It is vital that we are sensitive to what God is doing, so that He can work through us to expand the church and reach the lost. In the times of the Early Church the apostles went only where the Holy Spirit led them; they were sensitive to God’s will. We each have a role to play in the church and that is to be right in the centre of what God wants us to do, standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, by faith which worketh in love. If we do this, God’s name will be lifted up.
I just want to set the scene of what went on in the Early Church. There was a situation where God expanded the church. There was no way that any one of the apostles wanted to stand in the way of what God wanted to do in the church; that was paramount. In the same way as Paul later, when he wrote to the church in Galatia, the point of that letter was for people to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. We should not fall into legalism, we live in the liberty that God has given us.
In Acts it talks about the emergence of the church from just being for Jewish people, to going on to the Gentiles. The disciples and the apostles had to sort things out as things emerge.
Acts 15:1-2
Acts 15:6-11
Peter knew that God had opened up the way to the Gentiles, and he knew that if there was this intrusion of legalism, whereby there should be a ‘yoke’ put on the neck of the disciples, it would totally stop what God wanted to do in the church at that time.
Acts 15:12-20
So the dispute was resolved. They decided that a Gentile did not have to be circumcised, but that they had to: “abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”
I want to convey how important it was that all of the disciples, at this time of the foundation of the church, were sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to what God wanted to do. Woe betide us, if in the development of what God wants to do here, we thwart His purposes in any way so that He cannot carry out His will.
Acts 16:1-3
A decision was made that you shouldn’t circumcise Gentile people. Now, because Paul knew that if Timothy was going to travel with him in two areas that there were going to be Jews and Gentiles, he knew that Timothy had to be circumcised. He was sensitive to what God wanted, because he knew that if Timothy had not been circumcised, it would have caused problems amongst the Jews.
Acts 16:4-7
Wherever the Holy Spirit wanted them to go, they went. There was a constant sensitivity to what God wanted to do. In our church here, the church of God, what we need to be is totally sensitive to what He wants to do. I don’t want us to be in a situation where we don’t do something that He wants us to do or where we end up disputing over something that actually is of no consequence when it comes to the bottom line of God’s will. We abide by the principles in this book.
Acts 16:9-15
That Acts of the Apostles are really the acts of the Holy Spirit, of God expanding the church. I know that what God is going to be doing here, in the way that He wants to do it, will be to His glory, to benefit His name in the expansion of His church. I want to remind you what it means for God to be in control of His church.
Ephesians 4:1-7
That means that everyone in this room tonight has a vital part to play in the church of God. What is that part?
Ephesians 4:8
Ephesians 4:11-12
So any role I undertake in the church is for the edification of the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13-16
A church isn’t a group of factions. A church is a place where there are men and women saved by Christ to fulfil His purposes. We need, as a church, to realise that each one of us, joined together, according to what God wants to do, means that there will be an increase of the body unto the edification of the body in love. My aim is to lift up the name of Christ. As we glorify His name, and share our faith with others, God will seek and reach those who are in desperate need. Part of our work is to share our faith with others so that God can speak through us.
Acts 14:21-23
Titus 1:5
Galatians 5:1-6
‘Faith which worketh by love’; that is what we want in the church. We are involved with the One who gave Himself for His church. He is the answer to any individual who is in desperate need. Our mission is to be right in the centre of what God wants us to do, standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, by faith which worketh in love. We are conscious of the need to work at it, to work at faith which worketh by love. I am confident that God knows what He’s doing. He knows the end from the beginning and He knows that if we are open to what He wants to do, it will result in His name being glorified.
Friday, 15 May 2009
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