The First Church of Jerusalem Acts 2:41-42
OUTLINE; The Work of God in the Growth of the Church
1. The First Church was a REDEEMED Church: They received the Word gladly.
2. The First Church was STEADFAST. (proskartereô) A True branch abides
3. The First Church continually taught Biblical Content: (Doctrine, didachç) The Church has the authority and responsibility to preach, teach, receive and obey God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.
4.The First Church continually exercised Christ-like Character: Fellowship (koinônia- to share in something) (Rom 15:26, 1Co 1:9, 10:16, 2Co 6:14, 8:4, 9:13, 13:14, Gal 2:9, Phil 1:5, 2:1, 3:10, Philemon 1:6, Heb 13:16, 1 John 1:3, 1:6-7)
We have been looking at the Peter’s Pentecost Message and the Holy Spirit coming upon the people who were present, giving birth to the Church. In Acts 2:40 we read: “40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”
The Work of God at Pentecost
Three thousand were added to the Church on that one day. In Acts 2:37 we had learned that they were cut to the heart by the sword of the Spirit and the word of God. God’s Word and Spirit bring the evidence that: ALL are guilty before God! Then God’s Word and Spirit gives life to the human dead heart and convicts us for the need to Repent, to turn to Jesus as Savior and Lord, and to be baptized. In Acts 2, God does NOT SLAY three thousand for rejecting Him and turning to false gods, as He did in Exodus 32, but in Acts 2, His Word and Holy Spirit cuts to the heart and brings new life, convincing even those who killed Jesus that HIS GRACE is even sufficient to save them, and so ANYONE who calls on Jesus as Savior God will be saved.
It is a level playing field. All have turned to his own way and everyone must Turn to Christ alone for forgiveness, and be cleansed, turn and be dipped, turn and be immersed, turn and be cleansed by Christ alone and follow Him alone…Water baptism is one of your first acts of obedience as you confess your trust in Him and are identified with Christ and with His Body. The gift of His Holy Spirit assures Believers of His peace, forgiveness, His presence and life. instead of His judgment.
The Work of God in the Birth and Growth of the Church
1. We are going to look at several results of the birth of Christ’s spiritual body, the First (Baptist) Church in Jerusalem. The First Church in Jerusalem was a REDEEMED Church because they “had received his word,” they accepted Peter’s message of salvation in the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Individuals receive and accept the Gospel of Grace in Jesus and they are received into the Church. Verse 41 says: “Those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls (psychç ) were added to them.” It does not say that EVERYONE believed, but those who received the free gift that is offered by God, were born from above, brought to spiritual life, born into God’s Family, born into His community. The Church operates as the body of Christ: we are of one mind in Him since He is the Head of the Body.
The miraculous birth of the Church at Pentecost is HIS demonstration of the power of God’s unfathomable Love and grace to save through the Savior Jesus. His GIFT and Saving Work in us calls believers to a new way of Life in Him, providing a new focus and developing new habits or disciplines.
Being born into God’s Family inevitably results in GROWTH. Acts 2:42 tells us: “They devoted themselves (proskartereô) to the apostles' teaching (didachç) and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
2. In the original text it says: “They were continually devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles,” to the teaching of those who had seen Jesus. The First Church was STEADFAST and loyal. You find this word for CONTINUALLY DEVOTING or being steadfast throughout the life and growth of the Church. One way that it is exemplified is in the way that a soldier is entirely loyal to his calling. Even as a soldier’s intent is to be devoted to his calling, believers also willfully are devoted to God’s calling…a far greater calling!
Jesus said to His Disciples in John 15:4: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Make it your business to stay constantly in love with me if you are going to grow and bear fruit. Old Testament Israel was continually detaching themselves from the vine; if you are purely in love with Jesus, you’ll stay attached to Him.
3.Also the First Church continually taught Biblical Content: The word that is most often associated with the TEACHING of the apostles is the word DOCTRINE, or didache. Today so many people want a spiritual feeling or experience without correct Biblical Doctrine or teaching. Many congregations have strayed from the teaching of the early Church. “Didache” means to speak in the way of teaching or instruction, and in the case of the Church, it is teaching from God’s Word. It is different and distinct from other modes of speaking in public or teaching BECAUSE IT IS taught only FROM God’s Word.
One of the essential elements needed in Christian discipleship and growth is to follow the example of the early Church in instruction from the apostles’ teaching, not because THEY were so successful, but because the apostles had learned under the tutoring of the Master Himself, the Lord Jesus. Jesus’ teaching was about the Kingdom of God and about His own person and work, as well as the Christian’s responsibility as His followers and kingdom citizens.
In the 28 chapters of Acts, there are 31 references to the Old Testament. According to one source, there are around 343 Old Testament quotations in the New Testament, as well as no fewer than 2,309 allusions and verbal parallels. The Bible “is the Church's only infallible and sufficient rule for deciding issues of faith and practices that involve doctrines and Christian living. The Bible does teach us how to do everything (it doesn’t tell us where to go to school, or what job to have, or what age to stop working) it DOES contain everything for salvation and God honoring life. If something is not found in Scripture, it is not binding upon the believer but the Church has the authority and responsibility to preach, teach, receive and obey God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The First Church of Jerusalem continually taught God’s Word and every community of true believers will do the same. Spirit-filled Christians will WANT TO study God’s Word; they will hunger for the study of God’s Word because they realize that they are starving spiritually without it. The sign of a Spirit-filled congregation is where people flee TO God’s Word, not from it; they do this because they filled with the Spirit and want to remain rooted, grounded and growing IN THAT WORD.
Like Peter said in John 6:68: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” DOCTRINE is the very basis of the Church, not emotion or experience. Emotions and experiences will change, but God’s Teaching will not. It is constant and true because He is! Lives should be in line with the teaching of God’s Word.
Paul later instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:6: “If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.”
4. Lastly for this morning, (we will pick up on other points next week) the Church grows as it continually exercises Christ-like Character. “They devoted themselves to the fellowship,” to the “koinônia.” “Koinônia” means to share in something. It carries the idea of, companion, or partaker, joint participation or COMMUNITY. When you receive Jesus Christ you became a partner with Christ. You also became a partner with every other Christian, and like it or not, that will never change.
Worshiping and pleasing the one who gave Himself FOR US should always be the reason for coming together, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying fellowship together, in fact, we SHOULD enjoy each other. We share in the salvation that God has provided and so we are joint “partakers” IN HIM, and have fellowship WITH Him and with each other. We share life IN HIM and with HIM and share life with each other. Fellowship with Christ means fellowship with other believers. We share faith in HIM. We have all been baptized by the same HOLY SPIRIT. How can we NOT fellowship with each other?
1 John 1:6-7 says: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
If we indeed partnership in WORKING together to promote the Gospel and His Kingdom purposes, then we understand that it is a HOLY CALLING as well as HIS HOLY CHARACTER that we share as believers, and we will experience fellowship. If your mindset amounts to only visiting church on Sunday morning and that's the limit of your fellowship, then you have missed the Biblical point. I only say this because God’s Word teaches it clearly and plainly, so don’t be offended: Go to God’s Word and prayerfully discover it. The Biblical evidence is that you will definitely desire MORE than that as a person of the FELLOWSHIP.
Check out Hebrews 10:23-25. The Bible says, " Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Do you think Jesus is coming pretty soon? Do you think the day's approaching? Then is it time to get together once in a while or more often?
“Koinonia”, the fellowship of believers is what the CHURCH is all about, beloved. That's why we're here. If we can't come together and exercise the fellowship as the Spirit wants us to, then it is not for us to leave but it is for us to deal with the issue that restricts our fellowship from being what it scripturally should be. It is up to us the Church to come to grips with the problem and participate toward a WHOLESOME and God-GLORIFYING SOLUTION.
In the Old Testament this “participation” or KOINONIA denoted fellowship at the Passover and in the New Testament it denotes fellowship at the Lord’s Table. “The BREAKING of BREAD”(the next phrase in the verse) certainly means Church dinners and Sunday Socials, and stopping at people’s homes, but the fellowship we have at the Table of the Lord, the COMMUNION TABLE, is our reminder that we would have NO FELLOWSHIP with God at all, and nothing in common among each other except our sinfulness, if it were not for God’s Grace and His Power in Christ to forgive and pardon us of our debt.
All Christians come together at one point, and that is at the Cross- all of us being crucified with Christ are one. Every time we celebrate communion we're acknowledging that the cross of Christ is the symbol of our unity. Our fellowship came because Jesus died. He purchased us, we were in Him in His death, all of us who believe.
When you partake of the bread and the cup you are in a spiritual sense partaking of Christ. Jesus said , “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (John 6:35) "The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the fellowship of Christ? "
We “partake” together to celebrate God’s Grace not to merit or earn His Grace: Christ came and died so that we could have fellowship (be reconciled) to God, and so that we would be reconciled and have fellowship one with another in Him. To God alone be the Glory.
