The Church of Jesus Christ: Mission (3)

6 Components of a Healthy Church

1. Preaching and Teaching of the Word of God

2. Practicing the Ordinances

A. Believer’s Baptism

B. The Lord’s Supper

3. Meeting Together in Unity

4. Meeting the Needs of Others

5. Making Disciples

Acts 2:46 “46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,”

Why were the Jews still going to the temple? I can argue for the continual worship in the Jewish temple of the early church. They knew what the temple meant, what the articles of worship meant, in light of Jesus. But the Bible describes more than worship being the reason they went to the temple.

They went to make disciples. What is disciple making?

Matthew 28:19–20 “19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

Making Disciples is the act whereby God’s church is strategic and faithful in the multiplication of believers of Jesus Christ. They accomplish this by proclaiming the gospel and the need for salvation in Christ, teaching new believers the doctrines of God’s word and the holy practices of his people, and walking alongside with them in their journey of faith.

What are the parts of making disciples ?

We must proclaim the gospel and call people to repentance and faith in Jesus

Starting in Acts 2-5, I want us to see how the early church was active in the temple area preaching the gospel and meeting the needs of others.

Acts 2:46 “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,”

Acts 3:1-11 Peter and John minister in the temple area

Acts 3:12-26 Sermon Preached by Peter in Temple

Acts 4:1-21 Peter and John arrested in the Temple and stand trial before religious leaders

Acts 4:23-31 Released from prison and celebrating God’s faithfulness

Acts 4:32-5:16 The Church shows its generosity to the needy, disciplines those in sin, and continues seeing the Spirit manifest miracles

Acts 5:21 “21 Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach.

Acts 5:17-42 The apostles are arrested again where the word of God is providentially allowed to be declared….then they are beaten and released.

Acts 5:42 “42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

It is clear that their goal of entering the temple was not isolated to prayer and worship but also the making of disciples of all nations.

Define Terms:

-Evangelism: This term comes from the Greek word EUANGELIZO. Its a verb form of the compound word. ANGELO which is where we get Angel means to Proclaim, like the angels did throughout history. They were messengers of God or Proclaimers of God’s purposes. When you add EU to ANGELIZO you change the word to PROCLAIMER OF GOOD THINGS. So Evangelism is the process by which the church goes about proclaiming the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Other words used for evangelism is “Witnessing/Soul winning.”

When we think of evangelism practiced, many of us think of door to door conversations with those who will listen to the good news proclaimed. Also another image that might come to your mind is the action of street preaching on a public street.

Evangelism is simply just the act of sharing the good news with someone you interact with on a daily basis.

Matthew 11:4–5 “4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Luke 8:1 “1 Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching( the good news of) the kingdom of God.

The Message of Acts d. It Was an Evangelistic Church

Those first Jerusalem Christians were not so preoccupied with learning, sharing and worshipping, that they forgot about witnessing. For the Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit who created a missionary church.

Our mission as the church is to go about throughout the world and proclaim that salvation is found ONLY AND COMPLETELY in the person and work of Jesus Christ. When we fail to do this faithfully, we fail to accomplish what Jesus has left us on this earth to do.

But what we have to understand is that when we proclaim the gospel and we see the fruit of repentance and faith in Jesus, the work does not stop there. We declare the good news of Jesus Christ to the world but we also must devote ourselves to continue on with those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

Are you being faithful to the mission that God has called you to? It is not enough to know the Father through the Son, to unite with others in fellowship through Jesus, or praise the Lord Jesus in our lives, if we fail to preach and proclaim the good news of salvation in Jesus name.

There is one more item to share in our efforts to proclaim the gospel. God promises the success of our efforts of sharing the gospel. We will see fruit of evangelism if we are faithful to do it. It may not be fruitful every time we share, but God will bless our efforts. We see this promise in the Great Commission when the call to make disciples of all nations is followed up with the instruction to baptize and teach them. Teach who if there is no promise of success in our evangelism? God promises through his instruction that we will have those to baptize and teach the truths of Christ.

Thomas Boston states in his book “The Art of Man-Fishing” comments on Jesus words to his disciples “I will make you fishers of men.” He writes,

“The benefit promised; that is, to be made fishers of men; which I take to be not only an investing of them with authority, and a calling of them to the office, but also a promise of the success they should have, that fishing of men should be their employment, and they should not be employed in vain, but following Christ, they should indeed catch men by the gospel. The fountain-cause of this, I, I will make you; none other can make you fishers of men but me…He it is that brings sinners into the net which (servants) spread; and if he be not with them to drive the fish into the net, they may toil all the night, and day too, and catch nothing.”

2. We must teach new believers the doctrines of God’s word and the holy practices of his people

-Disciple Making: A new term emerged on the forefront of the evangelical church in the last 50-75 years which some what replaced the term evangelism. Looking at the Great Commission, Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19–20 NASB95

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

“as you are going, and make disciples of all nations.”

Both terms evangelism and disciple-making are biblical, but the shift of the use of terms had a purpose. The purpose came with realization that the church had been faithful to share the gospel but not make disciples. The church held great evangelistic rallies but then often left new children of the faith orphaned on the streets. Many considered the evangelistic efforts of the church to be incomplete when new believers were converted to Christ. An emphasis of discipleship simply extended the work of both evangelism and training up of children of the faith.

The writer of Hebrews states,

Hebrews 5:12–14 “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Using such a metaphor, as did Paul, the new follower of Jesus is a babe in Christ and in need of growth. That growth comes when the mature of the church come alongside new believers and help them learn and grow the truths of the faith.

One great example is the ministry of Aquila and Priscilla who discipled Apollos.

Read Acts 18:23–28

“23 And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”

Now I love this picture because you can see the effects of Paul’s ministry of discipleship on Aquila and Priscilla in the preceding verses and now you see their instruction passed down to Apollos. Apollos does not seem to be a new covert and yet in that time of his spiritual journey, there were some things the Holy Spirit highlighted to Aquila and Priscilla when they heard Apollos preach. They took him aside and took the time with him to explain the Scriptures more clearly surrounding the doctrine of baptism in the New Covenant. All of this trickled down to Apollos’ faithful ministry in the church of Corinth later on.

The art of disciple-making is the continuation of commitment to seeing new believers grow in their faith in Christ. It may be someone who you evangelized and who repented and put their faith in Jesus. It also may be a immature believer who needs accountability and growth in the word of God. Their are levels of maturity that exists in every church that accommodates this need in the body.

Now this requires your maturity first and chiefly. You must grow in your faith and be committed to continual learning and enrichment. Then you must fulfill that calling to “make disciples.” This is not a calling to just the elders of the church. It is the role and purpose of every Christ follower. Jesus’ model was rightly displayed to take the ordinary, dependent, humble laymen, save them and train them to carry out his mission with supernatural resources at their disposal.

Robert Coleman writes,

By any standard of sophisticated culture then and now they would surely be considered as a rather ragged collection of souls. One might wonder how Jesus could ever use them. They were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended, and had all the prejudices of their environment. In short, these men selected by the Lord to be his assistants represented an average cross section of society in their day.2 Not the kind of group one would expect to win the world for Christ.They were indeed "unlearned and ignorant" according to the world's standard (Acts 4:13), but they were teachable. Though often mistaken in their judgments and slow to comprehend spiritual things, they were honest men, willing to confess their need. These men were looking for someone to lead them in the way of salvation. Such men, pliable in the hands of the Master, could be molded into a new image-Jesus can use anyone who wants to be used.

Coleman, Robert E.. Master Plan of Evangelism, The (Function). Kindle Edition.

I share that quote with you to ward off any excuses you may have at becoming a disciple maker yourself. We all have the capacity to be used of God as a disciple maker if we just surrender to the Lord our weakness and rest in His strength to work in and through us. He equips you in the church to grow in the truth and knowledge of him and he calls you to pass on what you have learned.

2 Timothy 2:2

“2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

3. We must walk alongside them as spiritual parents in order to guide them to spiritual maturity in Christ

But these disciples of Jesus do not just you to pass on knowledge. They need your presence in their lives. It might be easier for you to set up a weekly meeting going through a bible study booklet or memorizing Scripture, but are you gonna be available to help them apply that to all of their life? Paul told the Thessalonians,

1 Thessalonians 2:5–12 “5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— 6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. 7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. 8 Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. 9 For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; 11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, 12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

Notice the words Paul uses to communicate that disciple-making is relationally driven. It is a spiritual parentage that exists in the church. Churches should never be spiritual orphanages but should be exploding with relationships that exist far beyond the weekly meetings and gatherings of the chruch. In those relationships there should be love, accountability, prayer and instruction that is centered on Christ and his word.

This of course is expressed within the biological family with parents discipling their children. But what about those who unbelieving parents or deceased parents who have no Christian influence to turn to. The young Christian is never meant to just figure out things on their own. Church leadership steps in to teach and instruct but we cannot meet with 25-50 people a week. This must be a joint effort of disciple making.

4. We must be personally involved with this holy practice to the ends of the earth

Disciple-making is local, national and global effort. As the church, we seek to participate in disciple-making efforts here and abroad. We cannot just accomplish this in our community for the world is truly in need of Jesus. We commonly say that we can accomplish this by GOING, PRAYING, GIVING but I will also add CONNECTING.

GOING… if you have not gone out of our community on a mission trip to serve in the disciple-making efforts, you need to go. You need to experience the lostness in a global context. The TV or videos online cannot do justice to seeing them 10 feet from you. You can go and serve missionaries on the ground. Helping them evangelize the lost. Helping the care for orphans. Helping them plant churches. As you elders, we need to do a better job of offering opportunities for you to do this.

PRAYING…. Pray for global missions. Pray for John Scudder in India and for Casey and Guily Kidd in Peru. Connect with like-minded missionary organizations on social media to get specific ways to pray.

GIVE- Your tithes go towards helping the missionaries you support. Thank you for your faithfulness. There is also always a way to give above the local tithe to support missions in various ways. You can support someone who wants to go on a missions trip. You can give to supply bibles to unreached areas of the world.

CONNECTING=-In this 21st century that is saturated with technological advancement, we cannot claim that engaging in disciple-making across the globe is impossible. Each week, you could train a new believer in Jesus Christ who possesses an internet connection and a cell phone or laptop. I would always encourage disciple-making first in the local church before encouraging anyone to engage in global personal disciple relationships. But the need is there.

You can be involved in the mission of the church which sets out to accomplish disciple-making across the globe.

The last component of our study is going to be ….

6. Living in Joyful Worship

Acts 2:46–47 “46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

The end of v 46 and into 47 is the observable spirit of the church. When we gather, how might the Lord and people see us? Are we hopeful, reverent and full of joy? Or are we despondent, dull, and lacking zeal for Christ?

It is clear that all that the Lord Jesus had accomplished led the early church to heartfelt, uncontrollable joyful worship. Similarly, the church should respond with celebration of the life of Christ and all that has led to his coming into the world, his perfect righteous life, his atoning death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension and his 2nd coming. We celebrate victory from sin, resurrection from the grave, union in a likeminded fellowship, power to see the lost saved, protection from the evil one, promise of eternal belonging. We are citizens of heaven and we should should worship in such a way.

John Scott

The Message of Acts c. It Was a Worshipping Church

Since God had sent his son into the world, and had now sent them his Spirit, they had plenty of reason to be joyful. Besides, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is … joy’,67 and sometimes a more uninhibited joy than is customary (or even acceptable) within the staid traditions of the historic churches. Yet every worship service should be a joyful celebration of the mighty acts of God through Jesus Christ. It is right in public worship to be dignified; it is unforgivable to be dull.

Psalm 16:8–9 “8 I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.”

Our joyful worship is informed in the truth of who God is and what is has done.

Joyful worship is rooted in biblical history and the theology of all that Christ has accomplished. It is not about a lack of control of our emotions and actions but a discipline of intentional biblical reflection and reaction. What has Jesus done and how should be respond?

Matt Merker states that corporate worship involves both gravity and gratitude as informed and reflective components. The “gravity” aspect means that our worship of God is rooted and grounded in acceptable worship as God desires. It is not a free for all of human invention but instead a discipline praise intended to truly honor God as He is meant to honored. Birds that fly in a flock are free to soar above the skies but they do so together and with structure.

Hebrews 12:28–29 “28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”

Merker also states our worship is full of gratitude for all that God has done. We are beneficiaries of the blessings of Christ’s redemptive work and we are observers off all that He has made in the world. We are also then responsive with simply gratitude as it states here in Acts 2:46.

Our joyful worship is responsive with gladness and joy for all that we have received in Christ.

Matt Merker writes,

“You can hear the thunderous roar of Niagara Falls as far as twenty miles away. At its peak, 2,382 metric tons of water cascade down the 188-foot cliff every second. It’s staggering to comprehend such majesty. Yet, although the falls seem forbidding, many visitors feel compelled to get closer. They board the Maid of the Mist ship to hear the thunder of water on rock and to get soaked by the spray. The church gathers to hear and behold the glorious One, the One who stands above the entire universe. He is the Creator, the Designer of Niagara Falls and countless other wonders. Filled with reverent fear, we approach God to adore his unrivaled beauty. God gathers us to glorify him. Praise is the natural response of redeemed creatures.”

Merker, Matt. Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God's People (9Marks: Building Healthy Churches) (pp. 61-62). (Function). Kindle Edition.

This should not challenge us to falsify some emotions when we gather but simply evaluate if we live our lives consistently joyful in the Lord for all that he has done. If one person in Christ is joyful, then a collection of likeminded individuals will only intensify the joyful worship.

In that joy we praise the Lord with obedience in our gathering. We praise His name by recalling his works, by seeking His presence among his people, by doing what he commands us to do in worship.

Psalm 150 “1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise Him in His mighty expanse. 2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

3 Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. 4 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.

5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”