Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

JUNIOR CHURCH DISMISSED

Great singing today.

Thank you for that special.

We will be back in our Authentic series today.

We are looking at the New Testament church and how they operated, functioned, and conducted themselves.

It’s been amazing to see what God has done through hearts already during this series and many of you have commented about how it has already been a help to you.

It’s my prayer that today the message will be a help and blessing to you.

We are going to be looking at an aspect of the church many of us love but I believe partially misunderstand.

Today I want us to Authentic Fellowship and how that should look.

If you have been around a Baptist church for long you know we enjoy fellowship.

Well, we say we enjoy fellowship but every time we fellowship there is food.

So there is a chance we just enjoy food and the fellowship is a by-product.

Either way, we spend time together often.

But is it authentic fellowship?

This morning we are gong to look at the church in Acts and their fellowship to discover what Authentic Biblical fellowship looks like.

As we examine this verse I’d like for you to ponder a question: Am I loving as Christ loves?

We will only be examining one verse this morning but I believe this one verse carries with it truths and principles that will be a help to us corporately and more importantly individually.

Open your Bibles to

PRAY

Notice first the stability of their faith.

I. TheStability of their faith

The “they” being referred to is mentioned in verse 41.

It is the saved and baptized body of believers in jerusalem.

We are talking about the local church body of believers like those here.

Even if you are here and have not joined the church, you are still apart of this body as a saved and baptized believer in Christ.

They continued steadfastly.

That phrase in the Greek is from words that mean they were persistent, they kept on with devotion in the doctrine of the Apostle’s.

It was this doctrine that gave them stability.

They Continued to exist and remain devoted to Christ because they were continuing in truth.

A. They Continued in truth

They first continued in the truth of salvation.

Salvation is the beginning of our walk with the Lord and true faith in Christ is ongoing.

When we trust in Christ as our Savior He begins a work in our lives that lasts until we see Him face to face.

When a person is genuinely saved they want to move forward in their faith.

Fellowship with other believers is one of the ways God works in stabilizing and encouraging us to keep growing.

Next they continued in the truth of doctrine.

Doctrine means teachings, sets of beliefs.

The centerpiece to the fellowship in the early church wasn’t the fried chicken and banana pudding.

It was doctrine.

The early church made much of the teachings of Christ they were receiving directly from the Apostle’s mouth.

Remember, they didn’t have the written NT at this time.

They had the witness and example of the men who walked with Christ.

Now we have the closed canon of scripture in the Bible.

We have the Word of God complete, pure, and perfect.

The Bible is an unchanging book whose truths and principles are unchanging as well.

It is by our gathering around this book and these truths that our faith is made stable.

As intregral as truth is to the Word of God.

It is important to understand that the truth we posses must not be kept to ourselves.

The early church continued in truth and they continued in teaching.

B. They continued in Teaching

This falls right in line with the great commission Christ gave in

I believe that Christians, each and everyone of us, are called to teach the word of God.

Does that mean all of you should be up here doing it?

no.

Does it mean God may call some young man in the church to ministry, yes!

Whether pastor, missionary, laymen, deacon, or what have you.

Jesus makes it clear that each of us are supposed to be engaged in the equipping of other believers with the Word of God.

Discipleship is not reserved for a special sect of Christianity.

It is commanded of each of us.

As much as discipleship is about teaching the doctrine of scripture, it is about developing the relationship with the new believer and helping them understand what authentic Christianity is.

Without a connection to another believer and only seeing a preacher from the pulpit and looking at Christianity with rose colored glasses a person could come to believe that others are either better Christians than them or the new believer may perceive that Christians think they are better than others.

But when they are able to connect to someone and get to know them through the teaching of the word of God, they will understand that both of them have sin they deal with.

They will learn that Christians aren’t perfect nor should we think we are.

And it’s important for us as Christians to avail ourselves to the teaching of the word of God as much as we can.

If your not attending a class at the 10 oclock hour then I encourage you to do so.

Bro.

Rob teaches a general adults class upstairs, downstairs in the fellowship hall I’m teaching young adults and parents.

That means if you are a senior in high school, out of high school, or a parent.

You are welcome in the fellowship hall at 10am.

Mrs. Carmie has a ladies group on Wednesday nights at 7pm during Awana upstairs and we have our general adult Bible Study and prayer meeting here in the auditorium at the same time.

I know some may be under the impression that Sunday morning is the only service you need.

I beg to differ.

The Word of God tells us in Hebrews to get together often, many times we are told to Study the Bible, and we see here in our text that the early church continued in truth and teaching through fellowship.

It’s the example we have set before us.

The question we have to ask ourselves is what are we putting before the Word of God in our lives?

It is a focus on the Word of God that provided stability to the faith of the early church.

They also had a sustained fellowship.

II.

A Sustained Fellowship

With stability comes longevity.

This is another characteristic of authentic fellowship.

The world’s relationships can be so up and down.

Your friends one minute and then when a person doesn’t like your fb post, instagram story, or you drop streaks on snapchat thats it, it’s over.

Boys and girls, men and woman, date and sometimes marry like it’s a sport.

God’s design for Christian fellowship is that it will be sustaining and encouraging.

ILLUSTRATION: I once heard a story about “Three young boys were having some mischievous fun at the zoo by the elephant yard.

They made enough commotion that onlookers called the zoo security in concern.

The security officer asked each boy the same questions: “What is your name?

And what were you doing by the elephants?”

“My name is Larry,” the first boy answered.

“And I was just throwing peanuts to the elephants.”

That seemed reasonable enough.

The officer turned to the next boy.

“My name is Jared, and I was just throwing peanuts to the elephants.”

The third boy was obviously flustered as he stuttered his answer.

“M-m-my name is P-p-peter.

But my friends call me P-p-p-peanuts!”

Have you ever had friends like Peter’s who instead of helping you were tossing you around?

”

Excerpt From: Paul Chappell.