NT Framework - Church Growth, Numbers of People or Maturity?

Spiritual Growth, in other words maturity? Growth in numbers of people? Growth in geographical reach? Yes. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Lesson Setup

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

Peter’s Claim About The Messiah

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Jesus, the Nazarene, you know, the despised one, who is he is the Messiah, and he did these things, um, and you crucified him, but God raised him. And so it's this it's this great sermon about their outlook on the Messiah versus God's outlook on Jesus. And so they had crucified him, but God had raised him. They had rejected him, but God had approved of him, and they need to make a decision.

Numerical Growth In Early Acts

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And as a result of that, there is a numerical increase in the church. You notice here in chapter 2, verse 41. It says, So then those who had received his word, that's Peter's word, were baptized. And that day there were added about 3,000 souls. That's probably better than most Billy Graham, you know, get togethers, right? That's a lot of people that became believers. Verse 44 says, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. I always point that verse out because many people are very confused about 238, where Peter said, Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They're all concerned about that. Uh they're confused and think, well, you've got to be water baptized. This is like the favorite verse of every church of Christ. It's in their top 100. It's the number one of the top 100 verses. Um, but if you notice, verse 44 doesn't say anything about all that stuff. It just says they believe. And um there's a reason for that. We're not doing a lot of theology right now, just describing that the fact that there was a numerical increase of 3,000 on that day that believed. So that's one type of growth. You can move over to chapter 4, verse 4, see another numerical increase or report. And also, of course, they we'll see, they believed. But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5,000. So that doesn't include women and children, does it? It just includes men. My estimate is at this time is about 20 to 25,000 by this point had believed in these early chapters of the book of Acts. And we can go on, chapter 6, verse 7. Interesting statement here of the numerical increase. It's often overlooked, forgotten. One of the groups that is opposed to Jesus in the Gospels are the Sadducees, and yet look right here what we see. It says the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And the priests were typically uh Sadducees. Um, so they were no longer sad, you see, because they became obedient to the faith, and that means, of course, that they had believed the command to believe. Okay, so there's numerical increase. That's one way in which the church grows through the book of Acts. It's a healthy way for the church to grow. We should be growing, you know, numerically today.

Geographical Expansion And Church Planting

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Uh, second type of growth is geographical. That's obvious from just the outline in Acts 1.8, right? It would begin in Jerusalem, then go to Judea and Samaria, and then to the remotest parts of the earth. So there's a geographical expansion or growth, and that is indicated throughout the book of Acts. It's very, very healthy. That means this type of growth requires, of course, numerical growth. You have to have people who become believers in new areas, new geographical regions. Um, so it also includes then, in addition to people, it includes the planning of churches. That's important to duplicate yourself, right? And then the last type of growth, of course, is spiritual growth.

Spiritual Growth Through Prayer And Boldness

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We can see that in chapter 4, verse 31 to 32. 4, 31 to 32. Notice the descriptions of what it looks like when you have believers uh growing. It says, and when they had prayed, the place for first of all prayer, that's the theme this year, right? So here they are corporately together praying. The place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. That's related to spiritual growth. And they began to speak the word of God with boldness. That's an aspect of spiritual growth. Speaking of boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, meaning unity, they had unity, and not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And so, anyway, this is their outlook toward others, toward giving. All these are related, of course, to spiritual growth, and it's just an example from the book of Acts of a description of this third type of growth. Look over to Acts 6, 10 as well. You can see in uh Stephen in the early church, tremendous um apologists for the Christian faith. He says in chapter 6, verse 10, but they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen was speaking. So he was able to articulate the Word of God uh in such a way that the students of rabbinic Judaism could in no way compete with him. And that's because he had tremendous spiritual growth. So this is just an example of the third type of growth that was occurring in the early church. And these are all healthy and important aspects of spirit of growth that we want to see transpire. Christ said he would build his church. I believe it requires these three types of building, right? Numerical building, geographical expansion building, and spiritual

Three Growth Markers And Closing

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building.

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Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.