Thrive | Effectively Reaching The Lost (February 7th, 2021) - Mike Armstrong

All right, well, let's get into the scriptures now.

If you turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter two, and uh we are wrapping up our current series called Thrive, where we're looking to thrive as a church body in uh difficult and frankly weird days.

Okay, we wanna not just kind of kick our feet up and just long for, pine for, and wait for life to return to normal before we kind of pick up our spiritual walk again.

But no, we wanna we wanna grow, we wanna do really well today.

Okay, and so that's uh what we've been going through here, Acts 2, 42 uh to 47.

We're gonna look at that very last verse, the last part of that verse, actually.

And uh if you'd permit me, I'm uh there's really no preamble today.

I'm just gonna jump right into it because we've got a number of things to say in a short amount of time.

And so this verse really shows us this.

Here's our point today: a thriving church seizes the opportunity to effectively reach the lost.

Okay, this church was committed to that.

The Lord was doing amazing things.

Let's take a look at it now, but let's start uh right back at the beginning in verse 42.

It says, And they devoted themselves, this is the early church, to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together, they were unified and had all things in common.

They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together, and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

Okay, now this this is what we're zeroing in on here this morning.

It says, And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Hey, think about that.

Incredible that the Lord is saving souls, saving people in their area and adding them to this new community of believers so that these new converts can in turn enjoy rich fellowship with these other believers.

Okay, they can grow in Christ themselves, and then of course help carry forward the mission.

Okay, and so what's happening is as the Lord is adding people, people are getting saved.

This whole thing is just growing and expanding and multiplying over and over.

It was this powerful and amazing thing.

Again, every day they were seeing these things happen.

Now, of course, implied right here in this part of the verse is that the church themselves, the believers, they were evangelizing, right?

They were sharing Christ.

Because while it is absolutely the Lord who does the saving, right?

I don't have the power, you don't have the power to go in and change someone's heart and force them to receive Jesus as Savior.

No, that's that's the Lord who does that.

That is that is his spirit.

He regenerates, he opens their eyes and helps them to see, whoa, wait a second, I'm lost here.

I am a mess in my sin.

I am separated from God.

I can't close the gap and get closer to God through any of my behavior, any of my works.

I am completely reliant on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Right?

It is the Holy Spirit that that reveals that to them in their heart and regenerates them actually does the saving.

Okay, but make no mistake here, it is Christians who are given the ownership and the opportunity to actually share the gospel with those who need it.

Right?

We have that mission in front of us.

Now, I mean, we we we've spoken many times, I've spoken plenty of times to you before, uh, about how genuinely unhelpful it is for any of us to be to be guilt tripped or shamed into sharing Jesus with our neighbors.

You know, like I could stand up here and be like, come on, church, like this is the mission.

Why aren't you doing more?

You know, don't you realize what's at stake here?

Come on, like be better, right?

At the end of the day, I don't really think that is all that helpful.

Sure, you might feel guilty and you might, you know, for a short amount of time feel like, okay, I'm gonna grab hold of this mission and go do it, but at the end of the day, that guilt will subside.

And you won't really be transformed in that.

At the end of the day, that's that's not really how God comes at us when it comes to getting us involved in the mission, drawing us into it.

No, we get engaged in reaching the lost and actually becoming effective at it as our as our hearts are captivated with the gospel.

I think that is such a major key in being effective at reaching our neighbors for Jesus Christ.

I mean, that and that's exactly what's happening here in this church.

Now, you might be looking at the verse here and say, well, I don't see that, but it's really in the context here of this whole passage.

Remember, we've got to read every verse within the context of what's going around in the verses uh before and even after.

Okay, we know that these believers were proclaiming the gospel as they themselves were absorbing it in their hearts and minds.

As they were absorbing it, it was forcing them, it was, it was, it was urging them out to go and share it with others.

Right?

It says in verse 42 that they were devoted to some things, right?

They were devoted to the apostles' teaching.

Well, that teaching was the gospel, right?

The apostles were teaching the scriptures and sharing it in light of who Jesus was and is and what he had done, what he promises to do.

And so they were learning not just a few facts about what Jesus did, but about how that really applies to their life.

Right?

They were devoted to these things, and that was spurring them on to witness and evangelize.

So let me just ask you, church, let me ask you the question: are you truly absorbing the gospel for yourself?

Because again, that's what compels us to actually share it with people.

Right?

It has to start with really knowing it yourself.

And I don't just mean like a head knowledge type understanding here, not like a Sunday school answer, you know, surface-y grasp of just the basic framework.

You know, it's not just about knowing that, you know, Jesus died, and I need to know some facts about what crucifixion was like, you know, in the Roman era, and and three days later he he rose again, the you know, the angel rolled back the stone, and oh yeah, and then the the ladies showed up and they saw him.

And it's not just knowing those facts, okay?

Those facts are important and crucial and they tell us a ton, right?

They they give us our understanding here, but but really is your is your heart, is your soul on a regular basis, daily basis, is it being stirred and becoming more oriented by the truth of the gospel for you?

Like, like, are you able to take literally anything going on in your life, and any challenge, any problem that you have, any weakness in your life, and are you are you able to view it through the grid or through the lens of the scriptures, right?

That's what we that's what we need to do.

You know, so for example, if you are, if you find yourself slipping down into despair, right?

If you're if you're tempted with hopelessness, you know, and you tend to think, man, all is lost and life is never gonna be good again, and and and when is this good thing gonna happen to me, whatever it may be, you know, can you, you know, or do you intentionally, consciously and consistently remind your heart, stop and take stock, remind your heart that because of Jesus, your greatest problem, your greatest dilemma by far has been solved.

You might be thinking, well, well, what is that?

Well, your greatest problem is that your sin has separated you from God and has you headed for eternity in hell.

Your sin deserves the wrath of God.

There is no greater problem in life than this.

There really isn't.

But are you able to remember and to remind yourself that, man, my that has been taken away and has been fixed through Jesus Christ and what he did, that has been a gift given to me.

And then are you able to connect that to what you're going through right now?

If you're in despair about something, are you able to say, listen, listen, at the end of the day, I have all the hope I ever need.

I have hope for all of eternity.

I'm gonna be with the Lord Jesus Christ when this is all said and done.

Do you realize that at the end of the day, because of that hope, you have hope now?

That whatever the despair might be, whatever the problems might be in this life, and I'm not minimizing them, they can be awful.

But whatever they are, are you able to view them in light of the truth of the gospel and the gift of your salvation?

As you do that, your heart will start to live according to that truth, and that despair, that hopelessness, won't take as much root.

You know, or let me give you another example.

Or if if you start getting stuck in legalism mode, it's so easy for us to do, you know, where we we kind of you know forget the joy of the gospel and we're not necessarily as fired up about the Lord, and we've gotten kind of stale and wooden, and before we know it, we're trying to impress God or or we're trying to earn his forgiveness, or we're trying to get him to love us more through our moral behavior, our religious efforts.

Okay, if you get stuck into that and and your spiritual life is stale, do you have the ability to view all of that through the gospel and get your heart turned around?

You know, can you again intentionally and consciously and consistently remind your heart and your mind that God loves you completely as is.

You don't need to improve yourself.

You might be thinking, why?

Why does God love me as as is?

Well, because Jesus already earned what you needed to earn, but couldn't.

Right?

It's through his life and and through his death on the cross, which is substitutionary, it was for you, it was in your place, and through his resurrection, right?

Your salvation is a gift of grace.

It's it's not, don't think of it as a paycheck that you need to earn through your behavior.

Neither is it a, is it like not neither is it like a spiritual loan that you need to pay back by trying to be a good person.

That's that's not it.

It is purely, purely a gift.

Now, you might be hearing me say that and think, man, what does this have to do with like evangelism?

Like I thought that's what this verse is about here, and you're not really hitting on that.

What is it, you know, does it have anything to do with evangelism?

I would say, yeah, it has everything to do with evangelism.

Because again, as you as you internalize and and as your heart learns to function according to gospel truth, the truth of God, as you learn to love it and glory in it, you'll become properly driven now to share what you've learned and what you know with others.

As you're like, man, my my anger is being transformed.

My laziness is being transformed.

My my whatever it may be, as that is being transformed, and I used to be hopeless and now I've got joy.

As that's happening to you because of how awesome the gospel is, you're gonna want other people that you know and that you see to experience that very same thing.

As you see God's love for you, you're gonna love him and you're gonna love what he loves, and he loves people.

Right?

And so that is why we talk about internalizing the gospel, because it is like the fire that burns within us that that forces us and compels us out to go and love people and share Christ with them.

And I believe as we do that, church, we will too see uh some version of this very verse happen in our midst.

Right?

Where the Lord is adding to our number day by day those who are getting saved.

I mean, that right there, obviously in this whole passage, it is it is a key sign of a thriving church.

And so, redemption, this is what we want to pray about right now.

And so, as we've been doing over the last number of weeks, we're gonna have a prayer time and we're gonna have some points up on the screen for you.

And if you're at the office, you can kind of gather in in the groups there.

You can pray at home with your family.

If if if you're alone, you can pray on your own, certainly.

But I also want to say that at 9 uh 50, uh, we're gonna have a Zoom prayer time.

You can go on our website and click the link or just read go to the email that was sent to you this morning.

You can click on that and join me.

And I would love to connect with you and uh spend the next uh few moments uh in prayer.

But let's be in prayer uh for our community.

Let's not just pray that we would come to know the gospel, which is so, so crucial.

Let's absolutely pray for that.

But let's also pray that the Lord would fire us up and spur us on to take the good news to people who need it.

Our world is hurting, our our our world is broken, people are desperate.

And so, church, what an awesome opportunity we have to be used by God to proclaim him and then pray that the Lord again would save, that he would add to our number day by day those who know him.

Let me pray.

And God, we thank you for this passage, Lord.

We thank you for what you did in this very first church, Lord, how it is a model for us.

God, we know that uh these days are certainly interesting.

Um lots to be concerned about, uh, lots that fall short of ideal in terms of how we would love to live our lives right now.

Uh but Lord, I pray that we would take every opportunity, seize the opportunity, as we've been saying, uh, to thrive in our spiritual walk, Lord, not just individually, but as a church community.

Lord, that we would care for one another, that Lord, we would care uh for those who are lost, that we would take the good news to them, Lord.

Lord, I pray that people would see Christ in us by the way that we handle ourselves in our conversations, the way we conduct ourselves online.

Lord, the joy that is in us, I pray that we would be able to point to why we have that joy, why we are not as worried, why we have hope is because of Jesus Christ.

And so, Lord, as as we go to prayer now, Lord, I pray that you would do a mighty work in our church.

Lord, I pray that you would use us powerfully, Lord.

I pray that Jesus would be exalted and glorified.

Lord, save.

Lord, please would you save.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for this opportunity we have to get before your word and to meet you in prayer, Lord, hear the cries of your church.

We pray these things in Christ.