The Church: A Place to Belong Acts 28:11-16

There are some people sitting right beside you this morning who are in need of courage. Some you may know. Their situations may be obvious and known to you. You may be God's choice to go meet them where they are and give them the courage they need to make the journey of faith. Others? Well, it may not be as obvious. But hang around, and I can guarantee you that if you make yourself available to the Lord Jesus Christ to be a cup of cold water for a thirsty soul, He will use you.

The bottom line for a church is this: if people aren't thanking God for the courage, the blessing they are receiving from that church, then what is the use? God wants us to be a place that is a source of courage and strength for people who need God's presence and power in their lives.

Now, what I am saying from this passage is that this is the work of the Church. What happened there happened for our instruction. According to this passage, when we are being the People God wants us to be, we are a place to belong, a place that is a haven of hospitality, a place where people meet you right where you are and a place that gives you courage for your journey.

I read what appeared to be a true story this week about a businessman who was returning to his Rochester, N.Y., home one winter evening. It had been a long, hard and tiring business trip. He had made his way down the highway and was making a turn towards home when he saw on the bank of the Genessee River a whole bunch of excited men. He decided to pull over, to take the time to see if he could be of help. He was told that just then a boy had fallen into the river. In the dark waters, they couldn't make him out, but heard his screaming. The businessman was aghast. "You mean a boy is in there and you are standing here?" Our man said no more, but dove into the cold, dark Genessee River. He found the boy, grabbed him in his arms, and struggled with him to the shore. As he wiped the water from the boy's face and brushed back his hair, he was completely shocked. It was his own son. He had plunged in for the boy of somebody else and saved his own son.²

When we are the Church and extend the grace of Jesus Christ, which we have received as a free gift from Him, to others on their journey, we are the ones who are blessed.

There is no club, no fraternity, no association known to humankind like the Church where the only qualification to be a member is a confession of your brokenness, acceptance of God's healing and salvation through His Son Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, and resting in Him alone for life and eternal life; where in dying to ourselves, we live; and in giving away our lives for the sake of others, we find our own life.

This, my friends, is a place of grace, of acceptance, of help along the way, and truly a place to belong.

1. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, "Acts" Richard N. Longenecker (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), p. 568.

2. From Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan (Rockville: MD, Assurance Publishers), page 568.