Sanderson Jones, a former stand-up comedian who leads the Sunday Assembly – also known as the ‘atheist church’ – spent a Sunday attending three churches in London, England, and tweeting about his experience.
Jones said, “I think churches should recognise that they are already doing so much right,” referring to the idea of having greeters welcoming guests at the front door, and the idea of having coffee after church. Jones went on to say, “I went to the American Humanist Association and they had a special lecture on why it’s important to be welcoming. It’s just the most basic things which you’ll take for granted in Churchland, which are in fact really powerful.”[1]
What’s the takeaway for me in all of this? I think it can be summed up in one word: “welcome”. The church needs to be a welcoming place for all people. Being a welcoming church is, I believe, essential to fulfilling the fifth of the five purposes of the church that we are going to look at today from Acts 2:42-47. Hear again these important words from Luke…
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Today we are focusing on the fifth part of the fivefold purpose of the church, and that is outreach. In verse 47 I think we can learn three things about the outreach of the first church in Jerusalem.
First, the Lord himself [that is Jesus] did it. The Lord added to their number.
Certainly, the Lord worked through the prayer and action of his people. Peter preached a Holy Spirit inspired sermon on the day of Pentecost and 3000 people were added to the original 120. In Acts 4 we see Peter and John preaching together and we read that “many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.” (Acts 4:4)
John Stott explains that doubtless the Lord added to their number …
… through the preaching of the apostles, the witness of church members, the impressive love of their common life, and their example as they were praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people (47a). Yet he did it. For he is the head of the church. He alone has the prerogative to admit people into its membership and to bestow salvation from his throne. This is a much needed emphasis, for many people talk about evangelism today with reprehensible self-confidence and even triumphalism, as if they think the evangelization of the world will be the ultimate triumph of human technology. We should harness to the evangelistic task all the technology God has given us, but only in humble dependence on him as the principal evangelist.
So that is the first thing we learn about outreach in this passage. God is the one doing the outreach. Yes, God does it through us. But without God we are sunk.
Secondly, Jesus did two things together simultaneously: (1) he added to their number, and (2) those who were being saved. In other words, (1) Jesus did not add people to the Church without saving them. There is no nominal or watered-down Christianity here. And (2) Jesus did not save people without adding them to the Church. There is no solitary Christianity. Salvation and church membership went hand in hand in the New Testament Church and it should be the same way today.
Thirdly, the Lord added people daily. The verb that is used here means that Jesus kept adding, and the adverb “daily” makes indisputably clear what Luke means. The first church in Jerusalem did not engage in evangelism as an occasional or sporadic activity. They did not host a yearly missions conference and leave it at that. No, just as their worship was daily, so was their witness. Evangelism was the natural overflow from their lives because their lives were filled up to overflowing with Jesus.
This means, at minimum, the first church in Jerusalem was adding at least 365 people to their church every year. I think that is a fairly safe assumption, because as we have already noted, by Acts 4, which is not much later in this narrative, the number of church members already grew to at least 5000. So that is at least 2000 people added right there.
Can you imagine adding 365 people to our congregation just in one year, let alone 2 or 3000? Where would we put them all? Obviously, we would have to have multiple worship services just to be able to worship with that many people in our congregation. We would need to add about 36 small groups to help assimilate 365 new members and help them grow in fellowship. We would need multiple newcomers classes to help hundreds of people become members. Obviously, if we reached out and welcomed that many people into membership in one year, we would also need a bigger building, more parking, more staff, and so many other things.
But here’s the thing…. Even if we did reach out and welcome 365 new people into this church in the course of this next year, do you know how many people there would be left, on Cape Cod, for us to reach? A lot!
- Cape Cod Population—214,914
- Yarmouth Port Population—5,202
- 22% of Massachusetts residents say they attend church weekly.
- Massachusetts is one of the most unchurched states in the nation.
- That means 4,058 Yarmouth Port residents fall into the “unchurched” category.
- 167,633 Cape residents are “unchurched”.
- That is our Community Pool we have to draw from.
We can look at our Community either as a problem or an opportunity; which way will we choose to see it?
There are real people with real faces, real joys, and real heartaches, all who matter to God, who are living right next to us, and who need us to be the church for them; they need us to be God with skin on.
However, someone here may ask: “Why should we reach out to people outside our congregation and try to bring them into our church?”
That is a good question. Some may think that the only reason for outreach is so that we can bring in just enough people to pay the bills.
There is a cartoon that shows a pastor speaking to a sparse congregation in a large sanctuary. The pastor says: “God calls us to evangelism! The bank that holds our mortgage has mentioned it, too.”[2]
Paying the bills seems to be a compelling reason for some congregations to evangelize. However, that is hardly a biblical reason for it. The biblical reason for outreach is that Jesus actually commands us to do it. The very last thing that Jesus says to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew is:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
That sounds like a fairly all-encompassing command to me. Notice how many times the word “all” is repeated. Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth (that’s all authority in all places) has been given to him. Then Jesus says that we are to make disciples (that is learners) of all nations. No one is left out of the group to which Jesus tells us to go. Furthermore, we are to teach everyone everything that Jesus has commanded us. Nothing is to be left out of our teaching either because it is inconvenient, unpopular, or uncomfortable. Then finally, Jesus promises that he will be with us all ways, to the very end of the age. So far as I can tell, we have not reached “the end of the age” yet. Therefore, I think Jesus’ command and promise still stands.
Now I know what some of you are going to say. You are going to point out that the use of the word “saved” in Acts 2:47 sets us up for a sort of “Us and Them” or even “Us vs. Them” mentality. I would have to agree that is possible, unless we note one very important point. We in the church are among the lost people that Jesus came to the earth to save. We are only in the church, in the kingdom of God, because someone once shared with us the good news, and welcomed us into God’s family.
You say, “But I was born in the church.” OK. But if being born in the church makes you a Christian then by that same logic being born at McDonald’s would make you a Big Mac. I don’t think it works that way. As Luis Palau says, “God has no grandchildren.” God only has children. We do not automatically become children of God simply because our parents or grandparents had a relationship with God. The New Testament teaches us that we become children of God only as we are adopted personally by the Father through his Son Jesus Christ.
Even those of us who have been part of the church all our lives, someone introduced us to God and his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Someone taught us, whether it be our parents or Sunday school teachers, someone taught us the basics of the faith and prepared us for baptism and for confirmation, for entrance into the church as full members who own the faith for ourselves. And now, it is our turn to share that faith with someone else.
I love the way Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago states their mission:
Willow Creek Community Church was founded on this conviction: People matter to God; therefore they matter to us. God bridged the unfathomable chasm between His holiness and our sin-stained humanity through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Luke 19:10 tells us, “The Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and to save the lost.” We humbly recognize that we are among those Christ seeks and saves.
Jesus went beyond a mere rescue mission; He transformed lives. In Matthew 6:10, He taught His followers to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus came to redeem this broken world, both for all eternity and in the here-and-now. This conviction drives our mission. Simply stated: Willow Creek exists to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Whether we state it in exactly those words or not, I believe that is the mission of the whole church of Jesus Christ and each individual congregation of Christians throughout the world. There is no “Us and Them” or “Us vs. Them” when it comes to outreach. We are simply beggars telling other beggars where to find the bread of life.
Furthermore, I think it is important to note what motivates our mission, our outreach. I think Paul sums this up best in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 where he writes,
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
It is the love of Jesus Christ for all people that compels us to share that love with all people. Note, it is not my love for Christ that motivates me to be a minister of the Gospel. My love for Christ is hot every once in a while, cold quite often, and lukewarm on most days. Nor is it my love for people that propels my outreach. I am frankly not that good at feeling love for other people most of the time, let alone acting on that love. No, it is the love of Jesus Christ for all that compels me; the heart-pounding, never-ending, crucified-for-us love of Christ is what compels and propels our mission.
One of my favorite passages in the entire Bible has to do with the love of Christ. It is mentioned in Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul says,
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Paul’s prayer is my prayer for each one of you, and not only for each one of you, but for everyone in our community. I have a dream of outreach events happening through this church to reach multiple groups of people in our community: children, youth, parents, grandparents, singles, empty nesters. With Jesus leading and empowering us by the Holy Spirit, the sky is the limit, but we must begin our outreach efforts with prayer.
Perhaps you know someone who is one of the “Nones” in our community, someone who claims no religious affiliation whatsoever. I challenge you to begin praying for the “Nones” you know using Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. Personalize that prayer by putting the names of friends and relatives in every place in Paul’s prayer where he says “you” and “yours”. Let us pray together for friends, relatives, and each other that we all may experience more of the love of Jesus Christ. Perhaps if we would begin to do this, then God would begin to accomplish among us abundantly more than all we could ask or imagine. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen!
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