Distinctives – God’s Model for the Church
Servant
School
April
22, 2021
Introduction
The first
chapter of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives book is titled, “God’s Model for the
Church”.
A model is something that gives you a picture of what an idea will look
like.
My dad loved
airplanes. He built all sorts of models out of balsa wood as
a kid. As I was growing up, we’d
build airplane models together.
My dad designed
large commercial airliners for McDonnel Douglas. I have some of the models that were made by
the McDonnel Douglas modeling department. You might see one of them over my
shoulder.
A model helps you know what you’re going to build.
When it comes
to starting or building a church, it’s not a bad idea to have a model in mind.
For some
churches, the model will look to traditions.
The Roman
Catholic Church claims to be the church that Peter founded, and that’s why
they’re right … though the Roman church we know really wasn’t established as a
distinct, leading church until around 600 AD.
The Greek
Orthodox church claims to be even older, making their claims on the early
church fathers, which tend to write around the third century or so.
One of the problems with these kinds of churches is that they have allowed
church tradition to supersede things that are taught in the Scriptures, as if
they could “improve” upon the Bible.
Some churches rely
on the experts from seminaries or professional church growth advisors.
Some of these
things can be helpful, but to me, if your goal is simply to have a large
church, and it’s not about reaching lost people for Jesus, there’s a problem.
Large churches aren’t necessarily bad.
The real issue though is whether or not people
are actually coming to faith and growing in Jesus
Christ.
We think that
the better model to follow is the one found in the book of Acts.
This is the model
that the Holy Spirit began on the day of Pentecost when the apostles were
waiting in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit fell upon them.
Of course every church probably says that they
have their roots in Acts 2, but the problem comes when they start adding their
extra traditions and growth tips on top of what we read in the Biblical narrative
in Acts.
Just to be
totally up front, we see good things in the church in the book of Acts, AND we
see bad things as well.
We will see good
things to model our churches after like…
(Acts 2:42 NKJV) And they
continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers.
The early church placed an emphasis on
Teaching
(the apostles’ doctrine, the Word of God)
Fellowship
– spending time together
Breaking
bread – having communion together
Prayer
We will continue to see these things throughout the book of Acts.
The men God
used were men who knew the Scriptures.
When you read the sermons preached by Peter or Paul, you will see they are
based upon the Old Testament scriptures.
They knew their Bible.
You will see
the church regularly engaged in prayer.
Even when the
church experienced difficulty, they prayed.
You will see an
emphasis on the preaching of the gospel, of sharing God’s good news of salvation and forgiveness of sins.
You will see
both apostles and non-apostles sharing their faith and many coming to believe
in Jesus.
You will also
see trouble in the book of Acts.
It seems that
each time the church takes a step forward, the persecution gets greater.
I’m not sure you are going to see that as a selling point in most church
growth programs.
There will be
issues of pride and greed.
God will kill Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) because they were trying to
impress people with their “gifts” to the church, when in fact they were lying
about how much they were giving.
God didn’t care about the amount of their gifts,
God cared about their being honest.
There will be
imposters.
A man in Samaria named Simon (Acts 8) was impressed with how Peter and John
prayed over people and they were filled with the Spirit. He was willing to pay for the “secret” so he
could do the same. Yet God’s gifts are
always free.
Church history tells us this man would cause much trouble to the church.
By the time that
John writes the book of Revelation, there will be more than a few churches that have strayed a bit
from how Jesus was wanting to do things.
What’s my point?
Even if a church
is trying their best to follow God, you are going to see both good and bad.
No church is going to be perfect.
It’s been said, “If you ever find a perfect church, don’t join it because
once YOU join it, it will no longer be perfect”.
Church is made
up of flawed, imperfect, sinners.
And yet the church is the one institution that Jesus Christ set up to do
His work.
Calvary Chapel
is just one corner of God’s church in the world.
It is not a perfect church. But it
is a fellowship of churches that are trying to be what God wants them to be in
the world.
We think the
best model of what that looks like is found in the book of Acts.
I hope you
found this helpful.