Experiencing the Joy & Power of the Christian Life
Acts 2:41-47
Slide
Intro - Vacation
Well, it is good to be back. My family and I had a great time on vacation to start the New Year off and it was a refreshing and relaxing time for us all.
I am so glad, too, that you were also able to have a vacation from me and be blessed and refreshed by Tom and Billy these past couple of weeks.
As Laura and I got back from vacation, we like many, as we get into the New Year, take this as an opportunity to make some changes. We were able to break out one of the gifts Laura got for Christmas. A new Scale!
Slide
I didn’t like this new scale at first. I didn’t like it because it weighed me accurately versus our old scale that told me I was lighter than I actually was. But after I got over the initial disappointment, I was glad to have something accurate, because then I could make better decisions. Both Laura and I decided to start the year off losing a few pounds. I want to weigh less by about 12 to 17 pounds.
Slide
Now to actually weigh less versus jsut wanting to weigh less are 2 different things. I can’t just will myself to weigh less, although sometimes I try. Laura and Melanie make fun of me because when I step on the scale, I often take a deep breath, hoping the air in my lungs acts like helium and produces a lower number on the scale.
You can try this yourself, but I am here to tell you it doesn’t work!
So apparently and somewhat unfortunately, I am not going to weigh less unless I do something differently than I did last year.
I can’t get up tomorrow and just think lighter and, wala, I am.
So, if I want to go from where I am now to 12 to 17 pounds lighter, some things in my life have to change. I have to either eat less or exercise more or some combination of those to produce weight loss in me. It is not just going to happen because I want it to.
Transition
Now this is true not only if we want to weigh less, but for our life as a whole. As we take opportunities to look back over our lives and examine our lives, there may be areas in our life that we would like to see changed, but we need to realize that any change is not going to happen just because we want it to.
We don’t just become the person we may want to be by trying harder to be that person. Unless different actions are taken, things will not change. Unless I do something different than I did this last year, I should not expect to see different results at the end of next year or the year after.
But what are those things we need to do?
Well, that depends on what we want to see in our lives.
For Christians, as well as for most people, I think we would like to experience a joyful and productive life. We would like to make a difference in our world.
If we look back to the early church, we see those early Christians really making a difference in the world and experiencing some pretty powerful things going on through them.
Do you ever look back and wonder why the life your living doesn’t seem to be being lived with the same power and why you may not be experiencing the same joy that seemed evident in many of the early Christians despite their poor circumstances?
Sometimes I think we believe they must have been some kind of Super Christian, but I would argue that what they were experiencing was, for the most part, what should be an example of the normal Christian life.
If we aren’t experiencing that same power and joy of the Christian life, why not?
This morning, I would like you to turn in your Bibles to Acts 2:41-47.
Slide
I want to take a look at some things that were happening in the early church and take a look at what these Christians were doing so that we too might be able to experience the Joy and Power of the Christian life.
Acts 2:41-47
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
42 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.
Pray
Now, we see some pretty awesome things going on here.
These new followers of Jesus Christ are being used powerfully for eternal purposes and are experiencing glad and sincere hearts and seeing God work through them.
Every one of us would like to see our lives matter, to have purpose, and to be used powerfully.
That is what was going on in these new Christians and they were experiencing joy.
We see in verse 41 that 3000 people accepted the message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and were baptized that day.
That is amazing, but what is even more amazing, is what God does with these early believers.
Look at verse 47. Through these brand new Christians, God works powerfully. He doesn’t wait several years until they are mature and know a lot. He uses them right from the beginning in such a way that it says that God was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
On a daily basis, eternities were being changed through the lives of these new Christians and it tells us that they were experiencing glad hearts and they were praising God and enjoying the favor of the people.
This band of people who had trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior were experiencing the joy and power of the Christian life, not just on Sundays, but every day!
What if…
What if God was using you each day to change the eternity of someone you know or come in contact with so that they were no longer on a path to hell, but would now be in heaven because of what God did through you and you were experiencing the favor of the people around you?
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
What if people were seeing your life, and the joy that you were experiencing in life, maybe even in the middle of some difficulty like a job loss or dealing with health issues with yourself or a family member, and were asking you questions like,
How is it that you are experiencing joy with all that you are dealing with?
What do you know that I don’t know?
How can I live a life like you are living?
Maybe you are sitting here saying, I would like to live like that, but how?
Does that happen just be receiving Jesus as Savior?
No. I would argue that while Jesus transforms us when we receive Him as Savior, and we have eternal life immediately at that point, there are several things we see in this passage that we must do, not to earn eternal life, but to be able to experience the joy and power of the Christian life like these early Christians were experiencing.
What are those things we must do?
Look at verse 42. We see several things that the early disciples devoted themselves to that helped them to experience the joy and power of the Christian life.
First, it says they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching
What is that? Where can we find the Apostles teaching?
In the Bible.
They were devoted to Bible study.
If we are going to experience the Joy and power of the Christian life, we need to
Devote ourselves to Bible Study
Slide
Acts 2:42 - They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching… (NIV, ESV)
Acts 2:42 - And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine (KJV)
If we want to be experiencing the power and joy of the Christian life, it is imperative that we are feeding ourselves a regular diet of the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Now, devoting ourselves to Bible study doesn’t mean we just who up and listen to a teaching or read a passage each day.
It means digging in and asking questions and seeking understanding.
In Paul’s early missionary trips as he would travel around proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, he came across the Bereans.
Acts 17:11
Slide
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
They were looking into it, studying it, asking questions. As we study the word of God, God changes us.
He reveals to us how He wants us to live in His word. God wants us to obey His commands and His word tells us that “his commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
They are not burdensome at all, but in them they hold the key to a joyful and powerful life.
Now, coming here on a Sunday morning is important. But this cannot be the only time that you are studying God’s word. That would be like eating one meal a week!
Too many of us are experiencing Christian anorexia! We are not experiencing Power and joy in our lives because we are malnourished.
We need to be feasting on the word of God so we can become mature and complete, so we don’t lack anything we need to live joyfully!
Be devoted to studying God’s word.
Transition
The next thing we see that they devoted themselves to is fellowship.
If we want to experience the joy and power of the Christian life, we need to
Devote ourselves to Fellowship
Slide
Acts 2:42 - They devoted themselves to …the fellowship…NIV
Acts 2:42 - They devoted themselves to …fellowship…(ESV)
Many times when people hear the word fellowship, they think of breaking out the coffee and donuts and hanging out together.
The word that is translated fellowship here is Koinonia.
It means participation – partnership – sharing together.
It is a relationship between individuals which involves active participation in a common interest and as a result of this participation together, we have an interest in one another.
It is far more than having some snacks and talking about football or the weather. It involves doing life together, talking through issues you may be facing.
We see in the early church, they were meeting together daily. They got to know one another.
Now, it is not so scary getting to know others. It is sometimes scary letting ourselves be known. When people know us, that is when they can hurt us.
I know there are people here who have opened themselves up to others in the past and have been hurt. So, they close up. They don’t allow themselves to be known.
And while that will help you avoid some pain, you will never experience the real joy and power of the Christian life without opening up and devoting yourselves to fellowship.
The fact of the matter is, is that our fellowship with God, is dependent upon our fellowship with others.
Listen to
1 John 1:6-7
Slide
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
This verse is saying that if we say we are in fellowship with the Lord, yet we continue on living in open and unrepentant sin, we lie and we really aren’t in close fellowship with the Lord.
Then in the next verse it gives the opposite of that.
If, instead of living sinfully, we are walking in the light of the truth of God’s word, we would expect John to say we experience the opposite of not having fellowship with the Lord. But what does he say?
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with other Christians are integrally linked.
I would argue that you can’t really have close fellowship with God without having close fellowship with some other Christians.
God works in our life to draw us closer to Him through other people.
It is through other people and our fellowship with them, that He teaches us to love like He does. He teaches us patience, like He has. He teaches us perseverance.
God grows us through other people.
And when we study God’s word in fellowship with one another, he continues to grow us.
Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Slide
If we do not have others in our life, if we aren’t experiencing fellowship with others, then we have removed from our life one of the ways that God grows us and helps us to mature so we can experience the joy and power of the Christian life.
Breaking of Bread
The next phrase in Acts 2:42 talks about the breaking of bread.
Some have thought this is solely a reference to communion, but I think it really means just eating together and is a further explaining of an aspect of fellowship.
You see it further explained in Acts 2:46, a few verses later
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,
Sharing a meal together is something that helps bond people together.
But it goes back to the idea of fellowship, of growing our relationship with each other.
We see this today.
We want to get to know someone better, what do we do?
We invite them over for dinner so we can talk and get to know one another better.
This verse goes on and finishes out with one final thing that we need to devote ourselves to if we are going to experience the joy and power of the Christian life. And that is that we need to
Devote ourselves to Prayer
Slide
Acts 2:42 - They devoted themselves to …prayer. NIV
We have got to be a praying people.
We do not have the power to live well ourselves, but God has the power to live joyfully and we need to be praying so that we experience this to His glory and honor.
If we are not praying, we will be ineffective and lack joy.
James tells us that we don’t have some things because we fail to ask.
I think sometimes we are afraid to pray for something specifically because we think that God won’t respond the way we want. Even in those times, God helps us to experience joy and power.
Paul’s Thorn
Paul had, what he called a thorn in his flesh, and he tells us that he prayed specifically for God to take it away, but God said no.
God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Well that is a huge bummer!
God didn’t answer Paul the way he wanted. So that must have made Paul discouraged, right?
Listen to what Paul says in response to God’s “No” answer to his prayer.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul prayed, God said no, Paul experienced joy and God’s power working through Him!
Peter’s miraculous release
Other times, as we pray, God responds miraculously!
A great example of the miraculous power of prayer is in Acts 12.
Peter was in prison and from a human perspective things were not looking too good.
Herod was arresting and killing some of the Christians. He had James killed and the Jews were happy about that, so he was looking to please them more so he had Peter arrested and was planning on killing him too.
And in Acts 12:5 it says that “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
The church was praying. The Christians were together in unity in fellowship. They were devoted to studying God’s word and devoted to one another in fellowship and were devoted in prayer and powerful things were happening.
Peter was miraculously freed from prison because of the prayers of the saints.
God can still do miracles and I believe, still does miracles today. While I don’t believe He uses miracle workers, I believe He still responds to the prayers of His people and will respond in miraculous ways when necessary.
And even when we pray and He says no, He transforms us through it to experience joy and power!
Be devoted to prayer.
Conclusion
Are you experiencing the Joy and power of the Christian Life?
If not, then I want you to ask yourself if you are devoting yourself to Bible study, fellowship and prayer?
You cannot experience the joy and power of the Christian life without being devoted to those things.
One place you can have opportunity to devote yourself to all of those things is through a small group Bible study!
Are you part of a small group? Maybe you are, but are you really devoted to it, or are you just going through the motions?
Everyone here needs to be involved in a small group Bible study and to devote themselves to it.
To doing the study and asking questions and sharpening one another.
To opening yourself up to fellowship, to letting others really get to know you.
To praying.
Small group is not a place to show others how much you know, or to put on a front to show others how great you are.
It is a place that God can truly change you and help you to experience the joy and power of the Christian life.
Maybe you have had a bad experience in the past. I want to encourage you to give it another try.
In your bulletin we have an insert that lists our available studies that you can be part of.
If you are not already part of a study, sign up for one.
They are on different days and at different times to best accommodate people’s schedules.
Make this a priority this year so that you can truly experience the joy and power of the Christian life this year.
Let’s pray.
