Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050206.htm

THE BIBLICAL GROWTH OF THE LOCAL CHURCH
Part I: Growing By STARTING With Steadfastly Continuing In Scripture Exposition
(Matthew 16:18 with Acts 1:8; 2:40-42a)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Our Annual Meeting on January 28, 2005 was characterized by an extensive discussion on our Church's growth and ministry programs.

(1) On the one hand, concern was voiced about our need to avoid the unbiblical "seeker-friendly" tendencies of developing programs for unbiblical reasons as described as follows:

(a) Dave Hunt reports that "Mega-churches across the country have added bowling alleys, NBA regulation basketball courts with bleachers, exercise gyms and spas, locker rooms, auditoriums for concerts and dramatic productions, and Starbucks and McDonald's franchises -- all for the furtherance of the gospel." (cf. Hunt, The Berean Call, "The Seeker-Friendly Way of Doing Church," March 2004, p. 1). Yet, such developments often dilute the Church's spiritual impact; Hunt observes: " . . . the message of the Cross is 'foolishness to them that are perishing' and . . . Christ himself is a 'rock of offense' (1 Cor. 1:18; 1 Pt. 2:8). Some seeker-friendly churches, therefore, aim to avoid this 'negative aspect' by making the temporal benefits of becoming a Christian their chief selling point. Although that appeals to our gratification-oriented generation, it is neither the gospel nor the goal of a believer's life in Christ." (Ibid.)

(b) Another problem in "seeker-friendly" churches is their failure to attract the unsaved as is their main goal: in the last 70 years, 43% of America's population has attended Church, a number that has been fairly constant except for a spike up to 49% in 1991 only for it to return to its present and lower 42% of today, Ibid., p. 2.

(c) Then, "seeker-friendly" churches have often actually hurt the Christian community as a whole! Hunt reports most people flocking to "seeker-friendly" churches come "Mostly from smaller churches that aren't interested in or that can't afford the fleshly attractions" exhibited by these "seeker-friendly" mega-churches (Ibid.)

(2) On the other hand, the question was raised at our Annual Meeting as to whether we could have some program development above what we have and still avoid such "seeker-friendly" errors?

Well, CHRIST predicted HE WOULD BUILD His Church in Matthew 16:18, so there MUST be a BASIS for BIBLICALLY CORRECT local church GROWTH in SOME WAY!

So, we begin a sermon series from the Word on the issue . . .

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "From past sermons, I know 'seeker friendly' church growth is unbiblical and even counterproductive. Yet, JESUS claimed HE would BUILD His Church in Matthew 16:18, so I wonder what GOD might want ME to do to PROMOTE its CONSTRUCTION?"
  1. Church growth is something JESUS said HE WOULD ACHIEVE in Matthew 16:18; it WILL OCCUR, so we best ADJUST to it!
  2. Well, GOD'S TRUE Church growth STARTS with a HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERED STEADFAST ADHERENCE to Scripture exposition on the part of BELIEVERS, Acts 1:8; 2:40-42a:
    1. Jesus revealed the building of the Church would be done through His disciples by the indwelling Spirit's power, Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8.
    2. Thus, when the Holy Spirit came on the believers at Pentecost, this discipling process began, and we can trace its practical functions in spirit-controlled believers as follows: (Acts 2:1-4, 8-12, 13-16)
      1. When the Holy Spirit arrived to empower Christ's believers, and they began to speak in other human languages supernaturally (Acts 2:1-4, 8-12), some of the onlookers errantly mocked this miracle, claiming it was the result of sinful drunkenness, Acts 2:13.
      2. So, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter defended the event's validity by expounding Old Testament passages, Acts 2:14-16 et al.
      3. The Apostle Peter applied his exposition, revealing his hearers needed to repent and believe in Christ Whom they had crucified to receive God's blessing and escape His judgment, Acts 2:36-40.
      4. Around 3,000 hearers heeded Peter's words, were baptized and joined the fellowship of the other 120 believers, Acts 2:41; 1:15.
      5. This growth of the Church did not end with the addition of the 3,000, for after the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:47 KJV reveals God kept on adding "to the church daily such as should be saved"!
      6. Well, the practical INGREDIENTS to this growth of the Church are laid out for us in Acts 2:42-47, and the FIRST ingredient out of which the others arose was the Holy Spirit powered STEADFAST ADHERENCE to Bible exposition (as follows):
        1. The first ongoing human practice that occurred following the influx of the 3,000 converts into the Church was the steadfast continuing of believers in the apostle's doctrine, Acts 2:42a.
        2. Studying this phrase reveals the nature of that first step in effective, Biblical Church growth (as follows), Acts 2:42a: (a) the words, "continued steadfastly" (KJV; "devoted themselves" NIV) comes from the Greek verbal participle, proskarterountes, meaning holding fast to something or continually being in, U.B.S. Grk. N.T., 1966 ed., p. 424; T.D.N.T., v. III, p. 618-619. (b) Since this participle is present in tense, the hearers were regularly practicing adherence to the apostles' teachings. (c) Now, the expression, the "apostles' doctrine" KJV ("apostles' teaching" NIV) to which the hearers attached themselves comes from the Greek word, didachay, meaning the whole body of truth about Christ taught by the Apostles, Ibid., v. II, p. 164. (d) In summary, the Early Church began to grow and develop both spiritually and numerically as its apostles and their hearers all filled with the Spirit continually held fast in BELIEF and continually gave themselves TO the Bible exposition ministry and application of its truths concerning Jesus Christ!
Application: To JOIN God's BIBLICAL growth of the Church that HE PREDICTED HE would DO, and that with God's great PERSONAL blessing in our OWN efforts, (1) WE must trust in the Bible's truth on salvation by faith in Christ to be INDWELT by the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Romans 8:9b; Acts 1:8. (2) Then, those (a) GOD has called and raised up to EXPOUND His Word (b) must DO so (c) in conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit's leading and power, (d) doing so on a REGULAR basis (Acts 6:2-4, 7) (e) while STRICTLY UPHOLDING that TRUTH; then, (3) the REST of the body must (a) REGULARLY give itself to (b) UPHOLD that truth and (c) HEAR the ONGOING efforts of its EXPOSITION BY these EXPOSITORS, Acts 2:42. (4) This FIRST STEP is USED by God to START His TRUE Church growth at the local church level, cf. Acts 2:42a with 2:47.

Lesson: (1) Though we must NOT follow a "seeker-friendly" kind of unbiblical Church growth effort, GODLY growth and development of the Church DOES occur under CHRIST'S lead, Matthew 16:18. (2) Yet, DISTINCT from FALSE growth patterns, (a) GOD STARTS to build the Church as (b) Holy Spirit CONTROLLED messengers (c) AND hearers (d) STEADFASTLY ADHERE TO and (e) CONTINUE IN their various roles in the Church's BIBLE EXPOSITION about Christ, Acts 2:16-36.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 God wants to apply this sermon to each of us with rich blessings in our ministry efforts as these two testimonies will testify:

(1) As Pastor of Nepaug Church, some of you will recall that I'm the one who introduced the "way-out" dream mentioned in our recent Annual Meeting of building a gymnasium for family ministr ies!

Well, efforts to "sell" the dream to the congregation failed to where, early on September 9, 1990, I mumbled out loud: "I'm just spinning my wheels" in staying in this pastorate! Five minutes later, I was involved a serious car accident that landed me in a hospital Intensive Care Unit where I could do nothing BUT STAY at Nepaug!

Though it took me years to understand all God's lessons from this event, a key lesson was that God wanted to build this Church HIS way where I was to be focused on expounding His Word, NOT on pushing building projects (as follows): a few years later, my wife and I visited Warsaw, Indiana where we viewed the vacant lot where the Billy Sunday Tabernacle once stood and where he led many people to Christ. In returning to Connecticut and sitting in my study thinking about that vacant lot, I realized only eternal values mattered! Finally, I prayed, "God, if you want me to spend the rest of my life expounding Scripture here at Nepaug Church , that's fine! I just want Your will!"

Weeks later, a computer was put my office so I could save my messages on it. Then the internet came to be, and those sermons were put on our web site where 1,700 of them are used to serve the world to the tune of nearly 100,000 "hits" per year! God vastly "grew" my work as I yielded to HIS will to EXPOUND His Word at THIS Church!

(2) Then, one of our Church members sent me this e-mail last Wednesday: "I was thinking about the adult Sunday school lesson a minute ago. I had a question . . . [about it] . . . It was a great blessing to be able to pop out to the [Church] web site and look it up. That quick clarification allowed me to move on in my mind to the next logical thought that I was trying to reach where I couldn't have with out the insight [gained from that viewing of the lesson] . . ." (brackets ours)

So, to the DEGREE we Bible teachers AND their hearers EACH heed God's will to PROCLAIM and APPLY BIBLE EXPOSITION in our Church, GOD will RICHLY BLESS our WORKS regardless WHO we are or WHAT our TASKS may be!