CHURCH GROWTH IS GOD'S WORK

But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number . . . (Acts 5:13-14)

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)

Do you see the irony in the above passages? The people outside the church family who saw the mighty works of God did not dare to associate with the Christians! That fact wouldn’t please today’s church growth experts. According to them, our church services should avoid making unbelievers feel uncomfortable. Our services should be “seeker-friendly,” they say.

Still, while most unbelievers were afraid to associate with those early Christians, those same Christians were “held . . . in high esteem.” Is that true of today’s church members? When the lives of church members in general are scarcely different from the lives of worldly people (note the divorce rate, for instance) one can hardly esteem them more highly than anyone else.

It is clear from the scriptures cited that it was the manifestation of the power of God in the lives of those early believers that produced the phenomenal growth we read about in the Book of Acts. And whenever that power has been manifested throughout church history, the result was always great church growth. It was true in the Great Awakening in England, Wales, and colonial America. It was true in the revival that swept the United States in the late 1850’s, and it was true in the Welsh Revival of 1904-05.

When those who profess to be followers of Jesus focus their hearts and minds on honoring Him, confessing and forsaking their worldly, sinful ways, God will do the work of church growth. Pastors, especially, need to abandon their marketing methods and preach “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

Church growth is God’s work, and He builds the church through new birth:

And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)

REFLECTED GLORY REQUIRED

Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:30)

Moses' authority as spiritual leader derived from his intimate relationship and communication with God, which resulted in the divine glow on his face. This reflected glory did not last, but faded until Moses' next encounter with the LORD. Hence, the Apostle Paul noted to the Corinthian church that Moses "used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away" (2 Cor. 3:13). In the context of Exodus we may infer that the only glory the people were to see was the reflected glory of God, not any human glory in Moses himself. The only authority Moses had was derived from his communion with God.

 By way of application, every minister of Christ today should ask himself, "Do people catch a glimpse of the glory of the Lord when I stand in the pulpit and expound His Word?" If not, what is lacking in my on communion with God?  

THIS ONE WILL BE OUR PEACE

THIS ONE WILL BE OUR PEACE

In this season we hear that comforting phrase: “Peace on Earth!” And yet we look at the world around us and see no peace. Right there is the problem: we are looking in the wrong place! Peace is not to be found in human institutions or devices. True peace is found in the Person of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. The prophet Micah revealed it over 700 years before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Too little to be among the clans of Judah,

From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.

His goings forth are from long ago,

From the days of eternity."

Therefore He will give them up until the time

When she who is in labor has borne a child.

Then the remainder of His brethren

Will return to the sons of Israel.

And He will arise and shepherd His flock

In the strength of the LORD,

In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.

And they will remain,

Because at that time He will be great

To the ends of the earth.

This One will be our peace. (Micah 5:2-5a)

This One will be our peace!

That phrase is emphatic: “This One.”  The same expression was used of Lamech’s hope conerning his son Noah: "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed." (Gen. 5:29)  The Song of Moses proclaims, “This Same (One) is my God” (Barnes trans.). And here in Micah, “This One” is our peace. And who is this One? The Apostle Paul makes the fulfillment clear:

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household . . . (Ephesians 2:13-19 NASB)

Isaiah’s wonderful prophecy calls this Messiah “The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Those who receive this Prince of Peace as their Lord and Savior and look to Him for all their needs, experience a peace that “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

An accurate translation of that famous angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus makes it clear that the peace He gives is for those who trust in Him:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

(Luke 2:14 ESV)

He is pleased with those who put their trust in Him. Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

SACRIFICING FEELINGS

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

(John 15:13)

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . .

(Ephesians 5:25)

Since most of us will never be called upon to actually sacrifice our physical lives for our friends or wives or anyone else, these commands tend to sound theoretical. But there are other ways of sacrificing that are more difficult even than death, because they are inward and long-lasting. The sacrifice of my right to express my feelings is one such sacrifice.

A very moving illustration of emotional sacrifice is depicted in the film Life is Beautiful, directed by and starring the enigmatic Roberto Benigni. The film was in the theaters in 1997, ten years after our return from Italy. At that time, the dialogue was only in Italian with English sub-titles. My wife and I, still conversant in Italian, could get the full impact of the humor, as well as the horror, of the film. We were a few seconds ahead of the rest of the audience in laughing at the comedic lines (if the audience got the Italian humor at all). But the serious, heart-wrenching drama could not be missed.

The film is about sacrifice. Guido Orefice, a Jewish bookseller in Italy, is deported with his young son, Giosuè, and his wife, Dora, to a concentration camp, where Dora is separated from her husband and son. In order to protect his son both physically and emotionally, Guido convinces the boy that what they are experiencing is an elaborate game in which Giosuè will earn points for performing certain tasks his father assigns him. Extra points will be earned for hiding from the guards. The boy who earns 1,000 points first will be awarded a real tank – not a toy one.

The father maintained the charade until the end, sacrificing his own “right” to be horrified and depressed over their plight. The final task assigned to Giosuè was that he hide in a steel box until he could hear no noises. Giosuè caught a glimpse of his father being led away by German soldiers to be shot, but the father maintained the game by his expression. As the boy emerged from the box, an American tank rolled into the camp, and the tank commander helped the boy up onto it. As the tank rolled past freed prisoners, Giosuè saw his mother and was reunited with her. The final words of the film are the voice of the adult Giosuè paying tribute to his father’s sacrifice.

Sacrificing feelings is a difficult task. We claim our right to our feelings above all else. Perhaps we feel it is hypocritical to “act” as though we’re happy when we’re not. We can find ample justification for letting people know how we feel. But sacrificial love, agape love, means subordinating my feelings and my desires to the needs of others. I have found that sacrifice to be difficult, but I’m determined to call on God’s grace to help me demonstrate it.

SUNDAY SCHOOL IS NOT JUST FOR KIDS!

The vision for Christian education for all ages in the church setting was that of Welsh pastor Thomas Charles (1755-1814). Charles founded Sunday Schools in chapels to teach reading to the illiterate, using the Bible, and biblical doctrine to all ages. The description of Sunday Schools in Charles's Wales is now happily true of churches all over the world:

"Truly, indeed, it is only in Wales that old men and old women are to be seen leaning on their walking sticks, their spectacles on their noses, seated as a class around the Word of God, with the intention of understanding its teaching; while nearby classes of infants and children, boys and girls of every age and status, give themselves to the same task." (John Morgan Jones and William Morgan, trans. John Aaron, The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales, Vol. 2)

Thomas Charles of Bala

See you in Sunday School!

THE TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF GOD: AVOIDING HERESY

God is both transcendent and immanent. In His transcendence, He is above and beyond His creation, and He knows and controls all things. “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:9-10; see also Daniel 4:35)

            In God’s immanence, on the other hand, He interacts with His creation in time and space, and to some degree experiences events emotionally and intellectually in sequence, yet always with infinite wisdom and complete control. The phenomenon of God’s immanence helps explain the anthropomorphic language we find in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. When Scripture quotes God as saying, “I said, surely you will revere Me, and accept instruction” (Zephaniah 3:7), or records that God “repented” or “changed His mind” (Exodus32:14; Jeremiah 26:19; Amos 7:3, 6), it is highlighting and illustrating God’s immanence, His active, emotional interaction with His people.

            The ultimate manifestation of God’s immanence is the incarnation of the Son of God. As God, Jesus owned the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. Yet during his earthly life, he willingly limited the independent exercise of those attributes in order to fulfill his mission as Messiah and Savior. So while Jesus could declare that he “saw” Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree far away (John 1:48-50), he was also genuinely surprised when he did not find early figs on another tree (Mark 11:13). Jesus also prayed sincerely in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39).

            While it is comforting to know that God experiences our life and feels for our infirmities, it is even more comforting to know that our transcendent God knows before hand all that will occur in our lives and is in complete control of all things.

            Failure to understand both the transcendence and the immanence of God has led to serious errors regarding God’s nature. Error in regard to God’s transcendence led to Deism, the dominant philosophy during the so-called Enlightenment. Deism is the notion that God created the universe and then withdrew to let it run according to natural laws.

            Error in regard to God’s immanence has led in recent decades to the heresy of Open Theism, the idea that God’s  creation includes such contingencies, particularly man’s free will, that even God does not know precisely what will happen next! Therefore, according to the Open Theists, God could not prevent a bad thing from happening to His people because he could not foresee it. This is a foul error and is of no comfort to God’s people. It is hardly comforting to know that God feels our pain if He is not in control of all that happens to us.

EXPOSITORY PREACHING: LETTING THE BIBLE SPEAK

Expository preaching has declined nearly to the point of extinction. Yet I have found that the few expository preachers who remain, are greatly appreciated by their Bible-loving audiences.

What is expository preaching?  Very simply, it is letting God’s Word speak for itself. The expository preacher (1) reads aloud a passage of Scripture, (2) explains its meaning in its original context, (3) discerns the basic spiritual principle revealed and (4) applies that principle to himself and his hearers. The expository preacher follows the Scriptural pattern of Ezra and his fellow Levites:

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)

The word translated “read” is a Hebrew word that suggests an energetic proclamation, not a dry recitation. That dramatic reading was followed by interpretation and application. That is the essence of expository preaching.

Some have limited the term “expository preaching” to preaching through a book of the Bible, but there is no reason to impose such a limit. Charles H. Spurgeon preached on different texts from week to week as he felt the Lord’s leading, but he was always faithful to the biblical context and the applied a valid principle from each text. Spurgeon was an admirer of the Puritans, and he studied their commentaries diligently. Yet the Puritans favored preaching through a book of the Bible systematically. Either approach may be, and should be, preached in an expository manner.

As I have already mentioned, expository preaching let’s God’s Word speak for itself. It is not the preacher’s agenda that is being expounded – it is God’s. When a preacher chooses a topical approach, the temptation is great to impose the preacher’s own agenda, to make the preacher’s point. In expository preaching, the biblical text dictates the agenda and makes God’s point. It should, by the way, bring conviction and edification to the preacher, as well as to his congregation!

May God raise up more expository preachers in these last days!