On Sunday, I was thinking that we were finished with verses 1-7,
But as I have been trying to make this a thorough this study, I slowly re-read this paragraph one last time, asking the Lord whether or not there was anything that I was over-looking.
Yesterday, as I came down to verse 7, I was struck for the very first time by the theological significance of this verse,
“And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
The three Bibles that I use to prepare for this study,
All say that verse 7 is the last sentence in the paragraph which begins with verse 1.
When the there were some members of the church willing to share their time and talents in caring for the secular needs of the congregation, then the Lord blessed.
Let’s consider what this verse says about “increase.”
Do you think that Dr. Luke, the penman of the Book of Acts, knew anything about mathematics?
The number of disciples, during the ministry of the Lord Jesus, fluctuated.
And then there would be others who’d come along to replace the others/
Of course, Jesus had the twelve, and the seventy, but at one point even these fled.
And then on the Day of Pentecost there were 3,000 souls saved, baptized and added to the membership.
And then after the healing the lame man there were about 5,000 more who were added to the Lord.
Besides these large in-gatherings, “the Lord was adding to the church daily such as should be saved..”
When we come to Acts 6 Luke stops talking about “adding” and changes the verb to “multiplying.”
There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
Because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”
But THEN after the establishment of the deacons, Luke uses the word “multiply” again.
So, do you think that Luke knew what he was doing when he used these mathematical words? Of course.
Let me illustrate the math this way:
When one person, or even a handful of people, help one person each to understand the gospel and become disciples of Christ, that is addition.
But when those same people are successfully evangelizing a dozen people at a time that is multiplication.
And when those dozen who are being evangelized, quickly get into the business of evangelizing, then the multiplication increases exponentially.
First there was addition, then multiplication and perhaps the membership even reached the point of being regularly squared.
Remember when I said that the gold nuggets are just under the top soil?
It doesn’t take a CPA to be able to add up the numbers,
They weren’t multiplying themselves, they were being multiplied by the Lord.
Was it because it was socially or politically acceptable?
Was it because of the fame and eloquence of the Apostles?
None of the above
Neither was this astronomical church growth being fueled by promotions, programs, prosperity or promiscuity.
This was the work of the Lord!
The Apostles and the church were preparing the soil and sowing the seed, but the Lord was giving the increase.
As I said last week, I would love to see church growth like this, right here at Calvary Baptist,
But if we have to resort to the devil’s tactics to see it happen, then I’ll quit first.
We will not give away McDonalds hamburgers in order to fill our church with kids.
We won’t reward diligent workers by sending them on all-expenses-paid vacations to Tahiti.
We don’t SELL indulgences nor do we GIVE them away.
I am convinced by looking at even recent church history that “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
It was the Lord who gave the church in Jerusalem this great influx of members.
Of course, this is not talking about the number of inspired books within the Holy Scriptures,
Although the cannon of scripture was not yet complete, and there were about 23 more books to be written.
Nor was Luke saying that the church had an army of dedicated scribes,
Although there was a chance that sort of thing was happening.
It was filling, not only the hearts of the new church members, but it was also filling the city.
And this is not the only time that we read this sort of thing:
And in Ephesus “mightily grew the word of God and prevailed” – Acts 19:20.
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.”
Incidentally, I am told that unlike the word “multiply” which is imperfect PASSIVE,
It was somewhat like a freight train rolling down hill with the throttle wide open.
It had momentum of its own, in addition to the added drive put on the wheels.
This increase of the Word wasn’t passive, but very, very active.
You don’t suppose that there was any correlation between that increase in the Word and the multiplication of the disciples, do you?
I was talking to a man yesterday who is thinking about moving to this area from Wenatchee.
He wanted to know about our church.
I was up-front with him about the fact we believe in sovereign election, because the Bible teaches it.
Fortunately in this man’s case, it was not a problem, because he, too, believes this doctrine.
But we also believe that means that those who are going to be saved, are also going to hear the gospel.
No man is going to be born again, who does not hear, and receive, the gospel.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
Like the saints in Jerusalem we are OBLIGATED to make sure that the Word of God increases in our community.
There are people who say that the doctrine of election kills evangelism, but that isn’t true.
For example, lazy, sinful self-indulgence kills evangelism; but the doctrine of election doesn’t.
We know that God’s word will not return unto Him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and that it shall prosper in the thing whereto He sends it.
We MUST do our part, or we have no right to expect the number of the disciples to multiply.
I suppose that I have read those words a couple hundred times without considering their weight.
There is perhaps nothing in this book which illustrates the power of the gospel more than this last statement.
The words “obedient to the faith” can be developed into sermon of their own.
One point might be an exposition of to what “the faith” might refer.
Is it referring to the gospel which is to be believed?
Is it referring to all that we might call Biblical Christianity?
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
And since the way to receive the gospel is by faith, rather than by intellect or something else,
I think that over time “the faith” came to mean it all.
In fact a proper presentation of the good news –
And that he rose again, according to the scriptures” –
If there isn’t an obedience to God’s command to put faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross then no man is ever going to be saved.
A part of the work of the evangelist is the exhortation to believe.
And therefore there is a sense in which accepting Christ is an act of obedient faith and obedience to the faith.
He is merely making an observation which eventually boils down to this:
There were a great many of the priests who heard the gospel, repented of sin and believed on Christ
There were a great many of the priests who thus became disciples of the Lord.
But herein is something absolutely miraculous:
Humanly speaking, if there was any group of people in Jerusalem who should have resisted the gospel, and what the gospel was doing to their society, it should have been these priests.
Whether they understood or not, with Christ was coming the end of their sacerdotal religion.
There was no more purpose in their blood sacrifices and most of the ceremonies that they maintained.
The way of life that these men, their fathers, and their grandfathers all knew, was coming to an end.
Remember too, that many of the priests were Sadducees.
These were the people who denied the miraculous, but they were themselves being miraculously changed.
They would never have been opened, because it was so contrary to the nature of those priests themselves.
What we are witnessing in this verse is the weaving of a beautiful tapestry called “Increase.”
Each piece intersects and interlocks with each other.
They had an increase in disciples because there was an increase in the Word of God.
They had an increase of regenerated priests, because they were a part of the increase of disciples.
We see here the unmistakable and miraculous handiwork of Jehovah,
You and I must recognize that we are a key element in this tapestry.
There is a sense in which if we will not do our job, the fabric will just fall apart.
If we want our church to prosper then we must do our part in evangelism.