Acts 2:42-27 - Wyatt Allen

Good morning.

As Rick said, if for those who don't know me, my name is Wyatt Allen.

Our passage today will be in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47.

Acts 2:42–47

What does it look like to belong to a local church?

How would you answer that?

Is there a 30-day free trial that we can cancel when we're done so we don't have to pay anything?

Do we add our names to an email list?

Do we just attend once a month, put some money in the black box from time to time?

Do we have to commit to membership formally?

What is expected from church members?

Before we begin, let's pray, asking for the Lord's favor.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you, we honor you, and we thank you for your word.

We thank you for instituting the church, creating this body where we can devote ourselves to one another in love and prayer and fellowship.

Help me to articulate that well.

Help us to see the glory of the church, and help us to strive to live as faithful and generous and kind members to one another.

I pray all of these things, and I ask for your blessing.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Um let's see.

The way that I have uh divided our text for today is there will be context, devotion, uh, the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, and the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So again, we're gonna look at context, devotion, the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

So let's go ahead and read the passage, and I'll deliver to you the main point that I have got from this.

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 to 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 favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

My main point this morning is that the Holy Spirit empowers believers to covenant fellowship.

I'll say it again.

The Holy Spirit empowers believers to covenant fellowship.

Now you may be thinking to yourselves, I don't see the Holy Spirit mentioned in this passage.

So why am I saying the Holy Spirit empowers us to gospel-centered unity in the church, to covenant fellowship?

And that is why I'm dedicating my first point to context.

This will be one of the longer points.

Um, and then the rest, they slowly get shorter.

So uh bear with me.

If you think, wow, this is a really long point, and there's five of them, it won't be as bad as you as you think.

So, looking at the context, Luke, the author of Acts, is presenting a record of the early church after Jesus' ascension.

He covers Jesus' ascension in chapter one, and then the rest of the book is dedicated to what the church looks like, what Paul and the apostles were doing.

There was this ragtag group of about 120 believers, including the apostles, who were gathering together to pray, and a mighty rushing wind filled the house that they were meeting in, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them.

Then something happened.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This mighty wind that came and filled this house was so loud that a multitude of people in the city heard it and came to see what was going on.

Upon arrival they were bewildered, because each one of each one was hearing them speak in his own language, hearing each of the apostles, the the 120 that were gathered there, they heard them speaking in their own native tongue.

They were amazed and perplexed, and said to no said to one another, What does this mean?

But there were some who thought that this amazing spectacle was nothing more than drunken men.

Okay, so at this point, imagine that you are an Israelite or one of the multitude there, gathered, one of the individuals in the multitude gathered there.

And all of a sudden, this man stands up in these dusty streets with thousands of people surrounding him.

Peter begins to say, hear these words, for believers, hear this as a reminder.

For non-believers, listen carefully.

I'll explain at the end of this context.

What does Peter say?

We're not drunk.

It's only 9 a.m.

In fact, it was prophesied in Joel, where it says that in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Men of Israel hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

David knew that one day Jesus would come, one of his descendants, to sit on the throne.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promises of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.

Now when they heard this, and hopefully when you hear this, you will be cut to the heart.

And they said to Peter and set 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.

The determining factor for our passage, the devotion to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers, and what that looks like, is centered on the gospel.

If we don't understand the context of these 3,000 believers, in uh verse 41, it says, So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

And then we go right into our passage.

They devoted themselves to these things.

If they devoted themselves to these things, this list of things that they could say, okay, check, check, check.

I've done this stuff, I'm a good Christian.

Uh world, look at me, I'm a good Christian.

I am saved because I've done, uh I read my Bible, I do these things, that doesn't make you a good Christian.

That doesn't make you a Christian.

What makes you a Christian is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, and if you repent and are baptized, you will be forgiven of those sins.

This is vital for our passage because if we go about our lives trying to live in a way to try and earn our salvation, everything here will not truly happen.

There's not a real devotion to one another if it's just for appearances.

These devotions overflow from the Holy Spirit working in us after we have been forgiven of our sins.

Nobody is saved because of the way they live.

The way that genuine Christians live flows from this Jesus forgiving them and the Holy Spirit empowering them.

Now, if you have not repented and been baptized, then you stand still under the condemnation of God.

So, for those who do not believe, repent and believe and be baptized.

So now we're at our passage.

It says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

And I've divided the text based on that first verse, verse 42.

And so we're gonna start by looking at, and they devoted themselves.

Now, this was not something of little consequence.

These 3,000 have repented and been baptized.

They had set themselves apart, declaring through their baptism that they have died to the world and belong to Christ.

So, what does that have to do with our text?

Three thousand new believers devoted themselves to isolating themselves and never covenanting with any believers.

No, that's absurd.

The believers had taken a massive step of faith by being baptized because it is really, really it because it really, really set them apart in their culture.

In our context, the risk associated with being baptized is almost non-existent.

We don't fear persecution if we have been baptized in America.

But more importantly, for our text, the risk of having the risk that they incurred upon themselves by being baptized, of having to be committed to one another in care and fellowship has diminished.

When the world looks at you having been baptized and devoted yourself to one another, they see you as an enemy, or at least that's the way it used to be.

Today we don't have that.

And so we don't carry the weight of, look at me, church.

If we recognize the impact of that, like they did back here in this passage in that time, that people are going to try and kill you now, or they're not going to like you very much anyway, there's a devotion that comes from that to one another.

That is why in our context, and in for and in like today, and for generations, churches have seen the prudence and the prudence of covenanting together formally.

So I submit to you, a theologian I was talking to earlier this week, his name's Rick Gromlich, said that devotion is essentially synonymous with covenanting together.

That declaring to the world, I am this kind of person, I am a Christian, them seeing that is essentially what we are doing when we sign a covenant.

Yes, we do that.

Baptism and the uh signing the covenant are separate.

They're separate, but they they are distinct, distinctly like one another because of the devotion that they call us to.

So we are baptized and then we devote ourselves not in isolation but in close relationships with brothers and sisters that we know personally.

If you are a member here at Proclamation Church, then you are in a covenant with every other member here.

That's why you signed the church covenant.

That's why they were baptized to show the world we are of one accord.

That's why we partake in communion, that's why they partook in communion, to show that they are of one accord.

And today we have to be more specific and clear, and I'll get to that more later, about what we are of one accord of because of the division that comes in this world and the false teaching that comes in this world.

That's why we signed the church covenant, not so you could serve on the worship team.

No, it was so that you might look at your fellow members who have jointly committed to this covenant to pray for you as you pray for them, to encourage each other, care for each other, rejoice with one another, worship God together.

You, when you sign the church covenant, if you are a member here, you have promised to do these things.

Every member here has promised to confront me if I am living in sin and has an obligation to protect my soul by excommunicating me should I refuse to listen to them.

That's this devotion that I'm talking about.

There has to be a watching out for one another.

And it has to be in unity.

If you have not submitted yourself to a church, then you are not guaranteed that protection.

I like the fact that if I should stray away and be clouded in my judgment, that there are people here who said, Wyatt, I will seek you out.

I will try and correct your path should you stray away.

I don't have that protection if I don't have that covenant.

I have I don't have people who have promised to do that for me.

I don't have that care, that prayer.

To be devoted to one another or to be in covenant with one another is a wonderful thing that God has designed for us.

And so, what did they devote themselves to?

Out of the four things that the believers devoted themselves to, the apostles' teaching is the most important, to which some might say, but the other three are so much more practical, warm-hearted, and loving.

The world has this devilish tendency to try and make people think that we can just know what love is by our experience or what feels right.

Do not fall for this trick, for scripture teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things.

The only reason we know of the other three things they devoted themselves, the only reason they knew of those three things, is because of the apostles' teaching.

A child must receive instruction and teaching in order to learn what is right.

In the same way, the Spirit empowers us to obey God's instructions and teachings so that we may grow to love it more and more.

But what all does the apostles' teaching include?

Well, it those three things we just talked about, and everything that Jesus taught the apostles, including the confirmation of their teaching.

The apostles' authority was confirmed by the signs and wonders that they were doing.

Acts 2, 43, verse 43.

And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Why is this important?

Well, in order to put our faith in what the apostles are teaching, some people say, well, we we only need to know what Jesus taught us.

We only need to need to see what Jesus taught us.

Well, Jesus taught them, and then God confirmed their teaching through their miracles that they performed all throughout the book of Acts.

The same way that Jesus was confirmed when he gave his Sermon on the Mount.

He gave three chapters of detailed teaching and instruction.

Sorry, I want to make sure I'm not jumping the gun.

Yeah, sorry.

And it uh detailed instruction instruction in in the Sermon on the Mount, and then in the following chapter, chapter nine, there were five miracles Jesus performed just in chapter nine, and there's more after that.

All of these things to say, I have God's seal of approval on my teaching.

Jesus taught with an authority that is unique, given to him by God.

And in the same way, the apostles had that same authority in their teaching.

And so the the believers here devoted themselves to that teaching.

Now, the the three things that they were taught, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers, before we look closer at these three things, it is important to acknowledge that these believers were united in their beliefs.

There's certainly no indication that the believers at this point divided, that were divided in their beliefs, though we know division will appear in the church as we see Paul take up much of the New Testament to address division in the church.

However, this first picture of the church was special in that it was so close to the teachings of Jesus through the apostles that it was much easier to be unified in what they believed.

Nowadays, so our application is we have creeds and confessions that help us to be unified.

People will say, well, those are not scripture.

We have scripture that tells us what to believe.

Well, certain people believe certain things about scripture and interpret it incorrectly.

Throughout church history, we have seen there have been those who taught beliefs that were not in accordance with scripture.

These heresies.

Were combated by believers who were devoted to Scripture and not sorry and renounced those who denied the Trinity, said that Jesus was not God and man, taught that you must be circumcised in order to be saved.

It is important to understand that orthodoxy throughout history is not somebody saying, I'm going to write clearly what we believe because nobody knows.

It's to say, these people are coming into the church and trying to say, this is what this means, that Jesus is not God, that you have to work in order to be saved.

These orthodoxies that we believe in and that we trust in as an interpretation of Scripture are in a direct response to false teaching.

And so today we devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching.

We clarify what we think that means by agreeing on a church covenant and uh creeds and confessions.

Jesus instructs the apostles to ask for a confession upon believers' baptism.

So it's not just something we do now, but uh in Matthew 28, 19 through 20, Jesus says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

So there's a clear uh distinction, a clear teaching.

This is what they must be baptized in, the whole the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

If they are baptized in any other name, it's not good.

Jesus said this.

And so we learn from Jesus.

We make uh creeds and confessions that clarify what our understanding is of something like the Trinity.

So a clear statement detailing our joint understanding of the scriptures helps us to be unified.

It is a matter of prudence that believers must affirm a statement of faith in order to become a member.

How else could we be unified in our devotion and be able to fellowship with one another?

So devoted to the apostles' teaching.

Next, they devoted themselves to the fellowship.

So flowing from the apostles' teaching comes the believer's devotion to the fellowship.

So what was the fellowship?

The Greek word basically means fellowship.

But there's a little bit more uh distinction there.

It it means participation or sharing.

And so members of Proclamation Church, uh, we are supposed to participate and share with one another.

And what does that look like?

Verse 44 says, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling, and then uh verse 45, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

Now, this is not like communism, because there's no compulsion to this lifestyle.

You don't have to do that.

However, in their covenanting together, their devotion to one another, they look for the needs of their fellow brothers and sisters.

They are in each other's lives to the point that they can see their brothers and sisters' needs.

They regard one another's needs as more valuable and pressing than their own.

So, if you are a member here, spend time with one another.

Actually, you guys do a pretty good job of that.

Uh, whether it's with CG or going out and getting coffee or having people over for dinner and different things.

Proclamation Church, you do a good job of this.

Um, and I commend you for that.

Be encouraged.

Um but if you're not doing that, uh feel the weight that you have this obligation to do that.

And so by the Holy the power of the Holy Spirit, we can think of somebody else more highly than ourselves.

One more note on fellowship.

If you are a member, you have covenanted with all of the other members.

If you are a member, you have covenanted with all the other members.

The reason I stress this is we must watch that we do not gravitate towards members that think and act like we do.

It's okay to do that some, but if that's all we're doing, if we're only going and spending time with people our same age, in our same situation, and all these different things, that's no different than the world.

That's exactly what everyone else in the world does.

But here we have a Holy Spirit-empowered distinction that enables us to love people who are not like us, to love people who are weird and different than us, and yet they put their faith in Jesus Christ.

They have repented and been baptized just like us, and so we praise God and we glorify in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit alongside of them, caring for their needs, knowing them well.

And you cannot do that if you have not devoted yourself to them, to one another and covenanted together.

Well, sorry, you can do that.

Um, but there is an obligation to that if you have covenanted together.

And next we have the breaking of bread.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Breaking bread together and praying, I kind of mixed prayer in here a little bit, are a lot more straightforward than the apostles' teaching and the fellowship.

Because the culture the cultural gap for us it's a lot less.

Everybody knows what eating together is, what breaking bread together is.

Here, there is a little bit of nuance with breaking of bread because it likely is uh what this meant is that they practiced communion, um, but it also included having meals together.

So if you are a member here, then you know what communion is, and everyone here knows what it means to have meals together.

In fact, this is an area where a lot of churches do well.

Uh I already commended you for that.

Jump the gun.

Um I think this is an easier one of the devotions because we all have to eat anyway.

So it's not that big of a step to say, hey, come over and eat with me.

But I do recognize that I am more of an extrovert.

I like being with other people.

So for some, it may be a lot harder for the social aspect alone in just breaking bread with one another, going to people's houses, being around people can be very challenging, I know, for those types of people.

But there's still an obligation to do that.

Maybe you do it on a smaller scale if that is a struggle for you.

However, it's not exactly that simple.

People sin and have past sins that could make inviting someone into your home a lot more challenging.

Acts 20, verse 7.

Acts 20:7

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

Paul used to be Christian's number one enemy, and now they're inviting him into their homes.

It would be very challenging to invite somebody into my home if I knew that they had personally sought out the destruction of my family.

Or had to make that shift and recognize once again that if if it is true repentance and true belief, and they have submitted themselves to the church, and the church affirms them, it is a it is a unique thing that we can invite former uh murderers, rapists, uh thieves, um just outright wicked, prideful people who think they're the best in the world.

If they used to be that way and we knew them in that past life or cheaters, whatever, and then they are saved, then we can rejoice in that and we can invite them into our homes again.

Sanctification takes time, so be be prudent in that, be wise in that.

Um learn from the church.

They they loved one another, they were devoting themselves to one another uh in this amazing way.

And finally, uh we come to um the apostles' devotion or the devotion to the prayers.

So these 3,000 devoted themselves to the prayers, and there are three things here that the prayers could mean.

One, specific prayers, like the Psalms or the Lord's Supper, two, individual prayers, where we pray for one another or for each other, by ourselves and our at our homes and whatnot, and corporate prayers, like our prayer of confession or the prayer of praise that we do here at church.

I think that the individual prayers and corporate prayers that we see in this passage are the main focus of this text.

Because once again, when we covenant together or devote ourselves to one another, we have an obligation to those we have covenanted with.

If you are a member here, once again, you have a responsibility to pray for the other members here.

I'm not saying that we should not pray for other believers who are not members.

But your obligation lies primarily in praying for members you are in covenant with.

You will not be held accountable if you aren't praying for believers that go to a different church.

But you will be held accountable if you don't pray for the members you have covenanted with, who you have said, I promise that I will be praying for you and watching over you.

So, what is the upshot of all of this?

Yes, they devoted themselves to these things, out of the overflowing of the Holy Spirit saving them.

Verses 46 and 47, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they receive their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God.

So that's a huge benefit, is that we get to praise God together, and that we have encouragement with one another to praise God.

And then we have favor with all people.

The world sees the church operating.

If a church is operating in this way, by this example of the first church, that we devote ourselves to one another, it looks different.

It looks really different than the world, or at least it ought to.

And then the world should say, What in the world is going on with these people?

Why are they selling their stuff and giving it to one another?

Why are they constantly going to each other's house and houses and praying and fellowshipping in the Word and doing all these things?

Why is this uh 15-year-old spending time being discipled by a 65-year-old that they they just met?

How am I able to look at somebody who comes into here, becomes a member in a short time, and I say, I love that person because I have promised to covenant with them, because they are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's unique.

People of this world are distrusting.

Christians should be loving and committed and covenanted with one another.

And that is a great value of church membership, of covenanting together, devoting ourselves to one another.

And then at the end of our verse, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

We believe sorry, all of this outflowing that the the 3,000 had is empowered by the Holy Spirit, not in the same way as uh the 120, because the 120 received the ability to speak in tongues.

Uh, different languages is what it means.

Lots of different languages.

What we get is we get this ability, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers, to have all come upon us that we may have all things in common, selling our possessions for one another, caring for one another, praying for one another, attending the temple or uh going into each other's homes, loving one another in this unique way.

And so, in closing, I'm going to look at Proclamation Church's covenant as a reminder for those who are covenanted together as to what we have promised to do for one another so that we're not thinking, well, I'm a member so I get to vote.

I'm a member so I can serve on the worship team if I want to.

I'm a member so I can uh do nursery.

I think that's one.

Um, those those things are those are such small byproducts of I get to love you guys so intimately, and and just be encouraged by your guys' prayers for me and my prayers for you, and and so on and so forth.

And so rem listen to our church covenant um and be reminded.

And if you are not a member, hear what you're missing out on.

Okay.

So the tag right before it says, We believe the most helpful way we can serve and love one another as a local church is to be clear about what we believe and clear about our commitment to one another.

We do this by holding to the statement of faith and agreeing to the same membership covenant.

This membership covenant says, having, as we trust, been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give up ourselves to him, and having been baptized upon our profession of faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on his gracious aid, solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with one another.

We will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We will walk together in brotherly love, as members of a Christian church, exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other, and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion may arise require.

We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others.

We will endeavor to lead those in our care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as well as seek the salvation of our family and friends.

We will rejoice at each other's happiness and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows.

We will carefully in the world, we will live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, as it is our symbolic burial and resurrection in baptism that testifies to this special obligation to live a new and holy life.

We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines.

We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

We will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.

Look to the benefit of church membership if you are not.

And members, rejoice in what you have get to do with fellow like-minded people who have been washed by the blood of Jesus, who have received the Holy Spirit, and you get to pray for them, love them, go to church with them, worship God in song with them, listen to uh preaching with them, and break bread with one another in each other's homes.

That is what church being a church member looks like.

Loving each other in covenant commitment.

Please pray with me.