Preached by Chris Broom, 3/9/2008

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Ted and Roslyn Williams (2nd & 3rd from left) and Leonard and LaTanja Moody (4th & 5th from left) place membership as Leonard’s son, Chip is baptized (far right)

Building a Great Church, part 6 – Paul – Outline

“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:47b

God continues to bless us here in Chicago. In the past eight days, God has added nine to our number! We are so grateful for the incredible team of disciples that He is assembling in our church, and we believe that He can use us, sinners that we are, to reach this city and this world. Pray for us to have the courage, strength, wisdom and humility to build a great church that will bring Him much glory and much fruit!

1. Zeal for the truth.

• Acts 8:1 Saul was there giving approval to Stephen’s death. He dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
• How could Saul have thought killing was the right thing to do?
• Numbers 25 shows us that Phinehas was a hero in the history of God’s people. God praised Phinehas for being zealous for His honor when he killed those who were rebelling against God.
• Saul believed he was fighting for God’s honor by killing Christians!
• In Acts 9:1 Saul is on his way to arrest more Christians and put them to death, a light knocks Saul down and Jesus speaks to him. God blinded Saul and while he thought he understood the truth, he now realized for the first time that he was in the darkness.
• God told Ananias that He would show Saul how much he must suffer for His name. (The Christian life is not spiritual Disneyland or Six Flags over Jesus.)
• Ananias had the gift of healing and gives him his sight back (see our “First Principles” Holy Spirit studies).
• Saul was baptized and we know from Acts 2:38 that when you are baptized, your sins are forgiven and you receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see our “First Principles” Light and Darkness studiy).
• How many of us think we have been zealous for the truth and yet we were in the darkness? (I did as I grew up going to church and yet living in hypocrisy.)
• It has been so exciting to see four people baptized into Christ this week. Chip Moody, Jakob Kocyan, Nick and Jacque Economo.
• Nick became a Christian because he was zealous for the truth. He learned the Bible and it became clear to him that the Bible is right and true. He then reasoned that if he rejected the Word of God, he would lose all he held dear anyway!
• Others have been baptized and yet no one has been in their life, so scales have grown back on their eyes.
• It has been equally inspiring to see God bring not only those being baptized, but disciples who have been searching for a church that would be zealous for the truth! Some have come proclaiming their need for restoration like Elaine Morris did last week, and others have come to place membership so that we can fight side by side as Ted and Roslyn Williams and Leonard and LaTanja Moody did today!

2. Zeal to preach.

• In Acts 9:19, Saul is a baby Christian and yet he’s preaching. No matter how young you are as a Christian, you can always say, “Look what happened to my life!”
• In Acts 9:22 we see Saul grow more powerful as he preaches. That’s the only way to learn! Get out there and you will learn how to be more effective.
• In Acts 10 (see our “First Principles” Holy Spirit studies), God shows Peter that the Gentiles were to be allowed into His Kingdom as well and Cornelius becomes the first Gentile convert.
• In Acts 11:19, at the same time Peter was telling the Apostles about God allowing the gentiles into the Kingdom, some zealots go to Antioch and are so fired up that they start baptizing gentiles as well. This is 36 A.D. and until this time, only Jews had been allowed into God’s Kingdom (for the first 7 years of the work). Here, a great number of Jews and Gentiles were brought to the Lord!
• Antioch was a large and important city with much trade that affected the world and some say that the church there grew to be 50,000 disciples!
• Barnabas is sent there and when he sees the great number of people being saved, he proclaims the evidence of the grace of God.
• Barnabas went to Tarsus to get Saul so that they could work together to take care of the great numbers of people in the church.
• Partners in the Gospel are like landmines for Satan that will protect you and guard you from his attacks. (Letter from Jesse to Joe!)

I hope you will take time to listen to the lesson and that God will meet your needs through it. Whether you are lost and in need of forgiveness like Nick, Jacque, Jakub and Chip were earlier this month, or saved and in need of partners in the Gospel like Elaine, Ted, Roslyn, Leonard and LaTanja, we will welcome you with open arms!

Easter Sunday is upon us and we hope that you will come and join us on March 23rd at 10 in the morning as we celebrate the Empty Tomb!

Chris Broom

Categories: Building a Great Church, Sermons
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