What is a Biblical Church? Part 3

21 07 2009

What Does the Church Do?

It Gathers to worship God.

  • A church that does not meet to worship is not a biblical church.
  • When?
  • Mainly they have met on Sunday, but not exclusively.
  • The disciples got together on Sunday after Jesus died and rose again John 20:19, 26
  • Rev. 1 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
  • where?
  • In houses
  • Rom. 16:5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
  • the house of Mary, mother of Mark, in Acts 12:12
  • In public places
  • in the outer court of the temple in Acts 2-4
  • the great era of church buildings began in the fourth century. So there is no local congregation in the Bible that had a building.
  • The Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church lead by the late D. James Kennedy was organized on May 22, 1960, beginning with a congregation of 45 that worshiped in McNab Elementary School cafeteria.
  • There are currently over 10,000 churches meeting in public schools in America.

What does it do in these gatherings?

It preaches and listens to preaching

  • How?
  • A monologue.
  • This is the way Jesus did it.
  • Matt. 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
  • This is the way Peter, Paul and other apostles did it.
  • Not to say that interviews, dramas, plays, or videos are of no value, just that they are not preaching. And the clear Biblical example is preaching.
  • Why?
  • 2 Tim. 4:2-5 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
  • Preaching confronts us in ways that other ways of communicating a point do not.
  • Preaching is harder to listen too than to preach.

It sings to God, about God and for God.

  • Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
  • Some songs are not bad songs, but shouldn’t be sung in church because the have little to do with God.
  • And mainly we should sing about the good news of Jesus because…
  1. because it’s God full revelation of himself
  2. because it’s God ’s perfect display of his love

It participates in the Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Acts

  • A church that does not do these things is not a biblical church.
  • These two things are biblical pictures of the gospel to us.

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What is a biblical Church? Part I – 1 Thess. 1:1-10

6 07 2009

What a biblical Church believes.

A biblical Church has doctrinal beliefs that come from the Bible

  • A biblical church stands on the Bible 6
  • Bible comes first in many statement of beliefs because if you get away from the Bible you eventually get away from the truth about God.
  • You must believe the Trinity, Gospel, Jesus, the Bible
  • Jehovah’s witness are not a true church
  • Mormon or the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints is not a true church
  • it is one thing to interpret the Bible differently – it is another thing to change it altogether.

A biblical church has a correct view of salvation

  • Salvation comes by Faith alone 8
  • Salvation is through Christ alone
  • Salvation is by grace alone 4
  • Those who are saved will repent producing a changed life. 9-10

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So I’m a Christian, now what? – Acts various verses

11 08 2008

 Adoption

  • Gal. 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

  • Caney made national news when Golden Retriever adopted and cares for tiger cubs at the Safari Zoological Park.

  • The tiger cubs look nothing like the golden retriever, but she brings them in and cares for them. We don’t look like we belong to God’s family, but he adopts us in at a deepest cost. The longer we are in the family the more we start to look like we belong. We learn to love what the Father loves and hate what the father hates. Once we are a part of the family what’s next. I’m a Christian now what do I do??

1. Be baptized- 2:38-41

  • Baptism needs to occur after you believe.

  • Baptism does not happen at the exact same time as belief.

  • Acts 10:47-48 Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

  • Baptism is not the same thing as believing. They are not synonyms.

  • If baptism and belief were the same thing you could use them like synonyms. And you would not need to use both of them at the same time.

  • Acts 18:8b And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. Aslo Acts 8:13;

  • Two different things one before the other.

  • If they are synonyms then this verse is very weird. It would be like me saying, “I got dressed and put my clothes on.” “I washed and cleaned my hands.” “We had supper and ate food.”

  • Baptism shows you are willing to obey the Lord.

  • We don’t include a person into the membership of the church until they get baptized because it they don’t want to get baptized there is a problem.

2. Read your Bible

  • You cannot defend what you don’t personally know.

  • You cannot grow spiritually without the word.

  • I hated reading until I was about 16 when I started consuming the Bible like I wasn’t going to have it tomorrow. I learned there is some good stuff in here. After I started reading it I began to grow. It was less than a year later that God called me to preach it. Just preach it.

  • When you read it he will give and maintain His purpose for you. Knowing the Bible will give you wisdom for marriage, how to handle conflict, and lead to many blessing that don’t come any other way, but by knowing his word.

  • Don’t just read it, study it.

3. Pray

  • Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves tot he apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and and the prayers.

  • Talk to God

  • pray when you read your Bible

  • Pray for your friends

  • Pray and just be thankful some times

  • Write down your prayers. Find what works for you and do it.

4. Remember you are the church so go be together.

Acts 16:5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

Be together to learn. (strengthened in the faith)

  • You don’t have to learn something new every time you come.

Be together to worship God.

  • You can and should worship God by yourself everyday, but you should also be part of the group worship. There is a dynamic about being there that cannot be replaced.

  • I sometimes listen to sermons on CD or online, because a friend recommended it. He was on fire about it. Then I listen to it and it’s not the same. I was not there so it didn’t impact me as much.

Be together to serve each other.

  • Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers…

Be apart of God’s work in every way you can.

  • Matt. 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

  • People are the church. The church is everyone who believes.

  • When you believe and then show your belief by getting baptized you are a member of this church. It is my responsibility to help you grow and love, more so than any other church. It is the rest of the churches responsibility to help. If someone stumbles in the faith we should make every effort to help you get back on the right track more so than any other churches responsibility.

  • People are going to get their understanding of what a Christian is by watching you.

  • People are going to get their understanding of what this church is all about by watching and listening to us.

5. Tell others what God as done for you – evangelism

  • The whole book of acts is about saved people telling others how to be saved.

  • Saved people have a desire for others to be saved too.

  • Several people have told me I’m glad so and so got saved at your church I’ve been praying for them for years. It was there prayers that lead to the moment I was able to talk to them.

  • You pass people everyday that somebody has been praying for, for years.

 

Be on guard against people and things that will lead you away from being baptized, praying, the Bible, church, and desiring others to be saved.


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Being a Body Builder – 1 Thess. 5:11

6 05 2008

By Mark Artherton

1 Thess. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Leads to…

  • change in action and thoughts

  • train properly – discipline.

  • Takes time – doesn’t happen over night.

1 Tim. 4:8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Transition: We must learn to meet people where they are and begin building them up into the Christian God wants them to be.

I. Our task as a church is to be body builders for the kingdom of God.

A. It is much like constructing a house

  • 1Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

  • This requires time

  • Matt. 7:24-27 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

B. We build one another up to strengthen or to edify each other.

  • We must be able to strengthen one another.

  • Rom. 15:1-2 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

  • Sacrificing our own rights and opinions.

C. Patiently laboring enables others to show their spiritual progress.

  • Col. 1:28-29 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

D. Growth in the body takes place when everybody joins in the body building process.

  • Eph. 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

II. How do we become a body building church.

A. By looking at others needs not our own.

  • Body builders complain less and encourage more.

B. Removing our own stumbling blocks allows us to encourage others.

C. We should choose our words carefully. -

  • Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

D. We must be willing to be instructed ourselves – humility

E. We must be willing to be a discipler.

  • 2 Tim. 2:2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

III. We must be willing to encourage one another.

 


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Adaptation or Worldliness?

27 11 2007

Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ESV

1 Cor. 9:22 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. ESV

Sunday night I preached on the challenge of living like Paul did in 1 Cor. 9:22 and not being comformed to the world (Rom. 12:2).   It is very important that we do both and not neglect either one.  If we neglect adapting to our culture (1 Cor. 9:19-23), then we neglect the missions thrust.  If we neglect the Romans 12:2 passage, we become worldly and do not impact God’s kingdom as we ought.  To go more to either side is to hinder the gospel.  In my opinion many traditional churches, neglect becoming “all things to all people.” Therefore some are not saved. 

Click Here to read an interesting article on this topic by Ed Stetzer.  He serves as the Missiologist and Director of the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, GA and he is co-pastor of Lake Ridge Church in Cumming, GA.


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Sermon Summary 11-11-07

12 11 2007

 A Church Devoted to Prayer. Acts 2:42

What does devoted to prayer mean?

  • They were in Jerusalem so those three thousand souls that were added to the church in verse 41 were mostly Jews (2:5). Jews prayed ritually. So when it says they devoted themselves to prayer, what does it mean? If they already prayed daily as Jews, did they now pray more? What made it devoted praying? What was different about it now than before?

1. They were now praying to a God they knew and who knew them.

2. They were now praying in obedience.

  • They received word.
  • They were baptized.

These people who were devoted to praying were new believers.  

  • This tells us the every believer whether new or old ought to be devoted to prayer.  If new believers are devoted to prayer how much more ought the seasoned soul to pray. 

Every great awakening began by prayer.

A church devoted to prayer

  • demonstrates their need for God.
  • demonstrates their love for God
  • demonstrates their love for others.
    • Instead of praying we complain
    • Instead of praying we avoid.

A CHURCH THAT PRAYS:

  1. Prays about what it does.
  2. Fits prayer in.
  3. Prays when there are problems.
  4. Announces a special time of prayer—some in the church show up.
  5. Asks God to bless what it is doing.
  6. Is frustrated by financial shortfall—backs down from projects.
  7. Is tired, weary, stressed out.
  8. Does things within its means.
  9. Sees its members as its parish.
  10. Is involved in the work of man.

A CHURCH DEVOTED TO PRAYER:

  1. Does things by prayer.
  2. Gives prayer priority.
  3. Prays when there are opportunities.
  4. Announces a special time of prayer—the church shows up.
  5. Asks God to enable it to do what He is blessing.
  6. Is challenged by financial short-fall—calls for fasting, prayer, and faith.
  7. Mounts up with wings like eagles, runs and doesn’t grow weary, walks and does not faint.
  8. Does things beyond its means.
  9. Sees the world as its parish.
  10. Is involved in the work of God.  by Fred A. Hartley III

When a church is devoted to prayer…

the Lord adds to their number (v. 47)

every church that the Lord builds comes through prayer

Your pastor’s dream for the prayer life of First Southern Baptist Church.

1. Every husband and wife praying together daily

2. Every member spending time in prayer daily.

3. Members meeting for prayer regularly.

4. Members setting aside periodic times of fasting

5. Every member praying before every meal. At home, at work, at the restaurant


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