Preached by Chris Broom, 2/24/2008

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From top left: Pat Boea, Roger Parlour, Jay Shelbrack and Theo Dawson are appointed deacons.

Building a Great Church, part 5 - Peter - Outline

This is a very important day in the building of the Chicago International Christian Church, as Roger Parlour, Pat Boea, Jay Shelbrack and Theo Dawson were appointed as our first deacons (1 Timothy 3:8-13). They, with the help of their wives will work to make sure the practical and material needs of the church are met as God provides.

Today, we will look at 3 more things that are absolutely necessary to build a great church.

1. Great Bible Study:

To build a great church, we must have great Bible study. 3 ways to study the Bible effectively are:

• Study by Topic: The First Principle Studies of the church are a great example of this.
• Study by Book: Pick a book of the Bible and spend some great time learning all about it as we have been lately with the book of Acts.
• Study of Biblical Characters: We have actually been doing this for the past few weeks. You may have learned more about Peter over the past few weeks than you realize. Peter is the main leader for the church throughout Acts chapters 1-12, as Paul is in Acts 13-28.

Peter was…

• Originally named Simon, son of John (John1:42).
• The brother of Andrew (Matthew 4:18 / John 6:8).
• Married to a believer (Matthew 8:14 / 1 Corinthians 9:5).
• Working in his father’s fishing business when he was called by Jesus (Mark 1:16-20).

Let’s review what we have learned about Peter in this series…

• Acts 1: Peter’s name was listed first not because he was chosen first but because he was the leader of the Apostles. He led them in choosing Matthias as Judas’ replacement.
• Acts 2: He preached the first ever gospel sermon and 3000 responded to that message and were baptized. He ushers the Jews into the Kingdom. (HS study under first principles.)
• Acts 3 He and John heal a cripple, preach the word and give God the glory.
• Acts 4 He is persecuted and proclaims with boldness the message of the cross. He was thought of as unschooled and ignorant because he was not trained by a Rabbi and had a Galilean accent (Matthew 26:33). He was commanded not to preach in Jesus’ name, but would not stop.
• Acts 5 He confronts Ananias and Sapphira.
• Acts 6 Peter helps find a solution for the problems that arose in the church. Today, 4 couples were appointed as Deacons in our church.
• Acts 7 Stays in Jerusalem after Stephen is martyred.
• Acts 8 He goes to Samaria and confronts Simon the Sorcerer.
• Acts 10-11 He ushers the Gentiles into the Kingdom and explained actions to the other Apostles. (HS study under first principles.)

2. Great Prayer:

Today, we are going to study Acts 12. First, James is arrested and killed (the first apostle martyred). As a result, Herod becomes more popular than ever. Next, he arrests Peter with the intention of killing him. The church began to earnestly pray for Peter’s release, even though it seemed impossible because God had not spared James.

In order to build a great church, there must be great prayers.

• I prayed and was invited to visit the New York City Church of Christ shorty after.
• The man who baptized me had been praying very specifically to study the Bible with someone who was going to be an evangelist.
• We need to pray earnestly, even for things that seem impossible, for with God, all things are possible.

3. Great Faith:

Peter is in between 2 soldiers and bound by 2 chains, and yet an Angel of God breaks him out of jail. When he realized that it was more than just a dream, he understood that God had rescued him from jail and certain death. He then went to John Mark’s mom’s house and though they didn’t believe it could really be him, even though it was the very thing they were praying for, they were fired up and their faith was strengthened. Sometimes it is only after God works that we see it, but when we see it, our faith grows.

Arts Ministry Begins
• For my birthday, Joel Klemmer and I went to the theater district and prayed for God to build an Arts Ministry in this city like the one that He used to reach out to me in New York City. That same day, we met with Joe Chiappetta, Renee Rondinone and Lauren Carney to start the Arts Bible Talk. I have no doubt that God is going to bless these seeds that are being planted and save many artists through this work. Already we have seen many more artists coming out and after several weeks, we are yet to have a Bible talk without people visiting with us.
• Please continue praying for our 2008 Church Prayer Goals. We are begging God that our number of Bible talks and Bible talk leaders will double to 20 and that we will be self supporting as a church. We are praying for God to bless these requests by the 2008 World Missions Jubilee in Los Angeles this summer.
• Are you ready to pray that God will do whatever it takes to help your family become Christians? Please listen to the audio sermon above and be inspired by what God is doing through people that are willing to pray that prayer.

Peter escaped to preach another day, however, in John 21:18 Jesus predicts the death he must suffer.

• Clement, bishop of Rome mentions the suffering and martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome under the persecutions of Nero, as does Tertullian, a Christian teacher and Caius, an ecclesiastical writer in the 3rd century.
• Eusebius also records this story, citing a church theologian named Origen who wrote about AD 230 as his source. Eusebius wrote: “Peter appears to have preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, to the Jews that were scattered abroad; who also, finally coming to Rome, was crucified with his head downward, having requested of himself to suffer in this way” (Ecclesiastical History 3:1).
• Supposedly Peter requested that he be crucified upside-down because he was “unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.”

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

King understood that because he was the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, some would hate him so much that they might kill him before he was able to see the racial equality that he so bravely fought for. He was right. Peter paid that same price for God’s dream of world evangelism. I pray that we are also ready to lay our lives down in order to help all nations reach the promised land.

Chris Broom

Categories: Building a Great Church, Sermons