April 6, 2025 • 34 mins
Pastor Brian discusses the importance of focusing on the church's core mission as outlined in Acts 3:11-16, emphasizing that the church's power and success come from the Holy Spirit, not personal merit. He highlights the need for the church to rekindle its voice and mission, urging members to be receivers, transmitters, and trailblazers of the gospel. Brian criticizes the church's tendency to focus on routine and tradition over true spiritual engagement, calling for a return to active evangelism and discipleship.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian Rhodus (00:00):
Where are we majoring on minors and minoring
on majors? Where have we mixedup our stuff? And that's why
we're in the book of Acts. Andso we we get to chapter three,
we see Peter and John have goneout, and they're in Jerusalem.
They're they're ministering, andthey've received the power of
the Holy Spirit to to heal, toteach, to do the things that
(00:23):
Jesus has commissioned them todo. And right off the bat,
they're faced with their firsttask. There's a man in the gate.
He's been crippled since birth.
We talked about him last week,and they heal him in the name of
Jesus. And so this morning, weget to verse 11 of chapter
three, and we see Peter has toexplain to the crowd what just
(00:45):
happened, but they're astonishedwhat has happened here. And so
he's explaining the meaning ofthis miracle to the crowd. Who,
who want to know is, is thisPeter and John that did this, or
is this something else? Is thisa even a demonic force that has
done this? What's going on here?
(01:06):
And so what this what thesepassages do, Chad, we're going
to be in verses 11 through 16,but what it does is their
message to the crowd is the samemessage that we can still apply
to our hearts today, and itprovides the proof that Christ
Message, the church's message,which is synonymous that God
(01:27):
raised Jesus from the dead asLord and King. He is the true
Messiah of Israel and of theworld today. That's the message.
That's what they wanted them tohear so that they would not be
confused on anything. May wenever go about anything on our
(01:48):
own merit, on our own terms. Letit be through the power of the
Holy Spirit and Jesus Christthat we accomplish things. And
when people say, Well, look atwhat Brian's doing at that
church. No, no, no, no. Look athow the Lord is working through
this church. I'm just a vessel.
I heard, I heard a guy, Heidi,and I had the opportunity to go
to the cooperative program, 100year banquet for the state of
(02:12):
Mississippi this past Fridaynight. And Doctor Jeff orange,
who is the Executive Director ofthe Southern Baptist Convention.
He was talking about how thisone man was criticizing and
saying, you know, thecooperative program, by the way,
the cooperative program iswhere, how we send our
missionaries out churches giveto the cooperative program. We
(02:34):
don't have to. We choose to. Wechoose to cooperate, and that
money goes to send missionariesall over the world, all over the
United States. And so he waslistening to a man who was
talking about this being anantiquated system and not worth
the time, and we need to figureout something else. He said, you
you have a method that is amodel a car in a Tesla world,
(02:57):
long story short, Doctor orangelooked at him and said, what we
do is not a model whatsoever,but it is the vehicle to get it
done church. That's what we arehere for. We don't change on the
biblical principles. What wechange on is our methodology and
(03:20):
approach to getting the messageout. Today, we have more
resources than ever before intimes in history to communicate
the gospel, and we're failing ata rate more than any other time
in history at communicating thegospel. We have a job to do. So
the title of today's message isthe church speaks. So we first
(03:44):
see the church speaking out inActs chapter three, and
somewhere along the way, we haveforgotten our voice. We've
neglected our voice. We have ajob to do to rekindle that voice
and tell people about the savingpower of Jesus Christ, so the
(04:07):
church speaks once again. So ifyou would turn in your Bibles to
Acts chapter three, we're goingto be in verses 11 through 16.
And will you stand with me as wehonor God by the reading of His
Holy Word. Now this takes placewe'll see in verse 11 at
Solomon's portico. This is ashaded area along the eastern
(04:30):
wall of the what they would callthe Court of the Gentiles. It
was used for commerce. It wasused for teaching conversation.
When we get to Acts chapterfive, specifically verse 12,
we're going to see that this islater a major gathering place
for Christians. So this is wherethis conversation is taking
(04:51):
place. After the healing of thisman, Peter and John are going to
explain to the people what justhappened you. Chapter three,
verse 11 says this, while he,the crippled man, clung to Peter
and John, all the people utterlyastound, ran together to them in
the portico called Solomon's.
(05:13):
And when Peter saw it, headdressed the people, men of
Israel. Why do you wonder atthis? Or Why do you stare at us
as though, by our own power orpiety we made him walk the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac,the God of Jacob, the God of our
(05:34):
fathers, glorified his servant,Jesus, whom you delivered over
and denied in the presence ofPilate when he had decided to
release Him, but you denied theHoly and Righteous One and asked
for a murderer to be granted toyou, and you killed the author
of life, whom God raised fromthe dead to this we are
(05:58):
witnesses, and his name, by thefaith in His name has made this
man strong whom you see andknow, and the faith that is
through Jesus has given this manthis perfect health. In the
presence of you all, Father God,may we be readily able to
testify to the great andwonderful things that you are
(06:19):
doing to hide us behind yourcross, to give glory to your
name and your name alone. Andit's in Jesus's name that we
pray. Amen. You may be seated aswe look at these verses, these
11 verses, 11 through 16, it'seasy to point out what was going
on. Here is just an explanationof what Peter and John did
(06:44):
through the power of the HolySpirit. But when we apply this
to us today, and what is themessage for the church today, in
this explanation, there arequickly three privileges that
Christians have even today. Sothis morning, as we look at
(07:04):
these three privileges for allChristians, you're going to see
that you have a task to do andsomething to follow through
with. And I hope that this ischallenging to you as you see
that we have, we have to, wegotta get busy. We gotta get out
of these four walls and tellthese people about Jesus Christ.
(07:27):
So the first privilege that wehave is that we are privileged
to be receivers. We received themessage of the gospel. We
received the Holy Spirit when wesaid yes to Jesus. You see,
Christians, believers, many ofyou in this room, we are
receivers, but we're notmanufacturers. From from the
(07:50):
moment of our conversion to theinstant we have glorified
bodies, we depend on the Lord togive us what He has promised,
from the moment we say yes toJesus and become a Christian to
the moment we look at Jesus faceto face, when we have passed out
of this world, we know anddepend on what the Lord has
(08:15):
given us, what he has promised.
You see, we do not manufactureour ministry. We don't
manufacture the things that wewant to do. We don't dictate how
people are saved. God hasalready done that. We receive
the details we we receive thedirections from the Lord, God
Almighty, through His Holy Wordthat we call the Bible, that is
(08:39):
inerrant, infallible and truefor every aspect You see, God's
people, us Christians, we'vegotta wait on the Lord until he
opens our eyes, opens the wayand empowers us for service,
church, family, We've sat onthat long enough, God has opened
(08:59):
our eyes. We know that there isa world that needs to be
reached, but we've sat on ourtails for way too long. God has
opened our eyes. He's opened theway, our communication,
methodology, our physical wellbeing, the ability for us to
(09:22):
have conversations with peopleeven closest to us. And the
other thing is that God hasempowered us for service. Jesus
said in Matthew 2819 and 20right there at the end, and he
said, and I am with you always,even until the end of the age.
(09:42):
He empowers you. He is with you.
So the first church tarried inprayer for for 10 days, knowing
that God would keep His promiseand and send the Holy Spirit.
And he did,so, do God's people. Today, do
you and I today set aside timefor prayer and wait on the Lord
(10:03):
to send his blessing. And what'syour prayer life like? Are you
praying for gospelopportunities? Are you praying
that someone else will take careof that? I fear we are so busy
manufacturing counterfeitChristianity that we miss the
(10:24):
blessing of the Lord completely.
We we're really good at church.
We're really good at making surethat we sing a song, we do a
special, we do the welcome wedidn't today, did we? And then
when we when something doesn'tgo as planned or as normal or as
(10:46):
routine or as we expect it togo, as tradition would hold,
makes us a little uncomfortable,doesn't it? If I were to end
this service today, and we'dhave the invitation. And I
walked out the doors and got inmy car and didn't stand at the
(11:07):
back and greet anybody, or Ijust decided I wasn't going to
show up at the office tomorrow,Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, let's just say for thenext two weeks. You You didn't
see Brian's face during officehours, not because I was
neglecting my job, but because Iwas maybe sitting at Starbucks
meeting people, or I was sittingsomewhere else, talking to
(11:29):
people, or I was actually usingoffice hours to go and visit
people. You as the church, asthe people that your pastor
supposed to take care of, to anextent, would get a little
aggravated, wouldn't? You can'tget in touch with him. He's
never in the office. We don'tlike things to get out of the
(11:49):
norm, do we? But I fear that weare so busy manufacturing
counterfeit Christianity,Christianity that we we miss the
blessing of the Lord completely.
Doctor AW Tozer said it likethis. He said, If God were to
take the Holy Spirit out of thisworld, most of what the church
is doing today would go righton, and nobody would know the
(12:11):
difference, right? We got itdown to a science, so the Holy
Spirit were gone, and we neverfelt or saw the Holy Spirit
again. We could still sing threeor four songs, have a choir
anthem, listen to me speak andgo home at the end of the day
and come back and do it again,maybe Wednesday, if you feel
(12:33):
like it, but Sunday, if God wereto take the Holy Spirit out of
this world, most of what thechurch is doing today would go
right on, and noone would knowthe difference church, we are
receivers. We have received amessage. We've received a
blessing. So that brings us tonumber two, what do we do with
what we have received? You'resupposed to transmit it. We are
(12:54):
privileged to be transmitters.
God could use this mic standright here to communicate the
gospel if he so wanted to, buthe he wants you to do it. He
wants you to be part of hismission and vision and plan.
He's called you to do it, to goto be a transmitter. You know
what this thing is on the backof my belt right here, this is a
(13:16):
transmitter. You know, whathappens if I
so that you can hear me a lotbetter friends, when we unplug
(13:41):
from the Holy Spirit, when weunplug from the from the Lord of
what He has blessed us with, andand we refuse to be transmitters
of what He has given us, we'reuseless. It's pointless. It's
pointless for me to have two$300 microphone if I'm not going
to use it. What's the point? Wesee in verse 12, it says, And
(14:03):
when Peter saw it, he addressedthe people, men of Israel. Why
do you wonder at this? Or Why doyou stare at us as though, by
our own power or piety we wemade him walk like Don't, don't
look at us. You've they'veprobably known Peter and John
for a while now, and probablyhave never seen them issue a
(14:25):
miracle. And now that they'veseen them do it, they're like,
why are you looking at us? Youknow it wasn't us. You ever seen
us do this before. And so whatPeter does is he focuses on the
power and the authority of JesusChrist, not, not on any
supernatural abilities that maybe attributed to the apostles or
the disciples? No, he focuses onthe power and authority of
Jesus. You see the blessingsthat we receive from God, the
(14:49):
things that we receive from Godmust be shared with others,
because God blesses us so thatwe might be a blessing in
today's crumbling world. It.
Think about what the world wouldlook like if the church didn't
step up, if the church didn'tcare, if the church was
lethargic, what would the worldlook like? But what would the
(15:12):
world look like if we actuallystepped it up a notch or two?
You see the blessings we receivefrom God must be shared with
others. Yet, yes, we're we'rereceivers. But what Acts 2035
says that we'll get to in acouple of years. Acts 2035 says
It is more blessed to give thanto receive. And we have got a
(15:32):
giving church. You you givefinancially. You give of your
time, many of you, but there's,there's the 20 80% rule, 20% of
the people do 80% of the work.
20% of the people do 80% of thegiving. 20% of the people do 80%
(15:56):
of the fill in the blank, whichmeans there's 20% of y'all that
maybe doing a little but let meask you this, what would it look
like in your life to honor Godand take it to the next level,
in your giving, in your prayerlife, in your Bible study, In
your attendance, in yourserving, what would it look like
(16:16):
if you took it to the Nextlevel? And so as Christians,
we're, we're not just reservoirsfor people to admire us, but But
we, we are the springs of livingwater that that bring
encouragement and enablement toothers. Today when you when you
go and you knock on a door,those of you who are going on
(16:37):
teams today to to talk topeople. When you knock on that
door and someone actuallyanswers the door, you're there
to be an encouragement. You'rethere to build a relationship
with them. And just think abouthow it would make you feel if
you were on the other side ofthat door, and then all of a
sudden, the person that'stalking to you, they don't want
(17:01):
money, they don't want you tobuy anything. They don't they
don't want to sell you anything.
They just want to how are youdoing? We're a church in the
neighborhood. God has blessedus, and we want to love you,
just as Jesus Christ loved us,so as Christian, we're not the
reservoirs for people to admireus, but we're the springs of
living water that bring thisencouragement and enablement for
others today. In verse 13, itsays the God of Abraham, the God
(17:25):
of Isaac, the God of Jacob, theGod of our fathers, glorify His
servant, Jesus. And so whatPeter is doing here is he is
reminding specifically theJewish people that are listening
to him of God's covenantpromises to Abraham and his
faithfulness to Israel,including making Israel a great
nation. And don't miss this.
(17:47):
Don't miss this church andblessing the entire world. It
wasn't enough for God just tobless Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and Israel, but they wereto be a blessing for the entire
world. Don't miss that. And Godsays to us today what he said to
Abraham centuries and centuriesago in Genesis, 12, two, I will
(18:08):
bless you so that you can be ablessing. I will bless you so
you can be a blessing. Church,one of the greatest joys of the
Christmas Christian life is tobe a transmitter and to help
others become transmitters aswell. That's what the
discipleship process looks like.
It starts with evangelism andand sharing the message of the
(18:29):
gospel with people so that theycan put their faith in Jesus
Christ, and then they grow intheir faith, and then take that
message out and be atransmitter. They receive, they
transmit. They receive, theytransmit. It's a process. It's a
continuum. And so Jesus said inMatthew 25 verse 40 verse 45
(18:50):
assuredly, I say to you whateveryou did to one of the least of
these people, you did it for me.
So when you come in contact withpeople, whether they know the
gospel or not, you you have amessage to bring them the hope
of Jesus Christ and the gospelif they have not heard it or
(19:11):
responded to it or the themessage that you need to take it
to the next level. So we speakwhen we serve others, we are
serving Jesus and glorifyingHim. You know, it's a good thing
when local churches send outmissionaries, but it's a good
thing when every member of thelocal church is a missionary,
right in his or her ownbackyard. Imma say that one more
(19:35):
time, just because I think someof you may have missed it. It's
a good thing when we send outmissionaries, and we're planning
on doing that. We alreadysupport three missionary
families, and as we start makinglocal, national and
international partnerships,we're going to send teams to be
short term missionaries to theseplaces. And that's a wonderful
(19:56):
thing. But what's even morewonderful is when every. Member
of this church, of that church,of that church, of that church,
and every member, every personwho calls themselves a Christian
that's been saved by the bloodof Jesus Christ, when they are a
missionary, right in his or herown world, in your own backyard.
(20:19):
Now, I've been in churchbuildings. Whereas you enter,
you see a sign that that reads,enter to worship. You may have
been too walk in the back doors.
It says, Enter into worship. Andthen as you leave, right above
the back doors, it may saysomething like, now, depart and
serve, or perhaps you are nowentering the mission field.
Friends, that is true. As youleave this place, you're
(20:40):
entering the mission field, andwhat you do glorifies or dis
glorifies, God. Be faithful tothe call that He has for you in
your own mission field, it's theHoly Spirit who sends forth the
gospel acts 13 four, and it'sthe Holy Spirit that empowers us
to tell people how to get toheaven, how to get to God.
(21:01):
Lastly, number three, we areprivileged to be trailblazers.
Now I'm not talking about theChevrolet SUV. I used to have
one, until teenagers at one ofmy former churches spun circles
in it, behind the church, andnext thing I know, I'm riding
(21:23):
down the road, and the CV boot,or whatever it is, goes my
tires, both of em front tires.
I'm not bitter, but we're we'reprivileged to be spiritual
trailblazers. You see an elderlymember of one of the churches
that that I served in once askedme, son, just remember, no
(21:47):
matter what, they tell you, thegood old days weren't all that
good. We love the good old days,don't we? Some churches think
that they're conservative whenthey're actually preservative
you ever thought about thatwe're conservative congregation.
We believe in the inerrancy ofthe Word of God. We believe that
(22:09):
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, thelife the Bible is, doesn't
contain error. It's infallibleand it's true. We're
conservative congregation. Butwhen you when you go in your
closets, when you look at yourmethodologies, when you look at
the stuff that you cling tightto, programming things like
(22:30):
that, you're not conservative,you're preservative. And there
are things to be to bepreserved, and there are things
that you just gotta let go, solike the lazy servant in the
parable people in thesechurches, they they've carefully
guarded what God committed tothem, but have done nothing with
(22:51):
it. No, I've been, I've beenblessed reading about those
days, but to try to duplicatethem today may not be God's
will. First Baptist Byron hasdone some amazing things in its
past 201 years. This is April.
It's your anniversary. 201 yearsthis church has been in
(23:17):
existence, done some amazingthings the people that have gone
before us phenomenal wouldn'tchange it for the world. But as
I read about those days, some ofthose things are not meant to be
duplicated.
(23:38):
This doesn't mean that we shouldabandon the past. It means that
we should remember the history,and remember that our history as
First Baptist Church of Byram,whether you were here or not, or
whether I've only been here ayear and a month or two, that
history is nothing but a rudderto guide us. It's not an anchor
to hold us back. Let me say itlouder for those in the past,
(24:01):
our history is not a rudder toguide us. It is a it is a rudder
to guide us. It is not an anchorto hold us to the past. You
agree, so let's quit. Let's quitanchoring in the past, live from
what we've learned, live fromthose who have gone before us,
(24:23):
but let's not anchor in thepast. Let's use it as a rudder
to continue to set sail to thatwhich the Lord has pointed out
for us. And so our if any of youhave ever heard of the ministry
(24:43):
Youth for Christ. I think theirslogan says it best, and here's
what it says, geared to thetimes, anchored to the rock,
geared to the times, anchored tothe rock. Church family to
ignore. The past is to tosilence one of our most
important teachers, but to tryto duplicate the past is to
(25:06):
attempt the impossible. Okay, sothe the Lord sent the Holy
Spirit to an upper room inJerusalem filled with His people
with wisdom and power, and theyopened the doors and they went
out to spread the good news ofthe gospel to a lost world, that
that's what happened. And inverse 15, Peter says, But you
killed the author of life. Youkilled the one whom authored
(25:31):
life, who originated life. Inyour version may say something
different, but he goes on, andhe says, whom God raised from
the dead. But then he says thisto this, we are witness. We
witnessed all of this. We knowit. So now we take it forth. We
(25:53):
don't dwell. Dwell in the past.
When all of this happened. Wemove forward. You see the the
the apostles and the broaderChristian community are
commissioned by Jesus to testifycontinually to his resurrection
and its implications. You tellothers that I died, was buried
and that I was raised again, andthis is what it means. You
(26:14):
compare that to what Jesus saidin Acts Eight, one, you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem,Judea, Samaria and to the ends
of the earth. And so today,we're prone to to close the
doors as a spiritual elite. Weclose the doors because we got
this spiritual eliteness goingon so that we can enjoy the
(26:37):
fellowship inside while peopleoutside perish, one of the
things that is a telltale signof churches that are dying and
doing this, who think they'rethe spiritual elite, is looking
at the budget. How much of yourbudget is external, how much of
it is internal, and so oftentimes a church that's dying, a
(27:03):
church that's struggling, achurch that thinks they're the
spiritual elite that doesn'twant to have anything to do with
ministry and gospel, evangelismand discipleship, the majority
of their budget is focused onthemselves. May that never be
our case. And so these churches,they're prone to close the doors
(27:29):
to this and operate as aspiritual elite, enjoying the
fellowship inside while peopleoutside perish. You know, we
we've mapped out the old trailsand and we love to walk on them,
but we desperately, desperately,desperately, church, need to
blaze new trails. And I thinkmost of you are on board with
(27:51):
that. Now there's, there's beensome minor things that have
happened here in the in in therecent months of us moving some
Sunday school classes andworking with with daycare and
and let me tell you, I have onlyheard throughout this entire
process one hateful comment. NowI've heard some negative
(28:14):
comments in the terms of, Idon't know if this is a good
idea or that is and I I don'tput those and classify them as
hateful. But the comments that Iclassify as hateful are those
who are just stuck, who don'twho don't want to change. You
know, I've been in this I'vebeen in this class for 42 years,
and I'm not going anywhere. Mygreat, great grandmother sat in
(28:40):
that chair right there. And I'mnot, I'm not moving. Well,
that's fine. What time is yourfuneral? I'm kidding. But some
of that, that, like, what we'redoing now, is just minor stuff.
I mean, I it's going to save thechurch money so that we can be
(29:01):
faithful in operatingevangelistically, I believe, and
it doesn't. It's not major onthe wide scheme of things. But
as I, as I take a step back andI look at some of these minor
changes that we have made in thelast year, six months. It
(29:22):
encourages me, because we have achurch who is not only just
okay, yeah, I think this isbest. We pray through this. I
think this is good. Wherever weneed to go, whatever we need to
do, let's do it. But I also havepeople coming to me, one, one of
our deacons, has been the onethat has been coming to me for
(29:43):
month after month after month,saying, We gotta reach people.
We gotta reach people. We gottago we gotta knock on doors.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let'sdo it. That's encouraging,
because when, when you, when youlook at a church, when you're a
young person, and you look at aa church that the the average.
Age, maybe 6065, 70, I don'tknow. You're thinking, well,
they're tired. They've donetheir job. How long is it going
(30:06):
to be before they have to selltheir sanctuary because they
can't afford it? Can't afford topay the light bill. And I'm
going to be honest with youwhen, when the search committee
was interviewing me that thatworried me, like, what? What
does the future of this churchlook like? Being an a
predominantly oldercongregation? But the Lord
(30:29):
assured me, I got this. Justwait till you meet these people
and Imma tell you what. We'vegot some go getters in this
congregation. We got some peoplethat love the Lord, that love
this church, and that areworking hard to reach the next
generation. And I don't foreseethese doors closing anytime
(30:53):
soon. We've got people to reach.
Yeah, we can't forsake it, butwe got a job to do, and that is
encouraging to me, that you gotmy back and I got your back.
That's what it means to bebrothers and sisters in Christ.
That's what it means. So wegotta grow in the grace and the
(31:15):
knowledge and understand that ifanyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old things havepassed away. And behold, all
things have become new. SecondCorinthians, 517, early in verse
15, Peter tells them, Youkilled, the author of life
perversion, like I said, maysay, originator, source of life.
(31:37):
What this means, in allsimplicity, is that Jesus is not
only the servant of God, but Heis the master of life, from whom
everyone receives their meaning,to whom we owe allegiance. So
the the master of life, thesource of life, the originator
(31:59):
of life, the author of life,Jesus, All to Him we owe. All to
Him we owe so first, Baptist byroom, saddle up your horses. You
know, there was a song many tomany, many years ago, 1992 by
(32:21):
name of Stephen Curtis Chapman.
I was a fan boy, not afraid toadmit it. It's where I was at
one of his concerts when I heldthe hand of a girl for the first
time. Wasn't Heidi? Sorry? SheYeah. We didn't know each other
back then. But here's what thissong says, Hold on tight, ready.
Started out this morning in theusual way, chasing thoughts
(32:47):
inside my head that I thought Ihad to do today another time
around the circle I was tryingto make it better than the last
but I opened up the Bible and Iread about me, it said, I've
been a prisoner, and God's Gracehad set me free. And somewhere
between the pages, it hit melike a lightning bolt. I saw a
(33:10):
big frontier in front of me, andI heard a voice that said, let's
go. Verse two says, Come on, getready for the ride of your life.
We're going to leave long facedreligion in a cloud of dust
behind. We're going to discoverall the New Horizons just
(33:32):
waiting to be explored. Church.
This is what we were createdfor,
and here's the course. Saddle upyour horses. We've got a trail
to blaze through the wild blueyonder of God's amazing grace.
Let's follow our leader into theglorious unknown. This is a life
(33:58):
like no other. This is the greatadventure. Are you ready to
speak up church? Are you readyfor a great adventure to
exercise what you have receivedthrough transmitting it and
blazing new trails so that wecan partner with God in reaching
(34:19):
the lost the early church, theyknew they had a job to do, and
that was their message. And the2025 church, we know we've got a
job to do, and that's gotta beour message. And.
Where are we majoring on minors and minoring
on majors? Where have we mixedup our stuff? And that's why
we're in the book of Acts. Andso we we get to chapter three,
we see Peter and John have goneout, and they're in Jerusalem.
They're they're ministering, andthey've received the power of
the Holy Spirit to to heal, toteach, to do the things that
(00:23):
Jesus has commissioned them todo. And right off the bat,
they're faced with their firsttask. There's a man in the gate.
He's been crippled since birth.
We talked about him last week,and they heal him in the name of
Jesus. And so this morning, weget to verse 11 of chapter
three, and we see Peter has toexplain to the crowd what just
(00:45):
happened, but they're astonishedwhat has happened here. And so
he's explaining the meaning ofthis miracle to the crowd. Who,
who want to know is, is thisPeter and John that did this, or
is this something else? Is thisa even a demonic force that has
done this? What's going on here?
(01:06):
And so what this what thesepassages do, Chad, we're going
to be in verses 11 through 16,but what it does is their
message to the crowd is the samemessage that we can still apply
to our hearts today, and itprovides the proof that Christ
Message, the church's message,which is synonymous that God
(01:27):
raised Jesus from the dead asLord and King. He is the true
Messiah of Israel and of theworld today. That's the message.
That's what they wanted them tohear so that they would not be
confused on anything. May wenever go about anything on our
(01:48):
own merit, on our own terms. Letit be through the power of the
Holy Spirit and Jesus Christthat we accomplish things. And
when people say, Well, look atwhat Brian's doing at that
church. No, no, no, no. Look athow the Lord is working through
this church. I'm just a vessel.
I heard, I heard a guy, Heidi,and I had the opportunity to go
to the cooperative program, 100year banquet for the state of
(02:12):
Mississippi this past Fridaynight. And Doctor Jeff orange,
who is the Executive Director ofthe Southern Baptist Convention.
He was talking about how thisone man was criticizing and
saying, you know, thecooperative program, by the way,
the cooperative program iswhere, how we send our
missionaries out churches giveto the cooperative program. We
(02:34):
don't have to. We choose to. Wechoose to cooperate, and that
money goes to send missionariesall over the world, all over the
United States. And so he waslistening to a man who was
talking about this being anantiquated system and not worth
the time, and we need to figureout something else. He said, you
you have a method that is amodel a car in a Tesla world,
(02:57):
long story short, Doctor orangelooked at him and said, what we
do is not a model whatsoever,but it is the vehicle to get it
done church. That's what we arehere for. We don't change on the
biblical principles. What wechange on is our methodology and
(03:20):
approach to getting the messageout. Today, we have more
resources than ever before intimes in history to communicate
the gospel, and we're failing ata rate more than any other time
in history at communicating thegospel. We have a job to do. So
the title of today's message isthe church speaks. So we first
(03:44):
see the church speaking out inActs chapter three, and
somewhere along the way, we haveforgotten our voice. We've
neglected our voice. We have ajob to do to rekindle that voice
and tell people about the savingpower of Jesus Christ, so the
(04:07):
church speaks once again. So ifyou would turn in your Bibles to
Acts chapter three, we're goingto be in verses 11 through 16.
And will you stand with me as wehonor God by the reading of His
Holy Word. Now this takes placewe'll see in verse 11 at
Solomon's portico. This is ashaded area along the eastern
(04:30):
wall of the what they would callthe Court of the Gentiles. It
was used for commerce. It wasused for teaching conversation.
When we get to Acts chapterfive, specifically verse 12,
we're going to see that this islater a major gathering place
for Christians. So this is wherethis conversation is taking
(04:51):
place. After the healing of thisman, Peter and John are going to
explain to the people what justhappened you. Chapter three,
verse 11 says this, while he,the crippled man, clung to Peter
and John, all the people utterlyastound, ran together to them in
the portico called Solomon's.
(05:13):
And when Peter saw it, headdressed the people, men of
Israel. Why do you wonder atthis? Or Why do you stare at us
as though, by our own power orpiety we made him walk the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac,the God of Jacob, the God of our
(05:34):
fathers, glorified his servant,Jesus, whom you delivered over
and denied in the presence ofPilate when he had decided to
release Him, but you denied theHoly and Righteous One and asked
for a murderer to be granted toyou, and you killed the author
of life, whom God raised fromthe dead to this we are
(05:58):
witnesses, and his name, by thefaith in His name has made this
man strong whom you see andknow, and the faith that is
through Jesus has given this manthis perfect health. In the
presence of you all, Father God,may we be readily able to
testify to the great andwonderful things that you are
(06:19):
doing to hide us behind yourcross, to give glory to your
name and your name alone. Andit's in Jesus's name that we
pray. Amen. You may be seated aswe look at these verses, these
11 verses, 11 through 16, it'seasy to point out what was going
on. Here is just an explanationof what Peter and John did
(06:44):
through the power of the HolySpirit. But when we apply this
to us today, and what is themessage for the church today, in
this explanation, there arequickly three privileges that
Christians have even today. Sothis morning, as we look at
(07:04):
these three privileges for allChristians, you're going to see
that you have a task to do andsomething to follow through
with. And I hope that this ischallenging to you as you see
that we have, we have to, wegotta get busy. We gotta get out
of these four walls and tellthese people about Jesus Christ.
(07:27):
So the first privilege that wehave is that we are privileged
to be receivers. We received themessage of the gospel. We
received the Holy Spirit when wesaid yes to Jesus. You see,
Christians, believers, many ofyou in this room, we are
receivers, but we're notmanufacturers. From from the
(07:50):
moment of our conversion to theinstant we have glorified
bodies, we depend on the Lord togive us what He has promised,
from the moment we say yes toJesus and become a Christian to
the moment we look at Jesus faceto face, when we have passed out
of this world, we know anddepend on what the Lord has
(08:15):
given us, what he has promised.
You see, we do not manufactureour ministry. We don't
manufacture the things that wewant to do. We don't dictate how
people are saved. God hasalready done that. We receive
the details we we receive thedirections from the Lord, God
Almighty, through His Holy Wordthat we call the Bible, that is
(08:39):
inerrant, infallible and truefor every aspect You see, God's
people, us Christians, we'vegotta wait on the Lord until he
opens our eyes, opens the wayand empowers us for service,
church, family, We've sat onthat long enough, God has opened
(08:59):
our eyes. We know that there isa world that needs to be
reached, but we've sat on ourtails for way too long. God has
opened our eyes. He's opened theway, our communication,
methodology, our physical wellbeing, the ability for us to
(09:22):
have conversations with peopleeven closest to us. And the
other thing is that God hasempowered us for service. Jesus
said in Matthew 2819 and 20right there at the end, and he
said, and I am with you always,even until the end of the age.
(09:42):
He empowers you. He is with you.
So the first church tarried inprayer for for 10 days, knowing
that God would keep His promiseand and send the Holy Spirit.
And he did,so, do God's people. Today, do
you and I today set aside timefor prayer and wait on the Lord
(10:03):
to send his blessing. And what'syour prayer life like? Are you
praying for gospelopportunities? Are you praying
that someone else will take careof that? I fear we are so busy
manufacturing counterfeitChristianity that we miss the
(10:24):
blessing of the Lord completely.
We we're really good at church.
We're really good at making surethat we sing a song, we do a
special, we do the welcome wedidn't today, did we? And then
when we when something doesn'tgo as planned or as normal or as
(10:46):
routine or as we expect it togo, as tradition would hold,
makes us a little uncomfortable,doesn't it? If I were to end
this service today, and we'dhave the invitation. And I
walked out the doors and got inmy car and didn't stand at the
(11:07):
back and greet anybody, or Ijust decided I wasn't going to
show up at the office tomorrow,Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, let's just say for thenext two weeks. You You didn't
see Brian's face during officehours, not because I was
neglecting my job, but because Iwas maybe sitting at Starbucks
meeting people, or I was sittingsomewhere else, talking to
(11:29):
people, or I was actually usingoffice hours to go and visit
people. You as the church, asthe people that your pastor
supposed to take care of, to anextent, would get a little
aggravated, wouldn't? You can'tget in touch with him. He's
never in the office. We don'tlike things to get out of the
(11:49):
norm, do we? But I fear that weare so busy manufacturing
counterfeit Christianity,Christianity that we we miss the
blessing of the Lord completely.
Doctor AW Tozer said it likethis. He said, If God were to
take the Holy Spirit out of thisworld, most of what the church
is doing today would go righton, and nobody would know the
(12:11):
difference, right? We got itdown to a science, so the Holy
Spirit were gone, and we neverfelt or saw the Holy Spirit
again. We could still sing threeor four songs, have a choir
anthem, listen to me speak andgo home at the end of the day
and come back and do it again,maybe Wednesday, if you feel
(12:33):
like it, but Sunday, if God wereto take the Holy Spirit out of
this world, most of what thechurch is doing today would go
right on, and noone would knowthe difference church, we are
receivers. We have received amessage. We've received a
blessing. So that brings us tonumber two, what do we do with
what we have received? You'resupposed to transmit it. We are
(12:54):
privileged to be transmitters.
God could use this mic standright here to communicate the
gospel if he so wanted to, buthe he wants you to do it. He
wants you to be part of hismission and vision and plan.
He's called you to do it, to goto be a transmitter. You know
what this thing is on the backof my belt right here, this is a
(13:16):
transmitter. You know, whathappens if I
so that you can hear me a lotbetter friends, when we unplug
(13:41):
from the Holy Spirit, when weunplug from the from the Lord of
what He has blessed us with, andand we refuse to be transmitters
of what He has given us, we'reuseless. It's pointless. It's
pointless for me to have two$300 microphone if I'm not going
to use it. What's the point? Wesee in verse 12, it says, And
(14:03):
when Peter saw it, he addressedthe people, men of Israel. Why
do you wonder at this? Or Why doyou stare at us as though, by
our own power or piety we wemade him walk like Don't, don't
look at us. You've they'veprobably known Peter and John
for a while now, and probablyhave never seen them issue a
(14:25):
miracle. And now that they'veseen them do it, they're like,
why are you looking at us? Youknow it wasn't us. You ever seen
us do this before. And so whatPeter does is he focuses on the
power and the authority of JesusChrist, not, not on any
supernatural abilities that maybe attributed to the apostles or
the disciples? No, he focuses onthe power and authority of
Jesus. You see the blessingsthat we receive from God, the
(14:49):
things that we receive from Godmust be shared with others,
because God blesses us so thatwe might be a blessing in
today's crumbling world. It.
Think about what the world wouldlook like if the church didn't
step up, if the church didn'tcare, if the church was
lethargic, what would the worldlook like? But what would the
(15:12):
world look like if we actuallystepped it up a notch or two?
You see the blessings we receivefrom God must be shared with
others. Yet, yes, we're we'rereceivers. But what Acts 2035
says that we'll get to in acouple of years. Acts 2035 says
It is more blessed to give thanto receive. And we have got a
(15:32):
giving church. You you givefinancially. You give of your
time, many of you, but there's,there's the 20 80% rule, 20% of
the people do 80% of the work.
20% of the people do 80% of thegiving. 20% of the people do 80%
(15:56):
of the fill in the blank, whichmeans there's 20% of y'all that
maybe doing a little but let meask you this, what would it look
like in your life to honor Godand take it to the next level,
in your giving, in your prayerlife, in your Bible study, In
your attendance, in yourserving, what would it look like
(16:16):
if you took it to the Nextlevel? And so as Christians,
we're, we're not just reservoirsfor people to admire us, but But
we, we are the springs of livingwater that that bring
encouragement and enablement toothers. Today when you when you
go and you knock on a door,those of you who are going on
(16:37):
teams today to to talk topeople. When you knock on that
door and someone actuallyanswers the door, you're there
to be an encouragement. You'rethere to build a relationship
with them. And just think abouthow it would make you feel if
you were on the other side ofthat door, and then all of a
sudden, the person that'stalking to you, they don't want
(17:01):
money, they don't want you tobuy anything. They don't they
don't want to sell you anything.
They just want to how are youdoing? We're a church in the
neighborhood. God has blessedus, and we want to love you,
just as Jesus Christ loved us,so as Christian, we're not the
reservoirs for people to admireus, but we're the springs of
living water that bring thisencouragement and enablement for
others today. In verse 13, itsays the God of Abraham, the God
(17:25):
of Isaac, the God of Jacob, theGod of our fathers, glorify His
servant, Jesus. And so whatPeter is doing here is he is
reminding specifically theJewish people that are listening
to him of God's covenantpromises to Abraham and his
faithfulness to Israel,including making Israel a great
nation. And don't miss this.
(17:47):
Don't miss this church andblessing the entire world. It
wasn't enough for God just tobless Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and Israel, but they wereto be a blessing for the entire
world. Don't miss that. And Godsays to us today what he said to
Abraham centuries and centuriesago in Genesis, 12, two, I will
(18:08):
bless you so that you can be ablessing. I will bless you so
you can be a blessing. Church,one of the greatest joys of the
Christmas Christian life is tobe a transmitter and to help
others become transmitters aswell. That's what the
discipleship process looks like.
It starts with evangelism andand sharing the message of the
(18:29):
gospel with people so that theycan put their faith in Jesus
Christ, and then they grow intheir faith, and then take that
message out and be atransmitter. They receive, they
transmit. They receive, theytransmit. It's a process. It's a
continuum. And so Jesus said inMatthew 25 verse 40 verse 45
(18:50):
assuredly, I say to you whateveryou did to one of the least of
these people, you did it for me.
So when you come in contact withpeople, whether they know the
gospel or not, you you have amessage to bring them the hope
of Jesus Christ and the gospelif they have not heard it or
(19:11):
responded to it or the themessage that you need to take it
to the next level. So we speakwhen we serve others, we are
serving Jesus and glorifyingHim. You know, it's a good thing
when local churches send outmissionaries, but it's a good
thing when every member of thelocal church is a missionary,
right in his or her ownbackyard. Imma say that one more
(19:35):
time, just because I think someof you may have missed it. It's
a good thing when we send outmissionaries, and we're planning
on doing that. We alreadysupport three missionary
families, and as we start makinglocal, national and
international partnerships,we're going to send teams to be
short term missionaries to theseplaces. And that's a wonderful
(19:56):
thing. But what's even morewonderful is when every. Member
of this church, of that church,of that church, of that church,
and every member, every personwho calls themselves a Christian
that's been saved by the bloodof Jesus Christ, when they are a
missionary, right in his or herown world, in your own backyard.
(20:19):
Now, I've been in churchbuildings. Whereas you enter,
you see a sign that that reads,enter to worship. You may have
been too walk in the back doors.
It says, Enter into worship. Andthen as you leave, right above
the back doors, it may saysomething like, now, depart and
serve, or perhaps you are nowentering the mission field.
Friends, that is true. As youleave this place, you're
(20:40):
entering the mission field, andwhat you do glorifies or dis
glorifies, God. Be faithful tothe call that He has for you in
your own mission field, it's theHoly Spirit who sends forth the
gospel acts 13 four, and it'sthe Holy Spirit that empowers us
to tell people how to get toheaven, how to get to God.
(21:01):
Lastly, number three, we areprivileged to be trailblazers.
Now I'm not talking about theChevrolet SUV. I used to have
one, until teenagers at one ofmy former churches spun circles
in it, behind the church, andnext thing I know, I'm riding
(21:23):
down the road, and the CV boot,or whatever it is, goes my
tires, both of em front tires.
I'm not bitter, but we're we'reprivileged to be spiritual
trailblazers. You see an elderlymember of one of the churches
that that I served in once askedme, son, just remember, no
(21:47):
matter what, they tell you, thegood old days weren't all that
good. We love the good old days,don't we? Some churches think
that they're conservative whenthey're actually preservative
you ever thought about thatwe're conservative congregation.
We believe in the inerrancy ofthe Word of God. We believe that
(22:09):
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, thelife the Bible is, doesn't
contain error. It's infallibleand it's true. We're
conservative congregation. Butwhen you when you go in your
closets, when you look at yourmethodologies, when you look at
the stuff that you cling tightto, programming things like
(22:30):
that, you're not conservative,you're preservative. And there
are things to be to bepreserved, and there are things
that you just gotta let go, solike the lazy servant in the
parable people in thesechurches, they they've carefully
guarded what God committed tothem, but have done nothing with
(22:51):
it. No, I've been, I've beenblessed reading about those
days, but to try to duplicatethem today may not be God's
will. First Baptist Byron hasdone some amazing things in its
past 201 years. This is April.
It's your anniversary. 201 yearsthis church has been in
(23:17):
existence, done some amazingthings the people that have gone
before us phenomenal wouldn'tchange it for the world. But as
I read about those days, some ofthose things are not meant to be
duplicated.
(23:38):
This doesn't mean that we shouldabandon the past. It means that
we should remember the history,and remember that our history as
First Baptist Church of Byram,whether you were here or not, or
whether I've only been here ayear and a month or two, that
history is nothing but a rudderto guide us. It's not an anchor
to hold us back. Let me say itlouder for those in the past,
(24:01):
our history is not a rudder toguide us. It is a it is a rudder
to guide us. It is not an anchorto hold us to the past. You
agree, so let's quit. Let's quitanchoring in the past, live from
what we've learned, live fromthose who have gone before us,
(24:23):
but let's not anchor in thepast. Let's use it as a rudder
to continue to set sail to thatwhich the Lord has pointed out
for us. And so our if any of youhave ever heard of the ministry
(24:43):
Youth for Christ. I think theirslogan says it best, and here's
what it says, geared to thetimes, anchored to the rock,
geared to the times, anchored tothe rock. Church family to
ignore. The past is to tosilence one of our most
important teachers, but to tryto duplicate the past is to
(25:06):
attempt the impossible. Okay, sothe the Lord sent the Holy
Spirit to an upper room inJerusalem filled with His people
with wisdom and power, and theyopened the doors and they went
out to spread the good news ofthe gospel to a lost world, that
that's what happened. And inverse 15, Peter says, But you
killed the author of life. Youkilled the one whom authored
(25:31):
life, who originated life. Inyour version may say something
different, but he goes on, andhe says, whom God raised from
the dead. But then he says thisto this, we are witness. We
witnessed all of this. We knowit. So now we take it forth. We
(25:53):
don't dwell. Dwell in the past.
When all of this happened. Wemove forward. You see the the
the apostles and the broaderChristian community are
commissioned by Jesus to testifycontinually to his resurrection
and its implications. You tellothers that I died, was buried
and that I was raised again, andthis is what it means. You
(26:14):
compare that to what Jesus saidin Acts Eight, one, you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem,Judea, Samaria and to the ends
of the earth. And so today,we're prone to to close the
doors as a spiritual elite. Weclose the doors because we got
this spiritual eliteness goingon so that we can enjoy the
(26:37):
fellowship inside while peopleoutside perish, one of the
things that is a telltale signof churches that are dying and
doing this, who think they'rethe spiritual elite, is looking
at the budget. How much of yourbudget is external, how much of
it is internal, and so oftentimes a church that's dying, a
(27:03):
church that's struggling, achurch that thinks they're the
spiritual elite that doesn'twant to have anything to do with
ministry and gospel, evangelismand discipleship, the majority
of their budget is focused onthemselves. May that never be
our case. And so these churches,they're prone to close the doors
(27:29):
to this and operate as aspiritual elite, enjoying the
fellowship inside while peopleoutside perish. You know, we
we've mapped out the old trailsand and we love to walk on them,
but we desperately, desperately,desperately, church, need to
blaze new trails. And I thinkmost of you are on board with
(27:51):
that. Now there's, there's beensome minor things that have
happened here in the in in therecent months of us moving some
Sunday school classes andworking with with daycare and
and let me tell you, I have onlyheard throughout this entire
process one hateful comment. NowI've heard some negative
(28:14):
comments in the terms of, Idon't know if this is a good
idea or that is and I I don'tput those and classify them as
hateful. But the comments that Iclassify as hateful are those
who are just stuck, who don'twho don't want to change. You
know, I've been in this I'vebeen in this class for 42 years,
and I'm not going anywhere. Mygreat, great grandmother sat in
(28:40):
that chair right there. And I'mnot, I'm not moving. Well,
that's fine. What time is yourfuneral? I'm kidding. But some
of that, that, like, what we'redoing now, is just minor stuff.
I mean, I it's going to save thechurch money so that we can be
(29:01):
faithful in operatingevangelistically, I believe, and
it doesn't. It's not major onthe wide scheme of things. But
as I, as I take a step back andI look at some of these minor
changes that we have made in thelast year, six months. It
(29:22):
encourages me, because we have achurch who is not only just
okay, yeah, I think this isbest. We pray through this. I
think this is good. Wherever weneed to go, whatever we need to
do, let's do it. But I also havepeople coming to me, one, one of
our deacons, has been the onethat has been coming to me for
(29:43):
month after month after month,saying, We gotta reach people.
We gotta reach people. We gottago we gotta knock on doors.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let'sdo it. That's encouraging,
because when, when you, when youlook at a church, when you're a
young person, and you look at aa church that the the average.
Age, maybe 6065, 70, I don'tknow. You're thinking, well,
they're tired. They've donetheir job. How long is it going
(30:06):
to be before they have to selltheir sanctuary because they
can't afford it? Can't afford topay the light bill. And I'm
going to be honest with youwhen, when the search committee
was interviewing me that thatworried me, like, what? What
does the future of this churchlook like? Being an a
predominantly oldercongregation? But the Lord
(30:29):
assured me, I got this. Justwait till you meet these people
and Imma tell you what. We'vegot some go getters in this
congregation. We got some peoplethat love the Lord, that love
this church, and that areworking hard to reach the next
generation. And I don't foreseethese doors closing anytime
(30:53):
soon. We've got people to reach.
Yeah, we can't forsake it, butwe got a job to do, and that is
encouraging to me, that you gotmy back and I got your back.
That's what it means to bebrothers and sisters in Christ.
That's what it means. So wegotta grow in the grace and the
(31:15):
knowledge and understand that ifanyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old things havepassed away. And behold, all
things have become new. SecondCorinthians, 517, early in verse
15, Peter tells them, Youkilled, the author of life
perversion, like I said, maysay, originator, source of life.
(31:37):
What this means, in allsimplicity, is that Jesus is not
only the servant of God, but Heis the master of life, from whom
everyone receives their meaning,to whom we owe allegiance. So
the the master of life, thesource of life, the originator
(31:59):
of life, the author of life,Jesus, All to Him we owe. All to
Him we owe so first, Baptist byroom, saddle up your horses. You
know, there was a song many tomany, many years ago, 1992 by
(32:21):
name of Stephen Curtis Chapman.
I was a fan boy, not afraid toadmit it. It's where I was at
one of his concerts when I heldthe hand of a girl for the first
time. Wasn't Heidi? Sorry? SheYeah. We didn't know each other
back then. But here's what thissong says, Hold on tight, ready.
Started out this morning in theusual way, chasing thoughts
(32:47):
inside my head that I thought Ihad to do today another time
around the circle I was tryingto make it better than the last
but I opened up the Bible and Iread about me, it said, I've
been a prisoner, and God's Gracehad set me free. And somewhere
between the pages, it hit melike a lightning bolt. I saw a
(33:10):
big frontier in front of me, andI heard a voice that said, let's
go. Verse two says, Come on, getready for the ride of your life.
We're going to leave long facedreligion in a cloud of dust
behind. We're going to discoverall the New Horizons just
(33:32):
waiting to be explored. Church.
This is what we were createdfor,
and here's the course. Saddle upyour horses. We've got a trail
to blaze through the wild blueyonder of God's amazing grace.
Let's follow our leader into theglorious unknown. This is a life
(33:58):
like no other. This is the greatadventure. Are you ready to
speak up church? Are you readyfor a great adventure to
exercise what you have receivedthrough transmitting it and
blazing new trails so that wecan partner with God in reaching
(34:19):
the lost the early church, theyknew they had a job to do, and
that was their message. And the2025 church, we know we've got a
job to do, and that's gotta beour message. And.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.