A few weeks ago 28 of us spent two days in Richmond attending a Building A Contagious Church conference. This conference was sponsored by the Willow Creek Association-and I must say-as someone who considers himself an “expert” on church conferences-it was excellent. I refer to myself as an expert because I’ve attended tons of church conferences and seminars over the years but this was the best one I have gone to in a long time.
Now-like most experienced conference goers-when I arrive the first thing I do is look over the schedule to decide which sessions are worth attending-based on who’s speaking and what the subject is-then I spend the other sessions in the conference book store, or reading the books I buy in the conference book store. But not this conference-no, every single session built on the previous session. Each was filled with meaningful content. All the speakers were inspiring. I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it. Plus-they put the book store in the lobby so you could to go to it before or after every session!
Now-I can’t speak for the other attenders but for me, part of the APPEAL of this conference was the subject matter-namely: church-based evangelism. Each session was structured to help answer this question: “What should a church do if it wants to spread the gospel-and spread it as rapidly as an unstoppable infection?” -hence the conference title “Building a CONTAGIOUS Church.” Basically the conference was set up to help us understand what we must to do as a church to ATTRACT the lost to faith in Jesus.
Anyway, after attending this conference we were all so excited that we have decided to make this the subject of our fall discipleship campaign. Last year we studied Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Life and this year our entire church is going to study Bill Hybels’ book, How to Become a Contagious Christian. In fact, Bill Wehunt, has already come up with a title for this campaign: “40 Days of Contagion!” Now, I share all this with you today because as I studied this week-I discovered that this next portion of the book of Acts has a lot to say about the subject of contagious Christianity.
In case you’ve forgotten, we’re using our sermon time this year to study the book of Acts. We put this series aside a couple months ago so that we could focus on the issues raised by Gibson’s movie, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, and now we’re back picking up where we left off-in the latter part of the 5th chapter. And as you’ll see, at this point the first church-the church in Jerusalem-is having another one of its growth spurts. In fact, the Christian faith is spreading very quickly. You could say the Christian faith is “contagious” at this point because more and more people are “catching” it. And, if we look closely at our text for this morning I think we’ll see some of the reasons why. We’ll see principles that will help any church to be a “contagious” church-a place where the lost are DRAWN to faith in Jesus.
Now, as I said, it’s been a while since we put a temporary halt to our study of Acts so, let’s take a few minutes to review what has happened up until this point.
I would remind you that Acts is a history book-a history of the early church-and it begins with Jesus’ ascension to heaven. Before our Lord left, He told the disciples to go to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. They went-and on the first Pentecost Sunday the Holy Spirit came. On that amazing day Peter preached and three thousand people put their faith in Jesus. From that moment on the church began to grow rapidly. As it says in chapter 2, “The Lord added to their number DAILY those who were being saved.” A few weeks after Pentecost Acts tells us that Peter and John were going into the temple and they saw a beggar-a man who was over 40 years old and had been crippled from birth. We’re talking OBVIOUS physical deformity. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter healed the man and everyone in the temple was amazed at what had been done in Jesus’ name! This event upset the Jewish religious leaders-the same leaders who had arrested Jesus and turned Him over to the Romans to be crucified-so they had Peter and John arrested. They let them off with a warning-I guess they thought this was their first offense, so they command them to stop preaching the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. But these two former fishermen told the Jewish religious leaders that this was something they could not do. Peter said, “Sorry guys, but we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (20)
And, in spite of this-their FIRST taste of persecution-the church continued to grow numerically-and the caliber of their fellowship GREW as well. They would do anything for each other. In fact, this portion of the book of Acts tells us that members would actually sell their possessions and even homes or land and bring the money to the Apostles to distribute to the needy in the church. Luke cites an example of this generosity, telling us of a man from Cyprus named Barnabas who brought the proceeds from the sale of his land to Peter and the others-an act of generosity that made him very popular throughout the church. Well, you’ll remember that, in order to gain some of this popularity for themselves, two Christians-a husband and wife-named Ananias and Saphira sold some property and CLAIMED to give all the proceeds to Peter to be distributed to anyone who had need. But-they lied-they kept much of the profit for themselves. For this sin against God, they were both stricken dead-and as a result, great fear spread throughout the entire church.
This is where we pick up in chapter 5 verse 12. Take your Bibles and turn with me now to Acts 5:12-42. Keep them open as we study this text, but right now direct your eyes to the screens as we watch The Visual Bible. I would remind you again that Dean Jones plays the part of Dr. Luke and serves as our narrator.
12 – The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.
13 – No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.
14 – Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
15 – As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
16 – Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
17 – Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
18 – They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
19 – But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
20 – “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
21 – At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin-the full assembly of the elders of Israel-and sent to the jail for the apostles.
22 – But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,
23 – “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
24 – On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.
25 – Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”
26 – At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
27 – Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.
28 – “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this Name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this Man’s blood.”
29 – Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!
30 – The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead-Whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
31 – God exalted Him to His own right hand as Prince and Savior that He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
32 – We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him.” When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
34 – But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
35 – Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
36 – Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
37 – After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
38 – Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
39 – But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
40 – His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 – The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
42 – Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
Sermon:
Now, I want you to note that the growth of the church at this point was such that people had started to come from towns OUTSIDE Jerusalem and this is particularly exciting because this is the first time the church’s influence had spread that far. The disciples were beginning to actually fulfill the Lord’s charge to be His witnesses not only in Jerusalem but in “…Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) But the news was not all good because at this point the disciples once again became the target of persecution-and I guess you could say it was inevitable because, after all they HAD been warned. But the apostles ignored the Sanhedrin’s command so, they were arrested and thrown into jail once again…and this time it wasn’t just Peter and John-all twelve apostles were imprisoned.
Well, verses 19 & 20 during the night an angel of the Lord came, freed them, and told them to get back out there and “tell the people the full message of this new life” that Jesus offers. And note-that’s exactly what they did. They went right back to doing the very thing they had been arrested for. They obeyed God rather than man. And I think I must point out here that if you do that-If you put God’s will first in life, you are going to make waves. You will face persecution or hardship in some form because you see, we live in a fallen world so when you strive to serve our Holy God-His adversary and ours is going to take offense.
Well, as we saw a moment ago, the next morning when the Sanhedrin convened, they sent their troops down to the jail to fetch the disciples and found the cells empty-locked and guarded-but empty. At this moment someone came in and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people!” Now, this has got to be one of the greatest examples of a double-take in all history. Can you imagine it? “They’re where? How…but we just locked…guards…who…WHAT?”
By the way the main instigators of their arrest were again the Sadduceesand I think the fact that God used an ANGEL to free the apostles from jail instead of an earthquake or something shows us His sense of holy humor because you see, Sadducees didn’t believe in the existence of angels! In fact, when they hauled the disciples back in the second time, the high priest (a Sadducee himself) didn’t even ask the apostles how they had been delivered from prison the night before. I suspect this is because he didn’t want to hear their answer. Something supernatural had obviously happened but it did not fit with his theology so he steered clear of the issue totally.
Now, what exactly was it about the apostles that upset the Sanhedrin? What motivated them to arrest these guys? Well, the text says they were angry about three things.
A. First, the apostles had DENIED their doctrine.
Remember? The twelve preached and taught about Jesus’ resurrection. They performed miracles, and as I said, were rescued by angels. This upset the Sadducees because they denied the existence of anything supernatural-which means the Apostles were a direct attack on their supposed knowledge of Scripture.
It would be kind of like someone coming into a high school or college classroom where pure evolutionary theory was taught as fact-and spreading the word that God created the world or like setting up a microphone on the mall this past weekend at the march for women’s rights and then starting to loudly broadcast your views on the sanctity of human life. If you taught these things in these hostile environments you can be sure you’d upset some people and that’s what happened here!
B. But another reason the Sanhedrin were angry was because the apostles DEFIED their authority.
As I said, they had been given explicit orders back in chapter four to stop preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus but the twelve ignored their command and kept right on doing so. The impudence of the apostles really ticked off the Jewish religious leaders. They thought, “How dare this uneducated rabble refuse to obey our commands! Who do they think they are!?”
To get an idea of how they felt-parents, how do you feel when you tell your kids to stop doing something and they keep right on doing it? It’s always upsetting to have your authority defied.
C. And then third reason the Sanhedrin was ticked was because they believed the apostles were a DANGER to their domination of the people.
The Sanhedrin could feel their control of the masses beginning to slip and they responded the way they did to try and regain what they were losing-and by the way, they were right to worry because, according to many scholars, by this point in the history of the church it had reached 10,000 members. Think of it! The first church had become the first mega-church! The entire population of the city at this time was only forty or fifty thousand, so the church was no longer a tiny insignificant group but a real threat to their sovereignty! We see their line of thinking reflected in their statement in verse 28 where they say,
“You [apostles] have FILLED Jerusalem with your teaching. [This whole thing is getting way out of hand!]”
But-you know, the high priest and his associates in the Sanhedrin weren’t just worried about being able to CONTROL the early Christians. Something more base was beneath their opposition.
They were JEALOUS! They saw how the people loved the apostles. They saw how more and more Jews were praising Jesus and not them. Boice puts it this way, “They were jealous of Jesus because it was His name, rather than theirs that was being proclaimed.” These guys wanted to be revered and respected and popular. That was part of the fun of being a member of the Sanhedrin-but the apostles were edging them out of the spotlight.
Well, in their minds something had to be done.
The apostles were a problem and so the Sanhedrin wanted them OUT of the picture. They wanted this “pain in their necks” REMOVED from the scene. This reminds me of the story of a man who went to his dentist for a root canal. The dentist made him comfortable and injected a numbing agent around the tooth, then left the room for a few minutes to allow the medication to take hold.
When the dentist returned he found the patient standing next to the tray of instruments. The dentist asked, “What are you doing by my surgical instruments?” and without looking up-continuing to focus on his task, the patient replied, “I’m taking out the ones I don’t like.”
That’s what was going on here in Acts 5. The Sanhedrin didn’t like the apostles-so they were trying to take them out-remove them from the picture any way they could. Well, about the time they were ready to form a lynch mob, Gamaliel stood up and spoke-remember? And when he did every one listened because Gamaliel was greatly respected. In fact, if you are a student of the life of Paul, this name may be familiar to you because in Acts 22:3 Paul says Gamaliel was his teacher-a fact that was a real plus on Paul’s resume. And, there’s a good chance that Paul was still sitting under Gamaliel’s teaching at this time in church history, because he wasn’t a believer yet. He was still Saul-the “Jew of Jews.” But in any case, Gamaliel was highly esteemed. In fact, the Jews have a saying: “When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder died, the glory of the Law ceased and purity and abstinence died.”
Now Gamaliel’s timely statement here might seem noble but he was wrong in several ways. To begin with, he automatically classified Jesus with two rebels-Theudas and Judas, which means he had already rejected the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. He’d already judged Jesus as being just one more overly zealous Jew from the back woods, engaging in a futile attempt to set the nation free from Rome. Furthermore, as it says in verse 38, Gamaliel had the mistaken idea that, if something is not of God it must fail. And I say “mistaken” because this way of thinking doesn’t take into consideration the sinful nature of man and the presence of satan in the world. I mean, all you have to do is look at the history books to see that many times down through the ages evil has in fact triumphed. The bad guys win a lot on this side of eternity. As Mark Twain once said, “A lie runs around the world while truth is still putting on her shoes.”
Now-to be sure, in the end God’s truth will be victorious, but meanwhile satan can be very strong and effectively influence multitudes of people. So, in spite of what pragmatists like Gamaliel say, earthly success is not a reliable test of truth. This world is a battlefield on which truth and error are in mortal combat and often it looks as if truth has been defeated while wrong sits arrogantly on the throne. Have you ever felt that way in your own life? Has it ever seemed as if wrong wins? Can you relate to the Psalmist who said, “When I saw the prosperity of the wicked…I nearly lost my foothold?” (Psalm 73:3) Well, the sad fact is-in this fallen world of ours-evil often triumphs. The wicked often prosper. But hang in there-we do win in the end! In any case, Gamaliel wasn’t as wise as people thought.
His biggest error was in thinking the council could be neutral when it came to Jesus. I mean, his “let’s wait and see” attitude is actually not neutrality. It is a definite negative decision. Remember? Jesus made it clear that it is impossible to be neutral about Him and His message. In Matthew 12:30, our Lord said, “He that is not with Me is against Me.” This is something we would do well to remember-because putting off a decision about Jesus-deciding to wait and see-is the same thing as saying, “No.” Do you remember the words to the old hymn?
“Jesus is standing at your heart’s door, standing and knocking, He’s knocked before.
This is the question you face once more: What will you do with Jesus?What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be.
Someday your heart will be asking, ‘What will He do with me?”
Okay, what can we this chapter of church history teach us about contagious churches? I want to point to three things.
And by the way-if applied to your life, these same three principles will make you a contagious Christian! They can help you be the kind of person that attracts people to Jesus.
1. Okay first off, contagious churches & Christians do not condone SIN.
To see what I mean, look back at verse 13 where it refers to the sin of Ananias and Saphira and says, “no one else dared join…even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” So basically, the righteous judgement these two hypocrites received made the church attractive to people who were serious about following God. The church’s stand against sin repelled fakes and people with the wrong motives-“no one else” like Ananias and Saphira wanted to join-BUT people who hungered for genuine faith were drawn to the church.
This is an important principle to understand because many people these days would say-to grow a church you must be more inclusive-more tolerant-that way you’ll attract more people. Many would advise, “Don’t be prudish-don’t be ‘old-fashioned’ in your morality. Otherwise you’ll turn people off. They won’t come.” Well, the fact is people hunger to know that there ARE standards! They want morality to be preached. They want a sure foundation to build their lives on. They know inside that there is a right and a wrong and they want to know how to live right! This inner knowledge is what C. S. Lewis refers to as “the nagging ‘ought.'” We all know that we OUGHT to do what is right, so people are naturally attracted to groups that don’t condone doing what we OUGHT not to do.
Now, don’t misunderstand me here. We should take a stand against sin-but we should open our arms to sinners. Otherwise our building would be empty! We should make it clear that we hate SIN but equally clear that we love SINNERS and the fact is, the best way to love a sinner is to help him or her to leave their sinful actions. This kind of attitude attracts the lost because as any sinner knows, SIN HURTS. It ENSLAVES. Sinners want the power to leave sin that only Jesus gives so they are DRAWN to churches where that power is proclaimed.
This week I read about a company here in the U. S. that has distributed a special action toy called, “Invisible Jim.” This toy is selling like hot cakes in Great Britain for about $2.80 a piece. It’s called “Invisible Jim” because all you get is an empty package. There is no Jim inside. He’s invisible. The company’s ad says, “lack of darting eyes” and “as NOT seen on TV.” Well people who sin are like the kids who open these boxes to find nothing. They learn very quickly that sin is nothing but empty promises. They have learned by painful experience that just as Proverbs 10:28 says, “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to NOTHING.”
So, to be a contagious church-to attract people to Jesus we MUST embrace this principle. John MacArthur puts it this way, “The failure of some churches today to preach holy living, and to discipline those who don’t live that way…convolutes its direction, saps its power, robs it of purity and mars its testimony.” And then I love this quote of Robert Murray McCheyene that I came across. He said, “It is not great talents God blesses as much as great likeness to Jesus. A HOLY minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God.” The fact is genuine faith-faith that lives by the Word of God and takes a stand against sin no matter what culture says-is a contagious faith.
2. A second thing this text teaches is that contagious churches and Christians SHOW and TELL what Jesus is doing in and through them.
I believe one reason the early church grew so quickly is because they did not hide behind closed doors. No, they met right there in the temple in Solomon’s colonnade where everyone-including the Sanhedrin-could see. This colonnade was a long portico or porch that stretched along the eastern side of the courtyard. And here in this public place this church displayed the power of God. They worshiped there and gave testimony of all that God was doing in and through them.
The truth is-like bugs drawn to a light, people are attracted to a place where God is known to be at work. One of the things that stands out to me about the 40 Days were those balloons that lined our property on the first Saturday’s Circus of Purpose. Remember? Traffic was backed up even more than normal that day because people were stopping to look-those balloons told them something was happening at Redland. Well, I say do something like that frequently-let our community know that God is up to something at 6922 Muncaster Mill Road! To grow a contagious church we must constantly look for ways to communicate this fact that our Lord is at work here doing amazing things in and through us! One of the things I covet about the church in New Hampshire where we send mission trip teams is the fact that they don’t have a baptistry. So…they baptize in the river. They reserve a spot at the public swimming “hole” down on the Saco River every summer and the whole church goes down there to baptize new believers. I think that’s great! All of Conway can look at see that God is at work in that church! Every few months I set aside time in my Wednesday Bible study to have people share their testimonies-how they met Jesus and what their relationship with Him means and it has been SO moving so thrilling to hear what God’s power has done in a life. I’m DRAWN to this kind of power display. I could listen to testimonies like this all night because when I hear their testimonies I deduce that if God can work in their lives…if His power can free them from fear and guide them to abundance…and enable them to say no to sin…then it can do the same for me!
The principle I want us to get here is that to be a contagious church we must look for every way possible to say to the world, “Come and hear and see all that Jesus has done and is doing in our lives!” And that leads to the final principle of church-based evangelism that I see in this text:
3. Contagious churches and Christians never forget that their message is the CROSS of JESUS.
They don’t allow themselves to be side-tracked into over-emphasizing other things. They focus on ONE thing-the Cross of Jesus. Do you remember the movie, City Slickers? In that film Billy Crystal plays a confused, dissatisfied thirty-something character with a vague sense that life is passing him by. To “find himself” he goes on a cattle-drive and the head-honcho is Jack Palance-who plays an ancient, leathery, wise-to-the-ways-of-the-world cowboy. He’s accurately described as, “a saddle-bag with eyes.” Well one day he asks Crystal if he would like to know the secret of life. “It’s this,” Palance says, holding up a single finger. “The secret of life is your finger?” asks Crystal. “It’s one thing,” Palance replies, “The secret of life is pursuing one thing.” Well, the secret of church growth is pursuing one thing….focusing on one thing-the wonderful fact that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son and He died on the cross for our sins. If we are to reach the lost, this single message must be always at the forefront of everything we do. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, “For what I received I passed on to you as of FIRST importance: that Christ died for our sins.”
And we see here in Acts that ole Peter never forgot that-by my count he has already preached FOUR sermons and the focus of every one of them has been the cross of Jesus. One of my favorite preachers-and writers-is Craig Barnes, former pastor of National Presbyterian Church. I heard him once tell about a time when a lady came through the line after a morning service and complained, “Pastor all you ever preach about is the cross. The cross, the cross, the cross. That’s all we hear!” He thanked her for paying him the highest compliment he had ever received! And that WAS a compliment because all pastors-all believers-all churches-must be CROSS-centered! There are many reasons this is true: for example, the Old Testament, the end times, prayer, personal holiness, relationships-none of these things can be understood apart from the cross. But the main reason we must be cross-centered is the fact that if we’re not-if we don’t lift high the cross, our evangelistic efforts will be weakened. Remember, Jesus promised, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me.” (John 12:32)
In a little town in Sweden, an unusual crucifix hangs on the pillar opposite the pulpit. The crucifix was a special gift to the church from King Charles XII. He visited the church in 1716. The visit was unexpected and created quite a stir. When the pastor saw the king walking up the path to the church, he threw aside his prepared sermon and instead gave a tribute to the king and his family. A few months later the church received from the king a crucifix with these instructions: “This is to hang on the pillar opposite the pulpit so that whoever stands there will be reminded of his proper subject.” If we are to attract people to Jesus-we must never forget our proper subject-our central message that as Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15: “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”