Great Families Build Great Churches Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 24-26
It takes more than great programs to build a great church. It takes more than sacrificial service to build a great church. It takes more than money, more than a super staff, more than talented teachers, and more than dedicated deacons/leaders to build a great church.
What makes a great church is great people, great families, and great homes!
We can build a great church right here by building people, building families, and building great homes…if we do that, then together we will be building a great church, all to the glory of God.
I just want EBC to know that I am working on something and will, if I can find the $$ to do so, begin some training programs for teaching how to reach families for Christ. So far everything I’m working on is at no cost but if I am to go full steam ahead, there may be some cost for the training programs.
We have a fine example of building a great church by building great families in our text in the form of a husband and wife team. Their names are Aquila and Priscilla.
I believe, as many pastors do, that God intended for the Christian life to be a family affair. The Bible is filled with examples of entire families loving and serving God together.
A couple of examples, from the New Testament, would be the Philippian Jailer in Acts 16. We know that immediately following the jailer’s salvation experience his entire household experienced a life changing transformation, as each surrendered to the Lord.
Timothy, Paul’s “preacher boy” was raised by a Godly mother, who was, herself, raised by a Godly mother.
We know this because we have the testimony of Scripture to prove it.
[2Ti 1:5 NIV] “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” Three generations loving and serving God.
When we look at our text we see a married couple, worshipping and serving God together.
I want to show you 3 things that make a family great and will lead to a great church:
1. Great families are saved families.
Looking back, we find that Aquila and Priscilla had been living in Rome, Italy.
The name Priscilla is actually a Roman name, and secular history tells us she was from a family of nobility living in Rome.
Aquila is a Jewish name. So what we have is a young Roman girl marrying a young Jewish boy, which was not acceptable in those days, so Priscilla had to make a choice because there was a tidal wave of hatred and prejudice against the Jews sweeping through Rome. The Emperor Claudius had just issued an edict expelling all Jews from Rome. Priscilla had to choose between her homeland or her husband.
Look at Verses 1&2
Most of us know how hard it is to have to pick up and move, especially when it’s moving away from the place where you have lived all your life. But this couple didn’t choose to move, Aquila and Priscilla were being forced to leave!
The 21st Century family is also under incredible pressure. Stress and tension are a huge part of the home today with the pressures of work, time, and the financial struggles that we choose to live under.
And when children enter the picture the stress goes up and that stress level rises more and more the older they get.
If you have a child or grandchild that is a freshman in high school, here’s some things to expect by the time they graduate—
2/3rd’s of their class will have used drugs
1 in 5 will be an alcoholic
2 in 5 will have consumed 5 or more drinks at 1 sitting
20% will use tobacco, in one form or another, daily
46% of babies born out of wedlock will be to kids their age
1/3rd of all abortions will be performed on girls of high school age
½ will be sexually active
The 2nd leading cause of death of students by graduation will be suicide
We need revival poured out in the home! We need a spiritual awakening in our families that starts with moms and dads getting serious about serving God!
We need families with a healthy fear of Satan’s rampage and a heartfelt desire for drawing close to God and to one another.
I don’t know how anyone can raise a family today without the Lord and without the help of a good church family.
Aquila and Priscilla were a family under pressure, but they were also a family under providence because God was working out their problems behind the scenes, not only for their good but for His glory!
God is in the process of bringing something awesome into their lives.
You see, at the same time they were being kicked out of Rome, traveling east toward Corinth, the Apostle Paul was leaving Athens and traveling west to the same place.
God was setting things up for them to meet face to face and when they did it was a life changing experience for Aquila and Priscilla.
Watch how God works.
According to verse 3 Paul was a tentmaker, which was the very same occupation of Aquila and Priscilla.
So Paul hired on with Aquila and Priscilla and as they worked I imagine they talked.
What would Paul have talked about? I can promise you he wasn’t talking about college football. If the church could get as excited about winning the lost as we do winning a game we would be unstoppable!
The Apostle Paul would have talked about Jesus Christ, sharing the wonderful story of Jesus’ birth, His life and ministry. Paul would have told them of His death and how He rose from the grave on the third day, just like He said He would!
I can see this couple absolutely awestruck at hearing the greatest story ever told & somewhere in their conversation these two were gloriously saved!
When we get right with God and follow His will He will set our paths to cross with others who need Him. He will do it at just the right time and in the just the right way.
Aquila and Priscilla began the journey toward becoming a great family by first becoming a saved family.
The second thing that makes a great family is:
2. Great families are serving families.
Everything else we read about this couple from then on is about them serving God together... Years later Paul writes the church at Rome…
[Rom 16:3-4 NKJV] “3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.”
What was happening to this couple is the same thing that ought to happen to each and every one of us after we get saved…regardless of our occupation.
Every believer’s main business ought to be God’s business!
We should be about worshipping and serving Him, teaching and helping others, winning souls and seeing people get saved!
I know several Christian men and women who own or run businesses but their main business is God’s business.
1858, a man named Edward Kimball was a businessman in Boston. He was also a Sunday school teacher of older teen boys. There was a young man named Dwight in his class.
One Saturday he decided to visit each boy in the class to see if they were saved and when he visited Dwight at the store where he was working and Dwight got saved. By 1879 Dwight was an evangelist preaching in crusades all over. There was a man at one crusade named Frederick who was pastoring a small church that was not doing too much, but after hearing Dwight the Evangelist, the Holy Spirit lit a fire under him and he became a world-renown preacher. His travels brought him to America, and preaching on a college campus a student walked the aisle and got saved one day. This young man’s name was Wilbur, and after he got saved he went into the ministry. He hired a guy named Billy to help him. Billy preached a crusade in Charlotte, NC that was so successful that the local businessmen’s assoc. decided to have another big crusade.
Billy couldn’t do it, so they hired a preacher named Hamm. At the crusade a young man came forward and got saved he was another Billy. His last name was Graham! Millions have been saved under his ministry, and millions more through men like Mordecai Hamm, and the other Billy who was Billy Sunday. Men like J. Wilbur Chapman, and Frederick B. Meyer, and Dwight L. Moody were all making God’s business the main business.
Way back in 1858 God began a work that would eventually reach a young man named Billy Graham, just so He could reach millions through Billy Graham. All this happened because one businessman named Ed decided that his main business was God’s business!
A heritage was passed down from each of these to their families, and to all they reached and just think how those saved at Billy Graham’s rallies are now witnessing and preaching and reaching many others.
I’m so thankful that Aquila and Priscilla understood that even though they were tentmakers by trade, their main business was serving God!
Great families are saved families. Great families are serving families.
3. Great families are sanctified families.
The word sanctified means “set apart”…separated from the world. A sanctified family looks, sounds and acts different from the world. People expect their pastor and his wife to be sanctified but not so much themselves…
Each of us are to walk worthy of our calling! [Col 1:10 NKJV] “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [Him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
Did you know it was the 3rd Century AD before the church ever had such a thing as a building?
The church is a body of believers, and for more than 200 years the church met in the homes of people like Aquila and Priscilla.
The church didn’t have any of the things that we today feel we MUST have in order to have church. They didn’t have a building or padded seats. They had no PA system or projectors and screens. There was no HVAC, no advertising, literature, websites, yet they did so much with so little and the 21st century church seems to do so little with so much!
This couple had a great home, and it led to a great church.
So let me ask you something.
How about the church that is called your home? Our highest calling as believers is our own children, our own marriage and our own home.
My prayer for everyone here is that you have a saved family, a serving family and a sanctified family. A family set apart for the Master’s use!
