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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…
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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
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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.
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