Thousand Oaks Baptist Church

How to Have a Strong Church

(Sunday morning sermon for May 6, 2001)

 

Text:  Acts 2:41-47

 

Introduction: 

 

Last month, I began a short series of messages titled, The Example of the Early Church.  The first message was called, How to Come to Church.  In that first message, we began to examine Acts 2:41-42, and we discovered how we need to come to church.

 

As Paul the Apostle wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:14-15, we need to learn how to conduct ourselves in the local church.

 

And we’re not concerned here with ecclesiastical rules or church traditions.  Instead, we’re interested in how the Bible says people ought to come to church.

 

After all, the Bible is God’s own, fully inspired, fully authoritative, final Word to us on every matter relating to our faith and practice in all things as believers.  And so, if we know what the Bible says about how we ought to come to church, then we’ll also know what God says about how we ought to come to church.  And since God invented the local church, He’s in the best position to know and tell us how we ought come to church, isn’t He?

 

Now, the early churches recorded in the New Testament book of Acts for the most part followed this biblical plan of going to church.  And as the direct result of this, God blessed and strengthened those churches in a mighty and powerful way.

 

They had Heaven-sent power in their preaching, in their singing, in their witnessing, in their praying, in their good deeds that they did for Christ, and in their lives generally.

 

They were blessed – both as local churches and as individuals.  They were blessed in ways that very few local churches and few individual Christians today know anything about.

 

And yet, as I pointed out in last month’s message, God has given to us - in the example of the early churches – God has given to us fifteen ways in which we ought to come to church.

 

As we discovered first in my last message, Acts 2:41 shows that we ought come to church as true believers.  And we also saw that if we are not yet true believers, we need to exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ and be saved, right now.

 

As we discovered second in my last message, Acts 2:41 also shows that we ought to come to church as baptized believers.  Every believer ought to be baptized by immersion, just as soon possible after he or she is genuinely saved.  That was Jesus Christ’s clear command, and we ought to obey it.

 

As we discovered third in my last message, Acts 2:41 also shows that true believers who are baptized ought to become members of the local church.  This is also the will of God, according to the New Testament.

 

As we discovered fourth in my last message, Acts 2:42 shows that we ought to come to church as steadfast believers, not giving up when things in the church or in our lives get rough.  Instead, we need to stick by the stuff and be faithful to the Lord.

 

And as we discovered fifth in my last message, Acts 2:42 also shows that we ought to come to church as teachable believers, continuing steadfastly in the doctrine or teachings of the Lord and His apostles, as we find these teachings in the New Testament.

 

And that’s how we ought to come to church.

 

But this morning, I’d like you to come one step further with me in your thinking, as we consider how to have a strong local church.

 

And just as last time, the example of the early local church, as found in Acts 2, is the divinely inspired, divinely designed pattern for us to follow. 

 

Acts 2:41-42 told us how to come to church.  And now, Acts 2:42-44 will tell us how to have a strong church.  Acts 2:42-44 is God’s five-fold pattern for our local church here in Thousand Oaks.  Let’s read those verses.

 

Acts 2:42 - 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…

 

First, since we want our church to be a strong local church, we’ll need to be strong in our fellowship.

 

Second, we’ll also need to be strong in our discernment and obedience.

 

Third, we’ll also need to be strong in prayer.

 

Fourth, we’ll also need to be strong in our fear of God.

 

And fifth, we’ll also need to be strong in our sharing.

 

Let's examine each of these in order.

 

I.       Strong in Fellowship.

 

First of all, if we really want to have a good, strong local church, we will have to learn to be strong in our fellowship in the biblical sense of the word.

 

Acts 2:42 says that the new believers in the first Baptist church of Jerusalem continued steadfastly (earnestly, continually, perseveringly) in fellowship.

 

A broad study of the word fellowship in the original language of the New Testament reveals a four-fold meaning and application of the word for believers.  First, it has the idea of close association.  Second, it has the idea of genuine generosity.  Third, it has the idea of brotherly unity.  And fourth, it also has the idea of joyful participation.

 

I.A.    Strong in their close association with each other.

 

You see, Christians in the local New Testament church in Jerusalem were strong in their close association with each other.  Many of them were actually sharing their dwellings with each other because so many of them were temporary visitors from out of town, as we saw last time.  They lived and ate and slept in the same houses.  But that would never have worked if they had not also been bound together by their common faith and practice.  I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said that fish and houseguests both start to get rotten after three days. 

 

But these folks were bound and knit together in love by the Holy Spirit Who had preserved them in Christ, united them in the Body of Christ, and also placed them together in their local church.  And so their close association was in the common bond of the Holy Spirit, Who produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, genuine moral excellence, goodness, faithfulness, humble gentleness, self control, righteousness, and truthfulness in the heart and life of every obedient believer.

 

And this allowed that close association to work for good in the local church.

 

I.B.    Strong in their generosity.

 

Second, Christians in the local New Testament church in Jerusalem were strong in their generosity toward each other.  As we will see in a few moments, they shared what they had materially with each other, and they did it because others had needs and because they loved them in the Lord.

 

 I.C.   Strong in their brotherly love.

 

Third, Christians in the local New Testament church in Jerusalem were strong in their brotherly love toward each other.  They cared for each other in the family of faith, just as much as they would have cared for their earthly families, and in some cases even more.

 

I.D.    Strong in their participation in the work of the ministry.

 

Fourth, Christians in the local New Testament church in Jerusalem were strong in their participation together in the true, God-ordained work of the ministry.

 

In Eph. 4:12, we are told that the work of the evangelist, pastor, and teacher is to perfect the saints.  To perfect the saints is to make them mature or fully grown up into doing the work of the ministry in the local church, so that as the saints all participate in the work of the ministry, both the local church and the entire Body of Christ will be edified or built up in the faith, and will also be able to do the work of the ministry.

 

Some years ago, one of the pastors in the General Association of Regular Baptists fellowship sent a survey letter out to all of the pastors in the fellowship.  Each pastor was asked to list the one thing that was the greatest problem to him, as a pastor, in his own local church.

 

When the surveys all came back, and the results were tabulated, one problem definitely stood out as the most widely occurring problem, as perceived by the pastors.

 

The biggest problem wasn’t to have to live on a salary about one tenth of what a man in the secular world, doing the same type of job, would get.  And frankly, most churches in the General Association of Regular Baptists fellowship pay their pastors far less than what the government considers to be a poverty level wage.  On an hourly basis, most pastors surveyed actually made less than the minimum hourly wage required by both state and federal laws.  But that problem was actually only in third place in the survey.

 

The biggest problem, as perceived by the pastors responding to this survey, was that the great majority of their church members were perfectly willing to sit in the pew and let the faithful few do the overwhelming preponderance of the work of the ministry in their local churches.

 

In simple terms, about ninety percent of the members don’t participate in the most important jobs that need to be done by the local churches.  And about ten percent of the members – including the pastor and his wife - are grossly overworked and burdened down to the point of personal disaster.

 

In another survey taken by one of our pastors in Illinois, it was discovered that twenty out of sixty former pastors had totally left the ministry because they were discouraged.  When asked the reason for their discouragement, they said they were discouraged because they simply could not persuade the members of their local churches to participate together in the vital ministries of the local church.

 

Now folks, we roundly condemn a pastor who sins by becoming discouraged, but let me ask you this:  What do we say about the local church that drove that pastor to discouragement in the first place?  Usually we don’t say anything, because it’s not our business to meddle in the affairs of other local churches.

 

Folks, we talk a lot about fellowship.  And we usually, jokingly refer to potlucks and eating as fellowships.  But let me ask you this:  Do we really fellowship?  That is, do we really, earnestly, diligently, continually, perseveringly participate together as a whole church in doing what God has called us to do in and through our local church in this community?  Or do we leave it to the faithful few to struggle and stumble on under the crushing load?

 

If we want a strong local church, each of us has to be a truly and steadfastly fellowshipping member in our local church.

 

II.      Strong in Discernment and Obedience.

 

Second, if we really want to have a good, strong local church, we will have to learn to be strong in our discernment and obedience.

 

Acts 2:42 says that the early believers continued steadfastly in breaking of bread.  This is a phrase that’s synonymous with partaking at the Lord’s Table.  To break bread together is to partake at the Lord’s Table when we have communion.

 

All Christians who are baptized and obedient and discerning are invited by the Lord Jesus Christ to partake at His table.

 

In 1 Corinthians 11:27-32, the baptized believers who were members of the local church at Corinth were commanded to discerningly examine their lives.  They were commanded to examine their heart attitudes.  They were commanded to examine their understanding of the local church as the local manifestation of the Body of Christ.  They were commanded to examine their relationship to the Lord’s Supper and to the local church.  They were commanded to examine themselves with regard to these things before they partook at the Lord’s Table.

 

It is possible for a believer to have an unworthy lack of obedience to the Lord.  1 Corinthians 10:14-21 says that we cannot love this world and its ways, and we cannot partake of the lusts of this world, and still properly drink the cup of the Lord.  We cannot be partakers of the Lord’s Table and partakers of the cup of demons.  To do so makes us unworthy partakers.  To do so makes us guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  And that brings judgment upon us, and we will be chastened by the Lord with weakness, sickness, and even death, as we’re warned in 1 Corinthians 11:30.

 

But the believers in the local church at Jerusalem continued strong in the breaking of bread.  This shows us that there was no continued disobedience in their lives.

 

They discerned that they were members of Christ’s holy body, and so they possessed their members in purity and holiness.

 

They discerned what was evil, and they avoided it.

 

They discerned what was good, and they followed it.

 

And this is how we, too, will have a strong local church:  By personally obeying the Lord’s commands, by discerning the need for personal holiness, and by following the path of personal purity for our hearts and minds and bodies.

 

III.    Strong in Prayer.

 

Third, if we really want to have a good, strong local church, we will have to learn to be strong in prayer.  We must become praying Christians.

 

Acts 2:42 says that the new believers in the local church in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in prayers.

 

They were strongest when they were on their knees.  They were strong in that they continued diligently to persevere in their prayers and petitions and supplications, with thanksgiving to the Lord.

 

Jesus promised that we would have whatever we asked for in prayer.  He said we have to ask with a believing heart.  And we have to ask in accordance with what He reveals in the Bible to be His will for New Testament believers.  And we’ll have to be persistent in our prayers.  And then we will have what we prayed for.

 

Now, I’m not sure what the members of the local church in Jerusalem prayed for, but I kind of think that the soul winning and church planting results in the rest of the book of Acts were the continuing answers to their prayers.  Because the results were souls won to Christ and many strong local churches being established on three continents.

 

If we want to be a strong local church, we need to be a praying church.  If we want to be an evangelistic local church, we need to be a praying church.  If we want to have a full local church, we need to be a praying church.  If we expect to be an obedient local church, we need to be a praying church.

 

It’s good for us to pray at home in our closets.  But folks, Jesus promised to do literally anything that two or three or more Christians asked of Him while they were gathered in His name for prayer.

 

Jesus said concerning group prayer:  “Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

 

You know, I believe that the only reason that a group prayer meeting of the local church could fail to get God’s answers to their prayers is if they aren’t all praying the same way.  In other words, if someone in the group has reservations or doubts about what you’re praying for, you really can’t expect God to answer.

 

You see, we need to all pray for the same things, being of one mind and of one spirit in the Lord as we pray.

 

We need to be strong as praying believers – praying together for the same things in the will of God.  And as we are strong in our praying, God will give us strong answers.  And this will help to give us a strong local church.

 

IV.     Strong in the Fear of God.

 

Fourth, if we really want to have a good, strong local church, we’ll have to learn to be strong in the fear of God.

 

Acts 2:43 says that fear came upon every soul.  And the idea is that the new believers – those who had been won to Christ because of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost – these new believers were simply afraid to displease God.  Because they loved the Lord so much, they were literally terrified to do or say or think or be anything that might bring dishonor to Jesus Christ.

 

Let me ask you this:  How much does it bother us to disobey God?  How much are we truly concerned if we bring shame upon the name of Christ?

 

Some folks say they can sin all they want to, and it doesn’t bother them one little bit.  In fact, some folks boast about going to the world’s places of entertainment and amusement.  They live loose lives, they defile the temple of the Holy Spirit, they lust after the world, the flesh, and the devil, they tell lies, and they rebel against properly constituted authority.  And it doesn’t seem to bother them one little bit.

 

They seem to have no guilt.  Their conscience seems to have been anesthetized.  They have no fear of God.

 

It doesn’t bother them that they’re breaking God’s heart.  It doesn’t register that they’re trampling all over the precious blood of Christ when they do these things.  It means nothing to them that they’re giving the worst possible example to new babes in Christ, and that they might cause them to stumble and be offended.

 

Somehow it doesn’t seem to impress them that the things they’re doing, the words they’re speaking, the thoughts they’re thinking, are all the very same things that prompted the Lord to send the Flood upon the earth in Noah’s day.  These were the same things that brought fire and brimstone down upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  These were the same things that prompted God to destroy the wicked nations of Canaan.

 

And we who are members and friends of this local church would do well to foster and promote the fear of God in our hearts.  We would do well to become deeply concerned lest we offend our lovely Lord in anything that we think or say or do.

 

We would do well to remember that how we treat the brethren is how we treat Jesus Christ, because he dwells in each of us who believes.

 

A local church whose members truly fear the Lord is well on its way to becoming a strong local church.

 

V.      Strong in Sharing What God Has Given Us.

 

Fifth, if we really want to have a good, strong local church, we will have to learn to be strong in sharing what God has given us.

 

Acts 2:44 says that the believers in the early church in Jerusalem were together and they had all things in common. 

 

Some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that they practiced a form of sanctified socialism.  But the dictionary says that socialism is “the social system in which the means of producing and distributing goods are owned collectively and political power is exercised by the whole community.”

 

But this wasn’t the case with the church at Jerusalem.  The means of producing and distributing goods wasn’t owned collectively by the local church, and they didn’t exercise any political power.  And so, what they practiced wasn’t socialism.

 

What they did do was put love into action.  Let’s get a little background of what was going on in Jerusalem at that time.

 

Remember that Jerusalem had been over-crowded with Jews and Jewish proselytes who had come to Jerusalem from all over the world for the feast of Passover and the feast of Pentecost.  These were two of the feasts that all Jewish men were required to attend every year.

 

And so the 3,000 souls that were added to the local church at the close of Peter’s message that day were for the most part people from out of town, some visiting Jerusalem with their families.  Their original plans probably called for them to head back home as soon as the feast of Pentecost was over.

 

But God changed their plans.  They got saved.  They were baptized and they joined the new local church in Jerusalem.  God changed their short vacation to an extended visit.

 

Now, I’m sure, since they were Jews, many of them had plenty of money with them to provide for their food and lodging and other needs during the two feasts and during their journey home.  Others, less fortunate, may have had to depend on the charity of Jewish friends or relatives in Jerusalem for food and shelter. 

 

But now the whole picture had changed.  Those new believers who had been staying with Jewish friends and relatives would have been kicked out into the street once they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Messiah.  They would probably have only the clothes on their backs and maybe a change of clothes, but little else.

 

And so, those new believers who had more material and financial means, and the members of the local church who were already established in Jerusalem, saw the need, and they shared with those who had needs.  As they were able, in love, they provided food and lodging to these new Christians from out of town.  Their circumstances and their Christian love gave opportunity to their generosity.

 

Later, when Peter and others began to establish local churches in the rest of Judea and Samaria, this practice does not seem to have been in evidence among those new churches.  Somewhat later, when the Apostle Paul established local churches among the Gentiles, these circumstances weren’t present, and so we don’t read of the rest of the churches practicing the same kind of sharing.

 

But those Christians in those local churches in the lands of the Gentiles did still share what they had with believers who had material needs.  They even helped with money, so that the members of the churches in Judea could buy food during times of drought and famine.

 

We also read that they shared their material means with the Apostle Paul, so that they could have a vital part in Paul’s evangelistic, church planting, and teaching ministries.  And in doing this, they were reaping eternal rewards for themselves through Paul’s labors that were enabled by their generous gifts.

 

But regarding the needs of Christians, the Apostle James wrote this:

 

Jas. 2:15 - If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

 

 God blessed the local church in Jerusalem, because the members of that church were willing to share the little bit that they had with other new believers who had less or nothing at all.

 

And because of that, among other things, God blessed them with a strong local church that won precious souls to Jesus Christ.

 

And in the same way, we need to be willing and ready to share the blessings with which God has so abundantly blessed us.

 

Conclusion:

 

In Ephesians 6:10, the Apostle Paul exhorted all of us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  And then, in the next few verses, he told us how to stand in a position of strength that would give us the ability to defeat Satan and all the hosts of evil.

 

Eph. 6: 11 -  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

 

As individual believers, we’re strong when we stand in the truth, in righteousness, witnessing of Christ and Gospel, believing the Word of God, fully assured of our salvation in Christ, using the Bible rightly, and praying in the Spirit.

 

As a local church, we’re strong when we as individual believers who are members of the church are:

 

First, Strong in our fellowship.

 

Second, strong in our obedience and discernment.

 

Third, strong in prayer.

 

Fourth, strong in the fear of God.

 

And fifth, strong in sharing what God has given us.

 

May God deeply impress these truths upon our hearts and souls, and may He give us an ever stronger local church, to the praise of the glory of His matchless grace.

 

Please click here to proceed to the next in this "How to" series...