that’s the church. It’s a big building were they put on religious services.”
Lots of people have the same idea I had about the church.
So I’d like to help you see the church a little differently this morning.
Because friends, in God’s mind, the church is the single most powerful agency in creation. In God’s plan, the church is the hope of the world.
In the church people find friendship, and help, and instruction in God’s ways, so that they not only GET better, they actually BECOME better.
People who become part of the church feel the smile of God on their lives.
People who become part of the church experience God moments together, and answers to prayer, and provisions from heaven.
People who get become part of the church wind up being difference makers in their generation. This has been true all throughout history.
William Wilberforce, a church leader, led the movement that abolished slavery in England. The abolitionist movement in this country was led by members of the church.
The civil rights movement in this country, was led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the black church.
And this has always been so.
During the middle ages, churches founded Mendicant Orders and sent monks to care for people in towns and villages.
During the first centuries after Christ, the church invented the idea of charity. In the early centuries, churches founded hospitals to help the poor, food kitchens to feed the hungry, orphanages to help the fatherless.
Tertulian, one of the early church fathers, wrote 197 AD about what the church did with its time and money. He said:
These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another... – Tertullian, 197
In more recent times, the church has founded
- The Red Cross,
- the YMCA,
- World Vision,
- Compassion Int’l,
- The Samaritan’s Purse,
- and thousands of similar organizations.
So if you’ve ever wondered why the church has done so well, or why, for the last 2000 years every day God has added those who were being saved, it’s because the church is the high point of God’s supernatural work in history. It’s His community, where He gathers His people and enables them to experience advanced glimpses of heaven.
The church is the hope of world.
Look at our world this past week.
- In Red Lake Minnesota, children died at the hands of one of their classmates.
- In Texas City, Texas, workers died in an explosion.
- In Iraq, soldiers fell defending the cause of freedom.
- Education is a wonderful thing. But it can’t change a human heart.
- Business is a tremendous tool, but it can’t help people grief or sort out life after the grave.
- Government can do some things really well. But it can’t bring peace to the heart of an angry man.
Only the church can do that. Because only Jesus, the Lord of the church, can change a human heart.
On Easter Sunday morning, Jesus Christ burst forth from the grave and proclaimed eternal life for all who would believe. And some people think that it ended there. But really, it all started there. Because God’s plan was not just to give life after the grave. But to give people abundant life together, here, on earth, before the grave. So Jesus established His church. The church is the high point because the church is God’s community of faith on the earth.
Back in the 80’s, Harrison Ford starred in a movie called, “Witness.” It’s about the Amish Community. You may have seen the film.
In the middle of the movie, one of the Amish families needs to build a barn, so the whole community comes together and builds it in one day. I had never seen a barn-raising before, but as I watched the men crawling all over this structure, cutting and handing boards to each other, and the women cooking and making quilts together and the children all playing together, I thought, “I think this is the kind of community that always intended for his children.” There was a sense of mutuality there. Everyone was pulling together.
In the very first church in downtown Jerusalem, the reason that new people came and signed up for it every day was because when they saw what the church was doing they said, “I want to be part of that too.”
People on the inside of that community felt supernatural levels of love for one another. They felt God’s power working in them. They felt part of something bigger than themselves.
That’s the church. That’s the kingdom of heaven. That’s why Jesus came. He came to invite us into a relationship with Him, and to invite us into a relationship with His community, the church. – Are you in?
When Jesus imagined the church, in His mind He saw an organization that would touch and transform every man, woman, boy and girl in the world. - And in His mind, Jesus had hopes that YOU would be part of it.
Today, almost 1/3 of the world’s population is part of a local church. They’re in.
Are you in?
Let me give you four suggestions for becoming part of the church:
Here are four steps to becoming part of the church:
1. See the church for what it is: God’s community on earth.
2. Come back next week for “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” series.
3. Sign up for a small group or study. (where you can study and grow and get to know some other people who will become friends.)
4. Join us at noon next Sunday for the RU New Café (to get to know some people.)
Here’s the order it all happened it:
1. Christmas - Jesus came so that people could understand that God cares (Jn. 3:16)
2. Good Friday – J died for the sins of the world. He paid the price for our sins.
3. Easter – J conquered death by rising from the grave.
4. The birth of the church – He established His community of faith here on the earth. It’s the high point of God’s supernatural work in history. And I long for all of you to be part of it.
Let’s pray. – Thanks for Easter… Thanks for the church
After the song:
Write on whiteboard: “Ekklesia”
Most important step of becoming part of the church = being called out.
Explain how to be “called out.”
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. – Revelation 3:20
Give invitation to relationship with Jesus.
Segue to offering.
Closing Prayer
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