ENERGIZED BY MULTIPLICATION
Acts 2:41
S: Church Growth
Th: Freed to Minister
Pr: GOD USES US AS PARTNERS TO GROW THE CHURCH.
?: How? How is it observed?
KW: Stages
TS: We will find in our study of Acts 2:42 three stages that show how God uses us as partners in church growth.
The _____ stage that shows how God uses us as partners to grow the church is…
I. ADOPTION
II. AUTHENTICATION
III. ADDITION
RMBC 23 September 01 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. Have you ever wondered about the purpose of something?
ILL Notebook: Purpose (wooden spoons)
One day during cooking class, the teacher, Mrs. Pritchard, was extolling her secrets for preparing perfect sauces. When she ordered the class to the stoves to prepare their assignments, she said, "Don’t forget to use wooden spoons."
As Richard stirred his sauce, he contemplated the physics behind the mystery of the wooden spoon and decided it must have something to do with heat conduction. He approached Mrs. Pritchard to test his theory.
"Why wooden spoons?" he asked. "Because," she replied, "if I have to sit here listening to all your metal spoons banging against metal pots, I’ll go nuts!"
Well, sometimes there are reasons for the way things are.
And often they are good reasons.
I think it is human nature to enjoy being a part of something that is thought out and purposeful.
We like to know where we are going.
But you know…
2. Sometimes, the purpose of the church can get lost.
Win Arn, a church consultant, recently discovered that 89% of church attenders believe that the church’s purpose is to take care for their family’s and their own needs.
Only 11% believe that the church’s purpose is to win the world for Christ.
Isn’t that amazing?
But it is no wonder.
I have heard way too many times people complain that a certain church doesn’t meet their needs.
Something gets missed in that.
We start losing track of who we are and what we are to be about.
For example…
ILL Church of God Grill
Charles Paul Conn tells of the time when he lived in Atlanta. He noticed in the Yellow Pages, in the listing of restaurants, an entry for a place called the Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity, and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheerful, “Hello! Church of God Grill!” He asked how the restaurant had been given such an unusual name, and the man at the other end said, “Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. Well, people liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After a while we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving the chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that’s Church of God Grill.”
What is sad about this is that probably no one noticed that they wandered away from their mission.
Instead of being a great church, they chose to be a great restaurant instead.
TRANSITION:
It makes me ask this question…
1. What does it take to grow a great church?
If you come into my office sometime, I can show you that I have a whole shelf of books that deal specifically with church growth.
It is a fascinating subject.
And a lot of the books that I have read have good ideas in them, even some that I apply from time to time.
But I really don’t think there is any better text about how to grow a great church than what we find in Acts 2.
The second chapter of Acts is what we have been studying this month during our discipleship emphasis.
Our theme is “Freed to Minister,” because…
2. We have been “freed to minister.”
In review, you will notice that we are using for these five weeks an acrostic that spells the word “freed.”
The first week we spoke about being…
2.1 Filled with the Spirit (1-13)
At Pentecost, Jesus kept His promise and sent the Spirit.
These people in the upper room were dramatically changed, filled with a boldness and power that until now had been absent from their lives.
We then showed how they were…
2.2 Ready to share the gospel (14-36)
Peter spoke with great passion about Jesus.
He spoke of His burial, resurrection and exaltation.
He made his listeners face the truth about Jesus.
Following that he was…
2.3 Eager to invite a response (37-40)
Last week, we talked about the people’s need of forgiveness and for God to be in their lives.
They needed to demonstrate their new life by repenting and publicly declaring their new allegiance by being baptized.
It is then that we find tremendous growth as this new church is…
2.4 Energized by new believers (41)
It was an exciting time.
The church literally had a population explosion which was a good problem to have.
Next week, Pastor Murphy (Attorney Murphy) will be speaking on how this new church has their priorities right and were…
2.5 Devoted to body-life (42-47)
ILL Notebook: Teamwork (pygmy)
There is a story of a hunter walking through the African jungle who found a huge dead elephant with a pygmy standing beside it. Amazed, he asked: "Did you kill that elephant?" The pygmy said, "Yes." The hunter asked, "How could a little bloke like you kill a huge beast like that?" "I killed it with my club," the pygmy answered. The astonished hunter asked, "How big is your club?" The pygmy replied, "There’s about 60 of us."
Maybe you weren’t quite expecting that angle, but it does illustrate the old saying that there is strength in numbers.
When it comes to the church, though, numbers are unimportant unless God is in them.
What is important is that God has chosen to use us in the church growth process.
3. GOD USES US AS PARTNERS TO GROW THE CHURCH.
I like how Lloyd John Ogilvie, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate has described this principle:
Without God we can’t; without us he won’t.
God uses us.
This is a tremendous privilege.
He wants us to be involved in a growing church, a church that seeks to win the world for Christ.
The question, of course, is our willingness.
Will we be active or silent partners in the Lord’s cause?
Well…
4. We will find in our study of Acts 2:41 three stages that show how God uses us as partners in church growth.
Listen to our one verse text this morning…
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first stage that shows how God uses us as partners to grow the church is ADOPTION.
God is going to use us when we focus on Scripture.
This is what God blesses.
So…
1. Our focus should be the Word of God.
When you look at Peter’s message, note what he speaks about.
He focuses on the Word of God.
And he focuses on the Word made flesh.
He doesn’t spend time on the miracles, specifically the speaking in the known languages.
Instead, Jesus is proclaimed.
It is the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus that must be proclaimed.
And so it is with us…
2. Our objective is to demonstrate Jesus as Lord and Christ.
Peter urges his listeners to accept the Messiah, the very one they had rejected and executed.
He offers testimony and pleads with them about their need.
And he was successful.
The listeners were convinced and convicted, cut to the heart, asking “What shall we do?”
They needed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They needed to repent of their sins.
To believe and repent wasn’t necessarily easy, but this is how it must be communicated.
For…
3. We are not to neglect the cost.
For when one accepts the message, when one believes on the Lord Jesus and repents of their ways, it is going against the flow.
It is a hard decision, for making a decision for Christ is not the ideal of politically correctness.
It is turning back on the norm of society and culture.
ILL Bangladesh
Josh is going to share more with us this evening, but what is happening in this verse is happening in Bangladesh.
And it has been our privilege to be a part of that team.
We have been providing money to purchase Bibles and as the Bibles are read, people are responding, with a desire to be baptized.
They are willing to turn their back on their society, culture and religion (both Hinduism and Islam), because knowing Jesus brings so much more joy.
The message is bring proclaimed and they are accepting the message.
This leads us to…
II. The second stage that shows how God uses us as partners to grow the church is AUTHENTICATION.
It is easy for people to say they believe in the Lord Jesus, but it is another thing to show it.
God blesses those that authenticate their belief with action.
Therefore…
1. We are to advocate the demonstration of repentance.
ILL Notebook: Church (baptize bats)
Three pastors got together for cof-fee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems. "I got so, mad," said one, "I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats."
"I tried trapping them alive," said the second. Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church."
“I haven’t had any more problems," said the third.
"What did you do?" asked the others, amazed.
"I simply baptized them," he replied. "I haven’t seen them since.
Sometimes it seems like that in the church, but that is not how it is supposed to be.
Some believe falsely that if they are baptized they are guaranteed eternal life and then they can go and do as they please.
But that is not what baptism is about.
It is not done to receive salvation.
It is done to declare salvation.
And this is what is happening in this text.
People are making a public declaration for Jesus Christ.
And it is to all of our benefit, for…
2. Baptism is an encouragement to all that are involved.
For when we are baptized, it is an encouragement to us because we identify with the One that has saved us.
It is an encouragement to those of us who observe because we realize that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
We rejoice that the Word that has made a difference in us makes a difference in others as well.
So God partners with us as we give people the opportunity to authenticate their faith and be baptized.
III. The third stage that shows how God uses us as partners to grow the church is ADDITION.
Isn’t it wonderful when new believers become part of the church?
1. We welcome the new life coming into the church.
Sometimes we forget how great this is.
But when new believers come into the fellowship, there brings a genuine excitement.
We celebrate, because it reinforces our own faith.
We proclaim with confidence that this is real!
Note what happened here in this text.
This beginning church immediately gained three thousand members.
Talk about church growth!
We learn something interesting, but so very important, about how this all happens.
In verse 47, we find that the Lord was adding them.
You see, we must always remember that our role is to win them, it is God’s role to save them.
Our role is to live and communicate the truth of the gospel; it is God’s role to bring conviction of sin and baptize with the Holy Spirit.
The wonderful thing about all this is that…
2. We get to see greater works (John 14:12).
Note what Jesus said just before He died…
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Notice what happened…a larger company was won in a single day than Jesus had secured in three years of public ministry.
Isn’t that incredible?
This is why He said to wait for the Holy Spirit.
Wonderful things happen when we are under the control of the Spirit.
So…
3. Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem!
Perhaps this is a bit tongue-in-cheek…
But they were first.
They were baptized.
It was the beginning of the church.
And it happened in Jerusalem.
Can you think of a better name?
The First Baptist Church of Jerusalem.
APPLICATION:
Seriously though…
When I consider the whole of this story, I come to this conclusion…
1. The Lord wants us to be energized by multiplication.
He doesn’t want us stagnant.
He wants the church to be vibrant, scintillating and exhilarating, for we have the greatest news of the whole world.
And yet, when we look at the early church and its growth, in comparison the modern church often seems to just be staggering along.
Now, you may not believe this, but I have the best church growth formula that has ever existed.
Maybe I could write a book and become famous.
It is simply this…do what God blesses.
Do what God blesses
For when we do what God blesses, we will be doing what He wants and that will be success.
Now…how do we know what God blesses?
Well, that is simple too.
God blesses the things that He has asked us to do.
He has given us a mission and…
2, Our mission continues (Matthew 28:18-20).
Then Jesus came to them and 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."
We have a mission statement.
Our mission statement is to make disciples.
ILL need real good witnesses
There is a story told about a man who was accused of some wrongdoing and was brought before a judge. When the judge asked if he had an attorney to represent him, the man answered, “No, I can’t afford one.” The judge replied, “Well, don’t worry about that. I’ll appoint a lawyer to represent you and I will choose a real good one.” “I appreciate that, judge,” answered the man. “But if you really want to appoint somebody to help me, what I need most is not a real good lawyer, but several real good witnesses."
God is partnering with us, and what He needs are some real good witnesses.
This is what God blesses.
If we are determined to make disciples, and actively do it, and get out of the survival mode, He will bless it.
I mention this because some of the financial stress we have been feeling this year has backed us up—put us into a survival mode.
It is time to halt that kind of thinking.
The tragedies of 12 days ago are a wake up call to us.
We have a mission.
It is time to fulfill it.
The Lord has called us to be together and serve Him as one body.
I believe that the Lord doesn’t want us looking at other churches and longing for what they have.
He wants us looking to Him.
He wants us to have what He has for us.
So, let’s do what God blesses.
Enjoy His partnership, be witnesses and make disciples.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Be a partner…God wants us to proclaim the Word, baptize in His name, and receive new people into the fellowship; He wants us to partner with Him in this good work.
Be a witness…Testify to what God has done in your life; don’t be afraid—for the work He has done in you is grand and glorious; it is worth celebrating and worth telling.
Make disciples…Because God blesses this; His design is for multiplication, not stagnation; His design is to win, not to lose; His design is to move forward, not to retreat; let’s do what God blesses.
Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
