At the church where I serve, we have launched into a new year by spending our time together in a sermon
series entitled living on mission. During this
series our hope and our prayer is that we would enable, equip and empower us to
live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus on mission as a missionary to
those that God has already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from
God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.
And if you do not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church
thing, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him, here’s the
thing. What you will discover during this series is that there is a way that
those who are followers of Jesus are supposed to live. And there is a way that
followers of Jesus are supposed to talk about the claims that Jesus made about
who He was and what He came to earth to do. And my hope for you is that you
would see what Jesus calls His followers to so that you can see how He feels
about you and what He calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you.
That way, you can cut through the bad experiences that you have had with Jesus
followers to see the truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to
be truly about as they live around you.
Now this week, I would like for us to look at a
section of letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles
called the book of Acts. The book of Acts records how early followers of Jesus engaged
in the mission that they had been given by Jesus after He had been raised from
the dead and returned to Heaven. The book of Acts begins with Jesus giving His
followers a kingdom mission in Acts 1:8. Let’s look at that mission together:
but you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest part of the earth."
Then, ten days after Jesus had this conversation
with His disciples and returned to Heaven, we see the disciples filled with the
Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We see Peter, the one who denied Jesus during His
crucifixion, preach a sermon that God used to bring 3,000 people into the relationship
with God that they were created for. For
those of you that believe that a mega church is not Biblical, here is the
thing. The church began as a mega church. The first church service had 3,000
people there.
And Luke, at the end of the second chapter of the
Book of Acts, gives us a glimpse into the life of this new movement called the
church. And in this glimpse inside this new movement called the church, we see
God reveal to us another timeless truth when it comes to living on mission. So
let’s discover this truth together, beginning in Acts 2:42:
They were
continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and
many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
Luke brings us into this section of the book of Acts
by revealing for us several timeless practices that these early followers of
Jesus embraced as part of this new movement called the church. First, we see that
these early followers of Jesus intentionally gathered together corporately. The
early followers of Jesus began to gather together in the temple courts to meet
together in community. That is one of the main reasons that the Jewish
religious leaders of the day were so upset; can you imagine 3,000 or more
people gathering and taking over your place of worship to talk about a man that
you had just killed?
Luke tells us that these followers of Jesus gathered
together in community to participate in three major activities. First, they
gathered together devoting themselves to the apostles teaching. In other words,
they gathered together to hear the Apostles share the message and teachings of
Jesus. Remember, the gospels and the letters of the New Testament in our Bibles
had not been written. So early followers of Jesus gathered together in
community to hear Jesus closest followers explain how Jesus fulfilled the
message and teaching of the Old Testament and how they were to apply the
message and teachings of Jesus to their day to day lives. They gathered
together in large groups in order to hear a preacher preach. Preaching has
always been preeminent and prominent in the lives of followers of Jesus.
Second, these early followers of Jesus gathered
together in community for the breaking of bread. The breaking of bread here
refers to the Lord’s Supper, or communion. Third, Luke tells us that they
gathered together for times of corporate prayer. Now, as we have previously
discovered and discussed, in Jesus day, it was a common practice for people to
pray out loud, in groups, in church. Jesus had taught His disciples the
importance of prayer and these early leaders of this new movement called the
church were passing this on to the early church.
And in the same way today, as part of God’s
community called the church, we are called to gather together corporately in
community with one another to experience and encounter God through the
preaching of His word, through the celebration of communion and through times
of group and corporate prayer. God grows, equips, and empowers His followers to
live on mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the
world through preaching, communion, and prayer as we gather together in
community with one another as His followers.
In verse 43, Luke explains that as
these early followers of Jesus gathered together in community to hear the
message and teachings of Jesus; as they celebrated communion; as they prayed
together; everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. What is so interesting is that
this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in,
literally means to feel a sense of
fear, alarm, or fright. But why would there be a sense of fear or alarm in the
church?
To understand why this was
happening, we first need to look back at what had previously happened. You see,
when the crowds listening to Peter’s sermon heard God’s words through Peter and
witnessed God’s activity through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence in the
lives of these early followers of Jesus, their eyes were opened to the truth of
the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and their need for rescue
from selfishness and rebellion.
And as these early followers of
Jesus and as those who were in the temple continued to hear the message and
teachings of Jesus, there was a response of conviction of selfishness and
rebellion which resulted in a sense of fear, alarm, or fright. And this sense
of fear and fright was intensified by the wonders and signs that were taking
place through the Apostles.
As the Apostles exercised the
sign spiritual gifts that God had given them to do the miraculous, these
spiritual gifts served as a sign that authenticated their message and teachings
as being brought from God and not simply made up by man. The crowds recognized
that this was a message from God that could not be ignored or minimized. This
was a message that required a response.
Friday, we will see Luke
reveals for us several additional practices that these early followers of Jesus
embraced in community together as part of this new movement called the church...
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