Energized by Multiplication
Energized by Multiplication
Read Acts 2:41-47
INTRODUCTION:… Have you ever wondered about the purpose of something?
Ill… One day during cooking class, the teacher… Mrs. Pritchard… was reaching the class 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… so 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…
… Sometimes, the purpose of the church can get lost…
Win Arn… a church consultant… once discovered that 89% of church attendees believe that the church’s main purpose is to take care of their families and their own needs.
And I agree that this is a major part of what the church is, but it is not the church’s MAIN purpose…
He went on to report that Only 11% believe that the church’s main purpose is to win the world for Christ…
Now… I do understand that… but if we only focus on what the church can do for us… then we start losing track of who we ae and what we are to be about…
ILL… 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… but we kept the name we started with… and that’s the Church of God Grill.”
What is sad about this is that probably no one noticed that they wandered away from their main mission… from their purpose…
Instead of being a great church, they chose to be a great restaurant instead.
TRANSITION:It makes me ask the question…what does it take to grow a great church?
If you were to look at the books on my bookshelf in the office downstairs and in the bookshelves at my home…. I could show you that I have a lot 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…
But I really don’t think there is any better text about how to grow a great church than what we find in Acts chapter 2.
The background leading up to what we are discussing tonight is that At Pentecost, Jesus kept His promise and sent the holy Spirit to those in the upper room...
These people in the upper room were dramatically changed… filled with a boldness and power that until now had been absent from their lives.
They became people that were willing and ready to share the Gospel…
Peter spoke with great passion about Jesus…
He spoke of His burial, resurrection and exaltation…
He made his listeners face the truth about Jesus.
The people saw their 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 Energized by new believers…
It was an exciting time…
The church literally had a population explosion which was a good problem to have.
This new church had their priorities right… and they were… devoted to living as a body of believers…
Ill… There is an old 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 looked at the pygmy and asked, "How big is your club?"... The pygmy replied… Well… There’s about 60 of us."…
… Ok…Maybe you weren’t quite expecting that angle… but it does illustrate the old saying that there is strength in numbers.
But listen friends… when it comes to Church life and church growth… the numbers mean absolutely NOTHING unless God is in them…
What is important is that God has chosen to use us in the church growth process.
I like how Lloyd John Ogilvie, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate has described this principle:.. He said…
Without God… we can’t;… without us… He won’t.
God uses us…This is a tremendous privilege.
God 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… We will find in our study of Acts that in chapter 2 verse 41 we can see three stages that show how God uses us as partners in church growth.
Listen to that verse again this evening…
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
… 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… Our focus should be the Word of God.
When we look at Peter’s message, we need to notice 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… Christ is proclaimed…
…It is the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus that must be proclaimed.
And so it is with us…
… 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… We are not to neglect the cost.
You see… 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… I mean let’s face it.. making a decision for Christ is not the ideal of politically correctness.
It is turning back on the norm of society and culture.
And this leads us to…The second stage that shows how God uses us as partners to grow the church… and that 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… We are to advocate the demonstration of repentance.
ILL… Three pastors got together for coffee 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 doesn’t it… 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, because Baptism is an encouragement to all that are involved.
… 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.
…. 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?
We welcome the new life coming into the church.
Sometimes we forget how great this is…
But when new believers come into the fellowship, it 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 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 that leads to salvation…
The wonderful thing about all this is that… We get to see greater works…
Remember what Jesus said in John 14:12 …
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.
APPLICATION:
Now…When I consider the whole of this story, I come to this conclusion…
… The Lord wants us to be energized by multiplication.
He doesn’t want us stagnant…
He wants the church to be vibrant 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.
My friends… God has given us a mission… and our mission continues…
You have heard me speak of it so often lately… (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… a mission statement given by God himself…
ILL... 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."
… My friends… God is partnering with us… and what He needs are some real good witnesses.
If we are determined to actively make disciples and move out of the survival mode… God will bless what we do…
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… lets do what God asks…
Enjoy His partnership, be witnesses and make disciples…
You will notice a deeper focus on a few different things here at the Church in the near future…
We are going to be extremely focused on carrying out the great commission… and I believe that will lead to church growth like this church has never seen before…
Not growth from works… but growth from God…
We will become more focused on evangelism and outreach through our Sunday School Program…
We are going to form a great commission planing team of members from our Church, to spend time in prayer and biblical research to see what WE need to do as a church, to be obedient to God in carrying out his will for our lives…
Pray about this now… and pray diligently for the team, and for the Lords leadership…
If you are asked to be part of this team, please pray about it and keep in mind that this is going to take time… and work…
But I believe it will be well worth it…
I have always been struck by the passage of scripture in 2 Samuel chapter 24… where King David wants to buy a threshing floor and use it as a place to Sacrifice offerings to God…
Of course Araunah, the man that owned the threshing floor… told David he would be honored to just give it to him… then the king could sacrifice and offer up to God whatever he pleased…
But David responded and said…
No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
Let us be like David…
And let us be willing to pay the price… to sacrifice for the Lord…
I am so excited about what God is beginning to do…
The devil will not like it… and we need to be ready for that…
But if we are obedient to God… there is nothing the devil can do about it…