If you would, turn in your bibles through Acts chapter 2. I'm glad you braved the weather and came out. Just just as a warning, we actually sit underneath the tornado watch horn. So you will hear it if it goes off. It will you will not even be able to hear me.
Joel Brooks:But also you're in a great shelter here. And so, I'm just going to keep on going. It won't get you out of the message. Also, I want to let you know before we read from the text tonight that, afterwards, we're going to have our common meal. And I hope all of you stay because we got food for a lot of people.
Joel Brooks:And so we need all of you to stay and just eat until you cannot eat anymore. And we'll have it. How about inside tonight instead of, out? We've been going through Acts, and we are going to finish up Acts chapter 2 tonight, beginning with verse 41. So those who received his word were baptized.
Joel Brooks:And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were to 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.
Joel Brooks: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. Pray with me. Lord, we pray pray that you would bless the reading of your word and that now you would open up our hearts to receive your truth. This is a transformative truth.
Joel Brooks:So God, I pray it would break down whatever walls of resistance we have. That your word would go forth like a hammer shattering a rock. God, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. It is a unquestioned fact that Christianity exploded in growth in the 1st century. There had never been anything like it, any religion or any political movement that grew so quickly and so explosively before Christianity, and there's not been anything like it since. You don't have to believe in the Bible to know this. You can pick up any secular history book and it will tell you this.
Joel Brooks:But what the history book cannot account for is the why. Why did Christianity explode like it's exploded? Why is it that 3,000 people came to be Christians on that first day at that first sermon? Last week we began to look at the answer of why. These people here had been cut to the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Joel Brooks:The Holy Spirit was poured out on these people. And then when they heard Peter get out and proclaim the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it says that they were cut to the heart and they said, what must we do? They they believed in Jesus. They pledged their allegiance to Jesus, to this risen and ascended Lord. And they did not respond this way because Peter was an amazing preacher.
Joel Brooks:You you read the the message and, you know, it's you know, it's good. It's it's not all that eloquent. It's it's it's not so much in how Peter presented it. It was in the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts. And that was the power that enabled Christianity to explode and growth unlike anything before anything afterwards.
Joel Brooks:Now here in Acts, we get to see what this early movement looked like. We get to see what the early church looked like, what they believed, how they lived, and we get to look at the things that we should pursue. I already see a lot of these things we're gonna look at tonight. I see them a lot to a certain extent in our church and I hope that they will grow more and more. We see in this text, the early church devoting themselves to 4 things.
Joel Brooks:We have the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. It actually makes my job really easy. You got a 4 part sermon right there, you know, just boom, lays it out. It's just missing the poem. But we see these these four things.
Joel Brooks:And along with these four things, afterwards in verse 43, it says, and all came upon every soul. And this is not an awe because of all of the miracles that were happening. That that that's not what the all is about. The all is there because as they are doing these four things, as they are listening to the apostles teaching, dedicating themselves to fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers, they're doing these things. Jesus is in their midst.
Joel Brooks:They're experiencing the risen Lord in their midst. And so when they gather together, there is this awe of what God is doing with them and in them and through them. They're not filled with awe because they've just heard some new teaching or because they've had a great meal with somebody. They're filled with all because they are meeting with Jesus. And that's why we, hopefully you're gathered here tonight.
Joel Brooks:That's why we gather together is because we want to encounter the risen Lord. Now, there's no formula given here as to how we should pursue these four things. There is no church structure given here. We know that the church is to devote them ourselves to these four things, but there's not the how does this happen? What's the best structure for these things?
Joel Brooks:The early church struggled with this. We're going to see this later as we go through Acts that they actually struggle trying to implement these four things. I mean, how do you go from a church from a 120 people to boom mega church like that, 3,000? How do you structure for that? And then you you don't even get a chance to kind of catch your breath because the lord is adding day by day and then, you know, Peter's going to preach again.
Joel Brooks:Then, 2,000 more people are going to be saved. And now you got 5,000 people and more and more people being added day after day and and they're going to struggle to try to find what structure works. I mean, we struggle. Yeah, we're a small church. If we have 3 or 4 people sign up for a small group on a given week, we're like, man, where do we place them?
Joel Brooks:You know, what do we do? How, you know, what group are they gonna fit best in? I mean, if we went out there and there's 5,000 names on a list, we would freak out. We wouldn't know how to organize this. They didn't either.
Joel Brooks:There's never going to be this adequate structure at first. God's going to be moving in front of them and they're just going to kind of follow in the wake. They're going to struggle to keep up with this growth. And I think it's important for us to understand this, that Luke here does not prescribe a certain church structure. He doesn't say, okay, God's gonna grow this and now you need to have Sunday Schools, or you need to have home groups, or you need to meet at this certain time.
Joel Brooks:Your services need to look like this. He doesn't go through any of this. I would have loved to seen Peter, you know, at an elder meeting thinking, guys, I mean, do we, do we have multiple services now? Do we simulcast? You know, do we have other campuses and be my image over there?
Joel Brooks:Do we move to different locations? Do do I do we record myself on a DVD and play it to other places? Or do I just let Andrew preach to other locations? You know, that's what they would be struggling with now. And I would have loved to seen the interaction there, but we don't have that.
Joel Brooks:There's nothing prescribed. And and I think the reason it's not prescribed is because every church, in every setting, in every culture is to pray and to seek the Lord and what is the best structure? What's the best way to see this happen? There's a flexibility there. We've chosen to meet on Sunday evenings.
Joel Brooks:We've chosen to have our worship services with times of singing, times of preaching. We've decided on home groups during the week because we think that's a structure that will work. It's certainly not perfect, but it's what we've chosen and what we're doing. There is no perfect structure, And the important thing is not so much the structure, but it's what we're trying to accomplish. What we're trying to accomplish is those four things which will enable us to meet with the living Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And let's look at these four things here. Let's, let's start. Let's look at the apostles teaching. Some of your Bibles, might actually say they dedicated or devoted themselves to the apostle's doctrine. The word there is actually doctrine, but we all know nobody wants doctrine, you know, so you gotta translate it teaching the apostle's teaching, but it could better be translated doctrine there.
Joel Brooks:But people, you know, now are fearful that doctrine is what actually divides. Doctrine isn't what unites. And so you have to stay away from this, this doctrine. But here in the early church, it says that they devoted themselves to doctrine. And whether you know it or not, you devote yourself to doctrine as well.
Joel Brooks:Even if you believe, you know, hey I really, I don't care about doctrine. Let's just all hold hands and love one another. That's the only thing that matters. If you believe that, that's a doctrine. What you're saying is, believe my doctrine and not your doctrine.
Joel Brooks:If you say, hey, you know, really doesn't matter in believing in the resurrection, That's not what Christianity is all about. You don't have to hold to such strict doctrines as that as that. Know that that's a doctrine. You're holding to a doctrine. We all have a doctrine.
Joel Brooks:It's just what doctrine are we holding to? And as a church, we need to hold to the doctrine of the apostle's teaching. We're to believe what they believed. The early church believed in these early witnesses of the resurrection. The people who had spent time with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And when they died, when the apostles died, they didn't say, great, They're dead. Now we can believe something different. They said, no. Now that they're dead, let's gather their writings together or the writings of those who knew the apostles well. Maybe we're disciples of these apostles.
Joel Brooks:Let's gather those writings together so we still have their teaching, and that became our new testament. And so we believe in the new testament. That's what we hold to. This is still where we get our doctrine. And to be a Christian is to dedicate ourselves to this teaching.
Joel Brooks:We we don't try to create this false unity by saying doctrine doesn't matter. You know, I've heard so many people say doctrine divides the church, and I was like, well you didn't grow up baptist because I did and it was the color of carpet that divided our churches. It was suggesting we get a new hymnal that divided our churches. It was amazing if somebody had had said, hey, let's no longer believe in this view of atonement, it wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. But doctrine should be the thing that we're concerned about, and it should be what unites us together.
Joel Brooks:And so if I ever quit teaching from this book, it's a Bible by the way here, just so you know. If I ever quit teaching from this book, you need to get rid of me. I mean, you do. If I ever become a storyteller, if I ever just start talking about, you know, really pleasant nice things that, you know, kind of make you feel good or whatever, but I don't pull it out from the Bible, you need to get rid of me. You need to find a preacher that's grounded in this book.
Joel Brooks:We have to hold ourselves to the apostle's teaching. The next thing that we see the apostle or these early Christians dedicating themselves to is fellowship. Now how many of you know, I'm just kind of curious, grew up Baptist, Methodist? Any of y'all? So if I were to say this evening we're gonna have a fellowship, what what do you think about that?
Joel Brooks:I mean, what is that? That's potluck. That's food. That's what it is. That's what fellowship is, you know.
Joel Brooks:It's it's associated with the breaking of bread. You know, every time my church growing up planned a fellowship, it was always potluck dinner. And this can certainly be a part of fellowship, but it's not the whole of fellowship. Luke is going to flesh out what fellowship is in verse 44. When he says, all who believed were together and had all things in common.
Joel Brooks:So to vote, to devote yourselves to fellowship is to devote yourselves to being together and having all things in common. And breaking bread can certainly be a part of this. Actually, the phrase there, breaking of bread, we're not really sure what it means. If it's just a common meal or if it's the Lord's supper, likely, it was common meals in which they would partake of the Lord's supper, which is part of fellowship here. It's early.
Joel Brooks:It's interesting because early on, Christians did this so much. They had so many potlucks. They had so many dinners. They were so close and united in their fellowship that you know what the earliest charges against Christianity were? Incest.
Joel Brooks:It's the earliest charges because they're like, I mean, they're marrying their brothers and sisters. They call everybody brother and sister, and they're always together in the same home, and yet, yet some of them are married, and so they were accused of incest. Then they were also accused of cannibalism, because they'd heard rumors that they were eating somebody's body and drinking somebody's blood. And so, there was all these accusations and rumors going about the early Christian church because of the intense fellowship that was there. A community unlike any other community that had existed.
Joel Brooks:Luke Luke uses the phrase here, that all things in common. We'll see later in Acts, he's not talking about communism. Don't let this freak you out. You know, it's not promoting communism, because personal possessions are still very much a part of the church. We'll see that later in Acts 5.
Joel Brooks:These people here didn't have to give everything to the church. They could still have private property. They were not being enforced to share. They didn't have to share anything. But what you're seeing here is, there's through the Holy Spirit, this radical generosity is springing up to where people are holding everything loosely and they're giving to one another or a better way to look at this is they're treating everybody like family.
Joel Brooks:Everybody is like family. The phrase all things in common was actually a familiar phrase in the Greek world. It was familiar in political and philosophical circles. Several centuries earlier, Plato had coined the phrase all things in common when he was talking about, how to set up really a utopian society. Plato believed private property was pretty much the root of all evil and they had to get, you know, get rid of private property.
Joel Brooks:And he said in this ideal society and this ideal Republic, people would hold, he uses the phrase, all things in common. And he actually went to the city of Syracuse and his philosophy was implemented and it failed miserably in Syracuse. It just, it collapsed on its face and it caused Plato to really rethink things. He didn't change his view on what he believed was an ideal society, but he changed his view on what he believed was attainable. And he said, I still think that it would be in an ideal society that all things would be held in common, but people are not capable of that.
Joel Brooks:People cannot let go of their private goods and their private property so easily. And so he said that would never happen. So, so when Luke here is using this particular phrase that occurs nowhere else in the new Testament, it only occurs here. He is he is using a phrase that people would have understood, they would have heard in the day, and they would have said, that's what failed. And Luke is saying, what you saw as failing is now possible because there's been a change of heart.
Joel Brooks:A change of heart and now people can share. People can freely give to one another. What was not possible before is now possible in this new society, in this new community. I mean, it's it's astounding really because these were poor persecuted people and they freely gave to one another. If that meant selling some of their stock, they'd sell some of their stock.
Joel Brooks:If it meant reaching into some of their savings to help somebody, they reach into their savings. If it meant getting rid of their cable TV, they'd get rid of their cable TV. If it meant selling to their car or perhaps having a garage sale to get cash to give something to somebody, they would do that. They sold their possessions to take care of one another. It's what you do for family.
Joel Brooks:It's this radical fellowship that we see here. The basic idea is the sharing of life and the sharing of possessions with one another. This is what I long for our church to look like. And as you guys know, I don't like to tell you this is hard. This is hard.
Joel Brooks:It's hard because it goes against this current in our culture. It goes against this Western culture current. I'd say that perhaps there is no element more fractured in American culture than community. Community is fractured in America. I'm going to, I've said this numerous times.
Joel Brooks:I'll say it again, but there has never existed in the history of man, a society that is so individualistic as the one we live in now. Never. I'll go even further than this. Now, let me remove. This is me that I think is coming from scripture, but but here, this is me.
Joel Brooks:I would attribute that not just because it happens, but to spiritual forces at work. I think when you get to Ephesians 6 and Paul says, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places. I believe that the best way to explain such an individualistic culture is to see it as a spiritual force at work in our society. I mean, think. Just just think of how hard it is for you to find community.
Joel Brooks:Do you feel that? Like, you've got to fight to find what was just so readily available in the 1st century or in other cultures. You've got to fight to get that community. I mean, you, you long for the people I talk to day in and day out, they long for this community, but they find it so elusive And you find yourself, you know, driving alone in a car to a job that is isolated or apart from where you live. You, you find yourselves, longing for this dream home that's surrounded by land and not by people.
Joel Brooks:So even if you get your dream home, you've now no longer have a community. You go to coffee shops no longer to to talk to people, but to plug into whatever device there is to further isolate yourselves. I mean, you see this everything from clothes to music, to, to cereals, to potato chips. Everything is catered to the individual. I once counted at a Winn Dixie over 200 different types of cereal.
Joel Brooks:Over 200 different types of cereal. How many have your, you know, your Cheerios? I mean, like Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Whole Grain Cheerios, Frosted Cheerios, Fruity Cheerios. Am I missing I mean, like how many Cheerios can you have? It just, I mean, every single cereal, it's just now you don't go and just like pick up something and no longer think about it.
Joel Brooks:You go and you gotta think, what is my specific cereal need? You know, how can I get my cereal, my deep cereal need met? And and and you can look what caters to you. I went I mean, same when Dixie, I counted 12 different flavors of Pringles. I mean, how many different flavors of Pringles?
Joel Brooks:Now it's like, no longer do you just grab, you're like, jalapeno, barbecue, some weird baked potato, you know. It's just, what do you get? And we waste all of our time and our energies making meaningless decisions, and we call it freedom. It's slavery. We we think we're pursuing freedom, but we're being enslaved by our choices.
Joel Brooks:I would go as so far as to say in in a way, we're pursuing hell. A lot of the American dream is actually pursuing hell. Martin Luther said that hell is the curvature of the soul. It's when your soul curves so inward upon itself, you lose the ability to think outside of yourself. When your every thought is about you, how everything relates to you, He calls that hell.
Joel Brooks:And I think you see this. Our souls are kind of, they're curving in. When you look at really the times you've experienced your most joy, you were not even thinking about yourself. I don't know if you can feel this. I can feel this.
Joel Brooks:I can feel the current of culture actually driving us away from community, and I have to keep fighting it and fighting it. Let the Holy Spirit redeem this in you. Pursue community and realize that in the culture here, it's something you've got to fight for. You've got to pray for because if you just relax, you're going to be swept down a stream. So pursue it.
Joel Brooks:Devote yourselves to fellowship, to sharing lives, to sharing possessions with one another. The the new testament is actually not you can't understand it apart from community. It doesn't make any sense to like a lone ranger Christian. There's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. The new testament will not make sense unless, unless you understand this radical new community.
Joel Brooks:There's over 70, one another's. Gosh, I told myself I'd never do this and I just did this. There's over 71 and others in the new Testament. Let me just read you some. I won't read you all, don't worry, but I'll read you a lot.
Joel Brooks:Mark 9 says, be at peace with one another. John 15, Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Romans 12, love one another with brother brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Also in Romans 12, live in harmony with one another.
Joel Brooks:Romans 14, do not pass judgment on one another. Romans 15, welcome one another as Christ welcomed you. Instruct one another. Romans 16, greet one another with a holy kiss. 1st Corinthians 11 says, so then my brothers, when he come together to eat, wait for one another.
Joel Brooks:First Corinthians 12, care for one another. 2nd Corinthians 13 says, finally brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another. Galatians 5, let us not be conceited, provoking one another or envying one another. Ephesians 4 says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, we are to bear with one another in love. Ephesians 4, be kind to one another.
Joel Brooks:Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, his Christ forgave you. Also in Ephesians 5, address one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Colossians 3, do not lie to one another. Also, in Colossians 3, we are to bear with one another.
Joel Brooks:We are to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. To do good to one another. Hebrews 3, exhort one another every day. Hebrews 10 says, let us consider how to stir up one another and to do good works. James 4, do not speak against one another.
Joel Brooks:James 5, do not grumble against one another. I hope you get the picture. I'll stop there. You can go on and on and on. The commands in the New Testament all in relation to one another.
Joel Brooks:You simply cannot exist apart from community, or at least the desire to be part of a community and call yourself a Christian. You certainly cannot implement or understand the New Testament. We're called to do these things. We're we're to devote ourselves to fellowship, to the sharing of our lives. I've heard from several pastors that the closest thing we have to New Testament church is the pub down the local street, In which everybody could go in, people know their names, people are accepted, they could go up to the bartender, confess their sins.
Joel Brooks:So that's, that's, that's a counterfeit church. That's what people should be feeling and experiencing and hear. When we just read here, you know, we're to confess our sins to one another and that's part of fellowship. That's what Martin Luther, when he, when he really preached the priesthood of all believers, one of the main things he meant by that is that we can now confess to one another. This means when you guys are in your home groups or if you're not in a home group and you join 1 tonight, but, but when you, when you're in your home groups, you confess to one another.
Joel Brooks:That's being vulnerable and transparent. I was part of a, pastor at a church and around the table is a group of us pastors, and we were talking about being vulnerable and confessing. And one of the pastors said, you know, do you want us to do this? And the senior pastor said, yes, I want, I want you to, to be open. I want you to be vulnerable.
Joel Brooks:I want you to, to share these things. And so the the the pastor next to me said, well, you know, so if we're, let's say struggling more pornography, is this something you want, you want us to confess and to bring up? And he said, yes, I want us to be a group where, where you can bring that up and we could pray for one another. You're going to lose your job, but, but I want you to confess this. And to which, you know, I just hear like this big gulp.
Joel Brooks:It's like, suddenly, I don't feel so vulnerable anymore. I kind of don't feel like sharing. I think for a lot of us in here when we're in our groups or home groups or accountability groups, whatever you want to call them, We're not scared of losing our job, but we are scared of losing our standing before other Christians. In which if we were to confess, we lose our standing. And if that's a fear of yours, it's because you're no longer, you're not standing on grace.
Joel Brooks:You're standing on works and your identity is on what you project and what you do, and it's not in the gospel. Because nobody stands on a pedestal before the cross. All of us are sinners laid low. And it's time for some of us to quit, you know, confessing general sins and actually confessing specific ones to Christians, and being vulnerable with one another, and God building community. A final aspect to this community is a devotion to prayer.
Joel Brooks:And actually, it says the prayers, meaning that there are set likely referring to set times when the congregation comes together and they pray together. It's one of the things we're going to do tonight. I want us to be a church that prays together. So let me pray for us as we begin. Lord, I pray right now that your spirit would descend, that He would fall and He would move in our midst.
Joel Brooks:We know that He is living inside us. We ask that He would have His way with us tonight. Lord, I pray that for those who are hurting, you would bring healing. For those who need to be restored, you would bring restoration. Lord, but you would meet us in this place as we seek you through this time of prayer, through this time of communion, through this time of singing.
Joel Brooks:We pray you would receive glory.