Acts chapter 2. We're going to read verse 41 through 47 in just a second. But it's a very familiar passage. This is the birth of the church, and the church age began subsequent to Jesus' birth and his earthly ministry, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection. He sent the Holy Spirit. And there, in the book of Acts, we see the Holy Spirit descend and fills Jesus' disciples. And then, of course, you know that there's a miracle of speaking in languages they had never learned, which gets the attention of the crowd. Peter preaches a Spirit-filled gospel message, and thousands of people are saved. And from that time forth, the Church of Jesus Christ was marked by local assemblies of believers who then lived out their faith together in community. And so we get a glimpse of this in Acts chapter 2, verse 41 through 47. It says, so those who received his word, that's Peter's word, were baptized. Oh, by the way, I just read a baptism test, a testimony for baptism the other day from a young man who's been attending our church, and hopefully I'll be able to share that with you guys soon. And check your emails and you'll be able to read that testimony, because it's just an awesome testimony. We look forward to him being baptized. Those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together, and had all things 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." And so here, as a direct result of the Holy Spirit, those thousands of diverse individuals who had come together for the day of Pentecost became one unified community. And what did that unity look like? It says there that together they submitted to the authority of the apostles, that is, they learned the Apostles' teaching. And the Apostles' teaching was not just doctrine, it was not just theology, though it was that, but it was also the practical implications and applications that flowed from that theology. And so when you read the epistles and you see lots of theology, but then you see practical applications, don't do this, do this, make your homes look like this, allow your marriages to be shaped this way, allow your parenting to be shaped that way, those are all logical implications and applications of theology, and all that's included in the Apostles' teaching. And so they submitted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, it says. They dwelt together as a loving community, which means they spent time together. They prayed together. They learned one another's needs, because it says that they sold what they had. They sacrificed to supply the needs of one another, which means they knew each other's needs. So they sacrificed for one another. And more than that, they worshipped together. They praised God together. They attended the temple together. And so they were one unified community dwelling together in a spirit-rot relationship, the centerpiece of which was Jesus Christ and His Word. Their lives revolved around their common Lord, Jesus Christ, and the community that His life and death and resurrection had forged. And so we learn about the nature of that community, the church, through the rest of the New Testament, especially as we get into the epistles and so on, where we read things that we call the one and others of scripture. And so we see the church formed in Acts chapter two, and then we get instruction as to what that church should continue to look like through the epistles. So to that end, we wrote something last year which was our summation as far as what our vision for Calvary Baptist Church is based upon what we see in the New Testament. And I'm going to read that to you. We said, a church is a local assembly of baptized believers who regularly gather together with a commitment to live out their discipleship together in the context of loving relationships, continuing together in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, prayer, and the practice of the ordinances under the oversight of qualified leadership. That's a good summation there, but then we continue to expand upon that. Although each believer is a member of the universal church, the Lord's expectation is that individual believers unite with some organized assembly wherein they enjoy the fellowship, encouragement, instruction, oversight, and accountability for which such a community is divinely designed. Members of a local assembly are called by our Lord to strive together by aid of the Holy Spirit to produce a community exemplifying the love of Jesus Christ, thereby exhibiting evidence that they are indeed the followers of Jesus. Scripture offers us clear instruction regarding the type of community that that church ought to be, and here it is. As one body in Christ, church members should strive to love one another. You're going to hear a lot of one another here. Welcome one another, pray for one another, outdo one another in showing honor, think of one another as more significant than themselves, be of the same mind with one another, and live in peace with one another. Further, members should strive to not judge one another, not speak evil of one another, not cause one another to stumble, refuse to lie to one another, be humble with one another, be gentle with one another, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit with one another, and to be hospitable with one another. Additionally, church members are called to bear with one another. forgive one another, confess their sins to one another, and to restore one another. And I'm just going to pause here and say, especially here, this is where we kind of see the covenantal nature of church life. We don't have to sign a covenant when we become church members because we are all part of the new covenant. This is a new covenant community. And so this is a community forged together by covenant. And I stop and say that here because that's what sustains relationships when we have to put up with one another. That's what sustains your marriage. That's why, oh, we don't need a piece of paper. No, you don't need a piece of paper, but you do need a covenantal commitment. which is reflected by that piece of paper, but you need a covenantal commitment. Why? Because when you get to the point where you've got to put up with someone and you've got to forgive someone and they sin against you and so on, it's the covenant that you look to that sustains the relationship. That's why I'm not just going to give up on you. But we're going to bear with one another. We're going to forgive. We're going to confess our sins. We're even going to restore when someone stumbles and falls and even breaks their covenant commitments. So, We also aim to comfort one another, encourage one another, teach one another, and to admonish one another. To be subject to one another, to build up one another, to stir up one another to love and good works, to sacrifice for one another, to serve one another, and to remain faithful to meeting together with one another. As to the church's character in the world, it's called to shine as lights in darkness. Refusing to join the world in its love for the passions of the flesh, its covetousness, its pride, instead is to practice gracious speech, doing all things without grumbling or questioning, aspiring to live quietly, minding its own affairs and working diligently, remaining submissive to rulers and authorities, speaking evil of no one, not quarreling but being gentle, showing courtesy towards all, Further, as the church maintains its distinction from the world, is to lift the world up in prayer, seeking the salvation of its neighbors and its governing authorities, while endeavoring to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so that's our attempt to take what we learn in the book of Acts with the character of the church, what we see played out or teased out in the epistles as far as the character of the church, and to kind of put that together as a vision for what we desire a Calvary Baptist church to be. What we've recognized, though, is that as the church grows... Now, just note, in Acts chapter 2, with the church at Pentecost, that was what we might call a megachurch. There's thousands of members, right? Today, if you see a church with thousands of members, you say, well, that's a megachurch. So it was like a megachurch there in Acts chapter 2. What they managed to do, however, as a church of thousands of people, members, they managed to maintain loving community. And so it is possible to maintain loving community even within a very, very large church. But the point is, they had to take action to make sure that community was forged. It just didn't happen naturally, as we're going to see. And so we recognize that as a church grows, even here we have huelo. 120, 150 people, if you think all the classes and so on, even at this size of a church, we feel the strain and the pressure of trying to maintain community among our people. Because there's, frankly, to our shame, there's people that you could look across the room to right now and not know their names, right? Even at this size of a church. So we recognize there are proactive steps that we must take in order to maintain community, the type of community we saw in Acts chapter 2. The New Testament makes it clear that the early church did not limit their gatherings just to the first day of the week. We know this because you could not conceivably have had thousands of people back it up. What we see in Acts chapter 2 is that it says they went day to day meeting together in each other's homes. And we know that there wasn't thousands of people moving together, collecting in individual homes. What they did is they met regularly, not just on the Lord's Day, which they also did, but they met regularly in each other's homes, and there in the context of those homes, what did they do? They fellowship, they prayed, they broke bread, and they maintained that loving community. I think as Christians, we instinctually desire that type of community. Last week we had some visitors with us, and they were looking for a church, and I said, what are you looking for in a church? And they said, well, we really prefer a small church. And, you know, how do you respond when you hear that? I've heard that a lot. We really prefer a small church. I think, okay, so then you want to join here, which means you're making our church a little bit bigger. So then, as the church continues to grow, what happens? We go look for another small church. But I understand what's going on there. I understand the sentiment, and I'm sensitive to it, because instinctually we say, we want community. And so the thought is, if I'm in a big church, I'm going to lose the community, so I want a small church where we can have community. Well, frankly, even in a small church, you can fail to have community. community. And so what we want to do as a church is take a look and say, how are we fostering the type of community that we see in the New Testament and what can we do better in order to foster that type of community? And so, in the New Testament, we find you start with that megachurch there in Jerusalem, but after about three years, persecution arises under Saul. He's ravaging the church. The church is scattered. They go preaching the gospel wherever they go, and the smaller churches were formed. In the New Testament era, the average church size was probably about 30 people. And so, though we are much smaller than the church in Jerusalem, we are about five times the size of the average church in the first century. But the point is, no matter the size of the church in the New Testament, these were individuals who gathered together in the context of loving relationships and spiritual community. So, with that in mind, we believe that a small groups ministry is a wonderful way for us, as the church continues to grow, to foster the type of community that we see in the New Testament. Because frankly, when we get together for an hour and a half on Sunday morning, can we say that what happens here on Sunday morning from 11 to 12.30 captures what we find in the book of Acts and in the epistles when it comes to all that we see about that loving spiritual community of the church. And not really. There's a level of formality here, and we have a certain order to the service that we follow, and it's essential to the church. The corporate gathering is fundamental to who we are. But there's got to be more than that. And so if we, by virtue of what ministries we have or don't have, limit our church community to just this, then I think we've missed the boat a little bit. We haven't captured what we see in the New Testament. are going to start a small groups ministry. And so I'm just going to give you a few points of what we desire to see through these small groups ministries. ministry. First thing, which we've already touched on, is we want these small groups that we're hoping you'll become a part of to foster loving community, to foster loving community. Love comes through knowledge. Certainly we could say, oh, I love you as a brother in Christ. I love you as a sister in Christ. And we mean that, and that's good, but we understand that real growing love ultimately comes through knowledge, comes through knowledge. And so you're going to be able to love one another better when you know one another better. It's interesting in Philippians chapter 1, as Paul prays for the believers there, he says, My prayer is that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. What he's saying is, in order for your love to grow more and more, it's gonna have to grow with knowledge and discernment. The more you know about God, the more you know about what he's done for you in Christ, the more you will love him, because love comes through knowledge. And the same is true in our relationships with one another as well. And so, think about all those one another's, forgive one another, restore one another, and so bear with one another. Those are hard if you don't love someone on a personal level. By having small groups where we actually get to know one another, get to hear someone's story, get to hear what their struggles are and their anxieties are, it makes those one another's real and it makes them a whole lot easier to exercise because we actually know one another. And so, in order for us to fulfill the commands to comfort and encourage and build up and to serve, We just have to know one another. And again, just practically speaking, think about how many people in this room right now you feel like you know on a personal level. And probably not a whole lot. And I don't expect you, and I don't think it's practical to expect that we will know everyone in this room to the same depth of knowledge, right? That's just not practical. That's not the way we operate. We don't have social groups that big that go that deep. And that's why we think something like small groups will foster those types of relationships. And so we want to know one another, how to best serve one another. And that's going to come by knowing one another's strengths and weaknesses, challenges, and anxieties, and so on. So we want to foster loving community. Next of all, we want to encourage genuine vulnerability. We want to encourage genuine vulnerability. We've tried to develop a culture at Calvary Baptist Church by God's grace, through His Holy Spirit, that is not superficial. There's plenty of churches that are like that, that are superficial. You come in, how you doing? You've got the pasted plastic smiles on your face, and everything's great, and everybody comes and puts on a show on Sunday. And then they go out there to face their real challenges and live a real life, putting the plastic facade aside when they exit our doors. And we don't want that type of culture here. Right? And so Galatians chapter 1, we see the encouragement, That requires a vulnerability. Someone's caught up in transgression and they share it. We're not just going to assume that this just comes through exposure, but this is what I'm caught up in. This is where I'm struggling. And then someone to be able to hear that and receive it without judgment. without judgment, but instead saying, how can I help bear you up? How can I come alongside and help you? And you do it with humility, saying that I too could go the same way, but by the grace of God. And so I want to be watchful as well, but I want to come alongside and help. Well, that takes vulnerability for that kind of relationship. Here's another passage that'll make you uncomfortable. James 5.16, therefore confess your sins to one another. When's the last time you confessed your sins to a fellow brother or sister in Christ? Well, that's the encouragement. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. What type of culture must be developed in a church where there is a willingness for two women to get together and to talk and one confesses sin to the other? Or two men to get together and for one man to confess sin to the other? with the confidence that the person hearing that confession is not going to be judgmental, is not going to run off and use this to gossip and to tear you down in order to build themselves up, but they're going to receive it and actually enable you or help you to persevere in your faith. So pray for one another that you may be healed, James says. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. So I just bring up those two passages to say, what type of culture must exist in order for that type of confession or that kind of burden bearing to take place? And then ask, do we have that kind of culture? And to the degree that we don't, how can we better foster that type of culture? And then we think that small groups will help for that type of thing. So we want to have a culture which promotes vulnerability. When we're vulnerable with each other in that way, it promotes empathy and compassion. It's those types of conversations and that type of sharing that knits hearts together and prompts us to spiritually care for one another. And that has to be within the context of a relationship of trust. So we want to foster loving community. We want to deepen understanding of one another. We want to encourage genuine vulnerability. We want to embolden one another through the confidence of community. We want to embolden one another through the confidence of community. I kind of thought about how to word that to try to convey what I'm trying to get at here. When we leave this place and go out there into our workplace, into our school, into our social settings, whatever it may be, there's a lot of pressures. What enables you to rear up under those pressures when everyone around you thinks a certain way and is pressuring you in a certain direction? What enables you to stand up and to go against the tide? Part of what enables you to do that is the confidence of the community that you know you have in the church. Because you know you have a body of brothers and sisters who believe the same way you do, who are facing the same struggles, who are even having the same successes behind you, then it gives you confidence when you're out there, when you stand alone, to stand up for Christ. I'll give you an example of that in Acts chapter 28. The Apostle Paul had been imprisoned in Jerusalem. He spends years in custody. He appeals to Caesar. He's traveling to Rome. He suffers shipwreck. I mean, it's not going great for Paul. He even ends up on an island bit by a poisonous snake, remember? But in Acts 28, he finally comes to the land, and it says, There we found brothers, and were invited to stay with them for seven days, and we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they had heard about us, came as far as the forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us. On seeing them, it says, Paul thanked God and took courage. After all that Paul had been through, you know what was encouraging to him? Just to see some brothers. who came just to see him there as he landed, and just knowing there was a body of believers there who were growing and who had affection for him was enough for Paul to say, this is encouraging. This is encouraging. After all that he had gone through. And that's the way the community of the church emboldens us and gives us confidence to face the things that are out there. The way we kind of see small groups is an opportunity for you to grow to a little bit deeper level so that you understand, hey, I got brothers and sisters who are facing the same struggles that I do, yet they're trusting God through those things. They're holding on to their faith and they're growing, even in the midst of all those struggles, so I can do the same thing. And so it emboldens one another through the confidence of community. I said, what did I say, 25 minutes? Okay, I got four minutes. So, foster loving community. We would love to be able to do that just on a Sunday morning. And we tried a Wednesday night service, we tried a Sunday evening service, and these things were all kind of with the same goals in mind. Recognizing the Sunday morning service does not allow us to do all that we see in the Bible as far as the character of the local church. And so this is another attempt at that. Number two, we want to foster loving community, we want to furnish a greater biblical knowledge. In Acts chapter 2 it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers, and so they listened to the apostles' teaching. They did theology, and then the implications and applications of that theology. Colossians chapter 3 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That sounds very individual, but then it says, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. So let the word of Christ dwell in you so that you can teach others. singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and thankfulness in your hearts to God. So how much on a Sunday morning here, the hour and a half that you come here, how much teaching are you doing to your fellow believer? Unless you're in some official place of ministry here on Sunday morning, not a whole lot. So where does this take place? It takes place in the context of relationships. And we think small groups will foster that. Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians, kind of gave them a treatise on the end times, and after he gave that to the Thessalonians, he said in 1 Thessalonians 4.18, therefore, encourage one another with these words. Encourage one another with these words. And so we want opportunities to fellowship around the Word of God, so it will foster greater biblical knowledge, and so that we can encourage one another through the Scripture. And so the purpose of these small groups, the approach that we're taking, is that we're going to provide personal application questions based upon Sunday's sermon, so that together as a group with different perspectives and different insights and different knowledge within those groups, we can go a little bit deeper by making practical applications from what we've learned on Sunday. And so we want to foster greater biblical knowledge. And then lastly, We want to facilitate corporate prayer. We want to facilitate corporate prayer. The New Testament church was a praying church. In Acts chapter 1, all these were of one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brother. So men and women together, and they were praying. Of course, the Holy Spirit came, they're filled, thousands are saved, and then what do we see in Acts 2.42, after the church is formed? They devoted themselves to the apostle teaching fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. The church is a praying community. Did you ever notice the Lord's Prayer that we saw last week? I didn't mention this last week, but did you notice? It says, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. Why is it in the plural? Because this is a prayer meant to be prayed by a community. This is a corporate prayer. And so we're called to pray together. Together we confess our dependence upon God. Together we're called to pray openly, to corporately confess our sins, to pray for God's protection, and so on, and so on, and so on. And so even the Lord's Prayer is fit and intended for corporate praying. So by praying together, we are to learn one another's urgent needs and pray for those things. In this type of setting, we just cannot conceivably go through and say, OK, what are you praying for? What are you praying for? What are you praying for? What are the struggles you're going through and the struggles you're going through? And then pray in this type of setting. But we need to pray for one another. And so we pray for urgent needs. We see that in Acts 12, where the church prayed for Peter when he was in prison. Again, James 5, we saw that. If someone is caught up in sin, we're to pray for those individuals. And so we need to know one another's needs so we can pray for one another. And those smaller settings are conducive to that. We pray for urgent needs, we pray for our spiritual leaders, we pray for our government, and we pray for our mission as a church. And so you pray for the leaders in the church, you pray for our evangelistic efforts and any other mission endeavors that we have, but we are to pray together as a church. And right now we're severely lacking in that, and hopefully soon also we'll start a corporate prayer meeting beyond the small groups. And so our small groups should not only be fellowship groups, but they should also be study groups and they should also be prayer groups. They should also be prayer groups. We should hear about one another's struggles and burdens and share in praying for them. So we pray together for our collective interests, like the health and vitality and protection of the church, pray for our spiritual leaders, pray for the effectiveness of the gospel ministry, and even pray for our government, because we're all in it together, and as things become increasingly hostile, we as a church should be praying that we could live a peaceful and quiet life in the midst of those pressures. So in conclusion, that's a little bit of our vision for small groups, and why we think that this is an appropriate time for our church to have such a ministry. We want to create a community that reflects the values and practices of the early church. We want to foster loving relationships. We want to build up one another through mutual encouragement and accountability. And we want to center our lives around Christ and the community that he's forged through his life, sacrificial death, and resurrection. We hope to cultivate a culture of deeper fellowship, greater biblical knowledge, and vibrant prayer. So this offers us a unique space to live out the one another's of scripture, to grow in our understanding of God, to grow in our understanding of one another, and to encourage one another to live boldly for Christ in whatever context we find ourselves in, work, school, even within our family life, and so on. And so this, we believe, is a vital expression of the nature of the community that Christ has built. as a consequence of his earthly ministry. And so that's our hope, that this is going to strengthen our church, that it'll deepen our faith, spur us on to love and good works, and really put us in a place where the character of Calvary Baptist Church wonderfully reflects the character of the church that we see in the New Testament.