It's what we do
Mike Biolsi
Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
As we have mentioned before, the book of Acts is a book about the actions or activities of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and the church. It is a history of how God uses ordinary people to accomplish his work. ⭐
“The ordinary people of God, equipped with the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, dedicated to the Son of God, can accomplish
the mission of God.”
This book has often been used as a sort of handbook as well. It is the start of the church, and so it demonstrates how the early church first did things. In that sense it is a good guide, though NOT a step-by-step manual.
In the first two chapters we have some of those principles already in the forefront. If this is a book of ACTS or ACTIVITY, we already have at least a partial answer to the question, “What ACTIVITIES should the church be doing?”
Sharing the Gospel. ⭐
Sharing the Gospel. ⭐
The first sermon in the book is a message about the gospel - the good news that Jesus was sent by God to redeem mankind and there is forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross if people will only accept it. Peter preached Jesus.
ASIDE: I mentioned that Acts is a good guide. There are MANY sermons on Acts! For the record, NONE of them would be considered verse-by-verse expository preaching. They would all be classified as “topical” in today’s standards. We choose to preach through books of the Bible, but that is NOT the only “sanctioned” way, nor is it the biblical model that we have. It is a method of teaching God’s word and preaching the good news.
The message that Peter gave was very bold. Jesus was crucified in this same town, and those same leaders that killed Jesus would still be in Jerusalem. To boldly stand up and speak about Jesus being murdered would be a direct accusation against them… yet that is what he did.
Jesus was appointed by God to be the Messiah. He was murdered according to plan and was raised from the dead because he is Lord over the grave. This Jesus offers forgiveness of sins, new life and the gift of the Spirit to all who will repent.
That led to 3,000 people coming to faith in Jesus.
Acts Theology in Application
Apart from the oral proclamation of the gospel, this passage does not contribute to a “tool kit” of church growth methodology. There is no method that guarantees numerical success.
The church today, which means you and me, should not be ashamed or afraid to tell people about Jesus. I am sure we are not in as much danger as Peter was, and I am sure that people need to hear the message still today. ⭐
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
We have the privilege to be the messengers of good news and of hope. The hope that you have can and must be shared with others. ⭐
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
This is one of the things that you and I, as the church, get the honor of doing. It is our primary activity.
Baptize people. ⭐
Baptize people. ⭐
Another thing we get to do is baptize people. The message was, “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins”. The baptism did not forgive sins, Jesus does for those who repent. Baptism is NOT a MEANS of forgiveness or salvation, it is a TESTIMONY that you have been forgiven and that you associate with Jesus. ⭐
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
Circumcision was the sign that you were a part of the nation of Israel, and descendant of Abraham. However, after the resurrection of Jesus, baptism became the public symbol that you are a true descendant of Israel - one of the family of faith, not flesh.
In Acts we have a lot of different people being baptized after they believe. After the first sermon, around 3,000 people were baptized!
Can you imagine being at a pool in Jerusalem on the day that 3000 people were baptized? What an AMAZING day that would have been!!
Acts Explanation of the Text
The immersion of 3,000 Jews in the large public immersion pools of Jerusalem would not have been unique. The thousands of festival pilgrims that were in the city for Pentecost would all have immersed themselves before entering the gates of the temple complex in the Pool of Siloam or in the Pool of Bethesda.
This is one of at least 11 baptism accounts in the book of Acts.
This is actually one of the FIRST actions that every follower of Jesus can do! If you have NOT been baptized as a believer in Jesus, please let me or David know so we can arrange it!
At the end of Peter’s sermon, we understand what faith in Jesus can do -> it provides forgiveness of sins and entrance into the kingdom. At the end of chapter 2 we understand that faith in Jesus is something that impacts what we DO from that day on. The first is baptism - a public declaration of our association with Jesus.
Chapter two goes on to provide insight into some more activities that a healthy, spirit-filled group of Jesus followers should be involved in.
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.
Verse 42 talks about the commitment of the church - which was packed full of new converts. ⭐
They devoted themselves to:
the apostle’s teaching. They were new to understanding of Jesus as the Messiah, and the Apostles were teaching how Jesus fulfilled the Torah.
the fellowship. This is much more than just hanging out, this is about having things in common: common location, activities, meals, etc. It is the idea of community more than just association. This is expounded on in verses 44-47.
the breaking of bread. Some have interpreted this as being the Lord’s Supper, or communion as we call it. In the more general sense, breaking of bread refers to having a meal. It is very likely that both are appropriate here. They shared meals together for sure! We see this in other passages in the NT.
the prayers. We read how prayer was pivotal in the calling of the 12th Apostle, and we will see how prayer continues to be a part of the church. Because this is talking about the church as a collective, this is very much speaking about them praying together. Most likely this included both the reciting the many prayers of their Jewish heritage, and a new way of praying in the Spirit.
These were the foundational practices of the first church. So, are these things that *should* be in the modern church? If so, how do we practice them?
I believe these ARE for all generations of the church. The church MUST be:
study the Word of God
doing life together
enjoying meals with each other
praying together
Studying the Word. ⭐
Studying the Word. ⭐
We live in a era where the Word of God, both Old and New Testaments, is more accessible than ever before! In a small device in my pocket I have the entire Bible in dozens of translations - with study notes, charts, images and more.
ASK:
How many of you have a Bible app on a phone or tablet with you?
How many of you use the internet and sites like bible.com or biblegateway.com?
How many of you own more than one printed version of the Bible?
BARNA STATS: ⭐
Just over one-third of U.S. adults (34%) reads the Bible once a week or more, while half (50%) read the Bible less than twice a year (including “never”). In between these two extremes, we find those who read the Bible more than twice a year, but not on a weekly basis (16%). Overall, one in six U.S. adults (16%) reads the Bible most days during the week, up from 12 percent in 2020.
https://www.barna.com/research/sotb-2021/
While we have MANY versions and unhindered access to the Bible, about 30% of our population has never read it, and 50% of our population read it 2 times a year or less (perhaps the Chreaster crowd?)
Bible readership varies across each demographic, with Millennials most likely to have never read the Bible, whereas the most frequent readers were those aged over 70 years old. Looking at the preferences of the older readers, traditional books were favored, with 91 percent opting for a print version of the Bible to read over other formats.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/299433/bible-readership-in-the-usa
According to the U. S. Census Bureau, millennials are those people born between 1982 and 2000 (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/archives/2015-pr/cb15-113.html) . This means that the millennials’ age range in 2023 is between 41 and 23 years old. That means that the future of the church is in the hands of a generation that is the most disconnected from God’s Word.
The MAJORITY of North Country Fellowship Church is Millennials.
One of the things I LOVE about NCF is that the majority of you do NOT fit that statistic! I love that this church loves to study the Word of God. You understand this: ⭐
2 The Lord’s works are great,
studied by all who delight in them.
We have been given grace through Jesus. One of the ways we grow is in our knowledge of Him: ⭐
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
We have 3 small groups that are just starting, and so far we have 32 individuals signed up, with some attending more than one - that is a large percentage of our church family, and most that have signed up are in the Millennial bracket. [and it is not too late to get into a group!]
ASK: what are YOU doing to study the Word? If this is something the modern church should be committed to, how are you, as a member of God’s church, committed to studying God’s word?
However, according to those numbers, you are not the norm. Your generation is the least literate in the Bible - though they have the greatest availability of it. That means something.
I THINK one of the reasons for the disconnect is that your generation has not experienced the Word of God LIVED OUT the way it is supposed to be. That falls on MY generation - we built programs and not relationships and it cost us a generation of people missing out on understanding who God really is.
That is where the rest of this list comes in. The early church did not just learn the Word of God, they also did life together. They bucked their society and lived in a way that demonstrated true repentance and genuine love of others.
In my generation it might have been said that people will know you are a disciple of Jesus by your love for the Word. However, Jesus said this:
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Should we love the Word? ABSOLUTELY! However, it must be accompanied by a love of others. If you love God but do not love others, the love of God is not in you: ⭐
10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
These things are inseparable. The early church was devoted to the Apostles teachings, but they were also devoted to each other.
Doing life together. ⭐
Doing life together. ⭐
The Gk word is “Koinonia” which means to have things in common, to participate together. We call this “doing life together”. It means sharing our everyday activities with others. They spent time together.
There is a big push for churches to have activities all of the time - to always have something on the calendar. I think that is part of what has left Millennials disillusioned. We replaced people with programs, true fellowship was pushed out by busyness.
Obviously, programs and studies can be helpful, but community is created by doing life together outside of the walls of our buildings. We need to be more intentional about fighting off the hermit/isolationist mentality that is so prevalent and embrace the rich, fullness of life together.
One of the easiest ways to begin doing life together is to select some of the things you already do and invite others to join you.
attending a child’s musical, sports event or other program
game nights
grocery shopping
activities like walking, biking, hiking, punkin-chunkin, concerts…
Anyone here eat dinner? ever? Would a few more mouths make a big difference?
I think you get the idea.
But they also helped to meet each other’s needs. In that sense they also “participated” with each other. ⭐
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
The early church knew about the needs because they spent time together. They were in fellowship with each other.
ASK: what are some things that you do that you could easily invite others to join you doing? What do you need to free up in your life to be available to join others or meet somoene’s needs?
THIS can be a hard one for me! Being bi-vocational and having a very busy schedule, I also need to balance time with family, with LAURA and with the church family.
Eating together. ⭐
Eating together. ⭐
Aside from all the evidence of the mental, social and physical benefits of eating meals together (https://www.thescramble.com/family-dinner/family-dinner-statistics) there are also incredible benefits of inviting others to the table with you.
If you really want to get to know someone, share some meals with them! This is what Jesus did with his disciples, with tax collectors and notorious people: ⭐
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
That was not flattery BTW. But at the same time, it really was! He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners because he accepted them and ate with them.
Even the Father had a meal with Israel in the wilderness. ⭐
9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. 11 God did not harm the Israelite nobles; they saw him, and they ate and drank.
Meals were used to demonstrate hospitality, to celebrate special events, to seal covenants and to build relationships.
When you invite someone to eat with you, especially at your home or apartment, you are inviting them to connect with you. You are opening up your self to them. Meals really help people connect and bring people together.
Again, I think this has been lost in much of today’s culture. The family meal is less frequent, and having company over is even less than that.
WE ARE MISSING OUT on SO MUCH! The laughter, conversation and even collaboration as people help with prep and cleanup is a great blessing!
ask: is there one night a week you can open your table to others?
Praying together. ⭐
Praying together. ⭐
While this is obvious, it is not always accomplished.
There used to be a time when churches had weekly prayer meetings for the church collective to come together for prayer. IF a church still had this, most are very poorly attended. Some churches have prayer breakfasts, some have a time on Sunday mornings when the music team is practicing.
We can see that while the disciples were with Jesus, they seemed to ask Jesus everything, and that makes sense! After Jesus ascended, we have more recorded prayer by the apostles. This also makes sense.
When Jesus was teaching his disciples he gave them a model prayer: ⭐
2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say,
Father,
your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves also forgive everyone
in debt to us.
And do not bring us into temptation.”
Luke’s record if this is shorter than the version you may have memorized. I like short! The focus of our prayers should be:
acknowledging God as supreme
the kingdom of God growing
trusting in God for provision
forgiveness and being forgiven
living holy lives and avoiding temptation
Most of the prayer meetings I have attended seemed to focus on physical needs. Yet the majority of that model prayer has nothing to do with the physical, because God’s kingdom is not of this world and these bodies are not the point.
When we pray, we need to make our prayers focused more on God’s kingdom than on our own.
While a formal, collective time of prayer is wonderful, getting together with one other person, or a small group to pray is also very special.
For those of you who struggle memorizing scripture, I have the perfect verse for you! ⭐
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray constantly” (CSB) or
17 Never stop praying.
It takes longer to day the reference than the verse!
ask: how can you pray more? Whom can you pray with this week?
These 6 things are a quick summary of what the new coverts in Jerusalem were committed to. The end of chapter 2 is a bit more insight and rehashing of those things because some of these details will be significant in the chapters to come. ⭐
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.
They had all things in common (fellowship) and met each others needs, they ate food together (breaking of bread), met in the temple (devoted to teachings).
QUESTIONS:
does this passage mean we need to have no outside activities other than those with our church brothers and sisters and that we need to get together with our church family “every day”? No! We need time with people who do NOT know Jesus. We need time with just ourselves or our immediate family. But we also need to prioritize time to be in community with our church family as well!
does this mean we are not supposed to own anything but we are to “sell everything” and give it to others? No. However, it does mean that we should not be stingy with our possessions and we should be willing to give up things to help those that do not have what they need. WE covered this in the sermon on the mount (Matt 5-6)
does this mean that if we do these things we will see new people come to Jesus “every day”? No. This is not a formula for church multiplication. God causes the increase, and he could add new people every day, but that is HIS decision.
This radical new lifestyle was contagious. People saw it and liked it! Acts 2:47 “… enjoying the favor of all the people.” People looked at this church and had good things to say about it. It was attractive, too because more people were being saved each day.
The church still needs to preach the good news of Jesus - and people still need to respond. Those of us that have responded should be marked by a commitment to God’s Word, fellowship, community and prayer. While not an all-inclusive list it is a great start.
This is part of that “abundant life” that Jesus talked about for his followers: ⭐
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Life in Jesus is abundant because it restores us to our heavenly Father AND it empowers us to live in loving community with each other. This is our calling and a gift from God. I am SO thankful for THIS family at NCF and the years we have had being a community.
⭐It is my prayer that each of us will renew our commitment to these things and be the church community that demonstrates God’s love to the world around us.
