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Elevate - The Story Pt 27 - Unstoppable Church - Neal DiQuattro
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The early church was unstoppable because of their unity and the guidance and conviction of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts shows how the church grew and developed despite opposition from both Romans and Jews. The church started with a small group in Jerusalem but eventually grew to millions of adherents. The Holy Spirit played a crucial role in the church's success, guiding and convicting believers. The baptism of the Holy Spirit meant being mentored and led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit's guidance made the church unstoppable. We all have each other's backs, and so as a result, we become unstoppable as a church, as individuals. We're not unstoppable because of how good the message is. We're not unstoppable because of how good the worship is, or whether or not, you know, our church grows to a thousand and we have, you know, a daycare and a school, and that's not what makes us unstoppable. We're unstoppable because of our unity. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama, with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message, and welcome to Elevate. Today's message is from Authentic Life Church youth minister and worship leader, Neil DiQuatro. Pastor John is getting some of the much-needed R&R, and so I'm going to preach this morning and continue in our series of the story. And today brings us to a really fun time because we've wrapped up the Gospels, we're in the New Testament now, and now we're landing on the book of Acts. And the book of Acts, written by Luke, the same guy who wrote the Gospel, Luke, is a continuation of his Gospel. Many folks have referred to Acts as Luke Part 2, which is a really interesting perspective. If you read Luke and Acts together, you see that they're seamless, and it just gives you a fresh look on it. But this morning we're covering the book of Acts. We're going to look through the narrative of the early church, which is what Acts is. It's the most reliable source we have for what the early church was all about, and how they functioned, and how the Holy Spirit moved, and how this new church advanced to what we have today. And we've got two goals this morning. The one being, just to review the beginnings of the church, and we'll do a flyover and hit some key stories from Acts, but I'd like us to apply one key lesson to our lives about how we are to be Christ's church. And that's really the point. What does Acts teach us about how we're supposed to be Christ's church? So have you ever wondered how this little ragtag group in Jerusalem became the church that it is today? Because it should not have survived, when you think about it in the natural, in fact it survived against all odds. And why was it so difficult for this church to grow and develop? Now, on the outside, they had Roman oppression of the day, that wanted to squash their movement. And then on the inside, they had opposition from the Jews, who believed that what Christians were teaching was heresy, and ruining their faith. And so they had opposition on the outside, and on the inside, yet the church of Christ was and became unstoppable. And why was it unstoppable? That's what we're going to explore, because the reason the early church was unstoppable is the same reason the church today, capital C Church, not just our church, but THE Church of Christ, why it will be unstoppable. So despite all this persecution you had in the early church, now we're at a place where it starts with about a thousand people, the best we can figure out at Jesus' ascension. Check this out, to by A.D. 350, 35 million adherents to Christianity. Doesn't that just boggle your mind? And now, 2.6 million Christians, or at least people who claim to be Christians, today. That's a third of the world's population. And when you compare it to other religions, you see that the church truly was unstoppable. It really stands out. It reminds us of Gamaliel's advice to the Sanhedrin. If you remember who Gamaliel was, he was a Pharisee and he was Paul's mentor, Paul's teacher, and he was the most famous teacher of his time. And if you remember when Peter and John, I believe, just would not shut up about the gospel, they kept talking no matter what happened to them, they'd get beat in prison, they'd keep going, the Pharisees didn't know what to do, and so Gamaliel speaks to the Sanhedrin and says, here's the deal, and he gives them a little history lesson. You remember this small little group that arose, led by whatever the guy's name was, and they had a couple hundred adherents? Remember it came to nothing shortly after it disbanded. And remember this other guy that had started this movement? Nothing came of that either. And remember this other guy? Nothing came of that movement either. And so the same thing will be with Jesus. If this is not truly of God, it's going to come to nothing. But then he gives them this wisdom. If it is of God, you won't be able to stop it because you'll be fighting against God. And that's exactly what they found themselves fighting against. And so what you have is a great picture, Gamaliel paints, of the fact that this was not the first time a small movement emerged. But this was the first time it actually gained traction and took hold, and it didn't just take hold. It exploded. It became unstoppable. And so the book of Acts opens with the ascension of Christ. So Christ ascends. His believers are saddened by this, right? But Christ inspires them and gives directions before he goes. Then Acts continues and you see the replacing of Judas. Judas who portrayed Jesus. One of the twelve. He had to be replaced. And so they replaced him with Matthias. And then after this story we get in Acts chapter 2 and suddenly all heaven breaks loose and the secret weapon of the New Testament church gets unleashed onto the church. So let's read about that. We see in Acts chapter 1, verse 4 and 5, On one occasion, while he was eating with them, Jesus, he gave them this command, Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And then it continues in Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And each of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. And thus the New Testament church begins. This is the inauguration of the church that went from just a few adherents to suddenly the mystery of God's kingdom through the advent of the church gets established. And so this is huge news. This shapes the rest of redemptive history from this point on. So why was the early church unstoppable? Well number one, they were unstoppable because of the Holy Spirit. And I want to talk about this baptism for just a moment. But if you'll allow me, I want us to go a little bit broader when we think about the role of the Holy Spirit and why it was unstoppable in the New Testament church. So we get this phrase being baptized by the Holy Spirit and to truly understand what's happening here, we have to understand what happens in baptism. And I know that Pastor John has talked about this before, but I'll just do a quick review. So baptism, which originated in Judaism, was all about being baptized into the mentorship or the tutelage of another teacher. So Paul, for example, would have been baptized into Gamaliel, the guy we just talked about. And what he's saying when he's baptized into Gamaliel, he's saying, this is my leader, this is my teacher, this is my mentor, this is who I identify with. And then we have Paul saying to the New Testament churches that were emerging, whose baptism did you receive? And one church said, well, we received John's baptism. Well, what was John's baptism? It was a baptism of repentance. So what was their teacher? What were they identifying with? They were identifying with repentance. They were identifying with, I was going one way, now I'm going another way, walking away from sin and following God. It was all about repentance. And then now we get this language of being baptized by or being baptized into the Holy Spirit, depending on your translation. And what is that saying? Well, certainly it includes what we understand as the Holy Spirit infilling us. And we know that there's an experience and a moment that many can trace their walk with the Holy Spirit back to, where there's something supernatural happens within them. And with that comes gifts of the Spirit. And we know about these gifts, speaking in tongues and prophecy and discernment and all of these things that strengthen the church. But if our view on the Holy Spirit is just about the gifts that the Holy Spirit brings, then we miss the whole ministry of the Holy Spirit. But if you go up 30,000 feet and understand the role of this Holy Spirit that made the New Testament church unstoppable, we get a picture of people suddenly going from being baptized into repentance, into John's baptism, to now making their, and catch this, their mentor, their teacher, their partner, the Holy Spirit. You all catch that? It doesn't exclude gifts of the Spirit. It doesn't exclude Spirit baptism. What I'm saying is it's broader. The role of the Holy Spirit is not primarily just to give gifts that edify the body and demonstrate the truth of the gospel. It's bigger than that. The role of the Holy Spirit is that we would be baptized into the tutelage and the mentorship and the complete and total lordship of the Holy Spirit. And if the early church is completely making the Holy Spirit's guidance lord over them, how can you lose? And we're going to look at some examples of that. And there's two areas where the Holy Spirit really shows up in this unstoppable New Testament church. There's a lot of roles of the Holy Spirit, but I want to hit on two that really were difference makers. The Holy Spirit guided and the Holy Spirit convicted. Now there's many more, but let's talk about guided. Acts chapter 16, verse 6. Check this out. Awesome story. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Nicaea, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Nicaea and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. When Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now think about this in terms of a war. You have the powers of darkness and the powers of Christ, and we're looking to advance. They're looking to advance as the New Testament church and spread this gospel. But the New Testament church makes it an unfair fight. Why? Because they have the God of the Holy Spirit who knows the beginning from the end, who has the ultimate perspective, telling them what to do and telling them what not to do. You know, Paul sets off to a place of effective ministry in Macedonia. Why? Because the Holy Spirit told him to do that. And then a place where he could have gone and gotten murdered or found his time to be ineffective, he was withheld from going there. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was directing and guiding. He was getting his marching orders from the Holy Spirit. You see that? So it makes it an unfair fight. And then you have the Holy Spirit convicting. And many times when we talk about convicting, we think, well, He's convicting the believer. But it's bigger than that. In fact, in John, Jesus tells us specifically who the Holy Spirit is convicting. But now I go away to Him, chapter 16, verse 5, but now I go away to Him who sent me. And none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you. So He's talking about the Holy Spirit, the Helper. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they do not believe in Me. Who is the Holy Spirit convicting? The world. It says here in verse 8, He's convicting the world of sin. Listen, that is great news. Why is the New Testament church unstoppable? Because it doesn't rely, like all of the other movements that went before them, that went to nothing, it doesn't rely on the personality or personalities of an individual or a group of individuals, it doesn't rely on someone's slick speech, it doesn't rely on someone's administrative abilities to build churches and do this and that. It relies on the Holy Spirit. That should set you free. That should take away a lot of the intimidation that comes from sharing the gospel with a friend or a neighbor or inviting someone to church. You don't have to worry about whether or not you can say it right, or say it perfectly, or what's going to happen, how are they going to respond? All you have to do is be obedient. Because it's the Holy Spirit that does the convicting of sin. So basically in the New Testament, you have God Almighty convincing people to join this new movement. And that's why it's unstoppable. But you know what? That hasn't changed today. If we're fully yielded to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit, and we obey and we speak the gospel to others, the Holy Spirit will convince people of its truth. And so my question I would ask you before I move on is, what is your relationship to the Holy Spirit? What is your relationship to the Holy Spirit? I've painted a 30,000 foot view of the mission of the Holy Spirit and the role of the Holy Spirit. Have you seen the Holy Spirit? And this happens sometimes as Pentecostals. Sometimes we get too narrow. We see the Holy Spirit as an experience that happened in a moment. We see the Holy Spirit as the gift of the Spirit. Well the gifts of the Spirit is just one of the many things that God enables His children to work in and use that serve the bigger purpose of being yielded to the Holy Spirit so that His will will be accomplished. What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? And is your life fully yielded to His leading and His guiding? Why else was the New Testament church unstoppable? They were unstoppable because of their unity. They were unstoppable because of their unity. Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a picture of what non-Christians thought of the New Testament church? You know, sort of a fly on the wall approach from 2,000 years ago of what they were doing and how they were operating? Well, we had that. We had that from a secular source, a guy named Pliny the Younger. The worst name that anyone could ever name their child, Pliny the Younger. He's a Roman senator back from the early church time. And here's what he writes to his commander. They were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsibly a hymn to Christ. This is so cool. This is literally like an insider's view if you lived 2,000 years ago. They'd sing responsibly a hymn to Christ as to a God and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of a meal. They were known for their commitment to being together. It's not just something they did. They did it at such a level that it was their reputation. They were going to talk about the church. There was nothing to talk about if you didn't talk about how they assembled and what they did when they were together. But better than this account, we have Luke's account of what they were doing when they assembled that contributed to their unity. Acts chapter two, verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. Listen, the church was strong because they were together and they weren't divided. How many of you know that the enemy's number one tactic against this church and you and me as individuals is to divide and conquer? That's his plan. And we know this because Peter warns us in 1 Peter 5.8. He says, be alert and sober minded. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Why does he use this imagery? Because that's what lions do. They isolate an animal from the pack and when they're isolated, he goes in for the kill. And so, you know, we all attend Authentic Life Church. But you know, just because you attend church and you sit in a seat next to someone else who goes to the same church, doesn't mean that we're always operating like the church. And that's one of the points I want us to see here about unity. Operating like the church and going to church aren't always the same. And so let's look at this verse in Acts chapter 2 again, where it says, Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to the apostles. The first thing we see is they were devoted to the teaching of the apostles. That word devoted in the original language gives you more of the sense of perseverance. They were serious about learning and growing and doing it together. They were serious about fellowshipping, says they were committed to teaching and to fellowship. That means they knew what was going on in the life of the person next to them. There was communication, there was shared interest, there was conversation, fellowship. Not just, again, sitting next to someone attending the same church. And then more than just fellowship, you see that they were eating in one another's homes. When was the last time you invited someone to your home to eat? You know, intimacy happens over dinner. Looking someone in the eye and breaking bread with them and asking them about their life and having a laugh and inviting them into your home. You know, the last time we had someone over was a few weeks ago. We had Toby and Jenny over. I can tell you what, we probably don't do it enough. When was the last time you were invited into someone else's home? See, this is where the church becomes the organism that is growing together and is in relationship with one another beyond what happens in these four walls. Real intimacy, real unity, real love for one another. Paul takes it a step forward in Romans, where he says, for just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not have all the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. He didn't say each member is attached to all the others. He says each member belongs to all the others. What does that mean? It means that you give up some of your rights for the sake of belonging to someone else. That means your whole life isn't spent just thinking about your needs and what you want, but you belong to someone else, which means their needs are your needs. You belong to them. If they are moving and need help, we can help. If someone's burdened and needs prayer, we can pray. If someone's sick and needs meals, and we do a great job at the meals here, we can provide meals. You see, life becomes about more than just ourselves, and it becomes about other people too. Why? Because you belong to one another. And then Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, takes it even further. He says, Hebrews 10, 24, Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. See, now Hebrews makes it a command. We must assemble together. If the only reason you go to church is to listen to the band and hear a sermon, it won't be enough to keep you connected, and the devil will isolate you and kill you, spiritually speaking. But when you understand that the church is about fellowship and strengthening one another, then this command makes all the sense in the world. Now, I was preparing, and I remembered this example that we get from Greek lore about the Spartans in the 300, right, even made some graphic novels, I think even a movie about it. But it's based on some real history about the Spartans' fighting style. I mean, here's how they fought. They held their shield in front of them, and someone stood next to that person, and someone stood next to that person, and that person, and the shields touched one another and were linked together, and then you'd get another row of shields above that, and then they would do the same thing on the sides, and lastly, you'd have people holding their shield on top. And they were able to go up against all kinds of infantry, or whatever sorts of archaic warfare machines they had, such as, you know, like catapults, and people with bow and arrows. They were able to continue to advance, even though they were small in numbers. Why? Because they were impenetrable. They would encapsulate themselves in these shields and continue to march forward. And no matter what came at them, they didn't stop. They kept marching and marching. Why? Because of unity. Because of unity. The person to my right has my back. They're watching this side. The person to my left is watching this side. The people who are taking care of the top of this phalanx, which was the name of this way of doing this, this configuration, that they've got my back. We all have each other's backs. And so as a result, we become unstoppable as a church, as individuals. We're not unstoppable because of how good the message is. We're not unstoppable because of how good the worship is, or whether or not our church grows to a thousand, and we have a daycare and a school. And that's not what makes us unstoppable. That's stuff. We're unstoppable because of our unity. And lastly, the third reason the early church was unstoppable, was because, and this one will hit us like a ton of bricks, but let me unpack this for a bit. They were unstoppable because they were willing to die for their faith. They were willing to die for their faith. Let me unpack it. So, if you want somebody to stop doing something, what do you do to them? You tell them to stop. If they don't stop, you yell. And then what comes after that? Some kind of, you know, throw them in jail. What comes after that? Some kind of physical force. Beat them up. Beat them up bad. You know, Paul had to think three times. Got the 40 stripes minus one. Beaten within inches of his life. What do you do after that? If they keep on preaching the gospel? If they won't stop? The only thing you're left with is to threaten them with death. That's all that's left. But what happens if they're also willing to die? There's nothing that you can do to stop them. There's nothing you can do to stop them. And we see this in the New Testament church. They were willing to die for their faith, and so the church continued to march on and were unstoppable. But this being willing to die physically is just an extension of a heart posture. And we see this in Philippians 1, verse 19. Paul says, yes, I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. Well, what happened to him in verse 19? He was in jail. I think in Rome at this point. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. What do you do with a guy like that? What do you do with a whole church like that? Hey, if I live, I'm going to live for Christ. That's a good deal. And if I die, I win. And so does the kingdom of God. So, I'm just going to keep on rocking on. That was the spirit that undergirded the modern church. And guess what? It's the spirit that undergirds much of the modern churches in places outside of the United States. Because they put their life on the line every day for the sake of the gospel. And we see this resolve continue in the early church. We move to chapter 4. We see Peter and John arrested and beaten for healing a lame man. I mean, beaten for healing a lame man. And when brought to the authorities, they say in Acts 4, verse 19, which is right in God's eyes? To listen to you or to Him? You be the judges. It's like they were asking for a beating. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. Any chance that they were going to get silenced? Any chance? No. None whatsoever. They were unstoppable. In chapter 5, we see that the apostles are put in prison again for miracles. And what happens? They're beaten. But this time, an angel opens the door. And what do they do? They run out to the town square. Or was it Solomon's Colonnade? I forget. And they begin preaching again. They didn't get out of prison and immediately go hide. And run home and tell their family they were safe. They immediately ran out of prison and said, I got a job to do. And they went to the town square and they start proclaiming the gospel again. They would not be silenced. They would not be stopped. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, authenticlife.tv, for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.
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