Acts 2

Good morning church! If this is your first time worshiping with us here at East, first off, WELCOME! And second, we have an East tshirt to give you today at our Next Steps area. If you will at some point before the end of the service, grab the connect card from the back of the seat in front of you and fill it out with as much info as you feel comfortable with. After the service, carry that card to our Next Steps area and talk to one of the folks behind the counters, they will hook you up today! Alright?

For everyone else who isn’t a first time guest here, those cards are great for letting us know about decisions you would like to make and you can even leave prayer requests for our staff!

Today, I am excited to open God’s Word with you, because we are back in the book of ACTS!

Acts is the story of Jesus’ followers spreading the good news of Jesus throughout the world and establishing groups of believers into what they called “churches” every where!

Last week, we asked the question, “How do you believe God wants to grow you in 2021?” I introduced you to a very important statement for us moving forward. This is the answer to the question, “What are we working towards as a church?”

The glory of God in us, our neighbors, and the nations.

Over the next four weeks, I want to show you from the book of Acts what I think this could like for us this year and in coming years!

Today, we will look at the US part of that statement. Alright?

In the book of Acts chapter 2, Jesus’ disciples are trying to figure out what they are going to do now that Jesus has left them on the earth and ascended to the Father. And we aren’t told this directly in the text, but I think they are really unsure. If you were to ask Peter, “What is God going to use you and this bunch to do?” I don’t think he would have had a clue! They seem to have little to know idea what God has in store for them! If they only knew that in just a few short days, they would be leading a movement of thousands of people, establishing a church of Christians in Jerusalem! But they didn’t know what they didn’t know!

I really resonate with that! As your pastor, I know what God’s Word commands us to do and be as a church and I know what I would love to see God do. But at the end of the day, even we as pastors don’t know the details. I wish I did, I wish I could tell you that God has told me that we will be a church of 500 by the end of 2022. But I don’t know that. I wish I could tell you God told me we would be sending a church planter out of our own body to start a church in Indianapolis in 2025. And I wish I could tell you that God told me He was going to use us directly as a church to begin reaching the Shaikh people of Bangladesh. (By the way 135 million people in that group with 0 known Christians.) Part of me wishes he would! But then where would be the faith!? Right?

Though the Apostles don’t seem to know what God plans to do, they still get to witness something wild happen in their midst! As you read Acts 2, you should be blown away by the rapid growth that occurs in this relatively small group of Jesus freaks. Let me read a verse from the beginning and then one from the end to get us started. I will pray and then we will start breaking this down...

Acts 2:1, 41, and 47

Acts 2:1 CSB

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:41 CSB

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.

Acts 2:47 CSB

praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

PRAY

As we looked at those verses from earlier, what happened between 12 or so people gathered together to pray and talk and daily life transformation among thousands of their neighbors? Don’t you want to know that?

I DO! Let’s look together at the three things in Acts 2 that contributed to this explosive work of God! Because if we are going to truly see the glory of God in us, our neighbors and the nations, we need to take some notes, amen?

The first thing these early guys needed was...

1. They needed God’s SPIRIT - Acts 2:1-13

Last week we were in Acts 1 as Jesus ascended back into heaven with God the Father. After that, His disciples got together and appointed a new Apostle to replace Judas who had hung himself after betraying Jesus. Then they waited together in Jerusalem for the promise that Jesus told them about.

Acts 2:1–4 CSB

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.

Pentecost - 50 days from Passover. Also called the Feast of weeks in the OT.

This is an incredible moment in the history of the church. This is the indwelling that Jesus had promised before his ascension. God’s Spirit had always been at work in and among people, but this sending of the Spirit to begin indwelling believers from this point forward was different from those.

In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit might be on someone for a season to accomplish a particular task. But now He is IN them to STAY! We don’t know fully what other ways this way is unique, but we know that it was a big deal for the Apostles. It transforms their ministry. Without God’s Spirit inside them, they wouldn’t have seen all that they did come to pass. Think about this… 2000 years have gone by and you and are still gathering to study these people’s teaching on Jesus! Without God’s Spirit, this would be impossible!

Everything changed for them that day! And if you are a believer, everything should be different for you too!

I have all kinds of insecurities and shortcomings in my heart and mind (pastoring for the past year has helped me learn many of them) but at the end of the day, I admit that I am insufficient to be your pastor! On my own, I can barely lead you to the nearest gas station for a Sundrop let alone lead you to see the glory of God in us our neighbors and the nations. But with God’s Spirit at work in me, He can lead you through me! That’s the difference we are talking about!

If you feel like you don’t have anything to bring to this church, no real way to serve, it’s best if you just acknowledge upfront that “No, you don’t.” But with God’s Spirit, you can! Amen?

Many of you can testify to this, right?

Man, it is an incredible thing that God empowers us with his Spirit!

But that is not all that these early followers needed...

2. They needed God’s WORD - Acts 2:14-41

Once Peter is filled with the Spirit, notice what he doesn’t do...

He doesn’t lift his hands and sing a Chris Tomlin song. He doesn’t stand and address the crowd in emotion language. The Spirit coming on him doesn’t just get him in the feels. What does the Spirit do? He illumines the mind of Peter to speak the truths of God’s Word. Peter begins to recall many Old Testament passages that will tie the beliefs of the Jews listening to him to belief in Jesus.

Peter had no doubt heard Jesus speak many of these passages and make some of these connections, but Peter does this incredibly masterful job of providing a biblical theology for Jesus as Messiah.

He uses Joel 2:28-32, Psalm 16:8-11, Psalm 110 to drive home his point. After making his case, he says...

Acts 2:36–41 CSB

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.

Peter preaches and 3 thousand people in one day respond! This little church went from dozens to 3,000! That’s incredible. In just a short period of time, there numbers will be over 5,000.

What caused this? Do we know?

Well, Yes. We know that a group of people filled with God’s Spirit began to preach and live out God’s Word. You see, you don’t just need God. You need his Word! Yes, God’s spirit can enable us to do great things, but He most often does so in light of Scripture and definitely not opposed to it.

If we are going to be a church that sees in our lifetime the glory of God in us our neighbors and the nations, then we need to do the same! We need to live as if we truly are filled with God’s Spirit and that we truly do believe God’s Word!

And many people live as if those two things are all that matter. If you have God and his Word, you can live an obedient life, right?

Well.....No. you can’t.

That early Group of disciples had more than just God’s Spirit and God’s Word. One of the key ingredients to their explosive growth in the text seems to be them acknowledging that...

3. They needed God’s PEOPLE - Acts 2:42-47

They needed each other!

Church, this group of people were not living busy, separate lifestyles that intersected with one another on Sunday mornings 2-4 times a month depending on if they overslept that week. They lived their lives interconnected with one another! Let’s read these verses...

Acts 2:42–47 CSB

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Notice how much “communal” or “together” language you see there!

What all did they share? The Word, time, food, prayers, money, possessions, and their homes. And after all these things, what is the next thing said?

The Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.

Is the direct connection drawn between sharing their lives with each other and the growth of the church? No, not really. But it is definitely implied that this was part of what was working for the early church!

The scary thing is that this type of mentality is not a natural tendency of man. When we look to the sin of Adam and Eve, what do we see? They ate the fruit and they immediately began doubting whether God could be trusted and they also lacked trust in each other when they were called out on their sin by God. To live in even a semi-transparent way with other people goes against that sin nature. But it’s the very thing God has blessed in the church’s history and desires in us today!

On top of a natural draw away from this idea, we are also Americans who are not known for our transparency and dependency on others. We literally built our country on INDEPENDENCE, right? We don’t like to think about our need for other people. Sounds weak!

And on top of a natural draw in sin and the fact that we are Americans, we are in the midst of this crazy pandemic where we are being convinced to stay away from everyone else!

And on top of that natural draw in sin and the American way, and Covid 19, we also have a political battle in which people are being convinced that no one can be trusted!

Now, add all that together…

How can we BE THE CHURCH the way God has called us to with all that stacked against us?

Because the first two things were true, amen? We have God’s Spirit in us and God’s Word before us that is telling us that a transparent and loving relationship in the church is good! Because of that, we can do this!

If you don’t have deep, lasting relationships in this church family, you need to work on that for 2021! You need those! We need you to have them too. They aren’t just good for you! They are good for us all as we seek the glory of God in us our neighbors and the nations! amen?

I’m going to share about some opportunities through our groups to develop these relationships in just a moment, but first let me ask you,

Do you grasp what we have just talked about? If we are to see the vision God has laid before this church fulfilled in our life, we must all be on the same page as we move forward!

Let me first ask…

Are you filled with God’s Spirit?

For those of us who have trusted in jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are! God’s spirit is in us and wants to work through us. If you have not yet believed in Jesus, let me tell you, you can! Just as Peter told the crowd gathered that day at Pentecost, you too can REPENT and BE BAPTIZED in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit. Repent is a Bible word that means to turn from the sin in your life and turn to God. And Baptism is a symbol of Faith in Jesus as your savior. If you would like to talk with someone about what that would look like for you, please come let me know during this last song we are about to sing.

Question 1: Are you filled with God’s Spirit?

Question 2: Are you treasuring God’s Word?

God has given us the Bible so we can know him more and can move forward on the path he has for us in His Word. If we are not treasuring it, then we very well may not see the vision of this church accomplished. If you are looking for something to read, read Acts along with us. There are 28 chapters in Acts and 31 days in January. That’s pretty close, huh? Today is the 10th, read chapter ten. Tomorrow, read eleven and so on. Let’s get to a place where we all treasure God’s Word.

And lastly, Are you engaging deeply with God’s People?

Are there people here that know you? Not just the surface you, but the real you. Deep down!? Do you have real, lasting relationships with people here? If not, that’s OK for today! But a great first step is to get in a group! You need us and we need you! For us to see the Glory of God in us our neighbors and the nations, we are going to have to get close and get real with each other. You need people around you that can speak into your life and can pray for you when you need it. You need a group of people who you can study God’s Word with and help apply the text to each other’s circumstances of life. But more than anything, you need friends.

We need God’s Spirit.

We need God’s Word.

And BOY do we need God’s People. amen?

We are going to sing one more song as a way to respond to the message of God’s Word today. If God has pricked your heart in any way today, please come talk to me during this last song. I would love to help you figure out what this looks like. We always have some decision counselors ready to talk with you by the back door if you prefer to go back instead of coming forward. Whatever next steps you need to make, make them!

Let me voice a prayer and then we will stand and you can respond through worshiping in song, praying where you are or at this altar, or talking with me or a counselor.

PRAY

As we seek this vision as a church, God has laid on my heart two many focuses for this year: lasting relationships and missional engagement. We will talk about the second part of that over the next three weeks. But we will talk a whole lot this year about lasting relationships. And we are going to change some of what we do to make sure that these are priorities.

We know that our major system for relationships is GROUPS. So, we are changing our group model up some to make this more of a focus.

If you are new here, let me show you this...

We know that every person who comes through our door is at a different stage in their Christian life. Somewhere between a baby Christian and an extremely mature believer.

We want to help people discover where they are on that path and move forward. We believe groups are one of the major vehicles of spiritual transformation here. We want to move people through our discipleship strategy that we define as...

FOUNDATION . LIFE . LEADERSHIP

This year, we are offering groups for these first two levels.

Let’s start with Foundation...

Foundation is all about asking God to change the way people think. We are providing through Foundation groups some basic building blocks that will help a new Christian or an old one get a better grasp of who God is, who they are, and how they can grow in Christ effectively.

These groups will be a little bit more like classes because there is a strict curriculum. We have three classes that we believe will provide that good foundation: Discipleship 101, Old Testament Overview, and New Testament Overview. We will offer all three of these this year so that if someone is ready to get that strong foundation, they can take all three in 2021. These are great for new believers, those wanting a fresh start with God, and for those wanting to teach. These will be requirements for being a group leader going forward so that we can all speak the same language as we lead. That will take sometime to get everyone caught up on that though!

I am leading this first Foundation group this session on Old Testament Overview. It will go from Jan-Mar. Then, after Easter, we will offer New Testament Overview. That make sense?

The second step of our process is LIFE. This is the part of the process where we ask God to change the way people live, their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. And we are offering LIFE Groups as an avenue to help our people become more obedient to God’s Word every day.

These groups may be studying an Old Testament book, a New Testament book, a real life topic, or providing a further discussion of the sermon from Sunday. That’s the one I’m most excited about! It is better to really learn ONE truth per week or sort of learn two? I would argue it is better to really learn one! Ran and May Beasley are offering a group just like this starting this Wednesday. They will be taking Acts chapter 2 and studying a little deeper and discussing it with a little more application to real life. If you haven’t signed up yet, that’s a good one!

These LIFE groups will have one big difference from years past. If you are a long time East person, you know that our group sessions are anywhere from 6-11 weeks long like our Foundation Groups are this time. You sign up for a group, you connect with those people for that time period and then, we reset with a whole new team of group leaders and courses. And everyone signs back up, shuffles around and goes through another 6-11 weeks.

We don’t feel that this has been giving adequate time to build lasting relationships. We get through a lot of content, but we don’t have time to slow down and get to know each other as well. So, we are going to extend our LIFE Groups to include two Foundation sessions. Y’all will be going from January through May together. You are of course welcome to jump out of your life group at any time to take a foundation group that you need to. and in the same way you can jump from Old Testament Overview into a LIFE Group after May if you don’t want to take New Testament.

Does that make sense? Our LIFE Groups will have the first and foremost purpose of providing an environment where lasting relationships can be formed! So, if that is what you need right now, then SIGN UP!

The Leadership part of this process is still a work in progress but I can tell you that in this part we are asking God to impact the way people serve others. And I can tell you that we will have at least four one day Leadership training events and a Leadership intensive during the year at some point. There will be many opportunities to grow in your leadership in 2021!