The Growth of the Church (Acts Review Part 3)

This time uh children ages four to eight can be dismissed downstairs for our children's church if they like.

Um the teachers waiting out in the foyer, you can just go to them and they'll lead you downstairs for a time of uh studying God's word down there together.

Now, as we return to our sermon series in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, um I'm having to review some of the main ideas before we pick up where we left off.

Um and if you'd like a sermon outline this morning and didn't get one, our estrusters would be happy to hand you one, just let them know.

We've covered this material before, but I think um it's easy to forget because I I spent all summer talking about another a topic.

Um just trying to reorient us to the book because as we continue, all these things come into play that we've already talked about.

So the review is good for us, I think, as we continue and uh break new ground.

But I have three main points today.

How the church grew, how the church grew, how the church grew.

Should be easy to follow.

First, following Jesus' command to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria into the world, Jesus' church grew through the witness of those who believed in him.

Beginning with Peter's sermon at Pentecost, those who believed in Jesus and received his Holy Spirit shared the good news of the gospel with uh with others.

They were his witnesses.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 41.

Acts 2:41

So then those who had received Peter's word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls.

They shared their testimony as witnesses to Christ's living reality and the impact he's had on their lives.

This is what the apostles are saying in Acts 5.32.

We are witnesses of these things.

So is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

And jumping ahead to Acts chapter 10, again, we hear them say, We are witnesses of all the things he did, both in the land of the Jews and Jerusalem, and they also put him to death by hanging him on a cross.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

The church grew as people talked to other people about Jesus.

Believers were not only witnesses of the truths of the gospel, they also shared the gospel from the word of God.

That's the second idea here of being witness, helping people not only tell your story, but help help people see uh Jesus in God's Word, what he did, and who he is.

Uh and they did that from the scripture.

Acts 4.31.

When they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Why are they speaking the word of God?

To explain how you could see the gospel of Jesus in God's word.

Acts chapter 6, verse 7.

Acts 6:7

Again, the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many, even the priests, were becoming obedient to the faith.

Okay, so first, the church not only grew through the witness of believers who shared the word of God, explaining the gospel, there was another reason the church grew, which we'll look at next.

Ironically, under God's sovereign hand, we talked about this.

The church grew through opposition.

The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, you see, uh, felt threatened by this new Jewish sect developing in Judaism.

The Jewish leaders were actually responsible to protect the integrity of the law, the traditional Hebrew faith.

And they resisted these wild claims made by Jesus and his disciples.

Um the Jewish leaders believed that Jesus' disciples and their teaching about him was leading many people astray.

So they began to arrest the disciples, jail the disciples, flog them in order in order them not to speak anymore about Jesus, they're trying to stop it.

Put a lid on it.

Opposition.

The thing of it is, uh, because the Holy Spirit was filling them and leading them, they didn't stop.

Um it just made them even more resolved to preach Jesus to those who would hear.

They insisted that God raised him from the dead and that there's no salvation in anyone else whom God exalted to his right hand as Lord and Savior.

As the opposition continued to increase, the church of Jerusalem becoming more and more determined to be effective witnesses and share the gospel to others.

But as Jesus promised, their witness was not to stay in Jerusalem.

At this point, up until now, perhaps Jesus' witnesses were happy to stay in Jerusalem.

This was their home.

Their families were here, all their friends were here, their livelihoods were here.

But Acts 1.8 says, guys, you're gonna be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria.

And if you remember, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, part of their traditional culture.

And then he says, and I want you to go to the othermost part of the world.

That was the original commission.

But they've come to Christ, they're filled with the Spirit, and they're they're uh spreading the gospel throughout Jerusalem.

When they're doing that, they're getting tremendous opposition, greater and greater, floggings, jailings, but they're still doing it.

Um all that changed when we came to Acts chapter 6, when a Jewish, another Jewish sect in Jerusalem targeted the disciple Stephen with trumped-up charges that he was speaking against the temple in Jerusalem and against the law of Moses.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

So they brought, they drugged Stephen to the Sanhedrin to answer the charges.

And in Acts chapter 7, Stephen answers the two charges by going through the history of Israel and related scriptures, and ends with a strong rebuke to his accusers in Acts 7, which he said to them, Was there ever a prophet your ancestors didn't persecute?

Acts 7 · chapter mention

They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

You who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.

Stephen's sermon ended in his death by stoning.

The crowd was enraged.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.

What does that mean?

It means he was right, and that hurt.

And they began gnashing their teeth, and instead of humbling themselves, they got angry.

Really angry.

And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul, who would later become the Apostle Paul.

You know what I gotta say?

I am so glad that my sermons have not ended that way.

You guys are so gracious.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just appreciate you guys.

But even in the midst of persecution, the believers were forced to spread out, went about preaching the gospel, and more and more people came to faith in Jesus in Acts 8, verse 4.

Acts 8:4

Therefore, those who had been scattered about went about preaching the word.

They didn't stop sharing the gospel.

Wherever they were, they kept sharing about Jesus.

Stephen's death, in other words, prompted from this widespread persecution.

Believers started fleeing north out of Israel into Samaria.

And this is where we read the story of Philip.

He actually was the first one, I think, to break this Samaritan Jewish barrier and begin serving the Samaritans, sharing the gospel, and fulfilling the next part of Jesus' mission.

And that leads us to the third way the church continued to grow.

So we follow the review of the book of Acts.

As a result of Philip's ministry in Samaria, many people came to believe in Jesus.

But then in Acts 8, 9, and 10, Luke gives us three case studies of individual people who were actually converted to Christ so that we might understand what conversion to Christ means and the elements necessary in every conversion.

He could have just said, yeah, more and more people believed in Jesus.

The church kept growing and growing and growing.

For some reason, he realized this is too important.

People understand, need to understand what's going on when people receive the word of God, understand who Jesus is and what he did.

This is what happens to people.

Three case studies.

The first case study in Acts chapter 8 was how Philip in Samaria helped the Ethiopian eunuch, if you remember, come to faith in Jesus.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He was reading, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

In Acts 8, 30-35, Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you're reading?

And he said, How can I?

Unless someone guides me.

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this: like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shears is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generations?

For his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?

Who is this?

He's talking about himself or someone else?

Philip opened his mouth and began with this scripture.

Use the word of God.

This scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

And the Ethiopian eunuch was converted.

Acts 8, 36 to 38.

As they went along the road, he came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, water, what prevents me from being baptized?

Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water.

Philip, as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

The second case study we looked at was in Acts chapter 9, how the Pharisee Saul, who was part of Stephen's murder, killing, came to faith in Jesus and was converted when he had a collision with the truth about Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

In Acts 9, 1 to 6, now Saul, while he was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priests and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And as he was traveling, it was, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground, heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

That's an odd thing to say.

Why didn't he say, Why are you persecuting those Christian people?

He didn't say that, why are you persecuting me?

Because everybody who has Jesus in them has this spiritual connection.

Anything happens to you, it's happening to him.

And Saul said, Who are you?

Great question.

A question everybody should ask.

Who is this?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting.

But now get up, enter the city, and I'll it'll be told to you what you must do.

And Saul was converted.

We read Acts 9, 17, and 18.

Ananias came to him, departed, and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you are coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Nobody can be filled with the Spirit unless he believes in this Jesus as the Son of God.

That's the connection.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and then he got up to be baptized.

See, baptism is a sign.

I do believe in Jesus as my Savior, the Son of God.

Third case study we see in Acts chapter 10 was how the Roman centurion Cornelius came to faith in Jesus and was converted.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

It's a long story.

Let me take just a bit of it.

Acts 10, verses 1 and 2.

Acts 10:1

There was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort.

This guy, he's a Gentile.

He's a Roman.

He's a military man.

But he was a devout man who feared God with all his household.

He believed in God.

He gave many alms to the Jewish people, and he prayed to God.

Sounded like a good guy.

Sounded like a Christian.

Not yet.

After Cornelius had a vision of an angel telling him, You know, I need you to go send for the apostle Peter in Joppa.

So Peter came through miraculous undertakings and explained the gospel to Cornelius and others who were in his house.

This is what he said, opening his mouth, Peter said in Acts 10, 34, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to him.

You know Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit, with power, how he went about doing good, healing all those who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And you know what?

We're witnesses.

We're witnesses of all the things he both did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, and they also put him to death by hanging him on a cross.

But God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

And he ordered us to preach to the people, solemnly testify that this is the one who's been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

Of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

And Cornelius and the people with him were converted.

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who were listening.

Now, why would he fall on them who were listening?

Because they were believing it.

That's the transaction.

Believe the message of the gospel, you will receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit fell on those who were listening to the message, and all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, these Jews.

Whoa! The gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Gentiles, too.

For they were hearing them speak with tongues and exalting God.

Then Peter answered and said, Whoa, surely no one can refuse water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit as we did, can he?

And he ordered them to be baptized.

Notice, they believed, received the Holy Spirit, then they were baptized.

As evidence, we believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

We believe in him as our Savior.

Baptism is telling you all, I believe in Jesus.

After from these three case studies, we learn three important things common to all conversions, I think.

First, we learn that God is already at work preparing people to hear the gospel and to have an encounter with the truth about Jesus.

He's already at work behind the scenes.

Second, we learn the importance of helping people, our role, understand the gospel from the scripture, to understand who Jesus is.

He's the Son of God, whom God sent to save us from our sins.

And second, we help him understand what he did.

He died for our sins, rose again to give salvation to and forgiveness of sins and eternal life to everyone who believes in him.

God is at work preparing.

Very important that people understand the gospel.

Third, from these case studies, we learn the bottom line is in order to be converted, it is necessary to actually believe.

Open your heart and believe and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.

As Peter says in Acts 10 43, of him, Jesus, all the prophets bear witness.

Through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

End of matter.

At the beginning of the Cornelius story, Cornelius was in his house praying.

He's a very religious, devout guy.

He had all the great religious practices.

He uh believed in God.

He uh he gave part of his income to help people, um, and he's praying.

And uh angel came to him and said, You know what, uh Cornelius, God has heard your prayers and seen your gifts.

Therefore, umtice how striking the angel's statement is.

Cornelius, we've been up in heaven and we're looking over the human race, and you know what?

You're one of the best ones.

You pray to the true God, you give generously, you're successful, powerful, and wealthy, you're a man of virtue, courageous, strong, doing the right thing.

Therefore, what does the angel say?

Therefore, because you're so good, we just want you to know in heaven.

Now you keep doing what you're doing, we're sure you're gonna make it to heaven.

Doesn't say that.

Here's the gospel given to a religious person.

Look at all that they're doing, all the good.

And the angel says, Cornelius, you're one of the good ones.

I need you to go send for Peter.

Because there's one missing piece for you to connect with the living God, you need to hear and believe the gospel.

You're a good person, you need to be converted.

Wow.

So many people in the world think, oh, I'm a good person.

Uh I'm sure I'll go to heaven.

If anybody, I could be sure, it was Cornelius and even Nicodemus in the New Testament, uh, in the book of John, uh Jesus said to Nicodemus, who was one of the a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling class in Israel, devout, uh, practiced all the practiced the law faithfully, did all the right things, was well respected, wealthy, successful.

And Jesus said, unless you're converted, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

He says that to every single religious person to this day.

It's not your works that's gonna save you, it's the work his son did for you that will save you if you believe in him.

That's it, it's stunning.

He was one of the good ones.

He said, I mean, we're not done here.

Uh Cornelius, you gotta go get Peter.

He has to tell you something to complete this.

Belief in Jesus is the core, the sine qua non of all conversions.

So in Acts 7 to 11, we see the church grow through the witness of believers who are sharing the gospel through the word of God.

The church grew through even opposition as believers spread out, but they didn't stop sharing, they're just motivated to share even more.

The church grew finally through conversions to Christ.

As more and more people believed the message, even the ones who were dead set against Christianity and lived to stamp it out.

What a powerful testimony.

And they believed the gospel message.

In the book of Acts, we see God providentially, I mean, those case studies, take a look at them, read them yourself.

We see God providentially lead believers to individuals who need to hear the gospel, regardless of what they believe about or what religion they need to hear the gospel and how to make it establish a relationship with God through Jesus.

So, if that's the case, and we do see this happening in the book of Acts, let me ask you, has God put someone in your life?

Someone maybe you didn't even expect.

In the book of Acts, all real conversions to Christ result when a person hears and understands the gospel to allow them to believe in Jesus.

Jesus said that conversion or being born again is something everyone needs in order to see the kingdom of God, rich or poor, smart or dumb, religious or lawless, successful or failure, moral or immoral?

Every single person.

So let me challenge you with this question again today.

Are you converted to Jesus Christ?

Do you sense the Holy Spirit has filled you, that your sins are forgiven, and that you have this wonderful hope of being in heaven after you die, regardless of anything else, just Jesus.

John in his first letter, this is the verse that God used in my life, the person who shared it, and I read it.

I'm gonna share it again.

You're gonna hear me.

I apologize.

I'm gonna I'm gonna repeat my stories, all my stuff to maybe courage somebody else.

1 John 5, 11 to 13.

John says, basically, when it's all said and done, this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life.

And this life is in his son, Jesus.

He who has the Son has the life.

He who does not have the Son does not have the life, eternal life.

And these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

You're gonna be in heaven.

Do you have the Son?

If not, if you're not sure, as I close in prayer this morning, just bow your head before God, open your heart, invite Jesus, be part of your life to come into you as your Lord and Savior.

If you do confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and you know you've received the Holy Spirit and have assurance of eternal life, let me ask you: are you living a life that reflects your confession?

Because that's what we're told to do.

He's done unbelievable, eternal, everlasting things in our life.

Are you living a life that reflects your confession and as a testimony to others?

Something happened to you.

Someone changed your life.

If not, as we close in prayer, I would ask you to confess that to God, receive his forgiveness, ask for the grace to honor him first in your life.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you that you're not willing that anybody should perish for eternity, but are at work to seek and save the lost.

And not only that you've made us your ambassadors, your ambassadors for Christ.

Oh.

You're making an appeal through us, sinful people, trying to encourage them to be reconciled to you through faith in Jesus.

Oh, we need your help.

Help us by your grace and the Holy Spirit to manifest the same power, boldness, confidence, desire to reach others with the gospel that those in the first church had who were filled with the same Holy Spirit that we are.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.