The Church Moves Out
Notes
Transcript
Who doesn’t like a good underdog story? There is just something about how someone who seems so ordinary is used for something extraordinary.
Introduction
While that is a great story, history has show
“Rudy” - the young man who was “too small” but only dreamed of playing football for the powerhouse of the time, Notre Dame.
Who doesn’t like a good underdog story? There is just something about how someone who seems so ordinary is used for something extraordinary.
“Rudy” - the young man who was “too small” but only dreamed of playing football for the powerhouse of the time, Notre Dame.
Rosa Parks - after a long day’s work as a seamstress in a Montgomery, Alabama department store took and kept her seat on the bus when asked to give it up. She was arrested and this event led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott (one of the largest social movements in history)
Todd Beamer - businessman on a trip who along with others on Flight 93 decided to not let their plane be a used as a missile on September 11, 2001.
Rosa Parks - after a long day’s work as a seamstress in a Montgomery, Alabama department store took and kept her seat on the bus when asked to give it up. She was arrested and this event led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott (one of the largest social movements in history)
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - an English engineer and computer scientist thought by many to be average, but later invented the World Wide Web.
Todd Beamer - businessman on a trip who along with others on Flight 93 decided to not let their plane be a used as a missile on September 11, 2001.
These are just a few
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - an English engineer and computer scientist thought by many to be average, but later invented the World Wide Web.
These are just a few people that were seen as ordinary people that did extraordinary things. God has a way of using the ordinary and doing the extraordinary through them. This is something that we are going to see as we continue our series called “Unhindered” through the New Testament book of Acts.
I would invite you to join me in . We are going to cover a lot of ground today as we will be looking at events from three chapters in Acts this morning. We will not hit each and every verse, but we will see some important events that happen and what we can take away from them.
[PRAYER]
As opens up, we see that the church is multiplying and ends up going through some growing pains. An issue of certain widows getting overlooked arose, and the leadership came up with a plan to handle it. They chose seven men from the congregation to step up and use their gifts and abilities. This helped keep the church on track and continue to move forward.
This wasn’t the only way in which these ordinary men were used though. Yes, the seven that were mentioned were men of good reputation, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, but these are supposed to be qualities of every Christian. We see through that two of the ordinary men were chosen and used to do some extraordinary things.
Stephen
Stephen
In , Stephen was chosen to help out with the situation of looking after the widows.
This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.
In , we see this same Stephen going out and doing mighty things for God.
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
In , we see this same Stephen going out and doing mighty things for God.
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.
While God was doing many great things through Stephen, we see that it upset the religious elite. Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin — a Jewish ruling court — on charges of blasphemy.
This should serve as a reminder that while you are doing exactly what God wants you to do, that does not mean that hard times or persecution will not come. In fact, if you were not making any impact against the kingdom of darkness, why would Satan worry with you?
In , we see Stephen standing before this court and giving his defense against the false charges that were brought up against him. He actually gives one of the best sermons using the Old Testament to prove that Jesus was the much-awaited Messiah.
This shows us that you do not have to have some special calling to share the good news of Jesus with others. There are some that believe that task should fall to the professionals — preachers and missionaries. The truth is that there are no “professional Christians.” We are all called and commanded to share the good news of Jesus with others.
= “but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
If you have met and trusted Jesus… if He has forgiven your sins and made you a new person… if He has placed the Holy Spirit within you… then you have everything that you need to share the gospel — the reason for our hope — with another person.
This also should remind us that we should be living our lives by the truths of God’s word. For when we do this, people recognize that something is different and begin to ask that question. When was the last time someone asked you about where your hope comes from?
As Stephen gives his eloquent defense, it angers those who are listening. A mob forms and carries Stephen outside the city. They throw him to the ground and then the mob begins to pick up rocks and throw them at Stephen. These actions would be the cause that Stephen would die. With his final breaths, Stephen prays for his executioners.
He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he died.
These are almost the same exact words that Jesus would pray from the cross for those that crucified Him. Whether in life or death, we should be like Jesus.
Stephen becomes the first martyr of the Christian church. shows us that Stephen’s death brought about a mass persecution of the church. It got so bad that many had to flee from Jerusalem.
Many people have asked the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” While God takes no delight in the suffering of His people, there are times that He allows certain things to take place in order to accomplish a larger purpose. As some of these Christians set out looking for shelter from the persecution, God used them to carry the gospel to places it hadn’t been yet.
So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.
Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.
Philip
Philip
We see Philip was one of these Christians that shared the gospel where he went. Philip was also one of the seven chosen in . As he shared the gospel in Samaria, many came to faith in Christ.
This should remind us that the places that we go each and every day are not by chance. God has a plan with each moment of every day. We may call them “divine appointments.” If we do not train ourselves to ask God to open our eyes to them, we may miss them. Philip was sensitive to the appointments that God had for him.
It wasn’t just in Samaria that God wanted to use Philip. In , we see that God took Philip back to Jerusalem for one of these “divine appointments.” He encounters an Ethiopian official who apparently followed the Jewish faith. This official had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. He was reading a scroll of Isaiah’s prophecies and was confused by what he read.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever read something in the Bible that you just didn’t understand? I’m sure we’ve all been there a time or two. This reminds us again of the importance of being involved in a community to where we can bring our questions and get answers to our questions.
Philip takes time to share with this Ethiopian official that what he was reading was talking about Jesus. The official trusts Jesus and is baptized there on the side of the road. Studying God’s Word for ourselves is important because God can and will use any faithful Christian to share the truth of His Word with others. It doesn’t always need to be brought to the pastor for explanation.
Baptism does not wash away our sins, but it is our first act of obedience as a new believer in Jesus. It identifies us to the world that we are following Jesus from now on. This is what this Ethiopian official did. Many scholars of church history believe that it was this Ethiopian official who went back to Ethiopia and brought the gospel first to those people. What unreached group might be reached with the gospel by our sharing the gospel with some person? We may never travel to distant lands to share the gospel, but that doesn’t mean that the person we share with tomorrow will not.
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing.
Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Philip is led by the Holy Spirit to continue going out sharing the gospel in different places. We see that he faithful follows the leading of the Holy Spirit and sees God do great things where He goes.
We may not know where the Lord will take us in the coming days. It might be halfway around the world… it might be across town. When Jesus calls a person to come and be His disciple, He always gives the same invitation — “Follow Me.”
God didn’t want His church to be just in Jerusalem. If we remember, in , Jesus said that His followers would be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
God is sending His church out. He has placed the Holy Spirit within us and given us His Word to take to every man, woman, boy, and girl on this playground we call earth. The Great Commission has not changed. We are still called to go and share the good news of Jesus — by the way we live and with a verbal witness — until the whole world hears.
As we close this time and prepare to leave this place, may we be faithful as Stephen and Philip were to take the life-giving message of the gospel to those that God has set a “divine appointment” for us with. We too may see God do amazing things in our midst.
As we close this time and prepare to leave this place, may we be faithful as Stephen and Philip were to take the life-giving message of the gospel to those that God has set a “divine appointment” for us with. We too may see God do amazing things in our midst.
God is still sending His church out. Will we go with Him?
[PRAYER]