A Tour Through Acts ~ part 9
A Great Church is an Evangelistic Church
Acts 2:47b
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47b)
I was looking online at what churches have on their web page. I wanted to see just how the churches of that city were trying to communicate the message of their church to others who might be looking for a church home.
If you have ever done this, you will find that churches use a lot of clichés. Most often you will find churches describing themselves as a "friendly church." Lots of things about being loving and family, or "A warm welcome awaits you." One often used message is: "Where everybody is somebody, and Jesus Christ is Lord!"
I found one that is memorable. No doubt it was well meaning and the people in that church probably loved the Lord. But they said, "Where Jesus Christ is everything and everyone else is nobody!" I also couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person that saying would attract. That didn’t say what they wanted to. Surely they thought people were somebody. What they wanted to say, probably, was that Jesus was so wonderful that in comparison to Him everything else was secondary. We need to think about how we present to our community. Sometimes words or terms mean things to us, but not to general people in the community. For instance, some churches use the word Berean, in their church name. But, how many people on the street even know who a Berean was? In fact, probably some people in the church don’t all know what who Berean was, and certainly don’t know how that would relate to them. So, why would you put that in your church name if you are trying to reach your community, but they don’t have any idea what you even mean? I think that we have a similar problem with the term “Baptist.” People who attend a Baptist Church know what they are communicating, but I’m not sure people on the street do. What I know for sure is that people in the community have preconceived and inaccurate notions about what a Baptist is. Terminology changes, and the meaning we attach to words change. There was a time when everyone thought they needed a church. And, they had an idea of what they were looking for, too! Not today. Today, many people don’t know they need a church, and wouldn’t have any idea of what to look for in a church if they knew they needed one. It makes our efforts complicated, and a lot of thought has to go into how we are trying to communicate to others.
These examples do point to the fact that so many churches do not think through what they are doing to reach people. In fact, many churches do not even think much about what they are doing. Some don’t even know what they are doing. And some don’t even know that there is anything they should be doing! Someone said that if you were to ask the average church member the question, "Where is your church going?" they would say something like, "Going, why we’re not going anywhere. We’ve been at the corner of First and Main for 40 years!"
The early church we’ve been focusing on in the book of Acts was a great church because it had focus. It knew that it should be doing something and knew what that something was. It had experienced the life changing power of Jesus and had also caught a vision of how that same power could change the lives of people they knew. And they were doing something about it. It has been said that there are three kinds of people: those who watch what happens; those who make it happen; and those who wonder what happened. These Christians were making things happen.
We have seen that they were a regenerated church, a devoted church, an awe-filled church, a united church, a generous church, and a joyously worshipping church. Now we see that they were an evangelistic church, a growing church. Notice what the Scripture says in Acts 2:47: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. These believers were seeing their friends, neighbors, relatives, and co-workers come to know Christ. They were at work and God was at work.
The Sovereignty of God
One of the first things we notice is that God was at work. This is why people were being added to the church. This is always why people are saved. In fact, people are never saved unless God is at work because only God can save someone. We can’t save anyone. We see the sovereignty of God at work here in this early church.
We read that the Lord added to their number. These Christians understood that people were coming to faith because the Lord was doing something. This is something we need to remember and depend upon. This understanding needs to be built into our approach to reaching out to people.
Unless we see clearly that Jesus saves, we will have a faulty approach to evangelism and become frustrated in the process. In addition to that, we will fail to draw upon the resources of God for our evangelistic efforts and fail to spend the time in earnest prayer for the souls of unbelievers.
Of course the reason that God is at work to reach people is that He loves people. This is why Christ came and died — for people. This is the primary reason the church exists on planet Earth — to reach people. We are to reflect the heartbeat of God for people. It is a desire to see them come to Christ and be saved. It is a desire to see their lives transformed in a positive way by the good news of God’s love for them.
George Barna did a survey that shows that fewer than one in four Christians even believe that it is their responsibility to witness to others. Most Christians think that it is the job of the "professionals" to evangelize, they think that it is the job of only the pastor to evangelize. In fact, most Christians never share their faith with someone else and few have ever led someone to Christ.
One statistic shows that 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ. Wayne Dehoney has said that "We are content to be the keepers of the aquarium, rather than be fishers of men." I think he is right.
But what about the Great Commission. Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)
One thing is true. We need to repent and have God do a work in our hearts to change both our minds and our behavior. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men on an investigation of the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating, they reported, "The only silver we could find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners." To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied, "Good! We’ll melt down the saints and put them into circulation!" This is what may be needed today as well. The saints need to have our hearts melted with the love of God and we need to put ourselves in circulation.
The Cooperation of Believers
Not only must God be at work, but so must we. God is the only one who can save, but we are His hands and feet. He has chosen us to carry the message of that salvation. It takes the cooperation of believers to share the message with others.
It says in Romans 10:13 that "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But is goes on to say in the following verses, "But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them." (NCV)
Listen to what we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God wants us now to participate in this ministry of reconciliation! That is precisely what He has in mind for us. The Bible says about this God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, that He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Those of us who have been reconciled now have the privilege of entering into a ministry of reconciliation. But how do we do this?
We find the key when is says about God that He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We have been given a message to share. We have not only been given grace but the secret of grace. We have been given a message that sets others free. We have been given a message that pardons. We have been given living message. It is living because we have experienced its power. It is living because we have been set free by believing it.
This message is the truth of the gospel. It is the truth that anyone who believes in Jesus can be set free. It is the truth that there is no sin too black that Jesus cannot forgive it. It is the truth that there is no problem too complex that Jesus cannot solve it. It is the truth that our neighbors can be saved. It is the truth that our relatives can be saved. And we have been given this message of reconciliation.
Now it should be obvious to any of us that a message must be spoken. Someone once observed that many Christians are like the Arctic River, frozen over at the mouth. Unless we speak this message of reconciliation, others will never hear it. The greatest tragedy of all would be to have the truth that sets men free, and never to share that truth.
How can we be effective in sharing this truth? What will it take for us to begin to boldly declare the truth that will set others free? Do we need some new program? Will that be the answer?
I would like to propose to you that what we need is not a new program. There are already many programs for evangelism which are quite good. But we do not need a better understanding of an evangelistic program, rather we need a better understanding of our evangelistic position.
Because we have been reconciled ourselves, and have been given this message of reconciliation, we have been made official ambassadors for Christ. We read these very words in the text — we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors. We must understand that official position. We must come to see ourselves in that capacity. We are agents of reconciliation. We are Christ’s ambassadors.
We have a role to play. As an official agent of the Kingdom, we represent the King. We have a divine appointment, and we must begin to see ourselves this way.
What does it mean to function as an ambassador? It means several important things. It means, first of all, that we represent the King. An ambassador represents his government. The word of our President would be passed on to a foreign government through an ambassador. The word of reconciliation with which we are entrusted is the word of our King. So, to be an ambassador also means that we are entrusted to handle the word of the King. We are entrusted to be faithful to share what the King desires us to share. We must be accurate with His words. We must be faithful to share them and to make sure they are understood. And finally, we can conclude that as an ambassador we are privileged to speak with the authority of the King. When our ambassador speaks for our President, that speech carries the authority of our President. When we speak for our God and King, our speech carries the authority of the King. When we offer salvation on the terms revealed in God’s Holy Word, we can be sure that when people respond to our word on behalf of our King, our King will back up His word.
This is why our text says that when we speak it is as though God were making his appeal through us. We are speaking on Christ’s behalf. We stand in the place of Christ in this ministry of reconciliation. We are agents of the Kingdom. We are Christ’s ambassadors.
Until we begin to see ourselves as agents of the Kingdom, ambassadors for Christ, we will miss most of the opportunities that present themselves. What we read in our text is a radically new way of thinking about ourselves. We have heard the words before, and because of that they may not have the impact they should. We need to hear them anew. We need to ask God to create in us this mentality of being an ambassador. As agents of the Kingdom we are to infiltrate every walk of life. As ambassadors for Christ we are to represent the King and faithfully share His word to all people. We have been reconciled so we can participate in seeing others reconciled. We have been shown the way so that we can show others.
An artist, painting a painting depicting outreach, painted a storm at sea. Black clouds filled the sky. Illuminated by a flash of lightning, a little boat could be seen disintegrating under the pounding of the ocean. Men were struggling in the swirling waters, their anguished faces crying out for help. The only glimmer of hope appeared in the foreground of the painting, where a large rock protruded out of the water. There, clutching desperately with both hands, was one lone seaman. It was a moving scene. Looking at the painting, you could see in the tempest a symbol of mankind’s hopeless condition. And, true to the Gospel, the only hope of salvation was "the Rock of Ages", a shelter in the time of storm.
But as the artist reflected upon his work, he realized that the painting did not accurately portray his subject. So he discarded the canvas, and painted another. It was very similar to the first: the black clouds, the flashing lightning, the angry waters, the little boat crushed by the pounding waves, and the crew vainly struggling in the water. In the foreground the seaman was clutching the large rock for salvation. But the artist made one change: the survivor was holding on with only one hand, and with the other hand he was reaching down to pull up a drowning friend.
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