Secrets of a Great Church Part 2 Acts 2:37-47
The last time we were together we saw that one major characteristics of a great church is a transformed Membership, which is people who are TRULY surrendered to Jesus.
Today I want to look at another characteristic as we examine the concept of, Continuous Ministry
Continual ministry happened right after these 3k got saved. Look at verse 42.
The test of a great church is not just how many decisions are made in a given time frame, but do they stick? Are they growing into mature and obedient followers of Christ? Has the Seed fallen on good soil?
There are 4 characteristics of a healthy ministry that I want to focus on today:
1. There is ongoing teaching:
In verse 42 the word doctrine literally means “teaching”
Teaching is how we get grounded in our faith. Teaching is how we grow into mature followers, able to please and honor God.
[1Peter 2:1-3 NKJV] “1 Therefore, laying aside all malice (cruelty, spite, hatred), all deceit (dishonesty, cheating), hypocrisy (being twofaced), envy (resentment, greed), and all evil speaking, (in other words; if we are to grow these have to go) 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.” What Peter is saying in verse 3 is that IF you have definitely surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ then verses 1&2 should be a given…
True believers will desire the nourishment of the Word of God in order to grow…
2Peter 3:18a tells us how we should grow:
[2Peter 3:18a NKJV] “but grow in the grace and knowledge of (Who?) our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…”
It’s the idea of “nurturing”… mentoring …discipling others!
2. There is genuine Fellowship:
Look again at verse 42. The new believers not only were involved in ongoing teaching but they were involved in close fellowship. The word “fellowship” comes from Greek “Koinonia” which means “to have in common.”
If a believer wants to be right with God and grow he/she must have a desire to be around other believers.
I need to be with others of the faith who will encourage me…Who will teach me what I don’t know…who will call me out when I step to the side…
Illustrate a campfire…remove one of the logs and ask; “what will happen to this log if I move it way over here, all by itself? Answer: It will eventually die out and refuse to burn.
One day a man asked a pastor, “Can you go to heaven without going to church?” The pastor said “sure you can” and the man was about to congratulate him when the pastor continued… “But why would you want to?”
I wouldn’t want to try to live the Christian life in this crazy world all by myself! It’s too hard! Even if it’s possible, for me it’s just not probable.
One day two old hillbilly were in the field saw airplane over head. Now they had never been on and airplane before. The 1st guy said, “I’d hate to be way up yonder in that airplane.” The other said, “yeah, but I’d hate to be up thar without it!”
**We need the fellowship of other believers; otherwise we might start thinking that we’re smarter than God.
When we look in the Scriptures we always see that believers are always pictured together
Sheep gather in a flock but if one of them gets separated from the rest he/she becomes an easy target for the roaming lion, whom Scripture tells us is Satan…
He’s just looking for that one that says, I don’t need that ole flock! I can make it without that bunch of hypocrites. Why I missed one Sunday and no one called me so I don’t think they really care!
We need fellowship! We need a church where cliques are a thing of the past and where the rich as well as the poor can work side by side. A place where the educated can rub shoulders with the uneducated, where the cultured, the uncultured, the yard-seller’s, the good-willer’s the blue-collars and the white collars have ALL things in common! We need a place where you don’t have to be a big shot to come but if you are one, come on, you need Jesus, and you need fellowship!
We need to be a place where nobody is anybody but everybody is somebody!
One of the main characteristics of a successful church is fellowship…you need me and I need you!
[Hebrews 10:25 NKJV] “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as [is] the manner of some, but exhorting [one another], and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We need some people to step up to the next level and say, “I can’t get enough of my God. I can’t get enough of His Word. I can’t get enough of His people, His doctrine, His teaching and His fellowship…
3. There is genuine Prayer: Look at verse 42b
We can try education and we’ll see what education can do. We can give science, technology, programs and promotions a shot and we will see what they can do.
BUT when you really try prayer, you’ll see what God can do!
Let me tell you something about devotion. Devotion is a 2 way street!
Check out this story I read:
Early African converts to Christianity were sincere and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. The reality was that if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."
Can I ask you something? Is the grass growing on your path?
We have looked at teaching, fellowship and prayer…
4. There must be group Participation: look at verses 43-44.
The membership didn’t sit back and let the apostles do it all. They ALL got involved and each one shouldered their part of the load, each according to their ability. They had all things common, each one was in the rotation for nursery. Each one shared in the kids’ ministries. Each one was at the work day. Each one tithed and did their fair share!
It’s a known fact that most churches today have 80% of the work being done by 20% of the people! [Calculate that for Elim Bible.]
Many churches are like a professional football game. There are 50k spectators who desperately need exercise watching 22 people work, who desperately need rest!
Look at verse 45. This is not a mandate for the church, today. The church is not here to pay your bills so you can sit back and enjoy life.
My friend Stephen Carter and I went to a home one Thanksgiving to carry a food box to a “needy” family… We arrived and knocked on the door and when the lady opened the door smoke just rolled out, as if the house were on fire. We walked in and the husband never acknowledged us as he watched some horrid program on HBO. We had to slide the cartons of cigarettes down the counter in order to set the box of groceries down. Oh did I mention they had the top of line cable? When we opened the fridge, to put the perishables in, we had to move several cases of beer before the turkey and other stuff would fit…Did I mention they had cable TV? Did I tell about the cigarettes? But they couldn’t afford groceries…
What we see in this passage is a temporary situation based on special circumstances.
These 3k who just got saved were Jewish, and when they turned to Jesus, they would lose their jobs, they would be persecuted and even disowned by family members. This can still happen today. We saw it in Kenya when a young Muslim boy turned to Christ. Before he made it back to his village, word got there of his decision and his grandmother gathered his belongings, carried them to the perimeter of the village and threw them out. She told him that unless he denounced his Christian faith he no longer had a family or a place in the village.
I read that when an orthodox Jew converts, becoming a Messianic Jew, the family has a ceremony, much like a funeral, declaring that person to be dead!
The circumstances faced by the early believers demanded sacrifice and the members stepped up to do what they could and give of what they had. Today we, the church, must do our part!
All they had was at God’s disposal…how about you? Your time or you’re your talents. How about your treasure?
We had a team system set up in the Mazda dealership where I worked, with three men on my team. My B tech would do just enough work to get by while my C tech and I would carry the bulk of the load. At the end of the week the total hours from all three were added up and divided equally between the three of us. My C tech and I were losing, sometimes half of the hours we turned, giving them to the lazy B tech. I finally went to the boss and told him that we were tired of this guy riding our coattails and demanded the team be dissolved…
Here is a hard question. Are you doing your part or are you reaping the benefits of the hard work of others?
A successful church must have transformed membership, a constant ministry…BUT
Group participation is a must if we are to see continual multiplication:
In Acts 1: 15 there were about a hundred and twenty total.
Jump over to Acts 2: 41, we see later on that day there were added to the 120 about three thousand more souls.
Skip down a few verses to verse 47 and we see that the Lord added to the church DAILY those who were being saved.
When we flip over to Acts 4: 4 we see the number of the men was about five thousand.
Farther into the book of Acts, in chapter 6 and verse 7 the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem to the point that a large number of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Now here’s where we land. we’re about 20+…Is that where you want to stay?
