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Bryan Howard explores Acts 2:42–47 and calls The Vue to faithful community with God, fellow believers, and those who need the gospel.
Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry
Amen. Hey, can y'all give it up for Owen and the band again? Hey, I really do mean this. I'm probably gonna say it every week, but y'all are phenomenal. Like seriously, what a privilege it is to be led by y'all. Y'all do such a good job just leading us to the throne and getting out of the way. And so for that, we're really thankful. For those who have been not here for the past couple of weeks, you're probably like, who's this guy? I'm Brian. So I'm your new pastor. I'm really excited to be here. My wife, Kendall, is right over there. She's super cool, way cooler than me, so go talk to her instead of me. But if you're a guest, Chris said this in the beginning, we really wanna know you. Since I'm super new, all of you kind of look like guests. I'm not gonna lie, I'm still learning your names. And so if you're a guest, if we haven't met yet, would you please come talk to me? I really do wanna meet you. Like Chris was saying, that's the whole reason the Lord called us into ministry, is to get to know you. It's not to get up on this stage. It's not to preach God's words. It's to see y'all and to walk alongside you in this season of life and watch you be shaped into the image of God. And so if this is your first time, if this is your 10th time and we just haven't met, please come say hi. I'd love to meet you. Okay, tonight we are going to be in Acts chapter two. So I'm excited for tonight. I might talk a little longer than I did. I normally, I promise, I'm normally around 20, 25 minutes and we're outta here, okay? Tonight might be like 30, so maybe just buckle up a little bit. But I'm really excited for tonight because tonight we're gonna do some vision casting. Last week was my first sermon to y'all and it felt, it just didn't feel right to get up here on the first week and do some vision casting. It felt like we really needed to start with Jesus. We really needed to start with Jesus. So last week we looked at the passes where Christ describes himself. We worship a Jesus through his first and foremost, gentle and lowly. We worship a God who humbles himself to make himself accessible to you and I. And if that is who Christ is, now tonight we can talk about who we should be. So if you have your Bibles, open up to Acts chapter two. And as you're turning there, I want you guys to be thinking of over the next couple months and the years, this ministry has looked different and it will continue to look different. Our Thursday nights will probably look different, Sunday mornings will look different and the weekdays will look different. And so the method of ministry, that's continually changing. But the mission of ministry, it is always the same. It is always the same. So tonight I really wanna paint a picture of what a faithful ministry looks like. I want us to see the target that I think scripture paints for us as we aim to establish what the view is gonna look like for decades and decades to come. So Acts chapter two, it is an awesome passage. It's a passage you've probably heard. It's very common. But this is a passage describing the early church. This is the church in the purest form. And you guys know this, but Acts, it is descriptive, not prescriptive. Meaning it is saying what happened. It's not necessarily saying we should do all these things. And so you're gonna see everyone selling all their possessions and giving away everything. You don't have to do that, it might be good. But this is more descriptive and there's a lot of really helpful and really strong biblical principles that we can take away from what a faithful ministry looks like. So read with me, Acts chapter two, starting in verse 42. It says, and they, the early church, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and to breaking 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 all the proceeds to all as they 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. First thing I want you to see, that a faithful ministry, first and foremost, has community with God. First and foremost, a faithful ministry has community with God. We see it in that very first verse. Verse 42, it says, and they devoted themselves to the what? To the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So we're gonna come back to the fellowship and the breaking of bread, but I really wanna focus on, for this first point, the apostles' teaching and prayer. So let's start with the apostles' teaching. What does that word apostle mean? It's different than disciple. You guys know this. But disciples, they were disciples, or apostles were disciples of Jesus. They weren't just any disciples, they were the disciples, right? So an apostle was a man who was called by Jesus, from Jesus, in the flesh. Does that make sense? So for all of us in the room who have surrendered our lives to Christ, we are disciples of Jesus. That just means follower. You're a follower of Jesus. I am a disciple of Jesus. You know what none of us in the room can claim? None of us are apostles. Not any of us. If anyone in today's world tries to claim to be an apostle, it's false. It's not real. We can't say that. And this is actually the very point that when you're reading Paul's letters, there's some scandal, because he claims to be an apostle. He has to defend his apostolic authority. Why? Because if you remember part of Jesus' ministry, when Jesus was in the ministry, Paul was not following him. He was a little busy being a Pharisee and viciously hunting down Christians, right? But if you remember his conversion story, the Lord risen does appear to him and blinds him and calls him to follow him and says that he will be his chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. So Paul can absolutely claim the authority of an apostle. All that to say, an apostle of Christ, it is of divine authority. The word apostle literally means to be called, to be called by. And if you're an apostle of Christ, you are called by Christ. So in Acts 2, when it says that the church devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings, these were not just any teachings. These were the teachings of Christ through those who were with Christ in the flesh. So today we would call the apostles' teaching the New Testament, right? In other words, the church devoted themselves to the Bible, to God's word. And this is so important. I don't want you to miss this. The very first thing the church devoted themselves to was this book. It's important. Guys, any other dyslexic, you don't have to actually raise your hand. I'm dyslexic, let me just say that. And I hate reading, it's the worst. And God called me to read a book in front of people. How fun is that? But this book is important. I wish God made an audio book. I wish God would write me letters or something different. He chose a old, old book to talk to us. That's so unique. There's no other relationship we have in this world that is like that, that we have to read a book to hear from somebody. But God reveals his character and his heart through his word. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 16, it says that through the Holy Spirit and scripture, we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. That when we read God's word and we hear God's word, we are syncing our hearts and our minds with the heart and the mind of Christ. How incredible is that? That he does that through a book. 2 Timothy chapter three, Paul was speaking to Timothy and he says this. But as for you, continue in what you've learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from your childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings. That was the Old Testament then. Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be what? Complete, equipped for every good work. So the church devoted themselves to the Bible because it makes non-believers wise for salvation and it makes believers complete, equipped for every good work. Now, remember in the beginning, they didn't just devote themselves to reading the Bible, they also devoted themselves to prayer. Why those two things? Why the Bible and prayer? Why are those so important? Well, if you just think practically, like how do you get to know somebody? Do you like just look at them or you just like research about them? No, like you talk to them. To have a relationship, it requires that you actually talk to somebody and they talk back to you, right? You can listen to people, you can hear stories about people, but you don't really know them. To know someone, you actually have to have a conversation. There has to be two sides to it, right? I think if you're on a date, anyone dating right now? Ah, you should raise your hand. I know you are dating. We talked earlier. Anyway, I won't embarrass you. But think about if you're on a date and you're really trying to get the conversation going and that person just won't talk. Do you think there's gonna be a date number two? Absolutely not. Like, do you know how awkward that would be? That would be so awkward. That's not a relationship. There's no conversation happening. There's no community being built between you two. And for so many of us, that describes our spiritual life. It describes our spiritual life that we either only read the Bible and we only listen to sermons about the Bible, but we have.
We have no prayer life, or we have a really deep prayer life, but we don't like reading this book. It's really boring to us. Friends, that is not a relationship with God. A relationship requires two parties. It requires a conversation back and forth. And do you know how God talks to us? It's through this book. And do you know how we talk to God? Prayer. Prayer. That's why it's so important. Scripture is the primary way God speaks to us, and that is why the early church devoted themselves to the reading of this book and praying because they wanted to grow their relationship with the Father. Now, let me briefly speak about prayer. I was one of those people who did not understand the importance of prayer. I sided on that. I could read the Bible. I understood why the Bible was important. It's God's word, right? We need to learn about God. But I just didn't understand prayer. I didn't understand why God needed to hear from me. Well, he actually doesn't. He doesn't need to hear from me, but he wanted to. He wants to hear from you. In our prayers, I didn't understand why I needed to bring things to the Lord. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He already knows everything that I'm about to say, and that's 100% right. But the thing about prayer is that we don't pray to inform God. We pray to lay things before God. We pray to surrender to him, to depend on him, to need him. That prayer is not for the Lord. Did y'all know that? He's not like the Greek gods that feed on prayer and he's gonna get sick if we don't pray enough. That's not our God. He's fully sufficient. He doesn't need prayer. We need prayer. We need access to God. Prayer is so important, and it's actually the very act of prayer as you are articulating your words to the Lord, as you are forming the sentences, talking about your need for God, bringing before him your joys and your pain and your requests. It is the very act of praying that God is shaping you more into his image. Do you get that? The Lord uses this for us to access him. So all that to say, prayer is vital to the Christian life. God doesn't need prayer. We need prayer. And God uses prayer as an instrument of sanctification. Now, the early church, they devoted themselves to the Bible and prayer, hearing from God and speaking to him. And my hope is that the ministry of the view would be found faithful in the eyes of God. That every single time you show up here, first and foremost, you are going to have time in God's word, hearing from him. That we will have meaningful time in prayer, that we will speak back to God, and therefore we will be growing in community with God. So faithful ministries, they grow in community with God. And secondly, they have community with believers. They have community with believers. Look back at the passage. It says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the what? I'm gonna make y'all talk. Y'all seem sleepy. The fellowship. Thank you. The fellowship to the breaking of bread. Look at verse 44. And all who believed were together. Look at verse 46. And day by day, they were attending the temple, what? Together. These were believers linking arms. And this all goes back to that word fellowship. What's being described here is actually that word fellowship. And it literally means koinonia in the Greek. That means a family gathering. This is the community of believers coming together, linking arms toward the same goal. You know, as a Christian, it is not just a joy to commune with other believers. It's actually necessary. I used to think it wasn't necessary. I used to think it was just cool that we got to hang out with people who were supposed to look out for us. No, you need this. You need it. It's necessary. The first time in the Bible when God said something was not good was when Adam was alone. So God made Eve, that you were created to have community with brothers and sisters in Christ. And so this Christian community described in the early church, it wasn't just a group of friends. It was a family. It was a family. The community of believers, it's not just to encourage each other. It is to refine each other. I love how the author of Hebrews puts it in chapter three. He says, take care, brothers. Least there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Verse 13, but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now word exhort, it means to encourage toward the same goal, to persevere shoulder to shoulder toward the same destination. And that exhortation is so that we would not be blinded by our own sin, that we would sharpen each other, that we would challenge each other, that we would pick each other up when we fall, that we would celebrate together, and that we would weep together, that there's this familial duty we have as Christians to be there for one another. There's an incredible book called Habits of Grace by David Mathis. If you have not read it and you're looking for a book, that should be your next read. And I'm gonna talk about it all the time. I might talk about it next week. It's a great book. And why I love it so much is because it talks about the spiritual disciplines. There's a lot of books on the spiritual disciplines, but how David Mathis approaches it, he writes the book all about how we enjoy Jesus through the spiritual disciplines. I love that language. It's not just duties that we do. It is a relationship that we are building. And he brings up this passage in Hebrews, and he says this. When he's talking about the church, the community of believers, which is a spiritual discipline. It's hard to belong with other people. He says this. It'll be on the screen. Here, the charge lands not on the drifting saint to get him back on the path, but on the others in the community to have enough proximity to him, awareness of him, and regularity with him to spot the drift and war with him, for him, and against the sin. And when the desire to avail yourself from hearing his voice, that's reading the Bible, has dried up, and when your spiritual energy is gone to speak into his ear, that's prayer, God sends his body to bring you back. Friends, this is what community amongst believers look like. And when you show up to the view, I want you to know that you will be known. You will be loved. You will be cared for. You will be encouraged, and you will be sharpened. And let me say a real big disclaimer right here, that we will not do that perfectly. I will not do that perfectly. I'm still learning your names. You can't feel very known if I don't even know your name yet. It's gonna take some time. But there are gonna be weeks that we just completely drop the ball. There might be a week that you're a first-time guest, and we don't even know you're here. That's on us. There might be weeks that you walk into this room, and you don't feel welcome. You actually feel some hostility from people. And that's the thing about family. You don't get to choose them. You don't get to choose them. God doesn't give us the option to love some brothers and sisters in Christ and hate the others. No, he calls us to be a community of believers, brothers and sisters in Christ. There are gonna be people when you show up here that you love, that are just like life-giving people. Corey O'Hare is one of those people. Every time you're around him, you just recharge all your batteries, right? There's gonna be people like that here at The View. There's gonna be people that just drive you nuts and you just can't stand 100%. And then there also might be some people in this room that maybe you have some history with, maybe people who have actually hurt you. And can I just say this? That if you're here tonight, and there's someone else in this room that has caused you any type of pain, can I just say thank you? Thank you for having the courage to show up tonight. That's not easy. I know that's not easy. Family's not easy, but that's what we're called to be. We are brothers and sisters in Christ and whether we like it or not, we're family. We're family. And it's usually the people closest to us that hurt us the most. And if this truly is a community of believers, a family of faith, my prayer is that community with God and community with fellow believers outweighs and eventually heals any of the wounds of the past. Amen? So faithful ministries have first and foremost community with God. Secondly, community with believers. And lastly, community with non-believers. This is so important. I think so many times in the church we miss this, that we are called to have community with non-believers. And we see it right here in the passage. Look at verse 47, that the early church was praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Do you know what the word or the phrase all the people means in the original language? It means all the people. It means exactly what it says, that the early church had favor with everyone of every background, of every gender, of every social class. They had favor.
on everyone, and the Greek word for the word favor, it's actually so cool, when you look this up, it is the same word that we translate as grace. Grace, that the church had grace on all people. That the church gave to all people what they did not deserve. You know what happened when the church had grace on all people? That the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Notice it's not number by number, period. No, it's number by number of those who were being saved. That people were coming to Christ. And if they were being saved, that means they were not saved. Which means that the church had deep community with non-believers. That the church had grace on non-believers. Every single one of you in this room, you started out as not saved. Did you know that? When you were born, you had the original sin, it was marked on your soul, you were separated from God, whether you like it or not. We all start that way. And every single one of you in this room who is a believer in Christ, you believe in Jesus because someone else cared enough about you to tell you the gospel. I don't know who that was. That could have been a preacher preaching, that could have been a coach walking through a difficult situation. It could have been your friend. Just being a constant picture of Christ in a really hard season. But you know Jesus because someone else told you about him. I love how Paul puts it in Romans 10, he says this, for everyone he calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. And in verse 14 he says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Students, this is the main reason the view exists so that you can preach the good news in hopes that someone will hear it and then believe it and call on Jesus to be saved. If our ministry ever becomes just about us Christians, if we only studied the Bible and got to know each other as brothers and sisters, we would not be found faithful. Do you hear me? We would not be found faithful. Christian, you were saved. You have been sealed for eternity and nothing can take that away. But you have friends and family members who will spend eternity from Christ unless you have the courage to tell them, to share the gospel, to share the change in your life that happened through Christ. In Luke 15, seven, Jesus says this, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. One sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Friends, inviting non-believers, whether it's someone of another religion, whether it's an atheist, whether it's someone who thinks they're a Christian but has no fruit in their life, whatever it is, it is our duty as Christians to invite them to a safe place, to invite them into the conversation about the gospel, to give them a place to explore the love of Jesus, to give them the freedom to ask hard questions and to give them honest answers. This is not just the main reason the view exists. This is actually the main reason you exist. Matthew 28, Jesus says this, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Christians in the room, listen to me. You were created to make disciples. The purpose in your life, the thing that will fulfill you the most is to go therefore and make disciples and if you do not, you are wasting your salvation. You're wasting it. You were saved so that others could be saved through you, not by you, that's heresy, okay, but through you. You get the greatest privilege in all of existence that God entrusted you to be a part of his grand plan of salvation for someone else. First time God used me to make a disciple changed my life forever, forever. It was the first time in my life that I experienced what I was made for and I want that so badly for each and every one of you. That's why we're in this room. That's why we gather. The people who do not know Jesus are not just gonna walk into this room, they're not. We can't expect non-believers to show up to church. This is why the church must go to them and invite them into a safe place where they feel comfortable and it doesn't start here. This starts in your engineering classes, this starts at cosmetology school, this starts when you're eating Chipotle with your friend, this starts when you're playing Mario Kart, this starts in the small relationships with the people that God has already put in your life. Christians must have deep disciples, deep community with non-believers so that we have a greater chance of introducing someone who is lost to the only one who can make them found and that is Christ. Faithful ministries grow in community with God, community with believers and most importantly, community with non-believers so that they might be saved. Can I tell you something? I am not the church. We're the church. I can't do this. We can. We can. The culture that we're talking about, the faithfulness that Christ has painted for his church, it cannot be accomplished alone. This is a group effort. We are the body of Christ. So I just want you to ask yourself this, does the view look more like the bride of Christ because you're a part of it? Does the view look more like Christ because you're a part of it? And if not, let tonight be the night that changes. I don't know where you are in your life. I don't know where you are in your relationship with God. I don't know where you are in this passage but I do know the Spirit is here. I do know that this is God's very word and if we believe what it says, that he's speaking to us right now. So there might be some of you in this room that really struggle with your community with God and that's your first problem that you are trying to overcome. Some of you need to spend a couple moments and just beg God to give you a hunger for his word. So start valuing this book again because it is your lifeline to hear from Jesus Christ. Some of you speak so much about God that maybe you forget to speak to God and you need to sit down and ask God to rekindle your prayer life. Maybe for others in the room, you really struggle with community with believers. Maybe there's someone in this room who's hurt you and tonight you need to extend the first olive ranch because we're family, we're brothers and sisters. Or maybe tonight you're sitting here and you realize that every single person on your row is already saved and the Lord is calling you to invest in the lost people in your life. I don't know what he's trying to speak to you tonight but for those who weren't here last week, every week we're gonna take 120 seconds, two minutes.