Sermon preached on 28th May 2011
Readings Acts 2: 37-47 Matthew 16: 13-20
I often get quite upset when I go to meetings and hear about church growth.
There is always such a despondency around – the statistics are quite frightening when they talk about how many churches will close in the future, how few people there will be to run them and lead them.
It can be quite a difficult thing to hear.
Difficult because on a personal level it is quite depressing to think you may not have a job in the future!
But more than that I find it difficult because it goes against what I entered the church in the first place for,
It takes no account of the transforming place the church has in society, in education, the transforming place the church has in the lives of individuals and communities.
I honestly believe that the church is God’s plan for the world to know Him and to make Him known, and that is an awesome responsibility and an awesome task for us to be the Body of Christ in the world.
And so this morning it is great to go back to basics and to see what the Church is all about through the eyes of the early Christians.
And this week those who will be reading the E100 will be looking at the growth of the early church.
So I want this morning to look at the marks of the early church – and perhaps we can then use them as a check list to see where we are as the church here in 2011.
Let’s start by looking back at the sort of disciples we saw when they were working out what had happened in the garden tomb.
All the accounts of the resurrection appearances appear to point to a confused and worried group of people.
They were locked in an upper room, they went back on their fishing boats, they were downcast as they walked to Emmaus.
This is a group of people that were so unsure as to what had happened, that were frightened and afraid, confused and bewildered.
But how do we see them in our reading from Acts this morning – transformed.
They were bold in their declaration of the good news of Jesus Christ,
They were bold in living their daily lives in community with other Chrisitans.
They were totally transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit that they received on the day of Pentecost.
And the sort of Church we see here is one of growth, what always strikes me from this reading is growth – 3,000 new believers, the Lord adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
This transformation was not just for the disciples who had followed Jesus in his earthly life but was now transforming the lives of others.
Peter was bold in his preaching and 3,000 people were baptised! – just one sermon!
Then we see a transformation into their lives as a community too.
It is radical what we see in terms of how they lived together.
We are told they had all things in common – they shared all their possessions
They lived a very different life from others around them, they were distinct and became a real community of believers.
And as we read through this week we will see other examples of them in witness and in community together.
So what can we learn from them, in terms of Church growth today?
Well I think there are some key points that we need to look at and then ask ourselves questions about as the Church in 2011.
Firstly, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
If we were to read back from the passage in Acts we would see the amazing account of Pentecost.
We of course will be celebrating that in our church’s in just 2 weeks time.
The power that they had to go out and to tell others about was the power of the Holy Spirit.
They were not doing it in their own strength but through the strength of God, the power of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost they saw what they thought was fire, they heard what seemed to be like wind.
Wind and fire- both things that can comfort but can also transform.
Gentle wind blowing on a hot summers day can make us feel comfortable and relax,
The fire in the grate on a cold winters evening we can sit and warm ourselves and be comfortable again.
But both have the power to transform too don’t they, the fire that burns to such intense heat that elements of metal can be transformed, can be purified.
The wind that sweeps through and bends and sometimes breaks trees.
I am sure we are more comfortable with the first thoughts about wind and flame than the second.
The second is worrying because it can disturb our lives and turn it upside down.
And as we look at the Holy Spirit in this way I am sure we are comfortable with the first thoughts too.
We all like the thought of the Holy Spirit being with us – to bring God’s comfort to us, to help us in our daily lives.
But are we prepared to let the Holy Spirit come and change us, to transform us and our church.
The early Christians lives were not necessarily comfortable but they were transformational.
As we see the readings this week we see the Holy Spirit taking them to unsure and uncomfortable places,
Stephen standing up for his faith and being stoned to death,
Peter and John arrested but carrying on preaching.
Phillip drawn close to an Ethiopian official.
They were bold because they were filled with the Holy Spirit of God and they were willing to let themselves be taken to unexpected places not in their own power and authority but in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.
The question that leaves me with is am I?
So the early church was filled with the Holy Spirit, but secondly they were also centred on Jesus.
If we go back to the gospel reading we see very clearly the importance of the church being centred on Jesus.
Jesus says to the disciples who do people say that I am?
They give various answers but Jesus persists- but who do you say that I am?
And we hear Peter’s amazing reply – showing a depth of insight that he probably wasn’t even aware of at the time-
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Jesus replies on this rock – I will build my church.
In other words Peter’s words are the rock on which the church is founded – that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
And we see the centrality of this in the life of the early church, in how they lived together in what their priorities were.
We see central to their lives together was the re-enactment of the sacrifice of Jesus as they shared bread and wine together.
When they go out to heal and to preach – whose name do they quote- they don’t do it in their own name but in the name of Jesus Christ.
So Peter and John say to the man at the gate – in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth get up and walk.
We see clearly they are doing everything in Jesus’ name, not on their own but in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ.
He is totally central to all they do.
It is so easy to forget this in our lives together.
Yes Jesus is hopefully central to our worship as we meet together and celebrate his death and resurrection for us.
But how often do we in other things forget to put him central, forget to seek his will and just think of our own good ideas.
We need to be challenged by the early Church to get back to basics and to ensure that we are doing things in his name and not our own.
And then thirdly the early church had community and the centre of their lives.
We see this wonderful account of their lives together in Acts 2 and in other places in our readings we will see the importance of community for them.
They lived a communal life as we have already spoken of.
But what about us, how important is our community life.
I do think that the community of the church is more important than we realise.
By sharing community we learn from each other, we support each other, we pray and grow together.
But creating community takes time and effort.
Reading from Rick Warren. - The purpose Driven life - which speaks of the effort needed to make community in terms of spending quality time with each other.
We have seen in recent weeks examples of our community life being strengthened, how we worked together for the fun afternoon, how we shared lunch together at Eton Wick last week for Christian Aid.
Can we continue to do this – can we all take a part in building community.
How about inviting someone around for a cup of coffee or even a meal, getting to know each other at a deeper level.
And then lastly and most obviously when we think of what we can learn from the early church about church growth – it is this – witness was a priority to them.
Those in the early church were constantly going and telling others about Jesus.
They didn’t just sit in their buildings waiting for others to come to them, they went out and spoke of their faith.
I am sure not every one they spoke to turned and wanted to know more, but we do know that many did.
We see examples of this in our readings this week.
And this wasn’t easy for the early Christians.
They didn’t have a safe ride with this – when they were persecuted it wasn’t just a bit of teasing or mocking for their faith – it was being sent to jail, being stoned to death.
And yet they carried on because witness to them was a priority.
We can build a wonderful community of love and fellowship, we can have wonderful worship, uplifting liturgy in our beautiful well kept buildings BUT unless we are prepared to see witnessing to our faith as a priority then our churches will not grow.
The early church witnessed in how they lived their lives but in what they said as well – we need both.
We need to share the love of Christ in many ways BUT we need to share the love of Christ.
As Paul said we always need to be able to give an account of that hope that is within us, and that is US personally not someone else.
We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us and to direct us in how we witness, and then we need to follow his direction.
This is the responsibility of us all!
So going back to the beginning, the statistics for the church of the future are frightening so what are we going to do about it, bury our heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening.
OR – perhaps we can go back to basics like the early Church and follow their priorities.
Being led and challenged by the Holy Spirit
Having Jesus at the centre of all we do
Building a strong and vibrant community
And seeing witnessing to God’s saving love as a priority in all we do.
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