God’s Strategy for Church Growth

what in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified [Music] [Music] too often church leaders look for direction on growing their churches from all the wrong sources most cause pastors to spend time asking the wrong questions leading some to say the teaching is too lofty so they choose water it down skip the controversial parts or even compromise on doctrine others say it's too old-fashioned so they make it more contemporary flashy and attractive to the outsider while forgetting the purpose of church to worship God join pastor John MacArthur as he opens up Scripture and walks us through God's strategy for church growth and why it works better than any plan man can devise there are many I suppose offerings to us about how we can grow a church we have to keep reminding ourselves that Jesus said I will build my church I will build my church the only one who can grow a church is Jesus he's the only one and he said all that the father gives to me will come to me and I will lose none of them but raise them at the last day the Lord will build his church so I want you to turn to the book of Acts and we're going to be looking at the book of Acts in a little more general way than we might usually in chapter 2 and verse 39 I draw your attention to sort of a foundational point here this is the day of Pentecost the gospel has been preached by Peter the promise of the gospel is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit this promise is for you and your children for now and going forward into the future and for all who are afar off you meaning the Jews and your children all who are afar off meaning the Gentiles that's a euphemism for rest of the world the promise of forgiveness of sins the promise of the receiving of the Holy Spirit which is what identifies the church it identified the initiation of the church among 120 in the second chapter of Acts when the Holy Spirit came this promise of the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ the gift of the Holy Spirit is a promise going into the future for Jew and Gentile and then this as many as the Lord our God will call to himself that is the theological reality that the church is built when the Lord calls someone to himself jesus said no man can come to me unless the father draws him the church is the historic gathering starting on the day of Pentecost of all those whom the father calls to himself a saving call and we see it begin immediately two verses later in verse 41 those who had received his word that is the word of Peter regarding the gospel which he had just preached on the day of Pentecost were baptized and that day there were added about 3,000 souls there were 3,000 added that day or about 3,000 because the Lord God called those people to himself that's how the church is built it is not about human ingenuity it is about the divine call what theologians call the effectual call the call that is an irresistible call this is the great story of church growth the Lord builds his church as the father calls and saves people through faith in Christ and belief in the gospel that's the church growing but by what means does it grow how does it grow from a spiritual standpoint there are no techniques given here there are no methodologies given but there are spiritual disciplines spiritual realities on which the church grows these we must know if we're going to be leading the church even if we're going to be in the church and we have to have the discernment to recognize artificial false efforts to make the church grow by the power and wisdom and cleverness of men it is a work of the Lord the father's involved the son is involved and the Spirit is involved the triune God is growing the church now the first mark of the church as it grows is a transcendent message a transcendent message and I use the word transcendent not to say that it's a heavenly message although it is that but to say it transcends culture it transcends culture this is so obvious that it may be embarrassing to people who have forsaken it the church is born under the power of the gospel faith comes by hearing the word concerning Christ Romans 10 you says Peter were begotten again by the word of truth God uses the true gospel to save and that plain Gospel message transcends all cultures all languages all nations all societal norms all tribal traditions all education status and all economic status it transcends everything now remember it biblical times that there was not a global village like we have today basically we're all exposed to the world so there is a kind of flattening out of culture culture is now defined by media and media is ubiquitous so there is a similarity among cultures that did not exist in ancient times there were hard lines drawn between clans and tribes and city-states and nations and language groups they had their own traditions there were lines that were not crossed they had all of their own customs all of their own forms of expression all of their own art forms there were deep-seated very distinct very unique cherished ingrained cultural perspectives didn't matter the apostles preached the same gospel it had no effect on the message it was irrelevant to the message whether talking to Jews familiar with the Old Testament Gentile proselytes to Judaism somewhat familiar with the Old Testament or whether you're preaching in all those locations as the Apostles later did with particular interest the Apostle Paul did but there were many others as well the message never changed never the modern call and cry for contextualizing the message of the gospel is a curse it is a curse the apostles and prophets of the early church took their transcendent gospel message as it was given to them from Jerusalem to Rome and all the stops in between they crossed hard lines national line social lines cultural lines never did the message change all the way through the book of Acts it is Christ him crucified and risen again and faith in Him alone saves it is the word of the Lord and it is the only message that saves the church grows with its proclamation of the transcendent gospel crossing the world to design an event for unbelievers great it's called an evangelistic event an outreach great we need to do that but to design a repeated event for non-believers and call it a church is to misrepresent the truth that is not a church church is made up of believers it's a spiritual crime to assemble non-believers and call it a church a crime for which a minister might give account to God so how does the church grow by what means does it grow it grows by the proclamation of the transcendent message salvation comes through the proclamation of that message by the power of the gospel power of the Holy Spirit it's marked by a regenerate congregation the Lord builds his church with true believers oh yes there's a false church and false churches and false denominations and false forms of Christian religion but the true church is regenerated and if we understand the gospel and believe the gospel then our view of the true church is that it is an assembly of true believers now there's a third very important element in the means that we see in the book of Acts by which the church grows and it is this a faithful perseverance a faithful perseverance that is to say this that the church when it is persecuted does not stop it does not stop we do not seek to be unpopular in the world we don't seek that in fact I think you can make a case out of the book of Acts that the early church was very popular very popular in fact if you're in the second chapter of Acts you can just look at verse 46 a day by day all these three thousand-plus believers are continuing with one mind and they don't have a building so they just go to the temple and have Church every day and what are they doing they're having communion and then they go from house to house and they're having all their meals together and what marks them is gladness and sincerity apart I mean this is an this is an incredible group of over 3,000 people proclaiming Christ by by the Lord's table every single day full of gladness full of sincerity transformed lives praising the Lord and having favor with all the people yes yes it should be that way they should say they're different they're joyful they have peace they have hope they have love first Timothy 3:7 if you want it says if you want to be an elder in the church you must have a good reputation with those outside the church the world ought to be able to see goodness righteousness love virtue character but alongside that that respect for integrity and virtue comes a very aggressive violent hatred for the message they'll like you until you tell them everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is headed for eternal hell forever and everything changes the message is narrow it is exclusive it is confrontive it is condemning it is judgmental it generates hostility Jesus John 15 and 16 they hated me they will hate you I'm just telling you they will hate you they hated me they killed me they'll kill you and what we see in the early chapter of Acts on the one hand is respect and on the other hand they start killing the apostles they kill James they kill Stephen and the slaughter begins and it becomes a great slaughter very early in the book of Acts and one of the principal motivators of that slaughter is a man named Saul so one on one hand the world is in this tension that they admire the transformation in our lives and the joy peace love that marks us and if we never say anything everything will be fine but when we do what we're supposed to do which is to alarm the unconverted when we press the issue of judgment and the gospel and it's the exclusivity of the gospel when you say anyone who denies the person of Jesus Christ has revealed in Holy Scripture is on the way to eternal hell that is a very very narrow message it's offensive it's exclusive it puts all false religion in the same category none is better than the other in fact none is better in fact none is good they're all bad and we are called to alarm the sinner we are the world's smoke alarms and we need to be going off we need on the one hand to be admired on the other hand to be feared the power of God demonstrated in the early church created favor with the people when they looked at the lives of believers but when they spoke the narrow truth of gospel they put themselves in harm's way grave severe danger the unbelieving world does not like the message they might like us they don't like the message the possibility that non-christians would be comfortable in a church is absurd it's absurd Charles Spurgeon said this the bishops of God's church the professed leaders of the Lord's hosts the pretended followers of the Redeemer have done more damage to the church than all the church's enemies if the church were not a divine thing protected by God she must have ceased to exist merely through the failure and Nick WA T of her own professed friends I do not wonder that the Church of God survived martyrdom and death but I do marvel that she has survived the unfaithfulness of her own children and the cruel backsliding of her own members many went on to say this 1888 the new plan is to assimilate the church to the world and so include a larger area within its bounds by semi dramatic performances they make houses of prayer to approximate the theater they turn their services into musical displays and their sermons into political harangues or philosophical psychological essays in fact they exchange the temple for the theater and turned the ministers of God into actors whose business is to amuse men is it not so that the Lord's Day is becoming more and more a day of recreation or of idleness and the Lord's house either a place where there is more enthusiasm for a party than zeal for God ah me says Spurgeon the hedges are broken down the walls are leveled too many there are since fourth no church except as a portion of the world no God except as an unknowable force by which the laws of success and Happiness work and finally he said this then is the proposal in order to win the world the Lord Jesus must conform himself his people and his word to the world I will not dwell any longer on so loathsome a proposal that's destructive deadly threat to the church Lord's not trying to fill up his church with unbelievers truth is he's trying to keep them out you say are you kidding no there's a fourth means by which the church grew one a transcendent message to a regenerate congregation three evaluate 'fl perseverance through persecution they accepted that persecution and they grew and grew and grew and grew and grew forth one is an evident purity and evident purity now look with so many signs and wonders healings at the hands of the Apostles and that happened in the Apostolic era because there was no New Testament yet so of all the teachers roaming around town how do you know who's telling you the truth how do you know is from God you find the one who healed the lame man you find the one who raised the dead you find the one who can heal people there is evidence of God's power and that means God's truth is coming from those men who possess God's power so the church now is very attractive it's attractive to people who are sick it's attractive to people who are troubled in distress of any kind that there's the flooding to the church like people do today to fake healers so the Lord has to protect his church has to protect his church because as Paul said in Corinthians a little leaven a little leaven leavens everything he's got to protect his church got a he's got to stop the flow of non-believers and that interesting it's got to stop the flow of curious non-believers and it has to be pretty dramatic and it is chapter 5 man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property what's the what's the point of that back up one verse two verses Joseph called Barnabas owned a tract of land sold it brought the money later at the Apostles feet here's the problem day of Pentecost you've got all these people who've come into Jerusalem for Pentecost and they're there from other countries and when the Holy Spirit comes in the church is formed all of a sudden they're in the church and there's no church anywhere else so they stay so you have all these strangers trying to find survival in Jerusalem among the believers how are they going to care for them they wouldn't be employed even true believers who lived in the city lost their jobs so they began to sell land to give money to the support of those who needed help this Joseph of verse 36 sold his land gave all the money to meet the needs of these people along comes Ananias and Sapphira he and his wife decide we could look good in front of everybody if we did something like that he sells a piece of property under the pretense that he was putting it all in front of the elders on front of the Apostles rather but he kept back verse 2 says some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge he is bringing only a portion of it elated at the Apostles feet under the pretense that this was everything that's how they used to collect the offering I guess everybody came up front and gave it to the Apostles Peter stopped him and said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of the land whoa you really don't want to be called out in church none of you do and then Peter says that he's given divine knowledge of this apparently while it remained unsold did it not remain your own you could have kept it you didn't have to sell it that was voluntary after it was sold was it not under your control you could have given a part of it why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart you have lied not to men but to God the lie is you said it's everything and it's not you say that's a small thing isn't it I mean he gave if you sold a piece of land it must have given a lot this is a big thing sitting in the church's big thing after he heard these words and a nice fell down breathed his last what he died God killed him he was killed he was sort of killed at the offering great fear came over all who heard of it and what was the fear God is in this place yes this is serious business this isn't a joke this isn't a comedy this isn't theater this is reality the Lord killed two people in front of the entire church to show how serious he was about purity verse 12 here's the point I wanted you to see at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people and all in Solomon's portico which was one big area in the temple courtyard the healings went on but look at this none of the rest dared to associate with them even though the people held them in high esteem you don't want to go to that place people die there the Lord accomplished what he wanted he stopped unbelievers coming to church for the wrong reason he stopped unbelievers coming to church for the wrong reason the Lord desires the holiness of his church and that demands a believing Church come together based on the gospel it was a number of years ago when I was kind of new in pastoral ministry that I talked to a pastor on the East Coast and he said why John I just have to tell you I have read a new book written by a very prominent businessman and it's given me all that I need to build the church and I kind of blinked a couple times and said you found out how to build the church by reading a book by a businessman what about the New Testament and what about the Lord of the church and what he is revealed about building his church it was kind of a stark moment for me but it solidified in my mind that there wasn't a business man on the planet who knew how to build a church who knew what the responsibilities of a pastor were and I began to see the trend of pastors chasing worldly perspectives as a part of the development of pragmatism and the kind of seeker-friendly church perspective that has now basically dominated the church and made the church in our generation look a lot like the world from the very outset I saw the folly of that I even wrote a book on it basically the title of the book is ashamed of the gospel when the church wants to be the world and that was over 20 years ago I've always known that the Lord builds the church I don't build the church and in fact our reporter said to me one time we have a desire to build the church and I said no because I don't want to compete with the Lord I don't want to come up at the end of my life and say this is what I built but I can't necessarily say Christ did this you can draw a crowd by using worldly means you you you can't build the church that is the Lord's work to build the church and all he asks of us is to be faithful it's required of stewards that a man be found faithful and the Lord will in the end make the evaluation and reward the faithful servant accordingly so I just want to get in line with the Word of God with that which comes from the mouth of the head of the church and follow his lead and do the things that he commands a faithful pastor to do and the result is going to be the church is going to be what what he was I can just tell you this after 50 years at Grace Community Church I am looking at a half a century of what the Lord has done I have never been the explanation for that church I'm not the explanation for the size of the church that the growth of the church it is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that is the motivating power and the energy that has made that church what it is so just follow the manual the Lord said I will build my church and he gave us a pattern to do it and that's our responsibility [Music]

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 15,677

Rating: 4.8776469 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ

Id: hZPMHBQVIjQ

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 30 2018