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Acts 9:31 "Edified and Multiplied"
Look with me today at Acts 9:31.
"Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria
had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and
in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied."
I want to spend some time on this verse because it says that the church
was both edified and multiplied. Now this is what we want in this church.
The word "edified" simply means "built up". This
does not mean that church buildings started popping up all over Palestine.
In fact the churches would meet in people's houses or in synagogues
for another 300 years before anyone thought to build a building and
call it a "church" So what does it mean that the church was
"built up"? Well, Jesus used the same word when he said "On
this rock I will build my church" How does Jesus build? Eph 4:11
"And He Himself gave some [to be] apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the
saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,till
we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in
the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth
in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--from
whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,
according to the effective working by which every part does its share,
causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."
You see Jesus is not building an impressive building, or an organization.
How Jesus builds is by knitting Christians together. So that each benefits
from the faith and experience and the gifts of the others and all together
grow into the fullness of Christ. Jesus didn't say "On this rock
I will build my saints, or disciples, or apostles, or even children."
He said, "I will build my church" We often have a picture
in our minds of the holy man, off by himself, communing with God in
isolation. But folks, not one book of the Bible was written by a hermit.
Not one isolated Christian finds it into the pages of scripture. We
never hear how Saint so and so became enlightened by meditating on God
for years in the desert. Instead you see Moses WITH THE CHURCH IN THE
DESERT! There are spiritual retreats, but then the saint comes right
back to the church. Even John on Patmos, writes his revelation to the
church. You see how can God build us up if we are alone? It would be
like my son trying to build a castle with one Lego block. How was the
church edified? They were built up together in love. Their love for
each other increased. They became more like Jesus Christ in that they
loved each other. Folks it is very very difficult to increase in love
by yourself. Love requires at least two. I hope you see the importance
of church. After Saul received baptism he went directly to the disciples
in Damascus and spent time with them. He went directly to the church.
And again when he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples.
I know that most of you will move to another city in the next four or
five years. Be like Saul, seek out the church wherever you go. Or if
there is no church, plant one!
Back to verse 31, the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee
and Samaria had peace and were edified. This is a new step here in Acts.
In chapter 8 the Christians fled from Jerusalem because of Saul's persecution
and we saw the example of Phillip, preaching in Samaria. But by the
time Saul comes to Jerusalem there are churches throughout all Judea,
Galilee and Samaria. This tells us something about the church. First
it tells us that in just a few short years the church had expanded dramatically.
There was something about it that spurred the church to keep reproducing
itself. This is this word "multiplied". I have been studying
a little spiritual mathematics. In Acts 2, "the Lord added to the
church daily those who were being saved." But here, God is multiplying.
I think the difference is that while in Acts 2 God increased the number
of believers, in Acts 9 He increased the number of churches. 5 years
ago, when Pastor Hirano founded Tokyo Horizon Chapel, he received a
promise from God, that if we brought empty vessels to Him, God would
fill them. And so, although we did not have a building of our own, and
still don't have a building of our own, we started to bring empty places
to God. First we brought the first floor of the YMCA building in Hongo,
right across the street from Tokyo University. And God filled it. Then
Pastor Hirano opened another worship place first in his house and then
in Machida, and again God filled it. We moved from Hongo to Shibuya
and God has been faithful to fill us each time. Then Shiojima-san who
was ordained an evangelist opened a worship place in Yokohama, and I
opened this worship place here at the Westin. And God is faithful to
fill these places too. Our church is definately a multiplication church.
In 5 years God has multiplied us 4 times. But not only have we multiplied
by place but also by congregation. Horizon has 7 different congregations
that meet to worship God. Each one of these is a group that God is knitting
together so that they can be built up in love.
Why are we multiplying? Why did the church in Acts multiply? What must
we do if we are to continue multiplying? One thing is hinted at in verse
31. "The churches thoughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria. They
were not "The Church of Judea", or "The Church of Galilee"
or "The Church of Samaria". They were the church throughout
these places. Actually the word "churches" can also be translated
"church". They did not consider themselves seperate. We have
a tendancy to think of ourselves as the Westin church or the Shibuya
church or the Machida church or the Yokohama church, or we are Charismatic
or Evangelical or Contemporary or Liturgical and then we start to think
that we are better than them because of the place or the style. Or that
they are better than us because of the place or the style. You know,
"Were the Church of Christ." "Oh, well were the Church
of God" "Oh, were the Church of God and Christ"... Folks,
let me tell you. I think by the time God is done with us, we will be
called just about everything. You know we are Charismatic, because we
believe in the gifts of the Spirit. But we are also very Evangelical,
earnestly desiring that all would know the good news. We are contemporary,
leading worship with guitar and piano at Shibuya and we are liturgical,
leading worship with hymns and organ at the Westin. What I am expecting
God to do with us, is multiply us so effectively that in one-hundred
years, if Jesus decides to wait that long, there will be churches that
are so different from us that we would be shocked, but who still love
as Jesus loves and teach the Word. If we are to multiply, we must continue
to be edified. We must continue to be knit together in love. It is when
that love ceases that we will stop multiplying new churches.
How does God multiply the church? Our text says that "walking
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they
were multiplied." Let us look first at the word, "walking".
The same word is translated in a different passage, "Go".
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature"
(Mark 16:15) "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...
(Matthew 28:19) So they were Going first of all in obedience to the
Great Commission. Their first priority wherever they went was to bring
the good news.
But the text says that they also were going in the fear of the Lord
and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Last week we studied the conversion
of Saul, how God broke into his life with His glory, and then touched
him with His love through the hand and voice of Ananias saying "Brother
Saul". The same two elements are key to multiplying the church.
I want to stress to you how important it is that we do not have the
one without the other. It is vital to our Christian life that we do
not seperate the God's glory from His love, or vice versa. You see,
if we only look at God's glory, we soon become paralyzed by fear. Like
Paul in the room, blinded and in shock, if we truly see the glory of
God, we will realize our own worthlessness. Like Paul we give up vain
thoughts of our own righteousness, our pride is dashed and despair is
immanent. What Paul needed most was to know that God forgave him. That
even though God knew everything that Paul had done, He still loved Paul.
God showed this to Paul through Ananias, who despite knowing exactly
who Paul was, came to him and said "Brother, Saul".
It is just as important that we do not focus so much on the love of
God that we miss this fear. I think that this is a big problem for us
today, and the main reason that we do not grow in righteousness. We
are content to rest in the all-forgiving love of Christ, and fail to
be set free of our sin. We are complacent about the lost, rationalizing
in our minds that a loving God would not let sinners perish. We soon
become solely concerned about our own comfort, whether or not our needs
are met, whether or not we are happy. And we get angry with God if we
don't feel His love right away.
But if we look at God's glory, we are immediately convicted of how far
short we fall. When God talked with Abraham, Abraham fell on his face.
Moses could not see the face of God and live, so God hid him in the
cleft of the rock. David said before God, "Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. My sin is always
before me." When Isaiah was called by God, he said, "Woe is
me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips," When
Daniel saw God, no strength was left in him, his vigor turned to frailty,
he fell on his face. Paul writes in the book of Romans. "Oh, wretched
man that I am" and John writes in the Revelation, "When I
saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." No man may stand before God.
We are all sinners and fall short of His glory! If when we consider
God, there is no fear, then our perception of God is monstrously deficient.
God wants us to rest in His love, this is why He sent Jesus to pay the
price for our sins. This is the good news. But God also wants to set
you free from the control that sin has over your life. God knows how
destructive sin is, that is why God hates sin. If our attitude is, "God
loves me, so this sin is ok.", then we must learn something from
Abraham and David and Isaiah and Paul. We need to see the glory of God.
We need to be going in the fear of the Lord.
Our image of the word fear is not very good. We think of the verse,
"perfect love casts out all fear." Surely fear is a bad thing.
But the more time I spend as a father, the better understanding I have
of fear. My son, at the same time, loves me, and is afraid of me. I
can tell that he loves me because the moment I come home he is on top
of me. He wants to spend time with me. I can tell that he fears me,
because before he does something wrong, he looks over at me, to see
if I am watching. If I am watching and he does it anyway, or if he doesn't
even look over at me, then there is something seriously wrong. Most
likely he is thinking, "Daddy does not care that I do this."
And if it is something that he knows is wrong, that quickly becomes,
"Daddy does not care about me." The Proverbs repeat many times
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Fearing
God, means that I know that God cares what I do. So, just like my son
considers my reactions, we also need to consider God's. This is the
fear of the Lord. It means that as we go about our day, we are considering
what God would have us do and putting God's will above our own.
The other half of this formula is going in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Without this comfort, the fear of God, would destroy us. Like Saul we
would rapidly succumb to despair. But God in His love sends us the Holy
Spirit. The word, "comfort" in Greek has two meanings. The
first is comfort, like a mother with a child who has fallen down. This
is how the Holy Spirit ministers to us. But the other meaning is that
of "counsel". Because God does not just want to set us free
from sin, He also wants to instruct us in righteousness. God wants to
guide us into those good works that He has prepared beforehand for us.
There are three things that the multiplying church will do.
First, we continue to be built up in love by Jesus, edified, knit together.
Even though we are seperated by geography or language or style we are
one in the love of Christ Jesus.
Second, we go in the fear of the Lord, always checking to see what God
thinks. Concerned about the things that are on God's heart. Grieved
by the sin that grieves Him.
Third, we go in the comfort/counsel of the Holy Spirit. Assured of the
love of God, assured that we are forgiven. Always eager to hear the
next mission that God has prepared for us. Always listening to the Holy
Spirit's whispers.
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