If you have your Bibles, we're going to go to Acts chapter 2 this evening. Acts chapter 2, makes sense to go there as we start talking about the church this evening. Acts chapter 2, we'll be looking at the hallmarks of an authentic church. Acts chapter 2. Every so often there are a few avaricious individuals. who will happily mint money by cleverly devising ways to get other people to buy that product from them that may not actually be worth buying. All kinds of fakes. In fact, there's a whole market of fakes out there, especially fake art and things that they sell on all different kinds of markets. A recent article I read on NBC said, some fake paintings have been so convincing they have made it into auctions and sold for millions of dollars in the last year alone. That's pretty stunning to think about. It's actually become somewhat of a serious problem, serious enough for people to actually say, you actually have to have something to support any kind of item. I have in my office a few items that I think are valuable, because they'll be like collections from sports memorabilia. And several of them mean nothing to someone else. They only mean something to me. For example, when we were growing up, we went to a Red Sox game versus the Indians. And we got autographs from some baseball fans would appreciate, from Jim Tomei and Sandy Alomar, Jr. I think we got Omar Vizquel on there, Roberto Alomar, Jr., and Charlie Manuel, all on the same baseball. Pretty cool. It's not worth as much as the baseball I have signed by Bronson Arroyo, who nobody really knows about except for Red Sox fans. And the only difference between those is that the Arroyo baseball actually has a piece of paper that authenticates it as actually being signed by Bronson Arroyo, whereas the baseball with all those other more famous guys has no such authentication. It only means something to me. Now, if I were to get some kind of authentication to it, perhaps it would be worth something. I bring that to your attention because there are things that authenticate something that's valuable. Even so today, I want us to look at some of the hallmarks of an authentic church. What makes it real? What makes it stand out as the real thing? Now, as we say that, no church is perfect, but there are certain key factors that necessarily authenticate what it means to be a real church. You take those elements away, And it is possible for people to be spiritual but not be authentic. And the reality is, as we begin to look at that, the truth of the matter becomes very apparent that the authentic church becomes the authentic backbone for your spiritual life. Every muscle and every part of who you are is fleshed out in your spiritual life to be hung on the skeleton of this local church. And no one will ever be the strong believer they're supposed to be if they're not connected to and a part of what we could call an authentic church. And so tonight, I want us to look back at the authentic church by starting at the beginning. And what I want us to do is trace this river back upstream to the very origin of the church, and I want us to see what the church looked like when the church was birthed at the day of Pentecost. And before pollutants were entered into the stream, and before man's traditions began to interweave themselves into the church, what were they doing? What was authentic to them? What made them the church at the very beginning? Of course, we know that we'll begin this reading in Acts 2, but let me first set the scene before we read Acts chapter 2. Peter has just preached on the day of Pentecost that our Lord, and before that, our Lord has been crucified seven weeks earlier. He rose from the dead. Jesus ascended into heaven not 10 days before this sermon is preached, and on the day of Pentecost, Peter stands up and preaches a powerful gospel testimony. It says in Acts 2, verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And so after this powerful message has been proclaimed, we read this beginning in Acts 2, verse 37. And when they heard this, They were pricked in the heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words that he testified and exhorted, saying, Save yourselves, from this untoward generation. And they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers." And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all that believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man hath need. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Before we look at the individual aspects of this authentic church, having traced the stream all the way up to the beginning, all the way up to where they started, I think we need to start by first noting the very obvious. As soon as they were saved, these individuals were integrated into the life of the church. There was no such thing as someone who was a true Christian or a true disciple who was not plugged into the local church in Jerusalem. There were no disconnected believers just wandering the streets of Jerusalem. Every single one of them was rooted and grounded in the local church. And there's another obvious authenticating thing about this. Obviously, everyone was connected there, but they were not placed in a Christian school. It should be obvious from this reading. They were not placed in a Christian conference, for that matter, nor were they placed in a Christian camp. Now, all of those things are good, but they are one-dimensional. They cannot help you in day-to-day realities of life. And so tonight, I ask you to nail down the essential nature of the local church in your life. Is the local church primary to your spiritual life? Are your best friends, your associations, part of a local church? Does your best advice come from shepherds at that church? Do you find the greatest excitement in your spiritual life consistently and continually being a part of a local church? That is God's design. That has always been God's design. But like we have any kind of authenticating documentation for something of value, whether some of you think baseballs that are signed are valuable or not is besides the point. But anytime you have something of value, you have something to authenticate it. And to make something authenticated with some kind of documentation, there are things that have to check the box. They're going to go through it. They're going to look at that. whether it be an art critic, of which I am not one, but there's gonna be some kind of checkbox list, and that's what I want us to do this evening. I want us to look at the checkbox list of what makes an authentic church an authentic church. And the first thing, and the most obvious, is that the local church, an authentic local church, is filled with a saving faith. This is the first, and we could say the most important hallmark of a local church. We read it in verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word. And this is an important, essential, first understanding. And we can view this negatively or positively. We could say the church is not these things, but the church is these things. The church is not a group of seekers. The church is a group of believers. The church is not a group of people interested in spiritual things. The church is a group of people committed to spiritual things. The church is not a group of Bible readers, but a church is filled with a group of Bible believers. And a commitment to the local church begins with a commitment to Christ. If one is not committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, they cannot and will not be a committed part of the local church. And what we see is involved in this is a saving faith. Look at verse 41. It says, then they that gladly received his word, that they welcomed the good news of salvation into their heart. And there are different elements of this as we parse out verse 38. We know that there's an element of repentance here in verse 38. Repent is used. All true saving faith has repentance in it, which is a conviction of sin, a godly sorrow for sin, and a turning away from a life of pursuing sin. We're not talking about perfection of your life, but the direction of your life. Repentance involves turning around. If you're gonna be truly saved, there's a turning from as well as a turning to. A turning from a lifestyle and a pursuit of sin and a turning to Christ. There's an element of repentance here. There's an element of rule here in verse 39. As many as the Lord our God shall call. That is a sovereign summons. Many get hung up in the theological intricacies, but this is not meant to confuse, but to comfort. Here's what it's saying. Salvation is not of you. It is all of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation of faith is of the Lord. You didn't save yourself. You cannot save yourself. There should be a preaching that says, if you want to be saved, the only way to be saved is God's way. God is the Savior. Jesus Christ is the Savior. There's an element of rule to saving faith. I did not save myself. No one can save themselves. There's also an element of rescue here. Save yourselves, he says, from the untoward or this outward generation. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be saved. To be saved from what? Well, not from loneliness and not from living a mundane life. To be saved means you are actually saved from God himself. You are delivered from the wrath that will come. You are delivered, rescued, saved from the final judgment and being consigned to hell. There's a big word for that, propitiation. That's what salvation means. When we say you're saved from your sins, that's only partially true. You are saved from your sins, but your sins demand the just wrath of God. Who is the great punisher of hell? The great punisher of hell is God himself who punishes justly sin. To be saved is an element of rescue there. The only way to be saved is to receive the word of God, to repent of your sins, and to respond to the call of God upon your life. So at the very outset, what we're saying is that saving face is the first hallmark of a New Testament church. If a church does not preach the gospel, if the church does not make Christ known, then all you have is a crowd. But a church is where a body of believers have come together in the name of the Lord and trusted in him. So the question should become obvious, have you come to believe in Christ? It's a hallmark of your repentance of your sins. A church is a place where people have banded together, called out to him for his mercy and his grace. A church is not a place where we gather together and think we are better than the world and we are better than one another. The church is a place where we come together with the unifying belief that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's what bonds us together. We could say it's the first, but also maybe the most important hallmark of a local church. If I were to put two things together, two pieces of art, and one is real and one's a photograph, you have to have the real thing. And the real thing first is there's a saving faith. But number two, it's filled with a professing faith. I want you to notice that those who have been saved, those who have been saved immediately do something. Come back to verse 41, it says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. Everyone who was saved was baptized. In fact, it appears that there is no such thing in this early church as an unbaptized believer. It would be almost a total contradiction of terms. Now, for someone to be a believer and not to be baptized is really to be like a walking question mark. For someone to be a believer and not be baptized is to be a contradiction of their own testimony. They say they believe in Christ, but they have not publicly professed in that belief. So a church is far more than people have been saved. A church is also people who have professed by public baptism they have been saved. I heard the story of a young boy who had come to his pastor. He had just given his life to the Lord. He wanted to be baptized. He got a little mixed up and said to his pastor, Pastor, I want to be advertised. And in some ways, his faux pas was correct. He's right. That's what it means to be baptized. You are advertising your commitment to Jesus Christ. You are not ashamed to be called the child of God. You are to the entire world known as one who follows Christ. If you have not been baptized, I pray right now, this very moment, the Spirit of God would convict your heart of the will of God in your life, that you would publicly profess, I'm with him. I realize that in this culture, it's not as much of a big step as I think it certainly was at this early juncture, as the river of the stream of this local church begins to take root. Think about it, when they were saying this, they are casting off, most likely, what their family traditions were, what the Jewish traditions were saying, and they are publicly saying, I'm with the guy who just got crucified. It wasn't that long ago, in this case, as we're reading Acts 2, that this is taking place. Have you publicly said, I'm with them? Church is a place where there is a saving faith, is a place where there's a professing faith, believers baptized, making known to their circle of their relationships, I want everyone to know I stand with Jesus. Number three then, a church, an authentic church, is filled with a bonding faith. There's a strong allegiance in this church. And I want you to notice at the end of verse 41 and beginning in verse 42, the strong connection, this, as the songwriters say, the tie that now binds, verse 41, and the same day. We can stop right there. Not the next month, not the next year, not I have to pray about this for a moment, and the same day there was added unto them about 3,000 souls. Do you know what is implied right here? The clear implication is church membership. They were added. Added to what? To thin air? But whatever they were added to, they were not a part of before. Now they are added to it. And at the moment when they believed on Jesus Christ, they had not yet been added. And when they were subsequently baptized, they still had not yet been added. But now they were added. Now anecdotally, I would say, baptism isn't required for salvation, and neither is church membership. The thief on the cross had neither of those, and we will see him in heaven. but you do need to be baptized in order to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we could also add that you do need to be a member of a local church in order to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. Down in verse 47, we read the same. The Lord added to the church daily as should be saved. They're not being added to the Lamb's Book of Life here. Our names were added before the foundation of the world. Names are only being added daily to the Lamb's Book of Life. They're being preserved here, but that was all taken care of. They were added to the church. Here's what they were added to. Even as we look at verse 47, we notice they were added. They were being added to the 120 who met in the upper room. They were being added in verse 41 to the 3,000 who got saved and joined this group. This is a massive group. Previously they had not been a part of this group, now they are added to this group. Previously they were on the outside, now they are on the inside. There was no one who was saved who was not added. How strange it is today that there are Christians, sad to say, who have not been added to a Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered church. I guess we could liken them to just little clouds floating around the city, not anchored to anything. The New Testament friend knows nothing of such a person. I mean, you can review in Acts. Acts 1 verse 14 says they were of one mind. Acts 2 verse 1 puts it this way, they were in one place. In Acts 4 to 43, those who believed were of one heart and soul. There was this strong allegiance to the local church, and notice how strong their loyalty was. And they, verse 42 of our passage in chapter two, that they are those who were saved, those who were baptized, those who were added to the church. No one is slipping through the cracks in this church. No one is so arrogant to think that they don't fit into the category everybody else fits into. They, all of them, continued steadfastly. I don't have time to go into this word study here, but suffice it to say, it means they continually devoted themselves to, but just, it's an intensified verb here. It's very emphatic, meaning to do something persistently or aggressively in pursuit of a desired object. In other words, they, all of them, together, often, week after week, continually devoted themselves to pursuing a desired object. Is this not? remind you of Hebrews 10, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, there's this bonding. They didn't just add themselves to a list, although a list naturally would have been incurred and inferred from this text, and I say that because someone was counting. And some people say, well, you shouldn't count heads. Well, take issue with the people counting in Acts 2, because someone was taking the heads. Somewhere, someone was counting something, But they're adding and they're moving. You ever wondered why so many Christians just blossom? They get saved and they just grow and they grow and other people languish. I think it's often as a result of the fact that they're just not bonded to something. We're okay having a Costco membership and we'll pay for that. We won't join to bond ourselves together with other people pursuing a desired object. What's a hallmark of an authentic church? Number four, an authentic church is also not only filled with a bonding faith, as I go forward and I clip too far. Oh, I'm going the wrong way. I'm using the wrong one. All right. It's number four, they're filled with an unyielding faith. There's a sound doctrine to this church that they will not budge from. Look at verse 42 again. It says this is what they're continuing steadfastly in. They're continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. They weren't sitting under sappy sentimental stories intended to just produce tears. They were sitting under doctrine. And this is referring to sound theology. This is shaping your worldview type of teaching. And this is what they gathered to sit under, this sound doctrine. This is the kind of doctrine that the other writers of the New Testament refer to often. For example, in Titus 2, verse one, it says, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Or Romans 6 verse 17 says, but God be thanked that ye were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Or 2 Timothy 1 verse 13, hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Listen, apart from the apostles' teaching and sound doctrine, you and I will never know who God is, who you are, why you need Christ, where you've come from, where you're going, and what your purpose on earth is. Apart from sound doctrine, you'll be clueless in life. James Montgomery Boris makes a very interesting observation at this point in his notes on this text. It could have been a temptation, quote, for the early believers to look back to Pentecost and focus on the past. And he's talking about the emotional experience when the Spirit fell and they spoke in tongues and human tongues, I should add, and they all saw this amazing work of God to spring up the church. And Montgomery Boyce says it would have been tempting for the early church to look back at that and say, man, I wish that would happen again. He continues and says, they might have remembered the way the Holy Spirit came and how he used them to speak to those in Jerusalem so they each heard in his or her own language. They might have longed to experience something like that. They may have been praying, please, Lord, do something miraculous again. That is not what we find, he says. They are not reveling in their past ecstatic experiences. Instead, we find them reveling in the word of God. Wherever a church is Spirit-filled, it will always be Scripture-filled. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture, and where the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work, it will be in His book. In fact, if you are saved, we know that you will be drawn to this book. to the apostles' doctrine. You will be drawn to it. And if you are not drawn to the apostles' doctrine, you ought to question whether or not you're really born again. And furthermore, if you are saved and you are not drawn to the apostles' doctrine, you are clearly not filled with the spirit who is meant to work to help you be drawn to the apostles' doctrine. Look just for a moment at the kind of sound doctrine they received. Earlier, in verse 14 of this chapter, we have the record of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, and we get some kind of idea of the kind of preaching they would have sat under week after week. This was not sermonettes for Christianettes. Look at what he's preaching in chapter two, verse 14. He says, Peter, verse 14, standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. You need to be under that kind of authoritative, Christ-centered preaching. Beginning in verse 22, and running down now to verse 36, we read Peter preach, and as he preaches, he preaches on the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the exaltation of Christ, the coronation of Christ, the reign of Christ, the lordship of Christ, the sovereignty of Christ, and it's all chock full of Bible. In fact, notice how much scripture is jam-packed into this scriptural section. In other words, notice how much content Peter jams into his sermon. You may have a Bible that puts Old Testament quotations in all capital letters for you, or have anecdotal notes in a study Bible, and you can see this for yourself, but I'll put them on the screen. Notice the scripture Peter uses in this sermon. In verses 17 through 21, Peter is quoting from Joel chapter two. In verses 25 to 28, Peter is quoting from Psalm 16. In verse 30, Peter is quoting from Psalm 132, in 2 Samuel chapter seven. In verse 31, Peter circles back and quotes from Psalm 16 again. In verse 34 and 35, Peter is quoting from Psalm 110. What is Peter's message? Peter's message is this. The Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says. Maybe you've ever heard of the two worst kinds of preaching. Scuba diver preaching, you know what that is. When you go down deep, stay down long, and come up dry, that's scuba diver preaching. Skyscraper preaching is when you have story upon story upon story with no point. Those are the two worst kinds of preaching. But the church is really the pulpit of God. It is the pillar and ground of the truth. It is the place where the voice of God ought to be heard. And you should be heralding the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says. And as a result of saying the Bible says, just to circle back to what we talked about this morning, it's the same thing that happens here. Verse 37, they were pricked in their heart. How do you change a life? How do you introduce anybody to who God is? Only by saying the Bible says. They were unyieldingly committed to the apostle's doctrine. That's a sign of an authentic church. And number five, an authentic church is filled with a unifying faith. There is a sweet fellowship. The vertical bond we saw earlier becomes the horizontal tie that binds them together. And again, notice what it says in verse 42, and they had this, they had fellowship. And the word and is very important. The word and inseparably connects the apostles' doctrine with fellowship. This wasn't just a vertical thrust. The more they had fellowship with God through the preaching of God's word, the more they had fellowship with one another. Fellowship is the preaching of the truth. Fellowship is the word of God. In fact, the word fellowship means to hold something in common. It refers to a common participation. It means a sharing together. In other words, many churches have a fellowship hall, and it's the place where you eat food. If you really were gonna be more biblically accurate, you would call the auditorium your fellowship hall. That's where fellowship takes place, where you gather around God's word, and the more you study God's word, the more closely you grow together. And notice, by the way, if you were thinking, well, maybe they were already, there's a lot of commonality in that group, they all cheer for the same sports teams, That's why they were together. Notice the diversity of who is now gathered in this early church. And as you read of their diversity, you will be shocked by their unity. Look at chapter 2, verse 9. This is their diversity. Parthians and Medes, Elamites, dwellers of Mesopotamia, and Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, and Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the strangers of Rome, and Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. How are you gonna get all of those people from all of those backgrounds into one building to agree on even anything without them all killing each other? The more we sit under the teaching of the word, the more we realize how much we hold in common. It was the same blood of Jesus Christ that washed away my sins that can wash away your sins. It is the same Father in eternity past who saves. It is the same Holy Spirit who convicts of sin to draw me closer to the Savior. It is the very same life of God that you have and I can have through Jesus Christ. It's all our common possession. That is really what unifies. If this was not true, we are just a spiritual supper club. This is not true, we are a religious clique. Verse 44 it says, and all that believed were together and had all things in common. Reality of Christ is what draws us together. How else can you account for the diversity of everyone in that room and in this room? There are people from all walks of life here. all ethnic backgrounds, all racial backgrounds, all social stratas. The only way you could put all of those different people in one group together and get them excited is through the work of Jesus Christ. And the sweet fellowship in our unity of the Lord Jesus Christ deepens and enriches us. It's like a tapestry being part of the church woven together with all different kinds of threads and it just looks like Jesus. Think of it this way, think of a triangle, if you will, with Jesus at the top, and you and me at the bottom, and the closer you get to Jesus, the closer you get to one another. That is what unifies. Friend, you need to find someone who is making a race to the cross and run with him. You will never be more close to anyone else on earth than the person who's running with you to Jesus. That's what unifies. This is an authentic church. But there's a sixth one. An authentic church is filled with a worshiping faith. As they come together, they come together on purpose and with a purpose. And in verse 42 it says this is what they did. and breaking of bread. The breaking of bread here refers to the Lord's table, where they would take the bread and the cup as a reminder of the Lord's death on the cross. This crucifixion, mind you, would have taken place just a little over seven weeks earlier in this very town. They must have the death of Christ on the forefront of their mind. They have this idea that this matters. This needs to be remembered. This needs to be worshiped. And then the genius of God, he designed for the church that there would be only two ordinances, not three, not 10, not 20, not take some and leave some, but baptism, which marks the entrance of one into the kingdom. You give public testimony that you became a Christian. It's a one-time event. And communion, which marks one's continued remembrance of being a member of that same kingdom and has participated again and again and again. And we see both in this passage in this authentic early church. And this breaking of bread was mandatory for all Christians to observe, and here's what the Lord's Supper does. The Lord's Supper looks back at his death, the Lord's Supper looks up to give thanks to God for what he has provided, the Lord's Supper is an inward look at confession of sin, and the Lord's Supper is a look ahead to the future return of Christ. And again and again, we look back up in and ahead. Now, sad to say, in many churches, they take the Lord's Supper completely out. Or, even worse, they replace it with a skit or a drama or some kind of entertainment show to make it a triviality. It is not a triviality. If you don't believe me, just read what Paul says to the Corinthians about how they were treating it. And Paul says, be careful, watch yourselves. We must pray that the cross would be shining before our eyes. We are to be coming to the Lord's table on an ongoing, regular basis. And whenever the church does this, it should be of utmost importance because it is, in fact, from the earliest part of the early church, an authentic hallmark. This is what they do. Seventh and finally, it's filled with a praying faith. Prayer is an essential part of the local church. Notice the final portion of the 42nd verse. They continued in prayers. Prayer is inseparably connected to the Lord's Supper. And notice the couplets here that are used. The apostles' doctrine and fellowship are connected, and the Lord's Supper and prayer are connected. And therefore, this prayer is a conjunction with public worship. And I bring that to your attention because this is not talking about your private prayer closet at home. Though that is important, that's not what this verse is talking about. This verse is talking about the public gathering of the church and the public prayers being offered. In fact, in the original Greek, there's a definite article there, the, before the word prayers. And it is in plural, prayers. So this is a special designation of prayers offered publicly as the gathered body of believers gathers. F.F. Bruce puts it this way, it is their own appointed seasons of united prayer. I think there is something that is powerful and grace-giving when people gather together to prayer, don't you? Acts 4 verse 31 puts it this way, and when they, I'm using the wrong click again, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. It's like God said amen at their prayer meeting and sent an earthquake. And as they gathered together and prayed, there was so much power that God overwhelmed the room and shook the place. That is authentic. My how we need that kind of prayer in our churches. The kind of praying church that is not just relegated to special prayer times when someone asks you to pray, but the kind of prayer that actually just longs for the opportunity to pray with brothers and sisters. I wonder if James would say, confess your faults one to another, pray for one another. One of the unique and sad realities of the churches of today is the inundation of unspoken prayer requests, which are no help to you, the person asking for one, or the person who has no idea what you're supposed to be praying for. It doesn't mean anything to them. It's unspoken. The Bible actually makes it very clear. You need the prayer of the gathered saints. It's an authentic hallmark. It's not a throwaway. And finally, I said number seven was final, but this is the final, filled with an evangelizing faith. Those who have been saved erupt into an evangelistic wave. And I picture verses 41 to 47 really like a river. It's just a flow of grace that is running through these verses until we come to verse 47 and it just tumults off like a waterfall. And this is a church where people are being saved, people are being baptized, people have a strong commitment to one another, people are praying for one another, there is a sound doctrine here, there is a fellowship here, and the inevitable overflow of all of that, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. It was like they were doing all of this other stuff, and the Lord's like, amen, here's a few more. They were gathered for worship in the Word, and they scattered to witness. that they were gathering like being filled up at a gas station to get their tanks full, and they were just going out, and they were bringing more people. Can you imagine being part of that church, by the way? It's like every Sunday you had to shake hands with someone else that was newly saved, and then every Sunday they'd have baptisms, and every Sunday more people are joining. Can you just for a moment imagine how exciting that would be? I would love to be a part of a church like that, wouldn't you? You might call this spontaneous evangelism, if you will. But the spontaneity is the Lord working feverishly to save an entire community. How exciting would it be to be a part of a church where coming to a saving faith in Christ was so regular it was expected? Like I can't wait to get back to church on Sunday because I haven't talked with so and so else in the church and I know last time we were together, they were telling me that they were gonna go have a conversation with so and so that they were working with and I can't wait to hear how that person got saved. Instead, we're kind of like, well, I'll be praying for you, and then you come back on Sunday, and you're like, well, did they get saved yet? We've been praying for it, we're not sure. I almost expect, if this was happening so regularly, there was a general expectation that anybody you talk to, I mean, this is just regular. By the way, I believe exactly the spirit of our Lord when he said, my fields are white unto harvest. Just pray, the Lord would send laborers. What kind of laborers? I'll tell you what kind of laborers. Authentic Christians who are unyielding to true, sound doctrine, who are praying for one another, who are bonded together in their membership of a local church, that kind of person. And when that person starts witnessing, they have all the force of their church behind them, all praying together, and God works in amazing ways. No wonder we read, they continued daily in verse 46, and did eat their meat with gladness. You better believe they ate their meat with gladness. I wonder if they had a hard time going to sleep on Sunday. They were just so excited. Man, that was such an awesome day. There was another several, 20 more that got saved, and I don't know, if you get really excited about something, then you just can't settle yourself down to go to bed, and maybe they were just so excited. Can you just imagine what that's like? And as you do, I want you to tell you, this is God's design. This is what God intends. God's design for everyone in a church is to have that kind of church experience. And according to the genius of God, he planned not only your salvation, but also your growth spiritually. And God determined that for you to have maximum growth and fullest spiritual development, you need to be in a body of saved people. And for me to grow spiritually, I need to be plugged into the local church, which according to God's plan, should be the backbone of my spiritual life. Are you plugged into an authentic church? I believe this church could be that with your help. It takes all of us saying, I want to be unified, I'm gonna be unyielding, I'm gonna be praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm gonna be going out and evangelizing, I'm gonna come back with an expectation that God will work. I'd say that last one is often mitted. We just don't expect God to work. You expect that according to God's plan, he can and he will and he does still change lives. Now, when we put up two different things, you could say, well, this is real and this is fake. And someone might be able to have a really good fake. They might. Doesn't make it the real thing. And there may be other, all kinds of organizations that call themselves church and might be really good fakes, quite frankly. That doesn't necessarily make them the real thing. What is an authentic church? We could start by saying what it's not. Many people say, well, the church is not the building. Well, that's certainly true. I've also never heard anybody argue that it is. But maybe, I mean, if you've met someone like that, I don't know who it is, but someone might be saying that. I've heard a lot of other people use other things that make the church what it is. What is an authentic church? The Bible makes it very clear. And if we trace the stream all the way up to the beginning origins, before all of the pollutants entered into the water stream, and all the man-made traditions kind of went in there and said, well, the church is, you know, the one that has a Sunday school hour, which is wonderful, but I don't know if Paul had that. At least if he did, he didn't call it Sunday school. What is an authentic church? Well, here the Bible says what it is. And the result is amazing. They ate their meat with gladness of heart. Would it be that you would be part of a local church that is so planted in such a special soil, removed from the taints of this world, that you would blossom and grow to be part of an authentic church? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, for what it means to be a part of an authentic church. We can trace this all the way to the beginning source. May it be that we would grow to be part of that kind of authentic ministry, that we would engage ourselves in it, or we thank you for the testimony we can see even in the early church and what that looked like. May we be a part of building that in our own neighborhoods.