The First Church

We will, of course, be continuing our study in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

If you'd like a sermon outline you didn't get one just raise your hand.

Our ushers are happy to hand you one.

We are in Acts, chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

If you brought a Bible, you can turn there and follow along.

In the passage we'll look at today In Acts, chapter 2, we see the birth of the church following the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That's what I want to focus on today.

The first church, the early church, can tell us so many things about how to be a church.

The initial inauguration its birth is just amazing to me.

Immigration its birth is just amazing to me.

We'll just try to probe the depths of, really through the book of Acts, how the church operated, how they exploded in the first century under very difficult circumstances.

Let me read the passage and then we'll get a start on the birth of the church.

This morning I'm going to begin in Acts, chapter 2, right after Peter's sermon, verse 36, he ends it by saying Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do?

Peter said Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off.

As many as the Lord, our God, will call to himself.

And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying Be saved from this perverse generation.

So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have a need.

And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

Wow.

Luke's description of the church's beginning tells us three important things.

First, it shows us a picture of what the church of Jesus is.

Second, he shows us a template for what the church of Jesus does.

And third, he gives us the vision for why the church exists.

Those three things we're going to look at today.

First of all, the word church is not mentioned in this passage.

Initially, people didn't know what to call these strange people Brand new, brand new, brand new, brand new.

Something happened.

They didn't know what to call them.

They didn't even know what to call themselves together.

The church initially had no name.

Luke, who writes Acts, and the Gospel of Luke doesn't begin to refer to these people described in this passage as the church, until chapter 5.

We'll get to chapter 5 and you'll see it.

But it isn't until chapter 11 that people started calling this strange group Christians, meaning they followed Christ, the Christ way of life.

That's why they called them Christians.

But looking at the birth of the church, we need to understand.

Luke helps us by giving a picture of what the church is.

The first thing to see is that the church does not refer to a building.

Pretty obvious the church refers to a certain group of people.

The Greek word for church is maybe you've heard it ekklesia, and it simply means an assembly of people.

In the first century ekklesia could refer to any group of people meeting together.

First century ecclesia could refer to any group of people meeting together.

But very soon Christ followers began to call themselves the ecclesia, the assembly, and when they gathered together and ecclesia, as time went on, gradually took on this narrow technical meeting for Christians who are assembled together, the church.

Here's the ecclesia of the workday Christians at West Sub, some of them you may know.

The church began when a group of Jewish people heard Peter's sermon about Jesus' death and resurrection, were pierced to the heart when they recognized their sin against God and asked what shall we do?

Peter said repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Luke tells us that when those people received that word, they were baptized and the church was born.

The Holy Spirit was given to them and they started meeting together.

The birth of the church shows us what the church of Jesus Christ is by showing us who these people are.

The first church was made up of individual people.

Peter says let each of you do this Repent to be baptized.

Individual people who are forgiven because they believed in Jesus as their Savior.

Second, the church is made up of individual people who are forgiven because they believed in Jesus as their Savior.

Second, the church is made up of individual people who have received and been filled with the Holy Spirit because they believed in Jesus.

Third, the church is made up of individual people who testify to their faith in Jesus by being baptized.

Those three elements, you see, are who these people are that have now gathered together in an assembly, in an ecclesia forgiven, filled with the Spirit, baptized, identifying their lives with Jesus.

And then it says those who received Peter's word about Jesus and were baptized.

And then it says those who received Peter's word about Jesus and were baptized.

I love this.

They were added to the assembly 3,000 people added who believed in Jesus, were forgiven, filled with the Spirit and were baptized.

Added means you've got to think in terms of assembly.

We tend to in our individualized culture.

It's all you know.

We're just independent.

And this passage, as well as through the book of Acts, we need to see ourselves together.

The word added means that when these individual believers were baptized, believed that Jesus was baptized and came together, they were part of something greater than they were singularly believers, something greater.

When they gathered together, the presence of the Holy Spirit and here's the key in each individual believer, when assembled together, created something new.

When assembled together, they became God's dwelling place on earth and continues to be that way.

The rest of the New Testament actually flushes out a lot of the theology of the church In Peter's writings.

We've heard some of his passages today, and Paul especially talks about what the church is, what's happening, what do we do when we gather together?

Ephesians 2, great passage, verses 18 to 22,.

Paul says for through him, jesus, we both and he's talking about Jews and Gentiles we both have our access to one spirit, to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together, into a dwelling of God in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, running through each of our hearts when we assemble together.

There's something greater that happens.

When we're together, the Holy Spirit makes itself, makes us into a temple, a dwelling place of God.

It's using the metaphor of the temple, a building In Acts 2.44,.

Notice and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common when the early church assembled together as the dwelling place of God.

The first church, as Luke continues, gives us what I call a template for what the church does next, what the church does when they gather together.

And when the church assembled together, luke gives us one word to describe what they were doing, and that word is devoted, devoted.

They were devoted, acts 2.42,.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

I'm going to break that down.

But in the Bible the word get this, this is you, get this and the rest of the Christian life flows out easily.

Or understanding doesn't flow out easily, understanding it flows out easily.

The word devoted in the Bible means to give something away.

This means that in English too, if we devote something, it means we set it aside for something else, some other special purpose that's devoted.

It's devoted to that.

This is an extremely important word in this passage.

Don't miss it.

It's highlighted in Greek.

I mean, it's like this is the emphasis of this passage.

So to devote it means you set something aside.

What were these individuals in the first church giving away?

Setting aside?

They were giving themselves away.

Look at 242 again.

They were continually devoting themselves to this, this, this and this.

Let that thought just be absorbed into your heart and mind as we go through this message.

I mean, I've thought about this a lot and I'm like, wow.

First, they were giving themselves away to the apostles' teaching.

What did they teach?

Well, we know the apostles teaching.

Really, they were teaching them the Word of God.

We saw it in Peter's sermon.

That's what he was doing.

Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, and they were more than likely teaching them what Jesus had taught them in the Gospels.

They taught them how the Hebrew Scriptures this is what Peter of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus.

Everything about him being devoted meant they were listening to what the Word of God said and how it applied to them.

Notice that it's first on that list, devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching First on the list of the things they were doing when assembled.

To me that may indicate a priority.

It always has been in my life, the preaching and teaching of the Word of God is absolutely at the top of why I want to be assembled together with other believers and I'm telling you it's a priority in this church and I'm telling you it's a priority in this church.

You don't have to be here very long to catch that.

Second, not only were they giving themselves away to the apostles' teaching, they were also giving themselves away to fellowship with other believers.

The Greek word for fellowship maybe some of you know koinonia.

It's a great word.

It means sharing.

I mean participating and partaking with others.

It means they were giving themselves away to each other and that's why verse 44, chapter 2, says they, those who believe, were together and they had all things in common.

They were giving themselves away to each other.

They were had everything in common and gave to anyone in need.

And I got to tell you if you read some of the ancient literature, the commentators make mention of this when they started doing that giving away to people in need this was not received well in their culture.

Because in the ancient, the first century culture, this is a real sticking point, because usually it was people in power who were most offended by Christianity and they saw this as a power move.

They couldn't stand it.

Lucian, an early Greek philosopher and a huge opponent of Christianity, tells us why so many of the nobility were offended.

Talking about Jesus, he said their founder taught them that they should be like brothers to one another and therefore they despise their own privacy and view their possessions as common property.

Horrors In Acts 2,.

Instead of being selfish with what they had, they thought in terms of the assembly, the ecclesia, who needs something?

Who needs what?

Christians shared what they had with one another and also to those in need.

By the way, this was not literal communism, as sometimes people accuse it of.

They didn't give their assets to a common purse and then get a salary from a central committee, but it was a kind of spiritual communalism.

Basically, it was a radical unselfishness with what they had and guess where that came from?

Being filled with the Spirit Joining them together.

Why were they like that?

Because Jesus radically transformed their identities.

When they believed in him, they became new creatures.

They weren't just individual believers trying to get their own life straightened out.

They were family, now Brothers and sisters in God's household.

Now that's what a family is and that's what a family does.

They give themselves to each other.

Again, we run smack into that in our very individualized, independent thinking that the culture has conformed us to, but nonetheless it was a fixture.

It was a common characteristic of the first church.

That's how it started.

Third, they were giving themselves away to the Apostles teaching.

They were giving themselves away to the fellowship, to each other, and they were giving themselves away to the breaking of bread.

The early Christians would often not only worship together and assembly together.

They would eat meals together, life together, but in the meal, in the context of the meal.

That's where they would celebrate communion together, like we do, only in the context of a meal.

In Acts 2.46, we see this described day by day.

They were continuing with one mind in the temple, in the worship together in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

They're taking their meals together with gladness, sincerity of heart.

The breaking of bread came to refer to what we now call communion, the Lord's table.

Why?

Because it was beginning with the bread that Jesus gave them a picture of what he was going to do when Jesus broke the bread with his disciples at the Last Supper.

It was pointing to him his body being broken for them as a sacrifice for their sins.

Well, jesus told them to remember that.

Well, they're going to remember that.

So, breaking of bread together stood out to Luke.

By the way, specifically, who's writing this?

Because of what he said in Luke 24, the eyewitness testimony of the two on the road to Emmaus.

They didn't know Jesus was walking with them and talking with them.

And then they sat down to eat.

And then, when Jesus broke the bread, it's Jesus.

Oh yeah, luke wanted to make sure we understood.

The early church is breaking bread together.

Jesus' presence is with them when they do.

Luke 24, he says when Jesus had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread Blessed.

This is just funny to me, because here's resurrected Jesus sitting down to two disciples who don't recognize him, but all he has to do is break the bread and give it to them.

That's it For Client Sam breaking it.

He began giving it to them.

Their eyes were open, they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

They broke bread together.

Fourth thing they were doing is they were giving themselves away to prayer together, which, if you have been following us the elders specifically has pinpointed.

We want to do more of that together as the assembly this year, because that's what they did.

Prayer was part of their worship together.

You might ask well, what did they pray for?

Same thing do you and I pray for?

A main part of their prayer, we see in verse 46 and 47, was they were praising God Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house.

They were taking their meals together.

Gladness and sincerity.

I'm going to repeat this verse like 20 more times, so by that time we should all have it memorized.

But look at verse 47.

Praising God and having favor with all the people, the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

What were they praying for?

They were praising God.

In chapter 3 of Acts, they were praying for people in need of a specific healing.

In Acts chapter 4, they prayed for protection for the assembly.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 12, they interceded for a person in trouble in the church Peter in prison.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

In Acts 12.5, it's interesting.

So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church, by the ecclesia, the gathering, not the individuals, the gathering of the church.

The practices of the early church give us a template for what the church does when it assembles together as the dwelling place of God.

And there we see it.

That's how it started.

When the church did anything together, they were giving themselves a way to do it.

They were devoting themselves to God, to each other and the early church.

One more thing we see in this passage is they were devoted to God's mission for the church.

I'm going to read it again Acts 2, 46, 47.

Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number, those who were being saved.

What was the church doing that allowed the Lord to add to their number?

Good question, I think.

First of all, as a follow-up of Peter's sermon, they were being Jesus' witnesses to people.

They were building relationships with others and sharing the gospel, as Peter tells us.

That's why the church exists.

1 Peter, 2.9, you, church, the assembly area, chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

So that purpose statement, so that here's why we exist, you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you, called you, your testimony, out of darkness into his marvelous light.

They were being Jesus' witnesses, but second here's, I think the power of their witness was seen in this next thing they were living lives that reflected Jesus in every way, in all their relationships, even with their enemies, even with people who took advantage of them, even with people who hated them.

They're living lives that reflected the character, the person of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul says that, being filled with this Holy Spirit, our life will then literally it's like he's using a metaphor will give off the aroma of Jesus, the sweet perfume of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 2, 14 and 15,.

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

You can't do that unless you're walking with the Spirit, unless you're surrendered to the Lord, unless you're focused.

Your eyes are on him and he's directing what you do and say we are fragrance of christ to god, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

That's an amazing metaphor.

People were recognized also as, as they did in acts, chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Uh, when they 4, when the religious leaders are accusing and charging Peter and John for preaching what they're doing.

And here's what it says in Acts 4, 13 about them.

Now, as these religious leaders observed the confidence of Peter and John, they weren't afraid and understood that they were uneducated, untrained men.

They were amazed and began to recognize they must have been with Jesus.

Yeah, they were, and you can tell.

And here's the point.

People will be attracted to Jesus by how we interact with them.

Did you see what it said?

The Christians had favor with all the people.

Why is that?

Because of how they were being treated.

Christians filled with the Holy Spirit will be marked by some very, very beautiful, attractive things when we're together, especially gladness and joy.

The passage says Sincerity, authenticity.

We're the real thing, praising and glorifyingly open to God.

As a result of the beauty and joy they see, it's right.

After that, says the Lord kept adding to their number.

Why is that?

Because wouldn't you want to be something that was beautiful and attractive, or something that was let's go to church?

Or people that were angry or gossiping, all the while stabbing each other in the back.

What kind of church would that be attractive?

No, it would not.

They had favor because of how they related to others.

It was beautiful.

It was something people had never seen.

How could that?

Because they had something they didn't have the holy spirit.

This is a huge challenge for us modern churches.

The early church literally exploded and I believe we're looking at how that happened.

We'll talk more about it as as x goes, you'll see it.

They didn't stop that.

Even when they were put down, persecuted, looted, the church kept growing.

Church isn't going to grow if the assembly isn't growing, if the assembly isn't reflecting it's very reason for existence.

It's the truth.

As a result of the beauty and joy people see, they're going to begin to want it, want what we have, following the first church's example.

To the degree that individual here's what we see in this passage to the degree that individual Christians testify to Jesus, reflect Jesus in their life activities and magnify him when they're together, the Lord will begin to add something beautiful to the assembly of those who are being saved.

What was happening here was absolutely revolutionary.

In the first century People couldn't get their head around it how these people could act this way.

They couldn't get it, but it was beautiful, being filled with the Holy Spirit and giving themselves away unselfishly.

The early Christians, I have to tell you they turned their world upside down.

They literally gradually changed the very culture they lived in.

The idea that you love your enemies instead of killing them came from Jesus, nowhere else.

And the idea that you forgive somebody indefinitely came from Jesus.

That wasn't anywhere out there, but they grabbed it and did it.

It's beautiful, the idea that you should reconcile with your enemies instead of taking revenge.

That came from Christianity the lives of believers within the assembly, the ecclesia.

That's where it came from.

It was not out there.

No culture or religion ever produced that, and historians will tell you and I've read a lot on this that Christians were the ones who started many, many social triumphs.

They're still with us today.

Christians started them.

Other religions talk about taking care of the poor and sick, but there was an energy and a devotedness coming from the early Christians that was unprecedented at the time.

Christians invented hospitals, christians invented orphanages, christians invented relief for the poor and hundreds of other things.

The idea of human rights, that every human being, no matter what race, class, had eternal value and individual human rights came from Christians who lived it and challenged the culture's thinking on it.

Why were the Christians like this?

Because Jesus was like that.

In fact, the night before Jesus died, in the Garden of Gethsemane, jesus prayed a prayer to his Father in front of his disciples, and in it, this is what he prayed to his Father John 17, 16 to 21.

I'm just breaking into it a little bit.

He said, speaking of his disciples to the Father they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

I don't ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that's us, that they may all be one, even as you, father, are in me and I in you.

That they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

When Jesus prayed this for their sakes, father, I sanctify myself.

For their sakes, father, I sanctify myself.

He's saying.

For their sakes, I devote myself, I give myself away.

That's what he's saying.

I sanctify myself for their sake.

The Father sent him into the world to give himself away for us.

Now Jesus said I'm sending them into the world to give themselves away for others so they can believe.

And when Jesus left all his glory and greatness and majesty in heaven, left all his glory and greatness and majesty in heaven, he was taking his hands off his life.

When he was laying his glory by, as the expression goes, he was giving himself away so we could become a beautiful works of grace.

He was becoming of no reputation so we could have a name God gives us from all eternity.

He was losing all love, even his father's, on the cross cross.

He was rejected by everybody so we could be loved by God and live with him forever.

Unselfishly.

Unselfishly, he gave himself away by taking the punishment for our sins on himself.

Well, as you sent me into the world, I'm sending them.

And you know what?

The Christians, the first church, got that and man, the church exploded as they gave themselves away.

Christians began to practice the reason Christ sent them into the world and it was beautiful, beautiful.

What does that mean practically for followers of Jesus today?

It means, if you lay your glory by, like Jesus, it means you're going to help people who are in need.

If you lay your glory by like Jesus, it means you're not going to be condescending of others.

You know we run into different people all the time.

Some people are the time.

Some people are our friends.

We like them.

There are other klutzy people in the world.

There are foolish people in the world.

There are irritating people in the world.

There are people who will not be able to offer you anything, but as a Christian, you were saved because Christ descended to you and gave us the same commission to descend to others.

If you lay your glory by like Jesus, it means when you see people you disagree with politically, religiously and I could go right down the list it means you're not going to leave a nasty comment on social media.

You won't do that.

That's not beautiful.

That's not beautiful.

If you lay your glory by like Jesus, it means you're going to stop worrying about a lot of things, especially your shame, saving your reputation, and you're not going to hold on to your glory in pride.

You're not going to hold on to your glory saying I was right.

You're not going to hold on to your glory and say, if they want peace, let them make the first move.

That's not beautiful or attractive.

I could literally Time's up, I could go another hour, but for my sake and yours, I'm not going to do that so much we're going to.

The book of Acts is just an explosion.

It all starts, though, when these individuals believed in Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and we do the same.

We start there.

We lay down our pride and confess we can't atone for our own sins.

We can't have enough good to please God Ourselves.

We need to place our life by faith in Jesus' hands and to give us eternal life.

And if you've never done that, do it today.

You know why?

Because Peter said in Acts 2.36, therefore, let all Israel be certain of this.

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both the Lord and Messiah.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the miracle of your church.

It's alive in the world today, in large part because of the faithfulness of those who, when they turned to you, they became alive in the world and changed the very culture they lived in over time.

It was beautiful.

People wanted it because it was nowhere near what they were experiencing in their culture.

Thank you that, father.

When we believe in Jesus, you save us, you fill us with your Spirit.

You give us a new identity and a new family, a whole new orientation to life.

Help us to live it out with gratitude.

Help us to be the church and assembly of the Spirit, filled with Christ followers, whose presence in the world attracts many people to Jesus, our Savior.

I pray in his name, amen.