The Church God Uses

Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, states that Christianity is only as strong as the local church and that God wants to bless our churches in ways we can’t possibly imagine.  It doesn’t matter whether a church is alive and growing or barely surviving on life support.  God has a plan for it.  God is able to deal with any problem a church will ever face – as long as his people earnestly seek him.

To be a church that God uses, we can learn much from the church of Antioch in the Acts of the Apostles.  This was a church on which God was pouring out His blessings – not based on some marketing techniques or having the latest high-tech devices or with the most sophisticated programs but a church that genuinely loved the Lord and wanted to see others come to faith in Jesus Christ.

There are multiple principles based upon the Church in Antioch.  I just want to focus on one.  God uses a church where the gospel is clearly proclaimed!  To understand our text, you need to know something about Antioch.  It was located 300 miles north of Jerusalem and was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria, having more than 500,000 residents.  It was a center for commerce and a crossroads for travel and trade between Europe and the Orient.  This made the city a melting pot of various races, including the Romans, the local Syrians, Jews, and others.

The city was also known for sexual immorality.  Five miles outside of town was the grove of Daphne, where worshipers of Artemis and Apollo pursued their religion of pleasure with temple prostitutes.

It is significant that when God picked a city that would become the center for missionary endeavor, He picked a cosmopolitan, morally corrupt city like Antioch. In this secular, pagan environment, common Christians began telling the simple gospel message that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, that whoever believes in Him receives eternal life and forgiveness as God’s free gift.

Acts 11:20 literally reads, “Preaching the Lord Jesus.”  But in telling the good news, they didn’t dodge the hard matters of sin and repentance, since we read in v. 21 that a great number who believed turned to the Lord.  This means that these former pagans gave up their idols, their sexual immorality, their lying, and their corrupt business practices when they put their trust in Jesus as Lord.

So, Antioch is a wonderful example for us!  It was a church founded by simple believers who proclaimed the gospel as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  And the hand of the Lord was with them, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.

I covet that for Hope Community Church!  I want to be part of a church, like Antioch, where growth clearly comes from the Lord and where, also like Antioch, we become a center for worldwide impact for Jesus Christ.  Will you join me in that desire?  And, let’s make it happen right here in Waynesboro . . . and beyond!

Stuarts Draft Elementary School is searching for a teacher for Weekday Religious Education (WRE).  Please pray that a wonderful person will be found.  If you know someone who may be interested in such a position, please contact Cindi Custer, East Augusta WRE at (540) 476-5539.  Kathy Doyle is meeting with Cindi in July to discuss the possibility of our missions team helping to create a new WRE informational video with the assistance of Tyler Boutillier of our A/V team.

Our Missions Team is active keeping in touch with our missionaries and other ministries.  Please keep updated!  You can visit our website and go to the Outreach Page.