Do You Have To Go To Church To Be a Christian?

[Music] you know when we go out witnessing and maybe even not even that but just talking to people maybe at work or at school i hear the phrase very often and maybe some of you do too and it goes something like this you don't have to go to church to be a christian how many have ever heard that before how many believe that okay well we're going to learn a little bit about it today it's really a phrase that's spoken of a lot i wonder sometimes why do people even say that i think sometimes it's because and this is is this a guess maybe it's because a person was hurt at a church and they don't want to get involved again so they say well you don't have to go to church to be a christian or it could be that the person just doesn't want to surrender to jesus you know it could be a lot of different reasons but um i think also it has to do with a lack of understanding of what exactly is the church like what is the church what are we even talking about you know you don't have to go to church to be a christian what does that even mean so here's some questions i want to ask you and you can you can respond back would the church continue to exist if okay i'm going to ask you a question and so it starts out with this would the church continue to exist if all the church buildings were confiscated okay would the church continue to exist if we were no longer permitted to preach in jesus name would the church continue to exist if christians were not allowed to gather in public meetings would the church continue to exist if all the leaders were thrown into prison it might even thrive would the church continue to exist if there were no programs worship teams or youth groups would the church continue to exist if the internet broke would the church continue to exist if youtube was not available so what is it you know what is that thing we call the church a lot of the things i i ask you would have continued to exist if those things weren't there are often the things that people use to associate what what they understand the church to be it's a it's a building i go to on a sunday or it's a program i'm involved in or it's it's a program for my children or it's a it's a bible study i attend or something like that and yet i ask you and your answers were all right will the church continue to exist if these things don't you said yes so it's got to be something different what is the church think of the church the greek word for church is called ecclesia it means to call out in other words jesus has has made a call to people he calls them out of the world and he calls them to himself that's really what the church churches are calling out calling to him and as a people who are gathered it's really more than anything it's a gathering like a family in a way what if you were to what if you were to exchange the word family for church how would this sound what family do you go to would anybody ever ask that question we always ask what church do you go to would we ever ask what family do you go to or what time does your family start or what programs does your family have you see that's that's again it's an understanding of church is different than what you see in the bible it is a family first and foremost and it has a lot of different i don't know aspects to it but this idea of being people gathered as a family to me is so important to understanding what the church actually is and yes if the buildings go away if the leaders are thrown in jail if you can't meet publicly you're still a family you can't take that away you are that so the real question is do you have to go to church to be a christian that's not the real question the real question is is when you become a christian you are the church you are the church it is people it is not a building it is not a program it is not an organization it is people it is a family of god last week we talked about this idea that faith is not lived out in isolation it's the idea that god has brought us together into community with people to live out our faith that's what the church is it has many different expressions but it's a family it's a unit called into fellowship so in matthew 16 that's up on the board here jesus said to his disciples who do you say that i am as simon peter replied you are the christ the son of the living god and then jesus said to him blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i tell you you are peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against there's a lot in that scripture but i just want to bring out the one part of the phrase where jesus said i will build my church there is a church that jesus is building it's made up of millions of people all around the world i feel so sad for a church or a denomination that believes like they are the only ones they're they're missing the heart of god he's trying to save people all around the world millions of people are are part of the church of jesus christ if you think of church universal there's also church local and we're we're a church we're a gathering but we're a subset of the whole church you are you are in in fellowship with the church of jesus christ made up of millions of people around the world you don't even know the bulk of them but jesus is building his church so what does that even look like to you do you picture him getting his carpenter tool bag and coming down with some two by fours and building a building no it's it's people it's relationship so this story we're going to read about today and focus on and the paper that i gave you that we're going to fill out describes what the church looks like if jesus said i will build my church uh we're going to see what happened in the book of acts when the church began what did that church look like because it gives you an indication of what jesus is really after so let's begin in acts chapter 2 verse 36 it says let all the house of israel therefore know for certain that god has made him both lord and christ so peter's preaching and he's talking to the people who actually crucified jesus he told them hey the one that you crucified you know who he is he is the lord and he is the christ and then it says when they heard this they were cut to the heart and they said to peter and to the rest of the apostles brothers what shall we do now here's a question what what did they say what did peter say that caused these people to ask the question what shall we do that jesus is lord that message jesus is lord is what pricked the hearts of these people and moved them to say what do we need to do now jesus is the lord we thought he was a you know uh charlatan we killed him but he's actually the lord so because he's the lord what does that mean needs to happen in my life what should i do in response to this and peter said what's the first thing peter told him repent that's the same message we preached today when we go out to share the good news of jesus christ we preach that jesus is lord and when the lord moves upon a heart or a person has a a pricking of their heart and they say what must i do we don't say come and join our church we don't say get a church membership the answer is repent you have to turn you turn back because it's about your relationship to jesus that counts here so his word was repent and what was the second thing he said to him be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and what's the third thing he said you will receive the gift of the holy spirit and then look down in verse 41 it says so those who received those who received his word were what see you know you know these people received it when they actually did what you told them to do when you go out there and you say jesus is lord and someone says what must i do and you say repent and be baptized and you receive the holy spirit if they don't repent and get baptized they really didn't receive it they might have looked like they were receptive they might have been happy they might have been shaking their head and nodding and agreeing but but those who truly receive will actually follow through they will repent and they will be baptized and so it says in verse 41 those who received his word were baptized and there were added added to what yeah they were added to the church added to the group added to the fellowship added to the family there was 120 of them they were there and now there's 3 000 added to them how did they get added they repented they were baptized and they received the holy spirit why did they even do that because they heard the message jesus is the lord when they heard that that moved them to say what must i do so on your on your paper you have your paper there we're going to talk about the you can slide forward so the first row across the top i just call initiation who can guess why it's called initiation that's how you get in so you don't join the church by filling out a church membership you don't join the church by just showing up on a sunday you don't join the church by giving money you join the church by acknowledging the lordship of jesus and so the first thing you can write down there that little that little picture over there with the crown and the arrow coming down that represents jesus is lord he's the king he came to the earth he died on the cross and he rose again he is the lord this same jesus whom you crucified is both lord and christ so the first thing you can write on the top there is the lordship of jesus christ how does a person join the church they have to come to grips with the lordship of jesus christ if you've never done that you really haven't taken the first step you know you don't you don't just drift into christianity there's a decision you make about who is the lord of my life and when you surrender to jesus that's your first step into being added added to his church the church that he's building okay the next little picture of the arrow that's speaks about repentance so when you hear the message jesus says lord repentance simply means to turn you're making a 180 you you're you're going a certain direction in your life it's usually a life of sin a life of darkness a life of rejecting god's ways and you turn and you say i want to begin to follow him he's the lord so i want to turn and say jesus you take control of my life that's what repentance is the third little third little icon there represents water baptism when you have somebody who responds to the lordship of jesus and they repent take them through water baptism like immediately how long do you have to be a christian before you can be baptized anybody know who would say five years three years a year six months of catechism how about within the hour that's the biblical answer well i need to get myself straightened first i thought i heard a guy say this one time it's like getting a bath before you get your shower or getting a shower before you get back jesus makes you ready so if you lead someone to him if you if you share the good news of jesus jesus is lord they they respond and they repent talk to them right now about water baptism and then what you can do you can go in there and fill your bathtub and dunk them or if you live on a farm take them out to the horse trough and stick them in there or if you're out to the you're out in the park take them down to the pond and baptize them take them anywhere and you know the other thing is you don't have to be a pastor to baptize somebody when jesus gave us the great commission he said you go into all the world make disciples of all nations and baptize them if you have to call on a pastor every time someone needs to get baptized it's going to slow the process down so you have all been commissioned by jesus to baptize and how many of you know you don't have to baptize them in this baptism tank to be real to be for real you can baptize them anywhere honestly just just get them under the water and be filled with the holy spirit you know i don't believe the bible teaches you have to be baptized in the holy spirit to be in the family of god but it is something god wants for every one of you you're you're you're born again the holy spirit comes and lives inside of you but he wants you to be filled with the spirit that you have his power to be a witness and it is part of what peter's answer was when they said what must we do repent be baptized and receive the gift of the holy spirit this is what god wants for every one of us this is initiation this is what it means to be part of the church this is how you become part of the church so can i say to you here today take this as a message to your friends and they also say to you look at your own life are you part of the church say yeah i've been going to the alliance christian center for 15 years well that doesn't mean you're part of the church if you're part of the church it means you have responded to the lordship of jesus you've repented and turned to him you've been baptized and you're receiving the holy spirit that's initiation that's what it means to be part of his church now what happened next they devoted themselves verse 42 they devoted themselves so if you're in english if you if you study english who is the who is the pers what's the subject of this sentence here they and what's the verb and what's the object of the preposition is that what is that thing is that an object of the preposition i don't know what it is but the idea here is that now you got to do something see i i heard the message jesus is lord and i repented and i was baptized and i received the holy spirit so i'm i'm added i'm part of what jesus is doing he's building his church and he added me to it but now these people they did something there was something that they said you know what now there's a responsibility there's something i need to do myself jesus isn't going to do it for me and peter's not going to do for me they devoted themselves to things and this is this is part of what it means to go to church or be the church what were the things they devoted themselves to okay the first thing there go to the next page there next slide yeah the little cross in the book there is the bible they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching so there was an emphasis on the word of god the apostles were teaching and they were teaching the things that jesus taught them it was just passing on the things that they heard they were teaching the same things if you go through the teachings of jesus you will see that jesus taught about the lordship of himself he said why do you call me lord and don't do what i say jesus taught about repentance jesus taught about baptism jesus taught about receiving the holy spirit jesus taught about the importance of god's word and so these apostles were simply teaching the things they heard from jesus and they were building that into the life of this church this is the church here acts 2 is a picture of the church as jesus formed it so these people were committing or devoting themselves and let me give you a definition of the word devoted it means to be earnest towards something to persevere how many of you know sometimes it takes perseverance to continue in the disciplines of the lord to persevere to be constantly diligent to attend assiduously all the exercises to adhere closely so it's this idea that okay i received the lordship of jesus i repented i got baptized i received the holy spirit now i need to give myself to the word of god because something comes to you there's life that comes to you as a follower of jesus when the word of god has a part in your life i'm telling you if you lay this aside your christian walk will be weak if you don't do the things he says to devote yourself to your christian walk will be very weak and if you find in your own life wow i just don't feel i'm vibrant i don't feel healthy i don't feel like i'm really growing in the lord look at those areas of devotion and say i wonder if there's some of these areas that i've just laid aside because i think all these things together contributed to the you know the health of that church or you think about how many times you hear people say well i wish the church was like the book of acts how many have ever said that before well the book the reason why it was that way is because of these things here [Music] so the apostles teaching and to fellowship that little heart there represents fellowship let me talk to you about fellowship for a minute because i used to always believe that fellowship meant a bunch of guys sitting around watching a football game eating chips and coffee [Music] you know just hanging out i mean we we use the word we say hey let's go fellowship that means let's go up to denny's or you know bob evans and have some dessert let's go fellowship but i'll tell you this word fellowship in the bible is so powerful when you understand what he's talking about here this this really is a snapshot of what the church is so i want to tell you three aspects of fellowship and i would encourage you to go through your bible and do a study sometime on all the different places fellowship is used so you kind of get a really a well-rounded picture of what he means but i'm going to give you three of them here this morning fellowship is first and it's in first john go to the next scripture first john verse 1 chapter 1 verse 3 he writes that which we have seen now john's writing he's saying we have seen he means jesus that which we have seen and we've heard we proclaim to you we're telling you about jesus we're proclaiming to you what we've heard from him we've seen him and why is that why are we even telling you this he says so that you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ so fellowship is first and foremost it's a relationship i have a fellowship with the father and with jesus and if you're going to have fellowship with me it means that you also have fellowship with him that's really the essence of fellowship i have a relationship with jesus and with his father and because you have a fellowship with him we have fellowship you ever ever had a situation before i i've talked to people before and i've had this experience myself where you run into somebody maybe in a different city a different state you find out they're a christian and you have this immediate just knitting of hearts have anybody experienced that you just kind of feel this rapport that's fellowship that's what that is it's like we are sharing something in common the word fellowship koinonia means to share in common and i'll tell you maybe there's other times you met somebody and they say oh yeah i'm a christian and you just don't you just don't sense the fellowship has anybody experienced that before have you ever experienced that when i said i was a christian i hope not but i it's an it's something that's intangible or invisible in a way but it's but it's something you can sense it is a it's something that's very real that we have fellowship because of jesus for most of us in this room we don't have a lot in common you know one of you might be a love mechanic another person loves love to put a garden in somebody else likes to knit somebody else is a reader somebody else hates to read someone likes to ride horses you know someone likes to sit on a computer but something we share in common is jesus and the father and whether you're rich or poor male or female black or white or brown or yellow we share something in common that's jesus that's the church and you have that with every believer around the world you have that with every believer in this city no matter what local church gathering they attend on a sunday morning it's fellowship okay so it's first a relationship secondly fellowship has to do with you turn the next scripture please and i gotta flip my note over participation is a word fellowship is about participation philippians 1 verse 3 paul says i thank my god in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you making my prayer with joy why because of your and the word is fellowship it's translated partnership the greek is koinonia paul's saying i i pray for you i'm thankful for you i pray for you daily my prayer is filled with joy because of your fellowship in the gospel see he he was able to reach out to these people and say we share something in common what is that we're both doing the work of the lord we're both doing the work of the lord and when you're called into fellowship you're not just called into a relationship with jesus and into a relationship with his people you're called into a participation in the work of the lord that's also fellowship and i want to encourage you to take that step of fellowship in your own life say hey you know lord i i'm glad i'm in relationship with you i'm glad i know jesus i'm glad i know the father i'm glad i know my brothers and sisters but i want to participate in your work that's fellowship it's what jesus is building his church jesus prayed that we would have laborers for his kingdom and then the last thing i want to say about fellowship is it has to do with contribution or caring for people in romans 15 verse 26 paul was taking up an offering for the poor saints at jerusalem and he says here he's trying to challenge the people he says macedonia and ikea have been pleased to make some contribution what's the word koinonia it's fellowship they were saying hey there's there's some poor brothers over here that are experiencing a hardship we want to share that in common with them which means i'm going to contribute i'm going to give i'm going to give of my finding i i'm doing okay right now i have a brother over here who's suffering i'm a partaker with him i'm in fellowship with him i contribute to that so when you think of the word fellowship this this church was devoted to the apostles doctrine and to fellowship this is what we're talking about we're talking about a relationship with jesus which includes a relationship with others who are following him it's participation in his work and it is really caring for the needs of one another caring for each other sharing that in common when one member suffers they all suffer what was the third thing they devoted themselves to breaking bread verse 46 breaking bread i think you know sometimes uh people talk about this as being communion i'm not opposed to it being communion but i believe breaking bread if you if you study it through the scripture most often it's speaking about eating eating a meal together that's really what it's talking about look down at verse 47 if you will just for a second it says or verse 46 day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they receive their food with glad and generous hearts it's talking about eating together so you want to be part of the church be together and if the game happens to be on in the background but you're eating together when you sit down with your brothers and sisters and you share a meal together there's something that happens you know we've been we've been in this uh lockdown for a long time and we got used to not eating together let's eat together open your home open your heart invite somebody bring them over well my house is messy does anybody really care let me ask you a question today if you walked into someone's house and you saw dirty dishes at the sink would you turn around and leave let me see your hand would you think ill of that person would you think what a terrible housekeeper that is let me see your hand be honest with me what if you saw dirty clothes lying on the floor can i see your hand please all right so it's free it's free and you just invite them in invite them in you don't have to prepare for it you can just say come on over come over and let's share together let's eat together let's talk let's be one this is the church well you say what's not on a sunday it doesn't have to be on a sunday you got to eat on monday and wednesday and thursday as well so just share so that's the third thing and the fourth thing is they devoted themselves to prayer they devoted themselves to prayer jesus said apart from me you can do nothing there's a need for the for us to be involved in a prayer life praying together praying individually but just prayer is so necessary so important and and so we call that section that row devotion because it's what you do and if i if if you want to be part of a church that has vibrancy in life do those four things stay in the word truly fellowship fellowship like i was talking about earlier truly step into fellowship eat with one another and pray this this is what contributes to the vibrancy of the church and none of those things i mean we're hearing the word of god here today and we prayed today but a lot of that doesn't happen when we sit here on a sunday morning we come we hear preaching we sit and look at the back of everybody's head in front of you and so this life of the church really happens out there happens on monday and i mean this is the church as well i'm not trying to diminish that but i'm saying this isn't the only aspect of the church now the last set is called divine effect it says all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles all who believed were together and they had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day every day attending the temple together that's kind of what we're doing attending the temple this isn't the temple but kind of a public gathering and breaking bread in their homes so there was this interaction this life that happened in a public meeting but it happened in the home it was a back and forth day by day it says they received their food with glad and generous hearts praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved so the last four things i call this the divine effect the reason why is because of the word ah ah ah came upon every soul that word ah is like the fear of the lord that's what the word means ah i wanna share with you a couple of scriptures where that word is used in the bible it was it was used when the the apostles saw jesus walking on the water ah that word was used when the when the soldiers who were keeping the tomb saw the resurrections like ah it was used in mark 4 when the apostles saw the wind and the sea obey jesus they were in awe of him in luke 1 verse 12 when zacharias saw the angel appear to him and tell him he was going to have a child and calling john he was in awe in luke 2 verse 9 when the glory of the lord came down and shown around the shepherds the day that jesus was born they were in awe and in luke 5 verse 26 all the people were in awe when they saw the lame man healed so what is this all it is something of god divine presence happens that that does has an effect upon you you are in awe because of something that god is doing and so these all these four things here this last row are things that god does or god moves upon our heart and we do because of god's influence upon our life so the first first thing you can write down there is signs and wonders the lord was doing signs and wonders only he can do that but i'm telling you when signs and wonders happen all comes upon the souls the next thing is a generosity i mean these people were giving and selling their houses i mean if there was a need that came up and we all had to sell our houses would be would we want to do that i mean don't you know that that has to be a move of god upon your heart to even make that happen it's the aw of god it's like something was so dynamic in this church that people said hey there's a need i'm going to sell my house i'm going to sell my land i want to meet the needs of these people that was that was the move of god it's a generosity that goes way above and beyond oh yeah i guess i'll pay my tithes today it's something of god that moves upon these people and then prays you know what praise is praise is the response of our hearts to seeing god move we praise you oh lord think of the of the ten lepers and the one came back to praise him for what he saw happen in his life praises that we see god moving we see this divine work and it's like lord all i can do is praise you all i can do is praise you and then finally the lord added daily those who are being saved i mean i think that when the divine presence is there people want to tell others about jesus you want to tell him look what the lord is doing look what the lord did look what the lord did in my life i heard a story about this man yesterday we heard a story from ron today about his heart go tell others what the lord is doing that's divine effect and others will come to know him so i'd like you to stand with me let me ask you one question as we close do you think any of the people that were sitting there in acts 2 ever asked the question do you have to go to church to be a christian i don't think anybody was asking that question they wanted to be there they wanted it to happen matter of fact it was such a part of their life it was day by day it's every day they were interacting sharing and having fellowship as we close i would like you to think about three things um you know i put up there but are you are you a person who's really been initiated into the into the church and have you taken those steps of acknowledging jesus as lord repentance baptism and receive the holy spirit if not come and talk to us today let's do that that's how you become a part of his church what about my devotion to the lord you know maybe one of those areas the lord is moving upon you to step up i need more time in the word i want to be a prayer warrior i want to i want to truly fellowship with my brothers and sisters in christ i want to start eating together with my my family you know and just just begin that interaction where the life of the church can truly thrive again we've been so isolated so cut off i mean what what a tool from satan to really disrupt what jesus wants to do in the church and i hope that we would never really ever settle for church being just what we do here on sunday morning that it becomes something we do every day every day in our life uh monday through monday through sunday so what's the lord speaking to you today what's he want you to do from everything you've heard ask the lord what's one thing you want me to do we're going to pray father we want to see your church become alive just like we see in this book of acts [Music] we don't want to settle for that idea that oh do you have to go to church be a christian we want to be the church we want to be the church we want to see it alive in our hearts and our children that the good news of jesus can be spread through our neighborhoods and with our families our extended families that that vibrancy of a relationship with you would just stir each of our hearts we would be on fire for you lord not forcing ourselves to be in the word but hungering for the word not forcing ourselves to pray but longing to be with you lord open up our hearts for true fellowship all aspects of it relationship participating in the work of the lord and contributing to the needs of my brothers and sisters in christ lord move in us let us be a church that is truly involved in fellowship i pray that you would bring others to know jesus father help us to be a church that could live this life that we see in acts 2 that others will want to be part of give us wisdom to know how father teach us in jesus name amen

Channel: Alliance Christian Center

Views: 65

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Kirk Martin, Church, What is the Church, Church Attendance, Christianity, Church Circle, Church of Acts, Book of Acts Church, Fellowship, Obedience to God, Water Baptism, The Saints

Id: M2RjIPTn6_4

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021