We Are the Church

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Acts chapter 2. And I want to begin in acts chapter 2, and we will begin together in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.

4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Now, thats the picture of pentecost or what we call sometimes, the upper room experience. Jesus ascends into heaven, the people were gathered in one place, the upper room praying and worshipping, and the Spirit came and filled the room, and filled the people. Now, watch what happens. Look down to verse 14..

14 Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. So, after the Spirit filled the people in the upper room, Peter stands up with the eleven, and proclaims the gospel.

Over the next few verses from verse 15 to verse 36, Peter stands up by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and gives a message pointing people to the Old Testament, and he shows them that they are not drunk but filled with the Spirit of God. Which was a prophecy that the people were waiting to be fulfilled. But it wasn’t the only prophecy.. they have also been waiting for the Messiah as well.

So, Peter, points them to the resurrection of Jesus. He’s like, King David is dead and buried, but Jesus has been raised to life, and now sits at the right hand of God. And when we get to verse 37, he gives a call to repentance. What was the response of the people from hearing the gospel? Well, in verse 37, it says, they people were pierced to the heart. Right..

so this message that Peter is giving is landing on the hearts of the people in such a way that it moves them to ask the question, what should we do? So, How do the people respond? Look with me down in verse 41.. 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. One moment.. with one Spirit, with 120 people but one person stands up with 11 others standing top with him to support him and proclaims the gospel to a large group of people and within that group,3,000 souls were baptized and saved that day.

Now you have a large church. Lets see what happens to these people. Look with me in verse 42, They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Very simply.. this Scripture is such a beautiful example of biblical discipleship. They were devoted to the teaching… to fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. Everything you need to be a disciple of Jesus is right here.

Now, before we get into the meat of the message today, I want to take another journey over to Acts chapter 13. And I want to read verses 1-4… So, chapter 14 in the book of acts and then look with me in verses 1 through 4. Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

2 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off. My aim today isn’t to show you a road map on how to grow the local church. My goal, today is aimed toward being and making disciples together and being on mission together.

That’s my goal, today. If we’re doing this—if we’re making disciples and leading more and more people to know and follow Jesus—then we will inevitably multiply as a church. And I want to be very careful about this.. because hear what I am saying, Because I’m not saying I don’t want the church to grow. I want that. Theres not a pastor in the world that would go, Oh God.. I hope you don’t bring us more people.

Stop bringing in people. But our culture is very numbers driven. And in the culture that more is better, or bigger is better when it comes to numbers, we can, get caught up in how many people come to the services and events. And we can look at How many people participate. How many for this and how many for that. And I think we can very easily get discouraged when the numbers don’t match our expectations.

So, what can we learn about being the church today… So first of all… Lets begin with this truth… The Spirt of God gathers people together. God is always drawing people together. Just like today. I don’t believe you’re here by accident. I believe you are here because the Spirit has lead you to be here this morning, or has lead you to listen in online. Maybe its to repent. Maybe its to hear this message of being a part of the family of God?

Maybe its to be loved and to know you’re wanted in this family. Regardless of your failures, regardless of your physical limitations.… regardless of what sin holds you back… this is a place where rich in grace where God will do amazing things to a heart that would surrender to Him. Maybe it’s to be a discipled deeper to fulfill a calling on your life. Whatever it is.. I am sure, by faith the Spirit is laying it on your heart right now.

But heres the question, how are you going to respond to whatever the Spirit is saying to your heart? All throughout the Bible, and even in the midst of our scriptures today, like in acts chapter 2 where we actually see many different kinds of people gathering. First, the Spirit gathered the disciples in the upper room. Verse 1 of chapter 2 says, they were gathered together in one place. So the Spirit is drawing people together.

Think for a moment, In chapter two verse 6, where the Bible says, When this sound occurred, the crowd came together. And you have two kinds of people in this crowd…. You have people who are devout from all over the world, and also you have undevout people in this crowd as well. Right.. those we could say that are unbelievers. Because when you get down to verse 12, you find some were astonished, and some sneered.

But the fact still remains, the Spirit was drawing people together form all walks of life. Have you ever noticed, that in the new testament, some of the great things God does, he does when he drew people together. I mean get this picture using your imagination, of Jesus walking down the road…He’s leading the disciples. Right.. Where Jesus goes they follow. Like every time I read any story in the gospels, and it’s Jesus leading and the disciples following, each time I read this, I go, this is such Great example of what the leading of the Holy Spirit is like.

That’s what I see… men and women drawn together on Christ, following Christ. And it’s the same for men and woman drawn together in Christ. To be the body of Christ. With the Spirit of Christ within them. People are being led by the Spirit. And heres the thing.. The Spirit of God, is always going to lead you to seek to do the Will of the Father. And sometimes its tough…

Right? How do we know its tough.. we’ll life is hard. Jesus said, in this world there will be trouble… and just think.. Jesus knew this first hand. Because the The Fathers Will led Jesus to the cross. But his disciples didn’t follow. I think sometimes, Even in the midst of our failures while following Jesus or being led by the Spirit, the good news for many of us, is that Jesus didn’t leave to walk alone.

He didn’t discard us. Just like in the gospels, and after the resurrection, Jesus comes back to bring those who were scattered by failure back together. When Jesus was resurrected, what did he do.. he didn’t leave his sheep scattered, but he drew them together. He heals their hearts. The Emmaus road.. he goes after them, points them to himself, they have a heart of worship restored within them, they break bread, and they return to the group…

can you imagine… some of them almost missed this moment of the outpouring of the holy Spirit. Like, when I read acts 2, I’m encouraged because, the fact that this same Holy Spirit who did this on that day is the same Holy Spirit who lives in you and me today. Just let that soak in. The Holy Spirit who came down at Pentecost dwells in every single follower of Jesus.

And it all began because the Spirit has been drawing people to be in one place together with others. I can look to you and you can look to me and we can go… were here because God has drawn us together. Different people with different lives, all coming to one place to dwell in the presence of God, together. I wish God’s people all over the world would see Sunday mornings as more than just coming to a church service…

but as a moment in our week, that is a holy moment where the people of God are seeking and treasuring the presence of God, together. How awesome would that be… treasuring God together. I remember, just last year at this time where we had our three days of revival, and we had a filled sanctuary. And I sat back at the sound booth with this on my heart, the people of God, were gathering and treasuring Christ together.

People from all different walks of life, people who loved different styles of music, all gathering together, to treasure Christ. And in the midst of this gathering, we had burning hearts and we had some people who didn’t know Christ. And I believe with all of my heart, that they were led to the church to hear the gospel, and make a response. Because the second truth about being drawn together is that the Spirit is seeking a response.

In our Scripture, the first response was what? People were astounded, perplexed and some sneered. And since were talking about, we are the church.. how did the people respond when the gospel was preached by Peter… they were cut to the heart, and responded with, “What shall we do”… and Peter says, repent. I always loved this moment.. because repenting meant that forgiveness was coming. It meant that there was going to be a place where the soil was rich in grace, and love and where there is forgiveness, there is unity.

I’m a firm believer that most division is due to a lack of forgiveness. But there needs to be a response. So Peter says to this crowd, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And with every response, there is a reaction… For some, those that sneered, perhaps they left that day witnessing the Spirit move, but rejecting the gospel.

Such a sad moment if that is true… but then there were 3,000 people that heard and responded. And what we can gather from this moment is the church in it purist form. Think about how beautiful a new born baby is. In its purest form. Adorable, and moldable, and teachable. Here in acts 2:42. Right.. you now have almost 3,000 new Christians. It means we get to see, in the midst of acts 2 what it means to be a new believer in its purist form.

This is a picture of a church before it had the opportunity to be affected in any way by the sinfulness of people. And it doesn’t take long for sin to come into the church. In acts 5, we witness self-seeking and self-service and dishonesty on the part of Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts 6, we find people who were murmuring and complaining. In acts 8, we can see bribery and a person wanting the Holy Spirit to glorify himself.

But right here, in acts 2, is such a beautiful newborn church. And we ask the question, where do we go from here? Well, these new christians invested in the body of Christ. These christians in their purest form did four things… First, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Secondly, they did life together. You may have heard this word before… it’s the word “koinonia.” It means “association with, participation with, partnership in or sharing in.” What were they partnering in or sharing in?

One, is authentic worship. And this wasn't just any worship.. but worship the sprung from a heart that was redeemed. Sacrificial giving was another. Its here where the Bible says, they were selling off property and houses and land to make sure everyone in the congregation is taken care of. And let me just say, before I move on.. this isn’t a communist thing.. like, hey, church, go sell your property and bring it to the church.

This was not a sell everything you’ve got and give it to the church kind of deal. They weren’t being forced to sell. But the point of a sacrificial giving and generous heart was to make sure everyone within your church was cared for. This was a group of people that was so committed to one another that they were willing to leverage everything they had in order to supply the need of someone else who didn’t have anything.

And so, heres the thing… they were constantly assessing the needs of others. The Bible says here, they had a genersou heart. Do you know what that means? This is the only time it’s used in the New Testament. It’s used nowhere else. Do you know what it means? It means… “Free of rocks.” Like when it comes to authentic worship and caring fro each other, generous hearts meant that they were free of rocks.

They were bent on worship in gratitude to God and it gave them generosity. Generosity poured out from a heart of worship. It compelled them to say, “I want to come together and put that together with the rest of these people and exalt the Lord.” That’s why we come and we do this. That’s why we play instruments and sing songs and pray prayers. We come praising God and we do it with hearts that are bent on worship.

And we combine those with the hearts of other people who are bent on worship as well because our God deserves it. Thirdly, they took Communion together. And fourthly, they prayed. Theres so much I can talk about prayer and communion. But in these moments being devoted to, the teaching, the generosity, communion and prayer, they were four emphasis to grow as a disciple. And here is where I want to bring us towards our closing…

theres a maturing process that takes place for the believer who’s devoted to these four things., because there’s a calling on your life to be on mission for God. Listen, a christian wont be on mission for God if they do not make much of the local gathering. Because with all of my heart, I believe that God gathers people to send them out. And when they are sent, they return to the local church and give an account to what God has done.

That why I chose acts 13… Because in acts 13 we see this pattern of the local church… It says, in verse 1 of chapter 13 that there were prophets and teachers. That means these people were gathering around the word of God, they were being taught. We see over and over again this one foundation in the church: The Word of God is proclaimed and taught. The church was not built by man, but through the word.

They are gathering around the word. Then in verse 2, it says, they were worshipping and fasting. Within this worship, I believe there is generosity, and authentic worship from a heart that wants to know God more, but even in the midst of this word worship, theres without a doubt communion and praying happening. They were yearning for God’s will together. And heres the beauty, they ended up laying hands on Barnabas and Paul, and sending their best people out form among them.

Verse 3 says, they “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” What if… this growth we so desire within the church wasn’t in adding more programs, or more attractional things into the setting of the local church… what if, we put an emphasis on, Devoting ourselves to the teaching of the word of God, loving one another, communion and prayer as the holy Spirit draws people in to hear the gospel…

What if ,the success of a church is not determined by how many people come into a building, but by how many people leave that building to take on the world with the gospel? And we witnessed pentecost happening in living rooms and coffee shops all over our community and the world? What if the most important metric in a church is not how many seats we can fill to capacity, but its sending capacity?

What if we became a missional church, living on mission right here where we are. What if, every Sunday we gathered together, and left here with Matthew 28:19-20 on our hearts. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I guess the what if would depend *