Easter just happened not too long ago if you guys weren't aware. Do you guys aware of that? Yeah, okay Yeah, there is there we sort of had a big to do thing here about it And I I love Easter I've always sort of love the Easter but possibly not for the reason that you think I should love Easter I really love Easter because of Cadbury eggs I know I know I know you guys are like yes fine. Thank you Jenny Jenny's in the back like Amen brother preach it The gospel of the Cadbury egg But as a kid you guys as a kid you have to realize this like It for those of us that were alive years and years ago like when Easter came around you know It wasn't always it was like this special thing or you had a special Easter basket You didn't always get gifts and new clothes all the time.
There's always a sort of special thing and every year in my Easter basket I got the Cadbury cream eggs. Yes. Yes. I mean look at that goodness.
Look at that. Let's just goodness It actually doesn't really look like that. Yeah, wish it did but one of the things about the Cadbury cream eggs that I love so much Was not like the chocolate. I mean chocolate.
Come on chocolate is whatever. It's everywhere It's all over the place isn't everything but that look at that gooey yummy interior That's just it's a really like what's a cadre egg is that actually an egg is like an egg yolk and chocolate? That's just a no no no no no yeah thing surely is like no no it's not it is this like sweet new giddy like care I can't even I honestly don't even know it's magic. It's it's amazing It's it is so good and as a kid and as an adult still I love those as a kid I used to get them and I would like store them for a while and the hard thing about that is that after like two weeks They're really no good It's actually like hard on the side they throw them out I jumped online today this morning as I was supposed to be studying for this because I was like can I get some Cadbury cream eggs?
No one had them. They're gone. They like make them before and then they just stop It's a very special thing But the good thing about the Cadbury cream egg the magical thing the thing that I love so much as a kid I love so much now is that gooey good sweet amazing core that sweet center. That's the magic of it today We're going to be looking at the core the sweet center the sort of the magic in the sense of the early church We're gonna be looking at chapter 2 verses 42 to 47 and we're gonna be examining like the good stuff That's like a good core thing that really made this church so amazing that it's out It's something that we even to this day often compare ourselves to so let's jump in if you guys got your handouts We're gonna be reading acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47 and what we're gonna be looking at as we do this is this idea of what made This church so vibrant what made this church so amazing what made this church so this gathering so unique that it would in fact sweep across The Roman Empire and ultimately conquer the Roman Empire now.
This is an unlikely thing right the Roman Empire was powerful The Roman Empire had swords and armies Roman Empire was spread out they would come in they would take things over and you just became part of the Roman Empire And it was they came that really face-to-face with the Christian church which ended up winning out why that doesn't make sense It doesn't make sense. We're gonna talk about that right now And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers and Auking upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believe were together and had all things in common And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day A ten-in-the-temple together and breaking bread in their homes They received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added their number day by day Those who were being saved. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray God.
Thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for your power Thank you so much God that that you love us a unique gathering that you've called us out to be your people God I pray that today you would speak through me that you would challenge encourage and draw each person here towards you as We examine your word. We love you. Thank you so much for loving us first.
We pray this in Jesus name a man Alright, so a little context what's going on right now, right? We talked about this the last couple weeks this this church This group of 120 people 120 disciples of Jesus all of a sudden exploded into three thousand plus people, right? I mean just literally as passage was talking about overnight 3000 plus people were added to the church Can you imagine if those doors just open in the back and all of a sudden people just started pouring in here 3000 plus people just started pouring in here. We'd probably go what in the world are we going to do it?
How is it there like hey we just heard about this guy we want to see what's going on? What would we do this this passage is really A sort of a basic core idea of how to disciple people how to be discipled this is amazing here And so we're gonna start off with verse 42 We're gonna look at again It says and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching in the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers I want us to just hold on to this word and look at this word devoted just for a minute The word devoted there is Greek is is prosecutero and it can't know it's a steadfast and single-minded fidelity The idea that's being represented here is this idea of a persistent almost an obstinate Devotion to right it might even be better translated as being continually devoted to something every single day of Read the scripture every single day as we read this passage they were Obscinent about these things that are gonna that we're gonna talk about here. They were persistent in it It just they were almost obsessed with it. It dictated their life and it dictated how they walked it dictated what they were doing This is what was going on and so they were being Devoted or continually devoting themselves to these things.
What are these things? I'm so glad you asked that brings us our first villain Number one is this the apostles teaching the apostles teaching Does anyone there's anyone rek familiar with or recognize Matthew 28 18 to 20? Does anyone recognize what section that is what that what that little section is Matthew 28 18 to 20? It's called the Great Commission We know it as a great commission, right?
Jesus comes back and he's telling his disciples something He says this and Jesus came and said to them all authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and here's this key thing teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I'm with you to the end the age Jesus's Primary instruction to the apostles was to teach In fact, Jesus we look at the ministry of Jesus his primary method of transferring information was through teaching right and so it makes sense That he commands his apostles his disciples to teach other people so what is it that they taught though? What did they teach? What were the apostles teaching? I'm glad you asked that question One it was the account of Jesus's ministry his passion and his resurrection They were teaching about Jesus ministry They were talking to others about what Jesus had done all the things that he had done They were talking just about about his passion his death and his resurrection This was one of the key things that they were talking about they were talking about his compilation of his teachings including his teaching on the Old Testament Sometimes we get really caught up on the New Testament You have to recognize the apostles didn't have the New Testament the New Testament came sort of after right?
It was in the process of being created. So what did they talk? What was the scripture they talked about? The Old Testament they talked about the Old Testament.
Do you guys remember after Jesus was resurrected when he was walking down this road with some guys They didn't recognize him the road to Emmaus. What does he do in that process? What's that? I heard it over here somewhere.
He explained the scriptures the scriptures were the Old Testament So I am sure that part of the apostles teaching included the Old Testament How Jesus showed up constantly in the Old Testament and how it pointed to him. This is so cool It was also a declaration of what all of the stuff that Jesus had done What all of the said that Jesus had meant for humanity's redemption So the apostles teaching was a lot of things this counter Jesus ministry is a compilation of the teachings and a declaration of all it meant for For the human redemption quick question where an encounter can we find teaching like this? So if J Sunday morning great, right? Yeah, good.
This is not to be like pop quiz hot shot. Right? This is usually right. We're on Sunday mornings We're else.
Can we see this? What's that together groups? Where else men's Bible study? Where else women's Bible study?
Yes kids with children's it's all over the place. This is why pastor Jason has worked so diligently the leadership has worked so diligently to make everything About God's word because there's power in it as we see in acts There's power in what he does. Okay, next one of the other thing that they're devoted to they're devoted to the fellowship The fellowship now, you know, I'm going how come it says the fellowship. Did you just want to make things?
So it looks all really pretty knows very particular is that there is what's called a definite article in the Greek there? The it's literally the it's a definite article and it implies a distinctiveness of a particular gathering So this wasn't just fellowship. It wasn't just this idea of they hung out it was saying there was something distinct remember 3000 people were added basically in a day and there was some kind of externally externally Recognizable thing that people said they're different This 3000 people are different they stand out. They weren't just that hey There's another gathering of you know a little sort of offshoot of of Jewish, you know, Nazarene Jews over there They were saying there is a huge group of people where something is distinct and different What was that?
It was the work of the Holy Spirit Yes, it was the work of the whole spirit there recognize that and what caused it is they were pointing to this group of 3000 people were pointing to the centrality of Jesus it was different than anything else they were pointing to the centrality of Jesus in the redemptive program of God and in their worship as they Gathered they were all about Jesus. They talked about Jesus. They worship Jesus. They sang about Jesus It was something that was so distinct.
They were proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah for the Jewish people But here's the key thing they're also claiming Jesus as the Messiah as a Savior for the entire world and this is fascinating Because they weren't just saying that Jesus was right. It wasn't he wasn't just a local deity He wasn't just there's so many local deities at the time You know that the Romans worshiped them and then the Greeks work these guys and choose people work these guys and these folks Right, there's this are these local deities that these tribes of people would they were saying that Jesus was the deity over everything He was the Lord of Lord. He was the God of God. He was the King of Kings.
You guys this was distinct this fellowship is gathering Right the word there is Kointania Which if you've been around Christian circles at all you understand you've heard that word and that is just this basic idea of sharing but but It was more Than just sharing it was more than just hanging out Luke uses this word and talks about this to denote a unique sharing that Christians have with God this vertical Kointania this vertical fellowship but that it poured out to this horizontal fellowship this horizontal Kointania And it was so distinct that people recognize something different and these 3,000 people were committed to it Guys we do a lot of great events here chili and pie You know I love chili and pie not just because it's about chili and pie, but I do love the chili and pie All right, we have that we have the beach bonfire right EYG everything that we do it's about Jesus The chili and pie come on guys you can go somewhere else for it for chili and pie if you want to But what's amazing is that it's all about Jesus it points us to Jesus encourages towards Jesus We invite friends to be a part of it so that they can see how amazing Jesus is This is what's going on. This is where they're at and this is where we're hoping as a church that we're at too As we come into the fellowship that it gives us something that's unique and distinct because we're all about Jesus next They were devoted to the breaking of bread the breaking of bread now. This is often a debated term People as they've studied it and look at this go is this just are they just referring to a meal because you've heard breaking breaking bread before right? This is the idea of sharing a meal you've seen this within the New Testament in other places And so is it just talking about a meal is it actually an early communion reference right talking about the remembrance of Jesus and what he did Is it just talking about the agape feast as love feast where people would just sort of come together and share in everything and just love one another This was a wrestling match that really smart and really amazing theologians have wrestled with As I was doing my reading as I was doing my studying I came across a couple things I want to share this ideas these ideas with you was one is that this this language with the breaking of bread is placed between Theologically loaded terms right Fellowship we just talked about and pray we're gonna talk about in just a moment.
These are these are pretty loaded terms theologically Right not to mention it's listed with three other spiritual activities studying God's word Fellowship spiritual activity and prayer so the likelihood of what Luke means by this is probably Talking about communion an aspect of remembering the Lord's Supper this very special moment Right now. What's cool about this is that it was probably integrated and part of their ordinary meals together Justin I think on Tuesday you were sort of bringing up this this question right that you had this question like then they have like wine and bread all the time It's like yeah, it's a staple so would they celebrate communion constantly and the answer is yeah Sometimes you know we we sort of make it a very special moment. It's it's evolved I guess in a sense this moment right we here at encounter we do it You know usually the first Sunday of the month But there is a time and there's some people that still celebrate this way where this aspect of communion of remembrance is just part of every single meal It'd be almost like if we decided after after today we're gonna go to lunch right We're all gonna go to lunch or group of us are gonna go to lunch together and we're sitting around a big table We're laughing and we're smiling we're sharing stories and all of a sudden someone just says hey guys Can we just pause for a moment and just appreciate what Jesus has done for us and just praise him and thank him just give him the glory Remember what he has done. It's a very simple idea.
That's just woven into life with this real strong idea of Remembering what Jesus does and Luke sets this here as an I as a reason to express joyful devotion to Jesus as well as Remembrance of his passion remembrance of his sacrifice now in verse 46 if you were paying attention when we were reading through the whole passage It says breaking bread again. This is different. There's no definite article in there and so it's literally just saying they were sharing food They were sharing the things in their life Right so this as Jesus as I'm sorry as Luke was saying as he's talking about the things that the early church was devoted to Was a time a holy moment that they would they would share with each other constantly sort of like what we do When we come together for the first Sunday of the month and share communion. It's great Next they were devoted to the prayers.
They're devoted to the prayers now Luke As you look at Luke you see that Luke and his writing establishes a use of parallel parallelisms What does that mean? I don't want to like assume anyone doesn't know but I don't make sure people do know right? The idea of parallel is that things right they go together they sort of go like this and sort of next you see this connection Right, so in Jesus's looks writings in Jesus's ministries in Galilee as he's explaining that he's talking about Jesus doing certain things later As you as Luke talks about Jesus's ministry in Bremia and Judea He has very similar stories They're sort of lined up and the idea that is for us as readers as we're looking at scripture that we would see the second time and go Oh, that's connected to back here. There's some tie-in.
There's some connection with each other This is parallelism and Lucas full of this he does this constantly in his writings and in fact in acts right in early acts Luke is talking about The Ministry of Peter right and then in later acts he's talking about the Ministry of who? Paul and if you look at those you'll see that there's these parallel aspects to it Peter has a miracle Paul has a miracle Peter Do like this type of stuff and again the idea is that we would draw connection as readers to see the similarities in this Luke does this here as he talks about the prayers the parallelism that he draws is in the life and ministry of Jesus Jesus in his life in this region look at look at the gospels is just in constant prayer prayer was foundational to his ministry and As he introduces the church in acts We see this parallelism and we go on to see the church do amazing powerful things Why because their foundation is prayer as this is super important Luke wants us to realize that if if the church is going to do an amazing work like Jesus did We need to have that same foundation of prayer in our life We can't just we can't just go forward and use our creativity We can't just go forward and use our ideas because eventually it's gonna flop if we're just dependent upon our strength upon our our fortitude guys It's gonna fail Lucas saying be like Jesus the early church is like Jesus the foundation is on prayer so they were devoted to praying Now were they devoted to the Lord's Prayer exactly some scholars think so some of the earliest Sort of theological training in the second century. It was all about the Lord's Prayer It may have been that we don't know for sure but one thing that we do know for sure is that in Jesus's prayer life He made prayer intimate right Jesus was the first one to say Abba father that was unheard of until Jesus started doing it He introduces an intimacy and I think Luke is telling us that there is a beautiful intimacy in prayer It's not just it's not just this this rotation right? I mean the rule for the Jewish people at times was you would stop and pray three times a day Well, it's just 12 o'clock time to pray whatever.
Amen. Okay on to my day But Lucas saying no no no no no no You see how intimate Jesus is with the father. That's what we need to be It's William my son has has recently started doing something and I'm like falling in love with it and it's just amazing But he'll wake up in the morning He'll come home or whatever is and he comes up and gives me a big hug and he just says I missed you daddy Yeah, yeah, I better be the reaction It's just beautiful into the moment that I have with my son and look at saying this is what prayer is What it should be for us as we come into the presence of our father our heavenly father that creates Those special moments and that empowers us it gives us a foundation just in our ministry Just like prayer gave Jesus a foundation in his ministry now. This next verse is we're gonna look at Are really ones that help us unpack the impact that this devotion that the church had to these these four things What it gave us so this resulted in for the church is next felony resulted in one unity as They were fully devoted to these things it resulted in unity We see this in acts two forty four where it says in all who believed were together and had all things in common as The Holy Spirit So Overwhelmed the people that they put themselves secondary the Holy Spirit so overwhelmed each person that they willingly put themselves Secondary this was a supernatural commonality.
It didn't mean that it was a bunch of autonomous or MPC's, you know, they just went around his mother. Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Okay. Okay.
Okay. I'll do that Yeah, no, no, there was still there was still issues We're still differing political opinions some people really didn't like the Romans I'm people really did some people thought they should spend money this way some people thought they should spend money this But what it did is that supernaturally caused every person to say you know what I'm willing to have my opinions my my needs my rights secondary to someone else's It meant that God and his word were central not not A personal view it meant that they were willing to serve one another they were willing to bear with one another They were willing to outdo one another in love to those sound familiar Paul wrote those things later on probably because of his experience in this early church It's pretty wild Second as they followed these things they were devoted to these things that resulted in generosity resulted in generosity In acts two forty five we read this and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need now I want to remind people this was no blind rush to just to just rid themselves and material possessions Remember there's there is Greek and Roman thought that material possessions were evil You know this type of stuff and so you don't want anything material you wanted all of the spiritual this wasn't that this wasn't that at all This was a spirit filled Generosity the Holy Spirit came upon them and moved them so much that they would be willing to give up their possessions They gave as there was a need They gave as there was a need how do you know if there is a need of those around you? You ask you have a relationship with you're connected to you Can't know that someone's in need if you just keep your blinders on and look straight forward the whole time as they were unified As they were coming together as they were in this unique gathering this fellowship There were relationships brewing and growing three thousand people connecting each other and as needs came up someone say You know what I've got an extra piece of property. Let's sell that Hey, I've got some extra bread.
I think so and so needs some bread They were willing to give as there was a need The the Greek language that Luke uses here is language that by Python. I can't even say his name Pythagorean or pythag you guys doing math Pythagorean is that right? Okay? Thank you Pythagorean so the language of Luke uses here is language that Pythagorean others use to describe the ideal utopian community Purposely use language very very well known the time to point to this community as being a utopia This is astounding this radical outpouring of the Holy Spirit as pastor Jason talked about last week, right?
This was the result of this outpouring of this Holy Spirit It was radically valuing people over possessions. It was a radical utopia for this brief moment in my in my undervessional opinion I think it I think it was a picture of heaven We don't know much about what heaven is gonna be like honestly we know some But I do think this was for a brief moment on earth a picture of heaven where people were putting the other person first constantly Where they were together in unity where it was all about Jesus How amazing is that how beautiful is that? What else what else is this result in as they're devoted to these things that resulted in joy it resulted in joy We see this in acts two forty six and day by day a ten in the temple together and breaking bread in their homes They received their food with glad and generous heart This was Holy Spirit generated joy, right? And it happened as they were daily doing these things.
They were daily in fellowship They were daily in unity right this all continued joy just overflowed Now he says it says with glad and generous hearts that we're glad and actually be translated as joy and other places is That's where we're getting this idea from with joy. So it's real quick joy is not equal to happiness You guys I want you to know that joy is not equal to happiness. It's actually more akin to something close more closely related to thankfulness right because Joy is rooted in knowing that God is good that he is present and that he is faithful The biblical path to joy begins with trusting God's character and his promises. It's a choice.
It's a choice that we make It's something that we have to command ourselves and say self. I will choose to do this I will choose to trust God's faithfulness I will choose to trust in the rescue story of humanity that comes through Jesus Christ that he is the beginning and the end that Nothing else is gonna rescue me. It's just Jesus See this unique gathering this unique fellowship That look is talking about did just that and it was transformational Next as they as they were devoted to these things it resulted in worship It resulted in worship We see this in acts two forty seven actually two forty seven age is the first part But we're gonna read the whole thing praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added their number day by day those who were being saved now The response for all that was going on was Holy Spirit inspired worship. They praised God They gave God go they recognize something unique was going on and they just had to praise God Have you ever been in a situation like that where you just feel so overwhelmed by what God is doing that you just cannot help it You know, I know some of us just raise our hands some of us drop to our knees some of us just stand in awe But we're just worshiping point out praise to God.
They were in that spot It's it was like the first time that I went to the Grand Canyon. I remember doing this I was I just graduated from college me and a buddy were decided to you know Our big trip was gonna drive to the Grand Canyon and so we got there We got there in the middle of the night and we stole someone's campy spot. Sorry about that Whatever that was all right, but in the morning we get up and we go out to that and we stood there and you guys I just took my breath away. It didn't matter.
It was just so overwhelming. That's what's going on. They God was taking their breath away and they just praised him and they worship him and they glorified him they recognized Something unique was happening. See as they Daily were in the word They're daily were in fellowship as they daily were in prayer God gave them eyes to see his movement in everyday life Even the mundane day-to-day things we were talking about right the things they're devoted to was was apostles teaching So teaching was the second thing But you can say it's on your notes you can say fellowship was it their thing?
Breaking bread and for thing. Okay, you guys know that that was basically a mundane daily thing that the Jewish people had to do anyway Right they were supposed to be in the Torah daily They were supposed to be at temple worshiping regularly. They were supposed to be being saying the Shema The daily prayers right three times a day They were supposed to be having fellowship and breaking bread and being with others daily This was a daily thing that they were supposed to do already and yet the Holy Spirit came in and they recognized that God had transformed this Monday daily thing that they've been doing since they were little kids and all of a sudden something so powerful and so amazing That they had to worship God This also as they were devoted these things resulted in growth resulted in growth and we see this as we just read in verse 47 praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord Added to their number day by day those who were being saved as a spirit led growth You know so each thing has been generated by the spirit has been guided by the spirit This was spirit led growth a healthy Christian community a Tracks people to Christ just plain simple a healthy Christian community attracts people to Christ It's an avenue which God uses It's a way that that glorifies God as people see us unified as people see us as Christians in healthy community people go That's really cool. I want that Even though the church was doing what they were supposed to It's still acknowledged by Luke that it is God who is doing the work.
It's a strange partnership Right Sometimes we don't talk about it a lot the Bible is a hundred percent that God is completely sovereign and that we also have free will and It seems like those do not go together, but somehow in God's kingdom. They do that's what's happening God is using that and that is astounding I want to know that Luke doesn't write that new conversions came primarily through the preaching. I'm very thankful for that Wait, it's not on me Right it came you notice it came right after having favor with the people This group of three thousand were when some advocates for the gospel right the favor that all the believers had would have given them the opportunity To have the conversations when people said hey, that looks really amazing. What's the reason for your hope?
Well, let me tell you about it It's this guy named Jesus and he's transformed my life each person in here has a sphere of influence that I don't that Pastor Jason doesn't that the person next to you doesn't Each one of us has a sphere of influence that we can impact For the gospel for the good news How amazing is that the God would trust us with this now? I think arguably as we looked at we look at these five things unity generosity joy worship and growth This is something that I think we all want. I don't think there's anyone in here. It's like nah It's a garbage list Billy.
I don't know what your problem is right? No, no I think there's something that we all want right and so we How can we invest to make this happen? How can what can we do? What kind of questions can we ask yourselves?
Well, I'm glad you're asking that question because as we close we're gonna talk about a couple of things Are we as a church and as a church and also as a church singular your relationship with Jesus being the church Are we devoted to a few things the first one is this are we devoted to being a learning church? Are we devoted to being a learning church? Is the word central in our lives? 3000 people just didn't magically know all about Jesus because they said yes to Jesus at one point they willingly came under the teaching of the Apostles they sat at their feet they devoured what they were saying they were they were looking at the Old Testament with new eyes now as they Saw Jesus more and more in there God's word was central and so we asked that are we willing to make God God's word central not just in our gathering here But in our lives Are we devoted to being a loving church?
Are we devoted to being a loving church? Do you love others like Jesus loves you? I know I don't do it all the time. I will confess that There are days I would much rather flip somebody the bird honestly It's not very Christ like I know but are we committed will we continually work towards loving others like Jesus loves us?
To give up our rights for one another to put others first To serve others to do life together Next are we devoted to being a worshipping church? Are we devoted to being a worshipping church? Do we make much about Jesus? Do we make much about something else?
Anything else or our eyes open to what he is doing? Or do we just worship on Sunday morning between 10 and depending on who is preaching one o'clock? I know I don't have to remind you but just in case right you know that worship is more than just songs It's our life. It's our words.
It's our deeds Are we devoted to being a worshipping church the six other days of the week? And finally are we an evangelistic church? Are we an evangelistic church? according to acts Joyful living and generous giving create gospel movements Joyful living and generous giving create gospel movements God use the joy and generosity of these 3,000 people to turn hearts and have to ask an eye Are you are we doing the same thing?
Are we partnering with God? Are we living a life of joy and a life of generosity? Are we being win some advocates? So that we can be ready to have an answer for the hope that we have are we reaching out to our neighbors our friends our families our enemies With joy and generosity I invite the band to come up as a close with just a this last thing What I'm afraid of is that we'll hear these things will see these things and we'll think this is a to-do list We'll think this is oh man.
We're failing here. We need to do this. I need to work harder Whatever, you know, let's say this is not what this is This is a reminder of the things that God uses to draw people to himself The Acts 242 church was called to form empowered and grown by God Our job is to willingly align ourselves with him to submit to what he's doing to allow Jesus to transform us And our unique gathering so let's pray to that end God thank you for your word Thank you for this picture that you gave us through Luke of the early church so moved by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit God we ask that you would help us to align to you help us to align to you as We work through these things in our lives in the life of the church help us align to you Through your word through fellowship through worship and through prayer God That we would be a joy-filled and generous church and that God you Would be glorified and that the lost would be found we ask this in your name amen