family, if you would take your copy of God's Word and open with me to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2. And this morning we will be focusing on verses 42 to 47 as we begin a series, really in many ways a series on ecclesiology, but a series on the functionality of the church of Jesus Christ, the local church in particular, as we Cross over the precipice from 2023 into 2024. We're going to be looking at, for the next month or so, the way that the church functions, what we are called to as members of a local church, and how we should engage in worship and service for the glory of God. And so as we give attention to God's word this morning in a posture of worship, The reading will be in verses 42 to 47. You follow with me as I read aloud. This is God's Word. It reads as follows. 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 in common. and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who are being saved. And this morning I'm preaching on the nature and the necessity of the local church. You may be seated if you would now join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do praise You at this moment of worship as we continue to worship through Your Word preached. We ask that You would encourage us and strengthen us according to Your Word. that as we prepare as a church to cross over this precipice from this year in 2023 to 2024, and as we look beyond this year into next year, I pray that this series over the next month or so would be a means of encouraging and exhorting and challenging this church. I pray that each of us, from the leaders, to the average member of this church, from young to old, that we would all Look to God's Word and see what you have called us to as members of this body. I pray, O God, that you would reveal sin and slothfulness, and I pray that you would exhort us all to walk in faithfulness, and to pursue unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, and to engage in faithful and fervent evangelism in this new year. And also, O God, to worship You with glad hearts, full of joy and gratitude, with a spirit and a desire of excellence, so that everything that we do may be done for the glory of our God. And again, we ask all of this in Christ's name, Amen. Well, as we think about the opportunity for us over the next few hours for us to leave 2023 behind and then to turn the page on the calendar to 2024, that should be something of great encouragement to us as we think about the opportunity of this upcoming new year. And as we do that, we want to, for the next few weeks, focus in on the functionality and the calling of the local church. We're going to do so beginning today with Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47 as we consider the definition of the church, the nature of the church, the functionality of the church, and why it is that the church actually matters. And then we're going to really seek to apply throughout this month the way in which we should engage in the life of the church for the glory of God. And so membership matters, and you this morning matter, and every single person represented in this room, and every family that's a part of this church actually matters. And so we need to engage in the life of this church from worship, how we sing, how we engage in Christian fellowship, and how we evangelize unbelievers, all of it must be focused on doing so for the glory of God, but yet not seeking to do so under this idea of church according to our own definition or church according to our own feelings. It should be church according to God's Word. And so let us now turn to God's Word and consider what God's Word has to say. Now, we're living in confusing days in our land. Obviously, when we have a documentary that was a massive smash hit over just simply one simple question, what is a woman? And yet, who would have thought years ago, maybe 50 or 100 years ago, that a documentary that just went around to college campuses and to politicians and asked questions, specifically one question, what is a woman, that it would be a massive success? But it was. And the reason for the success is because of the confusion that has filled our land. But as we think about a simple question like what is a woman, I think we should be honest that if we were to talk to many Christians today, throughout evangelical circles, and just ask another simple question, what is a church, you might find that you would receive various and sundry opinions over that very question. What is a church? The first time that we see the word church mentioned in the New Testament is in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 18, where Jesus speaks to Peter and he says, On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Later in the New Testament, we come to 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, and the Apostle Paul says, If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. The church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. You see that language, it's extremely important as we consider it. Of course, we see household of God, which pictures that of a family relationship. But then, of course, we see it's the church of the living God, not the church that belongs to pastors or to leaders, but specifically the church of the living God. Church, ekklesia in the Greek. It's an assembly, a called out assembly. A community of believers can be referred to as a congregation. Ek, meaning to call out of or out from. And this idea of kaleo, to call. So it's a called out assembly. Assembling together. And the nature of the church means that we come together for the purpose of worship. and service. R.C. Sproul said it this way, to be called by God out of the world and into the body of Christ is the highest vocation possible. And all throughout the New Testament we see the imagery of the church. We see the church is referenced as a family, or a flock, or a building, or a body, and so on and so forth. But as we think about the importance of the church, we need to be mindful that as we make decisions in this upcoming year, that the church of Jesus Christ should be at the heart of your decisions. That you should orient your family around the local church. Recreation is not a problem or a sin in and of itself, but if that recreation separates you from the local church, then it can be sinful and tragic for your family. Business and pursuit of financial gain is not a bad thing and sinful in and of itself, but the love of money can be the root of all evil. And obviously, if it separates you and disconnects you from the local church, that's a problem. And then if you're choosing schools or colleges or universities, I would encourage you to be searching for that very college that's in a town, that's nearby a healthy church that could nurture your children, that you've raised in your home, that you care for, that you've prayed for, that you've labored on their behalf. And so the church should be at the center of our lives. And there's some of you I'm preaching to today that have, as I look around this room, who have moved from states far away to be a part of this church. And praise God for that. And so you obviously understand that. You believe that. Or you would not be here today. You would still be in another state in another local church setting. But what we need to be mindful of today is that the church should always be at the heart of our family and our family life. We should orient everything that we do around the church. Obviously, as I preach to Praise Mill Baptist Church, I'm quite aware of the fact that you are aware that there's a massive problem when we look out at evangelicalism, and we look out at the church far and wide today. We see the church being turned into self-help centers, and concert halls, and entertainment stages, and a place for religious talks of morality, political venues and psychological treatment centers and just a place for people to come and gain, you know, business contacts or whatever it might be. But that's not what the church is. The church is the church of the living God. And we need to be mindful that there are all sorts of organizations that you could give yourself to. All sorts of organizations that you could give your money to. All sorts of organizations that you could give your time to. And if you just do a quick search, you'll find many of those organizations, and some of you perhaps, are connected in some way, form or fashion, to some of these organizations. The American Red Cross. The United Way Worldwide. Feeding America. Habitat for Humanity. The Salvation Army. Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Doctors Without Borders. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, American Cancer Society, the NRA, the YMCA, the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts of America. And then you could go on and on and on down a list of all sorts of different organizations that people in America can give themselves to. And then if you come within the sphere of evangelicalism, you come to what's known as para-church ministries. Have you checked your email recently? It's the end of the year giving time, so you're probably getting all sorts of requests from all sorts of ministries that you could give to that organization so that that organization can help spread the gospel and disciple believers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's not a bad thing. But when you think about the fact that there are more than 100,000 parachurch ministries in America alone, revenue exceeding into the billions and billions of dollars, And then, of course, you look around at many churches today that are struggling to just make ends meet, struggling to create a budget that they could pay a full-time pastor to serve, and then struggling to find people that are of age to where in youthfulness to where they can simply serve because they've been taught this false idea that if you really want to get engaged in like real deep serious ministry, then you have to go beyond the local church to some parachurch ministry. And they start learning this in college ministries that teach them that real exciting ministry happens over here. You don't really need the local church. That's like for when you retire. You go there and hang out and go see the leaves with the old people. And that's a lie that's taught and it's perpetuated on college campuses and universities. And we need to move away from that and push back against that to say that the local church matters. And we need to see this. There's only one group that's founded by Christ, and it is the church of the living God. And we should put emphasis on the local, tangible, visible New Testament church. Jesus never said that the gates of hell would not prevail against Campus Crusade, or that the gates of hell would not prevail against Campus Outreach, or that the gates of hell would not prevail against Samaritan's Purse, or for that matter, that the gates of hell would not prevail against G3 Ministries. But Jesus did say that the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. And when we think about the importance of the church, you see that the church is spoken of in two different ways in the New Testament, both in a universal sense and in a local sense. When you go to the creeds and the confessions of the early church, you can find the language of the holy catholic church. This is the idea of the reference of the church of Jesus around the world, regardless of geography, ethnicity, and nationality. Not to be confused with the Roman Catholic Church. That's a false church. But the Holy Catholic Church, this Catholic idea is the idea of the universality of the church. In fact, that's the very way that Jesus uses the word the first time that we find it in the New Testament. That the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. Speaking in the universal sense. Not in the local sense. The gates of hell have certainly prevailed against some local churches, unfortunately. But it can also be viewed in the local sense. And the primary usage of the New Testament is in the local sense. The church at Philippi, the church at Smyrna, the church at Philadelphia, the church at Pergamos, the church at Ephesus, at Praise Mill in our present moment here this morning. And what we need to see is that the church functions in a very specific manner, and we need to understand the way that the early church functioned according to God's Word, and then see how we function, and how we serve, and how we worship, Look to the pages of Acts chapter 2 and in verses 42 to 44 we see that the church was together for worship. The church was together for worship. Now consider the context as we sort of parachute down into this text this morning. that this text comes immediately after Peter preaches this very famous sermon that we know as the Sermon at Pentecost. And so he preaches this sermon, and the Bible tells us that some 3,000 souls were saved. And the Bible then moves in the very next context here in verses 42 to 47, and then demonstrates how that group of people were functioning and serving and worshiping God together. So let us give attention to this text and let us see the functionality of the early church. Notice the text in verse 42, and they devoted themselves. The word devoted there means to be steadfastly attentive. It means to attach oneself to something or someone, or to be faithful to. And the idea here is that the early believers were faithful, they were devoted and devoting themselves to the Word of God. Notice there it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. The apostles were serving in many ways as the pastors of the early church. And they were preaching, and they were teaching, and they were discipling through the Word of God, primarily the Old Testament. And so they were expounding, and they were explaining the Old Testament Scriptures, and then in light of Jesus Christ, and pointing to Christ as the fulfillment of everything that we see in terms of the requirements of the law, and the necessity of obedience to Christ, and faith in God's suffering servant, and all of these Old Testament themes were brought forward by the apostles. And this early church, they devoted themselves to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Preaching should be something that we give priority to in the local church. It should not be a sideshow. It should not be diminished. It should not be something that is superficial or shallow. Preaching, the preaching of God's Word, is the primary, ordinary means of grace in the life of the church. Now, there are other means of grace in the life of the church. And keep in mind, the reason that I argue that the preaching of God's Word is the primary, ordinary means of grace is because everything else flows out of the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. Everything else is going to be impacted. How we function as a church will be impacted by, hopefully, this sermon. By the Sunday school lesson that you sit under. The teaching and the preaching of the Word of God will mold us. It will shape us. It will exhort us. It will encourage us. That's why the psalmist declares, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you in Psalm 119 verse 11. And then Paul, leaving Titus there in Crete to put in order the church in that region, he says in Titus 2 verse 1, But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. So if he teaches what accords with sound doctrine, then guess what's going to happen? They're going to sing in the way that they should sing. They're going to pray in the way that they should pray. They're going to evangelize in the way that they should evangelize. They're going to live holy lives acceptable unto God as they are called to. How? Because they are being taught and they are receiving the preached Word of God. Martin Lloyd-Jones said it this way, what is preaching? Logic on fire, eloquent reason. Are these contradictions? Of course not. They are not, he says. Reason concerning this truth. ought to be mightily eloquent, as you see in the case of the Apostolic or the Apostle Paul and others. Now, notice what he says here. It is theology on fire. And a theology which does not take fire, I maintain, he says, is a defective theology, or at least the man's understanding of it is defective. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. That's why I say often that preaching and teaching are two different things. They overlap, they certainly do, but preaching stands on the shoulders or on the foundation of teaching, but preaching goes higher and it does something different than just merely teaching. Preaching is a calling for a response. so that you should feel the burden, the weight of the Word of God upon you that moves you to change, that calls you to action, that if you're an unbeliever, calls you to repent, that if you are in Christ, it would cause you to obey and to change according to God's Word. God saves by the preaching of His Word. It is through the faithful proclamation of the Word of God that awakens sinners to faith in Christ. God sanctifies through his word. Jeremiah 23 29 is not my word like fire declares the Lord and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Second Timothy chapter four. Verses one and two. The Apostle Paul says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. He doesn't say chat the word. He doesn't say whisper the word. He doesn't say joke the word. He doesn't say drama the word. He says, preach the word. The very clear word being used there. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching." So you see, both are mentioned and necessary in the life of the church. God gifts the church with pastors to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Notice in Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12. And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. This is God's plan for the churches, that through preaching that you would be built up, that through preaching that you would be exhorted, that through preaching that you would be changed, that through preaching that you would be equipped to go and to serve and to accomplish what God would have through you in the life of your church. That's what God has called pastors to do. R.C. Sproul explains it this way, the believers commitment to the apostles teaching and fellowship highlights the necessity of active participation in the life of the church for spiritual nourishment. Sitting under the preaching and teaching of the Word of God to some young people in the church might seem like a little bit of a boring exercise. Or it might seem like it's sort of a, you know, like, I don't know that we really need to spend 52 minutes every Sunday morning doing this. Like, there could be other things that we could do. Maybe we could speed it up. Maybe we could have a TED Talk. But it's really the foundation. It's fundamental. It's basic. to the Christian life is that we sit under faithful preaching and teaching of the word of God on a weekly basis. They devoted themselves not only to the apostles teaching, but also to fellowship. This is how the church functioned as they worshipped. Notice this. They devoted themselves to fellowship. Koinonia is the word that's being used here. It means a close association involving mutual interest and sharing association or communion and fellowship with a close relationship. It's literally a word that's marked by intimacy. And what we must understand, and one of the things I'm most grateful for in the life of Praise Mill, is that when we have the benediction at the end of a morning service, and then we have a benediction at the end of an evening service, that it's not like government office at 503. In other words, there are lots of people around this building, fellowshipping, talking, sometimes praying together, talking about the upcoming week, spending time together, inviting one another to homes, to fellowship, to break bread. It's a beautiful thing to see it. Because I've served here for some 13 years and I once served in this context where it wasn't the case. It's a beautiful thing to watch it happen. Now, we've talked about the use of technology and maybe we could have some sensors that would, you know, allow for those who lock up the building to maybe have, you know, the ease to leave early so they wouldn't have to wait for maybe an hour and a half so that all of the conversations stop. Oh, we can talk about that all day long. I'm all for it. But the situation is this, is that when I look out at this church, I see a church that loves to fellowship. That means that you love one another. And that's a good thing, because what we must understand is that in our typical culture around us, we hear a lot of people who even profess faith in Christ, who talk more about their work family, or they talk more about their baseball family, or their football family, than they do their church family. And it seems that in some cases people have placed a higher priority at times on other groups as family then they do the church of Jesus Christ. If you survey Acts 2, 42-47, this last little passage of Scripture before you move over into chapter 3 of Acts, what you see is the church is seen as together under the apostles' teaching, together in fellowship, together at the Lord's Supper table, together in the community, together in serving one another, together in their homes, together in worship, and together in evangelism. They were a together people. Their hearts have been brought together. Fellowship, Christian koinonia, can't just be hello in the hallway. It can't just be minimized down to just sort of a casual relationship. True Christian fellowship involves intimate partnership in the faith. Now just look around this room. Do you think that that's true of you? Or perhaps there are some in this church that need to be challenged on this, because you are closer to people on the outside of the church than you are on the inside of the church. Your closest relationships, who you give yourself to, are really outside of the circle of this church. And you need to challenge yourself in that regard. You need to see that you should be putting priority upon spending time together, not in a superficial way, but in a serious fashion, loving one another, and giving yourselves to one another for the glory of God. Let me just say it this way. If you are not spending time with one another in genuine Christian fellowship, and finding deep-rooted friendship in the life of your local church, you are doing injury to your own soul. That's the clearest way that I can put it. So, examine yourself today. Notice verse 42. They devoted themselves also to the ordinances, specifically that of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism comes in verse 41, in the preceding context, after Peter preached that those who received the Word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. So 41 comes before 42. You say, well, that's just simple mathematics. That's just simple logic, right? But baptism, in verse 41, should be seen in our ecclesiology as coming before the Lord's Supper in verse 42. So perhaps there are some in this room that have said, well, if we know that we're saved, But we haven't been baptized, and when you fence the Lord's table every single Sunday, you hold back people who haven't been baptized. This is why. It's because this is the way that the church functioned. And this is the way that we should function. Baptism is seen as an outward expression, as a symbol of the cleansing work of the grace of God in the soul of a human being, And it is put on display publicly and outwardly in a way that says, I am not ashamed of Christ. Christ suffered for me. Christ bled for me. Christ died for me. He laid down His life for me. You've got to think about this. Peter's sermon was preached when? Pentecost. Pentecost meaning what? How many days? 50 days, right? And so we come to this place where you're just within a short time period. Not long before Peter preaches this sermon was Jesus falsely accused, taken off to Calvary, nailed to a Roman cross in a place of public shame and pain. and a horrific death just a few days before this sermon. And now you have people saying, Jesus died for me, I want to be publicly identified with Him, knowing that if they go into those waters, it's very likely that the same trouble that came to Christ is coming to them. Baptism is extremely important. But then following baptism, the church gathers in worship at the Lord's Supper table. remembering the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as often as we do it, we can talk about that in the sermon on both baptism and the Lord's Supper. We can talk about the way in which this local church approaches those ordinances and how we function together as a church in those ways. Obviously, we have talked about that before. There's some freedom there. We're not mandated to have the Lord's table every week, but we believe it's a good thing that we do. And there's rationale behind it. But as often as we do it, we should be remembering the Lord's death until He comes. Looking back and looking forward. Remembering His death and then focusing on His promise to return. And that's what you see happening here. It talks about the breaking of bread. And it talks about the breaking of bread twice in this text. And the first occurrence here in verse 42, I believe is a clear reference to the practice of the Lord's Supper Table. The latter is going to be focused on Christian hospitality and fellowship. But then notice also their worship. Verse 42, they devoted themselves to prayer. This is how they functioned. They gave themselves to be a praying people. This is how the early church functioned. They were praying often together. They were praying corporately. They were oftentimes in the temple at the hour of prayer, praying. and in their homes praying, and praying for one another in great trials and tribulations as they would come and as they would arise in the life of the church. We need to remember that Christ demonstrated in His human nature what it looks like to pray. The apostles prayed, and they prayed for one another and with one another. The early church emphasized prayer. And as we read church history, we see that church history is replete with examples of individuals who prayed fervently. We should be a praying people. So I just want to exhort the church this morning from this text of Scripture as we look at the early church devoting themselves, faithfully engaged in prayer. I want to encourage us to do two things. To think about our personal prayer life. away from this campus, and to think about when the church gathers for prayer on this campus, that we would prioritize that. If we gather for prayer in the life of this church, why would we not want to come? I'll be in the foyer after the sermon is preached today, after the benediction, if you have any reasons why the church should not gather together when the church is gathered together. That makes sense for prayer, then please, please come and bring me that that rationale. I can't I can't find any reason in scripture that would say when the church is gathered for prayer, we shouldn't be there. Now, there are certain providential circumstances that might hinder us. But in 2024, I would urge us. to prioritize Wednesday prayer gatherings when we are gathered together, praying over a list of needs, practical needs, spiritual needs of the church, bearing one another's burdens, and then spending time talking after we pray around the Family Life Center, and thinking about the needs of a family in the church, or the needs of individuals, or the needs of X, Y, or Z. or maybe your own personal struggles that you're sharing with one another. And in the corporate prayer service at 2.30 on the first Sunday of the month, I would just urge you to prioritize that. Praying corporately together for leaders of this community and leaders of our nation. I just urge you. But then notice their worship also involved in verse 43, this idea of being driven to a godly fear driven to awe in God. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, it says. But it says awe came upon every soul. The word awe here is the word from where we derive the English term phobia. But this is in reference here to a holy fear, a holy terror, as we saw in the reading this morning from Deuteronomy chapter 6, that God's people have always been called to be people who fear God. Fear God and keep the commandments. That's the idea. It's laid out, the foundation is laid in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, the church is called to be a people who have a holy reverence and fear of God. Now, of course, miracles and wonders and signs were being done at the hands of the apostles. And obviously, the church was standing in awe of it all. We need to not be a church that lacks godly fear. We need to have a genuine, real, Holy fear and reverence for God. By the way, when you see these signs that say, well, we just want to be a casual church, we just want to be... Listen, I'm going to say it just as gently as I can today. There is nothing casual about worship. Some of you aren't sure. And I'm not talking about dress codes. I'm talking about the posture of our hearts. Yes, you can talk to God as you drive down I-20 into the city of Atlanta. And by the way, I would just encourage you to do that, right? But there is nothing casual about worshiping God. If shepherds were fearing for their lives when angels appear, before them, how much more holy fear and reverence should we have in our hearts as we come before God to worship Him? Gone with the idea that we should just say, well, just worship should just be casual. If we make it casual, we'll get more people to come. And then you'll cease to worship the true and living God in the process. We should have a holy sense and reverence For who is the main object of our worship as we gather together, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together? So, notice, they devoted themselves to the assembly of the church in verse 44, and all who believed were together. Again, I think we've learned this massive lesson through COVID, through the COVID crisis. You should learn it from this text. Together, together, together, together, together, and then do another word search on one another, one another, one another, one another, one another. And you can't be together, together, together, and accomplish all of the one another's if you're not together. And so we just need to be a together people. We need to prioritize being together. And you say, well, I just want to prioritize other things. You can prioritize other things, but keep the main thing in focus. You can spend time in recreation. You should. You should spend time in athletic pursuits, and you should. In business pursuits, and you should. In family time, and you should. But you should prioritize the gathering of the church. And then, how we gather matters. It's a sermon for a different day, but needless to say, move away from the idea in 2024 of just showing up three and a half minutes before the call to worship. Show up early. Prepare your mind for what's going to happen. Don't rush in to worship. Sit in fellowship, and then when you hear The prelude start, focus your mind to the Word, focus your mind to the Gospel, focus your mind to God Himself, our Triune God who is worthy of praise. And then give yourself to worshipping passionately for the glory of God. Well, they were also together in life, in verses 44 to 46, we see they were engaged in Christian service. Notice the text, it says, And they had all things in common and they were selling possessions and belongings. They were distributing all of the proceeds to everyone as any had need. This is not communism. This is just Christians taking care of one another. And what you just see is that this is Christian service. And they were making sure that if there were someone that perhaps had lost a job or a specific need, what would arise, they would see to it, they would take care of one another, they were selling possessions, and then giving as the need would arise to meet that need. But also you see Christian hospitality and fellowship. Notice in verse 46, And day by day, attending the temple together, and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. Now, you see the temple language there, and obviously this is a group of Christians now who've been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. And it says that they were attending the temple together. It's very likely that they would gather in maybe a portico or a common area around the temple, and they would have Bible studies and maybe even worship services as permitted. I think as we read the New Testament, we see clearly that they are now separating themselves from the sacrificial system that was at play in the temple. But mind you, there would have been grand opportunities when people were engaged in the sacrifices at the temple, that they could point to Christ and evangelize even there. But you see, Christian hospitality and fellowship, they were pictured as being in one another's homes, breaking bread from house to house. Matthew Henry observes, the communion of the saints is a great help and privilege. And a means of advancing the faith and joy of Christians. This Christian bond is extremely important. Spending time together. Breaking bread together. Hearing one another speak over a meal. Talking about life. Talking about challenges. If you're neglecting Christian fellowship, you're neglecting your own soul. It also prevents division in the church. When the church is loving one another and engage in intimate Christian koinonia, it just prevents this idea of coming in with stiff hearts and stiff relationships and allowing division to separate the church. But then notice the language here. It's quite interesting, is it not? It says that they were also, in the context of breaking bread in their homes from house to house, and with generous hearts, they received their food. Then the next statement says that they were praising God. They were praising God together. Isn't that interesting to you? The word praise here, or praising, is a word that denotes the joyful praise of God expressed in doxology, a hymn, or a prayer. It's used eight different times in the New Testament. Six times we find this word used in Luke and Acts. One time we see it used there in Romans 15, 11. And then another time it's used in Revelation chapter 19. And it's either in reference to groups of disciples, individuals who are praising God, or the church corporately gathered to praise God, or even angels who are praising God. But the idea is that the Christian church should be a singing church. OK, I'm going to say that again, that the Christian church should be a singing church. We should be. And furthermore. Don't think it's strange that Christians are a singing people. By the way, that's one of the studies of the Reformation. You can go back for yourself and see it. That the Reformation not only brought people to the Word of God and the Word of God to the people of God, but then it established right worship in the churches. And the first mark that you see happening in the Reformation is not only the right preaching of the Word of God, but it resulted in the right singing of God's people. And when you think about singing, not just in a corporate setting, but in homes together. Like, when was the last time that you had someone in your home, and you were gathered together for Christian fellowship, and you sang together? You say, well, I think that's kind of odd. Maybe it's, to the early church, odd that we wouldn't do that. What do you think? Like, is it odd that we should sing? Well, we should be a singing people. We should be a singing people in the corporate worship service, and we should be a singing people, I think, even when we gather. It's not mandated that every time we get together for pizza that we say, okay, now we're going to stop and sing together. But I think that we should be, in a normative sense, it shouldn't be a weird thing for Christians to sing. Let me just ask you an honest question. When there's singing happening in this room, do you find yourselves standing there doing this? disengaged, like, well, when they're done, I think the pastor is going to get up there and say some words. Let me ask you a question. This is an honest question. Why would you not sing? That's the question. Why would you not sing? Well, I don't really like the song choices. What were they singing? They were singing psalms. without a praise band, without any fancy instruments taking place, nothing fancy, just singing the Psalms. And we say, Jesus died for me. Jesus suffered for me. Jesus bled for me. Jesus endured the wrath of God for me. Jesus was brutally crucified and executed publicly on a Roman cross for me. Jesus was buried for me. Jesus was resurrected for me. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, ascended the hill of the Lord, and sat down in a place of sovereign authority. And Jesus is now interceding for me. But I don't have a song to sing. We deserve the wrath of God, but we sing because God gave us mercy. We deserve judgment, but we sing because God gave us forgiveness. We deserve the flames of hell, but we sing as a church because God gave us living water. We deserve the penalty of sin, but we sing because God crushed His Son in our place. Jesus Christ took on human flesh, fulfilled the law of God, pleased the Father, conquered the devil, paid our sin debt in full, defeated the grave, and ascended the hill of the Lord. And you don't have a song to sing? This is why we sing. Crown him the Lord of heaven, enthroned in worlds above. Crown him the king to whom is given the wondrous name of love. Crown him with many crowns, as thrones before him fall. Crown him, ye kings, with many crowns, for he is king of all. Is that worthy of singing? Crown him the Lord of lords. who over all doth reign, who once on earth the incarnate word for ransom sinners slain, now lives in realms of light where saints with angels sing their songs before him day and night, their God, Redeemer, King. This is why we sing, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. What's the next word? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. The church. should be a singing. People, in 2024, if you chew gum and look at the floor and surf the internet while we're singing, I would just urge you, before you even leave this room today, first and foremost, that you would even examine yourself to see if you were in Christ. But then, if you are in Christ, but you say, I'm just not a singer. Listen, if you stand up here next to me, you will know, Pretty short form, I am not a great singer. But I would just urge you to sing out of a heart that overflows with gratitude for what God has done. For you. By his son. Verse 47 concludes. And the Lord added to their number Day by day, those who were being saved, they were together in their evangelism. Two things we can learn from this one sentence is that God is sovereign over the growth of the church. We have experienced a great deal of growth in this church over the last couple of years, two, three years. And the reason for that growth is not because of fancy programs or schemes or gimmicks or tricks that we're trying to offer to the community. The reason that God has been pleased to grow this church is because we are simply relying upon Him to do it through His Word. It's the only reason. And if the season of growth ever plateaus, we should never get in a backdoor meeting with our elders and try to determine what new needs to be done to reach the community. We need to keep doing the same thing. God is sovereign over their growth from 120 in the upper room to 3,000 saved at Pentecost to another 5,000 saved in a sermon at Solomon's portico. And quickly, the growth of the early church went to an astounding 20,000 to 25,000 people just like that. And it was God who was responsible for the growth. The growth was not based on gimmicks and trickery. It was based upon the faithfulness of God to His Word. And I believe it is very easy to suggest that because the Lord was adding day by day to the church those who were being saved, that the church was engaged in evangelism. You say, well, how do you prove that from the text? I prove it from the whole of God's Word because here's the point, is that the commission of Christ to His church is not to just wait around until a gospel lightning bolt zaps people in the community and then brings them to your church. Now he could have chosen to do that if that would have been God's plan, but he did not choose to do that. He chose the means of faithful gospel proclamation. Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And so, as they were engaged in their public praising of God from house to house, the people around the city were noticing there's a difference in these individuals. And it was opening up an opportunity for them to evangelize and to point these people to Christ. And the Lord was adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. The spread of the good news, the care of their neighbors, the love of unbelievers, and the overflow of their gratitude for Christ caused them to evangelize. Now, let me just say this. I would say every week it would be a good thing for everybody in this church to have a family that you invite to church with you. I think it would just be a great thing. Start on Wednesday, reminder on Saturday, invite a family. They may or may not come with you. It would be a great thing to do that. But that should not be your primary means of evangelism. You should actually be taking opportunity to actually open your mouth, share the good news of the gospel, with family and friends and co-workers and neighbors, and trust that God will give the increase in due season. So the call to action at the end of this sermon is very simple. Three things I want to say to this church and to everyone that's assembled here today. The first thing is that rejoice in the fact, as the church assembled here this morning, that God has actually called us out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ to assemble with the local church. And we can learn from this text great lessons of the importance and the privilege of the local church. The second thing that I would say are to the prospects who are here this morning. God has not called you to just be a perpetual attendee in a local church. And so it would be our desire for you to either join this church or find a local church that you can join for the glory of God. Don't just be a perpetual attendee. You need in your life a couple of things beyond what you will be able to accomplish in your attendance here on a Sunday morning. You need real genuine accountability and you need to understand real genuine responsibility of church membership. Those two things are vitally important. And then I could start talking about other things like Christian koinonia that's different when you're a member than when you're just an attendee and so on and so forth. But you need to join a local church. If this is not the church for you, then please, by all means, find a local church where you can give your family to grow in grace. But in 2024, we would urge you to consider joining this church. Our next members meeting will begin sometime in the month of February. Look for that announcement to come. We would love to see you in that class, and love for you to be a part of this family of faith in the upcoming year. And then to the unbeliever. There are some people in this very room today, under the hearing of this sermon, that are not in Christ. And I would just urge you, under the hearing of the gospel this morning, that you would repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ. Cast yourself upon the mercy of God, believing that Christ suffered and bled and died for you. And if you would call upon the Lord, who is sovereign and good, to save you. The Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Don't delay. Don't wait until a better opportunity. There is no better opportunity than the present. Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. Repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ. May God strengthen and encourage and bless this congregation in 2024 in ways that we can't even imagine, as we give ourselves to one another and give ourselves to the Lord of glory. completely submitting ourselves to His Word and submitting ourselves to one another. May God grow us in grace and grow us in number for His glory and praise. And we ask all of this in the name of Christ. Let's bow and let's pray together.