Open Doors: The Church That God Uses

This morning, I want us to look briefly at the church. And whenever I say church, I mean church as individual because we are the church. Individually, we are the church. Each individual is a part of the body. And then we want to look at the church cooperatively. And that's us together collectively.

Okay? So we're going to look at the church this morning that God uses. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to Acts 13 verses 1 through 5.

Acts 13 verses 1 through 5. It reads, Now there were in the church in Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menean, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John.

This is John Mark to assist them. We're going to look at this text and a couple of others, and we're going to look at the five characteristics that a church that God uses has. These are five characteristics of the church that God uses.

These are five characteristics, and we'll look at it in just a moment. Now the church that we are describing this morning in Acts 11 and in Acts 13 is the church at Antioch. And this church in Antioch was the first non-Jewish multicultural church. It was the first church to ever send out missionaries. From Antioch, the gospel went out to the ends of the earth. They had an example for us as a church today for missions. They took the great commission at heart, and they show us, they demonstrate for us how we should take missions to be our heartbeat as well. They knew without a doubt that they were to carry the gospel through their families into workplaces, to other families, to neighborhoods, and to the ends of the earth. The purpose as a church was to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Now I want to stop and ask you a question, and this is a nod your head if you believe it type answer. Do you believe that the purpose of the church is to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth? Is that a yes? Okay. Do you believe that the purpose of Calvary Church is to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth?

It's there. What if he called you? What if he called you? Individually, remember the church is as individuals and collectively. What if God called you to leave the comfort of this pew and to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth?

If you believe that is God's purpose, then you must be ready to respond and go. Let's look at the type of church that God uses. And again, when I say church, this means individuals too. What kind of a church does God use?

Characteristic number one, God uses a Christ-like church. Look at Acts 11 26. The disciples were first called Christians. Believers were first called Christians in Antioch. They were not called Christians by each other. They were called Christians by the people of the city.

The people of the city knew that there was something different about these men and women who were gathering together as a church in Antioch. And the community knew that Christ was the difference. These believers had a reputation for being Christ-like. They had a reputation for doing the same things that Christ did. They had a reputation for having the same attitudes that Christ had. They were showing through their actions the Lord Jesus Christ that was their reputation. What about you?

What is your reputation? Is your reputation that of being Christ-like? When other people in your neighborhood, at your workplace, even in your family, when they see you, do they say, yes, that person lives like Jesus lived? That person serves like Jesus served. That person's attitudes are like Jesus's attitude. That person loves like Jesus lived.

That person loves. Now, if you look back a few verses earlier in Acts 11 to verse 21, it says that they heard the gospel and they turned to the Lord. Now, they believed in the gospel. They believed that Jesus came from God on a rescue mission and that he died on the cross for all of our sins and that he rose victorious over death. They believed that he lived today and that he lives eternally.

Excuse me. They believe in the gospel so much that they rejected everything of the world, the ways of this world, and as the Bible says here in Acts 11, 21, they turned to the Lord. Do you believe in the gospel? Do you believe in the gospel enough that you will turn away from the things of this world and live for Jesus? And when I say live for Jesus, I mean live in such a way that people call you Christian.

Do you have a living testimony for the Lord? Now, think about it. I think it's a badge of honor when someone says, oh, that person's a Christian. He or she will never do that.

Oh, don't bother with them. They're a Christian. I mean, that's what I want my reputation to be is that I am a Christian, that I follow Christ. That I am Christ-like, okay?

Antioch was a worldly city that celebrated the worship of many gods. These believers, these Christians lived for Christ in such a way that non-believers said they looked like little Christs, living and loving like Christ's love, like the Christ they followed, and that's why they called them Christians. You know, it's a trick of the enemy.

It's a trick of safety. It's a trick of Satan to make you think that unless you're some super talented, super gifted person, that God can't use you. But what I want you to know is that God uses people who want to be like Jesus. They're gifted people, but they're ordinary people, called from the pews of Calvary Church, and that's who God uses as ordinary people. Robert Murray M'shane said, it is not great talent that God blesses, but great likeness to Jesus. It is not great talent that God blesses, but great likeness to Jesus.

Do you want to serve the Lord? Number one is to be Christ-like. The church that God uses, number one, is a Christ-like church. So number two, what kind of a church does God use? God uses a commissional church. So what does it mean to be commissional? Co means together. And of course, missional means missions. So it means that people join together like the church. We join together for missions. People join together for missions. Joining together to reach the world for Christ. Calvary has 80 missionaries that we support financially and prayerfully around the world.

But there are over 3,000 Calvary missionaries joining us in our two worship services this morning here on campus and via live stream. We are joined together today for missions. We are called as one.

One body to move together. Do you think of yourself as being a missionary? I mean, that's who we are. Each and every one of us is a missionary.

And God gives us our missions filled. It may not be Liberia. It may not be Niger.

It may not be down to Brazil as the Shadas served in Brazil. But it could be, for me, it's Tay Berry Lane in Fort Mill. And that's where God has called me to serve in missions currently. Look at Acts 13. Flip back over to Acts 13. It says, now there were in the church at Antioch.

And I want to concentrate on that word in for just a moment. Notice that Luke said that they were in the church and not at the church. These participants, these Christians, they were in the church, not at the church. At the church is like being at a concert. I was at a concert. I was a spectator.

I was not participating. In the church means that you're a part of the body and what the body does. You're part of the body of Christ. You're active.

You're engaged. You're a part of sharing the good news. Look at what happened in the church in verse 3. It says, then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and they sent them off. And then look at verse 5. What did they send them off to do? When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God.

Let me summarize. When God changes the city and changes the world, he uses us, the church. He sends us out, not just as missionaries, but sends us as the church, each and every one of us, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, being used by God to proclaim the good news, to proclaim the word of God.

I'm not Liberia or Niger. My mission field is Tayberry Lane in Fort Mill, and your mission field is where God has called you. So you can tell this morning that our attitude is that every person who is a part of Calvary Church is a missionary, and we've got to be engaged in the place where God has called us to serve. What if God asked you this morning, what have you done in the mission field where I have sent you? What would you say if God said to you this morning, what have you done in the mission field where I have sent you? Why is it that when you became a believer that God just didn't zap us right onto heaven?

Wouldn't that be great if he did? You know, you accept Christ your Savior, you go off to heaven, but he didn't do that. He left us here.

Why? Because he wants us to reach those who do not yet know him. Each and every one of us is a missionary. We are sent by God just as God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost. God sends us to seek and save the lost. God has sent us his Holy Spirit to equip us. I know many of us think that whenever we consider our mission field and going out in our neighborhoods or whatever, practicing at work, well, I just can't do it.

Well, God sends his Holy Spirit to equip us and to move us. If we're not the church of people who goes out with the gospel as missionaries, then we're just a club that meets here on Pineville Matthews Road. We're just serving ourselves, and we're not serving the Savior if we're not engaged in missions.

We've been sent to proclaim the word. Now, Pastor Sabu mentioned earlier about our Be a Light outreach and about the families that are engaged in being a light in their neighborhoods, at their workplaces, the places where God has called them. Over a hundred people have committed to being a light, and they've gone through training that we've provided, and God is making a tremendous impact in lives.

I know he has in mind through Be a Light. I signed up to Be a Light in September, and God continues to open doors for me to share the gospel with my neighbors and the people that I encounter every day as I go to places like the gym, the grocery store, and just walk the sidewalks of my neighborhood. It's amazing how God has given me that opportunity to impact the places where he has called me. Now, are you a missionary? Your head should nod yes because every one of us is called to be a missionary. Do you need some training? Yes, I need training, training, and more training to be a missionary. Well, I want you to know that we're offering training on the 13th of March and on the 20th of March, I believe, Pastor Sabu, and that training is going to be on Zoom. It'll be two hours each morning, and you'll receive the training that you need to be a light in your community and help respond to the call that God has provided for you to be engaged in mission service.

Be a light. That's what God calls us to be. So what kind of a church does God use? Number one, he uses a Christ-like church. Number two, he uses a commissional church. And number three, God uses a diverse church, a diverse church.

The church in Antioch was the first non-Jewish congregation. God put together the first non-Jewish congregation and made it a diverse people to go out into a diverse world. God made it a diverse community here in Charlotte.

I feel like the nations are coming to Charlotte, and it's easy to see. Any time you go out in public, or I guess when we used to go out in public, you see the diversity of the nations that have gathered in Charlotte. And God has made us a diverse church here at Calvary Church. We've got over 40 different nationalities that gather here at Calvary Church. We've got even more language groups that gather here in Calvary Church. Why does he make us a diverse church?

Because he wants us to be able to reach out to our diverse community. He wants anyone that we bring in from our diverse community to Calvary Church to feel like they are at home. If you bring somebody in from no matter what country they are, no matter what background that they come from, they're going to see people who are like them at Calvary Church, and they're going to feel welcomed. Look at Acts 13, verse 1, and let's look at the diversity of the church in Antioch. It said, Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Mani, and a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Now look at the three kinds of diversity that were made up of this church.

The first type of diversity is a spiritual diversity. You see, it says that there were prophets and teachers. God didn't put the church together just so that they would all have the same gift, but he gave a diversity of gifts. He said some of the leaders were prophets, some of the leaders were teachers.

But now this is just talking about the leaders. In the church, we know that there was greater spiritual diversity within that church. There were some who were probably worship leaders. There were others who probably went out and did the street ministry or prepared food for those that needed food at the food pantry or that participated in a prison ministry.

Just like at Calvary Church, there are different giftedness, a diversity of giftedness. There was a diverse, a spiritual diversity at the church at the church in Antioch. There was also an ethnic diversity at the church in Antioch. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Mani, and a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Now we know that Barnabas and Saul were Jewish. We know that Simeon was African, Niger, and you know we've got a couple of nations we think of, Nigeria and Niger that come from that background, so we know that they were probably black. We've got Lucius of Cyrene, and he was from North Africa.

We've got Mani, who was Roman. So why is it that there was such diversity in this church of Antioch? It's been God's plan since the beginning of time that the church be diverse.

Genesis 12 says that God's plan was to bless all the nations, and it takes all ethnicities to reach the nations. At the great banquet one day, there will be a mosaic of people coming together. It's not just going to be Calvary Church at the great banquet and people who are like us, but there's going to be a marvelous blending of people of every nation, of every tribe coming together at the great banquet with our Lord, and we're going to celebrate together as a mosaic of people that God has called together. A church that God uses, a person that God uses reaches out to all the people with the Gospel. So what kind of a church does God use? Number one, God uses a Christ-like church. Number two, God uses a commissional church. Number three, God uses a diverse church.

Finally, number four, God uses a worshiping church. Look at verse two. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Now the first phrase, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the people were worshiping the Lord.

It's obvious that these people in Antioch gave passionate priority to worshiping the Lord. Now who was it that they were worshiping? Again in verse two it says, it was the Lord that they were worshiping. They were not worshiping the apostles.

They were not worshiping any personalities. It was the Lord who was the focus of their worship, and they were looking at him as Lord. What does Lord mean? It means master.

It means boss. So let's think about that for just a moment. If Jesus is my boss, then I have to do what he tells me to do, right? That's what they were doing. They were worshiping the Lord who they recognized was the boss of their life, and they were willing to do what he called them to do. Now I love our worship at Calvary Church, what we do here on Sunday morning with our praise team, with our choir and et cetera. I love it when we come together and worship and pray and hear God's word, but I want you to realize that worship is not just what we do on Sunday morning. I think Satan has made that as a little trap for us, but worship is what we do with our entire lives.

Romans 12 says, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. What is worship? It's when we present ourselves every day as a living sacrifice, not me Lord, but you. And we set ourselves apart for service to him. That's what being holy means. It means being set apart and we give ourselves completely to him every day. That's what worship is.

It's not just a Sunday thing, but worship is a 24 hour a day thing. The church, the believers in Antioch, every moment of every day gave themselves to Jesus. All to Jesus, all the time. All of me to Jesus all the time. That was their worship. And the church at Antioch was a worshiping church.

What about you? Are you a worshiper? Is your walk in life a living sacrifice to the Lord? So what kind of church does God use? The kind of church that God uses is a Christ-like church. God uses a commissional church. God uses a diverse church. God uses a worshiping church.

And finally, God uses a Spirit-filled church. When you become a worshiper, giving your life, every moment of your life to the Lord, you put yourself in the position to hear the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks in the lives of individuals and churches where there is intimacy in worship, both personal worship and corporate worship. I think one of the, whenever in counseling a lot of times, probably one of the most familiar things I hear is, I want to know what the Lord's will is for my life. I want to know what the Lord wants me to do, what the Spirit wants me to do.

I want to be guided by the Holy Spirit. And I say to them, well, how is your worship? How is your worship?

Because when we are worshiping, when we are intimate with God, that's when the Spirit speaks to us. Look at how the church in Antioch was worshiping. Verse 2 says it was, they were fasting. Now, I'm an old Baptist by heart. That's my background as a Baptist. And fasting is not something that's in a Baptist vocabulary.

I mean, we're the denomination of potluck dinners, of casseroles, and homecoming. So we don't do much fasting. But fasting is not eating so that when you hunger, you will hunger for God. Fasting is biblical. Potluck dinners is not biblical. The church at Antioch wanted to experience God more than they wanted to eat.

Isn't that incredible? They wanted to experience God more than they wanted to eat. They wanted intimacy with God more than anything else in their life.

Is that your heartbeat? Verse 3 says that they were fasting and praying. And praying is walking in fellowship with God.

It's having a conversation with a friend as you walk through life. How often do you pray? It shouldn't be just the blessing before the meals. But it should be as we walk through life, we're in constant prayer and communion with the living God. Now, verse 3 says that they were fasting and praying. And then the church at Antioch were worshipers. And their hearts were totally turned to God.

They were fasting and praying. And look in verse 2 again. It says, when those things were happening, that the Holy Spirit said, and then in verse 4, it says that the Holy Spirit sent out. They were sent out by the Holy Spirit. When we are truly worshiping, intimate with God, the Spirit speaks and the Spirit sends. When was the last time that you personally heard the Spirit speak to you? I'll have to ask you, how was your worship?

When was the last time that we saw the Spirit of God move here at Calvary Church? Maybe it's time as individuals and corporately that we recommit ourselves to worship. To giving ourselves like the church in Antioch completely to the Lord as boss of our lives. So what kind of a church does God use? Number one, God uses a Christ-like church. Number two, God uses a commissional church. Number three, God uses a diverse church. Number four, God uses a worshiping church. And then fifth, God uses a Spirit-filled church. In conclusion, when an individual and a church follows the Word of God and displays the characteristics of a church like Antioch did, look at Acts 14, 27, because this shows you what happens to a church that obeys the Word of God and follows these different characteristics. Barnabas and Paul in chapter 13, verse 1 through 5, they were sent out as the first missionaries. And during that time, God used them to communicate His truth and then they came back, just as these missionaries have today, to report to the church all that God was doing. And here's their report in verse 27. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

You see what happened? God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Gentiles did not have the opportunity to know Christ as their Savior. God opened this door because of a faithful people and a faithful church to answering the Great Commission to go and to make disciples. I wonder what doors God would like to open for you and for me. I wonder what doors God would like to open for the Gospel for Calvary Church. I wonder if we leaned more closely into the Lord and followed Him, what He would do to us.

It begins with you and me as individuals. For God to open doors, it takes my commitment and your commitment to doing and being all who Christ wants us to be. Do you want to serve the Lord in mission service? That's the question today, because He calls each and every one of us to missions service. And I pray that you're ready to answer His call today. Join me as we pray together. Father, we pray that you would be with us today.

We pray that you would be with us today. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity that you've given us to worship together today. And Father, we rejoice in the stories that we've heard about missions and what you're doing in Liberia and Niger. But Father, what we want is to hear stories each week about what you're doing in Charlotte, in the lives of our members who are out serving you as missionaries, in the highways and the byways, Father, where you have called them. Father, we want you to open doors for us. We want to be your people and be used, Father, to seek and save the lost in the places where you have called us. So Father, use these brief few moments of song to cause us, Father, to reflect and to repent and to commit, Father, to be in the missionaries that you would have us to be. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.