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Act 2
preach
by Kerri Taylor
41 So those who accepted his
message were baptized, and that day about three thousand
people were added. 42 They were devoting themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread
and to prayer. 43 Reverential awe came over everyone, and many
wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles. 44
All who believed were together and held everything in common,
45 and they began selling their property and possessions and
distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. 46
Every day they continued to gather together by common consent
in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house,
sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, 47 praising
God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord
was adding to their number every day those who were being
saved.
The huge redwood
trees in California are amazing. They are the largest living
things on earth and the tallest trees in the world. Some of
them are 300 feet high and more than 2,500 years old. You
would think trees that large would have a huge root system,
reaching down hundreds of feet into the earth. But that is not
the case. Redwoods have a very shallow root system. The secret
to their strength is that the roots of these trees are,
intertwined. They are tied in with each other; interlocked. So
when the storms come and the winds blow the redwoods still
stand. With an interlocking root system they support and keep
each other going. They need one another to survive. So do
we!!!
TEXT
Our text for this
afternoon tells us that the very first community of believers
gathered together on a regular basis for worship, prayer,
study and fellowship. Acts 2:44 says, “…ALL THAT BELIEVED WERE
TOGETHER…”
It wasn’t easy to
follow Christ in the first century. Times were tough and they
faced constant persecution. The early believers were bound
together into a fellowship, a community. They needed each
other; there is strength in numbers. It isn’t easy for us to
follow Christ and truly live for Him all of the time either.
Discouragement. Temptation. Sin. Apathy. Failure. Materialism.
Unbelieving family and friends. Doubts. Rejection. Addiction.
We face so many obstacles in our desire to live for the Lord.
But God, has not left us on our own to run the race and fight
the battle. He has given us each other.
Acts 2:42 shows
us the proper focus of a community of believers. It says,
“THEY DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO THE APOSTLES’ TEACHING AND TO
FELLOWSHIP, TO THE BREAKING OF BREAD AND TO PRAYER.”
They devoted –
made an effort, decided to do something and followed through
with it. They worked at it. They actually desired and wanted
teaching and to be with each other. They chose to share meals
with each other and to pray together. It’s like they fell in
love with God and each other. If you have been in love you
remember how you just can’t wait to see the person you were in
love with. You would go all the way across town just to see
them. Didn’t matter if you had to work the next day you didn’t
want to go to sleep so you wouldn’t have to be apart. You
became interested in what they loved. You even spent time
learning about things u didn’t understand. You gave up things
you were used to doing and enjoyed doing. You didn’t even care
because you enjoy being with them even more. Can you imagine
if we were that in love with God and each other? We would be
so sickening to the world. Tee Hee. Actually the world would
look at us and want that. They would want to feel that love.
They would want to be a part of what was going on. It would
spread like wildfire!!!
That is how the
early church grew. Humans have this desire to be loved. To
have someone completely devoted to them, and to care about
everything going on in their life. We desire to be entwined
together like the roots of a Redwood forest. You can have your
space (redwoods do, they have to, they are huge,) if you are
joined together in the foundation and grounds of Jesus. If we
want to grow taller and wider and stronger than our roots need
to go deep down into God, we have to desire Him and to know
Him more. But our roots also need to spread out and connect
with the roots of others like those redwoods. They achieve
what no other tree can because they stand together. Let’s put
roots down as we grow in God and let’s spread those roots out
wide as we grow with each other into a community, into a
family. This scripture5 begins and ends with a statement about
the unusual growth of the church. Verse 42 lists four of the
activities to which the church devoted itself; verses 43-47
serve to further define these four activities. Teaching,
fellowship, praying and sharing meals were the focal points of
the first Christian community. These were not options. These
were the fruit of a genuine salvation and of life in Christ.
The teaching they
devoted themselves to was about Jesus . The apostles taught
that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and Savior, who was
crucified and buried, and then He rose from the dead. Their
teaching included the words, actions, and teachings of the
Lord. Teaching, fellowship, praying and sharing meals were the
focal points of the first Christian community.
What do you do
with 3000 new Christians? You teach them God’s word. Isn’t
that what Jesus said to do? He didn’t tell his apostles to
just make believers, He said, make disciples. The definition
of a disciple is ‘one who follows and learns from another;
they listen to and follow another’s teachings, living by
them.’
It should come as
no surprise that a Spirit-filled Christian would have a desire
to consume God’s word. After all, Paul tells us that the
Scriptures are the sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is the
way He brings conviction of sin, encourages us, and instructs
us in godliness. How much do you value, and love God’s word?
Can you ever get enough it? You will be filled with the Spirit
as you devote yourself to the teaching of the Bible.
FELLOWSHIP
As I was reading
and meditating on this scripture one thing leapt out at me.
It’s about being together in community. It’s cool that it’s
pronounced ‘come unity’. It’s all about unity.
When we face trials, troubles and tragedies in life,
God intends that we be supported, strengthened, and encouraged
by each other. As we face the storms and temptations of life
we should receive strength from each other. That is God’s
plan. When we
wonder if God really does love us and care for us, we need
God’s people. Through other Christians we can sense and know
God’s love and care. When we are loved and cared for by
another believer, especially during painful times, we gain a
new sense of God’s love at work through them for us.
We were not made
to do this on our own. We were made for relationship and the
church community is God’s plan to satisfy this need in all of
us. We don’t have any examples of the saints in the NT being
encouraged to go it alone or to isolate themselves from the
body. They are taught again and again that to accept Christ is
to become part of a family, to be a part of the body of
Christ.
When a part is
disconnected from the Body it shrivels up and dies, it’s only
together that we can experience and fulfill God’s purposes in
our lives. That’s why God has given us each other. In the
bible we are called the body of Christ. Meaning not only are
we to be the hands and feet but the eyes and heart. Some are
the kidneys- they filter through everything that comes in and
get the poison out. Some are the lungs- they breathe in the
atmosphere and bring in vital oxygen to bring life, and breath
out the co2 which is toxic to the body. Even the blood, it
travels through the whole body bringing life and nutrients. It
also filters and fights infection. There are so many parts of
the body that filter out the toxic poisons of our body. I
never thought about that part of the body much till now. What
happens if there is so much poison in the body that the ones
that are supposed to remove the infection get infected too? It
can lead to death.
It’s so important to fight the infection that can take
one part of the body over because it effects the rest of the
body. What if the body just said ‘oh well, that’s their
problem, they aren’t anything to do with me’. What if the
blood decided to not send any white blood cells to fight the
infection of a little toe? I mean why go way down there and
bother with it? Too much trouble. So we lose a toe, no big
deal. Soon that toe is cut off from the body. Left alone. What
happens to that toe? It dies, festers, gets all stinky and
finally dries up. No part of the body can survive on it’s own.
As soon as it is separated it dies. The body can’t make those
decisions to not help each other – thank God!!! When we are
saved we become part of the body of Christ Jesus. When we
belong to Jesus we belong to each other. Fellowship with
Christ means fellowship with each other. Through Christ God
has made us a family, a community of faith. This is our
God-given support system and it is intended to meet some
crucial needs in our lives.
BREAKING BREAD
The early church,
community came from a large group setting, the church. But it
also came from more intimate setting with people spending time
and/or eating together. They went to each other’s homes.
Having people over to our homes or getting together for coffee
is a great way to make community. I know some of you are at
the drop in almost every day and that is a great way to get to
know each other. Seeing each other at church is great but we
need to be getting together regularly to share who we are.
Both ways of building relationships are essential. We need to
be intentional about this as we grow in God.
The last thing it
mentions in the 42nd verse is prayer. “And they devoted
themselves to …
prayer.” Prayer
was important to these early Christians. Here, we are told
that they devoted themselves to prayer. That is, they
committed themselves to spending time talking to God, not just
as individuals on their own, but speaking to God in prayer
gathered together in their worship, and in brigades in their
homes.
The truth is, you
cannot develop a relationship with God without prayer. Not as
individuals, or a corps.
You can’t have spiritual power from God apart from
prayer. You will be weak and useless in your fight against
sin. You will be less willing to live as God wants you to.
The power of God comes to our lives because of prayer.
John MacArthur says, “Prayer is the slender nerve that moves
the muscles of omnipotence.” (God’s complete power)
The things the
early church did together and accomplished together, is an
impressive list.
They met
together, they prayed together, they ate together, they
counselled each other, they planned together, they witnessed
together, they encouraged together, they shared what they had
together, they handled conflict together, they worked
together, they stood against attack together. And the list
goes on. God wants for all of us to be in this together; not
just for one hour on Sunday, but through the day to day course
of life.
I’m so thankful
that God brought me to The Salvation Army and particularly to
Crossroads! I’ve been reading a book called The General Next
to God. It’s an amazing story about how the Salvation Army
began. General Booth was so driven to see people saved. The
Army started because he couldn’t stand to see people
suffering. He did something about it. He implemented the same
things that the early church did. He fed them, taught them,
put roofs over their heads, prayed with them. He developed a
strong community. Just like the NT church, the Salvation Army
saw many people saved. This corps is doing the same thing so
I’m expecting to see tons of people saved in this city. We
have the rations guide so we can go through scripture everyday
together and stay on the same page of what we learn. We have
brigades to get together and discus the word and adapt it to
our life. We have the drop in center as a chance to meet and
eat together. Different people are having Shabbat or weekly
meals in their homes. We also have DisCo groups for discipling
and covenanting with each other. The disco involves telling
others in the group what we want to be accountable for and
holding each other to it. We also have a prayer room where we
can pray together or alone continually. As we continue to what
the early church did we won’t be able to do anything but see
the same results – SALVATION!!! That’s what being a part of
the salvation army is about.
As a part of this
community we share a common calling. When God enters in, we
are called to put off the old and put on the new. We are
called to holiness and obedience. We are called to begin that
process of looking less like the world and more like Jesus.
Knowing that we are all called to the same thing, that we
share that common calling to glorify God in our lives, helps
us to be accountable to one another (sounds like ‘disco’ to
me).
Now let’s go back
to what I said before about the body. When a part of the body
gets infected, do you think they can see that infection is
there? Does it care? It’s just sitting there growing that
infection. Without the nerves it can’t feel anything, without
the brain there is no sense of heat or pain. It’s like
leprosy. The body rots away and eventually falls off bit by
bit. It’s proven that the nerves can’t tell the brain there is
pain so the body doesn’t know to pull away when it’s getting
burned. The brain can’t tell the blood to send more white
blood cells to fight infection. It’s a terrible thing. The
eyes just sit there and watch as the body is eaten away
without being able to send help to that area. Leprosy is often
compared to sin. Nowadays people think someone is being
hateful to them when they bring out sin in there lives. You
may even hate me for bringing this up. Believe me I don’t want
to. I’m the type of person that wants to be loved so badly.
I’m really pathetic about it. If anyone says anything that
hurts me I feel unloved right away. Even if they have done 100
things to prove their love before and after. I hold on to that
hurt far too long. I let it fester in me. Just ask my husband.
That is one of my many pet sins.
When I knew I was going to be saying these things to
you I was beyond horrified!!!!
I can’t stand for anyone to be mad at me. Especially
people I love. I have to talk about this even though I don’t
want to. I don’t want any part of this body to die! Let’s be a
part of this body and depend on each other to rid ourselves of
any infection. I don’t want you all to come and tell me about
your sins. Don’t tell anyone if you don’t really want to get
rid of it. But if you do, tell the part of the body that is
meant to help fight the infection or sin. You don’t just
broadcast it to everyone. The eyes see and expose the sin but
they aren’t the ones that actually get rid of it. You sure
don’t want to go and tell the mouth about what’s going on. :0
Go to someone that has a relationship with God and you.
Someone you know cares about you enough to help you confront
that sin and fight against it. If you are ready to get
healthy, confess your sin to a sin fighter. Let’s annihilate
all infection within, so we as a body can stop fighting
itself, and start fighting our real enemy.
I’ve been reading
a lot of the New Testament written by Paul lately. In a lot of
his letters he’s talking to the people that are already saved.
He’s continually telling them to quit living like they used
to. That they aren’t what they used to be. This shows us that
as long as time began, or ever since the fall of Adam and Eve,
humans in general have wanted to go back into the sin they
came from. Even the people in the church that saw tons of
miracles wanted to go back to living like they used to. Living
like that is easier and let’s face it, it feels good. Every
sin I have done felt pretty good to my body. The bible doesn’t
say it doesn’t feel good to sin. It says sin is a PLEASURE for
a while. It just says the result is death.
I’ve chosen not
to do a lot of the things I used to. There are things I used
to do that many of you couldn’t even imagine me doing now. I
made up my mind to renew my mind with God’s word and with the
strength of Jesus I was able to completely stop. It wasn’t
easy at first- believe me - but as time went on, it got
better. Sometimes I still have the urges to do certain things
if I get angry or sad enough. Sometimes I slip up. That’s when
I turn to the body of God. I get back up and start fighting
the good fight again. If I can change from the things I used
to do, you can too!!
In I Corinthians
Paul confronts them about a sin someone in their church is
doing. He holds the whole church accountable for what a couple
of people are doing. They might not be actually doing it but
they were standing by letting it happen. He used harsh words.
Made out like they were proud of what those people are doing.
They were furious with him at first. They were hurt. Then he
was hurt because they were hurt.
That is why I don’t want to talk about this topic
because I hate all these kind of feelings.
But in the end they dealt with it and changed the way
they were acting and all moved forward. It tells in II
Corinthians how they confronted it and dealt with it and the
healing took place. They moved on and grew together,
healthier. They went on looking to the future. The past sin
was in the past and they were not defined by it anymore. They
were truly new creations.
Believe me I’m
not telling you all to go around telling each other what you
are doing wrong. I’m not wanting a free for all. I’m not
saying anything about anyone in particular either. I’m saying
if someone is your friend and you love them, let them tell you
what they are doing wrong and you fight it together. You are
the same body what effects them effects you. I’m also saying
if you tell someone your sin, don’t get mad at them if they
call you on it. Sure it hurts when you deal with it but
continue to deal with it and it gets better eventually. Call
sin ‘sin’. Sin is not what you are. Don’t own the sin. It’s
not what defines you. What defines you is the choice you made
to become the body of Christ. Cut the sin out, don’t get mad
and protect it.
As long as the sin is there you feel that it is what defines
you. Its hard to get rid of, it’s easier to keep it. The thing
is, you can get rid of it. It doesn’t own you. And once you do
get rid of it, it’s in the past!!! For good!!!
You are better than letting it run you. You can
overcome!!! You are worth more!!!
You are overcomers.!!! Through Christ Jesus!!! It says
in God’s word if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to
forgive us and make us clean. Tell God you are sorry and turn
from your past ways and you can be right with God. It’s that
simple.
Please feel free
to come and rid yourself of any infection. Lets become a
healthy body ready to fight together.
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