00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
The title of this message is Four Marks of a Growing Church. This will be part two. Four Marks of a Growing Church. We're making the transition we started last week in our examination of our mission statement from reaching out in discipleship to growing up in fellowship. And in fact, we began looking last week at the fact that one of the ways we reach out in discipleship, one of the ways we do that as a church, is by growing up in fellowship as a church. So this message is four marks of a growing church. We're going to be talking about reaching out by growing up. Our mission, again, as a local church, includes growing up and maturing in our love and fellowship with one another as a community, as the community of God. Our mission is to draw near, reach out, and grow up. Draw near in worship, reach out in discipleship, and grow up in fellowship. These are the ways we as a local body glorify and enjoy our triune God. I want to make one thing clear. Do not take last week's message or this message to undermine and contradict the high priority and emphasis that we have seen in the last month or more on evangelism and sharing the gospel. What we saw last week and what we're going to see this week doesn't erase all of what we talked about as far as the importance of sharing the gospel of the kingdom, evangelizing, reaching out and discipleship. I don't want you to misinterpret what I said last week or today as meaning that we do not need to do evangelism. We do not need to share the gospel. What we're discussing today is not an alternative to evangelism. It's not an alternative. It's another part. It's another aspect of our evangelism. In other words, one of the ways we reach out is by growing up. It's by growing up in fellowship, but that's not the only way. That's one of the ways that we reach out is by growing up. Someone asked me last Saturday, does that mean we don't have to do evangelism now? But that's not what it means. We're looking at another way we evangelize. This is another way to do it, including all the other ways we've talked about. So last week, We saw that one of the ways we add members to the church is by being faithful to who we are supposed to be and what we're supposed to be doing as a local church. Being faithful with who we have determines the result of who we get. Jesus in Matthew 5.16 told his disciples, this is a little bit of review, told his disciples, let your light shine before others. so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven." In other words, the brighter, the brighter your light, the better you will be able to reach those that are in darkness. The more we shine, the better those who are in darkness will be able to see the light. Jesus, as we talked about, actually says that we are the light. We are the light of the world. So the more we shine, the more we grow up in fellowship, grow up in love and community, the more we shine, the further our light will reach those in darkness. When we grow up in the community and fellowship with the body of Christ, we will begin to shine brighter and brighter, more and more. And as we shine brighter, those in the darkness will begin to see. And when they start seeing, they will start glorifying our Father in heaven. They'll start glorifying Him with us. In John 13, verse 34 through 35, Jesus said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. So as we grow up in loving fellowship with one another, All people, all non-disciples of Christ, all non-disciples will know that we are disciples. They'll know that we are disciples and the greater opportunity we will have to reach them and make them disciples, make them one of us. And so that we can all glorify our Father who is in heaven because the ultimate goal here is to glorify and enjoy the triune God. So one of the ways we reach out in discipleship is by acting like disciples. By being disciples. The way we get the attention of non-disciples is by loving one another the way disciples of Jesus are supposed to love one another. But our text that we began to look at last Sunday is in Acts 2. So let's turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 starting in verse 42. Acts 2, verse 42. Listen to God's Word. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 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. May the words of this text, as a church, transform us and shape us today. So, we saw last week the final result of our text. The final result is in the last sentence, the last phrase in verse 47b. It says, And the Lord added to their number day-by-day those who are being saved so that's the result of what our text is talking about of what they did as the early church verses 42 through 47 a Describe what they did who they were and who they were as the early church after Pentecost God empowered them with his Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit came down on the church and And so they did these things. They had, some people call them the four birthmarks of the church, because it's when the church, some people say it was when the church was born at Pentecost. So, as they did what they were supposed to do, as the early church converts, the Christians, did what they were supposed to do, God continued to do what he does. He added to their number, day by day, those who are being saved. In the words, as I mentioned last week, of Kevin Costner's movie, what's the movie called? Field of Dreams. He said, if you build it, he will come. We're saying, if you build it, they will come. Another way you could say it is there are two kinds of church growth, two kinds of church growth, numerical growth and spiritual growth. And when we grow spiritually in fellowship, when we grow in love, when we grow in maturity, we will be more likely to grow numerically. Because God will begin adding to our numbers those who are being saved. One of the things I realized when I was studying this text is that verse 42 is basically an outline for verses 43 through 47. So I made an outline, I put it on the screen last week. We don't have a screen this time. So verse 42 is basically an outline for the rest of the text in Acts 2. Verse 42 describes what they did collectively in their worship. It describes them as a church, what they did when they got together collectively. Verse 43 through 47 explains how their worship affected their world. Verse 42 is what they did when they got together. And the rest of the verses expound on that and show how that affected their world, how their worship affected their world. So, verse 42 is this. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So we have the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. I have the outline here, so I'll just read it to you. So the first one is the Apostles' teaching. And under that we see verse 43. It expounds on that. It shows how that affected how it worked itself out into their world. Verse 43 says, And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the Apostles. And last week we talked about how that relates to the Apostles' teaching. Second, the fellowship. That's what we're going to be talking about today. Under that heading, the fellowship is verse 44 through 45. 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. Then the third one is the breaking of bread. And under that heading is verse 46. And day by day, so now we see how that they got together for the breaking of bread in their worship. And then that worked itself out into the culture. We see how it worked itself out in verse 46. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. And then finally, the fourth one is the prayers. And under that heading is the first part of 47, verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people. So, those are basically four marks of a healthy, growing church. Last week, we just dealt with the first one, the apostles' teaching. We looked at the huge and high priority that the early church disciples placed on the Word of God. They were devoted to the Word of God. They were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the apostles' doctrine. They didn't water down their message in order to reach more people. They reached more people with their message. They didn't conclude, as many do today, that doctrine divides and so we should lay down our doctrines for the sake of our fellowship. They were devoted, they were dedicated, they were committed to both the apostles' teaching and fellowship. Teaching and fellowship. They were devoted and dedicated to the teaching and doctrine of the Word of God, the King James says, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. Jesus said this same thing in John 8, verse 31 through 32. If you abide in My Word, this is Jesus, if you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. One of the clear marks of a disciple of Christ is that he abides in the Word of God. He loves the Word of God. He's devoted to the Word of God. He's devoted to the teaching of the apostles, to the teaching of Scripture. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2-4, preach the Word. Preach the word, be ready, in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming, Paul's talking to Timothy, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Doctrine matters. Truth matters. And we shouldn't roll off the roof on the side of doctrine, as many reformed types do, or on the side of the roof of fellowship, as many evangelical types do. You can roll off the roof on one side or the other with just doctrine or with just fellowship. They were devoted to both doctrine and fellowship, teaching and unity. We ought to be committed to both. We should never relax our devotion. We should never relax our commitment, our dedication to the truths of God's word. Disciples of Christ are lovers. of God's Word. They love the Word of God. They love the teachings in the Word of God. They love doctrine. Disciples of Christ love the Word. Why? Because they love Christ. Jesus is the Word made flesh. He put on flesh. He was the Word. One of my favorite quotes on God's Word is written by a guy named Anonymous. He said a lot of things. Some were good things, some were not so good. I think this is in the Gideon Bible, actually. So next time you go to a hotel, you can check to see if it's in there. But it's an awesome quote. I love this quote. You've probably heard me read it before. But I didn't read it last week, so I just had to include it today. The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It's the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Here too, heaven is opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, it will be opened at the judgment and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents." Disciples of Christ love the Word of God. They understand the treasure that it is. It's far above all treasures, all rubies, all gold. The early church had this same attitude. The early believers were the spirit-empowered believers in the early church had the same attitude toward the Word of God. They weren't devoting themselves to the latest fads or opinions or approval of men. That's not what they were devoted to. They were not devoted to hiding or masking their foundational beliefs for the sake of relevance or for the sake of popularity. They weren't devoted to fitting in or being accepted. They weren't devoted to appearing tolerant to appearing non-judgmental. They weren't devoted to being liked or loved or by looking good. That's not what they were devoted to. They were devoted to the apostles teaching and the fellowship. So, second, the fellowship. Let's talk about that today. So, the spirit-filled church not only loves the Bible, they also love one another. A Spirit-filled church not only loves the Bible, they also love one another. They not only love the foundation of the church, the revelation of God, the Word of God, they also love the church. They are devoted. They are dedicated to both truth and unity. To both doctrine and fellowship. The world says truth hurts. The Bible says speak the truth in love. Speak the truth in love. The early church converts were committed to both truth and love, doctrine and unity, teaching and fellowship. This is an area that we, us, Christ Covenant Church, need to grow up in, in this area, fellowship. We all have dedication and a devotion to doctrine, to reformed doctrine. And we have a deep love for the truth. We have a love for the Word of God. If we're going to roll off the roof on one side or the other, it's probably going to be on the side of doctrine. Most Reformed people have a tendency to roll off that side of the roof. So in the weeks ahead, we all need to be attentive. We all need to hear what God is saying to us, me included. We have to have ears to hear. Remember this dedication to fellowship this devotion to fellowship Resulted in the Lord adding to their number day by day those who were being saved So if we want to see growth in numbers, we first need to see growth in our fellowship with one another But what does the Bible mean here by fellowship what is fellowship I Are we supposed to assume that anything believers do, decide to do when they get together is fellowship? Is that all they're talking about? Just whatever we do, whatever we decide to do when we get together, that's fellowship. Is that what they were devoted to? What does the Bible actually mean when it says the early church was devoted to this, devoted to fellowship? What were they devoted to? Did they just like to hang out together? Is that all it means? Do they just like watching movies together? So much so that they devoted themselves to watching movies together. What kind of fellowship are we talking about here? The Greek word that's translated fellowship is most, a lot of you probably know this, but it's koinonia. Koinonia. The root word from which koinonia is derived is koine or koinos, which basically means common. or shared. Koinonia describes that which people do together or hold in common, that which they hold in common or that which they share. The Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, has the same root word under it as the word translated common in verse 44 of our text. Again, verse 44 and 45 go under the heading of the fellowship. Verse 44 and 45. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. That's koinos. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. As goes the worship, so goes the world. As they were devoted to the fellowship in their corporate worship together, it showed in the way they lived their daily lives together. Because they were devoted to koinonia, the fellowship, they had all things in koinos, in common. Koinonia is also used by Paul when he talked about the collection that he organized among the Greek churches. Koinonikos, based on the same root word, means generous or giving. It's putting your money where your mouth is. So, this fellowship that we're talking about, this fellowship that they were devoted to, is more than just having an acquaintance, more than just hanging. It was based on the perichoresis of the triune God. The perichoresis is the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the triune nature of God. Our fellowship is derived from the fellowship within the Trinity. The word koinonia is used four times in 1 John. 1 John chapter 1. So let's look at that. 1 John chapter 1. 1 John 1, starting in verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Verse five, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. The word fellowship used here is koinonia. It's the word koinonia. We see here that fellowship is much more than just hanging out. It's more than that. Hanging out with someone. John says, so that you may, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. This is very serious fellowship. It's not about leisure. It's about life, eternal life. The eternal life that John says was with the father and was made manifest to us. When John says us in this, in first John, He was referring to Himself and all the other apostles who received their teachings directly from Jesus Himself and who witnessed His life, death and resurrection. He says in verse 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. And verse 3 again says, "...that which we have seen, heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." So, notice the connection. Notice the connection John is making between the apostles teaching that unique eyewitness and earwitness testimony to Jesus that comes from the apostles, the connection between the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship that he's talking about. If you don't have the Apostles' teaching, then you don't have a reliable witness to Jesus. And if you don't have Jesus, you don't have a reliable witness to the Father. And without that, there's just no fellowship with the Father. Having fellowship with the Father depends on having the teaching of the Apostles. That's the same thing that we see in our text in Acts 2, the teaching of the apostles and fellowship that they were devoted to. They were devoted to those things. Teaching and fellowship go together like two sides of the same coin. That's why John here says, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have the koinonia, fellowship with us. And indeed our koinonia is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. But hearing and receiving the apostles teaching is not enough. We must put that teaching along with all of its implications into practice. You also have to put it into practice. And we need to practice it in a particular way. Credenda, things to be believed, is not enough. We also need agenda, things to be done. You could say the early church was devoted to both credenda, things to be believed, and agenda, things to be done, to both the teaching and to the fellowship. We see this in 1 John, down in verse 6 and 7. If we say we have fellowship, koinonia, if we say we have that, with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, if we walk in the light, As he is in the light, we have fellowship, we have koinonia with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. John here is not giving us a step-by-step systematic process, you know, process of cause and effect. He's not saying, first, get your life all straightened out, learn to walk in the light, And then you will have real fellowship with other Christians. And then the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all your sins. It's not a step-by-step process. John is basically just saying that if the Word of Life comes to you, it will change you as it intends to. It will change you. It is meant to bring you out of darkness into the light. If that doesn't happen, it probably means that you don't have fellowship with the Father, you don't have the fellowship that you thought you did. It means you don't have the koinonia with the Father that you thought you did. If you just stay in darkness, the Word of Life is doing you no good. It's like planting a seed in a place that never sees sunlight, in the dark. It does no good. If you walk in darkness, the Word of Life is doing you no good. It's when we come to the light and it's by coming into the light that we come into real fellowship with one another and that we actually begin to experience and embody the forgiving power of the blood of Jesus Christ. John is clear that fellowship is the fruit of walking in the light. Fellowship is the fruit of walking in the light. The more we walk in the light, the more we enjoy koinonia with those who are in the light. Remember what Jesus said? We talked about it last week. Ye are the light. That's the plural form of you. Y'all are the light. But John is not only saying that fellowship is the fruit of light. He is saying that, but that's not all he's saying. He's also saying that light is the fruit of fellowship. So fellowship is the fruit of light and light is the fruit of fellowship, the result of fellowship. It goes both ways. Our fellowship, our koinonia, is a gift of God's grace and a means of God's grace. Our fellowship with one another can and should help us walk in the light and overcome sin, overcome struggles in our daily walk in life. When we embrace God's grace, not just as individuals, when we embrace God's grace as a community, A lot of amazing things begin to happen. When we embrace God's grace as a community, as a church, a lot of amazing things begin to happen. We begin to be real. We begin to be real with each other. Confess to one another. Forgive and ask for forgiveness. We begin to teach and exhort and admonish one another. Even lovingly rebuke one another. We begin to pray for each other according to our real needs or desires. We begin to connect with each other on a deep level rather than just a surface level. We begin to help one another and serve one another. We begin to give to one another and to ask for help. We have fellowship, real koinonia, fellowship, real communion, real fellowship with one another. as we walk together in the light. John goes on to say in verse 9 and 10, the two verses I quote every week in our liturgy, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. This is why we're baptized into a body, into the community. We cannot walk in the light while walking alone. You can't do it. You can't walk in the light if you're walking all alone. It's together, walking together that we walk in the light. And that, and it's together that we become light, that we are the light, the light that is the city on a hill, a lamp on a stand to light all, to give light to all that are in the house. And another result of that koinonia light shining brighter and brighter is that, as I said at the beginning, those who are in darkness will see the light and come to the light. Jesus said, let your light shine so that they can see the light and give glory, see your good works and give glory to the Father. All of us struggle. All of us, every one of us struggle with some level of laziness, selfishness, and shallowness. Let's just admit it. We all struggle with those things. Those are things that keep us from being the community, the koinonia, the fellowship that we need to be. We naturally drift toward isolation. We naturally drift toward looking out for ourselves. Picnics and potlucks are part of it, but Koinonia goes a lot deeper. It goes a lot deeper. It's more than just our paths of cross. It's my life for yours. My life for yours. We need to pray for our local fellowship, Christ's Covenant Church, to become more and more of a real fellowship that we're called to be. So this is why. This is why we're going to spend a little while on this particular part of our mission, growing up in fellowship. This is definitely, I believe, an area that we all need to grow in. I'm not complaining about us. I think that's not to be heard as a complaint. I love and I appreciate our fellowship. I love us. I love our fellowship. But we still have much room for growth. We still need to grow. That sanctification is happening. It'll continue to happen and continue to need to happen. And again, as we grow, we will at the same time be reaching out in discipleship. As Jesus put it by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. That's how they're going to know. That's how they will know that you're disciples. The more we act like disciples, the more we will make disciples, will reach disciples. The early church converts did not just passively wait. They didn't just passively wait for fellowship to magically and automatically appear. That's not what they did. That's OK. Let's hope we get it. Let's just hope it happens. I'm waiting for it. Let's wait for it to happen. I think that's what we do a lot. We wait for that to happen. We hope it happens. Our text in Acts says they were devoted to it. They were devoted to the fellowship. They were dedicated and committed to making it happen. They looked for ways to become that kind of koinonia. They had to be creative. They had to care. Koinonia takes hard work and it's not going to happen unless we are committed, unless we're dedicated to making it happen. Now, before I close, I want to clear one thing up in our text. Again, if you looked at the at the. Overhead chart, you will see. The one that's not up there, verse 44 and 45 go under the heading of the fellowship of verse 44 and 45, tell us what their commitment to Koinonia look like in the real world, it says, 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. Talking about it, like I'm doing right now, talking about it is the easy part, right? That's the easy part. They literally put their money where their mouth is. Well, not literally. They didn't eat their money. But they put their money where their mouth is. These guys walk the walk. The thing I want to clear up though is especially in verse 44 and 45. It's talking about community not communism. It's talking about community not communism. The fact that they had all things in koine or in common does not mean they were communists. Let's just get that clear. We can see one thing clearly in the text itself that it cannot mean. Whatever it meant that they had all things in common, one thing it does not mean is that they held no property individually, that they didn't own any property. We see in the very next verse that they meet and break bread in their own homes. So they had property. That shows you right there they had their own homes. They had property. Also, their sharing was voluntary. It wasn't involuntary. It wasn't communism. It wasn't even distributed evenly either. It was voluntarily given to meet needs when needs were needed to be met. So what it did mean is that they were generous. They were giving. They laid down their lives for one another and their stuff for one another. Koinonia was not a concept It was a reality that outsiders could observe, that outsiders could see and say, these are disciples of Christ because I see how they love one another, how they're giving to one another, how they demonstrate koinonia with each other. They lay down their lies and they lay down their stuff for one another. It's sadly true of all of us that we often have a hard enough time giving our time to each other. We have a hard time giving time to each other, let alone our stuff to each other. But our mission is to glorify and enjoy the triune God, and one of the ways that we do that is to grow up in fellowship, to grow up in koinonia. And by growing up in that way, we will also be reaching out in discipleship, as it says in our text, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. All right, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving your church, sending your only Son to restore the church, to create a bride ready for the great marriage supper of the Lamb on the final day. We thank you, Lord, for our local church. We thank you for Christ's covenant church. Help us, Father, to grow up in that fellowship and that koinonia with one another, to grow up in our covenant, covenantal bond with each other, and demonstrate the love that you have for us with one another. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.
4 Marks of a Growing Church Pt. 2
Series Mission: Southern Oregon
Sermon ID | 8201421480 |
Duration | 39:06 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Acts 2:42 |
Language | English |
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2025 SermonAudio.