We'll begin opening to Acts chapter
2. I always think how firm a foundation
is. Pastor John Chapman had a machine
shop. They had a Babbitt foundry in
the back. And he took me in the back about 2 o'clock in the morning.
He was working all overnight. And he said, come here Kevin.
He took that dross, put it in the Babbitt. It was real hot,
you know, liquid. And he said, dross. And he put it in there.
And he said, consumed. And he raked that dross off,
you know. And I learned something. I like learning things. I'm pretty
hard-headed sometimes. Last weekend, I wrote an article
and put it in a bulletin out of Acts chapter 2. Because we
were going to have our meal together, observe the Lord's table together
that weekend. And that just laid heavy on my heart. I want us
to look at this group of believers here in Acts chapter 2 it speaks
of and see if they're like us. See if I can learn something
from them. Anytime in the scriptures it declares what believers don't
do or believers do do, I pay attention. You all probably don't think
that way, but do I do that? Should I do that? Shouldn't I
do this? I want to see what those believers recorded by the Spirit
of God, what they did. Here in Acts chapter 2, the apostles
had just got to the Pentecost. At the time, it was the Feast
of Weeks. It was 50 days after the Passover.
And they had been used to perform a miracle in front of this huge
gathering. 50 days after the Passover, people
come from all over to Jerusalem. At the time, before Jerusalem
was destroyed, to bring the first fruit to the harvest. And so
there's people from all over, different countries. They all
came to Jerusalem. They had to. And these men got up and spoke.
And they preached to them in their native language. And every
person there heard it in their own language. That's as if I
stood up here and I spoke to you in English and you only spoke
Spanish and you heard me in Spanish. It was a miracle that was performed.
And some people there doubted. They said, well, these men are
drunk. Or the people here are drunk. And Peter said, no, it's
only the third hour. It's 9 a.m. Ain't nobody, nobody's
drunk here. In this large group of people,
Peter stood up and he preaches a crucified and risen Christ
to them. Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man,
seated at the right hand of God Almighty. That's what he preaches
to them. There in Acts 2.32 it says, This
Jesus hath God raised up. whereof we all are witnesses.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear." He sent them in power.
Those men had gifts. They were apostles. And we'll
see this later on here, but the Lord sent them with signs that
people would know them. Verse 34, "'For David is not
ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The LORD said
unto my Lord, Set thou on my right hand, until I make thy
foes thy footstool." David saw this. That's what David understood,
and that's what Peter's declaring to these folks here, this large
group. There in verse 36, it says, Therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And did that
Word return void unto Peter? The Lord's Word doesn't, does
He? The Holy Spirit, that great Comforter, came and touched those
people. It says there in verse 37, Acts
2 verse 37, Now when they had heard this, they were pricked
in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto
them, Repent, be baptized, Every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you."
That's speaking of God's elect at that moment. And to your children,
these brethren, spiritual children, and to all that are far off,
people from different countries, different areas, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call. And so on throughout time until
it's here with us in verse 40. And with many other words, Peter
testified and exhorted saying, save, deliver, separate, save
yourselves from this untoward generation. Untoward means inappropriate. rebellious, and not towards God,
but untowards God, turned away from God. Peter's telling them,
turn from that religion that they know, what they grew up
in. Turn from the works. Turn from all those feasts, all
these laws that they have to stand with, those blasphemous
things, and turn to Christ. And they did. And we'll see here
in the next seven verses the results of the Spirit of God
delivering these people out of that untoward generation. This is what happens. Verse 41
says, Then they gladly received his word. Some of the older translations
adds there, and believed. They received and believed. And
were baptized. And the same day they were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. Could you imagine seeing that
in our day? We went to downtown San Diego
and preached and told those people about Christ and 3,000 people
heard. Not that they just listened to
words coming out of a man's mouth, they heard the Lord. That would
be amazing, wouldn't it? But there's an order there, verse
41, I think we ought to pay attention to. This order is always established
in the Scriptures. First, they heard The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They learned who He is. They
learned what He did, why He did it, and where He is now. That's
what they heard. Second, they gladly received
it and believed it. They were made willing in the
day of His power. Third, they confessed Christ
in believers' baptism. They followed our Master by showing
they were crucified with Christ, they were buried with Christ,
and they had risen with Christ. And lastly, after all those things
happened, then God added them to the church. There's been a lot of controversy
over the years in different denominations about all these things. People
worried about taking church roles, church memberships, sprinkling
of infants, and all sorts of things. It's reversals. It's
reversed from the way that the Lord declares it, the way He
establishes it in His Word. But Peter preached to them, and
they heard. They gladly and willingly received the message of grace.
They were baptized, and they were added to that church. Now
this baptism that was performed, what kind was that? Let's turn
to Romans chapter 6. It's part of that controversy
then, part of the controversy a couple hundred years ago, and
part of the controversy today, isn't it? Lord answers these
things. Look here in Romans 6 and verse
3. It says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we
are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted You ever planted anything? You put it in the ground, don't
you? You bury it. Cover it. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. That's what baptism declares.
Christ lived on this earth and I lived in Him. Christ died on
a cross and was buried. I died with Him and I was buried
with Him. Christ rose again from the grave. I rose with Him. That
resurrection, that's hope. We don't have a cross with a
man on it. We have an empty tomb. Our Savior
reigns and lives. But after these saints were given
a new heart and life, they fellowshiped. They heard, they believed, they
professed Christ, and they were added to the church. Now, is
that the same as it was before in the Old Testament? Nothing's
changed, has it? That's what it was for these
people here. This is what these believers did, this church here
did. Is that what happens today? Same thing that happens today.
Believers have fellowship with each other. With that, they're
in Acts 2.42. They did all these things. They
heard, they believed, professed Christ, added to the church,
and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. They
continued in doctrine. We continue in doctrine here,
the same doctrine, don't we? That apostles' doctrine, what
was that? Was that different than what we have today? Was
that something special that was different from what Moses had,
from what Abel had? Hebrews 2, 3 says, How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord, it came from the Lord, and was
confirmed unto us by them that heard? That's the apostles. The
Lord gave it to them, and they gave it to others. Nothing's
changed, has it? A man taught me the gospel. The
Lord used a man to open my heart, to prick me in the heart, just
as these believers did, didn't he? Let's turn over to 2 John. This
doctrine that they preached, it was the doctrine of Christ.
We have one doctrine. 2 John. 2 John 9 says, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, this doctrine of Christ, Not doctrines
of many things, one, singular, simplicity in Christ. This doctrine
of Christ, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. Pretty strong, isn't it? That's
not a denominational doctrine. That's not a Baptist doctrine
or a Catholic doctrine or a Mormon doctrine. It's the doctrine of
Christ. It's His doctrine. The Apostles' doctrine. That's
what they preached. That's my doctrine. That's your
doctrine. It's ours, isn't it? Paul said, this is my gospel.
It's mine. I own it. He gave it to me, didn't
he? They held fast. They persevered. They stayed
with it through good times and bad. The children of God continued
in the doctrine of Christ. We're made to remember as we
continue in this life. We get pricked in the heart. The Lord makes us believe. We're baptized and added to the
church and continuing this. We're made to know who taught
us the saving grace of our Lord, don't we? 2 Timothy says, But continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. We continue knowing
who taught us, don't we? Still there in 2 John. Turn back
to 1 John chapter 2. We are made to remember who keeps
us looking to Christ throughout this whole life. We remember
who taught us, remember who keeps us. 1 John 2, 24. Let that therefore abide in you
which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son and in the Father. it'll remain in you,
and it shall. The Lord puts it there, it's
supposed to stay there. Will it be easy? Those sound like
easy things. The Lord taught me these things. He keeps me. That's pretty easy,
isn't it? I'm going to have a wonderful life full of porches and flowers
and great things, right? Wonderful jobs. No. Acts 14.22
says, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them
to continue in faith and that we must through much tribulation,
enter into the kingdom of God. Trials will come, won't they?
That's how the Lord shapes his people. That's how he turns us
from our old fleshly nature to Christ, isn't it? So those brethren
continued in the doctrine and they continued in fellowship.
You don't have to turn, stay there in 1 John. But in our text
there in Acts it says, and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and in fellowship. They continued in doctrine, but
they also continued in fellowship, didn't they? They didn't just
agree on all these things and say, oh, that's right. I believe
exactly the way you believe. We have the same God. And then
they walked away. They continued in fellowship.
They stayed together, didn't they? If we have true fellowship
with one another, it's because we worship the true and living
God together. That's the only reason. There
in 1 John chapter 1, turn back the page. 1 John 1 verse 3. That which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have
fellowship with us. They preach to them that way
they can have fellowship with them. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the
message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you that
God is light And in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that
we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not tell the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. That's what we have fellowship
with. We're fellows in the same ship.
Walking in the light and the knowledge of Christ, we see what
we are, we see who He is, we see what He accomplished, and
we see Him ruling and reigning at the right hand of God in our
lives, in Providence. Continuing that fellowship. Alright,
back to our text. We're in Acts chapter 2, verse
42. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship and breaking of bread."
That doesn't mean necessarily that they just ate together.
This is speaking of the Lord's table. They had the Lord's table
together. These believers at this time,
they observed the Lord's table more than we do now. Way more
often. Why is that? Most of them were
Jews. They grew up that way. They were
forced into observing all these feasts and these sacrifices. It was just constant throughout
the year. And once Christ was revealed
in them, once they saw who he was, they saw Christ was their
Passover. And they said, you know what?
Let's have the Lord's table. They saw he was the unleavened
bread. He was that true Sabbath. So instead of having a Sabbath
meal, they said, you know what? Let's have the Lord's table.
Let's look at his broken body and his blood. Instead of seeing
those Old Testament feasts, they took it because He fulfilled
all of those old feasts, all of those prophecies of the Old
Testament. If we truly break bread together, we take the Lord's
table together, it is because we are made of the same body,
made one. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
10. First Corinthians 10 and verse
15. I speak as to wise men, judge
ye what I say. This is paying attention. Judge
carefully what I'm telling you. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion? Is it not the unity, the closeness?
of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread
and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
We're a family. What makes us family? We have
the same Father. We're all partakers of that one
bread, that one bread of Christ, Christ's body. We've risen together
by Christ. He's laid His life down for us. We have something in common,
don't we? And we're thankful together. We look to Him and
we're thankful. Colossians 3.14 says, And above
all these things put on charity, put on love, which is the bond
of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body. And be ye thankful. If the Lord
saved me from myself, and He saved you from yourself, Cass,
we're both going to be thankful, aren't we? And we're thankful
for the same thing, the same place, the same cause. We have
the same hope, the same source of love, and the same object
of our love. There in Acts 2, 42. We're almost through with this
verse, Finish out that chapter. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. If we truly pray together is
because Christ has made us of one accord. We lift up one voice
together. Turn it over to Acts chapter
one, one page over to the left in verse six. Speaking of the cross ascension
here, it says in Acts 1.6, When they therefore were come together,
they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is
not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father
hath put in his own power. That's the Lord's power. But
ye shall receive power After that, the Holy Ghost has come
upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto
the uttermost part of the earth." This is what happened whenever
they had the gift of tongues, that miracle of tongues. The
Lord put His power in them, didn't He? This is the ascension gift
of Christ. He sends forth His message in
earthen vessels. the preaching of the gospel.
And we don't need to worry, as he said here, don't worry about
the return of the kingdom. Don't worry about these seasons. Our
concern is declaring Christ. That's what's been put in our
hand, isn't it? There in verse 9 it says, And when they had
spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and
a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood
by them with white apparel. which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven. Now in some translations of the
Bible there's a break there. It says Matthew has chosen to
replace Judah. If that's in your Bible, the
translators would do better to put that between verse 14 and
15. But as it reads, and in those days, meaning after this fellowship
of prayer was over, but there in verse 12, immediately after
the angels had spoken to those apostles, it says, then returned
they into Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is
from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey. And when they were come
in, they went up into an upper room where both Peter and James
and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, and Judas, the brother
of James. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." That's kind of a long
read, but Christ has told these apostles they were going to preach
The Holy Spirit was coming to them in power, and that was their
ministry, to go to all the ends of the earth and tell them what
Christ has done, tell them what they had seen, Him risen, and
that He was returning. The angels immediately told Him
after He left, those comforters there, say, He's coming back. And they gathered together, a
large group of them, says about 120 total, the men, the women,
all the apostles, the brethren, and they prayed. That was a great
time of prayer, wasn't it? A great need of prayer. All the saints were praying together.
They were of one accord and they were in one agreement. Praying
to the same Father. Philippians 2 says, If there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind. That's what it is to
be of one accord, to pray together, to be of one mind to one Savior. I cannot say that a family that
prays together stays together. I know that's a phrase in common
usage in our time. But I can say that if Christ
is revealed in us and he joins us together in prayer, we will
be together forever. If he truly knits our hearts.
Turn, turn over to Philippians chapter one. I'm in the wrong place. Philippians one verse three.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer
of mine for you all. making a request with joy for
your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Did I begin something? Did I choose to do God a favor
and pick Him? No, it was that He begun the
good work. Did I perform anything? He says,
no, He will perform it until the last day. What's the result
of all this? Believers continuing in the doctrine,
continuing in fellowship, continuing in serving the Lord together,
continuing in the Lord's table together, continuing in prayer
together. What happens at the end of all
that? What's the result of this fellowship? Let's turn back to
Acts chapter 2, verse 43. It says, And fear came upon every
soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And
all that believed were together. That doesn't mean they lived
together. There's 3,000 of them. But they
were of like mind, weren't they? They believed the same Christ.
And they had all things in common. And they sold their possessions
and goods and parted them to all men as every man hath need. Several things I looked up on
that was a source of some stuff that happened here in our nation
40, 50 years ago in these communes. Everybody sold everything they
had and lived together in love. That won't happen on this earth.
It ain't going to work out for you. But John Gill noted this,
that this was done by the Jews of this group and only the Jews
of this group. Because after they had received
the knowledge of Christ, after they come to know the truth,
they come to learn the gospel, They realized the truth of Jerusalem
fallen was coming. In 70 A.D. it failed. The Lord
destroyed it. And they knew that. And so they
sold off everything they had in that city. And they said,
here, the Lord is going to destroy it anyway. Take this and support
the ministry. Not what needs to happen today.
There's nowhere in the scriptures that that is a preset or that
they're exhorting anyone to sell all your stuff and give it to
the church. There's an old saying back home, and I thought it was
a proverb. I spent a good bit of time trying to look it up
and couldn't find it. If it is, tell me later. But if the Lord gives
you a well, you don't sell the well and give it to your brethren.
You give your brethren water, don't you? If you sold it, you
ain't got no water to give them. Verse 46, and they continuing
daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from
house to house. Now this part's not the Lord's
table. This is they're actually eating
together. And that's a blessing, isn't it? They did eat their
meals, their meat, with gladness and singleness of heart. And
in doing all this, being in one accord, continuing the doctrine
of Christ, following Him in baptism, giving thanks together, eating
together, what are they doing? And in verse 46, there's a comma.
They do all these. What's the result? Verse 47,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily as should be saved. I pray that
the Lord calls out his sheep from this area, from San Diego
County, Southern California or Arizona or wherever, wherever
he sees fit to call them out. Bring them under the sound of
the gospel. Prick them in their hearts. Make them ask, what do
I need to do? And I pray he makes them repent.
Keeps them. Keeps them always in fellowship
and prayer. Continues us in that doctrine
of salvation that only he has. I pray he makes me, I pray he
makes you serve him, truly serve him in this generation. Spread
his word. that we can pray for one another
and we'll be glad and we'll rejoice, won't we? It'll be something
uplifting. And the result of all that, I
hope and always pray that we can truly praise God together. I hope He'll keep us. Let's pray
together. Father, we see here what you've
done for this large group of believers.
We're thankful for that example, Lord. How thankful we are that
you change not. Thank you for finding us, forgiving
our sins. Thank you for turning our heart
towards Christ. Thank you for his substitutionary
work. Thank you for what he accomplished,
Lord. Keep us always together. Allow us to serve you. I ask to spread your gospel all
the while, Lord. Make us thankful we're truly
family. Let us eat meals together and
have good conversation. Let us rejoice and be happy. Drink wine and be merry, Lord.
Keep our hearts content on Christ. Don't let us seek other things.
Be with our brethren everywhere, Lord. Be with those that aren't
able to be with us tonight. Comfort them and keep them in
the way that only you can. Be with our brethren everywhere.
It's in Christ's name that we ask. Amen.