Last week we saw how the unstoppable ministry of Jesus continued by the power of the Spirit through the witness of His people.   We studied the first forty two verses of Acts 2.  The Holy Spirit came in power filling the 120 who gathered to pray and wait for the Spirit.  Then, in the power of the Spirit, Peter proclaimed the Gospel.  In one day 3000 repented and believed.  Consequently, the church was born.

We see in our text today the first activities of the first local church.    Luke takes a moment to just boast about what the Gospel, by the power of the Spirit, produced at Pentecost.  No longer was it just the 120, in the upper room.  It was upwards of 3000 people now living the Christian life together within the context of a local church.  It was upwards of 3000 people intensely committed to the apostles teaching, fellowship and to prayer.

And the fruit was, verse 47, that

…the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

By chapter 4, a short time later, this church grew to 5000 men, which means total membership, including women and children easily exceeded 10,000 people.

This new church served as the base for the Christian mission to the world, beginning with Jerusalem and extending to the uttermost parts of the earth. It is “the mother church” of all local churches.  Early on, it formed the base for the advance of the Gospel in the Jewish world.  The Jerusalem church also played a vital role in establishing the Antioch church, which served as Paul’s mission base to the Gentile-world.

Without God’s work in and through the Jerusalem church, there would have been no Christian mission – would have been no continuing ministry of Jesus.  We’re here because of them.

Transformed by the Gospel and filled with the Spirit, Acts 2:42-47 was the overflow.  Devoted to God and to one another this community of believers radiated the light of the glory of Christ and demonstrated the power of His redemption for people to see.   Many were drawn to the light, saved and added to their number!  By divine design, that’s how the mission advanced then, and is how the mission advances now.

Wherever the gospel has gained a foothold in the world, we see the same thing.   A small group is filled with the Holy Spirit, they proclaim the gospel, others believe – then a community is established, a community where the people devote themselves to the same things we see here in our text today.  The languages change.  The customs differ.  The food varies.  But we always see the same things:  A love of Scripture, an enjoyment of fellowship, and the pursuit of God in prayer.

• If we want to position ourselves as a local church for maximum fruitfulness, we will make it our aim, our goal, our ambition to follow the Jerusalem church’s excellent example in these things.
• If we desire to bear fruit for the gospel, and see growth, we will attempt to model their passionate devotion to the apostles teaching, to fellowship and to prayer.

Those are my three points.

So first…

We will seek to model…

I. Their devotion to the apostles teaching

“…they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching”

Here we see that a zeal for preaching characterized the early church.  They were devoted; they were committed to hearing the Word of God proclaimed by the apostles.  In the original language, the word translated devoted means “to be steadfastly attentive”, “to continue all the time”, “to persevere and not faint”, or “to be in constant readiness for one.”  That was their attitude toward their leaders’ teaching.

Are you in constant readiness for a sermon?   Luke tells us that the fruit of the Spirit’s work was a consuming passion to hear the apostles preach the truths of the gospel.  This should get our attention.  Why was this church so effective?  Why did they bear so much fruit?  Well one reason is-they were eager to hear more of God’s Word, so they could learn and be transformed.

Obviously this wasn’t a group of people casually coming to the Sunday meeting to hear a light, anecdotal talk with interesting stories.  They wanted to be taught the Word of God.  They wanted to learn.  They wanted to hear the Apostles tell them about Jesus, about who he was, and what he did, again and again.

Oh that God’s Spirit would awaken in our hearts that same kind of hunger, that same kind of deep inward longing.  As a congregation I want to commend you.  You have some of this kind of passion.  I say “some” because no one here has said, “Chris, come preach to me any time…any second of the day.”  I haven’t heard that from anyone so far since I’ve been a pastor.  That may reflect the huge difference between my preaching and theirs.  But I have seen in you an excitement, an enthusiasm for the Word of God that is commendable and continues to grow.  I thank God for that!

Both individually and corporately, this is how we will bear maximum fruit: by growing in our devotion to God’s Word; by posturing our hearts to receive from God’s Word each and every Sunday and then applying it throughout the week. 

The second aspect of their example we want to emulate:

II. Their devotion to fellowship

In verse 42, we read they devoted themselves not only to the apostles teaching but also to fellowship.  They continued, steadfastly to pursue fellowship.  They persevered in fellowship.  Luke goes on to note several aspects of their fellowship.

SPENDING TIME TOGETHER MATTERS

Notice first of all that these Christians spent significant amounts of time together.

“And all who believed were together”
“Day by day” they attended the temple together, breaking bread in their homes”

So the early Christians, on a daily basis were in one another’s homes.  Now we might read that and think “Wow.  You mean, people in the church got together every day?”  Yea, that’s right.  Day after day they attended the temple, and they enjoyed a meal together.  Now, for those of you thinking I am about to tell you that you need to hang out with someone else in this church every single day you can relax.  I don’t think the application of this verse is “be in each other’s home on a daily basis.”  That’s not Luke’s point.  His point is not to give an exact prescription for fellowship.  His point is “all who believed were together.” It’s that simple.  They were together!  It wasn’t just each Christian person or Christian family “doing their own thing” then coming to church for a spiritual lecture each week.   They loved each other!

So that’s the principle we need to apply. Each person and each family needs to examine, “how am I, how are we intentionally living the Christian life together with other believers in the local church?”

THIS ISN’T EASY

Real and consistent fellowship is essential to authentic, biblical Christianity.  But it can be difficult for us because of the individualism and self-centeredness of our cultural habits.  In some cultures, biblical fellowship comes more naturally because spending a lot of time with others is woven into a way of life!  But here in the West, we value self-sufficiency.  We don’t want others to interfere with our personal family lives.  “Just leave me alone” right?   “Let me do my own thing.”  “If I need you for anything, I’ll let you know.”

When it comes to relationships, our focus tends to our own individual personal happiness.  Our mindset is “I will embrace you, or tolerate you as long as you contribute to my overall well-being and happiness.” So in our culture when a spouse is no longer fulfilled or gratified in relationship with the other person, the marriage crumbles.  Many shrink from church membership and committed relationships for the same reasons.   When the focus is on what others can do for my happiness, we all end up disappointed.  Our marriages disappoint; our spouses disappoint; our children disappoint; our friends disappoint; our co-workers disappoint; and even our God disappoints!  Inevitably, all relationships disappoint us.

Now contrast that mindset with the interdependency, commitment and sacrificial Christ-like love biblical fellowship requires.  It’s a stark contrast indeed.    Bock explains…

Everything about the Gospels and Acts tells us that God’s people are to take the initiative to show community and serve those around them.  Much in Western culture drives us to an individualism that undercuts this development of community.  We are taught to have things our way and that being able to have our individual needs catered to is how to measure the success of an organization.  In our culture, our individual needs and rights come before any needs of the group.  The biblical picture is not of what someone receives from the church, although one does receive a great deal, but of what one gives and how one contributes to it.  The portrait of the early church in Acts shows that community and the welfare of the group were a priority.  This attitude reflected spiritual maturity and allowed the church to grow.  In the case of this earliest community, the believers’ preaching was matched by their community, making a powerful testimony for their mission.  When the early church said that God cared, the care they gave their own demonstrated this.

…Luke wants to leave no doubt that there is an important connection between community life and the “favor” the community experienced with outsiders.  This kind of engagement has a positive effect on mission.

I share this with you because I want you to understand, devotion to fellowship matters more than we might initially think.  It’s not about who we click with or don’t click with.  It’s not about how much we get out of the Care Group meeting or how little we get out of the Care Group meeting.  And ultimately it’s not even primarily about our own personal sanctification and edification, though that matters.  As our passage shows, there’s much more at stake in how we relate to the church community than each member’s individual happiness.  God has placed us in local church communities for the glory of God and the advance of the Gospel.

That’s why biblical fellowship is so important!  Because where people are devoted to fellowship like the early church, where the focus is on others, there is great love, God is glorified, and there’s power in corporate witness.   We need to remember – The power is not in money or programs or facilities.  The power is not in how many people you can get to walk through the door on a Sunday.  The power is the love of Christ among us; how He is building us together.

So, we have a choice to make.  Either we ride the cultural tide and drift away from biblical community life OR we can resist the tide, swim against the tide and become a powerful NT counter-cultural outpost for the Gospel.  I’m encouraged at how so many of you have so clearly chosen the biblical way.

• This is evident in your commitment to small groups.
• Its evident in how you love, serve and care for one another in a thousand little ways.
• It is evident in the way you refuse to let selfishness or unforgiveness separate you from one another.
• It’s evident in how you meet for fellowship and accountability.  So “its happening!”  God is building a counter-cultural outpost here.

HOSPITALITY MATTERS

Well, another aspect of the early church’s fellowship is that they were devoted to hospitality.

Notice verse 46 that day by day they attended the temple and broke bread where?  In their homes.  Bock comments:

“…so these believers worship and fellowship together in their everyday environments…”
“there is no special sense in the meal here [meaning it’s not the Lord’s supper].  It is only a reference to regular meals.”

People in the early church enjoyed meals together in the homes of church members.  Now this is instructive.  Hospitality played a vital role in the life of early church community.  It was a significant part of their fellowship.  And it is to be a significant part of our fellowship as well.

In 1 Timothy 3, one of the qualifications for an elder is that he must be hospitable.  Why?  Well the elder must be hospitable so that the people are reminded and inspired to be hospitable as well.  That’s how important this virtue is to God.  It’s included in the list of pastoral qualifications.

So a good question for us to ask ourselves is – “is hospitality a way of life for me and my family?”

Hospitality, as an aspect of fellowship, is a discipline, so we need to plan for it.  Becoming hospitable as a way of life doesn’t happen automatically – or necessarily easily. Having people over requires some measure of preparation.  And if you have small children, that becomes more difficult, but as a father of four small children let me say – it’s not impossible.  My wife Fibia is really an amazing example in this area.  Without question, the significant sacrifices she’s made to show hospitality countless times over the past five years has played a vital role in establishing this church.  Of course others have sacrificed as well to show hospitality, and for that I am grateful.

So when it comes to showing hospitality, here’s my counsel: Plan for it, budget for it, and go for it.

GENEROSITY MATTERS

Another aspect of the early church’s fellowship is they were generous to one another.  Verse 44 says they “had all things in common.”  In vs.45 we read

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all,
as any had need. “

Now that’s generosity: Selling what you already own to meet the needs of others!  These people went out of their way to show kindness and generosity to one another.  They inconvenienced themselves.  They sacrificed without a hidden personal agenda.  This too contradicts the prevailing cultural mentality

In the world around us there is a kind of stingy “tit for tat” “quid pro quo” “nickel and dime”” you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality that has absolutely no place in the church of Jesus Christ.  When we hear of a need, we should pray and ask God if he would have us to meet that need in some way.  We should look for opportunities to be generous to one another, even in small ways and expect absolutely nothing in return.  We should give without expecting to receive.  We should budget to be generous, plan to be generous, and then actually be generous.

I remember when growing up, our family of five didn’t have a big enough vehicle to comfortably travel from Pennsylvania to Vermont on vacation.  We would have been absolutely crammed for a 9 hour trip both ways.  I remember having conversations about what the trip was going to be like – Me, my brother and my sister essentially sitting in each others laps in the back seat.  Let me tell you, as teenage kids we weren’t looking forward to that.

Well, one Sunday after church, my Dad was talking to his friend Bill Isabell.  I was there, standing next to my Dad.  During the conversion Dad happened to mention we were going on vacation. And Bill, perceptive to our situation, mercifully insisted that we borrow their relatively new 12 passenger luxury van.  The thing, back in the day, had a TV in it.  My Dad, not wanting to take advantage of his friend’s generosity, tried to decline.  But Bill wouldn’t have it.  He insisted, in a masculine way saying that it’d hurt his feelings if we refused.  So my Dad said “fine, you win” (I’m sure he said it nicely).  As Dad and I left church he said, “Now that’s how you offer something to someone”.  It made a real impression on me.  And we enjoyed a great trip.

Folks, you get the feeling that there were a lot of Bill Isabell’s in the Jerusalem local church. They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. It’s no wonder then that day by day, unbelievers were drawn to what they saw.   There was a generous love evident in their midst.

In the same way, as we devote ourselves to fellowship and all it involves – we as a local church will position ourselves for maximum effectiveness.

The third aspect of their example we want to emulate:

III. Their devotion to Prayer

We read that they devoted themselves also to the prayers, meaning they were steadfast in prayer.  They continued in prayer.  They persevered, in prayer.  They were constantly ready to pray.

As part of their praying, they also vs.47, praised the Lord.  Praise is of course a type of prayer – it’s joyfully thanking God and blessing God for his greatness, goodness and grace.

This is a fresh reminder, that if we as a church want to position ourselves for maximum fruitfulness, we must not forget to seek God himself.  This is why several times a year, we schedule corporate prayer meetings.  This is why in Care Group, we often take a few moments to pray.  This is why regularly I preach and teach on prayer.  Why?  Because God invites us, he commands us, to seek him together.

May God help us to grow in our devotion to prayer.  He is the chief object of our desire.   Because we want him, because we long for his help, because we love him, we will pray in private, and as our passage emphasizes, we will pray together.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, the Jerusalem church was devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship and to prayer.    We see in them a profound love of biblical teaching, a rich enjoyment of fellowship, and an intense pursuit of God in prayer.  Luke says that this church enjoyed favor with unbelievers and that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

If we want to position ourselves as a local church for maximum fruitfulness, we will make it our aim to follow the Jerusalem church’s excellent example in these things.

To that end, let’s PRAY together…