Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sunday, September 28, 2008: How Churches Grow

How Churches Grow
Acts 13: 32 – 52.

I. Introduction.

Last week, I shared with you the five purposes of the church: worship, evangelism, discipleship, missions and fellowship. I have heard these purposes cited by numerous sources for many years, so I cannot really tell you where they came from.

I am a little embarrassed to confess that I have recently gone through a kind of philosophical shift in my understanding of these five purposes. I think it happened about three or four years ago.

For the first several years of my ministry as a youth minister, associate pastor and pastor, I viewed these five purposes in what I might call a “cafeteria style.” Kind of like when you eat at Luby’s. No one can eat everything they serve at Luby's. You go through the line and you pick and choose what you want to put on your plate. I used to think churches could pick and choose which of these five purposes they would put on their plates. For example, a church might concentrate on worship, discipleship and fellowship; but choose not to concentrate on evangelism and missions. Or, another church might concentrate on evangelism and missions; but leave worship, discipleship and fellowship to someone else.

The reason I had this kind of “cafeteria style” view of the church, is because that is what I had experienced in real life. There are a lot of churches who think God has called them to fulfill some of these purposes while neglecting the others. That might be what we experience in the real world, but it is not what God intends. God calls us as a church to be involved in each of these five purposes. We cannot do part of the work and expect some other church or organization to pick up the slack. No. God intends for each church to fulfill each of these purposes: worship, evangelism, discipleship, missions and fellowship.

One of the beautiful things about the five purposes for the church is how obvious it seems. No one can really argue against any of the purposes. But, maybe you have been like me. Have you thought of church in terms of a cafeteria? Some churches concentrate on worship. Other churches concentrate on evangelism. Others concentrate on discipleship, missions or fellowship.

In my opinion, too many churches in the United States think we have cafeteria choices. There are too many churches who want to be worship, discipleship and fellowship churches. Too many churches want to concentrate their programs, budgets and activities ONLY on themselves. These churches are really no different from a social club, taking care of the needs of club members while the rest of the world goes to hell.

Worship, discipleship and fellowship are the ways we take care of our members. Evangelism and missions are the ways we reach beyond ourselves to the people around us. Through missions, we extend the Good News of salvation to people who will never enter into our church. We preach the Good News to people who are geographically or culturally removed from us. Through evangelism, we extend the Good News to people AND invite them to become a part of our church. In other words, evangelism is the way we are SUPPOSED to grow as a church.
Do you believe God wants our church to grow? There is another way we can ask that question. Do you believe God wants our church to die? Of course not. That is a ridiculous idea, to think God would want us to close our doors and abandon our work in this place.

I think there is a third way to ask the same question. Do you believe God wants us to stay the same? Does God want us to maintain the same size in average attendance? That is a distinct possibility. But, in the past two years, I have performed over 30 funerals for people who were members of our church. If we think these two years were average years, then we have to think in terms of reaching 30 new people every two years just to maintain our current attendance.

These are the only three choices I can think about for our future: grow, die or stay the same. I don’t know anyone who wants our church to die, so we can probably forget about that choice. Therefore, if we want to grow or stay the same, we must put more effort into the area of evangelism.

Read Acts 13: 32 – 52.

This might be Paul’s first sermon. If Paul has ever preached before, we don’t have any record of it. He may have preached numerous times before this, but this is Paul’s first sermon recorded for us. The sermon started in Acts 13: 16.

Paul and Barnabas had been sent out on their first missionary journey. The church at Antioch commissioned them as missionaries and sent them out to the Gentiles. Even though Paul was specifically targeting the Gentiles in his mission work, he always started with the Jews. Paul knew from his own experience as a Jew that all good Jews went to synagogue on Friday night. So, his first stop was always a Friday night Sabbath service in the local synagogue.

On this occasion, Paul and Barnabas were attending worship in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch. The typical synagogue worship service was led by lay leaders. The lay leaders would lead the singing and read from the Jewish Scriptures. Most synagogues did not have a full time rabbi to deliver a sermon in worship, so a typical service would include a sermon from one of the lay leaders. Unless, of course, there was a visiting rabbi in attendance. The lay leaders in Pisidian Antioch knew that Paul had a Jewish pedigree and had previously served as a Pharisee and member of the Jerusalem ruling elite. So, it just makes sense that the lay leaders would ask Paul to preach. And that is what they did. There was nothing unusual about the lay leaders asking Paul to preach that day.

However, it was unusual what Paul said in his sermon. He started out by describing God’s faithfulness to Israel. God provided for the Hebrew people by rescuing them from Egyptian slavery. God led them through the desert for forty years, providing for all their needs. God even established his covenant with them in the desert and called them to be God’s special people. After these forty years in the desert, God gave his people judges to rule over them. Then, God gave them a king. The first king was a man named Saul. Saul had his bright moments, but he had more dull moments than bright moments. Then, God gave them a king named David, who was a man after God’s own heart. God even made a promise to David that one of his descendants would always be the ruler over God’s people.

There was nothing unusual about the beginning of Paul’s sermon. It was historically accurate, and it would have been met with hearty “Amens” from all the Jewish people in synagogue that day. But, then Paul’s sermon took an unusual turn when he started talking about a man named Jesus.

Paul said the story of Jesus is Good News, because Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise God had previously made to the people of Israel. The promises God made to the men and women of Israel were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. This promise was confirmed by the resurrection.

II. Good News = Resurrection (vv. 32 – 37).

Paul builds his case for the importance of the Resurrection by quoting Scriptures from the Jewish Bible: Psalm 2: 7, Isaiah 55: 3, and Psalm 16: 10.

Paul lived in a culture which was different from our culture. For you and me, it will be important for us to offer proof that the Resurrection really happened. Paul does not do this. Instead, he proves that the Resurrection is something which was promised by the Old Testament.

This does not mean ancient people had an easier time believing in Resurrection than modern people do. In fact, it was just the opposite. Ancient people had just as much difficulty believing in life after death as we do today. The difference is that Paul lived in the same generation in which the Resurrection occurred. If anyone needed proof, they could verify the truth of the Resurrection by talking to witnesses.

In fact, this is one of the strongest proofs that the Resurrection actually took place. Paul preached about the Resurrection during a time when it could very easily have been debunked. Our culture is separated from the Resurrection by history. We were not there. We have never met anyone who was there. But, Peter, James and John were there. The people living in the city of Jerusalem were there. And there were over 500 witnesses walking around the streets of Jerusalem who had actually seen Jesus after the Resurrection. These people were the only necessary proof that the Resurrection was real. Because of their testimony, the Resurrection is one of the most verifiable facts of ancient history. We have historical records and eyewitness accounts.

Paul was mostly concerned with what the Resurrection confirmed. According to his sermon, the Resurrection confirms two things about Jesus. First, it confirms that Jesus really is the Son of God. Second, it confirms that God has kept his promise to keep a descendant of David as the king over God’s people.

III. The Law Could Not Save (vv. 38 – 39).

After preaching about the Resurrection, Paul turns his attention to salvation. Jesus accomplished something for us that the Old Testament Law could not do for us. Jesus offers us forgiveness of sin.

According to Paul, salvation is:

A. Through Jesus…
B. Forgiveness of Sins…
C. Through Faith Alone…
D. Justification…Making us right in God’s eyes…
E. Something the Law Could not Do…Moses was inadequate for salvation…


IV. Warning to Jews (vv. 40 – 41).

The Good News comes with a warning to the Jews. Paul is consistent in his appeal to the Old Testament Scriptures and here quotes from Habbakuk 1: 5.

On one hand, the Resurrection is something old. It was prophesied throughout the Old Testament; and it is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. On the other hand, the Resurrection is something new. No one has ever died and risen again to live forever and ever. AND, the Resurrection is new, because it makes salvation available outside of the geopolitical boundaries of Israel.

God is doing something new. The people who call themselves Jews have to make a choice. Will they believe in Jesus and the Resurrection in order to become of part of what God is doing? OR, will they reject what God is doing and get left behind?

I think this is the same warning and choice God is offering to us as a church right now. God is doing something new. It really isn’t new, because it has been God’s plan all along. But, it is new, because it requires us to change the way we “do church.” The change is not that we would abandon the calling God has placed on us as a church. The change is to alter the way we have previously thought about church.

Yes. The church is a place for Christians to worship God, to grow in discipleship and to enjoy fellowship in the name of Christ. BUT, the church must also become a place for non-Christians to meet Jesus. Will we believe in Jesus and the Resurrection in order to become a part of what God is doing in the world? OR, will we reject what God is doing and get left behind?

V. God’s New Work (vv. 42 – 48).

Some of the Jews present that Friday night were so impressed with Paul’s sermon, they were convinced they should give their lives to Jesus and the new work God was doing in the world. Others were not convinced. They thought they needed another opportunity to hear Paul and the Good News. So, they invited Paul to preach again.

The people who believed in Jesus did something unheard of: they invited their friends to come to church. On the surface, that sounds like a good idea. In reality, it created a volatile situation. Next Friday night, the synagogue was filled with Gentiles. In fact, there were more Gentiles than Jews.

Sharing the Good News with the world sounds like a good idea. It sounds like an obvious thing for a church to do. But, what will we do when we come to church one week and find ourselves outnumbered? Will we rejoice in the number of people who are responding to our invitation? OR, will we become jealous when we realize that our church will never be the same again?

VI. Growth and Persecution (vv. 49 – 52 and chapter 14).

The Jews made their choice. They were so jealous of all the new people receiving salvation and so possessive of their synagogue, they were left with only one real choice. They had to kick Paul and Barnabas out of town to stop the spread of the Good News.

This is significant, because this is the beginning of a phenomenon that continues to be true today. When the church is growing, Christians are persecuted. When Christians are persecuted, the church is growing. The world is not supposed to like us. In fact, the opposite is true. When the world likes us, they do not fear us. When the world no longer fears us, they accept us. When we are accepted by the world, churches die. Dying churches indicates that we are not changing the world!

VII. Conclusion.

Paul eventually returned to Pisidian Antioch and established a great church. It was the church of Galatia.

Do you believe God wants our church to grow, to die or to stay the same? In order for us to grow or stay the same size, we will need to change the way we view church. Yes, the church is for Christians to worship God, to grow in discipleship and to enjoy fellowship in the name of Jesus. But the church is also a place for non-Christians to meet Jesus and then experience the same things we experience in this place.

This is the purpose of our Matthew Party. On one hand, it is an opportunity for us to fulfill our purpose of evangelism as a church: to reach out to the people of Lufkin, Texas with the Good News. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for us to change the way we “do church.” Church is not just for Christians. Church is also a place for non-Christians to meet Jesus.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008: Missional Church

Missional Church
Acts 13: 1 – 12.

I. Introduction.
Last weekend, Shauna and I experienced our first hurricane. Understand that I don’t mean our first hurricane in Lufkin. I mean, Hurricane Ike was the first time either of us have ever witnessed 75 mph winds and people calling the radio station to let all of us know they had fallen trees in their yard and no electricity.

By Thursday of last week, I came to the conclusion that there would not be very many people in church on Sunday morning. We chose to cancel our Sunday night activities but wait until the last minute to make a decision about Sunday morning. I just did not want to cancel our Sunday morning worship.

By 3:00 Saturday afternoon, we felt like we needed to make a decision. The power was out all over town. There were trees blocking the roads. Roofs and fences were blown apart. It just seemed like canceling church would be the right thing to do. But, how do you get that message out to everyone in our church? Call the radio station.

So, at 3:00 Saturday afternoon, I became one of the hundreds of East Texans who called the radio station. I didn’t realize I was talking on live radio when I called, but several people told me they heard it.

I introduced myself to the guy on the radio and gave a fairly good message. I said, “Hello. My name is Andy Pittman. I am the pastor of First Baptist Church in Lufkin. I want to get the word out to all of our church members that we will not have church services on Sunday. The power is off at the church, and we don’t want anyone to do anything dangerous by driving to church.”

It was a good message. I got my point across. And I don’t think I sounded like a redneck. But I have a couple of regrets.

First, I should have said something like my friend Steve Wells said to his church in Houston. They had a brief worship service in the dark Sunday morning. I asked him, “Did ya’ll have power at the church?” He answered, “I told all our church members, ‘There is no electricity in the church buildings, but there is power in the church.’” I should have said that on the radio.

Second, I should have said something like Laurie Hefner said when we came to work on Monday. She said that even though we did not have worship services Sunday morning we acted like a church outside the walls by serving our neighbors and taking care of the Buckner families who lived in our Family Life Center. I should have said that on the radio.

I should have said, “First Baptist Church will not meet in the church buildings Sunday. There is no electricity in the church buildings, but there is power in the church. We encourage all our members who are able to be the church all over Lufkin and Hudson this weekend by serving their neighbors in the name of Jesus.” THAT is what I should have said!

Sunday morning worship is just one of the things we do as a church. Most people agree that there are five purposes for the church: worship, discipleship, evangelism, missions and fellowship. We are acting as a church when we fulfill one of those five purposes. So, even though we did not meet for worship on Sunday, we continued to function as a church through the mission work we did this past week.

In Acts 11 – 13, we read stories about a church that fulfills these five purposes.

Read Acts 13: 1 – 12.

The church at Antioch was founded as a result of the persecution taking place in Jerusalem. The religious leaders arrested Christians, had them beaten and executed a godly man named Stephen. As a result, a group of Christians scattered from Jerusalem and began to share their faith with the people they met. The group in Antioch took their faith one step farther than anyone else had done previously. They preached the Gospel in the Jewish synagogues, just like everyone else did. Then, they started preaching outside the synagogue to the Gentile people living in Antioch. This “street preaching” was a radical departure from what the other Christians were doing in other cities.

The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to investigate what was going on in Antioch. Barnabas discovered that God was at work in Antioch and did not want to stop what God was doing. Barnabas’ actions lead me to believe he was impressed with the work of evangelism but knew something was missing. These new believers needed someone to disciple them—to teach them about the Scriptures and how to live out Christian faith in daily life. So, Barnabas found Saul and brought him back to Antioch. These two men spent one year in Antioch mentoring, teaching and discipling the new believers there.

We can watch through the ministry of Barnabas and Saul in Antioch how this new church fulfilled their God-given purposes. This was a new kind of church in Antioch. In fact, I believe the church in Antioch is the first church that really “gets it.” They understand what Jesus told his disciples in Acts 1: 8, and they act it out in the way they live their lives as a community of faith.

The church at Antioch had five men who served as prophets and teachers. We might compare these prophet-teachers to our modern day concept of a vocational minister. Two of these ministers are not strangers to us: Barnabas and Saul. The other three men are not as familiar to us, or even to church history. There was a man named Simeon, who was nicknamed Niger. The word “Niger” is a derivative of the Latin word for black, so we assume he was originally from Africa. Lucius is described as coming from Cyrene. Some historians think this Lucius might actually be Dr. Luke who wrote the book of Acts, but there is no real proof. Manaen was a man of noble birth, because we know he had spent a portion of his childhood with King Herod.

Even though we don’t know much about these men and their personal lives, we do know something about the roles they fulfilled within the church. They were prophets, which means they were preachers who spoke God’s word to God’s people. They were teachers, which means they invested their lives in the instruction and discipleship of other Christians. In other words, they served the church in Sunday morning activities. They were the preachers, worship leaders, youth ministers and discipleship leaders.

II. The Church Was Expecting God to Speak.
In what I believe was perhaps a typical worship service, these men heard a message from God. The church was engaged in two activities: worship and fasting.

We know something about worship, but fasting falls outside the frame of reference for some of us. Fasting is a biblical discipline that is found in both the Old Testament as well as in the teachings of Jesus. In the Old Testament, sometimes fasting was practiced to show repentance or even sadness. But Jesus taught us not to let anyone know when we were fasting. It is something between us and God that should not be done for outward show. In this case, fasting is a way for us to commit ourselves to listen to what God has to say to us. It is a concentrated time of prayer and a method we can employ to be more sensitive to what God has to say.

This is an important point, because I believe it helps us understand something about the church at Antioch and to compare it to our own church. Both worship and fasting are indications that the church was expecting God to speak. The same thing is true for us. God speaks to us when we gather for worship. If we want to hear from God, we will come to church. If we don’t want to hear from God, we will stay at home.

The church knew God was going to speak to them, and God did. God instructed the church to send Barnabas and Saul as missionaries.

III. The Church Began Intentional Missions.
The next thing we witness is the practice of “laying on hands.” We don’t really know if it was the prophet-teachers who lay hands on Barnabas and Saul or if it was the entire church. I like to think it was the entire church.

By laying hands on Barnabas and Saul, the church was symbolically giving them permission to do the work of the church outside the walls of the church. Barnabas and Saul went out with the full authority of God and the blessing of the church to do the work God had called ALL OF THEM to do. Barnabas and Saul were not acting alone. They represented God, AND they represented the entire church at Antioch. They were doing the work God had called the church to do, but they were the ones who had the ability to go places others could not go.

When the church laid hands on Barnabas and Saul something happened for the very first time. Before this moment, the Gospel had spread AS Christians moved from one city to another. It was a kind of serendipitous spread of the Gospel. Now, the church is becoming more proactive. They are becoming intentional about preaching to other people. Instead of preaching wherever they find themselves, they are making plans to go places where they might not have gone on their own…Places that could only be accessed with a passport and a boat.

Proactive and intentional are good words to describe what the church is doing. But there is an even better way to describe it. They were led by the Holy Spirit. God initiated the spread of the Gospel and commissioning of missionaries. The church joined with God and answered God’s call. This is what it looks like when a church and the Holy Spirit are working together.

IV. Missionaries Meet Interesting People.
Barnabas and Saul traveled by boat to a place they may never have gone without God’s leadership. And as a result, they met new and interesting people.

The first person they met was a government official called a proconsul. The Roman Empire was divided into two different kinds of states. The Imperial Provinces were led by governors, who reported directly to the Roman Emperor. The Senatorial Provinces were led by proconsuls, who reported directly to the Roman Senate. The Proconsul Sergius Paulus was a high ranking official, whom Paul would not ordinarily have contact. Yet, the Holy Spirit led the proconsul to ask for more information about Jesus.

The proconsul’s interest in the Gospel led Barnabas and Saul to meet another interesting character—a pagan magician with an ironic name, Bar-Jesus. Up to this point in Saul’s life, he did not spend much time with pagans. No. Saul had been a Pharisee who spent all his time around self-righteous, elitist Jewish rulers. Then, Saul became a Christian and started spending time with church people. First, Saul was a learner who sat at the feet of men who instructed him about Christian ethics. Then, Saul was a prophet-teacher, who spent time instructing new Christians. Now, as a missionary, Saul finds himself around people who are lost.

This is part of God’s call for us as well. God has not called us to be an isolated colony of people who look like us, think like us, talk like us and smell like us. God has called us to engage the people of our culture…Even people who don’t look, think, talk and smell like we do. Another way to say this is to say God has called us to go outside of our comfort zones.

If you only spend time around Christians, then you cannot do all of the work God has called our church to do. When we worship, we are supposed to spend time with other Christians. When we do discipleship, we are supposed to be with other Christians. When we have fellowship, we are supposed to be around people with whom we share commonalities. But, this is not the case with evangelism and missions. If we are going to be like the church at Antioch, then we have to leave our comfort zones. We need to engage the people of Lufkin, the people of Angelina County, the people of Texas, the people of the United States, the people of the world.

V. Conclusion.
Some of the things we do as a church will be comfortable: worship, discipleship and fellowship. Other things are not supposed to be comfortable: evangelism and missions.

My prayer for this church is that young men and women will hear God’s call to be vocational ministers and missionaries. This is one way we can be proactive, intentional and led by the Holy Spirit. We ought to be like the church at Antioch—find someone whom God has called and send them out to represent Jesus and our church in preaching the Gospel in faraway and uncomfortable circumstances.

My prayer is that we will accept God’s call to be an evangelistic church. We have begun this process through the Matthew Party. Have you heard that we will have a Matthew Party in a few weeks? Just like Matthew the tax collector invited his friends to a party so they could meet Jesus, I want you to invite your friends to meet Jesus in our church. If you are not praying for someone already, start today. Find someone in your life who does not know Jesus. It might be someone you work with or go to school with. It might be your neighbor or your uncle. It might even be the woman who serves you coffee in a restaurant or a convenience store. Pray for them every day. Then, invite them to come to a free chicken supper at the church on Saturday, October 4. We will introduce them to the ministries and activities of our church, and I will present the Gospel.

This is what it means to be a missional church. God does not call us only to be comfortable. God calls us to leave our comfort zones and share the Gospel with interesting people, who are not exactly like us.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Sunday, September 7, 2008: Buildup and Breakthrough

Buildup and Breakthrough
Acts 12: 1 – 25.

I. Introduction.

Today was the first Sunday of a new emphasis in some of our Sunday School departments. Our three youngest adult departments are going through the materials Just Walk Across the Room. This is the same study we did in small groups back in April. It focuses our attention on what it means to be evangelistic in each of our relationships.

Each Sunday in September, these Sunday School departments will learn about evangelism and how to share our faith with our friends and neighbors. Then, we will have our second Matthew Party on the first Saturday in October—October 4. We chose to hold the Matthew Party on Saturday, October 4 for two reasons. First, it falls at the very end of our evangelism emphasis. Second, October 4 is the open date for the Lufkin Football Panthers!

This is the second time we have held a Matthew Party in our church. Some of you might remember the first Matthew Party back in April. It is based on the story of Matthew the tax collector in the Bible. When Matthew met Jesus, he was so excited about grace and his new relationship with Jesus that he threw a party for all his friends. Matthew was a new Christian, so no one had ever explained to him that Christians don’t “hang out” with non-Christians. All he wanted to do was introduce Jesus to the people who most needed to meet Jesus.

And, that is what I want you to do. I want you to find someone in your life who needs to meet Jesus. I don’t want you to invite Methodists, Catholics or even Baptists who go to other churches. I want you to find someone who is unchurched. That can be someone who is not a follower of Christ. Or, it can be someone who does not go to any other church in Lufkin, Texas.

Even if your Sunday School department is not participating in Just Walk Across the Room, you can still bring someone to the Matthew Party. Identify someone in your life who is not a Christian or not a church member. (I think you should find three people like this, in case the first person you invite cannot attend on October 4.) Then, pray for those people every day for the next month. Then, I want you to do something hard. I want you to invite that person to come with you to the Matthew Party. But be honest with them. Let them know what you are inviting them to come to. Say something like this: “I have been praying for you and your family for the past four weeks. I want you to come with me to a free supper at my church. We will eat free chicken, give you some information about the things our church does, then my pastor will explain what we believe about Jesus.”

Every member of Lufkin’s First Baptist Church is encouraged to participate in this. BUT, this is NOT a church fellowship. This is an outreach and evangelistic event. I don’t want you to come unless you bring someone with you!

When we did this in April, we had 76 people at the Matthew Party. It lasted only one hour. We had eight families who were introduced to our church for the first time. We had five professions of faith and two new families joined our church.

Last Sunday, I preached a sermon that was not exactly a negative sermon, but it definitely wasn’t positive. I invited you to take an honest look at our church and to question what kind of future we have in front of us. The reality is that we will NOT have much of a future if we do not do a better job of reaching people who are under the age of 40. We have to find new ways of doing church, evangelism, outreach, ministry, etc. if we are going to be around in the next 20 years. This may sound negative, but it is not. We are in the same situation facing 9 out of every 9 churches in North America.

Today, I want to share some good news. I believe with all my heart, that we are just a few months away from achieving a breakthrough as a church. Something really good is “fixing” to happen at First Baptist Church. Can you feel it?

Read Acts 12: 1 – 25.

I started preaching from the book of Acts back in April. I planned that to coincide with the evangelism emphasis and the first Matthew Party. It is impossible for us to read the book of Acts and miss the God-given mandate to preach the Gospel to the non-Christian people of the world. I wanted to show you that evangelism is a very important part of our identity as a church. AND, I wanted to show you that evangelism is God’s plan for growing the church. Churches are NOT supposed to grow by stealing members from other churches. If you want our church to grow…If you want our church to be the church God has called us to be…Then, we must become an evangelistic church!

I have to admit that I have been a little surprised as I have read and studied the book of Acts. Of course, I have read Acts many times before, but I have never preached through the book of Acts. The thing that has surprised me is the way the early church experienced a long period of buildup before they ever experienced a breakthrough moment. This breakthrough moment comes in Acts 13, when Paul and Barnabas were commissioned as the first missionaries to the entire world. This is the beginning of the Christian faith as a worldwide movement. Once Paul and Barnabas left Antioch on their mission, Christianity broke free of the territorial boundaries of Jerusalem and the outlying areas. The Christian church was no longer made up of Jewish men and women who recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Christian faith is for all who believe!

The story I just read is the end of the buildup. Breakthrough is right around the corner. So what was it that pushed the early church from buildup to breakthrough? Maybe if we can find the one thing that led to breakthrough, then we can do the same thing in our church. Maybe we can skip from where we are right now to our own breakthrough moment. Maybe we can stop waiting.

Acts 12: 24 is an important verse to help us interpret this passage of Scripture: “But the word of God continued to increase and spread.” I think we need to pay special attention to the word “But.” It tells us that the word of God continued to spread and the Christian church continued to grow IN SPITE OF all the things which had happened in the previous story.

We believe this is the story of Herod Antipas. His grandfather was the king over all Judea when Jesus was born. The grandfather Herod was such an evil and jealous king that he suspected his own son would eventually try to overpower him and take the kingdom away from him. So, he had his own son killed to eliminate the threat. This caused Herod Antipas’ mother to take him to the safety of Rome as a young boy. He received the very best Roman education possible and became friends with all the children of Roman nobility. When his friends came into power in the Roman Empire, they gave Herod Antipas his grandfather old position as the king of the Jewish people.

History tells us that the Jews did not trust Herod Antipas. So, his rule over the region of Judea was marked by numerous attempts to garner the trust and friendship of the Jews. And that is what I think this story is about. The Jews were angry about the new Christian movement. They didn’t like the message Peter and James were preaching about Jesus, the crucifixion and resurrection. And they certainly didn’t like the way the Gospel had spread to the Gentiles. So, Herod garnered a lot of favor with the Jews by executing James and throwing Peter in prison.

I think Herod would like to have rushed Peter to immediate execution, but he could not. Peter was arrested during the Feast of Unleavened Bread—the week leading up to the Passover. Ironically, Herod wanted to kill Peter to please the Jews but could not, because executions were not allowed on the Passover. He had to place Peter in prison and wait until the Passover was finished.

On the night before Peter’s scheduled execution, an angel of the Lord rescued Peter from prison. Notice that Peter did not escape from prison. Peter was rescued from prison. The angel had to awaken Peter by striking him on the side. The angel had to lead Peter out of prison by taking him by the hand. Peter had nothing to do with this rescue. This was God’s work.

After Peter was rescued from prison, he had to go into hiding to avoid a second arrest and the intended execution. Yet, this threat didn’t last for long, because Herod died a horrific death. Once Herod had died, Peter no longer faced the threat of execution, and the church continued to grow despite the intense persecutions.

Perhaps this is the breakthrough moment the church had been waiting for. Perhaps the rest of the book of Acts will tell of a much more favorable relationship between the Christian faith and the established government. However, that is not the case. Herod is simply the first Roman official to oppose the spread of Christianity. We will read of additional opposition from the Roman Empire through the rest of the book of Acts.

Perhaps Peter’s miraculous release from prison is the breakthrough moment for the church. Perhaps Peter will become a central figure to the spread of the Gospel in the Roman Empire and eventually around the world. Again, that is not what happened in the rest of Acts. This is virtually the last time we see the original twelve Apostles’ playing a significant role in the spread of the Gospel. Beginning in Acts 13 and continuing through the rest of the New Testament, the central characters will change. Peter, James and John do not serve as the chief preachers and missionaries anymore. From now on, the fate of the Gospel lies in the hands of Paul and the men who accompanied him on his missionary journeys.

II. Breakthrough Moments for the Early Church.

I read and re-read Acts 12 searching for what might be the breakthrough moment for the early church. Was it the death of Herod? Was it Peter’s release from prison? None of these seem to be the key moment for the church. So, I re-read the chapters leading up to Acts 12, thinking that maybe it could have been something that happened earlier.

In Acts 9, we read the story of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. He was traveling to Damascus to continue his persecution against the church. On the way, he was blinded by a bright light and heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him: “Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?” Saul immediately gave his life to Jesus and eventually became an ambassador for the Gospel. But this could not be the breakthrough moment, because Saul disappears from the book of Acts for the next couple of chapters.

In Acts 10, Peter saw a vision from God to preach the Gospel to a Gentile soldier named Cornelius. This was a breakthrough moment for Peter, because up to this point in his life Peter thought the Gospel was only for the Jews. In fact, immediately after Cornelius’ conversion, Peter had to give an account to the rest of the Apostles at the Jerusalem church. This was not the breakthrough moment, because the rest of the Jerusalem church did not buy into Peter’s vision. And, we have reason to believe this was not a lasting change in Peter’s approach to evangelism.

In Acts 11, we read the story of how a new church was born in Antioch. This was not a Tradition Church like the one at Jerusalem. The Antioch Church was an Innovation Church. They did things that had never been done before. Their biggest innovation was to share the Gospel with Gentiles and not expect them to become Jews before committing their lives to Jesus. This doesn’t seem like the breakthrough moment for the early church, because Luke returned his narrative one last time to the events taking place in the Tradition Church at Jerusalem.

III. Achieving and Maintaining Momentum.

I tried to find a breakthrough moment for the early church, but I couldn’t. This led me to consider a different concept. I no longer believe there was one, single breakthrough event for the early church. Instead, I believe all their actions combined together to create a kind of momentum that was nearly impossible to stop.

Imagine a large wheel chiseled out of stone. Something like you would imagine a caveman inventing. Imagine that this stone wheel is bigger than we are, but we have the assignment of getting it rolling. We push and push and push, until finally it starts to move slowly. Once it is moving, it is a little easier to move. The more we push, the faster it rolls. Eventually we have worked together to achieve momentum. It is rolling so fast that none of us can stop it. But we keep pushing and keep the wheel rolling as long as we want it to roll.

It would be impossible for us to identify the one moment of breakthrough, when the wheel began moving or the moment when we have achieved momentum. There is no moment of breakthrough, because every small push and every collective effort worked together to get the wheel moving. That is what happened in the book of Acts. Every push, every innovation, every collective effort worked together to create a momentum that could not be stopped.

IV. Momentum = Culture Change.

While I cannot identify the exact moment the early church achieved momentum, I can put a name on the momentum they experienced. It was a “Culture Change.” In all the chapters leading up to Acts 12, the Jerusalem Church has been concerned with only one thing—themselves. They thought only Jews could be saved. They took care of their own needs. They made sure that everyone was taken care of. They had a wonderful fellowship. But after Acts 12, they were concerned about something entirely different—they wanted the world to know Jesus.

V. Conclusion.

Slowly but surely, this is the same kind of buildup and breakthrough we are experiencing at First Baptist Church. In the past few years, we have undergone several important innovations.

We have a new church staff: pastor, youth minister, missions / senior adults, music, and eventually a new children’s minister.

We have planted three new churches in Lufkin: Cross Timbers Cowboy Church, La Casa del Alfarero and New Beginnings Baptist Church.

We have two new world missions: Ethiopia (school, community center and new church) and Canada (church revitalization).

We have created a new worship format with a blend of ancient and modern worship music.

We have created a new Sunday School department for young adults between the ages of 20 and 30. It has grown more than any other department in the past year.

We have developed the Matthew Party as our own strategy for evangelism.

Breakthrough and Momentum are just around the corner for us…Because we are no longer a church focused on our own needs. We want the world to know Jesus!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008: Are You Satisfied with the Status Quo?

Are You Satisfied with the Status Quo?
Acts 11: 19 – 30.

I. Introduction.

Aubrey (Minister of Education) and I are currently reading the same book. (Actually, we each have our own copy…But it is still the same book.) The title of the book tells the story of a universal struggle faced by churches all over the United States…Reaching People Under 40 while Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations (Edward H. Hammett and James R. Pierce. [St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press: 2007]).

The phrase found in the title of this book describes the struggle of our church and the future of our church. It describes our future, because if we want to continue to exist as a congregation 20 (even 10) years from now, we will need to “reach people under 40 while keeping people over 60.” But it also describes our struggle, because if we cannot “reach people under 40 while keeping people over 60,” our church will not be around much longer.

I suppose there are two ways we can address this issue of “reaching people under 40 while keeping people over 60.” We can keep doing everything exactly like we have always done it. We can review the history of Lufkin’s First Baptist Church in search of the programs and ministries that were most effective in reaching the lost and growing our church in the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. After all, if we have programs and ministries that worked from 1950 – 1989, then surely they will work just as effectively in 2008! Sadly, we have placed our faith in this approach to church for 50 years. We work hard to maintain these programs and ministries, but they don’t seem to be as effective today as they were 50 years ago. Perhaps we should work harder at doing the same thing.

There are two fundamental problems with believing that working harder will be more effective. First, this belief is based on the assumption that the world around our church has not changed. How many of you truly believe that Lufkin, Texas is the same town it was in 1958? If we have a new world, we need a new church (Brian McLaren, The Church on the Other Side). Second, this belief is based on the false hope that we will eventually get a different response. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we will keep getting what we’ve been getting (Jim Herrington, Leading Congregational Change). Of course you know this is the definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

The second way we can address the issue of “reaching people under 40 while keeping people over 60” is to do something completely different. We ought to assess our current reality and ask ourselves” how successful is our church at reaching people under 40?” Does our Sunday morning worship attract people under the age of 40? Does our approach to discipleship excite and engage the generations under the age of 40? Does our approach to missions—local missions and international missions—connect with the missional callings of people under 40? Then, we need to decide whether we can continue to sustain our church without reaching people under the age of 40.

These are hard questions for us to deal with. They are hard, because they force us to look at reality. They are hard, because they challenge the “status quo.”

Status quo is a Latin phrase that literally means “the state in which.” In other words, status quo means the way things are right now. I have only heard the phrase “status quo” used positively one time in my life. It caught me by surprise. I didn’t know it could be used in a positive way.

The bi-vocational music minister in the first church I served as pastor once told me that he thought that is what made that church a good church. In his words, “Other churches grow and shrink, bring in new people and lose some people, but not FBC. We are satisfied with the status quo.”

As you reflect on the challenge facing our church and every church in the 21st century, I want you also to reflect on the status quo. Is this as good as it gets? Or do you think it can get better than this? I believe it can get better. BUT, only if you are not satisfied with the status quo.

I have often joked that dissatisfaction is one of my spiritual gifts. I’m only halfway joking, because there is an element of truth in that. Think about that. Do you have a God-given, holy dissatisfaction with the status quo? The early church in the book of Acts had a holy dissatisfaction. They knew things could get better. And they followed God’s call to do something about it.

Read Acts 11: 19 – 30.

This story reads like a series of comparisons and contrasts. The first things we compare and contrast are two churches. On one hand, there is the church of Jerusalem. On the other hand, there is the church of Antioch.

For the people who have read all of the Book of Acts from chapter one through this chapter eleven, we already know a thing or two about the church of Jerusalem. We know that the city of Jerusalem is the political and religious center of the people known as the Jews. We know that the church of Jerusalem was born on the Day of Pentecost retold for us in Acts 2. Before Acts 2, the Day of Pentecost was a Jewish holiday. Jewish people from all over the world traveled to the Holy City of Jerusalem to worship God and to participate in religious celebrations. However, in Acts 2 we read the story of how the Christian church was formed in Jerusalem.

The Christian church in Jerusalem began when the twelve Apostles gathered to worship alongside one hundred other Jewish men and women who had given their lives to Jesus. Thousands of other Jews were in Jerusalem that day to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. These Jewish men and women had come from every country of the known world. And the church was born that day when the Holy Spirit led the Apostles to preach the Good News about Jesus to their Jewish brothers and sisters.

The church in Antioch had a different kind of start. It started through persecution. As more and more Jewish men and women of Jerusalem gave their lives to Jesus as their Lord, the Jewish leaders did all they could do to stamp out this Christian movement. They even went so far as to execute a man named Stephen for preaching the Gospel. This persecution and execution caused the early church to spread out. But it couldn’t stop them from preaching about Jesus.

More than likely it was Jewish proselytes who first caught the vision for evangelizing outsiders. A proselyte was a man or a woman who had converted from another pagan religion to the Jewish faith. In other words, they became Jews first, then became followers of Jesus the Messiah. It makes perfect sense to me that the proselytes would be the first ones to preach salvation to non-Jews. After all, they had heard the Gospel and responded. It would only make sense for them to give other people the same opportunity they had.

Verses 19 and 20 illustrate for us how the Gospel started to spread in the city of Antioch. The Jewish proselytes-turned Christians first preached only to Jews. Then, they took a bold step and began to preach to the Greeks as well.

Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire—Rome was the largest, Alexandria was the second largest. There were at least 500,000 people living in Antioch with approximately 50,000 Jews worshipping in the local synagogues. More than likely, this is where the Gospel preaching first took place—in the synagogues. But it could not be contained there. It began to spread into the streets. Purely secular, Greek speaking people heard about Jesus and responded by giving their lives to Jesus as Lord.

This was in the days before cell phones and email, so the next part of the story might be difficult for us to understand. The church at Jerusalem heard that a new church had formed in Antioch. And here we find our second comparison and contrast of the story. The Jerusalem church represents “tradition.” The Antioch church represents “innovation.” When the tradition church learned about the innovation church, they sent Barnabas to investigate.

The reason I call the Jerusalem church the tradition church is because this is the church to which the twelve Apostles belonged. The Apostles were the last remaining link to the historical Jesus. These twelve men had lived with Jesus. They watched Jesus perform miracles. They had memorized all of Jesus’ teachings. But most importantly, these twelve men were witnesses to the resurrection. Jesus literally and physically appeared to the Apostles after the resurrection.

This is not the first time the tradition church had sent an envoy to investigate what was going on in the world outside of Jerusalem. The same thing happened in Acts 8: 14, “When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.” A similar thing happened with the conversion of Saul in Acts 9 and the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10. Saul presented himself to the Jerusalem church to get their “stamp of approval.” Peter explained to his peers how God had called him to preach the Gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile.

While it is safe for us to say that the tradition church needed to investigate what was taking place in the innovation church, I want you to notice what happened in all four of my examples. In all four examples, the tradition church gave their approval to what was taking place. The tradition church NEVER tried to stop the move of God. They never voted against evangelism—even evangelism among the Gentiles.

I’m sure this was a struggle for the tradition church. After all, they had never done it that way before. In their personal experience, one had to be a Jew before becoming a Christian. The men had to be circumcised, and both men and women had to commit to the Old Testament Law before they could commit their lives to Jesus. We might call this the status quo…Only Jews could become Christians.

Barnabas went out from the tradition church to the innovation church to investigate. I’m sure he was surprised with what he found. These Gentiles demonstrated “the evidence of the grace of God.” There was only one proper response for Barnabas. He encouraged them.

While I am certain Barnabas used some very encouraging words with the new Christians in Antioch, that is not all he did. He immediately traveled to Tarsus to fetch Paul. When Barnabas and Paul returned to Antioch they spent an entire year mentoring and teaching the new Christians. Barnabas knew that conversion was not all God intended for the church at Antioch. They needed proper discipleship. They needed help in understanding what Jesus had done for them as well as how they were to live in daily response to the grace God had shown them.

The story of this innovation church ends with a radical demonstration of faith. When the innovation church heard that the tradition church was facing a famine, the innovators opened their wallets and gave out of their own financial resources to help. On one hand, this is an obvious sign that they had a genuine faith. They responded to a crisis in a distinctly Christian way—a way already illustrated in earlier chapters of Acts. On the other hand, it is a sign of innovation and tradition working together. Tradition did not reject innovation. And innovation did not leave tradition behind.

II. Success Comes from God.

In Acts 13, Paul goes out on his first missionary journey. In fact, Acts 13 through the end of the book focus on Paul’s work as a missionary. Do you want to take a guess at which church sent Paul out as a missionary? Antioch! The innovation church that was born in Acts 11, is the same church that first caught the vision to send missionaries around the world.

However, none of this would have been possible if the tradition church had not approved what was taking place in the innovation church. The Jerusalem church did not stop the work of evangelism that began in Antioch. They did not stop it, but they did have to investigate.

There are dangers when we do something outside of tradition. The greatest danger is a compromise of the Gospel. When we innovate, we can never add anything to the Gospel of take anything away. We need tradition to keep us faithful to the Gospel.

There is also the danger of growing the church for the wrong reasons. We should grow the church by introducing men and women to Jesus, not by promising them a life of ease or by offering cash incentives. We need tradition to keep us focused on Jesus.

III. Success Comes whenTradition and Innovation Are United.

In Antioch, we see a picture of tradition and innovation working together. The Jerusalem church gave the new church at Antioch permission to evangelize in ways Jerusalem had never attempted. The Antioch church never forgot where they came from. They gave of their finances and responded to the needs of Jerusalem.

IV. Conclusion.

If we are going to “reach people under 40 while keeping people over 60,” we need to develop the same kind of approach we witness at Antioch. What would it look like at Lufkin’s First Baptist Church for tradition and innovation to work together?

Tradition = “Cloud of witnesses” who built this church…Dead and gone now…

Innovation = New generation of believers under the age of 40…Willing to reach their unchurched friends…

Barnabas = Over 60…Affirming…Encouraging…Mentoring… Uncompromising the traditions of our church…

Status Quo = Over 60…Barriers to growth…Hanging onto the forms and programs of the past…Vote “NO” to any and all innovations, even when God is at work.

We need some men and women willing to serve as Barnabas. Holy dissatisfaction with the status quo and willing to give permission to something new.