We Love Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. We've entitled this sermon series, Home Sweet Home. We're spending five weeks just looking at the church, looking who the church is, what are the characteristics of the church, if you find God's people on earth, what do they look like, how ought they to organize themselves, and that's what we've been spending some time doing. So we're in our second week.
Last week, what we said was the church is the church through Jesus' work on its behalf. The church is people. It's God's people on earth. The church is all of the people throughout all of history who have ever believed in Jesus. So when you talk about the church, you're talking about all Christians everywhere, around the globe and throughout all history who have believed in Jesus, and then each local church is made up of those people, a group of those people.
And the church, we would be tempted to say that the church is a group of people who do this, have these certain characteristics, act this way, behave a certain way, follow a certain set of rules, follow the Bible, whatever. We would be tempted to say that. So it's people's actions first, and that's what makes them the church. But when you start reading the Bible, and we looked in Ephesians 1 and 2, what we saw was the churches made the church by Jesus, that it was his actions on behalf of the church, on behalf of his people, that actually makes them the church, that he died for their sins, that he welcomes them, that he adopts them, that he accomplishes everything for them.
So we said it's kind of like a family. So here's how this works. You have the genetic makeup that you have. You have the last name that you have based off of the actions of other people, not off of your actions. You're in the family you're in based off of other people's actions. So, I don't know, a hundred years ago, there was a young lady.
She worked at a bookstore. There was a young man. And he had what they would have said a hundred years ago, mad game. And he came to the bookstore, and he began to talk with her, to flirt with her. They met at a train station. They grew up in school together.
They met in college. They grew up, their families lived next door. It doesn't matter. Everybody's got these different stories. But there's these people that came together.
And about the same time, there were some other people that met and came together. And both of those people around the same time-ish, within 20 to 30 years of each other, had children. And then those people grew up and met each other at a bookstore or a train station or the internet, whatever. And eventually, you have what we have now, which is a certain genetic build, a certain genetic makeup, a certain last name. And it's based solely off of the effort, energy, work of somebody else. And that's the church, that we're the church, that Christians are Christians based off of what Jesus has already done, based off of what he accomplished for us on the cross.
You wouldn't have Christians without Christ. I know that seems complex, but it's pretty straightforward. Without Jesus, there is no church, because the church is his people on earth. And so, what we're going to talk about today is, though, what does the church begin to look like? If there are Christians made so by Jesus' effort, made so by Jesus' work, what do they look like? What are the characteristics?
What are the attributes that if you went across the globe, if you went back in time, if you looked at any given church, what are the things that automatically begin to show up because they belong to Jesus? So, one of the ways to think about this, if we're still kind of following the family idea, is on my dad's side, he's got a brother. My uncle and my aunt, they have four children. Three of them are boys. One of them is a girl. And in that family, because of the genetic makeup, because of the genes they have, because of the upbringing, if you're one of their children, you're tall, you're sarcastic, like aggressively so, you're just kind of aggressive in general, and you're fairly good at sports.
Like, that's just kind of their children fit that category. So, even my cousin Cindy, who's a girl, she's tall for a girl, she's sarcastic, and she's, you know, good at sports for a girl. I just said that to annoy some people. I was just for my own enjoyment. So, I'm sorry. But, she, that's just what it is.
That's how it works. And it has to do with their genes, and it has to do with their upbringing. It has to do with the parents they had, the situations where they lived. I'm like, it has all these things to do with that. And there are just certain qualities and characteristics that are just going to come through their DNA they had no real choice about. That's the church.
That when we become Christians, when Jesus works on your behalf, and you see what he's accomplished for you on the cross, and you place your faith in him, and what we read last week, the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in you, it's like you have new DNA. You've been made new. The Bible says you've been born again. You've been welcomed into a new family. And so you have a new father and some new DNA, and the church begins to look like the church across the globe, regardless of language, regardless of culture. There are certain things that are just going to be there.
Now, this is very important for us to understand before we start reading this text today. If you are tall and sarcastic and athletic, that does not make you my cousin. They don't recruit. Like, they don't just meet people and be like, hey, you're tall. I saw you using your words to hurt that person's feelings. Want to be my brother?
Like, they don't do that. My uncle's not like, I think I met one of my sons today. No, like, he knows. So here's what I'm saying, and here's what the Bible says very clearly. We're going to look at what are the characteristics, what are the attributes of the church? If you're going, okay, I want to be a Christian, or I see that in my life I don't have any of those, the response is not, let me start doing those.
The response is, let me have Jesus make me part of his family. You go to Jesus first. He's got to adopt you. He's got to pay for your sins. He's got to make you one of his before those characteristics will start showing up. So you don't just white knuckle, okay, let me do all the actions.
Just the same with, like, growing up in my house. You know, I had to cut the grass. I slept in my house. I had to eat at a tape pool with my family at a certain time. If you just showed up, cut my grass, showed up to dinner, slept in my house, the next day you looked at my dad and you were like, hey, daddy. He'd have been like, boy, what are you doing?
Like, who are you? Get out of here. Like, just because you do the actions doesn't make you a son. It doesn't make you a daughter. And so what you've got to realize, and Jesus puts it this way, he says that you don't get figs from a thistle bush, which is basically like nobody's ever picked a peach from a pine tree. So if we go through this today and you start realizing you don't have the characteristics, you don't have the attributes, you're like, oh, I'm a peach tree.
I'm a peach tree. And it's like, why are you making pine cones? Like, those peaches are the worst, crunchiest, most terrible peaches. I'm a peach tree. I'm just really tall and I throw needles everywhere. And during a certain time of the year, I throw yellow dust everywhere onto all the cars, you know, like all the other peach trees.
Like, if you realize that, the response isn't start really trying hard to make peaches. The response is, go to Jesus. Say, hey, I need you to dig me up. I need you to plant a new tree here. Okay? So, now let's look at what are the characteristics of the church.
Go to Acts chapter 2. In your blue and white Bibles, that's going to be on page, we're going to be on page 592. Acts chapter 2. So what this is, is Jesus has already died. He's already taken disciples and trained them on what it looked like to follow him. And then he dies to pay for sin because it wasn't just about following him.
He actually needed a sacrifice on our behalf. We needed someone to die for us. So Jesus dies and then he rises again from the grave. And when he rises, he goes back to his disciples and he says, okay, what we were doing already, I need you to keep doing. And I need you to tell people that there has been a sacrifice, that they can be saved, that there is hope. I need you to go be my people, be my church.
And so what we're going to read is the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 2. And here's what we're seeing. It's kind of like flipping through an old photo album and realizing that your great, great, great granddad has your sister's, wait, no, granddad, that would be weird, has your brother's face. Or your brother has your great, great, great granddad's face. Maybe he's your sister. Maybe she's, you know, got some really strong features.
Or he has some soft ones. Like you don't know. Your granddad, you realize, whoa, y'all's faces are the same. Like we look the same. That's what we're doing. We're looking back at the church and saying, what are the characteristics that we see that are typical, that are the attributes of all of the church throughout time and history?
If you went to Botswana, you would see this. If you went back in time 300 years, you would see this. Like you would see this in the church. That's what we're looking at, in Christians. And so as a Christian today, if you're in here, you're just basically asking this question, how do I see this showing up in my life? Where is this in me?
Where is this in our church? And we are going to talk about what we see in this passage and then we'll reference other passages just to try to help make it clear. And so we'll be a little more all over the place than we usually are, but we'll stay in here in our Bibles and show stuff on the screen. And we'll pray and we're going to start reading. God, we thank you that we have your word. We thank you that your Holy Spirit leads us from the inside out, that you begin to change us and make us yours.
I pray, Lord, that you would shape us as a church, as your people, to live out what it means, what it looks like to be your people on earth. And I pray, Lord, that you would claim more people for yourself today, that more people would respond to your love, that more people would respond to what you've accomplished on the cross today, and that more people would be a part of your church today. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so Peter is one of Jesus' followers, and this is the Holy Spirit comes on Peter and on all of the other disciples and indwells them, and Peter begins to proclaim.
He opens the Bible, begins to teach, he begins to quote Scripture and preach to about thousands of people. There's just a giant crowd, and so we're going to pick up in verse 37 where he's finishing up what he's been saying. And what he's been saying is, in the Old Testament, it is clear that Jesus fulfills these prophecies and that Jesus is who he says he was. He is God who died for our sins, and we're going to pick up where he finishes. And what we're looking for is what are the characteristics that begin to immediately show up in the church that ought to show up in us. Verse 36, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
So Peter finishes by saying, Jesus who was crucified, who died for your sins in your place, is Lord and Christ. He is the one who was promised who would save us. And he's Lord, he's in charge. Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? The first characteristic that is absolutely first and foremost in the church is that the church, that Christians love Jesus.
That's the first characteristic. That the church, that Christians are cut to the heart by Jesus and they love Jesus. That they see what he accomplished for them on the cross. And there's this love, this response to Jesus' love for us. That the Christians in the church respond by loving Jesus. And so here's what that means for us.
1 John 4 says that it's God that loves us and that we respond in love. Like that we didn't love him first, but he loved us first. Went to the cross for us. That he redeemed us to make us his and that we love in response. Matthew 22, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. He says that's the primary thing, that we would love God.
Now, you can't always feel lovey. Like some of us hear that. You hear that you should love God. And there's like, maybe the room's like half and half. Half of the room is like, yes. Love God.
I do that. I do that right now. Like half of the room, like you talk to them and you're like, hey, how's it going? How are you and Jesus? And they're like, oh, wonderful. I've just been reading my Bible and it was like, I felt today like God gave me a hug.
People, it's like, that's beautiful. I'm probably not going to say that to you if you ask me how things are going. Like, it's like, I just don't, I don't feel my way through life. I'm not emotioning around everywhere. And so there's this thing when we see, like, you should love God and there's this immediate like, for half of us that are like, I don't know how to do that. I agree.
That sounds good. But how do you do that? Like, how do you, and so you just, it's almost like you try to force yourself to feel a feeling. Which is really hard. Like, all right, make yourself hungry right now. If you're not hungry, unhungry yourself.
Nope. Or if you are hungry, unhungry yourself. If you're not hungry, well done. You already unhungried yourself. I just got confusing. It wasn't helpful.
You can't make yourself feel a feeling. That's what I was going for. All right. Nailed it. But you can't.
Like, how do you produce that? And so here's where the Bible actually steps in and helps us out a lot. Just makes it much easier on us. John 14. This quote will be on the screen. John 14 says this.
If you love me, this is Jesus talking to his disciples. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Another place he says, if you love me, you'll obey me. Now, I used to read that and think, like, oh, I got to do what you say and then I'll be in the club. Like, that's, that's the, if you love me, do what I say. Like, and it used to bother me until I realized that I have a hard time feeling like I love Jesus.
Like, that happens sometimes. But what it made so clear to me was, what he's saying is, not if you commit, if you do my commandments, you'll love me. This is the other way around. If you love me, like, if you have that characteristic, you'll do this. And it'll be easy. And that makes sense.
It's like saying, if you trust me, you'll do what I say. So there are some people in your life that you just, when a situation comes up, you're like, I just need to call them. I need to talk to them. And you basically just show up to them and say, hey, what should I do here? And you're just going to do what they say. You already know you're going to do what they say because you trust them.
You believe that what they're going to say and they'll say, you should do this. And you go, all right, sounds good. And it depends on how much you trust them as to how willing you're able to do that. What he's saying is, if you love me, and so for people who don't feel lovey, we get to obey. And that's how we show Jesus that we love him. We get to do, we get to read what he says and do it.
And that's one of the ways that we get to say, no, I love you. Be the same way if I said, oh, I love my wife. I love her. I mean, I don't, I hadn't seen her in a while. I don't really hang out with her anymore. Or I hadn't done any of that husband stuff recently.
Like, talk to her or help her do anything. You'd be like, I don't know how much you like. Did she leave? Like, or why is there? No, she's there. She's probably crying.
I'm not there. I don't know what she's doing. Like you, like it shows up. Like you would say, I don't think you, do you know what the word love means? Like you're supposed to, like there's some things that go along with, whatever. That's what Jesus is saying.
If you love me, this will show up. If you love me, you'll obey me. Let me, I'm going to read a quote from C.S. Lewis because he's addressing this. And I think it's really helpful. They are told as Christians that they ought to love God.
They cannot find any such feelings in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, if I were sure I loved God, what would I do?
When you have found the answer, go and do it. On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him. Nobody can always have devout feelings. And even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do his will, we are obeying the commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
He will give us feelings of love if he pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins or our indifference. And therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him. We just get to follow and remember forever that he loves us.
But one of the first traits, characteristics that you'll see in the church is a love for Jesus, shown in an appreciation of Jesus, shown in an obedience to Jesus. And when you find a church that is a church that is Christians, you'll find people singing to Jesus, you'll find people praying to Jesus, you'll find people preaching about Jesus, you'll find people gathering on a regular basis to remind themselves what he's done for them and to celebrate that it's already been accomplished because they love Jesus. And so the first thing that we see right out the gate is that they're cut to the heart by Jesus. And let's keep reading.
We'll move on to the next characteristic that you're going to see. So Christians love Jesus. The church loves Jesus. Verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they 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. Okay. Peter says repent. Repent means stop sinning. Acknowledge where you're wrong and turn away from that. Put it down.
Acknowledge that you need Jesus to save you, that you can't save yourself. Confess that and leave it. Turn away from your sin and come to Jesus. So he says repent. The second thing that we see that is true about the church is that the church hates sin. Christians hate sin. hatred comes from love.
Just so y'all know. Hatred comes out of love. The only reason you hate things is because you love something else. If you've ever met a person who truly hated, it first was born out of love. It came out of love. So let's say after the gathering today, we're hanging out.
I got a one-year-old son. His name's Archer. He comes running up and like hits your leg and you take offense because what the heck is he trying to do? So you just, I don't know, slap him in the face. He falls on the ground. My wife's there and she's like, comes at you, you know, like her eyes turn to fire and she assaults you and you push her down.
Then I'm going to come over there and you know what I'm going to say? I'm going to go, hey, you probably shouldn't hit children. And that was my wife. You should quit kicking her. You're hurting her. Like, no, that's not what's going to happen.
You and I are going to have an interaction because I love, because I love them. I'm going to hate anything that hurts them because I love them. I'm going to hate anything that comes against them. So Christians who love Jesus hate our sin because our sin killed Jesus. It was our sin that sent Jesus to the cross. It was our sin, our failure, our rebellion that he had to come pay for.
Christians hate sin. If there was a weapon that killed your brother, there was a gun that somebody shot your brother with, you wouldn't take it to your house and hang it over your mantle and people came over and said, what is that? You say, oh, it's the gun that killed my brother. I polished it up and hung it up here. You wouldn't do that. And if you meet Christians, people who are part of the church that don't care about their sin, they don't, they're missing something.
So Christians repent. Christians hate sin, fight sin. Now, we don't hate sin in a superior way that we look down on those evil sinners. No, we were the first people to repent. That was how we responded to Jesus. We acknowledged our sin.
We hate sin the same way we hate cancer. That it's in us and it's in other people and we want to get rid of it. We want to fight it in ourselves and we want to fight it in other people. We're not mad at the people. We want to help them. Christians hate sin.
They hate how sin tears families apart. They hate how sin causes death and murder and lies and strife. They hate how sin eats away at us so that we can't even think straight anymore. They hate how sin tears up all of our relationships. We hate sin and so we fight against it. Romans 8 is going to say that we put to death through the Holy Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body.
That Christians actively aggressively fight sin. Know it. Look for it. Realize that's what made Jesus have to save us. Repent. Acknowledge it.
Fight sin. Hate sin. That's in the church. If you're in here today and you say you are a Christian and your life is not marked by active repentance continually looking at your own sin and despising it and actively working to change if you say you're a Christian and nobody can ever come tell you that you're wrong nobody can ever address error in you that's scary because the first step of becoming a Christian was saying I see that Jesus had to die for my sin and I want to turn away from it. I don't want any more of it. Now we're going to keep sinning.
You're going to keep failing. You're going to keep falling short. It doesn't say Christians don't sin. We just don't like it. We don't like how evil our hearts are. We don't like that we're actively in sin.
I'm going to read a quote. This is from 1 John so it'll be on the screen. If we say we have fellowship with him which means we're connected with in relationship with Jesus while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. If you were like I don't know I'm doing pretty good.
I don't have any sin. The sin was you just lied to yourself. Repent of that and then try to figure out what else is going on because we've got something going on. We're continually lying to ourselves. If we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
So here's what he's saying. If we walk in darkness if we're actively sinning actively unrepentant actively pursuing sin we're in darkness we're not in the light. We haven't shown a light on haven't seen clearly how messed up we are. You want to hear something kind of gross about me? It's not real gross. I'll just tell it and then you can decide whether or not you want to hear it.
And his word is not in us. So here's what he's saying. If we walk in darkness if we're actively sinning actively unrepentant actively pursuing sin we're in darkness we're not in the light. We haven't shown a light on haven't seen clearly how messed up we are. You want to hear something kind of gross about me? It's not real gross. I'll just tell it and then you can decide whether or not you want to hear it. I'm kind of a sweaty person. I have really thick hair and whenever I'm doing something like activity wise I start sweating and I do this a lot with my hand
Just while I'm doing stuff like I'll just run my hand through my hair and what happens is there's some sort of a weird biological thing I have that is due to the consistency of my sweat maybe high fructose corn syrup I should try to drink less Mountain Dew and the thickness of my hair that it turns into the most amazing hair gel you've ever seen and after I have been sweating or working out or whatever I can make my hair do just whatever I want it to and it'll stay that way forever. Yesterday I was putting floors down in my house and apparently
For some reason kept doing this and so I had been doing this for a while people would come over to my house I talked to people I went outside for a while and talked to my neighbors for a little bit I walked by a mirror and every hair on my head was standing straight up and the only way you would assume that happened was I actively stood in front of a mirror and was like this looks good because there's no other reason why anyone's hair should ever do that I mean I look like
A character from like a cartoon or something like my hair just and I thought that's why my neighbors looked at me weird because I was just straight up talking to them like yeah what's going on and they were like yeah okay like don't know me well enough to go hey bro that's not a good look like you should you should go fix that I didn't know it because I hadn't looked at myself and what he's saying is if we if we walk in darkness
We're not walking in the light of Jesus but once we shine a light on it we see it and we fix it it was too late for me yesterday because my hair was done like I couldn't get it back down it's not too late for our sin like we get to see our sin and we get to confess it we get to bring it to Jesus it's the same way with your room looks really clean until you turn the light on your house is really nice until you move the refrigerator and you gotta see what's behind there
Like that's what he's saying so honestly if we hadn't noticed your sin in a while you probably haven't been very close to Jesus because that's where we notice our sin but here's the good news we just confess he's already forgiven us we just we hate our sin we repent of it but he's already accomplished everything it's not about your behavior your ability to be good it's about you acknowledging it and getting to move forward because he forgives us Christians hate sin
The church hates sin alright let's keep reading so he starts off with 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 for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself just wanted to point this out noticing sin in ourselves does not create superiority or pride or self-righteousness
Towards other people it helps us love them more so when we see someone else sinning and doing things that we would never do because we sin in a different area we just get to go yeah they're far off too they're far off like I was far off and this is for everyone who's far off everyone who's not even remotely close to being like Jesus gets to be welcomed in 40 and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation
So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls so 3,000 people just became the church just joined the church there was about 120 before this so now there are 3,000 Christians on the face of the planet and immediately the Holy Spirit goes to work to begin to change in them and give them the family traits that we're looking at today so 42 and they
Those 3,000 people devoted themselves to the apostles teaching okay this is something else that you will find every church everywhere they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching what that means is they took everything the apostles which were the 12 men who followed Jesus around whatever they said they took it they wanted to learn they wanted to grow they wanted to understand who Jesus was what he had done
What that meant the apostles we know were teaching from the Old Testament and then we have now what they wrote down in the New Testament and so what this means for us today is that the church loves the word the church loves the word which means we love the Bible we studied the Bible we grow in the Bible because it's what teaches us how we ought to act how we ought to live what Jesus has done for us you go around the world you're going to find people
That read this study this memorize this in places in places where it's illegal they've made there are people that had the Bible mounted to the underside of a stool so they could flip it over and be reading and if anybody authority or whatever came they could flip the stool back over and sit down on top of it because the Bible would be hidden underneath there are people who would pass around just sheets all you would get
Was a crumpled up torn out page from a Bible and you would work as hard as you could to memorize that section and then you would trade with someone else and they would give you another torn out sheet of page from the Bible and you would try to memorize that because the church loves the word when I was in junior in college I went to Romania and I was going to get to speak at some churches in Romania and I remember
Asking the pastor I was like hey how long do you usually preach and he was like till you're done and I was like what yeah but okay how long should it be before I'm done because I'm American we pretty much have time limits on this thing and he looked at me and said about half the people here will have walked six miles or further to be here
To hear what the Bible says you go until you're done and on a regular basis I would preach which for me he was still only like 30 minutes or something 15 20 30 minutes even with a translator it's not the case now but that was when I was a junior in college and then they would still get up they'd say thank you
And they'd pick another passage and they would preach right behind it so we're going to start doing that every Sunday we'll have sermon one we'll have an intermission we'll have sermon two no but the church regardless of where it is loves the word we're going to read this we're going to study this we're going to try to grow that's why
Every week we start off with open your Bibles to this place because we're going to read this we're not just going to talk about things that we think and feel we're going to read this and try to apply this and try to see what because we believe that this is how God speaks to us this is how
We're changed and how we grow we're devoted to it now personally you got to find a way to get in the word to consume the Bible to be devoted to teaching and we have now you have more avenues for this than anybody ever has you can listen to it while you
Ride around you can put it on your iPad you can listen to other sermons where people are taking this you can order any kind of book you want to from Amazon and read this and read a commentary and what I found is we have as much access to this as any place in the world ever and we don't
Touch it but Christians do we want to know what it says we want to study we want to learn from it I've noticed a couple of things one is if it gets if your relationship to Jesus is dry or feels off or not great
The response is to start reading the Bible so let me explain how this works my wife and I have been married for going on seven years we have a son now and there are times where it's like we just kind of live in the same house
We're both there making sure things you know get done or whatever but we're not like enjoying our relationship and even harder now that we have a kid and some of y'all have like seven children and Lord bless y'all but we have one child
And it's like it's hard for us to even have a conversation where we're not like in the middle of a sentence and then having to go put it down stop quit you're gonna hurt yourself I'm gonna hurt you or like you're in the middle of a conversation
And we're like is that jelly or blood do you want to taste it like I mean we're doing pretty good as parents just so y'all know like but uh it's hard so there are times where it's like we're just not relating well and so what we do is we put I
Don't go ah you know what we're not getting along hope that gets better I put forth energy because I'm a Christian I believe we're gonna be married forever so if we're not getting along I want to make sure we get along that's gonna make forever a long time like if I gotta stay married forever
And we don't like each other that's bad so I'm like no we're gonna figure out how to like each other like we're gonna get along we're gonna I'm gonna tell some jokes we're gonna laugh if something's gonna happen we're gonna ride a roller coaster so we can at least smile near each other like
We're gonna figure this out but I have to go I have to do work I have to get somebody to watch the kids so we can go on a date or whatever and that date if we hadn't been getting along or hadn't been on a date or hadn't had a conversation with each other for a while it's awkward but the
Point is I press into it so that we can get back to where we need to be so that I can grow so the relationship can begin to grow it's not gonna happen on its own and for some of us it's like I don't know I'm just not relating well to Jesus and it's like when was the last time you opened this up when was the last time you sat with him and said I just need to talk I need you to and
You're like well it's awkward yeah it's not gonna get better not doing that that's that's how we do it I've also found Christians will sometimes say yeah I'm just really praying about this and trying to see what God wants me to do my next question always is are you reading your Bible no that's like saying I'm waiting for a phone call where's your phone in the house you're not gonna get that call like it's
Harder the person could show up the person could show up at your house and when we say I'm trying to find what God's will is for me but I'm not gonna read the main thing that he's already told me all of his will in it's a lot harder the the other thing this is I'm just trying to help us see how the word shows up in us and how how it matters to us I mean I'm going to cover two more things but let's I want to read a passage for us first
To one is from first Timothy he says until I come he's talking to a pastor devote yourself to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and teaching what he's saying is get together read this he says to that same pastor again in another letter in second Timothy 316 this will be on the screen all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching for us to grow and learn for reproof for correction correction is hey you're a little bit out of line here
Reproof is dude pay attention the difference there reproof is a little more aggressive and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearance and by his kingdom by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and the teaching I love it
Is good for my soul that it says reprove rebuke exhort that the reason for preaching is that what it means is when I come to the Bible I've got to realize that Jesus is going to need to reprove me he's going to correct me he's going to need to rebuke me there's going to be times where I'm off and that's what the Bible does is it helps change me and then he's going to need to exhort me which is help me grow and actually want to put forth effort two other quick things when it
Comes to reading the Bible Christians sometimes say they're actively pursuing sin and then they'll say well I prayed about it and I just feel like I don't I don't feel like I mean I think I can just keep kind of going like I don't feel like God told me to stop what you have just said if the Bible clearly explicitly says you should not be doing the behavior doing should not be actively involved in when you're involved in and you say I prayed about it but don't feel like I should stop what you have
Articulated out loud just so you know the next time you say that sentence is I'm so far removed from Jesus right now that even though he's already clearly said it it's not actively at work in me there are some things you don't need to pray about he's already made really clear and we learn through the word the other thing sometimes Christians act like they want to be led by the Holy Spirit and all Christians should all Christians should want to be led by the Holy Spirit and so Christians will say well I just don't read a lot because I
Want to be led by the Spirit I just want the Spirit to guide me like I'd much rather just have the Spirit in me than then read the Bible that thought process is confusing you're just kind of off there the Holy Spirit breathed out the Bible first Peter says that it was people carried along by the Spirit that wrote the Bible so the Holy Spirit is going to teach you through the Bible the Holy Spirit is going to teach you using the Bible the Holy Spirit can teach you can lead you when you're not near a Bible but he's going to line up with what the Bible already says it's like this you ever been around a couple and they can have a conversation
Without using words they've just been together long enough like like you would you would be around them and something would happen and one of them would look at the other one and go and they look back and go and look back and go and it was like a pitcher and a catcher doing the like you know giving each other signals and you like one of them will be like what y'all's faces doing but they have a whole conversation without ever having the reason they got there is they've been around each other so much that they knew what each other were thinking they knew like Anna and I the closest I have gotten is that I'll think up something hilarious and Anna
Will look at me and go don't say that and I'll be like my face gave me away I got to look less excited that's about as close as we get right now otherwise we got to actually say words to each other but we can't do the face thing yet but when someone says I want to just be led by the Holy Spirit the way you do that is by learning the word and it makes it way easier for the Holy Spirit to converse with you for the Holy Spirit to teach you when you're not near the Bible so if I said I really want Anna and I to be able to just have face conversations the way we practice that is not it's through real conversations that's how we learn what the face meant first the face
Needs to say words to us and then we can just get the expression part and some of us like I really just want to be led by the Spirit get in here start reading this and the Spirit will lead you that's how that's how that works he's going to lead you here and then he'll start leading you when you're not near it okay Christians love the word for oh no not for I got to read it here first that'll make sense otherwise you know where'd you get that no I got the passage we didn't read um they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship what that means is they devoted themselves to each other they devoted themselves to they belonged to one another so the Bible in several places is going
To say we're actually members of one another we belong to one another the same way that your foot belongs to your hand like you connected they're devoted to one another the Bible has 59 one another's we're going to read all of them next week and the week after probably that was 59 one another's where it says do this with one another this is how you relate to one another you're members of one another love one another bear one another's burdens like it's going to over and over and over again because it's just assumed that we're going to be connected to one another we're going to be devoted to one another when when God became your father if you place faith in him you got a whole lot of brothers and sisters so if you're like well can't can't a
Christian be a Christian on an island yes you can be a Christian on an island none of us are like I haven't seen anybody walk in here wearing a loincloth holding a volleyball with paint on it or whatever and if if we did we would say we're so glad you're off the island you should get in a community group unless you plan on going back to the island you need to get in a group that's what we say because here's the thing we were designed to be to relate to one another to love one another that the church loves one another Christians are devoted to one another first John 4 10 through 11 says this oh nope sorry that's way back wait I'm gonna get it yeah it's first John 4 10 through 11 and this is love not that we have loved God but have loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for
Our sins which means he turned away wrath says beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another John 13 35 says this by all by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another one of the ways that we put God on display is our relationship to one another that's one of the things that I love about whenever we have baptisms those videos over and over and over again is somebody saying yeah I started hanging out with a group I started hanging out with a community group I got around this person and this person and this person this person harassed me and then this person loved me and then this person sir like and it's just this I got to see Jesus at work through his people the church loves one another I feel like sometimes on Sunday what we're doing is like a cooking show you watch a cooking show that I like them at the beginning when I
See a little bit of the cooking show I'm like oh it looks great but then by the end when they walk over and they're like okay they open the oven it's already cooked and then they pull it out and then it's the worst when they go mmm this is so good it's like all right this just got annoying because I want to eat that and I'm not putting any of that effort into it and you also moved way too quickly on some of the stuff like I understood what you were talking about like polonaise what I thought I was an island um that may not be a word it might be polonaise or something like that so it's spelled like bologna anyway um it feels like you sometimes that's what Sunday is to me we're going to proclaim Jesus we're going to open the Bible but we're going to say is this is the ingredients this is what it should look like and if you just do Sundays you don't ever get to taste it if you just
Do Sundays and so what we're saying when we say get in the group is that you actually get to it makes it tangible it makes it real when you see people actually loving each other actually forgiving each other actually bearing one another's burdens because you actually get to see the gospel on display that's why Jesus says they'll know you're my disciples by the way you love one another the church is committed to loving one another we're going to spend more time on that next week and the week after the last one is this we're gonna read the rest of this passage to the breaking of bread and the prayers which was them getting together praying together to them celebrating Jesus connected with one another and all 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 after day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts what I love about that section is that all of those people's friends probably thought they were crazy they were like whoa you are hanging out with these people way too much you're giving them some of your money like y'all are eating together all the time like this is getting weird and it's like no this is what family looks like we've been all brought into the same family so they were devoted to one another 47 46 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 that's the people who weren't in the church and
The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved the church loves Jesus's mission the church loves the people who aren't in the church yet that's what it ended with was that everybody appreciated that the church existed and more and more people were invited in if you're a Christian you care that people aren't Christians not because you want them to come be good like you that's not Christianity Christianity is I know what sin is like I know what it does to people and I know that it's been taken care of on the cross I know that there's hope I know that there's freedom I know that the things you're chasing after will never fill you up will never fix you Christians love Jesus's mission which is to see more people brought into the family to see more people have their sin paid for Christians the church loves their neighbors the church loves their enemies because they realize that they need
Jesus if you're here today and you don't know Jesus we want you to know Jesus we want you to be saved by Jesus we want you to be taken by Jesus and made his we want your sins paid for by Jesus because somebody's gonna pay for your sins and it's gonna be you or it's gonna be Jesus and the church wants more and more people to know Jesus wants more and more people to be welcomed in this was Jesus's plan from the beginning when he calls the disciples he says follow me I'll make you fishers of men which means I'm gonna teach you what it's like to be rescued to be redeemed to know and be loved and then I want you to do that with other people I want you to get more people to know this it says he appointed 12 that he said he appointed them so they could be with him and that he could send them out to preach send them out to tell people about this when Jesus is about to leave in Matthew 28 it says that he tells him go make disciples which is just go do the same
Thing I was doing with you second Corinthians 5 17 this is Paul writing to the church and here's what he says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away the behold the new has come all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses that sins against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors of Christ we're representatives of his God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God if you find God's people they vehemently actively continually want to see more people meet Jesus go out of their way pull money out of their wallets give up their time to see more people come to know Jesus because Christians know that that matters and Christians know where their hope comes
From and Christians know that life is is ultimately empty and fleeting and futile without Jesus if you're not a Christian today you're here and you're hanging out you're like I'm just hanging out with church people somebody invited me whatever I know I'm not a Christian here's what I would say most everything I just said does not apply to you at all it may be helpful for you to know what a church ought to look like what you need to know is that Jesus died to pay for your sins because he loves you he loved you so much he gave up his life so that you can have one what we read last week says that we were children of wrath but we've been adopted as sons we deserve to be crushed but we were brought into the family and the only way that happened was that the son became a child of wrath that the son of God took wrath on our behalf so that you who deserve wrath can be a son like that's that's what it's saying if you're here today and you're a Christian real quick if you're not a Christian and
You see that the response is the same thing that Peter said which is repent and be baptized acknowledge that you're a sinner so that you can be saved and then we'll talk about the baptism stuff later if you're a Christian the question really is are those five things showing up do you love Jesus are you obedient are you following him do you enjoy Jesus do you hate sin are you repenting you actively in sin and don't care do you love his word do you study do you read do you try to intake and grow and understand what the Bible says do you do you love the church do you love your fellow believers your brothers and sisters and do you care that people don't know Jesus if you're saying I'm a Christian those need to be showing up and you can ask Jesus to help you you continue to go back to Jesus and say I need help here I need to change here I need you to work in me here I need your DNA to be more active here I need the Holy Spirit to work in me here and if you're here today and you say I'm a
Christian but you don't have any of those none of those are showing up none of those are active in you I don't think you're a Christian if you have no evidence of those things at all I don't think you're a Christian we're not mad at you you just need to know you're not a Christian it's a dangerous spot to be in to not actually believe and follow Jesus and have him work in you and believe that that he is and the response isn't work harder the response is go back to Jesus and say I need to be made new we're gonna spend the next few weeks talking about what a local church gets to look like and how we're designed to interact with one another but those are some characteristics that define Jesus's people that are at work around the globe what's beautiful is as you open this and study it you're doing what another million people are doing in all their kind of different languages when you go out of your way to help point someone to Jesus you're doing what people have done
Through the centuries because Jesus saved people and it was his plan that his people would change the world make sure you get to join in here locally what the church looks like throughout history and throughout the globe as we love one another and serve one another as God's people let's pray God we thank you that we can be saved we thank you that that's based off of your work not ours and we ask God that you would be at work in us to help us love you more to help us follow you God to show us our sin and help us to hate it God that you would teach us through your word and that we would grow to love your word empower in us the ability to love one another even when that's hard the ability to love one another in all of life and God I pray that you would help us to have our hearts broken over the people who don't yet know you that we might go out of our way to help them come to know you
Jesus help us be your church Amen Amen Amen
The Method
Transcript
My name is Chet. It's good to see everybody this morning. Excited to be able to meet here and excited for our second time being able to meet here at Glen Forest School. We are in our third week of Dawn of the Church. So we're finishing up today, which feels a little odd because we spent 11 weeks in the book of Colossians.
And so we've only been three weeks walking through the first couple of chapters of the book of Acts. And so it's felt a little short, but it's been I think it's been good. What we wanted to do is just spend a little bit of time and look at some family history. We wanted to look and see how the church started, what it looked like when the Holy Spirit first moved among a group of people, what it looked like for them to begin to follow Jesus, to begin to be the church. And so what we looked at was week one, we looked at the mission that we've been given as a church, that Jesus talking with his disciples says, this is what you're supposed to do.
This is what you're called to do. You're going to be my witnesses. And you're going to start here where they just killed me, which not many people get to say. Like not many people get to say that's where I just died. Like you don't usually get to tell people that you don't usually get to have this conversation. But Jesus had been crucified, he'd been murdered, and he didn't stay dead.
And so he says, you're going to start here where they just killed me. And then you're going to expand out from there. Then you're going to move to a place that you don't get along with these people. You have prejudice against them. And then you're going to move to the ends of the earth. And so we just looked at what the mission is that we're supposed to be witnesses of what Jesus has accomplished to the ends of the earth.
Last week we spent some time looking at the message that we're given to declare. So what the Holy Spirit actually, when he moves, what we point people to, what we talk about. And so today we're just going to look at the method by which that moves forward. The way that the mission, the message moves forward on the mission. And so it's kind of like this. This is a very simple way to think about it.
And so it's going to break down if you think about it too long. But think about it in a very simple way. And this can be helpful. So let's say we were going to make a sandwich and we were going to put some peanut butter on bread. And so that's the first part of what we're going to do. And we're going to put chunky peanut butter on the bread because we're going to eat the sandwich, not throw it away for bringing shame to sandwiches.
So it's going to be chunky peanut butter. And we're going to put that on the bread. And so in some ways the mission is that process. We're going to put chunky peanut butter on the bread. And it kind of answers the what's the overall goal and where. And so the overall goal is to get chunky peanut butter all over the surface of the bread.
And so that's what we looked at week one where Jesus says you're going to spread this message over the face of the earth. And so the message is kind of the chunky peanut butter. It's like the actual content of what's moving forward. And so what we're looking at today is the method, which would be like the knife that you used or the spoon that you used to spread the chunky peanut butter. Or, you know, like three fingers, depending on if you have roommates and or no one's watching. So, like, that's what we're looking at.
And so if the mission is spread the message all over the earth, and that's kind of the bread, that's what we looked at. Like, what are we doing and where is it going? The second week we looked at what's the content, what actually moves forward. And today we're looking at, like, how are we going to do that? How does the church actually accomplish this? And so we're going to be in Acts chapter 2.
I'm going to pray, and then we're going to start kind of looking at this and trying to answer this question. God, we thank you that you did come, that you did rescue us. And we pray that we would appropriately feel the weight of being called into your mission, that we wouldn't get complacent with what it is that we're supposed to be doing as we follow you. And, God, we ask that you would empower us through your Holy Spirit to continue your mission in this city. And we love you. We praise you.
Speak to us now as we have time to open your word and study. In Jesus' name, amen. So we'll be in Acts 2, starting in verse 41. I just want to point out in verse 38. 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 Holy Spirit. And so then 41 says, So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.
So, Peter says, repent, turn away from your sin, you'll be forgiven because of what Jesus has already done. It's not about what you do, but it's about what Jesus has done. And you'll receive the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit of God will come move and dwell among you. And then it says that 3,000 people became Christians. And so I said this last week.
That's like a logistical nightmare as far as, All right, cool. They had about 120. They're like, All right, we're going to start a church. We're going to do this thing. And then 3,000 people become Christians. And they were like, Okay, let's figure it out.
And so what we're going to look at as we look in this chapter, Luke, who's writing this story, is just going to describe what happens among the church when it first got started. So he's just telling us this is what it looked like. This is what they looked like as they first got started. And so in the Bible, there's prescriptive and descriptive sections of Scripture. So prescriptive is like a doctor gives you a prescription and it's, Go home, take these, rest this way, don't do this.
It's like, do, don't, this is what's best for you. That's like prescriptive. And so the Bible has some of that where it's like, Love your neighbors, be generous, be kind to one another, bear one another's burdens. Like it just straight up just says, do this. And then it has descriptive passages where it just says, It just tells a story, just tells you something that happened. And so sometimes we get confused when we're reading descriptive passages and think it somehow applies to what we're supposed to do.
So like there are times in the Bible, it talks about humans. So it talks about a bunch of messed up stuff. So Cain and Abel, Abel pleases God. Cain gets mad and kills him. And they're brothers. That's not a prescriptive thing.
That's not like the Bible saying, Here's how to handle your brother when he makes you angry. That's not what that is. It's not like, well, I'm going to go all Genesis 4 on this sucker. Like that's not what we get to do. It's just describing what happened. And so what this passage is doing is it's just going to describe for us what the early church looked like.
But in that we're going to get to see what the Holy Spirit does among a group of people that he's taking over, that he's moving in, that he's captivating, that he's changing. And so it's just the Holy Spirit moves in. And this is not. So we're going to look at it. It's going to describe the early church. And what it's not saying is, look at how well they organize themselves.
Look at the great leadership of the apostles. That's not what's happening. What it's saying is, look at what the Holy Spirit does when he begins to change, busted up, broken people, when he moves in and takes over. So we're looking at what the Holy Spirit does in believers as we read through this. We're going to see that the apostles mess stuff up consistently. They're in and out of jail because they're proclaiming the gospel.
So it's not that they're always being able to do great leadership stuff because half the time they're not there. Like people are having to pray, like let's get him out of jail. Some of them are going to be murdered. In Acts 6, they realize that they're not organized well. And so this isn't pointing to how to organize your church, how well it's what the Holy Spirit does among a group of people. Now, we should be organized.
That's one thing that we've seen as we've continued to grow is we're trying to organize ourselves better. We're trying to always train leaders and that sort of thing. So I just wanted to put a shameless plug out there. If you're good at logistical things, that's a Holy Spirit-empowered gift. Like if you can do spreadsheets, the Holy Spirit empowers that. That's a gift of administration.
I'm just letting you know. Biblically, there's a gift of administration. And so some people are really good at that kind of stuff and they feel like, well, I don't know how to really plug in and serve. That's actually how. And so they do try to get more organized. They're not organized yet.
And so we're right in line with Scripture being disorganized. But I want you to see that there's 3,000 new believers. Now, when we look in this section, we don't know how much time has passed. He just begins to describe the early church. So a couple days, some weeks.
Maybe he describes the first months of. Maybe he's describing the church in Jerusalem as a whole over the course of some years. But it basically says 3,000 people become believers, so 41. So those who received the word were baptized. And they were added that day about 3,000 souls. And then he immediately goes into.
And this is what they did. This is what they look like. So the majority of these people had been Christians for, like the apostles had only known and been following Jesus for three years. So think about that for a second. Some of us in here would say, I don't know, I've been a Christian for years. Some of you have been like, I think a couple of weeks-ish, give or take.
And that's what most of the people here were. The vast majority were like, I'm just trying to figure this thing out. And the truth is, that's the way the church should always look. There should always be people who have just become believers and are just trying to figure it out. And it's actually way more fun that way. It's way harder and way more messy.
Like, it's really nice to get 50 Christians who've been Christians for a really long time together and sit in a room. And maybe there's less mess, maybe they understand more, but it's way less fun. And so the whole time here, there's 3,000 new believers trying to figure out what it looks like to follow Jesus. And so it says, And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And so what we're about to look at is devoted themselves. What they devoted themselves to.
And so for us, devotion, like, I don't know if we understand devotion. I mean, we see it in certain places. Like, I want to talk to you about something very important. This week, football comes back. It's here, guys. Thursday.
Like, we got together. My community group meets on Thursday. And we got together and the discussion was, Who's got the SEC network? And somebody raised, We're going to your house. You're throwing a party. I don't know if you knew that.
You're going to be throwing a party because the Carolina game is going to be on Thursday. And you have the SEC network. And so we understand devotion a little bit when it comes to, like, being devoted to a brand. So you have people, like, devoted to Apple products. Who, like, always want to fight people who like Microsoft. Like, people who have apples get angry about it.
Like, I don't know. Like, this is better and I'm mad. Like, that's kind of their attitude. We see devotion when it comes to teams. So we have devotion, like a heart level loyalty.
Care about a team. You want to argue for why your team's the best. You want to argue against other teams. Like, if I see someone wearing orange, I just push them down. Like, that's just kind of how. No, we've got, we've got, I mean, in our church family, we've got people that are Clemson fans.
And every week, as we always do with everybody, we invite them to repent. And we've got Carolina fans that we were devoted. Like, we care about it. But I was talking to my wife's cousin who lives in Alabama. And he's a Clemson grad. And he said, I was talking to him about it.
He's an eye doctor there. And he goes, you know we're just kind of messing around in South Carolina when it comes to being devoted to teams, right? He's like, I'm in Alabama. And it's serious there. He said that he was, he's an eye doctor. He's about to perform surgery.
And he was standing in a room with about ten family members of this guy who's about to cut his eyes open. He said before this moment, he would always, like, have this conversation where it's like, okay, we're about to, y'all are about to have to leave. I'm about to wheel him back here. Does anybody have any more questions? Like, is there any clarification needed? Do you want to pray?
Like, he always just kind of opens it up for whatever's going to take place. And he said, they all just kind of stood there. And nobody asked any questions or anything. And then one by one, they walked by this guy. His name was Johnny. And they were going, Roll Tide, Johnny.
Roll Tide. Roll Tide, Johnny. Just, like, fist pumping and rubbing. He said, Roll Tide. Roll Tide, Johnny. And he said, like, 15 of them.
Roll Tide. And then they just walked out. And he was like, he said he wanted to be filming it, but he thought he might, like, get in trouble or something because he's a doctor. And so we have devotion there. We see devotion in, I think, I've actually gotten to where I like going to weddings. And I know that's weird.
I don't like, there's some things I don't like about it. Like, I don't actually like the whole process. Like, I don't like having to dress up. This past Easter, I was trying to dress up a little bit for when we did our stuff. And I asked Anna, like, how did I look? And she looked at me for a second.
And then she goes, you know, some people are supposed to dress up and other people aren't. And I think you're one of those aren't people. And I was like, that was very hurtful. But it's kind of true. So I don't like dressing up when I go to weddings.
I don't enjoy that process. But there's two things I kind of like about weddings. I like awkwardness. And weddings are awkward. So I always just kind of appreciate awkwardness.
And so when people are standing up doing their wedding, like, they don't know what to do. They don't know what to do with their hands. Everyone's sweating. I enjoy that. And then I enjoy the actual process of what we're doing. Weddings are intense.
It's two people standing up and saying, forsaking all others, I'm devoted to you. Like, it's me and you forever. Whatever comes, whatever's coming after us, like, this is going to be hard. And we're messed up and we're sinful. And this is going to be difficult. And it's not going to always be fun, but it's us forever.
And that's, I think, one of the best pictures we have when people genuinely take marriage seriously of what devotion is. And so what we're going to see here is not what the disciples did. We're actually looking at heart level change that the Holy Spirit did in them. Does that make sense? So it's the Holy Spirit moves in, begins to wreck shop, and changes loyalty and changes love in the hearts of these new believers.
Because it's not about how well they organized themselves and how well they disseminated the word and how well they did all these. It is absolutely, Holy Spirit moves in, 3,000 believers. There's no way this is going to be organized. And then the Holy Spirit changes all of them together to look this way. And so, as we read through this, last caveat, don't read through and think, oh, so that's what I do. That's what I do to work really hard to earn this.
No. This is what the Holy Spirit does in believers. And so if you're sitting in here and you're thinking, I don't really have a desire to do any of that. Some of that actually sounds kind of horrible. The response isn't, I'll work really hard, do those things, and then be a good Christian. No, the response is, repent of sin and place your faith in Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit does this in us.
Does that make sense? Is that fair? Okay. Four things they devoted themselves. Four things heart level change that the Holy Spirit made in them. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
Alright, so what that means is that they were devoted to what the apostles were telling them about Jesus. What the apostles were training them in. And so the apostles were the people who'd been following Jesus around for three years, and the apostles were teaching them, here's what Jesus' kingdom looks like. Here's what it looks like for us to follow him. Here's how this plays out in the world. And so when the Holy Spirit moves in and begins to take over the lives of believers, they automatically begin being sold out to learning who Jesus is, what he did, what they'd been called into, what he'd accomplished on their behalf, what it looked like for them to be the church.
And so for us, that might as well just say, devoted to the Bible. That's why we would spend all summer just walking through the book of Colossians. That's why we study the Bible when we get together in our community groups, because we're devoted to learning and growing and understanding what it means to be Jesus followers. That's one of my favorite things to see this in people. So you see somebody who starts kind of placing their faith in Jesus, and then they'll suddenly start being like, hey, I was reading this in Scripture the other day.
Hey, I was looking at this, and I have a question about this. And it's like, oh, there's the Holy Spirit at work, drawing somebody in to read the Bible, because that's what he does. The Holy Spirit starts working in somebody, and we just want to read. I used to have conversations with Russ, who's one of the guys, one of the first guys to become a Christian as a part of our church. And he would ask me questions. Like one time he looked at me and said, he said, okay, you've got cancer, and your dad has cancer cure serum.
But then he says, I'll give it to you if you worship me. What the crap is that about? And I was like, what? Your dad sounds horrible, Russ. And so he was a very antagonistic approach to who God was, and I had to break all of that down, which was like, that's not at all what's happened here. Jesus came and died for us.
Like he took our cancer and died with it so that we could be cured, and then we would want to worship. So like we had to have those conversations. And then Russ became a Christian, and his attitude changed. So he always had like a bajillion questions about the church and about the Bible, and they were always kind of antagonistic. And then he became a Christian, and he started asking questions like, hey, what do we believe about this? And his whole response was different.
Like it was just like, oh, well, we believe this, Russ. And we would just flip to the thing. He was like, oh, cool. Okay, okay. That sounds good. And then there were other times he was like, really?
I don't really like that. And it's like, oh, yeah, me neither. But that's what we believe. We repent. You know, God's right. We're not.
And so we get to have those conversations. But there's just something that happens in believers that we change to where we're devoted to learning, devoted to reading Scripture, devoted to growing in it. And that's what happened among them. So they were devoted to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. So they were devoted to each other.
That's great. Fellowship basically means friendship with a purpose, like community with a goal. So it's fellowship. It's friendship around something that kind of holds you all together. And so if you're Lord of the Rings fans, the first book in the Lord of the Rings is the Fellowship of the Ring. It was like a group of people that came together for a goal.
And so that's what they were devoted to being around each other. They made time for it. As we read through the rest of it, it says day by day they were gathering in large groups and they were gathering in smaller groups, meeting in homes. And so they were devoted to, took time out of their schedule to be around church family. They were devoted to each other. The Holy Spirit changed their heart to where they actually wanted to go out of their way to be around each other.
And I think we find this true if you've been a part of a community group. And it's easy to kind of get out of the rhythm of being around church family. And a way I think about this sometimes is when Anna and I first got married, we moved into this really sketchy house that like uneven floors. And if you ran the washing machine while trying to eat a meal, the table was going, and you could just bounce your stuff up and down on it. And we lived there fixing it up instead of paying rent. So it was like, we'll paint and like get rid of the snakes and most of the cockroaches and the mice and you don't make us pay rent.
And he was like, deal. So that was the house we lived in for the first couple of months of being married. And we were painting one of the rooms and it had oil-based paint. So we were painting over it with oil-based paint. If you've ever painted much, oil-based paint is pretty intense. And so we were in this room and we're painting.
And, you know, painting is not fun. So we're painting for a little while. And then, you know, the paint smells horrible. And then you kind of get used to, you don't notice the paint smell anymore. And then we both kind of were like grumpy. And then everything was hilarious.
And so at one point I'm sitting there, we're both like laughing hysterically about something that didn't make any sense. And I was like, that wasn't funny. And I was like, but I think it was funny. And I was like, maybe we should go outside. And so we went outside and that first breath of air, it was like, oh yeah, this is what oxygen is like. This is what this was supposed to have been like the whole time.
And so that's what church community, that's what church family is like sometimes. It's like we get out of it and we don't realize that what we're breathing in and what we're walking in on a daily basis actually isn't good for us and actually isn't healthy and actually isn't right. And then the first time we get back around church family, we go, oh yeah. Oh yeah, this is what this was supposed to be like. Oh yeah, this is what I've forgotten what it was like to be around church family and actually have people I can talk about real life with. And there's something that the Holy Spirit does in us that draws us into that.
And so they devoted themselves to fellowship. Which, isn't that just great though? Like if the Holy Spirit is going to do something in us, isn't it great that he draws us in to be around each other? A bunch of sinful people who know Jesus. And so like, you know I'm going to be sinful. You don't expect amazing things out of me.
And I don't expect amazing things out of you. We expect amazing things out of Jesus. And it's just a group of people to be in life with and be friends with. Like I'm just excited that that's what the Holy Spirit does. So the Holy Spirit draws us into fellowship.
And the Apostle, it so says, That is not what the breaking of bread means. It kind of means two things. And it happens in the context of fellowship. And we'll see it later. It says from house to house they were breaking bread in their homes. What it means is they were devoted to Jesus' presence.
They were devoted to the presence of Jesus. It's an active, intentional process of taking communion together. So they shared meals. Communion meals were meals. They shared meals. We see later in the book of something that Paul wrote that slips my mind now.
I think it's Corinthians. He fusses at them for some of them eating too much. And some of them not having any when they finally show up. And some people drinking enough to be drunk. And so like it's an actual meal that would have taken a while. And they would share meals together with the intense purpose of gathering around the gospel.
So Jesus on the last night before he was crucified said, This is my body. He took bread. He said, This is my body broken for you. And this is the blood of the new covenant which I pour out on your behalf. And so when it says that they were devoted to the breaking of bread, what it means is they were devoted to actively participating in the gospel together. That they intentionally gathered around the gospel.
They intentionally actively sought the presence of Jesus in their fellowship. So like sometimes my community group will get together and we say we're going to gospel each other. Which just means tell us what's going on in your life. And let's remind each other of how the gospel applies to that. Tell us what's going on in your life. And let's remind each other of how Jesus is at work in that.
And how he rescues us in that. And how the gospel works in that. And it can be really awkward sometimes. But it's just us saying we're intentionally going to press into the gospel. We're intentionally going to be centered around the gospel. And that's what happened.
They automatically became gospel centered people. They automatically began to devote themselves to the presence of Jesus. And so that these communities that gathered in homes were around the gospel. Their intense purpose was their intentional purposeful approach to walking. And what it looked like to have the gospel effect who they were. So they devoted themselves to the presence of Jesus.
And the prayers. Which just makes sense. They devoted themselves to prayer. That as the Holy Spirit works in us he draws us towards God. Because prayer is a couple things for believers. It's asking God to work.
To move. So as Christians what we believe is that we didn't fix this on our own. That we didn't rescue ourselves. But that Jesus did. That we needed help. We needed something outside of us to rescue us.
That's why we fill ourselves up with the Bible. Because it's not about finding our inner person who's wonderful. Like that's not what we're shooting for as Christians. I can tell you pretty clearly my inner person is not wonderful. So like y'all don't want to meet more of him.
You want more of the Bible filling me up. And we want more of the Holy Spirit working and moving. And so prayer is just us saying. This isn't up to us. This isn't about us being great. This isn't about us being moral.
This isn't about us being smart. And so we just pray and ask the Holy Spirit to move. Ask God to work. It's just active surrender. And so they devoted themselves to prayer. And all of this kind of happens in the context of community.
In the context of fellowship. They were devoted to each other. Devoted to learning with each other. Devoted to praying with each other. And devoted to intentionally building themselves around the presence of Jesus. And the gospel work in their life.
And that's what the Holy Spirit did in them. That's how the Holy Spirit began to work in them. And so the response again isn't. Cool. I'll do those four things. The response is the Holy Spirit does this in us.
And so if you don't have a desire for that. We just repent and become Christians. We place our faith in Jesus. And the Holy Spirit begins to work. So this is what happens.
This is what they began to devote themselves to. This is what begins to take place in a minute. And then it's going to tell us what they looked like. So 43. And all 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.
So they got together in large groups. And breaking bread in their homes. So then they gathered in smaller groups. And shared meals together to be intentional about. The gospel taking place in their hearts. And it says this is day by day.
Breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts. Praising God and having favor with all the people. So we're going to stop there. So here's what happens.
It says. They devoted themselves to these four things. And then this is what they look like. They had glad and generous hearts. They were being generous to one another. People were selling stuff that they had.
So that they could give more to other people. People were receiving gladly. So here. When the Holy Spirit moves in. Jesus comes after our passions. He actually begins to change in us what we care about.
What we love. Where our loyalties lie. And so then you have a group of people that become generous. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Wait. The God of heaven stepped out of heaven. So that I could have good things. Like he gave up all good things to suffer on my behalf. And he died in my place. Where I deserve to be punished.
Where I deserve to die. He died in my place. So that I could have life. So that I could have joy. And eventually I could go to heaven. Like I could join him in heaven.
He stepped away from heaven. So that I could have good things. Well suddenly that group of people doesn't hold on to their possessions the same way anymore. It's like oh you need stuff? Yeah. I've got stuff.
Oh you need help with that? I can help with that. Because the God of heaven gave up everything. So that I could have everything. And since I already have everything. Everything I have is his.
And yours. That's what happened. They began to sell their possessions. And give things away. So it's like what I had designed in my brain was heaven.
Where I wanted to live. And how I wanted to design my life. And how I wanted it to look. And the possessions I wanted to have. Heaven isn't the same to me anymore. And so I can give these things up.
To be a part of this community that Jesus has changed. And so it says they were generous. They. Everything they had. They had in common. It was like you need this.
You can have it. It's all of the things I have. Are given to me by Jesus. And then it says that they. Distributing the proceeds to any as all 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. Not only were they generous in giving. And gracious in giving.
They were generous. And gracious in receiving. And so that's actually another way that the gospel works among this group of people. Among Christians. Is it is. Oh.
Everything I have. Everything I've ever been given. Was given to me by grace. So when someone else gives. I can just receive. Because I know how to receive.
By grace. The gospel has changed my heart to where I can receive. Like have you ever noticed that. That there's something in us. Automatically. That when someone gives us something.
We feel like we owe them. You ever notice that. Like someone serves you. Or does something nice for you. And you feel like they. That you owe them.
So like before. Somebody will give you a birthday gift. And you're like. Oh sweet. A birthday gift. Ah.
Crap. I'm going to have to remember your birthday now. So like people give me stuff. I'm like. Dang it. I am never going to remember your birthday.
So I just like. I'll thank them. And be like. Just so you know. I'm not reciprocating. Unless you remind me.
Like. But there's something in you. That feels that. Like when someone's generous to you. You want to. You want to be generous back.
And you almost feel like you owe a debt now. Because someone was nice. And what it says is. They received. With glad and generous hearts. That the gospel actually moves in.
To make people generous. In giving and receiving. To make people gracious. In giving and receiving. And so that they were able to just. Hey.
Yeah. I actually do need. The whole gospel is predicated on the fact. That we need. That we're broken. That we're busted.
That we fall short. And so it's like. Sometimes in life. It's like. I'm. Not only do I need the gospel.
To change me. And to save me. From my sin. But I actually need help. Paying bills right now. And the gospel is that I fall short.
Not that I'm great. Not that I can prove myself. And so the gospel actually frees me up. To walk through life. And get help. Walk through life.
And receive assistance. And not feel bad about it. Isn't that beautiful? And doesn't that just mess. With your Americanness? Doesn't that kind of annoy you?
It annoys me. It's like. No. No. I need to prove that I'm awesome. It's like.
Well the gospel says you're not. So like. When Jesus died on the cross. He definitively declared. Chet is busted. And he needs my help.
Because if there were some of us. Who were going to work it out. He wouldn't have had to die. Like if there were some of us. Who were just going to be good enough. On our own.
He wouldn't have had to go to the cross. And so when he went to the cross. He declared definitively. For everyone in this room. You need help. You're not going to work it out.
You need Jesus. To step in. On your behalf. And that applies to everything. And so then we actually become generous in giving and receiving. And that's what the church did.
It became a generous people. And it says they were glad. Isn't that great? It doesn't say the Holy Spirit came in. And 3,000 people became believers. And they all got really angry.
And mad about morals. And they gathered together. To fuss at one another. And to hit themselves with whips. And cry. Like that's not what it says.
It says the Holy Spirit moves among the people. And they became generous. And gracious. And happy. And that's cool. That's a beautiful thing to be true.
That that's what the Holy Spirit does. Because it wasn't the apostles training them to do this. It was 3,000 people being changed by the Holy Spirit. To follow him. And that's what he does among us. It was really cool.
Last week. I don't know if y'all have gotten to meet. Some of y'all may have been able to meet Billy Briggs. Who's kind of the facilities guy here. And this place has been really gracious with us. And good with us.
But we were talking to him last week. And it was funny. After we had done everything. We were cleaning up. And then there was just a handful. I mean a decent amount of people just hanging out and talking.
Because we always do that. We hang out in our church family and talk. And have fun together. And that's why we brought the cornhole boards in here. Because it was too hot last week to do them outside. So we want to be able to hang out and be church family when we're done.
And so we were doing that. And he was showing Matt and I like how to not tear things up. And how to get in the doors. And get out of the doors. And how to lock stuff. And he stops at one point and looks at me.
And Matt was over talking to people. And he goes, so you're like actually the pastor. Huh. And I said, I was like, well, yeah, Matt and I are. And he goes, okay. He's like, we didn't know.
Because we'd only ever seen y'all. But we thought maybe the pastor was going to show up later. Like riding in on a golden chariot. And y'all were like his henchmen or like lackeys or something. And I was like, I'm glad I threw off that vibe. That lackey henchman vibe.
And so it was like, yep, no, it's us. So I bet you regret your decision to enter into a deal with us now. Like I don't know what his thought process was. And then he was just talking about it. He goes, and we're sitting there. We were walking up.
And we see everybody just kind of hanging out and talking and laughing. And I mean, it's been, you know, 30, 45 minutes after we were done. And they're hanging out. And he goes, well, I think it was good. I think it was a good space for y'all. And I think they enjoyed stuff.
He's like, they're still here. And I was like, oh, this is what we do. I said, a bunch of us are going to go eat now. That's because we like food and each other. So like that's what we're going to do.
And he said, he said, man, that's great. He said, that's what churches should look like. He said, we've had them before, had to meet here in our facility. And like five minutes afterwards, people are flashing the lights. Like, back it up. This is what he said.
He said, flashing the lights like, hey, our God thing's over. The week's about to start. And I was just like, yeah. And like, you don't realize it. I mean, I get into this and feel like this is what it's supposed to be. And this is what the Holy Spirit does among people.
They become glad and generous and enjoy each other and are devoted to each other. And it's beautiful. And here's what happens. So what we've said is God's given us a mission to see the message move forward, which is that Jesus came and died on our behalf and that we weren't going to earn anything. We weren't going to save ourselves. We weren't going to accomplish this on our own through our good morals or our really smartiness.
It's wasn't going to happen. Our amazing religious ideas weren't going to happen. That Jesus had to step in and rescue us. And so the message that was declared is you're sinful. You killed Jesus. He had to die for you.
And he saves you. So he's Lord and Christ. Like he is the one who's rescued us. This is what Peter stands up and declares. And so we have a mission to move that out everywhere. To declare that message everywhere.
That we need Jesus. That we need Jesus. And then what we see is this is how it's done. When the Holy Spirit moves into a group of people, what we've talked about is what they automatically look like. But what he does is he makes communities of people just like this.
And that's actually how the mission moves forward. That's actually how the message gets spread is that there's communities of people just like this. That actually have the Holy Spirit working in them. 47. Well here we'll start at, we'll read the whole thing. Because reading the Bible is good.
42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship. To the breaking of bread and prayers. And all 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 favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The way the Holy Spirit works in his people to move the message forward. Is communities of people who are changed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. To gather themselves around the gospel. To intentionally practice the presence of Jesus. And to grow. To be in normal everyday life.
It says it was day by day God added to them those who were being saved. Day by day. Day by day. That more and more and more and more and more and more people became Christians. Got around and said no I want to be a part of this. Not only do I hear what you're saying about Jesus.
But I see it. I see generosity. I see graciousness. I see your ability to receive things. And I always feel like I have to prove myself. And I see that you don't feel that.
Why is that? Oh the gospel. I can't prove myself. So it would really be horrible to try to feel like I had to. I'm freed up by Jesus. So there's groups of people that gather around this.
And the communities of people that move this forward. And people get saved. That's how we walk on mission. Is allowing the Holy Spirit to change us. To move in us. And to move among us.
And day by day people become believers. As we devote ourselves. As the church devotes themselves. To growing and understanding what we're called into. Who Jesus is and what he's done. Devote ourselves to each other.
Devote ourselves to intentionally being about the gospel. Practicing the presence of Jesus. And to praying. To asking and begging God to show up. And to do what only he can do. Because it says the Lord added to their number.
At no point is it about how amazing these believers were. And at all points is it about what the Holy Spirit does among a group of people. As he begins to wreck shop and take over their hearts. And that is how God has designed his church to move forward. That's our family history. That's how it got started.
And that's what we get to be in this city. We get to be communities of people intentionally centered around the gospel. Devoted to Jesus and his church. To having the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to change us. That's us. That gets to be us because of the Holy Spirit.
Because of who God is. And it's beautiful. And it's fun. And it's important. To get to invite more people in to what's already been accomplished for us in the cross. Band's going to come back up.
We're going to sing. And then we're going to do this. We're going to be communities of people intentionally centered around the gospel. We're going to gather together in large groups. We're going to meet in homes. Share bread.
Intentionally be about Jesus and what he's done for us. We're going to pray. Because we need Jesus to show up. If those statistics are still true. 48,000 people inside of like a six mile radius. That doesn't include Columbia.
There's like 100,000 people within a five mile radius of the state house that don't know Jesus. We're just talking about the West Columbia area is 48,000. We're not getting into Irmo. We've got a group meeting in Irmo. We didn't even touch people out there with that number. We've been given a mission.
We've been given a message that's actually good news. And we've been given the means by which to do that. The method that God has designed that as communities of people changed by the Holy Spirit. I'm going to pray. We're going to stand up and sing. And then we're going to be the church.
As we respond to who Jesus is. As we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. We've got communion set up. And communion is just. So they intentionally gathered together.
And they partook in. They broke bread together. They shared a meal that was an intentional communion meal. To remind themselves of what Jesus had accomplished. And one of the ways that we do that is we have some juice and some bread set up. Which is just to actively remind ourselves of the need for the gospel.
And so as a large group today we're going to do that. We're going to break bread together. In a very simple way. And then when we gather together in our homes. We're going to share meals together. We're intentionally remembering that we need Jesus.
So if you're a believer. And want to partake in communion. Want to remind yourself of your need for the gospel. Want to celebrate and actively participate in the presence of Jesus. We've got that set up at both sides of the room. If you're sitting here and you thought.
I don't really have a desire to be devoted to any of those things. Then the response isn't work really hard. And you can earn it. The response is realize that you need Jesus. That he actively works in our hearts. That he wants to change us.
And that's what happens among believers. We get to repent. We get to place our faith in Jesus. And he does this in us. God we thank you. For your grace.
And God we ask. As right now the believers in this room. As we devote ourselves to prayer. As we do what we do all the time. Where we pray together. God we ask that your Holy Spirit would.
Empower this in our souls. That your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts. To change us. To make us more. Like you. That you would help us be devoted to these things.
We praise you for your grace. And your love. In Jesus name. Amen.