The Church Was Built Up

Transcription

1 Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Studies in Acts Lesson 15 Scripture: Acts 9:31b; 1 st Cor. 14:26; Ephesians 2:19-22 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: January 13 th 2019 The Church Was Built Up Acts 9:31 (ESV) 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. Acts 9:31 NA28 H μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία καθʼ ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ Γαλιλαίας καὶ Σαμαρείας εἶχεν εἰρήνην οἰκοδομουμένη καὶ πορευομένη τῷ φόβῳ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῇ παρακλήσει τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπληθύνετο. Acts 9:31 (NASB) So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. Acts 9:31 (The Message) Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for a while. All over the country Judea, Samaria, Galilee the church grew. They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. The Holy Spirit was with them, strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully. 1 st Corinthians 14:26 (ESV) What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. Ephesians 2:19 22 (ESV) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Introduction I have become pretty transfixed by this verse in Acts 9 (verse 31) and am making it into a five-part mini-series within the series Studies in Acts. Last week we thought about the church at peace. Today, the church being built up. What do you need to be built up? Our job as a church is to build up your Christian faith. (Along the way, if we can help you get established in other ways

2 we are certainly willing to do what we can.) But our main job is to build you up spiritually. That starts with 1. the Bible, 2. prayer, 3. offering you friendship and 4. showing you how to make an impact for Christ in this world. You need to be built up as an individual Christian and as part of a family of individual Christians. That s our job. So, what do you need? Do you need basic instruction? Do you need accountability? Do you need someone to just listen to your story, attentively, without lecturing you or scolding you right off just hearing you? Do you need a place to use your spiritual gift? Do you need to feel forgiven and accepted in Christ? Do you need a safe place to heal? Do you need wisdom and mentoring from someone you trust? Do you need safety from danger? With the pressure off for a little while, the church in Judea, Galilee and Samaria was able to focus on itself. They could catch their breath, do a little organizing, give some attention to the great number of new Jesus-followers they found in their midst, and work on building themselves up a bit. It is important to note that although there is pressure from persecution all around, the church itself is at peace. The result is edification or strengthening (οἰκοδομουμένη, oikodomoumenē, BEING BUILT UP, a present passive participle). This participle almost has the force of a result, so that peace leads to strength ( experienced peace and thus was strengthened in NET; note our translation). This strength is rooted in the support of the Spirit and an attitude that fears the Lord. They fear the Lord, which increases their ability to cope with the circumstances. 1 This church and every Christian church needs to have two priorities: reaching new people with the Gospel and building up the body, once those new Christians come into the body. Any ministry we have which isn t directly aimed at one of those two priorities is secondary, maybe even expendable. If we have a model train club that may be fun, but if it doesn t obviously contribute to reaching new people for Christ or building up the body, it is a waste of time. If we 1 Bock, Darrell L.. Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations ) Baker Publishing Group. 2

3 have a dinner-theatre, the same. If we have a political action committee, the same. The Judean-Galilean-Samarian Bible church movement was BEING built up. They were getting their people, as the Lord added to their number day by day, to understand who Jesus was, what His kingdom was about, how to worship now, apart from the Temple in Jerusalem, and how the whole Old Testament (they weren t calling it that yet) was really about Jesus and His kingdom, which was now right in their times unfolding in a brand new dispensation of grace. The days would come soon enough when the Christians would start arguing about other issues but right then, they found themselves with a few months to build themselves. How would US building ourselves up, like the Judean-Galilean-Samarian Bible church was doing, look? We are not THEN of course. We are not looking to just duplicate whatever they did. But the general work of being strengthened, more able to function well, IS what we want to do. That is what the word build up means in Greek. It is the word οἰκοδομέω oikodoméo means. The church was strengthening itself. How can we accomodate a strengthening of ourselves? 1. WE CAN WORK HARD AT RECRUITING AND TRAINING A GOOD LEADERSHIP TEAM. The church in Acts 9 was given a short time to relax, gather themselves and, I believe, put some good organization in place. We can strengthen ourselves by building up good leadership. We HAVE good leaders in place and need more Roland has led the diaconate well and David has led both Awana and our trustees well. Our elders are Steuart who has now served as an elder for 21 years and helps wherever asked. Donald is a good elder and has a burden for bringing the Bible to where we live. He also has a big heart for believing the best about people. Bill has been a leader for a long time and in several churches. He is a charter member of our church and very valuable to us. Mike will be ordained into the eldership next week, and brought perhaps the most careful consideration just to the invitation that I have seen; he has served well thoughout his 2 ½ years of training, has shown great energy and faithfulness, has developed a real affection for the body here at DBC and insists on fairness and patience with the experience of a senior military officer (which of coure, he was). I cannot recommend his recognition to the eldership more highly it has been a privilege to work with him. I WOULD RECOMMEND that we look for ways to support each leader, not look for ways to criticize them or make them feel like they re always under evaluation. We have too much work to do with many people in the months to come. We need good leaders and a healthy church values and treasures good leadership. 3

4 2. WE CAN MAKE PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER A THING WE RE PAYING ATTENTION TO. And I envision prayer that builds each other up as something a little more than only praying for healing and jobs. A church that is being built up prays for the spiritual walk of each member. It prays for each member to know and use his or her spiritual gift. It prays that each member would be strengthened against temptation and against having an unsound mind. 3. WE CAN LEARN TO HEAR TO EACH OTHER, almost come down with a little more muteness back to each other. A church which is built up HEARS the genuine needs of its people. Its leaders hear those needs and its followers hear those needs. 4. WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER TO THINK CLEARLY, BIBLICALLY ABOUT DECISION-MAKING. When we make a decision, we should have confidence that the leaders of a team have first asked, is this biblical? Secondly, does this decision edify my brother or sister? 5. WE CAN LEARN HOW TO TEACH EACH OTHER THE BIBLE. This is why Sunday School and Bible studies exist to learn the Bible and to learn to interpret it well. We should find ways to help each other get good training in the Bible, especially since such excellent resources exist today! 6. WE CAN ENCOURAGE AND CONVINCE EACH OTHER THAT WE WILL BE FAITHFUL TO EACH OTHER. This is how our God is and we need to reflect His faithfulness to each other not just in saying it but in doing it. It is why we read our Church Covenant at the beginning of each Annual Meeting. We are, in essence, commiting to each other all over again. 7. WE CAN GIVE SACRIFICIALLY TO EACH OTHER SO THAT NO ONE WHO IS A MEMBER OF DBC LACKS BASIC NEEDS. We are pretty good at this actually, but this is a sign of a BEING-BUILT-UP church! It looks to its own needs too. No one in DBC should ever lack food, clothing, shelter, transportation or companionship. Those are not luxuries, they are basic needs. A church that is being built up maintains a regular, 52 week/year effort (at least) to meet its own needs. Sometimes a few needs fall through the cracks, and we are sorry for that. And also, sometimes we reach out to our sister churches too, to help them meet their needs if we become aware of them. Once again, Luke is not mindfully laying out a plan for the church for all the centuries to follow. He is just describing what happened, and how it was at that moment. But we can look at these five descriptors at peace, being built up, walking in the fear of the Lord, walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and being multiplied and take the signal that these are excellent things to duplicate in our church, two thousand years later. 4

5 People need the Lord, People need the Lord at the end of broken dreams, He s the open door. People need the Lord, People need the Lord when will we realize? People need the Lord OIKODOMEO - to help improve ability to function in living responsibly and effectively, strengthen, build up, make more able. 2 Esp. in Paul: ἡ ἀγάπη οἰκοδομεῖ love builds up (in contrast to γνῶσις, which puffs up ) 1 Cor 8:1 (=Dg 12:5). πάντα ἔξεστιν, ἀλλʼ οὐ πάντα οἰκοδομεῖ everything is permitted, but not everything is beneficial 10:23. ὁ λαλῶν γλώσσῃ ἑαυτὸν οἰκοδομεῖ ὁ δὲ προφητεύων ἐκκλησίαν οἰκοδομεῖ 14:4; cp. vs. 17. οἰκοδομεῖτε εἷς τὸν ἕνα strengthen one another 1 Th 5:11. In 1 Cor 8:10 the apostle is prob. speaking ironically, w. ref. to the strong party at Corinth, who declare that by their example they are benefiting the weak : οὐχὶ ἡ συνείδησις αὐτοῦ οἰκοδομηθήσεται εἰς τὸ τὰ εἰδωλόθυτα ἐσθίειν; will not his conscience be strengthened so that he will eat meat offered to idols? (difft. MargaretThrall, TU 102, 68, ). Of Paul s letters, by which δυνηθήσεσθε οἰκοδομεῖσθαι εἰς τὴν δοθεῖσαν ὑμῖν πίστιν you will be able to build yourselves up in the faith that has been given you 3 3 William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000),