Characteristics of the Church
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Habit Forming
Habit Forming
Habit forming is repetitive in nature of doing the same thing over and over again where it become second nature. Are all habit’s bad?
When you want to form a habit, or learn to do something well, you do it over and over again. Another word that may be inserted here is “tradition.” Tradition is what the Jews had and it was keeping them out of the kingdom of God.
Tradition was one of the things Jesus came and broke (Mt16:18), He came and proclaimed what was coming (Mt16:15-18)
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
(expand on this) Christ proclaimed; Christ delivered, the church was born, the church that Jesus Christ built and that belongs to Him.
Birth of the Church came after preaching of the Word (Act2:41)
Act2:41
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
Results of the birth of the Church was people were in awe (Act2:43)
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
Our text this morning you maybe familiar with (Act2:42-27) and it is the example given for the new habit, new standard for the church that belongs to Jesus Christ. We are going to look at some of the characteristics, characteristics of the first church, the model church, the devoted church.
Devoted to Apostles Doctrine
Devoted to Apostles Doctrine
Think again about devoted: to appropriate by or as if by a vow; set apart or dedicate by a solemn or formal act; consecrate. and now may we add doctrine: a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group. Couple those together and you have a devoted group of people with the same belief.
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Notice that it uses the word devoting, it is a continuous action, a repetitive action, a habit forming action. An action with a purpose.
Our desire should be to follow the exampled church and to be continually devoted to the apostles teaching.
Jesus prayer was for belief and acceptance of the Apostles teaching (Jn13:20; Jn17:20-21) when they fulfilled their commission (Mt28:20)
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Jesus was going to authorize and send.
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Sent with a prayer, authority and a purpose (Mt28:19)
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
They were sent with promised help (Jn16:12-13)
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 “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.
The help was going to guide them into all truth
All truth is guide them into Jesus since He is truth (Jn14:6)
The truth they proclaimed was not their word, but the very word of God
Word from the Apostles was to be considered the Word of God (1Cor14:37; 1The2:13-14) also referenced (2Tim4:3)
The Corinthian passage states about the words Paul is proclaiming are the Lords commands, but then I wants us to look at another passage
13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,
The exampled church here is the one in Thessalonica, and do we have the same type of devotion to the Apostles doctrine that they did?
If we are honest today inf what we see many churches, bodies of believers are being swayed by the world instead of setting an example for the world of the doctrine of the Apostles that point to Jesus. People want to have their ears tickled (2Tim4:3) they have lost their fear of the Lord and obedience to Christ’s commands.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
We need to be a people who heed the words of Christ (Mt15:8-9) and the apostles (2The2:15)
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ”
Doctrines of man, or doctrine of God we need to chose.
15 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.
If we are to be the church of Christ we need to emulate the things that the church that was born in Jerusalem did. The first thing noted was to follow the apostles doctrine, the second was fellowship.
Devoted to fellowship (Spiritual)
Devoted to fellowship (Spiritual)
Spiritual fellowship is not anything new. Spiritual people were always eager to share spiritual things with one another (Ps122:1; Lk22:14-16; 1Jn1:3) \
Come together in fellowship for reasons of worship (Ps122:1)
1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
In the O.T. they gathered at the temple to worship the Lord. To them the temple was the building that God had blessed. To the early Christians it was in the synagogues, homes, beaches, it was no longer a about a building place, a meeting place but a heart. We do not need to gather in this building to be spiritual people in fellowship with one another, we can do it anywhere. God has blessed us with this building which is a great place for us to gather together in fellowship, in worship.
Spiritual fulfillment (Lk22:14-16; 1Jn1:3)
Spiritual fellowship, may we consider what Jesus said
14 When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Now the question arises, what was fulfilled? The kingdom was fulfilled when the church was born on Pentecost in Jerusalem just as Jesus said it would be. And because of that each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we are fellowshipping with the Lord.
3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The apostles were teaching what they had seen, what they had heard, so that we can have spiritual fellowship with the Father and with Jesus. Spiritual fellowship when we meet together in the assembly.
Spiritual fellowship is vital for spiritual health (Heb10:24-25; Mt6:33)
24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Vital so to stimulate one another with a purpose (love, good deeds)
To encourage one another
So the next question is do we have this type of devotion to spiritual fellowship?
We cannot let things hinder us from our spiritual fellowship with one another. We cannot let the world and it’s pressures to keep us from this vital habit, standard. These spiritual things are needed to sustain and to grow a healthy spiritual body.
We need to keep our priorities straight, Jesus spoke of that (Mt6:33)
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Chores are not an excuse
This first church, this devoted church, devoted with a purpose to the teaching and to fellowship was also devoted to the breaking of bread.
Devoted to breaking Bread
Devoted to breaking Bread
When we think of fellowship, we think of sharing with one another, and that is what we do when we share the Lord’s Supper. (1Cor10:16)
16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
Jesus example set as habit (1Cor11:23-24; Act20:7)
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Apostles doctrine as Jesus instructed to be done with a purpose- In remembrance of Me!
It is a sad thing that many churches are not devoted to the thing Jesus and the Apostles said we should be devoted to. Some think it is ritualistic or common and looses significance when we celebrate it the way we do. There is nothing common about it, it is fellowship with God and with one another and we should be devoted to it.
I know you maybe wondering are we ever going to get out of (v.42) by now, but we still have not finished the last element given in the verse.
Devoted to prayer
Devoted to prayer
We know there is power in prayer and devoted prayer is needed as commanded.
(Devoted to prayer-1 picture)
Jesus calls for devotion to prayer (Lk11:1-4)
1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
The Lords prayer, a pattern of prayer that can be offered
3 ‘Give us each day our daily bread. 4 ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”
Jesus gives purpose to be devoted to prayer (Lk18:1-8)
Like the persistent widow who had purpose, wanting justice! Jesus used her as an example not to loose heart when praying
Jesus provides an avenue to pray (Heb4:14-16)
We have a Great High Priest who can sympathize with us because of what He endured
He is our avenue to pray to seek mercy and seek grace.
Apostles call for fervent Prayer (1The5:17)
Apostles call for frequent prayer (Col4:2)
We have exampled command for specific prayers situation (Jm5:13-16)
This passage in need to have us look at for a brief moment.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Command to pray when suffering
Commanded to pray when sick
Commanded to pray in faith
For commanded prayer, here, is effective and can accomplish much
Another characteristic of the church be in “awe”
Another characteristic of the church be in “awe”
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
The first church that was born in Jerusalem had a sense of awe, may we be a body of believers that can have a sense of awe at the work of God being done today as we gather together as a family living together as the church.
Let us never take any of these devotions lightly for these are a part of our spiritual act of worship and we should be wholy and holy devoted to them. But wait, there is more, more devoted things in our passage.
Devoted to love one another
Devoted to love one another
Not just devoted in love, but devoted in love for one another.
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
(Devoted to love one another picture)
Act2:
They were devoted to one another (Act2:44; Act4:32-35)
They gave from what they had so no one was in need.
They thought of the greater good of all vs. themselves
They were devoted following the command of Jesus (Jn13:34-35)
Jesus commanded that we love one another and by doing such all men will know you are His disciples
They were told to have fervent love for one another (1Pt1:22)
Fervent, sincere love because of what we know the Lord did for us.
They were told to have sacrificial love for one another (1Jn3:16-17)
16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Serve one another, share with one another, be sure we do not close off our heart to one another, and be willing to be devoted to serving one another, daily.
Devoted to service (daily)
Devoted to service (daily)
Exampled characteristic of the church was to serve one another daily.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
They were devoted day by day
This was a habit, a pattern, they had, they fellowshipped together day by day, with one mind, having meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.
This was not a Sunday fellowship meal or basket dinner, it was more common than that.
Look at the results of be devoted in all these things (Act2:47)
Act2:47
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Today, may we be devoted to one another each and every day as long as it is called today (Heb3:12-14)
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
Though we see the exampled characteristics of the church that was born in Jerusalem, they, as well as all the other churches were not perfect they had issues such as
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The characteristics of the exampled church did not make them a perfect church.
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Issues with divisions (1Cor1:10)
Unity had to be worked at to be perserved (Eph4:1-3)
It needed to be maintained and united (Php2:1-2)
The end result was a habit worth having (1Pt3:8)
8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;
(Invitation slide- characteristics of a Christian)
We have looked at the characteristics of the first church, but we are really looking at the characteristics of a Christian.
Are we devoted as they were then; if not, what is holding us back from being wholly devoted to be holy for Jesus?
Are you a Christian? (expand)
(Invitation slide 2 - Be devoted-1)
Finish invitation; are you devoted? be devoted to one another
song (exit slides)