Principles of church health

We will not lay additional burdens on new Christians

Last week – Council at Jerusalem

• Paul sent out with letter saying, in effect, “You Gentiles can share our faith in Christ and you don’t have to become Jews to do it”
• in particular you don’t have to be circumcised to be a christian.
• Circumcision is a secondary issue – as are all issues of culture

We will engage with people who have spiritual potential

Off he goes.

1. He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.

2 The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Our first encounter with Timothy and his family.

• Timothy’s mother, Eunice, a faithful Jewess, that’s how Paul speaks of her in II Tim

Timothy from ethnically mixed family –

• likely to have been the subject of misunderstanding for this –
• disapproved of by the Jews – they prized racial purity.

Also spiritually mixed family.

• The absence of any reference to his father’s faith (either here or in 2Tim 1:5) suggests he was neither a convert to Judaism or a believer in Christ.
• Therefore Tim came from Spiritually mixed marriage.

• Mother wanting to serve the Lord,
• Father apathetic – possible hostile.

Timothy – probably a teenager. Paul still describes him as ‘young’ some years later (1Tim 4:12)

We can see some of the tension reflected in her circumstances.

• a faithful Jewess, but her son uncircumcised.
• However she, in spite of opposition from her husband, had remained faithful to the Lord.
• (Paraphrase I Peter 3:1-5 if time)

Paul looking for a travelling companion. The brothers recommend Timothy

• Paul becomes acquainted, realises his potential, and invites Timothy to join him

We will engage with people with spiritual potential

We will do whatever it takes to win lost people for Jesus Christ

Then something surprising!

V3 … “Paul circumcised him because of the Jews in that area”

But wasn’t Paul carrying a letter to the Jewish believers saying ‘circumcision isn’t necessary’

• Isn’t he going to say “you don’t need to insist upon it when a gentile becomes a christian?”
• Now, if Timothy was uncircumcised Paul could be accused of having a hidden agenda
• “Of course you’re going to say that” – they would argue – “you’ve got an uncircumcised half-Jew, Timothy, on your team!”
• “you’re telling us this so that you don’t have to obey the law regarding circumcision yourself!”

But if the whole team had obeyed the law, then the decision not to require it of new converts could not be misinterpreted.

Principle – You don’t have to be a bad Jew in order to be a good Christian. Rather, it meant being a fulfilled Jew!

The whole purpose of OT Judaism was to anticipate the arrival of the messiah – in the form of Jesus Christ!

• Can I ask you as kindly as I can, how far will you go?
• What inconvenience will you suffer in order to win lost people?
• Timothy underwent circumcision – as an adult male – and they had no anaesthetics!!
• Getting up a little earlier on Sunday? Making my weekly routine a little different?

We will minimise the cultural hurdles new believers must jump

To become a Christian did not require a Jew to become a non-Jew (and become separate from their rich cultural heritage)

• it meant becoming a fulfilled Jew!
• a man or woman in Christ!

So what about today?

• becoming a Christian doesn’t mean to say that you must throw off your culture or background.
• yet sadly that’s often what we expect people to do.

For most people in Eastbourne, to come into our church is to take a ‘cultural leap’.

• a church is a strange place,
• common perception: It’s full of the young who are fanatical, or the old who haven’t got anything better to do.
• their concept of a minister is gained from the TV, so that they think of us ministers as insipid, weedy little men, giving answers that no one can understand to questions that nobody is asking!
• or comic characters who only really exist in a place called Dibley!

If you want to know what it’s like to take a cultural leap, go down to a bingo hall. (I’m making a huge assumption that most of us don’t regularly go there!!)

• Imagine going into the foyer and joining the queue – Everyone else knows how much to pay and what to ask for – but you don’t
• When you go in you find a large hall in which everyone seems to know where to sit – but you don’t – and it’s unnerving.
• in there you will find a group of people who all know what they’re talking about, but you don’t
• they all know when to stand up and sit down – but you don’t
• they all listen to a man calling from the front – and he is using words of English, but clearly investing them with alternative meanings!
• but you don’t fully understand the significance of what he’s saying

That’s a bingo hall, and it’s what most people feel like when they come into church for the first few times!

It’s a cultural leap

That’s why it’s of paramount importance that we build ‘go’ structures as well as ‘come’ structures.

• that’s the motive behind ‘Fifth Sunday’
• If we expect people in Eastbourne just to come to church without us inviting them – they won’t!

4 As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.

So … – i.e. As a result – the churches grew.

Growth was the result of courageously obeying God.

• They were not being asked to obey slavishly but weigh the decisions of the Jerusalem elders to see the logic of their case.

We will do what all we can to develop the church

5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Two types of church development – both seen here

strengthened in the faith –

• discovered God in a deeper way
• Is that any wonder!?
• They no longer had to worry about culture
• what liberation!
• I can be myself in God – discover the person God made me to be without the encumbrance of conforming to any codes of dress, music – or even minor surgery!!

Grew in numbers.

• ‘Daily’!
• Numerical growth is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work

Both are evidence of God’s work – one without the other is not true growth.

Note today different types of growth –

• biological >>>
• transfer >>>
• sheep shuffling not on our agenda!
• Profession. >>>

that’s real growth – q gain every time!

We will be strategic in our initiatives

6. Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.

Paul’s missionary journeys show a remarkable mix of strategic planning and sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Their strategy here was to create as many small groups as they could which would network together to create a vibrant and growing community of people

they were aware that they were not only following their own plan, but God’s.

and sensitive in our praying (v7)

7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.

Turn tight into Bithinia – HS says ‘NO’

Turn left into Asia (prominent ports) HS says ‘NO’

Principles here:

Principle 1 – The Lord guides our stops as well as out steps!

And will do that so long as we keep close to him – keep short accounts with him

Principle 2 – If the Lord wants to say something he will see to it that His message gets through

Tantalisingly we are not told how the Lord conveyed this message.

• Maybe an uneasy feeling? – as we walk with the Lord we begin to recognise the HS’s prompting.
• circumstances (unlikely, because that reason is usually stated by Luke)
• prophetic word – Silas was with them and he was a prophet (15:32)
• It may be with good reason that Paul says “do not despise prophecy” because he had been on the receiving end of it himself
• he knew that the Lord could speak in this way.

“But Ian, I want to hear the Lord, I’m hungry for him! What do I have to do?”

Fulfil three criteria:

be open to the Lord – be ready to hear him – don’t block up your spiritual ears

(block ears) ‘I’m really listening Lord!’

we are to be in touch with Him –

short accounts –

confess and radically deal with all the sin in your life you know about

be hungry for him

Tell him when you pray “Lord I deeply desire more of you – from your word, from our worship – I am not going to let you go until you bless me”

• Jesus said “Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled”

I was watching a programme about European G4 racing – it’s motor racing with a particular type of car – very exciting

• The organisers had a brainwave – People all over the world play racing games on their computers, is it possible we will discover the next G4 racing stars, not from the race or g-kart tracks, but from people who are avid gamers.
• So they launched a competition with a first prize of a expenses-paid training programme for the new driver.
• What impressed me was their attitude
• They were hungry to win, hungry for that coveted place on the race training programme
• And the man who won it found himself competing at a world level almost straight away!

My friends if these people are hungry for a place on a grid, which is here today and gone tomorrow, how much more should we be hungry for righteousness – which will change our lives for ever!

• When we are hungry for Him, then He will make sure that his message gets through.

this is what happened with Paul

9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

Paul has now travelled to Troas.

• at last the Lord has communicated where Paul is to go, instead of where he isn’t to go.
• Here we are also told how the Lord communicated –
• through a dream.

Important points:

God got his message through

How did they know this was of God?

• by objective experience – this has happened before. – E.g. Paul’s conversion, Peter’s vision of blanket with food.
• by subjective feel – whereas they had no peace about entering these other areas, God now gave them a sense that this was the right way to go.

But does this prove it’s of God?-

• not yet!
• The proof of the pudding is in the eating – the proof of the vision is in the action – they went!

We will not be afraid to act boldly

10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

If you are right with him spiritually – he will see to it that you will be right with him geographically!

You might say – “dreams are brought on by all sorts of things – how did Paul know this one was of the Lord, not just a whim?”

• We don’t know – except that there must have been a deep inner conviction in Paul that told him “yes, this is of the Lord”
• which usually comes with experience.

You may say “Oh but the Lord doesn’t speak like that today –

• we’ve explained all that way with our knowledge of psychology”
• Lesson: Just because a phenomenon (like a dream) has a psychological explanation doesn’t mean that it is not of the Lord.

We limit God’s ability to speak to us if we claim that He is only able to communicate with us through intellectual channels.

Certainly in this instance Paul knew that the Lord was directing him and he left ‘immediately’ – no hanging about!

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace [in Macedonia], and the next day on to Neapolis.

12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

Mission complete

• They had heard the Lord
• They had obeyed the Lord

No wonder the Lord made the church grow through them!

Prayer

We can see how you guided their stops as well as their steps

Lord we are hungry for more of you.

Lord we want to hear you, be sufficiently in tune with you to hear you – and obey

Amen

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