Organic Christianity: Devoted to the Apostles’ Doctrine

Today we are beginning a new series titled “Organic Christianity”. The concept of being “organic” is an interesting one… Whenever one thinks about the word organic, usually the first thing that comes to mind is food. As early as the 1920’s and 1930’s movements have been coming and going calling people to eat foods that are “natural”. These movements encourage people to get away from foods that have been altered in some way with additives and preservatives; from foods that have been grown without pesticides, or eating animal meat in which the animals were either fed with foods that had chemicals or pesticides or animals in which some kind of steroid was used… I am not going to give you my thoughts on these organic movements… surely there are many here with strong opinions about these movements… What I would like to do is make some applications about the idea of “being organic” to our faith in Christ and our religious devotions and practices. Whenever we think about our faith as individuals or what we do as we assemble and work together, I believe that this kind of mindset of being “organic” is one that we should devote ourselves to. If we have made it our aim/goal to be pleasing to the Lord, we should want to be Christians just as God designed them to be… and we should want our church family to be as God designed it to be… without any man-made changes or additives…. We should want to be like the Christians that we find in our New Testaments because we know that they were pleasing to God.

For our lessons in this series, I would like to focus on a passage in : . WE will go to other passages, but this one will guide our study. I love this passage because it shows what the people of God were committed to at the beginning; what they devoted themselves to.

“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 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” ( ESV).

I don’t believe there is a better passage to begin with than this one if we want to see what the early church was devoted to… We see the “birth” of the New Testament church here, and how the hearts of men were changed by the Gospel to live for their new ruler - King Jesus. In verse 42, after becoming Christians, these were the things they were devoted to… the Apostles’ teaching/doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer… For all of these things the Christians were doing, we are told that they were “devoted to” them. Your translation may have said something different… The NASB says about the same thing. It says they were “continually devoting themselves” to these things… The NKJV says “the continued steadfastly” in these things. The Greek word used here means to adhere oneself to, to be steadfastly attentive to, to persevere in… No matter how this word is translated, you see the same kind of idea… They gave their lives entirely to the cause of their Messiah – which included the things referred to in this passage. These are things that characterized the lives of the earliest Christians… If you met them or saw them, you could see that they had devoted their lives to do these things.

The first of these things they gave their lives to, that I would like to focus on in our lesson today is the Apostles doctrine. The church in Jerusalem devoted themselves to continue in the Apostle’s doctrine, because they are the ones who Jesus said would give His instructions to His disciples. Let’s look at a few passages that show this.

- "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

- "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you ()

These two passages show that Jesus chose these men to be the ones who would receive the commandments of Christ to give to others. They would be given all of the truth that God’s people would need to be pleasing to God.

– “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

This mission was given first to the Apostles. They are the ones Jesus is talking to here. Their mission was to go and make disciples of Christ through baptism and then teaching Christians the commandments of Christ which would be given to them by the Spirit. This mission is also for us since we have the writings of the Apostles that include what Jesus wanted His people to learn.

One more passage:

- “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone...”

The foundation of the church includes the Apostles. I believe this is implying their teaching is the foundation that the church is built upon. They are the authority that Christ put into place, by the Spirit, to teach His will and to build His church. Jesus is King and the Apostles are His ambassadors and representatives.

Whenever there were questions about what to believe and practice among the churches, Christians went to the Apostles and their writings. No matter what the discussion was, whether it be the content of the Gospel, administering discipline in the church, taking care of needs among the brethren (; ), what to do during worship, or how to organize worship (), they looked to the Apostles. They received the teachings of the Apostles in all of these areas, and they devoted themselves to these teachings. This is what we see in the New Testament and the years following the Apostles’ deaths. Their writings were the standard for doctrine and practice. And the same must be the case today.

It cannot be stressed enough that if we want to be pleasing to God today as Christians, we must devote ourselves to reading and studying scripture. If we want to be Christians like they were and work and worship as churches in the New Testament did and to live our lives as they did, we need to go to the writings of those who gave the commandments of Jesus Christ for His people. This is so important to stress because there are so many who claim they believe in Christ out there that do not devote themselves to the Apostles doctrine, but instead base many of their beliefs and practices on other things. They base so many of their beliefs, or how they organize their churches, or how they worship based on other things… Things that are not a sufficient guide for us to show us if something is pleasing to God under the New Covenant.

Some examples:

· Feelings. No matter where we believe these feelings are coming from, they are not our source of authority. Some believe that the Holy Spirit gives them certain feelings to show God’s will for their lives. Trusting our emotions to guide us, even if we believe the Spirit is putting them there, is dangerous. We are not told in the New Testament that the Spirit works in this way and we are told in scripture that our emotions can lead us in the wrong direction and cannot be trusted.

Other people - Family members, preachers, elders/pastors… No matter who it is, what we are taught needs compared to what the Apostles taught before it is accepted.

· What the Old Testament writers commanded Israel to do. The Old Testament is important. It teaches us a lot about God and how He interacts with His people, and there are many great principles within its pages that we can apply to our lives. But we must keep in mind that the Old Testament was God’s covenant with a specific group of people; a specific nation – Israel. The Old Testament also must be submitted to the teachings of the Apostles. Jesus points us to them and them alone to tell us what He commands us to do under the New Covenant that the church is a part of.

· What is not said by the Apostles. This point probably seems strange, but it is the case that so many arguments that are made today are made based on the silence of the Apostles on a certain matter. You may have heard such arguments before, arguments such as, “They didn’t say NOT to,” or, “The Apostles didn’t say it is a sin to do ______.” It may be the case that they Apostles did not condemn a certain practice in worship. It may be the case that the Apostles didn’t say something is a sin… But this does not make that thing pleasing to God! We will look at what the Apostles DID say! The ONLY way we can know for certain that something is pleasing or displeasing to Jesus is if He reveals it to us through His Apostles and Prophets in the New Testament.

The Apostles show us what is pleasing to God under the New Covenant. They give the commandments of Christ that His disciples need to follow, and the Apostles show in their examples what kind of a mindset and lifestyle are pleasing to the Lord. Only when we look to their teachings for our guidance for our lives as individuals and for our work and worship together as a church family can we say that we are a New Testament Christian/church, or for the sake of this lesson, an organic Christian/church; a church without man-made additives or changes, like the church that was founded on the day of Pentecost.

CONCLUSION

My question for you as we bring this lesson to a close is this: Are you devoted to the Apostles doctrine as our earliest brothers and sisters were? Do you determine in your heart to continue steadfastly in what they command you and teach you, no matter how difficult the demands Christ makes on your life are? Could you say that you have given your life to their teachings and that their teachings are where you look to in order to know what is pleasing to God in your life today? This will often show in how much we spend time within their writings. How much time are you spending in God’s word, and what kind of noticeable impact is it really making in your life?

If you are not yet a Christian, I would encourage you to become part of the organic church, the church that we see at the beginning on the day of Pentecost in . On that day, Peter used the keys to the kingdom of God that Jesus gave him to open up the door to the kingdom of God. In Peter’s sermon, he tells us what we must do to be saved. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, Peter commands this, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Will you receive his word as those on the day of Pentecost and become a Christian the same way they did? The decision is yours.