7
June 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 3:1-10
Acts 3:1-10 (NIV)
1 One day Peter and John were going up to the
temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon.
2 Now a man crippled from birth was being
carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg
from those going into the temple courts.
3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he
asked them for money.
4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John.
Then Peter said, "Look at us!"
5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting
to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do
not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
walk."
7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him
up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then
he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising
God.
9 When all the people saw him walking and
praising God,
10 they recognized him as the same man who used
to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with
wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
-- a few years ago, the Christian
group Cloverton released a song called “Take Me Into the Beautiful.”
-- let me share with you the opening
lyrics of that song:
-- “Take me into the beautiful -- Won't
You take me back again? -- With a love unexplainable, come fill up this dry
land.
-- "Let it open our eyes to see
a world we've never seen -- Let it open our hearts up to see You inside of us
-- You're here inside of me.”
-- This song, and especially these
opening lyrics, talk about the desire to be taken into the beautiful -- to a
place where our faces glow with a light that never dims -- to be in the
presence of God as Moses was -- to meet with God face-to-face -- to know Him
and to be with Him so our faces glow like Moses' with the reflection of God's
glory and beauty and so that others would come to know Him in that way as well
-- if you think about it, isn't that the reason
we're here today? -- isn't that the reason church exists in the first place? --
to know and to experience God and to share His presence with others?
-- this morning, I want to talk
about what it means to be the church of God -- what it really looks like in
practice -- and how we can better be who we are called to be
-- so let's start our discussion by
looking back at this passage in Acts Chapter 3 -- just to give you the context,
this chapter occurs after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus -- as you
know, Jesus spent about 40 days with His disciples after the resurrection,
teaching them from the scriptures about Himself and what it meant to live in
the Kingdom of God -- and after the 40 days were up, Jesus ascended into heaven
from the Mount of Olives and just a few days later, on the Day of Pentecost, Jesus
sent His Spirit to indwell the believers and fill them with the living presence
of God Himself
-- the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost was the birth of the church of Christ -- and Peter and the other
disciples had been sharing the good news of Jesus' resurrection and the
forgiveness of sins throughout Jerusalem -- the Bible tells us that more and
more people were hearing the message and putting their faith in Jesus and that
they began to meet together in their homes to worship God together
-- which brings us to Acts Chapter 3
-- if you would, let's look at verse 1 again as we begin our discussion this
morning on what it means to be the church today
-- verse 1
1
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at
three in the afternoon.
-- Peter and John went to the Temple
to pray -- now I want you to stop there and think about what we just read -- a
lot of people have this idea about church -- that a real church has to have a
lot of people -- that a real church needs a building -- that a real church
needs professional educated ministers -- but is this true? -- is this biblical?
-- let's unpack this verse a little
bit and answer the question, "what does it take to be a church?" --
when we read here that Peter and John went to the temple together to pray, were
they the church?
-- first, do you need a lot of
people to be a real church? -- that's the mindset that a lot of people in our community
and our country have -- they believe that numbers equate with success in the
eyes of God -- that's the first question we ask others about their church,
isn't it? -- how many people go to your church?
-- did you know there's actually a
number people use as the definition of what a real church is? -- if you read
the texts and the theories about church administration and function, you'll see
the number 200 thrown out a lot -- if you have at least 200 people, you are a
church -- if you have less than that -- say between 50 and 200 -- you are
considered a small church -- not quite there yet -- if you have less than 50,
you're not really a church -- so to be a real church, many people believe you
need at least 200 people
-- but what does the Bible say? -- how
many people do you need to be the church? -- to do great things for Christ? --
to enter into the beautiful of His presence? -- I think Jesus gave us the
answer in Matthew 18:20 when He said, "Where two or three gather in My
Name, there I am with them." -- wherever Christ is, His church is there
with Him -- and I contend that Peter and John were the church that day as they
went up to the temple to pray
-- what about buildings? -- I hear
that a lot -- where's your church located? -- and sometimes I try to be
flippant and I'll say, "Well, Sara and her family live in Hahira and we
live in Dasher and the Summerfords live in Dothan" -- and they'll just
look at me, because what we really mean when we say the word church is building
-- so what they're really asking is where's your building? -- and when I tell
them we meet at the Hampton Inn, I get that look -- not quite the same look I
got when I told them we met in a Doggie Daycare, but still, it's that look that
says, "Oh, you're not really a church because you don't have a
building"
-- would it surprise you to know
that no where in the Bible are we told to go and build a structure to
"have church" in? -- would it surprise you to know that there were no
church buildings for the first 300 or 400 years of Christianity? -- would it
surprise you to know that the practice of most of modern Christianity today --
outside of the Western world -- is to not build a church building?
-- when the Holy Spirit came down at
Pentecost and the church of Christ was birthed, the first thoughts of the
disciples were not, "Let's build a building" -- instead, they
primarily met in each other's homes -- sometimes they would gather at the river
or in other places to join together in worship -- and sometimes they would go
to the temple, as we see Peter and John doing here -- not because God only
showed up in buildings, but because that's where the people were who needed to
hear the good news of Christ
-- contrary to popular opinion, you
don't have to have a building to be a church -- in fact, a lot of resources in
the church today are tied up in church buildings, and if these resources --
time and money and labor -- were freed up for ministry instead of building
maintenance, you have to wonder what God would do through His church today
-- and, finally, the question of
professional, trained and educated clergy -- we hear that a lot -- and while I
think it's good for clergy -- and for everyone -- to learn as much about God as
possible, it's certainly not a requirement to go to seminary to serve God
-- the Bible tells us the Spirit
will lead us into all knowledge of Christ -- He gives us what we need to know
to share His message with others -- I believe education is important, but not
necessary, to do great things for Him
-- God certainly used Peter and John
to spread His message and grow His church, but they were not accepted by the
religious institution of their day because they had not trained officially
under a Rabbi or been in an accredited rabbinical school
-- the early church grew and spread
under the leadership of men and women just like you, who only knew one thing,
and that was Jesus -- they didn't have to go to seminary or to Bible school to
serve God and be effective in His name -- so don't let the lack of a degree or
education hold you back from doing ministry for God now
-- and I bring all this up to make a point -- a
lot of times we look around the room at the number of people sitting here and
we think we really can't do anything for God -- "if we were only larger,
then we could do more -- if we had a building, more people would come -- and if
we had more people, we would have more money -- if we had more money, we could
have more programs and God could do more through us and we could do more
ministry for Him"
-- we get to looking at the bigger churches in
Valdosta and we get envious of them because they seem to be able to do so much
more than us -- youth groups -- children's church -- nurseries -- huge VBS's --
mission trips -- multiple services
-- you've done it -- I've done it -- but, you
know what -- we were wrong -- the message I want you to get from this first
verse and the reason I spent so much time talking about this is to get the
point across that all we have to do is be faithful to God's vision for us and
He will do great things through us
-- we don't need a lot of people -- we don't
need a building -- it might help to have an educated minister, but we don't
need that -- all we need in order to enter into the beautiful and experience
and serve God is to gather together in His name and look for His presence and
trust in Him -- that's what Peter and John were doing when they headed for the
temple that day -- they expected God to work through them, even though they
were small in number
-- let's move on -- vs. 2
2 Now a man crippled from birth was being
carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg
from those going into the temple courts.
-- here we read about this crippled man who was
"put" by the gate of the temple -- there was a big difference between
Peter & John and this man - P&J went seeking God -- they went expecting
to see God work through the two of them
-- but the crippled man didn't come to church
seeking God -- he didn't expect God to do anything for him -- he went looking
simply for what the world had to offer -- we have a lot of people who come to
church with that same mindset -- they don't come looking for God -- they come
looking for money -- for what man can give them -- they don't come expecting God
to work in their lives
-- that is exactly what we do when we try to
compare ourselves with larger churches -- we are, in effect, saying that the
reason God is working through them is because they are large and the reason why
God is not working through us is because we are small
-- this shows a lack of faith in the power of
God -- the same God who is working in the life of the large church is the same
God who built a kingdom through just 12 disciples -- in 1 Cor 1:27, Paul tells
us that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise -- He chose
the weak things of the world to shame the strong
-- God loves to use small churches because it
shows that it was Him who did it and not the church
-- verse 3
3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he
asked them for money.
4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John.
Then Peter said, "Look at us!"
5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting
to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do
not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
walk."
7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him
up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then
he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising
God.
-- now, don't miss what is going on in this
passage -- this crippled man had come to the temple at the same time as Peter
and John -- to this large place of worship -- to this large church
-- we don't know how many times this man came
to this site -- we don't know how many times he sat by this gate, begging for
money but needing a miracle -- we don't know how many members of this church
walked past him every day
-- but one thing is sure -- despite all its
money -- despite all its members -- despite all its programs and ministries --
this large church couldn't meet the true needs of this crippled man
-- instead of using the priest and the
congregation there to heal this man, God chose to work through a church of two
men -- Peter and John -- to reach out and meet that man at the point of his
need
-- the crippled man didn't know what he really
needed -- he didn't know what was possible -- maybe he had given up his dream
of being healed -- all he knew was what he wanted -- he wanted money -- but God
wanted to give him more -- God wanted to give him what he really needed --
physical and spiritual healing -- and it was only the small church who could
meet him where he was that day
-- look again at Peter's words in verse 6
6 Then
Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
walk."
-- listen to what he's saying -- "silver
and gold I do not have -- we don't have a lot of money -- we don't have lots of
members -- we don't have lots of programs and lots of ministries -- we don't
even have a church building -- but what I have I give you"
-- what does Koinonia Church
have to give? -- what person -- what group of people -- has God called us to
reach out and touch for Him -- because
no one else and no other church -- will -- what do we have to give -- what do
we have to offer?
-- well, the first thing that we have to give
is Jesus -- just like Peter and John, we have the living Son of God in our
midst and in our hearts -- and I don't care how little we are or how little
money we have, we can give Jesus away free of charge to everyone we come into
contact with
-- and, when you think of it, when you only
have Jesus to give, you still have the greatest gift in the world
-- another thing that we have to offer is that
we have a stronger sense of family -- we know each other -- we couldn't get
lost in a crowd even if we wanted to -- and this makes us closer
-- when someone in a small church is hurting,
the entire church hurts -- when something goes good for someone in a small
church, everyone rejoices -- this is a major advantage that we have over the
larger churches
-- we also have more opportunities for individual
spiritual growth -- everyone in a small church is needed -- we can't just come
and leave on Sunday -- if you're a member here, you get put to work -- and
that's the way it should be -- we're not just here to be entertained on a
Sunday morning -- we're here to bring the good news of God to others -- and God
uses our small size to challenge us and to stretch us and to help us grow into
the people He's called us to be
-- verse 9
9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God,
10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the
temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at
what had happened to him.
-- so what happens when a
tiny, little church comes together -- believing God is going to use them --
trusting God to do great things through them? -- you see it here
-- people get healed --
lives get changed -- and everyone is amazed at the power of God in their midst
-- we're not here for us
-- as Rick Warren wrote in the start of his book, "The Purpose-Driven
Life," "it's not about us" -- it's about Him -- it's about God
-- it's about bringing glory to God
-- and we do that -- not
by being big -- not by having the most beautiful meeting place in town -- not
by having a bank account bulging at the seams -- no, we do that by being His
hands and feet -- by believing in Him and His power -- by knowing that He can
do through us what we cannot do -- and by trusting that He will use even us to
bring glory to His name
-- the important thing for us to remember is
that even though we may not be large -- even though we may not have lots of
money or lots of people -- we still have something to offer
-- silver or gold I do not have -- but what I
have I give you -- I give you Jesus
-- go and do likewise this week
-- let us pray
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