The Gospel Spreads

SERMON: 2011-09-04--ac1169--the-gospel-spreads SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:16.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: All candidates represent continuous devotional or prayer material (benediction/acclamations), which are integral parts of the sermon's closing. Since no non-sermon material is explicitly marked after candidate 15, it is selected as the final token of the sermon content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:37:58.280-00:38:02.140, 00:38:03.240-00:42:15.620 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, at first glance, the passage that we have just read together in Acts 5 seems to have within it an inherent contradiction. Listen again to the verses 12 and 13, where Scripture says, "And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people." Notice that no one else dared join them. Now listen to the next verse, verse 14, "Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number." So Luke, who is of course the author of the book of Acts, which is it? No one else dared join them or many were added to their number. And the answer, of course, is both and. The general public had great hesitations about joining them, but nevertheless many new believers came to faith. And the issue here is that historically the church has always been a confessional community. You don't become part of the church because your parents are part of the church. God has children, somebody has said, but he doesn't have grandchildren. You don't become part of the church just because you go to a building where other people meet or because your friends go there or because you like the music or you like the preaching or you like the building. No, no. You become part of the church when you confess faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. And if you're familiar at all with the gospel, then you will know, as is echoed in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, there are three aspects to what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus. Let me just very quickly walk you through them by way of review. The first is I must know my sin and misery. That is to say I must know that I'm separated from God, I must know that by nature I am under Satan's power, and I must know that therefore I am selfish to the core of my being. And all the problems that exist in the world fundamentally flow then out of this broken relationship with God and out of this broken relationship with each other. And diagrammatically, of course, you know that I like to present it this way, the left circle there is the kingdom of the world, it's the world that you and I are born into, we are alienated from God, God, where are you? We're under Satan's power, we're selfish, conflict is the norm, and death and destruction is the reality, and nobody gets out of this world alive. We must know our sin and our misery. Not only that, but we must know too how I can be delivered from my sin and misery. The Bible says in Acts chapter 4, verse 12, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus. Question for you this morning. How many of you here had an opportunity to watch Jack Leighton's funeral service a week ago Saturday? Any of you? I was on vacation so I didn't have to feel guilty about sitting through it, and without entering into the politics of it, there are two things about that service that really struck me. The first is the universal longing for redemption, the recognition that the world is broken, the recognition that there's got to be a better way to do life, a recognition that there is a new way to do politics, the longing, especially among young people with their idealism, there's got to be a way to make this world work better. That by the way is the biblical cry for God make all things new. The second thing that struck me is the longing people have for a leader who can articulate that vision and who can inspire the troops and who can call people forth to a better world and a better self. And that of course is why Jack Leighton received so many praises because he articulated that so well. His closing words in that letter that he wrote, "My friends, love is better than anger, hope is better than fear, optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic." The message of scripture, however, is that much as we might long for human beings to bring about this kind of redemption, that ultimate redemption is found where? In no other name but the name of Jesus. And you become a Christian, not by just believing all the right things. You become a member of God's saved people, not by going to church or by sitting around and pretending to be religious, but by having a fundamental understanding at the core of your heart. I'm a sinner, my life is a mess, the world is a mess. No other human being, no other human institution, no other human plan fundamentally can change the reality of my life except only Jesus. Because he was crucified not only, but he was raised from the dead. He reigns forevermore at the right hand of God, and God has acknowledged him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? It's Jesus and Jesus alone. And whatever political, religious, or economic figures that are in the world who help us move towards a better world, it is always only but a reflection of Jesus who is the Lord God over all. So you become a Christian by knowing your sin and misery. You become a Christian by turning in faith to the Lord Jesus, and then having turned in faith to the Lord Jesus, the catechism goes on to point out that we must live a life of gratitude. I must live a life of gratitude. Paul puts it this way, Romans chapter 12 verse 1, "I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship." You see, if it is true that by faith I have become a child of God and have committed myself to this way of life, and I have come to believe that Jesus is the one who takes me from this world to that, then by union in Christ as time goes on, my life will change. I will grow in love towards God, I will grow in love towards my neighbor, and I begin to reflect not only individually, but we begin to reflect together some element of heaven's values. And that's what happens here in Acts chapter 5 again with the early church. They are a separated people. They are devoted to God, they are devoted to each other, and because they are a unique people, on the one hand the public highly admires them, but the public is afraid to join them. And yet their way of life is such that it stirs up a hunger in the hearts of many, and they too end up coming to Jesus and they're being joined to God's forever family. On the one hand nobody dared join them, on the other hand many, many, many, many become part of God's covenant community. Now why do I belabor that point? Because there is a critical issue here as regards to how the church grows and how the gospel spreads. You've often heard me say the church always struggles historically with two opposing forces. On the one hand it is called to be a separated community from the world. We are to march to the beat of a different drum. On the other hand we are to go back into the world to draw the world back out. And those two are typically at odds with each other because how do you get sent back into the world without being polluted by the world? And so historically the church tends to fall into one of two extremes. There are those who are isolationist. There are those who say the world is dirty, there is sin out there, they have rough language, they break all the commandments. I don't want to be a part of that. And so they build a fortress around themselves. They pride themselves self-righteously in being holy people. And maybe they are. But they are irrelevant to the world because there are no connections with the world. We've had people here over the years leave this community because they didn't want their children exposed to the nitty-gritty of life. And that's their privilege. But I've often thought to myself I would rather have my children learn the facts of life and the reality of life in the context of community than out on the street with their friends and watching the television screen behind my back and being exposed to the garbage that is out there. Wouldn't you agree? So there are those who are isolationist. Those who say well if we build big barriers we can keep our children from being polluted from the world. And then there are those who look at that and they say well that's no way to do evangelism. That's no way to be light and salt. But they sometimes swing all the way to the other way. And they say well if we adopt the language, if we adopt the behavior, if we adopt the carryings on of the world, if we become like them, join them in their life, then maybe they will feel at home with us and we'll be able to communicate with them and draw them out of a life of sin into the world. And of course both extremes are wrong and don't work. If you're living in isolation you've got no contact with the world. How are you going to win them anywhere? But if you're like the world, why should that draw them to Jesus if your life is not any different from their life? Why in the world should they become what you are when you're no different from what they are? And so evangelism biblically happens when we live out of the strength of our relationship with God, walk in the holiness and in the uniqueness of God, and yet have the love and the compassion that we need to connect with the world so that the world looking at us can see something in us that is different, so that in turn they are drawn by the reality of the Lord Jesus. I love the way Peter gets that balance right in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 where he says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God." Get the balance there. You are a unique people, you're chosen, you're a royal priesthood, you're a holy nation, you belong to God, you march to the beat of His drum, but why? Not just so that you can get out of this world and one day go to heaven, glory hallelujah, but that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness to His marvelous light. And I never cease to be amazed at the person of Jesus because He's the only one that ever really got it perfectly right. Nobody was more holy than Jesus. Nobody could say He was without sin like Jesus could. And nobody better mirrored heaven's values than Jesus did. Have often said, "Loved God above all, all the time, loved His neighbor more than He loved Himself all the time." You'd think people were kind of scared to hang around with that dude, wouldn't you? I mean, wouldn't you feel a little uncomfortable with that kind of Jesus hanging around your house? I mean, wouldn't that kind of show up your garbage a little bit? Maybe you don't have any garbage to show up, but I think you'll find it soon enough if you hang around Jesus long enough because that's a pretty clear mirror, isn't that? But the amazing thing of Jesus is that sinners were comfortable in His presence. That is to say, repentant sinners were comfortable in His presence. There's only one category of people that couldn't stand Him. Do you remember who they were? They were the religious hypocrites who lived by the letter of the law, but who knew none of the reality of God's grace and God's kingdom. So why did this early community draw so many people? Because they were God's chosen people who, out of the quality of their life and the quality of their walk with God, so let their light shine, that even while people were afraid of them and they said, "Boy, you know, you don't want to hang around with those people because you could get struck dead over hidden sin," nevertheless, many said, "God's there," and they bent their knee and they were added to the church. Now with that in mind, let me walk you quickly through four characteristics that Luke tells us in this chapter were qualities that distinguished the early church. First of all, Luke says they were a holy people. Verse 11 of this chapter, "Great fear seized the whole church, and all who heard about these events," these events refer to what? That's correct, Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira were greedy people. They wanted to look better than what they really were. They lied about the money that they were contributing to the community of faith. They said it represents everything that we have sold our field for when in fact they were holding money back, and you know the story, God struck them dead. Well, the result is great fear fell upon the church. You can bet your bottom dollar that in that early church after Ananias and Sapphira, everybody went home and did a little soul house cleaning, don't you think? Like I better fix up my marriage, I better get rid of the greed in my heart, I better get rid of the idolatry in my life, because this God that we are in relationship with, this God who pours out these amazing blessings upon us is a holy God who doesn't seem to fool around with much sin. And so the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And so the early church was a holy people. It doesn't mean that they were any more perfect than you or I, but they knew the reality of the blood of Jesus and the need for walking in repentance and faith. They knew you don't try to play tricks with God, you don't pretend to be something on the outside other than what you are on the inside, and you avail yourself of whatever means of grace that is needed so that you can be a good and honest reflection of who God is. I've been reading 66 Love Letters by Larry Crabb of late. He goes through all 66 books of the Bible, and he takes those complicated books sometimes and he reduces it to one phrase as to what it is that God is trying to teach his people. And he says the whole message from one end to the other can be boiled down to the fact that if you want to share the presence of God, you've got to share his holiness. Because without holiness, the Bible says, nobody can see God. And that holiness we cannot manufacture. That holiness is available only in Christ. And whenever you and I confess our sins and we lay hold of his forgiveness, we are as holy as we will ever be. And then in that process of sanctification, God changes us, not just in our external behavior, but he changes us from the inside out. Paul puts it this way. He says, "Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." The people held them in high esteem because they recognized in them something of God's holiness. Secondly, then, they were a relational people. Verse 12, "And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade." Solomon's Colonnade, you'll recall, is a porch built on the east side of the temple. It was all pillared, had a roof over it, and it was the meeting place for the early church. And as you've heard me say before, the early church loved not only to hang out with God, but they loved hanging out with each other. We studied that earlier in Acts chapter 2, where the Bible says, "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts." I always wondered what people did for a living in those days. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. So they were related not only to God, but they were related also to each other. Why? Because you see, if God is my Father and God is your Father, what does that make you and me? It makes us brother and brother or sister and brother or sister and sister. And that spiritual bond that is created through union with Christ in the gift of the Holy Spirit will often exceed the bond that we have with our natural flesh. How many of us here, our closer friends, share our hearts more deeply and know more deeply brothers and sisters in the family of God than some of our own flesh and blood? Isn't that true? Let me see your hands. How many of you would say that's true of you? See, those are the words of Jesus when the disciples or the crowd comes to Him back in Mark chapter 4, and somebody is sent to Jesus and they say to Jesus, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." Remember that story? What's Jesus' response? "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. Sounds pretty disrespectful, doesn't it? Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." The values change in God's kingdom because when the curtain falls on history, the dividing line of the cross runs through every relationship. And only those who are joined to Jesus, who share His life and who are committed to His purposes are going to enter into the holy city of God. Everybody else is going to be excluded, including our own flesh and blood, when they do not bend the knee before Jesus. And so something happens when you become part of God's family. You become brothers and sisters in Christ. Now that doesn't always mean we like each other. It doesn't always mean we understand each other, and it doesn't mean we sometimes don't have significant differences with each other. But if we're truly in Christ, and of course not everybody who claims to be in Christ is truly in Christ, but if we're truly in Christ then we are committed by the Scriptures and by the Word of God to work out those differences until we come to unity in Christ. Paul puts it this way in Colossians chapter 3, he says, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, forgive as the Lord forgave you." Interestingly enough, the last two weddings that I did, that verse was part of the Scripture chosen by both couples, because anybody that's in a relationship will know that if you want to be miserable, you create a standard that says, "Unless you do this, you are not acceptable to me." If God did that to you and me, we'd all be in big trouble. As Christ forgives you and me, we need to learn to walk in that kind of forgiveness with each other. That's not always easy, but that was the reality of life in the early church. They were a holy people, they were a relational people, and then, because they were a holy people and because they were a relational people, guess what? They were also a people of power. Listen to verse 12, "The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people," and if you want to know what those signs and what those wonders are, then just drop down to verse 15 of this particular chapter where it is spelled out for us in more detail. "People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by." They brought the sick out into the streets, put them on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall on them. Now, I've read commentators who say, "Well, the Bible doesn't say they actually got healed," and that may be true, but smacks to me a little bit of Western arrogance because I don't think people were so stupid as to try to do this if it didn't actually do something, wouldn't you say? And it's an amazing story because the grace of God in this early church was, words fail me to describe this, but the grace of God was so heavily upon them that it overflowed if you even got in touch with them, even remotely got close to them, you got zapped by heaven's power. And there are more stories like that, I'm always intrigued by the story in Acts chapter 19 where Paul is preaching in Ephesus, and Ephesus was the stronghold of Diana, you will recall, major demonic stronghold in the early church. And the Bible says concerning Paul that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. I love that phrase, "extraordinary." I'd be happy with an ordinary miracle, wouldn't you? This is like an extraordinary miracle. So that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Wow. That is an anointing that flows out of being God's holy people, living in right relationship and letting the river of the water of life from God flow through you to bring life and light and healing to the nations. So what do you think is the result of all of that? Well, you know, the church becomes an attrational people. I don't even know if that's a word, but if it isn't, I just made it up. People were drawn to them because they know the kingdom of God wasn't just talk, it was a demonstration of God's presence in power. And so listen to how this passage comes to a conclusion then in verse 16, "Crows gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed." And we talked earlier about the uniqueness of the fact that all were healed. That only happens when God's grace and power is so powerful that everything gets blown out of the water. You know, one day that's gonna happen when Jesus raises everybody from the dead and when this creation becomes the new creation. But there's something else in that passage that is highly significant. What do you think it is? Yes, they drew the crowds because when God is present, you see, you don't have to do a lot of advertising because people are hungry for what God has to offer. But what else is there in that passage? Where did these people come from? They came from the surrounding towns. Why is that significant? Because it is the next phase in the advancement of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Because what was it that Jesus said to his disciples in Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses," say it with me, "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." So up until now, it had been Jerusalem. When the people in Jerusalem heard the gospel, their lives were being changed. But good news spreads really fast. And when people in all the surrounding towns heard that God was on the go, guess what happened? We're going to call in sick to work today and we're going to go see what is happening. And so now the gospel begins to spread from Jerusalem to Judea. And therein lies the key, by the way, to understanding the book of Acts, because the book of Acts is structured in a series of concentric circles that look like this. It starts in Jerusalem. Here in Acts, chapter 5, it now spreads to Judea. You read on in Acts, chapter 8, what happens to Philip? He goes to Samaria. Acts, chapter 10, what do you think happens? Peter goes and he visits Cornelius' house and he has a little trouble with God because he's got a very bad nightmare. And God is trying to teach him that the division between clean and unclean animals is now obliterated because the Gentiles are also going to become part of God's family. And then you get to Acts, chapter 13, what happens in Acts, chapter 13? The five prophets in the early church are fasting, they're in prayer. The Holy Spirit comes along and what do you think the Holy Spirit says? Set apart for me Saul and Barnabas for the work that I have called them to. And here you have the beginning of the missionary journeys, which occupy all the rest of the book of Acts. See, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the uttermost ends of the earth. And so as God's people experience God's grace and God's power, God is a missionary God. And I wish we could get that through our heads. God is a God who has His elect among all the nations of the world. And His strategy for reaching them is the people who have a relationship with Him, who have a relationship with each other, who out of that relationship with Him and out of that relationship with each other are vessels that contain His grace. And as His grace flows through them, and the blind see and the lame walk and the deaf hear, people are drawn from every walk of life to bend the knee before Jesus and to become fellow citizens of the kingdom of God. So what does that all mean for you and me? Well the tendency for us, as I said earlier, is to stoop down and cater to the lowest common denominator. And there is a place to become all things to all men that by all means I might gain some. The church does not reach the world from its ivory tower of isolation. The church reaches the world when, like Jesus, we can touch shoulders with the last and the lost and the least and the broken, and we can walk in the middle of all the crud that is in the world and yet remain faithful to the Lord God. So that in the midst of that world, as we connect with God, connect with each other, and are the vehicles of God's Holy Spirit who lives in our lives, yes, there will be those who when they smell God in you and in me will hate us with a passion and hatred because they cannot stand the light that condemns them. But I'll tell you, God has his elect everywhere. And as you and I live that life in relationship with God, and as we live that life in relationship with one another, and as God's Holy Spirit lives within our heart boldly and courageously, even when half the world might hate us, there will be those in whose heart God is creating a hunger because they recognize in you and in me something that is other than what they are accustomed to. And it stirs, you know what I'm talking about? It stirs up their hunger. And for many years and many days maybe they want nothing to do with you because they walk away from you because you're too dangerous, you're too scary, you show up too much of what lives in their lives. But I'll tell you something, their hunger will be stirred. They'll watch you like a hawk God knows for how many years. And then when trouble strikes, when in the wisdom and in the providence of God they discover their sin and their misery, when their life comes apart and they start looking for answers, and they discover that political movements, however wonderful they are, cannot solve their problems when they discover that no matter how many other leaders there are in the world who promised them a new heaven upon earth and nothing works for them, they'll come knocking. And we've seen this happen here so many times. They'll come knocking on your door and they'll share their story and they'll share their pain and then you and I have the privilege of taking them by the hand. And we can say to them, "You know, I'm not God. I can't fix you up, but I know somebody who can. Let me introduce you to Jesus and let me tell you about how he died on the cross and rose from the dead and how he has a heart of compassion where he will never say to you, 'You dummy, what are you here for? It's your own stupid fault. You're the author of your own misfortune, now he'll take you by the hand and he'll tell you, 'For those tears I died,' and they will step into the reality of forgiveness and their lives will be forever changed." It's happened to a lot of you here. It's happened to me. I'll end with this. You know the story of my life. I was a first-year college student at Calvin studying for the ministry, raised in a good godly home, but knowing very little about a personal relationship with God, when two dorm advisors at Calvin invited me to attend a men's retreat sponsored by the Navigators, which is a Christian student organization. And I don't know what possessed me. I think they twisted my arm, but I went with all my hesitations and concerns. But that weekend at that camp, I saw something that I had never seen before. I saw guys my age and older, unabashedly loving Jesus, unabashedly sharing their life stories together, unabashedly spending time in prayer, unabashedly studying the scriptures. And I remember saying to myself, "I don't know what it is that these people have got, but whatever it is, what they've got, I want it." And that set me on a life journey that has brought me to where I am today. How did the gospel spread in the early church? They were a holy people. They were a relational people. They were a people of power. And because they were all of those three, they were a people who attracted the last and the lost and the least, and the kingdom grew by leaps and bounds. Won't you join together with me and the rest of this community in crying out to God to so pour out His grace that this place will indeed be too small to contain the lives of men and women who have come to Jesus because they've seen a little glimmer of Jesus in your life and hopefully in mine. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:37:58.280; remove through 00:42:16.000] Father of creation, unfold your sovereign plan. Raise up a chosen generation that will march through the land. All of creation is longing for your unveiling of power. Would you release your anointing? Oh God, let this be the hour. Let your glory fall in this room. Let it go forth from here to the nations. Let your fragrance rest in this place as we gather to seek your grace. Ruler of the nations, the world has yet to see the four reliefs of your promise. The church and victory turn to us, Lord, and touch us. Make us strong in your mind. Overcome our weakness, that we could stand up and fight. Let your glory fall in this room. Let it go forth from here to the nations. Let your fragrance rest in this place as we gather to seek your grace. Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, let your will be done. Let us see on earth, let us see on earth the glory of your Son. Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, let your will be done. Let us see on earth, let us see on earth the glory of your Son. Let your glory fall in this room. Let it go forth from here to the nations. Let your fragrance rest in this place as we gather to seek your grace. as we gather to seek your [CUT] grace. [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:42:16.000; resume after this marked segment]