ALL IN - It Starts…
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Recap ALL IN: Purpose for the series, our connection to the early church, and where we are in ACTS (End of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost)
Peter has just preached his greatest sermon yet, backed by 120 people baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, wind and fire…
Peter stands and declares by the power of God he has just received, THIS IS THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN OF BY THE PROPHET JOEL…
He began with what was happening right in front of them and connected the plan of God from the time of the prophets, back through the seed of the woman in Genesis 3, and brought it home by proclaiming that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy, the savior incarnate, and God has made Him both Lord and Christ…
When those who were listening asked, “What shall we do?” Peter’s response was this:
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!”
Last week we talked through who the perverse generation actually was.
This week, we will look at what follows this incredible sermon on the day of Pentecost…
My title is: ALL IN: It Starts
ALL IN: It Starts
ALL IN: It Starts
Look at their response:
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
The very first thing is that they were baptized! This isn’t a passive thought for them, this is something intentional on their part…
There is something powerful about this concept of baptism.
The scriptures have a major emphasis on baptism, and for good reason.
Baptism plays into the big picture of God's plan for the church and for the ideal of Christian living…
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Explain the importance of circumcision as the mark of a Jew…
Paul is paralleling the removal of flesh in the Old Covenant with the removal of the “body of the flesh” in the new covenant…
The way Paul uses the word “flesh” in all his writings is not as a reference to the physical body, but of the sinful nature we were born with…
And the best analogy Paul can use is this idea of baptism to explain the process by which Jesus transforms us…
Having been buried with him in baptism…
Baptism is a symbolic gesture, not only of cleansing, but of burial… We have died…
We lay down who we were, our old self has been sacrificed on the altar so that our new self can be reborn…
The rebirth is the next step:
in which you were also raised up with Him through the faith in the working of God…
Baptism without faith is just a bath.. Baptism is only effective if it represents on the Outside what happens on the Inside…
You aren’t receiving anything through the ritual of baptism, baptism is a declaration of what you have already received…
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
- [ ] Who is baptism for? - All who accept Jesus
- [ ] How do we baptize? - Complete immersion (Not half way, because Jesus didn't half die)
- [ ] When should you be baptized?- ASAP
- [ ] Where? - Location doesn’t matter, as long as the heart is right
- [ ] Why?- because it symbolizes what has already happened inside the of me
- [ ] Water baptism represents real change that happens inside first, then is displayed outwardly
- [ ] Why do we get water baptized? Because we know that we have been changed.
- [ ] There is no need for baptism until the change has happened in your heart
Baptism is the believer’s first illustrated sermon…
So they were baptized… 3000 of them… huge response, huge jump in membership…
And this is what they did from there:
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;
45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Number 1,
as soon as they were inaugurated in to the family of God through baptism, they immediately and continually devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship…
The apostles teaching is found for us in the scriptures… The bible is the apostles teaching…
If you wonder why we spend so much time going over different aspects of bible study, this is why… It was number one for the early church.
They prioritized the teachings of the apostles… They knew they could not do anything without understanding the faith they came to be a part of…
We have a responsibility to continually devote ourselves to the apostles teaching…
If we do not, we risk becoming a part of the perverse generation that Peter spoke of, twisting and bending what is intended to be straight for the sake of our own preferences and agendas.
There is a liberal scholar I listen to… I listen to him because he is a professor and I like to know what they are teaching in these liberal schools…
I like to know what they are teaching, because what the next generation is learning is what we will face in the culture of tomorrow…
I was listening to him and he said, the bible doesn’t actually teach anything… It is the leaders of movements that teach and negotiate with the text of the bible to find the meaning they are already looking for…
I stand on this: The bible does speak, it does tell us how to live, it is the living word of God, and it is the ultimate standard for both ministry and life.
This is why we have been so adamant about small groups and discipleship partners, this is our devotion to the apostles teaching…
Continually…
That word is used and it is connected to the frequency found at the end of this chapter when it says, “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved…”
Their continual devotion was not a weekly devotion, it was a devotion that produced results day by day…
What you get from me in an hour a week is not enough to sustain you!
You must have a continual devotion to the Word…
Listen to it, read it, talk about it, ask questions about it, engage it…
That’s the real importance of these small groups and discipleship partners…
You get what you can out of listening to me, but when you get in small groups you are able to dive into the word deeper with feed back from several other believers…
Then when you get to your discipleship partners, you go even deeper, asking questions of one another, bringing accountability and vulnerability into the mix…
This isn’t an either or scenario where they would listen only to preaching, but they were continually devoted to the apostles teaching and fellowship…
This was not a weekly thing it was a day by day thing…
And notice how closely connected the devotion to teaching and to fellowship are…
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
They are part of the same breath… teaching and to fellowship.
Small groups and discipleship partners are for more than just learning, they are also for fellowship…
Fellowship includes accountability and vulnerability and edification…
You can’t get any of that on your own. You need more than just you…
These are the first priorities of the early church: Number 1 is a devotion to the Apostles teaching…
Number 2 is a devotion to fellowship…
It’s not enough to watch on tv or live stream…
The pattern of the early church was a devotion to the apostles teaching AND fellowship!
I mourn for those who have disconnected themselves from the body… They are missing out on one of the top priorities of the early church…
Continually… Day by day…
Explain the response of many after the first few meetings with their partners…
These principles that follow salvation are so interconnected, they were never meant to be separated!
Salvation, baptism, teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer are all facets of the way of life for a Christian…
To remove any of them shortchanges the value you place on the gospel, because each one of these areas speaks to a proclamation by the believer about particular parts of his or her life.
Salvation begins with the work of Jesus in the life of a believer, displayed by this:
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Immediately following that is baptism… the believer’s first illustrated sermon…
Then there should be a personal and communal devotion to the teaching of the Apostles and to fellowship with one another…
Imagine trying to put together a 1000-piece puzzle on your own. It's possible, but it's much easier and more enjoyable when you have friends to help.
A lone coal taken from the fire quickly cools and loses its glow. But when surrounded by other coals, it continues to burn brightly.
We are to encourage one another, stir one another up, edify and build up…
11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
The enemy would like nothing better than to keep us isolated, disconnected, and dry…
In fact, the prophet Ezekiel talks about an army that had forgotten they were an army… They were so disconnected and lifeless, they had become nothing but a valley of dry bones…
But when God saw fit to raise them up again, the first thing He did was start bringing the bones back together…
We cannot stand if we are not together as a body and regular, frequent fellowship is the key to unity in the body.
You know how it goes when you aren’t near someone for some time, then you hear they said this or said that…
It is much easier to form a negative opinion when you’re distant, but how many times do you have all these notions in your head, then that person sit down with you for a cup of coffee and you can’t even remember the reasons you were having issues…
If we are to be like the early church, we must prioritize what they prioritized…
And they prioritized these things first: Believe, be baptized, devote to the apostles teaching and to fellowship…
We cannot go any further unless we get this right.
If we skip this, we end up with a flawed filter through which we view all scripture and theology…
We say we believe… We are willing to get baptized… But will we devote ourselves to teaching and fellowship?
