Multiply Exponentially – Part 1

In this message from Acts 2:47, David Platt highlights five aspects of the early church’s growth.

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Transcript

Luke’s Snapshot Of A Growing Church

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You're listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

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And what we're gonna see is how Jesus, and he's doing the action there, they're not coming up with programs, they're manufacturing to grow the church. Jesus is adding to their number daily those who are being saved. How did he do that? That's the question we're gonna ask. What we need to realize though is that this is this is a summary statement that Luke gives us to tell us that the church was growing. And he does this periodically throughout the book of Acts. And I want to show you some verses that kind of mirror what's going on here in Acts chapter 2, verse 47. Then once we look at these verses, we'll kind of put them together in a package and ask the question how was Jesus adding to their number daily those who are being saved? So 247 is the first one. Then turn over to Acts chapter 4, verse 4. What we're gonna see is Luke being very intentional to show us how the church was growing. And I maybe encourage you to underline these different verses that show the growth of the church. Acts chapter 4, verse 4 says, The many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about 5,000. Remember, it was about 3,000 in Acts chapter 2. Now it's up to over 5,000. That's just the men alone there. When you come to chapter 5, chapter 5, verse 14, right after Ananias and Sapphira are struck down before the Lord, what happens? It says in Acts 5, 14, nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. So the church is continuing to grow. Next chapter, chapter 6, verse 1. Luke starts off, and he tells us, in those days the number of disciples was increasing. Then after that, he talks about how there was some inner strife between the Grecian Jews and the Hebraic Jews. There were some problems. And so they handled those problems, and look what the result is in verse 7. After they handled those problems, so the word of God spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. What happens after that is Stephen proclaims the gospel, he is stoned, and the church scatters and begins to go to new places, begins to go to Judea and Samaria. You come to the end of chapter 9. Look at the end of chapter 9 and verse 31. Just to connect the dots, Acts chapter 1, verse 8, it said, You're going to take this gospel, you're going to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. Look at what happens in verse 31. Then the church, throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. Church continuing to grow. We get to Acts chapter 12. These statements, Luke just kind of plugs in here and there to show us how the church was still growing. Look at Acts chapter 12, verse 24. This is after Peter escapes from prison, threatened to have the word and proclamation proclamation of the word stopped, and it says in verse 24, but the word of God continued to increase and to spread. Let me show you just a few more. Look at Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16, verse 5. This is talking about the growth of the church. Guys like Timothy and Paul and Silas and Barnabas have gone out and they're planning churches and leading people to Christ. And it says in verse 5, So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they grew daily in numbers. Now turn over to chapter 19. In between 16 and 19, the gospel goes throughout Europe, to Greece, to Asia Minor. You get to chapter 19. Look with me at verse 20. 19, verse 20. This is Paul in Ephesus, and it says, In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. And then one more, come to the very end of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28, and we'll look at verse 30 and 31. Kind of a summary statement that falls in line exactly with what Luke has been telling us all throughout the book of Acts to this point. You get to Acts 20, 28, 30 and 31. Paul is in house arrest in Rome, which some would say at that point was the center of the ends of the earth. And it says in verse 30 for two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him, and boldly and without hindrance, he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how growth was a natural thing for the early church? They were continually growing. The Lord was continually adding to their number. The word was continuing to increase and spread. The number of disciples was increasing rapidly. Luke tells us that all along the way. So what I'd like to do is kind of put those together and think about what we're seeing in the early church in the book of Acts and ask the question how did Jesus grow the church? How

Community That Fuels Mission

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did they multiply like this? And what we're going to see is Jesus puts together some things in the church that we oftentimes separate. If you look at your notes in the celebration guide, you'll see that each kind of main point there is a blank and blank. And what we're going to see is two facets of the church that are going to come together that we oftentimes have the tendency to emphasize one and forget about the other. We separate the two. Jesus put them together and the church multiplied. So, a different kind of church growth. Number one, I want you to see the early church was unifying and expanding at the same time. It was both unifying and expanding. Think about what we've studied over the last couple of months. This picture becomes very clear. They were at the height of biblical community. They were caring for each other, loving each other, sacrificing for each other. They're selling their possessions and goods and giving to those who are in need. They're really making some major strides and loving each other and growing inwardly. At the same time, we see complete expansion of the church. It's growing like wildfire. People are coming to faith in Christ. Outsiders are looking in and saying, we want a part of this thing. And they're joining the church. And so they're growing outwardly at the same time they're growing inwardly. They're unifying and expanding at the same time. Now that seems pretty basic. Okay, Dave, what's the point? What we've got to realize, think about it with me, is these are two facets of the church that we most often separate. You say, What do you mean? Well, think about this. Have you ever heard someone say in the church, well, in our church, we've gotten so focused on each other that we've forgotten to look out and care about the people around us. Have you ever heard that said in church? We've got so focused on building inward community, we've forgotten to look outward. Or maybe on the other hand, sometimes we say, you know, our church has gotten so focused on reaching out that we've forgotten to take care of each other. We've got so focused on reaching other people that we forget to love each other and care for each other and support each other. There's a great tendency we have to separate these two. And what we're seeing in the early church is that when you have biblical community at its height, then the automatic result will be expansion of the church at its height. They go together, they should not be separated. Two truths that are coming out here. First of all, true biblical community is inseparable from the mission of the church. True biblical community is inseparable from the mission of the church. When we love each other and care for each other and support each other and sacrifice for each other and give to each other and really get truly involved in each other's lives, that it doesn't hurt our ability to reach people outside the church. It enhances our ability to reach people outside the church. It's exactly what Jesus said in John 13, 35. By this all men will know you're my disciples when you do what? The world's gonna know you're my disciples when you love one another, when you care for each other. We all know that in this world in Birmingham, 280 world right around us, that there are a lot of people who are longing to see authenticity and a community of faith that loves each other and cares for each other and supports each other and sacrifices for each other. And I've got a feeling if we have that kind of community, then it will speak volumes to a lost world around us. True biblical community is inseparable from the mission of the church. Likewise, true biblical evangelism is inseparable from the social responsibility of the church. True biblical evangelism inseparable from the social concern that the early church had. Yes, they were out sharing the gospel and expanding, but at the same time, they were caring for each other. What we don't see in the book of Acts is all these new believers going out with tracks into the city of Jerusalem and putting in front of people's faces. We don't see them carrying neon crosses down the streets of Jerusalem, yelling out turn or burn and yelling out condemnation on people. No, what they were doing was they were proclaiming the gospel in word and in deed. With the way they served and the way they cared, the way they showed concern for the social issues around them. This thing we've talked about, we want to be a church that is grounded in the word, theologically conservative, grounded in the word, but culturally liberal. We want to care deeply for the people that nobody else cares about, and that's exactly what we see unfolding in the book of Acts. A true biblical evangelism cannot be separated from the social responsibility of the church. Let me

A Letter That Defends Christianity

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share with you a letter that was written back in the second century from a guy named Aristides who is an apologist. Now, an apologist is basically, it basically means a defender of the faith. Apologetics is not apologizing for believing in Jesus. What it is is it's offering a defense for the truth of Christianity. What you've got in the first three centuries of the church, before Constantine legalized the faith in 313, what you've got is a very difficult time for believers. Christianity is not very popular, and they're proclaiming the gospel, and many of them are losing their lives because of it. And there's all kinds of different worldviews that are out there at that point, pluralism and relativism that's keeping the gospel, fighting against the gospel. And what there was was a need for people in the church to rise up and show why Christ is real and true amidst all these other worldviews and religious views that were out there. Do you think there's a need for that in our culture today? Amidst the multiplicity of worldviews in our culture, there's a huge need, I'm convinced, for us to know why we believe what we believe and be able to show the truth and beauty of Christ amidst all the diverse worldviews that are present. And so what we see is these apologists, they would raise up and they would defend Christianity. What I want to read to you is a letter from this apologist to a king trying to show that king that Christianity is real and true. Now, some might think that he's gonna prove the truth of Christianity by showing the arguments for the existence of God and why Jesus is God, or great intellectual arguments for why Jesus is the only way to God. So that's gonna show that Christianity is true. But that's not what he writes. I want you to listen to what he writes. He says, now the Christians, O King, now this is him trying to persuade the king that Christianity is true and real. He says, The Christians, O King, by going about and seeking, have found the truth. They know and trust in God, and they refuse to worship strange gods. Now listen to this. They love one another. The widow's needs are not ignored, and they rescue the orphan from the person who does him violence. He who has gives to him who has not, ungrudgingly and without boasting. When the Christians find a stranger, they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as a true brother. They do not call brothers those who are bound by blood ties alone, but those who are brethren after the Spirit and in God. When one of their poor passes away from the world, each provides for his burial according to his ability. If they hear any of their number who are imprisoned or oppressed for the name of the Messiah, they all provide for his needs, and if it's possible to redeem him, they set him free. Now listen to this. If they find poverty in their midst, and they do not have spare food, they fast two or three days in order that the needy might be supplied with necessities. They observe scrupulously the commandments of their Messiah, living honestly and soberly, as their Lord, their God had ordered them. Every morning and every hour they praise and thank God for his goodness to them. Such, O King, is the commandment given to the Christians, and such is their conduct. Don't miss the picture here. In the early church, you had people who were rising up and showing the truth of Christianity, and they were doing it by saying, if you want to know Christianity is real, if you want to know Christ is true, look at the church. Look at the way these people care for each other. Look at the way they sacrifice for each other. If somebody is poor and without food, they'll all fast and give up food for a couple of days so that that person will have food. They take care of the orphans, and everybody else leaves to violence. So if you want to see Christianity as real, look at the church. I've got a feeling that in our culture today, there's a lot of hardened skeptics who are engrossed in religious pluralism, moral relativism, and want nothing to do with the church. And if that's the picture, I'm convinced one of the most effective ways we can share the gospel and proclaim the gospel in our culture is by pointing to the church and saying, look at the manifestation of Christ and the way those people are loving each other and cares for caring for each other. However, if the church doesn't look like that, then it severely hinders our ability to proclaim the gospel. Does that make sense? We need to connect unity in the church and expansion of the church. True biblical community and the mission of the church, biblical evangelism and the social responsibility of the church. They were unifying and expanding at the same time. Second, they were unifying and expanding. Second,

Crowds Versus Christlike Character

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we're seeing quantitative growth and qualitative growth. Quantitative growth and qualitative growth. We're throwing in a $2 mathematical words here. We're seeing them growing in numbers, quantity, and they're seeing them grow in quality, qualitative growth. And Luke is intentional to show us both of these. Let me kind of take you on a tour for a second. We won't go over the verses we've already seen. We already know Acts 1.15 tells us there was 120 people, and Luke tells us that. He's showing us the number. Acts chapter 2, verse 41, he says, now there are 3,000 people who believed in Christ on that day. Acts chapter 4, verse 4, which we read about just a second ago. Luke's intentional to show us now it's 5,000. Acts chapter 6, verse 1. Number of disciples is increasing. Acts chapter 6, verse 7. The number of disciples continues to increase. Acts chapter 9, verse 31 says the number in the church continued to grow. Now I want you to turn to Acts chapter 11. We read Acts chapter 9, verse 31. Look at Acts chapter 11. Look at verse 21. And maybe every time you see the word number in the scripture here, let me encourage you to circle it. I just want you to see how Luke was very detailed and very intentional about showing us the quantitative growth of the church. Circle every time you see a mention number. Look in Acts chapter 11, verse 21. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great what? A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Look down in verse 24, talking about Barnabas. It says Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Verse 25 says, Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. So Luke's pretty intentional here, but it doesn't stop there. Turn over to Acts chapter 14. Look at Acts chapter 14, verse 1. Paul and Barnabas come to a place called Iconium. They preach the gospel there. Listen to what happens. Acts chapter 14, verse 1 says, at Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue, and there they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. Same chapter, look at verse 21. They come back to Antioch in Syria. Chapter 14, verse 21 says, they preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. It continues on. Look at chapter 17. We looked at 16, 5. We saw him mention numbers there. Look at Acts chapter 17, verse 4. They're in Thessalonica now. Paul is preaching the gospel there. And listen to what Paul says, or listen to what Luke tells us. Acts chapter 17, verse 4 says, Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. In other words, a lot of prominent women. Now look in the same chapter over in verse 12. And Berea. The same thing happens there. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Let me show you one more. Look at Acts chapter 19. Paul goes and he preaches in Ephesus. People kind of get mad. Some of the people that are against the gospel get mad, rise up, a riot breaks out, and they're making accusations against Paul. Look at Acts chapter 19, verse 26. They're talking about Paul, and they say, You see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and practically the whole province of Asia. Basically, this guy's saying, this guy's leading people everywhere to Christ. Large numbers of people. Now, Luke is intentional to show us quantitative growth in the church. People were being added to the church, large numbers of them. But even as much as Luke emphasizes the quantitative growth and emphasizes numbers over and over and over again, the majority of his time he spends talking about qualitative growth. Sure, there's some scattered verses where he talks about numbers, but think about where he spends the bulk of his time. In Acts chapter 3 and 4, he spends two chapters talking about how Peter and John reached out to a man that nobody else would reach out to, and his life was turned upside down. And he gives us a portrait of the quality of people that are there. In Acts chapter 5, the apostles start to get persecuted, and Luke gives us a description of all the things they went through. Then he comes to Acts chapter 5, verse 41, an incredible verse in the book of Acts, and he says, after they were persecuted, the apostles walked away, rejoicing. Think about that. They were becuted, but they were rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering for the name of Christ. Think about the quality of people that when they face persecution, they rejoice because they've been counted worthy to suffer for Christ. Very next two chapters, six and seven, show us a picture of a Grecian convert, Stephen, who proclaims the gospel and knows he's going to get stoned for it, and he dies, and he dies of stoning. Chapter 8 gives us a picture, a portrait of Philip, a guy who left everything to scatter out to Samaria and make the gospel known. Chapter 9, he gives us a portrait of Saul, the great persecutor of Christians, now turned into a great proclaimer of the gospel, and he focuses on Saul's complete turnaround. Acts chapter 10, he gives us a picture of how Peter's life was changed, and he began to share the gospel of the Gentiles, and a whole new face emerged in the church. And then from 11 all the way to 28, we see the growth of the church through all kinds of different people who are going everywhere proclaiming the gospel and saying things like Paul says in Acts 20, 24, when he's facing possible persecution, and he says, I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. This is quality. Look at the people that made up the early church. Yes, they were going in numbers. It was quantitative, but it was also qualitative. Now, the testimony of the early church at this point, I believe, beckons us to ask two questions, and one is far less important than the other. First, the less important question. The less important question that we need to ask is how many people are coming? How many people are coming? What are the numbers of people that are coming to worship, coming to the church? That's an important thing. If we're thinking about people that are coming to faith in Christ, it's good to see the numbers of people that are coming to faith in Christ. That's a good thing. However, we need to realize in a culture where bigger is better and more is better, we need to realize in the church that numbers alone do not indicate greatness. Numbers alone do not indicate greatness. You I'm convinced you can draw a crowd with almost anything in our culture. Whether it's a football game or a Tupperware party, you can you can draw a crowd. You can draw large numbers of people. And yeah, the churches with the best programs are crowded. But so are the best restaurants, and so are the best theaters because they all entertain. And what scares me when we look at the numbers of people that are coming, so we have to add a third service. What scares me is that numbers may indicate nothing more than the fact that we may just simply be putting on a good show week after week. That's what scares me. Because I know biblically numbers alone do not indicate they're great. The less important question is how many are coming. And that's usually how we equate success in the church. How many people are coming? Is the church growing? How many people are there? That's how we equate success in the church. But the all-important question is not how many are coming. The all-important question is what kind of people are we producing? That is the all-important question. Not how many people are coming, but what kind of people are we producing? Instead of asking how many people were here today, let's ask the question: how are we leading our families? How are we raising up men to honor God with the way they lead their wives and the way they lead their families? Are the men and women in this room honest in the way they do business? Are we a people trained with the gospel to proclaim the gospel? Do we know the word of God? Are we walking with God in prayer and study of his word, hiding it in our hearts? Is that the kind of people that we are producing? Are we producing people that are risking everything, risking their lives and their careers and their bank accounts and their reputation to penetrate this community with the gospel? Is that the kind of people we are producing? Because listen closely. I do not believe God will be satisfied if we draw and attract vast numbers of people, but only a few become producers for his kingdom. And that's a different way to look at growth. Not that quantitative is not important. Yes, we want people to come to faith in Christ. We want people to be drawn into the mission of Christ, undoubtedly. But not how many people are coming, but what kind of people are we producing? Quantitative and qualitative. Let's put them together. And maybe we'll start to see some of the things we're seeing in the book of Acts. Unifying and expanding, quantitative growth and qualitative growth.

Worship That Must Become Witness

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Third, they were worshiping and witnessing. Worshiping and witnessing. Now, this is something we talked about a few weeks ago, and we had to kind of go over it really quick because we were at the end of a sermon and I was out of time. So I want to bring it back to this. And I want us to see how they connected these two. And I want us to think about it in terms of the temple. If you got your Bibles, turn back to Acts chapter 3 and 4. We're going to look at that in just a second. What we've got to realize is coming into the New Testament, for the people of God, the temple was the primary place of worship. If you wanted to encounter the glory of God and the presence of God, you want to worship the temple. It wasn't just like a sanctuary, an auditorium. This was the place where you would go to worship at the temple. However, I'm convinced as we look in the New Testament church, the temple was no longer the primary place of worship for the early church. They knew when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple torn in two. We don't have to go to this place to encounter the glory of God. We have free access to God through Jesus Christ who died on the cross, rose from the grave. He is the intercessor between us and God, and we can come to Him directly in any place at any time. So they they worshiped from house to house and they conducted continual worship. It wasn't confined to what happened at that particular place. And I think that unified them. They unified through their worship. But what place, what role did the temple play then? Because we see them going to the temple at many times. Well, I'm convinced that instead of being the primary place of worship, the temple was the primary place of witness. You see, they unified through their worship, but they multiplied through their witness. They unified through their worship, multiplied through their witness. Let me show you this in Acts chapter 3 and 4. Peter and John go up to the temple. They heal this lame man. And he stands up and he comes and he grabs onto Peter and John. And verse 10 and 11 in chapter 3 say, or verse 11 in chapter 3 says, While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade at the temple. And when Peter saw this, he said to them, and he begins to preach, and he preaches the rest of the chapter and proclaims the gospel. What better place to go to proclaim the gospel than where all of these Jewish bel these Jewish folks are coming together to worship God who have missed out on the truth of Christ. Well, if they're going to gather there, then let's go into the middle of it and let's proclaim the gospel there. And so that's what they did. Over and over again, they would go to the temple for that. Look in Acts chapter 5. Look in Acts chapter 5. That's what they were doing, and they got in some trouble for it. And the leaders, religious leaders especially, were mad because these guys were preaching in the temple. And so look at what happens in Acts chapter 5, verse 17. Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go, stand where? In the temple courts, he said, and tell the people the full message of this new life. So at daybreak they entered the temple courts as they had been told, and they began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. Then someone came and said, Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts, teaching the people. At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. Don't you love that picture? They're preaching in the temple courts, teaching the people about Christ. Religious leaders get mad and say, We're going to put you guys in prison. No more of this. So they put them in prison. They go to bed for the night. They say, We're going to take care of this in the morning. They get up in the morning, they get all of their leaders together. They say, we're really going to let them have it now. Go get them from the jail. The guy comes back and says, They're not in the jail. Where are they? About this time, another guy comes in the scene and says, Hey, the guys that you arrested are out in the temple courts. They're preaching. These guys could not be stopped. Did you catch that? Their proclamation of the gospel could not be stopped. They had connected, worshiping and witnessing together. And yes, they broke bread together and ate together in their homes, praising God, continuing to worship over and over and over again, day after day. But they also couldn't be stopped in their proclamation of the gospel. After they are brought back before the leaders and they're persecuted, look at what happens in verse 42 of the same chapter. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. God help us to connect these two. We are a people who are known for our passion and worship. We're known for that. It's what has made us in many ways different. We're known for our passionate worship and worship. However, if our worship is not connected with witness, then our worship is empty. It is hollow. Don't miss this. Our worship is empty if it is disconnected from expression in the world. We cannot call what we have done tonight worship if it is disconnected from expression in our lives tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and so on until we gather again together. It's worshiping and witnessing. They put it together. And we've been known, we've prided ourselves in many ways on being known as a church that is passionate about worship, does an excellent job at worship. What would happen if we were a church that was known as a people who could not be stopped when it comes to proclaiming the gospel? You can't keep us quiet. You put us in jail, we got an angel, he's gonna come and get us out. You can't stop us from going into this community and telling people about the grace and the love and the mercy of Christ that we sing about every week. Let's put them together. If we don't, we'll miss out completely on the picture that we're seeing in the early church. Unifying and expanding, quantitative and qualitative, worshiping and witnessing. Fourth,

Gathered Sundays And Scattered Mondays

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I want you to see Jesus added to their number as they gathered and they scattered. Gathered and scattered. I know some of you that sounds like Waffle House terminology, and you're getting a little hungry for some hash browns. And I want you to see that just if that's where you are, I want you to see the beauty of the church in hash browns scattered, okay? All right, just follow with me here. They gathered and they gathered. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. They gathered and they scattered together back to the word, which is far more important than Waffle House. What I want you to see as you think about the early church is how the believers are seen many times as gathered together. In Acts chapter 4, they gather together for prayer. Acts chapter 12, they gather together for prayer for Peter who's in prison. Acts chapter 13, they gather together to pray and worship together, and they send Paul and Barnabas out. Acts chapter 15, the leaders of the church gather together to make some very important decisions. Acts chapter 20, Paul gathers together with the leaders of the church at Ephesus. So at different points, we definitely see them gathering together. However, the majority of the story of the early church in the book of Acts is spent describing how they scattered apart. Now listen closely. Luke is showing us that the power and the work of the Holy Spirit were most clearly seen when the early believers in the church scattered apart to make the gospel known. Let me repeat that. The power and the work of the Holy Spirit were most clearly seen when these believers scattered apart to make the gospel known. Over and over again we see that picture in Acts. And as I was studying that this week, I couldn't help but think that we have completely reversed this today. And we most often, for the most part, to confined the power and the work of the Holy Spirit to what happens when we gather together in these four walls on a Sunday evening. And we use phrases like, Well, the Holy Holy Spirit really moved in that service. Or did you sense the power of the Holy Spirit when we were singing that song? We talk about years past, we say, Don't you remember those services when the Spirit was so strong? Now don't miss it. That's biblically not a bad thing at all. The Spirit definitely was shown in power when they gathered together. And I pray that the Spirit is strong in our times when we gather together on Sunday evening. And I pray that we sense the power of the Holy Spirit when we sing and we study God's Word. I pray that that's there. However, if we expect the height of the power and the work of the Holy Spirit to happen in this room, then we missed the point. You know why? I believe one of the reasons is we don't see this kind of growth in the church today because we've confined the power and the work of the Holy Spirit to what happens within these four walls, and these four walls are just not there in the book of Acts. They weren't there. They didn't limit the Holy Spirit to work at this time and this place and the nice buildings they built. They gathered together from house to house. They preached the gospel from house to house and in the temple courts, they scattered apart to make the gospel known. And we missed this. I think, as I thought about this this week, I began to think about some misunderstandings I think we have in the church today that are part of the reason why we put so much emphasis on gathered and we forget about what happens when we scatter. I want you to share, I want to walk with us through two contemporary misunderstandings that I think affect the way we look at the church. Number one, don't miss this.

Breaking The Spectator Church Mindset

SPEAKER_01 33:44

We have a dangerous temptation to view staff as professional performers and members as amateur spectators. We view staff as professional performers and members as amateur spectators. Now here's what I mean by that. As I had the opportunity to travel and preach in a variety of churches and settings, I almost feel like it's an atmosphere where if you get you get near the end and you finish up and it's almost like you expect people to stand up and hold up a number. I give it an eight. It was pretty good. Or maybe, maybe this week, this that was a ten. Last week, not your A game, but this was a ten. Well, we're we'll we'll keep you. Or maybe we think, you know, music today, uh, about a seven, maybe six and a half. I liked most of the songs, those couple, uh really not my style. So I'll give music a seven. We laugh. Don't we look at worship that way? Sure, we don't hold up but numbers, but how many times we walk out of here thinking, well, how how was the show today? Or how was the performance today? Preacher? I'm sorry. Music is okay. We have a tendency to view staff as professional performers and members as amateur spectators. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an unbi unbiblical, cheap, and shameful way to approach church. And we need to repent of it. And the result is cheap Christianity. The result is cheap Christianity that misses out on the whole purpose of the church. Guy named Elton True Blood. Had a lot of incredible things to say about the church in the 20th century. I want you to hear what he said. He said, perhaps the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian church, the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all. And what is worse, do not think it strange that they are not. As soon as we recognize Christ's intention to make his church a militant company, we understand that at once the conventional arrangement cannot suffice. There is no real chance of victory in a campaign if 90% of the soldiers are untrained and uninvolved. But that is exactly where we stand now in the church. Most alleged Christians do not understand that loyalty to Christ means sharing personally in his ministry. And the truth is the majority of us in this room are not actively engaged in personal ministry. Bill Hall, a pastor out in California, who talks a lot about how disciple making needs to be at the center of the church, he said, American churches are filled with pew-filling, sermon tasting, spiritual schizophrenics whose belief and behavior are not congruent. It's a bold statement. He said it. I'm quoting him because he said it, and I was not bold enough to say it. But is it true? American churches are filled with pew-filling, sermon tasting, spiritual schizophrenics whose belief and behavior just don't add up. And I'll be honest with you. I'm at fault in part of this. And what I mean by that is I believe as leaders in the church, we have fostered an atmosphere where we are the ones that are called to ministry. And we're the ones that have gone through the training and done what we need to do to be called into ministry. And so that's our role, and you have a different role. And for that, I need to, we need to repent. And so I want to say to every member of the church at Brookhill, every member, you have the Spirit of God living inside of you. Christ Himself dwells in each and every one of you. And the power of his spirit is alive in you. And it is not necessary for every member to have seminary training or a staff position or X number of years and experience in ministry. You have everything you need in the Spirit and the Word to impact and penetrate this community with the gospel. You have everything you need. And as a result, there is no reason for you to settle for spiritual mediocrity. You're not here to fill a seat, to give an opinion, to pursue an agenda, or to sit idly still while a lost world passes you by. You have been called, you have been commanded to penetrate this community with the gospel, with what's been entrusted to you. And there is not, there is not one amateur spectator in God's family. Not one amateur spectator in the church. So don't live like it and don't give like it and don't serve like it. Honor the investment that Christ has made in your life. He has given you all of his riches. All that Christ has belongs to you. Use it. Use it for his glory. God help us to see that the power of the church is unleashed when members scatter. Second misunderstanding. And it goes right along with it. The second misunderstanding is this. We measure success more by what happens when we come in than by what happens when we go out. We've talked about this a little bit. Measure success by how many come in more than by what happens when we go out. By what happens when we come in and by what happens when we go out. Think about it with me. Obviously, in the early church, we're seeing in the book of Acts. The majority of the stories we see and the power and the work of the Holy Spirit is evidenced when they go out, not when they're coming in. We think about the work of the Holy Spirit. We use terms like revival. We have, traditionally, we have revival services. We gather together, we come in together, and we think about praying for God to move in power and for his spirit to awaken us and to revive us. We oftentimes think about that in terms of what's going to happen when we gather together. And as a result, we look forward to Sunday after Sunday with anticipation. Did you remember what God did last Sunday when we gathered together? Can't wait to see what he's going to do next week when we gather together. And next week when we gather together. And again, that's a good thing. We need to be anticipating what the Spirit of God does when we gather together. I pray that there will always be a sense of anticipation of what's going to happen next Sunday when we gather together. But what would happen if there was a greater sense of anticipation in our hearts for what's going to happen on Monday? Because all of us are going to go out tomorrow in this community, unleashed with the gospel of Christ, the power of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ and the Word of Christ. That's anticipation for what's going to happen on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. And then Sunday becomes a celebration as we gather together of everything that's happened when we scatter apart. And we've reversed this. We just kind of go Sunday to Sunday thinking about what's going to happen when we gather together. Think about it. Think about it in terms of, for example, leading people to faith in Christ. Leading people to salvation. When we gather together, we think, well, that's the time. We're going to pray that when David stands up and speaks and preaches, people are going to come to faith in Christ. And so if we pray before the Sunday service, we often pray, God, we pray for those who are in the service, who are there, that are not believers. We pray that they would come to faith in Christ. We pray that you would draw them to yourself, and that's what we pray for. And that's good. We should pray for that. And thankfully, people are coming to faith in Christ during the times we gather together on Sundays. However, is it wise for our primary evangelistic and growth strategy as a church to be bringing lost people in here to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ in this room? Is that wise? Now put it together. At that point, we have automatically, we've automatically relegated the primary responsibility for sharing the gospel to the professional performer and put it on the shoulders of one person. And if he gets the job done, great. If he doesn't get the job done, then something's wrong. And then take it a step deeper. Where is the greatest chance, the greatest likelihood of people coming to faith in Christ this week? By bringing some people who will come into this room for an hour and a half a week to hear one person stand up and speak to them? Or would it be a greater chance if 4,000 people from the church at Brook Hills scatter this week to rub shoulders day in and day out with lost people who need to hear the gospel? Where's the greatest chance to lead people to Christ? Where's the greatest chance to impact Birmingham with the gospel? Let's be honest. The majority of unbelievers, people who have not placed their faith in Christ, especially those who are hardened toward the gospel, will never come in this room. The majority will never come in this room. And that was never the evangelistic strategy of the church in Acts, and somewhere along the way it became the evangelistic strategy we use today. And we have created, I believe, an unhealthy dependence on the pastor to preach, give an invitation, see the lost people come down, they come to faith in Christ. Now the church is growing. On the contrary, we will see the church grow like the early church is growing when we preach the gospel. We know it in our hearts, we feel