WHAT IS THE CHURCH?
Unchanging Faith ❧ Part 19
Acts 2:42-47 ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney
We’re in what I believe is a very necessary and overdue message series entitled: Unchanging Faith: What Every Believer Should Know and Why It Matters. This is really a series about Bible doctrine and its importance to our lives. Doctrine simply means teaching. Bible doctrine means looking at what the whole of God’s Word teaches on a given topic. A synonymous word for doctrine would be theology. I think the words “dry” or maybe “boring” come to mind for most people when they think of doctrine. Talking about bible doctrine is about as inviting as being offered an old piece of dry stale bread that is so old it is now fossilized. Try to take a bite of it and you might break your teeth in the process! The knee-jerk reaction a lot of people have when they hear the word “doctrine” or “theology” is to emit a painful and almost involuntary groan, “Ugh!” From the welcome response I’ve heard up to this point, I think people have been surprised and encouraged.
This morning we’re going to look at: What Is the Church? That is, what is the Church about? What is the Church’s identity? To answer this we need to go to God’s Word. The Bible says the Church belongs to Jesus. He is the Church’s Founder, Architect, Chief Shepherd, Head, and Sustainer. Apart from Jesus the Church would not exist (John 15:5). Jesus tells us the mission of His Church is to manifest the light of God’s redeeming love to a lost and dying world.
But there is a deeper, more pressing, question behind asking what the Church is. It’s this: Are We Doing God’s Will? That’s an admittedly a pressing question. This morning I want to look at what God’s will for His Church looked like fleshed out in formative days of the early Church. Acts 2:42-47 give us a clear picture of what that looks like. These six verses are brimming with life. They are filled with God’s supernatural power, intentionality, excitement, and action. There is no talk of cathedrals being built, no discussion of budgets being met, no celebrities being announced. The early Church was not about building a monument but starting a movement. The Church is not seen as a refuge from the world, but a refuge for the world. Somewhere along the way, we lost touch with this.
Let me give you an example. For years in Great Britian a man had the job of serving as an attendant at the foot of the stair way leading to the House of Commons. No one knew exactly why he was to do this; he was. Finally, someone looked into it and discovered that the job had been held in the man’s family for three generations. It seems it started when the stairs were painted, and the current attendant’s grandfather was assigned the task of warning people not to step on the wet paint. One person commented, The paint dried up, but not the job. The challenge today is why are we here? What is God’s will for the church?
A number of years ago, then seminary professor, Gene Getz, realized something was desperately missing in the Church. It was more about institution than revolution. He began to dig deep in his Bible to really understand what the Church was all about. What I and others saw led us to the conclusion that what we were experiencing in the average…church is not what God really had in mind. As a result God led him to do two things: he wrote what has now become the classic book: “The Measure of a Church.” And he left the seminary classroom and started planting churches. I personally covenanted with the Lord that, with His help, I would do everything I could to help renew the church of Jesus Christ, to help it become what God intends it to be. Habits of a Healthy Church
Growing closer through fellowship, Growing wiser through discipleship, & Growing stronger through worship. We’ll look at the final two habits this morning.
- Growing deeper through ministry. … they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need (Acts 2:45). They pooled their resources so that each person’s needs were met. The picture you get is everyone got involved to make sure the needs of others were met.
Nothing will make you grow like rolling up your sleeves and putting your hand to ministry. It’s about serving. The heart of God is about serving. Jesus said He came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45). It’s in serving where you find your strength. It’s in serving where we make the most impact in the world for Christ. St. Fransis of Assisi famously said it this way, Preach the Gospel often and when necessary, use words.
The heart of God is to serve a broken world. When we really stop to think about this statement, it radically changes our view of God. One author pointed out that to say God is a Servant sounds sacrilegious. He says that only because our value systems are corrupt and distorted. He says we feel comfortable attributing to God those things we aspire to be. To describe God as all-powerful makes Him only what we want to be more of. To describe God as all-knowing once again reinforces something we value. To describe God as all-present is not only comforting, but it even affirms our personal value for control. We want God to be all-powerful, all-knowing, all-controlling. It’s not difficult to convince us these should be the attributes of God. But to say that God is Servant seems to be out of touch with our view of how God works. His point is well taken: if we were all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, how many of us would choose to let servanthood be the ultimate expression of all that potential? Isn’t the whole point of being God to be served? It would be for us, but not for Jesus (McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p.156).
Studies have shown that if you don’t get involved serving in some way within a year of attending church, you’ll lose interest, you’ll atrophy in your spiritual life, you’ll being to fade away. It doesn’t matter how great you think the church is, attending without serving leads to atrophy. By the way, the same is true for discipleship. When someone surrenders their life to Christ they then need to learn what a surrendered life looks like being lived out. If they don’t, they’ll revert back to what they’re old way of life. If you’ve ever had a cast on your arm or your leg or your hand, you know what atrophy is. It’s when the muscle wastes away or decreases in size and strength. It becomes stiff and immovable. And when you do move it, it hurts! Trust me, I am speaking from experience. After breaking both arms, my foot, and my hand I have learned the painful lesson of atrophy!
I want to make sure that we don’t fall into atrophy. I want to make sure we don’t lose our strength as God’s people. To insure we don’t we need to be involved in the lives of those around us serving them with a heart of God. Third habit of a healthy church is growing deeper through ministry.
- Growing larger through evangelism. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved(Acts 2:47). One of the pressing truths about our existence as a church is that we are not a church that merely supports missions, we are a church on a mission. That mission is not in a foreign land or left to a far-off missionary to carry out – it’s about us right here, right where we live. We know that. We agree with that. But why is it difficult to keep the mission of sharing of the hope of Jesus Christ to a broken world?
Why do we find it difficult to tell others about Jesus? Part of the reason is because we’re all too aware that the world around us is becoming more antagonistic toward Christianity. Former policy analyst under Reagan and renowned author Dinesh D’Souza once gave a speech that caught my attention. He says a new form of atheism has risen in the US making a direct attack on Christianity, “Books such as Richard Dawkins ‘The God Delusion,’ Christopher Hitchen’s ‘God is not Great,’ and Sam Harris’ ‘The End of Faith’ all contend that Western society would be better off if we could eradicate from it the last vestiges of Christianity. He goes on to point out: “…Christianity is largely responsible for many of the principles and institutions that even secular people cherish – chief among them equality and liberty.”
My point is this – the increasing attitude of the world today toward Christianity is much like it was in the book of Acts. No sooner did Jesus launch His Church than it was met with fierce opposition from the world. In Acts 2 the Church is born. The Gospel is being preached. Lives are being changed (3,000 then 5,000 God was adding to their number daily). People are being healed. And the authorities are becoming angry. Hostility was mounting toward the Church. Peter and John are imprisoned and warned not to speak about Jesus (4:17).
Two brief lessons to sharing the Gospel, I want us to see from Acts. A. They had an abandoned determination to share the Gospel. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard(Acts 4:19-20). You couldn’t get these guys to shut up! Just the opposite is true today; you can’t get us to speak up! Let me encourage you here. Despite all the world’s opposition to the Gospel, people are starving for hope, for forgiveness, for life.
B. They had an abandoned dependence on God for the strength to be faithful. Look at Acts 4:23-31. Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus(Acts 4:29-30). Another author interjects at this point: I am convinced that many of the global trends that have brought fear and concern to the contemporary church are the very act of God.
Could it be that God is allowing our culture to become hostile to the Gospel for the purpose of forcing us to have an abandoned determination to share the Gospel and an abandoned dependence on His strength to carry it out. Could it be that God want us to be serious about engaging our faith? God will not spare us from opposition for the Gospel. But He will use conflict to leverage our faith. I know that makes some of us feel very uncomfortable, but I would be less than honest with you if I were to share anything different. Conflict is not new to the church. In fact, the greater the conflict – the greater the work of God.
Summary of what God has shown us we’re to be about: 1) Growing closer through fellowship. 2) Growing wiser through discipleship. 3) Growing stronger through worship 4) Growing deeper through ministry. 5) Growing larger through evangelism.
