Acts chapter 2, a chapter that deals especially with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The text that we will look at is Acts 2 verses 41-47. I won't re-read that due to the length, but what it really shows is the effect of the poured out Spirit upon the church. They lived in unity. We will see that in the sermon. So Acts chapter 2, let's read this morning about the wonderful pouring out of the Spirit. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. That's talking about the 120 disciples of Jesus. They were waiting in an upper room in Jerusalem for that pouring out of the Spirit. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about Cyrene. And strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do?" Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words that he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation." Now here begins the text for this morning. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship. and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved." And so far do we read God's word. The early New Testament church had unity because of the poured out spirit. Unity is on the foreground in the text we read, verses 41 through 47. First, verse 42 shows that they had, this early church had, unity of faith. Verse 42 says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Verse 42 also reveals a unity of worship. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Verses 44-46 point to their unity of life. It speaks of them having all things common, in common, and of selling their goods and giving to the poor, sharing things. They had unity of life. And that unity they had glorified God. They glorified God because God is a God of unity within His own Trinitarian being. So He's pleased when His people live in unity, reflecting who He is. The early New Testament church was united. And they were united because of the poured out Spirit. The beginning of Acts 2 talks about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the church. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, worked in God's people in the Old Testament. But He was sent forth in the Old Testament like drips and drops. And now in the New Testament, He is poured out Meaning that he is now sent forth like a mighty rushing river. He works even more powerfully in his people than he did in the Old Testament. The first part of Acts 2 is about that pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and Peter explains that pouring out of the Spirit. And then the end of Acts 2, when it talks about the people living in unity, it is indicating that they lived in unity because of the pouring out of the Spirit and His great work in the church. This early church, this Spirit-filled early church, is a model for us. We, too, have the poured out Spirit of Jesus Christ. We have that. Today, we celebrate Pentecost. We commemorate the ascended Christ pouring out the Spirit on the church, and He's given to us that poured out Spirit. That's why we want to worship this morning. That's why we believe in Jesus Christ. We've been given the Spirit. And He works in us to be, works in us here to be unified in faith, in worship, and in life. The Spirit works in us to be unified and we have a calling to live in unity, to live in unity of faith, worship, and life. We have a calling to live in unity following the model of the early church. And that's a calling for us because we each have a sinful nature. So we each sin and we don't always show forth the unity that we ought. We don't always do that in this church and you understand that. May the Holy Spirit, though, work through the Word to bring us to live in unity more and more. He is the one who unifies us. May He work today so that we live in unity more and more to the glory of God. Let's consider the text under the theme, The Unity of the Spirit-Filled Church. First, unity of faith. Second, unity of worship. Third, unity of life. And fourth, unity's result. First, unity of faith. The early church was united in faith because each member had the one spirit working in them. The early church was united in belief in Jesus alone for salvation from sin and hell. Verse 41 shows this when it says, that they gladly received his word. And that's referring to Peter's word. They gladly received his word. Peter had boldly preached to the multitude of Jews that had gathered in Jerusalem for the Old Testament Feast of Pentecost. The Spirit had been poured out that morning on the 120 disciples of Jesus, which included the apostles, which included Peter. And having the poured out Spirit working in him, Peter boldly preached before this multitude of Jews about how they had crucified the promised Messiah from the Old Testament. How they had crucified the Christ. but that he had also risen now, and he ascended and ruled at God's right hand. According to verse 38, Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now after Peter preached that sermon, we read in verse 38, excuse me, we read in verse 37, that many were pricked in their hearts by what he was saying. And many, we read after he called them to repent and be baptized, many received Peter's word according to verse 41. They received the word, meaning that they believed the word. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. And they trusted in Him alone for all their salvation. 3,000 people went to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They became part of the church in Jerusalem, joining the 120 that were already following Jesus. Verse 42 tells us that after this church was formed, a pretty big church in Jerusalem, after this church was formed, they continued, verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. The apostles' doctrine refers to what the apostles taught. And what they taught was what Christ had taught them. So what they were teaching was really Christ's doctrine. Peter's sermons in Acts 2 showed what the apostles' doctrine included. It included the teachings that Jesus is the promised Messiah, that He had died, that He had risen again, that He had ascended and had poured out His Spirit on the church, fulfilling the Old Testament Scriptures. the members of the early church, continued steadfastly in these doctrines, verse 42. And that literally means that they gave constant attention to them. They devoted themselves to these doctrines. They weren't dividing into different groups, having different opinions on what Jesus, who Jesus was, and what his what His work meant. They didn't divide into all these different groups. No, they were devoted to the Apostles' doctrine, the truth that Jesus taught. One truth. They were one in faith. And they gave constant attention to these doctrines, desiring to learn more about how Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures. gave constant attention to them that they might be reminded of it daily, what he'd done, what it meant for them. They were one in their faith and they continued one in their faith according to verse 42. One in trust in Jesus Christ. They believed the same thing and thus they made the same confession. Probably saying something similar to what we say every evening worship service, the Apostles' Creed. Now, they had one faith because the one Spirit was working in each of them. They had not been united, this group, had not been united before Pentecost. The newly converted Jews, that 3,000 we read about in verse 40, excuse me, in verse 41, That group of 3,000, they had been behind the killing of Jesus, according to Peter's sermon in verses 22 and 23. They had shouted before Pilate, Crucify Him! They hadn't been united with the apostles or any of the 120 followers of Jesus we read about in Acts chapter 1. They stood against each other. So who brought this unity now? The poured out Spirit spoken of in Acts chapter 2. The poured out Spirit. He had worked mightily in Peter and the other 119 disciples of Jesus. He had worked mightily in them so that they, who used to have all these misunderstandings, they now clearly understood that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. They believed even more firmly in Him for all their salvation, and they were bold now even to go out and speak of Him before this multitude of Jews that had hated Jesus. Later, that same Spirit worked powerfully through the preaching of Peter to bring 3,000 former haters of Jesus to repent and believe in him alone for salvation. The same spirit who worked in those apostles was working in these 3,000 to believe. And this group was now united in faith. And they were united in going forward, continuing in the apostles' doctrine, giving constant attention to the gospel. What a powerful work of the poured out Spirit uniting that group. And now, apply that to us. We have faith because we have the poured out Spirit working in us. Amazing. We have oneness in faith. We each believe in Jesus alone for all our salvation. We believe He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. We trust in Him alone for salvation from sin and unto life with God. We don't trust in ourselves. We look to Him alone. We're united in faith together and we continue in that faith together. really week, each Sunday, but even throughout the week, we continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrines. We give constant attention to the teachings of Jesus Christ. We're devoted to them. We come here to hear those teachings. Throughout the week we join together, even in Bible studies, to learn more about what Jesus has done, what His coming means for us. We have devotions seeking to grow in that knowledge and be reminded of Him and the benefits He's given. We continue to believe the truths about Jesus together. And thus we make the same confession each Sunday. As the church and early church did, we do too. We say together, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord. I believe He died, rose again, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God. And that's truly astounding. We're people that are very different in a certain sense. We come from different places, from places in this country. We have different views about food and about drink and about sports and other entertainments, but we have one faith, one trust in Jesus Christ alone. And why? It's because we have the Spirit. The One Spirit works in each of us. Left to ourselves, we would have many different religious views. Think of that. Natural man, he's dead in sin, so he does not and he cannot believe in Jesus for salvation. He doesn't believe the apostles' doctrine that we read in the scripture. So, left to ourselves, we would each have many different views of what salvation even is, and if there's an afterlife and what that afterlife consists of. But because we have the One Spirit, we each believe the same thing, and each confess the same thing, and that is that Jesus is the only Savior, and we look to Him together. And the One Spirit, He lives in us and has united us based on the work of Jesus at the cross. Don't miss that. Without Jesus Christ and His work at the cross, we would be guilty sinners before God, and guilty sinners have to die. Die in their sins. Die in unbelief forever. They cannot be given life. They can't be given the Holy Spirit. But Jesus has come, and He paid for our sins at the cross, so that those sins are taken away. Based on that work, we have the right then to be given life. We have the right to be given the Holy Spirit, the poured out Spirit. And we've been given Him. Thank God for that unity of faith that we have been given by the Holy Spirit. Faith is such a wonderful gift. Without it, we'd be continuing unbelief on the path to eternal destruction, living like the wicked Sanhedrin was at this time. Think about that. That would be me. That would be you. But the Holy Spirit's given us faith. And by faith, we receive Christ's righteousness as our own. That unity we have in faith makes our entire lives united. What a reason to be thankful. Unity of faith makes our entire lives united. It's so much greater than the unity one might have with someone else because they cheer for the same football team. They might cheer for the same team, but the rest of their lives are very different. The unity we have in faith makes our lives united. Being united in faith in Jesus Christ. We each know Christ. And we each then want to give glory to God in our lives. So our lives, our whole lives are united. We want to serve God. It's such a blessing not to be all by ourselves, but to be united in faith with others. That's what we've been given. and given the Spirit who unites us in faith, and it's all based on Christ's work at the cross. Thank God. Being united in faith, the early church was united in worship, in worship of God. They gathered as one for worship. First, verse 42 indicates that when it says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. A phrase that indicates they were coming together regularly to hear the preaching and to worship. That they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, remember, means that they gave great attention to it. They devoted themselves to it. Well, that idea indicates that they were coming together regularly then to hear the apostles teach. They likely met to listen to the apostles at the temple. For verse 46 says that they went there daily. There was probably enough room there for them all to gather and listen to the apostles teach. And they could also be a witness to others that were gathered there. This giving of attention to the apostles' doctrine, it was part of their worship. And that makes sense. They came together to hear the Word. believed it, they submitted to it in their hearts as they heard it. It was part of their worship of God, just as listening to the Word is part of our worship today. They met to hear the apostles' doctrine, and verse 42 adds that they continued steadfastly, also in breaking of bread. Continued in breaking of bread. Now that could refer to the people just meeting in each other's homes to have a meal. But that's more referred to in verses 44 through 46, later verses in the chapter. So it's more likely that that breaking of bread in verse 42 refers to the early church gathering to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The breaking of bread, that phrase is used in other passages that clearly refer to the Lord's Supper. Breaking of bread is talked about in Luke 22, verse 19, where Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper. And again, in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, where Paul is talking about the institution of the supper. Now notice too that this breaking of bread is mentioned in verse 42 along with other acts of group worship, such as this gathering to listen to the apostles teach and making prayers. When Jesus had instituted the supper, before he died, he instructed the disciples, now the apostles, he had instructed them to observe this supper in remembrance of him. The idea was that after he died, they were to go forward having this supper, remembering him. And that's now what's happening. That's what's happening in Acts chapter, according to Acts 2. They had the supper, this early church had the supper as part of their worship of God, seeking to do what Jesus had called them to do. Verse 42 talks more about their worship together. It says, they continued steadfastly in prayers. And the word prayers there is literally the prayers. So it refers to communal prayers, group prayers that they would do and have. They came together to pray, and that's obviously part of worship. They would praise and thank God for sending His Son. They would show dependence upon God by asking Him to strengthen them in their knowledge and faith, and strengthen them in holiness, showing dependence, praised God. They were one in worship in all this, and that's emphasized by the term fellowship in verse 42. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and the fellowship. They gave attention to fellowship or oneness. And they did that by coming together for worship. To hear the preaching, to have the Lord's Supper, to pray. So the early church gathered as one for worship and they gathered with really one attitude to They worshiped together with the attitude of fervency. Verse 42 tells us that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Remember again what that means. They devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. They devoted themselves to breaking of bread. Devoted themselves to prayers. They gave their energy to these things. So you can understand, they probably were making sure they went to bed on time so they were ready to worship. So that they were ready and had energy to worship and focus on what the apostles were teaching. They made sure they got done with their daily work so that they could go to the temple on time and hear the apostles teach the word of Christ. So that they could pray together. Worship is what mattered to them. They came as one with zeal. And they came as one also with the attitude of fear. Fear of God. Verse 43 says, Fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. So it wasn't that some were irreverent about their worship, not really caring, maybe making a joke about the songs or about the prayers. No, they came fearing God that is standing in awe of Him. They were in awe of who He was as the One who sent His Son for them. They were in awe of Him as the One who hated sin, hated sin so much that it took the death of His Son to pay for their sins. They stood in awe of this God who was so powerful that He did great miracles through the apostles right in front of them. Miracles that were signs pointing to their salvation in Jesus Christ. They worshiped with one attitude, fervency and fear. They were united in that. Now why was the early church united in worship? You know the answer. It was only because they had one faith from the one Spirit. That's why. One faith from the one Spirit. They were each given faith in Jesus Christ. having that faith and knowing what Christ had done. They wanted to gather as one for worship. And wanted to do it rightly together. They wanted to celebrate the Lord's Supper as Jesus had said to do. They wanted to worship with zeal and fervency from the heart as Jesus had said to do. They were united in worship as those who had the same faith in Jesus Christ and the same Spirit. Now, we also are united in faith by the Holy Spirit, and so we are united in worship. And we must be. We must be united in worship. We gather for worship together have unity of worship following the spirit-filled early church. We follow their model. We don't sit down today each in our homes and watch the live stream of some service, each separate from each other. And we may not, according to Acts 2 verses 41 through 47, The model church here shows that we must come together in unity of worship and praise Him together. Listening to the doctrines of Christ, having communion and praying. We are united in desiring those elements of the worship service that Christ prescribes. We don't seek to have plays or a movie about Jesus Christ this morning. We don't say, oh, we can't have preaching anymore. Our attention spans are too short. We don't say that. We come together united to worship, having the same elements, wanting the same elements in the service. And we come united in an attitude and we must come united in attitude towards worship. We must come and worship together with fervency. It may not be that some come here, but come here just to sleep, or just to daydream. We must be giving our energy to hearing the Word, and dwelling upon it, thinking about it, must give our energy to praying. We must each be planning our lives and planning even when we go to bed and what we do on Saturday night and what we do on Sunday morning. We must be planning our lives so that we are ready to worship with fervency together, one heart, as the early church did. We must come and worship together also with fear. It may not be that some of us come and worship irreverently by just, again, daydreaming, not really thinking about what's happening here, doing this, that, and the other thing, anything but paying attention. No, we must come and worship together with fear. That means spending time meditating upon who God is before you come here, so that you're ready. Let's come here with one attitude towards worship. United in fear and reverence and zeal. Now, we only have unity in worship by the poured-out Spirit's power. He gives us faith so that we know Christ and know what He's done for us. And knowing that salvation, we want to gather for worship and do it rightly. That doesn't mean we always do it rightly. We are not a perfectly unified church in our worship. We're not always all united in zeal and reverence. We each have a sinful nature. We each fall into sin. The Spirit's work is not complete yet in us. The unity we have is not yet perfect, but Do know this, that the Holy Spirit does bring us to be united in worship more and more, and He's doing that. He's doing that. We see evidence of that today in that we all want to come here and worship together. We all do seek to come and worship with fear and reverence more and more. That's the one Spirit's work. unifying us in our worship. We want to have the elements that Christ has prescribed in his word. Pray that the Holy Spirit may strengthen us more and more to be unified in our worship. Coming together, the right attitude, seeking to worship in the right way to God's glory. Now, the early church, they were united in faith, united in worship, and the text last indicates they were united in life. They showed that unity of life in a couple ways. First, they showed that unity of life by helping those in need among them. Verses 44 and 45 say, all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. Some have taken that verse and say that the early church lived under a communist system. They adopted communism. They say the people sold all their possessions, put them into a big pot, and it was a common pot. Nobody had any private property anymore. That's not true. The key to understanding verses 44 and 45 is found at the end of verse 45, which says that they gave to every man as he had need. We also gather from Acts chapter 4 and the description of Barnabas there and his selling of his land, and of Acts chapter 5's description of Ananias' selling of land, we gather from those examples that selling was not forced on the people of the church, but that people gave on a voluntary basis From time to time, as individuals, there was not a mass disposal of property here. People had their own property, but they were selling it, or selling their goods or possessions to give to those who were in need. And they had all things common, Verse 44, they had all things common and that means they shared things that others would have what they needed. So verses 44 and 45 are not saying the early church really had adopted communism. What it is indicating is that they were a generous people. They were a people that gave to those who needed help. Even selling their own land. Think about the land you have. They took their land and sold it to help the poor among them. And that action of helping the poor expressed their unity. If every man in that church, if the people weren't giving to those who were in need, they certainly wouldn't be expressing unity. By refusing to help others in need, they would just be saying, well, I, as every man for himself, I really don't have any connection with those poor people. I don't care what's happening to them. They would be living as individuals, right? I understand that. But by helping the poor, they were manifesting unity. They were saying, I am connected with those poor people and I want to help them because we're one. So they even sold their land to help them. They were saying, we all care about each other. We're all united in serving God. We're one. So the members of the church manifested their unity by helping those who were in need. and also by going house to house and eating with one another. Verses 46 through 47a say, So it was not that the people just saw each other on Sundays but then did not see each other during the week, really living as individuals. No. They went from house to house during the week, eating with each other. They ate in each other's homes, and that showed they wanted to help each other. They wanted to help each other by serving each other meals. That helps. They wanted to help each other by talking to each other. It helps to have people going through life with you, sharing your joys, sharing your disappointments and struggles. That helps. So they went from house to house, eating together. There weren't cliques either. They visited. It wasn't just that they were visiting some and not others. It says they went from house to house breaking bread with each other. And they did it all with gladness and singleness of heart. They didn't do it begrudgingly. They did it happily. And they did it with singleness of heart. Each person having the same goal. That's the glory of God. They wanted to help each other because that glorified God. That was their one goal in heart. Now why was there such unity of life in the early church? Why was there this seeking of one another's good? It's because of the work of the poured out Spirit in their hearts. The one who had given them one faith. They'd been given one faith, so they knew Christ and what Christ had done for them. And in gratitude, they each wanted to help one another and show forth unity to the glory of the God of their salvation. We are united by the Spirit, and so we also are united in life. And we must be. How do we follow the model of the early church and give to those who are in need? How do we do that? Well, one way is by giving to the Benevolent Fund. Kids, we announce that every single Sunday morning, there'll be a collection for the Benevolent Fund. When we give to that collection, we are doing what the church did here in Acts chapter two. We are helping those in need in the church. Another way to help those in need in the church is to bring a meal to those that are facing a certain trial. Another way is just to give them a tool that they might need, or to be there for them, to be a listening ear to them when they're facing difficulties or troubles. That's giving to those in need. Do those things. Those actions show forth unity, oneness to the glory of the triune God. And also invite others in the church to your home and eat with them. Those visits, again, serve to pick one another up. To pick one another up spiritually. To encourage them. It's helpful to them. It's a meal for them. That's helpful. We don't just visit with some, but go house to house. visiting with many different members. And of course, we're going to be closer with some members than others, but seek to visit with the different members and help each one as much as we possibly can. Now we have that unity of life and only will have it by the Spirit's power, the one who gives us the same faith and the same desire to glorify God. You right away understand we're not a perfect church. We don't perfectly express unity. That's obvious. Some might even be thinking, as we hear about this unity of life that the church expresses, they might think, I don't see that here. I'm not getting very many invites to other people's homes. And I'm not having very many people help me when I'm facing troubles. Well, understand each of us in the church has a sinful nature and we do not always help each other as we ought. We do not always visit one another as we ought. The Spirit's work in us is not yet complete and it won't be as long as we are on this earth. But the Holy Spirit does bring us to be united in life and to grow in this. He does. I've seen people give generously to others in our midst. I have seen people show excellent hospitality to others. If you're not experiencing that yourself, don't dwell on the failures of others this morning. There's a temptation to do that. But don't. Don't be the judge of others here today. Consider yourself. Examine yourself. Ask this question. Ask, am I being generous to others as I ought to be? Am I helping others in need as I ought to help? Am I being hospitable as I ought to be? And seek to lead the way in being hospitable and being a help to those who are in need. Seek to be a leader as God calls us to be. It can be a temptation to say, I'm done with this. I'm done trying because nobody else is doing anything. It's always me. Well, instead of that attitude, be a leader. Doing what God calls you to do in gratitude to Him who's been so good to you. And don't stop praying. Pray that God would use your leading in that area to help others. Pray that God would work in the hearts of others more and more to show forth this unity of life. Pray. Jehovah is our Father who answers our prayers for Jesus' sake. Now last, notice that the unity of the early church led to its growth. Led to its growth. Others living in Jerusalem could not help but notice the unity of the early church. Verse 47 says that the church was praising God and having favor with all the people. Having favor with all the people. All the people refers to everyone that's living around the church in Jerusalem. Now that the church had favor with all these people means that the people around them were impressed by the church. Of course, probably not every man head for head, the Sanhedrin there, hated the church. But many, many people, they saw what the believers were doing. They saw them selling their possessions to help the poor ones among them. Saw them going from house to house and visiting. And they saw that as a good, beautiful thing. And they thought, those people are truly kind people. Those are the kind of people you want to be with. They're so much different than the Pharisees who never seemed to actually care about the poor. These people truly care. Well, the Spirit used this witness of unity for the church's growth. Verse 47 attaches the church's favor with all the people to growth in the church. It says, Praising God and having favor with all the people, And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." So the idea is not that the people themselves caused the church to grow by living in unity. It says the Lord added to the church, the master, the ruler of all. He added people to the church by the power of the poured out Spirit. He did it. How did he cause the church to grow? He used the unity of the church. He gave the church the same faith and worked in them to live in unity. And that led the people around them to see that beautiful unity. And the Spirit used the manifestation of that unity to bring people to consider what the church was saying. The people around the church, they went to the members, they said, what's going on? Why do you live this way? So loving to one another, helping each other, why do you do this? And the church had opportunity to talk to them about Jesus, saying, well, the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures has come, and you have to listen to all the ways He's the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures, and how good He is to us. And we're just seeking to live in gratitude. the Lord used that witness of unity to add to the church. And He does the same thing today. He does the same thing today, but first consider what happens if you don't manifest unity. If we're not truly helping each other and visiting with one another, if we don't express unity and aren't helping those in need among us, people around us notice that. And they're going to say, we want nothing to do with that group. Why would I want to be with them? They're hypocrites. They talk about Jesus being this loving Savior, but look at their life. They have no love. That's the church for you. That's how they act. Say a bunch of things, but don't live it. They won't consider even what you say about the Savior. On the other hand, the Lord uses the unity of the church. for her growth. Others see us sharing, helping those in need, visiting with the younger and older ones in the church, everybody together, and they say, those are kind people. That's different than the way that the world operates. And they'll ask us questions, and we'll have opportunities to talk to them about our loving Savior, who we want to live in thankfulness to. The Lord uses that to add to the church. So may He build us up in faith by His Holy Spirit. Work in us to show unity. Work in us powerfully to show unity and may that serve to the gathering of Christ's church and ultimately to the glorification of our God's name. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father which art in heaven, Lord, we come to Thee and we thank Thee. that thou hast given to us thy word today. Apply that word to our hearts. May we show forth unity following the model of the early church. Strengthen us by thy spirit to do so more and more. We confess our weaknesses, forgive us for our sins. Lord, strengthen us through the word we have heard. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's sing Psalter number 371. Psalm 371, both stanzas, we sing about the unity of brotherhood that we have in the Spirit.