← Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
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What we're going to look at today is that ending of Jesus life in Acts chapter two. So if you'll turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter two, we're going to look at that early church. Because Jesus died, He was buried, he rose again and then he told his disciples, wait for the Holy Spirit. And then I want you to go disciple and share the gospel. And so we're going to look at that first Christian church, those who did hear the good news and made a decision to follow him. And we're going to try to learn and understand as much as we can from their example. But before we continue, let's take time to pray. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for an opportunity that we have to come today to freely worship you and learn from you. We pray that you would open our eyes and our ears and our minds to what you have for us today. We didn't come today to hear from a guest speaker. We came today to hear from you. And so we commit this time to you. We want to honor you with it and learn from it. And we want to be different when we leave here than when we came. And only you can do that. And so we ask for your help in Jesus name. Amen. All right, so to review Acts chapter two, or to try to summarize it as much as possible, In Acts chapter 2, Jesus has ascended to heaven. And now the disciples, and in this case Peter, full of the Holy Spirit shares the gospel to the crowds. And the Bible says that about 3,000 heard and asked the disciples, what should we do now that we have heard the Gospel? And the disciples say, repent and be baptized. And so they did. And so this is the early church. They repented from their sin. They made a decision to follow Jesus. And we read in verse 42 about this early church. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayer. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among anyone who had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. And so we read in Acts 2, and I want to highlight and start with verse 42. Some of your verses in the Bible, some of your versions say they continued steadfastly. Other versions say they devoted themselves. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. The early church gave us a foundation for what we're supposed to look like, what we're supposed to sound like. They set the tone for us. They gave us examples. Sometimes we wonder, why do we go to church? What's the role of the church? Why is church important? Or if you've made a decision to follow Jesus, what's my task? What's my goal? What's my quest as a follower of Jesus? And I like Acts chapter two, because I think it clarifies that for us. Starting with the first point. The early church devoted themselves to God's Word. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. They saw God's Word as a foundation for their church. And we can know and understand and study God's Word for so many reasons. And there are sermons and sermons written on the importance of God's Word. I'm just going to highlight three from the Psalms. The importance of God's Word. Psalm 119:11 says this. David says, I have hidden God's Word in my heart that I might not sin against God. I have hidden or stored up. The idea is I have God's Word stored up in my heart. That it makes it easier, easier for me to fight temptation because of God's Word that I have stored up in my heart. Pastor DL Moody of Moody Bible Institute said this. He said, God's Word will keep you from sin and sin will keep you from God's Word. Anyone ever remember those times in our lives when we've been dealing with sin, living in sin, and it's difficult for us to get into God's Word. We don't want to read God's Word when we're living in sin. David said, I've hidden God's Word in my heart that I might not sin against God. God's also a lamp and a light. Psalm 119 also says this. God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So think about the importance of God's Word that gives us light in a dark world. We don't need to read the newspaper too much or read X or Twitter so much. We understand we live in a dark world. We need the light of God's worth to be that beacon of light for us that we can follow that sets the example for us in a confused world. We need God's light. And then my favorite from David is the very first psalm that says this. He said, those who delight in God's Word. He said they're like trees that are planted by the streams of water. He says they bear fruit in season and their leaves never wither. So just think about that word. Picture the idea of being planted in God's Word. The idea of reading God's Word, being devoted to God's Word. It says, it's like you're a tree. And that doesn't have to wait for the rain. Rain can come and go. It cannot rain for two weeks, three weeks, a month. But this tree is grounded. This tree has the stream of water. This tree has the word of God so that it never fails to bear fruit in season and its leaves never wither. So think about in times of storm, in times of drought, in times of heat, the leaves are still green. That's what it looks like to be devoted to. To God's Word. Because we're reminded of who God is. His character, his love, his priorities. We read about his patience, his faithfulness, his love. The early church and their devotion to the study of God's Word is an example for us. That's why when you come on Sundays, Pastor Gary will have a Bible study. We'll study God's Word. You come on a Wednesday night, we're going to study God's Word. That's why on Monday nights and Thursday nights, you're not coming to hear from Pastor Austin with young adults or Pastor Ryan from high school. They're going to teach not their own doctrine, they're going to teach God's doctrine. They're going to teach from God's Word. It's something that we've devoted ourselves to as a church modeled after the early church. It's a foundation, and it's foundation of the early church, and it's a foundation here at Cornerstone. The early church also devoted themselves to fellowship. This was important to the early church, especially in that time when if you made a decision to follow Jesus in that time, oftentimes you lost your job, oftentimes your family would kick you out of their home, and you had nothing. And so the idea here in Acts chapter two was the early church, they looked after each other, they encouraged one another, they fellowshipped with one another. That word fellowship, that's the Greek word koinonia. So if you ever wonder, where do you get that word koinonia? Where do you get that word for home groups? Well, why do you use the Greek word? It's the Greek word for fellowship. It suggests that there is A sharing. It suggests there's a community. It suggests that we need one another. It's this idea that we just don't come to church to observe. We come to church to participate. We fellowship with one another. There's unity with one another. That word community, it suggests unity with one another. It suggests we're all on the same team as part of the body of Christ. And the Bible uses terms like body of Christ and uses terms like family of God because we're one. We share the same God, the same future, the same sufferings. Listen to what Paul told the church in Rome. He said, we are children, we're heirs of God, coheirs with Christ, and we share in his suffering in order that we also may share in his glory. So there's a sharing of suffering. There's a sharing of our future. And when you look around the church and you fellowship with other believers, you realize that you're not alone. The enemy wants to isolate us and make us think that the issues that we're dealing with, the sin issues or the trouble that we're dealing with or the hurt that we're dealing with, it's personal to us and no one else experiences it. And then when you fellowship with other believers, you realize that we're not alone. You realize that we can carry each other's burdens. We share each other's losses and disappointments and weaknesses because we share compassion and encouragement and hope. That's why we have events that encourage fellowship at Cornerstone. Sometimes you may wonder, why did the middle school girls. Why are they having a middle school girls night where they just hang around and bake things and make things like, isn't that. That's not very spiritual. Shouldn't they be, like, quiet and pray and study God's word all the time? Well, there's a time and a season for fellowship. I mean, imagine being a youth today, a youngin in middle school or in high school, needing the community of other believers around you that can encourage you and support you as you go into this dark world that you live in. We need fellowship. We need to know that we're not alone. Paul told the church in Corinth. He said, the body of Christ is a unit, though it is made up of many different parts. God has arranged all the parts just as he wanted them to be. So the idea that we're all different, the idea that we come from different backgrounds and grew up in different towns and have male, female differences and personality differences, the Bible says that God did that on purpose so that we come together we have unity so that we come together. We need each other, and we've got gifts and experiences and skills and talents that we can use, he told the church in Rome. He said, even though we're many, we're one. We belong to one another. So use your unique gifts to be a blessing to one another, share with one another, encourage one another, serve one another. It's like being members of a sports team. You're on a football team, you're on a baseball team, or you're members of a band or an orchestra. You realize, hey, we have different parts, we have different roles on this team. But we all have to do have to do our part. We all have to come together. And if one isn't there, you're missing. We miss that part. We need to participate together, relying on one another, complementing one another. The author of Hebrews emphasized fellowship this way. He said, let us not give up meeting together, but let us encourage one another all the more. As you see the day approaching, the idea is, I want you to continue to fellowship. I want you to continue to have community with one another, with other believers, until Jesus comes back. That's our task. That's our goal. And then number three, the Bible says that the early church shared communion together. They devoted themselves to this. And it's interesting when you think about the early church. They weren't that many years away from Jesus death and his burial and his resurrection. And yet they devoted themselves to this because they wanted to remember. You see, communion is about remembering the sacrifice that God made. And it's interesting because communion is solemn. It's somber because remembering the sacrifice that he made, the suffering that Jesus had for us. But it's also a celebration. So when we take communion, we're somber and we're remembering what Jesus did for us. But the celebration is because of what he did. It makes it possible for us to live together in heaven. Paul said this. He said, the Lord, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, take and eat the this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he took the cup after supper and said, the cup is the new covenant of my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance as me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now, the Bible doesn't say how often we're to participate and share and communion with one another. But the idea is Consistently. And so at Cornerstone, we have communion once a month on a Wednesday, and once a month on a Sunday because it's important for us to remember what God has done for us. It's important for us because we tend to forget. And then finally, the early church devoted themselves to prayer. And when we think about prayer, we just have to remember there are many types of prayers. So when you think of prayer, it's a broad term. It can include repentance, it can include confession of sin. It can include appreciation or thanksgiving for what God has done. It can include praise for who God is. And we can share prayer requests just simply, lord, help me. When we share our needs with Him. For example, it's this idea of having kids. So God has His children and his children come to him and. And they thank him and they praise him and they ask him for help, and they repent of their sin. If you're a parent, you can relate to this. Think of the idea of if your kid only comes to you when they need something, they only come to you when they need money, but they never thank you and they never say, I'm sorry. You can understand how shallow of a relationship that would be. And so our prayers to God includes thanksgiving and praise and confession and requests. And when they include all of them, we have the opportunity to understand what prayer is all about. Consider all the different ways in Scripture. We're encouraged to pray, so we're instructed by Paul. Present our prayer requests with thanksgiving. Jesus tells us to come to him and pray for rest when we're weary or burdened. John tells us to confess our sins to him because he's faithful and just to forgive us. Peter tells us, cast your anxiety on God in prayer because he cares for you. David tells us to pour out our hearts to God in prayer, for he's our refuge. In the Chronicles, it says, humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face. In Hebrews, it tells us to approach God, to find mercy in our time of need. Paul tells the church to give thanks in all circumstances. Endless examples and reminders of scripture that we should seek him in prayer with confession and thanksgiving and praise and our requests. And so the early church devoted themselves to God's word, to fellowship, to communion and prayer. And these are essential. These are so important. And Cornerstone has modeled ourselves after these things. But it's so important for us to understand that these essentials, these disciplines that the church devoted themselves to, they're not the end goal. It's not the end in mind. The idea that these things are important and as important as they are, they're not the goal. You see, the goal of the believer isn't to be a good Bible reader or to be a good worshiper. To sing really well or to be a good prayer. These things that we devote ourselves to, like exercises, these disciplines, they prepare us to do something even greater. These disciplines prepare us. I mean, most of us, if we're honest, we don't exercise to be good exercisers. We don't exercise because we like it. We devote ourselves to exercise because we want to get into good shape. We want to exercise so that we can participate in a race. We exercise so that we can play a sport. We exercise for a reason. But the exercise is not the end goal. The disciplines aren't meant to be the goal or measurement of our success. The goal isn't to be a good fellowshipper and have perfect attendance on Sundays. I mean, if you think about it, throughout the Gospels, Jesus was frustrated with the Pharisees because they made the disciplines the end goal. They looked at, they wanted to pray, and they wanted the attention of prayer, and they wanted to use big words, and they wanted to pray really loud on the street corner. And Jesus said, no, when you pray, go into your closet. Don't bring attention to yourself. And when they gave and when they fellowshiped, they did it to seek attention. I mean, think of the Sabbath. The pharisees added about 39 extra rules to the Sabbath, so much so that you couldn't tie a knot on the sa. You couldn't light a flame on the Sabbath. The Pharisees actually made it harder for people to get into heaven because they focused so much and took so much pride in the disciplines, using big words and memorizing Scripture and checking things off their list and putting burdens on the people. But the disciplines like study and prayer and fellowship aren't something that we do to take pride in. And they aren't even in the end goal. They prepare us, they strengthen us so that we can do something else. I was 12 years old in 1984, and that's when the movie the Karate Kid came out. Any of you remember the Karate Kid? So Pastor Tyler has Star Wars. I have the Karate Kid, all right? And the Karate Kid was a good example of this. You have Daniel LaRusso, who is a boy who's getting bullied, and he goes to his neighbor, a sensei, Mr. Miyagi. And he wants Mr. Miyagi to help him with karate. So Daniel LaRusso asks for help, and Mr. Miyagi says, yeah, sure, I'LL help you. And he takes him into his home, and Daniel starts to paint his fence, and he starts to sand his floor, and he starts to wax his car over and over again. Exercise, discipline, to do Those things that Mr. Miyagi wanted Daniel to do. And Daniel starts getting frustrated. He's like, why am I spending so much time painting fences? I asked you to teach me karate. I'm sanding your floors, and I'm waxing your car. You see, Mr. Miyagi wasn't disciplining and exercising Daniel so that Daniel could be a good painter or a good sander or a good washer and waxer of his car. Mr. Miyagi was training Daniel to be good at karate, to beat Johnny in the Cobra Kai, to impress his girlfriend, Elizabeth Shue. That was the end goal, not the discipline or the exercise. The discipline and the exercise prepared Daniel to do something that he couldn't do. And Mr. Miyagi took him through those exercises. He was training him. So if the end goal isn't prayer, if the end goal isn't study or fellowship or sharing communion, which are all extremely important and essential, what was the fruit or the goal or the byproduct of the devotion of the early church? Well, look back at verse 43. When you look in verse 43, it says, then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done throughout the apostles. Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods, divided them among all as anyone had need, continuing daily with one accord. That word is unity. So in unity, they broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God. So think of the worship. They had favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved. What was the outcome or the fruit of their devotion? The fear of the Lord, the spiritual gifts that God gave them, the unity, the concern for one another, worship, praising God, and then growth, healthy things grow. Sounds like the perfect church. And then we know. Yet we know from other verses in Acts that this church wasn't perfect. But at least they definitely had a picture of what it looked like. They understood what it was that God was asking them to do. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a part of a community of people that feared God more than man? Who wouldn't want to be a part of a community where people are using their gifts to bless one another, to show concern for one another, to care for one another with joy and generosity? That was the fruit of their devotion. They spent time reading God's Word, they spent time fellowshipping and praying. And that gave them what they needed. To be joyful, to be generous, to care for one another, to consider one another above themselves, to be humble. And that's a church that glorifies God, and that's a church that grows. The goal is to bear fruit. And so when we are lacking fruit, when we're not using our gifts to help one another, when we're not forgiving one another, when we're not caring for one another, when we're not humble, when we're not generous, that should be a signal that we need more of God's Word, a signal that we need more worship, more fellowship, more prayer. We need more exercise. We need to build up our strength. We need more faith when we struggle to forgive, when we struggle to love like Jesus did. The challenge is, I must need more prayer, more study of His Word, more encouragement from His Word, more fellowship with other believers so that I can bear fruit, so I can love like him, forgive like him, care like him, share like Him. The lesson of the early church is that they devoted themselves to the disciplines that gave them the ability to do things that when was not in their nature to do, they did the things that they could do. They devoted themselves to the things that they could do, and that gave them the ability to do things that they couldn't do. Supernatural strength, to be more like Jesus. See, it's not in our natural strength to forgive, to love our enemy, to be generous with what is ours. And so when they devoted themselves to the disciplines that gave them the ability to do things that were not in their nature to do, to be like Jesus, to forgive and serve and represent him well as his followers. It's simple, right? And I want it to be simple. I want it to be clear. I want it to be so clear that we can understand it, to say they devoted them themselves to these things so that they could bear fruit and be like Jesus. So I want to simplify it, but I understand that it's not easy. I understand that things get in the way. We want to be like Jesus. We want to be more like him, and we devote ourselves to the disciplines and we exercise, and still things get in the way. And so before we go, I want to mention two things that get in the way from our goal, because I don't want us to be surprised when we struggle. I don't want us to be surprised when it's not easy. So two things that get in the way and the first one is suffering. Suffering can get in the way of us being more like Jesus. It's difficult to focus on others when you're hurting. When you're in pain, the attention turns inward, and we naturally focus more on our own healing. I mean, think of the suffering that we endure in this life. I mean, we're between the Garden of Eden and heaven. And Jesus said, in this world you will suffer. And think about the chronic pain and the depression, the illnesses, the diseases, the traumatic events like death or divorce or loss. In this world, we will suffer. And when we suffer, we have the tendency to assume that God isn't with us, that God doesn't care about us, that God doesn't love us. It's hard to believe that his promises are true. In the midst of suffering, it's hard to believe that he's there. So we have doubts, we get confused. Our faith can waver. We feel weakened by the heat, by the wind, by the storms. And it's hard to feel his presence and trust his promises when we're in pain. John the Baptist doubted, The disciples doubted, the prophet Elijah doubted. And that's one of the reasons why studying God's Word is so important. Because we see men and women of faith who struggled, and yet God was faithful. We read of Joseph and his brothers, and Joseph was in jail for a crime that he didn't commit. And the Bible says God was with him in the midst of his trial. And not only God's Word, we have communion to be reminded of his sacrifice for us and prayer to simply ask God for help. And then imagine being part of a church body that loves you when you're suffering and encourages you, has compassion for you, comforts you. Fellowship is important when we're suffering. But most of us understand when we're suffering. Oftentimes we don't want fellowship. That's why oftentimes suffering can get in the way. Cause when we're suffering, a lot of times we want to be alone. A lot of times we don't want to interact with other people. We don't want to see other people when we're suffering. And so sometimes we feel too alone or we feel too hurt to participate. We feel like we don't have anything to offer, to be a part of a group. Jesus said, in this life, we will have trouble. But take heart, he has overcome the world. Difficult seasons can weaken our faith if we allow them to. But it's in those seasons that it's so important to remember that God is faithful. Remember, it's Jesus loves me, this I know it's not. Jesus loves me, this I feel. It's so important in those times that we remember that God is good, that God is faithful, and we need other people, and we need the fellowship, and we need prayer, and we need God's word to remember so that we can rely on him in our weakness. Don't let suffering interfere with your devotion. The next thing that gets in the way is our selfishness. We don't need to take a course on selfishness. We don't need a teaching on selfishness. We don't need a devotional on selfishness. It's just in our nature. It's in our nature to look out for number one. It comes naturally. You've heard the saying, I looked in your cup to see if you had enough. You looked in mine to see if I had more than you. And that made all the difference. It's in our nature to wonder if others have more than us. It's in our nature to be selfish. And yet Jesus said, if anyone comes after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. What does it look like to follow Jesus? Looks like selflessness. It's the total opposite of what's in our nature. Selflessness is deciding to follow Jesus even when it doesn't make sense, even when it hurts, even when it costs us something. But instead, our human nature is to lie or steal or be greedy, to be bitter, to be prideful. Our human nature reveals our selfishness. Thinking that we know best, we can take matters into our own hands and do things on our own. Selfishness gets in the way of our devotion, and it can keep our focus and attention on ourselves. The disciplines strengthen our faith and keep our focus and attention on God. Can we all understand? By studying God's Word, by sharing communion, by fellowshipping with other believers, by prayer, it can strengthen our faith and keep our focus and attention on God instead of ourselves. If we're devoted to His Word, fellowship, communion and prayer, we have the strength from above to do things we wouldn't normally be able to do. It's not in our nature to forgive and to love and to share and encourage and to bless one another. It's selfless. But by doing so, when we are selfless, God gets the glory and then others will come to know him just like we did, because healthy things grow. Amen. Let's pray. God, we thank you for today where we can be reminded of these disciplines. God, we want to be that tree that's so devoted to you and has its roots by the stream. That tree that can bear fruit even in the heat and the storms. God, we want you to be honored. And we want others to come to know you. But, God. To do so, we need your help. We are weak. We suffer. We're selfish. And so we ask for your help so that we can do things that aren't in our nature. Help us to be the church that you're calling us to be. And, God, thank you from your word for giving us a clear picture of what that looks like. In your name we pray. Amen.