Thousand Oaks Baptist Church

How to Go to Church

 (Sunday morning sermon for April 8, 2001)

 

Text:  1 Timothy 3:14-15; Acts 2:41-47

 

Introduction:  In 1 Timothy 3:14-15, Paul the Apostle told Timothy why he was writing this letter that today we call 1 Timothy.

 

Paul said, “Timothy, I hope to come to see you shortly, but – if for some reason – I don’t get there for a while, I’m writing these things to you so that you might know how you need to conduct yourself in the local church.”

 

And what Paul wrote to Timothy, he also wrote to every Christian who has anything to do with a local church.

 

Paul wanted Timothy to know how to properly attend a local church.  Paul wanted Timothy to know how to properly work in that local church.  And Paul wanted Timothy to know how to conduct himself in that local church.

 

Now, we have to understand that when Paul wrote this letter, Timothy was no longer what we would exactly consider to be a young, inexperienced pastor.  You see, Paul probably wrote this letter sometime around 64 or 65 A.D.  And by this time, Timothy had been working as an evangelist and teacher and pastor with Paul since around 50 A.D. – for about 14 or 15 years.

 

When we first find Timothy mentioned in the Scriptures in Acts 16, he is simply referred to as “a certain disciple…named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman…his father being a Greek…well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.”

 

At that point in his life, Timothy was old enough to be out on his own, by both the Jewish and Greek standards of his day.  That would make him at least 12 years old, and more likely closer to 20 years old.

 

If Timothy was 12 years old when he joined Paul’s missionary team, that would make him around 26 or 27 years old when Paul wrote 1 Timothy.  If Timothy was 20 when he joined Paul’s team, that would make him about 34 or 35 years old when this letter was written.

 

But the interesting point is that Paul still felt Timothy could use some apostolic instructions on how to go to church.

 

And that’s what I want to preach about in this message:  “How to Go to Church.”  And this is a message on the subject of how the Bible says we ought to conduct ourselves in the fellowship and ministry of this or any other local church.

 

Now, of course, the subject of how we ought to conduct ourselves in the fellowship and ministry of this church is far to broad to cover in just one short half-hour message, and so I need to tell you ahead of time that this is the first of three messages dealing with this subject.  The second message is titled, “How to Have a Strong Church,” and the third is titled, “How to Have a Happy Church.”  The Lord willing, I’ll have the opportunity to preach those messages at later dates.

 

Paul the Apostle strongly suggests that we all need to learn how to go to church.

 

And in Acts 2:41-47, God has given us 15 ways in which you and I ought to conduct ourselves in the fellowship and ministry of the local church.

 

Now, none of these things is put to us by way of a command.  God doesn’t just outright say we have to do these things.  Instead, He gives these things to us by way of example, in the fellowship and ministry of the first Baptist church of Jerusalem.

 

And at the outset, I think we need to understand that these 15 things were ordained by God the Father, ordered by God the Son, and put into operation by God the Holy Spirit in the lives and experiences of the folks who attended and were members of the first local NT church ever set up by God.

 

And the practices of that first local church were so pure and holy and right that God chastised the first violation of that pristine purity with the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, members of that first local church who committed the first recorded public sin against that church and its other members.

 

In these last days just before the return of our Lord, we desperately long for the same kind of divine blessing and spiritual power and evangelistic spirit that the early church experienced.  Is it possible that we lack these things because have not yet learned to go to church the same way they went to church?  How did they go to church?  Let’s examine the first 5 of the 15 ways in which the members of the early church went to church, and maybe we can learn something good.

 

How did the believers who were members of the first church in Jerusalem go to church?

 

I.       They went to church as believers.

 

First, they went as believers.  Acts 2:41 begins the right way to go to church by telling us that those who did so had already gladly received the word of faith that Peter had preached to them.

 

Peter had preached that Jesus Christ is the promised “greater Son” of King David of Israel.  The ancient prophecies given to David said that this greater Son was the “Holy One of Israel.”  That was also another name for the Lord.  And so, Peter had preached that Jesus is both the Lord Jehovah and the promised Messiah, or (in Greek) the Christ – the One Who is God who is anointed by God .

 

Peter also preached that this same Jesus Christ was crucified to bear the penalty for our sins, that he rose again the third day to give new, eternal, spiritual life to all who will repent of their sin and believe on Him, evidencing the reality of their faith to both God and men.

 

Peter also preached that God’s salvation blessings were for those whose sins were forgiven by God because of their personal, active faith in Jesus Christ.

 

And when Peter had preached these things, at least 3,000 people received the message that he preached, and they believed that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, and they were saved in that moment of saving faith.

 

And this is also the first way that we ought to come to church -  as believers.  The local church is where believers belong when the doors are open on the Lord’s Day.

 

My friend, if you’re not a believer, we’re glad you’re here.  We’re very glad you’re here, because you’ve just heard the Gospel of Christ.  You’ve just heard how to be saved.  You’ve just heard how you, too, can become a believer.

 

If you’re here this morning and you’re not a believer, you ought to become a believer.  And you can receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord right now, right where you are.

 

Confess to God that you are sinner.  Repent of your sins – turn away from your sins and turn to God.  Believe that Jesus Christ died to take upon Himself all of the punishment and guilt for all of your sins.  Believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead to give you eternal life.  Cast your soul completely upon Him alone for your eternal salvation and for complete and eternal forgiveness and security.  And in that moment that you do, He will save you, and then He will keep you saved by His power.

 

If you came to church today as an unbeliever, you can go out as a believer.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

 

And so, the first right way to come to church is as a believer.

 

II.      They went to church as baptized believers.

 

Second, the believers who were members of the first church in Jerusalem went to church as baptized believers.  We read in Acts 2:41 that those who gladly received Peter’s message and received Jesus Christ and His salvation were baptized that same day.

 

Now we need to get the picture of what was happening there in Jerusalem that day.  Peter wasn’t preaching in a church building.  In those days, the disciples met wherever they could find a place and a time that was suitable to all of them.  And on this particular day, according to verse 2 of this chapter, they were meeting in someone’s house.  And Peter probably preached from the roof of the house.

 

You see, in those days, houses had flat roofs that were a lot like huge balconies with waist high walls.  And people used their flat roof for a number of purposes.  In good weather, the roof might be used as a living room, as a dining room, and in warm weather even as a bedroom.  And Peter probably literally preached from the rooftop.

 

And God arranged things that day so that thousands of people would be crowding into the narrow streets around this house to be able to hear Peter’s message.

 

Please realize that these people had not come to church.  They just came to find our what was going on.  And at least 3,000 of them believed what they heard and received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

 

And on that same day, these new believers were also baptized.

 

Now we don’t need to worry about how some other church or denomination has decided to do what they call baptizing.  What we need to be concerned with is what the Bible says is the way to baptize new believers.

 

The word baptize in our English Bibles is a direct transliteration from the Greek word baptizo.  And baptizo, when we literally translate it from Greek into English, means to dip or dunk or immerse something in or under water.  And to me, that pretty effectively settles the method of Christian baptism.

 

Likewise, whenever baptism is mentioned in the New Testament, it is always said to be a picture of Christ’s death and resurrection.  Christ died once for our sins, and He rose once from the dead; Christian baptism should picture this.  And as Jesus said in Matt. 28, it should be done in the singular name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  And so, to properly complete the picture of Christ’s death and resurrection in baptism, and to obey the command of Christ regarding baptism, it seems reasonable to me that a new believer should be baptized, or placed under water, once.

 

Likewise, almost without exception in this world, when bodies are buried, they’re buried face up.  That’s how Jesus was placed in the tomb – face up.  And so, if we are going to picture Jesus’ death and burial, we need to baptize people with their face up, not down.

 

New believers ought to be baptized.  This is the first commandment of Christ for new believers.  This was the clear example of the first church and of every church of the first century.  This was the clear command of the Apostles of Christ.

 

If you are a born again believer, but you haven’t been baptized yet, you need to be.  You need to be baptized to be obedient to Jesus Christ.  You need to be baptized to show forth to the world that you genuinely believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that you are counting yourself dead and risen with Him by faith.  You need to be baptized to become a member of the local church.

 

You ought to come to church as a baptized believer.

 

III.    They went to church as members of the local church.

 

Third, the believers who were members of the first church in Jerusalem went to church as members of that local church.

 

In Acts 2:41, after these 3,000 folks had believed and were baptized, the Bible says that they were added to the local church.  In other words, they became members of that local church, along with the 120 believers who constituted that first, local, NT church.

 

Now the words added unto actually mean an increase in number.  In other words, these 3,000 souls were mathematically added into the 120 who before had constituted the local church, and they thereby increased the size of that group that was called the church.

 

In the Greek of the New Testament, the word for church is ekklhsia.  Ekklhsia means an assembly.  And in actual usage in New Testament times, this word was used by Greek speaking people to denote a specifically constituted group.  The ekklhsia was a group of people with certain qualifications who were called together for a specific purpose.  Technically, as the Greeks used the word, certain people were included in the group, and everyone else was excluded from the group.

 

Usually, a written roll of members was kept.  Certain qualifications had to be met in order to become a member of the ekklhsia.  And a certain standard of conduct and belief was expected of those who were already members of the ekklhsia. 

 

This technical use of ekklhsia is seen in Acts 19:23-41, when all of the members of the silversmiths’ union in the city of Ephesus were gathered together to protest Paul’s preaching of the Gospel.  All who were in that meeting were silversmiths.  They were all registered craftsmen licensed to make silver shrines for the Greek goddess, Diana.  And their official meeting was called an ekklhsia.

 

Whenever the word ekklhsia was used by the Greeks in this technical sense, it always implied (1) a definite membership, (2) a set of entrance requirements, (3) a standard of practice or belief, and (4) an identifiable purpose and work.

 

The Holy Spirit applied the word ekklhsia to Christians in two ways in the New Testament.

 

The first and broadest use is when the New Testament talks about the entire body of Christian believers, regardless of when or where they have lived on this earth during this Age of Grace.  Sometimes theologians and Bible teachers call this the universal church, because it encompasses all believers of all the centuries of Christianity.  This is also called the body and bride of Christ in the New Testament. 

 

And the only entrance requirement to this church is genuine, personal, active faith in Jesus Christ.  All who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior – from the day the Holy Spirit first descended on the believers on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, until the Rapture of the saints – all true believers are members of this universal church.

 

It makes no difference what your earthly citizenship is, what your denominational affiliation, or when you have lived since Pentecost.  None of these have any bearing on your membership in the body of Christ.

 

But God does keep a membership role in Heaven.  Our names have been written down in the Lamb’s book of life, and God knows every true believer by name.

 

And the body of Christ has been given the specific purpose of glorifying and worshipping Jesus Christ throughout all eternity, and of winning the lost to Christ while its members are still on earth.

 

And its standard of faith and practice is the Bible.

 

The second way that the Holy Spirit has applied the word ekklhsia is to the local assembly of believers that we today call the local church.

 

The local church has definite membership requirements.  There is never a record of anyone ever being added to a local church in the New Testament who was not (first) a born again believer and (second) baptized.  Another membership requirement in the New Testament was that no one who was living in open sin could be added to the local church until they had repented of that sin and had forsaken it.

 

As you read through the pages of the New Testament, you will also find that the local New Testament churches could discharge and exclude people from their membership.  This by necessity required a membership roll.

 

The local churches also held business meetings.  The transaction of business in an organization where the will of the majority is the rule requires a stated quorum.  And this, of course, requires that the membership be both defined and limited, so as to properly consider and transact the business of the local church.

 

Since God keeps a membership roll in Heaven, all we’re doing is following His example by keeping a membership roll in our local church.

 

My friend, if you attend this local church as a baptized believer, you also ought to become a member of this local church, unless you just attend on a temporary basis.  Even Paul the Apostle obviously became a member of the churches he started, as long as he was with them.  This is the clear example of the New Testament.

 

And so, come to church as a member of this local church.

 

IV.     They went to church as steadfast believers.

 

Fourth, the believers who were members of the first church in Jerusalem went to church as steadfast believers.  And so should we!

 

Acts 2:42 says that those who believed, and who also were baptized, and who also became members of the local church by being added to it, also continued steadfastly.  In other words, they were continuing to be strong believers, enduring persecution, and persevering in the faith.

 

They didn’t wilt away when the fiery heat of persecution arose.  They didn’t get offended at the Gospel and stop attending.  They didn’t get their feelings hurt and stop tithing.  They didn’t get to feeling slighted and stop serving the Lord.

 

They were steadfast.  And that’s that’s how we need to come to church today – steadfastly, faithfully, no matter what, whenever the doors are open.

 

V.      They went to church as teachable believers.

 

Fifth, the believers who were members of the first church in Jerusalem went to church as teachable believers.

 

Acts 2:42 says that the members of that first local NT church in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in four important areas.

 

And the first of these areas was that they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine.  What is doctrine?  Doctrine is teaching concerning the Christian faith. 

 

These early believers continued to be teachable and to be taught by the Apostles.  They continued to learn what they were being taught.  And they continued to put into practice what they learned.  In other words, doctrine, to them, was a very practical thing.  It showed them how to live the Christian life, walk the Christian walk, and talk the Christian talk.

 

Today, we are being encouraged and even commanded on every side to de-emphasize doctrine.  Those people who are trying to unite all the faiths under one big, apostate umbrella are especially strong in crying out for us to play down and soft pedal the distinctively Biblical teachings that lie at the heart and root of our faith in Christ.  These people are crying out for us to instead believe nothing and to accept every questionable and false practice and belief in our lives and in our churches.

 

And because of this, this is a day when believing Christians, who have been obediently baptized and added to the local church, need to be strong in hearing and learning what the Holy Spirit has to say to the churches from the Word of God.

 

And so today, as never before in the history of Christianity, we need to come to church as teachable believers.

 

Conclusion:  These, then, are the first five of the fifteen ways that the early believers went to church.

 

First, they went to church as believers.  We need to come to church as believers, and believers need to come to church.

 

Second, those early believers went to church as baptized believers.  And if we have become believers, we also need to be Scripturally baptized if we are going to obey the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Third, those early believers went to church as members of the local church.  And if we are believers, and we have been baptized, then we also ought to become members of the local church in which we were baptized.  The local church is the only organization that God has ordained, as far the New Testament tells us, for worshipping the Lord together, for winning souls, and for building and training and utilizing and blessing the saints of God.  And so we need to be a member of God’s local church.

 

Fourth, those early believers went to church as steadfast believers.  And each one of us needs to be steadfast and unmovable in the work of the Lord in and through the local church.

 

Fifth, those early believers went to church as teachable believers.  And we need to come to church today as teachable believers. 

 

We need to learn the great doctrines of the faith. 

 

We need to learn the warp and woof of the Bible, and to begin to see the patterns of godliness set forth in the Bible for our example and admonition. 

 

We need to learn how to put our faith into practice.

 

We need to learn how to be victorious over sin.

 

We need to learn how to resist and defeat the devil.

 

We need to learn how to do the work of the ministry and exercise the spiritual gifts that God has given to each of us.

 

We need to learn that God’s work in the local church doesn’t and can’t depend on its leaders to do the serious work of the ministry, any more than our nation’s military depends on its generals and admirals to fight and win a war.

 

I’m told that it takes 10,000 soldiers for every general to fight and win a war.  Without the guys and gals on the ground and on the sea and in the air, and without all the so-called little people supporting them behind the lines, the battle will be lost, no matter how brilliant or charismatic the leaders!

 

It takes every member of the local church to do the work that God has laid out for the local church.  It takes every member witnessing for Christ to win the souls that God intends for us to win.

 

And if we’re truly teachable, then God can also make us usable, by molding us and fitting us into the work that He has for us to do.  In other words, God can make you and me fit for the ministry.

 

And so, as we come to church, let’s come willing to be taught and led by the Lord.  Where He leads, let’s be willing to follow.

 

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