“Recipe for Revival”
Acts 2:42-46
What’s the key to success in life? Walk into any bookstore and you’ll see shelves of books on how to be successful. How to be successful in business; in relationships; in personal financial planning; in athletics.
One man who knew about success in sports was Vince Lombardi, by all accounts one of the greatest football coaches of all time.
•He began coaching the Green Bay Packers in 1959. The previous year they had a 1-10-1 record in 1958. Lombardi turned it around to 7-5 record in his first season.
•Over the next eight years, his Packers dominated the league, winning six divisional and five NFL championships and also winning Super Bowls I and II.
•I have special memories of Vince Lombardi, actually painful memories, because my family were hardcore Dallas Cowboy fans. Several times, in 1966, 67 the Cowboys faced the Packers in NFL championships. Each time getting beat.
•I still remember it. December 31, 1967. I was eight years old. In the now-legendary "Ice Bowl" game. It was 13 below zero and a wind chill of minus 46. With 13 seconds left in the game, Bart Starr scored winning touchdown from 1-yard line with a quarterback sneak. The Packers won 21-17.
•I still bear the scars.
Lombardi’s philosophies were hard work; perseverance; sticking with the fundamentals. He demanded the best of himself and his players.
•Forrest Gregg, "When Lombardi said ’sit down’ we didn’t look for a chair."-
•He would start the first practice session by picking up a football and saying, “This is a football.”
We can learn a lot about that focus on fundamentals.
If we are going to be successful as a Church, we have to re-focus on the fundamentals.
•That’s exactly what the Church in Acts did.
•So this is a Bible. If you have your turn with me to Acts 2.
This morning we are continuing our series in Acts.
Two weeks ago we learned that the Church in Acts had a great thing going
•Jesus had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem. And seven weeks after Easter, on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers as Jesus promised it would be; the Church is born.
•The Apostle Peter preaches a great sermon and 3000 people are saved. An incredible day!
But this is just the beginning. Throughout the book of Acts we see phenomenal growth. In 2:47: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved";
•By chapter 4 the church has exploded to over 5000.
•And throughout Acts, the growth of the church is a common refrain.
5.14: "More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number";
6.7: "the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly...
9.31 "and the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria was strengthened...and it grew in numbers"
And it goes on and on (11:21, 24; 14:1, 21; 16:5; 17:12).
•If the book of Acts were a song, the chorus, the refrain would be, “The Lord kept adding to their number.”
Now don’t get me wrong. Numbers are not the key to success.
•We could have extraordinary numbers. A great media event. Glitzy entertainment.
•But this growth is not just numbers; this is changed lives. People getting saved; people maturing in their faith.
Wouldn’t it be great if when the history of College Avenue for 1999 the common theme was “and the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”
The question we want to address today is how did it happen to the Church in Acts?
How can we model that success? What are the fundamentals we need to focus on?
Acts 2:42-47. In this passage, Luke gives a summary of the actions of the church after the Day of Pentecost. What they were doing during this time of phenomenal growth.
•Read passage.
•Verse 42 mentions four things the church was engaged in. Four ingredients for success. They are the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
•It is interesting to me that these four are all part of our ten signs or characteristics of a growing Christian.
•In a sense we are continuing our 10 signs. We will see how those Christian qualities worked themselves out in the early Church.
I’ve called this message “Recipe for Revival” Because in this passage Luke gives the ingredients to the Church’s success.
•Now I want to clarify something: This is not something we do. Repeatedly in Acts we hear, "the Lord added to their number daily those being saved." Not: “Through a slick media campaign the apostles were bringing them in.” “Through Peter’s incredible speaking gifts they were getting saved.”
•It was through the power of the Holy Spirit.
•The real question: How can we open ourselves up to his work.
First ingredient. They devoted themselves to
1. The Apostle’s teaching.
What is the “apostle’s teaching”?
First must ask, Who were the apostles? As we saw in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus chose 12 disciples. Though he preached to multitudes, his goal was to train these 12. Especially as the end of his life drew near, he spent less time w/multitudes, and more with these. His greatest goal was not to convert thousands, but to train 12.
•Because these 12 who would carry on his message after Jesus was gone.
Jesus never wrote a book of his teaching; never produced a spiritual workout video. “Ten Steps to Spiritual Happiness.”
•Instead, these 12 were his book, he wrote his message on their lives. They were his promotional video. He stamped his life on theirs.
•They became the official guardians of the message. They were to ensure Jesus’ words and deeds were faithfully remembered.
•Interesting, in Acts 1 the disciple’s choose a replacement for Judas. Two criteria: (1) to have been with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry (and so to know his words and deeds) and (2) to be a witness to the resurrection (and so to know the saving power of his death and resurrection).
The “Apostle’s teaching,” then, is the message about Jesus. The “Gospel” or “Good News.” What you have in your hand. (1) The stories about Jesus in the Gospels, and (2) and the reflection on what Jesus accomplished in the Epistles
•We no longer have the Apostles with us, but we have their teaching in the NT.
What’s our first ingredient for revival?
We as a church must be faithfully teaching and studying the Word of God.
That word “devoted” in v. 42 means "continuing faithfully". It means not getting sidetracked into other areas.
•In some churches the Bible itself is rarely taught. Social issues are addressed; ethical questions are debated and discussed; but there is very little real Bible study.
We as believers must be established in God’s Word.
I remember when I was in Romania in 1990-91
•It was an exciting time for Romania. Unprecedented new religious freedoms. Churches are growing and thriving.
•But it is also a dangerous time. Cults are pouring in.
As Charles Dickens wrote concerning the French revolution in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” it is the same after the Romanian revolution.
•The best of times because there is now widespread freedom of religion.
•The worst because all these religious movements were pouring in.
•One evening while I was there I was asked to attend a youth meeting.
-They were having a series of messages on the cults, something brand new to them.
-In the past, communism was the greatest enemy of the Church. In a sense, communism was an easy foe to defeat, because communism is atheistic. Everyone deep down knows there is a God. Communism had no chance. Look at what happen when the iron curtain fell down.
-But the real danger now came not from communism, but from the religious counterfeits; the cults, who claimed to be Christian but who twisted Scripture to fit their beliefs.
-My message to them was “It used to be enough to be willing to stand up for what you believe, to suffer.” “But now, you must know why you believe. You’ve got to know this book like never before.”
•We have the same danger here in S. CA
•Extraordinary religious pluralism. Where everyone quotes the Bible to try to prove their own perspective.
•Do you know God’s Word well enough to respond? Could you take someone through this book and show them the plan of salvation? How it is faith alone that brings salvation. Could you show who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished on the cross?
•Last week we looked at 1 Peter 3.15 to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Are your ready to give an answer?
The early church was ready. Because they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. They equipped themselves with God’s Word.
Charles Paul Conn tells of the time when he lived in Atlanta. He noticed in the Yellow Pages, in the listing of restaurants, an entry for a place called Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, "Hello! Church of God Grill!" He asked how the restaurant had been given such an unusual name, and the man at the other end said: "Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. Well, people liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After a while we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving the chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that’s Church of God Grill." Rev. Adrian Dieleman Index: 1235-1236
What happens when you take God’s Word out of the Church? What happens when you water down the message?
•You’ve just got chicken. You have nothing but a social club.
•Because this is our guide. This tells us who we are. It tells us where we are going.
T- The early Church devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, second...
2. They devoted themselves to Fellowship.
When I was growing up, fellowship always meant one thing: = food!
•We even had a “Fellowship Hall.” Connected to the church kitchen.
•Of course there are various degrees and levels of intimacy of fellowship. There is mere punch and cookies (fairly low level; that red punch concentrate; we used to call it “red dye number two”). In the middle there is finger sandwich and dessert fellowships. The ultimate level of fellowship of course is what? The “pot luck”. The pinnacle, the ecstasy of fellowship.
•The Greek word = koinonia. Really had nothing to do with food.
•The It means “commonality” or “sharing in common”.
A good definition of fellowship: “Participating together to achieve a common goal.”
•In Ephesians 4, Paul points out that the Church we are not a bunch of people doing their own thing. We are One Body. That body works together to achieve a common goal.
•When one part of the body is struggling, the rest of the body helps to support it.
•(Backpacking; hurt my knee; we had a good five miles to go; I thought I’d never make it; rest of body coped).
The early church had a sense of “community”; unity; oneness.
•Nurturing and reaching out to others. Meetings each others needs. They reached out and met each others needs.
•See it in verses 44-45: 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.
• “Selling their possessions”? Weren’t they afraid they wouldn’t have enough for their own family? But that’s the point. The Church was their family. They took care of their own.
Fellowship means the body is working together for a common good. For a common purpose.
•It is acting like a body.
-Being together and working together for a common goal.
-Supporting the parts of the body that are hurting.
-Strengthening the parts of the body that are weak.
The writer of Hebrews called the Church to this attitude: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Heb. 10:25)
Fellowship means being together and working together for a common good.
In the insect world it is the difference between an ant and a scorpion.
•You look at an ant hill; perfectly organized society, where each individual works together to make
•Contrast that with the life of the scorpion. Scorpions eat insects, but they also kill and eat their own species as well. One scientist placed a hundred scorpions in a large glass vessel, and after a few days only fourteen remained. The rest had been killed and eaten by the others.
•Solitary animals. They are seen together only when they are fighting or mating (I won’t draw any analogies to marriage). After mating the female will often turn and eat the male. (seriously, I read this in an encyclopedia, not the National Enquirer).
This reminds me of Paul’s words to the churches in Galatia. He says, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Gal. 5:15.
•Paul says, “Stop devouring each other.”
•Start acting like ants, not scorpions. You have a common purpose. Taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”
The early Church was successful because they stuck to the basics, the fundamentals. They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching, to Fellowship, third...
3. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread
This probably refers to a common meal shared together, during which the Lord’s Supper, or communion was observed.
•Sort of a pot luck, followed by a time of worship and communion.
If fellowship was primarily horizontal, focused on our relationship with other believers, breaking of bread is primarily vertical, focusing on our relationship with God.
•When the Church comes together to focus on Jesus Christ; to worship together.
We function most like the Church when we participate together in common worship. And the greatest act of worship we can do is to partake of the Lord’s Supper together.
But how is worship in the Lord’s Supper an ingredient for revival?
The Lord’s supper is a time of remembering Christ’s death; what he accomplished for us.
•As the church reflects on who God is, and what he did for us, we recognize our position before him; we are just sinners saved by God’s grace.
•The more we reflect on Christ’s love for us, the more we want to share that love with others.
•That brings us closer together.
A.W. Tozer, in the book The Pursuit of God, said this, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ’unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
•The Church comes together; the Church works together best when it focuses on Christ.
T- And that really brings up the last ingredient. Because the Church comes together most when it devotes itself to prayer.
The Early Church devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and finally....
4. To Prayer
Every spiritual revival in history has begun with prayer. With men and women of God recognizing that if they are going to accomplish anything, they can’t do it on their own.
I really appreciated the week of prayer we had two weeks ago, culminating in a concert of prayer on Sunday night.
•I think we need to do more of that as a body.
•Because it really is true that as we get our eyes off ourselves and on God, we come together like those one hundred pianos..
And when the church prays, things happen. The early church knew this lesson.
•Prayer was their life-blood of the early church. It was their strength. All through Acts we will see this. When they are persecuted, they turned to prayer.
•Turn over a few pages to Acts 4, Peter and John are arrested by the Sanhedrin and warned not to continue preaching about Jesus.
•Rd. 4.23, 24: On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
•What was the church’s response? They didn’t call a business meeting to discuss the situation; they didn’t form a committee to develop a plan of action.
•No. look at verse 24: When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
•And look at the results. V. 31: After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.
They knew where their source of strength was. They knew where the power was.
•It wasn’t in themselves; it was in God. So they prayed.
Max Lucado, in his book God Came Near, describes a funny incident one New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade
•A beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas.
•The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas. (With the present gas prices, I get great delight when I hear a story like that).
•That’s a good illustration of Christians trying to operate without prayer. We have vast resources available to us. The resources of an eternal God. Yet so often we fail to look to him, our only source of power.
(Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 95; Steve Blankenship, on Internet Illustrations site)
When God’s people cry out to him, he responds.
•When I was in Romania I was amazed at the way the churches prayed. In one church I was supposed to speak on a Sunday morning. When I arrived at the church, they had already been in a prayer meeting for two hours.
•They brought me later because “You soft Americans can’t sit for that long.”
•You see after years of persecution they had realized, they really had nothing else. They had no political power; they had no clout in their community.
•They only had prayer.
•When are we going to realize the same thing? That when it comes right down to it. We have nothing else.
Do we want revival? If we want to see God do great things here at CABC, then we’re going to have to pray.
The book of Acts sets out a recipe for success. It is the same for us as it was for the early church. It begins with commitment.
Commitment to the apostle’s teaching. Regularly devoting ourselves to the systematic study of God’s word.
Commitment to fellowship. Uniting together around the things we share in common in Christ.
Commitment to the breaking of bread and worship.
Commitment to prayer.
