Acts 2:42-47 FBR's new generation...

‘Church growth’ is all the rage these days.

Never has there been such an emphasis on growth as in these last decades of the twentieth century.

A very extensive literature describes and dissects both growth and decline and

offers a myriad of suggestions about how to grow new churches and

revitalize old ones.

No doubt this has arisen largely in response to the catastrophic collapse of what may only loosely be termed

‘Christianity’ in the Western countries

where once it was the dominant influence.

Seeing the writing on the wall, many Christians have given themselves to the project of turning the situation around.

To the extent that this has called the churches to re-examine the scriptural teaching

on the nature of a living and growing church body-life

and embrace a fresh and full-orbed obedience to the Lord

together with the faithful proclamation of the gospel,

to the Lord together with the faithful proclamation of the gospel, this has been a timely stimulus to forsake the too-often defensive, inward-looking attitudes which have turned too many fellowships into spiritual ghettos.

this has been a timely stimulus to forsake the

too-often defensive, inward-looking attitudes

which have turned too many fellowships into spiritual ghettos.

Far too often, many churches turn to pragmatism to turn the church around.

Find something new and fresh and bring in a new crowd, blah, blah, blah...

However, there’s a resurgence that’s come onto the scene with a few faithful churches, that are turn to Christ and His written word.

This is what we desire to do. So let’s pray together.

Lord we pray You will give us earnest hearts. A longing for You, even as we now come to the Scriptures. We confess our great need of You help and Your power and the moving of the Spirit among us, and we pray for such.

Lord solemnize our souls. Give us minds that are set on You. That are set on divine truth! Take our minds away from earthly things. Lord may there be a work done today for Thy glory and for the praise of Thy name. Abide with us we ask for Jesus’ sake and we ask this in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Let’s read God’s word..

— 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

The book of Acts is the main historical document that tells us about the earliest days of the church.

Peter has just preached a sermon and look at what we read in — 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

This kind of explosive growth continued for decades until Christianity became the most powerful force in the Roman Empire,

not through political means,

not through administrations,

not through administrations,

or the sword,

or the sword,

but through purely through a group of people

who obeyed the Great Commission and

had the power of the risen Christ with them.

This was the key. There are certainly people who are 100x’s more eloquent than Peter,

but how do you account for 100x’s more power to that message that started with Peter,

then swept through the Roman Empire?

The answer of course, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came along with the message, and the people were cut to the heart.

This is true for us as a church, as we think of our simplified Vision for our little church.

To Exalt the name of Christ in worship

To Equip the people of Christ in discipleship

To Extend the Kingdom of Christ, to those who don’t know Him yet.

Simple, biblical, exciting…yet without the Holy Spirit empowering all of it, nothing will happen!!!

So, the Holy Spirit came in, took the message, pushed it down, put it into the core of their souls, applied it to them.

The Spirit of God fell upon them and they were cut to the heart and they came alive to God!

So, how do you know that this new life has come to you? How do you know?

Life always has a way of expressing itself. If a baby is alive it kicks, cries, and drinks in milk.

That’s how you know the baby is alive. Life has signs.

The passage we read this morning, we see the signs of that new life immediately.

Today, I want to look to just one of those signs in isolation. — 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine...

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine.

What does that mean?

Let’s ask

what they did,

why they did it, and

how they did it.

What, why, how.

What did they do?

They continued steadfastly or devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine.

Now modern people really hate the idea. In fact, modern people, conservative and liberal, hate this idea.

“Doctrine. Dogma. Eww! Who wants to be dogmatic?

I don’t believe in that sort of thing. We’re beyond that kind of thing,” some say.

I don’t believe in that sort of thing. We’re beyond that kind of thing,” some say.

we all say.

Yet when the sign of new life was there, they were hungry for doctrine.

They devoted themselves to doctrine.

Now some churches say,

“Oh, we’re beyond doctrine.

Here at this church we just praise the Lord.

We just walk with the Lord.

We don’t talk about doctrine.”

“Doctrine divides; Jesus unites,”

goes the saying.

As soon as you say, “Oh, okay. You’re not into doctrine. Jesus unites. Good. Now who is Jesus?

Oh, He’s the Son of God but also a man. He died for us.”

What is that? That’s doctrine. How could he unite unless we believe the same things about him? It’s doctrine.

Somebody says, “Ah, the most wonderful verse in the Bible is,

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

That’s chuck full of doctrine. You think it’s wonderful? Fine. Then believe it.

God gave his only begotten Son (that means he is a personal God)

so we wouldn’t perish (that means he is a just God, a judge).

He gave his Son. There’s the doctrine of atonement,

the doctrine of incarnation.

There’s the fall of humanity.

It’s all there. It means nothing if it wasn’t for doctrine. They devoted themselves to doctrine.

Are these two different doctrines? Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man, the Scripture says.

What if someone says that angels are mediators too! I pray to them...

Or to the dead saints… I pray to them.

Or to Mary…I pray to her, the Son always listens to his mother.

These are differing doctrine. One is the Apostle’s doctrine and the others are not.

So we can’t be united to those who don’t devote themselves to the same practice.

Let me show you this real fast. Flip over to . Jesus is praying for all the believers.

He carries them upon His heart, those born and those not yet born, and viewing them as already existing, Jesus prays that they may all be one.

— that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

When we’re on, we become one with the Trinity, then the world will believe that the Father sent the Son.

Again the prayer for unity in v22. So that (v23) the world may know that the Father sent the Son and

they will know that we are loved by the Father like He loved Christ.

See, if we could just unite with those who teach those other doctrines about Mary, angels, and saints.

Or if we would just unite to those who tell us that the Muslims pray to the same God that Christians do, just under a different name.

Here’s what shatters all of that. — “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

Those who will believe on Christ through the word of the apostles.

What do we have in our text in ? The apostle Peter preaches, they are converted by sheer grace and how are they unified?

How does Jesus’ prayer get answered? What do they devote themselves to? The Apostles doctrine.

And here’s the thing. Everyone has and believes doctrine.

But what unites us what what the apostles taught. There’s no way out of it.

Everything a person has to say, has deep structures to it, and they just won’t see it.

Everything they say assumes and teaches something about

the nature of God,

about the nature of sin,

about the nature of humanity,

about the nature of eternity.

The question that we have is this: did you get your beliefs from the teachings of Scripture?

Even if we preach from the OT. Do the apostles quote the OT? Everywhere!

What did they teach about the OT?

—For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Paul’s not saying that there are some good things written for us in the bible, but that all of it was written for our instruction!

It was written so that we might have hope!

The hope given by what Christ has done in winning our salvation,

the hope that leaves not doubts and

sustains Christ’s people in the darkest days.

— Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

The warning, to advise someone concerning the dangerous consequences of an action.

The OT folks, Paul saw as our examples (good, bad, and ugly) examples.

This is how he would warn Christians in the church is by pointing them back to what was written!

In fact, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the OT and NT books are made one, with Christ holding them together.

— having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,

So we can, and God-willing, will preach through OT books with tons of instruction, warning, encouragement, all designed to build hope in the Christian community!

This is how the early church and our church is built! Those early church creeds, which there are many good ones.

In the first century or at any time that the church has been in trouble, they church never thought, like many American Christian’s think,

“We’ll decide what we think God is saying to us, in our day and age.”

Historically, the true church always thought, “What did the apostles teach?”

They would always go back and out of the Scriptures, they would carve out the essence of the apostles teaching.

Why? Because the foundation of a true church cannot move!

We can’t have a house unless there’s a foundation. They went back. In the book of Jude, we read, “… the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

So there’s a foundation. A sign of the new life was they recognized this doctrine.

They submitted to it.

They hungered for it.

They turned to it.

They couldn’t get enough of it.

They met every day to study this, if you look into the passage. Every day.

They never stopped doing it.

You couldn’t keep them away.

You didn’t have to say to these believers, “Come to the Bible study.”

No! You couldn’t keep them away.

Nobody ever needed to lay a guilt trip on the early Christians about, “Come and study.”

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, which is the Scriptures.

Why they did it

Unless we understand the why and unless we go for the apostles’ teaching and doctrine for the same reason,

for the same why, for the same motivation,

we will not have the same effect.

Why did they come?

Now the only way to find out why is to actually look a little before in the passage.

Verse 42 starts with a little phrase, “And they…” or “And so…”

It means because of what happened in verses 36–41, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine. What happened?

Peter sums up and says, “Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made Lord and Christ.” They were cut to the heart.

Now the reason they went to the apostles’ doctrine was because, first of all,

they wanted to know more about what cut them.

They also wanted to know

more about who cut them. Look at what I mean.

First of all, they looked to see what cut them.

You can only be cut by something which is harder than you.

For example, you can’t be cut by a rubber band.

If you try to do surgery with a rubber band, it won’t work, because rubber is softer than what you’re made of.

A knife can do surgery, a knife can heal you, because a knife is made out of something that’s harder.

It doesn’t yield; you do.

Now what they realized is they were cut by something that would not yield; they had to yield to it.

Their feelings and perceptions had to yield to it.

There are a lot people today who don’t believe in this.

This is what I guess we can call hard truth, transcendent truth, a truth that’s

harder than us, a truth

that’s above us, a truth

that’s above us, a truth

we have to yield to.

we have to yield to.

It doesn’t yield to us.

It doesn’t yield to us. It’s true whether we feel it or not. It’s true whether we like it or not. It’s true whether we perceive it or not, but we submit to it. These early Christians recognized the existence of that because it had come in and cut them.

It’s true whether we feel it or not.

It’s true whether we like it or not.

It’s true whether we perceive it or not, but we submit to it.

These early Christians recognized the existence of "truth” because it had come in and cut them.

Everyone of us this morning is in one of two places.

Either you’re sitting in judgment on the bible or the bible sits in judgment upon you.

There’s no middle. And some folks with the Scriptures collide with what they want, or with what they’ve always done, fill in the blank.

To say, “I know the bible says that but...” you have to know what you’re doing, you standing in judgment upon God’s Word!

And when the Scriptures are put to you and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to some, it’s just too much for them to handle.

So they go to a place where the commitment level is nil. Where they can be in church service on Sunday but not really joined to the body.

And this is the world in which we live in.

Everything has to bow to me and my feelings and my perceptions.

Everything yields to me, I have to find out what is right for me.

Everything yields to me, I have to find out what is right for me.

Everything is negotiable but me.

Everything is negotiable but me.

Then the gospel comes to those being called by God, the gospel comes in power and it cuts you and you’re never the same!

You come to see that there’s just something about this material, which is made of something more stern than yourself!

Truth, shows you who you really are!

It shows you your heart and the gospel itself, that Jesus Christ has

lived the life you should have lived, and

died the death you should have died

so God could be both just and punish sin on the cross and yet love us!

The reason they came to the apostles’ doctrine was they wanted to know Him.

There is no way to know Him unless

you believe in the total authority of the Scripture.

There’s no way to know you have the real him

unless you believe in the total authority of the Scripture.

There’s no way you’re not going to get crushed unless

you understand the total authority of the Scripture is about Him.

How they did it

It’s fairly simple. Do you know how they did it? In verse 40, he says, “Be saved from this perverse [corrupt] generation.”

You know, if you went through the Depression, that formed the generation.

That was the influence.

If you went through World War II, that formed the generation.

That was the influence.

If you were the first TV generation, that formed you, you see.

That was the influence.

So we’re all part of our generations.

We’ve been influenced by the behavior of the culture.

Do you know what Peter is trying to say?

If you want to become a Christian and you dedicate yourself to the truth of God’s Word,

the transcendent truth,

it will take you right out of your generation.

The determining factor in your life will no longer be

what your parents think or

what your generation thinks or

what the television says to do...or

your experiences.

Everything will come under the truth. Everything will be discerned by that. You’re a whole new person in a whole new generation.

Do you have that attitude toward the Scripture?

Have you ever come to God and asked Him to show Himself to you in His Word?

Have you ever come to God and asked Him to show Himself to you in His Word?

He will, and your heart will be on fire within, because the Emmaus disciples, after he disappeared, said,

“Did not our heart burn within us … while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

He’ll do that to you if you go to the Scriptures looking for Jesus.

The backbone of a healthy Christian life is teaching. Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow thereby” ().

Teaching was the milk of the early church under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The example of an energetic nursing baby is a fitting example for us to pursue, even if we have already moved on to steak.

Young believers must make sure they are feeding on the teaching of God’s Word.

There is much confusion today about the essential matters of our faith.

In a non-reading, experience-oriented culture, solid Bible teaching is sometimes hard to find.

Believers should beware of churches or Christian fellowships where the people do not carry their Bibles.

Read your Bible. Mark it up.

Each of us must make sure that sometime, somewhere in our week we are being taught.

When the Spirit reigns, God’s people continually devote themselves to the study of his Word.

That is the first characteristic, but more than study is needed.

We would described our church as a Bible-believing church. But what if we were asked, “Are you a Bible-living church?” Good question!