Young People and Their Relationship With the Church

Introduction: It is actually very common to feel out of place at church, a lot more than you would think. I remember when I was younger (because I am still young ;) wondering what I was supposed to even do in the church. Was I just supposed to show up and listen? Give a prayer request? Give money to the church? Maybe sing a song every now and then? Just what was I supposed to do?

My answer actually came from outside of the church building. I would often help out at a camp near my home. Sometimes it was working with little kids from 5 years of age all the way up to 12 years of age. A friend of mine, a mentor, and the director of the camp had asked me to help. I didn’t know how I could help, I didn’t have much work experience at that point( I first helped when I was 13 years old) other than being an office boy. But despite my lack of experience he still asked me to help.

All I did was pick up trash from the camp grounds, get sport equipment for the kids when they were playing, run errands for the cooks, and help the maintenance. Basically, take care of a lot of little things so that the camp counselors, the ones who were taking care of the kids and teaching them could focus completely on helping the campers learn about God, sin, and Jesus’ payment for sin.

I learned, from that experience, that the ultimate goal of the church is to share the gospel with as many people as will hear it. If that means preaching at church, then preach; if it means teaching a Sunday school for adults or for kids, then teach; if it means sharing it with your family and friends, then share it; if it means doing the “small” jobs, so that people at an event can focus on sharing the Gospel with more people, then let’s work!

God never wrote a specific age in the New Testament of who all was supposed to be involved in the evangelization of the world. In Matthew 28:19 He said go. As we’ll read in Acts 2:17-18 He did give some examples, thru Peter, of how He was going to evangelize the world though. So let us read it, and see how it can apply to us today.

Overview of what is happening

The church was just starting, God has just sent the Holy Spirit to the church and everyone in that room was speaking in a different language. While it seemed strange to those who were not believers, Peter got up to explain what God was doing. In doing this he also gave us an idea of how God was planning to spread the Gospel message around the world, and not only that, but who was supposed to be involved.

Sons and daughters

Young men and old men

Servants and Handmaidens

The church leaders, specifically Peter, proclaimed how they would serve in the church

Prophesying: the main definition is “to proclaim an inspired revelation.” There are other definitions as well, but since Peter mentions prophecy twice I will give the rest of the definitions then.

Visions: main definition of this word is “an event in which something appears vividly and credibly to the mind, although not actually present, but implying the influence of some divine or supernatural power or agency—‘vision.’ ”

Dream: main definition of this word is “to have visions in dreams”

Peter wraps it all up by saying that God’s servants and handmaidens will prophesy.

Other definitions of prophesy include

To proclaim an inspired revelation

To tell about something that is hidden from view, to reveal it.

To foretell something that lies in the future

Peter proclaimed that all these things would happen before “the day of the Lord”. Acts 2:20

This term, “day of the Lord” is referencing to when Jesus Christ comes back. It is a wonderful day for the believer, but a terrible one for those who have rejected God’s gift of salvation.

Some of the signs that Peter mentions here already happened and we can read about them in the book of Acts while others are referring to the time right before Jesus comes back.

Children prophesying: Phillip, one of the original deacons of the church of Jerusalem had daughters that prophesied as recorded in Acts 21:8-10

Young men shall see visions: Paul had a vision in Acts 16:9 of a man from the land of Macedonia asking for the Gospel. In Acts 26:19 Paul talks of being obedient to “the heavenly vision”. This is when he is recounting of how Jesus came to him and told him that he was to be a minister and witness of the Gospel in Acts 26:14-18

Old men shall dream dreams: Which is what John had when he was told to write the book of Revelations, for example in Revelation 9:17 when he says that he “saw the horses in the vision.”

So what does that mean for us?

You may be thinking now, “Well that was pointless, you just told us who should be involved but then you just said that those thing already happened. So now I’m still stuck with nothing to do!”

Not quite. Acts 2:18 states specifically “they shall prophesy:” It is true, that the old idea of prophecy is over, there is no new revelation from God that must be revealed to people. Everything that God wanted to tell us, He had it written down in what we know now as the Bible, or often called the Word of God.

However, there is more than one definition of the word prophesy:

To proclaim an inspired revelation. We know that there is no new revelation for us now because God completed it with our Bible. Nonetheless, our Bible is the inspired Word of God and we should be proclaiming it to others!

To tell about something that is hidden from view, to reveal it. There are many people of all ages who have a hidden or wrong view of God. We should work to help reveal God’s character and love to them, because many people have no idea what God has done for them in paying for their sins, it is hidden from them.

Many people also have no clue what sin is and how it affects them. This is something else that also is often hidden from them and needs to be revealed by the Word of God!

To foretell something that lies in the future. We know that Jesus Christ is coming back and that there will be a judgement day for all those who have rejected Him. We know this is coming in the future and we should warn people of what will happen if they reject Jesus Christ and his offer of payment for sin.

All our work is for one goal: That all people know God and who He is. That they know what sin is and how it has separated us from God. And that they know what God did for them, by sending His Son, Jesus Christ to pay for our sin, and why that is so important. We cannot control how they react to this news but we should still give them the opportunity to know it.

So how can you get involved?

What are the things that you are good at doing? What do you enjoy doing? How can that be used to spread the Gospel? Who do you see that needs help in the church? Who among your friends needs help? Who in your family needs help?How can that be used to spread the Gospel? How can you show the love of God and use those opportunities to share what He has done for the world?`