Church Life

prayed, we counted a great privilege
that there are those that would consider joining us in membership. And I just really felt led to
take up a passage of scripture that really talks about what
I would call church life. And maybe even as the saints
that have expressed a desire to join us in membership, as
they are encouraged and informed and challenged, even by the scriptures
before us, for the rest of us, that we would be challenged as
well in the reminders of some of these things that we will
consider this morning. To do that, I wanted to take
you to the book of Acts, and I want to do, Something that
I’ve done just briefly in the past, I’ve done it and spent
much more time. This time I want to do just a
very quick flyover through the Book of Acts. There is a really fascinating
feature in the Book of Acts that I would call progress reports
embedded in the text of the book of Acts so that it tells us how
that early church was progressing and flourishing. And so if you
would take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 1, you know that
Christ has risen. The ascension is recorded here
in this first chapter. And Jesus gives his parting words
that they, his disciples, would be his witnesses, not only in
Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, even to the greater part of the
earth. And that really forms the outline for the book of Acts. We see the church in Jerusalem,
we see the church grow and flourish even to the greater part of the
world. The start of the church is the
ascension of Christ, it’s his parting words, and we have basically
our very first progress report right off the bat. Look at verse
12. Then they returned to Jerusalem
from the Mount called Olavet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath
day’s journey away. When they had entered the city,
they went up to the upper room where they were staying, that
is, Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew,
Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot and Judas the
son of James now if you can imagine we are just now 30 40 days removed
from the crucifixion the resurrection of the last time you know in
John’s gospel these guys are absolutely on their heels but
even as I shared last Lord’s Day Peter was a man touched infused
changed by God’s grace and so it’s not surprising for us to
find them here almost immediately coalescing together as the newfound
church. Look at verse 14. These all with
one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with
the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. This
is the fledgling church. This is God’s design and almost
immediately they are functioning as such. Well, they replace one
of the the apostles you have that dramatic scene on Pentecost
the giving of the Holy Spirit and then you have Peter’s first
sermon in chapter 2 and that is followed by a progress report
another progress report look at verse 41 of chapter 2 So then those who had received
his word were baptized and that day there were added about 3,000
souls. Now that is some sermon. I don’t
think that Peter even did an altar call. He didn’t have to. The ones that were being saved
literally flooded the newfound church. Jump down to verse 46
and you see kind of the flavor, the nature of what they were
enjoying 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 having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding
to their number day by day those who were being saved now that
is a great church growth plan right well from there Peter begins
his ministry he deals with a a beggar he deals he preaches another
sermon in chapter 3 and the first great persecution breaks out
in the church as is recorded in chapter 4 well in chapter
4 right at the very end we have a very remarkable progress report
again look at verse 32 of chapter 4 And the congregation of those
who believed were of one heart and one soul, and not one of
them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things
were common property to them.” Now, this is not communism. This is where those who believe
in liberation theology, where socialism prevails and we’re
all supposed to own nothing and give everything to the government
so that they can give back only what we need. That is not what’s
being advanced here. It was totally voluntary. In
fact, if you read on, Barnabas, remember, does this magnanimous
gesture, selling some piece of land, giving the funds. And remember,
that’s what brings up Ananias and Sapphira to do this deceitful
deed and claim that they were doing the same thing that Barnabas
had done. Barnabas, as you know, does his
deed. Ananias and Sapphira trick the
church, making them think that they’re being generous and giving
this great gift. They meet a rather untimely end. And we have another progress
report. Look at chapter 5, verse 12.
At the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking
place among the people. And they were all with one accord
in Solomon’s portico. This is church unity at its best. They were just flourishing and
functioning together as one. Look at verse 14. And all the
more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly
added to their number to such an extent that they even carried
the sick out into the streets and laid them in cots and pallets
So that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on
one of them. God was giving great signs, great
wonders, healings and the like for the testimony of the gospel. Well, with any great outbreak
of God’s grace, there’s going to be persecution. And the second
persecution breaks out in chapter 5. And we have another progress
report at the end of that chapter. Look at verse 41. So they went
on their way from the presence of the council rejoicing that
they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name.
And every day in the temple and from house to house they kept
right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. No persecution,
no beatings, no government was going to tell them what they
could and could not do. As we enter into chapter 6, there
is that remarkable passage where they appoint deacons to free
up the elders to preach and teach the gospel. We have then another
progress report, chapter 6, verse 7. The word of God kept on spreading
and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly
in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the
faith. So now you have inroads even into the Jewish religion.
Most of those early converts were Jewish believers so they
had ready access to those who were in the religious elite. Then you have Stephen’s ministry. First of all probably just what
I would call harassment. Then he preaches and then ultimately
he becomes the church’s first martyr. Well it’s time for It’s
time for a progress report, wouldn’t you say? Look at chapter eight.
This would be the seventh progress report, chapter eight and verse
four. That probably rocked the church. They knew that they were gonna
take heat. They knew that they were going to suffer hardship. They probably didn’t count on
martyrdom, not this quickly. And so a progress report is in
order, therefore, Verse four, those who had been scattered
went about preaching the word. God used this for his glory.
God used the fact that there was great persecution to drive
the Christians out of Jerusalem. And the church now begins to
expand its concentric circle out to Samaria. Look at verse six, the crowds
with one accord. Do you realize how many times
it says that? With one accord, one heart, one mind. They were
together, they were unified. The crowds with one accord were
giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard
and saw the signs that he was performing. You jump down to
verse eight and the general theme was just joy. They were rejoicing. Samaria, the gospel begins to
spread. You have this report of Philip
in the Ethiopian eunuch, and then you meet a man named Saul. Not just do we meet him and we
know his character, but we see him dramatically, amazingly converted. Well, it’s time for a progress
report. Progress report number eight, look at Acts 9.31. This, by the way, the very first
verse that I preached in what was then Community Bible Church.
We planted Community Bible Church, we met in a home, and I really
wanted to lay out a church growth plan. And that’s exactly what
is given here by Luke as he records what was going on in the church.
You have a plan for church growth. So the church throughout all
Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace. Being built up,
it’s always God’s work. Unless the Lord builds the house,
they labor in vain. Being built up and going on in
the fear of the Lord, that is reverence, and in the comfort
of the Holy Spirit, that is guidance, it continued to increase. If
we seek those things, the church will be exactly as big as God
wants it. You have a series of miracles,
healings, conversions in Acts chapter 9 and 10, Cornelius,
the vision with Peter. You have Peter’s conclusions
that God had indeed done away with those Old Testament dietary
laws. Well, it’s time. For a progress report, look at
chapter 11, verse 19. So then, those who were scattered
because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen
made their way to Phoenicia and Cyrus. Now the gospel is really
spreading and expanding. And Cyprus and Antioch, speaking
the word to no one except Jews alone. And they would go into
the temples, they would go into the synagogues, they would share
from the Old Testament scriptures, the testimony, prophecy of the
Messiah, and then they would open the door to the opportunity
to share about Christ. Jump down to verse 21, and the
hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed
turned to the Lord. They were seeing conversions.
They were seeing great fruit. And then, of course, there’s
a third great persecution that breaks out. Herod is involved
with this one, and it’s time again. for a progress report.
Tell us how the church is faring. Look at verse 24 of chapter 12. Even in the face of this persecution,
now the third great persecution, it says that the word of the
Lord continued to grow and be multiplied. And the world was
starting to take notice, as we’ll see in a moment, that there wasn’t
anything that they could do to quash or quell or do away with
this movement called Christianity. And then you come to the third
phase. where the church begins to reach
to the remotest part of the earth. The entire rest of the book of
Acts from chapter 13 forward is the testimony of the great
spread of the gospel. We have Paul’s first missionary
journey in chapters 13 through 15. Paul and Barnabas are sent
out. They have a ministry there. And there is need and cause for
a progress report, if you would, to chapter 13. In chapter 13, there’s a lengthy
progress report. I just want to zero in on a couple
of verses. Look at verse 48. When the Gentiles heard this,
the gospel, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the
Lord, and as many has been appointed, no more no less, as many has
been appointed to eternal life, believed. And the word of the
Lord was being spread through the whole region. Look at verse
52. And the disciples were continually
filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The Lord is moving
and souls are being saved. You have the second missionary
journey and another progress report. Look at chapter 16. Now Paul is going, coursing through
these cities. Derbe, Lystra, and the like. And it just, the gospel is being
planted and then they’re going back and following up. They’re
proclaiming the gospel and then planting churches. Look at verse
4 of chapter 16. Now, while they were passing
through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which
had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were
in Jerusalem for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened
in the faith and were increasing in numbers daily. So the gospel
is going out, souls are being saved, you have the third missionary
journey in Acts chapter 18 and 19, and then it’s time for a
progress report. And this one is the last one,
last what I would call formal progress reports. We could step
back and glean information and draw conclusions, but this is
the last formal progress report in the book of Acts. Look at
Acts chapter 19. in Acts chapter 19 following
Paul’s third missionary journey it just says this and it’s so
beautiful that this became known to all both Jews and Greeks who
lived in Ephesus and fear fell upon them all and the name of
the Lord Jesus was being magnified many of those who had believed
kept coming confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of
those who practiced magic brought their books together and began
burning them in the sight of everyone. And they counted up
the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the
word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. And you say, well, that was interesting. But there’s a purpose to this,
because I want to now draw our own concentric circle and draw
it in. I want to look at one of these
progress reports specifically, and I want to look at it a little
more deeply. And for our purposes today, I
want to take you back to Acts chapter 2. To Acts chapter 2,
where we came across our second of 13 progress reports. And in Acts chapter 2, I really
want to just focus on a part of this progress report, what
I would call the life of the church. They were continually devoting
themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread, and to prayer. Now that, as you know, forms
just a part of the larger progress report. And so that you can have
the context, I want to take you backwards just a bit. to verse
14 where Peter is giving a sermon. And I even told you about this
sermon last week. Peter is just powerfully infused
by the Holy Spirit, bold in the gospel. Look at verse 14, Peter
taking his stand with the 11, raised his voice and declared
to them, men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you and give heed to my words. And then
he begins to preach and proclaim the gospel. Jump down to verse
22. Men of Israel, listen to these
words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested
to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed
through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this
man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,
you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put
him to death, but God raised him up again. Peter is being
amazingly used by God, preaching here to the Jews. And you would
almost expect that what flows from this is not much different
than what Christ experienced. They tackle Peter, first of all,
gag him to shut him up, because that’s what it’s going to take.
They drag him out to a hill and stone him, unmercilessly. That’s
what you would expect, but that’s not what happened. Jump all the
way down to verse 37. And Peter is laying it to them. He’s not pulling any punches
here. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what
shall we do? This is repentance. They know
that they had just crucified the Messiah, and they’re acknowledging
it as such, and they know that they’re doomed. And Peter, the old Peter, we
might have expected the old Peter to say, you know what, you are
doomed. Shame on you for what you did. But Peter, Peter is
a changed man. This is the apostle of a grace-changed
life, remember? And Peter said to them, repent. Turn from your sins. Remember,
repentance is not only turning to God, but it’s turning from
sin. 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, the very
gift that prompted this whole discussion. Up to this point, they thought
that people were drunk, the way they were carrying on this mad
scene recorded in Acts chapter 2. But now, Peter says, look,
you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you fall on knees
of repentance and place your faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness,
and you too will receive the Holy Spirit. And just astoundingly, That’s exactly what happened.
Look at verse 41. So those who received his word
were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. This is where the progress report
actually begins. There was a great revival, if
you will. There was a great outpouring
of God’s grace and the salvation of souls there in this one sermon. They were continually, verse
42, devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship,
and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. And everyone kept
feeling a sense of awe. I mean, what else could you feel?
Absolutely astounded. that this guy, a fisherman, who
just a month ago was wondering and deciding whether maybe he
would take up fishing again as a career, restored by Christ
to his ministry, and now preaches one sermon, and has one of the
most remarkable responses ever recorded. 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. Remember, and again, this is
voluntary. This isn’t communism. Day by
day, continuing with one mind in the temple, unity, 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. What a remarkable
scene. And I wanna go back to verse
42 now, and I wanna draw the circle even more tightly. That
instead of looking at all of those verses, 41 through 47,
I just wanna look at verse 42 this morning. Because to me,
this is church life. This is the day-to-day operation
of the church. And what Luke gives us here is
really a snapshot This isn’t everything that would ever take
place in the life of the church, but it’s a snapshot of what a
day might look like in the average church as they rejoice in what
God has done in forgiving them for their sin and giving them
his grace, his spirit, his word. And look at the first response.
They were continually devoting. It’s a powerful word. It just
means an utter and absolute devotion. There was a constancy to what
they were doing. They were absolutely doggedly
committed to their new life and to all the elements of it. Look
at the first. They were continually devoting
themselves to the apostles teaching. This word This word is an active word. And what it basically points
to is the fact that they were listening, actively listening
to the apostles, to what was being taught and shared and preached. And this teaching formed a body
of doctrine. And they were absolutely committed
to what the apostles were teaching and sharing. There was no longer
skepticism among believers. They, as they heard these things,
received it as truth. The teaching was authoritative.
The teaching was authoritative, not because of any particular
quality in the apostles, but they knew that the apostles,
under the power of the Holy Spirit, were speaking the very word of
God. In the book of Ephesians, Paul
is writing to the Ephesian believers and he says this, chapter two,
so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow
citizens with the saints. You are of God’s household having
been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
You see what the apostles would do is they would go into the
Old Testament, And they would bring out those prophecies that
up to this point were vague mysteries. And they would clarify those,
elucidate those, preach those, and tell people how God had answered
those incredible promises. And then they would bring forth
stories. Stories about Christ, true stories,
eyewitness accounts. And at that time, when Luke wrote
the book of Acts, this devotion to the Apostles’ teaching, this
teaching would have been either taken from the Apostles’ inspired
interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures, as I just mentioned,
or from what we would call oral tradition, from rote memory as
they regarded the life and the ministry and the teachings of
Christ. one of my seminary professors,
I remembered a quote. It took me about half a day to
find it. I remembered this, and I remembered
that somebody said it was one of my seminary profs in one of
my favorite books. He said, apart from the Old Testament,
Christianity had no authoritative writings for the first 15 years
of existence. So it’s not like, you know, as
the apostles gathered in, you know, James said, now turn to
the book of James. That’s not what happened. Or
Peter. Turn to 2 Peter. They had no authoritative writings
for at least the first 15 years. Proclamation during this period
was solely by word of mouth based on Old Testament and the tradition
of eyewitnesses. Doctrinal and practical issues
were among early Christians caused the need for the epistles first.
So the Gospels are way down the road. These were written by early
apostles and prophets on the basis of direct revelation given
by God. Epistles continued to appear
about 10 years after the first epistle was written. As eyewitnesses
of Jesus’ earthly life and resurrection became more and more scarce,
as they were put to death, and Christianity spread to the extent
that there were not enough to tell the story of his life orally,
the gospels began to appear. And so these apostles, literally
week after week, are just telling the story from the heart, from
memory. And this memory of direct eyewitnesses
would eventually be put into the form of the Gospels, but
now it’s coming from the heart. And so this teaching time in
the churches, in the synagogues, would have been the highlight,
the centerpiece of the entire worship service. and devotion
to the apostles teaching would not have been limited to that.
They would have been meditating upon the scriptures, upon what
was just said. Meditating on, you know, that
passage from Isaiah that Peter just told us about. They would
have been reciting verses to one another, even lengthy portions. They would have been writing
them, encouraging and admonishing one another from the scriptures. That phrase, the apostles teaching,
also, as I said, suggests a body of doctrine to which every early believer
not only believed, but boldly proclaimed and vigorously defended. They were holding to the apostles
teaching. And we do that still, don’t we?
Today, in our Worlds 2,000 years removed from where these
saints walked. The sermon still forms the central
figure of the worship service. It is our high view of scripture.
It is our mandate. That is our mandate for ministry.
Preach the word, as Paul told to Timothy. One of my favorite
writers, one of my favorite Saints, who I look forward to meeting
one day, Charles Bridges said, because therefore the want of
knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity among men. He
said, we have sinned because we don’t
know enough. We haven’t read, we haven’t heard, we haven’t
heard what God feels about that particular sin. As contrary wise,
the ground of all our happiness, if we would be happy, and the
seed of whatsoever perfect virtue grows from us, if we would be
virtuous, is a right opinion touching things divine. We need
to know God. We need to know God, we need
to know Him better. If we would be rid of sin, if
we would be happy, if we would be the virtuous people that He’s
called us to be, This kind of knowledge we may justly set down
for the first and chiefest thing which God imparts to his people,
and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the
first of those religious offices wherewith we honor him on earth.”
He says, in other words, the greatest thing that you can do
as a Christian is attend to his word. Read his word. Listen to his word. Write out
his word. Bridges continues and finishes,
for the instruction therefore of all sorts of men unto eternal
life, it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God
be opened and published to them, which open publication of heavenly
mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching. And so here
at Providence Bible Church, we elevate the preaching of God’s
word because God elevates it. But that’s not the only place
where we, like the early apostles, can hold, devote ourselves to
the apostles’ teaching. We do it in Bible studies, whether
it’s private, whether it’s a group Bible study. We do it in discipleship
training as we draw other men, young men, into the service of
Christ. We do it in our family devotions.
This is contained in the Constitution. That our commitment is to teach
others by word and example to fear God and to keep His commandments.
Do you know in our Constitution that is as true of your boss
as it is of your children? That you are to teach him, you
are to show him the fear of God. then there is this direct admonition
in our Constitution to raise our children in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord by maintaining family devotions and generally
by cultivating God-honoring lives and homes. So in other words,
that is how we continue to hold to the Apostles’ teaching. It
is one of the requirements of membership. In our Constitution, it says
the duty of every Christian as an individual and as a member
of the local church is to labor by prayer, word, and deed for
the extension of the kingdom of God in ever-widening circles,
beginning at home and stretching forth to the ends of the earth.
It is a commitment, an absolute commitment and devotion to God’s
word. Sunday school, home fellowships,
I remember years ago we gave this admonition, the home fellowship
we wanted to be about fellowship and prayer. We had a lot of teaching
already. Teach from the pulpit, we teach
in Sunday school, at the time I think we had the institute
going. All kinds of teaching going on.
We want these home fellowships to be fellowship, gathering together,
and prayer. almost to a group, they all began
to look to the scriptures once again. It’s just natural. This
is done in Titus 2 T’s, right? One of the elements of a Titus
2 T is a lesson, not only a testimony, but a lesson from God’s word.
The institute, which we had going for three or four years, men’s
training, which is currently where we’re doing some of those
things, conferences and the like. That’s where we sit at the feet
of God’s word and uphold the apostles teaching. And then you
add to that, these things I’m not so skilled at, podcasts,
blogs, MP3s, you know, I’m still a book guy. But never in the
history of humanity is so much teaching from God’s Word so readily
available. We’re to hold that body of teaching, the apostles’
teaching, is to be upheld, vigorously defended, boldly proclaimed. And we do that not only through
our doctrinal statement. From the very start of this church,
we said we want to plant a church. What kind of church? The first
thing that came to mind. We want to hold to the solas of the Reformation. Sola Scriptura, scripture alone,
faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, God’s glory alone. That’s exactly what our Constitution
lays out. All the members of this church
are expected to obey the teachings of Scripture in respect to the
life and government of the family. Well, there’s more to Acts 2,
42. They were continually devoting
themselves, not only to the apostles’ teaching, but to fellowship.
Really? Does that take some kind of commitment? It does. In fact, I think the
more natural thing is to not fellowship, to not have a fellowship. The verb form of this means to
share, to commune, to literally share one’s things with. And
koinonia, where this particular word just means a partnership,
a fellowship, a sharing of things. Several have described it in
various terms. One said, it is that communion
or holding all things in common which would bind them most closely
into one society. And we saw that as we coursed
through those statements, the readiness to sell all and give,
Another described it as the great quality of togetherness. Now
there’s something to that short and sweet definition. It is the
privilege to just come alongside and do something, a little project
with a brother in Christ. And to watch his weaknesses and
to watch your own play themselves out, to bear with one another,
to work with one another, to labor with one another. to watch
God accomplish something through so feeble servants. It initiates with fellowship
with God, right? But it also, this fellowship,
goes out to others. As one described it, it is spiritual
fellowship and concord, a word that we don’t use much anymore,
a fellowship in the Spirit, inward and outward in its manifestation,
fellowship in sympathy, suffering, and toil. This is where we come
alongside one another, and we bear with one another, and we
weep with one another, and we laugh with one another. It is
an interactive gathering of like-minded believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
where gifts can be exercised, needs can be met, and God can
be glorified. And it all begins in this life,
but it will be continued into all eternity, won’t it? Fellowship. Acts 4.32 had an interesting
picture of this fellowship. The congregation
of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one
of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own,
but all things were common property to them. And with great power,
the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was
not a needy person among them. For all who were owners of land
or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales
and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed
to each as any had need.” Now, this is a heads up not only for those who
are pondering membership in this church, but for all of those
who already have it. The constitutional commitment
that you made is to bear one another’s burdens and cultivate
genuine fellowship. Cultivate genuine fellowship.
Well, what does it look like? Well, the New Testament is full
and complete of examples. We call them the one and others
of the New Testament. Serve one another, which verse
we just, which topic we just considered in John 13, right?
Serve one another, that was Christ’s example. Knelt down on his feet
to wash the disciples’ feet, to urge upon them the need to
serve one another. As one pastor said, they should
show their love by their service as by praying with one another
and for one another by bearing each other’s burden, sympathizing
with them and communicating to each other in things temporal
and spiritual. In other words, meeting each
other’s needs as they present. In forbearing with and forgiving
one another by admonishing each other when there is an occasion
in a meek and tender and brotherly way, and by instructing and building
one another up in the most holy faith. That is fellowship. Not only in serving one another,
but what about loving one another? 12 times in the New Testament. And not just these warm and fuzzy
feelings, but above all, service. That was exactly Christ’s lesson
in the foot-washing passage. Encouraging one another. Building
up one another. Over and over again throughout
the New Testament, these flow forth, these one-anothers, have
the same impartial care for one another. 1 Corinthians 12. That
there be no division in the body, but that the members have the
same care for one another. I wonder what the church would
look like if we cared about others as much as we care for ourselves.
I mean, we pamper ourselves at every turn, don’t we? Bear one
another’s burdens, be patient with one another, be kind. Ephesians 4.32. Be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ
has forgiven you. That’s fellowship. John Eady, one of my favorite
commentators on this verse said, Christians are to be noted for
their tenderness of heart. They are to be full of deep and
mellow affection instead of resentment and retaliation, railing and
vindictive abjuration. Christians are to pardon offenses,
to forgive one another in reciprocal generosity. be subject to one
another. And I know what you’re saying.
If you’re trying to write these down, don’t. I have one for you. The one another’s
of the New Testament. That’s fellowship. And it occurs
not only on the Lord’s day, especially on the Lord’s day, but not just
on the Lord’s day. I’ve taken heat over the years.
In September, it will be 19 years, and probably all 19 years I’ve
taken heat for what we call our fellowship time, our greeting
time. But to me, that is the life of the church. It’s an opportunity
just to touch base with that brother that you may not see
at the end of church. To ask him how he’s doing, and
I’m not, you certainly don’t have to talk about football.
That’s not what it’s for. but to get into each other’s
lives, to fellowship with one another. And then, shouldn’t
we have fellowship at home fellowships? And what I’ve learned in the
course of 19 years is things come and go in the church. And
I love the way Jim Elliott says it, the Lord’s work done in the
Lord’s way will never lack the Lord’s provision. If we’re going
to have a bus ministry, we’re going to need a bus, and we’re
going to need riders for the bus, and we’re going to need
gas for the bus, and we’re going to need a bus driver. And if
we have that, the Lord will provide it. Home fellowships come and
they go, and by God’s grace, they will come again in the fall.
We fellowship at potlucks and picnics. and day-to-day projects,
and ministry, and service, and even in our recreation, there
is fellowship. You learn a lot about a guy when
you play golf with him, I’ll tell you. Well, there’s another
element that they were devoting themselves to. They were continually
devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to
the breaking of bread. And the immediate question is,
is this referring to communion? Or is it just referring to meals?
I have an opinion and so does everybody else. It is the earliest
title, and I would admit this, it’s the earliest title of communion
in the early church. The breaking of bread, they refer
to it that way. First Corinthians 10, Paul says it. Is not the
cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?
Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? And so most commentators say
that it appears to be a reference to the Lord’s table. Another
one said it probably denotes more than just the regular taking,
but there’s nobody that’s absolutely doggedly opinionated about this particular
point, that this is absolutely talking about communion. Now
I would suggest to you my particular position here is that it’s probably
not talking about communion, but I’d be okay if it is. I think
it’s talking about meals, and I’ll tell you why. Jump down
to Acts 2, 46. Same passage. Same progress report,
where 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. In Acts chapter 20, you have
the same kind of use of this phrase. On the first day of the
week, when they were gathered together to break bread, Paul
began… probably what this points to is at least what was called
the love feast, where they would come together and they would
have essentially a potluck supper. And I don’t believe in luck any
more than you do, you know what I mean. They would bring their
dishes, they would all share, they would have a communal meal,
and then at the end of it, they would celebrate the Lord’s table.
We’ve done that. But it was the togetherness,
it’s the commonness, it’s the eating together, the sharing, having people into your home,
meeting a brother for lunch. It’s hospitality. It’s generosity
in that. It’s service in that hospitality. It’s selflessness. It is a check
to our own gluttony. It is an example of our graciousness. It’s fellowship. It’s cultivating
that Christ-like fellowship. But that’s not the end. They
were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and
to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This
is a general word for prayer. We see it everywhere in the New
Testament. James 5.13, Is there any among you who is suffering?
Let him pray. It’s the most natural place to
go, the most natural thing to do. And for these early Christians,
they knew what they were up against. Now they’ve seen Stephen martyred,
or soon they will. They know the difficulty. They
know that hardship is coming their way. They know that they
can’t do this in their own strength. I think that’s one of the remarkable
features of the changed lives of these apostles, is they started
to tap in to that great vine by prayer. Robert Johnstone writes that
the Christian recognizes affliction as a fatherly chastisement inflicted
by the God who is love and who, because his love chastens his
children, that they may be more childlike will always feel, if
his faith is intelligent and vigorous, that nothing is so
becoming, nothing is so needful under trial as earnest wrestling
with his Heavenly Father in prayer. He will ask for comfort, for
wisdom, for deliverance. In other words, it’s God’s design
to bring us to that place where we pour out our hearts in prayer. And that’s one of the callings. One of the great duties of the
elders is to pray for the saints. It’s one of the great blessings
is to have the saints pray for the elders. It’s preaching. It’s worship, it’s unity, it’s
fellowship, it’s outreach, it’s service, it’s ministries, it’s
growth. That’s a ministry of the saints. Prayer has always been a key
part of what we do at the church. And there have been fits and
starts and what that looks like. Sometimes we’ve spent lengthy
times in our Sunday school time. It has always been part of our
worship service. The pastoral prayer has always been part of
our worship service. I remember years ago, happily,
when the prayer chain was started and sustained and continued,
it’s just one of the core ministries of our church, right? You know
where you can go. If you’ve got something urgent,
you know that you can pour that out to the prayer chain and you
know that other saints immediately take that up for the purpose
of prayer. Well that just is a, it really just is a response
to a constitutional commitment that all believers make when
they join the church. They commit to pray for one another
for the glory and increase of his church, for the presence
of God in it, for the pouring forth of his spirit on it, for
his protection over it, for his glory. That’s a commitment. We pray in home fellowships.
We pray in our Sunday school classes. We pray one-on-one. And that is the early church. But it’s not just the early church.
Acts 2.42 is to describe the church, even as it exists today,
even as it exists here at Providence Bible Church. Isaac Taylor wrote a book called
Ancient Christianity, and he looked back and was basically
analyzing the early church. Isaac Taylor noted this about
the church. Now granted, it doesn’t touch
on all four of the features that are articulated in Acts 242,
but I think that it prefigures the last one that’s missing. He said this. Our brethren of
the early church challenge our respect as well as our affection. For theirs was the fervor of
a steady faith in things unseen and eternal. Prayer. Theirs often a meek patience
under the most grievous wrongs. Theirs the courage to maintain
a good profession before the frowning face of philosophy secular
tyranny and of splendid superstition. Theirs was abstractedness from
the world and a painful self-denial. Theirs was the most arduous and
costly labors of love. Theirs was a munificence of charity
altogether without example. Fellowship. Theirs was a relevant
and scrupulous care of the sacred writings, and this with one merit. If they had no other, it is of
a superlative degree and should entitle them to the veneration
and grateful regards of the modern church. How little do modern
readers of the Bible nowadays think of what it costs the Christians
of the early centuries to merely rescue and hide the sacred treasures
from the rage of the heathen, the apostles’ teaching. That’s
what describes the early church and that’s what should describe
Providence Bible Church. Would you join me in prayer for
that? Our merciful King, we desperately
need your grace. much like that early church,
had no idea what lay ahead. They could not have anticipated
the great influx of believers, 3,000 souls saved in a single
day. But Lord, we do see in their
heart and life a devotion, a dogged commitment to a core set of elements,
principles. the teaching of the apostles,
the very word of God. Lord, and I thank you that if
nothing else, this is a church that highly esteems God’s word. But they were also committed
and devoted to fellowship. And Lord, I rejoice to what degree,
we can always grow, but I rejoice to what degree we have true and
genuine fellowship with one another. We look about and we see needs
and we seek to meet them. We seek to share in them. Lord,
we thank you. But we also have the privilege
to enjoy not only the Lord’s table, but even the most common
meal together. Enjoying the work of your hands,
the food which you provide. Lord, To think that we have such
ready access to you in prayer that we can go in and talk. To the creator of the universe,
the one who not only made it. But sustains it. Lord, what a
joy is ours and we do pray that you would fan the flames of any
of these. If they have died down to mere embers, we pray that
you and your gentle breath would blow upon them and would once
again make them blaze afresh for your glory. It’s in Jesus
name that we pray. Amen.