Today we're going to look for our regular scripture reading at Acts chapter 2. I'm going to begin reading for you in verse 36. We remember that this is right after Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost and the following events afterwards. Let me read it for you. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified." Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart. And they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off. as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words he solemnly testified, and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. This is God's Word. Greg, would you lead us in a word of prayer before we study this morning, please? Thank you. I have to admit to you that whenever I go to Acts chapter 2, especially the end of it, I always get excited. I like this passage to study and to look at because this passage talks about the growth, the power and the witness of the early church. And those of us who particularly love this passage, I believe we love to study it because it gives us great hope. and what God is and can do today as much as He did in the days in which we're reading about. I want the church today to grow like the early church, don't you? I want the church to witness like it did, and I want the church to have the same power that it had in the early days. And I think as we look at where we are in our country and where we are in our history, we especially have desires for that. But I also long for what this passage talks about when it talks about the close community and fellowship that we see in the early church. I want to look at this passage with you this morning, and I want to look at what it says about this new community, because it talks about who they were, what they did and what were the results of their actions. So I want to look at these with you this morning. But let's look at verses 36 and 37 again. Notice what it says. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? One of the first things we notice about this new community is that this new community was one that was cut to the heart by the Holy Spirit. The first thing we see is that the Holy Spirit was convicting them of sin and their need for this one who Peter preached about. And we're reminded of Hebrews 4.12. Do you remember Hebrews 4.12? It says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. And it is able to judge both the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. God the Holy Spirit is certainly able to do that. He's able to pierce down to our hearts. And that's what happened here is these folks were convicted by the Holy Spirit. They were convicted of their sin and of their need for the Savior, the one that Peter preached about. These people were people that realized that they were the ones who had indeed crucified. This Jesus, and yet this is the very one that God had made, both Lord and Christ, the anointed one, that was sent from heaven for them. They were convicted that they killed the Lord of glory. And, you know, as they realized what they had done, they were brought to the fact that they had to say, what do we do now that we know that we've done this? What do we do now that we realize that we're guilty of such a sin? Peter says, OK, here's what you need to do to be right with God. You need to repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were to repent and believe in the one that God sent. You know, it proves to us again the wonder of the gospel of Christ. God is the one who loved us so much that he would send his Son from heaven for us. To bring us redemption, to bring us salvation. The very thing that the world struggles with, the very thing that they want the most, the place where they'll be the happiest, the place where they will be the most fulfilled is in the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who came from heaven for us. A new community was born that day as a result of the work of the Spirit of God. It was the Spirit of God working on the hearts of individuals that brought them to the place of repentance and faith so that they can embrace Jesus, the one that they were part of killing, the one that they endorsed, the one that they destroyed, the one that they got rid of on the cross. As we read Acts chapter 2, we're brought to remember what kind of people these were and where all the places were that they came from. If you go back earlier in the chapter to verses 5 through 11, you see that they came from all kinds of places. There were Jews who were devout from every nation under heaven, it says. They came from all different kinds of places. They spoke all different kinds of languages. They were from different parts of Turkey, from Greece, from Rome. There were some Jews and some proselytes. There were people from Crete, and there were people from the Arab regions. These people were born again, but they were from all kinds of different backgrounds. All kinds of different places. And yet the only thing they had in common was their worship. of this true God. They come from different languages and different cultures. Some were evidently rich and some were poor. Some were in the middle. Some were proselytes from the Greek world. Some were Jews from Jerusalem. Some were from Crete and the islands. Isn't it interesting that the church from the beginning was what the whole world talks about today? Or the whole world talks about diversity and difference and people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and languages. And yet, here, right here in the beginning, at the very beginning of the Christian church, the church was as diverse as we can imagine. It was as different as we can imagine. The people in it were so different. I don't know if you remember back in the 80s when the church growth movement was very prevalent out of California. And they were talking about it would be so much better, and it seemed to be so much better when churches had all the same kind of people in it. They either had all people who were Caucasians, or they had all people who were Asians, or they had all people who were African American, or they had people who were all Haitians, or people from the Caribbean. They said that churches grew better when they were all just alike, made up of people that were just alike. But you know, that's just crazy. Because that's not true at all. Look at where the fastest growing church in history is. The church that grew from 120,000 to 3,000 to 5,000, to where by the year 250 AD, a quarter of the Roman Empire was believing in Christ. The Bible says that the church ought to be made up of people from all different backgrounds and languages and cultures. Because none of these people in Acts chapter 2 were alike. They were all different, from different places, from different languages, from different backgrounds, from different experiences. The community of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new community, the body of Christ made up of believers from all different kinds of backgrounds, we ought to all share in that We share in that oneness in Christ, but we can be from all kinds of different backgrounds, from all kinds of different languages. The one thing that they had in common was being born again. The one thing that they had in common was being born again. Now, what did they do? This new community that was called together by the Spirit of God, born again when He worked in their hearts and convicted them of their sins so that they said, brethren, what can we do? We realize we're guilty. We've murdered Christ, the one that God sent for us. So what do we do? And He said, repent and believe. And then what did they do as a result of that? What did they do when they came together? Well, in Acts chapter 2 at verse 42, it tells us what they did when they came together. It says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They continued steadfastly, it says. They kept on being involved in the teaching of the apostles. Now, where did the apostles get their teaching? Well, we know that the apostles got their teaching from the Lord because they spent, what, three and a half, four years with the Lord Jesus Christ. They spent their time with Him. The apostles had learned from the feet of the Master. They'd walked around with Him from all those days and they watched Him pray on the mountaintop. They watched Him go in the middle of the night to pray. They watched Him touch the leper. They watched him teach that the people who were outwardly righteous weren't the ones that God was seeking, but those that needed salvation. They were teaching the things that they knew from the Scriptures, and the only Bible they had, remember, was the Old Testament. So they were teaching the Word of God. They were teaching the things that Jesus taught them. The new community wasn't content Just to meet infrequently. And this is kind of a... This is one of those things that comes back to us. You know, we like everything convenient in our time. We like church on Sundays. We like prayer meeting on Wednesdays. We like convenient activities for us. And yet, you know what it says about them? It said they met together every day in the temple courts and from house to house. They weren't looking for a convenient Christianity. They weren't looking for a comfortable Christianity. They were looking for a Christianity that had teeth in it, where they were involved with the Lord Jesus Christ every day. In verse 46 it says, day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. They were so glad to be together. They spent time together in the temple. They spent time at the time of prayer we know from reading later on in the book of Acts. They spent time studying together. And they so loved being together that they wouldn't just quit. When everything, when the teaching time was over, they said, OK, where are we going now? And they would go to somebody's house and they would say, let's eat together. Let's pray together. Let's talk together. Let's dwell on the things of scripture together. That was their time for fellowship. In verse 42, it says they continued steadfastly in fellowship. They loved each other and they spent that time together. They didn't just do it periodically, but they spent time together all the time. And you know, isn't it true that you can tell something about the church when you look and you see people spending time together? I love watching y'all at the fellowship time, the greetings time, when you stand in the aisle and I have to get out the whip and crack it and get you to get back to your seats. It's good to see you visiting with one another. And that's what is important, isn't it? That we love each other and care for each other, that we spend time with each other. And not just during the greeting time, but other times. God's calling us to be a church that loves each other, just like He called this church, the early church, to love each other and to care for each other and to spend time together. They spent time together in each other's homes. They spent time praying together. They cared for one another. When somebody had a need, they sought to meet it. You know, we read on in the book that if anybody had a need in the church, somebody said, some extra things at home, I'll just go sell those and bring the money and give it to the apostles and they'll take care of that need. Or I've got an extra piece of land like Barnabas did, I'll go sell that and give it to the church and they can take care of the needs of these people that are suffering. Because you remember what happened in the days that these people were believers, a lot like what happens in some parts of the world today. When you become a believer, your family kicks you out. And your family says, no more salary for you, no more job for you, no more allowance for you, no more meals for you. You can't stay with us anymore. You're banished. My friends in West Africa, many of them were put out by their families. One family I told you about, Abu, who when he told his father he was a Christian, his father called together all the family and they had a funeral for Abu. And they sent him away and he didn't have anything to do with them. They wouldn't let him in their homes. They wouldn't acknowledge him. They wouldn't give him a job. They wouldn't give him a loan. They wouldn't help him. They wouldn't speak to him if they saw him on the streets. This is the real life experience of many believers in the world today, just like here. So is it any wonder that when they saw one of their own suffering, he didn't have a job, he didn't have a place to sleep, he didn't have a home or food, they would take him in, they would love and care for them. They would sell something they had so that they could pay for the needs of that brother or sister, take care of them. because they didn't consider anything they had just as their own, but they said, God's given us this resource to use for Him. There was also, it says here, another common thing that they had together was the sacraments. It says in Acts 2.42, they continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread. And because it was the breaking of bread, it was not just a meal together, but that specific meal that they had together when they had communion, when they had the Lord's Supper. It was the breaking of bread, the one where they broke the bread and they remembered the Lord's body as it was given to them on the cross in death. They remembered His suffering. They remembered His blood that was poured out for them when they took the cup. So in the sacraments, they remembered the Lord Jesus Christ and they shared that together. That's why we call it communion, a calming, common uniting of our hearts together around one central purpose, that of giving glory to God and remembering Christ and fellowshipping with Him in a personal and deep way. The early believers were those who were steadfastly learning the scriptures, loving each other, and worshipping together. The early church was the church born by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of God convicted them. They were cut to the heart and knew they had to repent and trust in Jesus. And then what they did after that was they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So you see, doctrine shouldn't be a bad word to us. Doctrine shouldn't be a bad thing. You can't say, well, let's just all love one another and forget doctrine. Well, the early church didn't do that. They loved one another for sure, but they certainly wouldn't forget the doctrines and the teachings of Christ. They wouldn't forget the things that he taught them. They wouldn't say it's not important what Christ taught. They wouldn't deny doctrine. They wouldn't deny the teaching. You know, the word doctrine just comes from the word teaching. in the Scripture. They wouldn't deny the teachings of the Scriptures. They studied it every day. And we shouldn't be so foolish as to say the world will come together if we just love one another and don't emphasize doctrine. The teaching of Scripture is important. And there are a bunch of people out there that have goofy ideas, or they've given up the teaching of Scriptures. I think one reason we have the Apostles' Creed is to remember what we believe, because there are a lot of people that don't believe Christ was raised from the dead. There are a lot of people in churches that don't believe Christ was raised from the dead. They believe his spirit was raised but they don't believe his God he was. So you see we can't give up doctrine or teaching, the teaching of the scriptures because that's against scripture. The early church convicted by the Holy Spirit The early church born by His power. The early church called together in community. The early church called to live steadfastly, loving each other, learning the Scriptures, and worshipping God together. And then you know the results of what their lives did had an amazing effect on their culture. In Acts chapter 2 verses 43 to 45 it says, and fear came to every soul. It says in here, they kept on feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place. And it says, and those who believed were together. And you notice that how they were changed. The word for awe that is given here in verse 43 is the word fear. They kept feeling this sense of fear, awesomeness, this sense of the power of God. The people who were not Christians feared, and they were in awe of these who were believers. It says in Acts 5.11, and great fear came on all the church and on all those who heard these things. Same word. In other words, their lives were so different. The impact that they had on their culture was to bring people a sense of the fact that there is an awesome God. There is a God who is real, a God who is powerful, a God who cannot be ignored. And this God is the one who has called us to himself. This God that they so feared and so, and it says they even The people in the culture didn't dare join. Let me read it for you. Let me turn to Acts chapter 5, verse 13 for you. Acts 5, 13. Look at what it says. But none of the rest dared to associate with them. However, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more, believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. Now look at those two verses and look at what it says. It says, people didn't dare to associate with them casually, because the people held them in such high esteem, because Christianity was so important, because it was so earth-shattering. That's the case of Ananias and Sapphira in there. In other words, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and said, yeah, we gave everything we got for this piece of land, we gave it to the church. The Apostle Peter says, you're both lying. And both of those people died. And as a result of taking seriously the things of truth and the Spirit of God, people wouldn't casually get involved. They said, this is more of a commitment that I'm willing to make. And yet, because these people were held in such high esteem, Because Christianity was held in such high esteem, it wasn't just something you casually joined, like you joined the Lions Club or the Rotary. They looked at this and they said, oh, this is so significant. This is so important. This is a commitment we can't make casually. If we're going to make this commitment, we must think through it. We must be willing to give this everything we've got. And so great fear came on all the people around them. And then it says, and all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. What happened was that when people saw this and said, this is a great commitment, not a casual one. I can't make this thing casually, but it's so real and so true. I'm drawn to it. I can't turn my back on it. I can't forget it. I'm going to have to go and find out more." And people were drawn and drawn and drawn and soon there were huge numbers. It says multitudes were joining. Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. Because it was so important, it was so true, it was so real, it had so many answers that they were looking for that they couldn't neglect it anymore. They couldn't turn their back on it. because they held all those people in high esteem. The people of Jerusalem who weren't believers feared God and held these people in awe and eventually many were drawn into that and joined together. People highly respected and feared him because of all that was going on. Now, one of the signs that was evident of the church, one of the areas of impact that people saw was what? Look at verse 44, Acts chapter 2, verse 44. Notice what it says. And all those who believed were together and had all things in common. Verse 45, And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. The mark that the people saw was their radical generosity. And when they saw that generosity, that was another impact that that church, the early church, the community of believers, had upon the people in that culture. They looked and they saw their radical generosity and they said there's no other explanation for that but that they've been changed by this Jesus. Their radical generosity. If anyone had a need, somebody stepped in to match it, to take care of it. So what do we see in these sections of verses? The people called the church were born again by the Spirit of God. They continued steadfastly. What they did was they continued steadfastly in learning, in loving each other, in liturgy, in worshiping together in the sacraments. And they shared with each other in the world that is so often a world of what I've got is mine. You know how we live in the world? You know how one of the first words any child learns to say is mine, right? Remember that when we see these little children, what do they say? That's mine. They don't want to share. And when you see radical generosity in the people, you say, what causes that? What's the explanation for that radical generosity? They were people who were given to sharing, and they were people who joined together to praise God. You know, when you see a beautiful sunset, We often don't look at it by ourselves, do we? What do we do? We go get somebody else in the household. We go get our husband or wife or we go get our children. We bring them outside. Look at this. Look at the beauty of this sunset. Or when you see the stars up in the heavens and you see those clear nights that come in the fall or in the spring when the beauty is just out there and you see those bright stars and you say, wow! Look at that. Look at the glory. of what God has made. And we get together with several of us to do it. And when we're watching football and somebody takes the kickoff and they run it 90 yards all the way back to score a touchdown, we watch it over and over again, don't we? We watch it on YouTube. We watch it on instant replay. We watch all these things over and over again. We get people together in the house and say, you've got to come watch this. This is amazing. Look at how this guy dodges all these tacklers and goes all the way back into the other end zone and scores. We praise things together, don't we? Our enjoyment is increased when we can praise something together. And you see, that's exactly what the early church did. They praised God so truly and so genuinely that they had to invite others to praise God with them. And you see, that's where God wants us to be today, isn't it? One of the marks of the early church, and you don't hear that one very often, I don't think, is that they praised God together. They praised His glory. They worshipped Him for all the majestic and wonderful things that He's done. And the most wonderful thing that we see that He's done is He knew that we were lost. He knew that we were selfish. He knew that we were evil. He knew that we were bent on pleasing ourselves and that we would go on throughout life and make ourselves miserable in that way. And so God sent His only Son to come down for lost people like us. And He sent His only Son to come in, to live a perfect life, to die in our place on the cross, to take the judgment in the hell that we deserve, and to Take that and let all the wrath of God be poured out on God's only Son. God loved us that much that he allowed that kind of judgment to fall on Christ so that we could be forgiven. Now that is worth praising. the praiseworthy God who deserves all our praise, honor, and glory. Not only has He created us, not only has He placed us in a world where we can live, not only has He given us air to breathe, and food to eat, and water to drink, and poured out upon us many, many blessings, but He's done the most thing, the most beautiful thing that we couldn't do for ourselves, which is He brought His Son to die for us, to give us life. The reason that the early church grew so much was that they praised that God together. May we be a church that gives praise, honor, and glory to the one who loved us like that. And may we tell others, oh, if you don't feel loved, if you don't know, if you don't have any future or hope, if you're in darkness and despair, if you feel like the world has crushed you, come to Christ who has given us life. He's the one that we praise and give to Him all the glory. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, as we think about these things that the early church did, what they were and what they did and how that had an impact on their culture, we pray that we would be the same kind of people today, that we would be the kind of people, Father, who give you praise, honor and glory, that we won't neglect the things that you've told us to do, but that we'll do them and do them faithfully. and that we will give you praise, honor, and glory so much that others will take notice and they'll say, why are you doing that? Why are you praising this kind of a God? Help us this week, Father, as we go into it. Help us with your power. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit who alone can sustain us. We make our prayers in the wonderful name of our Savior and King, even Jesus. Amen.