UNITED WE STAND

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation….  (Ephesians 2:14)

In this chapter, Paul is giving a graphic portrayal of fallen man’s condition apart from Christ, and the transformation occurring from entering a personal relationship with Him.  These verses describe sinners as orphans and outcasts.  All that changes when we meet Jesus.  Sinners become saints—and the result is we become part of the family of God and the estrangement we had from God and His people comes to an end—united with Christ and one another.

The church is a BROTHERHOOD (Eph.2:11-14).  The world loves to think of itself as a great community where all are one.  The reality contradicts such utopian nonsense. Man’s brutality is graphically displayed on the news each day.  The only way true peace comes is when the Prince of Peace brings it!  Our peace with others is predicated on our peace with God available through Christ.  It is through this connection that God becomes our Father.  We may have black skin or white skin; we may be Methodists or Baptists; we may be Jews or Gentiles—we have the same Father and belong to the same family.  Sinful humans like to build walls, but God is in the business of demolishing barriers!

The church is a BODY (Eph.2:15-18).  As a body has many different parts, connected and working together at the direction of the head, so is the church.  God fashioned Adam’s body from the dust and breathed into man His life in the original creation.  In the new creation, He took such unlikely material as we are and molded us together, breathing His life-giving Spirit into us—and the church came to life!

The church us a BUILDING (Eph.2:19-22).  I’ve often heard—and said—that the church is not a building.  That depends—if we mean that the church is not an edifice constructed of bricks and mortar, we are correct, but the church is a spiritual temple constructed by God of redeemed men and women.  The picture is of an architect fitting many different components into a structure—and thus God is the Architect of His church and we are the pieces He puts in place.  The foundation of this temple is Christ the cornerstone and connected with Him, the apostles and prophets, who shared His Gospel in establishing the church.  On that foundation, God is raising the frame.  We are the material He is using.  How exciting that what God is doing in our local church is part of the great eternal temple He is building!

You can be my brother or sister—if God is your Father.  No longer need you be excluded—an outcast without hope—you can be reconciled to God and enter His forever family!  If you have not received Christ—do it NOW!

Those who belong to Him need to employ the unique giftedness He has placed in us for doing the work in this world He wants done.  No more fighting with each other, we are family!  No more laziness, we are the Body of Christ to be His hands to help and feet to go and mouth to speak!  No more complacency in thinking the church is “OK” when He wants the building ever expanding!  Why would we want to build a chicken coop on the massive foundation of Christ’s work which He designed for a heaven-reaching and global-encompassing structure?

HOW THE CHURCH GROWS

 

Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.  (Acts 6:7)

Where there is life, there is hope—we’ve heard that.  Another truth is that where there is life, there is growth.  A healthy child with proper nourishment will grow, and so when churches are healthy, they grow as well.  That is the pattern in the early church.

The church grows by CONFRONTING PROBLEMS.  “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.”  (Acts 6:1)  This church made progress, but wasn’t perfect.  When problems inevitably came, they confronted and corrected them.  Ignoring a minor infection can lead to a life-threatening condition—and this is also true of the Body of Christ.

Growth also requires CONSIDERING PRIORITIES.  “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.’”  (Acts 6:2)  It wasn’t that caring for these widows was beneath the dignity of the preachers—it was just that their mission and gifts were in other areas and they dare not be diverted from their calling.  A way to meet this need was found, but the primacy of prayer and preaching could not be compromised.

The church grows then by CONSTRUCTING PLANS.  “‘Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”’  (Acts 6:3-4)  The larger the church, the greater was the need for organization. Sustaining and expanding the work demanded larger ministries and leadership development.  When a church listens to God and leans on the Holy Spirit, He guides us to strategically install personnel and implement programs for healthy growth.

Underscore this, then, that the church grows by CHOOSING PEOPLE.  “And the saying pleased the whole multitude.  And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.”  (Acts 6:5-6)  Everything rises and falls on leadership.  The “church staff” can never do it all.  A healthy church needs all the members of the Body functioning.

The church continues to grow by COUNTING PROGRESS.  “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”  (Acts 6:7)  We don’t choose between diet (teaching) and exercise (evangelism and ministry) since both are required for health.  What gets measured gets done.  A church must check its vital signs regularly.  Even the hard-hearted priests experienced life-change—and spiritual transformation leads to numerical multiplication.  May God make our church have such an irresistible impact!