It Takes a Church [B]

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Now we started talking about that from Acts chapter 2 tonight. I want to come back and look at Acts chapter 2 again. We’ll look at the same passage tonight and look at the notes that I didn’t share with you this morning, some of the jobs that a church is here for.

You know, I remember as a kid, I don’t remember how old I was because I don’t remember what year it was, but I remember as a kid hearing a famous person tell our country that it took a village to raise a child. I’m not entirely, well, I do think I know what that meant, And if it means what I think it meant, I don’t agree with that. I agree with it from the standpoint of, for example, you all would be now our village.

And my family and Charlie’s family would be our village. And if my kids are acting up, I expect somebody to say something to them. If they’re about to run out in front of a car, I expect that we watch over each other and we help each other.

There have been times where I have needed help with the kids. watching the kids. Can you watch the kids while I take care of this?

Can you help me do this project with the kids? There have been times that it took more than just me. Thank goodness for Charla.

You know, it takes more than just me, and sometimes it can take more than just the two parents to help, and that’s one reason I think it’s important to have your children in a local church. And again, I know I’m talking to the Sunday night crowd, but not to raise your kids, but to come alongside you and reinforce the things that are being taught at home. Folks, I don’t know from the standpoint of what was meant by that, whether or not it takes a village to raise a child.

I suspect probably not. But I definitely believe it takes a village to raise a child of God. And what I mean by that village is the church.

It takes a church to raise babes in Christ up to be men and women of God. Now, can you be a Christian without attending church? Can you grow as a Christian without attending church?

I think there are some circumstances where God gives added grace where it’s needed. I think many times of the example of Richard Wurmbrand, who founded Voice of the Martyrs. He was imprisoned in communist Romania for years, in solitary confinement for years.

There’s no way he could go be part of a church, even if he started a church in prison. He could not fellowship with other believers. And you know, God strengthened him and grew him during that time.

God can strengthen us and grow us on our own, but that’s not his plan A. That’s not his intention for how we’re supposed to grow. That’s not his intention for how we’re supposed to develop as disciples.

His plan for all of us under normal circumstances is for us to come and be part of a church. Now, it’s important for us as believers who, I’m sure most in this room have been believers for quite a while. It’s his plan for us as established believers to be part of a local church so that we can continue to grow and so we can help others grow.

But folks, it’s especially important for new believers to be part of a healthy, well-balanced, biblical local church where they can serve and where they can learn to serve, where they can be trained up in God’s word. You know, the Bible does talk about new Christians as babes in Christ. There’s the reference to the milk and the meat of the Word and starting out as a babe in Christ. And the Bible talks about, through God’s Word, us being throughly furnished into every good work. God wants to grow us up to completion, to maturity in Jesus Christ. And that happens through the church.

If we were to take the approach, unfortunately, of so many churches today, take that approach and apply it to raising children, most churches would be in jail or at least under investigation by DHS. I mean, it’s funny. You can laugh.

It’s funny and it’s sad all at the same time. If we were to birth a child into the world, give it a bottle, and say, you’re on your own, we’d be in trouble. We don’t do that.

We nurture them. We teach them. It’s so much fun for me to, as frustrating as it can be with all the why, why, why.

It’s fun for me having a three and a four year old and their curiosity and their exploring of the world and their questions and learning. And especially with Benjamin. Madeline’s not quite there yet, but Benjamin has a very analytical mind.

And you tell him something and he tries to figure out everything, all the nuance of what you’re saying and how whatever answer you give applies to this. And it’s been so rewarding. to get to be a part of nurturing a tiny human and helping him grow to maturity and helping her grow to maturity.

Folks, that is the job of the church. We started looking at this in Acts chapter 2 this morning and we saw where people were added to the church and we saw where the church didn’t just leave them to their own devices but they actually became part of the work and the ministry of the church. They were added to the church and then they became part of what the church was doing.

Now we’re going to go back and pick this up again at verse 37. Look at the verses we looked at this morning. It says, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

And again, this is in response to the message Peter has just preached about the fact that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. He was the one sent to bear their sins, to pay for their sins, and to bring them forgiveness of sins. And that this one who God sent, this one that they were expecting, he came in a way that was a little bit different from what they were expecting, and so they killed him.

And Peter points to them and says, You have crucified and slain him. And all of that worked together. That word that Peter put out there, that truth that Peter proclaimed, the Holy Spirit used and slammed them right in the conscience with conviction.

It says they were pricked in their hearts and said, What shall we do? We’ve got to do something. I told you this morning that conviction will either lead you to God to repent or it will lead you away from God in rebellion.

But conviction won’t let you just stand still and say, let me think about this. They were under conviction and they said, what do we do? We need to do something.

We can’t just go, what do we do? And so Peter’s answer to them, he said in verse 38, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And again, that doesn’t mean, I’ll go into a better explanation of that later on, but that doesn’t mean baptism is necessary for salvation. What that means is that the idea of trusting Christ and then following him were so inextricably linked that put it together.

And so he says basically, repent, trust Christ, follow him, you’re going to receive the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. He says, for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. So he goes through with them and he talks to them about trusting Christ for salvation.

He talks to them about following Christ in baptism. And then he begins to exhort them, to teach them, about getting away from the ways of the world that they were walking in. And he said to them that this promise of being able to find salvation and forgiveness in Jesus Christ and being able to follow him was not just for them.

It was not just for the Jews who were gathered there in Jerusalem. It was also for their children down through eternity, their posterity. And it was for those who were far off, even the Gentiles.

Even those heathen Gentiles running around in the other countries doing God knows what. As many as the Lord our God shall call. When God sends forth his word by his people and people hear it and they respond, he said it’s good for all of those who will hear and respond to the call of the gospel.

Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And then they that gladly received his word were baptized. So there were some in the crowd that day who heard this rather harsh message.

And I don’t say harsh because he was being mean to them. I just mean that the message of, hey, you’ve sinned, you killed the Son of God, and you need to repent, is not the kind of feel-good message that you’re probably going to go home and turn on the TV and find. Be careful about that, by the way.

It was a message of hard truth that they needed to hear. But there were some who gladly received that word. And when it says they received it again, it means that they responded affirmatively.

that when he said you need to repent and trust Christ, they did that. And then they followed it up with baptism. Because again, there was none of this, I’m going to trust him as my savior, but I don’t know if I’m going to follow him.

That’s kind of a modern day invention. You were putting your life on the line when you said, I’m with Jesus. And so they trusted him and they made a public profession and said, we’re going to follow him.

And they were in the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Now, if the church at Jerusalem did not already have a discipleship program, they had better get one pretty fast. Because you start out, like I said this morning, with 11 core members, and then some others, there were a few hundred, as we read the ending of the Gospels, there were a few hundred others around who were part of this as well, and then you infuse 3,000 new believers, who, ladies and gentlemen, were not raised up in a Bible Belt Christian culture like many of us were. Now they were raised up with the scriptures, these were Jewish people, but nobody had they had not been around Christians their whole lives.

They had not been raised up in what it meant to be a Christian whether they were one or not. These were people for whom the idea of Christianity was very foreign and yet they finally understood that Jesus was the promised Messiah that they had been looking for. 3,000 people were added into this church who needed to be trained from the beginning about what it meant to follow Jesus Christ. And they, again, I told you this morning, I’ve thought for years, okay, it’s talking about the apostles and the church here.

I forget that it includes this 3,000 who’ve just been added to them. They, all of them, the 11, the few hundred, the 3,000, all together, they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. So they continued, they kept going steadfastly.

They were not going to be moved, they were not going to be pulled in one direction or the other. They were going to keep going in the course that had already been set for them in following the apostles’ doctrine. And I hit on just briefly this morning that that wasn’t really, it’s not the apostles’ doctrine because it’s their opinion.

You know, I could come up and say, if I were living back then, I’m an apostle, this is what I think, so it’s the apostles’ doctrine. That’s not what they were doing. When it talks about the apostles’ doctrine, it’s talking about the teaching that the apostles taught as they had received from Jesus Christ. So when it’s talking about the apostles’ doctrine, it’s talking about those things that the apostles stood for because they had seen it and heard it firsthand from Jesus Christ. It was the truth of God’s word.

And so these people came in to the church and they were taught God’s word and they were taught to be strong in God’s word. They were taught to continue steadfastly. We are not going to move.

It doesn’t matter what the culture says. It doesn’t matter what changes around us. We’re going to continue steadfastly in what we’ve been taught.

Because it didn’t just come from somebody’s opinion. It came from these men who walked with Jesus Christ and heard him teach for three years, and they know exactly what God has revealed. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

And fear came upon every. . .

Sorry, they continued steadfastly in those other things as well. They broke bread. They fellowshiped together.

They had communion together. And in prayers, they were steadfast in prayer. Folks, if there’s.

. . Well, there are many things lacking from churches all over our country today, but prayer is way up there.

Folks, it’s not the most exciting topic. As a matter of fact, I preached a 20-part series a few years ago on learning to pray. and there were people, I’ve never preached a 20 part series on anything in my life, but God convicted me about, prayer is something we’re lacking in right now, and God convicted me on it and said, okay, this is where I need to go and teach.

I had long-time faithful Christians who were coming to me and saying, enough with the prayer already. When are we going to move on to something else? And my answer was when we start doing this.

Folks, prayer doesn’t get a lot of attention because it’s hard to make prayer flashy. Prayer is taught, as we discussed in Sunday school this morning. Prayer is taught, go into your closet.

Pray in secret. Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t pray in public. It doesn’t mean that you can only pray in your closet, but it means don’t do anything for anybody else’s benefit or show for anybody else.

Go and talk to God. There’s a book that I’ve read several times. I reread it periodically by Leonard Ravenhill called Why Revival Terrys.

And some of the things that he says about prayer and prayerlessness are convicting that one of the reasons we as Christians lack power, one of the reasons we as churches lack power is because we’re not praying the way we ought to. And they were taught, hey, this seems very simple. This seems almost an afterthought, almost unimportant now.

Pray about it. they were taught, continue steadfastly in prayer. Hey, this is vital. This is vitally important.

So they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Now, this crowd recognized that the apostles weren’t supernatural, special people.

I mean, when the Holy Spirit moved within them, they began speaking in tongues. some of the people thought they were drunk at the beginning of Acts chapter 2. So when it says that they did signs and wonders and fear came upon every soul, there’s not fear and wonder about Peter’s so amazing.

John is so powerful. It’s fear and wonder about what God was doing in their midst. Because I have no doubt that Peter and James and John and the other apostles, that they gave all the praise and credit back to God when there was fear and wonder about the things that were done. And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need.

And I want to be careful about being political in the pulpit, but I do want to say one thing on this passage because I hear this quoted out of context so many times. See there, the Bible’s in favor of communism. You know what?

I see people there who out of love for God and out of love for their fellow believers, giving up what they had to take care of others who had a need. I don’t see anybody here at bayonet point making anybody give up what God had given them. And so, folks, that’s not a, that’s not a, again, I don’t mean that to be too much of a political statement, except I would be careful about twisting the Bible to support an ideology that’s killed 100 million people in the 20th century.

What they were doing was not, this was not a political statement. This was God has blessed us so abundantly, and how can we sit here and live in comfort and luxury, some of us, when we see our brother next to us starving? You know, Paul got onto the church at Corinth about that when they were coming together for what was supposed to be the Lord’s Supper, and some of them were having drunken feasts, and some of them were starving.

He said, you’re not worshiping me. I’m sorry, Paul didn’t. Of course, they’re not worshiping Paul.

Paul says, they’re not worshiping Christ. You’re not coming together for the Lord’s Supper. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. And what we see here are believers who, out of a spirit of love and generosity, giving up what God had given them, realizing that everything we own, God really owns anyway.

Out of a spirit of love and generosity, giving of what God had blessed them with for the benefit of their fellow believers. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

So they continued to go to the temple. They continued to go and worship there in the temple together. They continued to break bread from house to house.

They continued with their worship and their ministry and their service, not just in the temple, not just in the building, but they went out and they were the church out in the community. That’s sort of what I talked about this morning. They went out and did the things that God had called them to do, not just on Sunday, but folks, it was an every day of the week thing.

we are going to be the church and do the things that God’s called us to do. That doesn’t mean for us that we have to meet together every day of the week in order to be a good church. It just means every day should be us being about the Lord’s business.

When you go to work, when you go to school, when you’re out about your neighborhood, when you’re in the grocery store, when you’re in the bank, are we about the Lord’s business? That’s what they were doing. Eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

Now we know from the rest of the book of Acts, Favor with all the people, that doesn’t mean everybody was in love with the church at Jerusalem and said they’re the best people, they’re doing great things, we’re so happy about them preaching and doing ministry. As a matter of fact, the opposite was true. There were a lot of people who were very upset about the things that they were preaching and teaching and doing.

There were people who wanted to kill them, people who wanted to make their faith illegal. So it’s not saying that everybody, but it says favor with all the people. It doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody was thrilled with what they were doing. Folks, this church had a good reputation.

And I have heard people talk about particular groups of Christians, particular churches. And say, you know, I think they’re crazy, but look at all the good they’re doing. There’s a very anti-Christian comedian.

I’ve never been to see one of his shows. He works in Las Vegas, and I have no desire to go there. But he’s very anti-Christian and very outspoken in his views.

But I remember seeing a video a few years ago on YouTube where somebody had come up to him and had brought him a Bible. And his response to that, and I thought, what am I going to be watching? Is this somebody, is he about to tear this person up?

His response was he didn’t agree with what was said in that book. And he didn’t agree with what the person believed and what they taught and their church and all that. But he was moved by the fact that somebody would care enough about him and his soul.

Now, he doesn’t believe in the eternal soul, but he was touched that somebody who did believe he would go on for eternity would care enough about him to approach him to take that risk, to bring him that book, to share the gospel with him. And his response was really one of the. .

. It surprised me with its gentleness that, hey, I disagree with everything those people believe, but I’m amazed by the compassion that he would come and bring this to me. Folks, the church at Jerusalem had a good reputation.

It doesn’t mean that everybody in Jerusalem agreed with what they were doing. But they’re crazy. They’re preaching about the resurrection.

They believe Jesus actually rose from the dead. They’re crazy. I wouldn’t want to be part of them.

They’re a menace in some ways, but look at how they take care of other people. Look at how they love each other and love the down and outs of society. They had a good reputation with the people of Jerusalem.

Now just from this passage, I want to share with you a few things that they’ve outlined for us by their example. And I’ll move through this very quickly. But some things that they’ve outlined for us by their example that I believe are jobs of the local church.

Things that the church does together better than we can do on our own as individuals. And part of the reason why I think God has put us together to do these things. And I heard years ago when I was working in missions from a missions executive, I don’t know what you call the title, but who said, you know, you can’t do things exactly like the book of Acts.

It was meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive, meaning it’s just there to tell you what happened, not what you’re supposed to do now. I humbly submit to you it can be both. I think we have no better example as a church than what they did right in the book of Acts.

And so here they are, six things that are jobs of the church that God has left the church here to do, and quite frankly, the church does better together and can accomplish more together than what we could do on our own. First of all, the local church, it’s the job of the local church to teach truth. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.

You know, I’m not saying they agreed on every little thing. as we may not agree on every little thing. But when it comes to the important matters of doctrine, the places where the Bible is crystal clear, they spoke with one voice.

There was no question, did Jesus rise again from the dead? Do you realize there are churches today who teach, well, the resurrection might not have happened the way the Bible says it did. We can talk about that more at Easter, but I don’t understand what the point is of having a church if that’s the case.

There’s no confusion. They knew Jesus rose again from the dead. There’s no confusion about him being the Messiah.

There’s no confusion about him being the Son of God. There’s no confusion about the way to salvation. You know, there are things that are crystal, that as far as I’m concerned, are crystal clear in Scripture that I think we all agree on, or we should as a church for this to function right.

And we should teach the truth of God’s Word, whether it’s the gospel, whether it’s the way that God expects us to live as a result, that we should speak with one loud, clear voice on as the church, to have any credibility at all. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ Doctrine. And where it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how the world around us changes, because, honestly, ladies and gentlemen, this book has not changed in 2,000 years.

Sometime I might try to give you the evidence of that, but this book has not changed in 2,000 years. And I don’t think it needs to start changing now. So one of the jobs of the local church is to teach truth.

We speak with one voice to the world outside and say, this is the truth. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by him, just for example.

When we reach others and lead them to Christ and bring them here to be discipled, it’s the job of the church to teach truth to these people, to speak truth into their lives. Because otherwise, folks, Scripture can be twisted and made to say just about anything somebody wants it to say. And nobody seems to be more vulnerable than a new Christian.

We’ve got to be there to raise up our young in Christ. We’ve got to be equipped for when we have babes in Christ come in here that we’re prepared with the milk and the meat of the Word to get them where they need to be. It’s our job to teach truth. Second of all, it’s our job to foster fellowship.

There should be a fellowship among believers in the church. Now, does that mean that you’re going to be everybody’s best friend? Probably not.

I can see in a group this size, everybody pretty well gets along. I’ve been in churches where there are some people that just don’t like each other. It’s not that they hate each other.

It’s not that they’re mean to each other. Just as I heard somebody say one time, just can’t like everybody. Sorry.

But folks, there is a fellowship. There is a bond that is supposed to be there between believers. And I can go to other parts of this country.

I can go to other countries and find believers, and immediately there’s going to be a camaraderie. There’s going to be a fellowship there together. I have gone on mission trips, for example.

I’ve gone on mission trips to Mexico and Canada, and it’s been far too long since I’ve been to either place. But I’ve walked into a worship service in Quebec, for example. And you’ve got people there who speak French.

You’ve got people there who speak English. You’ve got people there who speak both. And at the time I was there, there were people there from Quebec.

There were people there from Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma. Many of us didn’t know each other before that and may not have seen each other since. But just being in the presence of other believers, even with the language barrier, even with cultural barriers, there was a bond that was already there.

Folks, there should be even stronger fellowship within the local church. We should be knit together. I keep saying that, and I think that’s the right terminology.

My grandmother, and you’ll learn very fast, I don’t know exactly what she’s doing, but my grandmother will take yarn and take two, they look like chopsticks to me, with hooks on them. Again, I don’t know if this is knitting or crocheting. Knitting, okay.

Because she does both and I don’t know which is which. Anyway, she’ll take this yarn and she’ll loop it and she’ll work it. And again, it’s amazing that she can do it.

I don’t have the patience for it and probably would look silly trying. She’ll loop the yarn together, and she’ll make a piece of fabric, for lack of a better word. And she will make, she makes baby shoes.

She’s made caps for cancer patients. She does also, I’m trying to get her to make me a suit. I don’t know that I’d wear it in public, but I’d like to just have it.

But she can knit a piece of fabric, and knit another piece of fabric, and then she can knit it together where it’s one piece of material. And the only way you can tug on it, she made scarves before, and you can pull it from either end. That yarn is just wound around itself, but it’s not coming apart. It’s intertwined, and it’s knit together, and you can’t pull it apart.

The only way you’re going to get that apart is to start cutting or start untying, and then there’s going to be damage to the fabric. Folks, that’s what I see as an example of what the Bible means by fellowship. We’re supposed to be knit together.

We’re supposed to be part of each other’s lives, and there’s supposed to be a bond there. And the true test of fellowship and knowing whether you’ve had it or not is when you leave someplace or you lose somebody. However there’s a separation, does it hurt?

Is there an injury to the fabric? I said my goodbyes last week at Lindsay, and it hurt. I’ve been their interim pastor there for two years.

It hurt to leave there. As excited as I was to come here, it hurt to leave there because we’d had fellowship. My home church there in Moore, left there a couple times now to go different places in ministry.

It hurts every time. And I still have connections there. My family still goes there, and I go back to visit from time to time, but it still hurts because there’s fellowship.

We need each other as believers. We can’t do the Christian life the way it’s supposed to be done on our own. And it’s the job of the church to give us the fellowship with one another that we need.

Third of all, and these are not in order of importance. These are in order of where I see them in the text. Job of the church is to glorify God.

It says in verse 43 that fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. They were acting in such a way that they were letting God do miraculous things through them and giving the glory, giving the credit right back to Him so that the people marveled at what was done. They glorified God.

Glory and glorifying is a hard word to define. I think we all sort of have an idea of what it means, but if you’re pressed to give a definition, it’s one of those things that’s hard to give a proper definition of. Folks, it means to give the credit where it’s due.

God is deserving of all the glory we could ever give Him and then some. We could spend our whole lives doing nothing but glorifying God, and it still wouldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what he deserves. But folks, if what we do as a church does not bring glory to God, then we ought not to do it.

It might even be a good thing, but if it doesn’t glorify God, it doesn’t deserve to be a priority. They lived and ministered and served in such a way that God would work through them, and he would be glorified through them. Folks, that’s the job of the church.

Who else is going to do it? Are the schools going to glorify God? Is the government going to glorify God?

Hollywood you’ve got to be joking who else is going to give God the glory he deserves it’s the job of the church fourth of all job of the church is to notice needs you saw in verses 44 and 45 that they sold their possessions they gave it to those who had needs they took care of their own there’s a verse in Galatians that says as you have the opportunity do good unto all men especially those who are of the household of faith we’re not supposed to just take care of Christians but how does it look if we don’t even take care of our own people? We should meet the needs that we can of all men but especially those who are of the household of faith. You see, they weren’t willing to sit in luxury while their brother sat next to them and starved.

Now, I don’t know that this applies just to financial needs either although that’s the example we’re given here. There ar