How God Builds a Church

Our focus this month is on missions. Last week Bryce showed us from Scripture that missions is the command of the local church.

We are called to evangelize and disciple the lost for the glory of God. That’s what missions is. Put very simply:

Missions is the plan and work of God in gathering a people to Himself for His glory.

How is God doing this? He is doing this through the local church.

Why does the devil want to shut down the churches?

Why does the devil convince people they don’t need the church?

Why does the devil try to create division in the church?

Why does the devil bring false teaching into the church?

The church is God’s primary means for reaching this world for Christ.

Jesus knew there would be an attack against His church, and He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

The church will be here until Jesus comes back because the church is what God uses to accomplish His plan of redemption.

In Acts 2 we have the church in what some have called its age of innocence. This passage is used often to describe the ideal church because it gives us a glimpse into the first church. Jesus told the disciples to start preaching in Jerusalem. They preached and the result was the first church was born.

Amazingly the same thing happened in other cities. When the gospel was preached churches were born.

Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi and on and on.

The gospel was preached, and churches were born. This wasn’t a one-time thing for Jerusalem. It was the same everywhere.

This shows the blueprint of God in reaching the world. That blueprint has not and will not change. God will always accomplish His plan through the local church.

The building of a church is essential to missions. I’m going to share with you this morning how God builds a church.

1. God saves people (47).

A. The church exists because God saves people.

2:41 says God saved about 3,000 people.

That’s how the church was started.

If God ever stops saving people, the church will cease to exist.

Listen to me now. That means:

God has to save your children

God has to save your grandchildren

A church isn’t a church because it has people in it. A church is a church because it has saved people in it.

Only God can save.

Only God can truly build a church.

It doesn’t say:

The programs added to their number

The music added to their number

The preacher added to their number

It says the Lord added…

This reminds us how much we need the Lord.

We ought to pray that God would save people.

People who are in the church: children, grandchildren, neighbors, visitors.

Those who are not saved may come for a while, but they will eventually desert the church. The church is sustained by those whom God has saved.

That’s why we need to petition God for souls to be saved.

B. Salvation is life transforming.

In 2:38 after preaching the gospel to the Peter challenged them to repent of their sins. They repented and called on the name of the Lord. Their lives were radically changed.

If you are saved, that’s how you became saved.

God sends someone to us to preach the gospel.

We are convicted of our sins.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We call on the name of the Lord.

God saves us.

When Scripture says God saves us what does it mean?

It doesn’t mean He bails us out of a jam.

It means everything in your life is new.

New birth

New desires

New outlook

New heart

New mind

New home

New Father

New family

We’re spending a lot of money at the church right now. What if when all was complete you came in and nothing was new?

Same old paint

Same old floor

Same old smell

You’d say, “We spent too much money to have the same old thing.” You’d think we got ripped off.

That’s how it is with our salvation. Jesus spent a fortune on us. He shed His precious blood. He gave His precious life.

If we have the same old language

The same old attitude

The same old outlook

Then it looks like the Lord got ripped off.

Jesus spent too much on us for us to be the same old thing we were before He purchased us.

The text says these folks had a new devotion, a new fellowship, a new generosity, a new joy, and a new object of worship.

C. The church cannot do what only God can do.

We can feed you

We can love you

We can give you advice

But we can’t save you.

Are you saved?

Do you know His mercy?

Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good?

Is God real in your life?

Has He come to you like He did with:

The woman at the well- confronting your sinful lifestyle

Saul on the Damascus Road- revealing your dead religion

Lydia – opening your hardened heart.

Has God saved you?

Only He can!

God builds a church by saving people.

2. God sends people to church.

When God saves a person, He will give them a desire to go to church.

A. It is a natural desire- it is where our family is.

To be a healthy person we need family. That’s why God gives us a spiritual family.

Look at all the stuff they did together in this text:

Learned together

Fellowshipped together

Ate together

Shared together

Worshipped together

B. It is a necessary desire-

One of the reasons God sends us to church is for our own spiritual health.

Hebrews 10:24-25 teaches that we go to church to be provoked to good works and to provoke others to good works.

If you have a desire to live your spiritual life alone that desire does not come from God.

How does this relate to missions?

You’re not going to invite people to church if you don’t go to church.

You’re not going to grow in your love for the church if you’re not around the people at church.

You’re not going to participate in the mission activities of a church if you’re not going to church. (The propagation of the gospel)

A departure from the church is proof a person is not saved (1 John 2:19).

C. It is a noble desire- there is no better place on earth. The Bible says Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it.

When we assemble, He is here with us in a precious way.

Listen: there are no greater people than those you will find in church.

I’ve witnessed the people of God:

Meet needs that would not be met in the world

Encourage those the world would not encourage

Stand with the hurting and hopeless

Provide the needs for a newborn

Clothe children for the school year

Pay bills for the old and suffering

Put up gravestones for the departed

I’ve seen the love of God extended from a church from the womb to the tomb.

You may ask “What about the bad folks at church?”

Two things:

1) God isn’t the only one who sends people to church.

2) Christians sometimes get in the flesh.

How does God build a church? He saves people and gives them a desire to go to church.

3. God gifts people to teach His Word at church (42).

A. This giftedness is from God.

Here it was the actual Apostles teaching the people. They were not what one might consider top tier teachers.

They were fishermen.

They were Tax collectors

They were common people.

They were considered unlearned and ignorant by society. Acts 4:13 says Peter and John were uneducated and common men.

I’m not saying you have to be ignorant to be a teacher of God’s Word. Paul was a very well-educated man. I’m saying that just because a person is smart it doesn’t mean they have the spiritual gift of teaching the Bible.

The Bible is a book that must be revealed by its Author.

I’m the dumbest guy at my house. We have the report cards to show it. I can read, comprehend, and explain the Bible in a unique way. I’m not boasting at all. I’m simply saying I would be a horrible schoolteacher, but I think I’m a decent Bible teacher. Not great. Maybe not even good., But decent.

There are lots of guys like me. They are gifted by God.

We should never assume because someone can teach academically that they can teach Biblically, and we should not assume that someone who can teach Biblically can teach academically.

The ability to teach the Word is a supernatural gift from God.

B. Every Christian needs to be fed the Word of God.

You can feed yourself, that’s true. But you need to be fed as well.

Preachers are told to:

Feed the flock of God that is among you (1 Peter 5:2)

Believers are told to

Desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2)

This is why we should be careful about substituting church with parachurch organizations.

A parachurch organization is one whose purpose to come alongside the church to help in its mission.

Salvation Army

A crises Pregnancy Center

Homeless shelter

Often these are good groups. But too often people choose to invest more of their energy in these groups than they do their local church.

Normally parachurch organizations do not focus on teaching truth. They meet a need. Normally it’s a social need.

They don’t have pastors and teachers.

There is no emphasis on doctrinal truth.

In fact, they normally have a very wide door and are encouraged not to focus on the details of the Christian faith.

Some that have started out as Christian groups are not even allowed to share the gospel any longer because they receive federal funding.

Listen now: There is no devotion to the Lord without devotion to his Word.

The center of the church is the pulpit because the Word is what is to be on display. The only thing perfect in our church is the Bible. That’s it.

When people come through our mission center they are pointed toward this church. They are pointed toward the gospel. Christians must have a place they can go where the Word of God.

What if you sent your kid to school and they came back talking about all the games they played but never learned a thing? Or what they learned was something they already knew? You’d be upset because you know they would be falling behind.

When it comes to church it should be no different. If all we are doing is playing games and rehashing all the stuff we already know were not preparing people for what lies ahead.

God sends people to church to learn the Word of God.

4. God sanctifies His people at church.

A. God sanctifies His people in a very simple manner.

We call this the ordinary means of God’s grace.

Preaching. If you will listen to and obey simple gospel preaching, you will grow in the Lord in amazing way. That’s how I grew as a young Christian.

The ordinances. This is baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Our own baptism and the baptism of others.

Prayer. We can all pray!

When we come to church we preach, observe the ordinances, and pray. This shows how simple it is to grow in the Lord. Any church, any Christian can participate in these things.

B. As we grow close to Christ, we grow close to one another.

Look at the text. The people were:

Filled with awe

United

Helping one another

Fellowshipping in one another’s homes

Filled with joy and generosity

Praising God

Having favor with all the people

This is what mature Christianity looks like.

Am I filled with wonder at God.

Am I united with the people in my church?

Am I generous and concerned about the needs of those I go to church with?

Am I filled with joy and worship?

Do I have a good relationship with the people I attend church with?

This is sanctification. This is spiritual maturity.

C. As we grow in Christ, He uses us to reach others with the gospel.

It says the Lord added to their number as people were being saved. How were they being saved? The people in the church were obviously sharing the gospel with the lost.

Why is that not mentioned?

I think it’s assumed. You have a church that’s described like this then obviously they are witnessing to the lost.

They love their church.

They love the Lord.

They love the lost.

My point is this: When we are conducting ourselves in the proper way at church then we will naturally reach out to a lost world.

On top of that, if we are a church that pleases the Lord when He saves someone there is a good chance, He will send them our way.

Our tendency is to change the wrong thing when we want our church to grow:

The program

The preacher

The music

We are the ones who need changing!

God is reaching the world through the local church. We simply need to be the type of Church God is willing to work through to accomplish His task.

When God builds a church:

He saves people- are you saved?

He sends them to church- are you committed to the local church

He gifts people to teach His Word- Are you submitting to the Word of God?

He sanctifies people- Are you growing in the grace of God so you can contribute to a unified body who loves one another, loves the Lord, and loves the church?