God’s Blueprint for the Perfect Church
God’s Blueprint for the Perfect Church
I wonder what it was like for those 3000 people who were saved that day on Pentecost? Maybe it went something like this:
Joshua couldn’t sleep! It was a while ago when he heard about the teacher who was put to death for doing amazing things, things like teaching, healing, and serving others. Since then he had it upon his heart to learn more. Last night he heard it being said that the Apostle named Peter was going to be celebrating the Feast of Weeks nearby and he knew this was his chance to be a part of something very, very special. Josh was staying in Jerusalem and was known as a God fearing Jew, but he was foreign born, from Edom, and his language was not known by most people. He was somewhat learned because he spoke Aramaic in addition to his own native language but, he was not learned enough to understand just what Jesus was all about. So early in the morning, he got his belongings together and headed out.
Meanwhile the Apostles were already preparing for their celebration. They were continually at the Temple whenever it was open because their love for their Lord was second to none. They truly wanted to understand all that their Lord had taught them but, there was still a lack of clarity in their minds. Peter was the chief of this lack of clarity, or so he thought as he remembered that even though he was given faith by way of the Holy Spirit, he still questioned Jesus’ plans. On one occasion Peter denied His Master three times out of fear and intimidation. But Peter did not need to be singled out. All the Apostles have had their moments of uncertainty and fear. They still remember, like it was yesterday, the day they scattered and hid before, during and after their Lord’s crucifixion. Yet despite these limitations, they did their best to move forward and honor their Master by proclaiming what they did know. Jesus Christ is the Messiah who has come to take away the sins of the world, but how they wish they understood with full clarity the will of their Lord.
As the Apostles began to celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord a freewill offering was given. The size of the offering was in direct proportion to the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon the giver. And these men truly were blessed. Later there would also be a reflection upon one of the greatest historical blessings handed to the Jews. They would remember the day that the Lord God Almighty removed them from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians and how important it was to follow the Lord’s decree’s, especially the decree to go out into all the World baptizing in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching others to obey all that the Lord has commanded.
While the Apostles were all together in one place; reflecting upon God’s wonderful works of love, all of a sudden a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest of each of them. All of them were then filled with the Holy Spirit. Although they had the Holy Spirit already, this time the Holy Spirit provided wisdom and understanding and of course POWER! When they first received the Holy Spirit, they received faith and it was truly needed because nobody can confess Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit.
Meanwhile, Josh seemed to reach his destination for he heard this amazing sound. To him it was a sound like the blowing of a violent wind and it seemed to come from heaven itself. Josh soon found himself gathered with a crowd and everyone was asking questions. They were all amazed at what just took place. But the amazement instantly turned into confusion upon what they began to hear next. Joshua began hearing others speak in his own native language, which did not make much sense since the others were Galileans. In fact, it appeared that each foreign born Jew in this crowd was hearing his own foreign language. This went on for quite a long time and Joshua was truly convinced that something wonderful was taking place.
Josh, along with what seemed to be most of the crowd began asking the same question, “What Does This Mean?”” Yet others, who seemed to be set on denying any sort of miracle made jokes and accusations that the Disciples were all intoxicated. As if intoxication has ever given anyone the ability to speak in other languages.
Suddenly, the Disciple known as Peter stood up with the other Disciples and raised his voice to address Joshua and the others in the crowd. Peter began to put down any ideas that they were drunk and clarified that it was only 9:00 in the morning. Then he quoted the prophet Joel, a passage that Joshua was quite familiar. Why was that Scripture shared now, was it being fulfilled? Joel prophesied, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people” and “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved!” These two portions of Scripture stuck in his thoughts over and over again.
What Peter had to say next however, cut into Joshua’s heart, Peter said, “That he, along with others, were responsible for Jesus’ death.” Next Peter proclaimed the mystery of the Lord God Almighty by saying, “God raised (Jesus) from the dead because it was impossible for death to hold Jesus. This death and resurrection was all planned out by God. The Holy one was promised not to see decay which means that Jesus was really the Messiah. God has raised Jesus to life and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus received the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what we see and hear.
Today is the day! Joshua knew this to be true. Already there was something different happening with him. Joshua heard God’s Word today and faith was being created because what Peter said to him next was instantly believed by Joshua. Peter said, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Yet what good is it to know this truth now? Joshua felt totally guilty for being responsible for the death of Jesus. “I AM GUILTY!” he cried out and Joshua fell to his knees. All his life he waited for the promised Messiah and now that He has come and gone, Joshua not only missed the opportunity to learn from him but, also was guilty of committing murder.
As if Peter was talking directly to Joshua, what was said next healed his heart like no other words could. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you for the forgiveness of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Joshua could not believe it! With all this guilt upon him, God was willing to forgive not only Joshua but all those who were willing to repent of their sins. The law of God did its work! It humbled Joshua and so many others that day. Now the Gospel was being preached and hope was being distributed thanks to Jesus.
Peter was passionate. His passion was not to convict us all with guilt only to walk away with vengeance fulfilled. No! Peter wanted everyone in this crowd to receive this precious gift from God. So Joshua repented and was baptized along with 3000 other people and the church was born!
Joshua’ life would never be the same. Everything that he learned about God’s Word was becoming clearer, now that he received the Holy Spirit. There was fire in his soul, a passion now resided in him that could not be drenched and all those strangers within the crowed now became his brothers.
What happened next dear family in Christ is without a shadow of a doubt, the blueprint for God’s church. Yes, Joshua in this story is a make believe character but, truly he represents each and every one of us. We too were lost in blindness to sin. We too were condemned to eternal death, charged with the murder of Jesus and the slaughter of a Holy and Perfect relationship with God our Father. Yet, just as the Word’s of our Lord saved 3000 that day, so too were we saved. We were saved not by any work on our part! We were saved by way of our Messiah who has come to take away the sins of the world. And we have also been brought together by God. Each one of us was gathered together, gathered by God to form a church and to live according to God’s plan.
Just how we are to live according to God’s plan and what we are called to do within God’s Holy Church is often a discussion for debate. Some people go to church and do not really know why they are there. Some come because they know that Worship is important but, they forsake all else and still others come to church without any plan or purpose that will carry over into the other 6 days of the week. The reason for these actions is not often for any other reason than nobody ever gave them a game plan for being a Christian; nobody ever bothered to lay out the blueprint of God’s Holy Christian Church.
Today that blueprint is revealed as we read Acts chapter 2. It is revealed as we watch what happens to those 3000 after they became saved. Life for them was never the same again! They did not just get saved and go back to their former way of doing things. What did happen happened with purpose. These 3000 were able to celebrate Passover in a way they have never considered before. As I mentioned earlier, the custom of the Festival of Weeks was to give a freewill offering according to the blessings given to them by God. How then can they put a limit on what they offer to the Lord, after being saved from eternal damnation? And so Scripture tells us that these folks sold their possessions and goods and gave to everyone that had need.
This is not my way of saying sell all you have to show your love for the Lord but, it does speak to how the desire to serve the Lord was more important than their desire to build wealth. Also, the early church had none of the things that we think are so important. There was not even a building. Political influence was not there, social status was not in consideration either and yet the early church won multitudes to Jesus. What the church did have was power, power by way of the Holy Spirit. They had power that moved them to think about others more than themselves. They sought to serve as everyone had a need. This power humbled them as well! Therefore they made it a goal to learn about one another and spend as much time as they could together. Scripture says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” That sort of thing of course does not happen when you only spend one hour a week with each other but it can happen during a church picnic and paint event! (done yesterday) This along with their desire to “give to anyone who had a need”, shows us one part of this blueprint of the first Christian church.
The first part of this blueprint, the one that was shared first in Acts 2:42 shows us how this church remained purposeful and impactful. Scripture says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.” In modern terms we would say, “They devoted themselves to God’s Holy Word.” The word Devoted means “solemnly set apart or dedicated; consecrated; even addicted”. An entire sermon series can be preached on this topic alone but suffice it to say, in Acts chapter 2 we see that the Holy Spirit gave these 3000 believers the power to be devoted to God’s Word. It’s a power we have also received. Although in this day and age, we would be hard pressed to be called responsible citizens if we sold everything we had in order to serve others but, we are all capable to give to our Lord all that we are and with His help, dedicate our lives to his teaching. The dedication we have for our Lord has brought us all to church, to worship our Lord and to increase as we study His Word.
The results of this devotion can be seen with the rest of God’s blueprint for the church. Scripture says that they devoted themselves to other things. These 3000 new believers devoted themselves to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Verse 46 tells us, “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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
When Luke tells us they broke bread together, he is speaking of the greatest things done in this first congregation. The celebration of the Lord’s Supper was often described at this time as the breaking of bread. Here they carried on what Jesus instituted: “Take eat, take drink, this is my body, this is my blood, given for the remission of all your sins.” Luke tells us that they prayed together and it seems that the Greek word used for prayer denotes an entire worship service and not merely the act of praying.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ in the life and witness of the believer. I called these responses of the 3000 a blueprint. The word blueprint implies there was a design by the Holy Spirit. These responses of the 3000 were not random acts as the word “EVERYONE” makes clear. How wonderful it is to know that our dedication to our Lord is not a random act, for all of us have received the power of the Holy Spirit, power to believe, power to find ourselves dedicated to His Word, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. We have power in us to believe! We have power in us to teach others the good news! God has given us all that we need to carry on God’s will.
Power flowed into those 3000 as they heard God’s Word, repented and believed. They became devoted to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The continuation of this devotion remained as they absorbed God’s teachings. Looking at these 3000, we see the importance all this devotion has in the Christian life. It ensures that we remain God’s children. It ensures that we become an extension of God’s Will. It ensures that we are habitually reminded that our sins have been forgiven by the work and love of our Savior.
Today is Pentecost Sunday and you are encouraged this day to honor this precious gift of the Holy Spirit. How have you responded so far? How would you like to respond? How will you respond today and for the days to come? The blueprint that our Lord has placed before us encourages us by showing us how the Holy Spirit has worked in our life, and directs us so that we might know that increase in our devotion is possible. Thanks be to God.
Pastor’s Note: This creative style sermon hopefully has conveyed God’s Law, His Gospel and a clear understanding of what took place during Acts chapter 2. My goal was to draw upon this scripture and bring it into our own lives, to see that what took place so long ago, still impacts us today. If the hearer walks away comforted in the Holy Spirit’s work, is aware of that work in his or her own life and is certain that all sins are forgiven by Jesus, then God’s Word has done its work today. God’s Blessings to you.
