The Color of the First Century Church

Ladies and gentlemen, the mark of a church is not the height of its steeple, it is not the size of the auditorium. The mark, the distinguishing characteristic of any church is what it believes. What it considers doctrine, what it considers truth, and what we believe then determines how we behave. I think the reason the church today in our culture is in a fog is because it no longer knows what to believe.

Therefore, it does not know how to behave. It does not know why it's been left on planet earth rather than taken to heaven immediately upon conversion. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

I'm your host, Scott Wiley. I need to give you some background for this message. Back in 1996, the church that Stephen pastors, now called the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina, was in the process of relocating. We had outgrown our building and we really had to move. It's interesting, all that we could fit in our building was the worship services, nurseries, and preschool classes. Our children's Sunday school was at a local elementary school. Our middle and high school students had Sunday school at a local high school. Our adult Sunday school met in the headquarters of a Christian ministry nearby.

So on Sunday morning, we were meeting in four different locations. Well, we purchased a farm that was just a couple miles down the road. On November 10th of that year, we had a dedication service to dedicate that land to the Lord.

We hadn't started any construction yet. It was just a combination of fields and some wooded areas. And for that particular Sunday, we rented a huge canopy tent and put it up on that farmland. We put in rows of folding chairs, erected a small platform, and we held our Sunday morning worship service outside underneath that tent.

It was also a special day because it marked the 10th anniversary of the church. Now, I'm telling you this story because the sermon that Stephen preached for that dedication is the sermon you're going to hear today. Stephen had already been preaching through the book of Acts at that time. And in God's timing, it brought us to the passage we'll study in this lesson. Please remember that because we were outside and using portable sound equipment, we weren't able to capture a quality recording of Stephen's sermon. If you're one of our regular listeners, this message is going to sound very different to you.

However, I hope it blesses you as you hear this message. Stephen called it the color of the first century church. It was a July 4th morning, 1952. A fog was hanging sick in the air when a young woman by the name of Florence Chadwick waded into the cold water off of Catalina Island. She was attempting to become the first woman to swim the waters between that island and the California coast. Long distance swimming was not new to Florence. She had already become the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.

And now she was attempting to do something that no one had ever done before. The water was numbing cold. She would swim for some 15 hours. She was surrounded by a flotilla of support group kind of boats and as they made their way through those murky waters, she had a coach who alongside of her continued to support her and encourage her. And the trouble was the fog was so thick, he oftentimes had to redirect her. She would begin swimming in the wrong direction.

She could only see a foot or two in front of her face. After swimming for 15 hours, after having faced a few sharks that came near the boat who had to be scared away by rifle fire, after the numbing cold, Florence Chadwick asked to be taken from the water. When she was interviewed later as to why she had given up, she said it was not the, it wasn't the cold even though it was very cold. It wasn't the fear of sharks that made me give up. What made me give up was the fact that I could not see my goal.

What's interesting is that after 15 hours of swimming, she gave up 30 minutes short of the California coast. Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that more and more Christians are being asked or asking others to pull them from the waters of discipline and service. I'm convinced that church after church, in fact at least one a day that closes its doors and goes out of business, does so not because of the fear of the enemy, not because of exhaustion, but because a fog creeps in and obscures from our vision the goal.

So what I want to do this morning is go to the clear sunlight of God's Word that can produce 20-20 vision and take a look at the portrait of what that goal is. Now in our last discussion, if you're in the book of Acts, in chapter 2, we watched as Peter preached his sermon, and he challenged those who were there to repent and then reveal their repentance by virtue of their public identification through water baptism. And in chapter 2, verse 40, we read these words, and with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Now the message of the early church is to be the message of the 20th century church.

It's the same message. Society as a whole will never be redeemed, and that is not our purpose. In fact, society is engineered by the prince of the power of the air, but we are to rescue, as it were, from society those that will be redeemed. The task of the church then is similar to the task of a lifeboat.

We are on a search and rescue operation. We mimic the passion of Jesus Christ, who came, he said, to seek and to save those who are lost. I feel, however, that the church today is preoccupied with the water of society and not the drowning million. The church seems preoccupied today with the temperature of the water. Can we make it somewhat more comfortable for those who are dying?

I think it's preoccupied with relating to the sharks, strategizing on how to minimize the impact of the waves upon the boat. What we need to do is go back and begin to preach and teach and live like Peter, who kept on exhorting them, be saved from this perverse generation. All those who will be redeemed, as many as will come. Verse 41, so then those who had received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Isn't that staggering?

That's supernatural. 3,000 brand new spiritual babies have been delivered in one day. Jerusalem is an overflowing maternity ward for the cause of the gospel. I imagine the apostles felt like any new father feels when they look into the face of that newborn baby. All those are trying to act very courageous and say just the right things to mom. What's racing through their minds somewhere in the process is the thought, what now?

What do I do next? I don't know anything about child rearing, so we surround ourselves with manuals and books. We go to conferences and seminars so that by the time our children are raised, we know how to do it or after they have already left.

And so we do it right with the grandchildren, right? What does a New Testament church look like? They didn't have manuals on church organization. They didn't have discipleship programs. They didn't have seminars to attend. They didn't even have the New Testament Epistles that gave the details for the form and function of the church.

What does the New Testament church look like? I love the story of the little boy who was furiously drawing a picture. He was coloring with this look of intent and passion on his face. Art Linkletter asked him, son, what are you drawing? The little boy replied, I'm drawing a picture of God. Linkletter said, son, nobody knows what God looks like. He said, they will after I get through. Hey, Peter and John, what does the New Testament church look like?

What's it supposed to do? I think they would respond, keep reading, by the time you're finished with the completed portrait, you'll know exactly what to do. Now the completed New Testament gives us a portrait of the church. I think they painted it in three very vivid colors.

Let me give you the first one. It is the brilliant color of passion. Now there are four subtle hues of this color. Verse 42 gives them to us and they were continually devoting themselves. That is, they were passionately involved with, they were totally committed to, number one, the apostles teaching. Ladies and gentlemen, the mark of a church is not the height of its steeple.

It is not the size of the auditorium. The mark, the distinguishing characteristic of any church is what it believes. What it considers doctrine, what it considers truth, and what we believe then determines how we behave. I think the reason the church today in our culture is in a fog is because it no longer knows what to believe. Therefore, it does not know how to behave. It does not know why it's been left on planet earth rather than taken to heaven immediately upon conversion.

The fog is thick in our generation. You and I need to know that they were dedicated to doctrine at a time when our culture and our evangelical community seems to think that doctrine is stuffy or divisive. Here is a church that held, that was committed to, that was passionate about. The apostles did not say, the apostles' doctrine, teaching. What does the word say?

It wasn't all study. They were also devoted to fellowship, koinonia. The basic meaning of that word is partnership.

Now, when we think of koinonia, we often think of potlucks and socials. This is actually a word that directly related to their partnership together so that they could accomplish the ministry of the church. Nearly a century ago, G. Campbell Morgan, a great pastor, was visiting someone who had been absent for some time from church. They were sitting near the fireplace and G. Campbell Morgan was exhorting him to come back. The man informed Dr. Morgan that he didn't need the church anymore for his spiritual walk.

He could do it alone. Without saying anything, Dr. Morgan took the poker and reached into the fireplace where coals were hot and glowing and he pulled one coal away from the others and he slid it across the hearth to just the edge. And they quietly sat there and he, without saying anything, watched along with this man as that coal lost its glow and its warmth while the others burned brightly. Without saying anything more to the man, the man finally looked at Dr. Morgan and said, I understand now.

I'll come back. The Bible nowhere envisions a Christian being separated from a body of believers. And notice the depth of their fellowship, verse 44, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as any might have need and day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity apart. What you have in Jerusalem is a band of red hot believers who had come together in partnership and fellowship to see the task accomplished. Now you do not have one swimmer trying to make it across these rough waters. You have a band of swimmers who swim together and encourage one another and direct each other as they, with that common cause and mission, swim toward the shore of God's goal and purpose. Now notice back in verse 42 there are a couple of more shades to this brilliant color of passion, we'll call it. They're devoted to the breaking of bread, that's communion, and to prayer.

Why? Because there wasn't anything more special than remembering the Lord who had died so that they could live, the Lord who had ascended so that the Holy Spirit could descend so they remembered Him and His sacrifice until He came. And that's what we're still doing to this day. And prayer? They're dedicated to prayer, the missing ingredient in the lives of most believers and in most churches. Do we really believe that prayer is the slender nerve that moves the omnipotent arm?

Do we really believe? Some years ago a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa. Listen to these findings. They reported a production of a hundred bushels of corn from one acre of land. They discovered that it required four million pounds of water, 6800 pounds of oxygen, 5200 pounds of carbon, 160 pounds of nitrogen, 125 pounds of potassium, 75 pounds of yellow sulfur and other elements that are too numerous. All the many hours of the farmer's labor, here's what the article read, all the many hours of the farmer's labor were needed.

It was estimated that only 5% of the produce of a farm could be attributed to the efforts of man. Makes me think of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that God will give the increase. It makes me apply what David wrote not only to our homes but to our church homes. Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain to build it on our own. So we are devoted to Him, the Creator of the New Testament Church. Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I would hope that Colonial couldn't survive one day without the power of our Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ operating among us. Second of all, there's the color of power. Look at verse 43, and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

I like that. Everybody kept feeling a sense of awe. Frankly, I wouldn't give up the sense that we had today, a sense that's really about 10 years old, a sense of anticipation that God is at work, a sense of excitement that God is doing something unusual and allowing us to be part of it. They had that feeling and that sense every day, and they totally depended upon it. Without it, we are doomed to mediocrity, ladies and gentlemen. Without the power of God, we are doomed to simply build buildings without building a church.

We might enhance the reputation of this particular local body with whatever we buy or whatever we build, but we will not enhance the reputation of Jesus Christ unless the Holy Spirit's power moves and operates through us. I found it interesting to discover a few years ago on a New Year's Day the annual Tournament of Roses, which some of you probably carve a little time aside and get a cup of coffee and watch on television. Well, this particular Tournament of Roses, viewed by millions of people, something interesting happened suddenly in that long line as they're going past the television crews that are set up. One very beautiful float sputtered and stalled, stopped, held up everything. While the owners of that float and the company it represented had spent meticulous care arranging all of the flowers in that beautiful, magnificent float, somebody had forgotten to fill the truck up with gas. It was out of gas. And until somebody could run and get a can of gas and bring it back to the truck that powered that float, they stayed there.

What was even more ironic is that that float represented the Standard Oil Company. With the vast resources it represented, it was out of gas. The church today is sputtering and stalling, powerless before its enemies and effective in the culture wherein it stands wide. We are representing the awesome power of the universe and because we are not connecting with that power by submission and obedience to the Holy Spirit, the church runs out of gas.

I pray it will never happen here, but I want you to know it can. The third color is the color of praise. You can't help but see this early church was electric.

It's contagious and exciting. Look at verse 46 again. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Can you imagine? Several thousand new believers filled with excitement and hunger and they were meeting in the temple because that was the largest place that could hold them, most of it underneath the sun. Even later into the book of Acts, they're still meeting there and their overwhelming thought was to God be the glory, great things he had done. They couldn't believe it.

They were part of it. As you read the book of Acts, you sense that contagion. It doesn't get any better than this.

Might get a little warmer, but not any better. I want to suggest three principles that emerge from this text. Number one, would God begin supernaturally must operate supernaturally. What God created 1900 years ago as he established the first local New Testament church in Jerusalem, a church that would fill the city with their gospel.

He then plants in this city 10 years ago the same thing, a local New Testament church. And what he begins must operate supernaturally. And if we could only have the blinders taken away from this dimension, we would see the air filled with the hosts of heaven. We would see a battle that there are those engaged men, those heavenly hosts, those fallen hosts. And if we could only see it, we would serve with greater passion. We would invest more. We would pray more. Why? Because we'd come face to face with the realization that it will take supernatural power to operate what has been supernaturally created.

Second, when the church functions with power, its ministry will be unexplainable. My wife and I had dinner this past Friday night with the original four deacons and their wives. It was a time of reminiscing their idea and what a delightful time it was as we gathered. I brought along the minutes.

I thought it'd be fun. They go all the way back to the first deacon meeting. Our first deacons meeting, after much discussion, we decided and agreed to buy a podium for $150.

It's this podium right here. Another entry from 1988 was the decision to purchase a better photocopier since we were now photocopying at the alarming rate of 750 clicks a week. Today, eight years later, our photocopiers click away at 16,000 times a week. In October of 1990, our congregation, averaging just over 300 people, voted to pursue a $1 million bond issue.

It's impossible to try to communicate the gravity of that, but I can just tell you this. It was an unbelievable amount for church. His annual budget was $169,000. Six years ago, our budget was $169,000.

Six years later, it's $1.6 million. I can't explain that. We believe God was leading us into unexplainable territory, and I can't explain to you how eight months after we moved into the building on Tryon Road, just eight months afterward, the congregation voted unanimously to sell it and to move and to start over again. We had no comprehension at 300 people that so many hundreds of people who are here today would come, and the passion remains there are still people who will come. We will win this city by God's grace to Jesus Christ, and we won't fit under this roof in order to do it. Apart from God moving in our hearts to follow His will, it's unexplainable.

One more thought. When the church ministers with godly power, the results are undeniable. In 1988, the original deacons met with me in the little dining area of the home that Marcia and I were renting. The church was at that point averaging 170 people. We were excited. 170 people was absolutely amazing in the band room, and we met and talked.

Now, to get to 170, I've got to admit we counted moms and dads and babies and stray cats that walked across the parking lot. I did record in my notes from that meeting that we sat around and talked about what we wanted to see the Lord do, and I found it fascinating that what we decided was that we wanted God to do something in and through us that was unexplainable. Those words were used. Somehow to endeavor to pursue, to engage in a ministry where we would often say, we do not know how, but we know who. I have no idea how we'll pay off this land apart from God's working in our hearts. There are no clear answers.

We're not even really sure how much brick and glass we're going to need to house people. We don't know the people we're yet to reach and the people we're reaching now. We don't have a lot of those answers, but that's all right because at our heart's desire, we want God's power to simply flow through us as we submit to Him. And when push comes to shove, you might hear one of us say, we really don't know how.

We just know who. And so today we stand upon the shoulders of this past decade responsible to do nothing less than carry on the mission with greater passion and zeal. And so let this tent be a signal. Let this tent send a message that our light will not be hidden, that our voice is not going to be silenced. Let this white tent send a message that we're here and it is our intention to fill the city of Cary and Apex and Raleigh and every other surrounding city with the gospel of Jesus Christ for His glory.

We will refuse to walk by sight. We will walk by faith. We've come to plant a new harvest. And today is the beginning of a new decade of ministry.

Are you ready? Say, amen. Say, Lord, we're ready.

Use us. Lead us according to thy glory. For your name's sake. Amen. I hope you were encouraged by this message from our Vintage Wisdom Library.

This is wisdom for the heart. Stephen Davey called this message the color of the first century church. Here in the United States, it's Independence Day and we have a resource for you. It's actually a free resource to equip you to think biblically about politics. It's an excerpt from Stephen's book, I Pledge Allegiance. People are born as a citizen of their home country, but the Bible says that Christians are citizens of heaven.

So Christians face a unique challenge. We have to determine where our allegiance lies. And whenever our heavenly citizenship comes in conflict with the world, we need to determine how to respond. Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome and in a portion of the book of Romans, he helped them understand the biblical balance between allegiance to God and allegiance to country. Paul's insight will help you today. Where should your allegiance lie? To what extent should you be active in and concerned about the political process? Should you be trying to bring about political reformation? These are complex questions and Stephen explores them in this book.

He clarifies the believer's responsibility as a dual citizen of heaven and earth. The first chapter of this book is available to you free of charge today. Go to wisdomonline.org forward slash allegiance. That's wisdomonline.org forward slash allegiance for information on this free resource.

Again, that download is free today at wisdomonline.org forward slash allegiance. While you're on the website, I encourage you to look around because that site is filled with discipleship resources to help you grow in your faith. I hope you have a great day and I hope you'll join us back here next time for more wisdom for the hearts. I hope you'll join us back here next time for more wisdom for the hearts.