Acts Of The Apostles (2 Of 39)

He needed a job, so he went inside to apply for the job. He asked the owner about the job description, and what it paid.

• The man said, "The job pays $25.00 a week plus all meals."

• The young man said, "Is the food good here?"

• The owner rubbed his big tummy, and said, "I eat here everyday! "

That owner was his own best advertisement that his food was good.

The same should be true for us as Christians. If we show the lost world that what we have is not good, we should not be surprised if others do not want what we have.

Illus: In Columbia, S.C. there are restaurants all over the place. These people love to eat, and their waist lines show it. But in one place where there are two restaurants almost side by side, there is an unusual situation. Both, of course, serve food to the public, but the manager of one, when he gets hungry, eats next door at the other restaurant. He will not eat at his own restaurant, yet he expects others to eat at his establishment.

As Christians, we should make the Christian life so attractive to the world, that they would not want to eat the slop that Satan serves. The world should be able to take one look at our lives, and see a joy, and a satisfaction, that recommends what we have to the whole world.

Today we live in a world where the church is trying to use other things to attract people.

Illus: We Christians today expect too much from ELABORATE BUILDINGS, STAINED GLASS WINDOWS, FANCY ORGANS AND PROGRAMS.

The world has these things, and much more. But there is one thing the lost world does not have. They do not have Christ.

Christ has promised the Church, that where two or three were gathered together in His name, He would be in their midst. Our best form of advertisement of the REALITY OF CHRIST, is not found in OUR BUILDINGS, BUT IN OUR LIVES.

The early church understood that! They gloried in the Lord, and in His promises.

As you read Luke's writings to Theophilus, you read of the marvelous things God did through His church, but you will not find anything about the things today’s churches glory in or about.

The emphasis today is on CHANDELIERS, STAINED GLASS WINDOWS, PADDED PEWS, GYMNASIUMS OR EVEN TENNIS COURTS. Often, churches today miss the mark, because they seek those things instead of seeking the most essential thing!

A church can have all those things, and not have the "Spirit of God" in their midst. When this is true, they ought to have a sign outside that says, "lchabod", because God has long since departed.

Illus: Years ago, the joke used to be told about the black man who lived in the South, and he wanted to join a white church. Well the church kept putting him off, hoping he would give up. He was praying about the situation one day, and he told the Lord, "They won’t let me in the church." As he prayed and was feeling so discouraged, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Deke, don't feel bad, they won't let me in there either!"

That is the way it is today. Many churches want everyone and everything in the church, but they do not want the Lord.

But as Luke writes to Theophilus, it is evident that those who claimed the name of Christ had the Lord among them, and they gloried in the Lord Jesus.

Listen as Luke tells what happened.

Let’s look at the-

I. FAITHFULNESS OF THE APOSTLES

Look at verses 12-14, we read, “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

They were back in Jerusalem for a reason, look at two things-

A. THE COMMAND.

Let’s go back to verse 4. We read, “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.”

The Lord knew that the disciples were not ready for the job that He had for them, until they were EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Before the Lord sent His disciples out to reach a lost and dying world, He first COMMANDED them to tarry at Jerusalem, until they were equipped by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.