Acts 3: From an Empty Congregation to a Growing One

Introduction

"You can be present without really being there." Pastor José Ngoueuze Nzali, at the Église Évangélique Paris Métropole, starts from the title of his message, which has two parts: the empty congregation and the growing congregation. Nobody is looking for an empty congregation. Yet a congregation can be right there, full of people, and empty at the same time.

The preacher knows this from experience. When he first arrived in the Paris region, he came to church every Sunday without anyone noticing him. He attended the service, then went home. He was not a member of the congregation, he was just passing through.

His text is Acts 3: Peter and John go up to the temple together and meet a man who is carried to the gate every day. The pastor points out the traps that make us live church life individually, then shows how a united congregation allows those who have stayed at the gate to come in as well.

Message Outline

1. A Congregation Can Be Full and Empty at the Same Time

• You can be in a group, a clan, even a gang, and end up alone: "I'm in the group, but at the same time I'm alone. I don't feel like I belong to this group."
• Coming from the south of France, the preacher arrives in the Paris region for work. Usually, people ask whether there are any newcomers so they can welcome them. He slips through the net: he comes every Sunday, attends the service and goes home.
• One Sunday, a mother of the church stops him: "I don't know you, I've never seen you. Have you been welcomed the way newcomers are welcomed?" He can't lie: no. She takes him aside, then introduces him to her daughters and other young people. He joins the youth group and relationships begin to form.
• "I was not a member of the congregation. I would come, spend a little time, and go home." You, too, may tell yourself: "I haven't been welcomed," "I don't feel at home here."
• This is the state of individualism. "Individualism can empty a congregation, even when it is full of people." The preacher points out three things that make us live church life individually, until the word loses its meaning.

2. First Trap: Our Personality Differences

• We are not all the same. Our personalities are shaped by the setting we grew up in, the people we met, the places we lived. The two figures in Acts 3 show this.
• Peter is impulsive, a man who charges ahead: "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters" (Matthew 14:28). When people come to arrest the Master, he cuts off an ear (John 18:10).
• John is zealous, intense, sometimes radical. He presents himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:20). For the preacher, John means to say: I'm not the one who betrayed Jesus, I'm not Judas, I feel loved by God and I love Jesus.
• Yet with his brother James, John wants to call down fire from heaven on those who do not receive Jesus (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebukes them and calls them sons of thunder (Mark 3:17).
• Nothing in these personalities pushed the two men to walk together. That is the trap: "With this one I can move forward, with that one I can build, but with the other one, we can't build anything."

3. Second Trap: Social Rank

• John is considered the youngest. Peter is married: Jesus healed his mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15). This social difference can become an obstacle.
• We end up telling ourselves: "I only walk with this category of people," even though we are in the same congregation. Or: "You're young, you don't know yet, you have time to grow and gain experience, but for now, it's not with you."
• Psalm 148, at verse 12, brings together young men and young women, old people and children to praise the name of the Lord. Because we are a community, a congregation.
• What could divide us should rather unite us, because we become complementary.

4. Third Trap: The Place We Want to Occupy

• "Ah, I want to be there." "Not you, you can't be there." James and John come to ask Jesus to let one sit at his right and the other at his left (Mark 10:35-37). They are seeking status, the place closest to the Master. Jesus answers that it is not for them to decide.
• Their request causes frustration among the other disciples (Mark 10:41). On the road, they argue about which of them is the greatest (Mark 9:33-34).
• These traps still keep us from living the congregation we should be. Even without saying it out loud, we think it: "It's not right that he's there, I want that place." And the war begins, even though we are called to walk together.
• Jesus had nevertheless prepared his disciples. He sends them out two by two (Mark 6:7). He sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover (Luke 22:8). They experience the Transfiguration together (Matthew 17:1-2).
• On resurrection morning, Peter and John run to the tomb. The text says they run together, but each runs a little on his own: John, being younger, arrives first, and it is Peter who goes in first (John 20:3-6).

5. Acts 3: "Look at Us"

• What has changed in the meantime? The presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus with them and in them. Peter and John go up to the temple together at the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1).
• It is no longer "you're in front, I'm behind," nor "I want the first place." It is no longer "I'm married, I only spend time with married people" or "I'm young, I only spend time with young people." They have understood that they belong to the same God and they move forward together.
• In verse 4, Peter fixes his eyes on the man and says to him: "Look at us." He does not say "look at me," nor "pay attention to Peter because he's the pastor, the greatest among us." "Look at us, because we are together, we are united." Without this unity, we will not experience certain things.
• In chapter 4, the crowd rushes in and the leaders decide to act: Peter and John are threatened, thrown into prison, then released the next day. John could have said: "It's not me, it was Peter who said get up and walk." They hold together because they share the same vision.
• Back among their own people, they do not ask for fire to fall on their opponents. They pray: "Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness" (Acts 4:29). The trial does not turn them away from the original vision: making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).
• "God can act without us, but he has chosen to act with us." The word "congregation" is singular, and yet it makes no sense without the others. There is one body and many members (1 Corinthians 12:12). "If we are alone, the congregation loses its meaning."

6. From the Gate to the Inside: Seeing the Real Needs

• The man in Acts 3 was carried every day to the gate of the temple to beg (Acts 3:2). He was over forty years old (Acts 4:22). According to the preacher, the law of Moses did not forbid him from entering. If he started at 20, that means he has been left at the gate of this congregation for at least 20 years. "He never went in. He stayed at the gate."
• First story. Eight or nine years ago, during an outreach evening at Châtelet, the pastor meets a homeless young man who understands only English. With his "few little words," he shares the Word and prays with him. For the first time, someone hugs him after a prayer. He promises to come back with a Bible in English. He does come back, but never sees him again. For nine years, that Bible has sat on his shelf, and every time he sees it, he prays for him. "He was at the gate, but God allowed him, by his grace, to go in."
• Second story. By dint of crossing paths with people in need, you become a little indifferent. The pastor had gotten into the habit of changing his route to avoid requests. About three weeks ago, as he left a train station, he started to turn away from a woman sitting there asking for money. He hears her say: "I want money to buy food for my little brother." The sentence shakes him. He turns back and gives her a few coins: "Maybe I could have done more."
• "The situations around us and the pressure of the world gradually push us to become insensitive to what once touched us deeply." We fill ourselves with other things until we are emptied of what is essential. Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the crowd (Matthew 9:36). It is this compassion that makes Peter and John, after years at Jesus' side, notice the man sitting at the gate.
• Third story. A week earlier, while waiting for his wife near a shopping center, the pastor is approached by a young man who asks him for money. He listens to him and gives him a bill, then asks why he keeps stressing that Jesus is God. The young man answers that he is a Christian. When the pastor introduces himself, the young man tells him the true version of his story. They exchange contact details, and the young man is due to visit the church the following Sunday.
• "Our mission is not to fill a room, but to fill the Kingdom. And it is because the Kingdom fills up that a room will fill up and a congregation will grow." The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).

7. Entering Through the Door Who Is Jesus

• The miracle is not limited to giving this man his legs back. He goes from the gate to the inside, from dependence to freedom, from insecurity to overflowing joy. "Leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God" (Acts 3:8). The preacher thinks of David bringing back the ark (2 Samuel 6:14-15).
• Two men were going up to the temple, and three go in. Our unity must not only make us move forward together: it must allow those at the gate to stand up and come in with us.
• "A flame starts because there are two or three pieces of wood. But when other pieces arrive, a blaze forms." The Church is a blaze that must never stop burning.
• The pastor ends with his own testimony. He was not one who stayed at the gate: taught from a young age in the law of God, he went to the temple, prayed, read the Word and talked about God around him. The neighbors would say: "If only we had a child like José." A classmate asks him so many questions about God that he runs out of answers: you can only give what you have received. He invites her to the Friday evening prayer meeting.
• That evening, he is the one who receives answers to questions he was not asking: it is by grace that he is saved, through faith, and not by works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). "I was lost. I had not yet grasped grace, even as I was entering the temple."
• Hence his question: "Did you only come in through a door, or did you come in through the door who is Jesus?" (John 10:9). He concludes with Peter's words: "I don't have silver and gold, but what I have, I give you": Jesus. "Get up, let's go in together to be a congregation that grows."

Key Takeaways

• Individualism can empty a congregation even when it is full: you can be present without really being there.
• Our personalities, our social rank and the place we want to occupy can separate us. They should rather make us complementary.
• Peter's "Look at us" shows a unity born of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a unity that holds even under threat.
• Our mission is not to fill a room but to fill the Kingdom, by noticing the real needs of those at the gate.
• Going into the temple is not enough: you must enter through the door who is Jesus, and be saved by grace.

Personal Application

1. Do you live your church life as a member of the congregation, or do you come, spend a little time, then go home?
2. With which category of people do you, deep down, refuse to walk: another personality, another generation, another situation?
3. Is there a place you covet in your church, to the point of telling yourself: "It's not right that he's there"?
4. Whom have you grown used to looking away from, and what could you give them beyond a coin or a simple hello?
5. Have you only walked into a church, or have you entered through the door who is Jesus, relying on his grace rather than on your works?

Verses Cited

• Acts 3:1-10
• Acts 4:1-31
• Matthew 14:28
• John 18:10
• John 21:20
• Luke 9:54
• Mark 3:17
• Matthew 8:14-15
• Psalm 148:12
• Mark 10:35-41
• Mark 9:33-34
• Mark 6:7
• Luke 22:8
• Matthew 17:1-2
• John 20:3-6
• Matthew 28:19
• 1 Corinthians 12:12
• Matthew 9:36
• Acts 2:47
• 2 Samuel 6:14-15
• Ephesians 2:8-9
• John 10:9

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an empty congregation?

For José Ngoueuze Nzali, it is a congregation full of people where everyone lives their faith individually: you come, spend a little time, go home, without really belonging to the group. Individualism can empty a congregation even when the room is full.

Why does Peter say "Look at us" in Acts 3?

In verse 4, Peter does not say "look at me" and does not put himself forward as the greatest. For the preacher, this "us" shows that Peter and John are united. Their differences in personality, rank and ambition no longer take center stage since the Holy Spirit came, and it is in this unity that the miracle happens.

How does a congregation grow according to this message?

It grows when its members feel like members and become channels God uses to bring in those who stayed at the gate. The preacher insists: our mission is not to fill a room but to fill the Kingdom. It is because the Kingdom fills up that the room will fill up, as in Acts 2:47.