Gospel Results
Notes
Transcript
Intro
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.
They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts,
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
The Power of Belief
The Power of Belief
God has firmly convicted me that what we need to focus on first and foremost in this passage is not what the people did, but rather why the people did what they did.
Joke: I celebrated a birthday this past week and am now the same age as the majority of the women in this church.
Illustration: 19 years ago I heard a song for the first time that made me seriously consider and think about my own mortality.
Live Like You Were Dying - Tim McGraw
He said
"I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days
Looking at the x-rays
And talkin' 'bout the options
And talkin' 'bout sweet time"
I asked him
"When it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How's it hit you
When you get that kind of news?
Man, what'd you do?"
And he said
"I went skydiving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"
And he said
"Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying"
10 year old me teared up in the back of my mom’s white Pontiac Montana hearing that song. Contemplating my impending death. Hoping I could live like I was dying and not take things for granted.
I share this story because it is a modern, secular example of what we see happen in the book of Acts.
When someone encounters a radical new idea that they believe, it will radically change the way they live their life.
Dewayne with Shellfish
The BELIEF of the early church led to the ACTIONS of the early church.
Not the other way around.
Many times we view our faith as something we are working for. We don’t work FOR Something. We work FROM it. We work FROM our belief in Jesus.
Because of God’s love for you, your life will look different.
NOT Because your life looks different, God will love you.
The final aspect of this is that we will truly EXPERIENCE the reality of what we believe in.
We work FROM our belief.
This RESULTS in our God-honoring way of life.
That ENDS in achieving the object of our belief in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel Life Oreo.
All parts should be there.
This was a collection of people with a common focus gathered together.
The Gospel is the motivating factor in all of these things.
This wasn’t just a head knowledge, this was a genuine belief that produced a result.
The Result of Belief
The Result of Belief
In this passage we see displayed beautifully the way that when people genuinely believe in God and allow that to inform their way of living, they begin to do naturally what God calls us to do.
And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him:
“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and most important command.
The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
The Greatest commandment: Love God with all you heart, soul, mind, and other places strength. The Second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself.
Broken down into its simplest form:
Love God & Love People
In this passage, we see the natural expression of fulfilling these two commandments.
LOVE GOD
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Commitment to growth in their walk with God.
Diligently seeking to grow in knowledge and understanding.
Commitment to the body of Christ.
The church is the body of Christ. We cannot be truly loving God with all we are, unless we devote ourselves to being faithful and active members of his body.
We see later that they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple.
Remembrance of the Work of Christ through the Lord’s Supper.
We love God by participating in the Lord’s Supper by
Prayer
Seeking further understanding of God’s will for their lives.
Later we see… Praising God
being thankful and joyful.
Giving God the praise and honor that he deserves for all that he has done.
Embody Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
LOVE PEOPLE
Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house.
They shared life together.
They were constantly meeting together, spending time together, growing in Christlikeness together.
This is something that is supposed to be done, together.
Radical Generosity with the Body of Christ.
They began to express a love for each other that goes beyond what is common among people.
They loved their neighbor as themselves.
They loved their neighbor more than their possessions.
The Mickey and Minnie Christmas episode retelling of the gift of the magi.
Mickey has a harmonica he loves and minnie a gold watch.
Mickey sells his harmonica to get her a chain for the watch.
Minnie sells the watch to get a case for the harmonica.
This is for two people who are depicted to be in a loving relationship.
This is what was happening among believers!
Which one of us if we had fallen on hard times would not sell our possessions to ensure our ability to survive?
In the same way when we love our neighbor as ourself, this becomes something we are willing to do when it is necessary.
Embody Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.
THE RESULTS
“Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
The Lord Provides the results.
God moves among and through those who are faithfully following Him!
The Results of the Gospel in the lives of these individuals coming together as a community of believers resulted in the further spread of the Gospel into the community around them.
Being a Christian is hard, but not complicated.
Believe the Gospel.
Love God.
Love People.
Where are you today?
Do you believe?
Do you see the evidence of your belief in how you love God?
Do you see the evidence of your belief in how you love people?
How is God calling you to greater faithfulness today?
Lord’s Supper
It is an expression of Loving God.
Remembering what God has done.
Seeking to be thankful. Praising him.
Seeking to be increasingly faithful.
It is also a reminder of our place within the body of Christ.
Remembering the body that God has brought you into.
Seeking to be thankful as a group. Praising him together.
Seeking greater community.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Bread
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Juice.
