Evangelism Series

• One SOUL or mind indicates the close, loving union these early believers enjoyed.

• These people have a deep love for one another based on their unity on behalf of Jesus.

• Taken together, the expression one in mind and heart may be expressed verbally as “they thought the same things and they wanted the same things.”

• These folks were not looking out for number one, they cared about one another.

• SLIDE #4

• Philippians 2:2–4 (CSB) — 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others.

• The powerful witness we see from the early church was the generosity they had toward one another.

• They did not just talk about unity, they displayed it.

• This is why unity cannot be commanded, it takes a right heart by all involved to make it happen.

• This is like when we do what we do for the Lord. If we do it with a bad attitude, it profits us nothing.

• These Christians were helping one another as the needs arose. This was not communism.

• Communism is, "What is yours is mine, and I will take it." By the way, socialism is not far off that point.

• Fellowship is, “What’s mine is yours; I’ll share it.”

• The unity on display was a powerful witness to the world around them.

• Let’s look at verse 33.

• SLIDE #5

• Acts 4:33 (CSB) — 33 With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.

• SLIDE #6

Our evangelism efforts are aided by…

II. A powerful message.

• The next tool in the tool chest of the early church was with great power the Apostle were preaching the Word!

• Specifically, they were preaching on the resurrection!

• The phrase WITH GREAT POWER, could indicate that the Apostles were performing miracles, or it could refer to their preaching or both.

• I believe the focus of the great power was the message of the resurrected Jesus!

• This message would hit a nerve with the Sadducees who did not believe there was an afterlife.

• The message of Jesus was the primary message of the early church. They focused squarely on Jesus.

• The early church did not have social media, multi-media, or really anything fancy, they merely proclaimed the message of Jesus Christ.

• We touched on this last week a bit.

• What is one thing we have that nobody else has? It is the message of Jesus Christ, it is the fact that Jesus is the son of God and that He died for our sins and rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the father.

• Look, anyone can preach pop psychology (and I am not against psychology.

• Anyone can put on a multi-media show that will knock your socks off, and I am not against that either.

• We can have cool church name, cool signs, cool multi-media presentations, awesome music; however, which I think is excellent; however, if we neglect the message, we are wasting a powerful tool!