Make the Church Great Again II

I hope you put some thought into that. If you were the pastor, what would you tell your congregation, “This is what we need to do to become great again?” What programs or activities would you implement? What strategy? Leadership training? Bible studies? Small groups?

Let’s ask it this way -

What would you do to make Sunnyside more effective in fulfilling its God-given mission?

Let’s look at that 1st Century church and see what we can learn about becoming a great church, an effective church. What is does that mean? We’ll find out.

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Review: Devoted - to do something with intense effort or persistence. Devotion often comes with a cost - e.g. time, money, energy, reputation, sacrifice. They were devoted to what? The apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, they were devoted to four things:

1 - They were devoted to learning.

To increasing personal knowledge and understanding of Christ. They wanted to learn about Jesus. Q - How devoted are we to learning about our Savior? Learning about …?

Do some church evaluation - which comes down to self-evaluation. Let's say you were going to all the local churches and evaluating their devotion to learning about Jesus - excluding sermons. How would you rate Sunnyside’s devotion to learning about Christ? Keep in the back of your mind.

2 - They were devoted to the fellowship.

We said,

The deeper meaning of fellowship has more to do with our relationship with our fellow Christians than the activities we attend. Genuine fellowship is about engaging the people with whom we attend church so as to develop a close relationship that edifies one another.

Genuine fellowship is intentional, and it encourages spiritual growth in Christ and in the faith.

Q - Name one person in this church who specifically and intentionally encourages you to grow in Christ and in the faith - excluding the pastor. Who's challenging you? Who's sharpening you? Then flip it around - who are you specifically and intentionally encouraging to grow in Christ?

Keep in the back of your mind.

3 - They were devoted to worship.

It says they were devoted to the breaking of bread. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what this is referring to. Was it the eucharist - communion - celebrating the Lord’s supper? Was it sharing meals together? We don’t know. Some scholars lean one way, some lean the other way.

Personally, I lean toward the Lord’s Supper - worship - the corporate remembering and celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ. Q - How devoted are we to worship - to celebrating and honoring the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Q - How often do you attend Sunnyside for the purpose of celebrating Jesus? Q - How well do you - how well do we as a congregation celebrate Jesus and worship Him?

Now the temptation here might be, as is often the case to assume that we would worship better if the music or sermon or whatever else it might be were more aligned with our preferences. Now there is some validity to that, however at the end of the day our worship is not about others catering to our preferences, but about our devotion to Christ and to Him alone.

They were devoted to the breaking of bread - to worship. Again, keep that in the back of your mind.

Lastly, 4 - They were devoted to prayer.

I'm not going to expound on this one too much, because I think we all have heard how important and critical corporate prayer is to the effectiveness of a church and its impact on a community.

The power of a church is largely dependent upon the corporate prayers of its people.

Yet, when we orchestrate corporate prayer ….

Again, keep that in the back of your mind.

Now, they were devoted to learning, to fellowship, to worship, and to prayer - corporately. That is critical - it was all corporate devotion. Together, they were devoted to these things. What was the result - what was the fruit of their devotion?

Acts 2:43–47 ESV

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Just a few highlights here. After devoting themselves to corporate learning, and fellowship, worship, and prayer … what happened?

A) They were in shock and awe.

This sense of awe came upon them. How so? They experienced signs and wonders. They witnessed things that only God could have done. Whether it was the town drunk who got saved and sanctified, or miracles or whatever - they were in shock and awe because they witnessed God doing what only God can.

Q - When was the last time we we're amazed - in shock and awe because God did something that only God could have done? No other explanation.

After devoting themselves to corporate learning, fellowship, worship, and prayer …

B) They lived sacrificially and compassionately.

They had all things in common - sense of unity and were selling personal property for the purpose of providing for the needs of others. This doesn’t mean we need to start selling everything. Luke is simply revealing the sacrificial attitude that Christians had for one another. This new relationship with the risen Messiah had so touched them that they were willing to make personal sacrifices for the welfare of their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

I like what Warren Wiersbe said,

“Their Christian faith was a day-to-day reality, not a once-a-week routine. Why? Because the risen Christ was a living reality to them, and His resurrection power was at work in their lives through the Spirit.” ~ Warren Wiersbe.

The reality of the risen Christ influenced them, inspired them to think and act sacrificially it was compassion and love.

So, after devoting themselves to corporate learning, fellowship, worship, and prayer, they were in shock and awe - sacrificial - compassionate. Because of that …

6 - They were multiplied.

The Lord continually increased the number of those coming into the Kingdom. “Those people” out there witnessed how the Christians loved one another, they witnessed the joy - they witnessed the unity. Many we're probably recipients of that same love and compassion.

Remember, we are asking the question, how do we make the church great again. We've already outlined it - a great church is a devoted church - devoted to learning, to fellowship, to worship, and to prayer. And when the people are devoted to those four things, the church becomes great - there’s a sense of awe and wonder, love and care, self-sacrifice and compassion, and multiplication.

What now? I'm asking each person to evaluate how you are doing personally in those four areas -

Learning

Fellowship

Worship

Prayer

What am I doing well?

What am I not doing well?

Where would I like to improve?

What is one thing I can do to start the process?

Maybe it’s worship? What’s one thing I can do to improve my corporate worship?

Next, I would also like each person to evaluate how we - corporately - are doing in those four areas.

What are we doing well?

What are we not doing well?

Where would you like us to improve?

What is one thing I can do to start the process?

I challenge you to not answer in this way - “I think someone should.” No. I don't want to hear what you think someone else should do. But I do want to hear what you think God wants you to do. I welcome that.

We need to clarify one thing before we're done. We should not leave feeling as if we are a really bad church, because we're not. We do some things well, but not all things. We have some significant things that need improved regarding our learning, fellowship, worship and prayer. Again, this is not about how bad we are. We're just asking the question how we can become a great church by looking at the first great church.

What made them great? Ultimately, it was their love for Jesus Christ and believing that He loved them. What about you? Have you …?

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