Stay on Mission – 10th December 2017

1. Acts 2:42-47 – The Lord Added.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Over the past few weeks we have been considering how the first church was devoted to ‘learning’, the fellowship’, and ‘prayer’. It is perhaps not surprising to read that there was an outcome to their devotion. This is seen at the end of the passage:
‘And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’.
It is important to take careful notice of how these words are written, the passage doesn’t say ‘and because of their devotion they became the fastest growing church in the city’. The growth is not credited to them but to God, it was the Lord who added! This truth is similar to the words that Jesus used when He sent out the seventy-two (Luke 10:1-24). He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”. (v2)
The Harvest field is not ours it is the Lord’s and this is a key thing to remember as we seek to stay on Mission with Jesus. It is not about us feeling that we have to ‘get people saved’ and ‘get them in church’, rather it is about us recognizing that Jesus is already at work in the harvest field and He is inviting us to join Him where He is – where the people are!
There are two vitally important implications of making His mission our focus:
1. As we meet together with other believers our focus should be not on ‘the church’ but on Jesus and His Mission. How can we learn, be in fellowship and pray in such a way that we will be empowered and equipped to be effective in the harvest field where we are scattered?
2. The number that defines us is not limited to how many people turn up at a church building or worship gathering on a Sunday. The activity of God is taking place in the lives of people that have never been through the door of a church and many of these people are our friends, neighbours, work colleagues and perhaps even family. It is this ‘number’ that our focus should be on.
As you seek to ‘stay on Mission’ this week please remember that our mission is not about merely swelling the number of people that attend a worship service so that we can be seen as a successful church. Our mission is to join Jesus in His Mission and, as we devote ourselves to Him, to trust that he will do the ‘adding’.
Dennis