Two Journeys Ministry with Pastor Andy Davis. Biblical teaching to guide you to spiritual maturity. Turn in your Bibles to the text that you just heard read, Acts 2, 41 through 47. We continue our series in the book of Acts. Most powerful weapon in the hands of the Lord for the building of the kingdom of Christ is a healthy church. a healthy church. God has ordained the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and to the end of time to be done primarily through the ministry of healthy churches. It is true that God uses the Christian family as the single greatest disciple-making entity in the world. All over the world, babies are born into Christian families and then have the gospel poured into them from infancy. There is no more effective pathway for the conversion of individuals from darkness into light than the Christian family. However, those converts must be brought into a vibrant and living connection with other Christians who are not in their family. And that is done primarily by healthy churches. It is also true that across time, God has used what's known as para-church entities. These are Christian organizations that are not local churches. So there'd be campus ministries, like the one that discipled me at MIT, Campus Crusade for Christ, it was called at that time, called Crew now. and many other parachurch campus ministries. There are mission agencies like the IMB, Southern Baptist Mission Agency, also Wycliffe, New Tribes Mission, and many other mission agencies. There are dedicated works like Samaritan's Purse, and Young Life, and Voice of the Martyrs, and all other kinds of ministries that address poverty, disaster relief, hunger, clean water, orphans. sex trafficking, and all other kinds of issues that do and should captivate the Christian heart in this dark world of suffering. But all of them, I contend, are subordinate to Christ's commitment to local churches around the world. Now, the book of Revelation begins with an overpowering vision given to the apostle John in exile on the island of Patmos, a vision of the resurrected and glorified Christ. Christ was dressed like our great high priest. He's seen moving in and around seven golden lampstands. These, we are told, represent seven local churches. in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, all very near where John the Apostle was exiled. Now the vision showed Christ's intimate knowledge of and care for those local churches. He calls them by name. Church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These were actual local churches alive at the time. And in Revelation two and three, he describes each of those local churches in great detail. He knows their circumstances. He knows their strengths and their weaknesses. He knows their specific challenges and their sin patterns. He knows their open doors of opportunity. And his judgment awaits all of them that overcome those challenges and use their time well to spread the gospel and establish his kingdom. His rewards are his to give to those that overcome in those local church settings. Now the number seven, the seven churches, is not an accident. For many scholars believe, and I agree, it represents a number of perfection or fullness. by extension, every local church that ever will be established from the first century until the end of time in every geographical location. Jesus Christ knows each and every one of them. He is actively involved, ministering, walking around through them, speaking to them. by His Spirit, and by His Spirit alone does He do that speaking. For at the end of each of Christ's letters in Revelation 2 and 3, He says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So all seven churches, we're supposed to read all seven letters, but us 20 centuries removed, it's right for us to hear the present tense. He who has an ear, now. Let them hear what the Spirit is saying now to the seven churches. All Christians in all places at all times over these 20 centuries should listen to what the Spirit is saying. Not what He said some time ago, a long time ago. What He is saying right now. The Word of God is living and active. And the Spirit is constantly displaying in the words of the New Testament what He wants to say to every local church. And I say not just in Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches, but in all the epistles of the New Testament, the Spirit is speaking to the churches. So many of those epistles are written directly to local churches in specific settings, again, with strengths and weaknesses, with challenges that they were facing, and then the apostles would write to them in Corinth, or in Galatia, or in Ephesus, or Thessalonica, or other locations. And all the doctrines and the warnings and the exhortations and the promises, all of them are available for all time for all local churches to drink in and learn from. The Spirit is still constantly speaking to every church through the words of the Bible. And we at FBC in the year 2024, we need to listen. We have an ear. We have an ear. He who has an ear, let him hear. We have the capacity because we're born again, because we're alive, we're not dead. And we can hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And we need to hear what the Spirit of Christ is saying because he bought the church with his own blood. He invested himself completely in the church and in the churches. And so that includes the passage we're gonna study today. Acts 2. 41 through 47, the Holy Spirit in this passage has not given us some dry history of some events 20 centuries ago. No, He has given us a perfect record of the healthy local church that was established on the day of Pentecost and in the time beyond by the preaching of the gospel in Jerusalem. A timeless display of a healthy and fruitful church. Listen to the passage again. Acts 2, 41 through 47. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So in this passage, I've drawn out seven elements of a healthy church. I do not believe this is an exhaustive list, but it's the list that comes from this passage. We will see a church devoted to the Lord. Secondly, a church devoted to doctrine. Thirdly, a church devoted to each other. Fourth, a church devoted to spiritual duties. Fifth, a church displaying godly character. Sixth, a church built on miracles. And seventh, a church daily winning souls. First, a church devoted to the Lord. In other words, it was a believer's church. It was a local church made up of genuine believers in Jesus Christ. Everyone in that local church was a person who had trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and had testified to that faith by believer's baptism. Look at verse 41, those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Now let's step back and look at the context here in the book of Acts. We're at the end of chapter two. We're jumping right in the middle of Luke's account of the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus Christ, after a perfect life and a perfect ministry, died an atoning death on the cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and then after that, over a period of 40 days, appeared to his apostles, giving them many convincing proves that he was alive. He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the power that would come from on high, enabling them to do his mission, the power of the Holy Spirit. In the theme verse of the entire book of Acts, we hear again and again, Acts 1-8, he said to them, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. After he said that, he ascended into heaven. And the church went and waited in prayer, and finally this great day of Pentecost has arrived. the day of the formal beginning of the New Testament church. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the assembled believers there in the room, that upper room in Jerusalem. There was the sound of a mighty rushing wind, like a tornado, perhaps, or a hurricane, and the Spirit descended on each of them, appearing as tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them, we're told, were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other languages as the Spirit moved them. It gave them power. A crowd gathered, having heard the sound, gathered around the place where they were staying. So the apostles poured out into the streets and began preaching the gospel. And amazingly, they preached in ways that they each heard in their own native languages, their own mother tongues. It was a miracle, both their ability to speak languages they'd never studied, and then the hearers, the ability to hear in their heart language that same message. They were hearing them declaring the wonders of God in their own tongues. And then Peter got up and began to preach the great Pentecost sermon that we studied over the last few weeks that we've looked at Acts. He talked about what they were experiencing there, a fulfillment of promises made in the Old Testament of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, quoting Joel chapter two. They were experiencing the outpouring of the Spirit of God, the baptism of the Holy Spirit on these followers of Jesus Christ. He then preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, the simple facts of Jesus, how he had been anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit, went around doing miracles, signs, and wonders, and they themselves had seen, many of them had seen them with their own eyes. These testified plainly to his identity as the son of God, as the Lord, as the Messiah. But that they had rejected him and with the hands of wicked men and put him to death, nailing him to the cross. But how God had raised him from the dead and all of them were witnesses. He then proved this from scripture, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. And he commanded them to repent of their sins. Chief of which is that they had been instrumental in rejecting Jesus and crucifying Him and killing Him. And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. They were convicted of their sins and asked, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord your God will call. And then in verse 40, with many other words, he warned them and exhorted them, pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. There was a fervency and an urgency and a fire in his words. And that's the context to the statement in verse 41. Those who accepted that message. the message of the gospel. Those who accepted that message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. So the phrase accepted the message is powerful. The Greek word implies that they welcomed it, they received it gladly, as let's say a host to some welcome guests, they welcomed it and wanted it in. There was a gladness about the message, a heart ascent to it. They saw it as actually as good news from Almighty God concerning their eternal condition and the forgiveness of their sins. They welcomed this message. The message, the good news they've been yearning for all their lives. Now it's here in Jesus. So they mingled the external message that they heard with their ears with an internal faith and that combination saved their souls. They became genuine believers. That moment, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the first time, they saw Jesus properly. They understood who he was. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, the God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. They could see in Christ the glory of God. They saw it by faith, they believed, and they were saved, they were justified. So they loved Him from that moment and for the rest of eternity. They love Him still. They love Him still. And they were devoted to Christ. What about you? What about you? Do you love Him? Have you been cut to the heart knowing you're a sinner? You violated the laws of God. If you don't have a Savior, you will die and go to hell. Do you believe that? Do you believe Jesus is that Savior, the only Savior, your only hope? Have you called on Him? Have you repented of your sins, turned away from wickedness, turned away from yourself and self-salvation, and have you trusted in Christ? There's no point in you listening to this sermon apart from that. You can't be part of a healthy local church without first hearing and believing this message. Nothing is more important. Have you trusted in Christ? Could it be that God brought you here today for this moment to know that your sins would be forgiven by hearing a message spoken and you combining it with faith? Well, those that accepted the message were baptized. That means they were immersed in water. Baptizo, the Greek, means to immerse. That's what it means. I don't know how you can immerse by sprinkling, but that's another sermon for another day, all right? The word means to immerse, to plunge in a vat of liquid. And so they were plunged, they were immersed, united with Christ in his death, raised in his resurrection spiritually. That water baptism, an outward and visible sign of the true baptism that Jesus alone can do, the baptism of the Spirit. John the Baptist said, I baptize with water for repentance. But after me comes one more powerful than I, the thongs of whom sandals I'm not worthy to untie. He, Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus alone can do that. And they, having been already baptized by the Spirit, We're now baptized in water, immersed in it. We're gonna see this again and again in the book of Acts, this pattern of hearing a message, repenting, believing, and then being baptized. It's the same every time, there's no exceptions. So here I am a Baptist, being a Baptist, talking about baptism, but that's what it is. There's a hearing and a believing and then water baptism. So, above all, this was a church devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything they did in this passage, all of the elements that flow after that, start with this. They're devoted to the Lord. Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides or dwells or remains in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So all the elements that flow come from their abiding in Jesus, their love for Jesus. Now, what follows in Acts 242 is a list of other things that the church was devoted to. Verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Now I want to focus for a minute on this word devoted. It means they adhered to it, they persisted in it, they held fast to it, they gave themselves to these things. This devotion to these things flowed from their overpowering love for Jesus Christ. But it was a lifestyle of total dedication of everything in their life to Jesus. And Jesus demands this, total devotion to him, not holding anything back. Luke 9, 23, then he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That's the Christian life. Or he said very convictingly in Luke 14, 33, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. I have been searched by that verse. I've asked, is that me? Have I given up everything I have to follow Jesus? Do I know anyone who has? That's the standard. So this devotion of the early church came from a total commitment to King Jesus, second element. It was a church devoted to doctrine. They devoted themselves, it says, to the apostles' teaching. It was belief in doctrine, the basic milk of the gospel that united them to begin with, but they weren't done learning. There was more to learn. There was more doctrinal instruction that needed to be poured into these converts. So they believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, but now there's some detailed doctrines that were gonna be flowing to them through the ministry of the apostles. Now, what were these apostles' teachings? Well, keep in mind that at that point, of course, the New Testament didn't exist. In the course of time, in the decades that followed, the apostles would write the 27 books of the New Testament. So if you want to know what the apostles were teaching, read the New Testament. Book of Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Thessalonians. That's the kind of stuff the apostles were teaching. But back then, they didn't have anything written down. It was just teaching and preaching. It was verbal. And they were hearing and believing these apostolic teachings. Now later in the course of time, praise God, the apostles' recollections of the life and ministry of Jesus were written down. And we have four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but they all flowed from the eyewitness testimony of the apostles who had been with him during those years. Jesus had said, the night he was arrested, that the counselor would come, he said in John 14, 26, that the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. That's essential. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and then two hours later someone says, how was your day? And you say, fine, I saw so-and-so. Oh, really? What did you do? We went to a coffee shop. What'd you talk about? Huh? Uh, we just talked about life, how things were, you know. I'm like, oh wait, and this is happening more and more to me as I get older. So what'd you discuss in the elders meeting, my wife asked me. And it's like, I bring home the itinerary because without that I'm hopeless, especially tired at the end of a long, long day. Can't really remember. The New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, meticulous details. and the context and the reactions and all that, where'd that come from? Came from the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said it would happen. The counselor will bring those things to your mind. And the focus there is the apostles, not all of us. We're second handers getting it from them. But that's vital, they were the eyewitnesses. Again, John 16, 13 and 14, when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come, future, and he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. That's doctrine, it's truth. I'm going to give the Holy Spirit a portion of my truth to disseminate to my people. He will take from what is mine and make it known to you. That's the New Testament. But that's what the apostles were teaching that early church. The apostles were gifted by the Holy Spirit to speak truths without error. as they were teaching. And the church was correspondingly gifted to receive it and delight in it. So there's an anointing working both sides of the equation. An anointing on the apostles, and then an anointing on the church, and they match together. John writes about this in his epistle, 1 John 2, 20 and 21. You have, he's speaking to the people, Christians, you have an anointing from the Holy One. And all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know the truth and because no lie comes from the truth. I ponder that passage and what it means is the genuinely converted people know the truth when they hear it. Doesn't mean they don't need good teachers. It means when the good teachers do good teaching, the people receive it and love it and recognize it. You have an anointing. So also every healthy church since that time has been a church devoted to the apostolic doctrine. FBC will flourish if we continue in that pattern. We will fail, we will die, and we should die if we don't. If we don't keep focused on the Word of God, we will shrivel and die as so many other churches have done. We must never shrink back from the full counsel of the Word of God. We must teach it no matter how popular it is, and especially if it's unpopular. We need to be courageous and teach it by the Holy Spirit. We understand this doctrine. The Holy Spirit made sure that they entrusted the doctrine to writing in good time and we have the New Testament. What a gift that is. Is it not? 27 perfect books of the New Testament. And the blessing of Psalm 1 will be on this church. If we continue in this pattern, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf never withers. Whatever he does prospers. Oh, I want that kind of a church, don't you? Whatever we do prospers. Well, it will be if we base it on the apostolic teaching. Thirdly, a church devoted to each other. They really loved each other. They loved to be together with each other. Foundational to Christ's vision for the church, John 13, 34. A new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another. As a matter of fact, Jesus effectively gave permission to the world in the next verse to judge whether we're Christians by how well we did that. By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another. It says they were devoted to the fellowship. Koinonia, a very famous Greek word, one of the few Greek words most average Christians know. You hear this word in teaching. Koinonia means a sharing, a sharing of things in common, but they held together. The strongest image of this or metaphor of this koinonia, this togetherness, this oneness, is the body image. We are part of one body. All right, many members, each of us a part of it. We share life together. Look at the text in verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship. They gave themselves to the fellowship, koinonia, the sharing. And then verse 44 through 46. So all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in temple courts. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer would write, life together. They had a common life together. They just enjoyed being together. And so, elements of that fellowship, that koinonia, is being together, time spent together. It seems like many of them were together at some point every day. I mean, there's 3,000 people that were joined, so people were getting together throughout the week. As they had time, as their schedules allowed, they would be together. And they enjoyed it. It involved simple hospitality. Look at verse 46. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. So they're meeting in the temple courts and they're also meeting in their homes. Just can't get enough of each other. Like, that's not any Baptist church I've ever been part of. It's like, you know, but it could be, should be. They just wanted to be together. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They also thought of their possessions as belonging to the Lord more than to themselves. They were not, it says, they thought about the possessions the Lord had given it to them and they shared with others as they had need. They were not proto-communists. I've heard some of the strangest things about these passages. Not at all. You look at the Communist Revolution, October Revolution, and Russia and all that. That's, what is it, benevolence at gunpoint? Feeding an oligarchy that got all the droppings eventually that came from that? That's not what we're talking about here. There's no gunpoint. People wanted to share. They were delighted to share. They couldn't wait to give as there was a need, a genuine need, and I can meet it. was not proto-communism because they still own their homes. They had homes to meet in and it were their homes. If they sold them, the money was theirs and they could do what they want with it. It was not that kind of communism, but they just weren't selfish and they weren't materialistic. They didn't care about those things in that way anymore. They've been freed from that. And so they're willing to sell things and give to the needy among them. 2 Corinthians 8 15. He who gathered much did not have too much. He who gathered little did not have too little. Some people are just good at gathering. They're good at making money. They're rich. It's not a bad thing if you see it properly. It's like he who gathered much did not have too much. And why? Because they gave it away as there was a need. Or again, Jesus said in Luke 69, In other words, you have your money for a short time. You have a window of opportunity. Use it wisely. And the best way you can do it, says Jesus in Luke 69, is make friends with it. It's an interesting verse. I'll move on. I could easily do Luke 16, 9. That's really cool. But it's like use your money to build horizontal relationships. That's what Jesus says. So fellowship, therefore, is found throughout the New Testament in the one another passages. What the Lord wants us to do and be for each other. For example, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Do one another things together. Fourthly, it was a church devoted to spiritual duties. There are certain spiritual duties or patterns that are part of a healthy church life. They're just things we're gonna do together. Verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking bread and prayer. Verse 46, every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. As the author of Hebrews says, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. Some people are in the habit of not going to church. That's a very dangerous habit to get into. I'm not talking about people that are sick. I'm not talking about people physically unable to be there, not at all. Those people need prayer and care if they're not able to come. But there should be a desire, a yearning to come. If you don't want to go to church, something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with your walk with Christ. That's a big deal if you don't want to go to church. And so, what are your actions? What do your habits show? What is your pattern? Are you in the habit of forsaking the assembling of yourselves together or in the habit of not? You want to be together. They were together. They loved being together. Now why do they meet in the temple courts? Now that's an interesting question. They knew or should have known by then that the curtain in the temple had been torn in two from top to bottom. What did that signify? The end of animal sacrifice. The end of the temple being any special place. Did they fully understand that? Probably not. It was like a dimmer switch. They're waiting for the book of Hebrews to be written. Stephen got it, we'll get to that in due time. He understood. But they still met, and I think it's because that's where Jesus did his teaching. Every day he was there in the temple courts teaching right up until, so there was a habit of Jesus teaching there. The Jews came there every day, so it was a huge assembly of lost Jews that they could reach with the gospel. And it was just a large open space where they could meet, and they were in the habit, so they met in the temple courts. They devoted themselves as they met, as I've said to the apostles teaching, they learned, they were coming there for doctrine. It also says they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. This is almost certainly the Lord's Supper. All right, which we celebrate every other month. It says in 1 Corinthians 11, the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. They did this. They broke bread together. They did the Lord's Supper. So this spiritual observance was richly blessed by the Holy Spirit in them. It was not a dry memorial, certainly was not transubstantiation, but it was a rich experience through the word and through faith of the Lord's death and his resurrection and his future coming. That's what the Lord's Supper was for them. It also says they devoted themselves to prayer. We're gonna see the role of prayer in the book of Acts again and again. This was a praying church, and God was a prayer-hearing God. He did many amazing things in answer to prayer through this church. So the Holy Spirit descended and worked prayer in them. The Holy Spirit taught them how to pray. We don't know how to pray. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, Romans 8.26 says. The Spirit teaches us what we should pray. The Holy Spirit himself came in response to Jesus' prayer. I'll ask the Father and he will send another counselor to be with you forever. The spirit is a spirit of prayer among other things. And so the spirit works that in them. And their fruitfulness came by a beautiful combination of the ministry of the word and prayer. Jesus said, if you remain in me and my words remain or dwell or abide in you, ask whatever you wish. and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit and show yourself to be my disciples. So healthy church combines what they're learning in the word and prayer. You find out what God's doing and what he wants to do in the word and you pray it up to him. You pray for what you think the will of God is revealed in the word but he hasn't done yet. And you ask, and it was a praying church. They devoted themselves to it. And ah. I want to be part of that. We are. We're a church that prays, but I want to pray more. I'm just, I've, my whole Christian life struggled to try to learn prayer. But Jesus said, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, go throw yourself in the sea and it will obey you. Let's be a praying church. Finally, it says they devoted themselves to worship. So they worship, they got together for worship, verse 46, 47. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts with glad and sincere hearts, praising God. They were just praising God for what He had done. When you come here on Sunday, come ready to praise Him. Be like that one Samaritan leper that got cleansed and came back and fell at Jesus' feet, thanking God with a loud voice for his cleansing. Have you not been cleansed from more than that leper was? All of your sins, decades of sins, cleansed. You're pure in the sight of God. You ought to come back and thank him, don't you think? And this is a good time for us to do that with other people who have been similarly cleansed. We praise God for his greatness. and for his marvelous love to us. So, it was a disciplined church. They were devoted to the word, devoted to the fellowship, devoted to Lord's Supper, devoted to prayer, devoted to public worship. Fifth, they displayed godly character. They're not hypocrites. They were what they appeared to be. We see a number of elements of their emotional life. First of all, in verse 43, everyone was filled with awe. There was a sense of awe or wonder. God is a majestic being. A majestic, infinite, glorious being. They expected to have an encounter with God. They were filled with awe at the majesty of God. I think one of the most exciting things I've ever studied as I wrote my book on heaven is realizing how much that will be our experience in heaven. We will be overwhelmed with awe at the majesty of God again and again. And this church was that way. They were filled with awe. The apostles continued to do amazing miracles. Those miracles were amazing. But it gave them a sense of the immediate presence of the Lord. Also, we see a true unity of mind. Verse 46, they continued with one mind in the temple. They thought alike. They agreed together. Their character was Majesty, a sense of majesty toward God, unity with each other. And then verse 46, with glad and sincere hearts. They were truly filled with joy. They weren't faking it. They really felt joy in the Lord. Christ hates hypocrisy. He hates the scribes and Pharisees that are the whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful on the outside and inside, full of dead men's bones and everything corrupt. Healthy church isn't that way. Healthy church is what it appears to be. We actually are filled with awe and filled with joy and we love each other. It's genuine. So there's that godly character. Six, it was a church built on miracles. You're like, I was waiting for this pastor. What are we gonna say about that? Signs and wonders church. Well, read it carefully, all right? Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. I don't think there are any apostles left. I'm not an apostle, I'm a pastor teacher. I'm an elder in this church, I'm not an apostle. I believe that church history has shown that the apostolic age, with the end of the apostolic age, was the end of the common experiences of these miracles. I do believe God does amazing things in answer to prayer, miracles even. But the idea of a miracle worker, an apostle-like person that goes around from place to place laying hands on people and healing them and all that so that there's authority and miraculous power in that individual I think ended with the apostolic age. That is my conviction. I think church history has shown that out to be the case. But at that time, the signs and wonders were essential to the building of the early church. And so we'll have opportunities to see that throughout the book of Acts. They were doing miraculous healings. And then seventh, it was a church daily winning souls. Verse 47, they enjoy the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved. This is the fruit of a healthy church. Jesus said, make a tree good and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad and its fruit be bad. A tree is known by its fruit. Some of the fruit of a healthy church should be conversions. People who are rescued from darkness, rescued from sin. They cross over from death to life and they testify to it by water baptism and by their changed lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wouldn't you love this statement to be made about our church? And the Lord added to their number daily or day by day those who are being saved. Why was it happening? Well, he says in Acts 4.20, Peter and John, when arrested, said, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. I would commend that verse to you. It's not in my outline, but the Holy Spirit, I think, wanted me to say it to you. Acts 4.20, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. I looked it up in the Greek. It's literally, we are not able to not speak. Paul would later say, and now compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem. So I would just say, for us to be healthy, I want us to be compelled by the Spirit to speak about what we believe about Jesus. And if we do that more and more, we're gonna see more and more persecution, and we're gonna see more and more conversions. The Lord added to the number daily, those who are being saved. So, as I end here, some diagnostic questions for FBC. Jesus said, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you think you're fine, Jesus can't do anything for you. If you think you're sick, he can heal you. Now I believe that our church is a healthy church, but I think we could be healthier. And so I just wanted to look at these elements and go through and walk through them. Are we fully devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we love him with a strong passion? or have we forsaken our first love? Do we devote ourselves fully to the Word of God? Are we founding our entire church's life and purpose on the principles of the Word of God? And are individual members of our church doing this as well? Are individual members in the Word daily? Are they feeding on the Word daily? Having good quiet times and prayer times themselves? Do we have a strong community together? Are we devoted to each other in brotherly love? Are our home fellowship strong? Do the individual members of our church feel loved and cared for? Do we shepherd one another? Do we pray for one another? When trials come in each other's lives, are the members of FBC there with those people, walking with them through those trials? Do the members of our church have a habit of attending church or not attending church? Do we practice hospitality? Do we open up our homes and share that with each other? Do we display a healthy amount of awe and reverence at the majesty and the holiness of God? Do we also have a joyful delight in Him, expecting that for us the best is yet to come? Are we characterized by glad and sincere hearts? Are we what we appear to be? Or are we a bunch of whitewashed tombs, hypocrites who look good and then the truth is otherwise? Are we seeing a regular pattern of people being rescued from Satan's clutches from this dark, evil age, rescued by the gospel and brought into light? Are we sacrificially sharing the gospel with coworkers, neighbors, total strangers for the glory of God? So, members of FBC, devote yourselves in prayer over these points. God speaks truth into his people and then brings it to pass. If what I've said today from Acts 2, 41 through 47 is in fact a beneficial list of elements of healthy church, it is right for us to say, God, make it so. Make it so. It's fine for us to say thank you to the degree it already is. We give you praise and glory, but we could be better, could be healthier. Our responsibility in this is to repent where needed and to act differently where called on by the Spirit to do it. Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the time that we've had to walk through this incredible text and the display of the early church and its incredible elements. We pray that you would make it so in this church. Thank you for the things that I see in this church that are healthy. I thank you for the love that I and my family have received for years from church members, sacrificial love, and not just me, but I've seen it done with many others. I thank you for the love that the people of this church, the elders, have for the word of God. I thank you for the many baptisms and the many conversions we've seen. I thank you for the good things you've done, but Lord, I yearn for more. Make us healthier than we've ever been before based on this scripture. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Stay motivated to grow to spiritual maturity by accessing free biblical content at twojourneys.org. 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