"They Devoted Themselves"
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for the church in a historical context.
Christ was exalted in Jerusalem
Christ was rejected in Jerusalem
He died on The Cross in a garbage dump call Galgotha
He defeated death and satan by rising from the dead on Easter morning!
He a great deal of time with his disciples and apostles after his resurrection. Reminding them that The Father was sending a “gift”
That “gift” was The Holy Spirit… We would never be the same because of it!
Then before the Spirit came, Christ returned to The Right Hand of The Father.
The Apostles and other disciples did NOT run away this time, they understood their marching orders,
Peter immediately got back up and began to lead in ways that were miraculous.
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “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.
As many as 3000 were baptized that day and soon after… What a cool site. The Jordan River filled side-to-side with people professing faith and being baptized.
What a site to see…The Glory of The Lord shown down all around them.
You see to this point the Gospel was first reserved for the Jews, but now was available to everyone!
AFTER they believed, after they were baptized they knew that had a lot to learn, they knew what they had missed and they knew what was important.
I got saved at 25 years old… and I was a baby. I was drinking milk and and barely able to to keep rice cereal down. I knew nothing!
I knew there was an Old Testament… I knew that I didn’t understand it, I admittedly probably looked at and moved on.
The only thing I knew even a little about was Jesus. Didn’t know and didn’t understand The Spirit.
The only thing I understood about the heaven and hell was that I wanted to go to the first one and I wanted to avoid the second one.
I went to my very first Wednesday night, Adult Bible study. Now I’m sure that I got some looks that night.
But a very gentle man, Pastor Walter Anderson came and addressed me, introduced me and took we under his wing. Every Wednesday night for months and months he would teach and I would listen… very carefully.
I was looking for “gottacha’s.” I was looking for something that wasn’t consistent, something that wasn’t immediately explainable.
I got PROUD in my salvation… It was easy, I became a Pharisee. I had the answers, I was spending 1-2 hours a night studying and reading. Of course I had all the answers, just ask me.
I needed, desperately needed to be discipled. You I had checked the boxes
Dead in my sin
Acknowledged a Jesus as my Lord...
As a separate act, I acknowledged Jesus as my savior, I knew He had died for me and my SIN! That hit my like a tons of bricks. All of the rotten, nasty stuff that I had done to myself and others was covered by the blood shed at Calvary by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I was SAVED!!!
Now what? Now what?
Let’s get to the scripture and come back to that question
We are in the book of Acts Chapter 2.
This is the beginning of NT ministry, the beginning of bringing to the world the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
There are some challenging things here for us!
V.42a
They devoted themselves to the “apostles’ teaching”
I am deeply committed to the discipleship of new and seasoned believers… I am putting together a plan for this fall that will bring groups within our church and our community together to share in the Apostle’s Teaching mid-week and on Sunday morning.
V.42b
“To the fellowship”
After a couple of years here I see our fellowship patterns. Except for this current shut down, we do “fellowship” pretty good.
We will be more aware of those that don’t regularly fellowship with other believers and include them as we gather
V.42c
“to the breaking of bread”
IN context this is the Lord’s Supper and other gatherings to eat. We are baptist’s we have the eat part down.
We are going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper this morning. Of course, I’ll be doing to here and I hope that your doing it in your homes or where ever you are.
The Lord’s Supper
Why do we do it?
These are one of the two things that Jesus left us with when he left the earth and it’s people in our care.
He left us baptism and The Lord’s Supper.
I am not dogmatic about communion...
It can be, but does not have to be celebrated on the First Sunday of every month… Although when possible we celebrate on that Sunday.
A bread product is fine… it’s not what you eat but how you eat it
Wine, grape juice, cocoa cola, whatever you have is fine. It’s not what you drink but how you drink it.
How should we do it?
With “remembrance” of the Last Supper that Jesus and the apostles celebrated.
With honor and “reverence” to what Jesus did and said them.
“This is my body which will be broken for you”
“This is my blood that will be shred for you.”
Each time that we come together, we should be do it in remembrance of him.
Finally, when we come to the table, we come unencumbered by sin by something you have against a brother or sister in Christ. If so, take time to confess and have a clean heart and clean hands before coming to the table.
If need be… let communion pass by and take that time to pray and be right with God.
After this teaching, this discipleship about “breaking bread,” the apostles set out to show people the gifts of the Holy Spirit that had been given them.
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.
As we discussed last week… the sign gifts are miraculous. They are useful in bringing the Gospel to a group of people who are in need of a miracle. . . All of the gifts are useful if the bring people to a place of forgiveness and redemption.
V.44-45
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
Property was sold according to need. We do not have here a case of enforced sharing, as in communism. Nor was it a once-for-all disposal of all private property in the church. The important point is that the fellowship touched the pocketbook too!
46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—
47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Peter brought the Gospel to the Jews and didn’t expect them to drop everything that they had done for hundreds of years.
In didn’t FORBID to ever go into the Temple again, he knew that drive away them away.
Instead he won the men over by feeding them… just kidding.
After temple, in the evening Peter would come to the houses of the people who believed and share a meal with them. During and after that meal he talked about this new relationship they had in Jesus Christ.
Peter didn’t force his will on them… he won them over with love, care, compassion, one-on-one relationship building during a meal.
V.46b
“with glad hearts...”
Eating together “with glad … hearts” can be an important expression of fellowship in any culture, and in the early church it had an important place (v. 46b). The believers also had “sincere hearts” when they met. The word translated “sincere” can mean single-minded devotion, the absence of pretense, or simplicity and generosity.
V.47
“Praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.” As Peter met with them, shared with them, worshipped the Living God with them. These drop-ins for meals and sharing became a “House Church.” This act of praising God in the that context and ours is similar.
The essence of worship is that you do it alone…No the essence of worship is that you do it in community, you do it with others, not show off, not to one up your neighbor down the block. But there is a group dynamic that makes worship spirit filled.
So how does this flesh out today… What are my action steps...
#0 - get beyond this CoVid -19 thing, whatever it is, it is dramatically effecting our ability to worship corporately.
#1 - If you are not a Christian, consider your next steps, do you want to be on the outside looking or do you want to be around the table with brothers and sisters who are closer than family.
#1 - If you are a believer, it’s time to get off our high horses and treat others like we would treat Jesus if he was in our community and in our homes.
#2 - Be ready to offer a meal, of any kind, I know all of us don’t cook, but offer to get a pizza and bring it home and share with some others… As your relationship builds and they see what you have that they may want to have. It is important to speak the Gospel with as FEW as words as possible. It is most important to live the Gospel out.
#3 - When others see the Gospel in us, they in-turn will want to have the Gospel in them.
Finally...
#4 - “And Lord added to their number daily, those who being “saved.”
Note it does not say, Pastor Jeff saved them, or Tyler, or Jill or Lori. It says that the Lord saved them. Stay in your lane, you do the work that you have been called to and let the Lord do his!
Communion
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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.”
After supper
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Dismissal