Church Split: God's Plan to Spread the Gospel

CHURCH SPLIT

GOD’S PLAN TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL

Acts 1:8

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 2:41

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Acts 4:4

Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

Acts 5:14

And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)

Acts 6:1

1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied…

Acts 8:1-4

1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

The Church Split

I am advocating a “Church Split”!  Now please do not turn me off yet, just hear me out.  There is a healthy way to split the Church, and an unhealthy way. 

Child Birth is a new life splitting away from another life to form a unique and separate life.  Is this not how the Church grows?

The Church has grown fatter and fatter over the years, and she wants to hold onto all that it has, rather than splitting it off to form new life.  We as a Church cannot grow unless we split!

The Greatest Time On Earth

Look at the book of Acts.  This was truly one of the greatest times on earth for the Church.  The Church was growing by leaps and bounds.  The word “Great” appears 39 times in the book of Acts.  The word “Great” is an adjective, it describes.  At no time on earth was it any “Greater” than that time.  The word “Great” is defined as: Important, Powerful, very good, mighty, grand, impressive, massive, the best, big, fantastic, wonderful, and more than what is usual.  When you add the word “Great” to a noun, verb, or another adjective it expands what you are talking about.  Look at these verses from the Book of Acts (and yes, I do preach a whole message just on the word “great” found in these verses):

Acts 2:20

Great and notable day of the Lord

Acts 4:33

With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Acts 4:33

And great grace was upon them all.

Acts 5:5

and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

Acts 5:11

And great fear came upon all the church

Acts 6:7

And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith

Acts 6:8

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people

Acts 7:11

And great affliction.

Acts 8:1

And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem

Acts 8:2

Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

Acts 8:8

And there was great joy in that city.

Acts 8:9

Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:

Acts 8:10

Saying, This man is the great power of God.

Acts 8:27

A man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians

Acts 9:16

For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. 

Acts 10:11

And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 

Acts 11:5

As it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners;

Acts 11:21

And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.

Acts 11:28

And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world.

Acts 14:1

A great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.

Acts 15:3

Declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

Acts 16:26 

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

Acts 17:4

And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.

Acts 19:27

That the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

Acts 19:28

And cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Acts 19:34

About the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Acts 19:35

The city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Acts 21:40

And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

Acts 22:6

And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

Acts 22:28

And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.

Acts 23:9

And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

Acts 23:10

And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.

Acts 23:14

And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.

Acts 24:2

And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence,

Acts 24:7

But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,

Acts 25:23

And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth.

Acts 26:22

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:

Acts 28:6

Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

Acts 28:30

And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.

No one can deny that this was the “Greatest” time on earth and the good news is that we can still have the Book of Acts today!

Jesus commanded the Church to in Acts 1:8 to take the Gospel to “Jerusalem, Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”.  This was to be a stage-by-stage process: Jerusalem first, which was home, and then to their country, Judea.  From there they were to take the Gospel to the neighboring people of Samaria, and then to the rest of the World.  City – Nation – Neighboring Countries – World.

Truly it all started in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.  Peter preached his great sermon explaining the outpouring of the Holy Ghost and 3,000 were saved.  What a great start to the Church!

Weeks and months later another 5,000 men were added to the Church at Jerusalem.  The Bible tells us that, “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women”.   This was a great time! 

By the two figures of 5,000 and 3,000 alone that we are given in the first four chapters of the Book of Acts we can tell that the Church in Jerusalem numbered at the very least 8,000 people.  There was a problem though.  No one wanted to leave Jerusalem.  The Church was very quickly becoming an institution that was peculiar to Jerusalem only.  Instead of moving out from Jerusalem, the Church was huddling in one spot.

This is what God had to do to get them move:

Acts 8:1

And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

God had to force a “Church Split” so to speak.  He had to split off the believers from the Church at Jerusalem and propel them outward into Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.  God’s purposes were achieved by allowing the enemy to bring persecution against His people.

Sometimes even today, Churches go through Church splits.  All of the sudden a Church running 300 drops down to 200 and a portion of the congregation goes off with another preacher.  Now, I am not condoning these circumstances in any way, but I do believe if we were more willing to help our young preachers go out and start churches we would see less of this occurring.  Because we refuse to split spiritually sometimes it happens carnally.

God Wants Us to Spread His Life Everywhere

God commanded all the animals he created in the beginning to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth”  God then told Adam & Eve in Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…”

Before the Fall it was God’s intention for Adam & Eve to spread his life to every corner of planet earth.  The command of God may have been put on hold for 4,000 years but Jesus commanded the Church to pick up where Adam & Eve left off and to carry this Life to all of the world.

Mark 16:15

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

The Myth of the Mega Church

Does God build Mega-Churches?  Is the Mega-Church a creation of God or man? 

If the modern religious man were to rewrite the Bible today they would have Jesus saying, “Upon this Rock I will build my Mega-Church”.

What is a Mega-Church?  These are churches that keep growing and growing into the thousands.  Some of these Churches are cities unto themselves.  The Peoples Church in Seoul, Korea pastored by Yongi Cho, has a membership of 400,000+ people (it may be more now), and is the largest in the world.

In America there are Churches that are swelling into the thousands and thousands.  People are drawn like magnets to their concert-like facilities where everyone is a visitor every Sunday.  There is little accountability in Churches this size.

Was the Church at Jerusalem a Mega-Church?  After all they had at least 8,000 members.   The answer is “No”.  Nowhere in all of the archaeological records has anyone found an 8,000 seat Church built 2000 years ago.

Where did all of these people meet?  They met in houses.  The Church was broken up into house-sized units and spread all over the city.  Yes, they did have a central pastor, but each individual church had a local bishop that presided over that congregation.  The local bishop answered to the head pastor (Apostle) in Doctrine and Conduct.

The average size of each of these churches could have not been any larger than what could have been squeezed into a home, maybe 25 to 50 people.  What would then do after there was no room for any more?  They would split!

Today we are preoccupied with numbers!  “How many do you have in your Church?”  “How many members do you have?”  “What is your Sunday School enrollment?”  Numbers!  Numbers!  Numbers!  We are not living in the Book of Numbers; we are living in the Book of Acts!

We are never going to grow by holding we will only grow by giving.  The seed clenched in the fist will produce no harvest!  Only the seed that is scattered will produce. 

After Our Own Kind

God told every flower, every tree, every dog, every cat, every whale, every mockingbird, and every grasshopper to produce “after his own kind”.  What was true of the natural is also true of the spiritual.  We must produce after our own kind.  The Church is to reproduce itself.  Jesus even said this of himself.

John 12:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Death & Resurrection is the prescribed manner of growth.  Jesus had to fall into the ground and die.  It was death that planted him and resurrection, new-birth, that brought him forth with uncounted fruit.  Jesus produced what he is!  He produced a replica of himself in the Body of Christ!  The Church replicates itself through death, burial, and resurrection.

The Church I pastor, Pentecostal Lighthouse, has went through a death experience.  For three years we lay in the ground in a death experience, but we have sprang forth again!  The seeds will be scattered and growth will emerge after death.

The Church did not grow until Jesus died!  It took death to activate, to germinate, the seed.  The splitting off of the additional fruit from Christ has accomplished growth.

We in the Church are in dire need of “real” spiritual growth.  Thousands flock to large mega-churches and the world, the media, and our neighbors call that growth.  But, is it really growth?  Or is it just a crowd?  What do we want for our churches?  Large crowds or a deep spiritual growth in Christ.

The real plan of God for these churches is that once they reach an unmanageable size, they should have a young minister trained to send forth with a group from that Church to plant another.  If we will keep on splitting off and planting churches we would see astronomical growth in the Church again.  The reason we do not see this happening today is that man’s ego gets in the way.  Most Pastors are unwilling to give up one member.  Some Churches that I have visited have dozens of young preachers sitting in the congregation and occasionally the Pastor will throw them a bone and let them preach a service, but these preachers need to be thrust out into the fields to work.  There are thousands of communities that do not have a good Church.  We have the answer right in our midst!  We must be willing to “deny the flesh” and do what is needed to spread this Gospel. 

The "Come As You Are" Gospel

THE “COME AS YOU ARE” GOSPEL

Psalms 24:1-5

1The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

2For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

3Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

THE “COME AS YOU ARE” FAD

The “Come as you are” fad is a relatively new development in Christianity.  What we see commonly today was not so common as little as forty years ago.  The idea suggests that coming to Church requires no forethought whatsoever, that God is so eager for you to worship Him that he has no requirements at all to impose on the worshipper.  This fad, which has spread all over America and I am sure to other countries, is so prevalent today that it has become the mantra of most mega-churches and is the slogan of modern church growth gurus.    Why it is not uncommon to see a banner hanging outside a worship facility with these words boldly proclaiming, “Come as you are.” 

Churches today are so desperate to capture another warm body to fill a spot on a pew that they will stoop to any level to achieve this go.  They say to the masses with banners and slogans, “Come as you are”!  They are telling them: “We don’t care how you dress – just come to church.  We don’t care if you have a hangover – just come to church.  We don’t care if shave or comb your hair – just come to Church.  We don’t care if you wear a rock-n-roll t-shirt – just come to Church.  We don’t care if you wear a mini-skirt – just come to Church.  Shorts?  No problem!  We just want you in our Church.  You do not have to change.  No one is going to put any pressure on you.  You can join the choir.  You can teach a Sunday school class.  You can even serve on the board.  Come as you are.  We will love you and no one will ever hassle you.”  Folks, this is no longer about reaching sinners this is the philosophy of those that “think” they are saved.

I want to examine these questions: Where did this come from?  What does it mean?  Who started this?  And, why is this idea destructive to true worship?

Here are a few examples that I have seen:

1.      Charismatic church in my local area with a banner across the front that says, “Come as you are.  You’ll be loved.”

2.      Lutheran Church with the bold words across the top proclaiming, “Come as you are.”

3.      A “Cowboy Church” had these words spelled out on its lettered sign, “Come as you are.  Let’s worship the Lord.”

Right about now you are probably thinking, “What is wrong with that?  Are we not supposed to tell the sinner that they do not have to clean their lives up to come to Christ?  Isn’t the Church a place where people can come “as they are” and have Christ change them?” 

I want to make one thing emphatically clear that I am not saying that a person has to clean themselves up before they come to Christ.  I have heard the old saying all my life, as I am sure you have, “You have to catch the fish before you clean them”.  Unfortunately, the “Come as you are” fad is no longer targeting sinners but now appeals to worshippers.  We now have a whole generation of worshippers that believe they can worship God, and might I add, live for God, any way they please.  They mistakenly believe that God will take them just like they are or He will not have them at all.  I heard B. H. Clendennen say once, “Then God will not have you at all”.

This “Come as you are” slogan tends to confuse people about the nature of God.  People have lost their reverence for God, respect for the House of God, and honor for the things of God.  I believe much of this can be traced back to this casual, lazy idea that we can approach God any old way that we want to.  Because of this people are confused about how to worship and serve the Lord.

The questions must be asked: Can people really come as they are?  Are we free from any preparation when coming to God?  If we must prepare ourselves for service to the King then what preparation is there? 

THE INITIAL APPROACH TO GOD: COME AS HE IS

The initial approach of the sinner to God is certainly, “Come as you are”, but it is only in the sense that we can do nothing in ourselves in order to please the Father.  We cannot work hard enough to please Him.  We cannot give enough of our money, time, or efforts to please Him.  There is nothing we can do in our flesh that would ever please God enough to save us.

The initial approach to God is based on the shed blood of Jesus or else God would kill us on the spot.  A better saying than “Come as you are” would be, “Come as He is.”  For it is Christ, and Christ alone, that enables us to come to the Father.  Without Jesus no one could approach the Father.

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

No man can come as “he is”.  He must come through who Jesus is.  Our approach to the Father is solely based upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  To “come as we are” is a fleshly approach.  Every person that comes to Father must come on the basis of what Jesus did at Calvary.  It tell you again: It is not “Come as you are” but rather “Come as He (Jesus) is” that will get us access to the Father’s mercy and grace.

DOES THE BIBLE UPHOLD THE “COME AS YOU ARE” THEOLOGY?

We need to look at the Word of God and see how men and women approached the Holy God so we can better understand our approach to God.  Did they come as they were when they approached God?  I want to give you two examples from the Old Testament.  I know already some of you are saying the veil has been rent and the Old Testament no longer applies, but we must remember that Calvary did not change God – His nature is still Holy – Calvary changes us. 

Again let me say here, the come as you are ideology may have originally been targeted at sinners but today we see that it has washed over into the Church.  People come together at Churches with the intention of worshipping God any old way they want.  They come in shorts, tank tops, pants with holes all in them, pajamas, and, what else?  The list goes on and on.  You need only go back forty or fifty years ago and things were a lot different.  As soon as the “Come as you are” idea came into the Church people began to readjust their thinking about worship.

Look with me now at two glaring examples in the Old Testament:

1.     The Priests could not come as they were to offer sacrifices to God- God gave them strict guidelines on how to dress and how to cleanse themselves in order to approach God.  Look at this scripture:

Exodus 30:17-21

17And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

18Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.

19For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:

20When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:

21So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

2.      Moses could not come as he was to the burning bush- God would not allow Moses to approach the burning bush with his shoes on.  God’s command to Moses was “Put off thy shoes”.  There has been much speculation by many preachers over the years exactly what this referred to but the point is, Moses had to change something about himself before he could approach a Holy God. 

Exodus 3:4-6

4And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

THE CORRECT WAY TO COME TO GOD

The text at the beginning of this message says if you want to ascend the hill of God and stand in the Holy Place that you must make preparation.  These scriptures have correctly been applied to Christ, for He is the holy lamb without blemish.  But, we as well must have “clean hands” and a “clean heart” if we intend on “ascending” to God in worship. 

If people would spend time preparing their hearts to come and worship then God will surely send revival to the Church.  A prepared and holy heart is going to be reflected in our dress, manners, and attitude. 

This is the correct way to approach God:

1.      Holy- They that approach the Lord must be holy.  The following scripture your about to read is not just something you do it is something that you are.  We must worship God by giving Him praise but we must also live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord.  Such a life is a life that has beautified by holiness.  So we understand it is not just how we act in corporate worship, it is how we should be all the time.

1 Chronicles 16:29

29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

2.     Fearfully- We must approach the Lord with fear and respect.  What happened to the fear of the Lord?

Psalms 111:10

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever

3.      Humbly- We should never be arrogant or proud, but we should be humble.

Isaiah 57:15

15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

4.      Faithfully- It is useless to approach God without faith.

Hebrews 11:6

6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

5.      Boldly- If we have done our part then we can be bold.  A man that has something to hide, sin, cannot be bold.

Hebrews 4:16

16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

6.      Patiently- We should be patient when seeking an answer from the Lord.

Isaiah 40:31

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

7.      Consistently- God wants us to be consistent in our seeking Him.

Luke 18:1-8

1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?