Characteristics of Church

Christ, we have always held to the principle that the Bible contains the inspired teachings, the inspired inferences, the inspired examples necessary to provide us with patterns that would guide us in living and serving God in acceptable manner. That's called pattern theology. Bruce and I were talking about that this morning. We're talking about pattern theology. You look the idea is that you look in the bible, and in the bible, you have, like, a blueprint that gives you, instructions on how to do things.

Not everything, but certain things. And if we follow the pattern from generation to generation, we will be able to reproduce the very same church from generation to generation as existed in the 1st century. Now the the same traditions won't be there. The same cultural customs may not survive from generation to generation. However, what is important, what is biblical, what is of the holy spirit, this will maintain from one generation to the other.

That's the idea of pattern, theology. Now when it comes to the plan of salvation, for example, or church organization, or perhaps a code of conduct, or the role of different people, the role of elders in the church, role of women in the church. I think we've done a good job in adhering to this idea of following the pattern, pattern theology. But somehow I've noticed that when it comes to this question of church growth, how to make the church grow, often we ignore the pattern that is in the new testament for church growth and substitute it for human ideas or denominational ideas or man made ideas to make the church grow. Somehow we throw the book out and we go to the library, and we pick out another book by a human being to teach us how to make the church of Christ grow in a in a natural way.

Or perhaps we rely on some charismatic leader within our own brotherhood to tell us, his idea of how the church, should grow. And so every couple of years, you know, somebody comes out with a new book, that tells us this. Well, I'm here to tell us this morning to remind us that the Bible has a plan for salvation yet. It has a pattern for church organization, but also it has a generic or basic plan for normal church growth. When I say normal church growth, I mean normal meaning biblical church growth versus manufactured or artificial growth through human methods.

If you're wondering where this pattern is located, it's probably in a passage of scripture that we've read more times than any other. It's in the book of Acts. Surprise. Chapter 2. So if you have your bible, we're gonna do a kind of a textual study of the book of Acts chapter 2, and what we're looking at is the pattern for church growth according to the New Testament.

Well, if you were not that I'm doing it on purpose to to to get it down to these three factors, but, there are really three characteristics, 3, three basic ideas that we need to follow, 3, pillars, if you wish, that support church growth that is described here in acts, chapter, chapter 2. First of all, in order for the church to grow, it must, number 1, preach the gospel to the lost with the view that the lost repent and are baptized. Isn't that simple? You want Choctaw to grow? Rule number 1, begin preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost so that the lost will repent and be baptized.

A good example of this basic principle of church growth is found in Peter's sermon, Acts chapter 2. And if you if you look at the context here, you'll see that Peter is preaching to the lost. Note that when he preaches here in Acts chapter 2, he is, firmly convinced that the people he is talking to are lost. Excuse me. Firmly convinced that the people he's preaching to are lost.

He has no doubt about his audience in any way. And, he didn't direct his message to the apostles. He didn't direct it to some generic group out here. The people in front of him were not in Christ, and so he directed his message towards them. I want us to look at Acts chapter 2 and begin in verse 22.

And read the passage to until 36 because that's the heart of his sermon. He says, men of Israel, listen to these words. Alright? That's his introduction. I commend the 2 brothers.

He he doesn't start. He starts, men of Israel, listen to these words. He says, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. And God raised him up again putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, I was always beholding the Lord in my presence, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted. Moreover, my flesh also will abide in hope, because thou wilt not abandon thy my soul to hate it, nor allow thy holy one to undergo decay. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

And so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seek one of his descendants upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you have crucified.

Long passage. Don't usually read a long passage like that in a in a sermon. Not a good idea. You kind of lose the attention of of people when you do that, but I wanted to share with you the very words of Peter as he preached his very first lesson to the lost. And I wanted you to note what he was doing.

First of all, as I mentioned, he was preaching the gospel to the lost with a view to repentance and baptism. I mentioned that he was preaching to the lost. But note what he was preaching. Note what he said to them. He said, first of all, that Jesus was the Christ.

This person died, was buried, and resurrected. And his conclusion based on the history of this event was that Jesus is the Christ, is the lord, is the savior. You know, that is the very beginning point in any discussion. Whenever we talk to somebody, whenever we talk about church growth, whenever we go out and begin to preach the gospel, the very first point that we need to establish is, who is Jesus? When this issue is resolved, other things fall into place.

You know, a lot of people ask me, you know, they they know that I have a Catholic background, so they say, how do I work with a Catholic person? Or, someone says, you know, someone's a Methodist or someone's an atheist. You know, they say, well, how do I work with with an atheist? Or how do I work with someone that has another religious point of view? And my answer to them is, ask them the question, who is Jesus?

That's the beginning point. That's the beginning point because that was the beginning point with Peter. He established firmly that Jesus Christ, first of all, died, was buried, and was resurrected. He also established the idea that Jesus, the lord and Christ, was raised up from the dead, not just, Jesus was a nice guy. Jesus is, you know, we're gonna sing some songs about Jesus or as as as I was raised, Catholic Jesus.

You know, as a Catholic, Jesus was either a little baby or he was the son of Mary, but he was never the lord. And so the point I'm trying to make here, the point that Peter was making was that Jesus Christ was the lord and the savior. In Romans chapter 1 verse 16, Paul says that the gospel is the power of god unto salvation. The preaching of Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is the beginning point. It's the place we begin when we want to have, church growth.

It's always the first step in bringing someone to Christ. Another thing that Peter did in his in his, preaching was that he preached with the view, to repentance and baptism. In verse 37, I want us to continue. In verse 37 of of chapter 2, you know, in 22 to 36, he establishes the identity of Jesus. Who is this Jesus?

He is the lord in Christ. He died. He was resurrected. He is now the lord in Christ. In verse 37, we see the response of the crowd and they say, now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do?

Now I want you to notice the answer. Peter said to them, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter knew from the very beginning of his sermon where he was going with his lesson. He was going towards the repentance and the baptism of his hearers. That was the objective.

The objective was that eventually the hearers would ask the question and he would be able to give them the conclusion, the so what of his lesson. So what, they said to him. So what that Jesus is the Lord? What do we do now? And he answered, repent every one of you and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Notice that he didn't hesitate. Notice that he was firm in his response to the question of how one must be saved. You know, I dare say, if Peter was alive today in this world of denominationalism, do you think his answer would be any different? Do you think Peter the apostle would stand and say raise your hand or come forward or accept Jesus into your heart as your savior? Do you think that would be his answer?

Why do we think that we need to change this answer that is written so boldly in black and white for us here in the book of Acts? If Peter were alive in this world today, his answer would be none other. As a matter of fact, in Acts chapter 2 verse 40, it says, and with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Luke tells us that Peter urged them to respond. No compromise with the truth.

And in verse 41, we see the result of such clear, straightforward preaching. In verse 41, it says, so then those who had received his word, what word did they receive? A clear instruction to repent and be baptized. Those people that received that word, it says, were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And so when we talk about church growth and the pattern in the New Testament for church growth, the first step in the New Testament pattern for normal church growth is to begin preaching the resurrected Jesus as the savior of the lost with the view that those who hear the word will repent and be baptized.

No other answer, no other sermon, and no other possible answer, no compromise on this issue. Now we can look at strategies for doing this, you know, on the radio, on TV, door knocking, pamphlets, visitation, whatever. There are a lot of strategies in order to do to accomplish this first step and that changes from generation to generation. But what does not change is the content of the message and the expected response. More damage has been done to the church because we have compromised on the response that we expect.

If if someone says, what must I do to be saved? Then we kinda shrug our shoulders and say, well, I don't know. I'm well, I'm not sure. But how do you expect them to respond? And so if we want this church to grow, this congregation to grow, every single person sitting here must give the answer that Peter gave with someone, a husband, a wife, a mom, a sister, a brother, a neighbor, a friend at school, a coworker, when they say, what must I do to be saved?

And they don't always say it in exactly those words, but they say it like that. When they ask that question, when you get the $64 question slapped down in front of you, please give the response that the Holy Spirit gave. There's no salvation without repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Secondly, second pillar, second support mechanism, second whatever you want to call it. The second, item in normal in the pattern of normal church growth is that we need to teach everything that Jesus commanded.

Isn't this simple? I'm not bringing a new teaching here. This is so simple. Matthew in chapter 28 verse 20, what does Jesus say to his, disciples as he leaves them and gives them the command to go out and preach the gospel and baptize everybody? What is the additional command that he gives them in Matthew chapter 28 verse 20?

It says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. Now in the book of Acts, in chapter 2, in verse 42, we read, and they work now it says they were baptized. And in Acts chapter 2 verse 42, those people who were baptized, it says, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. What do you think the apostles were teaching? They were teaching the things that Christ had taught them.

They were obeying what Christ had told them to do in Matthew chapter 28. The disciples were giving themselves over to teaching the disciples, and the disciples were continually devoting. You know that Greek word continually devoting? It's interesting. It's it's not just kinda sitting around waiting till it's over.

If you want a picture of that word, it's as if, you're on a sail ship, on a sailboat, and you're in the middle of a storm. I don't know about you, but if there if I was on a sailboat and I was in the middle of a storm and there were 80 mile an hour winds, you know where I'd be? I'd have my legs and my arms wrapped around the mainsail. That's where I'd be. That's that's this word continually devoting, right, in the Greek, the the the force of that word is continually they were wrapped around the teaching.

The idea was they weren't just listening in order to to become intellectual about the Word of God. They were listening in order to save their very lives. The point here that I'm trying to make with this is that many times we get used to attending Bible study, but we lose the perspective when we make attending church the objective. Like, I went to church today. I did what I had to do.

And, hey. I even went to bible study today. I did what I had to do. We forget we forget that attending church, attending bible study, coming to the devotional, whatever that is, that's the means. That's not the objective.

The objective of coming to the bible study is to learn something that you will be able to apply, that we will be able to apply in our lives every single day. It's the same thing with teachers. The point for teachers is not just to get through the material. The point with teachers is that they have something to say, that there is an objective for the lesson. So that in the lesson, there's the, what I call, the so what factor.

When I was trained in in school and took classes on the hermeneutics and expository preaching, all that kind of stuff, our professor would say to us, what's the point? What are you saying? Is it just a bunch of words? Is it just a bunch of religious ideas strung together for 30 minutes so you can get in and get out and pick up your paycheck? That's not what it's about.

You've got to make a point. The same idea for teachers in Bible class, whether you're teaching toddlers or teaching from the pulpit, there's got to be a point. And the point is conveying the things that Jesus Christ taught us with conviction and enthusiasm and sincerity. Teachers have to have a point to their lessons. Students have to get the point and the point is to put into practice what the teachers are saying.

And so the second step in the New Testament pattern for church growth is a situation where godly men are teaching the church everything that Christ taught and the church receives the teaching and puts it into practice. Without this willingness to put into practice, there is no growth. You cannot have growth without the willingness to put into practice the things that, that teaches that that Christ teaches. We don't grow just by coming to church. That's not what makes the church grow.

What makes the church grow is when every individual gets the point and puts the point into practice on Monday morning. Then the church begins to grow. 3rd, 3 things, preach the gospel to the lost, teach everything that Christ taught us. That's the second point. 3rd, Create a fellowship Create a fellowship among the believers.

Create a fellowship among the believers. Normal biblical church growth occurs when different people share common spiritual things in love. Luke describes the type of sharing that generated growth in that first dynamic congregation established in Jerusalem through the preaching of Peter to the lost. Yes. They preached to the lost.

Okay? That got them in. And, yes, they began to teach them all the things that Christ had told them to teach, and that began the growth process. The yeast began. But to continually build up this church into something workable, something visible, something Christ like required the creation of a fellowship of believers.

Now the word fellowship means sharing, and the church grows when the church begins to share 5 things. Five things. You thought it was over. I was at the 3rd point, and I've added 5 more points. 5 things very quickly, however, 5 things that we have to share if we're gonna grow.

First of all, we have to share fellowship. Acts chapter 2, we're still in Acts chapter 2 verse 42. He says that they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, talked about that already, and to fellowship. They devoted themselves to fellowship. They shared their time together.

They devoted as much to this as the teaching of the apostles. You ever notice sometimes they say, well, we'll have 50 minutes of teaching and 5 minutes of fellowship. Why not 10 minutes of teaching and 40 minutes of fellowship? Sometimes. Why not?

It's biblical. There's a conjunction there. It says the teaching and equally the fellowship. Fellowship is important. I dare say that many times people come to church more for the fellowship than for the teaching.

And I see a lot of heads nodding. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I'm just kidding. But I think the type of fellowship that they're talking about here or that Luke is talking about here is the positive kind of peer group teaching whereby example and encouragement and common labor and service and leisure, we spend the hours of our lives together.

Brothers and sisters, you cannot build a relationship when the only time together is listening to a sermon on Sunday. Where is the relationship here? This is the teaching part. This is not the fellowship part. And this part has its place.

It's necessary. It's point number 2. I'm not evangelizing here. I'm teaching here. I'm teaching you something about the Bible.

This is a proper setting for it. But this isn't fellowship. The church cannot grow without fellowship. These people devoted their lives to sharing their time together, and and we have to sometimes manufacture that, a picnic here and an outing there and a care group here. We're gonna talk about that later.

That whole business of forcing ourselves to be together rather than to be with the world is what Luke is talking about here in Acts chapter 2 verse 42. They devoted themselves to fellowship. They devoted themselves also to communion and to fellowship. They devoted themselves also to communion and prayer, something that we have just done. Right?

It says in Acts 242, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. They shared their common expression of faith and devotion to God. And when you do that, that doesn't build up God, that builds up each other. That's why we sing to one another. When we're all singing together, we encourage one another.

They presented a united public witness of their hope in Jesus Christ. In 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26, Paul says that every time you take the bread and the cup, what do you do? You proclaim his death until he comes. Now I ask you something, who are you proclaiming the death to? Not to each other.

We're proclaiming the death of Christ to the world. This is our sit in. This is our demonstration. We're having a demonstration here in this morning. That's what we're doing.

We don't have signs. We're not marching around the building. But what we are doing by being here is we are making a public demonstration of our faith. We're saying to the world, the people here in this building are awaiting the return of a risen Christ. That's our demonstration.

That's what Paul is talking about. And that public demonstration builds us up together, encourages our faith, and also builds up the church in the eyes of the community. Do you know what would happen if all of it? You know what happens every time you add on to a building, you make it bigger, you put on more parking space, the car imagine if the parking lot were jammed in the back, and there there would be cars all along, Choctaw Road, and then we'd have to have a policeman to direct traffic because there were so many people. People would say, what is going on in that building?

Maybe we need to go see what's going on. Did you ever think about that? See, that's the kind of building up that we're talking about. Prayer and worship also evokes blessings from God. Not only does it build up the brethren, not only does it build up the church and the community, but it also evokes blessings from God.

250 people are sitting here praying, God, please bless us. You don't think he's gonna hear that prayer? You don't think the blessings are are are not gonna come because of that? Because we remember his son, because we offer praise, because we help the poor, because we do those things? Of course, they are.

In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25, the writer commands faithfulness to the assembly. He says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. But that's not for the sake of numbers. That's for the purpose of growth. Faithfulness and devotion to worship is a direct contribution to church growth because it builds each other up.

It builds the church up in the community and it draws blessings from God Almighty. Thirdly, they share their possessions. In verse 43 to 45, it says, and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. They shared their worship.

They shared their fellowship. They shared their possessions. Not just by communistic means. This wasn't communism here. A lot of people say, oh, the early church was communist.

No. No. No. No. What they shared was the responsibility to meet the needs present in the church.

Not everybody could give equally, but everybody could sacrifice equally. Every we can all do that, can we? We do a collection here, not everybody gives the same, but we can all sacrifice the same. My $10 might be worth your $100, That might be a big sacrifice for me. Maybe your $100 is a sacrifice for you.

As long as we're sacrificing equally, that's what counts. And that's what this church had. They shared equally. It wasn't the money that they shared commonly. It was the responsibility to meet needs that they shared.

Each was his brother's keeper. And in this, the love for one another grew and stimulated growth in each other. Number 4, they shared emotions. In verse, 46, it says, and day by day continuing with 1 mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness, joy, and sincerity of heart. You know, the church or the body was the emotional center of their lives.

That's why they grew. Today, many times what happens is that I have my job in the middle, like a wheel, and one spoke is my family, another spoke is my leisure, another spoke is the church, another spoke is sports, another spoke is, you know, whatever, my second job. Okay? And if the my the center job starts to get too big and I have to remove a spoke, well, maybe I'll pull out sports or maybe I'll pull out family, maybe I'll pull out church. But this church, this New Testament church that we talk about so much, this church had at the center of its core Jesus Christ and around that, the church.

And into the church was plugged in family and work and leisure and sports and other things. The church was the the emotional center point of their lives. You see, the thing that has first priority in our lives usually develops and grows faster than the lesser priorities. With 250 people have as the center point of their lives, Jesus Christ and his church, can you imagine how fast something like that will grow and how strong it will grow? And I know I can almost hear the wheels turning.

Yeah. But I gotta work. I didn't say hours in the center. I said your heart is in the center. Not your body.

Your body has got to get itself to work. That's true. I said your heart. You see, that's why the church doesn't grow because our heart is not in it. Our body is in it a couple of hours a week, but our heart is not in it.

This church had its heart in it. Then finally, they shared a common witness, a common witness. These people had a good witness in the community. Verse 47, it says, you know, they were, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people with all the people. These people stood together as 1.

They were growing as a mutually edifying unit, and the community at large saw this as a positive thing. I want you to note one thing about Acts chapter 2, the community saw the church as a positive thing. Right? But this church in Jerusalem hadn't done one single thing for the community yet. It hadn't run any daycare programs.

It hadn't given out any food to the community. It hadn't done anything. The church was impressed with them just by how they treated one another. They had a tremendous witness with the community. A lot of times we think that fellowship has only to do with potlucks or bowling parties or a on Friday night, but fellowship is one of the key ingredients to church, to church growth.

I could say that church growth does not really begin until the church becomes totally integrated together as a spiritual and emotional and physical and financial unit. We have to have that's that's what we're talking about when we talk about unity. A lot of times in the church, we can form unity with conformity. We think conformity is unity. You know, everybody got to do everything together.

That's Catholicism. That's not unity. Unity is when we're together in these areas. Now I'm hurrying a little bit because we need to have another special announcement here. Let me just summarize this.

Let's just summarize this. Let me just summarize this. If I were to ask you it's not a fair question because the answer, of course, would be yes. Who says they don't wanna grow? To grow?

I would say, do you want Choctaw to grow? And if the answer to that is yes, then we have to go to the Bible and we have to find the pattern for growth in the Bible. Well, the pattern for growth in the body, we want to grow, has 3 steps. 1, we have to consistently and insistently preach the gospel to the lost with the view that those people repent and be baptized. Number 2, we have to teach the saved to obey Jesus Christ in everything.

And number 3, we have to create a fellowship among believers where the believers enthusiastically share their fellowship, their worship, their responsibility, their emotions and a public witness together. When we when we get those things working, the church will you know, I'm against these, baptism charts. No offense. I don't know if you've ever done that here, but I'm against it. It.

I don't believe we said, this year we're gonna have 50, 75 baptisms. I don't believe that that's that's wrong. I believe that that's the Lord's word. Because if we begin preaching to the lost, if we begin to teach and actually listen to what's being said and do it, if we begin creating a fellowship of believers, if we do that, then the Lord will add to this number every single day. Because that's what it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 47.

It says, and and they were preaching, they were teaching and learning, they were having fellowship. And what happened? Luke says, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. The baptism, the getting into the water, the Lord will provide those as we do his work. Alright.

Goal set. We're finished with this. Goal setting. If we're gonna talk about goals here, and I'm being very specific, then we have the leadership, and our leadership are our elders. Leadership asked the question, how and where will we preach Christ to the lost?

We don't ask how many baptisms we're gonna have this year. That's the Lord's work. We ask how and where will we preach Christ to the lost? How are we gonna do it and where are we gonna do it? And the church response should be, when do we begin and where do I serve?

Maybe I'm not the best Bible teacher, but I can hand out a track, or I can do this, or I can do that. In goal setting, the leadership asks, what will we teach the church that it has not yet been taught or that it has not obeyed? What have we not obeyed yet? And the church response is, is it Christ's teaching? And if it is, what must I do to obey?

And then finally, in order to set proper goals here, the leadership asks, how can we become more tightly knit as a family in Christ? And the church response is, what must I do to devote myself more fully to the body? Is it faithfulness? Is that what I need to create this fellowship? Is it giving?

Have I been neglecting my giving? Is it service? Am I just sitting in the pew or am I doing something? Is it purity? Maybe what's hurting the church is my impurity.

Maybe it's my secret habit or my secret sin that nobody in the church knows, but God knows. And that's what's holding it back. I don't know. What must I do in order to respond to what the, what the elders are saying more fully? Now, Harold, brother Harold is gonna come up and speak just for a moment here about this last point in a minute.

And I want us to realize that what he is doing fits into the biblical pattern. This care group business and all of this has to do with creating a fellowship of service, a fellowship of mutual identification that the elders feel is not happening the way it needs to happen in order for the church to grow. Now it's a long actually, my my sermon is a long introduction to his 5 minutes speech. But listen carefully to what he's saying and what he's about to say because it fits exactly into this point. It's not something that's just floating out there.

It's not just something that somebody dreamt up. It has to do with the care and the growth of this church and very specifically has to do with the creating this fellowship that is not happening and needs to happen if the church is going to be healthy and it's going to grow properly. Well, I personally hope that this lesson will help you to grow, that you understand where you're at and what you need to do personally in order for the church to grow. And, of course, I make the invitation that, certainly, the church will grow by one soul. If there's someone sitting out there that has not yet confessed the name of Jesus Christ, has not yet acknowledged that they are sinners and ready to be buried in the waters of baptism for forgiveness.

If if you're among those who have not yet obeyed the gospel, we encourage you to do so, to come forward. Jeff has selected a song as we do as is our custom each Sunday. We encourage you to come forward and respond to that. And after that song, brother Harold just has a few words to spare with you. Thank you.