Adding To The Number Series

ADDING TO THE NUMBER (HPFFJ3)

Acts 2:42-47

#Pentecost2020 #HPFFJ

INTRODUCTION… https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/100434/healing-by-ed-vasicek?ref=TextIllustrationSerps

A Baptist preacher and his wife decided they needed a dog. Ever mindful of their congregation, they knew the dog must also be Baptist. They visited an expensive kennel and explained their needs to the manager, who assured them he had just the dog for them.

When the dog was produced, the manager began giving it commands. "Fetch the Bible," he commanded. The dog bounced to the bookshelf, scrutinized the books, located the Bible, and brought it to the manager. The manager then said, "Find Psalms 23". The dog, showing marvelous dexterity with his paws, leafed thru the Bible, found the correct passage, and pointed to it with his paw.

Duly impressed, the preacher and his wife purchased the dog. That evening a group of parishioners came to visit. The preacher and his wife began to show off the dog, having him locate several Bible verses. The visitors were amazed.

Finally, one man asked "Can the dog do normal dog tricks too?"

"Let's see" said the preacher. Pointing his finger at the dog, he commanded, "Heel!"

The dog immediately jumped up on a chair, placed one paw on the preacher's forehead and began to howl. The preacher turned to his wife in complete shock and disbelief. "We've been swindled! That manager sold us a Pentecostal dog!"

When we use the word “Pentecost” today, we are not talking about a particular flavor of Christian, but rather we are talking about the event in Acts 2.

In Acts 2, we are given the description of the beginning of the Church. Here in Acts 2, we are given the ultimate example to shoot for in our church. Th Church was founded on the Day of Pentecost when 120 believers received the Holy Spirit and spoke the wonders of God in other tongues. That pouring out of His Spirit is described at the beginning of Acts 2. It was then that Peter preached his great sermon to a large crowd of people who were wondering about the miracles they were observing. As Peter preached, 3000 people in the crowd were cut to the heart, convicted, and converted to Christianity. They were subsequently baptized in water so that they also might receive the Holy Spirit. These new Christians and the 120 disciples were bonded together into one community in which they lived out their faith in Jesus. The church was growing.

I firmly believe our church family is building a church family that will last. We are building a church family on a solid foundation. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to in the future.

THREAD: The purpose of Cincinnati Christian Church is to “Help People Find and Follow Jesus.” That is our stated purpose and the goal that we let guide us. It is a good one.

KEY QUESTIONS

What does it take to build a church that lasts?

What are important priorities for our church family to get right?

How do we help others “find Jesus” and add to the Kingdom of God?

How do we help others “follow Jesus” on a consistent basis?

READ Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

TRANSITION

What priorities made up this early church? The first priority was devotion to the Word.

I. PRIORITY ONE: DEVOTION TO THE WORD

The first thing we notice is that the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings, meaning this was an apostolic church—the apostles led the church. The distinguishing characteristic of this church was that the members devoted themselves to studying and practicing the apostles’ doctrine. The Apostles were commanded by Jesus to preach the gospel to people, to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey all that Jesus had commanded them to do. This is what they were doing. In their efforts to reach out, they taught the same things Jesus had taught them.

They started with immersing themselves in the teachings of Christ because all of the life of the church flows from the fixed, authoritative, infallible Gospel teaching. The apostles were authorized by the Lord to preach the gospel and they did!