Characteristics of A Healthy Church
Notes
Transcript
Preliminary:
Preliminary:
I invite you to Acts 2 tonight
We spoke about Pentecost this morning tonight I want to talk to you about Some Characteristics of a Healthy Church
Acts 2 beginning at verse 41
41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Introduction:
Introduction:
We’ve probably all heard the oft quoted quip that there is no such thing as a perfect church.
Some use that as an excuse to not attend church or a particular church:
A christian man was stranded on a deserted island for many years. He was finally discovered and a rescue crew arrived. They were impressed with all the things he built by himself, most prominently 3 buildings. They asked him about the first building and he answered, “That is where I live.” Then they asked about the second. “That is where I go to church.” In amazement they then asked about the third building, to which he immediately switched to a very angry demeanor and replied gruffly. “That is where I USED to go to church!”
I would agree with the wisdom of Billy Graham “if you ever find a church that is perfect, it will stop being perfect the minute you join!”
We are tempted to think of the first church in Acts 2 in the same way we think of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2. We are tempted to think of the church as perfect, pristine, and untouched by sin and later corruption. The difference between Genesis 2 and Acts 2 is that Genesis 2 comes before the fall of man; Acts 2 comes after the fall. The church in Acts is not perfect; it is simply pursuing the right things.
Churches aren’t meant to be perfect, they are made up of or should be made up of grace filled people. People are prone to mistakes in leadership and judgement and may not have all of the required data an information before making decisions.
We have to remember:
The church is not a building its a body
The church is not a denomination it is interdenominational
The church is not an organization but a living breathing organism
The church is not about programs its about people
But churches do have a model in God’s Word and that is what I want to talk about when I talk about the health of a Church tonight - how do they measure up to the model given in Scripture.
There are four elements that sum up the core essence of the early church I want to talk about tonight:
connected to these elements is the idea of devotion.
The KJV says “they continued stedfastly” that means they were devoted to these elements.
Devoted (proskartenreo) [pros kar- ta - tuh- rayo] occurs six time in the book of Acts and means these converts adhered to the newly formed community.
It is often used with the idea of “persistent obstinately” in these elements.
While the church here seems to gather daily (Acts 2:46), this practice will not continue indefinitely. How could it? Later on, we see that the church gathered weekly (see Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). This church seems almost totally dependent upon the apostles (Acts 2:37, 42-43; 4:33). Later on, we will see elders and deacons and a diversity of spiritually gifted people functioning as a body. Here we read of the saints selling their possessions and laying the proceeds at the feet of the apostles (Acts 2:44-45; 4:33-37). Later on, people will set money aside on the first day of the week, as they are able (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; see 2 Corinthians 8-9).
They were devoted to
Teaching - Now it wasn’t just teaching - it was the Apostles teachings
To help us better understand this - we often get caught up in the communal living of these early converts - but this was the reason for the communal living.
These converts came from over 15 different places
Parthians
Medes
Elamites
Mesopotamia
Judaea
Capadocia
Pontus
Asia
Phrygia
Pamphylia
Egypt
Libya
Cyrene
Rome
Cretes
Arabians
They had just been introduced to Christ and the Holy Spirit they were going to have to be trained and taught.
Can you imagine the few who were originally in the upper room trying to disciple these three thousand plus all of the new ones added daily?
They had to continue in a Campmeeting like setting in order to accomplish such a task.
Yes Jesus started with twelve but those twelve soon multiplied into thousands and soon they would be scattered all over the known world
But they had to be taught all that Jesus said and what was expected of them
I think a healthy church will teach - it may be a structured curriculum or it may just be as needed instruction but in order to keep the message going it has to be taught and passed on.
Fellowship - They also continued steadfastly in fellowship -
Fellowship has to do with a community relationship and identity
Those who are in Christ - both a person and the truth that person embodies
This fellowship can only be fully realized when we walk in truth
1 John 1:7 “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Fellowship can be illustrated as two guys in a boat rowing in the same direction.
Breaking of bread
Breaking of the bread was a demonstration of the fellowship between them
It could have been a celebration of the Lord’s Supper
More likely it was just sharing a meal
There are at least twelve references to the breaking of bread in the New Testament. Note also that the other three features mentioned in 2:42—teaching, fellowship, and prayer—are spiritual activities, which suggests that this fourth one—the breaking of bread—is also a spiritual activity (i.e., the Lord’s Supper). (Ajith Fernando, Acts – NIV Application Commentary)
I don’t think she would mind me saying this - as I was taking Roberta home today she commented that “food just tastes better when you share it with other people”
There is truth in that - its a demonstration of fellowship
Prayers
I would love to have sat in on some of those prayer meetings
I don’t make every prayer service at camp but sometimes when I finish praying and others are still praying this was especially true of Bro. Dake , I would just sit and listen to them pray.
I would like to have done that with these great men and women
Their praying was effective because we see the influence of the Church Acts 2:43 “43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”
I mentioned earlier as to the necessity of the communal lifestyle which also brought out the generosity of the church Acts 2:44-45 “44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”
They had to eat, they needed clothing and other neccisities and they had stayed in Jerusalem away from their normal employments and so their income was down - but the believers in Jerusalem and probably other places to stepped in and helped out
It produced a harmony of the church Acts 2:46 “46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,”
One Accord
Gladness and Singleness of heart
It also produces a prosperity of the church not so much in money but in favor and converts Acts 2:47 “47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Later the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed would confess four specific marks of the church
Oneness
Holiness
Catholic
Apostolic
Thomas Oden clarifies this to mean:
The church is one, finding its oneness in Christ. The church is holy, set apart from the world to mediate life to the world and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit amid the life of the world. The church is catholic in that it is whole, for all, and embracing all times and places. The church is apostolic in that it is grounded in the testimony of the first witnesses to Jesus’ life and resurrection, and depends upon and continues their ministry.
Rick Warren - whatever your thoughts about him or his teachings in the Purpose Driven Church gave this powerful writing on Five Purposes of the Church
§ Worship
§ Fellowship
§ Discipleship
§ Evangelism
§ Service
1) Love the Lord with all your heart (worship: the church exists to worship God (Matt 4:10) – we should worship because we want to, not out of duty)
2) Love your neighbor as yourself (ministry: the church exists to minister to people (Eph 4:12) – the church is to minister to all kinds of needs: spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical)
3) Go and make disciples (evangelism: the church exists to communicate God’s word (Matt 28:19-20) – The Great Commission is documented in 5 books (4 gospels, Acts), and thus is very important)
4) Baptizing them (fellowship: identification with the body of Christ (Eph 2:19) – the church exists to provide fellowship for believers; baptism is a symbol of salvation AND fellowship)
5) Teaching them to obey (discipleship: the church exists to edify/educate God’s people (Col 1:28) – discipleship is the process of helping people become more like Christ in thought, feeling, & action)
§ Jesus included all five elements in His earthly ministry (John 17);
§ Paul explained them in Eph 4:1-16.
§ Today, the purposes are unchanged: the church exists to edify, encourage, exalt, equip, and evangelize; however, churches will differ in how they accomplish these tasks.
Close with stories of your pictures in the headless frames
Angie and I in the “American Gothic” and the Noah & his wife, Tom and Becky
Travis, Corey and Eric in the animals
We laugh at these kind of photos because the head doesn’t fit the body
Christ is supposed to be the head of the Church
If we could picture Christ as the head of our local body, would the world laugh at the misfit or would they stand in awe of a human body so closely related to a divine head?
I hope and am praying and longing for the latter