How To Grow a Church Without Even Trying
Notes
Transcript
Taking Care
Taking Care
How we do life as a follower of Christ matters.
What we believe, why we believe it, who we follow ,who we are supposed to be like all of that is spelled out in scripture.
We know that way to start a relationship with God.
There is that whole Romans Road thing that spells it out very clearly.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
Then
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Then
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Followed by
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So that’s the start of it but then what. We look at
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
And that work is what we are talking about here when we talk about reaching up in worship reaching in to equip and reaching out to serve. All of those things are supposed to work together. To return us to the state we were designed to inhabit one that has a walking around in the cool of the day conversational relationship with God.
Part of doing that is the reach out piece we have to remember that people are watching how we act. many of those people know how Jesus acted, how he spoke to people how he lived and how he reached and so they expect that people who claim to follow him will do the same thing.
The thing is the church has to be careful in how they do things, how they act, how that deal with each other because optics matter, it’s why there is so much information about how we treat each other and how the world perceives us living and acting.
The thing is the church has to be careful in how they do things, how they act, how that deal with each other because optics matter, it’s why there is so much information about how we treat each other and how the world perceives us living and acting.
Which brings us to how we behave towards each other and what was going on in Acts 6
In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.
The never ending fight
The never ending fight
One of the problems that has existed in the church since it’s inception is a problem that exists in all of humanity.
Humanity has dealt with this one issue and will deal with it.
It’s a word that divides, a word that immediately puts people on the defensive.
That word is prejudice.
This word never really goes away but as we just read in acts 6:1 it was already there in a place it has no business being
These two groups were having an issue and it likely came down to a pretty simple fact.
Hellenistic Jews were Greek speaking Jews who came from the Diaspora (the Jews scattered abroad not from Jerusalem) that also spoke the native tongue of whatever part of the known world they were from, this group also would have included any gentile proselytes.
The Hebraic Jews would have been Jews that spoke both Greek and Hebrew. However they also would have looked at themselves as more deserving, Hebraic Jews looked down on Hellenistic Jews as Second Class Israelites. This problem would weave it’s way through the early Church making necessary Paul's continued defense that he was a Hebraic Jew in Acts, 2 Cor, and Philippians.
It’s why we find this later on in
There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For there is no favoritism with God.
The early church was dealing with prejudice and in doing so was having to figure out how to live together.
We kid ourselves if we think we are not still dealing with it today. We have to make sure that we learn the lessons that are shown here and across the New Testament writings.
(expound a little NOT TOO MUCH)
Stay in Your Lane
Stay in Your Lane
The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.
The work of the church has always been more than just services on Sunday and Bible Study. It has always consisted of more and with that more comes work. The way a church ministers to the needs of it’s community is through the people in the church stepping out of their comfort zone and at times the false notion that the pastor does it all.
One of the things that I love about our church is the fact that this has not been the case. (talk up Niles Christian Assembly) But it still happens from time to time in our attitudes.
(but the pastor needs to pray for me etc.)
The Apostles recognized something, the church functions to it’s fullest potential when the people in the church are not just equipped and taught but are also then commissioned to do the work that they are gifted and called to do.
(Wizard of OZ giving the Lion his Medal, the Tin Man his Heart and the Scare Crow his Diploma)
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 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. They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
The disciples knew they needed to teach and to pray. It takes work and time to study to prepare to seek God to get direction and to make the plan for that direction to be fulfilled. But a good plan is not enough, a good sermon and teaching is not going to be effective if it’s concepts and truths are not lived out.
And so they knew they had to pray for direction study and teach and lead the church. There was no way they could do that and all the other stuff that constituded the work of the church and it’s here that we find out what happens when leadership and people in the church work together in the way it should be.
The work of the church
The work of the church
So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.
Expound a bit about the importance of priests becoming obedient as well as the fact that the word of God spread when more people were commissioned to spread it.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
Come up with three things that you can do in the place you have chosen to be your place (see last week’s challenge) to let that person you have identified know who Jesus really is and what it means to be a Christ Follower.