Biblical Church Growth

Introduction

As Tom said in his opening remarks, we were away last week. In fact, we flew in just last night from West Texas, about as far west in Texas as you could get. We were in uh Lubbock, Texas, in a gospel meeting. Uh I want to brag on those folks in Lubbock. They’re so good to us out there. This is the fourth time uh that we’ve been in the gospel meeting in Lubbock, Texas, and every time they just treat us with that good Southern Texas uh hospitality, and they were so uh generous and kind and encouraging to us. Uh while we were there, we had a couple days uh off and we ventured over into the neighboring state of New Mexico and did uh some of the uh tourist stuff.

We went and visited the aliens in Roswell, uh New Mexico, uh, and then dropped down to the National Park of Carlsbad Caverns and went down to that big hole in the ground. Uh and then we swung back through the uh hometown, the childhood home of one of our members, Mike Manier. We drove through Hobbes, New Mexico and stopped at the Mike Manir Museum uh there in Hobbes. And so uh and as I said, flew back in uh last night, and it’s good to be back. Uh by the way, anything happen while we were gone? Uh okay, all right. I didn’t know if we missed anything or not. So uh it felt a little weird to be away uh while the the hurricane was happening. Kind of good and kind of bad.

We we were a little stressed, not as stressed as y’all, we understand, but but being away and not being able to take care of some things and all that, but then again, we kind of felt good to be away uh and let y’all deal with all of that mess. And it was there. But uh, as John expressed in his prayer, we’re thankful that at least for here it wasn’t as bad as maybe it could have been and was forecasted. Just want you to know that the hearts and the minds of those good brethren in Lubbock and other places are with us here in Florida. They were asking constantly. Is there any needs? Let those people know we’re praying for them. Is there anything that we can do to let them know?

And so, but it’s always good to be home and good to be back with you this week as we study together in God’s Word. We have been studying this year, looking at our theme for this year, how firm a foundation. And just trying to establish again, or maybe to re-establish that foundation. And it’s kind of timely in a time such as this at a storm when that foundation is being tested and maybe needs to be re-fortified. That’s the way it is with our faith. Storms and things can come and test that foundation and may reveal that we have built a good foundation, but maybe reveal in our personal spiritual lives that work needs to be done, like it needs to be done to your house to fortify it against the trials and the temptations and the storms of life.

And that’s been our theme this year. And throughout the year, we’ve broken the year down into sub-themes in the quarters. Our first quarter, we looked at Christ as our chief cornerstone, that he is the basis of our foundation. We have no temple. We have no foundation except for that cornerstone, Jesus Christ. Everything is built on and around Him. And so we spent the first quarter of the year emphasizing Jesus as our foundation. In that second quarter, we talked about the foundation of our faith. And we looked at some of those fundamental basis of our faith, the things that we need to understand and agree upon in order to have a good, firm foundation. The third quarter, we talked about that we’re the stones in this building, but we are to be living and active stones and what it means to be a part of that foundation.

And then, can you believe it? We’re already in the last quarter of 2024. And our sub-theme of the theme of how firm a foundation, we want to close out the year and talking about building on this foundation. We want to talk about growth. And really growth in two ways. Number one is just our own personal growth. Back in that third quarter, we said one thing about being a living stone is that we are constantly growing and evolving as Christians. Unlike the stone, a physical stone in a physical earthly temple or structure, that we are constantly growing or should be at least. And so we want to talk some about our own spiritual maturity and growth. But then also this temple, this New Testament temple, differs from that old Testament temple in that it is constantly growing in the sense that new stones are being added in.

And so we want to talk about church growth. We want to talk about evangelism of reaching out to those who need to be a part of this temple, who need to be a part of the kingdom of Christ and how we bring those in. And so that will be our emphasis as we round out the year and as we round out this theme of how firm a foundation. And so I thought it might be good for us to talk in this first lesson of this last quarter of this theme about church growth. But let’s make sure that we’re talking about this in a biblical way. True biblical church growth. It’s very easy for us to get our priorities misaligned. And certainly that is true. It’s very easy for us to get our priorities misaligned on the subject of church growth.

1. What We Mean by Growth

And so before we venture into this quarter and talking about building on this foundation, let’s go back to the scriptures and make sure that we have our priorities right. Let’s make sure that when we’re talking about growth, when we’re talking about adding to the church, that we really know what we’re talking about, or at least we know what we should be talking about. And so this morning, let’s talk about not just church growth, but biblical church growth. And so let’s just start by defining some terms. What do we mean by growth? When we talk about church growth, we could speak of growth again in two different senses. We can talk about growth as just this idea of what we might call internal growth, that we’re all to be growing.

This is a living organism. We are living stones, and we’re to be constantly growing. As individuals and as a congregation, as an entire body, we’re to be constantly growing in our knowledge of God’s word. We’re to be growing in our relationship to God and in one another. We’re to be growing, and this will be much of our emphasis this quarter, to be growing in our spiritual maturity. But then we also talk about just what we might call the classical idea of church growth, and that’s, and I don’t know of any better way of saying it than just talking about numerical growth. And we make no apologies in talking about and desiring numerical growth because we understand that when we talk about growth in numbers, that it’s not just some kind of mathematical addition problem that’s taking place, but that each number is a soul that is being added in.

2. What We Mean by the Word Church

So we’re not just trying to inflate numbers, we’re trying to add souls into the body of Christ. And so that’s what we mean when we talk about growth. But maybe more importantly on this subject, we need to clarify what we mean by the word church. I’m sure you, as good Bible students, know that the word church is used in various senses in the New Testament. Let’s talk just about two of those this morning. Sometimes, in that word church, that just simply means assembly is used in the New Testament. It’s talking in the most grand scheme of things. Look with me in the book of Ephesians, chapter one. In Ephesians chapter one. Let’s look at the last two verses of that chapter. Speaking of Christ, Ephesians 1, verse 22 says this, and he put all things under his feet.

The Father put all things under Christ’s feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. In that passage, the word church or assembly is referring to what sometimes we call the universal church. Maybe a better term for that is the term that Paul or the Holy Spirit through Paul uses here is just the body of Christ. This is all the saved, all the saved of all the world of all time. And you might say, well, then how can we refer to that as an assembly? Well, think of it this way. If it were possible, if it were possible to get all of the Christians, everybody whose name is in the Lamb’s book of life, to get them together in some huge field somewhere from all over the world.

And not only to do that, but to include in that assembly all of those who have already passed on. Maybe some that we knew and were familiar with, but all the way back we’d have Paul and Barnabas and Lydia there with us, and Aquila and Priscilla and different ones were there in that assembly, and all of those who have ever named the name of Christ in obedience to the gospel. That’s the body of Christ. What we sometimes refer to as the universal church. But then sometimes that term is used in a much more localized sense. You’re aware of that, but just look at Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, and let’s look at one verse there, verse 23. This is speaking of some of Paul’s work in preaching and traveling.

Acts 14, verse 23 says, So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. When they had appointed elders in every assembly, every local assembly.

3. God Determines the Body; Men Determine the Local Church

In Antioch or in Ephesus or in Corinth or in Orlando. And so we’re talking about both the universal church, our the body of Christ, and then the local church. When we’re talking about biblical church growth, which of those two are we talking about? Or maybe the better way of saying it, which of those two should be our emphasis, should be our priority. Are we wanting to add people to this local church? Is that our number one priority? Or is our number one priority that we want to add people to the body of Christ? Well, let’s make some further observations about those two usages of the word church in the universal sense and the local sense. Thinking of the universal church, only God determines who makes up membership in the universal church.

You remember there in Acts chapter 2 when the gospel was first preached in Acts chapter 2 and in verse 47, after they were told what they needed to do in order to be saved, it said there in Acts 2, verse 47, and the Lord added daily to those who were being saved. God was adding to this assembly those who were being saved. God did the adding.

Revelation chapter 3. Not only does God add to that body of Christ, but Revelation chapter 3 issues this warning. Revelation 3, verse 5, he says, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not, I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Now, doesn’t it necessarily follow if he says, I will not blot out those names, that there might be some names that will be blotted out. And so God adds to this body, the body of Christ, what we sometimes call the universal church, and he does so infallibly and perfectly, and God will remove people from that body. We’ll blot out those names from that book of life.

And again, God makes no mistakes when it comes to that. Only God determines who makes up the universal church or the body of Christ. But now let’s think about the local church. Men determine. Men determine who make up the local church. Look in the book of Acts, chapter 9. We have the story of. We know him more famously as the Apostle Paul. But in Acts chapter 9, he was still going by his Hebrew name Saul. And based upon his past history of being a persecutor of Christians, that church in Jerusalem was a little hesitant. Then we can sympathize with them. They weren’t really too keen on the idea of welcoming Paul into their assembly. And so it says in Acts 9, look at verse 26. Now, when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples.

But they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Paul, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. Jerusalem they said, We don’t want you. You’re a troublemaker. I don’t know, but they may have been suspicious that this was a trick. You’re trying to be like a spy. You’re going to kind of infiltrate us, and you want to get a copy of our church directory. That’s what you want with all our names and addresses on it, and then you’ll know where to come and get us.

And so they said, we don’t want you in our local assembly. But thankfully the good work of that son of encouragement, Barnabas, they welcomed him in. And so men determine who make up the local church. You’ll remember the episode in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul was writing to those people in Corinth and saying, You’ve got someone in your midst, a fornicator in your midst, and he needs to be removed from your local assembly. It was the people who were making those decisions. And Paul was urging them to make the proper decision, to remove that sin that was working like leaven in their midst. So God determines who makes up the body of Christ. Men determine who makes up the local church. Let’s take those thoughts a step further.

4. Our Actions May Not Reflect God’s Actions

Our actions in the local church may not necessarily reflect God’s actions in the body of Christ. Look over in 3 John is writing to a group of Christians who make up a local assembly. And he says this 3 John, there’s only one chapter or maybe no chapter. And so it’s 3 John verses 9 and 10 say this I wrote to the church. Now is he saying I wrote to the universal church, the body of Christ? No, I wrote to a local church, but diatrophes who loves to have the preeminence among them does not receive us. Therefore if I come I will call to mind his deeds which he does praying against us with malicious words and does not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to put them out of the church.

John is saying what’s going on in this local church doesn’t reflect God’s attitude. Diotrophies based upon diatrophies influence diatrophies is keeping people out and putting people out of the local church that should not be put out. And so our actions in the local church may not necessarily reflect God’s actions in the body of Christ. We may exclude people from our fellowship that God has included in him. Because remember, his decisions are infallible and perfect. Guess what? Ours aren’t. Look also in the at the other side of that equation in the book of Galatians. In Galatians chapter 2. So we might exclude people from our fellowship whom God has included in his fellowship, like Diotrephes did. Now, let me insert in here what’s hopefully is the obvious.

I hope that’s not the case. And we try to avoid those mistakes in human judgment. So we may keep someone out like Diotrephes did. We may, on the other side of that equation, we may include somebody in our fellowship that God has excluded from His. Look in Galatians 2 and verse 7. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel, oh, excuse me, not Galatians 2, verse 7. Let me get this. Galatians 2, verse 4. And this occurred, Galatians 2, verse 4. This occurred because of false brethren brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they may bring us into bondage. Paul says they were some false brethren who were brought in by stealth.

Well, now, they were brought in to what? False brethren brought in by stealth into the body of Christ. Did they sneak by God and get into the body of Christ? Well, no. He’s obviously talking about false brethren who are brought in by stealth into local churches. And the implication is they’re not in God’s fellowship, but they’re a part of a local church and they’re causing trouble. And so our actions in the local church may not necessarily reflect God’s actions in the body of Christ. We may keep somebody else out. Diotrophies did that God has welcomed into the body of Christ. We may welcome somebody in, like the Galatians did, who snuck in. Did they sneak into the body of Christ? No. Can they sneak into a local church?

Yeah. Because they may deceive us, and our judgment is not perfect like God’s is.

5. Growth to the Body of Christ Should Be Our Focus

And to help each person in the body of Christ to grow spiritually. Any interest in local church growth is secondary to the overall growth to the body of Christ. That should be our focus. Because growth in one does not guarantee growth in the other. Saving souls, even in one’s community, doesn’t necessarily assure local church growth. If we could graph, think of just a regular graph here. Graph the growth in the local church in Jerusalem. Started with 3,000, so it starts off big. They get to 5,000, and then it gets to where they’re not even that just says multiplied, and it says multiplied greatly. And so that graph is just going up exponentially. But then where Chris just read in chapter 8, what happens to the growth of the local church in Jerusalem?

It just plummets because of the persecution that arose after the death of Stephen. Those Christians scattered. And so the local church growth plummeted. Now is that a bad thing? Well, I guess it was a bad thing because of why it happened, persecution. But those people were still in the body of Christ. They weren’t in Jerusalem. They weren’t assembling with the saints in Jerusalem every first day of the week, but they were in Antioch. They were in other places throughout the world.

Say they went about preaching the word.

Evangelism that might take place there. You maybe convert people from that military base or convert students who are going to that university. Well, guess what’s going to happen? Those people aren’t most likely aren’t going to stay there for a long time. They’re going to move on. They’re going to get a different assignment in the military, or they’re going to graduate from college and move on and make their life. And so we’re working, we’re evangelizing, we’re teaching those people the gospel, but they’re not ours. And if our priorities are misaligned, one of two things can happen. Number one, the lesser of those two evils is we get discouraged by that. Well, we’re baptizing people, but then they’re moving on. That’s good. But we can get depressed by that.

The second, and the more evil of those two evils is that we can just quit doing it.

They’re going to be gone in six months or a year.

Not about inflating our numbers.

Whether they stay here in Orlando and assemble with a South Bumbi congregation, or whether they’re discattered like the disciples in Acts chapter 8, and go about strengthening souls everywhere else. Now there’s some dangers when local church growth is our emphasis. Danger number one is that if if we’re just concerned about numbers here at South Bumby, what I see as the number one danger is that we can compromise our teaching. If we’re not so concerned about adding people to the body of Christ, we’re just adding people here, then we can kind of water down the gospel. Those things that are becoming increasingly objectionable to the world and making it maybe harder to bring people in. Well, we just won’t talk about that. And we’ll lower those standards that God has put.

God’s put the entry level here into the body of Christ. Well, we’ll lower that standard for South Bumbi, and so our numbers will grow. Numbers of the body of Christ may not grow, but if we’re most interested in our numbers, that you can see it will be very easy to kind of water down and compromise those teaching. We can pursue carnal methods. If it’s just about getting people into our doors and getting people and seats in the pews, then we can pursue rather than convicting people of sin and error, we can flatter people into the local church. We can socialize people into the local church.

6. Preach Jesus and Add Them to the Lord

Pity the poor person who moves into an area where there’s multiple local churches who are concerned about local church growth. They’ll get wore out between the competition that is there. We can even result in the poor expenditure of money of what we use to impress people about coming here rather than being a part of the body of Christ. Well, then what should be our goal? Well, our goal is to save soul. Look with me in the book of Acts, chapter 11. I think this is a powerful illustration of what those early Christians did and where their emphasis was and where ours should be. Notice what those early Christians did, and then Barnabas, when he’s added to that mix, when they go to these areas and they preach, what did they preach?

Acts chapter 11. They come to Antioch, verse 20. Some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Skip down to verse 23. He, that’s Barnabas, when he came, he had seen the grace of God. He was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. Verse 24, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. What was their emphasis? The same emphasis that should be ours. They wanted to add people to the Lord.

We weren’t worried about adding people to their church, to their local church. They preach Jesus. And so let’s be careful in our evangelism. We’re not going out there and trying to convert people to the South Mumby Church of Christ.

Let’s go out there and preach to them Jesus. And add them to the Lord. And emphasize, yes, the need and the importance that they assemble with God’s people. Maybe it’s here, maybe it’s wherever they may be. And I’m going to tell you, this is an increasing challenge, I believe, for us and our mentality because of the growing opportunities that we have with the internet. We have an opportunity to preach the gospel in ways that our forefathers never even dreamed of.

Conclusion

They’re not in Orlando. So what if they obey the gospel? We’re never going to see them here. They’re never going to increase our numbers. They’re never going to put their money in our contribution box. And so I guess we conclude with this thought. Where are you on this? If I’m honest with you, I still have some growing to do when it comes to that. Pride and ego gets in the way sometimes. But I hope that we can all re-evaluate our priorities and our goals of what’s most important. And that is leading people to the Lord. Seeing that they’re added to the body of Christ. And fulfilling their local obligations in a local assembly, whether it be in Orlando or wherever they may be scattered throughout this world.

If we can help you this morning, wherever you live and reside, we want you to be added to the body of Christ. Because frankly speaking, we here at South Bumby, we have little to offer you. But God has everything to offer you. So we’re not trying to convert you to us and lead you to us. We’re just pointing you to the Lord. Because He has everything. It is His grace, mercy, and love that can wash away your sin. And let Him add you to His body this morning. Can we help you in that? Can we help you in any way this morning as together we stand and as we stand?