R882 The Soul of the New Testament Church, Pt.2

God is calling on you and me as a part of the Church to be the soul of the New Testament Church.

Let's discover more together. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton. In these moments, we're going to continue in the thought he began yesterday, actually day before yesterday, about the soul of the New Testament Church and how you and I in our own churches, and not just the capital C Church, but the church, your specific church, how God can use us and call us on unique perspectives of service, even in this COVID time when we're separated. As we open the Word together, know that we'd love to pray with you and for you. We can connect on our phone line at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. Now, here's Dr. Don Wilton. Now, in the book of Acts in chapter 4, and I'm going to invite you to open your Bibles there, I wish I could read to you from verse 23 right through the end of the chapter, but I'm not going to today because I've got a lot to tell you about. But I want to focus in on one verse. You're going to need your Bibles open the entire time because I have nothing to say outside of God's Word. In Acts chapter 4, the institution of the New Testament church, and verse 31, we read this, After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and as a result, they spoke the Word of God boldly. Now, of course, the next verse is important.

I'm going to speak on it and immediately in just a moment. The Bible says all the believers as a result of this were one in heart and in mind. Many years ago, our church burned to the ground.

People stood out here on Main Street, one in heart and mind. I could give to you today one account after another as to how God in generation after generation has done a work that literally leaves this place shaken to the ground because people come together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here in this passage, we're trying to ask ourselves, what are the distinctives of the New Testament church? I want to speak to you on the soul of the New Testament church. Now, folks, this is so important today because in America today, the soul of the New Testament church is being challenged.

The Christian church has become the subject of the same political opinion poll as anything else. Everybody's got their version. Everybody wants to do their own thing. Everybody's got an opinion.

I most certainly do. But what does God have to say about it? Has he changed his mind? What does he have in store for us for the next 50 years?

What about tomorrow? Who are we? What does God require of you and of me as we come together as believers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? What does the Lord want us to accomplish?

What is he setting before us? There are 10 distinctives. I'm fully aware, folks, that each one of these require a series in and of themselves.

I suggested to the ministers that in reality, I need to preach two points per Sunday and go for five weeks just on this series. There's a lot here and I'm just scratching the surface. So you listen carefully from God's Word. The three that we mentioned, I just give to you by way of summary. Distinctive number one, the leadership distinctive. Verse 23, we discovered there how Peter and John, after they had been released from prison because they took a stand for Jesus Christ, did three things. Number one, they went back.

Number two, they reported, they opened their mouths. And number three, they joined in with the people. Now, there are three distinctives of Christian leadership. And we believe, folks, in our church and we believe in the local New Testament church, that it is fundamental to the mission of Jesus Christ that he showed us by the gathering of the 12 around him. And he instituted the leadership principle.

And he said, you 12, go and train another 12 and another 12 and another 12 and another 12. And our mandate in the local New Testament church is to be about the business of raising up bold Christian leaders who are not only going to go back to the people, but they're going to open their mouths. They are going to report and testify concerning Jesus Christ. And then having testified, they are going to join in together with those to whom they testify. And they are going to walk with them in the work that God has called them to do. Three incredible leadership distinctives.

Number two, the people distinctive. We notice there in verse 24, how the Bible tells us when they heard this, they raised their voices together. I tell you, there is something about the body of Christ.

We've seen that time without number. And what this begs of us, my friends, is to rediscover how the New Testament church works. And you might remember that I pointed out to you simplistically, but very deeply and significantly that the New Testament church works in four ways. Number one, it's pastor led.

And we soon discovered that's not about me, the pastor. What it is about is about servant leadership, because Jesus Christ is our model. God has always raised up leaders to be shepherds and to gather around them leaders who gather around them leaders, who gather around them leaders, who gather around them leaders who pass that baton on.

But He does it to us under that model of leadership, which is servant leadership, which according to Jesus Christ comes from the bottom up, not from the top down. Remember, the church is not BMW. The church is not some kind of organization out there. The church is not a local high school or a school district. The church is the church of the living God modeled after the fundamental precepts and practices of the New Testament church. How does the church work for we the people? It is pastor led.

Number two, it's de-conserved. Number three, it is team organized. How does the work of the church, how's it done in a local church? How do you do anything in this church? We the people, we ask everybody to do something. I told you, and this may be right off the charts here, I'm praying within the next two years maybe, and that may be wishful thinking on top of that. But wouldn't it be wonderful if in a short time that this church made a decision that no body in this church is allowed to serve in more than one ministry service capacity per year.

Uh oh, just think about it folks. Ought we not to be praying that more and more people do fewer and fewer things, rather than fewer and fewer people doing more and more things? The average church today, you've got a little group of people carrying the whole nine yards.

They're doing everything. God says that's not how it works. The church works through the people who are the body of Christ doing the work, which means the fourth way the church works is that we are body approved. Now folks, watch this.

Listen carefully today. We're in the New Testament. The average church out there looks at a church meeting as an opportunity to ruin the witness of the church. The average church out there immediately says, well, when we have a church business meeting, that's when we come and let out all our dirty laundry. That's when we behave badly. That's when we question everything. Not if we do it the way God tells us to do it. Because if we do it the way God tells us to do it and it is team organized, that means all our people are out there in all the ministries of the church bringing to the table all the things that we need to do and when it is body approved and we all come together, folks. Yeah, I'll stand up here and say that to you. That's not the time for people to come and to express opinions and to get bent out of shape and to disgrace the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to divide churches and to ruin the witness of Jesus Christ. That's the time when God's people come together in worship as God's people and say, we have done the work, we're coming today to offer what we've done as a living sacrifice and to worship you and to say, Lord, we'll do it, we'll do it, we'll do it because you have told us to do it.

That is the body at work together. Is somebody listening? You want me to tell you why there's so many divisions in so many churches?

Because they're not doing it God's way, folks. Any questions this morning? Hello? Are you listening? Stop the nonsense. The church is becoming a disgrace and the world out there is looking at churches across America and they are seeing people fuss and feud and fight and get bent out of shape and express opinions that do not in the slightest way separate us from our political candidacies and platforms and the way in which American people tear the heart out of one another for the sake of a political office that they might occupy and the dirty laundry they bring out in the public opinion polls and no wonder the world out there is mocking the United States of America today because all we're doing is tearing one another apart and hanging out there in public, not in the church. Not in the church. I'm so grateful to God for you. People say to me all across America, pastor, what is it about First Baptist Spartanburg?

Why are you growing like that? This is what I show them. I can tell you, my dear friends, in 12 years I have not been in a meeting in this church where there has been one single ugly word curveball thrown by anybody.

I'm here to make an announcement today and if anybody thinks I'm exaggerating, come with me. I have not been in a deacons meeting with 150 deacons in this church in 12 years where there's been a bad word or somebody's discredited or somebody's got bent out of shape and stormed out. It doesn't happen in the house of God and if you want to know why people are coming to know Jesus Christ, we must do the work that God puts in front of us and do it according to His way. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word and we'll be back with more of this concept of understanding not only the soul of the New Testament church but how that applies to you and me today as we continue to strive to be the men and women of God that the Lord calls us to do, doing it as Dr. Don just mentioned, His way. As we face these concepts together, of praying together for each other's church, not just for the Capital C Church, we want to move together corporately across the entire globe as the followers of Jesus Christ. But each of our churches individually now more than ever in this time of COVID are experiencing different times of need and perhaps your church could be encouraged by you in a radically new way if you're just willing to step out and say, I'll do it.

Whatever it is needs to be done. We'd love to pray with you about the next in your commitment to your own local church. 866-899-WORD is our phone number to pray about that, but that's also a source where you can connect with someone to help you find a local church if you're not involved in one. Again, Jim and Michelle lead that department, 866-899-9673. Let the folks know that you're interested in finding a local church and we'll do our best to find you one with a couple of zip codes of where you are right now, one that embraces this passion for God's Word that Dr. Don Wilton does.

Again, 866-899-9673 or meet us online at tewonline.org. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. Number three, the third distinctive is the lordship distinctive. Bible tells us that they said sovereign Lord. There were three things that God tells us about Himself.

We call it keeping the main thing the main thing. That means everything we do about is about the Lord Jesus Christ, the lordship distinctive, because He's the head of the church or is He? Who's in charge? Whose church is this anyway? Is it mine? Is it yours? Does it belong to somebody? Is there anything in this church that belongs to anybody?

How about a microphone, a bus, ministry, a pew, my beautiful yellow tie? It's all the Lord's. Somebody say, Amen.

Whoo! Now don't just say that and not mean it. What does God tell us about the lordship distinctive? Three things. Number one, He's the God of creation, which means that He made us. Number two, He is the God of history, which means that He affirms us. Number three, He is the God of cause and effect, which means that He directs us. And if you go into verse 28, the Bible tells us that what happened, happened because God had already determined that it happened before it happened. That means God is the God of cause and effect. And if God is the God of creation and the God of history and the God of cause and effect, my only responsibility is to get in line with God and say, Lord, what is it that you want us to do?

Quite simple really. If God already knows about tomorrow, my responsibility is to fall on my face and say, Lord, just direct me. Tell me which road to turn on. Help us to make good decisions together as God's people. Number four, there's the request distinctive in verse 30. These people came together, stretch out your hand, they said, to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your servant.

Now folks, everybody watch me. What did they request? This is the request distinctive in the local New Testament church. What did they ask for? Somebody tell me. Somebody. Miracle. Everybody say miracle.

Miracle. All right, on three. On three. What did they ask God to do? One, two, three. Miracles.

Let's do it again. Some of you don't believe this. What did they ask God to do?

One, two, three. Miracles. We don't believe it anymore. What's a miracle? A miracle is something only God can do, right?

Now what seems to be our problem? Folks, in the church today, we have gotten to the point at which we no longer ask God to perform miracles. And a miracle is that which only God can do.

That's the request distinctive. Lord, would you do a miracle in my marriage? Would you do a miracle with my health? Would you do a miracle with my finances? Would you do a miracle with my teenage daughter? Would you do a miracle in our church? Would you do a miracle in this mission project? Would you do a miracle as we build this place? Would you do a... We no longer do that, folks, because we don't believe it.

What set the New Testament church apart? The request distinctive. You have not because you ask not. We need to come together and ask God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Folks, that's why we have a budget that far exceeds our ability. The day that we come to this church and we set budgets that we can reach, we no longer believe in miracles.

There is a sense in which everything we do in this church, whether with our young people, senior adults, babies, building buildings, whatever it might be, it doesn't matter. We need to be saying, Lord, oh, help us. We can't do this. How can we do this? We can't pay for it. We don't have enough hands. How can we feed a crowd like that?

And Jesus looks into our heart and He says, what have you got? Well, all I got is just two little fishies and a couple of loaves of bread. Well, give them to me. But Lord, there are 5,000 people here.

What can I do? Give them to me. All I need is one little boy.

And He took that meager little offering and He broke it and He performed a miracle. I'm asking that God's going to cause us as a people to look at our deacons and say they've lost their mind. Let's do a little losing of our mind for the next 10 years.

Anybody want to join me? They're out of their mind. How can we do that? We can't. Folks, having said that, let's not lose our sense and sensibility. Moving and acting by faith is not an excuse for rank stupidity. Having a credit card is one thing, but knowing how to use it is entirely another.

You can have a credit card as long as you've got the money to pay for it. You don't go and put yourself in a position where you're just putting yourself over your head. Walking by faith is not an excuse for a body of believers to get together and just throw sense and sensibility to the wind. That's why we have teams. That's why we have deacons. That's why we have a ministry team. That's why we have worship services.

That's why the body of Christ comes together collectively to know the mind of Christ. The request distinctive. Number five, the prayer distinctive. The Bible says here in this incredible passage after they prayed, I'm sensing in my heart a tug of war, a sense of renewal in my own heart because the single most difficult thing that I do, folks, is to pray myself.

It is the biggest battlefield of my own life. Praying with my family, praying with myself, praying with God alone, getting into the closet because I seem to spend my life praying. Everywhere I go, pastor, would you come in here and pray? Would you pray? Would you lead us and pray? Would you pray? You come and pray. I'm praying all the time, praying all the time.

So what happens after a while? Oh man, just give me a break. I don't want to pray. Well, that's exactly where the devil wants me.

Ask me to do anything but pray. And folks, the problem is in the local church that we've forgotten what it means to pray. If we were to organise a barbecue here on any given night, we'll have thousands of people, but you ask our people to come and pray?

How many of you would come? The Bible says after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken to the ground. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, which leads me to the sixth distinctive, the Holy Spirit distinctive. Verse 31, now when it comes down to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, folks, we've got so much to say, the Bible tells us in John's Gospel that the functional element of the Holy Spirit is threefold. Number one, He is the one who convicts us of sin. Number two, He is the one who convicts us of righteousness.

Number three, He's the one who convicts us of judgment. Now watch this folks, if you take sin, righteousness and judgment out of the church, watch me. You don't have a church, you have a country club.

Are you listening? You don't have a church, you have a country club. What does sin do? Sin points me to the need for salvation. What does righteousness do? Righteousness points me to the need of holy living.

What does judgment do? Judgment points me to the necessity of being a witness. If you take salvation, holy living and witnessing and testifying the power of the resurrection out of the local New Testament church, all you have left is a country club.

It's all you have left. So when it comes down to the pillars of the local New Testament church, the Holy Spirit distinctive is so vital. Number seven, the Word of God distinctive. Also in verse 31 the Bible says as a result they spoke the Word of God boldly.

I've had nothing to do with it. When I became your pastor search committee let me know in no uncertain terms that the Word of God is the centerpiece on the mantelpiece of this church. Now folks, I want to reverse that. If the Bible was not the means by which we go, the place to which we go, the acid test, the only means of consultation, where would that leave us? There are three critical issues in the church. You know about these. You all know these.

Some of you can recite them to me. But God is putting this vision for our church on my heart. Folks, we've got to come back to these things. There are three critical issues in the church that have a direct bearing on the Word of God distinctive. Number one, the issue of absolute truth. We're living in a world today where absolute truth is becoming increasingly nonexistent.

It's irrelevant. The world is declaring absolute truth to be irrelevant. Absolute truth is the Word of God, everything about God. Genesis 1, 1 is absolute truth, in the beginning God.

People ask me about marriage between a man and woman. That's absolute truth. It's not negotiable because God determined that. Jesus Christ is absolute truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the Father but by me. He didn't say through your riches or your poverty or through your service or your mission mindedness or your church membership or your ability to preach. He said through me. That's absolute truth.

That's the narrow way. That's absolute truth. And in so far as we're able to do so, as a congregation of believers, we give one another permission never to compromise when it comes to absolute truth. The second critical issue is the matter of personal conviction. Boy, that's a good thing to talk about.

I love it. I think we should be people of personal conviction. I think that should be our business. And personal conviction should come out of absolute truth. But in so far as we're able to do so, we do not give anybody permission in this church to impose their personal convictions on this church as absolute truth. Are you listening?

What a challenge. Are we listening to make sure that we're not infusing our own opinions? I tell you that perhaps that you've not heard an opinion of Dr. Wilton, but you have heard the Spirit of God move in your life. I would never want to imitate or try to be the Holy Spirit in your life, but if the Lord is speaking to you, opening your heart to His love and His passion for you and His perfect plan for your life, I pray that you would open your heart for just a moment for what Dr. Don wants to share in the next 60 seconds or so. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much, and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If the Lord is changing your life by your saying yes to Him, oh, how we would love to be involved in the next steps, praying you through, putting resources in your hands. We have wonderful free resources. If you've given your life to Christ, rededicated your life, just call us, 866-899.

Word is the number. That's 866-899-9673. You'll find that way to connect to others on our website as well at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org, and also great resources like this. We believe in the power of prayer. We all know of someone who stands in the need of prayer. But what about you today? Do you need someone to pray for you? What concerns you today?

Is something or someone weighing heavy on your heart? Call us at 866-899-WORD. We're here for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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