We're looking at the identity of the church. We're seeking to understand what is the church, who is the church? We've already dealt with those two questions. And now we're going to deal with what is the church to do? What is our purpose as a church? John McDuff, he said the gods of the unregenerate soul are the world, self and sin. And he's right. But in the seeker sensitive church, those three words have been ignored. You don't hear anything like that mentioned. We're told that the church today needs to be light on doctrine. And they need to deal more with the felt needs of the individual and the few or the unchurched. I read last week from the book by John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, Let me read you again something else he says in that book. He says, Today we have the extraordinary spectacle of church programs designed explicitly to cater to fleshly desire, sensual appetites and human pride. To achieve this worldly appeal, church activities often go beyond the merely frivolous. For several years, a colleague of mine has been collecting a horror file of clippings that report how churches are employing innovations to keep worship services from becoming dull. In the past half decade, some of America's largest evangelical churches have employed worldly gimmicks like slapstick, vaudeville, wrestling exhibitions and even mock striptease to spice up their Sunday meetings. And even, he says, no brand of horseplay, it seems is too outrageous to be brought into the sanctuary. And that's what's going on with this whole desire and goal to supposedly reach people. But, you know, James gives a stern warning about worldliness, doesn't he? In James 4, he tells us adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world and makes himself an enemy of God. So there's a serious consequence to worldliness. In fact, John echoes those similar words in 1 John 2, 15. And 16, when he says, do not love the world or the things in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him for all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It's not of the father, but it's of the world. And the church today, and you heard this 50 cent term that John MacArthur mentioned a few weeks ago when we were watching the video on a Sunday night, he mentioned the term pragmatism. You'll probably be hearing that term again and seeing it. But a definition of pragmatism is basically the notion that meaning or worth is determined by practical consequences. And they use that as a guiding philosophy of their life and a guiding philosophy of theology and ministry. You know, whatever is of meaning, whatever is of worth, it could be anything. You know, if it works. And we'll use it. And I've told people, I mean, before I became a pastor and hearing things like this and watching churches copy what the church down the road is doing, I'm saying, listen, just because it works there doesn't mean it's going to work here. You've got a totally different set of people down there. Those people have different needs than the needs that are at this church. You know, that's how come no two churches are alike. I mean, the only thing that we're really alike in is that we started a lot of times at the same time. And some churches, you can go in there and you can know about what time they're going to take up the offering, you know, or what time they're going to sit down or stand up or anything like that. But this whole idea of pragmatism, it's as this guiding philosophy, it's got some flaws to it. In fact, it's nothing short of satanic. This is certainly how the devil creeps into the church and seeks to lead people astray because they get them focused on, well, whatever works. Instead of operating on the basis that we got to go by the word says, you know, we don't have the option of using whatever works, you know, because what's going on in the secret sensitive church is that they're using whatever will work to reach the world and they're using the world to reach the world. Now, as I mentioned the last couple of times together, we were dealing with that question, who is the church? And we basically responded by the church being believers. only, not a church made for unbelievers. That's the church of Satan, the Satanic church, that's for unbelievers. But yet today, there are many churches, again, that are going on that focus and that direction that the church is for unbelievers. They might not come out and say that, but the way that they're operating and the way that they're giving their attention and their priority, they're giving it to that issue. And, you know, the early church, it began with what conversions. So, you know, it's not made up of unbelievers, it's made up of believers. And we also saw in the New Testament epistles that they are addressed to the church and they refer to the church as being believers. Right. Fifteen New Testament books begin their addresses by making references to the audience as being believers, the church. So the church is for believers, we're not to cater to the loss. to reach them or to preach the gospel to them or to teach the word of God. I was telling a couple that came yesterday. They were asking some questions about our church, and I said, listen, one of the things that we seek to do here is to only use one thing to draw people. The word of God, I mean, we're not seeking to do anything other than that, but to preach the word. And, you know, if somebody is going to come and be a part of the church and they're going to come for that reason, that basis, because that's That's all we're going to offer. That's all we have to offer. I mean, we can't even offer everything for every single age group and, you know, in the church. But again, we have a different philosophy there in how we're dealing with this. And so Paul even said in Acts 20, verse 27, when he was talking to the elders at Ephesus, he says, I have not shown to declare We're preaching to an audience of one. When we sing, we sing to an audience of one. If we don't sing or preach to please anybody sitting in the pew, we only have one desire, and that is to please God. And if we can please him who sets a higher standard, then I think we'll do fine with everyone else unless they come in here with totally unrealistic demands. John MacArthur further states, this is a good statement here. He says, the truth of God does not tickle our ears. It boxes them. It burns them. It first reproves, rebukes, convicts, then exhorts and encourages. Preachers of the word must be careful to maintain that balance. And a lot of times you hear people crying out saying, you know, you're harsh. They always go with that. And then they go, you're unloving. And folks, If you deny telling people the truth, that is unloving. If you don't tell them what they need to hear, then that's being unloving. I'm more interested in telling people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear, because not always what you want to hear is the kind of stuff you need to be hearing. You usually need the opposite being told to you. But unfortunately, preachers with their ear tickling messages are all too abundantly available just because you see a church that has a crowd, don't Don't don't think immediately in your mind that they have that crowd because God has caused that to happen. You could very much have your tickling preachers in there and just telling the people exactly what they want to hear. And, you know, you have this prosperity gospel, you have this word faith movement and churches are are huge that are part of that. That is not of God. And I wish more people would say that Marvin Vincent, he writes this. In periods of unsettled faith, skepticism and mere curious speculation in matters of religion, teachers of all kinds swarm like the flies of Egypt. The demand creates the supply. The hearers invite and shape their own preachers. If the people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf maker is readily found. And that's exactly what we were talking about last week with The whole start of the Seeker Sensitive Church, running around into the neighborhood doing surveys and finding out what people would like to see in a church and then going back and putting together that kind of a model for the people you're trying to reach. And then again, we talked about targets last week. Listen, we have one target. You know what it is? When we're out away from the church, we're targeting the lost. We're not targeting a certain age group. We're targeting the lost. So that's going to cover all kinds of age groups, right? And as far as inside the church, who are we targeting? We're targeting believers. That's why we teach the word. That's why going back to Acts 20, 27, we want to teach the whole counsel of God. So since the church is for believers and we got to ask the question. What is the church to do, and we're going to see that in Acts chapter two, in fact, we're going to look at chapters two through eight, at least in this first point, as we focus in on what the early church did, because that's one of the ways that we can look at this, just go back and see what the first church did. Now, let me just warn you that some of the things here, you've got to come to the book of Acts and realize that it is a historical book. It is many times referred to as the acts of the apostles. Right. This is things that they did. And we see their formation. We see what they were told. We see their evangelism. You know, we see their persecution. I mean, we see a lot of things here and The book of Acts basically focuses on two individuals, Peter and Paul. You have the first chapters that dominate or where Peter dominates. And then after that, you have you have Paul dominating the rest of the book. So we're going to start right there and let's just simply start from the beginning. What can you think of when you think of the first thing that the church did? What do you think of? Preaching. Praise the Lord for saying that. Because that word is becoming scarce. You know, we want the ear tickling stories, that's not preaching, that's storytelling. And they preach the gospel. Look there in Acts chapter two. He says there in verse 40, and with many other words, he testified and exhorted and you back up early in chapter two. And you see in verse 14, Peter standing up with the eleven. He raised his voice and he said, and he's describing what took place there on the day of Pentecost. You get down to verse 22 after he goes through that whole prophecy right there of Joel and he begins to preach to them. What is he preaching to them? You murdered your Messiah. That's what he's preaching. Very specific. Listen, if you were to analyze this today, you would say, Peter, you're not being tolerant. Peter, you're you're stepping all over the toes of people. You know, you need to be a little bit more sensitive. You need to think about their felt needs. Listen, the only felt need that they thought about was the fact that they were sinners in need of forgiveness. And there was only one way they were going to get it. And that was through repenting and turning to Christ, period. That's all. And again, we've gotten away from this whole issue of preaching the gospel. Many churches The pulpit stays out of the way half the time so we can do dramas. Now, I'm not all down on dramas, believe me, I like dramas, but I don't think that that should be the focus of everything that we do. I think the focus of what we do is to preach the gospel, preach the word of God. I mean, that is our priority. I'm called to preach. I'm not called to sing, though God's given me the gift and the ability to do that. I'm called to preach. And we're even told to preach the gospel. We're not told to sing the gospel, are we? There's nothing wrong with singing the gospel. And you hear people say, well, I went to this such and such concert and I got saved at the concert. Well, listen, you got saved at the concert because somebody preached the gospel. It wasn't that they just got up there and sang songs, you know. Richard Baxter, a Puritan, he said this, I preach as never sure to preach again. And as a dying man to dying men, I preach as if this is my last sermon. That's commitment. That's faithfulness. That's diligence. I mean, what would you do if it was the last day of your life and you knew it? See, that's the only thing is we don't know that when when is the last day of our life here on the earth. So we always live as if there's a tomorrow. We always we always look at tomorrow. In fact, many things that we need to do today, what do we do? We procrastinate. We put them off to tomorrow. I mean, we all do that. And truthfully, I love having deadlines in my life because that just keeps me from procrastinating in certain areas, but it all boils down to self-discipline and things like that. Well, let's look at this. We look at preaching the gospel. We see that this was the priority of the early church. Again, you look here in Acts chapter two and you see that it began on the day of Pentecost. You remember in chapter one, you're told. to wait there in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit. During that time, of course, they chose Matthias to replace Judas. So now they're numbering 12 again. And so you have here in verse one of chapter two, on the day of Pentecost, when they had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. They're right there, about 120 of them in the upper room. They were praying, which is a good thing to be doing. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven. And here we're getting a description of of how the Holy Spirit came at this moment and what was the evidence of that. But let me say something here, because this is something I've had to say to people that believe in charismatic theology, that you've got to be careful when you read some of this because you think that this is the norm. And we could prove very easily that the evidence of speaking in tongues as a result of getting the Holy Spirit is not the norm. First of all, we only have it recorded in the book of Acts. If this was the norm, why is it mentioned in the rest of the epistles? Especially first, second Timothy and Titus, which are pastoral epistles, why isn't it mentioned there? Because it's not it's not the norm, this is this is not, you know, what takes place, you know, in the beginning, it started that way. And when you study the accounts of tongue speaking, I hate the word tongue speaking, because It's so confusing, it doesn't really describe what's taking place. Let's just use the term languages, because that's the terms that this the supernatural language that was being spoken by a person who had never learned in this case. And besides, if you do a study of the people who possess the supernatural gifts, you find only a small group of them were able to do this. This was not something that you could wish for, just like any other gift you couldn't wish for. You can't one day wake up and say, well, I think I'll become a preacher. Well, if God hasn't gifted you to become that, you won't become that. You know what I mean? You'll drop out at some point along the way because you'll find out, listen, it's not all cracked up to what you think it is, what kind of little mentality that you have in your mind. You know, many times we think, you know, being a preacher is a really easy job. I haven't found anything easy about it yet. The demands are very great. And I'm not minimizing any other job, but I'll tell you this, it's the greatest job. It's the greatest job in the world. You know, it's a wonderful opportunity to somebody ask you, what do you do for a living? Well, I get to go around, tell people how they can be forgiven of their sin and go to heaven, have eternal life. That's what I get to do. That's awesome job, isn't it? I mean, you think about it in those terms, you don't go, well, you know, I'm a pastor of a church, you know, today, even using the term to pastor, to tell someone a little bit about credibility doesn't even work anymore because there's so many pastors that have fallen by the wayside. Just this. article Travis showed me yesterday, just devastating about a local pastor. Well, we see here the priority of the early church was preaching, it began right there on the day of Pentecost, it started with the coming of the Holy Spirit, you see that there, evidenced by the Holy Spirit coming. resting upon each one of them. And he says there in verse three, there appeared to them divided languages as a fire and it sat on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It began to speak with other languages as the spirit gave them utterance. Again, tongues, languages, known languages, you get into the pagan aspect of it in First Corinthians 14. They were going back and forth. You had some that were doing known languages, the legitimate gift, and you have others that were doing this gibberish. And the gibberish was paganism. They had brought paganism. They brought their old lifestyle right there in the church. And see, that's what you need to understand when you go through First Corinthians 14, the difference between the two terms that are used there. And one of the ways to find out is that you've got the use of the singular tongue and you have the use of the plural tongues. And if I remember correctly in my study, hopefully I don't mess this up, is that the the singular use tongue was speaking of the true gift and the plural use is speaking of the gibberish. But I'd have to go back and check the actual Greek terms that are used there. But if I remember correctly, that's the way it was. It was going throughout the passage. And you got here that they were speaking other languages and that we went through, I think it was last week, looking at the different nationalities of these people, the different languages that they represented. And they were hearing them speak the word of God, verse 11, the wonderful works of God in their own language. So they were preaching to them the gospel. They weren't just up there speaking to them in their language and just tell them, say, listen, we've got something to tell you. You know, they weren't just telling them anything. They were preaching the gospel to them. Obviously, it was something enough and enough of a miracle to draw the people together. And who was abiding there that day? Jews. Jews. That's how come Peter, as a Jew, speaking to them about their Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what he preaches to them. And so you get there in verse 14. Peter stands up. He raises his voice with the 11. He explains to them about this phenomena that they are not drunk. It was only nine o'clock in the morning. But he says what's taking place here is what the prophet Joel said. And then he begins to quote that. But in verses 22 and following, he begins to preach to them about murdering their Messiah. And so we see the priority of the early church was preaching. It began on the day of Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit, with the preaching of Peter. And listen, if you follow the book of Acts and you find that whole priority continuing right there. And let's do that. Let's at least look at this first point and let's examine the six more chapters of this in the book of Acts. Go with me to chapter three. And you see this continuing throughout the life of the church. By the way, keep this in mind. From the very inception of the church, the church has preached the gospel. From its very inception, it has always preached the gospel. So if the church is not preaching the gospel today, then they're not emulating what the early church did, what the first church did, what God called them to do. Right? If you're not doing what God called you to do, you're in trouble. Don't run around and say, God's blessed this and God's doing this. Listen, you start tickling people's ears. You know, we could get crowds if we really wanted a crowd. All we've got to do is just start telling them what they want to hear. Start tickling their ears and start doing concerts and having celebrities and start making celebrities in the church. Well, again, you see it continuing throughout the church because there's a chapter three, you've got Peter and John, they go into the temple, there's a lame man, a lame man is expecting some kind of Some kind of assistance there, Peter tells him that silver and gold he doesn't have, but what he does have in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and immediately he rises up. So that right there is going to create a crowd, wouldn't you say? And I'm sure that Peter and John didn't have a little banner posted outside the temple that said miracles nightly. I mean, this this as far as we know, was the first miracle that they had done. Right. I mean, other than The speaking in the languages, so it's a second miracle, the first of the healing. And so obviously this drew a crowd. Look there, verse 11. Now, as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and to John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. And so when Peter saw it. He responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? It had nothing to do with this. It's not about us. I like that. I mean, there's a hat out that I think, if you like to wear a hat, I think it says, it's not about you, Galatians 2.20. I was like, man, that's a good one. He says, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus. Then you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of Life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know." Yes, the faith, notice this, which comes through him. I like that. It comes through yourself. It comes through Christ. And it has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled." What's he doing here? He's preaching. He's preaching the gospel to them. We know that because he says in verse 19, repent. And therefore, be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Again, he's preaching to them the gospel right there in the temple. As all the people are drawn together over this miracle. Listen, it doesn't stop. Going to chapter four, it says, verse one, as they spoke to the people, the priest, the captain of the temple, the Sadducees came upon them. They were greatly disturbed. They taught the people and preached to Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word, what happened to them? They became the churched. They became believers, they believed. They were no longer the end church. So how do we reach the end church? We preach the gospel. We don't go and do vaudeville. Vaudeville, as John MacArthur sung about, and we don't have to do wrestling matches. We already have them in the parking lot, don't we? Chan and Reed do wrestling matches, but they're not doing it to draw people, right? They're just doing it to be silly. You know, we don't have to do anything. It's already done. That's what I like. I mean, if you think about it, John MacArthur said this a long time ago, and I think about it often, we're like waiters. The food's already been prepared. All we have to do is get it to the table. Don't tamper with it. Don't mess with it. You're not the cook. God is the cook, right? He has designed for us what to tell people. And we just need to get it to them. Don't tamper with it. Don't add to it, don't take away from it. Go over to verse eight, after they're thrown into prison, then they're brought before. Before Ananias, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander. Says there that they had gathered, they're brought before the rulers on the next day, the scribes, the elders, so forth. And they said in verse seven. And this is after they set them in the midst, they said, by what power or by what name have you done this? And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, I like that, he said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel. Now, do you think that he's going to just give them a simple answer? I mean, we've already seen that they're taking every opportunity to preach the gospel, and that's exactly what we need to be doing. Jesus had already told the disciples be harmless as doves, but wise as serpents. And here you're going to see him do this. First of all, he was filled with the spirit. So you don't want to speak to anybody without being filled with the spirit. Right. And he says, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to this helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." They didn't hold back, did they? They certainly did not think, if I say this, this is going to cause a reaction. It might even cost us our head. But we do that, don't we? Somebody's in the room. We know how they're going to react. We soften the message. That's wrong. That's sin. I like in verse 13 that when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, how did they have this boldness? You go back to verse 8, they were filled with the Spirit. That's how you get the boldness. You say, well, I'm kind of scared to share the gospel with people. Well, you need to be filled with the Spirit and you won't be scared. You need to quit trusting yourself and your abilities. and start trusting God and His abilities and what He can do. That's why Paul says, I'm not ashamed to preach to you the gospel of God, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. He knew the power didn't rest in himself. The power rests in God. So you see it continuing throughout the life of the church. You have Peter and John in the temple. You have Peter and John before the religious leaders. Go into chapter five. In chapter five, After the situation here with Ananias and Sapphira, you have verse 11, great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. I remember the first time we had to do church discipline, somebody came up to me after church and they said, man, this makes me fear. I said, that's exactly what it's supposed to do, exactly what it's supposed to do. And you read after that in verse 12, and through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people and they were all in one accord in Solomon's porch, yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly and believers were increasingly added to the Lord. Multitudes of both men and women, it was added to the Lord. Believers just goes back to our point, churches for believers. John MacArthur says, while the unbelievers stayed away due to the fear of the consequences of sin, there were multitudes who heard the gospel witness, gladly believed and joined the church. That's how you join a church. That's the way you should join a church, not focusing on whether you walk or not, focusing on whether you believe. Whether you're converted, whether you repent of your sin, that's why we go through the process that we do, because we want to do the best as we can to determine if a person has done that. So that gives us great opportunity to talk about that. Look also in chapter five. It says in verse 17, now the apostles are before the Sadducees again, says the high priest rose up and all who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees. And they were filled with indignation. That is, they were jealous. They laid their hands on the apostles. They put them in the common prison. But at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out and said, Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. When they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came in and called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel, and they sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and did not find him in the prison, they returned and reported, saying, Indeed, we found the prison shut securely and the guards standing outside before the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now, with the high priest, the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what would the outcome be? Then one came and told them, saying, Look, the men whom you put in the prison, they're standing in the temple and they're teaching the people. How about that? Again, what's the priority? Preach the gospel, preach the word. In fact, it's described here as teaching. Because that's what it is. You're proclaiming the good news of Christ, but you've got to teach people about the good news of Christ, don't you? And then the captain, it says in verse 26, went with the officers, brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. When they brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. And that's the that's the permitting permeating influence that the church is to have. If you didn't get a chance to hear MacArthur today, he's teaching on the parables and today he was teaching on the parable of Levin. I encourage you to listen to it. Talking about the permeating influence that we're to have. He says that you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. You intend to bring this man's blood upon us. And Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus and you murdered by hanging on a tree. He's going right through it again. He's preaching it right to him again and again. Each time he's condemning them for murdering their Messiah. He's going right back through it again. He says, Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. And when they heard this, they were furious. They took counsel to kill them. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, commanded them to be to put the apostles outside for a little while, and he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed of yourselves, what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Thaddeus rose up claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. And after this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them along, for if this plan Or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it's of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. That's some good advice, wouldn't you say? And they agreed with him. And when they had called for the apostles, notice this, they beat them. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. They let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." What's the church to do? Preach the gospel. Preach and teach that Jesus is the Christ. Go into chapter 6. Of course, you know, in the first half of this chapter, there was a problem that arose for the Hellenistic Jews, the Greek speaking Jews, they were being neglected in the daily distribution of the food. So they brought that problem to Peter and the apostles and they said, choose out among you seven men. And they gave the qualifications of the kind of people to look for whom we may appoint over this task. But we will give our attention to prayer in the ministry of the word. And so they they did that and they appointed the seven men. It says right after that, verse seven, that the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And then from this point, you begin to hear about Stephen. And you have Stephen beginning in chapter six and verse eight and taking us all the way through the end of chapter seven as he's preaching the gospel, then you have false witnesses come up. And tell the council what he's saying. They said lies about him. He's brought before the council. Guess what he does before the council? I want to encourage you sometime. Read chapter seven. He preaches to the council. And he tells them that, listen, you have ignored your history. Go to the end of chapter seven, you can see how he ends this. He comes down to the very end. Let me just let me just start verse forty four. He says, Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles. And God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David. He found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him a house. However, the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me? Says the Lord. But what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things? And notice how he ends it. You stiff neck and uncircumcised of heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold of the coming of the just one whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers. What is he doing? He's doing the same exact thing as the apostles did. He's telling them, you murdered the Messiah, you murdered your king. Verse 53. They become murderers or they become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. They gnashed him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And then they cried out with a loud voice, stopping their ears. They ran at him with one accord to cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. that he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Here's your first martyrdom. You can't say Ananias' fire were martyred. God killed them for lying. That was the first church discipline. Now you have right here, you see Stephen preaching before the people. He gave his life for what he preached. Will you do that? Do you love the gospel? Do you love Jesus so much that you'd be willing to die for him? And if you immediately say yes and you say that all in piosity, then why aren't you suffering right now? I mean, think about it. You see, immediately as they began to preach the gospel, they began to suffer for it. They were holding back, they were telling them, you are murderers, you betrayed the Messiah, you killed him. I mean, that's all fresh because this hasn't been very much time since Jesus was hung on hanged on a cross and then resurrected. You go into chapter eight and you see that the church now, whole scale persecution turns on the church. You see here, Saul was consenting to his death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made great havoc of the church, entering every house, dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore, love that spite of this, those who were scattered, they went everywhere doing what? Preaching the word. Nothing could stop them. In fact, they think that by persecuting them, that would stop it. But actually, what it was doing is it causing it to spread. It was causing it to grow. Persecution causes the church to grow, not die. And if you want to even go further, church discipline causes the church to grow. Because people can't stand hypocrites in the church, you hear that all the time. I don't want to hear that church full of hypocrites. We just say, well, come on, we need one more, you know, because we know you played the hypocrite, too. We all have. So you see right there, chapters two through eight, the priority of the early church was they preach the gospel. That was the priority. You know that this became the priority of Paul. Go over to chapter nine, chapter nine records his conversion. And you can read about that when you have some time, but if you notice that after Ananias was sent to him and he says there in verse 17, that he entered the house, he laid his hands on him, and he said to him, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as he came, he sent me that you may receive your sight to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. And when he had received food, he was strengthened. And then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus and then noticed this. Immediately he preached to Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God. Immediately he did this. You know what? Do you remember after you got saved? What was the first thing you started doing? You started telling people about what happened, didn't you? He immediately started preaching the gospel to them. Sad that that fervor, that excitement, that honeymoon love. You know, we've got to fight to make sure that doesn't wear off, right? Then you get complacent and you stop being obedient to the Lord and doing what God's called you to do. But you see right here, following the conversion of Paul, he began to preach the gospel. That's why he said over in Romans 1 15, so much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. He was always ready to do this, and we didn't know from Romans 15 20 that he wanted to preach where Christ was not named. You know, we easily go into territories where Christ is already named. We build on other people's work. Do you realize that? Paul didn't do that. Listen to what he said. Romans 15, 20. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel. Have you made it your aim to preach the gospel? If you haven't, you need to repent. Simply put, he says not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. I mean, he was a pioneer. He went into places where Christ wasn't named. We watched recently through the gates of splendor. Have you seen that? It's about Jim Elliott and the other men that were with him. Actually, we bought the DVD and and they went into an area where Christ wasn't named. And they basically paved the way for their family to go in there because they didn't know that they were going to kill. Actually, one of the men in the camp. lied to the leaders and said, these men have come to kill us. And so the place where they were at, the little beach area where they landed their plane and all, and they had went in a couple of times, and this this guy that they had reached out to, they even took him up in their plane, but he ended up betraying them. Yeah, and they were dropping gifts in there to them. And then all of a sudden they they came up to him and they speared him to death. And they found them later. But Elizabeth Elliott gives a lot of information about what happened there. And again, she wasn't the only one that went actually in there and befriended the people. And lived among them. There's a message that you can get off the Shepherds Fellowship website or we can actually have to get it for you, but it's a testimony of Steve Saint. His father was one of the men that was I think it was his grandfather that was one of the men that was father or grandfather. I got confused. Was it his father that was one of the men that was killed also? But anyway, it's a good good DVD if you get a copy of that. So, again, the priority is preaching the gospel. And, you know, even Paul had pronounced judgment to himself if he didn't preach the gospel. I mean, he was going into places where Christ wasn't named. He wasn't building on another man's foundation. He was always ready to preach. He always made this his aim. And then he said this, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Do you pronounce judgment on yourself if you don't preach the gospel? So it was his priority. Of course, we know it is the priority of Jesus. That's what he came here to do. He began his ministry by preaching, didn't he? Mark 1, 14 and 15. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus came preaching the gospel. That was the beginning of his ministry. His entire ministry was centered on the preaching of the kingdom. Look there in Matthew 4, verse 23. It tells us this is a summary of Jesus's ministry. It says Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease among the people. Then his fame went throughout all Syria and he brought them all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, those who were demon possessed, epileptics and paraleptics, and he healed them. Great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from Decapolis or Decapolis. Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan. The priority was he came here to preach the gospel, to bring the good news. Just as he stood there before his hometown and the synagogue and he reads. From Isaiah, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor, and right after he says all that, he puts the book or hands the book to the attendant and he says today this is fulfilled in your hearing and they freaked out. And they ended up casting him out of the temple, they wanted to kill him, they wanted to throw him off the cliff. We know this is priority because he commanded his disciples to do exactly what he was doing. He commissioned him, right? That's what we mean when we talk about the great commission, the great commission is to make disciples and you make disciples by preaching the gospel. Says Matthew 28, 19 and 20, go therefore, and you know, we've talked that many times in the Greek phrase literally reads as you are going. Make disciples, that's the main command, make disciples the only command and the rest are part of symbols that tells you how to make a command, you do that by baptizing and by teaching. So he says there. As you're going, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you in law and with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Mark 16, 15 says the same thing. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Luke's version says the same thing. This is what he said to them right after his resurrection when he appeared to them. He says, Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things." The early church preached the gospel. Paul preached the gospel. Jesus preached the gospel. What do you think our priorities should be? What do you think the church should be doing? You know, it doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure this out. If you don't know who that is, don't worry about it. It doesn't take much to figure this out. This should be our priority, should be at the top of the list. Let me break this down into three areas, it should be the priority for pastors. Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher? What are we doing as preachers? Preach the gospel. About the evangelists, Ephesians 411, he himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists. Evangelists are what we commonly term as church planners today. They went into a city where Christ was not named, the Lord used them to lead people to Christ, they stayed there long enough to establish the leadership, and then they left and repeated the whole process. I am not an evangelist in that sense. And a lot of us will say, well, I don't have the gift of evangelism, therefore, I don't evangelize. You know, there are many things in the list of spiritual gifts that we may not be gifted in, but we're commanded to do. You might not have the gift of giving, but you're told to give, aren't you? So and then the last is believers. And it just goes back to the Great Commission. But making disciples has given specifically to the eleven that through them obeying that command, and it just keeps trickling down through each generation, doesn't it? So what did the church do? They preached the gospel. Now, let me have you to go back into Acts, if you're not there, go back into chapter two. And let's look at a second thing that the early church did. What are you going to do with all these new converts? Well, guess what? You're going to baptize them. You're going to baptize them. And by the way, baptism always follows salvation, it never precedes it. You go into Acts chapter two and you look there after they were cut to the heart, they were convicted, they asked what should they do. Peter said to them, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And he testified with many other words, but if you look at verse 41, it says, then those who gladly received his word, the word gladly means they received it with pleasure, with delight. And the word receive, apodecomai, it means to take fully, to welcome it. After they had welcomed the word. They were baptized. Now, There's some things about baptism that we certainly need to understand, but I don't want to go into a whole theology about that. We have some some things about baptism that you can you can request from us where we did a whole study on this. Jeremy's been debating a guy on this whole issue. But if you go with me to Matthew three, there's there's many things that we could point out there. Matthew chapter 3, you have here John the Baptist. It says there in verse 1 that he came preaching here. His whole life was to be the forerunner of Christ, to preach the gospel. He paved the way. And what was his priority? He preached. He told them to repent. And notice this. He's preaching. He's calling them to repent. And then it says in verse 5 that Jerusalem, all Judea, all the region around the Jordan, they went out to him and they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sin. This is why we we ask people that are getting baptized to share their testimony. Because that's what they were doing here, they were confessing their sins. Now, listen, a baby can't do that. This kills infant baptism, doesn't it? A little baby can't confess anything. Baby can't understand anything. Only the baby can understand is what it wants, and it really doesn't even fully understand that. It just has a pull, a draw to that from its sinful nature. It says here they were confessing their sins. Go with me to Acts chapter eight. We mentioned this yesterday about Philip. Philip there with the Ethiopian eunuch. Story begins in verse twenty six, and you can read about that. He's reading the book of Isaiah. And Philip asking, what is he reading? Do you understand it? And it was the passage there in Isaiah fifty three. It's mentioned there in verses thirty two and thirty three that he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, like a lamb silent before a shearer. So opened up not his mouth and his humiliation, his justice was taken away and who would declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth and you can ask Peter or Philip rather. He said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this of himself or of some other man? And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, what did Philip do? He preached Jesus to him. Again, we're going right back to the priorities, aren't we? And it says, Now as they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? That Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus is the son of God. So he commanded the chariot to stand still. But Philip and the unit went down into the water and he baptized him. What was the requirement? Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? Believe with all your heart. Always follow salvation, never proceeds it. Because you know what? Baptism can't save you. Can it? There's a passage here in 1 Peter 3, 21 that makes it sound like that it will save you when it says there's also an antitype which now saves us, baptism. And he's speaking of types there because he had just been talking about those who were saved in the flood. And he talks about the ark being the type of salvation, if you will. And he says here, there's also an antitype which now saves us, and it's baptism. But he defines what he means. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh. A lot of baptism, all it's going to do is give you a bath. He says it's not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but it's the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So does it save you? It always follows salvation and you know what else is commanded. Peter said to Cornelius and those who were there with him, he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. So it's a command. All right, so we see here, what did the early church do? Well, the early church preached the gospel, that was a priority, so that the early church Priority of Jesus, priority of Paul. We even see some added features here, the priority of John the Baptist, priority of Philip. And we see also that they baptize new converts. That's what you do with them. And then we see something else that occurs. Go back into the book of Acts, chapter two. What are you going to do with these new converts? They come to Christ, they're baptized and baptism again is a Symbolic, it's a picture of the death, burial and resurrection, it's all for the old life on with the new life. In fact, there was some things in in history there that point out the significance of baptism. It showed that you were repenting from your old life. But notice in Acts 2 and notice verse 42, we see something else here, and this is what you do with a new convert as well as a seasoned convert. You teach them the word. It says in verse 42, and they continued steadfastly, they, this is they, the three thousand, the three thousand that God just saved, the three thousand that he added to the church, right? They continued steadfastly, that phrase right there, continued steadfastly, it's one word, means that they persevered, they were constantly diligent. They were steadfastly attended to. It means to give unremitting care to a thing. They were giving total devotion to the apostles doctrine. How about that? So we see just by the phrase the apostles doctrine that the scriptures were taught. It's the apostles doctrine. You know what, folks, we're still teaching the apostles doctrine. We're teaching the doctrine of Jesus. That's it. You come up with some new doctrine. It's not of God. There are no new teachings. Gospel is old, but it's new, isn't it? I like what someone said to Charlie one time because they were calling their church new work, and it made sense just, you know, in its formation stages. But the person asked him, he said, well, you know, what about 10 years down the road? And we're still calling it a new work. And he said, well, listen, there's nothing wrong with that. The New Testament is 2000 years old and it's called new. I like that. But the scriptures were taught, it says that they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. That's, again, a direct reference to the scriptures. Let me give you some verses that you can ponder on. 2 Peter 1, 19 and following says this. Peter says, and we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place. Until the day dawns in the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. You know what he's speaking of himself? He's speaking of the other writers of scripture, of the apostles that God used to pin the word. Ever in chapter three. Second Peter, he says this verses one and two, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle and both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Wow. Remember, in verses 14 to 16, he says this in chapter 3 of 2 Peter, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless, and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures, and he calls Paul's writing scripture. All of the epistles, how many were there? Thirteen epistles, all of them, Peter affirms them as scripture. So they taught the apostles doctrine, that's what we're doing, we're teaching the apostles doctrine. The apostles were the foundation of the church, weren't they? Go with me to Ephesians 2, look there in verses 19 and following. And you'll see what what Paul writes about the apostles being the foundation there. Says now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. So the apostles, the prophets were the foundation. And they taught the word of God. That's exactly what we're to do. People ask us why we teach the word of God. Well, we're mandated in scripture to do it. We're told to do it. Just hold your place right there and go with me over to Titus. Well, actually, before you go there, go to second Peter. I'm sorry. Second Timothy. Second Timothy, chapter four. And Paul says to Timothy, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead. It is appearing in his kingdom. Do what? Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all own suffering and authority. But the time will come when they will not endure or tolerate sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap or pile up for themselves teachers. and they will turn away or turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables or myths. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Go to Titus 2. Titus 2, verse 1, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. End of chapter 2. Speak these things, verse 15, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. What's our priority? Preach. Preach the word. Baptize new converts, teach the word. You know, the scriptures are to have our greatest attention and devotion. Is to be faithfully taught in the church, faithfully. And, you know, that's not what's being raised up and that's not what's being promoted. We're honoring people that are not faithful to the word, you know that? We're honoring people that are not faithful to preach and teaching. Says there in Acts 2 that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. This provides the means for a healthy church. If you don't preach and teach the word of God, you're not going to have a healthy church. You know, the best way to mature new converts is to teach them the word. You know, our church has been made up, I mean, Not now, but when we started out made up primarily of a lot of new converts. Really, the biggest problems that we dealt with in this church was immaturity. And that's just something that you got to work through, right? You know, as people grow up in the Lord, they grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, they begin to act more mature. They begin to make the right kinds of decisions according to the scripture and they begin to recognize the authority of the word over their lives. See, the leaders are to hold to a pattern of sound doctrine, and the reason for that is so that they can guard the church against error. You know, one of the qualifications for an elder is simply this in Titus one nine. It says that they are to hold that they are to hold fast the faithful word as they have been taught, that they may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. So they are to know the word, they are to know how to handle the word, because that's what they're dealing with. And of course, we just look here in chapter two of Titus there to teach the things that are proper for sound doctrine. And listen, all the word is to be taught. Nothing is to be withheld. That's why Paul says, I have not shown to declare to you the whole counsel of God. So it's all to be taught, every bit of it. So everything we do, it must run in line with our purpose as a church, we are to preach, we are to baptize, we are to teach the word of God with all conviction, with all authority. It's the only way that believers will be matured in the things of God. It's the only way that unbelievers will come to the knowledge of the truth. Before we close, let me have you to turn to first Corinthians 14. There's something in there I want you to see. Now, you recall in chapter 14, he's dealing with the problem and the abuse of the gift of languages. But there's something that he tells them, this is a illustration he gives them as to showing the prophecy is to be preferred. over these languages. He tells them in verse 22, chapter 14, that tongues are for a sign. And he just told them what that sign was, he quoted from Isaiah 28 with men of other tongues, with other lips, I'll speak to this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me. This was a judicial sign of judgment of Israel. That's what it was on the day of Pentecost of that day. That was God speaking, obviously. But he says their tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe. But to unbelievers, that's exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. What did it do? It drew everybody together. But prophesying, it's not for unbelievers, but it's for who? Those who believe. This is what we're to do. And prophesying is not for telling future. The word prophemy, it means to stand before and proclaim truth. That's what we do. Then he gives this illustration. Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is judged by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. See what the priority is? Preach and teach. The word of God. That's what we're to do as a church. That's to be our priority. Now, we're going to talk more about some of these things next time. Father, we thank you for this time we've had in the word tonight. Just pray that you'll take these things that we've talked about and just stir our hearts and our minds with your truth. And Lord, just continue to remind us, Lord, of what is our priority as a church. God, I pray that we'll look at this personally in our own lives as what we're doing individually. Are we individually preaching the gospel? Do we have the priority that the early church had, that Jesus had, that Philip had, Paul had, John the Baptist had? All these people, all these examples that we have in your word, God, what was their priority? And Lord, I pray that we'll quit getting caught up in things in our life and things that don't even matter for the kingdom of God and just really begin to focus on preaching your word. Lord, we thank you for this time together, and we pray that you'll use this, this time we've had, in the days ahead. We pray that in your name. Amen.