ReBrand Week 3

Acts 2: 36-41; Matthew 4: 18-22

PART I: Intro

This is week 3 of our series ReBrand. We are taking the month of February to focus on our mission and vision here at Ottawa First. Week 1 was kind of an introduction where we covered 1 Cor. 1, last week we talked about Evangelism and looked at a some passages from Romans, Acts and Mark. This week we are going to look at a couple of different passages, one from from Acts Ch. 2, the favorite chapter of every Pentecostal preacher in history (although we will be looking at it a bit differently) and Matthew 4. What I would really like to focus on today is discipleship. We use that term a lot in church, but we rarely define what it actually means or what it looks like…today I would like to take to scripture to find that out. At the end of my sermon today, I will talk about (what I’m referring to as) our theme for the year. I call it a theme, but basically, it’s challenge to help us stay mission minded, even when I move on to different topics. I will be touching on this theme throughout 2023. Let’s go ahead and pray

PRAY

One of the reasons that this series is called ReBrand is because of the tendency of churches to want to stay relevant, in a culture that is moving farther and farther away from the principles in God’s Word. We are all aware of the garbage that we can see on T.V., I don’t have to tell you how bad it’s gotten…only to say that as society moves quickly down one road, a number of churches are trying to play “catch up” and not be left behind. Many denominations have recently been changing long held and core teachings of Christianity…all in order to please society and appear relevant. My main issue is not with the world, we should not bee surprised that society is aligning itself against Biblical principles....Even though most people do not realize it, the reason that western society (and the world in general) has become so aligned against traditional Judeo-Christian ethics is because those in charge of the government, media....all forms of media (social, television, newspapers) and the academic world have embraced a worldview known as secularism.

Mark Sayers:

“The story of secularism is a story which says that as the world moves away from faith and belief in God that the world will inevitably become a better place.”

Secularism seeks to get rid of the moral guideline which says there is a right and there is a wrong. Secularism believes that traditional morality is a handicap to humanity, keeping us from fulfilling our true potential as a species and demands that its followers worship the consumer culture around them. Without realizing it, millions of people, who would claim to not belong to a religion, very much belong to one, one in which mankind is god.

Perhaps to you and I things seem worse than ever…and maybe they are, but we must remember that the early church faced a situation that was way worse than what we are experiencing. As bad as it may seem, God is not taken by surprise and has given us the tools so that we can offer something better than what the world offers. Our world is full of hurting and broken people, overwhelmed with sadness, grief and anger…the Lord operates through the church…you and I to offer hope to a world that is wrapped up in worshiping itself. This is why it’s a mistake for churches and pastors to try and become more and more like society that surrounds them. What makes us unique is that we are different…now, we are not called to be different in a way that is weird and awkward, but different in a life-giving way. God set up the early church to be a guide for us…because if the church could grow and thrive under those conditions, I promise you, our best days are ahead of us.

Our main text today is Acts 2: 37-42, but as usual, I want to give the context behind our passage. The beginning part of Acts is all about how the early church got started. Previous to vs. 37..”now when they heard this...” Peter was preaching to a crowd of people. In the closing passages of Acts 1 the disciples chose a man to replace Judas, the one who betrayed Christ. They chose a guy named Matthias. So, as the 2nd chapter of Acts opens up a number of believers (120 of them) had gathered together and was waiting, as per Jesus’s instructions from earlier. All of a sudden, the Bible records that a sound, like a might rushing wind swept through the building, fire appeared above the heads of those in the room and they began speaking in languages previously unfamiliar to them.

Acts 2: 1-4

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Apparently a large crowd had gathered outside and noticed the commotion going on inside of the building. As this was going on, Peter got up and began to preach to the people who were there. Peter spoke boldly and while I do not have time to cover his entire sermon, I did want to read a portion of it…as it leads into the text we are looking at today.

Acts 2: 22-24

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

So Peter is here, speaking with the onlookers, giving testimony to the risen Christ. Telling the people, listen, you know, the one you crucified, well, the grave had no power over Him, Jesus rose again, not in order to take vengeance on those who killed Him, but to offer the gift of salvation. So, Peter finishes up his fiery sermon, that is where we pick up our main text for today.

Acts 2: 37-42

37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

I know that was a long intro into our main text, but it’s important that we understand the context behind how the early church got its start, as it gives us an insight into how we can be successful today. By that, I don’t mean that we all wait around for a mighty rushing wind or cloven tongues of fire to appear above our heads. Whenever we read scripture and we come across something unique, that we do not see elsewhere in scripture, we must do our part of seeing how that unique situation fits in with the rest of scripture as a whole. We will talk more about this in my upcoming series, “how to read the Bible.” That said, Acts ch. 2 is a very important part of the N.T. and while there are different types of theology around the doctrine of speaking in tongues, pretty much every serious pastor will admit that without the day of Pentecost, you and I would not be sitting here today.

The Expository Commentary

John–Acts (2:42–47. The First Christians)

In fact, these verses are both descriptive and prescriptive—that is, they describe the situation and also leave us with patterns we are meant to follow. As always in Acts, the trick is distinguishing the two.

So, what can we learn from our passage today about discipleship? I have 5 things I would like to highlight from this passage that gives us some insight into how we can successfully disciple one another. I will cover the first 4, then for my conclusion I will talk about the 5th.

What is discipleship? Well, a disciple (in our context) is someone who follows after and learns from Christ. The word disciple means learner. Even the secular dictionary defines discipleship this way:

Dictionary.com

the condition or situation of being a disciple, a follower, or a student of some philosophy, especially a follower of Christ:The priest was known for his lifelong discipleship to St. Thomas Aquinas.

If you look up definitions of discipleship you will come across dozens of definitions…all of them basically saying the same thing:

Discipleship: the process of believers working together to become more like Christ.

In order to undergo proper discipleship, it’s important that you are around other believers and are involved in the church and not just a pew warmer. It is the process of discipleship that prepares us to fulfill the great commission.

Vs. 37 of our text says:

37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

Would that every time we speak with someone about the life-giving message of Christ, or live out the message of Christ in front of others, that people would be pierced in their hearts…This reminds me of the passage from

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

PART II: Main Text

Let’s go over 4 things the early believers did, in order to grow the Church, we find them in

vs. 42

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

A pastor couldn’t ask for a better verse in which to create a sermon on.

1. Proper Teaching

2. Fellowship

3. Communion

4. Prayer

Now, each one of these four are a sermon unto itself, but for today I will touch on each on briefly, and then I’ll tie them together as I end. Today I’m mainly focused on what they represent as a whole, rather than the individual parts…each of which are very important.

1. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching!

As exciting as it would have been to be a part of the early church, we are more fortunate today. You might ask why…because today, we have God’s Word, both the O.T. and the N.T. When the day of Pentecost happened and the church was suddenly formed, the leaders only had the O.T. to rely on, as far as written down instructions that they knew God had inspired. In Peter’s first sermon he quotes from the book Joel and the book of Psalms. It’s easy for us to take the Bible for granted, because we are so used to having it…but for the early church, they were living out what we read about. Also, there were very few qualified people to teach the first converts. Remember, this is before the apostle Paul came onto the scene. The early Christians were devoted to the teaching of the Apostles…God’s Word.

Isaiah 40: 7-8

7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

Just like back then, today we must be devoted to God’s Word, it should be the center of discipleship. As Paul said in 1st Cor. 2, He did not come to speak with the wisdom of man, rather, to preach Christ and Him crucified.

Many of us are familiar with the well known verse:

2nd Tim. 3: 16-17

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Being devoted to God’s Word means that they were allowing God to change who they are, bit by bit. To have proper discipleship, we must devote ourselves to God’s word. Next

2. The early church devoted themselves to fellowship

The word for fellowship is koinōnia, which is a more intimate form of the word: koinōnos, which means: a partner, associate, comrade, companion. Luke’s use of the word Koinonia here is interesting, as it implies intimacy in relationship with one another…obviously not of the inappropriate kind, but the fact that he used that used such a word is important, as it indicates the intimate fellowship in the early church. Proper discipleship means that we spend time together in fellowship, that our relationships with one another are not to be of a surface level, where we tend to keep people at a distance.

1st John 1:7

7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Phil. 1: 6-7

6 and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake. 7 For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Fellowship is one of the main keys to proper discipleship, to do life together.

3. The early church devoted themselves to communion

Depending on which translation you are reading, most of them say: breaking of bread, as that is the most literal meaning behind the words used. I am using the word communion here because that is what most scholars believe that Luke is referring to. Just for fun, I do want to give you two examples of what we can find with vs. 42 in some of the paraphrased Bibles out there…paraphrased meaning that the writers did not translate directly from the original manuscripts, rather, they put the idea of the passage into their own language. Sometimes this can help, especially younger readers…but I stay away from them mostly, as sometimes they are way off.

The Living Bible:

They joined with the other believers in regular attendance at the apostles’ teaching sessions and at the Communion services and prayer meetings. (I should have went with this one, I would have only had 3 points).

The Message:

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

For the sake of today’s message, I am going to go with the most common interpretation, therefore I went with the word communion, meaning The Lord’s Supper. Remember, previous to the day of Pentecost, Jesus had only shared this with the disciples…instructing them to observe the practice going forward. Paul also confirms the practice of communion throughout his letters

1 Cor. 10: 16-17

16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

Again, like I said before, the importance of why we partake in communion is a sermon unto itself, one that I should probably teach on, or have Joe or Dean teach on. We take communion, not just to remember Christ’s sacrifice, but to remind us that we are connected with Christ.

4. The early church devoted themselves to prayer!

This is a big one…and the one that our modern church struggles with the most. We can find the importance of prayer all throughout scripture, in the O.T. and N.T. For example,

Jer. 29: 12-13

12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Here in Jeremiah, God is speaking through the prophet. God is telling the Israelites that if they honor Him and obey Him, He will bless them. While these few passages in Jer. are often taken way out of context and are used as a promise from God, directly to us, well, similar to a passage I covered in Malachi a few weeks ago, people tend to take these individual passages out of the O.T., where God is speaking to Israel and apply them to us today…while that may preach well and make a good t shirt or bumper sticker, it’s terrible hermenutics. That said, we can take the principles in the passage, as long as that principle is found throughout scripture, and apply it to modern day. An example of that is God instructing the Israelites to pray.

When we look at the earthly ministry of Christ. prayer is one the main components, it’s also the one that the disciples had a hard time understanding. More than once we see Jesus separate Himself, in order to pray. Probably the most famous example is at the end of Christ’s ministry, when He and the disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Luke 22: 39-46

39 And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Other than reading about Christ dying on the cross, here we see Jesus as his most vulnerable, this is also where His humanity was on full display. So, if Jesus Himself needed to be strengthened by prayer, how much more do we need to rely on prayer? The early church understood this well…this is just my theory, but I’m sure when the disciples looked back at their time with Jesus, they probably tried to determine the most significant things…no doubt, prayer was one of them. Too often we overthink the principle of prayer, thinking that in order to pray we must go through some magic ritual in order to connect with the Lord…prayer is much simpler than that. Prayer is simply talking to God and listening to God…Sure, we should all have times where we get alone with the Lord, but scripture tells us to “pray without ceasing”…that means we are in constant communication with the Lord, always having our ears open to Him. We must be devoted to prayer, both individually and corporately.

Discipleship is all about being devoted to proper Teaching, Fellowship, Communion, Prayer and of course there is more involved in discipleship, but Luke took the time to specifically mention these 4 things as very important to the growth of the early church. What do three of these things have in common, meaning, when we put them all together, what is the central idea or theme? One of the ideas is that the early church was so successful because they lived their lives together. By that, I am not referring to the fact that they lived in a collective society, like we talked about last week…rather, their lives were intertwined based on a commonly held belief and purpose.

Part III Conclusion

To finish up today, I would like to quickly look at

Matthew 4:18–22

18 As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Matthew starts to talk about Jesus calling of his first disciples. Read in isolation, the call of Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John seems abrupt, as if Jesus spots four fishermen and summons them without logic or preparation. But a comparison of Gospel narratives shows that they meet Jesus several times before they hear the definitive call to follow him. John says Peter and Andrew met Jesus earlier, when they were attached to John the Baptist, who had started to point his disciples to Jesus (John 1:40–42). In Luke 5, the first disciples call Jesus “Master” and witness his miraculous powers before they leave all to follow him (Luke 5:1–11). The scene is still remarkable. In saying “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19), Jesus summons them, promises to equip them, and commissions them. In addition to the things we talked about earlier, this is what true discipleship looks like. Not only did Jesus call His disciples, but he equipped them and then sent them out to tell others. I think that one of the largest disconnects between the modern western church and the early church is that here in the West, our main focus is on getting more people so we can have more money, so we can build the new building, so that we can get more people. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to increase in size…so our ministry budgets can grow…where we go wrong is when we emphasize numeric growth over spiritual growth. As a pastor I could do more with a church of 100 spiritually healthy, mature believers than I could with a church of 300, where less than 10% are truly sold out for Christ and on board with discipleship and evangelism.

Back, quite a few months ago I introduced our mission statement. I did an entire sermon on it. What is a missions statement?

a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual. For OFA, our mission is five fold.

Let’s take a look at it.

SLIDE ON POWER POINT!

These are the things that we should be doing here at Ottawa First. None of these principles are one time events, they are an ongoing process and the only way to accomplish them is for us to be devoted to Christ and each other, just like the early church…we must be mission minded in all we do.

So all of that to say, I want to give you what a theme that I will be referring to throughout the year: Each One Bring 1. What do I mean by Each One Bring 1? Well, as I’ve been studying the early church, as well as different periods of time where the church saw growth, there was one thing in common, the people got excited about what was going on and wanted to share that with others. Now, remember our sermon from last week, I’m not talking about walking up to some stranger and trying to drag them to church or trying to guilt a friend or family member into coming to church…by Each One Bring 1 I mean that we should all be intentional in our relationships with others, hopefully getting them to a point where it’s appropriate to invite them to church. Perhaps the thought of asking someone to come to church with you is absolutely terrifying or you think that you don’t have anyone in your life that you could ask. If that is you, then I would say that you have something to bring before the Lord…in a moment I will give some practical advise to those who may struggle in this area. Understand my heart, I’m not issuing this challenge to guilt you or to make you feel as though we will be keeping track…it’s nothing like that, at all. I’m issuing this challenge to help get us out of our zones of comfort…to help us become more mission minded and to not just talk about it, but to actually take steps to do it.

Over the past few weeks many of you have come up to me and shared how you have invited someone to church and that you hope they show up…to that I say, great job. Keep in mind that you are not responsible for their decisions. If you have made a connection with them and asked them to come with you to church, but they don’t want to come, that is OK, you’ve done your part. Who knows, down the line you may see another opening. Again, I want to stress, this is not about us trying to impress each other or earn brownie points with God…our motivation should be our love for those around us, pure and simple. Each One Bring 1 is simply a way to challenge us to be mission minded, not results minded. Even if no one you invite ever comes to church, that is OK, as long as you have the proper motivation when inviting them, God will honor your dedication.

I’ve told you before about the church my dad was a pastor at in the suburbs…I got to experience a true outpouring of growth, not due to a certain program or because the pastor was perfect…but because the people were doing life together, they were devoted to God’s Word and each other and got excited about what God was doing in the church, that is why it grew.

Let me give us all something to take home today, especially if the phrase Each One Bring 1 brings unpleasant thoughts to your mind. I would like all of us, when we leave here and go home, I want us to take a few moments this afternoon or tonight before you go to bed and pray that God would grant to you 3 things:

The Desire: That the Holy Spirit would ignite a fire within you, giving you the boldness and desire to invite people to church

The Opportunity: That God would open up opportunities for you to build relationships, so that you can invite them t o church

The Wisdom: To know what to say and how to say it. To know when someone may be open and when they are not

I will be praying these things along with all of you. I am giving myself this challenge just as much as I’m giving it to you. Just because I’m your pastor does not mean that I do not have room to grow in this area. We will all work on this together. I will be referring back to our theme throughout the year to help us keep it in the forefront of our minds-as most of us have very short attention spans and will put things on the back shelf quickly.

Let’s Pray!