But you know, some were little people, but this room is full of people that treated us kindly and I have every expectation of that for you and for Whitney and your four wonderful kids. It’s it’s a great day and this is totally unscripted and I won’t take away from the word. This man. I I fell in love with him when I first met him and literally we’ve been together, we’ve talked, we’ve we’ve spent time together and it’s it’s powerful today. Very very personal and powerful and Amen.

I love you, Jason. Love you too. Thank you, brother. Thanks, Steve. Thank you.

Well, the feeling is entirely mutual. We, you know, this is, I mean, just such an amazing place to be. I I’ve been humbled and honored since day one just to to be in your presence, all of you. And thank you, Steve, for being so quick to kind of take me under your wing and and just encourage me as a brother. That’s that’s an awesome gift.

All right, it is Father’s Day. So, we already had the dad stand. I’m not going to make you all stand again. But I thought I’d share a little bit of a a little bit of my history as a father, I guess. This last week was my son Logan’s 10th birthday.

Logan Peter. Yeah. And well, he’s not here to but he’ll he’ll be appreciate that we applauded. Yeah. Really?

We’re applauding Whitney. You’re right. Yeah. But you know, it’s it’s interesting, you know, thinking back 10 years. 10 years goes by in such a blink, doesn’t it?

And and to think I mean I remember I can put myself in that hospital room. I can you know travel back in time as it were and and I can feel all those emotions all over again. And I remember just you know you know seeing him he’s crying and and you know they laid him on this heated table thing and the nurse you know weighed him and and measured his height and he didn’t really appreciate that. And and then they squirted like this little ointment on his eyes and he didn’t really appreciate that either. But then she said, “Okay, why don’t you go ahead and change his diaper or put a diaper on him, I should say.”

And you know, me I I had never touched a diaper in my entire life and I got to figure this thing out. So you know, I somehow managed to jerryrig that thing on and then she bundled him up in a blankie and placed him in my my hands. And I remember just holding him and and feeling that weight of responsibility like this little human feather weight of a baby is depending on me is is depending on us to to raise and care for. And and I just remember that was a a humbling sense, a powerful time. And I can still look back and see that in our passage.

We’re going to be in Acts chapter 2. If you do have your Bibles, go ahead and open to Acts chapter 2. We get this picture of another newborn, the the newborn church. Peter has just preached this Pentecost sermon and the Holy Spirit was poured down mightily on all the people that were there. All these 3,000 people.

Just just picture this for a moment. 3,000 people coming to Christ and they all got baptized. I mean, I I have to think Peter had some help on that day. Can you imagine how sore his arms would be after 3,000 baptisms? Right?

I’m sure the other apostles and others were helping. But I f I think that they felt this sense of responsibility. Here we are. We’ve been commissioned by our Lord and Savior to lead God’s people. Very much like this morning was for me this this weight of responsibility.

Here you are. You are put in this task. Well, Peter was given that same basic charge. And he saw these 3,000 people and you can imagine how overwhelming that could be only God had promised to be with him to to carry him through every step of the way. And we see this new supernatural community we call the church is born.

So if you’re able to please stand for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word, Acts chapter 2, we’re going to see what this newborn church looked like. Acts chapter 2 beginning in verse 42. And this is what the Holy Spirit says through Luke. Verse 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And awe came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Thank you. You may be seated. I don’t know about you, but I am so encouraged by this description of the early church we see here in the book of Acts. I love seeing what it was like at the beginning.

And I love seeing that this is this is what God designed. Really, the Holy Spirit had Luke write this so that every future generation of Christians could look back and say, “This this is what the church is to be.” the simplicity, the devotion, the love, the the exalting of of Jesus, all of that is here. And here’s the big idea I’d like us to see. The church is to be a place of belonging and fellowship for those who come under the authority of the word of God, pray in the spirit of God, and worship as the people of God.

And I’ll say this, every person you meet is looking for a place to belong. Everybody. Everybody wants to to feel like I belong. I’m included. I’m I’m here.

I’m one of you. And really this problem of loneliness that we have in our world, it’s it’s bad. There is an epidemic. People have written about this in the US. There is an epidemic of loneliness.

People feeling isolated. More and more adults would say things like, “I don’t have any close friend. I don’t have anybody who really knows who I am, who knows what I’m going through. Can you imagine going through life, nobody can share your struggles, nobody knows what your life is like. You have nobody that you feel like you can confide in.

More and more adults are saying that. And what they’ll tell you is that the younger the generation, the worse it gets. Gen Z, which is what we call teens and young adults. A a good portion of them consider they’re considered the loneliness the loneliest generation on record. Like loneliness is something that so many people struggle with.

And you’d think like with all the technology and the intercommunications, cell phones, all these things, you would think people would be more connected. And yet the opposite is the reality. I think people haven’t realized how much individualism and and putting yourself at the center and putting everything about you, how much that’s really hurt us. And here we see in Acts two, this is what God designed for his people. Not independence, but interdependence.

That we’re to belong to one another. That there’s to be this shared community. There’s not to be this lone ranger mentality. You know, I’m going to do this on my own. I’m going to live life the best way I see fit.

Nobody’s going to tell me what to do. Nobody’s going to tell me what I should be doing next. This church looked at each other and they loved each other. That’s what you see here. God designed the church to be a supernatural community.

And that’s the thing we need to not we don’t want to take away from this text. This is something that humans engineered as as if this is the the wisdom of humanity coming together and realizing yes, we can all be one great community if we just put our best foot forward and do our best and try harder. That’s not the point of this text. We need to see this in context. The Holy Spirit is the one.

He’s working in the midst of everyone here. So, if you’re taking notes, the church is a fellowship of Christ followers who submit together to the authority of the Bible. The authority of the Bible. Notice what Luke says here. He says in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship.

I love that word devoted. I would ask you to think about this. What are you devoted to? If someone was to look at your life, what would they say? This person is devoted to fill in the blank.

Here we see these things that they’re devoted to. And the first one is the apostles teaching. Now, we don’t have everything that the apostles taught recorded right here in Acts chapter 2. But we know what they were teaching because that’s why we have the rest of the New Testament. The apostles teaching is the New Testament.

Every everything we see unfolded in the rest of scripture. That is the the prophets of God and the the apostles of God putting it into text so we can read it today 2,000 years later. We can know what they taught. Luke is just giving us a highle perspective on what the church looked like. And he says it’s clear that their authority, the thing that they looked for for direction in life, the thing that they looked for for encouragement, what made sense of their world wasn’t Rome or wasn’t the fact that there was an empire overshadowing everything they were doing.

It was that they have been given a gospel. They have been given a teaching from the apostles, those who knew and walked with Jesus. And they submitted to that authority. They submitted. Now today authority has almost become like a bad word.

People hate the thought of living under an authority. And yet what if God designed us to live under a perfect authority? And and if that’s the place where we are going to flourish and that’s the place where we’re going to grow and we’re going to become people that he made us to be, that’s exactly where we want to be. We want to be placed under his authority. You remember in this passage that preceded this, it wasn’t as if all these people just came together randomly.

This is a time when Peter’s just preached a message and he’s called them out. He said, “You crucified the Lord Jesus. You are responsible for his death.” And remember, they said, “Brothers, what shall we do?” They were cut to the heart.

Did Peter say, ‘You know, don’t worry about it. You can go back to living whatever way you want. You know, do do what you feel is best, and the main thing is we just want to break bread together. No, he said, you are to repent, to change your mind about who’s in charge. You’re to come under an authority, the Lord Jesus, the risen King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You’re no longer to see yourself as your own personal Lord and Savior. You’re to come to him. So, we won’t see this as an example of the innate goodness of humanity. Many people say, “Oh, we just need to go back to, you know, this model as if that’s all it takes.” But these three 3,000 people, again, that’s a huge number all in one day.

These 3,000 people underwent this radical conversion. They passed from death to life, from the kingdom of God to the from the kingdom of of darkness, I should say, to the kingdom of God. They were in bondage to sin. They were in captiva. They were captivated to the devil’s schemes and they were set free to live for Jesus.

So, this is a supernatural community. And I’ll say this also, there’s a way to spot a false church. People will say, you know, how do you know if if the church is a false church? Look at how they treat the word of God. Is the Bible seen as a man-made human invention?

Something that’s, you know, great guidelines. There’s some good stuff in here, but you know, take what you will and leave behind what doesn’t suit your fancy. If that is your view of scripture and that’s what’s being proclaimed at a pulpit, that is a false church. Because a true church comes under the authority of scripture. Now, some of you might still be wondering, well, how does the apostles teaching translate to Bible?

And I would put it this way. When Jesus commissioned these 12 apostles, he said, ‘You are going to be my representatives on earth. When I ascend into heaven, you will be leading my church. And he said, “The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.” So what they wrote down represents the authority of Jesus.

And what they wrote down is scripture. And so there’s no such thing as a committed Christ follower who rejects biblical authority. You can’t pick. It’s not Jesus or the Bible. It’s Jesus and the Bible.

You come under the authority of both. If you’re taking notes, the church is a fellowship of Christ followers who pray for one another and the coming of the kingdom. And all through Acts, we’ve seen this already that these people were always praying. They recognized this isn’t about us. It’s not about our power.

We’re not trying to pretend anything here. We are wanting to come to the authority of God. We’re wanting to seek his power and raise up his kingdom. That same verse 42 says, they devoted themselves not just to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, but also to the breaking of bread and to prayer. I think based on the wording, the breaking of bread here is referring to the Lord’s supper.

And that tells us from the very beginning there was this practice this this practice among the body of believers that put the Lord’s sacrifice at the very center and hub of everything they did that they were following Jesus’s commands. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He showed them the cup representing my blood. The the bread represents my body. He said, “Do this.”

Because he wanted them to always understand it’s about his sacrifice. It’s not about what you do to earn God’s favor. It’s about what God has done in and through Jesus to bring you into his fellowship. I think it’s worth taking a moment to define that word fellowship because it’s one of those words I think we use in Christian circles and sometimes we already have an idea about what it means. To some it could mean something like Christians hanging out together, you know, drinking some coffee, eating donuts.

That’s that’s fellowship. And on one level, I would say there’s some truth to that. But I think that the Bible gets at this deeper concept when it uses that word coonia or fellowship. Coonia means shared life together. So it’s not merely what happens when Christians get together.

It’s it’s about what we have the life we have in common. JRR Tolken wrote a book called The Fellowship of the Ring. In that book, it’s a group of very different characters and and they they’re a fellowship because they have this united mission, this goal. They need to destroy that one ring of power. And so, because they they have that similar mission, that common mission, they have a fellowship.

I think that gets a little bit at the idea of what the Bible means by fellowship. But it’s worth looking at a passage in First John 1. If you do have your Bibles, I think this will help us understand because John, the Apostle John, is writing toward the end of his life, he’s writing about what true fellowship among the body of believers looks like. And he’s he roots it in our fellowship with God. 1 John chapter 1 verse three says, “That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us.”

And indeed, our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. So here’s what John is saying. I I’m proclaiming a gospel to you. I’m telling you about how you can have fellowship with us. And it all is rooted in the fact that we have fellowship with the father and his son Jesus Christ.

And so what he’s saying is fellowship coonia is a shared life in Christ. It’s not merely people happening to be in the in the same space and doing things together just because they happen to like the same things. It’s about we all share in the life of Christ. See, this is the amazing thing about the gospel. When you come to Christ, it’s not just that you’re putting your your faith in a set of doctrines or beliefs.

You’re putting your faith in a person. And when you do that, when you put your faith in Jesus, his very life is imparted to you. It becomes like there’s this union, this supernatural union where your soul is knit together with him. And and this this is talked about all through scripture. It’s the union with Christ.

Paul says over and over in Ephesians, you are in Christ. And we see it in other places where he says when Christ who is your life will appear you also will appear with him in glory. So this life this eternal life in Christ is something every believer shares. And that is the deepest foundation for fellowship you can have. Because if the same eternal life, the same life source, the same Holy Spirit, the same God that dwells in me dwells in all of you, that is that is the foundation for unity and fellowship that the world can never have.

No matter how many strategies or how many great plans they have for unity, it will never happen because they don’t have what matters most in common. The church has given all these metaphors in the Bible to help us understand that we are members of one another. We belong to one another. It’s not just that we are under the same authority. We are under the same head and we are all the same a part of the same body members of the same body.

The church is called the the bride of Christ because we all together will one day have final union with Christ. The bridegroom and the new heavens and new earth. The church is called the living stones that together build the spiritual house. You can picture a house and needing all those stones. You can’t have the house if you don’t have all those pieces that build up the house.

The church is called the body of Christ as was mentioned because even though we are individuals on one level, we have our distinct gifting, our distinct personality and role to play. We’re a body. And just as the ear and the eye need each other, the hand and the foot need each other, we all need one another. That’s true of every member of the body. And so when I think about that loneliness that I talked about that people struggle with today, I think this is why this that void that people feel that’s pointing them to their need to be a part of the church.

The church exists to fulfill all those needs of of loneliness. That sense of I need to be a part of a family. I need to belong somewhere. Well, this is the source for all of that. It’s in Christ.

And because of that, the church is also called the family of God. We call another one another brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters because we’re family at the deepest level. Family that that will in all eternity we’re all going to be family. You know, you can imagine like family reunions you know, sometimes they might be a little bit awkward for you.

I don’t know. And sometimes they’re a great experience, but when you have the most important thing in common, this is a family reunion you don’t want to miss. And that’s something we get to experience on the micro level every Sunday and beyond that. And so the church in your notes is a fellowship of Christ followers who worship the risen king and live passionately for his glory. You see that from the beginning it was all about Jesus.

They they preached Jesus. They worshiped Jesus. They sang songs about Jesus. Some of the earliest poems or hymns that we have in the New Testament, they’re the ones that make the most of Jesus. And so he was at the front and center of everything.

Verse 46 says, “And day by day attending the temple together, that’s the larger gathering. And breaking bread in their homes, those are the smaller gatherings. They receive their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” People recognized these people have got something that I want. Having favor with all the people says there’s something attractive about this community.

The the love that they share for one another. We haven’t seen that anywhere else. The power at work in the midst of all the troubles they’re facing. How can they endure suffering the way they do? How do they have such peace even though so much seems to be against them?

The early church was making a dent everywhere it went. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. And I just love that description there. And in many ways we can temp be tempted to read this passage and think, you know, that sounds too good to be true. You know, when has a church done all of those things so well?

And people will often say that. They’ll say, you know, how can we get back to the early church? That’s what we really need to do. Well, in a couple chapters, you find out there’s this couple named Ananas and Safh. You know, they were a greedy couple.

They lied to God. They ended up dead. Okay. So, don’t have too an idealistic picture of the early church. They had their problems too.

But we do see in Acts two, this is something where we’re called to look at this and I think better than asking the question, why can’t the church be like this today? I think even better would be, do I see the church the way Jesus does? Jesus is willing to call the church his bride, his body like that. I don’t know how you can claim the church more than saying those kinds of things. He he stakes his name, his reputation on belonging to us and us belonging to him.

And the question is, do we see the church that way? Do we have that valuable a view of the church? The other thing I’d ask myself is, am I as passionate about the church and the same things the church is in this chapter? Am I as passionate about those things that they clearly were passionate about? The love for God, the worship of Jesus, and the love for one another.

Verse 43, love this description. And awe came upon every soul. They were just filled with wonder. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. Many of you have a copy of that book I am a church member by Tom Rener. Great book. And one of the things I really like about that book is it says, you know, there’s two mindsets that people can have when they go to church. They could be thinking as a consumer or they can think as a contributor.

And I think many times because the world says you’re a consumer, we’re going to sell you all these things. We get to thinking as consumers, but in scripture it’s clear that we are called to be contributors in the church. I think Graceoint does a amazing job of being so eager to contribute. This early church looked around and said things like, “How can we meet the needs of those who are hurting? How can we give?

H how much should we give? How do I serve? Who can I pray for? How can I build up and strengthen the body of Christ?” These are the questions they were asking.

Some people have tried to read communism, if you can believe it, out of this passage, because it says they shared all things in common. I’ll just say this, that’s ridiculous. I don’t care where you’re at on the political spectrum. That is not communism. Th this is not about some great human or government program being worked out.

And see, this is what people often just don’t understand. This is supernatural. This is something where it’s because the Holy Spirit has invaded their midst. He’s radically changed all of them. They have come to Christ.

That’s the difference. This is what happens when people are transformed by the living God. And this is what happens when Jesus rises from the dead. None of this makes sense unless the resurrected Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on his people. So Peter didn’t have to shoulder the burden of suddenly caring for 3,000 people.

You just think about that. He couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be possible. This is what happens though when the body of Christ functions as God designed. He He doesn’t have to do it all because everyone is taken care of.

That’s the idea. And when you leave out the resurrected Jesus, nothing here makes sense. Peter didn’t have to, you know, quickly come up with a bunch of laws and codes. This is how we’re going to live now, guys, and train all them. They just knew because they were taught by God.

So, this is a reminder that when you repent and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. You’re made new and you’re no longer the same person. You’re utterly transformed. Jesus said, “A a tree is known by its fruit. You will be known, in other words, by where your root is.

Whatever you’re rooted in, it’ll show up in the fruit. It’s a new tree.” Again, verse 47 says, ‘ And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. The people who witnessed the early church, the way they were caring for one another, they they got closer. And the closer they got, they were drawn in by the love.

They heard the message of Jesus. They recognized, “I’m a sinner. I I’ve blown it. I’ve I’ve done so many things that I regret.” And there is a savior they’re talking about who’s alive, who is a merciful king, one who’s who’s not going to destroy me.

If I come humbly to him, he will welcome me. He will say, “You’re mine. You belong here.” And life in this world can be very hard at times. Amen.

And yet, if we know what the church is to be about, we can see that without the church, life would be so much harder. God gave us the church so that we would have this this place where we could be encouraged, built up, and recognize there are resources available. As we function as a family, we can endure hardship together. I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve been built up and strengthened by a Christian brother or sister coming along and and praying for me or encouraging me, counseling me, and it was at a time that I needed. And I just think if I if I wasn’t known, if they didn’t know who I was or if they didn’t know what was going on in my life, that wouldn’t have happened.

You need to be in community for people to know what you’re going through and to have that shared life, that coinia. So, are you thankful for your brothers and sisters in Christ? It’s such a gift. People outside looking in would would say, “This is something I want to be a part of. I want to have that kind of fellowship.”

Dietrich Bonhaofer underscored this in his book, Life Together. He said, ‘It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brothers and sisters. See, Bonhaofer got it. He didn’t take the church for granted. He He was at this time when he wrote that he was with his fellow believers, but later on he would have to endure months in isolation, in prison before being eventually executed by the Nazis.

But he understood back when he was in that community of other believers, this is a gift. We we need to recognize how good God is to give us the church. So finally in your notes, the church is a fellowship of Christ followers who love, care for, and accept one another as Jesus has loved, cared for, and accepted each of us. One thing you notice about the New Testament is that it’s filled with all these one another passages. You know, encourage one another, pray for one another, and on and on.

And the obvious conclusion is that if people aren’t in community, if if the church is not where you are known and and where you know others, you can’t really obey those commands. They just sit there and you can’t do anything about it because there’s no one anothers with your community. So, I’m just going to read some of these one anothers we find in scripture. And this will this will just be a portion of them, a sampling, but this will give you a flavor for how God has designed the church. A new command I give you.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Instruct one another. The members should have the same concern for one another. Serve one another humbly in love. Carry one another’s burdens. Be kind and compassionate to one another.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Do not lie to one another. Encourage one another. Always pursue what is good for one another. Motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Dear friends, let us love one another because love is from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Now, that’s just a small portion, but we see that God designed us for this one another life.

This this interdependence not independence because we are here first to exalt Jesus but also to help one another grow more like Jesus. I can’t do it on my own and you can’t do it on your own. We all need one another for that great task. So as we as we do these one anothers this is how the body of Christ grows and flourishes and makes an impact in the world. I’ll close with this question.

How do the one anothers of scripture shape your commitment to the church? Let’s pray together. Gracious father, once again, humbled and in awe of who you are. I thank you that you have given us this gift of the church. This is something supernatural.

Lord, help us to recognize by the power of your Holy Spirit, we can obey and live out these one anothers that we live under the command of a king. We live under his authority. We’re here to lift him up, exalt his name. And Father, as as there’s people in our midst, maybe even some here today who are sensing the sting of loneliness, I pray that we would be the hands and feet of Christ. That we would reach out to one another.

That we would reach

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,569 words.