Somethings Never Change
Somethings Should Never Change
Acts 2:41-47
I. Change is Inevitable
a. Since we now live in the ever evolving society due to technology
i. One must change or be left behind
b. Look at the cable companies
i. With the satellite revolution with hundreds of channels, cable companies which once dominated the TV industry must now diversify in offering its customers a smorgesborg of services, no longer just channels but now internet service and also your telephone services- everyone is into consolidation- one payment
c. TIVO- people are now just fast forwarding through commercials, so networks have to inventive as to how to market their clients advertisement on the air
i. And now with the popularity of YouTube, some companies have specialized depts. Of marketing producing commercials only for the purpose of being seen on the internet
II. Even industries and products must evolve
The Tribune, Jan. 31, 08 “Dairy Industry Changing to Meet Needs of Consumers”
"Change sneaks up on you," Noting that by 2020, 47 percent of the U.S. population will be 50 years old or older, 75 percent of career executives will be women. In addition, 49 percent of the U.S. population eat on the go and 36 percent of all pregnancies last year were single mothers
Those figures, particularly the high number of single mothers, Stan Erwine, Vice President of Producer relations for Thornton said, lead to a childhood obesity, which is gripping the nation.
But the dairy industry is taking steps to address those problems, Cindy Haren said, CEO of Western Dairy Association, with innovative and nutrition-based marketing of healthy dairy products that is being driven by health concerns, wellness and childhood obesity. Colorado has been considered one of the healthier states in the nation, "but if we don't get a hold on childhood obesity, we will not hold on to that distinction long." As a result, the Western Dairy Association has gone into the state's schools with a new-look milk container. McDonald's is going to specialty coffee products, which contain 80 percent milk and soon string cheese will be a part of kids' meals in another quick-serve restaurant chain that is working with a major cheese company.
I. We are witnessing these changes in meeting needs constantly around us, it has become a business mantra- if you cannot change you will then become extinct
a. Unfortunately, this philosophy has entered into the church
i. In the past twenty years we have seen an evolution to way churches are conducting themselves
1. Some are no longer calling themselves churches but rather “gatherings”
2. Church growth gurus are calling to the end of pulpit ministries, telling churches that people are no longer desiring to hear diatribes being preached at them- so churches are now evolving their services to a more entertainment oriented worship experiences
ii. When pastors and church leaders are so pressured to keep the flock they have or they have great desire to be defined as successful in terms of numbers- getting caught up in the megachurch mentality- the more the better- church leaders may find themselves deviating from biblical models to please it’s parishioners
b. But it clear from Scripture that to be a pleaser of men, one cannot be a servant of Christ
i. “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Gal. 1:10
c. Our church is not immune to change- for the past 14 years I have been here, I have seen great changes to our church
i. Many people have come and gone from our church
1. And with exoduses, people get discouraged, I am no different
a. I look out at our church, and many faces are missing, those I wished would still be with us
i. But even with those absences, we have never been as numerous as we are now
2. But we all have ideas as to how we like to see what our church should be like, how our church should grow
3. The problem is that if we do not witness church growth as we intended it to be, then we become discouraged to the point of maybe withdrawing ourselves, emotional, spiritual or even physically
d. And as your pastor- it is not for myself to tout my own wisdom of what is best but rather to impress upon you that to be a true worshipper of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find ourselves under one authority- the Word of God
i. So in define our church- we turn to the Bible to find the power of God’s word to be our ultimate authority as how we ought to model our own church
Reading the Passage: Acts 2:41-47
Opening Prayer
II. Intro: Faith in God Who Saves
a. If a person believes that God is sovereign in salvation, that Christ will build His church, that the Father will draw everyone whom He has chosen, and that Christ will receive all whom the Father draws and will keep them and raise them on the last day—
i. the question is, how does church growth theory fit into all of that? God has already determined who will be saved from before time began.
1. Furthermore, the Lord has fully propitiated the just anger of God over the sins of the elect by suffering in full the righteous judgment of their sins.
2. The death of Christ was an actual payment for sins, not a potential one.
b. Since the Lord has determined His church, bought His church, regenerated, justified, and sanctified His church—this is all a supernatural work.
i. It is also true and revealed in Scripture that this supernatural work is not apart from means, through which God does His work and in which we all participate. It is nonetheless, the Lord who is doing the supernatural work and it will not fall short one soul.
c. As the Lord builds His church, by what means does He do it? And has He revealed the means to us? If we are the undershepherds of Christ, called to be the human instruments by which Christ builds His church, then we need to understand how it is that He does that. We need to get in line with the divine pattern.
III. There are many ways to build “The First Church of the Tares,” behind which Satan is the real power. It can be done very effectively, it can be big and enduring.
a. The gnostics, the Roman Catholics, the liberals, and the cults have all done it—and they are still around. The Church of the Tares is actually bigger than the Church of the Wheat. And today, those calling themselves “evangelicals” are also doing it. There are churches all around the country where tares gather together and call themselves churches.
i. If you want to take a shot at competing with the rest of the “tare-pastors” on how to get a large group of tares into a building each Sunday, there are plenty of strategies to do that.
b. But if you want to build the true church, the wheat, in the way that God commands, then we must discern how Christ builds His church, and how it is that we are to be part of that.
The answer is not vague or obscure. When you ask how it is that Christ builds His church, the answer is not hard to find. In fact, it is so clear and inescapable that we are bound to follow what He commands.
Christ said He will build His church, and the book of Acts describes how He did that. The book of Acts was given to us to show us how Christ built His church, not in theory but in reality. This is exactly how the Lord went about building the church that He promised He would build. Interestingly, the book of Acts provides the greatest story of church growth in history.
Acts 2:39 is a key verse in this regard, underscoring the sovereign call of God and the generational impact that the Gospel has. It is a preview of how the church that Christ built extends across ethnic and generational barriers.
When we start in Jerusalem (Acts 1), we have 120 people. By the end of Acts 2 (v. 41), we are up to some 3,000 souls. Within hours, the church goes from 120 to 3,000. Then, in verse 47 we see that the Lord was adding to that number day by day those who were being saved. In Acts 4:4, the number of men is listed at about 5,000. In 5:14, many more multitudes are being constantly added to the church. Acts 6:7 notes that the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, including priests. This pattern continues throughout the rest of the book of Acts.
There is great attention given in Acts regarding how the church grew. It is beneficial for us to go back and identify the components that produced this great growth. This is the first generation church. What are the elements that resulted in this incredible growth. What characteristics mark the church that Christ builds?
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1. It is marked by a transcendent message.
· The agency that produces salvation, through the power of the Spirit, is the Word of God.
o “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Rom. 1:16
o Salvation comes by means of the Holy Spirit using the message – it is a singular message. Any other message or gospel is damning.
o This message must be a transcendent message – meaning that it transcends all languages, cultures, social statuses, contexts, everything. At this time, cultural identity was very fixed.
§ There were hard lines drawn between different cultural groups. Yet the gospel transcended all of these. Those differences had no effect on the message.
o No matter where you go in the world- you will find one consistency- sin
§ That is why the church needs not to evolve, that is why preaching cannot be eliminated for a better means of serving God and his people
o Jesus said in Matthew 28 to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
§ In Acts 1, Jesus explained that the power of the Spirit and the power of the Gospel is all that is necessary to reach the ends of the earth.
§ Then in Acts 2:8, the disciples preached that message in the various languages of those who had come during Pentecost. They could proclaim the same message to people from many different countries and it had a powerful impact. It was a message (as evidenced in Peter’s later sermon) of sin, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ.
§ Whether the gospel was preached to Jews or to Gentiles, the message did not change. And all those whom God had chosen, responded to that message in faith.
· Contextualization- means where the church is making efforts to be relevant to the world
o Pastors wearing holes in the jeans, skulls on their t-shirts, thong sandals to fit in
o The apostles went out with an absolute disdain for contextualization. The modern drive for cultural contextualization is a curse, because people are wasting their time trying to figure out clever ways to draw in the elect.
§ Paul said, “Do not become conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2
§ What about when Paul says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews” 1 Cor. 9:20
§ Acts 2:38, “I have come to you wearing your clothes, prepared with the most wonderful of presentations so that you will not be turned off with me… “Repent and each of you be baptized”
o Just look at John the Baptist- man wearing animal skin and eating locust and honey
§ But he preached a transcendant message- the gospel of Jesus Christ
§ It never descends to clothing or musical style, as if that had anything to do with the message of the Gospel.
· Here at DFC we have both contemporary music and traditional hymns and they are both wonderful
o But we cannot trust our music as a lure to bring people to Christ, nor anything else other than the Gospel
o The Lord built His church with straightforward gospel truth.
2. It is marked by a regenerate congregation.
· The church of Jesus Christ is an assembly of true believers. To call an assembly of non-believers a church is outrageous. There is something deeply wrong with pastors who assemble a large number of non-believers and then call it a church.
o To draw a crowd for the sake of drawing a crowd and then calling it church is against everything Jesus had died for
§ I remember being disowned once by my father
· I was so rebellious and I thought I knew everything, more than he did
· You are no longer my son- “I did not come here to the states and made all these sacrifices for you to behave like this”
o The same goes for the church of Jesus Christ
§ If you are unwilling to give your life, your loyalty, your submission to His authority as your Lord and Savior-then you are not a Christian, you are not a child of God
§ If you are not a child of God- you are not a member of His body, nor are you a recipient of all the heavenly riches in Christ Jesus His Son, nor will you receive eternal life
§ Is this scaring some of you? It should, it is the most important decision of your life
· In the early church, church growth was about a regenerate congregation (Acts 2:42).
o “They were continually devoting themselves tot eh apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
o That’s what all real churches do — “all those who believed were together” (v. 44). And the result was that God was constantly adding to their number.
· You may have heard about Willow Creek recently changing its philosophy of ministry. They repented of their previous church growth strategies which they’ve realized don’t work. They are now coming up with new ways to collect non-Christians and call it a church. But that’s not a church.
· The Lord defines His church as an assembly of regenerate believers, true worshippers, gathered for true fellowship and the practice of spiritual disciplines. It is a far cry from what goes on in the “non-church” today—where events are designed to appeal to non-believers rather than to strengthen true Christians.
o Jesus died for His church- He did not die for those who will not receive Him as their Lord and Savior just so that they can come together and fell better about themselves
§ I recently received an e-mail from a person who has issues with Christianity- said now he is more tolerant than Christians especially in the way of treating homosexuals- aren’t suppose to love them? I agree.
§ We love the sinner but hate the sin
§ But in fully accepting people and allow them to be part of the church is a great disservice to them and to our God
· To truly love them is to tell them they are a sinner, they must repent so that they will not receive my imperfect love but the perfect love of their savior who died for their sins
3. It is marked by a valiant perseverance.
· The church does not, as its primary objective, seek to be popular in the world.
o Jesus said that those associated with Him would be hated by the world. We understand that all who live godly in this present age will be persecuted.
o The church knows that in its true expression, it offends sinners (through the gospel)
§ "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19-20
· But it is also true that the world does esteem certain aspects of Christianity—such as the integrity, virture, and care that characterizes a true church. There is a sense in which non-Christians do see the effects of the church as lives are transformed by the gospel
o “But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however,the people held them in high esteem.” Acts 5:13
o “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 5:16
o “they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” - 2 Peter 2:12
o There is a platform for evangelism based on the credibility of your life (as the gospel is seen in the lives of those in the church).
§ There is nothing more powerful than the change God has made in your own life, we need more testimonies
o But alongside that general esteem or respect (for the evident power in our lives), they ultimately resent us for the message.
o The resentment and rejection comes for the truth preached and proclaimed.
o The message is a damning and judgmental message (cf. Acts 2:36, 38).
§ It is not enough for the world to like us because we are nice people and good citizens. They must also know the message—even though the message itself (when preached faithfully) will inevitably offend and be rejected by many.
§ This is seen throughout the book of Acts as the apostles indict sinners with their message.
· It is not enough for us to be nice people and hope the world will like us.
o This is the source of one of the great difficulties of witnessing, we hate rejection
o Let me tell you a secret- it is not your message, it is not your gospel, you did not die for the sins fo the world, so why do you take it personally
§ “So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” 1 Thess. 4:8
· We can’t back away from the idea of sin, righteousness, judgment, hell, and God’s righteous law in our evangelism. We must not shrink back from the true gospel, which clearly teaches that those who are unbelieving will face God’s eternal wrath.
o That message will not be popular, but it is the true message. Preaching it will result in hostility and persecution. And the early church suffered for it (cf. Acts 4:3–4; 5:18).
· No one wants to talk about persecution today because they are afraid it will inhibit church growth.
o But in Acts, persecution had the opposite effect with regard to the true church.
o The true church is not inhibited or deterred by persecution. Even the threat of death cannot stop the church. We do not need to mitigate the cost of becoming a Christian.
4. It is marked by holiness.
· The biggest danger in the early church was not persecution.
o It was, instead, that (because there were so many signs and wonders attracting people) unbelievers might come to church for the wrong reason, and thereby be a polluting influence in the church.
· The church was therefore in danger of being leavened by the world. So the wonder of it all (which was beyond any light show, rock band, or skit) had to be offset by the fear of the Lord.
o There had to be such a deadly dread and fear that unbelievers would not quickly go into the church, and thereby be tares among the wheat (cf. Acts 5:1–13 and Ananias and Sapphira).
o Ananias’s example sent a message to anyone who thought they could live any way they wanted and find a home in the church.
o The church must live in holy fear of God’s righteousness. But that is a far cry from the atmosphere promoted in church growth circles today
· The flow of church growth in recent history started with meeting people’s social needs, then with meeting their psychological needs (“felt needs”), and now with connecting to their sensual needs—laughing at crudeness and at the base elements of culture.
· Worldliness is anything said or done that appeals to the flesh. Those who teach the Word of God must not pander to the flesh.
o Rather, we must take the high ground, grieving over the sins of their people rather than leading them in fleshly thoughts.
There is also clear instruction in the Scriptures of the kind of churches that the Lord rejects, contained in Revelation 2–3. Five out of the seven churches are condemned and fall under the judgment of Christ. Ephesus had no love for Christ – it was not driven by consuming love for Christ. Pergamum was tolerating error and heresy. Thyatira was comfortable with sin. Sardis had programs but had no life. Laodicea was the church at room temperature. The Laodiceans were lukewarm, upsetting no one, and Christ said He spit them out of His mouth.
At the end of each church, he concludes with the same statement, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says tot eh church.”
Christ also said that He stands at the door and knocks. That is not a verse about salvation. It is a verse about whether or not there is room in your church for Him, the Lord of the church.