A Church That's W.E.L.L. Part 2a

Guest (Male): A church that’s well is a church that’s loving. Abounding Grace is next.
Guest (Male): What does a healthy church look like? That’s the question we’re continuing to ask here at Abounding Grace and Acts chapter two provides a wonderful answer. Now, the last time we were together, we learned that a healthy church is one that’s learning. Today, we’ll go on to see that they are loving. Here’s Pastor Ed Taylor with part two of A Church That’s W-E-L-L, Well.
Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles and open them to the book of Acts, chapter two. We're going to pick up where we left off last time. We're in the same section, verses 40 through 47, in part two of a series we're calling A Church That Is Well. Remember, we’re using the word Well, W-E-L-L, to identify four characteristics of a healthy church. We learned last time that the W stands for worshipping, the E stands for evangelizing, the first L is learning, and the second L is loving. We’re taking those letters in the biblical order, so we’re not going to be able to really spell the word until the end as we allow the Scriptures to guide us rather than the word. But notice with me in verse 40 of chapter two. It says, "With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3,000 souls were added. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." "Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." So, we’re learning from the early church what made them strong, what made them healthy. Why? Because we want to be a strong, healthy church ourselves. How was it that this group of ordinary people with nothing but the Word of God surrendered to the Spirit of God were able to turn their world upside down? We have to pause there and ask the question, and I'm asking it not as a finger-pointing at the church because we are the church, but we have to ask the question: What has happened to the church today? Why isn't the gathering of the saints, why isn't the church of Jesus Christ making the kind of impact that they did in the first century? We have to evaluate ourselves when we ask that question. What is wrong with us? What has happened to us? Where is it that we need to repent and get back to basics and surrender our lives to be used by God in these last days? I mean, you don't want to end your life and look back and go, "You know, I was a pretty religious person, but my life really didn't make any kind of impact for the kingdom of God." One of the reasons we're coming back to the book of Acts is so that we can reevaluate. The church doesn't need to be reinvented, it doesn't need to be restructured, we just need to reevaluate what our role is and how it is God is using us or not using us. What is it about our lives where we simply don't care about the lost or we don't care about the hurting or we don't care about the poor? What is it exactly? As we ask those questions openly and honestly before God, He will answer them for us individually, which is what we desire, but also for us as a church as a local gathering, a part of the greater church capital C. This church, this group of believers, by the time we get to verse 42, there are 3,120 believers in the church. The church went from 120 to over 3,120 with one message, with one move of the Spirit, with one faithful man preaching the Gospel from his mind, being faithful in the moment. Then we begin to watch through the unfolding of the book of Acts the faithfulness of God through His people. One of the things I hope to stir up in us as a church is that you have a desire to be used, that wherever that's lacking, you're just open and ready to obey God at any moment. Like when you were a new believer, when you had that new believer's zeal where you would go anywhere and do anything before you became really Bible smart, before you had habits with Christian language, before you were a regular attender in any church. You had a real personal vibrant relationship with Jesus. You were born again and excited that your sins were forgiven, excited that God's doing a new thing. Many of us, we were super excited by the verse that said we are new creations in Christ. All things have passed away, behold, all things become new. To keep that spiritual fervor alive all the way until the coming of the Lord, that's one of the marks of the early church. Not without problems. As we look back, we don't want to broad-brush the early church like they were super perfect and they had it all together. Not at all. In just a few chapters, you're going to see conflict already in the early church. You're going to see people that are upset, people that are feeling neglected. You're going to look at conflict all the way through to the end in Revelation. Just 60 or 70 years after the book of Acts, you have Jesus there writing those postcards in the book of Revelation. What is He doing? Correcting most of the churches in the various areas. It's like, "Man, what happened to you guys? This is what's required of you. Get your eyes back on Me. I'm standing in the midst. I don't want to remove the lampstand." You could read those for yourself. So, we're learning four ingredients here basically in Acts 2:42, but also in the broader section. You want to be an Acts 2:42 type of church and you want to be an Acts 2:42 believer. You want to have the new habit. It says in verse 42, continuing steadfastly. We learned last time one point. We looked at the first L, that the early church was a learning church. I'm so grateful for Pastor Greg Laurie. He's the one that I got this word from. He's the one that sparked this idea of using this acronym in order to teach through these attributes. Last week, we learned that we are a learning church. We are people of God's Word. That is the emphasis in our church, in our teaching, in our pulpit ministry, everything through the church. We want to teach you the Word. It'll transform your life. We get to the second point today, the second L, and that is what makes a healthy church? Number one, learning. Number two, loving. A church that impacts the world is a loving church, and we learn that right there after the second point: They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship. Fellowship. Fellowship connotes, it leads to an understanding of love among the brothers, love among the sisters. Circle that word fellowship. It's a familiar Greek word that I'm sure many of you have already heard. It's the Greek word koinonia. You can spell it K-O-I-N-O-N-I-A. That's the Greek word here. It's used many, many times throughout the New Testament to describe the relationship that believers have with each other in Christ. The word literally means to share in common. When it's used in the Bible, it speaks of sharing in common in Christ. That's the key here. It speaks of a partnership. It also speaks of communion and even has an idea of generosity, a care and concern for one another. Today, you have new phrases. In each generation, they have new phrases trying to describe old biblical truths. One of the phrases that you might hear as it relates to fellowship is the idea of sharing life together. That's a popular phrase today, doing life together in the church. That's koinonia. That's fellowship. To share life together in Christ. Here's the thing. I think we've mistaken fellowship over the years for just simply hanging out with each other. You know, Pastor, we're Christians and we're not partying anymore, we're hanging out together. Well, that's good, hanging out together, but hanging out together isn't necessarily fellowship. It can be the beginning of fellowship, but just because you're hanging out doesn't mean you're in fellowship in Christ. I mean, people come together all the time. They come together for all kinds of reasons. Christians come together for common causes and talk about them. They come together with common hobbies and talk about them. They come together, have common likes. Christians will even come together for coffee together and share together in coffee. If you're watching a Hallmark movie and coffee's involved, you know in 90 minutes somebody's getting married. It's true. Just because you're having coffee together doesn't mean you're in fellowship. Fellowship always requires Jesus in the midst of it. You can talk about football as Christians; that's not fellowship. You can talk about your hobbies as Christians; that's not fellowship. You can share a cup of coffee together as Christians, you can talk about work, whatever you want, but unless the topic and unless the time centers on and surrounds Jesus Christ, you're not engaged in Christian fellowship. You're just two Christians hanging out. Again, it's good to hang out with Christians, but it's better to take that hangout and come together and talk about the things of God. To check in on each other. The minute that we start talking about Jesus, that's koinonia. The minute we start ministering to one another, serving one another, praying for one another, that's koinonia. That's the richness that only the church can enjoy. The world can talk about coffee, the world can talk about hobbies, the world can talk about all the things that those outside of Christ can have all kinds of gatherings just like you and me. But only the church can enjoy a richness of koinonia in the deepest sense, not only a personal time like this temporal life, but also for all of eternity. In a conversation when you're hanging out with other Christians, one of the ways to get the topic on Jesus because it's awkward whenever we start introducing these types of truths from the Bible, there's always that response, "Yeah, but Ed, it's hard," and "Oh, but Ed, it's awkward." But again, as I've been showing you and sharing with you, things are only awkward until they're not. So just do them, and as you continue to do them, they won't be so awkward anymore. So let's say you're together and you're prompted like, "I really want really deep fellowship. I don't want to be talking about stuff. I want to talk about the things of the Lord." You can enter into the conversation with a question like, "What's the Lord doing in your life?" and "What have you been reading in the Bible lately?" "How was your devos this morning?" "How can I...?" You know how we use this as an entry into other people's lives: "How can I pray for you?" You can do that with Christians, too. You can look them in the eye and go, "Hey, how can I be praying for you?" "How's that situation?" and then taking good little notes whether it's on your phone or somebody tells you something, and then set a reminder to follow up with them. "Hey, we were talking about a month ago, and how's that going? How's your mom doing? Did your uncle get out of the hospital?" and on and on the list goes as you then are taking the conversation and talking about the things of the Lord. Let me show you something. Turn back to Malachi, chapter three. This principle is even an Old Testament principle of sharing in common in God. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. So if you find Matthew, Malachi's going to be right before Matthew. Go to chapter three. This is such a great verse. Maybe some of you already know it, but I want to introduce it to you. In Malachi chapter three, notice with me in verse 16. It says, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name." What a great Old Testament example of fellowship and the ingredients of fellowship. You got a couple people talking, the Lord is listening and hearing everything you say, and then He's even jotting it down in a book of remembrance of the time that you shared together in Him and with Him. He's listening and hearing. Back into the book of Acts, the powerful thing of the early church is they truly had a sense of being together in Christ. That was their motive, the reason why they were together. It was wherever they were doing it, whether it was house to house, which can speak of having people over to your house, but also the house churches in the early church that they would gather together in each other's houses because they didn't have a large building. They'd hang out at the temple, but they'd also go house to house as we see later on in verse 46 they were breaking bread house to house. Fellowship, getting together, connecting with one another. In the early church there was a richness in this koinonia, a desire and a deep spiritual connection. You know, today the word fellowship has become a verb where we're just like, "Well, let's go fellowshipping with one another." And it usually means having coffee, donuts, hanging out together. And it's true, fellowship is never done alone. We fellowship with each other. So coming together is the beginning, but somebody in that relationship needs to take the conversation toward the Lord. Someone needs to be the spiritual person. Someone needs to take whatever idle chatter and whatever... like even idle chatter, even the simple things of life, you want to learn to take it unto the Lord. You want to learn how to take it to the Lord. Let's say you went to one of the local football games here and they experienced yet another loss. And so you're talking about it and you go, "Oh yeah, they lost," and you go, "Hey brother, can I comfort you with the Lord? Can I comfort you with the Word?" "Did you spend your whole day in the freezing cold?" And you just begin to talk about... you can start anywhere. That's a connection with unbelievers, but it's a connection with believers, too. It's to take whatever's on the topic, whatever's on the mind, and lead it to the presence of the Lord, bringing Jesus into every conversation. Only Christians can do that. And you know, only believers don't. They just choose not to and miss out on a very vital part of what makes you stronger in a world that's hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's never done alone. It's impossible to fellowship by ourselves. In order to grow as a Christian, it's essential we gather together and share in common the things of our great faith, both in a larger gathering like this and also in smaller gatherings. And I would even say in every gathering. Let me show you a great verse. Would you turn over now to the right, Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six, notice with me in verse one. I'm going to read it to you in the New King James, and then I'm going to read it to you from a version many years ago called The Living Bible. A brother paraphrased the Bible for his grandkids. He did a really good job on this verse. Notice with me in Galatians 6 verse 1. It says, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." What is the law of Christ? Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Fellowship requires you to be in someone's life. In this one in verse one, in a very difficult situation, it really requires you to be right up in their life to help restore them back into fellowship, back into a right standing with the Lord, and you're going to do it gently and you're going to consider yourself. But then you learn you're also bearing one another's burdens. Here's The Living Bible's translation. He says, "Share each other's troubles and problems, and so obey the Lord's command." I like that. Share each other's troubles and problems. That's an important part of Christian life. We are put in each other's life to share. We can share the highs, but we also share the lows. And isn't Christian fellowship such a sweet part of our lives when someone comes and helps us bear a heavy load? At least when two people are bearing a heavy load, it's half the weight. If you’re taking notes, there’s a couple things about fellowship you need to know. Number one: Fellowship is protective. When you are in fellowship, when you are in koinonia with other believers in the church, even tonight, right now in the moment, you're in koinonia with a larger group through the teaching of God's Word. When you're in koinonia, it protects you from sin. So much less sin happens during Bible study than after Bible study. You're just in a position where you're listening and you're ready and you're not out doing something. Temptation abounds in this room and the demonic warfare abounds in this room. There's all kinds of things happening, but so much less sin takes place during Bible study. Your mind is focused on the things of God. That's why when you are listening and tuning into Christian radio, having the Word of God taught to you constantly, so much less sin takes place. Your mind is fixed on the Lord. But how much more when you're in fellowship with other believers? It protects you. Fellowship will protect you from burnout. It'll protect you from backsliding. It'll keep you accountable. Now, I understand that accountability is truly between you and God. But when you have somebody in your face asking you hard questions, that's a good thing to have. You need somebody in your life that'll text you and go, "Hey, I know you've been struggling with this, how's it been going? I know this is a part of your past, how's it been going?" Whether it's a text, an email, in your face. And I know I can ask you the question, you can lie to me. You can say, "Oh, everything's fine, I haven't had a problem." You can lie to me, but that's between you and the Lord. But I tell you what, even in that lie, you're exposing yourself to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will deal with you. The accountability is really with Someone else, not with another person, but with Someone else, the God of all the Earth. He'll hold you accountable. He knows. But it's good to have somebody in your life checking in on you. "Are you okay? Are you still hurting? Can I pray for you? Was yesterday hard?" Like, it's protective. Who's asking you the tough questions and who are you asking the tough questions to? Because in relationship, we need to speak the truth in love. And it keeps us protected. It keeps us going forward. It keeps us strong in the things of God. Not only is fellowship protective, but secondly, koinonia is possible. And let's just consider this in the light of the early church. They are 3,120 people at this moment. The church just exploded with people and you think, "Well, I can't have fellowship with all those people." You're right. It's impossible to have fellowship with everyone. That's impossible. So if you set that as the goal: "I want to have fellowship with everybody in the local church I'm going to," it's impossible. Whether you're a church of 200 or a church of 3,000, it'll never be possible to have true koinonia with everyone. However, we will have fellowship with someone. Not everyone, but someone. Or a few someones. But that's really hard to do if your church experience is just religious to you and habitual for the sake of habit. "Well, because I got the kids, we gotta be in church," or "This is how I was raised, so I'm going to continue to live how I was raised," or "It makes me feel good the rest of the week if I show up to an event or I come to a worship service." If you're not even looking for fellowship, you're not going to find it because you always find what you're looking for. You can't have fellowship with everyone, but you will and must have fellowship with someone. And in Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24, it says a man who has friends must himself be friendly, and there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Friendship is always preceded, according to the Bible, by friendliness. That's how it works where there is a friendliness about you and in that friendliness, God then draws people. But then you also every time we gather, you have an opportunity to greet people, and some of you just kind of just like, "Hey, as soon as this is over, it's so awkward, I don’t want to meet anybody." But truly, it’s an opportunity for you to be spiritually in tune to the people around you. In a larger church, one of the ways that you can, if you notice the whole room is set up in sections. The whole room is a very large room filled with over 1,400 chairs in this room, but there are little sections throughout the whole room. If you chose to sit in the same section for the same service for any length of time, you will see other people that choose to sit in the same section at the same service over a length of time. It will do you well to get to know those people. To pray for them, to learn their names, to jot that down, maybe even exchange phone numbers. Wow, you carry a phone with you everywhere you go.
Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we listened in to part of a mini-series from Pastor Ed Taylor called A Church That's Well, part of a larger study in Acts. Hear it again at AboundingGraceRadio.com, OnePlace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here in the month of July, we've picked out an excellent book from David Wilkerson, The Jesus Person Promise Book. It contains over 800 promises from the Word of God, helping you discover hope, grace, and healing for almost every spiritual and personal problem encountered today. It would make a meaningful gift for that special someone or a purse companion for you. And we'll send it to you when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more today. Reach us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or go online to CalvaryCO.store. And thank you for your support. It helps us get the word out on stations like this one all across the nation. Large or small, God is using your gifts in great ways. I wish I could share all the emails and phone calls that come in as evidence of that. To make a donation, just visit AboundingGraceRadio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. AboundingGraceRadio.com or 877-30-GRACE.
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