Today we are going to talk about some of the keys to a strong and growing church. If you are a born again Christian and if you belong to the Church of Christ then you have a calling to fulfil on earth.
I believe The Church is the Hope for all Humanity!
Jesus died at the cross and He rose from death to save us and to build his Church, and this church is the Hope for all humanity. And there is no plan B, there is no salvation without Jesus. We are here to save the lost and we cannot fail as the church of Christ!
Today we are going to explore what God desires to see in His Church. We will talk about what God, by His Spirit and through His people, is working to accomplish in His church. I’m going to start this message today and I will conclude it next week.
Did you know that one of the things that one of God’s wishes, (His Vision for His church) is to see a growing church?
He wishes to see a church that is going from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from strength to strength. God never planned or imagined a stagnant or stationary church. But He sees and wants the Church to be moving forward, increasing, developing and expanding.
Today I’m going to share with you some things that we find in the book of Acts. Things that brought growth and brought increase and expansion to God’s family, for it is God’s plan is to have a big family with many children like Jesus Christ.
Before I start talking about things that bring growth to the church I would like to talk about some truths that I think is foundation to our today’s teaching.
Growth can and should come in a number of areas: God is looking for growth in faith, in heart , in influence, in knowledge, in love, in grace and of course, in numbers.
And numbers are important because they represent people and God loves people.
It’s not just about numerical growth; God’s plan for us as individual members of His Church is to increase in influence, to increase in love , to increase in good works, to increase in knowledge, and to add precious souls to His family.
Also growth for God’s family, it is His will. Growth is God’s will, both for our individual lives and for His church.
Did you know that things that don’t grow, die? Churches that do not grow, will die. If you don’t grow spiritually you are in danger!
God is into reaching lost people. He is into us developing and maturing and growing as believers of His church, because the Church is the Hope for humanity.
The primitive church is an example and model for us and in this first part of this message we are going to see why they were such a strong and growing church.
Let’s learn with the primitive church in the book of Acts.
“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” Acts 5:42
We need not just to preach the message of the Bible but we need to use the method of the Bible. Many churches have the message of the Bible, but do not practice the method of Bible.
The method of the Bible is: Temple courts and house to house.
You don’t need much for a church to exist, the only things we need to have a church is love !
We cannot love a crowd! Love only happens when you have a manageable number of people.
Did you know that in the New Testament alone, the phrase “ONE ANOTHER” is used 58 times?
Love one another, care for one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, greet one another, serve one another, share with one another, build up one another, forgive one another, teach one another, comfort one another, encourage one another, and on and on and on…
There are 58 “one another” of mutual ministry of the body of Christ and that cannot take place in a crowd but only in a small group.
I’m always saying that “if anyone is not part of Cell meeting they are not part of the church.”
The heart of Shalom Christian Fellowship are the small Groups.
Cell meeting is not a program of our Church , cell meeting is not an event of the church , Cell Meeting is the Church. They are our church.
The Bible calls the church the body of Christ and a Body is made of individual cells. In the Body of Christ the cells are the small groups.
If all we have is the Sunday service we have no church , not fellowship, not “koinonia”, not congregation. We cannot follow the Bible’s commands about “one another” in Sunday services!
The fastest growth of Christianity happened in the first 300 years of the Church – from 0AD to 300AD.
They went from 12 disciples to thousands and dominating Roman Empire soon after established Christianity as the official religion.
During those 300 years two things were true:
1- it cost a lot to be Christian , because of the great persecution.
Persecution actually helps church to grow. People fear it but it was good for the church.
Persecution turns believers into true believer.
If you became a believer in the first 300 years it was likely that you would be fed to lions or die on a cross.
Persecution made the first Christians true believers.
The second thing that was true in the first 300 years is : 2- There were no church buildings!
For the first 300 years, 100% of worship was held in homes. There were no church buildings and still the gospel grew!
Why do we have our cell Meetings? We didn’t invent this , we didn’t make it up, we do it for a biblical reason.
Cell Meetings or small groups are biblical.
You can see small groups in the Old Testament (Exodus 18:17-19) and also in the New Testament.
What was the first thing that Jesus did after his baptism in Jordan river?
The very first thing Jesus did after being baptised was form a small group. He chose 12 guys and he walked with them for the next 3 and a half years.
The amazing story of the book of Acts is the growth of the Church.
For many churches it’s all about the weekend or the big service on Sunday! But we do not believe that. When the church of Jesus first started, there was no weekend church. If you read the church history, the church had no building- yet that was the fastest period of growth of the church.
The primitive church, you know – they were 120 people in the upper room to thousand people without buildings.
The scholars say the church in Jerusalem grew from 120 to 100.000 (one hundred thousand)
In that time, Jerusalem had around 200.000 people. The church had a half of city. Can you image that ?
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.””
Acts 5:28
Half of Jerusalem came to Christ ! It was a giant church !
When you have a church with thousands of members like that, where do you fit them all?
The Bible tell us and I want to read some verses to show you the growth of the church.
“In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)” Acts 1:15
This hundred and twenty people were praying and then there were baptised in the Holy Spirit. (Next message I will talk about the the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives)
“Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Acts 2:41
In the day of Pentecost, after Peter’s preaching 3,000 were added to the church.
“But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.” Acts 4:4
5,000 men – if 5,000 men believed, how many children and women and men were added to the church that day? Around 15,000 (fifteen thousand) people.
The church started with Jesus, then the 12 disciples, then 120 people, then plus 3,000 , then plus 15,000 people, that means the church had around 18,000 people. But it didn’t stop there.
“And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,” Acts 5:14
Here it doesn’t even give us a number, it talks about multitudes!
“Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”” Acts 5:28
“Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.” Acts 6:1
“So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7
This is one church in one town and where in the world would they ever fit them all together?
Acts 5:42
“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” Acts 5:42
Temple courts , not in the temple! They did not met in the temple, because only priest could actually meet and go inside Jewish temples.
They didn’t have temples but they met outside them.
During the week it was from house to house – where they had communion, bible studies, worship and fellowship.
They worship in the courts around the temple! The courts were enormous. I have been there and the place can fit around 50,000 people. And if they had 2 services they could gather around 100,000 people.
They had big Meetings and small meetings.
Large groups of worship in temple courts, and small groups of Fellowship from house to house.
The church existed inside the houses.
Let’s see some examples of the church meeting at home.
“Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. Greet also the church that meets at their house.”Romans 16:3, 5
“Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” Colossians 4:15
“also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:” Philemon 1:2
“The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.” I Corinthians 16:19
That’s the ways God wants the church to grow.
I believe that in few years we are going to be more than 1,000 people and we are praying for a new building but for me, the most important thing is not the building, the most important is the church and the church is the people.
We need to build our people before we build our temple. We are into building disciples, not into building buildings.
We have people asking: when we are going to build our church or when will we buy our own church ?
We have been doing that for the last 13 years. Church is not a building, church is people.
We have building a church, the building is just the location. When we have hundreds of people building a building won’t be hard.
The primitive church is an example and model for us and I want to challenge all of you to be a part in our Cell Meetings. Because in the cell meetings you are going to grow, and you are going to develop your calling, you are going to make disciples and you are going to become a leader.
Remember that growth is God’s will, both for your spiritual life and for His church.
Things that don’t grow, die! Churches that don’t grow, die. If you don’t grow spiritually you are dead.
Jesus died for His church, because the Church is the Hope for humanity. The cell Meetings is the Church!
We know the life of the body is in the Cells and we know the life of this Church is in our small groups.
Remember there is no salvation without Jesus. We are here to save the lost and we cannot fail as the church of Christ! People don’t go easily to church building but they go easily to a home!
Let’s pray
I pray your blessing on every person here and over those who are listening or reading to me from home. I pray that you fill them with strength, with compassion, with wisdom with The Holy Spirit and may all of them be totally committed to your Kingdom.
In Jesus name I pray.
God bless you