Being God’s People - What We Do

Intro

I invite you to open to Acts 2 starting in verse 41 tonight; again that's Acts 2:41.

And as you turn there... I'll tip my hand a bit. We've spent the past two months now. Me getting to know you. You getting to know me. And we'll certainly continue on that path.

In fact, I'm going to put this screen up here for a minute and this will prompt you to go to a linktree with some of my information on it. I'm not trying to posture myself as more important than I am but what I hope to communicate to you is this. I'm committed to you. I love you all. My desire is to shepherd you to the best of my abilities, so if you visit this link and click "contact me," I promise I will respond to whatever notification you send me so that we can exchange contact information and you can have ready access to reach me for any needs that you might have.

But tipping my hand... in many ways I'm an old soul. I'd say especially in church world. My personal bent is towards that which feels traditional, reverential, kind of a high view of church if you will.

I love call and response with a crowd so I'm going to ask that you humor me a bit. I'll put up a prompt on the screen and you repeat after me...

I'll say bless the Lord if you say, oh my soul...

"Bless the Lord"

[Oh my soul]

"Oh bless His holy name."

Every time we come together, in so many ways I want that to be our heartbeat. That in everything we do, we are heaping up blessing and praise to our King and that together we are pushing past the mundane of life, and we know that when we come here as a people that we know it means something.

So with that said, a question...

What do you want out of church?

That's a loaded question, I know. But we've all been in a season, or most of us anyways. Where we visit, church-to-church and if you're like me you may have a bad habit of running your experience through a bit of a rubric.

Worship -- phenomenal

Dress -- casual

Teaching -- heretical

Women -- beautiful.

Most of us have been "church shopping" before. And you should absolutely look with a discerning eye where it is that you call your community of faith.

But I hope that you agree with me when I say that at some point we need to get beyond the thought of our personal preference and shift our gaze much more towards our personal investment.

We see that in spades in the early church, in our text tonight. It's beautiful, it's pure, it's the church with this childlike innocence. Right?

Perfect? No. No such thing. If you find a perfect church then you ruin it by showing up. Right? Because we know that every single soul that darkens the doors here or elsewhere brings baggage, burden, sin.

Right? And just like a child, while they are often cute, innocent, and pure... if you need reassurance about the doctrine of total depravity... I invite you to serve in the preschool on a Sunday.

It wouldn't take long for the church to get their either.

In Acts 2 we see the church in it's purest form and only chapters later we see sin plague the church with lying, murmuring, later we see prejudice and racism and all that to say... the church is not immune to sinful people, I would say instead that the church attracts such people.

But that is no reason, no reason at all to disengage. No reason to be cynical. No reason to stiff-arm the church… but all the more its a reason to plunge yourself headlong into such a body.

I’ve heard it said… the church is a hospital for the hurting… not a museum for the spectators.

So if your hope is to find perfection in your church family... I wish you well in what I'm confident in saying will be a long journey.

But if your willing to journey with me... let's look at what it looks like to be a community of grace called the church...

Acts 2:41–47 (CSB) - A GENEROUS AND GROWING CHURCH

41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Friends, I hope that you see as clearly as I do, that in a world that encourages you to seek out personal preference, that Christians are called to invest in the community of God.

Amen?

A huge battle that we have to fight as Christians is the privatization of our faith.

This is what I believe. This is what you believe. But never the two shall meet. But that is not what God has called His church to.

If you grew up like I did... there are a couple of topics that were at best taboo and at worst off limits in daily conversation... religion and politics.

I fell victim to this line of thinking and I bet many of you have as well. That it's rude to discuss the things of faith.

But as we read here we see clearly that the early church's investment into the community of God was expansive... I'd venture to say all encompassing. We see here that there is absolutely a communal aspect of faith.

It says here that they were devoted to the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and this bears out in the original language of the NT... the prayer; which is to say that there was a formal and congregational approach to each of these things.

You can absolutely have personal times of study and I pray that you do have a personal prayer life, but the thrust of this passage is that we, the church, are in this together.

Beloved, you are absolutely called to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but you were never called to have a private one.

So this passage... the church in it's purest form, calls us as a people towards certain things...

Christians obey together

Apostle's Teaching

Firstly it says they were devoted to the Apostle's teaching.

It wasn't flippant or attractional... but it was rooted in something reverential and profound.

The Apostle's, largely rooted in a Jewish heritage would have seen exactly what Jesus himself claimed when he said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill, that not a stroke or an iota of the law would pass away until all things are accomplished.

The Apostles saw their entire life's teaching, a jewish teaching, with new eyes… now with a Christlogical lens. And I pray that we do the same. That these prophecies and histories… as they new them in Israel’s history, now see how it all points to one hero.

You've seen me bust out this guy before... I'll do it again in time... you hear Brad reference it in his sermon last week. Every entry circles back to Jesus... so too it should be with us.

But we should be devoted... as was this early church... to the Apostle's teaching. Not fluff. Not TED talk sermons. But Christ, rightly preached, through the Scriptures, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Fellowship

We obey together by submitting ourselves to the Scriptures. We obey together by being devoted to the fellowship.

I fear this is a word that's a bit at risk in our modern day and age. And I'm a guilty offender of what I'm about to say, but too often we'll find any excuse to do any number of things and slap on the label of fellowship like that flex seal infomercial, right? Riding 4 wheelers -- slap -- fellowship. Fantasy football -- slap -- fellowship.

I'm not against those things. I love those things. But lets press in a bit deeper into what it means to truly fellowship. When it says that they were devoted to the fellowship, Luke uses that famed greek word, koinonia, which some of you may have heard before.

But fellowship as he portrays is much more than a passing common interest but in this word is a sense of unity and abiding.

That when you say that you are devoted... it's not just lip service.

If I can get up in your kitchen a bit, it means that you heed the words of Hebrews 10:25 when it says - do not neglect the gathering, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another.

Statistic bear that a dedicated churchgoer in today's day and age attends 2 times a month. Two times...

Friends, when we talk about being a devoted community of faith... I'd argue that that can't happen if we see each other twice a month.

Illustration

(Becca)

Do not be half-committed to the community of God, because I assure you... He is not half-committed to you.

But we're talking about much more than attendance... v 44. says, 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.n 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need

This is not a call to communism. I assure you.

But it is a call to be sacrificial and generous because again, these were things that Christ exemplified fully on the cross; so you, Christian, are called to follow in His footsteps are called to do the same.

Christians remember together - We invest in the community of God by obeying together. And we invest in the community of God by remembering together.

The breaking of bread

46 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,

And all the Southern Baptists said, "Amen."

It says they enjoyed these gatherings from house to house, so there you have it. A good ole first century pot-luck. And it this communicates a truth that we all know...

Something special happens when you share a table with someone.

Walls come down. You share life with someone. All of those things are going on here. But we also see the mention of the temple and while it says they broke bread together and I do believe that there's an element of sharing food mentioned here, breaking bread in the New Testament is a bit of a euphemism for what we know as the Lord's Supper.

And if you grew up in an old school church there may have even been a table somewhere near the front with the words of Jesus inscribed on the front where he bid his disciples at the last supper to, "do this, in remembrance of me."

This first church of sorts was called to remember in everything. In their coming, in their going. In everything that they did whether together or alone, the exact same thing we remember when we center around the Lord's table.

His body, broken for us. His blood for the forgiveness of many.

The Prayer

Lastly, v.42 says that they were devoted to prayer. Now what our passage doesn't lay out is, okay this is how you pray...

Jesus said that, in the sermon on the mount, but throughout the remainder of the NT there is not much offered in the way of okay, "this is how you pray." And I can't help but think that that's because for this gathering, for the early church, in many ways praying was about as natural as breathing.

They gathered. They worshipped. They prayed. And v.47... Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

In v.41, Luke details that 3,000 were saved as a result of Peter's sermon.

For context, imagine New Vision doubling over night.

And that is exactly what the Lord does, by His will. He works miraculous, wonderful things amongst His people.

This is what it looks like. This is what it means to be invested in the community of God.

But there may be some here tonight who know full and well that this isn't anything that you've been a part of.

Maybe not in a while, maybe not ever. But friends if that is you please know that this is absolutely what is extended to you here tonight and always.

We have a next steps table, myself and a few others will be hanging over there tonight after we wrap up. We'd love to get to meet you, hear a bit more about your story, and if you're in need of a word of hope and encouragement we'd love to give you that as well.

This is what it means to be a community of God.

Because all of us, every single one, were once far but now brought near by the blood of Christ.

So don't wait, not one day longer. If you're in need of prayer, of conversation, myself and a team of leaders are here for you. We wait for you as you come, but Jesus welcomes you, just as you are.

[Pray]