Devoted To The Apostles' Teaching

A. The Bible says that the early church “devoted themselves…” to a number of things. (NIV)

1. Some of the other translations express the phrase “devoted themselves” slightly differently.

a. KJV: And they continued steadfastly

b. NASV: They were continually devoting themselves

2. Their devotion wasn’t a past-tense type devotion, but an ongoing continual type of devotion.

3. What does it mean to be devoted?

a. Dictionary definitions describe it like this: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.

b. The act of devoting or the quality of being devoted. : strong love, affection, or dedication.

B. Devotion is a good and powerful thing.

1. When we think of devotion, we often think of a devoted mother or father and we picture them staying up all night with their sick child, or carting them all over the place to their activities.

a. Or we think of a devoted lover who will drive 1000 miles just to say hello and turn around and drive back home.

b. Or we think about a devoted sports fan who buys all their team’s garb and watches all their games.

c. Or we think of someone who is devoted to a company or a cause.

2. I like the story told about Abert Einstein who attended a dinner party one evening.

a. A young, college student was seated beside him.

b. The student didn’t know who Einstein was.

c. In the course of their conversation the young student asked the white-haired scientist, “What are you actually by profession?”

d. Einstein replied: “I devote myself to the study of physics.”

e. The student looked at him in astonishment and said, “You are still studying physics at your age? I finished my study of physics a year ago.”

f. There’s a big difference in taking a course in physics and being devoted to the study of physics. Right?

g. And as we will see, there’s a difference between studying the apostles’ teaching and being devoted to the apostles’ teaching.

3. I’ve always been amazed at the devotion of Olympic athletes because there are four years between the Olympics and that’s a long time in between to keep training for an event that is four years away.

a. Sanya Richards-Ross is a Jamaican-American track and field athlete.

b. In 2008, Sanya Richards-Ross competed in the 400 Meter in Beijing.

1. She started the race strong and built a substantial lead but then ran out of steam on the home stretch and finished third for the Bronze.

c. Four years later, in 2012, she competed again in the 400 Meter in the London Olympics.

1. For four long years, Sanya Richards-Ross waited.

2. For four years she waited with the hunger pangs of unfinished business and the sense of an uncompleted mission.

3. When they introduced her before the 400 meters in London, she blew a kiss to the crowd, then won the gold medal she had worked tirelessly for since Beijing.

C. Just as Sanya Richards-Ross and Albert Einstein were devoted to their pursuits, the early Christians in Acts 2 modeled devotion to Christ.

1. Those early Christians were intentional and disciplined about the process of be devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

2. They were steadfast and single minded in purpose and so they devoted themselves.

3. God is pleased when disciples of Jesus are devoted in the same ways as the early disciples.

D. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on how early Acts 2 was in the history of Christianity.

1. Jesus died during the Jewish Passover on or around the year of AD 30.

2. Jesus arose on the 3rd day and then made appearances to the apostles and His followers for the next 40 days.

3. Ten days after Jesus ascended back to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles on the Day of Pentecost and Peter preached the first Gospel sermon and 3000 people responded to the invitation and were baptized into Christ and the church began that day.

4. How much time do you think took place between Acts 2:41 - “3000 were baptized and added to their number,” and Acts 2:42 – “they devoted themselves…”? Probably not much.

5. What we see reflected in Acts 2:42 is likely a reflection of what immediately took place in the life of the early church – this is what those first Christians did…they devoted themselves.

6. Speaking of how early in Christianity this was, keep mind that Saul of Tarsus, better known as the apostle Paul, hadn’t yet become a persecutor of the church which would then later lead to his conversion to Christ.

E. Let’s now turn our focus to the first of the things that those early Christians were continually devoting themselves to and it was the apostles’ teaching or apostles doctrine.