HEYO! Last night was an odd one, as everyone seemed to be weighed down by the week. We had some fun, and I even learned a new version of Bananagrams! Although, it seems I'm not very good at it. We mixed things up a bit and had our singing and message time in the middle of the night instead of right at the end, and closed out with Noodle Hockey. If you like hitting things (and people) with noodles and enjoy hockey, you definitely missed out.
The message last night closed out our Devotions of the Early Church series with the final devotion: Welcoming New Members. I shared about how Steam (a gaming platform for the pc) often will have special, limited time deals on games, and how every now one of you will reach out to me and say "Hey Mike! There's a deal out right now to get this game for free! Don't miss out!" It's super cool that they thought of me, but if I am being honest, more often than not I don't take advantage of the deal. But hey, at least they reached out, right? My sister, when she worked at Shoprite, would do the same thing for their deals. "Hey Mike! Shoprite has a deal on 2-liter bottles of soda right now, you should get some for the youth group while the deal is still on!" I think I only took advantage of those... once. =/ But hey, she reached out and let me know, right?
Acts 2:47b contains the last devotion of the early church: Welcoming New Members. However, look at how the verse reads: "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." What is being done in this verse? New believers are being added to the church. This was not an exclusive group. Anyone could join as long as they believed in Jesus. Now, who is doing the work in this verse? The Lord. If the Lord is doing the work, then what is our role in this? Accepting the new members. The early church was devoted to welcoming these new members as the Lord added them. But, is this our only role in evangelism (sharing the Gospel)? Are we just supposed to be welcoming new members? Nope. Check out what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:12-17.
"For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!' But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our message?' Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ." [emphasis mine]
Read that last verse again. Seriously, go back a line and read it. What Paul is saying here is that as Christians, we have been sent by God to tell others about Jesus. Matthew 28 confirms this when Jesus commands His disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations". We have been sent. Now notice the progression of Paul's thought process here.
1. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
2. You cannot call on the name of the Lord (Jesus) if you have not believed in the Lord.
3. You cannot believe in the Lord if you have never heard of the Lord.
4. You won't hear about the Lord if no one ever tells you about the Lord.
5. No one will tell you about the Lord unless they have been sent.
So then, who has been sent to tell others about Jesus? The church. Us. You and me. Part of our role as Christians is to tell others about Jesus. When we come across people who have not heard about Jesus (which we do almost everyday), we are supposed to tell them about Him. Then, what they decide to do with that information is between them and God.
We call this evangelism - the idea of sharing the Gospel of Jesus with others. And I think we feel so much pressure about it because we put all the responsibility of it on ourselves, as if it is up to us to save people. We are afraid that people will reject the message, reject Jesus, and reject us. And we are afraid that if they reject God, we will be failures. HOWEVER, this is not the case! Because when we tell others about Jesus - we have already succeeded! Well, partly succeeded.
The second half of this, and what is really meant when we talk about welcoming new members, is that when someone chooses to believe, when they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they join our community. They become one of us. Then, it is our responsibility to show them the ropes. To train them (we use the word disciple) in the ways of God. They come in to learn with us, serve with us, worship with us, pray with us, fellowship with us, and devote themselves to all the things we've talked about in this devotion series. All of those things we are already devoted to, they need to be brought in to be devoted to, too.
So whether somebody believes the message about Jesus is between them and God. God is the one who changes hearts and draws people to Himself. As the church, our job is to proclaim that message to everyone and then to welcome people into our community when they choose to believe.
I think each of you reading this knows someone who doesn't know or doesn't believe in Jesus. How will they ever believe in Him if they never hear about Him? Part of your role as a Christian is to share the news. Just like my sister shared the news about Shoprite's soda deals, we have a much more important "limited-time-only" deal to tell people about - the salvation that can be found in Jesus Christ! So let them know what's up, and let them decide what they want to do with that information.
Then, if they accept and believe, welcome into the church! Welcome them into our community! Guide them on where to go next - reading the Bible, connecting with other Christians, praying, serving, the whole nine yards. Show them the way. That's what it means to be devoted to welcoming new members.
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