The Edified, Multiplying Church
Acts: The Mission of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever been really hungry and someone starts describing great food and your appetite just goes wild?
You have had a long week and it is Friday afternoon and you ate a light lunch because there are big dinner plans with the family that night.
Your co-worker starts talking about the steak he had the night before with the butter and the side items and the dessert afterward--
Some of you are undone by this talk even as I am speaking because you are hungry right now!
Well Luke kind of does this to us spiritually with his description of the church in Acts 9:31.
He gives us an status check on the church and as he does it, he speaks in a way that should cause your spiritual appetite to flare up.
Let me ask you brothers and sisters:
Do you long to see your church fortified?
Do you long to see the people of God stand in strength as the church militant on the earth?
Accomplishing her mission to make disciples
Witnessing to a loveless world through her love for one another
Walking in the unity of the Spirit
Serving the Lord with gladness
Making good use of her time
If these are things you desire, Luke will make you more hungry this morning.
I pray the Lord will make you more hungry this morning.
Do you long to see your church multiplying?
Do you long to see her reach her neighbors?
Do you long to see her call the wayfaring strangers home through the light of the Gospel?
Do you long to her number added to in the Lord’s time?
If these are things you desire, Luke will deepen those desires with this verse of Scripture today.
My hope is the Lord will use His Word to do that.
Let’s pray to that end right now...
PASTORAL PRAYER
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
In this text, we have Luke checking in on the church.
He likes to give us these little reports, summarizing what is happening in the life of the church at the moment.
For example, at the end of Acts 2, we get that beautiful summary of the early church in her infancy where they are:
Devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching
Devoting themselves to the breaking of bread
Devoting themselves to prayer
They are holding all things in common
They are selling off possessions and belongings and distributing goods as any have need
They are worshipping together
They are hospitable
And Luke says:
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
We get another one of these status updates in Acts 9:31. It is the eighth in Acts thus far.
And it comes as a bit of a concluding statement on everything we have seen occurring from the fallout of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7 to this point.
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
THE SETTING
THE SETTING
ONE CHURCH
ONE CHURCH
Let’s start with the setting that Acts 9:31 is taking place in.
Luke says the church throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace.
Up until this point in Acts, Luke has used the word “church” to refer to Christians who are gathering in local congregations, but now he is using the word differently.
He is talking about the entirety of the Christian community in the Jewish region.
All of those who were dispersed in the heated persecution that followed Stephen’s death.
The persecution led by Saul.
He is speaking about the universal church.
The catholic church.
And when I say that, I don’t mean the Roman Catholic church.
Most people associate the word “catholic” with the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, when used with a little c, the word simply means worldwide or universal. This is why Protestants use the Nicene Creed to affirm their belief in the “one, holy, catholic, apostolic church.
Jonathan Leeman
It is really a theological way to understand the church.
Luke is recognizing that the church has been gathered out of the world and though she is expressed in local congregations, she is still one Church.
She is one spiritual body spread out over Judea, Samaria and Galilee.
PILLAR SUNDAY ONLY
This is one of the reasons why Seaford Baptist is so thankful to have been able to join with the Pillar Network this year. It is a blessing to know that we are a part of the larger body of Christ and to participate in that.
It is a joy to build the kingdom with other congregations, knowing that we are all working for the same Kingdom and the same Prince that rules it.
It is a joy to not be in competition, but to be in cooperation...
To not have partitions between us, but to have partnership.
AT PEACE
AT PEACE
And notice that this church in the region is at peace.
This peace is both physical and spiritual.
It is spiritual in the sense that any time God’s people are experiencing the blessings of peace, it is from the Lord. It is a blessing from His generous hand.
But it is physical in the sense that God’s people are experiencing a time of reprieve.
In Acts 7, Stephen walks the ruling council down their sordid history of rejecting, abusing and killing God’s prophets—all the way up to the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.
He calls them stiff-necked and says their hearts are uncircumcised.
And this causes them to run at him and drag him outside the city and to stone him to death.
The men who are throwing the stones on Stephen lay their coats at the feet of a man named Saul.
After this happens, there is a great persecution that rises up like a tidal wave and crashes down on the church and it scatters the church into the surrounding regions.
And Saul approved of his execution.
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Of course this persecution is only serving to fulfill the words of Christ. He told the disciples in Acts 1:8 that they would by His witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and the end of the earth.
The persecution meant for destruction is being used by God for His own glorious purpose.
This intense persecution is carrying on, in large part, due to the efforts of Saul.
But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
But with his conversion on the way to Damascus and about a three year period of time passing, things have settled down.
The church is about six years or so from Pentecost at this point. She is still quite young.
And after a time of being hunted, they are able to take a breath.
God is good to do this isn’t He? He is so good to deliver His people from the unrelenting pressures of persecution.
When Satan is hunting the people of God and seeking to destroy her in the wilderness of the world in Revelation, what happens?
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
She is given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent.
God provides relief and rescue.
It is a reminder that Satan’s authority is limited and the Deceiver will not prevail against the Lord’s church.
He will bark and bite. He will send seething sinners with swords. He will inspire all sorts of irate indignation towards the Lord’s bride.
But at the end of the day—he will not win.
And even along the way, God is good to provide a reprieve for His church.
He is good to give her times of peace.
The question for the church in the region is this: What will they do with their time of peace?
Did they rest on their accomplishments thus far and take a break for a while?
Did they disperse and say, “Well that was an insane few years. Let’s just go back to what we were doing before so we never go through anything like that again?”
Did they use the time of peace for selfish purposes?
The answer, of course, is no, no and no.
They did not use their time of circumstantial peace for any of that.
They used it to do two things that Luke tells us about.
1) They are fortified in the fear of the Lord.
2) They are multiplying in the comfort/encouragement of the Spirit.
These two teaching points is what we will give the rest of our time to.
FORTIFIED IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD
FORTIFIED IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD
EDIFIED
EDIFIED
First of all, we look at how the church uses this time of peace to be edified.
Luke says they were being “built up.” He is speaking of the church as a building.
This is not the only place in the New Testament that we see this happen.
In Ephesians 2, Paul says that in the church, the blood of Christ has brought Jew and Gentile near to God and into fellowship with one another as brothers and sisters.
The dividing wall of hostility is torn down.
One new man has been created in place of the two.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
The Gentiles who were far off have peace through the Gospel preached to them.
The Jews who were near have peace through the Gospel preached to them.
They both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
But then listen to what Paul says next:
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The church is spoken of as a family home for the citizens of the Kingdom and that home is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ being the Cornerstone—meaning all the other stones are set with Him as the reference point.
He is the One who determines the building’s structure.
He is the One who holds it together.
And He is the One who grows it into a holy temple in the Lord.
The Apostle Peter also speaks to the church as a building in his first epistle:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Stones are usually lifeless, mute, rock-hard objects.
But Jesus is the way, the truth and the Life.
He is the Life of men.
He is the Resurrection and the Life.
He is the Lamb who is slain, but standing.
Therefore, He is a Cornerstone who is a living stone
And those who have had His life imparted to them by saving grace are also living stones.
And He is building them up into a spiritual house, so that they would be a priesthood, offering their lives up to God as a living sacrifice.
Six years into the New Testament church—they are serious about this business.
Individually, they are edified. They are built up. They are fortified.
They are experiencing what Paul prays for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:14-16
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
And what is experienced by the individuals overflowed into the community.
As a people, they were built up.
I think we would all want this for our churches, but the question is—how has this come about?
Well it is not in a vacuum.
Here is Eckhard Schnabel on this:
The way of life of the followers of Jesus, in which they make progress, is “the fear of the Lord...”
Eckhard Schnabel
These brothers and sisters are walking in the fear of the Lord.
They are advancing and progressing in the fear of the Lord.
This is why they are fortified.
Teaching Point #1: The church that walks in the fear of the Lord will be fortified.
Teaching Point #1: The church that walks in the fear of the Lord will be fortified.
GOD IS THE FEAR OF ISAAC
GOD IS THE FEAR OF ISAAC
Of course, the next question we need to ask is this: What does it mean to fear the Lord?
Well the answer to the question begins with God Himself.
Not only because He is the One we fear, but that He is actually called “The Fear of Isaac” in Genesis 31...
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Why is God called “The Fear of Isaac?”
Here is John Bunyan on the matter:
The Treatise of the Fear of God This Word Fear as Taken for God Himself
And, indeed, God may well be called the fear of his people, not only because they have by his grace made him the object of their fear, but because of the dread and terrible majesty that is in him.
God has taken the word FEAR as His own name to let us know just how majestic and awesome He is as the Lord and Judge of all the earth and everyone who lives on it.
And when you understand that, it compels you to set Him apart as holy.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
When we heed God’s revelation of Himself and rightly understand Him as the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe and the Maker of all things who is excellent in His judgments, we should be brought to a place of fear.
FEARING THE LORD
FEARING THE LORD
But when we fear God, we do not fear Him as pure threat. We do not view Him the way a slave would fear a cruel master.
No—we fear God with a child-like reverence, the way a son will tremble before a good father.
In fact, this sort of fear is a New Covenant promise.
And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
This is part of God’s glorious purpose in His salvation of your soul—that you may fear Him forever.
He made you to fear Him.
He wants you to fear Him.
He wants you to tremble before Him as a son before a good Father.
Now that being said, I want to make sure we think about this rightly.
Realistically, it is easy for us to think of reverence purely in terms of “God has every right to crush me with His discipline because I am a sinner who lives on His grace,” but I don’t think that perspective will leave you fearing God biblically.
I did not grow up fearing Mike Howard because I knew he could discipline me at any moment and he really only tolerates me because I have his last name.
I was blessed with a really great earthly father. I revered him. I had a child-like fear of him that persists to this day.
But that fear—which drove me to want to please him with my obedience—had to do with his character.
He was a good father to me, therefore I feared him. I didn’t want to displease him. I wanted to express my reverence for him in loving obedience.
So for us, we fear God—not because we are a second away from Him crushing us—but because He didn’t crush us. He crushed His Son instead of us.
Again—this is the promise of the New Covenant—foretold by prophets hundreds of years before Christ’s birth.
I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.
He is a good, promise-keeping God.
He blesses us and prospers us in Jesus Christ.
He builds us up.
He cares for our needs.
He provides all that is necessary for that which He has called us to.
We fear Him for these things.
And yes—if you persistently sin against His holy name, He will discipline you as a Father, but even that action is rooted in goodness and love—not in any of the evil things that wrongful discipline by earthly fathers is rooted in.
But the bottom line is that we must respond to our gracious Father with fear and trembling.
This child-like reverence for God is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Foolish people are going to do what they want, no matter what someone tries to tell them.
Wise people revere the Fear of Isaac in all His beautiful purity and goodness.
And in light of that, they surrender themselves to His will, aiming to please Him in all that they do.
HAND IN HAND
HAND IN HAND
It sounds so simple, but what keeps us from this as individuals and as churches?
Allow me to suggest some reasons why edification is stunted and why Christians and groups of Christians cease to be “built up.”
Maybe there is an issue with hard-heartedness
Maybe there is prayerlessness
A covetous heart
A doubting, unbelieving heart
A forgetful heart
A complaining, grumbling heart
A proud, rebellious heart
We could say these would all be reasons as to why edification would be cease to advance.
Well oddly enough, if you read John Bunyan’s Treatise of the Fear of God, these are the things that he says impede a heart from fearing God.
The heart is hard.
The heart is prayerless.
The heart is covetous.
It is unbelieving.
It is forgetful.
It is complaining.
It is proud.
And the reason we could say these are things that impede the fear of the Lord as naturally as we say that these are things that impede edification, is that they go hand in hand.
When people fear the Lord, they will be built up.
MULTIPLYING IN THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT
MULTIPLYING IN THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT
Let’s move to our second point because you see that the church is not just using the peace afforded to them as a time to be built up, but also as a time to increase in their number.
Luke says they multiplied.
This is a good thing. Churches want this. We want to multiply.
We want to see people come to Christ and enter into the household of God where they will be discipled and grow into the stature of Christ.
And of course we want to see them be fishers of men and to disciple others as well.
Numbers are not always a sign of health.
They could be—but not always.
But at the end of the day, whatever the baptism statistics and denominational reports may say, we are in this for conversions to the glory of God.
We want to see souls go from death to life.
But like the edification of the church, the multiplication of the church does not come about in a vacuum.
Luke tells us that it happens through the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Teaching Point #2: The church that walks in the comfort of the Spirit will be multiplied.
Teaching Point #2: The church that walks in the comfort of the Spirit will be multiplied.
THE SPIRIT
THE SPIRIT
When Luke says the “comfort” of the Spirit, it could just as easily be translated to “encouragement.”
The Greek word used is a form of the same word Jesus uses to speak of the promise of the Spirit to come in John 14 and John 16.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Helper—the Comforter/the Encourager
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Jesus had to go away from His disciples.
To die for them. To satisfy the Father’s wrath.
To rise again.
To ascend to the right hand.
If these things do not happen, the disciples will have no spiritual cleansing
The promises of the OT are left unfulfilled
The New Covenant does not come
And if none of these things happen, then the Spirit of God, whose dwelling in believers is part of the New Covenant promises, does not come
This would be devastating because it is through the Spirit of the Lord that the disciples will bear witness to the Gospel.
And it is the Spirit who will continue to guide them into all truth after Jesus’ departure.
The disciples would be left alone in the world without their Savior and without the Spirit.
They would be left without the comfort and encouragement of the Spirit.
THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT
THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT
And what is that specifically? What is the comfort of the Spirit? And why does it so spur the church on toward multiplication?
It is important that we get to the bottom of this. It is important that we understand it.
Consider this from John Owen:
The foundation of all our communion with the Holy Ghost consists in his mission, or sending to be our comforter, by Jesus Christ.
John Owen
You cannot understand your relationship with the Holy Spirit apart from His purpose to be your Comforter and Encourager. That is what Owen is saying.
It drives home how important all of this is.
So what is this comfort and encouragement?
Well first of all, the Spirit gives us the comfort of sonship.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Charles Spurgeon said:
A thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption.
Charles Spurgeon
It is the Spirit, who Paul calls the Spirit of adoption, that compels us to call God our Father.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
The Spirit stirs our minds to remind us that we are sons of God and that we are co-heirs with Christ.
Secondly, the Spirit gives us hope.
Hope is the virtue that enables us to believe the Gospel for ourselves—that God will keep His promises to you.
And the Spirit gives us hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
The God of hope will fill you with joy and peace as you believe, so that by the Spirit’s power, you have hope abounding.
This is wonderful news because hope is the enemy of despair.
The Spirit drives despair away with His comforting hope.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Thirdly, but certainly not least, the Spirit gives us His living presence.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Paul says “likewise” in Romans 8:26—meaning, the Spirit will strengthen you and sustain you in the same way that hope does.
The Spirit never leaves His children who have been born by His power.
And is this any more evident than when we pray?
For even when we do not know what to pray, the Spirit is an intercessor for us.
The Puritan Thomas Goodwin rightly pointed out that we have an intercessor in heaven in Christ and an intercessor in our hearts, in Christ.
Praise God for this.
The Spirit is always our very present help in times of need and affliction.
MULTIPLICATION CONNECTION
MULTIPLICATION CONNECTION
So with all of that in mind, what is this connection between the multiplying that is taking place and the comfort of the Spirit?
Well we have to say that it is crucial and important.
If we go back to Jesus’ initial instructions in Acts 1:8, the Word says:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Who were they to wait on? The Holy Spirit.
Why? Because until they have the power of the Spirit, they are not able to be witnesses.
This is not just because the Spirit empowers the preaching, but the Spirit empowers the Preacher. The Spirit opens the ears of the ones being preached to.
The Spirit tells the Christian he or she is a son in the household of God—a co-heir...
The Christian is then empowered to spread that Good News and endure any suffering that comes about as a result of it because as a co-heir, their eyes are on the crown of glory.
The Spirit etches hope onto the Christian heart.
The Christian, invigorated by the confidence they have in God’s power to keep His promises, goes back into the world with joy, pressing on and preaching often.
The Spirit helps the Christian in prayer.
Suddenly, the confusion and melancholy that stood in the way of sweet fellowship with God begins to dissipate.
The Christian, feeling strengthened by the Spirit’s presence and abiding help, is ready to do the work of disciple-making again.
Do you see how this works?
The Advocacy of the Spirit provides great advantage for believers on their mission field.
The Comfort of the Spirit brings a consolation to the tattered fishermen who is weary from the work of trolling for souls.
The Encouragement of the Spirit brings an energy to the downtrodden witness, jolting it back to faithfulness.
The early church was Spirit-dependent for Kingdom-growth.
It is the only for the multiplication to be real.
It is the only way for the multiplication to be healthy.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
So as you can see, as Luke checks in on the young church for the 8th time, she is fortified and she is multiplying.
She is not wasting her time of peace.
What will we do with ours?
I know some of you think I am crazy for even asking that question because you do not feel that we are in a time of peace.
You see the horrors of the Russian/Ukranian war.
You see the unspeakable evil being inflicted upon the nation of Israel.
You see the rising costs of living in our own nation and the growing division.
You might think, “How could you say we are in a time of peace?”
Well no one is trying to tear the door down to kill us for gathering this morning.
When church ends, if you want, you can go down to Yorktown Beach and spend the rest of the day handing out Gospel tracts.
You might be disrespected or name-called, but you won’t be arrested for it.
Even in situations where Christians are getting in trouble for open-air preaching, they are typically detained and released without formal charges.
You and I live in a time in which we have a great license to preach the Gospel in our own context, despite what is happening around the world and despite the shifting ideologies in our own country.
What will we do with that peace?
Will we settle for a little old-time religion? Come get our hour plus in on a Sunday and head back to the world and pretty much live like our lost neighbors.
I hope you hunger for more than that.
Will we try to build the brand of our church and make our own name great?
I hope we have higher aims than that.
We must be like our brothers and sisters in 39 AD.
Walking in the fear of the Lord—fortified as a living, holy temple
Walking in the comfort of the Spirit—multiplying as an encouraged people
We cannot waste the time of peace.
ACTION POINT
ACTION POINT
Would you pray for these things to be so? And would you do it for more than just our (your) church?
The regional aspect of this text is not lost on me.
Seaford Baptist is a part of the Pillar Network—something we joined in the last year.
We joined the ranks of Carrollton Baptist, Nansemond River Baptist, Fox Hill Road Baptist, Reformation Christian Fellowship, Poquoson Baptist and Christ Fellowship Church Williamsburg.
How glorious would it be for people to say of our churches in the Hampton Roads region— “So the church throughout all of the Pillar Network Hampton Roads had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Spirit, it multiplied.”
What a sweet testimony that would be. What a sweet report to give.
But churches are made of individuals.
So brother or sisters—are you hungry for these things?
Has Luke caused your appetite to run wild this morning?
Are you saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes! This is what I desire for my churches and our partner churches?”
Well good. That is from the Lord we are to fear. That is from the Spirit who is our comfort.
May that hunger drive you to tremble before Him and to be sent out in His encouragement.