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Summary

This conversation explores the Jerusalem model of evangelism as demonstrated by the apostles in the early church. It emphasizes the importance of faithful preaching and teaching in establishing and stabilizing congregations. The discussion highlights the challenges faced by the early church, the commitment of its members to the cause, and the power of preaching in spreading the gospel. The speaker reflects on the need for modern Christians to be bold in their faith and to engage in evangelism within their local communities.

Takeaways

The Jerusalem model illustrates effective evangelism.
Faithful preaching is essential for church growth.
Challenges faced by the early church were significant.
Community commitment was vital for the early Christians.
Preaching should be persistent and bold.
The apostles faced opposition but continued to preach.
The importance of local evangelism cannot be overstated.
Gospel preaching leads to tangible results.
The church grew rapidly despite challenges.
Commitment to sound teaching is crucial for stability.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Jerusalem Model
00:02 The Role of the Local Church in Evangelism
07:54 Challenges Faced by the Early Church
14:23 The Importance of Boldness in Preaching
20:46 Commitment to the Cause of Christ

Transcript

David Stearsman (00:02)
introduced the Jerusalem model is the example of the evangelism that was done by the apostles and devout men that we find in the passage that is on the screen in Acts chapter 2 verses 41 through chapter 8 verse 3.

And when we were in school, and I suppose that if you’ve been a student at the Florida School of Preaching since the 1980s, you will have learned a quote that my dad had, and I learned it in the life of Paul class, but it was used a lot more. And I think that this summarizes the Jerusalem model, is that you cannot evangelize the world more rapidly than you can establish and stabilize congregations.

You cannot establish and stabilize congregations without faithful preaching and teaching. Faithful preachers and or teachers are not born, they must be trained. And so thinking about this, the first point that I like to make about the Jerusalem model,

records that Christians were converted by preaching. We have the public proclamation there in Jerusalem. And the response to Peter’s preaching on Pentecost and that those Jews that were gathered there were cut to their heart. And that they were extended the invitation there and that they were baptized and they had the remission of their sins. And then there is in Acts chapter 2

verse 41 that there were 3,000 that were added to them, that is the apostles and that conversion there. I’d like to ask you, have you ever in any of your evangelistic work been in a situation where you were part of witnessing 3,000 baptisms in one day? What would you do? How would you react to that?

I bet that would make some kind of newsletter, right? If you were a missionary trying to raise support to have 3,000 one day. If you know of anybody that’s ever had that kind of number, let me know. Because I have not. The closest and the work that we’ve done is when I was with Ted a few times, there have been 100 baptisms or more.

in one location, in one place. And remember this is all in Jerusalem. And I remember that at the time the question that I had running through my mind was, what’s next? And I think the Jerusalem model shows us what’s next. And one of the things that you notice is that when you look at the Scriptures,

that immediately following what happens in Acts chapter 2 verse 41 is the context of that shows the what’s next. In Acts chapter 2 verse 42 it says, they continued steadfastly, that is they were persistent in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And so what were they involved in? They were involved with doctrine.

Well, that takes preaching, doesn’t it? And I remember when I had that question as a preaching school student and I asked Ted about what was gonna happen next. It didn’t really occur to me at the time until I was pouring back over this lesson that that’s exactly what we did. There were four men who were about three hours away who were riding motorcycles to this area where there were 100 baptisms in this new location. And so it required preaching.

And they continued locally. As Brian mentioned, they stay in Jerusalem here. And you think about it, you know, if there are 3,000 people that are converted, think if 3,000 people were converted in your hometown. You think mission accomplished there? It would be a pretty good start, wouldn’t it? Time to move on. We’ve done what we need to do here. Well…

That’s not what under the Holy Spirit that the apostles were led to do. They had to keep in this locality. And the apostles stayed in Jerusalem here. And so there’s a lesson in this, you know, and I love lectureships, I love the encouragement, I love being around the brethren, I love the visitation, I love the lessons, I love taking notes, all those things, and it’s a good work.

but never discount the effectiveness and the importance of the local work. And here you have, as we continue to go through these chapters, where did they go next? Well, hostile territory, the temple.

And you think that at this point the temple as a religious entity was obsolete, it had a cultural significance. Now the people that were there, that were preached to, they still thought that it had ⁓ significance there. But you’ve got these locations where the apostles go, into the temple, into the beautiful gate, into Solomon’s porch. And Peter and John, heal a man.

that was born laying there, somebody that everybody knew in that vicinity. And Peter says to him, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And so you have this burdened man that everyone had seen. He’s up, he’s walking, he’s leaping, and what is he doing? He’s praising God.

Well this encounter with this one man that everybody knew led to what? It led to an opportunity for them to preach even more. And so they preach again in verse 12 to the men of Israel. Same type of audience here and they teach that the faith in Jesus’ name has made this man strong.

fulfillment of Moses and the prophets and the promise that went back to Abraham. And so here is this local emphasis and here are these men of Israel who are confronted at this place of where there was a spiritual emphasis. Well, who would dare go into such a place? Those with the truth. And

⁓ These men had the message of Jesus, the risen Christ, the salvation, and what they were saying, and what we can learn from this is that Jesus belongs in the town square.

You know, I listened to Sidney last night, he was saying things are getting crazy and things always seem to be getting crazy. We doom scroll all the time and look, it’s getting worse, isn’t it getting worse? What laws are they gonna pass and what are they gonna ban? And ⁓ when are they gonna just tell us that we’re under persecution and shut up shop on us? Well, we gotta think about the fact that, you know,

Even when the laws aren’t written, we can write those things ourselves when we shut Jesus out of spaces. When we say to ourselves, well, those people wouldn’t hear it. Or I got to go to a select group over here. You know, in one of those ⁓ mission trips that I took to Ghana, I had a moment of self-reflection. And that work is difficult, and you know, it takes a lot of planning.

and all of those things. But I just thought for a moment, why don’t I do those things at home? You you have all these conversions. What’s the difference? Am I wearing a campaign t-shirt over there and that’s, you know, they know who I am and I’m with other people that are doing the same thing. I mean, I’m wearing a suit right now, right? So, I mean, if it’s a uniform that I’m hiding behind,

but I’m hiding behind not being diligent enough and in that way I’m shutting Jesus out of where he really belongs. And we think that the Lord is going to be banned, but in these spaces that we have, are we influencing others? Are we evangelistic in our local areas? It work.

You know, we ⁓ say to ourselves, well, I can’t say certain things at work or I’ll get in trouble. Well, what about just an injection when somebody else says something? I can tell you how many times, I can’t tell you how many times, there’s been a moment where that was the opportunity and I’ve let it pass. And I feel awful after that. And that’s the moment.

And it doesn’t, you know, we’re of course supposed to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves, but can I say something that might cause that person to ask me a follow-up question? That’s all it has to be. And, you know, we tell ourselves, well, you know, last Thanksgiving, you know our Aunt Sally, she didn’t want to hear that. You know how she is and, you know, you can’t really talk to her and she’s set in her own ways and things like that. Well, think about yourself.

You know there might be another opportunity for you to talk to Aunt Sally and you can’t cut out the fact that Aunt Sally needs salvation. Also they preach before the authorities here and they’re arrested for preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But what we see with the apostles is that the number

of converted men and this does include the women in this instance that grows to about 5,000 people in Acts chapter 4 verse 4. And so these authorities bring these men before the Sanhedrin and they ask by what power or by what name have you done this? And they respond in verse 12 that salvation is only in Jesus’ name.

And think about the pattern that we have that is throughout these chapters in the book of Acts. And it’s a familiar pattern. God had a plan in place in the Old Testament and the prophets testified to it and the fathers testified to it. And ultimately that was sending his son who was crucified and who has raised again.

and now you can be saved. And so that message was clear and it was repeated. I think sometimes we attend lectureships and we hear people who are dynamic and they bring the truth to us in ways that are unique and different and they use that talent of originality and we think, well you know if I don’t have that then you know nobody’s gonna listen to me. But remember these authorities marveled at these men.

And they admitted that they were uneducated and they were untrained, but in chapter four verse 13, they had been with Jesus. And the power was in what was preached, not who was preaching. You know what I find out about speaking on day two of the lectureship? All my brilliant points got made yesterday.

And then I went home and I rewrote my sermon last night and then everybody took them again this morning. And so repetition is not bad. And you meet the people where they are. And preachers will tell you, know, why do we preach on the same subjects? Is it just because we don’t want to study or we don’t, ⁓ maybe somebody, I want to study. But you know, if somebody is not getting the point of something,

you go there again. Of course these were different groups. But we also as preachers have to be aware that there is this novelty and originality that leads to a bad place. And so promoting the truth was what these men did under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Next, the church at Jerusalem was consistently challenged. The church was not shielded

from problems. As the Gospel advances the Church begins to face opposition not just from without but from within. We have threat on trial where the Apostles resolve is tested under the threats from the Sanhedrin and they respond in Acts 4 19 and 20 for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

And in Acts chapter 4 verse 29 it records that they prayed for boldness. You think about that, it was not prayer for an escape route. It was prayer to speak more boldly. There’s a recognition that they had to be in the firing line and that was accomplishing something.

And also tells us something, right? That I can be tempted not to speak boldly when it comes to preaching and teaching. And I can proclaim the truth and not teach error, but teach around what needs to be taught. And that’s a problem because I’m avoiding what I need to say.

And that gives us a lesson on being evangelistic post-baptism because this had to continue after baptism. The preaching and teaching had to continue. And as preachers, we should pray for boldness, not arrogance, but boldness. When we feel compelled, you know, I’m gonna dodge that because I don’t wanna have to deal with it for a few hours later during the day.

We’ve got to go there when we know to go there. There’s also internal discipline with Ananias and Sapphira where they sin by withholding the proceeds from the selling of their possessions. And Peter when he charges Ananias he says he had not lied to men but to God in Acts chapter 5 verse 4. What was the result of that? Well,

And there was great fear upon the church. But to the faithful, of course, they feared what had happened there to their brethren. But that fear was not just fear to shake them up for no good reason. It was confirmation that God saw everything that was going on in Jerusalem still. And that’s confirmation that if you’re doing the right thing, then God knows that.

as well. And then you have before the high priest and the Sadducees in Acts 5-12 through 42. And the miracles at Solomon’s porch that continue. And the men are imprisoned but that night an angel of the Lord releases them and commands them, go stand in the temple and speak to the people all of the words of this life. In verse 25. And under the threat

of being stoned by the council these apostles respond. We ought to obey God rather than men. What follows is a providential person who’s put in their path someone who would not seem to be sympathetic to what they’re doing, the one who taught solitarsis, that is, Gamaliel. And Gamaliel, in his unlikely sympathizing, helps these

apostles out and ⁓ there is providence here and the outcome is that these men ended up rejoicing in the suffering that they faced and they continued it says in chapter 5 verses 40 through 42 teaching daily. Persistence here with preaching. Nothing was going

to stop them and getting that message out to who needs it. And then you have this internal tension that was going on in Jerusalem. The complaint was the Hebrews versus the Hellenists. The Hellenists were Greek Jews and this difficulty arose because the Hellenists believed that the Hebrews were neglecting the sport of their widows. The apostles then decided that the matter

could be handled by appointing seven men on whom they laid hands. And so the apostles were not directly involved with solving this conflict and there was a reason for that. And that reason was because that they saw the need to continue preaching. And so I ask as we look through these chapters, what is being emphasized here?

is that there is a premium on preaching and teaching, on continuing for us the Apostles doctrine. Because what we see out of that is that the Word of God spreads and you even have priests that are obedient to the faith. And so in this Jerusalem model what we’re seeing is that the Holy Spirit decided that this was the

the right way to work through these things. When I think about the Holy Spirit and I think about that promise that was given in Acts chapter 1, 8 that they should wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit fell upon them is that the Holy Spirit was there to fast track the church into maturity. Here you have these 3,000 new converts at once. And as Jesus promised in John chapter 14,

through chapter 16. He promised that he would send this helper for them, that they would be able to recall everything. John chapter 16 verse 13, that he had taught them. And that was the plan. But that plan had to be laid out over a period of time. And even though there were all of these problems that were going on in the congregation, even in the midst of the congregation where you have

⁓ contention between the cultures. You have these problems and this Jerusalem Church working through these problems. And I think we should remember that. I think we should be ⁓ wary of the pettiness that can cause church splits. And you we think about how often God talks about infidelity.

and uses that to describe our spiritual waywardness. Well, you think about tearing the church apart as though you’re tearing a marriage apart over things that if you were able to reconcile these things, you could grow from these things. And that’s a lesson that we learn. Finally, from the Jerusalem model, we learned that they were committed to the cause. How did faith

in the risen Christ change these Christians. They made a charitable commitment to the cause. They had a shared life and they were generous with one another. Luke records that these new converts were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had needs. That opinions that they had in common, no, it was the truth. It was that

anything that we have is superseded by the fact that we have the faith, that we have the truth. And so they prioritized spiritual matters in Acts chapter 4 verse 32, the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common and with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all who are possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet and they distribute to each as anyone had need. Thus the dealing with Ananias and Sapphira had to be done to show the other people God knows who are his and he knows who’s prioritizing these things, the spiritual matters.

And then we get to Stephen’s sermon, his martyrdom, which climaxes with Israel’s repeated rejection of God’s messengers in Acts chapter 7 verses 51 through 53. And what we see from that is that an opposite of what transpires in Acts chapter 2 verse 37, where those men were cut to the heart and they responded with obedience.

These men were cut to the heart, but out of hatred they stoned Stephen to death. What happens from that? Well the church is scattered and from the outside I’m sure it probably looked like there’s a collapse that’s going on here. But really what was transpiring was expansion through this collapse and

This persecution which scattered these believers. The apostles remain in Jerusalem but the gospel is moving beyond the city because what is transpiring here. And I think about that verse in chapter eight verse two where it talks about those who were present at Stephen’s burial and it says that devout men carried Stephen to his burial and mourned him there.

And the church was not going to stop with Peter and John. The church was not going to stop with Stephen because there were other committed men willing to carry on.

And we probably don’t witness many martyrdoms, but I think about every year when I come here and think about all of the sound preachers who have been in this pulpit before, who have passed on. I think about Tom Holland. think about VP Black. I think about B.C. Carr and I could go on and on. You think about what they left behind.

And it was to train other devout men to carry this message on. And of course, there is Saul of Tarsus, who’s wreaking havoc of the church. He’s entering every house. He’s dragging off men and women. He’s committing them to prison. But then he also goes through this process of being taught and he becomes Paul. He becomes an apostle.

He pens 13 of the New Testament epistles. And who would have seen that coming except God?

In closing, back to the quote, you cannot evangelize the world more rapidly than you establish and stabilize congregations. You cannot establish and stabilize congregations without faithful preaching and teaching. Faithful preachers and or teachers are not born, they must be trained. Gospel preaching yields results.

It is estimated that these events of these chapters were only between two and five years. But Wayne Jackson in his commentary on Acts estimates at the time of Stephen’s death that there were 20,000 Christians among the 55,000 residents of Jerusalem. Think of that. Do you think that that plan works?

Of course it does. When have you ever heard of numbers of obedience like that of true Christian conversions the way the New Testament says? We can’t be tempted into alternative plans and diminish preaching and teaching. God chose it, Paul says. He chose the foolishness of preaching. That which seems foolish to the world is His plan. Yes, evangelism

comes with challenges. But this is something that we all face. And when you’re evangelizing to people who ⁓ you want to be in Christ and those who already are, I think one thing to emphasize is that these challenges are something that we all face and that we all should look at. And as Jesus says that we

are supposed to take up our cross daily and follow Him. That’s part of the plan. We have to prepare ourselves for that. But that’s also part of the ultimate reward. And finally, the Lord’s Kingdom needs committed Christians. I think about these quotes from my dad, and Brian asked me to include them in this manuscript, and

I appreciate every year when people remind me of my dad and how they impacted his life, but I’ve been telling some people that I know this year.

don’t forget that you’ve impacted a lot of people.

and the work goes on. My dad’s awaiting his reward, but we have to be committed to sound teaching. We have to submit to it. And submitting to that is submitting to our savior. And we have to encourage stability in the local work. Thank you.

Before Stanley leads us in another song, we want to go to God in prayer. One of the people we prayed for this morning.