Gospel Formation (Gospel Community Series)

Gospel Community: Life Together in the Local Church

Series Summary:

God forms a people through the gospel, shaping them by Christ’s work, binding them together in love, and ordering them for gospel-centered ministry.

The Church is a gathering of people making up the Body of Christ.

‘Christianity is personal but not individualistic. It’s corporate’ ~David Platt

Series Sermons:

1/4 - Gospel Formation - Acts 2:42-47

1/11 - Gospel Unity - Acts 4:32-37

1/18 - Gospel Ministry - Acts 6:1-7

Gospel Formation

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.”

Introduction:

These people have gathered and joined together as a result of God’s work of redemption, Christ’s work of atoning for sins, and Peter’s faithfulness to preach the Gospel that resulted in thousands being saved.

This is the beginning of a Gospel community.

P.O.P.

Gospel community, when formed by the Word of God, grows spiritually, cares for one another, and makes disciples for the glory of God.

Kids

God brings His people together through the Bible so they can love Him more, love others more, and share His good news with the world.

When we are making a new big purchase, we often create a wish list:

- Wish list for a new home (open concept, number of rooms, number of bathrooms, acreage, etc.)

- Wish list for buying a new car (mileage, size/space, features, etc.)

Within these, we have a list that is of necessity and a list that is of preference. In the following weeks, we will look at Acts to find what is necessary for a gospel community. These are not preferences that could be done without, but those things which actually make up what it means to be the local church.

1. Devotion to spiritual formation.

Acts 2:42–43 “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.”

Formation will happen through the ordinary means of grace.

What are ordinary means of grace?

The means of grace are those things which God has given the church that bring about the full benefits of salvation to believers. These are the normative tools given to the church to grow, mature, and receive correction as a corporate body of believers.

The use of ordinary really has two meanings:

We mean these are ordained by God for the local church to do. Most clearly, this is where the regulative principle comes from. Though to some standards we might be “loose” in our use of the regulative principle, we function this way at The Rock Church. We focus on those things which God explicitly ordained for the local church to do: preach the Word, sing truths of God, fellowship, participate in the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and pray.

We also mean we are not looking for God to be working in fantastical things, but that He is always working in the ordinary, or regular, worship of his saints. While God is absolutely free to work in extraordinary ways, the ordinary means of grace are the normative way in which God is working through His people. That means we do not wait for God to do something that amazes us to believe He has finally begun to work, but it also means the week in and week out of our rhythms of worship are miraculous works of God’s grace in our lives.

Word of God

A healthy church is dependent on a regular diet of sound doctrine through gospel proclamation.

The tool, given by God, to equip, instruct, and send local congregations on mission is foundationally the Word of God.

2 Timothy 4:1–5 “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

I do not believe this itching ears necessarily means heretical beliefs; rather, I think it means they will have an interest in God’s Word for the wrong reasons. This could be to hear what we want to hear. Again, the faithful preaching of God’s Word is the driving force, not the preference sheet of who we want, how we want it, and what we want it to say.

The local church rests in the sufficiency of God’s Word for the work of ministry - to draw, to mature, and to correct.

The danger of pragmatism lies in what we do and what we offer as the engine that produces a healthy church.

The New Testament does not instruct us not to do those things, but to make God’s Word the driving force behind everything we do.

At the end of the day, a local church that does not have all the bells and whistles can be the healthiest church in the surrounding area, whereas, a church that has the most people, the most programs, the most resources, and the best building could be spiritual dry and lacking health - The measure is what we preach and what guides us.

Sacraments/Ordinances

These are the regular reminders of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, and a looking forward to the fullness of those promises.

I think we would do well also in the local church to realize and remember that these are not individualistic events.

Baptism is not merely about being baptized but also about a local church welcoming a brother/sister in Christ and committing to teaching and watching over them. I also believe this is why baptism is directly tied to local church membership.

Lord’s Supper is not an individual event either, but one in which the local church participates in together. This is a regular act of worship by which we recognize our communion with God through our union with Christ and his accomplishments until Jesus returns, which we will experience in full when Jesus returns. Again, one that we would do well to first realize that we partake together as a corporate act of worship. This is also why I discourage taking the Lord’s Supper outside of the corporate gathering of the local church.

Prayer

The early church was known for their prayer. Throughout the book of Acts we can find times of personal prayer and corporate prayer. Prayer is a key marker of a healthy church. Prayer is constant reminder to us of our dependence upon God but also our relationship with him.

Fellowship

Fellowship is a constant reminder of who we are, not merely as individuals, but as a people set apart for God. Fellowship ought to be a frequent reminder that we are not alone in our faith, but God has joined us together with others who we know will care for us.

Formation produces worship.

Notice the description of the believers. It does not say they begrudgingly showed up, or that they had an attitude about showing up, or that they showed up out of obligation, or even that they showed up but were critical of everything. No, they showed up and devoted themselves, and awe came upon every soul.

When they gathered, they knew undeserved grace was being offered, and the ordinary was by no means truly ordinary.

The ordinary means of grace, which are our source of spiritual formation, should produce worship every time.

All of these descriptions and prescriptions assume the normalcy of belonging and attending a local church.

2. Devotion to one another.

Acts 2:44–46 “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,”

They were joined in community.

They were frequently together. They did life together. They spent time together. They built a community and not just an aquantence.

They also ‘had all things in common’ — a pecular phrase of sorts in the way it is phrased.

This does not mean that it made sense the ones who gather together. It doesn’t mean they had common interests. It doesn’t mean everyone was natural best friends.

The church is not to be a place where you just hang out with those that are easy to hang out with, or those who you naturally like more. The challenge to us as a local church is that we are called to love, carry the burden of, encourage, and sacrifice for the ones who God has joined together.

This becomes such a danger for us that we would show partiality toward some and neglect others.

The local church is not the place to pick and choose who you will love, serve, show patience to, sacrifice for, or even fellowship with, but that each person should equally be seen as your brother and sister in Christ.

They were joined in love.

All things in common is clarified by the selling of possession.

Next week we will cover this in more detail, but we find they are willing to care for each other to the point of selling possessions and sacrificial living to ensure everyone is taken care of.

Living in a community of love entails:

Sacrifice

Genuine care

Knowledge of each others life

Humility (to be known)

The community was one of love with which they knew each other and cared for each other.

They were joined in regular fellowship.

The text says that they were spending their lives together on a regular basis. They worshiped together. They were in each others homes. They fed each other and ate together.

I do not think we should suggest that they were not working, they did not have their own families, that it was simpler times....We can come up with excuse after excuse why we do not participate in regular fellowship with our brother and sisters in Christ but at the end of the day we all have to admit, we choose not to...

It also does not say that they chose who they would spend time with either. It says they all spent time together.

Were there annoying people they had to spend time with? Sure! Were there difficult people they had to spend time with? Absolutely! Were there conflicts that had to be ironed out for restored fellowship? Of course! They were a bunch of knucklehead, sinners, who had their quirks and personalities just like you and I. Just like you and I they were called to devote their lives to God and to each other.

They were joined in public fellowship.

I do not think we should move too quickly past the phrase ‘and having favor with all the people’.

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What would it take for our fellowship to be visible to the world around us? Would anyone on the outside be able to speak to the love we have for one another? Does anyone on the outside even know that we love one another? Does anyone on the outside even know that we spend time together?

All of these descriptions and prescriptions assume the normalcy of belonging and attending a local church.

3. Devotion to God's mission.

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.”

Faithfulness to fellowship produces blessings.

I believe here we can see that they were able to devote themselves to each other and find time to evangelize and disciple the Lost around them as well.

If we commit to living faithfully before the Lord, we are assured he will sustain us, lead us, and bless us.

God will bless what honors him every time.

Notice, however, their blessing was not personal gain but corporate gain.

Faithfulness to fellowship produces fruit.

Beyond fellowship with one another, they were faithful to share the gospel as well — day by day.

The church growth in Acts 2 was not like an open house where you are surprised by each new person who has found their way into the home. Rather, each new person added to their fold was intentionally reached through being on mission to make disciples.

A church that is committed to faithful spiritual formation and gospel community is one that will cultivate a natural and organic culture of evangelism and discipleship.

Faithfulness to fellowship produces gospel community.

All of this together — commitment to the ordinary means of grace, love for one another, and gospel mission — provides a place ready to receive and make disciples.

To be a church that invites but lacks gospel community would be like welcoming someone over to your house for dinner but you have no furniture, no plates, no food, nothing. You are not ready to host.

They did not just share with people or invite people, they added to their number. They welcomed them into membership. They discipled them. They did life with them. Their gospel community grew — Through the work of God to save and the faithfulness of the saints to proclaim.

God’s purpose from Creation for mankind was to:

Love God.

Love others (This should especially be true of God’s people toward each other).

Series Challenge:

The Gospel forms a people, unites a people, and sends a people.