Are You Devoted?

-Introduction:

Today we are going to be in the book of Acts and we will be spending our time this morning in chapter 2 verses 42-47 . The book of Acts was written by Luke who wrote the gospel of Luke who was a historian.

John Calvin wrote that the Book of Acts was “a kind of vast treasure.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Acts “that most lyrical of books…Live in that book, I exhort you: It is a tonic, the greatest tonic I know of in the realm of the Spirit.” (Cited in Stott)

Acts 1–12 for You Chapter 2: The Day of Pentecost (Acts Chapter 2 Verses 1 to 47)

By Acts 2, the apostles, along with 120 other disciples and eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, have gathered in the upper room. They are waiting for the Holy Spirit, whom Christ had promised to send (Acts 1:4–5). This chapter describes the fulfillment of that promise on the day of Pentecost as the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles and empowers them for gospel ministry.

Acts 1–12 for You The Moment of Pentecost

Pentecost was the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples (2:1–4). This event is perhaps one of the three most important moments in redemptive history. The first event was creation, the moment when God created the stage on which he would work out his sovereign plan. As John Calvin said, God created the world to function as a theater of his glory in the drama of redemption (see Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.6.2).

Acts 1–12 for You The Meaning of Pentecost

Ultimately, Pentecost demonstrates that God keeps his promises. He had promised to send his Spirit, and Pentecost was the moment in salvation history when he did just that. For today’s readers, Pentecost means that every believer has access to the promised Spirit of God and has been gifted by that same Spirit, who arrived at Pentecost to carry on the mission of the church: proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this chapter Peter preaches the first ever sermon to what would be the first new testament church.

Acts 1–12 for You The Method

Peter’s sermon is a marvelous example for us of what preaching ought to be—turning to the biblical text, explaining it, applying it, and calling for a response. In other words, Peter shows here in the very first chapters of Acts that the first-century apostles engaged in expository preaching.

The first church and all of the early church was founded on bible preaching. The kind of preaching that takes people to the gospel and is Christ centered.

In Peter’s sermon he preaches the gospel from the book of Joel and other books from the Old Testament. In his sermon he emphasizes God’s sovereignty over the events surrounding Jesus death and resurrection.

Read Acts 2:42-47 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Remember the essentials.

This verse is the pillar in understanding what churches should prioritize today.

In this first verse Luke records 4 essentials for the christian and 4 marks of a healthy church. He mentions teaching, fellowship, and breaking bread, and prayer.

All 4 of these essentials where things that the early church not only did but were DEVOTED to.

The word devoted is very important. Here this word is translated προσκαρτερέω (proskartereo) and is used here as a adjective and a verb in the Greek. I don’t share this with you to sound smart but this important because this means that being devoted in context to the passage was WHO they were AND what they DID.

Everyone is devoted to someone and something its never a matter of are you but rather who and what are you devoted to. This is not a word that we hear used often in general because it has some heavy and emphatic implications to you.

This was the peoples response to Peter’s sermon after he preached the gospel at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit came upon them and it is the only appropriate and proper response to the gospel and being wrecked by the Holy Spirit.

The early church didn’t have to be begged to be devoted and commited to Jesus and his church. They were changed by Jesus and had a serious hunger and devotion to being under sound teaching by the apostles.

Acts 1–12 for You The First Church Community

For over 2,000 years faithful Christianity has been that which has esteemed and treasured the teachings of the apostles. Faithful churches prioritize the teaching of the apostles by studying the Scriptures and centering their worship around the preaching of God’s word. In the Scriptures, the inspired, wholly authoritative word of God is preserved without error. No church can be healthy unless it gathers together to be devoted to the exposition of the word of God

The basic task of the church is to teach sound doctrine.

John F. MacArthur

The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding.

Charles Spurgeon

The visible church in our generation has become astonishingly tolerant of aberrant teaching and outlandish ideas—and frighteningly intolerant of sound teaching.

John F. MacArthur

This why we preach through books of the bible and preach the way we do at Charis Church because the first church when we see in Acts took serious the teaching of the word of God.

I am eternally grateful that I am apart of a church that is committed to the preaching of the word of God. A lot of pastors are not doing this anymore they are tickling the ears of the culture in the name of approval, acceptance and numbers increasing in attendance.

They were also devoted to fellowship with one another. Imagine that they actually spent time with one another. The early church prioritized and and devoted themselves to being among one another.

The Christian life is meant to be full of fellowship, of sharing one with another.

- We share the same Lord Jesus.

- We share the same guide for life.

-We share the same love for God

- We share the same desire to worship Him.

- We share the same struggles.

- We share the same victories

- We share the same job of living for Him.

- We share the same joy of communicating the gospel.

I get it some people naturally gravitate towards being alone, have social anxiety, not a people person etc. But the reality is that your devotion to Jesus and his church must supersede your personal preferences.

The is why we have community groups here at Charis Church because we are called to do life with one another. You cannot divorce fellowship from the Christian life. This is not a suggestion but a emphatic and clear command that is taught all through the canon of scripture.

Commitment to the Messiah implied commitment to the Messianic community, that is, the church.

John Stott

If you want the surpassing power of God in your life, you have to plunge yourself into a community, because God’s power works in your life to the degree that you are involved in community.

Timothy Keller

The converse of saints on earth should be a rehearsal of their everlasting communion in heaven.

The Bridegroom’s Parting Words, Volume 29, Sermon #1716 - Song of Solomon 8:13

Charles Spurgeon

We should always regard communion with other believers as an eminent means of grace.

J. C. Ryle

You don’t get the option to be a rogue church-less, ride solo christian. We live in a world that encourages a life of “me, myself, and I”. That is antithetical to a biblical response to the gospel and antithetical to the life we are called to as Christians biblically.

For some this will mean getting out of your comfort zone and that is okay. Pray that the Holy Spirit will empower you to get beyond yourself and give you the courage to be obedient and have consistent fellowship with the church outside of just on Sunday.

This commitment to fellowship has to be guarded and protected because if you are not careful you will find yourself not haven’t spend anytime with the people that you are in covenant community with. You have to be intentional about being in community.

The excuse of work and being tired cannot be an excuse. Our lives as Christian should be shaped around the church. This is what we see in the book of Acts where the church is birthed. These people based there, work, marriages, families, free time, around the church.

In other words there life calendar was built around the church. The people you are in covenant community with should know how they can encourage you and what you struggle with. They should be able to know how they can best lock arms with you but that can’t happen if you are not intentional about being in biblical community with one another.

Acts 1–12 for You The First Church Community

This fellowship is not a superficial gathering around ham sandwiches and meringue pies. Fellowship in the church is based upon the common love that believers have for one another and their Lord

Acts 1–12 for You The First Church Community

Christians have a mutual love, accountability, and affection for one another that they do not have for those outside the community of God. This fellowship is born out of and sustained by the teaching of Scripture. Fellowship can only be distinctly Christian if it gathers around the word of God

This passage talks about them also being devoted to the breaking of bread and prayers. In other words they were devoted to eating with one another and commitment to the Lords table or as most know it as communion and praying.

A devotion to communion is important because every time we partake in communion we do it to remember and reflect our savior who was bruised for our transgressions, bleed and died for us.

They had a commitment to prayer that was contagious and amazing. Your prayer life is different when you are commited to the one whom you are praying to. The early church experienced many miracles because because they commited to praying for them.

Prayer was a way of life for the early church and sadly today we struggle just to find time to pray.

The habit of prayer is good, but the spirit of prayer is better.

Charles Spurgeon

Prayer is not something that I do; prayer is something that I am.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Prayer is themost important thing in my life. If I should neglect prayer for a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.

Martin Luther

We see what the church should be all through out this passage. The early believers loved the church and honored her with their TIME, TALENT, AND TREASURE.

Acts 1–12 for You The First Church Community

If any church is going to be an authentic church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will feature all four of these activities. If any of these components are missing, there is a critical problem with the church’s health.

This passage is convicting to me for a host of reasons. When we look at where we are as as a church this is the standard by which we ought to measure it.

The last verse in this passage Acts 2:47 “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

In Acts 2 we see that the first church was booming flourishing and healthy. Because the church was being obedient The Lord continued to add to their number day by day they had 3K plus.

While this passage is not to make a case to be driven by numbers because that is not the heart of the passage here however God does in fact bless sacrificial obedience. We can have one foot in the church and one foot out and wonder why we are not seeing the results we want.

The New Testament church were a unit they were interdependent and on one accord. Charis Church will not be all that she can be solely on the shoulders of Chris and Jess. We cannot sustain as a church having the bulk of consistent giving on the shoulders of two or maybe three families.

It is going to require every person to be fully committed to fully committing there time talent and treasure. One band one sound. And when this happens The Lord will bless this church greater than anything we could ever dream of or imagine and he will also bless your life.

God does not turn a blind eye to those that are not being faith to His bride the local church. In the same way a Husband will not stand for someone neglecting or miss treating his bride so also will Christ not turn a blind eye and let it slide.

We Christians are the Church and whatever we do is what the Church is doing. The matter, therefore, is for each of us a personal one. Any forward step in the Church must begin with the individual.17

A. W. Tozer