Old Foundations for a Fresh Start (Acts 2:42)

Redeemer Bible Fellowship

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November 6, 2023

00:15: If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, take it and turn with me to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2,
00:24: Acts and the second chapter, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2.
00:35: If you grabbed one of the red Bibles in the rack out there that we give away, that's on page 968,
00:41: Acts chapter 2. On screen it says we're going to read from verse 42, but I want to start a little bit earlier. So we're going to pick it up in verse 37.
00:48: So Acts chapter 2 from verse 37. We're only going to look at one verse this morning, but I want to read it in its context.
00:56: So Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 37 and reading through to 47.
01:03: So Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 37. It's our custom here at Redeemer that we stand at this point in our service for the reading of God's word.
01:10: So if I can invite you to do so, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 37.
01:24: Acts 2 .37, brothers and sisters, these are God's words. When they, and this is the crowd who had heard
01:31: Peter, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do?
01:41: Peter replied, repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
01:49: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the
02:00: Lord our God will call. Within many other words, he testified and strongly urged them saying, be saved from this corrupt generation.
02:10: So those who accepted his message were baptized and that day 3000 people were added to them.
02:19: They, the 3000 people, devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
02:30: Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
02:37: Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds as any had need.
02:50: Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house.
02:55: They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
03:05: Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
03:13: Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding of it. Let's pray, ask for his help and we will get to work in God's word.
03:23: Gracious Father, we thank you so much because of your provision. We thank you for this space that we are able to meet in and to worship together in.
03:32: We thank you for how you've been with us up to this point and trust for your continued presence and your continued blessing as we continue on meeting here week to week.
03:45: So Father, I simply ask that as we open up your word even now, that your spirit would speak to every heart, that as we open up the scriptures, we would be freshly amazed at the
03:58: Lord Jesus and what he has done in not just saving us, but in bringing us together as a body of your people.
04:07: Father, be at work in this sacred time and in this sacred space. And we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.
04:14: Amen. Amen. Please be seated. I have as my title for the message this morning, thought it would be appropriate given our first Sunday in this space, gave it the title
04:30: Old Foundations for a Fresh Start. Old Foundations for a
04:38: Fresh Start. It was that great genius Albert Einstein who said, or at least we think he said this, we're not 100 % sure, but it was
04:47: Albert Einstein who's believed to have said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
04:57: As it stands, the phrase reminds us that you can't really complain about the results of something when you're happy to keep doing the wrong thing.
05:05: If you keep doing the wrong thing and keep getting bad results, you shouldn't really complain about the results you get because insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting differing results.
05:18: It's what we call a truism. It's one of those statements that's mostly true most of the time.
05:25: Chances are that in life, if you're doing the same thing and getting results you don't like, you probably should do something different.
05:34: I think we can all agree to that. Again, it's a truism, but here's the thing about truisms.
05:41: Truisms are mostly true most of the time. They're not always true all of the time, are they?
05:52: And I want to argue that when it comes to church, when it comes to church life, sometimes it is actually doing the same things over and over that lead to results.
06:08: No disrespect to the great genius that was Albert Einstein, but sometimes it's not insanity to do the same thing over and over because sometimes you actually get good results.
06:21: I think when it comes to church, it's all too easy for us to be tempted by the flashiness of the new, the creative and the innovative.
06:29: And let's be clear, I'm not bagging on things that are new. I'm not bagging on things that are creative. I'm not bagging on things that are innovative, far from it.
06:37: But sometimes the temptation can be to think we need more new things, more creative things, more innovative things.
06:43: The same old things that we've done, just don't cut it. But here's the question
06:51: I want to leave with you this morning. What if the best thing any faithful church can do is not something new?
06:56: It's not something creative. It's not something innovative. What if actually the healthiest thing a church can do is to be committed to doing and believing the same old foundational truths for its life and its ministry?
07:17: We're in Acts chapter 2 this morning. And as we come to Acts chapter 2, we are on the front porch of something of a fresh start.
07:25: We didn't read the whole chapter because we didn't have time. But allow me to summarize real quick. The Spirit has been poured out in the first four verses.
07:33: The demonstration of the Spirit attracts a crowd. This crowd then hears the gospel through the preaching of Peter who will preach the first sermon of the
07:41: New Testament church. We read the response in verses 37 to 41 where they hear this message and they're convicted by the power of the
07:51: Holy Spirit. And they ask, what should we do? And so Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ.
08:04: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the gospel is proclaimed.
08:12: And as the gospel is proclaimed, people come to faith in Jesus. And look at verse 41 in our passage.
08:22: It says that those who accepted his message were baptized. And that day, about 3 ,000 people were added to them.
08:32: I wish I had time, but allow me to kind of do a hit and run real quick with the statement. I'm just going to say it and move on. I don't have time.
08:38: It's interesting in this passage that Peter doesn't try to plant a church. Think about it. Peter preaches the word and the power of the
08:45: Spirit, and the church grew around that proclamation. Again, I wish I had more to say about that, but time is not on my side, so let me leave that alone.
08:51: People are saved, and a church is formed. But what did that church look like?
08:59: 3 ,000 people are added to the number of the disciples. Remember, we know this from the beginning of the chapter. There are about 120 people.
09:06: So now, there are about 3 ,120. What does this really large church look like?
09:13: What did their life look like? More importantly for us this morning as we embark on something of a fresh start here in this new location, on the cusp of a fresh start, what can we learn from the early church as we embark on a new chapter of life together?
09:32: Well, I think very simply, this is my big idea. I've got to put it on screen, so you have to listen with me. Faithful ministry, if you think about it, we learn from this early church that faithful ministry is a matter of commitment to the right priorities.
09:47: I don't really have anything profound to say this morning. Faithful ministry is a matter of commitment to the right priorities.
09:54: And as you read Acts 2 in verse 42, you get an insight into what the priorities of this very early church was.
10:05: And so for the rest of our time, I want to consider four faithful foundations, four foundational principles for making the most of a fresh start.
10:17: If we're going to make the most of this fresh start in this new location, there are some foundational things
10:24: I want us to go back to. Again, I'm not going to say anything that's revolutionary or new, I hope. But I hope this will be something of a blessed reminder and a blessed encouragement for us to continue in the things that we've been faithfully doing up to this point.
10:38: So, four faithful foundations for a fresh start. The first one that you see in the passage is the foundation of biblical teaching.
10:48: The foundation of biblical teaching. The foundation of biblical teaching. Before we go any further, again, look at our verse for today,
10:57: Acts 2 verse 42. The text says that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
11:04: That verb, to devote themselves, actually applies to all four of the things we're going to see in this passage.
11:10: Whatever they did, they didn't do by halves. They were all in on these things.
11:20: Did you also notice in this passage, as we read it, that you don't see Peter trying, or any of the apostles, trying to convince them that this is what they should do?
11:33: Granted, this is a summary statement, what you read in Acts 2 verse 42 -47. So there's a lot we're not being told because it's a summary.
11:42: But again, you don't see anywhere where Peter has to convince them, or the apostles have to convince them, to do these things.
11:50: The text is explicit in saying that they devoted themselves. This was a voluntary act on their part.
11:57: This was the natural response, if you will, of transformed hearts.
12:04: Understanding the grace of God in the gospel didn't dull their devotion to God and to what
12:09: He was doing. Remember, these are not people who are irreligious who come to faith. These are Jews. These are faithful, practicing
12:18: Jews. We know this because early in the chapter, they've come into town for the
12:24: Feast of Pentecost. These are faithful, believing Jews. And yet, they've come into this new understanding of what
12:35: God is doing. Clarity has come to all that they had seen in the Old Testament. And yet, the grace of God didn't dull their devotion to God and what
12:42: He was doing. If anything, they devoted themselves to these things. And the first thing we're told that they devoted themselves to was the teaching of the apostles.
12:54: The term for teaching here carries this idea of a body of truth that is committed to a person.
13:00: That there was a body of teaching that the apostles began to do very early on. And this early church devoted themselves to that teaching.
13:13: In one sense, this isn't a surprise given how this church began. We saw that Peter has preached, and Peter is the one who calls them to faith in Christ.
13:22: He's the human instrument that the Lord used to bring these people to faith.
13:27: And it was through a sermon that this took place. It was a sermon actually explaining the prophet
13:33: Joel. This young church was born through the preaching of the word.
13:39: And it continued through the preaching of the word. John Stott, the
13:46: British Anglican pastor, I think got it exactly right when he said, quote, the first evidence
13:51: Luke mentions of the Spirit's presence in the church is that they have devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
13:59: One might say that the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem that day.
14:05: Its teachers were the apostles whom Jesus had appointed. And there were 3 ,000 pupils in the classroom.
14:14: This was a church that was very clearly devoted to the apostles' teaching.
14:21: Okay, Kofi, where do I find the apostles' teaching today? Well, I'm glad you asked. I believe that we have the teachings of the prophets and the apostles available for us in the pages of the word of God.
14:34: Every time that we read and we study and we hear this word of God, we are hearing the teachings of the apostles and prophets as they were sent by our triune
14:46: God. I'm thankful that from the beginning,
14:52: Redeemer, while we say we don't do a lot of things here at Redeemer, but we've always been a place where the
14:57: Bible is rightfully central. Some might say too central, but I'd rather that it was too central than the word be.
15:05: You ever seen this in some churches where the Bible is conspicuous by its absence? It might not win you awards.
15:14: It might not make noise and all sorts of things, but I'm firmly convinced that that's how God chooses to work, that God chooses to work through his word, read, heard, and preached in the power of his spirit.
15:30: For a moment, let's think about this a little bit more. What are some of the markers of the apostles teaching?
15:37: If we say that the apostles teaching is what we should be devoted to, and that's kind of the point I want to make in this first point.
15:42: What are some markers of this apostolic teaching? If we say, okay, we have the teachings of the apostles in the scriptures.
15:48: Well, what are some high points? What are some highlights of this teaching? Just a few of them. Again, things that if you've been at Redeemer for any length of time, you know that we hold these to be dear.
15:58: For one thing, it involves a high view of God, understanding God as the sovereign creator of all things, understanding his providence and his care over all things, a high view of God in his redeeming and his saving work.
16:15: It was a high view of God. It also involves a high view of Christ, a high view of Christ.
16:21: If you've been here for any length of time, you've probably heard me say this, but probably do for a reminder, that when we talk about our
16:28: Lord Jesus, we can't not talk about Jesus and not talk about the fact that he is our prophet, he is our priest, and he is our king, that he is a prophet to deal with our ignorance.
16:40: We do not know the will of God, but in Christ, God makes his will known to us.
16:46: He's a priest to deal with our sin. He doesn't just offer a sacrifice, the Bible makes us to understand, he is the sacrifice.
16:55: He's a prophet to deal with our ignorance. He's a priest to deal with our sin. He's a king to deal with our rebellion.
17:00: We were at enmity with God, but through what God has done in Christ, we are brought into loving submission to Christ.
17:09: And so we can never have too high a view of God and too high a view of Christ. We also have a high view of God's word here.
17:17: We believe it to be inspired. We believe it to be inerrant. Inspired, that means that the
17:22: Holy Spirit was one who breathed out these words. Inerrant, that it has no error, that in everything it teaches, it teaches us the truth.
17:34: You might be able to find truths here and there, but if you want the totality of the truth, you're only going to find it in one place, in this word of God.
17:43: And we believe it to be sufficient, that since it's inspired, it's the product of God speaking and it's inerrant, it cannot teach error, then it's sufficient.
17:51: We don't need anything else. Everything we need, 2 Peter 1 .3, for life and godliness has been given to us through the knowledge of him.
18:03: Where do we find that knowledge? In God's word. A high view of God, a high view of Christ, a high view of God's word.
18:11: We treasure an accurate understanding of the gospel here. You might have noticed this big thing over here.
18:20: When we were thinking about moving out, I wanted to have this visually in front of us at all times.
18:27: If you are a theological nerd like myself, you're familiar with what they call the five solas of the
18:32: Reformation. These simple statements that came out of the Reformation period, summarizing the biblical gospel.
18:40: That salvation is by grace alone, that it's not on the basis of any works that we have done, but it's solely on the basis of God's grace.
18:49: That salvation is received by faith alone. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone.
18:56: That salvation is found then in Christ alone. It's not Christ plus the saints, not Christ plus another mediator, not
19:03: Christ plus joining the right church or being baptized or anything else. No, it is Christ and Christ alone.
19:10: And we find that truth in scripture alone. And all of this is to the glory of God alone.
19:19: So we treasure the understanding of the gospel. We treasure the doctrines of grace here. We, again, try to be, as I like to think, somewhat gentle about that.
19:28: Not trying to cram them down people's thoughts, but if we believe in a high view of God in salvation, then we believe that God is sovereign in the work of salvation.
19:39: And finally, we treasure an accurate understanding of discipleship. Recognizing that every believer has the, think about this, it's your birthright as a
19:48: Christian. God gives you the Holy Spirit, 1 John 2, verse 28, so that you can understand the truth.
19:55: Every Christian can understand God's word and be equipped to know that word. And as they are equipped through knowing the word of God, we are then able to live life together as the people of God.
20:07: And these are some of the highlights when we think about the apostles' doctrine. There's so much more we could say. Because there is so much to the teaching of the prophets and the apostles as we find it in the word of God.
20:22: And the reality is that as people whom God has brought together, it's a commitment to the word that secures us in this world.
20:32: And think about this. It secures us in a world that's overrun with utter and complete confusion about just about everything.
20:40: If you think about the world that we live in, what a time to be alive. And I don't mean that in the best sense.
20:49: The world is such a confusing place right now. And as confusing as the world is, isn't it good to know that we have something of a sure foundation to plant our feet on as God's people?
21:02: Isn't it good to know that we are not left to what we think is right or what some institution tells us is right, or what our experience tells us is right, that we can go to God and we can ask him and we know that he has spoken.
21:20: And so if we're going to make the most out of our fresh start, it begins with a foundation of strong biblical doctrine.
21:28: But that's not everything. We could stop there and that would be great and wonderful, but there's more. There's a second foundational principle that appears in our text.
21:41: You have the foundation of biblical teaching, but you also have the foundation of shared life together. The foundation of shared life together.
21:50: So again, come back to our text, Acts chapter 2 verse 42. It says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship.
22:01: Now, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, please note that at least in my translation here, the
22:06: CSB, it says the fellowship because there is actually an article there. This wasn't just the sort of vague way that we sometimes use the word fellowship.
22:20: No, and then those of you who were here in the summer in our previous location, when we went through Philippians, I talked about this at length.
22:26: That fellowship, let's use a more modern word. Let's not use a churchy word for a second. Let's use just a word we all use all the time.
22:32: Partnership. That we are all sharing in life together.
22:39: Again, we just spent a month thinking about life in the Father's house and what the Bible teaches about our shared life together as God's people.
22:46: So I don't want to be here too long. I just want to note two observations really quickly. First of all, we need to understand what we can call vertical fellowship.
22:56: Vertical fellowship. When I say that, vertical is that way. Vertical fellowship refers to our fellowship with God.
23:03: Fellowship starts with the blessed truth that if you are here today and you are a Christian, you have come into a relationship with the
23:11: Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. So John can say,
23:18: I won't have you turn. I'll just read these passages. But in 1 John 1 -3, John could say, What we have seen and heard, we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us.
23:28: And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
23:36: There's a benediction that we use every so often here at Redeemer. 2 Corinthians 13 -13. The grace of the
23:43: Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The reality is, if you are a
23:51: Christian, you have come into fellowship with the triune God. And what a wonderful thing that is, because by nature, we should have nothing close to fellowship with God.
24:04: Think about who God is and who we are for just a moment. God is pure light, the
24:09: Bible says. We are nothing but darkness. The Bible says that not just God is loving, which is true, but the
24:16: Bible says that God is love. Let's be honest, is humankind always the most loving?
24:26: The Bible describes God as holy, holy, holy. And we are definitely, definitely, definitely not.
24:36: But that's the glory of the gospel, isn't it? That in the person of Jesus Christ, that light has overcome the darkness.
24:44: Love has overcome enmity. Holiness has overcome unholiness. And as a result, we who were not loving, who were not holy, who could not come into the very presence of God, we're now able to come into His presence.
25:00: And now we can have true fellowship in the Father's love for us, in the grace that Christ brings to us, and in the partnership of the
25:08: Spirit. It's that glorious reality, what I've called vertical fellowship.
25:14: I fellowship with God. The reality that we've been united to the triune God, and we share in the life that God extends to us in Christ.
25:23: It's that reality that leads to horizontal fellowship. Horizontal fellowship, our fellowship with one another.
25:32: In fact, so we just saw that in 1 John, didn't we? Where he said, remember 1 John 1 .3? He says, we've seen and heard, we declare to you so that you may have fellowship with us.
25:45: It's fellowship with God that makes fellowship with one another possible. And that's the fellowship that's in mind as we come to Acts chapter 2.
25:53: This horizontal fellowship, this fellowship with one another, a genuine shared life together.
26:00: And if there's any confusion what that looks like, Luke tells us. So look at verse 44, Acts 2 .44.
26:07: Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the needs to all as any had need.
26:18: Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house.
26:24: They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
26:33: Every day, the Lord added to the number of those who were being saved. Do you get the sense that this newly founded church took life together very seriously?
26:46: Now, I'm sure I don't need to say this, but just in case anyone gets worried. There are people who have taken this passage over the years, over the centuries.
26:55: They said, well, true Christians don't own their own property. They sell everything, they live together. This is not spiritual communism.
27:02: Let's all just take a second. It doesn't mean that, you know, if a church is for real, you know, we're going to sell all our stuff, pack what clothes we have left in a bag and go live in a commune together.
27:15: I don't think that's what Luke is getting at in this summary. I don't think the point is so much a form of spiritual communism, if you will.
27:24: I think the very simple point Luke is making here is that they took care of one another, even when it cost them.
27:32: Think about it. These people come to faith in Jesus. Think about it. Jesus was not the most popular person in Israel.
27:40: Oh, you mean that rabbi that was traveling around doing all sorts of chaos? That guy who said that he would destroy?
27:47: That's who you want to follow? Yeah, you don't need to work here no more. That was a very real reality for lots of people who came to faith in Christ.
27:56: You can imagine a young person who comes to faith in Christ and parents say, yeah, you can't live here no more. You can imagine someone who's high ranking in society who suddenly discovers he's not quite welcome in the corridors of power like he once was.
28:12: Now you've got a bunch of people who need help, very real, tangible help. And so what does the church do?
28:18: Church says, if you're hurting, I'm hurting. Let's find a way to solve this. They were all in on life together, no matter the price tag.
28:30: It's a beautiful thing to watch as the coming of the spirit created a people who were willing to truly invest in life with each other.
28:43: And if I can speak plainly to us as we begin a new season here, we are being afforded fresh opportunities to pulling closer to one another.
28:53: Fresh opportunities to share in life together. Renewed commitment to our
28:59: Lord's Day gatherings, making a priority of spending time together in the week. Even if it's just, OK, I'm going to send somebody a text message, see how they're doing, how can
29:07: I pray for you? Opening up our homes and hospitality. There are just so many ways in which we can move closer to one another in shared life together.
29:22: And again, if we're going to make the most of a fresh start, it's going to be built on the foundation of genuine biblical apostolic doctrine and the foundation of shared life together.
29:32: But there's a third foundation in our text. We can't stop there. There's a third foundation that's evident in our text.
29:38: If we're going to maximize this fresh start, then we're going to need, thirdly, the foundation of the means of grace.
29:44: Oh, lost a couple of slides. Yikes. Point number three, the foundation of the means of grace.
29:51: Look again at our text with me. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread.
30:04: To the breaking of bread. Now here we need to do a little bit of background work. The breaking of bread here, is it a reference to just eating in general?
30:13: No, that comes later in the passage. The fact again is, there's a definite article here, it's referring to a particular event that they knew as the breaking of bread.
30:24: If you're taking notes, Acts chapter 20 and verse 7, I won't read it, but Acts chapter 20 and verse 7 notes that when the people of God gather together on the first day of the week, they gather together, the text says, to break bread.
30:38: As far as I can tell, and the majority of God's people down through the ages have agreed, this seems to be a reference, not just to general fellowship meals, but to the
30:47: Lord's table. Okay, Kofi, how did you get from the
30:52: Lord's table to the means of grace? Well, think about it. We read it in verse 41, they've already been baptized. Think, if I can pause for a moment.
31:00: God has given two sacraments, two seals of grace. You can call them sacraments, you can call them ordinances. Ordinances just means that they're commanded.
31:06: Sacraments means that they are means by which we participate in God's grace. God has given us two of those things. He's given us baptism, which brings us into the life of the people of God.
31:18: It doesn't save, but it does bring us into shared life with the people of God.
31:25: And then he gives us the Lord's table, which nourishes our ongoing life together as God's people.
31:33: And in our theological tradition, just as a way of shorthand, in addition to the word and prayer, so you have word, prayer, baptism,
31:41: Lord's table. We call these things together the means of grace. As our fathers in the faith put it, what are the outward means by which
31:48: Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation? Christ is our mediator. He is all that we need.
31:54: But how does Christ minister to us the benefits of that office of being our mediator? The one who stands in our place before God.
32:01: Well, he does so, our fathers in the faith said, through all his ordinances, especially the word, the sacraments, and prayer.
32:08: All of which are made effective to his beloved children for their salvation.
32:16: And what Luke is reminding us is that the early church were committed to these means. When people were saved, they were baptized.
32:23: And then those who were baptized came together in the celebration of the Lord's table. Remembering the
32:28: Lord Jesus and receiving from him the benefits of his mediation. These means of grace don't save us, only the blood of Christ saves.
32:40: But they do minister to us as we grow in our salvation. And the apostolic church didn't see these means as unimportant or unessential.
32:54: I remember when I was in university. Had a friend, really, really great guy.
33:01: His dad was a professor actually at a theological college in London. I remember, this is,
33:07: I want to say my second year in university. We're having a conversation. And my friend says, you know,
33:17: I don't get why we do baptism in the Lord's supper. It just feels like we could save so much time.
33:22: He was in a church where they did it every week. Well, when people need to be baptized, they did. And they had the Lord's table every week.
33:27: It just feels like we could save so much time. And I remember another one of my friends, before I could jump in, kind of said, but if you love someone, why would you not want to sit at the table and eat with them?
33:44: And what my friend was getting at was that in our participation in the means of grace, we are sharing in what
33:53: Christ has done for us. And my friend wasn't entirely off the money here, because that's kind of the language Paul uses.
33:59: Again, I won't have you turn there, but you can write it down if you want. 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16 and 17. Paul is rebuking the
34:07: Corinthians for their over friendliness with the world. And he says, the cup of blessing that we bless, referring to the cup used in the
34:15: Lord's supper. Is it not a sharing? It's also, by the way, the word we get the word fellowship from, same word.
34:21: Is it not a sharing, a fellowshipping, if you will, in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing, a partnering, a fellowshipping in the body of Christ?
34:35: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body since we all share the one bread.
34:42: God's people, as we partake of the Lord's supper week by week, as we will do in just a moment, we are not just remembering what
34:50: Christ did for us in the past. I mean, we are definitely doing that. The Bible says we should do that, but we're not doing just that.
34:59: We are also sharing in, fellowshipping in the benefit of His work in the here and now.
35:08: Yes, we remember His work in the past. We receive the benefits of His work in the present, but also we're anticipating the glory to come.
35:17: What we celebrate each week as we come to this table is simply the fact that one day, we will replace bread and juice with a far more sumptuous meal.
35:31: We will replace that, not just with a meal, but with the very presence of the one we celebrate.
35:38: Call this a very small advance on that day. And done in the right spirit and for the right purposes, the means of grace are not just things we do in our worship.
35:52: They're foundational. It's why we, I at least, often talk about ordinary means ministry. Again, we're not trying to do a bunch of things, but we are trying to do the things that Christ has commanded us and to do them well.
36:05: As my friends at Nine Marks Ministries like to say, the ordinary means of grace, don't do weird stuff.
36:15: If we're going to maximize this fresh start, we need to build on the right foundations. The foundation of apostolic doctrine, the foundation of shared life together, the foundation of the means of grace.
36:26: Our fourth foundation this morning, the foundation of corporate prayer.
36:34: The foundation of corporate or earnest prayer. So again, let's go back to our verse and see how it ends.
36:41: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
36:49: Anybody got the ESV here? Nope. Oh, ESV. I believe the
36:54: ESV says to the prayers. In verse 42. Someone can check me on that. I love the
37:00: CSB translation, but sometimes it gets things not quite right. Yep. It says the prayers.
37:06: Because that's what's there in the original. It doesn't say to prayer. It's prayer in the plural. Actually, if you've got a
37:13: King James Version in the room, it does the same thing too. The church in Acts was a church that was characterized by ongoing, regular, corporate prayer.
37:27: Now, if you're at Redeemer, you know I kind of pound this drum every chance I get because it's something that we just don't talk about much in the modern church, in my opinion.
37:35: For a moment, can I walk you through the book of Acts? I'm going to try and do this as quickly as I can. We'll do just the first half.
37:41: We can't do the whole book of Acts. Just the first half. And what I want you to notice with me is how many times you see the church in prayer.
37:50: So, grab your Bibles. Let's do a little bit of a sword draw together. Acts 124. Let's start there. So, we're in Acts 2.
37:56: Flip back one. Acts chapter 1. They need to replace Judas in the number of the 12.
38:06: And in Acts 124, after they kind of talk and think about how they want to do this, it starts.
38:11: Acts 124. Then they prayed. You, Lord, know everyone's heart.
38:16: Show which of these two you have chosen. They whittled them down to two and they said, Lord, here's the two.
38:22: You help us pick which one. Flip over to Acts chapter 4.
38:30: Acts chapter 4. Peter and John have just stood before the Sanhedrin, the council that basically ran
38:38: Israel's religious affairs. They've been told no longer to preach in the name of Jesus. It looks like a time to be discouraged.
38:44: But what do they decide to do? They decide to pray. So, look at Acts 424.
38:56: It says, when they heard this. So, Peter and John go back to the disciples and say, here's what we got told.
39:03: We got told not to preach in the name of Jesus anymore. Okay. Verse 24.
39:09: When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, they start praying.
39:16: And what's the result? Jump down to verse 31. It says, when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken.
39:26: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.
39:33: Persecution comes. Persecution leads to prayer. Prayer leads to power and power leads to proclamation.
39:42: How about Acts chapter 6? Acts chapter 6. Church in Jerusalem has its first major church problem.
39:57: The apostles are like, look, not our job to deal with this. You need to find people to take care of this. But this wasn't just pure administration on their part.
40:06: Look at Acts chapter 6 verse 6. After they've selected seven men, these are the first deacons, if you will.
40:13: Acts chapter 6 verse 6. They had them stand before the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them.
40:20: The church is appointing its first set of deacons. And what accompanies this act? Prayer. Let's fast forward all the way to chapter 10.
40:29: Acts chapter 10. Cornelius has been told to go and find
40:38: Peter. He goes and sends Peter. Meanwhile, the scene kind of cuts to Peter on his own. Acts chapter 10 verse 9.
40:45: Text says, as they were traveling, the next day, excuse me, as they were traveling and nearing the city,
40:50: Peter went up to the roof to pray about noon.
40:59: Totally disconnected from everything that's going on. Peter's like, yep, time to pray. Up at noon he goes. Fast forward to chapter 12.
41:12: Herod begins to stretch out his hand against the apostles. Peter ends up being arrested. Acts chapter 12 and verse 5.
41:22: Text says, so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.
41:33: Verse 11. Peter's been rescued. It's quite a miraculous story, actually. Verse 11.
41:38: When Peter came to himself, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's grasp and from all that the
41:46: Jewish people expected. As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was called
41:51: Mark, where many had assembled. And what were they doing? They were praying.
41:59: Side note, this is one of my favorite funny parts of the Bible. They go open the door. There's Peter. Little girl who's the servant girl opens the door.
42:07: Say, Peter's outside. Now there's Peter's ghost. I don't think that's how that works.
42:15: But anyway. Acts chapter 13. Last one we'll look at. So in Acts 12. One more chapter.
42:20: Acts 13. Acts chapter 13, verse 1.
42:27: Now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called
42:32: Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a close friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.
42:38: As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me
42:43: Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.
42:57: That's just chapter 1 to chapter 13. The first half of the book of Acts. Do you see how much praying the church in the book of Acts does?
43:10: No wonder John Calvin can say in his commentary on the book of Acts, it's certain that the apostles, commenting on Acts chapter 2, that it's certain that Luke speaks of public prayer.
43:19: And for this cause, it is not sufficient. I'm just going to pause. Calvin's going to say something that's not very popular today, but I think he's right here.
43:28: He says, and for this cause, the fact that it's mentioned in Acts 2 .42, it is not sufficient for men to make their prayers at home by themselves unless they also meet together to pray.
43:47: Tony Merida, who some of you know I love his material, in his commentary on the book of Acts, says this in a slightly softer way than Calvin.
43:56: He says, throughout the book of Acts, we see vibrant illustrations of the church's prayer life. The apostles, too, were seriously devoted to prayer.
44:05: The church practiced both free and formal times of prayer. The believers prayed together corporately. They personally prayed without ceasing.
44:12: They prayed in the temple, in homes, as they walked along the road, as they encountered the sick and afflicted, before they preached sermons, before they heard sermons, while they are being persecuted, in planned times of intercession over particular situations, as they gave thanks for their food, as they gave thanks to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, as they praised
44:27: God in song, and as they offered up petitions for the Father to meet daily needs. All of this reminds us that a healthy church is a praying church.
44:38: The early church had few earthly resources, but that didn't keep them from shaking the world for Christ because they had heavenly resources.
44:49: These they experienced through dependent prayer. Dependent prayer,
44:56: I like that phrase. Have you ever thought about this? It's a spiritually arrogant person who doesn't pray.
45:04: You may think, Kofi, that's kind of harsh. It's the truth. If you think you don't need anything, you don't ask for anything. What does the
45:11: Bible say to us, James chapter 4? You do not have because you do not ask.
45:20: Beloved, prayer is the expression of our submission to our need for our dependence on God.
45:31: I raise this point once again because, let's be honest, in a lot of churches, this is lacking. You'll find churches with lots of programs.
45:39: You'll find churches with lots of Bible studies, and I like Bible studies. You'll find churches with lots of social events, time to hang out with family.
45:45: They're great. We need them. You'll find churches with lots of stuff for families. Think about this. I'll give you a little assignment.
45:51: Go look up churches wherever you live. Look up churches. How many of them will have a prayer meeting listed prominently on their websites or on their social media?
46:03: What if we genuinely lived like a dependent people? What if concerted corporate prayer was as visible, a mark of our life together as God's people, as good music, good preaching, and a lot of programs?
46:19: Beloved, let's be a dependent people. Let's pray. Let's pray on our own.
46:25: Let's pray when we talk to each other. Let's pray as a church when we gather. Let's pray and let's pray often.
46:34: You do not have because you do not ask. I'm pretty much done.
46:43: Faith family here at Redeemer, this is a fresh start for us. And I'm incredibly eager and excited to see all that the
46:49: Lord will do in our time here. I'm not God. I don't know what his plans are. All I do know is this.
46:56: I'll leave you with this as we come to the Lord's table. If we're going to make the most of our new beginning, let's make sure we're building on the right foundations.
47:08: The word of God, vibrant shared life together, the ordinary means of grace as the lifeblood of our church, regular corporate prayer.
47:20: Growing up, I believe it was Whitney Houston who had a song, I know it's not much, but it's okay. When we think about these things, these aren't really, if you think about these things, the word of God, prayer, fellowship, and the means of grace.
47:36: They don't look or sound amazing, do they? It's not much.
47:44: But actually forget it's okay. It's more than okay. This is the kind of foundation that God is pleased to build on. And so beloved,
47:52: I want to just encourage, like I said, I'm not saying anything you've not heard me say before. At least I hope not. But my simple hope is this, that we would be a people who are devoted to these things.
48:04: Who are actually willing to do the same things over and over again, even if we don't see results, because these are the things that God is pleased to work through.
48:17: And Father, we are so grateful because every time that we participate in these simple things you've given us, your word, fellowship, the means of grace, prayer.
48:32: Every time we devote ourselves to these things, we know we are ministering under your blessing.
48:40: And so Father, my simple prayer is that you would increase our devotion to these things.
48:48: That we would not just view them as a one -time thing to be done, but that we would be regularly committed to them.
49:00: Father, thank you for this new location and a fresh start for us. Father, I pray that this would be the beginning of a glorious work here.
49:09: That lives would be changed, people would come to know you. Believers would be equipped for the work of service that you've called them to.
49:16: And that in everything, you would receive the glory. And Father, as we come before your table, may you draw near to us in Christ in a very special way.