Simple Church #1 - The Word of God: When God Speaks, Things Happen (Selected Scriptures)

No, it's amazing.

What a joy, what a joy, what a joy.

Well, happy new year. As we're beginning this new year, I had initially planned to jump into the book of Genesis, which is gonna be our next book of the Bible that we study through. As you know, it's our typical habit to work our way through books or sections of the Bible, and so we were going to start Genesis.

But as we entered into this new year, I felt it kind of appropriate to maybe hit pause before we jump into a book like Genesis, and to think about some fundamental things that relate to the church. I don't know about you, but if you've been around church for any length of time, the temptation is often to think, well, I know what church is all about because I'm here all the time.

You know, I'm here every Sunday, and if they do stuff midweek,.

I may or may not go to that.

But in general, I understand what church is all about. But what I'm hoping to do with this short series that we're gonna do, it's gonna be no more than four weeks. What I want to do is to kind of get us thinking about the basics of church life.

I've been titled this series, Simple Church, Church Life Made Incredibly Easy, and I'm gonna explain why I say that. Just this week, I had to explain why I say that. But I'm essentially convinced that when we think about the church, the church was never designed to be difficult.

Being part of the church can be difficult, but church life itself, the things that the church does, were never designed to be difficult. With that, I'll put it to you that they're simple, maybe not always easy, but they're simple.

So that's what I wanna consider in the next four weeks, and I'll say more about that in just a moment. But for now, if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, take them and turn with me to the book of Acts.

The book of Acts, Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, and we're gonna read verses 17 to 32. Acts chapter 20, verses 17 to 32. I won't go into much of the context yet, I'll save that for the message itself, but for now, Acts chapter 20, and reading from verse 17 through to 32.

Acts chapter 20, from verse 17 to 32, and if you're physically able to do so, would you stand with me out of reverence for God's word as we read this portion? Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 17, and reading through to verse 32.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. Now from Miletus, he, being Paul, sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. When they came to him, he said to them, you know from the first day I set foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.

You know that I did not avoid proclaiming to you anything that was profitable, or from teaching you publicly, and from house to house, I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.

And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except that in every town, the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me.

But I consider my life of no value to myself. My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God's grace. And now I know that none of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

Therefore, I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you to be overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth, to lure the disciples into following them.

Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears. And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and grant us understanding. Join with me as I pray, ask for the Spirit's help, and then we get to work in God's word this evening. Well, gracious Savior, we would ask that as we open up your word and you speak to us now, we pray that even now your Spirit would be at work using this word of God to minister to your people.

Especially as we talk about today, the word of God as a means of grace. I ask that that would be the case even now, that the Spirit of God would minister grace to your people. And Father, even as I pray that for myself, I take a moment to pray today for Central Africa Baptist College and Seminary out in Zambia.

Thank you for their president, Philip Hunt, and the team that have assembled around him to see pastors trained in Central and Southern Africa for the glory of God. Pray that you would strengthen them, help them, minister to them.

May their work be fruitful even as they seek to serve you. We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Well, please be seated.

Please be seated.

I've tagged the message this evening. When God speaks, things happen. When God speaks, things happen. Hey family, I wanna start with a question this evening, well, afternoon, going into the evening. What makes a church a healthy church?

Have you ever thought about that question? What is it that makes a church a good church? That's a question I've given a lot of thought to, especially in the last five years. Ask that question and depending where you are, people will give you all kinds of answers.

Can I share some of the answers that people have given me over the years? I've heard everything from, well, it's the music to it's the programs. For some people, it's the lack of programs. Well, maybe that makes sense.

For some people, programs. Some people, a lack of programs. It's the social outreach. It's the community. It's not being preachy. It's about whether they preach the way that I like, whether they're friendly.

It's whether they let everybody speak. On and on and on the list goes. I've been in word ministry in some form or another since I was 18 years old. And the answers you just heard are some of the answers I've heard personally to that exact question.

So again, I asked the question, what makes a church a healthy church? What makes a good church a good church? Can I tell you what's wrong with every single one of those answers? Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway.

The problem with all of those answers is they're all about you. I mean, not you individually sitting here today. I mean, the general you. They're all about what we get out of this thing we call church.

The, what's the saying? The emphasis is on the wrong syllable. Yeah, that. I have a personal litmus test for my own spiritual life and the things that I engage in. I always ask myself, Kofi, is this a God thing or a me thing?

Is this about what I get from God or what God has done or is doing? You see, the problem with the answers that I just gave you, they're not bad things in and of themselves, but if those are your determined, if these are your markers that you use to determine what a good church is, the problem is each of them has you, again, not you individually, but the collective you.

They have us at the center. My aim in this four-week series that I've entitled Simple Church really is to reorient our view of the church. You see, here's my bold proposition for the next four weeks as we study this out.

You do indeed get something when you come to church. You really do. Just not what you might think. You get something when you come to church. You get something out of church. It's just not what many of us think.

You see, I wanna put it to you over the next few weeks that church is less about meeting your emotional, social, and any other temporal needs you have, though the church may do that, but actually, church is about communing with God and growing in grace.

That's why I've called this series Simple Church, because unfortunately, I think church has become something that God never intended. Around the kernel of truth, that is what the Bible says about the church, so much husk has developed.

You know what I mean when I say that? You grab a head of wheat, you have the kernel, but around it is so much husk you need to get rid of. Well, around the kernel of truth that the Word of God gives us about the nature of the church, so much husk, I would argue, has developed around it.

I had someone point out on our Facebook page this week that church life isn't supposed to be easy. Now, in one sense, that's true. Life with other people still in the process of being made into the image of Jesus, well, that's never going to be easy.

My late mentor used to say, iron sharpens iron, which means sparks must fly. It's not going to be easy, but can I put it to you that those are the relational issues of church life? And actually, they're easily dealt with if we just took the directives of Scripture seriously.

But those are not the same as, okay, what the church intrinsically is. I think when we look at the warp and woof, the basics of church life, church life is primarily about the grace of God. And if we understand church from that perspective, that makes church life somewhat easy.

Really, what we're going to look at in this four-week series is an old but tested theological concept called the ordinary means of grace. That's what we're going to be thinking about the next four weeks.

Now, that might not be a familiar term to everybody, so for a moment, I want to do some spadework and ask the question, just what are the ordinary means of grace? Just what are these ordinary means of grace I'm talking about?

I hope you still have your Bible open to Acts 20 because I want to spend some time here for just a moment. Because I think here in Acts 20, we're given some of the raw materials, as it were, that lead us to this idea of what we're going to be calling the means of grace.

So Acts 20, and I'm going to give you some of the context that I didn't give at the beginning. Paul is about 30 miles from Ephesus. He's at a place called Miletus. And while he's there, he calls for the elders of the Ephesian church to come to him.

As we read those verses, did you get a last words kind of sense as you read these? Did it feel like these were the last words of a nearly dying man somewhat? I hope you got that sense because that's definitely how Paul seems to view it.

So look down at verse 22 with me. What does Paul say? And now I'm on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me, oh, what I will encounter there, excuse me, except that in every town, the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me.

Jump down to verse 25. What does he say? He says, listen, that those of you who've heard me preach, listen, some of you are not going to see me anymore. I can't speak for you, but in African culture, we have a saying.

We say that you should shine your ears well. Like the idea is pay close attention, clean your ears out, because whatever he's about to say is really important. For a moment, can I draw your attention to verse 32?

Verse 32, I wanna make three quick observations as we get started, just so we can introduce this idea of the means of grace. Three observations that come out from this text. First of all, God builds up his people in grace.

God builds up his people in grace. So again, verse 32, pay attention. It says, and now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. Believers become believers by grace.

You know, Ephesians 2, eight and nine. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest anybody should boast. Every believer who's a believer is a believer because of God's grace.

The reality is not only do you become a believer by grace, but you grow and you mature in grace. Keep a finger here, turn me to 2 Peter. 2 Peter 3, last verse, 2 Peter 3, verse 18. 2 Peter 3, verse 18.

Peter says that for God's people, see that verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's not enough just to have experienced grace when you became a Christian.

Peter would have you to understand that there is a growth in grace that takes place. And Peter, Paul, excuse me, in Acts chapter 20 says, it's God who is able to build you up. The believer is established in grace and they're built up by grace.

So God uses means to build up, excuse me, God builds up his people in grace. But secondly, God uses means to build up his people in grace. God uses means to build up his people in grace. So again, look at Acts 20, 32 with me.

And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. Yes, God builds up his people, but note that Paul doesn't seem to suggest to us that God builds us up by just, as it were, zapping us into spiritual growth.

There are some theologies that teach that, that there is this particular event that takes place where the Christian moves from one level of spiritual growth to another in an instant. Oh, I would like that to be true.

It would make life so much easier. But when we read the Bible, the Bible tells us that actual growth in godliness doesn't happen in a single event. It's the journey of a lifetime. And it happens through means.

When I say means, literally, we're talking about instruments. This concept of the means of grace carries this idea of instruments that Jesus uses in your life and in mine to bring about and build up faith in his people.

Yes, God builds us up in grace, but like a builder needs tools to do the work of building, so God employs the means of grace. Again, another text in 2 Peter that I think will help us with this. We just read chapter three, flip over to 2 Peter chapter one.

2 Peter chapter one, and I wanna read verses two through four. 2 Peter chapter one, look at verse two with me. He says, may grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, that ties in with what we just saw about God building up his people in grace. Peter isn't saying here, oh, well, you need to be converted again.

And again and again.

When he says grace and peace be multiplied to you, he's not saying, oh, you need more saving grace. That's not what he's saying here. He's praying that his readers would come to understand more and more and more of the grace that they've already received.

But listen to what else he says, verse three. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. I'll come back to that verse later on, so I'm not gonna spend long there.

Verse four is where I wanna draw your attention. By these, his own glory and goodness, he has given us very great and precious promises so that through them, i .e. through these promises, you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

So Peter would have us to understand that we grow through our understanding and our application of, what does he call it in verse four? Great and precious promises, and it's through them that you and I as God's people participate in that very divine nature he gives through his spirit.

Like I said, we'll come back here in a little bit. So for now, just big idea. God builds up his people in grace. God uses means to build up his people in grace. My third observation, if you wanna come back to Acts chapter 20 with me, God uses specific means to grow his people in grace.

So one more time, if I could point you back to Acts 20, 32. Please note that Paul says, and now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Paul highlights the word of God here in our text as one of the specific means that God uses. Now at this point, I need to be careful and I need to make a distinction between the stuff that God has promised to bless and the stuff that God might bless.

See, there are lots of things that we can do as Christians, which may be good things and they're not sinful things, but there are specific things that God has, in his word, attached his promise to as his people.

That means that while God might bless other things, this is a good way to think about it, God might bless other things to the growth of the believer, he will bless the particular things we're gonna talk about over the next four weeks.

Other things might be good, but when it comes to the church, these things are central. As one pastor in his excellent book, Green Pastures, a Primer on the Ordinary Means of Grace, Ryan Davidson put it, quote, "'God is free to use any means in the life of any believer "'to grow and strengthen their faith, "'but these means are the primary instruments "'through which he has told us he will work.'".

Okay, so if there are specific means that God uses, well, probably we should know what the specific means are, right? Make sense? Well, at this point, I lean on our fathers in the faith once again. The 1689 Unbaptist Confession in chapter 14 says this, quote, "'The grace of faith by which the elect "'are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls "'is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts.

"'It is normally,'' and I'm using a modern language translation. The original one says it's ordinarily. So you can substitute either word, ordinarily, normally. "'It is normally brought into being "'by the ministry of the word.

"'It is increased and strengthened,'' and here's what our fathers in the faith understood by this. "'It is increased and strengthened "'by the ministry of the word,'' number one, "'by the administration of baptism "'and the Lord's Supper,'' two and three, "'prayer,'' four, "'and other means appointed by God,'' so you see how they name specific things and other things, they say, well, those are other means that God may be pleased to use.

The word of God, prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. These are what we call the ordinary means of grace, and when we say ordinary, I know I don't need to say it, but just so we're clear, it's not ordinary in the sense of boring, but ordinary in the sense of they're the standard, they're the usual things, and here's my contention in this four-week series.

Those, quote-unquote, ordinary things are precisely what the church is meant to be about,.

Nothing more, nothing less.

In previous generations, this was normal language, and I don't have the time to go on a historical rabbit show this morning to kind of, well, afternoon, to kind of say how we got here. For those of you who are history buffs, I give you a history assignment, go look up the Second Great Awakening.

And now, for now, excuse me, let me say this. My hope for Redeemer Bible Fellowship is that this would be an ordinary means of grace church, that we would be committed to passionately pursuing those things which build us up in grace as God's people, and in that sense, my hope is that we would be a, as the series suggests, a simple church.

So real quickly, let me summarize. Number one, God doesn't just save us by grace, he grows us up in grace. Two, God doesn't just grow us in a moment, he uses means, and three, God doesn't just use any means, he uses specific means.

We all good?

Everyone still tracking with me up to this point? Have I not lost, if I've lost anyone, let me know. Apparently not, okay.

Good.

All that was introduction. For the rest of our time this evening, which trust me, the second half will move a lot quicker than the first half. For the rest of our time, I wanna dig a little deeper into the idea that Paul introduced to us in Acts 20, 32, that God's word is able to build us up.

We're gonna look at that first means of grace as we think about the word of God. And I wanna make a case from God's word that here's my big idea for today. The word of God is the foundational means of grace that God uses in saving, sanctifying, and equipping his people.

Let me say that again. That the word of God is the foundational means of grace that God uses in saving, sanctifying, and equipping his people. I want us to consider the fact that the word of God is the means that really gives power to the other three that we're going to talk about the rest of this month.

It gives life to these other means. And so for the rest of our time this afternoon, I wanna consider four features of the word of God that should spur us to pursue the scriptures with passion. I wanna just take, this is gonna be really basic for some of you, I'm sure.

But I wanna revisit just some basic things about the word of God that I hope should spur us all on this first Sunday of the year to pursue the scriptures with passion. So four features of God's word. Mind if I get straight to work?

First of all, God saves through his word. God saves through his word. I mean, that should be no surprise to any of us if we read our Bibles. The first creation that we're gonna talk about in the month of February when we start Genesis, the first creation came about through God's word.

And when we read the Bible, the Bible tells us that the second creation comes about through God's word. You don't need to turn there, but I'll read it. First Peter chapter one, verses 22 and 23, Peter says, since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, the obedience that he's referring to here is the obedience to the call of the gospel, that conversion had taken place.

So that you show sincere brotherly love for each other from a pure heart, love one another constantly because you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. Not what Peter says, we've been born again through, through the living and enduring word of God.

Peter says that the word of God is the means, that's what that word through means in original language, that the word of God is the means by which the action of being born again has taken place. That's why Paul can say in Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 17, how then can they call on him they have not believed in?

And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, but not all obey the gospel for Isaiah says, Lord who believed our message, Romans 10, 17.

So faith comes from what is heard, literally faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes through the message, which is literally the word about Christ. If you're here today and you're a believer in some way, shape or form, you were saved through the ministry of God's word used by his spirit to bring about faith in Jesus Christ.

It might have been a conversation, it might be a sermon, it might have been a radio broadcast, it might be a message in a church or a gospel event, whatever the human means, the human means was simply just a vehicle, the vehicle by which the spirit of God on Christ and the father say so, takes the word and it becomes living and active in the heart of the unregenerate sinner.

When you heard that message about Jesus and his sinless life and his all encompassing atonement and his glorious resurrection and the call to believe in him, God by his spirit used that very word you heard to create the very faith you would need to believe.

If I can pause for a moment, doesn't this take the pressure off when it comes to evangelism? Number one thing I hear from Christians all the time, sharing my faith is just so terrifying. But can I put it to you that it's not terrifying if you understand that it's not your job to save anyone?

Think about it, let me say that again. Christian, it is not your job to save anyone. Your job is to be faithful in the proclamation of the message. As one of my preaching heroes says, preach the message and trust God with the results.

I think one of the great tragedies of modern evangelism is that we've made it more about being great communicators rather than trusting, let me slow down and say this. We've made it more about being great communicators rather than trusting the great communicator to do his job.

A job that, think about this sometime.

The spirit of God,.

Who is the great communicator in my opinion, he's been doing this job a lot longer than you or I, and frankly, he's better at it than you or I. Name me the best evangelist in the world, he is no match for the Holy Spirit.

So God saves through his word. But secondly, not only does God save through his word, secondly, he sanctifies through his word. He sanctifies through his word. Well, again, should be no surprise, Jesus said that verbatim.

So John chapter seven, verse 17, sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. We were in first Peter one a few moments ago. Again, you'll need to turn that, I'll read it. First Peter chapter two, Peter says, therefore, in light of the fact that we've been born again through the word of God, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander, like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word so that by it, you may grow up into your salvation.

Peter says that it's not only through the word that we are saved, but it's through the word that believers grow up into salvation. But can I stretch you for a little moment? Can I say, can I point something out that might be a little stretching?

I hear all the time from Christians how they want to grow in their faith. This is an admirable thing, we should all want to grow in our faith. They wanna grow in their walk with the Lord, which is admirable, it's a goal we should all seek.

But oftentimes they think change of life begins with doing certain things. That change of life begins with kind of like, you know, New Year's resolutions. For what it's worth, I stopped making them years ago because I knew I couldn't keep them.

I can't feel bad about not keeping them if I don't make them. So I don't make New Year's resolutions. But some people kind of treat the Christian life that way. Like, if I kind of just say, you know what, I'm gonna start doing this and kind of grip my teeth, I'm gonna kind of push my way through it.

But can I put it to you that change of life as a Christian doesn't start with change of life? That if you're a Christian, actually change of life begins with change of mind. The Bible would have us to understand that you are what you think before you are what you do.

Okay, Kofi, what does that have to do with 1 Peter 2 that you just read? Actually, everything. I like how New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner breaks this down, he said this, the word logos, after all, was the means by which believers, by which God gave birth to believers.

God's word abides forever. And that very word is identified as the gospel preached to the believers by Peter. Hence, Peter used the word here for spiritual to define milk. So the readers will understand that the milk by which they grow is nothing other than the word of God.

The means by which God sanctifies believers is through the mind, through the continual proclamation of the word. This is the point that I was reading and it got me. Spiritual growth is not primarily mystical, but rational.

And rational in the sense that it is informed and sustained by God's word. Before we think of actually trying to do anything, we need our minds to be renewed. Oh, isn't that the order in Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter four, 22 to 24?

That you put on certain habits, that you're renewed in the spirit of your mind, and then you put on new habits. Transformation doesn't happen through some mystical experience or just by willpower. It's what happens when the word of God impacts the believer with power.

It's what happens when a believer says, I am going to take God at his word and his word impacts the life of that believer. So God saves through his word. He sanctifies through his word. Thirdly, God supplies through his word.

God supplies through his word. What do I mean when I say he supplies through his word? By that I mean that God gives us all that we need for life and service through his word. I told you I was gonna come back to 2 Peter 1, 3.

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, where? Through the knowledge of him. Think through that passage with me for a moment. Think with me through this. Calvin in his commentary, he has this wonderfully gospel-rich take on this.

He says, quote, the knowledge of God is the beginning of life and the first entrance into godliness. In short, spiritual gifts cannot be given for salvation until being illuminated by the word of the gospel.

We are led to know God. See, Christian, you were saved by God's word and you receive ongoing equipment for life through God's word. That's one of the reasons that we've named the sort of equipping ministry of our church, Redeemer Equip.

It's a fundamental part of our philosophy of ministry here that we want to make disciples who are equipped for life and godliness. And that doesn't happen. I imagine Peter would have us to understand without prolonged exposure to this book.

As I mentioned, this year, 2022, will be 14 years since I taught my first Bible study.

It was horrible.

I'm glad nobody can find it. But can I share with you one of the frustrations that I've encountered in 14 years of doing this? Regardless of what I've taught, regardless of where I've taught it, there are many.

But let me share with you the most prevalent one I encounter. I call it death by practicality. You know what I mean by death by practicality? You probably don't know the term, because I made it up, but you know the concept.

You pastors and you Bible nerds, you need all of that Bible and doctrine stuff. But what I need is something practical. You think, why is that frustrating? It's not a good thing. I mean, I'll explain why I think that's bad.

But it's bad enough when, you know, your average Christian kind of says that. You kind of just like, okay. But what do you do when, again, 14 years, been around enough pastors, you get pastors who tell you the exact same thing?

There's one pastor told me, and I never forgot it. People need stuff for Monday morning. You know, have you heard that phrase before? I like to preach for Monday morning. You know, they need, you know, how to be a good employee at work, as if Ephesians 6 doesn't exist in the Bible, Colossians 3, 1 Peter 2, all of those texts that talk about being a, or what one of my pastor friends, Jack Hughes, calls having Jesus as your boss.

Like none of those texts exist. No, you don't need the Bible for that. Or as the same pastor told me, how to be a good employee at work, how to raise their children as if the book of Proverbs, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 doesn't exist.

How to deal with problem people in their lives.

Again, book of Proverbs.

My response to that over the years, my initial response was kind of roll my eyes and walk away, which is actually very rude and I apologize. But my current response now isn't to roll my eyes and walk away, it's to ask a question.

It's a pretty simple question. How much of everything is everything? What does that have to do with anything? Well, on 2 Peter 1, 3, his divine power, I'll read it to you again. His divine power has given us everything required for life in godliness through the knowledge of him.

So I ask again, how much of everything is everything? You see, here's what the concept of death by practicality says. What you need is more stuff to do. That's what's most important. You don't need to understand any of it, just do it.

But if you've read the Bible for any length of time, that's not how God has organized the Bible, has he? The Bible is primarily about God. The Bible is primarily about Christ. The Bible is primarily about the king and his kingdom.

Even the quote-unquote practical or more applicational parts of the Bible, even those parts, they're built on a very solid doctrinal and not very practical foundation. So if you read Ephesians, the first three chapters, not many imperatives.