3-2: The Church

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Acts 2:36-47

N:

Welcome

Good morning to those of you here in the room and those of you online, and welcome to Family Worship service with Eastern Hills Baptist Church. My name is Bill Connors, and if you’re visiting the family of EHBC for the first time, thanks for being here! It’s great to have you with us today.

You’ll find a connection card in the back of the pew in front of you, it’s this black card with “WELCOME” on the front. If you wouldn’t mind filling that out during the service and either bringing it down to me at the end of the service, or dropping it in the plates as you leave later on, I would appreciate it. We’d love to get to know you better. If you’d rather fill out a form online, you can do that by texting the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a link back that takes you to our digital communication card.

I’d like to take just a moment and thank our safety and security ministry team for patrolling the parking lot and for being prepared in the event of an emergency. Many of them are in the room right now (because it’s not their week to serve), so I’d like to thank them, and if you get the chance to thank any of the crew walking around with the yellow vests on, please do so.

Announcements

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Opening

We are in the second week of six in the third part of our sermon series called “We Believe.” This series is taking us through the EHBC Statement of Belief, so that we all as a church family have a good understanding of the truth and doctrine that EHBC stands on. This third part of the series is about the church itself and our roles and responsibilities as the CALLED. Last week, considered stewardship. This week, we will consider things that make up a life that is following Jesus in the context of the local church. Some of this comes from Kit Klein, IMB missionary who came and spoke last November for our International Missions Sunday. He shared the framework for my message this morning that day in Bible Study in Curtis’ class, and he and I communicated more about it in the couple of weeks following.

Our focal passage today will be from the birth of the first church in Acts 2. Let’s stand as we are able in honor of God’s holy Word as we consider this passage together this morning:

Acts 2:36–47 CSB

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 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?” 38 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. 39 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.” 40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

PRAYER (El Buen Pastor in Gallup, and Pastor Ernesto Fuentes)

BREATHE

If I were to ask you to define yourself, how would you do it? I know that if I were asked that question, I would probably use phrases that give an overall picture of how I see myself: a disciple of Jesus Christ for nearly 33 years; husband to Melanie for 31 years; father to Maggie and Abbie; father-in-law to Nathan; 50 year-old son of Teddi and Dan; pastor of Eastern Hills Baptist Church for 4 1/2 years; a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the like. These things are easy to do. I could also talk about my personality traits (INTP-A), likes and dislikes (Batman and bratwurst for likes, and brussels sprouts for dislikes), hobbies (computers and video games), talents (I can touch my nose with my tongue), skills (music), or in many cases my lack of talent or skill (I’m terrible at basketball and golf). And when I was done sharing these things (depending on how deep you wanted me to go), you would have some kind of idea of how I see myself, my place in life, and perhaps my perspective on other things.

However, you wouldn’t exactly know me, if you get what I’m saying. The article we are looking at this morning is kind of like that. The article of our Statement of Belief that we’re focusing on today is Article 12: The Church (don’t put up yet). It’s generally how Baptist churches see themselves collectively, meaning that the Statement is really about how individual believers come together to form a local church congregation, because the local church is the people, not the location, the building, or the event. And as such, it has meaning for us both individually and collectively for how we see ourselves. However, to really know a local fellowship of believers, you’d have to experience that family personally, because just like other families, each church family has its own flavor, focus, and frustrations.

Let’s look at the Article 12 of our Statement of Belief:

EHBC’s Statement of Belief, Article 12: The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word; and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

There is no way that I would be able to address all of these things in a single sermon. However, before we get into our points this morning, I wanted to take a moment to clarify the last statement, which has had a lot of discussion and controversy over it lately in the SBC (not that we’ve had much of that here): that the office of pastor is limited to men according to Scripture. This statement is not a declaration of importance, and so it does not say that women are less important than men. This is a biblical statement of roles. Scripture is clear that men and women are equal in God’s sight (Gal. 3:28), and our Statement makes it clear that we hold that men and women are both equally gifted for service in the church. However, God in His sovereignty has reserved the office of pastor/elder for qualified men according to 1 Timothy 2 and 3. God wasn’t saying that men are better, and neither is the church.

With that addressed, the way I plan to approach this topic this morning is to look at three things the local Christian church should be that give evidence to the regenerated life of those who make up the church through an overview of our focal passage. These things are seen in what the church proclaims, promotes, and produces.

1) First, the church should proclaim salvation truth.

The best place to start in our consideration of what makes up the church is the most important piece. The church is, as the statement reads and as Scripture confirms, a “...local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel.” What I must make clear before we get into the evidence of the church is that only believers are truly members of the church. This is because the church isn’t a club, a service industry, or a store: The church is the people of God, and only believers are God’s people, so only believers truly make up the body of the church.

A healthy, functioning church should actively proclaim the truth that salvation is only by God’s grace through faith in Christ, so that those who are lost might be found, so that those who are blind might see, so that those who are dead in their sins might live. In short, the church proclaims the Gospel:

A) The Gospel

The Gospel is what makes the church the church. Without belief in the Gospel, the church doesn’t exist, because without faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are all spiritually dead and separated from God. It’s through faith in the Gospel that we are made right with God (that we are justified), that we are changed to look more like Jesus (that we are sanctified), that we are made into a family through adoption and fellowship (that we are unified), and that we ultimately will be made completely perfect in every sense of our purpose and creation (that we will be glorified). And so the central thing that the church must stand on is that Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord. This is where our focal passage today begins—with the Gospel summarized in one sentence for the audience of that day:

Acts 2:36 CSB

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

You might be here this morning and you’re just checking this whole “God thing” out. You’re not really sure about Jesus, and you’re not sure about the Gospel. Maybe you’ve never heard any of this before. Well, if you hear nothing else this morning, please hear this:

The one and only God, perfect and all-powerful, created us to be in a loving relationship with Him, but we (all of us) sin—we do what God doesn’t want us to do and we don’t do what God wants us to do—and because of that rebellious sin, we deserve judgment and punishment, and that punishment is spiritual death—separation from that blessed relationship for all eternity. We can never be good enough or do enough good works to get back to being perfect. But because of God’s great love for us, He Himself came to Earth as a man—Jesus the Christ, the Son of God—and He lived a perfect life as a man so that He could be the sacrifice that we need to pay the punishment that we owe. Jesus died in our place, the perfect for the imperfect, the Creator for the creation, the holy for the unholy, so that our sins could be forgiven if we surrender to Him as Messiah, trusting not in ourselves or our own righteousness, but in His perfection to save us. Scripture tells us that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life: life with God both now and forever, because Jesus defeated death by rising again from the grave, and death no longer has any power over Him. If we belong to Jesus through surrender to Him as both Lord and Messiah, we will be forever saved.

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

This is the message of the Gospel. Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and only through what He has done, we are saved. Our surrender to that makes up the second aspect of what we see in the proclamation of the church:

B) Repentance and faith

When Peter finished proclaiming the Gospel to the people on that day in the book of Acts, they were convicted of their sin, and responded with a question: “What should we do?” Peter’s response to their question was to call them to surrender:

Acts 2:38–40 CSB

38 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. 39 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.” 40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!”

In maybe the simplest and shortest ways for me to define these terms, to repent of something means to turn away from it and toward something else. Faith is an active trusting in God.

This morning, those of you who have never surrendered to Jesus might be asking the same question, “What should we do?” If you have never trusted in Jesus for your salvation, you are lost, separated, dead according to the Bible. But Jesus wants to bring you to spiritual life! I don’t believe that it is an accident or a coincidence that you are here this morning if you’ve never trusted in Jesus, whether you’re here in the room or online. The Spirit of God is at work in your life, and He loves you and wants to be in that loving, living relationship with you.

I use the term “surrender” to talk about our response to the message of the Gospel because in my head, it encompasses both repentance (by giving up trying to save ourselves, or giving up going our own way, which necessarily involves turning to God), and faith (staking your eternity on the truth of the Gospel—actively trusting in God’s provision for your salvation). In this way, salvation isn’t something we do… it’s something done to us when we give up on trying to be saved in any other way.

Are you being called to surrender to Jesus Christ this morning? Give up trying to save yourself, and fall into the pierced hands of Jesus, who died so you could be brought back to life.

Explain in very practical terms: “God, I admit that I have sinned and turned away from You. I don’t want to go my own way any more. I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and that He rose again, and that He is Savior and Lord. I surrender completely to You, turning from my old life and trusting in what Jesus has done for my salvation. Please save me.” It’s not the words, it’s the heart of surrender that matters. Pour out yourself to God and be saved from this corrupt world.

Once we have surrendered and come to faith in Christ, then we get to participate in the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel with the rest of the church. And the first step in that proclamation is baptism:

C) Baptism

I’ve spoken on baptism during this series already, so I won’t belabor this point. Baptism doesn’t save us: Baptism is a public declaration of the believer that he or she has surrendered to Jesus Christ, and is a visible picture to the world of the fact that they have died to their sin, have been buried with Christ, and have been raised to walk in newness of life. Peter called the hearers of his first message to baptism as evidence of their faith and trust in the Gospel:

Acts 2:38 CSB

38 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.

Baptism is the first step of obedience for the one who has surrendered to Jesus, because in baptism we are declaring to everyone that we belong to Him completely as our Savior and Lord. It is also the act and declaration of the church, saying that yes, we affirm together that this person has given evidence of the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. It’s part of how we know who makes up the church.

But furthermore, Peter promised that those who had been saved would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the subject of our next point:

D) The Holy Spirit

The Bible tells us that when someone comes to faith in Christ, it is because the Spirit is at work in that person’s life, because the Spirit is at work in the world to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, according to John 16:8-11. The Spirit guides the believer into truth (John 16:13), and according to Paul’s letter to Titus, it is by the work of the Spirit that we are brought to life and made new through faith in the Gospel:

Titus 3:4–7 CSB

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

When we are saved, we are sealed, given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our future glorification:

Ephesians 1:13–14 CSB

In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

This is how we are back in that loving relationship with God when we are saved: because He Himself, in the Person of His Holy Spirit, comes to live and dwell in us when we surrender.

The truth that the church proclaims is the Gospel, and as we proclaim it, we are to call the lost to repentance and faith, to testify to that salvation through the ordinance of baptism, and to testify to the promise of God to give us Himself by His Spirit when we believe.

And, then once someone is a part of the church through faith in Christ, we come to the work of the church in our second point:

2) Second, the church should promote spiritual growth.

The church isn’t a body of people who are perfect in practice, even as we can declare that we have been made completely holy because of the work of Jesus on the cross. Instead, we are all in a process of spiritual growth: what I earlier referred to as sanctification. The church is to engage in life with one another for the blessing and benefit of the rest of the body. Paul spoke of us being a body in Ephesians chapter 4:

Ephesians 4:15–16 CSB

15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

We are to be a part of each other’s spiritual growth. We see this in four ways in our focal passage this morning, each of them in verse 42:

Acts 2:42 CSB

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

A) Devotion to the Scriptures

Those who came to faith devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles. The apostles had been the guys who had walked around with Jesus. The apostles knew what Jesus taught, they knew what He did, the knew how He lived, how He died, and how He rose again. They were walking, talking Bibles, giving testimony to what Jesus had done. And now we have those things written down for us to engage with and learn.

If we are Christians, then we should be similarly devoted to reading, hearing, learning, meditating on, and discussing the Scriptures. The Scriptures teach us who Jesus is, who we are, and how we are to live as followers of Christ.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures are literally a treasure trove of truth! The healthy church will be full of healthy believers who are constantly being taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained by the Word of God, submitting ourselves to its authority by the Spirit, so that we might grow into the kind of body God wants for us to be.

Next, the church was devoted to the fellowship:

B) Devotion to the fellowship

Christian fellowship is more than sitting around and watching a football game together. It’s about doing life with one another, belonging to one another, walking with one another. They were devoted to the fellowship: they were devoted to one another, both individually and collectively.

Do we approach the church like this today? Are we devoted to one another, as if I belong to you as family and that you belong to me as family, so that we have an important role to play in each other’s lives? This is what we are to be as believers in the local fellowship of the Gospel community called the church. We are to walk alongside each other in devoted love and care, because we belong to one another.

Paul challenged the church at Thessalonica in this regard in chapter 5 of his first letter to them:

1 Thessalonians 5:12–15 CSB

12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

Notice, especially in verses 14 and 15, how this is more than just being acquaintances who show up at the same place at the same time each week. This is life. Warning, comforting, helping, showing patience, correcting, protecting… these are the things that Paul talks about that should be evident in the life of the church. Remember what I said a couple of weeks ago: “If ALL of us engage with SOME of us in true fellowship, then NONE of us will be neglected or forgotten.”

But this goes both ways. If we belong to each other, then we must be willing to exhort, and be willing to BE exhorted. We must be willing to comfort, and be willing to BE comforted. This is what being devoted to the fellowship looks like.

And the culmination of that fellowship comes when we participate in the Lord’s Supper together:

C) Devotion to the Lord’s Supper

We’ll be taking this after my message, and I’ve already spent an entire message during this series on this topic as well, so I won’t go too deeply into it here. Just like baptism is the marking off of those who have surrendered their lives to God through faith in the work of Jesus, the Supper is that marked-off family of believers coming together as one to remind one another what we believe, what we are called to in faith, and what we have committed to as a body of believers. It’s an act of worship with a special purpose of remembrance of both what Christ has done and who we are in Him.

D) Devotion to Prayer

Finally, the church should promote spiritual growth through a devoted focus on prayer, both individually and collectively. When we come together, prayer should not be an afterthought or a rote part of the process, but should be an intentional part of our time. We should desire to pray for and with one another, and to have others pray for and with us. We should approach the throne of God’s grace together regularly and with great boldness. We, like the first church, should be devoted to prayer. Paul admonished the Colossian church in this regard:

Colossians 4:2–4 CSB

2 Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, 4 so that I may make it known as I should.

We have a prayer meeting each Wednesday night at 5:45 in Miller Hall. This week and next, we’ll be looking at excuses we make for our prayerlessness, and praying together in response to what God convicts us of in those studies.

So with the consideration of the promotion of spiritual growth, we come to the last thing we see in the life of the first church that we should see in our own age and ministry:

3) Third, the church should produce spiritual fruit.

Finally, a church that is built on the rock of the testimony of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and who is actively promoting the growth of the body through participating in life together should have things that flow out of that faith and family. We call this “fruit.” This is a big part of how we glorify God and show that we are followers of Jesus:

John 15:8 CSB

8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

God intends for us to produce fruit, and He will produce fruit in a healthy church. Again, there are four sub-points, which I will address quickly:

A) Signs and wonders

First, we see in the first church that through the work of the Spirit in the life of the church, the apostles were performing miraculous signs and wonders:

Acts 2:43 CSB

43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.

The thing I want us to catch from this verse isn’t the miracles: it’s the awe. When this verse says, “Everyone,” I believe that Luke was saying that both those inside the church and outside the church were amazed at what God was doing in their midst in the life of the church family.

God’s not done performing signs and wonders through His church. Unfortunately, it would seem that often we either lack the faith to ask for them, or we lack the faith to see them when God sends them. But even in our midst right now are two miracles: that any of us are saved is a miracle of God in and of itself; and that we are all here together in unity is a sign of God’s work in the life of the church to the watching world. We should pray boldly that God would do God-sized things in us and through us, so that both we and the world would be blown away at God’s power and grace.

B) Generosity

My message last week was on stewardship and generosity, so we will just see the example of the first church in this regard this morning.

Acts 2:44–45 CSB

44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.

When one had need, the community came together to bless that one in need. We do something like that now, just through the church budget and designated giving. However, I know and have experienced in my own life how this church will come alongside someone in need when necessary. Generosity is a fruit of a healthy church.

C) Praise

When we reflect with each other on what God has done for us in Christ, we should praise Him! This praise is an overflow of gratitude that we feel to God for His incredible provision in our lives. The question is this: does being a part of the church herself promote our praise? It should! Notice the first church:

Acts 2:46–47 CSB

46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

When we come together as a church family, there should be an current of praise that flows through us because we have the blessing of worshiping our Father together as His children, because of all that He has done for us, because of His greatness and mighty, because of His mercy and love, and for so many other “becauses”.

And finally, a health church should bear one more fruit: the fruit of multiplication:

D) Multiplication

People looked at the church and saw something different in them, because they saw Jesus in their lives, they experienced Jesus in their interactions with them, and the heard about Jesus in the things that the believers said. As a result, the lost believed the Gospel, and were added to the church:

Acts 2:47 CSB

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

This actually takes us full circle, doesn’t it? We started with a healthy church being based on the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is through that proclamation that people hear the Gospel and are saved, thus added to the church family, and a become a part of the promotion of spiritual growth and the production of spiritual fruit.

Church, it’s simple: if we aren’t multiplying, we’re not healthy. This body of believers is placed here and now, right where we are, to connect with the people around us both here at the site that we meet and at the homes of the church all around the wider area. Are people meeting Jesus when they meet us? They should.

Closing

The application of this is simple this morning: if a Christian church, any Christian church, is going to be a healthy church, it must proclaim the spiritual truth of the Gospel, promote the spiritual growth of the church family, and should produce spiritual fruit according to the work of God in it. However, each of those points has both a collective and an individual aspect: the church is a family made up of individual believers. If the individual believers are unhealthy, the church is unhealthy too. So we should each pursue God passionately because He has taken hold of us and saved us, and He deserves a faithful, healthy walk with Him.

Invitation

PRAYER

Celebrating the Supper

Focus on the togetherness aspect of the Supper today.

1 Corinthians 11:26 CSB

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

We do this collectively and individually.

BREAD:

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

CUP:

1 Corinthians 11:25 CSB

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Closing Remarks

Bible reading Ezekiel 30

Pastor’s Study tonight at 5:30 pm

Instructions for guests: mug of chocolate

Benediction

Colossians 3:12–17 CSB

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.