Sunday, September 25, 2022 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for gathering us together.

Thank you for providing for us all this last week. You're a good Heavenly Father. You know our needs.

You abundantly provide. You have given us your Son, Jesus Christ, and so we know that with him you will freely give us all that we need, all that you desire to give us.

We know that you will. We thank you for so splendidly demonstrating your faithfulness and your goodness, your truthfulness, your unchanging perfections, and we ask this morning that you would build us up in our faith, trusting in you, trusting in your

Savior, our Savior, the one you've given to us, your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would fill us with your

Holy Spirit that the grace of Christ would be evident in everything that we do and say and how we think and how we feel.

And Lord, we pray that as we come together and rejoice in the accomplished work of Jesus Christ here today, gathering together to celebrate the

Lord's Supper in communion with Christ, Lord, make us eager and ready to do this here today for your glory, for our good.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 2. We'll be reading verses 41 through 47 as we conclude our look at Pentecost, this very important day in history where the promise of the

Holy Spirit indeed was given. He arrived in a special fashion and an undeniable way to demonstrate to all those present that Jesus Christ has indeed accomplished all that was necessary to bring to pass the new covenant, that He, having died upon the cross and shed

His blood for the new covenant and raised from the dead to remain our everlasting High Priest, has ascended to the right hand of the

Father as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And here, proven on this day at Pentecost, His prophecies,

His promises come true. So there is good news concerning the kingdom, the good news that Jesus Himself proclaimed from city to city, from town to town, from region to region.

This good news of the kingdom is proven, is put on display, given real world touch and feel and taste and smell.

For here are Galileans preaching in languages they had never heard, the realities of the of Jesus Christ, declaring the undeniable truth of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the

Christ, the Son of the living God. Proving the words of the

Old Testament, the prophets Joel and David, come true. The reality sinking in upon the hearers of Peter and the apostles, that they, as men of Israel, stood guilty of the blood of Messiah Himself.

That judgment was nigh, but salvation was even closer. And that all who would call upon the name of the

Lord would be saved. And they began to respond, and God begins to save these people, bringing them into the kingdom of His beloved

Son, delivering them from the dominion of darkness. And we behold here at the conclusion of Acts chapter 2, just how it is that Jesus, the

Christ, our risen Savior, builds His church. This is a very encouraging portion of scripture that directs our attention and forges our expectations for what our risen

Savior is doing even today in our midst, and what He is about in our future.

So I invite you to stand with me as I read Acts chapter 2, and let's begin in verse 40, as we hear the exhortation of Peter.

And with many other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who gladly received His word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done for the apostles.

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising

God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Last time we talked about two sons of David.

There was the son of David, Solomon, who was a man of peace, who built the temple.

But he was the shadow of the son of David named Shiloh, the one to whom it all belongs, who truly brings peace, and who is building the temple of living stones.

He himself being the foundation, the cornerstone, and the capstone. He himself being the head, and we are the body.

He is the vine, and we are the branches. We talked about the son of David, Solomon, who considered the grandeur of his kingdom and all that he built.

And in the voice of the preacher in Ecclesiastes, he cries vanity, vanity, despairing of his kingdom ever persisting.

In contrast to this son of David is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the true son of David and son of man.

And he does not cry vanity, but he cries verily, verily. And what he builds is a kingdom that has no end, a dominion which will never pass away, a city which has foundations, which will never be shaken, a temple which will never be desecrated, and brings about the promises of God.

He's building. The Lord is building. He said he would build his church and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.

He's building. He's building his temple. He's building his church. He's building his city. He's building his kingdom.

He is the true son of David. And what he builds, he builds by his grace and for his glory.

And he's not just building external things, we know that. It isn't about structures, physical structures, whether they're made out of wood or cinder block or metal.

It's not about building the structures upon earth, or the political systems upon earth, and so on and so forth.

What he is building, he is building, he calls it family. He calls it a bride.

What he builds, he calls church. We are likened unto that which grows.

What is he building? He's building culture. Culture is that which proceeds from the cult.

In other words, what people believe and what people worship shows up in the way people live.

So who we worship and what we believe, our religion is what lies behind how we live and our values and how we express ourselves in society.

And so a pagan cult forms a pagan culture. A cult of witchcraft creates a culture that is full of witchcraft.

A religion of organizing our lives to commune with God, to love

God, to worship Christ results in what? Christian culture. We've heard a lot about culture wars.

Expression goes all the way back to an Otto von Bismarck. Chancellor Bismarck in Germany began to push forward his socialism over and against the values of Christendom in Germany.

It was coined and used in American language in the 1920s as various pagan presuppositions and pagan cultural aspects began to show up in urban centers versus the rural values.

The culture war began being talked about in the 1920s and it continues now 100 years later.

And indeed we live in a culture war. It's undeniable. But as Christians, we are not to receive for ourselves and own as true and definitive the terms that are being handed to us.

It isn't about being presented with a red pill and a blue pill and saying, well, the red pill sounds like us, so we'll take that.

And it's not about being smarter and holier than everybody else and saying, no, what you must use is alchemy to mix the red and blue together.

And that will be true Christianity. No, what we are taught from the scripture, as we talked about in our study of the fear of the

Lord, is the dichotomy of no. Just no. Joshua is at war with the

Canaanites and he shows up and sees the angel of the Lord and he wants to know, are you for us or for our enemies?

And God says, no. No, it's about whether or not you're for me. When the

Samaritan woman wants to get into a theological debate with Jesus by the well, she says, well, is it this mountain or that mountain?

And Jesus says, no. When they want to present the divorce debate to Jesus, can you divorce for whatever reason or for a serious reason?

Jesus says, no. And this is what we need to recognize when it comes to a culture war.

Yes, there are different cultures. No, they're not equal. Yes, they're in conflict. Yes, there needs to be a resolution.

But we are not to take up the terms defined for us by our society, by the academics, or by the media.

We're not to take up the terms handed to us by the Overton window and then say, well,

I guess we're this. No, it all must be put under the microscope of the

Word of God. It all must be assessed on the scales of the Word of God.

We are in a culture war, but it's not the war you think it is. It isn't red versus blue.

Christ heartily condemns the type of red culture being proposed by the

Daily Wire. And he also heartily condemns the culture being proposed by MSNBC.

And there's no synthesis between the red and blue that we're supposed to take on as real Christendom either. There is a war between cultures because there is a conflict between cults, between what we believe, between religions.

There is the religion of man. There is the idolatry of the pagans. There is the demonic false teaching that is being spread throughout our world today as it has been in every other generation.

And pagan cults make pagan culture. And God, from the very beginning, placed enmity between the woman and the serpent, between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.

He's the one who started the culture war between those who would worship self and worship humanity and worship false ideas of who

God is and those who would be truly committed to Christ. And that is the conflict we are in.

And when we read Acts chapter 2, we have to understand what Christ is building. It isn't simply structures and systems.

What he is building is indeed a life lived in reality of the glory of God.

Life lived in the reality of the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

That's what he's building. And that's when we read in Acts chapter 2, at the conclusion of the chapter, we're reading about Christian culture.

And you'll notice that this Christian culture was alive and thriving and vibrant among ancient

Near East Semitics. It's not about whiteness.

It's not about blackness or anything else. It's about Christ. Let's look at the culture that Christ builds and rejoice in it and own it.

Again, looking at verse 41. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized.

In that day, about 3 ,000 souls were added to them. It's a distinct category. We've already looked at that.

Then they continue steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Something's being forged here in the way of life. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the

Apostles. Fear becomes a part of every soul. Now all who believe were together and had all things in common.

And they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. Look, they continue daily with one accord.

They break bread from house to house. They eat their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. They praise God. They have favor with all the people.

Do you see the culture that is crafted here? Do you see this list of artifacts that say, this is distinctive

Christian culture? Different. Different from every other culture.

You could spot it. You don't even have to speak the same language to know that you're among your own people.

So we see Christian character and let's identify what goes on here.

Look, there's unity. There's fellowship. Obviously, there's humility involved.

Look, there are people of prayer. There are giving people. There's generosity. They've been forgiven and so they're going to be forgiving towards one another.

Obviously, they have good reputation for everybody around them. They're faithful. They continue with one another. Look at all these different aspects of Christian culture.

But you can sum it all up when you read in verse 43, then fear came upon every soul. Fear came upon every soul.

This is an echo from what we read earlier when Peter was explaining what was happening to his audience. How do you explain the fact that these

Galileans were preaching in languages that they had never learned before? Preaching the goodness of God.

He says, well, Joel said it best. He said, in the last days of the old covenant, here are the promises of the new.

That the Holy Spirit comes upon all flesh. So everybody in the new covenant receives the

Holy Spirit. That's how you know you're in the new covenant. You've received the Holy Spirit. Also, upon all flesh, upon all the people there, comes fear.

So, Holy Spirit comes upon all the people in the new covenant. And fear comes upon all the people in the new covenant.

What kind of fear? The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is what makes the true people of God so distinctive.

And in fact, this is a new covenant promise. So in Malachi chapter 3, at the end of the

Old Testament, we read not only the promise of John the Baptist coming as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, but we also see what is entailed in the new that God will bring.

So Malachi chapter 3, verses 16 and following. Then those who fear the

Lord spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the

Lord and who meditate on his name. They shall be mine, says the

Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels and I will spare them. What day is that?

You go back and you read previously, you see the day of Christ. The day of the arrival of the Messiah. He says,

I will spare them as a man who spares his own son who serves him. I will treat them as I will treat my own son.

You following? Then you will again discern. I'm going to make it clear, God says, between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves

God and the one who does not serve him. Why was that distinction hard to make in the time of Malachi? Because the people claiming to be the people of God were throwing him sick lambs.

They were divorcing their wives. They were making excuses as to why they couldn't worship

God. They were just going through the motions, but their heart wasn't really in it. God says, when the day of the new covenant comes, you're going to be able to tell the difference between my people and who are not my people.

When the new covenant comes, there's going to be a distinction because everybody who are mine, they're going to fear the

Lord. I'm going to write their names in a book. So it's a new covenant promise. Everybody who's a part of the new covenant has the

Holy Spirit. Everyone who's in the new covenant fears the Lord. Distinctive character.

And we see the power of Christ at work through his apostles.

Many wonders and signs are done through the apostles. We're going to read about a lot of those moving forward in the book of Acts.

But they're all the same variations of what Christ did throughout his ministry in the

Gospels. It was all about surprising reversals. Namely, in the old covenant, if somebody was unclean and they touched you, now you're unclean.

Welcome to a week outside the camp. Yay. Until I can come back in and show myself to the priest.

And if I'm still not clean, I get kicked out again. Right? Oh, but holiness and cleanliness are so important.

And indeed they are. But then Christ shows up and then he starts touching the unclean. And he doesn't get unclean, they get clean.

Right? He touches the leper and he doesn't become leprous. The leper becomes clean. He brings the holiness to them.

He brings the cleanliness to them. He brings the deliverance to them. He doesn't receive an unclean spirit when he addresses a demoniac.

He casts the demon out. He heals the lame. He heals the blind. He heals everybody and delivers everybody who was not allowed to enter into the temple because the temple showed up.

The sanctuary just showed up. Everybody who was unclean that Jesus was healing and helping and so on, they weren't allowed inside the sanctuary.

They weren't allowed inside the temple because they were unclean, cut off, unfit. But when the sanctuary himself shows up, well, then everything changes.

And the apostles, empowered by the authority of Christ himself, they go forward and do the exact same thing.

And it's what are they saying? It's a new day. It's a new day. The new covenant is here. The good news of the kingdom is supported by these mighty works announcing the advancement.

When we look at what goes on here in this nascent

Christian culture, when we consider the fear of the Lord being expressed in humility and generosity and unity and forgiveness and peacemaking and faithfulness and good reputation, when we look at the character of this early church, the culture that's being built here, how do we give an account for it?

Was it some kind of a program? You know, 12 steps to holiness? Uh, was there some sort of, uh, was there some sort of dress code?

What goes on here? What goes on here is the work, the acts of the risen, ascended

Christ. He's working. He's saving. He's setting apart.

He's changing. He's nourishing. He's transforming.

That's what goes on here. He does so through the graces that he is appointed of the preaching of the

Word and the prayer and the fellowship and the communion of the saints. He has appointed these means to make his transformation and renewal clear in all of his people.

He is the good shepherd. He feeds his sheep. He's the good shepherd. He's not going to lose any of his sheep.

He's the good shepherd. The work that he begins, he continues in his people. When we listen to Ephesians chapter 4 and we read about his ascension in Ephesians chapter 4 and how in his ascension he sends forth his

Holy Spirit to give power and life to his people. We read in verse 15,

Ephesians 4, But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head,

Christ. Now, listen to this. From whom the whole body, all the members of his church, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So Christ as the head empowers and enlivens and organizes and sanctifies and matures the body.

He is divine. We are the branches. So when we read here about the fruit of the

Spirit and the grace of God being at work and so evident in the life of the early church, we know this is

Christ building culture. This is Christ building up his people in his own image so that the character of Christ shines through.

And we all have our part as different parts of the body of Christ. We have different ways to serve, different ways to encourage, different ways that we are called to love one another and assist and help one another to grow up into Christ.

So we have a church covenant where we agree to be for one another in Christ to help build each other up in the life of Christ.

My role is different from your role, but Jesus says they're all necessary. So our fellowship is in Christ.

We follow Christ together. We focus upon Christ together. We rejoice in Christ together. Our rest is in Christ and his accomplished work.

And we have communion in him. I think it's important just to note church is not a

Bible conference, right? As helpful as those can be.

It isn't a doctrinal seminar, as informative as that might be. It isn't a community -building opportunity, as much as this is important that we love one another and serve one another.

We're not crafting worship experiences, although reverent worship is vital.

What goes on here is Christ is building his character in us.

He is creating culture after his image. But in the way that we live, the way that we express ourselves, what we value, how we interact with one another is in the image and reflection of God's beloved

Son. And in all through this text, remember

Jesus said, by this all men will know that you are my disciples. Here's the distinctive thing. By the love that you have for one another. That's the distinctive thing.

They're going to see that you are my disciples because of your love for one another.

And that's why we see such a strong emphasis in the text on communion. On communion.

Not only are we set apart and categorized by Christ and continue in that, and his character becomes all the more evident, but notice how focused everything is on communion.

They were in fellowship with one another. They continued steadfastly in the

Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship. A true coming together, a rejoicing together, a development of relationships that are not simply one -to -one, but many -to -many.

A true knitting together of all who were in the church. And notice that this unity, they were together in what way?

In verse 44 says, Now all who believed were together. You see that?

Verse 44. Now all who believed were together. How were they together? By faith. They believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the

Christ, the Son of the living God. They believed that he came and he lived in their place and died for their sake.

And he was raised from the grave the third day. That he was ascended into the right hand of the Father. That he had sent forth the

Holy Spirit. That he had brought about the new covenant. And they believed. And so they were together.

This is what made them together, was their faith in Christ. And notice their generosity toward one another.

Oh, need help? I'm here for you. Here to help. What do you need? They had a lot of needs in the early church.

And they were generous towards one another. Now come back tonight,

I'll tell you why it's not communism. But you have to come back tonight.

But they were generous towards one another. Look, as anyone had need. As often as there was a need.

They said, look, I'm here to help you. I want to be a blessing to you. Do you see this kind of communion?

This kind of togetherness? And but central is this breaking of bread. Verse 42 says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship.

And look, in the breaking of bread. Verse 42. And then also verse 46. Continuing daily with one accord in the temple.

And breaking bread from house to house. What's going on in this breaking of bread? This phrase is used in Luke's gospel.

His first volume. To describe the Lord's Supper. Decide to describe communion.

For Christ broke the unleavened bread and blessed it. And then he gave it to his disciples.

And said, take each. This is my body. The breaking of bread. We also see the disciples coming together with Christ.

After his resurrection. Breaking bread and eating together. Was it officially the

Lord's Supper? It's not really said one way or another. But look, they're communing together with their Lord. So look at this breaking of bread.

This is at the heart of their communion. When they come together, they're fellowshipping together. With one another.

Because of Christ. Indeed, with Christ. Their communion is together in Christ.

And in the early church. They didn't really separate very clearly for a while.

Between eating together and having the Lord's Supper together. Which is why when you read in 1

Corinthians chapter 11. That there was some mess kind of going on. Where people were kind of going through the motions.

And getting together and eating. But not really waiting for one another. And really kind of treating each other poorly.

And then just spoiling the whole matter of the Lord's Supper. That doesn't mean that it was wrong.

But they weren't thinking about it reverently concerning Christ. They were gathering. But not in true communion in Christ.

Later on in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 20. You can kind of see how the infant church grows up just a little bit.

How they begin to organize themselves for communion to love God. That's good religion.

Not for a covering that you look good. But organizing ourselves for communion to love

God. And this is the kind of organization that is good in Acts chapter 20 verse 7. It says,

Now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. You hear how it's different than Acts 2?

Every day. That's great during revival. That's great.

Seasons of revival. Every single day. The Christians together. Rejoicing together. Having communion together.

Praise God. Later on things seem to be a little bit more organized. Is that wrong? No. The Lord's still building his church.

He's a good shepherd. There are seasons. There can be distinctions and differences. They gather together on the first day of the week.

That's when the disciples came together to break bread. And Paul came and he began to preach the word.

And open up the word to the people. And preached. Preached so long that somebody died.

But then he was okay later. But you see the communion is about the breaking of the bread.

The communion. Recognizing the fellowship that we have in Christ.

Their feasting was together in Christ. They shared with one another because of Jesus Christ.

I mean, look how much they had been given. How could they not give to one another? They came together to learn about the apostles doctrine.

Which was again the teaching of who Christ is. They came together to worship in the temple. Not because the temple was glorious.

But because Christ who fulfilled the meaning of the temple was glorious. Their worship was in Christ.

We see their unity. Their coming together was all around the person and work of Christ.

Now I'm going to list a list of things that are in the text. In Acts 2 verses 41 through 47.

I'm going to list the things in the text that are given as examples of their unity.

And I want you to think carefully about this list. Doctrine.

The apostles doctrine. Fear. Fear upon all the souls there.

They were submitted to the apostles authority. The apostles had the authority over them.

Possessions. People had possessions and they were selling them and giving them to each other. There were needs.

Needs. Various needs. Worship.

Gathering together in the temple for worship. And, wow, 3 ,000 new members.

New members and then daily the Lord adding to those to the church who were being saved.

Okay, so let's look at that list. Doctrine. Fear. Authority. Possessions. Needs. Worship and new members.

Now, that's a great list to describe the background of church fights.

People fighting about doctrine. People get afraid and scared about one thing or another and all of a sudden you have a fight on your hand because people are afraid.

Who has authority? Who's supposed to give authority? How do you use authority? Fights about that. Fights about possessions.

You got more than me, you're wrong. Okay. Division over possessions.

Division over needs. So -and -so has needs. Others don't have those needs.

There's division about needs. Division about worship. How we're going to worship on a regular basis.

And then what about an influx of new folks when you already have the old folks? These are things that genuinely, time and time again, stories of church division are surrounded, are centered on these seven aspects.

But here, in Acts chapter 2, they are listed as examples of unity.

These are examples of unity. Things that are, that people are all gathered around in agreement, proving their togetherness.

How? Because the doctrine is about Christ and they're fearing the

Lord himself. And the authority was derived from Christ. And the possessions were given by him. And the needs were orchestrated by him.

And the worship is all about him. And the new members were added by him. So why fight?

Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Ascended Lord. Rejoice in the King who is reigning over us and guiding us and bringing us forth.

We can rejoice in that. And we have our unity in him.

These are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ to build his church and to do so with his distinctive

Christian culture where his character is made manifest. Where his people are brought together in unity and in love.

The great shepherd of the sheep has laid down his life for us. He gave us himself and then gave us to one another in him.

So, steadfastly and daily, let us continue our unity in Christ.

We come together today at the Lord's Supper to rejoice in what he has done.

He has given us himself. His body broken for us. His blood shed for us.

His life given for us. That we may live and live in his life. That we may love one another.

And the way forward to glory is unity in Christ.

Communion in Christ. And the way toward each other in grace is also in Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for our time in your word. We see what a beautiful thing you build through your son by your spirit in the church.

And we can give you glory for that. And we do rejoice in that.

Here today, Heavenly Father, as we gather around the table set so preciously by our son, remembering his person and work, we ask that you would indeed increase our love for your son and thus our love for each other.