Sermon Idea: Spiritual fruitfulness is marked by a faithful devotion to prayer and the Word of God.
Introduction: The book of Acts contains a great deal about numerical growth. We have several texts that speak to the work of God in saving sinners, building the church, and increasing in number.
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Ac 2:41–42)
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Ac 2:47)
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith (Ac 6:7)
This emphasis on numerical growth makes sense, considering that this is an account of the earliest days of the church’s life. Growth is important, and church growth is important. It would be a superficial reading of Acts, however, to make numerical growth the sole metric to measure the success and fruitfulness of the early church.
The growth that we see in Acts is both spiritual and numerical. It is the nature of this numeric growth that is truly good. In other words, numeric growth itself is a neutral category. A church having a lot of people is no more a sign of health any more than being small is necessarily a sign of faithfulness. What we see in Acts isn’t good simply becasue there is fast growth. It’s good becasue there is a work of God through the ordinary means of grace. It is the nature of the growth that is significant, not the number or size.
How can we know if God is at work among us? What metrics can be used to measure the success of our ministry? Is it mere faithfulness? Is it the results?
Jared Wilson, in his helpful book, The Gospel-Driven Church, notes that there has long been a debate about the nature of church growth. Two camps can generally be identified. On the one hand, some equate success with results. No results, no success. On the other hand, some equate success with faithfulness, no matter the results.
And although the latter of these two groups is mostly correct, we need to say more. Faithfulness will be accompanied by fruitfulness.
Wilson is right when he writes, “So how do we define church growth biblically? We must hold the two principles in tension, since they affirm a biblical truth. A ministry’s faithfulness to the mission of God is itself a success, regardless of the results. Yet at the same time, a faithful ministry will be a fruitful ministry.”
The question now, of course, is how to define fruifulness appropriately? Borrowing from Jonathan Edwards, Wilson offers five metrics of grace, which he argues matter the most when thinking about church growth.
- A growing esteem for Jesus Christ
- A discernible spirit of repentance
- A dogged devotion to the Word of God
- An interest in theology and doctrine
- An evident love for God and neighbor
These metrics put the work of God’s grace at the center of your evaluation. More than numbers, they measure the spiritual fruitfulness of a congregation that necessarily follows the faithfulness of that congregation.
In Acts 1:12-26, before the Spirit falls at Pentecost and before a large number of people are converted, we see the disciples exemplifying great spiritual fruitfulness. They are both faithful and spiritually fruitful. God is very much at work in them, and there is growth taking place. It’s just not a growth that can be measured with numbers.
This morning, I want to pay attention to the faithfulness of the disciples and the spiritual fruit that it bears. Like Wilson’s metrics of grace, can we discern marks of spiritual fruitfulness in the life of our church? There are at least three worth mentioning.
Spiritual fruitfulness is maked by faithful devotion to prayer, a faithful trust in God’s Word, and faithful actions formed by God’s Word.
I.) Spiritual fruitfulness is marked by faithful devotion to prayer (Acts 1:12-14)
Jesus has ascended into heaven, and the disciples have been reassured that he will come again. As the next scene opens up, the disciples have gathered in an upper room to obey the commands of Jesus to remain in Jerusalem until the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers (Ac 1:12–14)
This is a remarkable scene. Think about all these saints have endured in a relatively short period of time. Their master was arrested, tried, and sentenced to execution. He was severely beaten and then crucified on a Roman cross before a watching audience. As the grief finally sets in, they encounter the risen Lord Jesus and are taught about the kingdom of God, only to “lose” him again as he ascends into heaven. Oh, and they are down one disciple, having to face the harsh reality of a friend betraying their Lord and abandoning them.
All of this draws them close to one another for the purpose of devoting themselves to prayer. The text says, “All these were in one accord…” Contrary to many Dad jokes, this doesn’t mean the disciples have crammed them into a Honda. It means they are in unity as who they are and what they are to do. Their unity is expressed in their devotion to prayer.
Why are they praying? Jesus has told them to wait, and he has told them he will send the Spirit. What are they praying for?
Here is a group of people so captivated by the will of their Master, so hopeful about all that he has said, that they devote themselves to prayer, believing that through it Jesus will accomplish all that he has promised.
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is a faithful devotion to prayer. The true nature of our hope and our belief in the promises of God can be measured by our devotion to or neglect of prayer. The disciples are devoting themselves to prayer because they believe that Jesus is going to send the Spirit. That they will be witnesses beginning in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. It is this belief that drives them to prayer. This word devoted here suggests a continual practice. They persevered in prayer together. They were committed to it.
Prayer is not a religious activity for special occasions; it is the primary language of the people of God.
We know from experience what it looks like to be devoted to something. This morning, the NFL kicks off. I have been a Raiders fan since I was a little kid, becasue I enjoy damaging my mental and emotional health 17 weeks out of the year.
In 2015, they were scheduled to play in Nashville, and I had never been to a game at that point. My dad got tickets, and we planned to take a trip together. He’s here in IL, and I’m in Wake Forest, North Carolina. So on a Saturday in the middle of a semester, I drive over eight hours to meet my Dad in Nashville. It’s November, and the forecast isn’t looking good. There I am on Sunday at the 40-yard line, and in the second half, the sky unloads. I pull my poncho over my head and stay put. It’s pouring down rain in the cold of November for nearly half the game, and it would have taken 2 or 3 grown men to remove me from my seat. Why? Because I love it, and my love produced an act of devotion.
There are some of us who will sit on hard bleachers for hours for every sport in Massac County multiple days a week. Others of us will wake up early in the morning to sit for hours in frigid temperatures for a deer or a duck. These are not necessarily problems, and it’s not a sin to enjoy them, so what’s the point? It’s simply this: we know what devotion looks like, don’t we?
Beloved, has Christ not loved us in such a way as to produce in us greater acts of devotion than these? Are our sins not forgiven as far as the east is from the west? Have we not been reconciled to God? Is eternal life not our glorious inheritance? Are we not indwelt by the Spirit? Has he not promised to build his church, so the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it? Will he not build us up into the very temple of his presence? Is the gospel not the power of God unto salvation?
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is a faithful devotion to prayer. Prayer should be more primary in our corporate worship gatherings, and our prayer meetings should be more fully attended. Men, lead your family to gather for corporate prayer. Lead the way in attentiveness and affirmation during every prayer of corporate worship. Not becasue it is a religious activity for special occasions, but because it is the act through which God works to fulfill his promises.
Charles Spurgeon, in his concluding address to the students of the pastors’ college, emphasizes corporate prayer in the church in a way worth hearing and recovering.
“If a church is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the holy art of prayer. Churches without prayer-meeting are grievously common. Even if there were only one such, it would be one to weep over. In many churches the prayer-meeting is only the skeleton of a gathering: the form is kept up, but the people do not come. There is no interest, no power, in connection with the meeting. Oh, my brothers, let it not be so with you! Do train the people to continually meet together for prayer. Rouse them to incessant supplication. There is a holy art in it. Study to show yourselves approved by he prayerfulness of your people. If you pray yourself, you will want them to pray with you, and when they begin to pray with you, and for you, and for the work of the Lord, they will want more prayer themselves, and the appetite will grow. Believe me, if a church does not pray, it is dead. Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church.”- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is a faithful devotion to prayer. The second mark we can see is a faithful trust in God’s Word. Look with me at verses 15-20.
II.) Spiritual fruitfulness is marked by faithful trust in God’s Word (Acts 1:15-20)
The disciples had to suffer the loss of Judas, and we can’t know for certain how they initially handled that loss. Based on a basic understanding of life, we can understand that it may have included anger, pain, grief, and discouragement. It could have induced confusion over God’s plan and the disciples’ role in it.
Peter steps forward in this moment to tether God’s people to God’s Word, so that they understand why this has happened and what to do now.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Ac 1:15–17)
Peter appeals to two verses in the Psalms, which he then interprets through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Peter reads the Psalms of David and the suffering he endured as being fulfilled by Judas’ betrayal. Without that betrayal, Jesus cannot be arrested, tried, and crucified.
The point is simple. Judas’ betrayal was not a surprise or a disruption to the plan of God; it was under the sovereign providence of God. What is crucial for us to note is that Peter is not trying to make sense of all this on his own, but he is depending on Holy Scripture and is reading it in a way taught to him by Jesus himself (Luke 24). The Word of God is in Peter’s blood and bones. He is so immersed in it that life is interpreted in light of the truth of Scripture.
It is not unlikely that there will be people that you know, some of whom you follow, learn from, and love, who will disappoint you in the most tragic of ways. You will know people who sour and bitterly turn away from the Lord. You will know people who once loved sound doctrine who compromise the most precious of truths.
If you do not have categories that are shaped and formed by the Word of God, it will be deeply unsettling. It will be hard no matter what, but being formed and shaped by the Word will strengthen you to be hurt like a Christian and not be vulnerable to the winds of every painful circumstance.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Ti 4:1–3)
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Ti 3:1–5)
18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went o)t, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 Jn 2:18–19)
Know the Word, immerse yourself in it, and learn to read and interpret it in a sound way, so that your faith is not at the mercy of every unexpected circumstance.
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is the faithful trust in God’s Word. That trust not only includes what Scripture prepares us for, but also what it warns us of.
The description of Judas’ death is a warning of all that awaits those who stand opposed to God. No one will withstand the wrath of God, the deliverance of his justice, and the execution of his righteousness. Your sin will either be judged sufficiently on the cross of Christ or eternally in the darkness of Hell.
Listen to the warning, trust in Christ, who alone is the Savior of sinners.
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is the faithful trust in God’s Word, and those who trust in it act faithfully as they are formed by God’s Word.
III.) Spiritual fruitfulness is marked by faithful actions formed by God’s Word (Acts 1:21-26)
The disciples have unambiguous instructions from Jesus to wait in Jerusalem until the sending of the Spirit. As we’ve seen, they are devoted to prayer and trusting in God’s Word. Their prayer life and their knowledge of the Word lead them to act. They need someone to serve as a witness to Jesus’ resurrection. Let’s look at verses 21-26.
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. (Ac 1:21–23)
Why do I say that their actions are formed by the Word? Becasue Jesus had taught about the roles of the 12 apostles. Consider Luke 22:28-29.
28 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk 22:28–30)
The disciples understand that the restoration of the twelve apostles is necessary before the Spirit comes, because the apostles are the foundation through which God fulfills all of his promises to Israel through the Church. So their action is formed by the Word of God, and executed with sincere belief that the Lord has already chosen the right replacement.
23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Ac 1:23–26)
The way they go about determining who the Lord had chosen may seem odd to us, but we need to remember that this was done with a high view of God’s sovereign providence. For example, we read in Proverbs:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD (Pr 16:33)
After the giving of the Holy Spirit, we do not see the casting of lots practiced again. The Spirit leads the church in all its discerning of God’s will and in all its decision-making.
The key point for us is simple. A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is acting in obedience to God’s Word.
The true test for what we beleive about Scripture will not be found in our statements about it, but in our obedience to it. How much will it matter if the claim to love the authority of the Bible, its authority, clarity, and sufficiency, if we don’t do what it says?
A mark of spiritual fruitfulness is the will to act on what God has clearly taught in His Word.
What we have here in Acts 1:12-26 is a small group of faithful, spiritually fruitful believers who are growing in the Lord.
I don’t know if the Lord will bless us extraordinarily with conversions and explosive church growth while I’m here. What we can do in the meantime is be faithful every day, be devoted to prayer, trust God’s Word, and act in obedience to God’s Word. If we do that, we can be confident that we have the marks of a spiritually fruitful congregation, all to the glory of God.
Nathaniel R. Martin 