Theme : MISSION
Title : “GROWING DEEPER,REACHING WIDER”
Text : ACTS 2:42-47
Proposition : A growing church is both a
quality and a quantity
conscious church.
INTRODUCTION :
1. Greetings…
2. Commentary on the Title
Growing Deeper - Have you ever seen a plant that grows deeper and not taller? I believe this refer to the roots. Because a plant that grows its root deep into the soil is a plant that grows taller than we can ever imagine.
Reaching wider - Have you ever reached something that is farther than your arm could reach? The idea here is to reach more people to the Lord.
3. Stagnant Churches - As some study shows, after ten years of existence, a church will only grow biologically. And unfortunately, they have exhausted all the possibility to grow deeper and reach wider.
Transition : Today, we are about to learn from the early church. What are the things they did to grow deeper? How did they reach wider?
I GROWING DEEPER
A. Who needs to grow deeper?
· People who had just receive Christ.
They are the new soil who had just received the seed of the Word. They are the first who should desire to grow deeper or else the seed may grow but not bear fruit.
· People who are suffering from trials and
persecution.
God uses trials in order for us to grow strong. But the devil uses this to stumble us. Growing deeper roots means strength in the middle of the storm.
· People who live and work among unbelievers.
Compromise is the temptation. We can only say no to this when we are growing deeper in the Lord.
· People who are in the service.
Whatever kind of ministry you have, you need to grow deeper because the devil’s priority target is not the members but the person in the leadership.
*** In other words, all Christians need to grow deeper. Regardless of the number of years being a Christian and the length of their service in the ministry. No one is exempted here. If you claim you are a Christian, then aim to grow deeper in your Christian life.
B. What should we do to grow deeper?
1. Devote yourself to the Apostles’ Teachings
The Apostles’ Teaching is synonymous to the Teaching of the Word. Of course, during their time, it was the Old Testament and their testimony of the Life of our Lord Jesus.
Included the 3000 converts. We should take note that the people who devoted themselves to the Apostles’ Teachings included the 3000 that were added to the church that same day. The Apostles put importance to the growth of these people by having them to sit and listen to the teaching of the Word. And it is this event that made the new believers grow mature.
There are verses in the Bible that also give a great deal when it comes to devoting oneself to the teaching of the Bible. Read : Joshua 1:8; Psalms 119
2. Fellowship with Fellow Believers.
"No man is an island." If this is the case to all men, I firmly believe that every Christian can not stand alone by himself. Yes, its true that God is there to help us. But it is also true that God uses other people to minister to us in order for Him to accomplish His will.
Fellowshipping means to gather together as one. The focus is on the members of the group. It is a gathering where in ones need is of utmost importance. Edification, encouragement and fanning ones gift is the activity. Everything is done in love.
The broomstick … the bamboo stick … the bon fire.
Today, fellowship is just an activity. It is an end itself. Fellowshipping with fellow believers should result to a stronger Christian. The simple truth is this, tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are!
3. Remember the Message of the Last Supper
They gather and broke bread together. The breaking of bread is an ordinance of the Lord that each of us should do. And doing it means remembering the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus our Lord.
Read 1 Corinthians 11
To break bread means :
· Remembering Jesus’ death on the cross.
- To acknowledge that Jesus had paid the ransom for our sin…His Life.
- To identify oneself to the death of Jesus. That our sin had been crucified with Jesus and that we are now dead when it comes to sinning.
· Remembering Jesus’ resurrection and Second Coming.
- To break bread is a declaration of our faith. We profess that Jesus did resurrected after three days in the tomb even without us seeing it.
- Also, it is promised to us that one day our Lord will come back to bring us where He is now (John 14). We haven’t seen it, yet we believe.
- Every time we receive the Lord’s Supper, it should result to a deeper relationship with our Lord.
4. Pray…Pray…Pray
"More prayer, more power!" This quotation is used widely. But sad to say, the meaning of it is abused. It is prayer that the early church experienced the mighty work of God. They received the promised filling of the Holy Spirit while they are praying. They were praying when Peter was release by an angel in the prison cell. It was prayer that Paul and Silas manage to escape prison. Prayer! Prayer! Prayer! It was the lifestyle of the church.
Prayer? In our times, it seems that prayer is very much abused. Prayer meetings now are seen as an activity. Very small number of members attends the said "meeting with the Lord" activity. There are times prayer is even taught in the school. Imagine teaching the people about prayer.
I believe prayer is not taught, it is caught. Jesus did not just taught the disciples how to pray, instead He showed a life full of prayer.
II REACHING WIDER
A. Who are the people to reach?
+ The reached
- The first group of people we must learn to reach, as we grow deeper in the Lord, are the one who had been reached … the brethren. It is just right to think that before showing love to others you should learn first to love the people inside the church. As Jesus taught His disciples…"Love one another," we must be doing the same thing today.
+ The reachable
- Our household. Our OIKOS. The extended family. Why reachable? These people are within our reach. They are our acquaintance. We talk to them regularly. We can even set a date with them without so much of a problem. Reachable because they are in the circle of people who are already "reach" literally but not for the purpose of bringing them to Jesus,
+ The Unreached group
- These are people who are not our OIKOS. They are outside of our circle of friends. Of course, we need to reach them too. But this will need some extra effort and will do take some time.
B. How can we reach wider?
1. Power Evangelism (v. 43) - Miracles manifested that resulted to awe. There was power in the ministry of the Apostles. As Jesus healed the sick so were the Apostles. There is no doubt that people were attracted to the power demonstrated by the early church. If you will notice, when the Holy Spirit came upon them while the whole church was speaking in tongues, people came from the outside to see what was happening. No banners or even an invitation was made to attend their gathering. And the story goes, Peter preached and 3000 people believe and was baptized on that same day.
2. Servant Evangelism (vv. 44-45) - They lived in communal living. No need was ignored. Properties were sold not for the owner’s gain but to meet the need of the believers.
3. Body Evangelism (V.46a)- They met daily in the temple courts. The whole church gathered in the place where there were people to reach. The body started to make contact with community of people where they can be found. The church went to the center and not at the corner of the city.
4. Oikos Evangelism (v.46b) - Believers gathered in their homes. The gathering was by group. Most probably by households near to each other. We should remember that every house during that time could only contain 20 people at maximum.
The early church focus evangelism through households. If someone became a believer, the next thing they’ll do was to go to the house of the believer and there they preached the gospel…to the member of the family…in the house.
Read Acts 16:31 and do a commentary.
5. Life Testimony Evangelism - The church found favor in the people. We cannot ignore reaching out to people by the way we live. It is much easier to knock on the door of a complete stranger and share the gospel to them than to share it to your neighbor. Why? The stranger doesn’t even know who you really are while your neighbor knew a lot about you. So? If you’re not living a good life and you are not founding any favor in the sight of your neighbor then the next thing you’ll do is to witness to a stranger. That is, if you will have the guts to witness in spite of the situation. Unfortunately, this is very minimal.
The early church was right when they come together and enjoyed the favor of all the people. The church was a good testimony to the community. Every member was good enough to witness to their household and their community.
REMINDER
"And the Lord added to their number daily
those who were being saved."
The Lord is reminding us :
a. The Lord is the one who adds people to the
church.
Our work is to minister to people and eventually share the gospel to them. We are not to say that we brought so and so persons in the church. It is the Lord who brought them!
b. The Lord added to their number and not just to
their spiritual growth.
God is number conscious God. He never do things in the habit of "manana."
3. The Lord adds those who are being saved.
No person is added to the church unless he experienced the salvation offered by the Lord Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION :
Don’t believe in the principle : "It is Ok if we are small in number as long as we are a quality Church."
Remember this : "A church who grows in quality is a church who also grows in quantity."
A GROWING CHURCH IS A MISSIONARY CHURCH.
A GROWING CHRISTIAN IS A MISSIONARY CHRISTIAN.
Challenge!!!!
(Lord lead me here and let your will be done!)
