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0903-08A STRENGTHENED AND INCREASING (Acts 16:1-5) TEXT: SUBJECT: The Church: health and growth F.C.F: What does the church need to grow? PROPOSITION: Since Jesus brought grace and truth, the church must display grace and truth. 1 I. WE MUST BE HONORABLE. A. John tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel that Jesus Christ, his person and ministry were characterized by “grace and truth”: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (1:17) So that would mean that the church, which is called “the Body of Christ,” which carries on his mission and bears his message, must likewise be characterized by “grace and truth.” And we find these qualities constantly coming to the fore in the life of the early church and in the instructions in the New Testament letters: grace and truth. God’s people must be personally honorable. This is especially true of those most identified with the church, her leaders, specifically pastors, elders, and deacons. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are retracing the steps of the earlier mission, checking on the newly-planted churches some two or three years later. And they find that God has been at work in the churches, making his people holy, causing them to grow in grace and in graciousness. Timothy is a prime example. “1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him….” Undoubtedly Paul wanted Timothy to assist them, but also to undergo further on-the-job training in this portable seminary. B. Timothy was the product of a religiously mixed marriage. It was forbidden for Jews to marry Gentiles, so the situation was a bit unusual, but Timothy’s mother was Jewish and his father was Greek, a non-Jewish Gentile. We should also note that Timothy’s mother, Eunice, was also a believer, a Christian, most probably converted a few years earlier under Paul and Barnabas’s missionary work there. Timothy’s father was probably dead, we gather, from the imperfect tense of the word translated, “was.” The one outstanding characteristic about Timothy that is explicitly stated is that he “was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.” This reputation was know in the surrounding communities, and this qualified him for the work. He had a very positive reputation with others. This may have reflected on his abilities, but more probably on his character. Paul would later insist on this positive INTRODUCTION: A. If you want to know what the story is about, you often need only to check the ending. For example, we all know that It is best not to eat porridge and fall asleep in strange houses in the woods. Don’t talk to strangers on the way to bring Grandma a basket of goodies. Always build your house out of bricks, and not straw or sticks. And never, ever, eat from a gingerbread house when you have been abandoned in the forest. In our survey of the sequel to Luke’s Gospel, the book of Acts, we have been watching the steady advance of the church. Jesus commissioned his apostles to be his witnesses with the clear implication that the church was to go global—“to the end of the earth.” Through the clear command of the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Paul had taken the Gospel westward into what is present-day Turkey, planting churches in the cities along the way. Now, after a two-year delay including a division in the original missionary team, Paul and Silas set out to “visit” those churches and see how they were faring. And the end of that story, or at least that phase of the story, was this: “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.” (5) B. This kind of potency and vitality in the church is enviable, especially in our day of wholesale church decline. As we have covered over half of the book of Acts, you know that we have not been laboring under any false illusions that the first century church was somehow ideal, problem-free, and the perfect example. We have noted the serious problems that arose, including some periods of persecution, error, hypocrisy, and division. Yet, this description is certainly tantalizing: “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.” C. We recognize that we are all human instruments in God’s hand, that God himself uses us to do his work, especially to prosper and advance the church. We cannot make the church grow or cause our neighbors to believe and enjoy salvation in Christ. Still, it is clear that there are some practical ways we can foster the health and growth of the church. For example… ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 0903-08A reputation as he would write to Timothy and explain the qualifications for church officers (1 Tim. 3:7): “Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” Why this careful attention to the reputation of church officers? If the church is to represent her Lord who was “full of grace,” then the church members, especially her officers must likewise be “full of grace.” God’s people must be honorable, respectable, blameless. We must remember that the Gospel Jesus died to create and the message we are to bear is literally good news. It is the message of God seeking rebellious sinners and preparing the way himself for our return and restoration. C. How important it is that we demonstrate this good news! As God’s people we must show with our lives that Jesus takes wicked people like us and makes them better (though not perfect). This is the hope that will pique the interest of a weary world. My wife and I were watching the local news one night this week, and we suddenly looked at each other. There was story after sordid story of evil, of astonishing wickedness. The sad fact is that this kind of news is commonplace in a wicked world. We are to be about the good news of eternal hope in Jesus Christ. And we must begin by demonstrating that the good news is at work in us! We must be honorable. II. WE MUST BE PEACEABLE. A. Before Paul takes Timothy along as a missionary apprentice, he takes a controversial step. He has Timothy circumcised. “3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.” This action is surprising on the part of the Apostle Paul. He has just been the champion for the non-circumcision of the Gentiles. He has just led the successful crusade against those Jews who came to Antioch from Judea and insisted that Gentiles could not become Christians until they first came under the Law of Moses, obeying all of the Jewish regulations, including circumcision. Paul argued that the Law of Moses was for Jews only, that all are saved not by keeping the code, but through faith in Christ, and the apostles and elders had agreed. So why does he now have Timothy circumcised? Was Paul going back on is own 2 principles? Did he lapse back into legalism? Not at all. Timothy’s mother was Jewish. According to the Jews one’s religious heritage came through your mother. Therefore the Jews would have counted Timothy a Jew, but a Jew in serious violation of the covenant since he was not circumcised. His being a non-circumcised Jew would have been a constant stumbling block to the Jews he would have tried to win for Christ. It was culturally appropriate, if you were Jewish, to be circumcised, even though it had no religious significance. Paul drew the line at circumcising Gentiles. Why? Because it was not culturally appropriate for them. Why circumcise a Gentile, except to make him a convert to Judaism? But Gentiles who became Christians were to continue as Gentile Christians. Circumcision gave no spiritual advantage to anyone. B. Paul himself continued to live as an observant Jew. He urged all Christians to express their Christian faith through the cultural forms they had inherited. So we read in 1 Corinthians 7:17 and following: “17Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” C. What this means for us is that we must be peaceable. As the people of God we must not unnecessarily offend others. For Timothy to be an uncircumcised Jew would have been unnecessarily offensive. Paul would later explain to the Corinthians: “19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 0903-08A as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” D. This, too, is part of being gracious, not being unnecessarily offensive to others. Bill Fay, who developed the “Share Jesus Without Fear” approach to evangelism, the one we will be learning in the evangelism workshop later this month. Bill Fay notes that the gospel is offensive. The gospel message is offensive enough to sinners. We don’t need to make it any more offensive. Indeed, as God’s people, extending the grace of Jesus Christ, we must be completely harmless and inoffensive. That means that some of us with ouchygrouchy personalities need to shake it off. And some of us who may like to argue need to listen more. And we need to make sure that we are not majoring on the minors, that we allow freedom and liberty in those matters which are merely cultural and not biblical, like circumcision was. We need to place no unnecessary stumbling blocks before people that would prevent them from giving a hearing to the Gospel. Our goal is not to make all people into white, affluent, upper-class Republicans, but to make all people from all nations into disciples of Jesus Christ. We must be honorable, we must be peaceable, and… 3 B. This is to the heart of the Gospel work, sharing the message. In fact, Paul stuck to the message. “4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.” This message was probably welcome by the majority. But we already know that there was some opposition to this message. Some would not agree, but we cannot change, modify, amend, or water-down the message, this strong medicine. We must be immovable in the truth. It is grace and truth. It is not very gracious to avoid the saving truth. Suppose there was a doctor who hated to deliver the bad news (who would enjoy it?). So instead of revealing the cancer to the patient and sending him to a specialist where he might be cured, the doctor instead just prescribed pain medications until the patient died. What we do with doctors like that is put them in jail. It is not very gracious to avoid the saving truth. How much more when one’s eternal life is at stake! C. “Grace and truth.” I have been told that when those two words are coupled in Scripture, grace always comes first. That is instructive. We may tend to run to truth first, seeking to clobber people with the truth. But we begin with grace, the demonstration of grace in our own lives, the careful concern not to be personally offensive as we deliver the offensive Gospel message. The evangelism workshop at the end of the month, Share Jesus Without Fear, is a good balance of grace and truth. Let me encourage you to become equipped to share the truth, and to do it with grace. III. WE MUST BE IMMOVABLE. CONCLUSION Earlier last month in Rossford, Ohio, a deer with a badly-gashed leg came bouncing into a PetSmart pet products shop. The store’s veterinarian gave the deer an anesthetic, electrolytes, and antibiotics, and closed the wounds with dissolvable stitches. After the deer was treated, it got up and ran away. It would have been a different story if it had walked into a hunting exposition or a butcher shop. And there are many wounded sinners out there, dying, facing eternal loss. May we be people of grace and truth, graciously, tenderly faithfully bringing them to the Great Physician of souls where they can find real help, even everlasting life. A. John tells us that Jesus was full of “grace and truth.” Jesus did not just come in grace. He came with truth, the saving truth of the (offensive) gospel, calling sinners to repentance and faith in him. The great Physician of our souls did not just have a tender, winsome bedside manner. He also brings strong medicine, medicine which is bitter to the taste, dangerous medicine which will necessarily kill all our self-righteousness, but which will also bring everlasting life. That medicine is a message from God, an official summons to repentance from dead works and faith, belief and trust, in his Son and his completed work of salvation. ____________________________________________________________________________________________