WHY BELIEVERS IN CHRIST SHOULD GO TO CHURCH

WHY WE AS BELIEVERS SHOULD GO TO CHURCH

I Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

• How can you love one another fervently if there are no “others”? Fervently doesn’t stay at home, fervently finds a way to fellowship. Fervently looks for the betterment of the whole fellowship. Fervently knows that everyone on the team is important. Fervently forges relationships that will stand the test of time. Fervently realizes that an on fire church starts with them. Is the whole of your fellowship fervent, and what are you doing to develop a fervent fellowship? If your church isn’t on fire, start a blaze by beginning to love others with a pure heart, fervently.
• Tell me, do you really love those in the fellowship of the church fervently? We should, don't you think?
• Yet we seem to find less time with those who are our fellow believers, and more time with those who are in the world.
• Let me say, to love the fellowship of the local church is to serve in the fellowship fervently.
• Sunday Morning Christians, really don't enjoy the fellowship of the other believers.
• What I like to see is the foyer of our church filled with folks before the service and after the service, and folks seem to want to say around a little after the service.
• There are four (at least) who love to provide a ride for are senior saints. That is wonderful.
• There are those who love to serve, more than the personal fellowship, but provide the means so others will have a good time in their fellowship with others.

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH WAS THE ACTS CHURCH

Part Four

Review:
First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Second, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY WE EXPECT ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH ON A LARGE SCALE?

Part Four
THEY WERE A DEVOTED CHURCH:

THEY WERE A HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH
THEY WERE A UNITED CHURCH

• We read of them that they were so united that they had all things in common, and they daily continued with one accord in the church. There were no parties among them, no petty conflict and divisions, they loved the Lord too well for that If you divide the church within itself, you also divide it from the mighty operations of the Spirit of God. Be full of love to one another, and then you may expect that God the Holy Spirit will fill you with blessing.

THEY WERE A GENEROUS CHURCH:

• The Lord will never bless a church of cheapskates; if they are skinflints they may keep their worship to themselves, for God is a generous God, and He loves to have a generous people. They sold what they had, and gave to those who had needs.
  

THEY WERE A CONTINUAL CHURCH

• Again, these people were in such a condition that their homes were holy places.

• What about this idea that they met in their homes?
  

1. I want you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and ate their food with gladness and singleness of heart.
2. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the House of God.
3. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were so mixed and mingled with the Lord's Supper that to this day the most cautious student of the Bible cannot tell when they stopped eating their common meals, and when they began eating the Supper of the Lord.
4. They elevated their meals into diets for worship: they so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness to the Lord.
5. I wish our houses were, in this way, dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all day long, and made our homes temples for the living God.

1. A footnote: My earliest days in my parents’ home, my remembrance is filled with people coming to our home on a daily basis. After Charity and I were married, and in our first youth ministry in Wooster, Ohio, our home was our church youths’ home. When we pastored at First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas, our home was never our house, but the place where our members were always there.
   

Does God need a house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crude ignorance this is! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does, and there is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to the fear of the Lord. A Christians home is always a Christian home.

I have already mentioned that they were a praying church, and that accounted greatly for the increase.
They were a devout church, a church which did not forget any part of the Lord's will.
They were a baptized church,
They were a church that continually celebrated the Lord’s Supper, in the church; and they had a meal with others in their home daily. so we can see that they were obedient to Christ in both ordinances.

They were also a joyful church. We find that they ate their food with gladness. Their religion was not of the somber type which comes from doubts and fears. They were believers in a risen Redeemer, and though they knew that they would soon be persecuted, they rejoiced so much that everybody could see heaven shining on their faces, and might have known that they believed in the blessed gospel, for they were a blessed people.

They were also a praising church, for it is said they "praised God, and they had favor with all the people." Oh, may the Lord make this church and all the churches around us to be as holy and joyful as that apostolic community.

3A. WHAT RESPONSIBILITIES DO THESE ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH BRING TO THE CURRENT MEMBERSHIP

• To those who come into the church it needs to be said: Please do not join our fellowship as a member unless you are saved.
• As for us (the current membership) who will receive the converts, what is our responsibility?
• First, to welcome them wholeheartedly. Let us open wide the door of our hearts and say, "Come and welcome," for Jesus Christ's sake.
• After welcoming them we must watch over them, and when so many are added, double care is needed
• Let the watching be done by all the members: by the officers of the church first, and then by every individual

Guide them and cheer them on. Help their weakness, bear with their ignorance and impulsiveness, and correct their mistakes

THIS IS A LITTLE DESCRIPTION OF THE KIND OF CHURCH IN THE BOOK OF ACTS.

If we want to have an Acts kind of Church, we need to know what kind of Church was in Jerusalem.

Drafted By Charles E. Whisnant, March 25, 2007 Proof Checked or Read by my lovely wife of thirty-seven years. 9 months 11 days, and several hours

THE ACTS KIND OF CHURCH?

YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ACTS KIND OF CHRISTIAN

Part Three

These people were in such a condition that their homes were holy places.

First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Second, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY WE EXPECT ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH ON ALARGE SCALE?

Can we expect additions to the church on a daily basis?. Or every Sunday in the services?

• Every Sunday at FBC in Hammond people were added to the church, I would say every day some were added to the church. While at Gideon Baptist Church in Fort Worth, for forty two weeks we saw Christ adding to the Church.

I fear that many churches would not be content with a ministry whose power would lie solely in the Holy Spirit. I hear a lot of churches who say they want to be an Acts kind of Church. They say they want to have that Holy Spirit power of that early church. What then would be the result of that kind of church?

A Holy Spirit ministry, if Peter is the model, is one which is bold, clear, telling, and persuasive.

• One which tells men that Jesus is the Christ, and that they have crucified Him, and calls on them to repent and turn to the Lord.
• The truly sent preacher speaks out straight and plain, and home to the conscience, whether men will hear or whether they will refrain.
• The Holy Spirit minister chooses Jesus for his main theme, as Peter did. He did not speak to them about modern science and the ways of twisting Scripture into agreement with it.
  He cared nothing for the rumblings of the philosophies of the Greeks; but he went right on preaching Christ crucified and Christ risen from the dead.
• When he had preached Christ, he made a pointed personal appeal to them and said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." He was not afraid to give such an exhortation; he was not like some who say, "We must warn sinners and then leave them; we may preach Christ to them, but may not request them to repent;" but he boldly preached the gospel and left it to his Master to send it home by the power of the Holy Spirit. That was the sort of sermon which God blesses.
• The man was full of God, and God shone through the man, and worked with him, and forgiveness of sins was sought and was found through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by a vast number of souls. May God send to all his churches a Holy Spirit ministry!

• But if there are to be many additions to the church it must next be a Holy Spirit church.

A Holy Spirit filled church, as most churches desire, will have additions to the church.

What is a Holy Spirit church? Well, it is a church baptized into His power, and this will be known first by its being devoted.

• Read the 42nd verse: "They devoted themselves." He will not bless a church which is excited and then relapses, is carried away by every novelty, and does not know what it believes, but a church which lives in Jesus and in his truth.

THEY WERE A DEVOTED CHURCH: FOUR POINTS.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

1. In the apostle's teaching. They were a doctrinal church, they believed in being devoted to the unmovable truth; they did not belong to the shifty generation of men who plead that their views are progressive, and that they cannot hold themselves bound by a ordinary creed.. If God does not save men by truth he certainly will not save them by lies, and if the old gospel is not competent to work a revival, then we will do without the revival; we will keep to the old truth, anyhow, come what may! Our flag is nailed to the pole.
2. Next they were devoted in fellowship. They loved each other, and they continued doing so. They conversed with one another about the things of God, and they did not give up the conversation. They helped each other when they were in need, and they continued in such kindness. They were true brethren, and their fellowship was not broken.
   Have you noticed the conversation in most church fellowships is not doctrine, or the cross, or Christ; but it’s farming, baseball, and apple pie. First century Acts believers had Christ on their lips daily in the Temple and in their homes.
3. Next they continued in the breaking of bread, which is a delightful ordinance, and never to be despised or underestimated. As often as they could they celebrated the death of Christ, until he would come again. They delighted the dear memorials of his sacred passion, both in the church. I will mention later what they did in their homes.
4. They also remained devoted in prayer. Mark that! God cannot bless a church which does not pray, and churches must increase in supplication if they would increase in strength. Sacred insistent requests must surround the throne of God, and then the blessing will be given. Oh, children of the heavenly King, you hamper the Spirit and hinder the blessing if you restrain prayer. Their prayer would say, "Lord add to your church, my mother, dad, and family, and friends." Their prayer was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of others.
   

As we look into the first group of believers following Pentecost, they were people from all over the area, they were now new believers in Jesus Christ. The same Jesus that had been put to death on a Cross. Now some of them had been a part of Jesus death. They now were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were 1st Century Christians.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant

THE ACTS KIND OF CHURCH, YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ACTS KIND OF CHRISTIAN

Part Two

The church has no right to exclude any of the saved because their knowledge or experience is not that of advanced believers. If they believe in Jesus and are saved, then the babes belong to the family and ought to be received, the lambs belong to the flock and ought not to be kept outside the fold.

Church membership is not a certificate of advanced Christianity, it is simply the recognition of the profession of saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Again the text says, "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." They were really "added" to the church. I am afraid certain persons' names are added to the church, but they themselves are not. Be careful about adding those whom Christ has not added.

A true church is a living entity, and only living men and women made alive by the Spirit of God are fit to be grafted into it, and the grafting must be done by the Lord himself, otherwise it is no true addition to the church of the Living God.The church is a living organism, alive, full of life, John MacArthur often says.

Some members are only tied on to the church, and they are neither useful nor an enhancement, just as a dead branch fastened to a tree would add no beauty to it, and would certainly bear no fruit. There must be a living union, so that the life which is in the church will join with the life that is in the man or the woman, and the one life of the one living Spirit will flow through the whole of the body.

Every member that has been added by Christ will be a part of the living organism and will desire to have their name along side every other member of the body.

Another point in the text is this, that "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." There were additions to the church every day. Every day God added to the church in Jerusalem.

• "Some churches, if they have an addition once in twelve months make as much noise over that one as a hen does when she has laid an egg" Spurgeon.

But, you answer, or counter, we are not preaching daily. That may be, but we ought to be; if not daily in the pulpit, there should be the daily preaching of the life, and if all the members of the church were daily teaching of Jesus Christ from house to house, a daily sowing would bring a daily reaping; if we were daily praying with earnestness, and daily using every effort we could by the power of the Holy Spirit; and if daily the church lived in fellowship with her master, we would soon see added to it daily those who were being saved.

Most of my earlier experience in my dad’s church, there was the expectation that many would be added to the church weekly.

• When we were in First Baptist Church in Hammond there was the expectation that daily people would be added to the church.
• When we were at Madison Baptist Church, we expected to see people added to the church membership via Christ’s addition.
• "Why don’t we see it," says one, "in many churches?"

Why, because many churches do not believe in it. If there were many converts added to them, they would say, ""Yes, we hear of a great many additions, but what are they? We hope they will hold on," or some such unkind remark.

• John MacArthur has said: "Doing the Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way will result in the Lord adding to His Church."

A SURE SIGN OF A GOD-REJECTED CHURCH:

• God will not cause His children to be born where there is no one to nurse them; He will be sure not to send converts to churches which do not want them
• He will not have His lambs snarled over and kept out in the cold for months together to see whether they will howl as wolves or bleat as sheep.
• He loves to see His people watchful for new converts, and watchful over them. The Good Shepherd would have us feed His lambs, gather them in from the cold field of the world, and carry them to some warm sheltered place, and nurture them for Him.
• When He sees a church ready to do that, then will He send them his lambs, but not till then.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Check by Charity Whisnant

AGAIN, THESE PEOPLE WERE IN SUCH A CONDITION THAT THEIR HOMES WERE HOLY PLACES.

Introduction

Again, these people were in such a condition that their homes were holy places.

Much has been said about this idea of being an "Acts kind of Church." I am not sure I ever

thought, I would want to be in a 1st Century church, any more than I would want to be in a 19th Century church in England . "Our church is trying to become an Acts kind of Church." What does that mean?

There seems to be some misconceptions about this early church in the book of Acts.

But with that said, we would need to try to learn several things: How did people get into the church? What did those who were added to the Church do once they were added? What kind of preaching did they hear? What is the responsibility the church has to the new converts? What kind of home did the believers have?

To be an Acts kind of Church, you need to have an Acts kind of Christians.

The Lord Added To their Number Daily: Acts 2:42

It would appear from our text that the additions to the new church, founded on the day of Pentecost, were not always accomplished in mass. The Spirit of God was still with them, but their increase was more gradual. "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." It would appear that the Lord added to their number daily.

I want you to think about additions to the church as they used to occur among the early Christians. Certain people today are always talking about the "early church," and they seem
to have some very "strange ideas" about this early church.

First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

It seems to have been the custom in the earliest times for persons who had been converted to Christ to join themselves with the church of Jesus Christ.

• "Act then according to your duty, and if you are a Christian, join with Christians; if you love the Master, love the servants; if you love the Captain, unite with the army, and join that regiment of it which you think adheres the closest to the Master's word." Spurgeon.
  The persons who were reached at Pentecost were added to the church by the Lord.

Does anybody else ever add to the church? Oh, yes, the devil also often hustles in his servants. Who was it that added Judas, and Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus, and Demas to the church?

Thus, you need to search and see whether you are the model that the Lord would add to a church. How can you tell if you have been added by Christ?

If you are, you have been converted by the Lord,

• You have been wounded by the Lord, and you have been healed by the Lord, and in the Lord is your righteousness and trust.
• It has not been man's doing; whoever may have been the instrument, the Holy Spirit has produced all your works in you.
• You must have been the subject of a divine intervention; something more than you could do for yourself or any man could do for you must have been formed in you by the Lord.
• He who made you has made you new.

Then, the right kind of additions to the church are described in the text by the words, "those who were being saved." Acts 2

• The Lord added to the church daily the saved," or "The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Saved persons were added to the church, and only the saved were fit to be added.

Those who are being saved, in whom the work of salvation has truly begun, are the only proper candidates, and these are spoken of in the forty-fourth verse as "believers."

The proper persons to be added to the visible church of Jesus Christ are those

• who believe to the salvation of their souls,
• who are daily experiencing the saving power of the name of Jesus by being delivered from sin,
• by being saved from the pattern of the world,
• by being saved in the sense of sanctified from the various corruptions and lusts which rule among the sons of men. These are the sort of persons who should be added to the church.

So let the question be asked, "Am I saved? Have I believed in Jesus?" If I have,

• the process of salvation is going on within me,
• I am being delivered from the reigning, ruling power of sin each day;
• I am being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and
• I will be kept and presented in the end spotless before the presence of God with great joy.

We set the door wide open to all who are saved, however little their faith may be.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, Proof Read by Charity Whisnant