Acts 2:42-47: The Five Marks of the Church

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all,

would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people

like yourself? The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the

Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We

will do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know as I'm preaching how to deal with the types

of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Okay, hopefully. So just tell me when we're live. Now? Good morning. Ooh, I don't know if it's

welcome. Glad you're able to be here. Let's stand as our service begins. And as Christians,

well, let's pray. Let's just bow our heads and pray. We give you thanks and praise that you have

gathered us together. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit will fall with gentle but deep power

upon all of us who are here, those who will be caring for the children outside of this room,

those who are still making their way here, for those who are joining us online live and

and for those who will be joining us downstream. Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit would fall

with gentle power upon us. Help us to know, Father, that you are God, that you are the creator

of all things, sustain all things, you're sovereign over all things, and that we are coming. Just as we're

about to go into a time of singing God's praises, just a couple of sort of gentle, just stay standing.

First of all, we're really thankful. Deborah Reid, our worship leader, is on holidays. And this is my

son and my daughter-in-law, who have left St. Paul's Presbyterian to come and lead us in singing. So

we're really grateful that they're here with us. And we might have some sound difficulties today.

That's because our normal sound team is gone. But we will just soldier on. And anyway, it's good

that you're all here. We'll remain standing. Let's sing God's praises.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest

great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have need.

It's not thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be.

Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Lord unto me.

Great is thy faithfulness. Lord unto me.

All I have needed. Thy hands hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness. Lord unto me.

Timothy and thy grace.

Emma hath.

Tonight, dim not while bleep sea, tonight.

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We meet Sarah at the glory of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ in death.

mercy and love.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning

new mercies I see.

All I have needed

thy hands hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness

Lord unto me.

Pardon for sin

and a peace that endureth

thine own dear presence

to cheer and to guide.

Strength for today

and right hope for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine

and thousand beside.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning

new mercies I see.

All I have needed

thy hands hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness

Lord unto me.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning

new mercies I see.

All I have needed

thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Lord unto me.

I love you Molly police.

Lord

I love you Lord

oh your mercy

never fails me

all my days

I've been held in your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my hand

I will sing of the goodness of God

All my life you have been faithful

All my life you have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

On your voice

You have led me through the fire

In the darkest night

You were close like no other

I've known you as a father

I've known you as a friend

I have lived in the goodness of God

All my life you have been faithful

All my life you have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Your goodness is running after me

It's running after me

Your goodness is running after me

It's running after me

Your life laid down

I surrender now

I give you everything

Your goodness is running after me

It's running after me

Your goodness is running after me

Your goodness is running after me

Your goodness is running after me

All my life you have been so, so good

All my life you have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

I will sing of the goodness of God

All my life you have been so, so good

All my life you have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

I will sing of the goodness of God

What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer

There is no more for heaven now to give

He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom

My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus

For my life is fully bound to His

Oh, how strange and divine

I can say, all is mine

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

The night is dark, but I am not forsaken

For by my side, the Savior He will stay

I labor on in meekness and rejoicing

For in my need His power is displayed

To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me

Through the deepest valley He will lead

Oh, the night has been one

And I shall overcome it not I

But through Christ in me

No fate I dread

I know I am forgiven

The future shows

The price it has been paid

For Jesus' name, for Jesus I am

For Jesus lived and suffered for my pardon

For Jesus' name, for Jesus died

And He was raised to overthrow the grave

To this I hold, my sin has been defeated

Jesus' name, for Jesus' name, for Jesus' name

Jesus now and ever is my plea

All the chains are released

I can sing

I am free

It's not I, but through Christ in me

With every breath

I long to follow Jesus

For He has said

That He will bring me home

And day by day

I know He will renew me

Until I stand with joy before the throne

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus

All the glory evermore to Him

When the race is complete

Still my lips shall repeat

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

When the race is complete

Still my lips shall repeat

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

Just a pause, remaining standing

The cross is going to the back of the church

Those who would like to send their kids to Sunday school

Can follow the cross

And let's just bow our heads in prayer

Father, thank you so much

That you are not

That you, Father, we give you thanks and praise

That you are the creator of all things

You sustain all things

You are sovereign over all things

You are the great transcendent, glorious God

But you are not just a God who is far away

Father, that you sent Jesus to be our Savior

And that when we put our trust and faith in Jesus

Father, that Jesus brings us to you

He makes us right with you

And you put the Holy Spirit within our lives

So that, Father, you actually live within your people

And Father, we are so grateful for this

We ask that your Holy Spirit will move with gentle power

In our midst as we worship

And in the lives of these precious children

And their teachers as they go off to Sunday school

Or some other type of care

And we ask this in the name of Jesus

Your Son and our Savior, Amen

Please be seated

The flow of our worship

We are still in sort of the first part of our worship

Is that Jesus gathers his people

And then we will go into a time

Where God speaks to his people

Through his word

Then we go into a time of Holy Communion

Through the Lord's Supper

And then the Holy Spirit sends us out

And so we are still in that part of time

If you just think about it for a second

If Jesus was to appear

We would want to be with him

We would sing songs

We would probably quote scripture back and forth to each other

And that is the part of the service that we are still in

And so we are going to say Psalm 98 responsively

And it is from the New International Version

The words should be up on the screen

Sing to the Lord a new song

We have done marvelous things

His right hand and his holy arm

Our salvation for thee

The Lord has made his salvation known

And revealed his righteousness to the nations

He has remembered his love

And his faithfulness to Israel

All the ends of the earth have seen

The salvation of our God

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth

The earth can do a song with music

Make music to the Lord with the harp

With the harp

The sound of the king

With trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn

Shout for joy for the Lord

Let the sea resound and everything in it

For the world and all who live in

Let the rivers clap their hands

Let the mountains sing together for joy

Let them sing before the Lord

For he comes to judge the earth

He will judge the world in righteousness

And the people of the agony

And together we pray this ancient and very profound prayer

Almighty God

Almighty God

unto whom all hearts be open

All desires known

And from whom no secrets are hid

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts

By the inspiration of your Holy Spirit

That we may perfectly love you

And worthily magnify your holy name

Through Christ our Lord

Amen

Our Lord Jesus Christ said

The first and great commandment is this

Hear O Israel

The Lord our God is the only Lord

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

With all your soul

With all your mind

And with all your strength

The second is this

You shall love your neighbor as yourself

There is no other commandment greater than these

Amen

Lord have mercy and write these laws in our hearts we pray

One of the things we're going to be talking about in the sermon today

Is a common life

And one of the things that a church like ours

A church of the English Reformation does to sort of mark that common life

Is that not only will we announce things like small groups

And try to get people involved in that

And you know alpha courses and all of that

But we also in a sense which I'll talk about more

We're connected to missionaries and the larger church

And we're also connected in a sense have a bit of a common life with the church

Which is before us

Not that we pray to the saints

But that we pray common prayers with them

And so we're going to pray now these two prayers

The first one is for the collect of the for the 18th Sunday after Trinity

And when we pray this prayer

It's a prayer that Christians have been praying for literally centuries

And we'll pray all around the world today

And then the second one of course is a prayer for Thanksgiving Day

And these prayers are both a prayer that we can pray

And a very concise gospel theology of the Christian life

Let's pray this first prayer together

And is it up?

If we don't pray it together I will pray and you will all listen and say Amen

Is it there?

Is it the...

What's that?

Start with the Lord we beseech you

That's perfect

Let's pray this together

Lord we beseech you

Grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil

And with pure hearts and minds to follow you the only God

Through Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen

And let's pray together the collect for Thanksgiving Day

O almighty and...

Is that there?

Not yet

But...

By the way just...

You know no pressure for money

But if one of you has five or six million dollars

You don't know what to do with

If we could buy our own building

I'll have a screen at the back of the church

So I can see what you can see

And that's just if you have that extra five or six million dollars to buy a property

We'd...

We can talk

You know what?

I'm just gonna pray it

And then you folks can just say Amen

Let's do that

O almighty and everlasting God

Who crowns the years with your goodness

And has given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season

We yield to you our humble and hearty thanks

For these your bounties

Beseeching you to give us grace

To use them rightly

To your glory

And the relief of those in need

Through Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen

Well be seated as the Bible God's word written is read

The Bible reading today comes from Acts chapter 2 starting at verse 42

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship

To the breaking of bread and the prayers

And awe came upon every soul

And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles

And all who believed 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 attending the temple together

And breaking bread in their homes

They received their food with glad and generous hearts

Praising God and having favour with all people

And the Lord added to their number day by day

Those who were being saved

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

I invite you to stand for the reading of the Gospel text

And just before I read this

So this, what I'm about to read is part of an ancient eyewitness biography of Jesus

Matthew in fact was one of the apostles who wrote this

And it's taking place a day or two before Jesus dies on the cross

So that's the context of this

The Holy Gospel is found in the Good News according to Matthew

Beginning at the 22nd chapter on the 34th verse

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees

Just sort of pause if you're unfamiliar

Those are sort of two, I guess we'd call them now denominations within Judaism

So he's had a controversy with the leaders of one of those, the Sadducees

And the leaders of another group have heard this

I'll read it again

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees

They gathered together

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

And with all your soul

And with all your mind

This is the great and first commandment

And a second is like it

You shall love your neighbor as yourself

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together

Jesus asked them a question

Saying, what do you think about the Christ?

That's another word for the Messiah

What do you think about the Messiah?

Whose son is he?

They said to him, the son of David

And Jesus said to them, how is it then that David, in the Holy Spirit

Calls him Lord, saying, the Lord said to my Lord

Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet

If then David calls him Lord

How is he his son?

And no one was able to answer him a word

But from that day, nor from that day

Did anyone dare to ask him any more questions?

This is the Gospel of Christ

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

I invite you to remain standing and join with me

In confessing the Christian faith

In the words of this very ancient creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty

Maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

Born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

Was crucified, died and was buried

He descended into hell

On the third day he rose again from the dead

He ascended into heaven

And is sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty

He shall come again to judge the living and the dead

I believe in the Holy Spirit

The Holy Catholic Church

The communion of saints

The forgiveness of sins

The resurrection of the body

And the life everlasting

Amen

Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit

Would bring your word deep into our hearts

And we, Father, give an invitation and permission

For your word to speak deeply into our hearts

And form us so that we will be free

And bring you glory

And do much good for your great praise

And we ask this in the name of Jesus

Your Son and our Savior

Amen

Please be seated

Some of you who've heard me preach before

Know that usually when I begin a sermon

I begin with some type of a problem

Or issue

And then I go ahead and talk a little bit about

How it is that the Bible addresses that problem

Or that issue

And I'm going to do something a little bit different today

It's a little bit

I was thinking about it in an odd way

It's a bit similar to how I speak at funerals

When I get to speak to a very, very mixed crowd

And if you're at a funeral

One of the things I will say is

You know, I know people here have lots of different views

You come from all sorts of different backgrounds

As we gather here to remember, you know, the deceased

And to pray for those who mourn and grieve

And then I say it's just my great privilege

To be able to share with you what my hope is

As a Christian in the face of death

And that's sort of what I do

And this sermon is a little bit similar to it

In the sense that there's a funeral

Or anything like that

And it's not to put anything down

But it's just, you know, I wasn't raised

In a church of the English Reformation

I stumbled into it

And I sort of stumbled into it

And I sort of stumbled into it with lots of doubts

Like I didn't really think Anglicans were Christians

And I sort of stumbled into it

But just one of the things

I guess I just want to share

I've just been so blessed

As the years have gone by

As I've become aware of just the English Reformation

And the documents

And the life that emerged from that

And like I just really love it

Like I just think it's so wise

And I'm not saying that

If you're here as a guest

And you're a Baptist or a Pentecostal

Like I'm not saying that to put anybody down

I just share that it's been like an ongoing delight

To just to see how it is that the English Reformers

Went about in a sense setting up and launching a church

And one of the things which they did so relevant

And that's why it's going to fit into this

And I know this sounds like a bit of a criticism

And I guess it is a tiny bit of a criticism

And I ask your forgiveness

But like technically speaking

I can't receive communion at a Roman Catholic Church

Like technically speaking

Now in the city of Ottawa

My guess is that if I was to go into just about any Anglican

Roman Catholic Church for a mass

And I was to tell them that I was a priest

And could I take communion

And they'd almost definitely say yes

But technically they're breaking the rules

And it's not just like on that one side of the Christian spectrum

Some of you are familiar with very closed brethren churches for instance

And in closed brethren churches

I wouldn't be able to receive communion there either

In fact they would probably think that we aren't a church

And that I'm not even a real Christian

One of the things which is

When I was in my previous church

I was way up the Ottawa Valley

In a place called Eganville and Killaloo

And Clontarf and Tremor

And after I had been in the church in Killaloo for a couple of years

This elderly lady started to attend the services with her sister

And I discovered over time that she actually went to one of those closed brethren churches

When I was driving there I'd drive by this little gospel hall

Tucked off

Very picturesque

Just off to the side surrounded by trees

And it turned out that

I mean and she was breaking the rules by coming to hear me preach

And to receive communion with me

She'd come to my nine o'clock service

And then the gospel hall met at eleven

But in her case

She was just I guess in held with such high regard in the church

That they didn't kick her out

And she started coming to the church

Because I discovered after that she was a war widow

Her husband had actually been an Anglican minister who died

Serving as a chaplain in the Italian theatre of the Second World War

And so she was a war widow

And I discovered she actually

I reminded her of her husband

And so she would come to the church with her sister

And I

But here's the point

When the English Reformation was going on

One of the things they wanted to do was not to de-church or unchurch other churches

Like that was very very clear to their heart

Even though they were trying to reform the Roman Catholic Church

They didn't want to say that all Roman Catholics were bad

Or that there was no Christians or no godliness there

They really wanted to work very hard in terms of how they were launching the church

This reformed, renewed, revived church

In such a way that it wouldn't unchurch or de-church other churches and traditions

And I think that they were very wise in that

We have to be very careful as Christians to not put up walls that the Bible doesn't put up

We need to understand the walls that are there

There's some boundaries

But when there's no boundaries

We have to be very careful about making walls where the Bible has an open door

And I mention all of that because what we're going to look at today

We're preaching through the book of Acts

And today they're for theology nerd types

This text that we're looking at today is a very famous text

Because it has the four marks of the church

And John Stott argues

And I'll just share very briefly

I think there's actually five marks of the church there

But there's four marks of the church

And it's a very common understanding

And so let's just have a look at it

If you have your Bibles

I'm using this ESV study Bible

Just of this journal Bible

There's a few Bibles there if you don't have your own

And I think we have extras of these

If you'd like your own journal Bible of just the book of Acts

I think we have a couple extra here at the church

And we can give them to you

And we're looking at Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin reading verse 36

Just to give you the context

And if you're unfamiliar with this

What this book is

Is this is in a sense part 2

Part 1

The fellow who writes the book

Was a pagan who became a Christian

And he himself was not an eyewitness of what Jesus did

But he interviewed eyewitnesses

And wrote a very profound true eyewitness biography of Jesus

And then after he wrote that

He writes this eyewitness based biography

Of the early church

The first 30 years approximately

Of the Jesus movement

And what it accomplishes

And so we're very

At the beginning of this ancient biography

Luke himself was an eyewitness for some of the events

And others he had to interview people

And this eyewitness biography

Or history of the church

Is written when many of the eyewitnesses were still alive

And could correct it

And so what's just happened is

For this part 2

The book of Acts

First there's a bit of a

Just a very brief summary of the fact that Jesus

After had died on the cross

That the grave was empty

And the reason the grave was empty

Was not because the body was stolen

But because Jesus was alive

Physically alive

And he proved that in many ways

In fact Acts begins with Peter

Peter with Jesus sitting at table

Eating with them

I mean if you think

If you think

If by the way if you wake up in the middle of the night

And you go down to the kitchen

And you think you see a ghost

And you pass the ghost some toast

And he eats it

It's an intruder not a ghost

Okay that's just sort of a general rule

It's not a ghost

It's a you should call 9-1-1

Because you have an intruder in your house

And so Jesus

This is like just a very subtle little way

That Luke is emphasizing

That Jesus had actually risen from the dead

The grave is empty

And then he talks about the ascension

Jesus ending his physical appearances

He ascends into heaven

And then Luke describes how the whole group of Christians

Were gathering together

To pray together

Waiting because Jesus said

I'm going to send the promise of the Father

I'm going to send you power from on high

And then just a little bit before this

The Holy Spirit

Which we now call the day of Pentecost

Comes and it makes a huge noise

And it comes and people speak other languages

And praise God

And everything from the loud praising of God

To the loud noise of the wind of the Holy Spirit

Draws this huge crowd

To figure out what's happening

And then just immediately before this

What we looked at last week

Is that the very first sermon by a Christian

Is ever preached is preached

And now

And here's where we take up

And what we're going to do is

We're just going to catch the end of the sermon

That's verse 36

Here's how it goes

Let all the house of Israel

This is Peter preaching

Let all the house of Israel

Therefore know for certain

That God has made him

That's Jesus

Both Lord and Christ

That is Messiah

This Jesus

Whom you crucified

Now

When they heard this

That's the culmination of the sermon

I want you all to know

This Jesus whom you crucified

Is risen from the dead

We've seen it

We're witnesses

And this vindicates him

He is the Lord

He is the Messiah

And you meant harm to him

By crucifying him

By abusing him

But he's alive

He's Lord

And he's Christ

He's vindicated

And then verse 37

The crowd

When they hear this

They were cut to the heart

And said to Peter

And the rest of the apostles

Brothers

What shall we do?

And Peter said to them

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

And for the promises for you

And for your children

And for all who are far off

Everyone whom the Lord our God

Calls to himself

And just sort of pause here

So we have here a very very simple

You know

What's your response?

Response is to repent

And in the New Testament

In the Bible

To repent

Always includes believing

Or trusting

And trusting and believing

Always includes repentance

If they go together

And so

Repent means to turn

So that your orient

Your whole life is now oriented

Around the man

Jesus

Who is also God's son

The Lord

And is our savior

To turn and orient your life

Around him

And as a sign of that

A public sign of that

You are to be baptized

To show that you have

You know

And I talked last week

About the three different things

That baptism types of symbolizes

And you will receive

The forgiveness that you receive

If you turn to Jesus

Repent

You will receive the forgiveness

Of your sins

And you will receive

The gift of the Holy Spirit

Means the Holy Spirit

Will actually come and live within you

There's these three things

That you receive

You put your faith and trust in Christ

As your savior and your Lord

And

And what he did for you on the cross

And when you put your faith and trust in him

All your sins

All of your things that you've done wrong

All of the good things that you do

That you shouldn't

That you didn't do

That leave you embarrassed and ashamed

All of these things are forgiven by almighty God

In the person and work of Christ

And not only that

He actually puts the Holy Spirit

Within every person

Who puts their faith and trust in Christ

You become in a sense

This deposit

That God himself will dwell

And abide within you

And he will never leave you

And this begins

Even for ordinary human beings

Like us on this side of the grave

And it will continue even beyond the grave

Into eternal life

So you receive

All of your sins are forgiven

They're wiped away

Your Holy Spirit lives within you

And he receives you to himself

He takes you to himself

Yet you might not feel it

Some people when they become Christians

C.S. Lewis famously said

If you've never heard of him

He was a famous writer

And thinker and scholar

And Christian

From the sort of the middle part of the 1900s

And he describes

When he became a Christian

He was the most dejected convert

In all of England

And that's because

He was such a proud man

And he didn't want to have to

Give up his life so to speak

But others have great joy

And what happens is

Whether you feel it or not

That God himself

Takes you to himself

That's what happens

When you put your faith

And trust in Jesus

This is the wonderful news

There's no other way

To have God

The living God

The creator God

The triune God

To receive you for himself

Than to put your faith

And trust in Christ

Your sins are forgiven

The Holy Spirit indwells you

God receives you for himself

Verse 40

And with many other words

He bore witness

And continued to exhort them

Saying save yourself

From this crooked generation

And so those who received his word

Were baptized

And there were added that day

About 3,000 souls

And I talked a little bit

Last week about how

This is one of the many, many, many proofs

That historically

Jesus

The grave

Nobody would have become a Christian

If they could show you the body of Jesus

And there is no better account

For the start of the Christian movement

Than the real defeat of death

And resurrection by Jesus

There is no better explanation than that

It's true

It's true

It happened

And it's profoundly good news

Now what we're going to look at next

Which is actually the bulk of the sermon

The next 22 minutes or so

Is we have the first of several summary statements

In the book of Acts

We get a summary statement

And here's how it goes

And they devoted themselves

Verse 42

To the apostles teaching

And the fellowship

To the breaking of bread

And the prayers

Now

I'm going to come back to all of this

But these are the four marks of the church

And I'm going to explain them in a bit

They devoted themselves

To the apostles teaching

And in the original language

That devoted themselves

Applies to every one of the four things

And if you notice

You don't have to put your hand up

But some of you are English nerds

We know who each other are

And for English nerds

It's really interesting

The definite article is before each of the four of them

Isn't it like a really neat English nerd type of thing?

And so that's why there's the four marks, right?

And so, you know, the first mark is

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching

They devoted themselves to the fellowship

Or the koinonia

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread

And they devoted themselves to the prayers

Now, before I go on and read this next little bit

It's really important to understand what happens here

Okay, what did not happen

What did not happen

Is that it didn't happen that the twelve apostles

Gathered the hundred and twenty

They said, okay, you three thousand people

I'll go find a nice place to have some shawarma

And some tabbouleh

And after you've had some shawarma and tabbouleh

And maybe some roast lamb or something like that

Just come back

And the hundred and twenty went off into a room

And Peter got up and said

We're going to look at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

And so we're all going to break up into small little groups

And first we're going to all share with each other

Like what some of the strengths are about this Jesus movement

And write them down on some full-scat paper

And then after you've done that

We're going to tape them all up on the wall around the room

And now we want to do through

Now we've done the strengths

Let's do some of the weaknesses

And then let's do some of the opportunities

Let's do some of the threats

Okay, and then after the facilitator has done all of that type of stuff

He says, here we have a couple of little stars

You each have four stars, five stars

And we want to go to the strengths

And I want you to put the star beside the strength ones that you think are our strengths

And then we'll count them all up

And then we'll see if we can group a few of them together

And then we'll come up with some type of an action plan

That didn't happen

What happened is something both natural and supernatural just happened

It wasn't thought through

There was no institutional structure to plan it

They, on the day of Pentecost

On the day of Pentecost

Nobody knew what was going to happen

Like all of those 120 people in the upper room

When they woke up that morning

They didn't wake up and say

I think the Holy Spirit's going to fall

And it's going to create four marks of the church

No, they just woke up

That's all they did

And you know, there were more than 120

And, but some of the people

They, you know, they went off

Because, you know, people have to work

And, and so some of them went off to do work

And, and some of them didn't have to work that day

And they gathered and they spent some time in prayer

And then lo and behold the Holy Spirit falls

And then lo behold Peter gets up and preaches this sermon

And all of a sudden they go from about 500 people to three, over 3,000 people

And that just all happened with no plan

And then the next thing you know

And then the next thing you know

Is there's just something natural and supernatural

And that these four marks

The way to understand these four marks

Is that in a sense four seeds

Are planted in everybody's life

That are going to grow

Or another way to understand it

Is that the Holy Spirit

Between knowing who Jesus is

And what he's done for us on the cross

And the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives

Four quests begin

And one of the things which is so brilliant about this

Including the next little bits

Is it doesn't say

All of the, the, the little

It doesn't come up with this detailed strategic plan

It just gives you these four seeds

And it happens time and time and time again

It's, it's why they're considered to be the marks of the church

Is that when people hear about Jesus

And hear who he is

And what he did for them on the cross

They hear about his life

And they trust their life to him

And he really takes them to himself

And the Holy Spirit really enters into them

And, and the Holy Spirit places four seeds in your life

Or launches you on four quests

And they all fit together

And they're going to be contextual

There, it's, it's so neat

Because, um, so, you know

In, in, uh, six years ago

I, I had the great privilege

I was able to go to Angola for a while

And, um, and, and one of the, the, the, the, the, the, one of the groups I got to be able to visit

Was, uh, at some of the missionaries that we supported helped plant a church

In this area of Angola

That in many ways was using similar farming methods

As they would have used 200 years ago

Like this is, you know, beyond the beyond the beyond the beyond

And they planted a church under a tree

And they planted a church under a tree

But that church has these four marks

And you can read the story of Tim Keller

Planning a church amongst the intellectual and the rich in Manhattan

And their church has these four marks

That there's something very dynamic and contextual about it

And it's not as if there's this whole pile of rules

That bangs you over the head

That you have to follow every little thing

It's, that's what I say

It's like a, a, it's a seed that grows where it's planted

And it's gonna, that seed is still recognizable

And will grow in urban

And, and, and, and, and, and, uh, down

More urban, suburban Ottawa

And it, it will grow in Eganville

And it will grow in Angola

And in Nigeria

And in Singapore

And in Hong Kong

And in secret

In Tehran

I, I just saw a report

That they estimate that

Over half the mosques

In Iran have been closed

And I just read a report

That one of the senior clerics in Iran

Blames the secret conversions of Christians

To, from Islam to Christianity

In Iran

Is causing the mosques to be shut down

And they're going to be shut down

Brothers and sisters

That blows my mind

That just blows my mind

That just blows my mind

They risk losing everything

To give their life to Christ

Like, their life

If not their life

Their job, their occupation

My, my wife's reading a

I haven't read yet

I started it

But, uh, reading a, a, a

I, I, it's supposed to be

A very profound book

Everything sad

Uh, everything sad

Becomes, has become untrue

Or something like that

And it's the story

Of, um, an Iranian man

Whose mother was a dentist

I think it was a dentist

And she became a Christian

And due to persecution

She had to flee Iran

And leave all of her, her wealthy life

Uh, she had to leave her husband

He didn't want anything to do with her

And ended up coming to Oklahoma

And it's the story about him

This Iranian boy

Trying to figure out

How to live as an eight year old

In, in Oklahoma

Of all places

And, uh, it's, uh, I've heard many people

I'm, I'm looking forward to reading it

After my wife has finished it

It's a, a brilliant book

But, but, you know, here's the point

These are these four marks

And, and they're gonna look different

In different contexts

But they're there

When the gospel is preached

Well, let, let's just finish reading this

Because it sort of fleshes it out

And, and then I'll go back

And very briefly say

We'll look at each of them

What they are

So we'll just read verse 42 again

And they devoted themselves

To the apostles' teaching

They devoted themselves

To the fellowship

They devoted themselves

To the breaking of bread

And they devoted themselves

To the prayers

And awe came upon every soul

And many wonders and signs

Were being done through the apostles

And all who believed 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

Attending the temple together

And breaking bread in their homes

They received their food

With glad and generous hearts

Praising God

And having favour with all the people

And, um, you know how in English

You can have double entendres

And, uh, one of the things

That kids' movies discovered

A few years ago

Is that they could make kids' movies

In such a way

That the kids could follow it

But often when they say certain things

The adults would realize

It's, there's like a second meaning to it

Like they're making some film reference

Or some political reference

Or whatever

You can have, like the same words

Have two sort of multiple meanings

And, and that's what happens here in this

And so, uh, the original people

Hearing this biography

Or this history in the original language

They would have heard

Praising God and having favour with all the people

In other words

People had good will towards the Christians

But it also says

They were praising good, the God

And they had good will towards all the people

In other words

It's a context where they

The Christians

Had good will to Jerusalem

And Jerusalem had good will towards them

And the Lord added to their number

Day by day

Those who were being saved

And that's what John Stott

And I agree with him

Says is the fifth mark

That people

The church grows

That people come to a saving faith

In, in Jesus

That God does this work

And this is a summary statement

And the rest of the book of Acts

Will show that

This was a, a sweet time

In their life

But that problems would come

Like at the very next chapter

There's both a miracle reported

But also an arrest reported

And, and, and eventually

There'll be martyrdoms

Stephen will be martyred

And James will be martyred

And, and that's going to all develop

But this is the summary statement

And, and so let's go back

To the marks

And, and if you could put up

The first one

That would be very good

And they voted themselves

To the apostles teaching

Now, obviously in that, those days

That meant something very, very specific

I, they didn't have to read

The book of Matthew

Cause they could have said

Oh, there's Matthew

Let's go listen to him talk

They didn't have to read

The book of John

Cause it could say

There's John

Let's go hear him talk

Um, most ancient Christians

Believe that, uh, Peter

Was the genius

Behind the, the ancient biography

That we now call Mark

So people didn't have to read Mark

They could just say

Oh, there's Peter

Let's go listen to him talk

Right?

And that, that's how it would have

Been back then

And not just the, the, the, and

But now it's, it's a very commonly understood

That when we say

They devoted themselves

To the apostles teaching

That what we have

In the New Testament

Is the apostolic teaching

Jesus taught the apostles

And that is what the apostles

In a sense guaranteed

Is included in what we now call

The New Testament

Just a little while ago

I, I had a conversation

With somebody in a, in a coffee shop

And, um, they were asking me

Some questions about the Bible

And they were actually very surprised

They thought that the Jewish people

Had a Bible

And that Christians had a Bible

I said, one more moment

We don't really have separate Bibles

They said, and they looked at me funny

And they said, well, what's going on?

I said, well, actually

What you can understand is

If you put on a piece of paper

Jesus and like a line on either side

And there's Jesus

And then above the line

Is what we would now call

We call the New Testament

And below the line

Is what our Jewish friends called

The Tanakh or the Torah

And we call the Old Testament

And, uh, in a sense

All of the things in, in the Tanakh

Are things that were written before Jesus

And the things in the New Testament

Are what was written after Jesus

Ultimately, Jesus is the guarantor

Of the truth of the New Testament

And it's because of Jesus

That we trust the truthfulness

Of the Old Testament

It all centers on Jesus

And I said, so our Jewish friends

They accept all underneath the line

But we as Christians

We as Christians

We accept both what's underneath the line

And above the line

And above the line

Our Jewish friends

Think we've gone too far

And we Christians think

Our Jewish friends

Haven't gone far enough

And hopefully we can be friends

Although hopefully

They'll also come down to Jesus

I didn't say that to the person

I was asking about it

I was just trying to explain the Bible

To explain the Bible

But what we see here then

Is they devoted themselves

To the apostles' teaching

Here, I think the way I put it

That you should be able to see

Up on your screen

Is the first mark of the church

Is a devotion to hearing

And understanding God's word written

And you know, when I said that

These are things that are all natural

And supernatural

They're natural in this sense

You know, one of the very common themes

In movies

When you see somebody

Who's really grieving

The death of a loved one

It's a very, very common bit

In the movies

Is that they

They don't cancel the phone number

Of their beloved

And they

Time and time again

They call their beloved's phone number

So they can hear their voice

Their voice

And the message machine

Because they want to hear the voice

Of their loved one

And some of you

Who've lost loved ones

And then maybe

You discover some letters

From your loved one

That you'd forgotten

You're doing some house tiding

You discover some letters

Or something like that

For younger people

There are these things

That used to exist

Called letters

Where you'd write on paper

And put a stamp

And mail them

And if you've ever been

To know people in that situation

They're just so

Overjoyed

To hear their loved ones speak

And so at the heart of this

Is something very, very natural

Because you see

We understand

That God loves us so much

That he sent his son

To die for us

So that when we hear

What we call the New Testament

What we're hearing

Is we're hearing God speak to us

And we want to hear God speak to us

We want him to speak to us

It's both very natural

And in a sense

It's also supernatural

And then look at the second mark

And this is the one that gets

In some ways

People the most worried

To the fellowship

Or to the koinonia

And I put it

The second mark

Is a devotion to having

A common life

With your brothers and sisters

In Christ

And

And it's going to be

A common life

That's going to involve money

Just, you know

Give me a little bit of grace

Here

It's a common life

That's going to involve

Involve money

And it's just a natural thing

We human beings are social creatures

If things are working properly

Like we understand it's a tragedy

When a child has both of his parents

Or her parents die

And it's even a bigger tragedy

If there's not an aunt

Or an uncle

Or a grandparent

That can care for that child

And step in

And in many times

In places in the world

That child could just have been condemned to death

Unless there's something like an orphanage

But we understand that there's something just natural

And holy

About something like a family

That we're meant to be social

And what happens when you put your faith and trust in Christ

Is you become part of the family of God

And it's

If you have no desire to all be with your brothers and sisters

In some type of concrete, not an imaginary way

Then there's something which is missing in your Christian life

And if there's not some type of financial involvement with that

There's something missing in your Christian life

And so Christians have understood that there's this desire

To have some type of a common life

That's going to be very contextual

It's going to look very different

If, and I don't think she'll mind

I know that every week

Anne, who's in her 90s, watches this service

She can no longer come to service

Is it?

She watches

Hi Anne

Like you're watching this right now

And we have to figure out ways to include people who get shut in

And there's some people who are watching this

And they could leave their house and come here

And that's not being part of a common life

Like I don't want to lay a guilt on you

But we need each other

And that common life is everything from having prayer partners

It's being parts of small groups

It's helping out on a Sunday morning

It's coming to worship

And it could involve very, very costly things

Of financial help for people

We've, in this congregation in the past

Had to help members of the congregation

Who've been in financial distress

For them to be able to continue to live in their house

And it's not just something for your local church

And this is one of the things I so love about Anglicanism

Is that we are connected to other churches in the city

Both within our tribe

Those are the churches of the English Reformation

But those outside of our tribe

We're connected to other churches

Putting on an apologetics event

Where in a couple of weeks

Hopefully we're going to have somebody come and speak

Because we're part of a group of churches

Not just from the English Reformation

A group of churches

And we team together

To partner with a group of churches

Amongst the very poor in Guatemala

And we raise money

To give to those churches

For them to reach the poor in their community

And that's koinonia

That's fellowship

One of the things we're going to pray about

I don't know if Victor will

But I'm going to pray about

If Victor doesn't pray about in our intercessions

Is that we support missionaries throughout the world

And one of the missionary families that we support

When his son

They're missionaries in Israel

And when their son turned 18

And he's basically lived his whole life in Israel

He knows no other

I mean technically I think they're New Zealanders or something

But that's just like a foreign country to him

He's grown up in Israel

He's fluent in Jewish

In Hebrew

And when he turned 18

He had a choice to make

Either he would do his military service

In the Israeli defense force

Like other citizens

Or he would have to leave

And go back to New Zealand

And so he chose to stay

This is a missionary

Aaron and Michelle

We support them as missionaries

And I got a picture yesterday

Because their son got called up

Because of the horrendous terrorist attack by Hamas

And I got a picture of their son getting in the cab

To go serve in the war

But that involves us

We're in Koinonia with him

And we'll pray for him

And just imagine how hard Aaron and Michelle must be praying

And his brothers and sisters

For their oldest son to go and fight this war

And that's part of what it means to be in Koinonia

And it involves our money

It involves our prayer

It involves our time

And it might look different when you're in your 90s

And it's going to look like when you're 18

And it might look very different when you're 50 and able-bodied

And for a mom with five or six young kids

It's all going to look like that desire to have a common life

That's what's there

And I need to hurry up over the last two

If you could put up the next one

The third mark is a devotion to holy communion

With the triune God through the Lord's Supper

Look what it says, verse 42

And they voted themselves to the apostles' teaching

And the fellowship and the breaking of bread

Now just to be clear

If you went back in a time machine

They would not do communion the way we do communion

They almost definitely would have done

What they would have almost definitely done

Is they would have had all of us group up in varieties of tables

And we would have all had a big potluck

And in the midst of the pot

And we would have arranged beforehand

So Uzo's going to bring

I don't know, he's going to bring the beef

And Diane's going to bring the egg salad sandwiches

Because she has a spiritual gift for that

And she's famous for it

And I don't know

And Owen would bring some type of spectacular gift

And I don't know, maybe Susie and her husband

Would bring some smoked brisket

Or something like that

That they'd do in the barbecue

And then we'd all have a nice meal

But as part of that meal

We would also have the Lord's Supper

And I love the way Anglicans understand the Lord's Supper

Here's the theological understanding

And most of the things which is so beautiful

About the English Reformation

Is it teaches Christian truths through prayer

And here's what we say

This is like in a sense

At the root of the English Reformation

About communion

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ

Which was given for you

Preserve your body and soul

Unto everlasting life

Take and eat this in remembrance

That Christ died for you

And feed on him

In your heart

By faith

With thanksgiving

It's not just remembering

It's a time to feed on Christ

In his person

How do we do that?

Well, you know what it means a little bit

You know, if you see a grandmother

Who gets together with her grandchildren

And she just feeds on their presence

You know, or you get to be with your family

Or your loved one

And you just sort of

What do we say?

You're eating it all in

You're drinking it all in

It's not just that you remember the good times

You just

That's what communion is

So what are the marks?

We're committed to hearing God speak through the Bible

We're devoted to it

We're devoted to having a common life together

We're devoted around the Lord's Supper

And the final thing is the prayers

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

And the fellowship

To the breaking of bread and the prayers

The fourth mark is a devotion to common prayer

And so it goes beyond just having your private prayers

It means that there's times when you have common prayer

And that common prayer might be that if you join a small group

And part of your small group time is you share prayer requests

And you have common prayer

And it also involves common prayer at a time like this

Which is more formal

Where Victor's going to come up in a few moments

And he's going to lead us in some intercessions

And we listen to him as he speaks to God on our behalf

And then we all say, you know, we all agree with him in some type of way

And say amen at the end

And that's a decisive part of the church

And all of these things are very, very natural

And they're also supernatural

They're natural because we want to hear loved ones and important ones speak to us

And so we want to hear God speak to us

They're natural because we want to have a common life with others

Whether it's with friends or family or whatever

And we want to have that

And we want to have a common life with our brothers and sisters in Christ

And it's a common, it's a natural thing

Because we drink it in being with people that we love

And people that we're, and so we want to, we want to, to keep the God's

We want to, to keep the gospel in front of us

And, and, and drink it in

And, and feed on who he is

And what he's done in his presence

And our, and, and, and love for us

And, and then, and then we want to speak to people

We don't want to just be like, like they used to talk about kids

I don't know in the 40s or the 50s

They should be seen but not heard

No!

Our Father in Heaven wants to hear us

He wants us to tell him about our

Our, he wants to tell, he wants us to tell him about the fact that we

We're worried about finding a parking space this afternoon

And about the job that we need

And about our loved ones who need to know Jesus

And about peace in the Middle East

Like he wants us to pour out our hearts and pray to him

And he doesn't just want us to do it by ourselves

He wants us to do it as part of our common life

That's so wonderful

And the fifth mark is just the end of that little section

If you put it up, the fifth mark is a life of humble prayer and witness

That the Lord uses to bring people to himself

I mean, we have lots of empty chairs here

But let me tell you, if for some reason God did a wonderful work

And every single chair here was filled

I would say to the wardens, go out and get some empty chairs

Because we always want to have room for one more person

If you have a small group, you have empty chairs

And hope that it gets so big we have to have more groups

Like we always want to have more

God is continuing to call people, ordinary people, to himself

Let's stand, please stand

Let's pray

Father, we give you thanks and praise that you reached out to us and called us

That you called me

Worthy as I am

You called me to be your son

By adoption and grace

And many, maybe all of us who are here or who are watching online

Father, that you've called us to yourself

Father, we give you thanks and praise for your great love and kindness to us

And we thank and praise you, Father

That when we put our faith and trust in Jesus

You take us to yourself

We belong to you

As your son, your daughter, your friend

That you live within us

You forgive us of our sins

You give us this new life that will

Survive death and go into the new heaven and the new earth

And that you put these seeds within us, Father

These quests within us to continue to hear your voice

And speak to us so that we have your wisdom and insight for living

And that you put within us a desire to have a common life with our brothers and sisters

And to remember Jesus and to feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving

And to join together in prayer for ourselves and each other's needs and for the needs of the world

And Father, we give you thanks and praise that these are the marks of the church

And that you use us as worthy as we are in evangelism

And we ask, Father, that you would grow these

These streams

These propulsions within us

And that you would help us to live them wisely

And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior

Amen

Amen