Church on the Move
Theme: Following God’s priorities leads to good progress.
Text: Acts 2:42-47 and Matthew 28:16-20
Here’s a thought: Charles H. Spurgeon declared, “It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.”
I have been a pastor since about 1985. I don’t know how often people have said, “I prefer a small church.” Most who say this mean, “Large churches become impersonal and cold.”
I doubt that the people who say this think it through, but this train of thought leads to, “I want this to be comfortable for me, so I am going to do all I can to keep this church from growing.” If we prefer a small church, we could stand at the front door and announce to every new person we meet, “I’m sorry, but you can’t come in here. We prefer a small church and want to keep it this way.”
Do large churches need to be impersonal and cold? No, but those who lead them and call them home need to do some intentional things to keep them from becoming impersonal and cold. Are small churches unsuccessful and unhealthy? Not necessarily, but they can become ingrown and stagnant if they do not prioritize reaching out and embracing newcomers. A church’s size and Christlikeness are two different things.
Hopefully, you see these priorities in New Beginnings Church:
· Doing the right things (God’s priorities)
· Doing things right (pursuing excellence)
What are the right things?
We Are Coming
We Are Going
We Are Coming
The first church ever is described in Acts 2:42-47:
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. NIV
Is God into adding people to the church? Absolutely! Three thousand people were added to the Jerusalem church in Acts 2, and more were added all the time. I don’t read of the Apostle Peter standing up and shouting, “Okay, that’s enough! We have enough people in our church now. We prefer to have a small church, so no more people will be allowed in starting now.” I don’t know how big the Lord wants New Beginnings Church to become, but I am praying for and planning for more people to call this their church home. May there always be room for more!
Like a bird with two wings, a healthy church has two elements to make it fly - the celebration and the cell.
The Celebration
Check out these two pastors sitting in a football stadium with wild, cheering fans.
One pastor tells the other at a football game, “I hate football, but I love to be where people are excited about something!”
If someone can get excited about grown men throwing around the pigskin, we can get excited about the Almighty God of the universe! God’s people have been good at celebrating for thousands of years.
Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, and the Jewish people know how to celebrate. No less than seven feasts for the Israelites are outlined by God Himself through Moses in Leviticus 23:
1. Passover Supper
2. Feast of Unleavened Bread
3. Feast of Firstfruits
4. Feast of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks
5. Feast of Trumpets
6. Day of Atonement
7. Feast of Tabernacles
When it comes to a celebration, we think of energy and excitement. The church has more reason to celebrate than anyone else on earth! We want our times of worship together to be exciting, where we can feel the electricity in the air and be reminded that we are not alone in following Jesus Christ. We are a part of a worldwide movement of billions of people!
The Cell
The prison warden sent inmates a note asking for suggestions on the kind of party they'd recommend to celebrate his twenty-fifth anniversary. The prisoners all had the same idea - an open house. Let me clarify that when we talk about “cell groups,” we are not talking about prison ministry.
As we grow numerically, we must have a structure that preserves the intimacy and closeness of a small church. Without cell groups, people can easily get lost in the crowd.
Vincenzo Ricardo. If that name does not mean much to you, you are not alone. It does not seem to have meant much to anyone else except, perhaps, the one who bore it. In fact, it was not even his name. His real name was Vincenzo Riccardi, and nobody seemed to get it right after the sensational discovery of his mummified body in Southampton, New York. He had been dead for 13 months, but his television was still on, and his body was propped up in a chair in front of it. The television was his only companion, and though it had much to tell him, it did not care whether he lived or died.
Riccardi’s story raises many unsettling questions. How can a human being vanish for over a year and not be missed by anyone? Where was his family? What about his relatives? Why was the power still on in his house? Whatever the answers are to these and other questions, one thing is clear: Riccardi was a lonely individual whose life can be summed up in one word, alienation. You see, Riccardi was blind, so he never really watched television; he needed this virtual reality to feed his need for real companionship. Moreover, his frequent "outbursts and paranoid behaviour" may have played a role in driving people away from him.
This is indeed a tragic and extreme tale, but it makes a powerful statement about how cold and lonely life can be for millions across the globe. Even those who seem to have all of their ducks in a row are not immune to the pangs of loneliness and alienation. Alienation affects us at three different levels. We are alienated from ourselves, from others, and most significantly, we are alienated from God. That is the reality in which we exist. The restoration process involves all three dimensions, but it begins with a proper relationship with God. We cannot get along with ourselves or with others until we are properly related to God. The good news of the Christian gospel is that full restoration is available to all who want it. – From “A Slice of Infinity” [Slice 2375] Alienation and Restoration (January 13, 2011)
When we get close and knock off the rough edges, we become well-rounded people. When we commit to spending enough time together to encourage and resolve conflict with each other, we become more effective weapons against our common enemy.
Solomon explains in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” NIV
According to Acts 2:42-27, to what priorities did the early church in Jerusalem commit themselves?
What could they do best in the temple courts? What could they do best in homes?
We Are Coming
We Are Going
We are the church gathered when we get together. As we go our separate ways to our homes, schools and workplaces, we are the church scattered. Church is not a time or place, but people who follow Jesus together.
Matthew 28:16-20 should define the meaning of our lives when we are out and about:
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." NIV
This certainly places a different emphasis on the meaning of life from what our society would explain. Most Canadians believe life is about getting ahead, having a home with a double-car garage, a cottage at the lake, a new mini-van and 2.5 children. Is there anything wrong with these? Of course not! The problem comes when these pursuits push out the real meaning of life and how the Lord wants His people to occupy themselves.
At an annual hotel owner's convention, a roving commentator, microphone in hand, approached a world-famous hotel man. Holding up the mike, he said, "Sir, your name has become synonymous with the hotel business. You have expanded your chain to all corners of the globe, offering the people of the world a comfortable home away from home. Do you have a word, Sir? All of North America is listening and watching!"
"Yes, thank you," said the hotel magnate, "I do have a word for all of North America. Please keep the shower curtains on the inside!"
We can get so caught up in the routine of daily living. Our family had the sobering opportunity to visit Ground Zero. On Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001, about 3,000 people lost their lives when the World Trade Center towers in New York City were destroyed. Everyone who arrived at the office that morning had no idea their lives would end abruptly before they even stepped out for lunch. Sobering thought, isn’t it? It helps to put things in perspective when you consider how we live and how it influences our eternal destinies and those around us.
What were the short-term spiritual effects of September 11? What are the long-term spiritual effects?
Jesus calls us in Matthew 28 to live in such a way that people are attracted to Him. We are to ask others to join us in a relationship with Him and to do what we can to help those who say yes to grow in this relationship.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) declared, “It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.”
My objective is not simply to fill up our schedules and to keep us busy. A healthy church includes:
· Getting together regularly for teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, praising God and sharing our resources.
· Reaching out together and individually to those who do not know Jesus in a personal, life-changing way.
Both are essential!
We Are Coming
We Are Going
Following God’s priorities leads to good progress.