“Does Church really Matter? Acts 9:18-30”
Today we begin looking for Easter and many will be preparing for egg hunts and the like. Sermons are preached today about the triumphal entry as Jesus made His way into Jerusalem. The crucifixion will be the topic from many pulpits and choirs will be putting on tremendous shows many will blessed and amazed.
BUT I believe we need to ask a very important question. I believe that Easter will be just another Pagan celebration until we answer the question; “Does church really matter?”
I wonder, sometimes, why bother with the whole thing when it looks like many don’t seem to care anyway.
I should have been preparing for a Good Friday message but as I looked at the next section of our Acts series, this question would not go away. As I studied for this message I was forced to look deep within my own soul.
You see, when I decided to preach on this subject, I thought it would be a nice little three-point sermon about the benefits of attending church. But I realized the triumphal entry, the crucifixion and the resurrection will mean very little if anything at all until we answer this question.
When you seriously study the church, which Jesus set up, (as we have been doing with this series) you MUST come to the understanding that it’s not about attending some activity and calling it church.
It’s about being church.
The question is not whether church attendance matters, but whether church matter. We must understand that the question has nothing to do with some Sunday morning event, but with the living, breathing body that we are to become.
Showing up will never be important, giving will never matter, until we answer the question at hand. DOES CHURCH REALLY MATTER?
But not just does church matter, universally, does church matter to me!?
I’m sure some of you have asked whether church matters sometime in the past.
Some of you may have even asked it this morning as you were crawling out of bed or preparing food for our fellowship meal.
What difference does church really make? Why do I even bother?
Sometimes we treat church as though it is optional. You may even say, on occasion; “I can do better on my own. I don’t need to be part of a church to live for God. Besides, church doesn’t do a thing for me anymore”
Does church really matter to us? Could you get along without church? Hundreds of thousands of believers today are living outside church. Does it work? Should it work? Do we really need to keep doing this every week?
Does church really matter?
Well God has a message for us today, and it simply is that church DOES matters.
According to our passage for today, church mattered to Saul.
Why was that? Because church matters to God. As Jesus hung on that cross, it mattered to Him.
The Pharisee, Saul was a truly religious man who hated Christ and His followers, or the people of “The Way” as they were known. He had made himself quite a reputation for his persecution of the church, arresting many and giving consent for putting many to death.
In Acts 9 Saul and his men were traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest as many of the believers as they could find there. Now keep in mind that the distance from Jerusalem to Damascus was 135 miles and took several days on horseback.
We know that something powerful must have been happening in Damascus because news of it had reached Jerusalem and Saul was going there to put a stop to it.
At least that was his plan, before Jesus intervened, and showed him just how much church meant to Him.
Now watch what happens next. Read Acts 9:18-30.
The first thing Paul did after his conversion was to be baptized. Then he spent some time with the disciples at Damascus. Some translations say he spent time with the believers there, but they weren’t just average ordinary believers.
The Greek word says disciples and there is a major difference. While he was with the disciples in Damascus he began preaching and sharing Christ, until that got him run out of town.
Now, what does any of this have to do with why church matters?
Well first we’ve got to understand what a church is.
When Jesus created His church, He never intended church to be what it’s evolved into today. A place where what you look like or where you’re from or your bank account matters more than the condition of your heart.
Church in the Bible was simply a group of disciples who were doing life together. Today it has become, more or less, nothing but a group of believers who attend a weekend meeting together and if that’s all church is, then I’d say it is pretty optional. But from the beginning Jesus expected that when people were saved, they would be baptized and be disciples, which means they are to be followers and imitators of Him.
Disciples are people who are more than learners. They are apprentices following the Master. Disciples are people who emulate their leader. In other words, there’s a seriousness, a determination to be real reflections of Jesus Christ in this world.
You CAN be a believer and not be a disciple. But you CANNOT be a disciple and not follow Jesus.
Everywhere you find a church in the Bible, you find groups of disciples, and everywhere you find disciples in the Bible you find churches. Why? Because when you have a group of disciples, you have a group of people who are naturally drawn together under the banner of Christ.
They want to follow together. They want to learn together. They want to do life together. They want to fulfill Christ’s purposes together.
So a church is simply a group of disciples doing life together.
Paul was saved and baptized and he was immediately drawn to the disciples in Damascus. And since disciples are people who are serious about God’s purposes, Paul began living out that purpose by sharing His faith.
Now think about the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Who is Jesus talking to in verse 18, where it says “Jesus spoke to them?” Who is them?
Verse 16 tells us they were His disciples. Now watch this: Jesus commands His disciples to go and make more disciples and then to disciple those disciples so they could go and do the same.
“Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
When Paul was saved he naturally wanted to be a disciple and to be discipled.
Was it effective? I’d say so, since he turned out to be the greatest missionary in church history!
So let’s make sure everyone is on the same page.
What is a church? It’s a group of disciples doing life together.
And why does a church exist? To make more disciples.
And what will those disciples do? They will disciple one another and go out to make new disciples!
Many people are asking some hard questions about Christianity but they’re not finding answers for them in church. In fact, many are simply giving up on Christianity altogether because the body life they read about in the Bible doesn’t match what they’re getting in real life.
People today are reading their Bibles, and what they’re finding is a church that looks a lot different from what’s being passed off as church today. Like the lady who came to a church fellowship only to be badgered by some “Church members” about her past. She will never be back.
Now let me get down off my soapbox and bring this home.
Can you be a Christian and not go to church? Sure you can.
Can you be a Christian and not be part of a church? Sure you can.
So does church really matter?
It doesn’t if all you want to be is a Christian. But that idea is absolutely foreign to the Bible and God’s will.
We’ve believed the lie of the devil and it’s time to wake up! Church does matter, but only if you’ve been born again, THEN only if your heart’s desire is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Have you been born again? Have you ever trusted Jesus Christ to save you? Paul’s journey began the day he was traveling to Damascus when he recognized what a sinful man he was and how his sin had offended God.
He repented of that sin and put his faith in Christ.
The next step in his journey was baptism. Have you been baptized? Have you followed the Lord in this important statement of your faith? Have you declared to the world that your life has changed? That your life now belongs to Christ? That you’re a new man or woman who has given your life to Christ?
Have you really ever joined yourself to other disciples? Each Sunday during the invitation I say, “We’d love for you to be a part of this church,” but the fact is that most of you already are. You’ve joined, so let me rephrase that question.
Have you really ever joined yourself together as disciples?
You may have been a member here for some time now, but have you ever surrendered your life to truly following Christ, to really being a disciple in word, thought and deed? Would you do that today?
Would you say to Christ and to one another that you’re not going to be satisfied with simply attending some weekend event, but you want to be part of a living, thriving community of Christ followers? Would you say, today, that church is going to matter to you because you’re going to be a disciple, you’re going to surrender to being discipled, and you’re going to begin purposely, when you’re ready, discipling others around you? Would you make that your decision today?
Would you tell us that is your decision today?
I don’t have to tell you that churches today are viewed as powerless, irrelevant, unnecessary and optional. That’s a far cry from a little band of disciples in Damascus that was making a name for themselves hundreds of miles away in a day when news didn’t travel very fast. We can have that kind of church if we just wake up to what God wants us to be. Church matters. It matters to God. It matters to all who are disciples and I long for the day it matters to US!
Will that day be this day for EBC?
If church doesn’t matter then neither does the cross! If church doesn’t matter the tomb is irrelevant! If church doesn’t matter, the resurrection or the ascension of Christ was a complete waste of time! But next Sunday morning churches will be filled with more new suits and dresses than Hamrick’s has on their racks…I wonder; after the final song and the last amen of the Easter service… will it really matter?
