Sermon, 2014-05-04, The Acts 2 Church in the Other Words 1 | P a g e

2 weeks ago on Easter, we talked about Acts 2 in the NT where Peter, the guy who had only a short time earlier denied he knew Jesus,

turned courageous and preached the first sermon about Jesus to a huge crowd in Jerusalem.

He told the crowd:Jesus was God’s son.You all killed him on the cross,God raised him from the dead,Now, say you’re sorry.

Last week, Pastor Keith picked up in the text and talked about howAfter He rose again, Jesus ascended into heaven

He was exalted and seated at the right hand of the Father as LordAnd then he poured out his Holy Spirit upon all his followers.

The Holy Spirit rocked their city.3000 people became Christians when they heard Peter’s explanation

And they saw the Spirit’s manifestations.

Today, I want to pick up in that text where it describeswhat happens to the Christians as a result.

It describes the followers of Christ, the new Church,and who they are and what they do since

Jesus died, rose again, ascended to heaven, and poured out his Spirit on them.

This is a familiar text for some of you.But don’t worry, I have a fresh perspective to bring to it today.Acts 2:41-47... Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

So, after that big 3000 day, the author Luke tells us how it went in the following weeks and months.

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This is classically seen as a description of what followers of JCof all time should do as a Church.

Recently, Rick Warren wrote a couple books that extracted 5 purposes for the church and Christian life from this text & example and said Christians should do:

1. Discipleship2. Worship3. Fellowship4. Service5. Evangelism because those five things are in this text.

Today, however, I’d like to look at the other words in the text that describe not just what they do, but how they do it.

And more importantly who they are.

I think maybe more than what they do, it is how they do it that makes these Christ followers remarkable.

I think in this text the describing words might be just as important as the nouns we have focused on in the past.

But 1st, let me tell you about a research study that was done a little more than a decade ago by Christian A. Swartz.

Swartz surveyed over a 1,000 churches of all types and sizesin depth using sound research methodologies.

He wanted to find out what makes a church healthy & growing.

In the book Natural Church Development, his research describes “Eight essential qualities of healthy churches.” They are:1. Empowering leadership2. Gift-oriented ministry3. Passionate spirituality4. Functional structures5. Inspiring worship services6. Holistic small groups7. Need-oriented evangelism8. Loving relationships

Here’s the thing that was interesting and connects with the perspective I’d like to bring to the Acts 2 church –

Swartz says the important factor in each of these qualities, is the 1st word, not the 2nd.

Every church has leadership, some kind of leadership.A healthy church has empowering leadership.

Leadership that let others own ministry and builds others up.

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All churches have some kind of spirituality.The ones that are healthy and growing are those that exhibit

passionate spirituality.

All churches worship in some way.Some places, though, that can be dry, flat, and stale.

The healthy & growing churches have inspiring worship services.

Inspiring. Passionate. Empowering.Loving. Need oriented. Functional.

The key is in the describing words, the adjectives, not the nouns.Not just what they do, but how they do it.

By the way,one other insight from this book was that a church can only be as

healthy and growing as its weakest quality or area from this list.Like a barrel with wood planks, staves,

it can only hold as much water as its shortest plank.

So back to the Acts 2 church. Look with me for the describing words.Not just what they do, but how they do it, and who they are.

First,Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

So, I think we can say,1. Healthy Christ followers are devoted people.

Devoted isn’t what they did, but it describes how they did what they did and who they were.

Devoted here comes from an original language Greek compound word that is literally strength toward.

The word for toward & the word for strong, force, great power together

An equivalent word today would be Swartz’s passion.That’s a strong force toward something.

Are you passionate about exercising, working out, crossfit? Then you’re devoted to it?

Are you a passionate Pen’s fan?That’s devoted.

Are you passionate about good food?That’s devoted.

I need a little more of #1 and a little less of #3.

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They were devoted to the apostles teaching.They had a passion to learn it.They had a passion to live it

What is Apostles teaching?The apostles were the twelve disciples who followed Jesus.

A disciple means a learner.An apostle means a sent one.

So when Jesus told his 12 disciples, “as God sent me, I send you,” he made them his 12 apostles.

Their teaching, the Apostle’s teaching, would have been what they knew about Jesus and what Jesus taught them.

It’s the equivalent of, the same as, our New Test., esp. the Gospels.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this fact is first.I think this is priority one for followers of Christ.Be devoted to learning and living what Jesus taught!

This is the end of our church year.We go May 1 to April 30.

I shared a report at last Sun even’s annual Local Church Conference. In it I celebrated some good things God did among us this year.

I’ve split out our ministry leader reports and financial reports for you if you didn’t come to the LCC.

They are in the lobby on the table. Please take one after the service.

In the report I used this text as an outline for some of those highlightsAnd in there and today,

I assert that we are a church that is devoted to the apostles teachings.

We have faithful teachers.We have groups and classes that are led by faithful teachers

where real disciples of Jesus talk about his life & teachings.We have depth.We do our best to really live it.

We are devoted disciples here at Armbrust Wesleyan Church

and disciple making is our priority #1.

They were also devoted to fellowship and breaking bread and prayer.

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Fellowship here I believe is their worship gatherings and meetings.They were devoted to the times they got together.

They worshipped, learned, had communion and prayedat these gatherings.

Today, it’s all what we do at a church service.They were devoted to it.We need to be devoted to these in our church.

They didn’t just have a little of God’s word, gatherings, and prayer in their lives; they were devoted to these things.

If you are a follower of Christ, you should be too.

Next, the author Luke tells us,Acts 2:43Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

2. Healthy Christ followers are awesome people.

They were filled with awe – awesome people.

I heard a snippet from another preacher a couple weeks ago who said this meant the Acts 2 church worship was exciting!

They had awesome worship gatherings to experience God.

I don’t think that’s what this is saying. This is not necessarily talking about awesome worship.

The word translated awesome hear is more like the experience you get when you look at the Grand Canyon for the first time,

than when your favorite team wins a hockey game. This is jaw drops open awe.

The underlying original Greek word here is phobos.What is phobos? Phobia? Fear.

This awesome has a little fear in it.It’s not just like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time.It’s like standing on the very edge of Grand Canyon for the first time.

That’s what the early church felt when they felt awe.God is real!We see Him unmistakably!

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He is doing amazing things!So, I cannot live my life like he is not real and here.

In the OT and NT people who truly encounter the Living God tremble.

We have enough emotional excitement in Christianity today.What we need more of is reverent awe of the all-powerful Living God!

Next, the author says,Acts 2:44-45All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

3. Healthy Christ followers are generous people.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.They were generous.

As a church we were generous last year.We began our Community Meal which gives a meal on Weds to anyone

Many of you gave to fund that.The funeral dinner team gave $1000 from their fund to that fund.

Last year we helped many people from our community with bills and food and housing crises from our Good Samaritan Fund.

We supported a half dozen missionaries around the world who work to spread the gospel in predominately poor regions.

We supported two local new church start-ups, called church plants.Because as churches get old and die, we need to replace them.And because new churches are the most effective way today

to reach people with the gospel.

We supported our Christian school which is an outreach to our community and an extension of our ministry.

Along with many other smaller special offerings.

As a church we gave nearly $50,000 to support those outside us this year.

Well done Church.

If you gave faithfully from a surplus or from your limited income,Thank you. Well done.

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In Awana this week, Beth was teaching the kids about tithing.Tithing is a biblical concept of giving one tenth of your income to God.

It is a principle of generosity.It is for Christians.Jesus told people they should tithe.

Beth explained tithing with an object lesson.She told them she would give them each a bag of skittles

if they would tithe from it.She explained that each bag had 30 skittles and had them do the math.

The figured they would have to give back 3 skittles.

Every child took the deal ... except one. When he came to get his skittles he looked at her with a face that said,

I do not like this.She asked, “You don’t want to tithe do you?”

He said “No.” So he didn’t take the bag.

Anyone w/ kids knows you don’t have to teach kids how to be selfish. We’re all born that way. We have to teach them to be generous.

Jesus taught us how to be generous.He who was rich became poor for our sake,So that in him we who are poor might become rich.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Cor 9, this is why we should be generous.Because look at how much Christ gave for us.

Next,Acts 2:44-46All the believers were together ... Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together ...4. Healthy Christ followers are together people.

This is the most prominent description of the Acts 2 church.They were together people.They were social. They were connected.

They met together in the temple court yards.That was for prayer, worship singing, and teaching.

They met together in their homes.That was probably for prayer, worship, and teaching too.

But they also added eating together and socializing.

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They did life together, not just church together.That’s what Jesus did with his disciples.

In the Natural Church Development book, Swartz talks about loving relationships being 1 of the 8 essential qualities of a healthy churches.

He says how most churches described themselves as loving. But they found that in the churches that were healthy and growing,

people met for social connections 20% more often.

On average people in static churches met 13 times a month. But in healthy & growing churched the average was 16 times a month.

And the difference in that number were things like:having coffee with someone,eating a meal together,

or having more home groups that did more of life together.

Just like that Encor frozen dinner commercial from a few years back,Where there was too much for the one person.

My wife and I can be there any night at 6pm. And our kids are grown up to the point where

not only won’t they break anything, but they probably won’t come anyway.

Healthy Christians connect more. Invite more. Socialize more.

If you are new & you have not been invited to get together by anyone,please forgive us. We are busy and saturated and stupid.Please be courageous and ask some of us over or out.

If you have been here long enough and you aren’t connecting w/ others shame on you for making me apologize to the new people.They don’t have as many relationships here as you do.

Invite them. Include them. Make sure they are a part of our together.

And everyone get involved in a group or Sunday school class.It’s an open door where friendships are possible.

Healthy Christians are together people.Healthy Christians are devoted people.Healthy Christians are generous people.Healthy Christians are awesome people.

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Next one, Acts 2:46They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.5. Healthy Christ followers are a joyful people.

Glad here comes from a word that is strong.It’s a compound word formed from the words: much and leaping.

Or it could be much gushing up.

This year we had many reasons to leap for joy when several people gave their lives to Christ for the first time.

At Vacation Bible School we all gushed with joy when 50 plus kids came to the cross one night to give their lives to Jesus

and another night when we gave 40 of those kids their first Bibles.

I am so glad inside every time I see someone invite a friend to church or to youth group.

Kathy Ackerman was gushing a couple weeks ago when she brought a van full of family & her daughter Bethany’s friends to a Weds night.She said they didn’t have enough room for all of Bethany’s friends

who wanted to come.Well done Bethany!

And Laci, Kate Fry’s great granddaughter has the same penchant for inviting and bringing friends.

As do others. Well done.

The Easter Egg Hunt was a wonderful event with 250 people attending.And the Easter services with all the singers & band doing so well

were all wonderful reasons for us to be very glad.Well done.

Almost done. Here’s another one from that verse.Acts 2:46They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.6. Healthy Christ followers are a sincere people.

Healthy Christ followers are a people with sincere hearts.The word for sincere comes from a word that could also mean

simple or smooth or plain.It is literally without stones.

Christ followers who are healthy are without stones in their hearts.

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Stones in the NT world were a metaphor for sin or being offended.You do something that gets me mad, it’s like a stone I stumble on. Healthy Christians don’t have grudges or grumbles.

We have no reasons to stumble.

The author here says, the Acts 2 Church were not marked by that,but they certainly had to have issues.

3000 new people came into their group.They had huge logistical challenges.They had preexisting and new conflicts and problems.

It is certain that what is meant here is that when they had problems, conflicts, & offense - they worked them out.

I’d like to do one of those.It’s been brought to my attention that a few of us are concerned

that at our Christian Academy auction a few weeks ago, we did a new kind of raffle type auction for a couple items.

To some, this appeared to be close to gambling.And since gambling can be addicting

and destructive to those who get addicted our church believes that gambling should be avoided.

I agree.Therefore, I apologize to anyone who believed that raffle type

auction was wrong. I agree.

We will not allow those again. No problem.We will be careful not to appear in any way to promote gambling.And we will trust that God can meet our fiscal needs

w/o that kind of fundraiser.

Okay? Smooth? Sincere hearts?

That’s an easy one.But it’s not always easy to get the stones out of our hearts.

If you have one in there, you will be a happier and healthier person and follower of Christ

if you get it out.Let it go, forgive, reconcile.

Not because anyone deserves those things, But because you didn’t deserve all that Christ forgave you for

and all he continues to forgive you for.Healthy Christ followers have sincere, no-stone smooth hearts.

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Last one.Acts 2:47... praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

7. We are an effusive people.

I’m going to use the word effusive in connection with the idea that they were praising God.

Do you know what effusive means?

So speaking of big words, let me squeeze a little joke in here.A person was interviewing for a new job, when the interviewer said,

“Now this is the verbal part of your employment test. Can you tell me what gross aggrandized annuity means?”

“Certainly,” the applicant replied, “it means I don't get the job.”

Can anyone explain what gross aggrandized annuity means? You get the job. :)

Effusive means to be gushing up with praise.To be bubbling over with good words.

Effusive is when you can’t shut someone up about how much they love something.

Sometimes people are effusive when they come out of a great movie.Sometimes they are effusive about their new boyfriend.Sometimes people are effusive about food.

Like, did anyone taste Darryl Brown Jr’s carrot cake from the youth bake sale? People were effusive about it. :)

So, all the good that God was doing among them, they were praising him for it.They were giving him credit.They were thanking him for it.They were giving God the glory for it all.

They were telling people, God is doing this.God is the reason for the healing.God is the reason for our hope.God is the reason we love one another.God is the reason we are generous.

They were effusive with their praise of God, and it was attractive.

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Healthy followers of Christ are willing to give God praise.One final insight. And I love this one!

Praise is a verb “They praised God.” It’s an action.

In the original language that word is ainew

It’s noun form is ainos.As in “they gave God praise.”Ainos is the word for praise when it’s the object, not the action.

Here’s something cool I found: In the original Greek of the NT, ainos can also mean story.

The word for praise is also the word for story.That tells us a little bit more of what praise is and means.

Praise is not as much the action of worship or adoring God,as it is telling who God is and the wonderful things he has done.

That’s how the Acts 2 church praised God.They told people God’s story.They told their story, the wonderful things God was doing among them.

Praise is telling who God is and the wonderful things he has done.

Healthy Christ followers are story of God praise-teller people.In our worship, in our teaching, in our lives,

in our contact with people who don’t believe, we are God’s story telling people.

Some see evangelism, sharing the gospel, in the last line of this chapter:“Then, the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.”

That’s not evangelism.That’s the result of all that they did that made them

Spirit-filled, healthy Christ followers.

And the factor that contributed to their growth and to their fulfilling the Great Commission the most was

that they were praising God story-telling people.

Next week, I am very excited to begin a new sermon series called: Win some.

I have some wonderful ideas about all the waysThe New Testament teaches and models for us how to tell God’s story to those who don’t know it or believe it.

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Please, please be here next week and for this month.This is what God wants for us for the coming year –

That we would become all things to all people in order that we might ... win some.

Today I encourage you to be a Fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Be devoted to his Word.To learn it to live it.

Be devoted to our fellowship times, our gatherings, worship, & prayer. Be devoted to attending church.

Be awesome.Live a life in the proper reverence that God is real and he is near.

Be generous.Learn to live generously.Christ was rich but became poor for you.

Be together.Do life together, not just church. Be social. Invite, include, connect.

Be joyful.Be sincere – smooth hearted, no stones.Be people of praise, effusive for who God is and what he has done.

Then you will be a healthy Christ follower and We will be healthy and growing Acts 2 church for Him.